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IronLionZion
IronLionZion's Journal
IronLionZion's Journal
February 17, 2017
Tillerson presides over abrupt shakeup at State Department
Source: CNN
Washington (CNN)Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has reassigned a majority of the staff meant to work most closely with the top US diplomat in what career officials at the State Department fear is the start of a major reorganization.
The news sent shock waves through the agency and has left career officials on edge, in part because of its abrupt nature -- taking place before their assignments end this summer and replacements have been found -- and in part because these officials help the secretary, a government novice, work with policy experts throughout the building.
While Tillerson was on his first overseas trip at the G20 in Bonn, Germany, his aides told the entire staff in the offices of the deputy secretary of state for management and resources and the State Department counselor that their current assignments were prematurely coming to an end, according to senior aides.
Staff who worked for the head of the latter division, State Department Counselor Kristie Kenney, was told Tillerson does not intend to keep her position. Kenney was one of the last remaining senior officials at the department, having served as an ambassador under Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and is expected to retire next week. An aide to Tillerson told CNN, "no decisions have been made" about scrapping the offices permanently.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/17/politics/tillerson-state-department-shakeup/index.html
February 15, 2017
That’s H. R. 861. Not the title of H. R. 861, it’s the whole bill.
The bill, introduced by Florida Republican Matt Gaetz and co-sponsored by Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, Mississippi’s Steven Palazzo, and Georgia’s Barry Loudermilk doesn’t bother with anything like wondering what happens to the data the agency collects, or the enforcement the agency carries out. It doesn’t sweat the details of employees or contracts. There’s nothing about what happens to the Clean Air Act, or the Clean Water Act, or the Endangered Species Act, or … anything at all.
Just ‘terminated.’
Of course, Republicans already have an alternative means of destroying the EPA in place. Under Scott Pruitt, the plan is already underway to subvert and pervert the agency’s mission, to make sure it is critically understaffed, to turn it into a prime example of a non-functional bureaucracy.
So it’s likely that Gaetz’s bill won’t get the support it needs. This time.
EPA, Consumer Finance Protection Agency, Election Assistance Commission, financial regulatory agencies, they are going to destroy this country before they make it great again? Soon we'll be left with just a military and border patrol?
The Environmental Protection Agency shall terminate on December 31, 2018
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/02/15/1634007/-The-Environmental-Protection-Agency-shall-terminate-on-December-31-2018?detail=facebookThat’s H. R. 861. Not the title of H. R. 861, it’s the whole bill.
The Environmental Protection Agency shall terminate on December 31, 2018.
The bill, introduced by Florida Republican Matt Gaetz and co-sponsored by Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, Mississippi’s Steven Palazzo, and Georgia’s Barry Loudermilk doesn’t bother with anything like wondering what happens to the data the agency collects, or the enforcement the agency carries out. It doesn’t sweat the details of employees or contracts. There’s nothing about what happens to the Clean Air Act, or the Clean Water Act, or the Endangered Species Act, or … anything at all.
Just ‘terminated.’
Of course, Republicans already have an alternative means of destroying the EPA in place. Under Scott Pruitt, the plan is already underway to subvert and pervert the agency’s mission, to make sure it is critically understaffed, to turn it into a prime example of a non-functional bureaucracy.
So it’s likely that Gaetz’s bill won’t get the support it needs. This time.
EPA, Consumer Finance Protection Agency, Election Assistance Commission, financial regulatory agencies, they are going to destroy this country before they make it great again? Soon we'll be left with just a military and border patrol?
February 8, 2017
Never Remember Atlanta. Thoughts and prayers for the nonexistent victims of the Atlanta attack that happened only in Sean Spicer's imagination and got covered up by every law enforcement agency and media outlet to help Obama. The survivors have been silenced by socialism.
Spicer Makes Up New Islamist Attack
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/spicer-makes-up-new-islamist-attack/ar-AAmIP8G?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp
Kellyanne Conway’s “Bowling Green massacre” isn’t the only case of a White House aide pointing to a terror attack that didn’t happen to make the case for President Donald Trump’s controversial executive order limiting travel from seven majority-Muslim countries.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer has repeatedly pointed to Atlanta, along with San Bernardino and Boston, as one of three U.S. cities that have been attacked by Islamist terrorists to argue that the Trump administration needed to act quickly to prevent another attack in the future.
While the Boston bombing and shootings in San Bernadino were both carried out by Islamist terrorists, neither involved foreign nationals from the seven countries in Trump’s executive order. There has never been an Islamist terror attack in Atlanta.
In a Jan. 29 appearance on ABC’s This Week, Spicer explained to Martha Raddatz that the White House needed to implement its executive order quickly, before another terror attack could take place. “What do we say to the family that loses somebody over a terroristic (sic), to whether it’s Atlanta or San Bernardino or the Boston bomber?”
Kellyanne Conway’s “Bowling Green massacre” isn’t the only case of a White House aide pointing to a terror attack that didn’t happen to make the case for President Donald Trump’s controversial executive order limiting travel from seven majority-Muslim countries.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer has repeatedly pointed to Atlanta, along with San Bernardino and Boston, as one of three U.S. cities that have been attacked by Islamist terrorists to argue that the Trump administration needed to act quickly to prevent another attack in the future.
While the Boston bombing and shootings in San Bernadino were both carried out by Islamist terrorists, neither involved foreign nationals from the seven countries in Trump’s executive order. There has never been an Islamist terror attack in Atlanta.
In a Jan. 29 appearance on ABC’s This Week, Spicer explained to Martha Raddatz that the White House needed to implement its executive order quickly, before another terror attack could take place. “What do we say to the family that loses somebody over a terroristic (sic), to whether it’s Atlanta or San Bernardino or the Boston bomber?”
Never Remember Atlanta. Thoughts and prayers for the nonexistent victims of the Atlanta attack that happened only in Sean Spicer's imagination and got covered up by every law enforcement agency and media outlet to help Obama. The survivors have been silenced by socialism.
February 4, 2017
I love it when I wake up in the morning and America's allies are trolling our awful president! Especially when other governments have way more women than ours.
Swedish climate minister appears to mock Trump administration with all-women photo
http://thehill.com/homenews/news/317758-swedish-climate-minister-appears-to-mock-trump-administration-with-all-woman
Swedish Deputy Prime Minister and Climate Minister Isabella Lövin appeared to mock the Trump administration with a photo of herself surrounded by women as she signs a climate law.
In the photo, Lövin stares straight at the camera and is surrounded by seven women as she signs a law that set a goal of phasing out fossil fuels by 2045.
The photo bears a resemblance to an image of President Trump signing an executive order on his third day in office to restrict funds for overseas organizations that provide abortion services or support abortion rights.
In the photo, Trump is surrounded by Vice President Pence and six male advisers.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) presented the photo on the House floor last week.
“Look at this picture. Where are the women?” Maloney asked. “Yesterday, the president signed an executive order affecting and restricting healthcare for millions of women across the world while no woman was present.”
Swedish Deputy Prime Minister and Climate Minister Isabella Lövin appeared to mock the Trump administration with a photo of herself surrounded by women as she signs a climate law.
In the photo, Lövin stares straight at the camera and is surrounded by seven women as she signs a law that set a goal of phasing out fossil fuels by 2045.
The photo bears a resemblance to an image of President Trump signing an executive order on his third day in office to restrict funds for overseas organizations that provide abortion services or support abortion rights.
In the photo, Trump is surrounded by Vice President Pence and six male advisers.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) presented the photo on the House floor last week.
“Look at this picture. Where are the women?” Maloney asked. “Yesterday, the president signed an executive order affecting and restricting healthcare for millions of women across the world while no woman was present.”
I love it when I wake up in the morning and America's allies are trolling our awful president! Especially when other governments have way more women than ours.
February 2, 2017
Safe to assume that everything they put out are alternative facts? Not sure if there has been any truth from them yet.
"no one from the White House press corps corrected him or followed up." which is exactly why they needed to purge the white house press corps and pack it with their insane supporters.
Video at the link
More links:
Press Secretary Sean Spicer Falsely Accuses Iran of Attacking U.S. Navy Vessel, an Act of War
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/02/press-secretary-sean-spicer-falsely-accuses-iran-of-attacking-u-s-navy-vessel-an-act-of-war/
Trump administration 'officially putting Iran on notice', says Michael Flynn
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/01/iran-trump-michael-flynn-on-notice
Do you think the American people have learned from past mistakes?
Sean Spicer claims that Houthi rebel assault on Saudi frigate was an Iranian attack on a US warship
http://boingboing.net/2017/02/02/sean-spicer-claims-that-houthi.html
Houthi rebels from Yemen attacked a Saudi frigate; White House spokesman Sean Spicer falsely claimed that this was Iranian forces attacking a US Naval ship and thus an act of war; no one from the White House press corps corrected him or followed up.
Houthi rebels from Yemen attacked a Saudi frigate; White House spokesman Sean Spicer falsely claimed that this was Iranian forces attacking a US Naval ship and thus an act of war; no one from the White House press corps corrected him or followed up.
The White House Press corps wanted to know what being put “on notice” entailed, and Spicer responded by claiming that Iran’s government took actions against a U.S. naval vessel, which would be an act of war. “I think General Flynn was really clear yesterday that Iran has violated the Joint Resolution that Iran’s additional hostile actions that it took against our navy vessel are ones that we are very clear are not going to sit by and take,” he said.
Pentagon Spokesman Christopher Sherwood confirmed to The Intercept that the attack was in fact conducted against a Saudi warship, and that the Pentagon suspects Houthi rebels. “It was a Saudi ship – it was actually a frigate” said Sherwood. “It was [conducted by] suspected Houthi rebels off the coast of Yemen.”
Safe to assume that everything they put out are alternative facts? Not sure if there has been any truth from them yet.
"no one from the White House press corps corrected him or followed up." which is exactly why they needed to purge the white house press corps and pack it with their insane supporters.
Video at the link
More links:
Press Secretary Sean Spicer Falsely Accuses Iran of Attacking U.S. Navy Vessel, an Act of War
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/02/press-secretary-sean-spicer-falsely-accuses-iran-of-attacking-u-s-navy-vessel-an-act-of-war/
Trump administration 'officially putting Iran on notice', says Michael Flynn
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/01/iran-trump-michael-flynn-on-notice
Do you think the American people have learned from past mistakes?
February 2, 2017
http://onehotmessalaska.blogspot.com/2017/02/frederick-douglass-opens-twitter.html
@realFrederickDouglass: My autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, is #1 best-seller on Amazon. 4x better sales than Art of the Deal! P.S. I am dead!
@realFrederickDouglass: Hope you like everything I did for women's suffrage! Even the losers, haters, and flat-chested "fives." Enjoy!
@realFrederickDouglass: Appreciate @realDonaldTrump congrats on AMAZING job I did to secretly educate myself and other slaves while still living under slavery in Maryland. My work is finally being recognized!
@realFrederickDouglass: @realDonaldTrump, your FAKE NATIONAL SECURITY immigrant BAN goes against everything I stood for (when I was alive 122 yrs ago). A horrible mess!
@realFrederickDouglass: My abolitionist paper, The North Star, has much better coverage of me than the failing New York Times has of @realDonaldTrump!
@realFrederickDouglass: @realDonaldTrump pretended to know who I was when he obviously has no fucking idea. VERY DISHONEST!
Unfortunately the twitter account is down due to discrimination against dead people tweeting.
I'll admit that I didn't know much about him other than he was a former slave turned abolitionist leader in the 1800s. But I did some googling inspired by Trump and learned that he also did a lot of stuff for the women's suffrage movement and married a white suffragist.
Frederick Douglass Opens Twitter Account from Beyond the Grave to Troll President Trump
https://twitter.com/BusterBlonde/status/827080896222109696http://onehotmessalaska.blogspot.com/2017/02/frederick-douglass-opens-twitter.html
@realFrederickDouglass: My autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, is #1 best-seller on Amazon. 4x better sales than Art of the Deal! P.S. I am dead!
@realFrederickDouglass: Hope you like everything I did for women's suffrage! Even the losers, haters, and flat-chested "fives." Enjoy!
@realFrederickDouglass: Appreciate @realDonaldTrump congrats on AMAZING job I did to secretly educate myself and other slaves while still living under slavery in Maryland. My work is finally being recognized!
@realFrederickDouglass: @realDonaldTrump, your FAKE NATIONAL SECURITY immigrant BAN goes against everything I stood for (when I was alive 122 yrs ago). A horrible mess!
@realFrederickDouglass: My abolitionist paper, The North Star, has much better coverage of me than the failing New York Times has of @realDonaldTrump!
@realFrederickDouglass: @realDonaldTrump pretended to know who I was when he obviously has no fucking idea. VERY DISHONEST!
Unfortunately the twitter account is down due to discrimination against dead people tweeting.
I'll admit that I didn't know much about him other than he was a former slave turned abolitionist leader in the 1800s. But I did some googling inspired by Trump and learned that he also did a lot of stuff for the women's suffrage movement and married a white suffragist.
February 2, 2017
Who will they screw next?
Trump targets tech's H-1B visa hiring tool
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/01/30/trump-targets-techs-h1b-visa-hiring-tool/97240588/
SAN FRANCISCO — President Trump's relationship with Silicon Valley has always been volatile at best, but it seems things soon may get even more contentious.
Administration officials have drafted a new executive order aimed at overhauling, among other things, the H-1B work-visa program that technology companies have long relied on to bring top foreign engineering talent to their U.S.-based locations.
In his news briefing Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the possible executive order on work visas "is part of a larger immigration effort" and stems from "an overall need to look at all of these measures."
The order, which has yet to come into effect, arrives on the heels of Friday's controversial immigration ban targeting seven majority-Muslim countries that sparked protests at airports around the country over the weekend.
SAN FRANCISCO — President Trump's relationship with Silicon Valley has always been volatile at best, but it seems things soon may get even more contentious.
Administration officials have drafted a new executive order aimed at overhauling, among other things, the H-1B work-visa program that technology companies have long relied on to bring top foreign engineering talent to their U.S.-based locations.
In his news briefing Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the possible executive order on work visas "is part of a larger immigration effort" and stems from "an overall need to look at all of these measures."
The order, which has yet to come into effect, arrives on the heels of Friday's controversial immigration ban targeting seven majority-Muslim countries that sparked protests at airports around the country over the weekend.
Who will they screw next?
February 1, 2017
Oh yes, these workers know they are risking their jobs for the resistance seeing how quickly Acting Attorney General Sally Yates got fired.
Most Trump orders are unconscionable.
Resistance from within: Federal workers push back against Trump
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/resistance-from-within-federal-workers-push-back-against-trump/ar-AAmts5m?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp
The signs of popular dissent from President Trump’s opening volley of actions have been plain to see on the nation’s streets, at airports in the aftermath of his refugee and visa ban, and in the blizzard of outrage on social media. But there’s another level of resistance to the new president that is less visible and potentially more troublesome to the administration: a growing wave of opposition from the federal workers charged with implementing any new president’s agenda.
Less than two weeks into Trump’s administration, federal workers are in regular consultation with recently departed Obama-era political appointees about what they can do to push back against the new president’s initiatives. Some federal employees have set up social media accounts to anonymously leak word of changes that Trump appointees are trying to make.
And a few government workers are pushing back more openly, incurring the wrath of a White House that, as press secretary Sean Spicer said this week about dissenters at the State Department, sends a clear message that they “should either get with the program, or they can go.”
At a church in Columbia Heights last weekend, dozens of federal workers attended a support group for civil servants seeking a forumto discuss their opposition to the Trump administration. And 180 federal employees have signed up for a workshop next weekend, where experts will offer advice on workers’ rights and how they can express civil disobedience.
The signs of popular dissent from President Trump’s opening volley of actions have been plain to see on the nation’s streets, at airports in the aftermath of his refugee and visa ban, and in the blizzard of outrage on social media. But there’s another level of resistance to the new president that is less visible and potentially more troublesome to the administration: a growing wave of opposition from the federal workers charged with implementing any new president’s agenda.
Less than two weeks into Trump’s administration, federal workers are in regular consultation with recently departed Obama-era political appointees about what they can do to push back against the new president’s initiatives. Some federal employees have set up social media accounts to anonymously leak word of changes that Trump appointees are trying to make.
And a few government workers are pushing back more openly, incurring the wrath of a White House that, as press secretary Sean Spicer said this week about dissenters at the State Department, sends a clear message that they “should either get with the program, or they can go.”
At a church in Columbia Heights last weekend, dozens of federal workers attended a support group for civil servants seeking a forumto discuss their opposition to the Trump administration. And 180 federal employees have signed up for a workshop next weekend, where experts will offer advice on workers’ rights and how they can express civil disobedience.
Oh yes, these workers know they are risking their jobs for the resistance seeing how quickly Acting Attorney General Sally Yates got fired.
“You’re going to see the bureaucrats using time to their advantage,” said the employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Through leaks to news organizations and internal complaints, he said, “people here will resist and push back against orders they find unconscionable.”
Most Trump orders are unconscionable.
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Southwestern PA
Home country: USA
Current location: Washington, DC
Member since: Mon Nov 10, 2003, 07:36 PM
Number of posts: 45,430
