Ethics? We don’t need no stinkin’ ethics!

ethics

In a secret vote held behind closed doors Monday night, House Republicans voted to cripple the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent body created in 2008 to rein in corruption and other misconduct by members of Congress.

The move was spearheaded “by lawmakers who have come under investigation in recent years,” according to Politico. Among those speaking in favor of the changes were Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX), who was accused by a staffer of sexual harassment, and Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), who allegedly received “an impermissible gift when he and his wife traveled to Taiwan in October 2011.”

Under the new rules, the Office of Congressional Ethics would be renamed the Office of Congressional Complaint Review and, critically, lose its independence. It would be placed under the auspices of the House Ethics Committee, which famously has turned a blind eye to wrongdoing by members of Congress. It became clear that an independent body was necessary after scandals largely ignored by the the Ethics Committee sent several members of Congress, including Randy “Duke” Cunningham and Bob Ney, to jail.

Ooooh, a complaints department! We’re all so sure that will work wonderfully, right?

Many of the new restrictions on the body appear designed to make it easier to sweep misconduct under the rug.

The new Office of Congressional Complaint Review cannot make any of its findings public — or make any other public statement — without the approval of the House Ethics Committee.

Ah, how cozy. All the corrupt, unethical, immoral republicans now have a lovely shelter, and no one will ever tell them they are wrong.

Even if the Office of Congressional Complaint Review finds evidence of criminal conduct, it cannot report it to the police without prior approval.

Even better! If caught, they can’t be punished.

The rules also prohibit the new office from considering anonymous complaints or investigating any conduct that occurred before 2011.

Very convenient. That effectively prohibits any investigation via a complainant who might have every reason to be concerned about retaliation.

The House leadership will get a chance to prove their opposition Tuesday, when a public vote on a rules package that includes the changes to ethics oversight will occur on the House floor.

Yeah, I’m not gonna hold my breath. More American Greatness™ folks, Look Ma, no ethics! Via Think Progress.

Yes, We do Elect Dumb Leaders.

Carl Paladino, who co-chaired Donald Trump’s New York campaign, and is a school board member, wrote out his wishlist for 2017:

1. Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her.

2. Michelle Obama. I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.

3. Someone with a brain, a set of balls and a lack of fear who has enough money so as to not owe anyone anything once elected and who believes in a market economy.

4. We need a $50 million dollar train station as much as we need parasitic people like Lou Ciminelli, 80% of the school board and the dizziness of socialistic progressive politicians who never signed the front of a paycheck. At best 400 people a day take a train. They are not complaining about exchange or Depew. We are already the laughingstock of America for having the dumbest elected leaders ever. Why add to it.

How sweet. Perhaps the good people of Buffalo will take a look, and decide this person really shouldn’t be on the school board, for more than one reason. Going by Mr. Paladino’s lack of grammar, and general ignorance, he wouldn’t pass a standard high school test.

Via Raw Story.

George Washington Kept His House, So…

By Martin Falbisoner - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.

By Martin Falbisoner – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.

Oh, the excuses for allowing Trump to violate the constitution keep coming in, each stupider than the last. The latest from Tom Cole (R-OK) is that George Washington kept his house while serving as president, so it’s all good, you betcha. Has anyone told Donny he has to give up his gold-plated apartment? No. Has anyone said Donny can’t manage his personal residences? No. The hypocrisy of republicans continues to float over everything, as their lies and excuses get weaker and weaker.

While ethics expertswarn not divesting will likely create an unconstitutional conflict, Congressional Republicans are apparently not concerned.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) said on Wednesday that he does not think Trump needs to disentangle himself. “To be fair to him, he’s not a guy who made his money out of doing business with the government, particularly,” he observed.

Cole added that he thinks Trump’s team is “trying to be careful,” because “opponents will try to put the worst aspersions” on anything he does. “I don’t expect the family to get out of a family business, for goodness sake. I mean, you read much history, George Washington was still pretty active in managing Mount Vernon when he was president of the United States.”

Washington’s Virginia estate was hardly comparable to Trump’s self-proclaimed $10 billion portfolio.

Think Progress has the full story.

The Swamp? It’s the New Agenda.

Swamp Thing, DC Comics.

Swamp Thing, DC Comics.

Trump yakked a lot about lobbyists, and “draining the swamp”, all of it bullshit, of course. Trump’s a toxic Swamp Thing, and he’s going to have help in building and managing the swamp.

On Wednesday, however, two key Trump campaign advisers announced they would form a “full service government relations and political consulting firm” in Washington, “just a block from the White House” at 1717 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.

Corey Lewandowski, who served as Trump’s first campaign manager and was also paid by CNN to advocate for Trump on the air, will join with senior campaign adviser Barry Bennett to launch the firm. Their mission, Lewandowski revealed, would be supporting Trump’s agenda.

“After considering multiple opportunities within the administration,” Lewandowski wrote, he determined he can best help Trump “outside the formal structure of government.” He added that for Trump to succeed, it is “necessary to have strong, organized outside groups who can help ensure the President-elect’s agenda is achieved.”

But rather than launch a political advocacy non-profit, the two have opted to launch a “government relations firm.” The firm’s website makes clear that it plans to provide “client-tailored strategy and guidance carefully designed to help our clients navigate our government.” In other words, using their access to the new administration to make sure the President-elect’s agenda includes the priorities of their clients.

As Mother Jones noted, back in February Lewandowski denounced lobbyists as willing to say or do anything to preserve “backroom deals,” and vowed that if Trump won, “people who’ve made a very, very good living by controlling politicians through their donations and making sure they get the legislation done — or not done — in Washington, DC to best benefit their clients” would find their days of influence “coming to an end.”

Or not.

Looks like lobbying is just going to be re-branded. Swamping? Perhaps Trumping, as that would most likely serve the extreme narcissist the best. This is open corruption, and they don’t care even a little. Think Progress has the full story.

What Healthcare?

© nicolasjoseschirado, fotalia.

© nicolasjoseschirado, fotalia.

For all the years of screaming over the Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare by the sea of conservative idiots, who insisted death panels would be a comin’ for everyone, what actually happened was that a multitude of people not only lived, but they got healthier, too. That’s generally what happens when people have heath care. In my view, ACA isn’t enough, uStates should grow the fuck up and join all the places in the world who have figured out that healthy citizens are a good thing, and that healthcare is a basic right.

Oh, but we can’t have that, not here in this pit formerly known as America, why that, that might smack of socialism, oh no! It’s juvenile, willfully ignorant conservatives who are going to bring death, which to them, is by far more preferable than having healthcare for all citizens. Now, those who are sitting on nice piles of cash and can afford good coverage, they aren’t worried. It’s just the rest of us who will suffer, and conservatives have never rated on the empathy scale, they just don’t give a fuck about anyone except themselves. Oh, yes, conservatives are, by and large, spiteful assholes, and they just can’t wait to kill off healthcare, out of spite. Yes, a lot of people are going to die because of spite. There’s no reason to dismantle the ACA, it works. It’s not the best plan, but given how many obstacles conservatives kept throwing, it was a near act of brilliance to get most people desperately needed healthcare. When people don’t have healthcare, they can’t face any debt care would bring, and medical debt piles up fast, ask anyone who has had a medical emergency. One emergency can land you in a pit of poverty for a lifetime. Just why in the fuckety fuck do moron-minded conservatives think that’s a dandy plan? So, when people have no insurance, no care, they just keep going until they drop, literally.

Why does that define “exceptional America”? Because to me, that’s a good description of a 3rd world pit with despotic rule, where there’s at most a shrug over people dying. Condemning people to death should not be a source of pride. It should be a source of shame, but, conservatives seem to have no sense of shame, along with no empathy.

Not long ago, Americans learned that the average life expectancy for white people in this country – those most likely to have voted for Donald Trump – actually declined for the first time in many years. The pathologies and frustrations believed to have driven that decline may have motivated the tiny handful of votes that gave Trump his Electoral College victory.

But not long after their euphoria over his inauguration fades, they are going to learn why his administration is so likely to drive those statistics in the wrong direction. Despite his promise to protect Social Security and Medicare – and his vow to replace the Affordable Care Act with “something much better” – Trump’s cabinet appointees and his allies in Congress plan ruinous changes to those programs. And that will mean ruin, and in thousands of cases death, for the mostly white and working class people who depend so heavily on them.

Unless the Republicans come up with a plausible bill to replace Obamacare, which has eluded them since 2009, millions of their constituents will lose the health insurance they have only recently gained – and yes, thousands of those people will die next year.

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The Twists and Turns of Extortion.

Foreign governments and lobbyists have rushed to book rooms at the new Trump International Hotel in D.C., expecting to curry favor with the president-elect. Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Foreign governments and lobbyists have rushed to book rooms at the new Trump International Hotel in D.C., expecting to curry favor with the president-elect. Chip Somodevilla/Getty.

Newsweek has broken a story about the twisty financial ties of Trump, and how very easy it would be for foreign governments to do some serious arm twisting, to get Trump to do their bidding. As I hope has been made clear through dozens upon dozens of posts, Trump is primarily concerned with his name and his wallet. This whole government thing, not so much. Anyone who thinks Trump will actually divest prior to inauguration, oh please, make it back to reality land. That simply won’t happen. Trump has already stated he doesn’t care if it’s a violation of the constitution. Unfortunately, that particular mess does not rest there. If you need one more reason to actively fight against Trump, here it is – this is person who thinks of the presidency as nothing more than a good business opportunity. He not only does not understand the implications, he does not care. This is just the tip of the iceberg, one which spells out, very clearly, that Trump is placing the U.S. government in a prime position to be blackmailed by an assortment of other governments.

Despite universal condemnation of the ongoing slaughter of Filipinos, Trump signaled his approval of Duterte’s policies during a phone call on December 2. According to Duterte—an account that has gone uncontested by Trump—the president-elect endorsed his tactics as “the right way.” Duterte added: “[Trump] was wishing me success in my campaign against the drug problem.” (He also said Trump invited him to the White House, a courtesy not yet extended to Theresa May, the prime minister of Britain, America’s most important strategic ally.)

[…]

One thing, however, is clear: The Trump family has an enormous financial interest in keeping Duterte happy. Trump Tower at Century City in Makati, Philippines, is on the verge of completion, with potential buyers having placed deposits on at least 94 percent of the condominiums, according to Century Properties, the Trump Organization’s business partner there. During the U.S. presidential campaign, Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric traveled to Makati to shovel some dirt in a ceremony to celebrate the structural completion of the building; a photograph of the two men shoveling alongside top Century Properties executives was posted on the building’s website. (On that same website, a line of jewelry by Trump’s daughter Ivanka is offered for sale, and it is expected to be available for purchase at the $150 million property.) As with almost every property with Trump’s name on it built over the past decade, his company is not the developer; it merely sold its name to Century Properties to use on the building. Although details of the transaction are not public, contracts for other Trump branding deals reviewed by Newsweek show that they require a multimillion-dollar up-front payment as well as up to 25 percent of the developer’s revenue, year after year. So, under the deal, Trump’s children will be paid millions of dollars throughout their father’s presidency by Jose E.B. Antonio, the head of Century Properties.

Duterte recently named Antonio the special government envoy to the United States. The conflicts here could not be more troubling or more blatant: President Trump will be discussing U.S. policy in Southeast Asia with one of his (or his children’s) business partners, a man who is the official representative of a foreign leader who likens himself to Hitler. Also note that the Trump family has an enormous financial interest in Duterte’s deadly campaign: Rooting out crime in the Philippines is good for the real estate values.

The full, in-depth article is here.

Rachel Maddow also addressed highly troubling concerns when it comes to a Trump financial tangle and Turkey.

According to Maddow, Trump has a business relationship with the Doğan family, owners of Doğan Holding, which is building twin towers in Turkey bearing the Trump name for which the Trump family stands to make millions of dollars.

[…]

Maddow then got to the heart of the matter.

“Turkey desperately wants the U.S. government to extradite an imam [Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen],” Maddow explained. “They [the U.S.] have said that they are not extraditing him. But if that’s what you wanted, what if you could squeeze the personal financial interests of the American president as a way to get what you want from the American government?”

“I mean, the Trump family and the president-elect themselves, they stand to make millions of dollars from their relationship with the Doğan group in Turkey. That will stop if they get locked up,” she continued. “So they started locking them up. Nice leverage, right? It would be one thing if it was business leverage — but it’s leverage against all of us as Americans.”

As Eichenwald notes in his article: “If Erdoğan’s government puts more pressure on the company that’s paying millions of dollars to Trump and his children, revenue flowing from that tower complex in Istanbul could be cut off. That means Erdoğan has leverage with Trump, who will soon have the power to get Gulen extradited.”

Full story and video here.

Reddit: “There’s A Disconnect There.”

CREDIT: ThinkProgress/Dylan Petrohilos.

CREDIT: ThinkProgress/Dylan Petrohilos.

Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman had something of a TIL moment[TIL: Today I Learned] after he tried to curb abusive behavior in the site’s top subreddit for Donald Trump supporters.

In an interview with Reuters, Huffman discussed how he discovered that Reddit’s anti-harassment policies were not being adequately enforced after he tried to moderate the r/The_Donald subreddit, which is known for promoting Hillary Clinton conspiracy theories and racist and misogynistic content.

“Personal message harassment is the most cut and dry,” he said. “Right now we are in an interesting position where my inbox is full of them, it’s easy to start with me.”

[…]

Starting, apparently, with Huffman’s inbox, Reddit is in the process of ramping up its anti-harassment enforcement, adding more employees to the site’s “trust and safety team” and tasking a team of “anti-evil” engineers to head the overall process. So far, the site has identified a list hundreds usernames’ long of Reddit’s worst users and plans to admonish, ban, or suspend them, Reuters reported.

I’m not sanguine about the attempts to clean up Reddit, it’s long been a mess, and a lot of people thought it would finally get cleaned up after former interim CEO Ellen Pao attempted to deal with the constant harassment on Reddit, and was drowned in it. That incident wasn’t enough, apparently, for Huffman to get the message about just how big of a problem Reddit is, and how he’s allowed it all to happen.

“The fact I was saying that combating harassment was important and then letting that openly happen to me, the CEO, there’s a disconnect there,” he said. Huffman apologized in a statement, saying he “will never risk your trust like this again.”

[…]

Huffman clearly sees that harassment is an issue, but it took a deluge of insults to recognize the problem is more complex than simply clear-cut personal attacks.

Nice words, but will any of it matter? I suppose we’ll see. Full story at Think Progress.

Jew Jeans, Pick My Mad Cotton, So There! (Continuation 12).

levis

Levi Jeans has decided they don’t want customers with guns in their stores. Seems reasonable to me. I don’t want to be around people with loaded guns while looking for a pair of jeans. Naturally, the gun fondlers are more than a tad upset. As far as they are concerned, this means all Levi stores will be rushed by eager robbers, as I guess the only thing that keeps them out are armed customers. Who knew?

Gun rights advocates erupted in predictable outrage Wednesday after the famed denim brand Levi Strauss & Co asked customers not to carry firearms in its stores.

“Providing a safe environment to work and shop is a top priority for us at Levi Strauss & Co,” CEO Chip Bergh wrote Wednesday in a LinkedIn post. “That imperative is quickly challenged, however, when a weapon is carried into one of our stores. Recently, we had an incident in one of our stores where a gun inadvertently went off, injuring the customer who was carrying it.”

Bergh noted that as an international brand, the company felt impacted by the attacks in Paris, Nice and Orlando, adding “the presence of firearms in our stores creates an unsettling environment for many of our employees and customers.”

The Levi’s CEO said the company’s policy “boils down to this: You shouldn’t have to be concerned about your safety while shopping for clothes or trying on a pair of jeans.”

2nd Amendment activists took to Twitter calling for a boycott of the brand.

There’s a selection of said tweets at Raw Story, many calling for a boycott of the “Jew Jeans”.

Colorado Doctor Michelle Herren (Denver Channel, screenshot).

Colorado Doctor Michelle Herren (Denver Channel, screenshot).

An anesthesiologist with Denver Health is facing backlash over her racist Facebook remarks about First Lady Michelle Obama, the Denver Post reports.

Dr. Michelle Herren responded to a post about Obama’e eloquence, which also noted that the first lady was a graduate of Princeton University and then Harvard Law.

Herren wrote, “Doesn’t seem to be speaking too eloquently here, thank god we can’t hear her!” She added, “Harvard??? That’s a place for ‘entitled’ folks said all the liberals!”

JoAnn Nieto, a friend of the original poster told the Denver Post that she was outraged by the comments, and especially after learning where Herren worked. “It really outraged me to see that she works at Denver Health, which serves a huge minority population,” Nieto said.

Herren’s comments got progressively worse. In a following comment, she wrote, “Monkey face and poor ebonic English!!! There! I feel better and am still not racist!!! Just calling it like it is!” But she is “still not racist.”

Okay, you aren’t a racist. An evil, thoughtless, idiotic bigot. Better now?

Full story here.

As for the last story, I’ll just leave this here, you can find details here and here:

jnxmsmxcnrgchg9wu9x6

“Time for a Tree and a Rope” (Continuation 9).

Burnet County Judge James Oakley made racist comments on Facebook (Facebook.com).

Burnet County Judge James Oakley made racist comments on Facebook (Facebook.com).

According to the Austin Statesman, County Judge James Oakley is under fire for typing “Time for a tree and a rope” under a mugshot of accused cop-killer Otis Tyrone McKane, who was arrested on Monday in San Antonio and charged with the shooting death of police Det. Benjamin Marconi.

Oakley has since taken down the post, but blogger Larry Landaker of PEC Truthwatch was able to take a screen capture of the offensive comment before it disappeared.

Via Raw Story.

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Body Cameras: “we can make this disappear”

Shutterstock.

Shutterstock.

A whistleblower in Albuquerque, NM, has revealed all the nasty stuff done with SD cards and reports when it comes to body cameras. I don’t think this will surprise anyone in the least, but it does point to a big problem with body cameras: cops have control of them. If they are going to work in the way intended, cops, no matter how high up the chain, cannot be allowed control of them in any way. If not, it’s the same old problem of what the cops say goes.

The Albuquerque Police Department is coming under fire after former records supervisor, Reynaldo Chavez, gave a sworn affidavit claiming officers altered and deleted body camera videos.

According to New Mexico In Depth, after at least two police shootings, videos were deleted or edited so they didn’t show the incident.

[…]

He also said that video cards were easy to take or conveniently lose. He heard Assistant Chief Robert Huntsman confess “we can make this disappear” discussing the body camera videos that were on the SD cards.

The disappearances weren’t unique to patrol officers. Chavez revealed that officers in multiple divisions, including specialized units, were all told not to write reports until there was a review of the body camera videos. If the videos didn’t contain anything concerning, the officers could write up the report on what was recorded. If images were considered “problematic,” officers were told not to mention the recording in the report, write “the recording equipment had malfunctioned” or say that the officer failed to turn on the body camera.

If there were reports that detailed what occurred in the recording, “the video would be altered or corrupted if it was damaging to the police department,” Chavez said.

Full story here.

The Natural Reassertion of Biology (Continuation 7).

Daryush "Roosh V" Valizadeh.

Daryush “Roosh V” Valizadeh.

The laughable manosphere’s Roosh V is absolutely giddy over Trump’s win. If you aren’t familiar with this particular asspimple, have a wander at We Hunted the Mammoth. Roosh has all kinds of ideas, but they are always bad ideas which meet failure. One of those failed ideas was an attempt to make rape legal if it happened on private property. He’s quite thrilled to have a manly macho man as his prez, a dude who also doesn’t like fat chicks. Out of passing curiosity, I wonder if Roosh has bothered to ponder what Trump’s cabinet would make of his looks and name? There’s already talk of bringing back internment camps, like those which housed American citizens who happened to be Japanese. As usual, Roosh isn’t too good at that thinky stuff.

…We now have a President who will not encourage anti-male propaganda, rape culture, and female victimhood. While I do have minor concerns on the influence of his feminist-minded daughter, Ivanka, Trump will not continue the attack on men that has been institutionalized since the sexual revolution and accelerated during the eight years of Obama. Because our current cultural dystopia is the result of intense long-term manipulation, it is more than enough for Trump to simply not touch the gender issue to allow the culture to return to a more patriarchal order. Stop feeding the rot and it will die off, allowing biology to naturally reassert itself.

Full story here.

tranny_die-800x4301-800x430

Trans woman’s car vandalized in Denver, CO (Screengrab)

A transgender woman in Denver, Colo. woke up Wednesday to find her car covered in graffiti and hate messages, including a swastika and the phrase “fag die he she.”

“I got up this morning to go to work and the car was parked a couple of doors down,” Amber Timmons told Denver 7. “I came out and was surprised to see it all covered in graffiti and hate messages.”

Timmons’ car was covered in black paint with words like “tranny” and “Trump” drawn alongside Nazi symbols. She had previously written “love trumps hate” and “not my president” in erasable marker on her windows.

Full story here.

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“Pres. Trump Says This Is Okay.” (Continuation 6)

Brittany Daughenbaugh. Facebook.

Brittany Daughenbaugh. Facebook.

Brittany Daughenbaugh couldn’t sleep, so the Capital University student decided to go on a Pokemon Go hunt in the early hours of Thursday morning. She had seen the men across Francis Street but paid them no mind. She was on the trail of a good catch.

“Suddenly, they’re behind me,” Daughenbaugh, 20, said Monday. One man wore a “Make America Great Again” hat and the other a “Trump-Pence” sweatshirt.

She said the sweatshirted man grabbed her arm and told her, “Don’t you worry, honey. President Trump says this is OK.” He then punched her in the face and the arm. She fell, hit her head on the pavement and blacked out.

[…]

She wrote a lengthy Facebook post Friday about the attack, in part as a warning to other Capital students to be careful, but also to encourage only nonviolent opposition to the bigotry and aggression.

“Protest and fight, but do it peacefully. Do not burn the flag. Do not vandalize. Do not fight hate with hate,” she wrote. “The only way to fix this is with willpower, passion and love.”

Her post drew scores of comments of support, but one man wrote that the facial bruise in her Facebook photo was a “terrible makeup job.”

“Take your agenda and lies someplace else and quit trying to get attention and smear someone’s name,” he wrote.

Full story at The Columbus Dispatch.

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