Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The new total is 35 known U.S. strikes on civilian boats in international waters: “The U.S. military said Wednesday it struck five alleged drug-smuggling boats over two days, killing a total of eight people while others jumped overboard and may have survived.”
* Brian Cole Jr. to remain behind bars: “A federal judge ruled Friday that the suspect accused of planting pipe bombs at the Democratic and Republican national committee headquarters the night before the U.S. Capitol riot will remain in custody pending his trial.”
* The presidential statement on this downplayed the fact that the courts didn’t leave him a choice: “President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he is pulling National Guard troops out of Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, for now. District judges and appeals courts have issued various rulings about the legality of the deployments. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block a lower court’s decision barring Trump’s use of the National Guard in Chicago.”
* The whole “TACO” (“Trump always chickens out”) mockery was rooted in the president’s inconsistencies in trade policy: “The U.S. has stepped back from imposing trade-killing duties on Italian pasta makers, meaning that Italian-made pasta will most likely continue to be available in U.S. stores.”
* In related news: “President Trump signed a proclamation Wednesday to delay increases in U.S. tariffs for imported upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets and vanities for one year.”
* Maybe Trump shouldn’t have been so quick to believe Putin: “The C.I.A. has determined that Ukraine did not target President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia or one of his residences in an attack this week, according to U.S. officials, rebutting an assertion Mr. Putin made in a phone call to President Trump on Monday.”
* The Temporary Protected Status program endures: “A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday found that the Trump administration illegally moved to end temporary deportation protections for tens of thousands of people from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua. The ruling was a blow to the administration’s efforts to limit the reach of a humanitarian program meant to shield migrants from deportation to countries in crisis.” * Whatever happened to making America healthy again? “The United States has recorded 2,012 measles cases as of Dec. 23 this year, the highest total in more than 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The last time the U.S. hit more than 2,000 cases was in 1992, or 33 years ago, CDC data shows.” * In related news: “Vaccination rates among kindergarten students have plunged across broad swaths of the United States since before the pandemic, exposing children and families to increasing health risks as many school districts pull back from their traditional role as a bulwark against infectious disease, according to a Washington Post investigation.” Have a safe weekend.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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