Hasta La Gadget!

U.S. forces used their largest non-nuclear bomb for the first time in combat on Thursday, striking Islamic State militants in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province around 7:30 p.m. local time.

The strike was carried out “as part of ongoing efforts to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan in 2017,” according to a U.S. Central Command press release. 

The military objective was to drop the bomb “and get it over and done with and get the ISIS forces killed off,” Barbara Starr, CNN’s Pentagon correspondent, said.

The bomb used is a GBU-43 or Massive Ordnance Air Blast, commonly referred to as the “mother of all bombs.” It contains 11 tons of explosives, according to The Associated Press.

It was chosen in an effort to “minimize the risk to Afghan and U.S. Forces conducting clearing operations in the area while maximizing the destruction of ISIS-K fighters and facilities,” the CENTCOM press release says.

“As ISIS-K’s losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense,” Gen. John W. Nicholson, commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in the release. “This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K.”

The bomb “targeted a system with tunnels and caves making it easier for [ISIS] to target U.S. military advisers and Afghan forces in the area,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday. “We must deny them operational space, which we did.”

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Now that Americans are getting into crunch time with filing their taxes, it’s important to remember what’s usually supposed to happen in early April. Around this same time of year, presidents customarily release their tax returns to the public. It’s been a tradition for decades, but apparently that’s not going to happen in 2017.

Before Donald J. Trump was sworn into office, I authored legislation requiring all sitting presidents to release their tax returns, a practice that has been routine for every president since Watergate. It looks like Mr. Trump will choose to keep his returns secret and ignore this very low ethical bar, even though it’s clear his “blind trust” isn’t blind at all and the separation he promised he’d make from his businesses seems to be nonexistent.

Support for Mr. Trump to release his tax returns has only grown. It’s stretched across both sides of the Capitol and has come from both sides of the aisle. Trump’s tax returns have become a topic of conversation among more families, friends and communities. It’s an issue that’s been raised at each and every one of the 23 town halls I’ve hosted in Oregon this year. And as we approach tax day Americans across the country are turning up the pressure on Trump to release his returns.

Here’s why we’re demanding Trump release his tax returns:

Self-interests or America’s best interests?

Earlier this year I penned an op-ed laying out all the reasons why Americans cared about Trump’s tax returns. As I wrote in January, without these returns, Americans cannot know whether Mr. Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself and potentially empower our nation’s enemies. Americans won’t know whether Mr. Trump’s “phenomenal” tax plan will lower the rates for his own personal financial gain or help out teachers, nurses and cops.

Foreign Connections?

As each day without Mr. Trump’s tax returns passes, more questions are raised about his ties to foreign governments, shady oligarchs and the ongoing federal investigations into Trump’s associates and Russia. If Trump’s tax returns were made public we could learn if he has foreign bank accounts—and where. We could learn who is investing in his enterprises—and where. Americans would have more information about where the president’s foreign entanglements really are. Given these national security implications, I’ve asked Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch to use his authority to allow the committee to review Trump’s tax returns. I’ve also urged Senate Intelligence Committee leaders to “follow the money” between the president and his associates’ financial connections to Russia.

Has Trump paid taxes at all?

Tax returns give the American people a lot of straightforward, honest answers. It’s not just about what rate you pay, it’s about whether you even pay taxes. Candidate Trump himself said that not paying any federal income taxes makes him smart. Additionally, the IRS estimates that America has lost more than $400 billion over the past ten years from corporations dodging their tax payments. Between Trump’s individual tax return and his business returns we could learn whether the president has been paying any taxes at all, either from his own personal income or from his businesses.

All of these reasons are why I — along with hundreds of thousands of Americans — am committed to pursuing the release of Donald Trump’s tax returns. Together we must work to protect the integrity of our government and the security of the American people.

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WASHINGTON ― A senior White House adviser has been granted a waiver from an ethics pledge required by President Donald Trump that prohibited him from lobbying his former agency for five years after leaving office, Bloomberg reports.

Marcus Peacock, who served as a top aide in Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, on Wednesday joined the Business Roundtable ― one of the most prominent lobbying groups in Washington. There, he’ll push for pro-business policies around some of the biggest issues on Trump’s agenda: infrastructure, taxes and regulatory reform.

During the campaign, Trump pledged that he would “drain the swamp” of money-grubbing lobbyists and consultants in Washington. Shortly after taking office, he signed an executive order barring executive branch employees from lobbying the federal agency where they worked. By granting a waiver to one of his employees, however, Trump appears to be flaunting his pledge.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At the OMB, Peacock was a “special government employee,” holding a temporary position where he could only work up to 130 days per year. Some ethics provisions that apply to executive branch employees apply differently to special government employees. The U.S. Office of Government Ethics did not immediately respond to questions on how Peacock’s position is considered under the ethics pledge he signed.

Exceptions to ethics pledges are not all that unusual. In 2009, President Barack Obama granted waivers to several incoming administration officials who had previously worked as lobbyists. He, too, campaigned on cleaning up the culture in Washington. His lobbying ban, however, applied to those seeking jobs in the administration, rather than those leaving it.

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Therapy is a wonderful thing ― if you’ve got the right therapist.

Research suggests that the therapist-patient relationship is important for the efficacy of the treatment. And in a perfect world, you’d walk in for your first appointment and that would be it. No need to look any further.

But let’s say, for example, you picked your therapist while you were in the midst of a crisis and now you feel like you’re too far into your treatment to leave. Or maybe you’ve gone a few times but you’re not really sure that you’re getting what you need from the interaction.

There are many reasons people find themselves in an established relationship with the wrong therapist or seeing someone they’ve outgrown. We asked experts for red flags that indicate you need to break up with your therapist and find a new one. Here’s what they had to say:

1. Your therapist fell asleep on you

Believe it or not, this actually happens.

“I have had more people than I can count come to my office and tell me that they’re coming because their previous therapist fell asleep,” Chloe Carmichael, a clinical psychologist based in New York City, told The Huffington Post. “And they’ve told me that it’s happened more than once.” 

If your therapist ever falls asleep on you in session, take that as a sign that he or she is not fit to be working with patients and you should find someone new. 

2. You feel like your therapist doesn’t support your goals

It is important that you feel supported. Charmichael gives the example of a troubled relationship: If your therapist thinks you should break up with your partner but you are seeking help to repair the relationship, have a conversation with your therapist about this, she advises. 

“I would encourage the person to say, ‘I want to clarify if we should continue working together, because I want to clarify that we have the same goals. I want to stay with my boyfriend and sometimes I feel like you want me to break up with him. Is that true?’” Carmichael said. 

This kind of conversation provides the opportunity to see if you and your therapist see eye-to-eye, learn about potential red flags he or she might be noticing and agree about the direction in which your life is going.

“You do not want to be with somebody who comes across as judgmental,” agreed Liana Georgoulis, a clinical psychologist and director of Coast Psychological Services in Los Angeles.

On the other hand, sometimes you won’t always hear what you want to hear, Georgoulis said. The right therapist won’t always agree with you. And, of course, any therapist has a responsibility to intervene if you’re in an abusive or otherwise dangerous situation. 

3. The therapist claims he or she is an expert in every condition 

Beware of therapists who say they’re able to help with everything or market themselves as a “Jack of all trades.” 

Many therapists know which conditions they can help with, and also where they can’t, Carmichael notes. A good therapist will refer you to someone else if your condition falls out of his or her scope. 

4. You’re not sure why you are in therapy

Therapy can provide tools for coping with everyday stress or a mental health condition. Make sure you are working with your therapist toward mutually agreed-upon and clearly defined goals. 

“Sometimes there might be differences in what that work is or how to get there,” Georgoulis said. But ask the professional you’re seeing to outline the treatment plan so you have a good sense of what it is you’re doing together.

5. Your therapist needs reminders 

You should not feel like you need to brief your therapist on events or facts you’ve already covered in previous weeks. 

“If that happens every session, that might be a sign that you want to get a therapist that’s more organized or more attentive,” Carmichael said. “You shouldn’t have to lead the therapist.”

6. You don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere

Let’s say you went into therapy for anxiety and you’ve learned tools to help you cope better each day. So rather than talk about anxiety, you bring up other issues that you need help working out. But session after session, you just don’t see any progress in these areas. 

“Sometimes you’ve just gone as far up the mountain as you can with somebody, and it’s justifiably time to say goodbye,” Carmichael said. 

Georgoulis agrees. If you’ve been in therapy for a long time but the needle hasn’t moved on certain issues, bring this up to your therapist. If you are still in pain, or not feeling good, it may serve you to find another person to talk to, she said.

8. You go to therapy just to vent

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At least once a day, Adam’s captors attached metal clamps to his fingers and toes. One of the men then cranked a handle on a machine to which the clamps were linked with wires, and sent powerful electric shocks through his body. If he managed not to scream, others would join in, beating him with wooden sticks or metal rods.

As they tortured him, the men shouted verbal abuse at him for being gay, and demanded to know the names of other gay men he knew in Chechnya. “Sometimes they were trying to get information from me; other times they were just amusing themselves,” he said, speaking about the ordeal he underwent just a month ago with some difficulty.

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