1.) Drumpf is moving to kill what's known as a "fiduciary rule" implemented by President Obama. Actually, he is moving to prevent it from being implemented. A friend writes on Facebook:
Brokers can sell you products that charge you higher fees that they pocket without telling you. Through the magic of compound interest this can greatly erode your retirement savings. A new rule was supposed to go into effect April 10 holding them to a fiduciary standard. The GOP thinks you really want the old hidden-fees system.2.) There is renewed fighting in the Ukraine between its government and Russian-backed rebels.
After two years of relative calm, Ukraine's war with Russian-backed rebels took a deadly and destructive turn this week, pushing one town in the country's eastern region to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Intense shelling has left Avdiivka, a community of 20,000 people located just north of Donetsk, without electricity, heat or water during a particularly frigid cold spell that's seen temperatures drop to -22 C at night.
But it's not the cold residents dread the most; it's the threat of lethal Grad rockets, a type of unguided heavy artillery developed by the Soviet Union.
It's speculated that Russia is feeling free to be more aggressive since Drumpf has signaled a desire for better ties between Russia and the U.S.
3.) The U.S. House of Representatives voted to overturn an Obama-era rule blocking the sale of guns to the severely mentally ill. The GOP argues that it discriminates against the disabled. It sounds like the law stated that anyone who has been declared unfit to manage their financial affairs should also be unfit to own a gun. Kinda sounds like an example of the right-wing effectively using left-wing-sounding language ("it discriminates against the disabled!") to pass legislation. The story doesn't clarify whether there is any expert opinion on the amount of crimes this would prevent. It sounds like about 75,000 people would've been rendered legally unfit to own a firearm.
4.) Drumpf is doing a little bit of saber-rattling with Iran. When it comes to Iran, there may be no such thing as "a little bit" of saber-rattling. A press conference with Michael Flynn, his first as Secretary of Defense, did not offer too many specifics about how the U.S. will respond to Iranian missile tests which Flynn claims violate a U.N. resolution restricting their activity. He criticized Iran's support for Houthi rebels in Yemen, claiming it is state sponsorship of terrorism, and he also heavily criticized the Obama administration for being too weak on Iran. It sounds like this may include escalation against Houthis in Yemen:
...the Pentagon is considering stepped-up patrols and perhaps even airstrikes, aimed at preventing Iranian weapons from getting to the Houthis. In addition, Saudi officials are pushing for more support for their air campaign in Yemen, an administration official said. But officials said on Wednesday that there had been no change in the military’s posture.
While the Obama administration targeted Houthis and conducted airstrikes against forces aligned with Al Qaeda in Yemen, current and former officials say Mr. Obama was wary of deepening American support for the Saudi air campaign because of concerns about the accuracy of targeting and the large number of civilian casualties.
“Obama said all the time, ‘Aim before you shoot,’” said Derek Chollet, who served in the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department during the Obama administration. “Anytime there was one of these heated discussions, and people said, ‘We’ve got to do something,’ he said, ‘O.K., what does the intel say, and where will this take us?’”
[Drumpf], however, said it would continue to criticize and draw distinctions with its predecessor.
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