Author: hearseeno

malevsmaleficarvm:

lagonegirl:

aka Killing Teachers.

Welp, I’m fucked…and not in a good way.

Dems raise concern about possible links between DeVos and student debt collection agency

Washington Post January 17, 2017

Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos and her husband have extensive financial holdings through their private investment and management firm, RDV Corporation. The firm, where DeVos once served as director, has financed real estate acquisitions, telecom companies and online charter schools, among other things. But one particular deal is creating concern on Capitol Hill.

RDV is affiliated with LMF WF Portfolio, a limited liability corporation listed in regulatory filings as one of several firms involved in a $147 million loan to Performant Financial Corp., a debt collection agency in business with the Education Department.

Twenty-three percent of Performant’s revenue is directly tied to its dealings with the Education Department, which had 14 contracts worth more than $20 million with the company in fiscal 2016, according to regulatory filings and government documents. The company lost out on a recent contract bid with the department and is now protesting the decision with the Government Accountability Office, which can dismiss the dispute if the department reverses course.

If confirmed as secretary, DeVos would be in a position to influence the award of debt collection, servicing and recovery contracts, in addition to the oversight and monitoring of the contracts. She would also have the authority to revise payments and fees to contractors for rehabilitating past-due debt — all of which has Senate Democrats concerned.

Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador

President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.

The information the president relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.

The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump’s decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency. …

As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law. ….

In his meeting with Lavrov, Trump seemed to be boasting about his inside knowledge of the looming threat. “I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day,” the president said, according to an official with knowledge of the exchange.

Trump went on to discuss aspects of the threat that the United States learned only through the espionage capabilities of a key partner. ….

U.S. officials said that the National Security Council continues to prepare multi-page briefings for Trump to guide him through conversations with foreign leaders, but that he has insisted that the guidance be distilled to a single page of bullet points — and often ignores those.

“He seems to get in the room or on the phone and just goes with it, and that has big downsides,” the second former official said. “Does he understand what’s classified and what’s not? That’s what worries me.”

Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador

sian22redux:

copperbadge:

dbananza:

the-future-now:

The  Trump administration deleted the EPA’s climate change website. So, Chicago published it instead.

  • The city of Chicago this weekend added a new climate-change page
    to its website, and if it sounds familiar it’s because the information
    on it comes from the climate page the Environmental Protection Agency used to have — until the Trump administration deleted it last week.
  • “While this information may not be readily available on the agency’s webpage right now, here in Chicago we know climate change is real and we will continue to take action to fight it,” the page reads. Read more (5/8/17)

follow @the-future-now

💕my city

*sings softly* he is going to booooomb us

*YELLS* WORTH IT

so worth it…   

thanks Chicago… *adds another  brave US city to the ‘will still visit” list*

Source: bit.ly

Trump Lawyers Say He Had No Russian Income or Debt, With Some Exceptions

Trump’s lawyers who wrote the recent letter exonerating him from financial ties with Russia are from the firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius, who were named Russia  Law Firm of the Year in 2016. 

Snopes says that this assertion is “partially true.”  Morgan Lewis has multiple offices throughout the world (”The firm has 29 offices in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.”), with one office in Russia that apparently did particularly well.  

For starters, the award applied only to the Moscow office of a U.S.-based firm that has dozens of offices in the U.S. and around the world. Additionally, this award was not handed out by any Russian governmental or business organization; it was bestowed by Chambers and Partners, a group that reviews law firms around the globe.

Chambers and Partners recognized the firm for their work in energy, telecom, media, tech, mergers and acquisitions, international investment… All things that would make the firm a very appropriate one for Trump to use, but also means that the Russia office would have been dealing with very high level Russian oligarchs and other Putin associates.  

Trump Lawyers Say He Had No Russian Income or Debt, With Some Exceptions

Life in Oz

welkinalauda:

Friday’s my half day at work. I picked up lunch from the curry truck on the way in. My boss greeted me at the reception desk with, “We’re under cyber-attack, do not turn on your computer.” Then she went back to talking to her boss. 

OK.

Her boss decreed that if corporate IT didn’t get it fixed by 2pm, we could go home. I ate chicken tikka masala at my desk, we talked weekend plans, someone broke out the putter set. Then it was 2pm and we all left.

So, today
I got up at twelve and started to work at one
Took an hour for lunch, then at two I was done.

Earlier this week our own organization’s IS sent out an email just like the one that was used to hack the DNC (”Your account was logged into in some far distant country. If this wasn’t you, please click this link and change your password.”)  I forwarded it to their help desk only to receive a smug little reply that they were testing the security of the system.  

So, our own IS staff catfished their fellow employees with a phishing email. 

President Trump After Hours

pocochina:

The waiters know well Trump’s personal preferences. As he settles down, they bring him a Diet Coke, while the rest of us are served water, with the Vice President sitting at one end of the table. With the salad course, Trump is served what appears to be Thousand Island dressing instead of the creamy vinaigrette for his guests. When the chicken arrives, he is the only one given an extra dish of sauce. At the dessert course, he gets two scoops of vanilla ice cream with his chocolate cream pie, instead of the single scoop for everyone else. The tastes of Pence are also tended to. Instead of the pie, he gets a fruit plate.

this is not the onion

Wow.  Just… wow.  This reads like a horror story.

President Trump After Hours