Ryan: Current Health Bill Won't Pass.

According to a report in The Washington Post, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday that his health care proposal has to change if it is going to pass in the House. He had previously said that the legislation would fail if it was changed. The shift in Ryan's opinion came after a private meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday. “Now that we have our score ... we can make some necessary improvements and refinements to the bill,” he said, referring to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of the impact on the number of those covered by health insurance and what the GOP proposal would cost. Ryan did not say specifically what changes were under consideration. 

READ IT AT THE WASHINGTON POST

Federal judge halts Trump travel ban hours before it was to take effect

In a blistering opinion, U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson of Hawaii pointed to the president’s own comments and those of his close advisers as evidence that his order was meant to discriminate against Muslims and declared there was a “strong likelihood of success” those suing would prove the directive violated the Constitution. At a rally in Nashville, Trump called the judge's ruling “terrible.”

• By Matt Zapotosky, Kalani Takase and Maria Sacchetti

DOJ: Russian Spies Indicted in Yahoo Hack.

Four people, including two alleged Russian spies, have been indicted in a massive 2014 hack of Yahoo information that affected 500 million accounts. The Department of Justice announced the indictments on Wednesday, and officials said the stolen information was used in some cases to obtain the contents of Yahoo, Google, and other email accounts belonging to Russian journalists, and U.S. and Russian government officials. Stolen data included names, email address, and passwords. Yahoo has publicly announced at least two separate breaches since 2014. READ IT AT CNN

 The indictments mark the first criminal cyber charges ever brought against Russian government officials and are part of the largest hacking case brought by the United States.

• By Ellen Nakashima

Report: Staffers ‘Scared’ in Trump’s ‘Hostile’ White House.

White House staffers are “scared” of the “hostile environment” in the West Wing, according to a new Politico report that features interviews with about a dozen unnamed aides and federal agency staffers. An anonymous Republican staffer who is close to the White House said he believes junior-level staffers are “mimicking what they’re seeing at the top… Everyone at the top is so suspicious that it trickles down the org chart, so everyone has become paranoid and suspicious.” But others said the widespread paranoia isn’t unfounded, with press secretary Sean Spicer checking staffers’ cellphones. “I wouldn’t call it paranoia under the circumstances,” said a Republican who told Politico he only talks to administration aides through encrypted apps. “It’s not paranoia if people really are out to get you, and everybody actually is out to get everyone else.” Politico reports some employees say they have begun turning off business phones and stuffing them in drawers when they get home at the end of the day—due to fears of being monitored. Others are choosing to remain quiet during meetings out of concern that someone will leak their comments to the press. “People are scared,” said one staffer, calling the White House “a pretty hostile environment to work in.”

READ IT AT POLITICO

THE AGE OF ANGER

Inside the anger that gave us Trump — and that will long outlast him.

WASHINGTON POST


NY TIMES


BOOK FORUM


NEW YORKER


NY REVIEW OF BOOKS

Progressives must be bold about what they are for. How Democrats can win back the working class

WASHINGTON POST

The CBO just delivered a huge blow to Republicans’ Obamacare replacement:

GOP plan would reduce number of insured Americans by 24 million over a decade, CBO says

A new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office also predicts $337 billion in deficit reduction over the same period. The report underscores the dramatic loss in health insurance coverage that would take place if the GOP plan is enacted.

• By Elise Viebeck, Amy Goldstein and Kelsey Snell

The Republican plan by the numbers

The Congressional Budget Office studied the effects of the House GOP’s health-care plan on three groups of insurance recipients: Those who get Medicaid, those who buy insurance on the exchange, and those who get coverage through their employers.

• By Philip Bump
• 1

While some early estimates suggested that 6 million to 15 million could lose their insurance under the GOP's plan — a healthy portion of the 20 million who gained it under Obamacare — the projections are far north of that. In fact, they suggest that more people would eventually lose their insurance than have gained it.

• By Aaron Blake

The report undermines President Trump’s pledge that no Americans would lose coverage under a GOP health-care plan and threatens support from the party’s moderate lawmakers. But Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney called the CBO analysis “just absurd.”

• By Amy Goldstein, Elise Viebeck, Kelsey Snell and Mike DeBonis
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Medicaid’s future a sleeper issue that could be biggest stumbling block for health-care plans The House Republicans’ proposed American Health Care Act would break with the government’s half-century compact with states in helping to finance Medicaid, which covers 68 million low-income people, including children, pregnant women and those who are elderly or disabled. By Amy Goldstein and Juliet Eilperin Many in this county are poor and sick, and they voted for Trump. What will happen to their health care? West Virginia’s McDowell County has high rates of chronic diseases and the shortest life expectancy in the nation. It’s also a place that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump, who promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act that helped many residents get health coverage. Story by Jessica Contrera | Photos by Bonnie Jo Mount  •  Read more »

U.S. attorney in NYC is fired after refusing to resign Preet Bharara, one of the most high-profile federal prosecutors in the country, had refused to step down as part of an ouster of the remaining U.S. attorneys who were holdovers from the Obama administration. The dismissal was an about-face from President Trump’s assurances to Bharara in November, weeks after the election, that he wanted him to stay on the job, according to Bharara. By Devlin Barrett, Sari Horwitz and Robert Costa  •  Read more »  An abrupt end for lawyer who said he wanted to be a U.S. attorney ‘forever’ Since he was appointed by President Obama in 2009, Preet Bharara has gone after corrupt politicians from both parties, as well as Wall Street insiders. By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Amy B Wang  •  Read more »

Big changes may be coming to police interrogations.

WASHINGTON POST

The big lie about sex offenders.

Much of the destructive, extra-punishment punishment we inflict on sex offenders is due to the widely held belief that they’re more likely to re-offend than the perpetrators of other classes of crimes. This has been the main justification for the Supreme Court’s authorization of sex-offender registries and for holding sex offenders indefinitely after they’ve served their sentences. Lower courts have then cited those rulings to justify a host of other measures, from severe restrictions on where sex offenders can live to GPS monitoring of their every move.

The problem, as Adam Liptak writes at the New York Times, is that the claim just isn’t true.

WASHINGTON POST

 Majorities of Americans tolerate controversial speakers, period.  But their is a 40-year decline in the tolerance of college students.


WASHINGTON POST

GOP leaders press ahead on health bill as opposition grows

Major associations representing physicians, hospitals, insurers and seniors all leveled sharp attacks against the House GOP’s plan to rewrite the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, as some Republicans publicly questioned whether the measure, under attack from the left and the right, can clear the House of Representatives.

By Juliet Eilperin and Mike DeBonis  •  Read more » Opponents of the GOP's American Health Care Act include Democrats, conservatives, and organizations that represent U.S. hospitals, physicians and retirees. By Elise Viebeck  •  PowerPost  •  Read more » Committees take first steps on health-care bill without objective estimate of its impact While it is not uncommon for panels to consider legislation without the Congressional Budget Office first weighing in, veterans of the process say that doing so on bills as far-reaching as the health-care overhaul is rare — and ill-advised. By Karen Tumulty and Max Ehrenfreund  •  Read more » Trump goes into dealmaking mode, works behind scenes on health bill Absent, for now, are the skewering tweets and the combative speeches. Instead, the president is quietly courting wary conservatives in private meetings and keeping himself somewhat out of the picture as party leaders and his Cabinet officials defend the plan. By Robert Costa and David Weigel  •  Read more »

Factions allied with U.S. clash in Syria, pulling Pentagon into mission ‘fraught with risk’ The U.S. military is getting drawn into a deepening struggle for control over areas liberated from the Islamic State that risks prolonging American involvement in wars in Syria and Iraq long after the militants are defeated. By Liz Sly  •  Read more »

 DHS is considering separating undocumented children from their parents at the border, according to Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly in a television interview: "We have tremendous experience of dealing with unaccompanied minors," he told host Wolf Blitzer on CNN. “We turn them over to (Health and Human Services) and they do a very, very good job of putting them in foster care or linking them up with parents or family members in the United States."

Fans of America’s most popular cable media channel think the media is the enemy of America. 

Only viewers of Fox News agree that the media is the enemy of the people.

By Philip Bump  •  Read more »

Why Is McConnell Rushing Through a Trumpcare Bill Everybody Hates?

By Jonathan Chait
NEW YORK

WikiLeaks Files Describe C.I.A. Tools to Break Into Phones

By SCOTT SHANE, MATTHEW ROSENBERG and ANDREW W. LEHREN 10:02 PM ET

• Documents that appear to be from the C.I.A. describe software designed to hack smartphones, computers and internet-connected TVs.
• They indicate that the agency, by compromising the phones entirely, was able to access the contents of encrypted messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp.

WikiLeaks posts files it says reveal CIA hacking tools

The anti-secrecy organization posted thousands of files exposing secret cyber tools used by the CIA to convert cellphones, televisions and other ordinary devices into implements of espionage. Experts and former intelligence officials said the files appeared to be authentic.

The breach will likely cause immediate damage to CIA efforts to gather intelligence overseas and place new strain on the U.S. government’s relationship with Silicon Valley giants, including Apple and Google.

• By Greg Miller and Ellen Nakashima    

Trump Budget Proposal Reflects Working-Class Resentment of the Poor

EDUARDO PORTER, NY TIMES

The American Health Care Act: the Republicans’ bill to replace Obamacare, explained

VOX

The evidence is clear: people with Medicaid are better off than those without

Medicaid expansion is the focus of one of the fiercest Obamacare fights. Here's what the science says.

VOX

“Russian Hackers Said to Seek Hush Money From Liberal U.S. Groups,” by Bloomberg’s Michael Riley: “Russian hackers are targeting U.S. progressive groups in a new wave of attacks, scouring the organizations’ emails for embarrassing details and attempting to extract hush money, according to two people familiar with probes being conducted by the FBI and private security firms. At least a dozen groups have faced extortion attempts since the U.S. presidential election, said the people, who provided broad outlines of the campaign. At least some groups have paid the ransoms even though there is little guarantee the documents won’t be made public anyway. Demands have ranged from about $30,000 to $150,000, payable in untraceable bitcoins, according to one of the people familiar with the probe. The ransom demands are accompanied by samples of sensitive data in the hackers’ possession. Along with emails, the hackers are stealing documents from popular web-based applications like SharePoint, which lets people in different locations work on Microsoft Office files.”

JOYCE CAROL OATES' VISION OF ABORTION

NY REVIEW OF BOOKS

What He Could Do

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NY REVIEW OF BOOKS

Despite Evidence That They Harm Children, Trump Touts School Vouchers

TRUTHDIG

Leashes Come Off Wall Street, Gun Sellers, Polluters and More

 Giants in telecommunications, like Verizon and AT&T, will not have to take “reasonable measures” to ensure that their customers’ Social Security numbers, web browsing history and other personal information are not stolen or accidentally released.

Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase will not be punished, at least for now, for not collecting extra money from customers to cover potential losses from certain kinds of high-risk trades that helped unleash the 2008 financial crisis.

And Social Security Administration data will no longer be used to try to block individuals with disabling mental health issues from buying handguns, nor will hunters be banned from using lead-based bullets, which can accidentally poison wildlife, on 150 million acres of federal lands.

These are just a few of the more than 90 regulations that federal agencies and the Republican-controlled Congress have delayed, suspended or reversed in the month and a half since President Trump took office, according to a tally by The New York Times.

The emerging effort — dozens more rules could be eliminated in the coming weeks — is one of the most significant shifts in regulatory policy in recent decades. It is the leading edge of what Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, described late last month as “the deconstruction of the administrative state.”

In many cases, records show that the changes came after appeals by corporate lobbyists and trade association executives, who see a potentially historic opportunity to lower compliance costs and drive up profits. Slashing regulations, they argue, will unleash economic growth.

On a near daily basis, regulated industries are now sending in specific requests to the Trump administration for more rollbacks, including recent appeals from 17 automakers to rescind an agreement to increase mileage standards for their fleets, and another from pharmaceutical industry figures to reverse a new rule that tightens scrutiny over the marketing of prescription drugs for unapproved uses. As of late Friday, word had leaked that the automakers’ request for a rollback was about to be granted, too.

What Trump didn’t want you to see him signing.
The deconstruction of the administrative state will not be televised.

MAKING IT EASIER FOR MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE TO GET GUNS:

REMOVING TRANSGENDER PROTECTIONS:

Sean Spicer Meets the Press. No Cameras Allowed, Again.

NY TIMES

In leaked document, the case for Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’ takes another huge hit.

GREG SARGENT, WASHINGTON POST

Trump signs revised travel ban aimed at withstanding legal scrutiny

President Trump signed a new executive order that will ban travelers from six majority-Muslim nations seeking new visas from entering the United States for 90 days. The original order, which came under heavy legal scrutiny, had included a seventh country — Iraq.

The new order, which takes effect March 16, provides other exceptions not contained explicitly in previous versions: for travelers from those countries who are legal permanent residents of the United States, dual nationals who use a passport from another country and those who have been granted asylum or refu­gee status. the total number of refugees who can enter the U.S. this fiscal year will still go down from 110,000 to 50,000.

• By David Nakamura and Matt Zapotosky     
• I

What We Already Know About Trump’s Ties to Russia Amounts to Treachery to the Republic.

JONATHAN CHAIT, NEW YORK