There’s a reason why we still have our old excite.com email address – it’s where we herd all our spam. Would it be possible to set up a burner email address where we could dodge campaign promises? Sadly, no – sifting through all the campaign promises is in our job description.
Be sure to send our six-days-a-week spam – er, awesomeness – to your inbox by joining the For the Record newsletter list here, and follow us on Twitter at @RGJBrettMcG, @jmestepa and @joannaallhands. Now, let’s see what’s in the ol’ spam folder today …
Dear DONALD, black religious leaders want to endorse you THIS WEEK
He probably should have seen this coming. (Richard Shiro, AP)
We could see the grand finale of the year’s most ingenious political scam today. In recent days, Donald Trump has been conned into believing that thousands were cheering the fall of the World Trade Center, and that 81% of whites are killed by blacks. Last week, Donald Trump raised eyebrows when he announced that “100 African-American Evangelical pastors and religious leaders” were set to endorse him – this coming just days after he proposed religion-based watch lists and supported a Black Lives Matter protester getting “roughed up.” Yesterday, the pastors set to meet with Trump said they have no plans to endorse him … but the meeting is still on. (Pastors, if this was an attempt to troll Donald all along – VERY well played.) On the books for later this week, Trump will announce a lucrative financial partnership with a Nigerian prince.
Bernie Sanders 0n!ine PPharmacy +++ free V!agr@ 4 every1
“Raise your hand if you’re up for free prostate exams.” (Mike Burley via AP)
The Affordable Care Act: arguably the crowning achievement of the Obama Administration, but reviled on both the right and left. Conservatives protest the mandatory health insurance payments while worrying about the specter of death panels; liberals including Bernie Sanders would have preferred an all-out government takeover of the health care industry. What would BernieCare look like? No bills for doctor visits, hospital stays or medication, but a 2.2% health care income tax and waiting lists for non-urgent treatments. One potential impact for those receiving health care through work: Your company may take the money they were spending on your health insurance and instead just add that to your paycheck ha ha ha sorry, of course they won’t do that.
CONSTRUCTION JOBS NOW: Hillary hiring now with overseas $$$
Coming soon to your city: more offramps. (Lisa Lake, Getty Images for Massachusetts Conference for Women)
The unemployment rate is down to 5.1%, but that’s not stopping Hillary Clinton from making job creation her focus for the rest of the month – you know, for everyone who’s not going to be staying on at Brookstone after the holiday rush. She’s proposing $275 billion in infrastructure development (think: roads, bridges, a Milwaukee-to-Boise monorail), to be paid for by going after companies that shift their U.S.-based headquarters to overseas locations where the tax rates are lower (in other words, just about anywhere else.) So what’s the plan – a lower corporate tax rate? Fines or tariffs for the newly-foreign companies? Clinton should announce details today.
New Hampshire Endorsement Lottery Award Winner!!!
He was overdue for some good news. (Julio Cortez, AP)
Chris Christie, the darling of the GOP four years ago, has been in a slump in the 2016 race. (Perhaps “slump” is a bit of an exaggeration, since it would have implied that he was doing well in the polls at one point.) He picked up some good news in advance of the New Hampshire primary: An influential newspaper, the New Hampshire Union Leader, endorsed Christie on the GOP side. The paper’s editorial took oblique swipes at Trump (“it’s important when you are telling it like it is to actually know what you are talking about”) as well as Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul … and Barack Obama (“we don’t need another fast-talking, well-meaning U.S. senator”). More good news for Christie: Voters don’t hate him as much as they used to. Progress!
More from the campaign trail
Carson: Syrians don’t want to move here anyway, I talked to them, this is just a crazy misunderstanding (USA TODAY OnPolitics)
GOP activists in Ohio (you know, where Kasich is governor) still undecided. You know, sometimes you give your dad the ‘World’s Best Dad’ mug even when you’re kind of ‘meh’ on his parenting efforts (Cincinnati Enquirer)
Kentucky Democrats may recruit Ashley Judd to run against Rand Paul. Yes, this is actually a thing (Louisville Courier-Journal)
It turns out that money spent on the military isn’t reimbursed by the Tooth Fairy and does in fact contribute to the deficit. Thanks for making us fact-check this, Rubio (Arizona Republic)
(North) America, the Beautiful
Two guys from Canada save a bald eagle from a trap, which should automatically bestow U.S. citizenship on them if they’re interested. Hey, if Ted Cruz can run for president…
