I am not sure I agree with a blanket condemnation of those who agreed to serve in a Trump white house. I think some of the them know what Trump is, but through that somehow they could shield the country from his worst excesses. I think they were mistaken, but I can understand why they accepted the posts.

Trump is in a bit of a bind when it comes to firing Tillerson: he has called the"*********** moron" comment Fake News. So he can't use it as the excuse for getting rid of Rex.

When has inconsistency ever presented any sort of obstacle to Trump?

The irony in all of this is that it here's no debate about Trump being a moron. Most of the country thinks he is. Kelly just needs to go in and explain that to Trump.

Would require a backbone - something for which IMO evidence is lacking.

Wouldn't be so bullish on a Rexit happening soon.

He only has to put up with four more months of this to avoid that.

After the "IQ Test" comments from the Whitehouse, Tillerson is just a whipping boy. He should just pay the tax man (how much better can you eat?) and save what's left of his dignity.

I really wish Mensa would step up for once.

Drug Czar nominee Tom Marino, whom I'd never heard of until this morning. He was supposed to do something about the opioid crisis while being in the pocket of Big Pharma.

Does that fall under the separate heading of "quit before officially hired"?

In January I applied for a position in the White House^* lawn mowing team. Been waiting for confirmation ever since. But now I've had enough of it! I am quitting!






^*: Well, not THE White House, it's actually a house with a yellowish hue closer to where I live, but it has roses in the garden! I hope this still counts for the purpose of this thread, even if the job is not an actual WH position and I never actually held the job.

Besides, you got beat out by a 12-year-old!

Who looks kinda brownish and I am sure came from the south. That's why we need that wall! Make Oystein Great Again! :thumbsup:

Quote:

The Trump administration has made a public push to combat the opioid crisis, with first lady Melania Trump and a presidential commission bringing attention to the issue. Trump announced in August he would declare the opioid crisis a national emergency, which would allow his administration to free up federal resources to battle an epidemic killing 142 Americans every day. However, Trump has not yet made a formal declaration, though he said Monday that it will come next week. "It's a very important step," Trump said. "And to get to that step, a lot of work has to be done, and it's time-consuming work. We're going to be doing it next week, OK?"

"Next week" in Trump talk means he'd already forgotten about it and don't hold your breath waiting for him to get around to actually doing anything.

As with most things Trump screws up, I don't understand why he hasn't taken more heat for his obvious errors in judgement in terms of his appointments. He publicly and repeatedly has had to push out people who, just a few months ago, he brought into his administration. Aren't these errors in his judgement obvious and indisputable? That is not to say that I personally believe all of Trump's ex-appointees were bad, but clearly he ultimately flip flopped and came to that conclusion. It is difficult to drain the swamp if you can't tell the difference between a festering mudflats versus a shiny meadow until you are knee high in the muck.

Makes one wonder about the contestants to whom he gave the thumbs in The Apprentice, right?

Trump supporters are believers. You can't reason someone out of a position they did not reason themselves into.

Eugene V. Debs, "I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads..."

He is weak! The guy is a running joke on this side of the pond. If it wasn't for the sheer size of the US military and it's involvement everywhere the Us would be a has-been pariah state.

The extent to US involvement (for better, or more usually for worse) makes the US unavoidable, but usually unwelcome. Pretty much how the British Empire was in the 1900s. Welcome to the Unwelcome club...

You can. Indeed, that is the presumption of intellectual discourse.

It is difficult to do so when bias is entrenched but were it not possible, we should give up on argumentation and focus on mere rhetoric.

You and I have grown up with biases. I hope that I have shed my insupportable biases, mostly at least, through reason.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Maybe we need to expand the thread beyond the white house :-)

Jeff Flake, Bob Corker ...

"What do you mean I can't fire people who don't work for me?!"

Nah, this thread only applies to people that Trump can fire. He can't fire congress critters....

That two GOP senators with inpecciable conservative credentials have quit because they can't stand Trump ,though technically does not come under the subject of this thread (it applies only to people whom Trump could fire) is none the less very telling .

I wish they weren't so cowardly though. They are facing getting primaried from the extreme right, but they should run for election and use the primaries to get out the message against the Nazi-scum-TP-Trump supporters. It is somewhat telling that Republicans are cowards that only say the right things when they aren't running worried about re-election.

Ehh... The disgruntled employee finally giving his ******* boss a verbal reaming before walking out the door isn't exclusive to right-leaning politicians. It's a movie and television trope for a reason.

But he's not their boss, their constituents are supposed to be their boss.

IMO only in the same way that the shareholders are the "boss" of a company employee. The electorate may be the ultimate boss but in between there are various levels of management including the whips, the party leadership and in this case, The President.

In any case Flake looks like he is far to moderate for the modern-day GOP and will be replaced in the Senate by a Trumpist. I personally find this a little concerning. I had hoped that the poisonous effects of President Trump might halt the GOP in its headlong rush towards a new kind of extremism - then again I also said that about the religious fundamentalists and the Tea Party so what to I know ? :( :o

Unfortunately, the highlighted bit is contradicted by Flake voting with Trump 90% of the time.

It sounds more like Flake has realised he's most likely going to be primaried, especially considering his abysmal approval rating (currently at 18%) and the fact that Bannon & Breitbart has gone to bat for Kelli Ward, his opponent, and has decided to fire off a departing salute in order to score credit with the more moderate crowd.

Still wondering how that's going to play out though...

He thinks he can. He believes that if he does not deign to bestow his royal blessing then they would inevitably crash and burn at the next election.

Time will tell if he is right or not.

*shrug* I'm quite aware that it wasn't a flawless comparison. That wasn't the point.

It's very worrying what the GOP is becoming, a hard-right, nationalist, anti-immigrant, anti-trade, "know nothing" party funded by shady billionaires with a demagogue as President.

It's even more worrying that the GOP is willing to become this kind of party and isn't being manoeuvered against its will by skilled puppet masters.

What's most worrying from my perspective is the popularity of this kind of party among the white US electorate.

Not to mention the fundamental goal of skeptical activism.

I've met dozens of former fundamentalists and not a few former alt-medicine users / woo believers who are now free of harmful false beliefs precisely because people took the trouble to reason with them.

Trump supporters do seem to be especially immune to evidence, though. I'm guessing this is largely because they are watching a totally different movie than the one I'm seeing play out; and because they have been trained to believe that the most conscientious and ethical reportage is mere "fake news."

Not directly, but with the ongoing Trumpification of the Republican Party, he can influence whether they remain electable. So . . . yeah, not on topic but topically adjacent.

They haven't quit being Senators just yet, and probably won't do so until early 2019. There are now, by my count, at least four serving GOP senators completely free to break with party leadership/orthodoxy whenever they damn well please. This bodes ill for major single-party legislative reforms, in the near term.

It really is worrying, but what is the viable alternative for that party? Put another way, who can possibly drag them back towards the center on any major issues? Jon Huntsman? Chris Christie? Susan Collins? I'm afraid the damage may be irreversible, the epistemic and moral rot too deep.

It would be a lot less worrying if the Trumpification (and prior to that the Christian fundamentalisation and Tea Partification) of the GOP made it less electable (and hence provided a sharp correction) but instead they remain at least as electable as ever and in some states far more electable.

Whoever replaces Flake will likely be some combination of religious fundamentalist, Tea Party, America First, vehemently anti-Immigrant, anti-science, know-nothing - and will be enthusiastically elected by the good people of Arizona.

IMO President Trump isn't the problem, he's just a symptom :(

That is what made me feel so awful the night he was elected: we really are this bad.

Possible but not a slam dunk.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...on-for-ag-post

Washington (AP) -- A former Trump campaign official who has been linked to the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller has withdrawn his nomination for an Agriculture post.

Sam Clovis says in a letter to President Donald Trump dated Thursday that he does "not want to be a distraction or a negative influence." Clovis cites what he calls "relentless assaults on you and your team" that "seem to be a blood sport."

Out before he was in ....

If we weren't in a period in time where the craziness, lies, bigotry, and rank incompetence weren't so rampant, there would be multiple threads focused on Sam Clovis, buffoon extraordinaire. Bye Sam, we barely knew you.

Isn't he still part of the USDA?

Damn ! :mad:

Leftist #Fakenews denying the United States the invaluable services of a True Patriot^TM ;) :D

I'm going back to Kushner as the next to leave. CNN was damning and if the leaks are true, The Hair is very angry with him. If it looks like he might get called, Kushner will need to gone so Trump can say he had a minor role.

It's a bold prediction. I tell you what: I'll bet you a quarter that Kushner doesn't leave the administration before Trump.

I could be wrong, but I think I'm not.

It seems all but certain Mueller has a sealed indictment waiting for Kushner, and Trump has demonstrated zero loyalty to anyone but himself.

Seems like a reasonable pick.

Rex seemed to be on the hot seat a bit based on this morning's news. Kush may be moved to the side, but I don't see him being dropped unless he is actually indicted, and even then I'm not sure.

Betsy DeVos, according to the general Trump thread.

I saw some stories to that effect, but the sourcing was ambiguous at best.

I missed whatever lead to that nomination. What happened?

It was originally on Alternet and punted upfield in the Salon story, but it appears all to be rumour.

Should really have known that she wasn't up to the job when she stated that they needed guns in schools as protection for grizzly bears. Come on, everyone knows, you don't shoot a grizzly, it'll just make it angry!

*****WARNING: Graphic Images in article. Not for the squeamish!******