Slashdot Mirror
Trump Administration Kills Open.Gov, Will Not Release White House Visitor Logs (techdirt.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: It will never be said that the Trump presidency began with a presumption of openness. His pre-election refusal to release his tax returns set a bit of precedent in that regard. The immediate post-election muffling of government agency social media accounts made the administration's opacity goals um clearer. So, in an unsurprising move, the Trump administration will be doing the opposite of the Obama administration. The American public will no longer have the privilege of keeping tabs on White House visitors. TIME reports: "The Trump Administration will not disclose logs of those who visit the White House complex, breaking with his predecessor, the White House announced Friday. White House communications director Michael Dubke said the decision to reverse the Obama-era policy was due to 'the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.' Instead, the Trump Administration is relying on a federal court ruling that most of the logs are 'presidential records' and are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act." So, to further distance himself from the people he serves (and the people who elected him), Trump and his administration have shut down the transparency portal put in place by the previous Commander-in-Chief: "White House officials said the Administration is ending the contract for Open.gov, the Obama-era site that hosted the visitor records along with staff financial disclosures, salaries, and appointments. An official said it would save $70,000 through 2020 and that the removed disclosures, salaries and appointments would be integrated into WhiteHouse.gov in the coming months."
Did anyone feel it was ever "open" ?
I know Trump wants all the coal jobs back - but I'd think it would be hard to get back in the mines, with all these dead canaries piled up everywhere.
I'd call these warning signs of horrors to come - but the man has always been the living symbol of arrogance and greed, and if anyone didn't expect exactly the raw ineptitude and pride in that ineptitude that we're getting, I'd be amazed.
Republicans claim that Government can't solve any problems, and then make it their solemn job to prove that at every opportunity, and Trump is the latest in growing line of leaders exemplifying that determined inability to provide basic governance while wasting endless amounts of resources.
"Mr. Trump’s policy is a return to the one followed by presidents who preceded Mr. Obama." (NYT). No mention of that in the summary.
Trump will release full visitor logs five years after the current term ends.
Sure he will. Right after he released his tax returns.
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
Wow, we're saving $70,000 over 4 years. Why would you even say something if it's such a low figure? Seriously, it's 0.000000018% of the budget. That's like a guy that makes $100k trumpeting the fact that he saved $0.0018. Less than 2/10s of a penny. I'm sure nobody expected anything different from this president, when your whole reason for getting elected is so your family and friends can loot the treasury "openness" isn't high on your agenda.
Enigma
$70,000 is one HOLE of golf at Mar-a-Lago on any given weekend (using the standard $3M/trip metric, and assuming he plays two rounds).
They were propaganda to begin with. Politically sensitive meetings simply occurred off site at nearby locations.
I don't know why he tolerates all the criticism. He's the president. He needs to start rounding up the whiners.
Stand tall, President Trump! We're on your side, no matter what!
or we would look more like venezuela
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Chief Judge Merrick Garland - Obama's nominee for Supreme Court Justice - even agrees:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/08/30/white-house-visitors-foia-appeals-court/2742823/
"In both the 1974 FOIA Amendments and the 1978 Presidential Records Act, Congress made clear that it did not want documents like the appointment calendars of the president and his close advisors to be subject to disclosure under FOIA," Chief Judge Merrick Garland wrote for the three-judge panel. "Granting Judicial Watch's request for certain visitor records, however, would effectively disclose the contents of those calendars."
That wasn't the math I was doing. Cost of running open.org for four years = 5% of a single weekend of Darth Cheeto charging the US population for wasting time.
Can someone please point me to the law or regulation requiring a sitting president or president-elect to release his or her tax returns?
Can someone please point me to the law or regulation that requires our government or government officials to maintain social media accounts?
Can someone please point me to the law or regulation that requires the executive branch to make White House visitor logs available for public review?
If you are going to be upset that they are no longer willingly providing this information, then perhaps the best thing to do would be to pass a law requiring them to do so. For those unfamiliar with our process here in the US, that would involve action from the legislative branch. Contact your legislative representatives and demand they do something if you are really that upset.
It really seems most people who would complain about the shuttering of open.gov let their outrage get the best of them before they finished the article, as it clearly states, "and that the removed disclosures, salaries and appointments would be integrated into WhiteHouse.gov in the coming months.". Ergo, all that information is going to be retained, its just moving locations.
Firstly, tax returns are not presidential records. Secondly, from the summary, which starts with a negative tone but includes a few tidbits at the end:
"the removed disclosures, salaries and appointments would be integrated into WhiteHouse.gov in the coming months"
It seems they mostly ended the contract to host open.gov. Perhaps the contractor was an Obama friend, who knows.
Of course, we can't know the truth just yet since both the White House and the press (ex. Techdirt) have no credibility.
Why aren't you? This is something that should be transparent for any fucking voter to look over.
Just before Racheal Maddow Released Trumps' tax return for him, Trump himself released one year of taxes - in which Trump payed over *$30 million*. IN income tax. For one year. So what is going to be exciting about the other years, finding out that every year he pays ~30 million in personal income taxes?
In just one year Trump is paying more in tax than the entire population of Slashdot will over a lifetime.
I could see some reason to want to see Trump's taxes before anything was released, but now people who call to see more of what we already know just look like total goobers. It's like if there were marches after Al Capones Vault was opened demanding they go back in and look at all the bricks. You are literally a brick-chaser.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I think that under Bernie it would be more like France.
No, it's vital to national security that the government be responsible to the people. You know what happened when there wasn't transparency about Iraq? ISIS happened.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
And why should it be? Personally, I couldn't care less about Trump, but I'm at a loss as for why this is suddenly important.
Are you concerned that Trump uses a loophole somewhere to avoid paying taxes? If so, who wouldn't do that? I don't know of one person who would deliberately not avoid paying taxes when given the opportunity.
Besides, it would seem to be consistent with his overall message about wanting to reduce taxation. If you were demanding the tax return of somebody who is in favor of higher taxes, then that *may* in some way be valid, but I still wouldn't see a need for it as I'm sure that person would try to avoid taxes as well, even though they may want to see whatever loophole they used go away.
Trump Administration Refusing To Disclose Names Of White House Diamond Elite Members
23K a year may sound like peanuts, but imagine, if it saves him but one trip to Mar A Lago to meet with undisclosed donors, we're starting to talk real money here.
The fool will try to hide all of his crimes any way he can. He is simply a Putin wannabe.
Hard to Drain the Swamp if the swamp comes in and lobbies every day with a suitcase full of cash. Trump was elected on the idea that he was above being bought and manipulated, yet here he is making it easier to be manipulated. At best, very very bad optics for his "clean the politics as usual" at wors, an invitation to graft.
So, Day 88, not even first hundred days, he has no big successes, a few major failures, and probably not one campaign promise that hasn't been crushed. arguably getting his supreme court nominee in, when he controlled the senate, is his best success, and that's mostly procedural.
The whole point of laws like FOIA is that the law says that the information is public. If each White House decides what it lays open and what it does not, then it will only lay open the stuff that it does not care if people see. So you meet someone somewhere else if you don't want them showing up on the visitor log. That makes a log disclosure sooooo effective.
"Sure he will. Right after he released his tax returns."
He has planned to release them the day after Obama releases his school transcripts.
If the goal is to save money, there is significantly lower fruit to pick... Obviously saving money has nothing to do with this.
It's not suddenly important. It's been important all along. Trying to claim otherwise is one of those Alternate Facts that Kellyann likes to blather about.
I couldn't care less if he used a loophole. Actually, I do care – I want a loophole too. Or I want his loophole closed. What I really care about though is that he might have sources of income that would indicate he has conflicts of interest. We already do have laws that prohibit conflicts of interest by executive branch members. Google "emoluments" for more info. While some claim those laws don't apply to the president, no court has yet ruled on it, and every president going back to at least Reagan has both released his taxes and put his assets into a blind trust to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest.
In the end, it's about how it looks. And Trump just looks bad for refusing to do those things. And a lot of other things too.
Clearly the billionaire and his voters know nothing about swamps. As far as "dem 'gaters" -- dangerous creatures don't exist in most swamps.
The white house website hosting that information instead? About as likely as his tax records being released.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
subject correction. was in too much of a hurry.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Plus, mining is gradually being automated.
That sounds like a LOT of jobs right there, perfect to transition a lot of miners into retirement.
Looks like Trump was right again, mining jobs are coming back after all.
Not to mention that now China is buying a lot more coal from the U.S. than they were prior to Trump.
Trump Trump Trump!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Norway's socialism is funded by oil. Norway has a huge amount oil per person. Over 90% of their federal budget is supported by oil income
Hillary is no longer relevant.
No ties to Russia? So those bank loans and all the rest don't count? I think Trump has a bridge to sell to you if you are that gullible.
You mean the uranium deal regarding Russia’s nuclear power agency when it bought a controlling interest in a Toronto-based company? Which owns mines, mills and tracts of land in Wyoming, Utah and other U.S. states equal to about 20 percent of U.S. uranium production capacity (not produced uranium)? When Clinton was secretary of state, but didn’t have the power to approve or reject the deal and the State Department was only one of nine federal agencies that signed off on the deal, and only President Barack Obama had the power to veto it? That uranium "scandal"?
I tried to look up "Clinton campaign contributions". But mostly got Breitbart and FoxNews.....oh! and the ever accurate "shadowproof.com"
Of course Trump doesn't have annnny connections to Russia except "ornate gold" - I think in particular he FBI, NSA, CIA and both House and Senate Intelligence committees are investigating this love, in fact. Nothing at all there....probably
Argh. The laws of science be a harsh mistress.
Kind of like trying to bail out the ocean's water with a coffee cup. Since he's not tracking who comes in, I hope they send illegals to see the White House. :P
How is it Libertarian to TRUST the government? I want all of our politicians to have bombs embedded in their necks, and if they even look at a lobbyist, it goes off. IMO, the president SHOULD be a quasi-slave position to preserve the liberty of the other 300 million of us, plus the 7 billion others that occupy this rock.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
No, ISIS happened because we invaded a country over bullshit reasons upon bullshit reasons. Even if ISIS didn't happen, it was still a mistake large enough that the majority of Bush's cabinet should be corpses right now.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Or he could, you know... stop fucking golfing so much on our dime.
It's not like the exercise is doing him any good as he's still a fat-fuck blob.
He probably sucks at golf anyhow which is why we don't hear too much about his scores there. Or come to think of it, about how much he bangs his hag. He'd definitely be bragging about that if it was happening.
Only I can judge you.
Jokes and meme's aside, nobody cares. Trump may full well screw all those swing state voters over, but his opponent didn't make any promises whatsoever (well, there was that time she promised to cost them all their jobs). There's a group of Dems going around called "Justice Democrats" trying to separate themselves from "Corporate Democrats" and line up with Bernie Sanders. I wish them the best. Otherwise we're gonna have 8 years of Trump because like the man said: "What have you got to lose?". If you're a coal miner in Ohio the answer is probably: nothing.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
what world do you live in? Blacklisted from _where_ exactly? I see Trump getting buddy buddy with the Goldman-Sachs types he swore up and down he would drain the swamp of. If that's Blacklisting then sign me the f' up.
What you're doing is a classic right wing technique: divert attention with a straw man argument. The question I have is: Do you know you're doing it or are you just repeating something you picked up online or from talk radio? If the former, stop it. Best case scenario you're lowering the quality of discourse the world over and worst case you're throwing your country under a bus. If the latter I'd suggest broadening your horizons towards the left. Start with Bernie Sanders & Beth Warren.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
It's the essence of the "If you haven't done anything wrong, why is your privacy so important to you" argument.
The salient difference being that privacy is to be enjoyed in abundance by citizens qua private individuals, but should to be afforded only sparingly to public officials qua public officials. Transparency, not privacy, is the the expectation we should have of government.
History shows that the privacy enjoyed by individual citizens is inversely proportional to the privacy government officials are permitted in the exercise of their power.
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
...I mean, "I wonder who is coming to visit?"
So it seems Slashdot doesn't support Cyrillic characters. It would of been funny. :/
...I mean, "I wonder who is coming to visit?" -- Latin character version of Russian because Slashdot only knows Latin languages.
1) For some strange reason almost every other Presidential candidate of the last 40 years thought it was an important enough issue to release them. Something about financial transparency and showing there was nothing to hide;
2) Trump promised he would.
Furthermore, as the politifact link says, despite purchasing the extraction rights as part of a larger deal, they they never acquired export rights. So all that uranium was never at risk of leaving the US anyway.
But holy shit the lies about that so-called scandal are deafening. Almost like there was a vast conspiracy to bamboozle the american public.
The guy literally campaigned on not golfing.
Yet another promise broken.
"Because I'm going to be working for you, I'm not going to have time to play golf. Believe me! Believe me. Believe me folks."
08/08/2016
“I would rarely leave the White House because there’s so much work to be done,” Trump, 69, tells ITK. "I would not be a president who took vacations. I would not be a president that takes time off.”
TheHill.com 06/23/15
I don't know of one person who would deliberately not avoid paying taxes when given the opportunity.
I do. Mitt Romney. When he released his tax returns during the 2012 campaign he chose not to take some deductions.
Had Romney taken the full deduction, he would have paid some quarter of a million less in taxes.
Romney releases his 2011 tax return and 20-year average tax rate
Oh please, the Russian plot narrative is ridiculous because of how much of a manchild Trump is. He's far too temperamental to reliably be part of a coherent plan. Focus on his actual shitty policies instead of trying to pretend that Clinton didn't ruin her own campaign.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Your use of the "we know better" marks you.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
2021 - "Why are you so concerned about his visitor logs, he's not president anymore..."
That and the fact that coalition forces refused to allow Saddam Hussein era officials (and army officers) from serving in the new government and army. This resulted in a large number of well trained soldiers left with no job and a massive grudge.
Compare this to Germany - yes they had a massive de-nazification campaign, but civil servants and Hitler era officers were allowed to continue serving, under the watchful eye of allied forces.
Boehner isn't President.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Furthermore, as the politifact link says, despite purchasing the extraction rights as part of a larger deal, they they never acquired export rights. So all that uranium was never at risk of leaving the US anyway.
Likely they bought it for the interest in the Kazakhstan. You see, Kazakhstan is number 1 exporter of uranium. All other countries have inferior uranium.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Isn't Trump's mere delay instead of outright refusal much better?
So, Trump delaying the release of the information until after the point which it could be acted on is better?
Do you really need the peanut gallery to answer that for you?
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Wonder how this fits into that.
"the removed disclosures, salaries and appointments would be integrated into WhiteHouse.gov in the coming months"
So, just like tax returns. As I recall, they were also "definitely" being released very soon now. Right until the election.
Trump kills open.gov! He hates openness! He's a horrible person! I hate him and so should you!
vs.
To save a bit of money, the content on open.gov is moving to whitehouse.gov.
I know that Trump isn't well liked (especially here), but come on, guys. You're acting like children.
Love sees no species.
Plus, NASA snapped up all of their rocket scientists.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Oh good. Keep repeating "ignorant butt-hurt Socialists". Over and over. That'll win you some friends.
I'm not a Socialist – I'm actually a capitalist. I'm an honest capitalist. I'm a pragmatic capitalist. And 66M Americans – 3M more than voted for Twitler – aren't Socialist either. And your side's endless blathering about (((Socialists))) isn't going to magically make them Socialists either. (And I'm betting you live in one of those "socialist/welfare states" by which I mean your state receives more federal dollars than it collects in taxes, while my state pays more. I'd love to end that little "entitlement" you've got going there.)
And speaking of willful ignorance. Just keep on ignoring the fact that he's a facist, racist, misogynist, draft dodging, lying, cheating, tax dodging, pussy grabbing, bully, serial adulterer, and did I forget anything else? I'm sure I did. Go back and watch the video where he mocked the reporter with the speech impediment and tell me you're proud of that. Watch the videos where he told his jack booted thugs to kick the crap out of people, and then come back and tell us that that's how you want the rest of the world to see us. Go read the stories about the people he did business with and then didn't pay them what he agreed; then come back and tell us that's a guy you want to do business with. Go on.
There is no "get with the program." You, and the rest of the people like you can just forget that. We're not going to "get over it because we lost." We're just going to turn it around on you and tell you "we're not going away, just get over it." You drove around with your "Impeach Obama" bumper sticker for eight years. Now we're going to to exactly the same thing. Get over it.
And his tax returns are significant, not matter how many times you try to claim they're not. So again, "get over it." We're going to keep pushing for them for as long as he's in office. We just are, so STFU about it already you whiney little turd. And in the mean time, just so we're on an even footing, we'll call you an ignorant butt-hurt loser fascist. And you are a fascist, don't kid yourself. Because a real American wouldn't be the least bit threatened by other people speaking their minds. This is like First Amendment kind of stuff. You know that, right?
And then right wingers wonder why all the sane people call them stupid.
No, it makes it a shitty plan. Someone like Dubya makes sense. He's not bright, but he's predictable. Trump might change his mind 4 or 5 times during a staff meeting, or even a few times within a single sentence.
Anybody who isn't a moron can plainly see that the Russian agenda is far more anti-Clinton than pro-Trump. Putin has reasons to be against Clinton, and I would actually agree with a lot of them. Unfortunately, because Trump is, as I said, unpredictable, he just turned Syria into more of a shitstorm, by interfering in the same kind of way that Clinton would have.
The actual cause for his shitty policies is because he's a bought-off whore, and loves to lick the boots of those more powerful than him. Most of the biggest policy examples of him being a Russian agent are explained just as well or better as him sucking dick for the fossil fuel industry.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Trump made such a huuuuuge deal about Obama's golfing and now, when he has spent 20% of his time as president golfing, he is getting a pass?
Laughing at the modbombers.
you're that much of a coward to not suffer the consequences of your actions, what else are you trying to hide?
Then the media can be as open as well. Given their campaign to destroy anyone and anything in the way of their narrative, it can be safe to say that they can no longer be assumed to be good or impartial.
The excuses from the con artist administration are just that, excuses.
The Obama administration left office on January 21st, 2017. On the other hand, they seem to want to keep a Soviet-like iron grip on power through the rioters, media, and DNC faithful.
The swamp keeps filling
You might want to wake up and check the date. Also note that the media have turned back from the Presidential Guard to the Fifth Column.
oil companies dictate our energy policy
Well, they're more competent than Greenpeace or Sierra Club on energy.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Trump will release full visitor logs five years after the current term ends.
Obama just decided to keep many records secret
Isn't Trump's mere delay instead of outright refusal much better?
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Except GP is correct, what the fuck does this have to do with his job as president? If there's some kind of conflict of interest, I'm sure more than one three letter agency would be aware of it.
And speaking of willful ignorance. Just keep on ignoring the fact that he's a facist
Now THAT is ignorance. It's fair to call Trump a lot of things, but fascist just doesn't fit at all. If he was truly fascist, then he'd be calling for nationalization of many businesses, and every business he doesn't want to be nationalized he'd start demanding that its goals and mission changed to benefit the good of the people.
I would say racist doesn't either, but just about anything qualifies as racist these days; enough so that the word is basically meaningless. Hell, a lot of people seem to think that simply being white alone is enough to be considered racist, character of the person notwithstanding.