Summations Only

White House Blocks Democrats' Oversight EffortsThe constitution was fun while it lasted, amirite?

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It's not clear how the opinion aligns with a federal statute that says executive branch agencies must respond if "any" seven members of a House oversight committee or "any" five members of a Senate oversight committee — with both panels specifically named in the law — sign on to a request.

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Edited by JonF, : No reason given.

"White House sources" say he didn't know about the Al Udeid Air base. Critical to US operations from Afghanistan to North Africa.Of course if he talked to his people it would have come up.

https://twitter.com/TeddyDavisCNN/status/875717702702288896
https://twitter.com/fawfulfan/status/875729937495404544".@NewtGingrich speaking right now at the @PressClubDC:"The president of the United States cannot obstruct justice" "" You literally voted to impeach a president for obstruction of justice in 1998, you fucking moron. @newtgingrich"How soon they forget!

It's official: diplomacy will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

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The Trump administration on Friday moved to eliminate the State Department unit responsible for dealing with Afghanistan and Pakistan transferring its duties to a regional bureau whose leadership ranks have been decimated, two sources told POLITICO.

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The development came with less than a day’s notice. It deeply rattled U.S. officials who say the shift leaves unclear who is responsible for handling diplomacy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan at a time when President Donald Trump is considering ramping up the U.S. military presence in that region.

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The phase-out of the office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) was put in motion under the Obama administration, and the unit had been shrinking for some time. The plan had long been to let the State Department's South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau take over the highly sensitive portfolios.

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But Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have failed to fill numerous leadership positions across the State Department. And, when compared to other regional bureaus, South and Central Asian Affairs has seen unusually high levels of top staff departures. Unlike other regional bureaus, it does not even have an acting assistant secretary overseeing it.

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State's Afghanistan-Pakistan unit dissolved as Trump weighs more troopsEdited by Adminnemooseus, : Cleaned up link presentation.

Very clever. Move the worst of it out beyond the time the CBO is allowed to look.So if the BCRA becomes law it gets worse in 2028 and beyond. Republicans’ health bill saves its most severe Medicaid cuts for outside the CBO’s scoring window

NPR tweets the Declaration of Independence, as they have before.Trumpistas wig out at all that biased liberal propaganda.22 Words

It appears to this non-lawyer that he did not receive anything of value. A lawyer could certainly argue that attending the meeting was soliciting something of value.

Tom Price admits that the new Trumpcare is only repeal, no replace

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But despite claims by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that his latest version of Trumpcare would provide stability while improving affordability, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price made a major admission about the bill Sunday: that the legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare would simply permit insurers return to the ways they used to operate.

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On ABC’s This Week, the longtime Obamacare critic was pressed by Jon Karl about a provision in the bill pushed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), which would allow insurance companies to offer sub-standard plans. Karl noted that not only do more than 10 medical groups and 32 cancer organizations oppose the Trumpcare bill, a rare joint statement by the biggest insurance companies in the country called the Cruz amendment ‘unworkable in any form’ [as] ‘it would lead to, ‘widespread terminations of coverage.

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Price responded that he found that wall of opposition really perplexing, especially from the insurance companies, cause all they have to do is dust off how they did business before Obamacare.

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But while much of this bill would return things to the bad old days, it would also hurt consumers in a novel way. Under the Trumpcare bill,customers who purchase a cheapo Cruz substandard plans would not be considered to have had continuous coverage. And a provision of the bill states that anyone without continuous coverage would be subject to a six-month waiting period before they could buy any real plan. In other words, it could be even worse than the pre-Obamacare system for people who suddenly become sick.

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They really; do care... about hurting the American people as much as they possibly can.

How do you get Trump to change a light bulb?You don't. He will lie that he changed it and all the Republicans will sit in the dark and agree.

They really do despise the American people. CBO: Repeal And Delay Takes Away 32 Million People's Health Care; Premiums Double

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Repeal of all subsidies and the Medicaid expansion would be in effect in 2020, but the individual mandate would disappear immediately, causing deep distress and strain on insurers.

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It would do deep and lasting harm to Trump voters in particular, who live in those rural areas and depend upon Medicaid and other health services to survive.

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In the end, CBO estimates that half of the nation's population would live in areas with no insurers whatsoever.

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Lawsuit: Fox News concocted Seth Rich story with oversight from White House

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The White House worked with Fox News and a wealthy Republican donor to push a story about the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, according to an explosive lawsuit filed Tuesday.

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The story was pushed in an attempt to discredit the US intelligence community's determination that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and obtained the emails released by Wikileaks, the lawsuit said.

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The lawsuit, which was first reported by NPR, was filed in US District Court in the Southern District of New York. The plaintiff is Rod Wheeler, a Fox News contributor and former homicide detective hired to investigate Rich's death, who alleges that he was misquoted as part of the effort to put the story together. Douglas Wigdor, who is representing current and former Fox employees in other lawsuits against the network, is Wheeler's lawyer.

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Included in the lawsuit is a text message from Butowsky to Wheeler in which Butowsky writes, "Not to add any more pressure but the president just read the article. He wants the article out immediately. It's now all up to you. But don't feel the pressure."

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Butowsky told CNN that this message was a joke referring to what he said was Wheeler's desire for a job with the Trump administration. "This was Rod and I," Butowsky said. "We teased all the time. We were basically telling him you are doing a great job and that the president or the White House or somebody would be interested in meeting you."

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Can you say "feeble"? I knew you could!

TPP a plus for his corporate base, not so much for a lot of farmers who voted for him.The "critically needed" Keystone may not be built because of economic issues and it still has a regulatory hurdle. http://ieefa.org/...y-kill-long-delayed-keystone-xl-pipeline, Keystone XL pipeline fate in balance as Nebraska opens hearings | Reuters.

The part of the job numbers Team Trump doesn’t want to talk about

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In other words, Trump and his Republican allies are impressed that the economy created a million jobs over the first six months of Trump’s presidency. What they don’t appear to realize is that these are the weakest job numbers over the same period in five years.

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Edited by JonF, : No reason given.

No response to the discussions of your list items.As expected.

You expected us to do a line-by-line rebuttal but the same is just too much for you?What you have done is pathetic, ignoring almost all the eviscerations of your BS. Yep. And it's worked well for coal. Coal has lost out. Coal is dying. Pinin' for the fjords. It's too dirty and too expensive. Natural gas is the fossil fuel of choice for the foreseeable future.So the Trump administration wants to bring it back by magic (none of this free market crap) and cancel programs for coal workers to get different jobs. I.e. no free market.Edited by JonF, : No reason given.