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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
apparently Federal Ethics laws don't even allow that.
The details have emerged very quickly, but here's what we know so far. 1/
Yesterday we learned that Scott Pruitt lived last year in a room at a condo leased to him by the wife of a prominent energy lobbyist named Steven Hart.
The clients of Hart's firm included companies with significant financial stakes in EPA policies. 2/
At first Pruitt and Hart refused to disclose details of the arrangement, but subsequent reports
showed that Pruitt arranged to pay $50 a night only on nights he stayed there.
He claimed that he only had one room and did not use common spaces. 3/
Pruitt claimed that he was paying a market rate, yet he was unaccountably secretive about the deal. Pruitt did not inform anyone at EPA about his arrangement with Hart. [1]
4/
Pruitt's relationship with Hart is complicated by Hart's firm's lobbying on behalf of a company which exports liquid natural gas (LNG).
Though it has nothing to do with his job at EPA, Pruitt flew at great taxpayer expense last year to lobby Morocco in favor of LNG imports. [2]
5/
We just learned of new details about the terms of Pruitt's condo arrangement with Hart.
Similar condos rent for $5,000 per month, but Pruitt got a special deal to get his room at a third of that cost.
He claimed this was because he only got one room. 6/
But that wasn't true.
Pruitt's adult daughter stayed with him there, apparently for free.
This represents a substantial gift potentially worth lots of money, which Pruitt received from a lobbyist with a much to gain from Pruitt's decisions at EPA. 7/
Guardian articles:
‘We have to organize like the NRA’: outdoor industry takes on Trump
note
On Patagonia’s site, the words “The President Stole Your Land” appeared in large white letters against a black background.
“We were flattered with how viral it went and how provocative it ended up being,” said John Goodwin, brand creative director for Patagonia.
On Thursday, Patagonia lobbed another volley in the fight for public lands: that message reappeared on the Patagonia homepage, with the addition of “and You Were Lied To”. An accompanying blogpost calls the monument reductions “deliberate and directly influenced” by the energy industry.
In a lot of industries, mixing business and politics so blatantly might seem taboo. But when it comes to America’s protected landscapes, outdoor companies have determined that the benefits far outweigh the risks and launched an unprecedented effort opposing the Trump administration. In the face of efforts to open up public land to mining and drilling, big outdoors has begun to flex its muscles.
“What we have to do as an industry,” said Peter Metcalf, the founder and recently retired CEO of the climbing company Black Diamond Equipment, “is organize in the same way that the NRA and the right-to-lifers have, and make public lands a primary, binary voting issue.”
Trump again attacks Amazon's postal service deal despite official findings
note
Federal regulators, however, have found the contract with Amazon to be profitable.
In tweets on Saturday morning, Trump said: “The US Post Office will lose $1.50 on average for each package it delivers for Amazon. That amounts to Billions of Dollars.”
He added: “If the P.O. ‘increased its parcel rates, Amazon’s shipping costs would rise by $2.6 Billion.’ This Post Office scam must stop. Amazon must pay real costs (and taxes) now!”
Amazon has been a consistent target, suffering falls in its stock price after presidential attacks. Its founder, Jeff Bezos, owns the Washington Post, which Trump has called “fake news” over its reporting of his campaign and presidency, not least the continuing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller of Russian election interference and alleged collusion by figures linked to Trump.
The president returned to the offensive this week after the website Axios reported that he was “obsessed” with the company. He suggested the postal service deal with Amazon hurt taxpayers. But as an independent agency, the USPS does not use taxpayer money.
A spokesman for the US Postal Service declined to comment.
edited 31st Mar '18 3:37:29 PM by Wyldchyld
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
That's actually not a bad idea. Using the same tactics they have used to advance their awful agendas for for non evil purposes, and relearning Democracy. Very much in the spirit of #The Resistance.
Report this account for targeted harassment
edited 31st Mar '18 4:44:57 PM by megaeliz
![]()
Right, spit their dirty tricks right back in their face. I approve.
edited 31st Mar '18 4:32:18 PM by TroperOnAStickV2
Hopefully I'll feel confident to change my avatar off this scumbag soon. Apologies to any scumbags I insulted.I'm getting word that the Twitterer-in-Chief is giving up Twitter due to 'Trolling'. I can only find this link for it though
, as I refuse to go to his Twitter.
If this is true, it probably won't last long anyways, but it seems that Trump is starting to crack when he's leaving Twitter of all sites.
Either that, or this is his idea of an April Fools joke...
edited 31st Mar '18 5:37:54 PM by DingoWalley1
Oh for fuck's sake, Trump is supposed to be a goddamned businessman, and that's Econ 101!
Say Amazon ships out 3 million packages/month (no idea if I'm high-balling or low-balling that estimate), and with the "$1.50 off" figure, let's say the average shipping cost is $10 (I can guarantee it's not, but again - ease of math). So instead of paying the USPS $30 Million per month, Amazon's paying them $25.5 million, a "loss" of 4.5 Million monthly.
However, without that exclusivity deal, Amazon might ship through UPS and FedEx - let's say it's a perfect split at 1/3 each. So, USPS is now getting only 1 million packages/month for a grand total of $10 Million - a loss of $15.5 million from the deal that's been brokered.
Again, that's damned simple economics, and I take it as proof that Trump just doesn't like that Bezos has badmouthed him. And apropos of nothing, how the hell has Trump not labelled him "Bozo Bezos" or something similar?
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"It's been known for years that Trump is an absolutely terrible businessman. In 1974 he was given his dad's $200 million real estate company. If he had liquidated it and put it all into the S&P500 and reinvested the dividends, basically child-level investment strategies, he'd have about $14 billion today. Instead Trump is having arguments with people like Bloomberg about whether he's really worth $3 billion. That's less than he'd be worth if he put that $200 million into 10 year US Treasury bonds and reinvested the coupon payments up to today, which in the financial world is basically the same as doing nothing with it because it's such a safe and easy investment.
Meanwhile in the present we have him expressing lack of knowledge on even the most basic aspects of international trade, stuff that would you learn in first-year level Economics courses. I am still baffled as to how he managed to graduate college.
edited 31st Mar '18 7:21:47 PM by NogaiKhan
Twitter in Shock Over Video Showing Local TV Anchors Forced to Read Script About Fake News
. As well it should be, this is horrifying propaganda. Shame on every anchor who just went along with it. And if you were threatened with being fired if you didn't read it... hey, there are worse things than being unemployed. At least you'd have your dignity.
So an interesting aside to this story. I checked this link
to see whether any of my local stations are owned by Sinclair. Thankfully, there aren't many- just the local Fox and The CW (does The CW even broadcast news?). However, one subchannel that Sinclair owns is Comet, which I've occasionally watched due to MST3K reruns. Anyway, one of the rotating ads is for one of those "buy gold now because the world is a scary place Note and you don't know what's gonna happen!" companies. You see the same type of ads on Fox News. And it's been well-established that Fox News's advertising preys on older viewers, using scare tactics to sell them shit. Not everyone old watches Fox News, but the likely audience for such a channel as Comet is ALSO older viewers, so if they can't reach them on an obvious propaganda channel, they're gonna get 'em on an entertainment channel.
Oh yeah, it's all coming together.
EDIT:
x2 It's pretty obvious that's the reason Trump is going after Amazon.
edited 31st Mar '18 8:00:18 PM by speedyboris
Don't blame news anchors for wanting to keep their jobs. Blame Sinclair for putting them in that position in the first place.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.I do blame Sinclair. But the thing is, somebody has to stand up to Trump's insidious propaganda machine. People tend to trust their local news more than cable news, so if local news isn't going to show some backbone, what hope do we have? We may even see more of the news broadcasts being affected if this is tolerated now, and at some point it'll be irreversible.
edited 31st Mar '18 8:33:08 PM by speedyboris
We should be angry at the ones forcing them to read those scripts. Not the people whose livelihoods and ability to put food on the table depend on reading those scripts.
Hopefully this shit being exposed might encourage backlash which will lead to more anchors feeling emboldened to stand up to this propaganda bullshit.
Disgusted, but not surprisedi thought today was a good day to talk about freeing kids from sex slavery, since it is Passover. I didn't realize that so many were not aware of it. Anyway, no more opinions from me on twitter, it invites bullying. Moving on. [2]
It's not that you were bringing attention to human Trafficking or even that you are a trump supporter. The problem is that you are promoting insane
conspiracy
theories
, which often show up on Disinfo/Bot accounts, Russian or otherwise.
To prove my point.
who r #Qanon? [4]
#Qanon'takes pics of the oval office & trump's pen and inside AF 1. it's more than a conspiracy theory-it's an unfolding tale! it's kinda about tracking snowden & following the money of the federal reserve/billionaires. I love spy stories! [5]
edited 1st Apr '18 5:17:20 AM by megaeliz
In terms of making threats and the like, it's sometimes the case that they want to be stopped. People do things like this because they are deeply unhappy and feel trapped in their current situation. They know, intellectually, that they might be able to break out of it with outside help, but it's extremely difficult to reach out and ask for help when you think that either a) everything is your fault and you deserve everything that happens to you, or b) the world at large is at fault and the reason bad things keep happening is because everyone, everywhere hates you.
So they say things, make comments about hurting themselves or others, and see how people react. Sometimes this gets them the attention they need. Sometimes it doesn't. But it's not always as simple as "they want to do something, but screw it up by mentioning it in public".
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Because of this - Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt paid $50 a night to live in a condo co-owned by the wife of a lobbyist with clients regulated by the agency.
Especially coupled with this fact - other apartments in the building typically go for $5,000/month - Pruitt paid $6,100 over 6 months
.
“I think it certainly creates a perception problem, especially if Mr. Hart was seeking to influence the agency,” Morgan said.
Gift rules prohibit executive branch employees from accepting items of value, Morgan said in an interview prior to the EPA’s release of the details. In addition to traditional gifts, those rules apply to favorable terms on a lease.
Gift rules prohibit executive branch employees from accepting items of value, Morgan said in an interview prior to the EPA’s release of the details. In addition to traditional gifts, those rules apply to favorable terms on a lease.
“It’s not just if he is paying market rent,” Morgan said. “A short-term lease is expensive. Is he given the ability to end it any day? Is this an arrangement any other person could get on the open market? My assumption would be this situation does not involve the hallmarks of a specific fair market transaction,” he said in an interview conducted before the checks were revealed.
Also, apparently the EPA was the one to foot the bill ($2,100) when the door got broken in by Pruitt's security detail thinking that he'd gone unconscious, which seems a bit off.
edited 31st Mar '18 2:56:35 PM by ironballs16
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"