2017-01-23

Status of cabinet picks and other appointments: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/politics/donald-trump-administration.html. Hearings are happening this week. Confirmed so far are James Mattis (Defense) and John Kelly (Homeland Security). There are still lots of vacancies in the administration (source)

Friday 1/20 Day 1 activities (source)

Executive order allowing agencies to ignore some aspects of ACA, effectively eliminates the individual mandate which is the main incentive for insurance companies to participate in the exchanges. More detail.
Executive order freezing creation of new Federal regulations
Executive order overturning mortgage fee relief.
New White House website hawks Melania's businesses.
Fact checking DJT's inaugural speech - still fact-free.
National Park Service twitter feed closed for a day because they showed how small Trump's um, inauguration was (source) (don't expect any official estimates for Saturday's march)

Saturday 1/21

DJT gives unhinged talk at CIA attacking the press and full of blatant lies about the crowds and weather on Friday - I mean I know people have short attention spans, but dude, it was yesterday, we can remember yesterday (source).
WH press secretary ~~Baghdad Bob~~ Sean Spicer does the same (source).
Justice Dept. clears Jared Kushner's appointment (source).
Not a news item per se, but I noticed with today's news a change in tone from main stream media sources in that they are willing to call outright lies lies. Meanwhile Kellyanne Conway calls them "alternative facts", I'm not making this up. (source)

Sunday 1/22

Monday 1/22

Executive orders: (source)
- Withdraw U.S. from Trans-Pacific Partnership.
- Federal hiring freeze
- Forbid funding to international NGO's that perform abortions (Mexico City policy)

Maps of the week: