What's going on with the Executive Departments

[fraurosena]

6 hours ago, GrumpyGran said:

Okay, this just scared the shit out of me. Too close to where we are. @fraurosena, I don't suppose you can intervene and have your country invade us before this happens? We promise we'll be good.

No surprise here. Not surprised even at her arrogance. She is what she is. And I'm furious because apparently K12 and Connect are now a thing in my state. Un-educate the masses and it makes it easier to brainwash them.

Sorry @GrumpyGran, we're having some problems over here with our commando's military gear. I kid you not. Apparently their weaponry is decrepit, their radio's are broken and they have to use second hand trousers. There aren't enough bullets to use during training so they have to shout 'bang-bang' at each other.

  

This is the shameful result of all the excessive financial cuts we've had the past couple of years to combat the recession. Thankfully our minister of Defense has been advocating for an increase in the military budget, but as we still haven't formed a new government yet, things have been put on the backburner until we do.

So, yeah. The problems in America are unprecedented and so outrageous that everything else pales in comparison, but things aren't all roses and sunshine in the rest of the world either, and we have some troubles of our own to contend with. 

[GrumpyGran]

56 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Sorry @GrumpyGran, we're having some problems over here with our commando's military gear. I kid you not. Apparently their weaponry is decrepit, their radio's are broken and they have to use second hand trousers. There aren't enough bullets to use during training so they have to shout 'bang-bang' at each other.

  

This is the shameful result of all the excessive financial cuts we've had the past couple of years to combat the recession. Thankfully our minister of Defense has been advocating for an increase in the military budget, but as we still haven't formed a new government yet, things have been put on the backburner until we do.

So, yeah. The problems in America are unprecedented and so outrageous that everything else pales in comparison, but things aren't all roses and sunshine in the rest of the world either, and we have some troubles of our own to contend with. 

. LOL.

[GreyhoundFan]

More fun with Scotty: "The Energy 202: Pruitt accused by watchdog of breaking law by bashing Paris deal"

Spoiler

A Democratic watchdog group is accusing President Trump's top environmental law enforcer of misusing funds to rail against the Paris climate agreement.

In a letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) sent Thursday, the American Democracy Legal Fund said Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, one of the Trump administration's most outspoken critics of the climate deal, violated an obscure grassroots-lobbying law called the Antideficiency Act, which bars federal agencies from spending federal money before it has been appropriated by Congress (or in excess of such funds).

Current law prohibits federal employees from lobbying members of the public to support or oppose legislation before Congress. The watchdog group zeroed in on a meeting Pruitt had in April with the National Mining Association, a lobbying group in Washington for the mining industry, in which Pruitt reportedly "bashed" the Paris deal, according to media reports at the time.

"Pruitt’s staff also urged lawmakers and conservative groups to publicly criticize the agreement, sources familiar with the issue told Politico, which had the effect of increasing public pressure on Trump," Politico reported of the April meeting. 

The problem, according to the complaint: By that point, some members of Congress had introduced Paris-related pieces of legislation — mostly bills either reaffirming or denouncing the agreement that went nowhere as President Trump weighed whether to withdraw the United States from the agreement, which he ultimately announced he would do in June.

“Scott Pruitt misused the taxpayer money that funds the EPA and the powers of his office with his illegal lobbying activities," Brad Woodhouse, a former communications director for the Democratic National Committee who heads ADLF, said in a statement.

Legal experts who reviewed ADLF's claims say some of them hold water. The issues raised in the letter "will likely, in my view, be taken seriously by the comptroller general and his staff," said Howell E. Jackson, a law professor and expert on federal budget policy at Harvard, referring to GAO head Gene L. Dodaro.

That law also entangled the EPA under President Obama.

In 2015, GAO ruled the EPA under Pruitt's predecessor, Gina McCarthy, broke the law by using appropriations to conduct indirect lobbying in support of the Obama administration's controversial "Waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule, designed to greatly expand the number of waterways under the jurisdiction of federal clean-water laws. The EPA launched a social-media campaign to counter opposition to the water rule from the farming and construction industries, along with their Republican allies in Congress representing rural constituencies.

"If he did it," Jeffrey Lubbers, an administrative law professor at American University said of Pruitt and his meeting with the mining group, "it seems like it's of the same piece as what EPA was being charged with in the WOTUS rulemaking."

The ADLF also alleged the EPA administrator broke another prohibition against "covert propaganda" that requires federal employees to clearly identify themselves when disseminating information to the public. The watchdog group said that in the many media interviews Pruitt gave criticizing the Paris deal as the Trump administration formulated its official position, he failed to make clear "whether Pruitt spoke on behalf of the EPA or himself."

"Pruitt makes it very fuzzy whether he’s talking just for himself or whether he’s expressing EPA policy," said Charles Tiefer, who teaches law at the University of Baltimore.

"I myself at the time heard him speaking in the media and I wasn't sure if he was speaking for himself or the EPA," Tiefer added. "I was baffled and I’m a law professor."

Tiefer said Pruitt, as EPA administrator, is continuing to act like a national campaigner against Obama-era regulations that he was as Oklahoma attorney general, despite the new constraints placed on him as a federal employee.

But Lubbers, at American University, said it is difficult to see what is furtive about the broadcast television and radio interviews Pruitt has given. 

"When you're appointed the head of the EPA, you're always the head of EPA," Lubbers said. "So it was pretty clear he was speaking as the head of EPA. So I don't see any covertness in his speech. So that part of it just strikes me as really far-fetched."

In the letter, Woodhouse's group asked GAO to investigate Pruitt. But that office, the top auditing institution in the federal government, only launches probes at the request of members of Congress or other federal agencies, meaning an elected official will have to echo ADLF's concerns before the GAO acts.

"We don’t act on requests from outside parties," Chuck Young, a GAO spokesperson, said. 

The EPA did not respond to a request for comment.

...

 

[fraurosena]

2 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

. LOL.

Oh, that isn't even the funniest part. There are anti-EU conspiracy theorists out there proclaiming that the ruination of our military is being done on purpose so the EU has an excuse to form a centralized EU military. 

Apparently they believe the EU is some sort of separate (and evil!) entity and not made up of representatives of all member countries who decide things together. 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Our tax dollars at work: "Scott Pruitt Spent Much of Early Months at E.P.A. Traveling Home, Report Says"

Spoiler

Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, traveled to his home state, Oklahoma, 10 times over three months this year, largely at taxpayer expense, according to a report released Monday.

The findings from the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit group founded by former E.P.A. officials, are drawn from Mr. Pruitt’s calendar and the travel expenses he has submitted for reimbursement. Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the documents show Mr. Pruitt spent 43 out of 92 days from March through May in Oklahoma or traveling to or from the state.

The report does not assert that Mr. Pruitt’s estimated $12,000 in federally funded airfare, which includes travel to and from his home state, is improper.

Many in Oklahoma speculate that Mr. Pruitt, who was the state’s elected attorney general until assuming the E.P.A. job in February, plans to again seek statewide office. Mr. Pruitt lost a 2006 primary bid to become Oklahoma’s lieutenant governor. He was elected attorney general in 2010.

An E.P.A. spokeswoman said that all of Mr. Pruitt’s travel was related to agency business and that he had no other political agenda.

Since assuming the E.P.A. job, Mr. Pruitt has drawn much of his political staff from the office of Senator James M. Inhofe, a fellow Oklahoma Republican who doubts climate change science and who has championed the dismantlement of fossil fuel regulations.

But a number of top agency jobs — including deputy administrator and head of the air pollution office — remain vacant. The White House intends to announce nominations for those posts in coming weeks, officials said.

Eric Schaeffer, the executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project and the former director of the E.P.A.’s office of civil enforcement, said he had sought Mr. Pruitt’s travel documents because agency staff members told him they had difficulty scheduling meetings because Mr. Pruitt was frequently out of town.

It is unclear whether aides or members of Mr. Pruitt’s full-time security detail accompanied him. The report lists only Mr. Pruitt’s airfare expenses.

Mr. Schaeffer said Mr. Pruitt had not been transparent about his reasons for spending nearly half of March, April and May in Oklahoma.

For all but one trip, Mr. Pruitt’s schedule notes an official reason for being in the state, like a tour he took in May of the Brainerd Chemical Company in Tulsa or a tour a week later of a contaminated creek in Osage County. In some cases, Mr. Pruitt also paid a portion of the travel costs. When he made a three-day stop in Oklahoma after a speaking engagement in Houston, for example, Mr. Pruitt paid for travel between Houston and Tulsa. The E.P.A. picked up the rest of the airfare, according to the voucher documents.

The vouchers said Mr. Pruitt was holding “informational meetings” during those days in Oklahoma, but they were not specified on the administrator’s calendar.

The schedule also points to political destinations, like a keynote address he gave in April to the American Legislative Exchange Council, an industry-funded group.

According to Mr. Pruitt’s calendar, he typically spends three to five days in the state but often lists just one official meeting. In one case, he traveled to Oklahoma on March 23 and received an award from the National Stripper Well Association in Oklahoma that day. He stayed through March 27.

In that case, Mr. Pruitt asked for reimbursement for one leg of the travel, noting in the voucher that the rest of the weekend would be spent at his personal residence. On another trip, from May 4 through May 8, Mr. Pruitt met with the head of a rural water association on May 5, with no other meetings scheduled.

“He needs to say why spending half his time in Oklahoma and having one meeting per trip is performing his duties as an administrator,” Mr. Schaeffer said. He added that the trips gave the appearance that Mr. Pruitt is “keeping his political contacts warm” and questioned the amount being reimbursed as part of official E.P.A. business.

Asked about the travel to Oklahoma and Mr. Pruitt’s future political plans, an E.P.A. spokeswoman, Liz Bowman, said in a statement: “Administrator Pruitt is committed to serving the president by leading the Environmental Protection Agency; he is not running for elected office. The administrator’s travel, whether to Utah, Michigan or Oklahoma, all serves the purpose of hearing from hard-working Americans about how E.P.A. can better serve the American people.”

Were Mr. Pruitt to try to replace Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma in 2018, his tenure as E.P.A. chief would be cut short. Mr. Inhofe, 82, has not said whether he intends to run for re-election when his six-year term ends in 2020. Oklahoma’s other senator, James Lankford, 49, is up for re-election in 2022.

Keith Gaddie, a professor of political science at the University of Oklahoma, said that the field for the governor’s race was already crowded without Mr. Pruitt and that he would not bet on Mr. Inhofe’s retirement.

Mr. Gaddie added that there was little talk in Oklahoma about Mr. Pruitt returning to the state to run for office.

Rather, Mr. Gaddie said, Mr. Pruitt was probably going home for personal reasons. His daughter, McKenna, recently graduated from the University of Oklahoma, and he has a son, Cade, who is several years younger.

Mr. Gaddie also defended the travel reimbursements. “In a state where everyone’s ethics are questioned,” he said, “I’ve never heard his questioned.”

Gina McCarthy, who served as E.P.A. administrator during President Barack Obama’s second term, also traveled frequently to her home in Boston, where her husband lived. A spokeswoman for Ms. McCarthy, Liz Purchia, estimated that Ms. McCarthy traveled home roughly every other weekend during her term leading the agency. She said Ms. McCarthy paid for the travel.

Ms. McCarthy’s travel could not be immediately verified because her travel records are not publicly available.

 

[fraurosena]

4 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Our tax dollars at work: "Scott Pruitt Spent Much of Early Months at E.P.A. Traveling Home, Report Says"

  Hide contents

Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, traveled to his home state, Oklahoma, 10 times over three months this year, largely at taxpayer expense, according to a report released Monday.

The findings from the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit group founded by former E.P.A. officials, are drawn from Mr. Pruitt’s calendar and the travel expenses he has submitted for reimbursement. Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the documents show Mr. Pruitt spent 43 out of 92 days from March through May in Oklahoma or traveling to or from the state.

The report does not assert that Mr. Pruitt’s estimated $12,000 in federally funded airfare, which includes travel to and from his home state, is improper.

Many in Oklahoma speculate that Mr. Pruitt, who was the state’s elected attorney general until assuming the E.P.A. job in February, plans to again seek statewide office. Mr. Pruitt lost a 2006 primary bid to become Oklahoma’s lieutenant governor. He was elected attorney general in 2010.

An E.P.A. spokeswoman said that all of Mr. Pruitt’s travel was related to agency business and that he had no other political agenda.

Since assuming the E.P.A. job, Mr. Pruitt has drawn much of his political staff from the office of Senator James M. Inhofe, a fellow Oklahoma Republican who doubts climate change science and who has championed the dismantlement of fossil fuel regulations.

But a number of top agency jobs — including deputy administrator and head of the air pollution office — remain vacant. The White House intends to announce nominations for those posts in coming weeks, officials said.

Eric Schaeffer, the executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project and the former director of the E.P.A.’s office of civil enforcement, said he had sought Mr. Pruitt’s travel documents because agency staff members told him they had difficulty scheduling meetings because Mr. Pruitt was frequently out of town.

It is unclear whether aides or members of Mr. Pruitt’s full-time security detail accompanied him. The report lists only Mr. Pruitt’s airfare expenses.

Mr. Schaeffer said Mr. Pruitt had not been transparent about his reasons for spending nearly half of March, April and May in Oklahoma.

For all but one trip, Mr. Pruitt’s schedule notes an official reason for being in the state, like a tour he took in May of the Brainerd Chemical Company in Tulsa or a tour a week later of a contaminated creek in Osage County. In some cases, Mr. Pruitt also paid a portion of the travel costs. When he made a three-day stop in Oklahoma after a speaking engagement in Houston, for example, Mr. Pruitt paid for travel between Houston and Tulsa. The E.P.A. picked up the rest of the airfare, according to the voucher documents.

The vouchers said Mr. Pruitt was holding “informational meetings” during those days in Oklahoma, but they were not specified on the administrator’s calendar.

The schedule also points to political destinations, like a keynote address he gave in April to the American Legislative Exchange Council, an industry-funded group.

According to Mr. Pruitt’s calendar, he typically spends three to five days in the state but often lists just one official meeting. In one case, he traveled to Oklahoma on March 23 and received an award from the National Stripper Well Association in Oklahoma that day. He stayed through March 27.

In that case, Mr. Pruitt asked for reimbursement for one leg of the travel, noting in the voucher that the rest of the weekend would be spent at his personal residence. On another trip, from May 4 through May 8, Mr. Pruitt met with the head of a rural water association on May 5, with no other meetings scheduled.

“He needs to say why spending half his time in Oklahoma and having one meeting per trip is performing his duties as an administrator,” Mr. Schaeffer said. He added that the trips gave the appearance that Mr. Pruitt is “keeping his political contacts warm” and questioned the amount being reimbursed as part of official E.P.A. business.

Asked about the travel to Oklahoma and Mr. Pruitt’s future political plans, an E.P.A. spokeswoman, Liz Bowman, said in a statement: “Administrator Pruitt is committed to serving the president by leading the Environmental Protection Agency; he is not running for elected office. The administrator’s travel, whether to Utah, Michigan or Oklahoma, all serves the purpose of hearing from hard-working Americans about how E.P.A. can better serve the American people.”

Were Mr. Pruitt to try to replace Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma in 2018, his tenure as E.P.A. chief would be cut short. Mr. Inhofe, 82, has not said whether he intends to run for re-election when his six-year term ends in 2020. Oklahoma’s other senator, James Lankford, 49, is up for re-election in 2022.

Keith Gaddie, a professor of political science at the University of Oklahoma, said that the field for the governor’s race was already crowded without Mr. Pruitt and that he would not bet on Mr. Inhofe’s retirement.

Mr. Gaddie added that there was little talk in Oklahoma about Mr. Pruitt returning to the state to run for office.

Rather, Mr. Gaddie said, Mr. Pruitt was probably going home for personal reasons. His daughter, McKenna, recently graduated from the University of Oklahoma, and he has a son, Cade, who is several years younger.

Mr. Gaddie also defended the travel reimbursements. “In a state where everyone’s ethics are questioned,” he said, “I’ve never heard his questioned.”

Gina McCarthy, who served as E.P.A. administrator during President Barack Obama’s second term, also traveled frequently to her home in Boston, where her husband lived. A spokeswoman for Ms. McCarthy, Liz Purchia, estimated that Ms. McCarthy traveled home roughly every other weekend during her term leading the agency. She said Ms. McCarthy paid for the travel.

Ms. McCarthy’s travel could not be immediately verified because her travel records are not publicly available.

 

Well, you can't really fault him for that. He's only following his presidunce's example...

>end sarcasm<

[candygirl200413]

Tillerson may make early exit from State Department: report

Quote

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expressing growing frustration with the Trump administration and may be considering resigning from his role, according to a report from CNN Monday morning.

Though the former CEO of ExxonMobil Corp. has said that he would stay on as the top U.S. diplomat until the end of the year at least, several anonymous sources told CNN over the weekend that he might leave earlier than that. 

Sources “familiar with Tillerson conversations with friends outside Washington” admit the secretary of State may just be venting, but they sense his doubts about President Trump are growing.

Tillerson reportedly agreed with Trump critics who thought it was unprofessional when the president lashed out last week at Attorney General Jeff Sessions because he recused himself from the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump referred to Sessions as "beleaguered" in a Monday morning tweet and has reportedly floated the idea of replacing him with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R).

“Rexit,” as CNN's sources referred to it, would mark another change in an administration currently in the middle of a shakeup. On Friday, press secretary Sean Spicer announced he would resign, immediately after Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci was named White House communications director.

 

[fraurosena]

Now wouldn't this just be the ultimate irony?

America's top lawman lied under oath. Can we seize his stuff?

Spoiler

Jeff Sessions has been attorney general of the United States long enough to make one thing clear: He doesn’t care much for the rights of the accused. Or even the rights of people who haven’t yet been formally accused of any thing. Consider the controversy over civil asset forfeiture.

Rooted in the so-called “war on drugs” launched in the 1970s and ’80s, civil asset forfeiture — seizing homes, cars, cash or other possessions that allegedly may have been used in the commission of a crime — has been broadly interpreted to allow law enforcement agencies to seize millions of dollars of people’s stuff, even in cases where no one has yet (or ever) been convicted of a crime. In some instances, law officers seize the home of a law-abiding citizen merely because they believed someone temporarily staying there — a grandson or a nephew, say — was up to no good.

For decades, cities like Philadelphia were hotbeds for these property seizures and no one was even questioning the practice. Today, a lot of people are asking hard questions about it. Locally, city and state officials have already drastically scaled back such programs to limit abuse while those who’ve been harmed — such as the Philly parents threatened with losing a home over a son’s $40 drug deal — are pursuing a lawsuit aimed at blocking civil forfeitures all together. On the federal level, former President Barack Obama had a mixed record but his first attorney general Eric Holder did take some steps during Obama’s second term to scale back civil seizures.

Since the main policy thrust of the Trump administration is to reverse anything that happened under Obama, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that Holder’s tentative steps in the right direction are being reversed by Sessions and his new team at the Department of Justice. Last week, DOJ announced it was moving to make it easier to seize cash and property from criminal suspects — even in the 24 states, many with Republican governors, that had placed restrictions on the controversial practice. Sessions seemed totally oblivious to the massive abuses in the program…

[  John Oliver video  ]

…as he called it “a key tool” in the fight against crime.

But then, Jeff Sessions seems oblivious to many things that have happened since his idyllic youth in the 1950s and early 1960s as an Eagle Scout in Camden, Alabama — beginning with his seeming lack of awareness of the civil right protests that rocked the town in 1965 as he was graduating high school. Continuing with his 1980s efforts to prosecute blacks registering their neighbors to vote in rural Alabama, Sessions has been remarkably consistent in fighting to curtail civil liberties. He opposes the positive work taking place in cities like Philadelphia, which has seen crime rates continue to drop in recent years even while — or often because of — encouraging immigrants to report crime in a “sanctuary city,’ decriminalizing recreational marijuana use, and working (with mixed results) to curb abusive stop-and-frisk practices that target non-whites and reduce the number of police-involved shootings.

In just four months in office, Sessions has targeted sanctuary cities, launched new offensives in the discredited “war on drugs” that has made America the world leader in mass incarceration, and said the only problem with police-involved shootings is that the “thin blue line” needs to be fortified. In Sessions World, there is no social problem that can’t be solved by locking more people up and refusing to give human beings the benefit of the doubt. Somewhere up there, the harsh Greek law-giver Draco, who liked to cut off people’s hands for minor offenses, is looking down and asking, “Man, does this Sessions dude ever give anybody a break?!”

But here’s the incredible irony. Jeff Sessions isn’t just the nation’s highest ranking law-enforcement officer. He is also — according to evidence that is mounting daily — a prime candidate for criminal prosecution.

It’s an incredible story. As attorney general, Sessions oversees a criminal-justice network, including the FBI, that has made it its business to charge people with lying — in sworn testimony, in written documents, even in interviews with federal agents. Yet back in January, as a U.S. senator seeking confirmation in his high-ranking Trump administration post, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions raised his right hand and swore to tell the whole truth, before telling what seem to be epic lies about his contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign.

When Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota asked Sessions a fairly straight-forward question about reports of links between the Trump campaign and Moscow, the future AG volunteered: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.” It turns out, as Sessions later conceded in a follow-up written statement, he’d met with the Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak. Twice, he insisted — and he doesn’t remember much what they talked about but it wasn’t really the Trump campaign. Honest. Now investigators are probing whether there was at least a third meeting that Sessions didn’t report even when he tried to clear up that first false statement.

That was before this weekend, when things go a lot worse for the embattled attorney general — and not just because he seems to have lost the confidence of President Trump by maneuvering his way out of position to quash the Russia probe. The Washington Post reported that intelligence intercepts revealed that Kislyak may have told his superiors in Moscow that the campaign — and what Trump could do for Vladimir Putin’s government in areas such as lifting sanctions imposed by Obama — was the crux of what he talked to Sessions about. It’s revealing that Sessions’ boss (for now) Trump went on a Twitter diatribe against “leaks” — not against the veracity of the Post report. It increasingly looks as if Sessions lied at his confirmation hearing because the truth was just too devastating to speak.

As a graduate of a small Methodist university, Sessions is presumably well-acquainted with the Bible’s so-called Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Yeah, right. If Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, were investigating Jeff Sessions, criminal suspect, for lying to the federal government, he’d surely bust that bad dude on the toughest possible rap — felony perjury — and go after the maximum penalty, which is five years in prison plus fines. And before his case even went to trial, Sessions and his lawmen would try to seize all the cash they’d claim he’d earned illegally by lying to become attorney general, and maybe they’d even take the car he drove to the Senate hearing for good measure.

Instead, according to news accounts, here’s what President Trump is exploring whether to do unto Jeff Sessions and to a whole host of top aides and Trump family members — maybe even himself: Grant a full pardon that would prevent prosecutors from going after any potential crimes that have been committed until now. That would include lying at congressional hearings and on government forms about the full extent of their Russia contacts and about their financial dealings. And obstructing the FBI’s probe into these matters. And the mother of all potential crimes that investigators continue to look at: Collusion between Team Trump and Team Putin related to 2016’s election hacking.

If you believe the worst about the Trump-Russia-2016 allegations, you probably feel that American democracy and norms have been dealt a crippling blow. But if Trump does indeed pardon the key players in this mess — and with a Republican Congress showing zero appetite for impeachment even under the most dire circumstances — the destruction of the American Experiment will become a fait accompli. Stay tuned to this space.

And yet there’s something especially grating about the unjust double standard that could, in theory, let Jeff Sessions skate free for his wrongdoing, immediately after his Draconian push — no matter how brief it turns out to be — to lock up as many Americans for as long as the statutes will allow. Not only would Sessions be government-forgiven for all of his sins, but — unlike thousands of citizens who’ve done much less…or nothing! — the taxpayers wouldn’t even be able to seize his stuff.

Unless, maybe, Sessions has a nephew selling $40 bags of weed from a room over the attorney general’s garage.

 

[candygirl200413]

Me and my dad always think that Sessions says the N-word at least once a week.

Also it's so annoying cause he's lied under oath since he took the position and yet he is still there.

[GrumpyGran]

On 7/24/2017 at 4:26 PM, fraurosena said:

Well, you can't really fault him for that. He's only following his presidunce's example...

>end sarcasm<

Maybe he is trying to figure out why the ground is collapsing there? Do you think he'll figure it out?

On 7/24/2017 at 4:55 PM, candygirl200413 said:

Tillerson may make early exit from State Department: report

 

SHOCKER!!!!

[candygirl200413]

Well now he's taking a "vacation" you know like 5 seconds after getting this position .. Honestly such a waste of space and I can't believe he agreed to it.

I'm also feeling some type of ways because I just started reading hard choices by Hillary and she just did so much and now this dude is like ehhhh bye.

Quote

Washington (CNN)Amid reports Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is frustrated and considering resigning, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert refused to say Tuesday whether Tillerson is happy in his current role.

Tillerson is also taking time off at a time when the US faces multiple foreign policy challenges.

Nauert dodged a question about Tillerson's feelings over the White House's involvement in foreign policy decisions.

"The Secretary, as do all other Cabinet officials, meets with the President and the President's national security advisers and Cabinet members. That is something that's normal, that's customary. They sit down, they have a healthy dialogue and conversations about the heaviest and the weightiest foreign policy issues," she said.

Nauert added that Tillerson is not considering resigning and any reports saying so are "false."

Tillerson has "been very clear he intends to stay here at the State Department. We have a lot of work that is left to be done ahead of us. He recognizes that. He's deeply engaged in that work," she said.

He "does, however, serve at the pleasure of the President, just as any Cabinet official would," she added.

Tillerson has been on vacation this week -- Nauert said it had been planned for a while and is not related to reports of his dissatisfaction. Defense Secretary James Mattis is also currently taking time off.

Tillerson is returning to work on Wednesday and will meet with the Lebanese Prime Minister and Qatari Foreign Minister.

Nauert said that Tillerson has "the ability to go away for a few days on his own. Just taking a little time off. He's got a lot of work. He just came back from that mega trip overseas, as you all well know. Many of you were there for the G-20, and his other travel as well. So he's entitled to take a few days himself."

CNN's John King reported on Monday that Tillerson has a growing list of differences with the White House, including a new debate over Iran policy and personnel. His frustration is hardly a secret and it has spilled out publicly at times.

But friends sense a change of late.

For weeks, conversations with Tillerson's friends outside of Washington have left the impression that he, despite his frustrations, was determined to stay on the job at least through the end of the year.

But two sources who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity over the weekend said they would not be surprised if there was a "Rexit" from Foggy Bottom sooner that that.

Both of these sources are familiar with Tillerson's conversations with friends outside Washington. Both said there was a noticeable increase in the secretary's frustration and his doubts that the tug-of-war with the White House would subside anytime soon. They also acknowledged he could have been venting after a tough week, a suggestion several DC-based sources made when asked if they saw evidence Tillerson was looking for an exit strategy.

The main take away is his frustrations center around his inability to staff up at the State Department without White House interference after Trump promised Tillerson he would have control over his department, a friend of Tillerson who is in touch regularly told CNN.

There are lots of frustrations which are apparent: personnel, Jared Kushner's outsized role, President Donald Trump undercutting him on several issues and Trump's general approach to foreign policy of inflicting chaos and confusion -- and the list goes on, the friend said, adding "it's becoming a death by one thousand little insults."

The friend said Tillerson is "buying time" and "evaluating all options."

Facing a myriad of challenges ranging from North Korea's nuclear threat to an evolving crisis in the Middle East, Tillerson's status as the administration's top diplomat has been called into question at times with Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner taking the lead on several foreign policy initiatives.

The President has publicly contradicted Tillerson and others on several occasions, which has created some confusion about US priorities around the world as Trump continues to promote his "America First" philosophy which has drawn criticism from traditional allies.

Trump and Tillerson have pushed different messages on key issues including the crisis between Qatar and other Gulf neighbors, where the President tweeted that he hoped Qatar's isolation would hasten "the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!" Trump also used remarks in the Rose Garden in June to reinforce his message.

In a sharp contrast to Trump's tone and messaging, Tillerson called on Gulf nations to de-escalate the crisis with Qatar, citing humanitarian, economic and military costs.

Despite their public differences it appeared as though Tillerson was beginning to emerge as a key voice on US foreign policy after he was the only American to join Trump in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month.

But recent reports have raised new questions around his relationship with a White House that has not always been on the same page through the early months of Trump's presidency.

Multiple top officials at the State Department have told CNN they agree that Tillerson is not happy but indicated that he will likely stay in the post and give the situation some more time to improve.

 

[AmazonGrace]

https://www.thecut.com/2017/07/rick-perry-was-prank-called-by-russians.html?utm_campaign=nym&utm_medium=s1&utm_source=tw

Rick Perry Was Prank-Called by Some Russians

By Madeleine Aggeler

On July 19th, current Energy Secretary and former competitive dancer Rick Perry had a phone call with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, in which the two leaders discussed cyber-hacking, the Paris accord, and a new biofuel made with pig manure. Except Secretary Perry wasn’t actually talking to Prime Minister Groysman; he was talking to a pair of Russian pranksters described as “The Jerky Boys of Russia.”

During the 22-minute call,Vladimir “Vovan” Kuznetsov and Alexei “Lexus” Stolyarov asked Perry how the U.S. and Ukraine could work together in the energy sector. They also told him Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had invented a new type of biofuel, which is produced by combining home-brewed alcohol and pig manure.

Perry said he looked forward to meeting with the President and getting “a more in-depth briefing.”

Department of Energy spokesperson Shaylyn Hynes confirmed that the Secretary had indeed been pranked, but it is still unclear how the fraudsters managed to get in touch with Perry, given that calls between Cabinet secretaries and high-ranking foreign officials are usually heavily vetted.

Although it’s somewhat concerning that two jokesters were able to get the Energy Secretary on the phone for over twenty minutes, this is still one of the most appropriate interactions anyone in the Trump administration has had with Russians.

You can listen to the full call between Secretary Perry and the two pranksters on Vesti, a Russian news site.

[Childless]

4 hours ago, candygirl200413 said:

Well now he's taking a "vacation" you know like 5 seconds after getting this position .. Honestly such a waste of space and I can't believe he agreed to it.

I'm also feeling some type of ways because I just started reading hard choices by Hillary and she just did so much and now this dude is like ehhhh bye.

 

This administration is filled with the laziest people I've ever seen.  How did these bozos manage to become business tycoons with such poor work ethics?  Trump has golfed more than he's done anything else and this guy's on vacation after having been at this job for a handful of months.  No wonder nothing is getting done.

[GreyhoundFan]

4 hours ago, Childless said:

This administration is filled with the laziest people I've ever seen.  How did these bozos manage to become business tycoons with such poor work ethics? 

Because in their businesses, they had employees to do the work. They could hide in their private suites, taking 3 hour martini lunches and long afternoons golfing in the name of "networking".

[GrumpyGran]

11 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

https://www.thecut.com/2017/07/rick-perry-was-prank-called-by-russians.html?utm_campaign=nym&utm_medium=s1&utm_source=tw

Rick Perry Was Prank-Called by Some Russians

By Madeleine Aggeler

On July 19th, current Energy Secretary and former competitive dancer Rick Perry had a phone call with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, in which the two leaders discussed cyber-hacking, the Paris accord, and a new biofuel made with pig manure. Except Secretary Perry wasn’t actually talking to Prime Minister Groysman; he was talking to a pair of Russian pranksters described as “The Jerky Boys of Russia.”

During the 22-minute call,Vladimir “Vovan” Kuznetsov and Alexei “Lexus” Stolyarov asked Perry how the U.S. and Ukraine could work together in the energy sector. They also told him Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had invented a new type of biofuel, which is produced by combining home-brewed alcohol and pig manure.

Perry said he looked forward to meeting with the President and getting “a more in-depth briefing.”

Department of Energy spokesperson Shaylyn Hynes confirmed that the Secretary had indeed been pranked, but it is still unclear how the fraudsters managed to get in touch with Perry, given that calls between Cabinet secretaries and high-ranking foreign officials are usually heavily vetted.

Although it’s somewhat concerning that two jokesters were able to get the Energy Secretary on the phone for over twenty minutes, this is still one of the most appropriate interactions anyone in the Trump administration has had with Russians.

You can listen to the full call between Secretary Perry and the two pranksters on Vesti, a Russian news site.

Department of Energy spokesperson Shaylyn Hynes said "Oh, fuck...oh, wait, it's Ukraine and he didn't ask for anything or give out any information. Because he doesn't have any information. Whew! We're doing a pretty good job, all things considered."

[nvmbr02]

WTF is going on today?? Seriously!!

Here is a link to the actual article on Buzzfeed

The Justice Department Just Argued Against Gay Rights In A Major Federal Case

Quote

The US Justice Department on Wednesday argued in a major federal lawsuit that a 1964 civil rights law doesn’t protect gay workers from discrimination, thereby diverging from a separate, autonomous federal agency that had supported the gay plaintiff’s case.

The Trump administration’s filing is unusual in part because the Justice Department isn’t a party in the case, and the department doesn’t typically weigh in on private employment lawsuits.

 

[GrumpyGran]

3 hours ago, nvmbr02 said:

WTF is going on today?? Seriously!!

Here is a link to the actual article on Buzzfeed

The Justice Department Just Argued Against Gay Rights In A Major Federal Case

 

Oh, god, he's kissing ass to save his job. Can you have a negative amount of respect for someone? Not going to work, little troll, you were already gone. Sad.

[GreyhoundFan]

9 hours ago, GrumpyGran said:

Can you have a negative amount of respect for someone?

Yes, you can. I certainly have a negative amount of respect for almost everyone in this sham administration, starting with the orange menace inhabiting 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

[GreyhoundFan]

Sigh: "Kansas Gov. Brownback nominated as ambassador at large for religious freedom"

Spoiler

President Donald Trump has formally nominated Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback to serve as the State Department’s ambassador at large for international religious freedom.

Brownback has served as Kansas governor since 2011. His name has been in the mix for the post for weeks, before the White House announced his pick.

If confirmed, Brownback will serve effectively as the head of the Office of International Religous Freedom within the State Department. That office is charged with promoting religous freedom as a key objective of U.S. foreign policy, according to the State Department’s website. The office’s mission is to monitor “religious persecution and discrimination worldwide, recommend and implement policies in respective regions or countries, and develop programs to promote religious freedom.”

Before serving as governor, Brownback represented the state in Congress — first as a representative in 1995 and 1996, then as a senator from 1996 to 2011. While in the Senate, in particular, Brownback focused on religious freedom and helped shape the International Religious Freedom Act, which passed in 1998.

n Kansas, Brownback has proved to be a deeply unpopular governor, even in a bedrock conservative state. A recent survey by Morning Consult found he was the second-least popular governor in America, with only 25 percent of those surveyed approving of of his job performance, and a 63 percent disapproval rating.

Brownback’s nomination comes as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has tried — and struggled — to eliminate an array of envoy and ambassador-at-large positions as he reorganizes the State Department. Tillerson has left some envoy positions vacant, without nominees, as a way to force the issue, but the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set Thursday to consider legislation that will give lawmakers a greater say over how special envoy jobs are filled.

The position was last held by Rabbi David Saperstein, former director of the Union for Reform Judaism's Religious Action Center.

Lovely, he screwed up Kansas, so he gets a plum post. Par for the freaking course in this sham administration.

[GreyhoundFan]

"State Department head of diplomatic security resigns"

Spoiler

The head of the State Department’s diplomatic security bureau has resigned and will leave his post on Thursday, leaving the two top positions vacant for the foreseeable future in the bureau in charge of embassy security around the world.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Bill Miller announced his resignation and retirement from the State Department on July 19 in a note to staff, which I obtained. His last day of service will be July 27. Miller has been the top official in the Diplomatic Security Service since January, when the Senate-confirmed assistant secretary Gregory Starr was asked to resign.

Starr had been singled out by Republicans during the investigation of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Starr was asked to resign after President Trump’s inauguration, along with a host of other senior State Department officials. This is common at the beginning of a new administration, although traditionally officials are not pushed out until replacements are found.

Miller, whose official title was principal deputy assistant secretary of state and director of the Diplomatic Security Service, resigned voluntarily and was not asked to resign or fired, a senior State Department official told me. He has been a member of the Diplomatic Security Service since 1987.

“It is with extraordinary sadness, counterbalanced by extreme pride, and with the deepest sense of humility, that I announce my retirement from the Department of State and the Diplomatic Security Service,” he told colleagues in his note. “I have been blessed throughout my life in so many ways. I count among those blessings the opportunity to SERVE with all of you.”

Christian Schurman, the deputy assistant secretary for international programs, will assume the role of acting assistant secretary for the bureau, said Heather Nauert, State Department spokeswoman.

“We thank [Miller] for his leadership and dedicated service, and we wish him the very best,” she said.

Sources close to Miller told me that he had been hoping to be appointed to lead the Diplomatic Security Service on a permanent basis but was informed that he would not be getting the job. Two sources familiar with the situation said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is planning to bring on Michael Evanoff, who was the head of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s personal security detail when she led Foggy Bottom.

Rice has been advising Tillerson and was part of the effort to persuade President Trump to choose him for secretary of state. Evanoff declined to comment.

Miller’s departure is only the latest in a string of senior State Department officials who have decided to resign or retire since Trump came into office. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Stuart Jones will retire early next month and move to the Cohen Group, a D.C. consulting firm.

Several other senior State Department officials and Foreign Service officers have decided to retire rather than take on new posts. And while turnover is natural with any change of administration, several officials also say that there is broad frustration in the department’s senior ranks with Tillerson and his approach to running the department.

“If no one is going to give you the job but they are going to ask you to crush your team with budget cuts and impossible tasks, why would you stay?” said one recently departed senior State Department official. “The thing this administration doesn’t get about the foreign service and State in general is that our skills and expertise are very marketable in the private sector. We have choices.”

Besides Tillerson, only one senior State Department political appointee and a handful of ambassadors are in place. Zero assistant secretaries of state have been confirmed. Tillerson has reportedly clashed with the White House on personnel issues, including his initial desire to appoint Susan Thornton, the acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, to serve permanently.

BuzzFeed reported that Tillerson is now favoring former Treasury Department official Olin Wethington for that post. Administration officials told me the White House prefers Michael DeSombre, a mergers and acquisitions attorney in Hong Kong who is “Worldwide President” of “Republicans Overseas.”

The diplomatic security post is particularly important because of the crucial role that bureau plays in protecting American officials and property at diplomatic posts all over the world. During the campaign, Trump often criticized Hillary Clinton for failing to protect diplomats as secretary of state, especially in the case of the Benghazi attack.

In addition to protecting U.S. diplomats and embassies in more than 160 countries, the diplomatic security bureau also protects the secretary of state and more than 100 domestic State Department facilities, investigates passport and visa fraud, conducts personnel security investigations and issues security clearances.

Even if Evanoff is nominated soon, it may take weeks or months for him to be confirmed by the Senate. Meanwhile, the office that is in charge of preventing the next Benghazi attack will have to make do without permanent leadership in place.

You would think that with all the Repug screaming about Benghazi, they would take diplomatic security seriously. Of course, thinking doesn't go with Repug at all, does it?

[GrumpyGran]

I don't know where to put this woman so I'll just put her right here. Can somebody explain Hope Hicks to me? Almost $180,000 a year to...?

[GreyhoundFan]

@GrumpyGran -- Here's a Politico story about her.  We pay her to kiss the TT's ass. He even calls her "hopester".

Maybe she's auditioning to be Melania's successor.

[GrumpyGran]

33 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

@GrumpyGran -- Here's a Politico story about her.  We pay her to kiss the TT's ass. He even calls her "hopester".

Maybe she's auditioning to be Melania's successor.

Yeah, I saw that and it just confused me more. The guy is paranoid so how does she get a pass? I'm sure Ivanka has had a slew of young women working for her over the years so what did this chick do to get what some would say is the most coveted job in the White House? No one harasses her, no one holds her to any standard, no one goes near her from what I can tell. And all she has to do is let him be himself? Something smells about her. And she's not really his type. 

Wouldn't it be hilarious if she's the real leaker? 

[fraurosena]

18 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Sigh: "Kansas Gov. Brownback nominated as ambassador at large for religious freedom"

  Hide contents

President Donald Trump has formally nominated Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback to serve as the State Department’s ambassador at large for international religious freedom.

Brownback has served as Kansas governor since 2011. His name has been in the mix for the post for weeks, before the White House announced his pick.

If confirmed, Brownback will serve effectively as the head of the Office of International Religous Freedom within the State Department. That office is charged with promoting religous freedom as a key objective of U.S. foreign policy, according to the State Department’s website. The office’s mission is to monitor “religious persecution and discrimination worldwide, recommend and implement policies in respective regions or countries, and develop programs to promote religious freedom.”

Before serving as governor, Brownback represented the state in Congress — first as a representative in 1995 and 1996, then as a senator from 1996 to 2011. While in the Senate, in particular, Brownback focused on religious freedom and helped shape the International Religious Freedom Act, which passed in 1998.

n Kansas, Brownback has proved to be a deeply unpopular governor, even in a bedrock conservative state. A recent survey by Morning Consult found he was the second-least popular governor in America, with only 25 percent of those surveyed approving of of his job performance, and a 63 percent disapproval rating.

Brownback’s nomination comes as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has tried — and struggled — to eliminate an array of envoy and ambassador-at-large positions as he reorganizes the State Department. Tillerson has left some envoy positions vacant, without nominees, as a way to force the issue, but the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set Thursday to consider legislation that will give lawmakers a greater say over how special envoy jobs are filled.

The position was last held by Rabbi David Saperstein, former director of the Union for Reform Judaism's Religious Action Center.

Lovely, he screwed up Kansas, so he gets a plum post. Par for the freaking course in this sham administration.

Hmm. Religious freedom, huh? Yeah, totally see him standing up for the rights of Muslims, Hindu's, Catholics, Pagans, Buddhists, Taoists, Jews, Shiks, Shinto's and Parsees.

[Flossie]

20 hours ago, GrumpyGran said:

I don't know where to put this woman so I'll just put her right here. Can somebody explain Hope Hicks to me? Almost $180,000 a year to...?

Awww, the Tangerine Toddler has a beloved nanny named Hope.  She's pretty, a former model (of course!) who is the only one who can get him to eat his peas.  She's still working on getting him to take his naps, but give her time.  She makes top dollar smiling down on The Donald and fondly patting him on the head while she reassures him that he's the best and tells everyone else that they're too hard on her tiny-handed charge.

Staff has learned to heed her warnings on when it's a good time to talk to her little darling, and when to send her in to ask him questions lest they upset him by their presence.  She's the Trump whisperer.  While noone can fully rein him in, The Hopester is applauded for her efforts to mitigate Trumps mercurial nature and frequent tantrums.  

If you wish Nanny Hicks could spend more time with Trump outside of business hours, never fear.  She's invited to Ivanka's home regularly for social events.  She attends many Trump family functions.  She even visited the Pope with Trump and company.  (Take that, Spicey.  I guess you just don't fill out a dress as nicely as Miss Hope.)

As a woman who is intensely loyal to the president, can at times manage him in a positive way, seems to be developing some good will with White House staff, and some political savvy (although it's limited to how to cajole the president to behave nicely once in a while), she looks good on paper as a good fit for Donald Trump, Sr.  In a political sense, she might be a better First Lady.  

Who knows, Ms. Hicks may just help Melania negotiate her divorce settlement and then step into the role of First Lady.  Once he's finally out of office, whenever and however it happens, I don't know if she'd still be considered to be in a good situation.  I can't imagine how horrible it would be to placate our Number One Idiot as he devolves more and more until he finally passes away.