Langevin accuses House Republicans of a “new low”

Behind closed doors, House GOP vote to gut ethics watchdog

By Jon Queally, staff writer for Common Dreams

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives didn't even wait for the new congressional session to begin before betraying President-elect Donald Trump's key promise "to drain the swamp" of political corruption.

On Monday evening, in a closed-door party meeting, GOP lawmakers in the House voted overwhelmingly (119 to 74) to neutralize and reconfigure the Office of Congressional Ethics by stripping its independent authority and making it subservient to the very members of congress it was designed to oversee.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Rep. Jim Langevin issued this statement:

“It’s a new year and a new low for House Republicans, opening the 115^th Congress by stripping critical oversight and accountability procedures from the Office of Congressional Ethics. I cannot understand how anyone could justify voting for this measure. The Office of Congressional Ethics is currently an independent, non-partisan entity. The office has, historically, been able to investigate wrongdoing by Members of Congress, including anonymous reports by whistleblowers. By stripping this office of its power and instead transferring oversight to the House Ethics Committee – into the very hands of those who could be subject to such investigations – House Republicans have betrayed the trust of their constituents. 

Kitty of the week

Meet Poppy

Animal Rescue Rhode Island

A new year hopefully means new beginnings for our shelter animals.

Poppy is a sweet 1 year old who has a lot of love to give.

She would fit in nicely with a family or other cats.

This gentle soul would also make a purrfect lap warmer on these cold winter nights.

Damning Investigation Finds Trump's Philanthropy Largely a "Facade"

One of the Trump Foundation's most consistent causes was Donald Trump himself

By Lauren McCauley, staff writer for Common Dreams

Example of illegal use of charity funds: Painting of Trump bought
by the Trump Foundation for $10,000; hanging in a Trump restaurant

President-elect Donald Trump continues to boast about his charitable giving, but those claims were cast into further doubt on Thursday after a damning Washington Postinvestigation into his philanthropy concluded that it is, for the most part, a "facade."

Despite claims of tens of millions of dollars donated to charitable causes, the months-long investigation by Post reporter David A. Fahrenthold was only able to verify "$7.8 million in charitable giving from Trump's own pocket since the early 1980s," and none since 2009.

Fahrenthold acknowledges that, because the president-elect has refused to release his tax records, it is impossible to know for certain. 

Nonetheless, the reporter contacted "420-plus charities with some connection to Trump," finding "only one personal gift from Trump between 2008 and the spring of this year"—a less than $10,000 donation in 2009 to the Police Athletic League of New York City.

Another painting of Trump bought by his "charitable" foundation.
This one cost $20,000.

Perhaps more worrisome, Fahrenthold notes that the largest recipient of Trump's charity "appears to be his own: the Donald J. Trump Foundation." 

The foundation, which he has said he will dissolve, is currently under investigation by the New York Attorney General over accusations that it fraudulently used funds to settle personal lawsuits.

The Post report continues:

Tax records show the Trump Foundation has received $5.5 million from Trump over its life, and nothing since 2008. It received $9.3 million from other people.

Another unusual feature: One of the foundation's most consistent causes was Trump himself.

New findings, for instance, show that the Trump Foundation’s largest-ever gift—$264,631—was used to renovate a fountain outside the windows of Trump’s Plaza Hotel.

Its smallest-ever gift, for $7, was paid to the Boy Scouts in 1989, at a time when it cost $7 to register a new Scout. Trump’s oldest son was 11 at the time. Trump did not respond to a question about whether the money was paid to register him.

Fight the Amtrak plan on the merits

But stop saying Charlestown was “blind-sided” or “surprised”

By Will Collette

Like most Charlestown residents, I was alarmed by recent details on the local segment of the Federal Railroad Administration’s plan for much-needed improvements to Amtrak service in the Northeast Corridor. The new route is intended to straighten out tracks in our area to permit high speed Acela trains to run at full speed.

The alarming piece is called the “Saybrook-Kenyon Bypass.” It would cut a wide swath through critical habitat and protected wild spaces such as Burlingame and the Frances Carter Preserve.

Neighboring communities face similar threats to their protected lands. It would even cut through the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposed new wildlife refuge to preserve our native bunnies.

Bear in mind the Saybrook-Kenyon Bypass is part of a gigantic, multi-billion Northeast Corridor rail modernization project that at best will take 30 years to complete. That assumes it gets funding from a radical Republican-controlled Congress.

We’ll be lucky if this Congress funds disaster relief for the Northeast the next time we’re hit by a big hurricane or blizzard, never mind a project like this.

This plan has not been approved by the incoming Trump Administration. For key positions, Trump has picked oil industry executives with no self-interest in public transportation projects. Incoming Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has no interest in this type of project.

Nonetheless, it would be irresponsible to ignore the threat, however remote, the Saybrook-Kenyon Bypass poses to our natural treasures.

There are some pretty powerful arguments on the merits against the Amtrak proposal, given the impact it will have on natural resources in South County and eastern Connecticut.

But Charlestown town government seems fixated on basing their opposition on their claim they have been hoodwinked by the feds. They claim the town was never given fair warning.

In her letter to the Federal Railroad Administration, Charlestown Planning Commissar Ruth Platner even implies that only the Narragansett Indian Tribe received any notice.

New Council President Virginia Lee complained to the Westerly Sun that the draft EIS didn’t explicitly mention Charlestown “so we’ve been totally out of the loop until now”. Lee also makes several references to the Narragansett Indian Tribe, implying they were “in the loop” while the town of Charlestown was not.

However, that’s simply not true.

Trump inauguration plans moving right along

For more cartoons by Mike Luckovich, CLICK HERE

How propaganda works

Get an IUD While You Can

With a new Congress threatening birth control access, millions of women are looking at long-term solutions.

By Olivia Alperstein

As soon as the presidential election results were announced, alarm bells went off for anyone who cares about reproductive rights.

Lawmakers around the country have been moving for years to restrict abortion rights. But for millions of women who’ve taken proactive steps to prevent unplanned pregnancy, there’s a much more direct threat: the next administration coming after their birth control.

As organizations like Planned Parenthood put out urgent calls for resources and support, ordinary women are asking: What do we do if we no longer have access to affordable birth control next year?

For many, the answer could be to get an intrauterine device, or IUD.

Gold-plated Tractors for Gentlemen Farmers

Would you pay a Rolls Royce price to move dirt around?

By Jim Hightower

Let’s talk tractors — the sturdy workhorses of agriculture.

I’ve been around them since I was just a tyke — there’s even a Kodak snapshot of three-year-old me sitting proudly at the wheel of the Farmall tractor my Uncle Ernest used for years to work his small family farm in Northeast Texas.

I can only imagine how bewildered that hardworking, no-nonsense farmer would’ve been to learn about the latest “advance” in plowing machines: A luxury tractor!

Produced by Case IH, it’s named “Optum 270 CVX.” As described in the Wall Street Journal, the Optum is much more showhorse than workhorse — a “whispering, smokeless giant with automated systems controlling the tractor and attached instruments.”

Homeless elderly and Trump appointee

Trump's Treasury Pick Excelled at Kicking Elderly People Out of Their Homes
by Paul Kiel and Jesse Eisinger for ProPublica

In 2015, OneWest Bank moved to foreclose on John Yang, an 80-year-old Korean immigrant living in Orange Park, Florida, a small suburb of Jacksonville. 

The bank believed he wasn't living in his home, violating the terms of its loan. 

It dispatched an agent to give him legal notification of the foreclosure.

Where did the bank find him? 

At the same single-story home the bank had said in court papers he did not occupy.

Still OneWest pressed on, forcing Yang, a former Christian missionary, to seek help from legal aid attorneys. This year, during a deposition, an employee of OneWest's servicing division was asked the obvious question: Why would the bank pursue a foreclosure that seemed so clearly unjustified by the facts?

The employee's response was blunt: "You're trying to make logic out of an illogical situation."

“A president is supposed to represent all Americans, including those who voted against him”

My New Year’s Wish for Donald Trump

By Robert Reich

Donald Trump issued the following tweet on the last day of 2016: “Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do. Love!”

The man who is about to become President of the United States continues to exhibit a mean-spirited, thin-skinned, narcissistic and vindictive character.

Trump sees the world in terms of personal wins or losses, enemies or friends, supporters or critics.

He hasn’t yet figured out that a president holds a position of public trust that transcends personal animus. 

A president is supposed to represent all Americans, including those who voted against him and may continue to oppose him. 

Flushed

If you thought 2016 was bad....

Sad

Multi-social millennials more likely depressed than social(media)ly conservative peers

University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

Compared with the total time spent on social media, use of multiple platforms is more strongly associated with depression and anxiety among young adults, the University of Pittsburgh Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health (CRMTH) found in a national survey.

The analysis, published online and scheduled for the April print issue of the journal Computers in Human Behavior, showed that people who report using seven to 11 social media platforms had more than three times the risk of depression and anxiety than their peers who use zero to two platforms, even after adjusting for the total time spent on social media overall.

Just 20 problems generate half of US health care costs

Diabetes, heart disease, and back pain dominate US health care spending

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

Just 20 conditions make up more than half of all spending on health care in the United States, according to a new comprehensive financial analysis that examines spending by diseases and injuries.

The most expensive condition, diabetes, totaled $101 billion in diagnoses and treatments, growing 36 times faster than the cost of ischemic heart disease, the number-one cause of death, over the past 18 years. 

While these two conditions typically affect individuals 65 and older, low back and neck pain, the third-most expensive condition, primarily strikes adults of working age.

These three top spending categories, along with hypertension and injuries from falls, comprise 18% of all personal health spending, and totaled $437 billion in 2013.

Filling the swamp with squid

Meet the Vampire Squid

By Diane Ravitch

Matt Taibbi labeled Goldman Sachs “the Vampire Squid” because of its financial power and its ability to manipulate and control whatever it wants.

In this article, he points out that Trump ridiculed his opponents for their connections to Goldman Sachs, but is now turning the nation’s economy over to…veterans of Goldman Sachs. The Vampire Squid is now a key player in Trump’s swamp.

“In his final pitch to voters in the days before the election, Trump used the image of [Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd] Blankfein in a TV ad to argue that insiders had ruined the lives of ordinary Americans to enrich themselves. Here is the narration you heard when Blankfein’s face came on screen:

“It’s a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.”

“One surprise election result and a mountain of jubilant #draintheswamp hashtags later, Donald Trump has filled his White House with, you guessed it, Goldman veterans.