Month: May 2017

House GOP Majority Leader to Colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays Trump’

Posted by Editor on in Russia 0 Comment

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.” More …

Health Insurers Plan Big Obamacare Rate Hikes — and They Blame Trump

Posted by Editor on in Executive Branch, Healthcare 0 Comment

“The growing frustration with the Trump administration’s management — reflected in letters to state regulators and in interviews with more than two dozen senior industry and government officials nationwide — undercuts a key White House claim that Obamacare insurance marketplaces are collapsing on their own. Instead, according to many officials, it is the Trump administration that is driving much of the current instability by refusing to commit to steps to keep markets running, such as funding aid for low-income consumers or enforcing penalties for people who go without insurance.” More …

Is There a Point to All This Cruelty from the Department of Education?

Posted by Editor on in Education, Executive Branch 0 Comment

“While we’re on the subject of bad hiring in the executive branch, let’s not forget that Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education, was the single most obviously unqualified Cabinet nominee—Grizzlies!—in the history of the republic. On Thursday, from The Washington Post, we find that DeVos is finding ways to fulfill her life’s dream of destroying public education and monetizing all those bright shiny faces.” More …

Rupert Murdoch Is Reportedly Advising Trump While DOJ Investigates Fox

Posted by Editor on in Executive Branch, Media 0 Comment

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Fox News owner and CEO Rupert Murdoch is reportedly advising President Donald Trump on a near-daily basis at the same time as the Justice Department is investigating his company, an ethical breach that could undermine the credibility of the inquiry. The Justice Department is currently engaged in a wide-ranging investigation of Fox News. The inquiry includes a review of the network’s “settlements made with women who alleged sexual harassment by former Fox News boss Roger Ailes,” as well as “possible misconduct by Fox News personnel” over a period of years, and has grown to include the United States Postal Inspection Service, which has jurisdiction over some financial crimes.” More…

Flynn Stopped U.S. Military Plan Turkey Opposed – After Being Paid as Turkey’s Agent

Posted by Editor on in Executive Branch, Military 0 Comment

“One of the Trump administration’s first decisions about the fight against the Islamic State was made by Michael Flynn weeks before he was fired – and it conformed to the wishes of Turkey, whose interests, unbeknownst to anyone in Washington, he’d been paid more than $500,000 to represent. The decision came 10 days before Donald Trump had been sworn in as president, in a conversation with President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, who had explained the Pentagon’s plan to retake the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa with Syrian Kurdish forces whom the Pentagon considered the U.S.’s most effective military partners. Obama’s national security team had decided to ask for Trump’s sign-off, since the plan would all but certainly be executed after Trump had become president.” More…