On his first full day in office Thursday, newly-confirmed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke rode a horse to work and proceeded to repeal a rule that protected plants and animals from lead poisoning.

The former Montana congressman’s order (pdf) overturned a policy put into place by former Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) director Dan Ashe on January 19, before the Obama administration left office, that banned the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle in FWS wildlife refuges and other federal lands that allow hunting or fishing.

He also signed a separate order asking other agencies under his purview to come up with ways to make federal lands more accessible for recreational use, saying it “worries” him to think about hunting and fishing becoming a sport of the “land-owning elite.”

According to the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), spent lead ammunition causes poisoning in 130 species of birds and animals, and hundreds of reports have been written about the dangers of lead exposure to wildlife. The center said Zinke’s swift action repealing the ban came in response to pressure from the National Rifle Association (NRA), which spent $30 million on ads promoting President Donald Trump’s election.

“Switching to nontoxic ammunition should be a no-brainer to save the lives of thousands birds and other wildlife, prevent hunters and their families from being exposed to toxic lead, and protect our water,” said Jonathan Evans, CBD’s environmental health legal director.

[block:block=30]

Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Tom Perez on Tuesday seemed to distance himself from the call for the DNC to become more progressive, as he and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) spoke with MSNBC‘s Chris Hayes to discuss their national “Come Together and Fight Back” tour.

Hayes noted that Hillary Clinton’s “hopeful” campaign ultimately failed against President Donald Trump’s counter-message, which often blamed immigrants for America’s economic troubles, and asked if Democrats are willing to adopt Sanders’ candid opposition to the ruling class.

“Do you have to name the enemy?” Hayes asked Perez. “Do you have to say ‘these are the people that are screwing you’?”

Perez appeared to waffle on his answer, stating, “I think you’re creating a false choice…what we have to do as Democrats is to articulate very clearly that Donald Trump’s vision for America is a vision for the top one percent of the one percent. It’s a vision that’s divisive.”

His response did not sit well with the grassroots action group AllOfUs, which is pushing Democrats to adopt progressive values. “If you cannot name who stands in the way of a creating a country where all of us have what we need to thrive, then you cannot lead America,” the group tweeted. “The only way to win is by telling the truth about our broken system and placing the blame where it belongs… with Wall Street and corporate CEOs, the politicians who use racism to divide us, and a corrupt political establishment in both parties.”

Perez and Sanders are on a cross-country tour of red and purple states in hopes of reenergizing the Democratic Party and bolstering the grassroots resistance to Trump. But the DNC chair, who was seen as a corporate choice when he was elected over progressive favorite Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), has reportedly been having some trouble connecting with rally-goers, having been booed on the road.

Hayes asked Perez to tell him “one thing” he learned about the residents of these states.

“The people of Kentucky, the people of Maine, the people everywhere I go, are incredibly resilient people,” the DNC chair said. “They want to hear the message of the Democratic Party. They want to hear that optimistic message of inclusion. How are we going to make their lives better?…”

Hayes asked Sanders if he agreed.

“What I see and hear is a lot more pain and a lot more discontent than you see on television or you read in the paper,” the Vermont senator said, describing one woman’s account of experiencing poverty and hunger throughout her childhood and college education. “The Democratic Party has got to hear that pain. And it has gotta say, ‘you know what? We’re going to stand up to those people who have the power—both economically and politically—and we are going to take them on.'”

Responding to the troubling suppression of science under the Trump administration, thousands of scientists, allies, and frontline communities are holding a rally in Boston’s Copley Square on Sunday.

“Science serves the common good,” reads the call to action. “It protects the health of our communities, the safety of our families, the education of our children, the foundation of our economy and jobs, and the future we all want to live in and preserve for coming generations.”

It continues: 

The rally was planned to coincide with the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference, which draws thousands of science professionals, and is a precursor to the March for Science in Washington, D.C. and in cities around the world on April 22.

Since Donald Trump became president, numerous climate change deniers have been confirmed to lead key scientific cabinets. What’s more, the administration has has cracked down on federal agencies’ use of social media and access to reporters, demanded that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) submit research for political vetting before publishing, and deleted or hidden what were once public records from government websites.

A new movement is aiming to mail at least 1 million postcards to President Donald Trump on Wednesday, March 15—historically dubbed “the Ides of March” and known as the day Julius Caesar was assassinated—to show “the man, the media, and the politicians how vast our numbers are…to make it irrefutable that the president’s claim of wide support is a farce.”

Click Here: COLLINGWOOD MAGPIES 2019

“He may draw a big crowd with empty promises, but the crowd of those that oppose his agenda is exponentially larger. And we will show up to protest, to vote, and to be heard. Again and again and again,” the group, which calls itself the Ides of Trump, explained on its website and Facebook page.

The group outlines five steps to participate:

1. Write one postcard. Write a dozen! Create your own cards, buy them, share them, it doesn’t matter as long as you write #TheIdes or #TheIdesOfTrump on them somewhere.
2.  Take a picture of your cards and post them on social media (tagged with #TheIdesOfTrump or #TheIdes, please). This will help us verify our numbers.
3. Spread the word! Everyone on Earth can let Washington know their opinion of the President. They can’t build a wall high enough to stop the mail.
5. Get ready for the NEXT postcard campaign, and the next, and the next—because we’re not going away. We will make ourselves heard by joining together. And together, we will wield the kind of political clout that can’t be ignored.

As Leslie Evans, an artist and printmaker who produced about 900 postcards for the event last week in Watertown, Massachusetts, told the Boston Globe on Monday, “Obviously, numbers matter a lot to [Trump.]” Her postcards feature slogans that paraphrase chants commonly heard at anti-Trump protests, such as “Compassion, not fear, immigrants are welcome here,” and “Hear our voice, you are not the majority choice.”

House Republicans pulled their healthcare bill, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), just before the vote was to take place.

Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California described the bill’s failure as “a victory for the resistance,” while the New York Times writes that it’s “a humiliating defeat for President Trump on the first legislative showdown of his presidency.”

The decision to pull the bill followed a meeting at the White House between House Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.) and Trump, in which Ryan told the president that there weren’t enough votes for the measure to pass. Ryan said at a press conference Friday that he told the president that the bill should be pulled and that Trump agreed.

As for his party’s failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, he said, “Big things are hard to do.”

According to American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) national political director Faiz Shakir, the outcome showed that “[d]emocracy triumphed.”

“The people have spoken and they said ‘no’ to this dangerous agenda. They said ‘no’ to blocking access to Planned Parenthood, ‘no’ to more restrictions on abortion coverage, ‘no’ to slashing Medicaid and forcing people with disabilities into institutions, and ‘no’ to gutting essential health benefits like maternity and mental healthcare,” Shakir said in a press statement.

“It’s clear that millions of Americans have embraced progress and do not want to go back. It’s time for Congress and the Trump administration to move on and focus on ideas that actually improve our lives—not those that target vulnerable communities and roll back essential rights for millions of Americans,” he continued.

Click Here: Rugby league Jerseys

Advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers celebrated the development on Twitter:

Still, Democrats shouldn’t be too quick to pull out the champagne, says the National Nurses United (NNU).

“Instead of enacting a genuine transformation of our flawed healthcare system when Democrats had the White House and bigger majorities in Congress than the Republicans have now, they failed to enact a national system, like an improved Medicare-for-all, that would guarantee healthcare for all Americans, with real patient choice, and effective cost controls,” said NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro

“Why the Ryan bill ultimately failed is its premise that throwing more people to the wolves of the healthcare market would undeniably exacerbate the crisis for the people left behind by the gaps in the ACA. And they had to confront a massive rebellion by people in every corner, in every Congressional district across the nation,” she continued.

“What policy makers should do now is learn the lesson that most of the rest of the world has discovered, implement a system based on care, not profits, not corporate insurance. As the town halls and massive protests have made clear, the people are ready for real reform and a change in national priorities that puts our health first, not last,” DeMoro concluded.

As resistance efforts urge constituents to call their representatives to #killthebill, the death of the Republicans’ American Health Care Act (AHCA) appears early Friday afternoon to be near certain.

Does President Donald Trump assume his administration can just launch a surprise, unilateral military attack against Syria?

“I’m not saying I’m doing anything one way or another, but I’m certainly not going to be telling you.” —President Donald TrumpThe clear impression he left during a Wednesday afternoon press conference at the White House, as he stood alongside Jordan’s King Abdullah II, is that he can—and that he just might—but that he won’t tell “you” about it.

Just hours after the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations appeared to threaten unilateral action against Syria, Trump said he considers the alleged use of chemical weapons on Tuesday “beyond a red line” that “would not be tolerated” but refused to offer any clarity on what actions his administration would take in response.

Though he cited no evidence, Trump put the blame for Tuesday’s chemical attack squarely at the feet of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and said his previous attitude toward the Syrian government—presented essentially as a hands-off approach—has “changed very much” in the last 24 hours.

“I will tell you, that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me,” Trump said. “Big impact.”

In response to Trump’s afternoon remarks, Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, told Common Dreams the president showed a “total lack of any strategic coherence in his foreign policy.”

Trump is repeating a familiar mistake, said Bennis, by publicly blaming “the Syrian regime for the horrific chemical attack in Idlib without any certainty of who is actually responsible – something common to virtually all recent presidents.” Notably, she added, it was Trump who “urged President Obama not to attack Syria after the chemical bombing of 2013, tweeting in all caps “DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA — IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN.”

Now, said Bennis, it’s clear that Trump is considering a military response himself, even as the investigatory process has only just begun. As Bennis notes, the deadly attack in 2013 “was also by carried out by uncertain perpetrators, and again saw the U.S. government blaming the Syrian regime despite the lack of clear proof.” 

Once again, the finger-pointing in the wake of a vicious massacre will have serious regional and global implications.

During a tense meeting of the UN Security Council earlier in the day, members demanded a thorough and credible investigation into what happened on Tuesday. While the U.S. and its western allies pointed the finger at Assad for the attack, Russia’s ambassador insisted that blame should not be assigned until an official probe, including expert and impartial analysis of the area where the massacre took place, could be conducted. Unfortunately, said Russia’s deputy UN envoy Vladimir Safronkov, the U.S. and its European allies have “a well-defined ideological slant” when it comes to chemical weapons and questioned the direction the council was headed.

President Donald Trump on Monday congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the controversial referendum over the weekend that granted him sweeping new powers amid accusations of human rights violations.

Trump called Erdoğan on Monday to discuss the outcome of the vote, which gives the Turkish president the power to rule by decree and authorizes the abolition of the prime minister’s office, and which opponents have slammed as a possible death knell for Turkey’s democratic institutions.

That makes Trump the first, and thus far only, Western leader to congratulate Erdoğan on the power grab.

“If there’s a compelling defense for this, it’s hiding well,” wrote Steve Benen at MSNBC.

The laudatory conversation seemed to reflect Trump’s authoritarian similarities with the Turkish president. In addition to discussing Erdoğan’s win, the two leaders spoke about the recent U.S. strike against a Syrian air base, which Trump thanked Erdoğan for supporting, and the continuing fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). A White House readout of the phone call did not mention whether Trump raised concerns over accusations of voter intimidation, unfair campaigning, and ballot irregularities.

Observers criticized the call. “Even after everything, this is astounding. Formally and publicly congratulating an act of authoritarianization. Astounding,” tweeted New York Times reporter Max Fisher.