‘FEMA botched it’: Lawmakers push disaster agency to sell flood insurance during shutdown – POLITICO
hmmmm
Category: Money, Class, and Poverty,
The real immigration crisis is being ignored
So, our border is actually more secure than it has ever been, and illegal immigration is at historic lows. Instead of a wall, what should Congress be focused on?
…The drivers behind the exodus remain unaddressed. Conditions are still extremely bad; gang and domestic violence continues to terrorize huge numbers of people, and governments are too weak to do anything about it. In turn, this violence has led to economic breakdown — made even worse by environmental crises.
Meanwhile, our immigration system is breaking down from the flood of people seeking protection. There is currently a backlog of nearly 300,000 asylum cases, and it takes years for an asylum claim to be resolved.
…We also have to get our house in order by fixing the asylum system. Congress needs to ease the backlogs by hiring more immigration judges and asylum officers, and by changing the law to enable more expedited reviews, consistent with due process, as well as enabling some reviews to be done closer to the problem areas and away from our border.
…Farms depending on cheap labor from Mexico are facing labor shortages, and construction labor costs are making new homes more expensive than they used to be.
The real immigration crisis is being ignored – The San Diego Union-Tribune
hmmmm
Just what were Donald Trump’s ties to the mob?
What Trump has to say about the reasons for his long, close and wide-ranging dealings with organized crime figures, with the role of mobsters in cheating Trump Tower workers, his dealings with Felix Sater and Trump’s seeming leniency for Weichselbaum, are questions that voters deserve full answers about.
Just what were Donald Trump’s ties to the mob? – POLITICO
Whoa. Politico even.
Trump threatens to close ‘Southern Border entirely’ if Dems don’t fund wall
According to a report earlier this month by CBS News, about $558 billion in goods flowed across the border in both directions last year. It found that the U.S. exported $243.3 billion in goods across the border along with $58 billion in services.
…Duncan Wood, director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, told CBS MoneyWatch that shutting down the border would cost “hundreds of millions of dollars a day” or “maybe a billion.”
…The shutdown has left 800,000 federal employees furloughed or forced to work without pay through the holidays.
Trump threatens to close ‘Southern Border entirely’ if Dems don’t fund wall | TheHill
“Weh, weh, weh,” cried orange asshat, all the way home.
Some Parting Thoughts After Six Years On The Executive Council
Some Parting Thoughts After Six Years On The Executive Council
What a quaint, bizarrely unique thing the Council is….
Trump Foundation to liquidate remaining material assets, mainly schlocky portraits of Donald Trump.
[The] Trump Foundation agreed to dissolve itself as part of an agreement with the New York Attorney General’s office. The state attorney general said an investigation into the foundation’s finances uncovered “a shocking pattern of illegality” as the now-president of the United States used the nonprofit as a receptacle to accept donations and spent them on things Trump didn’t want to spend his own money on.
Trump Foundation to liquidate remaining material assets, mainly schlocky portraits of Donald Trump.
hmmmm
Trump Organization: Democrats raise ethics concern about deal in Dominican Republic.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, who will soon chair the House Oversight Committee, said Democrats plan to ask the Trump Organization for records related to the company’s talks with developers in the Dominican Republic because of concerns one of the president’s sons attempted to discuss a deal after his father’s inauguration , he told ABC News. The conversation could hint to a potential violation of the ethics rules that deal with the president’s business dealings.
Trump Organization: Democrats raise ethics concern about deal in Dominican Republic.
hmmm
Go, Wonder Woman! Movies led by women dominate box office, study finds
Films with women in top roles earn more than films with men in the lead, according to a new study.
…”The perception that it’s not good business to have female leads is not true,” CAA agent and researcher Christy Haubegger told The New York Times. “They’re a marketing asset.”
The data also found that the films with female leads passed the Bechdel test, which stipulates that two female characters have a conversation about something other than a man.
Go, Wonder Woman! Movies led by women dominate box office, study finds – CNET
hmmmm
Trump administration defies court order by pushing abstinence, Democrats say
The Trump administration may be violating federal court orders that found it had unlawfully canceled a federal program to prevent teen pregnancies and shifted that funding to efforts focused primarily on abstinence.
…Earlier this year, federal courts ruled five times against the administration’s termination of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, an annual $101 million effort created under the Obama administration with bipartisan support in Congress to help teenagers avoid unwanted pregnancies. Later, courts in New York and Oregon found that redirecting the funds to abstinence programs that are not “proven effective through rigorous evaluation” is “unlawful.”
…Critics say the administration’s opposition to the TPPP is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to target programs intended to improve women’s reproductive health. This includes attempting to roll back a federal contraceptive coverage provision allowing women to avoid out-of-pocket costs for birth control and the targeting of the Title X family planning program, which has a disproportionate impact on low-income women.
Trump administration defies court order by pushing abstinence, Democrats say
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Donald Trump Cancels Pay Raise for Most Federal Workers | Fortune
President Donald Trump said he’s canceling pay raises for most federal workers that were to take effect in January, citing “serious economic conditions” and the strain that the raises would place on the federal budget.
The move would undo a planned raise for most federal workers, including a 2.1% across-the-board increase as well as raises that account for higher costs of living in cities like San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C. The pay raises were intended to help federal salaries keep pace with inflation. Consumer prices have risen 2.9% in the 12 months through June.
In a letter informing Congress of the canceled raises, Trump said the raises would cost $25 billion.
…In April, the Federal Salary Council reported that the overall salaries of federal workers lags the salaries of similar workers in the private sector by about 32%.
Donald Trump Cancels Pay Raise for Most Federal Workers | Fortune
This bit of news slid by….
Trump was in the room during hush money discussions with tabloid publisher
Donald Trump was the third person in the room in August 2015 when his lawyer Michael Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker discussed ways Pecker could help counter negative stories about Trump’s relationships with women, NBC News has confirmed.
…The “statement of admitted facts” says that AMI admitted making a $150,000 payment “in concert with the campaign.”
…The statement of admitted facts says that AMI’s “principal purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman’s story so as to prevent it from influencing the election.”
Trump was in the room during hush money discussions with tabloid publisher
hmmm
Family Of Migrant Girl Disputes U.S. Officials’ Story Of Her Death
Border Patrol officials on Friday said agents did everything they could to save the girl but that she had not had food or water for days. They added that an initial screening showed no evidence of health problems, and that her father had signed a form indicating she was in good health.
But the family took issue with that form, which was in English, a language her father doesn’t speak or read. He communicated with border agents in Spanish but he primarily speaks the Mayan Q’eqchi’ language.
“It is unacceptable for any government agency to have persons in custody sign documents in a language that they clearly do not understand,” the statement said.
…In a statement released by lawyers, the parents of Jakelin Caal said the girl had been given food and water and appeared to be in good health as she traveled through Mexico with her father, 29-year-old Nery Gilberto Caal Cuz. The family added that Jakelin had not been traveling through the desert for days before she was taken into custody.
…The consul said Nery Caal told him the group they were traveling with was dropped off in Mexico about a 90-minute walk from the border.
Family Of Migrant Girl Disputes U.S. Officials’ Story Of Her Death |
Sounds like the border officials are as full as shit as the bloviated crazy person in DC who keeps ranting about a pointless wall. When it is proved that they lied, the individuals involved need to be immediately dismissed, charged, and imprisoned.
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