❝ U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s video address to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s political party’s business conference in Berlin was cut off on Tuesday after Ross went over his time limit, prompting conference attendees to laugh and cheer.
Ross’s video feed at the Christian Democratic Union conference was faded out after roughly 20 minutes for going over his time limit…
Attendees then began to applaud and laugh at the move.
❝ The episode comes as tensions have grown between the U.S. and Germany, especially on the issue of trade.
The commerce secretary echoed President Trump’s criticism of Germany’s trade surplus with the U.S.
❝ Ross’s address comes one week before the Merkel and Trump will meet with their international counterparts at the G-20 summit in Hamburg.
Ross is as boring as a Trump Conservative can be. Trying to explain the policies of an incompetent masquerading as US President is difficult enough on white bread-American network TV. Trying to make sense to an audience of worldly European conservative politicians is a lost cause.
Eideard 
Ross is such an over-the-hill dork. He deserves being saddled with Trump’s stupidity.
“The Mystery Of Wilbur Ross’ Missing Billions” (Forbes Oct 16, 2017) https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2017/10/16/the-mystery-of-wilbur-ross-missing-billions/#7dd9e0b61c90
See also “Donald Trump Cabinet: Wilbur Ross’ Slippers & Wife” (3/4/17) Footwear News http://footwearnews.com/2017/fashion/celebrity-style/donald-trump-wilbur-ross-slippers-shoes-wife-hilary-geary-323016/ “…with a net worth estimated by Forbes to be around $2.5 billion, the 79-year-old investor can certainly afford the slick slippers.”
“Commerce Secretary’s Offshore Ties to Putin ‘Cronies’” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/world/wilbur-ross-russia.html “After becoming commerce secretary, Wilbur L. Ross Jr. retained investments in a shipping firm he once controlled that has significant business ties to a Russian oligarch subject to American sanctions and President Vladimir V. Putin’s son-in-law, according to newly disclosed documents. …In addition to Mr. Ross, the files contain references to other members of the Trump administration, including Gary D. Cohn, the chief economic adviser who was associated with 22 Bermuda entities while an executive at Goldman Sachs, and Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, who was a director of a Bermuda-based joint venture with the government of Yemen when he ran Exxon Mobil’s operations there. There is no evidence of illegality in any of their dealings.”
See also International Consortium of Investigative Journalists https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/paradise-papers-exposes-donald-trump-russia-links-and-piggy-banks-of-the-wealthiest-1-percent/ “Offshore Trove Exposes Trump-Russia links and Piggy Banks of the Wealthiest 1 Percent : A new leak of confidential records reveals the financial hideaways of iconic brands and power brokers across the political spectrum …In all, the offshore ties of more than a dozen Trump advisers, Cabinet members and major donors appear in the leaked data.”
“U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said his personal sale of stock in a shipping company days before news organizations revealed it was linked to close associates of Vladimir Putin was proper and was not a traditional short sale.” http://gcaptain.com/commerce-secretary-wilbur-ross-defends-navigator-holdings-sale/
“Ross, who wasn’t required to divest his holdings in shipping companies, sold shares of Navigator Holdings Ltd. on Oct. 31, a day after a reporter from the New York Times contacted him seeking comment about his stake in the company and its dealings with a Russian petrochemical firm. The transaction at issue was worth between $100,000 and $250,000, according to disclosure forms Ross filed with the Office of Government Ethics.”
“New Details About Wilbur Ross’ Business Point To Pattern Of Grifting” (Forbes Magazine Aug 7, 2018, 6:00am) https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2018/08/06/new-details-about-wilbur-rosss-businesses-point-to-pattern-of-grifting/
“Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross accused of swindling business associates out of more than $120 million” NY Daily News) http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-wilbur-ross-stole-millions-20180807-story.html “A spokesman for the Commerce Department slammed Forbes over the story, alleging that the reporting was based on “false rumors, innuendo, and unverifiable claims.” Ross himself maintained his innocence, telling Forbes he’s never been caught stealing and “the SEC has never initiated any enforcement action against me.”
p/s re: Ross’ estimated net worth: “The magazine (Forbes) previously reported that Ross fudged his finances in order to appear on the publication’s elite list of billionaires. Disclosure forms Ross filed after his Trump cabinet nomination showed he actually had less than $700 million in assets. Forbes removed him from the list last year.
“He’s a pathological liar,” a former colleague told the magazine.”
Speaking at a coal-fired power plant in Maidsville, W.Va., on Thursday, Energy Secretary Rick Perry made a strange argument about supply and demand, seeming to confuse the relationship between two of the essential forces in the economy.
“Here’s a little economics lesson: supply and demand,” Perry said, according to Taylor Kuykendall of Standard & Poor’s. “You put the supply out there, and demand will follow.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/06/rick-perry-offered-a-little-economics-lesson-it-didnt-go-so-well/
So, how many Edsels does Rick Perry own?
“America’s Future Is Texas” http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/10/americas-future-is-texas
Don’t forget that Rick Perry served three terms in the Texas House as a Democrat, and even campaigned for Al Gore in his 1988 Presidential run, before changing parties in 1989. Also that In 2014, Perry was indicted for abusing gubernatorial power, after he threatened to defund an anti-corruption agency. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/08/texas-gov-rick-perry-indicted-for-abuse-of-power/378638/ In any case 10 Democrats, including Senator Udal of N.M., cast yes votes to confirm Perry as to head the Department of Energy.
“Currency Cold War : Donald Trump’s Dangerous Game” http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/currency-war-trump-s-games-pose-threat-to-european-economy-a-1193057.html
Despite a booming economy, U.S. President Donald Trump is calling for a weaker dollar, a move that threatens to jeopardize Europe’s fragile economic upswing. There’s very little the European Central Bank can do to fight back.
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said he would sell all of his remaining equity holdings and buy US Treasuries after receiving a letter on Thursday from the federal ethics agency criticizing his asset reporting. http://www.businessinsider.com/wilbur-ross-sells-equities-commerce-secretary-2018-7 “To maintain the public trust, I have directed that all of my equity holdings be sold and the proceeds placed in US Treasury securities,” Ross said in a statement.
“The U.S. Supreme Court late on Tuesday temporarily blocked an order forcing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to be questioned this week by lawyers for states suing over his decision to ask respondents to the 2020 census whether they are citizens.” (Reuters 10/9/18) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-census/supreme-court-temporarily-halts-ross-questioning-in-census-suit-idUSKCN1MK04T “The dispute will test the Supreme Court’s views on the level of deference judges should give a president’s cabinet members and other high-ranking officials. It comes as President Donald Trump’s new appointee to the high court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, heard his first arguments on Tuesday morning.
The Trump administration has been vigorously contesting a Sept. 21 ruling by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan that ordered Ross, whose department oversees the Census Bureau, to face a deposition because his “intent and credibility are directly at issue” in the litigation. The Justice Department told the Supreme Court that Furman exceeded his authority in ordering the depositions and that the states should not be allowed to probe Ross’s “mental processes” over the citizenship question.”
“Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will not answer lawyers’ questions in a lawsuit challenging his decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census after the Supreme Court approved the government’s request that he avoided the grilling.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/supreme-court-shields-commerce-secretary-from-census-controversy-grilling “Ross claimed he added the citizenship question at the request of the Justice Department, but emails showed he had been pushing for the inclusion of the citizenship question earlier than that. The trial is scheduled to start in New York on November 5.”
“Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross acted in “bad faith,” broke several laws and violated the constitutional underpinning of representative democracy when he added a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
In finding a breach of the Constitution’s enumeration clause, which requires a census every 10 years to determine each state’s representation in Congress, the 126-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco went further than a similar decision on Jan. 15 by Judge Jesse Furman in New York.
The Supreme Court has already agreed to review Furman’s narrower decision, with arguments set for April 23, but may now need to expand its inquiry to constitutional dimensions.
The Commerce Department did not respond to requests for comment.” (Washington Post 3/6/19) https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/wilbur-ross-broke-law-violated-constitution-in-census-decision-judge-rules/2019/03/06/9d7962aa-404c-11e9-a0d3-1210e58a94cf_story.html?utm_term=.ef8072dad3ab&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1
Re: The Enumeration Clause in the U.S. Constitution see https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/accounting-census-clause
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is set to face tough questioning from lawmakers Thursday about why he approved including a citizenship question on the upcoming 2020 census. https://www.npr.org/2019/03/14/702185342/commerce-secretary-to-face-lawmakers-in-hearing-on-census-citizenship-question Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, has agreed to appear voluntarily before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Capitol Hill to testify about preparations for national head count.
“We have had many very serious questions for Secretary Ross since we invited him to testify several months ago, and we will finally have a chance to ask him these questions — under oath — at our hearing,” said the committee’s chair, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), in a written statement before Thursday’s hearing.
“An obscure security unit tasked with protecting the Commerce Department’s officials and facilities has evolved into something more akin to a counterintelligence operation that collected information on hundreds of people inside and outside the department, a Washington Post examination found.
The Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) covertly searched employees’ offices at night, ran broad keyword searches of their emails trying to surface signs of foreign influence and scoured Americans’ social media for critical comments about the census, according to documents and interviews with five former investigators.
In one instance, the unit opened a case on a 68-year-old retiree in Florida who tweeted that the census, which is run by the Commerce Department, would be manipulated “to benefit the Trump Party!” records show.” (Washington Post May 24, 2021) https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/05/24/commerce-department-monitoring-itms/
As of last September, ITMS had 17 employees and a $5.38 million budget, Caplin, the department spokeswoman, said. The entire Commerce Department had 54,000 employees and a budget of $15.2 billion at the same time.