President Donald Trump kicked off his week with one of his favorite hobbies: calling for the investigation of his perceived political enemies.
Trump fired off tweets Monday suggesting that former President Barack Obama should be investigated for getting a production deal with Netflix.
“House Judiciary has given up on the Mueller Report, sadly for them after two years and $40,000,000 spent - ZERO COLLUSION, ZERO OBSTRUCTION. So they say, OK, lets look at everything else, and all of the deals that “Trump” has done over his lifetime,” Trump posted.
“But it doesn’t work that way. I have a better idea, look at the Obama Book Deal, or the ridiculous Netflix deal. Then look at all the deals made by the Democrats in Congress, the ‘Congressional Slush Fund,’ and lastly the IG Reports. Take a look at them. Those investigations would be over FAST!”
Yes, those investigations would be over FAST!!1! because there would be nothing to investigate, aside from Trump’s public obsession with Obama. ; )
Not sure how the so-called ‘states rights’, consumer choice and free enterprise crowd will process this, but it’s important to toss aside those principles in the quest for attempting to undo the previous Administration’s actions, even if it means telling 40 million folks that they cannot legislate for cleaner air standards, and then threatening auto manufacturers that are willing to build cars that exceed Federal tailpipe emission standards.
The planned revocation of the state’s waiver is only one step in the administration’s plans to weaken car pollution standards.
Current rules put in place during the Obama administration require automakers to build increasingly efficient vehicles so that by 2025 the nation’s cars and trucks would average more than 50 miles per gallon.
Under Trump, the EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have proposed weakening the standards by freezing mileage targets at about 37 miles per gallon for cars after 2020. While acknowledging their plan would increase oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, the federal agencies have argued that the current standards endanger drivers by making new, safer cars too expensive.
The administration’s announcement of that rollback has been repeatedly delayed, and it remains unclear whether officials will be able to complete the plan. Independent scientists have poked holes in the agencies’ data, senior political officials tasked with working on the rollback have left the administration and automakers have revolted in opposition to the president’s plans, which they say will hurt their bottom line.
The Senate voted today to confirm a top lawyer for the Department of the Interior who was accused of lying to Congress.
Daniel Jorjani, already the de facto top lawyer for the department, was confirmed with a 51-43 vote. He is the subject of an ongoing review by Interior's Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
Jorjani has been a much-eyed figure with Democrats and environmental watchdog groups for his involvement in crafting a new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) policy that allows political appointees to review records requests and even withhold documents.
"On Friday, the Interior Inspector General confirmed Jorjani is currently under investigation for his role in this FOIA policy. That fact alone ought to be enough to stop this nomination from moving forward," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who vowed to block Jorjani's nomination, arguing that Jorjani was not forthcoming about his work on the policy during questioning from lawmakers.
canpakes wrote:Another day, another inane distraction ...
President Donald Trump kicked off his week with one of his favorite hobbies: calling for the investigation of his perceived political enemies.
Trump fired off tweets Monday suggesting that former President Barack Obama should be investigated for getting a production deal with Netflix.
“House Judiciary has given up on the Mueller Report, sadly for them after two years and $40,000,000 spent - ZERO COLLUSION, ZERO OBSTRUCTION. So they say, OK, lets look at everything else, and all of the deals that “Trump” has done over his lifetime,” Trump posted.
“But it doesn’t work that way. I have a better idea, look at the Obama Book Deal, or the ridiculous Netflix deal. Then look at all the deals made by the Democrats in Congress, the ‘Congressional Slush Fund,’ and lastly the IG Reports. Take a look at them. Those investigations would be over FAST!”
Yes, those investigations would be over FAST!!1! because there would be nothing to investigate, aside from Trump’s public obsession with Obama. ; )
Why, yes. Let’s look at IG reports.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats accused the Trump administration on Wednesday of using "propaganda and disinformation" to attack the former US ambassador to Ukraine and demanded that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explain how the material circulated at top levels of his department.
The Democrats, who are pursuing an impeachment probe of President Donald Trump, leveled the charge after State Department Inspector General Steve Linick delivered a package of documents to a hastily called hour-long briefing with staff for eight congressional committees.
"We are now in possession of this packet of propaganda and disinformation," said Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, the only lawmaker who joined committee staff members at the meeting. "The real question is where did it come from and how did it end up in our lap?"
Photographs of some of the documents, seen by Reuters, promoted unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about Marie Yovanovitch, the former US envoy to Ukraine, who was removed from her post in May, months before she was due to leave, after Trump allies accused her of disloyalty.
Multiple meeting participants, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the materials arrived at the State Department this spring and that Linick passed them on to the FBI.
The materials were inside an envelope marked "White House" that contained folders labeled "Trump Hotel," said a statement issued by the Democratic chairmen of the House of Representatives intelligence, oversight and foreign relations committees.
The documents "reinforce concern that the president and his allies sought to use the machinery of the State Department to further the president's personal political interests," they said.
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Trump has now declared that Speaker Pelosi is no longer leading the House, that Romney ought to be impeached, that any of his GOP competitors during the election were crooked or defunct somehow.
If this doesn't wake up his base to his existential threat to our democracy, nothing will.
- Doc
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Former diplomats have reacted with horror to reports that Donald Trump's administration is considering withdrawing from the Open Skies treaty, which allows signatory nations to conduct unarmed surveillance flights over each other's territory.
Rep. Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, sent a letter to National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien on Monday expressing his concern at the administration's "reported plans" to withdraw from the treaty.
Engel did not specify which reports he was referring to, but warned that "withdrawal would only benefit Russia and be harmful to our allies' and partners' national security interests."
The treaty allows the treaty's 34 party states—including the U.S., Russia and most of Europe including Ukraine—to conduct overflights of each other's territory and monitor military activity. It came into effect in 2002.
Engel noted that the agreement "allows the United States and our allies and partners in Europe to monitor Russian military deployments. Observation flights under the Treaty have generated additional information regarding Russian military action in Ukraine and provided a check on further Russian aggression there."
The letter prompted grave concerns on social media, with foreign policy watchers denouncing the Trump administration for reportedly considering the move, especially given the president's suspect relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ben Rhodes, who formerly served as deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama, tweeted, "Sometimes the only way to explain/predict Trump's foreign policy is to think 'what would Putin want the US to do?'"
Jon Wolfsthal, who worked as Obama's senior director for arms control and nonproliferation at the National Security Council, also linked the reported withdrawal to Putin. "Russia hates Open Skies because it requires them to let Ukraine fly over their country," he explained. "This is another Trump gift to Putin."
Meanwhile, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul expressed his disbelief at the reported decision. "We are now pulling out of the Open Skies Treaty? Really? Please tell me this can't be true."
O'Brien and the White House are yet to comment on Engel's letter, and the White House did not immediately respond to Newsweek's request for clarification.
Engel ended his letter by requesting O'Brien's "personal engagement on this matter to ensure that the United States does not unwisely and rashly withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty, which continues to serve American national security interests and is particularly important as a check against further Russian aggression against Ukraine."