What's going on with the Executive Departments

[GreyhoundFan]

Okay, Ben Carson would be pretty low on my list of people I wouldn't mind getting stuck with in an elevator.

Quote

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson’s visit to Miami got off to an up-and-down start as he got trapped in an elevator.

Carson was stuck for around 20 minutes on Wednesday, The Miami Herald reported. He was finishing up his visit to Miami’s Courtside Family Apartments with Miami-Dade County Public Housing Director Michael Liu when they and five other people got trapped in the elevator.

Carson also met with former Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning, whose nonprofit co-developed the complex. Mourning was late to the event and did not get caught in the elevator.

The HUD secretary was in good spirits after being let out of the elevator. At his next stop of the day at another apartment building, he jokingly asked if they had a key for the elevator before getting on, the Herald reported.

 

[Childless]

12 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Okay, Ben Carson would be pretty low on my list of people I wouldn't mind getting stuck with in an elevator.

 

Ugh!  Why did they let him out?

[GreyhoundFan]

And the fun continues: "Scott Pruitt calls for an ‘exit’ to the Paris accord, sharpening the Trump administration’s climate rift"

Quote

President Trump’s top environment official called for an “exit” from the historic Paris agreement Thursday, the first time such a high-ranking administration official has so explicitly disavowed the agreement endorsed by nearly 200 countries to fight climate change.

Speaking with “Fox & Friends,” Pruitt commented, “Paris is something that we need to really look at closely. It’s something we need to exit in my opinion.”

“It’s a bad deal for America,” Pruitt continued. “It was an America second, third, or fourth kind of approach. China and India had no obligations under the agreement until 2030. We front-loaded all of our costs.”

Pruitt’s claim about China and India having “no obligations” until 2030 is incorrect — while these countries do indeed have 2030 targets, they are already acting now to reduce their emissions by investing in renewable energy and other initiatives.

Pruitt had called the Paris accord a “bad deal” in the past but does not appear to have previously gone so far as to call for the United States to withdraw.

The Trump administration has previously said it is currently reviewing its position on climate change and energy policy and remains noncommittal, for now, on whether it will follow through on the president’s campaign pledge to “cancel” the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Trump’s recent executive order on energy policy, which set in motion the rollback of Obama’s domestic Clean Power Plan, was silent on the matter of Paris.

“You might’ve read in the media that there was much discussion about U.S. energy policy and the fact that we’re undergoing a review of many of those policies,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in Texas on Thursday, according to prepared remarks. “It’s true, we are and it’s the right thing to do.”

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has said that the administration will resolve its view on the Paris accord “by the time of the G7 Summit, late May-ish, if not sooner.”

Amid this uncertainty, the statement aligns Pruitt with a more hard-line approach held by some in the Trump administration, such as chief strategist Stephen Bannon, rather than the more moderate take of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had said in his confirmation hearing that the U.S. should have a “seat at the table” in the Paris negotiations, and Ivanka Trump and her husband and Trump confidant Jared Kushner.

...

 

 

[CTRLZero]

Don Benton quietly assigned to draft board (HuffPo article)

This former Washington state senator has caused a lot of indigestion over the years.  If he wasn't such a nincompoop, the story would be funny, but it is very illustrative of who Trump is stocking his swamp with.  The article is worth reading to the end to understand the potential danger when an unqualified buffoon individual is placed in a position of power.  A few quotes so you get the flavor:
 

Quote

 

Of the 204 words in the announcement, there wasn’t one mention of the military, the draft, or anything related to what the Selective Service System actually does. Nor were there any references to qualifications or experiences that prepare Benton to manage the millions of records in the draft system, or the agency’s roughly $25 million budget.

It was as if the White House had written the statement for a completely different job than the one Benton was being given.

Turns out, that’s exactly what happened.

. . . .

Benton’s habit of interrupting policy discussions to make bizarre comments became so maddening, according to The Washington Post, that senior staff began keeping him out of [EPA] policy meetings.

. . . .

Benton is the first director in the history of the Selective Service who has never served in the military.

. . . .

As a member of the Washington state senate for two decades, Benton was known for getting into vicious arguments with his fellow senators, some of which resulted in formal complaints.

. . . .

Through it all, his marketing firm, The Benton Group, had continued to peddle motivational seminars to sales teams at local TV stations.

. . . .

The president first met Benton in the spring of 2016 during Trump’s only campaign stop in deep blue Washington state. The two men reportedly bonded over a meal of McDonald’s. “I had Filet-O-Fish and he had a Big Mac,” Benton later said.

. . . .

Here Is Where It Stops Being Funny

. . . .

“If this administration doesn’t understand the difference between disposing of hazardous waste and determining the fate of young men’s lives, then they’ve got bigger problems to deal with than this one nominee,” he said.

 

 

[bashfulpixie]

That's truly scary.  God forbid those psychos reinstate the draft, but I don't think that a person should have any say in who gets forced to go to war unless they've been through it themselves.

[candygirl200413]

I got an email from financial aid at one of the schools I applied to for grad school and they're like you didn't register for the service yet! and then I stopped breathing until I read girls still didn't have to. With Trump putting yet again another inexperienced person, not only am I not surprised but it gives me a greater fear that the draft will be used.

[Childless]

I'm a huge opponent of the draft.  If this country is attacked and needs defending, there are plenty of people who willingly enlist.  If you can't get enough people to willingly fight in a war, then it's a good bet you shouldn't be fighting the war.

Besides, you aren't going to get good soldiers out of people who don't want to be there.  They'll be more of a hindrance than a help.

[GreyhoundFan]

"With Trump Appointees, a Raft of Potential Conflicts and ‘No Transparency’"

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WASHINGTON — President Trump is populating the White House and federal agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who in many cases are helping to craft new policies for the same industries in which they recently earned a paycheck.

The potential conflicts are arising across the executive branch, according to an analysis of recently released financial disclosures, lobbying records and interviews with current and former ethics officials by The New York Times in collaboration with ProPublica.

In at least two cases, the appointments may have already led to violations of the administration’s own ethics rules. But evaluating if and when such violations have occurred has become almost impossible because the Trump administration is secretly issuing waivers to the rules.

One such case involves Michael Catanzaro, who serves as the top White House energy adviser. Until late last year, he was working as a lobbyist for major industry clients such as Devon Energy of Oklahoma, an oil and gas company, and Talen Energy of Pennsylvania, a coal-burning electric utility, as they fought Obama-era environmental regulations, including the landmark Clean Power Plan. Now, he is handling some of the same matters on behalf of the federal government.

Another case involves Chad Wolf, who spent the past several years lobbying to secure funding for the Transportation Security Administration to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new carry-on luggage screening device. He is now chief of staff at that agency — at the same time as the device is being tested and evaluated for possible purchase by agency staff.

There are other examples. At the Labor Department, two officials joined the agency from the K Street lobbying corridor, leaving behind jobs where they fought some of the Obama administration’s signature labor rules, including a policy requiring financial advisers to act in a client’s best interest when providing retirement advice.

This revolving door of lobbyists and government officials is not new in Washington. Both parties make a habit of it.

But the Trump administration is more vulnerable to conflicts than the prior administration, particularly after the president eliminated an ethics provision that prohibits lobbyists from joining agencies they lobbied in the prior two years. The White House also announced on Friday that it would keep its visitors’ logs secret, discontinuing the release of information on corporate executives, lobbyists and others who enter the complex, often to try to influence federal policy. The changes have drawn intense criticism from government ethics advocates across the city.

Mr. Trump’s appointees are also far wealthier and have more complex financial holdings and private-sector ties than officials hired at the start of the Obama administration, according to an Office of Government Ethics analysis that the White House has made public. This creates a greater chance that they might have conflicts related to investments or former clients, which could force them to sell off assets, recuse themselves or seek a waiver.

...

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Sigh. 'Nuff said. "EPA emerges as major target after Trump solicits policy advice from industry"

Quote

.

Just days after taking office, President Trump invited American manufacturers to recommend ways the government could cut regulations and make it easier for companies to get their projects approved.

Industry leaders responded with scores of suggestions that paint the clearest picture yet of the dramatic steps that Trump officials are likely to take in overhauling federal policies, especially those designed to advance environmental protection and safeguard worker rights.

Those clues are embedded in the 168 comments submitted to the government after Trump signed a presidential memorandum Jan. 24 instructing the Commerce Department to figure out how to ease permitting and trim regulations with the aim of boosting domestic manufacturing. The Environmental Protection Agency has emerged as the primary target in these comments, accounting for nearly half, with the Labor Department in second place as the subject of more than a fifth, according to a Commerce Department analysis.

...

BP wants to make it easier to drill for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico by reducing how often companies have to get their leases renewed.

A trade association representing the pavement industry wants to preclude the U.S. Geological Survey from conducting what the group calls “advocacy research” into the environmental impact of coal tar. The Pavement Coatings Technology Council says this research could limit what it uses to seal parking lots and driveways.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants to reduce the amount of time opponents have to challenge federal approval of projects. Challenges would have to be filed within two years, down from six.

The Chamber also wants to jettison a requirement that employers report their injury and illness records electronically to the Labor Department so they can be posted “on the internet for anyone to see.”

And in its 51-page comment, “Make Federal Agencies Responsible Again,” the Associated General Contractors of America recommended repealing 11 of President Barack Obama’s executive orders and memorandums, including one establishing paid sick leave for government contractors.

Three senior administration officials in different departments said the White House is inclined to accept many of these suggestions. They asked for anonymity to discuss a process that is still underway.

Neil Bradley, the Chamber’s senior vice president, said in an interview that the EPA has led the government in issuing “high-cost, high-impact regulations” that harmed businesses. The Chamber estimated that rules issued under Obama would cost businesses more than $70 billion annually.

..

The NFIB has also objected to a policy adopted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration allowing representatives of an outside union to tour a nonunion shop with an OSHA inspector. Bosch said it is an invasion of privacy to have someone who’s not an employee “coming into your business and trying to point out things that, potentially, those employees should mention.”

But David Michaels, who headed OSHA under Obama and is now a professor at George Washington University’s School of Public Health, said, “The culture of the trade associations in Washington is to attack any new regulation as burdensome, even though the empirical evidence is that they’re easily met, they’re not burdensome and they save lives.”

“But injured workers don’t have a voice in Washington,” he added. “Trade associations do.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump officials turn to courts to block Obama-era legacy"

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In his drive to dismantle President Barack Obama’s regulatory legacy, President Trump has signed executive orders with great fanfare and breathed life into a once-obscure law to nullify numerous Obama-era regulations.

But his administration is also quietly using a third tactic: Going to court to stop federal judges from ruling on a broad array of regulations that are being challenged by Trump’s own conservative allies.

These cases were filed long before the election. Now, Trump administration officials, eager to flip the government position, want judges to put the cases on hold and give federal agencies time to revise or shrink the Obama-era regulatory regime.

Trump officials are also asking judges to keep any existing stays in place so that the contested regulations do not go into effect while the new administration mulls its deregulatory strategy.

Much is at stake. The Environmental Protection Agency persuaded an appeals court to give it a chance to revise existing limits on street-level smog. The EPA also wants a court to let it rewrite the Clean Power Plan that Obama showcased at the 2015 Paris climate conference. And the Justice Department has sought to review a Health and Human Services regulation that prohibits health-care providers from discriminating against people on the basis of gender identity, sex stereotyping or the termination of a pregnancy.

The legal strategy is a critical part of the administration’s battle to reverse rules enacted in the final years of Obama’s tenure.

For the Trump administration, getting the regulations back for reconsideration is also the surest way to stave off court rulings — especially those from liberal-leaning benches — that could hinder its ability to unwind rules adopted by the previous administration.

“If the courts uphold the previous administration, you still have the discretion to change things, but you’ve lost the argument that you were forced to do it or that the previous administration exceeded legal bounds,” said Richard Lazarus, a law professor at Harvard University. He said that if Trump officials “were confident the courts would rule against” the Obama rules, “you wouldn’t see them trying to hold cases in abeyance.”

...

His cronies are just doing everything they can to ruin the country and world.

[fraurosena]

We may laugh. But it's not funny. 

This is the administration's attempt at captioning a snapchat during the Easter Egg Roll:

Secretary of Educatuon Betsy DeVos

Keith Olbermann had a hilarious recaction to this debacle:

 

[Gobsmacked]

On 8 March 2017 at 0:25 PM, Childless said:

Damn.  Every day I read yet another article on how great Canada is.  I really, really want to live there.  The only issues I see are trying to get in and my ability to handle the weather.

British Prime Minister Theresa May this morning announced a snap general election for June, taking us all by surprise. She knows that Brexit is nonsense, Britain is  badly broken and wants someone else to mop up the mess. We folk in Scotland are left, once again, with the dirty water lapping around our ankles. If we could emigrate en-masse to Canada I rather think Scotland would empty quite quickly.

We could then build a wall!!

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, Gobsmacked said:

British Prime Minister Theresa May this morning announced a snap general election for June, taking us all by surprise. She knows that Brexit is nonsense, Britain is  badly broken and wants someone else to mop up the mess. We folk in Scotland are left, once again, with the dirty water lapping around our ankles. If we could emigrate en-masse to Canada I rather think Scotland would empty quite quickly.

We could then build a wall!!

Oh my, just noticed your last sentence, so quoting you, again.  Didn't Hadrian try that? 

[GreyhoundFan]

"A month after dismissing federal prosecutors, Justice Department does not have any U.S. attorneys in place"

Quote

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is making aggressive law enforcement a top priority, directing his federal prosecutors across the country to crack down on illegal immigrants and “use every tool” they have to go after violent criminals and drug traffickers.

But the attorney general does not have a single U.S. attorney in place to lead his tough-on-crime efforts across the country. Last month, Sessions abruptly told the dozens of remaining Obama administration U.S. attorneys to submit their resignations immediately — and none of them, or the 47 who had already left, have been replaced.

“We really need to work hard at that,” Sessions said when asked Tuesday about the vacancies as he opened a meeting with federal law enforcement officials. The 93 unfilled U.S. attorney positions are among the hundreds of critical Trump administration jobs that remain open.

Sessions is also without the heads of his top units, including the civil rights, criminal and national security divisions, as he tries to reshape the Justice Department.

U.S. attorneys, who prosecute federal crimes from state offices around the nation, are critical to implementing an attorney general’s law enforcement agenda. Both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations gradually eased out the previous administration’s U.S. attorneys while officials sought new ones.

Sessions said that until he has his replacements, career acting U.S. attorneys “respond pretty well to presidential leadership.”

But former Justice Department officials say that acting U.S. attorneys do not operate with the same authority when interacting with police chiefs and other law enforcement executives.

“It’s like trying to win a baseball game without your first-string players on the field,” said former assistant attorney general Ronald Weich, who ran the Justice Department’s legislative affairs division during Obama’s first term.

“There are human beings occupying each of those seats,” Weich, now dean of the University of Baltimore School of Law, said of the interim officials. “But that’s not the same as having appointed and confirmed officials who represent the priorities of the administration. And the administration is clearly way behind in achieving that goal.”

Filling the vacancies has also been complicated by Sessions not having his second-highest-ranking official in place. Rod J. Rosenstein, nominated for deputy attorney general — the person who runs the Justice Department day-to-day — is still not on board, although he is expected to be confirmed by the Senate this month. Traditionally, the deputy attorney general helps to select the U.S. attorneys.

Rosenstein, who served as U.S. attorney for Maryland, has also been designated, upon his confirmation, to take on the responsibility of overseeing the FBI’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and any links between Russian officials and Trump associates after Sessions was forced to recuse himself.

Rachel Brand has been nominated for the department’s third-highest position as associate attorney general. She has also not been confirmed.

By March of Obama’s first year in office, the Senate had confirmed the deputy and associate attorneys general, along with the solicitor general. The Senate had also confirmed an assistant attorney general for the national security division.

When Obama’s first attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., launched an ambitious plan to reform the criminal-justice system, it was the U.S. attorneys on the ground who were in charge of carrying out his plan to stop charging low-level nonviolent drug offenders with offenses that imposed severe mandatory sentences. Now, Sessions is taking steps toward reversing that policy — without his top prosecutors nominated or confirmed.

...

“An acting U.S. attorney doesn’t speak with the same authority to a police chief or to a local prosecutor as a Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney does,” said Matthew Miller, a former Justice Department spokesman in the Obama administration. “If you’re a Democrat, you’re probably happy to have these positions filled by career officials because they’re less likely to pursue some of the policies that Jeff Sessions supports. But if you’re a supporter of the president, you probably want them to move on those positions.”

The U.S. attorney process could be delayed many more months because of what is known as the “blue slip” process in Congress, which dates to the early 1900s. Traditionally, the administration consults with the senators of each state before choosing U.S. attorneys. Sessions said the Justice Department will ask for help from Congress and “a number of [names] are going over now.” The Senate Judiciary Committee sends a blue piece of paper to each senator to voice their approval or disapproval of a U.S. attorney nominee from their home state.

...

 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"A month after dismissing federal prosecutors, Justice Department does not have any U.S. attorneys in place"

 

This just boggles my mind. Why on earth does this administration think it doesn't need people? The logic escapes me. Is this the so-called 'draining of the swamp'? Getting rid of your workforce? How do they think they will get things done?

Are they really that stupid? 

[GreyhoundFan]

22 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

This just boggles my mind. Why on earth does this administration think it doesn't need people? The logic escapes me. Is this the so-called 'draining of the swamp'? Getting rid of your workforce? How do they think they will get things done?

Are they really that stupid? 

Um, yes they are.

The problem is: they can't find enough people who can pass muster with Agent Orange. The WaPo published an article about the hiring issues. The article isn't specifically about U.S. Attorneys, but it's indicative of the general personnel issues with this administration.

Quote

If Johnny DeStefano applied for a job in the Trump administration, chances are pretty good that Johnny DeStefano wouldn’t hire him.

DeStefano is the president’s official headhunter, responsible for filling up to 4,000 political jobs — about 500 of which are really important jobs — in a government that his boss promised to clear of the permanent class of capital insiders to drain the Washington swamp.

So the ideal applicant wouldn’t have spent much of his career on Capitol Hill as DeStefano has, starting with a college internship. Or served as political director for former House speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who embodies the GOP establishment. Or raised money for House Republicans, then built a data operation used by the Republican National Committee.

And yet this didn’t stop DeStefano, an amiable 38-year-old who grew up in Kansas City, Mo., from getting an under-the-radar role as someone to see in Trump world.

In an interview at his corner office next to the White House, the director of presidential personnel brushes off suggestions that his mainstream political pedigree is a liability. Before Trump, everyone started somewhere, he says, sitting easily in a navy blue suit at the conference table where he asks people why they want to work for President Trump. The spacious digs are appointed with white marble floors, a black limestone fireplace and coffered ceiling 18 feet above him.

“What I’m interested in now is, ‘Why do you want the job, and more specifically, why do you want to work for this administration?’ ” DeStefano says he asks candidates he interviews for jobs ranging from undersecretary of transportation to ambassador to the European Union.

“What’s your vision? I want to know that myself,” he says. “I’m the person who’s vouching for them to the president of the United States.”

He’s also struggling to fill critical jobs across a government still missing most of its senior leaders, a personnel roadblock caused by a slow start, screening delays, candidates turned off by a post-government lobbying ban — and the possibility that Trump doesn’t want to fill all of those posts.

When the White House announced DeStefano’s appointment, the far-right blogosphere lit up in anger. “Those who hoisted the pirate flag and joined the Trump team when he was at 2 percent in the polls . . . must wonder what the devil is going on,” longtime conservative activist Richard Viguerie wrote, calling the choice a “major impediment” to Trump’s goals.

And yet DeStefano has won over the “pirate” wing led by Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s combative chief strategist.

“Johnny was a controversial pick for the Breitbart crowd,” Bannon says, referring to the right-wing news site he ran before joining Trump’s campaign. “He was looked at as not close to what the Trump movement was looking for.”

...

Hiring in the Trump White House can take unpredictable turns. After fast-food executive Andrew Puzder withdrew his nomination to be labor secretary in February, DeStefano had met with the president about potential replacements when Bannon came into the Oval Office with two of his own picks — one of whom was a former U.S. attorney from Miami who had interviewed for an agency general counsel job. The team immediately met with him, shifted gears, and Trump nominated Alexander Acosta for labor secretary.

When Priebus called, DeStefano had been running Data Trust for four years. His friends say he doesn’t get enough credit for building up what was an anemic operation almost from scratch.

“It was a place that was not functioning,” said Guy Harrison, who ran the House Republican fundraising arm with DeStefano as second-in command. “He’s really good at reforming from within.”

 

[fraurosena]

Christ on a cracker! First it was Syria, then Afganistan and Korea. Now they're after Iran.

Tillerson warns 'unchecked Iran' could follow path of North Korea

Quote

The Trump administration is reviewing US policy towards Iran, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced, accusing Tehran of sponsoring terrorism and violence and destabilizing numerous countries in the Middle East.

“Whether it be assassination attempts, support of weapons of mass destruction, deploying destabilizing militias, Iran spends its treasure and time disrupting peace,” Tillerson said, adding, “An unchecked Iran has the potential to travel the same path as North Korea ‒ and take the world along with it.”

“Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, and is responsible for intensifying multiple conflicts and undermining US interests in countries such as Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon, and continuing to support attacks against Israel,” Tillerson told reporters at the State Department on Wednesday.

“An unchecked Iran has the potential to travel the same path as North Korea ‒ and take the world along with it,” Tillerson added.[...]

Any guesses who'll be next on the list of deflections?

Edit 2: Just posted an WSJ article about Tillerson/Exxon/Rosneft in the Russian connection thread, with the reason for the above deflection.

[Childless]

2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Christ on a cracker! First it was Syria, then Afganistan and Korea. Now they're after Iran.

Tillerson warns 'unchecked Iran' could follow path of North Korea

Any guesses who'll be next on the list of deflections?

Edit 2: Just posted an WSJ article about Tillerson/Exxon/Rosneft in the Russian connection thread, with the reason for the above deflection.

How big do they think our military is?  We can't fight four major wars at the same time and everyone, including Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea, and ISIL knows that.  Idiots.

[Cartmann99]

5 hours ago, Childless said:

How big do they think our military is?  We can't fight four major wars at the same time and everyone, including Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea, and ISIL knows that.  Idiots.

 At this rate, Trump's going to have to bring back the draft and raise the age limit. It wont be all bad, though. Our uniforms and footwear will be made by Ivanka Trump. 

[fraurosena]

What an eejit!

Jeff Sessions thinks Hawaii is just ‘an island in the Pacific’

Quote

First, candidate Donald Trump said a judge of Mexican descent couldn't give him a fair hearing.

Now, President Trump's attorney general, Jeff Sessions, is suggesting that a judge from Hawaii — which he dismissively labels “an island in the Pacific” — should not be able to strike down Trump's travel ban.

Here's what Sessions told radio host Mark Levin on Wednesday, in audio uncovered by CNN's Andrew Kaczynski:

We are confident that the president will prevail on appeal and particularly in the Supreme Court, if not the Ninth Circuit. So this is a huge matter. I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and Constitutional power.

There are a few problems with this.

The first is that Hawaii is a state and has been since 1959. Dismissing it as “an island in the Pacific” is the kind of thing that will earn you the pleasure of apologizing to an entire state. We'll start the countdown clock.

The second is that the judge isn't a Hawaiian judge, per se. Derrick Watson is actually a federal judge who happens to serve on a district court in Hawaii. And in case you were wondering, he has some of that all-important mainland experience and perspective, having worked as a lawyer in San Francisco.

And the third is that Hawaii does have major ports of entry, with international travelers arriving regularly. (We hear the beaches are nice or something?) Hence, it is affected by Trump's travel ban.[...]

Update: Hawaii's two Democratic senators have responded:

 

I repeat, what an eejit.

[candygirl200413]

I cry every time his administration says something ridiculously dumb that I've just ran out of tears.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Hawaiians to Jeff Sessions: ‘We’re not just some island’"

Quote

On that day in March of 1959, thousands took to the streets of Honolulu, playing Dixieland music and waving banners, with children stopping to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Congress had just sent a bill to the White House to give Hawaii the statehood it had “so long deserved,” local reporters wrote. Five months later, on Aug. 21, the collection of islands in the Pacific Ocean officially became the 50th state of the United States.

During the years of statehood that followed, thousands of Hawaii citizens served in the military, died and were wounded in wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, won countless decorations and spearheaded civil rights advancements. Others served with distinction in Congress, particularly the late Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye, who had lost an arm fighting in World War II with the famed Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, ultimately winning the Medal of Honor.

One Hawaii-born American rose to become the president of the United States.

But on Thursday, some felt as though the 50th state was being disrespected, relegated to five words: “an island in the Pacific.”

...

Later, Justice Department spokesman Ian D. Prior clarified Sessions’s remarks in a statement: “Hawaii is, in fact, an island in the Pacific — a beautiful one where the Attorney General’s granddaughter was born,” he said. “The point, however, is that there is a problem when a flawed opinion by a single judge can block the President’s lawful exercise of authority to keep the entire country safe.”

The comments were not only demeaning, it was noted, but also geographically incorrect. The state of Hawaii is not, in fact, an island in the Pacific — it is a stunningly beautiful collection of islands, an archipelago of eight major islands and many islets and atolls. Its wondrous beaches and mountains attract millions of visitors from the U.S. mainland, who don’t need passports to visit, and bring in massive amounts of revenue to the United States from foreign countries, especially Japan.

One of its islands is indeed called Hawaii, but the federal judge that Sessions criticized is based in Honolulu on the island of Oahu.

The fact that Sessions didn’t even say the state’s name in his initial remarks was most offensive for some, said Nadine Y. Ando, president of the Hawaii State Bar Association.

“Excuse me?” Ando said in an interview with The Washington Post. “We have been a state for 58 years. We’re not just some island.”

...

Some on social media went even further to criticize Sessions — they pointed out that Sessions’s home state, Alabama, once attempted to secede from the Union. Hawaii, in its nearly 58 years of statehood, has not.

...

 

There are many good Tweets and other visuals in the article. Two I especially like are below:

[Soulhuntress]

On 4/12/2017 at 3:22 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

"The new White House drug czar has quite an idea for where to put nonviolent drug users"

Good grief.

So how in the wide wide world of sports is the DOJ going to make this work?  Where is the money coming from?  

[GreyhoundFan]

42 minutes ago, Soulhuntress said:

So how in the wide wide world of sports is the DOJ going to make this work?  Where is the money coming from?  

Well, if they cut out all funding for all social programs, the Repubs can funnel the entire federal budget towards the Pentagon and DOJ. That would probably be a wet dream for Forest Gump Sessions and Paul Lyin.

[Soulhuntress]

21 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Well, if they cut out all funding for all social programs, the Repubs can funnel the entire federal budget towards the Pentagon and DOJ. That would probably be a wet dream for Forest Gump Sessions and Paul Lyin.

Don't give them any ideas!