Friday No Longer a Slow Day for News

Apparently, the Supreme Court justices have a busy holiday schedule: they won’t fast-track the ruling on a claim of immunity for all actions during his time in the White House by Deposed Donald Trump (DDT).  Maybe they’re “honoring” DDT’s request to delay, delay, delay. According to DDT, “Haste makes waste.” Therefore, the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court will be the first to review the case with a hearing on January 9. The Supremes’ decision will likely postpone DDT’s criminal trial which Judge Tanya Chutkan had scheduled for March 4. She has denied immunity to DDT.

The ruling comes the day after The Detroit News revealed tapes in which DDT called two GOP members of the Wayne County (MI) board of Canvassers to pressure them to not sign the certification of the 2020 presidential election on November 17, 2020. He told them they would look “terrible” if they signed the documents after voting in opposition and added, “We’ve got to fight for our country.” The two didn’t sign. One of those pressured can’t remember what was said during the call when DDT said that “everybody knows Detroit is crooked as hell.” With 878,000 votes cast, Soon after the call, DDT falsely posted on social media that Wayne County, with 207,488 ballots, had more votes than people. Wayne County has about 18 percent of Michigan’s population, 637,000. In 2016, DDT defeated Hillary Clinton by 11,000 votes in Michigan but lost to Biden by about 150,000 votes in 2020.

Also on the call was RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, who told the two officials, “If you can go home tonight, do not sign [the certification documents].” She added, “We will get you attorneys,” and DDT followed with “we’ll take care of that.” As Andrew Weissman Xed:

“Offering a thing of value to a public official to violate oath of office = a crime.”

DDT’s next pressing issue with the Supreme Court is his anticipated appeal to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court which removed his name from the primary ballot.

Nikki Haley is another GOP presidential candidate hiding her income taxes. Haley’s resignation from DDT’s UN ambassador in late 2018 came soon after a process server tried to serve her at the UN building for the foreclosure of her parents’ lake house. She was listed as a defendant. Since then, she made an estimated $2.5 million in a recent 11-month period through January 2023 through paid-for speeches and vague sources of income, more than she made in the total of eight years as governor and DDT’s Cabinet member. Complaining bitterly in 2016 about both Clinton and DDT, Haley demanded that others release their tax records but doesn’t make her own public. She has also face penalties for failing to pay taxes on time—the same criminal charges against Hunter Biden. Her spokesperson also states the campaign doesn’t have transcripts of her speeches.

In a 4-3 ruling, Wisconsin Supreme Court has determined the GOP-drawn district boundaries are unconstitutional and must be withdrawn before the 2024 election. Republicans will probably keep the majority in the state legislature, but Democrats will likely pick up more votes. The ruling stated that if the legislature doesn’t draw new maps, the state’s top court will “proceed toward adopting” remedial maps if the legislature stalls or Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoes any redistricting proposal.  At 64-35, the Assembly is two seats short of a Republican supermajority; the Senate has a GOP-supermajority with 22-11 seats. According to the state elections commission, the deadline for maps is March 15.  

 In the majority opinion, Justice Jill Karofsky wrote:

“At least 50 assembly districts and at least 20 senate districts include separate, detached parts.”

Karofsky added that “a majority of the districts in both the assembly and the senate” violate the constitutional requirement for districts to be contiguous. Democrats state that 54 of the 99 Assembly districts violate the constitution along with 21 in the 33 Senate. Robin Vos, GOP Speaker of the Assembly, originally threatened to impeach Karofsky if she wouldn’t recuse herself from the redistricting decision but now says this move is “super unlikely.”

Once again Biden is protecting Israel’s autocratic prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu by abstaining from the UN vote to call for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to enable full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access.” Thirteen Security Council members voted in favor of the resolution and none against; Russia joined the U.S. in abstaining. The resolution calls for “urgent steps… for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities,” weaker language than an earlier draft’s call for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities.”

Even this “neutered” resolution (Russia’s term) had been been delayed for four days because the U.S. refused to support it. Over 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, and conditions under Israeli siege and bombardment have been described by UN officials as “hell on earth.”

Republicans have again failed in their impeachment impugnment against Biden in which witnesses don’t support their assumptions against the president. Earlier, Devon Archer debunked all the allegations against Joe and Hunter Biden, and witnesses for James Comer’s (R-KY) Oversight Committee said they didn’t have evidence to impeach Biden. This week, Republicans perceived a 2019 text from Hunter Biden as highly incriminating when he complained about giving half his salary to his father. The GOP translation was money laundering in a pay-for-play operation. The reality was a story from Hunter Biden’s youth when Joe Biden required Hunter to hand over half his earnings to pay for his room and board during his college freshmen year. Hunter wrote the message to his sister when he was on drugs.

Texas hates immigrants, but it needs teachers. In the last year, one district near Houston recruited 76 teachers from Columbia, the Philippines, and over a dozen other countries to begin filling its 400 to 500 vacancies. The attrition rate of 13 percent this year is up from 10 percent last year.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott spent last year trying to force school vouchers on the state but failed. Voting against the bill means that public schools won’t receive the $7.6 billion bribery for the voucher approval that was part of his campaign last year. According to people involved in the attempt for the voucher, Abbott failed because he wouldn’t compromise on the voucher for every student instead of just for disadvantaged students.

Texas AG Ken Paxton, who survived his impeachment trial but is still under indictment for criminal allegations, is back in court. Earlier he sued Pfizer in a case related to Covic vaccines, investigated Media Matters regarding Elon Musk’s social media platform, blocked Katie Cox from getting an abortion although she was carrying a terminal fetus, and sued Yelp in a dispute over so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” that try to keep women from getting abortions. A Seattle hospital is now suing Paxton after he tried to force it to provide him information about gender-affirming treatment Texas youths may have received. The hospital in Washington has no connection with Texas, and Texas law does not prevent trans minors from seeking medical assistance out of state.

Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-OR) is leading a coalition of 28 congressional members asking the Supreme Court to stop the president’s authority to create national monuments on public land, claiming that only Congress has the right to do this. He wants to reverse the creation of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in southwest Oregon by Bill Clinton in 2000. President Barack Obama added 48000 acres to the monument in 2017, stopping commercial logging. Another lawsuit by a private logging company, Murphy Timber Investments LLC, asserts a federal law sets aside some public land for timber production. Bentz declared that Congress, not the president makes law.

The Antiquities Act of 1906 allows presidents to establish national monuments for legal protection of cultural and natural resources of historic or scientific interest on federal lands, but Bentz contends that this law does not supersede the 1937 Oregon and California Railroad and Coos Bay Wagon Road Grant Lands Act. The latter act designated land, including more than 10,000 acres that are now part of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, to be managed for timber production. It requires logging revenue from logging to be distributed to Oregon counties, which has consistently occurred.

Evidently unable to persuade his own House caucus to pass any bills about border security, Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson wants the president to take executive action to address the crossings at the southern border. In a letter to the White House, Johnson argued the “catastrophe” requires Biden’s “full attention and commitment.” Johnson wants Biden to turn back or detain those who cross the border, restart construction of former President Donald Trump’s border wall, craft expedited removal procedures for migrants who can’t meet asylum requirements, and cease the “exploitation of parole authority.”

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded by saying,

“The president has done everything that he can, right, on his own.”

Jean-Pierre also stated that the GOP border plan would make the border situation worse by cutting costs and law enforcement. The conservative House measure almost certainly won’t move anywhere in the Senate, and progressive and Hispanic Caucus members expressed concerns about agreements from the bipartisan Senate working group although it has kept its work hidden.

News of the Past Week – March 24, 2023

Like religious predictions that the world would come to an end, Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) was wrong about his being indicted last Tuesday. He wants top booking so here it is. With the hiatus of the grand jury until next week, he’s safe until next week so that he can rant at his Saturday rally in Waco, Texas. More on Sunday.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is heading to jail tomorrow. Don’t get excited: she’s going to the Washington, D.C. jails to show the abuse of insurrectionists, who she calls “prisoners of war.” For the first time, Republicans are concerned about prison conditions. Her nemesis, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) said she’ll be part of the entourage, and a couple of Democrats plan to go along—Reps. Summer Lee (D-PA) and Jasmine Crockett (D-TX).

Of the 1,000 arrested insurrectionists, 20 are being held by the Washington Correction Department; nine of them have been convicted or pled guilty. Rioters who drove a stun gun into a police officer or used a bullhorn to encourage rioters to steal law enforcement guns were held before trial. Of the three being held who aren’t charged with physically assaulting police officers are one considered a flight risk, another convicted for invading the Capitol in military gear, and a third holding an hour-long standoff with law enforcement who went to arrest him. Outside the Capitol, he had a hammer hanging from his belt and gripping a baseball another rioter stole from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) office. A judge determined he should be held for public safety after he told law enforcement, “Better come in here shooting.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has gotten sloppy—or he just doesn’t care. The Senate Select Committee on Ethics formally admonished him for soliciting campaign contributions for the 2022 Senate runoff race in Georgia during an interview with Fox network in the Russell Senate Office Building. The panel found that Graham “directly solicited campaign contributions” on behalf of GOP Senate candidate Hershel Walker “five separate times” during the nine-minute interview with Fox and concluded he “impermissibly conducted campaign activity in a federal building.” It’s not the first time: he violated Senate standards of conduct in October 2020 when he “directly solicited campaign contributions” for his own campaign committee” during a media interview in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

After his “constant contact” with DirecTV and Newsmax, Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) succeeded in his interference with private business to force a deal between the two companies. Justifying his willingness to investigate the dispute, he said, “We’ll all huge fans of Newsmax.” That’s understandable for the ultra-conservatives who search for a worse alternative to the Fox network. DDT had condemned the possibility of DirecTV not carrying Newsmax as “a big blow to the Republican Party,” erasing any notion that Newsmax exhibited any independent journalism. He concluded with the “REPUBLICAN PARTY DEMANDS” Newsmax’s return to DirecTV’s lineup.

Legislators are now concerned if a Chinese-owned social media company endangers the mental health of youth. About U.S.-owned social media? Meh. TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew was grilled by congressional members in a House Energy and Commerce Committee five-hour hearing with the possibility of banning the social network to the 150 million people using it in the U.S. The questioning began with asking about Chinese control over TikTok through ByteDance that lawmakers claim has ties to the country’s Communist Party. Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal reported that China would oppose a forced sale of TikTok, a U.S. solution. Chew said the company would move all U.S. data to domestic servers in Project Texas and delete all U.S. user data backed up to servers outside the country.

In the U.S., 67 percent of teens 13 to 17 say they have used the app, and 16 percent use it “almost constantly.” Tech critics say that other big tech firms raise the same concerns as TikTok. Chew said TikTok’s privacy practices are in line with those of other social media platforms, that the app collects less data than the others. He also pointed out the U.S. bad track record with data, referring to Cambridge Analytica harvesting Facebook users’ personal information for DDT’s campaign. Members seemed to stick with their negative opinion of TikTok throughout the hearing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has gone home after spending three days with Russian President Vladimir Putin and left one message: China owns Russia. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has left his country so weak that he needs Xi; White House member of the National Security Council John Kirby called Putin a “junior partner.” Russia has lost its European energy market and must now rely on China and other Asia customers. In addition, Russia no longer has the ability to lead in space, cyber, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

Xi wants a peace plan; he proposes a cease-fire agreement, freezing Russia’s gains in Ukraine. Ukraine and its allies know that this arrangement would just give Russia an opportunity to regroup before resuming its invasion. U.S. has had a foreign policy goal to separate China and Russia, but Xi is emerging as the leader of a Eurasian bloc.

Before backing down following bad publicity, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested that the U.S. was out of line in supporting Ukraine because it was only a “territory dispute” and opposing Russia is not a “vital national interest.” Conservatives’ attempt to be isolationist mirrors their attitude in the 1930s in a relationship with Nazi Germany. The “America First” group, represented by Republicans such as Sen. Robert Taft, a presidential candidate in 1952, opposed joining NATO or sending U.S. troops to Europe but later supported Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s desire to wage war on “Red China.” The pre-Eisenhower GOP has returned under DDT’s leadership and his love for Putin.

It’s natural that Xi and Putin would develop a relationship: they both run autocratic countries and are both isolated. While world leaders, even President Joe Biden, visit war-torn Ukraine, they avoid Putin except for Xi’s recent visit. Biden has orchestrated multiple China-countering geopolitical groups—the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, and rejuvenation of the Quad.

The former Florida legislator who sponsored the “don’t say gay” law faces up to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to fraudulently obtaining Covid relief funds. Sentencing is scheduled for July 25. Several other states have copied his bill under the pretense of “protecting our kids.” The legislator obtained over $150,000 from the government by lying on applications to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.  

This week, Biden created national monuments in Nevada and Texas, both areas of religious significance to native Americans. The California site is home to a wealth of bighorn sheep, desert tortoises, and Joshua trees, some over 900 years old. He also initiated a marine sanctuary of over 777,000 square miles southwest of Hawaii in the Pacific.

In contrast, Arkansas will have an anti-abortion monument near the state Capitol after Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill permitting it to be built from private funds. The state will oversee the selection of the artist, the monument design, and its location near the Ten Commandments monument installed in 2018. Also in 2018, Tennessee legislators approved a similar monument which has not yet been constructed.

Idaho’s anti-abortion law has led to the closure of birthing services at a healthcare facility in Sandpoint because of a doctor shortage and politicized healthcare environment. The closest facility will now be an hour away. Idaho is one of six states to prosecute doctors performing abortions, even if they might be necessary to provide appropriate healthcare for the pregnant woman.

The financial world has calmed down a bit:

Union Bank of Switzerland has bought Credit Suisse (CS) for $3.23 billion and assume up to $5.4 billion losses. CS wrote down $17 billion of bonds to zero, and shareholders receive 1 UBS share for every 22.48 Credit Suisse shares held.

New York Community Bank will buy 40 branches of Signature Bank for $2.7 billion, including $38.4 billion in Signature’s assets, about one-third of its total when the bank failed. Another $60 billion remains in receivership to be sold off.

S&P Global lowered First Republic Bank’s credit rating although several large banks deposited $30 billion into the bank.

The FDIC plans to relaunch the sale of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

The stock market has slightly increased despite the Fed increase of 0.25 percent and guarantee of one more.

U.S. intelligence have found proof that Russia interfered in elections for at least the past seven years to elect Republicans. Now Russia is spreading anti-U.S. propaganda about the train derailing at East Palestine (OH) on February, 2023. Pro-Russian accounts have used Elon Musk’s new Twitter verification system to lie about the impact of the chemical spill and the falsehood of Democrats’ indifference to the plight of the people in the small town. Reset, a London-based nonprofit studying social media’s impact on democracy, notified the Associated Press. The report shows that Twitter permits Russia to use its platform like a bullhorn. Twitter boosted the lies with a blue check mark, supposedly indicated verified users for authenticity, but actually sold by the company for $8 per month with no vetting. One account, Truth Puke, belongs to a website of the same name that regularly reposts Russian state media.

DDT: Week 166 – Beyond Coronavirus

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/paulmcleod/coronavirus-aid-package-house-pass Congress has passed the $2.2 trillion bill, despite last-minute attempts from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to block it, driving the U.S. into far more debt. Both chambers have left D.C.: the Senate won’t be back until after April 20, and the House return has not been announced.  

A few quirks in the bill:

Employers (but not employees) can defer paying their share of Social Security tax on wages for a couple of years, but employees have to pay it now.

It gives $16 billion to buy ventilators and other medical equipment so DDT told car companies to make ventilators although he doesn’t see any reasons for more.

Food stamps aren’t expanded in the bill.

Federal lenders must stop all payments for student loans through September 30 and cannot charge interest or nonpayment fees. Credit scores and loan forgiveness won’t be affected; also suspended are wage garnishment and tax refund reduction for people who defaulted on federal student loans. The bill has no affect on private student loans which comprise about 12 percent of all education loans in 2018-2019. 

Despite Democrats attempt to keep Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) from making a profit on the bill, he can find loopholes. He can use real estate losses to minimize taxes on profits from items such as investments in the stock market which had been limited by the 2017 tax-cut package. DDT has always kept his taxes secret.

DDT also said he would ignore the law’s provision requiring independent oversight of his desired $500 billion “slush fund.” That way he can give money to his favorite and biggest donors. He also wants his signature on the stimulus checks. After all, election is only 239 days away.

Cruise ships aren’t getting bailout although information changes day by day. DDT insisted that we “can’t let the cruise lines go out of business,” but not one major cruise line lies the U.S. flag because it avoids laws, regulations, and taxes. No environmental laws about ship “discharges,” no U.S. labor laws, minimized criminal and civil liability, and reduced taxes. And they aren’t an “essential” industry.

Surrounded by his wealthy white male loyalists, DDT signed the bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the person who managed to get it through the House, received no credit from DDT and was not invited for the signing. He has not spoken to her for five months. [Republicans below from left to right: Economic adviser Larry Kudlow, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), DDT, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA), and VP Mike Pence.]

Over 90 percent of people in the U.S. believe a recession is coming, with seven percent disagreeing.

DDT and Barr are attacking corruption and fraud—in Venezuela. Sweeping indictments against the country’s President Nicolás Maduro with a $15 million bounty on his head are DDT’s latest attempt at a coup in Venezuela. Charges were filed in New York and Florida, probably because of those states’ investigating the DOJ. The indictments cannot arrest Maduro in Venezuela because of a well-equipped military and strong Russian support for him. To make National Assembly leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate president, indictments include the head of Venezuela’s legislature, defense minister, and Supreme Court chief justice. DDT’s oil embargo has made Russia a winner because of Moscow’s deals to produce, transport and sell Venezuelan oil to markets other than the U.S.

Information about DDT keep crawling out from underneath the rocks, including his late-2018 protection of Walmart’s criminality regarding opioid-dispensing after a four-year investigation. Investigators found that Walmart pharmacists in Texas, Maine, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Kansas, and Washington filled prescriptions not for legitimate medical purposes when company competitors had not. Walmart also failed to comply with an FDA deal to tell them about sending the federal agency any alerts about illegitimate practices. Prosecutors who tried to make a criminal case have left the DOJ, and new ones have no interest in forcing Walmart to meet the law. Details here.

During the health crisis, DDT continues his purge of “nonloyalists,” this time Heather Swift, deputy assistant secretary of public affairs in DHS, who has been moved to the National Endowment for the Arts. Heather Swift, the deputy assistant secretary of public affairs at DHS, was moved to a senior post at the National Endowment for the Arts. Earlier, Swift was press secretary for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke before he left in disgrace.

A victory for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe of North Dakota came from a federal ruling that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act by approving federal permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline. The USACE moved forward with building the pipeline across the Missouri River without considering the environmental impact study from the tribe in 2017. The Obama administration had denied building permits in 2016.

A federal judge ruled that DDT must go to court over allegations of violating the First Amendment by revoking press badges and security clearances. The decision came one day after the D.C. Circuit Court considered DDT’s removal of the press badge for Playboy’s White House correspondent Brian Karem.

Before the $2.2 trillion congressional bill, the Federal Reserve tried to salvage DDT’s stock market by purchasing unlimited amounts of U.S. Treasury’s and mortgage-backed securities. In the last recession, the Fed put almost $4 trillion into the financial system over several years; the current action could exceed that amount in a few weeks. Economists described the Fed’s response as “throwing the kitchen sink” at markets. DDT is delighted, but the markets aren’t. All afterhours trading in the U.S. is down, and only Japan and Hong Kong markets are up in the world.

The U.S. has cut $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan, and ISIS is taking responsibility for killing 25 people in a Sikh religious complex in Kabul.

DDT made hundreds of calls to evangelical Christians across the nation and promised:

“It’s a big day, Nov. 3; that’s going to be one of the biggest dates in the history of religion….”

Losing national monuments can also destroy jobs—700 of them when DDT stripped Bears Ears National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah of their federal designations. Businesses do better after monuments become official, especially in areas of hotel and lodging (16 percent job increase) and construction (17 percent increase). Health services, finance, insurance, and real estate also benefit. Mining and forestry don’t lose jobs by keeping the monuments.

During the health crisis, ICE is stopping most deportations except for people who have committed crimes or pose a threat to public safety. HUD is suspending foreclosures and evictions until the end of April.

The majority of people aren’t swallowing DDT’s lies about the health crisis:

• 73 percent, including 75 percent of Republicans, said that it was not true that “anyone who wants to get tested [for the virus] can get tested.” Just 17 percent said it was true.
• 20 percent of the public, and just 25 percent of Republicans, said that they believed a vaccine will be available soon. Forty-two percent said that was false and 38 percent said they did not know.
• 51 percent, including a plurality or Republicans (46 percent), said it was false that the virus would go away on its own in warm weather, while just 13 percent said that was true.
• 61 percent said they believed covid-19 was more deadly than the flu; 22 percent said it was about the same; and 11 percent said they believed it was less deadly.

Confusion about whether the FDA approved anti-malaria drugs, which killed at least one person and put others into the hospital who took it without medical advice, still existed: 45 percent agreed the state was false, 22 percent said it was true, and 33 percent didn’t know. 

Within a month from the first confirmed death from covid-19 in the U.S., the total reached 1,000 before doubling in just two days. And that’s without testing most of the people who might have covid-19 and not reporting many of the confirmed cases and deaths. Today, the world’s death rate is 2,227 from 123,750 confirmed cases; the world’s death rate is 30,879 in 663,740 confirmed cases.

Zinke Possibly Next for Limelight

Much has been said about the corruption and environmental destruction by EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt while Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has flown under the radar. Yet Zinke is bent on razing public land in the United States while illegally using taxpayer monies. He also consistently brags about being a “geologist,” sometimes under oath, to give weight to all his opinions about endangered species, oil drilling, climate change, and anything else he declaims. Zinke’s only background in geology, however, comes from his college major. He attended the University of Oregon on a football scholarship and said he chose his major by “closing my eyes and randomly pointing to a major from the academic catalog.”

Zinke also failed to disclose information to ethics officials, promoted the birther conspiracy about President Obama, inappropriately reassigned a large number of Native Americans in his agency, frequently decried “diversity,” and inappropriately used taxpayer funds for his unnecessary travel and that of his wife who needed to go to her campaign events. He also reassigned a scientist who revealed the negative impact of climate change on Alaska Native communities. Zinke was also criticized for a 2014 campaign email asking for donations and reporting that he “served as a Team Leader on SEAL Team Six—the team responsible for the mission to get Osama Bin Laden.” Osama bin Laden was killed three years after Zinke retired.

Other Zinke issues:

• Threatening Alaska’s GOP senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, with penalties for their state if they didn’t vote for a health care plan.
•  Ignoring the National Park System Advisory Board—refusing to even meet with them—until three-fourths of them quit.
• Relying on a top energy industry lobbyist for help with a list of regulatory rollbacks.
• Requiring extra work from his staff for coordinating his wife’s access to high-level politicians and donors to benefit her position chairing the senatorial campaign for GOP Troy Downing who is running against incumbent Sen. Jon Tester.
• Promising Florida that he wouldn’t drill of its coast after planning coastal oil drilling off the other 13 states despite their governors’ objections. (Zinke said that Florida is “unique”: he might mean that Mar-a-Lago is in Florida and that Gov. Rick Scott is running against Democrat Bill Nelson for U.S. Senate.)
• Spending $53,000 on three helicopter trips, including one to go horseback riding with VP Mike Pence. (He paid for one of them out of wildfire preparedness funds until someone pointed out that it was inappropriate.)
• Failing to disclose shares in a gun company that lobbies the government on “defense appropriations and authorizations” and “carbon fiber barrels.” (The company got an $11.4 million contract last year.)
• Demanding confidential energy data for others’ use.
• Illegally blocking plans to expand Native American tribes from expanding casino operations in Connecticut which benefitted politically connected MGM Resorts International.
• Spending almost $139,000 to upgrade three sets of double doors in his office.
•  Taking a taxpaid security detail on his vacation with his wife to Turkey and Greece.

More Zinke problems:

• Changed regulations to allow seismic testing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
• Lifted restrictions on new coal leasing on public lands.
• Proposed the elimination of safety requirements to protect communities from methane pollution by oil and gas drilling on public lands.
• Renewed mining leases near Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
• Proposed a 90-percent cut to America’s most important conservation program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
• Eliminated a policy asking parks to create plans for preserving natural resources and protecting them from threats like climate change.

Zinke has some esoteric positions. When he is in the building, he flies a special Department of Interior flag. A security staff takes the flag up the elevator to the seventh floor and climbs the stairs to the roof where he hoists the flag. At night, he repeats the journey to take down the flag. Zinke’s spokesperson called the flag “a major sign of transparency.” (The only other specialized flying flag in the government is above the State Department, but it’s always there.) Zinke arrived for his first day at work on horseback and kept a glass-case display of hunting knives until he was told to remove them because of security risks. His wood-paneled office walls sport animal heads. In a speech to fossil fuel executives, he complained that 30 percent of his agency are “not loyal to the flag.” (He didn’t say which one.)

Zinke also created a “challenge coin” for the Interior Department with his name emblazoned on the front. These coins began as a military tradition during World War I when Ivy League students slapped their coins on the table. The person without one had to buy a round of drinks for the others.

National Park Service officials have scrubbed every mention of humans’ role in causing climate change in connection with sea-level rise and storm surge. Delays in releasing reports have blocked information about hurricane forecasts, safeguarding artifacts, and locating buildings. (Over at the EPA, Scott Pruitt tried to create a better coin with his name but omitting the EPA logo.)

Zinke’s 15-member “Made in America” Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee is composed of representatives from fishing, shooting sports, motorized vehicles, hospitality, and national park concessions interests, three of them having conflicts of interests. Missing are any nominees recommended by the Outdoor Industry Association advocating outdoor sports. Most members on the Royalty Policy Committee come from fossil fuel and mining industries. His new International Wildlife Conservation Council is mainly comprised of trophy hunters and individuals with ties to President Trump’s oldest son, who is an avid hunter. Member Peter Horn owns a hunting preserve in conjunction with Eric and Don Jr. Trump.

Zinke has made BLM staff in Western states propaganda tools by requiring them to wear “vision” cards with illustrations of an oil rig and cows grazing. The cards reference “customers” instead of “public” and list the purpose as improving “the health and productivity of the land.” Because BLM has no director, Zinke has taken that role, moving forward with plundering the lands resources. A key phrase in supporting the America First Energy Plan is “to serve industry.”

Zinke’s BIA Director Bryan Rice, appointed only six months ago, has resigned. As of this writing, nobody is talking about the reason.

Although only Florida is exempted from offshore oil drilling, Zinke is cooling off about drilling in the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic off Maine. He told the Senate Energy Committee that these places had little recoverable oil and gas. In another loss, he has backed down from a monstrous increase in park entrance fees of $45 to an extra $5, thanks to the vociferous public protest. He also postponed selling over 4,000 acres of leases near the sacred tribal site of Chaco Canyon after protests from indigenous people and withdrew 17,300 acres from a fossil fuel lease auction in Montana.  A big political loss was the election of Democrat Conor Lamb to be the representative after a special election in Pennsylvania despite Zinke’s show of presenting a check for a coal mine reclamation with GOP candidate Rick Saccone in attendance. Once again Republicans have gotten away with violated the Hatch Act.

Despite criticism, Zinke continues his destruction of public land. In his testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he repeated his plans to cover the National Park Service maintenance backlog with revenue from mining and drilling. Republicans in both congressional chambers already have bills in accord with Zinke’s desires. If they get their way, they will sell off sensitive wildlife habitat such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil companies too build park bathrooms. Other national monuments would be opened to mining and drilling. The plan will likely fail because it requires an oil price that are double the current level.

Zinke is unhappy about being questioned for his profligate spending, and he’s sure to hate this hilarious—and accurate—segment on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight which includes the Interior Secretary throwing the “Second Lady,” Karen Pence, around like a “sack of unbleached flour.”  Zinke banned a reporter from Outside from his presence for pointing out that Zinke had rigged his fly rod backward. That’s considered bad form in Montana.

Recently dark money is paying for ads, and Zinke is meeting with deep-pocketed donors. A polling firm has called Iowa GOP voters, testing Zinke’s name recognition for a 2024 presidential run. With all his problems, he may need to wait before he measures for drapes in the Oval Office. He might first run for Montana governor because he exempted Montana from moving public lands to the private sector.

During Zinke’s confirmation hearings, he promised that he would follow Teddy Roosevelt in being a steward of the lands with his concern about global warming. Once confirmed, he started selling off national monuments to the highest bidder and dropping regulations to satisfy business interests. Sen. Ron Wyden said it best when he stated that voting for Zinke was “one of the biggest regrets of my time in public service.”

DDT: Thirty-One – The King of Mean

Today, August 26, 2017, commemorates Women’s Equality Day, the anniversary of the 19^th Amendment (1920) awarding the women the right to vote. As this analysis shows, last year’s proclamation from President Obama was about ways to make life better for women in the United States. This year’s statement from Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) discussed women in relationship to men and focused on women in the economy. To keep the rights that the current administration is taking from women—and men—people need to evaluate candidates’ histories and political positions instead of believing the lies delivered on the campaign trail.   

The “Friday dump” refers to news released during the last day of the work week with the hopes that no one will notice. In yesterday’s case, the news was also consumed with the landfall of Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 disaster that displaced 16 million people—five percent of the nation’s population—with either the hurricane or ensuing tropical storm. Unfortunately for Dictator Donald Trump (DDT), at least three big stories still made the headlines.

During his campaign, DDT said that he was far more protective of LGBT people than his opponent, Hillary Clinton. This past week, he signed an order to prevent transgender people from joining the military and to stop payment for sex reassignment surgeries for military members. Transgender service members are in limbo because Defense Secretary Jim Mattis can tell any transgender military members that they cannot stay in the service.

In a support of white supremacy,  DDT pardoned the Arizona county sheriff who violated a federal judge’s order ordering him to stop illegally detaining people solely based on Latino appearance. DDT’s endorsement of Joe Arpaio endorses the former sheriff’s discrimination and favors a political supporter who supporter DDT’s racist conspiracy theory that President Obama was not born in the United States. Martin Redish, a constitutional law expert, gave his perspective before the pardon was a fait accompli:

“Should the president indicate that he does not think Mr. Arpaio should be punished for [violating constitutional rights in defiance of a court order], he would signal that governmental agents who violate judicial injunctions are likely to be pardoned, even though their behavior violated constitutional rights, when their illegal actions are consistent with presidential policies….

“If the president signals to government agents that there exists the likelihood of a pardon when they violate a judicial injunction that blocks his policies, he can all too easily circumvent the only effective means of enforcing constitutional restrictions on his behavior. Indeed, the president could even secretly promise a pardon to agents if they undertake illegal activity he desires.”

Arizona’s GOP senior senator, John McCain, said DDT’s pardon “undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law” because Arpaio “was guilty of criminal contempt” and “has shown no remorse for his actions.” A more muted statement from Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) was still critical. The pardon meets none of DOJ’s guidelines: five years past prison release or conviction if no prison time, expression of remorse, and an application to the Office of Pardon Attorney. DDT’s pardon for Arpaio’s horrific actions demonstrates open white nationalist rule in the U.S.

Last spring, DDT asked AG Jeff Sessions to drop the case against Arpaio, but Sessions said he couldn’t interfere in the federal case. DDT then decided to pardon Arpaio if he were convicted.

Nazi sympathizer Sebastian Gorka has left the White House. He claims that he resigned, but a White House official indicated his departure was not voluntary. Gorka’s wife, Katharine, is still national security adviser and working to eliminate a $400,000 DHS grant to Life after Hate founded by former white supremacists who renounced racist ideology and help help others transition out of hate groups and re-assimilate into society. Gorka’s aim is to put all funding toward fighting “radical Islamic terrorism.” DHS also revoked funding from the Muslim Public Affairs Council, an American Muslim advocacy organization for an approved $393,800 grant to create community resource centers throughout the country. Like her husband, Katharine Gorka pushes conspiracy theories about the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrating the government and media.

Also gone from the White House is Andy Hemming, the director of rapid response. Hemming didn’t explain, but the WH said it was a “mutual decision.” He was responsible for circulating positive news articles about DDT, usually from the conservative media, to reporters. He’s the third member of the communications department, after Anthony Scaramucci and Michael Short, to leave within a month.

The last intelligence head to accuse Russia of meddling in the presidential election may lose control over cyber issues after DDT decided to separate the U.S. Cyber Command from the NSA. DDT is considered another general to lead the cyber agency National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers refused to deny DDT’s campaign collusion with Russia.

Navy Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin has already been fired “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command” after four Navy accidents since last January, two of them with sailors missing or dead in two separate collisions. Addressing the ten missing sailors in the recent collision between a Navy destroyer and an oil tanker, DDT said, “That’s too bad.”  Sen. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) said about DDT’s statement:

“There’s some attribute of his character that makes him seemingly incapable of introspection and a broad understanding of what the country really needs.”

In his continued pursuit of alienating congressional Republicans, DDT blamed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan for the “mess” surrounding the debt ceiling. Thursday’s tweets:

“I requested that Mitch M & Paul R tie the Debt Ceiling legislation into the popular V.A. Bill (which just passed) for easy approval. They…

“…didn’t do it so now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval. Could have been so easy-now a mess!”

DDT was referencing the veterans bill that he signed last Wednesday which shortens the appeals process time for disability claims. The absolute deadline to raise the debt ceiling is September 29; the Treasury department has been fudging bill payment for months. Congress will have 12 contentious days after they return in September to solve the debt ceiling and pass a budget as well as address the tax cuts for the wealthy that DDT wants. No one knows when DDT made the suggestion to connect the two. McConnell had said, “There is zero chance—no chance—we won’t raise the debt ceiling.” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin wants a “clean” vote, but conservatives want to include Democrat-opposed spending restrictions. The Senate bill needs support from at least eight Democrats.

Another DDT target last week was Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), who said that DDT “has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability, nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful.” During DDT’s campaign, Corker had been considered a possible running mate, and after the inauguration, DDT’s secretary of state.  Of the eight GOP senators running for re-election in 2018, DDT has already attacked three of them—Corker, Flake, and Nevada’s Dean Heller—as well as opposing law year’s presidential candidate Ted Cruz from Texas.

The National Institutes of Health has removed the word “change” after the word “climate,” per administrative orders. Perhaps it’s DDT’s method of turning around climate change.

The Interior Department has stopped a study about health risks from mountaintop-removal coal mining that West Virginia officials had requested. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has also recommended shrinking the boundaries of some public land national monuments in a secret report to DDT. Watch for court and congressional fights. Nobody is sure what is happening because the two-page summary provides no information and his statement is only that he’s recommending size reductions for an unspecified “handful” of national monuments. Industries are sure that they will be opened up to mining, drilling, and killing the life on them.

Ronald Reagan will be inducted into the Labor Department’s Labor Hall of Honor. Reagan may have been a union leader while in Hollywood, but he fired 11,000 striking air traffic controllers and decertified their union.

DDT may cause substandard care in nursing homes by blocking their residents from suing for injuries from bad care, abuse, or neglect. He can act on this by undoing the rule preventing nursing homes from requiring agreement to resolve disputes through arbitration instead of litigation.

Watch for another “Friday dump” this next week from DDT. The deadline to continue DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is September 5, and Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) is considering DACA’s elimination, thus destroying the lives of almost 800,000 people involuntarily brought into the country as children by removing their work permits. The campaigning DDT said:

“We are gonna deal with DACA with heart…I do have a big heart. We’re going to take care of everybody.”

The economy would lose $460.3 billion in GDP over ten years without the 685,000 DACA workers, and DDT’s rejection of them would annually cost states billions of dollars in GDP–$1.3 billion in Arizona and $1.5 billion Florida. DACA supporters include Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, and three-fourths of DDT supporters.

The U.S. is facing war around the planet—the Middle East, Venezuela, and North Korea for a few countries—plus Russian control of the U.S. election process, and DDT attacks transgender people and working Latinos.