Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Carpet_pissr
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Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Carpet_pissr »

Holman wrote:The worst thing about Pruitt's corruption and greed is how much it distracted us from how bad Trump's EPA has been at environmental protection.
It’s like you didn’t even read his letter! “improved environmental outcomes” is right there in the first paragraph.

Come on, man.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Chaz »

And a surprising amount of religious undertones. Maybe not surprising in our burgeoning theocracy.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Holman »

Chaz wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 7:27 pm And a surprising amount of religious undertones. Maybe not surprising in our burgeoning theocracy.
Pruitt has been a Christianist theocrat his whole career.

Shows you just how strong religious conviction guarantees high ethical character.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Skinypupy wrote:While I'm thrilled he's no longer at the EPA, I'm crossing my fingers this doesn't set the rumored "Fire Sessions-->appoint Pruitt-->Fire Mueller (because he doesn't have to recuse himself)" plan into motion.
I believe this precludes it. Pruitt's value was that, since he was already in a Senate confirmed role, he could slide over into the AG role under the Vacancies Act without a confirmation hearing. Since he's now out of office, I don't think that works anymore

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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Skinypupy »

El Guapo wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 10:25 pm
Skinypupy wrote:While I'm thrilled he's no longer at the EPA, I'm crossing my fingers this doesn't set the rumored "Fire Sessions-->appoint Pruitt-->Fire Mueller (because he doesn't have to recuse himself)" plan into motion.
I believe this precludes it. Pruitt's value was that, since he was already in a Senate confirmed role, he could slide over into the AG role under the Vacancies Act without a confirmation hearing. Since he's now out of office, I don't think that works anymore

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That sounds right, thanks for refreshing my memory.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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And now we have coal lobbyist dude let's see if we can pay more attention to the gutting of basic environmental protection.

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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Enough wrote: Fri Jul 06, 2018 2:01 am And now we have coal lobbyist dude let's see if we can pay more attention to the gutting of basic environmental protection.

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He knows the workings of DC quite well. He's basically a Pruitt who will be unburdened by amateur graft.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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LawBeefaroni wrote:
Enough wrote: Fri Jul 06, 2018 2:01 am And now we have coal lobbyist dude let's see if we can pay more attention to the gutting of basic environmental protection.

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He knows the workings of DC quite well. He's basically a Pruitt who will be unburdened by amateur graft.
You crushed that silver lining just as hard as my wife did when I shared that thought with her haha.

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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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When asked about Trump's comment that there were "fine people on both sides" in Charlottesville, Sec. Nielsen seemingly doubled down. "it's not that one side was right and one side was wrong" #AspenSecurity
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Captain Caveman »

WTF.

But I guess it shouldn't be too surprising coming from the person in charge of taking kids from their parents and putting them in cages.

I do wonder if she's always been this horrible or if her moral rot is a more recent phenomenon.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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FWIW she was also involved in the response to Hurricane Katrina.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Moliere »

Trump Just Appointed a Science Adviser
On Wednesday morning, 559 days into his presidency, Donald Trump’s administration announced his nominee for director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy—a post better known as the “president’s science adviser.” Science leaders expressed relief at the decision, if not delight: Kelvin Droegemeier, a meteorologist at the University of Oklahoma, appears to be a well-respected mainstream member of the research community; one who supports greater science funding and reportedly adheres to standard views on climate change. But may be premature to call this “a huge win for science and the earth,” as one scientist described it to the New York Times this week. The novelist Rivka Galchen once pegged Droegemeier’s name as just the sort that would seem “fancifully invented”—a weather guy called Kelvin, really? Perhaps it’s just as fanciful to think that he’ll be able to coax our chief executive toward better, more enlightened science policies.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by GungHo »

Only in trumpland...VA apparently being run by 3 dudes nobody ever nominated or vetted

For probably the 10,000th time since this guy became president, we have a situation where the phrase 'This is not normal' is applicable.

Yay
OR
cry in a corner that the world has come to a point where you have to pay for imaginary shit.

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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Moliere »

Betsy DeVos Plans to Overhaul Title IX, Focus on Due Process for Accusers and the Accused
The Education Department is drafting a new approach to campus sexual misconduct adjudication. It will permit colleges to adopt higher evidentiary standards in hearings, mandate cross-examination of relevant parties in a dispute, and stress that all students are considered innocent until proven guilty, an official with knowledge of the proposal has confirmed to Reason.

If adopted as formal policy, these measures would go a long way toward fixing the due process deficiencies that plagued the Obama administration's guidance relating to Title IX, the federal statute that deals with sex discrimination in schools.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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I'm ok with that. Which means someone should start looking for how this shuttles public money into private hands somehow.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Chaz »

I can't find the twitter thread that broke it down, but no, I don't think these adjustments are a good thing. Among other things, it allows colleges to enforce that victims go through mediation with their attackers. That's a hard no right there. These don't necessarily funnel money around directly, but it does put up more obstacles to victims of assault coming forward, and gives colleges more ways to not deal with or report incidents, which then makes it look like they're safer, which makes people feel better about going there, but doesn't do anything to improve the actual problem of sexual assault.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Mediation is only due process if you're trying to gain some advantage that has nothing to do with justice.

Excuse me for assuming the due process involved was to obtain justice for everyone.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by LawBeefaroni »

"You say that someone raped you? Well, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll sit you down in a room with this so-called rapist and talk it out. If you can't work put your differences, we'll initiate an investigation into both of you.
You know, ask your friends about it, ask his friends about it. How's that sound? S'that work for you? Or do you want to change your mind?"
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Fast forward several weeks: Our campus sexual assault numbers are way, way down! Good job, everyone!

"Campus" is important there because another change also says that anything that happens off-campus isn't the college's responsibility at all, even if both people involved are students, and the whole thing has to go through the cops. While that makes a certain amount of sense in that off-campus is off-campus, it's another way for colleges to avoid having to look like sexual assault among their students is a problem, or for them to have to deal with it in anything more than a superficial way.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 10:31 pm "You say that someone raped you? Well, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll sit you down in a room with this so-called rapist and talk it out. If you can't work put your differences, we'll initiate an investigation into both of you.
You know, ask your friends about it, ask his friends about it. How's that sound? S'that work for you? Or do you want to change your mind?"
You say that someone raped you? Well, we believe you. We have expelled him from the college and labeled him a rapist for the rest of his life. How's that sound? S'that work for you? Don't worry about having to present evidence. We don't let those rapists defend themselves.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Combustible Lemur »

Moliere wrote:
LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 10:31 pm "You say that someone raped you? Well, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll sit you down in a room with this so-called rapist and talk it out. If you can't work put your differences, we'll initiate an investigation into both of you.
You know, ask your friends about it, ask his friends about it. How's that sound? S'that work for you? Or do you want to change your mind?"
You say that someone raped you? Well, we believe you. We have expelled him from the college and labeled him a rapist for the rest of his life. How's that sound? S'that work for you? Don't worry about having to present evidence. We don't let those rapists defend themselves.
....... Is your profession perhaps, Therapist?

You know that lawbeef's scenario is vastly more likely historically. I'm all about due process, but there are laws that dictate due process already, schools just skirt around them to save face, not to fervently address the gross amounts of sexual assault and predation that go on in college

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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Moliere »

If you accuse a guy of rape then it should be dealt with by the police, not the college.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by GreenGoo »

Moliere wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 12:20 am If you accuse a guy of rape then it should be dealt with by the police, not the college.
Of course a place of employment would just fire you while you worked out "all this fuss" with the police.

Separately, why is mediation on the table? What's to mediate?
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by LordMortis »

Moliere wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 12:20 am If you accuse a guy of rape then it should be dealt with by the police, not the college.
+1 And if the college doesn't think police involvement is necessary or good when it comes to accusations of sexual abuse then it's not a college I want to attend or have my family attend.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Moliere wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 12:20 amIf you accuse a guy of rape then it should be dealt with by the police, not the college.
+100.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why a criminal matter isn't handled by the police.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Paingod wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 9:35 am
Moliere wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 12:20 amIf you accuse a guy of rape then it should be dealt with by the police, not the college.
+100.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why a criminal matter isn't handled by the police.
I wish the police actually handled these matters well.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Fitzy »

Paingod wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 9:35 am
Moliere wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 12:20 amIf you accuse a guy of rape then it should be dealt with by the police, not the college.
+100.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why a criminal matter isn't handled by the police.
The argument is that the victim should not have to face their rapist on campus. Knowing that the rapist could be in the same classes, around any corner, in the dining halls... reduces or eliminates the right of the victim to the offered education. Even if the police arrest the person there is going to be a considerable time between arrest and trial and that’s assuming the trial happens or the jury finds the person guilty or the judge sentences the guilty person to prison.

I empathize with the argument. It’s an attempt to give the victim a shot at normalcy instead of the victim being the one who will leave if they want to be away from the rapist. Not removing the accused means the victim becomes responsible for avoiding the accused. An environment that would make college difficult at best.

Yet, our system of justice is based on the idea that the accused is assumed innocent and has the right to provide a defense.

I’m not sure there is an easy solution.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by El Guapo »

Fitzy wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 10:26 am
Paingod wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 9:35 am
Moliere wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 12:20 amIf you accuse a guy of rape then it should be dealt with by the police, not the college.
+100.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why a criminal matter isn't handled by the police.
The argument is that the victim should not have to face their rapist on campus. Knowing that the rapist could be in the same classes, around any corner, in the dining halls... reduces or eliminates the right of the victim to the offered education. Even if the police arrest the person there is going to be a considerable time between arrest and trial and that’s assuming the trial happens or the jury finds the person guilty or the judge sentences the guilty person to prison.

I empathize with the argument. It’s an attempt to give the victim a shot at normalcy instead of the victim being the one who will leave if they want to be away from the rapist. Not removing the accused means the victim becomes responsible for avoiding the accused. An environment that would make college difficult at best.

Yet, our system of justice is based on the idea that the accused is assumed innocent and has the right to provide a defense.

I’m not sure there is an easy solution.
Mediation between the accuser and accused sounds insane, *unless* the point of it is just to compare daily / class schedules and the like to avoid contact (for which the accuser should be able to send an agent/friend rather than going personally).

If the remedy is to potentially expel the accused rapist, some sort of quasi-judicial process seems necessary - at least the right to present evidence to whatever university panel is making the decision. Obviously a lot would depend upon how that system was designed - it wouldn't seem to require the accuser and accused to be in the same room for the most part - the tricky part would be the accused wanting to cross-examine the testimony of the accuser.

This is the sort of thing where I think it would be helpful to look at how different universities around the world are approaching this sort of thing. I have to imagine that some place out there have figured out some kind of procedures that are minimally terrible given the situation.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by El Guapo »

Speaking of universities handling things terribly, by the way - Stanford facing lawsuit over how it handles students reporting suicidal thoughts.

Basically (at least going by the lawsuit) they've been basically kicking kids off campus who tell them that they're having suicidal thoughts, and making them sign statements accepting blame for their actions if they want to return.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Zarathud »

Colleges have a long history of trying to convince rape victims not to make police reports or burying accusations reported to campus police. Colleges provide security and housing where the rapes often occur, but have an interest in covering up charges.

When we're demanding more accountability of the Catholic Church's institutional behavior, it's inconsistent to demand less of colleges.

But Trump don't care.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Combustible Lemur »

Moliere wrote:If you accuse a guy of rape then it should be dealt with by the police, not the college.
Sure, but unless you're going to restructure the entire guardianship culture on college campuses they are going to be the middle man that gets the kids to the police. The entire system is designed to make the kids report to the school support systems as if they were parents. Universities should have always been referring these cases to the cops. That's why formalizing a system for the universities to force mediation as an alternative to cops is a TERRIBLE idea.

Maybe I don't understand the legislation but asking colleges to be honest in this seems.... Suspect.

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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Combustible Lemur wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 11:57 amMaybe I don't understand the legislation but asking colleges to be honest in this seems.... Suspect.
In the long history of businesses and institutions across the world, there has never been an issue with putting them on the honor system.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Isgrimnur wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2017 3:16 pm Politico
Eighteen states and the District of Columbia filed suit against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday over her delay of regulations meant to protect federal student loan borrowers defrauded by their schools.

The lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in D.C., led by Massachusetts and joined by 18 other Democratic attorneys general, accuses DeVos of illegally delaying the regulations aimed at predatory colleges, which were finalized by the Obama administration and had been set to take effect on July 1.
Bloomberg
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos lost a lawsuit brought by 19 states and the District of Columbia, accusing her department of wrongly delaying implementation of Obama-era regulations meant to protect students who took out loans to attend college from predatory practices.

A Washington federal court judge on Wednesday ruled the department’s postponement of the so-called Borrower Defense rule was procedurally improper.
...
The department deprived plaintiffs "of several concrete benefits that they would have otherwise accrued," U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss wrote in a 57-page opinion. "The relief they seek in this action -- immediate implementation of the Borrower Defense regulations -- would restore those benefits."

Writing that he didn’t want to delay matters further, Moss said he will hold a hearing Friday to consider remedies.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Please be civil and don't hurt Betsy's feelings. Her father-in-law just died.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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HUD
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded promotions and pay increases to five political operatives with no housing policy experience within their first months on the job, demonstrating what government watchdogs and career staff describe as a premium put on loyalty over expertise.

The raises, documented in a Washington Post analysis of HUD political hires, resulted in annual salaries between $98,000 and $155,000 for the five appointees, all of whom had worked on Donald Trump’s or Ben Carson’s presidential campaigns. Three of them did not list bachelor’s degrees on their résumés.

The political hires were among at least 24 people without evident housing policy experience who were appointed to the best-paying political positions at HUD, an agency charged with serving the poorest Americans. They account for a third of the 70 HUD appointees at the upper ranks of the federal government, with salaries above $94,000, according to the Post review of agency records.

The limited experience at the upper reaches of the agency — HUD Secretary Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, has no prior housing, executive or government background — injected confusion into the rollout of policy initiatives and brought delays to even routine functions, according to interviews with 16 current and former career staff members.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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BREAKING: Trump appointee tapped days ago to run Interior Department’s watchdog office resigns amid controversy over handling of her hiring
Suzanne Israel Tufts, a senior official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, resigned Friday from the federal government, according to administration officials.

While HUD Secretary Ben Carson had announced a week ago that Tufts would take over as acting inspector general at Interior, officials at Interior on Thursday described that news as “100 percent false.”

This is a developing story. It will be updated.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Politico
The Interior Department on Thursday disavowed any attempt to name a political appointee to head the office investigating Secretary Ryan Zinke, despite a claim by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson that the move was underway.

The Interior statement disputes an email Friday in which Carson had said Suzanne Tufts, a HUD official and Republican operative with no ethics review experience on her resume, was heading to Interior to become its acting inspector general. That would have placed her in charge of several investigations into Zinke's travels, political activities and relations with industry groups.

“HUD sent out an email that had false information in it,” Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said in an email. “Ms. Tufts is not employed by the Department and no decision was ever made to move her to Interior."

Swift said the White House had referred Tufts to the Interior Department as a potential candidate for a position in the inspector general’s office, but "[at] the end of the day, she was not offered a job at Interior."

Swift's statement did not explain how seriously Interior had considered Tufts for the position, whether Zinke had been prepared to overlook her lack of ethics experience, and whether the department's decision not to hire her was influenced by the outcry from congressional Democrats and government watchdog groups.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Isgrimnur wrote: Fri Oct 19, 2018 5:55 pm Politico
The Interior Department on Thursday disavowed any attempt to name a political appointee to head the office investigating Secretary Ryan Zinke, despite a claim by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson that the move was underway.

The Interior statement disputes an email Friday in which Carson had said Suzanne Tufts, a HUD official and Republican operative with no ethics review experience on her resume, was heading to Interior to become its acting inspector general. That would have placed her in charge of several investigations into Zinke's travels, political activities and relations with industry groups.

“HUD sent out an email that had false information in it,” Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said in an email. “Ms. Tufts is not employed by the Department and no decision was ever made to move her to Interior."

Swift said the White House had referred Tufts to the Interior Department as a potential candidate for a position in the inspector general’s office, but "[at] the end of the day, she was not offered a job at Interior."

Swift's statement did not explain how seriously Interior had considered Tufts for the position, whether Zinke had been prepared to overlook her lack of ethics experience, and whether the department's decision not to hire her was influenced by the outcry from congressional Democrats and government watchdog groups.
Translation: Shit, they found out! ::smokebomb::
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Image
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Zinke
The White House is growing increasingly concerned about allegations of misconduct against Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, according to two senior administration officials, and President Trump has asked aides for more information about a Montana land deal under scrutiny by the Justice Department.

Trump told his aides that he is afraid Zinke has broken rules while serving as the interior secretary and is concerned about the Justice Department referral, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. But the president has not indicated whether he will fire the former Navy SEAL and congressman and has asked for more information, the officials said.

This week, Interior’s Office of Inspector General referred the inquiry — one of several probes into the secretary’s conduct — to the Justice Department to determine whether a criminal investigation is warranted. That referral concerns Zinke’s involvement in a Whitefish, Mont., land development deal backed by David J. Lesar, chairman of the oil services firm Halliburton.

The business and retail park, known as 95 Karrow, would be near parcels of land owned by Zinke and his wife, Lola. The inspector general is looking at discussions Zinke had with Lesar and others about the development that could indicate he was using his office to enrich himself.

Interior has played no role in the Montana project, but congressional Democrats asked for an investigation in June because the department issues regulations on oil and gas development that have financial implications for companies such as Lesar’s.

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It's almost as if people are the problem.
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