[News] Post a Political News Story

Ongoing discussion of the political news of the day. This thread is for 'smaller' stories that don't call for their own thread. If a story blows up, please start a new thread for it.

After Saying He’d ‘Monitor Every Penny,’ Ben Carson’s Office Spent $31,000 On Dining Set

The Department of Housing and Urban Development spent more than $31,000 on a new dining set for Secretary Ben Carson’s office last year, according to procurement documents obtained by The New York Times.

The new furniture, which has yet to be delivered, includes a custom table, chairs and hutch. It was purchased by a staffer in Carson’s office shortly after another HUD employee expressed concerns over a costly redecoration request that would’ve exceeded federal limits. Tuesday’s report also comes as HUD is facing a $6.8 billion cut to its fiscal budget that would affect elderly and poor Americans.

A HUD spokesperson said Carson didn’t know about the requisition of the furniture at the time but said the secretary didn’t believe it was too expensive and would not be returning it.

US official: I was demoted for rejecting Ben Carson's costly office revamp

Helen Foster said she was told “$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair” after informing her bosses this was the legal price limit for improvements to the HUD secretary’s suite at the department’s Washington headquarters.

I'm not even sure how to spend $5,000 on an office chair. Herman Miller Aerons are only $1300, a Steelcase Leap is $1700.

An officially licensed Eero Aarnio Ball Chair is about $7000, so maybe Ben Carson fancies himself in need of a supervillian chair?

Here's an Iron Throne for $9,000 -
https://www.etsy.com/listing/5674530...

Gremlin wrote:

US official: I was demoted for rejecting Ben Carson's costly office revamp

Helen Foster said she was told “$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair” after informing her bosses this was the legal price limit for improvements to the HUD secretary’s suite at the department’s Washington headquarters.

I'm not even sure how to spend $5,000 on an office chair. Herman Miller Aerons are only $1300, a Steelcase Leap is $1700.

An officially licensed Eero Aarnio Ball Chair is about $7000, so maybe Ben Carson fancies himself in need of a supervillian chair?

sh*t, even an EAMES chair is $4200 at full retail.

I can't really blame him for wanting a scorpion.

Gremlin wrote:

US official: I was demoted for rejecting Ben Carson's costly office revamp

Helen Foster said she was told “$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair” after informing her bosses this was the legal price limit for improvements to the HUD secretary’s suite at the department’s Washington headquarters.

I'm not even sure how to spend $5,000 on an office chair. Herman Miller Aerons are only $1300, a Steelcase Leap is $1700.

An officially licensed Eero Aarnio Ball Chair is about $7000, so maybe Ben Carson fancies himself in need of a supervillian chair?

Buried deep in the CNN article about this:

He said Secretary Carson did not personally "order a new table" and that the major purchasing decision was made "by the career staffers in charge of the building."
Talk show host Armstrong Williams, a longtime confidant of Carson's, echoed the official's comments and said Carson believed "his office suite was just perfect."

and

The department showed CNN a receipt for $1,100 worth of repairs to the dining set dated May 2017. The work included "repair[ing] loose joints on 9 chairs" and the back of a 10th chair. "Justification: Secretary's Dining room chairs are badly in need of repair," the paperwork reads.
Documents indicate HUD received a quote to replace the dining set in late October, and placed an order on December 21 for $31,561. The department official said the furniture has not yet been delivered to HUD.

So they repaired the existing dining set, and then decided to replace it less than 5 months later... what happened to that dining set?

thrawn82 wrote:

So they repaired the existing dining set, and then decided to replace it less than 5 months later... what happened to that dining set?

He tossed it in an alley so that someone could live under it. Mission accomplished.

Yonder wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:

So they repaired the existing dining set, and then decided to replace it less than 5 months later... what happened to that dining set?

He tossed it in an alley so that someone could live under it. Mission accomplished.

That sounds way too much like what he thinks welfare is, I don't buy it.

thrawn82 wrote:

So they repaired the existing dining set, and then decided to replace it less than 5 months later... what happened to that dining set?

Perhaps a better question to ask is why does the Secretary of HUD have a dedicated dining room that can seat at least ten people?

OG_slinger wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:

So they repaired the existing dining set, and then decided to replace it less than 5 months later... what happened to that dining set?

Perhaps a better question to ask is why does the Secretary of HUD have a dedicated dining room that can seat at least ten people?

I think it's clear the dining room seats 9 people, the 10th was his villain looming chair.

OG_slinger wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:

So they repaired the existing dining set, and then decided to replace it less than 5 months later... what happened to that dining set?

Perhaps a better question to ask is why does the Secretary of HUD have a dedicated dining room that can seat at least ten people?

Trump called Sessions disgraceful today.

Popcorn.gif

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Trump called Sessions disgraceful today.

Popcorn.gif

In his defense, he totally is and while it's certainly fun to watch I'm more worried about the damage that's being done to our institutions as Trump flails around.

Best description of this administration I've seen.

thrawn82 wrote:

So they repaired the existing dining set, and then decided to replace it less than 5 months later... what happened to that dining set?

Again from the same article:

"The old table and chairs were from 1967 and deemed unrepairable"

oilypenguin wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

Trump called Sessions disgraceful today.

Popcorn.gif

In his defense, he totally is and while it's certainly fun to watch I'm more worried about the damage that's being done to our institutions as Trump flails around.

I'm always confused by Trump's intentions when he does this. I guess he's trying to rile up his base?

All he does is make himself look pathetic and impotent. Sessions WORKS for Trump. He can, or has, ask these questions to Sessions directly. Congrats, Trump, once again you're telling the world that you're a horrible, ineffective boss.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

Trump called Sessions disgraceful today.

Popcorn.gif

In his defense, he totally is and while it's certainly fun to watch I'm more worried about the damage that's being done to our institutions as Trump flails around.

I'm always confused by Trump's intentions when he does this. I guess he's trying to rile up his base?

All he does is make himself look pathetic and impotent. Sessions WORKS for Trump. He can, or has, ask these questions to Sessions directly. Congrats, Trump, once again you're telling the world that you're a horrible, ineffective boss.

The important thing is everyone's out to get Trump and nothing is his fault.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

Trump called Sessions disgraceful today.

Popcorn.gif

In his defense, he totally is and while it's certainly fun to watch I'm more worried about the damage that's being done to our institutions as Trump flails around.

I'm always confused by Trump's intentions when he does this. I guess he's trying to rile up his base?

All he does is make himself look pathetic and impotent. Sessions WORKS for Trump. He can, or has, ask these questions to Sessions directly. Congrats, Trump, once again you're telling the world that you're a horrible, ineffective boss.

No, no, no. A very very good boss bigly exerts his bossitude by yelling at his subordinates. That's how the drones know which one is boss.

Everytime I see a headline that like I have to remember that the Republican party is made up of pretty much entirely of white people (about 90% of votes for Republican presidential candidates are cast by white people). So that headline is basically "white people think too much Black History is being taught."

But, yes, Democrats and Republicans have become increasingly divided on a lot of different--and fundamental--issues.

IMAGE(http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2017/10/04153144/1_1.png)

Nomad wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:

So they repaired the existing dining set, and then decided to replace it less than 5 months later... what happened to that dining set?

Again from the same article:

"The old table and chairs were from 1967 and deemed unrepairable"

Which is fair, though still not a reason to contravene the limit. Maybe a good reason to give a waiver, or to reexamine the limit. I'm not really opposed to this kind of spending as a general rule, though a $31,000 dining set is way on the high side for a dining set. I can get you a fancy 11-piece dining set for $4K with free shipping, but I'm not a registered government supplier.

Should we blame Carson for it? Foster alleges that Carson's wife was the one who made the request, which seems inappropriate:

The Guardian wrote:

The complaint letter said that the day before Trump’s inauguration in January last year, Foster was asked by acting HUD director Craig Clemmensen to help Carson’s wife, Candy, obtain funds for the redecoration of her husband’s office suite. When Foster replied that there was a statutory limit of $5,000, Clemmensen allegedly told her that administrations had “always found ways around that in the past”.

It's not something I'm investing a lot of opprobrium in, other than as an excuse to look up prices on fancy furniture. The parts about the FOIA requests seems more significant, but at the moment this is a labor dispute that both sides have a stake in, so it doesn't have a lot of evidence that concerns the rest of us.

The Ben Carson thing is a thing because the FY 2019 budget being proposed includes slashing 18% of HUD's funding, about $8.8 billion.

And that's on top of the $6+ billion haircut the agency got in the FY 2018 budget.

And it certainly doesn't help when Carson goes out and proposes that people living in public housing shouldn't waste taxpayers money and fix the stuff that breaks in their apartment themselves: "Your toilet's running, I'm not calling the [public housing authority], I'm lifting the lid. I'm gonna see if I can fix it because I'm saving the money," Carson said."

PBS launching new conservative political talk show

I guess if anyone can do it right...

Let me revise my position, because there's been some new information.

Nomad wrote:

Buried deep in the CNN article about this:

A series of new twists since that article was originally published on Tuesday:

- Turns out that the official who gave CNN and other journalists that information was incorrect:

Williams made false statements to the Guardian in emails last Friday while an article on Foster’s claims was being prepared.

- The department spent an additional $165K on furniture.
US housing department to spend $165,000 on own furniture as it faces $6.8bn budget cut

It's still fairly petty, but it looks pretty embarrassing for HUD. Embarrassing is relatively minor for scandals in this administration, though. The worst crime so far is breaking minor federal regulations and demoting someone, both of which are barely illegal. It's not like they were money laundering or committing felonies or giving top secret information to Russian intelligence officials in the oval office.

Of course, because it's the kind of comprehensible scandal to the media and inside-the-beltline folks, I wouldn't be surprised if it drags Carson down. They know how to talk about this kind of thing. They don't know how to talk about armed cops in riot gear entering a Trump hotel in Panama.

Armed authorities enter Trump hotel in Panama amid standoff over legal dispute
Police called after brawl in dispute over Trump Panama hotel
Panamanian police handcuff a guard at the Trump hotel as standoff escalates

How to spot when it's election time again in Russia...

Putin reveals Russia's 'invincible missile' in pre-election speech

He showcased a range of new weapons, including a missile that could "reach anywhere in the world".

Using video presentations. he said the missile could not be stopped by the US shield in Europe and Asia.

He highlighted two nuclear-capable weapons - a cruise missile and a submarine-launched unmanned underwater vehicle.

The warhead, he said, was "a low-flying, difficult-to-spot cruise missile with a nuclear payload with a practically unlimited range and an unpredictable flight path, which can bypass lines of interception and is invincible in the face of all existing and future systems of both missile defence and air defence."

Given that they can't even keep their conventional military tech in full working condition half the time (a lot of it still Soviet Era stuff) ...I raise at least one eyebrow at this claim.

pyxistyx wrote:
The warhead, he said, was "a low-flying, difficult-to-spot cruise missile with a nuclear payload with a practically unlimited range and an unpredictable flight path, which can bypass lines of interception and is invincible in the face of all existing and future systems of both missile defence and air defence."

Given that they can't even keep their conventional military tech in full working condition half the time (a lot of it still Soviet Era stuff) ...I raise at least one eyebrow at this claim.

I feel pretty confident in stating that a weapon that's invincible to all future systems of defense will never exist. Though it certainly sounds like no one is configured to counter it at the moment.

Also, it's concerning that he's touting a new nuclear delivery platform. The only reason to build something like that is if you want to threaten other nuclear powers. If he's serious about it, we're now moving towards a crisis that will overshadow the cold war. A nuclear standoff between ideological rivals is one thing. The problem with a mafia-dictator with nuclear weapons is that he very well might use one.

Nomad wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:

So they repaired the existing dining set, and then decided to replace it less than 5 months later... what happened to that dining set?

Again from the same article:

"The old table and chairs were from 1967 and deemed unrepairable"

Then what did they pay over a grand for? That was a RECEIPT for repair not an estimate.

thrawn82 wrote:
Nomad wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:

So they repaired the existing dining set, and then decided to replace it less than 5 months later... what happened to that dining set?

Again from the same article:

"The old table and chairs were from 1967 and deemed unrepairable"

Then what did they pay over a grand for?

Look, this is high tech furniture, all wood, zero moving parts, sometimes you just can't fix them.