Tero wrote:What? Headlines.

Trump knew the Russian connections of Flynn.

Tero wrote:Election was swung by hacking.

Tero wrote:Impeach Trump.

Donald Trump: Ethics office urges action against Kellyanne Conway for peddling Ivanka Trump products
The US Office of Government Ethics says the White House should consider disciplinary action against presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway for appearing to violate government ethics rules by publicly endorsing Ivanka Trump products.

Federal ethics rules prohibit executive branch employees from using their positions to endorse products.

"There is strong reason to believe that Ms Conway has violated the Standards of Conduct and that disciplinary action is warranted," Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub wrote in the letter.
Stefan Passantino, the White House ethics official named in the letter, declined to comment, and a White House spokesman did not reply to a request for comment.
The US ethics office, however, has little enforcement power.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-15/e ... ay/8272130

Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence

WASHINGTON — Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.

American law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said. The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election.

The officials interviewed in recent weeks said that, so far, they had seen no evidence of such cooperation.

But the intercepts alarmed American intelligence and law enforcement agencies, in part because of the amount of contact that was occurring while Mr. Trump was speaking glowingly about the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. At one point last summer, Mr. Trump said at a campaign event that he hoped Russian intelligence services had stolen Hillary Clinton’s emails and would make them public.

The officials said the intercepted communications were not limited to Trump campaign officials, and included other associates of Mr. Trump. On the Russian side, the contacts also included members of the government outside of the intelligence services, they said. All of the current and former officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the continuing investigation is classified.

Rand Paul on Flynn: 'Makes no sense' to investigate fellow Republicans

Republican Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday an investigation into the resignation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn would be excessive and it would not make sense to investigate other Republicans.

[...]

"I just don't think it's useful to be doing investigation after investigation, particularly of your own party. We'll never even get started with doing the things we need to do, like repealing Obamacare, if we're spending our whole time having Republicans investigate Republicans. I think it makes no sense."

Ford, Volkswagen and 16 other car firms urge Donald Trump to cut fuel efficiency target

Eighteen major car companies have written to Donald Trump urging him to overturn a fuel efficiency target set by the Obama administration.

Under the regulation, cars would have to run for 54.5 miles per gallon or better by 2025, saving American motorists $1.7 trillion (£1.4 trillion) in fuel costs over the lifetime of their vehicles — but costing the car industry $200bn over 13 years.

However the election of Mr Trump – who has downplayed the need to cut fossil fuel emissions – clearly represents an opportunity for the motor industry.
Eighteen major car companies have written to Donald Trump urging him to overturn a fuel efficiency target set by the Obama administration.

Under the regulation, cars would have to run for 54.5 miles per gallon or better by 2025, saving American motorists $1.7 trillion (£1.4 trillion) in fuel costs over the lifetime of their vehicles — but costing the car industry $200bn over 13 years.

However the election of Mr Trump – who has downplayed the need to cut fossil fuel emissions – clearly represents an opportunity for the motor industry.

lyingcheat wrote:

Donald Trump: Ethics office urges action against Kellyanne Conway for peddling Ivanka Trump products
The US Office of Government Ethics says the White House should consider disciplinary action against presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway for appearing to violate government ethics rules by publicly endorsing Ivanka Trump products.

Federal ethics rules prohibit executive branch employees from using their positions to endorse products.

"There is strong reason to believe that Ms Conway has violated the Standards of Conduct and that disciplinary action is warranted," Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub wrote in the letter.
Stefan Passantino, the White House ethics official named in the letter, declined to comment, and a White House spokesman did not reply to a request for comment.
The US ethics office, however, has little enforcement power.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-15/e ... ay/8272130

How long before she becomes a liability?

I saw a photo of her today attached to some news story that unfortunately I can't re-find and she looks unwell. She still seems to be functional, so maybe I'm projecting, but she has the appearance of someone who is unravelling.

Police Officers: “We Didn’t Vote Republican To Get Stabbed In The Back”.

In the highly contentious battle to extinguish public worker rights, Iowa Republicans have attempted a divide-and-conquer approach to pit unions against each other. Their legislation splits public workers into two groups, one that’s “public safety workers,” and one that isn’t. The idea was to strip away nearly all collective bargaining rights from most public employees, but keep most of it for police and firefighters, who are politically more difficult to go after.

It didn’t work.

Hundreds of helmeted firefighters have flooded the Statehouse in the last week and police officers and sheriffs have lined up at committee hearings to speak against it. They don’t trust that this carve-out for their jobs will last long, nor do many of them feel it’s appropriate to deny the bargaining rights they have to fellow workers who have also had them for over 40 years.

And several police officers and firefighters warned that Republicans’ plan to create a special “public safety” class for negotiations wouldn’t work in many cases. John Thomas, a police officer from Mitchellville, explained last week that some sheriff’s deputies wouldn’t get classified as “public safety” workers because there’s more jailers and clerks in the bargaining unit. The Republican bill only classifies workers as “public safety” employees if a majority of workers in a bargaining unit is made up of police or firefighters.

That has many police officer, who voted for Republicans in large numbers this year, particularly upset.

Donna Coomer raised three children on a minimum-wage job and a lot of prayer.

She thanks God daily that President Trump was elected. Her message to him is simple: Bring back jobs and raise the minimum wage.



"Have you ever tried to live on $7.25 an hour?" Coomer asks. "It was horrible."

Today Coomer, 52, is a grandmother who manages a Valero gas station in Beattyville, Kentucky. It's a small, homey town that earned the unfortunate distinction of being America's "poorest white town" a few years ago.

As a manager, Coomer now earns a bit above the minimum wage. But the rest of her employees are still paid $7.25 an hour. America's federal minimum wage hasn't gone up since 2009, although many states and cities have hiked the wage on their own. Kentucky is not one of those states.




Coomer can feel the pain of the young moms that she employs.

One of them is Melissa Allen, 34. The circles under her eyes speak volumes about her stress. Allen works two jobs -- as a cashier at the Valero station and cleaning tourist cabins in the rolling Kentucky hills. Both jobs pay minimum wage.

The Stewarts pray Trump will raise wages, including the minimum wage. They don't think it should go to $15 because that deters people from getting skills to better themselves, but $9.30 or so could make a difference.

"Mr. Trump, please take care of us. We're looking to you," she says.

Tero wrote:Dan Rather
"We can all remember the General Michael Flynn's speech from the Republican National Convention — "Lock her up!" in regards to Hillary Clinton. If Hillary Clinton had done one tenth of what Mr. Flynn had done, she likely would be in jail. And it isn't just Mr. Flynn, how far does this go?" Rather wrote in his Facebook post.

The GOP-led Congress should take action and investigate White House officials' assertions, according to Rather, now managing editor for a show on the cable channel AXS.

Lock them up!

Animavore wrote:Two examples of people voting against their interest in my feed today.


http://iowastartingline.com/2017/02/13/ ... ialnetwork

Donna Coomer raised three children on a minimum-wage job and a lot of prayer.

She thanks God daily that President Trump was elected. Her message to him is simple: Bring back jobs and raise the minimum wage.



"Have you ever tried to live on $7.25 an hour?" Coomer asks. "It was horrible."

Today Coomer, 52, is a grandmother who manages a Valero gas station in Beattyville, Kentucky. It's a small, homey town that earned the unfortunate distinction of being America's "poorest white town" a few years ago.

As a manager, Coomer now earns a bit above the minimum wage. But the rest of her employees are still paid $7.25 an hour. America's federal minimum wage hasn't gone up since 2009, although many states and cities have hiked the wage on their own. Kentucky is not one of those states.




Coomer can feel the pain of the young moms that she employs.

One of them is Melissa Allen, 34. The circles under her eyes speak volumes about her stress. Allen works two jobs -- as a cashier at the Valero station and cleaning tourist cabins in the rolling Kentucky hills. Both jobs pay minimum wage.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/14/news/ec ... d=34480116

So why didn't they vote for the person who explicitly said she'd raise minimum wage? Why vote for the bunch of billionaires who want to do away with pesky things like regulations and minimum wage altogether if they could?

I notice as they want an increase in minimum wage on the one hand, they still cleave to right-wing politics.

The Stewarts pray Trump will raise wages, including the minimum wage. They don't think it should go to $15 because that deters people from getting skills to better themselves, but $9.30 or so could make a difference.

Oh fuck that. Demand what you deserve.

Bit of desperation in the last line.

"Mr. Trump, please take care of us. We're looking to you," she says.

That said, the whole article is a bit like Bart's People.

Animavore wrote:
Oh fuck that. Demand what you deserve.

purplerat wrote:

Animavore wrote:
Oh fuck that. Demand what you deserve.

The demanded what they deserve when they voted for Trump and now they are getting it, as far as I'm concerned.