Tag: “All the best people”

Ivanka Trump ‘urged’ president’s church photo-op — which could become a ‘defining moment’ of his time in office: NYT

AlterNet logoFirst daughter and senior White House advisor Ivanka Trump “urged” her father to take part in a controversial photo-op with a Bible according to a new report from The New York Times.

“After a weekend of protests that led all the way to his own front yard and forced him to briefly retreat to a bunker beneath the White House, President Trump arrived in the Oval Office on Monday agitated over the television images, annoyed that anyone would think he was hiding and eager for action,” the newspaper reported.

“He wanted to send the military into American cities, an idea that provoked a heated, voices-raised fight among his advisers. But by the end of the day, urged on by his daughter Ivanka Trump, he came up with a more personal way of demonstrating toughness — he would march across Lafayette Square to a church damaged by fire the night before,” the newspaper reported.

Hope Hicks was reportedly the brains behind the photo-op. Continue reading.

Senate Confirms Inexperienced Trump Donor As UAE Ambassador

Since it first received diplomatic recognition in 1972, every United States ambassador to the United Arab Emirates has been a career diplomat — until now.

After nearly an 18-month delay, on Tuesday the Senate confirmed Donald Trump’s nominee — wealthy businessman and GOP megadonor John Rakolta, Jr. — to be the nation’s chief representative in Abu Dhabi.

The confirmation came on a 63-30 vote, after almost no discussion on the Senate floor. A handful of Senate Democrats and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine joined with the Republican majority in support.

View the complete September 17 article by Josh Israel on the National Memo website here.

‘He’s not going to lie to this country’: Trump’s new press secretary gives a tortured and laughable defense of the president’s endless deception

AlterNet logoDefending President Donald Trump is not an easy job, so there are always some who insist that we should give his spokespeople credit for trying their best in a vexing position. But since no one needs to be a professional defender of the president — anyone who could get such a job has other options — we shouldn’t treat the pleas for sympathy with much credibility.

With that in mind, new White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham’s latest defense of the president’s lies should be greeted with laughing derision. In a new piece by Washington Post reporter Paul Fahri, Grisham took the admittedly impossible task of defending Trump’s lies to new, extreme heights (or depths, depending on where you’re standing):

“Do I believe that their coverage is slanted and biased? Yes. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. A majority of reporters are liberal. A lot of reporters are uncomfortable with him and his blunt way of speaking. I think this is the first time they’ve been so publicly called out for some of their behaviors and their instinct is to fight back rather than take a step back” and assess their conduct.

His blunt way of speaking? Does Grisham think Trump never lies?

View the complete August 28 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

NOTE:  President Trump sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution.  He lies (see the ‘Trump never lies’ link above), and then attacks this country’s free press when they report he lies.  Now, he has a communications staff that is taking that same lie to a higher level.)

Former Interior scientist calls out ‘culture of fear, censorship, and suppression’ under Trump

“The American people lose when we end up with manipulated, suppressed, or distorted information.”

There is a “culture of fear, censorship, and suppression” within the Trump administration that is impeding government scientists from doing their best work, former Interior Department policy director and scientist turned whistleblower Joel Clement warned on Wednesday.

Speaking to lawmakers on the House Science Committee, scientific experts spoke about the need for stronger rules to support the integrity of their research and ensure that political agendas don’t dictate or interfere with the data.

“There is not Democratic science, there is not Republican science, there is just science,” said Michael Halpern, deputy director for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Businessman who testified in Mueller probe indicted on child pornography charges

A wealthy Lebanese-American businessman and Middle East expert who was a witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation has been indicted on charges of importing child pornography and traveling with a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.

George Nader, 60, entered a not guilty plea through his attorney Friday morning in federal court in Alexandria, Va., during a brief arraignment on the new indictment, which was returned July 3 and unsealed Friday.

Nader was involved in various meetings and discussions related to the Trump presidential transition that drew the attention of Mueller investigators, including a meeting that Erik Prince, the founder of private military contractor Blackwater, held with a Russian ally of President Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles in January 2017.

View the complete July 19 article by Josh Gerstein on the Politico website here.

Many USDA workers to quit as research agencies move to Kansas City: ‘The brain drain we all feared’

Washington Post logoTwo research agencies at the Agriculture Department will uproot from Washington, D.C., to Kansas City in the fall. But many staffers have decided to give up their jobs rather than move, prompting concerns of hollowed-out offices unable to adequately fund or inform agricultural science.

About two-thirds of the USDA employees declined their reassignments, according to a tally the department released Tuesday. Ninety-nine of 171 employees at the Economic Research Service, an influential federal statistical agency, will not move. At the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which manages a $1.7 billion portfolio in scientific funding, 151 of 224 employees declined to relocate.

Jack Payne, University of Florida’s vice president for agriculture and natural resources, warned that the hemorrhage of employees will devastate ERS and NIFA. “This is the brain drain we all feared, possibly a destruction of the agencies,” Payne said.

View the complete July 18 article by Ben Guarino on The Washington Post website here.

Senior Trump administration official to leave post next week

The Hill logoThe chief liaison between President Trump’s White House and federal government agencies will leave his post next week after more than two years on the job, depriving Trump of one of his last remaining senior staff members from the start of his presidency.

William McGinley, who has served as White House Cabinet secretary since Trump’s inauguration, has told friends he will return to the private sector, though a source close to McGinley says he has not had in-depth conversations with potential employers.

McGinley, a longtime Republican election law expert who served as the top lawyer at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, joined Trump’s campaign in the summer of 2016 as the then-candidate prepared for what might have been a contested convention. McGinley helped quash challenges to party rules that would have hurt Trump’s bid to win the Republican nomination.

View the complete July 11 article by Reid Wilson and Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.

Company led by Trump nominee was rife with harassment, including groping and kissing, report says

A federal workplace investigation found rampant sexual harassment and retaliation at AccuWeather, a federal contractor, including groping, touching and kissing of subordinates without consent. AccuWeather’s chief executive at the time of the allegations and investigation, Barry Myers, was tapped by President Trump to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The detailed results of the investigation, not previously reported, were compiled last year by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and obtained by The Washington Post. It determined that AccuWeather, under Myers, fostered a culture ripe for sexual harassment, turned a blind eye to allegations of egregious conduct and retaliated against those who complained.

According to the report, the investigation was prompted by a complaint filed Sept. 6, 2016, alleging a “hostile work environment and termination based on sexual orientation and sex.” Many other complaints from AccuWeather employees followed.

View the complete April 12 article by Michael brice-Saddler on The Washington Post website here.

Alex Acosta, you made a mockery of Florida’s sex offender laws. It’s time to resign.

Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein is a free man, despite sexually abusing dozens of underage girls according to police and prosecutors. His victims have never had a voice, until now. Credit: Emily Michot and Julie K. Brown

They are young women now living in the empowering #MeToo movement of the times. But when wealthy Palm Beach hedge-fund manager Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused them, they were only 14 to 17.

Remember that age?

The naïveté behind the façade of grown-up girl. The peer pressure and the boy pressure you don’t know you’re under until you’re an adult looking back. And, if you’re poor and had a troubled childhood, add to the mix the need to make money too early in life.

View the complete November 30 article by Fabiola Santiago on The Miami Herald website here.