7. While riots go on in Paris over climate taxes, America is still the leader in driving down its CO2 output
— More than 1,700 people were arrested and 71 were injured this weekend as protests in Paris go on for the fourth consecutive weekend over green-friendly gas taxes and fuel prices.
— Meanwhile, as the media acts as if America is some massive enemy of the planet our carbon emissions are down 2.7 percent while the European Union (including France), China and India all have seen emission increase.
6. University of Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa loses the Heisman and the winner, University of Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray has to apologize for tweets he sent when he was 15
— In what many viewed as an upset, Murray beat Tagovailoa with more yards and touchdowns while having played in far more snaps as Tagovailoa, who did not play much in the fourth quarter because his games were mostly in the bag.
— As our society likes to do, ghouls attempted to ruin Murray’s celebration by “resurfacing” old tweets where he repeatedly referred to his other high school friends as “queers,” which forced him to make an absurd apology that no one believes he meant. But he had to make it anyway.
5. Legislators are counting on county commissioners across Alabama to advocate for their gas tax
— After the Alabama County Commission Association met in Montgomery, chairman Sonny Brasfield told Yellowhammer News it was time for his members to start selling the gas tax, saying, “Our folks left with a charge from us to get back to work at the local level. In some ways, we were unsuccessful in 2017. But in other ways, we have moved the issue to the point that I think there’s pretty consistent agreement that it is time to do something on roads and bridges. What is that? How do we do it? We got three months to get that ready. I think our folks – what we need to be doing between now and then is building support at the local level.”
— The push for a gas tax is part of the pre-game fight that House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) signaled was coming when he asked the members to support the legislative leadership’s push for new revenue.
4. James Comey has a pretty bad memory about his time as head of the FBI
— After a transcript of Comey’s testimony before Congress was released, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) highlighted how poorly Comey recalled his time there during the 2016 election. Meadows said, “The transcript from yesterday’s James Comey interview is out. It includes: ‘I don’t know’ – 166 times ‘I don’t remember’ – 71 times ‘I don’t recall’ – 8 times.” He added, “Does this sound like someone interested in telling the full story?”
— For Comey’s part, his testimony was mostly spent defending his decisions to not push for charging Hillary Clinton and his failure to see the unverified Steele dossier as a political document.
3. November’s job report is pretty good, but the stock market is still sputtering
— Wages and jobs are up, while unemployment is at 3.7 percent, which is 0.4 points lower than it was last November. This market is at full employment.
— In spite of these good numbers, the stock market, which many wrongly view as the measurement of the whole economy, saw a rough week with the market losing all of the gains of 2018 and is now down 1.9 percent on the year following trade concerns with China.
2. The “leader” of Hoover’s protest movement has been charged with disorderly conduct; Hoover is making arrests
— Carlos Chaverst, Jr. was allegedly going to turn himself in to face charges of disorderly conduct stemming from the two security guards injured at the Ross Bridge hotel in Hoover, but he has not lived up to that claim yet.
— Arrests are being made. Mark Myles was arrested Sunday afternoon while “scoping it out” at the mall and Anne Susan Diprizio was arrested last week at Hoover City Hall for throwing Christmas ornaments into traffic, standing in traffic and trying to climb on a vehicle while saying she was “going to stop traffic until there was justice for EJ.”
1. The president has been implicated on two crimes we know he committed, but there is still no Russian collusion
— While the president claims he has been vindicated, Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to two campaign finance violations and it seems pretty clear that the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are using Cohen and others involved in the payment to get to the president.
— The other news from the Friday filings involving the Mueller investigation could be politically damaging, as it exposes Trump lies. Famed liberal constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz argued, “This is politically damaging, but I’m not sure how legally damaging it is.” He added, “This is all about questionable political behavior. It’s a good reason for people voting against Trump. But I don’t see a crime yet.”
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