Source: Boomberg Politics

The first major act of the unified Republican government in 2017 will be a vote in Congress to begin tearing down Obamacare.

But the euphoria of finally acting on a long-sought goal will quickly give way to the reality that Republicans -- and President-elect Donald Trump -- have no agreement thus far on how to replace coverage for about 20 million people who gained insurance under the health-care law.

“They haven’t come to a consensus in the House and the Senate about the possible replacement plans,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a conservative economist and former adviser to Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. “They don’t know Point B.”

Republicans are debating how long to delay implementing the repeal. Aides involved in the deliberations said some parts of the law may be ended quickly, such as its regulations affecting insurer health plans and businesses. Other pieces may be maintained for up to three or four years, such as insurance subsidies and the Medicaid expansion. Some parts of the law may never be repealed, such as the provision letting people under age 26 remain on a parent’s plan.


Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-12-29/gop-readies-swift-obamacare-repeal-with-no-replacement-in-place

Global wildlife populations have fallen by 58% since 1970, a report says.

The Living Planet assessment, by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and WWF, suggests that if the trend continues that decline could reach two-thirds among vertebrates by 2020.

The figures suggest that animals living in lakes, rivers and wetlands are suffering the biggest losses.

Human activity, including habitat loss, wildlife trade, pollution and climate change contributed to the declines.

Dr Mike Barrett. head of science and policy at WWF, said: "It's pretty clear under 'business as usual' we will see continued declines in these wildlife populations. But I think now we've reached a point where there isn't really any excuse to let this carry on.


http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37775622

Source: Bloomberg Newsm

Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump are developing plans to reshape Energy Department programs, help keep aging nuclear plants online and identify staff who played a role in promoting President Barack Obama’s climate agenda.

The transition team has asked the agency to list employees and contractors who attended United Nations climate meetings, along with those who helped develop the Obama administration’s social cost of carbon metrics, used to estimate and justify the climate benefits of new rules. The advisers are also seeking information on agency loan programs, research activities and the basis for its statistics, according to a five-page internal document circulated by the Energy Department on Wednesday. The document lays out 65 questions from the Trump transition team, sources within the agency said.

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to eliminate government waste, rescind "job-killing" regulations and cancel the Paris climate accord in which nearly 200 countries pledged to slash greenhouse gas emissions. Trump, though, hasn’t detailed specific plans for federal agencies. The document obtained by Bloomberg offers clues on where his administration may be headed on energy policy, based on the nature of questions involving the agency’s research agenda, nuclear program and national labs.


Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-09/trump-team-s-memo-hints-at-broad-shake-up-of-u-s-energy-policy

Republicans are deeply concerned about ethics in government and the vast potential for corruption stemming from conflicts of interest. We know this because of the acute worries they expressed over how these issues could have cast a shadow over a Hillary Clinton presidency.

“If Hillary Clinton wins this election and they don’t shut down the Clinton Foundation and come clean with all of its past activities, then there’s no telling the kind of corruption that you might see out of the Clinton White House,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt.

Presumably Cotton will take the lead in advising Donald Trump to “shut down” his business activities and “come clean” on what came before. Surely Cotton wants to be consistent.

The same must be true of Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chair whom Trump tapped as his chief of staff. “When that 3 a.m. phone call comes, Americans deserve to have a president on the line who is not compromised by foreign donations,” Priebus said earnestly in a statement on Aug. 18.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/an-ethical-double-standard-for-trump--and-the-gop/2016/11/27/40f88624-b344-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html?utm_term=.b1b2f5a8166e

This video is great if you like political satire.


https://www.zdf.de/comedy/neo-magazin-mit-jan-boehmermann/neo-magazin-royale-mit-jan-boehmermann-clip-1-100.html



Comedy | NEO MAGAZIN ROYALE
- NEO MAGAZIN ROYALE vom 3. November 2016 - English Version
Jan Boehmerman and Ralf Kabelka took a plane over the pond into the wild wild west to see how the contestants for presidency are doing and how they want to make america great again.

Source: Washington Post

The American Bar Association earlier this week told the Erik Wemple Blog that it had sought a correction from the New York Times after it reported that the association “refused” to publish a thorough report by First Amendment lawyer Susan Seager on Donald Trump’s history of filing libel suits and losing them.

“We did not refuse to publish it,” ABA spokeswoman Carol Stevens told the Erik Wemple Blog. Instead, the association merely made some “suggested” edits to calm some of the piece’s more “inflammatory” moments, said Stevens. Protestations notwithstanding, the story stuck. “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah even not-joked about it: “Take a second to absorb this: A group of lawyers won’t publish a report on how Trump often sues because they’re afraid he might sue them. You do realize I cannot make a joke about that, because that would be the joke that I would make.”

Well, whatever: The ABA is now going to run the piece in its “Communications Lawyer” publication, where it was headed before this imbroglio materialized. A statement addresses this issue:

The policy of the American Bar Association gives its entities the right to publish their newsletters without Association permission. In accordance with that policy, next week the ABA Forum on Communications Law will publish a newsletter article on presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and his frequent use of speech-related lawsuits. In the past week, there has been inaccurate media coverage of this matter.


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2016/10/28/american-bar-association-to-publish-controversial-report-on-trump-being-a-libel-bully/?utm_term=.802f60a35600

This is too cool - had to post it here.