Monday, January 9th, 2017
Alec MacGillis, Political Correspondent - ProPublica
Stephan: The more research I do about the people Donald Trump is nominating for high positions in government the more this administration looks like a kleptocracy. No wonder the Republicans in the Senate want to rush these appointments through before allowing the ethics office time to vet them. No incoming administration in our past history has ever come into to office so submerged in conflicts of interest. This group of appointees looks like a textbook case study in corruption. And this is just the beginning.
On Wednesday the Congress will start voting on Obamacare. Every plan on offer by the Republicans has higher deductibles, lower coverage, and higher premiums. This and the housing change will significantly impact anyone making less than $125,000. All those White working class voters who elected Trump and this Congress, I fear, are in for a series of really nasty turns. Unfortunately, so are the rest of us. Only citizen activism is going to stop[ this.
Credit: sportsblogs.star-telegram.com
Donald Trump’s selection of Rick Perry to lead the Department of Energy has prompted many Democrats to question Perry’s qualifications for the position. While he governed a state rich in fossil fuels and wind energy, Perry has far less experience than President Obama’s two energy secretaries, both physicists, in the department’s primary work, such as tending the nuclear-weapons stockpile, handling nuclear waste and carrying out advanced scientific research. That’s not to mention, of course, that Perry four years ago called for doing away with the entire department.
What often gets lost in all the talk of the Texas job boom under Perry is how much economic development strategy was driven by direct subsidies to employers who promised to relocate to the state or create jobs there. Of course, many states have for years engaged in the game of luring companies with tax incentives. But by the count of a 2012 New York Times investigation, Texas under Perry vaulted to the top, giving out $19 billion in incentives per year, more than any other state.
Perry’s economic development largesse came in many forms, but […]
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Sunday, January 8th, 2017
David Ferguson, - The Raw Story
Stephan: Watching the Trump transition team prepare to replace the Obama administration is a fascinating process in which an administration based on democracy, one consistent with the behavior standards of at least a century, and almost without scandal over 8 years, is being replaced with a corrupt Fascist anti-democratic cabal. There has never been anything like what is happening.
The behavior of the media is almost as bizarre as the politics; it seems to be normalizing what would formerly have been unthinkable. Fascinating to watch, I just wish it wasn't happening to my country.
And then there is the Congress. The Republicans spent millions of dollars and countless hours doing and redoing examinations of the Benghazi tragedy. Yet nothing is being done about the fact that the election was if not thrown, then strongly influenced, by the leader of a foreign power -- Putin and Russia. And the conformation hearings have been made a Kabuki theater. It's quite amazing. And whatever happened to Trump's tax returns, or his conflicts of interest? Not a word about any of that.
As we go on through the transition process to my mind the main take away for me is that 62,979,879 American voters chose to put into power a corrupt, psychopathic, Fascist, compulsive liar, whose every word and action bespeaks his contempt for democracy. This report is just one example of what I mean. Our country wasn't taken from us, 46.1% of those who could vote gave it away. Whom you voted for in this election I think will define you for the rest of your life.
The government agency in charge of overseeing ethics in the federal government and policing conflicts of interest has struggled to contact members of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team since Election Day.
In emails obtained by MSNBC, Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Director Walter Shaub wrote that his agency’s attempts at outreach to the incoming administration have been met with silence.
“We seem to have lost contact with the Trump-Pence transition since the election,” Shaub said.
In a letter to Trump advisers, Shaub warned that by announcing its cabinet picks without proper vetting by the ethics office, the team runs the risk of causing “embarrassment for the President-elect.”
Requirements for White House aides are even more stringent with regards to conflicts of interest and incoming aides to Trump may be in violation of federal law.
“They run the risk of having inadvertently violated the criminal conflicts of interest restriction at 18 USC 208,” Shaub wrote.
Furthermore, he said, “If we don’t get involved early to prevent problems,” he added, “we won’t be able to help them after the fact.”
A U.S. president is required to place his or her assets in a […]
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Sunday, January 8th, 2017
Judd Legum, Editor-in-Chief - Think Progress
Stephan: I listen to the news running in the background and am just dumb founded at isn't getting covered. The endless commentary that goes round and round and says virtually nothing of substance.
And behind that I watch and listen to the endless lies of Donald Trump, his contempt for the norms of behavior, the stench of corruption that touches almost every aspect of his life. His vulnerability to manipulation that seems to be the principal hallmark of his life. His ego. And I wonder: what happens to America?
I am a vet, my father was a vet, my great aunt was a vet, my mother's brothers were all vets, their father was a vet, as were his brothers, and his father, and his father, and his father, and his father and so back to the Revolutionary War. And I wonder what would any of them think about what we have become? What nearly half of us voted for.
Trump filed documents with the FEC over the summer that revealed he owed at least $315 million to ten entities. This debt, some of which is personally guaranteed by him, was a clear conflict. As president, Trump will be responsible for regulating entities that he also owes money to. Worse, these debts are frequently renegotiated, giving these companies leverage over Trump in the regulatory process.
A report this afternoon from the Wall Street Journal, however, revealed that Trump’s disclosure was the tip of the iceberg. The FEC required Trump only to report debt from entities he fully controls. The disclosure left out “more than $1.5 billion lent to partnerships that are 30%-owned by him.” That debt has been securitized and is owed to at least 150 financial entities.
These financial institutions include many firms that are under the scrutiny of the federal agencies that Trump will soon control. Wells Fargo, for example, which services over $900 million in loans connected to Trump, “is currently facing […]
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Sunday, January 8th, 2017
Diana Darke, Middle East Cultural Expert - BBC (U.K.)
Stephan: I tell you all over and over, water is destiny, and that beyond the superficial reasons given for many stories lies a basic truth: water. Here, for the first time, at least the first time in Western media, is a story of that truth.
The Barada River that runs through Damascus and is the source of much of Syria’s water.
Credit: AFP
The flashpoint for Syria’s war, six years old this March, has in recent days taken the form of an elemental struggle over water.
The drinking water supply to some 5 million residents in the Syrian capital, Damascus, was cut on 23 December by the Damascus Water Authority, who say rebels have contaminated it with diesel. Rebels deny this, saying bombing by the government has damaged the infrastructure.
The historic water source of Ain al-Fijeh lies in the valley of Wadi Barada, 18km (11 miles) north-west of the capital, where a cluster of 10 villages has been under rebel control since 2012.
Local people joined the revolution early on in protest against government neglect, corruption and land grabs made legal under new state land measures, where whole hillsides were requisitioned for sports clubs and luxury hotels.
On 22 December the Assad government, using barrel bombs dropped from helicopters and supported on the ground by Lebanese Shia militia fighters of Hezbollah, began a campaign to take control of the strategic valley […]
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Sunday, January 8th, 2017
David R. Baker, Staff Writer - San Francisco Chronicle
Stephan: This is excellent news and a wonderful example of wellbeing supportive technologies developing, thinking ahead; an evolving proof of the Theorem of Wellbeing.
Charging Station in San Francisco
As electric vehicles start to offer more miles on a fully juiced battery — enough to take a real trip rather than shuttle between home and office — the stations that recharge them will need to improve too.
So on Thursday, a Campbell company is unveiling a recharging station it estimates will be good for the next 10 years of electric-vehicle evolution.
ChargePoint plans to introduce its Express Plus high-speed charging stations, with installation scheduled for July. The stations can recharge any currently available electric car at the maximum possible speed — a speed determined by the specifics of each car and its battery pack.
But the stations are also designed to be future-proof.
According to the company, they can deliver more electricity in an instant — up to 400 kilowatts — than any current plug-in vehicle can handle. That means as electric cars hit the market with better battery packs, the Express Plus stations will be able to charge them at their fastest possible rate as well.
“It will support any battery pack that’s even being considered,” said Pasquale Romano, ChargePoint’s chief executive […]
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