US Politics, March 2018: Why do people leave the White House for good?

Melting eyeballs are good! Who wants to see all that flesh being torn from your body? Not me! Gross! Sad!

wait we all know what I'm referencing right https://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/obama-bee-attack-easter-children-screaming-116704

https://www.axios.com/the-wild-wars-within-the-trump-white-house-1519905402-f84fb393-4789-44ed-a8a1-0f846b1580af.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/us/politics/trump-chaos-oval-office.htm
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/white-house-preparing-mcmaster-exit-early-next-month-n852371
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/01/gary-cohn-white-house-tariffs-432625
https://apnews.com/5355a70b30a84e1681600eca533719f1/Trump-adrift:-Tumult-in-West-Wing-amid-exits,-investigation
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/02/opinions/trump-the-great-unraveling-opinion-borger/index.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-impeach-trump-mike-pence-president-20170221-story.html
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/presidential/trump-mocked-pence-joked-about-him-wanting-to-hang-gays-new-yorker-profile-20171017.html
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/363258-pence-told-rnc-he-could-replace-trump-on-ticket-after-access

Fake news, right?

well that sure was a collection of links you just posted

I can't tell how I feel about the prospect of this turning into a simon vs. gabbneb thread. I guess I wouldn't miss it much.

US Politics, March 2018: I guess I wouldn't miss it much

maybe those links could be contextualized in a 100-post tweetstorm.

oh god if I ever post to this thread more than 5 times in a 12-hour span from here on out, please fp me xps

Did you enjoy that show? My friend created it.

ban gabbneb

Video of a candid conversation between Trump and Pence

hey, it's good to be in Da Inner Circle

Billionaire investor and longtime Trump confidant Carl Icahn dumped $31.3 million of stock in a company heavily dependent on steel last week, just days before Trump announced plans to impose steep tariffs on steel imports.

In a little-noticed SEC filing submitted on February 22, 2018, Icahn disclosed that he systematically sold off nearly 1 million shares of Manitowoc Company Inc. Manitowoc is a “is a leading global manufacturer of cranes and lifting solutions” and, therefore, heavily dependent on steel to make its products....

cahn, a billionaire investor with far-flung holdings, is a close associate of Trump — who invoked Icahn’s name repeatedly on the campaign trail. Once in office, Trump installed Icahn as a “special adviser,” although Icahn did not not unwind his business entanglements before accepting the position.

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-ichan-steel-imports-cf7deb8beaf0/

Does that technically count as insider trading (assuming for the sake of argument that we still live in a world where things are illegal and subject to punishment of some sort)?

I'm genuinely surprised that the people in Trump's circle don't just drop by the mint on occasion and load their pockets with fresh bills. I mean why the fuck not.

So, with McMaster hitting the road, and Kelly feuding with Jared, Ivanka and Don Jr., how many more weeks does Kelly have before he's unceremoniously dumped? Not that it matters much, since the Supreme Leader will still be there, but it's crazy how many people he's discarded or alienated in just over a year.

That one-off story someone posted, that if Kelly leaves he'll do without a Chief of Staff, seems increasingly believable. It would appeal to Trump as a way of disguising the fact that no one on earth wants to work for him who can also pass a security clearance. He'd just announce this is how he likes to run the White House and because he's such a genius it'll work out better than any White House has ever been run before.

why is steel more important than any other industry?

I can't tell if this is a serious question but steel production and control of it is, by some magnitude, probably the most important element to any western economy along with food production, which is itself is hugely dependent on the steel industry obviously. you can't compare the production of steel and basic food supplies to any other element of a country's economic strategy; transport, infrastructure, building, food production and manufacture.

don't forget fuel & energy but yeah

fwiw the white house denies the NBC report that mcmaster is on his way out:

“Look General McMaster is not going anywhere,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during an interview with “Fox and Friends” Friday morning. “As the President said yesterday in the Oval Office to a number of people, he thinks he is doing a great job and (is) glad he is here.”

but...pretty sure they say that just before everyone leaves

i didn't mean to just tag that list on at the end, i was in the process of shifting that block of text. xp

yes tlg!

If/when Trump does away with the position of CoS, it'll be like Home Alone except with Culkin just vegging out and mindlessly retweeting Fox News talking points while the Wet Bandits strip his house bare. Dude'll be dead in a week without an active handler (god willing).

we should be so lucky

In case my underlying point wasn't clear: I believe most random eight-year-olds are better equipped to care for their own basic needs over an extended period of time than is our current POTUS.

All of this was quite predictable to anyone not in Jared-will-save-Israel-la-la-land

https://www.axios.com/destroying-jared-kushner-a-play-in-5-acts-1519995606-a01f5811-6455-42d6-89cf-edd376c66a04.html

most 8 year olds don't wear diapers

The most amazing/horrifying thing about this story is that he will learn absolutely nothing from it, and will behave exactly the same way the next time things don't go his way for more than 24 hours in a row.

With global markets shaken by President Donald Trump's surprise decision to impose strict tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, the president went into battle mode on Friday: "Trade wars are good, and easy to win," he wrote on Twitter.

But the public show of confidence belies the fact that Trump's policy maneuver, which may ultimately harm U.S. companies and American consumers, was announced without any internal review by government lawyers or his own staff, according to a review of an internal White House document.

According to two officials, Trump's decision to launch a potential trade war was born out of anger at other simmering issues and the result of a broken internal process that has failed to deliver him consensus views that represent the best advice of his team.

On Wednesday evening, the president became "unglued," in the words of one official familiar with the president's state of mind.

Meanwhile, looks like Mueller is really closing on Kush. Also, Hicks reportedly kept a detailed daily diary!

On Wednesday evening, the president became "unglued,"

I wonder how they noticed

It's like suddenly noticing the jagged ceramic shards that have been littering your floor for the past year and commenting, 'huh, guess the vase broke.'

In re: Haberman-on-Hicks and everything else, this is not exactly solid journalism but also not a complete waste of time...

http://www.citjourno.org/maggie1

was announced without any internal review by government lawyers or his own staff...
...was born out of anger at other simmering issues and the result of a broken internal process that has failed to deliver him consensus views that represent the best advice of his team.

the office of the President holds too much power (regardless of how qualified/reckless the current holder of the office is)

out of curiosity have any yanks spotted TV coverage of the WV teachers' strike yet

only briefly and on the margins, but maybe I'm not watching enough TV

xpost Dunno, I don't even own a tv.

Seriously, though, I watch approximately zero tv news.

There was a story about it on the news last night. (I don't have cable; I get network channels through a digital antenna.)

I kind of wonder if Trump is working with people to work the market as with his Twitter, he can pretty much time to manipulate certain kinds of stocks.

he's actually weirdly not much of an investor himself.

http://splinternews.com/everyone-in-washington-is-having-a-lovely-time-1823459832

Roy Moore begs for help w/ legal fees. “My resources have been depleted and I have struggled to make ends meet.” https://t.co/BNwMKQhn0t

— Beth Reinhard (@bethreinhard) March 2, 2018

Has he conceded yet?

Ogre? Oh right, Moore, LOL.

When asked if they were going to cover the teachers’ wildcat strike:

We're doing a bit on it tonight.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) March 2, 2018

http://splinternews.com/everyone-in-washington-is-having-a-lovely-time-1823459832🕸

in further "just stoppin to save some lives before the paula abdul show" news

https://deadspin.com/report-donald-trump-didnt-actually-do-anything-to-free-1823464794

astounding piece of journalism here

looked to me like she blew the lid off of 'business as usual' to reveal the shocking news that political journalists and people in positions of political power know one another and aren't averse to socializing. they might even do a bit of mutual schmoozing and back-scratching, too.

I was actually already aware of the potomac trash gyre, its just the shape of where we are

I also appreciated the implication that this is unique to DC and not at all what goes on in New York City and its very real and important boroughs such as Brooklyn

It's just a thin layer of fauxphisticated NYC blogger snark spread on top of the same provincial attitudes that everyone else in the country expresses towards Washington as if the only people who try to ever make a living here are birthed from pods and/or brainwashed in expensive labs run by the MIC and its proxies. Fucking pisses me off.

Uh-oh, Tombot's gone native! (I kid, I kid.)