Not gonna lie, I'm a bit scared.

I don't know about scared, but I'm pretty sure that it'll be a real wild ride once he's gone.

It's what he might do when it becomes clear he has to go that worries me.

Aesop's Fable "The Farmer and the Viper" where a farmer takes pity on a viper freezing in the snow, picks it up, and warms it in his coat. Once revived the viper fatally bites the farmer:

"Why did you bite me?" asks the farmer before he dies.

"That is what I do and what I am. You knew I was a viper when you picked me up." replies the snake.

Exactly. Kelly knew what he was getting into.

I guess that he might have acted as a bit of a fig leaf.

Why be scared? Trump has been unhinged pretty much from day 1, and Kelly has been increasingly marginalized. Hard to think of how things could get worse.

Perhaps with Kelly gone, there will be a greater chance of Trump self-destructing, with an occasional republican thinking "he's gone too far".

Kelly may have been preventing any number of nightmare scenarios, most of which involve escalations of existing international conflicts or trade wars. Sending troops to Texas probably won't touch off an international incident, but there are plenty of other places to send American troops.

At this point, I'm starting to wonder if there is anything Trump can do to make Republicans think he's gone too far.

I stopped wondering about that quite some time ago.

As long as he still knows how to use the Cattle Prod around the Big Orange One, who cares about if they talk to each other?

You are of course assuming that Kelly actually has any influence to prevent Trump from doing stupid stuff with the military or the economy.

As I mentioned before, Kelly has largely been sidelined as of late. And many of the foolish things Trump has done (like starting trade wars) were things that Kelly wouldn't have been involved in doing anyways.

In fact, its possible that Kelly is an enabler, someone who gives Trump a figleaf of respect when it is not deserved.

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Kelly leaving is more a problem for keeping the lights on in the White House than stopping Trump from ordering the country to go to DEFCON 1, just to show China how serious he is about trade: by now, non-flunkies just don't follow Trump's nonsense orders anymore.

THngs could get a lot worse....as in Trump starts a war for no good reason worse.

I just hope the Republican Senators develop a sense of personal self-preservation. Trump is going to push at the boundaries until someone stops him, and if the GOP Senate had any self-awareness, they'd see that eventually they'll end up as his enemies.

Kelly might have tried, but everyone who plays ball with a narcissist with power is going to get burned unless he loses power before that.

Does anyone now doubt that Tillerson called Trump a 'moron'? Or that he was wrong in doing so?

If Tillerson is "dumb as a rock' and "lazy as hell", why did Trump appoint him as Sec. of State in the first place? It reflects more on Trump's competency than Tillerson's. If anyone is dumb as a rock and lazy as hell, it's Trump.

I think you will find there are checks and balances in place to prevent that......



And by checks and balances I mean we have to hope Twitter’s terms and conditions don’t allow you to declare war using their service!

Sorry, I missed typing out 'Bush' before 'appointee'. I've been missing words and typing in the wrong words a lot lately, which is honestly troubling to me.

At any rate, yes, it turns out he was one of those 'conservative' (GOP style) lapdogs that Bush pushed through with a ton of appointments from 'conservative' law schools.

And how many times has Trump now used this same strategy, over and over again? Ex-cabinet members. Ex-staff. Ex-lawyers...

"Sure I appointed them but I always thought they were an idiot (liar, etc)." Particularly when they finally are willing to tell the truth about him. I just don't get it.

Would any executive in any company or organization be allowed to get away with such crap?

If any executive made as many bad decisions in hiring as Trump, they'd have been fired for incompetency long ago.

Kelly to leave by the end of the year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46496756

I would just love it if Trump made Sean Hannity chief of staff. It wouldn't be good for the country, but it would be interesting to see the meltdown.

However I think Pence's COS is the likely pick.

Trump continues to alienate every halfway competent appointee he's named.

ETA: Also interested in how Trump will go about trashing Kelly's reputation.

... the last line of defense.

The only person remotely qualified to do the job he hired them for was Stormy Daniels.

That is funny. Really. But the nit picker in me needs to point out that Stormy wasn't paid for the sex. She was only paid not to talk about it. But, still...funny.:thumbsup:

It's hard to imagine anybody having sex with that despicable guy if they aren't paid. Why do you think she wasn't paid twice, the first time for sex, the second time for signing the NDA?

I think it was a freebie based on her hope that he'd give her career a boost. But no way to know for sure, obviously.

The more unhinged Trump gets the more likely the Senate is to impeach him. The economy will recover.

The economy isn't in recession.
But it will be.

She said she wasn't paid for the sex and I take her at her word about it. She's far more credible than Trump. Daniels said that Trump offered to get her on The Apprentice and to help her cheat to stay on longer.

Nitpick: The House would impeach him, the Senate would then conduct the trial to remove him from office.

Me, picking Kelly back on May 1. Was I the first?

I had him in August of last year, but I also thought he'd quit before Trump could fire him. He didn't seem like the kind of person to suffer fools.

But this means I need a new dead pool pick. Who are you looking at? We're nearly down to just family left, aren't we?

:th:

Jared? he's been putting his big fat foot in it lately over Saudi Arabia and making Donny look stupid. That's not acceptable. Just let's hope he isn't Kashoggi'd.

So who is going to replace Don Jr. after his indictment?
No doubt Trump is shopping around for a suitable, less problematic son.

[deleted] Replied to wrong post.

He could buy one, I suppose.

So if I understand you correctly, he cheated on Melania with Stormy Daniels, and he cheated Stormy Daniels by promising her to get her on The Apprentice, which he didn't, and he also promised her to help her cheat, which would have cheated the viewers, who probably wouldn't suspect the show to be rigged.
Is it as simple as that?! :)

This site is a great summary of the easy come/easy go appointments in the Trump administration. An amazingly long list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...l_appointments

Should we have a fractional point system for this thread in which "survivors" who back out before actually beginning the position (such as Ayers) are scored 0.25, those employed for less than a week are scored 0.50, and those whose appointments last less than a month are scored 0.75? Somehow I think that only those who last more than a month deserve a full 1.0 as a survivor, although I do not view that 1.0 as a positive measure of their character or integrity.

Pretty much.

(Hollywood Reporter)