Trump Releases Health Plan Allowing Providers to Refuse Transgender Treatment

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By Slate. . .Trump’s HHS has been crafting this policy for years in an effort to exclude trans people from the Affordable Care Act’s Section 1557. That provision bars most health care providers and insurance companies from discriminating against patients on the basis of sex (among other things). It incorporates the definition of sex discrimination used in various civil rights laws, most notably Title IX, which applies to educational institutions. The Obama administration enacted a rule interpreting Section 1557 to protect transgender people, explaining that discrimination against a patient who transitions from one sex to another is, by definition, sex discrimination. But on the last day of 2016, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor issued a nationwide injunction blocking the rule, ruling that sex encompasses only “biological differences between males and females.” (Read more from “Trump Releases Health Plan Allowing Providers to Refuse Transgender Treatment” HERE)

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Trump Administration Rolls Back Health Care Protections for LGBTQ Patients

By Politico. The Trump administration today proposed to scrap an Obama-era policy that prohibited health care providers from discriminating against transgender patients, in its latest rollback of federal protections for transgender people. . .

HHS said it is repealing the Obama-era definition of sex protections in order to make its regulations “more consistent” with other agencies. The proposal, released on a Friday before holiday weekend, comes two days after the Department of Housing and Urban Developmentmoved to let federally funded homeless centers deny services to transgender people.

The Obama administration had issued a rule asserting that Obamacare’s nondiscrimination protections, Section 1557 of the law, covered gender identity. But a federal judge blocked those protections in 2016 following a lawsuit from religious groups. The Trump administration said it rewrote the rule in response to the court ruling.

However, the Trump proposal eliminates similar nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ patients that weren’t blocked by the court. The proposal also reaffirms the rights of health care workers to deny care based on a religious or moral objection, strengthening rules issued earlier this month by Trump’s health department. (Read more from “Trump Administration Rolls Back Health Care Protections for LGBTQ Patients” HERE)

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Christians Prepared for a U.S. Civil War, Say Leaders

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Prominent figures on the Christian right in the US ranging from religious magazines to authors to elected politicians have warned that the fight over abortion rights could lead to a new civil war. . .

Republican lawmakers such as Ohio’s Candice Keller have openly speculated that the divide over abortion rights might lead to civil war. Last month, Keller drew explicit comparisons with the antebellum situation over slavery, telling the Guardian: “Whether this ever leads to a tragedy, like it did before with our civil war, I can’t say.”

Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed that the Washington state republican legislator Matt Shea had also speculated about civil war, and the “Balkanization” of America, predicting that Christians would retreat to “zones of freedom” such as the inland Pacific north-west, where Shea is campaigning for a new state to break away from Washington.

Asked on a podcast if the two halves of the country could remain together, Shea said: “I don’t think we can, again, because you have half that want to follow the Lord and righteousness and half that don’t, and I don’t know how that can stand.” . . .

In the past year, Charisma magazine, the leading media voice of Pentecostal and charismatic Christians, has run at least half a dozen articles contemplating the possibility of an imminent civil war in America. One recent article profiles pastor, broadcaster and author Michael L Brown, who blames a “coming civil war” on “militant abortionists”. (Read more from “Christians Prepared for a U.S. Civil War over Abortion” HERE)

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The Swamp Is Getting Desperate: Ex-GOP Congressman No One Ever Heard of Calls for Trump’s Impeachment

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Every attempt the Democrats have made at toppling Trump, from Russian collusion to Stormygate, has not only backfired but exploded into dumpster fires with jail sentences looming in the near future for the perpetrators of the failed coup. It’s fun to bet what The Swamp will try next. The creatures are at the end of their game plan when they trot out an old Republican, Tom Coleman (that no one has heard since 1993 when he got voted out of office in favor of a Democrat) to call for Trump’s impeachment. Yeah, that’ll work.

Partisan politics is what got us to this dangerous place — so dangerous, I believe, that the survival of our democracy is at risk.

Contemplate the possible behavioral problems of a Trump untethered from the law and who is frequently untethered from reality. Would we be surprised if he were to repeatedly brandish his get out of jail card while breaking, at will, democratic norms, presidential precedents and criminal statutes? Trump said early in his campaign that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” Are we now at that point?

It’s always fun when they start hallucinating. This guy actually thinks Trump is going to try and shoot someone! And what does he base this analysis on? The Muller “nothingburger” report. You know, the report that said there was no collusion and no obstruction…that one. “There is a trove of evidence in the Mueller report indicating Trump has committed multiple impeachable offenses, including abuse of power and lying to the American public,” exclaims Coleman in the Kansas City Star. . .

There is a serious mental health crisis in America. Ex-congresscritter Coleman appears to be suffering some kind of public mental break from reality. Someone needs to get this man some help. We are here for you, sir. No one is trying to hurt you. Just put the white coat on and everything will be fine. (Read more from “The Swamp Is Getting Desperate: Ex-GOP Congressman No One Ever Heard of Calls for Trump’s Impeachment” HERE)

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This Poll Gives STRONG Evidence for Reelection of President Trump

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By Daily Wire. According to the results of a CBS poll conducted between May 17-20, the chances of president Trump getting elected look pretty strong, as the poll found 71% of respondents felt the economy was in good shape. 94% of Republicans and 66% of Independents agreed, and even an astonishing 60% of Democrats echoed the sentiment.

Additionally, the poll found that as opposed to the beginning of 2018, when only 32% of respondents gave Trump credit for the strong economy, that figure has risen to 41%. Another 44% gave Trump partial credit for the strong economy.

In the last four months, the percentage of respondents who are optimistic about the stock market rose from 49% to 56%. 64% of respondents felt reasonably confident about their own financial situation. . . .

Also at the beginning of May, even CNN admitted:

And the reality is, voters don’t like to punish incumbents when the economy feels fine. Remove Gerald Ford, who was never elected in his own right and had just pardoned Richard Nixon, and you have only three incumbents who’ve lost reelection in the last 100 years. The other three each had an economic calamity they were dealing with. Herbert Hoover had the Great Depression. Jimmy Carter had a recession. George H.W. Bush had a recession.

(Read more from “This Poll Gives Strongest Evidence for Reelection of President Trump” HERE)

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Americans Feel Good About Economy and Give Trump Credit

By CBS News. Most Americans remain confident about the U.S. economy and in their own financial situation, and more now give President Trump’s policies credit for a strong economy than did so last year.

Seven in 10 Americans say the economy is in good shape, including a quarter who say it is very good. Nearly all Republicans and most Democrats and independents share this view. . .

Forty-one percent of Americans approve of how Mr. Trump is handling his job as president. That is closer to where his rating was last summer than it was in this poll more recently, in January. Approval ratings have remained within a fairly narrow range throughout his presidency so far.

Across particular measures, the economy is the president’s strongest: 50% of Americans approve of how he’s handling the economy. In contrast, more Americans disapprove of his handling of immigration, foreign policy, and trade with other countries. (Read more from “Americans Feel Good About Economy and Give Trump Credit” HERE)

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Trump Admin Announces Rollback of Obamacare Reg That Defined Sex as Gender Identity

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The Trump administration announced plans to roll back an Obamacare non-discrimination regulation that redefined discrimination “on the basis of sex” to include both gender identity and the termination of pregnancy, i.e. abortion.

In a Friday morning press call, Office of Civil Rights Director Roger Severino at the Department of Health and Human Services told reporters that the agency would move forward on reform of a rule enforcing section 1557 of Obamacare. The current regulation in question was issued during the waning months of the Obama administration in 2016, but blocked by federal judges before it could take effect.

“Plaintiffs will be forced to either violate their religious beliefs or maintain their current policies, which seem to be in direct conflict with the rule and risk the severe consequences of enforcement,” federal Judge Reed O’Connor wrote at the time.

To date, Severino explained Friday, the department during the previous and current administrations has been enjoined from enacting the Obama-era rule and now plans to replace it, bringing the department’s official enforcement mechanisms back in line with the original intent of the legislation passed by Congress.

“When Congress prohibited sex discrimination, it did so according to the plain meaning of the term, and we are making our regulations conform,” Severino explained in a statement.

“The American people want vigorous protection of civil rights and faithfulness to the text of the laws passed by their representatives,” the statement continues. “The proposed rule would accomplish both goals.”

The administration also claims that the announced rule change would come with the added benefit of saving the American taxpayer over $3 billion per year in regulatory compliance costs alone. An HHS fact sheet explains that the costs come from a part of the 2016 regulation that requires that “every significant publication in healthcare larger than a postcard sent to a member of the public” has to include a notice of non-discrimination and another notice translated into at least 15 different foreign languages.

The added postage and paper cost for those notices adds up, Severino says, but the notices have proven ineffective at their intended purpose of ensuring that people who speak other languages are more informed about health care policy.

“As a child of Hispanic immigrants, I know how vitally important it is that people receive quality healthcare services regardless of the language they speak, and this proposal grants providers the needed flexibility for achieving that goal,” Severino’s statement says, adding, “The American people are tired of unnecessary regulations getting in the way of access to affordable healthcare.”

Elsewhere in the administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development also announced a rule change that would eliminate an Obama-era regulation transgender mandate requiring HUD homeless shelters to accommodate people based on gender identity rather than sex.

Democratic efforts to redefine sex discrimination to include gender identity and abortion protections didn’t end with the Obama administration; they’ve simply moved their fight from the executive branch to the legislative.

The Democrat-controlled House recently passed the “Equality Act,” which seeks to rewrite the definition of sex discrimination in federal civil rights law; it would also create a “a universal right to abortion, up until birth,” according to one Republican congresswoman. (For more from the author of “Trump Admin Announces Rollback of Obamacare Reg That Defined Sex as Gender Identity” please click HERE)

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Trump Administration Determined to Fund Border Security Operations – Even If That Means Collecting Loose Change

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On Thursday, the Senate approved a $19 billion disaster relief bill — long-awaited legislation that will be used to help states like California and Texas, as well as Puerto Rico, recover from natural disasters — after it was stripped of President Donald Trump’s request to include border security funding.

Trump had been critical of the amount of funding designated to aid Puerto Rico in the run-up to passage of the legislation, indicating he believed the territory was unfairly receiving more than some deserving U.S. states. The president had also hoped to include border security funding in the bill since Democrats have stymied other attempts the administration has made to fund new migrant housing facilities and resources to deal with the waves of people coming across the southern border. . .

Turns out the Trump administration has come up with some enterprising ways to piece funding together in anticipation that legislation of the sort Shelby is proposing — with the administration seeking approval from Congress for $4.5 billion to spend at the border ($1.1 specifically going toward border operations)— may take a while to materialize, if it materializes at all. . .

There have been reports already that the Department of Defense has been doing their part, loaning the tents for temporary shelter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), even as California and other states and organizations have sought to block the usage of Defense and Treasury Department funds for border operations after DOD already transferred $2.5 billion this year.

So the administration is turning to other agencies under DHS, such as the The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) who will be, among other things, collecting loose change from airports to aid in the effort. (Read more from “Trump Administration Determined to Fund Border Security Operations No Matter What” HERE)

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Adam Schiff Makes Quite a Revealing Statement After Trump Orders Declassification of Spying Documents

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By Townhall. Last night, President Trump gave Attorney General Bill Barr the authority to declassify information and documents related to the FBI’s spying during the 2016 presidential election. He’s asked for a number of government agencies to cooperate with Barr’s inquiry, including the State Department, Treasury, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, CIA and the Director of National Intelligence.

“Today, at the request and recommendation of the Attorney General of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 Presidential election,” the White House released in a statement. “The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information. Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions.”

Declassification means more transparency for the American people. Hopefully, it will lead to accountability for those who turned federal law enforcement agencies into political weapons against private American citizens.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has a different take. Ironically, it exposes Democrats.

(Read more from “Adam Schiff Makes Quite a Revealing Statement After Trump Orders Declassification of Spying Documents” HERE)

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BLAST FROM THE PAST: Trump threatens to declassify ‘devastating’ docs about Democrats

(New York Post, 11/28/18): President Trump said Wednesday that if House Democrats launched probes into his administration — which he called “presidential harassment” — they’d pay a heavy price.

“If they go down the presidential harassment track, if they want go and harass the president and the administration, I think that would be the best thing that would happen to me. I’m a counter-puncher and I will hit them so hard they’d never been hit like that,” he said during a 36-minute Oval Office sitdown.

The commander-in-chief said he could declassify FISA warrant applications and other documents from Robert Mueller’s probe — and predicted the disclosure would expose the FBI, the Justice Department and the Clinton campaign as being in cahoots to set him up. (Read more about Trump’s 2018 threat to release spying documents that implicated Democrats HERE)

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Extremist Tlaib Promotes Anti-Semetic Movement to Destroy Israel

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Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) promoted the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement on Thursday which is designed to destroy Israel.

Tlaib retweeted a tweet from a far-left Democrat activist that goes by the name “Rasha” on Twitter. The tweet stated: “We are connected in radical love. And we have a duty and a privilege in this position to protect not the most popular amongst us, but the most vulnerable amongst us. @thrasherxy on #Palestine and #BDS”

The Washington Free Beacon reported that “the BDS movement targets Israeli organizations and companies doing business in Israel in an effort to weaken Israel economically and politically, forcing the Israeli government to change its policies. Israel is not an apartheid state.”

This is just the most recent example of Tlaib expressing her hatred for the State of Israel, which Democrats no longer push back against, as she recently engaged in Holocaust revisionist history to delegitimize Israel which came in the context of her discussing a one-state solution which calls for the elimination of Israel. Tlaib said:

There’s always kind of a calming feeling I tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports. And just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. And I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away and it was forced on them.

(Read more from “Extremist Tlaib Promotes Anti-Semetic Movement to Destroy Israel” HERE)

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Trump Orders Intelligence Community to Cooperate with Investigation into Campaign Spying

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By Breitbart. President Donald Trump directed the intelligence community to cooperate with Attorney General Bill Barr’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 presidential election.

In a memorandum to his seven cabinet directors and the Attorney General, Trump asked that officials cooperate with Barr’s investigation and authorized Barr to declassify any information about the investigation into his campaign that he deemed necessary, provided that he consulted with the agency responsible.

(Read more from “Trump Orders Intelligence Community to Cooperate with Investigation into Campaign Spying” HERE)

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Trump Approves Declassification of Documents Related to 2016 Election Spying

By Townhall. Late Thursday evening, President Trump granted Attorney General Bill Barr the authority to declassify information relevant to the investigation into how spying on the Trump campaign started in 2016.

“Today, at the request and recommendation of the Attorney General of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 Presidential election,” the White House released in a statement Thursday evening. “The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information. Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions.”

The declassification of documents applies to the Department of State, Treasury, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, CIA and the Director of National Intelligence.

(Read more from “Trump Approves Declassification of Documents Related to 2016 Election Spying” HERE)

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Crazy Bernie: Congress Has ‘No Choice’ but Impeachment

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White House contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Thursday that Congress will have “no choice” but to begin impeachment proceedings if President Donald Trump continues to fight subpoenas issued by House Democrats.

“It is obvious that the President is a pathological liar who does not understand the Constitution,” the self-avowed Democratic-socialist wrote on Twitter. “The fact is that if Mr. Trump continues to disregard the right of Congress to subpoena, he will leave House Members with no choice but to begin an impeachment inquiry.”

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The presidential candidate’s remarks show a shift in his thinking on impeachment. Just last month, the lawmaker argued that the congressional Democrats’ intense focus on impeachment means the party is ignoring “the issues that concern ordinary Americans.”

“If for the next year, year and a half going right into the heart of the election, all that the Congress is talking about is impeaching Trump and Trump, Trump, Trump, and Mueller, Mueller, Mueller.” he said during a CNN town hall. “What I worry about is that works to Trump’s advantage.”

Calls for impeachment have ratcheted up in recent days with the White House directed former White House counsel Don McGan to produce documents and testify on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report before the House Judiciary Committee this week. Justifying the move, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders pointed to a memo from the Department’s Justice Office of Legal Counsel, which reads “based on long-standing, bipartisan, and Constitutional precedent, the former Counsel to the President cannot be forced to give such testimony, and Mr. McGahn has been directed to act accordingly.” (Read more from “Crazy Bernie: Congress Has ‘No Choice’ but Impeachment” HERE)

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