Trump Fills The Swamp

stumbler · Jun 6, 2018

Superfund Task Force Led By Lawyer With Ex-Clients Responsible For Toxic Spills

WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer tapped to lead a task force at the Environmental Protection Agency overseeing cleanups at the nation’s most polluted places worked until recently for a top chemical and plastics manufacturer with a troubled legacy of creating some of those toxic sites.

Steven D. Cook has been named as the new chair of the Superfund Task Force, which EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt created last year to revamp how the agency oversees cleanups at the more than 1,300 toxic sites.

Before beginning work in February as deputy assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management, Cook served more than 20 years as in-house corporate counsel for LyondellBasell Industries — one of the world’s largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies.

EPA records show that LyondellBasell and its subsidiaries are listed as being potentially responsible for at least three dozen Superfund polluted sites.

An analysis by The Associated Press shows that nearly half the political appointees hired at EPA under President Donald Trump have industry ties. Of more than 60 EPA hires tracked by the AP over the last year, about one-third worked as registered lobbyists or lawyers for chemical manufacturers, fossil fuel producers or other EPA-regulated companies.

Trump promised as a presidential candidate to drain the swamp in Washington. An executive order signed two weeks after his inauguration bars former lobbyists and corporate lawyers from participating in any matter they worked on for private clients within two years of going to work for the government.

Following a request by AP, EPA provided a copy of an April 20 memo Cook signed recusing himself from participating in regulatory matters involving LyondellBasell. However, as stated in the letter, Cook can participate in matters affecting his former employer as long as his actions would also impact at least five similarly situated companies.

“All EPA employees receive ethics briefings when they start and continually work with our ethics office regarding any potential conflicts they may encounter while employed here,” said Lincoln Ferguson, an EPA spokesman. “Steven Cook is no different.”

It was not immediately clear whether Cook would be allowed to participate in decisions involving LyondellBasell, anyway. AP reported in March that White House counsel Don McGahn has issued at least 37 ethics waivers to key administration officials, including three working at EPA, that allow them to help regulate the very industries from which they previously collected paychecks even after signing recusals. It was not clear whether Cook was granted a waiver, and Ferguson did not respond to AP’s inquiries on the subject.

Lyondell Chemical Co., a Houston-based subsidiary of LyondellBasell, agreed to pay $250 million in 2010 to settle environmental claims and provide cleanup funds for 15 properties across the country as part of bankruptcy proceedings.

Another subsidiary of the Dutch chemicals conglomerate, Equistar Chemicals, agreed in 2007 to spend more than $125 million on pollution controls and cleanup costs to address a myriad of air, water and hazardous waste violations at seven petrochemical plants in Texas, Illinois, Iowa and Louisiana. Court filings made as part of the company’s legal settlement with the Justice Department, and EPA listed Cook as the primary contact for Equistar.

LyondellBasell subsidiaries are identified as a responsible party on dozens of Superfund sites. The companies set aside funds for cleanups before emerging from bankruptcy.

“LyondellBasell resolved its Superfund obligations nearly a decade ago,” said Pattie Shieh-Lance, a corporate spokeswoman in Houston. “The company does not currently have any such obligations.”

Cook is taking over as chair of the Superfund Task Force following the resignation of Albert “Kell” Kelly, a longtime friend and business associate of Pruitt’s. AP reported in August that federal banking regulators had banned Kelly, who previously the chairman of Oklahoma-based SpiritBank, from banking for life. Members of Congress had been pressing for details about what led to the banking sanctions against Kelly when he quit his EPA job.

Cook’s appointment to lead the task force was first reported by Bloomberg.

He is currently the top political appointee at EPA’s Land and Emergency Management office, which oversees the agency’s response to chemical spills and oversees management of the Superfund program.

Trump has nominated Peter C. Wright to serve as assistant administrator for Land and Emergency Management, but he has not yet been confirmed to the post by the U.S. Senate. Wright has worked as a corporate lawyer at Dow Chemical Co. since 1999.
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stumbler · Jun 6, 2018

stumbler said: ↑

Scandal-Plagued EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Reportedly Tried to Use Clout to Get His Wife a Job At Chick-fil-A
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Let me show you something here. You will see phony glaring hypocrites trying to mock this like it is no big deal. When actually using your office AND ESPECIALLY TAXPAYER PAID STAFF to try and get a job for your spouse is a violation of federal law. And if it was a member of a Democratic administration they would be screaming their heads off about this being the highest level of corruption.

Which is just proof positive conservative/Republicans don't really believe anything they say about ethics and values and never did. They will switch 180 degrees and cheer and mock the corruption of the Trump administration simply because they think their side is winning and that's the only thing they have ever really cared about.

And hide and watch because it looks like this is going to be the straw that breaks Pruitt's back. And of course not because he is one of the most corrupt cabinet members ever appointed. They don't give a shit about corruption. Its because he and Trump are hurting the profits of a lot of their constituents.

GOP senator says Pruitt is ‘as swampy as you get’

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) slammed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt Tuesday, calling him “about as swampy as you get.”

“He is about as swampy as you get here in Washington, D.C., and if the president wants to drain the swamp, he needs to take a look at his own Cabinet,” Ernst said at an event organized by Platts, according to Bloomberg News.

The sharp rebuke from a member of President Trump’s own party was in response to Pruitt’s ethical and spending scandals, such as renting a condo from the wife of an energy lobbyist for $50 for each night he spent there, and lavish taxpayer spending on security and other costs.

Ernst’s criticism is fueled, at least in part, by her frustrations over Pruitt’s handling of the federal ethanol mandate under the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The Trump administration is due soon to release details of a slate of policies meant to ease the burden of compliance on fuel refiners, while also trying to give some help to the ethanol industry.

The plan is expected to include allowing exported ethanol to count toward the mandate — effectively reducing the mandated volume — while allowing higher ethanol blends to be sold in the summer than are currently allowed.

Ernst and other ethanol supporters say the export provision, along with the EPA’s liberal use of its authority to waive the mandate for struggling refineries, is a betrayal of Trump’s promise to uphold the mandate.

“Mr. Pruitt is breaking our president’s promises to farmers,” Ernst said, according to Bloomberg, adding that Trump at some point may “say it’s time for you to go, but that is up to the president.”
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stumbler · Jun 8, 2018

EPA’s Scott Pruitt Made Security Detail Track Down Hotel Lotion: Report

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt asked his security detail to run personal errands for him, like “picking up his dry cleaning and taking him in search of a favorite moisturizing lotion,” sources told The Washington Post. Pruitt reportedly “directed agents to drive him to multiple locations in search of a particular lotion on offer at Ritz-Carlton hotels” and told his security to “pick up his dry cleaning without him.” EPA spokeswoman Kelsi Daniell told the Post that “Pruitt follows the same security protocol whether he’s in his personal or official capacity.” The administrator has a protective detail that cost taxpayers nearly $3.5 million during his first year—about triple the cost of his predecessors—due to the “unprecedented amount of threats he has faced,” the agency said. The agency also attributed Pruitt’s need for first class flights on the threats he has received. Previous reports said Pruitt made his aides inquire about buying a used Trump Hotel mattress and book personal travel for him.
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shootersa · Jun 8, 2018

Wait. He isn't staying in a trump hotel?
The disloyal lout!

If he'd stayed at a trump hotel the lotion would have been comped.

Course, that would have been another shot storm the unsupporters could have started.

stumbler · Jun 8, 2018

Go deeper: Scott Pruitt's growing list of bizarre scandals

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt "has regularly sent his subordinates out during the workday to pick up his favorite snacks and treats," the Daily Beast's Asawin Suebsaeng and Lachlan Markay report, including particular finger foods, Greek yogurt, and more.

The big picture: This is the latest in a string of ethical controversies surrounding Pruitt's spending and management decisions, which have resulted in a series of federal probes. Despite his questionable behavior, Pruitt continues to have support from the President. But, as Axios' Jonathan Swan reported at the beginning of May, that support has been wavering as the negative coverage piles on, and everyone else in the White House wants Pruitt out.

Pruitt's laundry list of scandals:

He reportedly ordered raises for two aides, despite the White House rejecting his request. He later said he was unaware of the raises.

He spent $3 million of taxpayer funds on an extensive security detail, which was three times bigger than his predecessor's.

Biometric locks were installed on his office doors for $5,700, Politico reports.

He came under fire for renting a bedroom near Capitol Hill from a lobbyist for $50 a night. He told the Washington Examiner: "I'm dumbfounded that that's controversial."

The agency installed a $43,000 private phone booth in his office.

He has spent over $105,000 on first-class flights, per Politico, citing "threats to his safety."

He had a tendency to want to use flashing lights and sirens on his motorcade to cut through D.C. traffic — including at least one trip to a popular French restaurant, Le Diplomate.

A former Comcast lobbyist helped the agency set up a trip to Morocco in December, which cost $100,000, despite original claims that it would cost $40,000.

Pruitt accepted seats at a University of Kentucky basketball game for him and his son from a billionaire coal executive.

His staff spent over $1,500 on fountain pens, CNN reported, and more than $1,600 on journals.

His director of scheduling and advance says Pruitt asked her to perform personal tasks, which included a request for a Trump hotel mattress.

He tried to use his position to get his wife a job as a Chick-fil-A franchisee, per the Washington Post.

Pruitt requested that his 24/7 security detail help him find "a favorite moisturizing lotion" offered at Ritz-Carlton hotels, and retrieve his dry cleaning without him, the Washington Post reported.

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69magpie · Jun 8, 2018

@stumbler

Distant Lover · Jun 8, 2018

stumbler said: ↑

Go deeper: Scott Pruitt's growing list of bizarre scandals
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Appointing Scott Pruitt is the kind of mistake powerful men make when they like to surround themselves with sycophants.

stumbler · Jun 8, 2018

Here Are the Ways Trump Cashes In on Being President

When candidate Donald Trump said he was gong to “drain the swamp,” most people thought it meant he would stop corruption in Washington D.C. That means limiting access of lobbyists, curbing deals with foreign governments, and refusing to profit off the White House.

Well, that never happened. In fact, since Trump got to D.C., America has seen an unprecedented attack on presidential ethics. We’ve witnessed Trump campaign donors get cushy White House jobs, Goldman Sachs bankers write the GOP tax plan, and a spokeswoman promote Ivanka brands on TV.

Call it Swamp 2.0, or “The D.C. Swamp on Steroids.” But no one is profiting like Trump himself. Since the president continues profiting from his businesses, each of the 110 days Trump spent at his properties in 2017 was a marketing event. Likewise, every time someone stays at the Old Post Office in D.C., Trump gets paid.

But these are just a few examples of Trump and family monetizing the presidency.

The Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign spending and politicians’ finances, published Trump’s financial disclosures in late 2017. From the public records and other reports, it’s clear where and how Trump is making money off the office.

Here are the ways Trump is cashing in on the presidency.

1. Trump’s hotels

Trump hotel income jumped from $33.8 million in 2016 to $60.5 million in 2017.

According to financial disclosures, Trump hotel revenue soared over the past few years. In 2015, records show just $16.7 million in hotel and resort revenues. However, that amount doubled to $33.8 million during the campaign and election year. Since Trump began occupying the White House, hotel income jumped about 80%, reaching $60.8 million in 2017.

These extraordinary numbers appear easy to explain. After all, Trump opened the Old Post Office hotel in D.C. late in 2016 despite the clear guideline that “No elected official of the Government of the United States…shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease.” Since then, it has become the go-to hotel for any foreign visitor looking to win favors from the Trumps. It’s also become the headquarters of GOP activity in D.C.

2. Trump campaign events at Trump properties.

Various Trump properties banked at least $720,000 from Trump’s own campaign events.

The Center for Responsive Politics sorted the spending of political committees at Trump properties, and Trump’s own campaign events topped the list. In 2017 alone, Trump’s 2020 campaign spent $720,064 at buildings Trump owns. Right here is an example why U.S. presidents are expected to divest from their businesses. Since Trump still holds these properties, he and his family make bonus money every time he holds a fundraiser.

3. Golf club memberships

After Trump was elected, Mar-a-Lago doubled member fees to $200,000 before taxes.

This one was straightforward. After the election, Trump signaled he would spend a great deal of time at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. So the club simply doubled its membership fees to $200,000 before taxes. USA Today found that executives from 50 government contractors and 21 lobbyists hold memberships at Trump clubs

4. Trump’s own golf trips

Secret Service golf-cart rentals alone cost taxpayers $137,000 in nine months. The payments go to Trump’s business.

Not only do Trump’s frequent golf trips burn taxpayer dollars; they also make the Trumps lots of money. The system is rather simple and, once you see how it works, you can see why Trump spent over 25% of his first year in office at his own golf clubs.

Overall, the easiest mark is the U.S. Secret Service tasked with the job of protecting Trump. As the law stands, the agency cannot receive payments from presidents. This law exists to limit potential conflicts of interest (irony alert). So the Secret Service paid $137,000 to Trump’s Florida and New Jersey properties for golf cart rentals in just the first nine months of 2017

5. Republican fundraisers

The Republican National Committee (RNC) spent over $300,000 at Trump properties in 2016 and 2017.

Since the Trump D.C. hotel is a block from the U.S. Justice Department and close to the White House, anyone who wants to make a contribution to Trump’s pockets simply books events there. The same goes for Trump Tower in New York and Mar-a-Lago. In 2016, the RNC spent $146,521 at Trump properties. The RNC topped that figure in 2017, when it spent $173,416. Have a policy you want Trump to support? Hold a fundraiser.

6. New real estate investors

Disclosures reveal 2017 real estate income at $168.5 million, the highest amount recorded of any listed year.

After Trump won the election, prices of real estate at Trump Tower in New York began to skyrocket. Demand cooled off as people got to know the new president, but that didn’t stop Trump business from recording $168.5 million in revenue in 2017 — the best of any year disclosed. According to a report by USA Today, about 70% of Trump’s buyers were LLCs, so we don’t know the identity of them. Who’d want to hide such a thing?

7. The Trump online store

The Trump Organization opened an online store in November 2017.

Want to show your #MAGA pride? Buy a made-somewhere-other-than-the-USA polo shirt that says “Trump” on the front. You can find one ($90) at Trumpstore.com site that launched in fall 2017. (It’s proudly “decorated” in America, too.) We won’t know until next year how much Trump makes off his own apparel site, but we list it here as an obvious money grab by the president and his family.

8. Holiday parties

Mar-a-Lago’s New Year’s party tickets jumped to as much as $750 per person in 2017.

Want to rub shoulders with one of the most powerful men in the world? Any Mar-a-Lago member or guest can do so for $600 and $750 per person, respectively, at the Trump resort on New Year’s Eve. According to Politico, thos prices represent as much as $175 more than the 2016 prices. The only difference between 2017 and the prior year is Trump sat as POTUS the second time around.

It’s yet another cash grab in what was a year of monetization of the U.S. presidency. When they say America is in decline and becomes more like a Third World country every year, examples like this one don’t help. Some day, historians may call the GOP of 2017 the part of “Banana Republicans.” Actually, the conservative National Review already does.
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stumbler · Jun 10, 2018

All The Biggest Scandals of the Trump Administration, the New Gold Standard for Corruption

Do you feel like the stories of corruption in the Donald Trump White House are too numerous to count? You’re not alone: Unless you can juggle 20-30 stories at a time, there’s no way you could possibly keep tabs on this group.

You might think people like Betsy DeVos and Ben Carson are unqu
Many people were outraged upon learning that EPA head Scott Pruitt spent $25,000 on a soundproof box inside his office. It sounded paranoid, wasteful, and stupid all at once.

However, it turned out that $25,000 was a low estimate — it actually cost $43,000 once the final bill was processed. It makes you wonder why he needs to communicate in secret when no one else in the history of the office had that need.
alified to do the job they went to Washington to do, but nearly all members of the Trump Cabinet have shown expertise in burning through taxpayer money. In some cases, it almost seems like they have contempt for the job and the people they were meant to serve.

Here are the 15 most corrupt acts we’ve seen from the Trump White House, ranked.

15. Scott Pruitt’s $43K privacy box

Many people were outraged upon learning that EPA head Scott Pruitt spent $25,000 on a soundproof box inside his office. It sounded paranoid, wasteful, and stupid all at once.

However, it turned out that $25,000 was a low estimate — it actually cost $43,000 once the final bill was processed. It makes you wonder why he needs to communicate in secret when no one else in the history of the office had that need.

14. Ben Carson’ $31K dining set
1

Speaking of things Trump Cabinet officials don’t need, there was a $31,000 dining table set HUD Secretary Ben Carson had installed in his department offices. When confronted with the amount in February, Carson said he had no knowledge of it and claimed “surprise” at the amount.

Later, when CNN obtained emails proving Carson was lying, it was another black eye for the Trump administration. Meanwhile, Carson’s claim that journalists “will continue to probe and make further accusations even without evidence or substantiation” sounded like utter nonsense.

13. Kellyanne Conway’s pitch for Ivanka products

Does it get more corrupt than using the White House to advertise products sold by the president’s daughter — when the president’s unqualified daughter actually works in the White House?

It’s a funhouse mirror of abusing power and unethical behavior. This bit of corruption was followed by two violations of the Hatch Act by Kellyanne Conway in 2017, but that’s only if you’re keeping score at home. The White House isn’t.

12. The VA Secretary’s European vacation

Nothing says “I’m doing my Veterans’ Affairs job” like accepting tickets to Wimbledon as a gift and flying your wife to Europe on the taxpayers’ dime. VA Secretary David Shulkin did all that and more, running up a bill exceeding $120,000 in summer 2017.

When confronted by a Senate Committee on Capitol Hill, Shulkin said he agreed “the optics” weren’t good. The takeaway would be “unethical behavior is fine as long as the optics are good.”

11. Ryan Zinke’s $139K office doors
At Western Values Project, you can read up on all the inside deals Ryan Zinke made in his first year as Secretary of the Interior. Out favorite is Zinke’s first financial supporter landing a National Parks Services contract a short time after the secretary took office and met with his donor. (Quid, meet quo.)

But the story only begins there. Zinke’s lust for helicopter travel and private planes make him one of the more expensive members of Trump’s pricey Cabinet. Plus, he is spending $139,000 on three sets of doors at Interior.

10. The $130K payoff to a porn star

At Western Values Project, you can read up on all the inside deals Ryan Zinke made in his first year as Secretary of the Interior. Out favorite is Zinke’s first financial supporter landing a National Parks Services contract a short time after the secretary took office and met with his donor. (Quid, meet quo.)

But the story only begins there. Zinke’s lust for helicopter travel and private planes make him one of the more expensive members of Trump’s pricey Cabinet. Plus, he is spending $139,000 on three sets of doors at Interior.

9. Tom Price’s $1 million in travel expenses

For those who thought a few hundred thousand dollars extra in plane travel was peanuts, we present Tom Price. Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services once bought stock in a company before writing a bill to benefit the same company. (He tripled his money.)

Later, when he took his corrupt ways inside the White House, he focused on luxury private travel, costing taxpayers over $1 million in six months before his resignation.

8. Foreign visitors and GOP fundraising at Trump hotels

What if every visitor from every foreign government had the chance to put money in the president’s pocket every night? That’s what happens when people stay at Trump’s D.C. hotel, which before 2017 was off-limits for anyone holding office in the U.S. government.

It’s also what happens when U.S. politicians and candidates hold fundraisers in Mar-a-Lago. Later, when asking for a favor or endorsement, all Trump has to do is ask whether the person went to his hotels and how much they spent.

7. Pruitt’s $833K on security and ‘side jobs’ for EPA aides

When you spend most of your professional life suing the EPA, it must be strange to find yourself in charge of the same agency. To rationalize the shift, Pruitt has continued trying to undermine the agency at every chance.

For example, he spent $833,000 on security in his first three months on the job — about double what his predecessors did.

Meanwhile, two of Pruitt’s lieutenants recently got cleared to work for public companies while holding their day job at the EPA. Unfortunately, the public won’t know which companies get that privilege, but why would a “GOP political consultant” working for Pruitt do anything unethical?

6. Trump’s 2,400 lies — and counting

Trump said he would be the “jobs president,” and there’s no question he’s giving the fact-checking industry a major bump. Between the start of his presidency (January 2017) and March 2018, Trump had already told 2,436 lies.

We don’t feel any need to elaborate here. When the president abandons the truth to gain whatever advantage he can (about firing the FBI Director, the FBI Deputy Director, Special Counsel Mueller, etc.), it sinks the country to the level of a banana republic.

5. Steve Mnuchin’s $1 million on travel
Though he tried to get a military jet for his honeymoon, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was denied use of the plane. However, that was one of the few times. A Politico report from March 2018 revealed Mnuchin’s private jet travel (eight trips) cost $1 million in taxpayer funds.

The best part about Mnuchin’s travel is the shamelessness of it. After arguing with reporters about the costs, Treasury staff said he would be taking another military jet to Argentina in the third week of March. Based on military flight estimates of $25,000 per hour, that trip will exceed $300,000 each way.

4. Trump’s golf trips to his own resorts

There are thousands of beautiful golf clubs in America. Isn’t it strange that Trump only goes to the ones he owns? When you think about it, it’s normal for someone who spends every day of his presidency profiting off his position.

For example, when Trump visits his own resorts, Secret Service agents have to pay his company thousands to rent golf carts in order to protect him. If Trump picked another golf course, they’d still have to pay for golf carts — the only difference is, he wouldn’t personally profit off the rentals.

Meanwhile, taxpayers have to foot the bill — currently near $60 million over 14 months — to take Trump and his family from the White House to Florida.

3. Jared Kushner’s failed background check and massive debts

Most of America didn’t have any idea who Jared Kushner was before he ended up in the White House. There’s a good reason for that: Kushner is neither an elected official nor a talented businessman. His only qualification was marrying Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

But this blatant act of nepotism is only the start. Kushner’s massive real estate debt, which resulted from a bad building purchase, clearly has implications for foreign policy.

That would explain why Kushner couldn’t get a top security clearance after a full year in the White House. However, it doesn’t explain why he has access to sensitive materials in the presidential daily briefing, which he often read to Trump.

2. Michael Flynn, Trump’s NSA, getting paid by Russia and Turkey

While many have been corrupt, a select few of Trump’s team pushed it into treasonous territory. That’s where Michael Flynn, who was on the payroll of both Russia and Turkey while dealing with Trump, went in late 2016.

Flynn may have betrayed his country of birth (i.e., America) by telling the Russian ambassador he’d work on getting sanctions lightened or dropped. Hey, when you take Putin’s money, you have to fulfill your end of the bargain, or you might end up among the many who died from poisoning.

1. The GOP tax plan

For a while, Wall Street bankers like Jamie Dimon and Gary Cohn held their noses and pretended things in the White House were normal. It was all about the GOP tax plan, which is becoming known as the biggest looting in Washington D.C. history. Once they got their money, the Wall St. gang couldn’t run away fast enough.

Whether you count the billions corporations and the world’s richest men got — or just the tens of millions going to Trump, Senator Bob Corker, and others — this corrupt act will haunt America for generations. (The layoffs have already begun.)

How did every U.S. corporation get a fat 40% tax cut while millions of Americans saw their taxes go up? Lobbyists went wild all across D.C. in 2017, and their money spread from Paul Ryan’s office through the Trump Cabinet.

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ace's n 8's · Jun 10, 2018

stumbler said: ↑

All The Biggest Scandals of the Trump Administration, the New Gold Standard for Corruption
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ROFLCOPTERS.....YOU FOOLS.

stumbler · Jun 10, 2018

White House employs an entire department ordered to tape papers back together after Trump rips them up

The American government is ruled by a series of regulations designed to create transparency to the public, but those rules are no match for President Donald Trump.

Politico reported Sunday that the White House has been tasked with taping papers back together after the president ripped them apart. Document preservation laws mandate that the White House keep schedules, memos, speeches, public digital communications and more. Since the transition the National Archives staff have frequently reminded the White House to follow the Presidential Records Act, but Trump’s staff has been “haphazard” in document preservation.

That’s where Solomon Lartey comes in. The records management analyst has spent hours tediously attempting to piece together pages ripped apart by the commander in chief. Spending his days piecing together the world’s most important government transparency “jigsaw puzzle,” scores the staffer just a little over $65,000 annually.

Sometimes his job is easy. Papers torn in half or quarters make for a simple day in the office. Others, however, “would be torn into pieces so small they looked like confetti.”

While the Republican leader campaigned on the importance of transparency, his administration and cabinet appointees have taken a different approach. For president himself, old habits die hard. His “process” is an “unofficial filing system” in which he rips papers to pieces when he’s finished with them. Sometimes they make it into the trash, others they are strewn about in the Oval Office.

Rather than trying to teach an old dog new tricks, the staff decided simply to clean up after him.

“We got Scotch tape, the clear kind,” Lartey told Politico in an interview. “You found pieces and taped them back together and then you gave it back to the supervisor.”

Papers would then be sent to the National Archives where they would be filed.

“I had a letter from Schumer — he tore it up,” he said. “It was the craziest thing ever. He ripped papers into tiny pieces.”

He noted that the “entire department” was needed to accomplish the task of taping the documents when Trump first came into office. After two decades in government service, Reginald Young, Jr., a former senior records management analyst, explained he’s never experienced the demand in his career.

“We had to endure this under the Trump administration,” Young said. “I’m looking at my director, and saying, ‘Are you guys serious?’ We’re making more than $60,000 a year, we need to be doing far more important things than this. It felt like the lowest form of work you can take on without having to empty the trash cans.”

Hundreds of years from now, the Trump presidency’s documents will stand with other presidents’. His will be wrinkled, torn, ripped or pieced back together and held with tape. Trump pledged to cut government spending and “red tape.” There was no word on Scotch tape, however.
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Distant Lover · Jun 11, 2018

stumbler said: ↑

All The Biggest Scandals of the Trump Administration, the New Gold Standard for Corruption
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But Hillary...But Hillary...

stumbler · Jun 11, 2018

‘Different league of swampiness’: Fox News host demands Trump fire Wilbur Ross for sketchy investments

Fox News host Steve Hilton had an epic take-down of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for investments he questions are actually beneficial for the American people that contradicts President Donald Trump’s own policies.

While conflicts of interest rules don’t explicitly outline requirements for the president of the United States, it does for members of the president’s cabinet. Wilbur Ross may to have violated those rules, Hilton explained Sunday.

Hilton explained that he’s supportive of bringing business sector experts into the government but that Ross is in a league of his own.

“The American people also want to know that when business leaders serve in government they’re representing the interest of all American business and not just their own business,” Hilton explained, noting it was part of Trump’s “drain the swamp” agenda.

“What we found will shock you,” Hilton said of the information they uncovered on Ross.

While Trump touts a pro-American trade agenda on steel, Ross stands to profit off of exactly that. Ross has a long history with steel, purchasing a company with just a $3 million personal investment just weeks before former President George W. Bush issued his own tariffs on steel imports. When he sold the company less than three years later, he scored a $4.5 billion deal. It became the world’s largest steel producer and Ross sat on the board of the company until he joined the cabinet.

Next came Nautical Bulk Holdings, a shipping company based in Bermuda. Last November it became known that Ross did not disclose the Russia-tied ship business.

“One shipping company is in a partnership with Russia, and another that the U.S. Commerce secretary partially owned is tied to China’s largest sovereign wealth fund,” reported American Public Media.

Since May 2016 62 percent of their shipments to the United States has included steel from South Korea, one of the countries exempt from steel tariffs.

“The fate of that exemption is now in the hands of our Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who is negotiating these tariffs” Hilton explained. “Guess who co-founded the shipping firm bringing steel here from South Korea through Nautical Bulk Holdings and remains an owner? It’s kind of unbelievable, even regular viewers of ‘Swamp Watch,’ but the answer is Wilbur Ross. He’s negotiating over South Korean steel imports while making money from importing South Korean steel.”

To make matters worse, Hilton said that Ross’ chief of staff at the Commerce Department is still listed as a director of Nautical Bulk Shipping, despite saying she had resigned from the company.

The company isn’t the only shipping company he’s invested in either. Navigator Holdings is an oil and gas shipping firm with international clients including a major oil company in Turkey, a company being considered for economic sanctions, Hilton said. Ross said he would divest from the company eight months after joining the administration. There’s no evidence he actually has.

There’s no evidence he’s divested from his investment company WL Ross and Company, which co-founded and also owns another shipping company, the Transportation Recovery Fund, which specializes in auto parts, which Trump has said he intends to issue a tariff on. Diamond Shipping is one of the largest owners of medium-range tankers, is partially owned by Ross and his firms and once served as the chair of the company. The clients of the company include Lukoil and Novatek, two Russia-based energy companies. Another is GAZPROM, a Russian-state-owned gas giant and PetroChina, owned by the Chinese government.

“The brutal Communist dictatorship in Beijing may be planning world domination but, hey, let’s not let that stop America Commerce Secretary from doing business with them while in office,” Hilton said. “Wow! Talk about globalism.”

He went on, citing Ross’ company’s dealings with a Venezuelan-state-owned oil company as well.

Hilton cited former President Barack Obama’s anti-labor billionaire Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. He noted, however, “this stuff from Wilbur Ross is in a different league of swampiness.”

“Will Wilbur Ross tell President Trump about these conflicts?” Hilton asked. “Does the president know that the man negotiating tariffs designed to protect American workers from foreign imports is taking money from shipping those imports to America? It is truly astonishing.”

“He’s letting the president down,” Hilton closed a panel discussion in the second half of the segment.
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stumbler · Jun 11, 2018

Top Oversight Dem Accuses Pruitt Of Manipulating FOIA To Cover Up Scandals

On Monday, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, wrote to the Environmental Protection Agency accusing its embattled administrator Scott Pruitt of manipulating the Freedom of Information Act process to keep the American people in the dark about his many scandals from the past year and a half.

Cummings says Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff blew the whistle to Congress in April that Pruitt has been demanding that every FOIA request related to the Obama administration be processed before anything was released about his own time in office — a claim corroborated by interviews with two other Pruitt staffers.

“The orders you apparently gave to delay producing documents relating to your tenure appear to directly contradict EPA’s own FOIA regulations, as well as guidance issued by the Department of Justice,” Cummings wrote, pointing to laws that mandate that simple FOIA requests to be processed sooner than complex ones, regardless of the time period they cover.

“Under your tenure,” he added, “EPA’s front office is now responding more slowly, withholding more information, and rejecting more requests, according to EPA’s own data and independent sources. Combined with your refusal to produce documents requested by Congress, your actions in delaying records under FOIA raise concerns about a fundamental lack of transparency at EPA.”

Over the past few weeks, a torrent of stories have leaked out of the EPA about Pruitt’s behavior in office, from his lavish spending on pens to his attempts to use his official position to help his wife score a Chick-fil-A franchise to his orders that aides spend their work hours finding him a condo, a Trump mattress and luxury lotion. Reports have emerged that Pruitt has pushed out staffers who have attempted to rein in his inappropriate spending.

In his new letter Cummings suggested that Pruitt’s FOIA policy may be concealing more instances of such retaliation.

“Your actions are particularly troubling in light of multiple reports that you have retaliated against EPA staff who disclose waste, fraud, and abuse,” he wrote.
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stumbler · Jun 12, 2018

Trump’s Paper-Ripping Isn’t the First Time His Infantile Behavior Might Have Broken the Law

Despite a presidency that outdoes itself on outright lawlessness and horrific diplomacy on an hourly basis, it’s likely going to be Trump’s inane propensity to act like an unfocused five-year old that does it. And I’m not even talking about Trump’s air-ranting to his frenemy from Canada. Apparently, we’re paying people to put documents back together after Trump rips them into tiny pieces. Yes, seriously. Honestly, it’s hard to know what’s more disturbing – the outrageous financial waste, or just the patently infantile image of our chief executive ripping up documents. Either way, though, there’s meaning behind all this that once again harkens back to Nixon-era legal issues.

Politico posted the story Sunday in which Solomon Lartey and Reginald Young, Jr., two government records management analysts, revealed that their department had been charged with the absurd task of Scotch-taping official presidential documents back together after President Trump had ripped the pages into tiny pieces. And we’re not talking once – we’re talking all the time.

The bizarre job stunned two veteran government workers, each of whom were taken aback at their $60,000+ salaries devoted to playing jigsaw-master to the president. Young said, “it felt like the lowest form of work you can take on without having to empty the trash cans.” Demeaning and wasteful work aside, Trump’s behavior raises even more serious questions of malfeasance.

There’s an actual law behind what presidents are supposed to do with official documents; it was passed by Congress in 1981, in a somewhat delayed reaction to the whole Nixon-tapes-special prosecutor thing the country had just endured. That law—the Presidential Records Act (“PRA”) – puts the president squarely in charge of maintaining official records, as well as disposing only those records deemed to “no longer have administrative, historical, or evidentiary value.”

According to the Politico piece, none of this came as a surprise to Trump staffers, who tried their best to break POTUS of his rip-and-throw habit:

“White House aides realized early on that they were unable to stop Trump from ripping up paper after he was done with it and throwing it in the trash or on the floor, according to people familiar with the practice. Instead, they chose to clean it up for him, in order to make sure that the president wasn’t violating the law.”

There’s already been plenty of drama over the Trump Administration’s violations of the PRA. Watchdog group CREW filed a lawsuit over alleged PRA violations based on Trump’s deleting official tweets and White House staffers’ communication via secret texting apps. That lawsuit admitted that talking tweets and texts is defining the term “Presidential record” broadly – but we could take the narrowest definition possible and it’d still include correspondence between the president and senators that Trump opted to rip into confetti.

Law & Crime spoke today with attorney and national security law expert Bradley Moss, who minced no words about Trump’s potential PRA violations:

“We all knew Donald Trump would struggle adjusting to certain requirements of government service but he continues to amaze with his casual disregard for even basic legal trappings. Preservation of government records, particularly those drafted or reviewed by the President, is a basic element of record keeping that every other civil servant and public official knows well. That President Trump not only had a practice in the past of tearing up presidential records but – if the Politico story is accurate – continues to do so to this day despite being reminded of the Presidential Records Act’s requirements is disgraceful and an affront to the integrity of the Office of the President itself.”

Let’s not forget too, that ripping paper isn’t the only impulse-control problem Trump has when it comes to official reports. He also can’t help blabbing about information before he’s supposed to do so. Last summer, Trump couldn’t stop himself from tweeting about the jobs report.

Trump tweet--Excellent Jobs Numbers just released - and I have only just begun. Many job stifling regulations continue to fall. Movement back to USA!

Turns out, there can be a bad time to share good news. Office of Management and Budget’s Statistical Policy Directive Number 3 is a directive that bars all executive branch employees (of which the president is one) from making any public comments on leading economic indicators before a very specific deadline is reached. That deadline: one hour after the report is released. In the case of the jobs report, Trump would’ve been free to comment on the report after 9:30 a.m.; unsurprisingly, our president’s inability to squelch his premature proclamation for even the required sixty minutes resulted

in a tweet at 8:45 a.m.

While a difference of minutes may seem like NBD, Policy Directive Number 3, which has been in practice since the Nixon administration, has an important purpose – protecting the markets. It explains:

Because such data series have significant commercial value, may affect the movement of commodity and financial markets, or may be taken as a measure of the impact of government policies, public release must be prompt and according to an established, publicly available schedule.

You’d think a financial mastermind like Trump would understand the necessity of delicacy with market-sensitive information. In the abstract, he probably could understand it, but would still be simply unable or unwilling to control himself, and accordingly, would deem Policy Directive Number 3 a liberal conspiracy hell-bent on depriving him of half an hour of good press.

The Trump presidency has laid out a true smorgasbord of legal issues, with something for every concern-level from the globally-destructive to the discrete and private. But so many of Trump’s legal issues stem from his visible lack of impulse-control.
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anon_de_plume · Jun 12, 2018

shootersa said: ↑

And at least Perry was traveling commercial. Well known liberal California senators were using far more expensive government planes, with REALLY expensive catering on their regular travels from their homes to Washington. A practice that stopped only when it was brought to light.
Click to expand...

Of course it would be pointless to ask you for exactly what and who it is you are talking about, but that is only so you can obfuscate the issue...

anon_de_plume · Jun 12, 2018

shootersa said: ↑

Oh, this is a new low, even for stumbles.
First, a franchise owner is not an employee of the franchise grantor.
Second ...
Oh, never mind.
Pigeons.
Chess.
Click to expand...

Funny you have nothing to say about any of these ethics violations... I can only imagine that you have a PhD in ignorance...

Mayling · Jun 12, 2018

Go Donald.

69magpie · Jun 12, 2018

stumbler said: ↑

Trump’s Paper-Ripping Isn’t the First Time His Infantile Behavior Might Have Broken the Law
Click to expand...

I've read somewhere that the people that have been assigned to tape all of donnie's ripped up letters and notes back together are being paid $65K a year.

More wasted money because of his childish antics.....and yes, he's breaking a federal law with his ripping.

stumbler · Jun 12, 2018

69magpie said: ↑

I've read somewhere that the people that have been assigned to tape all of donnie's ripped up letters and notes back together are being paid $65K a year.

More wasted money because of his childish antics.....and yes, he's breaking a federal law with his ripping.
Click to expand...

That is true. And Trump is not only displaying his mental illness because he has impulse control disorder he is also breaking federal law. And I think there is little chance that if a whole department is busy taping official records back together they are not doing far worse obeying the law when it comes to White House records. In fact Trump is already being sued on two counts. One, they admit is a stretch because it involves Trump deleting and/or correcting tweets. But as they point out the White House are the ones who said Trump's tweets are official policy. But the other is not preserving White House records which they seem to have ample evidence of. And that is a federal crime.

PS Think about this. It is very easy for someone in congress, or anyone else for that matter, to send something to the White House and the ask to see it in the official White House records. And if they cannot produce it they are busted. Because those records do not belong to Trump. They belong to the American people and as you can see we are paying for them.

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