August 14, 2017

EXCLUSIVE: Trump HHS Severs Key Partnerships For Obamacare Outreach

Source: Talking Points Memo




By ALICE OLLSTEIN Published AUGUST 14, 2017 6:00 AM

A wide array of groups that partnered for several years with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the White House to promote open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act say this year has brought a deafening silence from the Trump administration, with no sign the partnerships will continue.

Both representatives of the former partner groups and former HHS officials say the relationships with gig economy companies, youth organizations, churches, women’s groups, and African American and Latino civil rights non-profits were critical to keeping Obamacare’s markets functioning, and their termination is a clear example of sabotage.

“The failure to invest in local assistance and these enrollment partnerships will reduce enrollment, increase costs and drive up the uninsured rate,” warned Andy Slavitt, former head of HHS’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Obama. “Hopefully they will reconsider taking these destructive actions.”

Without the partners’ help reaching out to young and healthy people who are less likely to sign up for health care, Slavitt explained, the government will find itself with a drastically smaller, older, sicker individual market with sky-high insurance rates.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-hhs-obamacare-partnerships-promotion-sabotage

August 14, 2017

Barbra Streisand - Carefully Taught and Children Will Listen

August 14, 2017

Report: Russia Linked to North Korean Missile Advances

Source: The Daily Beast


North Korea’s rapid missile-program improvements can likely be traced back to a black-market factory that used to produce the Soviet Union’s most deadly weaponry, according to a new report and classified assessments by U.S. intel agencies. It is not believed that North Korea could have made such big leaps forward in their nuclear-weapons program without outside help. The former Soviet factory is just over the Russian border in Ukraine. “It’s likely that these engines came from Ukraine—probably illicitly,” Michael Elleman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies told The New York Times. “The big question is how many they have and whether the Ukrainians are helping them now. I’m very worried.”

READ IT AT THE NEW YORK TIMES

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Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/russia-seen-linked-to-north-korean-missile-advances

August 14, 2017

White supremacists chant 'F*** you, f****ts' at rally in Virginia

By Alex Bollinger · Saturday, August 12, 2017

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https://twitter.com/letsgomathias/status/896379733050634240

-snip-


https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2017/08/white-supremacists-chant-f-fts-rally-virginia

August 14, 2017

'Evil Attack' in Virginia Is Domestic Terrorism, Sessions Says

Source: New York Times


WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Monday that the “evil attack” in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend meets the legal definition of an act of domestic terrorism, an early declaration in an investigation after a car plowed into a crowd of protesters.

“It does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute,” Mr. Sessions said on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” referring to a fatal attack on Saturday when a vehicle drove into a crowd protesting white nationalists, killing one woman and injuring others. A 20-year-old man has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at the scene of a crash that resulted in a death.

“You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation toward the most serious charges that can be brought because this is unequivocally an unacceptable evil attack,” Mr. Sessions said, adding that terrorism and civil rights investigators were working on the case.

-snip-

By declaring the attack to be domestic terrorism, Mr. Sessions is moving quickly to quell a debate that swirled after the 2015 shooting of a historically black church in South Carolina. Dylann S. Roof, a South Carolina man who had once worn white supremacist patches, killed nine people in that attack. Loretta E. Lynch, the attorney general at the time, declared hate crimes “the original domestic terrorism.” But some civil rights groups wanted her to go farther.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/politics/domestic-terrorism-sessions.html

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UPDATE:

Sessions: Charlottesville Attack Meets Definition of Domestic Terrorism

By NICOLE LAFOND Published AUGUST 14, 2017 9:54 AM

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the violent attack Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which a white supremacist allegedly drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters at a white supremacists rally, fits the Department of Justice’s definition of domestic terrorism.

“It does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute. We’re pursuing it with the Department of Justice in every way we can make it, make a case,” he said, appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Monday morning. “You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation toward the most serious charges that can be brought, because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack that cannot be accepted in America, so absolutely that is a factor that we will be looking at.”

Sessions made the rounds on news shows Monday morning, defending the President for his initial statements about the incident, amid criticism that President Donald Trump didn’t go far enough to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazi groups.

Trump’s initial comments condemned violence on “many sides,” but didn’t explicitly call out the white nationalist groups.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sessions-charlottesville-attack-meets-definition-domestic-terrorism

August 9, 2017

Scaramucci Before Ouster: Pence 'Can't Believe What The F*ck Is Going On'

By MATT SHUHAM Published AUGUST 9, 2017 11:56 AM

Before his sudden departure as communications adviser on July 31, Anthony Scaramucci implied in an interview that Mike Pence’s new chief of staff was hired to protect the vice president from the political turmoil roiling the Trump administration, perhaps to set up a bid for the presidency in 2020.

In an interview with the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza — the very same interview in which the Mooch said White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s self-regard was comparable to a stunning feat of bodily gymnastics — Scaramucci called attention to the man Pence announced as his new chief of staff on June 29, Nick Ayers.

“Why do you think Nick’s there, bro?” Scaramucci asked Lizza, referring to Ayers. “Are you stupid?” Scaramucci continued. “Why is Nick there? Nick’s there to protect the vice president because the vice president can’t believe what the fuck is going on.”

Lizza published the quotes on Tuesday.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scaramucci-pence-cant-believe-whats-going-on

August 9, 2017

Ron Johnson: McCain's Brain Tumor 'Might Have Factored In' To His No Vote

Source: Talking Points Memo



By NICOLE LAFOND Published AUGUST 9, 2017 11:58 AM

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) thinks Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) recently diagnosed brain cancer and the late-night timing of the vote might have been factors in why McCain ultimately decided to vote against the skinny Obamacare repeal last month.

“Again, I’m not going to speak for John McCain, you know, he has a brain tumor right now. That vote occurred at 1:30 in the morning, some of that might have factored in,” Johnson said, speaking to the radio hosts of “Chicago Morning Answer.”

CNN’s KFILE first flagged Johnson’s comments.

The host asked Johnson to clarify, asking if he really thought the cancer played a role in McCain’s judgment call. “Again, I don’t know exactly what — we really thought — and again, I don’t want to speak for any senator. I really thought he was going to vote yes to send that to conference at 10:30 at night. By about 1:00 or 1:30, he voted no. So you have to talk to John in terms of what was on his mind,” Johnson said.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ron-johnson-mccains-brain-tumor-might-have-factored-in-to-his-no-vote

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UPDATE

-snip-

In a statement, McCain spokeswoman Julie Tarallo said, "It is bizarre and deeply unfortunate that Senator Johnson would question the judgment of a colleague and friend. Senator McCain has been very open and clear about the reasons for his vote."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/09/politics/kfile-ron-johnson-john-mccain/index.html

August 9, 2017

This Is What European Diplomats Really Think About Donald Trump

Interviews with six top officials paint a picture of a president who is regarded even by allies as erratic and limited, and whose shortcomings are compounded by the ongoing chaos beneath him in the White House.

Posted on August 9, 2017, at 9:51 a.m.

Alberto Nardelli
BuzzFeed News Europe Editor
Reporting From
London

LONDON – Even before the latest escalation of nuclear threats between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un’s North Korea, senior diplomats and officials from the US's European allies have been warning that the US president’s approach to world affairs is extremely dangerous – pointing to his apparent ignorance of other countries’ history, his unfiltered use of social media and the lack of a strong, experienced team around him.

In interviews with BuzzFeed News, six top European government officials who’ve had firsthand dealings on the international stage with Trump and his administration describe a president regarded even by allies as erratic and limited, and whose perceived shortcomings are compounded by the ongoing chaos beneath him in the White House.

The officials, all speaking on condition of anonymity, voiced similar and consistent concerns, in particular over his unprecedented use of Twitter, which they said demonstrated the lack of normal government controls at the top of the administration.

“Trump could send a tweet in the middle of the night pissing off Kim Jong-un,” one seasoned diplomat told BuzzFeed News. “And the next morning we wake up to a world on the brink of war.”

That observation came before Trump's latest bellicose rhetoric, and the sense of alarm in European governments can only have increased in the last 24 hours. On Tuesday evening, Trump warned North Korea would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen” if it continued to threaten the US. His comments have already prompted Kim Jong-un’s regime to ratchet up its own threats, announcing that it was considering a preemptive missile strike on the US Pacific territory of Guam. On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted that the US nuclear arsenal is now "far stronger and more powerful than ever before...."

more
https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/this-is-why-european-diplomats-think-donald-trump-is?utm_term=.jvx688RLE#.hsQoqqNgw

August 9, 2017

WSJ Editorial Calls Out Steve Bannon for White House 'Dysfunction'

Chief strategist Steve Bannon’s “warring habits” have caused “much of the White House dysfunction” in recent days, and new Chief of Staff John Kelly should start with him as he seeks to restore order, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board writes. In an editorial published online late Tuesday, the paper singled Bannon out for the “vilification” in recent days of National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who faced a backlash from conservative staffers after dismissing several figures close to Bannon. Warning of “alt-right brigades who seem to rise up as if on call” to strike Bannon’s opponents, the paper says “the Bannon brigades outside the White House” will continue to wreak havoc on the Trump administration if given the chance. “Mr. Trump may worry about the damage Mr. Bannon and his allies could do to his administration if he is no longer part of the White House team,” the editorial board writes. “But if his minions continue to vilify his colleagues inside the White House, how can anyone tell the difference?”

READ IT AT THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/wsj-editorial-calls-steve-bannon-out-for-white-house-dysfunction

August 9, 2017

FBI conducted predawn raid of former Trump campaign chairman Manafort's home

Source: The Washington Post



By Carol D. Leonnig, Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman August 9 at 9:53 AM

FBI agents raided the Alexandria home of President Trump’s former campaign chairman late last month, using a search warrant to seize documents and other materials, according to people familiar with the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Federal agents appeared at Paul Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours of July 26, the day after he met voluntarily with the staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee. The search warrant was wide-ranging and FBI agents working with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III departed the home with various records.

The raid came as Manafort has been voluntarily producing documents to congressional committees investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The search warrant indicates investigators may have argued to a federal judge they had reason to believe Manafort could not be trusted to turn over all records in response to a grand jury subpoena.

It could also have been intended to send a message to President Trump’s former campaign chairman that he should not expect gentle treatment or legal courtesies from Mueller’s team.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-conducted-predawn-raid-of-former-trump-campaign-chairman-manaforts-home/2017/08/09/5879fa9c-7c45-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.81a6a7639f0d