The U.S. appeals court on Monday upheld a Trump administration rule that prohibits tax-payer funded family-planning clinics from referring patients to abortion providers. The ruling will impact all clinics in the Title X program for low-income women, and puts added strain on several facilities.
From the Associated Press (emphasis mine):
The 7-4 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned decisions issued by judges in Washington, Oregon and California. The court had already allowed the administration’s changes to start taking effect while the government appealed those rulings.
[…]
Beginning March 4, the rules will also prohibit clinics that receive federal money from sharing office space with abortion providers, which critics said would force many Title X providers to find new locations, undergo expensive remodels or shut down — further reducing access to the program.
This gag rule cannot be characterized as anything other than an attack on low-income women and the resources they depend on. Planned Parenthood published a tweet vowing to fight this ruling, but their allies in the courts are running out.
For whatever reason, the Washington Post decided to publish a glorified PR email about the right’s answer to 16-year-old climate activist, Greta Thunberg. Her name is Naomi Seibt, a 19-year-old German woman who was essentially created in the lab of a right-wing think tank.
From the Washington Post:
[Seibt], like Greta, is blond, eloquent and European. But Naomi denounces “climate alarmism,” calls climate consciousness “a despicably anti-human ideology,” and has even deployed Greta’s now famous “How dare you?” line to take on the mainstream German media.
“She’s a fantastic voice for free markets and for climate realism,” said James Taylor, director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute, an influential libertarian think tank in suburban Chicago that has the ear of the Trump administration.
Heartland hired Seibt to be the (blond! white! beautiful!) face of their campaign to encourage skepticism about scientific claims that human activity has caused dangerous warming levels. They even published a video titled “Naomi Seibt vs. Greta Thunberg: whom should we trust?” to further stoke the invented rivalry between the two.
Seibt will make her “American debut” at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this week, where her career of right-wing blonde-dom will surely take off.
- Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are polling in first and second place nationally according to a post-Nevada caucuses poll. [Vox]
- However, President Trump is enjoying some good polling numbers of his own at the moment. [CNN]
- And he, in his infinite wisdom, thought that having a MAGA rally in India would impress Indian voters in the states, even though they generally lean Democratic. [Politico]
- At least Ivanka got to do some standing there:
- House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn has endorsed Joe Biden, which was pretty predictable. [Politico]
- Michael Bloomberg is getting ready to spend a shit-ton of money in anti-Sanders attack ads. [CNBC]
- Bloomberg’s money is really taking over: