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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James Seagrove who wrote (1076901)	7/6/2018 12:20:00 AM
From: sylvester80	2 Recommendations Recommended By Celtictrader Mongo2116 Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578048

POS trump is the most lying corrupt treasonous US admin in US history, you trumptard suckers... Scott Pruitt’s Legendary Corruption; The outgoing EPA administrator was allowed to perpetrate a staggering level of self-dealing. slate.com After months of scandal and controversy, including multiple ethics investigations into his personal spending and connections to the energy industry, Scott Pruitt has resigned as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt used his office for the pettiest of graft, betraying the public trust as a matter of course. He’s arguably the most corrupt Cabinet officer in modern American history, with few rivals before the era of Teapot Dome. If President Trump himself weren’t indifferent to corruption and graft—or if Republican lawmakers were interested in holding the administration accountable for anything—Pruitt would have long since been removed. A former Oklahoma attorney general, Pruitt was a bona fide advocate for fossil fuel interests, using his position to discard fuel-efficiency standards, dismantle Obama-era environmental regulations, and clear the way for a bevy of polluters, from oil drillers in Utah to coal barons in Kentucky. He sidelined a national study of water pollution, sought to exclude mainstream science from EPA consideration under the guise of “transparency,” and pushed President Trump to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement. And he contradicted decades of research, including work from the EPA itself, when he told energy executives that carbon dioxide was not a “primary contributor” to climate change. Pruitt’s list of scandals is extensive and almost unbelievable. Pruitt was not especially effective—neither he nor his aides spent serious time on the work necessary to truly cut through the EPA’s web of policies and regulations. “Pruitt has taken aim at just about every major Obama-era EPA rule,” wrote Politico’s Michael Grunwald in a look at Pruitt’s record in the spring. “But so far he’s only managed to delay a few rules that hadn’t yet taken effect.” Pruitt has essentially maintained the environmental status quo. Still, the reality of climate change makes that inaction a destructive choice. But Pruitt isn’t gone because he devoted his agency to the interests of industry. He’s gone because, in a corrupt administration where unethical behavior is common, he was the most obvious—and, at times, most outlandish—practitioner of that corruption and unethical behavior. Pruitt’s list of scandals is extensive and almost unbelievable. He ordered unauthorized raises for two aides and then denied knowledge of the decision. He spent $3 million of taxpayer funds on an unprecedentedly large security detail that followed him everywhere, from football games to vacations at Disneyland. He had biometric locks installed on his office doors and a $43,000 private phone booth in his office. Citing (nonexistent) threats to his safety, he spent more than $160,000 on first-class and chartered flights across the United States as well as luxury accommodations for international travel. He took gifts from lobbyists and a billionaire coal executive. He tasked administrative aides with personal tasks, like picking up snacks, getting a mattress from the Trump International Hotel in Washington, and finding his wife a six-figure job. He also tried to get his wife a Chick-fil-A franchise. He had his staffers pay for his expenses on their personal credit cards. He rented a room from a fossil fuel lobbyist for $50 a night, well below the market rate for hotels in D.C, and then met with that lobbyist for official business. Pruitt “offered” his resignation, but that’s a formality. In truth, he was forced out; the pressure and scrutiny from his scandals were too much for President Trump and Republicans to bear as they head into a difficult election cycle. Far from contrite, Pruitt’s resignation letter is unapologetic. “It is extremely difficult for me to cease serving you in this role first because I count it a blessing to be serving you in any capacity, but also, because of the transformative work that is occurring,” he wrote. “However, the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us.” Citizenship carries obligations, and citizens who enter into the public sphere take on particular responsibilities. We ask them to act with honor and integrity, to do best by the people they are selected to serve. From his career in Oklahoma to his time in Washington, it’s clear Pruitt rejects this. But so does the president, and his children. And a number of other Cabinet officers who use their positions for self-dealing. The story of Scott Pruitt isn’t just about his attacks on the environment or his corruption or his obvious political ambitions—he reportedly lobbied President Trump to fire Jeff Sessions and appoint him attorney general—it’s about the administration’s larger hostility to public service, its disdain for common interest, and its contempt for the collective good. Pruitt is just one example among many, enabled and even encouraged by a political movement so hostile to government that it allows the president and top officials to use public institutions for personal gain. “If we do not provide against corruption, our government will soon be at an end,” said George Mason at the start of the Constitutional Convention. Let’s hope that wasn’t a prophecy.

To: James Seagrove who wrote (1076901)	7/6/2018 7:46:50 AM
From: FJB	2 Recommendations Recommended By James Seagrove locogringo Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578048

Canada: Fake Asylum Invasion sees More Border Crossers than all Syrian Refugees Combined \| EUTimes.net eutimes.net More fake asylum claims were made in Canada last year than all the Syrian “refugees” accepted in 2016, according to new figures released by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, which showed that at least 42,778 nonwhite invaders demanded “asylum” in that country in 2017—compared to the 25,000 Syrians given “refuge” in 2016. According to the official figures, the total number of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) intercepted “asylum claimants” in 2017 was 20,593, and the total number of nonwhite invaders who entered the country through air, land, and marine ports of entry and inland offices was 22,185, making up a total of 42,778. The RCMP intercepted 1,890 nonwhite invader border crossers in the first three months of 2017. In the same period this year (2018), that number soared to 5,052, compared to the 4,475 people who filed claims at legal ports of entry. Since the beginning of 2017, more fake asylum-seekers have crossed the border than the 25,000 Syrian fake refugees who were accepted in 2016. There were 18,644 “refugee claimants” in the queue at the start of 2017, but as of the end of March this year, there some 48,974—more than a doubling in 15 months. When Canada rejects an “immigrant,” the decision is final. For refugee claimants in Canada, however, rejections are subject to lengthy appeals, removal orders, and in some cases, Canada-wide-arrest warrants. Since the Immigration and Refugee Board can only process 1,000 to 2,000 claims per month, they cannot keep pace with the flood. In March, the board was able to complete a record 2,587 claims, but 4,078 new refugee claims came through in the same month. As the backlog grows, it is taking longer and longer to process claims. Last October the wait time was 16 months. If border crossings continue at the current rate, the wait time could be 11 years by 2021. Thus, a 19 year old illegal border crosser could be a 30 year old father with three kids in Canada by the time his case was heard. These delays will amount to de-facto amnesty, and serve as incentive for more potential claimants to make an illegal crossing. About 96 percent of the fake asylum-seekers have come via Quebec, which operates only four shelters, which accommodate a total of 1,850 beds. The mayor of Toronto has estimated that at current arrival rates the city will be housing 4,485 asylum seekers by November. Each “asylum seeker” costs federal taxpayers between $10,000 and 20,000 per year in entitlements. In addition to the housing, social welfare, education and health care which they gain access to, under the Interim Federal Health Program asylum seekers are covered by dental and pharmaceutical care that provincial health care plans do not provide for Canadians.