Category: Domestic Affairs,

Mar-a-Lago: Trump’s Unethical ‘Winter White House’ – The Tab for Which He Gleefully Dumps on Local Tax-Payers

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

“We were told to expect him to come once a month. We never imagined it would be every weekend.”

Mr Gonzalez estimated that he’d lost about $65,000 and several clients since Mr Trump took office. “At this rate we might survive through the summer,” he said, “but I don’t see the company lasting much beyond that.”

…There are no official expenses yet for Trump’s weekend trips – the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has just announced it will begin a review – but travel and security are estimated to cost the taxpayer somewhere in the region of $3.3m per trip.

…the new president has repaired to Florida most weekends, racking up an estimated bill of about $23 million over 10 weeks. Added to that, the decision to keep his wife Melania and son Barron living in Manhattan is costing the state an estimated $58 million per year, according to the New York Police Department.

As a private citizen, Mr Trump delighted in tweeting pot shots at Mr Obama over his presidential travel costs, but according to an analysis by the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, Mr Obama spent $97 million on travel in his entire eight years in office – a figure Mr Trump could, at his current rate, comfortably outspend within his first year. [emphasis: mine]

…When the president flies in for the weekend it costs the county sheriff’s office and city police about $120,000 a day in overtime pay.

…The county is looking at savings in its current budget, Mayor Burdick said, with possible cutbacks to parks, building maintenance and homeless services to fund the overtime pay.

Mayor Burdick has written twice to the Trump administration asking to be reimbursed for the costs. “To date, we haven’t heard a word back,” she said.

“I have a long list of things I’d like to say to President Trump,” she added, “regarding this, I’d just like to ask him to reimburse us our money.”

Mar-a-Lago: The price of Trump’s ‘Winter White House’ – BBC News

Hmmmm

Oil Spill Dumps 27,000 Gallons Toward The Gravesend Bay 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Local Interest,Leave a comment

A Brooklyn company quietly spilled thousands of gallons of heating oil into Gravesend Bay, BKLYNER has learned. The 27,000 gallon spill at Bayside Fuel Depot began before sunrise on Thursday, March 30, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYC DEC) official Rodney Rivera confirmed after we obtained photographs and video of the spill’s aftermath and […]

EXCLUSIVE: Oil Spill Dumps 27,000 Gallons Toward The Gravesend Bay – BKLYNER

Move along, nothing to see here.
Sigh…

Sean Spicer may want to reconsider downplaying ProPublica’s credentials

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Sean Spicer may want to reconsider downplaying ProPublica’s credentials. In his briefing Monday, the Press Secretary dismissed ProPublica as just a “left-wing blog.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalism site took notice and brought the facts.

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Dayum….

White Parents Who Won’t Choose Black Schools 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Education,, Modern Parenting,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

They don’t want their kid to notice her whiteness in Pre-k and then find out while addressing that question, that while they already own great books about diversity, the only children’s books specifically about whiteness are published by the KKK. They don’t want their child to ask them why Quintavious’s sister says she doesn’t like white people. They don’t want to have to wonder when the teacher calls, if they are getting extra attention because white parents are often perceived as overbearing. They want diversity, just not too much.

Why White Parents Won’t Choose Black Schools | The Huffington Post

Sigh….

This One-Year Alternative to College Promises to Land Students a Well-Paying Job, Debt-Free 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Education,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Schools,Leave a comment

The first is that young people are leaving their undergraduate education without the skills necessary to land their first job nor to really thrive in their lives and careers going forward. Seventy-four percent [of students] feel that they are leaving university unprepared to enter the job market, and 50 percent of hiring managers think that today’s college grads lack the critical thinking skills necessary* to really thrive or contribute at their company.

The second, even more troubling, is whether students obtain a degree or not they are leaving their undergraduate with insurmountable, crippling debt. 

“…[MissionU charges] zero tuition.

…When you get into MissionU we invest in you for that whole year, which enables any student from any background to be able to participate in our program, regardless of your socioeconomic background and your financial situation. Only once you are making $50,000 or more, once you have that job, you contribute 15 percent of your income back to MissionU for three years. That enables us to provide that opportunity to the next student. And if you don’t reach that $50,000 threshold, then you don’t pay us anything.

…We have a skills- and career-focused curriculum. We start by partnering with employers. Our employer partners do two things. First, they advise us on curriculum, and the second is once we calibrate our curriculum to make sure that we are meeting the needs of these industry leading employers, that are indicative of the broader industry needs, we give them early hiring access to consider our top graduates.

…Our first quarter is the foundational quarter. You learn eight hard skills. Those are things like business writing, public speaking, project management, excel gathering and basic tech foundation of html and css. These are eight hard skills we believe will make you an effective employee at any company, regardless of the industry.

…we have our graduation moment, but we don’t think that graduation should be at the very end of the year and that you should be sent on your way to find a job yourself. Instead, we reserve six weeks at the end our program for ‘career launch.’ Career launch is where we support you from interview preparation all the way through to salary negotiation.

This One-Year Alternative to College Promises to Land Students a Well-Paying Job, Debt-Free | Innovation | Smithsonian

hmmmmm

*- emphasis: mine. Although Of course I think it is important to be sensitive to the needs of others, I have often speculated about the correlation between the proliferation of space spaces in academic environments and an impact on formulating problem solving and critical thinking skills. Seemed too pertinent not to hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Bannon Taken Off Trump National Security Council in Shake-Up 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

President Donald Trump reorganized his National Security Council on Wednesday, removing chief strategist Stephen Bannon from a key committee and restoring the roles of top intelligence and defense officials, according to a person familiar with the decision and a notice published in the Federal Register.

…The change downgrades the role of Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert, who had been given authority to convene or chair the NSC’s principals committee under Trump’s original structure. He’ll serve those roles now as delegated by McMaster, according to a presidential memorandum dated Tuesday.

The national intelligence director, Dan Coats, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, are again “regular attendees” of the principals committee, as in the Obama administration. Trump downgraded their roles and put Bannon on the committee in a Jan. 28 memorandum.

The secretary of energy, the Central Intelligence Agency director and the United Nations ambassador also were added to the principals committee under Wednesday’s revisions.

Bannon Taken Off Trump National Security Council in Shake-Up – Bloomberg

hmmmm

White House Addresses Trump’s Unorthodox Call to Preet Bharara 

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Two days before the prosecutors were dismissed, Mr. Sessions held a conference call with them on a Justice Department initiative and offered no hint that they would soon be forced out.

Almost all of the 46 United States attorneys asked to resign on Friday have now done so, a Justice Department official said. The balance of the nation’s 94 United States attorneys had already resigned.

Career prosecutors are running most of the United States attorneys’ offices until the White House nominates successors for Senate confirmation.

Mr. Bharara announced on Saturday on Twitter that he had been fired after refusing to turn in his resignation. His public defiance came two days after he received the White House call.

————————

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Mike Pence’s Billy Graham Rule: Institutionalized Discrimination and Misogyny 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Pence’s rule for his marriage perpetuates religious and political ideologies based on false, dehumanizing ideologies about women that, when espoused by those in power, have manifested disastrous outcomes for all of us. If Pence cannot eat alone with a woman, it must be because when he sees a woman across a table, she’s not an adviser, she’s not a teacher, she’s not a leader, she’s not a constituent — she is only a sexual entity.

…If it feels like we are going back in time, perhaps it’s because rules like Pence’s invite us back to 18th century political ideology — and one of the oldest tricks in the patriarchal playbook — of separate spheres. Separate spheres based on purported natural makeup and the will of God, that a man’s place is in the public sphere (politics, commerce, the economy and law) while a woman’s God-ordained role is in the private sphere (housekeeping, child-rearing and domestic duties). This ideology historically justified women’s legal status as dependents until marriage, and stripped women of their legal existence — economic and property rights — after marriage.

…If powerful men are free to meet alone with other men, and to exclude women from the most powerful rooms in the country — how will women ever occupy those rooms in their own right? If powerful men are only able to mentor young men, where does that leave young women? If, as data suggests, the most mutually beneficial negotiations take place over meals, then doesn’t denying a woman the opportunity to break bread equate to denying her the opportunity to close a deal — to be heard? Access is power; access denied is power denied.

What if male professors stopped meeting alone with female students? What if male doctors refused to meet with female patients? What if a Vice President announced he would never dine alone with a black person? If any of these hypothetical rules alarms you, so should Pence’s.

Mike Pence: Christian Blogger on Jesus and Billy Graham Rule | Time.com

Yup.

Donald Trump, Russia & the 2016 Election

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

General Flynn apparently lied to Vice President Pence about his contacts with Russia, and it cost him his job. Attorney General Jeff Sessions misled the Senate about his contacts with Russia, and it caused him to recuse himself from the FBI’s Russia investigation. For those keeping score, then, contacts with Russia have cost Trump a campaign chair (Manafort), a foreign-policy adviser (Page), and a national security adviser (Flynn), while also sidelining the attorney general from the FBI’s investigation. Put all that — really only a partial summary of the Trump team’s Russian contacts — together and you can see why the FBI is currently investigating not just Russian efforts to influence the presidential election but also contacts between Trump’s team and Russian officials.

…the chairman of a House committee that is supposed to provide oversight of the Trump administration. Given that reality, the following chain of events is deeply problematic:

Earlier this month, Nunes was called to the White House grounds (anonymous leaks indicate that his meeting there was in some way facilitated by senior Trump-administration lawyers and national-security aides) to view documents that indicated that Trump administration officials may have been wrongly unmasked in reports of communications with foreign officials. 

…It was certainly unusual for Nunes to go alone to the White House to view this information, and what followed was even more so: He held a press conference on White House grounds and claimed to have “briefed” the White House on information he apparently got from the White House. At the same time, he refused to share the information with other members of his committee or to identify his source(s). Compounding the problem, when the press discovered his first, secret White House meeting, he appeared to mislead reporters, creating the impression that White House aides knew nothing about it.

In the final analysis, Nunes acted more like a Trump aide or lawyer than like the chair of a House committee. It looks as if the Trump administration used him to provide a form of external validation of Trump’s claims of improper surveillance — and that’s not his role.

…The Russian government has run one of the most cost-effective and disruptive espionage operations in history. Through a few simple hacks of the DNC, some basic online trolling, and garden-variety propaganda spread by modern means, the Kremlin has turned a superpower’s politics upside down. Its chief geopolitical rival is divided, with leaders obviously more furious at each other than at the foreign power who created the crisis. Russia may well face a day of reckoning for its attack on our democracy, but for now it has won, and the magnitude of its victory increases with each petty and partisan turn in Washington’s most consequential drama.

Donald Trump, Russia & the 2016 Election: A Controversy Explained | National Review

Taking the context in is a key part of processing information and experiences as we come across them. The above is from the National Review, an organization which promotes a conservative viewpoint. With this in mind it shouldn’t surprise the more moderate reader that the article contains a lot of what seems like defensive partisan posturing.

What is noteworthy though, is that between the rote pandering gobbledygook a few very salient points are put forth which draw a boundary between  the National Review’s version of a conservative belief system and the interests of the Trump White House.

hmmmm

Abortions Rights Aren’t Optional for Democrats — There’s No Economic Justice Without Abortion Rights

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Scarborough brought up the question of abortion and other “social issues” that he said kept white working-class voters voting Republican…

…He suggested that if Democrats want to win white working-class voters in states …they might need to run candidates who reflect the social values of those same white working-class voters — that is, opposing a woman’s legal right to decide for herself whether to carry a pregnancy to term. Could Democrats, Scarborough asked [Vermont Sen. Bernie] Sanders, “be open to candidates that may not be rigidly pro-choice, may not be rigidly pro-gun control?” Sanders said yes.

…Abandoning full-throated support for abortion rights in an attempt to secure more votes from moderates is not a new idea. Throughout the ’90s and early 2000s, political commentators — almost always white, almost always male — positioned abortion rights as a social issue fueling divisive culture wars. They painted abortion as an issue of life and religious morality, eclipsing women and relegating the moral value of allowing us sovereignty over our own insides to the background of the picture.

…Tolerating Democratic hedging on abortion to justify appeals to the working class is also nonsensical. For women who are pregnant, abortion isn’t a “social issue”; it’s very much an economic one. Most women who have abortions say they chose that route either because of their economic realities or in planning for their economic futures: They can’t afford a child (or, more often than not, they’re already mothers who can’t afford another child…)

Abortions Rights Aren’t Optional for Democrats — There’s No Economic Justice Without Abortion Rights

hmmm

Oh, and screw you and your old white guy bro-blinders, Bernie. It’s embarrassing to white people.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Still Benefiting From Business Empire, Filings Show 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, will remain the beneficiaries of a sprawling real estate and investment business still worth as much as $741 million, despite their new government responsibilities, according to ethics filings released by the White House Friday night.

Ms. Trump will also maintain a stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.

…It is unclear how Ms. Trump would earn income from that stake. Mr. Kushner’s financial disclosures say that Ms. Trump earned between $1 million and $5 million from January 2016 to March 2017, and puts the value of her stake at between $5 million and $25 million.

hmmmm

Pence and Religiously-rooted Discrimination against Women in the Workplace

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Women aides described the many ways in which men who adhere to the Graham Rule left them out of meetings and professionally relevant recreational activities. The “never alone with a woman” rule makes it difficult for these women to do their jobs, become part of their workplace cultures and compete effectively for promotions.

…The idea that a man cannot be alone with a woman he is not married to is the essence of maintaining fraternity in the professional and political worlds.

…The evanescent effects on the workplace of self-described religious beliefs like these make any statements about women’s equality moot in tangible, practical terms. Attitudes like his will keep women out of important roles in the White House and beyond.

Mike Pence Is Why We Have To Stop Excusing Religious Sexism | The Huffington Post

What the author fails to put forth here is simply this:

There is nothing wrong with two people orchestrating and living a marriage in a way which not only follow their own beliefs and values. As long as both individuals are consenting active participants in something that works for them and no one is getting hurt? It’s just another variation on marriage and relationships.

The inner workings of the Pence marriage aren’t -or at least shouldn’t be- the issue here.

The issue is that this behavior impacts women who did not choose to live their lives this way and the unfair burden Pence’s choices place on women to be able to perform their jobs on a fair, ethical, honorable, and -most of all- level playing field.

WikiLeaks’ latest release of CIA cyber tools could blow the cover on agency hacking operations – The Washington Post

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Privacy,Leave a comment

The material includes the secret source code of an “obfuscation” technique used by the CIA so its malware can evade detection by antivirus systems. The technique is used by all professional hackers, whether they work for the National Security Agency, Moscow’s FSB or the Chinese military. But because the code contains a specific algorithm, a digital fingerprint of sorts, it can now be used to identify CIA hacking operations that had previously been detected but not attributed.

“It’s one thing to say, ‘I got hacked.’ It’s another thing to say, ‘I got hacked by the CIA,’” said Jake Williams, founder of Rendition InfoSec, a cybersecurity firm. “I suspect this could cause some foreign policy issues down the road.”

If this source code is used in a majority of CIA hacking operations, Williams said, the release could be “devastating.”

WikiLeaks’ latest release of CIA cyber tools could blow the cover on agency hacking operations – The Washington Post

hmmm

US government watchdog to review Trump’s Mar-a-Lago trips and hotel profits 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

…The Government Accountability Office’s review will examine whether Secret Service agents subject Mar-a-Lago guests to any security screening, and evaluate the expenses incurred by government employees who travel with Trump to Mar-a-Lago, according to a letter the agency sent the lawmakers on Friday.

…The GAO will also check whether Trump has made any payments to the U.S. Treasury from profits at his hotels.

…Udall said on Monday the American people “deserved to know who has access to the president, how much it’s costing to protect him and whether the Trump Organization is benefiting from that protection.”

He introduced a bill on Friday that would require the White House to publish logs of people who meet with Trump there and at other locations.

US government watchdog to review Trump’s Mar-a-Lago trips and hotel profits – Business Insider

hmmm

Trump Russia dossier key claim ‘verified’ 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

So far, no single piece of evidence has been made public proving that the Trump campaign joined with Russia to steal the US presidency – nothing.

But the FBI Director, James Comey, told a hushed committee room in Congress last week that this is precisely what his agents are investigating.

Stop to let that thought reverberate for a moment.

…”This is a three-headed operation,” said one former official, setting out the case, based on the intelligence: Firstly, hackers steal damaging emails from senior Democrats. Secondly, the stories based on this hacked information appear on Twitter and Facebook, posted by thousands of automated “bots”, then on Russia’s English-language outlets, RT and Sputnik, then right-wing US “news” sites such as Infowars and Breitbart, then Fox and the mainstream media. Thirdly, Russia downloads the online voter rolls.

…The voter rolls are said to fit into this because of “microtargeting”. Using email, Facebook and Twitter, political advertising can be tailored very precisely: individual messaging for individual voters.

…This would take co-operation with the Trump campaign, it is claimed.

…”If you need to ensure that white women in Pennsylvania don’t vote or independents get pissed in Michigan so they stay home: that’s voter suppression. You can figure what your target demographics and locations are from the voter rolls. Then you can use that to target your bot.”

This is the “big picture” some accuse the FBI of failing to see.

…The investigation, then, is into a range of possibilities: at one end, unwitting co-operation with Russia by members of the Trump campaign; at the other conscious “co-ordination”.

Hillary Clinton’s former campaign manager, Robby Mook, said that if Trump’s aides knew of Russia’s plans, there should be charges of treason.

 

…With each new drip of information, option three – the chance that this is all a giant mistake, an improbable series of coincidences – seems further out of reach.

Increasingly, the American people are being asked to choose between two unpalatable versions of events: abuse of power by one president or treason that put another in the White House.

Trump Russia dossier key claim ‘verified’ – BBC News

hmmmm

This Is Almost Certainly James Comey’s Twitter Account

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Digital security and its discontents—from Hillary Clinton’s emails to ransomware to Tor hacks—is in many ways one of the chief concerns of the contemporary FBI. So it makes sense that the bureau’s director, James Comey, would dip his toe into the digital torrent with a Twitter account. It also makes sense, given Comey’s high profile, that he would want that Twitter account to be a secret from the world, lest his follows and favs be scrubbed for clues about what the feds are up to. What is somewhat surprising, however, is that it only took me about four hours of sleuthing to find Comey’s account, which is not protected.

This Is Almost Certainly James Comey’s Twitter Account

hmmm