“The Intern in Charge”: Meet the 22-Year-Old Trump’s Team Picked to Lead Terrorism Prevention

Well, this shows how seriously King Don is about stopping domestic terrorism

By Hannah Allam for ProPublica

Hope he's getting good acne meds

When Thomas Fugate graduated from college last year with a degree in politics, he celebrated in a social media post about the exciting opportunities that lay beyond campus life in Texas. “Onward and upward!” he wrote, with an emoji of a rocket shooting into space.

His career blastoff came quickly. A year after graduation, the 22-year-old with no apparent national security expertise is now a Department of Homeland Security official overseeing the government’s main hub for terrorism prevention, including an $18 million grant program intended to help communities combat violent extremism.

The White House appointed Fugate, a former Trump campaign worker who interned at the hard-right Heritage Foundation, to a Homeland Security role that was expanded to include the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships. Known as CP3, the office has led nationwide efforts to prevent hate-fueled attacks, school shootings and other forms of targeted violence.

Fugate’s appointment is the latest shock for an office that has been decimated since Donald Trump returned to the White House and began remaking national security to give it a laser focus on immigration.

News of the appointment has trickled out in recent weeks, raising alarm among counterterrorism researchers and nonprofit groups funded by CP3. Several said they turned to LinkedIn for intel on Fugate — an unknown in their field — and were stunned to see a photo of “a college kid” with a flag pin on his lapel posing with a sharply arched eyebrow. No threat prevention experience is listed in his employment history.

Typically, people familiar with CP3 say, a candidate that green wouldn’t have gotten an interview for a junior position, much less be hired to run operations. According to LinkedIn, the bulk of Fugate’s leadership experience comes from having served as secretary general of a Model United Nations club.

Trump-Carson?

Neoliberalism: America has arrived at One of History’s Great Crossroads

The "free market" was supposed to solve all our problems. Has it?

By Thom Hartmann, Independent Media Institute

The Democratic Party is having an internal battle over the “small” and the “large” infrastructure bills, but what’s really at stake is the future of neoliberalism within the party. 

The smaller “bipartisan” bill represents the neoliberal worldview, including public-private partnerships and huge subsidies to for-profit companies, whereas the larger “reconciliation” 

Democratic Party-only bill hearkens back to the FDR/LBJ classic progressive way of doing things. 

Milton Friedman began selling neoliberalism to America in the 1950s, and we fully bought into it in the 1980s.  Most Americans had no idea, really, what this new political/economic ideology meant; they just knew it involved free trade, economic austerity/tax cuts and deregulation/privatization. 

The free trade part, we were told, would bring about the end of great-power wars because countries that were economically interdependent wouldn’t dare ruin their own economies by going to war with a significant trading partner.  

The “McDonald’s Theory” hatched by Thomas Friedman was argued on TV and in the newspapers: no two nations that had McDonald’s fast-food restaurants, we were told (falsely), had ever gone to war with each other. 

Free trade was also going to eliminate poverty in the world by giving every country an “even playing field” to compete for manufacturing jobs.  

High-wage countries like the US and the UK would have to stop protecting their laborers with unions, whose wage and benefit demands were merely “drags on the economy” and prevented the “magic of markets” from working. 

Low-wage countries would pick up much of that work, but over time their people would rise into the middle class, too, and everything would even out.  

And, indeed, trillions of dollars of wealth were sucked out of the American working class as union membership plunged from around a third of workers to about 6% in the private marketplace today, all while China saw the fastest and strongest rise of a middle class in the history of the world. 

There are now more middle-class Chinese than the entire population of the US, as the American middle class sank below being half our population for the first time since the postwar era got seriously underway. 

What do Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie and Ben Carson have in common?

Giuliani leaves hospital after getting drug 'cocktail' so rare states distribute it by lottery

Mark Sumner, Daily Kos Staff

By Nick Anderson

Ten months into the pandemic, the monoclonal antibody “cocktails” developed by Eli Lilly and Regeneron are one of the few treatments proven to be highly effective against COVID-19. 

Unfortunately they are both expensive and difficult to manufacture, which made Donald Trump’s promise to make these drugs available to everyone for free even more ridiculous than his usual lies. 

The total number of available doses is not enough to treat the Americans who test positive for coronavirus on a single day.

In the real world, these drugs are so scarce that states and hospitals distribute them by lottery. Medical organizations are hastily convening ethics boards to determine how to hand out drugs that are both highly effective and extremely limited. 

It might seem that they could be reserved for only those in most dire circumstances, but that’s not the way they work. The drugs are most effective when administered early, before the onset of serious symptoms. 

The tiny fraction of patients who receive these drugs have much improved odds of never developing serious issues like those now plaguing millions of Americans. They just have to get very, very lucky … like Donald Trump, Chris Christie, Ben Carson, and Rudy Giuliani.  

Trump's latest "miracle cure" is a deadly plant poison

Oleandrin is a deadly plant poison, not a COVID-19 cure
Cassandra Quave, Emory University

The oleander plant is beautiful but deadly because of a toxic chemical
called oleadrin. Alvesgaspar/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

With COVID-19 cases and deaths rising in the U.S. and globally, identifying new therapies to prevent and combat the virus is a top priority. 

Natural products from plants are an attractive option in the search for a cure. Approximately 374,000 plant species are on Earth; humans have used more than 28,000 of them as a form of medicine.

But not all that is natural is necessarily safe. Scientists have not yet explored most of these species for their chemical makeup or therapeutic potential.

As a medical ethnobotanist, I study the traditional uses of medicinal plants to discover promising leads for new drugs to fight infectious diseases. It’s vital to consider both the potential benefits and risks of plant extracts in such research. I am concerned by recent reports that a chemical found in the oleander plant is being touted as a potential treatment for COVID-19.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Scientists are reluctant to get drawn into political fights so it's not surprising that Dr. Quave does not name names, though the article she cited (highlighted above) does. Trump's new interest in oleadrin came to him from his MyPillow buddy Mike Lindell who took the idea to HUD Secretary Ben Carson. They took it to Trump. 

Phoenix Biotechnology makes the drug despite no human tests and only one unpublished study that has not been peer-reviewed. MyPillow CEO Lindell owns a stake in that company. It was fun to watch CNN's Anderson Cooper interview with Lindell  - Will Collette

Narragansetts receive almost $400K in federal funds to develop affordable housing

Will this spark more hostility between the Tribe and Charlestown town government?

By Will Collette

The ruins of the affordable housing project that spurred the Carcieri
v. Salazar Supreme Court decision. (RI Monthly photo)

On February 18, Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson announced $655 million in Indian Housing Block Grants to tribes across the country.

Carson claimed “…Trump and HUD are committed to providing our Native American Tribes with the tools they need to create better, affordable housing opportunities for their families…”

HUD's accompanying table shows the Narragansett Indian Tribe’s share will be $392,507. At this writing, I do not know what the Tribe’s plans are for the money.

But a couple decades ago, it was an attempt by the Tribe to build senior citizens’ affordable housing that spurred Charlestown to file a lawsuit that eventually morphed into the Carcieri V. Salazar Supreme Court decision, issued on February 24, 2009.

In that decision, written by the Court’s most conservative members at the time – Justices Thomas and Scalia – ruled against the Narragansett. 

That decision used the widely criticized reasoning that Congress was unclear when it passed the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act whether that law would apply to tribes recognized as such by the federal government AFTER 1934, notwithstanding the Constitution’s equal protection under law principle. That decision harmed more than 500 tribes across the US.

So when I read about this new affordable housing grant, I couldn’t help but think, “Here we go again” since Charlestown’s ruling party, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, has the same attitude about the Narragansetts as did those Charlestown plaintiffs who launched the Carcieri case.

That attitude is that the tribe cannot be allowed to exercise its sovereignty by making any land use decisions without the expressed approval of the town. 

"The Chosen One?"

Rick Perry's belief that Trump was chosen by God is shared by many in a fast-growing Christian movement
Brad Christerson, Biola University and Richard Flory, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

In a recent interview with Fox News, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry stated that Donald Trump was chosen by God to be president. 

He said throughout history God had picked “imperfect people” such as King David or Solomon to lead their people.

Perry is not alone. 

A large number of evangelical Christians in the U.S. believe that God has chosen Donald Trump to advance the kingdom of God on Earth. 

Several high-profile religious leaders have made similar claims, often comparing Trump to King Cyrus who was asked by God to rescue the nation of Israel from exile in Babylon.

Many of these Christians are part of a movement that we call “Independent Network Charismatic,” or “INC Christianity” in our 2017 book.

Leaders such Rick Perry are connected to this movement. Eight years ago – in August of 2011 – more than 30,000 people cheered wildly when Perry, who was then a U.S. presidential candidate and Texas governor, came center stage at “The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis” at Reliant Stadium in Houston. 

Perry quoted from the Bible and preached about the need for salvation that comes from Jesus. Many of the leaders who organized this event are the same leaders who claim that Trump is God’s chosen to advance the Kingdom of God.

We argue that INC Christianity is significantly changing the religious landscape in America – and the nation’s politics.

The Quid Pro Quo was spite and racism

Team Trump admits holding back billions for Puerto Rico disaster recovery

 Mc Nelly Torres, DCReport @ RawStory

Trump administration officials have admitted that last summer they knowingly withheld billions of dollars Congress appropriated to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria. 

 House Democrats say withholding the relief money violates the law.

Federal law requires that our government help Americans hit by natural disasters. 

But two Housing and Urban Development officials acknowledged at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Oct. 17 that HUD blocked the Puerto Rico relief funds.

The HUD delay meant the island missed a deadline to apply for billions of dollars in disaster relief funds, raising doubts about when, if ever, the money will flow to the island devastated in September 2017 by the Category 5 hurricane.

The federal money is part of a $19 billion supplemental disaster relief bill that Congress passed in June. It came with stipulations requiring HUD to provide funding notices to nine states and two American territories, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

HUD intentionally left Puerto Rico out of the notices, the HUD officials admitted.

Wednesday wingnuts

Where's the money?

Elizabeth Warren demands answers from Trump officials about funds for Puerto Rico

Kelly Macias  Daily Kos Staff

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is demanding answers from the Trump administration about Puerto Rico. In a letter dated Jan. 21, Warren wrote a series of critically important questions directed at Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Ben Carson, and director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. 

Warren’s inquiry stems from recent news reports that Donald Trump has been trying his best to cut off emergency funds to the island since September, and has also been using the federal government shutdown as an excuse to deny the allocation of billions of dollars in housing fund money to Puerto Rico from HUD.

According to Warren’s letter, Trump’s war on Puerto Rico began after he heard that Puerto Rico was using emergency funds post-Hurricane Maria to pay off its debt. This, of course, turned out to be fake news. 

Carl Icahn gets by with a little help from his pals

The Financial Hardships of Trump’s Friends

By Robert Reich

The Environmental Protection Agency recently granted to an oil refinery owned by Carl Icahn a so-called “financial hardship” waiver. The exemption allows the refinery to avoid clean air laws, potentially saving Icahn millions of dollars.

Icahn is not exactly a hardship case. According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, his net worth is $21.8 billion. Over the last four decades as a corporate raider, Icahn has pushed CEOs to cut payrolls, abandon their communities, and outsource jobs abroad in order to generate more money for him and other investors. 

In 1985, after winning control of the now-defunct Trans World Airlines, Icahn stripped its assets, pocketed nearly $500 million in profits, and left the airline more than $500 million in debt. Former TWA chair C.E. Meyer Jr. called Icahn “one of the greediest men on earth.”

No single person has done more to harm America’s working class than Carl Icahn. Not surprisingly, Icahn was a Trump backer from the start, and has benefited immensely from Trump’s presidency.

When Trump first talked with Scott Pruitt about running the EPA, Trump told Pruitt to meet with Icahn. As Icahn later recounted, “I told Donald that [Pruitt] is somebody who will do away with many of the problems at the EPA.”

Trump then made Icahn his special regulatory adviser, until lawmakers raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest. 

Your tax dollars at work

Wednesday wingnuts

When will it end?

New Analysis Catalogs Trump's Controversy-Riddled Cabinet-Level Selections

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams

As the heads of Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency face intense scrutiny over taxpayer-funded travel decisions, a new analysis by the Washington Post reveals that more than 40 percent of President Donald Trump's initial cabinet-level selections have faced ethical or other controversies.

Aaron Blake at the Post found that nine out of the 22 people whom the president initially chosen for cabinet-level positions have faced some degree of public criticism for their actions, highlighting "what has been a pretty rocky first year-plus for the Trump cabinet" and demonstrating how Trump has failed to deliver on his oft-repeated campaign promise to "drain the swamp."

"The Art of the Lie"

New Report Details Trump's Year Bereft of Integrity, Accountability

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams

Entitled "The Art of the Lie," a new report offers damning assessment of President Donald Trump's first year in office, cataloging what it describes as his presidency's massive miscarriage of government integrity and accountability.

Released January 30, a day before Trump delivers his State of the Union address, by a pair of watchdog organizations, the report (pdf) breaks up the failures into 20 categories, starting with "Trump Lies, False and Misleading Claims, Untruths," and ending with "Deregulatory Task Forces Operating in Secret."

"Some of Trump's wrongful actions have been high-profile; others are more subtle. But President Trump's record must be preserved and documented. That is the purpose of this report," Common Cause president Karen Hobert Flynn and Democracy 21 president Fred Wertheimer write in the introduction to the report.

Describing the president as "a nonstop, habitual, and compulsive liar," the report cites a Washington Post analysis that found Trump made an average of 5.9 false or misleading claims a day during his first year at the White House. 

We now live in an alternative universe

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroy ourselves.“ - Abraham Lincoln

It Won’t Be Pretty

Look for Cuts to Food Stamps and Medicaid First, Then Medicare and Social Security   

By Terry H. Schwadron

After the Republican Congress' tax cut bill, giving the wealthy a huge break at the expense of middle-class and poorer Americans, Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare apparently are next in target line.

As predicted, recognizing that the tax cuts will blow a hole in the federal deficit, Republicans will be targeting federal spending programs to pay for a healthy share of the $1.5 trillion overspend that the corporate tax cuts will cost over 10 years. 

Social services make up the biggest share of entitlement programs, so anything touching health, services to the most vulnerable in our society or non-military will be huge targets, Republicans acknowledge.

From a variety of news reports, it appears that the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress led by Speaker Paul W. Ryan are looking to make the most sweeping changes to federal safety net programs in a generation, using legislation and executive actions to target recipients of food stamps, Medicaid and housing benefits.

The White House is said to be preparing a sweeping executive order that would mandate a top-to-bottom review of these programs on which millions of poor Americans rely. And Republicans congressional members crafting legislation that could make it more difficult to qualify for those programs.

Running HUD is definitely not brain surgery

Is Anybody Home at HUD?
By Alec MacGillis for ProPublica

In mid-May, Steve Preston, who served as the secretary of housing and urban development in the final two years of the George W. Bush administration, organized a dinner at the Metropolitan Club in Washington, D.C., for the new chief of that department, Ben Carson, and five other former secretaries whose joint tenure stretched all the way back to Gerald Ford. It was an event with no recent precedent within the department, and it had the distinct feel of an intervention.

HUD has long been something of an overlooked stepchild within the federal government. Founded in 1965 in a burst of Great Society resolve to confront the "urban crisis," it has seen its manpower slide by more than half since the Reagan Revolution. 

The HUD headquarters is now so eerily underpopulated that it can't even support a cafeteria; it sits vacant on the first floor.

But HUD still serves a function that millions of low-income Americans depend on — it funds 3,300 public-housing authorities with 1.2 million units and also the Section 8 rental-voucher program, which serves more than 2 million families; it has subsidized tens of millions of mortgages via the Federal Housing Administration; and, through various block grants, it funds an array of community uplift initiatives. 

It is the Ur-government agency, quietly seeking to address social problems in struggling areas that the private sector can't or won't solve, a mission that has become especially pressing amid a growing housing affordability crisis in many major cities.

HUD Secretary Says Poverty Mostly a "State of Mind"

Ben Carson suggest being poor is just a personal problem. Or a pre-existing condition.

By Jon Queally, staff writer for Common Dreams

Republicans want to slash the nation's social safety net, but that's apparently okay by some top Republicans because "poverty" is just in the minds of the nation's poor.

Offering the latest evidence that the individual President Donald Trump chose to lead one of the nation's largest anti-poverty programs has little but contempt for the low-income people he was appointed to serve, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson says that being poor, really, is mostly a "state of mind."

According to an interview on SiriusXM radio, Carson has done a lot of thinking about what makes poverty tick.

"I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind. You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street and I guarantee in a little while they'll be right back up there," he said during the interview with radio host Armstrong Williams, who the Washington Post reports is a longtime friend of the secretary.

Thirteen lies

Update for Trump Voters

By Robert Reich

1. He said he wouldn’t bomb Syria. You bought it. Then he bombed Syria.

2. He said he’d build a wall along the border with Mexico. You bought it. Now his secretary of homeland security says “It’s unlikely that we will build a wall.”

3. He said he’d clean the Washington swamp. You bought it. Then he brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, to make laws that will enrich their businesses.

4. He said he’d repeal Obamacare and replace it with something “wonderful.” You bought it. Then he didn’t.

5. He said he’d use his business experience to whip the White House into shape. You bought it. Then he created the most chaotic, dysfunctional, back-stabbing White House in modern history, in which no one is in charge.

6. He said he’d release his tax returns, eventually. You bought it. He hasn’t, and says he never will.