Wednesday, March 1st, 2017
Judd Legum, Editor-in-chief - Think Progress
Stephan: Do you think we will ever see the tax returns? Not if the Republicans have their way, as this story makes clear. So we will never know the true measure of the President's true conflict of interest and corruption
House Republican leadership and Vice President Pence
House Republicans voted en masse to block a resolution that would have forced Trump to turn his tax returns over to Congress on Monday night.
The measure was introduced by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Under a 1924 law, the Ways and Means Committee is empowered to examine tax returns. The committee could then decide to release them to the full Congress, effectively making them public.
Trump has broken with decades of precedent and refused to release his tax returns, citing an ongoing audit.
Pascrell first brought his request to the Chairman of the Way and Mean Committee, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX). Brady rejected the request, citing concern for Trump’s “civil liberties.”
Pascrell was able to bring the issue […]
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Wednesday, March 1st, 2017
Stephan: Get ready for dirtier water, and more toxic water. I will be following the health costs of this mistake.
At first glance, it’s hard to understand why the Clean Water Rule — popularly known as the “Waters of the United States rule” — inspires so much fury. It’s a technical regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency clarifying which streams and wetlands fall under federal clean water protections — a question that had been causing legal confusion for years.
But when the rule was published in June 2015, it triggered fierce blowback from farming and industry groups across the country. “Opponents condemn it as a massive power grab by Washington,” Politico reported at the time, “saying it will give bureaucrats carte blanche to swoop in and penalize landowners every time a cow walks through a ditch.” Many of those criticisms were overblown, but the rule was widely viewed as a prime example of EPA overreach under President Obama.
Donald Trump made the Waters of the United States rule a high-profile issue in his campaign — and now he’s planning to roll it back. On Tuesday, he’s signing an executive order that asks new EPA Administrator […]
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Wednesday, March 1st, 2017
Stephan: When I was a teenager I was a member of the NRA, then a nonpolitical organization that worked to promote gun safety. Today's NRA is something very different and I find it despicable.
Members of a family check out gun sales
Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
If there’s anyone who can be counted on to “out-Trump” Donald Trump, it’s Wayne LaPierre, the CEO and executive vice president of the National Rifle Association. LaPierre’s speech on Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference was a masterpiece of conspiracy theory-style paranoia, race baiting and horrific fantasies, painting the American landscape as a war zone of crime and terror that can be survived only by those who armor up like they’re going to war.
And, of course, all this pointed to one inescapable conclusion for the conservative CPAC audience, the conclusion to which all NRA gun marketing, er, Second Amendment defenses must point: Buy more guns.
Hearing LaPierre’s speech, you’d think that the CPAC attendees were going to have to shoot their way out of the convention like the survivors in a zombie apocalypse movie. He painted a dark picture of the country, where the “leftist media” and the “violent left” are in bed with criminals, drug dealers and terrorists to intimidate patriotic […]
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