Women Fight Back Against GOP Lawmakers Trying to Defund Planned Parenthood A draft of the GOP’s proposed Obamacare replacement leaked to reporters last week. In addition to repealing Obama’s signature health care legislation, the proposed bill would strip Planned Parenthood of hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursements and eliminate tax credits from insurance providers who cover abortion. To stand in solidarity with Planned Parenthood, women showed up in Washington D.C. to rally against the bill – and lobby lawmakers to protect funding. Great energy on Capitol Hill today in solidarity with @ppact! #WearePP#IstandwithPP pic.twitter.com/mQ1ywVicPf — Kate Colwell...

Ex-NSA Analyst Attacks Trump for Exploiting Navy SEAL Widow Former NSA analyst and columnist John Schindler was shocked at Trump “exploiting” Carryn Owens, the wife of slain Chief Petty Officer William (Ryan) Owens, during the joint address to Congress. Snr Chief Owens' widow…for God's sake leave this poor woman alone. Trump gloating, of course…talking the Bible. — John Schindler (@20committee) March 1, 2017 Ryan Owens was killed during a raid in Yemen that left civilians dead while failing to kill any militants or collect any intelligence. Owens’s wife, Carryn, was asked to stand during Trump’s speech and was used...

GOP Congressman Criticizes Female Colleagues’ Outfits Republican Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota apparently has become a fashion expert. He mocked the female Democratic lawmakers who wore white during Trump’s address to Congress, calling them “poorly dressed” and their outfits as “bad-looking white pantsuits.” “But by the way, did you notice how poorly several of them were dressed as well?” he asked during a radio town hall Wednesday morning. “It is a syndrome. There is no question, there is a disease associated with the notion that a bunch of women would wear bad-looking white pantsuits in solidarity with Hillary...

Bernie Sanders To Lead Auto Workers Protest In Mississippi Senator Bernie Sanders will join more than 1,000 autoworkers on Saturday in at a Mississippi Nissan plant who are demanding a union. The protest is being billed as The March on Mississippi and is just the latest protest at a Nissan plant. The Nissan workers are alleging what they consider to be civil rights abuses and mistreatment of black workers at a plant in Mississippi. In a statement Senator Sanders said, “Nissan has union representation at 42 out of its 45 plants around the world.” “The American South should not be treated...

Trump Trying To Stop Protections For Retirement Savers The Trump administration is trying to delay the implementation of an Obama-era rule that protects retirement savers and investors being taken advantage of by their investment advisers. The fiduciary rule has been strongly opposed by the financial industry and Republicans. And now the Trump administration is trying to delay it’s implementation. The fiduciary rule requires retirement advisers to act in the best interest of their clients. For example, the Obama-rule would prevent advisers from selling you a fund that earns them a bigger commission over a fund that would be better...

In Major Win For Voting Rights, SCOTUS Rules Virginia Unconstitutionally Used Race To Gerrymander Districts The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of the plaintiffs who argued that Virginia Republicans had drawn state House of Delegates districts that were unconstitutional. The court overturned a previous lower level district court ruling that found Virginia did not impermissibly use race. The Supreme Court remanded the case back to the district court for reconsideration that will use a different legal standard which makes it much more likely that many of the gerrymandered districts could be invalidated. Virginia Republicans admitted to using a population...

White House Insists Nothing ‘Nefarious’ in Kellyanne Conway’s Ivanka Trump Plug After Kellyanne Conway promoted Ivanka Trump’s cloting line from the White House, it was clear she broke ethics rules, but her punishment was not determined. After “investigating” into the matter, the White House has concluded that Conway was acting “without nefarious motive.” “Upon completion of our inquiry, we concluded that Ms. Conway acted inadvertently and is highly unlikely to do so again,” says a letter released by the White House, signed by Stefan C. Passantino, a White House deputy counsel for compliance and ethics. “It is noted that...

The Ratings Are In And It’s Not Looking Good for Trump’s Speech to Congress Donald Trump is obsessed with checking the TV ratings for his speeches and appearances, but when he looks at the ratings from last night’s speech to Congress, he won’t be happy. Compared to President Barack Obama’s first address in 2009, Trump’s early ratings are down by 17 percent. Variety reported, “Across seven networks — ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC — Trump’s speech notched a 27.8 household rating in those early ratings. Across these same networks, President Obama’s first address of a...

Trump Signs Law To Allow Severely Mentally Ill Buy Guns Lost in all the focus yesterday on Donald Trump’s speech to Congress is an important news story that has major implications for gun violence. On Tuesday, Donald Trump quietly signed into law a bill that rolls back an Obama-era gun regulation that made it harder for people with mental illnesses to purchase a gun. The rule, which was finalized in December, put people who are unable to manage their own affairs due to mental illness according to the Social Security administration into the FBI database for background checks. The...

Bill Maher Blasts Donald Trump’s Speech to Congress HBO’s Bill Maher called in to MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews after Donald Trump’s speech to Congress last night – and he didn’t hold anything back. “It’s teleprompter Trump,” Maher explains. “Every president, to a degree, talks out of two sides of their mouths but this guy is on a level beyond what anybody has seen.” “I think the bad thing is it will fool a lot of people,” Maher continued. “[Trump might seem] like a fairly reasonable guy, too right-wing for me, but a normal person.” And he’s right. According...