Drain the swamp!

[Admin]

5 Ways Donald Trump Has Not Drained the Swamp

It seems like forever ago when Donald Trump promised to “Drain the Swamp” if elected president. Well, it turns out this was one of the biggest whoppers in modern American politics.

Here are five ways he’s made the swamp even swampier.

1.He has packed his administration with former lobbyists and corporate executives. He has installed a former Boeing executive to run the Defense Department; a former pharmaceutical lobbyist to run the Department of Health and Human Services; a former coal lobbyist to run the Environmental Protection Agency, and a former oil lobbyist to run the Department of the Interior. In total, more than 300 lobbyists now work in the Trump administration – many in key positions overseeing the industries they used to lobby for. 

2. He and his family are personally profiting from the presidency. Despite Trump’s promise he’d sever all ties with his existing businesses and place all assets in a “blind” trust to eliminate any conflicts of interest, documents show Trump remains the sole beneficiary of his trust and still retains the legal power to revoke the trust at any time. Meanwhile, foreign dignitaries have flooded Trump’s hotels, lining his pockets in clear violation of the Constitution. He even attempted to host the G-7 at his own luxury golf course until he was forced to back down.

3. He is catering to billionaires and corporations at the expense of the American people. In the fall of 2017, mega-donors shelled out more than $31 million in political contributions to Trump and Republicans. And in return, they got a massive $2 trillion tax cut. Not a bad return on investment. As Trump told his wealthy friends at Mar-a-Lago just days after the tax bill became law, “You all just got a lot richer.”  

4. He is using taxpayer dollars to subsidize his luxurious lifestyle. Since taking office, Trump’s golf trips alone have cost taxpayers more than $110 million dollars. His children have also charged taxpayers for costs associated with business trips around the world that they’ve taken, including India and Uruguay. Taxpayers even footed the bill for Donald Trump Junior’s hunting trip to Canada.

5. The Trump administration has been riddled with scandals and ethics violations. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross held on to investments and never divested despite pledging to avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has tried to arrange meetings with Chinese officials for her family business. Ethics officials have found Kellyanne Conway broke laws that prohibit government workers from engaging in political activities. The list goes on, and on. This has been the most corrupt administration in American history.

Trump is exploiting everything that’s vulnerable in our political system. But in order to truly stop the corruption of our democracy, we have to fix what’s broken. We must get big money out of politics, end the flow of lobbyists in and out of government, and strengthen ethics laws.

Trump has enlarged and deepened the swamp, but the swamp was there before he got to Washington. One of the first tasks of the next president must be to drain the swamp once and for all.

Robert Reich

[Admin]

Donald Trump has been accused of attempting to orchestrate a fresh quid pro quo just a week after being acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial, this time after offering to lift travel restrictions against New Yorkers in exchange for state governor Andrew Cuomo dropping investigations into his tax records.

The president has also been hit by an unexpected rebuke from his attorney general over the Roger Stone case, with William Barr saying he will not be “bullied” and that the president’s tweeting about an active case makes it difficult for him to do his job – a move that ex-Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele warns was “carefully staged” to appease disgruntled Justice Department prosecutors.

Trump news live: Latest updates as president accused of 'new quid pro quo' over NY governor meeting | The Independent

[Admin]

But in Florida, the tract selections highlight one significant vulnerability in the opportunity zone process. The Trump tax law gave governors the authority to distribute valuable tax breaks, and they have wielded it to benefit the politically connected. “That’s the real scary part of this program, that you give such incredible power to politicians to designate zones,” said Nathan Jensen, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies economic development. “The fact that this process was not transparent in almost any state is shocking.” Previous revelations about billionaires taking advantage of the opportunity zone program for already-planned developments in wealthy areas have spurred congressional scrutiny. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced a bill to overhaul the program, while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has called for it to be abolished.

Swampy: A Trump tax break to help the poor went to a rich Republican donor’s superyacht marina – Alternet.org

[Admin]

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is under fire from progressives and ethics watchdogs after reporting from Politico Tuesday revealed she helped deliver a $67 million federal contract to her husband Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s home state of Kentucky. Kyle Herrig, president of the anti-corruption group Accountable.US, said the contract—the largest of its kind delivered to Kentucky during the three years President Donald Trump has been in office—is just the latest example of Chao’s behavior that warrants a serious look.

Ethics watchdogs sound alarm after reporting reveals Transportation Secretary Chao delivered major federal contract to husband Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky – Alternet.org

[Admin]

The president’s son-in-law is divesting his holding in Cadre, a real estate investment venture that sought to profit from opportunity zones, a feature of the 2017 tax law...

Mr. Kushner did get what is known as a certificate of divestiture from the Office of Government Ethics, which allows him to sell the asset without having to pay any capital gains taxes.

Jared Kushner Selling Stake in Firm That Pursued Federal Tax Break - The New York Times

• Kushner was involved in the 2017 tax law.
  
• His investment in Cadre produced a up to 9x return..
  
• These opportunity zones, nominally the aim was developing poor neighborhoods, but they have developed into a boon for real estate moguls.
  

[Admin]

On Thursday, Greg Lindberg, one of the largest Republican political donors in North Carolina and a self-described billionaire insurance baron, was convicted of trying to bribe a state official who oversaw his businesses. It’s a case that has torn the Republican firmament in the state apart—right before a pivotal election year with new maps that are expected to help Democrats pick up seats.

The April 2019 indictments against Lindberg were a bombshell. Lindberg had been secretly recorded by North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, who was working with the FBI, as the businessman tried to bribe Causey with $2 million. The charges linked state GOP Chairperson Robin Hayes to the scheme, who promptly stepped down from his role. He pled guilty and is now awaiting sentencing. (Dallas Woodhouse—dubbed the “Roger Stone” of North Carolina politics and Hayes’ second hand—stepped down too.) The indictments also revealed that Republican Congressman Mark Walker’s political action committee received $150,000 from Lindberg at the same time Lindberg was asking Walker to exert pressure on Causey. (Walker is not accused in the case.) And even though he wasn’t directly tied to the scheme, it was a big problem for a rising star in the party: Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest. Lindberg was one of Forest’s biggest donors. Amid the trial earlier this week, Forest won the Republican nomination to take on Governor Roy Cooper in November.

A Right-Wing Billionaire Was Just Convicted of Bribery, and He’s Dragging Republicans Down With Him – Mother Jones

[Admin]

When the chemical company Brenntag received a fine in 2017, the National Association of Chemical Distributors asked for help from two new Trump administration appointees who previously worked in chemical lobbying, according to emails obtained by The Hill through a Freedom of Information Act request. The two appointees were Mandy Gunasekara, a former NACD lobbyist who is now chief of staff at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Nancy Beck, former president of the American Chemistry Council. Beck, now detailed at the White House, has been nominated by President Trump to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

EPA emails reveal talks between Trump officials, chemical group before 2017 settlement | TheHill

[Admin]

The Trump administration has granted a $812 million contract to a small Virginia firm to boost US production of pharmaceuticals. The firm, Phlow, was only founded in January, and describes itself as a “public benefit pharmaceutical manufacturing company.” Its CEO, Dr Eric Edwards, told the Associated Press that Phlow’s mission is to make the US drug supply chain less reliant on other countries. According to Stat News, Edwards has a checkered history in the pharmaceutical industry. The Trump administration says Phlow’s mission has been made more urgent by the coronavirus pandemic. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told The Wall Street Journal he had bonded with a company board member over his China skepticism after she read his book.

The Trump administration gave a drug-making contract worth up to $812 million to a small Virginia firm founded less than 6 months ago

[Admin]

As federal workers file out of the State Department at the end of a Washington workday, an elite group is often just arriving in the marbled, flag-lined lobby: Billionaire CEOs, Supreme Court justices, political heavyweights and ambassadors arrive in evening attire as they're escorted by private elevator to dinner with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Until the coronavirus shut them down in March, the gatherings were known as "Madison Dinners" — elaborate, unpublicized affairs that Pompeo and his wife, Susan Pompeo, began in 2018 and held regularly in the historic Diplomatic Reception Rooms on the government's dime. State Department officials involved in the dinners said they had raised concerns internally that the events were essentially using federal resources to cultivate a donor and supporter base for Pompeo's political ambitions — complete with extensive contact information that gets sent back to Susan Pompeo's personal email address. The officials and others who attended discussed the dinners on condition of anonymity.

Pompeo's elite taxpayer-funded dinners raise new concerns

[Admin]

Wall Street Journal reporters Will Parker and Konrad Putzier, in an article published on May 26, discuss a very different type of real estate business — not someone who is only renting out three or four condos or houses in working class areas, but giant real estate companies. And some of those companies, they report, have been receiving coronavirus relief funds that were not intended for them. “Real estate companies are cashing in on the government’s emergency spending program, despite rules meant to bar landlords and other property owners from the funds,” Parker and Putzier explain..

Attorneys and accountants, according to the WSJ reporters, are “aware of at least dozens of property companies that have received, in aggregate, tens of millions of dollars or more because of a legal loophole that allows them to apply through related business units — such as management companies or construction companies.”

Giant real estate companies are receiving COVID-19 relief funds that weren’t meant for them thanks to loophole in emergency spending program – Alternet.org