Agent Orange Likes Polluted Streams and Undrinkable Water

Trump Signs Measure Blocking Obama-Era Rule to Protect Streams

President Donald Trump signed legislation repealing a regulation meant to protect streams from the effects of coal mining.

The congressional resolution killing the so-called Stream Protection Rule, which was issued in the waning days of the Obama administration, follows similar action by Trump overturning an anti-corruption rule that would have required oil companies to disclose payments to foreign governments. Congressional Republicans have plans to send Trump an array of resolutions under the Congressional Review Act, including one to prevent people with serious mental-health problems from buying guns.

“In eliminating this rule I am continuing to keep my promise to the American people to get rid of wasteful regulations,” Trump said at a White House signing ceremony.

Oh yeah. Regulations the protecting the environment are so wasteful…

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ICE Is Evil…

I knew that finding joy and happiness, and just letting things go and enjoying myself, would be damn near impossible when Trump got elected.

And yet I was still not prepared…

‘This is really unprecedented’: ICE detains woman seeking domestic abuse protection at Texas courthouse

A hearing in El Paso County in Texas went from ordinary to “unprecedented” last week when half a dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up at a courthouse where an undocumented woman was seeking a protective order against the boyfriend she accused of abusing her.

The woman, a citizen of Mexico who was living in El Paso had been driven to the courthouse by a victim’s advocate from the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence, a shelter for victims of domestic abuse where she had been living.

She left under arrest.

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Our Very Own Siobhan Wrote For An Actual News Site!

So hey! You know Siobhan, right? She blogs right here, at Freethought Blogs.

But now she’s also published on an actual news publication! She wrote an article about a Canadian law that would very much help with trans equality that was published at The Establishment. You really should read that.

Also, while you’re at it, Siobhan and H.J. Hornbeck did a collaboration about a really disgustingly transphobic BBC “documentary”. Here’s what H.J. wrote, and here’s what Siobhan wrote. You really should read those, too.

Some People Don’t Know That the ACA and Obamacare Are the Same Thing

This was posted by the Trumpgrets Tumblr back on January 9th… I saw it then, but never thought to share it here.

It’s good to remember just how ignorant many in these United States are… (note: the caption and alt-text are copied from the specific Trumpgrets post)

facebook exchange where an anonymous user opines: i am not on obamacare. my health insurance is through the aca (affordable care act) which was what they had to come up with before obamacare crashed and burned as bad as it did. so i am going to be fine.

facebook exchange where an anonymous user opines: i am not on obamacare. my health insurance is through the aca (affordable care act) which was what they had to come up with [after] obamacare crashed and burned as bad as it did. so i am going to be fine.

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3 Terrifying Executive Orders and a Twitter Thread from Netta About It

This is getting even worse…

Story from ABC…

And below the fold, I’m just going to let Netta speak, instead of giving my own commentary…

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Jeff Sessions Confirmed as Attorney General

Jeff Sessions confirmed to be the next attorney general

The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama as the next attorney general, surviving a vocal push by Democrats to derail his nomination.

The 52-47 vote was mostly along party lines, though one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin, joined the Republicans to back their Alabama colleague.

Who voted for and against Sessions

The final vote for Sessions — one of Trump’s closest advisers and his earliest supporter in the Senate — came after 30 hours of debate from Democrats and a stunning fight between liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Senate Republicans which ended in her being forced to sit down after she was accused of impugning Sessions.

Elon James White *blink*

I got nothin’…

The US as a Fascist Dictatorship – Part 2: Can Trump Become a Dictator?

This is going to be a long one, so let me apologize in advance. You may want to plan a little time to read it…

There’s a rule about articles or posts that start with a question: the answer is almost always “no”. Whether this post breaks that rule or follows it is ultimately up to you. For me, I think there are enormous roadblocks in Trump’s way, but I absolutely believe that he’s trying, and that he wants to be a dictator. And I also absolutely believe that if we’re not careful, at some point we’re going to see the current administration using the Constitution as toilet paper, and no one will stop them. That’s why I’m writing this…

It’s really a warning… however hard it may be, it is possible, and you better believe that Trump and his administration are already trying to find every possible way to get as close as the can to this outcome as possible.

So… with that said…

I’m going to start this by sourcing mainly from an article written by Eric Posner at Quartz called “The complete guide to how Trump can make himself the first American dictator“, published on March 3, 2016. Obviously, it’s been a long time since then, so I’ll be pulling from much more recent sources, as well…

I’ve said this already, but we are in extremely scary times, and we need to be vigilant. So… without further ado…

If Trump is elected president, will constitutional law and American political institutions protect us from a would-be dictator? Europeans worry about the emergence of Caesarism in the United States, just as the founders did when they invented the presidency. Authoritarianism is making gains around the world; why not here? Of course, Trump may not want to be a dictator. He has repeatedly stated his desire to make “deals,” implying a willingness to cooperate with Congress. But there is no reason to believe anything he says; many of his actions and statements are those of someone with a dictatorial mentality if nothing else, and his popular support derives from his authoritarian image: he appeals to people who yearn for a strongman to protect them. So the question is worth asking. What is the answer?

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The US as a Fascist Dictatorship – Part 1: The Powers Granted to the President

(Note… in this two-part series, I will be referring to Donald Trump by his name, instead of the hilarious nicknames. It’s not out of any semblance of respect, but out of expediency. Outside if these two posts, I won’t be dignifying him with his name. Also… yes, Wikipedia is used here. Bite me. This is not a scholarly paper or a school essay. If you don’t trust Wikipedia, just check the sources they provide at the bottom of the articles, or do some Googling of your own. I’m using Wikipedia sometimes and that’s the end of it.)

We live in some scary times. We have a president many people never thought could actually make it. One of the criticisms President Barack Obama got when he was running in 2008 was that he was inexperienced, and therefore unqualified. This was, of course, untrue. Sure, he was in Congress only a short amount of time before he became our President, but he was definitely far from inexperienced. But Donald Trump? By any comparison, Donald Trump is quite literally inexperienced. He has literally zero experience with politics on any level other than a business level.

And Trump is now doing a wholly hell of a lot things that could suggest he’s not planning to leave the White House any time soon… if ever.

But the question is… is this possible? The answer should be an easy one: of course not! We have the Constitution! Checks and Balances! The Executive Branch isn’t capable of extending such authority!

Well… one would certainly hope. Unfortunately, there are a few small loopholes that can be exploited, and that’s what I want to discuss.

But first, let’s talk about the Constitution, our government, and exactly what powers the Executive Branch, and the President himself, actually have. Keep in mind that this first post goes over basic Constitutional principles, so this is stuff most of you will already know.

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Orange Fascist-In-Chief Plans to Outright Legalize Discrimination

As promised…

From the Nation: Leaked Draft of Trump’s Religious Freedom Order Reveals Sweeping Plans to Legalize Discrimination

A leaked copy of a draft executive order titled “Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom,” obtained by The Investigative Fund and The Nation, reveals sweeping plans by the Trump administration to legalize discrimination.

The four-page draft order, a copy of which is currently circulating among federal staff and advocacy organizations, construes religious organizations so broadly that it covers “any organization, including closely held for-profit corporations,” and protects “religious freedom” in every walk of life: “when providing social services, education, or healthcare; earning a living, seeking a job, or employing others; receiving government grants or contracts; or otherwise participating in the marketplace, the public square, or interfacing with Federal, State or local governments.”

The draft order seeks to create wholesale exemptions for people and organizations who claim religious or moral objections to same-sex marriage, premarital sex, abortion, and trans identity, and it seeks to curtail women’s access to contraception and abortion through the Affordable Care Act. The White House did not respond to requests for comment, but when asked Monday about whether a religious freedom executive order was in the works, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters, “I’m not getting ahead of the executive orders that we may or may not issue. There is a lot of executive orders, a lot of things that the president has talked about and will continue to fulfill, but we have nothing on that front now.”

Language in the draft document specifically protects the tax-exempt status of any organization that “believes, speaks, or acts (or declines to act) in accordance with the belief that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage, male and female and their equivalents refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy, physiology, or genetics at or before birth, and that human life begins at conception and merits protection at all stages of life.”

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