Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

[Moliere]

Making it official, DeVos withdraws the Obama "Dear Colleague" letter.

The 2011 Dear Colleague Letter required schools to adopt a minimal standard of
proof—the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard—in administering student discipline, even though
many schools had traditionally employed a higher clear-and-convincing-evidence standard. The Letter
insisted that schools with an appeals process allow complainants to appeal not-guilty findings, even
though many schools had previously followed procedures reserving appeal for accused students. The
Letter discouraged cross-examination by the parties, suggesting that to recognize a right to such crossexamination
might violate Title IX. The Letter forbade schools from relying on investigations of criminal
conduct by law-enforcement authorities to resolve Title IX complaints, forcing schools to establish
policing and judicial systems while at the same time directing schools to resolve complaints on an
expedited basis. The Letter provided that any due-process protections afforded to accused students
should not “unnecessarily delay” resolving the charges against them.

Legal commentators have criticized the 2011 Letter and the 2014 Questions and Answers for placing
“improper pressure upon universities to adopt procedures that do not afford fundamental fairness.”1
As a result, many schools have established procedures for resolving allegations that “lack the most basic
elements of fairness and due process, are overwhelmingly stacked against the accused, and are in no
way required by Title IX law or regulation.”2

[Isgrimnur]

Tom Price resigns

President Donald Trump accepted the resignation of Tom Price, the embattled health and human services secretary, Friday in the midst of a scandal over his use of private planes.

[Kurth]

Tom Price resigns

President Donald Trump accepted the resignation of Tom Price, the embattled health and human services secretary, Friday in the midst of a scandal over his use of private planes.

Shocking absolutely no one. What a bunch of clowns.

[Skinypupy]

Tom Price resigns

President Donald Trump accepted the resignation of Tom Price, the embattled health and human services secretary, Friday in the midst of a scandal over his use of private planes.

The best people.

[hepcat]

Trump's so pissed at Price's spending habits, he's going to get in Air Force One and head down to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend. He just needs to call ahead and let them know to shut down their economy for 3 days.

[$iljanus]

Tom Price resigns

President Donald Trump accepted the resignation of Tom Price, the embattled health and human services secretary, Friday in the midst of a scandal over his use of private planes.

If Obamacare was repealed then I'd suspect that Price could have flown on all the Gulfstreams he wanted but this was a good excuse to get rid of him for his perceived failure. I think he wishes that Sessions shared Price's love of luxury flying.

[geezer]

Trump's so pissed at Price's spending habits, he's going to get in Air Force One and head down to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend. He just needs to call ahead and let them know to shut down their economy for 3 days.

[Pyperkub]

Secretary of Commerce hiding assets from disclosure (as well as the tax man)?

What he left unsaid, however, was that between the November election and January inauguration, he had quietly moved a chunk of assets into trusts for his family members, leaving more than $2 billion off of his financial disclosure report—and therefore out of the public eye. Ross revealed the existence of those assets, and the timing of the transfer, when Forbes asked why his financial disclosure form listed fewer assets than he had previously told the magazine he owned.

The hidden assets raise questions about whether the Secretary of Commerce violated federal rules and whether his family owns billions in holdings that could create the appearance of conflicts of interest...

...Two trust attorneys expressed doubt that Ross suddenly made a clean transfer of more than $2 billion to his family, a move that could trigger gift taxes of $800 million or more. Such a move would be especially perplexing, they said, since the Trump administration has proposed easing the tax burden on transfers between generations. “If the estate tax goes away,” said Donald Hamburg, a New York City-based trusts and estates attorney, “then why would you pay a lot of money to get property out of your estate to save estate taxes?”

[Zarathud]

He could have sold the assets for a contingent promissory note (ie, I'll give you the asset now if you maybe pay me back later). If he's betting on an estate tax repeal or not getting audited, then the transfers may not have been "clean" after all.

[Holman]

Ross is co-director of the Bank of Cyprus, which exists mainly for the purpose of laundering Russian oligarch money.

Manafort's oligarch payments have come through that bank.

Just saying.

[Smoove_B]

I know he's not technically a Cabinet member, but he does have a high-ranking seat at the table.

Pruitt cites the Bible while enacting new rule regarding science advisors. Now imagine he had brown skin and quoted the Qur'an while doing the same thing. But yeah, we need to watch out for Sharia law taking over the United States.

Pruitt used a story from the Book of Joshua to help explain the new policy.

On the journey to the promised land, "Joshua says to the people of Israel: choose this day whom you are going to serve," Pruitt said. "This is sort of like the Joshua principle — that as it relates to grants from this agency, you are going to have to choose either service on the committee to provide counsel to us in an independent fashion or chose the grant. But you can’t do both. That’s the fair and great thing to do."

But the real issue:

"There is an important role for citizen advisors who are not experts in a scientific field and who represent various constituencies on advisory committees," wrote Teich, a research professor of science, technology, and international affairs. "But they should complement, not replace the experts. Disqualifying the very people who know the most about a subject from serving as advisors makes no sense."

You have to admire the consistency in their design philosophy.

[Defiant]

Education officials expect ‘ineffective’ Betsy DeVos to step down as her agenda collapses: report

One problem with implementing her plan is that public schools receive very little of their funding from the federal government. Another is her overall unpopularity and ineffectiveness.

Her first budget proposal for the department — one which would have slashed funding from multiple school programs and reapportioned that money to DeVos’ pet cause, “school choice” — was rejected by Congress. Now, with her agenda on the rocks and morale at the Education Department cratering, some predict that DeVos may return to the private sector sooner than she’d planned.

[Remus West]

Education officials expect ‘ineffective’ Betsy DeVos to step down as her agenda collapses: report

One problem with implementing her plan is that public schools receive very little of their funding from the federal government. Another is her overall unpopularity and ineffectiveness.

Her first budget proposal for the department — one which would have slashed funding from multiple school programs and reapportioned that money to DeVos’ pet cause, “school choice” — was rejected by Congress. Now, with her agenda on the rocks and morale at the Education Department cratering, some predict that DeVos may return to the private sector sooner than she’d planned.

[Carpet_pissr]

Not surprising. Imagine you’ve been cow-towed to all your life, and finally you get a role that you think befits your status.

Only to get actively boo’d by the people you work for 3 out of 5 days you go into the office.

That likely wears on an ego unaccustomed to such treatment.

[The Meal]

kowtow

[hepcat]

Not surprising. Imagine you’ve been cow-towed to all your life, and finally you get a role that you think befits your status.

Only to get actively boo’d by the people you work for 3 out of 5 days you go into the office.

That likely wears on an ego unaccustomed to such treatment.

I can't wait for it to wear down Trump.

edit: and to Meal I just saw that in his post.

[Carpet_pissr]

All I see in Meal’s response is three lines of [bigimg]. Referring to my misspelling of kowtow?

[pr0ner]

All I see in Meal’s response is three lines of [bigimg]. Referring to my misspelling of kowtow?

That's accurate.

[Holman]

All I see in Meal’s response is three lines of [bigimg]. Referring to my misspelling of kowtow?

Maybe if you show a little more respect?

[Kraken]

As much as I'd like to see De Vos hit the pavement, I have full confidence in Trump replacing her with somebody worse.

[hepcat]

Only if they meet his price.

[Kurth]

All I see in Meal’s response is three lines of [bigimg]. Referring to my misspelling of kowtow?

Then you are missing out!

To Meal:

[Defiant]

Education officials expect ‘ineffective’ Betsy DeVos to step down as her agenda collapses: report

One problem with implementing her plan is that public schools receive very little of their funding from the federal government. Another is her overall unpopularity and ineffectiveness.

Her first budget proposal for the department — one which would have slashed funding from multiple school programs and reapportioned that money to DeVos’ pet cause, “school choice” — was rejected by Congress. Now, with her agenda on the rocks and morale at the Education Department cratering, some predict that DeVos may return to the private sector sooner than she’d planned.

Well, at least she's gotten people to pray at school if not in school.

[Isgrimnur]

All I see in Meal’s response is three lines of [bigimg]. Referring to my misspelling of kowtow?

Tap on post, tap More, click Web View.

[Carpet_pissr]

Holy shit. Thanks!! How long has that been possible? Please tell me it’s a recent feature.

[Isgrimnur]

Holy shit. Thanks!! How long has that been possible? Please tell me it’s a recent feature.

I'm not going to lie to you.

[Holman]

Clovis withdraws USDA nomination amid Trump-Russia controversy.

Under normal circumstances, Sam Clovis would have been a shitty nominee: he was put forward to be the USDA's top scientist even though he has no relevant scientific background.

The operative controversy, however, is that Clovis was deeply involved in picking Trump's foreign policy advisors (including both Page and Papadopoulos) during the campaign, and he was listed in Papadopoulos' confession as knowing and approving of secret contacts with Russia.

Just the best people! MAGA!!

[Isgrimnur]

Did we miss where Jeff Sessions stated that civil rights laws don't protect transgender workers?

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has formally determined that a 1964 federal civil rights law does not protect transgender workers from employment discrimination, upending previous guidance issued under the Obama administration.

In a memo to all federal prosecutors and obtained by CNN, Sessions states that "Title VII's prohibition on sex discrimination encompasses discrimination between men and women but does not encompass discrimination based on gender identity per se, including transgender status."

"This is a conclusion of law, not policy," Sessions said, adding that the department will take this new position in all "pending and future matters."

Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

EEOC page on precedents

[Skinypupy]

In today's episode of "Going From Bad to Worse", Trump nominates former pharma exec and industry lobbyist Alex Azar to be HHS Secretary. Trump commented:

Happy to announce, I am nominating Alex Azar to be the next HHS Secretary. He will be a star for better healthcare and lower drug prices!

I'm sure that the guy whose entire career was built in big pharma (and whose former company is currently under investigation for price gouging under his leadership) is going to suddenly shift course and fight to keep drug prices low.

[stessier]

I'm not saying it's going to happen, but it's not impossible. Tom Wheeler was a lobbyist for the ISPs before he became chairman of the FCC. Everyone was surprised to learn he was pro-net neutrality.

[El Guapo]

I'm not saying it's going to happen, but it's not impossible. Tom Wheeler was a lobbyist for the ISPs before he became chairman of the FCC. Everyone was surprised to learn he was pro-net neutrality.

The most germane piece of information is that Azar is being nominated by Trump, whereas Wheeler was nominated by Obama. I guess I shouldn't assume at this point that the Trump team has done their homework, but if they have they're not going to nominate someone who is going to restrict big pharma pricing.

[stessier]

Yeah, I mean the incompetence has to break in our favor at some point, right? We have the law of big numbers on our side!

[Isgrimnur]

Part of me wanted to root for him to take down Scientology, but I'm sure I wouldn't like what precedents they set in doing so.

[Pyperkub]

Making America Stupid Again

[Kraken]

Making America Stupid Again

Unsurprising, since science is apparently a liberal elite thing that contradicts the Republicans' alternate reality. If their tax policy toward graduate-level education goes through we won't be training very many new scientists anyway.

I like this quote: ""It's difficult to discern malevolence from incompetence," another former OSTP staffer griped." Traditionally, Republicans are evil and Democrats are incompetent.

[Skinypupy]

Goddammit.

The Trump administration is leaning toward naming Thomas Brunell, a Texas professor with no government experience, to the top operational job at the U.S. Census Bureau, according to two people who have been briefed on the bureau’s plans.

Brunell, a political science professor, has testified more than half a dozen times on behalf of Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts, and is the author of a 2008 book titled “Redistricting and Representation: Why Competitive Elections Are Bad for America.”

[Max Peck]

Goddammit.

The Trump administration is leaning toward naming Thomas Brunell, a Texas professor with no government experience, to the top operational job at the U.S. Census Bureau, according to two people who have been briefed on the bureau’s plans.

Brunell, a political science professor, has testified more than half a dozen times on behalf of Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts, and is the author of a 2008 book titled “Redistricting and Representation: Why Competitive Elections Are Bad for America.”

So... basically... Why Democracy is Bad for America?

[Rip]

Could they not get him a job at the FEC?

[Isgrimnur]

We can send Captain Caveman to go have a chat with him.

[Remus West]

I wonder if, by the time he finishes, it will matter what Muller finds. The American experiment may well be well in the rear view by that time.