Planned Parenthood Can Keep Their Funding… if They Stop Providing Abortions

From the New York Times…

The White House, concerned about the possible political repercussions of the Republican effort to defund Planned Parenthood, has proposed preserving federal payments to the group if it discontinues providing abortions.

The proposal, which was never made formally, has been rejected as an impossibility by officials at Planned Parenthood, which receives about $500 million annually in federal funding. That money helps pay for women’s health services the organization provides, not for abortion services.

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Updates on Agent Orange’s Wiretapping Claims

Y’all already know the story… Agent Orange claimed on Twitter that President Obama wiretapped his cell phone.

Here’s some more info…

First, from the Hill…

White House press secretary Sean Spicer early Sunday said investigations into Russian attempts to influence the election should include President Trump’s claims that the Obama administration “abused” its investigative powers in 2016.

“Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling,” Spicer tweeted.

Second, from the NY Times…

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, senior American officials said on Sunday. Mr. Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, they said, but the department has not released any such statement.

Mr. Comey, who made the request on Saturday after Mr. Trump leveled his allegation on Twitter, has been working to get the Justice Department to knock down the claim because it falsely insinuates that the F.B.I. broke the law, the officials said.

A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment. Sarah Isgur Flores, the spokeswoman for the Justice Department, also declined to comment.

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Agent Orange Wants to Slash NOAA Funding by 17%

From the Washington Post…

The Trump administration is seeking to slash the budget of one of the government’s premier climate science agencies by 17 percent, delivering steep cuts to research funding and satellite programs, according to a four-page budget memo obtained by The Washington Post.

The proposed cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would also eliminate funding for a variety of smaller programs, including external research, coastal management, estuary reserves and “coastal resilience,” which seeks to bolster the ability of coastal areas to withstand major storms and rising seas.

NOAA is part of the Commerce Department, which would be hit by an overall 18 percent budget reduction from its current funding level.

The Office of Management and Budget also asked the Commerce Department to provide information about how much it would cost to lay off employees, while saying those employees who do remain with the department should get a 1.9 percent pay increase in January 2018. It requested estimates for terminating leases and government “property disposal.”

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In More Very Obvious News, Jeff Session is a Lying Liar Who Lies

From the Washington Post…

Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general.

One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office, at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race.

The previously undisclosed discussions could fuel new congressional calls for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election. As attorney general, Sessions oversees the Justice Department and the FBI, which have been leading investigations into Russian meddling and any links to Trump’s associates. He has so far resisted calls to recuse himself.

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Terrifying Bills Filed in Congress…

The following bills have been filed in Congress. Some have even already passed the Senate or House.

They include terminating needed agencies, defunding Planned Parenthood, criminalizing abortion, etc. Some have no summaries written at the Congress.gov link, so I did not include summaries here. For those who don’t know, Congress.gov is where you can go to basically, follow legislative sessions. You can find out what bills, resolutions, etc have been filed, and keep a close watch on ones that interest or worry you.

Please make your voices heard and register your complaints about these bills. Not one can be allowed to pass…

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Agent Orange’s Plan to Increase Military Spending

So… back on February 27th, it was reported that Heir Tanline wanted to sink another $54 Billion US into our “defense” budget.

How did he plan on doing this?

President Trump put both political parties on notice Monday that he intends to slash spending on many of the federal government’s most politically sensitive programs — relating to education, the environment, science and poverty — to protect the economic security of retirees and to shift billions more to the armed forces.

The proposal to increase military spending by $54 billion and cut nonmilitary programs by the same amount was unveiled by White House officials as they prepared the president’s plans for next year’s federal budget. Aides to the president said final decisions about Medicare and Social Security would not be made until later in the year, when he announces his full budget. But Sean Spicer, his spokesman, cited Mr. Trump’s campaign commitments about protecting those programs and vowed that “he’s going to keep his word to the American people.”

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So… ICE Employees are Saying That Their Job is “Fun Again”

I’m watching TWiBPrime live right now, and they are currently talking about this, from the New York Times…

The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said on Tuesday that the president wanted to “take the shackles off” of agents, an expression the officers themselves used time and again in interviews to describe their newfound freedom.

“Morale amongst our agents and officers has increased exponentially since the signing of the orders,” the unions representing ICE and Border Patrol agents said in a joint statement after President Trump issued the executive orders on immigration late last month.

…

Two officials in Washington said that the shift — and the new enthusiasm that has come with it — seems to have encouraged pro-Trump political comments and banter that struck the officials as brazen or gung-ho, like remarks about their jobs becoming “fun.” Those who take less of a hard line on unauthorized immigrants feel silenced, the officials said.

Yup. Their job is becoming “fun”… because Agent Orange has rolled back President Obama’s regulations on ICE (basically, he wanted them to only focus on the worst criminal offenders, whereas Agent Orange basically wants them to intimidate and arrest anyone who isn’t white).

This is even grosser because one of President Obama’s nicknames was “Deporter in Chief” for a reason (though there is some nuance to be discussed with this one).

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

So… Scott Pruitt is Going to “Aggressively” Cut Back President Obama’s Green-Era Rules and Regulations

From Reuters…

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration will begin rolling back Obama-era environmental regulations in an “aggressive way” as soon as next week, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said on Saturday – adding he understood why some Americans want to see his agency eliminated completely.

“I think there are some regulations that in the near-term need to be rolled back in a very aggressive way. And I think maybe next week you may be hearing about some of those,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt told the Conservative Political Action summit in Washington DC.

Pruitt added the EPA’s focus on combating climate change under former President Barack Obama had cost jobs and prevented economic growth, leading many Americans to want to see the EPA eliminated completely.

“I think its justified,” he said. “I think people across this country look at the EPA much like they look at the IRS. I hope to be able to change that.”

So… we can expect that the United States will be leading the way… in making Climate Change worse.

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From AlterNet: Did the Government Doctor Legal Documents in Order to Illegally Deport a Dreamer?

It actually looks like they did…

As a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Daniel Ramirez-Medina’s status as a legal resident of the U.S. should have been fully ensured. Despite that protection, Ramirez-Medina was arrested by federal agents during a raid of his home near Seattle, Washington, on February 10. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contends Ramirez-Medina is a “self-admitted” gang member who filled out documentation attesting to that fact. But his attorneys say the document upon which the government’s case rests has been doctored to intentionally create a gang affiliation, and grounds for deportation, where none exists.

Ramirez-Medina is currently being held at a facility in Tacoma. Last week, he petitioned to be removed from a unit that houses gang members. In the request, Ramirez-Medina wrote, “I came in and the officers said I have gang affiliation with gangs so I wear an orange uniform. I do not have a criminal history and I’m not affiliated with any gangs.” But according to his lawyers, when the document made its way back to Ramirez-Medina five days later, a key phrase had been deleted.

“I have gang affiliation with gangs so I wear an orange uniform,” the paperwork now read. “I do not have a criminal history and I’m not affiliated with any gangs.”

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