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You've been Trumped!

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 01 Aug , 2018 12:39 pm
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Regardless of the merits of this man's case, this is disturbing:
http://thehill.com/latino/399812-retire ... f-sessions
Quote:
A group of retired judges signed on to an open letter on Monday accusing the Justice Department of inappropriately intervening in a court case to get a man deported.

The 15 former judges are claiming the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) improperly removed an immigration judge from a Philadelphia deportation case in order to replace him with a judge who immediately ordered the defendant be deported. They are claiming this intervention amounts to judicial interference.

Steven Miller is continuing his push to stop legal immigration
http://thehill.com/homenews/399822-trum ... -us-report
Quote:
The Trump administration is reportedly considering reducing the number of refugees that can be allowed to resettle in the U.S., a move that would continue a trend that began in 2017 under President Trump.

The New York Times ... which cites two former government officials and another person familiar with the talks, notes that White House advisor Stephen Miller has had success in installing people in key positions who appear ready to sign off on deep cuts for refugee resettlement.

One plan the White House reportedly is considering would allow no more than 25,000 refugees to be resettled in the U.S., representing a cut of more than 40 percent from this year’s limit.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -cnn-sucks
Quote:
President Trump on Tuesday night shared his son Eric Trump's tweet backing supporters chanting "CNN sucks."

...The president retweeted Eric shortly afterward. His retweet came after a campaign-style rally on Tuesday night in Florida, in which he made fun of the press several times, falsely claiming they "suppress" polls that indicate positive approval ratings for his presidency.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -groceries
Quote:
President Trump on Tuesday made the claim that a photo ID is required to buy groceries as part of his argument for introducing stricter voter ID laws. “You know if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card,” he said. “You need ID.”
It looks like Trump and his supporters enter an alternate reality at these rallies.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 02 Aug , 2018 4:02 pm
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Speaking of alternate realities:

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/399985 ... rump-rally
Quote:
At President Trump's rally in Tampa on Tuesday night, a conspiracy theorist who has slowly gained popularity under Trump's presidency leaped into prime time — anonymous conspiracy theorist "Q." Some attendees wore shirts with Q logos, while others held up posters promoting the theory: TV cameras even caught one person holding a sign reading “We are Q” as Trump stood in the background.

A wide-ranging and vague theory, “QAnon” touches on a number of popular conspiracy theories: Democrats and prominent Hollywood figures are orchestrating underground pedophile rings; special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe is a front for investigating Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for their ties to said rings; and hundreds of sealed indictments may have already been handed down in the Clinton case.
“Q" claims to be a high-ranking security official in the Trump administration and started posting on 4chan, which I think is the site for the weird Incel men.



http://thehill.com/policy/finance/39996 ... se-imports
Quote:
The Trump administration said Wednesday that it is considering sharply increasing the level of tariffs that could hit Chinese imports coming into the United States a move that could further fuel a trade war. President Trump has asked his top trade official U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to more than double planned tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports to 25 percent from the initially proposed 10 percent.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ataclysmic
Quote:
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Thursday defended the Trump administration's latest threat to ramp up tariffs on China, saying it would not lead to disaster for the U.S. economy.

...Ross sought to soothe those concerns, saying a 25 percent tariff would only amount to $50 billion, or only a fraction of 1 percent of the Chinese economy.

The Commerce secretary said Trump believes additional tariffs are needed because China has refused to "modify their behavior" in response to an initial round of tariffs and other U.S. economic sanctions.
And who besides Trump expected them to? What I've seen from reputable economists is that China will retaliate with tariffs of its own and trade wars never end well.


http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... -standards
Quote:
The Trump administration rolled out a plan Thursday to weaken the Obama administration’s aggressive fuel economy and global warming standards for cars and strip California of its ability to determine its own vehicle regulations for greenhouse gas emissions.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... hite-house
Quote:
President Trump has received a new letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following up on their nuclear summit in Singapore, the White House said Thursday.

Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter - l look forward to seeing you soon!

...Multiple media reports have said North Korea has continued to work on its nuclear and ballistic missile program in the weeks following the June summit, even as Trump has publicly touted examples of how his diplomacy is working.
And no, this is not the first time North Korea has sent back bones. Sometimes they didn't even turn out to be what they were supposed to be.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 03 Aug , 2018 1:37 pm
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http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -separated
Quote:
The Trump administration on Thursday reportedly told a federal judge they shouldn’t be responsible for finding migrant parents who were deported after being separated from their children under President Trump’s controversial “zero-tolerance” policy.

The Justice Department said that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonprofit organization that is representing plaintiffs in a class-action against the administration over the separations, should use their "considerable resources" to help find the parents, according to a court document filed Thursday.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... third-week
Quote:
Daily protests outside the White House that began during President Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki have reached their third week of nightly demonstrations. The protests began on July 16 after Trump made controversial comments he later clarified that appeared to support Russia's explanation for election meddling over the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies.

...Another former Clinton campaign adviser, Philippe Reines, told The Washington Post that the “common denominator” shared by protesters gathering in front of the White House was a desire to see accountability from leadership in the Trump administration.
The Hill is certainly giving Trump the benefit of the doubt in saying he "clarified" his comments. I suppose we're not supposed to believe our own eyes and ears any more.


And in an unsurprising move ...
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/ ... ffs-760862
Quote:
China hits back with tariffs on $60B in U.S. goods

...If it carries through on the latest retaliation, China will be imposing some form of tariffs on nearly all of the $130 billion in goods it imports from the United States. Beijing will be unable to match U.S. tariffs — which are currently on a course to hit $250 billion worth of Chinese exports — on a dollar-for-dollar basis but the government could make it difficult for U.S. corporations doing business there.

...China is proposing that nearly half of the targeted U.S. goods be hit with a 25 percent tariff, including U.S. energy exports like biodiesel and liquefied natural gas and more U.S. agricultural goods like lamb and honey, according to an informal translation of the list. The Wall Street Journal reported other targeted items included copper, logs, textiles, chemicals, pigments, fishing gear, sporting equipment, Christmas supplies, furniture, upright pianos, tires, condoms, engines, juices, gin, sparkling wine, nonalcoholic beer, communion wafers and bottled water.
So is the next move for Trump to use our tax money to bail out the natural gas companies?


https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/ ... ies-721145
Quote:
A July tweet from President Donald Trump sent panic through the C-suites of some of the world’s biggest drug companies, prompting Pfizer and nine other companies to roll back or freeze prices. But there’s less to those announcements than meets the eye. The gestures turned out to be largely symbolic — efforts to beat Trump at his own game by giving him headlines he wants without making substantive changes in how they do business.

...Of the few companies that actually cut prices, for instance, most targeted old products that no longer produce much revenue — such as Merck’s 60 percent discount to a hepatitis C medicine that had no U.S. revenues in the first quarter. Others volunteered to halt price increases for six months — in some cases, just weeks after announcing what is normally their last price hike for the year.“A lot of this shit is meaningless to satisfy Trump,” said another drug lobbyist.

...Analysts are in broad agreement that the spate of recent concessions won’t hurt bottom lines, or rein in drug prices beyond this six-month period, because many companies already increased prices this year — in some cases, just weeks before publicly pledging to freeze them for the rest of 2018.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Sat 04 Aug , 2018 8:02 pm
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The judge isn't buying the Trump administration's attempt to evade responsibility for uniting children with parents they already deported:
http://thehill.com/latino/400338-judge- ... t-families
Quote:
A federal judge said Friday that the Trump administration is "100 percent" responsible for reuniting migrant families separated at the southern border as a result of its "zero tolerance" immigration policy. U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw said during a phone hearing that the administration's efforts to track down migrant families it divided was "unacceptable," according to CNN.

Sabraw added that the government risks making children "permanently orphaned" if it does not track down migrant parents.

...The comments from Sabraw come a day after the Trump administration argued that the the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonprofit organization that is representing plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the administration over the separations, should use their "considerable resources" to help find the parents.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... store-daca
Quote:
A federal judge ruled Friday that the Trump administration must fully restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

...The judge also said in his opinion that he has agreed to delay his ruling to give the Trump administration 20 days "to determine whether it intends to appeal the Court’s decision and, if so, to seek a stay pending appeal."

President Trump rescinded DACA in September, a decision Bates wrote in his opinion “was arbitrary and capricious” with legal judgment that was “inadequately explained.”

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... n-wildlife
Quote:
The Interior Department announced plans Friday to reverse a rule that banned the use of pesticides in national wildlife refuges. The decision, announced in an internal memo posted online, reverses an Obama-era ban on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides as well as genetically engineered crops within refuges where there is farming.

The Obama administration argued that the pesticides threatened bees and butterflies, as well as other pollinators, and wildlife such as birds.
I believe the EU has banned neonicotinoids everywhere, pending reviews on their safety.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... were-false
Quote:
A Democrat who served on President Trump's voter fraud commission wrote in a letter to the White House this week that the findings presented by Vice President Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach were "false" and did not contain actual evidence of voter fraud.

...Dunlap posted the commission's findings online this week after previously suing the panel to obtain them. "I have reviewed the documents made available to me and they do not contain evidence of widespread voter fraud," Dunlap wrote of the commission's work.

Dunlap added that the fact that "the commission predicted it would find widespread evidence of fraud actually reveals troubling bias."


A look at the chaos at the Interior Dept when they were planning to allow elephant hunting trophies into the US and were surprised by the backlash:
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... hy-imports
Quote:
Emails from officials in the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and its parent agency, the Interior Department, show that they had been planning to lift the ban on bringing tusks and other parts of elephants killed in hunts into the country for months, and did not expect the backlash from the public, let alone the president.

The turmoil among public affairs staffers in FWS and Interior started a half hour after Trump’s initial tweet the evening of Nov. 17, emails obtained by The Hill under the Freedom of Information Act show.

...By the time Trump cut off imports, the agency had already given the green light for three elephant trophies from Zambia, Craig Hoover, head of the FWS’s international affairs team, told Sheehan.


http://thehill.com/homenews/media/40030 ... mp-rallies
Quote:
Fox News politics editor Chris Stirewalt suggested on Friday that news outlets cease sending reporters to President Trump's rallies, saying that their presence allows Trump to use them as a "prop."

“We should stop having reporters at those Trump rallies," Stirewalt said on Fox News's "Outnumbered." "Everybody should stop having reporters penned up like veal in the back of those things for the president to use as a prop, and then some of the reporters exploit that for their own personal benefit."

Stirewalt added that "this is not helping anybody. Get out of the hall. Leave the cameras, get the reporters out of the hall. Quit letting him use you as a foil."

Stirewalt also suggested an end to televised White House press briefings, calling them "counterproductive" and "showboat theater." "It has become a forum of personal achievement and political utility for the administration," he said.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 06 Aug , 2018 8:07 pm
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https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ia/566840/
Quote:
The Double Damage of the President’s Trump Tower Admission

His tweet about the purpose of the June 2016 meeting contradicts his earlier denials and could spell trouble for his son and him.

A couple of interesting articles on ICE from The Atlantic. The second one requires membership, but the first one is free.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... ce/565772/
Quote:
How Trump Radicalized ICE

A long-running inferiority complex, vast statutory power, a chilling new directive from the top—inside America’s unfolding immigration tragedy
Some snippets:
Quote:
Since taking office, Donald Trump has regularly thundered against the “deep state.” ...But one segment of the deep state stepped forward early and openly to profess its enthusiasm for Trump. Through their union, employees of ice endorsed Trump’s candidacy in September 2016, the first time the organization had ever lent its support to a presidential contender. When Trump prevailed in the election, the soon-to-be-named head of ice triumphantly declared that it would finally have the backing of a president who would let the agency do its job.
Quote:
ICE quickly built a sprawling, logistically intricate infrastructure comprising detention facilities, an international-transit arm, and monitoring technology. This apparatus relies heavily on private contractors. Created at the height of the federal government’s outsourcing mania, DHS employs more outside contractors than actual federal employees. Last year, these companies—which include the Geo Group and CoreCivic—spent at least $3 million on lobbying and influence peddling.

...The description of immigrants as “inventory” is a logical extension of how ice has outsourced detention to private firms, for which each confinement represents additional profit. Detention is a boom industry, backed by such megafunds as Vanguard and BlackRock, and it has experienced a decade of steroidal growth.
Quote:
Where immigration is concerned, Trump has installed a group of committed ideologues with a deep understanding of the extensive law-enforcement machinery they now control.
Quote:
Once you understand that self-deportation is the administration’s guiding theory, you can see why immigration hawks might take satisfaction in supposed policy defeats. Even if putative fiascoes such as the initial Muslim ban and family separations at the border fail in court or are ultimately reversed, they succeed in fomenting an atmosphere of fear and worry among immigrants. The theatrics are, in effect, the policy.
https://www.theatlantic.com/membership/ ... ce/566912/
Quote:
The Case Against Abolishing ICE

Fixing the agency only requires stepping it back a few years in its history.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 08 Aug , 2018 5:50 pm
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http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/40 ... -decisions
Quote:
A trio of high-profile individuals with ties to President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club provided input and directives to staff at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA), despite never serving in government or the military. ProPublica reported Tuesday that Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter, Palm Beach doctor Bruce Moskowitz and attorney Marc Sherman communicated daily with VA officials about personnel and policy decisions.
It might be noteworthy that Trump is having a dinner with members of his New Jersey golf club tonight, while he's on vacation there. It seems our policies are being openly influenced by those people with enough money to buy their way into a Trump golf club. Not that the ability of money and connections to buy the ears of politicians is anything new, but this seems unusually blatant.



Trump's new US sanctions against Iran are taking effect, while former US allies on the Iran agreement are now defying the US.
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/40085 ... -with-iran
Quote:
China on Wednesday defended its business ties with Iran despite a set of U.S. sanctions targeting Tehran, potentially setting up further trade conflicts between Beijing and the Trump administration. A statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry reported by Reuters states that China's business dealings with Iran comply with all United Nations sanctions currently applied to Iran, and that the country would ignore new measures implemented by the U.S. on Tuesday.
http://thehill.com/policy/international ... y-with-new
Quote:
The European Union is warning businesses that cut ties with Iran over new U.S. sanctions that they could face EU sanctions.“If EU companies abide by U.S. secondary sanctions they will, in turn, be sanctioned by the EU," Nathalie Tocci, an aide to the EU’s foreign policy head, told BBC Radio 4 on Monday, according to NBC News.
http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/400682 ... -iran-deal
Quote:
Former chief of staff to Ret. Gen. Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson, on Tuesday slammed President Trump's decision to pull the U.S. from the multination Iran nuclear deal ..."I think characterizing the Trump action with regard to Iran as withdrawal from the agreement leaves a lot to be desired. What we did was violate the agreement. We violated an international agreement achieved with our allies and our erstwhile enemies, China and Russia, plus Germany and the European Union,"

..."Violating that agreement has set us up for being the isolated party rather than Iran — as Trump, I think, would wish. That's a problem. It's a problem for our relations with our allies and ultimately for our relations with Iran,"


http://thehill.com/latino/400657-trump- ... hip-report
Quote:
A proposal being considered by top aides to President Trump would reportedly make it more difficult for legal immigrants to obtain permanent legal status.

NBC News reports that under the proposal, which is the work of senior White House aide Stephen Miller, immigrants who have benefited from welfare programs, including Social Security or ObamaCare, would have to show they pose no risk of becoming a "public charge" in the future. According to the network, the plan also includes restrictions on immigrants who have received public assistance for taking care of disabled family members and children, even if those family members are already U.S. citizens.

A draft of the proposal was sent by the White House recently to the Federal Register, NBC reports, the last step before it is published for public comment.

...In a separate statement, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) denied that there were any new restrictions on green card or citizenship applications, despite claims from immigration attorneys and civil rights activists that more applicants are being denied than before.

But I'm not sure we can trust what the members of this administration are saying, given things like the story below. Whoever becomes the next president is going to have a tough time overcoming the routine lack of honesty Trump is creating.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... ed-mothers
Quote:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initially denied that a cargo van carrying eight Central American mothers to be reunited with their children crashed last month, according to The Texas Observer.

...The Observer reported ICE acknowledged the incident, but only after repeated denials. The agency described the incident as a "fender bender," and a spokesperson added that the crash resulted in "minor damage." A responding police officer, however, wrote in the report that the van was towed after suffering “disabling damage.”

...The Observer notes that ICE would not answer questions on why it initially denied the incident.

...The Observer previously reported that the agency misrepresented the number of arrests it made during an immigration raid in Austin in February 2017.




http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... g-national
Quote:
A federal court says President Trump doesn't have to explain the reasoning behind his decision to shrink two national monuments earlier this year. U.S. District Judge David Nye ruled Monday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) does not have to provide the legal documents supporting its decision, saying that the records qualified as protected presidential communication.

...The Trump administration has indicated that more monument rollbacks may occur in the future.

http://thehill.com/policy/400872-zinke- ... -wildfires
Quote:
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is partially blaming “radical environmentalists” for the dozens of wildfires burning in California and elsewhere in the West. In a USA Today opinion piece published Wednesday, Zinke said “active forest management” — including logging, prescribed burns and clearing brush — is the way to minimize wildfires on federal land. But green groups sue the federal government to stop such management practices, Zinke charged, exacerbating the problem.
This is a claim Zinke has been making for more than a year, basically so he can allow more logging. An opinion piece in the LA Times from last year about why he's wrong. Unlike Zinke, it includes facts and figures, including that people only sued against only 2% of NEPA's fire reduction plans and the government won most of those suits.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la ... story.html


And an older story related to wildfire suppression funds and Zinke:
https://www.newsweek.com/ryan-zinke-int ... res-757857
Quote:
The Department of the Interior (DOI) says it made a mistake by trying to use wildfire preparedness funds to pay for an unrelated helicopter tour of Nevada taken by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke this summer. Officials initially said Zinke’s July 30 helicopter trip could be covered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Interagency Fire Center, a hub for the organization of response to wildfires—even though the secretary did not visit any fire zones that day, according to internal emails obtained by Newsweek. But after Newsweek questioned the line item, an Interior Department spokeswoman said this week that the chopper—listed in an accounting of Zinke’s travel as costing $39,295—“was charged to the account in error.”
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/40092 ... dog-office
Quote:
Around 40 staff members at the Office of Financial Research were told they are losing their jobs on Wednesday, according to Reuters. The office, part of the Treasury Department and created as part of the the Dodd-Frank legislation, is tasked with identifying financial risks and stress on global financial markets.


Edit: oops, I missed another of the never-ending scandals involving the Trump administration. It's at Forbes and here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politic ... story.html
Quote:
President Trump’s commerce secretary may have bilked business associates out of more than $120 million and could rank “among the biggest grifters in American history,” according to a report released Tuesday.

The investigation — which included interviews with 21 people who have worked closely with Wilbur Ross in the past — alleges that that the 80-year-old stole “a few million here and a few million there” throughout his career as an investment banker, Forbes reports.


Edit 2:
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... california
Quote:
The Trump administration is starting the process of opening up large swaths of land in California to hydraulic fracturing.

In a notice issued to the Federal Register Wednesday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said it intends to analyze the impact of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, on publicly owned land throughout the state. The area in question spans 400,000 acres of public land and 1.2 million acres of federal mineral estates throughout a number of California counties including Fresno, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 13 Aug , 2018 2:03 pm
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Posts: 2048
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http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... mails-show
Quote:
Career staff at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) objected to the Trump administration’s plan for a new regulatory approach toward asbestos.

Internal emails obtained by The New York Times show that career staff involved with the development of a key proposal meant to prevent companies from returning to use of the carcinogenic chemical felt that steps being taken by senior officials could allow for some legacy uses to return anew.


http://thehill.com/latino/401128-judge- ... of-migrant
Quote:
A federal judge on Thursday threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt after discovering that the Trump administration attempted to transfer a woman and her daughter out of the country while an appeal hearing for their deportation was underway.
http://thehill.com/latino/401308-aclu-c ... om-lawyers
Quote:
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is claiming that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for more than a month purposefully withheld hundreds of migrant parents' contact information from their lawyers. The ACLU made the allegation to HuffPost this week after it said the government finally gave it phone numbers for more than 400 parents who had been separated from their children due to President Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... d-daughter
Quote:
A Colorado couple says their adopted daughter could be deported in the coming weeks after, they say, the Trump administration denied her citizenship application without explanation.

Amy and Marco Becerra, both U.S. citizens, told Denver Fox-affiliate KDVR that they adopted their 4-year-old daughter, Angela, when they were in Peru in 2014. ... The Becerras legally adopted Angela through Peruvian court, and sought to bring her back to the U.S. after the adoption was finalized in 2017.

...The tourist visa that Angela was eventually granted is set to expire at the end of this month, but her immigration case was denied without explanation, according to the couple. It is unlikely they will be able to complete an appeals process before the tourist visa runs out. “We’re both citizens. My husband and I have a full legal binding adoption completed and we have a birth certificate that lists no other parent,” Amy Becerra said, telling KDVR that she and her husband are scared to raise their daughter in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant.


http://thehill.com/policy/defense/40109 ... pace-force
Quote:
Vice President Pence on Thursday outlined plans to establish President Trump's proposed “Space Force,” a new military branch slated to be established by 2020.

...Trump in June officially directed the Pentagon to “immediately begin the process necessary to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces.”

Pence’s speech revealed major changes as to how the Pentagon will run its space operations and “the first stages of our administration’s plan to implement the president’s guidance and turn his vision into a reality.” Congressional action is needed to create an entirely new military branch, but Pence outlined a new Defense Department report that details what the department can do without lawmakers’ approval.
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/40117 ... t-billions
Quote:
Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Thursday said Pentagon officials do not yet know how much it will cost to establish President Trump’s desired "Space Force" but assume it would cost "billions."
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/40150 ... pace-force
Quote:
Defense Secretary James Mattis on Sunday offered his support for the Trump administration's proposed "Space Force," and defended his stance after having urged lawmakers to oppose it a year ago. Speaking to reporters on board a flight to Brasilia, Mattis insisted he initially opposed the creation of a separate military branch for space because the administration had not yet defined the challenges space posed for the Pentagon.

...Mattis in July 2017 wrote a letter to Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) calling on lawmakers not to go forward with Trump's proposal. “I strongly urge Congress to reconsider the proposal of a separate service Space Corps,” Mattis wrote. “I believe it is premature at add additional organization and administrative tail to the department at a time I am trying to reduce overhead.”

...On Friday, Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said Mattis's initial opposition had to do with budgetary concerns.


http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... -departing
Quote:
Greg Sheehan, the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), is stepping down from his post, the Interior Department confirmed to The Hill on Thursday.

....In the letter he cited a number of achievements he accomplished while at the agency, including "opening more than 380,000 acres of our Refuge System to new hunting, fishing, and other recreational uses."
I assume that "other recreational uses" means things like off-road motorized vehicles.



Trump is starting to impose even higher steel and aluminum tariffs on some countries. There are many reports about how companies in the US are already being affected by the higher prices they must pay for steel and aluminum.
http://thehill.com/policy/international ... -on-turkey
Quote:
Trump tweeted Friday ..“I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar! Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!,” Trump tweeted.

...Trump imposed tariffs of 25 percent and 10 percent on imported steel and aluminum, respectively, in March....Key U.S. allies such as Canada, Mexico, and the European Union, which includes Turkey, were exempted from the tariffs until May. Those nations have responded with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.

Turkey is among the nations exporting the most steel to the U.S., but American imports of Turkish steel have dropped 59 percent since 2017, according to federal data from June


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -odd-hours
Quote:
White House aides must regularly tell President Trump not to call foreign leaders at odd hours due to time zone differences, according to a new Politico report about Trump's multiple "diplomatic faux-pas."

Sources close to Trump told Politico the president often proposes phone calls with world leaders, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at times when they would likely be asleep. "When he wants to call someone, he wants to call someone," one source told Politico. "He’s more impulsive that way. He doesn’t think about what time it is or who it is."

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Politico that "foreign leaders appreciate that the president is willing to take their calls day and night."



Updates on some older stories:

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/40104 ... t-recruits
Quote:
The U.S. Army has halted its practice of quietly discharging immigrant recruits, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. Marshal Williams, an assistant secretary of the Army, ordered high-ranking officials to suspend the processing of separations in a July 20 memo, the AP reported.

The news comes one month after the AP reported the Army had discharged dozens of immigrant recruits and reservists, putting their immigration status at risk. "It’s an admission by the Army that they’ve improperly discharged hundreds of soldiers," immigration attorney and former Army Reserve officer Margaret Stock, who helped create the program, told the AP on Wednesday. "The next step should be go back and rescind the people who were improperly discharged."
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... -pesticide
Quote:
A federal appeals court has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which former Administrator Scott Pruitt refused to do last year.

The decision is a major win for environmentalists and health advocates. The EPA’s own research, as recently as 2016, linked chlorpyrifos to developmental and neurological disorders, especially in children and infants.

The Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the federal law governing pesticides, requires the EPA to ban the allowance of a pesticide on food if it finds any harm from exposure to it. Since the EPA’s research found such harm, the Trump administration violated the law when Pruitt didn’t act to revoke “tolerances” of chlorpyrifos, the regulatory term for amounts of pesticide residue allowed on food.
No doubt court cases like this are the reason that industry-friendly Trump appointees at the EPA are trying to write laws that will limit the types of research that can be used in EPA decision-making. They are also working on ways to prevent environmental organizations from filing lawsuits.


http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/40 ... fter-court
Quote:
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Thursday said it will resume grants for groups working to prevent teen pregnancies, a reversal from last year's announcement that it would end funding two years earlier than expected.

An agency spokesperson told The Hill that HHS will continue grant funding this year for groups participating in the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. Several federal judges have ruled against HHS for its plan to end the five-year grants, which began in 2015, after three years.



Edit to add:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ce-he-took
Quote:
Republicans have spent more than $3.5 million at President Trump’s properties since he was sworn into office in January 2017, according to a new analysis released by McClatchy on Monday. The news outlet found that at least 125 Republican candidate and conservative groups have been spending money at Trump-brand resorts, hotels and restaurants across the country, according to data provided to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

...The $3.5 million spent since Trump’s inauguration is a big increase from the $35,000 political candidates and group spent at Trump businesses during the two-year 2014 election cycle, FEC records indicate, according to McClatchy.

One of the biggest spenders since January 2017 was America First Action, a super PAC dedicated to supporting pro-Trump candidates.


And what appears to be a politically motivated firing. Trump and his supporters are celebrating (loads of gloating by the support-Trump-no-matter-what-he-does contingent - together with occasional cries of "traitor" and "put him in jail" - on political discussion sites):
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... ng-finally
Quote:
Agent Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI - finally. The list of bad players in the FBI & DOJ gets longer & longer. Based on the fact that Strzok was in charge of the Witch Hunt, will it be dropped? It is a total Hoax. No Collusion, No Obstruction - I just fight back!
Can't help wondering what Trump means by "I just fight back!" in his tweet. According to a Fox news story (which seems to be the first to report this ), his lawyer says that the bureau’s deputy director overruled the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility's recommendations on punishment. As far as I know, Strzok's only offense was to use work emails to make disparaging remarks to his FBI friends about Trump, thus revealing his personal political biases. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08 ... ealed.html

If this is revenge, as it looks like it might be, it seems another instance of Trump and his appointees damaging the norms of government by doing what they legally can, but ethically shouldn't.

Edit: here's a link from a reputable news source https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/us/p ... d-fbi.html The Fox news article looks like straight news, but I prefer to avoid them - Fox gets a poor score for factual reporting, in addition to their right lean, on the media bias checking site I use. The NY Times report is considerably more detailed, as well as being more trustworthy. It includes the complete quote from his lawyer, which says the firing is a departure from usual FBI practice, a description of Strzok's credentials and experience (which the FBI is now losing) and a fuller description of why the IG thought Strzok should be punished - other instances of using work email for personal discussions, uncertainty about a delay in looking into the second batch of Clinton emails, and one instance of sending a sensitive search warrant to his personal email account. Enough to recommend some punishment, but no recommendation that he be fired.


From The Atlantic, a look at the FBI, as well as what Peter Strzok's texts reveal about his opinions:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... lf/552686/
Quote:
The Real Bias at the FBI

The bureau is an inherently political player, but as its history and texts between two employees show, its allegiance is not to Democrats or Republicans—but to itself.
As far as politicians are concerned, the texts show that he and Lisa Page were uncomplimentary about many of them, including Congress in general, and Clinton. In context, it's pretty clear that Trump supporters are cherry-picking statements to paint a very skewed picture.

Though Strzok seems to have realized that Trump is an idiot and was rightly concerned Trump would destabilize the government.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Tue 14 Aug , 2018 9:07 pm
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http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... nt-for-car
Quote:
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staff challenged the Trump administration’s conclusion that rolling back vehicle fuel efficiency rules would save lives. In an official report that the EPA sent in June to the White House Office of Management and Budget, staffers said the the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) modeling overinflated the safety drawbacks from increasingly efficient cars.

In the end, the two agencies came out with a proposal earlier this year to freeze efficiency and green gas emissions standards in 2021 and cancel out plans to ratchet them up through 2026.

...The documents show that the EPA and NHTSA often clashed in formulating the policy, with the EPA frequently accusing NHTSA of using incorrect modeling and misinterpreting studies in ways that boosted the case for the rollback.

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/40173 ... since-2011
Quote:
U.S. agricultural export prices fell by 5.3 percent in July as retaliatory tariffs on American crops kicked into effect, according to Labor Department data released Tuesday. Prices for U.S. crops sold abroad fell last month at the fastest rate since October 2011, led by a 14.1 percent decrease in soybean prices. Export prices for corn, nuts, wheat and fruits also fell in July, likely due to tariffs imposed by nations including China, Canada and Mexico, as well as the European Union.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... california
Quote:
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is blaming "environmental terrorist" groups for the deadly forest fires ripping through California.

Zinke, who visited neighborhoods ravaged by the state's largest wildfire ever over the weekend and on Monday, said environmentalists and green regulations in California made the fires much worse. "We have been held hostage by these environmental terrorist groups that have not allowed public access — that have refused to allow [the] harvest of timber,” Zinke told Brietbart radio over the weekend. During his visit to the Golden State, Zinke pushed a narrative that increasing logging industry access to national forests could limit fire intensity.
Interesting that our government representatives are giving interviews to Breitbart now. What's next? Alex Jones?




And if anyone cares, a reporter from The Atlantic has read the forthcoming gossip book by "Omarosa" (can't remember her real name). Here's her review. Not too surprisingly, it skewers Omarosa's claims of being a doe-eyed innocent trying to serve her country amid a den of nasty Trump-worshipers.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ll/567458/

Personally, I think I'll wait for Bob Woodward's (of Watergate fame) coming book about life in Trump's White House. :) Of all the exposes, it's the first one that sounds like it might be worth reading. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/30/busi ... trump.html


What's more interesting about the Omarosa circus is the beginning of a battle between her and Trump over non-disclosure agreements. Trump apparently made everyone sign one if they worked for his campaign. His lawyers are now trying to shut Omarosa down via that.
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/40 ... dentiality
Quote:
President Trump's campaign has filed for arbitration against former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, alleging she violated a non-disclosure agreement by publishing a tell-all book. A Trump campaign official said in a statement it filed a claim with the American Arbitration Association in New York City against Manigault Newman "for breach of her 2016 confidentiality agreement with the Trump Campaign."
Meanwhile, Trump's little toady Sarah Sanders is falsely trying to imply that NDAs are normal for government employees. Dear Leader did try to make everyone sign one at the beginning of his presidency. If I remember right, someone told him they would not be enforceable; government rules and policies take precedence.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -sign-ndas
Quote:
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday would not say whether she's signed a nondisclosure agreement since joining the Trump administration, but asserted it's "common" for government employees to sign such documents.

"I’m not going get into the back and forth on who has signed an NDA here at the White House," Sanders said at a press briefing when asked whether she's signed such a document.

Edit: It seems that the Trump administration might have been doing some shady stuff with the paperwork for new employees:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ck-in-with
Quote:
A former staffer in President Trump's White House claims in a new report that nondisclosure agreements were “snuck in” with other with other White House employee forms, amid a larger debate about the Trump White House's use of NDAs.

The former staffer told The Weekly Standard that the White House included NDAs along with other “actual forms you had to sign for the legitimate process of being onboarded." “Everyone just wanted to get inside. They were like, F---, okay, I’ll sign whatever. Just get me out of this,” the staffer told the publication.

The staffer also reportedly said that “everything got taken away as soon as we signed it” and staffers didn’t receive a copy of what they signed.


It's interesting that Trump fears Omarosa's gossip and videos enough to try this. He's also hired some famous lawyer to go after her. One possible reason, just reported in the last hour:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ing-n-word
Quote:
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday refused to definitively rule out the possibility that President Trump has used the n-word, but repeatedly pointed out the president has denied uttering the racial slur.
Sanders has lied for him on many occasions. That she refuses to do so now is suspicious.


Trump's attacks on the media seem to have resulted in some nice things in their behavior toward each other lately:
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/40182 ... e-briefing
Quote:
A Fox News reporter deferred to an NBC News journalist during Tuesday's White House press briefing after press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders attempted to move on from questions about whether President Trump has used the "n-word." Fox News White House correspondent Kevin Corke deferred to Kristen Welker of NBC, who pressed Sanders on whether she could definitively rule out that Trump has used the racial slur.

...Tuesday's gesture from Corke marks the latest instance of a White House reporter deferring to a colleague during the briefings, where correspondents typically jockey for the chance to get questions in. The Hill's Jordan Fabian deferred to Hallie Jackson of NBC at a briefing last month. And after that, in a different press briefing, CNN's Kaitlan Collins paused to allow NBC's Hallie Jackson to continue her questioning.


And some Trump supporters are trying to push a theory that the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians was actually a plot by Hillary Clinton's campaign to make Trump look bad. I did not click on the link, since it's clearly from some whacky conspiracy site, but I expect you can find it if you do a search. The mental gymnastics might be good for a laugh.



EDIT:
And the GOP's next targets at the Dept of Justice are...
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... -interview
Quote:
House Republicans are gearing up for a closed-door interview with Department of Justice (DOJ) official Bruce Ohr, which is slated to take place later this month. Ohr, who served as the department’s associate deputy attorney general and now currently works in the criminal division, is the latest target among House conservatives who claim there is ample evidence of bias against President Trump in the DOJ and FBI during the 2016 election.

...Ohr has increasingly come under Republican scrutiny for his contacts with Simpson and former British spy Christopher Steele during the heated presidential campaign...Ohr’s wife Nellie worked for Fusion GPS during the 2016 election, a fact that Republicans have seized on as a possible connection that links the opposition research firm and the Justice Department.

...Trump has increasingly directed his fury towards Ohr in recent days. “Bruce Ohr of the ‘Justice’ Department (can you believe he is still there) is accused of helping disgraced Christopher Steele ‘find dirt on Trump.’ Ohr’s wife, Nelly, was in on the act big time - worked for Fusion GPS on Fake Dossier,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. "The big story that the Fake News Media refuses to report is lowlife Christopher Steele’s many meetings with Deputy A.G. Bruce Ohr and his beautiful wife, Nelly,” Trump also tweeted on Monday, noting that he has never seen anything so “rigged” in his life.

...The committee is looking to also talk to Bruce Ohr's wife Nellie and Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, two congressional sources told The Hill last week. The committee will also go after other current and former FBI and DOJ officials including Jim Baker, Sally Moyer, Jonathan Moffa and George Toscas, the sources said. A Republican House Judiciary Committee aide confirmed to The Hill they plan to seek such interviews.
"His beautiful wife, Nellie"? Somehow that comes across as rather creepy in Trump's rant. Apparently, Nellie Ohr and the FBI also play the roles of conspiring villains in the Hillary-and-the Russians-conspired-to-lure-us-into-the-Trump-tower-meeting conspiracy theory I mentioned above, but I have no clue how. Maybe it's part of the QAnon "deep state" lunacy? Some of this stuff gets seriously surreal.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 15 Aug , 2018 1:35 pm
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Bloomberg has a new analysis of a Russian troll farm's efforts on behalf of Trump in 2017:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -s-content
Quote:
Fake News Website Truthfeed Boosted By Russian Trolls on Twitter
Quote:
Russia’s social-media trolling operation began stepping up its Twitter presence to new heights in late July 2017 -- more than eight months after sowing discord and disinformation in the 2016 presidential election.

The burst of activity -- revealed in a new, comprehensive dataset of nearly 3 million tweets -- had an overriding focus over the ensuing three months: popularizing headlines and news stories that were originally authored by a U.S.-based news site called Truthfeed that supports President Donald Trump and specializes in hyper-partisan, factually incorrect stories.
An older article from Bloomberg that describes Truthfeed and its role in the 2016 elections:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... propaganda
Quote:
Truthfeed Spreads Pro-Trump Propaganda
The website has connections to the president’s camp—and white supremacists.
Quote:
...It was a typical article for Truthfeed, a website with hidden financial backers that went online in April 2016 as Trump worked to finish off his challengers in the Republican primary. Despite having only two main writers, Truthfeed’s articles were shared millions of times on Facebook—about one-quarter the reach of the 750-person Washington Post newsroom—by churning out stories and memes that support Trump and attack his adversaries. “Does Ted Cruz Belong to a Radical Cult?” asked one of the site’s first articles. Like the articles on dozens of other sites that emerged during the 2016 election, Truthfeed’s range from the hyperpartisan (“Hillary’s Latest Unhinged Rant Shows What a Sore Loser She Is”) to outright falsehoods (“Chris Matthews Endorses Trump”).
Truthfeed is still active and presumably pumping out more stories. I don't know if they're helping promote things like the new Trump Tower conspiracy theory I mentioned yesterday, but it seems possible.



Another Pruitt?
https://www.businessinsider.de/pentagon ... aff-2018-8
Quote:
The top Pentagon spokeswoman is reportedly under investigation for misusing her staff, CNN reports, citing four sources familiar with the situation. Dana White, a Trump political appointee who reports directly to Secretary of Defense James Mattis, allegedly sent staff members to handle her personal chores, including fetching her dry cleaning, picking up snacks, driving her to the Pentagon, and even helping her with her personal finances. There are accusations that she retaliated against those who complained by transferring them inappropriately.

Now, the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General is reportedly investigating White for potential ethics violations, as the Pentagon's ethics standards clearly state that "a DoD official may not direct or request subordinates to use official time to perform any activities other than official activities."

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/40191 ... on-results
Quote:
The Treasury Department on Wednesday retweeted a post from President Trump celebrating Republican wins in congressional elections this year, potentially violating federal campaign law.

The department’s official Twitter account shared a tweet from Trump touting results from elections held Tuesday night ... “Great Republican election results last night. So far we have the team we want. 8 for 9 in Special Elections. Red Wave!,” Trump tweeted at 8:30 a.m. this morning.

Treasury deleted the retweet soon after media outlets raised questions about its legality.
Once could be a mistake. But this seems to be pervasive among Trump appointees. The article also mentions previous promotions of GOP candidates by other members of his administration. Ethics doesn't seem to be this bunch's strong suit.

And I have no idea what Trump meant by "red wave" - these were GOP primaries and none were running against Democrats.



http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... fense-bill
Quote:
President Trump said in a signing statement that reserves the right to ignore a recently-signed defense authorization law’s ban on recognizing Russian sovereignty of Crimea. The provision was just one of 50 Trump says infringes on his presidential authority.

In the signing statement issued Monday, the president objected to four of the eight provisions related to Russia. Included in the four is provision 1241, which states that none of the defense bill’s funds “may be obligated or expended to implement any activity that recognizes the sovereignty of the Russian Federation over Crimea.”

...Trump also argued the bill would unjustly limit his presidential authority by restricting military-to-military cooperation with Russia and mandating he report to Congress if the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty or if he discussed a new START Treaty with Russian President Vladimir Putin.


EDIT:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -clearance
Quote:
President Trump on Wednesday revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, casting it as necessary to protect national security. Brennan has been a visceral critic of Trump's presidency, regularly eviscerating him on Twitter. The possibility of him losing his security clearance had previously been raised.

"As the head of the executive branch and the commander in chief, I have a unique constitutional responsibility to protect the nation's classified information, including by controlling access to it," Trump said in a statement, read by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at Wednesday's press briefing.
Bullshit. Having a security clearance does not mean that you get to see whatever classified information you'd like. You only get to do that if the government actually gives it to you on a need-to-know basis. We are being fed lies to cover Trump's petty revenge.
The Hill notes that Brennan criticized Trump's lack of civility and decency on Tuesday, after Trump called Omarosa a dog.

Incidentally, I wonder if Trump thought about his "unique constitutional responsibility" during that early meeting with the Russians where he boasted about an Israeli source and accidentally revealed information that the Russians were not supposed to be given?

The article also mentions the likely future targets of Trump's malice. Ohr is still employed in the government (but he's one of the GOP targets in the loony Russians/Clinton/FBI-targeted-Trump conspiracy theory.):
Quote:
Trump also said he is reviewing access to classified information for several former intelligence officials — all of whom have criticized Trump publicly or have come under attack from the White House.

They include former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, former National Security Administration Director Michael Hayden, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr.
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... ecision-to
Quote:
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats was not consulted ahead of the decision to revoke former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance, CNN reported Wednesday. Coats is the top-ranking intelligence officer for the U.S. His office referred The Hill to the White House for comment.
Trump has stirred up a hornet's nest with this. I wonder if he's also trying to take media attention away from other negative stories.



Also, an interesting juxtaposition of stories:

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... ctioned-by
Quote:
Oil and gas companies bid on fewer than one percent of the offshore tracts made available by the Trump administration during an auction Wednesday. Of the 14,622 tracts made available by the Interior department for bidding on 801,288 acres in federal waters off the Gulf of Mexico, only 144 received bids.

...The last sale in March was the biggest offshore lease sale in United States history--with 77.3 million acres made available. The sale saw 33 companies bidding on plots off the cost of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida for $124.8 million. Of the 14,474 tracts available for bidding only 148 tracts received any bids.

The Obama administration held much smaller sales that focused only on areas where oil companies had expressed interest.

The administration Wednesday nevertheless hailed the latest sale as a success, promoting the nearly $180,000,000 in sales generated in a press release.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... ocacy-push
Quote:
The oil industry is undertaking a new public relations campaign to push for offshore drilling off Florida’s coasts. The American Petroleum Institute’s Explore Offshore program, launched in June to promote offshore drilling, held its first Florida event Wednesday. The Trump administration’s January proposal to allow offshore oil and natural gas drilling all along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts met strong opposition in many places, but it was especially widespread in Florida.
Speaking of which, one of the areas they want to drill in the Arctic just had an earthquake, magnitude > 6.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 16 Aug , 2018 1:45 pm
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Trump now claims that he revoked Brennan's security clearance because of the Russia probe. So much for the lofty-sounding statement read by Sarah Sanders.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ssia-probe
Quote:
President Trump in an interview attributed his decision to revoke ex-CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance to his role in early stages of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that he considers Brennan and other former intelligence officials whose clearances he's considering revoking among the leaders of the investigation. “I call it the rigged witch hunt, [it] is a sham. And these people led it!” Trump told the newspaper hours after it was announced Brennan's clearance was being revoked. “So I think it’s something that had to be done," he added.

Brennan served as CIA director under former President Obama, and was one of the officials who briefed Trump prior to his inauguration on evidence of Russian interference.

Background on non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) , after Trump's attempts to muzzle members of his administration and ensure their loyalty to him by that means. In a nutshell, government rules say "no," so slipping NDAs into the employment packets looks pretty unethical. But part of Trump's objective was probably the threat alone.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/ ... ndas-legal


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... o-detained
Quote:
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report Wednesday slamming the Trump administration’s handling of unaccompanied minors detained at the border.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... rk-service
Quote:
The Interior Department’s internal watchdog said it closed its investigation into alleged censorship of a National Park Service (NPS) report because it was released without edits. Reveal reported in April that Trump administration officials had removed mentions climate change from a draft report examining the impact to NPS sites from sea-level rise and storm surges.

...“Shortly after we opened our investigation, the NPS published the report with all original references to human-caused climate change,” the OIG, led by Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall, wrote in a brief summary report released Wednesday. “Because the report was published without edits, we closed our investigation.”

Grijalva criticized the OIG and said the conclusion doesn’t clear the Trump administration of censorship charges...“The inspector general essentially said that if you get caught robbing a bank and the money is returned, no crime was committed. After eighteen months of lies and manipulation, we know we need to hold this administration to a higher standard. If political appointees feel free to ignore scientific integrity policies, then Congress may need to step in and give them some sharper teeth.”


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... f-midterms
Quote:
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Wednesday announced the upcoming launch of his new pro-Trump documentary and political group ahead of November's midterm elections.

...The documentary reportedly frames the president as a hero and his detractors as villains, beginning with a scene that depicts liberal protesters violently attacking Trump supporters, according to Politico.
...[and] intends to boost Trump's agenda using his new political group, Citizens of the American Republic.

...Bannon told both outlets that the group plans to stave off Democratic control of the House with a media blitz of pro-Trump messaging on cable television, editorial pages of local newspapers and right-wing radio shows. He also said the group will advise Trump surrogates and help them hone talking points ahead of the general elections.

Meanwhile...
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ing-of-the
Quote:
George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, is reportedly part of a "semi-secret" group of conservatives critical of President Trump. The Washington Post revealed George Conway’s participation in the group known as the “Meeting of the Concerned” in a story about the couple on Wednesday.

...George Conway's tweets critical of Trump have earned him media attention, in part due to the stark contrast to his spouse's strong defense of the president. He most recently suggested on Tuesday that Trump regularly makes "false and misleading statements." ...“If my wife were the counselor to the CEO of Pepsi and I had a problem with her boss, I would simply drink my Coke and keep my mouth shut,” George Conway told the Post. “If the president were simply mediocre or even bad, I’d have nothing to say. This is much different.”
I think a lot of us feel that way. This isn't about liberals vs conservatives, much as the pro-Trump partisans want to frame it that way. It's about gross incompetence, constant lies, corruption, and an egotist who wants to make the presidency all about his own desires rather than serving as a leader for the entire U.S.


http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... new-jersey
Quote:
Two "Trump baby" blimps have arrived in Bedminster, N.J., the city where Trump's National Golf Club resides... The activists had started a GoFundMe page , intending to purchase a "Trump baby" blimp, similar to the one used during protests in the United Kingdom when the president made his first official visit earlier this year. The campaign had aimed to raise $4,500, but raised a total of $23,748 and allowing the organizers to put in an order for six balloons, which show Trump wearing diapers, NJ.com reported.

...Girvan also told NJ.com that he's also looking to transfer the blimps to different regions in the country. "We want to make sure the balloons get put into good hands," he said. "If we can locate an organization that's willing and able to have multiple events on a regional level, we're certainly going to consider that."
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/40208 ... attacks-on
Quote:
One of former President Reagan's daughter's is tearing into President Trump’s frequent attacks on the media, saying her father would never have stood for Trump's anti-press rhetoric.

In a Washington Post op-ed, Patti Davis wrote that her father had his own problems with the media, often verbally sparring with reporters. But he never resorted to name-calling or attacking a journalist, Davis wrote. ...“I’ve tried to imagine what my father would have done if people attending a political speech of his had turned to the press and raised their middle fingers, hurled obscenities or physically menaced the reporters who were there doing their jobs,” Davis wrote. “I found it difficult to conjure the image, and then I realized why. It simply wouldn’t have happened,” she continued. “The person on the podium, the person everyone has gathered to see, sets the tone.”

...Davis has criticized Trump before, writing in June that her dad would be “appalled” by his presidency.


http://thehill.com/policy/technology/te ... io-station
Quote:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has shut down conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s flagship radio station. The Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday that the pirate radio station, Liberty Radio, was hit with a $15,000 fine and at least temporarily pulled from the airwaves.

The newspaper reported that a lawsuit filed in federal court in Austin alleged that Liberty Radio had functioned without a license since at least 2013, and had been transmitting from a tower at an Austin apartment complex.


Edit to add:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... l-estimate
Quote:
President Trump's planned military parade in Washington, D.C., is reportedly estimated to cost $92 million, $80 million more than was initially thought. CNBC reported Thursday that the Department of Defense's updated cost estimates includes $50 million from the Pentagon and $42 million from interagency partners, including the Department of Homeland Security.

The development comes about a month after CNN, citing three U.S defense officials, reported that the parade would cost close to $12 million.
Contrary to what we were told earlier, it looks like Dear Leader is getting his tanks:
Quote:
An official also told the network that the plans for the parade included about eight tanks and other armored vehicles. In addition, the parade is set to feature helicopter, fighter jet, transport aircraft and military plane flyovers.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 16 Aug , 2018 8:58 pm
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Some interesting new developments this afternoon. This is the first time I've ever heard of a president's cronies trying to bribe a former staffer. At least, that's what this sounds like to me.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... mpaign-job
Quote:
Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman on Thursday shared a recording of a conversation in which President Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, offers her $15,000 a month to work on the president's campaign after she was fired from the administration.

...On the recording, Lara Trump [Trump's daughter-in-law] mentions a New York Times story that suggests Manigault Newman could have more to say about her time in the White House following her departure. "They wrote about you. It sounds a little like, obviously, that there are some things you've got in the back pocket to pull out," Lara Trump says on the recording. "Clearly, if you come on board the campaign, like, we can't have ... Everything, everybody positive, right?" she adds.

...MSNBC played four separate clips of Manigault Newman's conversation with Lara Trump. But MSNBC disclosed that she played the full conversation for a producer to ensure the recordings were not taken out of context.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/08 ... ered-trump
Quote:
In recent days, Trump has called Manigault Newman “crazed,” a “lowlife,” and a “dog” on Twitter. His campaign filed an arbitration suit against her seeking “millions.” And Trump told advisers that he wants Attorney General Jeff Sessions to have Manigault Newman arrested, according to one Republican briefed on the conversations. (It’s unclear what law Trump believes she broke.) Another Republican recounted how over the weekend Trump derailed a midterm-election strategy session to rant about Manigault Newman’s betrayal.



Also, it seems that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who lied to the FBI, still has his security clearance. http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/402197 ... -clearance


And a response to Trump revoking Brennan's security clearance, by William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... 70554dd2ff
Quote:
Revoke my security clearance, too, Mr. President

Edit to fix hyperlink

Last edited by aninkling on Fri 17 Aug , 2018 1:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 17 Aug , 2018 1:11 pm
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Last night:
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/40226 ... l-at-least
Quote:
President Trump's military parade planned for Veterans Day has been postponed until at least next year, the Pentagon announced Thursday.Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning said in a statement that the Defense Department and White House have agreed to explore potential dates for the parade in 2019.

...The announcement came hours after the Defense Department released an updated cost estimate for the planned parade, which pegged the price tag for the event at $92 million, including $50 million from the Pentagon and $42 million from interagency partners. That figure is significantly higher than an initial estimate [$12 million] that three U.S. defense officials provided CNN with last month. ...

Lawmakers have questioned the cost and necessity of such a show of force, comparing it to high-profile military demonstrations in countries such as North Korea.

This morning, Trump blamed "local politicians" for the estimate by the military for a parade Trump himself demanded. Seriously, how can a person with such poor mental capabilities serve as president?
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/40229 ... e-in-paris
Quote:
President Trump on Friday said that he was canceling plans for a military parade, blaming a $92 million price tag and local politicians in Washington, D.C.

...Trump said "local politicians" in D.C. were responsible for the cost in announcing the cancelation, thought he offered no specific evidence.

"The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it. Never let someone hold you up! I will instead attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base on a different date, & go to the Paris parade, celebrating the end of the War, on November 11th," Trump wrote.

"Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN," he added. "Now we can buy some more jet fighters!"

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/40212 ... oordinated
Quote:
President Trump on Thursday accused the Boston Globe of "collusion with other papers" after the news outlet coordinated a nationwide effort to publish editorials pushing back against the president's attacks on the press.

...."The Boston Globe, which was sold to the the Failing New York Times for 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS (plus 800 million dollars in losses & investment), or 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS, was then sold by the Times for 1 DOLLAR. Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!" Trump tweeted.

...Marjorie Pritchard, the deputy managing editor of the Globe who oversees the paper’s editorial page, first called on newspapers earlier this month to publish editorials pushing back against the president's rhetoric toward the media, which she dubbed a "dirty war." More than 300 news organizations pledged to join the effort

...The president has ratcheted up his attacks on the press in recent weeks, declaring on Twitter that the media is “unpatriotic,” and “can also cause war.” The attacks on the media have been well-received by Trump's base, and he may seen taking on the newspapers as good politics. At rallies held by the president, crowds have been known to break into "CNN sucks" chants.
Someone did phone in a bomb threat to the Boston Globe yesterday.



http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ood-person
Quote:
Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump said Manafort only worked for him for a short period of time but called the trial a “very sad day for our country.” “He happens to be a very good person and it happens to be very sad what they’ve done to Paul Manafort,”
Noteworthy that this president's "they" refers to his own government, which charged Manafort after an extensive investigation. Apparently, there's a staggering number of documents for the second Manafort trial, which will begin in September.



http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... e-brennans
Quote:
Twelve former top U.S. intelligence officials on Thursday condemned President Trump's decision to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, calling it a blatant attempt to stifle Brennan's criticism.

..."Insinuations and allegations of wrongdoing on the part of Brennan while in office are baseless," the officials said. "We all agree that the president's action regarding John Brennan and the threats of similar action against other former officials has nothing to do with who should and should not hold security clearances."

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... afety-rule
Quote:
A federal court Friday threw out the Trump administration’s attempt to delay a chemical plant safety regulation written by the Obama administration. In a major blow to the Trump administration, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the Clean Air Act forbids Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from delaying the regulation’s enforcement, as it tried to do in June 2017.

...“Because EPA has not engaged in reasoned decisionmaking, its promulgation of the delay rule is arbitrary and capricious,” the court wrote in its Friday opinion. The judges said EPA’s action “makes a mockery of the statute,” and that “there is no textual basis for EPA’s current interpretation” of the law.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... fter-court
Quote:
A new status update from the Trump administration and the ACLU filed on Thursday states that 565 migrant children detained at the border remain in U.S. custody...It states that 366 adults are outside the United States, and that 154 have indicated they do not wish to be reunited with their children. Some adult-guardians are in U.S. custody, and various "red flags" have been filed on 73 of the adults.

Twenty-four of the children who remain in U.S. custody are under the age of 5.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... 000-report
Quote:
Donald Trump Jr.’s business trip to India earlier this year reportedly costs taxpayers at least $32,000, The Washington Post reported on Friday. According to The Post, the cash was used to cover the costs of hotel rooms for Trump Jr.’s security detail on a trip intended to promote the family’s real estate business.

...Back in July, the president’s two eldest sons faced criticism after it was reported they racked up nearly $250,000 in Secret Service costs during trips abroad last year tied to the family's real estate development business.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... nistan-war
Quote:
President Trump has reportedly shown renewed interest in a proposal by Blackwater founder Erik Prince to privatize the United States' war in Afghanistan, according to an NBC News. NBC News on Friday, citing current and former senior administration officials, reported the proposition would replace troops with private military contractors who would work for a government liaison, who would in turn report directly to the president.

Trump’s “advisers are worried his impatience with the Afghanistan conflict will cause him to seriously consider proposals like Prince's or abruptly order a complete U.S. withdrawal,” according to the report.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Sat 18 Aug , 2018 6:26 pm
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The president is playing games with security clearances as a way to punish enemies and distract attention from negative stories about his administration:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ces-report
Quote:
The White House has drafted more documents to revoke the security clearances of current and former officials who have been critical of President Trump, The Washington Post reported Friday. Trump is reportedly prepared to sign “most, if not all” of the directives, a senior White House official told The Post.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... rances-can
Quote:
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and White House deputy chief of staff Bill Shine have reportedly discussed when would be the best time for President Trump to revoke additional security clearances. The Washington Post reported Friday that Sanders and Shine are discussing the matter in an attempt to have Trump's revocations serve as a distraction during unfavorable news cycles.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4024 ... e-security
Quote:
Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, announced Friday he would introduce an amendment curtailing the president’s ability to revoke security clearances from his critics.

...However, the amendment is likely to be more symbolic than anything else, as its chances of getting it on the government funding bill in the Republican-controlled Senate are slim. Several GOP lawmakers including Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, have publicly supported Trump's decision, making it unlikely they would support Warner's forthcoming amendment.
https://www.salon.com/2018/08/14/white- ... -fox-news/
Quote:
A new ethics waiver for two top White House officials is raising questions about the propriety of President Donald Trump hiring a former cable news honchos to top positions in his administration.

...Last month the Counsel to the President granted Bill Shine an ethics waiver that authorizes him to speak to employees of Fox News despite having formerly been employed by the network. "After careful consideration, I have determined that it is appropriate and in the public interest to provide a limited waiver of the restrictions in section 2635.502(a) to authorize you to participate in meetings and communications with Covered Organizations or Covered Individuals which you otherwise may be barred from communicating or meeting with regarding broad policy matters and particular matters of general applicability in your official capacity, even if the communication or meeting is not 'open to all interested parties,'" the waiver explained. "The Administration has an interest in you interacting with Covered Organizations such as Fox News and Covered Individuals on issues of importance to the Administration and your position requires you to interact with Covered Organizations and Covered Individuals in the manner described above in order to further those interests."

White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow was also granted an exemption from the ethics rule to speak to his former employer, CNBC.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with an ethics waiver being granted to a government official in order to do his job, the fact that such a waiver was necessary for Shine does raise questions about the wisdom of hiring him in the first place...


http://thehill.com/regulation/labor/402 ... -religious
Quote:
The Trump administration issued a directive earlier this month that critics argue will allow federal contractors to assert their right to a religious exemption from LGBT discrimination charges.

The Department of Labor directive, issued on Aug. 10, expands the circumstances under which federal contractors can claim they have a religious exemption when battling discrimination charges. The directive addresses an executive order enacted in 1965 that blocks businesses that work with the federal government from discriminating against people on the basis of sex, gender identity, race, sexual orientation and other factors.

The new notice cites recent Supreme Court decisions, including a ruling in favor of a baker who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex couple and the 2014 Burwell v Hobby Lobby decision that certain corporations can be exempt from regulations over religious objections.

Trump is once again trying to override Congress on the budget it passed, where it doesn't fit his own priorities (which is mainly increasing military spending, as far as I can tell).
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4023 ... id-funding
Quote:
The White House is weighing whether it wants to attempt to claw back billions in funding from the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development. The Office of Management and Budget, according to multiple reports, is eyeing cuts that could total more than $3 billion from previously allocated funding. The administration is planning to target funding it views as "unnecessary."

...talk of section rescissions package has sparked a round of speculation and chatter on Capitol Hill. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told reporters that he had heard the administration was contemplating a second attempt at clawing back spending but hadn't yet seen a proposal. ...Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, noted that the administration had repeatedly tried to undermine the State Department and USAID's budgets, but Congress had curbed that effort. “Fortunately on a bipartisan basis we’ve consistently rejected those cuts. ..."

...But senators and staffers are raising red flags that they could be powerless to block a second package because the 45-day period normally given to Congress to approve a rescissions package would go past Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... ntists-say
Quote:
Prominent US climate scientists have told the Guardian that the Trump administration is holding up research funding as their projects undergo an unprecedented political review...

The US interior department administers over $5.5bn in funding to external organizations, mostly for research, conservation and land acquisition. At the beginning of 2018, interior secretary Ryan Zinke instated a new requirement that scientific funding above $50,000 must undergo an additional review to ensure expenditures “better align with the administration’s priorities”.

Steve Howke, one of Zinke’s high-school football teammates, oversees this review. Howke’s highest degree is a bachelor’s in business administration. Until Zinke appointed him as an interior department senior adviser to the acting assistant secretary of policy, management and budget, Howke had spent his entire career working in credit unions.



Also, a comprehensive look at the Strzok firing, from The Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ts/567763/
Quote:
The paperwork was signed. The former FBI agent Peter Strzok, who had become a lightning rod for efforts to undermine the Russia investigation, was set to receive a two-month suspension and a demotion as punishment for his alleged misconduct during the 2016 election. Then the FBI’s deputy director, David Bowdich, stepped in and fired him, saying he had undermined “the credibility of the FBI.”

...Strzok also made the fundamental point at the hearing that had he wanted to derail Trump’s presidency, he could have leaked the existence of the Russia investigation.... “In the summer of 2016, I was one of a handful of people who knew the details of Russian election interference and its possible connections with members of the Trump campaign. This information had the potential to derail and quite possibly defeat Mr. Trump, but the thought of expressing that or exposing that information never crossed my mind.”

...Strzok’s dismissal has been met with heightened scrutiny because of how rare it is for a reviewing officer—in this case, Bowdich—to overturn an OPR decision. One former Justice Department official told me that OPR determinations are rarely, if ever, rescinded because the office is expected to bring “perspective, balance, and consistency” to personnel decisions.

...In recommending Strzok for a two-month suspension, Will used language that closely mirrors that of the IG report released earlier this summer, which concluded that Strzok had exhibited a “biased state of mind” and a “willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate’s electoral prospects.” But the IG “did not find documentary or testimonial evidence” that Strzok had acted on that bias.
I also found it interesting that Strzok made his comments on Trump, Clinton and other political figures while he was off-duty. He just used a government-issued phone to write the emails. The charge was “unprofessional conduct off duty.”



Edit to add:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 23719.html
Quote:
Erdogan-Trump Tiff Endangers Turkish Economy and NATO

The Turkish economy is collapsing and President Erdogan is engaged in a bitter battle with U.S. President Donald Trump. NATO could turn out to be the loser, while Moscow is the primary beneficiary.
Quote:
The crisis is a disaster -- and not just for the people of Turkey. Foreign banks, which have lent Turkey $265 billion, fear they will lose that money while economists are warning of the possibility of a chain reaction that could trigger a collapse of the international financial system just as the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy did in 2008.

The situation is also wreaking havoc on the world's security architecture by threatening NATO cohesion, particularly given that neither Trump nor Erdogan appear willing to stand down.... The U.S. and Turkey have NATO's two largest armies and the dispute is already weakening the alliance. The two powermongers in Ankara and Washington have locked horns so tightly that, in the most extreme scenario, Turkey could actually leave NATO. Erdogan also appears to be demonstratively seeking to close ranks with Russia's Vladimir Putin. Several months ago, he even threatened that his soldiers in Syria could open fire on American troops...


They also mention some things that have not been mentioned in the US news reports I've seen:
Quote:
Trump has offered Erdogan numerous concessions in an effort to secure Brunson's freedom, in part, no doubt, because conservative evangelicals make up a significant portion of the U.S. president's base. Trump promised Ankara that he would see to it that the sentence of a Turkish banker, imprisoned in the U.S. due to illegal oil dealings with Iran, be weakened. And he convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release a Turkish citizen who was in prison on suspicions of terrorist activity.

...In exchange, Brunson was to be released and allowed to return to the U.S. But the deal collapsed when the Turkish government increased its demands at the last minute.


https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/2018 ... 030478002/
Quote:
President Donald Trump, addressing his 53.8 million Twitter followers, charged Saturday that social media discriminates against Republican and conservative voices and that his administration would not let that happen. "They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others," he said on Twitter. He did not specify who "they" are. "Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen," he said.

The president did not elaborate on how the government might intervene.

His Saturday morning tweets follow a week in which Apple, Facebook, Spotify and YouTube have removed shows and video posted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. .. While Trump did not single out Jones, he appeared on Jones' InfoWars show in 2015 and praised him, saying, "Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down."

In July, Twitter announced it is cracking down on "incivility and intolerance" in Twitter conversations, but has not singled out any particular political viewpoint.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 20 Aug , 2018 1:42 pm
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Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... r-security
Quote:
More than 150 former officials signed a brief statement Monday concurring with other recent statements opposing the “actual or threatened removal of security clearances from former government officials.”

“All of us believe it is critical to protect classified information from unauthorized disclosure,” the statement reads. “But we believe equally strongly that former government officials have the right to express their unclassified views on what they see as critical national security issues without fear of being punished for doing so.”

The statement notes that the officials do not necessarily agree with Brennan’s harsh criticism of Trump or “the way in which he expressed them,” but says that the country will be “weakened if there is a political litmus test applied before seasoned experts are allowed to share their views.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ia/567826/
Quote:
Donald Trump’s Unprecedented Assault on the Media

First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams says Trump easily surpasses Richard Nixon as the greatest threat the news media in America has ever faced.
Quote:
“No president in our history has been as unremittingly hostile,” he told me earlier this week. “We live in a violent country awash in weapons, and there is good reason to be concerned about the people he attacks so regularly. That is especially true since he has now moved from exclamations about ‘fake news’ to assertions that the lives of Americans are threatened by his journalistic critics.”

Far more insidious is Trump’s unprecedented war on objective reality, a classic tyrant’s tactic. In Abrams’s words, “if news is ‘fake’ not because it is untrue but because it is insufficiently supportive of him, the very relevance of truth-telling becomes at risk...

...And, on Thursday, it was precisely those burgeoning concerns that prompted more than 300 newspapers and media outlets to stand in solidarity—an unprecedented moment, because notoriously independent journalists rarely collaborate on anything ...It’s debatable that these editorials will sway many minds and reduce the ambient toxicity... The real question is: What’s the most effective pushback strategy?...

...But [Trump's] words alone—sowing discord and more threats of violence— prompted a rare, if symbolic, rebuke Thursday from the U.S. Senate, which unanimously “affirms that the press is not the enemy of the people; reaffirms the vital and indispensable role that the free press serves to inform the electorate...and views efforts to systematically undermine the credibility of the press as an attack on the democratic institutions of the United States.” It was a welcome gesture, tempered by the sobering realization that the chamber deemed it necessary to state the obvious.

Not to mention Trump's attacks on justice, with his increasingly demented-sounding tweets against the special counsel's independent investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/40255 ... ridiculous
Quote:
Fox News’s senior political analyst brushed off President Trump’s most recent Twitter attack against special counsel Robert Mueller, in which the president compared Mueller to former Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.). “This is ridiculous,” Brit Hume tweeted Sunday.

...Hume was responding to a tweet from Trump comparing Mueller’s probe to McCarthy’s search for communists in the U.S. government in the 1950s.

“Study the late Joseph McCarthy, because we are now in period with Mueller and his gang that make Joseph McCarthy look like a baby!” the president tweeted. "Rigged Witch Hunt!" ...“The failing @nytimes wrote a Fake piece today implying that because White House Councel Don McGahn was giving hours of testimony to the Special Councel, he must be a John Dean type 'RAT.' But I allowed him and all others to testify - I didn’t have to. I have nothing to hide,” Trump tweeted. "And have demanded transparency so that this Rigged and Disgusting Witch Hunt can come to a close. So many lives have been ruined over nothing - McCarthyism at its WORST! Yet Mueller & his gang of Dems refuse to look at the real crimes on the other side - Media is even worse!"

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... l-disgrace
Quote:
President Trump on Monday ramped up his attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, calling it a "national disgrace."

"Disgraced and discredited Bob Mueller and his whole group of Angry Democrat Thugs spent over 30 hours with the White House Councel [sic], only with my approval, for purposes of transparency," Trump tweeted early Monday morning. "Anybody needing that much time when they know there is no Russian Collusion is just someone ... looking for trouble," he continued. "They are enjoying ruining people’s lives and REFUSE to look at the real corruption on the Democrat side - the lies, the firings, the deleted Emails and soooo much more! Mueller’s Angry Dems are looking to impact the election." "They are a National Disgrace!" the president added.
Of course, Mueller is a Republican and was widely praised for his fair and effective investigative skills when he was appointed. Though anyone who thinks you must be a member of the same party to do your job is an idiot. Trump is also clearly hoping that people have forgotten that several previous investigations (including Nixon) took years.



Meanwhile, Trump plays golf most weekends at his resorts while some things look to be heading over a cliff:
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/40242 ... afta-talks
Quote:
President Trump's divide-and-conquer strategy to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is reaching a critical moment. After three-way talks with Canada and Mexico fell apart in June, the U.S. has been conducting one-on-one negotiations with Mexico, leaving Canada on the sidelines. On Thursday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he hoped for a breakthrough in the coming days, even as Trump publicly talks tough by threatening to walk away from the table.

...the risky strategy of working out a deal with Mexico first and then forcing Canada to come on board faces a slew of hurdles and looming deadlines that experts warn will be difficult for the administration to overcome ... After four weeks of intensive bilateral negotiations, the U.S. only has until the end of the month to seal a deal with Mexico.
http://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/ ... tion-court
Quote:
Buzzfeed reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has sought to reopen almost 8,000 cases this fiscal year that immigration judges had temporarily removed from the court docket through a practice called “administrative closure.”, [which]...enabled judges to pause certain cases — so that, for example, immigrants could pursue legal status outside of the court system — and prioritize others. Altogether, administrative closure proved a vital procedural tool for preserving due process and enhancing docket efficiency.

Despite these merits, in June 2018 Attorney General Jeff Sessions published a decision in Matter of Castro-Tum that all but eliminates immigration judges’ authority to administratively close cases. The opinion also compels immigration judges to reopen previously closed cases at ICE’s request. On cue, those requests are rolling in at almost double the rate seen under the prior administration’s final two years.

...In a June 2018 email, ICE stated its intention to recalendar most administratively closed cases, which total over 350,000. While ICE’s capacity to prosecute these hinges on its available resources, the memo will doubtless force a multitude of cases back onto the docket without regard to the grounds on which judges closed them. The attorney general’s decision, along with ICE’s email, holds dire implications for an immigration court backlog that already exceeds 730,000 active cases.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... rt-economy
Quote:
An overwhelming majority of economists believe President Trump's tariffs will harm the economy, according to a survey released by the National Association for Business Economics on Monday. “Over 90 percent of the NABE Policy Survey panel considers current tariffs and threats of tariffs as having unfavorable consequential impacts on the U.S. economy,” said NABE Vice President Kevin Swift, CBE, chief economist, American Chemistry in a statement.


The following comes soon after the news that Trump is considering a proposal to withdraw US troops and hire mercenaries to conduct war in Afghanistan. I wonder if it is also a sign of his impatience that he can't solve difficult and long-standing issues in an instant:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ons-report
Quote:
President Trump is expected to switch out commanders across the Middle East and Europe in the administration’s most dramatic change to U.S. military leadership so far, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported that the personnel shifts will affect officers fighting in the Middle East, as well as those working to counter Russia, overseeing Guantánamo Bay and engaging in stealth operations around the world.

http://thehill.com/policy/international ... le-on-iran
Quote:
White House national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday huddled with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Iranian nuclear power, according to Reuters.
Two Iran hawks together.



Edit to add:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ssia-probe
Quote:
President Trump on Monday said Justice Department official Bruce Ohr should be fired for his involvement in the Russia investigation.

... Will Bruce Ohr, whose family received big money for helping to create the phony, dirty and discredited Dossier, ever be fired from the Jeff Sessions “Justice” Department? A total joke!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2018

The president's latest attack came days after he said he planned to pull Ohr's security clearance and called him a "disgrace" over his ties to an opposition research firm that compiled a dossier during the 2016 campaign about Trump's ties to Russia. Revoking Ohr's clearance could severely hamper his ability to do his job and would amount to derailing his career at the Justice Department. But Trump's comments show he may want the department's leadership to go even further.
As far as I know, Trump saying that Ohr's family helped create the dossier and made money from it is just another of his lies. Also noteworthy is Trump undermining his own Dept of Justice with the quotes around the word justice.


Also, this seems noteworthy - a group of nuns going on a bus tour to attack the GOP:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... mar-a-lago
Quote:
The Catholic advocacy group, Nuns on the Bus, is planning to protest the GOP tax law outside of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort right before the midterm elections....The 27-day, 54-event tour will conclude with a stop at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., in what the group is calling a “Fiesta for the Common Good.”

“We’re going on the road to hold members accountable for their votes,” Sister Simone Campbell, the executive director of the group and a member of the Sisters of Social Service, told HuffPost. “When Republicans in Congress passed their tax plan into law last fall, we knew it was rooted in the fallacy of trickle-down economics. Now, we’ve seen the results of structuring tax policy to favor the biggest corporations and the wealthiest individuals in our nation.” The group also said on its website that it will use the tour to "focus electoral energy on reasonable revenue for responsible programs."

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Tue 21 Aug , 2018 5:59 pm
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http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... lant-rules
Quote:
The Trump administration on Tuesday unveiled its plan to replace former President Obama's Clean Power Plan regulations, which imposed new restrictions on coal-fired power plants that President Trump vowed to unravel.

...The new plan offers states more flexibility in determining the level of regulations that coal plants must meet, allowing them to submit a draft plan to the EPA on how they would like to regulate in state coal plants. The EPA said that previous reporting that states could offer coal plants the ability to opt out of meeting pollution criteria altogether is not part of the final rule.

The plan would also offer coal plants opportunities to upgrade facilities to produce more energy with less fuel, while eliminating a review process that mandates older power plants mitigate their emissions levels.

...It suggests that carbon emissions under the new rule could be cut to 34 percent below 2005 levels, but does not offer a firm timeline. Instead the EPA says it could occur once "states fully implement the new rule." That compares to a 2030 goal under Obama's plan of hitting a 32 percent decline below 2005 levels.

...In 2017, coal made up 14 percent of U.S. energy consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Coal consumption in the U.S., the top consumer of the energy source, peaked in 2007 and has declined since.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... man-health
Quote:
A recently introduced Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plan to ease restrictions on emissions from coal-fired power plants would lead to new carbon-related health issues and as many as 1,400 premature deaths per year, according to an EPA analysis of the proposal.

“As compared to the standards of performance that it replaces… implementing the proposed rule is expected to increase emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and increase the level of emissions of certain pollutants in the atmosphere that adversely affect human health,” the EPA said in its analysis.

...President Trump has vowed to reinvigorate America’s decaying coal-fired power plants and increase reliance on the fuel source.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... power-plan
Quote:
Here are five things to know about the anticipated new rule and its potential effects on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

...The administration has already taken other steps toward supporting the coal industry. Trump ordered Energy Secretary Rick Perry in June to take "immediate steps" to prevent the further closures of coal and nuclear power plants around the U.S. The draft plan ordered grid operators to buy electricity from coal and nuclear plants that are at risk of closing due to cheaper energy available from renewable energy sources and natural gas.

...Experts say the administration’s overhaul of climate change regulations could help coal plants stay in operation longer because they’ll be able to continue to function without having to mitigate their pollution controls.

...In contrast, the Obama-era CPP aimed to shift the U.S. toward renewable energy and natural gas and away from coal, which scientists say is a leading contributor to carbon emissions.

...Instead of making states hit firm benchmarks, the new rule would reportedly ask states to use guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) when submitting their plans for review.

States also could ease the review process that currently mandates older coal plants invest in renovations to ensure they comply with modern pollution controls, according to the Washington Post.

Additionally, states also could ask the EPA to waive regulations entirely for coal plants expected to close in the near future. [According to the more recent story, it sounds like this might not be in the final draft.]

...The proposal is projected to release at least 12 times more carbon dioxide into the air than the Obama rule over the next decade, according to the Post, which means pollutants such as soot and smog would be higher.

...Courts will likely have the final say. While Obama’s CPP was the first federal carbon-pollution restriction imposed on U.S. power plants, ..the rule was never fully implemented. The Supreme Court in 2016 put a temporary hold on implementation of the regulation while it considered various arguments following a lawsuit from coal states. It remains suspended to this day.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/40 ... e-existing
Quote:
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) pressed a top Trump administration official on Tuesday about a lawsuit challenging ObamaCare’s pre-existing condition protections.

...“There does not seem to be any sense of urgency about the fact that this lawsuit is moving its way through the courts and could blow up all of the protections,” McCaskill said in questioning CMS Administrator Seema Verma. ...Verma responded that she supports protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and that if the lawsuit backed by the administration against ObamaCare is successful she would work with Congress to try to reinstate them.

...McCaskill, though, asked Verma why the administration was supporting the lawsuit in the first place and questioned whether Verma weighed in with the Department of Justice to try to stop the argument against pre-existing condition protections. “I can’t speak to a pending lawsuit,” Verma replied.

... Twenty GOP-led states are bringing the lawsuit, arguing ObamaCare is unconstitutional.


http://thehill.com/latino/402848-migran ... n-right-to
Quote:
Some migrant parents forcibly separated from their children by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) say that officials with the agency "intimidated" them into signing forms relinquishing their rights to be reunified with their children.

NBC News reports that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several other groups are representing several parents who say they signed a "separated parent's removal form" under duress at the behest of ICE agents despite their requests for legal representation to explain the forms.


EDIT to add:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/nyre ... trump.html
Quote:
Trump’s Former Fixer, Michael Cohen, Reaches a Plea Agreement Over Payments to Women
Quote:
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, on Tuesday reached a plea agreement with prosecutors investigating payments he made to women for Mr. Trump but the deal does not include cooperation, two people familiar with the matter said.

...Even though Mr. Cohen is not cooperating with prosecutors, his decision to plead guilty is a political blow to Mr. Trump.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/40 ... f-midterms
Quote:
President Trump will embark on an ambitious travel schedule this fall to campaign for Republican candidates around the country, as he seeks to ward off a “blue wave” in November.

The president is planning at least 40 days of campaign-related travel between Aug. 1 and Election Day – a whirlwind schedule that seeks to outpace the midterm campaigning of any president in recent history, administration officials said Tuesday.
Makes sense, I suppose. All previous presidents were actually busy with the presidency.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Tue 21 Aug , 2018 9:20 pm
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Interesting update on the Cohen story. According to reports, Cohen said the campaign finance violations were “in coordination with and at the direction of ” a candidate. Of course, most of us could figure that out already. Still, I expect a tweet storm from Trump.


And the Senate Intelligence Committee now wants to hear from Cohen again:
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4029 ... t-cohen-to
Quote:
The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee said on Tuesday that they want President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen to testify before the panel regarding recent media reports indicating he knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting before it took place.

...Burr said on MSNBC on Tuesday that Cohen previously testified before the committee and said he was not aware of the Trump Tower meeting until reports emerged in the press the following year.
"As such, the committee inquired of Mr. Cohen's legal team as to whether Mr. Cohen stood by his testimony," Burr and Warner said in their statement. "They responded that he did stand by his testimony."

...A recent CNN report indicated that Cohen was willing to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that the president knew that Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and others planned to meet with a Russian lawyer who promised damaging information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
I'll bet Nunes won't call him back, though. ;) He's too busy trying to discredit Mueller.



I'm not sure if this is significant, too, but here it is:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ng-delayed
Quote:
Special counsel Robert Mueller has again delayed scheduling a sentencing hearing for former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

“Due to the status of its investigation, the Special Counsel’s Office does not believe that this matter is ready to be scheduled for a sentencing hearing at this time,” read a joint status report released Tuesday. Tuesday’s delay is the fourth time prosecutors have asked to delay Flynn’s sentencing.

...As an element of his guilty plea, Flynn has been cooperating with Mueller’s team in its ongoing investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Also, people report that all of the major news stations are covering the Cohen plea.... except Fox.
There was a Fox story today that reached the heights of Trump praise, where they made it sound as if Trump and his dreadful German ambassador and ICE single-handedly managed to deport a former Nazi guard, in spite of opposition from liberals. When in reality people have been trying to deport this old man since 2003 or earlier, and he was discovered before ICE even existed, but there were citizenship issues and no country would agree to take him until now.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 22 Aug , 2018 8:23 pm
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http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... hing-wrong
Quote:
The White House on Wednesday said President Trump "did nothing wrong" in his dealings with Michael Cohen

...White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders...repeated the refrain multiple times when asked about Cohen ...“The president has done nothing wrong, there are no charges against him, there is no collusion,” she added. “That’s what I can tell you about this.”

...Sanders declined to answer when asked if Trump is considering a pardon for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraud within minutes of Cohen's guilty plea on Tuesday.

...Trump has praised Manafort as a “good man” in the wake of the verdict, and attacked special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as a “witch hunt.” “I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family,” Trump tweeted Wednesday, calling his ex-campaign chairman a “brave man” for refusing to cooperate with investigators.

...Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle warned against [a pardon for Manafort] on Wednesday.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... y-payments
Quote:
President Trump on Wednesday falsely claimed that hush-money payments arranged by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, did not break the law and denied he had knowledge of them at the time. "My first question when I heard about it was, 'did they come out of the campaign?' Because that could be a little dicey. But they didn't come out of the campaign and that's big," Trump said during an interview with "Fox and Friends" host Ainsley Earhardt. "It's not even a campaign violation," added Trump

...Trump's onetime lawyer implicated the president in the crime, saying he set up the payments at the direction of the then-Republican nominee in order to help his 2016 campaign by keeping the allegations silent. The president pushed back on that claim by saying he found out about the hush-money arrangements "later on." But that claim has been undercut by a secret recording Cohen released last month

...He also asserted they did not break the law because "they weren't taken out of campaign finance," an apparent reference to his campaign's bank account, and were paid for with personal funds. But what Cohen described is known as an in-kind contribution on behalf of the Trump campaign.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... tion-probe
Quote:
Investigators in New York state have issued a subpoena to President Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, as part of a probe into the Trump Foundation, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance opened an investigation into the Trump Foundation over possible violations of state tax laws, The New York Times reported last month.

...the probe is likely linked to a lawsuit New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood (D) filed in June alleging that Trump illegally used the Trump Foundation to support his 2016 campaign.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -following
Quote:
The White House published a video on Wednesday of families who have been "permanently separated" because a loved one was killed by an immigrant in the country illegally, ratcheting up GOP efforts to tie the death of an Iowa college student to the need for stricter immigration laws.

The White House video notes that the Tibbetts family has been "permanently separated" after Mollie Tibbetts, 20, was found dead after a month-long search. An undocumented immigrant has been charged in her death.

...“My separation is permanent,” the individuals each say at the end of the video, an apparent reference to the outcry over the separation of thousands of migrant families at the border in recent months.
This propaganda from the administration in the immediate wake of a tragedy is just plain disgusting. They're apparently trying to use the emotional response to argue "oh don't worry about children being separated from their parents - it's all in a good cause."

As if a reasonable person can't pity the people whose loved ones were murdered, realize that the vast majority of illegal immigrants aren't out there murdering people, condemn a horrible policy of child separation, and acknowledge that illegal immigration is a tough issue with no easy answers, all at the same time.



And not that it really matters, but
Quote:
The White House video was published Wednesday around the time White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders brought up Tibbetts during a press briefing. "Sadly, the individual believed to be responsible for the murder is an illegal immigrant, making this an unfortunate reminder of why we need to strengthen our immigration laws," Sanders said.

...Rivera was in the country illegally, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ....but Rivera's attorney filed a court document on Wednesday that argued his client was working legally in the U.S.


But, of course, Trump needs a cause to distract his supporters from Cohen's revelations - and the not-so-surprising news that Manafort is thoroughly crooked and Mueller's "witch hunt" has been finding witches who can be convicted in the courts.

Gingrich admits the GOP wants to use Mollie Tibbetts' death to distract voters from the crooks surrounding Trump:

https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios ... 15488.html
Quote:
Fox News led with this, on air at 7 p.m. and online, ahead of Cohen-Manafort ... Authorities in Iowa filed charges against an undocumented immigrant in connection with a recovered body believed to be that of 20-year-old University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, who disappeared from her home a month ago.

...Behind the curtain ... Former Speaker Newt Gingrich emailed me to make sure I'd be covering this story, and I asked for his take on why it matters:

"We are living in two alternative political universes. In one, Manafort-Cohen is dispositive. In the other, illegal immigrants killing Mollie Tibbetts is dispositive."
"If Mollie Tibbetts is a household name by October, Democrats will be in deep trouble. If we can be blocked by Manafort-Cohen, etc., then GOP could lose house badly."

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 23 Aug , 2018 7:15 pm
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http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... improperly
Quote:
In one of his toughest statements following criticism from President Trump, [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions defended his leadership of the Justice Department, which has come under increasing attack from the president and his allies.

“While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action,” Sessions said in a direct response to Trump's interview on Fox. “However, no nation has a more talented, more dedicated group of law enforcement investigators and prosecutors than the United States," Sessions said.

Sessions’s statement came after President Trump criticized the attorney general once more, during an interview with Fox News... “Even my enemies say that, ‘Jeff Sessions should have told you he was going to recuse himself, and then you wouldn’t have put him in,’” Trump said in an interview that aired Thursday. Trump also said that he only selected Sessions, previously a senator from Alabama, to be his top law enforcement officer because of his “loyalty” during the campaign.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... r-midterms
Quote:
President Trump is “very likely” to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions after November’s midterm elections, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Bloomberg News. Graham told Bloomberg that Trump is “entitled to an attorney general he has faith in” but warned Trump against firing Sessions ahead of the midterms, saying it would “create havoc.”
link to Bloomberg article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -elections



http://thehill.com/latino/403269-ice-of ... ays-report
Quote:
according to a new report by the Miami New Times... Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have handcuffed and taken away at least 14 detainees on their 18th birthdays [since April] at the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children...The detainees, now considered adults, were taken to a jail in Broward, north of Miami.

....the percentage of kids turning 18 in detention and being turned over to ICE has more than doubled since 2014, according to a report by news site Documented.

...Although it's up to ORR to follow Flores and the TVPRA to quickly place minors in housing alternative to detention, activists say the agency has slowed that process under President Trump, according to the reports.

...Janet Gwilym, the managing attorney of Kids in Need of Defense, said ICE agents regularly show up at shelters at 11:30 p.m. on the eve of detainees' 18th birthdays. At midnight, agents will shackle the now-adult detainees and take them to jail. "I believe it's a psychological strategy they're using to try to get them to just give up and go back back home, even if they know they'll be killed if they go back," Gwilym said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pecker-gra ... 1535041976
Quote:
David Pecker, CEO of National Enquirer Publisher, Granted Immunity in Michael Cohen Case
Quote:
In exchange for immunity, Mr. Pecker, the CEO of American Media, Inc. and a longtime friend of Mr. Trump, has met with prosecutors and shared details about payments Mr. Cohen arranged in an effort to silence two women who alleged sexual encounters with Mr. Trump, including Mr. Trump’s knowledge of the deals, some of the people said.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 24 Aug , 2018 12:58 pm
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http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... mp-stories
Quote:
The National Enquirer reportedly possessed a safe that contained damaging stories about President Trump that it had killed in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that the tabloid kept these items under lock and key as part of its friendly relationship with then-candidate Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign. The publication endorsed Trump in the 2016 election — the first time it ever announced official support for a presidential candidate.
The strangest aspect of this whole thing, to me, is that The National Enquirer is a supermarket tabloid with crazy stories like "aliens abducted my husband and the government is covering it up."



Also strange - the president publicly feuding with his attorney general. I assume this is either meant to rile up Trump supporters or publicly humiliate Sessions, because Trump could just as easily reprimand Sessions in private if that's all he wanted to do.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -can-do-it
Quote:
“Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.” Jeff, this is GREAT, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the “other side” including deleted Emails, Comey lies & leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr......
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018

....FISA abuse, Christopher Steele & his phony and corrupt Dossier, the Clinton Foundation, illegal surveillance of Trump Campaign, Russian collusion by Dems - and so much more. Open up the papers & documents without redaction? Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018

Conspiracy theories have apparently been circulating in this administration. Besides the ones in Trump's tweet, I mean:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-des ... hite-house
Quote:
The Conspiracy Memo About Obama Aides That Circulated in the Trump White House
Quote:
In early 2017, some of Donald Trump’s advisers concluded that they faced a sophisticated threat responsible for “coordinated attacks” on the new Administration. They circulated a memo, titled “The Echo Chamber,” which read like a U.S. military-intelligence officer’s analysis of a foreign-insurgent network. Instead of being about enemies in a distant war zone, however, the network described in the memo consisted of former aides to President Barack Obama.

The memo claimed that the “communications infrastructure” that the Obama White House used to “sell Obamacare and the Iran Deal to the public” had been moved to the private sector, now that the former aides were out of government. It called the network the Echo Chamber and accused its members of mounting a coordinated effort “to undermine President Trump’s foreign policy” through organized attacks in the press against Trump and his advisers. “

Back in the real world...
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/40337 ... -6-billion
Quote:
President Trump's threat to slap another $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese good could push up prices and cost U.S. consumers $6 billion, according to a new study by the National Retail Federation released Thursday.

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/40340 ... ork-report
Quote:
Second Fox News reporter leaves network this month
Officially, they've left for reasons such as spending more time with their family. Behind the scenes, friends and co-workers say they left because they were frustrated with the way Fox is covering the news, especially regarding Trump. I thought I'd heard of a third person leaving not too long ago, but there were no rumors about why.


Others seem to be pushing back on air:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... on-spin-on
Quote:
Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera on Thursday night criticized the network's coverage of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts's death, saying it was putting a "spin" on coverage by emphasizing the illegal immigration status of her accused killer. “I know that most of the Fox audience disagrees with me, but I’m begging you to have compassion and not brand of this entire population by the deeds of this one person,” Rivera said during an appearance on Fox News.

Fox host Martha MacCallum pushed back, saying that Tibbetts's death was related to immigration issues because of reports that her accused killer, Cristhian Rivera, was an undocumented immigrant.

“We at this network are putting that spin on the story,” Geraldo Rivera responded. “This is a murder story, not an immigration story.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... um-seekers
Quote:
US immigration officers accused of refusing parole for asylum seekers

Detainees and their lawyers say five field offices are issuing blanket denials for humanitarian parole, violating a court order
Quote:
US district judge James E Boasberg of Washington DC, issued an injunction in July that said Ice must decide whether to grant “humanitarian parole” to asylum seekers by examining each individual case, in response to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union earlier this year.

...But at five Ice field offices covered by the ACLU lawsuit, virtually no paroles were granted after Trump took office, even though administration officials said there had been no change in parole policy, lawyers said.

Linda Corchado, an immigration attorney in El Paso, said all 349 parole requests made to that city’s Ice field office between February and September 2017 were denied. Despite the court order, she said her clients continue to be denied parole, without any individual explanation.

edit to add:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/allen-weis ... 1535121992
Quote:
Allen Weisselberg, President Trump’s longtime financial gatekeeper, was granted immunity by federal prosecutors for providing information about Michael Cohen in the criminal investigation into hush-money payments for two women during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Tue 28 Aug , 2018 3:53 pm
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The Trump administration and Mexico have reached a bilateral agreement on trade, but the Wall Street Journal doesn't seem very impressed with it:
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/40392 ... than-nafta
Quote:
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board on Tuesday criticized President Trump over the trade deal he announced Monday with Mexico, calling it “notably worse in many ways” than the North American Free Trade Agreement.

...“This is politically managed trade, and its economic logic is the opposite of Mr. Trump’s domestic deregulation agenda,” the Journal wrote.

...Trump announced the deal from the White House on Monday, calling it a “big day for trade.” Trump also cast doubt Monday on whether Canada would be included in a renegotiated deal.
Apparently, Trump needs Congress's approval to withdraw from NAFTA, so one of the questions is whether the GOP will go along with him.


http://thehill.com/policy/international ... ppointment
Quote:
The United States on Monday told the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it plans to block the reappointment of one of the WTO's four remaining judges, Reuters reported... If the U.S. is successful in blocking the reappointment next month, the WTO would have only three of its typical seven judges, according to Reuters, which added that if it drops to below three judges, the organization will not be able to function. Two of the other judges’ terms expire in December of next year.

President Trump has repeatedly attacked the WTO, calling it “unfair” to the U.S. and saying it has treated the nation "very badly.”

...Axios reported in June that Trump had spoken to advisers about leaving the WTO, quoting one source who said Trump had threatened to withdraw 100 times.

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/ ... -economics
Quote:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service [is] an $86 million dollar agency producing data and analyses relating to farming and the food supply, natural resources, rural economies, farm income and nutrition. [It] ...is ranked No. 3 in research quality among more than 2,500 academic and government agricultural economics institutions worldwide.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced earlier this month that he wants to relocate the Economic Research Service outside of the Washington area to save federal funds. Many of the 330 staff are not likely to make the move, and the loss of their expertise will jeopardize the quality, relevance, and timeliness of the agency’s products.

... [ERS] is not a “farmer-facing” agency, but rather supports congressional and administration policy officials as well as the program agencies of USDA that deliver key farm, environmental and food services. Plus, its analysts collaborate with counterparts in the department’s other research agencies.

...The secretary also proposes to move the Economic Research Service from the research part of the Department that informs policy to the chief economist’s office, which must support the secretary’s policies. Such a move jeopardizes the independence, credibility and objectivity that has defined the work of the Economic Research Service. As a principal federal statistical agency, its charge is to produce independent, relevant and timely reports that are respected by all sides of a discussion.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... numents-to
Quote:
Downey Magallanes, a Department of Interior official who oversaw the Trump administration’s push to shrink two national monuments in Utah last year, has reportedly left the agency and will be working for [the oil company] BP as part of its government affairs team.

... "Downey was an incredible asset and I trusted her to carry out some of the Administration's highest priority projects," Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement obtained by The Washington Post.

...Her move comes almost a year after President Trump's controversial move to massively shrink two national monuments in Utah, which potentially opened up thousands of acres to drilling, mining and grazing... [and which] represented the largest-ever rollback of protected areas, which prompted much criticism from lawmakers and activists.


http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... ush-racist
Quote:
A relative of Mollie Tibbetts, the Iowa college student whom authorities say was killed by an undocumented immigrant, said that commentators need to stop using her murder to push a “racist, false narrative” about immigration.

“No, no and no,” Sandi Tibbetts Murphy [her cousin] posted on Facebook Friday. “Especially for those of you who did not know her in life, you do not get to usurp Mollie and her legacy for your racist, false narrative now that she is no longer with us. We hereby reclaim our Mollie.” ...“You do not get to use her murder to inaccurately promote your ‘permanently separated’ hyperbole,” she wrote. “You do not have permission to callously use this tragedy to demonize an entire population for the acts of one man.”
Quote:
Samantha Lucas, Tibbetts's second cousin, said the slain student would not want her death to be used as “fuel against undocumented immigrants.”

Her father, Rob Tibbetts, thanked the local Hispanic community for the support they offered while he searched for his daughter. "The Hispanic community are Iowans. They have the same values as Iowans," Rob Tibbetts said while delivering a eulogy for his daughter during her funeral, according to The Register. "As far as I'm concerned, they're Iowans with better food."

President Trump, however, has cited her murder as a call for stricter immigration. "[Tibbetts] was killed by a horrible person that came in from Mexico, illegally here, found by [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], our great ICE who’s abused by the Democrats and the left, and without them you might not be sitting here so comfortably right now," Trump told "Fox & Friends" host Ainsley Earhardt during an interview that aired Thursday.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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