The W(why)TF did Trump do this? thread

deb4rockets · Sep 8, 2020

jiggyfly said: ↑

Can't wait till people start getting arrested for fraud for pocketing money from Trumps reelection funds.
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Starting with the Trumps.

Os Trigonum · Sep 9, 2020

NewRoxFan · Sep 9, 2020

NewRoxFan · Sep 9, 2020

RayRay10 · Sep 9, 2020

Os Trigonum said: ↑

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Craig didn't read the whole article, did he (or he doesn't want the uneducated to read it):

But it turns out the population near all these sites doesn’t look like a normal Superfund neighborhood. Across the country, people of color make up the majority of the residents near about half of all Superfund sites. (In total, a little more than a fifth of all people of color in America live within three miles of a Superfund site.) The reasons why are warily familiar to people like Powell—redlining, zoning dangerous industries near poorer neighborhoods, lack of outreach and awareness.

The cost is familiar, too. “Right now, my wife has phase 4 cancer,” Powell said, which he suspects is in connection to the site.

Because of this disproportionate impact on people of color, the Obama administration prioritized Superfund cleanups in these majority-minority neighborhoods. But when Gibbs asked her researchers to look at the demographics of sites the Trump administration has focused on, a different pattern emerged. Under Trump, the practice has reversed. A full 61 percent of the communities Trump’s EPA has prioritized and promoted have been majority white, according to a Gibbs’ researchers. In other words: Trump’s Superfund focus has benefited white people more than people of color.
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In Minden, the polluter should be on the hook for the cleanup. But there’s a catch here, the same catch that will ensure hundreds of sites are never cleaned up under the Trump administration.

After the Trump administration’s EPA cuts, in real dollars, Superfund’s budget today is lower than it ever has been. Earlier this year, the EPA quietly announced that there were 34 Superfund sites where plans for remediation had been inked, but the agency lacked funding to carry out any work. It was the highest number of these “unfunded” sites in recent memory and a giant leap up from 12 in 2016.

Despite real successes and efforts that moved residents to joyful tears, Superfund can’t function on its shoestring budget. After bragging about the large number of cleanups completed in 2017 and 2018, finished sites dropped to just six last year, the lowest number since 1986. At a hearing in February, Democrats pressed Wheeler on the cuts’ impact on Superfund. He defended the curtailed budget, telling members that the agency’s aggressive settlements with polluting corporations would pick up the slack. “We’re increasing enforcement actions,” he testified. “We go after responsible parties.”
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What Trump and his administration have done to Superfund is not some grand revisioning or even, frankly, a revitalization. It’s a defibrillator shock to a program with a faint pulse, a jerking, uneven effort to clean up only some places. What worked for the first two or three years of this administration won’t work now that the money has run out. The surge in unfunded sites makes it clear that Superfund, financially starved and under strain, cannot possibly handle its vast workload. The administration’s focus on cleanups where corporations can foot the bill, surprising and startling as it may be, has been a lifeline for some Americans and a condemnation for others.

Gibbs has accepted that she’s gotten all she can from her relationship with this administration. “Under Republicans and Democrats, if Superfund had money we could move it,” she said. “But not now.” Trump will never clean up the orphan sites, Gibbs said.

Until recently, there wasn’t much reason for optimism from a Democratic administration, either. For much of Joe Biden’s campaign, his focus has been on climate. But this summer, the Democratic National Committee’s progressive Council on the Environment and Climate Crisis decided to stake out a claim on Superfund. They wanted to balloon Superfund’s budget back to 1999 levels—about $2.3 billion—and, even more critically, an official familiar with the council’s workings told me that reinstating polluter pay fees would be central to any plans they have for Superfund. The DNC’s 93-page August platform wasn’t so explicit—it mentioned Superfund just once—but it did call for holding companies accountable for the environmental damage they wreak.

Gibbs is cautiously optimistic about a Biden presidency—or savvy enough not to poison any reservoir of influence she could have with a future administration—and if the Democrats win this November, she’ll push hard for reinstating the polluter pay fees, the tax on polluting corporations that could help fund cleanups at orphan sites like Minden.

“I have no bones about embarrassing myself in taking steps outside the ‘professional’ realm,” she said. “I’m tired of the fact that taxpayers have to pay to clean up the mess,” she added—tired because money that could have gone to social services and schools and housing instead went to papering over polluters’ sins, tired that this has all cost “innocent poor communities of color their rights to clean air, water and soil.”
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RayRay10 · Sep 9, 2020

This will probably get lost in the Woodward storm, but, well, here:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/09/politics/dhs-whistleblower-white-supremacist-threat/index.html

Whistleblower alleges top Trump appointees abused authority by telling officials to alter intelligence to match Trump claims

A whistleblower is alleging that top political appointees in the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly instructed career officials to modify intelligence assessments to ensure they matched up with misleading public comments from President Donald Trump about Antifa and "anarchist" groups, according to documents reviewed by CNN and a source familiar with the situation.

Specifically, acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and Acting Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Ken Cuccinelli, both Trump appointees, directed officials to change intelligence assessments based on Trump's political rhetoric, an order the whistleblower says amounted to an abuse of authority, according to the documents.

Both Wolf and Cuccinelli also tried to alter a report to downplay the threat posed by White supremacists and instead emphasize the role of leftist groups due to concerns about how the initial language would reflect on the President, according to a source familiar with the claims raised by the whistleblower.

DHS did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment regarding allegations that Wolf and Cuccinelli ordered officials to change intelligence assessments for political reasons but have broadly denied either man took actions that constitute as an abuse of power, as stated in the complaint.

Separately, the complaint says, Cuccinelli expressed frustration with intelligence reports detailing conditions in Guatamala, Honduras and El Salvador, late last year and accused "deep-state intelligence analysts" of compiling the information to undermine Trump's objectives regarding asylum, according to the documents reviewed by CNN.

The allegations were raised in a complaint filed recently by Brian Murphy to the DHS inspector general, according to the source. Murphy previously oversaw the intelligence division at the department but was reassigned this summer after it was revealed his office had gathered intelligence reports on two US journalists.

If true, the move marks yet another example of Trump officials attempting to adjust or minimize intelligence that does not align with the administration's political priorities.

The Democratic-led House Intelligence Committee has requested Murphy testify about the claims detailed in his complaint, which "alleges repeated violations of laws and regulations, abuses of authority, attempted censorship of intelligence analysis and improper administration of an intelligence program related to Russian efforts to influence the US elections," according to a letter sent to Murphy's lawyers Wednesday.
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More at the link above

RayRay10 · Sep 9, 2020

Oh boy:

RayRay10 · Sep 9, 2020

And this:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/09/emails-show-hhs-muzzle-fauci-410861

Emails show HHS official trying to muzzle Fauci
Emails obtained by POLITICO show a top aide at the department dictating what the nation's top infections disease expert should say during media interviews.

A Trump administration appointee at the Department of Health and Human Services is trying to prevent Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, from speaking about the risks that coronavirus poses to children.

Emails obtained by POLITICO show Paul Alexander — a senior adviser to Michael Caputo, HHS’s assistant secretary for public affairs — instructing press officers and others at the National Institutes of Health about what Fauci should say during media interviews. The Trump adviser weighed in on Fauci’s planned responses to outlets including Bloomberg News, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post and the science journal Cell.

Alexander’s lengthy messages, some sent as recently as this week, are couched as scientific arguments. But they often contradict mainstream science while promoting political positions taken by the Trump administration on hot-button issues ranging from the use of convalescent plasma to school reopening.

The emails add to evidence that the White House, and Trump appointees within HHS, are pushing health agencies to promote a political message instead of a scientific one.

“I continue to have an issue with kids getting tested and repeatedly and even university students in a widespread manner…and I disagree with Dr. Fauci on this. Vehemently,” Alexander wrote in one Aug. 27 email, responding to a press-office summary of what Fauci intended to tell a Bloomberg reporter.

And on Tuesday, Alexander told Fauci’s press team that the scientist should not promote mask-wearing by children during an MSNBC interview.

“Can you ensure Dr. Fauci indicates masks are for the teachers in schools. Not for children,” Alexander wrote. “There is no data, none, zero, across the entire world, that shows children especially young children, spread this virus to other children, or to adults or to their teachers. None. And if it did occur, the risk is essentially zero,” he continued — adding without evidence that children take influenza home, but not the coronavirus.

In a statement attributed to Caputo, HHS said that Fauci is an important voice during the pandemic and that Alexander specializes in analyzing the work of other scientists.

“Dr. Alexander advises me on pandemic policy and he has been encouraged to share his opinions with other scientists,” Caputo said. “Like all scientists, his advice is heard and taken or rejected by his peers. I hired Dr. Alexander for his expertise and not to simply resonate others’ opinions.”

Neither Alexander nor NIH spokespeople responded to requests for comment.
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RayRay10 · Sep 11, 2020

RayRay10 · Sep 11, 2020

RayRay10 · Sep 11, 2020

https://www.freep.com/story/news/po.../trump-michigan-rally-auto-claims/5768672002/

Trump makes wild claims about revitalizing auto industry at Michigan rally

President Donald Trump made wildly inaccurate claims at a rally outside Saginaw on Thursday night, suggesting he has revitalized auto manufacturing in the state when it actually lost jobs even before coronavirus hit in March.

"We brought you a lot of car plants, we brought you a lot ... and we’re going to bring you a lot more," Trump began his speech at MBS International Airport in Freeland.

But only one new major assembly facility, a Jeep plant on Detroit's east side, has been announced during Trump's term, while General Motors underwent a divisive 40-day strike last year and announced the idling of four U.S. plants, including two in Michigan. One of those, Detroit-Hamtramck, has since been revived and is being retooled to build electric cars and SUVs. Warren transmission was revived most recently to make face masks, though its future is uncertain.

Navya, a French shuttle maker, announced it could employ 50 or so people at a plant in Saline, said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry, labor and economics with the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor; Waymo, which makes self-driving cars, said last year it would employ 100 people at an assembly plant in Detroit and could someday expand that number to 400.

That's hardly a signal of a vast resurgence. Trump has also apparently made similar exaggerated claims in other campaign stops, with the Washington Post saying he has been "bragging about imaginary auto plants."

Trump also said that after speaking with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, officials announced "five new car companies are coming to Michigan," but there has been no such announcement that the Free Press is aware of. In March 2019, a day after Trump spoke to Abe by phone, Toyota announced a $749 million investment in plants in Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and West Virginia, but none in Michigan.

He also said no new assembly plants had been built in the state in more than 40 years but at least two new GM plants have opened since 1999.

As of February, there were about 2,400 fewer auto and auto parts jobs in Michigan than when Trump took office in January 2017. There are even fewer now as the economy recovers from the coronavirus shutdown, though it's up from where it was when auto plants were shut down almost entirely in April.

At another point in the wide-ranging speech, Trump repeated, "You better vote for me, I got you so many damn car plants."

Trump also took jabs at Democratic nominee Joe Biden, chastising him for supporting trade deals — including a vote he took as a U.S. senator from Delaware in the 1990s for the North American Free Trade Agreement, though Biden had been calling for a renegotiation for years. He also called on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to reopen Michigan, which has largely already happened, telling the crowd of about 5,000, "You'd be doing a lot better if you had a governor who knew what the hell she was doing."

Polls have shown Michigan voters are largely supportive of Whitmer's handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the state. During the speech, Trump accused Biden of wanting to "flood the state with refugees," take away people's guns and "destroy your suburbs," though all of those claims were wild exaggerations or outright falsehoods. He also repeated a claim — which no one has been able to verify — that he had once been given a "Man of the Year" award in Michigan.
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More at the link above

RayRay10 · Sep 11, 2020

rocketsjudoka · Sep 11, 2020

RayRay10 said: ↑

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I saw that before another Trump rally they played "You give me Fever" which even without the irony of COVID-19 would just seem like a strange song to play for a political rally.

sirbaihu · Sep 11, 2020

RayRay10 said: ↑

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OMG lol. It's supposed to say "Noble Piece Prize"!
Grab 'em by it!

RayRay10 · Sep 11, 2020

rocketsjudoka said: ↑

I saw that before another Trump rally they played "You give me Fever" which even without the irony of COVID-19 would just seem like a strange song to play for a political rally.
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That is pretty bad.

I think whoever is in charge of music for Trump's campaign...isn't actually a Trump supporter and is using the music as a cry for help. Remember the "Live and Let Die" song playing in the background of his visit to an Arizona factory during the Coronavirus?

"Fortunate Son" is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off-brand for Trump...almost as bad as when Reagan used to play "Born in the USA."

sirbaihu · Sep 11, 2020

RayRay10 said: ↑

That is pretty bad.

I think whoever is in charge of music for Trump's campaign...isn't actually a Trump supporter and is using the music as a cry for help. Remember the "Live and Let Die" song playing in the background of his visit to an Arizona factory during the Coronavirus?

"Fortunate Son" is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off-brand for Trump...almost as bad as when Reagan used to play "Born in the USA."
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Nook · Sep 11, 2020

RayRay10 said: ↑

This will probably get lost in the Woodward storm, but, well, here:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/09/politics/dhs-whistleblower-white-supremacist-threat/index.html

Whistleblower alleges top Trump appointees abused authority by telling officials to alter intelligence to match Trump claims

More at the link above
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This has been my suspicion for years and it is a really big deal.

You are right, it will just be thrown on the mound of everything else.

B-Bob · Sep 11, 2020

Nook said: ↑

This has been my suspicion for years and it is a really big deal.

You are right, it will just be thrown on the mound of everything else.
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It just fits the pattern too perfectly, right?

A dirty NYC commercial real estate tycoon... think someone like that ever alters an inspection result or pays to have it prettied up to complete some transaction? The guy sees no value in anything called "intelligence" unless it is dirt on perceived enemies.

bobrek · Sep 11, 2020

RayRay10 said: ↑

That is pretty bad.

I think whoever is in charge of music for Trump's campaign...isn't actually a Trump supporter and is using the music as a cry for help. Remember the "Live and Let Die" song playing in the background of his visit to an Arizona factory during the Coronavirus?

"Fortunate Son" is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off-brand for Trump...almost as bad as when Reagan used to play "Born in the USA."
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Technically, Fortunate Son would be the most honest thing Trump has ever had presented about himself

JuanValdez · Sep 11, 2020

RayRay10 said: ↑

And this:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/09/emails-show-hhs-muzzle-fauci-410861

Emails show HHS official trying to muzzle Fauci
Emails obtained by POLITICO show a top aide at the department dictating what the nation's top infections disease expert should say during media interviews.
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To be fair, it is the job of public affairs to manage messaging.

NewRoxFan said: ↑

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Thing is, it was obvious (to me, anyway) in March that he was intentionally minimizing the risk, not simply misunderstanding it. I didn't really need the confession to Woodward to know what he was doing.

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