***OFFICIAL TRUMP CABINET THREAD***

[boutons_deux]

3 Body-Slammin' GIFs of Trump's Latest Cabinet Pick


https://media.giphy.com/media/jBcn6AqFhZ6P6/giphy.gif

https://media.giphy.com/media/Qx5lM3hVlXsD6/giphy.gif

https://media.giphy.com/media/13UDhmeAgJffe8/giphy.gif

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/linda-mcmahon-SBA-gifs

[mavsfan1000]

I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis too.
He gets trashed for being normal. Lol

[boutons_deux]

Career of Trump's Top Ethics Lawyer Marred by Questionable Ethics

Don McGahn is a "vociferous defender" of Citizens United, among other things

http://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_large/public/headlines/don-mcgahn.jpeg?itok=ZBwwsdfa


The attorney named as President-elect Donald Trump's White House counsel, Donald McGahn (http://www.jonesday.com/dmcgahn/), has been called

"kryptonite to campaign finance reform (http://www.jewishjournal.com/marty_kaplan/article/like_kryptonite_to_campaign_finance_reform),"

"a totally partisan politico (http://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestiefer/2016/11/25/new-trump-white-house-counsel-donald-mcgahn-is-a-partisan-politico-consiglieri/#39e298493774)," and

"notorious for politicizing and crippling enforcement of federal campaign finance laws (http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/11/13176/don-mcgahn-trump-transition-lawyer-has-long-courted-controversy)." (iow, a corrupt asshole, perfect for Trash)

Indeed, journalist Jon Schwarz wrote (https://theintercept.com/2016/12/04/donald-trumps-general-counsel-is-proud-architect-of-americas-corrupt-big-money-politics/) at The Intercept on Sunday that McGahn

"bears as much responsibility as any single person for turning America's campaign finance system into something akin to a gigantic, clogged septic tank."

McGahn "demonstrated a much stronger interest in expanding the money-in-politics swamp than draining it,"


McGahn was "perhaps the most consequential member of the FEC in its history," said Jan Witold Baran (http://www.wileyrein.com/professionals-JanBaran.html), a well-regarded Republican election lawyer and co-chairman of the election law and government ethics practice at law firm Wiley Rein.

Baran said McGahn checked the authority of the agency's staff and general counsel and used his experience as a lawyer representing clients to win rights for political committees under the FEC's jurisdiction, including those the commission is investigating.

FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub (http://www.fec.gov/members/weintraub/weintraub.shtml), a Democratic appointee, who frequently clashed with McGahn while both were on the commission, sees it differently.

"He was consequential like a sledgehammer was consequential," she said, adding, "he did his best to undermine the law."


"Now, as Trump's White House lawyer, McGahn will provide crucial advice on the nomination of judges, including to the Supreme Court," Schwarz noted.

"While Trump has criticized Citizens United, and called the Super PACs that sprang up in its wake 'horrible' and a 'total phony deal,' McGahn is a vociferous defender (http://www.rawstory.com/2013/01/fec-vice-chair-don-mcgahn-opponents-of-citizens-united-ruling-want-to-silence-speech/) of the ruling."

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/12/05/career-trumps-top-ethics-lawyer-marred-questionable-ethics

so we absolutely now the shitbags Trash will nominate to SCOTUS.

trash personnel is trash policy

[boutons_deux]

Gen. Barry McCaffrey withdraws support of Trump national security advisor, calls for investigation (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/8/1608651/-Gen-Barry-McCaffrey-withdraws-support-of-Trump-National-Security-Advisor-calls-for-investigation)

General Barry McCaffrey tells NBC News that he was initially supportive of Donald Trump’s decision to name Lt. General Michael Flynn as his national security advisor.

But, a closer look at Flynn’s social media use shows that he sent out at least 16 different fake (propaganda) news stories (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/06/1607831/-Trump-s-nominee-for-National-Security-Advisor-sent-16-fake-news-propaganda-stories-on-social-media) via social media and

General McCaffrey pulled no punches, bluntly calling the tweets and stories “demented.”

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/08/1608651/-Gen-Barry-McCaffrey-withdraws-support-of-Trump-National-Security-Advisor-calls-for-investigation?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

[DMC]

have we gotten to the point where men have to be gay or asexual to not be scumbags?

Keep your dating life to yourself.

[mavsfan1000]

Too bad we don't have a conservative forum and liberal forum.

[boutons_deux]

TRUMP PICKS EL CHAPO TO RUN D.E.A.

http://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/AP_938982945738-1200.jpg

NEW YORK — Just days after picking Betsy DeVos to run the Department of Education, President-elect Donald Trump has tapped another wealthy outsider by naming Joaquín Guzmán, known as “El Chapo,” to head the Drug Enforcement Administration.

In an official statement, Trump said that El Chapo’s “tremendous success in the private sector” showed that he has what it takes to “shake things up” at the D.E.A.

Trump’s appointment of the former drug lord surprised many in Washington, in no small part because acrimony between the two allegedly prompted El Chapo, in 2015, to put a hundred-million-dollar bounty on Trump’s head.

But, appearing on CNN, the Trump surrogate Kellyanne Conway said that the selection of El Chapo should surprise no one.

“Mr. Trump always said that he would surround himself with the best people,” she said.

When asked why Trump had readily offered a job to El Chapo while still mulling the fate of another former adversary, Mitt Romney, Conway said, “El Chapo might not have voted for Mr. Trump, but that’s because he’s Mexican and in jail, and Mitt Romney is neither.”

The appointment of the former drug kingpin is far from a done deal, however, as associates of

El Chapo report that he is “concerned” that being a member of the Trump Administration would be bad for his brand.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-picks-el-chapo-to-run-d-e-a

[DMX7]

LMAO AT THIS SH*T! Remember the whole "Pay to Play" bullshit he accused Hillary of? Look at his labor and small business admin picks...

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s labor pick squirms when asked if he’d fire ‘p*ssy grabber’ Donald for sexual harassment

http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Andy-Puzder-800x430-800x430.png

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/trumps-labor-pick-squirms-when-asked-if-hed-fire-pssy-grabber-donald-for-sexual-harassment/


... poverty-wage/minimum-wage-hater boss Pudzer defends Trash against pussy grabbving by saying the Clintons are equally bad. :lol

[boutons_deux]

Trump has chosen fossil fuel–loving Cathy McMorris Rodgers for interior secretary.

McMorris Rodgers, chair of the House Republican Conference, is a conservative rising star from eastern Washington state. She’s had a consistently anti-environment voting record during her 12 years in the House; her lifetime voting score (http://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/cathy-mcmorris-rodgers) from the League of Conservation Voters is 4 percent.

As head of the Interior Department, McMorris Rodgers will oversee the majority of the country’s federal lands, including national parks, as well as offshore areas. She favors opening up many more of those lands and areas to fossil fuel development.

Last year, McMorris Rodgers voted to remove (http://scorecard.lcv.org/roll-call-vote/2015-236-prairie-chicken-burying-beetle-protections) species such as the lesser prairie chicken from the federal endangered species list because their protection stands in the way of oil and gas drilling.

She voted to allow (http://scorecard.lcv.org/roll-call-vote/2015-399-grazing-public-lands) livestock grazing on lands damaged by droughts and wildfires.

She also voted to interfere with the Bureau of Land Management, which she will now supervise, by revoking (http://scorecard.lcv.org/roll-call-vote/2015-402-blm-fracking-protections) its rule protecting groundwater from contamination from fracking operations.

She is, in short, a perfect pick for Trump. Trump rolled out his energy plan —

more fossil fuel extraction,

fewer environmental protections (http://grist.org/climate-energy/trump-now-sounds-like-every-other-right-wing-republican-on-energy-well-almost/) —

in a May speech at an oil industry conference. LCV concludes (http://www.lcv.org/media/press-releases/LCV-Statement-on-Rep-Cathy-McMorris-Rodgers-Nomination-for-Secretary-of-the-Interior.html), “Donald Trump just posted a massive ‘for sale’ sign on our public lands.”

http://grist.org/briefly/trump-has-chosen-fossil-fuel-loving-cathy-mcmorris-rodgers-for-interior-secretary/

America is raped and unrapeable.

[boutons_deux]

"So how do you reward your crazy xenophobic base, the one that delivered a losing-yet-victorious ticket to the White House?

The same base promised a glorious wall paid for by Mexico, so bigly that it would thwart the world’s tallest ladder AND the world’s biggest shovel?

You reward them by sucker-punching them in the face (https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/806917122177658880).

Let’s absorb the magnitude of the [Andrew] Puzder appointment.

Trump’s signature issue was immigration restriction.

Number 1.

He slammed hard the Bush family in general and Jeb Bush in particular as weak and low energy on immigration.

The Labor Department enforces immigration law in the workplace — the key way that immigration laws are enforced.

And the person Trump names to head Labor? Perhaps the most outspoken advocate of Bush-style immigration policy in US business community!


What role do less-skilled immigrants play in the American economy, and why do we need them?

At AEI on Tuesday, experts gathered to discuss these pressing questions as the immigration debate rages on in Congress.

Andrew Puzder of CKE Restaurants emphasized the need for low-skilled workers in the high-turnover fast food industry.


He’s also an ardent foe of Trump-style walls:


Follow (https://twitter.com/davidfrum)
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/513097360109350912/gqiWQqbR_normal.jpegDavid Frum
✔@davidfrum (https://twitter.com/davidfrum)

OK here’s the best part:

the only thing in the 2013 bill that bothered Puzder was … more border security."





http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/09/1609145/-Trump-s-Labor-Secretary-loves-immigrants-wants-to-tear-down-Trump-s-wall-Breitbart-sad?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

===========

I've been telling you jokers:

Repugs campaign on xenophobia and Mexicans and rapists to con and inflame their bigoted, racist, xenophobic base (that they cultivated for decades), but they don't want the "problem" solved because cheap labor, even wage-stolen/unpaid labor, is what they really love.

[boutons_deux]

The Purge of Government Employees Who Believe in Climate Change Has Begun (http://theslot.jezebel.com/the-purge-of-government-employees-who-believe-in-climat-1789924745)

Donald Trump’s transition team has asked the Energy Department for a list of names of all agency employees and contractors who worked on the Obama administration’s climate change policy.

A 74-point questionnaire, first reported on by Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-09/trump-team-s-memo-hints-at-broad-shake-up-of-u-s-energy-policy) and obtained by Politico (http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/12/trump-transition-wants-names-of-energy-department-staff-who-worked-on-climate-232424), is being circulated by the DOE.


The department, which has reportedly (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/12/09/trump-transition-team-for-energy-department-seeks-names-of-employees-involved-in-climate-meetings/?utm_term=.32e631f249d0) turned the questionnaire over to its lawyers, employs approximately 13,000 people directly, as well as tens of thousands of contractors. From Politico (http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/12/trump-transition-wants-names-of-energy-department-staff-who-worked-on-climate-232424):


The questionnaire asks for a list of DOE workers who attended any United Nations climate change conferences in the last five years. It also requests the list of those who attended any of the interagency working groups that have crafted a “social cost of carbon,” which several Obama administration agencies have used to help justify some regulations.

Besides specific names, the Trump team also asked:

“Which programs within DOE are essential to meeting the goals of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan?”

It also asks for the agency to identify

which office “owns” the work on international “Clean Energy Ministerials” and

“Mission Innovation,” a multinational effort to develop clean technology.

http://theslot.jezebel.com/the-purge-of-government-employees-who-believe-in-climat-1789924745?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29

[boutons_deux]

After Savaging Goldman Sachs, Trump Stocks His Admin With Goldman Alums

Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn has been offered the directorship of the Trump White House's National Economic Council, anonymous sources told NBC News (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/09/trump-offers-goldman-sachs-pre) and Bloomberg Politics (https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-12-09/goldman-s-cohn-said-to-be-trump-s-top-choice-for-nec-director) Friday.

In Trump’s closing advertisement before Election Day, a two-minute spectacular focused on blood-sucking elites (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-rolls-out-anti-semitic-closing-ad), Cohn’s only senior at Goldman, CEO Lloyd Blankfein, flashed on screen while

Trump said:

“It’s a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class,

stripped our country of its wealth, and

put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.”

Cohn joins several Goldman Sachs alumni already expected to be in the new administration.

Steve Mnuchin (https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/steven-mnuchin-treasury-wilbur-ross-commerce), Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs before striking out on his own. His father and brother also had high-profile careers at the investment bank.

Steve Bannon (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/steve-bannon-trump-chief-strategist), formerly Trump’s campaign CEO and now his chief strategist, worked at Goldman Sachs in the 1980s in mergers and acquisitions.

Anthony Scaramucci, one of Trump’s top transition advisers and a frequent cable news talking head, had two separate stints at Goldman Sachs, most recently as vice president in private wealth management, according to CNN Money (http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/30/investing/donald-trump-goldman-sachs-steve-mnuchin/).

Cohn became a partner at Goldman Sachs in 1994, four years into a lengthy career there (http://www.goldmansachs.com/who-we-are/leadership/executive-officers/gary-d-cohn.html).

Asked on CNN Friday about Goldman Sachs’ increasing influence in Trump’s inner circle, Scaramucci said,

“I think the cabal against the bankers is over.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/goldman-sachs-president-trump-gary-cohn-national-economic-council?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

BAIT AND SWITCH - LOL LOL LOL

TB :lol, my darling,

how about using your polling expertise and steel-trap mind to ask Trash's supporters if they "believe" any G-Sacks people have been hired :lol

[boutons_deux]

Donald Trump’s Interior Pick Thinks Climate Change Is ‘Creative Writing’

McMorris Rodgers boasts a lifetime voting score (http://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/cathy-mcmorris-rodgers) of 4 percent. She’s voted to strike down bills that would limit emissions (http://scorecard.lcv.org/roll-call-vote/2015-651-extreme-attack-carbon-pollution-limits-new-power-plants-cra) from power plants, protect communities from toxic coal ash (http://scorecard.lcv.org/roll-call-vote/2015-458-toxic-coal-ash-0), ban the sale of ivory products (http://scorecard.lcv.org/roll-call-vote/2015-405-ivory-sales) in the US, and protect threatened species (http://scorecard.lcv.org/roll-call-vote/2015-236-prairie-chicken-burying-beetle-protections) like the lesser prairie chicken.

As Secretary of the Interior, McMorris Rodgers would have tremendous jurisdiction over the fate of America’s climate future, national parks, and wildlife. The Center for Biological Diversity, an endangered species protection nonprofit, called the congresswoman (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2016/cathy-mcmorris-rodgers-12-09-2016.html) a “foe” to public lands, having actively promoted “the privatization and industrialization of America’s public lands,” and cosponsored “multiple bills to weaken protections on public land.”

McMorris Rodgers also believes that man-made global warming is a hoax. In 2008, during a forum on climate change, the congresswoman said the following (http://whitmanwire.com/news/2009/04/09/congresswoman-talks-climate-with-campus-group/): “We believe Al Gore deserves an ‘F’ in science and an ‘A’ in creative writing.”

she opposed an amendment (https://www.congress.gov/amendment/113th-congress/house-amendment/541) that would allow the Interior Secretary “to include climate change as a consideration in making decisions related to conservation and recreation on public lands.”

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/donald-trumps-interior-pick-thinks-climate-change-is-creative-writing-cathy-mcmorris-rodgers

Trash's people will do incredible damage to the Americans and America.

[boutons_deux]

Data Do Not Support Critique of Health Act by Pick for Labor Secretary

Of all the policy positions taken by Andrew F. Puzder, the fast-food chief executive whom Donald J. Trump (http://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/donald-trump?inline=nyt-per) has chosen to be his secretary of labor, one he returns to with regularity is his passionate disdain for the Affordable Care Act and its effect on businesses and workers.

In the last few months, Mr. Puzder has spoken out multiple times — in a speech before restaurant executives, on Fox Business, on the editorial page (http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-non-affordable-care-acts-restaurant-recession-1477863331?mod=e2two)of The Wall Street Journal — about what he calls a “government-mandated restaurant recession.”

He says the law has led to rising health insurance premiums, “reducing consumer spending, resulting in a reduction in restaurant visits.”

He has also argued that the act has given businesses an incentive to cut back on full-time workers to avoid the costs of providing them with insurance, as the act frequently requires.

The problem is that the available data largely disagree.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/business/andrew-puzder-critique-obamacare-data-donald-trump.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Pudzer also LIES that raising the minimum wage (eg, in his poverty-wage junk food shops) would cost jobs. 80 years of data say otherwise.

[z0sa]

Pretty much despise every single Trump cabinet pick. Of course, I only asked one thing of Trump from day 1 and that was anti TPP, NAFTA, etc, so Im not really more disappointed than I thiught Id be or something.

[spurraider21]

Trump’s labor pick squirms when asked if he’d fire ‘p*ssy grabber’ Donald for sexual harassment

http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Andy-Puzder-800x430-800x430.png

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/a-grim-tally-soars-more-than-50000-overdose-deaths-in-us/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

... poverty-wage/minimum-wage-hater boss Pudzer defends Trash against pussy grabbving by saying the Clintons are equally bad. :lol

nice link, idiot

[Spurminator]

Pretty much despise every single Trump cabinet pick. Of course, I only asked one thing of Trump from day 1 and that was anti TPP, NAFTA, etc, so Im not really more disappointed than I thiught Id be or something.

I think you can be confident that Trump will, at the very least, be anti-TPP on Twitter.

[z0sa]

I think you can be confident that Trump will, at the very least, be anti-TPP on Twitter.

Trump may care nothing for the 99.9999% of fleas which make up the rest of the income brackets on the planet, but there's no doubt even his paying it lip service gigantically contributed to the opposition movement.

He could have a whole Trump Tower built in China tomorrow and I'd still be thankful for how he and Bernie awkwardly teamed up against Hillary "Gold standard" Clinton, Obama and the rest of these so called champions of the working and middle class.

[Spurminator]

Trump may care nothing for the 99.9999% of fleas which make up the rest of the income brackets on the planet, but there's no doubt even his paying it lip service gigantically contributed to the opposition movement.

He could have a whole Trump Tower built in China and i'd still trust him a hair's breadth more than Hillary "Gold standard" Clinton, Obama, and the rest of these so called champions of the working and middle class.

I trust him to take the advice of his Goldman-Sachs cabinet on anything that makes him have to think more than three minutes. But I hear you, the very slight uncertainty is still more than we would've had with Clinton.

[z0sa]

I trust him to take the advice of his Goldman-Sachs cabinet on anything that makes him have to think more than three minutes. But I hear you, the very slight uncertainty is still more than we would've had with Clinton.

i edited it. I wouldn't trust him if he built a trump tower in china. They'd all be even at 0.0

[Axl Rose]

Are you guys pussies getting tight yet over these generals in trumps cabinet? When martial law is declared and constitution is dissolved no one will stop us

[z0sa]

Are you guys pussies getting tight yet over these generals in trumps cabinet? When martial law is declared and constitution is dissolved no one will stop us

lol all these fucksticks signed on to fuck bitches, stir up controversies, drive up the debt some more while riding the trump train to more millions or billions of personal wealth for themselves and a small circle of others. the last thing they want is war, they want a constitutional amendment passed while the one-party state system is in operation so trump can get 4 terms and ultimate die in office of a cocaine-indused heart attack mid-Oval Office orgy.

[Axl Rose]

lol all these fucksticks signed on to fuck bitches, stir up controversies, drive up the debt some more while riding the trump train to more millions or billions of personal wealth for themselves and a small circle of others. the last thing they want is war, they want a constitutional amendment passed while the one-party state system is in operation so trump can get 4 terms and ultimate die in office of a cocaine-indused heart attack mid-Oval Office orgy.
We will get that amendment passed and no one will do fuck all about it. Trump already has the military and millions of gun owners backing him

[Axl Rose]

Soon the trump party will become the state

[Axl Rose]

First order of business, destroy OPEC

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/rex-tillerson-exxon-mobil-expected-be-named-trump-s-secretary-n694371

[boutons_deux]

Trump reportedly settles on Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state


http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/584c5160ca7f0cf3008b4d78-2400

http://www.businessinsider.com/rex-tillerson-trump-secretary-of-state-romney-2016-12

Rex is just another oily fuck buddy for Pootin

[Axl Rose]

The eagle and the bear are about to destroy the dragon

[boutons_deux]

:lol

Remember NIBMY Tillserson, I'll frack in your city, on, near or on your school grounds, hospitals, any fucking where I want to frack,

but

no fracking in my backward! :lol

Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson is Suing to Stop a Fracking Development Outside Dallas

Just a few days after the Weather Channel published a damning, in-depth report (http://stories.weather.com/fracking)documenting how natural gas drilling is wreaking havoc on Texas' air quality, a group of wealthy property owners outside Dallas are dealing with another dark side of the energy boom: a really ugly water tower.

Residents of Bartonville are concerned about the tower for a number of reasons and are fighting the project in court. One issue, they say in the lawsuit, is that the tower "will sell water to oil and gas explorers for fracking shale formations leading to traffic with heavy trucks on FM 407, creating a noise nuisance and traffic hazards."

And, as the Wall Street Journal just uncovered (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304899704579391181466603804?mg=ren o64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB1000 1424052702304899704579391181466603804.html), one of those angry homeowners trying to stop the tower and its fracking-related business is none other than Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson. The lawsuit already has a winner, and that winner is irony.

Exxon and its subsidiary XTO make loads of money from natural gas production, and

Tillerson doesn't like it when others complain about the potentially negative consequences

http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/exxon-ceo-rex-tillerson-is-suing-to-stop-a-fracking-development-outside-dallas-7104980

[boutons_deux]

"U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders
Page Liked · 26 mins ·

During the campaign, Mr. Trump said time and time again that he would not cut Medicare. And yet his pick for secretary of health and human services, Tom Price, proposed the deepest cuts to Medicare in the past decade of House budgets. Trump must keep his word. This is a life and death issue for millions of people."


https://scontent-dft4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15326527_10155421336807908_4866898597458758763_n.p ng?oh=43b6417ef05752c844e0272d03e161c3&oe=58F9E3F7

=================

Trash and the Repugs gonna screw Trash's conned, gullible supporters hard and deep, with no job creation.

[UNT Eagles 2016]

Trump should end Medicaid and keep Medicare, tbh.

[William Hung]

Linda McMahon nigguh :tu

Suplex the swamp!

[boutons_deux]

Rex Tillerson, an Aggressive Dealmaker Whose Ties With Russia May Prompt Scrutiny

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/11/business/rex-tillerson-secretary-of-state-russia.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s senior advisor’s long history with extremist groups has just been exposed

Kellyanne Conway — one of President-elect Trump’s top advisors — has a long and sordid history with racist groups targeting immigrants and Muslims.

Before becoming Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Conway ran a polling firm that conducted a skewed poll aimed at depicting a significant portion of Muslims as radical extremists willing to commit violence in order to establish rule by Sharia, or strict Islamic law. The poll (http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2015/06/23/nationwide-poll-of-us-muslims-shows-thousands-support-shariah-jihad/) itself was done for the Center for Security Policy, which is an innocuously named group run by anti-Muslim ideologue Frank Gaffney.

Gaffney, who used to work in the Reagan administration, is known for propagating extremist conspiracy theories about radicalized Muslims infiltrating the highest levels of the U.S. government and the media, earning him the title of “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes (https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/frank-gaffney-jr)” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Gaffney once claimed that President Obama is a secret Muslim (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/9/americas-first-muslim-president/), and also claimed that top Clinton aide Huma Abedin was one of several members of the Muslim Brotherhood (https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-11-30/trump-s-coming-witch-hunt-against-political-islam) secretly working to establish an Islamic caliphate in the United States.
Conway’s work for Gaffney’s firm wasn’t merely a cold contract job — she openly endorsed his views in an interview on his podcast, which was about the poll of 600 Muslims she conducted. The poll stated that 51 percent of respondents would prefer to live under Sharia law, and that 20 percent of those asked would not hesitate to use violence to establish Sharia law.

“I think this is important because the answer from lots of folks always is, ‘Look, don’t cast a wide net and call all Muslims
nonpeaceful and violent and adhering to jihad and Shariah and bloodthirsty,'” Conway said (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/kellyanne-conway-immigration-islam-bannon-trump) on Gaffney’s podcast. “Fine. However, look at the data. The Muslims living in the US themselves—27 percent of them, anyway—say that this is what the purpose of jihad is, to either punish nonbelievers (16 percent) or, the other 11 percent, to undermine non-Muslim states.”

However, Conway’s poll wasn’t conducted in accordance with scientifically accepted sampling methods, the likes of which are strictly adhered to by prominent pollsters like FiveThirtyEight and NBC News/Wall Street Journal. For the Gaffney poll, Conway simply conducted the survey through online opt-ins (http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/12/survey-company-trump-is-misusing-our-survey.html), meaning those who responded sought out the poll as opposed to being randomly selected. As a pollster, Conway likely knew this would skew the results in favor of more ideological positions, in order to help advance Gaffney’s Islamophobic messaging.

“As this poll was conducted among an online group of opt-in respondents, we did not publish a margin of error or otherwise advise our client that the data were statistically representative of the entire US Muslim population,” an anonymous employee of Conway’s told New York Magazine (http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/12/survey-company-trump-is-misusing-our-survey.html).

In addition to her work denigrating Muslims, Conway also put her firm to work for the

Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which has been labeled as a white supremacist-affiliated hate group (https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2012/08/10/how-do-we-know-fair-hate-group-let-us-count-ways) by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

After Trump’s election, FAIR couldn’t have been prouder of its history with Conway.

“FAIR began working with Kellyanne Conway as far back as 1996, and we have used her for polling virtually every year since then,” FAIR president Dan Stein told Mother Jones (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/kellyanne-conway-immigration-islam-bannon-trump). “We take it as a certain amount of personal pride,is that when she became the campaign manager for Donald Trump—first successful woman to lead, you know, a successful presidential campaign—she was possessed of intimate professional knowledge of the immigration issue as it related to the voter concerns.”

“We saw that influence helping to shape Donald Trump’s positions and statements once she came on board,” Stein continued.

Conway, in addition to ex-Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon, remains one of President-elect Trump’s closest advisors, which makes Trump all the more likely to put his nativist positions on immigration and Muslims into place as president.
http://usuncut.com/politics/trumps-senior-advisors-long-history-extremist-groups-just-exposed/

[boutons_deux]

John Bolton Set To Be #2 At State Department


He will also be paired with former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton as his deputy secretary of state, one of the sources added, with Bolton handling day-to-day management of the department.


John Bolton? This is hardly unexpected, but holy shit. Bolton is a lunatic. Here he is on Fox News today:


Bolton is seriously suggesting that the hacks into Democratic Party computers might have been false flag operations, presumably with the goal of making it looklike Russia supported Donald Trump. This would ruin Trump's reputation and guarantee a win for Hillary Clinton.

This is completely nuts. It's deranged. It's unhinged. And it doesn't even make sense on its own terms. No campaign in its right mind would do this, and certainly not a campaign desperately trying to keep the word "email" in any form out of the public discourse.

Dark insinuations of false flag operations are a favorite among conspiracy theorists. They think it makes them sound sophisticated and worldly.

This means that either Bolton is a conspiracy theorist or else he doesn't mind sounding like one if that's what it take to defend his side. And soon he'll be the #2 guy at State, the person really running things while Tillerson provides the public face. God help us.


http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/12/john-bolton-set-be-2-state-department

======================

Review of Bolton's book

One Angry Man

http://www.nybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/john-bolton_2008-03-06.jpg

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2008/03/06/one-angry-man/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NYR%20Exxon%20John%20Bolton%20color&utm_content=NYR%20Exxon%20John%20Bolton%20color+CI D_9ed6809eca4246a48aac68c9ea0e4e05&utm_source=Newsletter

[CosmicCowboy]

Suck it, Burqa-boo. All you can do is cry.

[boutons_deux]

0.01% er Trash conned all you suckers

Wall Street Won Bigly By Running Against Wall Street


In the closing ad of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, he promised to oppose a “global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth, and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.”

The ad never used the words “Wall Street,” but the faces you see filling up the the screen — many of whom just happen to be Jewish (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-rolls-out-anti-semitic-closing-ad) — include Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein.

Since won the presidency, Trump has hired three current or former executives (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-gary-cohn-goldman-sachs-national-economic-council/) of the investment bank for key economic positions to serve in or along side his cabinet of billionaire donors and fired generals, as

they plot what is beginning to look like the biggest transfer of wealth to the richest in human history.

Meanwhile, the GOP-led House Oversight Committee plans to focus on in the first definition of its name — “an unintentional failure to notice or do something.” The committee will let Trump loot undisturbed, so long as he lets the GOP’s ruthless ambitions for hollowing out the middle class go unchecked.
And Wall Street loves it — as you can tell by the extended orgasm the stock market has been enjoying over Trump. From his massive tax breaks for the rich to Republican plans to privatize everything from Medicare to roads to schools, the bankers won bigly.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/wall-street-won-bigly-running-against-wall-street/

All y'all suckers voted for Wall St's best interests :lol which about 100% against your best interests.

America is now more fucked and more unfuckable.

[boutons_deux]

pitbull bitch trying to get on Trash's staff?

Sarah Palin says she’ll help stop Russian hackers: I’ll ‘keep an eye on them’ from my house!


http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/cnn_palin_atheist_151220c-2-800x430.jpg

Sarah Palin (https://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA)
(https://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA)✔@SarahPalinUSA (https://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA)

Russia's getting out of hand?

So says the defeated.

Not to worry... remember I can keep an eye on them from here. http://fb.me/3f16JyA2c (https://t.co/jQBCDV5O3W)

6:10 PM - 11 Dec 2016 (https://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA/status/808101702658363393)

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/sarah-palin-says-shell-help-stop-russian-hackers-ill-keep-an-eye-on-them-from-my-house/

[boutons_deux]

Incoming EPA Chief Scott Pruitt’s Other Target: Clean Water

Pruitt is well known for his legal challenges to President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, but his assault on clean-water protections has been just as fierce.

In 2015,

Pruitt led a multi-state lawsuit against Obama’s Clean Water Rule,

a regulation aimed at protecting source water for one in three Americans. As with his Clean Power Plan suit, Pruitt and his allies succeeded in blocking the rule’s implementation.

“I don’t think he’s found an EPA rule he hasn’t wanted to sue over,” says Michael Kelly, Clean Water Action’s national communications director.

Trump said repeatedly on the campaign trail that ensuring “crystal clear, clean water (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0ahUKEwjN_vni07rQAhWD5CYKHTwzBNQQFgg2MAc&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fvideo%2F politics%2Ftrump-ive-won-many-environmental-awards%2F2016%2F11%2F04%2Fe34c12c6-a2b7-11e6-8864-6f892cad0865_video.html&usg=AFQjCNG28aSVTpleqN5z0EwkhodG_lwezg&sig2=_Seb5Ug61VjrPqGCUw_Vgg&bvm=bv.139250283,d.cGw&cad=rja)” would be a priority for his administration. :lol

Yet his proposed policies and cabinet picks, particularly his selection of Pruitt, tell a very different story.

At a time when much of the nation’s water infrastructure is nearing the end of its lifespan, and federal funding for water quality enforcement is at historic lows, the incoming administration threatens to cripple the EPA’s ability to protect clean drinking water nationwide.

“This is about protecting an irreplaceable part of life: safe, efficient, affordable water,” says Henry Henderson, Midwest program director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“Gutting these protections is not something I believe the American people voted for in this election.”

http://prospect.org/article/incoming-epa-chief-scott-pruitt%E2%80%99s-other-target-clean-water

Personnel is policy

Trash is gonna fuck his supporters with a tons of stuff they didn't vote for! :lol

[boutons_deux]

This is NOT The Onion, or Borowitz! :lol

Trump considering Fiorina for director of national intelligence: New York Times (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheRawStory/~3/IW72ePlESv8/)


http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/fox_fns_fiorina_liar_151220a1-800x430.jpg

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/trump-considering-fiorina-for-director-of-national-intelligence-new-york-times/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29


Trump insults Fiorina in Rolling Stone: 'Look at that face!'


http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/09/media/donald-trump-rolling-stone-carly-fiorina/

[boutons_deux]

Perry to meet with Trump again amid energy secretary rumors


https://www.texastribune.org/2016/12/12/perry-meet-trump-again-amid-energy-secretary-rumor/

[boutons_deux]

Carly Fiorina emerges from Trump Tower — and shamelessly compares Trump to Shaquille O’Neal


“It was an honor to meet with the president-elect,” Fiorina told reporters before praising the “really cool” sports memorabilia in Trump’s office.

“I was particularly taken by Shaq O’Neil’s shoe,” she explained. “I guess it takes a champion to know a champion.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/watch-carly-fiorina-emerges-from-trump-tower-and-shamelessly-compares-trump-to-shaquille-oneal/

CF went on to say that Don The Con grabbed her pussy with championship vigor.

Also, she confirms that there is "no problem down there", as she could barely get it in her mouth, and that it will be a long time before the pain in her patriotic anus subsides. She took one For America.

[spurraider21]

Also, she confirms that there is "no problem down there", as she could barely get it her mouth, and it will be a long time before the pain in her patriotic anus subsides. She took one For America.typical misogynist leftwingnut

[Clipper Nation]

Too bad we don't have a conservative forum and liberal forum.
This is the conservative forum. Liberals come here to get shitted on with facts and reality because they're masochists.

[rmt]

Seems like more conservatives here since the election (or maybe 2 weeks before since I wasn't here).

[Th'Pusher]

Seems like more conservatives here since the election (or maybe 2 weeks before since I wasn't here).

Nope. You're right. They were nowhere to be found when they thought Hillary was gonna win. But they're here now to spike the football.

[Thread]

Nope. You're right. They were nowhere to be found when they thought Hillary was gonna win. But they're here now to spike the football.

And there ain't one thing wrong with that.

And for anybody to grudge us this spike renders you infinitesimal in size.

[Th'Pusher]

And there ain't one thing wrong with that.

And for anybody to grudge us this spike renders you infinitesimal in size.

I'd prefer it if your were able to post a coherent thought, but spike away. You'll be winded by the victory lap and slither back up to the NBA forum soon enough.

[Thread]

I'd prefer it if your were able to post a coherent thought, but spike away. You'll be winded by the victory lap and slither back up to the NBA forum soon enough.

That's how much you know...I've been here since they first started talking Trump out of it.

lmcontrollinao!!!!!!

[pgardn]

After the spike the game continues.

Careful for the tsunami of backlash if it does not go well. It happened to the Democrats. Can't say I'm upset. Your up. Step to the plate and quit whining about the pitches being too fast. The media, the media... STFU and play ya big babies.

[spurraider21]

I've been here since...
post pau

now post trump

i spit on you

[spurraider21]

also, apparently Trump has settled on Rex Tillerson as secretary of state

:lol oh boy... might as well plug in the koch brothers as co-secretaries of energy

[Spurminator]

#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp
#DrainTheSwamp

[CosmicCowboy]

also, apparently Trump has settled on Rex Tillerson as secretary of state

:lol oh boy... might as well plug in the koch brothers as co-secretaries of energy

Well, they ARE experts on energy. :lol

[boutons_deux]

predatory capitalist shark deVos will certainly kill this

Serving Students First: Federal Student Loan Servicers Face Higher Standards

In October, the U.S. Department of Education unveiled the latest set of requirements (https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=e33ee444a77af79af57457cf60eb565a&tab=core&_cview=1) in its ongoing process to select new companies to service the loans of tens of millions of federal student loan borrowers once the current contracts expire in 2019. The standards are voluminous: There are more than 4,000 new rules in a massive spreadsheet that govern every aspect of the loan servicing process, covering topics from acceptable paperwork processing times to the stationary that borrowers receive in the mail.

These requirements implement the ambitious vision for student loan servicing outlined in a July 2016 memo (https://www2.ed.gov/documents/press-releases/loan-servicing-policy-memo.pdf) from U.S. Department of Education Undersecretary Ted Mitchell. This memo lays out

the federal expectation that servicers must be active guides that help borrowers navigate their way out of debt.

The document also suggests a change in how servicers will be judged. Under the new requirements,

they would be

evaluated not only on their borrowers’ outcomes but also on whether they are reaching out to and communicating with borrowers as clearly and effectively as they should be.

This way, borrowers no longer receive unclear and inconsistent information.

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/news/2016/12/13/294876/serving-students-first-federal-student-loan-servicers-face-higher-standards/

[Clipper Nation]

Trill Till is already making liberals foam at the mouth. That's how I know he's a good pick.

[boutons_deux]

A Guy Who Exists Purely to Troll the Humane Society Was Just Hired by Donald Trump

USDA transition leader Brian Klippenstein heads a group that literally defends puppy mills.

Brian Klippenstein, executive director (http://protecttheharvest.com/who-we-are/brian-klippenstein/) of a group called Protect the Harvest. The brainchild of Forest Lucas (http://protecttheharvest.com/who-we-are/forrest-lucas/)—a right-wing oil magnate and cattle rancher who has himself emerged as a contender to serve as Trump's secretary of the interior—Protect the Harvest seems to exist mainly to troll the Humane Society of the United States (http://protecttheharvest.com/hsus-exposed/).

On its website (http://protecttheharvest.com/animal-owners/), Protect the Harvest warns that HSUS seeks to "put an end to animal ownership."

This is nonsense—the Humane Society is by no means coming for your furry friend. Its website (http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/?credit=ad_gg_search_eoy16_110116_footer_web_id934 80558) features "tools you need to help the pets in your home and beyond." I asked Paul Shapiro, vice president for farm-animal protection at HSUS, whether his group opposes the keeping of pets. "That would certainly be news to the vast numbers of our staff who bring their dogs to work here," he replied.

Protect the Harvest's real beef with HSUS appears to be that the group promotes legislation that curtails some of the harsher aspects of factory-scale animal farming.

The two groups recently clashed over a Massachusetts ballot measure (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/soda-tax-election-post) this fall to ban tight cages in egg and pork production. Lucas personally donated nearly $200,0000 to defeat the measure (http://www.ocpf.us/Filers/Index?q=95440&section=Reports#filer-data), and Klippenstein actively campaigned against it (https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/04/28/opponents-call-cage-free-egg-ballot-question-rotten/rsdN5P94IiN7Jx5mKw00XL/story.html). The measure passed with overwhelming support on Nov. 8 (https://ballotpedia.org/Massachusetts_Minimum_Size_Requirements_for_Farm_A nimal_Containment,_Question_3_(2016)).

Protect the Harvest's zeal to fight regulation of animal farming extends even to "puppy mills (http://www.aspca.org/animal-cruelty/puppy-mills)"—large facilities that churn out dogs like factory farms churn out pigs. Back in 2010, the year

Protect the Harvest was founded, it vigorously opposed (https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Dog_Breeding_Regulation,_Proposition_B_(2 010)) a Missouri ballot measure to "require large-scale dog breeding operations to provide each dog under their care with sufficient food, clean water, housing and space; necessary veterinary care; regular exercise and adequate rest between breeding cycles"; and "prohibit any breeder from having more than 50 breeding dogs for the purpose of selling their puppies as pets."

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/12/trump-usda-klippenstein-heitkamp

[spurraider21]

Trill Till is already making liberals foam at the mouth. That's how I know he's a good pick.lol partisan hack

[boutons_deux]

Samuel Adams, to encourage resistance among those who were considering "retiring into private life":


“If ever the Time should come, when vain & aspiring Men shall possess the highest Seats in Government, our Country will stand in Need of its experiencd Patriots to prevent its Ruin.

There may be more Danger of this, than some, even of our well disposd Citizens may imagine.

If the People should grant their Suffrages to Men, only because they conceive them to have been Friends to the Country,

without Regard to the necessary Qualifications for the Places they are to fill,

the Administration of Government will become a mere Farce, and our pub-lick Affairs will never be put on the Footing of solid Security.”


http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/charles-blow-trump-destroying-our-government-inside-out-way-worm-slowly-devours-apple

[Clipper Nation]

Tillerson is a former director of the UNCF, helping countless African-Americans go to college and get higher education and all the opportunities that come with it. He also was president of the Boy Scouts for several years and ended the institution's discrimination against openly gay members. And he has a long history of fostering productive relationships with foreign leaders.

Just shows how racist, homophobic, and xenophobic the left is that they hate this guy so much.

[boutons_deux]

Tillerson is a former director of the UNCF, helping countless African-Americans go to college and get higher education and all the opportunities that come with it. He also was president of the Boy Scouts for several years and ended the institution's discrimination against openly gay members. And he has a long history of fostering productive relationships with foreign leaders.

Just shows how racist, homophobic, and xenophobic the left is that they hate this guy so much.

Christian Taliban, eg Tony Perkins, etc, are going to fight Tillerson's approval because of his "white washing" of Exxon by supporting social issues, as smokescreen over Exxon's knowing destruction of the planet

[boutons_deux]

Responding to Trump's transition team requests for a list of department employees who have worked on climate change-related projects or attended climate change-related meetings, the Energy Department is telling their new boss to get bent (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/12/13/energy-dept-rejects-trumps-request-to-name-climate-change-workers-who-remain-worried/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.3d5cd24a11aa).


Energy officials resolutely rejected the request, while reassuring workers. [...]

“We will be forthcoming with all publically-available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team.”

Burnham-Snyder’s email had the last sentence in boldface for emphasis.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/13/1610619/-Energy-Department-rejects-Trump-request-for-names-of-employees-whose-work-touched-on-climate-change?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

:lol GFY, Trash

[CosmicCowboy]

Responding to Trump's transition team requests for a list of department employees who have worked on climate change-related projects or attended climate change-related meetings, the Energy Department is telling their new boss to get bent (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/12/13/energy-dept-rejects-trumps-request-to-name-climate-change-workers-who-remain-worried/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.3d5cd24a11aa).


Energy officials resolutely rejected the request, while reassuring workers. [...]

“We will be forthcoming with all publically-available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team.”

Burnham-Snyder’s email had the last sentence in boldface for emphasis.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/13/1610619/-Energy-Department-rejects-Trump-request-for-names-of-employees-whose-work-touched-on-climate-change?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

:lol GFY, Trash




http://russia-insider.com/sites/insider/files/donald-trump-youre-fired.jpg

[boutons_deux]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CzkXT1uWQAAlL4h.jpg

Perry, a climate change denier and extreme right-winger (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/rick-perry-believe-candidate-stands-10-issues/), even serves on the board (http://governance.energytransfer.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=106094&p=irol-govboard) of Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (http://www.commondreams.org/tag/dakota-access-pipeline).

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/rick_perry_dapl_board_member_picked_for_energy_sec retary_20161213?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+Truthdig+Truthdig%253A+Dril ling+Beneath+the+Headlines

[boutons_deux]

Here Is Rex Tillerson's Awesome Record at ExxonMobil

Was Rex Tillerson a good CEO at Exxon? Over at Bloomberg, Vincent Piazza says Tillerson has two big claims to fame: (https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/videos/2016-12-12/what-s-the-history-of-rex-tillerson-s-russia-connections)

Number one, it's the relationship with Russia and the expanding relationship there as well. But also the recent acquisition of XTO back in 2010.

That was a major bet on natural gas that did not pan out—a $35 billion bet on natural gas that seemed to turn the other way on them.

So...a lousy acquisition and, um, Russia. The Wall Street Journal goes into more detail on that: (http://www.wsj.com/articles/deals-with-vladimir-putin-helped-fuel-rise-of-secretary-of-state-nominee-rex-tillerson-1481626925)

“I have a very close relationship with [Mr. Putin],” Mr. Tillerson told students at the University of Texas, his alma mater, in February....He was successful, in part because he negotiated with Mr. Putin, who became Russian prime minister in 1999 and has run the country, either as president or prime minister, ever since. Mr. Tillerson’s ties helped him catapult past other executives to lead the company in 2006.

....At a June 2012 meeting with Mr. Putin, Mr. Tillerson said Exxon’s Arctic deal enhanced U.S.-Russian ties. “I agree, as you point out, that nothing strengthens relationships between countries better than business enterprise,” a Kremlin transcript quoted him as saying. The next year, Mr. Putin awarded him Russia’s Order of Friendship for his work.


Well, OK then. He's chummy with Vladimir Putin and he blew $35 billion on a bad acquisition.

But at least he's a great businessman, right?


http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/12/here-rex-tillersons-awesome-record-exxonmobil

[spurraider21]

Tillerson is a former director of the UNCF, helping countless African-Americans go to college and get higher education and all the opportunities that come with it. He also was president of the Boy Scouts for several years and ended the institution's discrimination against openly gay members. And he has a long history of fostering productive relationships with foreign leaders.

Just shows how racist, homophobic, and xenophobic the left is that they hate this guy so much.its just confirmation that conservatives are bought off by oil interests which explains their stance on climate change "skepticism"

[boutons_deux]

Why Trump is leaning towards Rep. Ryan Zinke for interior secretary

http://images.csmonitor.com/csm/2016/12/1018667_1_1213-zinke_standard.jpg?alias=standard_600x400

Zinke, who serves on House Natural Resources and Armed Services committees, describes himself as "a steadfast advocate for Montana veterans and military personnel and families."

He advocates greater use of public lands for energy production such as oil and natural gas.

Zinke has prioritized development of oil, gas and other resources on public lands and has advocated for state control of energy development on federal lands,

a stance that some environmental groups say threatens national parks. Zinke has voted against efforts to designate new national parks that would diversify the National Park System.

Zinke attracted attention in the 2014 campaign for calling Hillary Clinton "the antichrist." :lol

Zinke has raised doubts about climate change as "unsettled science." :lol

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/1213/Why-Trump-is-leaning-towards-Rep.-Ryan-Zinke-for-interior-secretary (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/1213/Why-Trump-is-leaning-towards-Rep.-Ryan-Zinke-for-interior-secretary)

[Splits]

lol partisan hack

No. He's a "libertarian"

[pgardn]

Rick Perry running the energy dept.
The very dept. he wanted to get rid of with his first run for president. It was one of 3 departments Perry wanted to get rid of but he forgot the name, Energy Dept. Now he is gonna run it. You can't make this up. just beautiful stuff..

[DMC]

Rick Perry running the energy dept.
The very dept. he wanted to get rid of with his first run for president. It was one of 3 departments Perry wanted to get rid of but he forgot the name, Energy Dept. Now he is gonna run it. You can't make this up. just beautiful stuff..

Just an odd factoid. Hillary wanted to destroy Obama then ended up working for him.

[DMC]

its just confirmation that conservatives are bought off by oil interests which explains their stance on climate change "skepticism"

Begs the question.

If climate change is pressing, you should not be able to buy anyone off who isn't dishonest. If you can buy conservatives off so they ignore impending doom, then you're saying the right is corrupt with or without the climate change issue. That also means you're saying liberals are not corrupt and couldn't be bought off even though we all know better.

[pgardn]

Just an odd factoid. Hillary wanted to destroy Obama then ended up working for him.

She wanted him dead?

And don't worry, she not gonna be president.

[boutons_deux]

"you should not be able to buy anyone off who isn't dishonest"

they are all for sale to BigDonor. I suppose some actually want to serve their constituents, but the corruption of money to win elections, means they must continuously pander to BigDonor who buy votes

[Winehole23]

https://media.giphy.com/media/l0HlyrQbIvWDdTa6I/giphy.gif

[boutons_deux]

Trump Corruption Grows As Senators Nail Education Pick For $5.3 Million In Unpaid Fines


Democratic Senators Tom Udall (D-NM), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

sent a letter to Trump's Education Secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos, to pay the $5.3 million in fines that have been levied against her super PAC for election violations.

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/12/14/trump-corruption-grows-senators-nail-education-pick-5-3-million-unpaid-fines.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

[boutons_deux]

Gen. Michael Flynn, who called for Hillary to be jailed, improperly shared classified information

But Flynn himself “inappropriately shared” classified information with foreign military officers and officials in Afghanistan in 2010, the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trumps-national-security-adviser-shared-secrets-without-permission-files-show/2016/12/13/72669740-c146-11e6-9578-0054287507db_story.html?utm_term=.afd79488e191)rep orted Tuesday. The publication revealed that Flynn was not authorized to share the classified information and “particular secrets he divulged.”

Army records obtained by the publication under the Freedom of Information Act found that “there was no actual or potential damage to national security as a result” of his sharing.

Flynn has dismissed the investigation as insignificant, yet “former U.S. officials familiar with the matter said that

Flynn was accused of telling allies about the activities of other agencies in Afghanistan, including the CIA,”

the Washington Post reported. The information shared included slides and materials about CIA operations in Afghanistan.

The U.S. military does share intelligence with NATO allies, but he did not follow the established channels to share information.

https://thinkprogress.org/gen-michael-flynn-shared-classified-trump-140c1d500286#.ep8n2ooos

[boutons_deux]

Climate Scientists Are Copying All Their Data to Protect It From Trash


Alarmed that decades of crucial climate measurements could vanish under a hostile Trump administration,

scientists have begun a feverish attempt to copy reams of government data onto independent servers in hopes of safeguarding it from any political interference.

....“Something that seemed a little paranoid to me before all of a sudden seems potentially realistic, or at least something you’d want to hedge against,” said Nick Santos, an environmental researcher at the University of California at Davis, who over the weekend began copying government climate data onto a nongovernment server, where it will remain available to the public.

“Doing this can only be a good thing. Hopefully they leave everything in place. But if not, we’re planning for that.”


I doubt this will happen. I'm not even sure how it could happen. But it's chilling that a bunch of working scientists think there's even a 5 percent chance that it might happen.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/12/climate-scientists-are-copying-all-their-data-protect-it-trump

[Clipper Nation]

Mother Jones and "Think" "Progress" = fake news.

[spurraider21]

Begs the question.

If climate change is pressing, you should not be able to buy anyone off who isn't dishonest. If you can buy conservatives off so they ignore impending doom, then you're saying the right is corrupt with or without the climate change issue. That also means you're saying liberals are not corrupt and couldn't be bought off even though we all know better.
You can buy off politicians in their 60s who aren't likely to face many of the consequences of climate change

[boutons_deux]

Mother Jones and "Think" "Progress" = fake news.

you dickless, misogynist KKK types ain't too bright

Right-Wing Media Will Call Anything They Don’t Like ‘Fake News’

http://www.nationalmemo.com/right-wing-media-fake-news/

[SnakeBoy]

Rick Perry running the energy dept.
The very dept. he wanted to get rid of with his first run for president. It was one of 3 departments Perry wanted to get rid of but he forgot the name, Energy Dept. Now he is gonna run it. You can't make this up. just beautiful stuff..

It really is

[DMC]

She wanted him dead?

And don't worry, she not gonna be president.

Yes you fucking retard, she wanted to kill him.

[DMC]

You can buy off politicians in their 60s who aren't likely to face many of the consequences of climate change

Only conservatives though, right?

[spurraider21]

Only conservatives though, right?point me to liberals who are taking money from the oil lobby and simultaneously blocking environmental legislation

[boutons_deux]

Dems, aka New Democrats, bought the neo-liberal crap. Clinton implemented 5 long-term VRWC projects.

With $Bs pouring into the Repugs, the Dems had to go groveling for money to match.

However, whether buying politicians is good or bad depends on what the buyer wants.

[RandomGuy]

Yes you fucking retard, she wanted to kill him.

Speaking of retards, you see the nitwit that the moron wants for Energy Secretary?


Let's put a nuclear physicist in charge of the agency responsible for nuclear weapons


Let's put a guy who can't even name the agency in charge of it. Hey the guy wears HUGE glasses, he must be more smarter.

Holy fuck this shit gets dumber by the second.

http://www.bilgebucket.com/wp-content/uploads/rickperrysmarterglasses.jpg

[RandomGuy]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gXvI7o_D0j8/Ukyc2MTFOwI/AAAAAAAAAzc/Jod6uzvI6m0/s400/rick+perry+in+glasses.jpg

[DMC]

point me to liberals who are taking money from the oil lobby and simultaneously blocking environmental legislation


So the answer is yes?

[DMC]

Speaking of retards, you see the nitwit that the moron wants for Energy Secretary?





Holy fuck this shit gets dumber by the second.

http://www.bilgebucket.com/wp-content/uploads/rickperrysmarterglasses.jpg

Too bad your choice was too stupid to use the proper server eh?

"I deserve to be president! I was hacked by Russia as Secretary of State!"

[spurraider21]

So the answer is yes?no. i dont know the answer to the question. i do know that conservatives can be bought regarding the climate change issue. i dont know that liberals cant, though the evidence is hard to find. can you name liberal politicians who are receiving money from the oil lobby and are blocking environmental regulations while downplaying either the existence or effects of climate change?

there's a reason why i didnt say "only conservative politicians"

[TeyshaBlue]

https://media.giphy.com/media/l0HlyrQbIvWDdTa6I/giphy.gif
Why does this make me think of Willy Wonka?:wow

[pgardn]

Yes you fucking retard, she wanted to kill him.

The New prescription is not working daddy.

[DMC]

The New prescription is not working daddy.

Tell your doctor.

[DMC]

no. i dont know the answer to the question. i do know that conservatives can be bought regarding the climate change issue. i dont know that liberals cant, though the evidence is hard to find. can you name liberal politicians who are receiving money from the oil lobby and are blocking environmental regulations while downplaying either the existence or effects of climate change?

there's a reason why i didnt say "only conservative politicians"

You did basically, by omission.

[spurraider21]

You did basically, by omission.if you're so interested in getting an answer, go fetch some names of liberal politicians who are getting money from oil lobbies and are blocking environmental regulations while downplaying either the existence or effects of anthropogenic climate change

[pgardn]

Tell your doctor.

You seem to go overboard rather easily for a poster who can be reasonable, on occasion. I gotta think the cough syrup is reacting with ... you drink?

[DMC]

You seem to go overboard rather easily for a poster who can be reasonable, on occasion. I gotta think the cough syrup is reacting with ... you drink?

Rarely drink, no cough syrup. Sometimes when others around you seem a bit extreme, it's just you.

[DMC]

if you're so interested in getting an answer, go fetch some names of liberal politicians who are getting money from oil lobbies and are blocking environmental regulations while downplaying either the existence or effects of anthropogenic climate change

I just wanted to watch you jump through hoops to avoid taking a position you inferred already. Well done. I would have just said "yes". Not you, too close to a stance for your comfort.

[spurraider21]

I just wanted to watch you jump through hoops to avoid taking a position you inferred already. Well done. I would have just said "yes". Not you, too close to a stance for your comfort.
So you have nothing to add other than Philo

Excellent

[RandomGuy]

Too bad your choice was too stupid to use the proper server eh?

"I deserve to be president! I was hacked by Russia as Secretary of State!"

(facepalm)

"The guy picked for this cabinet position is an idiot".

"Russia hacked your candidate, because they prefer mine".

You suck at this.

[DMC]

So you have nothing to add other than Philo

Excellent

That was the point I was making about you. You didn't add anything because you didn't actually make a point. When asked to clarify and repair your circular reasoning, you chose neutral ground and instead challenged me to disprove something you weren't even committed to stating in the first place. That's chickenshit, Philo.

[DMC]

(facepalm)

"The guy picked for this cabinet position is an idiot".

"Russia hacked your candidate, because they prefer mine".

You suck at this.

Your candidate used an insecure server.

[RandomGuy]

Your candidate used an insecure server.

Your candidate IS insecure, which is far more dangerous.

:tu

[spurraider21]

That was the point I was making about you. You didn't add anything because you didn't actually make a point. When asked to clarify and repair your circular reasoning, you chose neutral ground and instead challenged me to disprove something you weren't even committed to stating in the first place. That's chickenshit, Philo.I dont have to make the claim that only conservatives to do something to make a point.

[DMC]

Your candidate IS insecure, which is far more dangerous.

:tu

I don't have a candidate. I have a POTUS.

[DMC]

I dont have to make the claim that only conservatives to do something to make a point.

No one can force you to, that's true. You are free to chickenshit your way around to your heart's content.

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s Proposed Changes To White House Press Corps Would Undermine The Flow Of Information

Members of the incoming Trump administration are floating ideas that would radically bring changes to the White House Press Corps.

All of the suggested changes would benefit Trump by

allowing the White House to intimidate journalists into compliance while restricting the free flow of information from the White House to the American people.

The changes that have been suggested (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/white-house-press-corps-donald-trump-reince-priebus_us_58516fb2e4b0e411bfd4b338)have included

doing away with the White House daily press briefing,

getting rid of the president’s weekly address, and

perhaps moving the White House press corps out of the White House.

All of these potential changes are designed to accomplish two goals.

The Trump administration wants a compliant press that fits in with

Trump’s belief that the media should be nothing more than glorified transcription praise machines.

Trump has been avoiding the press for nearly seven months. This is not an administration that is going to engage and answer questions from the political press. By limiting entry to the White House, Trump is going to force journalists to trade objective coverage for access. In other words,

the president-elect wants to transform our free press into state-run media.

The second goal behind the potential changes is to limit the amount of information coming out of the White House to the public.

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/12/15/trump-benefits-changing-white-house-press-corps.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

Trash already punished WaPo by denying press credentials, and punished Twitter from coming to his big gold penis tower for denying Trash the #CrookedHillary hashtag.

[boutons_deux]

Rick Perry is paid by company attempting to build the Dakota Access Pipeline

pick to run the Energy Department also happens to be the favorite politician of the company attempting to build the Dakota Access Pipeline.

For the past two years, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has held a paid position on the board of directors of Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the controversial project.

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/rick-perry-is-paid-by-energy-transfer-partners/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29 (http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/rick-perry-is-paid-by-energy-transfer-partners/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29)

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s Latest National Security Pick Once Implied Obama Lied About Being Black

While guest-hosting for Laura Inghram’s radio show in 2008, Fox News’ Monica Crowley said the following of Obama:

Now, he was not born in Africa, but the father was from Kenya, the father was from Africa.?

And according to this genealogy — and again, because I haven’t done the research, I can’t verify this — but according to this guy Kenneth Lamb, Barack Obama is not black African, he is Arab African.

And yet, this guy is campaigning as black and painting anybody who dares to criticize him as a racist.

I mean, that is — it is the biggest con I think I’ve ever seen.


Crowley was referring to a genealogy posted by a blogger claiming Obama’s ancestry was more Arabic than African. The blogger offered no root research for his claims (http://mediamatters.org/research/2008/06/26/monica-crowley-forwarded-smear-that-obama-has-l/143870), instead encouraging readers to “[r]esearch the Kenyan records for yourself.”



Crowley was also a supporter of Trump’s “birther” movement, which claimed that Obama was not born in America, and therefore was ineligible to be President.

She’s defended the movement in the past, saying on Bill O’Reilly’s show that “Issues about (Obama’s) Origins have traction…” because he does “Un-American” things which show the American people that “Bottom line: he’s not one of us.”

Even O’Reilly responded to this with “I wouldn’t go that far.”



http://usuncut.com/news/trumps-latest-national-security-pick-implied-obama-lied-black/

Fox LIED for Trash hard, and gets rewarded with many Fox people and contributors into Trash's shit pile.

[Clipper Nation]

I don't have a candidate. I have a POTUS.
robinlopez.gif

[rmt]

Trump’s Proposed Changes To White House Press Corps Would Undermine The Flow Of Information

Members of the incoming Trump administration are floating ideas that would radically bring changes to the White House Press Corps.

All of the suggested changes would benefit Trump by

allowing the White House to intimidate journalists into compliance while restricting the free flow of information from the White House to the American people.

The changes that have been suggested (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/white-house-press-corps-donald-trump-reince-priebus_us_58516fb2e4b0e411bfd4b338)have included

doing away with the White House daily press briefing,

getting rid of the president’s weekly address, and

perhaps moving the White House press corps out of the White House.

All of these potential changes are designed to accomplish two goals.

The Trump administration wants a compliant press that fits in with

Trump’s belief that the media should be nothing more than glorified transcription praise machines.

Trump has been avoiding the press for nearly seven months. This is not an administration that is going to engage and answer questions from the political press. By limiting entry to the White House, Trump is going to force journalists to trade objective coverage for access. In other words,

the president-elect wants to transform our free press into state-run media.

The second goal behind the potential changes is to limit the amount of information coming out of the White House to the public.

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/12/15/trump-benefits-changing-white-house-press-corps.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

Trash already punished WaPo by denying press credentials, and punished Twitter from coming to his big gold penis tower for denying Trash the #CrookedHillary hashtag.





LOL at OBJECTIVE COVERAGE - you're not seriously suggesting that comes out of the press especially regarding Trump? After the way they've treated him, I'm all for moving the White House press corp out of the White House (pay for your own accommodations) and do they also fly around with him on Air Force One? - pay for your own flight. Who believes anything or any poll they put out anyways?

Doesn't necessarily mean that any flow of information would be restricted. WH could do daily releases via internet. Trump can speak directly to the American public with his videos and (vetted) tweeting - even more frequently than weekly.

[Spurminator]

Your lack of interest in accountability for the most powerful office in the country is seriously disturbing.

At what point is the President of the United States too coddled for your tastes?

[rmt]

Your lack of interest in accountability for the most powerful office in the country is seriously disturbing.

At what point is the President of the United States too coddled for your tastes?

Too coodled? You think the media has coddled Trump?

Maybe some should get used to things being done differently. I find it a refreshing CHANGE - you know, what a lot of voters wanted.

[boutons_deux]

DicklesS ignorant Trash is afraid of taking questions from a hostile informed press

[Spurminator]

Too coodled? You think the media has coddled Trump?

No, perhaps I should type more slowly. You're coddling the President by shielding him from the :cry mean press :cry that every other President in modern history has had to deal with.


Maybe some should get used to things being done differently. I find it a refreshing CHANGE - you know, what a lot of voters wanted.

If the change you wanted was for the President of the United States to not have to face direct challenges to his policy by a Free Press, then I hope to God you never vote again.

[rmt]

No, perhaps I should type more slowly. You're coddling the President by shielding him from the :cry mean press :cry that every other President in modern history has had to deal with.



If the change you wanted was for the President of the United States to not have to face direct challenges to his policy by a Free Press, then I hope to God you never vote again.

mean - sure
Free - dunno about that
working for the American Public to have objective coverage - certainly not

[Spurminator]

mean - sure
Free - dunno about that
working for the American Public to have objective coverage - certainly not

What is unobjective about asking the President's Press Secretary questions and having them answered? Why does Donald Trump deserve to avoid questioning? Do you think he can't handle it?

[Spurminator]

The guy you're so excited about being President sounds like a pussy to me. This is the guy you want talking to foreign leaders? Is he going to start avoiding those conversations when they make him uncomfortable too?

Seriously, never vote again.

[rmt]

What is unobjective about asking the President's Press Secretary questions and having them answered? Why does Donald Trump deserve to avoid questioning? Do you think he can't handle it?

The press does not provide objective coverage of Trump. He has not avoided questioning - see this past 18 months of being interviewed by numerous networks (unlike Hillary) and obviously he handled it - DESPITE, the media's bias, he got elected.

[rmt]

The guy you're so excited about being President sounds like a pussy to me. This is the guy you want talking to foreign leaders? Is he going to start avoiding those conversations when they make him uncomfortable too?

Seriously, never vote again.

Please see other thread about Canadian independent journalist. What do you think about her report/video? Is the corporate media telling us all a bunch of lies? And if so, does Obama know what's going on over there?

Sorry to disappoint, but I'll be voting again and again ...

[Th'Pusher]

Please see other thread about Canadian independent journalist. What do you think about her report/video? Is the corporate media telling us all a bunch of lies? And if so, does Obama know what's going on over there?

Sorry to disappoint, but I'll be voting again and again ...

No you won't. When trump lets you down, you'll go right back to whatever you were doing before you wandered aimlessly down to the PF.

[boutons_deux]

Oh My ... Trump's Commerce Nominee Backed 47%

Wilbur Ross, Donald Trump's nominee for Commerce Secretary, backed up Mitt Romney's "47%" comments back late in the 2012 campaign in an interview on Indian TV station NDTV.

Ross makes the factually incorrect statement that 47% of Americans pay no taxes.

Actually more telling than that are the comments about scofflaws on unemployment and various safety net programs.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/oh-my-trump-s-commerce-nominee-backed-47?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

Just amazing.

And Trash and his team are gonna WIN for the white working class, with 10Ms on public assistance? :lol

Trash and his whole team are one big stinkin pile of billionaire shit.

[boutons_deux]

Trump is going to be mad when he hears what his appointees think about the TPP


His top economic and foreign policy advisers love it (as do his other advisers).


http://www.vox.com/2016/12/16/13938730/trump-cabinet-tpp

:lol

Trash is such a lying bulshitter.

Making up campaign shit to sucker and con you assholes is tons easier (talk is CHEAP, like Trash) than being forced into doing what the corporatocracy has pays for.

Every fucking tweet, campaign LIE will be ignored in practice.

[boutons_deux]

The Worst of the Worst

David Friedman, Donald Trump's nominee to be the next US Ambassador to Israel, described in the mainstream press as a supporter of settlement expansion

Chemi Shalev captures the essence here (http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.759443).


By Israeli standards, Donald Trump’s designated Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is an extreme right-winger.

He might find a place in the settler movement or with Naftali Bennett’s Habayit Hayehudi Party, but only on its right-wing fringes.

He makes Benjamin Netanyahu seem like a left-wing defeatist.

From where Friedman stands, most Israelis, never mind most American Jews, are more or less traitors.

Friedman has repeatedly attacked J Street, the pro-Israel, pro-Peace group, and its members as worse than the Jewish collaborators who served the Nazis during the Holocaust.

On the one hand, it's too hard for me to get too upset about the appointment of any Ambassador since Ambassadors don't make national policy. Anything they do of consequence only has lasting meaning because they are backed by the US government.

But this suggests

US policy in the Middle East will be guided by some mix of Adelson, Trump's impulsiveness and perhaps most critically Trump/Kushner clan politics.

So it is as bad as it gets but mainly because Trump policy will be as bad as it gets.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-worst-of-the-worst?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

Milton Friedman's son.

[boutons_deux]

Sen. Jeff Sessions Faces Fight Over Bid to Be Trump's Attorney General

The battle over President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general nominee, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, is heating up ahead of what promises to be a deeply contested confirmation hearing next year.

Groups on the left are ratcheting up their criticism of Sessions on issues such as immigration, criminal justice and voting rights while those supporting him are unveiling the first component of what is expected to be a vigorous campaign in his favor.

His confirmation hearings are scheduled for January 10 and 11 before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sen-jeff-sessions-faces-fight-over-bid-be-trumps-attorney-n696631

[boutons_deux]

 Potential Secretary of State Nominee Rex Tillerson Has an SEC Problem

ExxonMobil has been under SEC investigation since August.

But Trump and Tillerson share something else that hasn’t gotten as much attention—a penchant to rip off their business partners.


In ExxonMobil’s case, I’m talking about shareholders.

Tillerson’s company has been under formal investigation (http://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-investigating-exxon-on-valuing-of-assets-accounting-practices-1474393593) by the Securities and Exchange Commission since August for failing to accurately value its proven oil reserves.

Those reserves are critical to investors for assessing the future viability of the company.

Without the certainty that the company can keep crude oil flowing decades into the future, ExxonMobil stock would plummet.

Rewriting the disclosures to investors with lower valuations would cost the company billions of dollars.

And actually the entire oil and gas industry would be affected by a new standard rather than the current ad hoc system.

https://www.thenation.com/article/potential-secretary-of-state-nominee-rex-tillerson-has-an-sec-problem/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly_2016_12-16&utm_term=weekly

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s State Department pick just got busted as the owner of a shady Russia-US oil company

Leaked documents confirm that ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, whom Trump appointed to head the State Department, owns a U.S.-Russia oil company.

The document — a 2001 corporate registration form from the Bahamas (https://www.scribd.com/document/334295454/Acr-2962027027788362558?secret_password=0m6pgPKSKgMWfS dUdptX#download&from_embed) — shows Tillerson’s name listed among 17 other corporate officers for Exxon Neftegas. Tillerson is named as a director and chairman of the board, while four of the 18 officers are listed as residing in Russia. Three of the names are from Moscow, and one of the names is from Sakhalin, in Russia’s far eastern region.

German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (http://www.sueddeutsche.de/) first published the document, which obtained it from an anonymous source. The leaks were then shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which also learned that ExxonMobil has 67 companies registered in the Bahamas (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/18/leak-rex-tillerson-director-bahamas-based-us-russian-oil-company) for business deals with various oil-rich foreign governments, like Azerbaijan, Russia, and Venezuela.

http://usuncut.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/tillersoncompany.png (http://usuncut.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/tillersoncompany.png)

http://usuncut.com/politics/trump-state-department-russia-us/

Trash's administration is as toxically corrupt as Trash himself.

[CosmicCowboy]

Why is it shady Boo? You are showing how truly stupid you are.

You realize Exxon does business worldwide, don't you?

Just being registered in the Bahamas doesn't make them shady.

[boutons_deux]

He didn't get into Trash's cabinet or govt (yet), but he certainly hates free press and dissent, just like the Big Orange Turd

Newt Gingrich ramps up attacks on “propaganda media”: If you’re not with Trump, you’re the enemy

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/19/newt-gingrich-ramps-up-attacks-on-propaganda-media-if-youre-not-with-trump-youre-the-enemy/

[boutons_deux]

Like his secretary of state pick, Trump's selection for commerce secretary also has ties to Russia (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/19/1612709/-Trump-s-selection-for-commerce-secretary-also-has-ties-to-Russia)

http://images.dailykos.com/images/340965/story_image/GettyImages-629924102.jpg?1482176434

https://jackrollreviews.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/raiderslostark9_001pyxurz.jpg?w=1024


Trump the president-elect has welcomed into his administration a businessman with a much tighter and more financially significant relationship with Vekselberg: Wilbur Ross, the billionaire investor who has specialized in distressed assets and who is now Trump's pick for commerce secretary.



Russian oligarchs (looking for a place to stash their embarrassingly large wads of cash outside the country against the day when someone noticed they were running off with everything not nailed down) made a bid to take over the Bank of Cyprus.

However, European regulators balked at giving a crowd of kleptocrats their own private money laundering system/tax haven.

Wilbur Ross came to the rescue. Ross gave most of the oligarchs a buyout, leaving himself primary stockholder of the bank and No. 2 in Vekselberg’s' conglomerate.

When the bank’s new board was announced it included Ross, along with a representative for Vekselberg, and Vladimir Strzhalkovskiy—another Putin associate and former KGB member. To round things out, they also brought in a former CEO at Deutsche Bank who was also a Putin-pal.

Asked about Ross' dealings with Vekselberg, the Trump transition office did not respond to a request for comment.



http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/19/1612709/-Trump-s-selection-for-commerce-secretary-also-has-ties-to-Russia?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29


Don The Con is just yet another Useful Idiot for (Russian) powers behind the throne.

St Ronnie, dubya, Trash, nothing but Useful Idiots.


I'd really like to see those hours of Vlad's vids of Trash fucking whores and snorting coke.

[CosmicCowboy]

:lmao

Boo, you can throw all the tantrums you want but Harry Reid fucked you when he triggered the nuclear option. Trump will get whatever cabinet members he wants and the Democrats won't be able to stop him. Funny how that partisan shit can come back to haunt you...this time democrats did it to themselves...:lol

[boutons_deux]

:lmao

Boo, you can throw all the tantrums you want but Harry Reid fucked you when he triggered the nuclear option. Trump will get whatever cabinet members he wants and the Democrats won't be able to stop him. Funny how that partisan shit can come back to haunt you...this time democrats did it to themselves...:lol

you ALWAYS deflect.

That your venerated Trash will get his cabinet picks isn't the point. It's the corrupt, crazy, predatory assholes he is picking.

And Repugs will almost certainly kill the filibuster completely.

[CosmicCowboy]

Boo, are you telling me you don't see the delicious irony of the Democrats screwing themselves out of any possible chance to influence Trumps nominations? That it never occurred to them that the nuclear option could come back to haunt them? I thnik it's freaking hilarious...all they can do is howl and whine like Booboo.

[boutons_deux]

Trump's new budget director gave a speech to the John Birch Society just six months ago (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/20/1612719/-Trump-s-new-budget-director-gave-a-speech-to-the-John-Birch-Society-just-six-months-ago)

The Republican Party has, for some years now, been a spawning ground for lunatics. We had assumed that eventually the party would tire of them and toss them out. Donald Trump, however, is elevating them to the top levels of government (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/trump-mulvaney-john-birch-society).


Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), the ultra-conservative congressman tapped by Donald Trump to run the Office of Management and Budget, recently accepted a speaking invitation from the notorious John Birch Society, an extreme right-wing group known for peddling outlandish conspiracy theories for more than half a century.

The John Birch Society is one of the few conservative groups so implausibly paranoid and conspiracy-minded as to be shunned wholesale by the rest of the movement.

They have been implausibly paranoid and conspiracy-minded for decades. But Mulvaney's a sport, and we live in implausibly paranoid and conspiracy-minded times.

His July speech, flagged by the Democratic opposition research group American Bridge, was billed as an address on "the Federal Reserve's role in bailing out Europe."

According to its website, the John Birch Society believes that the Federal Reserve is unconstitutional and should be abolished and that "the only constitutional money is gold and silver coin."


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/20/1612719/-Trump-s-new-budget-director-gave-a-speech-to-the-John-Birch-Society-just-six-months-ago?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

Guess who founed JBS? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_C._Koch

[boutons_deux]

Friedman Even Worse Than I Thought

I already realized that US Ambassador to Israel nominee David Friedman, in addition to supporting the worst and most violent elements in Israeli society, is in fact a terrible person. But I didn't know how far he'd gone in prostituting the Holocaust in the service of his friend and client Donald Trump.

In his latest column in Haaretz column (http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.760246) Peter Beinart digs up this quote ....


October 20, 2016: “While the revelation of Mr. Trump’s demeaning comments caught on tape some 11 years ago brought him, as one would expect, widespread negative attention, The New York Times ran with the story with all the journalistic integrity of the worst gossip rag. If only the Times had reported on the Nazi death camps with the same fervor as its failed last-minute attempt to conjure up alleged victims of Donald Trump, imagine how many lives could have been saved.”

I did not realize you could

leverage the Holocaust and the 6 million Jewish victims as a cudgel to defend a man caught on tape bragging about 'grabbing' women by their 'pussies' and coercing sex.

But you can. David Friedman did. And he'll be our next Ambassador to Israel.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/friedman-even-worse-than-i-thought--2?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

[boutons_deux]

https://scontent-dft4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15621886_10155459214577908_9191135613292758599_n.p ng?oh=6a6d37f91128c18957ea8bb353b0e709&oe=58E47833

[CosmicCowboy]

Damn Boo...you are right. Maybe he can pick up you and a couple of homeless people to lower the averages.

[rmt]

boutons, don't you want successful people leading the country? Would you rather have penniless failures? Why haven't you criticized Obama's cabinet? Isn't Kerry wealthy? Hillary?

[CosmicCowboy]

boutons, don't you want successful people leading the country? Would you rather have penniless failures? Why haven't you criticized Obama's cabinet? Isn't Kerry wealthy? Hillary?

Boo just LOVES Heinz Ketchup.

[spurraider21]

Damn Boo...you are right. Maybe he can pick up you and a couple of homeless people to lower the averages.
:lol

[boutons_deux]

Gingrich Says Trump's No Longer Interested In 'Drain The Swamp'

Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that Donald Trump’s “drain the swamp” catch phrase was “cute” but that the President-elect now disclaims it.

During an interview with NPR’s “Morning Edition” (http://www.npr.org/2016/12/21/506378085/gingrich-says-trump-must-address-business-conflicts-soon-urges-monitors) Wednesday, host Rachel Martin asked if the former House speaker had been “working in the swamp, to use Donald Trump’s language.”

“I’m told he now just disclaims that. He now says it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore,” Gingrich said, referring to the phrase. “I'd written what I thought was a very cute tweet (https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status/810559400687628288) about ‘the alligators are complaining,’ and somebody wrote back and said they were tired of hearing this stuff.”

Later, Gingrich added: “I personally, as a sense of humor, like the alligator and swamp language, and I think it vividly illustrates the problem, because all the people in this city who are the alligators are going to hate the swamp being drained.

And there's going to be constant fighting over it.

But, you know, he is my leader :lol :lol

and if he decides to drop the swamp and the alligator I will drop the swamp and the alligator.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/newt-gingrich-trump-not-using-drain-the-swamp?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

Noot, the bootlicking crocodile

[Thread]

^It served him well, by God.

[boutons_deux]

Trump's budget director wants the government to stop funding scientific research


Mick Mulvaney, the ultra-conservative South Carolina congressman whom Donald Trump has tapped to be his budget director, has questioned whether the federal government should spend any money on scientific research.


Mulvaney recently delivered his insights to the flouride-is-a-communist-plot John Birch Society,

and for those really craving a flashback to the days of “the AIDS virus does not cause AIDS,” the man who would have his finger on the figures for the nation’s research budgets justified the attack on basic science by questioning the connection between the Zika virus and birth defects.


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded in April that the Zika virus causes microcephaly and other defects. But Mulvaney wrote:

“Brazil's microcephaly epidemic continues to pose a mystery -- if Zika is the culprit, why are there no similar epidemics in countries also hit hard by the virus?”


The answer is likely one that Mulvaney never even paused to consider—abortion. Brazil was hit first, but as the disease spread to other areas, increased awareness of its effects made detection and treatment more available.

But for those like Mulvaney, who regard all of

science as some sort of mystery religion run by a cabal of leftists who only want excuses to steal money from hard-working billionaires and halt the righteous profits that could be made selling DDT,

the idea that Zika only caused 1,500 cases of microcephaly is a reason to stop the payments on science.

http://m.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/19/1612724/-Trump-s-budget-director-wants-the-government-to-stop-funding-scientific-research?detail=email&link_id=8&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-lie-down-with-dogs-wake-up-with-fleas-guess-who-trumps-national-security-advisor-met-up-with&email_referrer=lie-down-with-dogs-wake-up-with-fleas-guess-who-trumps-national-security-advisor-met-up-with&email_subject=lie-down-with-dogs-wake-up-with-fleas-guess-who-trumps-national-security-advisor-met-up-with

Defunding Fed research will be high on Repugs list

Mulvaney is a Kock Bros tea bagger from fucking SC.

[boutons_deux]

Donald Trump’s skin-deep staffing logic: Cabinet staffers are being chosen based on a “look”

The president-elect privately admits he looks for a “central casting" quality

President-elect Donald Trump’s logic for staffing his administration seems to be skin deep — quite literally.

“Presentation is very important because you’re representing America not only on the national stage but also the international stage, depending on the position,” Trump transition spokesman Jason Miller told The Washington Post Wednesday (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-is-holding-a-government-casting-call-hes-seeking-the-look/2016/12/21/703ae8a4-c795-11e6-bf4b-2c064d32a4bf_story.html?utm_term=.2304d1a7eb18).

This tendency has led the president-elect to make some rather unorthodox choices. While Trump chose friend of Russia Rex Tillerson (http://www.salon.com/topic/rex_tillerson/) to be his secretary of state — even though he will be the first individual to hold that post without any government experience in modern history — he bypassed former United Nations ambassador John Bolton (http://www.salon.com/topic/john_bolton/) in part because he was turned off by the neoconservative’s walrus mustache.

“Donald was not going to like that mustache,” The Post reported an aide of saying. “I can’t think of anyone that’s really close to Donald that has a beard that he likes.”

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/22/donald-trumps-skin-deep-staffing-logic-cabinet-staffers-are-being-chosen-based-on-a-look/

Don The Con is all show business and just as fraudulent as his Cheetos skin, his tacky, way-too-long hair, his over-stated wealth.

[CosmicCowboy]

Ahhhhh.

Morning coffee

Sunrise

A Boo Meltdown tantrum

Life is good!

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s budget director has some awfully strange ideas about economic policy

he is a little bit of an odd choice. He’s not even on the budget committee, which, like the OMB, does a lot of work related to the federal budget. And unfortunately for America (and, to an extent, the world writ large), his stated views on a number of crucial economic policy questions are absurd. If implemented, they could have terrible consequences for the American economy.

immediately made his mark (https://web.archive.org/web/20101222005618/http:/thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/134439-house-budget-committee-freshmen-cheered-by-collapse-of-omnibus) with the eccentric view that there was no need for periodic increases in the federal government’s statutory debt ceiling.

Mulvaney was unimpressed. “I have heard people say that if we don’t do it it will be the end of the world,” he told the Hill in 2010 (https://web.archive.org/web/20101222005618/http:/thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/134439-house-budget-committee-freshmen-cheered-by-collapse-of-omnibus). “I have yet to meet someone who can articulate the negative consequences.”

Rather than ask someone to explain it to him, Mulvaney simply chose to wallow in ignorance, and a few weeks later he popped up on Fox News saying again that he didn’t see what the big deal was (https://thinkprogress.org/gop-rep-mulvaney-against-raising-debt-ceiling-admits-he-doesnt-know-what-will-happen-if-it-isn-t-366dd0687453#.wyi2eq3z4). When a deal was eventually reached, Mulvaney voted against it (https://mulvaney.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/mulvaney-statement-tonights-debt-ceiling-vote), warning darkly that excessive debt threatened the country.

Six months later, he once again denounced lifting the debt ceiling (https://mulvaney.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/representative-mulvaney-makes-statement-debt-limit-increase). This time, he revealed a different kind of fundamental ignorance about how federal debt works, asking rhetorically, “Does the president really ever intend to pay it back?” and wondering why the Obama administration doesn’t submit a budget that “produces a surplus that generates the money with which to repay the debt that he's asking us to take on today.”

People who lend money to the US government, of course, get paid back. But the federal government itself, in practice, never pays its total debts down to zero.

while speaking to the fringe-right conspiracist group the John Birch Society (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/trump-mulvaney-john-birch-society) in July, Mulvaney claimed the Federal Reserve had “effectively devalued the dollar.”

In fact, at the time he spoke, the Fed had presided over two straight years of rapid dollar appreciation against other world currencies and a years-long span of inflation that was below the central bank’s target rate.

This is a somewhat obscure-sounding topic, but it’s directly relevant to Trumpian economic themes. The runup in the value of the dollar that Mulvaney didn’t realize was happening played a crucial role in the stalling out of American job creation in the manufacturing sector.

From 2010 through to 2014, employment in manufacturing grew steadily alongside overall growth in employment as the economy recovered from the Great Recession.

For the past two years, however, manufacturing employment has fallen slightly even while overall job growth has been decent. The rapid rise in the value of the dollar — which makes the United States an unattractive location in which to make things that are tradable globally — has played a key role in this.

If Mulvaney were to push up the value of the dollar further, he would further harm the manufacturing sector.

His view, however, was that the Fed’s alleged devaluation had “choke[d] off economic growth,” and that people should look instead to Bitcoin as a currency that is “not manipulatable by any government.”

Mulvaney authored a Facebook post in which he questioned whether the government should play any role in scientific research (“do we need government-funded research at all”) and also called into question the link between the Zika virus and microcephaly birth defects (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/trumps-pick-budget-director-isnt-sure-government-should-fund-scientific-research).

a top economic policy official in the American government wants to sharply increase the value of the dollar and/or default on the national debt.

Senate Democrats will have the opportunity to probe Mulvaney’s views on these matters — along with

his vow to “end Medicare as we know it” (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-pick-for-omb-director-wants-to-end-medicare-as-we-know-it?utm_content=buffer6752d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer) and

his denunciation of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” (http://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/rachel-maddow-show/2011-09-07-0) —

so the American people can get a clearer sense of what it is we’re in for.

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/21/14033896/mick-mulvaney-debt-ceiling

This is the typical ignorant tea party red/slave sate asshole that Kock Bros hire to fuck up govt.

[boutons_deux]

Republicans In Congress Are TERRIFIED Of Trump And His 'Horde Of Enforcers' (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/21/1613456/-Republicans-In-Congress-Are-TERRIFIED-Of-Trump-And-His-Horde-Of-Enforcers)

http://images.dailykos.com/images/313044/story_image/trump-redface.jpg?1476584516

Donald Trump ran roughshod over his GOP opponents in the 2016 Republican primaries. It was a scorched Earth style campaign that left his foes, not just beaten, but humiliated.

He didn't merely challenge their policy positions or leadership skills, he used language meant to shame them. Fellow Republicans were viciously maligned as "Lyin' Ted' and "Little Marco." Eventually Trump succeeded in capturing the nomination, but not without leaving bodies on the battlefield.

Those same tactics are now being deployed against the Republicans in Congress. Many of them are saying privately that they are fearful of taking positions against Trump.

That poses a critical problem because their traditionally conservative views are often at odds with Trump's twisted brand of populism. Trumpulism favors cordial relations with Russia and its strongman Vladimir Putin. It proposes to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure improvements, mainly benefiting wealthy contractors. It is critical of the U.S. alliance with NATO. It would impose stiff tariffs on American companies with foreign factories.

All of these positions are in direct opposition to decades of Republican doctrine.
The problem now is that Republicans are literally afraid to speak their minds.

They have been warned by Trump and his surrogates that any

diversion from total obedience to his agenda would be viewed as betrayal.

As reported by Politico (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-congress-republicans-232800):

"It’s little wonder that Capitol Hill Republicans have papered over their not-insignificant policy differences with Trump, shying away from any statement about the president-elect that might possibly be construed as critical.

They’re terrified of arousing the ire of their tempestuous new leader — or being labeled a turncoat by his army of followers."

[...]"Since the election, numerous congressional Republicans have refused to publicly weigh in on any Trump proposal at odds with Republican orthodoxy, from his border wall to his massive infrastructure package.

The most common reason, stated repeatedly but always privately:

They're afraid of being attacked by Breitbart or other big-name Trump supporters."


The threat from Breitbart is a real concern. Especially since its chairman, Stephen Bannon, is currently on leave to serve as Trump's strategic advisor in the White House. But it doesn't stop there.

As South Carolina GOP Rep. Mark Sanford said, "People are naturally reticent to be the first out of the block for fear of Sean Hannity, for fear of Breitbart, for fear of local folks."

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/21/1613456/-Republicans-In-Congress-Are-TERRIFIED-Of-Trump-And-His-Horde-Of-Enforcers?detail=email&link_id=10&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-history-channel-makes-a-bold-statementtotally-factualand-trump-supporters-are-losing-their-minds&email_referrer=history-channel-makes-a-bold-statementtotally-factualand-trump-supporters-are-losing-their-minds&email_subject=history-channel-makes-a-bold-statement-totally-factual-and-trump-supporters-are-losing-their-minds

Thereby, Don The Con TrashBrain becomes autocratic dictator surrounded by goons, Schutzstaffel, brown shirts, Fox, Breitbart, and all the hate media.

America The Beautiful, fucked and unfuckable.

[CosmicCowboy]

ahhh...another good meltdown laugh from Boo before the evening rush hour.

[boutons_deux]

ahhh...another good meltdown laugh from Boo before the evening rush hour.

CParasite with another silly deflection from the Trash catastrophe

[boutons_deux]

Trash band of unfunny clownish assholes

Schooled on Benghazi and Pizzagate, Trump team is heavy on conspiracy theorists

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/schooled-on-benghazi-and-pizzagate-trump-team-is-heavy-on-conspiracy-theorists/2016/12/21/53bdb6d6-c7b1-11e6-8bee-54e800ef2a63_story.html?utm_term=.66f07cee2dba&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1

[dbestpro]

:bobo

[Dirk Oneanddoneski]

Republicans In Congress Are TERRIFIED Of Trump And His 'Horde Of Enforcers' (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/21/1613456/-Republicans-In-Congress-Are-TERRIFIED-Of-Trump-And-His-Horde-Of-Enforcers)

http://images.dailykos.com/images/313044/story_image/trump-redface.jpg?1476584516

Donald Trump ran roughshod over his GOP opponents in the 2016 Republican primaries. It was a scorched Earth style campaign that left his foes, not just beaten, but humiliated.

He didn't merely challenge their policy positions or leadership skills, he used language meant to shame them. Fellow Republicans were viciously maligned as "Lyin' Ted' and "Little Marco." Eventually Trump succeeded in capturing the nomination, but not without leaving bodies on the battlefield.

Those same tactics are now being deployed against the Republicans in Congress. Many of them are saying privately that they are fearful of taking positions against Trump.

That poses a critical problem because their traditionally conservative views are often at odds with Trump's twisted brand of populism. Trumpulism favors cordial relations with Russia and its strongman Vladimir Putin. It proposes to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure improvements, mainly benefiting wealthy contractors. It is critical of the U.S. alliance with NATO. It would impose stiff tariffs on American companies with foreign factories.

All of these positions are in direct opposition to decades of Republican doctrine.
The problem now is that Republicans are literally afraid to speak their minds.

They have been warned by Trump and his surrogates that any

diversion from total obedience to his agenda would be viewed as betrayal.

As reported by Politico (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-congress-republicans-232800):

"It’s little wonder that Capitol Hill Republicans have papered over their not-insignificant policy differences with Trump, shying away from any statement about the president-elect that might possibly be construed as critical.

They’re terrified of arousing the ire of their tempestuous new leader — or being labeled a turncoat by his army of followers."

[...]"Since the election, numerous congressional Republicans have refused to publicly weigh in on any Trump proposal at odds with Republican orthodoxy, from his border wall to his massive infrastructure package.

The most common reason, stated repeatedly but always privately:

They're afraid of being attacked by Breitbart or other big-name Trump supporters."


The threat from Breitbart is a real concern. Especially since its chairman, Stephen Bannon, is currently on leave to serve as Trump's strategic advisor in the White House. But it doesn't stop there.

As South Carolina GOP Rep. Mark Sanford said, "People are naturally reticent to be the first out of the block for fear of Sean Hannity, for fear of Breitbart, for fear of local folks."

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/21/1613456/-Republicans-In-Congress-Are-TERRIFIED-Of-Trump-And-His-Horde-Of-Enforcers?detail=email&link_id=10&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-history-channel-makes-a-bold-statementtotally-factualand-trump-supporters-are-losing-their-minds&email_referrer=history-channel-makes-a-bold-statementtotally-factualand-trump-supporters-are-losing-their-minds&email_subject=history-channel-makes-a-bold-statement-totally-factual-and-trump-supporters-are-losing-their-minds

Thereby, Don The Con TrashBrain becomes autocratic dictator surrounded by goons, Schutzstaffel, brown shirts, Fox, Breitbart, and all the hate media.

America The Beautiful, fucked and unfuckable.




http://i.imgur.com/IucUNYg.jpg

[boutons_deux]

KAC getting destroyed, what dumb bitch

Kellyanne Conway Offers Ridiculous Defense Of Trump Sons’ Selling Access

Kellyanne Conway has not only drunk the Trump Kool-Aid, it’s running in her veins. Which is why she was just promoted to the highest position any woman holds in the Trump administration, counselor to the president.

“I think we should go back and look at what Don Jr. and Eric have done and wanted to continue to do, which is raise money for charities,” Conway said. “The Eric Trump Foundation is ten years old. It has done enormously great work.”

“It’s the same thing the Clinton people said when they were defending their allegations of pay-for-play,” Cuomo noted, and then turned back to the Trumps, who were, “selling off a million-dollar trip to hunt with the boys and hang out with the president. That sounds like paying for access.”

Conway tried to pivot back to the Clintons, spewing allegations that were often repeated during the campaign and proven untrue.

“So paying a million dollars to hang out with the president is okay?” Cuomo pressed.

“I didn’t say that,” Conway said after a moment of silence.

“I know, you’re not answering,” Cuomo observed. “You’re going after the Clintons. I’m saying, what’s your answer?

You mentioned the Clinton Foundation, you said it’s the same,” Conway shot back. “I’m saying it’s absolutely not the same.”
Cuomo wondered, if what the Trump sons were doing was so noble and charitable, why have they since rescinded the offer?

Because the media is soo unfair, was basically Conway’s response. :lol

http://www.nationalmemo.com/conways-ridiculous-defense-trump-sons-selling-access/

[boutons_deux]

Rachel Maddow Destroys Kellyanne Conway On Trump’s Proposal To Expand Nuclear Weapons

By Sean Colarossi (http://www.politicususa.com/author/seancolarossi) on Thu, Dec 22nd, 2016 at 9:47 pm
Conway alternated between playing dumb and pretending that Trump never proposed the nuclear expansion in the first place.


Kellyanne Conway, failed miserably to defend the president-elect’s new proposal that the United States expand its nuclear arsenal.Conway alternated between playing dumb about U.S. nuclear policy and pretending that Trump never proposed the nuclear expansion in the first place.

Conway repeatedly tried to pivot back to a general discussion about how Trump wants to keep America safe, but Maddow clearly wasn’t having it.

When the MSNBC host pushed her on the danger of a nuclear arms race, Conway folded like a cheap tent and called Maddow “unfair” for saying that Trump proposed to expand U.S. nukes.

But in a tweet earlier in the day, Trump did just that:

(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1980294624/DJT_Headshot_V2_bigger.jpgDonald J. Trump (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)
(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)✔@realDonaldTrump (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)

The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes
10:50 AM - 22 Dec 20 (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/811977223326625792)12

Maddow also slammed the door shut on Conway’s attempt to dismiss the president-elect’s comments as a meaningless tweet and not an actual policy proposal:

“The president making policy happens whenever the president speaks on a national security matter.”

There’s no question that Conway ???? :lol :lol is a gifted spin doctor, but she was clearly unable to put a positive spin on Trump’s latest outrageous comment.

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/12/22/rachel-maddow-destroys-kellyanne-conway-trumps-proposal-expand-nuclear-weapons.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

unfair? WTF? since when do Repugs play politics "fairly"? :lol

[boutons_deux]

All you women who voted for pussy-grabber misogynist Trash

Trump's team singles out State Department programs for women for special review

Donald Trump (http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-all-things-trump)’s transition team has asked the State Department (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/u.s.-department-of-state-ORGOV000000150-topic.html) for details on programs aimed at benefiting women around the world, including a list of positions that focused on reducing gender-based violence and promoting women in the workplace.

the president-elect’s transition team asked for an urgent response to its inquiries about “gender-related staffing, programming and funding.”

“People are freaked out,” said a senior State Department official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trump-state-women-20161222-story.html? (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trump-state-women-20161222-story.html?utm_source=Today%27s+Headlines&utm_campaign=c6792684fc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b04355194f-c6792684fc-80027601)
utm_source=Today%27s+Headlines&utm_campaign=c6792684fc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b04355194f-c6792684fc-80027601

Maybe Trash's team is just sadistically trolling State dept, or maybe they plan to make the programs more "efficient" (kill them), or maybe both.

We know the Repugs are gonna cut programs for women in USA, like defund PP, and, eg, TX cutting $350M from Medicaid. Result? Ms of diseased dead women, children, babies.

US money that won't go to women overseas will go into BigCorp/1% pockets as tax cuts. Trash, Repug FLEECING the planet to enrich the rich and powerful.

[CosmicCowboy]

ahhhh *hot coffee* * sip* *check*

log on for my morning laugh at Boos ongoing escalating meltdown *check*

:lmao

[boutons_deux]

ahhhh *hot coffee* * sip* *check*

log on for my morning laugh at Boos ongoing escalating meltdown *check*

:lmao

excellent, just excellent post, by little slapped bitch.

[boutons_deux]

Trump campaign official wants Michelle Obama to be ‘let loose’ to live with African apes

http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/carl_paladino-800x430.jpg


Carl Paladino, who co-chaired Donald Trump’s New York campaign, is refusing to back down from derogatory and racist comments he made on his 2017 “wish list,” including the hope that President Barack Obama dies from mad cow disease, and Michelle Obama “returns to being a male” and lives with a gorilla in an African cave.

“Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford,” the Buffalo School Board member wrote of what he would “most like to happen in 2017.”

“[Obama] dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her,” he added.

As for what Paladino would “most like to see go in 2017,” the prominent developer responded, “Michelle Obama.”

“I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla,” he wrote.

Paladino told The Buffalo News he “of course” made the comments

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/trump-campaign-official-wants-michelle-obama-to-be-let-loose-to-live-with-african-apes/

[boutons_deux]

The Venerable New England Journal Of Medicine Rips Into Tom Price, Trump's Pick For HHS (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/23/1613933/-The-Venerable-New-England-Journal-Of-Medicine-Rips-Into-Tom-Price-Trump-s-Pick-For-HHS)

In a new editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, (http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1615714#t=article) (NEJM) based on his history in politics, Tom Price looks to go in a different direction.


Ostensibly, he emphasizes the importance of making our health care system “more responsive and affordable to meet the needs of America’s patients and those who care for them.” But as compared with his predecessors’ actions, Price’s record demonstrates less concern for the sick, the poor, and the health of the public and much greater concern for the economic well-being of their physician caregivers.


he calls his ACA replacement plan “Empowering Patients First Act” while it does just the opposite.

His proposal for replacing the ACA is H.R. 2300, the Empowering Patients First Act,5 (http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1615714#ref5) which would eliminate the ACA’s Medicaid expansion and replace its subsidies with flat tax credits based on age, not income ($1,200 per year for someone 18 to 35 years of age; $3,000 for someone 50 or older, with an additional one-time credit of $1,000 toward a health savings account). Price’s plan is regressive: it offers much greater subsidies relative to income for purchasers with high incomes and much more meager subsidies for those with low incomes.

Insurance companies will see a windfall under his plan but they aren’t the only beneficiaries of his plan.

Whereas Price’s actions to date have not reflected the tradition of the physician as advocate for the poor and vulnerable, they do harken back to an earlier tradition in American medicine: the physician advocate as protector of the guild.

Trump looks to dismantle HHS and Tom Price is his guy to do it.

The HHS Department oversees a broad set of health programs that touch about half of all Americans. Over five decades and the administrations of nine presidents, both Democratic and Republican secretaries have used these programs to protect the most vulnerable Americans. The proposed nomination of Tom Price to HHS highlights a sharp contrast between this tradition of compassionate leadership and the priorities of the incoming administration.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/23/1613933/-The-Venerable-New-England-Journal-Of-Medicine-Rips-Into-Tom-Price-Trump-s-Pick-For-HHS?detail=email&link_id=11&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-china-tells-trumps-fools-want-a-trade-war-well-start-by-targeting-republican-states-2&email_referrer=china-tells-trumps-fools-want-a-trade-war-well-start-by-targeting-republican-states-2&email_subject=china-tells-trumps-fools-want-a-trade-war-well-start-by-targeting-republican-states

[boutons_deux]

The very bad reason RACIST Jeff Sessions is ‘very unhappy’

There might somewhere be a second prominent American who endorses today’s civil forfeiture practices, but one such person is “very unhappy” with criticisms of it.

At a 2015 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on forfeiture abuses,

one senator said “taking and seizing and forfeiting, through a government judicial process, illegal gains from criminal enterprises is not wrong,” and

neither is law enforcement enriching itself from this.

In the manner of the man for whom he soon will work, this senator asserted an unverifiable number: “95 percent” of forfeitures involve people who have “done nothing in their lives but sell dope.”

This senator said it should not be more difficult for “government to take money from a drug dealer than it is for a businessperson to defend themselves in a lawsuit.”

In seizing property suspected of involvement in a crime, government “should not have a burden of proof higher than in a normal civil case.”

IJ’s Robert Everett Johnson notes (http://www.rollcall.com/news/home/civil-forfeiture-finds-a-champion-commentary) that this senator missed a few salient points:

In civil forfeiture there usually is no proper “judicial process.”

There is no way of knowing how many forfeitures involve criminals because the government takes property without even charging anyone with a crime.

The government’s vast prosecutorial resources are one reason it properly bears the burden of proving criminal culpability “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

A sued businessperson does not have assets taken until he or she has lost in a trial, whereas civil forfeiture takes property without a trial and the property owner must wage a protracted, complex and expensive fight to get it returned.

The Senate Judiciary Committee might want to discuss all this when considering the nominee to be the next attorney general, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-very-bad-reason-jeff-sessions-is-very-unhappy/2016/12/23/213a3cb8-c86d-11e6-bf4b-2c064d32a4bf_story.html?utm_term=.78ed6bd19f2e&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1

[boutons_deux]

The Certainty Factor: Trump’s pick for labor secretary wrote a deregulatory manifesto

Andrew Puzder’s co-author told us: “He’ll put in place everything we laid out in the book"

The single best window into Puzder’s thinking may be an obscure book he wrote six years ago. It’s a blistering attack on business regulations, unions and the Obama administration’s stimulus and health care policies.

“I think first and foremost, he’ll put in place everything we laid out in the book,” Puzder’s co-author, David Newton (http://www.yaf.org/speakers/david-newton/), told ProPublica in an interview.

The 160-page book (http://investor.ckr.com/press-release/cke/new-book-job-creation-released-santa-barbara-based-authors) — “Job Creation: How It Really Works and Why Government Doesn’t Understand It” — centers on a concept Puzder and Newton dub the “Certainty Factor,” which they argue is key to business expansion and job creation.

“Less federal programs, reduced deficit spending, lower taxes and cutting back on regulations improve the Certainty Factor,” they write.

If confirmed, Puzder will have power to shape a wide range (http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/12/hidden-power-labor-department-puzder-000257) of regulations that govern unions and employers, many of which are designed to protect workers.

“My job as a business person is to maximize profits for my company, employees and shareholders. My job as the Secretary of Labor, if confirmed, is to serve U.S. citizen workers — that is my moral and constitutional duty.” :lol morals? :lol

worried Puzder could roll back a new regulation, currently held up in court, that would expand eligibility for overtime pay (http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/12/andrew-puzder-labor-secretary-trump-232368). ( that's a CERTAINTY)

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/23/the-certainty-factor-trumps-pick-for-labor-secretary-wrote-a-deregulatory-manifesto_partner/

Labor Secy who hates labor

Education Secy who destroys public education

Energy Secy who wants to kill the dept.

Defense Secy who's a maddog.

HHS Secy who wants to kill ACA, Medicare, Medicaid

Treasury Secy who ran a criminal, fraudulent foreclosure mill.

Atty Genl who is life-long racist from fucking AL.

etc, etc, etc.

[boutons_deux]

on DeVos

“When you wage war on the public schools, you’re attacking the mortar that holds the community together. You’re not a conservative, you’re a vandal.”

― Garrison Keillor, Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/12/26/stuart-egan-what-frank-capra-could-teach-betsy-devos-about-public-schools

[boutons_deux]

Business Community Is Shocked and Alarmed That Trump Conned Them

Washington business interests are “shocked and alarmed” that Trump’s transition team is “defending new tariffs" Trump pledged to impose.

http://15130-presscdn-0-89.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/20160126_LAUGHINGimage-696x413-1.jpg

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/12/26/business-community-shocked-alarmed-trump-conned.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

[boutons_deux]

Investigation reveals Trump’s Treasury pick excelled at kicking elderly people out of their homes

http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Steven-Mnuchin-800x430.jpg

In recent years, OneWest has foreclosed on at least 50,000 people, often in circumstances that consumer advocates say run counter to federal rules and, as in Yang’s case, common sense.

President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Steven Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary has prompted new scrutiny of OneWest’s foreclosure practices. Mnuchin was the lead investor and chairman of the company during the years it ramped up its foreclosure efforts. Representatives from the company and the Trump transition team did not respond to requests for comment.

Records show the attempt to push Mr. Yang out of his home was not an unusual one for OneWest’s Financial Freedom unit, which focused on controversial home loans known as reverse mortgages. Regulators and consumer advocates have long worried that these loans, popular during the height of the housing bubble, exploit elderly homeowners.

But the fees are often high and the interest charges mount up quickly because the homeowner isn’t paying down any of the principal on the loan. Homeowners remain on the hook for property taxes and insurance and can lose their homes if they miss those payments.

A 2012 report to Congress by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said that “vigorous enforcement is necessary to ensure that older homeowners are not defrauded of a lifetime of home equity.” (http://files.consumerfinance.gov/a/assets/documents/201206_cfpb_Reverse_Mortgage_Report.pdf)

ProPublica found numerous examples where Financial Freedom had foreclosed for legally questionable reasons. The company served several other homeowners at their homes to let them know they were being sued for not occupying their homes. In Florida, a shortfall of only $0.27 (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-treasury-foreclosed-homes-mnuchin-232038) led to a foreclosure attempt.

In Atlanta, the company sought to foreclose on a widow after her husband’s death, but backed down when a legal aid attorney sued, citing federal law that allowed the surviving spouse to remain in the home.

“It appears their business approach is scorched earth, in a way that doesn’t serve communities, homeowners or the taxpayer,” said Alys Cohen, a staff attorney for the National Consumer Law Center in Washington D.C.

Since the financial crisis, OneWest, through Financial Freedom, has conducted a disproportionate number of the nation’s reverse mortgage foreclosures. It was

responsible for 16,200 foreclosures on government-backed reverse mortgages, or 39 percent of all foreclosures (http://calreinvest.org/system/resources/W1siZiIsIjIwMTYvMDQvMjcvMTdfNDFfMjdfNzY3X0NSQ19GYW N0X1NoZWV0X2Fib3V0X0ZpbmFuY2lhbF9GcmVlZG9tX0ZvcmVj bG9zdXJlc19TaW5jZV9BcHJpbF8yMDA5LnBkZiJdXQ/CRC%2520Fact%2520Sheet%2520about%2520Financial%252 0Freedom%2520Foreclosures%2520Since%2520April%2520 2009.pdf) nationwide, from 2009 through late 2014, even though it only serviced about 17 percent of the loans,

according to government data analyzed by the California Reinvestment Coalition, an advocacy group for low-income consumers. While some foreclosures were justified, legal aid attorneys say Financial Freedom has refused to work with borrowers in foreclosure to establish payment plans, in contrast with other servicers of reverse mortgages.

OneWest’s rough treatment of homeowners extended to its behavior toward borrowers with standard mortgages in the aftermath of the housing crash. In 2009, the Obama administration launched a program (https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-documents-show-weak-oversight-of-key-foreclosure-program) to encourage mortgage servicers to work out affordable mortgage modifications with borrowers. OneWest, weighed down by several hundred thousand souring mortgages, signed up.

It didn’t go well.

About three-quarters of homeowners who sought a modification from OneWest through the program were denied,

according to the latest figures from the Treasury Department.

OneWest was among the worst performing large servicers in the program by that measure.

In 2011, activists protested OneWest’s indifference at Mnuchin’s Bel Air mansion in Los Angeles.

Despite the controversy, Mnuchin and the other investors in OneWest made a killing (http://www.wsj.com/articles/steven-mnuchins-defining-moment-seizing-opportunity-from-the-financial-crisis-1480547063) on their purchase.

In 2009, Mnuchin’s investment group bought the failed mortgage bank IndyMac, which had been taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation after the financial crisis, changing the name to OneWest. They paid about $1.5 billion, with the FDIC sharing the ongoing mortgage losses. George Soros, a Clinton backer at whose hedge fund Mnuchin had worked, and John Paulson, a hedge fund manager who also supported Trump, invested alongside Mnuchin in IndyMac.

In 2015, CIT, a lender to small and medium-sized businesses, bought OneWest for $3.4 billion, more than doubling the Mnuchin group’s initial investment.

Mnuchin personally made about $380 million on the sale,

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/investigation-reveals-trumps-treasury-pick-excelled-at-kicking-elderly-people-out-of-their-homes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Senators ask Trump EPA chief pick to disclose energy industry ties

Democrats on the U.S. Senate’s environment panel on Wednesday asked President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency to disclose his ties to the energy industry ahead of his confirmation hearing early next year.

The six senators sent a letter to Scott Pruitt, who

as Oklahoma Attorney General led several lawsuits against the Obama administration’s EPA to block its environmental rules,

to ask him to list his connections to energy companies to weigh whether these ties will influence his ability to run the agency.

“What that conduct says about your ability to lead EPA in a manner that is not beholden to special or secret interests is a subject that we expect will receive a full airing during your confirmation hearing,”

the senators wrote in the letter.

The senators raised concerns about a 2014 New York Times report, which found that Pruitt’s close ties to Devon Energy Corp were reflected in his policy positions as Oklahoma’s top attorney.

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/senators-ask-trump-epa-chief-pick-to-disclose-energy-industry-ties/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

What cronyism looks like: Trump invents new government post for his company's top lawyer (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/28/1615187/-What-cronyism-looks-like-Trump-invents-new-government-post-for-his-company-s-top-lawyer)


President-elect Donald Trump has appointed his longtime corporate lawyer Jason Greenblatt to a new position as special representative for international negotiations in the Trump administration.Greenblatt is currently the chief legal officer of the Trump Organization, Trump’s sprawling real estate and licensing company, where he represents Trump’s business interests in domestic and international negotiations.

In his announcement, Trump seemed to leave the door open for Greenblatt to be involved in a wide range of issues. “His talents lend themselves perfectly to the role I have asked him to play, assisting on international negotiations of all types, and trade deals around the world,” Trump said in a statement.

It was also unclear whether Greenblatt’s position would be based in the White House, or within another federal agency.

By naming Greenblatt to his administration, Trump is tapping someone who has limited experience in foreign affairs or trade policy, yet has expert knowledge of the multinational Trump Organization, and of what would be in the best interests of the company.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/28/1615187/-What-cronyism-looks-like-Trump-invents-new-government-post-for-his-company-s-top-lawyer?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

KKK will not be pleased. Trash giving them another big fat Jewish middle finger. :lol

[boutons_deux]

Fox telegraphing very probably part of Ryan's sociopathic spending? Ms of Trash's voters on on SNAP.

No, (BLACK) food stamp fraud is not ‘at an all-time high’

Fox News is lying, the sky is blue, and today is a day ending in Y.


In fiscal year 2016 (https://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/pd/SNAPsummary.pdf), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps) is expected to cost about $70.8 billion.

If Fox News’ claim of $70 million in waste is correct, that would still mean that less than one-tenth of one percent of SNAP dollars are spent fraudulently.

SNAP overall comprises about 0.1 percent of the federal budget. Compared to the $125 billion of waste that the Department of Defense recently tried to cover up (https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html), that figure appears even more microscopic.

SNAP usage overall is actually down to its lowest levels since 2011 (https://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/pd/SNAPsummary.pdf), and current program costs are slightly higher than they were in 2010. In spite of the prevailing conservative narrative, SNAP is not a wasteful program

As ThinkProgress reported (https://thinkprogress.org/food-stamps-dont-reach-millions-of-people-who-are-eligible-fa0510f1342a#.fnj83icj8) in 2013, the program doesn’t even reach millions of people who qualify for it, because they get caught up in red tape.

If there is waste in relation to SNAP and other government assistance programs, it comes not in the form of the recipients abusing the system, but in the form of state governments subjecting citizens to unnecessary drug tests (https://thinkprogress.org/what-7-states-discovered-after-spending-more-than-1-million-drug-testing-welfare-recipients-c346e0b4305d#.e82ebpi99) and other bureaucratic measures that yield few results.

https://thinkprogress.org/no-food-stamp-fraud-is-not-at-an-all-time-high-b9b3476e86f8#.tzh8gyqrh

[boutons_deux]

HOWEVER! White religious freaks ...

Polygamous sect leader takes plea deal in food stamp fraud case


http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Seth-Jeffs-Mugshot-1-800x430.jpg

high-ranking leader of a polygamous sect has been released from jail after pleading guilty in a multimillion-dollar food stamp fraud case.

Seth Jeffs agreed to a deal Wednesday that spares him more jail time or a fine. The 43-year-old became the second of 11 defendants to plead guilty, and more deals are reportedly in the works.

Jeffs pleaded guilty to fraud for misusing food stamps, a felony punishable by up to 20 years behind bars. In return, conspiracy and money laundering charges were dropped.

U.S. prosecutors said they were satisfied with the six months that Jeffs has served in jail since he was arrested in February following a multiyear federal investigation.

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/polygamous-sect-leader-takes-plea-deal-in-food-stamp-fraud-case/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

... if he and his accomplices had been black.

[boutons_deux]

"Now I will tell you the answer to my question.

It is this.

The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake.

We are not interested in the good of others;

we are interested solely in power, pure power.

What pure power means you will understand presently.

We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing.

All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites.

The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives.

They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal.

We are not like that.

We know what no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.

Power is not a means; it is an end.

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution;

one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.

The object of persecution is persecution.

The object of torture is torture.

The object of power is power.

Now you begin to understand me."

George Orwell
1984




Don The Con Trash, his transition accomplices, his Cabinet hit men and women, and the Repugs, VRWC in general since late '80s are described above.

[boutons_deux]

Henry A. Giroux on Trump's Cabinet, the Church of Neoliberal Evangelicals

Trump has appointed to high government positions a number of

religious fundamentalists,

conspiracy-theory advocates,

billionaires,

misogynists,

climate-change deniers and

retrograde anti-communists,

this should come as no surprise given the anti-democratic conditions that produced Trump in the first place.

Not only do these individuals uniformly lack the experience to take on the jobs for which they were nominated,

they are unapologetic about destroying the government agencies in which they have been put in charge.

forthcoming policy decisions that will increase the attack on democratic institutions and public goods,

as well as the degree to which power will be further consolidated in the hands of the financial elite.

While there is little doubt that Trump's gaggle of appointees represents a deep embrace of ignorance and crony capitalism and a disdain for the institutions that give legitimacy to the social contract and the welfare state,

these administrative heads also represent the front guard of the dark times that are to come,

times that will be marked by a combination of state repression and

unchecked collusion among big corporations, banks and the ultra-rich.

he has also filled cabinet and high-level positions with generals, ensuring that the militarization of American society will not simply be continued, but accelerated.

a war on education,

support for austerity policies and

an attack on social provisions,

the poor,

workers,

unions and the

most vulnerable.

the next few years will be governed by ruthless financial elite

who will give new meaning to an updated version of authoritarianism that

will accelerate the misery, suffering and exploitation of a wider sector of American society. -

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/38945-henry-a-giroux-on-trump-s-cabinet-the-church-of-neoliberal-evangelicals

[boutons_deux]

The path to Repug corruption under Trash and his predatory, destructive cabinet has been cleared, by the Repugs themselves

House Republicans vote to rein in independent ethics office

Defying the wishes of their top leaders, House Republicans voted behind closed doors Monday night to rein in the independent ethics office created eight years ago in the wake of a series of embarrassing congressional scandals.

Under the proposed new rules, the office could not employ a spokesperson, investigate anonymous tips or refer criminal wrongdoing to prosecutors without the express consent of the Ethics Committee, which would gain the power to summarily end any OCE probe.

The move to place the OCE under the Ethics Committee’s aegis stands to please many lawmakers who have been wary of having their dirty laundry aired by the independent entity,

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) opposed the amendment to the House rules package, :lol pro forma bullshit :lol

“The OCE has a serious and important role in the House, and this amendment does nothing to impede their work,” Goodlatte said.

:lol Orwellian!

Goodlatte’s amendment to the House rules “provides protections against any disclosures to the public or other government entities,”

The measure also prohibits limits the OCE’s jurisdiction to the previous three Congresses, aligning its statute of limitations to the Ethics Committee’s.

there is no public tally of how members voted on the proposal.

“Threatening its independence is a disservice to the American people who need a nonpartisan body to investigate the ethical failures of their representatives,”

“The fact that they do not want an Office with ‘Congressional Ethics’ in the name is a pretty good metaphor for how ethics scandals will be dealt with if this rule passes.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/02/house-republicans-vote-to-rein-in-independent-ethics-office/?utm_campaign=pubexchange&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_term=.a6a76ca9af34
As one of their first actions in the new Congress, House Republicans are planning to significantly change the Office of Congressional Ethics, removing the entity’s independence, barring it from investigating anonymous complaints and even changing the group’s name.

[boutons_deux]

10 members of Congress took trip secretly funded by foreign government

https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2015/05/13/National-Enterprise/Advance/Images/ethics-1779.jpg?uuid=ro4ElvlwEeSe9Bu3zjs_tw

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/10-members-of-congress-took-trip-secretly-funded-by-foreign-government/2015/05/13/76b55332-f720-11e4-9030-b4732caefe81_story.html?postshare=2981483451796828&tid=ss_fb&utm_term=.477f1e3fccfd

.... the kind of corruption, ethic violations that will now continue without fear of discovery.

The Trash Corruption will be "unpresidented"

[boutons_deux]

Treasury Nominee Steve Mnuchin’s Bank Accused of “Widespread Misconduct” in Leaked Memo (https://theintercept.com/2017/01/03/treasury-nominee-steve-mnuchins-bank-accused-of-widespread-misconduct-in-leaked-memo/)

ONEWEST BANK, which Donald Trump’s treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin ran from 2009 to 2015, repeatedly broke California’s foreclosure laws during that period, according to a previously undisclosed 2013 memo from top prosecutors in the state attorney general’s office.

The memo (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3250383-OneWest-Package-Memo.html) obtained by The Intercept alleges that

OneWest rushed delinquent homeowners out of their homes by violating notice and waiting period statutes,

illegally backdated key documents, and

effectively gamed foreclosure auctions.

In the memo, the leaders of the state attorney general’s Consumer Law Section said they had

“uncovered evidence suggestive of widespread misconduct” in a yearlong investigation.

In a detailed 22-page request, they identified over a thousand legal violations in the small subsection of OneWest loans they were able to examine, and they recommended that Attorney General Kamala Harris file a civil enforcement action against the Pasadena-based bank.

They even wrote up a sample legal complaint (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3250384-OneWest-Sample-Complaint.html), seeking injunctive relief and millions of dollars in penalties.

But Harris’s office, without any explanation, declined to prosecute the case.

Mnuchin, the former CEO of OneWest, was already facing challenges in his upcoming Senate confirmation hearings on account of his bank’s ruthless foreclosure practices (https://newrepublic.com/article/133368/donald-trumps-finance-chair-anti-populist-hell), ranging from locking out one homeowner (http://www.startribune.com/after-2-year-foreclosure-battle-she-owns-minneapolis-home/128110078/) during a Minneapolis blizzard to foreclosing on another over a 27-cent payment shortfall (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-treasury-foreclosed-homes-mnuchin-232038).

https://theintercept.com/2017/01/03/treasury-nominee-steve-mnuchins-bank-accused-of-widespread-misconduct-in-leaked-memo/

just another shitbag in shitbag's cabinet

[boutons_deux]

NAACP head leads sit-in of Jeff Sessions’ office in protest of his nomination as Attorney General

https://twitter.com/CornellWBrooks/status/816339547042828288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

“This is not some kind of civic game,” Brooks insisted on the same day more than 1,100 law school professors in 48 states sent a letter urging the Senate to reject Sessions’ nomination.

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/03/naacp-head-leads-sit-in-of-jeff-sessions-office-in-protest-of-his-nomination-as-attorney-general/ (http://www.salon.com/2017/01/03/naacp-head-leads-sit-in-of-jeff-sessions-office-in-protest-of-his-nomination-as-attorney-general/)

[boutons_deux]

Tillerson to Get $180 Million Exxon Payout

http://www.ozy.com/presidential-daily-brief/pdb-74915/golden-parachute-74932

[boutons_deux]

Congressman who supports gutting ethics office used campaign funds to pay for rabbit travel

Rep. Duncan Hunter’s (R-CA) used $600 in campaign funds for transport of a family rabbit on an airplane. His office called scrutiny of the expense as an example of overreach by the Office of Congressional Ethics.

In an interview with the Associated Press (http://www.pe.com/articles/ethics-822313-office-house.html), Hunter’s spokesperson Joe Kasper portrayed the Republican congressman as a victim of an investigative oversight office that pursued him too harshly for “mistakes.”

Hunter was among the House Republicans who supported a secret ballot to gut the House Office of Congressional Ethics (https://thinkprogress.org/house-republicans-secretly-vote-to-gut-office-of-congressional-ethics-f6eae60baea4#.g5fgf4pyt) (OCE) earlier this week.

Hunter revealed the rabbit-related expenses as an attempt to diffuse the impact of an upcoming OCE report that has not yet been released.

Hunter has already been forced to reimburse $62,000 (http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/sd-me-hunter-rabbits-20170103-story.html) of expenses the Congressman billed to his campaign account that were later found to be personal or otherwise inappropriate.

Last year, the Federal Election Commission called on him to explain the $1,302 of Steam Games expenses (http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/sdut-hunter-video-games-2016apr05-htmlstory.html) on his 2015 year end campaign finance disclosure. Hunter said that the charges came from his teenage son and other unauthorized charges on the video game website.

https://thinkprogress.org/duncan-hunter-rabbit-travel-7ab121f8103d#.4e5k4zk4q

"govt overreach" is objectionable to Repugs when only Repugs are the target.

just like "scorched earth strict obstructionism" is great as Repug strategy, but horrible when (if) the Dems do it.

[boutons_deux]

Tillerson to cede control of $240 million in Exxon stock as Trump pick


http://fuelfix.com/blog/2017/01/04/tillerson-to-cede-control-of-240-million-in-exxon-as-trump-pick/

[boutons_deux]

http://gonetworth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/omarosa-manigault-stallworth-net-worth2.jpg

[boutons_deux]

Trash picks Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton for SEC chairman

Clayton, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell law firm, is a noted specialist in public and private mergers and offerings.

Citing his campaign pledge to reduce federal regulations, Trump said Clayton "is a highly talented expert on many aspects of financial and regulatory law, and he will ensure our financial institutions can thrive and create jobs

while playing by the rules at the same time." :lol :lol

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/04/trump-nominates-securities-and-exchange-commission-chair/96151332/

yeah, sure, A real Sheriff of Wall St :lol

[boutons_deux]

http://men4marriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/PamBondirun-335x372.jpg

Florida Attorney General Who Received Illegal Donation from Trump Expected to Join White House

Pam Bondi — the Florida attorney general who took an illegal donation from President-elect Trump — appears poised to take a job in his administration.

http://usuncut.com/politics/florida-ag-illegal-donation-trump/

Trash expecting to get some action in the Oval office from the corrupt bitch. He's already paid $25K for it.

[Chucho]

http://men4marriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/PamBondirun-335x372.jpg

Florida Attorney General Who Received Illegal Donation from Trump Expected to Join White House

Pam Bondi — the Florida attorney general who took an illegal donation from President-elect Trump — appears poised to take a job in his administration.

http://usuncut.com/politics/florida-ag-illegal-donation-trump/

Trash expecting to get some action the Oval office from the corrupt bitch. He's already paid $25K for it.

So? He'd be following in the steps of the trendsetting Demo leader who was impeached for being a rapist and a liar. What's he doing that your team hasn't done before?

[Chucho]

Plus, what are you, a fag? And I mean butt-fucking queer, not a "forum faggot" fag. She's hot. She's NOT a hog like Monica. Or a fat girl your team lies to and says its ok to be morbidly obese and fat and unfuckable.

[boutons_deux]

Amid ‘Widespread Anxiety and Fear,’ Trump Team Inquires About Key Immigration Policies

Made during a December 5 meeting between the team and DHS officials, the request was for information on President Obama's executive orders on immigration sent to agents, “all assets available for border wall and barrier construction,” and DHS’ capacity to expand detention.

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has made a “wide-ranging request for documents and analysis” to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about the agency’s immigration programs,

Advocates who spoke to Rewire are “deeply concerned” about what this request will ultimately mean

for those benefiting from Obama’s 2014 executive action on immigration (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA),

those who will be placed into detention during the new administration, and

those attempting to enter the country on foot through the 100-mile zone (http://afgj.org/arizona-everywhere-immigration-policing-and-the-united-states-expanding-borderlands) known as the borderlands, which according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are routinely treated like a Constitution-free area (https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone?redirect=immigrants-rights/constitution-100-mile-border-zone).

https://rewire.news/article/2017/01/05/amid-widespread-anxiety-fear-trump-team-inquires-key-immigration-policies/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rhrealitycheck+%28RH+Reality+ Check%29

Trash is gonna incite the BP goons to even more murder, while enriching the private companies who operate the internment camps.

[boutons_deux]

Trash fucks people. Why? Because he can

Repugs fuck govt. Why? Because they want to destroy govt

In Break With Precedent, Obama Envoys Are Denied Extensions Past Inauguration Day

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition staff has issued a blanket edict requiring politically appointed ambassadors to leave their overseas posts by Inauguration Day, according to several American diplomats familiar with the plan, breaking with decades of precedent by declining to provide even the briefest of grace periods.

The mandate — issued “without exceptions,” according to a terse State Department cable sent on Dec. 23, diplomats who saw it said —

threatens to leave the United States without Senate-confirmed envoys for months in critical nations like Germany, Canada and Britain.

In the past, administrations of both parties have often granted extensions on a case-by-case basis to allow a handful of ambassadors, particularly those with school-age children, to remain in place for weeks or months.

Mr. Trump, by contrast, has taken a hard line against leaving any of President Obama’s political appointees

in place as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20 with a mission of dismantling many of his predecessor’s signature foreign and domestic policy achievements. “Political” ambassadors, many of them major donors who are nominated by virtue of close ties with the president, almost always leave at the end of his term; ambassadors who are career diplomats often remain in their posts.

A senior Trump transition official said there was no ill will in the move, :lol

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/us/politics/trump-ambassadors.html

You're Fired

[boutons_deux]

How an AG Jeff Sessions could change the conversation on criminal justice

As Sen. Jeff Sessions's confirmation hearings for Attorney General draw closer, critics worry that his nomination could slow the momentum of police reform measures, disrupt a growing bipartisan effort to roll back the war on drugs, and further polarize a divided America.

As the Senate confirmation hearings for Sen. Jeff Sessions draw closer, a growing list of opponents of the controversial attorney general nominee are calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject his nomination.

The Republican lawyer-turned-senator from Alabama has been publicly denounced and protested in recent weeks by groups including

the NAACP,

the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and

more than 1,100 law school professors

who sent a letter Tuesday urging the Senate to reject Sessions's nomination for attorney general next week.

Those who oppose Sessions point to his hard-line stances on issues including immigration, marijuana, and police reform as grounds for the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the nomination.

But perhaps more prominently at the forefront of anti-Sessions arguments are the accusations of racial bias that have followed him throughout his career, particularly the comments that cost him a federal judgeship in 1986.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2017/0105/How-an-AG-Jeff-Sessions-could-change-the-conversation-on-criminal-justice

Trash: "You knitters didn't vote for me? OK, here's a life-long racist from Ala fucking bama as top US cop"

[boutons_deux]

Democrats want ethics inquiry of Trump's choice for Health secretary; Trump calls Schumer a 'clown' (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-obamacare-repeal-congress-20170104-story.html)

Hoping to derail President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Heath secretary, Democrats want an ethics investigation of Rep. Tom Price's stock trades in healthcare companies.

Members of Congress are barred from insider trading under the 2012 STOCK Act, which seeks to prevent lawmakers from profiting from legislation pending before the House and Senate.

Price traded more than $300,000 in health-related stocks over the past four years while serving on committees with jurisdiction over health matters,

according to the Wall Street Journal (http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trumps-pick-for-health-secretary-traded-medical-stocks-while-in-house-1482451061).

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) "This is serious stuff. That’s why we need full hearings and full disclosure."

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-democrats-want-ethics-probe-of-trump-s-1483637407-htmlstory.html?utm_source=Today%27s+Headlines&utm_campaign=3f9826a984-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b04355194f-3f9826a984-80027601

the corruption will be "unpresidented" and unbounded

[boutons_deux]

Mattis clashing with Trump transition team over Pentagon staffing

The honeymoon seems to be ending between retired Gen. James N. Mattis and Donald Trump’s transition team amid an increasingly acrimonious dispute over who will get top jobs in the Defense Department — and who gets to make those decisions.

Mattis had to learn from the news media that Trump had selected Vincent Viola, a billionaire Army veteran, to be secretary of the Army, one source close to the transition said.

“Mattis was furious,” said the source. “It made him suspicious of the transition team, and things devolved from there.”

Service secretaries represent potential alternate power centers inside the Defense Department, and Mattis as defense secretary has an interest in having secretaries who are loyal to him and don’t have independent relationships with the White House.

Mattis is also pushing for the Trump transition team to allow “Never Trump” Republicans to serve in the Pentagon, but so far the Trump team is refusing.

Mattis has rejected all of the names the Trump team has offered to be the top intelligence official in the department,

Mattis is also unlikely to accept Trump’s top Pentagon transition landing team official, Mira Ricardel (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mira-ricardel-08b529b6), as a top official. She was rumored to be in line to be undersecretary of defense for policy, a hugely influential job.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/01/06/mattis-clashing-with-trump-transition-team-over-pentagon-staffing/?utm_term=.8c3647cb3166&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1

[boutons_deux]

 Republicans Are Planning to Rush Through Jeff Sessions’s Confirmation Hearing

Despite his controversial record, Democrats will only get to call four witnesses during the course of a two-day hearing.

https://www.thenation.com/article/republicans-are-planning-to-rush-through-jeff-sessionss-confirmation-hearing/

[boutons_deux]

Trash Health-Care Hire Peddles Myths About Contraception

Katy Talento has pushed dubious claims about birth control, including the myth that hormonal contraceptives cause abortions, miscarriages, and decreased fertility.

https://reujq2sar5z38mfxc343rf51-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Katy-Talento-530x350.png

She was described in a Thursday press release (https://greatagain.gov/policy-team-32afa7145773#.h2v0zxiai) as “an infectious disease epidemiologist with nearly 20 years of experience in public health and health policy, as well as government oversight and investigations and program evaluation.”

She pointed to an article by discredited anti-choice activist Donna Harrison as evidence for some of her claims.

Harrison was featured in 2014 as part of (https://rewire.news/false-witnesses/#donna-j-harrison) Rewire’s “False Witnesses” project for pushing egregious falsehoods about abortion care and using “discredited or fringe studies rather than broadly accepted medical evidence.”

“We have decades of established research that show that contraception does not cause miscarriages, it does not cause abortion—it prevents pregnancy. And that’s clear to everyone who does serious research on this topic,”

https://rewire.news/article/2017/01/06/trump-health-care-hire-peddles-myths-about-contraception/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rhrealitycheck+%28RH+Reality+ Check%29

Christian Taliban misogynists want to deny sex-for-pleasure for women. For men? "Go Get 'em, Cocksmen"

or, if a women takes contraceptives, she's a slut.

[Thread]

 Republicans Are Planning to Rush Through Jeff Sessions’s Confirmation Hearing

Despite his controversial record, Democrats will only get to call four witnesses during the course of a two-day hearing.

https://www.thenation.com/article/republicans-are-planning-to-rush-through-jeff-sessionss-confirmation-hearing/




Barry shoulda stepped in---in October and been POTUS. Instead, he stood real still & ended up ass over teacup, Hillary next to him.

He ain't goin' back in there. She ain't goin' back in there. Bill ain't goin' back in there.

& that's just the way it's gonna be.

Solly Cholly.

[Thread]

Mattis clashing with Trump transition team over Pentagon staffing

The honeymoon seems to be ending between retired Gen. James N. Mattis and Donald Trump’s transition team amid an increasingly acrimonious dispute over who will get top jobs in the Defense Department — and who gets to make those decisions.

Mattis had to learn from the news media that Trump had selected Vincent Viola, a billionaire Army veteran, to be secretary of the Army, one source close to the transition said.

“Mattis was furious,” said the source. “It made him suspicious of the transition team, and things devolved from there.”

Service secretaries represent potential alternate power centers inside the Defense Department, and Mattis as defense secretary has an interest in having secretaries who are loyal to him and don’t have independent relationships with the White House.

Mattis is also pushing for the Trump transition team to allow “Never Trump” Republicans to serve in the Pentagon, but so far the Trump team is refusing.

Mattis has rejected all of the names the Trump team has offered to be the top intelligence official in the department,

Mattis is also unlikely to accept Trump’s top Pentagon transition landing team official, Mira Ricardel (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mira-ricardel-08b529b6), as a top official. She was rumored to be in line to be undersecretary of defense for policy, a hugely influential job.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/01/06/mattis-clashing-with-trump-transition-team-over-pentagon-staffing/?utm_term=.8c3647cb3166&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1




And Trump is going to say it. If "you" don't like it---get up & get out.

[boutons_deux]

Donald Trump's Stubborn Refusal to Acknowledge Russia's Hacking All Points to One Man

The president-elect's top security advisor abides by his own set of "facts."

there is a factor that looms large in this story that may simply explain some of Trump’s behavior: former general Michael Flynn. When it comes to the intelligence community, Flynn serves as Trump’s eyes and ears.

The president-elect literally knows nothing about the workings of matters of intelligence, and there’s is no evidence that he’s spent any time trying to bone up. He has said he doesn’t need daily briefings and seems to have outsourced taking in these updates to his trusted aide Flynn. And Flynn is an angry man with a major ax to grind.

Dana Priest has written for The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-disruptive-career-of-trumps-national-security-adviser) of Flynn’s brief checkered career as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, in charge of all military attachés and defense-intelligence collection around the world. He had come into the job after some years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, having success as a clandestine officer and creating new ways of using disparate pieces of information to target suspected terrorists.

He was seen as undisciplined and somewhat reckless, but his mentor, former general Stanley McChrystal, had understood how to keep his quirkier personality traits under control.

Then Flynn got the big promotion and made a hash of it almost immediately, creating irrational and impractical changes and behaving erratically on the job. He sought out the Washington spotlight but apparently became

lured into the right-wing fever swamps and started spouting outrageous falsehoods in public — including Islamophobic conspiracy theories— which his subordinates called “Flynn facts.”

And Flynn started to manifest a serious anger management problem.

The agency had to create what Priest called a “parallel power structure” to keep the place running properly.

After 18 months of this, Flynn was fired — by James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, who is now leading the charge on the Russian hacking story. According to Priest, Flynn was “livid.”

When Trump started getting classified briefings, Flynn accompanied him. It has been reported that four different sources say he became unruly and repeatedly interrupted the briefers, challenging their facts to the point where New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was also at the meeting, had to tell him to calm down. Flynn’s response when asked about it (http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/u-s-official-donald-trump-s-body-language-claim-doesn-n644856) was that the story was “total bullshit. . . . They’re lying.” He is clearly still angry and convinced that his “Flynn facts” are correct.

Flynn may have an ally in another important Trump administration figure, Steve Bannon, who is associated with the “alt-right” movement, for which Russia (http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/10/trump-putin-alt-right-comintern/506015/) has become increasingly important and its president, Vladimir Putin, is often seen as a sympathetic figure.

Bannon has a special affiliation with Russian history (http://www.salon.com/2016/11/19/steve-bannon-bolshevik-maybe-donald-trumps-alt-right-svengali-really-is-a-leninist/), however superficial and insincere. It’s entirely possible he would back Flynn’s denunciation of intelligence analyses for his own purposes, lending Flynn even more credibility with Trump.

All of this is “Kremlinology” of course — meaning that a certain amount of guesswork is involved, since trying to sort out what’s really going on requires reading between the lines.

But there’s a reason why Trump is so adamant that the intelligence agencies are wrong and that he knows things they don’t know.

And there’s really only one person in his close circle who would be telling him such things. If ever there was a president who needed a steady hand to guide him on these important, delicate matters, it’s Donald Trump. Too bad the man he’s leaning on is Michael Flynn.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/donald-trumps-stubborn-refusal-acknowledge-russias-hacking-all-points-one-man

[boutons_deux]

Jeff Sessions confirmation is ‘rigged,’ say civil rights leaders

The confirmation process for Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is “rigged” and should be delayed in order to thoroughly vet Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, a group of civil rights leaders said in a conference call with reporters Friday.

Citing reports (https://www.thenation.com/article/republicans-are-planning-to-rush-through-jeff-sessionss-confirmation-hearing/)that Democrats will be allowed to call only four witnesses to testify at next week’s confirmation hearings, and noting that

Sessions left hundreds of questions blank (http://http//www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeff-sessions-attorney-general_us_586680bce4b0eb58648909c8)on a required questionnaire,

I can tell you, I would never approve a questionnaire like the one that was submitted for Sen. Sessions.”

the Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP president Cornell William Brooks and five other civil rights leaders representing black, Hispanic and Asian-American groups called for a more “thorough vetting” of Sessions’ controversial career,

“Rushing through this hearing…demonstrates a contempt for the need to probe Sen. Sessions’ record,”

“The Senate Judiciary Committee cannot push this forward based on their friendship with Sen. Sessions.”

The civil rights leaders also accused Sessions of hypocrisy for failing to disclose records covering many years. In 2010, he said one of President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees could be charged with a felony for doing the same thing.


I would never approve a questionnaire like the one that was submitted for Sen. Sessions.”
Many of the leaders voiced concerns over Sessions’ ability, and inclination, to enforce existing laws, especially voting rights laws,

“For Jeff Sessions, a child of Selma, Alabama, to refer to the Voting Rights Act is ‘intrusive (http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/11/18/jeff_sessions_is_trump_s_pick_for_attorney_general .html),’…to have this man over the Justice Department is a nightmare that we cannot wake up from,

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/jeff-sessions-confirmation-is-rigged-say-civil-rights-leaders/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Repugs are PROVING beyond any doubt that they, and their voters, are, and have been for 50 years, the party of racism

[Winehole23]

But Harris’s office, without any explanation, declined to prosecute the case.now US Senator Kemala Harris. funny how that works.

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s Crime Wave Cabinet Is Trying To Dodge Disclosing Conflicts Of Interest

A letter from Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub is warning that the Republican Senate Majority is about to confirm Trump nominees who have not provided sufficient information or disclosed potential conflicts of interest.

What is happening is that Trump’s nominees are following the precedent established by their boss.

Donald Trump didn’t disclose his medical records, tax returns, or potential conflicts of interest as a candidate, so his nominees are also not disclosing critical information about interests and activities that could pose a conflict.

Trump and his nominees are setting the stage for the most corrupt presidential administration in modern political history, but the blame does not rest solely with the ethically challenged individuals that Trump has nominated.

The majority of the blame rests with Senate Republicans who are willing to push through nominees without proper vetting and information.

Republicans are giving the most corrupt president-elect potentially ever a free pass.

When this all goes wrong, it will be Majority Leader McConnell and company who will be responsible.

Republicans have been warned, but they are marching ahead because partisan politics means more to them than their constitutional duties.

A group ethically challenged individuals will be moving into the federal government, and they are being enabled by a Republican Senate majority that is more than willing to turn a blind eye to a looming climate of corruption.

http://www.politicususa.com/2017/01/07/trumps-crime-wave-cabinet-dodge-disclosing-conflicts-interest.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

[boutons_deux]

Warren: No confirmation hearings for Trump appointees until they’re vetted for conflicts of interest

Elizabeth Warren (https://twitter.com/SenWarren)
(https://twitter.com/SenWarren)✔@SenWarren (https://twitter.com/SenWarren)

Cabinet officials must put our country's interests before their own. No conf hearings should be held until we’re certain that’s the case.


“This is ridiculous,” Warren wrote. “[Trump’s nominees] can’t drag their feet on ethics paperwork while their Senate friends try to run out the clock.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/warren-no-confirmation-hearings-for-trump-appointees-until-theyre-vetted-for-conflicts-of-interest/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

"Billionaire" Trump Can't Pay His Transition Team's Salaries (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/2/1616547/--Billionaire-Trump-Can-t-Pay-His-Transition-Team-s-Salaries)

One would think that a real billionaire would be able to fund these salaries out of petty cash (http://www.alan.com/2017/01/01/trump-struggling-to-pay-his-teams-salaries/) or float a few bank loans for it:

Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told a Buffalo area radio station: “Mr. Trump held a fundraiser down in New York City a few weeks back and did raise some money, but they have – I would use the word – ‘struggled’ to raise the private funds needed to pay these individuals who are working on behalf of the taxpayers but not being paid by the government.”


The ferret-wearer’s options are limited:
- no U.S. bank will touch Donald J. Trump ever again
- Deutsche Bank is teetering (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/business/dealbook/deutsche-bank-flew-and-fell-some-paid-a-high-price.html?_r=0) as it is
- he already owes the Chinese several hundred million last I saw
- Putin doesn’t dare front him the sum, through Alfa Bank or any other entity

So Kellyanne’s doing a fundraiser (http://news.wbfo.org/post/senior-trump-adviser-coming-buffalo-exclusive-fundraising-event)!

President-elect Donald Trump’s Campaign Manager-turned-Communications Counselor Kellyanne Conway will visit Buffalo this week for an exclusive fundraiser.

Conway will speak at a Thursday afternoon luncheon at the Westin Buffalo hotel.

The $5000 per person event is intended to raise funds to cover the costs of Trump’s transition team, including their salaries.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/2/1616547/--Billionaire-Trump-Can-t-Pay-His-Transition-Team-s-Salaries?detail=emailclassic&link_id=2&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-macys-cuts-10000-jobs-after-trump-demanded-boycott&email_referrer=macys-cuts-10000-jobs-after-trump-demanded-boycott&email_subject=macys-cuts-10000-jobs-after-trump-demanded-boycott

[boutons_deux]

Trash's team attacking the press

While Talking Russian Interference, Conway Says What Should ‘Infuriate’ Americans Is Media Leaks

http://www.mediaite.com/online/while-talking-russian-interference-conway-says-what-should-infuriate-americans-is-media-leaks/

... but Assange's leaks are fucking wonderful!

[boutons_deux]

Trump Intel Chief Pick Embodies Lobbying Revolving Door


https://res.cloudinary.com/tpm/image/upload/c_fill,fl_keep_iptc,g_face,w_653,h_361/aecp2hwruoie3oikhgxb.jpg

Former Sen. Dan Coats, in line to be national intelligence director, has swung back and forth between government service and lobbying, the type of Washington career that President-elect Donald Trump has mocked.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-intel-chief-pick-embodies-lobbying-revolving-door?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

[boutons_deux]

Mitch McConnell ignoring cabinet confirmation procedure he demanded in 2009

Letter shows he demanded full ‘financial disclosures’ before hearings.

But back in 2009, McConnell took the exact opposite view. A letter to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), posted on Twitter by Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington co-founder and former Obama administration ethics adviser Norm Eisen on Sunday, shows he demanded that “financial disclosures must be complete” before any confirmation hearings be scheduled.

In his letter, McConnell wrote that his party’s duty to “conduct the appropriate review” of presidential nominations,

“consistent with the long standing and best practices of committees,

regardless of which party is in the majority,” was one it took seriously.

“These best practices serve the Senate well,” he added, “and we will insist on their fair and consistent application.”

The then-Senate Minority Leader called the financial disclosure process and other ethical steps essential “to fairly review a nominee’s record and to make an informed decision prior to a vote.”

https://thinkprogress.org/mitch-mcconnell-confirmation-ethics-hypocrisy-2c75b671d694#.sfze2encj

[boutons_deux]

‘There’s no reason’: Reince Priebus claims background checks on Trump’s cabinet are a waste of time


http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/theres-no-reason-reince-priebus-claims-background-checks-on-trumps-cabinet-are-a-waste-of-time/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Democrats Who Oppose Betsy DeVos Have Nothing To Lose

The opposition to DeVos, Politico (http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-education/2017/01/preparing-for-a-devos-confirmation-fight-218058) reports, comes from “more than a dozen Democratic senators from all wings of the party” who “will portray DeVos’ views as being outside the education mainstream.”

The non-mainstream “views” Politico cites include

her “bankrolling efforts to create state voucher programs” and

to expand a “loosely-regulated charter school sector” in Michigan, her home state.

The Senators are “also intent on drawing attention to

her lack of experience in a traditional public school setting. DeVos has never worked as a public school teacher or superintendent, nor has she sent her own kids to public schools.”

DeVos, The Ultimate Insider

In DeVos, Trump has found the ultimate inside power player.

Jennifer Berkshire (http://edushyster.com/long-game-of-betsy-devos/), my colleague at The Progressive (http://www.progressive.org/content/public-school-shakedown-stories) magazine, recounts on her personal blog how

Betsy DeVos and her husband Dick have played a “long game” to control the fate of Michigan’s much beleaguered public schools.
Berkshire points to a piece by Michigan-based journalist Allie Gross (http://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2016/06/08/detroit-school-legislation-backed-by-charter-advocates-was-years-in-the-making) calling attention to

a campaign conceived in the early 1990s to expand charter schools in the state. According to local news accounts Gross uncovered, there were just four major financial backers for the campaign, two of which are directly related to Betsy and Dick DeVos.
Everyone knows that politics is ‘dirty business,'” writes Michigan State University professor and blogger Mitchell Robinson (http://www.eclectablog.com/2016/12/privatize-monetize-weaponize-how-the-devoses-devoured-michigans-schools.html),

“but the brand of politics played by the DeVos family in Michigan is a particularly brutal version of the game.”
According to Robinson, the

DeVoses have mostly failed at achieving political success the old-fashioned way – by using the electoral process.

When their efforts to win a statewide referendum for a school voucher program and elect husband Dick to the governorship both resulted in resounding defeats, the

“twin humiliations” motivated the DeVoses to attain their goals “like most political operatives and lobbyists, in the background.”
Among the “background” efforts Robinson points to is a DeVos financed “Skunk Works” campaign, “a secretive, off-the-books work group that had been tasked with developing a system of ‘low cost schools'” that would eventually lead to a school voucher program of some sort.

Robinson also points to the considerable influence Betsy and Dick DeVos had on ensuring

the 2016 legislation to turn around the troubled Detroit school system did not include any further regulation of charter schools.

He cites evidence backing up his claim the DeVoses were “the major players” in the effort to

ensure any bill that passed “carved out special protections for school choice and charter schools, even going so far as to ‘freeze out’ a leading Republican senator and Detroit’s mayor from the deliberations.”
The DeVos Money Machine

The inside influence DeVos and her husband have wielded in Michigan has extended to “the national political stage” as well, according to Education Week (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2016/12/campaign_contributions_betsy_devos_education_secre tary.html), where they “are perhaps best known as big-time donors to Republican candidates and groups.”

EdWeek reporter Andrew Ujifusa notes,

“In the 2016 election year, for example, the two gave $2.7 million to Republican candidates … But their campaign-donation record goes back much further. And it includes contributions to several senators who may vote on Betsy DeVos’ confirmation in the Senate education committee and subsequently on the Senate floor.”
Ujifusa unearthed (http://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=23375&default=contributor) nearly $2.7 million in political donations, over the past 20 years, Betsy DeVos personally gave to 370 individuals and causes.

The DeVos funding machine also extends to the All Children Matter PAC (http://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=5720), which finances campaigns (http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/09/27/05politics.h26.html) related to education and other issues. “Over nine years since it was founded,” Ujifusa reports, “the group gave $1.8 million to 581 candidates and party committees,” some of which got the organization in trouble for skirting campaign finance rules in Ohio in 2008.

The state has fined All Children Matter $5.2 million, which the organization has yet to pay.

In the questionnaire (http://static.politico.com/4b/0c/fce86acb43879694090fd430d601/senate-help-committee-paperwork-for-betsy-devos.pdf) DeVos had to submit to the Senate committee that will meet with her next week, there is an astonishingly long list of political contributions.

The insider status DeVos enjoys is especially in character with the nature of the

education reform agenda, which has always been much more reliant on the inner workings of politics and wealthy people rather than the will of the general populace.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/01/08/democrats-who-oppose-betsy-devos-have-nothing-lose

DeVos isn't pushing for PUBLIC charter schools, but only for for-profit corporate charter schools.

[boutons_deux]

Did Putin help elect Trump to restore $500 billion Exxon oil deal killed by sanctions

Follow the money: Will Trump repay Putin by ending Russian sanctions and killing the Paris climate deal?

our democracy and our children have a new axis to worry about: Putin, Trump, and ExxonMobil (https://thinkprogress.org/trump-putin-and-exxonmobil-team-up-to-destroy-the-planet-fb88650acfa1#.u0nibpg9a), whose

CEO Rex Tillerson — an extreme Russophile (https://thinkprogress.org/trump-picks-exxonmobil-ceo-to-be-americas-next-secretary-of-state-121d0dfef757#.9feb2qi21) and long-time director of a US-Russian oil company (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/18/leak-rex-tillerson-director-bahamas-based-us-russian-oil-company?CMP=edit_2221) — is Trump’s puzzling choice for Secretary of State.

I say “puzzling” because the long-serving Exxon employee (from age 23!) has

no qualifications (https://thinkprogress.org/exxon-ceo-trump-worst-nominee-for-climate-40c00f67ccfe#.3me0di2d1) to be secretary of state — other than a history negotiating major oil deals with countries like Putin’s Russia,

which in any sane world would actually disqualify him or at least force a recusal from all State Department dealings with Russia.

But that puzzle disappears if we follow the famous dictum from the Watergate era for uncovering a tangled web of covert campaign acts: “Follow the money.” And perhaps another puzzle is also solved: Why did Putin take such a “fearful risk,” as Frum put it, to “mount a clandestine espionage and disinformation campaign on behalf” of Trump and against Clinton, “when Putin had every reason to expect that he probably would end up facing a President Clinton,” and a tremendous backlash.

a half trillion dollars to line their pockets and prop up the Russian economy offers a much more tangible motivation for team Putin to get Trump elected. And

a half trillion dollars to line their pockets and prop up the Russian economy offers a much more tangible motivation for team Putin to get Trump elected. And

it was Tillerson who had made the $500 billion oil deal (http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-candidate-for-state-has-close-ties-to-vladimir-putin-1481033938)with Putin that got blocked by sanctions (http://www.wsj.com/articles/sanctions-over-ukraine-put-exxon-at-risk-1410477455).

It bears repeating (https://thinkprogress.org/exxon-ceo-trump-worst-nominee-for-climate-40c00f67ccfe#.3jh5vrji0) that

ExxonMobil’s future is inextricably tied to their stalled oil deal with Putin

 — and their future drilling plans would benefit from continued global warming and melting of polar ice would.

https://thinkprogress.org/putin-helped-trump-exxon-oil-deal-sanctions-6f169c4a4cd0#.ohsui3haa

[boutons_deux]

Trump national security pick Monica Crowley plagiarized multiple sources in 2012 book

The review of Crowley’s June 2012 book, "What The (Bleep) Just Happened," found upwards of

50 examples of plagiarism from numerous sources, including the copying with minor changes of news articles, other columnists, think tanks, and Wikipedia.

The New York Times bestseller, published by the HarperCollins imprint Broadside Books, contains no notes or bibliography.

http://money.cnn.com/interactive/news/kfile-trump-monica-crowley-plagiarized-multiple-sources-2012-book/

:lol Just another cheat, fraud in Trash's mafia.

[boutons_deux]

Alabama NAACP Not Backing Down After Jeff Sessions' Office Lashes Out

their protest had caught the attention of Sessions’ office, whose spokesperson, Sarah Isgur Flores, smeared the protesters in her comments (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/naacp-protest-of-sessions-a-fundraising-gimmick/article/2610944) to the Washington Examiner. "What a sad statement on the left's political reality that they would falsely smear a man's character and reputation as a fundraising gimmick," she said. Flores sent a series of tweets (https://twitter.com/whignewtons) referring to the protesters as “pathetic.”


http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/naacp.jpg


“We are trying to stop Jeff Sessions from becoming the Attorney General of the United States,” Benard Simelton, president of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, told AlterNet over the phone. “We are not backing down at all.”

Just days ago, Simelton was one of dozens who staged a sit-in at Sessions’ Mobile, Alabama office, an action timed to coincide with the onset of the 115th Congress. Media attention and support from across the country poured in.



Simelton, one of six people arrested for the action, noted that following their release from detention, protesters met at a TGI Fridays restaurant to “plan our next strategy.”

By then, their protest had caught the attention of Sessions’ office, whose spokesperson,

Sarah Isgur Flores, smeared the protesters in her comments (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/naacp-protest-of-sessions-a-fundraising-gimmick/article/2610944) to the Washington Examiner.

"What a sad statement on the left's political reality that they would falsely smear a man's character and reputation as a fundraising gimmick,"

she said. Flores sent a series of tweets (https://twitter.com/whignewtons) referring to the protesters as “pathetic.”

But Simelton says the response is proof that their protest got under Sessions’ skin. “The statements don’t bother us at all,” he said. “Irrationality is what we expect. They are trying to change the focus from them to us, so that people won’t focus on the things he has done.”

Sessions, a U.S. Senator from Alabama, built his national reputation by vociferously opposing civil rights.

In the 1984 case now known as the Marion Three, he prosecuted three civil rights workers on baseless (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/may/05/jeff-sessions-arlen-specter-judiciary-committee) charges of voter fraud (all were acquitted), in an effort to intimidate and suppress the black vote.

His opposition to voting rights has continued throughout his career, including his support (http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/06/25/southern_republican_senators_happy_that_supreme_co urt_designated_their_states.html) for the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision to gut the Voting Rights Act.

Former Justice Department civil rights lawyer J. Gerald Hebert testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Sessions had

called the NAACP “un-American” and “communist-inspired.”

More recently, Hebert told (http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/17/politics/jeff-sessions-racism-allegations/) CNN, "Things that I had heard firsthand from him were things that demonstrated gross racial insensitivity to black citizens of Alabama and the United States.”

consistently voting for harsh crackdowns on immigrants and punishing austerity measures.

In just one example, he supported Alabama’s harsh HB56, described (https://www.aclu.org/other/analysis-hb-56-alabama-taxpayer-and-citizen-protection-act) by the ACLU as “an extraordinary attempt to regulate every aspect of the lives of immigrants.”

He was part of a small group of senators who

voted against the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005,

which according to (https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/11/18/us-trumps-justice-cia-picks-threaten-rights) Human Rights Watch, “barred the use of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment against any detainee in U.S. custody and required the Defense Department to follow the U.S. Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogations when conducting interrogations.”

He also opposed a later anti-torture amendment to the annual defense bill, which passed in 2015.
Sessions opposed (https://thinkprogress.org/sessions-congratulates-lilly-ledbetter-for-law-in-her-name-that-he-opposed-5052f18ad206#.xozktqga9) a 2009 law to protect women from job discrimination and defended (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeff-sessions-trump-sexual-assault_us_57fbb902e4b068ecb5e06988) Trump’s boasting about sexually assaulting women.

He has consistently (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeff-sessions-lgbt-rights_us_58346cd9e4b030997bc1524f) voted against the most basic LGBTQ protections.

will be in charge “of enforcing the civil-rights laws he once opposed, like the Voting Rights Act.”

http://www.alternet.org/activism/alabama-naacp-not-backing-down-after-jeff-sessions-office-lashes-out

Trash nominating the worst possible assholes to fuck up, mismanage, abuse their responsibilities and departments.

aka "consequences"

[CosmicCowboy]

:lol @ Boo's RSS fake news.

[boutons_deux]

:lol @ Boo's RSS fake news.

You got nothing on me, Parasite.

All you got is LIES.

[CosmicCowboy]

You got nothing on me, Parasite.

All you got is LIES.

Keep telling yourself that.

1473 more days at least of laughing at you.

*flush* Booscreammmm

:lol

[boutons_deux]

Trump Just Dismissed the People in Charge of Maintaining Our Nuclear Arsenal (http://gizmodo.com/trump-just-dismissed-the-people-in-charge-of-maintainin-1790908093)

According to an official within the Department of Energy, this past Friday, the President-elect’s team instructed the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration and his deputy to clean out their desks when Trump takes office on January 20th.

appointees in key positions—like the people who make sure our nukes work—are often asked to stay on in their roles until a replacement can be found and confirmed by the Senate, helping ensure a smooth transition and allowing our government to continue functioning. In fact, for the entirety of Obama’s first term and into part of his second, the NNSA Administrator remained a Bush appointee.

Trump, however, appears determined to immediately push out everyone who was appointed by Obama, regardless of whether or not he has anyone in line for the job.

Or, as our source put it: “It’s a shocking disregard for process and continuity of government.”

http://gizmodo.com/trump-just-dismissed-the-people-in-charge-of-maintainin-1790908093?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29

iow, Trash is an establishment Repug, whose ideology is "government doesn't matter, so fuck it up, preferably to enrich BigDonors"

[boutons_deux]

January 7, 2017. The federal week in review:

1. Trump fires all Ambassadors and Special Envoys, ordering them out by inauguration day.

2. House brings back the Holman rule allowing them to reduce an individual civil service, SES positions, or political appointee's salary to $1, effectively firing them by amendment to any piece of legislation. We now know why they wanted names and positions of people in Energy and State.

3. Senate schedules 6 simultaneous hearings on cabinet nominees many of whom have not completed an ETHICS review and triple-books those hearings with Trump's first press conference in months and an ACA budget vote, effectively preventing any concentrated coverage or protest.

4. House GOP expressly forbids the Congressional Budget Office from reporting or tracking ANY costs related to the repeal of the ACA.

5. Trump continues to throw the intelligence community under the bus to protect Putin, despite the growing mountain of evidence that the Russians deliberately interfered in our election.

6. Trump breaks a central campaign promise to make Mexico pay for the wall by asking Congress (in other words, us, the taxpayers) to pay for it.

7. Trump threatens Toyota over a new plant that was never coming to the US nor will take jobs out of the US.

8. House passes the REINS act, giving them veto power over any rules enacted by any federal agency or department--for example, FDA or EPA bans a drug or pesticide, Congress can overrule based on lobbyists not science.

Don't like that endangered species designation, Congress kills it.

We - progressive, liberal, libertarian and conservative - need to all wake up to what is actually happening to our beloved country.

[boutons_deux]

Kellyanne Conway assails media for listening to what Trump says (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/9/1618578/-Kellyanne-Conway-assails-media-for-listening-to-what-Trump-says) :lol

“Why is everything taken at face value?” :lol

she asked.

“You can’t give him the benefit of the doubt on this :lol

and he’s telling you what was in his heart, :lol

you always want to go with what’s come out of his mouth :lol

rather than look at what’s in his heart.” :lol

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/09/1618578/-Kellyanne-Conway-assails-media-for-listening-to-what-Trump-says?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

Holy shit, that's one crazy mofo bitch

"After receiving her
B.A. magna cum laude in political science in 1989 from Trinity College, Washington, D.C. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Washington_University) (now Trinity Washington University (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Washington_University)),
where she was also Phi Beta Kappa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi_Beta_Kappa_Society),
she earned a J.D. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juris_Doctor) with honors in 1992 from the George Washington University Law School (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_University_Law_School)[11] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellyanne_Conway#cite_note-newyorkerprofile-11)"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellyanne_Conway#Early_life_and_education

:lol

[boutons_deux]

Trump National Security Pick Monica Crowley Caught Plagiarizing Again

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/report-trump-national-security-pick-monica-crowley-plagiarized-her-ph-d-dissertation/

[Thread]

Trump National Security Pick Monica Crowley Caught Plagiarizing Again

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/report-trump-national-security-pick-monica-crowley-plagiarized-her-ph-d-dissertation/

That's okay. Biden did the same and he made VP x 2.

[SnakeBoy]

Keep telling yourself that.

1473 more days at least of laughing at you.

*flush* Booscreammmm

:lol

:lol

I don't think he'll make it that long without offing himself...my guess is suicide by cop will be his choice.

[Thread]

:lol

I don't think he'll make it that long without offing himself...my guess is suicide by cop will be his choice.

No matter what, he'll have left Clinton dead in the ground.

[CosmicCowboy]

Trump Just Dismissed the People in Charge of Maintaining Our Nuclear Arsenal (http://gizmodo.com/trump-just-dismissed-the-people-in-charge-of-maintainin-1790908093)

According to an official within the Department of Energy, this past Friday, the President-elect’s team instructed the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration and his deputy to clean out their desks when Trump takes office on January 20th.

appointees in key positions—like the people who make sure our nukes work—are often asked to stay on in their roles until a replacement can be found and confirmed by the Senate, helping ensure a smooth transition and allowing our government to continue functioning. In fact, for the entirety of Obama’s first term and into part of his second, the NNSA Administrator remained a Bush appointee.

Trump, however, appears determined to immediately push out everyone who was appointed by Obama, regardless of whether or not he has anyone in line for the job.

Or, as our source put it: “It’s a shocking disregard for process and continuity of government.”

http://gizmodo.com/trump-just-dismissed-the-people-in-charge-of-maintainin-1790908093?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29

iow, Trash is an establishment Repug, whose ideology is "government doesn't matter, so fuck it up, preferably to enrich BigDonors"





The correction at the bottom of the page:
Another NNSA official, speaking on background to Gizmodo and Defense News, has disputed this report as "inaccurate" while confirming that "there have been no discussions between the president-elect's transition team and any of NNSA's political appointees on extending their public service past Jan. 20." In other words, the Trump transition team has not asked the top two NNSA officials to stay on until they can be replaced.
After speaking to our source for clarification, we have updated the story and headline to reflect that, while Klotz and Creedon have submitted their resignations, intend to depart on January 20, and have not been asked by the Trump transition to stay past that date, the Trump team has not explicitly instructed them to leave or "clean out their desks," as we reported. According to our source, both officials "have expressed [to the Trump team] that they would likely be willing to stay to facilitate a smooth transition, if asked," as is the tradition for key officials, and have received no response.
So basically, nobody's replied to the standard 'resignation submitted' message.

[boutons_deux]

"to facilitate a smooth transition, if asked"

Trash will very probably not ask. "You're Fired"

This is exactly how Repugs MISgovern.

[tlongII]

"to facilitate a smooth transition, if asked"

Trash will very probably not ask. "You're Fired"

This is exactly how Repugs MISgovern.





You lied per usual.

[CosmicCowboy]

"to facilitate a smooth transition, if asked"

Trash will very probably not ask. "You're Fired"

This is exactly how Repugs MISgovern.





In other words, your RSS feeds are total bullshit like you are.

[boutons_deux]

 Jeff Sessions Has Spent His Whole Career Opposing Voting Rights

Imagine what he will do as the most powerful lawyer in the country.

In 2013, Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, cheered the gutting of the Voting Rights Act (https://www.thenation.com/article/jeff-sessions-trumps-pick-for-attorney-general-is-a-fierce-opponent-of-civil-rights/), calling it “good news…for the South.” He claimed, “If you go to Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, people aren’t being denied the vote because of the color of their skin.”

Sessions seemed clueless about the details of the challenge to the Voting Rights Act. “Shelby County [Alabama] never had a history of denying the vote, certainly not now,” he said. “There is racial discrimination in the country, but I don’t think in Shelby County, Alabama, anyone is being denied the right to vote because of the color of their skin.”

In fact, Shelby County found itself in court after the city of Calera ousted the only black city council member (https://www.thenation.com/article/why-are-conservatives-trying-destroy-voting-rights-act/) by reducing the percentage of African-Americans in his district from seventy-one to thirty percent—a textbook example of the type of voting discrimination that the Voting Rights Act was designed the stop.

Last year, Sessions awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the foot soldiers of the Selma movement, but has refused to support restoring the Voting Rights Act (https://www.thenation.com/article/congress-honors-the-selma-marchers-but-wont-restore-the-voting-rights-act/) that many of them nearly died to win.

 As Trump’s attorney general, Sessions could be disastrous to voting rights (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/opinion/voting-rights-in-the-age-of-trump.html) in a variety of ways.

He could support a federal voter-ID law and/or a proof of citizenship law for voter registration, which would disenfranchise millions of eligible Americans.

He could pressure states to purge their voting rolls in discriminatory and inaccurate ways and force US Attorneys to prosecute bogus cases of voter fraud (https://www.brennancenter.org/publication/justice-departments-voter-fraud-scandal-lessons), which happened during the George W. Bush Administration.

He could switch sides in cases the Justice Department is arguing under the Voting Rights Act against states like North Carolina and Texas, which are on appeal to the Supreme Court, and question the constitutionality of the remaining parts of the VRA.

He could bring reverse discrimination suits on behalf of whites instead of historically disenfranchised communities.

https://www.thenation.com/article/jeff-sessions-has-spent-his-whole-career-opposing-voting-rights/

If Trash gets all or even most of his appointees, America is fucked and unfuckable, for decades.

[boutons_deux]

‘You can’t arrest me — I’m white!’: Protesters dressed as Klansmen ejected from Sessions hearing

http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Jeff-Sessions-KKK-Hearing-800x430-2-800x430.jpg

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/you-cant-arrest-me-im-white-protesters-dressed-as-klansmen-ejected-from-sessions-hearing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

We're From the KKK and We NATURALLY, WITHOUT RESERVATION endorse our good ol' boy Jeff Sessions

[CosmicCowboy]

‘You can’t arrest me — I’m white!’: Protesters dressed as Klansmen ejected from Sessions hearing

http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Jeff-Sessions-KKK-Hearing-800x430-2-800x430.jpg

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/you-cant-arrest-me-im-white-protesters-dressed-as-klansmen-ejected-from-sessions-hearing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

We're From the KKK and We NATURALLY, WITHOUT RESERVATION endorse our good ol' boy Jeff Sessions

Boo, is that you? Creating fake news now instead of just reposting it?

[boutons_deux]

Boo, is that you? Creating fake news now instead of just reposting it?

fake? The KKK are your kind of people

[CosmicCowboy]

Those are fake KKk fucktard. Liberals in reverse drag.

[DMX7]

They say Jeff is a delightful man. Can anyone actually point to the racist things he has done other than some ugly jokes he may or may not have said. I want to oppose him as much as anybody, but I'm genuinely curious about what the case against him is. Hopefully, Cory Booker can make it.

[boutons_deux]

Those are fake KKk fucktard. Liberals in reverse drag.

They're making their point perfectly on behalf of you white male supremacists.

[boutons_deux]

They say Jeff is a delightful man. Can anyone actually point to the racist things he has done other than some ugly jokes he may or may not have said. I want to oppose him as much as anybody, but I'm genuinely curious about what the case against him is. Hopefully, Cory Booker can make it.

The Big Picture is that he's a life-long politician from FUCKING Alabama. Can't be that without being a solid racist.

His racist record is well documented. "Do You Own Research -- WC"

He's the dream AG for all red/slave state Repugs, black/brown vote suppressors, racists, white male supremacists.

[Quetzal-X]

His view on cannabis is sure to be great for the le industry. Steady work.

[boutons_deux]

They say Jeff is a delightful man. Can anyone actually point to the racist things he has done other than some ugly jokes he may or may not have said. I want to oppose him as much as anybody, but I'm genuinely curious about what the case against him is. Hopefully, Cory Booker can make it.
Jeff Sessions Racism Accusations: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
http://heavy.com/news/2016/11/jeff-sessions-racism-racist-allegations-accusations-history-past-comments-court-judge-testimony-nomination-donald-trump-controversy-controversies-attorney-general/

Sessions also thinks the abortion decision was the worst SCOTUS decision ever.

I bet his DoJ shuts down all the states' operations for cannabis, put medical mj retailers in prison, heavy fines, etc, etc.

"states rights" is ok for slavery and lynching knitters, but no states rights for medical marijuana

[CosmicCowboy]

Jeff Sessions Racism Accusations: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
http://heavy.com/news/2016/11/jeff-sessions-racism-racist-allegations-accusations-history-past-comments-court-judge-testimony-nomination-donald-trump-controversy-controversies-attorney-general/

Sessions also thinks the abortion decision was the worst SCOTUS decision ever.

I bet his DoJ shuts down all the states' operations for cannabis, put medical mj retailers in prison, heavy fines, etc, etc.

"states rights" is ok for slavery and lynching knitters, but no states rights for medical marijuana




I hate the federal drug laws as much as anyone but it's the Attorney Generals job to enforce the law. Maybe that's what it will take to get congress off their ass and fix the law.

[boutons_deux]

I hate the federal drug laws as much as anyone but it's the Attorney Generals job to enforce the law. Maybe that's what it will take to get congress off their ass and fix the law.

Repugs won't "fix" the law until BigPharma has stolen the market from small business entrepreneurs thanks to FDA, etc making regulations so stiff the little guy is preempted.

here ya go, 1% capitalists on the move:

Plans for massive marijuana greenhouse advance


https://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_960w/Boston/2011-2020/2016/10/21/BostonGlobe.com/Business/Images/AmeriCannInc_24freedom01_biz.jpg

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/10/25/massive-marijuana-greenhouse-proposed-for-freetown-moves-forward/s8hq0CMXsfciloay3Tif3K/story.html

and 99% of the profits will go the finance guy, while putting 1000s of small entrepreneurs, who paved the way, out of business.

so fuck the American dream, it's a fucking lie.

[CosmicCowboy]

Repugs won't "fix" the law until BigPharma has stolen the market from small business entrepreneurs thanks to FDA, etc making regulations so stiff the little guy is preempted.

here ya go, 1% capitalists on the move:

Plans for massive marijuana greenhouse advance


https://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_960w/Boston/2011-2020/2016/10/21/BostonGlobe.com/Business/Images/AmeriCannInc_24freedom01_biz.jpg

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/10/25/massive-marijuana-greenhouse-proposed-for-freetown-moves-forward/s8hq0CMXsfciloay3Tif3K/story.html

and 99% of the profits will go the finance guy, while putting 1000s of small entrepreneurs, who paved the way, out of business.

so fuck the American dream, it's a fucking lie.

Do you read your own articles? They just legalized pot in November in Mass. How would they be putting 1000s of existing small growers out of business?

[spurraider21]

Repugs won't "fix" the law until BigPharma has stolen the market from small business entrepreneurs thanks to FDA, etc making regulations so stiff the little guy is preempted.

here ya go, 1% capitalists on the move:

Plans for massive marijuana greenhouse advance


https://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_960w/Boston/2011-2020/2016/10/21/BostonGlobe.com/Business/Images/AmeriCannInc_24freedom01_biz.jpg

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/10/25/massive-marijuana-greenhouse-proposed-for-freetown-moves-forward/s8hq0CMXsfciloay3Tif3K/story.html

and 99% of the profits will go the finance guy, while putting 1000s of small entrepreneurs, who paved the way, out of business.

so fuck the American dream, it's a fucking lie.
And yet you support BigGov

[boutons_deux]

In October '16

Sessions: This was very improper language, and he’s acknowledged that.

The Weekly Standard: But beyond the language, would you characterize the behavior described in that as sexual assault if that behavior actually took place?

Sessions: I don’t characterize that as sexual assault. I think that’s a stretch. I don’t know what he meant —

TWS: So if you grab a woman by the genitals, that’s not sexual assault?

Sessions: I don’t know. It’s not clear that he — how that would occur.

===================

today:

Sessions: The confusion about the question was a hypothetical question, and it related to what was said on the tape. I did not remember at the time whether this was suggested to be an unaccepted, unwanted — that would certainly meet the definition, if that’s what the tape said, then that would be —

Leahy: My question is very simple: Is grabbing a woman by her genitals without consent, is that sexual assault?

Sessions: Yes.

Leahy: Thank you.

http://wonkette.com/610306/jeff-sessions-guesses-pussburgling-really-is-sexual-assault-its-a-christmas-miracle

:lol

What a spinelss, dickless grovelling little fraud this misogynist racist is! :lol

[boutons_deux]

It’s True. Chuck C. Johnson Is Advising Trump Transition. Cyanide Pill Line Forms To Right

http://img.wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/CCJBlingee.gif

Forbes reports (http://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdrange/2017/01/09/chuck-johnson-troll-trump-transition-team/#1fd1a2af5c12):

Charles “Chuck” Johnson, a controversial blogger and conservative online personality, has been pushing for various political appointees to serve under Donald Trump, according to multiple sources close to the President-elect’s transition team.

While Johnson does not have a formal position, FORBES has learned that he is working behind the scenes with members of the transition team’s executive committee, including billionaire Trump donor Peter Thiel, to recommend, vet and give something of a seal of approval to potential nominees from the so-called “alt-right.”


http://wonkette.com/610301/chuck-johnson-advising-trump-transition-team

Trash descends lower into the septic tank every day, the septic tank that empties into the Repug/billionaire/KKK swamp.

[Mitch]

Rex is pretty well spoken on politics for being just a CEO, tbh

[boutons_deux]

Rex is pretty well spoken on politics for being just a CEO, tbh

conning people is one way to fight your way into the corporate suite. eg, Carly Fiorina

[Mitch]

conning people is one way to fight your way into the corporate suite. eg, Carly Fiorina

:lol fuck outta here, botox ya piece of trash. Go quote another salon article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPNs7Y2HPwY

[SnakeBoy]

Rex is pretty well spoken on politics for being just a CEO, tbh

He's been impressive tbh

[Thread]

:lol fuck outta here, botox ya piece of trash. Go quote another salon article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPNs7Y2HPwY

Mitch

[CosmicCowboy]

*nm*

[boutons_deux]

Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson didn’t mention energy, climate, or Exxon in his opening remarks

In Tillerson’s opening statement, which measured 2,155 words (http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/011117_Tillerson_Opening_Statement.pdf), the Exxon CEO mentioned

Russia nine times,

China nine times, and

human rights six times.

But he did not once utter the words “climate change,” “energy,” “oil,” or “ExxonMobil,”

https://thinkprogress.org/rex-tillerson-leaves-out-climate-change-in-opening-remarks-confirmation-e62d389f285d#.8euammwei

... hoping nobody would ask him about his purchasing AGW denying politicians, funding anti-AGW orgs?

[in2deep]

Rex is a sexy beast.

[boutons_deux]

Busted! Senator Al Franken sets Sessions up and then traps him in his lies (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/10/1618957/-Busted-Senator-Al-Franken-sets-Sessions-up-and-then-traps-him-in-his-lies)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/10/1618957/-Busted-Senator-Al-Franken-sets-Sessions-up-and-then-traps-him-in-his-lies?detail=email&link_id=6&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-trump-is-having-another-twitter-meltdown&email_referrer=trump-is-having-another-twitter-meltdown&email_subject=trump-is-having-another-twitter-meltdown

[spurraider21]

Lol kos

[SnakeBoy]

Do you read your own articles? They just legalized pot in November in Mass. How would they be putting 1000s of existing small growers out of business?

:lol fucking boutons

[Th'Pusher]

Fuck. Just saw the clip of little Marco go in raw on Rex.

[spurraider21]

Fuck. Just saw the clip of little Marco go in raw on Rex.every time rubio described stuff going on in syria... schools being destroyed, civilians have been killed, therefore putin is a war criminal... i was just thinking if rubio was willing to call dubya a war criminal

[boutons_deux]

Do you read your own articles? They just legalized pot in November in Mass. How would they be putting 1000s of existing small growers out of business?

and capitalists are moving in with industrial production which will destroy the small operators, just like Walmart destroyed small businesses.

[spurraider21]

i thought the best line of questioning came from lindsey graham against the naacp dude... that was pretty funny