Politics

In an announcement that will provide some measure of relief for T-bill traders and others who are skeptical about Republican lawmakers' ability to compromise with their Democratic colleagues, the Republican House leadership said Tuesday they would bring a stopgap bill to extend funding at its current levels - and preserve funding for a popular child health-care program - until Dec. 22. Otherwise, the current continuing resolution would expire on Friday, tilting the federal government into its first shutdown since 2013.

Careful to explain to those that care, Michigan Democrat Congressman John Conyers says he will "retire" from Congress today, and is "not resigning," following a growing list of sexual misconduct allegations. Conyers is endorsing his son, John Conyers III, to replace him in Congress.

“He is not resigning. He is going to retire,” Ian Conyers told the newspaper. “His doctor advised him that the rigor of another campaign would be too much for him just in terms of his health.”

Via The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board,

The special counsel is stonewalling Congress and protecting the FBI...

Donald Trump is his own worst enemy, as his many ill-advised tweets on the weekend about Michael Flynn, the FBI and Robert Mueller’s Russia probe demonstrate. But that doesn’t mean that Mr. Mueller and the Federal Bureau of Investigation deserve a pass about their motives and methods, as new information raises troubling questions.

The US trade balance surprisingly blew out in October, increasing from $44.9 billion to $48.7 billion, as unexpectedly exports decreased and imports increased despite the ongoing dollar weakness, missing estimates of $47.5 billion. October's number was tied for the widest deficit going back to early 2012...

... and marks a stark divergence with the recent dollar weakness which would suggest an improvement in US trade data.  

Days after it emerged that former Special Counsel investigator Peter Strzok was fired from Robert Mueller's Trump-Russia probe in August for sending anti-Trump text messages to his mistress while the two were working together on the Clinton email investigation, Sara Carter of Circa told a Fox News panel that there are more anti-Trump messages sent by Mueller's team floating around.