I wonder how comfortable the couches are in the East Wing.

Kirsten Fontenrose, National Security Council Director for the Persian Gulf region. She'd been pushing for sanctions on Saudi Arabia after the Khashoggi murder. I expect that made Jared unhappy.

Now that Trump has made clear that there will be no punishment for the Khoshoggi murder, Fontenrose's resignation becomes more understandable.

Eva Peron?

Igor Korobov, head of the Russian GRU has died at the age of 62. He became ill after a meeting with Putin, who wasn't pleased at all with his work.

The Guardian: Russia's chief of military intelligence, Igor Korobov, dies after illness.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-after-illness

Given how he helped Trump win, he should count as an honorary White House staffer.

That's a nice way of putting it, isn't it.

He's just a guy who used to fetch coffee.

This time we made him drink it.

Oooo! Is it...STEVE MNUCHIN next?? Trump has denied it, so that makes it almost a certainty! :D

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-steve-mnuchin

Whenever someone in the White House thinks he is about to be fired, he leaks to the media that Trump is thinking about sacking him soon.
That way, Trump can't do it without admitting that the Media knows everything about what he does.
I am certain Kelly used that trick a couple of times already.

They don't even have to leak it. Trump simply doesn't get it that HE is the biggest leaker in the place when he blurts out ad-libs to the press crowd, or waffles carelessly off-script in meetings or at a function, or tweets without thinking (which is always). He doesn't understand even his denials give stuff away. He could not keep a secret if his life depended on it.

Yeah, I already know the nuke codes!

A golden opportunity was missed when, as soon as Trump took office, an actual football with a button glued to it wasn't offered to him as "The Football". It's unlikely that he would have ever known he was being spoofed, and the button could have been used to let his caregivers know he needed another dose of Thorazine.

ZInke just called the Democratic House member who will be chairman of the Natural Recources comitee..which oversees the Department of Interior...a drunk.
Another sign that Zinke will be gone before the new year. Can't imagine he would insult the man who will basically have him by the balls in the new Congress if he was still planning to be around.

SHades of Uncle Joe and Ivan the Terrible.

But he says Trump brought Christmas back to America, so his job is safe.

The dude (like his bearded bro at the G20) has had journalists killed. Having his underlings killed is probably a comparatively common occurrence.

Better yet, a GOLD football. Heavy enough to not appear merely gilded, Trump would never let go of it.

Ah, DARN IT! And I threw all my boxes of Christmas cards away. Just goes to show that it's true: you hold on to something for years and the minute you get rid of it, you find a use for it.:mad:

Nah. Being a suck-up to Trump is hardly a guarantee of job security. What counts is what you can do for Trump personally. If you are no longer useful, you are dead to Trump. Just ask Melania. ;)

Did we not do Christmas in 2016? It seems like we did.

Lately people have recognized that there are holidays other than Christmas, which is the same as destroying it. Kind of like how accepting same-sex marriage destroys traditional marriage.

Since Obama wasn't quite the right color, Christmas during his term was a secret Kwanza/Hanukah.

Only a Good Christian like Trump can defend the Yule Fest, I mean the time Christ was definitely not born.

Zinke's departure is hard to call. He's of no actual use to Trump but is such a butt-kisser and greedy sumbitz that Trump must love him. They're both Birthers, the kids must love his attempt to remove restrictions on trophy hunting, too. OTOH, maybe his electrical contracting buddies in MT didn't kick back the finder's fee to the RNC for the Puerto Rico debacle? Maybe Donnie didn't get to wet his beak.

Someone got him to attend the lighting of the national menorah. He turned it into a political speech evidently not understanding that "Jew" and "Israel 2018" are not the same thing. Couldn't 'Vanki and Jared find a Jew and not call-in a political hack Lutheran?

OTOH, last year's menorah-lighter was Gary Cohn. He didn't stay the year, so maybe this is a trend.

Or worse, make Trump look bad. Which Zinke is doing.

I still put up my Festivus Pole and told everyone who would listen how they disappointed me.

Isn't that what Trump said about Stormy Daniels?

And the quality of people Trumpy can get to work for him is only going to get worse.

He seems to not want anybody working for him AT ALL. He trusts nobody and wants to run everything personally by himself. After all, he has the best brain! ;) He want sycophants and minions, not employees.

Ales Acosta Labor Secretary
 

Not sure if Alex Acosta US Labor Secretary will be the next to go but my guess is things are going to get very uncomfortable for him. The deal he made when he was a US Attorney with Jeffrey Epstein Serial Child Rapist is likely to haunt him. Epstein is facing a live telecast civil trial starting tomorrow. It also looks as if Acosta's deal was illegal. Epstein could have gone to prison for the rest of his life but instead served 13 months where he was allowed out for 12 hours a day 6 days a week.

The case had been sealed and now Democratic Congressional Representatives are seeking those documents how Epstein got such a sweetheart deal.

I find it difficult to envision the party of Kavanaugh giving two *****.

There are enough unfounded rumors as to Trump being his buddy as there are about Clinton being his buddy. If someone like Avenatti gets bored and decides to play with that dirt, any hearing involving Acosta's involvement might have a snowball effect.

ITRW Acosta should be dumped because he's from the cookie cutter mold of Trump appointments, a little acronym we used to use in personnel reviews for promotion "SUFTUC" - singularly unsuited for task under consideration. In Trump World it's "how does this reflect or deflect".

They will care about this one. Epstein reportedly sexually assaulted perhaps hundreds of girls. Acosta gave an incredible sweetheart deal and did it illegally. Acosta is expendable and they'll jettison him without any qualms. My guess is he's gone by the end of February at the latest.

"Clinton flew on Epstein's airplane" in 3..2..1..

Clinton flew on a lot of people's airplanes. No question Clinton knew and was friendly with Epstein. But so was Trump. And as much as I don't like Trump, I don't like Trump, I doubt he had anything to do with Epstein's molesting of young teenage girls.

I read that Epstein helped with some financial case and that is why he got off so lightly. But that seems ridiculous to me.

I assume it was the opposite. I suspect Ms. Daniels did not find shifting Trump's blubber to access his trouser furniture to be exactly the height of eroticism.

In 2002, three years before anyone had come forward to the authorities with any complaints about Epstein and underage girls, a bio piece on him in New York Magazine included this quote from the Donald;

Quote:

"I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,'' Trump booms from a speakerphone. "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it -- Jeffrey enjoys his social life."

Birds of a feather?

Well now you've got me thinking the Russian whores in the pee tape were ever so slightly underaged, and that's why he's gone to so much more effort to deny it happened than most of his other indiscretions.

The real big question, apart from the deal being illegal (and it was), was why it gave immunity to anyone who may have engaged in these activities with Epstein. It literally gives immunity to "any potential co-conspirators". In a case with potentially more than 100 victims (at least 60 have been identified) with a sex-trafficking network and many parties at his mansion...

Acosta was one of those super-unqualified but GOP lapdog appointments, wasn't he?

Well, he's far from the most unqualified. He at least had a tenure on the NLRB, where his number two was found to have been hiring based on conservative litmus test issues but Acosta knew nothing about that, no really he didn't, he said so.

His singular qualification is that he's Cuban-American and a crumb for the South Florida Viva El Donald brigade. He's also the only Latino in the cabinet.

Rumblings that John Kelly might be next. 'not on speaking terms with Trump'

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/07/p...ump/index.html