Well it looks like Trump will finally get his military parade and it will only cost taxpayers around 30 million dollars.

Courtesy of The Guardian: 

Donald Trump looks set to get the military parade he wants in Washington, on Veterans Day in November. 

But a Pentagon planning memo issued on Thursday and released on Friday said the parade being planned for 11 November will “include wheeled vehicles only, no tanks consideration must be given to minimize damage to local infrastructure”. 

In other words, heavy tanks could tear up the streets of DC and will thus not be allowed to rumble past the president on his reviewing stand. 

The event will “include a heavy air component at the end of the parade”, the memo said, meaning lots of airplane flyovers. Older aircraft will be included as available. 

The memo did not include a cost estimate. The White House budget director recently told Congress the cost to taxpayers could be between $10m and $30m.

Parade details for Nov. 11. Will have uniforms. Some planes. Maybe old planes. Tanks are banned. pic.twitter.com/W7xyhLYo9Y

— Thomas Gibbons-Neff (@Tmgneff) March 9, 2018

I have also read that the parade could cost as much as 50 million dollars.

Just imagine how many children could be fed, homeless people housed, or veterans treated for their PTSD for 50 million?

But no, we have a conceited man child who needs to channel totalitarian despots by waving at members of a military that he lied about bone spurs to avoid joining. 

So who exactly is using the taxpayer funded helipad at Mar-a-Lago?

Courtesy of the Palm Beach Daily News:

On Dec. 22, 2017, the Friday before Christmas, the new helipad at Mar-a-Lago was used for only the second time. A private business helicopter with the corporate Trump logo landed and took off from there a few hours before President Trump’s arrival in the area via Air Force One. The only other time the new helipad has been used was on April 8, 2017. In that instance it was also a private business helicopter with the corporate Trump logo that landed and took off. 

Helicopter takeoff and landing in the town of Palm Beach is strictly regulated, as one might expect. Essentially, it is limited to only emergency helicopters such as Trauma Hawk. 

So when President Trump moved to have the federal government build a helipad at Mar-a-Lago for him, he had to seek a waiver from normal town rules to allow for helicopter take off and landing. The issue was taken up at the Jan. 10, 2017, Town of Palm Beach Town Council meeting. Under the advisement of long-serving Town of Palm Beach legal counsel John “Skip” C. Randolph, the Town Council voted 5-0 to grant the waiver with the caveat that it only be for government, not personal or private sector, use. Specifically, it designated Mar-a-Lago for the “take-off and landing of helicopters pursuant to the provisions of Section 14-34 of the Town Code of Ordinances during the term(s) of office of the President-elect Donald J. Trump for business related to the Presidency only.” 

Given that both times the helipad has been used a private business helicopter with the corporate Trump logo landed and took off, it would seem to violate the waiver allowing “for business related to the Presidency only.” This is not an issue of politics and has nothing to do with whether one does or does not agree with President Trump’s policies. This is an issue of the rule of law and no one — not even the President of the United States and not even in Palm Beach — should or can be above it.

Apparently the local officials have no idea who is using this helipad, and for what purpose.

Courtesy of the Palm Beach Post: 

“I wish I could answer that,” said Palm Beach Mayor Gail Coniglio about who was using the helicopter and why. “If that’s the case and it’s being used for official business, so be it.” 

Even Battalion Chief Sean Baker, spokesman for Palm Beach Fire-Rescue, said he has “no clue” who is using the helicopter, adding that Fire Rescue is “called to Mar-a-Lago when the Secret Service needs us.” 

The local residents are kind of fed up.

Neighbors and residents complained that the council had not given enough public notice before agreeing to modify the aircraft ban and build a helipad. 

“It is one thing to bring in Marine One with the president on it. It is another thing to bring in helicopters with the president not on it, or private helicopters,” Jesse Diner, attorney for Palm Beach resident Nancy deMoss, said at a February Landmarks Preservation Commission meeting. “So there needs to be a restriction on use as far as that goes to only Marine One when the president is on it.” 

Their concern: noise, downdraft, personal use of the helipad by friends, family and Mar-a-Lago members and setting a precedent for other residents to seek their own helipads.

So to be clear taxpayer money paid for a helicopter landing pad that has only been used twice, and most likely not for any government related business.

And really is this a surprise to anybody?

EPA chief Scott Pruitt may be the king of paranoia.

Courtesy of the AP: 

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency used public money to have his office swept for hidden listening devices and bought sophisticated biometric locks for additional security. 

The spending items, totaling nearly $9,000, are among a string of increased counter-surveillance precautions taken by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who also requires around-the-clock protection by an armed security team. 

The EPA’s Office of Inspector General is already investigating Pruitt’s $25,000 purchase of a custom-made soundproof privacy booth for his office to deter eavesdropping on his phone calls.

An accounting of Pruitt’s spending for the bug sweep and pricey locks was provided to The Associated Press by an EPA employee who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing concerns of retaliation.

Does Scott Pruitt realize that he works for a government agency that deals with the environment and is NOT in fact working with the CIA?

Kind of makes me wonder if Donald Trump chooses his cabinet members based on the number of voices they hear in their heads.

For profit charter schools charge taxpayers for students who do not show up for classes.

Charter schools touted by @BetsyDeVos lure at-risk students and when they stop coming, the state keeps paying. https://t.co/iB0FOeQHxC

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) October 5, 2017

Courtesy of USA Today:

Last school year, Ohio’s cash-strapped education department paid Capital High $1.4 million in taxpayer dollars to teach students on the verge of dropping out. But on a Thursday in May, the storefront charter school run by for-profit EdisonLearning was mostly empty. 

In one room, vacant chairs faced 25 blank computer monitors. Three students sat in a science lab down the hall, and another nine in an unlit classroom, including one youth who sprawled out, head down, sleeping. 

Only three of the more than 170 students on Capital’s rolls attended class the required five hours that day, records obtained by ProPublica show. Almost two-thirds of the school’s students never showed up; others left early. Nearly a third of the roster failed to attend class all week.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has championed charters and for-profit education, contending in Congressional testimony that school choice can lower absenteeism and dropout rates. But at schools like Capital, a ProPublica-USA Today investigation found, the drop-outs rarely drop in—and if they do, they don’t stay long. Such schools aggressively recruit as many students as possible, and sometimes count them even after they stop showing up, a practice that can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for empty desks.

If Betsy DeVos has her way this will be how ALL of the country's educational needs will be met.

They will just continue charging the American people for an education that nobody shows up to receive.

You ever wonder how they create more Republicans?

THIS is how they create more Republicans. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price offers to pay a fraction of the taxpayer money he wasted on private planes. Update!

Courtesy of ABC News:  

Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price said Thursday that he regrets his numerous trips aboard private aircraft and pledged to reimburse the government for the cost of his seat, a promise that will only cover a fraction of the estimated costs, according to a source familiar with the plan. 

In a statement, Price said that he "regret[s] the concerns that [his official travel] has raised regarding the use of taxpayer dollars" and that he "will write a personal check to the U.S. Treasury for the expenses of my travel on private charter planes." 

"The taxpayers won't pay a dime for my seat on those planes,” said Price. 

The source with knowledge of Price's intentions said that the secretary will pay $51,887.31, about 13 percent of the $400,000 that Politico estimated was spent on as many as 26 chartered flights. Price confirmed that he would pay for his "portion" of the total cost in an interview with Fox News Thursday afternoon. 

"All of my political career I've fought for the taxpayers," said Price in his statement. "It is clear to me that in this case, I was not sensitive enough to my concern for the taxpayer. I know as well as anyone that the American people want to know that their hard-earned dollars are being spent wisely by government officials.

If Price REALLY cared about the taxpayers then he would be digging much deeper to find the funds to repay the actual cost of these flights, which ONLY took to the air on his behalf, instead of attempting to weasel out of taking full responsibility for wasting our money.

By the way that $400,000 estimate from Politico may be a little low, as other news outlets have suggested that Price may have wasted almost a million dollars of taxpayer money on private flights to places easily accessible by commercial air.

It should be mentioned that Obama's HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, only used a private plane ONE time. And that was to reach a remote village in Alaska, and I can confirm that there is literally no other way to get out into the bush than to charter a plane.

For his part Trump is apparently pissed off that this story is making headlines right now, and has made some noise about firing Price.

However if he does so he is only exposing his own hypocrisy, since it has been well reported that Trump himself is costing the American taxpayers multiple millions of dollars to pay for the Secret Service security to protect his extended family in a number of locations, and to pay for his own frequent trips to Trump properties like Mar a Lago.

And there are other outrageous expenses coming from this administration, one of which we documented just yesterday concerning that story about the EPA administrator and his $25,000 "cone of Silence."

Let's face it, Donald Trump did not win the White House to "drain the swamp."

He won the White House to bankrupt the country.

Update: Price has now resigned.

How many members of the administration is this now? 

Turns out Donald Trump Jr. can't quit his Secret Service detail.

Courtesy of CNN:

Donald Trump Jr.'s Secret Service protection has been reactivated, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. 

The President's son had previously requested his protection be scaled back, seeking more privacy. 

By law, as an immediate family member of President Donald Trump, his son is authorized, but not required, to have protection. 

It is not clear what prompted the move. 

Previously, Trump Jr. had also requested to travel without protection during a family trip in June, which the Secret Service reluctantly approved. 

Two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity previously told CNN that the Secret Service strongly pushed back on his request, but said it was "demanded" by Trump Jr. himself. 

The Secret Service detail has been restored to what it was before, the sources said.

As a taxpayer I really don't want my money going to protect some sniveling trust fund baby who does not even appreciate it.

As far as I'm concerned the douchebag can walk away from his Secret Service protection and take his chances out in the real world.

We should take bets on how long he would last.

My money's on less than a week.

Don't feel outraged enough? Well this rundown of Trump family expenses compiled by Newsweek should remedy that.

Who needs to repair roads and build infrastructure when we can spend taxpayer money on these assholes?

Courtesy of Newsweek:  

President Trump's trips to Mar-A-Lago 

Total cost for security in Palm Beach: $3.7 million 
Roundtrip flights from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland to West Palm, Florida: $700,000 
Overtime for local law enforcement during Trump’s trips: $60,000/day 
Total golf cart rentals ordered by the Secret Service "for POTUS visit": $35,185 
Loss to business due to airport closure: -$30,000/weekend 

Keeping the first family in Trump Towers 

Request for additional Secret Service funding to secure Trump Towers: $60 million 
New York Police Department security costs: $127,000-$146,000/day 
"Elevator services" ordered by the Secret Service: $64,000 
Air Force One flights to New York City: $180,000/hour 

The Trump children's trips around the world with Secret Service 

Eric Trump’s hotel costs in Uruguay: $97,830 
Eric Trump’s hotel costs in the U.K. this week: $11,261 
Eric Trump’s limousine services in Dublin: $4,029.85 
Rental ski equipment and clothing for secret service during Ivanka Trump's trip to Aspen: $12,208 
Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump’s hotel costs in Vancouver: $53,155 
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump’s hotel costs in Dubai: $16,738 

The provided costs don't even include airfare rates for Secret Service agents taking each trek with the Trumps, nor does it include the data on those agents’ salaries and other expenditures taxpayers may be footing the bill for. 

I think we all know that this is really only a fraction of what is being spent on this gold plated white trash family.

So not only is this the worst presidency in American history, by far.

It is also the most expensive presidency in American history, by far. 

I'm confused. Was the "Make America Great Again" slogan supposed to actually be interpreted as "Make America Bankrupt Again?"

Just asking.

Even Tiffany Trump is draining this country dry of funds.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:

Official government records show three payments were made by the State Department to a car rental agency in Rome on July 18 totaling $117,489.44.

That pales in comparison to the $1,956,949.73 that was spent at the same agency back in May during President Trump's 48-hour trip to Italy.

Two days later Secret Service agents arrived in Portofino to meet Tiffany Trump as she disembarked from a two-week yacht trip on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Well that certainly helps to explain why the Secret Service is going broke.

Not sure why the Secret Service has to spend so many resources to protect Tiffany Trump.

I don't think that even her father cares enough about her to have any concerns for her welfare. 

And if he does, then let HIM foot the bill for her protection. 

The Democrats are demanding to know just how much the government is paying Trump owned businesses.

Courtesy of Madison.com: 

As President Donald Trump spends much of August at his New Jersey golf club, Democratic lawmakers are making a new push for information about how much money the federal government is spending at his for-profit properties. 

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday asked departments to hand over information about their Trump-related spending by Aug. 25. 

"The American people deserve to know how their tax dollars are spent, including the amount of federal funds that are being provided to private businesses owned by the president and the purposes of these expenditures," reads the lawmakers' letter to Elaine Duke, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. The lawmakers sent similar requests to all Cabinet secretaries. 

Their request seeks documents about any payments the departments made to the Trump Organization or any business in which the Trump organization has an ownership stake. 

The Democratic Oversight letter cites reports about the State Department booking rooms at a new Trump hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia, where his adult sons were on site for the grand opening, and the Defense Department and Homeland Security renting space at Trump Tower, where first lady Melania Trump and the couple's 11-year-old son lived until the end of the school year. 

"President Trump also makes frequent trips to properties he owns, and these trips may result in U.S. taxpayers' money flowing into President Trump's pockets," the letter to Duke reads. 

The new effort is one of many to understand how much money the Trump-led government is spending on businesses that he still owns. The Government Accountability Office is undertaking the most comprehensive study.

This is a good move.

I think that even many of Trump's supporters might be shocked once they see the millions of taxpayer dollars that have been flowing into the Trump family businesses since the inauguration.

It might even knock Trump's approval numbers down into the twenties.

Secret Service vacates Trump Tower over dispute about cost.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

The Secret Service has vacated its command post inside Trump Tower in Manhattan following a dispute between the government and President Trump’s company over the terms of a lease for the space, according to two people familiar with the discussions. 

Previously, the Secret Service had stationed its command post — which houses supervisors and backup agents on standby in case of an emergency — in a Trump Tower unit one floor below the president’s apartment. 

But in early July, the post was relocated to a trailer on the sidewalk, more than 50 floors below, a distance that some security experts worry could hamper the agency that protects the president’s home and family. 

The command post appears unlikely to move anytime soon back inside Trump Tower, where the president and his family have rarely gone since moving to the White House. 

On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization said the government should seek space in another location.

Apparently the brouhaha is over the fact that the Trump folks are charging the taxpayers too goddamn much for the space.

And good for them for standing up for the American taxpayer.

Remember we have already learned that it costs in excess of $300,000 a day to protect this building. 

Personally I would not pay fifty cents toward the protection of Cheeto Hitler and his family.

As far as I'm concerned if the Trump Organization cannot make a better deal on the rent, then Donald Trump can pay private contractors to protect his family and employees.

The US Military is paying $130,000 a month to stay in Trump Tower and protect a president who is never there.

Courtesy of CNBC:

The United States government is paying more than $130,000 a month to rent a space in Trump Tower for a military office that supports the White House, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. 

Lease documents obtained by the Journal showed the government agreed to pay $2.39 million for a 3,475 square foot space from April 11, 2017 to Sept. 30, 2018 — above market rate for similarly sized high rise luxury apartments, the report said. 

A spokeswoman at the General Services Administration said the space is owned by someone not affiliated with the Trump Organization, suggesting the rent money isn't going to President Donald Trump, according to the report. 

The GSA is the agency that negotiates office space agreements for the government. 

An office like the one in Trump Tower is used by the U.S. military to provide services that need to be close to the president at all times. That includes medical, food, transportation, communications and a briefcase that allows the president to authorize a nuclear attack, the Journal said.

But here's the kicker.  

The president, however, hasn't spent a night at the skyscraper since taking office, it added.

So to be clear, the American taxpayers are paying Donald Trump for the services needed to protect Donald Trump, which he never actually needs because the taxpayers are also paying to protect Donald Trump on one of Donald Trump's many golf course.

Which are also being paid to house those protective services. 

Does that about sum this up?

Donald Trump apparently demanded an investigation using taxpayer money to prove that his inauguration was bigger than Obama's.

@POTUS Obama inauguration photos on the left, Trump on the right--'nuff said: pic.twitter.com/7DIUYNLYoW

— Vilmos Nagy (@PunjabNagy) March 8, 2017

Courtesy of Share Blue:  

Donald Trump and his allies triggered an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General that ended up proving, at taxpayers’ expense, that he is not nearly as popular as former President Barack Obama. 

After Trump’s sparsely attended inauguration, he and his team put on a full-court press to prove that it was the most attended inauguration event in Washington history. The claim was the focus of press secretary Sean Spicer’s first briefing, during which he infamously claimed, “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.”

Now the Inspector General has released its findings after it received a complaint, which alleged that National Park Service employees had been instructed to alter official records on crowd sizes. The complaint also insinuated that public relations employees of the service had leaked the details of calls between Trump and the acting director of the park service about his disappointing crowd size. 

Unfortunately for team Trump, the Inspector General’s investigation came up empty. 

“We did not find evidence to substantiate any of these allegations.” The report further indicates, “All of the witnesses we interviewed denied that the NAMA official instructed staff to alter records for the inauguration or to remove crowd size information. We also found no evidence that the public affairs employees released any information to the media about the President’s phone call.” 

The facts of the case remain the same as they were on the day Trump was sworn in: There were more people at Obama’s inauguration. Period.

Unbelievable!

This idiot just cannot let things go.

Don't forget he also spearheaded the search for the park service employee who first pointed out that his crowds were significantly smaller than President Obama's.

Here we are over six months into this debacle called the Trump presidency and due to his vast and debilitating insecurities we are STILL talking about the inauguration crowd size.

This is going to be a long four years. 

House members, many of who want every American to own a gun, are now demanding taxpayer money to pay for private security in the wake of the Virginia shooting.

Courtesy of McClatchy:  

House of Representatives lawmakers want $25,000 each to hire private security right away to protect them in their home districts, an unusually quick, bipartisan response to the shooting of a Republican House leader and others at a baseball practice. 

A House panel has approved providing an immediate $10 million for the rest of fiscal 2017, which runs through Sept. 30, for that purpose. 

Representatives could use the money to pay for an off-duty police officer or private security guard at town halls, fish fries, meet-and-greets or other public events in their districts. 

The legislation would also add $7.5 million for Capitol Police to bulk up threat assessment and security measures in Washington for fiscal year 2018 — especially when lawmakers gather in groups — and $5 million for members to invest in cameras, door buzzers, key cards and panic buttons in representatives’ district offices. 

The Federal Election Commission is considering allowing lawmakers to use campaign funds to secure their residences, as well.

Well it's a good thing I've taken my irony shots, or this overload might put me into a coma.

Keep in mind that the House is majority Republican, and that those Republicans have fought aggressively against gun registration, back ground checks, and for allowing more citizens to have conceal carry permits.

But now that somebody has directed the gunfire which kills thousands of Americans each year in THEIR direction they want more taxpayer money to keep them safe?

No, screw that!

If they want to feel safer let them purchase their own gun, and carry it with them wherever they go.

Isn't THAT what they have been telling us to do to stay safe?

Donald Trump claims he is saving taxpayer money by going to New Jersey instead of his home in Trump tower. Talk about fake news.

Rather than causing a big disruption in N.Y.C., I will be working out of my home in Bedminster, N.J. this weekend. Also saves country money!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2017

In what universe does it save money for Trump to have a squad of Secret Service agents travel with him to New Jersey instead of going to Trump Tower where there is already a large contingent of agents on the premises to protect his wife and son?

That make no sense.

Maybe Melania has forbidden him to return to Trump Tower until after he is finished pretending to be the president?

Or maybe he was just trying to avoid seeing this in front of his favorite building.

Protesters gather outside the Intrepid ahead of Trump's arrival https://t.co/KHFZVFhRrg via @YahooNews pic.twitter.com/hbLdfBLM9l

— Steven Wroblewski (@WrobStv) May 5, 2017

Anti-Trump protest on NYC Westside. pic.twitter.com/Bi9PITUHmL

— Miguel Marquez (@miguelmarquez) May 4, 2017

"New York hates you, Donald Trump!" protestors yell around @TrumpTower in response to @realDonaldTrump's presence in NYC today pic.twitter.com/ZhARTcu0dm

— Madina Toure (@madinatoure) May 4, 2017

Hundreds march against Donald Trump ahead of New York visit https://t.co/rqR01Gry67 pic.twitter.com/eonA6Yett2

— The Straits Times (@STcom) May 5, 2017

By the way if Trump REALLY wanted to save taxpayer money perhaps he ought to force his wife and kid to join him in DC, and stop going to Florida every damn weekend.

Donald Trump's constant tweeting is making the Secret Service's job near impossible.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Trump’s free-flowing tweets have invited more threats than his security detail can keep pace to investigate. On top of that, he’s been telegraphing his movements for the bad guys by establishing regular travel patterns in his first 100 days in office. And his very famous family is jetting around the world, draining the resources of a bureau still gasping from the frenzied pace of the 2016 campaign. 

All presidents live in a target-rich environment — agents often talk of mentally-ill people approaching the White House gates making threats against long-gone leaders like Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan. But law enforcement experts say the new Republican president has particularly upped his exposure levels through Twitter, with the missives emanating from his phone giving the masses the impression they can correspond directly with Trump. 

“The Twitter thing is creating a lot of hassles,” said Dan Bongino, a former protective detail agent for presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “It’s generated a tidal wave of threats that the Secret Service can’t ignore.”

I know what most of you are going to say, "Well fuck it then, if he wants to invite those kinds of threats then the Secret Service should just take a long lunch break and let events play out as they will."

However I think we all know they cannot do that, nor deep down would we really want them to.

Nor it seems can anybody pry that damn phone out of Trump's hand, which means that we are left watching millions of taxpayer dollars burned up in trying to keep Trump and his misfit family alive until at least the end of his first term.

That is of course unless one of these many investigations finally comes up the smoking gun to get this POS hauled out of the White House in chains and thrown into prison where he clearly belongs.

One can only hope. 

Here is a breakdown of what it has cost the American taxpayers so far to have Donald Trump as our president.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

President Trump's trips to Mar-A-Lago 

Total cost for security in Palm Beach: $3.7 million 

Roundtrip flights from Joint Base Andrews, Mayland to West Palm, Florida: $700,000 

Overtime for local law enforcement during Trump’s trips: $60,000/day 

Total golf cart rentals ordered by the Secret Service "for POTUS visit": $35,185 

Loss to business due to airport closure: -$30,000/weekend 

Keeping the first family in Trump Towers 

Request for additional Secret Service funding to secure Trump Towers: $60 million 

New York Police Department security costs: $127,000-$146,000/day 

"Elevator services" ordered by the Secret Service: $64,000 

Air Force One flights to New York City: $180,000/hour 

The Trump children's trips around the world with Secret Service 

Eric Trump’s hotel costs in Uruguay: $97,830 

Eric Trump’s hotel costs in the U.K. this week: $11,261 

Eric Trump’s limousine services in Dublin: $4,029.85 

Rental ski equipment and clothing for secret service during Ivanka Trump's trip to Aspen: $12,208 

Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump’s hotel costs in Vancouver: $53,155 

Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump’s hotel costs in $16,738 

The provided costs don't even include airfare rates for Secret Service agents taking each trek with the Trumps, nor does it include the data on those agents’ salaries and other expenditures taxpayers may be footing the bill for. The budget was expected to naturally increase based on the size of the Trump family as compared to the size of his predecessors, but critics are concerned the billionaire first family hasn’t acknowledged that it's not him paying for his trips, it's the American people.

It is estimated that Trump's trips to Mar-a-Lago alone will cost more than President Obama's entire yearly travel expenses before his first 100 days. 

So I guess this is what Trump was talking about when he said he wanted to Make America Great Again.

Apparently that just meant for him and his family.

Just like the Secretary of Education, the new head of the EPA is demanding additional security.

Okay was that a gunshot? Did anybody else hear a gunshot? I need some more damn security.

Courtesy of Quartz:

The administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, historically, has had some measure of government-funded personal security detail. Agents routinely picked Gina McCarthy from the airport, for example, or accompanied her on site visits during her time as EPA administrator from July 2013 to Jan 2017. But Scott Pruitt, the new EPA chief, wishes to be guarded 24/7. 

While the draft budget for the EPA obtained by the Washington Post this month shows massive cuts to environment, health, and climate change programs—including the elimination of a program to prevent childhood exposure to lead paint—it also includes a request to hire 10 additional security guards to create an around-the-clock personal security detail for Pruitt, the New York Times reports. 

The Times calls it a first for an EPA chief, and notes that the 10 additional agents would more than double the agency’s current security staff, which has hovered between six and eight agents in recent years. Similarly, security detail for education secretary Betsy DeVos has reached unprecedented levels: Typically, the secretary of education is guarded by about six agents from within the Department of Education. Since her contentious confirmation, DeVos has been under the protection of the US Marshals Service, costing $8 million over eight months.

So we reported earlier on the request from Betsy DeVos for additional security after she was blocked by a protester from entering a school, which seems completely unnecessary, but what in the hell does an EPA chief have to fear?

This just makes me wonder at the severity of the policies that Betsy DeVos and Scott Pruitt are planning for their agencies.

If they believe they will result in attempts on their lives, that should give all of us pause.

Apparently Trump is using that brand new helipad the taxpayers bought him in Mar-a-Lago to land his private choppers.

Trump-branded private helicopter lands on new Mar-a-Lago helipad built for Marine One https://t.co/ZaIIkGIR8I pic.twitter.com/pV8NvAYjqs

— The Hill (@thehill) April 9, 2017

Courtesy of The Hill: 

A Trump-branded private helicopter was spotted at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday, landing on a helipad that was built last month. 

 The blue and white chopper with "Trump" in bold red letters landed on the newly completed helipad on Trump's private resort, the Palm Beach Daily News reported. 

The pad was built to allow the president to travel on Marine One from Palm Beach International Airport to his resort without blocking traffic — though the new travel plan will not change Secret Service-mandated closures surrounding Mar-a-Lago. 

President Trump was not in the helicopter when it landed Saturday, and has not yet used the new helipad for his weekend travel, according to the Palm Beach newspaper.

So wait, Trump is not even using the helipad to go back and forth from Washington to Florida, but it IS being used by his private helicopters to shuttle others to his resort?

Fuck this asshole who treats the presidency like he is the monarch of all he surveys!

Gun injuries cost Americans 730 million annually.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Americans paid more than $6.6 billion over eight years to care for victims of gun violence, according to a new tally of hospital bills. And U.S. taxpayers picked up at least 41% of that tab. 

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, say the authors of a study published this week in the American Journal of Public Health. Their sum does not include the initial — and very costly — bill for gunshot victims’ care in emergency rooms. Nor does it include hospital readmissions to treat complications or provide follow-up care. The cost of rehabilitation, or of ongoing disability, is not included either. 

“These are big numbers, and this is the lowest bound of these costs,” said Sarabeth A. Spitzer, a Stanford University medical student who co-wrote the study. “We were surprised” at the scale, she added. 

That, arguably, makes gun-injury prevention a public health priority, Spitzer said. The GOP’s healthcare reform measure would reduce federal contributions toward Medicaid, which foots roughly 35% of the hospital bills for gunshot victims. The GOP plan would also cut payments to the hospitals that absorb much of the cost of caring for self-paying (in other words, uninsured) patients, whose hospital bills accounted for about 24% of the $730 million-per-year tab. 

“These are expensive injuries,” Spitzer said.

But can we REALLY put a price on a citizen's constitutional right to bear arms?

Hell yes we can! And it is a lot less than 730 million dollars a year.

I think that every gun owner should not only be forced to register their weapon, AFTER going through a strenuous background check, but that they also be forced to purchase insurance that specifically pays for any injuries that they or others may suffer as a result of that purchase.

I can tell you that I personally do not want to pay for the hospital bills of some fool who accidentally shot himself with his own gun. In my opinion he is too dumb to live anyhow.

Secret Service requests 60 million more dollars to protect Donald Trump and his family.

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

The U.S. Secret Service requested $60 million in additional funding for the next year, offering the most precise estimate yet of the escalating costs for travel and protection resulting from the unusually complicated lifestyle of the Trump family, according to internal agency documents reviewed by The Washington Post. 

Nearly half of the additional money, $26.8 million, would pay to protect President Trump’s family and private home in New York’s Trump Tower, the documents show, while $33 million would be spent on travel costs incurred by “the president, vice president and other visiting heads of state.” 

The documents, part of the Secret Service’s request for the fiscal 2018 budget, reflect the costly surprise facing Secret Service agents tasked with guarding the president’s large and far-flung family, accommodating their ambitious travel schedules and fortifying the three-floor Manhattan penthouse where first lady Melania Trump and son Barron live. 

Trump has spent most of his weekends since the inauguration at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and his sons have traveled the world to promote Trump properties with Secret Service agents in tow.

I know what we are all thinking but let's not make any comments which could be misconstrued as threats on this blog.

Having said that I really think this is money that could be better spent elsewhere.

ANYWHERE in fact.