Category: Domestic Affairs,

Disgraced Trump adviser Mike Flynn admits he worked as a “foreign agent” for the Turkish government 

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

…the retired Army general had done lobbying work between August and November 2016 that “could be construed to have principally benefited the Republic of Turkey.” According to the filing, Flynn’s company, Flynn Intel Group Inc., was paid at least $530,000 for the work.

Flynn’s contract ended on November 15, just three days before Trump appointed him national security adviser.

…receiving money to lobby on behalf of a foreign power all the way through Election Day is another black eye for Flynn, who has the rare distinction of having been fired by two US presidents (Barack Obama ousted him because of his mismanagement of the Defense Intelligence Agency). 

Disgraced Trump adviser Mike Flynn admits he worked as a “foreign agent” for the Turkish government – Vox

hmmmm

To fund border wall, Trump administration weighs cuts to homeland security

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

The Trump administration, searching for money to build the president’s planned multibillion-dollar border wall and crack down on illegal immigration, is weighing significant cuts to the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and other agencies focused on national security threats…

…The proposal …would slash the budget of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides disaster relief after hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters. The Coast Guard’s $9.1 billion budget in 2017 would be cut 14 percent to about $7.8 billion, while the TSA and FEMA budgets would be reduced about 11 percent each to $4.5 billion and $3.6 billion, respectively.

The cuts are proposed even as the planned budget for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees all of them, grows 6.4 percent to $43.8 billion, according to the plan, which was obtained by The Washington Post. Some $2.9 billion of that would go to building the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, with $1.9 billion funding “immigration detention beds” and other Immigration and Customs Enforcement expenses and $285 million set aside to hire 500 more Border Patrol agents and 1,000 more ICE agents and support staffers.

To fund border wall, Trump administration weighs cuts to Coast Guard, airport security – The Washington Post

hmmm

The Elephant in the Room: Trump’s Mental Frailty 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Dodes was asked by O’Donnell to watch and comment on a much-played clip of Trump claiming during a debate that he had lost “hundreds” of friends on 9-11. Dodes’ said there were two pieces to Trump’s lying: First, he lies because of his sociopathic tendencies — “He lies in the way a person scams people; he’s trying to sell an idea or a product by telling you something that’s not true.” The other aspect of his lying was more serious — his loose grip on reality. For example, when he lies and has been told that what he said is not true, he still carries on with the lie. Dodes said that this indicates Trump cannot accept an aspect of reality and therefore rejects it, making his grasp on reality, and his attention to it, loose. “This is an extremely dangerous trait in a president,” Dodes continued. “And that makes him unqualified.”

…Gartner argued that what is real for the president is fluid, meaning that it’s malleable. Combine this non-reality with paranoia, and being at a hand’s reach of the nuclear codes is troubling. “He actually imagines he is under attack by people who are not actually attacking him,” Gartner said, creating “a very dangerous combination of someone who can act on his paranoid fantasies in a way that can have catastrophic consequences.”

The Elephant in the Room | Psychology Today

hmmmm

Sean Spicer says White House is “not aware” of any Justice Department investigation into Trump 

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His comments at Thursday’s press briefing came a day after he said there is “no reason” to believe Mr. Trump is “the target of any investigation whatsoever”

Sean Spicer says White House is “not aware” of any Justice Department investigation into Trump – CBS News

As if.

Do us all a favor, Spicer. Go home and choke on what’s left of your self-respect and honor.

Marines nude photo scandal expands to all branches of military 

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

Marine officials say they have received reports of at least a half dozen other sites.

Beyond the criminal investigation, Pentagon officials say sites like Marines United can do real harm to the military by discouraging young women from joining the armed forces and convincing those already in uniform to get out.

Marines nude photo scandal expands to all branches of military – CBS News

Conducting yourself with such disrespect for your fellow service people should automatically equal demotions and dishonorable discharges. It endangers Americans by facilitating distrust among people who need to work together.

Unsweetened: Mexico cancels sugar export permits to U.S. because there’s no one to negotiate with 

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

Staff positions across the U.S. government remain unfilled. This has created a difficult situation for Mexican officials who have sought to resolve a legal issue with the U.S. Department of Commerce.

As of March 1, Trump had filled barely half of the positions for which he is in charge of staffing

Unsweetened: Mexico cancels sugar export permits to U.S. because there’s no one to negotiate with – Salon.com

Incompetent morons with absolutely zero desire to perform the job they begged and bullied the people of the United States for.

Trump’s Critics Are Letting The Bigger Russia Story Slide 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Central Northern Asia and The Caucasus,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

The Russian cyberattack of 2016 was widely documented, but what’s happening now is that some of Trump’s critics are turning the fabric of diplomacy into conspiracy. They’re trying to find evidence that it was his camp that directed those hacks, rather than investigating how they originated in Russia. Of course, it’s also important to examine potential ties between Trump, his advisers, and Russia — if for no other reason than no one has yet found a good explanation for Trump’s worship of Putin and Russia. But, at the end of the day, it’s Russia that hacked the US, in its drive to sow chaos in a country it sees as its rival, and to elect a friendly leader who would both pass amenable policies (like the potential lifting of sanctions) while feeding that very chaos.

Russia pulled off one of the greatest coups in history — and it’s getting away with it.

Trump’s Critics Are Letting The Bigger Russia Story Slide – BuzzFeed News

hmmm

FBI Director Comey: “There Is No Such Thing As Absolute Privacy In America” 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Privacy,Leave a comment

“There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America,” Comey said Wednesday. “That’s the bargain. And we made that bargain over two centuries ago to achieve two goals. To achieve the very, very important goal of privacy and to achieve the important goal of security. Widespread default encryption changes that bargain. In my view it shatters the bargain.”

FBI Director Comey: “There Is No Such Thing As Absolute Privacy In America” – BuzzFeed News

What a trash-heap full of double-speak nonsense.

As recently as a week ago it looked like the White House Easter Egg Roll would go the way of the correspondents’ dinner

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

The logistics that go into security, crowd control, activities and invitations for something this size are insane. Last year, 35,000 parents and children attended. Yet, no one’s heard that any of work is being done on this year’s event with only seven weeks to go.

…“FYI manufacturing deadlines for the Easter eggs are near. Please reach out!” tweeted Wells Wood Turning, the Maine company that has made the wooden eggs for the past five years. tweeted last week, tagging all the Trumps.

Could the White House Easter Egg Roll go the way of the correspondents’ dinner?

It really looks like there is not a single thing that this WH is on top of….

 

 

History according to Ben Carson 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

There is history, and then there is history according to Ben Carson. The two aren’t always the same.

…”That’s what America is about. A land of dreams and opportunity,” Mr Carson told staff on Monday, his first day in his new job.

“There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they, too, had a dream.”

…In 2013, he said President Obama’s healthcare reform plan was “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery” and then, in October 2015, compared women who seek abortions to slaveholders.

…Back in November 2015, Buzzfeed published a video of Mr Carson saying the pyramids were built by the Biblical figure Joseph for storing grain.

The video was filmed 17 years earlier but Mr Carson, at the time the Republican frontrunner, told journalists that his views had not changed.

…In a speech to fellow Seventh-Day Adventists in 2012, he said the Big Bang was one of many “fairy tales” being peddled by “highfalutin scientists” and that the order in the solar system showed that creation was a planned event.

…Back in October 2015, when he was still second-favourite to win the Republican nomination, he suggested the Holocaust may have been avoided if people had been armed.

…His campaign backed away from his claim that he had been admitted to the prestigious US military academy at West Point.

But Mr Carson continued to stand by his assertion that, as a teenager, he tried to stab a relative,

….One magazine summed up the oddness of his story, headlining its article: “Ben Carson defends himself against allegations that he never attempted to murder a child.”

Relate

History according to Ben Carson – BBC News

There is something seriously off about that man.

Jeff Sessions Is Pretty Sure He Didn’t Do Anything Wrong

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No, Franken does not specifically ask if Sessions spoke with the Russians — Sessions volunteers the response! And he does not specify the context in which he might have spoken to members of the Russian government; he merely states that he has not done so at all. And that, Jefferson Beauregard, seems rather dishonest in light of recent discoveries.

Jeff Sessions Is Pretty Sure He Didn’t Do Anything Wrong

Sigh….