Comment on President Trump ousts Rex Tillerson, will replace him as secretary of state with CIA chief Mike Pompeo

Policy analysts and Democratic lawmakers raised alarm over the weekend at a leaked document indicating that House Republicans intend to pursue massive cuts to Medicaid, a program that provides sometimes lifesaving coverage to roughly 80 million people across the United States. Near the top of a list of "spending reform options" that House Republicans are considering to help finance additional tax cuts for the rich and large corporations are proposals that would strip Medicaid coverage from millions of Americans, including children, seniors, and people with disabilities. One of the changes listed in the leaked document, obtained by Politico last week, would convert Medicaid's funding structure to a "per-capita cap," under which the federal government would only provide states with a fixed amount of funding for each beneficiary rather than paying a percentage of states' overall Medicaid costs. The document, which reportedly comes from the House Budget Committee, suggests the reform would result in up to $918 billion in cuts over a 10-year period.read more

Guys, Madge has a thought (no, really!) — I think Sporkfoot has secured Louis Gohmert’s old role as the Stupidest Person In The House. Republished with permission from Mock Paper Scissors. read more

More needle exchange programs could soon be allowed in Denver after the City Council on Monday approved a new ordinance paving the way for them. Only three needle exchanges have been permitted to operate in the city under a 1997 law, but if the mayor gives his stamp of approval to the new policy, an unlimited number would be allowed in areas zoned for medical offices.

"The startup’s tagline, “Not owned by anybody,” is a pointed reference to billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and other moguls who, in Rubin’s view, have “bent the knee” to President-elect Donald Trump." Quite. I imagine it's difficult for anyone to work in the mainstream media these days knowing more often than not you're part of the problem, whether you do good work or not. Source: Brian Stelter, CNN New York CNN — Veteran opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin is becoming the latest in a long list of Washington Post figures to leave the troubled institution. Rubin is partnering with former White House ethics czar Norm Eisen and launching something new: a startup publication called The Contrarian. The startup’s tagline, “Not owned by anybody,” is a pointed reference to billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and other moguls who, in Rubin’s view, have “bent the knee” to President-elect Donald Trump. “Our goal is to combat, with every fiber of our being, the authoritarian threat that we face,” Rubin told CNN in an interview ahead of the publication’s introduction. Rubin also called out the Washington Post for recent failings, giving specific examples.read more

In emergency updates, American Sign Language interpreters are crucial to the safety of Deaf people—close to a million of whom live in the Los Angeles area alone. They’ve also become the latest target of right-wing online influencers like Turning Point USA head Charlie Kirk, who offered a very obnoxious take on his eponymous Charlie Kirk Show last Wednesday, calling live ASL interpretation a “distraction” in the context of the fires; other right-wing media figures have piled on, adding ASL to the increasingly preposterous list of “woke” practices somehow related to the fires. But the Americans with Disabilities Act protects the right to equal information, as National Association of the Deaf board president Lisa M.

A little over a year ago, Donald Trump claimed he would be a “dictator”—but only for the first 24 hours of his presidency. Now, as his Jan. 20 inauguration approaches, the President-elect’s plans for his first day in office are becoming clearer. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Trump told Republican Senators that he is preparing around 100 executive orders for the first day of his presidency, designed to strike swiftly at the heart of the Biden Administration’s legislative agenda.