RUTHFULLY YOURS

On March 17, ex-CIA Director John Brennan tweeted about the current president of the United States: “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. . . . America will triumph over you.”

That outburst from the former head of the world’s premier spy agency seemed a near threat to a sitting president, and former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power tweeted that it probably was: “Not a good idea to piss off John Brennan.”

If there is such a thing as a dangerous “deep state” of elite but unelected federal officials who feel that they are untouchable and unaccountable, then John Brennan is the poster boy.

Immediately after the 2008 election of Barack Obama, the careerist Brennan quickly reinvented himself as a critic of the very methodologies that he once, as a George W. Bush administration official, had insisted were effective. Brennan was initially appointed Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, and then took over the CIA after the abrupt and mysterious resignation of Gen. David Petraeus following the 2012 election.

Brennan claimed that intelligence agencies had not missed clear indications in 2009 that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called “underwear bomber,” would try to take down a U.S. airliner. Just days later when his denials were ridiculed, Brennan flipped and blasted intelligence agencies for their laxity.

In 2011, Brennan falsely alleged that the Obama administration’s drone program had not caused a single civilian death in Pakistan over the previous year. In truth, around 50 civilians had been killed by drones since the 9/11 attacks.

Two years ago, Americans were horrified to learn that as many as 1,000 of our nation’s veterans had died while waiting for medical care at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities.

Any hopes of reforming the dysfunctional VA culture were dashed two days ago when Secretary Robert McDonald made an appalling comparison to waiting in line at Disney parks.

“When you go to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? What’s important is, what’s your satisfaction with the experience.”
Today, nearly half a million veterans still wait to see a VA doctor.

So, we opened the books on the VA. Here’s just a sample of our findings:

The VA spent $1.7 million on ’employee engagement’ and other satisfaction surveys with Gallup (2010-2014). There is no indication these polls found, flagged or identified the most egregious scandal in VA history.
The VA paid $303 million in salaries to non-essential positions: Painters ($185 million), Interior Designers ($64 million), and Gardeners ($54 million). While veterans were dying, the VA managers were rewarding the efficiency of these positions with bonuses (2012-2015.)
$751.1 million spent on ‘household’ and ‘office’ furniture including furniture rental, draperies, curtains, carpeting, modification, repair and maintenance (2010-2015). Much of from luxury, upscale manufacturers.

While the veterans wait weeks to see a doctor, we found:

The VA lawyered up and added 175 attorneys.
Dramatically increased their spending on public relations (PR).
Reformed bonuses’ so millions of dollars continued to flow to many of the same employees who gamed-the-system during the scandal.

and much more…

https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-ousts-va-secretary-david-shulkin-1522274017?mod=cx_politics&cx_navSource=cx_politics&cx_tag=collabctx&cx_artPos=2#cxrecs_s

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he had ousted his Veterans Affairs secretary, David Shulkin, and tapped the White House physician, Ronny Jackson, as his replacement.

“I am pleased to announce that I intend to nominate highly respected Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, MD, as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs,” Mr. Trump tweeted Wednesday. He said Robert Wilkie, who currently serves as under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness at the Department of Defense, would serve as acting secretary “in the interim.”

In a statement issued by the White House, Mr. Trump praised Dr. Shulkin’s work and “the many great things we did together at Veterans Affairs, including the VA Accountability Act that he was helpful in getting passed.” The president called Dr. Shulkin a “great supporter of veterans across the country and I am grateful for his service.”Dr. Shulkin didn’t return a request for comment on Wednesday.

Dr. Jackson is a U.S. Navy rear admiral who has served as a White House physician during the past three administrations. In that role, he has overseen health care for the cabinet and senior staff, served as a physician supervisor at Camp David and led the White House Medical Unit, the White House said.

Dr. Jackson, if confirmed by the Senate, would take over the second-largest federal agency, which has more than 370,000 employees. The agency is responsible for, among other duties, providing health care services to veterans. The agency has struggled in recent years following a 2014 scandal over wait-times for VA hospital appointments.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/g-men-under-subpoena-1522278053

Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that he is doubling to 54 the number of FBI agents working to respond to documents subpoenaed by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, and it’s about time.

Mr. Goodlatte is looking into the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private server and its use of the Steele dossier to spy on former Trump campaign associate Carter Page, among other things. The FBI has been notably uncooperative, and news reports say Mr. Wray’s latest cooperation came only after Attorney General Jeff Sessions told him no more slow-walking information.

What matters now is whether the FBI provides Congress the records in a timely way—and without the sneaky redactions that have been used to keep the American people in the dark. One example: the text messages between FBI paramours Peter Strzok and Lisa Page regarding Rudolph Contreras. Federal Judge Contreras presided over the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. He and Mr. Strzok knew each other, so Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page were excited when Judge Contreras was appointed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2016.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard its second challenge this term to partisan gerrymanders, this time in a case brought by Republicans. The GOP argument isn’t any better than the Democratic case last fall from Wisconsin, and both argue strongly against judicial intervention.

In Benisek v. Lamone, Republicans in Maryland’s 6th Congressional district contend that the Democratic legislature retaliated against them when redrawing the House map in 2011. Lawmakers lopped off 65,000 GOP voters and packed 30,000 Democrats into the 6th district, which helped Democrat John Delaney in 2012 defeat 10-term GOP Rep. Roscoe Bartlett by 21 points. The new district lines “disrupted and depressed Republican political engagement in the area, and manifestly diminished their opportunity for political success,” the GOP plaintiffs allege, thus violating their First Amendment rights.

The Court has long held that drawing districts inherently implicates political questions. But in Davis v. Bandemer (1986), the Court opened a crevice for judges to review political gerrymanders even though a majority couldn’t agree on a standard for determining how much politics is too much. None has emerged.

While the GOP plaintiffs say any map that has more than a “de minimis” effect on voter engagement and dilution is discriminatory, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked, “What falls in the de minimis category?” Neither the Constitution nor federal law offers an answer, and lawyers in the case disagree. Judges would identify partisan discrimination when they see it.

Under the plaintiffs’ “de minimis” standard, even redrawn districts that make elections more competitive could be unconstitutional. As Justice Anthony Kennedy mused, natural population shifts could impel a state legislature to redraw a district in a way that dilutes a partisan majority. Would that be retaliation?

Chief Justice John Roberts wondered about independent voters, who often turn elections including in Maryland’s 6th. While Mr. Delaney won by 21 points in 2012, he squeaked by with 1.5% in 2014 when GOP Gov. Larry Hogan carried his district by 14 points. The Maryland Solicitor General noted that independents in 2012 overwhelmingly favored Democrats “because of the views of those voters and the strength of that candidate,” not the district lines.

Justice Stephen Breyer playfully suggested the Court use a blackboard to consider the pros and cons of various theories of discrimination to show that “maybe there are different parts of gerrymandering that rises in different circumstances.” The problem is that there is no precise standard that could possibly account for the multiple factors that affect every redistricting and election.

In the Gill case the Court heard last fall, Democrats advocated a convoluted formula called an “efficiency gap” to measure partisanship. But the efficiency gap varies from election to election as voting shifts on an individual and district level. More than half of all maps drawn in the last 45 years had an efficiency gap in one election greater than the 7% standard that Democrats proposed as a bright illegal line.

Maryland’s map had an efficiency gap of 6.7% in 2012 but exceeded 12% in 2016. So Maryland’s map could have been constitutional in 2012 but struck down four years later under the Gill standard. Establishing an arbitrary standard would invite endless parade of partisan gerrymander challenges, politicizing the judiciary.

Consider what happened when the Democratic majority on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last month struck down the state’s Congressional map as violating the state Constitution. The partisan judges redrew the map in a way that favored Democrats. Republican appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court for an injunction were denied. But why is a partisan map drawn by Democratic judges better than a partisan map drawn by GOP legislators?