Home · News · News Dec 2017 · Dec 26 2017
Tuesday December 26, 2017

Trump visited his properties over 100 times this year
CNN | Dan Merica | 12/22/17

West Palm Beach, Florida (CNN)President Donald Trump, fresh off of signing his signature tax legislation, arrived in Florida on Friday for a prolonged visit at Mar-A-Lago, his private club that sits on this tony spit of land in Southern Florida. With him comes a host of White House aides, an abundance of Secret Service agents and the ongoing controversy around the President boosting his private businesses by making frequent visits to properties that bear the Trump name.

Trump's Friday arrival to Mar-A-Lago will mark the 106th day Trump has visited one of his properties as President, a fact that critics argue helps the businessman-turned-politician boost the bottom line at The Trump Organization. Trump transferred his business holdings to a trust run by his sons before taking office earlier this year, but stopped short of selling off his holdings. ... Read more

Note: t is unclear how much each visit to Mar-A-Lago costs and estimating the cost is difficult because of fluctuations based on security protocols and protection on each trip. But a 2016 Government Accountability Office report for a four-day trip President Barack Obama took to Florida in 2013 found that total cost to the Secret Service and Coast Guard was around $3 million.
Trump Visited Properties More Than 100 Times | TYT | 12/25/17 | 5:05

Report: Hundreds of EPA employees leave under Trump
CNN | Sophie Tatum | 12/22/17/span>

Hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency employees have exited their posts at the agency over the course of President Donald Trump's first year in office, a report by the New York Times and ProPublica said Friday. The Trump administration has touted efforts to roll back regulations at the agency, and an internal memo obtained by CNN in April revealed a buyout program that was aimed at curbing employment.

... In April, CNN reported that John O'Grady, president of AFGE Council 238, the union that represents EPA employees, said the Trump administration's goal was to cut "at least 3,100 full-time employees." ... Read more
Hundreds Fleeing Trump's EPA | TYT | 12/25/17 | 6:28

Where is Trump's Cabinet? It's anybody's guess.
Politico | Emily Holden | 12/26/17

Agency heads are carrying out the Trump administration's agenda largely in secret, in many cases shielding their schedules from public view.

The Cabinet members carrying out President Donald Trump's orders to shake up the federal government are doing so under an unusual layer of secrecy -- often shielding their schedules from public view, keeping their travels under wraps and refusing to identify the people and groups they're meeting.

A POLITICO review of the practices of 17 Cabinet heads found that at least seven routinely decline to release information on their planned schedules or travels -- information that was more widely available during the Obama and George W. Bush administrations. Four other departments -- Agriculture, Labor, Homeland Security and Education -- provide the secretaries' schedules only sporadically or with few details. The Treasury Department began releasing weekly schedules for Secretary Steven Mnuchin only in November.

In addition, at least seven Cabinet departments don't release appointment calendars that would show, after the fact, who their leaders had met with, what they discussed and where they traveled -- a potential violation of the Freedom of Information Act, which says agencies must make their records "promptly available to any person." At least two departments -- Education and the Environmental Protection Agency -- have released some of those details after activist groups sued them. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Tuesday, December 26 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Allan Nairn: United States Tries -- But Fails -- to Stop to Stop Hondurans from Protesting Election Fraud
  3. Allan Nairn: By Recognizing Jerusalem as Capital of Israel, Trump Drops "Pretense of Neutrality"
  4. 2017 in Review: Allan Nairn on Trump's "Rightist Revolution" & the Social Movements Pushing Back
Clinton, Blair and Obama Destroyed the Idealism of Politics - Gabriel Byrne on RAI, Part3 | TRNN | 12/26/17 | 20:29
Trump Suppressing Biggest National Security Threat | TRNN | 12/25/17 | 7:31
Pentagon Drops Climate Change From Global Threat List | TYT | 12/25/17 | 5:42
U.S. House Votes for $4.5 Trillion Tax Increase (On The Poor & The Middle Class) | TYT | 12/26/17 | 7:11
The1a.org
Months After María | 1a.org | 12/26/17 | 1hr
When the skies cleared in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, the island was left in almost total darkness. The storm took the lives of 66 people ... but more than 1,000 have died in the days and months since the island's worst natural disaster on record.

Many of the fatalities include residents over 50 years old who were hospitalized or lived in nursing homes due to age and illness -- a stark comparison to the death toll from the same period of time in 2016.

As the news cycle has largely moved on from the plight of Puerto Rico, how are Americans on the island dealing with the process of rebuilding communities and caring for people who need special resources to survive? And what level of aid is the federal government providing for a U.S. territory in need?

The world's forceful response to the Trump administration's foreign policy moves | PBS | 12/22/17 | 24:54

Joe: What Nikki Haley Did At The UN Was An Embarrassment | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 12/22/17 | 10:28
A Look at President Trump's First Year | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 12/25/17 | 14:03
Donald Trump Hid Mar-A-Lago Tax Deal From IRS | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC | 12/22/17 | 6:10
New Poll: Only 24% Think GOP Tax Plan is Good Idea | AM Joy | MSNBC | 12/24/17 | 14:31
Should Trump get credit for stock market success? | CNN | 12/26/17 | 2:47

12.26.2017. 10:38



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