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March 2017

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 23, 2017 4 Comments
A shooter assassinated former Russian lawmaker Denis Voronenkov, who was also a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, outside of a hotel in Kiev, Ukraine. Voronenkov, former member of the Communist Party, fled to Ukraine last fall with his wife when he found out he would face fraud charges "over the alleged misappropriation of a Moscow building in 2011." The Ukrainian government granted him citizenship and he provided evidence against former Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovych, who ran to Russia after parliament ousted him on February 22, 2014.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 23, 2017 27 Comments

Update: No vote today

After hours of late-night, pizza-filled negotiations, Politico reports Trump and a small, but disruptive contingent, the House Freedom Caucus (HFC), have been unable to come to an agreement on the American Health Care Act (AHCA), what House Republicans promise is the first in a three-step approach to repealing and replacing Obamacare. But in today's White House press briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said some members of the HFC pledged to vote for the AHCA. I'm guessing Politico's report is based on the fact that Trump was unable to move the entire HFC block. The last minute negotiations left some Republicans feeling they were making the same missteps as Democrats when Obamacare was slopped together in a fury of revisions over Christmas.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 23, 2017 14 Comments
Yesterday, a man in an SUV mowed people down on Westminster Bridge before he drove into the perimeter fence at Parliament. The man exited the car and stabbed a police officer before other officers shot him down. Overall, four people died, including the assailant and American Kurt Cochran. Today, the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility while British officials arrested seven or eight in six raids across London and Birmingham. The authorities have identified the attacker as Khalid Masood, 52-years-old.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 23, 2017 9 Comments
Israeli authorities, cooperating with the FBI, have arrested a Jewish Israeli-American teenager for the majority of bomb threats phoned into Jewish Community Centers in the U.S. and around the world. Those bomb threats led to widespread condemnation of Donald Trump from liberal groups for allegedly fomenting a wave of anti-Semitism. The JCC threats became a hammer used to beat Trump over the head for political purposes unrelated to fighting real anti-Semitism, which most frequently nowadays comes from the Leftist-Islamist coalition opposed to Israel's existence. When Trump allegedly suggested that the threats might come from people trying to make him look bad, he was accused of suggesting the JCC threats were "false flag" operations. While the exact words he allegedly used never have been clear, the suggestion was met with howls of condemnation from liberal Jewish groups.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on March 23, 2017 25 Comments
Did the Trump White House use the House intel committee chairman to divert attention from the committee's investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russians? That's what Joe Scarborough suggested on today's Morning Joe.  Scarborough said that his reporting suggests that the White House "shoved" committee chairman Devin Nunes in front of the cameras to reveal that communications of President Trump and associates may have been intercepted after the election by intelligence agencies conducting surveillance of foreign targets. Scarborough: "it just looked like, and sounded like from some reporting I did yesterday, that you had the White House desperate to do anything to change headlines this morning, because, again, from the reporting I did yesterday, talking to people in the White House, they were so desperate to change the narrative that it looks like they shoved him out with this information—just any information, anything—to change the headlines. And to blow up the investigation in the House. And it looks like that's exactly what they did."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 23, 2017 11 Comments
The American Health Care Act (AHCA) dubbed Ryancare, Trumpcare, GOPcare, and even RINOcare (take your pick), is the first step of three in repealing and replacing Obamacare, so we're told. This first bit of legislation can only address tenets of Obamcare that pertain to the budget (see also: reconciliation). Congressional Republicans have promised more substantive regulatory changes and reforms in bills to follow. The House is slated to vote on the AHCA Thursday, but do Republicans have the votes?

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 23, 2017 23 Comments
Wednesday, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), held a press conference where he claimed he possessed proof that "U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition" were "incidentally" surveilled by the Obama administration. Nunes clarified that the evidence he'd reviewed was not related to, "Russia, the investigation of Russian activities, or the Trump team." Rep. Nunes' announcement came as a shock to ranking committee Democrats, who learned the news via the press conference. The White House was also unaware of Nunes' findings until the press conference. An Intelligence Community (IC) insider approached Rep. Nunes with the bombshell evidence after FBI Director Comey's testimony before Congress Monday. Or at least that's what Nunes claims.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 22, 2017 29 Comments
According to Politico, Senate Democrats are hoping to strike a deal with Senate Republicans to ensure Trump's Supreme Court Justice nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, is confirmed. In exchange for confirmation, Politico reports, Democrats "are most likely" to request a deal that would exchange Gorsuch's confirmation for the preservation of the filibuster for any subsequent Supreme Court bench openings. Gorsuch is likely to be confirmed with or without a deal, so there's seemingly zero reason for Senate Republicans to even entertain such a deal if it was being discussed.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 22, 2017 1 Comment
President Trump's second pick for labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, faced the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee today for his confirmation hearing. The hearing lasted three hours. During that time, he defended his recorded as a United States attorney and promised to push back against Trump if he disagrees with the president:
“If confirmed, I will work to enforce the laws under the department’s jurisdiction fully and fairly,” Mr. Acosta said in his opening pitch to senators. “As a former prosecutor, I will always be on the side of the law and not any particular constituency.”

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 22, 2017 11 Comments
With the diplomatic row between Europe and Turkey escalating further, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan issued an unveiled threat to Europeans. "If Europe continues this way, no European in any part of the world can walk safely on the streets," Erdogan said during a speech in Ankara, Turkey. Earlier, several cities in Germany and the Netherlands canceled public appearances by Erdogan's ministers citing security concerns. It is unclear if Erdogan's statement was meant as a direct call to violence, but Erdogan supporters have a track record of resorting to intimidation and violence abroad to push their Islamist leaders' political agenda. Earlier this month, thousands of Turkish immigrants rioted in the streets of Rotterdam after city's mayor refused the landing rights to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Following those riots in the Netherlands, Erdogan supporters vandalised the Dutch consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 22, 2017 16 Comments
Four people have died, including a policeman and the attacker, in London outside of Parliament in the terrorist attacks that left 20 people injured. From Fox News:
Police said a vehicle mowed down pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge, leaving more than a dozen with injuries described as catastrophic. Around the same time Wednesday, a knife-wielding attacker stabbed a police officer and was shot on the grounds outside Britain's Parliament, sending the compound into lockdown

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 22, 2017 51 Comments
This story continues to develop, so we'll be updating the post accordingly. Amid President Trump's claims the Obama administration "wiretapped" him prior to taking office, comes this little tidbit from the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). In a press conference Wednesday, Nunes confirmed, "on numerous occasions, the intelligence community incidentally collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition."
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