Trump cabinet selections and appointments

Who knew Spicer was such a rebel?

 

So you couldn't really call this "circumstantial evidence" but it sure seems weird.

One thing that is getting mentioned in the articles about the Trump server but not really talked much about is the connection to the Education Secretary, Betsy deVos. The server was pinged quite a bit by Spectrum Health, a medical facility chain run by the husband of Betsy Devos. The server only received lookups from the Russian Bank and Spectrum Health.

The reason this looks a little odd is that she was extremely unqualified for the position. Both from her complete lack of exposure to public education but also her administrative experience. However, the spoils system is nothing new in politics though. I can't imagine any illegal activity unless the company broke campaign finance laws by over donating to the Trump campaign. However, this is 100% speculation. Their family has donated over 1 million to the GOP party since 1980.

All of the Trump-Russia stuff is circumstantial. You can have all the smoke in the world but it doesn't matter unless you have fire. I believe the want to bring in 10 or so current and former Trump people to testify at the hearing later this month. If there is something there then I feel like someone is going to squeal.

 

Geez, Spicer's responses to the media questions are brutal... even Fox News is shaking its head... listen to him trying to spin this by comparing to a private citizen filling out tax returns (Spicey, you think tax returns is the right analogy regarding this Presidency?) and how people should be honest in their forms... OMG. Impeccable credentials? The guy was fired by the previous administration for god sakes!

Trump transition knew Flynn might register as foreign agent

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ew-flynn-might-register-as-foreign-agent.html

 

Seems qualified and a smart consevative, but concerns about ties to pharaceutical companies and how he may deregulate exist...

Trump To Nominate Dr. Scott Gottlieb To Head Food And Drug Administration

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-...gottlieb-to-head-food-and-drug-administration

 

The Press secretary job is always difficult. It's especially difficult when your boss is telling more lies than truths, appointing foreign agents as the NSA and making such huge blunders, yet has the temperament to fire you if you try and give any kind of reasonable answer to the questions Trump has lied about.

As a result Spicer was sweating bullets up there and coughing up hairballs as answers to questions on this topic. It was hard to watch, and I'm not a Trump fan by any means.

 

The swamp is being drained so fast that my head is spinning.

 

At a lower level, outside positions requiring Senate confirmation, Bannon's "deconstruction" is going on with appointments of more people who basically hate the agencies in which they now have power.

https://www.propublica.org/article/...trump-has-quietly-installed-across-government

A Trump campaign aide who argues that Democrats committed “ethnic cleansing” in a plot to “liquidate” the white working class. A former reality show contestant whose study of societal collapse inspired him to invent a bow-and-arrow-c*m-survivalist multi-tool. A pair of healthcare industry lobbyists. A lobbyist for defense contractors. An “evangelist” and lobbyist for Palantir, the Silicon Valley company with close ties to intelligence agencies. And a New Hampshire Trump supporter who has only recently graduated from high school.

These are some of the people the Trump administration has hired for positions across the federal government, according to documents received by ProPublica through public-records requests.

While President Trump has not moved to fill many jobs that require Senate confirmation, he has quietly installed hundreds of officials to serve as his eyes and ears at every major federal agency, from the Pentagon to the Department of Interior.

Unlike appointees exposed to the scrutiny of the Senate, members of these so-called “beachhead teams” have operated largely in the shadows, with the White House declining to publicly reveal their identities.

While some names have previously dribbled out in the press, we are publishing a list of more than 400 hires, providing the most complete accounting so far of who Trump has brought into the federal government.

The White House said in January that around 520 staffers were being hired for the beachhead teams.

The list we obtained includes obscure campaign staffers, contributors to Breitbart and others who have embraced conspiracy theories, as well as dozens of Washington insiders who could be reasonably characterized as part of the “swamp” Trump pledged to drain.

The list is striking for how many former lobbyists it contains: We found at least 36, spanning industries from health insurance and pharmaceuticals to construction, energy and finance. Many of them lobbied in the same areas that are regulated by the agencies they have now joined.

During the campaign, Trump said he would have “no problem” banning lobbyists from his administration. But they have nonetheless ended up in senior roles, aided by Trump’s weakening of Obama-era ethics rules that modestly limited lobbyists’ role in government.

The White House didn’t respond to requests for comment.

There are many former congressional staffers, several top officials from the George W. Bush administration, and even a handful of holdovers from the Obama administration. The list also includes at least eight staffers drawn from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that forged close ties to the new administration during the transition.

Much about the role of the beachhead teams at various federal agencies is unclear. But close observers of the early weeks of the Trump administration believe they have taken on considerable influence in the absence of high-level political appointees.

“If the public and Senate is in the dark about a team created without a Senate confirmation process, no one will be permitted to shed light on who is hopelessly conflicted or who is obviously unqualified — and who is both,” said Jeff Hauser, director of the Revolving Door Project at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

The beachhead team members are temporary employees serving for stints of four to eight months, but many are expected to move into permanent jobs. The Trump administration’s model is based on plans developed but never used by the unsuccessful presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.

“The beachhead teams involve people with considerable authority over the federal government,” said Max Stier, the CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that advises presidential candidates on smooth transitions. “We need clarity about what they’re doing and what their role is going to be.”

The Obama administration also hired temporary staffers after the inauguration. But Trump has brought in many more, Stier said.

The new list of names was provided to us by the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources agency. We received additional names from other federal agencies in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. At least a few people on the list have changed agencies or left the administration, including, for example, the young Department of Housing and Urban Development staffer who was fired after his anti-Trump writings during the campaign came to light.
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[follow above link for list of people]
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Propublica breaks the appointments/hires down into a few noteable categories: the Brietbart wing, swamp denizens/lobbyists, and Trump campaign vets.

As one can predict, actual qualifications don't seem to be of importance as much as ideological outlook and loyalty to Trump and/or Bannon.

 

Today's Spicer Press Conference:

 

Replacing one "deep state" with another.

 

I can't stop watching!

 

Oh my god. I'm trying not to laugh too loud in the office right now.

 

Secy of State first major foreign trip... excludes media, except for one right wing website. And foreign governments are noticing...

 

Disturbing - high school grads now running key pieces of the u.s. gov't?

Industry lobbyist once regulated by the gov now in charge of setting regs?

This won't end well for the people.

 

Is Trump officially the most embarrassing, dumbest mofo president in the history of the modern world?

 

AG Sessions targets the current huge (?) problem of opioid abuse by going back to the 1980's and Nancy Reagan highly effective (?) approach of "Just Say No". I wonder if he will deploy other effective '80's approaches to solve other current problems? What was the Reagan approach to cybercrime for example?

‘Just Say No’: AG Sessions Cites Old School Anti-Drug Motto
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/just-say-no-ag-sessions-cites-old-school-anti-drug-n733961

Oh wait, "just say no" was a failure:

https://www.usnews.com/news/politic...-decades-later-a-mixed-legacy-for-just-say-no
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-just-say-no-doesnt-work/
https://www.theguardian.com/society...rugs-just-say-no-dare-program-opioid-epidemic
http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/drughysteria.html

 

What a inappropriate thing to say to justify cuts in the budget...

Mulvaney justifies budget: We can't ask a coal miner to pay for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/mick-mulvaney-trump-budget-priorities-236117

OK *******, I guess you feel its perfectly acceptable to ask that same coal miner to pay for tax cuts for millionaires.

 

That's too bad since NPR actually goes to coal country, listens, reports and gives them a voice beyond being props for a president who's never done a day of hard work in his life.

 

Troubling. Associations.
Jewish organization calls for Sebastian Gorka's resignation for ties to far-right group

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...stian-gorka-far-right-group-hungary/99254338/

 

Did Fox & Friends report it? Then Trump never saw it.....

 

LOL