Meeting of the Coup Clucks Clan interrupted by Covid

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The long and the short of it

Our democracy hangs by a thread

The Trump fiasco is laying the groundwork for a more competent future Republican to destroy our country.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 11/29:  Case thrown out by PA Supreme Court.

Burn it all down

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Because of course he did

A former speechwriter fired from the White House in 2018 for attending a conference at which white supremacists were also present has been appointed to a commission tasked with preserving Holocaust-related sites across Europe.

The former speechwriter, Darren Beattie, will join the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.

[...]

Over the course of his presidency, Trump has stocked various boards, councils and commissions with functionaries who seem antithetical to the work of the federal government. One of his appointments to the board of Amtrak, for example, was Todd Rokita, a former Indiana congressman who opposed Amtrak funding.

[...]

[Beattie's] appointment comes shortly after Beattie, in comments made on Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show, compared supposed efforts to oust President Trump to the “color revolutions” that defeated authoritarian leaders across Eastern Europe. Beattie said those efforts were being engineered by Norm Eisen, an ethics attorney who served in the Obama administration.

  Yahoo

Norm Eisen - a Jew.

Beattie has also suggested that George Soros was behind attempts to remove Trump from office, though the financier and philanthropist’s efforts constitute little more than the kind of ordinary political contributions that both sides routinely engage in.

George Soros - a Jew.

Beattie’s three-year term on the commission gives him, like other Trump appointees, a foothold in the federal bureaucracy long after President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

[...]

The Anti-Defamation League, which was founded to combat anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred, called on Trump to “immediately rescind” the appointment. “It is absolutely outrageous that someone who has consorted with racists would even be considered for a position on a commission devoted to preserving Holocaust memorials in Europe,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt in a statement.

[...]

Beattie, who describes himself as Jewish, in many ways embodies Trump’s complicated relationship with American Jews. Although the president has been popular with Israelis, American Jews overwhelmingly voted for Biden in this month’s election.

[...]

Beattie’s own convictions appear to track closely with those of Stephen Miller, with whom he worked at the White House.

According to an online biography from 2019, Beattie is “currently writing a book in defense of Trumpist Nationalism.” [...]

According to an online biography from 2019, Beattie is “currently writing a book in defense of Trumpist Nationalism.”

[...]

Another of the appointments announced on Tuesday was that of Jackie Gingrich Cushman to the Adams Memorial Commission, which is working to establish a monument to John Adams, the nation’s second president.

Gingrich Cushman is the daughter of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Trump's scorched earth policy

Making America great again

Is this how the Iranians felt when the mullahs took over?

The Trump administration has recently removed the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the nation’s premier scientific agency, installed new political staff who have questioned accepted facts about climate change and imposed stricter controls on communications at the agency.

The moves threaten to stifle a major source of objective United States government information about climate change that underpins federal rules on greenhouse gas emissions and offer an indication of the direction the agency will take if President Trump wins re-election.

[...]

NOAA officials have tried to get information about what role the new political staff members would play and what their objectives might be, with little success. According to people close to the administration who have questioned climate science, though, their primary goal is to undercut the National Climate Assessment.

[...]

[Judith Curry, a former chairwoman of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and] others said that, if Mr. Trump wins re-election, further changes at NOAA would include removing longtime authors of the [National Climate Assessment] and adding new ones who challenge the degree to which warming is occurring, the extent to which it is caused by human activities and the danger it poses to human health, national security and the economy.

A biased or diminished climate assessment would have wide-ranging implications.

It could be used in court to bolster the positions of fossil fuel companies being sued for climate damages. It could counter congressional efforts to reduce carbon emissions. And, it ultimately could weaken what is known as the “endangerment finding,” a 2009 scientific finding by the Environmental Protection Agency that said greenhouse gases endanger public health and thus obliged the federal government to regulate carbon dioxide emissions under the Clean Air Act.

[...]

Dr. Noble, the new chief of staff, has already pushed to install a new layer of scrutiny on grants that NOAA awards for climate research, according to people familiar with those discussions.

  NYT

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Deconstructing America

President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order creating a new classification of “policy-making” federal employees that could strip swaths of the federal workforce of civil service protections just before the next president is sworn into office.

Positions in the new Schedule F would effectively constitute at-will employment, without any of the protections against adverse personnel actions that most federal workers currently enjoy, although individual agencies are tasked with establishing “rules to prohibit the same personnel practices prohibited” by Title 5 of the U.S. Code. The order also instructs the Federal Labor Relations Authority to examine whether Schedule F employees should be removed from their bargaining units, a move that would bar them from being represented by federal employee unions.

[...]

The order sets a swift timetable for implementation: Agencies have 90 days to conduct a “preliminary” review of their workforces to determine who should be moved into the new employee classification—a deadline that coincides with Jan. 19, the day before the next presidential inauguration.

[...]

“The [1883] Pendleton Act is clearly in the sights of this executive order,” said Donald Kettl, the Sid Richardson professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. “It wants to undo what the Pendleton Act and subsequent civil service laws tried to accomplish, which was to create a career civil service with expertise that is both accountable to elected officials but also a repository of expertise in government. The argument here is that anyone involved in policymaking can be swept into this new classification, and once they’re in they’re subject to political review and dismissal for any reason.”

[...]

“This executive order strips due process rights and protections from perhaps hundreds of thousands of federal employees and will enable political appointees and other officials to hire and fire these workers at will,” [American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett] Kelley said. “Through this order, President Trump has declared war on the professional civil service by giving himself the authority to fill the government with his political cronies who will pledge their unwavering loyalty to him—not to America.”

  GovExec.com

Despicable. And just another reason why we need to do away with executive orders.

He's already fired too many.  He doesn't want to answer to anybody about it.

The House of Representatives is now considering a bill to amend the Inspector General Act to limit the reasons for which inspectors general can be fired and to require the president to produce documentation showing cause exists before firing any of them. That’s a good idea, even if there’s little chance the Republican-led Senate will consider it, and it may be challenged in court on constitutional grounds. Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, has offered another worthwhile suggestion, this one for whistleblowers. She urges Congress to give federal workers the right to press claims of whistleblower retaliation in jury trials. As for the civil service, I encourage Congress to shore up due process protections for career federal employees by guaranteeing all of them the right to seek independent review of major disciplinary actions against them, with ample time for processing their complaints and filing appeals.

[...]

I believe we need reform, yet there’s a limit to what laws can do. The Supreme Court has weakened the conflict-of-interest laws we have on the books. Trump and his Republican wrecking crew are ripping out the floorboards under the government ethics program. His administration has taught us the difference between theory and application and shown us what immunity to accountability looks like. What good are laws if no one in power will enforce them?

  NY Books

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Ratcliffe as DNI

Rather than operating as an honest steward of the large and important intelligence community, [John] Ratcliffe appears to regard the nation’s secrets as a place to hunt for nuggets that can be used as political weapons — sources and methods be damned. Even if the particular material he declassifies is not especially sensitive, the failure to provide proper context, sourcing or background only serves to confuse the public and distract voters.

That may be the point.

  NYT

Count on it.

Mr. Ratcliffe, like Maj. Gen. Willoughby before him, seems to think his job is to serve only his boss, who requires that everyone agree with him at all times.

[...]

Creating a fictional narrative for political purposes requires corrupting a system that relies on in-depth, contextual and all-source analysis. However, if you are sending damaging signals to allies, potential sources or even your own officers, it is child’s play to concoct any story you wish by plucking selective details from the millions and millions of pages held by the intelligence agencies.

[...]

Hastily considered declassification of selective secret material runs the risk of exposing sources and methods, assisting foreign adversaries and undercutting the trust of our allies. And why would allies or potential sources be willing to share their secrets with intelligence officials who won’t hesitate to publicize their information if they see short-term political benefit?

[...]

Our allies and sources must trust us. And policymakers need to trust that intelligence professionals are providing the very best, unbiased analysis. If that bond of trust is breached, and motives and honesty are questioned, the intelligence is worthless.

Burn it all down

Thousands of oil and gas operations, government facilities and other sites in the United States have obtained permission to stop monitoring for hazardous emissions - or otherwise bypass rules intended to protect health and the environment - because of the coronavirus outbreak.

[...]

The report said US President Donald Trump's administration paved the way for the reduced monitoring on March 26 after being pressured by the oil and gas industry, which said lockdowns and physical distancing during the pandemic made it difficult to comply with pollution rules.

  alJazeera

How convenient this pandemic is for some.

A two-month review by AP found that waivers were granted in more than 3,000 cases, representing the overwhelming majority of requests citing the outbreak. Hundreds were approved for oil and gas companies.

[...]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says its clemency does not authorise exceeding pollution limits. Regulators will pursue those who "did not act responsibly under the circumstances", EPA spokesperson James Hewitt said.

[...]

"The harm from this policy is already done," said Cynthia Giles, former EPA assistant administrator under the Obama administration.

EPA said it will end the clemency this month.

The findings run counter to statements in late June by EPA official Susan Bodine, who told legislators the pandemic was not causing "a significant impact on routine compliance, monitoring and reporting" and that industry was not widely seeking relief from monitoring.

Define "widely" and "significant", eh?

EPA enforcement data shows 40 percent fewer tests of smokestacks were conducted in March and April compared with the same period last year, according to the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, a network of academics and non-profits.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Bill Barr, looking in a mirror

Which is what the right has been doing since Reagan.  Unless the system he's concerned about is the racist, classist one.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Destroying the postal service

[Postmaster General Louis DeJoy] admitted to slowing down the mail, through “reductions of overtime availability, restrictions on extra mail transportation trips, testing of new sorting and delivery policies at hundreds of Post Offices, and the reduction of the number and use of processing equipment at mail processing plants.”

[...]

More members of Congress are demanding a reversal to these orders, including rural Republicans, whose constituents rely on consistent mail service. There’s also the point that delaying the mail deliberately is a criminal offense, though I don’t see Bill Barr sending anyone over to cuff the Postmaster General anytime soon.

[...]

The Postal Service has informed states that they’ll need to pay first-class 55-cent postage to mail ballots to voters, rather than the normal 20-cent bulk rate. That nearly triples the per-ballot cost at a time when tens of millions more will be delivered. The rate change would have to go through the Postal Regulatory Commission and, undoubtedly, litigation. But the time frame for that is incredibly short, as ballots go out very soon.

  The American Prosect

That's not all, of course.

Government watchdogs, Democratic lawmakers, and pro-democracy advocates declared it a "Friday Night Massacre" for the U.S. Postal Service after news broke in a classic end-of-the-week dump that Louis DeJoy—a major GOP donor to President Donald Trump and the recently appointed Postmaster General—had issued a sweeping overhaul of the agency, including the ouster of top executives from key posts and the reshuffling of more than two dozen other officials and operational managers.

"Trump is actively sabotaging the election under our noses—this isn't theoretical, it's happening RIGHT NOW." —Brian Tyler Cohen, political commentator.

[...]

[T]he moves unveiled late Friday were viewed as an overt assault on democracy and a calculated opportunity to boost Republicans' long-held dream of undercutting or privatizing the government-run mail service while also boosting their election prospects in the process.

[...]

[T]he reshuffling of top managers and executives—as well as a hiring freeze and push for early retirements—"worried postal analysts, who say the tone of DeJoy's first eight weeks and his restructuring have recast the nation's mail service as a for-profit arm of the government, rather than an essential service."

[...]

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), chair of the House subcommittee which has oversight for the USPS, said what DeJoy is trying to pass off as simple organizational restructuring is actually "a Trojan Horse" designed to destroy one of the nation's most trusted and valued institutions from within.

Connolly on Friday night called it, "Deliberate sabotage to disrupt mail service on the eve of the election—an election that hinges on mail-in ballots."

  Salon

Since the Pony Express, mail service has been an indispensable part of our society.  To scrap it so the Republican Party can maintain power is an outrage only the Republican Party would dream up.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Meanwhile in Portland

In recent days the Department of Homeland Security has dispatched federal law enforcement officers to Portland, scene of more than 50 consecutive nights of protests, which have regularly included damage to the federal courthouse and other major buildings.

  The Bulwark

From other things I've read, the "dmage" is graffiti.

Despite loose talk about “graffiti” as the main offense, the nightly outbreaks at the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse have included repeated arson attempts. The federal government is not required by law to wait until one of these attempts succeeds in burning down the courthouse before dispatching law enforcement to protect it. Nor is DHS required to accommodate the wishes of either the local or state elected officials that it stay away.

Much of the Civil Rights Era involved agents of the federal government wading into cities and states where the locals did not want them in order to enforce the law.

[...]

To observe that the federal government has vast authority to deploy personnel to ordinarily local law enforcement situations does not mean either that it should do so in this case or even that it should have so much such power.

[...]

U.S. Attorney for Oregon, Billy Williams, said he wants an investigation into the actions of the federal agents.

Congress should also investigate and, as appropriate, draw up new legislation to clarify and limit federal police powers and tactics.

[...]

DHS, which houses multiple law enforcement agencies (as does the separate Department of Justice), seems to have organized the federal law enforcement response.

[...]

While local police practice may require the use of such identifiers, it may come as an unpleasant surprise for people to learn that federal law does not as a rule require federal law enforcers to wear [badges identifying them by name].

[...]

The practice in Portland echoed the events of June when the U.S. Department of Justice hastily organized employees from multiple agencies, including the Bureau of Prisons, to counter protests in Washington, D.C. Many of these officers lacked not only badges but any insignia indicating which agency they belonged to. It took days of press questions to get even some of the basics on the record.

[...]

Unmarked police vehicles are not new. In this case, however, it is alleged that the camo-clad teams are picking persons off the street, bundling them into unmarked vehicles, and driving them away from the scene. In [an] NPR interview, [ acting Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Ken] Cuccinelli basically conceded the essentials of this allegation and defended the use of unmarked vans as a way “to keep both the officers safe and also, when crowds gathered, to move people to a safe location for questioning.”

[...]

In the absence of a warrant, an arrest can be made only for probable cause. On Cuccinelli’s telling, the individuals are being arrested on probable cause of having committed crimes involving the federal courthouse in Portland.

In the episode related by OPB and most widely cited in the new reports, a protester named Mark Pettibone alleges that he was picked up at some distance from the courthouse, bundled into a van, and taken to a location for questioning—which turned out to be the U.S. courthouse itself. Then, after Pettibone refused to answer further questions without a lawyer, he claims he was released after 90 minutes, without charges or paperwork of any kind documenting his detention.

Cuccinelli did not address the Pettibone case directly in his NPR interview. But he did acknowledge a case in which agents “believed they had identified someone” who had broken the law at the courthouse, drove the person to a separate location, determined that “they did not have the right person,” and then released the individual.

"A separate location?"

Even if Cuccinelli’s account is accurate and complete, further investigation is badly needed to pin down exactly what probable cause the DHS officers had, what sort of record-keeping is being done concerning these detentions, and whether this kind of thing has happened other times.

I think I can answer that last question.

How far from federal property are federal agents operating? Cuccinelli said only “We will pick them up in front of the courthouse. If we spot them elsewhere, we will pick them up elsewhere.”

That is unacceptably vague.

For almost two months, protests — often peaceful, sometimes less so — have been going on in Portland, Ore. But recently they caught the attention of the president of the United States, who spied an opportunity to create a dramatic confrontation that would advance his reelection message of “law and order.”

[...]

Local officials don’t want them to do this. And for very good reason: It’s apparently making the situation worse.

There is reason to believe that this is exactly what the Trump administration wants.

In an interview, Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon told us that her contacts with Trump administration officials about the situation had convinced her that “they are not interested in problem solving,” and this has “nothing to do with public safety.”

More troubling still, Brown tells us that the situation had actually been improving in recent days, and that the arrival of federal law enforcement has caused it to deteriorate.

[...]

Brown said that on Tuesday, she bluntly told the acting secretary of homeland security, Chad Wolf, that the presence of federal officers in the streets was exacerbating matters.

“I told him that the federal government should remove federal officers from our streets,” Brown told us. “I said it’s like adding gasoline to a fire.”

“I said, ‘We do not want you here, you are exacerbating the situation,’ ” Brown continued, adding that the mayor of Portland had the same conversation with Wolf. “It provokes confrontation to have federal troops on the streets. This is purely for political purposes."

Wolf refused the request.

[...]

It’s not entirely clear which federal law enforcement divisions are in Portland. But we got a clue when Wolf traveled to Portland, whereupon he found some graffiti and then helpfully tweeted photos of himself with a variety of officers, some looking as if they were about to invade Fallujah.

In one photo, an officer’s uniform reads “Homeland Security Rapid Protection Force,” which is a part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service. It’s supposed to protect federal property. Another photo appeared to show Customs and Border Protection officers.

On Friday, both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CBP confirmed that they have officers on the ground in Portland.

These are not military troops; they are federal law enforcement. Margo Schlanger, a senior Homeland Security official under Barack Obama, told us this means not only that they can arrest people (subject to their particular jurisdiction, though it’s still not clear how this is applying in Portland), but also that state and local authorities can’t tell them to leave.

[...]

[G]iven that his homeland security chief is actively ignoring local officials’ demands that he pull out federal law enforcement — in a manner that those officials say is inflaming the situation — it’s reasonable to surmise that escalation is the whole point of these exercises in the first place.

  WaPo

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"Burn it all down" meets resistance

The House Appropriations Committee on Friday voted to block a controversial Trump Administration transparency rule that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) own independent board of science advisers criticized.

"This rule would place new crippling limits on what studies can be utilized when EPA crafts new regulation," said the amendment's sponsor, Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), citing a slew of experts and scientific associations.

Scientists have decried the 2018 rule, which the administration sought to broaden in March, as an effort to block the EPA from being able to use significant amounts of research in its rulemaking.

[...]

The amendment, which tackled the rule by blocking funding for its implementation, passed by voice vote in the House Appropriations Committee's markup of the $36.8 billion interior and environment spending bill for the 2021 fiscal year.

The bill, which also rejected deep cuts to environmental programs, passed the committee in a largely party-line vote of 30 to 19.

The House is expected to take up the measure later in the month, but its various positions, including the provision denying funds for implementing the rule, may face challenges in the Senate, where bipartisan support is required to pass spending bills.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Deconstructing America

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Burn it all down

The Trump administration reportedly plans to end an Obama-era rule banning the use of controversial hunting methods in Alaska's national parks.

According to a Monday report by The Washington Post, the rule change is set to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday and would go into effect 30 days later. The rule would end a five-year ban on baiting hibernating bears from dens with doughnuts and on using artificial light in wolf dens during efforts to kill mothers and pups.

The change would also end bans on shooting swimming caribou from boats and hunting animals from airplanes and snowmobiles.

  The Hill

Disgusting. The Trump brats want to go hunting, I suppose.

Also...

Meatpacking plants in the U.S. remain hot spots for coronavirus outbreaks in the wake of President Trump’s order declaring them essential businesses that must remain open.

Although meat production has rebounded since the order, the number of cases tied to such facilities has since increased by more than 100 percent to 20,400 infections across 216 plants in 33 states.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

JFC

Burn it all down

Last month, that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere recording at the at Mauna Loa observatory was as high as 417.1 parts per million (ppm).

According to a NOAA statement, this was the highest monthly carbon dioxide level ever recorded. It was 2.4 ppm higher than the 2019 peak of 414.7 ppm.

[...]

“The buildup of CO2 is a bit like trash in a landfill. As we keep emitting, it keeps piling up,” said Ralph Keeling, who runs the Scripps Oceanography program at Mauna Loa, in a statement.

“The [coronavirus] crisis has slowed emissions, but not enough to show up perceptibly at Mauna Loa. What will matter much more is the trajectory we take coming out of this situation,” Keeling added.

  The Hill

Funny you should mention that...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday announced a proposal critics say not only restricts the Clean Air Act but will undermine future administrations seeking to reduce air pollution.

The proposal changes how the government justifies its own air pollution regulations, limiting how the EPA weighs carbon pollution that impacts climate change as well as the benefits of tackling multiple air pollutants at once.

The proposal dictates how the agency must compile its cost-benefit analysis for future air rules — a lengthy, technical pro-con list defending a rule that is most often scrutinized by staffers and those who plan to sue over their regulations.

The EPA said its latest measure would provide consistency and accused the Obama administration of faulty accounting that inflated benefits while underestimating costs.

[...]

“What they’ve done is essentially manipulate and rig the cost-benefit analysis so that when EPA in the future gets back to their mission of protecting the environment and fighting climate change it will be much harder to justify their rules,” said Amit Narang of Public Citizen, a left-leaning advocacy group.

“This is going to have to be one of the first things the next administration and EPA will have to get rid of to get back to doing their jobs,” Narang added.

  The Hill

The next administration - assuming it is Democratic - will be tied up undoing and redoing so they won't have time and resources to do anything progressive. ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Deconstructing America

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Flip the Senate, Ditch Mitch, etc.

And, oh yeah...impeach the motherfucker, again.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.