The New White House Propaganda Chief Erases His Own Anti-Trump History
Big brother, Trump style. Anthony Scaramucci, the wealthy financier who is now White House communications director, is interested in starting state-run TV with a desk on the White House lawn. Scaramucci deleted his old tweets. They included calling Hillary Clinton “incredibly competent” and labeling Trump an “odd guy” who’s “so smart with no judgment.” Here is what George Orwell wrote in 1984: “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” Here’s a clip of Scaramucci on Fox Business trashing candidate Trump.
Bring on the bonuses. Federal regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, have dropped efforts to restrict Wall Street bonuses. Regulators in the Trump administration have started pulling back from rules imposed after the financial crisis. Wall Street had lobbied against efforts to restrict traders’ and bankers’ bonuses. The average Wall Street bonus rose 1% in 2016 to $138,210. That’s still 28% lower than the peak in 2006. The proposed restrictions would have required the biggest financial firms to defer payment of at least half of executives’ bonuses for four years and required a minimum of seven years for the biggest firms to claw back bonuses if an executive’s decisions hurt the institution or if a firm had to restate financial results.
Threatening kayakers. The Coast Guard wants to close off about two miles of the Potomac River near the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va. so boaters don’t mess up his golf game. Trump’s schedule isn’t announced in advance so boaters could have their weekend plans and vacations on the river altered without notice. Wounded veterans, summer campers, Olympic athletes and casual paddlers would all have to avoid that stretch of the river. Violators could be fined $90,000. “The president could easily solve this by saying: I don’t have to play golf on the course by the river because I don’t want to be a jerk,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.)
National monuments. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s review of national monuments that could be shrunk or rescinded is scheduled to end Aug. 23. Zinke has recommended shrinking Bears Ears in Utah but has removed the Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho and Hanford Reach National Monument in Washington from the list of monuments to review. Other monuments that Zinke is looking at include Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and Rio Grande del Norte in New Mexico. Almost 1.5 million people commented on the review of national monuments. People can comment through Wednesday on 11 marine national monuments and national marine sanctuaries that are being reviewed by the Department of Commerce such as the 582,000-square-mile Papahānaumokuākea National Monument, the northwestern Hawaiian islands and waters that make up one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world.
No protection agency. Scott Pruitt, the former Oklahoma attorney general who sued the EPA 14 times before Trump tapped him to run the agency, said on a Birmingham-based radio program that our nation should be exploiting our “natural resources” for energy production. Pruitt also said our nation should export those resources “and become dominant in an energy space.” The Trump administration plans to reduce the EPA workforce by more than 3,000 to its lowest level in recent history by budget cuts, early retirements and buyouts. Pruitt has overseen dozens of delays and reversals of Obama-era water, air and climate regulations.
Featured Photo: Anthony Scaramucci with Trump in the Oval Office on June 29. The image was taken from Scaramucci’s Facebook page.