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

[rareboy]

 

[KaraBulut]

A little icing for the cake... and a statement on what having "Acting Secretaries" aka "The Best People" gets you...

Former acting Navy secretary's trip to Guam, which led to his resignation, cost almost a quarter of a million dollars [CNN]

The recently resigned acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly's Monday trip to Guam where he addressed the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt and slammed their former commander, cost the Defense Department an estimated $243,000, according to a Navy official.

Modly's remarks led to his resignation a day later.

Modly traveled to Guam aboard a C-37B VIP aircraft a modified Gulfstream jet. It costs $6,946.19 per hour to fly and the flight time for the Guam trip was about 35 hours for a total cost of $243,151.65.

The Captain of the USS Roosevelt lost the battle but won the war.

Acting secretary of the Navy has submitted his resignation after calling ousted aircraft carrier captain 'stupid' [CNN]

 

[KaraBulut]

...Acting secretary of the Navy has submitted his resignation after calling ousted aircraft carrier captain 'stupid' [CNN]

Cartoon for this:

 

[rareboy]

What. The. Actual. Fuck.?

 

[rareboy]

 

[KaraBulut]

What. The. Actual. Fuck.?

If you were a successful businessperson with any kind of reputation, would you want to be on that council with Javanka?

 

[smokeshadow]

^^the Council to Re-open America Post-Pandemic is what it should be referred to

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmoveme...k-trumps-new-council-to-reopen-america-panel/

Not an economist nor a medical practitioner amongst them. . .CRAP is correct

 

[rareboy]

 

[KaraBulut]

Not an economist nor a medical practitioner amongst them. . .

Well, Larry Kudlow is a Social Scientist...

 

[gsdx]

Not an economist nor a medical practitioner amongst them. . .CRAP is correct

That is simply not true. Ivanka's a great economist:

"Daddy, I need 850 grand."
"Of course, darling. I'll make it a million if you buy another outfit that shows off your delicious booty. Get something blue. I like blue."
"Thank you, Daddy."

 

[Sausy]

Ah, no independent, credible candidates to be found, so they just picked the usual Trump repertory company. Just another reminder to Americans to close this shitshow in November.

 

[rareboy]

Well that was fast turnover. They didn't even last a day.

I think that floating the idea of Jarhead and Daughterwife Ivanka got such pushback that they have decided to give it up....

https://thehill.com/homenews/admini...OrhAZRSNvKqtHOEPX89yXnGxzEn0fZ_W5RkD_4B4Vmq4M

Eventually it will just be Trump making a decision based on his 'Instinct' anyway.

The other heads are only there to give some semblance of discussion around this.

 

[KaraBulut]

For the collection:

 

[KaraBulut]

More of the "best people".

Dr Brett Giroir is an Asst Sec of HHS who has been assigned to be the coronavirus "testing czar". The US testing program has been underperforming and is drawing fire from governors and Democratic Senators.

Giroir is a friend of Rick Perry and an anti-abortion advocate who was appointed to the HHS to pursue an agenda that pleased evangelicals.

Stories are surfacing about Giroir's issues in his prior employment where he was viewed as difficult, overly-political and prone to "overpromising and underdelivering". Giroir touts his employment at Texas A&M (Rick Perry's alma mater) as qualifying him for the "Testing Czar" position. WaPo published a story this weekend pointing out that at Texas A&M, Giroir was given a choice of resigning or being fired from his job.

Brett Giroir, Trump’s testing czar, was forced out of a job developing vaccine projects. Now he’s on the hot seat. [WaPo]

Brett Giroir, the federal official overseeing coronavirus testing efforts, says that his experience working on vaccine development projects at Texas A&M University helped prepare him for this historic moment. He once said that his vaccine effort was so vital that “the fate of 50 million people will rely on us getting this done.”

But after eight years of work on several vaccine projects, Giroir was told in 2015 he had 30 minutes to resign or he would be fired. His annual performance evaluation at Texas A&M, the local newspaper reported, said he was “more interested in promoting yourself” than the health science center where he worked. He got low marks on being a “team player.”

Now President Trump has given Giroir the crucial task of ending the massive shortfall of tests for the novel coronavirus. Some governors have blasted the lack of federal help on testing, which they say is necessary to enact Trump’s plan for reopening the economy.

That criticism has focused attention on Giroir and whether he can deliver results under pressure. His years as director of the Texas vaccine project illustrate his operating style, which includes sweeping statements about the impact of his work, not all of which turned out as some had hoped.

During two recent interviews with The Washington Post, Giroir blamed his ouster on internal politics at the university, not on any problems with the project.

A&M Health Science Center CEO "Heartbroken" Over Exit [Texas Tribune (2015 story)]

Texas A&M Health Science Center CEO Brett Giroir knew that a shakeup could be coming with Texas A&M University President Michael K. Young’s arrival. Before Young started, Giroir and all the other vice president-level administrators at A&M were told that Young had leeway to build his own team.

But Giroir, who made national news last year for chairing a state task force on Ebola, wasn’t expecting to be sent packing during what he presumed was a routine Monday morning meeting with Young. That changed as soon as Giroir walked in the room.

“When you walk in the door for a private meeting and you see lawyers sitting around the table, you know it is not going to be good,” he said.

It wasn’t. Giroir said he was told to resign or he’d be terminated “within 30 minutes.” That ended a prominent and at times controversial career at A&M for Giroir. He garnered praise from state and community leaders for his effort to cultivate a biotechnology industry in Bryan-College Station. But he also dealt with suspicion from some faculty, who were wary of his proposed partnerships with private companies and his perceived closeness with former Gov. Rick Perry.

 

[KaraBulut]

The Best People: Health and Human Services Version.

Special Report: Former Labradoodle breeder was tapped to lead U.S. pandemic task force [Reuters]

...Azar tapped a trusted aide with minimal public health experience to lead the agency’s day-to-day response to COVID-19. The aide, Brian Harrison, had joined the department after running a dog-breeding business for six years. Five sources say some officials in the White House derisively called him “the dog breeder.” ...

Harrison, 37, was an unusual choice, with no formal education in public health, management, or medicine and with only limited experience in the fields. In 2006, he joined HHS in a one-year stint as a “Confidential Assistant” to Azar, who was then deputy secretary. He also had posts working for Vice President Dick Cheney, the Department of Defense and a Washington public relations company.

Before joining the Trump Administration in January 2018, Harrison’s official HHS biography says, he “ran a small business in Texas.” The biography does not disclose the name or nature of that business, but his personal financial disclosure forms show that from 2012 until 2018 he ran a company called Dallas Labradoodles.

The company sells Australian Labradoodles, a breed that is a cross between a Labrador Retriever and a Poodle. He sold it in April 2018, his financial disclosure form said. HHS emailed Reuters that the sale price was $225,000.

This was announced by the new HHS Spokesperson and tweeter of racist tropes, Michael Caputo.

New HHS spokesman made racist comments about Chinese people in now-deleted tweets [CNN]

The new spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services in a series of now-deleted tweets made racist and derogatory comments about Chinese people, said Democrats wanted the coronavirus to kill millions of people and accused the media of intentionally creating panic around the pandemic to hurt President Donald Trump.

Michael Caputo, a longtime New York Republican political operative who worked on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, was appointed last week as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at HHS, a prominent communications role at the department which serves a central role in the federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic...

In a series of tweets on March 12, Caputo responded to a baseless conspiracy theory that the United States brought the coronavirus to Wuhan, China, by tweeting that "millions of Chinese suck the blood out of rabid bats as an appetizer and eat the ass out of anteaters."

He followed up at another user, "Don't you have a bat to eat?" and tweeted at another user, "You're very convincing, Wang."

 

[Kulindahr]

Trump is looking bad enough a diehard conservative on a site I haunt proclaimed his wish that a liberal SCOTUS justice would kick off this week, Trump would appoint a replacement by the weekend, the Senate would meet long enough to confirm whoever, and then Trump would die of a heart attack congratulating himself over a quick and efficient SCOTUS replacement.

Unfortunately, that wouldn't free us from the idiocy shown above! It's like having middle school kids running the show.

 

[KaraBulut]

The Swamp: Post Office Edition

The post office employs 600,000 Americans and is the 2nd largest employer in the country. Congress approved $10 billion to help with additional costs for the postal service in connection with the coronavirus epidemic. The Treasury department is using the $10 billion as leverage to force the postal service to charge Amazon more for shipping and to force concessions from the union that represents postal workers.

Top Republican fundraiser and Trump ally named postmaster general, giving president new influence over Postal Service [WaPo]

A top donor to President Trump and the Republican National Committee will be named the new head of the Postal Service, putting a top ally of the president in charge of an agency where Trump has long pressed for major changes in how it handles its business.

The Postal Service’s board of governors confirmed late Wednesday that Louis DeJoy, a North Carolina businessman who is currently in charge of fundraising for the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, will serve as the new postmaster general...

Trump has indicated he wants the Postal Service to dramatically raise fees for delivering packages for customers such as Amazon in exchange for tapping the line of credit. Trump has long argued that Amazon doesn’t pay the Postal Service enough, a charge the agency has fiercely contested. (Amazon’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, owns The Post.)...

After criticizing the agency for years, Trump has been consolidating his influence lately. Three Republicans and one Democrat sit on the board of governors after the vice chairman, David Williams, a Democrat, resigned last week.

The departure came after Williams told confidants he was upset that the Treasury Department was meddling in what has long been an apolitical agency and felt that his fellow board members had capitulated to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s conditions for the $10 billion line of credit, according to four people familiar with Williams’s thinking.

Why does he look like the villain in most episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

 

[smokeshadow]

And, then the VEEP got caught on open mic asking if he could wheel into the front entry of a retirement center, empty boxes of PPE just for the cameras

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmoveme...ppe-boxes-into-a-nursing-home-for-the-camera/

 

[gsdx]

^ Well, at least he's proving just how transparent the administration is.

 

[KaraBulut]

And, then the VEEP got caught on open mic asking if he could wheel into the front entry of a retirement center, empty boxes of PPE just for the cameras

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmoveme...ppe-boxes-into-a-nursing-home-for-the-camera/

Without a mask. Again.