Top HUD official under Carson resigns

Pam Patenaude, the deputy secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), announced Monday that she is resigning from her position in the Trump administration. "This morning I informed [HUD Secretary Ben Carson] of my decision to leave HUD in the new year," Patenaude tweeted in a statement. "Serving at HUD as Deputy Secretary has been the highlight of my 35-year career in housing." Share to Twitter

Pam Patenaude, the deputy secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), announced Monday that she is resigning from her position in the Trump administration.

"This morning I informed [HUD Secretary Ben Carson] of my decision to leave HUD in the new year," Patenaude tweeted in a statement. "Serving at HUD as Deputy Secretary has been the highlight of my 35-year career in housing." She added that "it has been an honor to serve President Trump and Secretary Carson and I am deeply grateful to both for this opportunity." "Thank you to my HUD family and fellow 'housers' for helping Americans access decent, safe and affordable housing," she concluded.

Carson thanked Patenaude for her "tremendous contributions to advancing HUD’s mission" in a statement, according to NBC News. "She is a true public servant, and I wish her well as she returns to private life in New Hampshire," Carson said.

Patenaude will officially transition out of her role as deputy secretary in January, NBC News reported. The news network, citing a senior HUD official speaking on background, noted that Administration Commissioner Brian Montgomery will serve as acting deputy secretary at the agency.

Patenaude ran operations at the agency since being confirmed in September 2017. She played an important role in HUD's efforts to assist recovery efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. She managed the effort to distribute rebuilding funds in Puerto Rico, according to NBC News. She received high praise for her work from Puerto Rican officials, including Gov. Ricardo Rosselló. "The entire nation loses one its finest, most transparent and passionate public servants," Rosselló tweeted shortly after Patenaude announced her resignation. "On behalf of everyone in Puerto Rico, I want to thank you for your friendship, tireless work, commitment and guidance."

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/421734-top-secretary-to-carson-at-hud-resigns

People are protesting in authoritarian Hungary: Here's what to expect

Hungary has become the go-to example for democracy in demise. Recent protests, however, have highlighted a fatal flaw in strongman President Viktor Orban's model, even if they don’t signal an end to his power. Orban has worked to undermine democracy in Hungary. The Fidesz party, under his leadership, has rewritten electoral regulations, clamped down on the independence of courts, converted previously independent media into state propaganda, and forced an independent university to leave the country. Those changes have solidified Orban’s power and made it close to impossible for the opposition to gain control of the government. Indeed, despite winning only 50 percent of the popular vote, Fidesz claimed victory for two-thirds of parliamentary seats in the 2018 elections.

But his seemingly unshakable control faced a new test as protests swept through Budapest in response to a new law passed by the Fidesz-controlled parliament on Wednesday. That law, termed the “slave law” by its critics, authorizes employers to demand 400 hours of overtime a year — about 8 hours a week — from their employees while also withholding pay for that extra work for as many as three years.

That law aimed to fix a growing problem for the isolationist country. Even as Orban cracks down on immigration, young people are eager to leave for better wages and freedoms elsewhere in the European Union. That has meant that there are not enough people to fill jobs, leaving employers scrambling. Instead of addressing the cause of the labor shortage, the solution Orban dreamed up is to just make people work more. Unsurprisingly, that law has proved wildly unpopular. For what is often referred to as the “ soft fascism” of Hungary’s government, this is a clear challenge to the nativism and opposition to the European Union that underpin Orban's support.

The protesters, despite their force and conviction, however, aren’t yet unified, large enough, or well-organized enough to constitute an existential threat to the government. But they did signal the potential for a growing, organized opposition, and they may well galvanize further demonstrations. For the Orban government, they also yielded the bad optics of violent street confrontations and video of an opposition MP literally being dragged out of a television studio. For Orban, the protests also demonstrated that a slick propaganda machine will only take your authoritarian government so far before bullets and tear gas have to start flying in your defense.

The worst sign for Hungary, however, is the reality that this law was intended to fix: a lack of workers. For Orban, bent on promoting his ultra-anti-immigration platform, there’s no easy fix. Even if he backs down on the “slave law” to quell growing dissent, that won’t fix the fundamental flaw that caused the labor shortage in the first place.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/people-are-protesting-in-authoritarian-hungary-heres-what-to-expect

52 bales of cocaine worth $30 million seized near Puerto Rico

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it seized 52 bales of cocaine worth roughly $30 million near Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands last week. CBP's Air and Marine Operations and Caribbean Border Interagency Group said it interdicted a smuggling vessel in international waters after a " multi-hour" pursuit. The smugglers told CBP they were Dominican Republic nationals, and they were taken to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

CBP officials said Puerto Rico is becoming an attractive smuggling route this year for cocaine and heroin headed for the United States. In 2017, CBP seized nearly 66,000 pounds of drugs in and around Puerto Rico, more than any prior year on record. “Drug trafficking organizations have always sought to use the Caribbean as a route to smuggle both narcotics and migrants. The logistics to do so are intrinsically more complicated than traversing the southwest border,” Jeffrey Quinones, a spokesman for CBP's Puerto Rico and Virgin Island outposts, told the Washington Examiner. “Nonetheless, we have seen cyclical increases in the quantity of narcotics brought to these islands and a diversity of means to conceal and enter the product."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/52-bales-of-cocaine-worth-30-million-seized-near-puerto-rico

>>4355765

It's not a country I have done a whole lot of research on…so not on my radar as much as others..but interesting how many countries are standing up lately. About time too.

Does any Anon know if a dig has ever been done on Fox's Judge Andrew Napolitano? Wondering what is up with him.

Kek…Fits him well!

Conjecture on my part here, but here it is..

I am thinking there is a connection here with Pam Patenaude leaving HUD and the Cocaine seizure in Puerto Rico…She was also in charge of the mess there after the Hurricane, and she was a previous Bush appointee… thoughts?