Trumpwatch: Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere

[lionheart]

Let's hope he is done soon.

All about Pruitt

Senate Banking Chair Mike Crapo held 78 campaign-related events at the same lobbyist-owned condo Pruitt rented.

That lobbyist's ex-firm has disclosed work on at least 10 pieces of legislation considered by Crapo's committee since Crapo became chair.
www.thedailybeast.com/senate-banking-chair-mike-crapo-set-up-campaign-shop-in-scott-pruitts-lobbyist-pad/

And

Pruitt reimbursed himself $65,000 from Oklahoma attorney general campaign
edition.cnn.com/2018/05/03/politics/epa-scott-pruitt-campaign-reimbursements/index.html

And

Elaina Plott
@elainaplott
Scoop: A member of Scott Pruitt's press team tried to plant a damaging story about Ryan Zinke's team to "take the heat off" Pruitt. The White House caught him, asked if they had authority to fire him.

www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/05/epa-leaks/559607/

And

Pruitt’s Coziness With Lobbyists Includes Secretly Buying a House With One
mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/us/scott-pruitt-lobbyist-house.html

And

Influential outsiders have played a key role in Scott Pruitt’s foreign travel
www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/influential-outsiders-have-played-a-key-role-in-scott-pruitts-foreign-travel/2018/05/03/db28fc6a-4ede-11e8-af46-b1d6dc0d9bfe_story.html

And

Media aide is fourth resignation from EPA this week
thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/386222-fourth-political-aide-resigns-from-epa-this-week

And

Citizens for Ethics
@CREWcrew
We sued Scott Pruitt’s EPA this week for violating the Freedom of Information Act. #FOIAFriday
CREW V. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY – PRUITT ETHICS FOIA
www.citizensforethics.org/lawsuit/crew-v-environmental-protection-agency-pruitt-ethics-foia/

And

Scott Pruitt’s breathtaking corruption is part of Paul Ryan’s legacy
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/05/04/scott-pruitts-breathtaking-corruption-is-part-of-paul-ryans-legacy/

And

Ricky Davila
@TheRickyDavila
A reminder: Scott Pruitt is under 11 ethics investigations. Mick Mulvaney soon to be under investigation. trump, Ivanka, Jared Kushner, trump jr are all under investigations. 4 trumpworld officials and 13 Russians indicted. trump lawyer under investigation. Not normal.

Thanks Pain.

From the Washington Post link about Pruitt:

Scott Pruitt’s breathtaking corruption is part of Paul Ryan’s legacy
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/05/04/scott-pruitts-breathtaking-corruption-is-part-of-paul-ryans-legacy/?utm_term=.ce9a91800c4c

After taking office last year, Pruitt drew up a list of at least a dozen countries he hoped to visit and urged aides to help him find official reasons to travel, according to four people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal agency deliberations. Pruitt then enlisted well-connected friends and political allies to help make the trips happen. …
[...]
Using your government job to check off travel destinations on your bucket list is just about the swampiest gambit in a long list of Pruitt’s abuses. (“Along with Israel and Australia, Pruitt’s wish list for global travel included Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Panama, Poland, Japan, India and Canada, former staff members said, adding that Pruitt asked staffers to schedule the trips at a pace of roughly one per month.”)

That's an odd holiday bucket list, no? I'd be sniffing that lot for business links (made with an eye on Pruitt's future).

www.bustle.com/p/rudy-giulianis-comments-on-ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-are-so-telling-8975050

Ahh, should have read the other WaPo link first: Pruitt seems to be using the "government" trips to take along his friends and pimp for their business interests.

Pruitt is finished. The only reason he hasn't gone already, I think, is that recent 'turnover' has been so high that even 45 might be a tad reluctant to add to it.

This one is dragging on ...

I reckon that little will happen before the ............meeting.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/05/cambridge-analytica-scl-group-new-companies-names?CMP=share_btn_tw

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/05/cambridge-analytica-uk-regulator-release-data-us-voter-david-carroll

nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/04/frank-rich-roy-cohn-the-original-donald-trump.html?utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1

I'm confused. Does CA's current legal status affect the ICO's decision?

One of those Twitter links contains this quote from Sartre, which seems extremely apt today – about more than anti-Semites:

“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”

More thoughts on it here:

A 70-year-old existential text captures the psychology behind the alt-right troll
qz.com/852416/sartre-and-the-psychology-of-the-alt-right-purdue-university-philosophy-professor-william-mcbride-says-a-70-year-old-existential-text-explains-racist-trolling/

Fascinating piece about Roy Cohn, lion. Heavy going but well worth any effort.

The white man who murdered a tech engineer from India in a bar and wounded other people, not long after Trump was inaugurated, has been jailed.

Kansas man gets life in prison for killing of immigrant
www.apnews.com/amp/20afd94f69f141bd9152869595a4b725?__twitter_impression=true

It's an unnerving account, that's for sure cozie.

More universities in receipt of Koch money.

www.thepantheronline.com/news/50-professors-attend-forum-held-address-concerns-charles-koch-foundation-donation

APNewsBreak: Mueller team questions Trump friend Tom Barrack

Investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller have interviewed one of President Donald Trump's closest friends and confidants, California real estate investor Tom Barrack, The Associated Press has learned.
apnews.com/6dd33b4234634079821e5825f112e85b

Barrack has rare access and insight into Trump going back decades, since their days developing real estate. Barrack played an integral role in the 2016 campaign as a top fundraiser at a time when many other Republicans were shunning the upstart candidate. Barrack later directed Trump's inauguration.

Barrack, a wealthy real estate investor with close ties to several Mideast leaders, met Trump in 1988 when he negotiated the sale of The Plaza Hotel in New York to Trump. Barrack's publicist in 2016 described the men as having since "solidified a lifelong friendship between themselves and their families."

David Carroll 🦅
@profcarroll
Cambridge Analytica ordered to hand over all my data “opening the way for as many as 240 million U.S. voters to request their data back from the political consulting firm that had ties to the Trump campaign”

www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/cambridge-analytica-ordered-to-release-data-on-american-voter-report-says/

As the ‘King of Debt,’ Trump borrowed to build his empire. Then he began spending hundreds of millions in cash.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-the-king-of-debt-trump-borrowed-to-build-his-empire-then-he-began-spending-hundreds-of-millions-in-cash/2018/05/05/28fe54b4-44c4-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html

Natasha Bertrand
@NatashaBertrand
The WSJ’s Michael Rothfield just told @davidgura that it was “nonsensical” for Trump to say aboard AF1 that he didn’t know about the Stormy payment because Trump was briefed on the payment in Jan. after the WSJ first reached out to the WH for comment.

Joy Ann Reid appears to still be In difficulty. MSNBC, on the other hand - a Beast piece.

MSNBC

Caroline O.
@RVAwonk
I keep thinking about how all these sex scandals with Trump involve the absence of a condom & how his medical records were raided... and how late-stage syphilis (neurosyphilis) can cause irritability, delusions, grandiosity, impaired memory, poor judgment, dementia, hair loss....

What could possibly go wrong?

Rudy Giuliani is going back on TV — per ABC sources, he is booked on Sunday morning's @ThisWeekABC
twitter.com/brianstelter/status/992836010491998209?s=21

I saw that trump had also booked himself on!

www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/trump-booked-himself-for-his-first-tv-interview-in-months