Voting Rights Roundup: South Dakota GOP invokes ‘state of emergency’ to undo voter-backed ethics law

Stephan:  Here is some more Republican governance on display. Ethics? In South Dakota they don't need your stinking ethics. There's money to be made, corruption to swim in.  Voters? Who cares about voters? I'm off to dinner with  the lobbyist who bought me, and my Lord doesn't like to be kept waiting.  

South Dakota Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard

SOUTH DAKOTA —  On Thursday, South Dakota’s Republican-dominated state government literally declared a “state of emergency” to repeal a voter-approved ethics reform law, in essence saying their burning desire to override the will of the public and trash ethics reform was a crisis equivalent to a hurricane or earthquake. Stunning.

Particularly infuriating is that lawmakers’ use of this emergency provision means that repeal will take effect immediately and is immune to a voter-referendum veto. And it would take twice as many signatures to initiate a constitutional amendment to restore the law as it would have to put a veto referendum on the ballot.

The ballot initiative, known as Measure 22, would have placed strict limits on lobbying, created an independent ethics commission, and implemented a first-in-the-nation public campaign finance system that would have given each voter a voucher to donate to their preferred candidates. These reforms passed by a 52-48 margin even as Donald Trump carried South Dakota by a 62-32 landslide, demonstrating that they had bipartisan support from the voters. Nonetheless, […]

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Trump Moves to Roll Back Obama-Era Financial Regulations

Stephan:  Drain the swamp? Oh yes, taking away a ta deduction for home loans to serve the banks, that was a swamp drainer. Or gutting Dodd-Frank to serve banking interests so that they can go back to the flim-flam that caused the 2008 crash, and cost thousands their homes. Oh, yes, the Republicans and Trump are really out to help the little man.

President Trump met with business leaders in the State Dining Room at the White House on Friday.
Credit Al Drago/The New York Times

President Trump on Friday moved to chisel away at the Obama administration’s legacy on financial regulation, announcing steps to revisit the rules enacted after the 2008 financial crisis and to back away from a measure intended to protect consumers from bad investment advice.

After a White House meeting with executives from Wall Street, Mr. Trump signed a directive aimed at the Dodd-Frank Act, crafted by the Obama administration and passed by Congress in response to the 2008 meltdown. He also signed a memorandum that paves the way for reversing a policy, known as the fiduciary rule, that requires brokers to act in a client’s best interest, rather than seek the highest profits for themselves, when providing retirement advice.

The executive order affecting Dodd-Frank is vague in its wording and expansive […]

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Donald Trump taps Liberty University leader Jerry Falwell Jr. to lead higher education task force

Stephan:  President Trump is a man of his word, it is true, when it serves his interest. And the poor folk who voted for him are going to learn this the hard way. First there was Betsy DeVos, now Jerry Falwell, Jr. Let me pose this question to you: Do you think high quality education is a top priority for the new administration?

Credit: AP/Steve Helbe

President Donald Trump has asked a member of one of America’s most famous evangelical families to lead a task force on higher education.

Jerry Falwell Jr. is the president of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. The Christian college, which was founded by Jerry Falwell’s father, told NBC News on Tuesday night that Falwell has been asked by President Trump to spearhead a group that will try to reform America’s higher education system.

The focus will be on “overregulation and micromanagement of higher education,” according to university spokesman Len Stevens. This would be consistent with Falwell’s past positions, in which he has opposed federal regulations on funding and accreditation for American schools of higher learning.

This isn’t the first time that Falwell has been discussed for a cabinet post. In November he claimed that Donald Trump, who was then president-elect, had asked him to serve as secretary of education. Although Falwell demurred on the offer, it went to billionaire philanthropist Betsy DeVos, who like Falwell is part of the right-wing […]

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Trump’s campaign paid his businesses millions over course of campaign

Stephan:  One thing you have to say about Trump is that he never misses a chance to profit. I think he may be the only man in U.S. history to make millions just campaigning. Then there is the $31 million paid out as court judgments to cover just two recent scams of his. And have you noticed, no one says anything now about his conflicts of interest, or his unrevealed taxes? Donald Trump took the measure of America, and saw that a large percentage of us, were fear ridden boobs.

Trump and his plane

The final bill is in: Donald Trump’s campaign paid his companies $12.8 million from the time he launched his improbable presidential bid in the lobby of his company’s flagship Trump Tower property through the end of last year, according to a POLITICO analysis of Federal Election Commission data.

In fact, according to FEC reports, the latest of which was filed Tuesday night, $2 million of the overall tab went to Trump Tower Commercial, LLC, for rent and utilities for the campaign’s headquarters, as well as for payroll, presumably for building staff who worked for the campaign.

And the campaign checks are likely to continue flowing to Trump Tower, since Trump plans to maintain his campaign office during his presidency, as POLITICO reported last month.

The Trump-owned company that was paid the most by Trump’s campaign — by far — was TAG Air, which operated the private Trump-branded plane that the New York billionaire used for most of his campaign air travel.

The FEC reports […]

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Former Norwegian prime minister detained at Dulles Airport for an hour. He visited Iran in 2014.

Stephan:  I read this morning of the chaos produced by the Trump Administration's suspension of visas, and then I came to this, and I thought, what are we becoming as a country? Entering the U.S., as I have done many times, is becoming increasingly the experience of entering a police state. And on top of that there is the buffoonery. You would think anyone with an IQ higher than their shoe size would have understood that a Scandinavian man travelling on a diplomatic passport, in which were printed the words former Prime Minister would not have been mistaken for a Islamic Jihadist.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/03/former-norwegian-prime-minister-detained-at-dulles-airport-for-an-hour-he-visited-iran-in-2014/

As Kjell Magne Bondevik was preparing for his visit to the United States for this week’s National Prayer Breakfast, he had reason to believe the trip would be seamless. After all, he is the former prime minister of Norway — a U.S. ally in NATO — and has traveled to and from the U.S. on numerous occasions.

His office contacted the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, and was told his passport and a separate electronic travel authorization would be enough for entry into the country.

But after flying into Dulles International Airport on Tuesday afternoon, he was detained and questioned for about an hour, all because of a passport stamp. His passport — which clearly stated he is the former prime minister of Norway — indicated he had taken a 2014 trip to Iran, where Bondevik said he had attended a human rights conference.

“I was surprised, and I was provoked,” he told WJLA ABC7. “What will the reputation of the U.S. be if this happens not only to me, but also to other international leaders?”

Bondevik contacted […]

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