From The Hill…
Breitbart has snagged an exclusive interview with President Trump scheduled for Monday afternoon in the Oval Office, according to a report by Axios on Saturday.
Breitbart’s Washington editor Matthew Boyle is slated to conduct the interview, Axios reported.
Who’s surprised?
Anyone?
I’m not.
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.
Looks like a clickbait title, doesn’t it?
But… it’s kinda true…
From The Hill…
The White House blocked a number of news outlets from covering spokesman Sean Spicer’s question-and-answer session on Friday afternoon.
Spicer decided to hold an off-camera “gaggle” with reporters inside his West Wing office instead of the traditional on-camera briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.
Among the outlets not permitted to cover the gaggle were news organizations President Trump has singled out for criticism, including CNN.
The New York Times, The Hill, Politico, BuzzFeed, the Daily Mail, BBC, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Daily News were among the other news organizations not permitted to attend.
Journalists from several right-leaning outlets were allowed into Spicer’s office, including Breitbart, the Washington Times and One America News Network.
A number of major news organizations were also let in to cover the gaggle. That group included ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Reuters, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and McClatchy.
Reporters from The Associated Press and Time magazine were allowed into the gaggle but refused to attend.
I think we now know which news organizations are trustworthy… well… for varying definitions of “trustworthy”…
Okay okay…
At least we know which news outlets are being honest about the Cheeto Fascist Administration, anyways…
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.”
In case you were wondering how fucking evil they are…
From AlterNet:
Less than a week after reports surfaced that an undocumented immigrant in El Paso, Texas, was detained after claiming to be a victim of domestic abuse and receiving a protective order, yet another undocumented immigrant has been rounded up while at her most vulnerable.
An undocumented Salvadoran immigrant known only as Sara was involuntarily taken to Prairieland Detention Center despite her having a brain tumor, according to a report by The Hill. At the time she was apprehended, Sara was a patient at Huguley Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, and receiving treatment for her illness.
Melissa Zuniga, a member of Sara’s legal team, told The Hill, “She told us they tied her hands and ankles in her condition. She’s complaining of a lot of pain.” Sara has been denied the ability to speak with her family and lawyers despite having received clearance from the hospital and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to The Hill.
From The Hill:
The Trump administration is rolling back an Obama-era plan to phase out the federal government’s use of private prisons.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a memo Thursday to the Bureau of Prisons rescinding the Obama administration’s Aug. 16 order advising the bureau not to renew any contracts with private prisons, according to a copy of the letter.
Then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates had instructed officials to either not renew private prison contracts or substantially reduce the scope of such contracts to ultimately end the department’s use of privately operated prisons altogether.
In a brief memo Thursday, Sessions said Yates’s order “changed the long-standing policy and practice, and impaired the Bureau’s ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system.”
“Therefore, I direct the Bureau to return to its previous approach,” he wrote.
I just…
It’s too much… all at once.
But that’s the point, isn’t it? Get us so tired we can do nothing…
The next post will be a self-care post, I promise…
I knew this would happen. I knew, the moment Sir Tiny Hands was put into office, all the states that have legalized or decriminalized marijuana would be done. I knew it wouldn’t last under him.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday that he expects states to see “greater enforcement” of the federal law against marijuana use, a move that would be at odds with a growing number of states’ decisions to legalize it.
Spicer, taking questions from reporters at the daily briefing, differentiated between the administration’s positions on medical marijuana and recreational marijuana.
President Donald Trump “understands the pain and suffering that many people go through who are facing especially terminal diseases, and the comfort that some of these drugs, including medical marijuana, can bring to them,” he said, also noting previous action by Congress not to fund the Justice Department “go[ing] after those folks.”
As for “recreational marijuana, that’s a very, very different subject,” Spicer said.
Spicer suggested that the administration is opposed to encouraging recreational marijuana use and connected it with the crisis with opioid addiction in some areas.
“When you see something like the opioid addiction crisis blossoming in so many states around this country, the last thing we should be doing is encouraging people,” he said.
The Department of Justice, Spicer said, will be “further looking into” the marijuana enforcement question, he said, punting questions about the specifics to the department.
“I do believe that you’ll see greater enforcement of it,” he said.
From Reuters:
President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to ensure the U.S. nuclear arsenal is at the “top of the pack,” saying the United States has fallen behind in its weapons capacity.
…
In his first comments about the U.S. nuclear arsenal since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump was asked about a December tweet in which he said the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capacity “until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”
Trump said in the interview he would like to see a world with no nuclear weapons but expressed concern that the United States has “fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity.”
“I am the first one that would like to see … nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power.
“It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack,” Trump said.
You’ve already seen this over on the Resist blog and at Affinity. I’m putting it here, too.
Avaaz has a global letter going, and they’d like to get 6 million signatures. I’ve signed. Please, sign yourself, and boost the signal! We can make our voices heard.
Please make sure you sign it. I did.
Here’s the letter in full…
This is not what greatness looks like.
The world rejects your fear, hate-mongering, and bigotry. We reject your support for torture, your calls for murdering civilians, and your general encouragement of violence. We reject your denigration of women, Muslims, Mexicans, and millions of others who don’t look like you, talk like you, or pray to the same god as you.
Facing your fear we choose compassion. Hearing your despair we choose hope. Seeing your ignorance we choose understanding.
As citizens of the world, we stand united against your brand of division.
Sincerely,
[Add your name!]
Go ahead and add your name. Everyone needs to sign it.
But Agent Orange wanted us to believe they did…
If you believe the media in Sweden, Friday night was relatively uneventful. Among the most noteworthy headlines in the country were reports that a popular Swedish singer had technical problems during a music competition.
But if you listened to President Trump on Saturday, it seemed as if something happened Friday night in Sweden that deserved the attention of the world. However, nobody knew what that might be, least of all the Swedes.
During a rally Saturday in Florida, Trump referred to several countries that have taken in a disproportionate number of refugees and that have recently been the target of attacks. “We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany. You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?” Trump went on to refer to Paris, Nice, France, and Brussels, European cities where attacks have occurred in the past two years.
A spokeswoman for the Swedish Foreign Ministry told the Associated Press on Sunday that authorities were not aware of any “terror-linked major incidents” that occurred Friday night in Sweden. According to the spokeswoman, the Swedish Embassy in Washington has asked the State Department to clarify Trump’s remarks.
Like… what… how…
There can’t be anyone who’s okay with this. Is there really anyone who’s okay with this?