7. President Donald Trump’s position changes on Syria — again
— The 30-day withdrawal from Syria initially changed to a “pause” that would take months. Now, national security adviser John Bolton says the withdrawal is not based on time, but instead said, “[W]e won’t be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone.”
— The U.S. position seems to be contingent not only on the destruction of ISIS, but also the protection of the Kurds and the status of 800 terrorist prisoners of war.
6. Job numbers are up big; The bigger story is manufacturing jobs
— The unemployment rate is slightly up as more Americans are seeking work in a continuously booming U.S. economy which added 312,000 jobs as wages continue to grow.
— The good news on top of the already good news is the fact manufacturing is growing 714 percent faster under Trump than Obama.
— The Associated Press spoke to multiple decision makers in Alabama and the conclusion is quite simple: the gas tax push is coming.
— Alabama Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon said, “The topic of the day would be the gas revenue measure.” Senate Pro-Tem Del Marash added, “What we’ve got to determine what are we willing to bite off at this point in time.”
4. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) says his constituents don’t want impeachment — he’s right
— Jones told CNN that “even the most progressive” of his constituents would “know better than to use that kind of language” about impeaching President Trump and added, “Let’s go about this the way we need to, and not just work out of this out of frustration and anger.”
— Not only do Jones’ conservative red state constituents not want them pursuing impeachment, even after two years of talk of the president “colluding with Russia,” only 43 percent of Americans want Trump impeached (80 percent of Democrats) while 50 percent do not.
3. More Democrat dirty tricks found in Alabama’s 2017 special election for U.S. Senate
— There were more disinformation campaigns underway to impact the race that eventually elected U.S. Senator Doug Jones than previously reported. The “Dry Alabama” was a fake prohibition campaign meant to portray Roy Moore supporters as prohibitionists, but it was was actually the stealth creation of liberal Democrats.
— Fear not, Democrats are now disavowing. Political scientists are declaring the efforts didn’t matter anyway, which is nuts in a race that was decided by less than 22,000 votes.
2. The shutdown’s impact on Alabama is not as great as one might think with our large federal presence
— According to Alabama Daily News, there are around 53,000 federal workers who are mostly Department of Defense employees, including roughly 6,500 who work for the Department of Veteran’s Affairs who will not be affected by the shutdown. This represents an overwhelming majority of federal workers in the state.
— But Alabama doesn’t escape the pain altogether as there are 2,300 who work at NASA, 500 at the Department of Justice and 1,000 at the Department of Agriculture. This doesn’t account for the contractors that serve them. There are 2,000-plus contractors alone for NASA.
1. President Trump says progress is being made, but he still may declare a national emergency
— The shutdown over the funding of a border wall is now on to day 17 with Trump sticking to his demand for wall funding while Democrats like Senator Doug Jones are saying, “I am not going to give wall money just to give wall money.”
— After a meeting between Vice President Mike Pence and Democrats, Trump tweeted that they are moving closer to a deal with steel. He said, “We are now planning a Steel Barrier rather than concrete.” Democrats disagree saying, “[N]o progress was made”.
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