kmusser

Stickied until the inauguration: Status of cabinet picks and other appointments: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/politics/donald-trump-administration.html - hearings begin this week, before background reviews are complete (source) Hearing schedule is here, note many are simultaneous to make following them more difficult.

Friday 1/6

All U.S. ambassadors being withdrawn by inauguration day (normally they stay on until their replacements are approved) (source).

Congress looking to get started on that wall (and shockingly it would be U.S. taxpayers, not Mexico paying for it) (source)

House passes REINS act which would require congressional approval for all major regulations, act is unlikely to pass senate though (source)

Sunday 1/8

WP article on Trump's non-cabinet advisors, who are not subject to conflict of interest laws (source)

Monday 1/9

If Trump signs that bill rolling back the last 60 days of regulations the House passed last week, he'll also be signing away a chunk of his executive power to Congress (source).

Major Senate votes planned for Wednesday (simultaneous with cabinet hearings), mostly on the stuff the House passed last week, including Obamacare repeal. (source).

Just going with bullet points this year:

I mostly failed to come out of hermit mode, will keep trying.
The finances have mostly recovered though, only travel out of state was a jaunt up to the Finger Lakes and one Chicago trip, but I'm hoping this year will have more.
I did succeed in reading more, will do a book update soon, but currently on Chernow's Hamilton biography which is great.
The year was obviously dominated by the train wreck of an election, the effects of which are just getting started, I'll be keeping up my little news summaries.
In gaming still addicting to EU IV, Stellaris and Civ failed to de-throne it. For board games, most played new game is probably Orleans.
So many celebrity deaths - first up on this years see them before they leave us list is Aretha Franklin.
Cubs win!
Faire without Pyrates :-(
Brunswick gains its own brewery!
Changes at work as my boss has been busy fighting cancer, the rest of us have had to pick up some of the slack, still going good though and hoping work can survive the Trump years as we did the Bush ones, just laying low and keep collecting data without calling too much attention to ourselves. On the plus side did a handful of freelance projects, so might increase that if thinks turn south.
A lot of change and 2017 promises more, one thing reading history has taught me is that our country has faced worse and survived, just hoping it can do so again.

9 January 2017