Trumpcare Is Not Real, No one is this stupid.

Donald Trump weighed in on the unfolding train wreck and possibly gave away the game:

In an Oval Office meeting featuring several leaders of conservative groups already lining up against the House Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, President Donald Trump revealed his plan in the event the GOP effort fails: Allow Obamcare to fail and let Democrats take the blame, sources at the gathering told CNN.

In light of the preposterous nature of the bill, I submit that letting Obamacare "fail" was always the plan and the AHCA is a ruse designed to make it look like Republicans were actually interested in fixing America's healthcare system. Of course, in this context, "fail" means "do everything possible to sabotage the ACA and then act shocked when it breaks," but let's not quibble over semantics.

Breaking the legs of Obamacare without providing an actual replacement serves several functions. First, it allows Republicans to kill the law without taking responsibility for killing it. Sure, they'll be standing over the fresh corpse with the bloody knife in their hand but the press has been a very reliable accomplice when it comes to ignoring the GOP's culpability for the law's problems.

http://thedailybanter.com/2017/03/trumpcare-is-not-real/

Letter to White House requests information on procedures for proper preservation

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) sent a letter to the White House and 55 federal agencies requesting information on how each entity is complying with the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and the Federal Records Act (FRA).
Recent news reports raise questions as to whether some White House officials and federal employees are using various messaging applications to conduct official business, in possible violation of the PRA and FRA.

https://medium.com/oversightdems/federal-recordkeeping-laws-5ea4283d9669#.9zbjtbdub

Trump turns apolitical Mennonites into protesters

Mennonites are out in the street.

http://pics.mcclatchyinteractive.com/news/politics-government/3ok7m7/picture137032778/ALTERNATES/FREE_960/IMG_IMG_6986_2_1_FAAIPHFU_L291872692

LANCASTER, PA.
Mary Beth Martin and Lindsey Martin Corbo each held one side of the large cardboard poster, the mother and her adult daughter eager to deliver a personal if unconventional message to their congressman, Republican Rep. Lloyd Smucker.

“Hey Smucker,” said the sign, written in red, green, and blue marker. “300 years ago our Mennonite family took sanctuary in PA, just like yours did.

“Lancaster values immigrants.”

The anger might have been directed at Smucker, but Martin and Corbo were really there – like 100 others – because of President Donald Trump.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article137032783.html#storylink=cpy

Attorney's Pants Caught on Fire While Defending His Client's Arson Charge

A Miami defense lawyer’s pants burst into flames Wednesday afternoon as he began his closing arguments in front of a jury — in an arson case.

Stephen Gutierrez, who was arguing that his client’s car spontaneously combusted and was not intentionally set on fire, had been fiddling in his pocket as he was about to address jurors when smoke began billowing out his right pocket, witnesses told the Miami Herald.

He rushed out of the Miami courtroom, leaving spectators stunned. After jurors were ushered out, Gutierrez returned unharmed, with a singed pocket, and insisted it wasn’t a staged defense demonstration gone wrong, observers said.

Instead, Gutierrez blamed a faulty battery in an e-cigarette, witnesses told the Miami Herald.

“It was surreal,” one observer told the Miami Herald.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article137317553.html

Breitbart is bleeding advertisers

Since the 2016 presidential election, more than 1,400 companies — and counting — have yanked their advertising from the right-wing website Breitbart News, where President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was formerly the editor-in-chief.

The ad removals are the result of consumer backlash spearheaded by the Sleeping Giants, an anonymous collective of progressive activists who organize their protests on social media. The group has been urging people to blitz corporations with wake-up calls about the message the corporations are sending when they advertise on Breitbart, which is known for incendiary content that is frequently unsourced, false, and/or deliberately distorted.

The Sleeping Giants claims to be “an organization dedicated to stopping racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and anti-Semitic news sites by stopping their ad dollars.” And its campaign has been working: The movement recently made headlines after the global ad network Omnicom confirmed the existence of an internal memo advising staff to pull ads from Breitbart on its clients’ behalf.

So far, the 1,400-plus advertisers that have withdrawn their ads from the site, typically through third-party ad networks, include such brands as Nordstrom, Zappos, Lululemon, and Etsy, as well as international corporations including Allstate, Mercedes-Benz, Hewlett-Packard, and BP.

http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/3/8/14700772/breitbart-advertiser-backlash-sleeping-giants

Energy Star efficiency program on the chopping block

This program has saved taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. The Trump team wants to cut it.
The Energy Star efficiency program costs less than .001 percent of the Department of Defense budget.

As the federal government braces for the administration’s so-called “skinny budget,” expected late next week, rumors of what, exactly, will be cut keep circulating. Among the programs reported to be on the Trump administration’s chopping block: the popular, cheap, effective Energy Star consumer labeling program from the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-plans-to-spike-a-popular-cheap-effective-program-that-also-reduces-emissions-af1e12d33c75#.q2x4j0x8c

Mexico cancels sugar export permits to U.S.

because there’s no one to negotiate with

Mexico has canceled sugar export permits to the U.S., citing a dispute over the pace of shipments. And the reason is likely because the Trump administration is eager to “deconstruct the administrative state.”

A letter sent by Mexico’s sugar chamber to mills cited unfilled positions at the U.S. Department of Commerce as part of the reason needed to cancel the export of sugar. The Mexican chamber said it has encountered “legalistic” issues involving the sugar trade, and there were no U.S. counterparts in Washington with whom Mexican officials could negotiate.

Mexico is the top foreign supplier of sugar to the United States.

The cancellation comes at a time when President Donald Trump has indicated he will revamp U.S. trade policies. Since Trump took office, he has reversed the U.S. stance on the North American Free Trade agreement, which he sees as a trade deal that disproportionately favors Mexico.

http://www.salon.com/2017/03/08/unsweetened-mexico-cancels-sugar-export-permits-to-u-s-because-theres-no-one-to-negotiate-with/

Fake ICE Agents Are Harassing Immigrants As Raids Continue Nationwide

Several U.S. citizens have seemingly used President Donald Trump’s hardliner stance on immigration to harass minorities across the country, with one man scamming immigrants out of nearly $70,000 since the president was elected last year.

Multiple Americans have faked being Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents since Trump's electoral upset victory. The most recent incident involved a Washington Post employee who managed to convince his girlfriend, a Virginia detective, he worked for the federal agency.

A warrant was issued in February for Itai Ozderman, a 35-year-old Maryland resident who reportedly confronted customers smoking outside of a local café, warning them to put out their cigarettes or face harsh consequences, before sneaking his way into the Falls Church Police Criminal Investigations Office. Authorities raided his home Feb. 22, discovering multiple firearms, a police badge, police radio and body armor, including tactical vests.

Local authorities told WUSA9 they were shocked by Ozderman’s ability to get into the investigative office, where he casually sat in front of a computer with a keyboard in his lap, according to Tuesday’s warrant.

http://www.ibtimes.com/immigration-under-trump-fake-ice-agents-are-harassing-immigrants-raids-continue-2504568

a little science fiction: 42 Hours of Ambient Sounds

from Blade Runner, Alien, Star Trek and Doctor Who Will Help You Relax & Sleep

http://www.openculture.com/2017/03/get-to-sleep-with-42-hours-of-ambient-sounds-from-blade-runner-alien-star-trek-and-doctor-who.html

NRA Russian ties