Reply With Quote
Tillerson to cede control of $240 million in Exxon stock as Trump pick
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2017/01/04/t...as-trump-pick/
Congressman who supports gutting ethics office used campaign funds to pay for rabbit travel
Rep. Duncan Hunter’s (R-CA) used $600 in campaign funds for transport of a family rabbit on an airplane. His office called scrutiny of the expense as an example of overreach by the Office of Congressional Ethics.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Hunter’s spokesperson Joe Kasper portrayed the Republican congressman as a victim of an investigative oversight office that pursued him too harshly for “mistakes.”
Hunter was among the House Republicans who supported a secret ballot to gut the House Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) earlier this week.
Hunter revealed the rabbit-related expenses as an attempt to diffuse the impact of an upcoming OCE report that has not yet been released.
Hunter has already been forced to reimburse $62,000 of expenses the Congressman billed to his campaign account that were later found to be personal or otherwise inappropriate.
Last year, the Federal Election Commission called on him to explain the $1,302 of Steam Games expenses on his 2015 year end campaign finance disclosure. Hunter said that the charges came from his teenage son and other unauthorized charges on the video game website.
https://thinkprogress.org/duncan-hun...03d#.4e5k4zk4q
"govt overreach" is objectionable to Repugs when only Repugs are the target.
just like "scorched earth strict obstructionism" is great as Repug strategy, but horrible when (if) the Dems do it.
Tillerson to cede control of $240 million in Exxon stock as Trump pick
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2017/01/04/t...as-trump-pick/
Trash picks Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton for SEC chairman
Clayton, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell law firm, is a noted specialist in public and private mergers and offerings.
Citing his campaign pledge to reduce federal regulations, Trump said Clayton "is a highly talented expert on many aspects of financial and regulatory law, and he will ensure our financial ins utions can thrive and create jobs
while playing by the rules at the same time."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...hair/96151332/
yeah, sure, A real Sheriff of Wall St
Florida Attorney General Who Received Illegal Donation from Trump Expected to Join White House
Pam Bondi — the Florida attorney general who took an illegal donation from President-elect Trump — appears poised to take a job in his administration.
http://usuncut.com/politics/florida-...onation-trump/
Trash expecting to get some action in the Oval office from the corrupt . He's already paid $25K for it.
Last edited by boutons_deux; 01-05-2017 at 05:11 PM.
So? He'd be following in the steps of the trendsetting Demo leader who was impeached for being a rapist and a liar. What's he doing that your team hasn't done before?
Florida Attorney General Who Received Illegal Donation from Trump Expected to Join White House
Pam Bondi — the Florida attorney general who took an illegal donation from President-elect Trump — appears poised to take a job in his administration.
http://usuncut.com/politics/florida-...onation-trump/
Trash expecting to get some action the Oval office from the corrupt . He's already paid $25K for it.
Plus, what are you, a ? And I mean butt- ing , not a "forum got" . She's hot. She's NOT a hog like Monica. Or a fat girl your team lies to and says its ok to be morbidly obese and fat and un able.
Amid ‘Widespread Anxiety and Fear,’ Trump Team Inquires About Key Immigration Policies
Made during a December 5 meeting between the team and DHS officials, the request was for information on President Obama's executive orders on immigration sent to agents, “all assets available for border wall and barrier construction,” and DHS’ capacity to expand detention.
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has made a “wide-ranging request for do ents and analysis” to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about the agency’s immigration programs,
Advocates who spoke to Rewire are “deeply concerned” about what this request will ultimately mean
for those benefiting from Obama’s 2014 executive action on immigration (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA),
those who will be placed into detention during the new administration, and
those attempting to enter the country on foot through the 100-mile zone known as the borderlands, which according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are routinely treated like a Cons ution-free area.
https://rewire.news/article/2017/01/05/amid-widespread-anxiety-fear-trump-team-inquires-key-immigration-policies/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaig n=Feed%3A+rhrealitycheck+%28RH+Reality+Check%29
Trash is gonna incite the BP goons to even more murder, while enriching the private companies who operate the internment camps.
Trash s people. Why? Because he can
Repugs govt. Why? Because they want to destroy govt
In Break With Precedent, Obama Envoys Are Denied Extensions Past Inauguration Day
President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition staff has issued a blanket edict requiring politically appointed ambassadors to leave their overseas posts by Inauguration Day, according to several American diplomats familiar with the plan, breaking with decades of precedent by declining to provide even the briefest of grace periods.
The mandate — issued “without exceptions,” according to a terse State Department cable sent on Dec. 23, diplomats who saw it said —
threatens to leave the United States without Senate-confirmed envoys for months in critical nations like Germany, Canada and Britain.
In the past, administrations of both parties have often granted extensions on a case-by-case basis to allow a handful of ambassadors, particularly those with school-age children, to remain in place for weeks or months.
Mr. Trump, by contrast, has taken a hard line against leaving any of President Obama’s political appointees
in place as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20 with a mission of dismantling many of his predecessor’s signature foreign and domestic policy achievements. “Political” ambassadors, many of them major donors who are nominated by virtue of close ties with the president, almost always leave at the end of his term; ambassadors who are career diplomats often remain in their posts.
A senior Trump transition official said there was no ill will in the move,
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/05...bassadors.html
You're Fired
How an AG Jeff Sessions could change the conversation on criminal justice
As Sen. Jeff Sessions's confirmation hearings for Attorney General draw closer, critics worry that his nomination could slow the momentum of police reform measures, disrupt a growing bipartisan effort to roll back the war on drugs, and further polarize a divided America.
As the Senate confirmation hearings for Sen. Jeff Sessions draw closer, a growing list of opponents of the controversial attorney general nominee are calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject his nomination.
The Republican lawyer-turned-senator from Alabama has been publicly denounced and protested in recent weeks by groups including
the NAACP,
the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and
more than 1,100 law school professors
who sent a letter Tuesday urging the Senate to reject Sessions's nomination for attorney general next week.
Those who oppose Sessions point to his hard-line stances on issues including immigration, marijuana, and police reform as grounds for the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the nomination.
But perhaps more prominently at the forefront of anti-Sessions arguments are the accusations of racial bias that have followed him throughout his career, particularly the comments that cost him a federal judgeship in 1986.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2017/01...iminal-justice
Trash: "You knitters didn't vote for me? OK, here's a life-long racist from Ala ing bama as top US cop"
Democrats want ethics inquiry of Trump's choice for Health secretary; Trump calls Schumer a 'clown'
Hoping to derail President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Heath secretary, Democrats want an ethics investigation of Rep. Tom Price's stock trades in healthcare companies.
Members of Congress are barred from insider trading under the 2012 STOCK Act, which seeks to prevent lawmakers from profiting from legislation pending before the House and Senate.
Price traded more than $300,000 in health-related stocks over the past four years while serving on committees with jurisdiction over health matters,
according to the Wall Street Journal .
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) "This is serious stuff. That’s why we need full hearings and full disclosure."
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politi...6a984-80027601
the corruption will be "unpresidented" and unbounded
Mattis clashing with Trump transition team over Pentagon staffing
The honeymoon seems to be ending between retired Gen. James N. Mattis and Donald Trump’s transition team amid an increasingly acrimonious dispute over who will get top jobs in the Defense Department — and who gets to make those decisions.
Mattis had to learn from the news media that Trump had selected Vincent Viola, a billionaire Army veteran, to be secretary of the Army, one source close to the transition said.
“Mattis was furious,” said the source. “It made him su ious of the transition team, and things devolved from there.”
Service secretaries represent potential alternate power centers inside the Defense Department, and Mattis as defense secretary has an interest in having secretaries who are loyal to him and don’t have independent relationships with the White House.
Mattis is also pushing for the Trump transition team to allow “Never Trump” Republicans to serve in the Pentagon, but so far the Trump team is refusing.
Mattis has rejected all of the names the Trump team has offered to be the top intelligence official in the department,
Mattis is also unlikely to accept Trump’s top Pentagon transition landing team official, Mira Ricardel, as a top official. She was rumored to be in line to be undersecretary of defense for policy, a hugely influential job.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/01/06/mattis-clashing-with-trump-transition-team-over-pentagon-staffing/?utm_term=.8c3647cb3166&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1
Republicans Are Planning to Rush Through Jeff Sessions’s Confirmation Hearing
Despite his controversial record, Democrats will only get to call four witnesses during the course of a two-day hearing.
https://www.thenation.com/article/re...ation-hearing/
Trash Health-Care Hire Peddles Myths About Contraception
Katy Talento has pushed dubious claims about birth control, including the myth that hormonal contraceptives cause abortions, miscarriages, and decreased fertility.
She was described in a Thursday press release as “an infectious disease epidemiologist with nearly 20 years of experience in public health and health policy, as well as government oversight and investigations and program evaluation.”
She pointed to an article by discredited anti-choice activist Donna Harrison as evidence for some of her claims.
Harrison was featured in 2014 as part of Rewire’s “False Witnesses” project for pushing egregious falsehoods about abortion care and using “discredited or fringe studies rather than broadly accepted medical evidence.”
“We have decades of established research that show that contraception does not cause miscarriages, it does not cause abortion—it prevents pregnancy. And that’s clear to everyone who does serious research on this topic,”
https://rewire.news/article/2017/01/...ality+Check%29
Christian Taliban misogynists want to deny sex-for-pleasure for women. For men? "Go Get 'em, smen"
or, if a women takes contraceptives, she's a .
Barry shoulda stepped in---in October and been POTUS. Instead, he stood real still & ended up ass over teacup, Hillary next to him.
He ain't goin' back in there. She ain't goin' back in there. Bill ain't goin' back in there.
& that's just the way it's gonna be.
Solly Cholly.
And Trump is going to say it. If "you" don't like it---get up & get out.
Donald Trump's Stubborn Refusal to Acknowledge Russia's Hacking All Points to One Man
The president-elect's top security advisor abides by his own set of "facts."
there is a factor that looms large in this story that may simply explain some of Trump’s behavior: former general Michael Flynn. When it comes to the intelligence community, Flynn serves as Trump’s eyes and ears.
The president-elect literally knows nothing about the workings of matters of intelligence, and there’s is no evidence that he’s spent any time trying to bone up. He has said he doesn’t need daily briefings and seems to have outsourced taking in these updates to his trusted aide Flynn. And Flynn is an angry man with a major ax to grind.
Dana Priest has written for The New Yorker of Flynn’s brief checkered career as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, in charge of all military attachés and defense-intelligence collection around the world. He had come into the job after some years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, having success as a clandestine officer and creating new ways of using disparate pieces of information to target suspected terrorists.
He was seen as undisciplined and somewhat reckless, but his mentor, former general Stanley McChrystal, had understood how to keep his quirkier personality traits under control.
Then Flynn got the big promotion and made a hash of it almost immediately, creating irrational and impractical changes and behaving erratically on the job. He sought out the Washington spotlight but apparently became
lured into the right-wing fever swamps and started spouting outrageous falsehoods in public — including Islamophobic conspiracy theories— which his subordinates called “Flynn facts.”
And Flynn started to manifest a serious anger management problem.
The agency had to create what Priest called a “parallel power structure” to keep the place running properly.
After 18 months of this, Flynn was fired — by James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, who is now leading the charge on the Russian hacking story. According to Priest, Flynn was “livid.”
When Trump started getting classified briefings, Flynn accompanied him. It has been reported that four different sources say he became unruly and repeatedly interrupted the briefers, challenging their facts to the point where New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was also at the meeting, had to tell him to calm down. Flynn’s response when asked about it was that the story was “total bull . . . . They’re lying.” He is clearly still angry and convinced that his “Flynn facts” are correct.
Flynn may have an ally in another important Trump administration figure, Steve Bannon, who is associated with the “alt-right” movement, for which Russia has become increasingly important and its president, Vladimir Putin, is often seen as a sympathetic figure.
Bannon has a special affiliation with Russian history, however superficial and insincere. It’s entirely possible he would back Flynn’s denunciation of intelligence analyses for his own purposes, lending Flynn even more credibility with Trump.
All of this is “Kremlinology” of course — meaning that a certain amount of guesswork is involved, since trying to sort out what’s really going on requires reading between the lines.
But there’s a reason why Trump is so adamant that the intelligence agencies are wrong and that he knows things they don’t know.
And there’s really only one person in his close circle who would be telling him such things. If ever there was a president who needed a steady hand to guide him on these important, delicate matters, it’s Donald Trump. Too bad the man he’s leaning on is Michael Flynn.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-pol...points-one-man
Jeff Sessions confirmation is ‘rigged,’ say civil rights leaders
The confirmation process for Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is “rigged” and should be delayed in order to thoroughly vet Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, a group of civil rights leaders said in a conference call with reporters Friday.
Citing reports that Democrats will be allowed to call only four witnesses to testify at next week’s confirmation hearings, and noting that
Sessions left hundreds of questions blank on a required questionnaire,
I can tell you, I would never approve a questionnaire like the one that was submitted for Sen. Sessions.”
the Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP president Cornell William Brooks and five other civil rights leaders representing black, Hispanic and Asian-American groups called for a more “thorough vetting” of Sessions’ controversial career,
“Rushing through this hearing…demonstrates a contempt for the need to probe Sen. Sessions’ record,”
“The Senate Judiciary Committee cannot push this forward based on their friendship with Sen. Sessions.”
The civil rights leaders also accused Sessions of hypocrisy for failing to disclose records covering many years. In 2010, he said one of President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees could be charged with a felony for doing the same thing.
I would never approve a questionnaire like the one that was submitted for Sen. Sessions.”
Many of the leaders voiced concerns over Sessions’ ability, and inclination, to enforce existing laws, especially voting rights laws,
“For Jeff Sessions, a child of Selma, Alabama, to refer to the Voting Rights Act is ‘intrusive,’…to have this man over the Justice Department is a nightmare that we cannot wake up from,
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/jeff...e+Raw+Story%29
Repugs are PROVING beyond any doubt that they, and their voters, are, and have been for 50 years, the party of racism
now US Senator Kemala Harris. funny how that works.But Harris’s office, without any explanation, declined to prosecute the case.
Trump’s Crime Wave Cabinet Is Trying To Dodge Disclosing Conflicts Of Interest
A letter from Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub is warning that the Republican Senate Majority is about to confirm Trump nominees who have not provided sufficient information or disclosed potential conflicts of interest.
What is happening is that Trump’s nominees are following the precedent established by their boss.
Donald Trump didn’t disclose his medical records, tax returns, or potential conflicts of interest as a candidate, so his nominees are also not disclosing critical information about interests and activities that could pose a conflict.
Trump and his nominees are setting the stage for the most corrupt presidential administration in modern political history, but the blame does not rest solely with the ethically challenged individuals that Trump has nominated.
The majority of the blame rests with Senate Republicans who are willing to push through nominees without proper vetting and information.
Republicans are giving the most corrupt president-elect potentially ever a free pass.
When this all goes wrong, it will be Majority Leader McConnell and company who will be responsible.
Republicans have been warned, but they are marching ahead because partisan politics means more to them than their cons utional duties.
A group ethically challenged individuals will be moving into the federal government, and they are being enabled by a Republican Senate majority that is more than willing to turn a blind eye to a looming climate of corruption.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/01/...iticus+USA+%29
Warren: No confirmation hearings for Trump appointees until they’re vetted for conflicts of interest
Elizabeth Warren
✔@SenWarren
Cabinet officials must put our country's interests before their own. No conf hearings should be held until we’re certain that’s the case.
“This is ridiculous,” Warren wrote. “[Trump’s nominees] can’t drag their feet on ethics paperwork while their Senate friends try to run out the clock.”
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/warr...e+Raw+Story%29
"Billionaire" Trump Can't Pay His Transition Team's Salaries
One would think that a real billionaire would be able to fund these salaries out of petty cash or float a few bank loans for it:
Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told a Buffalo area radio station: “Mr. Trump held a fundraiser down in New York City a few weeks back and did raise some money, but they have – I would use the word – ‘struggled’ to raise the private funds needed to pay these individuals who are working on behalf of the taxpayers but not being paid by the government.”
The ferret-wearer’s options are limited:
- no U.S. bank will touch Donald J. Trump ever again
- Deutsche Bank is teetering as it is
- he already owes the Chinese several hundred million last I saw
- Putin doesn’t dare front him the sum, through Alfa Bank or any other en y
So Kellyanne’s doing a fundraiser!
President-elect Donald Trump’s Campaign Manager-turned-Communications Counselor Kellyanne Conway will visit Buffalo this week for an exclusive fundraiser.
Conway will speak at a Thursday afternoon luncheon at the Westin Buffalo hotel.
The $5000 per person event is intended to raise funds to cover the costs of Trump’s transition team, including their salaries.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1...manded-boycott
Trash's team attacking the press
While Talking Russian Interference, Conway Says What Should ‘Infuriate’ Americans Is Media Leaks
http://www.mediaite.com/online/while...s-media-leaks/
... but Assange's leaks are ing wonderful!
Trump Intel Chief Pick Embodies Lobbying Revolving Door
Former Sen. Dan Coats, in line to be national intelligence director, has swung back and forth between government service and lobbying, the type of Washington career that President-elect Donald Trump has mocked.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-intel-chief-pick-embodies-lobbying-revolving-door?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_cam paign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29
Mitch McConnell ignoring cabinet confirmation procedure he demanded in 2009
Letter shows he demanded full ‘financial disclosures’ before hearings.
But back in 2009, McConnell took the exact opposite view. A letter to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), posted on Twitter by Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington co-founder and former Obama administration ethics adviser Norm Eisen on Sunday, shows he demanded that “financial disclosures must be complete” before any confirmation hearings be scheduled.
In his letter, McConnell wrote that his party’s duty to “conduct the appropriate review” of presidential nominations,
“consistent with the long standing and best practices of committees,
regardless of which party is in the majority,” was one it took seriously.
“These best practices serve the Senate well,” he added, “and we will insist on their fair and consistent application.”
The then-Senate Minority Leader called the financial disclosure process and other ethical steps essential “to fairly review a nominee’s record and to make an informed decision prior to a vote.”
https://thinkprogress.org/mitch-mcco...694#.sfze2encj
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
