Who'll Leak The Leakers! Wonkagenda For Mon., Feb 27, 2016

Morning Wonkers! Here's some of the stories we may be working on today!

•  Trump's budget is expected to ask for massive increases in DOD spending, and they're going to pay for it by straight up murdering the EPA, State Department and the social safety net that keeps the ill and indigent from dying.

•  GOP leaders are gambling Republicans will support Trump/Ryancare proposals, but Republicans are secretly quarreling inside the bowels of Washington over which shit sandwich they want to forcefeed to sick and poor people. [ Archive ]

• In an effort to stop leaks, Sean Spicer has ordered White House staffers to dump their phones for random inspections, and told everyone to not saying anything to reporters, which the staffers immediately did.

•  Spicer has also been arranging phone calls between reporters and intelligence officials to dispute reports about Trump's ties with Russia, then listening in on the conversations to make sure people got their talking points right.

•  Trump would really appreciate if you'd all stop saying he's in fake news conspiracy cahoots with Russia, but now even Darrell Issa is considering support for a special prosecutor in an investigation over election hacking.

•  Trump's pick for Navy Secretary, Philip Bilden, has dropped out of consideration because he's worried people might find all the money he's spread around Washington.

• Vulture capitalist Wilbur Ross is expected to pass his confirmation vote tonight after securing the support of the steel industry he once owned larges chunks of.

•  Trump's schizophrenic approach to DACA is pissing off his base, and scaring the hell out of kids who just want to go to school.

•  Little Marco Rubio wasn't skipping his town halls, he was avoiding the paid protesters who "take up all the front seats," "ask questions," "boo," and "heckle and scream" at him. A move Chris Christie called spineless, telling them to do their jobs as elected officials.

•  Trump will skip the White House Correspondents Dinner because there's "no reason to go," according to a lower-level press secretary Spicer sent out so he wouldn't get his hands dirty.

•  Another Jewish cemetery was vandalized, this time in Philly. But don't blame Trump, he's already mumbled a series of sentence fragments about anti-semites.

•  The father of William "Ryan" Ownens, the Navy SEAL who was killed in Yemen (along with 30 women and children over some fucking laptops) refused to meet with Trump, and is calling for an investigation. Of course, now Trump's White House is considering Benghazi-ing itself. 

• The Netherlands' reclusive version of Trump, Geert Wilders, may not win their election but he's shoved their political system so far to the right that the Dutch might be screwed no matter what happens.

•  Japan will host negotiations with 16 Asian countries to establish the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership now that the TPP is dead, and China couldn't be happier.

•  A Ukrainian news show is stopping Russian propaganda and fake news campaigns by doubling down on its journalistic integrity, and investigating things like non-existent laws and town square riots devoid of actual rioters.

• The coal industry is starting to warm up (just like the Earth!) to carbon capture and sequestration, but the coal companies want taxpayers to pay them for not dumping pollutants into the atmosphere and using bullshit phrases like "clean coal."

•  A military judge has ruled that Trump's criticism of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is "disturbing and disappointing," and that, at the time, he was just a loud, obnoxious asshole, not an elected official

•  A social media campaign to shame big retailers into dumping Breitbart appears to be working, according to a leaked memo from an advertising company worried about being linked to a mouthpiece for racist assholes peddling propaganda and yellow journalism.

• And here's John Oliver breaking down the ACA, where we were, where we are, and where we're going under the Republicans' half-baked ideas.

• And here's your morning nice time! Adorable trash pandas eating crabs!