Trump Is Giving This Country Its Identity Back

[GMDino]

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Quote:[url=http://crooksandliars.com/2017/07/trump-loses-dhs-will-release-mar-lago]Trump Loses; DHS Will Release Mar-A-Lago Visitor Log To Watchdog Group



As part of ongoing litigation brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the National Security Archive (NSA) and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will turn over visitor logs for President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. CREW will publicly release the visitor logs upon receiving them by September 8th.

“The public deserves to know who is coming to meet with the president and his staff,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said. “We are glad that as a result of this case, this information will become public for meetings at his his personal residences—but it needs to be public for meetings at the White House as well.”
CREW, NSA and Knight sued for the release of visitor logs from the White House, Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower. DHS claims to have no records of visitors at Trump Tower. The lawsuit is ongoing for the White House.

The Obama administration began releasing White House visitor logs in September 2009 to settle four lawsuits brought by CREW.
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I'm old enough to remember when Dick Cheney held secret meetings on Energy with his industry buddies.

So who has the White House visitor logs now? Those belong to the taxpayers.

http://crooksandliars.com/2017/07/trump-loses-dhs-will-release-mar-lago

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http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-declines-invitation-to-speak-at-naacp-convention/ar-AAosRsb?ocid=sf

Quote:Trump declines invitation to speak at NAACP convention

The White House did not offer any details on why Trump would not speak to the 108-year-old civil rights group.

"My understanding is that the invitation has been declined for this year," Sanders told reporters at a briefing.

She said that while Trump would not speak at the conference, the White House would be happy to have a dialog with the group.

"We would certainly like to be able to continue to do that," Sanders said.

The NAACP did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Trump had declined to speak at the NAACP convention last year because it coincided with the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where he was formally nominated as the party's presidential candidate. Previous Republican presidential nominees regularly attended the annual meetings of the oldest U.S. civil rights organization.

Trump's most recent predecessors in the White House, Barack Obama, a Democrat, and George W. Bush, a Republican, both delivered speeches to the NAACP during their time in office.

This year's NAACP convention begins Saturday in Baltimore.

During his campaign, Trump pledged to improve the lives of black Americans, who voted overwhelmingly in favor of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has been criticized by some groups, including the Congressional Black Caucus, for not doing enough to address issues in the African-American community.

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http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/under-tillerson-exxon-showed-reckless-disregard-russia-sanctions-n784921

Quote:
Under Tillerson, Exxon Showed ‘Reckless Disregard’ for Russia Sanctions, Says Treasury


WASHINGTON — Exxon Mobil Corp. showed "reckless disregard" for U.S. sanctions on Russia while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was the oil giant's CEO, the Treasury Department said Thursday. The U.S. fined the company $2 million.



Treasury said that Exxon violated sanctions when it signed contracts in May 2014 with Russian oil magnate Igor Sechin, chairman of government-owned energy giant Rosneft. The U.S. blacklisted Sechin, Tillerson's longtime business associate, as part of its response to 
Moscow's actions in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.


The same month that Exxon signed the deals, Tillerson said the company generally opposes sanctions and finds them "ineffective."


As America's top diplomat, Tillerson has insisted the sanctions will stay in place until Russia reverses course in Ukraine and gives back Crimea. Still, the sanctions breach on his watch raises significant questions about his ability to credibly enforce the sanctions and to persuade European countries to keep doing so.


On Wednesday, the Treasury Department notified Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan regarding the actions they were taking against Exxon. Sullivan then notified Tillerson, according to a senior State Department official.


Tillerson recused himself from all matters involving Exxon for his first two years upon taking on his current role and the State Department was not involved in any way with the decision, even on a lower level, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said at a press briefing on Thursday.


Nauert pushed back on conclusions that Tillerson was responsible for the sanctions violations, despite being CEO of Exxon at the time. The State Department spokesperson also largely dodged questions regarding the implications of Tillerson now leading the agency chiefly responsible for enforcing the same sanctions that were violated by Exxon while he was CEO of the company.


She did insist that he is committed to the sanctions program now as secretary of state.


"I know we remain very concerned about maintaining sanctions — that will continue," Nauert said Thursday. "We have been clear that sanctions will continue until Russia does what Russia needs to do. ... We have no change in policy."


Exxon, in a statement, countered that it had done nothing wrong and complained that the fine was unfair. The State Department declined to comment on Tillerson's role, referring all questions to Exxon.


Yet the Treasury Department said that Exxon's "senior-most executives" knew Sechin was blacklisted when two of its subsidiaries signed deals with him. The Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, said Exxon caused "significant harm" to the sanctions program by engaging in transactions with a Russian government official contributing to the Ukraine crisis.


The dispute between Exxon and the government stems from a disagreement about whether the sanctions differentiated between "professional" and "personal" interactions with Sechin, who had been blacklisted only weeks earlier.



Maintaining its innocence, Exxon said that "clear guidance" from the White House and Treasury Department had indicated only engaging with Sechin in a personal capacity was prohibited. It noted that Rosneft was not subject to sanctions at the time.


Not so, said the Treasury Department, arguing that the government never gave Exxon or anyone else a reason to believe there was an exception for professional dealings. The government noted that its website at the time explicitly warned companies not to enter any contracts signed by people on the blacklist.


The U.S. said that the presidents of two Exxon's subsidiaries and Sechin had signed eight legal documents in May 2014. That same month, Neil Duffin, president of subsidiary Exxon Mobil Development, signed several deals to continue their work on the massive Sakhalin oil and natural gas project on Russia's eastern coast.


A photo posted on Rosneft's website shows Sechin and Duffin smiling broadly and shaking hands at a conference table with documents and a pen in front of them. A few days later, Tillerson was unambiguous about Exxon's opposition to the sanctions during his company's annual meeting.


"We do not support sanctions, generally, because we don't find them to be effective unless they are very well implemented comprehensibly and that's a very hard thing to do," Tillerson said at Exxon's 2014 annual meeting.


Tillerson had played a central role over the years in developing that multibillion dollar deal. Tillerson knew both Sechin and Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than a decade before he became secretary of state.
[url=https://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2017_17/1981521/170428-exxon-ac-1110a_d8290b431cab292b6fc3a4c53bfb2747.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg][/url]
The Treasury Department called the violation an "egregious case" and noted that Exxon "is a sophisticated and experienced oil and gas company that has global operations" and should know better when it comes to U.S. sanctions. It leveled the statutory maximum civil penal of $2 million for the breaches.



In its statement, Exxon maintained its innocence, saying that the government was "trying to retroactively enforce a new interpretation of an executive order."


"OFAC's action is fundamentally unfair," the company said.


After the Ukraine-related sanctions put in place under President Barack Obama, Tillerson saw Exxon's stake in a lucrative offshore drilling project with Rosneft come under threat. Tillerson visited the White House numerous times as CEO in the immediate aftermath of the sanctions being announced, but they remained in place.


Concerns about Tillerson's potential conflict of interest dominated his confirmation hearings in January, and the secretary has recused himself from matters dealing with his former company. It was unclear whether other State Department officials played a role in determining Exxon had violated the sanctions, but typically the Treasury oversees enforcement.


As a diplomat, Tillerson has struck a different tone on sanctions and sought to maintain pressure on Russia to stop interfering in eastern Ukraine.

"The U.S. and EU sanctions on Russia will remain in place until Moscow reverses the actions that triggered these particular sanctions," Tillerson said earlier this month during a visit to Ukraine. 

[GMDino]

And now, after six months "on the job" (where he never spent more than nine days in a row at the WH).

Summer vacation: FAA says Trump is scheduled to be at Bedminster golf club from August 3-20https://t.co/hJ3ZQFlZSh

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) July 21, 2017

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/07/21/trump-just-announced-long-summer-vacation/

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http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/343947-trump-donates-second-quarter-salary-to-education-dept

Quote:President Trump is donating his second-quarter salary to the Department of Education, the White House announced Wednesday.
 
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made the announcement during her daily press briefing, in front of television screens showing a photo of a $100,000 check signed by Trump.
 
Education Secretary Besty DeVos said the money would go toward hosting science, technology, engineering and mathematics camp for children at the department.
 
Trump has proposed slashing the Education Department budget by $9.2 billion -- a 14 percent reduction.
 

“We want to encourage as many students as possible to pursue STEM fields,” she said.
 
Trump donated his first-quarter salary to a battlefield restoration project, Sanders said.