Month: March 2017

Day 51 – March 12th, 2017

The world is facing its greatest humanitarian crisis since 1945, says the United Nations humanitarian coordinator, Stephen O’Brien.

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said on Sunday that the Federal Reserve “has been doing a good job” and the Trump administration respects its independence, even if the U.S. central bank raises interest rates this week.

House Republican leaders are in a standoff with conservatives over the Republican ObamaCare replacement bill rapidly moving to the House floor. Unless one side gives ground, the bill appears unable to pass.

Preet Bharara, one of the most high-profile federal prosecutors in the country, said he was fired Saturday after refusing to submit a letter of resignation as part of an ouster of the remaining U.S. attorneys who were holdovers from the Obama administration, according to people familiar with the matter.

Twin blasts Saturday near holy shrines frequented by Shiites in the Syrian capital Damascus killed at least 40 people and wounded over a hundred, most of them Iraqis, according to Syrian and Iraqi officials.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned the Netherlands it will “pay the price” for harming ties after two of his ministers were barred.

Day 50 – March 11th, 2017 *updated*

Preet Bharara, one of the most high-profile federal prosecutors in the country, was fired Saturday after refusing to submit a letter of resignation as part of an ouster of the remaining U.S. attorneys who were holdovers from the Obama administration, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump Says `Troubled Person’ Scaled White House Fence Friday

Twin bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims killed 59 people in Damascus on Saturday, most of them Iraqis, a monitoring group said of one of the bloodiest attacks in the Syrian capital.

Exposed: Donald Trump’s Sham Populism

Michael Flynn Was Paid to Represent Turkey’s Interests During Trump Campaign

While candidate Trump questioned the validity of the monthly reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the new president welcomed Friday’s better-than-expected report showing that the economy added 235,000 jobs last month.

Trump Abruptly Orders 46 Obama-Era Prosecutors to Resign

Trump travel ban: Judge declines to reinstate ruling

St. Patrick’s parade organizers reverse course, will allow gay vets to march

The economy is all of a sudden amazing for Trump and his supporters now?

During his presidential campaign, Trump often slammed the government’s labor and employments statistics, calling monthly jobs reports “phony” and the unemployment rate “fiction.” He also frequently claimed that the unemployment rate was much higher than reported.

The jobs growth report in February is consistent with the upward trends that occurred under the Obama administration. The economy has expanded for 77 consecutive months.

President Trump has a new outlook on the legitimacy of the government’s monthly jobs reports, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Friday.
Asked about Trump’s past dismissal of Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs numbers in the past in light of Friday’s strong economic report, Spicer quoted the president:“I talked to the president prior to this, and he said to quote him very clearly: ‘They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.'”
Spicer and reporters present laughed, though it wasn’t immediately clear whether Trump was joking. –Story

Day 49 – March 10th, 2017 *Updated*

Sessions – Justice Department tells all remaining Obama administration U.S. attorneys to resign

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the U.S President has invited him to visit the White House to discuss resuming peace talks in a telephone call Friday, the first contact between the two leaders since Trump took office in January.

Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser, acted as a foreign agent representing the interests of Turkey’s government in exchange for more than $500,000 during last year’s campaign even as he was advising Mr. Trump, according to disclosure forms filed this week.

Both chambers of Congress just passed the NASA Authorization Act of 2017. With this transformative development, the space agency got a lot more than just $19.508 billion in funding. They also got a very clear mandate: Get humanity to Mars.  – The Bill.

John Kasich: End the Partisan Warfare on Health Care

Pelosi: Trump is ‘making fools’ out of GOP

President Donald Trump will ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her views on how the United States can help resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine when they meet next week, senior Trump administration officials said on Friday.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Friday that a failure on the part of Republicans to pass health care legislation rolled out by House leadership earlier this week would be a momentum-killer for the remainder of the GOP agenda.

If Republicans aren’t confident enough to let the CBO score their healthcare plan, they shouldn’t try to pass it

Pence: US will ‘use the full force of the law’ on WikiLeaks if CIA leak legit

Three misleading claims from Paul Ryan’s Obamacare lecture – What those PowerPoint slides didn’t show about the nation’s imperiled health law.

U.S. employers added jobs at an above-average pace for a second month on outsized gains in construction and manufacturing, showing the labor market continued its steady growth in the new year.

Pope Francis says in an interview that he is open to possibility of permitting married men to become priests to address the serious shortage of Catholic priests in some countries.

South Korean President’s Impeachment Triggers Clashes And Questions

Day 48 – March 9th, 2017 *Updated

Congress Rep. Roger Marshall, (R-Kan.) – who spent three decades as a physician — and is now part of a group of Republican doctors who have a major role in replacing Obamacare — is facing backlash after saying that poor people “just don’t want health care and aren’t going to take care of themselves.” 

The Latest: Massachusetts calls US travel ban ‘unlawful’

Trumpism is now getting exposed as a monumental fraud

G.O.P. Health Bill Clears 2 House Panels After Marathon Sessions

EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Questions Basic Facts About Climate Change

The critical House Ways and Means Committee gave a pre-dawn approval Thursday morning to a major part of the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, moving Republicans a step closer toward a full vote on the measure over the growing opposition of senators, health care providers and some conservatives.

Democrats denouncing the new House GOP health-care bill should actually be dancing in the streets. Perhaps, in the privacy of their own homes, the savvier ones are popping the champagne corks. The true meaning of the proposed legislation is that, after eight years of all-out political and ideological struggle against Obamacare, Republicans have surrendered — pretty much on all fronts.

Powerful industry groups are taking sides in the politically charged fight over repealing and replacing ObamaCare. – Healthcare associations, including those representing doctors and hospitals, have largely come out in opposition to the legislation from House Republicans. Meanwhile, some of the nation’s largest business groups have expressed support for it.

Why Hawaii says Trump’s new travel ban is still unconstitutional – The 38-page complaint asserts that the new executive order — much like the old — violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment because it is essentially a Muslim ban, hurts the ability of state businesses and universities to recruit top talent and damages the financial interests of the state, which considers tourism its lead economic driver.

Donald Trump was elected president on this basic idea: Everyone currently in the government is dumb and makes bad deals. I am smart and make good deals.

The US has sent several hundred Marines to Syria to support an allied local force aiming to capture the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa.

President Trump has reportedly offered former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman the job of U.S. ambassador to Russia. Huntsman has been a U.S. ambassador twice before, in Singapore (1992-1993) and China (2009-2011).

Centrist Emmanuel Macron saw his position as favorite to win France’s presidential election boosted on Thursday in two polls, with one showing him ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the first round of the two-stage contest.

Day 47 – March 8th, 2017

To fund border wall, Trump administration weighs cuts to Coast Guard, airport security

White House vows ‘full-court press’ on behalf of embattled health-care plan

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) are requesting the Justice Department and FBI hand over any potential application for a warrant to wiretap the Trump campaign.

Millions Risk Losing Health Insurance in Republican Plan, Analysts Say

Exclusive: Mexico cancels sugar export permits to U.S. in trade dispute

Why Women Are On Strike

Does GOP’s health plan keep Trump’s promises?

Why Republicans Can’t Do Health Care

A Conspiracy A Month? Trump Calls For 2 Investigations — With No Evidence 

Day 46 – March 7th, 2017

– The U.S. Senate on Tuesday revoked a rule that aimed to give the public more input into federal land management decisions, the latest move by the Republican-led Congress to undo Obama administration environmental regulations it sees as a burden. https://goo.gl/ccK037

– As more Jewish facilities get threats, all 100 senators ask Trump administration for ‘swift action’ https://goo.gl/10DdJe

– Donald Trump wrongly blames Barack Obama for former Guantanamo detainees returning to terrorism https://goo.gl/biWUBv

– Grilled on Russia probe, deputy attorney general pick sidesteps Democrats’ calls for special prosecutor https://goo.gl/lv6fvF

– Industry questions higher insurance costs under Republican plan https://goo.gl/OMim9z

– Conservatives lash out at House GOP’s Obamacare replacement bill https://goo.gl/OuyQoR

– You’ll never guess who tweeted something false that he saw on TV https://goo.gl/mpF4hH

– The American Health Care Act: the Republicans’ bill to replace Obamacare, explained https://goo.gl/dn9fLQ

– JCT: Repeal of ObamaCare taxes would cost more than $500B https://goo.gl/MmzxnX

– Fact-checking Trump linking 2013 Exxon plan to his policies to grow jobs https://goo.gl/oQ7PvN

– WikiLeaks releases ‘entire hacking capacity of the CIA’ https://goo.gl/w51Zy3

– Millions of Californians would likely lose health coverage under GOP’s Obamacare replacement, experts say https://goo.gl/SR70eB

– The People Helped by the Republican Health-Care Bill – Though most old and sick people will be worse off under the GOP bill, it might be a boon—real or perceived—for people earning just above the Obamacare subsidy cutoff. https://goo.gl/WLYvgk

– House leaders brace for the task ahead: selling ‘Obamacare Lite’ https://goo.gl/7aWzKB

– White House aides struggle to defend Trump wiretap claims https://goo.gl/M9IWdl

– The GOP’s Obamacare repeal plan is out — and it’s even worse than anyone expected https://goo.gl/x3ZkgS

– China warns of ‘consequences’ over deployment of U.S. anti-missile system https://goo.gl/OgeyZi

Day 45 – March 6th, 2017

– Republicans unveil bill to repeal and replace Obamacare https://goo.gl/yeives

– Senate approves measure to kill Obama-era contractor rule https://goo.gl/SmXYaf

– GOP Bill Would Repeal Obamacare Taxes And Penalties, Keep Some Subsidies https://goo.gl/Xy9HPz

– What’s changed in Trump’s travel ban https://goo.gl/wYNhVW

– Supreme Court’s decision to pass on transgender bathroom case leaves schools, parents without answers https://goo.gl/gvtrTN

– Senate Dems want White House, Mar-a-Lago visitor records made public https://goo.gl/YH387H

– New executive order bans travelers from six Muslim-majority countries applying for visas https://goo.gl/NsKkC0

– An angry weekend follows on heels of frustrations for Trump https://goo.gl/LRRJ1n

– Trump wiretap: FBI chief Comey ‘rejects’ allegation https://goo.gl/jvuYsv

– White House spokeswoman: Trump doesn’t believe Comey that Obama didn’t wiretap https://goo.gl/cGxOrN

– Trump expected to sign new executive order on travel ban on Monday https://goo.gl/jP6jTP

– North Korea launches more missiles; 3 land in Japanese waters https://goo.gl/PzGb6O

Day 44 – March 5th, 2017

– The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr. Trump’s phones https://goo.gl/riuqaS

– How Congress responded to Trump’s request to investigate the Obama administration https://goo.gl/Gb4fwg

– FBI investigating shooting of Washington state Sikh man as possible hate crime https://goo.gl/TpOvJR

– White House Leaves Many Questions Unanswered About Trump ‘Wire Tapping’ Tweets https://goo.gl/sWCPQZ

– White House offers no evidence, seeks probe of ‘politically motivated investigation’ during 2016 campaign https://goo.gl/7RX7d1

– Rubio: White House ‘Will Have to Answer’ to Trump’s Wiretapping Accusations https://goo.gl/kAAeJM

– The article that Trump probably read on Breitbart a few days ago that launched his Twitter tantrum — Mark Levin to Congress: Investigate Obama’s ‘Silent Coup’ vs. Trump https://goo.gl/7xn5Rp

– Trump opens day with more digs on Twitter, call for Obama investigation – The White House is seeking an investigation of the Obama White House during the 2016 campaign. https://goo.gl/8yIYlI

– Trump Skips Gridiron Dinner As His Staffers Get Roasted https://goo.gl/B1WY3z

– Sikh man in Kent says he was told, ‘Go back to your own country’ before he was shot https://goo.gl/lgOu4j

– More U.S. citizens are seeking refuge in Canada https://goo.gl/MHG1Ii

Day 43 – March 4th, 2017

– ‘He’s Doing A Good Job’: Supporters Rally Nationwide To Defend Trump https://goo.gl/k36NzO

– Sessions to attend Mar-a-Lago dinner with Trump https://goo.gl/6019lP

– The president accused Obama of ‘McCarthyism.’ But Trump’s mentor helped enforce it. https://goo.gl/We6bJi

– Our President https://goo.gl/4aDaLc

– Trump cites no evidence, accuses Obama of ‘Nixon/Watergate’ plot to wiretap Trump Tower https://goo.gl/fQ8lnn

– The web of relationships between Team Trump and Russia https://goo.gl/ho8HDi

– DHS reportedly considering proposal to separate women, children illegally crossing border https://goo.gl/DUWaTf

– Pence gives 13 boxes of emails to state of Indiana https://goo.gl/RiV1VL