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Showing posts with label US Coast Guard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Coast Guard. Show all posts

15 August 2025

KKKristi Noem is living free of charge in Coast Guard commandant’s home 15AUG25

SEC OF HOMELAND SECURITY FASCIST FOTZE KKKRISTI NOME'S REMAINS

 MORE of the blatant corruption so typical of the drumpf / trump-vance administration and the gop / greed over people-republican party. I am glad Sec of Homeland Security fascist fotze kkkristi noem is too afraid to stay at her apartment in D.C. Now she knows what her neo-nazi tactics are doing to immigrants as well as regular Americans across our country. I hope she becomes so fearful, so paranoid that the sociopathic psychotic breakdown that is lurking right below her botox-collagen-silicone surface burst into the open, preferably in the presence of NOT MY pres drumpf / trump, NOT MY vp vance and their cabinet so they will have no choice but to get rid of her. Meanwhile, since AG fascist fotze pam bondi ( head lawyer, look at her knees ) has taken over the D.C. police department and is making the city safe again fascist fotze kkkristi noem should move back to her Navy Yard apartment. Don't forget to pay up kkkristi!!!

Kristi Noem is living free of charge in Coast Guard commandant’s home

 A DHS spokesman said Noem must live on the military base because she had been “so horribly doxxed and targeted that she is no longer able to safely live in her own apartment.”

Today at 10:43 a.m. EDT

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem is living for free in a military home typically reserved for the U.S. Coast Guard’s top admiral, officials familiar with the matter said. The highly unusual arrangement has raised concern within the agency and from some Democrats, who describe it as a waste of military resources.

Noem recently moved into Quarters 1, a spacious waterfront residence at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Southeast Washington where the Coast Guard commandant typically resides. She did so because of concerns over her safety after the Daily Mail, a British tabloid, published photographs in April of the area around Noem’s residence in Washington’s Navy Yard neighborhood, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin described Noem’s time at the commandant’s residence as temporary. She did not specify how long the setup would last or how long Noem has lived there.

Noem pays no rent to live in the commandant’s house, according to an official familiar with the matter granted anonymity to speak candidly. That’s a departure from how other Cabinet secretaries have handled similar arrangements. Other Cabinet officials, including during both Trump administrations, have paid to use military housing that otherwise would be occupied by top generals and admirals.

Noem’s housing has raised eyebrows from current and retired Coast Guard officials, as well as Democrats, who warn that Noem risks creating the perception that she is exploiting the perks of her position as DHS secretary, in which she supervises the Coast Guard. They say her decision could set off a chain reaction that could displace other senior members of the service in a situation with limited housing.

Current and former Coast Guard members have also cited Noem’s frequent use of a Coast Guard Gulfstream aircraft as a point of tension. Agency guidelines require the DHS secretary to use a plane with secure communications for both personal and professional business, though they are required to reimburse the government for personal travel. DHS did not say whether Noem has done so.

Noem faced scrutiny for her expenses when she served as governor of South Dakota. She spent $68,000 in taxpayer funds to refurbish the governor’s mansion with a sauna, chandelier and other amenities, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported in 2021. And South Dakota picked up the tab for at least $150,000 in campaign and personal travel for Noem related to her security when she was governor, the Associated Press reported this year.

Noem’s housing arrangement could create the impression that she is exploiting her position of authority over the Coast Guard to accrue perks for herself, said Cynthia Brown, senior ethics counsel at the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a left-leaning watchdog nonprofit.

“What are the optics?” Brown said. “And is this taking advantage of your individual position as a government official to benefit unduly?”

McLaughlin defended Noem’s living arrangement in an email to The Washington Post, saying it was necessary because the secretary had been “so horribly doxxed and targeted that she is no longer able to safely live in her own apartment.”

She added that it was “sad” for a Post reporter to “suggest a rancher should have to pay a second rent because of a reporter’s irresponsible decisions to dox where she lives.”

“If you cannot find humanity in another human’s safety and security, I invite you to find it here,” she said, including a link to Washington National Cathedral.

Noem earns more than $200,000 in annual salary as secretary, and Forbes recently estimated her net worth at $5 million, mostly due to her husband’s business and real estate holdings in South Dakota.

McLaughlin said Noem continues to pay rent for her Navy Yard residence. The Daily Mail first reported in July that Noem had moved to the commandant’s home. The Post is the first to confirm that Noem has been living in the commandant home rent-free.

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Coast Guard, Adm. Kevin E. Lunday — the No. 2 officer currently serving as acting commandant — has yet to be formally nominated and confirmed by the Senate. Lunday lives in a nearby home on base, according to two people familiar with his living arrangement. A White House official said they expected nominations to be sent to the Senate soon, when asked about the status of Lunday’s nomination.

McLaughlin didn’t address whether Lunday would move into the commandant’s house once confirmed. Before Noem moved in, the residence was vacant following the administration’s January firing of Adm. Linda Fagan, the last commandant. The house is occasionally used to host Coast Guard events and dignitaries.

Unusual arrangement

Former administration officials and members of the Coast Guard described Noem’s living situation as unorthodox and said the arrangement could affect other senior military officials, given that there is limited housing on the base.

Some defense secretaries — including the current one, Pete Hegseth — have lived in military housing, following a federal law allowing housing for their role but dictating they must pay for it. No such statute exists for other top presidential aides, including Cabinet secretaries.

Jeh Johnson, who led DHS under President Barack Obama, told The Post that until now, no DHS secretary had lived in government housing. He expressed concern “about the message that sends down the line in the career military community.”

“I recall visiting the Commandant’s official house in 2014. I thought then it was a very nice, waterfront house, but I had no impulse to want to move there,” Johnson said in an email. “Most likely, if a Cabinet secretary takes a government house, there’s a chain reaction and people very senior are getting displaced.”

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Paul Zukunft, who served as commandant during the first Trump administration, said the service typically has four homes for its top admirals at Anacostia-Bolling. If Noem resides in one, he said, that would displace another Coast Guard leader in what amounts to “brinkmanship of musical quarters.”

“Quarters 1 has been used exclusively by the current serving commandant since we entered into an agreement for this quarters circa 2010,” Zukunft said in an email.

The arrangement is drawing scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers who oversee the Coast Guard.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, said that the commandant’s house is “not a vanity residence” and that Noem is “essentially taking that property from the military.”

“It’s a real insult to the brave men and women who are protecting our shores that she thinks that house belongs to her instead of to the Coast Guard,” Murphy said.

In a statement, McLaughlin said that the “need for heightened security for Secretary Noem should make sense, even to a reporter, given she has DHS going after the worst of the worst. That includes hundreds if not thousands of members of international cartels and terrorist organizations.”

McLaughlin did not disclose what specific threats of violence Noem has faced following the Daily Mail story, though she pointed to the fact that her security detail had to be increased — especially outside her living space. The publication touted that story as an “exclusive” and included pictures of the building and of Corey Lewandowski, Noem’s longtime political adviser and chief adviser at DHS, outside the complex. The Daily Mail did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In April, Noem’s Gucci purse was stolen from a downtown Washington restaurant, along with her passport, DHS security badge and about $3,000 in cash. Federal officials said at the time that she was not targeted for her role as DHS secretary.

During the first Trump administration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came under scrutiny after seeking housing at Potomac Hill, a Navy-controlled facility in Washington where several senior military officers live. A Navy lawyer assessed that it would be “problematic” if Pompeo moved into the home, citing a shortage of housing for top Navy and Marine Corps officers, according to a memo obtained by the nonprofit American Oversight.

The memo added that Congress “clearly and explicitly identified only the Secretary of Defense as an eligible resident in housing usually reserved for military personnel, and that grant was unquestionably exclusive to the Secretary of Defense.” That statute “seems to rule out similar treatment to other members of the President’s Cabinet,” the lawyer concluded.

Pompeo ultimately moved into Army quarters at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall nearby in Virginia and paid “fair-market value” for it, his staff at the time said.

Members of the military, including the Coast Guard commandant, receive a housing allowance that is based on their rank, the city they live in and their dependents. It is common for members of the Coast Guard to use the funding to pay for a lease, including in the house where Noem is residing, according to a person familiar with Coast Guard housing policy. Previous commandants have paid the leasing company directly for the quarters, they said.

Nonetheless, DHS leadership does not typically live on military bases.

There have been exceptions. John Tien, who served as deputy secretary from 2021 to 2023, lived at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling as a retired U.S. Army colonel. He paid $3,000 a month for a four-bedroom condominium, according to a former senior DHS official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe information that was not publicly available.

Gulfstream jet

The Coast Guard, established in its modern form in 1915, is the only one of the six branches of the U.S. Armed Forces that is not controlled by the Defense Department. Charged with providing maritime law enforcement, protecting ports and waterways, and conducting search-and-rescue operations, the agency has about 40,000 active-duty personnel and thousands more civilian employees, and an operating budget of $10.4 billion this year.

As DHS head, Noem oversees the Coast Guard and 21 other federal agencies and has assumed a high-profile role spearheading the president’s mass-deportation campaign. She has focused much of her attention and messaging on immigration enforcement, drawing scrutiny and criticism amid souring public approval of Trump’s handling of the issue.

Noem has featured the Coast Guard on DHS social media accounts and her personal feeds with posts that show her posing in front of a helicopter with service members, riding in a Coast Guard boat and at the controls of an agency plane.

The agency has enjoyed some benefits under her leadership, including a boost of nearly $25 billion in additional funding in the tax-and-spending bill Congress approved last month, money that is expected to help pay for infrastructure, helicopters, aircraft, icebreakers and vessels.

Noem’s frequent use of the Coast Guard plane has also created tension with the military branch’s officials, given that two Coast Guard planes are reserved for admirals and senior civilian officials at DHS.

In the spring, Noem requested $50 million to pay for a new Gulfstream V jet that would replace one of two Coast Guard planes. A DHS official said at the time that the new jet would substitute for the one in service for more than two decades, which is “well beyond operational usage hours for a corporate aircraft.”

Like her DHS predecessors, Noem generally travels on Coast Guard planes equipped with secure communications capabilities so that she remains in touch with other federal officials in case of emergencies. The Coast Guard commandant also typically flies in a military jet with similar equipment.

Noem has used the jets to travel home to South Dakota at least nine times as of mid-July, according to publicly available flight-tracking information. The jets have made trips to and from Watertown Regional Airport in eastern South Dakota, which is close to Castlewood, near which Noem has a ranch.

The secretary is given special dispensation to use Coast Guard aircraft for both official and unofficial travel, so long as he or she refunds the government the cost of a regular coach seat on a commercial aircraft for personal travel, according to federal government policy.

Noem has also been particular about the service on the planes. In one incident, she and her staff grew irritated when a weighted blanket she often uses on trips was not provided to her, an issue that was “escalated” within the service, according to one person familiar with the incident.

McLaughlin did not answer a question from The Post about the incident in her statement. She confirmed that Noem is among the “required users” of the two aircraft.

Marianne LeVine is a national political reporter for The Washington Post.

Liz Goodwin covers Congress for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2022, Goodwin covered national politics and served as Washington bureau chief for the Boston Globe. Send her secure tips on Signal at lizgoodwin.05

Dan Lamothe joined The Washington Post in 2014 to cover the U.S. military. He has written about the Armed Forces since 2008, traveling extensively, embedding with five branches of service and covering combat in Afghanistan

11 March 2014

VIDEO: Coping with exceptional ice in the Great Lakes 11MAR14

HERE'S an interesting segment from the PBS NewsHour on the Great Lakes freezing over this Winter, click the link to watch the video....
 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/coping-with-exceptional-ice-great-lakes/

TRANSCRIPT

GWEN IFILL: Finally tonight: This brutally cold winter has created an icy wonderland on the surface of the Great Lakes.
Special correspondent Elizabeth Brackett of WTTW Chicago ventured out to see it.ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The sun is just beginning to rise over Chicago’s ice-clogged harbor.
Docked at Navy Pier, the Coast Guard’s ice cutter, the Biscayne Bay, starts gearing up for a long day. Breaking a track through the harbor ice, the Biscayne Bay heads out to clear shipping lanes in Lake Michigan. The ship is based in Northern Michigan near the Straits of Mackinac. It’s rare that the icebreakers are needed in the southern half of the lake.
LT. J.G. PAUL JUNGHANS, Coast Guard: This is actually our first time this winter down to the south end of Lake Michigan, so I can’t say what it’s been like down here, but in the straits, it’s been — this has been the worst winter in 25 years.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The hull of the 140-foot-long icebreaker is reinforced with extra steel around the waterline and bow. Powerful bubblers on the bow and stern shoot out air that helps lubricate the hull against the ice. Rather than cutting the ice, the ship acts like a small tank and just plows right through it.
CHIEF PETTY OFFICER MIKE SINGLETON, Coast Guard: Right there, we call that plate ice. It’s about eight to 10 inches thick right now. It’s not too bad. And then you can see some of the plate has broken up right there. Once that starts piling up on itself, it creates a windrow, and that makes it difficult for us to get through the ice.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: About an hour out of Chicago, the Biscayne Bay hit a windrow. As the heavy ice slowed the boat, orders were given for more aggressive icebreaking maneuvers.
CHIEF PETTY OFFICER MIKE SINGLETON: This is where we back and ram. We’ll put the boat in a surge propulsion. We’ll back up about three ship lengths, and then we’ll go as fast as we can. And we’ll hit this windrow, and we’ll come up over the ice and continue on.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The Great Lakes haven’t seen this much ice since 1979. The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory reports that 91 percent of all the Great Lakes have been covered with ice this winter.
Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie led the way with 95 percent coverage. Lake Michigan is next with 93 percent coverage, and Lake Ontario with 40 percent. The extensive ice coverage surprises even longtime observers of the lake, like Joel Brammeier with the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
JOEL BRAMMEIER, Alliance for the Great Lakes: The idea of the Great Lakes freezing over entirely is simply something that doesn’t happen. And, in fact, even on Lake Superior, the last time Lake Superior froze over was in the mid-’90s. And so this is a very special, unusual winter.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: This year, the Coast Guard has been needed to keep the southern shipping lanes open. On this day, the Biscayne Bay worked to clear a path for a tug trying to push a barge into the ice-covered port of Indiana at Burns Harbor.
After several passes by the cutter, the barge finally made it to dock to deliver a load of scrap iron. But the ice has held up other ships and barges.
The Lake Carriers’ Association reports shipping dropped 30 percent this winter.
Brian LaRue says his company’s barges should be lined up along the pier here in the port of Indiana.
BRIAN LARUE, Federal Marine Terminals: Well, we’ve got approximately 18 barges waiting to be brought to our terminal. So all of our employees are waiting for these barges to get in place so they can come to work. So, there’s — there’s quite a bit of work to be done, and we’re waiting on it to happen.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: But all this ice is not all bad news for the lakes.
JOEL BRAMMEIER: More winter ice cover is actually good for the lakes because it stops water from evaporating, and the last several years, and in fact for the last decade, we have seen record and near record low water levels in Lakes Michigan and Huron. With the high levels of snowfall and the high levels of ice, we are probably going to see a big uptick in water levels come spring of 2014.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: It’s not just the ice cap that is keeping evaporation rates down. High evaporation rates occur when there is cool air over warm water. The water cooled very quickly this fall, dropping evaporation rates dramatically from previous years.
Because of this, scientists are now predicting nearly a three-foot rise in water levels, which would bring lake levels back up to the long-term average by next August.
BRIAN LARUE: That’s great news. The more — the higher the water levels, that means the deeper the ships that we can accommodate here at the port, so we’re always — when we hear that the water levels are being raised, that’s always a good sign for us.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: But spring is still a long way off for shippers and the crew of the Biscayne Bay, where 17-hour days have not been uncommon, though the ship’s captain, Tom Przybyla, is not complaining.
LT. TOM PRZYBYLA, Coast Guard: It’s almost like being in another world. It doesn’t feel like you’re out on the lake at all. And it’s vibrating. The ship is moving. Sometimes, there’s big collisions, where the entire ship will shift off to the side a little bit, and you sort of lose your footing as you’re walking around.
And it’s just constantly — it’s — I have heard it described as like you’re living in an earthquake. Looking out at the ice, it’s almost like looking at the surface of the moon or something like that, because it just goes for miles and miles and miles.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The Biscayne Bay heads back up north, after opening a track in the port of Indiana. There will be little downtime, as the icebreaker continues to tackle the most ice seen in the Great Lakes in decades.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/coping-with-exceptional-ice-great-lakes/ 

27 February 2013

BREAKING: Shell abandons 2013 Arctic Drilling! & Shell Arctic Drilling Operations Suspended For 2013 27FEB13

shell has decided it will not drill in the Arctic in 2013!!!!! That is quite a victory for the wildlife residing in and on the shores of the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea, due in no small part to the pressure put on the Obama administration to hold shell to their environmental, legal and financial "commitments" to drill in the Arctic responsibly and safely. Well done to all who have participated  in the various campaigns, sent e mails, made phone calls, donated to environmental groups involved in this fight. It ain't over, and shell will put their corporate spin on this, but we are gaining ground! From Greenpeace and HuffPost....

Just a few hours ago, Shell announced that it is giving up on its plans to drill for oil in the Alaskan Arctic in 2013.

That means no drilIing in the pristine waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas this year. It’s amazing news. Not just for the Arctic, but for the environment. And your support made it possible.

I’m so inspired right now. The fight isn’t over though. We’ll be working in the days, weeks and months ahead to make sure that the good news doesn’t stop here by urging President Obama to make the Arctic off limits to industrial exploitation, forever.

But for the moment it’s all about enjoying what we’ve accomplished together. Thank you so much for all the work you have done to protect the Arctic.

Sincerely,

Philip Radford
Greenpeace Executive Director

Shell Arctic Drilling Operations Suspended For 2013




Shell Arctic Drilling
In this Jan. 3, 2013 file photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, two life rafts sit on the beach adjacent as the conical drilling unit Kulluk sits grounded 40 miles southwest of Kodiak City, Alaska. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, Petty Officer 2nd Class Zachary Painter, File)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An effort to give the United States a new source of domestic oil and refill the trans-Alaska pipeline took a hit Wednesday when Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced it will suspend offshore petroleum drilling in the Arctic Ocean for 2013.
Shell drilled last year in both the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast and in the Beaufort Sea off the state's north coast.
But problems before and after drilling, culminating with the grounding of one of Shell's two drill ships, left in doubt whether the company could make repairs in time to drill in 2013. Shell Oil President Marvin Odum answered that question with the announcement that the company would "pause" exploration to prepare equipment and vessels for drilling in the future.
"We've made progress in Alaska, but this is a long-term program that we are pursuing in a safe and measured way," Odum said. "Our decision to pause in 2013 will give us time to ensure the readiness of all our equipment and people following the drilling season in 2012."
Environmental groups bitterly oppose Arctic drilling in the rich ecosystem that supports endangered whales, polar bears, walrus and ice seals. They claim not enough is known about drilling's effects on an ecosystem already being hammered by climate change, with summer sea ice continuing to be lost on a record pace. They also say oil companies have not demonstrated the ability to clean up a petroleum spill in ice-choked waters.
"This is the first good decision we've seen from Shell," said Mike LeVine, an Alaska spokesman for Oceana, a conservation group. "Given the disastrous 2012 season, our government agencies must take advantage of this opportunity to reassess the way decisions are made about our ocean resources and to reconsider the commitment to explore for oil in the Arctic Ocean."
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 26.6 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 130 trillion cubic feet of natural gas exist below Arctic waters. The vast underwater reservoirs could be linked to shore by underwater pipelines and then overland to the trans-Alaska pipeline.
Shell in 2008 spent $2.1 billion on petroleum leases in the Chukchi Sea and estimates that it has spent $5 billion on Arctic drilling. Shell contends that it can drill safely, its two drill ships completed top-hole drilling on two wells last year, but the company was bedeviled by problems in 2012.
The company's spill response plan required that a response barge be on site before drill bits dug into petroleum-bearing zones. That never happened. A key piece of equipment, a containment dome, was damaged in testing off the Washington coast.
Seasonal ice in the Chukchi Sea delayed Shell vessels from moving north. When Chukchi drilling began Sept. 9, a major ice floe forced Shell's drill ship off a prospect less than 24 hours later.
When the drilling season ended, the Coast Guard announced that it had found 16 safety violations on the Noble Discoverer, which drilled in the Chukchi, when it docked in Seward, Alaska. The Coast Guard said last week that it has turned its investigation of the vessel over to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The problems crested in late December when the Kulluk, a circular barge with a diameter as long as nearly three basketball courts, broke away from its towing vessel on its way to a shipyard in Washington state.
The Kulluk on New Year's Eve ran aground off a remote Alaska Island near Kodiak Island. It was pulled off six days later but requires repairs. The Kulluk left under tow Tuesday for the Aleutians Island port of Dutch Harbor, where it will be loaded onto another vessel for transport to a shipyard in Asia. The Noble Discoverer also will undergo maintenance and repairs in Asia.
Shell's spill response plan calls for two drill ships to be in the Arctic so that if one is damaged in a blowout, the other could drill a relief well.
After the Kulluk was refloated, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that his department would perform an "expedited, high-level assessment" of the summer drilling season. Salazar said the review would pay special attention to challenges that Shell encountered with the Kulluk, with the Noble Discoverer and with the company's oil spill response barge. The Interior Department oversees offshore drilling permits, and Salazar said drilling in frontier areas such as the Arctic demand a higher level of scrutiny.
The Coast Guard also is reviewing the Kulluk grounding. Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo said the investigation will look at every aspect of the incident, from possible failure of materials to evidence of misconduct, inattention or negligence.
Shell has said the grounding was a maritime transport problem. Drilling in 2012, Odum said Wednesday, was completed safely.
"Shell remains committed to building an Arctic exploration program that provides confidence to stakeholders and regulators, and meets the high standards the company applies to its operations around the world," Odum said. "We continue to believe that a measured and responsible pace, especially in the exploration phase, fits best in this remote area."
Shell Alaska spokesman Curtis Smith said drilling could resume in 2014.
"It's possible, depending on the result of ongoing reviews and the readiness or our rigs, and frankly the confidence that lessons learned from our 2012 drilling program have been fully incorporated.
Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is gearing up for confirmation hearings next month on Salazar's announced replacement, Sally Jewell, said Shell's decision to postpone exploratory drilling program shows that the company is committed to safety.
"This pause – and it is only a pause in a multi-year drilling program that will ultimately provide great benefits both to the state of Alaska and the nation as a whole – is necessary for Shell to repair its ships and make the necessary updates to its exploration plans that will ensure a safe return to exploration soon," Murkowski said.