https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a20149743/fox-news-cavuto-trump-fake-news-swamp/ An opinion expressed by Fox News Channel's Neil Cavuto, a life-long uber Conservative Republican, who had been a harsh critic of Obama, conveniently looking the other way on Trump's facts-free birtherism claim Mr. President, How can you drain the swamp if you're the one who keeps muddying the waters? You didn’t know about the $130,000 payment to a p*rn star, until you did ... the time you said the Russians didn’t interfere in the 2016 election, until a lot of Republicans had to remind you they did. You came back months later and you said, ‘Well, I never said that Russia didn’t meddle in the election,’ when in fact you had—a lot ... You claimed your tax plan was the biggest in U.S. history, when it wasn't. Or that the bill you signed to make it all happen would cost you a fortune, when it turns out it is going to help you make a bigger fortune. You insist that money from the campaign or campaign contributions played no role in this transaction. Of that you’re sure. The thing is, not even 24 hours ago, sir, you couldn’t recall any of this. Or bragged about the national debt going down by 12 billion dollars after your first month in office, even though it's soared by nearly a trillion bucks, now that you're 15 months in office. It's not what you're omitting, Mr. President. It is what you keep stating and never correcting. You're right to say some media outlets are out to get you. But oftentimes they're using your own words to bash you. Your base might not care, but you should. I guess you've been too busy draining the swamp to ever stop and smell the stink you're creating.
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/...erry-seeks-energy-firm-bailout-051446707.html Lobbyist tied to Rick Perry seeks energy firm bailout Jeff Miller, a close friend of Energy Secretary Rick Perry, ran Perry's unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2016. When Perry came to Washington, Miller did, too. He launched his firm, Miller Strategies, early last year and began lobbying his friend and other Washington officials. He is pushing the Trump administration for a bailout worth billions of dollars for FirstEnergy Solutions, a bankrupt coal and nuclear power company. Miller has earned $3.2 million in just over a year as a lobbyist for clients that include several large energy companies.
Great for Jeff Miller, he's playing downhill, like the kids say now. FirstEnergy Solutions and cohort Murray Energy already has Perry and Trump in their collective pocket without any lobbying. Last August, in a meeting with the two CEOs, Trump said "tell [Gary] Cohn to do whatever these two want him to do." Which was for Rick Perry to declare an emergency for the power grid and force consumers to pay billions more in subsidies to coal-fired plants. Perry, to his credit I suppose, has been trying various machinations to get the subsidy without invoking emergency powers. Trying to get FERC to do it didn't work. Now, it looks like the grid operator in the northeast/mid-atlantic/midwest, called PJM, will try to build it into their wholesale market price formation to avoid some more heavy-handed market-destroying thing that Perry would otherwise have to do to serve his coal overlords. Here's the letter from Bob Murray from Murray Energy to Trump aide John McEntee describing what Trump had promised to him and to Charles Jones at FirstEnergy: https://www.eenews.net/assets/2017/08/22/document_pm_01.pdf. Anyway, if there's something dirty going on here, the $3.2 million that Jeff Miller is making is a rounding error compared to the dollars at stake. Trump wants to save coal. It would be very embarrassing for him for the big coal company Murray Energy to go bankrupt on his watch. And it probably will soon as a domino effect from the bankruptcy and shuttering of coal-fired electric generation. Trump never needed any convincing to do whatever ridiculous thing needed doing to avert that. Probably the useful thing an energy lobbyist could do is to propose some policy solution that saves coal without costing consumers billions extra and without destroying our very efficient wholesale power markets. If someone can figure that out, it's worth a lot more than $3.2 million.
Fox News host calls out Wilbur Ross over conflicts of interest on investments Fox News host Steve Hilton on Sunday sharply criticized Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a segment calling out Ross for conflicts of interest with his investments. Hilton pointed out that Ross co-founded a shipping firm, Nautical Bulk Holdings, that ships steel from South Korea, which is one of the countries that has received an exemption from President Trump’s steel tariffs. Ross is currently involved in tariff negotiations. “He’s negotiating over South Korean steel imports while making money from importing South Korean steel,” Hilton said. Ross’s shipping companies also have ties to companies owned or connected to Russia, China and Venezuela. Hilton also pointed to Ross’s private equity firm that co-founded and partially owns the shipping company Transportation Recovery Fund, which specializes in the importing of automobile parts. “Do you think that might affect Wilbur Ross’s handling of President Trump’s tariffs on auto imports?” Hilton asked. http://thehill.com/homenews/media/3...oss-over-conflicts-of-interest-on-investments
Wilbur Ross says he shorted two more stocks during his time as Commerce secretary Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said he had also shorted shares in Air Lease and Ocwen Financial Corporation. These are in addition to the short sale of three other stocks that were previously disclosed, for a total of five short sales that Ross executed as Commerce secretary. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/02/wilbur-ross-shorted-two-additional-shares-as-commerce-secretary.html
LOCK HER UP ! As a result of a FOI request, it has been discovered that Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails last year to White House aides, Cabinet officials and her assistants using a personal account, many of them in violation of federal records rules, according to people familiar with a White House examination of her correspondence. https://www.washingtonpost.com/
LOCK THEM UP ! At Least 6 White House Advisers Used Private Email Accounts Gary D. Cohn, the former National Economic Council chairman; Jared Kushner, and his wife, Ivanka Trump, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, & Stephen Miller maintained private email accounts after taking roles in the White House, current and former officials said.
A centrally difficult thing about 45 for his followers: he will leave absolutely no stone of hypocrisy unturned in your back yard. Every single way he can make you a complete and publicly humiliated hypocrite... he will do. That will be an enduring legacy of anyone's support of this man.
Fake news finland has huge rakes. Veterans day we had lots of talks. Lots of rain but yuge. Big people. Tremendous.
Congressman Trey Gowdy headed the house committee that had investigated Hillary's use of private emails to conduct Gov business. there is still ~ 7 weeks left in his tenure, he can get the house investigation going. look for her emails related to this Ivanka Trump’s business received initial approval from the Chinese government for five trademark applications days before her father announced a U-turn in policy on ZTE, a Chinese telecoms firm that has admitted breaking US sanctions on Iran and North Korea. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...on-china-trademarks-donald-trump-zte-reversal
Apparently, we have an endemic problem with politicians trying to hide their conduct of the government's business. Everybody's doing it, even the people criticizing other people for doing it, even when there is known political peril in getting caught doing it. So there is a strong systemic incentive to do it anyway. I think it is the risk that many politicians see of political and/or legal fallout if their actions become known to the public or a prosecutor through some FOIA action, subpoena, a whistleblower, or something like that. It is possible that some concern is legitimate (that some email will be taken out of context and twisted to cause political damage by partisan enemies), but if it is no one I've seen is making that argument. The argument that Clinton and Ivanka have both used is that those emails were for personal business, not government business. That looks like BS in both cases. That leaves the illegitimate concern that they're going to get caught doing something crooked. That people are still doing it after the spotlight that was put on it means that either (1) the likelihood of getting caught is still too low, and/or (2) the penalty for getting caught is still too small. To remedy, I'd want some legislation that forces public officials to surrender up more of their privacy and/or wallops them upside the head hard when they get caught. If we do nothing, public corruption will blossom.
