The official Thread for Trash/Repug CRAPICATION of America, the planet

[boutons_deux]

‘Republicans don’t care’: Conservative shreds GOP for letting Trump turn US into ‘third-world dictatorship’

Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin accused Trump of turning the U.S. into a “banana republic.”

“You know, Jennifer Rubin, you have Donald Trump, who owns a $200,000 a head private club — who we do not know who the members are — but we keep getting little inklings that they have little perks,” Reid suggested.

“Donald Trump is becoming more like other world leaders that are not so savory necessarily, whose business interests and essentially financial interests get deeply entangled with their interest in leading their governments.”

“The [Mar-a-Lago] fee used to be $100,000, he doubled it once he became president because he can now monetize the presidency in a way that no one has ever done before,” Rubin began.

“He began this trip in Hawaii where he was, again, touting a Trump property.

No one else has used the presidency to advance his own personal business interests”

“And there’s a reason why he’s getting away with it and that is that Republicans don’t care,” she asserted.

“They could easily stop this, they could easily pass legislation or invoke the Emoluments Clause and prohibit him from receiving income and monies from foreign leaders.

But they roll over and play dead. This is becoming a banana republic, a third world dictatorship where the rule of law is supplanted.”

“The president’s financial and personal interests are above national interests and he cavorts with people who share those rotten values, antidemocratic values,” Rubin concluded.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/republicans-dont-care-conservative-shreds-gop-for-letting-trump-turn-us-into-third-world-dictatorship/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

and Repug voters don't care, either, as the Repugs screw Repug voters every which way, just as long as Repugs crush knitters, Mexicans, LGBT, Muslims, women.

[boutons_deux]

Trash appointed Christian Sharia assholes

Trump to nominate notorious anti-feminist to be ‘Ambassador for Women’

President Trump is expected to nominate (https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/27/penny-young-nance-womens-issues-senate-republicans-feud-244249) Penny Nance,

an anti-LGBTQ,

anti-abortion, and

anti-feminist activist,

to be the “Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues,” a position created under President Obama.

Since 2010, Nance has led the Concerned Women for America (CWA),

a Christian social policy organization that has been listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBTQ hate group (https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2010/18-anti-gay-groups-and-their-propaganda).

She doesn’t believe (https://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/there-is-no-war-on-women-097847) that efforts to restrict health coverage for women are part of a “war on women,”

but she used that term to describe the Violence Against Women Act (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/cwa-violence-against-women-act-is-part-of-the-war-on-women/).

And she claims that legal abortion is worse than the Holocaust (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/nance-legal-abortion-worse-than-the-holocaust/).

https://thinkprogress.org/penny-nance-ambassador-women-4b6cd92e57c6/

[boutons_deux]

Dangerous Medicaid waivers likely to be approved under Trump administration

Premiums and work requirements could hit the program's 68 million beneficiaries hard.

A philosophical change is underway for the decades-old Medicaid program, which provides health coverage for over 68 million people, including children, pregnant persons, seniors, modest income-earners, and those living with disabilities.

released (https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/section-1115-demo/about-1115/index.html) new criteria Tuesday outlining how it will judge state applications that look to innovate the 1965 insurance program.

Notably omitted from the newly unveiled plan: “expanding eligibility.”

Veering away from the Obama administration’s goal to extend coverage, the Trump administration is seemingly prioritizing overall efficiency and personal responsibility among enrollees instead.

“We will not just accept the hollow victory of numbers covered, but will dig deeper and demand more of ourselves and of you,”

CMS will now accept applications it has historically rejected, such as those that impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries.

“New CMS Medicaid waiver criteria is thinly veiled rhetoric to pave the way for approvals of state policies that

will cause loss of coverage,”

the Obama administration denied (https://www.kff.org/health-reform/fact-sheet/proposed-changes-to-medicaid-expansion-in-ohio/) 1115 waivers it said would undermine access to affordable insurance.

the new criteria hopes to align Medicaid with private insurance — more importantly,

its implementation marks a not-so-secret victory for Verma,

whose health care consulting firm, SVC Inc. (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/seema-vermas-vision-for-medicaid/517077/), actually designed (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/04/seema-verma-trump-centers-medicare-medicaid-cms)Ohio’s rejected Medicaid 1115 waiver. Under Verma’s leadership, rejected applications like the one her company previously crafted for Ohio could be — and likely will be — approved:

on Tuesday,

Verma said CMS would approve proposals that promote “community engagement”, a cloaked reference to work requirements.

imposing premiums or work requirements went against the statute outlined in the Title XIX of The Social Security Act (https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/MedicareProgramRatesStats/downloads/MedicareMedicaidSummaries2009.pdf), which created Medicaid.

“If people can’t access insurance through, let’s say, their job, they are legally entitled to Medicaid,”

Several states in addition to Maine have have submitted waiver proposals to CMS that would impose requirements, including

Arizona, Indiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Utah, and Wisconsin. all red! :lol

More than half of nondisabled adults on Medicaid are already working, according (https://khn.org/news/medicaid-chief-suggests-feds-are-willing-now-to-approve-work-requirements/)to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The rest are at risk of losing coverage.

Imposing extra obstacles like work requirements and premiums is just not “realistic”, Ryan said, adding that most of those individuals live below the poverty level.

https://thinkprogress.org/dangerous-medicaid-waivers-likely-to-be-approved-under-trump-administration-074893df504b/

Verma is Paul Rand's ideal of a true Ayn Rand sociopathic and social/economic Darwinist.

Repugs busy as stinky beavers, enriching the oligarchy while screwing the poor.

===========

In nasty KKK home Indiana:

"According to Verma, "you have to make your contribution every month, with a 60-day grace period. If you don't make the contribution, you're out of the program for 12 months. It's a strong personal responsibility mechanism.""

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seema_Verma

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

How's Verma's "personal responsibility" shit work in Indiana?

"A study (http://www.cbpp.org/research/health/indiana-medicaid-waiver-evaluation-shows-why-kentuckys-medicaid-proposal-shouldnt-be) from the liberal think tank the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), found that because of the premiums required, one-third of eligible individuals who apply are not enrolled because they haven’t made a premium payment.

Around 30,000 people, the study found, had been found eligible in the past 60 days but hadn’t enrolled at all.

“HIP 2.0’s premiums are deterring significant numbers of eligible low-income people from enrolling,” the report concluded.

For many people, the cost wasn’t the biggest obstacle.

Rather, 84 percent of people who were bumped from HIP Plus to HIP Basic for nonpayment said they had been confused about the payment process and the program in general."

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/12/medicaid-and-mike-pence/511262/

So Verma's CMS is setting a trap to kick people out of Medicaid and into the ER, where they will typically be sicker and more expensive for taxpayers.

Repugs are all about fucking poor people out of health care to "pay for" the oligarchy's tax cuts in the Class War.

[boutons_deux]

Trash is warping the energy market to help just one supporter—at a cost to climate, health, and jobs (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/7/1713515/-Trump-is-warping-the-energy-market-to-help-just-one-supporter-at-a-cost-to-climate-health-and-jobs)

Donald Trump

has wrecked America’s standing in the world by unilaterally removing the nation from the Paris agreement,

placed millions at risk from climate change by dumping the Clean Power Plan,

buried hundreds of miles of streams and rivers with an executive order to remove limits on dumping waste, and

cut short the lives of thousands by requiring utilities to keep more polluting power sources (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/10/25/1707557/-Trump-s-desperate-bid-to-save-coal-Raze-some-regulations-impose-others-reward-donors) in the mix.

And all of it, all of it, helps one man. (https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/06/trumps-coal-backers-energy-power-rick-perry-244535)


A proposal by Energy Secretary Rick Perry to alter the nation's electricity markets would provide

a windfall for a small group of companies —

most strikingly one owned by coal magnate Bob Murray, a prominent backer of President Donald Trump.


The “reliability” standards being pushed by Perry’s Department of Energy

explicitly penalize utilities for using wind or solar power and

reward providers who keep aging coal power and nuclear plants up and running.

Even natural gas-powered plants aren’t allowed to meet the specifications that were specifically drawn to protect coal.

Perry's plan would force consumers to subsidize ailing coal-fired and nuclear power plants with billions of dollars

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1713515

This is what y'all misogynist Nazis voted for, right?

asshole hick JimmyRicky's TX is leads the nation in wind power, but now he's a Good German following orders from Trash so that TX utilities will be penalized for using wind power.

[boutons_deux]

the oligarchy with $Bs to spend buying the elections, the laws, the regs, the politicians, the judges

Pharmaceutical Industry Scores Another Election Victory

A year after California voters rejected what would have been a first-of-its-kind state law to regulate drug prices, Ohioans did the same.

The most expensive ballot measure in Ohio's history was resoundingly rejected by voters (https://vote.ohio.gov/) on Tuesday, handing a victory to the pharmaceutical industry that spent big money to defeat it.

The measure -- which would have been a first of its kind in the nation -- would have let state health agencies pay the same for prescription drugs as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which gets a 24 percent discount off drug manufacturers' prices.

With 27 percent of precincts reporting, almost 80 percent voted against it.

With at least $58 million in contributions, the opposition in Ohio -- which included the drug companies -- had more than three times the money on hand as the campaign in support of the legislation, which only raised roughly $16 million.

If passed, proponents of the Ohio Drug Price Relief Act said it would have saved the state $400 million a year.

But former Ohio Budget Director Greg Browning (a bought-Repug, no doubt), who opposed the measure, analyzed the bill and said that

the $400 million in savings were grossly oversold because states typically get discounts on drugs anyway.

http://www.governing.com/gov-election-2017-ohio-drug-prices-ballot.html?flipboard=yes&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+governing%2FZbhZ+%28GOVERNING %29

... but what's the harm in LEGALLY forcing "discounts"?

Just another of the millions of ways America is fucked and unfuckable.

Even with "discounts on drugs anyway", Americans still pay way more than "single buyer" countries pay for the same drugs.

[boutons_deux]

Mitch McConnell powers up a production line for Trump’s right-wing judges

Senate Republicans are rubber-stamping Trump’s judicial picks to pack the courts with right-wing extremists

there's good reason to fear that the ability of the courts to work as a check on Trump's more fascistic desires is quickly being eroded. That's because Senate Majority Leader

Mitch McConnell and Sen. Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, have set up a factory-style assembly line for Trump's judicial nominees, and are getting them confirmed at a dizzyingly fast rate.
Trump's big problem so far is that he's "not winning" in the courts, Sharon McGowan, the director of strategy for Lambda Legal (https://www.lambdalegal.org/about-us/staff/sharon-mcgowan), told Salon.

"So the way he wants to start winning is changing the refs.”


the president can do this because

McConnell deliberately created numerous vacancies in the federal courts during Barack Obama's presidency.

McConnell's decision to stall the confirmation hearing for Judge Merrick Garland, Obama's highly qualified Supreme Court nominee, got some attention, although that was largely drowned out by the daily horror show of the presidential campaign.

The fact that McConnell was doing the same thing for numerous other seats on the federal judiciary, in hopes of holding them open for a Republican president, barely got any attention in the media.

McConnell stalled so much on confirming Obama's nominees that Obama pretty much gave up on sending nominees to the Senate.

Well, the strategy worked.

By the time Trump got to office,

there were 103 judicial vacancies (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-to-inherit-more-than-100-court-vacancies-plans-to-reshape-judiciary/2016/12/25/d190dd18-c928-11e6-85b5-76616a33048d_story.html?utm_term=.8e7639e929c4) in the federal courts.

Now, of course, McConnell's strategy has completely changed. Instead of finding every reason to slow the process down,

McConnell and Grassley have gotten creative about how quickly they can cram these appointees through the confirmation process,

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/08/mitch-mcconnell-powers-up-a-production-line-for-trumps-judicial-picks/


The oligarchy will own the Federal judiciary just like it owns Congress and the Exec

America is fucked and unfuckable, for decades

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s choice for No. 2 at EPA admitted he saw coal baron’s action plan to dismantle agency

Lobbyist attended meetings on Rick Perry proposal to subsidize coal plants.


https://i1.wp.com/thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/andrew-wheeler.jpg?resize=1280%2C720px&ssl=1

admitted he viewed a plan developed by a top coal producer to roll back environmental regulations at the agency and attended meetings on Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s proposal to subsidize coal and nuclear plants.

Andrew Wheeler said Murray Energy was one of his lobbying clients while working at the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels.

“has said that he has a three-page plan that is being implemented by Scott Pruitt at the EPA. He said they’re already through the first page.”

https://thinkprogress.org/epa-nominee-coal-lobbyist-daaf80485dff/

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s top environmental pick says she has "many questions" about climate change

Kathleen Hartnett White, the former head of the Texas Council on Environmental Quality and President Trump’s pick to serve as his top White House environmental official, faced tough questioning at her confirmation hearing Wednesday.

Kathleen Hartnett White, President Trump’s pick to serve as his top White House environmental official,

“I’m not a scientist" GFY, bitch

She did acknowledge that there was probably some human contribution, “the extent to which I think is very uncertain.”

That contradicts leading scientific assessments on the matter, which have pinned climate change largely on human greenhouse gas emissions.

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/11/08/trumps-top-environmental-pick-says-she-has-many-questions-about-climat/

When Repugs want shit for govt, they have an infinite source in TX

[boutons_deux]

GOP Senator ‘Worries About Extremist Views’ of Kathleen Hartnett White at Confirmation Hearing

The move mirrors that of Rick Perry, who said humans were partially responsible for climate change at his hearing before reverting to denial after his confirmation.

White, who has previously stated that ethanol policies are causing “massive distortions in the economy” and have “led to food riots in several countries,” said Wednesday she “erred” by not basing her previous position on current data and now “salutes the [ethanol] industry.” :lol

Earlier this year at his Senate confirmation hearing for energy secretary, Rick Perry claimed the “climate is changing” and “some of it is caused by man-made activity.” But a few months later Perry danced his way back into the climate denial camp (https://www.texasobserver.org/dancing-with-denial/), saying that climate change “is not settled science”

On other environmental matters, White mostly stuck to views that have earned her both ridicule and harsh criticism from scientists and environmentalists.

In the past, White has said that

climate change is the “dogmatic claim of ideologues and clerics (http://www.texaspolicy.com/library/doclib/2014-06-RR03-FossilFuelsTheMoralCase-KathleenWhite-ACEE.pdf),”

“fossil fuels dissolved the economic justification for slavery (https://www.texasobserver.org/top-tppf-analyst-coal-ended-slavery/)” and that

renewables are “a false hope.”

When questioned about her past statements, White deflected or defended her position,

saying her earlier comments were being taken out of context. :lol

“Your positions are so far out of the mainstream, they’re not just outliers they’re outrageous.”

Merkley, of Oregon, held up a chart from a recent climate report published by the Trump administration finding that there is “no alternative explanation” for climate change other than humans.

The chart showed (https://twitter.com/AlexCKaufman/status/928304871266283522) the contribution of humans, solar flares and volcanic activity to climate change, and Merkley asked White whether she accepted the results.

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

he report, White said, is a “product of the past administration, not this one” and that “there’s incredible difference of opinion among climate scientists.”

TCEQ ... under White’s leadership, the agency had purposefully underreported radiation levels in drinking water (https://www.texasobserver.org/the-null-set/) to downplay its danger.

KHOU’s reporting found that White, with the green light from Perry, ordered staff to continue fixing the numbers.

When asked why the agency didn’t challenge the EPA on strict radiation levels for drinking water instead of fudging the numbers, she told KHOU reporter Mark Greenblatt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NhaBTiurm0&feature=youtu.be), “There are legal challenges, because of law not because of science, that are almost impossible to win.” :lol

https://www.texasobserver.org/gop-senator-worries-extremist-views-kathleen-hartnett-white-confirmation-hearing/

White is VERY STRONG on rhetorical bullshit, but it's still 100% reeking TX BULLSHIT.

Corn's red states pushing hard to keep the totally insane corn ethanol scam going.

[boutons_deux]

“Climate change” and “global warming” are disappearing from government websites

The deletions follow a pattern of undoing work on climate change under the Trump administration.

It’s happened not just at the Environmental Protection Agency but also at the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

federal agencies that are trying to boost (https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/8/25/16201218/us-coal-industry-handouts) fossil fuels and roll back efforts to study, mitigate, and adapt to climate change.

DOE Energy Information Administration’s Energy Kids page was altered to play up fossil fuels (https://envirodatagov.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/WM-CCR-5-Changes-to-EIA-Kids-Educational-Pages-170208.pdf) and play down climate change,

while the EPA’s “Student’s Guide to Climate Change” was unlinked from its main page (https://envirodatagov.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/WM-AAR-1-EPA-Students-Guide-to-Global-Climate-Change-170505.pdf) and buried on its site.

Brian Klippenstein, who led the Trump transition team for the USDA, was gunning for people working on climate change as soon as he arrived.

< lots of examples by Agency >

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/11/9/16619120/trump-administration-removing-climate-change-epa-online-website

May Mar-a-Lago drown sooner rather than later.

[boutons_deux]

The oligarchy's kakistocracy is unstoppable


NOT EXACTLY A ROCKET SCIENTIST


https://grist.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/bridenstine.jpg?w=1200&h=675&crop=1

.

On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee confirmed Oklahoma Republican Jim Bridenstine for the top position at NASA. A single vote clinched the nomination, over opposition from all 13 Democrats on the panel.

Next, he’ll face a vote by the full Senate.

Democrats raised many questions (http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/359356-senate-panel-advances-trumps-controversial-nasa-nominee) during Bridenstine’s nomination, including

why a conservative climate skeptic with little scientific or technical experience should lead a non-partisan research administration.

NASA is best known for its missions to space, but the agency’s Earth Science Division makes a critical contribution (https://gizmodo.com/gutting-nasas-earth-science-division-would-send-researc-1789569572#_ga=2.224530717.683572404.1510169345-711338149.1510169345) to our understanding of climate change.

when asked to expand on the extent of those contributions, replied,

“That is a question I do not have an answer to.”

(He’s also spoken out against (https://splinternews.com/trumps-climate-change-denying-nasa-nominee-has-some-rep-1820062409) the legalization of gay marriage in the past.)

http://grist.org/briefly/the-senate-just-approved-trumps-pick-for-nasa-chief-you-can-probably-guess-what-he-thinks-about-climate-change/ (http://grist.org/briefly/the-senate-just-approved-trumps-pick-for-nasa-chief-you-can-probably-guess-what-he-thinks-about-climate-change/)

"answer to" a question? Is that Oklahoma vernacular?

It's certainly not American idiom or usage.

Stupid is as stupid speaks

[boutons_deux]

Paul Ryan running the most closed, restricted, discussion-free House in history (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/8/1713900/-Paul-Ryan-running-the-most-closed-restricted-discussion-free-House-in-history)

Paul Ryan was in no hurry to talk about Tuesday night’s Democratic victories. Instead, he was up on Wednesday morning with some bragging about his very efficient and effective House. (https://twitter.com/SpeakerRyan/status/928259678684848130)

Paul Ryan‏

In the House, we've passed almost 400 bills in the first 10 months of the Trump admin. :lol

That's more than under Clinton, Bush, or Obama.


Of course, those bills consist of hundreds of new Post Office names, a couple of DOA healthcare bills, and multiple demands to lock up Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, James Comey, Robert Mueller, and every host of a late-night TV show.

Ryan’s faux productivity is a far cry from his claimed goals when he took the spot. (https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/07/paul-ryan-floor-debate-244652)

Paul Ryan vowed an end to the much-despised top-down approach of his predecessor when he took the speaker’s gavel in 2015, promising a House that’s “more open, more inclusive, more deliberative, more participatory.”

“We're not going to bottle up the process so much and predetermine the outcome of everything around here,” he said in his first news conference as speaker.


But it’s not as if Paul Ryan is getting nothing done …

Ryan has yet to allow a single piece of legislation to be governed by an open rule, which allows members to propose changes on the floor.


Or maybe it is.

With Paul Ryan locking down the House process so that

only his selected bills hit the floor,

and Mitch McConnell at least as bad on the Senate side, the legislative process is more one-sided than it’s ever been.

In both chambers, Republicans are breaking with long-standing traditions and stretching the rules

to the breaking point to allow them to run bills through without Democrats being able to either introduce a bill or enact a filibuster.

“The Republican Majority has now made history for all the wrong reasons,” said House Rules Committee ranking Democrat Louise Slaughter of New York in a statement Tuesday.

“Under Speaker Ryan’s leadership, this session of Congress has now become the most closed Congress in history.”


By keeping the House closed to Democratic input, Ryan makes it possible for his members to vote only on bills that align with the Republican base, and protects them from having to even cast a vote on anything the slightest bit controversial.

For example, Ryan has saved his members from having to consider any legislation that might address the kind of bump stock

used in the mass shooting at Las Vegas. If it came up, it might well pass, but it would be … uncomfortable. Especially to the NRA. So Ryan makes sure it simply never comes up.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/8/1713900/-Paul-Ryan-running-the-most-closed-restricted-discussion-free-House-in-history

[boutons_deux]

Trump's breaking all the records … for nominating unqualified judges (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/8/1713935/-Trump-s-breaking-all-the-records-for-nominating-unqualified-judges)

Another one of popular vote loser Donald Trump's judicial pick, another "not qualified" assessment from the American Bar Association. Not that Trump cares—he's cut the ABA out of the nominating and vetting process.

The latest, Brett Talley (http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/359234-american-bar-association-dubs-fourth-trump-judicial-nominee) for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, makes four.

Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) released late Tuesday, the committee said that it did not have any concerns with Talley's "integrity or temperament," but that he lacked the "requisite experience."

Talley has drawn some scrutiny for his online presence.

He authored a 2013 blog post (https://happywarriordotme.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/a-call-to-arms-its-time-to-join-the-national-rifle-association/)

calling on readers to "join the National Rifle Association" and

calling gun control legislation rolled out after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School "the greatest attack on our constitutional freedoms in our lifetime."

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1713935

Repugs are telling Trash which rightwing extremist/Christian Taliban assholes to nominate, and McConnell, having denied Obama, is rushing through the assholes.

America is fucked and unfucked by Repug judges for decades.

[boutons_deux]

Senate Panel Approves Absurdly Unqualified Judicial Appointee

Trump's nominee to be a federal judge in Alabama, has never tried a case, was unanimously rated "not qualified" by the American Bar Association's judicial rating committee,

has practiced law for only three years and,

as a blogger last year, displayed a degree of partisanship unusual for a judicial nominee,

denouncing "Hillary Rotten Clinton" and

pledging support for the National Rifle Association.

"The judge story is an untold story. Nobody wants to talk about it," Trump said last month, standing alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in the White House Rose Garden. "But when you think of it, Mitch and I were saying, that

has consequences 40 years out, depending on the age of the judge — but 40 years out."

the Senate Judiciary Committee, on a party-line vote, approved him for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench.

"laughable" that none of the committee Republicans objected to confirming a lawyer with as little experience as Talley to preside over federal trials.

"He's practiced law for less than three years and never argued a motion, let alone brought a case. This is the least amount of experience I've seen in a judicial nominee,"

urged the Judiciary Committee to reject Talley because of his lack of qualifications and because of doubts over whether he had the "temperament and ability to approach cases with the fairness and open-mindedness necessary to serve as a federal judge."

http://www.nationalmemo.com/senate-panel-approves-absurdly-unqualified-judicial-appointee/

[boutons_deux]

Report: State Department plans buyouts to cut budget, bypassing Congress

The buyouts are meant to push forward on President Donald Trump's promised budget cuts, which Congress rejected,

The State Department will offer $25,000 buyout to diplomats and other officials who leave by April, according to a report Friday in The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/us/politics/state-department-buyouts.html).

The move comes amid plans by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for a major reorganization across the State Department. But the buyouts are meant to push forward on President Donald Trump’s budget, rather than as part of the reorganization,

That budget proposed a 28 percent cut to State Department funding (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-slash-state-department-budget-28-percent-shift/story?id=46151210). Congress has so far rejected that proposal, with appropriations bills keeping State Department funding largely intact.

“If we implemented this budget, we’d have to retreat from the world and put a lot of people at risk,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC),

The State Department has about 25,000 full-time American employees. Tillerson plans to cut that staff by nearly 2,000 people, or about 8 percent, according to The Times.

The buyouts will not be available to security, IT, medical, or facilities staff, whom the State Department is trying to retain.

https://thinkprogress.org/state-dept-buyouts-51aebc8ed998/

... so in order to enrich the oligarchy, Trash/Rexxon intend to remove, destroy the 100s of years of experience, knowledge of professional, career diplomatic staff.

Increase the hard power of MIC by $50B+, while destroying the soft power of diplomacy by filling, later, the empty diplomatic positions with political hacks.

... sounds like Bannon still infects Trash's shit for brains.

[boutons_deux]

Bannon/Miller white male supremacist/nationalism at work

Trump's H-1B Reform Is to Make Life Hell for Immigrants and Companies

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications

Despite its enthusiastic rhetoric about the H-1B program, which provides temporary visas to high-skilled workers, the administration failed to make significant changes in time to impact the program’s annual lottery this April, leaving some who had anticipated action fuming (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-03/a-major-proponent-of-h-1b-visa-reform-loses-patience-with-trump). It has also declined to take up any of the legislative proposals for H-1B overhaul.

Starting this summer, employers began noticing that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications.

Cases that would have sailed through the approval process in earlier years ground to a halt under requests for new paperwork.

The number of challenges — officially known as “requests for evidence” or RFEs — are up 44 percent compared to last year, according to statistics from USCIS.

The percentage of H-1B applications that have resulted in RFEs this year are at the highest level they’ve been since 2009, and by absolute number are considerably higher than any year for which the agency provided statistics.

Instead, says Peter Roberts, an immigration lawyer whose clients include large multinationals and startups, the administration is punishing everyone.

He said many of this year’s challenges were “beyond ridiculous, trumped-up requests — no pun intended — issued either without legal basis or making no sense from a common sense standpoint,” and questioned whether they’d stand up.

“How do you change the way we live? You can change the laws, or you can change the way we interpret them,” he said. “This is the latter.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-06/trump-s-h-1b-reform-is-to-make-life-hell-for-immigrants-and-companies

Will US companies, denied cheap Asian labor, hire much more expensive US labor? "labor arbitrage" is why American companies love cheap foreign labor, as Trash does in Mar-a-Lago.

[boutons_deux]

Trash and his wealth-sucking HHS pushing fee-for-service (quality of service ignored), siding with greedy docs.

Trump Health Agency Challenges Consensus on Reducing Costs

For several decades, a consensus has grown that reining in the United States’ $3.2 trillion annual medical bill begins with changing the way doctors are paid: Instead of compensating them for every appointment, service and procedure, they should be paid based on the quality of their care.

The Obama administration used the authority of the Affordable Care Act to aggressively advance this idea, but many doctors chafed at the scope and speed of its experiments to change the way Medicare pays for everything from primary care to cancer treatment. Now,

the Trump administration is siding with doctors

— making a series of regulatory changes that slow or shrink some of these initiatives and let many doctors delay adopting the new system.

The administration has proposed canceling or shrinking Medicare initiatives that required doctors to accept lump sums for cardiac care and joint replacements, two of Medicare’s biggest cost drivers. More than 1,100 hospitals were scheduled to take part in the cardiac initiative starting in January, and 800 have been participating in the joint replacement program.

Mr. Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services has exempted more doctors from a provision that created merit pay by giving them bonuses or penalties depending on the quality of their work.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/12/health/doctor-pay-trump.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

crapification everywhere, no attempts at improvement, with the oligarchy always getting richer, and America, Americans getting fucked

[boutons_deux]

Another fox, nothing but foxy kakistorcrats

Trump says will nominate ex-pharma executive Azar as health secretary

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he has chosen

former pharmaceutical company executive Alex Azar to serve as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary and

vowed to lower the price of medicines. :lol

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-healthcare-azar/trump-says-will-nominate-ex-pharma-executive-azar-as-health-secretary-idUSKBN1DD1UD

[boutons_deux]

Interior Decorator: Zinke’s Push To Redesign Flags And Accessorize With Dead Animals

A week after taking over the Department of the Interior, Ryan Zinke inquired about redesigning the agency’s flag, according to internal emails HuffPost has obtained.

The department flag is emblazoned with a bison and has gone largely unchanged for a century. The emails indicate that Zinke wanted to redesign the flags and make them bigger, so that neither his secretarial flag nor the agency flag would be smaller than the United States flag that flies atop the Interior Department’s headquarters on C Street in Washington, D.C. The emails do not indicate how he wants to redesign the flag.

Zinke’s revival of an obscure military flag-flying tradition (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ryan-zinke-interior-flag-rules_us_59f0e08ee4b0af27f58927dc).

when Zinke enters the building, “a security staffer takes the elevator to the seventh floor, climbs the stairs to the roof and hoists a special secretarial flag.” :lol

When he goes home, the flag comes down. :lol


Zinke was sworn in (https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=1&vote=00074) March 1 and arrived at his post the following morning sporting a cowboy hat and riding a horse (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/interior-secretary-zinke-arrives-on-horse_us_58b83f61e4b01fc1bde67495). :lol

The flag inquiries by the former Montana congressman and Navy SEAL :lol throw Zinke a dead fish! :lol

were part of a broader revamping at Interior that included

outfitting his office with a slew of taxidermied creatures :lol

and a bronze bust of his hero Teddy Roosevelt. :lol

“You can’t make this stuff up,” Joe Nassar, director of Interior’s Office of Facilities and Administrative Services, wrote to several other Interior employees a few weeks later, referring to the pending delivery of a stuffed bobcat. :lol

Interior staff worked through March to get the agency chief’s office to his liking, emails show.

The effort involved shuffling around a huge grizzly bear, :lol

mounting the heads of a bison and elk directly into the office’s carved oak paneling,:lol and

accommodating the arrival of a $1,749 leather couch (https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/17-00371cn.pdf) from California that included “white-glove delivery service.” :lol

a bison Zinke has named “Rosie (https://twitter.com/SecretaryZinke/status/844649067800154112)” :lol

morale at the agency is “in the toilet (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joel-clement-ryan-zinke-interior_us_59d57657e4b0cde45872d610).” :lol

“Soon after he was confirmed, we had a snow storm — big one.” (It was less than 3 inches (https://patch.com/district-columbia/washingtondc/dc-snowfall-2017-how-much-we-got-whats-next).) :lol

“And he was out there on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial shoveling the snow all by himself. :lol

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/interior-department-ryan-zinke-flags-stuffed-animals_us_5a0369d7e4b0937b510f5554

Repug GOVERNANCE! What's not to ridicule!

Apparently, being a Macho Man killer Navy SEAL doesn't cure your childish fantasies, nor improve your taste and style :lol

[boutons_deux]

President Trump's Latest Federal Judge Nominee is a Ghost-Hunting Horror Novelist (https://gizmodo.com/trumps-latest-federal-judge-nominee-is-a-ghost-hunting-1820338915)


https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--HqiUDR38--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/gzdtfopsc0umzzltbbc7.jpg


Have you heard about Brett Talley?

He’s the 36-year-old lawyer that President Trump chose to become a federal judge.

And while Talley is getting a lot of heat

for being unqualified (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/11/us/brett-talley-judge-senate.html),

never once even trying a case (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/11/12/he-has-never-tried-a-case-but-trump-wants-to-make-him-judge-for-life/?utm_term=.38e765363801), and

for failing to mention that his wife is a senior lawyer at the White House (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/us/politics/trump-judge-brett-talley-nomination.html),

there’s another fact that most other news outlets have ignored.

Talley is a ghost-hunting horror novelist.

Talley is up for a lifetime judicial appointment to the Federal District Court based in Montgomery, Alabama, :lol :lol

and while the American Bar Association has given him a “not qualified” rating,

https://gizmodo.com/trumps-latest-federal-judge-nominee-is-a-ghost-hunting-1820338915

[boutons_deux]

Behold, Trash's AmeriKKKa

Hate crimes are on the rise, FBI says

The FBI says that more hate crimes can be blamed on the rise on incendiary rhetoric over the past year

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/13/hate-crimes-are-on-the-rise-fbi-says/

[boutons_deux]

Trump's Pick for Health Secretary Led Company That Jacked Up Insulin Prices

The Canadian research team that developed insulin as a breakthrough treatment for diabetes back in 1923 sold the patent for just $3 (http://insulinnation.com/treatment/medicine-drugs/selling-lifetime-insulin/), essentially giving its intellectual property away for the greater good.

During Azar's eight-year tenure as president and vice president of Eli Lilly's operations in the United States,

the pharmaceutical giant raised the price of Humalog, a fast-acting form of insulin, from $2,657 per year to $9,172.

That's a 345 percent price increase for a drug that millions of patients depend on,

"As Tweeter-in-Chief, Trump tells us Azar will be a 'star' :lol who will lower prescription prices," Maybarduk said in a statement.

"Maybe he should have asked the six million diabetic Americans whose insulin prices have more than tripled under Azar's watch at Eli Lilly."

He is a staunch conservative who has

criticized the Affordable Care Act and

reportedly supports converting federal Medicaid funding into block grants,

a longstanding Republican goal that critics say could limit access to health care for low-income people.

a 2016 survey found that the average patient in the US spends $571 a month to treat their diabetes.

"Even with insurance, many Americans are spending around half their income on insulin and other supplies they need to stay alive,"

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42595-trump-s-pick-for-health-secretary-led-company-that-jacked-up-insulin-prices

[boutons_deux]

again, Trash doesn't know this loser, they are handed to him by The Federalist Society, etc and he rubber-stamps them through.

Trump’s judicial picks are so ludicrous he may just be trolling us

Who you gonna call?

Trump trolls liberals by appointing a ghostbuster,

and one with an obvious ethical conflict

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/15/trumps-judicial-picks-are-so-ludicrous-he-may-just-be-trolling-us/

[boutons_deux]

A Wide-Open Door For Pesticide Lobbyists At The Agriculture Department

congressional aides asked Rebeckah Adcock, a top official at the Department of Agriculture, to reveal the identities of the people serving on the deregulation team she leads at the agency.

Rebeckah Adcock, a top official at the Department of Agriculture, to reveal the identities of the people serving on the deregulation team she leads at the agency.

Adcock, a former pesticide industry executive, brushed off the request,

In February, Trump ordered major federal agencies to set up the deregulation teams, to fulfill a campaign promise to cut red tape for businesses.

Corporations and industry groups quickly hired lawyers, lobbyists and economists to help them influence the process with billions of dollars at stake.

The regulations under review cover a range of subjects, including the cleanliness of drinking water and the safety of highways.

The Trump administration has declined to make public the names of many members of the teams. It has also generally not provided records related to the teams’ calendars and correspondence.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/wide-open-door-pesticide-lobbyists-agriculture-department/

Deregulation of air, water, soil standards is voluntary manslaughter by the oligarchy, with no accountability.

[boutons_deux]

In your poverty-stricken faces, motherfuckers

‘The 1% shops for bathroom mats’:

Internet roasts photo of ‘Bond villain’ Mnuchin posing with sheet of money


https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/mnuchin-linton-800x430.jpg


< great hilarity from Twitter >

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/the-1-shops-for-bathroom-mats-internet-roasts-photo-of-bond-villain-mnuchin-posing-with-sheet-of-money/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Ross was probably recommend to Trash by Pootin, because Ross is as compromised as Trash.

Wilbur Ross continued to buy ships carrying Russian oil while in office as Commerce Secretary (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/9/1714198/-Wilbur-Ross-continued-to-buy-ships-carrying-Russian-oil-while-in-office-as-Commerce-Secretary)

There are ethics violations, and then there are violations that declare:

Ethics? What ethics? (https://www.apmreports.org/story/2017/11/08/wilbur-ross-owns-more-ships)


An APM Reports investigation reveals Ross has financial ties to 36 previously undisclosed ships that are spread among at least nine companies.

Combined with the Russia-tied company — Navigator Holdings Ltd. — Ross has a financial interest in at least 75 ships, most of which move oil and gas products across the globe.

The value of those ships stands to grow as Ross negotiates trade deals on behalf of the U.S. and advises on U.S. infrastructure policy.

And one fund linked to Ross was still buying and selling ships after Ross was confirmed as Commerce secretary.


Wilbur Ross not only has an interest in a shipping company intimately tied to the distribution of Russian oil and gas, but he’s spent his time as secretary of commerce personally buying and selling ships.

Through shell companies and investment firms, Ross appears to have bought 11 ships just since March—all of them after Ross took on his role in the Department of Commerce.

There are no rules that force Ross to disclose the ships that he owns or who he’s doing business with—presumably because up until now, no one thought that the commerce secretary would so blatantly use his position to his personal advantage.

American Public Media compiled information from the world’s best tax havens and carefully reviewed shipping records to form a picture of the business Ross is conducting while supposedly working for the nation.

The U.S. Commerce Secretary has a stake in at least 75 ships. APM Reports sorted through Ross' financial disclosure forms, business filings in the U.S., Luxembourg, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, shipping trade publications, ship-tracking websites and major shipping company sites to determine the number.


Ross is neck-deep in transactions that help no one but Ross … just as he always has been.

As the vice chairman of a Cyprus-based bank best known for its role in laundering Russian funds around the world,

Ross worked directly with Russian oligarchs. (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/23/wilbur-ross-russian-deal-bank-of-cyprus-donald-trump-commerce-secretary)

In 2015, while [Ross] served as vice-chairman of the Bank of Cyprus, the bank’s Russia-based businesses were sold to a Russian banker and consultant, Artem Avetisyan, who had ties to both the Russian president and Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank.

At the time, Sberbank was under US and EU sanctions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Avetisyan had earlier been selected by Putin to head a new business branch of the Russian president’s strategic initiative agency, which was tasked with improving business and government ties.


That time at the Bank of Cyprus could soon very well feature before a certain grand jury, because of

(http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a13118388/manafort-charges-russia-investigation/)that bank’s connection to money laundering by Paul Manafort. (http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a13118388/manafort-charges-russia-investigation/)

The role of the Bank of Cyprus in all of this has taken on a critical importance and

it’s important to remember that Wilbur Ross, the current Secretary of Commerce,

used to be on the board of that bank before he joined Camp Runamuck.

This damn thing could go everywhere.


Not only is Ross buying ships without informing anyone, he’s selling ships that he promised to keep. (https://www.apmreports.org/story/2017/11/08/wilbur-ross-owns-more-ships)

The scrutiny of Ross' ships and the torrent of news about them in the past few days may have prompted the announcement Tuesday that he sold his interest in Diamond S. Shipping, the company with ties to China, but the sale price, the customer, and the timing of the sale weren't disclosed.

The news was first reported by the Center for Public Integrity.


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1714198

[boutons_deux]

THE WILBUR ROSS SCANDAL ISN’T ABOUT RUSSIA, IT’S ABOUT CORRUPTION (https://theintercept.com/2017/11/08/wilbur-ross-paradise-papers-trump-russia/)

COMMERCE SECRETARY WILBUR Ross recently promoted his own agency ethics official, whose job it is to monitor department-wide conduct for ethical lapses.

The promotion came just before Ross received scrutiny about his investment in the shipping company Navigator Holdings (https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/donald-trumps-commerce-secretary-wilbur-ross-and-his-russian-business-ties/),

which has business ties to Russian oligarchs and members of the Putin family.

More to the point, Ross’s story is one of an unchecked conflict of interest.

Ross has leaned on the judgments of the Commerce Department’s ethics official, David Maggi, to clear his name after the recent Paradise Papers revelations (https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/donald-trumps-commerce-secretary-wilbur-ross-and-his-russian-business-ties/).

Maggi was elevated from an alternate designated ethics official to the permanent position sometime after September 5, according to records with the Office of Governme??nt Ethics.

That means that, after Maggi accepted Ross’s ethics agreement and allowed him to maintain the shipping investment, Ross — who controls hiring for the position — rewarded him with a promotion.

In the wake of the release of the Paradise Papers, Ross on Tuesday decided (https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/08/us-commerce-chief-wilbur-ross-divesting-shipping-interests-official-says.html) to divest the holding, an indication of just how wrong Maggi’s judgment was.

Navigator happens to hold (https://qz.com/1120762/wilbur-rosss-putin-connections-navigator-holdings-nvgs-plays-a-key-role-in-trumps-energy-plan/) “the world’s largest fleet of natural gas carriers” and is well-positioned to transport LNG, particularly out of the United States.


On the last day of November, President-elect Donald Trump chose Wilbur Ross as his nominee for secretary of Commerce.

A few hours later, Ross, a 79-year-old Wall Street multibillionaire, stepped into Gramercy Tavern, a tasteful restaurant for the Manhattan elite, off Park Avenue.

A wood-beamed and chandeliered private dining room had been reserved for Navigator Holdings, a liquefied gas shipping company whose biggest investor is Ross’s private equity firm, WL Ross & Co.

He and David Butters, Navigator’s chief executive officer, both arrived early.

“Your interest is aligned to mine,” Butters recalls Ross saying.

“The U.S. economy will grow, and Navigator will be a beneficiary.”



Ross’s direct investments in shipping companies while shaping Trump administration trade policy, which inherently requires transportation of goods, has been

cited by ethics experts (https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-03-23/wilbur-ross-will-shepherd-trump-s-trade-policy-should-he-also-own-shipping-firm) as representing a clear conflict of interest.

https://theintercept.com/2017/11/08/wilbur-ross-paradise-papers-trump-russia/

Total corruption is normal and normalized in the Trash/Repug government.

Uranium One? Crooked Hilary! Lock Her Up! :lol

[boutons_deux]

Awful Human Being Trump Lifts Obama-Era Ban On Importing African Elephant Heads

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DOt9TKZVAAIXGvF.jpg

With the world crumbling around his administration, Donald Trump thought now would be a good time to encourage the killing of African elephants.

The Trump administration is reversing an Obama administration ban on bringing to the United States the heads of elephants killed in two African countries.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said it has determined that hunting African elephants in Zimbabwe and Zambia

“will enhance the survival of the species in the wild,” :lol

which is the standard by which officials judge whether to allow imports of parts – known as trophies – of the animals.“

Legal, well-regulated sport hunting as part of a sound management program can benefit the conservation of certain species by providing incentives to local communities to conserve the species and by putting much-needed revenue back into conservation,” :lol

an FWS spokesman said in a statement late Wednesday, after hunting group Safari Club International announced the policy.

Imports will be allowed for elephants killed between Jan. 21, 2016 and the end of 2018.

http://www.politicususa.com/2017/11/15/trump-reverses-obamas-ban-importing-african-elephant-heads.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29 (http://www.politicususa.com/2017/11/15/trump-reverses-obamas-ban-importing-african-elephant-heads.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29)

goddam, Trash and his Exec are fucking insane. This allows his asshole sons and other wealthy pricks to go shoot elephants and import the remains for their "look at my big, big dick" trophy rooms.

Zinke is a big game hunter, too, like Trash's prick sons.

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

African Elephant Population Declines By 30 Percenthttps://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/08/31/elephants-094ab78f745a52a3a50f3c6fce631f2f9c654161-s1600-c85.jpg


the population declined by 144,000 animals in just seven years

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/31/492124724/african-elephant-population-declines-by-30-percent

[boutons_deux]

...

[boutons_deux]

Chairman Pai Plans to Put an End to the U.S. Commitment to Universal Service and Affordability

Last year, the Federal Communications Commission voted to modernize the Lifeline program (https://www.publicknowledge.org/press-release/public-knowledge-applauds-fcc-vote-to-modernize-lifeline-for-the-21st-centu) for the digital age to help low-income families, veterans, and children gain access to the internet. Tomorrow (https://www.fcc.gov/news-events/events/2017/11/november-2017-open-commission-meeting), FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is poised to initiate steps to drastically roll back the program,

ultimately leaving millions of Lifeline subscribers and eligible families without a service provider.

Some background:

The Lifeline program (https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/lifeline-support-affordable-communications) is a universal service program aimed at making basic telecommunications service (historically, telephone service, and now, broadband (https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-16-38A1.pdf)) affordable for the poor as part of America’s longstanding commitment to universal service.

Lifeline was created by the Reagan-era FCC, updated to support wireless service during the George W. Bush Administration, and updated again by the Obama-era FCC to support broadband.

Under the guise of promoting network investment and deployment and enhancing consumer choice, Chairman Pai’s attack on the Lifeline program does the complete opposite.

His plan proposes to kick all non-facilities-based service providers out of the Lifeline program, which includes wireless carriers like Tracfone’s Safelink Wireless or Virgin Mobile’s Assurance Wireless, that don’t have their own networks but lease capacity from facilities-based providers (e.g., AT&T, Sprint) and serve approximately 70 percent of Lifeline subscribers.

In many states, facilities-based providers have opted out of offering Lifeline-supported service altogether and prefer to allow non-facilities-based wireless providers to serve Lifeline subscribers and the low-income segments of the wireless market.

The largest wireless carriers profit from this arrangement by leasing excess network capacity rather than letting it sit unused.

Instead of promoting new network deployments and consumer choice, Chairman Pai’s plan would eliminate a profitable revenue stream for wireless carriers, while also eliminating non-facilities-based providers as a choice for Lifeline subscribers.

Rather than incentivizing wireless carriers to enter the market, Chairman Pai actually proposes to erect barriers to entry, leaving Lifeline subscribers with vastly fewer choices.

https://www.publicknowledge.org/news-blog/blogs/chairman-pai-plans-to-put-an-end-to-the-u.s.-commitment-to-universal-service-and-affordability

So, all you your rurals who voted for Trash and the Repugs, you're fucked, but that's why you vote Repug, for decades. :lol

Universal service was way too much socialism for the oligarchy. Next up, disbanding rural electric and telephone coops.

[boutons_deux]

Pruitt, as oligarcy whore, prioritizing BigCorp profits over human and environmental health

Pruitt’s EPA Abandoning Duty to Protect Kids From Dangerous Pesticides

These pesticides persist as residues on some of the most popular foods in kids’ diets.

Yet both will likely be used on agricultural crops until at least 2022.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/11/15/pruitts-epa-abandoning-duty-protect-kids-dangerous-pesticides (https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/11/15/pruitts-epa-abandoning-duty-protect-kids-dangerous-pesticides)

[boutons_deux]

A huge component of the oligarchy's silent, bloodless, well-advanced, ongoing coup d'etat is queering the judiciary at all levels with oligarchy-fellating "judges"

Conservative group with major role in picking Trump judicial nominees proposes court-packing scheme

They aren't even being subtle.

In a memo to Congress, the founder and board chair (https://fedsoc.org/board-of-directors) of America’s most influential conservative legal society proposed a massive court-packing plan that would

enable Trash to fill the judiciary with hundreds of new, Trashy judges.

The memo (https://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/calabresi-court-packing-memo.pdf), co-authored by law professor and Federalist Society founder Steven G. Calabresi, proposes

a monumental expansion of the federal judiciary.

It also is not subtle about its motivations. As the memo states in its introduction, a major purpose of this court-packing scheme is “undoing the judicial legacy of President Barack Obama (https://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/calabresi-court-packing-memo.pdf).”

If Calabresi’s court-packing plan were to become law, the Federalist Society would likely have the opportunity to select hundreds of new judges.

The ambition of Calabresi’s memo is, at times, staggering. At one point he proposes doubling or tripling the number of federal appellate court judgeships

— claiming that “the optimal number of active circuit court judgeships is at least double the current number of 167 authorized judgeships…

and more likely between 2.5x and 3x the current number.”

He also proposes adding 185 trial judges to the 673 currently authorized by federal law, though he also acknowledges that such a grand expansion of the federal judicial may not be politically feasible.

The memo also seems to advise members of Congress to argue that this court-packing plan is necessary for politically neutral reasons, such as overworked courts :lol

Should Calabresi’s plan move forward, it could easily lead to the end of an independent judiciary in the United States.

Not only would the plan give Trump — and Trump’s allies in the Federalist Society — tremendous influence over the courts, but it would also open the floodgates to retaliatory efforts by Democrats.

https://thinkprogress.org/federalist-society-chairman-court-packing-454b5047bea1/

America is being fucked deeper into unfuckability

[boutons_deux]

Senate Republicans Just Pulled A Shady Trick To Confirm Trump’s Unqualified Judicial Nominees

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is ending the long-standing Senate tradition known as the “blue slip” rule.

The rule has allowed home state Senators to block hearings on the confirmation of lower court judicial nominees by refusing to return a form, the “blue slip” of paper, to the committee.

During the Obama administration, Republicans used the blue slip to block 18 of the President’s nominees,

but now Senator Grassley has announced that he has scheduled hearings this month for two of President Trump’s nominees that have been blocked by senators from their home state.

The Republican party’s attempts to pack the federal judiciary with right-wing jurists, who will serve until they resign or are removed from office for misconduct,

mirror their attempts to stack the electoral deck in their favor through gerrymandered districts in states where they control the legislatures.

Since their judicial picks will be the people who will rule on any challenges to the drawing of electoral lines,

the strategy could lead to a long-term advantage at the polls for the GOP.

http://verifiedpolitics.com/senate-republicans-just-pulled-shady-trick-confirm-trumps-unqualified-judicial-nominees/

America is fucked and unfuckable.

[boutons_deux]

Here’s why your local TV news is about to get even worse

In late October 2017, the Federal Communications Commission made it even easier for media conglomerates to focus on money-making.

That was when the FCC abolished a World War II-era policy (https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-eliminates-main-studio-rule) that was

intended to force news broadcasters to be connected to — and accountable to — the communities their programming reached (https://theconversation.com/a-pair-of-decades-old-policies-may-change-the-way-rural-america-gets-local-news-79096).

My work as a political economist suggests that local broadcast media content is about to get worse,

focusing even more on stories that can turn a profit for corporate headquarters

rather than serving local communities.

And the big companies that operate these stations are going to withdraw even farther from the communities they cover, threatening a key foundation of American democracy.

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/17/heres-why-your-local-tv-news-is-about-to-get-even-worse_partner/

"American democracy" :lol who still believe that mythical shit? :lol

[boutons_deux]

The Plot to Loot America’s Wilderness

A little-known bureaucrat named James Cason is reshaping the Department of the Interior.

https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/federman_Cason-parks_img.jpg?scale=896&compress=80

James Cason

a disciple of some of the department’s most notorious anti-environment leaders in previous years—a “hatchet man,” in the words of one former DOI employee who worked with him during the George W. Bush administration.

Cason announced that Kristin Bail, acting director of the BLM, would be replaced

. One employee, who has since left the DOI, said it was unclear whether Bail had been told beforehand of her demotion. “It was one of the most awkward, disrespectful things I’ve ever seen,” the former employee said. The spectacle amounted to a kind of public dismissal—and a warning shot.

opening salvo in an unprecedented restructuring of the DOI. Three months later, in what some department staffers now call the “Thursday-night massacre,” Cason sent memos to more than two dozen of the DOI’s highest-ranking civil servants informing them of reassignments; they had 15 days to accept the new positions or retire.

designed to push out long-serving staff as part of a department-wide purge, and that climate scientists in particular were targeted.

Cason, who once described himself as the department’s “regulatory czar,” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uOuWAHiFdE) has also overseen the dismantling of rules governing energy development on public lands. The DOI is poised to open up millions of acres to drilling and mining—from Utah’s red-rock country to the frigid, perilous waters off Alaska’s coast—while stripping away basic environmental protections and reducing transparency.

The axing of regulations and personnel is occurring with remarkable speed.

The episode involved the sale of oil-shale claims to energy companies at $2.50 an acre;

weeks later, some of the same land was sold to private developers at 800 times the original price, reaping a windfall of $37 million for the energy companies.

Asked by Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) whether the sale was “in the public interest,” Cason replied: “I think it is in the public interest to assure that we properly address private-property rights.” :lol In that single sentence, Cason summed up Watt’s worldview.

Cason put his own stamp on a number of decisions that heavily favored industry. Cason’s involvement in the alleged suppression of a BLM report on the dangers to the spotted owl dominated press accounts of the hearings.

Cason had also pushed through a series of industry-friendly measures in the final weeks of the Reagan administration.

He lowered the royalties paid for coal mined on public lands;

authorized a rule that made it possible for companies to mine in national parks or on Forest Service land (a rule considered so over the top that it was quickly withdrawn);

traveled to Colorado to encourage—yet again—the transfer of thousands of acres of oil-shale claims at rock-bottom prices;

and brokered an agreement with several major oil and gas companies that essentially undermined the federal government’s authority to audit royalty payments.

Indiana Senator Richard Lugar said: “The whole department, and yourself as part of that department, were overly solicitous of business and industry points of view.”

Cason declared that the Trump administration had inherited “an anti-energy bias” and a “preservationist thought process” that needed rooting out.

The DOI, as the largest landowner in the United States—managing roughly 500 million acres, one-fifth of the country’s landmass—is at the heart of this effort.

The department also administers millions of acres in offshore oil and gas reserves.

Trump has already reversed an Obama-era ban on drilling along part of the Atlantic coast and in the environmentally sensitive waters around Alaska.

Now, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Republicans in Congress are seeking to fulfill one of the industry’s long-sought goals:

opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the largest unexplored and undeveloped onshore basin in the United States.

the BLM will offer approximately 10.3 million acres of land in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve for oil and gas leasing.

And next spring, the department will hold the largest oil- and gas-lease sale in the country’s history when it

auctions off some 77 million acres of offshore reserves in the Gulf of Mexico.

Cason shares the industry’s sense of having a rare opportunity to reshape the policy landscape.

In Denver, he mused that the midterm elections weren’t too far off—and that the dynamic in the Senate, and possibly even the House, could change, making it more difficult to advance a deregulatory agenda.

“You think about having four years to do things,” he said,

“but for those of us who have been on the federal-government side of the fence, you don’t really have four years.

https://www.thenation.com/article/the-plot-to-sell-americas-wilderness/

The oligarchy got another HATCHET MAN into DOI to fuck up America and Americans for profit.

[boutons_deux]

Trump Rails against Drug Industry, but Turns to Its Ranks to Fill Administration


Some Republicans argue industry players can use their experience to pursue reform :lol

President Trump has vilified (https://www.statnews.com/2017/01/11/trump-drug-prices-news-conference/) the pharmaceutical industry and made bold promises (https://www.statnews.com/2017/01/11/trump-drug-prices-news-conference/) to lower prescription drug prices.

But when it comes to staffing the health care agencies empowered to oversee those efforts, he has turned regularly to the pharmaceutical industry.

His Food and Drug Administration chief, Scott Gottlieb, was a longtime industry investor and adviser to major players like GlaxoSmithKline and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

A senior adviser at the Health and Human Services Department, Keagan Lenihan, joined the administration after running the lobby shop for the drug and distribution giant McKesson.

Tim Clark, the White House liaison for political personnel at HHS, was still lobbying for pharma company Eisai earlier this year.

And Trump has a former Gilead lobbyist, Joe Grogan, reviewing health care regulations at the Office of Management and Budget.

The chief of staff at HHS, Lance Leggitt, lobbied (https://www.statnews.com/2017/03/02/price-health-care-lobbyist/) for a whole host of drug clients, even last year.

This week the president named Alex Azar (https://www.statnews.com/2017/11/13/alex-azar-hhs-trump/), who spent more than a decade at the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, as his health secretary nominee.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-rails-against-drug-industry-but-turns-to-its-ranks-to-fill-administration/

Drug prices will continue suck Americans dry, probably increasing at higher rates that previously.

Trash, Repugs, kakistocracy would never hinder BigCorp raping, pillaging, fleecing Americans

[boutons_deux]

Trash + Repugs screwing America, for oligarchy's profit, out of its mythical World Champion role

China Craves Electric Cars, While U.S. Flirts With Ending Tax Credit

politicians voted on Thursday for a proposal that included repeal of a $7,500 tax credit for buyers of electric cars.

In China, auto executives from around the world were gathering to talk about ambitious plans to sell more of those vehicles (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/business/china-hastens-the-world-toward-an-electric-car-future.html) here.

China will lead the world in the fast-growing sector.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/business/energy-environment/electric-cars-china.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

... while both parties agree to screw the wind energy business, while continuing to subsidize BigOil and let the wealth evade and avoid taxes.

JimmyRicky intends to charge taxpayers $Bs to subsidize end-of-life coal and uninsurable nuclear.

If the Repugs can fuck up anything, they will do it.

[boutons_deux]

http://www.nationalmemo.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/danzcolorplus8520-668x501.jpg

[boutons_deux]

the Christian Sharia War On (poor black, brown) Women never stops, and why not poor white women?
(https://theintercept.com/2017/11/21/trump-birth-control-mandate-religion/)
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SET TO DEFEND BIRTH CONTROL RULES THAT PIT RELIGION AGAINST WOMEN’S HEALTH (https://theintercept.com/2017/11/21/trump-birth-control-mandate-religion/)

But roughly a month after she received the IUD, she got a startling piece of mail. It was an explanation of benefits letter from her health insurance company, GuideStone Financial Resources, informing her that the IUD would not be covered. She would have to come up with $1,200 from her own pocket — and continue to pay for any future care associated with the device.

Baker was confused. There was nothing in the materials provided by her insurer informing her that birth control was not covered. More importantly, she knew that the Affordable Care Act mandates the provision of no-cost birth control.

her church-affiliated employer doesn’t have a problem with covering birth control, GuideStone, the insurance company her employer uses, does. GuideStone opposes IUDs, which it believes cause abortion because when used as emergency contraception, the device could keep a fertilized egg from implantation.

GuideStone, an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, is among more than 200 religiously affiliated employers or insurers that have balked at the ACA’s birth control mandate, arguing that the requirement to provide access to certain forms of contraception impinges on their ability to follow their faith.

On October 6, the Trump administration announced a new set of rules that instead upend the birth control mandate. Officials say they are meant to protect religious freedom, but practically speaking, they offer nearly every employer or insurer the ability to deny contraceptive coverage for nearly any reason.

https://theintercept.com/2017/11/21/trump-birth-control-mandate-religion/

of course, the oligarchy's white women can pay for birth control.

[boutons_deux]

Repugs, and their house knitter (in name only), enabling, pushing racial discrimination

How an obscure rule change could make discrimination great again

Ben Carson’s HUD may roll back a rule that has penalized lenders and insurers in cases of obvious racial bias

Donald Trump's administration is trying to roll back decades of progress in enforcing civil rights to make it easier for insurance companies to discriminate against minority home buyers.

It could also move to help car lenders and other financial institutions discriminate against minorities too.

A report (https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Documents/A-Financial-System-That-Creates-Economic-Opportunities-Asset_Management-Insurance.pdf) from Trump’s Treasury Department says that using a legal theory that documents subtle discrimination could “impose unnecessary burdens on insurers.”

Instead, Treasure recommends that federal housing officials “reconsider” using this theory in anti-discrimination efforts, and Republican lawmakers recently urged Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to drop (https://www.aba.com/Advocacy/Grassroots/WINNDocs/congress-carson-disparate-impact-rule-111517.pdf#_ga=2.51446889.1585327184.1510842233-1667964914.1510842233) a rule using the theory, which is known as "disparate impact analysis."

Business groups are also trying to muzzle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (https://www.consumerfinance.gov/), the watchdog federal agency that Trumpers loathe, (https://www.dcreport.org/2017/10/31/making-life-better-for-old-man-potter/) as I have written for DCReport.org (https://www.dcreport.org/).

The trade group for the consumer credit industry, the American Financial Services Association, (https://www.afsaonline.org/) wants to prevent (http://c-8oqtgrjgwu46x24yyyx2echucqpnkpgx2eqti.g00.ibtimes. com/g00/3_c-8yyy.kdvkogu.eqo_/c-8OQTGRJGWU46x24jvvrux3ax2fx2fyyy.chucqpnkpg.qtix2f Rqtvcnux2f2x2fHgfgtcnx2fEqoogpvx2542Ngvvgtux2542cp fx2542Vguvkoqpax2fCHUCx2542Ngvvgtx2542vqx2542Ejkgh x2542Geqpqokuvx2542Ecncdtkcx2542qpx2542EHRDx2542Tg hqtox2542-x2542Octejx254241x25424239.rfh_$/$/$/$/$/$) the bureau from using the legal theory that the bureau has employed to force auto finance companies such as American Honda Finance Corp. (https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-and-doj-reach-resolution-with-honda-to-address-discriminatory-auto-loan-pricing/)and Toyota Motor Credit (https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-and-doj-reach-resolution-with-toyota-motor-credit-to-address-loan-pricing-policies-with-discriminatory-effects/) to pay $126 million in damages and penalties.

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/20/how-an-obscure-rule-change-could-make-discrimination-great-again/

[boutons_deux]

Safety agency warns of leaks and explosions at nuclear site — as Trump moves to cut their funding


https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-in-Washington-state-cnn.com-1.jpg

An unfinished $16.8 billion complex to treat chemical and radioactive waste at the Hanford site in Central Washington continues to have problems that risk explosions and radioactive releases from unintended nuclear reactions

The board's findings are at odds with a much more optimistic assessment offered by the U.S. Energy Department ( JimmyRicky! :lol) of the efforts to treat the toxic leftovers of decades of atomic weapons production.

The board's findings are at odds with a much more optimistic assessment offered by the U.S. Energy Department of the efforts to treat the toxic leftovers of decades of atomic weapons production.

"They don't want to hear what the board has to say, but they absolutely need to," said Dirk Dunning, a retired Oregon Department of Energy engineer who worked on Hanford issues for more than 20 years.

The board has been deeply involved in keeping watch over the development of Hanford's waste-treatment complex, the largest of its kind in the world, on which ground was broken in 2002 on 65 acres of the nuclear reservation.

The goal is to transform 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste into glass rods that can be safely put into long-term storage.

The process requires a hugely complex engineering effort because in part to the wide range of waste materials stored in 177 underground tanks, more than a third of which have leaked over the years.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/safety-agency-warns-of-leaks-and-explosions-at-nuclear-site-as-trump-moves-to-cut-their-funding/

Repugs destroying govt, putting Americans and the environment at risk of nuclear contamination, in order to enrich the oligarchy (and still add $2T to the deficit)

[boutons_deux]

Former U.S. ethics official files complaint against Trump aide Conway

The former head of a U.S. government ethics watchdog said on Wednesday he had filed a complaint claiming senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway

violated a law barring executive branch employees from engaging in political activity when she spoke on television against a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-ethics/former-u-s-ethics-official-files-complaint-against-trump-aide-conway-idUSKBN1DM2JH?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F +US+%2F+Top+News%29

A crapifying lawyer who violates the law or doesn't know the law, or maybe she follows "alternative laws"

[boutons_deux]

https://images.dailykos.com/images/475718/story_image/11-23-2017-mcfadden-KOS.png?1511375838

[boutons_deux]

Administration Is Hiding Plans To Privatize Some VA Health Services (https://crooksandliars.com/2017/11/administration-hiding-plans-privatize-some)

As part of its effort to expand private health care, the Department of Veterans Affairs is exploring the possibility of merging its health system with the Pentagon's, a cost-saving measure that veterans groups say could threaten the viability of VA hospitals and clinics.

News of the plan stirred alarm from veterans groups, who said they had not been consulted, and sharp criticism from congressional Democrats who pledged to oppose any VA privatization effort that

forces veterans "to pay out of pocket for the benefits they have earned with their heroism."

VA is seeking a long-term legislative fix for Choice by year's end.

"Today, we see evidence that the Trump administration is quietly planning to dismantle veterans' health care,"

"House Democrats will fight tooth and nail against any efforts to diminish or destroy VA's irreplaceable role as the chief coordinator, advocate and manager of care for veterans."

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/11/administration-hiding-plans-privatize-some?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=idealmedia&utm_campaign=crooksandliars.com&utm_term=68739&utm_content=2155327

If for-profit healthcare for vets and destroying the VA are so wonderful, why are the Repugs doing it in secret?



Health care experts also expressed surprise that VA would consider a TRICARE merger to provide private care for millions of active-duty troops, military retirees and veterans.

The two departments generally serve very different patient groups —older, sicker veterans treated by VA and generally healthier service members, retirees and their families covered by TRICARE.

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/11/administration-hiding-plans-privatize-some?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=idealmedia&utm_campaign=crooksandliars.com&utm_term=68739&utm_content=2155327 (https://crooksandliars.com/2017/11/administration-hiding-plans-privatize-some?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=idealmedia&utm_campaign=crooksandliars.com&utm_term=68739&utm_content=2155327)

Of course, military copays would be probably punishing and govt subsidies of for-profit docs providing for military people.

[boutons_deux]

Trump Just Named Someone Who Hates The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau To Lead It

"I don't like the fact that CFPB exists," Mulvaney said in a 2015 hearing (https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-114hhrg96998/html/CHRG-114hhrg96998.htm) when he was a Republican congressman representing South Carolina.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/matthewzeitlin/the-fight-to-lead-the-consumer-financial-protection-bureau?utm_term=.ryk9g3QxKV#.vtwe5LjNWA

Fucking Confederacy still hell bent on destroying the Union

[boutons_deux]

the plutocratic kakistocracy simply doesn't know, ignores the law, because plutocrats don't GAF about the law which they know they can circumvent, if needed

GOP lawmaker calls out Betsy DeVos after her rogue aide defied law he sponsored

The powerful chairman of the U.S. Senate committee overseeing the Department of Education

sternly ordered current Secretary Betsy DeVos to back off circumventing a new federal law on education policy.

Senator Lamar Alexander sponsored the 2015 “Every Student Succeeds Act” as a bipartisan replacement for the 2001 “No Child Left Behind Act” (NCLB).

A new report (https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/25/lamar-alexander-betsy-devos-259443) in Politico says DeVos “thanked” Sen. Alexander for calling to tell her department to back off circumventing the law he sponsored. :lol

Jason Botel, “obviously hadn’t read the law.”

Botel, the founder of a Baltimore chain of charter schools, did not require Senate confirmation for the position of acting assistant secretary.

The dispute involved the definition of “ambitious” in evaluating state plans after Alexander included a provision explicitly barring the Education secretary from defining such goals.

With Secretary DeVos deferring to Sen. Alexander on this issue, Politico reported, “observers say he’s trying to keep her agency on a tight leash.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/gop-lawmaker-calls-out-betsy-devos-after-her-rogue-aide-defied-law-he-sponsored/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Botel was supposed to be a progressive and professional public charter school advocate, had people wondering why he would join Devos.

I guess joining Devos' anti-education dept corrupted him.

[boutons_deux]

Spurstalk's classy, informed co-supporters of Trash express themselves


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=24&v=6MubunsD-7g

[boutons_deux]

https://images.dailykos.com/images/472393/story_image/patriotism-nationalism915.png?1510652891

[boutons_deux]

More guns means more guns death, more coal miners means more coal miner deaths

Coal mining fatalities up sharply as Trump cuts safety regulations, cripples MSHA (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/24/1717298/-Coal-mining-fatalities-up-sharply-as-Trump-cuts-safety-regulations-cripples-MSHA)

Since Trump took office, the number of mining jobs has gone up.

But it hasn’t doubled, no matter what lies Scott Pruitt tries to spread (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/jun/05/scott-pruitt/are-coal-mining-jobs-50000-last-year-not-exactly/).

Instead, jobs in mining increased from about 50,300 when Trump took office, to 51,900 in October (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES1021210001)—an increase of about 3 percent.

But something else has gone up much faster. (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coal-mine-deaths-surge-putting-feds-and-miners-at-odds/)


Deaths in U.S. coal mines this year have surged ahead of last year's, and federal safety officials say workers who are new to a mine have been especially vulnerable to fatal accidents.


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/24/1717298/-Coal-mining-fatalities-up-sharply-as-Trump-cuts-safety-regulations-cripples-MSHA??detail=emaildkre

... as the species suicide continues, for profit.

[boutons_deux]

https://images.dailykos.com/images/472393/story_image/patriotism-nationalism915.png?1510652891

[boutons_deux]

Trash supporters get exposed as being as stupid, ignorant, naive as Trash and 60M others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=6MubunsD-7g

[boutons_deux]

Even dubya's little POS AG ...

Former GOP Attorney General Calls Sessions' War on Weed a Waste of Time

The Justice Department should have higher priorities, says Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s apparent plans to prosecute medical marijuana distributors in states that have legalized it are a waste of time,

“With respect to everything else going on in the U.S., this is pretty low priority,"

https://www.alternet.org/drugs/sessions-war-weed-waste-time-former-gop-attorney-general-gonzales

[boutons_deux]

Federal agency refers girls to counselors picked by anti-abortion group

The list of counseling providers was created by the advocacy network Heartbeat International

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/26/federal-agency-refers-girls-to-counselors-picked-by-anti-abortion-group_partner/

[boutons_deux]

Repugs continue their ethnic/gender cleansing

Rex Tillerson is purging women and people of color from State Department’s upper ranks

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/rex-tillerson-is-purging-women-and-people-of-color-from-state-departments-upper-ranks-report/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Repugs' AmeriKKKa, ain't it great?

[boutons_deux]

Time Inc. Sells Itself to Meredith Corp., Backed by Koch Brothers

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/26/business/dealbook/time-inc-meredith-corporation-koch-brothers.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

no doubt, Kock Bros will dictate editorial direction to enrich Kock Bros

[boutons_deux]

A Gold Rush in Salmon Country

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/11/26/opinion/sunday/26jones/26jones-master768.jpg

In 2014, after three years of study and millions of public comments of protest, the Environmental Protection Agency concluded that Pebble Mine would commit “irreversible” damage to the wetlands, resulting in “complete loss of fish habitat due to elimination, dewatering and fragmentation of streams, wetlands and other aquatic resources.” The fishery was too valuable to risk and too difficult to mine.

(https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/opinion/sunday/gold-mine-salmon.html#story-continues-2)Alaskans had come out overwhelmingly against the measure,

a rare example of consensus in a proudly opinionated state.

Even the Republican senator Ted Stevens, a staunch supporter of mines, said that this was

“the wrong mine in the wrong place.”

Then Donald Trump, a man in love with all things gold, came along.

On May 1, Scott Pruitt, the new administrator of the E.P.A., met with Tom Collier, the head of the Pebble Mine project, for breakfast. Later that same morning,

Mr. Pruitt ordered the E.P.A. regulations scrapped, telling the company it could proceed with permitting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/opinion/sunday/gold-mine-salmon.html

[boutons_deux]

Former AG Says Trump’s Justice Department Is Troubling

Former Attorney General Eric Holder had a clear warning for Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions on Friday:

"resignations, investigations, public outcries" could all soon occur

if the wall separating the White House and the Justice Department continues to be lowered.

Holder said (http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-fails-to-keep-proper-distance-from-justice-department-1103291971876) he was troubled by the president’s "berating" of the current attorney general

the infighting "portrays a lack of understanding on the part of the president :lol

about what the role of the attorney general has to be."

Under former President Barack Obama,

Holder said he was given clear guidelines about what topics were off limits in conversations between the Justice Department and the Oval Office.

Those practices appear to have vanished under Trump,

who has repeatedly publicly assaulted Sessions on social media for taking “weak” positions on his campaign vows,

including (https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-election-debate/trump-assails-bill-clinton-vows-to-jail-hillary-clinton-if-he-wins-white-house-idINKCN12A040) imprisoning former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton if he were to win the presidency.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/former-ag-says-trumps-justice-department-troubling/

[boutons_deux]

Trash's AmeriKKKa

Vandals attack five black churches in New Jersey

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/12480695_G-800x430.jpg


https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/vandals-attack-five-black-churches-in-new-jersey/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Christian Taliban pushing their Sharia hard

The Teaching of Evolution Banned in Turkey, While Conservatives Work Hard to Erode the Role of Science in U.S. Schools


In both countries, religious extremists are expanding schools that privilege religion over science.

At the state level, however, attempts to ban the teaching of evolution (https://ncse.com/library-resource/ten-major-court-cases-evolution-creationism) are alive and well. Kansas only rescinded its ban in 2001 (https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/turkey-bans-teaching-of-evolution-in-public-schools/3926756.html).

In Florida, :lol

meanwhile, a

new law allows parents and local residents to challenge textbooks (https://www.npr.org/2017/07/31/540041860/new-florida-law-lets-residents-challenge-school-textbooks) that contain material they find objectionable. :lol

The conservative group behind the legislation says that it is intended to make sure that scientific theories are presented in a “balanced way.”

As taxpayer-funded school voucher programs expand, a growing number of students are attending private religious schools that teach alternative “theories” to evolution, including creationism or so-called intelligent design.

In Florida, the state now sends nearly $1 billion to largely unregulated religious schools, many of which use a curriculum provided by Accelerated Christian Education.

In 2014, Dana Hunter investigated (https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/rosetta-stones/adventures-in-ace-i-in-which-oddities-are-explored/) what ACE teaches for Scientific American.

He found science books :lol with review questions like,

“Christ’s shed blood is the __________ of our salvation,” :lol

and,

“God designed the hydrologic __________ to prevent the __________ from overflowing.” :lol

Students work on these “science” lessons while enclosed within barren walls that prevent them from even seeing their classmates.

ACE also teaches that the nuclear fusion within the sun is a "myth (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2013/feb/01/nessie-accelerated-christian-education-curriculum)" invented by scientists to discredit the Bible’s teachings. :lol

Until recently, ACE even taught students that the Loch Ness monster was real (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2013/feb/01/nessie-accelerated-christian-education-curriculum). :lol

ResponsiveEd (which was founded by Donald R. Howard, a former owner of ACE),

blames (https://www.salon.com/2013/10/25/christian_textbooks_darwin_inspired_hitler/) Darwin’s theory of evolution for the Holocaust.

According (https://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-florida-school-voucher-investigation-1018-htmlstory.html) to the Orlando Sentinel, private schools that teach extremist and outright false ideas such as those listed above are rarely held accountable, despite the fact that studies in Florida have shown “declines in math or reading skills.”

https://www.alternet.org/turkey-banned-teaching-evolution-us-could-be-next

America is fucked and unfuckable

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration eyes easing student debt protections

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Betsy-DeVos-during-her-Senate-confirmation-hearing-Screenshot.jpg

Thousands of students who ran up unpayable debts at for-profit schools are anxiously waiting to see if US President Donald Trump's administration does away with anti-fraud protections put in place by his predecessor Barack Obama.

Some 95,000 cases of former students seeking forgiveness of their debt

have been put on hold by the Department of Education, now led by Betsy DeVos, an ardent advocate of for-profit, post-secondary schools.

Most of the cases now on hold involve former students at two giants of the for-profit college industry -- Corinthian Colleges and ITT Tech, which closed in 2015 and 2016.

A rule change made in 2016 under former president Barack Obama allows the Education Department to forgive a student's debt, and then sue the for-profit to recover the money.

"The Department of Education was a prosecutor, a judge and a jury, it was unfair," CECU's president Steve Gunderson told AFP.

"We provide a very good niche in the sector of post-secondary education." :lol

for-profit schools have a built-in incentive to maximize their profits at their students' expense.

And yet, she said, "many for-profit colleges get almost 90 percent of their money from federal grants and loans."

"Taxpayers spend $130 billion every year on these schools,"

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/trump-administration-eyes-easing-student-debt-protections/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29 (https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/trump-administration-eyes-easing-student-debt-protections/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29)

Trash will fuck over 95K screwed students in order to undo Obama's good.

[boutons_deux]

a solid Christian dude, a so-called pastor speaking as Christ would

Mike Huckabee Defends Daughter Against Pie Critics: ‘You’re About to be Gutted Like a Deer’

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/mike-huckabee-defends-daughter-against-pie-critics-youre-about-to-be-gutted-like-a-deer/

[boutons_deux]

former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, to speculate that Tillerson could be remembered as the worst ever Secretary of State.

“Does he really want to remembered as the worst Secretary of State in U.S. history?

Not too late to stop this reorg nonsense, hire some people, and get on with the job of foreign policymaking & diplomacy,”

Workers at the State Department have been leaving in droves.

Since January, the Department of State has lost 60 percent of its career ambassadors, according to the president of the Foreign Service Officers’ Union, Ambassador Barbara Stephenson, who wrote a column about the losses earlier this month.

Along with the losses, many senior positions have been left empty in anticipation of the cuts.

“These numbers are hard to square with the stated agenda of making State and the Foreign Service stronger,” Stephenson said.

“The rapid loss of so many senior officers has a serious, immediate, and tangible effect on the capacity of the United States to shape world events.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/tillersons-top-state-department-hire-quits-after-three-months/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Repugs increasing, enriching the power of the murderous, corrupt MIC and hard power, while destroying USA's soft power.

What does Bannon want to achieve by Trash-whispering the destruction of the Exec?

[boutons_deux]

Trump loves women so much, he's trying to make it near impossible for them to report sexual abuse (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/27/1718850/-Trump-loves-women-so-much-he-s-trying-to-make-it-near-impossible-for-them-to-report-sexual-abuse)

Republicans, especially the leader of their party who resides in the White House, truly hate women.

And they’ve been working hard in the last ten months to make it even more difficult (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-sexual-harassment-discrimination_us_5a15b385e4b03dec8249b7e5?section =us_politics) for women to report their experiences of abuse and discrimination.


The clearest example came in March.

It received little coverage at the time. President Donald

Tr (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/donald-trump)ash reversed an Obama-era order that forbid federal contractors from keeping secret sexual harassment and discrimination cases.

The 2014 rule prohibited these companies, which employ about 26 million people, from forcing workers to resolve complaints through arbitration, an increasingly common method businesses use to settle disputes out of the public eye. [...]

The attack so far has seen the most success via executive order, but a vast swath of the public policies proposed or endorsed by administration officials attempt to scale back women’s rights.

From Trump’s

repeal of executive orders meant to reduce pay discrimination (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ivanka-trump-white-house-equal-pay_us_59a6c33be4b063ae34da471f) to the budget floated in May (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ivankas-maternity-leave-plan-is-a-cruel-joke_us_59243975e4b094cdba578fcd),

the failed repeal of Obamacare (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gop-health-care-bill-women_us_590b63a0e4b0d5d9049a2daf), and

now the Republican tax bills (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gop-abortion-tax-bill_us_59fca946e4b0baea2631965f),

actions taken or backed by this administration harm women (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/women-leadership-sexual-harassment_us_59f387cae4b03cd20b818ed1).


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1718850

[boutons_deux]

Congress is already doing real damage to CHIP


“A fair amount of our children we think will become uninsured.”

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CtXabYVyOKQe55f5s1D5yY4YNgU=/0x0:2040x1353/1220x813/filters:focal(857x514:1183x840):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/57777135/141972025__1_.0.jpg



Nearly two months since its funding technically expired, the Children's Health Insurance Program is still in limbo while congressional Republicans try to pass their tax bill.

There was a lot (https://www.thedailybeast.com/families-are-facing-a-child-health-care-crisis-as-holiday-season-nears) of good reporting (http://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/tns-congress-bill-vote-funding-chip.html) over the past week (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-childrens-health-insurance-program-20171123-story.html) about how states are preparing for the possible end of funding for CHIP, which covers more than 9 million Americans.

Then on Monday, Colorado announced it would start sending letters to families enrolled in CHIP, letting them know what their options would be if the program actually ran out of money.

The state projects its reserves for CHIP, which covers 167,000 people, will be dry at the end of January.

"A fair amount of our children we think will become uninsured," Alabama CHIP director Cathy Caldwell told reporters earlier this fall. The program helps cover 150,000 kids in her state.

But lawmakers could still be doing real damage to the program.

Florida learned this lesson about a decade ago, Steve Freedman, a University of South Florida health policy professor who sits on the CHIP board there, told me recently.

They call it the “CHIP dip.”

In 2003 and 2004, the state enacted new restrictions on CHIP enrollment. Enrollment declined. Then Florida officials decided in 2005 they'd made a mistake. The program's rolls had shrunk from 337,000 and kept falling to less than 200,000 at their lowest point.

The state took steps to expand enrollment again. But it took years to bring people back into the program, and even in 2010, CHIP enrollment was still significantly lower than it was before the state's initial rollback, just a little more than 250,000.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/28/16711560/voxcare-republican-tax-bill-chip-health-insurance

Oligarchy's $100Bs more important than poor kids' health care.

But the kids are poor and sick because God wants their parent(s) to be poor because they are bad (expendable) people living bad lives

(actual evangelical "logic").

Billionaires are Billionaires because they are Good People(c) (but you can pay license fee/rent extraction to a Billionaire to use it) so God loves, rewards them.

[dabom]

Meanwhile corporate-welfare makes a huge sum of money compared to everything else. Fucking scum repugs.

[boutons_deux]

Meanwhile corporate-welfare makes a huge sum of money compared to everything else. Fucking scum repugs.

Taxpayers shovel $130B / year as welfare to for-profit scam colleges.

[boutons_deux]

300 Top American Scientists Just Penned A Letter Opposing Trump’s Chief Science Adviser Pick

Three hundred leading American scientists alarmed by President Trump’s plan to appoint Kathleen Hartnett White,

a fossil fuel advocate :lol

and non-scientist, :lol

as his chief science advisor on climate change, :lol

http://verifiedpolitics.com/300-top-american-scientists-just-penned-letter-opposing-trumps-chief-science-adviser-pick/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Hartnett_White :lol

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s nominee to lead his environmental council isn’t sure if water expands as it warms

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/11/09/trumps-nominee-to-lead-his-environmental-council-isnt-sure-whether-water-expands-as-it-warms/?utm_term=.d897b933e6b7

[boutons_deux]

BigFinance enabled to fleece Americans

Trump’s Judge Decides Trump’s Guy Should Run Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Surprise!

A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump

has ruled that Trump’s budget director Mick Mulvaney is the true and legal acting director (https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/28/trump-court-mulvaney-consumer-protection-bureau-265051)of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,

even though the law that created the CFPB says the agency’s deputy director should become the acting director in case of a vacancy at the top.

The decision by US District Court Judge Timothy Kelly will allow the Trump administration

to get to the important work of dismantling the agency from the inside and

letting banks and payday lenders screw consumers however they want.

https://wonkette.com/626378/trumps-judge-decides-trumps-guy-should-run-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-surprise

A PERFECT example of why the oligarchy has told Trash to FIRE all the administrative judges that Obama installed,

replace them with incompetent, politicized, anti-Constitutional extremists,

while packing the Federal judiciary with the same type of Gorsuch oligarchy shitbags that McConnell refused to allow Obama to nominate.

America is fucked and unfuckable.

[boutons_deux]

:lol :lol :lol

Kellyanne Conway will run White House opioid efforts

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway will be the point person for the Trump administration's opioid crisis efforts,

U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions announced Wednesday.

President Donald Trump tapped Conway to help "change the perception" about opioids :lol

and reduce addictions and deaths,

Sessions said at a press briefing about the Justice Department’s efforts to combat the crisis.

Sessions said Trump had made the epidemic "a top priority for his administration, including every senior official and Cabinet member."

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/kellyanne-conway-will-run-white-house-opioid-efforts/

[boutons_deux]

Here's how Repug whores to the NRA MISgovern in Kockistan north

Wisconsin DNR sold 10 hunting licenses to infants

The state Department of Natural Resources sold 10 hunting licenses to infants after Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill that eliminated the state's minimum hunting age.

Walker signed a Republican bill on Nov. 13 doing away with the 10-year-old minimum age to participate in a mentored hunt.

The DNR released data Tuesday that shows the agency had sold 1,814 mentored hunt licenses to children age nine or younger through Sunday.

The vast majority -- 1,011 licenses -- went to nine-year-olds.

Fifty-two licenses went to children under age 5, with 10 going to a child under a year old.

A four-year-old was the youngest licensee to register a kill.

http://www.wsaw.com/fox/content/news/Wisconsin-DNR-sold-10-hunting-licenses-to-infants-460599663.html?mc_cid=f851a23312&mc_eid=47e367557b

[boutons_deux]

NRATV guest: Second Amendment gives you “firepower” against the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau

Grab your guns, because those “tyrants” at the CFPB are killing America

Jacques responded, saying that bureaucrats "really do have a stranglehold on us as citizens and again

this is why the Second Amendment is so important.

I mean we the people have to have the firepower and the manpower to be able to stand up to tyrants in the government just like this."

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/30/nratv-guest-second-amendment-gives-you-firepower-against-the-consumer-finance-protection-bureau/

Ms of Americans are fucked in the head, and unfuckable.

[boutons_deux]

Here's yet another non-obvious way the oligarchy is maintaining its coup d'etat

Experts Are Really, Really Worried About The State Of The 2020 Census

The Census Bureau faces budget shortfalls and is cutting back on testing.

But an inaccurate count could have severe consequences, especially for people of color.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/2020-census_us_5a2025bbe4b0392a4ebbe6a0?utm_medium=emai l&utm_campaign=__TheMorningEmail__113017&utm_content=__TheMorningEmail__113017+CID_6ef8144f 4037a7525ab5a50a5d8e5d70&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=HuffPost&ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__113017

The oligarchy's tax cut is fully intended to starve the govt of funding, killing operations, so the oligarchy will continue to overpower and ignore a severely weakened govt, govt being the only defense, the only countervailing power that Americans and America have against the avaricious, destructive, predatory oligarchy.

[boutons_deux]

Trump Set To Gut 2 Protected Utah Monuments On Monday

Bears Ears National Monument would lose its name, be cut by 85 percent and be split into two smaller sites, documents show.

The boundary of Bears Ears National Monument (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-monuments-native-americans_us_58643464e4b0d9a5945a06ac), a 1.35 million-acre area named after a pair of buttes and home to thousands of Native American archeological and cultural sites, will shrink by 85 percent, according to a pair of proclamations first reported on (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/11/30/trump-to-cut-bears-ears-national-monument-by-85-percent-grand-staircase-escalante-by-half-documents-show/?utm_term=.3b61211f3302) by The Washington Post and later obtained by HuffPost.

The 1.87 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/utah/grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument), the largest land national monument in the country, will be cut roughly in half, according to the documents.

The proclamations would reduce Bears Ears to 201,397 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante to 997,490 acres — a collective loss of more than 2 million acres.

Additionally, both monuments would be divvied up into several smaller monuments.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-national-monuments-utah-announcement_us_5a205e3ee4b0a02abe8fa2a7

[boutons_deux]

Republicans’ Tax Lies Show the Rot Spreads Wide and Runs Deep

aren’t politicians always cynical? Not to this degree.

For one thing, there’s no precedent for this frantic rush to pass major legislation before anyone can figure out what’s in it or what it does. By way of comparison, the Affordable Care Act went through months of hearings before it was brought to the Senate floor; the full Senate then debated the bill for 25 straight days (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/us/politics/obamacare-repeal-of-health-law-republicans.html?mtrref=en.wikipedia.org&_r=0).

And there’s a world of difference between normal political spin — yes, all politicians try to emphasize the good aspects of their policies — and

the outright lies that have marked every aspect of the selling of this thing.
Mnuchin said his department had a study showing great effects on growth; that was a lie.

Donald Trump says the bill is “not good for me (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/us/politics/fact-check-trump-tax-cuts.html)”; that’s a lie.

Senator John Cornyn said, “This is not a bill (https://twitter.com/CitizenCohn/status/935527846356946944) that is designed primarily to benefit the wealthy and the large businesses”; that was a lie.

Senator Bob Corker said he wouldn’t support a plan “adding one penny to the deficit (https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16398068/bob-corker-tax-reform-deficit)”; that was a lie.

In other words, this whole process involves a level of bad faith we haven’t seen in U.S. politics since the days when defenders of slavery physically assaulted their political foes (https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm) on the Senate floor.

There are two further things worth pointing out about this moral rot.
First, it is not, at a fundamental level, a story about Donald Trump, bad as he is: The rot pervades the whole Republican Party.

Some details of the legislation do look custom-designed to benefit the Trump family, but both the broad outlines and the fraudulence of the sales effort would have been pretty much the same under any Republican president.

Second, the rot is wide as well as deep.
I’m not just talking about Republican politicians, although the tax debate should dispel any remaining illusions about their motives: Just about every G.O.P. member of Congress, including the sainted John McCain, is willing to put partisan loyalty above principle, voting for what they have to know is terrible and irresponsible legislation. The point, however, is that the epidemic of bad faith extends well beyond elected or appointed officials.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/opinion/republican-tax-lies-fed.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fpaul-krugman&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

[boutons_deux]

authoritarianism, unleashed. The Repugs REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY hate democracy and Americans

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Mick-Mulvaney.png

“The authority that I have now as acting director really should frighten people,”

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/budget-director-mulvaney-warns-his-new-consumer-financial-protection-powers-should-frighten-people/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

.

[boutons_deux]

Private gain, taxpayer loss

EPA passes on rule covering U.S. hardrock miners' cleanup costs

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday it would not act on a proposal to require hardrock mining companies to show they can afford to clean up their sites.

“EPA is confident that modern industry practices, along with existing state and federal requirements address risks from operating hardrock mining facilities,” :lol

It would have required companies mining metals such as gold, silver, copper and lead to show they had the financial means to clean up their sites once they finished mining by issuing bonds or buying insurance.

It was partly aimed at taking the burden off Washington to clean up sites when miners declare bankruptcy.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mining-epa/epa-passes-on-rule-covering-u-s-hardrock-miners-cleanup-costs-idUSKBN1DW00J?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

investors get rich mining, declare bankruptcy, dump the cleanup on taxpayers.

[boutons_deux]

such an example

Trump’s Favorite Catchphrase Is Now Being Used To Justify A Genocide

U Kyaw San Hla, an officer in Myanmar’s state security ministry, recently announced that

“There is no such thing as the Rohingya. It is fake news!” (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-denial-history.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2 Fworld)

But the six hundred thousand Rohingya Muslims who have been forced to flee their homes as the Myanmar army torches their villages and murders them en masse would beg to differ.

The Rohingya are an ethnic group from Myanmar’s Rakhine state who are commonly called “the most persecuted people on earth.” (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/10/rohingya-genocide-ethnic-cleansing-never-again)

http://verifiedpolitics.com/trumps-favorite-catchphrase-now-used-justify-genocide/

[boutons_deux]

The Atrocious Big Pharma Record of the New HHS Nominee

Billion dollar plus federal fines overseen by Eli Lilly exec. Alex Michael Azar II.

While serving as president of Lilly USA, Azar presided over a tripling of the price of its insulin. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Azar was vice president of Lilly’s U.S. Managed Healthcare Services in 2009 when the company paid $1.415 billion to settle criminal charges for illegally promoting its antipsychotic Zyprexa for off-label uses.

Only four years earlier (https://www.justice.gov/civil/cpb/case/us-v-eli-lilly-and-company-evista) the company had pleaded guilty for similar illegal promotion of its hormone drug Evista.

"The company made hundreds of millions of dollars by trying to convince health care providers that Zyprexa was safe for unapproved uses," "putting thousands and thousands of patients at risk."

Lilly admitted its counseling program was created to fight state efforts to cut use of its drugs and preserve tax dollars.

During Cymbalta clinical trials in 2004 in the Eli Lilly laboratory in Indianapolis the previously healthy volunteer Traci Johnson hung herself.

A year after Cymbalta hit drug store shelves, it was indicted (https://www.counterpunch.org/2007/10/16/the-curse-of-cymbalta/) for causing more than twice the rate of suicide attempts in women prescribed the drug for stress urinary incontinence–a use not approved in the US–according to the FDA.

https://www.alternet.org/personal-health/health-secretary-material

The oligarchy, through their Repug whores, have normalized criminal insanity as govt policy

[boutons_deux]

Mick Mulvaney’s mission: Sacrifice public protections on the altar of deregulation

The Trump administration has halted crucial public protections

in 2008, a combustible dust fire explosion at the Imperial Sugar Company in Port Wentworth, Ga., killed 14 and injured 38 others. After a government investigation determined that the explosion was caused by “massive accumulations of combustible sugar dust,” the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) moved to create a standard on combustible dust.

The Trump administration ended that rulemaking.

29 miners died in an explosion in the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia. The CEO of the company was later sentenced to prison for his efforts to elude health and safety rules. The government performed a detailed investigation, pointed out multiple preventable hazards (including, again, combustible dust),and the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration began a rulemaking to address the hazards exposed by the explosion.

The Trump administration abandoned it.

, OSHA had been working on a commonsense rulemaking that would have required “employers to implement an Injury and Illness Prevention Program.”

The Trump administration ended the rulemaking.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began work on a rule that would ensure that same-gender spouses are afforded equal rights in facilities that participate in Medicare.

The Trump administration ended the rulemaking.

The administration’s leaders have cheered their withdrawal efforts. That’s their prerogative.

But if combustible dust causes another factory to blow up, or if another coal mine explosion occurs, those cheers may come back to haunt them.

https://www.salon.com/2017/12/03/mick-mulvaneys-mission-sacrifice-public-protections-on-the-altar-of-deregulation/

[boutons_deux]

BigRestaurant paying Repugs whores to screw over tipped staff

The Trump Administration Just Launched a Plot To Screw Over Millions Of Service Workers

A new regulation proposed by the Trump administration would enable employers to commandeer the tips that their wait staff receives from their customers

The new rule being put forth by the Department of Labor would roll back current regulations restricting “tip pooling”, a system where rather than each server retaining all of the money offered as a gratuity, every server’s tips are put into a pool and divided evenly amongst all the wait staff, with cuts often being shared with the bussers and dishwashers as well.

The new rule does not actually require business owners to turn the tips over to their workers. In fact, it would make it perfectly legal for the owners to pocket all of the tips for their own benefit, as long as they are paying their staff at least minimum wage. Less like socialism,

According to a report (http://www.epi.org/press/proposed-rule-would-protect-employers-who-steal-workers-hard-earned-tips/?utm_content=buffer40e96&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer) released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), workers can expect their employers to take advantage of them under the new rule:

“Recent research (http://www.epi.org/publication/employers-steal-billions-from-workers-paychecks-each-year-survey-data-show-millions-of-workers-are-paid-less-than-the-minimum-wage-at-significant-cost-to-taxpayers-and-state-economies/) suggests that the total wages stolen from workers due to minimum wage violations exceeds $15 billion each year, and

workers in restaurants and bars are much more likely to suffer minimum wage violations than workers in other industries.

With that much illegal wage theft currently taking place,

it seems obvious that when employers can legally pocket the tips earned by their employees,

many will do so.”





“Make no mistake:

as a result of this rule,




workers will take home less,



and

their loss will be employers’ gain.

And
TRump’s DOL is willing to break the requirements of the rulemaking process to attempt to hide that fact.”




http://verifiedpolitics.com/trump-administration-just-launched-plot-screw-millions-service-workers/


=======================Trump administration proposes rollback of tip-pooling rule


Tipped workers are among the most vulnerable workers in the country,

said Saru Jayaraman, president of the union-backed Restaurant Opportunities Centers United.

Repealing the rule would leave them even worse off, she said.

“By allowing employers to take control of their employees’ tips,

this regulation would push a majority-women workforce ... further into financial instability, poverty, and vulnerability to harassment and assault,”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-labor-tipping/trump-administration-proposes-rollback-of-tip-pooling-rule-idUSKBN1DY2JH

[boutons_deux]

Trump outlines big cuts to Utah monuments, environmentalists sue

President Donald Trump on Monday shrank two wilderness national monuments in Utah by at least half in the biggest rollback of public land protection in U.S. history, drawing praise from pro-development lawmakers and a lawsuit from environmentalists.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-monuments/trump-outlines-big-cuts-to-utah-monuments-environmentalists-sue-idUSKBN1DY167

the "pro-development" Capitalists won't be building affordable housing or carefully avoiding their resource extraction from fucking up pristine wilderness.

Trash gratuitously exercising power of office for his self-aggrandizement.

[boutons_deux]

Oliver North urging White House to build private spy army overseen by Betsy DeVos’ brother

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Oliver-North-and-Erik-Prince.jpg

The Trump administration is considering a scheme by a cast of shady characters to build a private network of spies to bypass U.S. intelligence services.

he plan would give the White House a way to counter “deep state” political enemies in the intelligence community and give the CIA director an army of spies with no official cover in countries such as North Korea and Iran, which are considered “denied areas” for American covert operations.

“(CIA Director Mike) Pompeo can’t trust the CIA bureaucracy, so we need to create this thing that reports just directly to him,” a former senior U.S. intelligence official with firsthand knowledge of the proposals told The Intercept. “It is a direct-action arm, totally off the books. The whole point is this is supposed to report to the president and Pompeo directly.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/oliver-north-urging-white-house-to-build-private-spy-army-overseen-by-betsy-devos-brother-reports/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Trash and Repugs are moving towards full dictatorship, with their private intelligence/police force.

The oligarchy is completely incompatible with democracy, so it is moving to create a one-party govt through corruption of the judiciary, voter suppression, gerrymandering, control of information by buying the media, destruction of public schooling, and privatization of everything with a good return.

[boutons_deux]

Trump Disbands Panel That Helped Cities Respond to Climate Threat

The president shutters group that, according to its chairman, was "one of the last federal bodies that openly talked about climate change in public"

https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_large/public/headlines/harvey_climate_change.jpg?itok=7Pd6jldJ


a community resilience panel announced Monday that the president had terminated the two-year-old group.

Chairman Jesse Keenan, a Harvard University professor, told the other members of the Community Resilience Panel for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems on Monday that there would be no further meetings and the panel would dissolve, per President Donald Trump's orders.

"This was the federal government's primary external engagement for resilience in the built environment," Keenan told (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-04/trump-disbands-group-meant-to-prepare-cities-for-climate-shocks) Bloomberg News.

"It was one of the last federal bodies that openly talked about climate change in public," he added. "I can say that we tried our best and we never self-censored!"

The panel was created in 2015 by former President Barack Obama :lol of course! :lol

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/12/05/trump-disbands-panel-helped-cities-respond-climate-threat

[AaronY]

thats it boo..let it all out. let it all out. no good to keep all that anger bottled up inside

[boutons_deux]

Senate Judiciary Committee Spits in Face of Tradition to Push the Courts Further to the Right

Kyle Duncan and David Stras are ultra-conservative judges who will probably land in the Fifth and Eighth Circuit courts of appeals, respectively.

The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) broke with a 100-year-old tradition when it held confirmation hearings last Tuesday for Kyle Duncan and David Stras.

Duncan and Stras are ultra-conservative judges

who will probably land in the Fifth and Eighth Circuit courts of appeals, respectively, because: Trump picked them, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is a hypocrite,

For more than a century, senators have used a process known as “blue slips” to voice their approval of judicial nominees.

The idea is that a senator should have a say in the nomination of judges that will serve in their state.

According to the Leadership Conference (https://civilrights.org/oppose-confirmation-david-stras-u-s-court-appeals-eighth-circuit/#_ftn1), a civil rights organization led by former U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division head honcho Vanita Gupta, “No president will be compelled to listen to the advice of home state senators” if the SJC allows nominees to advance absent blue slips from home-state senators.

But that’s exactly what’s happened with these hearings.

https://rewire.news/ablc/2017/12/04/senate-judiciary-committee-spits-face-tradition-push-courts-right/?utm_source=Rewire+Newsletter&utm_campaign=34d7f308bc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_12_06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_811d53d1b5-34d7f308bc-111083417

the authoritarian, fascist oligarchy continues its coup d'etat by queering the Fed judiciary into a totally politicized lap dog.

[boutons_deux]

Here's racist, civil-right-violator Trash

baiting, insulting, degrading blacks

by attending, with all his Pres protection goons and security circus,

the Civil Rights Museum in fucking racist slave state Mississippi.

President Trump Should Not Attend Grand Opening of Mississippi Civil Rights Museum

the NAACP criticized President Trump’s proposed visit to this weekend’s opening of the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, Mississippi.

“President Trump’s statements and policies regarding the protection and enforcement of civil rights have been abysmal, and his attendance is an affront to the veterans of the civil rights movement,”

“He has created a commission to reinforce voter suppression, refused to denounce white supremacists, and overall, has created a racially hostile climate in this nation,”

“As a freedom fighter and contemporary of Emmett Till, Trump’s visit is an insult. He has never been a supporter of civil rights or equal opportunity or justice,”

“He’s been silent on civil rights issues, and his silence speaks volumes,”

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2017/12/06/president-trump-should-not-attend-grand-opening-mississippi-civil-rights-museum

Bannon is laughing his ass off. Fuck the knitters. America is for Aryan superiority of pure white males.

[boutons_deux]

Gotta save money from the vets to give to the billionaires

Trump’s VA director cut a program that housed homeless veterans despite president’s pledge to take care of them

Amere two days after Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin renewed President Donald Trump’s promise to house the tens of thousands of homeless veterans in the US,

he reneged on the promise and announced the department is scaling back a program that does exactly that.

Shulkin and the VA are

“essentially ending a special $460 million program that has dramatically reduced homelessness among chronically sick and vulnerable veterans.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/trumps-va-director-cut-a-program-that-housed-homeless-veterans-despite-presidents-pledge-to-take-care-of-them/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

On his fucking way to insult the Civil Rights Museum ....

Trump administration twists anti-discrimination law to claim the KKK is a protected class

In explaining why Jack Phillips, the bakery’s owner, should not be compelled to serve people whose lifestyles go against his religious beliefs,

Solicitor General Noel Francisco kept saying that a black sculptor should not be compelled to make art for the Ku Klux Klan.

As Imani Gandy at Rewire (https://rewire.news/ablc/2017/12/06/kkk-isnt-protected-class-get-grip/) pointed out Wednesday, Francisco, who serves as the government’s lawyer, got at least one half of his argument right — no lawyer could successfully argue that it’s discriminatory for an African-American artist to deny service to a KKK member. But that’s because,

unlike LGBTQ people, KKK members are not members of a “protected class.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/trump-administration-twists-anti-discrimination-law-to-claim-the-kkk-is-a-protected-class/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Repug lawyers are such incompetent, politicized, lawless pieces of shit.

[boutons_deux]

Dick Mulvaney takes another step in dismantling American financial regulations

In a move that can only be celebrated by big banks and financial companies, Trump undermines Obama-era protections

In September, a judge sided with the CFPB that

the Nationwide Biweekly Administration had misled over 100,000 mortgage customers,

according (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/business/cfpb-mick-mulvaney.html?_r=0) to the New York Times.

The Ohio-based company was ordered to fork over close to $8 million in penalties.

Lawyers filed for the company "to post an $8 million bond while the proceedings wrapped up," in an 11-page brief, the Times reported.

However, Mick Mulvaney was named as head of the CFPB, which launched a legal controversy (https://www.salon.com/2017/11/25/trump-taps-mick-mulvaney-to-head-consumer-protection-agency-setting-up-leadership-clash/) over who the bureau's rightful leader was, and consequently, which direction it would head in. But a judge ruled in his favor last week, as the lawsuit continues, the Times reported.

Less than 48 hours after the lawyers filed for the $8 million, they put together a new brief.

That brief was two sentences long, and asked

"to withdraw their earlier submission and no longer take a position on whether Nationwide should put up the cash,"

the Times reported.

https://www.salon.com/2017/12/06/mick-mulvaney-takes-another-step-in-dismantling-american-financial-regulations/

[boutons_deux]

Congressional Repugs preempting states rights

Bill letting people bring concealed guns across state lines passes U.S. House

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-guns-house/bill-letting-people-bring-concealed-guns-across-state-lines-passes-u-s-house-idUSKBN1E039D?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FPoliticsNews+%28Reu ters+Politics+News%29

[boutons_deux]

6 Things President Trump Got Wrong When Decimating America’s National Monuments

1. “Public lands will once again be for public use.”

In actuality, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments are already American-owned public lands intended for public use.

open all newly unprotected lands to oil drilling, coal mining, uranium extraction, and other industrial activities.
If those extractive uses move forward, it will come at the expense of activities Americans now enjoy in the monument, such as hiking, hunting, and fishing.

2. “We have seen harmful and unnecessary restrictions on hunting, ranching, and responsible economic development.”

This is just flat wrong. The original (https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/28/proclamation-establishment-bears-ears-national-monument) monument proclamations (https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/WCPD-1996-09-23/pdf/WCPD-1996-09-23-Pg1788.pdf) explicitly allow for hunting, fishing, and the continuance of existing grazing. Furthermore, all national monuments honor existing leases for oil, gas, and coal.

3. “Previous administrations have … used the law to lock up hundreds of millions of acres of land and water under strict government control.”

Presidents of both parties have used the Antiquities Act of 1906 to protect some of America’s most prized outdoor spaces.

4. “We have seen how this tragic federal overreach prevents many Native Americans from having their rightful voice over the sacred land where they practice their most important ancestral and religious traditions.”

Bears Ears is a tribal monument, declared at the request of (https://bearsearscoalition.org/proposal-overview/) and with the support of five sovereign tribal nations with deep cultural and spiritual ties to the land. The five tribes worked tirelessly to conserve Bears Ears as a national monument, finally protecting around 100,000 cultural and archaeological sites, which had been under ongoing threat of vandalism and looting (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2016/06/13/139344/bears-ears-cultural-area-the-most-vulnerable-u-s-site-for-looting-vandalism-and-grave-robbing/).

5. “Our precious national treasures must be protected. And they, from now on, will be protected.”

This is a sky-is-red, water-is-dry, upside-down argument from an alternate universe. With his action, President Trump ordered the largest elimination of protections for public lands in the country’s history. Eliminating 85 percent of Bears Ears National Monument, including lands with tens of thousands of Native American ruins and artifacts, will remove protections from national treasures.

6. “I don’t think it is controversial, actually. I think it’s so sensible.”

President Trump’s action to eliminate protections for national monuments is remarkably controversial, unprecedented, and will immediately face court challenges from the tribal nations (https://www.narf.org/narf-files-suit-protect-bears-ears/) and other groups (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2017/grand-staircase-escalante-12-04-2017.php). Legal experts (http://legal-planet.org/2017/07/06/law-professor-comments-on-national-monuments-review/) overwhelmingly (http://westernpriorities.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Law-Professors-letter.pdf) agree (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2967807) that no president has the legal authority to eliminate monument acres.

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2017/12/05/443737/6-things-president-trump-got-wrong-decimating-americas-national-monuments/

As usual, Repug "justifications" nothing but LIES, eg above and how the tax cut will help non-wealthy Americans.

[boutons_deux]

Wife of Supreme Court Justice SEXUAL PREDATOR Clarence Thomas, @GinniThomas (https://twitter.com/GinniThomas), presenting an award to @JamesOKeefeIII (https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII) today for "defending liberty."


https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/938506594245103621

goddamn, the Repugs are pure garbage

[RandomGuy]

http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/06/11153140/PG_2017.06.26.US_Image-00-1.png

[boutons_deux]

Time Person of the Year 2017: Chad

About Chad:



Frequents the comment section of every Facebook article about feminism
Veteran of the War on Christmas
Tweets to “get the truth out there”
Favorite movie is Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo
Hates vegetables
Believes he’s single because he’s “too nice”
Doesn’t believe in the female orgasm
Thinks his mom is a bitch
Flies a confederate flag to honor his “heritage” but grew up in Cleveland
Somehow still dresses exclusively in Hollister
Believes “real news” only comes from his buddy Greg’s blogspot (Greg has a cousin who works “for the government”)
Has TruckNutz
Refers to self as “woke”
Hasn’t read a book in seven years
Calls tea “gay”
Hates Obamacare but has insurance through the ACA
Lives on Reddit
Thinks Ghostbusters should have been men (doesn’t know about the original)
Briefly involved in a pyramid scheme
Thinks the phrase is “bone app the teeth”
Believes people don’t laugh at his jokes because they’re “snowflakes” (he is not funny)
Arrested four times for public intoxication
Currently trapped in his basement


We’re so proud of you, Chad!

https://medium.com/@fullfrontalsamb/time-person-of-the-year-2017-chad-285ec4010456[/COLOR]

rightwingnutjob assholes: Chad isn't a real person, but composite of the wonderful traits you all exhibit.

[boutons_deux]

The Ministry of Truth, BigCarbon dept, specialties: FAKE NEWS, lying

As “Climate Change” Fades from Government Sites, a Struggle to Archive Data

hen the Environmental Protection Agency’s website underwent an overhaul of climate change information on a Friday in late April, Toly Rinberg and Andrew Bergman, both Harvard Ph.D. students in applied physics, set off to figure out what was gone.

Sitting in their shared Washington, D.C. apartment, they started a spreadsheet to track the changes. Suddenly missing, they noticed, were scores of pages dedicated to helping state and local governments deal with climate change.

The EPA site where those pages lived, titled “Climate and Energy Resources for State, Local, and Tribal Governments,” would disappear for three months, only to come back in July without the word “climate” in its title. The new website now focuses only on energy policy and resources, and is down to 175 pages from 380.

fact sheets on carbon pollution from power plants and the impact of those emissions on different groups across the country. In its place was a new site (https://www.epa.gov/energy-independence) featuring a picture of President Donald Trump signing an executive order aimed at dismantling the Clean Power Plan.

groups like EDGI are grappling with how to preserve mass amounts of federal climate information that researchers fear is at risk.

While information is not being outright destroyed, researchers and environmental groups say that changes to federal websites have made information about climate change less accessible to the public, reflecting what critics deride as

an effort by the Trump administration to censor dialogue about climate change, downplay its risks and pushback against scientific consensus.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/as-climate-change-fades-from-government-sites-a-struggle-to-archive-data/

Pruitt going to a special place in hell for Truth Molester whores

[boutons_deux]

Trump's chief of CFPB spent last six years trying to stop regulations of payday lenders (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/8/1722599/-Trump-s-chief-of-CFPB-spent-last-six-years-trying-to-stop-regulations-of-payday-lenders)

International Business Times (http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/trump-financial-regulator-mulvaney-pushed-cfpb-back-industry-bankrolled-him?amp=1&__twitter_impression=true) put in a FOIA requestion to the CFPB and received hundreds of pages of correspondence between them and Mick Mulvaney. Guess what Mr. Mulvaney was asking them about?

During his congressional campaigns, Mulvaney vacuumed in more than $567,000 from donors in the commercial banking, credit and securities/investment industries, according to data (https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/industries?cid=N00031412&cycle=CAREER&type=C) compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

That includes more than $55,000 from donors in the payday and title loan industry, according to data (https://www.followthemoney.org/show-me?f-fc=1&c-t-eid=6670008&d-cci=148#%5B%7B1%7Cgro=)from the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

The letters reviewed by IBT show that

much of Mulvaney’s criticism of the CFPB revolved around the agency’s attempts to regulate the payday lending industry,

which provides short term, high-interest loans.

There’s a treasure trove that IBT put together (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4324470-CFPB-Mulvaney-Cprresondeince.html), of Mulvaney’s letters to the CFPB, along with other Republican colleagues, attacking things like mortgage regulations∏but mostly the payday loan protections (http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/trump-financial-regulator-mulvaney-pushed-cfpb-back-industry-bankrolled-him?amp=1&__twitter_impression=true).


Mulvaney and eleven other lawmakers wrote a letter (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4324470-CFPB-Mulvaney-Cprresondeince.html#document/p248) to the agency asserting that the rule “has the potential to severely restrict access to credit that millions of Americans rely on” and arguing that “in an effort to keep unscrupulous actors out or the industry the CFPB will simultaneously be harming the very consumers it is trying to protect.”


Mulvaney’s campaign was compensated handily for those kind words. According to IBT, they received a quick $18,500 from payday lenders’ related outfits.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1722599

Corrupt, avaricious, predator BigFinane has cheap whore in Mulvaney (yet another oligarchy whore is a fucking Catholic)

[boutons_deux]

Echoing, or even leading, Trash's cruelty and inhumanity

Fox News fans cruelly attack Trump-critic Lindsey Vonn after she’s injured in skiing accident

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Lindsey-Vonn-speaks-to-CNN-screencap-800x430.png

News that Olympian Lindsey Vonn suffered a back injury (https://www.foxnews.com/sports/2017/12/10/lindsey-vonn-suffers-back-injury-in-world-cup-race-after-trump-comments.html) while competing in the World Cup in Switzerland on Saturday was greeted with glee by Fox News fans still angered by her comments about President Donald Trump earlier in the week.In an interview aired in CNN on Thursday,

Vonn said she had no interest in visiting Trump at the White House should she win a gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games in South Korea in 2018.

“I was asked my opinion and I gave it,” Vonn explained on Friday.

“I mean, it’s not necessarily my place to be sticking my nose in politics, but as an athlete I do have a voice.”

Fox & Friends criticized Vonn, calling her “un-American (https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/just-another-celebrity-fox-host-earhardt-attacks-un-american-olympian-lindsey-vonn-for-not-backing-trump/),” and derided the Olympic gold medalist and four-time World Cup overall champion as “just another celebrity, another Hollywood person who doesn’t agree with the president.”

News that Vonn suffered a back injury on Saturday was celebrated by many Fox News fans on Twitter, with some calling it “karma” because they feel she attacked the president.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/fox-news-fans-cruelly-attack-trump-critic-lindsey-vonn-after-shes-injured-in-skiing-accident/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

As California burns, Congress plans to slash tax write-offs for fires and other disasters

The disaster write-off is one of the many little-known deductions set to be mostly wiped out in the GOP tax plan,

but it’s getting fresh attention because of the fires that have devastated parts of Southern California (http://beta.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-southern-california-wildfires-live-updates-htmlstory.html) over the last week.

The House tax bill entirely eliminates the deduction that allows people to claim uninsured losses after all types of disasters (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wildfire-tax-deduction-20171107-story.html);

the Senate version allows people to take the deduction only if the president declares a federal disaster.

So far this year, nearly 58,000 wildfires have burned more than 9 million acres in the U.S., according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Only a small number would qualify taxpayers for relief under the Senate bill.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-congress-tax-fire-20171210-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-congress-tax-fire-20171210-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter)

[boutons_deux]

https://media.newyorker.com/cartoons/5a2ec5b5d0152e62fb021669/master/w_1023,c_limit/dc121117.jpg



“Thank goodness we finally have an Administration that speaks for those of us
who don’t care what happens to the planet in a hundred years because we’ll be dead.”

[boutons_deux]

More news about the EPA, Environmental POLLUTION Agency

Why EPA proposal to put high-polluting diesel trucks back on American roadways is a bad move

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is once again in the spotlight, this time by its proposing to

allow high-polluting diesel “glider” trucks to operate on America’s roads.

A glider truck is one where an older, high-polluting engine is attached to a new chassis and the entire package is then sold as new.

https://alankandel.scienceblog.com/files/2017/12/glider-vs-trucks_crop1.png

https://alankandel.scienceblog.com/2017/12/09/why-epa-proposal-to-put-high-polluting-diesel-trucks-back-on-american-roadways-is-a-bad-move/

Repugs and Dems are not equivalent.

[boutons_deux]

Senate Narrowly OKs Trump Judicial Pick With Rare ‘Not Qualified’ ABA Rating

https://dawm7kda6y2v0.cloudfront.net/uploads/2017/12/[email protected]


On a party-line vote of 50-48, the Republican-led Senate backed Leonard Steven Grasz to serve on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/senate-approves-trump-judicial-pick-not-qualified-rating?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

[boutons_deux]

$700B for the MIC, $0 for CHIP.

There's not even discussion of renewing CHIP, while Repugs obsess about enriching the oligarchy, for whom the poor, any color skin, are totally disposable.

[boutons_deux]

The biggest threat to the resistance you never heard of

SLAPP stands for “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.” It is a lawsuit brought by big corporations intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the overwhelming costs of a legal defense until they’re forced to abandon their criticism or opposition.

In August, Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind that pipeline, filed a similar RICO case against Greenpeace entities and two other defendants over Standing Rock. The suit accuses them of participating in a sprawling criminal conspiracy to disrupt business and defraud donors. The lawsuit even alleges they support eco-terrorism and engage in drug trafficking.

The lawsuit claims Greenpeace cost the company $300 million. Since RICO claims entitle plaintiffs to recover triple damages, the case potentially could cost Greenpeace $900 million. That would be the end of Greenpeace.

Just by filing the suits, Energy Transfer Partners and Resolute are trying to drain environmental groups of time, energy, and resources they need, so they can’t continue to fight to protect the environment.

Connect the dots, and consider the chilling effect SLAPP suits are having on any group seeking to protect public health, worker’s rights, and even our democracy.

Who’s behind all of this?

Both the lawsuits I just mentioned were

filed by Michael Bowe. He is also a member of Donald Trump’s personal legal team.

Bowe has publicly stated that he’s in conversations with other corporations considering filing their own SLAPP lawsuits.

https://www.salon.com/2017/12/13/the-biggest-threat-to-the-resistance-you-never-heard-of/

[boutons_deux]

Trump floats dramatic cuts to children’s programs

President Donald Trump wants to significantly reduce spending on children’s education and health care.

Released Tuesday by the Urban Institute, the analysis found that the proposed budget would

reduce federal spending on

education by 15 percent,

children’s health care spending by 10 percent and

spending on child-related nutrition by 9 percent.

The cuts to funding for children's programs would help offset the estimated $1 trillion deficit the Trump tax plan would create.

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=266021&page=22

The "Trump tax plan" was DOA in Congress. The Repug tax plan for oligarchy enrichment/empowerment, which Trash will sign, is the accurate name.

[boutons_deux]

Taxpayers funded the fraudulent for-profit scam colleges, but ...

Betsy DeVos halts debt relief for defrauded students

Students who were victims of fraud won’t be granted loan relief anymore

The U.S. Department of Education put a halt on student loan debt cancellations for student who were victims of fraud by for-profit colleges —

leaving many students in the dark about their loan status without an official announcement

“Hundreds of thousands of students were defrauded and cheated by predatory colleges that broke the law, but today’s report confirms

Secretary DeVos tried to shirk her responsibility to these students and

shut down the borrower-defense program, leaving them with nowhere to turn,” Murray, the senior Democrat on the Education Committee,

https://www.salon.com/2017/12/13/betsy-devos-halts-debt-relief-for-defrauded-students/

... while the Repugs plan to raise taxes on the indebted people by killing the interest deduction on student loans.

[boutons_deux]

Not an Onion satire! :lol

Trump’s mining regulator nominee was once dropped by the agency for doing “junk” work

Steven Gardner was accused of sabotaging the Office of Surface Mining. Now he’s likely to be its next chief

President Donald Trump’s choice to head a federal coal mine regulator, like more than one of his nominees, is a vocal critic of the very agency he’s being asked to lead. Steven Gardner is a longtime coal industry consultant

in Gardner’s case, there is an unusual — and contentious — twist:

He runs an engineering firm that produced a report as part of the process of preparing that regulation, and

the agency deemed it so shoddy that it cut ties with Gardner’s company. Now he’s the nominee to head that agency, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

blasted it as “nonsensical,” “junk,” “inaccurate and incomplete,” and “a piece of crap.”

Some OSMRE staff members went so far as to accuse Gardner of trying to sabotage the regulation his firm was hired to help develop.

https://www.salon.com/2017/12/13/trumps-mining-regulator-nominee-was-once-dropped-by-the-agency-for-doing-junk-work_partner/

:lol

[boutons_deux]

Inspector general: Betsy DeVos hasn't canceled a single defrauded student loan this entire year (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/12/1723609/-Inspector-general-Betsy-DeVos-hasn-t-canceled-a-single-defrauded-student-loan-this-entire-year)

According to a report by the inspector general, DeVos also brought the existing cancellation process to a crawl.

Since Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the department has received 25,991 claims for discharging loans.

It has denied two requests and approved none, the inspector general, an independent auditor within the agency, found.


The inspector general also found the department did not have a sufficient information system and had to manually retrieve claims data.

“Hundreds of thousands of students were defrauded and cheated by predatory colleges that broke the law,

but today’s report confirms Secretary DeVos tried to shirk her responsibility to these students and shut down the borrower-defense program,

leaving them with nowhere to turn,” said Senator Patty Murray, the senior Democrat on the Education Committee.


To put that into perspective, Obama’s Department of Education received almost twice as many claims and approved almost 28,000 of them. Of course,

this is what happens when you appoint someone from the predatory loan business to oversee the abuses of the predatory loan system. (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/6/21/1673814/-Thanks-to-Betsy-DeVos-a-private-student-loan-CEO-will-be-overseeing-your-federal-student-loans)

(https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/12/1723609/-Inspector-general-Betsy-DeVos-hasn-t-canceled-a-single-defrauded-student-loan-this-entire-year?detail=emaildkre)https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/12/1723609/-Inspector-general-Betsy-DeVos-hasn-t-canceled-a-single-defrauded-student-loan-this-entire-year?
detail=emaildkre

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

Thanks to Betsy DeVos, a private student loan CEO will be overseeing your federal student loans (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/6/21/1673814/-Thanks-to-Betsy-DeVos-a-private-student-loan-CEO-will-be-overseeing-your-federal-student-loans)

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/6/21/1673814/-Thanks-to-Betsy-DeVos-a-private-student-loan-CEO-will-be-overseeing-your-federal-student-loans

[spurraider21]

thats it boo..let it all out. let it all out. no good to keep all that anger bottled up inside
you repugs cant hold him down

[boutons_deux]

ALEC Gives Top Award to Legislator Jailed for Trying to Sneak Loaded Gun on to Plane

Firearms are only allowed on planes if they are unloaded and properly stored in checked baggage,

but Lori Saine thought she was above the law.

https://www.alternet.org/sites/default/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/screen_shot_2017-12-13_at_1.41.05_pm.png?itok=xN6pNCrt

Saine was arrested (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4323273-Lori-Saine-Pc-Statement-Redacted.html#document/p1) Wednesday at the Denver International Airport for trying to bring a loaded semi-automatic handgun through security.

Saine was charged with a sixth-degree felony. If convicted, she could face up to 18 months in jail and a fine of up to $100,000.

(https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/alec-gives-top-award-legislator-jailed-trying-sneak-loaded-gun-plane)https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/alec-gives-top-award-legislator-jailed-trying-sneak-loaded-gun-plane

Religion and gun fellatin makes you fuckin stupid.

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s controversial EPA nominee withdraws following GOP objections

Michael Dourson was tapped to oversee the EPA’s chemical safety division despite his ties to the chemicals industry

Michael Dourson, a researcher whose work had been

frequently used by chemical companies to downplay the hazards posed by their products

, has withdrawn his name from consideration to oversee the Environmental Protection Agency's chemical safety division.

Dourson became the target of substantial opposition from both Democrats and public health advocacy groups when his nomination was announced, according to NBC News (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democrats-trump-nominee-toxic-chemical-swamp-creature-n807281).

The concern was that, because he had spent decades conducting research that chemicals companies used to allay public concerns about the safety risks posed by their products,

Dourson might not be impartial enough :lol

to effectively serve the public's interest in his position at the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Instead of draining the swamp, [Trump] has filled it up with some of the swampiest creatures ever. And it keeps getting scarier — Michael Dourson might be the worst yet.

Dr. Dourson has made a career of creating junk science for industry,"

https://www.salon.com/2017/12/14/trumps-controversial-epa-nominee-withdraws-following-gop-objections/

One fox shooed away from the hen house, There Will Be More

[boutons_deux]

‘Hoo boy’: Democratic senator ridicules Trump judicial nominee unable to answer basic legal questions

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/petersen-800x430.jpg

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) took to Twitter on Thursday night to mock one of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, posting a clip of a current member of the Federal Election Commission who has been nominated for a spot on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

a clip of Trump nominee Matthew Spencer Petersen struggling to respond to basic legal questions from the Judiciary Committee, with the Democratic senator adding at the end at the end of his tweet: “hoo boy.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) pressed Petersen who finally had to admit he had never taken a deposition by himself or argued a motion in state or federal court.

Under further questioning on basic legal terms, Petersen demurred and was unable to answer, once stating, “Yes…my background is not in litigation,”

before later attempting to get completely out of answering the question by saying, “I would probably not be able to give you a good definition right here at the table.”

Asked about to two basic abstention doctrines, Petersen offered that he was aware of them but was unable to describe their applications on a federal court.

Followers of Whithouse were equally appalled with one writing,

“I can’t even. this is a joke. I was more qualified than this ‘nominee’ when I was a law clerk before I even passed the bar. Thank you for exposing this farce.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/hoo-boy-democratic-senator-ridicules-trump-judicial-nominee-unable-to-answer-basic-legal-questions/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29 (https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/hoo-boy-democratic-senator-ridicules-trump-judicial-nominee-unable-to-answer-basic-legal-questions/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29)

[boutons_deux]

Thanks to the Repug White Male Supremacy / Christian Sharia's Ministry of Truth

The Trump administration sent the CDC a list of banned words, including transgender and fetus

In some cases, there were alternatives for terms, such as

replacing "science-based" with “community standards and wishes." :lol :lol

Those words were

“fetus,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

https://thinkprogress.org/banned-words-cdc-09d25a7539fc/

[boutons_deux]

EPA signs no-bid deal with GOP oppo research team to 'shape press coverage' (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/15/1724743/-Your-tax-money-at-work-EPA-signs-no-bid-deal-with-GOP-oppo-research-team-to-shape-press-coverage)

the Environmental Protection Agency has hired a leading Republican opposition research firm to “track and shape press coverage of the agency.”

The $120,000 no-bid contract is with Definers Group, founded by Matt Rhoades.

An EPA spokeswoman said the Definers contract is for “media monitoring/newsclip compilation.”

Given the awful record that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has been chalking up since he took over the job, and the media attention he’s been getting for it, going on the attack against the media with the help of taxpayer-funded professionals is no surprise.

And that’s what can be expected from Definers, perhaps deploying a more sophisticated version of the “fake news! fake news!” mantra offered daily by Pr*sid*nt Trump.

Along with some smears of critics of the Trump regime’s EPA.

Definers will no doubt do what it can to keep its fingerprints off those attacks.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1724743

[boutons_deux]

another group that Trash is screwing

The coal miner’s president: Trump moves to weaken black lung protections

Trump praised coal miners on the campaign trail, but hasn’t been treating them well in office

President Donald Trump is considering weakening a regulation intended to protect the health of one of the demographics he has often claimed to care most about — America's coal miners.

A notice labeled "Regulatory Reform of Existing Standards and Regulations; Retrospective Study of Respirable Coal Mine Dust Rule" (https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201710&RIN=1219-AB88) was published on Thursday by the White House for the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail (https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/trump-regulatory-initiative-targets-black-lung-protections/article_0710897c-7059-5343-a586-88fbfa0afaa8.html).

The stated purpose of the reevaluation would be to determine how a 2014 rule passed under President Barack Obama regulating coal miners' exposure to coal dust

"could be improved or made more effective or less burdensome." :lol

Murray Energy — whose owner, Bob Murray (https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/06/trumps-coal-backers-energy-power-rick-perry-244535), was a major Trump backer in the 2016 election — released a statement saying that it is "pleased that the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration is reexamining the Obama administration’s Respirable Dust Rule, which fails to protect coal miners in any way."
In spite of a 1969 law that increased coal mine safety requirements, more than 76,000 coal miners throughout America died of black lung disease between 1968 and 2014. Many of those deaths occurred among coal miners whose entire mining careers took place after the 1969 law had taken effect.


Trump may have let his true feelings about coal miners be known during a Playboy interview in 1990 (http://www.playboy.com/articles/playboy-interview-donald-trump-1990), however.

"The coal miner gets black-lung disease, his son gets it, then his son," Trump told Playboy. "If I had been the son of a coal miner, I would have left the damn mines. But most people don’t have the imagination — or whatever — to leave their mine. They don’t have 'it.'"

https://www.salon.com/2017/12/15/the-coal-miners-president-trump-moves-to-weaken-black-lung-protections/

Mining industry support for killing the rule is proof that Trash's Labor Dept approves dead miners.

[koriwhat]

Religion and gun fellatin makes you fuckin stupid.

wow, what a bold statement and very broad reaching.

sitting on ST posting shit article after shit article while having HRC/Bernie fellation makes you fuckin stupid.

[boutons_deux]

http://www.nationalmemo.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/danzcolorplus8647-668x501.jpg

[boutons_deux]

Rotten Eggs: USDA Reverses Organic Animal Welfare Policy (https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/12/rotten-eggs-usda-reverses-organic-anmal-welfare-policy.html)

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed a new rule (https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2017-27316.pdf) on Friday that shelves a previous rule that would have set minimal living conditions for hens that produce eggs certified as “USDA Organic”.

Under this new rule,

chickens that produce organic eggs need not be treated any more humanely than those raised on factory farms.
On January 19, 2017– the day before Trump was inaugurated– the USDA had adopted a rule (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/19/2017-00888/national-organic-program-nop-organic-livestock-and-poultry-practices)that would have set some basic animal welfare standards for organic livestock and poultry products.

In addition to avian living conditions, the rule included provisions for livestock handling and transport for slaughter, and expanded and clarified requirements for livestock care and production practices, and for mammalian living conditions.

The measures were initially due to come into effect in March, but were delayed by the incoming administration..

According to a recent Consumer Reports (http://greenerchoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017-Animal-Welfare-Survey-Public-Report.pdf) survey, 60% of those surveyed believe it is highly important that the animals used to produce organic food are raised on farms with high standards of animal welfare.

And 83% of consumers who identify themselves as regularly buying organic eggs say it’s highly important that hens who produce organic eggs are allowed to move freely outdoors.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/12/rotten-eggs-usda-reverses-organic-anmal-welfare-policy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capi talism%29

Just another "Fuck That Knitter" move (and fuck Americans, and fuck chickens, too)

[boutons_deux]

The Trump Administration Word Ban Extends to Other Federal Agencies. Its Ongoing Assault on Science Is Much Worse.

If only the banning of "science-based" and "diversity" was the worst thing the Trump administration has done to science.


https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_large/public/views-article/truth.jpg?itok=YgLZ1vq4

the administration intends to pull funding from science-based HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives that work to promote abstinence-only programs instead,

even though peer-reviewed research consistently finds (http://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(17)30260-4/fulltext) that abstinence-only programs do not delay sexual activity or change other sexual risk behaviors.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke summoned the head of Joshua Tree National Park to his office for a tongue lashing (http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/364994-zinke-reprimanded-park-head-after-climate-tweets) over tweets the park had sent out referencing climate change.

That’s right: the park director flew across the country to be reprimanded for a couple of tweets, in order to send a message to all park directors:

talking about climate change is verboten.

The EPA banned scientists who receive EPA grants (https://blog.ucsusa.org/michael-halpern/the-epa-science-advisory-board-is-being-compromised-heres-why-that-matters)—the ones the agency has decided do the most promising environmental and public health research—from providing science advice to the agency.

The Department of Interior is trying to defund and prevent public access to (https://www.americangeosciences.org/geotimes/23-science-organizations-urge-congress-continue-funding-usgs-library) the US Geological Survey library system.

The White House has no science advisor, and the president’s Office of Science and Technology Policy is a ghost town.

The administration has shut down studies where it expects it won’t like the outcome:

on climate change in the tropics (https://eos.org/articles/major-federal-tropical-research-project-to-cease-7-years-early),

on teen pregnancy prevention (https://www.wired.com/story/teen-pregnancy-researchers-regroup-after-trumps-hhs-pulls-funding/), and

on the health risks of surface coal mining in West Virginia (http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=8212017).

Science agencies are targeted across the board for severe budget cuts.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/12/17/trump-administration-word-ban-extends-other-federal-agencies-its-ongoing-assault

[boutons_deux]

BigCorp and US military preparing for climate change, Mar-a-Lago going under water, but Repugs ...

Trash will drop climate change from US National Security Strategy

The Trump administration (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/trump-administration) will drop climate change from a list of global threats in a new National Security Strategy the president is due to unveil on Monday.

Instead, Trump’s NSS paper will emphasis the need for the US to regain its economic competitiveness in the world. :lol

That stance represents a sharp change from the Obama administration’s NSS (http://nssarchive.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015.pdf), which placed climate change as one of the main dangers facing the nation and made building international consensus on containing global warming a national security priority.

White House officials said on Sunday the Trump NSS was the culmination of

11 months of collaboration between all the leading security, foreign policy and economic agencies of government. :lol so serious and credible! :lol

The exclusion of climate change as a national security threat appears however to conflict with views previously expressed (https://www.propublica.org/article/trumps-defense-secretary-cites-climate-change-national-security-challenge) by the defense secretary, James

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/18/trump-drop-climate-change-national-security-strategy

[boutons_deux]

Public radio normalizes Trump’s misleading response to deadly train crash

This is how the media normalizes the abnormal.

“President Trump saying today he is offering his thoughts and prayers for those involved in a derailment in Washington state,” the MPR host said.

“The president thanked the first responders at the scene and said the White House is monitoring the situation.

His thoughts came in a tweet Monday about the derailment that officials say killed at least six people.”

But there’s just one problem — Trump’s response was nowhere near as measured and “presidential” as MPR would have its listeners believe.

Trump’s initial response to the derailment was not in fact to offer “thoughts and prayers,” but to shamelessly politicize the trag


Donald J. Trump (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)
(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)✔@realDonaldTrump (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)


The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA

shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly.

Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East

while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!

12:41 PM - Dec 18, 2017 (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/942827072824672262)

The budget Trump proposed earlier this year included

drastic cuts to Amtrak, including a $928 million cut in transit construction grants and

a $630 million cut in subsidies for long-distance Amtrak routes.

https://thinkprogress.org/minnesota-public-radio-trump-response-washington-train-derailment-557b3cd9048a/

Any hear or see that Trash wants to stop or cut spending his $7T in the M/E? :lol

[dabom]

Cut taxes raise spending. :lol

[spurraider21]

koriwhat and booboo deserve each other. they're the same thing except booboo also spams articles

[boutons_deux]

As Temperatures Fall, No Halt To Evictions Across Most Of The Country

There are about 12,000 eviction cases each year in Milwaukee County, and more than an estimated 2.7 million evictions across the country.

Many of those evictions take place in the winter, when temperatures fall below freezing. Some countries, such as France, Austria and Poland, prohibit removing people from their homes when it's so cold. But that's not the case in the United States. A few places, like Maryland and Washington, D.C., postpone evictions when it's below freezing and over the holidays, although those places are the exception rather than the rule.

In Wisconsin, the state legislature passed a law in 2011 that expressly prohibits local governments from imposing eviction moratoriums.

( WI is Repug Kockistan. The Kock Bros personal experiment if fucking people over, run by Kock sucker Scott Walker)

https://www.npr.org/2017/12/18/570796464/as-temperatures-fall-no-halt-to-evictions-across-most-of-the-country

[boutons_deux]

Trump judicial nominee Matthew Petersen withdraws after viral hearing video

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/18/politics/trump-judicial-nominee-petersen-withdraws/index.html

There's plenty more where this joke asshole came from, a Trash/Repug insult to the judicial branch.

[boutons_deux]

EPA chief Pruitt had office swept for surveillance bugs

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had his office professionally examined earlier this year to look for covert surveillance devices.

The EPA paid $3,000 in March to Edwin Steinmetz Associates to do a “sweep for covert/illegal surveillance devices” in Administrator Scott Pruitt (http://origin-nyi.thehill.com/people/edward-scott-pruitt)’s office at the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters, documents provided to The Hill show.

The EPA source who provided the documents on the condition of anonymity said the sweep, which came weeks after Pruitt’s arrival at the agency, did not uncover any bugs.

Pruitt, Oklahoma's former attorney general, has taken a number of steps to guard his security and privacy in his time as EPA head.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/365495-epa-chief-pruitt-had-office-swept-for-surveillance-bugs

[boutons_deux]

E.P.A. Contractor Has Spent Past Year Scouring the Agency for Anti-Trump Officials

One of the top executives of a consulting firm that the Environmental Protection Agency has recently hired to help it with media affairs has spent the past year investigating agency employees who have been critical of the Trump administration, federal records show.

The firm, Definers Public Affairs (https://www.definersdc.com/), based in Virginia, specializes in conducting opposition research, meaning that it seeks to find damaging information on political or corporate rivals.

A vice president for the firm, Allan Blutstein (https://www.definersdc.com/allan-blutstein), federal records show, has submitted at least 40 Freedom of Information Act requests to the E.P.A. since President Trump was sworn in. Many of those requests target employees known to be questioning management at the E.P.A. since Scott Pruitt, the agency’s administrator, was confirmed.

he was taking aim at “resistance” figures in the federal government, adding that he hoped to discover whether they had done anything that might embarrass them or hurt their cause.

The contract, which was awarded this month, is part of an unconventional news media operation that Mr. Pruitt has set up at the agency as he tries to get a handle on the coverage of him by newspapers, including The New York Times, and criticism by Democrats in Congress and environmental groups.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/us/politics/epa-scott-pruitt-foia.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/us/politics/epa-scott-pruitt-foia.html)

[boutons_deux]

E.P.A. Employees Spoke Out. Then Came Scrutiny of Their Email.

One Environmental Protection Agency employee spoke up at a private lunch held near the agency headquarters, saying she feared the nation might be headed toward an “environmental catastrophe.”

Another staff member, from Seattle, sent a letter to Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator, raising similar concerns about the direction of the agency.

A third, from Philadelphia, went to a rally where he protested against agency budget cuts.

Three different agency employees, in different jobs, from three different cities, but each encountered a similar outcome:

Federal records show that within a matter of days, requests were submitted (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4331939-Tracking-EPA-Employees.html) for copies of emails written by them

that mentioned either Mr. Pruitt or President Trump, or any communication with Democrats in Congress that might have been critical of the agency.

The requests came from a Virginia-based lawyer working with America Rising (https://americarisingcorp.com/about-us/), a Republican campaign research group that specializes in helping party candidates and conservative groups find damaging information on political rivals, and which, in this case, was looking for information that could undermine employees who had criticized the E.P.A.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/17/us/politics/epa-pruitt-media-monitoring.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[boutons_deux]

White House taking down petition website, pledges to launch new one

The “We The People” website, launched by then-President Obama in 2011, will be taken down on Tuesday at midnight,

The Associated Press reported Monday.

Officials told the AP that platform will be replaced with a new website in late January and that

all of the existing petitions will be restored at that time. :lol

The Trump administration has yet to respond to any petitions that have exceeded 100,000 signatures, :lol

which necessitate a response from the federal government.

Trump officials told the AP that the administration will begin responding to the petitions once the new website is live. :lol

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/365521-trump-admin-to-temporarily-take-down-petition-website

[boutons_deux]

For the CRAPICATION record


Scott Pruitt is paranoid, preposterous, and absolutely out of control (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/19/1725813/-Scott-Pruitt-is-paranoid-preposterous-and-absolutely-out-of-control)

https://images.dailykos.com/images/463911/story_image/GettyImages-801998126.jpg?1508766500

The EPA doesn’t have the task of promoting oil and gas.

It doesn’t have the task of promoting anything outside the U.S.

And yet, Scott Pruitt and his team of personal guards just got back from sampling the couscous at an extended Moroccan vacation (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/12/13/scott-pruitt-and-a-crew-of-epa-aides-just-spent-four-days-in-morocco-promoting-natural-gas/).


The purpose of the trip sparked questions from environmental groups, Democratic lawmakers and some industry experts, who noted that

EPA plays no formal role in overseeing natural gas exports.

Such activities are overseen primarily by the Energy Department and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Pruitt took along seven aides and an undisclosed number of staff from his protective detail.

The group included four political aides, including Samantha Dravis, associate administrator of the Office of Policy, and senior advisers Sarah Greenwalt and Lincoln Ferguson, as well as one career official, Jane Nishida, principal deputy assistant administrator of the Office of International and Tribal Affairs.


The “undisclosed number” of bodyguards could be as many as 30, since Pruitt just added 12 more (https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-pruitt-bodyguards-2500198933.html).

That’s another $2 million in salaries alone, before you add on training, equipping, and flying them to Morocco for all-you-can-eat pastilla. It’s not clear how many of Pruitt’s staff are employed as food tasters.

Like all Pruitt events, the news about his Moroccan adventure was only made public after his return, because Pruitt refuses to publish his schedule in advance out of “security concerns (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/us/politics/scott-pruitt-epa.html).” And

Pruitt got special permission to upgrade his flights to business class, at a cost of several thousand dollars per ticket, also out of “security concerns.”

Meanwhile, back at home Pruitt has demonstrated his obsessive paranoia not just with his ever-growing staff of bodyguards, but with his determination to make sure no one ever overhears a word he says (http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/365495-epa-chief-pruitt-had-office-swept-for-surveillance-bugs).

The EPA paid $3,000 in March to Edwin Steinmetz Associates to do a “sweep for covert/illegal surveillance devices” in Administrator Scott Pruitt’s office at the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters, documents provided to The Hill show.


The bug sweeps are on top of Pruitt’s custom made cone-of-silence (http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/26/politics/pruitt-sound-proof-booth/index.html) which allows him to talk without being overheard. None of which makes the least bit of sense. Scott Pruitt is not only a public servant, he’s a public servant with a very domestic agenda.

No other EPA official has ever felt any compulsion to ask for any of this. Just what is Pruitt hiding?

What possible justification can the man in charge of enforcing the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act at an agency where there is almost no classified information have for putting in something literally called a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/26/politics/pruitt-sound-proof-booth/index.html)?

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is known for mandating note-free meetings,

he's the only administrator to have requested his 24/7 own security detail and

now he's about to have his own sound-proof booth.

The EPA is spending close to $25,000 to construct a secure space for Pruitt within the agency, according to government contracting records first obtained and reported by the Washington Post.


Scott Pruitt is doing … something.

Something that requires that no one take notes.

Something that requires that his office be swept for bugs.

Something that requires he have a sound-proof booth in his office.

And that’s just the start (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/us/politics/scott-pruitt-epa.html).

Mr. Pruitt, according to the employees, who requested anonymity out of fear of losing their jobs,

often makes important phone calls from other offices rather than use the phone in his office,

and he is accompanied, even at E.P.A. headquarters, by armed guards, the first head of the agency to ever request round-the-clock security.


These are precautions aren’t just unusual. They are insane. No EPA chief has ever had anything like these requirements.

No president has ever had anything like these requirements.

No director of the CIA has anything like these requirements.

To support his continually expanding ranks of personal guards,

Pruitt ignored a hiring freeze and budgetary limits,

even though the enforcement budget of the EPA was being severely cut and scientists were being forced out.

If you’re wondering, Pruitt’s personal security now costs about 63 percent as much as it costs to guard the Pope (https://books.google.com/books?id=SWKZDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=vatican+swiss+guard+annual+cost&source=bl&ots=cGIjfnUj76&sig=dLvBu35-5y0O-ofRGfRjJ0EnNIs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjHpNiUvZbYAhXL6oMKHcSfClYQ6AEIUTAH#v=on epage&q=vatican%20swiss%20guard%20annual%20cost&f=false)—and one of the two is working to cut that cost.

This isn’t caution. If Republicans are genuinely concerned that someone in Washington is planning a coup, the guy who is

obsessed with secrecy,

meeting with foreign leaders for no apparent reason, and

building a personal army might be a place to start.

If you’re wondering about those other folks we know went to Morocco, ... and Jane Nishida actually has some environmental experience

(including working for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which Pruitt and Trump defunded (https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/virginia/articles/2017-03-16/trump-budget-cuts-funding-for-epas-chesapeake-bay-program)). :lol

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/19/1725813/-Scott-Pruitt-is-paranoid-preposterous-and-absolutely-out-of-control?detail=emaildkre

... and obviously, Trash and Repugs don't care WTF Pruitt is doing, as long as screws America and the environment as the Environmental Pollution Agency

[boutons_deux]

Scott Pruitt admits new Superfund site rules were pulled entirely from his posterior (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/20/1726210/-Scott-Pruitt-s-admits-new-SuperFund-rules-were-pulled-entirely-from-his-posterior)

Among Pruitt’s paranoid quirks is ordering that no minutes be kept of his meetings and banning the use of recording devices on an entire floor of the EPA. Which might help to explain this catastrophe. (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/pruitt-superfund-task-force-no-records?utm_content=buffer9c4fd&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer)


The Environmental Protection Agency says an internal task force appointed to revamp how the nation’s most polluted sites are cleaned up generated no record of its deliberations.


That’s right. An eight-month effort to deal with the worst environmental sites in the nation has produced … nothing. Except that’s not quite true. It only took a couple of weeks for that task force to produce a set of recommendations.

The task force in June issued a nearly three-dozen page report containing 42 detailed recommendations, all of which Pruitt immediately adopted.


It’s just when it comes to backing up those recommendations with any sort of documentation that the task force responds with a shrug. After receiving a FOIA request for documents used in developing those “immediately adopted” recommendations, the EPA had this to say:

… a lawyer for EPA has written PEER to say that the task force had no agenda for its meetings, kept no minutes and used no reference materials.


Congratulations to Pruitt’s team for admitting they pulled this plan right out of their collective asses.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1726210

[boutons_deux]

Did the Wall Street Journal kill an editorial exposing Trump’s mob dealings?

Rupert Murdoch’s loyalties to Trump, and the journalistic integrity of the WSJ, starts to blur


Freeman wrote a strong attack on Trump’s Mob dealings, and had a second ready to go.

But as Trump got closer to clinching the nomination, Paul Gigot kept delaying publication, saying “it needed work.”

Once Trump became the likely Republican nominee, Freeman executed a neat volte-face.

“The facts suggest that Mrs. Clinton is more likely to abuse liberties than Mr. Trump,” he wrote.

“America managed to survive Mr. Clinton’s two terms, so it can stand the far less vulgar Mr. Trump.”


Some commentators, such as conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, believe (https://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/neverreformconservatism-at-the-wall-street-journal/?module=BlogPost-ReadMore&version=Blog%20Main&action=Click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body#more-21626) the Journal’s editorial page toes the ideological line of House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Likewise, the Journal's writers tend to bite their proverbial tongue when it comes to criticizing Trump — at least since he became president.

Recently, WSJ published an editorial (https://www.wsj.com/articles/muellers-credibility-problem-1512432318) questioning Robert Mueller’s “credibility” and suggested that he should resign from leading the Russia investigation.

Rupert Murdoch, who owns both WSJ and Fox News, is a friend of the president, and reportedly advises Trump daily.

“The president speaks to Murdoch now almost every day.

And Murdoch speaks with Jared Kushner as well. Murdoch is one of the people who urges the president to stay focused on the economy narrowly and foreign policy more broadly,”

https://www.salon.com/2017/12/20/did-the-wall-street-journal-kill-an-editorial-exposing-trumps-mob-dealings/

Clearly Mortdick has Fox News sucking off Trash at every turn.

[boutons_deux]

Betsy DeVos announces less relief for defrauded student loan borrowers

Students ripped off by for-profit college loan programs (http://www.newsweek.com/2015/03/13/students-profit-college-sued-predatory-lending-declare-debt-strike-308902.html) may face a painful lesson in the workings of government thanks to the federal Education Department’s decision to change the rules about forgiving their debt.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced Wednesday that the department is altering the Obama Administration’s promise of completely erasing loans taken out by students defrauded by the Corinthian Colleges (http://www.newsweek.com/college-students-hit-high-interest-loans-76629) chain.

DeVos said under the new standards, forgiveness will now be tied to students’ income as a way of measuring whether they did enjoy some benefit from their educations—even if they were deceived about the worth of their diplomas.


"No fraud is acceptable, and students deserve relief if the school they attended acted dishonestly,” DeVos said :lol

“This improved process will allow claims to be adjudicated quickly and harmed students to be treated fairly,” ;lol

an affected student making 70 percent of a peer's income would get just 30 percent loan relief. :lol

it's wrong to hold students responsible for loans when they were duped (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/09/29/feds-found-widespread-fraud-at-corinthian-colleges-why-are-students-still-paying-the-price/?utm_term=.765b431e912f) by the for-profit enterprises about job-placement rates and should be freed of their debt.

"It is unlawful for @usedgov to collect Corinthian debt it already determined was fraudulent. #4profit borrowers deserve justice,

Higher Ed, Not Debt@HigherEdNotDebt (https://twitter.com/HigherEdNotDebt)


This morning, borrowers filed a nation-wide class action against @usedgov (https://twitter.com/usedgov) for illegally and unfairly denying relief to thousands of former Corinthian students who the Department already decided are entitled to have loans discharged and payments refunded. https://buff.ly/2BdhfoM (https://t.co/KpWF000ygk)
2:16 PM - Dec 20, 2017 (https://twitter.com/HigherEdNotDebt/status/943575752569704448)

Those who stand to see less than full forgiveness are students who applied for refunds after President Donald Trump took office on January 20, according to the Associated Press (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-for-profit-college-fraud-relief-20171220-story.html),

while those who had claims approved in full under the Obama administration will receive their money.


So far, DOE officials say the agency has approved 12,900 claims submitted by former Corinthian students and denied 8,600.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/betsy-devos-announces-less-relief-for-defrauded-student-loan-borrowers/

An unending "fuck all y'all to hell" from avaricious Repug kakistocracy to Americans. Repugs gotta fuck Americans to enrich the oligarchy.

[boutons_deux]

Just wait until Ryan pays Medicaid in block grants to the states to see the Repugs usinh the grants a political slush funds and letting poor people suffer and die without adequate care. God doesn't love the poor according to so-called Christians, so Repugs are justified in fucking them over.

Growing number of US hospitals can’t treat kids

A growing number of children who show up in US emergency rooms can’t get the treatment they need at their local hospital and need to be transferred elsewhere for care, a new study suggests.

Overall, in California, Florida, Massachusetts, and New York—four of the most populous US states—pediatric transfers surged 25%: from roughly 64,000 in 2006 to close to 80,000 in 2011,

“When kids are taken to their local hospital’s emergency department, they are increasingly likely to be transferred to more distant referral centers for care they used to be able to get at home,” McManus said by email.

“We now know that pretty much the same thing is happening across the country.”

https://www.mdlinx.com/urology/medical-news-article/2017/12/22/us-hospitals-referral-children-emergency-rooms/7498537/

The most expensive, inefficient, for-profit health care in the world fucks over citizens.

[boutons_deux]

US Mulls Rollbacks of Oil Drilling Regulations (http://track.cordial.io/c/275:5a422ebd2cab4e2f56d6cc0e:ot:591df78bac0c811781 a7041f:1/22047c30/7c60c11505406a43fc4f020fc799dbd6/-6/)






You know the drill. President Donald Trump’s ongoing crusade against regulations reportedly includes changes to offshore oil exploration safeguards.

Enacted after the deadly 2010 Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico environmental disaster (http://track.cordial.io/c/275:5a422ebd2cab4e2f56d6cc0e:ot:591df78bac0c811781 a7041f:1/1d153f3b/66e149a583f51cfa45d53e5fc0f74572/-6/), the federal rules said to be on the chopping block include required third-party inspections of critical equipment and regulator access to real-time production data.

The Interior Department, :lol

which enforces exploration rules, :lol

might also delete the word “safe” :lol from certain regulations for its ambiguity.

If made, the changes could save oil companies an estimated $900 million per year.







https://www.wsj.com/articles/regulators-propose-rollbacks-to-offshore-drilling-safety-measures-1514206800

[boutons_deux]

US should prepare for a ‘big-ass’ war, general warns

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/General-Robert-Neller-1-800x430.jpg

Marines stationed in Norway should be prepared for a “big-ass fight” with a foreign adversary, perhaps Russia,

a four-star general said during a Christmas visit.

"I hope I'm wrong, :lol

but there's a war coming,"

Robert Neller, a four-star who currently serves as the 37th Commandant of the Marine Corps, told the Marines in Trondheim (https://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/12/21/marine-leaders-highlight-norway-units-role-deterrent-russia.html), Norway.

"You're in a fight here, an informational fight, a political fight, by your presence."

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/us-should-prepare-for-a-big-ass-war-general-warns/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Apart from the career-padding, medal-chasing Generals loving wars (Generals don't get killed, only cannon fodder is killed, having been stupid enough to enlist for "freedom and American vales"), MIC profiteering, bloodthirsty neocon imperialists, what's the point of this war?

[boutons_deux]

‘It was the Lord’: Megyn Kelly says God can help black men forgive dirty cops who lie to put them in jail


https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WCNC_12-26-2017_09.17.37-800x430.jpg

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/it-was-the-lord-megyn-kelly-says-god-can-help-black-men-forgive-dirty-cops-who-lie-to-put-them-in-jail/

[boutons_deux]

Trash’s Five Biggest Energy Blunders in 2017


Forsaking global leadership

Propping up coal

Energy Secretary Rick Perry submitted a notice of proposed rulemaking that would essentially subsidize power plants that can stockpile more than 90 days’ worth of fuel on site—which was another way of saying coal and nuclear plants.

Vehicle mileage standards

China, France, and Britain (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608347/britain-is-getting-rid-of-the-internal-combustion-engine/) take steps to outlaw combustion-engine vehicles altogether in the decades ahead, the Trump administration is trying to roll back fuel economy standards.

Clean Power Plan

Defunding energy research

The White House’s fiscal 2018 budget (https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/05/f34/FY2018BudgetinBrief_0.pdf) proposal slashed research funding for the Department of Energy by more than $3 billion and eliminated the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, the department’s moonshot energy investment arm

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609631/trumps-five-biggest-energy-blunders-in-2017/ (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609631/trumps-five-biggest-energy-blunders-in-2017/)

[boutons_deux]

Five Things to Know About the Recently Changed Migratory Bird Act

A new rule prevents industry from being prosecuted for killing birds under the 100-year-old conservation law


https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/mfXXtTTm4qGgIdcoC34TQ_48vIM=/800x600/filters:no_upscale():focal(331x308:332x309)/https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/74/87/748780b7-1b70-4a98-904d-e37ac8cd3622/cardinal.jpg

Late last week, the Interior Department :lol issued a legal memorandum (https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/m-37050.pdf) ruling that

businesses which accidentally kill nongame migratory birds during their operations are not in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

The opinion is a reversal of the policies of previous administrations that sometimes prosecuted industries for accidentally killing or failing to safeguard migratory birds in their operations, reports Jennifer A. Dlouhy at Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-22/trump-is-said-to-reverse-strict-obama-era-policy-on-bird-deaths-jbi84akp).

Whatever your opinion on the current change, there’s no debating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act has made a huge impact on birds in North America.

Here are five things to know about the embattled statute:

Hats Made the Law Necessary

The Scope of Enforcement Changed in the 1970s

Wind Farms Have Been Fined Too

The Law Has Screwed Up Your Favorite Movies

The Treaty Still Makes Children Outlaws

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/five-things-know-about-recently-changes-migratory-bird-act-180967646/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_ campaign=20171227-daily-responsive&spMailingID=32395711&spUserID=NjY0ODU0NTQ2Mzk1S0&spJobID=1183282449&spReportId=MTE4MzI4MjQ0OQS2

Another HUGE problem for BigCorp that whore Zinke was paid to solve :lol

[boutons_deux]

The Repug kakistocracy running Dept of Labor will certainly not fight for workers' stolen wages.

Workers won back $2 billion in 2015 and 2016, but that's just the tip of the wage theft iceberg (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/27/1724361/-Workers-won-back-2-billion-in-2015-and-2016-but-that-s-just-the-tip-of-the-wage-theft-iceberg)

a recent Economic Policy Institute paper shows, and we know that most workers never get back what they’re owed.



In 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor recovered $246.8 million for 240,340 workers, and in 2016 the number was $266.6 million for 283,677 workers.
In 2015, state departments of labor and attorneys general recovered $170 million, and $147.5 million in 2016. That’s $317.5 million over two years, but here’s the thing: that’s only 39 states.
Class actions also got back a lot of money for workers: “The top 10 wage and hour class action settlements in 2015 totaled $463.6 million; in 2016, they totaled $695.5 million, for a total of $1.2 billion over both years (Seyfarth Shaw LLP 2017).”



Cooper and Kroeger (2017) find that workers suffering minimum wage violations are cheated out of $64 a week—$3,300 annually for year-round workers.

These workers lose almost one-quarter of their earnings, receiving on average only $10,500 in annual wages instead of the $13,800 they should have received.

Furthermore, Cooper and Kroeger find that while minimum wage violations affect workers broadly across demographic categories,

disproportionate shares of wage theft victims are people of color, women, immigrants, young people, workers from modest-income households, nonunionized workers, and workers who have do not have a bachelor’s degree.

And $3,300 a year is real money, especially if you’re making less than $20,000 to begin with.

If one of those workers stole $3,300 from their boss, it would be considered a crime worth some prison time.

But when the boss steals a half hour’s pay at a time every day and every week, he probably gets away with it, and if he doesn’t, he usually just has to pay what he stole.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1724361

Just another way America is fucked and unfuckable.

[boutons_deux]

Closure of US coal study marks an alarming precedent

The Trump administration has stepped up its assault on environmental protections by halting a US$1-million study on the health risks of coal mining — casting a pall on academic freedom.

three days before the NASEM committee working on the study was due to meet in a Kentucky mining town, the DOI ordered a stop to the study, with immediate effect.

The agency says it is reviewing spending on all projects that cost more than $100,000.

“The Trump administration is dedicated to responsibly using taxpayer dollars in a way that advances the department’s mission and fulfils the roles mandated by Congress,”

DOI spokeswoman Heather Swift said in a statement to Nature.

She did not respond to questions about which other projects are under review.

http://www.nature.com/news/closure-of-us-coal-study-marks-an-alarming-precedent-1.22512 (http://www.nature.com/news/closure-of-us-coal-study-marks-an-alarming-precedent-1.22512)

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

Halt Ordered on Study of Health Threat From Surface Mines

Federal mining regulators have told the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to halt their study of the health risks for people living near Central Appalachia surface coal mines.

The Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, which announced last year it was funding the $1 million study, said in an Aug. 18 letter that the department has begun

reviewing grants over $100,000 largely for budget reasons. :lol

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kentucky/articles/2017-08-21/halt-ordered-on-study-of-health-threat-from-surface-mines

How mountaintop mining affects life and landscape in West Virginia

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/mountaintop-mining-affects-life-landscape-west-virginia

[boutons_deux]

Trump Reportedly Terminated All Members Of HIV/AIDS Council Without Explanation

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-terminated-all-members-of-hivaids-council-without-explanation_us_5a465bd1e4b0b0e5a7a5ffb5

Trash pandering to the so-Christian Taliban haters of LGBTQ with Bible-humping Christian Sharia.

[boutons_deux]

AL Racist Jeff Sessions Takes a Stand for Debtors' Prisons

A wave of attention spurred the Justice Department to address debtors' prisons in 2016, but things could change for the worst.

Sessions, on the other hand, decided just before Christmas to rescind a guidance meant to protect low-income Americans.

The 2016 guidance, issued by former President Obama’s Justice Department, urged state and local courts nationwide to abide by constitutional principles prohibiting the jailing of poor people who cannot afford to pay court fines and fees.

Jeff Sessions’ action makes clear that he and his Justice Department are unconcerned by courts trampling on the rights of poor people.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/jeff-sessions-takes-stand-debtors-prisons

Racist Sessions knows many of those poor people in debtors' prisons are black, and for him, the only good knitter is dead or jailed knitter.

[boutons_deux]

Trump revives plan to separate immigrant children from parents — a tactic used by Nazi Germany

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/screen_shot_2017-12-21_at_5.16.13_pm-800x430.png

the guise of stopping illegal immigration from Central America

he Department of Homeland Security is evaluating separating detained children from their parents as one of several anti-immigration measures in response to an increase in migrants crossing the Mexican border.

“These measures, described on condition of anonymity because they have not been publicly disclosed, would also crack down on migrants living in the United States illegally who send for their children,” Miroff wrote.

“That aspect of the effort would use data collected by the Department of Health and Human Services to target parents for deportation after they attempt to regain custody of their children from government shelters.”

“The most contentious proposal—to separate families in detention—would keep adults in federal custody while sending their children to HHS shelters,”

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/trump-revives-plan-to-separate-immigrant-children-from-parents-a-tactic-used-by-nazi-germany/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Kellyanne Conway emerges from hiding, claiming WH never talks about Hillary (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/10/1731725/-Kellyanne-Conway-emerges-from-hiding-claiming-WH-never-talks-about-Hillary)

https://images.dailykos.com/images/494043/story_image/DTOn6k6WsAEvvyl_1_.jpg?1515646320

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/10/1731725/-Kellyanne-Conway-emerges-from-hiding-claiming-WH-never-talks-about-Hillary?detail=emaildkre

[boutons_deux]

Trash/Repug base in OH, emboldened to go public by Trash's blatant racism.

Mother wants teacher removed for telling black son he might be lynched for not focusing

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/mother-wants-teacher-removed-telling-black-son-might-041103376--abc-news-topstories.html

[boutons_deux]

More racism from racist OH

Ohio coach insists player’s ‘coon’ jersey isn’t racist — and demands refund after team banned

An Ohio youth basketball coach shocked recreation league officials with his reaction to his team getting banned (https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/white-teens-banned-from-ohio-youth-league-over-wet-dream-jerseys-with-racial-slurs-printed-on-the-back/) for wearing racist jerseys.

Emails obtained by the newspaper show

“Wet Dream Team” :lol coach Walt Gill

was unhappy with the league’s handling of the decision and asked for a partial refund of fees paid by teen players and their families.

players wore racist words like “Knee Grow” and “Coon”

instead of their names on the back of their jerseys.

racially charged language was just a variation on the players’ surnames, :lol

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/ohio-coach-insists-players-coon-jersey-isnt-racist-and-demands-refund-after-team-banned/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

How a Chilean billionaire could poison a Minnesota wilderness

And how a tiny D.C. real estate investment put him in touch with the Trump family

Trump’s Interior Department is reinstating two 1966 leases, (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/12/23/trump-administration-renews-mining-leases-near-minnesota-wilderness-area/) written before today’s federal environmental laws, that could allow a Chilean mining company to build a giant copper-and-nickel mine adjacent to the Boundary Waters wilderness area (https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/superior/specialplaces/?cid=stelprdb5202169) in northern Minnesota.

The mining company is controlled by Andrónico Luksic (http://santiagotimes.cl/2017/03/08/forbes-2016-worlds-billionaires-meet-the-richest-people-in-chile/), whose family controls a mining, banking and industrial empire that Forbes estimates is valued at $13.1 billion. Luksic also dabbles in Washington, D.C., residential real estate and has a business relationshipwith the Trump family. (https://www.wsj.com/articles/ivanka-trumps-landlord-is-a-chilean-billionaire-suing-the-u-s-government-1489000307#_=_)

He is First Son-in-Law Jared Kushner’s and First Daughter Ivanka Trump’s landlord.

The Boundary Waters is a 1.1 million-acre wilderness beloved by canoeists and hikers in the Superior National Forest along Minnesota’s border with Canada. Mining in the area could result in acid damage that can last for centuries.

There’s a reason that the Boundary Waters is one of the most visited wilderness areas in America: (https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/obama-administration-takes-steps-protect-watershed-boundary-waters-canoe-area) It’s an incredible place,”

https://www.salon.com/2018/01/14/how-a-chilean-billionaire-could-poison-a-minnesota-wilderness_partner/

[boutons_deux]

Cotton’s Office Confirms Cease And Desists ‘Under Extreme Circumstances’

Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-AR) office sent cease and desist letters to constituents, demanding that

they stop any communications with the senator’s office,

Cotton’s office explained that it does send such letters.

Cotton’s office only sent the cease and desist letter to one constituent, and that the constituent called an intern a “cunt.”

1. This went out to a single constituent, not a group.
2. That constituent called a 19 year old intern a cunr.
3. Constituent had multiple warnings.
4. Letter went out in October.
5. We have a very different understanding of “BREAKING” https://t.co/SHlFEII7hp
— John Noonan (@noonanjo) January 18, 2018 (https://twitter.com/noonanjo/status/954080967303495681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)





update: tone was threatening, no threats made. But c-word invoked.
— John Noonan (@noonanjo) January 18, 2018 (https://twitter.com/noonanjo/status/954081527540994048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)


Activists with Ozark Indivisible published a tweet Wednesday night revealing what appeared to be a cease and desist letter from Cotton’s office.

The exact recipient of the letter and the circumstances leading up to the letter are unclear.


#TraitorTommy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/TraitorTommy?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) @TomCottonAR (https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) scared of his constituents calling so he’s sending out cease and desist letters. You’re too https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.3/svg/1f414.svg to lead CIA if you can’t even listen to constituents! #arpx (https://twitter.com/hashtag/arpx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) pic.twitter.com/N1HAGCmbW6 (https://t.co/N1HAGCmbW6)
— Ozark Indivisible (@OZRKIndivisible) January 18, 2018 (https://twitter.com/OZRKIndivisible/status/953827809046253568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)


https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/cotton-office-cease-desist-letters



And if one Cunttons targets doesn't "cease and desist"?

If Rexxon Tillerson gets scalpled, and Pompeo moves to State, Cotton is rumored to move to CIA.

Cotton VERY BADLY wants war with Iran. (his LIES will be PRECEDENT-ed by Repug lies in 2002/03 about Iraq)

[koriwhat]

god you're much much crazier than i am boutons. wow!

[boutons_deux]

For People With Disabilities, Trump’s First Year Has Threatened Nearly Every Facet of Life

"Instead of doing what it needed to fix gaps, the current administration is doing what it can to widen them."

his first year in office has made that clear: It has been marked by incessant and unprecedented assaults on the rights of people from historically marginalized communities, including people with disabilities.

Trump once had a child with a disability removed (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/11/07/a-disabled-boy-was-booted-from-a-trump-rally-the-next-day-he-got-to-meet-president-obama/) from one of his campaign rallies.

his first year has followed that pattern: It has threatened nearly every facet of life for people with disabilities.

Rebecca Cokley, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, agreed, saying Trump’s first year has “been chaotic and exhausting and feels like we are drinking from a flamethrower.”

“We are in a constant state of pivoting from one fight to the next and when we have a chance to take a breath on disability issues, they’re back attacking women’s issues, and vice versa.”

One of the main attacks on autonomy for people with disabilities was Republicans’ fight against the Affordable Care Act (ACA), egged on by the president.

each attempt by the GOP to repeal the ACA included significant cuts to Medicaid. This threatened not only health care for people with disabilities, but also access to necessary supports that enable us to live in our communities. Medicaid is the primary health insurer (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/upshot/gop-health-plan-is-really-a-rollback-of-medicaid.html) of children and adults with disabilities.

Medicaid work requirements will likely harm people with disabilities (https://rewire.news/article/2018/01/12/despite-republican-claims-medicaid-work-requirements-hurt-people-disabilities/) and will result in fewer disabled people receiving Medicaid.

cuts to other services aimed at low-income people that would likely target people with disabilities. “I’m not a policy expert, but I have a feeling there will be an accelerated and coordinated attack to dismantle various safety programs in the name of ‘reform,'”

Congress is considering the ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 (https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/620) (HR 620), sponsored by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX).

Despite its name, if passed, this legislation will impose significant barriers to enforcing the ADA (https://rewire.news/article/2017/09/11/congress-makes-progress-destroying-americans-disabilities-act/) and will likely decrease compliance by businesses.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the federal agency responsible for overseeing enforcement of the ADA and other civil rights laws, has also taken steps to weaken the ADA.

withdrawal of a 2016 document (https://psmag.com/economics/jeff-sessions-roll-back-disability-rights) that required states to promote opportunities for people with disabilities to engage in integrated and meaningful employment.

, the DOJ officially withdrew pending regulations (https://www.adatitleiii.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/121/2017/12/ada-rule-withdrawal.pdf) that explained how the ADA applies to websites

drastic cuts to funding and staff for offices that enforce civil rights at the DOJ (https://www.justice.gov/jmd/page/file/968381/download), the U.S. Department of Education (https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget18/justifications/z-ocr.pdf) (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/budget.pdf) (HUD). These proposed budget cuts unmistakably demonstrate that enforcing civil rights laws—including those that protect people with disabilities—is not a priority of the Trump administration.

Students with disabilities were also not safe from attacks by the U.S. Department of Education. Even before becoming DOE secretary, Betsy DeVos demonstrated her lack of concern for disabled students

the DOE withdrew 72 guidance documents (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2017/10/23/the-education-department-phased-out-72-policy-documents-for-disabled-students-heres-why/?tid=a_mcntx&utm_term=.88e240808d35) that detailed the rights of students with disabilities. Currently, DeVos is contemplating (https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-education/2017/11/17/obamas-school-discipline-guidelines-next-to-go-027074) rescinding an Obama-era guidance (https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-departments-education-and-justice-release-school-discipline-guidance-package-) aimed at ensuring that school discipline policies do not discriminate against students of color as well as disabled students.

the GOP passed—and Trump signed into law—the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1/text),

The bill includes (https://blog.thearc.org/2017/11/28/tax-cuts-jobs-act-bad-people-disabilities/) massive cuts to Medicare and other safety-net programs and eliminates tax incentives for small businesses to modify their facilities to ensure accessibility for people with disabilities.

Moreover, because the law includes a repeal of the ACA’s individual mandate, health insurance premiums will undoubtedly climb, leaving them unaffordable for many—including people with disabilities.

“Trump’s cruelty toward disabled people trying to access the American dream has been relentless, and it’s been hard,”

https://rewire.news/article/2018/01/19/people-disabilities-trumps-first-year-threatened-nearly-every-facet-life/?utm_source=Rewire+Newsletter&utm_campaign=2df29a4acd-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_811d53d1b5-2df29a4acd-111083417

[boutons_deux]

Women would lose $4.6 billion in earned tips if the administration’s ‘tip stealing’ rule is finalized

Overall, workers would lose $5.8 billion

The Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed a rule that would make it legal for employers to pocket their workers’ tips,

as long as they pay those workers at least the minimum wage.

The proposed rule rescinds portions of longstanding DOL regulations that prohibit employers from taking tips.

We estimate that if the rule is finalized, every year workers will lose $5.8 billion in tips, as tips are shifted from workers to employers.2 (http://www.epi.org/publication/women-would-lose-4-6-billion-in-earned-tips-if-the-administrations-tip-stealing-rule-is-finalized-overall-tipped-workers-would-lose-5-8-billion/?utm_source=Economic+Policy+Institute&utm_campaign=247e73caaf-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e7c5826c50-247e73caaf-59312805&mc_cid=247e73caaf&mc_eid=3f6f7e5a76#_note2)Of the $5.8 billion, nearly 80 percent—$4.6 billion—would be taken from women who are working in tipped jobs.

http://www.epi.org/publication/women-would-lose-4-6-billion-in-earned-tips-if-the-administrations-tip-stealing-rule-is-finalized-overall-tipped-workers-would-lose-5-8-billion/?utm_source=Economic+Policy+Institute&utm_campaign=247e73caaf-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e7c5826c50-247e73caaf-59312805&mc_cid=247e73caaf&mc_eid=3f6f7e5a76

all y'all rightwingassholes, this is the "pro-business" party, fuckng over all employees with suppressed/stolen wagees, esp low-wage employees.

[boutons_deux]

Trash’s 24-year-old drug policy appointee was let go at law firm after he ‘just didn’t show’

had been let go from a job at a law firm because he repeatedly missed work, a partner at the firm said.

While in college, late in 2014 or early in 2015, Taylor Weyeneth began working as a legal assistant at the New York firm O’Dwyer & Bernstien. He was “discharged” in August 2015, partner Brian O’Dwyer said in an interview.

“We were very disappointed in what happened,” O’Dwyer said.

He said that he hired Weyeneth in part because both men were involved in the same fraternity, and that

the firm invested time training him for what was expected to be a longer relationship. Instead, he said, Weyeneth “just didn’t show.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trumps-24-year-old-drug-policy-appointee-was-let-go-at-law-firm-after-he-just-didnt-show/2018/01/20/a7de7c28-fd43-11e7-ad8c-ecbb62019393_story.html?undefined=&utm_term=.e79eb477d6ff&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

Trash hires "The Very Best People" for his Exec's KAKISTOCRACY

[boutons_deux]

Trash is job killer, killing 10Ks solar jobs and companies

Trump hits solar imports with tariff but still concedes millions of jobs to China

White House policies will kill clean energy jobs in the near term and long term.

President Donald Trump decided to slap a 30 percent tariff on imported solar cells and panels

the new tariff is only the latest in a series of efforts by the White House to

slow the installation of renewable energy in this country in favor of fossil fuels — a strategy that kills jobs in both the near term and long term.

decision may cost the fast-growing industry — which currently employees over 260,000 people, primarily in the installation business — some 23,000 jobs this year, and cause billions of dollars in solar investments to be canceled or delayed.

the White House is conceding that this is a very rapidly growing industry and that smart domestic policies can be used to achieve global leadership — at the very time

the Administration is doing everything it can to undermine U.S. leadership in clean energy.

Trump’s anti-renewable policies include:

gutting the budget for clean energy,

working to gut the EPA’s Clean Power Plan,

withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, and even

trying to get federal regulators (https://thinkprogress.org/ferc-rejects-rick-perry-coal-bailout-7d361281760d/) to raise consumer energy bills in order to subsidize coal and nuclear power plants.

can’t revive the domestic solar manufacturing industry in this country.

Prices are dropping way too fast here and abroad for a modest, short-term “fix” to help.

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-solar-import-tariff-decb0e7b4000/


https://energy.gov/eere/solar/how-hire-veterans-solar-energy :lol

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

How about fucking up the US wind turbine industry with a big tariff on imported wind turbines?

U.S. Imports

As part of their global business strategies, wind turbine manufacturers continue to source a significant share of components outside the United States.75 (https://hub.globalccsinstitute.com/publications/us-wind-turbine-manufacturing-federal-support-emerging-industry/us-imports#fn_75) Imports of wind-powered generating sets, the main wind category covering fully assembled wind turbines and including other components such as blades and hubs when they are imported with the nacelle, grew from $482.5 million in 2005 to a peak of $2.5 billion in 2008. I

In 2011, Denmark was the leading source of wind-powered generating sets, making up more than half (55%) of all imports into the United States. Italy, Germany, and Spain combined accounted for another 40% (see Figure 5 (https://hub.globalccsinstitute.com/publications/us-wind-turbine-manufacturing-federal-support-emerging-industry/us-imports#fig_5)). China and India accounted for 2% and 1% of imports, respectively, in 2011.

It appears that South Korean wind turbine manufacturers like Samsung, Hyosung, and Unison have ambitions to become leading exporters to the U.S. market and other global markets.

https://hub.globalccsinstitute.com/publications/us-wind-turbine-manufacturing-federal-support-emerging-industry/us-imports

After Jack Welch screwed up GE, killing its industrial capacity to turn it into a financial company, GE is hurting badly in a booming stock market. Where's Trash's America First protectionism?

[boutons_deux]

Trash Blows Off Dozens Of Environmental Protections To Accelerate Border Wall Construction

It's bad enough that Trump is pushing an inhumane immigration policy that the vast majority of Americans don't support. Worse, he's doing it at the expense of our environment

Homeland Security Secretary Kirsten Nielsen listed the

rules the administration is waiving in order to speed up the construction project,

which the public doesn’t want and experts say we don’t even need.

The waiver excludes rules from major laws including

the National Environment Policy Act,

the Endangered Species Act,

the Clean Water Act,

the National Historic Preservation Act and

the Antiquities Act, among others.

The notice claims that the “El Paso Sector is an area of high illegal entry,” citing its proximity to the city of Ciudad of Juarez, and will allow for vehicle barriers to be replaced with bollard wall for 20 miles on the border.“

The Secretary of Homeland Security has determined, pursuant to law, that it is necessary to waive certain laws, regulations and other legal requirements in order to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads in the vicinity of the international land border of the United States near the Santa Teresa Land Port of Entry in the state of New Mexico,” the waiver reads.

The Hill adds that one environmental organization – the Center for Biological Diversity – is considering taking legal action against the administration.

http://www.politicususa.com/2018/01/22/trump-blows-off-dozens-of-environmental-protections-border-wall-project.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

[boutons_deux]

NSA DELETES “HONESTY” AND “OPENNESS” FROM CORE VALUES

https://theintercept.com/2018/01/24/nsa-core-values-honesty-deleted/

:lol

[boutons_deux]

Senate votes to confirm Alex Azar as health secretary

“Mr. Azar’s nomination is a perfect encapsulation of the president’s broken promises on prescription drugs and healthcare overall,”


https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/senate-votes-confirm-alex-azar-health-secretary/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

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


Trump's HHS Pick Has History Of Price Gouging


Americans for Tax Fairness Report Shows that Eli Lilly Price Gouged and Tax Dodged While Alex Azar Was U.S. Division President

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2018/01/09/trumps-hhs-pick-has-history-price-gouging


Azar also supports fucking up Medicaid

... more Repug voluntary manslaughter and grinding down the poor

[boutons_deux]

Trump hired another recent college graduate — this one will oversee all US trade

criticized (https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/21/trump-agriculture-department-usda-campaign-workers-242951) for putting forward a collection (http://www.newsweek.com/trump-nominating-unqualified-judges-left-and-right-710263) of underqualified (https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/01/19/donald-trump-has-assembled-the-worst-cabinet-in-american-history/?utm_term=.8988626b33bf) appointees.

Now, a new report from the Daily Beast (https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-a-20-something-eagle-scout-became-one-of-donald-trumps-top-trade-hands?ref=wrap) outlines the rise of a top official in the Office of the United States Trade Representative,

a deputy chief of staff who was less than three years out of college when hired.

he listed his Eagle Scout experience among his leadership skills.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/trump-hired-another-recent-college-graduate-one-will-oversee-us-trade/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Betsy DeVos Seeking To Weaken Oversight That Exposed Sex Abuser Larry Nassar

Title IX was the key to exposing Larry Nassar, the former Olympic gymnastics doctor and serial sexual abuser at Michigan State University, who was sentenced this week to 40 to 175 years, in part based on testimony from 156 of his young victims (https://shareblue.com/fox-news-host-says-156-child-gymnasts-should-have-stopped-their-abuser/).

Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s secretary of education, is trying to change and weaken Title IX, effectively aiding other serial predators like Nassar.

Under DeVos, the Department of Education is scaling (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/us/politics/education-department-civil-rights-betsy-devos.html) back investigations at the Office of Civil Rights.

It was an investigation by the Office of Civil Rights that revealed Nassar and triggered his prosecution.

As investigators try to deal with an influx of cases, DeVos is advocating for less enforcement, with stricter standards of proof in cases involving sexual violence, making it that much more difficult to hold abusers accountable.

Under President Barack Obama, the Education Department instructed schools to use the “preponderance of evidence” — the lowest standard — in sexual violence cases. DeVos, however, has issued directives requiring schools to use “clear and convincing evidence” in such cases instead.

the new guidelines have created a “chilling effect” for survivors to come forward.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/betsy-devos-weaken-oversight-exposed-sex-abuser-larry-nassar/

[boutons_deux]

Kockistan autocrat news

Wisconsin Republicans fire top state officials as payback for investigating Gov. Scott Walker (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/26/1735938/-Wisconsin-Republicans-fire-top-state-officials-as-payback-for-investigating-Gov-Scott-Walker)

Wisconsin Republicans voted Tuesday to remove the state’s top election and ethics officials, despite looming state and federal elections.

Led by Republicans in a vote along party lines,

the state Senate voted to

oust Ethics Administrator Brian Bell and Elections Administrator Michael Haas

from their respective roles by denying to confirm them on a permanent basis.

Both men did not get a customary public hearing before the vote.

The state's Republican-held Supreme Court preemptively shuttered that Walker probe, and

Republicans have in these last several years dedicated themselves to retribution against individuals connected to it. T

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1735938

[boutons_deux]

Ex-ambassador appalled that Trump has given security clearances to felons and foreign agents


https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Ex-ambassador-Michael-McFaul-on-MSNBC-screencap-800x430.png

Former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul told MSNBC on Wednesday that he has “no idea how” President Donald Trump’s administration has given out security clearances to foreign agents and people convicted of felonies (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/report-felons-people-under-foreign-influence-got-national-security-clearances-n840226).

MSNBC national security and justice correspondent Julia Ainsley said that officials she spoke to from previous administrations said that

applicants with these types of “red flags” on their records would never have been given clearance to view state secrets or any kind of classified documents.

“They would have been dismissed, especially if they were found to have lied,” Ainsley said, “as many of these people were who we saw in the report today.”

really surprising that somebody as senior as

Jared Kushner — who sits two doors down from the Oval Office — still does not have a proper security clearance.”

President Trump’s son-in-law has had to resubmit (https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/investigators-focusing-on-285-million-loan-made-to-kushner-one-month-before-election-report/) his request for a security clearance multiple times

to add disclosures about meetings with foreign agents and officials (https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/jared-kushner-didnt-disclose-contact-with-a-russian-mafia-godfather-to-congress-report/)

as well as to make clarifications regarding financial disclosures (https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/lawmakers-seek-more-information-from-trump-son-in-law-kushner-in-russia-probe/).

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/ex-ambassador-appalled-trump-given-security-clearances-felons-foreign-agents/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

A modern land run? Trump move opens Utah to mining claims under 1872 law

U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw federal protections from millions of acres of Utah wilderness will reopen much of the iconic terrain to gold, silver, copper, and uranium land claims under a Wild West-era mining law, according to federal officials.

Starting at 6 a.m. on Feb. 2 – the moment Trump’s proclamation reducing the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments takes effect – private citizens and companies will be allowed to stake claims for hard rock mining in a process governed by the General Mining Law of 1872, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The process for staking a claim remains much as it did during the Gold Rush:

A prospector hammers four poles into the ground corresponding to the four points of a parcel that can be as big as 20 acres, and attaches a written description of the claim onto one of them.

A prospector then has 30 days to record the claim at the local BLM office.

“We’re working on getting information and new monument maps ready for people interested in claims,”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-utah-mining/a-modern-land-run-trump-move-opens-utah-to-mining-claims-under-1872-law-idUSKBN1FK1MA?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F +US+%2F+Top+News%29

[spurraider21]

Should be renamed Official Thread of Boutons crapification of SpursTalk

[boutons_deux]

Trash's AmeriKKKa

1 Neo-Nazi Group. 5 Murders In 8 Months.

The Atomwaffen Division has emerged as one of the most disturbing and volatile hate groups in America.

An 18-year-old in Florida allegedly shoots and kills two of his roommates.

A 21-year-old, also in Florida, plots to bomb synagogues and a nuclear power plant.

A 17-year-old in Virginia allegedly shoots and kills his girlfriend’s parents.

And a 20-year-old in California allegedly stabs a gay Jewish college student 20 times, burying him in a shallow grave.

All of these young white men had connections to the Atomwaffen Division,

a well-armed neo-Nazi group

enamored (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/alt-right-charles-manson-atomwaffen_us_5a146921e4b03dec824892e6?q1) with Charles Manson and Adolf Hitler whose members harbor grand and

demented delusions of fighting a “race war” and overthrowing the U.S. government.

Their alleged crimes all occurred in just the last eight months, most recently in January (https://www.propublica.org/article/california-murder-suspect-atomwaffen-division-extremist-hate-group),

adding to fears that an emboldened American white supremacist movement is growing more violent by the day.

White supremacists, after all, murdered twice as many people in 2017 (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/white-supremacist-murders-2017-report_us_5a5f59b0e4b0ee2ff32c4bea?wtc) as they did the year before,

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/atomwaffen-nazi-murder-bomb-plot_us_5a70825ae4b00d0de2240328?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=__TheMorningEmail__020118&utm_content=__TheMorningEmail__020118+CID_2ee71c43 428b9f9af20bb85dc9dc91c0&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=HuffPost&ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__020118

[boutons_deux]

The national monuments slashed by Trump will officially be open to mining on Friday

Trump's unprecedented attack on public lands is already benefiting extractive industry.


At 9 a.m. EST Friday, the extractive industry will gain drilling and mining access to previously protected American land,

Trump took an unprecedented step (https://thinkprogress.org/trump-announces-national-monument-reduction-bears-ears-grand-staircase-escalante-5c00767330ce/) for a U.S. president in December — signing a proclamation that dramatically reduced the size of two national monuments. Bears Ears National Monument was cut by more than 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was reduced by half.

This resulted in the largest elimination of protected areas in U.S. history.

The move put tens of thousands of Native American sacred sites at risk, along with key wildlife habitat, and areas used for outdoor recreation.

While the longer-term fate of Trump’s likely illegal (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-president-trump-cant-revoke-national-monuments/2017/03/29/35e53336-10cd-11e7-ab07-07d9f521f6b5_story.html?utm_term=.55a5b9e887b8) action will play out in the courts (http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/native-tribes-sue-trump-bears-ears-monument-171206125555058.html), also buried in his December proclamation was a provision that on February 2, 2018, the areas excluded from the monuments would become open to private mineral companies to begin staking mining and drilling claims.

“We’re working on getting information and new monument maps ready for people interested in claims,”

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-national-monuments-mining-bc92ca54db29/

Assume some big Canadian resource extractors make claims and start extracting, then Trash loses in court and the public lands go back to being off-limits to extraction.

The Canucks would use ISDS to extract $100Ms if not $Bs from US taxpayers.

[boutons_deux]

the oligarchic "pro business / anti-labor" kakistrocray's Ministy of Truth at work

DOL scrubs economic analysis that showed its tip pooling rule would be terrible for workers

DOL did not provide an estimate of the amount of tips that would be shifted from workers to employers as a result of the rule—

even though they were required, as a part of the rulemaking process,

to assess all quantifiable costs and benefits to the fullest extent possible.

DOL claimed they could not do an analysis. :lol

https://www.epi.org/press/dol-scrubs-economic-analysis-that-showed-its-tip-pooling-rule-would-be-terrible-for-workers/?utm_source=Economic+Policy+Institute&utm_campaign=b001b0ff9a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e7c5826c50-b001b0ff9a-59312805&mc_cid=b001b0ff9a&mc_eid=3f6f7e5a76 (https://www.epi.org/press/dol-scrubs-economic-analysis-that-showed-its-tip-pooling-rule-would-be-terrible-for-workers/?utm_source=Economic+Policy+Institute&utm_campaign=b001b0ff9a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e7c5826c50-b001b0ff9a-59312805&mc_cid=b001b0ff9a&mc_eid=3f6f7e5a76)

"could not" :lol

how about "would not"

[boutons_deux]

Pruitt is destroying the EPA on orders for the oligarchy, and all the Repugs agree

EPA DIVISION THAT STUDIES THE HEALTH RISKS OF TOXIC CHEMICALS IS IN A FIGHT FOR ITS LIFE — AGAINST THE EPA (https://theintercept.com/2018/02/03/epa-iris-toxic-chemicals/)

https://theintercept.com/2018/02/03/epa-iris-toxic-chemicals/

[boutons_deux]

Schools now function as zero-tolerance police states manned by ignorant, vindictive, chickenshit staff

Teacher on Leave After Allegedly Assaulting Student Who Refused to Stand for Pledge of Allegiance

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/02/03/teacher-leave-after-allegedly-assaulting-student-who-refused-stand-pledge-allegiance

[boutons_deux]

Equifax Gave Mulvaney Thousands, Now He’s Putting the CFPB’s Investigation “On Ice”


Latest example of CFPB “acting director” Mick Mulvaney making changes at CFPB that benefit his campaign contributors.

Mick Mulvaney, “acting director” of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB),

“has pulled back from a full-scale probe of how Equifax Inc. failed to protect the personal data of millions of consumers

, according to people familiar with the matter.”

In what is fast becoming a disturbing trend,

Mulvaney has thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Equifax and thousands more from other credit bureaus overseen by the CFPB.

Mulvaney has taken at least $5,000 in campaign cash from Equifax Inc.’s political action committee (PAC).

He also received $6,000 from the PAC of Experian, another credit reporting bureau.

[Equifax Inc. Political Action Committee to Mulvaney for Congress (https://www.fec.gov/data/disbursements/?two_year_transaction_period=2016&cycle=2018&data_type=processed&committee_id=C00143867&recipient_name=C00471292&min_date=01%2F01%2F2015&max_date=12%2F31%2F2016&line_number=F3X-23), Federal Election Commission, Accessed 02/05/18; Experian North America, Inc. Political Action Committee to Mulvaney for Congress (https://www.fec.gov/data/disbursements/?two_year_transaction_period=2016&cycle=2018&data_type=processed&committee_id=C00379768&recipient_name=C00471292&min_date=01%2F01%2F2015&max_date=12%2F31%2F2016&line_number=F3X-23), Federal Election Commission, accessed 02/05/18.]


PART OF A DISTURBING PATERN:


Mulvaney Delays Implementation of Rule Protecting Prepaid Cardholders (https://alliedprogress.org/news/big-win-mulvaney-donors-cfpb-delays-prepaid-card-rule/):

Last week, the Mulvaney-run CFPB announced a year-long delay to a new rule that would have ultimately protected 23 million American prepaid cardholders who use such products for everything from hourly wages to Social Security benefits. Mulvaney has received at least $13,000 in campaign contributions from prepaid card companies.


Mulvaney Drops CFPB Case Against Predatory Lender (https://alliedprogress.org/news/breaking-mulvaney-drops-cfpb-case-predatory-lender-gave-thousands/):

In January, the Mulvaney-run Consumer Bureau dropped its case against World Acceptance Corporation, a predatory lender accused of “breaking federal laws in how it markets and offers its loans.” Mulvaney has received $4,500 in campaign contributions from the company.


Mulvaney Begins Gutting CFPB’s Anti-Discrimination Efforts (https://alliedprogress.org/news/donors-rejoice-mulvaney-intensifies-effort-gut-cfpbs-fight-discriminatory-lending-practices/):

In December, the Mulvaney-run Bureau declared its intent to “reconsider” mortgage data reporting requirements that helped the CFPB identify discrimination. The move was called “a significant win” by the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) which also lobbied on the issue. Mulvaney has received $30,000 in campaign cash from CUNA over the years.





https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2018/02/05/equifax-gave-mulvaney-thousands-now-hes-putting-cfpbs-investigation-ice


Blatantly obvious now why Trash's OMB director also got directorship of CFPB

This is how the oligarchy buys protection and exemption from investigation, prosecution.

And look how how minuscule, in the few $1000s, are the purchases are of Mulvaney-for-sale.

[boutons_deux]

Kellyanne Conway’s :lol ‘Opioid Cabinet’ :lol Reportedly Freezing Out Drug Crisis Experts

Conway “has taken control of the opioids agenda, quietly freezing out drug policy professionals and relying instead on political staff to address a lethal crisis claiming about 175 lives a day.”

“The main response so far has been

to call for a border wall :lol and

to promise a ‘just say no’ campaign.” :lol

Trump is expected to gut the Office of National Drug Control Policy, proposing a 95 percent budget cut.

Politico reported that “he hasn’t named a permanent director for the office, and the chief of staff was sacked in December.”

Even more alarming:

For months, the office’s top political appointee was a 24-year-old Trump campaign staffer with no relevant qualifications.

Its senior leadership consists of a skeleton crew of three political appointees, down from nine a year ago.


the “upheaval in the drug policy office illustrates the Trump administration’s inconsistency in creating a real vision on the opioids crisis.”

https://www.mediaite.com/weird/kellyanne-conways-opioid-cabinet-reportedly-freezing-out-drug-crisis-experts/

175 drugged dead Americans per day, Trump cuts NDCP by 95%, but if one illegal alien runs over 1 American, Trash tweets he wants $25B for a wall.

[boutons_deux]

500M to 1B birds, ducks, other flying stuff perishes in fracking ponds, and as many killed by domestic and feral cats, but you rightwingnutjob assholes whine about a few birds dying over concentrated thermal solar plants.

Wildlife officials stunned and outraged after the Trump administration guts the Migratory Bird Act (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/6/1739258/-Wildlife-officials-stunned-and-outraged-after-the-Trump-administration-guts-the-Migratory-Bird-Act)

From Audubon: (http://www.audubon.org/news/department-interior-guts-enforcement-migratory-bird-treaty-act?ms=policy-adv-email-ea-x-20180112_advisory)


In December, the Department of the Interior released an interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act that eliminates its ability to hold industries accountable for bird deaths.

Reversing decades of practice by administrations under both political parties, this legal opinion drastically limits the law and puts hundreds of species of birds at greater risk.

This attack (http://www.audubon.org/news/the-white-house-turns-its-back-americas-birds) on the Migratory Bird Treaty Act comes at a time when

we are celebrating the Year of the Bird (http://www.audubon.org/yearofthebird), honoring the one-hundredth anniversary of this visionary law.

Passed in 1918 with leadership from Audubon and chapters across the nation, the MBTA protects nearly all of our country’s native birds from being killed without a permit.

For decades, the law has been applied to protect birds from industrial impacts as well.

Millions of birds die from preventable causes such as oil waste pits, oil spills, electric transmission lines, and more.

The MBTA provides a critical incentive for industries to implement common sense practices that save birds’ lives. It also ensures that responsible parties are held accountable for events that kill significant numbers of birds.

For instance, if this interpretation had been in place after the Gulf oil spill, BP would have been off the hook for killing one million birds and would not have been required to pay a $100 million fine that is helping restore bird habitat.


Wildlife officials agree. Seventeen conservation experts who have formerly worked for the Department of the Interior, both Democratic and Republican alike, have banded together to send a public plea to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to reconsider these disastrous actions.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/6/1739258/-Wildlife-officials-stunned-and-outraged-after-the-Trump-administration-guts-the-Migratory-Bird-Act (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/6/1739258/-Wildlife-officials-stunned-and-outraged-after-the-Trump-administration-guts-the-Migratory-Bird-Act)

Repug retrograde MISgovernance, fuck all them and y'all Repug voters to hell.

[boutons_deux]

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s First Class Habit Costing Taxpayers Thousands

The agency often cites unspecified security reasons for the premium bookings.

costing American taxpayers thousands of dollars more than equivalent seats in coach, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.

Several such flights last June cost more than $90,000 in total, including an hour-and-a-half trip between Washington D.C. and New York booked first class for $1,641, the outlet noted,

Pruitt regularly travels with a large contingent of aides, but they’re usually booked in coach. It’s unclear if members of his security detail fly in first class with him.

Pruitt’s trips amounted to an effort “to further positive environmental outcomes and achieve tangible environmental results.” :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

federal regulations mandate government employees “consider the least expensive class of travel (https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2012-title41-vol4/pdf/CFR-2012-title41-vol4-sec301-10-123.pdf)”

. The EPA pays for Pruitt to have an extensive, 24/7 security detail (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/at-epa-guarding-the-chief-pulls-agents-from-pursuing-environmental-crimes/2017/09/19/7b7b8b6c-9ce0-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html?utm_term=.d3dc663e3bf3) at a cost of nearly $2 million a year (https://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/23/politics/epa-pruitt-security-costs/index.html), excluding costs like travel.

no previous head of the agency had ever had a full-time detail.

In July, he was booked on two round-trip tickets to Alabama and Georgia that totaled more than $4,600.

Pruitt’s use of military and private flights are currently under investigation (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/10/06/epa-inspector-general-expands-investigation-of-pruitts-use-of-military-private-flights/?utm_term=.3039f43b0036) by the EPA’s inspector general

after the Post reported last September that the administrator took four such flights costing taxpayers more than $58,000 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/09/27/epas-pruitt-took-charter-military-flights-that-cost-taxpayers-more-than-58000/?utm_term=.c31dd1b11e2e).

He is also under investigation over frequent trips to his home state of Oklahoma.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scott-pruitt-first-class_us_5a80e717e4b044b3821eabbd?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=__TheMorningEmail__021218&utm_content=__TheMorningEmail__021218+CID_a3ada86d a1e554d914e35d4f855ae0e9&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=HuffPost&ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__021218


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


EPA chief Scott Pruitt says he has to fly first class because a 'toxic' political environment puts him in danger

http://www.businessinsider.com/epa-chief-scott-pruitt-first-class-flights-2018-2

The Best, Most Corrupt People, like rotted-fish-head Trash himself.

[boutons_deux]

Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Refusal to Release Records on Pesticide Harms to Endangered Wildlife

The Center for Biological Diversity sued (http://email.prnewswire.com/wf/click?upn=DiPXjSpHIwzyQJnyV1Y-2BQZrTvJDRt-2FPeWfug5LZVsNXtyzvZgulRSPo6DNu2aDJuo-2BOboLsceRK-2BTS9rrEPtsCl22NhuL4Lj2WKfZQRicy6K0PeEAyiriGCP6EZL R2S5zFjhvkzDziia9uFv8vsa9hRHmgn4d-2BLyPFob5B9sXWpYg9VbcDuLVv-2BYV-2BatCViKR3MVwov87DaxgH8HJzPgfeNlcC0BGH9udxZkQpW-2BT1uPe9xECYB1tkQ-2FNgB0AU0H6ZKro1Ac91lu8n8MKDw5rw-3D-3D_6dDQcjj3wZqKDJ6HMe-2BA-2F2Viz0An8gIH7YRobodzxe5OnUjYeZFnKLfknJQhtknOX9KFF zkNMgTAwNDJPoYsPxauT2A578QbVRSS-2FefxkH0a5rSL57l9UeReUbES73ZQfKRUnqc-2BDGNgD2-2Fhm4idIvWlqzO9Tf6sT-2BGlJzuBcZktey2jxdXkHYK1jVB8NceNOGCsMu7jl86PNq2Xfv WxrK4VvSLA-2BpIccst-2BIlxYNEfDKPp-2Bq6Hl0F4dKxEdCClZSHcsf1-2BHuhKP-2BWGTcDRkB-2FZjiKadKnn-2FKKw6mbMCNl35ULchh7mGuvBiHluHl8Gq) the Trump administration today for illegally withholding public records documenting the widespread harm to endangered species posed by chlorpyrifos and two other pesticides, diazinon and malathion.

The Fish and Wildlife Service had committed to releasing its analysis of that research for public comment by May 2017 and to finalize the documents by December 2017. But last year,

shortly after donating (http://email.prnewswire.com/wf/click?upn=DiPXjSpHIwzyQJnyV1Y-2BQZrTvJDRt-2FPeWfug5LZVsNXtyzvZgulRSPo6DNu2aDJuo-2BOboLsceRK-2BTS9rrEPtsCl22NhuL4Lj2WKfZQRicy6K0PeEAyiriGCP6EZL R2S5zFjhvkzDziia9uFv8vsa9hRHmgn4d-2BLyPFob5B9sXWpYg9VbcDuLVv-2BYV-2BatCViKR3MVwov87DaxgH8HJzPgfeNlcC0BGH9udxZkQpW-2BT1sc-2BIeArgprRt5kcgdcY8na7TRsRuC0Quut3TJetN0wnQ-3D-3D_6dDQcjj3wZqKDJ6HMe-2BA-2F2Viz0An8gIH7YRobodzxe5OnUjYeZFnKLfknJQhtknOX9KFF zkNMgTAwNDJPoYsPxauT2A578QbVRSS-2FefxkH0a5rSL57l9UeReUbES73ZQfKRUnqc-2BDGNgD2-2Fhm4idIvWlqzO9Tf6sT-2BGlJzuBcZk7Oz3-2B0MWX3Kz-2BoR5fqymtpSQdT1DSfzYkJJWtHK3lOB0zujWdIqIxvifwivSH 1302f38WtCEzCxFKBv-2B8nr8dhzY4qiesb6qQKSLngXz8xNlP-2By-2Fp6mtfEFcEAoSalPNm6TJftWiTP6U92SoWcfj5) $1 million to Trump's inauguration, Dow Chemical asked federal agencies not to finalize the legally required assessments

that are crucial to establishing common-sense measures to reduce the pesticides' harm to endangered species.

The EPA’s initial analysis of the three pesticides, released in 2016, found that

97 percent of the more than 1,800 animals and plants protected under the Endangered Species Act are likely to be harmed by malathion (http://email.prnewswire.com/wf/click?upn=DiPXjSpHIwzyQJnyV1Y-2BQZrTvJDRt-2FPeWfug5LZVsNXtyzvZgulRSPo6DNu2aDJuo-2BOboLsceRK-2BTS9rrEPtsCl22NhuL4Lj2WKfZQRicy6K0PeEAyiriGCP6EZL R2S5zFjhvkzDziia9uFv8vsa9hRHmgn4d-2BLyPFob5B9sXWpYg9VbcDuLVv-2BYV-2BatCViKR3MVwov87DaxgH8HJzPgfeNlcC0BGH9udxZkQpW-2BT1tYLRFXKrn5H2FzPHjnBbIrKW1ttz-2BszYIUFZJURI402Q-3D-3D_6dDQcjj3wZqKDJ6HMe-2BA-2F2Viz0An8gIH7YRobodzxe5OnUjYeZFnKLfknJQhtknOX9KFF zkNMgTAwNDJPoYsPxauT2A578QbVRSS-2FefxkH0a5rSL57l9UeReUbES73ZQfKRUnqc-2BDGNgD2-2Fhm4idIvWlqzO9Tf6sT-2BGlJzuBcZnGUD3uLd0qVC6LmOvtdWpxT2V5-2FoMKDfNdU2Mo3WD5gRJ080GWs3BRBaZKmLLaQ7-2B6cTsEuWLSWV6p7vGaEiwEknEjw1rzkl5OG-2BEALc3ntxLkryFN8bXiw0nPynwJdf65nxY9KRGrAvXGaW2E-2Bs4P) and chlorpyrifos (http://email.prnewswire.com/wf/click?upn=DiPXjSpHIwzyQJnyV1Y-2BQZrTvJDRt-2FPeWfug5LZVsNXtyzvZgulRSPo6DNu2aDJuo-2BOboLsceRK-2BTS9rrEPtsCl22NhuL4Lj2WKfZQRicy6K0PeEAyiriGCP6EZL R2S5zFjhvkzDziia9uFv8vsa9hRHmgn4d-2BLyPFob5B9sXWpYg9VbcDuLVv-2BYV-2BatCViKR3MVwov87DaxgH8HJzPgfeNlcC0BGH9udxZkQpW-2BT1s8yn4FXlIBidVUwOAlEKO5fVqRkFoGJ9Rws7QIiIRa7g-3D-3D_6dDQcjj3wZqKDJ6HMe-2BA-2F2Viz0An8gIH7YRobodzxe5OnUjYeZFnKLfknJQhtknOX9KFF zkNMgTAwNDJPoYsPxauT2A578QbVRSS-2FefxkH0a5rSL57l9UeReUbES73ZQfKRUnqc-2BDGNgD2-2Fhm4idIvWlqzO9Tf6sT-2BGlJzuBcZm9feF5AmhZzv6sycD89wkMYqYyqoJ-2FEamOvmeq8nKkLd0ffv0eNAAI6ersfPfb-2F5346x-2Ffo5YHY7RrZUDiH90dIp1sIaRPobAoMsNJM4TH6dJyYYB9GY1 cjIVNYNJB46GjaT92dIsACRTUKM-2Fk-2BwY1).

Another 78 percent are likely to be hurt by the pesticide diazinon (http://email.prnewswire.com/wf/click?upn=DiPXjSpHIwzyQJnyV1Y-2BQZrTvJDRt-2FPeWfug5LZVsNXtyzvZgulRSPo6DNu2aDJuo-2BOboLsceRK-2BTS9rrEPtsCl22NhuL4Lj2WKfZQRicy6K0PeEAyiriGCP6EZL R2S5zFjhvkzDziia9uFv8vsa9hRHmgn4d-2BLyPFob5B9sXWpYg9VbcDuLVv-2BYV-2BatCViKR3MVwov87DaxgH8HJzPgfeNlcC0BGH9udxZkQpW-2BT1utuQrqC7vlUIroMZ5kKhUhAbbkJ1muqEbUY5pGGelSBQ-3D-3D_6dDQcjj3wZqKDJ6HMe-2BA-2F2Viz0An8gIH7YRobodzxe5OnUjYeZFnKLfknJQhtknOX9KFF zkNMgTAwNDJPoYsPxauT2A578QbVRSS-2FefxkH0a5rSL57l9UeReUbES73ZQfKRUnqc-2BDGNgD2-2Fhm4idIvWlqzO9Tf6sT-2BGlJzuBcZnMI2CXlljRD-2BMeoI3voeW-2BTVJIE1Vdzv7VS0J9rt8GK9VMdMS7ijYOBdnuAL-2FQMFMJUGEOBoPuRRFzPI1s7XHWXcvkp-2BF76gmvzK3-2FA5Fi2-2BhHqRVXvGIdv8xLtxCkzAwMbLIEYm6dyBye9nKYgDGC).

the finalization of those assessments has stalled in the wake the request by

Dow, which over the past six years has donated (http://email.prnewswire.com/wf/click?upn=DiPXjSpHIwzyQJnyV1Y-2BQZrTvJDRt-2FPeWfug5LZVsNXtyzvZgulRSPo6DNu2aDJuo-2BOboLsceRK-2BTS9rrEPtsCl22NhuL4Lj2WKfZQRicy6K0PeEAyiriGCP6EZL R2S5zFjhvkzDziia9uFv8vsa9hRHmgn4d-2BLyPFob5B9sXWpYg9VbcDuLVv-2BYV-2BatCViKR3MVwov87DaxgH8HJzPgfeNlcC0BGH9udxZkQpW-2BT1sNPEDQPl4B97nNnB5rR-2FsxxNx1aeWu7OvJ-2FT2wnpsgng-3D-3D_6dDQcjj3wZqKDJ6HMe-2BA-2F2Viz0An8gIH7YRobodzxe5OnUjYeZFnKLfknJQhtknOX9KFF zkNMgTAwNDJPoYsPxauT2A578QbVRSS-2FefxkH0a5rSL57l9UeReUbES73ZQfKRUnqc-2BDGNgD2-2Fhm4idIvWlqzO9Tf6sT-2BGlJzuBcZkkFq9gjkWJznUP2CyAJKtS6QX1F4SAuEB0cgFanU-2F3pF3Vlnjq-2FNr-2FVn1fgzAjKJSuiRNPRuBavXIo6Ov5AbkW8XTgILi8R2-2BxCPyTQMbI-2FnDvZxTU49Ycv1kITwtXIUcmbIIEZ8wII54X-2FsTjRQR1) $11 million to congressional campaigns and political action committees.

Over the same period the company has spent an additional $75 million lobbying Congress.

“All the evidence suggests Dow pays and the Trump administration plays,” said Parent.

“The agencies are concealing scientific analyses likely to show chlorpyrifos and other pesticides are jeopardizing the very existence of our most imperiled wildlife.”

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2018/02/14/lawsuit-challenges-trump-administrations-refusal-release-records-pesticide-harms

The oligarchy dictates govt policy for profit, no matter who or what else gets screwed, Repugs and their voters are fucking whores.

But even red states are trying to fight back against being poisoned by BigChem

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/arkansas-moves-to-ban-monsantos-blockbuster-herbicide/

[boutons_deux]

The Veteran Affairs secretary’s Euro trip scandal, explained

A report scrutinizes David Shulkin’s Wimbledon tickets and his wife’s pricey airfare.


Yet another Trump administration official is facing ethics questions after an inspector general’s report found (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/veterans-affairs-chief-shulkin-staff-misled-ethics-officials-about-european-trip-report-finds/2018/02/14/f7fbc020-0c3a-11e8-8b0d-891602206fb7_story.html?utm_term=.f3676d791d00) that Veterans Affairs Secretary

David Shulkin improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets, and that

his chief of staff misled officials about Shulkin’s wife’s travel to Europe last summer.

The inspector general’s findings (http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2018/images/02/14/vaoig-17-05909-106europe.pdf), released Wednesday, revealed that

Shulkin’s trip to London and Copenhagen in July — which included Shulkin’s wife, three VA staffers, and six members of the secretary’s security detail —

involved “personal time for sightseeing and

other unofficial activities” such as a

visit to Westminster Abbey and

not one, but two river cruises on the Thames and the Nyhavn Canal in Copenhagen.

Shulkin justified the travel as in support of the VA’s mission. :lol

https://www.vox.com/2018/2/14/17013046/david-shulkin-veteran-affairs-euro-trip-scandal-travel-trump (https://www.vox.com/2018/2/14/17013046/david-shulkin-veteran-affairs-euro-trip-scandal-travel-trump)

Repugs/oligarchy's self-granted "mission" is to steal from taxpayers, is why Repug voters elect Repugs, to be fleeced, looted, stolen from.

[boutons_deux]

Trump Keeps Loophole That Allows Trucks To Vastly Exceed Emission Standards (https://jalopnik.com/trump-keeps-loophole-that-allows-trucks-to-vastly-excee-1823031558)

Former President Barack Obama tried to close an absurd loophole in federal law that would allow certain trucks to vastly (and we mean vastly) exceed emission standards.

Current President Donald Trump—thanks to political gamesmanship and potentially shoddy academic work—is keeping the loophole alive.

the sale of the trucks, known as “gliders,”

because—as the Times puts it—

“they are manufactured without engines and are later retrofitted with the rebuilt ones.”

The loophole has been condemned from a vast array of businesses, including Volvo, trucking company Navistar, and UPS:

Gliders are popular among small trucking companies and individual truck owners, who say

they cannot afford to buy or operate vehicles with new engines and modern emissions controls. :lol
The trucks, which Fitzgerald claims burn less fuel per mile and are cheaper to repair, have been on the market since at least the 1970s.

But after the federal government moved to force improvements in truck emissions, with standards that were first enacted during the Clinton administration (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4378485-Combatting-Pollution-in-Diesel-Trucks-and-the.html#document/p1/a404360) and took full effect by 2010,

gliders became a way for trucking companies to legally skirt the rules.

The trucks are cheaper to operate, the Times reports, but they “spew 40 to 55 times the (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4378485-Combatting-Pollution-in-Diesel-Trucks-and-the.html#document/p54/a404372) air pollution of other new trucks,

https://jalopnik.com/trump-keeps-loophole-that-allows-trucks-to-vastly-excee-1823031558?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29

If you can't afford a pollution-reduced engine, then your business model sucks, just like businesses that can't afford any wages except poverty wages.

[boutons_deux]

House Republicans Attempt to Foist Burdens on People with Disabilities

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights warned that the bill could impose a "burdensome process” on people with disabilities to pursue legal action.

it imposed “a burdensome process before people with disabilities could file a civil action for an accessibility violation in a public accommodation case.”

That’s because, as disability rights attorney Robyn Powell explained in a commentary (https://rewire.news/article/2017/05/30/americans-disabilities-act-attack-congress/) for Rewire, the process would become lengthy.

It would require a person with a disability “to give a written notice to a business owner who has barriers to access.”
“The business owner would then have 60 days to even acknowledge that there is a problem—and then another 120 days to make substantial progress toward correcting the violation,”

wrote Powell.

“In other words, people with disabilities would be forced to wait 180 days to enforce their civil rights.”

https://rewire.news/article/2018/02/15/house-republicans-attempt-foist-burdens-people-disabilities/?utm_source=Rewire-+Full+List&utm_campaign=91ad8cd7d6-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f311a29bda-91ad8cd7d6-112016197

This is what y'all Trash fellators voted for, right? voted to make AmeriKKKa more of shit hole, right?

screw everybody with disabilities, including crippled vets.

Dems who voted with Repugs to screw people with disabilities

NationalADAPT@NationalADAPT (https://twitter.com/NationalADAPT)


LIST OF #SHAME (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SHAME?src=hash): Dems who voted to reduce disability rights.

@RepPeteAguilar (https://twitter.com/RepPeteAguilar)
@RepBera (https://twitter.com/RepBera)
@RepScottPeters (https://twitter.com/RepScottPeters)
@collinpeterson (https://twitter.com/collinpeterson)
@RepKathleenRice (https://twitter.com/RepKathleenRice)
@RepSchrader (https://twitter.com/RepSchrader)
@RepSpeier (https://twitter.com/RepSpeier)
@RepCooper (https://twitter.com/RepCooper)
@repcorrea (https://twitter.com/repcorrea)
@RepBillFoster (https://twitter.com/RepBillFoster)
@RepCuellar (https://twitter.com/RepCuellar)
@NormaJTorres (https://twitter.com/NormaJTorres)
#HandsOffMyADA (https://twitter.com/hashtag/HandsOffMyADA?src=hash)
#StopHR620 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/StopHR620?src=hash)
#CripTheVote (https://twitter.com/hashtag/CripTheVote?src=hash)
#RevUP (https://twitter.com/hashtag/RevUP?src=hash)
12:21 PM - Feb 15, 2018 (https://twitter.com/NationalADAPT/status/964203123018407938)


Why so many Hispanics in that screw-the-cripples list?

With a high rate of Hispanic/Latino T2 diabetes at risk for amputations, why aren't Hispanic reps voting to protect their amputated ethnic group?

[boutons_deux]

Trash wants to kill funding for NPR and PBS

(because they aren't FOX nor part of the rightwing hate/paranoia media)

[boutons_deux]

Trump: Gut funding for climate science, boost fossil fuels

The Trump administration is targeting federal funding for studying and tracking climate change (http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/climate-change.htm) while boosting the continued burning of planet-warming fossil fuels.

The White House's 2019 spending plan seeks to reduce or eliminate climate science programs across an array of federal agencies,

from

gutting efforts to track greenhouse gas emissions and research to

eliminating funding for NASA satellites that study the impacts of climate change.

Trump has called climate change a "hoax" and

appointed forceful advocates for increased oil, gas and coal production to lead key federal agencies overseeing environmental enforcement, energy production and public lands.

In the 160-page budget summary released by the White House (http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/us/white-house.htm), the term "climate change" is only mentioned once — in the name of a science program marked for elimination at the Environmental Protection Agency.

A week after EPA Administrator Scott

Pruitt suggested global warming might be beneficial to humanity,

his agency issued a 47-page strategic plan for the next five years that does not include the word "climate."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/trump-gut-funding-climate-science-boost-fossil-fuels-53058002

the oligarchy's BigCarbon WHORES running govt.

May Trash live to watch Mar-a-Lago go under sea water.

[boutons_deux]

GOP Takes Another Step to Control Federal Courts

Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans ended a century-old tradition Thursday that will accelerate the appointment of right-wing federal judges in purple and blue states, where they will preside over thousands of cases that will never reach the Supreme Court.

The move, led by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley of Iowa, was the most egregious partisan intervention in the judiciary
since Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked 2016 hearings on President Obama's final Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland,

"Michael Brennan gets voted out of Senate Judiciary Committee along party lines despite fact that he refused to acknowledge implicit racial bias in the justice system,"

"Grassley kills the blue slip tradition with this vote. Brennan voted out over objection of a home-state senator."

"Chuck Grassley's blue slip policy blocked three of Obama's African American circuit noms.

But now he's changed his policy to ram through two of Trump's white circuit noms, inc Michael Brennan,"

Republicans under President Trump are packing the federal courts with right-wing nominees, many of whom are not qualified to hold these lifetime posts.

The public often underestimates the power of federal judges, especially at the appellate level. While the Supreme Court gets about 7,000 appeals annually and hears between 100-150 cases,

federal appeals courts receive upwards of 60,000 appeals annually and are often the final arbiter of justice in America.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/43573-gop-takes-another-ruthless-step-to-control-federal-courts

The oligarchy's bloodless coup d'etat continues unabated

America is fucked and unfuckable, for decades.

And if you rightwingnutjob assholes think the oligarchy's coup d'etat doesn't, won't affect you and your families, that's just more proof of how fucking ignorant you are.

[boutons_deux]

the oligarchy's coup d'etat marches on, unstoppably, and most irreversibly, which is also Bannon's destruction of govt

Mick Mulvaney’s destroying the CFPB — and that’s just what Trump wants

What Mick Mulvaney is doing to the agency he’s supposed to take care of is what’s going on throughout Washington

https://www.salon.com/2018/02/17/mick-mulvaneys-destroying-the-cfpb-and-thats-just-what-trump-wants/ (https://www.salon.com/2018/02/17/mick-mulvaneys-destroying-the-cfpb-and-thats-just-what-trump-wants/)

.... while Trash mesmerizes with his tweets.

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s Science Advisor, Age 31, Has a Political Science Degree

Because Trump has not nominated someone to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy,

Michael Kratsios is the de facto leader

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-rsquo-s-science-advisor-age-31-has-a-political-science-degree/

Kakistocracy, Don The Con Trash is your patron saint

[boutons_deux]

Trump proposes eliminating federal funding for PBS, NPR

PBS CEO Paula Kerger said at a TV critics meeting last July that a number of PBS stations across the country are dependent on federal funding in order to survive.

"PBS will not go away, but a number of our stations will," Kerger said on July 30.

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/373434-trump-proposes-eliminating-federal-funding-for-pbs-npr

[DMX7]

I truly believe we're getting to an end of the line here with the investigation. Trump is absolutely melting down on twitter. He is in complete terror about Mueller. The walls are closing in and the behavior will only get increasingly erratic.

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration is calling for elimination of program that heats homes of low-income families

The Trump administration is once again calling for the complete elimination of a heating assistance program that helps keep the homes of low-income families warm.

The administration is using the same arguments from a year ago when it tried to abolish the program,

saying that it's rife with fraud

and that no one would be left freezing if the program went away. :lol

"These arguments are very misleading and wrong,"

Supporters nonetheless say the program is a lifeline for the elderly, disabled and others on fixed incomes.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-heating-program-20180218-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter

So Trash/Mulvaney claim they MUST punish customers because the businesses are cheating? :lol

[boutons_deux]

Repugs proving their bona fides as misogynists

Republican lawmaker: Rob Porter's wife-beating wasn't a 'crime of character' (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/16/1741975/-Republican-lawmaker-Rob-Porter-s-wife-beating-wasn-t-a-crime-of-character) :lol

Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney opened up several cans of worms

in her comments on the White House’s handling of the Rob Porter scandal.

Tenney didn’t seem to know much about the situation, but

that didn’t stop her from having opinions (https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-congresswoman-claudia-tenney-on-rob-porter-why-are-we-still-talking-about-it/).

Lots of opinions.

Like that domestic violence is not a “crime of character.”

First, though, Tenney tried to dismiss the whole issue:

“We’re also getting into the minutiae :lol

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/16/1741975/-Republican-lawmaker-Rob-Porter-s-wife-beating-wasn-t-a-crime-of-character?detail=emaildkre

[boutons_deux]

Trump again seeks to end funding for earthquake early warning system

The Trump administration’s budget proposal released last week again zeroed out funding for the earthquake early warning program administered by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The president’s budget proposal (https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/fy2019_bib_bh049.pdf) for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 requested about $13 million less for the federal government’s earthquake hazards program,

including $10.2 million for the earthquake early warning program.

The administration also proposed reducing staff for the USGS’s earthquake hazards program from 240 to 222, including 15 positions that staff the earthquake early warning program.

The U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the USGS, said in its budget justification (https://latimes.slack.com/files/U0D3YNE7M/F9A89V80H/fy2019_usgs_budget_justification.pdf) that

the reduction in the earthquake hazards program was proposed to “address higher priorities.” :lol

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-earthquake-early-warning-20180220-htmlstory.html#nws=mcnewsletter

screw blue CA, and gotta try to pay for oligarchy's tax giveaway.

[boutons_deux]

All y'all ST Nazis got some new friends

Number of American hate groups increased in 2017: Watchdog

https://media.salon.com/2017/09/charlottesville1-620x412.jpg :lol :lol Hair dyed Aryan blond! :lol

Among White Supremacy groups, neo-Nazi organizations saw the most growth

increased by 4 percent from 2016 to 2017.

More precisely, the number of hate groups rose from 917 in 2016 to 954 in 2017. In 2014, there were 784 hate groups (https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map) — meaning,

there has been an approximately 20 percent increase since 2014.

Interestingly, from 2010 to 2012, the number of hate groups, according to SPLC, surpassed 1,000;

they peaked at 1,018 in 2011, declined before reaching a trough in 2014, then began to climb again.

https://www.salon.com/2018/02/22/number-of-american-hate-groups-increased-in-2017-watchdog/

[boutons_deux]

U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES WILL REMOVE “NATION OF IMMIGRANTS” FROM MISSION STATEMENT (https://theintercept.com/2018/02/22/u-s-citizenship-and-immigration-services-will-remove-nation-of-immigrants-from-mission-statement/)

https://theintercept.com/2018/02/22/u-s-citizenship-and-immigration-services-will-remove-nation-of-immigrants-from-mission-statement/

Repug white male nationalists, racists, xenophobes, ideologues disgracing America.

[boutons_deux]

What a great businessman and exemplary fair-play American citizen, displaying what makes America great (for the upper 20%)

Trump Hotel paid millions in fines shortly after the inauguration for stiffing contractors

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/trump-hotel-paid-millions-fines-shortly-inauguration-stiffing-contractors-report/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Christian Sharia BULLSHIT as smokescreen for Pruitt destroying American water, air, land, humans.

Could TX, OK, KS shit any bigger turds onto America?

Scott Pruitt says he's doing God's work by ignoring climate change and repealing Clean Power Act (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/25/1744671/-Scott-Pruitt-says-he-s-doing-God-s-work-by-ignoring-climate-change-and-repealing-Clean-Power-Act)

https://images.dailykos.com/images/355754/story_image/GettyImages-631081058.jpg?1485268102

EPA chief Scott Pruitt was spoken to by the Almighty Himself, in deciding to roll back the Obama-era Clean Power Act.

"Truly and clearly, the climate changes," Pruitt acknowledges. :lol

The good news is that Pruitt has been called to his leadership positions by the scripture! (http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2018/february/unraveling-the-weaponization-of-the-epa-is-top-priority-for-scott-pruitt)


"It was actually Isaiah chapter one that I was reading through at that time that really spoke to my heart," he continued.

"Specifically, in the latter part of chapter one where God says to Israel,

'I will restore your leaders as in the days of old, your judges as at the beginning.'

And there was just a desire that welled up in me :lol

to say, 'I want to be like those leaders that we had at our founding, at the inception of our country.'"



https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/25/1744671/-Scott-Pruitt-says-he-s-doing-God-s-work-by-ignoring-climate-change-and-repealing-Clean-Power-Act

Pruitt of course is LYING about the FFs.

The FFs were very aware of the threat of large businesses to the FF's fragile "American Experiment", based on what they knew from the English, European experiences. eg, the wealthy, huge, monopolistic East India Tea Company getting special privileges and taxes from the King.

[boutons_deux]

Anti-Semitic incidents rose sharply in Trump’s first year as presidenthttp://image.nj.com/home/advance-media/syndication/main/img/politics_news_national_desk/photo/24170421-standard.jpg


https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/anti-semitic-incidents-rose-sharply-trumps-first-year-president-study-says/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

MAWMCA, Make America (White Male) Christian Again.

(it never was except in white nationalist Christian supremacists sick imaginations)

[Chucho]

Anti-Semitic incidents rose sharply in Trump’s first year as president

http://image.nj.com/home/advance-media/syndication/main/img/politics_news_national_desk/photo/24170421-standard.jpg


https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/anti-semitic-incidents-rose-sharply-trumps-first-year-president-study-says/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

MAWMCA, Make America (White Male) Christian Again.

(it never was except in white nationalist Christian supremacists sick imaginations)




Your father must be depressed knowing 10 million sperm and you were the fastest.

[boutons_deux]

Scott Pruitt plans to close an EPA office that studies how chemicals harm children.

Is the EPA administrator trying to look like a movie villain?

In the name of organizational “efficiency,” Pruitt is making some big changes at his agency —

including the possible shuttering of the National Center for Environmental Research (http://thehill.com/regulation/energy-environment/375725-major-epa-reorganization-will-end-science-research-program),

best known for work to reduce children’s health risks from chemical exposure.

In the past, NCER found (https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2018/02/27/epa-ending-national-center-environmental-research-scott-pruitt-chemical-health/#4fe767314328) arsenic in babies’ rice cereal and toxic pesticides exposure in the children of farmworkers.

The center provides millions of dollars in grants each year for studying and treating things like childhood asthma, leukemia, and autism (https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/cehc-brochure-2014.pdf).

But Pruitt seems to have decided: enough!

https://grist.org/briefly/scott-pruitt-plans-to-close-an-epa-office-that-studies-how-chemicals-harm-children/

[rmt]

bou, is there ANYTHING you like about the US?

[boutons_deux]

bou, is there ANYTHING you like about the US?

Thread has nothing to do about what I like, or my opinion, just THE FACTS of how the Repugs, elected by You People, are fucking up America.

Your observational fault is expected

[boutons_deux]

Democrats warn against cut to offshore oil royalties

Top Democrats on the Senate and House natural resources committees urged the Interior Department on Tuesday to drop a proposed cut to offshore oil and gas royalties, warning such a reduction would shortchange U.S. taxpayers.

The Interior Department’s Royalty Policy Committee is due to evaluate a proposal to lower the royalty rate companies pay on petroleum produced in federal offshore waters to 12.5 percent from 18.75 percent -

part of a plan by the Trump administration to encourage more U.S. energy production. :lol

“This proposal would amount to a giveaway to some of the most profitable companies in the world and rob taxpayers of potentially billions of dollars of revenues over the life of the leases,”

the royalty committee appointed by Zinke - was “stacked with resources extraction interests.” :lol

The Western Energy Alliance, which represents oil and gas companies, brushed off arguments that the energy industry did not pay its fair share. “

The oil and natural gas industry is the second largest source of revenue to the federal government after the IRS,” :lol

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-oil-royalties/democrats-warn-against-cut-to-offshore-oil-royalties-idUSKCN1GB374?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FPoliticsNews+%28Reu ters+Politics+News%29

Repug kakistocracy giving away $Bs to BigCarbon, while refusing to help Puerto Rico, and then Repugs will cut Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security.

The oligarchy fucking America into unfuckability

[boutons_deux]

Sleepy Bear at HUD spent $31K on dining set, and demoted the lady who told Carson she couldn't "find the money"

[boutons_deux]

http://www.nationalmemo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/danzcolorplus8713-668x501.jpg

iow, Repugs and Trash, as candidate and Pres, have had EXACTLY the same monstrous "values" and policies of oligarchy all along.

[boutons_deux]

A shit hole TX Repug, of course

Anti-vaxxers rally around Texas GOP candidate who backs bizarre plan to build libertarian ocean cities

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Susanna-Dokupil-800x430.jpg

a bizarre plan to build independent libertarian cities in the middle of the ocean (https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/a-libertarian-utopia-was-actually-tried-here-and-it-failed-miserably/).

As the Texas Observer reports (https://www.texasobserver.org/anti-vaxxers-injecting-texas-republican-primaries/), anti-vaxxer organization Texans for Vaccine Choice has endorsed

Republican candidate Susanna Dokupil

to represent the district of West University Place in this year’s GOP primary against incumbent Rep. Sarah Davis.



Although Dokupil insists that she isn’t against vaccinations on a personal level,

she has won support from anti-vaxxers after she told

Texans for Vaccine Choice last year that “we believe in what you’re doing, we believe in parental choice and your cause and we will fight with you.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/anti-vaxxers-rally-around-texas-gop-candidate-backs-bizarre-plan-build-libertarian-ocean-cities/

[boutons_deux]

Repugs grinding down the poor, of all colors

Kentucky competes to be the worst state in the nation, will limit food assistance (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/27/1745198/-Kentucky-competes-to-be-the-worst-state-in-the-nation-will-limit-food-assistance)

In addition to having to jump through regular hoops and spend hours documenting their employment in order to stay on Medicaid, they'll have to do the same now to get food assistance. The state is going to impose a three-month limit (https://kypolicy.org/reinstating-time-limits-food-assistance-will-hurt-low-income-kentuckians-local-economies/) on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. After three months, many receiving assistance will have to prove they are working to be able to eat.

Since jobs are still hard to find in significant parts of the state, this change will result in loss of food assistance and harm to economic activity in already-struggling local communities.

By May, most of the 87,000 Kentucky adults without dependents will have to prove to the state that they work or engage in some kind of work activity such as school, voluntary employment and training programs provided by the state or workfare (a kind of unpaid internship, often with nonprofits). If they have not kept up 20 hours of work activities per week for more than three months at any point in the past three years they will become ineligible for SNAP benefits

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/27/1745198/-Kentucky-competes-to-be-the-worst-state-in-the-nation-will-limit-food-assistance?detail=emaildkre

any Repug work requirement for public assistance must come with a guaranteed work position

[boutons_deux]

The White House Is Appointing Anti-Woman Judges

Counsel Don McGahn is giving a pass to nominees with terrible records on sexual violence and harassment.

Thus far in his administration, President Trump has nominated more than 50 people for federal judgeships.

An alarming number of them have expressed disdain for, or ignorance of, the realities that women face in confronting sexual violence, sexual harassment, obstacles to reproductive rights, and discrimination at work and in school.

Several have actively worked to make it harder for women to obtain redress when they are wronged.

Don Willett, appointed to a Fifth Circuit seat, formerly served on the Texas Supreme Court, where he ruled to limit the compensation that a victim of workplace sexual harassment can collect from an employer.

Another Fifth Circuit nominee, Kurt Engelhardt, currently serves as a judge on a Louisiana district court. There, he has established a pattern of preventing sexual-harassment claims (https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/louisiana/laedce/2:2010cv00899/140183/39/) from being heard by a jury, going out of his way to rule that allegations do not rise to the level of what is considered objectively hostile conduct.

A Seventh Circuit nominee, Michael Brennan, praised the Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Morrison, which struck down significant portions of the Violence Against Women Act.

A Court of Federal Claims nominee, Damien Schiff, once brought a lawsuit challenging the application of federal Title IX anti-sex discrimination rules to high-school sports, in which he made the astonishing claim (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQbBuAYIov4) that “Congress had absolutely no evidence before it enacted Title IX that there was sexual discrimination going on in high schools.”

A Trump nominee now on the Sixth Circuit, John Bush, opposed women’s admission into the Virginia Military Academy. The military-style education at VMI, he wrote, “does not appear to be compatible with the somewhat different developmental needs of most young women.”

Oregon nominee Ryan Bounds once warned against overly zealous responses to campus rape allegations, thus: “Expelling students is probably not going to contribute a great deal toward a rape victim’s recovery; there is no moral imperative to risk egregious error in doing so.”

Meanwhile, some nominees have been dismissive when confronted with the issue of gender discrimination in employment.

Both Willett and Brennan have written skeptically about such discrimination, expressing disbelief that a “glass ceiling” exists.

On the reproductive-rights front, it is not surprising that many nominees have expressed staunch opposition to abortion.

This White House, including the top lawyer in charge of judicial nominations, hardly bats an eye when it comes to archaic or even hostile attitudes toward the well-being of women.

That became painfully obvious when the Rob Porter mess bubbled to the surface, but Porter has left government service.

The federal judges who decide how the law will treat women if they are battered, abused, harassed, or discriminated against will be with us for decades

https://www.thenation.com/article/the-white-house-is-appointing-anti-woman-judges/ (https://www.thenation.com/article/the-white-house-is-appointing-anti-woman-judges/)

[boutons_deux]

Devos to states: Stop cracking down on predatory student loan companies (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/27/1745255/-Trump-administration-to-states-Stop-cracking-down-on-predatory-student-loan-companies)


Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is preparing to issue a declaration that

companies collecting federal student loans are off limits for state lawmakers and regulators.

The “notice of interpretation” argues that only the federal government, not the states, has the authority to oversee federal student loan servicers

That includes industry giants like Navient and Nelnet. [...]

But consumer advocates and nearly half of the nation’s attorneys general disagree, arguing that states have the right to oversee companies operating within their borders that collect loan payments from their residents.

The industry’s lobbying efforts last year drew criticism from a group of 25 state attorneys general, led by New York’s Eric Schneiderman.

In a letter, the attorneys general urged DeVos “to reject an ongoing campaign by student loan servicers and debt collectors to secure immunity for themselves from state-level oversight and enforcement.”

The Education Department “cannot sweep away state laws that apply to student loan servicers and debt collectors,” said the letter, which was also signed by a handful of GOP attorneys general, including Ken Paxton of Texas, Herbert Slatery of Tennessee and Cynthia Coffman of Colorado.



In other words, if it’s states and the little people on one side and giant loan companies on the other, the Trump Education Department, representing the supposedly populist president from the supposed party of states’ rights, is definitely supporting the giant loan companies.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/27/1745255/-Trump-administration-to-states-Stop-cracking-down-on-predatory-student-loan-companies

Christian extremist Devos is such a cheap whore to BigFinance

[boutons_deux]

Ending Rules to Curb 'Silent, Tasteless Killer,' Pruitt Makes It Easier for Polluters to Poison Nation's Water

Polluters wanted the Obama-era regulations weakend. Obsequious Pruitt just obliged.

The Environmental Protection Agency's industry-friendly proposal to roll back safeguards for the disposal of coal ash—a toxic by-product from coal plants that sits in pits at over 1,000 sites (https://content.sierraclub.org/coal/disposal-ash-waste) across the nation.

Thanks to industry pressure, the 2015 coal ash rule, which included (http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/227714-epa-unveils-first-ever-coal-ash-regulations) increased inspections, monitoring, and stricter structural integrity standards for disposal sites, fell "woefully short of truly protecting the public from the dangers of coal ash,"

"Now, the Trump Administration is trying to pare back what already was the bare minimum."

Coal ash contains highly toxic contaminants like

mercury, cadmium, and arsenic,

and demands for stricter regulations of it followed large spills near Kingston, Tenn. and Eden, N.C.—spills the EPA acknowledged (https://www.epa.gov/coalash/coal-ash-basics) "caused widespread environmental and economic damage to nearby waterways and properties."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/03/02/ending-rules-curb-silent-tasteless-killer-pruitt-makes-it-easier-polluters-poison

Hillary's EPA would have not have Pruitt as admin and wouldn't

Repugs = Dems ?

fuck no, HUGE differences, Repugs being fucking disastrous

[boutons_deux]

McDonald’s and cop just kicked out, made homeless man cry when he tried to eat meal

“I waved him down and said, ‘Hey, are you hungry?’

And he said, ‘Yes.’

So, I went in there with him and as soon as we went inside, the lady at the register says ‘You’re not getting food,” Gallo explained (https://abc11.com/viral-man-homeless-man-kicked-out-of-myrtle-beach-mcdonalds/3158640/).

“He didn’t ask me for food. I saw him across the street and I brought him over here.”

Gallo’s excuse did nothing to moderate the disgusting treatment at the hands of the McDonald’s manager or

the officer, who wouldn’t even let the homeless man enjoy his meal in peace

(there's a video)

http://washingtonpress.com/2018/03/01/mcdonalds-cop-just-kicked-made-homeless-man-cry-tried-eat-meal-watch/

[boutons_deux]

BEN CARSON, RETIRED BRAIN SURGEON, HAS LOBOTOMIZED HUD

After a year of overseeing the anti-poverty department, Carson is realizing he may be in over his head.

a president indifferent to both the mission of HUD and to the man he appointed to lead it, whom he reportedly considers a beta “winner,” not an aggressive “killer.”

The result, as the Times reports, is that Carson has been either unable or unwilling to secure the funds that HUD desperately needs to take care of the millions of low-income Americans who rely on public housing and other forms of assistance:


Mr. Carson, people close to him say, hates asking anybody for money — and has told advisers that

he feels acutely uncomfortable asking the president for anything that could be construed as a favor.

When the White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, proposed an 18 percent cut to HUD late last year, Mr. Carson reluctantly reached out to the president. Mr. Trump expressed sympathy.

Then he told him to “talk to Mick” about the details.


Carson eventually negotiated a 14 percent cut.

But “he often simply seems out of the loop—telling senior staff members at a gathering last spring that the

president had given him assurances that HUD’s budget would not be cut at all.” :lol

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/03/how-ben-carson-hobbled-hud

Repugs put this guy in HUD as an ignorant, incompetent, dickless placeholder as the Repugs fuck up HUD

[boutons_deux]

Trump nominates Dow Chemical official to lead emergency response to toxic spills

Dow Chemical is linked to more than a hundred Superfund clean-up sites.

At Dow Chemical, Wright currently works as managing counsel for environmental health and safety. :lol

Earlier in his career, Wright had jobs at several law firms as well as the agriculture giant Monsanto. :lol

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-nominates-dow-chemical-official-35dacf635af0/

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s Social Security budget offers more work, less staff, longer waits

President Trump’s proposed fiscal 2019 Social Security Administration (SSA) budget (https://www.ssa.gov/budget/FY19Files/2019CJ.pdf) would cut staffing, a recipe for long waits in agency offices and on the telephone for those trying to navigate the often-difficult world of old-age, disability, survivor and Medicare benefits. Retirement and survivor benefits would not be hit.

under Trump, there would be fewer federal employees to deal with an increasing number of people of retirement age.

About 10,000 baby boomers hit retirement age every day.

The increase in workloads coupled with a decrease in staffing led to a

627-day wait for disability applicants’ hearings in 2017.

The three-minute telephone wait that callers had for

SSA’s 800 number in 2010 was six times longer last year.

Despite SSA attempts to direct traffic to its website, there were 2 million more field office visits in 2016 than 2015.

“More than 16,000 visitors were forced to wait more than hour for service each day in August 2017,”

“I accompany a 92-year-old neighbor to the Social Security,” Blair said. “He’s not computer literate … so I’m going with him. We had to go three times before he could get the service he needs because the lines were so long, and he’s disabled he can’t stand there all day. There was no seats for him.”

his daughter “almost gave up and cried because she just could not get the service in a timely manner” for her son’s survivor benefit after his father died.

“I have a brother that worked 34 years, became disabled,” Blair added.

“It took him two and a half years (to get a claim processed). What happens in that two and a half years? Savings gone, unemployment gone. So real people, this affects for real people.

“But it’s … more than just services.

To us, it’s a continued effort to dismantle Social Security.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/02/27/trumps-social-security-budget-offers-more-work-less-staff-longer-waits/?utm_term=.b8bfaccd0153

It's taken the oligarchy about 80 years to destroy SS, but they are getting very close.

Anything "common good" is being targeted for destruction by the oligarchy.

[boutons_deux]

After Calling Practice 'A Horror Show,' Trump Reverses Ban on Animal Trophy Imports

Breaking earlier promise, administration now says slaughtered elephants and other exotic animals will be allowed into U.S. on "case-by-case" basis

https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_large/public/headlines/screen_shot_2018-03-06_at_1.00.00_pm.jpg?itok=WfgKiEWB

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/03/06/after-calling-practice-horror-show-trump-reverses-ban-animal-trophy-imports

[boutons_deux]

Trash's Exec going full bore on Christian Sharia and Christian misogyny, esp hate for poor (black, brown) women

Abstinence-Only Advocate Assumes Control of Family Planning Funds Amid Latest Reproductive Health War

Congressional Republicans could further empower Trump official Valerie Huber to disregard the Obama-era emphasis on highly effective forms of contraception and turn the nation's affordable birth control program into a bastion of abstinence and natural family planning.

https://rewire.news/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/shutterstock_102425257-740x525.jpg

The Trump administration’s war on reproductive health care has expanded to include who controls the fate of his health department’s Title X family planning grants,

Abstinence-only advocate Valerie Huber alone will determine which health-care providers will get awards from some $260 million in Title X funds,

Before leading the Title X office within President Trump’s virulently anti-choice U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),

Huber was “instrumental in attempts to remake ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage programs into poverty-reduction programs,”

The Trump-era Title X grant criteria are notable for prioritizing federal Title X dollars for providers that promote abstinence and natural family planning

HHS omitted any mention of “contraception” or “contraceptives,” in stark contrast to the Obama-era criteria.

https://rewire.news/article/2018/03/08/abstinence-advocate-assumes-control-family-planning-funds-amid-latest-reproductive-health-war/

[boutons_deux]

bag of hammers speaks

Energy Secretary Rick Perry says moving from fossil fuels to renewables is ‘immoral’

Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Wednesday that it was “immoral” to help poor nations shift off of fossil fuels.

“Look those people in the eyes that are starving and tell them you can’t have electricity,”

said Perry (https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Perry-drops-in-on-CERA-12734786.php) in remarks after his big speech (https://thinkprogress.org/rick-perry-new-energy-realism-44bec2ceac2e/) to the oil and gas industry at the annual CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.

“Because as a society we decided fossil fuels were bad. I think that is immoral.”

Perry’s logic and morality are both blinkered. First, despite being in charge of a $2 billion clean energy program,

Perry seems completely unaware that solar and wind are now cheaper sources of electricity (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ge-power/how-general-electric-gambled-on-fossil-fuel-power-and-lost-idUSKCN1G60I3) than fossil fuels.

https://thinkprogress.org/rick-perry-shifting-off-fossil-fuels-immoral-58eca749f006/

As a Repug, Jimmy Ricky gives the tiniest shit about "morals"

[boutons_deux]

Trump HUD appointee spread conspiracy about Hillary Clinton’s satanic ritual

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Gibbs_trump_HUD-800x430.png

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/trump-hud-appointee-spread-conspiracy-hillary-clintons-satanic-ritual-report/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Anti-refugee White House aide given key refugee job at State Department

One former official said Veprek seemed "vindictive" about reducing the number of immigrants.

https://thinkprogress.org/anti-refugee-aide-gets-top-refugee-job-523f8f0f7d06/

[boutons_deux]

BULLSHIT from on the biggest crapifying corrupters

Charles Koch Complains About Corporate Influence In Politics :lol

billionaire super-contributor Charles Koch (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/charles-koch) complained Thursday in a newspaper opinion column about the unfair influence of corporations and the “privileged few” in political decisions.

“Our lawmakers must act on behalf of all Americans — not just the privileged few,” :lol

“When large companies can pressure politicians to force everyday Americans to fork over unearned millions we should all question the fairness of the system,” :lol

“Our entire economy is rife with cronyism.” :lol

The Koch brothers, worth an estimated $100 billion (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-04-16/koch-brothers-worth-100-billion-buying-printers-to-ads) together, have become

the gorillas of dark money (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/dark-money) contributions distorting American democracy

since the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission,

Koch insists he has used his financial clout only for the common good. :lol

“We only support policies that are based on equality under the law and that help people improve their lives,” :lol

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/charles-koch-corporate-influence-problems_us_5aa1ed9ce4b086698a9c1930?9x&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=__TheMorningEmail__030918&utm_content=__TheMorningEmail__030918+CID_24c1f668 d0817b0fdb2307c6b06fdae7&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=HuffPost&ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__030918

Just another corrupt oligarchy asshole insulting America's intelligence.

[boutons_deux]

:lol

Ben Carson Backpedals On Removing Anti-Discrimination Language From HUD Mission Statement

In a message to staff, Carson insisted the housing department would still ensure inclusivity in housing.

Secretary Ben Carson (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/ben-carson) assured them he was committed to ensuring fair and discrimination-free housing ― despite his proposal to remove such language from the agency’s mission statement.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ben-carson-hud-mission-statement_us_5aa1970de4b04c33cb6ceeee?utm_medium=e mail&utm_campaign=__TheMorningEmail__030918&utm_content=__TheMorningEmail__030918+CID_24c1f668 d0817b0fdb2307c6b06fdae7&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=HuffPost&ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__030918

[boutons_deux]

Here’s Jeff Sessions’ Draft Master Plan For The Justice Department

A draft strategic plan sidelines civil rights while emphasizing a crackdown on leaks and the MS-13 gang.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/jeff-sessions) is rapidly shifting the Justice Department’s focus from Obama-era goals such as civil rights enforcement and criminal justice reform to conservative priorities.

A draft version of the department’s five-year strategic plan obtained by HuffPost shows the Trump administration (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/trump-administration/)’s plans for the DOJ include cracking down on undocumented immigrants, aggressively prosecuting national security leaks, zeroing in on campus speech issues, targeting the MS-13 gang and restoring the “rule of law” throughout the country.


Sessions’ goals


The draft plan has four major strategic goals: counterterrorism; securing the borders and enhancing immigration enforcement; reducing violent crime; and promoting “integrity, good government and the rule of law.”

The draft plan also calls for immigration enforcement to be prioritized in every federal district across the country; to denaturalize those who obtained citizenship fraudulently; and to end “sanctuary” policies.


What’s not in the plan


the DOJ’s prior strategic plan (https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/jmd/legacy/2014/02/28/doj-fy-2014-2018-strategic-plan.pdf) emphasized civil rights enforcement and criminal justice reform, the draft version of the plan that HuffPost viewed does not.

Sessions has rolled back Obama-era sentencing reforms (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeff-sessions-doj-drug-sentencing-trump_us_59155c78e4b0fe039b339a20)and publicly opposed (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeff-sessions-drug-sentencing-reform_us_5a8497ace4b0ab6daf457040) a bipartisan sentencing reform bill,

Under Sessions, the Justice Department has retreated (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ferguson-police-reform-justice-department_us_59c19b7ee4b0f22c4a8d6a8f) from police reform (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-doj-police-reform-sessions_us_59ce60d6e4b09538b507f1ca), which had become a top priority under the prior administration. Trump’s draft budget calls for the elimination (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/community-relations-service-doj-trump_us_5a81f1ace4b061625973aebf) of a historic office founded by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that works to ease racial tensions.

Sessions has advanced an anti-civil rights agenda since the day he became the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

they don’t have the item that says ‘roll back civil rights progress’ on their strategic plan, which has been what they’ve been doing,” Gupta told HuffPost.

“Frankly they should’ve added that to the list.”



https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/doj-trump-strategic-plan-civil-rights_us_5a7120c6e4b0a6aa487457b9?utm_medium=emai l&utm_campaign=__TheMorningEmail__030918&utm_content=__TheMorningEmail__030918+CID_24c1f668 d0817b0fdb2307c6b06fdae7&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=HuffPost&ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__030918

The party of racism installed an intellectual runt and Alabama racist to run DoJ. No surprises

Listen to the little motherfucker talk for a few minutes to hear how fucking ignorant, stupid, limited he is.

eg, JeBo says sanctuary cities are the same as Confederate secession

( as if he thought secession and the Confederacy were bad idea :lol ).

[boutons_deux]

White House Officials Watched Betsy DeVos’ Disastrous Interviews ‘In Horror’

Trump Administration officials are extremely concerned with Betsy DeVos after how badly the Secretary of Education did in her recent media hits.

DeVos seemed unprepared to answer questions about what she’s done to improve national education.

Collins and Tapper both noted how DeVos has struggled with answering these types of questions before, and

Collins pointed out that DeVos was struggling to answer questions about the most fundamental aspects of her department.

“This is about exactly her purview here, and she couldn’t answer those basic questions and she also contradicted herself repeatedly,”

“Even people inside the White House watched in horror as those interviews were playing out.

It wasn’t just that interview last night,

it was also her two interviews this morning where

she couldn’t even defend the administration’s proposals on school safety.”

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnns-kaitlan-collins-white-house-officials-watched-betsy-devos-disastrous-interviews-in-horror/

[boutons_deux]

Betsy DeVos Calls “60 Minutes” a Waste of a Half Hour


https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5aa69694206e941ff4233ace/master/w_1298,c_limit/Borowitz-Betsy-DeVos-60-Minutes-Waste-Half-Hour.jpg


WASHINGTON — Furious about her treatment on the CBS news-magazine program on Sunday night, Betsy DeVos spoke to reporters on Monday, and called “60 Minutes” a “total waste of a half hour.”

“I had never watched ‘60 Minutes’ before, but I can tell you this, I will never watch it again,” the Education Secretary said.

“I have better things to do with a half hour of my time.”

Calling her interviewer, Lesley Stahl, a practitioner of “gotcha journalism at its worst,”

DeVos said that it was “very unfair of her to ask me so many questions about education.”

“She asked me one thing about schools, and then another, and another,” she said.

“If I had to answer every question she had about schools, I would have had to bone up on education for a month.”

DeVos said that she was “frustrated” that Stahl neglected to ask her about any of

her “really good ideas” for the nation’s schools,

such as “purchasing guns for teachers

with money that is currently being wasted on books.”

“If a bear comes into your classroom, throwing a book at him will only stun him momentarily, at best,”

DeVos said.

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/betsy-devos-calls-60-minutes-a-waste-of-a-half-hour (https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/betsy-devos-calls-60-minutes-a-waste-of-a-half-hour)

[boutons_deux]

Ditzy Devos kicks own goal

Betsy DeVos defends her terrible '60 Minutes' performance with an equally embarrassing tweet (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/12/1748461/-Betsy-DeVos-defends-her-terrible-60-Minutes-performance-with-an-equally-embarrassing-tweet)

So … Michigan used to be average or above average, and

now it’s below average, and

this shows that the problem is with schools nationwide?

That’s her defense? :lol

For years, the Free Press has written extensively about how

Michigan’s performance on a national student assessment exam has declined dramatically

while other states have shown improvement.

A report released last week raised concerns about

large drops in student proficiency among third graders (https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2018/03/06/michigan-students-decline-3rd-grade-reading/395935002/)in the state and

found that Michigan had the biggest declines compared to 11 other states that use a similar exam.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/12/1748461/-Betsy-DeVos-defends-her-terrible-60-Minutes-performance-with-an-equally-embarrassing-tweet?detail=emaildkre

Ditzy has basically, single-handedly (with her wealthy hubby), with her $Bs, screwed Michigan school system, meaning she's screwed Michigan students.

Repug kakistocracy

[boutons_deux]

ICE spokesman resigns, citing fabrications by agency chief, Sessions about California immigrant arrests

A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has resigned over what he described as

“false” and “misleading” statements made by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and ICE acting director Thomas D. Homan.

He said he had been told to “deflect” questions about the Oakland mayor’s interference (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/02/28/oakland-mayor-libby-schaaf-tipped-off-immigrants-about-ice-raid-and-isnt-sorry-she-did/?utm_term=.81ec5e25c59f) with an ICE raid last month and

to refer reporters to statements from Sessions and Homan that suggested that hundreds of “criminals” (“criminal aliens,” Homan called them) escaped capture in Northern California

because the mayor tipped them off.

“I quit because I didn’t want to perpetuate misleading facts,”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/13/ice-spokesman-resigns-over-false-statements-by-top-officials-about-calif-immigrant-arrests/?utm_term=.6dae3b5301f6

[boutons_deux]

Trump rolls back organic farm animal welfare rules so farm animals can be treated cruelly again (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/12/1748427/-Trump-s-rolls-back-organic-farm-animal-welfare-rules-so-farm-animals-can-be-treated-cruelly-again)

efforts to create a world where the worst impulses of humankind are rewarded.

The Hill (http://thehill.com/regulation/administration/377947-usda-withdraws-animal-welfare-rule) reports that Trump’s Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it will be rolling back an Obama-era rule that benefits one group of people over another.

The Trump administration has decided to withdraw an Obama-era rule that would have set new standards for the way animals should be treated if their meat is going to sold as “certified organic.”

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Monday that it is officially withdrawing the final rule it delayed for the third time in November.

The agency said the rule, which was set to take effect in May,

exceeded the department’s statutory authority and :lol

could have had a negative effect on voluntary participation in the National Organic Program. :lol


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/12/1748427/-Trump-s-rolls-back-organic-farm-animal-welfare-rules-so-farm-animals-can-be-treated-cruelly-again?detail=emaildkre


BigFarma makes govt policy for its own profits, just like all the oligarchy.

[boutons_deux]

Trump's CFPB looks at credit cards and, absurdly, sees 'a positive picture for consumers'

by Capital One, includes the benefit of being compensated "for losses you incur as a result of identity fraud," which the agreement (https://www.capitalone.com/media/doc/credit-cards/benefits-guide-world-mc.pdf) declares clearly and seemingly definitively.

But if you keep reading, you come to a lengthy series of exceptions that will not be covered. These include "indirect or direct damages or losses of any nature."

Waitaminnit. Losses you incur are covered, but not losses of any nature?

"It seems to me

they're saying that if they don't want to pay you, they don't have to," Hazelleaf said.

"That seems to make their identity fraud reimbursement basically useless."

When the CFPB issued its first report (http://file///C:/Users/dlazarus/Downloads/2013-10-13-CFPBcard.pdf) on the effects of the Card Act in 2013, ...

The latest report (https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_consumer-credit-card-market-report_2017.pdf) — the first under Trump's watch — was released in December. It has no concerns about the credit card market.

Rather, it says "the market shows significant innovation" and, overall, there's "a positive picture for consumers in the credit card market."

Yes, kids: Banks are your friends!

This is, of course, foolish. While the Card Act has helped make the market for plastic more transparent, I can't imagine any consumer thinking there's no need for vigilance.

Since Mick Mulvaney, who also serves as White House budget director, took over in November as interim chief, the order of the day has been to

scale back regulatory oversight and enforcement as much as possible.

The White House also has called for

slashing the bureau's budget by 23% and eliminating rules "that unduly burden the financial industry."

total household debt is at a record $13.15 trillion

, according to the Federal Reserve.

Consumers were carrying a total of $834 billion in credit card balances as of the end of last year.

http://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-credit-card-agreements-cfpb-20180313-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter

Repugs fake being freaked out by national debt, but have no concern if citizens are debt-slaved to BigFinance

iow, like the USA, the economy is debt financed, with BigFinance pocketing $Ts in interest, fees, bank overdraft fleecings.

[boutons_deux]

Ditzy Devos, oligarchy royalty, the Christian supremacist idiot supreme

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/betsy-devos.jpg

Here are 21 reasons Betsy DeVos is so widely disliked

Why People Hate Betsy DeVos:

1) She didn’t earn her position as Education Secretary (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/betsy-devos-and-the-cowardice-of-republicans/). She bought it (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/farcical-senate-closer-to-selling-education-secretary-position-to-highest-bidder/). And even then it took a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence to shove her down our throats.

2) She wants to spend tax dollars to boost privatized schools (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/school-choice-week-choosing-away-your-choice/) in which she has a financial stake. (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/10/self-serving-public-servants-trump-devos-and-the-rise-of-the-plutocrats/)

3) She doesn’t mind taking funding away from public schools (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/the-problem-with-public-schools-isnt-low-test-scores-its-strategic-disinvestment/) to do it.

4) She wants to destroy the entire system of public schools (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/30/newsflash-betsy-devos-opens-mouth-nonsense-falls-out/) which enroll 90% of America’s children.

5) She doesn’t really know what public schools are (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/18/ignorance-and-arrogance-the-defining-characteristics-of-the-betsy-devos-hearing/), having never attended one or having never sent her children or grandchildren to one.

6) She wants to arm teachers not because it will protect kids from school shooters (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/allowing-guns-in-schools-is-a-bad-idea/), but because that boosts her family’s investment portfolio (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/news/2017/01/27/297572/inside-the-financial-holdings-of-billionaire-betsy-devos/) (i.e., her brother’s mercenary army for hire, Blackwater).

7) She won’t make charter and voucher schools (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/top-10-reasons-school-choice-is-no-choice/) give the same services to special education kids (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/betsy-devos-extreme-image-makeover-as-champion-of-special-needs-children/) as those provided by traditional public schools.

8) She’s getting rid of students’ civil rights protections (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/betsys-choice-school-privatization-over-kids-civil-rights/) while adding protections for nefarious student loan providers and fly-by-night online schools.

9) She’s rescinded rules that protected trans students (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/im-a-public-school-teacher-hands-off-my-trans-students/).

10) She’s considering rescinding rules that protect minority students from being unfairly and disproportionately disciplined by schools (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/16/dept-of-ed-hires-anti-civil-rights-crusader-to-protect-students-nonexistent-civil-rights/).

11) She’s made it harder for victims of sexual assault and harassment to report abuse and easier for those accused to avoid prosecution (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/13/betsy-devos-wants-fewer-rights-for-rape-survivors-more-for-alleged-attackers/).

12) She talks about state’s rights to determine their own education systems while using the power of the federal government to coerce them into doing things her way (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/27/trump-cant-limit-federal-role-in-public-schools-and-push-school-vouchers/).

13) She wastes public tax dollars. She is the only Cabinet member protected by Federal Marshals, which costs us nearly $1 million a month (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/the-cost-of-betsy-devoss-security-detail-1-million-per-month/2017/04/07/efa01488-1ade-11e7-9887-1a5314b56a08_story.html?utm_term=.d53041db9c43). Whether this is necessary or not, as a billionaire she could save the taxpayers money by taking on this cost, herself.

14) She doesn’t care if the public doesn’t want her at their school or event. She goes anyway and then pretends to be angry that protestors showed up (https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/10/politics/devos-protest-at-washington-school/index.html). She doesn’t seem to understand that as a public servant she should serve at our pleasure – not the other way around.

15) She uses tragedy as a photo-op (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/10/rampant-ignorance-of-what-a-school-should-be/) – as she did when she visited the Parkland school to promote arming teachers. She didn’t meet significantly with students or staff. She didn’t listen to their concerns. She even bailed on her own press conference there when the queries weren’t to her liking.

16) She has no problem whitewashing black history as she did when she claimed historic black colleges were pioneers of school choice (https://time.com/4685456/betsy-devos-black-colleges-school-choice/). In reality they had no choice. For many African Americans at the time, it was either create black colleges or forgo post-secondary education at all.

17) She is ignorant (purposefully or not) of the results of her own policies. Her advocacy of school choice in her home state of Michigan has weakened that state’s public schools, not strengthened them. (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/10/27/mr-and-mrs-public-school-sabotage/)

18) She’s out of touch with average Americans. She’s the richest member of Trump’s Cabinet and often travels in her own super-luxury yacht (https://www.newsweek.com/can-you-afford-betsy-devoss-lavish-lifestyle-708369).

19) She’s rich not because she earned it, but because she was born into it and married into even more wealth. Moreover, much of her wealth is due to her family’s Amway fortune – basically it’s founded on rooking average people out of their hard earned money (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/betsy-dick-devos-family-amway-michigan-politics-religion-214631) with what’s essentially a pyramid scheme.

20) She’s arrogant. She smiles vacantly at topics that don’t deserve a smile – they deserve serious regard.

21) She is extremely biased and partisan. She is supposed to serve the public interest, but her radical Christian Fundamentalism and anti-LGBT activism (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/betsy-devos-is-enemy-of-lgbtq_us_5926570ee4b061d8f81f3415) make her untrustworthy to serve in that capacity. Statements such as

“There is enough philanthropic dollars in America to fund what is currently the need in education… Our desire is to confront the culture in ways that will continue to advance God’s kingdom,” (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/betsy-devos-christian-schools-vouchers-charter-education-secretary/) do not help.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/21-reasons-betsy-devos-widely-disliked/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Trump enters a manic phase, discovers presidential power: That’s not good

Trump ramps up the ugliness with the promotion of zealot Mike Pompeo and torturer Gina Haspel. What’s next?

President Trump had quite a day on Tuesday.

He fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in crude and cowardly fashion,

announced that he is moving the unqualified CIA director, Mike Pompeo, over to the ghostly halls of the nearly empty

State Department to do a job for which he also has no experience.

Then he nominated Gina Haspel, one of the most notorious CIA officers in American history,

a woman best known for enthusiastically torturing terrorist suspects and then destroying all the evidence of doing so, to run the agency.

Then the president took off for the California-Mexico border, where he

uttered some gibberish about "the wall" needing to be transparent,

after which he addressed some service members and announced his latest great idea:

"My new national strategy for space recognizes that space is a war fighting domain just like the land, air and sea,"

Trump said. He also entertains the idea of adding a new military branch, calling it the "Space Force."

something has changed in Trump.

I ascribed (https://www.salon.com/2018/03/08/are-republicans-finally-turning-on-trump-if-so-it-could-be-too-late/) what I see as a new frenetic assuredness to his realization that the president has a tremendous amount of power and that there's little anyone can do to stop him from exercising it, particularly in certain areas.

More importantly,

he has seen that the Republicans in Congress are unwilling to take any steps to thwart him,

while the courts move at a glacial pace.

To a significant degree, he can do what he wants.

https://www.salon.com/2018/03/14/trump-enters-a-manic-phase-and-discovers-presidential-power-thats-not-good/

[boutons_deux]

What's Next?

how about neocon, world-hating imperialist neocon Bolton as 100% politicized NSA?

Trump won’t force John Bolton to shave mustache as security adviser but it’s a ‘sensitive subject’

Trump may replace current National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster (https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/12/17091772/john-bolton-trump-national-security-adviser-war-iran-north-korea) with Bolton.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/trump-wont-force-john-bolton-shave-mustache-security-adviser-sensitive-subject-report/

[boutons_deux]

Yet another so-called Bible-humpring Christian shit bag from shit hole TX

Texas Republican mocks Stephen Hawking after his death — and gets obliterated by his colleagues
far-right legislator in Texas is under firing for trolling renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who died at the age of 76 on Tuesday (https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/scientist-stephen-hawking-dead-76-family/).

“Stephen Hawking now knows the truth about how the universe was actually made,”

Rep. Briscoe Cain tweeted (https://twitter.com/BriscoeCain/status/973779271230676994).

“While many see him as one of the greatest public intellectuals of the last century, and no one disputes that he was brilliant, the fact remains that God exists,” Rep. Cain claimed.

“My tweet was to show the gravity of the Gospel and what happens when we die, namely, that we all will one day
meet the Creator of the universe face to face.”

The American-Statesman noted Cain had the most conservative voting record in the Texas House,

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/texas-republican-mocks-stephen-hawking-death-gets-obliterated-colleagues/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Biggest Kock Bros Whore In Congress Is New US Secretary Of State

Of all the congressional representatives who have suckled themselves at the breast of the Koch brothers and their friends,

Mike Pompeo is the champion.

Before becoming director of the CIA under Donald Judas Trump, Pompeo served three terms in the House of Representatives as a congressman from Kansas. During that time,

he accepted more money from the Koch brothers and their evil empire than any other person serving in the House or the Senate — just shy of $1,000,000

Pompeo was dismissive of his Clean Power Plan and support for the Paris climate accords. He described both as a “perverse fixation on achieving [Obama’s] economically harmful environmental agenda” and as “worshiping a radical environmental agenda” — words taken directly from the Koch Brothers playbook.

Pompeo is expected to ratchet up pressure on North Korea, virtually guaranteeing the talks scheduled for May go nowhere.

He is also an advocate for scrapping the Iran deal, a move that would plunge the Middle East into even more chaos.

As Secretary of State, he will have tremendous influence over how the US supports renewable energy development in countries around the world. The expectation is that he will hinder rather than help that process.

Pompeo has no diplomatic experience and is woefully incapable of running the State Department effectively.

Which makes him

just another member of the gang of incompetent deplorables Trump has surrounded himself with since taking office.


https://cleantechnica.com/2018/03/14/biggest-koch-whore-congress-new-us-secretary-state/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29

[boutons_deux]

Trump White House is tossing aside a key ethics law (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/13/1748639/-Trump-White-House-is-tossing-aside-a-key-ethics-law)

The White House is taking the same casual approach (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/us/politics/trump-white-house-hatch-act.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpol itics&smid=tw-nytpolitics&smtyp=cur) to the Hatch Act—which forbids government officials from using their public positions for the benefit of partisan politics—as it takes to every other ethics question.

Why, also, wouldn’t the Trump staff discard the Hatch Act when violations that are verified by the Office of Special Counsel get referred for discipline to … Donald Trump.

Kellyanne Conway is the aide who was referred for discipline she’ll never receive, after she repeatedly used her official position to promote Roy Moore’s Senate run in Alabama.

not only is Conway unlikely to be disciplined, but the White House has taken the position that her clear-cut Hatch Act violations aren’t violations at all:

that Ms. Conway’s interviews — in which she clearly expressed support for Mr. Moore and opposition to Mr. Jones — did not violate the Hatch Act because she was expressing the president’s policy position.

Office of Special Counsel, which rejected the argument in itsreport (https://osc.gov/Resources/Conway%20HA-18-0966%20Final%20Report.pdf) reprimanding Ms. Conway.

The office said the position “lacks merit,” and

“would render meaningless the Hatch Act’s prohibition against using one’s official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.”

Rendering any and all ethics rules meaningless is what the Trump White House is all about.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1748639

Evangelical frauds LOVE Trash's ethics.

I suppose we can expect WH staff to be violating the Hatch Act in the upcoming campaign season.

[boutons_deux]

Trash's racism, xenophobia has degraded America, encouraging easily duped, influenced, hate-filled Americans to follow suit

Horrifying Videos Show Racist Moms Teaching Kids To Be Patriots By Vandalizing A Mosque

The disturbing Facebook live video captures a troubling excursion in which two women and three children trespass and vandalize a mosque.

two women take a group of children to vandalize and steal materials at a mosque in Tempe, Arizona, in an attempt to “expose the evil that is happening in our backyards.”

Tahnee Gonzales, she and another woman take three unidentified children on a trip to the mosque in order to “collect as much information” and

“expose mosques” in order to teach the children how to be “American patriots.”

“They smell like goat,”

exclaims a girl in the background once the group enters through the gated fence

The little girl instructs one of the boys to put his “thumbs down” and pouts as the group poses for a photo.

“Be careful, because Muslims are waiting to rape you,”

the young girl is heard telling the boy.

The children are then seen climbing upon the mosque’s funeral van while

one of the women warns one of the boys about the “dead Muslims” and “sex goats” that she says were once stored in the truck.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-videos-mosque-vandalism-women-children_us_5aa9a121e4b0600b82ffe195?utm_medium=em ail&utm_campaign=__TheMorningEmail__031518&utm_content=__TheMorningEmail__031518+CID_5aebffdd 059bef1ea42285432037fe18&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=by%20vandalizing%20mosques&ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__031518

Thanks, all you bubbas, shitkickers, GED or less assholes.

[boutons_deux]

The extravagant spending of Trump’s champagne cabinet
All while their agencies suffer.


The EPA administrator’s $43,000 phone booth


The Interior secretary’s $139,000 door


The $31,000 dining set at the Department of Housing and Urban Development


The jet-setting Treasury Secretary’s $800,000 flights

https://thinkprogress.org/extravagant-spending-trump-cabinet-4827459800c2/

[boutons_deux]

While Trash crashes the solar market ...

DOE Official: Clean Energy Funding Should Be Cut for ‘Exceeding Goals’
The Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is so successful that its funding should be diverted elsewhere, said the agency’s Under Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes.

“In the area of EERE…we have been meeting or exceeding our goals” over the last five years, said Menezes, who spoke at The American Council on Renewable Energy’s Renewable Energy Policy Forum in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. He praised the office for helping reduce the cost of electric-vehicle batteries, wind and solar technologies.

“Our job is to have early-stage research and move it along the technological readiness levels, eventually getting it to where it’s commercially deployable. But once it’s commercially deployable, then the question becomes: What role does the department need to spend?” he said.

“To be sure, you could continue spending money there, but then where would be the opportunities for new energy breakthroughs?”

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/official-clean-energy-funding-should-be-cut-for-exceeding-goals?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GTM_Solar+%28GTM+Solar%29#gs. W8FlmB8

"new energy breakthroughs"? no doubt that DoE will cut funding of research for that also.

Oligarchy philosophy: the govt can not promote the general welfare, and must not even try.

[boutons_deux]

Forget All the Cocaine, Trump’s New Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow is One of TV’s Worst Financial Pundits

But aside from the longtime TV gig and the Wolf of Wall Street steeze, there’s another thing Larry Kudlow is known for: being really fucking wrong. (Also, all the cocaine, but we’ll get to that.)

here’s a handy collection of the times Larry Kudlow absolutely nailedit.

1. Larry Kudlow, 2007: “There is no recession.”

There is no recession. Despite all the doom and gloom from the economic pessimistas, the resilient U.S economy continues moving ahead quarter after quarter, year after year defying dire forecasts and delivering positive growth. In fact, we are about to enter the seventh consecutive year of the Bush boom.

2. Larry Kudlow, 2008: Oil prices will help the stock market rally and Sarah Palin will strengthen John McCain’s presidential bid.


3. Larry Kudlow, 2002: We should invade Iraq because it would “revive the American spirit.”

“Taking Back The Market — by Force,” is the name of Kudlow’s 2002 piece for the National Review (https://www.nationalreview.com/2002/06/taking-back-market-force-larry-kudlow/), which

makes the case for invading Iraq on the basis that the “stock market is slumping”

because “only one in three Americans believe the U.S. is now winning the war on terrorism.”

4. Larry Kudlow, 2011: “We should be grateful” that human toll of Japan earthquake and tsunami is worse than the economic toll.

5. Larry Kudlow, 2015: Bush tax cuts led to five-year boom!

Kudlow, in a spasm of his famed supply-side zealotry, lauded the Bush tax cuts of 2003 as having spurred a five-year “boom” in the U.S. economy.

6. All the cocaine.

In 1994, after serving for years as the chief economist at Bear Stearns, Kudlow was fired when he confessed to an insane $100,000 per month cocaine habit.

some 15 months after he was ousted from Bear Stearns, his wife filed for divorce and, per the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/04/business/economist-is-said-to-enter-a-six-month-drug-program.html), “an order to

prevent Mr. Kudlow from tapping their Bear Stearns retirement account to pay for a weeks-long cocaine binge.”

Kudlow ended up in and out of rehab a number of times, including a stint at the celeb favorite Hazelden in Minnesota.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/forget-all-the-cocaine-trumps-new-economic-adviser-larry-kudlow-is-one-of-tvs-worst-financial-pundits/

but he's a teevee celeb on the shitty CNBC, so that's enough qualification for Trash.

[boutons_deux]

Trash's racism, xenophobia has degraded America, encouraging easily duped, influenced, hate-filled Americans to follow suit

Horrifying Videos Show Racist Moms Teaching Kids To Be Patriots By Vandalizing A Mosque



2 Women Who Took Children To Vandalize An Arizona Mosque Are Arrested

Two Arizona women, Tahnee Gonzales and Elizabeth Dauenhauer, were arrested on suspicion of felony third-degree burglary (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-videos-mosque-vandalism-women-children_us_5aa9a121e4b0600b82ffe195) after an investigation into theft and vandalism at a Tempe mosque revealed that the two women, along with three unidentified children, trespassed on the property of the Islamic Community Center earlier this month,

Based on details of the incident shown in the videos, an enhanced charge involving hate crime may be considered for sentencing, Duran said.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tempe-women-arrested-mosque-theft_us_5aaaff19e4b0337adf826764?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=__TheMorningEmail__031618&utm_content=__TheMorningEmail__031618+CID_02f1eec1 0efbaabbe0eff3d3c3321df7&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=HuffPost&ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__031618

[boutons_deux]

Trash wildlife protection board stuffed with trophy hunters

A new U.S. advisory board created to help rewrite federal rules for importing the heads and hides of African elephants, lions and rhinos is stacked with trophy hunters, including

some members with direct ties to President Donald Trump and his family.
A review by The Associated Press of the backgrounds and social media posts of the 16 board members appointed by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke indicates they will agree with his position that

the best way to protect critically threatened or endangered species is by encouraging wealthy Americans to shoot some of them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whitehouse/trump-wildlife-protection-board-stuffed-with-trophy-hunters/2018/03/15/c2ed6962-289e-11e8-a227-fd2b009466bc_story.html?utm_term=.85427a011e97

[boutons_deux]

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos accused of union-busting

The union alleges that the Department of Education failed to negotiate “in good faith” with them

the American Federation of Government Employee is seeking to hit Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s department with an unfair labor practice charge.

“The Education Department has imposed on its workers an illegal document that we had absolutely no bargaining over,” AFGE Council 252 President Claudette Young said (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/afge-charges-education-dept-with-trying-to-bust-labor-union-300614870.html) in a statement.

“Secretary Betsy DeVos and her management team are attempting to strip employees of their collective bargaining rights and kill the union.”

https://www.salon.com/2018/03/16/education-secretary-betsy-devos-accused-of-union-busting/

[boutons_deux]

well of course, Trash/oligarchy BLM will fuck this up for profit, and vindictively reverse Obama's progress

By ordering new land-use plan, Trump could spark a fight in California deserts

Conservationists see its acres of creosote bush and cholla cactus as a rare habitat for tortoises, pronghorn antelope and an elusive variety of mule deer.

Energy companies view its sunbaked plains and windswept ridgelines as prime perches for solar panels and wind turbines.

Dirt tracks that wiggle across its sandy washes are testament to its popularity among off-road motorsports enthusiasts.

Until last year, all parties had reached something of an accord.

Obama-era rules ensured that portions of California's sunniest public lands would be reserved for conservation;

other parts set aside for large-scale solar, wind and geothermal development and mining;

and other sections designated for recreation.

In a stunning reversal, President Trump one year ago ordered the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to reopen study of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan and consider

shrinking the areas it protects

and expanding lands available for solar, wind, broadband infrastructure, mining, off-road vehicles and grazing.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-trump-california-desert-20180316-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter

[boutons_deux]

Been going on for years now, nothing done (that's been effective).

and

Teen Suicide Rates Are Rising

The stats are most troubling in Utah and among boys, whose suicide rate had been on the decline for almost two decades.

the number of girls age 15 to 19 committing

suicide doubled from 2007 to 2015,

to a 40-year high of 5.1 per 100,000.

The most recent statistics for boys, whose suicide rates have always been higher, are also grim.

After peaking in the 1990s and declining for a decade and a half, their

suicide rate climbed by more than 30 percent between 2007 and 2015,

to 14.2 per 100,000.

http://www.governing.com/gov-teen-suicide.html?flipboard=yes&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+governing%2FZbhZ+%28GOVERNING %29

[boutons_deux]

Trump to call for the death penalty for some opioid dealers, but White House won't say how it would be applied

a senior administration official declined to provide any examples of circumstances under which convicted drug traffickers would face capital punishment,

The death-penalty element of Trump's drug plan has been criticized by public health experts and others who point out that many of the people addicted to opioids were hooked initially by legally prescribed drugs.

The president has been criticized for touting penal solutions to the opioid crisis rather than emphasizing the public-health component.

a nationwide goal of reducing opioid prescriptions being filled by one-third within three years.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trump-opioids-20180318-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter

[boutons_deux]

Even Republicans Are Horrified by This Kentucky Governor's Attack on Protesting Teachers


One prominent GOP official calls Matt Bevin's remarks "indefensible."

Kentucky’s Republican Gov. Matt Bevin sparked outrage (https://www.kentucky.com/article205219129.html) Wednesday after he called teachers who oppose efforts to cut pension benefits “selfish” and “ignorant.”

Bevin told WVLC Tuesday that the teachers protesting Senate Bill 1—which would cut billions of dollars in benefits for teachers (https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article203917779.html)—

are disloyal Americans,

like ration hoarders during World War II.

“This would be like people having mass demonstrations about, ‘No I want my butter, I want my sugar, I’m going to keep all my steel and my rubber and my copper, and

to heck with the rest of you people, you better keep giving me mine,’”

Bevin said of protesting teachers.

“That’s what it is, it’s the most remarkable commentary about who we are in modern times,” Bevin said.

“It’s just straight up about wanting more than your fair share.”

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/even-republicans-are-horrified-kentucky-governors-attack-protesting-teachers

Ditzy Devos and much of the oligarchy and Repugs agree completely.

Their strategy is to destroy all govt that benefits the common good that they hate.

[boutons_deux]

Trump threatens to shut down government rather than fund Gateway tunnel

Trump said he would veto legislation funding the government through Sept. 30 if it included money for a new tunnel linking New Jersey and Manhattan,

Trump's threat accelerated his efforts to kill the project (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/03/trump_was_only_being_cordial_when_he_praised_gatew .html), which he initially appeared to endorse (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/09/lawmakers_leave_trump_meeting_optimistic_about_gat .html) at a White House meeting with New Jersey and New York officials last September.

Trump, a Republican, earlier pressured U.S. House Republicans to drop a $900 million allocation (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/09/what_happened_when_the_house_voted_on_gateway_fund .html)for Gateway, which involves building a new tunnel under the Hudson River for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains and replacing the Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/03/will_trump_shut_down_the_government_over_gateway_f .html

This is the same tunnel and bridge the Chris Christie vetoed so he could use the money as a slush fund for his magnificient political career

[boutons_deux]

Trump's new economic adviser says the rich can't be corrupt. Let's look at the Trump administration. (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/16/1749482/-Trump-s-new-economic-adviser-says-the-rich-can-t-be-corrupt-Let-s-look-at-the-Trump-administration)

Larry Kudlow, Donald Trump’s new top economic adviser, is famous for being wrong about everything (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/14/1748996/-White-House-unreality-show-to-get-new-character-Larry-Kudlow-as-economic-adviser), in some very dramatic ways (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/15/1749039/-The-genius-Larry-Kudlow-during-the-2007-financial-catastrophe-There-s-no-recession-coming).

“Why shouldn’t the president surround himself with successful people?”

he wrote (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443331/trump-transition-going-great-economy-needs-attention-now), referring to the rich conservatives Trump has added to his incoming team.

“Wealthy folks have no need to steal or engage in corruption.”


About that.

Members of Trump’s cabinet had an estimated combined net worth of $4.5 billion (https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2017/07/05/the-4-3-billion-cabinet-see-what-each-top-trump-advisor-is-worth/#7565e0005dfc) (though it seems that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross may have seriously inflated his wealth).



Tom Price became the former Health and Human Services secretary because he spent as much as $1 million on charter and military flights (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/28/1702577/-Bombshell-Tom-Price-s-private-flights-have-cost-taxpayers-over-1-Million-since-May). His net worth is a reported $10 million.
Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin is with Price in the military flights club, having taken seven military flights totaling $1 million (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/15/1749305/-Treasury-Secretary-Mnuchin-blew-an-astonishing-1-million-in-taxpayer-money-on-only-seven-flights) rather than flying commercial like his predecessors. He even tried to get a government plane to take him on his honeymoon (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/29/1702804/-Price-is-out-what-does-that-mean-for-the-rest-of-the-administration-frequent-fliers). His net worth is a reported $385 million.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, with a personal net worth of $22 million, made headlines for a $31,000 dining set (https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/3/14/1748912/-Emails-show-Ben-Carson-and-his-wife-chose-the-31-000-dining-set-he-denied-knowing-about) he and his wife chose, then denied knowing anything about, for his office.
Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin’s reported net worth of $17 million didn’t stop him from using a few overseas meetings as an excuse for touristing around Europe (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/29/1702736/-VA-chief-and-wife-had-a-lovely-taxpayer-funded-trip-to-Europe-Wimbledon-river-cruise-sightseeing) at the government’s expense.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is a relative pauper worth just $1.9 million, but he’s repeatedly chartered planes for government business (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/10/5/1704344/-Sec-Zinke-s-charter-jet-government-business-travel-keeps-coinciding-with-private-GOP-events) only to show up at nearby Republican fundraisers and the like, as well as spending $139,000 on office doors (https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/3/9/1747700/-Forget-Carson-s-31-000-dining-set-The-new-Trump-Cabinet-he-spent-what-is-Zinke-s-139-000-doors).


But most of all, there’s Trump himself and his family of grifters.

From the galas and fundraisers being held at Trump’s properties—for a hefty fee—by groups looking to suck up to him,

to the shell companies and foreign governments renting real estate (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/13/1740965/-In-case-you-forgot-Donald-Trump-never-stopped-violating-the-emoluments-clause) from him

to the overseas deals (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/2/1729208/-Trump-s-violations-of-the-emoluments-clause-are-huge-obvious-and-apparently-unstoppable) being smoothed by governments looking to curry favor,

Trump is corrupt right up to his questionable hairline.

Meanwhile son-in-law and top adviser Jared Kushner—himself from a family of wealthy real estate developers—has gotten a series (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/2/1746046/-SEC-dropped-investigation-into-investment-company-after-the-company-gave-Jared-Kushner-a-huge-loan) of suspicious loans (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/27/1727960/-Federal-prosecutors-now-probing-Deutsche-Bank-loan-to-Jared-Kushner-one-month-before-election).

And that’s not even getting into the little stuff like

Don Jr.'s trip to India (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/19/1742804/-Donald-Trump-Jr-is-making-a-foreign-policy-speech-in-India-in-between-selling-condos) to give a foreign policy speech and sell some condos, or the

$1.5 million a year (https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/3/12/1748381/-Ivanka-Trump-pulling-in-1-5-million-a-year-from-daddy-s-business-while-working-in-the-White-House) Ivanka is getting from Trump companies while working in the White House.

Yeah, that whole “rich people don’t need to be corrupt because they’re rich” thing holds up about as well as Kudlow’s 2007 insistence that there wasn’t going to be a recession.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/16/1749482/-Trump-s-new-economic-adviser-says-the-rich-can-t-be-corrupt-Let-s-look-at-the-Trump-administration (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/16/1749482/-Trump-s-new-economic-adviser-says-the-rich-can-t-be-corrupt-Let-s-look-at-the-Trump-administration)



White House unreality show to get new character: Larry Kudlow as economic adviser (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/14/1748996/-White-House-unreality-show-to-get-new-character-Larry-Kudlow-as-economic-adviser)
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/14/1748996/-White-House-unreality-show-to-get-new-character-Larry-Kudlow-as-economic-adviser



The genius Larry Kudlow during the 2007 financial catastrophe: 'There's no recession coming.' (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/15/1749039/-The-genius-Larry-Kudlow-during-the-2007-financial-catastrophe-There-s-no-recession-coming)
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/15/1749039/-The-genius-Larry-Kudlow-during-the-2007-financial-catastrophe-There-s-no-recession-coming

The Best People

[boutons_deux]

asshole stinky Zinke shitting on America for BigOil profit

US Interior Department offers oil leases near Utah’s wilderness monuments

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/us-interior-department-offers-oil-leases-near-utahs-wilderness-monuments/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

The EPA’s New Environmental Justice Adviser Has a Plutonium Problem

More than 40 people inhaled radioactive dust while working for a company whose vice president is now advising Scott Pruitt

National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/national-environmental-justice-advisory-council), which provides advice to the EPA administrator on how best to protect those vulnerable communities.

One of the members is Michael Tilchin, a white gentleman from Washington, D.C., and the vice president of CH2M Hill,

a global engineering company that’s caught up in a major contamination scandal:

Dozens of its workers inhaled cancer-causing plutonium—not once, but on multiple occasions.

https://newrepublic.com/article/147325/epas-new-environmental-justice-adviser-plutonium-problem

criminal polluters employed by Pruitt / EPA :lol

[CosmicCowboy]

Did they get superpowers?

[boutons_deux]

Kockistan destroying "liberal" education in favor of trade school

A University of Wisconsin campus pushes plan to drop 13 majors — including English, history and philosophy

The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point has proposed dropping 13 majors in the humanities and social sciences — including English, philosophy, history, sociology and Spanish — while

adding programs with “clear career pathways”

as a way to address declining enrollment and a multimillion-dollar deficit.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2018/03/21/university-of-wisconsin-campus-pushes-plan-to-drop-13-majors-including-english-history-and-philosophy/?ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__032118&utm_term=.e26864da958e

Kock Bros and their hired puppet Walker want uneducated, narrrow- / close-minded employees, not broadly educated grads who can think.

[boutons_deux]

Hispanic Caucus rips Gohmert for trying to co-opt César Chávez's birthday (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/21/1750883/--Offensive-shameful-Hispanic-Caucus-rips-Gohmert-for-trying-to-co-opt-C-sar-Ch-vez-s-birthday)

https://images.dailykos.com/images/521651/story_image/GettyImages-141928924.jpg?1521655641

Louie Gohmert (https://twitter.com/replouiegohmert)
(https://twitter.com/replouiegohmert)✔@replouiegohmert (https://twitter.com/replouiegohmert)

Today I filed a resolution that would declare Cesar Chavez's Birthday: "National Border Control Day."

Read more about the resolution, here: https://gohmert.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398628 … (https://t.co/JCXg0vbRRR)

2:37 PM - Mar 20, 2018 (https://twitter.com/replouiegohmert/status/976181019941490689)

===========

Gohmert’s “reasoning” is that “in the 1960s and ’70s, Chavez (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/louie-gohmert-cesar-chavez-national-border-control-day_us_5ab22d4ee4b008c9e5f2d49f)took a hard line (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/louie-gohmert-cesar-chavez-national-border-control-day_us_5ab22d4ee4b008c9e5f2d49f) against unauthorized immigration (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/louie-gohmert-cesar-chavez-national-border-control-day_us_5ab22d4ee4b008c9e5f2d49f),”

but of course he doesn’t mention that “by the 1980s, Chávez’s stance on the issue had shifted considerably,”

supporting Ronald Reagan’s 1986 immigration package.

Gohmert is stupid, but even he knows this, because he left it out of his research.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1750883

Nothing surprising from a Deep South racist / xenophobe

[boutons_deux]

Mick Mulvaney’s Latest Scandal Makes Him Look Like a Craven Hypocrite

For many months, the Trump administration has been attempting to push through a regulatory change that would

make it easier for restaurant owners to skim tips from their employees.

As if that weren’t rotten enough, it now appears that high level officials, including

White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney,

attempted to bury a government analysis showing how badly the move would hurt workers who rely on gratuities to make a living.

the regulation could also become a license for your local Buffalo Wild Wings proprietor to simply commit tip theft.

Under the administration’s proposed rule, as long as tipped workers earn minimum wage,

employers could legally pocket those tips.”

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta claims (https://bnanews.bna.com/daily-labor-report/mulvaney-acosta-override-regulatory-office-to-hide-tips-rule-data) his department doesn’t have the legal authority to ban tip theft;

The Economic Policy Institute, for instance, thinks that restaurant workers could lose $5.8 billion (https://www.epi.org/publication/epi-comment-regarding-dols-proposed-tip-stealing-rule/) annually in the bargain.

Trump appointees in the

Department of Labor had actually flushed multiple in-house estimates of how the rule would effect restaurant workers, including one that showed they would lose billions in tips:

the administration is willing to go to downplay unflattering data and push through a regulation that will likely hurt working class Americans.

“make it 100 percent clear that there was a deliberately withheld economic analysis. That’s a big problem in defending this rule legally.

Mick Mulvaney:

A stickler for math when it comes to regulating payday lenders, but not so much when it comes to stealing tips from waitresses.

https://slate.com/business/2018/03/mick-mulvaney.html

[CosmicCowboy]

Any restaurant that tried that would lose in the end because they could only keep shit servers. Hell, a good server in a decent restaurant has got to be clearing over $50 an hour.

[dabom]

Any restaurant that tried that would lose in the end because they could only keep shit servers. Hell, a good server in a decent restaurant has got to be clearing over $50 an hour.

:lol

[boutons_deux]

Buried, altered, silenced: 4 ways government climate information has changed since Trump took office

Federal data sets related to environmental and climate science are still accessible in the same ways they were before Trump took office.

However, in many other instances, federal agencies have tampered with information about climate change.

Across agency websites, documents have disappeared, web pages have vanished and language has shifted in ways that appear to reflect the policies of the new administration.

Two groups have been keeping a watchful eye on developments.

These groups have documented four ways that climate-related information has become less accessible since Trump took office.

1. Documents are difficult to find

Documents on existing international environmental treaties and national climate policy have been buried or removed from departments’ current websites.

2. Web pages are buried

Some administrative pages have disappeared from agency sites and can be accessed only from the Obama-era web archive.

3. Language has been altered

Departments have scrubbed websites of environmental terms. The term “climate change,” for instance, no longer exists across certain web pages of several agencies, such as the White House, the Department of Transportation and the Department of the Interior.

4. Science has been silenced

But website changes and deletions are just the tip of the iceberg.

Columbia’s Silencing Science Tracker (http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/resources/silencing-science-tracker/) records 116 instances when scientists have been obstructed.

The list includes budget cuts, staff cuts, unfilled positions and suspended funds.

Climate-related research projects have been canceled and climate fellowships rescinded.

In some cases, advisory boards and research centers have been dismantled entirely.

as of Dec. 31, 2017, the administration had filled only 20 (http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/silencing-science-tracker/trump-administration-fails-to-fill-science-positions/) science-related positions out of the 83 total.

That pace falls short of both the Obama administration, who had appointed 63, and

the Bush administration, who had filled 51, at the same point in time.

The silencing suggests that the administration values (http://www.climatecentral.org/news/trump-cabinet-climate-change-20920) “pro-growth” policies over environmental goals and stands with industry (https://psmag.com/environment/trumps-impact-on-the-environment), no matter the cost.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/buried-altered-silenced-4-ways-government-climate-information-changed-since-trump-took-office/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Trump nominates racist hardliner to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, jeopardizing sentencing reform (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/21/1750923/-Trump-nominates-racist-hardliner-to-the-U-S-Sentencing-Commission-jeopardizing-sentencing-reform)

President Trump has nominated an extremist to the U.S. Sentencing Commission (https://www.ussc.gov/), one Professor William G. Otis of Georgetown Law,

whose other credits include a stint at DEA under George H. W. Bush and a federal prosecutor gig in Virginia.

If confirmed, Otis would have a lot—a lot—of potential to thwart sentencing reform and even sabotage the Sentencing Commission, which is integral to reform.

The glaring issue (http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/trump_pick_for_sentencing_commission_once_called_f or_it_to_be_abolished#When:12:00:00Z) with Otis’s nomination: He opposes the Commission’s existence and mission.

Before a House subcommittee in 2011,

[Otis] called for abolishing the Sentencing Commission altogether,

declaring that its guidelines “favor the criminal” and

labeling it “an overfed lemur” that costs too much and no longer has the respect of the judiciary.


Expect him, if confirmed, to block every sentencing reform (http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/trump_pick_for_sentencing_commission_once_called_f or_it_to_be_abolished#When:12:00:00Z) he can.

Sentencing reform, he said, is

“part of our country’s recent pattern of decline and retreat, of settling for lower standards in the name of a toxic brand of equality.”


Beyond his facially faulty positions on the commission and reform, Otis seems immune to reasoned analysis and devoid of concern for the social effects of higher rates of incarceration (http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/trump_pick_for_sentencing_commission_once_called_f or_it_to_be_abolished#When:12:00:00Z).


In blog posts, he has written that he believes the harsh crime policies and War on Drugs prosecutions of the 1980s and 1990s contributed to the precipitous crime rate drop in subsequent decades.

“Our whole sentencing system that started in the Reagan-Bush era, the system of guidelines and mandatory minimums has been a big success,” he said.

“If one judges the success of the criminal justice system by the crime rate rather than the incarceration rate, under the system we’ve had and that Jeff Sessions is now restoring, there has been a tremendous fall-off in crime.”

Most researchers who have studied the drop in crime that began in 1991 agree that locking up more people played some role — but at a high cost in dollars, damaged communities and racial inequity. People of color are disproportionately represented in the nation’s jails and prisons.


Otis has adopted (http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/trump_pick_for_sentencing_commission_once_called_f or_it_to_be_abolished#When:12:00:00Z) a particularly hideous (read: racist) explanation (https://www.npr.org/2018/03/02/590236153/trump-pick-for-sentencing-commission-has-history-of-racially-charged-remarks) for why African American and Latinx people are overrepresented in prison. And it doesn’t have to do with faulty sentencing laws.

[O]n his Crime and Consequences blog, Otis wrote:

"When Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones said at a University of Pennsylvania Law School talk that blacks and Hispanics are more violent than whites,

a consortium of civil rights organizations filed a complaint.

The complaint calls for stern discipline, on the grounds that the remarks were 'discriminatory and biased.' "

He added: "So far as I have been able to discover, it makes no mention of the fact that they're true."


BONUS:

Otis also has thoughts on “Orientals” and incarceration (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/03/02/trump-picks-tough-on-crime-crusader-with-history-of-racial-remarks-for-criminal-justice-post/?utm_term=.6ec8c3041605).

Thoughts that he seems to think prove he’s not racist:

It’s just about values, folks.

“Orientals have less incidence of crime than whites. …

The reason Orientals stay out of jail more than either whites or blacks is that family, life, work, education and tradition are honored more in Oriental culture than in others.

Values, not race or skin color, influence choices.


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1750923



Repugs nominated the BEST POSSIBLE asshole to crush blacks, browns and

keep the for-profit prison system filling up and sucking down $Bs from taxpayers