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Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,588
Omarosa: I saw things in Trump White House 'I was very uncomfortable with'
Outgoing aide to President Trump Omarosa Manigault Newman said on Thursday that she observed things in the White House during her tenure that made her uncomfortable and that upset her.

"There were a lot of things that I observed during the last year that I was very unhappy with, that I was very uncomfortable with," Manigault Newman, who led communications at the Office of Public Liaison, told Michael Strahan on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"I'm not going to expand on it because I still have to go back and work with these individuals, but when I have a chance to tell my story, Michael, quite a story to tell as the only African-American woman in this White House as a senior staff and assistant to the president, I have seen things that made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people. And when I can tell my story, it is a profound story that I know the world will want to hear," she said.

Manigault Newman's comments come one day after it was revealed she would be leaving the White House following her 11-month tenure.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the former "Apprentice" contestant had handed in her resignation and would complete her duties by Jan. 20, but reports emerged that Manigault Newman had been fired and escorted off the premises while shouting and cursing.

CBS News reported that she set off White House alarms trying to enter the residence and speak with Trump after her firing.

Manigault Newman, who has denied the reports, added that she believed the president tried in his own way to unify the country.

"Did President Trump try? I think that he tried in his own way. There are things that he could have done and things that this administration needs to continue to do to try to bring this country together," she said.

On Twitter, Trump thanked her for her service.
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Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,588
REP LIEU STATEMENT ON LACK OF RESPONSE FROM JARED KUSHNER ON QUESTIONS ABOUT NEW YORK PROPERTY
WASHINGTON -Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) issued the following statement after Senior White House Advisor Jared Kushner failed to respond to a letter from Rep. Lieu and 12 Members of Congress about whether he has leveraged his position to acquire financial support for 666 Fifth Avenue. The letter requested Mr. Kusher to respond by December 12. It has been reported that Kushner Cos., which partially owns the property, is seeking massive cash bailouts for the property from foreign entities, creating a potential conflict of interest for Mr. Kushner.

“I led my colleagues in asking two simple questions: did Mr. Kushner have any discussions with foreign nationals about 666 Fifth Avenue? And, if so, did Mr. Kushner discuss anything related to helping finance, purchase, or assist with the debt on 666 Fifth Avenue? These are straightforward questions but we still haven’t received an answer. What is Mr. Kushner hiding?”
 
Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,588
Trump Delivers A Favor For The Fast-Food Industry
President Donald Trump’s picks for the National Labor Relations Board overturned a major precedent from the Obama years Thursday, delivering a blow to labor unions and a big win to McDonald’s and other large corporations.

In a 3-2 ruling, the Republican majority tightened the standards for determining when a company qualifies as a “joint employer” for the purposes of labor law. As a result, it will be harder for unions and workers to file complaints against fast-food chains or other big companies that rely on franchisees and contractors to oversee work.

The two Democratic members dissented.

Earlier this year, McDonald’s was put on trial as a potential joint employer so that it might be held responsible for violating the rights of workers employed by its franchisees. That case has not been ruled on yet, and the change in precedent Thursday could knock a hole in the workers’ argument.

While business groups cheered the policy change, labor groups and Democrats condemned it as a setback for worker rights.

“This shocking and brazen decision to overturn pro-worker precedent is further proof the Trump Administration will stop at nothing to line the pockets of corporations — no matter what price workers and their families are forced to pay,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s labor committee, said in a statement after the ruling.

The NLRB is an independent agency that referees disputes between employers and unions, though the policies it sets affect all private-sector workers, whether they’re in unions or not. Trump recently filled two vacancies on the board with Republican picks, flipping the board from liberal to conservative for the first time in eight years.

The board under President Barack Obama issued a number of decisions that enraged employer groups, the joint employer ruling chief among them. The then-liberal majority said that companies shouldn’t be able to dodge their responsibilities to workers by using subcontractors or franchisees. If a company at the top of the contracting chain exerts control over the working conditions at the bottom, they reasoned, then it should qualify as an employer.

The ruling Thursday reverts to an older standard for joint employment that makes it harder to hold the company at the top accountable.

The National Restaurant Association, a leading industry lobby, said Thursday that it “applauds” the new ruling. “Today’s decision restores years of established law and brings back clarity for restaurants and small businesses across the country.”
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View: https://twitter.com/repmarkpocan/status/941436462146482179
 
Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,588
CDC banned from using 'evidence-based' and 'science-based' on official documents: report
The Trump administration has reportedly banned the Centers for Disease Control from using the phrases “evidence-based” and “science-based” on official documents.

Senior CDC officials distributed the list of “forbidden” words and phrases to policy analysts at the CDC on Thursday, the Washington Post reported Friday. The list also bans the use of “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender” and “fetus.”

Analysts are reportedly prohibited from using the phrases on official documents they prepare for the 2019 budget, which is expected to be released in February.

An analyst who attended the meeting at the CDC in Atlanta told the Washington Post that instead of “evidence-based” or “science-based,” policy analysts are instructed to use the phrase, “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes.”



The analyst told the Post that other branches of President Trump’s health department are likely adhering to the same list of banned words. The source said that others at the meeting reacted with surprise when given the list.
“It was very much, ‘Are you serious? Are you kidding?’” the analyst said, “In my experience, we’ve never had any pushback from an ideological standpoint.”

The Trump administration has been repeatedly scrutinized for declining to acknowledge science-based findings, particularly related to climate change. Trump himself has not said whether he believes in climate science, and numerous members of his administration and his appointees have denied aspects of scientific consensus related to global warming.
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Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,588
Trump turning US into 'world champion of extreme inequality', UN envoy warns
The United Nations monitor on poverty and human rights has issued a devastating report on the condition of America, accusing Donald Trump and the Republican leadership in Congress of attempting to turn the country into the “world champion of extreme inequality”.

Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, has completed a two-week official tour of the US by releasing an excoriating attack on the direction of the nation. Not only does he warn that the tax bill currently being rushed through Congress will hugely increase already large disparities between rich and poor, he accuses Trump and his party of consciously distorting the shape of American society in a “bid to become the most unequal society in the world”.

“American exceptionalism was a constant theme in my conversations,” he writes. “But instead of realizing its founders’ admirable commitments, today’s United States has proved itself to be exceptional in far more problematic ways that are shockingly at odds with its immense wealth and its founding commitment to human rights. As a result, contrasts between private wealth and public squalor abound.”

In his most stark message, Alston warns that the Republicans’ declared intent to slash crucial welfare programs next year in order to pay for some of the $1.5tn tax cuts could cost American lives. “The consequences for an already overstretched and inadequate system of social protection are likely to be fatal for many programs, and possibly also for those who rely upon them,” he writes.

complaining during the 2016 presidential campaign that “we get nothing out of the United Nations other than good real-estate prices”. But he has also shown himself to have a thin skin when it comes to criticism of him or his administration. At a press conference launching his preliminary report in Washington, Alston quipped about possible Trump reaction: “I’m hoping for a tweet”.

Bernie Sanders, the US senator who has led the debate on inequality, has waded into the fray. He met the UN monitor on Friday and sounded his own alarm about the future of the country.

Sanders said that as the “wealthiest country in the history of the world” the US should be providing a model in how to treat all of its citizens with dignity. “Sadly that is not the case. We are moving into 2018 – we should not be living in a country with 41 million people living in poverty and so many more in extreme poverty, and nobody even talks about it.”

Alston invited Paul Ryan to meet him but was told the Republican speaker of the House was too busy.

In his 15-day fact-finding mission, Alston, an Australian academic and law professor at New York University, visited Los Angeles and San Francisco, Alabama, Georgia, Puerto Rico and West Virginia, talking to low-income families as well as governmental officials. He will produce a final report next May and that in turn will go before the UN human rights council.

Alston takes a strip out of the US for what he suggests are its double standards over human rights. The Trump administration, in line with previous US governments, preaches about human rights to other countries while refusing to be bound itself by international rules.

“The US is alone among developed countries in insisting that while human rights are of fundamental importance, they do not include rights that guard against dying of hunger, dying from a lack of access to affordable healthcare, or growing up in a context of total deprivation. But denial does not eliminate responsibility or negate obligations.”

Alston is also scathing about the attitudes of some of the politicians and officials he met on his tour, who subscribe to what he calls the caricature of rich people as industrious and entrepreneurial and poor people as “wasters, losers and scammers”.

He writes: “Some politicians and political appointees with whom I spoke were completely sold on the narrative of such scammers sitting on comfortable sofas, watching color TVs, while surfing on their smartphones, all paid for by welfare. I wonder how many of these politicians have ever visited poor areas, let alone spoken to those who dwell there.”

At the press conference, Alston said that current US trends were undermining democracy. “Democracy is the foundation stone upon which this country is built, the contribution of which it has been most proud internationally. And yet what we see is the lowest voter turnouts in any developed country.”

He pointed to the disenfranchisement of former prisoners, as well as covert voter suppression efforts such as the imposition of voter ID requirements as examples of the way the political rights of low-income people were being eroded.

Latest figures put the number of Americans living in poverty at 41 million – almost 13% of the population. Of those, almost half (19 million) are living in deep poverty, defined as having a total family income that is below one-half of the poverty threshold.

In a report packed with depressing evidence, the UN rapporteur tries to give a positive spin to his findings, saying that with the wealth that abounds in the US the country is in a position to solve its poverty and inequality crisis. “The persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power. With political will, it could readily be eliminated.”

In a phrase that might reverberate around Capitol Hill and the White House, Alston concludes: “The American Dream is rapidly becoming the American Illusion since the US now has the lowest rate of social mobility of any of the rich countries.”
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Zeph

Zeph

TMMAC Addict
Jan 22, 2015
24,355
31,946
KWingJitsu said:
"All the best people"....I think Trump nominates & hires retards solely so he can be the smartest person in the room.
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I think this guy was to hide the others from questioning. They had 5 mins to interview 5 people, but because this guy was bad they spent 5 minutes asking him questions, the other 4 skated through without answering anything.
 
Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,588
Mueller 'obtained thousands' of Trump transition emails

A lawyer with US President Donald Trump's transition team has accused the special counsel that is probing alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election of illegally obtaining "tens of thousands" of emails during its investigation.

Kory Langhofer, counsel for Trump for America, Inc (TFA), submitted a letter to the primary Senate and House oversight committees on Thursday, outlining how "career staff at the General Services Administration (GSA) ... unlawfully produced TFA's private materials, including privileged communications, to the special counsel's office".

The GSA is responsible for managing and supporting federal agencies.

In the letter, published by Politico, Langhofer argued that the special counsel's office "was aware that the GSA did not own or control the records in question" and that the documents and "tens of thousands of emails" have been "extensively used" during the investigation.

The letter and accusations have been swiftly discounted by Democrats and other legal experts as an attempt to discredit the Russia-Trump investigation.

The probe, headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, began in May to investigate any potential links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.

So far, four people, including Trump's former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, have been charged as part of the investigation.

'Privileged'
Langhofer maintains that although the TFA undertakes "executive or quasi-executive functions … they are not federal agencies" and therefore their communications are private and some are "privileged".

The lawyer said the TFA had learned of the disclosure last week.

According to the letter, the FBI requested the copies of the emails, laptops, mobile phones and other materials associated with nine transition members "responsible for national security and policy matters" on August 23.

Langhofer requested that "Congress act immediately to protect future presidential transitions from having their private records misappropriated by government agencies".

Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel's office, said in a statement to Reuters news agency that "when we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner's consent or appropriate criminal process".

The GSA had not responded to Al Jazeera's request for comment at the time of publication.

'No executive privilege'
Democrats and other legal experts have criticised the letter, saying the accusations are another attempt to "smear the Mueller investigation".


View: https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/942243418977091584

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti tweeted that it is not "inappropriate or even unusual" for prosecutors to obtain emails from a third party.


View: https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/942156671220150273

Congressman Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, questioned how "private documents" can be kept on a government email system.

He tweeted: "'Private documents' on a US government public email system? What are they afraid was found? Baloney. This is another attempt to discredit Mueller as his #TrumpRussia probe tightens."


View: https://twitter.com/RepSwalwell/status/942153531347423232

Norm Eisen, who worked as a lawyer on former President Barack Obama's transition team in 2008, said he warned "everyone" within his team that "there is NO expectation of privacy in … transition emails", adding that the "clue [is] emails are 'name [at] ptt.gov'.

He also tweeted: "Executive privilege does not apply until you are the executive; these documents are from the transition, before Trump became the executive [demonstrating] no executive privilege."


View: https://twitter.com/NormEisen/status/942251047799672832
 
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