Tiny Little Hands

Thousands of Americans turned out across the country for a march that called on Donald Trump to reveal his federal tax returns, something every president going back to Gerald Ford has done. Since the campaign, Trump claimed the he wasn’t able to reveal his returns because he was under audit, although the IRS itself disputed that claim. Trump then changed his tune, claiming that nobody cares about his tax returns. The march was intended to prove that wasn’t the case. https://goo.gl/fLWE1f

Trump has been filling jobs throughout the executive branch with former lobbyists, lawyers, and consultants who are helping to craft new policies for the same industries in which they recently earned a paycheck. This is creating a littany of potential conflicts of interest that are likely violating many of the administration’s own ethics rules — unfortunately it’s almost impossible to tell because the administration has been secretly issuing waivers to the rules. In one case, an official working on energy regulation recently lobbied for oil and coal companies — but the White House won’t say whether he received an ethics waiver. https://goo.gl/QppShV https://goo.gl/FFqkkQ

North Korea’s vice foreign minister told The Associated Press that the nation is ready for war if Trump wants it — based on his “aggressive” tweets. https://goo.gl/3Yg5rF

North Korea attempted a missile test in a show of defiance against Trump, which exploded on launch. https://goo.gl/YejuuA

Trump enjoyed his 18th trip to the golf course since being elected, and his 7th weekend at Mar-a-Lago. https://goo.gl/MLBs1W Each trip costs taxpayers approximately $3.6 million, according to a Government Accountability Office report. https://goo.gl/mSZNDT

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis confirmed that Trump was aware of North Korea’s missile launch, but he had no statements to make from Mar-a-Lago. https://goo.gl/Uyn7c5

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) at a recent town hall told a woman worried about internet privacy that using the internet is optional. ‘Nobody has got to use the internet’ https://goo.gl/v60iXW

It sounds like part of Trump’s increasing coldness toward Steve Bannon is his ongoing frustration over a Time Magazine cover that featured Bannon’s face and asked whether he was “the Second Most Powerful Man in the World”. https://goo.gl/RCtRu4 His most recent statement was a claim that he didn’t know Bannon before the presidential campaign, despite having appeared on Bannon’s radio show nine times. https://goo.gl/OO5Zz5

Zubaida and her neighbors are Rohingya — a group the U.N. has described as one of the world’s most persecuted people. The Muslim minority Rohingya have lived in mainly Buddhist Myanmar for centuries.

Even so, Myanmar’s government doesn’t consider the Rohingya to be citizens; it says they are immigrants from Bangladesh who are living in Myanmar illegally. About 1 million Rohingya live in Rakhine state, and they are almost entirely disenfranchised and need permission, for instance, to travel outside their own villages or to marry. Many are restricted to living in internment camps, segregated from the local Buddhist population.

In October, a new Rohingya militant group attacked several border guard posts and killed nearly a dozen policemen. The militants led another series of attacks in November that left a Myanmar army officer dead.

The attacks shocked and infuriated Myanmar’s military. And its response has been a brutal form of collective punishment that has not spared villagers, who are accused of aiding and abetting the militants.

What followed, witnesses and survivors say, was a campaign of murder, rape and arson. In the past six months, more than 70,000 Rohingya fled in terror across the border into neighboring Bangladesh — a Muslim-majority nation that has provided those who fled with refuge, but not acceptance.

Rohingya Fleeing Myanmar Describe Military Tactic Of Systematic Rape

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau presents the most detailed picture yet of the dramatic rise in the number of people covered by health insurance since the Affordable Care Act went into effect.

County-level data going back to 2010, when the law was signed, shows a patchwork of people living without health insurance that ticked down slowly for the first three years under the ACA. But, once the online insurance exchanges opened at the end of 2013 and Medicaid expanded, the population living without coverage dropped noticeably.

The recently released Census report is county-level data for 2015. Overall, the nationwide uninsured rate dropped 7.7 percentage points for people under 65 years old between 2010 and 2015, from 18.2 percent in 2010 to 10.5 percent in 2015.

Maps Show A Dramatic Rise In Health Insurance Coverage Under ACA

Women who are beyond done with all of this shit.

After months of speculation it came to light Tuesday that the FBI and Justice Department obtained a FISA warrant for Carter Page while he served as campaign manager to the Trump election campaign as part of a larger investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials to influence the 2016 Presidential election. http://reut.rs/2p5jftL

As a note, in order to obtain a FISA warrant the FBI and Justice Department must be able to show clear probably cause that the individual named in the warrant is acting as an agent of a foreign power. http://wapo.st/2p3b6ZR

The Trump administration accused Russia of trying to cover up it’s involvement in the dispersal and continued existence of chemical weapons in Syria.  https://nyti.ms/2omWKkd

Despite this, Secretary of Defense General Mattis attempted to assure that tensions between the US and Russia would not “spiral out of control,” and while Trump has vocalized and tweeted suggestions that Moscow was complicate in the Syrian sarin gas attack of last week, Mattis suggested that the US had no clear evidence of any collusion between Moscow and the Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad.  http://reut.rs/2nBTmoa

Secretary of State and former oilman Rex Tillerson reportedly asked, during a G7 meeting in Europe, why American tax payers should care about the conflict in Ukraine. More than 10,000 people have died in the conflict, largely kicked off by Russia’s annexation of the peninsula and continued supporting role in rebel activities.  http://reut.rs/2o3e8Jx

Attorney General Jeff Sessions continued his strict restructuring of Americas policy towards undocumented migrants by traveling to the border town of Nogalez, Arizona. Sessions has long pushed for imminently stricter border enforcement and deportation of individuals living within the US without documentation. This comes as many cities and counties looks to protect their undocumented population. Local police organizations have also spoken out on the strict enforcement, saying it is an ineffective and wasteful use of funds.  http://reut.rs/2ooXjf1

North Korea warned it would consider a nuclear strike on mainland US if it perceived any aggressions made towards it. This comes amid US forces gathering at the western edge of the Pacific ocean to take part in training exercises with the South Korean navy alongside the redirecting of aircraft carrier strike group Carl Vinson to the same area as a show of force. Incidentally, Trump has characterized the Navy Strike group as an “armada” and said, in a midday tweet, that should China not want to get involved in the US would “solve the problem without them,” signing the message “U.S.A.”  http://reut.rs/2olgcxx

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer falsely stated that Hitler “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons” in what can only be characterized as a gross misjudgment of facts and taste as he attempted to compare Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Adolf Hitler during a White House press briefing. After Spicer, when fact-checked during briefing, initially shifted the blame to a misunderstanding of his intended statement he later apologized for the statement itself, saying “"It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have done it and I won’t do it again…. It was inappropriate and insensitive.”   http://reut.rs/2p2WIk6 As a note of clarification: during the height of the “final solution” the Birkenau killing center alone at Auschwitz gassed up to 6,000 Jews a day. https://www.ushmm.org

Despite the failure of the Republican lead bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act and Congressional Republicans pivot towards tax reform as a means of furthering their party agenda, Trump spoke on Tuesday that he hoped that ACA-repeal legislature would take precedent over any tax reform legislature. http://reut.rs/2ontxpi  

Trump backed the small European nation Montenegro’s membership into NATO. This move as seen as a show against Russia’s increased influence in Europe. This comes after Trump blasted the organization of nations on twitter and during campaign rallies. http://reut.rs/2o3DAin

Hey guys, did you know our caregiver Robbie writes songs? He does! Specifically, he writes songs making fun of the typical American in various ways. He’s currently working on a satirical album about white male privilege. Here’s our demo of Whitewash My Fears Away, featuring yours truly plonking along on piano. I’m pasting Rob’s note about it here, as well as the lyrics. 

-Victor

Hey team,

I watched the trailer for Ghost in the Shell on accident, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that finally, finally, a white person got a star role in a movie that doesn’t technically have white people. I was so inspired that I wrote this song. And then Victor wrote a little accompaniment. And then we recorded it. It’s still rough around the edges, but you can listen to our beautiful music.

When I was just a young boy I was always so afraid In a world so unfamiliar, Full of people new and strange. I’d run crying to my momma And she would only say - “Son, you don’t need to worry, I’ll whitewash your fears away.”

So we moved out to the suburbs, Where everything was white, From the neighbor’s house and picket fence To the folks who lived inside. Safe from all the savages, Mom said, “Don’t worry babe, I’ll never let them near you - I’ll whitewash your fears away.”

Whitewash away my troubles, Whitewash away my pain, Whitewash away everyone Till we all look the same as me.

As I grew up I realized That I’d never be safe, though. I’d see them on the TV And I’d hear them on the radio. They snuck into our culture Like they snuck into our states, And even my dear, sweet momma Couldn’t whitewash ‘em all away.

I’d breathe into my paper bag And say those ones had been civilized, That the colored folks in suits Were really white people in disguise, But the feeling just kept growing In me as I came of age That no matter what I thought I couldn’t whitewash ‘em all away.

Whitewash away my troubles, Whitewash away my pain, Whitewash away everyone Till we all look the same as me.

Now there’s brown and yellow senators; We even had a black president. And his type say that their lives matter, Which is a statement I resent. They all say the times are changing And it seems that every day It just keeps on getting harder To whitewash my fears away.

But at least there’s still the movies; They’re the greatest place to see The world my momma promised And the world as it should be. There’s black thugs and Arab terrorists, But the man who saves the day Has skin as white as virtue To whitewash my fears away.

Whitewash away my troubles, Whitewash away my pain, Whitewash away everyone Till we all look the same as me.

Mike Flynn has offered to testify in the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, in exchange for immunity from prosecution. https://goo.gl/1ZyUhw His lawyer released a statement claiming “General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit.” https://goo.gl/ELPW4c

Comey wanted to go public about Russian attempts to influence the election in an op-ed last Summer, but was blocked by the Obama administration as they wanted a more united front among various government agencies. They did not realize how bad it was until it was too late. https://goo.gl/oSFU7z

The Trump administration sought to block former acting attorney general Sally Yates from testifying in the Trump/Russia House investigation. https://goo.gl/sYKMOC

Despite Devin Nunes’ own claims, at least three senior White House officials were involved in handling the intelligence files that were shared with him before the press conference in which he claimed campaign officials were swept up in U.S. surveillance of foreign nationals. https://goo.gl/wchgSS Nunes now claims he was simply using the White House to confirm what he already knew, despite saying before that the news was a surprise to the White House. https://goo.gl/3wFV61

Dem. House Intelligence Committee leader Adam Schiff was invited to view documents related to the investigation at the White House (https://goo.gl/S9TtOu), but has asked that the documents be submitted to the panel itself, rather than use the White House as a middleman. https://goo.gl/hfHI4J

Former members of Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign team were targeted by IP addresses located in Russia. https://goo.gl/d7OXan

US officials “verified” a claim from the infamous Trump dossier, adding even more credence to the report. They’ve learned that a Russian diplomat in Washington was in fact a spy. https://goo.gl/WvwFjx

Donald Trump asked a room full of women at a White House “Women’s Empowerment Summit” whether any of them have heard of Susan B. Anthony. https://goo.gl/3Tp3Oy

A day after the summit, Mike Pence cast the tie breaking vote at the Senate to allow states to defund clinics that perform abortions. https://goo.gl/ItnFc5

Mike Pence refuses to eat dinner alone with a woman who is not his wife, nor will he appear without her at an event which serves alcohol. https://goo.gl/BI5VqC

North Carolina lawmakers passed a bill that repeals the state’s controversial “bathroom law” which required that people at a government-run facility must use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to the gender on their birth certificate, if the rooms in question are multiple-occupancy. This open door to trans discrimination paved the way for financial ruin for the state, which led to the (partial) repeal of the bill. https://goo.gl/u03MpW

After being met with intense criticism for receiving security clearance from the White House without holding an official title, and thus without being beholden to financial disclosure rules, Ivanka Trump has decided to take an unpaid “assistant” position under her father. https://goo.gl/I61bDH

A supervisor at the Energy Department’s international climate office told staff not to use the phrases “climate change,” “emissions reduction” or “Paris Agreement” in written memos, briefings or other written communication. https://goo.gl/wYcvpE

Republicans held a fake inquiry on climate change to attack the only credible scientist in the room. https://goo.gl/Ay5oKA

The House voted to restrict the kind of scientific studies and data that the Environmental Protection Agency can use to justify new regulations. https://goo.gl/lI8lj0

EPA head Scott Pruitt rejected the scientific conclusion of the agency’s own chemical safety experts that one of the nation’s most widely used insecticides be permanently banned at farms nationwide because of the harm it potentially causes children and farm workers. https://goo.gl/wHm6Wg

Trump plans to sign a repeal of Obama-era broadband privacy rules that require internet providers to obtain consumer consent before using precise geolocation, financial information, health information, children’s information and web browsing history for advertising and marketing. https://goo.gl/6SG33r

In Trump’s sweeping executive order that halts and arguably reverses America’s progress fighting climate change, he chose to exclusively acknowledge data from 2003. https://goo.gl/JS16fk The rest of the information he provided was predictably misleading. https://goo.gl/gp8o6s Even Shell’s Chairman agrees the order will do little to improve demand for coal at America’s power plants. https://goo.gl/68l94u

A federal judge in Hawaii extended his previous ruling blocking Trump’s “travel ban”. https://goo.gl/XAgZLU The White House plans to appeal. https://goo.gl/IsxJB4

Trump relaxed some of the rules for preventing civilian casualties when the American military carries out counterterrorism strikes in Somalia, laying the groundwork for an escalating campaign against Islamist militants in the Horn of Africa. https://goo.gl/yvXvYo

Paul Ryan says he does not want to work with Democrats on health care, flying in the face of comments from Donald Trump. https://goo.gl/dzYZKK

Trump publicly shamed Freedom Caucus members who voted against his healthcare reform plan on Twitter. https://goo.gl/6oNw7F

As part of Trump’s healthcare dealmaking, he threatened to back Republican Rep. Mark Sanford’s challenger in 2018 if he didn’t vote for the GOP’s repeal bill. https://goo.gl/fDB2ak

The Senate voted to roll back a rule that allows states to create retirement accounts for low-income workers. https://goo.gl/vLVqWw

Trump threatened to change libel laws in order to go after the New York Times. https://goo.gl/JPBD9A

President Trump signed orders to reverse the previous administration’s energy policies, a move that he framed as “an end to the war on coal” and that comes amid a drop in the fuel’s use. Natural gas surpassed coal last year as the most common source for electricity generation in the United States, according to a Post analysis of preliminary data from the Energy Information Administration. Coal was responsible for a majority of electricity generation at the start of the century and was still the source for nearly half in 2008 but has fallen steadily, accounting for 30 percent last year. Natural gas powered 34 percent of the country’s electricity last year, passing coal as well as nuclear.