“Maybe rather than getting that new iPhone” Americans “should invest in their own healthcare” – Rep. Jason Chaffetz https://t.co/sxWaRohbEh pic.twitter.com/aEWYikdWiw

— CNN (@CNN) March 7, 2017

Just let that sink in.

Iphones can be purchased for as low as $99 depending on the deal you get. Healthcare can bankrupt families. This bullshit narrative fits the GOP’s argument about what they think poor people should be able to have. But this is magically ridiculous. If you’re going to screw millions of Americans, just own it. Don’t act like you’re being the adult giving a tough talk to your kids. You’re pushing to leave people in catastrophic circumstances and you don’t give a shit.

Just own it.

I know he’s literally a brain surgeon. Google tells me so. But sometimes when Carson, our brand-new secretary of Housing and Urban Development and President Trump’s inner negro circle says…well..words, I’m genuinely confused as to how he understands how neurons fire but he doesn’t understand how something as horrible as slavery works. Don’t believe me? Check out this snippet from his ridiculous speech to his brand-new employees in HUD where…I…I can’t even try to explain. I’ve left a lot of speaking up front (probably about 2 minutes) so that I won’t be accused of editing Dr. Carson’s words.

But…I…that’s not…who in the world thinks that slaves were just immigrants who wanted to live their dreams? You mean a dream of not being snatched up and sent to the bottom of a boat in horrendous conditions so that they could be beaten, sold, raped, murdered…I’m sorry. I forgot my point. Because when you stop to think about the horrors that my ancestors lived through, to think that anyone, especially a gatdamb Black man in America, would refer to them as immigrants is just…

I’m going to go have a drink.

A new study by economists Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington shows that white residents of towns that had larger enslaved populations in the antebellum south are more likely to vote Republican. The study demonstrated that while conservative views alone could not account for the mass defection from Democrat to Republican that occurred after the civil-rights movement, conservative views on race specifically were correlated.

A related study by psychologists at the University of California, Los Angeles, also reveals links to people’s prejudice, as it relates to the location in which they were raised:

Blackwell, one of the authors, agreed. “People in general tend to think of their views as their own, conclusions that they came to after thinking long and hard about the facts,” he said. “There’s sufficient evidence out there to show that’s not the way people have come to form beliefs about the world and about politics, in general.”

 

The new study does not provide direct evidence that those white Southerners are more likely to vote Republican because Republican politicians appeal to their racial anxieties. Rather, it suggests that racial biases along with political beliefs are transmitted from one generation to another as part of the overall culture of a particular place. (via The Washington Post)

And generations of Black people let out a deep and loud “Duh.”

President Trump is very upset.

I’d bet money he can’t define McCarthyism.

The guy who was bragging about grabbing women by the pussy is talking about a new low. You can’t make this up.

If only Trump could find a good lawyer. He’s only the billionaire president of the United States. Clearly his access is limited.

NIXON! WATERGATE! BAD! SICK! So what there’s no proof. What’s proof? WHO NEEDS THAT?

So far White House officials who have spoken about it (which we were told they wouldn’t) have implied that there’s some secret information that Trump has even though it has been mentioned across media that this particular tantrum comes in part from conservative media. So now most of the MSM is chasing this story and questioning politicians based on a presidential tantrum.

American exceptionalism?

After the Trump administration’s rollback of Obama era guidelines for protection of transgender students the Supreme Court, who had agreed in October to hear the case of Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy who had been stopped from using the boys bathroom by the school board in Gloucester County, Virginia, decided to not hear the case and send it back to the lower courts.

The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would not hear a major case on transgender rights after all, acting after the Trump administration changed the federal government’s position on whether public schools must allow transgender youths to use bathrooms that match their gender identities.

In a one-sentence order, the Supreme Court vacated an appeal’s court decision in favor of a Virginia transgender boy, Gavin Grimm, and sent the case back for further consideration in light of the new guidance from the Trump administration.

That’s right. The Trump administration’s rollback of transgender protections completely changed the nature of the case. With the protections removed, the previous court rulings were called into question due to them being based partly on those protections. This seems to be the point of the rollback since the Trump administration specifically alerted the Supreme Court of the rollback. You can read the “Dear Colleague” letter that was sent to schools across the nation here.

When the rollback was announced protests broke out in front of the White House.

Trump signing new #MuslimBan. Photo Tweeted by Sean Spicer

President Donald J. Trump has signed another executive order to curtail Muslim immigration into the United States.

The Trump administration has signed a new executive order that temporarily bans people from six majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States.

The new executive order, effective next week, officially revokes and replaces the controversial order President Trump signed in late-January that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked last month. The new order has been crafted to attempt to withstand legal challenge, exempting permanent legal residents and applying only to future visa applicants, not those who already hold valid visas. (Via ABC News)

The new updated #MuslimBan (which is being referred to as #TravelBan) does a lot of what the initial ban did while clarifying that green card holders, dual nationals, current visa holders, diplomats and people who have already been granted asylum or refugee status, stripping language that targeted Syrian refugees and now freezes all refugee resettlement, allowing Iraq Nationals to dodge this order due to supposed negotiations between Iraq and the U.S.

But a few things jumped out at me.

I’m confused about this #TravelBan. I thought we were in so much danger that we need to pause…but what were they doing for the past month?

— Elon James White (@elonjames) March 6, 2017

The timelines in the new executive order and the original one that was halted by multiple judges and the U.S. Appeals court are the same. But there’s a 30+ day difference in when they were signed which to me begs the question: for the past month was the White House not working on the supposed threats to our nation that required it to push such an incredibly flawed and problematic executive order in the first place? The new EO specifically states anyone from the targeted six countries had received/applied for a visa or refugee status after Mr. Trump’s previous executive order was signed, they still can’t enter the country.

So if we were to take Mr. Trump’s words and reasoning at face value, wouldn’t the timelines that were initially outlined be shorter now? Remember, this is just “a pause.” Why stretch the pause out longer than need be especially when the Department of Homeland Security has found no evidence of extra threats posed by any of the countries listed in the #MuslimBan. What’s the logic behind this? With so much questioning on what the very idea of this travel ban means to what America claims to be, why not work through this as quickly as possible unless there are other things at play?

Updates to come.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry and former presidential hopeful Dr. Ben Carson were confirmed by the senate to lead the Energy Department and Housing and Urban Development departments, respectively. Both were Republican presidential hopefuls in 2016.

Both Perry and Carson have come under fire for being unqualified for the positions to which they’ve now been confirmed. Perry once lobbied for the elimination of the department now under his charge, while Carson himself once through aides that “Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he’s never run a federal agency.”

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi released a statement today on what she’s termed Republicans’ hiding plan to Make America Sick Again. She charges Republican leadership with drafting their plan to repeal the American Care Act behind closed doors, and takes them to task for their lack of transparency toward both Democratic leadership and their own constituents.

Read the full statement below:

“If Republicans are too terrified of their constituents to make their plan to destroy affordable health care public, they shouldn’t try to make it law.  With no public hearings and no CBO score, Republicans have chosen a cowardly process to Make America Sick Again before their constituents realize the damage that could be done.

“Republicans have spent years howling about the process through which the ACA was passed.  The fact is that, in writing the ACA, the House and Senate went through a transparent, open and lengthy legislative process.  Before we enacted the ACA in 2010, the House held 79 bipartisan hearings and markups over the span of two years.  The Senate Finance Committee spent eight days marking it up – the longest markup in 22 years.

“Now, Republicans are disgracing every pledge of transparency and regular order.  President Trump and the Republican Congress are ambushing the American people with a bill that will raise health costs on the middle class, eviscerate their coverage, and push millions of people off health coverage of any kind.  Tens of millions of Americans will suffer because of Republicans’ Make America Sick Again agenda, and they should have the courage to say so.”

#BREAKING: AG Jeff Sessions will recuse himself in the investigation around the Trump Campaign and Russia. #TWIBdocket

— TWiB! Nation (@TWiBnation) March 2, 2017

In a late afternoon press conference, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced he would be recusing himself from any investigation around the Trump campaign and its communications with Russia after it was reported that Sessions himself had been in contact with Russia.

Mr. Sessions said he made the decision after meeting with senior career officials at the Justice Department. He said he would not take part in any investigations “related in any way to the campaigns for president of the United States.”

He also strongly denied that any of his conversations with Russian officials were related to the presidential campaign. And he said he did not intend to deceive the Senate when he said he had no such meetings with Russian officials.

The remarks by Mr. Sessions came not long after President Trump on Thursday expressed his support for Mr. Sessions and said he should not recuse himself from the investigation. Mr. Sessions was a key adviser and surrogate for Mr. Trump’s campaign. (via NY Times)

So the big question I think on many of our minds is pretty simple: now what?