PBC News & Comment: Amid Distractions, GOP Senate Screws Consumers

While Flake and Corker posture against Trump, they joined McCain in killing new rule allowing consumer lawsuits, maintaining binding arbitration….--despite recent Wells Fargo scandals, VP Pence cast tie-breaking vote to protect banks and corporations from pesky lawsuits by consumers they’ve defrauded
--Sen. Jeff Flake’s heroic words are undermined by his weak poll numbers, and his “complicity” in almost all of Trump’s policies and nominees; commentary in The Guardian is here
--in PBS interview, Sen. John Thune displays the spineless, cowardly view of Trump by most Repubs: they value tax cuts over the damage to our republic
--House GOP-led committees launch new investigations into Clinton-email investigation, and the Uranium One deal in 2010, The Hill reopens latter story
--lawyer for Clinton campaign and DNC admits he paid Fusion GPS for Steele dossier
--and Robert Parry analyzes this development
--Kaspersky Labs blames NSA leak on contractor who had classified data on home computer and tried to pirate Microsoft Office
--a few more details have surfaced about the ambush in Niger that killed 4 US soldiers
--after order by appeals court, undocumented teen in custody gets an abortion
--Trump refugee ban has expired, new order sets tighter rules for 11 unnamed countries
--as Iraq aligns with Iran and Turkey to stifle Kurds, US goes neutral in effort to avoid civil war
--after series of incidents, NAACP warns African Americans not to fly on American Airlines
--FBI releases 1,500 pages from Sandy Hook investigation