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You've been Trumped!

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Sat 23 Jun , 2018 4:30 pm
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Beware the northern border, too. This is awful and ridiculous
https://news.sky.com/story/beach-jogger ... e-11414218
Quote:
A French woman says she ended up being detained for two weeks in the US after crossing the border from Canada by mistake while jogging on a beach.

.."I said to myself, well I may have crossed the border - but they'll probably only give me a fine or they'll tell me to go back to Canada or they'll give me a warning." But things got more complicated as she was not carrying any government-issued identification on her at the time.

The officers took her to the Tacoma northwest detention centre, run by the Department of Homeland Security, about 190km (120m) to the south. "They put me in the caged vehicles and brought me into their facility," she said. "They asked me to remove all my personal belongings with my jewellery, they searched me everywhere.

...When she reached the centre, she contacted her mother, Christiane Ferne, who quickly took her passport and study permits to the facility.But the staff there said the documents would have to be verified by Canadian authorities.

...A spokesperson for the US customs and border protection told CBC that anyone who enters the US outside an official port of entry and without inspection has crossed the border illegally and will be detained.

_________________

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: Sat 23 Jun , 2018 5:51 pm
Aspiring to heresy
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One thing not mentioned in the excerpt quoted above is that the woman in question was black. I wonder if she would have been treated differently if she were white and blonde.

(My guess is that she would have been back in Canada the same day)

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Melkor and Ungoliant in need of some relationship counselling.


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Sat 23 Jun , 2018 6:58 pm
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Quote:
My guess is that she would have been back in Canada the same day
I don't know, but I have my doubts. I get the feeling there is simply not a good atmosphere at Canadian border under Trump (though some of it predates him). "Zero tolerance" (which to me translates to "100% rigidity and suspicion") seems to be the mantra, these days. There have been other incidents. A few weeks ago, an off-duty border patrol agent detained and questioned 2 American women in Montana just because he heard them speaking Spanish at a convenience store checkout in the evening.

Though the jogger is probably lucky she wasn't Muslim or Hispanic.

_________________

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 25 Jun , 2018 4:01 pm
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... rity-risks
Quote:
The Treasury Department is planning to heighten scrutiny of Chinese investments in sensitive U.S. industries under an emergency law, putting Washington’s trade war with Beijing on a potentially irreversible course.

Under the plan, the White House would use one of the most significant legal measures available to declare China’s investment in U.S. companies involved in technologies such as new-energy vehicles, robotics and aerospace a threat to economic and national security, according to eight people familiar with the plans.

Reports that the U.S. is considering such extreme unilateral measures may be viewed by China as a shift away from any chance of diplomacy.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -fake-news
Quote:
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday ripped reports that the administration is planning to curb Chinese investments. "On behalf of @realDonaldTrump, the stories on investment restrictions in Bloomberg & WSJ are false, fake news," Mnuchin said in a tweet.

"The leaker either doesn’t exist or know the subject very well," he added. "Statement will be out not specific to China, but to all countries that are trying to steal our technology.
In other words, a non-denial - and yet it's "fake" news. Two other news sites also reported it.
Quote:
The Wall Street Journal reported late on Sunday that President Trump planned to block Chinese companies from investing in U.S. tech companies and stop U.S. tech exports to China...The administration's plans are set to be unveiled later this week, it added.

Politico, meantime, reports that the aggressive moves were spearheaded by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro.

The reports come amid increased trade tensions between the U.S. and China.


https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/06 ... ises-alarm
Quote:
Reversing yet another policy of the previous administration, the U.S. Department of State today began applying tougher restrictions on some Chinese graduate students. The new policy shortens from 5 years to 1 year the duration of visas for those planning to study aviation, robotics, and advanced manufacturing. Although the ostensible reason for the change is to improve national security, U.S. university officials see it as the latest attack on graduate education and the free flow of scientific knowledge.

...The new rule will make it harder for the affected Chinese students to attend international conferences and to work collaboratively with scientists abroad, U.S. higher education officials say. It may also curtail periodic visits back home. When added to other policies by the current administration that affect non-U.S. citizens, academic officials say, the visa change gives these talented foreign students one more reason to pursue advanced degrees in countries with lower barriers to entry.
It's worth noting that many Chinese graduate students end up staying in the US, getting jobs that require advanced education and contributing to the US economy. (though I imagine that's a problem to some of Trump's advisers who don't like any sort of immigration, like Steven Miller)



A couple of older articles confirming that DHS is increasing its temporary checkpoints on highways, buses, trains, etc. under Trump. They are also searching more cellphones and computers of travelers at entry points.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/us/p ... rches.html
Quote:
Border Patrol officers are working without permission on private property and setting up checkpoints up to 100 miles away from the border under a little-known federal law that is being used more widely in the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration.

...Trump administration officials defend the government’s decades-old authority to search people and property, even without a warrant, far from the border. They call it a vital part of preventing weapons, terrorists and other people from illegally entering the United States.

But officials conceded that some of the searches — particularly those aboard Greyhound buses or Amtrak trains on domestic routes — had increased since the Obama administration. And under President Trump, field supervisors have regained the authority to order the searches, instead of officials at Border Patrol headquarters in Washington.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/us/p ... puter.html
Quote:
Customs officers stationed at the American border and at airports searched an estimated 30,200 cellphones, computers and other electronic devices of people entering and leaving the United States last year — an almost 60 percent increase from 2016, according to Homeland Security Department data released on Friday.

_________________

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 26 Jun , 2018 2:53 pm
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Appointing Neil Gorsuch seems to be paying off for Trump
http://thehill.com/regulation/court-bat ... travel-ban
Quote:
The Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling upheld President Trump’s ban on nationals from five Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

The majority opinion was authored by Chief Justice John Roberts. Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch joined Roberts, with liberal Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissenting.
http://thehill.com/regulation/court-bat ... cy-centers
Quote:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dealt a blow to a California law that requires anti-abortion clinics to post information about where women can obtain a low cost procedure and contraception from the state.

In a 5-4 ruling, the court said that the notices for licensed facilities likely violates the First Amendment and notices for unlicensed facilities unduly burdens protected speech. The decision was a win for the clinics, known as "crisis pregnancy centers," which had argued the requirements under the state’s Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care and Transparency, or FACT Act, infringed on their speech rights, forcing them to promote a procedure they morally oppose.

Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the opinion of the court, which Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch joined. Justice Stephen Breyer filed a dissenting opinion, which Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined.



http://thehill.com/regulation/energy-en ... r-epa-jobs
Quote:
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt tried to recruit top executives from oil and gas trading groups to jobs within the agency, according to emails obtained through an Freedom of Information Act request.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... g-standard
Quote:
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is kicking off the process of reviewing the nation’s ground-level ozone pollution standard, a project likely to take years.

In a notice due for publication in the Federal Register Tuesday, the EPA says it’s taking comments from the public to prepare to initial documents for the review to lay out the plan for the review process and the scientific literature on ozone, a component of smog.

The review will take place under new standards that President Trump set in an April memo. He instructed the EPA, when setting new air quality rules, to consider factors like “adverse public health or other effects that may result from implementation” of the rules and the extent to which areas have background levels of the pollutants that aren’t caused by human activity.

Both factors have long been pushed by industry in an attempt to get more lenient air pollution standards written.



http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... eparations
Quote:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he is not concerned about potential backlash from the Trump administration's trade barriers or the optics of separating migrant children from their parents at the southern border.

The top diplomat told CNN in an interview that the nation's traditional embrace of human rights, foreign aid and free trade would ultimately overshadow any short-term blows to its reputation stemming from the Trump administration's trade policies or the separations of migrant families.

"I am not at all concerned that anyone in the world can look at the United States and understand it to be anything but a beacon of hope, democracy and freedom," he said. "We have a long history of that and it has continued under the Trump administration."
http://thehill.com/latino/394138-undocu ... -attorneys
Quote:
Undocumented immigrants being held at a federal prison in Oregon will now receive access to attorneys... The specific terms come under a temporary restraining order that says the 121 detainees will get daily access to attorney visiting rooms and phone calls.

...Oregon ACLU representatives added that before the judge's order, attorneys were not allowed to enter the facility to meet with detainees.

...A government attorney told the TV station that the federal government considers the order unnecessary.

The development comes as President Trump has ramped up his attacks on the U.S. immigration system. On Sunday, he called for eliminating due process for immigrants accused of entering the country illegally.“When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order,” Trump tweeted.
Note that the Trump administration is sending some people to be held in federal prisons if they applied for asylum after crossing the border illegally. So being in a federal prison doesn't mean these people (some of whom have been held for several weeks now) have been accused of any real crimes, and none of them has been convicted of anything at this point.

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/internat ... aid-budget
Quote:
The United States has quietly frozen its aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) pending review, i24NEWS has learned. The move comes two months after Congress passed the Taylor Force Act, which aimed to force the PA to terminate its “pay-for-slay” policies of paying stipends to convicted terrorists in Israeli jails and to the families of dead terrorists. The act orders that US assistance to the West Bank and Gaza “that directly benefits the PA” be suspended unless the Secretary of State certifies that the Palestinian Authority has met four conditions: terminating these payments to terrorists, revoking laws authorizing this compensation, taking “credible steps” to end Palestinian terrorism, and “publicly condemning” and investigating such acts of violence.

...The funding freeze has caused the suspension of certain programs run by international agencies. An official at the HALO Trust, which performs landmine clearance operations in the West Bank, told i24NEWS that it had suspended operations because the United States had stopped transferring funds at the end of May, leaving a major funding shortfall.

The withholding of USAID’s total budget as well as third-party projects means the administration is taking an expansive interpretation of what assistance “directly benefits” the PA, viewing humanitarian projects that would otherwise need to be paid for by the PA as constituting direct assistance to that organization.

Last edited by aninkling on Tue 26 Jun , 2018 2:59 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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Dave_LF
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Tue 26 Jun , 2018 2:59 pm
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Between packed courts and gerrymandered districts, I suspect the minority party will remain in power for a long time.


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 27 Jun , 2018 1:20 pm
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You're probably right. What bothers me most about the courts is that the GOP used the Democrats' collegiality to block their choices for judges in every way possible, then when it came time for the GOP to be in power, they've thrown out every courtesy, like the Senate blue slip rules, to push through their nominees. And even worse, Trump has refused to pay any attention to the American Bar Association's "not qualified" rating - and that's just an evaluation of their qualifications, not a political statement. One guy he nominated had never even tried a case.


btw, I had missed the court decision that allows some gerrymandering:
https://www.economist.com/democracy-in- ... riminatory
Quote:
IT HAS not been a good month for voting rights at the Supreme Court. On June 11th, the justices gave the green-light to states experimenting with new ways of removing voters from the rolls. A week later, the court told America that procedural tangles prevented it from doing anything to curb partisan gerrymandering—at least for now. On June 25th the five conservative justices formed a bare majority to mostly absolve Texas of findings it had discriminated against Latinos when lawmakers redrew congressional and state-legislative maps following the 2010 census.
Quote:
Justice Sotomayor saw things rather differently. Beyond the majority’s doubtful assertion of jurisdiction over the matter (a subject of that occupied much of the oral argument and many pages of the opinions), the dissent criticised Justice Alito for pursuing his “desired result” based on a cherry-picked analysis of the evidence. The lower court’s unanimous ruling against Texas included a “meticulous” review of the faulty procedures by which the legislature produced the electoral maps. The three lower-court federal judges had hewed to the guidance of Supreme Court precedent “virtually to a tee”, Justice Sotomayor wrote, and “there is no question as to the discriminatory impact” of the Republican lawmakers’ district lines. The ruling by Justice Alito and his four conservative brethren did find one impermissible racial gerrymander—in House District 90—but otherwise “goes out of its way to permit” Texas to elect its representatives using maps drawn “for the purpose of preserving...racial discrimination”.“ This disregard of both precedent and fact comes at serious costs to our democracy”, the dissent concluded.

I find it deeply ironic that Trump supporters strongly support bakers and florists who refuse to cater a gay or lesbian wedding (and occasionally say really vile things to their would-be customers), but when a restaurant owner politely and discreetly asks Trump's spokesperson Sanders to leave her restaurant, because Sanders had been strongly supporting Trump's family separation policy and efforts to kick transsexual people out of the military, this is what Trump supporters do.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... urant-that
Quote:
ABC 13 WSET reports that a man was arrested by police Tuesday afternoon for throwing what appeared to be a large quantity of chicken dung at the building, which was surrounded by pro-Trump protesters as well as supporters of Virginia Senate candidate Corey Stewart (R).
While reasonable people can debate about whether it's justified to refuse to serve a prominent public figure over something he/ she has done, these asses' extreme response says a lot about Trump supporters.

btw, some of these folks are so dumb that they've been going after every restaurant in the U.S. - and apparently one in Canada - because they coincidentally had the same name. The restaurant that asked Sanders to leave is not a chain. I was also amused that they dutifully rushed to carry out Ms Sanders' revenge, after she tweeted so innocently from her official White House account, complete with the name and location of the restaurant. I'm starting to understand how this woman can stand to keep telling lies to the American people for Trump, rather than resign in disgust.



Related:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ts/563837/
Quote:
A Template for ‘Incivility’

Today’s protesters are reviving the tactics of the anti-Vietnam War movement of the 1960s and ’70s—with similarly mixed results.


More irony:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... e-barriers
Quote:
President Trump on Sunday warned other countries that the U.S. would retaliate if they placed trade barriers and tariffs on U.S. exports.

"The United States is insisting that all countries that have placed artificial Trade Barriers and Tariffs on goods going into their country, remove those Barriers & Tariffs or be met with more than Reciprocity by the U.S.A. Trade must be fair and no longer a one way street!" Trump said in a tweet.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/ ... bal-growth
Quote:
Don’t crash it
Could a trade war derail global growth?

Rising tariffs are the worst of many threats to the world economy
Quote:
...Such self-inflicted harm would impose a pointless cost on the average American household of perhaps thousands of dollars. ...The bigger issue is the vast disruption that would occur in the transition to more autarky. America’s economy is configured for designing iPhones, not assembling their components; the innards of its cars and planes cross national borders many times before the final product is ready. Faced with tariffs, firms have to redirect labour and capital to replace imports.



Good news - judge says the Trump administration can no longer drag its feet on reuniting families:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... t-families
Quote:
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to immediately move to reunify immigrant families that were separated under the administration's "zero tolerance" policy.

U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw granted a preliminary injunction to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) over the group's lawsuit challenging the policy, which has been met with widespread condemnation both domestically and abroad.

In the ruling, Sabraw said that the Trump administration must reunify all immigrant children under the age of five with their parents within two weeks, and all minor children age five and older within 30 days. Sabraw also ordered that all parents must be able to speak with their children within 10 days, prohibited the government from deporting any parent without their child and enjoined the administration from separating children from their parents at the border in the future unless the parent is unfit, presents a danger to the child.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... grant-kids
Quote:
A 6-year-old boy has reportedly raised more than $13,000 dollars to help migrant kids who have been separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The young boy and his mother initially set up a lemonade stand in their hometown of Atlanta to raise money earlier this month for RAICES, a nonprofit organization based in Texas that provides immigrants with legal and educational services, Time magazine reported.

And with the help of their neighbors, Shannon Cofrin Gaggero, the young boy’s mother, said they were able to raise over $1,000, Time added. But a week after the event ended, Gaggero said the family’s Facebook fundraiser page, which paired with the event, brought in more than $13,000.
You can longer contribute to this one. His mother ended the event so RAICES could get the money ASAP - Facebook only pays out the money 2 weeks after the fundraising is finished.




https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/ ... man-650383
Quote:
Trump ambassador blocks scrutiny of Israel

Donald Trump’s envoy to Jerusalem rejects criticism of Israel’s policies and resisted an effort to apply stricter human rights tests to U.S. military aid for the country.

People who have interacted with David Friedman say his diplomatic inexperience shows. But his defenders say he’s injected a dose of reality into the 70-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-a ... ut-of-cash
Quote:
The UN’s refugee agency for Palestinians is running out of cash

America’s withdrawal of aid is beginning to bite
Quote:
UNRWA is in crisis. It has been begging rich Arab countries to make up some of the shortfall. The agency, which educates 270,000 children in Gaza and runs a score of clinics there, says that about $200m is needed to keep the show going. “We do not have enough money in the bank to open our schools when the academic year begins in August,” says Chris Gunness, the agency’s spokesman. “We feed a million food-insecure refugees in Gaza, where the situation has reached breaking point.”

UNRWA’s American and Israeli detractors say that many of its beneficiaries should not be counted as refugees at all...

Some Israeli generals, however, fear the prospect of UNRWA’s being gutted. They see it as a safety valve for keeping Palestinians more or less quiescent. Otherwise, they reckon, Gaza may blow up again.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... -us-russia
Quote:
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have agreed on a time and place to hold their first official summit, a senior Russian official announced on Wednesday.

“I have to say with regret that Russian-American relations are not in the best shape,” Putin told Bolton, “and I’ve already said this repeatedly in public and am saying this to you now: I think that this is largely a result of the acute internal political struggle within the US itself.”

He added: “Your arrival in Moscow has given us hope that we can make the first steps to reviving full relations between our governments.”


...Expectations for any summit between Putin and Trump are modest, especially as meaningful sanctions relief for Russia would require the consent of the US Congress.

Last edited by aninkling on Wed 27 Jun , 2018 4:34 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: Wed 27 Jun , 2018 4:07 pm
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I missed this, too. Unfortunately, I may have been right about Kim Jong Un quietly pushing on with his nuclear weapons program while pulling the wool over Trump's eyes.
http://thehill.com/policy/international ... h-facility
Quote:
Satellite images from last week show that North Korea is making numerous improvements to the infrastructure at a nuclear research facility, according to a new study. The images, obtained by North Korea analysis outlet 38 North, come just weeks after President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed an agreement that called for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.

The satellite photos indicate that North Korea is quickly progressing on several adjustments to the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center.

The improvements include a new cooling water pump house, multiple new buildings, completed construction on a cooling water reservoir and an apparently active radiochemical laboratory. It is unclear whether the reactor is still in operation, the report said.
What worries me the most is that Trump may well lash out again and increase the chances of war, if a blow to his ego (and his boasts about having saved the world from North Korea) becomes apparent.


It seems that Dear Leader's brilliant move to unilaterally withdraw from the Iran agreement, without cause, is starting to have consequences.
http://thehill.com/policy/international ... nine-years
Quote:
The government of Iran has ordered a formerly idle nuclear plant to resume operations on Wednesday to be ready in case discussions with European leaders over saving the nuclear agreement vacated by the Trump administration fall through.

Reuters reports that a statement on the website of Iran's atomic energy agency (AEOI) confirmed that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had ordered the plant's reopening for the first time in nine years in preparation for the possibility of talks breaking down.



http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... on-permits
Quote:
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt is planning to limit the agency’s authority to block permits for activities that could pollute or harm waterways. In an agency memo released Wednesday, Pruitt formally asked the EPA’s water office to propose a regulation under which officials wouldn’t be able to block a permit before it had been applied for or after the Army Corps of Engineers has issued the permit.

EPA staff in regional offices would have to get approval from headquarters before trying to block a water permit, and officials would have to provide a period for public comment before blocking permits.
This would supposedly be the most significant change to the Clean Water Act enforcement in four decades.



http://thehill.com/homenews/house/39443 ... ation-bill
Quote:
The House rejected a Republican compromise bill on immigration Wednesday in a worse-than-expected 121-300 vote...The measure won far fewer GOP votes than a more hard-line measure rejected last week in a 193-231 vote.

The compromise bill would have provided a pathway to citizenship for so-called Dreamers, the issue that led centrist Republicans to launch a discharge petition to force a series of votes on immigration. Discharge petitions are a way of getting around the House leadership to force a vote and are rarely used by members in the majority. Democrats backed those Republicans pushing the discharge petition to raise pressure on GOP leaders. The decision to vote on the hard-line immigration measure last week and the compromise bill on Wednesday was part of a deal within the GOP conference that effectively quashed the petition.

The bill also earmarked $25 billion for Trump’s border wall and other security measures, ended the diversity visa lottery program and imposed limits on family-based migration. The bill included a conservative proposal to end family separations at the border, an issue that has inflamed tensions.

...Conservative opposition centered in part on the Dreamers part of the measure, as some lawmakers saw providing a pathway to citizenship for those immigrants as "amnesty."


http://thehill.com/regulation/court-bat ... cuments-to
Quote:
A court ruled Wednesday that President Trump’s now-defunct voter fraud commission must hand over documents demanded by a Democratic member of the panel. Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap (D) filed suit against the commission in November, claiming that he was blocked from receiving necessary documents.
Apparently Kobach's commission was already ordered to turn over the documents to Dunlap in December, but they defied the previous court order. Kobach seems to be defying court orders a lot, lately.


And Kennedy is retiring, which gives Trump another Supreme Court pick. Anti-abortion groups are already mobilizing, in hopes of making abortion illegal in the U.S. I suspect they may find that they've stirred up a major backlash if they try.

_________________

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 28 Jun , 2018 1:40 pm
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http://thehill.com/latino/394563-migran ... ngs-report
Quote:
Migrant children as young as 3 years of age are being ordered to appear in court for deportation proceedings, The Texas Tribune reports.

Attorneys from Texas, California and Washington, D.C. told the publication that children were being served with notices to appear in court. While having children appear in court without their parents is not an uncommon practice, more children than before are being ordered into court.
As far as I know, though, it used to be just older children/ teens who crossed the border alone and had no parent available.

http://thehill.com/latino/394707-us-jud ... -at-border
Quote:
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the immediate release of a detained 9-year-old boy from Brazil who had been separated from his mother at the southern border, according to The Associated Press.

...His mother has applied for asylum and was released from a detention center in Texas earlier this month.

Souza told the AP that she was allowed 20 minutes each week to talk to her son. ...She also added that the process to find her son after she was released from a detention facility was extremely difficult. Souza had to fill out about 40 pages of documents that U.S. officials told her were necessary for her to regain custody. She also said that officials had told her the rules had changed and that she needed every family member living in the U.S. to be fingerprinted.


http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... stleblower
Quote:
Agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) interrupted an interview with a former Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesman on Wednesday. CBS News reported that it was speaking with James Schwab about his decision to resign a few months earlier, when DHS agents arrived at his home.

...Schwab, who worked in the Obama and Trump administrations, told CBS he resigned earlier this year because the agency asked him to lie in the aftermath of the Oakland incident, which he claimed put the blame inaccurately on Schaaf for the failure to arrest illegal immigrants.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... fta-report
Quote:
At the G-7 summit in Canada, Trump reportedly said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was “too costly for the U.S” and compared it to the North American Free Trade American that he has often targeted as a bad deal.

"It will be an interesting summit. NATO is as bad as NAFTA. It's much too costly for the U.S.," Trump said during the meeting with leaders, according to an official who read notes transcribed from the closed-door meeting to Axios.

http://thehill.com/policy/international ... ear-threat
Quote:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ... told lawmakers during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing that Trump “intended” to say that the U.S. “did reduce” North Korea’s nuclear threat, when he tweeted that “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”

"I'm confident what he intended there was, 'we did reduce the threat,'" Pompeo said, according to CNN. "I don't think there's any doubt about that."
It's getting very strange when the president's cabinet members try to pretend his very clear statements actually meant something different.




http://thehill.com/policy/finance/39457 ... -since-his
Quote:
At least $16.1 million has been spent by Republican groups, the Trump campaign and government agencies at Trump Organization branded properties since he started his 2016 presidential campaign, a new ProPublica analysis reveals.

Another person says he won't appear on Fox news any more:
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/39456 ... mmigration
Quote:
Bruce Turkel, an entrepreneur and author who has regularly appeared on Fox News, says he will no longer be a guest on the network over its coverage of President Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy.

..."Accepting that this misguided policy is wrong doesn’t depend on which side of the political aisle you’re on," he continued. "It doesn’t matter if you support immigration and immigrants or if you don’t. And it doesn’t matter if you believe the law — or the Bible — gives our government the right to do what they’re doing or not."

...Turkel isn't the only person to call out the network for its coverage on the issue, Hollywood film producer Judd Apatow, "Modern Family" co-creator Steve Levitan and comedian Seth MacFarlane have all denounced the network for the same reason.


https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/ ... rying-time
Quote:
FOR 12 years, Anthony Kennedy has been the Supreme Court’s swing vote. The court’s liberal and conservative quartets voted predictably. He did not—which is why those who want the Supreme Court to float above America’s partisan divide reacted with such dismay to his retirement, announced on June 27th. Justice Kennedy’s departure from the bench might sound like a minor detail set against everything else that is going on with America’s government at the moment. It is not. President Donald Trump now has the opportunity to appoint a second Supreme Court justice and with it to cement a 5-4 conservative, one might even say Republican, majority at a time when the constitution is under strain from a norm-breaking Republican president.

The high stakes herald a gigantic fight in the Senate.




Edit to add an interesting new Russia-Trump twist:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... d-to-trump
Quote:
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office is investigating how several billionaires tied to Russia were given access to President Trump’s exclusive, invitation-only inauguration parties, ABC News reported Thursday... One Trump guest, oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has even been sanctioned by the Treasury Department in response to what U.S. officials called Moscow’s broad destabilizing activities during the presidential race.

...“This reflects a Russian strategy of gaining access to our political leaders at a time when they are just forming a government,” Olsen said. “They don’t need to be spies in the James Bond sense. They are powerful people with significant wealth who are in a position to exert influence on U.S. policy makers. And they’re in a position to report back to Russian intelligence services on what they’re able to learn.”

...Several Russian oligarchs received tickets to a “Candlelight Dinner” in D.C.’s Union Station the night before the inauguration — open only to those who contributed at least $1 million to the inauguration.

_________________

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 29 Jun , 2018 12:16 am
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The GOP is trying to shut down some environmental groups by claiming they're foreign agents. They're going after two of the most effective groups.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... reign-ties
Quote:
House Republicans are forcefully taking on the environmental movement, insinuating that some groups are illegally advocating for foreign governments.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) launched an investigation earlier this month and have fired off letters to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) demanding documents and answers they say would prove whether the groups are foreign agents.

...The investigations, which Bishop said may expand, represent a new front in the increasingly contentious battle between the GOP and the environmental community.

...Four GOP senators, meanwhile, are targeting climate change advocacy in another way. They want the National Science Foundation’s internal watchdog to investigate why Climate Central, a nonprofit group, received millions of dollars to help television meteorologists understand the science of climate change. The Republican senators say that amounted to advocacy.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... SKBN1JG204
Quote:
U.S. Republican lawmakers on Wednesday stepped up their scrutiny of environmental groups’ work with foreign countries, requesting that the Center for Biological Diversity turn in a list of documents detailing their work with Japanese officials.

...“The Committee on Natural Resources is continuing its oversight of the potential manipulation of tax-exempt 501(c) organizations by foreign entities to influence U.S. environmental and natural resources policy to the detriment of our national interests,” they said in a letter to the Center for Biological Diversity.

Earlier this month they wrote to the head of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Rhea Suh, asking for details about the group’s work with China on climate change and air quality issues.

...Among the examples they cited was a lawsuit led by the Center for Biological Diversity that aimed to block the relocation of a Marine Corps air station in Okinawa, Japan because of its potential harm to a marine mammal, the Okinawa dugong. A court hearing on that case is scheduled for June 28 in a U.S. federal appeals court.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... -that-they
Quote:
A top House Republican says he isn’t convinced that two leading green groups aren’t in cahoots with China and Japan to influence United States environmental policy, despite their ardent denial.

Both the NRDC and CBD sent initial responses to the panel this month, following letters from Bishop and Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) asking for documents related to potential foreign influence or control of the groups. In their responses, both groups denied that they are acting as foreign agents or that they must register with the federal government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
CBD's response was tart:
Quote:
"If Reps. Bishop and Westerman are truly confused about the center’s motivation and control, it is perhaps because they abuse their positions of power so regularly, and are so deeply influenced by powerful corporate donors, that they are unable to conceive of people being motivated by empathy, public interest and respect for the rule of law and democracy," the group told the committee.
NRDC fared no better, despite a less confrontational response:
Quote:
NRDC’s public interest work in China is part of its mission to protect the environment and public health,” the group wrote. “As the world’s most populous nation, China is a key element in the NRDC’s pursuit of sustainable solutions to the environmental challenges that the planet faces today.”

The committee said NRDC’s responses don’t cut it.

Background on the NRDC :
https://www.eenews.net/special_reports/ ... 1059991721
Quote:
Beinecke said government agencies recruit NRDC staff because they know the issues. While the group is an advocacy organization, it also operates as a think tank on environmental issues ranging from toxics to land use to air and water quality. Climate change has become the top agenda item with more than 100 dedicated staff assigned to it.

"We have tremendously deep expertise on the nitty-gritty particulars of how the policies are put together and how they work -- and how they should work -- as well as the legal expertise to ensure accountability of them," Beinecke said.

The attorneys in the attics and their successors left their mark on environmental law as well. "If you go to law school and study environmental law, a lot of the cases you learn about are NRDC versus some Cabinet secretary or another over the last 40 years holding them accountable for implementing the various statutes," she said.

But David Goldston, NRDC's director of government affairs, said a stint at NRDC is considered a boon to public-sector employers in part because the group is judicious about what battles it chooses, and how it chooses to fight them. The group weighs the political implications of a lawsuit before it brings it, he said. There are times when private persuasion is deemed to be more effective than public litigation.

Center for Biological Diversity:
https://www.myphilanthropedia.org/top-n ... -diversity
Quote:
Center for Biological Diversity raises awareness of many environmental issues to support a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Their fight against oil companies is remarkable, along with steering legislation to protect endangered species. CBD’s advocacy for sustainable communities also campaigns against suburban sprawl to protect natural lands. The organization impacts Bay Area and beyond with its high-level work.

_________________

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 29 Jun , 2018 1:48 pm
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http://thehill.com/policy/international ... ithdraw-us
Quote:
President Trump has spoken to advisors about the United States leaving the World Trade Organization, according to a Friday report in Axios. “He’s [threatened to withdraw] 100 times. It would totally [screw] us as a country,” one source told the news outlet.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -eu-report
Quote:
President Trump reportedly asked French President Emmanuel Macron why he does not withdraw his country from the European Union (E.U.) and suggested that the U.S. could offer France a bilateral trade deal if he did so.

http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... in-hearing
Quote:
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday faced a fierce grilling from House Republicans amid the escalating feud between the Justice Department and allies of President Trump on Capitol Hill. The five-hour hearing before the House Judiciary Committee contained plenty of fireworks as that feud spilled over into public view.

By the time Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) gaveled out, it was clear the GOP was still deeply unsatisfied by the department’s response to their demands.

For Democrats, the message was just as obvious: Republicans, they say, are conducting an unnecessary investigation in order to muddy the waters around special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia's election interference.

Here are the five biggest highlights from Wednesday’s hearing.

At one time, the McCarthy-ites asked whether you are a communist. Now Trump allies in the government are just asking whether you're a Democrat:
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... -democrats
Quote:
Pressed by Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on whether either considers himself a Democrat, Wray and Rosenstein rejected such a notion.

"I’m trying to do this job apolitically," Wray told Gutierrez. "I do not consider myself an angry Democrat. You can be quite confident of that." "Are you a Democrat?" Gutiérrez asked. "No, I am not," Wray replied.

Gutiérrez then turned to Rosenstein and asked whether he is a Democrat. "I’m not a Democrat and I’m not angry," Rosenstein said.

Both Rosenstein and Wray are registered to vote as Republicans.

The exchange on Thursday made reference to President Trump's repeated claim that "13 angry Democrats" are among the investigators on special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russia's election meddling, including possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.



https://www.economist.com/democracy-in- ... -detention
Quote:
The Trump administration wants to expand immigrant family detention

A new study suggests that would be a bad idea
Quote:
IN RECENT days, the Trump administration has ended its policy of separating undocumented migrant children from their parents. Faced with inadequate capacity at family detention centres it has also put a temporary halt on its policy of imprisoning every undocumented family that it apprehends. But the administration is clear that its preferred solution is to expand the use of family detention.

...The conditions in those centres are grim, as new research shows. In the first country-wide evaluation of immigration court cases of families subjected to detention, Ingrid Eagly, a law professor at UCLA and her colleagues collected data on five different family detention facilities operating between 2001 and 2016. Two were shut down after subjecting families to unreasonably cold rooms, substandard food, and inadequate medical care. In 2015, a federal judge found that a third detention centre exposed mothers and their children to “widespread and deplorable conditions” and “wholly failed” to provide safe and sanitary environments.
Quote:
Despite this capricious and punitive asylum system, paroled asylum-seeking family members do mostly come back to court for hearings. Across all proceedings, 86% of released family members turn up. Where there is an asylum application, and the family has counsel, this rises to 97%.

http://thehill.com/latino/394782-protes ... nationwide
Quote:
Protesters are expected to demonstrate nationwide on Saturday against President Trump’s immigration policies. A coalition of groups has announced the “Families Belong Together” march, which will take place in Washington, D.C., along with events in 50 states nationwide. The coalition includes the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Moveon.org and the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
There was another protest yesterday, overshadowed on the news by the latest mass murder in the U.S.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... -with-baby
Quote:
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and her newborn baby on Thursday joined hundreds of mostly women at a protest of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy on Capitol Hill.

The Illinois Democrat, who recently gave birth to baby girl named Maile, joined Democratic colleagues Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), and others who also attended a protest on Capitol Hill

..."I wanted to show my support for the folks here today," Duckworth told CNN after her visit with protesters. "I could only imagine what it would be like to have my daughter -- my breastfeeding child -- ripped away from me the way some of these other moms' babies have been."
btw, It's rather amazing to me how much money the federal government spends on worrying about foreign terrorists and yet how they don't even try to do anything about all these constant shootings by crazies in the U.S. Not to mention the careless/ stupid gun owners who get away without punishment, like the person who accidentally left a gun in a couch while shopping at Ikea - it's nothing but dumb luck that the toddler who found and shot it didn't kill herself or someone else. On a messageboard, I actually saw some people claiming it was the family's fault they hadn't taught their toddler not to touch a gun. Seriously.
If we had any sort of sensible gun control, that careless person should have been prohibited from owning a gun for a few years or at least been forced to attend training sessions and pay a fine.


Edit to add:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... order-visa
Quote:
A Canadian children’s choir made up mostly of recently arrived Syrian refugees has turned down an invite to perform at a prestigious international festival in the US over fears of crossing the border under the Trump administration’s travel ban.

...They soon began canvassing immigration experts and other newcomers to find out how the visa process might work. Although most of the kids have lived in Canada for the past two years, Syria is among the five Muslim-majority countries targeted in Trump’s travel ban. And other Canadians from the affected countries have reported being turned away at the border and warned that they would now have issues entering the US for the rest of their lives.

...The final straw was the story of a musical group who had ended up detained at the border for days after trying to cross into the US. “That’s not something we wanted to risk,” said Tang. “It’s just too much, given what these children already have been through.”

Organisations across Canada have made similar decisions in the wake of Trump’s travel ban, from the Girl Guides of Canada who last year cancelled all travel to the US to the Toronto district school board.

More on Trump supporters and The Red Hen.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... ts-support
Quote:
On Wednesday, a group of five people – two men, two teenage girls and a teenage boy – spent three hours standing outside the restaurant, which is housed in a small redbrick building just off Main Street. They were holding handwritten signs expressing support for Sanders and Trump and waving back in response to the sporadic horn honks they inspired. None would speak to the Guardian. Nor would a man who stood across from the Red Hen, holding a Bible and preaching about the ills of homosexuality.

[an employee of the business next door said]...“And now people in the county are coming here to say they hate gay people. It’s like, ‘Why are you doing this?’” ...“I actually received a call from someone in California saying may we rot in hell and that we all lose our businesses and it’s a horrible place,’”she said, ... “This is a tiny little microcosm of what’s going on in the whole country. This is what happens when the leader of the country behaves like a 12-year-old.”

... The response to the Sanders incident illustrates just how divisive political debate has become. ...“Many, many bouquets have gone out over the last two days,” Carolyn Tolley said. “More than a dozen. All in support of Stephanie.” Tolley had received orders, she said, from Texas, New York, Michigan and Maine, as well as a flurry of requests from local residents ...But Tolley had also seen the ugly side of things. Like other businesses the Guardian visited, her shop had received abusive emails. A common theme was to lament the lack of civility shown to Sanders – while wishing ill to residents of the town. More troublingly, Tolley witnessed a bomb threat that Niko’s Grille, the Greek restaurant next door, received on Tuesday.



http://thehill.com/homenews/house/39484 ... t-staffers
Quote:
A Democratic member of the House Oversight Committee is calling for hearings on allegations that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt used official resources to retaliate against former staffers.

... Among the allegations reported by the Daily Beast were that Pruitt instructed aides to pitch damaging news stories to media outlets about former staffers who left the agency on bad terms and had EPA employees leak damaging information about alleged misconduct by a former deputy chief of staff.

The report also contains allegations that Pruitt told conservative allies that his former director of scheduling, Millan Hupp, had lied when she told a congressional committee that the EPA chief had asked her to get him a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3948 ... ence-after
Quote:
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) knocked the Trump administration's effort to reunite migrant families separated at the U.S.–Mexico border following a closed-door briefing with senators this week.

"It was clear from my meeting yesterday that the Administration is working harder to stop the court-ordered reunification of these families than returning the kids. In the well-worn words of President Trump: sad," Durbin said in a tweet on Friday.

Durbin's remarks came amid a string of tweets in which he called the Trump administration's "lack of answers" about migrant families' whereabouts and well-being "shocking." He added that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has only been able to match a small fraction of immigrant parents with children in federal custody
http://thehill.com/latino/394838-report ... ylum-rules
Quote:
The Department of Justice is considering revamping asylum regulations to bar anyone who enters the country illegally from applying, according to a report on Vox.

The new regulation would overhaul the existing asylum system, and would add rules making it extremely difficult for Central Americans to successfully apply for asylum in the United States, according to the report.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/39467 ... ade-report
Quote:
The Pentagon is moving forward on President Trump’s orders to hold a military parade, recommending a route along Pennsylvania Ave. and setting a new date after months of inactivity, NBC News reported Thursday. The parade, moved up a day from Nov. 11 to Nov. 10, would begin at the Capitol, pass the White House and end at the National Mall, officials told NBC.

...The parade is still in the beginning planning stages but no budget is set as there is reportedly little desire for the event outside the White House. “There is only one person who wants this parade,” a senior U.S. official told NBC.

...A Military Times poll found in February that 89 percent of its readers, who are primarily service members and their families, opposed the parade, saying it would be a “waste of money.” Even some White House officials are uninterested in the event and are stalling on planning, said a senior administration official.
At least the military has said no to Trump's desire for tanks. Wheeled vehicles and planes only.

_________________

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 30 Jun , 2018 3:25 pm
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Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ing-racism
Quote:
A Trump administration appointee reportedly blasted standard United Nations (U.N.) documents that denounce racism, calling them a threat to democracy.

Andrew Veprek, the State Department's deputy assistant secretary for refugees and migration, questioned the notion that state leaders have a "duty" to condemn hate speech while rejecting terms like nationalism, xenophobia and populism, CNN reports.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... with-trump
Quote:
The U.S. ambassador to Estonia has resigned over his frustration with President Trump's comments about the European Union (EU) and treatment of long-standing European allies.

...“For the President to say the EU was ‘set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank,’ or that ‘NATO is as bad as NAFTA’ is not only factually wrong, but proves to me that it’s time to go,” he wrote in the post, according to Foreign Policy.


http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... -detention
Quote:
An inspector general report released this week found Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does an inadequate job of inspecting its facilities and correcting poor practices.

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general said in a report that ICE’s detention centers do not regularly comply with agency standards, and cited a lack of follow-up on problems identified during sweeps at its roughly 200 facilities.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/39 ... t-children
Quote:
Republicans on the House Energy & Commerce Committee are probing the Department of Health and Human Services on its treatment of migrant children in its care. “We support strong enforcement of our nation’s borders. We also support keeping families together, and believe that children should not be separated from their parents,” the members wrote in a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

“We also seek to ensure that children who are within the custody of ORR — whether because they crossed the border as an unaccompanied minor or because they crossed the border with a family member and were subsequently separated — are properly cared for while within the custody of [the Office of Refugee Resettlement.]”

The members asked for answers to a series of questions about children in ORR custody, including: how many are in ORR custody as a result of being separated from their parents or families; does ORR have the resources to properly care for the high number of children being transferred to their custody; what steps is ORR taking to track and address issues of abuse within HHS funded facilities and what medications is ORR authorized to administer.

http://thehill.com/latino/394938-trump- ... mmigration
Quote:
The Washington Post reported Friday that Trump administration lawyers wrote in a legal notice to a judge in California that the federal government would hold migrant families at detention facilities for "the pendency of immigration proceedings when they are apprehended at or between ports of entry."

While the filing does not specify the length of expected detention for migrant families — and whether the administration plans to hold them past a 20-day limit — the Post noted that immigration proceedings are known to last for months. Immigration judges have faced an overwhelming caseload under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy mandating the prosecution of all migrants suspected of illegally crossing the border.

The administration attorneys argued Friday that a previous order from a judge to reunite migrant children with their parents “without unnecessary delay” is invalid after President Trump signed an executive order ending family separations.


More on North Korea.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... -officials
Quote:
North Korea has increased its production of enriched uranium for nuclear weapons at secret sites in recent months, contrary to Donald Trump’s claims that it was “no longer a nuclear threat”, according to a new report. NBC News quoted more than a dozen US officials familiar with the intelligence assessments.

...The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is reported to be planning a trip to Pyongyang in early July to continue negotiations with the North Korean government, in the hope of persuading the regime to make specific commitments on nuclear disarmament.

...If the visit goes ahead it is possible Kim would order the repatriation of the remains of between 100 and 200 US service personnel killed in the 1950-53 war, to coincide with Pompeo’s arrival. It is a gesture that US officials had been predicting would take place last week. Trump told a rally in Minnesota last week that the repatriation had already happened.

Off topic: in the end, they decided to charge the man who dropped his gun in a couch with criminal recklessness.

_________________

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 02 Jul , 2018 1:34 pm
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Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ules-axios
Quote:
A leaked copy of draft Trump administration legislation shows that the U.S. would abandon fundamental rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), according to Axios, which obtained the copy of the bill.

The United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act would reportedly provide President Trump with the authority to ignore two monumental principles of the WTO and take part in bilateral negotiations with any country.
Navarro seems skeptical that Congress will approve it.


Bloomberg has an article on this, titled "Trump's Ineptitude is No Joke":
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles ... is-no-joke
Quote:
It’s hard to imagine a better quick story summing up the Donald Trump administration than the one that broke Sunday night about a bill the White House was preparing to, as Jonathan Swan at Axios put it, “declare America’s abandonment of fundamental World Trade Organization rules” by giving the president authority to unilaterally break those rules.

Let’s see …

The policy is nuts; virtually all experts, both in trade and in foreign policy, believe global trade is very good for the U.S.
In fact, according to Swan’s reporting, almost everyone in the White House thinks the bill “is unrealistic or unworkable.”
Why does it exist, then? Because Trump ordered it, and sometimes the best way to mollify a president is to give him what he wants — very slowly, and without anything actually happening. Apparently this thing has been kicking around for months.
The bill has virtually no chance whatsoever of being enacted into law.
The draft bill has a title, the United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act, which yields an acronym that had every Twitter wag making fart jokes Sunday night.
It goes on to detail other instances where Trump is a fool or incompetent as president.


The Canadian tariffs are starting:
http://thehill.com/policy/international ... f-us-goods
Quote:
Canada announced Sunday that it has moved forward with retaliatory measures against U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, slapping $13 billion in its own tariffs on American exports.

CNN reported that over 40 U.S. steel products will see tariffs of 25 percent. A 10 percent tariff will be levied on more than 80 other American items, including toffee, maple syrup and coffee beans.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... zte-fizzle
Quote:
Congress's Efforts to Block Trump on Tariffs, China's ZTE Fizzle
Quote:
U.S. exporters want Congress to rein in President Donald Trump on tariffs, and national security hawks want Congress to force him to put Chinese telecom gear-maker ZTE Corp. out of business.

Good luck with that, trade experts and lobbyists say: Congress is unlikely to stop deferring to Trump anytime soon.

https://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2 ... lling.html
Quote:
President Trump’s chief economic adviser Lawrence Kudlow has made a career out of being extraordinarily wrong about everything without ever reconsidering his absolute devotion to the supply-side economics dogma that has produced all the wrongness. In the middle of a slavish interview on the Fox Business channel this morning, Kudlow asserted that the economy is:

throwing off [an] enormous amount of new tax revenues. As the economy gears up, more people working, better jobs and careers, those revenues come rolling in, and the deficit, which is one of the other criticisms, is coming down. And it’s coming down rapidly.

The deficit is not coming down rapidly. It’s not coming down at all. It’s rising. The Congressional Budget Office’s new update shows the deficit growing both in absolute terms and as a share of GDP. And the financial press has reported that revenues are falling in the wake of the Trump tax cuts.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles ... -dominance
Quote:
Trump’s Saturday morning tweet announcing Saudi Arabia would be raising oil output by two million barrels a day surprised everyone, not least Saudi Arabia’s leadership and the president’s own staff. The subsequent walk-back was a hurried, stumbling affair. And the damage was done anyway.

Because, really, nothing says “energy dominance” quite like pretending on social media that an ally will boost their oil production in order to head off the domestic costs of one’s own foreign policy.

The White House finds itself in a quandary of its own making. Having effectively torn up the nuclear deal with Iran and apparently gunning to reduce that country’s oil exports to zero, Trump has teed up a jump in U.S. pump prices timed exquisitely for November’s midterms.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... om-migrant
Quote:
Families are being charged high fees and forced to deal with various bureaucratic hurdles to transport children from migrant shelters, according to a report from The New York Times.

The publication spoke to various family sponsors trying to obtain the release of migrant children being detained by federal immigration authorities but facing a series of obstacles, including fees of hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -who-enter
Quote:
President Trump doubled down Saturday on his demand that people who cross into the U.S. illegally be deported immediately, declaring that American immigration laws are "the dumbest anywhere in the world."

"When people come into our Country illegally, we must IMMEDIATELY escort them back out without going through years of legal maneuvering," Trump tweeted while at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., for the weekend.

...His comments came as tens of thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C., and cities across the country on Saturday to protest the Trump administration's immigration policies, particularly its "zero tolerance" approach that has led to thousands of migrant children being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
No doubt someone has already explained the asylum rules to him, but he counts on his supporters not knowing them:
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil. ... ted-states
Quote:
Asylum is a protection granted to foreign nationals already in the United States or at the border who meet the international law definition of a “refugee.” The United Nations 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol define a refugee as a person who is unable or unwilling to return to his or her home country, and cannot obtain protection in that country, due to past persecution or a well-founded fear of being persecuted in the future “on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” Congress incorporated this definition into U.S. immigration law in the Refugee Act of 1980.

As a signatory to the 1967 Protocol, and through U.S. immigration law, the United States has legal obligations to provide protection to those who qualify as refugees. The Refugee Act established two paths to obtain refugee status—either from abroad as a resettled refugee or in the United States as an asylum seeker.
Or maybe Trump just likes to pretend he has the power to ignore established laws.



http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ke-it-easy
Quote:
President Trump on Sunday blamed his opponents for the division in the country, warning that those who have spoken out against him should “take it easy.” ...“Because some of the language used, some of the words used, even some of the radical ideas, I really think they’re very bad for the country. I think they’re actually dangerous for the country,” he added.

Fox News host Maria Bartiromo then praised Trump’s economic accomplishments, prompting the president to launch into a list of positive statistics about U.S. unemployment.
I'm sure none of the Fox "news" hosts called Trump out for his own tweets and inflammatory remarks. If they wanted to, I'm sure they would have had plenty of footage from the ongoing rallies where he incites his supporters to hate the mainstream media (except Fox) and anyone who opposes Trump.

There seems to be this weird pretense at Fox that liberals are responsible for all the incivility in the country, while conservatives are innocent and pure patriots just trying to save the country. I once read a letter the Republicans sent out to registered Republicans in California before an election and I was fairly shocked at the level of vitriol and spin. You expect a certain amount of "only we can save the country" in those things, but I remember it being beyond that and quite nasty.



btw, I think Senator Duckworth has sense:
http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk ... sident-not
Quote:
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) on Sunday said she does not support abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “[ICE] reflects the policies of the White House, of the president,” Duckworth said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “If you abolish ICE now, you still have the same president with the same failed policies,” she said. “Whatever you replace it with is going to still reflect what this president wants to do.”
The Democrats seem amazingly capable of shooting themselves in the foot with stupid ideas, just when many people seem thoroughly fed up with Trump. If ICE doesn't exist, another agency will have to be made, at significant taxpayer expense - it's only a minority of the country that doesn't want some form of control on immigration. Not to mention that if you abolish ICE, Trump gets to set up the new agency.




http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... nsing-deal
Quote:
First lady Melania Trump reportedly earned between $100,000 and $1 million in royalties from Getty Images in 2017 for the use of photos that under a licensing could only be used in "positive coverage," according to a report by NBC News.

At least 12 news organizations last year used some of the photos, including Yahoo News, the Daily Mail, Fox News, Condé Nast and the Houston Chronicle.

Several of the news organizations told NBC News that they were not aware that the photos, taken by Belgian photographer Regine Mahaux, were part of a licensing deal that profited the first lady. Several also said they were not aware of the deal that the photos were to be used for positive coverage, and some removed the images after being contacted by NBC.

_________________

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 03 Jul , 2018 12:52 am
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After Trump's comments yesterday (above) that blamed the divisiveness in the U.S. on his political opponents, I found this so ironic I had to share:

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ritical-of
Quote:
Over the course of Monday afternoon, the [official White House Twitter account] accused Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) of supporting gang members and criminals because of their opposition to the immigration agency's methods.

"@SenKamalaHarris, why are you supporting the animals of MS-13? You must not know what ICE really does. Here is a link to help you out," the White House tweeted, along with a link to a government press release about two deportations earlier this month.

...In a tweet one hour earlier, the White House used a similar format to criticize Warren's opposition to ICE. ...The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the use of an official government account to target lawmakers.

Harris hit back at the tweet.... "As a career prosecutor, I actually went after gangs and transnational criminal organizations," Harris tweeted. "That's being a leader on public safety. What is not, is ripping babies from their mothers."

Trump also refused to lower U.S. flags for the mass shooting at the Annapolis paper Friday.
http://thehill.com/homenews/395253-trum ... ng-victims
Quote:
President Trump denied a request to lower American flags in honor of the five victims of a deadly shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper last week, according to Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley, who made the request.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed, you know? … Is there a cutoff for tragedy?” Buckley told The Baltimore Sun of his request, which it said was made through Maryland's congressional delegation.“This was an attack on the press. It was an attack on freedom of speech. It’s just as important as any other tragedy,” Buckley said.

_________________

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


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Tue 03 Jul , 2018 2:14 pm
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http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... h-industry
Quote:
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt and his aides maintained "secret" calendars in order to prevent controversial meetings or calls with industry representatives getting out publicly, according to a CNN report. The news outlet reported on Monday that the findings were revealed by a former EPA official who is scheduled to testify before Congress soon.

The report says that EPA staffers consistently met in Pruitt's office to go through a process in which they would either remove or alter records from the EPA chief's calendar.


Trump is planning another session alone with Putin during the official summit. Not that this comes as a surprise:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... es-present
Quote:
President Trump is planning on meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin alone later this month, a source told CNN.

More aides are expected to join the two world leaders later in the meeting, which is expected to cover election interference, Syria and nuclear weapons.

CNN noted that without other aides present, that part of the meeting will be without an official record — making it difficult to conclude whether the men reached any agreements.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... snt-for-me
Quote:
President Trump early Tuesday said that the United States would now be at war with North Korea if it weren't for his summit with leader Kim Jong Un.

"Many good conversations with North Korea-it is going well! In the meantime, no Rocket Launches or Nuclear Testing in 8 months. All of Asia is thrilled. Only the Opposition Party, which includes the Fake News, is complaining. If not for me, we would now be at War with North Korea!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
Strikes me as typical Trump theater and bombast. Trump is the only president who ever threatened a pre-emptive (AKA "bloody nose") strike on North Korea and now he's claiming credit for having achieved an uneasy detente. (translation: "I almost helped escalate tensions into a war - while the adults worked frantically in the background to reduce tensions - but then I just decided not to have a war! Aren't I great?!") I'm glad Trump and Kim have backed away from open belligerence, but recent reports suggest it's pretty clear that's all we got from Kim. Maybe the diplomats will be able to do something if Trump shuts up with his premature claims of success and lets them work.



http://thehill.com/homenews/house/39528 ... grant-kids
Quote:
Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) was denied entry Monday to a facility holding migrant children, including two girls who had been separated from their parents, after earlier being told he would be able to tour the location.

The Sacramento Bee reported that Denham had been in touch with the White House and Department of Homeland Security to try and enter the facility, which is run by a nonprofit organization contracted by the government. Denham was reportedly told late last week he would be able to enter the building, but was denied access when he visited on Monday.

btw, the Trump administration has belated decided to lower the U.S. flag to half-mast for the massacre at the Capitol Gazette, after their refusal was publicized. But don't look for an explanation of why they denied the request from Maryland a week ago. http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... al-gazette



Good article from Der Spiegel on what the World Trade Organization does, how it works, the problems with the organization, and the threats from Trump:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 15802.html
Quote:
Back to the Jungle
WTO Faces Existential Threat in Times of Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump has set his sights squarely on the World Trade Organization in Geneva. Even its critics are worried that without the organization, the world of trade would revert to the law of the jungle.
Quote:
[The WTO.].. is essentially a system of trade treaties between its members, the adherence to which is monitored and moderated by the Geneva-based organization. In times of crisis, everyone looks to the 630 men and women who work in the Centre William Rappard, but the WTO takes no initiative. Everything it does, the organization never tires of repeating, must be at the initiative of its members.

The members, though, in particular U.S. President Donald Trump, have ensured that the WTO is itself being rocked by an earthquake at the moment. And when it is over, the global trade order could lie in ruins.

Ever since Trump introduced punitive tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, it has become clear just how serious the threat facing global economic regulations has become. And that the U.S. president isn't shying away from openly attacking the system of global trade that has been in place since the end of World War II...The problem is that the attacks from the U.S. president are not striking a unified, strong organization determined to defend itself.


Edit to add:
https://www.businessinsider.de/fox-news ... ?r=US&IR=T
Quote:
Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo is facing particularly fierce criticism over her latest interview with President Donald Trump, during which she lobbed what critics called softball questions and repeatedly agreed with the president's controversial, false, or misleading statements


...Aaron Blake, a Washington Post political reporter, tweeted out segments of the interview in which Bartiromo failed to challenge Trump's claims.

Actual Bartiromo responses:

TRUMP: My tax cuts are great.
BARTIROMO: "I agree"

TRUMP: No collusion.
BARTIROMO: "I know"

TRUMP: Wall Street & farmers trust me.
BARTIROMO: "They do"

TRUMP: My tariffs are great.
BARTIROMO: "You’re doing the right thing on pushing back on China"

...During the interview, Trump announced that he will push for a second "phase" of tax cuts, that he'll wait until after the midterm elections to sign a re-negotiated North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, and that he won't back down from his trade fights with allies.
I've read elsewhere that Trump wants that second round of tax cuts to include additional cuts for business. Because the U.S. deficit is doing so well with the first set of cuts...

And the last I heard, NAFTA talks weren't going so well. Not that I would even trust Trump to follow through on anything he says he'll do. It wouldn't be the first time he said he'd sign something, then refused when it came time to do it.
https://www.thestar.com/business/2018/0 ... posed.html
Quote:
The window for a quick NAFTA deal has probably closed — barring a last-minute surprise, the process is set to stretch into 2019 and a new batch of lawmakers.

And yet another story involving Pruitt and the oil industry:
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/mo ... itt-269935
Quote:
Oil and gas producers in Utah knew they would have a big problem when EPA declared tribal lands in the Uinta Basin failed to meet the ozone pollution standard — that is, until Administrator Scott Pruitt took helm of the agency.

The state's oil and gas producers tried for years to get EPA to exempt them from smog rules ... But new documents obtained in a lawsuit by the Sierra Club show they finally got it under Pruitt, after industry lobbyist Marc Himmelstein — a former American Petroleum Institute executive with longstanding connections to top GOP fundraisers — enlisted the help of House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop. The documents show Himmelstein coordinated a July 2017 phone call between the Utah lawmaker and Pruitt, offering specific talking points for Bishop to use.

And lastly, the Senate says the House and Trump are wrong; the intelligence community is right:
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3954 ... n-election
Quote:
The Senate Intelligence Committee has unequivocally upheld the conclusion of the intelligence community that Russia developed a "clear preference" for then-candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 election and sought to help him win the White House.

The assessment, announced in an unclassified summary released Tuesday, represents a direct repudiation of the committee’s counterpart in the House — and of President Trump himself, who has consistently rejected assertions that Moscow sought to bolster his candidacy through its election interference.

...Senate investigators also rejected the notion that the [intelligence community] was inappropriately influenced by politics, as some of Trump's supporters have alleged.

_________________

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 05 Jul , 2018 3:00 pm
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The Trump administration has apparently empowered its border patrol agents to board Canadian boats in international waters:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... -questions
Quote:
At least 10 Canadian fishing boats from New Brunswick have been intercepted in the past two weeks off the coast of Maine by U.S. Border Patrol agents looking for undocumented immigrants, The Canadian Press reported Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the fishermen told the Press that agents boarded the boats asking about the presence of undocumented immigrants.

“There’s been a bit of a misunderstanding there somewhere,” Laurence Cook, chairman of the advisory board for Lobster Fishing Area 38, said. “They’re in international waters, so border patrol shouldn’t be boarding Canadian vessels.”


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... st-year-ap
Quote:
During an Oval Office meeting in August of 2017, President Trump reportedly asked his senior advisers about invading Venezuela to intervene in ongoing issues in the country, a senior administration official told The Associated Press.

The official told the AP that the discussion did not amount to any formal plan to invade the country but was merely a discussion on the option.

According to the official, the question stunned those in attendance, including former national security adviser H.R. McMaster and former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Trump's top aides reportedly took turns explaining to him how invading the country could significantly damage U.S. relations with Latin American countries, among other possible issues.
More from Bloomberg on this, with Trump's idiocy on full display. Apparently, he didn't back down from the idea of invading Venezuela even after the grown-ups on his staff explained international relations to him. He continued raising the idea with various international leaders at multiple meetings.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... a-invasion



http://thehill.com/homenews/news/395565 ... ard-report
Quote:
Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly hiring additional prosecutors to work on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Several current and former U.S. officials said Mueller is adding prosecutors from U.S. attorney’s offices and the Justice Department headquarters, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Officials added that this could be a sign that Mueller is prepared to step away from the probe and leave it in the hands of a larger team of prosecutors, officials said.

...The special counsel has already issued 20 indictments and secured five guilty pleas from individuals.


https://news.sky.com/story/trump-angry- ... t-11426665
Quote:
A giant balloon dubbed "Trump baby" has been given the green light to fly near parliament during the president's UK visit. London mayor Sadiq Khan's Greater London Authority has approved a request for the flight after thousands signed a petition and a crowdfunding campaign raised more than £16,000 to get the six-metre inflatable off the ground
.




EDIT:

....and Pruitt is finally GONE (though not without some sickening congratulatory pats on the back between him and Trump):
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... tt-resigns
Quote:
Scott Pruitt resigned from his position leading the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday, following months of high-profile controversies regarding his spending, ethics and management at the agency.

In a tweet Thursday, President Trump confirmed Pruitt's departure, saying he's accepted the administrator's resignation.

"I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this," Trump tweeted.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... because-of
Quote:
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator (EPA) told President Trump in his letter of resignation on Thursday that Trump is president because of "God's providence."

"My desire in service to you has always been to bless you as you make important decision for the American people," Pruitt said in a letter obtained by Fox News. "I believe you are serving as President today because of God’s providence. I believe that same providence brought me into your service. I pray as I have served you that I have blessed you and enable you to effectively lead the American people."


On the other hand...
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... esignation
Quote:
A government watchdog group released a one-word statement following the news that scandal-ridden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt had resigned on Thursday.

“Good”


(Though I should note that his deputy, Andrew Wheeler, sounds like he might be as bad as Pruitt for the environment.)

_________________

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 06 Jul , 2018 4:08 pm
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Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... er-causing
Quote:
Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) say that political appointees put in place by departing administrator Scott Pruitt are slowing the release of a report warning that most Americans are exposed to enough formaldehyde on a regular basis to increase risks of cancer.

One current and one former EPA official told Politico that Pruitt's appointees are stonewalling the report's release "every step of the way" over concerns that the report's release would have a negative impact on businesses that use the chemical.

...Pruitt's appointees are reportedly blocking the report from being reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences, an independent panel of top scientists who have already been paid $500,000 to complete the review of the report. The EPA has yet to transfer the report to the scientists to begin the review.



https://apnews.com/38334c4d061e493fb108 ... t-recruits
Quote:
Some immigrant U.S. Army reservists and recruits who enlisted in the military with a promised path to citizenship are being abruptly discharged, the Associated Press has learned. ...Some of the service members say they were not told why they were being discharged. Others who pressed for answers said the Army informed them they'd been labeled as security risks because they have relatives abroad or because the Defense Department had not completed background checks on them.

Spokespeople for the Pentagon and the Army said that, due to the pending litigation, they were unable to explain the discharges or respond to questions about whether there have been policy changes in any of the military branches.

...Margaret Stock, an Alaska-based immigration attorney and a retired Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who helped create the immigrant recruitment program, said she's been inundated over the past several days by recruits who have been abruptly discharged.


https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigr ... er-n889301
Quote:
The Justice Department asked a federal judge Friday to extend the court mandated deadlines for reuniting nearly 3,000 migrant children who were separated from their parents while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Attorneys for the U.S. government claimed the court mandate for returning all children under age 5 to their parents by July 10 and all other children by July 26 does not account for the time required to verify and vet each parent.
Apparently, they are using DNA testing - which is itself questionable since a child cannot consent to this and no one knows whether the DNA results will go into a database somewhere. The Dept of Justice also argued that it's taking time to "do the work necessary to make sure children are going to parents fit to care for them."
Basically, bullshit excuses, using bureaucracy as an excuse to delay. And what exactly are they going to do if, say, a child was adopted and its DNA doesn't match the parent's? No, you can't have your child back, even though she was crying and clinging to you as her mom, when we took her?

The other excuse the government is using is that it has already deported some parents and it would be too tough to find them. So it's asking the judge to let them ignore those kids or extend the deadline to find those parents.

This whole business is so idiotic. Figure out who came with each child and if the kid runs to the parent crying "Mommy" or "Daddy" you've got a damn match, never mind the stupid DNA test.


And in the meantime, yet another member of Congress complains about not being allowed to access a children's shelter despite following protocol:
http://thehill.com/homenews/395862-gop- ... en-shelter
Quote:
Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) said Friday that he was "outraged" over being blocked from entering a shelter holding migrant children, despite following the protocols required by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

"Tried to visit an #ImmigrantChildren shelter today. Visit had been confirmed with local operators for over a week," Curbelo tweeted. "All protocols to request, schedule & get clearance were followed, and yet last night was told by @HHSGov staff in Washington I would be refused entry."...Curbelo went on to say that he would support Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's (D-Fla.) bill requiring HHS to give members of Congress access to migrant children shelters.

...Curbelo's comments come as multiple lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have shared similar stories of their attempts to visit shelters housing migrant children, who were separated from their families under President Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy.

Edit to add a disturbing new story:
http://thehill.com/latino/395885-defens ... e-building
Quote:
A U.S. defense contractor detained dozens of immigrant children in a vacant office building in Phoenix, Arizona, despite claiming that it does not operate shelters or any type of housing for children detained by federal agents.

Video recorded by a neighbor and obtained by The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) shows children being carried into the facility, a 3,200-square-foot vacant office building early last month.

The building, according to CIR, is not licensed under Arizona state law to hold children. It is also not listed among shelters operated through the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The contractor first denied it, then when they were told about the video, claimed it was just a temporary holding facility for a few hours. Evidence suggests the children might have been there longer.




Meanwhile, Trump has immediately returned to attacking the mainstream press after the Capitol Gazette mass murder.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-trump- ... story.html


I don't know if one of his stupider fans is responsible for this, but his constant ranting about his media critics certainly isn't helping:
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/39586 ... -newspaper
Quote:
A threatening letter containing an unknown substance was mailed to a newspaper office in Ohio on Thursday, a week after a gunman opened fire and killed five people at a newspaper in Maryland.
...“The letter contained content that appeared to be threats of physical harm towards the Circleville Herald and their staff,” according to the police statement. The letter named other people and contained additional threats to residents of Pickaway County, roughly 30 miles south of Columbus.

An unknown substance was found inside the envelope, and the letter's writer claimed the substance was the drug Fentanyl, a powerful opioid that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Exposure to the drug can be so lethal the White House issued safety recommendations for first responders who arrive at the scene of overdoses.

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/39435 ... -civil-war
Quote:
CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta says a Trump supporter told him that the media is going to cause a civil war in the U.S.

"What's going to happen is we're going to end up with a civil war," ..."You're going to have people end up shooting people. You need to tone it down a bit. The language, everything, it's got to stop. Be decent," the woman said in a video posted by Acosta on Twitter.

"I believe I am decent," Acosta responded in the video.

"Please be decent. Don't ask any stupid questions," she continued. "One question, one answer. You should understand it."
Quote:
“An elderly woman came up to me and said that I needed to get the ‘eff’ out. And then she turned to the crowd and whipped them all into a frenzy and they were saying ‘go home Jim, CNN sucks, fake news,’ and so on.

_________________

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 09 Jul , 2018 1:08 pm
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So far, the judge has denied the Trump administration's blanket request to drag its feet on all family reunification. But it sounds like they might not even make the deadline to reunite the 102 children under 5 years with their parents. Seriously, they can't find 100 kids and put them on a plane to their parents in 2 weeks or less?
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... eunited-by
Quote:
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said late Sunday that it expects the Trump administration to complete fewer than half of the court-ordered migrant family reunifications before a deadline this week.

...At a hearing last Friday, [U.S. District Judge] Sabraw told the Trump administration that it must adhere to the July 10 deadline, as well as a July 26 deadline to reunite all minor children over 5, "unless there is an articulable reason." Another hearing is scheduled for Monday morning, when Sabraw is expected to determine which, if any, cases may be granted an extension.

http://thehill.com/policy/international ... ion-report
Quote:
The United States turned to threats at the World Health Assembly in an effort to quash a resolution that sought to promote breastfeeding, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The resolution was originally expected to be introduced by Ecuador. But the U.S. warned that if the country went through with introducing the measure, it would cut military aid and implement punitive trade measures, the Times reported.

The resolution holds that breastfeeding is the healthiest option for young children, and pushes countries to limit the spread of inaccurate information about breast milk substitutes.

...The baby formula industry, which is dominated by U.S. and European companies, has seen growth in developing countries in recent years, as breastfeeding has become more common in wealthier countries.
Lobbyists for the companies that make formula were present at the meeting.

_________________

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: Mon 09 Jul , 2018 2:53 pm
Aspiring to heresy
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So what sort of consequences will there be if they don't make the deadline to reunite the families? A stern look?

_________________

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Melkor and Ungoliant in need of some relationship counselling.


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 09 Jul , 2018 4:54 pm
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I haven't read anything about the penalties. I assume fines, maybe?

In other news, Pruitt may be gone, but he left us one last gift:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/us/g ... ruitt.html
Quote:
In the final hours of Scott Pruitt’s tenure as administrator, the Environmental Protection Agency moved on Friday to effectively grant a loophole that will allow a major increase in the manufacturing of a diesel freight truck that produces as much as 55 times the air pollution as trucks that have modern emissions controls.

The move by the E.P.A. came after intense lobbying by a small set of manufacturers that sell glider trucks, which use old engines built before new technologies significantly reduced emissions of particulates and nitrogen oxide that are blamed for asthma, lung cancer and other ailments.

And Trump has nominated two highly qualified environmental lawyers to the EPA, to be appointed after they have been approved by the Senate


.... oops, sorry, that was a fantasy. Here's the reality:
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... tion-votes
Quote:
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has hired two officials nominated for senior positions to work at the agency before the Senate has had a chance to vote on them. Peter Wright and Chad McIntosh both started work Monday as “special counsels” to acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler, according to an EPA staff-wide email that Wheeler’s chief of staff Ryan Jackson sent Friday. The email was obtained by The Hill.

...Before his EPA job, Wright was a high-ranking attorney for Dow Chemical Co., which is responsible for some of the Superfund pollution sites that his office at the EPA oversees. McIntosh led Ford Motor Co.’s environmental programs before retiring last year.

_________________

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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