Trump’s transition team has asked the Department of Energy to list employees and contractors who attended United Nations climate meetings, along with those who helped develop the Obama administration’s social cost of carbon metrics, used to estimate and justify the climate benefits of new rules. The advisers are also seeking information on agency loan programs, research activities, and the basis for its statistics, according to a five-page internal document circulated by the Energy Department on Wednesday. The document lays out 65 questions from the Trump transition team, sources within the agency said.
Leading Trump’s energy transition team is Tom Pyle, who is currently the president of the American Energy Alliance. Pyle was previously a policy analyst for former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) before becoming director of federal affairs for Koch Industries.
Trump has also assembled a team of climate change deniers, including Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general, who Trump nominated to run the Environmental Protection Agency. Read a full list of the global warming deniers and opponents of climate action who are vying for positions in the Trump administration here.
Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement after the Republican Chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee of Ways and Means, Chairman Sam Johnson, introduced legislation late yesterday that would inflict deep cuts in Social Security benefits:
“Apparently nothing upsets House Republicans like the idea of hard-working people getting to enjoy a secure and dignified retirement. While Speaker Ryan sharpens his knives for Medicare, Chairman Johnson’s bill is an alarming sign that Republicans are greedily eying devastating cuts to Americans’ Social Security benefits as well.”
“Republicans apparently aren’t going to be satisfied with phasing out Medicare. They’re going to try to pass huge cuts to Social Security this year too. Not Bush-style partial phaseout but just big, big cuts. And you’re out of luck even if you’re a current beneficiary. “
“Cutting Social Security would have devastating consequences for Americans’ retirement security. At a time when Americans are more anxious about their retirement than ever, the top Republican on the Social Security Subcommittee is rolling out legislation that cuts benefits by more than a third, raises the retirement age from 67 to 69, cuts seniors’ cost of living adjustments, and targets benefits for the families of disabled and retired workers.”
“Slashing Social Security and ending Medicare are absolutely not what the American people voted for in November. Democrats will not stand by while Republicans dismantle the promise of a healthy and dignified retirement for working people in America.”
The NPS, on behalf of the Presidential Inauguration Committee, filed a “massive omnibus blocking permit” for many of Washington DC’s most famous political locations for days and weeks before, during and after the inauguration on 20 January. Large swaths of the national mall and Pennsylvania Avenue, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial for the inauguration festivities will be closed to protesters.
The Facebook event page still has the Lincoln Memorial listed as the event’s address, but it won’t be held at the historic location.
“The Lincoln Memorial is not possible,” said Cassady Fendlay, spokeswoman for the women’s march on Washington. She said march organizers were not associated with the Answer Coalition, and have “had no issues with the permitting process at all”.
“We are in conversation with the police. We have secured another location,” said Fendlay, declining to name where the march would now take place but saying it would be nearby.
National Park Service documents bar access to key sites around time of inauguration, including those celebrated for their role in 1960s protests For the thousands hoping to echo the civil rights and anti-Vietnam rallies at Lincoln Memorial by joining the women’s march on Washington the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration: time to readjust your expectations.
Anti-Muslim rhetoric currently receives widespread media coverage. In the face of a massive refugee crisis and growing instability across the Middle East and North Africa, the public discourse often eschews nuanced distinctions about extremism and misappropriation of violence and instead takes the form of broader attacks on Islam. Distinguishing between Muslims and radical Islamic terrorist groups is critical to developing and implementing effective counterterrorism policy.
National security and counterterrorism experts agree that rhetoric that paints all Muslims as terrorists or terrorist sympathizers has a high chance of breeding future terrorists. Additionally, empirical evidence suggests such language can hamper U.S. efforts to stop terrorists before they strike and to capture them after attacks.
Last week, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand laid down a clear marker: She’ll filibuster the waiver that retired Gen. James Mattis would need in order to serve as secretary of defense during Trump’s administration.
A 70-year-old federal law bars retired members of the military from holding senior defense posts if they’ve served on active duty within the last seven years. Mattis retired only three years ago and thus requires a special waiver to pass both houses of Congress.
The special legislation passed 65 years ago to make Gen. George Marshall secretary of defense amended the 1947 national security act, which shaped U.S. military and intelligence agencies after World War II. The amended legislation said that while Marshall was permitted to serve as defense secretary, “the authority granted by this Act is not to be construed as approval by the Congress of continuing appointments of military men in the office of Secretary of Defense in the future.”
“While I deeply respect General Mattis’s service, I will oppose a waiver. Civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy, and I will not vote for an exception to this rule.” -Sen. Gillibrand
While the filibuster for cabinet appointees was eliminated a few years back, meaning a nominee can be confirmed with just 50 votes in the Senate, the waiver Mattis requires is subject to a filibuster. Mattis would therefore need 60 votes in order to become secretary of defense—so he’d need the support of at least eight Democrats to overcome a filibuster.
Sen. Gillibrand’s filibuster is the type of leadership needed in the face a president-elect dead set on eroding constitutional norms. Help us call on other Democratic Senators to follow her lead.
Call Senator Mark R. Warner at (202) 224-2023 and Senator Tim Kaine at (202) 224-4024. Tell them to filibuster the waiver Gen. Mattis needs to become secretary of defense.
Sample script:
Hi, I’m Jane from Madison, Virginia. I’m calling today to urge my senator to filibuster the waiver Gen. Mattis needs to become secretary of defense. Civilian control of the military is a bedrock foundation of any democracy, and it’s more important than ever to uphold it now that we have a president-elect dead set on eroding constitutional norms. Thank you.
Unfortunately, Lamar Smith (R-TX), an outspoken climate change denier, is the committee’s chairman. (The official Twitter account of the committee is maintained by the majority.)
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), a minority member of the committee, also reacted to the article — tweeting that it was time to bring science back to the Science Committee. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), the committee’s ranking member, also responded, saying that the spread of “false facts puts us all in danger.”
Smith has used his position on the committee to spread climate skepticism and and harass NOAA. He once issued a statement alleging that scientists at the government agency of manipulating the data at the behest of the Obama Administration to provide evidence for climate change.
The article is not particularly surprising, coming from Breitbart. The site, now notorious as a platform for white nationalism, has a history of pushing anti-global warming propaganda and of gleeful attacks on climate scientists and their work.
Breitbart was formerly headed by President-elect Trump’s current Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, himself a spirited climate science denier. Bannon, while head of the site, said on his daily radio show that the Pope’s concerns about climate change amounted to “hysteria.”
Trump’s transition team has asked the Department of Energy to list employees and contractors who attended United Nations climate meetings, along with those who helped develop the Obama administration’s social cost of carbon metrics, used to estimate and justify the climate benefits of new rules. The advisers are also seeking information on agency loan programs, research activities, and the basis for its statistics, according to a five-page internal document circulated by the Energy Department on Wednesday. The document lays out 65 questions from the Trump transition team, sources within the agency said.
Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement after the Republican Chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee of Ways and Means, Chairman Sam Johnson, introduced legislation late yesterday that would inflict deep cuts in Social Security benefits:
