America

• Stock futures jump after Senate approves tax bill (Reuters)
• Tax Bill Marked by Blinding Speed (WSJ)
• Corporate Winners and Losers in the GOP Tax Bill (BBG)
• Flynn’s Guilty Plea Sparks Clashing Interpretations (WSJ)
• Irish border deal reported settled as May meets Juncker (Reuters)
• Houthi radio says ex-president Saleh killed in Yemen fighting, no confirmation (Reuters)
• Oil falls after U.S. drilling picks up (Reuters)
• FBI Agent Removed From Russia Probe Had Key Role in Clinton Email Investigation (WSJ)

Authored by Eric Zuesse,

The Stanford mathematician William J. Perry was a strategic nuclear advisor to U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and then he became U.S. Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton.

Authored by JP Sottile via ConsortiumNews.com,

Polls show that Americans are tired of endless wars in faraway lands, but many cheer President Trump’s showering money on the Pentagon and its contractors, a paradox that President Eisenhower foresaw...

Authored by Scott Greer via The Daily Caller,

The illegal immigrant who fired the gun shot that killed Kate Steinle was able to beat a murder charge this week.

Jose Garcia Zarate, a five-time deportee from Mexico and convicted felon, walked away with only a gun conviction after his legal team convinced the jury their client accidentally fired a gun three times and had no intent of killing anyone.

Neocon Senator Lindsay Graham was stoking the flame of what is looking like increasingly probable war with North Korea today, when he warned on national TV that rising tensions between the the US and Pyongyang means preparations for war need to be taken, and that dependents of U.S. military personnel in South Korea should be relocated after the latest North Korean missile test.