What's going on with the Executive Departments

[GrumpyGran]

16 hours ago, Howl said:

Zinke/House Natural Resources Committee is now pissing on Patagonia (the outdoor gear company)  via Twitter and email, over Patagonia's response to Trump's move to downsize Bears Ears and Escalante/Grandstaircase National Monuments.   The House Natural Resources Committee tweeted that Patagonia is lying and also send out an email blast with Patagonia: Don't buy it.  Zinke retweeted the committee's tweet on his official account. 

 

Isn't this illegal? Rob Bishop should be removed from the chairmanship here. No surprise he's from Utah, eh? Seriously, you only have to be able to count to three to play connect the dots with this administration.

[fraurosena]

ops...

European Parliament Report Accuses Wilbur Ross of Insider Trading

Quote

Senate Democrats recently called for an investigation into Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ finances, following reports that he vastly overvalued his wealth and failed to disclose his holdings in a Russian shipping company partly owned by Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law. Now the embattled mogul, whose long relationship with Donald Trump has been tested by the disclosures, is facing scrutiny by European lawmakers over allegations that he engaged in insider trading related to his 2014 sale of shares in the Bank of Ireland.

Earlier this year, Luke Ming Flanagan, an Irish politician and member of the European Parliament, the European Union’s governing body, commissioned a report on the 2008 eurozone banking crisis. The final version of this report, written by two Irish financial analysts, was presented in Brussels last week to a group of 52 European Parliament members affiliated with left-leaning parties. And it included a section covering Ross’ investment in the Bank of Ireland, in which he was a major shareholder and a member of the board of directors. The report alleges that when Ross sold off his holdings in the bank for a massive profit in 2014, he possessed inside information that the bank was relying on deceptive accounting practices to mask its losses and embellish its financial position.

Ross’ involvement with the Bank of Ireland began in July 2011, when his hedge fund, WL Ross & Co., joined several institutional investors to purchase a 34.9 percent stake in the struggling financial firm for 1.12 billion euros ($1.6 billion). At the time, the deal “led to much head-scratching,” according to the Irish Examiner. That’s because Ross and the other investors obtained stock in the company at the low price of 10 euro cents a share just months after the bank received a 3.5 billion euro bailout from the Irish Central Bank and a guarantee of up to 10 billion more. (The bank’s shares were trading at about 30 euro cents two months before the sale.) The Irish government’s decision “to sell a large chunk of Bank of Ireland at the bottom of the market” so soon after the government’s cash infusion had stabilized the institution “was on the face of it baffling,” the newspaper reported.

In 2012, Ross joined the bank’s board of directors. Two years later, he began liquidating his stake. In March 2014, he sold a chunk of his holdings at 33 euro cents a share—more than triple what he had paid for the stock. A couple of months later, he sold the remainder of his shares for about 26 euro cents per share. Together, the sales netted him a profit of about 500 million euros ($682 million). The Irish Independent reported at the time that Ross had “pulled off the deal of the century.”

The following year, offloading his Bank of Ireland shares seemed especially wise. In May 2015, the bank’s lead auditor testified before the Irish parliament that the bank had been miscalculating its losses and presenting a rosier picture of its financial health. That August, the bank’s former chief financial officer testified to this as well. He claimed that the bank had publicly disclosed its accounting practices. But the European Parliament report notes that annual reports from the bank didn’t reflect that. Due to the company’s accounting methods, the report states, “The bank would show huge artificial profits before revealing substantial losses.” 

Ross sold near the top of the market. Since the 2015 admissions that the Bank of Ireland relied on flawed accounting methods, the bank’s share prices have dropped significantly. Yet as a board member, Ross would have presumably been privy to the bank’s most sensitive financial information, including its bookkeeping practices. This raises the question of what Ross knew when he sold off his shares. Was he aware that the losses the bank was deferring using flawed accounting would inevitably reappear and that he could get out of the company before the true state of its finances became clear?

Ross “had access to the loss details that Bank of Ireland kept hidden from retail shareholders,” the report states. “The profit that Mr. Ross accumulated was largely at their expense.” 

Ross’ profit, Flanagan said in a statement to Mother Jones, was “money lost to the Irish people.” Flanagan also wants to know how Ross was able purchase his shares on apparently preferential terms. “Wilbur Ross and others have serious questions to answer on the purchase of Bank of Ireland shares,” he said in the statement. “How did they manage to purchase those shares for 10 cents each, when two months previously they were trading for nearly thrice that?”

The report presented to European Parliament members last week maintains that Ross may have known about the bank’s steep losses from the beginning, suggesting that the hedge fund mogul, known as the “king of bankruptcy,” possibly learned of this when he was buying into the bank and it opened up its books to him during the due diligence process. As the bank has noted, it “facilitated detailed due diligence” for Ross and his fellow investors. The European Parliament report also suggests that Ross may have leveraged information about the company’s losses from the outset to secure a good deal when he bought in. 

Neither the Department of Commerce nor Invesco (the parent company of private equity firm WL Ross & Co.) responded to requests for comment. (Ross divested his shares in Invesco and stepped down as chairman of WL Ross & Co. after his confirmation as commerce secretary.)

The European Parliament report was authored by Cormac Butler and Ed Heaphy, Irish financial analysts who have been investigating the European banking crisis for the past two years. Butler, an equity and options trader and the author of two books on accounting finance, is a regular financial commentator in Irish media and has advised a number of major banks and financial firms. Heaphy is a former banker who for the last decade has provided research and expert reports on the European banking system to lawyers taking on banks or lenders.

“It’s a fairly reasonable assumption that someone with Wilbur Ross’ experience would have taken an interest in the losses that Bank of Ireland did not disclose,” Butler said. “If you know that not all the losses will be disclosed, it means that you can get out at a profit.”

If Ross was aware that the Bank of Ireland was concealing losses, he had an obligation to disclose that information before the sale of his shares, said Lawrence Harris, the chief economist of the Securities and Exchange Commission during the first term of the George W. Bush administration and now a finance professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall business school. “Even if it’s a gray area, the very fact that there is a potential serious accounting problem generally has to be disclosed,” he added. “If he was trading on material information that should have been disclosed but wasn’t, that’s pretty close to the technical definition of insider trading.”

Eamonn Walsh, an accounting professor at University College Dublin and a principal author of a 2013 case study on Ross’ Bank of Ireland purchase, expressed skepticism about the allegations leveled in the report. He emphasized that the due diligence performed by Ross is standard practice: “Somebody who is investing a billion on behalf of other people, there is an expectation that they would do due diligence.” Had they discovered accounting problems, Walsh said, Ross likely would have walked away from the investment. 

Stella Fearnley, a former financial auditor and now a professor of accounting at England’s Bournemouth University, called the report’s allegations “very credible.” She added, of the hedge funds that invested in the Bank of Ireland: “If they were allowed to look at the books, very probably they could see opportunity as a result of the accounting model.”

The European Parliament report cites past allegations of insider trading involving Ross, pointing to a 2016 lawsuit accusing the hedge fund mogul of making suspiciously timed trades when he was on the board of mortgage giant Ocwen Financial. (The case was settled with no admission of guilt by Ross.) While Ross was on Ocwen’s board, according to a SEC order, Ocwen masked losses using an accounting method that enabled the company to overvalue certain financial products.

Ross’ Bank of Ireland windfall has also caught the attention of two members of the Dáil, the lower house of Ireland’s parliament, and they have called for an investigation of the bank, including Ross’ dealings with the firm. 

“When Wilbur Ross…purchased Bank of Ireland shares in 2011 and then flipped them in 2014 for a profit…he did so with the advantage of having access to the financial position of the bank, which was not in the public domain,” said Mick Wallace, a Dáil member from Ireland’s Independent Party, during a floor debate in February. (Wallace has faced several financial misconduct claims of his own in Ireland. In 2011, his construction company was court-ordered to repay $19 million in loans to an Irish bank, and in 2012, he agreed to a seven-figure settlement with the country’s tax agency for underpaying taxes.)

During that same session, Catherine Murphy of the Social Democrats said, “Ross went on to make hundreds of millions from that transaction.” She added, “Bank of Ireland still exists but the dubious accountancy practices fed vultures and profiteers…The establishment of a commission of investigation is fully warranted.”

A Bank of Ireland spokesman declined to address specific questions about the European Parliament report’s allegations, including whether the bank had fully disclosed its accounting methods. He told Mother Jones in a statement: “At all times, as a regulated and publicly quoted company, Bank of Ireland complies with all of the rules, regulations and standards which govern such entities and transactions.” And he noted that in June 2011 “a detailed circular was posted to existing shareholders and a detailed prospectus was published and made publically available on the Bank’s website to enable all shareholders to understand and assess the Bank’s trading and financial position, relevant risk factors and future prospects.”

This week, Flanagan and Butler will present the European Parliament report to lawmakers and members of the media in Dublin in the hopes of pushing for financial reforms that will prohibit the kind of deceptive accounting employed by Bank of Ireland, which they said allowed Wilbur Ross to make hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of ordinary shareholders. “Every investor needed to know the true financial position of the Bank of Ireland,” Butler said. “Every investor did not know, but Wilbur Ross did know, and that put Ross at a huge advantage.”

Update: Mother Jones repeatedly requested comment from the Commerce Department before publication of this article, sending Ross’ spokesperson a copy of the report prepared for the European Parliament. After publication, department press secretary James Rockas sent this statement:

The Mother Jones article about Bank of Ireland is a factually incorrect effort to smear me. The report they reference was commissioned by a single member of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left, whose original member parties included the French, Italian, Portuguese and Greek communist parties. Here are the facts:

The shares purchased by WL Ross Funds, and also by Fidelity Funds, Capital Research, Fairfax, and Kennedy Wilson, were the unsubscribed portion of a rights offering made available to the Irish Government and public shareholders on the preferential terms.

We bought them at the same price they were offered to those other public shareholders. The government at the time had designated a majority of the Board of Directors and was the largest shareholder. The investment bankers appointed by the government were world class firms and it was their obligation to assure proper dissemination of all material information.

The report’s author implausibly says that I learned of what he calls improper accounting during the due diligence and used that information to get a cheap price. This is an obvious non-sequitur, given the process described above.

The Bank’s basic accounting used IAS39, as required by the regulators, and was reviewed by PwC, the Bank’s outside auditors. The Bank’s financial statements were reviewed in excruciating detail by the Irish regulators, the ECB, the SSM, and the IMF.

The Bank also issued a variety of securities at different points during WL Ross Funds’ ownership. Due diligence was performed in each case by the investment bankers and the purchasing institutions. They clearly found nothing wrong.

When we sold the last block of WL Ross Funds’ holdings, other investors such as Fairfax, which had representation on the Board, decided not to join in the sale. The stock subsequently traded at a much higher price.

The report incorrectly says that there were official confessions of improper accounting in May 2015 after the final sale. In fact, the Bank reported earnings for 2015 of 947 million euros, 161 million euros more than in 2014, when WL Ross Funds sold the shares. Earnings in 2016 also were higher than in 2014.

If there actually had been a confession of accounting wrongdoing in 2015, it would have had to be reflected in the financials.

The report also brings in the Ocwen litigation, an irrelevance at best. That case was settled at no cost to me and I never even was called to appear in court. It clearly was mentioned as a smear to imply that I had done something wrong—this is simply not the case.

4

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[47of74]

If this is true the EPA is literally going to shit

Quote

2017 is the year irony didn't just die, it went to hell.

On Wednesday, the Safe Climate Campaign reported that a water fountain in the EPA headquarters had begun to leak black sewage. Photos of the all-too-metaphorical spill immediately went viral.

"It is evidently sewage at the water fountain at the water fountain in front of Samantha Dravis' (Associate Administrator of the EPA's Office of Policy) office at the EPA headquarters," Grace Garver, spokesperson for the Safe Climate Campaign, told Mashable in an email. "Sewage flowing from a water fountain in front of a Trump appointee's office really reeks of irony."

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump allies say Tillerson has ‘not learned his lesson’ and cannot continue in job for long"

Spoiler

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seemed focused this week on rebooting his image as a beleaguered Cabinet member on the outs with his boss and his own employees — holding a rare town hall with employees, promising foreign trips into 2018 and saying he is “learning” to enjoy his job.

But then he went off script by offering another invitation for diplomatic talks with nuclear-armed North Korea, putting him at odds once again with President Trump and senior White House officials, who are increasingly exasperated with the secretary of state and say he cannot remain in his job for the long term.

The episode highlights the deep distrust between the White House and Tillerson and suggests how difficult it will be for the relationship to continue. While Trump and Tillerson have clashed on several policy issues — including negotiating with North Korea, the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and planning to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem — much of the distance between them seems personal and probably irreversible, White House officials said.

Tillerson, one White House official said, “had not learned his lesson from the last time,” when Trump publicly rebuked his top diplomat on Twitter over the wisdom of talking to North Korea.

A senior U.S. official said foreign diplomats and leaders often ask if Tillerson is speaking for the administration and when he will depart. Another White House aide said White House officials, diplomats and other Cabinet secretaries largely deem the former ExxonMobil chief executive “irrelevant.”

Inside the White House, this person said, there are fairly regular conversations about who will replace Tillerson even as he remains in the job. CIA Director Mike Pompeo, for example, may no longer be the leading choice because it means he would not brief Trump every day, and the president likes him in that role, the official said.

“I think our allies know at this point he’s not really speaking for the administration,” this Trump official said — a particularly sharp slap given that Tillerson has sought to be a buffer and interpreter for allies angry or bewildered by some of Trump’s actions.

West Wing officials spoke about Tillerson on the condition of anonymity to describe internal personnel dynamics.

Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, said Trump “is very pleased with his entire national security team, which includes Secretary Tillerson.”

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tillerson “enjoys a strong relationship with the president. Most importantly, they share a commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the security of our homeland and the protection of our allies.”

Nauert noted that Tillerson had lunch with Trump on Thursday. The discussion included North Korea, she said.

The latest dust-up began Tuesday when Tillerson caught the White House by surprise with remarks at the Atlantic Council that appeared to mark a shift away from the Trump administration’s demand that North Korea commit to disarmament upfront. Tillerson’s comments also stood in sharp contrast to Trump’s past pronouncements that talking to North Korea is a trap or waste of time. 

“We’re ready to talk anytime North Korea would like to talk,” Tillerson said. “We’re ready to have the first meeting without preconditions.”

“Let’s just meet and let’s — we can talk about the weather if you want,” Tillerson said to laughter.

The comments upset Trump and several senior aides, and set off a cascade of emails and phone calls that ended with a terse statement from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. National Security Council aides were particularly frustrated with the remarks and complained loudly, administration officials say. 

“The President’s views on North Korea have not changed. North Korea is acting in an unsafe way not only toward Japan, China, and South Korea, but the entire world,” Sanders said in the statement. “North Korea’s actions are not good for anyone and certainly not good for North Korea.”

Senior Trump aides say that Tillerson knew he was contradicting Trump, according to White House advisers. The State Department said Tillerson’s invitation was not a break with the administration’s official position.

Tillerson’s State Department continues to clash with the White House over personnel — picks are often scuttled or delayed, officials say — and Trump would sometimes react with exasperation when the secretary’s name is brought up, other officials said. One senior official said Trump will sometimes commend senior policy aide Stephen Miller for the time he clashed with Tillerson, or will mention disagreements Tillerson has had with other aides — and not take Tillerson’s side.

Inside the West Wing, several aides said people close to Trump essentially were counting down the days until Tillerson leaves, which they guess will be in February. 

Trump has told advisers he is amazed at the negative news attention Tillerson receives and has said to at least one adviser that Tillerson probably gripes about him behind his back. But Trump does not believe Tillerson called him a “moron” as NBC News first reported, a White House official said.

Tillerson has sought out Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) as an ally, frequently meeting with him for breakfast. And Corker has tried to solidify Tillerson’s standing by vouching for him to Trump and senior aides. But after Corker went on television and praised Tillerson, Trump complained to aides that Corker was defending the secretary of state. 

For now, Trump has told advisers that he is not firing Tillerson. 

“Where’s our Rex?” he told supporters at a recent holiday party, according to audio obtained by The Washington Post. “Rex is doing a great job!” 

Tillerson received applause at the event.

During an October visit to China, Tillerson had described U.S. willingness to talk with North Korea as a linchpin in any nonmilitary resolution to the nuclear crisis. Within hours, Trump had hung his top diplomat out to dry with a tweet.

“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful secretary of state, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” Trump wrote, using a favorite insult for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “Save your energy, Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!” 

Sanders later underscored to reporters that the White House sees no opening for talks except to try to free Americans detained in North Korea.

West Wing aides have cited that example as well as policy clashes behind closed doors to criticize Tillerson for overstepping his role or freelancing on policy issues.

Rumors have swirled since this summer that Tillerson is on thin ice and would soon leave the administration. He has dismissed them as Washington backstabbing and rumor-mongering, saying this month that news reports about an impending ouster were “laughable.”

“People need to get better sources,” Tillerson said in a Dec. 2 interview with the Reuters news agency.

At the State Department on Wednesday, Nauert said Tillerson was “on the same page” with the White House.

“Diplomacy is our top priority,” Nauert said. “We remain open to dialogue, and we’ve long said this. We remain open to dialogue when North Korea is willing to conduct a credible dialogue on the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

Nauert added that “we are not seeing any evidence that they are ready to sit down and have those kinds of conversations right now.”

An open-door policy is just what many U.S. allies and partners want, and what outside policy experts have frequently recommended as the best way to draw Kim to talks that could avert war. 

They argue that Kim is likely never to agree at the outset that eliminating his nuclear arsenal is the goal of talks. Kim has used his rapidly advancing nuclear weapons capability to threaten the United States and Asian allies, and has vowed never to give them up. 

Speaking to State Department employees Tuesday, Tillerson did not sound like a man with one foot out the door. He said he plans to travel to Canada next week and to Africa and Latin America early next year.

“This is all about modernizing the department and making it easier to complete your mission,” Tillerson told employees. 

He will attend a United Nations Security Council session on North Korea in New York on Friday.

One adviser who knows Tillerson and Trump well said the president has treated the secretary of state “horribly” and humiliated him unnecessarily. But this person said Tillerson also has made “enough mistakes of his own.”

“It makes me angry,” this person said of the president’s behavior toward Tillerson. The adviser described Trump as “impulsive” and Tillerson as “a patrician Boy Scout,” adding that the two are never going to get along but that their mismatch does not need to be so public. 

If it wasn't national and world security on the line, it would be almost amusing.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[candygirl200413]

As someone who is currently getting their MPH, it honestly disgusts me so much this is happening.

[GrumpyGran]

11 hours ago, candygirl200413 said:

As someone who is currently getting their MPH, it honestly disgusts me so much this is happening.

This is just beyond ridiculous. Oh, not you getting your masters, this thing with the CDC, I probably should have quoted the post before yours!

So, how will the CDC handle illness now? Just leaping ahead to the logical conclusion here, the CDC's purpose will be gentle suggestion to pray? I can see entire congregations wiped out by the flu in one season. Because the flu isn't mentioned in the Bible, so it's fake news. Those vaccines are just the liberals' way of trying to inject the fake news into you.

How will this serve Lyin' Ryan's game plan to pay for tax cuts by breeding more gullible good "Christians"? Does he not realize that without information on science-based medicine and without access to actual health care, the chances that these specifically bred taxpayers will actually reach the age to pay taxes is probably about 50-50?

[fraurosena]

28 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

This is just beyond ridiculous. Oh, not you getting your masters, this thing with the CDC, I probably should have quoted the post before yours!

So, how will the CDC handle illness now? Just leaping ahead to the logical conclusion here, the CDC's purpose will be gentle suggestion to pray? I can see entire congregations wiped out by the flu in one season. Because the flu isn't mentioned in the Bible, so it's fake news. Those vaccines are just the liberals' way of trying to inject the fake news into you.

How will this serve Lyin' Ryan's game plan to pay for tax cuts by breeding more gullible good "Christians"? Does he not realize that without information on science-based medicine and without access to actual health care, the chances that these specifically bred taxpayers will actually reach the age to pay taxes is probably about 50-50?

But @GrumpyGran, that would require forward thinking, an attribute that is severely lacking in anyone with an R nowadays.

[GrumpyGran]

20 hours ago, 47of74 said:

If this is true the EPA is literally going to shit

 

I've seen that episode of Supernatural. Because I've seen them all. That is not a good sign.

[hoipolloi]

Re: CDC's bad words list -

 

[candygirl200413]

Quote

Alternative word choices reportedly were presented in some cases. For instance, in lieu of "evidence-based" or "science-based," an analyst might say, "CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes," the source said. But those working on the Zika virus's effect on developing fetuses may be at a loss for appropriate -- or acceptable -- words.

The reaction in the room was "incredulous," the longtime CDC analyst told the Post. "It was very much, 'Are you serious? Are you kidding?'"

As news of the word ban spreads at the CDC, the analyst expects growing backlash.

"Our subject matter experts will not lay down quietly," the unnamed source said. "This hasn't trickled down to them yet."

From CNN Word ban at CDC includes 'vulnerable,' 'fetus,' 'transgender'

[GreyhoundFan]

I know the Repugs want them to use "baby" instead of fetus. Being a total bitch, if I were employed there,  I'd start saying "parasitic cells located inside female host uterus".  Of course, I'd get fired within 15 seconds.

The level of censorship being pushed by this "administration" is mind-boggling. Every day I think I'm living 1984.

Edited to add: can you imagine if anyone in Obama's administration tried to prevent using words like "evangelical" or "Christian"?

[fraurosena]

It's like Karl Marx said: Religion is opium for the masses.

When you keep the populace uneducated and pacify them with religious promises, they won't revolt against you. And that's what you're seeing at work here. Make the masses suspicious of science, of fact-based evidence, of critical thinking. That way you control what they think, you control how they live, you control their votes, their money, their very lives. 

It's horrifyingly fascinating to see this happening in real time.

Although they are putting down the foundation stones right under everyone's noses, nevertheless I am still optimistic that this administration will ultimately fail in their attempt at building an authoritarian state. But time will come that the point of no return has passed, so I hope that the good people of America will continue to rise up against these thugs and bullies that are trying to take over your country, just like they did in Virginia and Alabama.

[Cartmann99]

12 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I know the Repugs want them to use "baby" instead of fetus. Being a total bitch, if I were employed there,  I'd start saying "parasitic cells located inside female host uterus".  Of course, I'd get fired within 15 seconds.

Didn't you read the memo? We can't say uterus anymore because of its proximity to the vagina where the s-e-x occurs. From now on, pregnant women will be described as having buns in their lady-ovens, and the Pillsbury Doughboy will be forced to wear pants to protect the nation's virtue. 

 

[AmazonGrace]

I think there's been enough of insane shit already. When do the protests start?

[GreyhoundFan]

17 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Didn't you read the memo? We can't say uterus anymore because of its proximity to the vagina where the s-e-x occurs. From now on, pregnant women will be described as having buns in their lady-ovens, and the Pillsbury Doughboy will be forced to wear pants to protect the nation's virtue. 

You're right. Instead of uterus, I'd have to say "lady parts".  Otherwise, there would be much pearl-clutching, especially in the Pence household.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

6 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

There's a video of the exchange. You can watch it here: https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2017/12/276669.htm

I have to say that I was disappointed to find out it was a reporter asking that question. For a moment there after reading the transcript, I thought it was Le Drian... 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

Watch out, Hillary, the elf on the shelf is coming for you

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Gee, even though this sham administration tried to do everything they could to stop people from signing up for the ACA, they didn't succeed: "ACA enrollment for 2018 nearly matches last year's, despite Trump administration efforts to undermine it"

Spoiler

More than 8.8 million Americans signed up for Affordable Care Act health plans for 2018 in the 39 states relying on the federal HealthCare.gov website, an unexpectedly robust turnout that approaches the 2017 total, despite an enrollment season cut by half and other moves by the Trump administration to undermine the law's insurance marketplaces.

The numbers the administration reported Thursday include an all-time high for the number of new consumers signing up in a single week, with 1 million such people picking health plans in the final days before the Dec. 15 federal deadline.

The overall tally is roughly 95 percent of the 9.2 million people who got coverage for 2017 during a three-month sign-up period that ended last January. It defies widespread expectations of the law's critics as well as supporters that enrollment would slump sharply as the Obama administration's boosterism gave way to the aggressive opposition of President Trump and congressional Republicans, who have tried all year to repeal much of the ACA.

Federal health officials withheld the total for more than 24 hours past their usual release day and then made it public in atypical fashion. Seema Verma, administrator of the Health and Human Services Department's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services tweeted the single figure. Two hours later, the snapshot became public, but it contained inconsistencies.

For the seventh and final sign-up week ending on Dec. 15, the report said, 4.1 million people had signed up for coverage or been automatically renewed by the government because they had ACA health plans this year and had not selected ones for 2018. However, federal health officials had previously said the automatic renewals would not take place until after the federal marketplace's enrollment deadline. Asked for a breakdown between the active sign-ups and the auto-enrollments, officials refused to provide it.

Even with some information obscured, the snapshot reflects an intense surge of consumers rushing to get coverage before it was too late. The 1 million new customers who picked health plans last week compares with a previous one-week record of just under 900,000 two years ago. 

The tally does not include people signing up in states that run their own insurance marketplaces under the law or in several states in the federal exchange where enrollment seasons were extended until late December because they were affected by hurricanes and other major fall storms. Every year, some people who pick health plans or are automatically renewed do not end up with coverage because they never start paying monthly premiums.

The unexpected popularity of the ACA's marketplaces at a time of intense political turmoil surrounding the 2010 law drew swift praise from its proponents. The enrollment tally so far “makes it crystal clear that Americans demand and support the quality, affordable health insurance and consumer protections the ACA offers,” said Robert Restuccia, executive director of Community Catalyst, a large grass roots health-care advocacy group.

“This is a remarkable result given the Administration’s efforts to sabotage enrollment by gutting outreach, creating chaos and confusion, cutting off subsidies for low-income families and shortening the enrollment period,” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement.

Beyond shortening the enrollment period by half, the administration cut by 90 percent federal spending on advertising and other outreach activities to urge consumers to sign up. It cut funding for enrollment “navigators” by about two-fifths. Surveys and on-the-ground reports of those enrollment helpers suggested public confusion over whether the law and its marketplaces still existed.

In a statement accompanying the enrollment snapshot, Verma included a justification for the funding cuts. “Our goal from the beginning was to empower patients across the healthcare delivery system and make sure that Americans who chose to enroll in the Exchanges had a good customer experience while making enrollment more cost efficient, and the results show that we accomplished our goal,” she said.

“In a market that is experiencing soaring rates,” she continued, “I am proud of the hard work CMS put into making sure that our customers didn’t experience the website failures that were commonplace with HealthCare.gov in previous open enrollment periods.”

The federal enrollment website debuted the fall of 2013 with serious defects that stymied many consumers. It has been largely trouble-free the past three years, and consumers and enrollment helpers this season reported only scattered technical problems.

I'm sure Agent Orange will say it's #fakenews and that nobody actually signed up.

[GrumpyGran]

50 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Gee, even though this sham administration tried to do everything they could to stop people from signing up for the ACA, they didn't succeed: "ACA enrollment for 2018 nearly matches last year's, despite Trump administration efforts to undermine it"

  Reveal hidden contents

More than 8.8 million Americans signed up for Affordable Care Act health plans for 2018 in the 39 states relying on the federal HealthCare.gov website, an unexpectedly robust turnout that approaches the 2017 total, despite an enrollment season cut by half and other moves by the Trump administration to undermine the law's insurance marketplaces.

The numbers the administration reported Thursday include an all-time high for the number of new consumers signing up in a single week, with 1 million such people picking health plans in the final days before the Dec. 15 federal deadline.

The overall tally is roughly 95 percent of the 9.2 million people who got coverage for 2017 during a three-month sign-up period that ended last January. It defies widespread expectations of the law's critics as well as supporters that enrollment would slump sharply as the Obama administration's boosterism gave way to the aggressive opposition of President Trump and congressional Republicans, who have tried all year to repeal much of the ACA.

Federal health officials withheld the total for more than 24 hours past their usual release day and then made it public in atypical fashion. Seema Verma, administrator of the Health and Human Services Department's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services tweeted the single figure. Two hours later, the snapshot became public, but it contained inconsistencies.

For the seventh and final sign-up week ending on Dec. 15, the report said, 4.1 million people had signed up for coverage or been automatically renewed by the government because they had ACA health plans this year and had not selected ones for 2018. However, federal health officials had previously said the automatic renewals would not take place until after the federal marketplace's enrollment deadline. Asked for a breakdown between the active sign-ups and the auto-enrollments, officials refused to provide it.

Even with some information obscured, the snapshot reflects an intense surge of consumers rushing to get coverage before it was too late. The 1 million new customers who picked health plans last week compares with a previous one-week record of just under 900,000 two years ago. 

The tally does not include people signing up in states that run their own insurance marketplaces under the law or in several states in the federal exchange where enrollment seasons were extended until late December because they were affected by hurricanes and other major fall storms. Every year, some people who pick health plans or are automatically renewed do not end up with coverage because they never start paying monthly premiums.

The unexpected popularity of the ACA's marketplaces at a time of intense political turmoil surrounding the 2010 law drew swift praise from its proponents. The enrollment tally so far “makes it crystal clear that Americans demand and support the quality, affordable health insurance and consumer protections the ACA offers,” said Robert Restuccia, executive director of Community Catalyst, a large grass roots health-care advocacy group.

“This is a remarkable result given the Administration’s efforts to sabotage enrollment by gutting outreach, creating chaos and confusion, cutting off subsidies for low-income families and shortening the enrollment period,” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement.

Beyond shortening the enrollment period by half, the administration cut by 90 percent federal spending on advertising and other outreach activities to urge consumers to sign up. It cut funding for enrollment “navigators” by about two-fifths. Surveys and on-the-ground reports of those enrollment helpers suggested public confusion over whether the law and its marketplaces still existed.

In a statement accompanying the enrollment snapshot, Verma included a justification for the funding cuts. “Our goal from the beginning was to empower patients across the healthcare delivery system and make sure that Americans who chose to enroll in the Exchanges had a good customer experience while making enrollment more cost efficient, and the results show that we accomplished our goal,” she said.

“In a market that is experiencing soaring rates,” she continued, “I am proud of the hard work CMS put into making sure that our customers didn’t experience the website failures that were commonplace with HealthCare.gov in previous open enrollment periods.”

The federal enrollment website debuted the fall of 2013 with serious defects that stymied many consumers. It has been largely trouble-free the past three years, and consumers and enrollment helpers this season reported only scattered technical problems.

I'm sure Agent Orange will say it's #fakenews and that nobody actually signed up.

Or just blithely tell them that their going to lose their health care like it's a wonderful thing. Disgusting, he is literally wetting himself at millions losing health care. Just so he can get his win. 

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

This is not good: "Facing Republican attacks, FBI’s deputy director plans to retire early next year"

Spoiler

Andrew McCabe, the FBI’s deputy director who has been the target of Republican critics for more than a year, plans to retire in a few months when he becomes fully eligible for pension benefits, according to people familiar with the matter.

McCabe spent hours in Congress this past week, facing questions behind closed doors from members of three committees. Republicans said they were dissatisfied with his answers; Democrats called it a partisan hounding.

McCabe, 49, holds a unique position in the political firestorm surrounding the FBI. He was former director James B. Comey’s right-hand man, a position that involved him in most of the FBI’s actions that vex President Trump as well as the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state, a matter that still riles Democrats.

When Trump fired Comey in May, that meant McCabe had to stay — first to run the agency until a new director was in place and then to take the political heat for decisions made by his former boss.

“Andy’s in a difficult position now . . . because of the hyperpartisan political environment,’’ said John Pistole, who held the FBI’s No. 2 job for six years under former director Robert S. Mueller III. Mueller now serves as special counsel, running the investigation into whether any Trump associates conspired with Russian agents to interfere with the 2016 election.

Pistole said McCabe “is weathering the storm.”

“It’s disappointing,” he added, “to see how the criticism of the FBI is being used to try to undermine the credibility of the Mueller investigation. I think they’ve figured out they can’t undermine Bob’s integrity, so they’re just going to go after whoever they can dig up any dirt on.’’

Within the agency, there is praise — but also some criticism — for how McCabe has handled his role. Still, he has become a lightning rod in the political storms now buffeting the bureau. Conservatives have called for heads to roll at the FBI, and McCabe is atop many of their lists. But current and former FBI officials said it would be dangerous to appease those demands.

“It would send a terrible message to move him now, but it’s also a terrible situation he’s in,’’ said one law enforcement official.

Earlier this week, the FBI’s top lawyer, James Baker, told colleagues he was being reassigned, according to people familiar with the matter.

McCabe won’t become eligible for his full pension until early March. People close to him say he plans to retire as soon as he hits that mark. “He’s got about 90 days, and some of that will be holiday time. He can make it,’’ said one.

A spokesman for McCabe declined to comment, as did an FBI spokesman.

The pressure on McCabe has only intensified, though. He got an eight-hour grilling from the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, and returned to Congress on Thursday to face more than nine hours of questions from the House Judiciary and Oversight committees.

Other senior FBI officials, including those who worked closely with McCabe and Comey, are expected to face similar questioning from Congress next year.

Republicans, in particular, are focusing on the FBI’s relationship with the author of a dossier containing allegations against Trump. The bureau offered to pay the author of that document after the election to keep pursuing leads and information, but the agreement was never finalized, The Washington Post reported earlier this year.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), has called for McCabe’s ouster, saying he “ought to go for reasons of being involved in some of the things that took place in the previous administration. We want to make sure that there’s not undue political influence within the FBI — the [Justice] Department and the FBI.”

Democrats emerging from Thursday’s questioning of McCabe urged him to resist Republicans’ calls to step down, saying the GOP’s new focus on McCabe smells of political opportunism.

“Mr. McCabe should in no way be fired by biased political commentary,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.).

Trump and his supporters have made clear they want McCabe gone, but as a civil service employee, he can’t be fired outright without some clear finding of major wrongdoing.

Christopher A. Wray became the FBI’s new director in August, and typically when a new director arrives, he appoints a new deputy to help run the agency. When Comey became director in 2013, for example, he got a new deputy after about two months.

But within the FBI, even reassigning McCabe is viewed by many as a bad idea. It would be seen as caving to political demands and might provoke calls for additional housecleaning, according to current and former law enforcement officials.

McCabe rose quickly through the FBI’s senior ranks, only to find himself, beginning last year, the subject of intense partisan fighting about his conduct.

Republicans attacked him after reports that his wife, a Democratic candidate for a Virginia Senate seat in 2015, had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the political action committee led by a close ally of the Clintons. He had also been part of discussions with Justice Department officials that critics said prevented FBI agents from more aggressively pursuing their investigation of the Clinton Foundation. Agents were trying to determine if donations to the foundation were made with an expectation of government favors from Clinton or her allies.

After reports about those issues surfaced in October 2016, then-candidate Trump singled out McCabe for criticism, and congressional Republicans demanded detailed answers from the FBI about his role in the Clinton probes — questions they insist remain unanswered.

McCabe’s role is being examined by the Justice Department’s inspector general, who has said a report on how the Clinton probe was handled should be finished by spring.

In May came Comey’s firing, which left the FBI, according to one person inside the bureau, “permanently playing defense.’’

McCabe was suddenly in charge, and, according to people familiar with the matter, law enforcement officials began to investigate the president for obstruction of justice.

In early December, McCabe faced yet another controversy. The Post reported that one of his senior advisers, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, had exchanged numerous pro-Clinton and anti-Trump text messages with Peter Strzok, the top FBI agent on Mueller’s probe. Strzok was removed by Mueller when he learned of their communications; Page had left the Mueller team two weeks earlier for what officials said were unrelated reasons. In one text, Strzok texted that he thought Clinton should win “100,000,000-0.’’

More problematic for McCabe is a text in which Page told Strzok, “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.’’

Republican lawmakers have seized on that text as evidence Strzok, Page, and possibly McCabe were involved in an effort to somehow ensure Trump would not win the election. But people familiar with the exchange said the officials were debating how overtly they should begin investigating Trump, and that one of the factors they considered was the likelihood Trump could win the presidency — which they considered small.

Even that explanation presents a headache for McCabe because it places a conversation in his office about how the expected election outcome should or should not affect the FBI’s investigative decisions.

Despite the Repug whining about the damned text messages, the FBI is, as a whole, VERY conservative. The NY field office, in particular, is falling off the right side of the world. I'm concerned who Wray is going to put in the Deputy position; he'll probably appoint some alt-right crazy to appease the Repugs in congress.