Trump Staff Picks, Co-Conspirators and the Revolving Door of Departures

[Kulindahr]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

^
This is one of the reasons Bannon gave up on Trump: he repeatedly told Trump he needed a system for hiring competent people, not just whoever he ran into who was eager to please.

 

[KaraBulut]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

^
This is one of the reasons Bannon gave up on Trump: he repeatedly told Trump he needed a system for hiring competent people, not just whoever he ran into who was eager to please.

I've come to the conclusion that it's a circular issue.

On one hand, Pence ran the transition and had influence on some of the major appointments that went to people who were either big donors, activists who were determined to sabotage government or just so unqualified that they would paralyze the agency that they were placed in charge of (yes, we mean you, Ben Carson).

On the other hand, the White House and the Administration are such a chaotic mess that any competent candidate for an appointed position would not return their phone calls. Who would want to have Sean Spicer's career trajectory?

So, no competent candidates want anything to do with the jobs. And the incompetent candidates who would take the jobs end up as dismal failures with a stain on their resume' and reputation.

 

[Sausy]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

^Ugh... pretty spot on assessment... when even Steve Bannon offers up reasonable concerns, it doesn't register with the cheeto in chief.

 

[TX-Beau]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

Bannon's "reasonable concerns" were pretty much limited to having his own wing-nut idiot and not Trump's.

 

[TX-Beau]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

...On the other hand, the White House and the Administration are such a chaotic mess that any competent candidate for an appointed position would not return their phone calls. Who would want to have Sean Spicer's career trajectory?

So, no competent candidates want anything to do with the jobs. And the incompetent candidates who would take the jobs end up as dismal failures with a stain on their resume' and reputation.

This is whats's going on, Trump had no plan going in, so he grabbed at anyone willing to suck up. Then they began reeling from one crisis to another because they are reactionary idiots with no clue what they are doing.

There are no plans, no plots, no deep Machiavellian strategies, just stupid radical, far right ass-hats with not one fucking clue between them.

 

[Kulindahr]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

This is whats's going on, Trump had no plan going in, so he grabbed at anyone willing to suck up. Then they began reeling from one crisis to another because they are reactionary idiots with no clue what they are doing.

There are no plans, no plots, no deep Machiavellian strategies, just stupid radical, far right ass-hats with not one fucking clue between them.

This is one more bit demonstrating how the parties have been gutted to irrelevance: it used to be that the candidates pretty much knew who their appointments were going to be for most mundane positions even before the national convention that actually picked the candidate, because the party had a roster of people ready to go to implement the party's policies. Now the party's input is limited to making noise, because it's all about the candidate.

The old system had the benefit of making sure that most of the positions would have competent people, because incompetence made the party look bad. They may not have been the best -- probably weren't, given that they were still political appointments -- but they were pretty much guaranteed not to be embarrassments. Sure, the top guy in each department might rate higher as a friend of the president-elect, but the people under him would know what they were doing and be able to get things done despite a novice at the helm.

And the same system would have protected us from the worst of Trump because he wouldn't have been stumbling around lost and clueless; the party chair would just bring in the list of the pre-chosen appointees and tell the man to sign off on them before he was turned loose to pick the top people.

The system even worked to an extent with GW Bush; most of the people he appointed were drawn from that party "talent pool", though I suspect his agreement was more because it got him out of a chunk of work than anything else. But Trump, with no party loyalty in evidence, was/is too arrogant to think he might just possibly need help in making picks, so with the old system gone the result is appointments that reflect very closely the level of competence and interest and knowledge of the loser-in-chief.

 

[KaraBulut]

Re: Trump Staff Picks




CDC director who traded tobacco stock resigns [Politico]

Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald's resignation comes one day after POLITICO reported she bought shares in a tobacco company.

President Donald Trump's top public health official resigned Wednesday amid mounting questions about financial conflicts of interest.

Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald's resignation comes one day after POLITICO reported that one month into her tenure as CDC director, she bought shares in a tobacco company. Fitzgerald had long championed efforts to cut tobacco use, which is the leading cause of preventable death.

 

[rareboy]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

I see that climate change denier Kathleen Hartnett White's nomination as environment advisorhas been withdrawn by the White House after her humiliating hearings.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...tnett-white-dropped-trump-environment-adviser

 

[rareboy]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

 

[KaraBulut]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

Ben Carson’s family ethics drama, explained [Vox]

The HUD secretary’s son just can’t seem to stay out of official business.

It’s not just Donald Trump’s family that is bending the rules, ethically speaking. The family of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson also appears to be in some ethical hot water. A scandal is brewing around the retired neurosurgeon amid reports he allowed his son, Ben Carson Jr., to help organize an agency “listening tour” in Baltimore last summer despite warnings it might run afoul of federal ethics rules...

Even so, Carson Jr. and his wife also invited Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. As the Post notes, less than three months later, CMS awarded Myriddian, whose CEO is Carson’s daughter-in-law, a $485,000 contract without a competitive bidding process. A CMS spokesperson said that multiple minority-owned firms were considered, and Verma did not attend the Baltimore tour. CMS doesn’t have a record of her being invited.

 

[rareboy]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

^ While Carson slept through most of it...his family is setting up to make out like they live in a third world tinpot banana republic.

 

[rareboy]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

 

[KaraBulut]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

White House aide denies abuse allegations but resigns [CNN]

(CNN)White House staff secretary Rob Porter, a top aide to President Donald Trump, has resigned, the White House confirmed Wednesday, following allegations of abuse from his two ex-wives...

Porter has been dating White House communications director Hope Hicks, one of the most influential figures in the West Wing, several people familiar with their relationship say...

As staff secretary, Porter's responsibility was mainly in the flow of paper that crossed Trump's desk, including the wave of executive orders and actions that Trump inked during the first months of his tenure.

'He pulled me, naked and dripping from the shower to yell at me.' Ex-wife of Trump aide Rob Porter who's dating Hope Hicks, tells how he called her a 'f***ing b***h' on their honeymoon and she filed a protective order against him [Daily Mail]

Jennifer Willoughby, the second wife of President Trump's staff secretary Rob Porter has spoken on the record to DailyMail.com about her abusive marriage to the man described as one of the most important players in the Oval Office.

Willoughby, 39, told DailyMail.com she was 'walking on eggshells' during their marriage due to his explosive anger.

Porter's first wife Colbie Holderness confirmed to DailyMail.com: 'He was verbally, emotionally and physically abusive and that is why I left.'

 

[KaraBulut]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

Another great candidate from the new swamp:

Trump ambassador nominee promoted fringe conspiracy theories on Twitter[CNN]

President Donald Trump's nominee to be the ambassador to Barbados and several other Caribbean countries spread fringe conspiracy theories and unfounded attacks about Trump's political opponents on Twitter, including ones about Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife, Heidi, during the 2016 presidential election.

Trump in January nominated Leandro Rizzuto Jr., a senior executive at Conair, to be the next ambassador to Barbados, as well as to serve concurrently as ambassador to Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. His nomination requires Senate confirmation.

During the height of the Republican presidential primary, Rizzuto spread smears about Trump's opponents, including Cruz, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a CNN KFile review of Rizzuto's Twitter account shows.

The CNN analysis of Rizzuto's Twitter account show that he promoted fringe theories - like unfounded allegations that Cruz was unfaithful to his wife with 5 different women (from an article published in the National Enquirer- a tabloid owned by a key Trump supporter). Mr Rizzuto claimed that Sen Cruz' wife, Heidi, was involved in an effort to consolidate the governments of the US, Canada and Mexico; saying that Mrs Cruz was a key member of the “North American Union (NAU) whose goal is to destroy the sovereignty of the United States.”

The Tweets about Mrs Cruz included a headline: “This woman should scare the hell out of all Americans!”

Rizzuto also Tweeted that Democratic mega-donor George Soros was backing both Sen Ted Cruz and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (both of whom are Republicans). Rizzuto Tweeted that Gov Scott Walker of Wisconsin was expelled from Marquette University for cheating.

Rizzuto also promoted an unfounded conspiracy theory that long time Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.


GOP Senate office rips Trump nominee: 'Cynics and nuts' will have hard time securing confirmation [CNN]

CNN's KFile reported on Monday that Leandro Rizzuto Jr., Trump's nominee to be the US Ambassador to Barbados and several other Caribbean countries, frequently retweeted conspiracy theories and rumors about Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife Heidi, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

A spokesperson for Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse's office joked in a statement Tuesday that the Senate should probably know Rizzuto's views on the moon landing and warned that "cynics and nuts" would probably face a difficult confirmation process...

Mr. Rizzuto should feel free to put on his tinfoil hat and visit our office with evidence for his salacious conspiracy theories and cuckoo allegations," said Sasse spokesman James Wegmann...

 

[rareboy]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

White House aide denies abuse allegations but resigns [CNN]

'He pulled me, naked and dripping from the shower to yell at me.' Ex-wife of Trump aide Rob Porter who's dating Hope Hicks, tells how he called her a 'f***ing b***h' on their honeymoon and she filed a protective order against him [Daily Mail]

More appalling was Kelly's immediate and throaty defense of Porter, both before and after he resigned.....although I suspect that Kelly slaps his women around too.

We'll have to be on the lookout for Hope Hicks sporting black eyes or wearing dark glasses, because I suspect that his anger issues aren't going to be helped by losing his job because of women.

 

[rareboy]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

Ms Hicks should probably learn the old adage that you shouldn't shit where you eat.

 

[KaraBulut]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

...Ms Hicks should probably learn the old adage that you shouldn't shit where you eat.

She thought it was a step up from Corey Lewandowski (who was accused of manhandling a female reporter) whom she was dating during the campaign.

Also worth an explanation: how a devout Mormon (who once worked for Sen Hatch) was previously living with a woman who was not his wife and is now having an affair with a co-worker who writes the press releases that make excuses for his lack of a security clearance.

This West Wing must be like an Aaron Spelling nighttime soap opera (it can't be like anything written by Shonda Rimes because everyone in the WH is white).

 

[rareboy]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

^ I wish it were written by Shonda Rimes because she might give us all a hint about how to get away with murder.

 

[KaraBulut]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

^ I wish it were written by Shonda Rimes because she might give us all a hint about how to get away with murder.

I like how you think.

 

[KaraBulut]

Re: Trump Staff Picks