Whaddyawant?

Spot the Difference

(image by Clay Bennett)

The Justice Department’s inspector general will investigate Comey’s handling of the Clinton email case.

The NSA, which previously had to strip citizens’ private data before sharing wiretap info with other agencies, can now give them the raw data

Congress

The chairman of the House Oversight Committee is threatening to subpoena OGE director Walter Shaub over his criticism of Trump’s divestment plan yesterday.

The Senate voted late last night on some non-binding amendments to ACA repeal. The voted to get rid of a bunch of popular protections Trump promised to keep, like the ones for preexisting conditions, veterans’ care, and CHIP. A 1a.m. vote to take away health care from poor children: stay classy, GOP.

C-SPAN’s online feed was interrupted for ten minutes today by RT, a Russian propaganda network. No one is sure yet how that happened. Also today, the lights went out during Mike Pompeo’s confirmation hearing, forcing the occupants to move the hearing to another building.

A Dakota Access Pipeline supporter is now chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee

A new bill introduced by Rep. Todd Rokita would allow political appointees to fire federal workers without cause.

Civil service procedures can be long and frustrating, but they are designed to guard against arbitrary actions. Federal law governing the workforce permits disciplinary actions for “such cause as will promote the efficiency of the service.” At odds with the “at-will” power Rokita advocates, among the government’s long-standing merit system principles is one designed to “protect employees against favoritism, political coercion and arbitrary action and prohibit abuse of authority.”

Trump

BBC News has a long, thorough discussion of the compromising allegations against Trump, which states that the report Buzzfeed published was not the only one, and that there were multiple recordings in multiple locations on multiple dates. In this report and the Wall Street Journal’s, the dossier has been credited to Christopher Steele, former head of MI6’s Russian desk. He has fled his home. Reuters briefly claimed that Jeb Bush had hired Steele’s company, but later retracted that statement.

Clapper called Trump to discuss the report, and Trump later tweeted that he had said it was false and fictitious.

Someone is lying here. Mr. Clapper’s statement was explicit: The intelligence community “has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable” — a far cry from a “false and fictitious” denunciation.

(@samfbiddle tweet)

Pence

Mike Pence’s newphew John has joined Trump’s 2020 campaign committee.

Transition Team & Cabinet Appointees

Giuliani has been appointed to oversee cybersecurity. His website is currently running an unpatched version of Joomla from 2012.

Tillerson is “not aware of anything that the fossil fuel industry gets that I would characterize as a subsidy.”

Yet Exxon Mobil Corp., the oil giant Tillerson worked at for 41 years and led for 10, receives between $700 million and $1 billion per year in government giveaways, according to a new analysis by Oil Change International, a nonprofit research firm that tracks the fossil fuel industry.

The general feeling is that Tillerson will be confirmed despite crashing and burning several times during his confirmation hearing.

Ted Cruz: “Gen. Mattis is an exceptional selection who will restore the warrior ethos to our military.” No word on how he would characterize the ethos of our military at present.

Mattis refuses to repudiate past claims that the presence of women and gays harms the military.

Mike Flynn called the Russian Ambassador several times on the same day Obama imposed sanctions

RFK Jr. says he’ll leave his job to head Trump’s vaccine safety commission, which doesn’t exist according to Trump

Ben Carson says LGBT Americans don’t deserve “extra rights.“ What about the usual set?

General John Kelly, Homeland Security nominee, failed to disclose a position at lobbying firm on his ethics forms

Protests

Native America high schooler’s grade was lowered because she sat through the Pledge of Allegaince.

Leilani Thomas has been exercising her First Amendment right not to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance since she was in second grade, KXTV reported Friday. But this year, a high school teacher took it upon herself to punish Thomas for sitting out the morning ritual by docking Thomas’ participation grade.

Thomas, who is Native American and a student at Lower Lake High School in Lower Lake, California, told local television station KPIX 

She protests the pledge because, “of the history that happened here. On my land. My people’s land.”

Thomas reportedly took a recording of her teacher defending the punishment in which the teacher can be heard demeaning Thomas’ culture and ancestors.