Friday, January 4th, 2019
Jimmy Tobi, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: One of the first thing authoritarian governments do is seek to control what information citizens can have access to -- always with the goal of limiting access as much as possible. If citizens can't get access they won't know what kind of grifting is going on, and how big it is. Well, Trump, true to that form is trying to limit what you can know, and the media is dropping the ball. I haven't seen a single story about this on American television, or in the U.S. print media. But the British press is covering it, thank goodness.
There has been an ‘unprecedented surge’ in requests under the Freedom of Information Act since Donald Trump took office.
Credit: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty
Trump administration officials took steps on Friday to crack down on transparency at one of the largest US federal agencies, proposing a slew of changes that could make it harder for the public and media to obtain records of agency dealings.
The proposal is part of an effort to grapple with what the interior department describes as an “unprecedented surge” in requests under the Freedom of Information Act (Foia), the United States’ pre-eminent open government law, since 2016 when Donald Trump took office.
Among other wide-ranging revisions to its Foia regulations, the interior department’s proposal would enable the agency to reject Foia requests that it considers “unreasonably burdensome” or too large, and it would allow the agency to impose limits on the amount of records it processes for individual requesters each month.
The department oversees hundreds of millions of acres of public land, including national parks, as well as the […]
No Comments
Friday, January 4th, 2019
Geoff Earle, - Daily Mail (U.K.)
Stephan: Eight hundred thousand middle-class Americans are either furloughed without pay or working without pay, but Trump has made special arrangements for himself. There simply is no level of self-enriching manipulation of the government to which Trump will not sink. Read this and puke.
The old post office which is now a Trump hotel
The Trump administration has located funding to reopen the historic clock tower that tops the president’s luxury hotel despite the government shutdown.
The public maintains access to the clock and bell tower of the Old Post Office despite the Trump Organization’s 60-year lease with the government to run a hotel inside the historic building.
It continues to be an attraction for hotel guests and residents alike, and is normally open for free tours throughout the week.
But the tower was shuttered Dec. 22 at the beginning of the partial government shutdown due to a lapse in funding that shuttered National Parks across the country, which operates it.
It as just one of many cites closing amid a standoff that has led the National Zoo in Washington and Smithsonian buildings to close their doors to the public.
Now, another federal entity, the General Service Agency, has stepped in with funds to reopen the tower, E&E News reported.
The funds will […]
1 Comment
Friday, January 4th, 2019
Christopher Flavelle and Jeremy C.F. Lin, - Bloomberg Business
Stephan: The Trump administration stands around with its fingers in its ears, going Nah, nah, nah, whenever climate change is mentioned. The effect of this stupidity is becoming increasingly obvious. Climate change effects are spreading across the country. Here is one example of what I mean that is getting very little attention, but which has huge implications.
Credit: Michelle Gustafson/Bloomberg
By the middle of this century, climate change is likely to punch a hole through the busiest stretch of rail in North America. Parts of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor route, which carries 12 million people each year between Boston and Washington, face “continual inundation.” Flooding, rising seas, and storm surge threaten to erode the track bed and knock out the signals that direct train traffic. The poles that provide electricity for trains are at risk of collapse, even as power substations succumb to floodwaters. “If one of the segments of track shuts down, it will shut down this segment of the NEC,” warned members of Amtrak’s planning staff. “There is not an alternate route that can be used as a detour.”
That was the conclusion of a three-volume, multi-year climate study undertaken with first Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. and then Stantec Inc. Although the report was completed in April 2017, its conclusions were kept private until this November, when a partially redacted version was obtained by Bloomberg […]
No Comments
Thursday, January 3rd, 2019
Fred Wertheimer and Norman Eisen, Founder and President of Democracy 21 / Chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics and Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution - USA TODAY
Stephan: I don't know how much clearer it could get, short of Putin publicly announcing Trump is a paid Russian agent, that we have a president who is both criminal and treasonous. Why do I say this? Consider this report.
Putin and Trump
Trump’s public request for Russian help in finding Hillary Clinton’s emails was a violation of US law. There are ways to hold him accountable.
Prosecutors triggered a national firestorm last month when they asserted that President Donald Trump conspired with his ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, to commit campaign finance crimes involving hush money payments to two women. But the discussion has overlooked another Trump campaign finance offense — one that is even easier to prove because it occurred in plain sight.
On July 27, 2016, Trump called on Russia to find presidential Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s missing emails. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump proclaimed. He added, “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Federal campaign finance law prohibits any person from soliciting campaign contributions, defined as anything of value to be given to influence an election, from a foreign national, including a foreign government.
In asking Russia to find […]
No Comments
Thursday, January 3rd, 2019
Thom Hartmann, - Alternet/Independent Media Institute
Stephan: I completely agree with Thom Hartmann. Get ready for the big GOP scam to return from the dead, a political zombie.
McConnell and Trump, two of the worse and most corrupt politicians to ever hold office
Get ready to see it on your TV. The GOP is about to kick back into Two Santa Clauses mode and restart the scam they’ve been running since Reagan.
It’ll predictably begin in the first week or two of January, probably first on “Meet the Press” and other Sunday shows that feature “serious thinkers” and only rarely challenge Republicans. It’ll simultaneously roll out on Fox, on right-wing hate radio, and in the conservative media.
And there are more than a few “Third Way” Democrats eager to go along with it.
At its core, the strategy is simple and elegant: When Republicans are in power, run up as much debt as possible, mostly by borrowing and giving that cash to the Republican donor class through tax cuts and corporate subsidies; when Democrats have political power, Republicans suddenly become hysterical about the debt and demand that Dems keep taxes low while cutting social spending.
If successful, not only will Republicans (and corporate-funded Dems) […]
3 Comments
