New NRA video defends Trump, promotes his "fake news" nonsense and essentially tells gun owners that they need their guns to defend themselves from liberals. To the point where some NRA members are disturbed by it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pos ... un-owners/
“They use their media to assassinate real news,” the woman’s voice says scornfully. “They use their schools to teach children that their president is another Hitler. They use their movie stars and singers and comedy shows and award shows to repeat their narrative over and over again.”
....these are the opening lines of a new recruitment video by the National Rifle Association of America that is headlined by conservative television host Dana Loesch.
btw, some state governors are refusing Kobach's request for voter records or saying that they will redact sensitive information before giving them to him. California is mentioned in this article, but Virginia and others are also saying no.
And it gets even better. Apparently, he also asked them to send sensitive information by an insecure method.
http://gizmodo.com/trumps-election-frau ... 1796535568
The White House on Wednesday requested that every state surrender a laundry list of voter data, including partial social security numbers, using an insecure email address unprotected by even basic encryption technology.
...The requested data includes:
Full names
Home addresses
Dates of birth
Political affiliations
Last four digits of social security numbers
Elections voted in from 2006 onward
Information about felony convictions
Information about voter registration in other states
Information about military status
And overseas citizen information
Voter rolls are considered public records, and can be obtained with varying ease, depending on the state. Ohio, for instance, makes its voter records available for download online, while other states require a formal request before handing over their records. However, voter data can be used for identity theft and is considered to be somewhat sensitive.
... Social security numbers are considered personally protected information, and the exposure of even a partial number (i.e., the last four digits) may drastically increase the risk of identity theft or fraud, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.
...The letter also states that “any documents” submitted by Connecticut’s government will be made available to the public, though it’s unclear if the White House means it intends to publish the home addresses and partial Social Security numbers of roughly 200 million registered voters. That would seem completely unnecessary, if not totally insane.
Trump and some of his right wing cronies (Bannon and Miller are from Breitbart, Navarro seems cut out of the same mold) are promoting trade wars.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ars-report
President Trump is set on imposing high tariffs on steel and other imports, despite pushback from the majority of his Cabinet, according to Axios.
The Friday report said Trump and a few of advisers are committed to putting tariffs on steel, and potentially other imports such as aluminum, paper, semiconductors, and appliances. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has reportedly pushed the plan, which is being supported by chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, trade policy director Peter Navarro, and senior adviser Stephen Miller.
OK, Trump doesn't seem to know much about human decency - and sadly, we're all getting used to that. But does no one on his public relations staff have integrity any more? Even GOP members of Congress are offended by Trump's latest tweets... but not Sanders.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ump-tweets
The White House offered an unapologetic defense Thursday of President Trump’s tweets attacking MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski during a contentious televised press briefing.
Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders ... responded by defending Trump
...“The only person I see a war on is this president and everybody that works for him,” she said. “I don’t think you can expect someone to be personally attacked, day after day, minute by minute, and sit back. The American people elected a fighter.”
... “He's not going to sit back and be attacked by the liberal media, Hollywood elites — and when they hit him, he's going to hit back,” she said.
Trump has spent his life suing and attacking people. He wants to continue to do this as president and thinks filing lawsuits is "fun."
http://thehill.com/media/340211-audio-s ... fundraiser
President Trump told supporters he wanted to sue CNN at a private fundraiser on Wednesday, according to audio released by The Intercept.
Boy, did CNN get killed over the last few days,” the president said ... “It’s a shame what they’ve done to the name CNN, that I can tell you,” continued Trump, who frequently refers to the network as "fake news."
“But as far as I’m concerned, I love it. If anybody’s a lawyer in the house and thinks I have a good lawsuit — I feel like we do. Wouldn’t that be fun?” he said.
One reason the State Department remains understaffed. And it sounds like Kushner is threatening Tillerson for being angry about that.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ide-report
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ... went after the head of the presidential personnel office, Johnny DeStefano, for dismissing his appointments to senior State Department positions and questioning his judgment, Politico reported Wednesday.
Tillerson complained that President Trump promised him room to make the decisions and hires that he deems best, a senior White House aide familiar with the conversation told Politico. He, however, has faced delays and blocks to his proposed hires, saying that DeStefano’s office should not “have any role in staffing,” a person familiar with the meeting said.
...The secretary also expressed frustration that people within the Trump administration are leaking negative reports about him to the press, the source said. ....
Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, and Tillerson’s chief of staff, Margaret Peterlin, were also in the room, Politico reported.Kushner reportedly told Peterlin that Tillerson’s outburst was unprofessional and that they needed to arrive at a solution, two of the people familiar with the exchange told the news outlet.
But Kushner's father-in-law can tweet what he likes about anyone, yell at his staff, ask the head of the FBI for loyalty, lie, reveal Israel's spy sources to Russia, etc, and that's totally fine. It boggles the mind.
I doubt the solution will be to stop blocking Tillerson's hires.
And another poorly conceived plan by an emboldened president.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... n-american
President Trump is preparing an executive order to require all U.S. food aid to foreign nations be shipped on American ships, Reuters reported Friday. The move, touted as part of Trump's "America First" agenda, is expected to face resistance in both parties. Critics told Reuters that it would result in aid being unable to reach many in need
....The American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank, said in a November report that forcing aid to be shipped on U.S. vessels costs 46 percent more, and can take up to 14 weeks longer to arrive at its destination.
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Companies may soon play an even bigger role at National Parks in the future (they already run some things, like stores and hotels.)
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... onal-parks
Companies that operate visitor services in national parks are pushing the Trump administration to outsource more work to the private sector.
The hospitality industry is betting that President Trump’s desire to cut the National Park Service’s (NPS) budget, combined with the GOP’s long-standing goal of moving federal functions to the private sector, presents an opportunity to make inroads in campgrounds, fee collection and other services at parks.
The administration appears receptive.
A handful of NPS sites have outsourced campground operation, and NPS already has the authority to expand concessioning, as Crandall and others are asking for.
I doubt if this will make for a more pleasant experience, having a profit-driven company running the national parks. Except perhaps for those who prefer a KOA to a national park campground.
We camped at one park where the campgrounds used to be run by rangers and now seem to be run by a company. When the rangers ran it, they were casual and very nice and they'd let us pick a campsite if the place was mostly empty during less-busy seasons. People would naturally spread themselves out and give each other a bit of privacy. Now you arrive, and the company says "No - you must take whatever site we assign you." The last time, they gave tenters one of 10 sites at the beginning of a campground loop, which they assigned over and over to arriving people. So you were crammed in closely with everyone else. And pretty much every day, you had new neighbors - some quiet and others very loud - and someone setting up or taking down their tents, sometimes while everyone else was trying to sleep at night. The rest of the many sites stayed empty. It was not pleasant and we were tempted to abandon what we'd paid for the site and leave early.
This is the sort of thing that happens when you're looking to maximize efficiency and profits (cram everyone into one bathroom area and you don't have to clean as much).
Edit: A couple of articles that examine efforts to privatize national parks:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... nistration
I don’t want to be in the business of running campgrounds,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said at a meeting of the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association in Washington this month. This came after Donald Trump proposed cutting the Department of the Interior budget by 13%.
...The park service did consider privatizing more services during the 1980s and 1990s, says John Garder, director of budget and appropriations of the National Parks Conservation Association. He says what the agency discovered is that, “for most part, you can’t privatize services significantly without having to raise the cost of visitation”.
In recent years, disagreements over park contracts have led to costly lawsuits for the park service. A provision in the contract offered to concessionaires allows them to recoup their investments in NPS facilities at the end of a contract period.
https://www.adventure-journal.com/2017/ ... nal-parks/
In early 2016, Yosemite National Park made headlines when Delaware North, a private company, lost its concession contract in the park. The company had claimed trademarks for the iconic park’s half-dome logo and many uses of the park’s name. As a result, T-shirts bearing the phrase “Yosemite National Park” were no longer allowed to be sold in park gift shops, and the National Park Service, or NPS, spent $1.7 million dollars changing signs and logos across the park. At the heart of what is now playing out in a protracted court battle is the meaning of America’s national parks: Are they tools for private profit or are they national treasures for the public?
...The top four concession holders in national parks—Aramark Parks and Destinations, Delaware North Companies, Forever Resorts, and Xanterra Parks and Resorts—also wield immense political power. Aramark and Delaware North have collectively given more than $500,000 to politicians since 2010.
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