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You've been Trumped!

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 06 Dec , 2018 4:47 pm
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More muzzling of dissent:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... t-backlash
Quote:
New guidance warning federal workers not to discuss Donald Trump’s potential impeachment or the so-called “resistance” movement has sparked controversy, with some ethics advocates voicing concerns over what they see as an effort to crack down on free speech and limit dissent.

A memo released by the Office of Special Counsel last week clarified what constitutes political activity at the federal workplace, stemming from Trump seeking re-election as president in 2020.

In addition to avoiding topics that might suggest views favorable or unfavorable toward Trump, the document stipulated “strong criticism or praise of a presidential administration’s policies and actions” also amount to political activity...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... estigation
Quote:
Robert Mueller is allegedly examining a Trump campaign adviser’s appearances on the Kremlin-controlled broadcaster RT, offering new hints about the investigation into possible collusion between Moscow and Donald Trump’s associates.


https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... nergy-pick
Quote:
The Senate confirmed President Trump’s pick for a key energy agency Thursday...The 50-49 vote along party lines means Bernard McNamee, a Republican and former high-ranking political official at the Energy Department under Trump, can take his spot on the five-person Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
McNamee’s history in the Trump administration and working for the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation have raised significant objections from Democrats that he can’t live up to the expectation that FERC commissioners should be independent and neutral when it comes to energy fuel sources.

He has been an outspoken advocate of fossil fuels, harshly criticized renewable energy and cast doubt on the science of climate change, including in a video of a speech that surfaced in recent weeks. McNamee also served a key role in pushing the Trump administration’s ongoing attempts to bail out coal and nuclear power plants.


Trump's tariffs are working so well....
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/4200 ... since-2008
Quote:
The U.S. trade deficit rose nearly $1 billion in October, reaching the highest level in a decade as imports outpaced declining exports, according to federal data released Thursday.

The gap in value between what the U.S. sells to and buys from foreign nations rose to $55.5 billion in October, the fifth consecutive monthly increase in the country’s trade deficit in goods and services, according to the Commerce Department.
I'll be curious to see who he blames for this. Probably the Federal Reserve again - they seem to be his favorite target when there's bad economic news, even if it has nothing to do with them.

_________________

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 07 Dec , 2018 5:47 pm
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Surprisingly, Trump has picked a reasonable choice as attorney general. He has right wing views (of course) and there are questions about his public comments on the Mueller probe (undoubtedly why Trump picked him), but he is presumably a professional. I think one thing Trump has a hard time understanding is that some people can behave ethically despite their personal views:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ey-general
Quote:
President Trump on Friday said he would nominate former Attorney General William Barr to once again helm the Justice Department.

...While he is a well-known figure in the nation's capital, Barr is expected to face a tough confirmation battle in the Senate. He is likely to face questions about the Justice Department’s political independence from the White House as well as Trump’s criticism of the department over Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the president’s campaign and Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.



As expected, Trump has nominated Heather Nauert as the new UN ambassador. Rumor (again) has it that he'll be ousting Kelly soon, but that's been a perennial will he-won't he question for a long time.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4202 ... iefs-staff
Quote:
President Trump caught the defense world off guard Friday when he said that he will make an announcement regarding the Joint Chiefs of Staff during this weekend’s Army-Navy football game.

While making a series of major personnel announcements on the White House lawn, including new picks for attorney general and United Nations ambassador, Trump cryptically told reporters that “I have another one for tomorrow.”

“I’m going to be announcing at the Army-Navy game. I can give you a little hint: It will have to do with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and succession,” he said.
My guess is that he's replacing Dunford. He and Kelly are supposed to be among those trying to keep Trump from doing too many idiotic things.



And Trump has been on a major unhinged tweet-storm about Mueller again. Most people assume it's about this:
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... afort-case
Quote:
Special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday is expected to file a bombshell report that describes how former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort eviscerated his plea agreement with federal prosecutors.

The highly anticipated memo, slated for release as a court filing, will likely shed more light on Mueller’s investigation into whether President Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

But just how much new information will be made public remains to be seen.



From former Sec of State Tillerson:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... legally-do
Quote:
Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he often had to push back on President Trump, telling him that some of his requests would violate the law.

“So often, the president would say here's what I want to do and here's how I want to do it and I would have to say to him, 'Mr. President, I understand what you want to do but you can't do it that way. It violates the law,' ” Tillerson said in rare public remarks in Thursday night in Houston at a fundraiser for the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
This apparently frustrated Trump. No surprise.



Edit:

Nothing on Manafort yet. But prosecutors don't recommend much leniency for Cohen and say he committed serious crimes. And since he did them on behalf of Trump...
https://hillreporter.com/breaking-micha ... here-17035
Quote:
BREAKING: Michael Cohen’s Sentencing Memos Released – Read Them here
Quote:
Moments ago, the Southern District of New York, as well as the Special Counsel’s office, released sentencing memorandums for former Trump attorney, friend and deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Cohen.

...Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are asking for a 3.5-year sentence and have requested that Cohen pay a $100,000 fine. Cohen, in August, pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to eight federal crimes, including tax fraud, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations. Cohen, who said he was acting on the behest of Donald Trump, faced up to 65 years in prison if found guilty of those crimes.

Based on reports coming from various individuals with knowledge of the investigation and of Cohen’s legal standing, the former Trump attorney has been cooperating extensively with investigators over the last several months.


It looks like I was right about Trump getting rid of Dunford:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... olitics-vp
Quote:
President Donald Trump will tap Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley to be the next head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing Marine General Joseph Dunford, according to a White House official familiar with the decision.
So I wouldn't be surprised if Kelly goes very soon, too. Turns out that he has answered some questions from Mueller, too.



Editorial:
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... olitics-vp
Quote:
Pompeo Is Leading a Foreign-Policy FarceThe secretary of state says Trump wants to lead the global order he’s actually destroying.
Quote:
If a diplomat truly is, as the old saying goes, “an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country,” then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has earned his pay. His speech in Brussels on “Restoring the Role of the Nation-State in the Liberal International Order” deserves a State Department Distinguished Honor Award for Intellectual Dishonesty.

“Multilateralism has too often become viewed as an end unto itself,” said Pompeo. “The more treaties we sign, the safer we supposedly are. The more bureaucrats we have, the better the job gets done.” Maybe I ran in strange circles during my eight years in the State Department, but few of my colleagues were in thrall to such simplistic thinking.

Pompeo then hurled rhetorical grenades at a row of multilateral bunkers: United Nations peacekeeping missions don’t work; the Organization of American States hasn’t brought freedom to Cuba; the African Union doesn’t advance the mutual interest of its members; the World Bank and International Monetary Fund just make things worse; the European Union puts the interests of its bureaucrats before those of its countries and citizens. Admittedly, each of those institutions is imperfect. But none lives down to the caricatures Pompeo made of them.

Finally, in his own Mount Suribachi moment, Pompeo brazenly planted the flag of American leadership on an international liberal order that this administration has worked harder to blow up than to build. Wisely, he beat a retreat after his speech, taking no questions.

So, let’s look at his points one by one.

_________________

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 08 Dec , 2018 5:04 pm
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The Manafort filing is heavily redacted, but this report describes what it does contain:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -officials
Quote:
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors about his contacts with the White House and an associate with suspected ties to Russian intelligence, special counsel Robert Mueller's office said in a filing Friday.

... Mueller said in the filing that after signing the plea agreement, Manafort stated he had no direct or indirect communications with anyone in the administration, but evidence demonstrates that Manafort authorized a person to speak on his behalf.

...The filing details four topics on which Manafort is alleged to have misled prosecutors. These also include his interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian who ran the offshoot of Manafort’s firm in Ukraine and who was charged alongside Manafort with witness tampering earlier this year. An earlier filing from Mueller suggested the FBI believes Konstantin had ties to Russian intelligence in 2016.

...In a heavily redacted passage, Mueller’s prosecutors wrote Friday that Manafort lied about an unknown topic that the two discussed. The filing suggests Mueller has electronic evidence and travel records to disprove Manafort’s claims.

The filing also says that Manafort made “inconsistent statements” to investigators about a $125,000 payment he made to an unnamed firm working for him in 2017.

Finally, prosecutors allege that Manafort misled Justice Department officials working on a separate investigation, that is not described


More about Barr, mostly about his views and some remarks he made on the Mueller investigation, presumably without having any inside information and as a private citizen. I'd be more interested in his behavior while he was working for Bush, but I haven't seen anything about that:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... or-justice
Quote:
Five things to know about William Barr, Trump’s pick for Justice Department
Though I disagree with Barr on a lot of things, I don't find his remarks about the Mueller investigation disturbing - unlike the highly partisan editorials Whitaker wrote.

_________________

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: Sun 09 Dec , 2018 11:04 pm
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Trump gets rid of Kelly, but his choice for a new chief of staff says "no thanks." I suspect he sees the writing on the wall and is trying to get out ASAP. He cites family, but just about everyone uses that as an excuse for leaving without saying why.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... nick-ayers
Quote:
A bad week for Donald Trump ended with the news that his first choice to replace John Kelly as White House chief of staff will not take the role.

On Sunday Nick Ayers, currently chief of staff to Mike Pence, tweeted his thanks to Trump, the vice-president “and my great colleagues for the honor to serve our nation at the White House. I will be departing at the end of the year but will work with the #MAGA team to advance the cause.”

Trump is also looking at Mark Meadows, an avid Trump supporter and head of the crazy tea party contingent in Congress.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ff-reports
Quote:
President Trump has privately been floating the idea of replacing chief of staff John Kelly with Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), according to Axios.

The news outlet, citing three sources with knowledge of the matter, reported on Sunday that Trump has recently been asking many people about who he should name as his chief of staff when Kelly officially departs.

He's asked many of them what they think of Meadows, a North Carolina congressman who is currently the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. He's also reportedly mentioned three other people as other possible candidates.

Axios said it did not have information about those possible candidates.
Expect things to get even crazier if Meadows is chosen.



https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... pledges-un
Quote:
The US and Russia have thrown climate talks into disarray by allying with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to water down approval of a landmark report on the need to keep global warming below 1.5C.

After a heated two-and-a-half-hour debate on Saturday night, the backwards step by the four major oil producers shocked delegates at the UN climate conference in Katowice as ministers flew in for the final week of high-level discussions.

It has also raised fears among scientists that the US president, Donald Trump, is going from passively withdrawing from climate talks to actively undermining them alongside a coalition of climate deniers.



More about Barr, Trump's pick for attorney general:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ump-report
Quote:
President Trump's pick to be the next attorney general, William Barr, was previously offered a position as Trump's defense attorney, Yahoo News reports.

Trump met privately with Barr in the spring of 2017 and asked if he would serve as his defense attorney to defend him against special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation, according to the news outlet.

https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-tal ... rveillance
Quote:
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday that he's "concerned" about some of the views of President Trump's nominee for attorney general, William Barr.

Paul said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he's bothered by Barr's support for the Patriot Act, which expanded surveillance of U.S. citizens, as well as Barr's views on civil asset forfeiture.

"I haven’t made a decision yet on him, but I can tell you the first things I’ve learned about him being for more surveillance of Americans is very, very troubling," Paul said.


Edit to add:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... es/577699/
Quote:
As Good an Attorney General as We’re Likely to Get

William Barr’s statements raise serious questions, but he appears far more qualified than the other candidates that Trump reportedly considered for the post.

Last edited by aninkling on Mon 10 Dec , 2018 5:06 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: Mon 10 Dec , 2018 1:30 pm
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Here are Trump's picks for his new chief of staff now:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... staff-soon
Quote:
Four candidates are now favored to succeed Kelly when he leaves at the end of the year: outgoing House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, according to multiple reports.
Of course, Trump is now saying that he didn't want Ayers in the first place. But if that isn't a lie (doubtful), then he simply threw out Kelly as his chief of staff without having a new one already planned. Dysfunctional doesn't even begin to describe this administration.

Edit: the messageboard rumor mill says that Mulvaney and Lighthizer are putting out signals that they don't want the job. So it looks like the candidate list might be down to the two worst possibilities, Meadows and Whitaker - or to some person not yet mentioned who's willing to jump into this mess of an administration. I can't imagine there are many intelligent people these days who are willing to do that.

Needless to say, people are having fun making predictions that include Sarah Palin, various Russians, Fox news personalities, Manafort (pardon him then hire him), Ted Nugent (a buddy of Trump), Kris Kobach...
No one seems to have mentioned the Saudi prince yet.




https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4203 ... -arms-race
Quote:
President Trump's ultimatum to Russia over a landmark arms control treaty could potentially kill the pact and set the stage for more land-based cruise missiles and nuclear warheads in Europe, experts and Democrat lawmakers warn.

...“We’re going to increase the risk that a crisis could go nuclear,” said Jon Wolfsthal, the National Security Council senior director for arms control and nonproliferation under former President Obama.
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4204 ... 0b-reports
Quote:
President Trump is reportedly calling for the Pentagon to raise its budget request for next year to $750 billion, significantly more than he previously wanted and $12 billion more than top military officials have been pushing for.

Trump in a tweet last week appeared to call the Department of Defense's (DOD) current budget of $716 billion "crazy," and he has been pushing for a 5-percent cut to its budget as he seeks to trim spending across the federal agencies.

But Trump reportedly changed his mind after a Tuesday meeting at the White House involving Defense Secretary James Mattis and the chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Ok.), Politico first reported.
IMO, this is another case where some people are better at manipulating Trump than others. A normal president would seek input from experts and try to balance the competing budget needs. Trump just seems to go with whoever can flatter him the best or play on his emotions and (often poorly informed) perceptions of the world.




The GOP defense of Trump has evolved from him not committing any crimes to "what does it matter."
https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-tal ... aw-its-not
Quote:
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said Sunday that if President Trump violated campaign finance law during his 2016 campaign, it's not "anywhere near impeachable." "Is this a campaign finance violation? Which would obviously, I don't think be anywhere near impeachable. That's what we want to find out at the end of the Mueller thing," he said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Kinzinger's comments came after federal prosecutors in New York said Friday that Trump directed his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, during the 2016 campaign to make illegal payments to two women claiming they had affairs with Trump.
They're clearly trying to convince people that this was just some little technical issue. But Trump and Cohen deliberately did things they knew were illegal and did their best to hide them.

There's no way in hell the current GOP would have gotten rid of Nixon. And Nixon was at least competent and intelligent, not an ignorant, narcissistic ass who spends his time golfing, watching Fox news, tweeting stupid things, defending dictators, and re-tweeting misinformation from far right agitators.



Edit:

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4206 ... s-chairman
Quote:
A Defense Department spokesman on Monday said that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford will serve the remainder of his term despite President Trump announcing his successor 10 months ahead of his end date.

“At this point, all indications are that General Dunford will serve his full term,” Army Col. Rob Manning told reporters at the Pentagon.
I'll be curious if he does. Trump's timing in ousting Kelly at practically the same time he announced Dunford's replacement doesn't seem like a coincidence.



And Trump has essentially admitted that he asked Cohen to pay off embarrassing sexual encounters in an incoherent tweet, while claiming it was "done correctly by a lawyer" and displaying complete ignorance of the rules regarding campaign contributions. Seriously, does Trump has two functioning brain cells? No wonder he accidentally revealed classified information to the Russians during the first meeting in the White House. Putin and others must just love talking to him.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ction-done
Quote:
“Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun...No Collusion.” @FoxNews That’s because there was NO COLLUSION. So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution,...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2018

....which it was not (but even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama’s - but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine. Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me). Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!


https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2 ... ds-process
Quote:
In an order quietly signed right before Thanksgiving, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reassigned the responsibility of overseeing Freedom of Information Act requests from a career staffer to the Interior Department’s solicitor — a political appointee who oversees the department’s legal work.

President Trump has not nominated someone to the solicitor post, which requires Senate confirmation. Instead Dan Jorjani, a former Koch Foundation strategist, has impermissibly been serving as the “acting” solicitor for the past two years. Secretarial Order 3371, signed Nov. 20, gives Jorjani the role of chief FOIA officer.

Jorjani has appeared before in other news:
https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-07-26/ ... mails-show
Quote:
As deputy director of the National Park Service, Michael Reynolds played a key role in developing a sweeping new vision for managing national parks. The new policy, enacted in the final weeks of the Obama administration, elevated the role that science played in decision-making and emphasized that parks should take precautionary steps to protect natural and historic treasures.

But eight months later, as the first acting director of the Park Service under President Donald Trump, Reynolds rescinded this policy, known as Director’s Order 100. Newly released documents suggest that top Interior Department officials intervened, ordering Reynolds to rescind it.

...Jarvis, who signed Director’s Order 100, said he thinks the Trump administration objected to the policy because it stressed that parks follow the “precautionary principle,” preventing actions or activities that plausibly threaten park resources and human heath, even when there is uncertainty. It also acknowledged the significant impact that climate change has on parks and directed them to incorporate climate change science in management decisions.

The emails show that Daniel Jorjani, Interior’s principal deputy solicitor, played a key role in reversing the order. Jorjani is a Trump appointee who was an attorney from 2010 to 2016 for foundations funded by the Koch brothers, fossil-fuel billionaires who support the spread of free-market principles throughout government.
Rescinding the policy also helps industries that want to use national parks for profit like jet skis and drone operators.


https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -democrats
Quote:
Democratic senators are demanding information about what they call the Koch brothers’ “infiltration” of the Trump administration, charging that Koch-linked personnel have secured key federal jobs and are determining US environmental and public health policy.

...Résumés obtained through public records requests by the Guardian and Documented, a government watchdog group, show the close links between high-ranking federal staffers and the Koch network.

“I think right now it’s the most powerful political force in the United States,” Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said in an interview. “If you don’t believe that deregulation is good and that pollution ought not to be checked and that billionaires ought to be able to pull strings secretly in government, this ought to be a pretty high priority.”

The Democrats have identified nine Koch-affiliated staff at the Department of the Interior...They include the principal deputy solicitor, Daniel Jorjani,...


Jorjani is one of the influential staffers mentioned in this article, which mostly focuses on Katharine MacGregor, who oversees the BLM. It gives a picture of the political staffers reshaping government agencies behind the scenes:
https://psmag.com/environment/a-top-doi ... -of-mining
Quote:
A Top DOI Official Had at Least Six Meetings With the Mining Industry. She Then Helped Cancel a Study on the Public-Health Effects of Mining.
Quote:
Executive branch figureheads like Scott Pruitt, Ryan Zinke, and President Donald Trump himself get almost all of the press coverage, but when it comes to the machinations of the American government they are just a portion of the story. Beneath and behind these attention-grabbing politicians is an array of appointees who labor outside the spotlight and wield great power. These are the "people working far from the cameras and the West Wing," "the next-level-down guys," as a recent article in The New Yorker describes them. They are the assistant secretaries, the deputies, the senior advisers, the solicitors, and other political operatives carrying out the Trump administration's agenda. They are the men and women remaking the executive branch in the image of the president's right-wing political movement, and very few people know their names...

_________________

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 11 Dec , 2018 6:04 pm
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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/ ... ed-1055429
Quote:
A bipartisan group of nearly four dozen former senators warned current and future members of the Senate on Monday that the United States is “entering a dangerous period,” and urged them to defend America’s democracy by serving national interests rather than political ideologies.

“We are on the eve of the conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation and the House’s commencement of investigations of the president and his administration,” the 44 ex-lawmakers wrote in an op-ed published by The Washington Post. “The likely convergence of these two events will occur at a time when simmering regional conflicts and global power confrontations continue to threaten our security, economy and geopolitical stability.”

...We are at an inflection point in which the foundational principles of our democracy and our national security interests are at stake, and the rule of law and the ability of our institutions to function freely and independently must be upheld.”

The senators — 32 Democrats, 10 Republicans and two independents — also stressed the importance of casting aside party differences in confronting impending challenges, noting that during their time in Congress, “we were allies and at other times opponents, but never enemies.”
Meanwhile, some GOP senators are pretty much shrugging their shoulders at the llegal campaign contributions and the lengths to which Trump and Cohen went to hide them. That's pretty much mind-boggling. Trump's "fixer" lawyer is going to federal prison for this and some Republicans say "so what if our president is a criminal?"



And Trump is insisting that the Great Wall of Trump be funded, even though most people think it's stupid. He's even dropped the pretense that Mexico will pay for it.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ffice-spat
Quote:
President Trump on Tuesday engaged in an extraordinary argument with Democratic congressional leaders over his demand for border-wall funding, threatening a government shutdown if he does not get the money.

"I will be the one to shut it down," he told House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) at the White House.
This meeting was apparently televised, so you can even watch them arguing. Supposedly Trump did his ranting and raving in public this time.


https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4207 ... d-the-wall
Quote:
Republican lawmakers are skeptical of a plan floated by President Trump to have the military build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border or repurpose defense funds to pay for it.

Trump on Tuesday tweeted that he would order military personnel to complete construction of border fencing and barriers if Democratic leaders refuse his request to provide $5 billion for construction of a border wall.

...GOP lawmakers worry that agreeing with Trump’s plan would cede significant spending authority to the executive branch and set a bad precedent. They are also concerned about how it might impact defense spending priorities.


https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/420 ... ourt-judge
Quote:
Vice President Pence broke a tie Senate vote on Tuesday to confirm Jonathan Kobes as a judge on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The vote was stuck at 50-50 after Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) joined with all Democrats in opposing the nomination. Flake, who is retiring in January, is voting no on all judicial picks until he gets a vote on legislation protecting special counsel Robert Mueller.

...Kobes's nomination is considered controversial because he was rated as "not qualified" by the American Bar Association's (ABA) standing committee on the federal judiciary.

"The Committee believes that Mr. Kobes has neither the requisite experience nor evidence of his ability to fulfill the scholarly writing required of a United States Circuit Court Judge," Paul Moxley, the chairman of the committee, wrote to Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein (Calif.).

_________________

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 12 Dec , 2018 3:52 pm
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https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4 ... hina-trade
Quote:
President Trump said Tuesday he would intervene in the case involving a top Chinese technology executive if it would help close a trade deal with the country.

....“Whatever’s good for this country, I would do," he said. “If I think it’s good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made – which is a very important thing – what’s good for national security – I would certainly intervene if I thought it was necessary."

The executive, Huawei chief financial officer (CFO) Meng Wanzhou, was arrested earlier this month by Canadian authorities and faces extradition to the U.S. She has been accused of violating trade sanctions against Iran.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -good-ally
Quote:
President Trump on Tuesday doubled down on his support for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, even as members of the Senate push for action in the response to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

...“He’s the leader of Saudi Arabia. They’ve been a very good ally,” Trump said.



https://thehill.com/regulation/national ... to-enforce
Quote:
The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to step in to allow it to enforce a new policy barring immigrants who cross the border illegally from seeking asylum.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco filed a request to Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee, on Tuesday that asks the court to a block a district court order preventing the government from enforcing its ban nationwide.
The lower court and an appeals court have already told Trump that no, he can't cancel the existing laws on asylum by executive order.


https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ty-funding
Quote:
President Trump early Wednesday tied a potential terrorist attack in France by a French-born shooter to border security funding.

"Another very bad terror attack in France," he wrote on Twitter. "We are going to strengthen our borders even more. Chuck and Nancy must give us the votes to get additional Border Security!"
A better parallel would be to all of the US-born mass murderers we've had lately, going on rampages at work, in synagogues, at concerts, in schools... Why Trump thinks increased border security will help with either situation is a complete mystery. If "think" is even an operative word here. He's probably just doing his usual "let's rile up my supporters" act.




Speaking of that meeting yesterday...
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... em-meeting
Quote:
Los Angeles Times White House correspondent Eli Stokols reported Tuesday that President Trump "stormed out" of the Oval Office after his contentious meeting with Democratic leaders and threw a folder full of papers out of frustration.

“He stormed out of the Oval, walked into an anteroom just off the Oval Office and had in his hand a folder of briefing papers. And he just scattered them out of frustration — threw them across the room,"
Pence was in the meeting but apparently sat silent the entire time staring at the carpet.

Edit: If you want to see video of this meeting for yourself, here's a link:
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4207 ... order-wall



https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... staff-role
Quote:
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) said late Tuesday that he would decline if President Trump asked him to serve as the next White House chief of staff.

"Look, it's an honor even to be considered," the Pennsylvania Republican said during an appearance on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."

"I think it's a great job, and I know that there are a lot of good people out there. The bottom line for me is -- just really like Nick Ayers, I mean -- my family situation really doesn't allow me to do that right now,” he continued.


More importantly:
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-envi ... ience-saga
Quote:
The latest saga of EPA’s divorce proceedings against environmental science is unfolding this week at the hearings of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) on particulate air pollution.

CASAC is mandated under the Clean Air Act to be an integral part of the required five year review of each National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA administrator sets standards “requisite to protect public health.” Further it is required that the standards “accurately reflect the latest scientific knowledge.”

By law, CASAC has seven members appointed by the EPA administrator. But with just seven members it clearly does not have the breadth and depth of expertise to fully and accurately distill the growing body of knowledge about increasingly complex and changing processes that lead to the effects of air pollutants. Accordingly, CASAC has long relied on scrutinizing the key issues based upon input from subcommittees of knowledgeable experts.

But EPA has suddenly terminated the subcommittees assembled to provide input to CASAC on both particulate and ozone pollution.


And, just for laughs:
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... r-as-being
Quote:
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Tuesday that she hopes to be remembered as being “transparent and honest” when her tenure in the role comes to an end.

Sanders' remarks came while speaking at Politico’s "Women Rule" event on Tuesday with reporter Eliana Johnson about what she wanted her legacy to be.

“I hope that it will be that I showed up every day and I did the very best job that I could to put forward the president’s message,” as well as “to do the best job that I could to answer questions,” Sanders said.

“To be transparent and honest throughout that process and do everything I could to make America a little better that day than it was the day before,” she continued.


EDIT:

Wow. Talk about some broad hints:

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... s-a-lot-to
Quote:
Michael Cohen's former lawyer, Lanny Davis, said Wednesday that anyone with ties to President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign has reason to worry after the president's former fixer was sentenced to three years in prison.

“Anybody associated with the Trump campaign has a lot to worry about,” Davis said on MSNBC.

Davis made the comments shortly after his former client was sentenced to 36 months in prison for a series of crimes he committed while working as Trump's personal attorney.

...Asked if Trump's children should be worried about a possible indictment, Davis declined to comment. But he added that individuals who were in Trump's orbit during the campaign have reason to worry...

“Bob Mueller, who’s akin to a submarine, silently fueled by facts and only facts, with no leaks, and just watch and wait," he said. "And that’s what Mr. Cohen will do and then Michael will tell the truth once Mueller is finished with his work.”

..."At the appropriate time ... I look forward to assisting Michael to state publicly all he knows about Mr. Trump – and that includes any appropriate Congressional committee interested in the search for truth and the difference between facts and lies," he said.
Cue Trump twitter meltdown in 3...2...1...

The National Enquirer has also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the investigations:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... rosecutors
Quote:
American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in New York, the Department of Justice announced in a statement on Wednesday.

AMI admitted that it paid $150,000 to a woman "in concert with" President Trump's campaign "in order to ensure that the woman did not publicize damaging allegations about the candidate before the 2016 presidential election."
This is significant, IMO, because it reaches Fox viewers, who tend to get only pro-Trump news:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ence-trump
F
Quote:
ox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano said the American public "learned" on Wednesday that federal prosecutors have evidence President Trump committed a crime.

"Career prosecutors here in New York have evidence that the president of the United States committed a felony by ordering and paying Michael Cohen to break the law,” Napolitano said while speaking on Fox News. “How do we know that? They told that to the federal judge. Under the rules, they can’t tell that to the federal judge unless they actually have that hardcore evidence. Under the rules, they can’t tell that to the federal judge unless they intend to do something with that evidence."





https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4210 ... n-war-vote
Quote:
The House on Wednesday narrowly overcame a procedural hurdle allowing them to move forward with a vote on the must-pass farm bill.

The bill only narrowly advanced in the House, 206-203, after language was tucked into the procedural rule preventing for the rest of the year a floor vote on any war powers resolution limiting the U.S. involvement in Yemen. The move sparked backlash from a number of lawmakers.

...The provision's inclusion comes as the Senate is expected to pass a resolution that uses the War Powers Act to force U.S. troops in or “affecting” Yemen to withdrawal within 30 days unless they are fighting al Qaeda.



https://thehill.com/policy/finance/4210 ... disclosure
Quote:
The Senate on Wednesday approved a Democratic resolution that would overturn IRS guidance reducing the amount of donor information that certain tax-exempt groups have to provide to the agency.

The measure, sponsored by Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), was approved by 50-49 vote. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) joined with Democrats in supporting the resolution, and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) didn’t vote.

The measure now moves to the House, but a GOP aide said House Republicans aren't planning to hold a vote on it this year. Even if the House approves it, President Trump would likely veto the resolution.

...The IRS and Treasury Department in July released guidance that ended a requirement for certain tax-exempt groups to provide the IRS with the names and addresses of major donors on an annual basis. ... Democrats have been strongly opposed to the guidance and are concerned it could lead to an influx of “dark money” donations by foreign governments in U.S. politics.

More of Stephen Miller's influence, I'm sure:
https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... es/577993/
Quote:
The Trump administration is resuming its efforts to deport certain protected Vietnamese immigrants who have lived in the United States for decades—many of them having fled the country during the Vietnam War.

This is the latest move in the president’s long record of prioritizing harsh immigration and asylum restrictions, and one that’s sure to raise eyebrows—the White House had hesitantly backed off the plan in August before reversing course. In essence, the administration has now decided that Vietnamese immigrants who arrived in the country before the establishment of diplomatic ties between the United States and Vietnam are subject to standard immigration law—meaning they are all eligible for deportation.

_________________

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 13 Dec , 2018 9:37 pm
Offline
 
Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
Trump collects his Christmas present from US taxpayers. (We pay for the expenses his security detail and other government visitors incur at Mar-a-lago, which go directly to Trump's and his childrens' pockets.)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... mar-a-lago
Quote:
President Trump is planning a roughly two-week stay at his Mar-a-Lago club in South Florida for the holidays, according to a Federal Aviation Administration advisory posted Thursday.
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/42111 ... a-shutdown
Quote:
Democratic and Republican senators told Hill.TV on Wednesday that they are prepared to spend Christmas break in Washington if there’s a partial government shutdown.

...Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) seemed less certain about the prospects of working on Christmas.

"I certainly hope not, but the honest answer is I don't know,” he said. “It's going to come down to the president, it's going to come down to Chuck Schumer. Either one can single-handedly force a shutdown.”
Not that I think any of them are going to actually end up working over Christmas, but I'm amused at how the GOP is already trying to spin this into "the Democrats are forcing a shutdown" when Trump already admitted in a televised meeting that he would own a shutdown.




https://thehill.com/latino/421240-child ... aiming-man
Quote:
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) returned a 4-year-old Salvadoran boy to his father on Tuesday, 11 weeks after the agency alleged that the parent was a gang member.

The father and son were separated at the border and sent to two separate facilities in the U.S., ProPublica reports, after DHS claimed it had evidence that the father was in a gang.

The agency asserted that it acted for the child's safety.

....Ultimately, an immigration judge released the father from a detention facility in San Antonio on bond so he could pursue an asylum claim. The father said he fled El Salvador and is seeking refuge in America to escape gang violence. He was reunited with his son in Austin, Texas, where the boy's grandmother lives.

...Anthony Enriquez, director of the unaccompanied minors program at Catholic Charities, told ProPublica the child's return suggests the agency had no legitimate reasons for separating the family in the first place.

...The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration that ultimately resulted in an injunction putting separations on hold expect where a child’s safety could be at risk.

“We would have expected the government to cease all separations except where there was hard evidence that a parent genuinely poses a risk to a child,” Lee Gelernt, an attorney who led the ACLU’s lawsuit against the zero tolerance policy, told ProPublica. “But that does not appear to be the standard the government is using, in flagrant violation of the injunction.”
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4 ... t-children
Quote:
Nearly 15,000 migrant children are being held at government shelters, putting the facilities nearly at capacity, NPR reported Thursday.

The news outlet reported that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said its network of more than 100 shelters is 92 percent full. The influx of migrant children in recent months has prompted the department to weigh options for how to accommodate additional bodies.

HHS confirmed to The Hill that there are "about 14,700" unaccompanied migrant children in government custody, but would not confirm how close to capacity the shelters are.

...A senior official with the department told NPR that "everything is on the table" to address the crowding at shelters, including releasing the children more quickly to sponsors in the U.S. or building additional shelters.
A news story I posted a while back said that the agency was taking much longer, on average, to release children to sponsors, compared to previous administrations. So the suggestion that they might consider expediting this is likely to be a lie. My guess is they plan to build more tent cities and/or funnel more money to the industries that run these shelters.




https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... s-rollback
Quote:
The Trump administration’s decision to roll back auto emission standards this past summer was in part influenced by the country’s largest oil refiner, according to a New York Times report Thursday.

A covert lobbying campaign launched by Marathon Petroleum sent dozens of letters to members of Congress promoting the need to weaken the Obama-era emissions standards, all based largely on the premise that energy conservation was no longer needed due to the country’s recent surge in oil production, the Times reports.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ing-report
Quote:
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are looking into whether President Trump's inaugural committee misspent funds or accepted donations in exchange for access to the administration, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The Journal reported that many of the president's biggest campaign supporters were contributors to his inaugural fund. Donating in exchange for political favors or using funds for purposes other than the inauguration could violate federal laws.

... the investigation ...stemmed from materials obtained during an FBI raid earlier this year of longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen.


https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... ipeline-to
Quote:
A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va...wrote Thursday that the U.S. Forest Service “abdicated its responsibility to preserve national forest resources” by approving a permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would have crossed the George Washington and Monongahela National Forests, according to The Associated Press.

..."This conclusion is particularly informed by the Forest Service’s serious environmental concerns that were suddenly, and mysteriously, assuaged in time to meet a private pipeline company’s deadlines," the court's opinion continues.

..."We strongly disagree with the court’s ruling," said Dominion spokesman Aaron Ruby. "The court’s decision is at odds with the consensus of the U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service."



https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/421 ... king-trump
Quote:
The Senate approved a resolution Thursday to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, dealing a significant blow to President Trump amid heightened tensions over the death of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Senators voted 56-41 on the resolution, which would require the president to withdraw any troops in or “affecting” Yemen within 30 days unless they are fighting al Qaeda.

The resolution would still need to be passed by the House before it could be sent to Trump, who has threatened to veto it. The House on Wednesday narrowly approved a rule governing debate on the farm bill that included a provision that would prevent lawmakers from forcing a war powers vote this year.
So symbolic only, and the numbers suggest that a significant number of Republicans are still bowing down to Trump's wishes. But it's something.


Also another rebuke to Trump from the Senate:
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/421 ... -khashoggi
Quote:
The Senate easily passed a resolution Thursday naming Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as "responsible" for U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi's slaying.

The measure, which was introduced earlier Thursday, passed the Senate by voice vote in the afternoon. It will now go to the House.

The resolution, spearheaded by outgoing Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), is nonbinding, but it puts the Senate on the record about the crown prince amid growing frustration on Capitol Hill over the U.S.-Saudi relationship.




If anyone cares, the current list of candidates for Trump's chief of staff:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... f-of-staff
Quote:
People now believed to be under consideration include former Trump campaign adviser David Bossie, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, according to multiple reports.
What a bunch of upstanding citizens he's chosen. Seems appropriate. So, should we be rooting for the author of Bridgegate, the one who served on boards of shady companies, the one who wanted consumers to pay higher electric bills to prop up failing coal plants, or the one who helped elect Trump in the first place (and could be deep in his campaign's shenanigans)? Decisions, decisions...


Oh, wait - we have another candidate. Trump's son-in-law. The one who's such great buddies with the Saudi Arabian prince who had Khashoggi murdered.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jared-kush ... f-of-staff
Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

(If anyone was wondering what happened to Mark Meadows - he said "no thanks," according to that link. When one of the craziest, ultra-right wing people ever to get elected to Congress in my lifetime turns you down...)





Edit:

Not surprising, but another nail in the coffin:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justic ... ms-n947536
Quote:
Donald Trump was the third person in the room in August 2015 when his lawyer Michael Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker discussed ways Pecker could help counter negative stories about Trump's relationships in the room
Edit: fixed a typo

Last edited by aninkling on Fri 14 Dec , 2018 4:26 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 14 Dec , 2018 3:16 pm
Offline
 
Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... SKBN1OD05L
Quote:
A 7-year-old girl from Guatemala died of dehydration and shock hours after she was taken into U.S. Border Patrol custody, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The girl and her father had been detained by immigration authorities on Dec. 6 in New Mexico as part of a group of 163 people who approached U.S. agents to turn themselves in, the Post reported.

Early on Dec. 7, the girl started having seizures, and emergency responders measured her body temperature at 105.7 degrees, the Post said. She was taken to a hospital, where she died, according to the Post.

... The agency, which typically provides food and water to migrants in its custody, is investigating the incident to ensure whether appropriate policies were followed, the Post said.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... can-border
Quote:
The Washington Post reported that the girl died of dehydration and shock more than eight hours after she was arrested by agents near Lordsburg, New Mexico. The girl, from Guatemala, was traveling with a group of 163 people who approached agents to turn themselves in on 6 December.

It is unknown what happened to the girl during the eight hours before she started having seizures and was flown to a hospital in El Paso.

In a statement, customs and border protection authorities said the girl had not eaten or consumed water in several days.
When a group of people has just been crossing the desert without water, as apparently happened in this case, priority one for any sane and compassionate agency should be to ensure that everyone, especially the children, is not dehydrated. Who the hell takes a 7-year-old into custody and doesn't see to that? It's not like they haven't been dealing with similar situations for years.

I thought I'd heard that her father was not with her, but now I'm not sure whether that was the case or not. If so, it just adds another layer of stupidity, taking her from the person she'd trust to tell that she was not feeling well, and who would care and make sure she was drinking.

[EDIT: The Guardian story has been updated since this morning with a much more detailed account. It sounds like her father was with her in custody and they were held overnight before her father told agents she was sick and vomiting on the bus before 5 am. She was not breathing when the bus arrived at their destination an hour later. Supposedly the father said his child was healthy in an interview when were first taken into custody and the agents also did a medical screening then. What I'm wondering now is how you can miss the signs of dehydration in a young child who hasn't had food or water for 2 days in the desert?

Probably best to read the most current version at the link above, though. It seems to change quite often. ]


And what makes me really angry are all the Trump supporters who immediately jump onto messageboards, glibly saying it's all the fault of the parents for not thinking ahead and making sure that they had water and CBP bears no responsibility. Despicable people with zero compassion for the father who just lost his child to a terrible type of death.

Not to mention that the US prosecutes those people who try to provide water caches to migrants crossing the desert and pours out the water caches if they find them.
http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/rep ... fe-refuge/
Quote:
Nine members of No More Deaths face federal misdemeanor charges for entering a wildlife refuge in Southern Arizona and leaving food and water in the remote desert.

The charges stem from three separate incidents last summer, in which volunteers with the humanitarian group drove into the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refugee, about 125 miles west of Tucson, in an effort to help save people illegally crossing the rugged terrain of Arizona's southwestern desert.

...Each volunteer faces up to 6 months in prison and nearly $400 in fines and court fees.

In addition to a misdemeanor for alleged activities on the wildlife refuge, NMD volunteer Scott Warren also faces a felony charge after he was arrested by Border Patrol agents just hours after the Tucson activist group released videos last week showing agents destroying water and food left for those crossing Arizona's deserts.

..."Cabeza Prieta is an important area because it's where many people are crossing to come into the United States," said Alicia Dinsmore, a No More Deaths volunteer. "Just in 2017 alone 32 sets of human remains were found there, so No More Deaths group has made it a priority to provide humanitarian aid in the wilderness area."

She said that in the last year, federal officials had changed the language of permits, to "target humanitarian aid, by saying explicitly in permits" not to leave canned food, water and blankets in the wilderness area.

TucsonSentinel.com sent a request to federal officials for copies of the permits, but calls and emails have not been returned.
The amounts of water to stay hydrated in the desert are not trivial:
https://www.backpacker.com/gear/staying ... the-desert
Quote:
Here's another classic answer: 3-5 quarts per day for the average desert spring hiker. It's a range because individual responses to desert heat and dryness vary, partially due to how acclimated you are to desert heat and dryness


Not saying that those who cross bear no responsibility for themselves but, please, let's not pretend we're being humanitarians here.







More dismantling of standards at the EPA. Andrew Wheeler is clearly continuing Pruitt's legacy, just without his own high visibility corruption scandals. This is one of the things I worry about most - Trump's political appointees at various agencies who are good at destroying what Trump, corporate influences, and the neocons want destroyed, without high visibility scandals:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/12/ ... al-article
Quote:
When the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) begins a major review of air pollution standards this week, a researcher who has received funding from an industry group opposed to the rules will be leading the agency's panel.

Tony Cox, who was named chairman of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee by former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, accepted funding from the American Petroleum Institute (API) to help finance his research into particulate matter pollution. He also allowed the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group to proofread and copy edit his findings before they were published, according to his own acknowledgements.

It's highly unusual to give an industry group, or anyone who funds scientific work, a chance to influence the outcome of research, according to scientists.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... h-problems
Quote:
At a meeting to review air pollution science compiled by staffers at the Environmental Protection Agency this week the advisory board chairman, Tony Cox – a consultant and statistician who has worked for the industry and criticized EPA standards – questioned whether soot from coal plants and cars can be directly blamed for asthma and cardiopulmonary problems.

Cox pushed staffers to specify what percentage of health problems are directly caused by the pollution or are just associated with it, a figure that the US government has not required in order to restrict pollutants that are known to harm people.

...His comments appeared to confirm the fears of scientists who say the US government is now aiming to discredit research to bolster rollbacks of climate change and health regulations.




https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4213 ... -shut-down
Quote:
The Weekly Standard, a conservative news outlet that has consistently been critical of President Trump, will shut down after 23 years, its publisher announced Friday.

Editor-in-chief Stephen Hayes sent a note to employees referencing difficulties maneuvering the Trump presidency in announcing the magazine and news site would close.

"This is a volatile time in American journalism and politics," he wrote in the note obtained by CNN. "Many media outlets have responded to the challenges of the moment by prioritizing affirmation over information, giving into the pull of polarization and the lure of clickbait."

...Critics have argued that the magazine's frequent criticism of Trump has alienated its readers.


https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/42138 ... rceived-as
Quote:
Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal criticized President Trump's threat to send troops to build a wall along the U.S. southern border if he doesn't get the funding he has requested.

...McChrystal argues that U.S. needs to control its borders, but the problem with sending the military to build the border wall is two-fold: First, the military is not designed to build physical barriers, and most importantly, such a move would send the wrong signal to America’s neighboring ally, Mexico.

“The perception that this is an invasion is not one I agree with and the idea that we are sending people to man the walls of the Alamo to the last man is not something I think is right,” he told Hill.TV.

President Trump on Tuesday claimed falsely that "a lot of the wall" has already been built, and warned that he would send the military to build the “remaining sections.”




https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/ ... al-1063410
Quote:
Without President Donald Trump to worry about, a bipartisan deal would likely sail through Congress to fund the government ahead of the holidays. But with Trump fueling the border wall brinkmanship, everyone in the Capitol has basically stopped talking.

The House and Senate left town Thursday with no strategy to avert a partial government shutdown next week, putting Congress on the brink of an intractable conflict that could drag out through New Year’s Day — furloughing hundreds of thousands of workers and costing taxpayers millions.

Frustrated lawmakers in both parties are complaining that congressional leaders have made zero progress since Tuesday, when Trump stunned even his fellow Republicans by boasting that he would take the blame for the closure of a dozen federal agencies if he doesn’t get money for his border wall.

...“There is no discernable plan. None that’s been disclosed.” said Sen. John Cornyn, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, as he threw his hands into the air. “Everybody’s looking to [Trump] for a signal about what he wants to do. So far, it’s not clear.”
Maybe Congressional Republicans are finally admitting that relying on Trump to act like a reasonable president is not a good idea?



https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/dc-cou ... ller-case/
Quote:
DC court clears out entire floor for grand jury hearing in mysterious Mueller case




Edit:

Good news. I trust the DHS watchdog to investigate the little girl's death fairly. I wouldn't trust the agency itself, under Nielsen, even one tiny bit. She has lied more than once for Trump. Not to mention that they already kept this quiet for a week.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... grant-girl
Quote:
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) inspector general announced Friday it would investigate the death of a 7-year-old migrant girl who died after being taken into Border Patrol custody.

The watchdog will investigate the circumstances surrounding the girl's death and release a report on its findings, the inspector general's office said in statement.

The inspector general said it would also continue its unannounced inspections of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.

_________________

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: Sun 16 Dec , 2018 10:56 pm
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Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... steps-down
Quote:
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will depart the administration amid growing controversy over allegations that he violated ethics rules, President Trump announced Saturday.

...Trump announced Zinke's departure on Saturday amid a broader shake-up of his Cabinet and senior staff. Trump has nominated William Barr to become the new attorney general following Jeff Sessions's ouster last month. Trump on Friday also named Mick Mulvaney, the current White House budget chief, as acting chief of staff to replace John Kelly, who is leaving at the end of the month.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... dget-chief
Quote:
The White House confirmed Friday night that Mick Mulvaney will stay on as the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) even after he takes over as President Trump's acting chief of staff.

“Mick Mulvaney will not resign from the Office Of Management and Budget, but will spend all of his time devoted to his role as the acting Chief Of Staff for the President. Russ Vought will handle day to day operations and run OMB,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.

...This is the second role Mulvaney will take on in an acting capacity while leading the White House budget office. He had led the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since November 2017 after its previous director, Obama holdover Richard Cordray, left the post. The new permanent director was sworn in this week.
Sounds like Trump is finding it's difficult to find anyone willing to join his administration.



https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... le/578221/
Quote:
Trump’s Ability to Manipulate the News Cycle
The president uses his copious “executive time” to deflect media attention from multiple scandals.
Quote:
As the number of scandals surrounding the White House grows, so does, it seems, the president’s free time—and his ability to change the narrative.

It would take an exceptionally bad string of events to crown any one week the most tumultuous of Donald Trump’s presidency, but the past few days have been a strong contender. The Department of Justice implicated Trump in a scheme to pay two of his alleged former mistresses for their silence during the campaign, something he previously claimed to know nothing about. His longtime fixer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to prison for campaign-finance violations, and revealed that he was readily cooperating with the special counsel in the Russia investigation. Trump boasted on live TV that he had the votes in the House to pass a $5 billion package to fund his border wall, only to learn by week’s end that not enough members had stuck around town to even try. Finally, the public learned that prosecutors are investigating whether Trump’s inaugural committee accepted donations from foreign nations.

All of this, and yet on Wednesday, for example, the day after his spectacle of a meeting with Democratic leaders about a possible government shutdown, Trump reportedly didn’t show up to work until noon. And on Thursday, the president enjoyed nine and a half hours of “executive time”—his blocked-off periods to phone outside advisers, tweet, and watch cable news—according to an official White House schedule shared with me.

He also firmed up his holiday plans, his team placing a travel hold on his schedule between December 21—the deadline to fund much of the government—and January 6, when he will likely be at his Mar-a-Lago resort, according to a source familiar with the matter.

...This week thus showcased not only how the White House’s problems show no signs of ebbing, but also how, in spite of them all, Trump can still convince people to look elsewhere.

Much of Trump’s executive time, according to sources close to the president, is spent scanning headlines and “obsessing,” in the words of one former senior White House official, over the stock market. Trump views both as key metrics of his presidency, and enjoys his ability to influence them within moments of hitting “Send Tweet” from the residency. Rather than try to put out existing fires, the sources said, Trump prefers to spark new ones that play to his penchant for showmanship and intrigue....
His search for a new chief of staff, where he teased new names each day, was of course part of that.

And, based on the line I've underlined, it seems that Trump may be deliberately playing games with the stock market.



https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... rs/578167/
Quote:
Trump Is Helping the Saudis Starve Yemen

And House Republican leaders are thwarting efforts in Congress to stop him.


An interesting argument below. I think he may have a point, given how quickly the Trump supporters congregated on political messageboards en masse to vilify the parents of the young girl who died while in CBP custody, with some of the nastiest claiming her father should be jailed for child endangerment. Notably, they did this when the only information was that she died of "dehydration and shock" 8 hours after being taken into custody. Though I might label it callousness rather than cruelty.

The people who voted for Trump initially are one thing. The ones who continue to support him wholeheartedly and defend everything he does (to the point where their argument is now "so what if he did illegal things? Everyone does it.") are something else entirely.
https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index ... ump-cruel/
Quote:
The binding agent between Donald Trump and his backers is the president’s consistent demonstration of cruelty, argues writer Adam Serwer in the latest Atlantic Argument. From the president’s mockery of the disabled New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, to his denigration of Christine Blasey Ford, to his villainizing of undocumented immigrants, it has become clear that Trump galvanizes his base with invectives that target those who are suffering.

_________________

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 17 Dec , 2018 1:24 pm
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This is the second time I've seen a news story like this in the last few months. I think the first one involved a funeral and someone in South America. I didn't post it, assuming that we might not know the full story, but it's starting to look like there's a pattern of denials by the Trump administration.

https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... -dying-son
Quote:
The family of a 2-year-old boy on life support is saying that President Trump's travel ban is preventing his Yemeni mother from traveling to the U.S. to see him one final time, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

The newspaper reported that Abdullah Hassan, who was born in Yemen and has a form of hypomyelination, is no longer able to breathe on his own. His father, a U.S. citizen who lives in Stockton, Calif., took him to a hospital in about five months ago, where he has stayed since.

The family is reportedly prepared to take Abdullah off of life support. But they told the Chronicle that the U.S. State Department has ignored its attempts to give his mother, Shaima Swileh, a waiver to see him.

Trump spent Sunday morning tweeting. It's mostly the usual drivel about Cohen and the Mueller investigation, and hurt feelings about SNL parodies, but he also took time to defend his administration's previous (presumably) policy of taking migrant children from their parents. And the following intrusion into the judicial system is noteworthy:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -of-tweets
Quote:
He shared that he would review the case of Maj. Matthew Golsteyn, a Green Beret who was charged last week with the murder of an Afghan man stemming from a 2010 incident. Golsteyn could face the death penalty.

At the request of many, I will be reviewing the case of a “U.S. Military hero,” Major Matt Golsteyn, who is charged with murder. He could face the death penalty from our own government after he admitted to killing a Terrorist bomb maker while overseas. @PeteHegseth @FoxNews

...Observers on social media noted that Trump's tweet came a short time after an attorney for Golsteyn appeared on "Fox & Friends."
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... arged-with
Quote:
Golsteyn was first investigated for the man’s death beginning in 2011, after he recounted the shooting while applying for a CIA job. That investigation did not result in charges for Golsteyn, but he was stripped of his awards, including the Distinguished Service Cross, in 2014.

After the Green Beret discussed the killing on Fox News in 2016, the military opened another investigation.
Apparently Golsteyn acted as judge, jury and executioner when he killed a prisoner who was accused of being a Taliban bomb-maker. His "excuse" is that he was afraid some unnamed party (the army?) might release the prisoner. He and 2 other soldiers then tried to hide the evidence. Golsteyn is facing a military court and potential court-martial.
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-arm ... -incident/
Quote:
Golsteyn allegedly told CIA interviewers that he and another soldier took the alleged bomb-maker off base, shot him and buried his remains.

He also allegedly told the interviewers that on the night of the killing, he and two other soldiers dug up the body and burned it in a trash pit on base.
Had Trump bothered to get the information from his own military, I'm sure they could have provided him with more accurate information than an interview with Golsteyn's lawyer on Fox news.




The Department of Homeland Security does not seem to be very forthcoming with some members of Congress or news agencies about the death of the child reported last week - or the number of people who died in custody during the Trump administration. The last data the Voice of America could find was from 2015. CBP would not give them more recent data.

https://www.voanews.com/a/questions-sur ... 01896.html
Quote:
The death of a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl while in U.S. custody on the Southwest border last week is raising questions about when and how border officials handled not only her symptoms and treatment, but the subsequent delayed disclosure of her death to the public, the media and Congress.

...In the statement, CBP also said it is reviewing its "notification policies on deaths to the public and Congress" amid questions about why the agency did not disclose Jakelin's death until a Washington Post story was published this week, and why Commissioner Kevin McAleenan did not mention the girl's death during his congressional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Dec. 11.

Deaths in CBP custody are rare, according to the agency's last report to Congress, as mandated by law, which included data for fiscal 2015. That year, the report said 10 people died as a result of use of force by CBP officials. Additionally, one person who died while in custody had a pre-existing medical condition, another committed suicide in a CBP holding facility, and a third died from heatstroke after being apprehended by CBP agents.

VOA requested updated information from DHS and CBP about the number of deaths in CBP custody for the past three years.

DHS assistant press secretary Katie Waldman responded with the number of rescues Border Protection officials have performed in the last year, but did not include the number of deaths in custody.

A follow-up email regarding the questions about deaths in CBP custody went unanswered.

https://thehill.com/latino/421728-dhs-t ... t-girl-who
Quote:
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reportedly told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that they will not be permitted to interview Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents involved in detaining the young migrant girl who died after being taken into federal custody.
DHS is apparently the one claiming that the child didn't eat or drink for days. The father disputes that - one account suggests that a bus took them within a short distance of the border. The DHS statement says the child died of septic shock - which indicates she had an overwhelming infection - rather than just shock, which could be due to anything that causes the circulatory system to collapse. I'm not sure if the hospital has issued any statement.

I expect we'll get some answers once the Inspector General releases the report but I don't like this lack of transparency from DHS. To me, it looks like they're trying to hide something. Though the child's family seems to be satisfied with the care she received, which is something.


https://thehill.com/latino/421746-detai ... to-lawyers
Quote:
Three detained migrants are suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), claiming agents are restricting their access to legal counsel.

...Immigration detainees are not provided free legal representation, as would detainees under criminal indictment, but have a right to outside representation. The plaintiffs are seeking to represent 2,000 other immigration detainees in three facilities in Southern California.



https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying ... an-illegal
Quote:
A group of lawyers who served in past GOP administrations, as well as many high-ranking former Republican officials, said in a Supreme Court filing that President Trump's attempted asylum ban is illegal.

The lawyers and officials argue that the "government is simply wrong" in its position that the Trump administration can enforce the policy under federal asylum law.
The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to place an injunction from lower courts on hold. The lower courts ruled that Trump could not use an executive order to change the asylum laws passed by Congress.





Trump is using taxpayer money to give another round of money to farmers, to offset the harm from his tariffs and the retaliation they caused. He certainly knows how to buy loyalty. :
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/4217 ... ade-damage
Quote:
President Trump on Monday announced his administration was planning to disburse a second tranche of aid as part of a $12 billion package meant to assist American farmers stung by retaliatory trade measures enacted by China and other foreign governments.

"Today I am making good on my promise to defend our Farmers & Ranchers from unjustified trade retaliation by foreign nations," Trump tweeted. "I have authorized Secretary Perdue to implement the 2nd round of Market Facilitation Payments. Our economy is stronger than ever–we stand with our Farmers!"
Note that there is no mention of his role in creating the mess in the first place. He's just the nice guy taking care of farmers.



Not surprisingly, Trump seems to want closer ties to Brazil, now that they have elected a leader that he admires:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... auguration
Quote:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will lead a delegation to the Jan. 1 presidential inauguration of Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, President Trump announced on Monday.

Bolsonaro has been described by some as the "Trump of the Tropics" for his nationalist views. After Bolsonaro met with White House national security adviser John Bolton last month, Bolton called the right-wing populist a "like-mined" partner.

...Bolsonaro, a longtime Brazilian congressman, has been fiercely criticized for his rhetoric that opponents and activists have called racist, sexist and anti-LGBTQ. He has faced multiple fines and charges for statements targeting black, gay and indigenous Brazilians.

_________________

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 18 Dec , 2018 5:41 pm
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https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... a-shocking
Quote:
President Trump’s charity, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, has agreed to dissolve amid allegations from the New York Attorney General's office that it engaged in a "shocking pattern of illegality."

New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood announced Tuesday that her office will continue to pursue its lawsuit against the foundation, which seeks $2.8 millions in restitution plus penalties, as well as an order barring Trump and his three oldest children — Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump — from serving on the boards of other New York Charities.

...Underwood said the investigation she opened against the foundation in 2016 revealed the charity “was little more than a checkbook for payments to not-for-profits from Mr. Trump or the Trump Organization.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mueller-r ... w?ref=home
Quote:
For more than a year, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office has questioned witnesses broadly about their interactions with well-connected Russians. But three sources familiar with Mueller’s probe told The Daily Beast that his team is now zeroing in on Trumpworld figures who may have attempted to shape the administration's foreign policy by offering to ease U.S. sanctions on Russia.

The Special Counsel’s Office is preparing court filings that are expected to detail Trump associates’ conversations about sanctions relief—and spell out how those offers and counter-proposals were characterized to top figures on the campaign and in the administration, those same sources said.

...Just a week after Trump took office, Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii V. Artemenko handed Michael Cohen, then Trump’s personal lawyer, a “peace plan” that would lift sanctions. Accounts differ on how seriously the proposal was considered by the administration.

Around the same time, Trump reportedly asked staffers in the State Department to come up with a plan to roll back sanctions. But the department’s transition team was disorganized and understaffed, according to one person on the team. The request never made its way to people tasked with advising the White House on sanctions, according to two former national-security officials.
According to the article, it sounds like they wanted to please Putin but missed their opportunity. By the time they got their plans together, Congress was increasing Russian sanctions.



Flynn is being sentenced today. The judge does not sound happy with him at all. He asked the prosecution whether they'd ever considered charging him with treason.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/ ... index.html
So much for the Trump supporters celebrating that the judge had asked Mueller for transcripts of the interviews. They were so certain that Flynn was now going to get off and Mueller would be disciplined.
(Edit: What's unbelievable is that some of them are STILL yammering on about perjury traps and how Flynn was framed. They're delusional. Or Russian trolls?)


...and sentencing has been delayed. Flynn's lawyers took the judge up on that offer since he's still cooperating with Mueller's team.
I suspect Trump is in big trouble and now knows it. People have been predicting that things could become very crazy and dangerous once Trump sees the walls closing in on him.


Edit 2:
Our Minister of Propaganda refuses to take back her/ Trump's accusation of wrongdoing against the FBI over Flynn.:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... s-ambushed
Quote:
President Trump's top spokesperson on Tuesday offered well wishes for former national security adviser Michael Flynn and said she had no reason to take back her claim he was "ambushed" by the FBI.

"The delay is something between Gen. Flynn and the courts," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said after a federal judge delayed his sentencing. "In the meantime, we wish Gen. Flynn well."




Roger Stone wants you to pay him not to testify against Trump:
https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurit ... inst-trump

And Trump wants you to call a hotline to thank him for all the wonderful things he's done. Seriously.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4 ... -thank-him




------------------

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4218 ... nt-command
Quote:
President Trump on Tuesday directed the Pentagon to create Space Command, a unified combatant command meant to lay the groundwork for his proposal to create Space Force.

“Pursuant to my authority as the Commander in Chief and under section 161 of title 10, United States Code, and in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I direct the establishment, consistent with United States law, of United States Space Command as a functional Unified Combatant Command,” Trump said in a memo to the Pentagon on Tuesday

....The Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the incoming Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee have both expressed skepticism at plans for Space Force, in part because of cost.

In September, a widely-leaked Air Force memo pegged the costs in the first five years at $13 billion. ..Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, who is leading the Pentagon’s planning, has estimated the costs will be in the single-digit billions, likely falling between $5 billion and $10 billion.
If this is anything like the rest of our military, the costs will just escalate from there.



Trump did ban bump stocks finally, to kudos to him for that:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ump-stocks

And thanks no doubt to the publicity, the decision on a visa for the mother in Yemen was reversed and she does get to see her son before he's taken off life support:
https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... a-hospital



https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ll-funding
Quote:
President Trump has asked all Cabinet agencies to find additional funds that could be used to build his long-desired border wall, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday.
So let's take money from the CDC, the EPA, the Park Service, etc, so Dear Leader can have his Great Wall when he hasn't been able to convince Congress to give it to him.


No matter what happens with the Great Wall, Trump will, it seems, leave a legacy. In science, no less:
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... fter-trump
Quote:
A blind amphibian creature that buries its head in the sand was discovered recently has been named after President Trump.

A man bought the rights to officially name the species Dermophis donaldtrumpi, Aidan Bell, head of sustainable building materials company EnviroBuild, paid $25,000 at an auction to name the species Dermophis donaldtrumpi, according to the Guardian.

Bell said the creature's tendency to bury its head in the sand is similar to Trump’s approach to global warming and climate change.

_________________

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 20 Dec , 2018 2:32 pm
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It seems that King Trump relied on his gut feelings with the announcement that the US is withdrawing from Syria and left pretty much everyone else, including members of his own administration and allies, in the dark. Whether or not we withdraw, this is not how things should work if the president is even remotely competent.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4222 ... l-after-it
Quote:
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was not aware of President Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria until after it was made Wednesday, The Washington Post reported.

Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. was not involved in the meeting with Trump in which he made the decision and was left in the dark until after the meeting, according to the Post, citing several sources familiar with the matter.
https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... p-decision
Quote:
French officials on Wednesday said that the nation is keeping troops in northern Syria because ISIS has not been defeated and still poses a threat, according to Reuters.

...Diplomats from nation [sic] told Reuters that they were surprised by President Trump's announcement on Wednesday that the U.S. would be withdrawing its troops from the region.
Congress was also taken by surprise.


Putin is pleased, though
https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... e-with-him
Quote:
Russia President Vladimir Putin on Thursday voiced support for President Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.

“On this, Donald is right. I agree with him,” Putin said at an annual year-end news conference, according to The Washington Post.


It also seems that the ban on bump stocks was done by reinterpreting an existing law. While I agree with the ban, I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the executive branch doing things this way instead of having Congress pass a law. Not that this Congress seems willing to do anything that might annoy the NRA.



Another crack in Fox news's solid support for Trump:
https://thehill.com/media/422206-fox-ne ... order-wall
Quote:
Fox News host Lisa "Kennedy" Montgomery on Wednesday claimed "we’d all be up in arms" if former President Obama did what President Trump has done with funding his proposed U.S.–Mexico border wall.

...“That’s not the way the government works,” Kennedy said on Fox News. “You can’t just take $1 billion from this program, $1 billion from over here, and then put it toward your pet project.”

She claimed that if Obama had taken money from the U.S. defense budget and put it toward a solar company, Republicans would "all be up in arms."




It seems that Trump's Attorney General nominee is much more partisan about the Mueller investigation than it looked at first.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... e-probe-in
Quote:
William Barr, President Trump’s pick for attorney general, sent the Justice Department (DOJ) an unsolicited memo in June criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible obstruction of justice, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Barr stated that he was a "former official," writing that he hoped his "views may be useful," the Journal reported. According to the paper, Barr wrote that he was concerned about Mueller's probe into possible obstruction of justice by Trump.

According to the document, which was obtained and reviewed by the Journal, Barr said Mueller's probe is based on a "fatally misconceived" theory that would cause irreparable harm to the presidency.
No wonder Trump picked him. I'll bet he thinks Nixon shouldn't have been impeached, either.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... nald-trump
Quote:
The White House’s nominee to head a top US conservation agency lacks her predecessors’ experience, while her political connections raise potential conflicts of interest, a Guardian analysis has found.

Aurelia Skipwith, who started her career at the agrochemical giant Monsanto, has been nominated to lead the interior department’s Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees endangered species and wildlife refuges.

Most former directors spent many years working at the agency or in similar state agencies before ascending to the top post. But Skipwith’s record shows no background in conservation before she joined the Trump administration less than two years ago as deputy assistant secretary of fish, wildlife and parks.

Skipwith holds degrees in biology, molecular genetics and law and has worked in crop science and corporate affairs. While in law school, she worked with two consulting firms which were founded or co-founded by her fiance, a politically well-connected Montanan who runs in the same circles as the outgoing interior secretary,

...The nomination is the latest example of how Zinke installed people with industry or political ties throughout the agency, ushering in an expansion of resource extraction at the expense of conservation, according to documents obtained by the Guardian.

Edit:

Acting Attorney General Whittaker has been cleared by the ethics committee to oversee the Mueller investigation. https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ller-probe
Also, the House committee has voted unanimously (!) to release official transcripts of their interviews with Roger Stone to Mueller. https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... to-mueller Supposedly, Mueller already has unofficial transcripts but can't proceed with an indictment of Stone until he has official copies, so this suggests an indictment is in the works. No big surprise.

Edit: Or maybe the announcement about Whitaker is all smoke and mirrors. Supposedly he didn't ask for a formal ruling from the ethics office and the informal one suggested that he should err on the side of caution and recuse himself. This is twitter, so take it for what it is. https://twitter.com/DelWilber/status/10 ... 0732198914



Meanwhile,
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/422 ... third-time
Quote:
Legislation protecting special counsel Robert Mueller from being fired was blocked in the Senate on Wednesday for a third time in roughly a month. Retiring GOP Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) asked consent to get a vote on the long-stalled legislation, which passed out of the Judiciary Committee in April. But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has argued the legislation isn't needed because he doesn't believe President Trump will try to fire Mueller, objected.

And some people are raising their eyebrows over this:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... in-30-days
Quote:
The Trump administration is ready to remove sanctions on Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska’s aluminum company, United Co. Rusal, after reaching an agreement to significantly reduce his ownership stake.

Deripaska will remain under U.S. sanctions and his property will remain blocked, but the Treasury department intends to remove financial restrictions on Rusal, En+ Group Plc and EuroSibEnergo JSC. The move will take effect in 30 days unless Congress blocks the action

...The oligarch’s stake in EN+ will fall from approximately 70 percent to 44.95 percent, according to a letter from the Treasury Department to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. VTB Bank or another entity approved by the Treasury Department will take ownership of a block of shares in EN+ as collateral for previous obligations companies controlled by the billionaire have to the bank. Deripaska also will donate a block of shares to a charitable foundation, according to the letter.

Read more: Deripaska share recipients are said to include his own charity
Apparently VTB is the Russian-owned state bank and the same bank that was going to provide the financing for Trump's project in Russia - the one with the free penthouse suite for Putin (also the one Trump lied about during the presidential campaign when he said had no recent business interests in Russia...)



https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... fshore-oil
Quote:
Nine states along the East Coast have joined a lawsuit challenging a key move by the Trump administration that could allow offshore oil and natural gas drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.

The states’ Democratic attorneys general are objecting both to the possible harm to marine life from the administration-approved seismic testing and to the potential offshore drilling that could result from the testing


Trump was ready to reluctantly sign a stopgap measure to fund the government for a few weeks and avert a shutdown. Fox "news" personalities and right wing sites had a fit that he wasn't standing firm and demanding the funding for his wall. So then there was an emergency meeting with GOP leadership. And now, it looks like chaos and possibly a shutdown.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... g-shutdown
Quote:
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday that President Trump will not sign a stopgap spending bill over concerns about border security, a decision that increases the risk of a government shutdown.
“The president informed us he will not sign the bill,” he told reporters at the White House after meeting with Trump.

In a minute-long statement on the driveway outside the West Wing, the Speaker said lawmakers would work on adding border security measures to the funding bill but did not specifically mention border-wall funding.
It reminds me of when they had a bipartisan agreement on immigration, Trump said he'd sign it, then the hard liners in his administration got to him first and he blindsided everyone by refusing to sign anything (the "shithole countries" meeting). How this moron ever ran a company, I don't know. I assume he just took credit for everything and others did the actual running.

At least we all know exactly who to blame. Trump is on record saying that he would shut down the government if he doesn't get his wall.


https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/422 ... -disbelief
Quote:
GOP senators emerged from the closed-door meeting in visible disbelief that President Trump is refusing to sign a seven-week stopgap measure to fund the government that cleared the chamber by a voice vote less than 24 hours ago.

...Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who is retiring in early January, started laughing when he was told of Trump's decision. "Well, why not?" he quipped, asked why he was laughing, adding that he was "not really" surprised by Trump's decision.

"On this? I don't know. Y'all have fun. I'm getting ready to fly to Chattanooga. ...[Leadership] has no guidance right now," Corker said, asked what happened next. "I think they're just sort of swirling around over there at the White House."

Asked if he thought the continuing resolution (CR) could still be signed, Corker added... "I don't know. ... Who knows. Does the person sitting behind him at the White House know? Who would know? Who would know," Corker said. "I love it, you can't make this stuff up."




https://thehill.com/policy/finance/4223 ... down-chaos
Quote:
Stocks sunk deeper on Thursday as the federal government edged closer to a partial shutdown and traders braced for the impact of further Federal Reserve rate hikes.

...Thursday’s sell-off brought stocks to new lows for 2018. Without a rebound, stocks are on track for their worst December in decades. It would also represent the first time since the Great Depression that markets closed the year lower than they started.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday called Wall Street’s reaction “completely overblown” and predicted a “very attractive investment market” in 2019.
I guess Trump and Peter Navarro told him to say that. Or maybe he's just a fool.

_________________

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 20 Dec , 2018 10:55 pm
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Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
And Matthis is gone, too. One of the few remaining adults has left the room.


His letter:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/20/james-m ... -says.html
Quote:
In a letter addressed to Trump, Mattis said that "because you have a right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours" on a number of subjects, "I believe it is right for me to step down from my position."
Read the actual letter. It is not flattering to Trump.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ion-letter



And Trump pretends it was an ordinary retirement.
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4223 ... f-february
Quote:
General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years. During Jim’s tenure, tremendous progress has been made, especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting....

We are now mostly in the hands of the con man and his enablers.
I wouldn't be too surprised if Putin's next move is to openly overrun Ukraine, not just run a covert military operation in part of the country.



Speaking of enablers, Trump has cowed the GOP with his childish reversal:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4223 ... all-demand
Quote:
Faced with a conservative revolt and a change of heart from an unpredictable president, House GOP leaders on Thursday altered course and will try to ram through a government spending bill that includes $5.7 billion for President Trump's wall and border security.

The new funding package would add two things to the stopgap measure that cleared the Senate by voice vote Wednesday night: $5 billion for President Trump’s wall on the Mexican border and another $700 million for border security; and $8.7 billion in emergency disaster aid for wildfires, hurricane damage and flooding.

The US president is apparently being run by the likes of Rush Limbaugh. Trump couldn't be bothered to let his own military or diplomats know about a major change in foreign policy but he has time to keep a rabid right wing talk show host informed about his next move on the budget.
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4223 ... wall-money
Quote:
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh told his listeners on Thursday afternoon that President Trump got word to him that he would veto any government funding bill that doesn't include money for his proposed border wall.

Limbaugh made the comments minutes after Trump met with a group of House Republicans at the White House to discuss efforts to pass a government funding bill that would avert a partial government shutdown starting Saturday.




And not too surprising:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ers-report
Quote:
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly investigating Southwest Key Programs, the nation’s largest operator of shelters for migrant children, of possible misuse of federal funds, according to The New York Times.

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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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Jude
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 21 Dec , 2018 3:54 pm
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Question: in the U.S., do you have an equivalent of a "non-confidence vote"?

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 21 Dec , 2018 4:31 pm
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Unfortunately, no.

The closest is the 25th amendment, which says we can get rid of a president unable/ unfit to discharge his duties. But the procedure for that would require the Republicans in the Senate to have a backbone and some interest in serving their country over themselves. At the moment, they seem to be too terrified of the poorly informed Trump-loving cult and what they might do to what's left of the Republican party, to take that risk.

It's possible that the Mueller report will give them the cover to get rid of Trump by impeachment, if they decide he's become too much of a liability. Or there will be quiet talks with him that let him resign for "health reasons" to save face. But I think that will only happen if he becomes a political liability as well as an unstable danger to the world.


To be fair, I'm not entirely sure the Democrats would be better in an equivalent situation. Right now, the Democratic leadership seems to be loving the situation where Trump is so bad that he's destroying the Republican party in the eyes of many moderates and sensible people.

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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 21 Dec , 2018 8:44 pm
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A surprising bit of fact-checking from Fox news:
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/fox-ne ... lame-dems/
Quote:
Fox News plays video of Trump taking credit for shutdown after he tries to blame it on Dems

There are some signs the GOP is losing patience with Trump's infantile behavior:
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/422 ... er-demands
Quote:
Senate Republicans said on Friday, with less than 10 hours to avert a partial government shutdown, that they are waiting for clarity from President Trump on his funding demands.

...A group of Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), met with Trump on Friday morning at the White House. McConnell said after the meeting they would talk again later that day.

Asked about potential negotiations to prevent a lapse in funding, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.),... pointed to three takeaways. "Mostly, nuclear option and shutdown's acceptable to him would be the two take away points, I think, and the wall matters and it will be beautiful when built. So there were three takeaway points," Blunt quipped.

The clamor for more specifics from the administration comes after senators were caught flat-footed when Trump reversed course and told House lawmakers he wouldn't sign the Senate-passed "clean" stopgap bill that didn't include a boost in border funding.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), when asked about the path forward, said senators "don't know what president will sign."... Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) echoed that sentiment

...In a tweet knocking Democrats on Friday morning, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also called out the White House on its flip flopping. "On Wed the WH said they 'open' to Senate bill. They should have just told us they opposed it BEFORE we wasted time voting on it," he tweeted.

However, Trump does seem to have been very successful in getting everyone to focus on a potential shutdown, in spite of the fact it has happened many times before, instead of on the unprecedentedly critical letter from Mattis. People have resigned from administrations before. They don't normally leave a blistering letter indicating that the president doesn't believe in maintaining strong alliances or respecting US allies and isn't "clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors." The gist of it is that Trump wants a sycophant who will agree with his ignorant wrecking-ball approach to international affairs and Mattis isn't that person.



Speaking of the military, Trump has had another worrisome effect on the government:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/15/ge ... icy-wonks/
rustrated by lack of influence and disheartened by U.S. President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, Department of
Quote:
Defense civilians are heading for the door, leaving key positions unfilled in a Pentagon increasingly run by active-duty or retired military officers.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense, or OSD for short, is the civilian arm of the department, crucial in assisting the secretary in policy development, operations planning, resource management, and more. OSD is traditionally a place where people spend entire careers—one former official likened it to “joining a priesthood”—but today it appears to be eroding at all levels. Interviews with a dozen current and former Department of Defense civilians reveal an increasingly hollow and demoralized workforce, with staffers feeling they no longer have a seat at the table.

Civilian oversight of the military “was already weakening in the last administration, and I think it basically fell off a cliff,” said one former Defense Department official who requested anonymity. “It sucks to work in an office where nobody listens to you.”



This decision from the Supreme Court is not surprising. What was surprising and worrisome was to hear our Dept. of Justice representatives and the head of Homeland Security claiming that the Trump administration would prevail. They know the law and knew it wasn't true.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... ary-asylum
Quote:
The Supreme Court on Friday refused a request from the Trump administration to restore newly-implemented restrictions to prevent some migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally from applying for asylum.

Reuters reported that the court denied the motion from the Justice Department following a ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month that rejected the Trump administration's efforts to delay a judge's order blocking the new asylum policy.

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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 22 Dec , 2018 8:53 pm
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Trump has considered firing the Federal Rreserve chairman because the Federal Reserve is doing what committe members consider best for the economy, not bowing to Trump's ignorant demands:
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/4225 ... -rate-hike
Quote:
President Trump has discussed firing Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell after the central bank announced this week that it would raise interest rates, Bloomberg reports.

The Fed’s policymaking arm, the Federal Open Market Committee, voted Wednesday to raise the baseline interest rate range to 2.25 to 2.5 percent, a 0.25 percentage point increase.

...According to Bloomberg, the decision led Trump to privately discuss firing Powell. Unnamed advisers told the news outlet that they hoped the president would back down from the threats over the Christmas holiday.
Because Trump is a stable genius who knows more than experts about everything.



https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... lea-report
Quote:
President Trump reportedly fumed to his acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, after his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty last month for misstatements he made to Congress while testifying about his contacts with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign.

CNN reported Friday that Trump has spoken to Whitaker at least twice in recent weeks, venting his frustration that prosectors [sic] in the Justice Department filed charges that made him look bad.

Trump suggested the New York prosectors [sic] were out of line and questioned Whitaker about why more wasn't being done to rein them in, sources told CNN.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ted-ethics
Quote:
A government watchdog group on Friday urged the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate whether acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker violated federal ethics standards when he decided not to recuse himself from involvement in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe..


And of course Trump shut down the government in his temper tantrum that he doesn't get $5 billion to spend on his wall over the next few weeks.



Some outgoing GOP members speak freely about the mess Trump is making:
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/4225 ... in-the-usa
Quote:
Outgoing Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) on Saturday lamented ...
Still with the benefit (or curse) of an inside perspective, I must say that the instability & chaos in our government the past few days has been particularly pronounced - worse than at any point during my service in Congress, & really, my lifetime. Things are not well in the USA.

...Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), another House Republican who voted against the funding for Trump's wall and is retiring next month, similarly blasted the "chaos" surrounding the funding fight this week.... "Just to expect anything other than unpredictability out of President Trump is foolish."


It sounds like the Trump made another policy decision without the type of planning that would be necessary to make it successful.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/ne ... story.html
Quote:
A couple of hours after the Trump administration announced a new agreement with Mexico that will send asylum seekers back south after they ask the U.S. for protection, migrants and Mexican federal immigration officials in Tijuana were equally surprised by the news.

...San Diego immigration attorneys said the announcement left them with more questions than answers. They wondered if the responsibility would fall to border courts, and the attorneys working in them, to represent all asylum seekers who try to cross.

..."It feels like none of this was thought through at all," said attorney Tammy Lin. She wondered how asylum seekers in Mexico would get to the courts for hearings that can drag on over the course of the year.

A Mexican immigration official responsible for communicating between the group responsible for the notebook and U.S. officials at the port of entry said even he hadn't heard about the change.
And based on various news reports, it sounds like the shelters in Mexico are already overcrowded and inadequate. If the U.S. is going to send everyone back while they wait, I'm sure Mexico will want some money to help with that.

_________________

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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Jude
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Sun 23 Dec , 2018 6:02 pm
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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 24 Dec , 2018 3:10 pm
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:LMAO: :LMAO: :LMAO: :LMAO:

IF ONLY!!!!

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