Memo to self: Upon taking power and deciding to appoint an agency head with the intention of destroying that agency, remember not to appoint one who is so ridiculously venal as to draw unwanted attention to what he's doing.

ETA: I wonder if Pruitt actually know about it yet.

Tomorrow's not going to be a very productive day for the EPA. Everyone is going to show up and all the office supplies will be gone.

Pruitt's cone of silence should be relocated to the Smithsonian, for posterity.

Is it also a Faraday cage? They should relocate it to the Oval Office and tell Trump it's a secure place for him to Tweet from.

The place would probably run better if he didn't.

Certainly better than it did with Pruitt in charge.

Trump put out a tweet. How much more warning can anyone working for him expect?

It isn't like Cabinet level appointees or heads of agencies deserve any more consideration than that.

They could just get a regular cage for that. Trump wouldn't know any different, and they already have models to work from at the government summer camps.

Indeed! They should put him in one, lock it, and throw the key in the Gulf of Mexico.

Oh, Pruitt knew about it; he's already issued his accusations of a witch hunt (or variations thereof). Could've been ghosted by Trump's ghostwriters.

And on the good news front... the number two will take over, and he was merely a lobbyist for the coal industry; I'm sure things will improve (for members of certain golf clubs in W. Virginia).

Not just any lobbyist for the coal industry but a lobbyist for the coal company Murray Energy of Last Week Tonight fame. To be succinct:

Andrew Wheeler as the head of EPA is the equivalent of a tobacco lobbyist heading up HHS.

With Trump, it's swamp creatures all the way down.

OK, Pruitt gone. Who's next?

Trump.

Dreamer.

Anyhow, we need to get rid of Pence first, then take the House, THEN get rid of Trump. President Pelosi.

Maybe when he gets alone w/ Putin, he'll ask for political asylum.

What are the odds of Donny getting out of the room without giving up the sanctions on that half trillion dollar drilling/exploration project that Exxon and Tillerson (and Vlad) want?
Not sure I'd walk into the room.
Just sayin' :D

He can (and does) promise anything. Without a document it means nothing.

In Trump's case even with a document it doesn't mean much.

Well... what if Vlad pops one of those "Escape from LA" dissolving explosive pellets in Donny's neck?

Sorry... got lost [s]wishing[/s] imagining there for a minute. :D

Art of the Deal. He deals the cards, and the other players take them and play the actual game.

I think we might be getting close to Trump's end game. If he resigns, it's going to happen very quickly after. If there's a quid pro quo pay for play with Cohen with money going to Trump for access, or the Russians let the pee video out, he might very quickly resign. There won't be long drawn out impeachment hearings. It's going to be something that just pops up and in a few days he's an ex-president secluded in one of his private gold clubs.

I can't picture Trump voluntarily leaving the White House by resigning, being defeated, or even after his two terms are up.

I can see him being driven from office by so many resignations that he can no longer function. He will blame Democrats or the fake news or something. I don't expect nor do I care if he takes responsibility. History will judge him without regard to his protestations.

I can't. He's made a point of selecting people who can't function when they are there, and seems to be filtering out the ones who show signs that they might be able to.

So it wouldn't amount to much of a change.

His staff have already proved themselves willing to sell their souls for their jobs. If any of them had a scintilla of self-respect or honor, they lost it long before now.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...ess-conference

And it looks like we have our next winner.

Even though Kelly gave them the green light, it's revealing that no-one with anything to lose chose to do so. Perhaps they knew that he meant "wouldn't" instead of "would" :rolleyes:

If he's gone, that means he's free to run for President!

ANother reason why a lot of people have changed their minds about private gun ownership since Trump took office...

Which really is a stupid reason. If the military was in support of his actions, then no amount of home weaponry will match their might, and if they aren't, then the civilian's guns aren't needed to deal with him.

Either way, buying guns for political reasons is totally silly.

We don't need to worry about the military. At its highest levels, the military is staunchly apolitical and committed to not involving itself in internal matters.

What I do worry about are semi official Trump militias or posses along the lines of what Trump suggested as "vote" monitors during the last election. I could see him calling on his gun owning cult members to come disrupt an inauguration if he loses in 2020 or sending them to round up illegal immigrants.

What's horrifying is the idea that the Whitehouse Chief of Staff gives green lights to a "free and independent" press to do anything. I know Fox is in the fulling willing participant position here but that doesn't make it okay for the administration to do it.

I read the article as John Kelly giving GOP lawmakers the green light to criticise President Trump, not the press. Perhaps I misread and/or misunderstood :confused:

In any case the point is moot IMO. The only criticism came from GOP representatives who were not seeking reelection and within 24 hours the Trump Administration found an excuse for what the President said which allowed the rest of the GOP to carry on supporting him (no matter how little sense that excuse made in the wider context of his remarks at the press conference).

IMO the long and the short of it is that the current President of the United States has more faith in Vladimir Putin than he has in his own intelligence services and experts. I think this is due to several reasons including:

• Donald Trump's gut tells him that Vladimir Putin is a guy he can trust......
• ......and/or someone he has to obey
• President Trump is uncomfortable about the Mueller investigation. He has a very binary worldview, if you say or do anything less than totally flattering then you must be his enemy. The FBI are therefore his enemy
• The intelligence services no doubt give him long and boring reports, many of which may have areas of doubt. Vladimir Putin OTOH just says "it wasn't me" which is much easier to understand and process
• Vladimir Putin also gives President Trump the answer he wants. He wants to have won the election without foreign interference. If Russia could also provide information that 4 million illegals voted for Hillary so that President Trump also won the popular vote, then he'd believe that too

Coats is sounding very disloyal.

Linky.

Someone, maybe Kelly must have explained that Coats outside the administration is the only thing worse for Trump than Coats inside the administration.

I am predicitinjg the Kelly will be gone before too much longer.

I'm predicting Kelly's blood-pressure will drop 50 points as a result.

On further reflection, I think Coats will stay. Trump can't afford a completely untethered Coats.

This is a guy that thought Democrats would thank him for firing Comey. Don't underestimate his short sightedness and need for immediate gratification.

Coates has backed down and apologised, what a wuss