President Trump announced Wednesday, via Twitter, that transgender troops would be banned from military service in any capacity.

Is it uncivilized for a society with the power to save someone to let them die? Australia, Germany, Canada, France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom are only a few of the world leaders where a person is eligible for basic care regardless of their financial situation.

In the United States, however, we all-too-often see the consequences of citizens that can’t afford to pay for a doctor. Say what you will about the importance of the free market, say what you will about how the United States is different from other countries — denial of care is turning a blind eye.

Senate Republicans have cast two separate votes since Tuesday that have removed the option of "repeal-only" and a replacement plan. Now it appears their only viable option is what is known as the "skinny repeal." This would remove some key provisions from the Affordable Care Act and leave the rest intact.

The skinny repeal would essentially remove the mandate that requires individuals and employers to get health insurance. The plan would also get rid of the medical device tax and eliminate a public health fund provision.

There is an important update in the most recent effort in California to secede from theUnited States.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has cleared the campaign behind the secession initiative to start collecting the 585,000-plus signatures required to make it onto the 2018 ballot. Supporters of the plan have 180 days to collect the signatures.

An earlier signature drive for a similar initiative failed in April.

The FEC wants a federal judge to throw out a second complaint against the Commission on Presidential Debates. The commission filed a motion to dismiss Level the Playing Field's (LPF) supplemental complaint on Tuesday, July 25.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmSBbh5QwEQ

US Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif) blasted President Trump's announcement that transgender individuals will be banned from military service. He filed an amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill Wednesday to block it.

The congressional IT staffer working for the office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and over 20 other Democratic House members, was arrested Monday by the FBI while attempting to flee the country from Dulles International Airport in Virginia.

Fox News reported that Imran Awan was arrested Monday night at the Dulles airport in Virginia 30 miles outside Washington D.C. and charged with bank fraud.

https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/889944148379394048

Arrested Feeling The Country

Imran Awan, a House staffer at the center of a criminal investigation potentially impacting dozens of Democratic lawmakers, has been arrested on bank fraud and is prevented from leaving the country while the charges are pending.

David Dameron, a spokesman for US Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz -- one of the lawmakers who employed Awan -- said late Tuesday Awan had been fired.

The focus of the Russia investigation this week is on Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort. However, another name has been thrown into the ever-expanding Russia narrative: Dr. Jill Stein, former Green Party presidential candidate.

https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/888461093718429699

"A house divided against itself cannot stand.” - Abraham Lincoln

The almost-deadly attack by a gunman at a Republican baseball practice briefly focused national attention on the dangerous level political polarization has reached in the US. It’s been trending upward for decades.