Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I really should read my own blog.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

We still have time to mess this up!

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / Breaking News: Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly Named New White House Chief of Staff

Breaking News: Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly Named New White House Chief of Staff

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Reince Priebus is out as White House Chief of Staff. To be replaced by Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly.

What remains to be seen is whether Secretary Kelly will be empowered to actually be a proper Chief of Staff and impose a proper structure and order to the White House staff or whether he, like Priebus, will be set up for failure by the President and his preference for competing power structures and an unorthodox, lacking in structure staff setup. Secretary Kelly’s military bio can be found here. Secretary Kelly is now moving into a fully political job without having any explicit political experience*.

ETA (6:30 PM EDT): The key issue is going to be whether Secretary Kelly is actually empowered. If Scaramucci, Bannon, Miller, Hicks, Conway, everyone else at the White House does not report to Kelly then he will be chief of staff in name only.

I would also expect a significant delay in replacing him as the Secretary of Homeland Security. The Senate calendar is exceedingly tight, as the Senate work days are now short, between now and the end of the fiscal year.

This follows a busy day for the President. Earlier, in an address on cracking down on MS 13 and other gang violence to Suffolk County, NY Police he gave them permission to engage in police brutality. That authorization, for lack of a better term, begins at the 29:15 mark of the video below:

I fully expect that the President’s encouragement of police brutality will soon begin to appear in the formal legal defenses of law enforcement accused of such conduct.

* Secretary Kelly, as a retired general officer/flag officer, has implicit political experience. All general officers/flag officers are political creatures. They have to be to earn stars for their flags and to interact with both their peers and their civilian superiors/masters.

Reader Interactions

310Comments

  2. 2.

    Morzer

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/north-korea-2nd-missile-test-us-in-range

    North Korea on Friday test-fired its second intercontinental ballistic missile, which flew longer and higher than the first according to its wary neighbors, leading analysts to conclude that a wide swath of the U.S. including Los Angeles and Chicago is now within range of Pyongyang’s weapons.

    Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the missile, launched late Friday night, flew for about 45 minutes — about five minutes longer than the ICBM North Korea test-fired on July 4. The missile was launched on very high trajectory, which limited the distance it traveled, and landed west of Japan’s island of Hokkaido.

    “We assess that this missile was an intercontinental ballistic missile, as had been expected,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said in Washington.

    Analysts had estimated that the North’s first ICBM could have reached Alaska, and said Friday that the latest missile appeared to extend that range significantly.

  3. 3.

    LAO

    Noooooo! It’s too early for the Friday night news dump. What else is coming? I need sleep.

  5. 5.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    He’ll use his awesome political experience to be a pushover and look the other way while Scaradouche and Bannon do lines of coke.

    So yet another general to replace him at DHS?

  7. 7.

    MisterForkbeard

    This… seems like a really weird job for Kelly. “Chief of Staff” isn’t something that usually goes to career military.

    I guess Trump is mostly happy that Kelly has toed the line with him so far, even if he hasn’t actually done anything exemplary. Though I suppose DHS has been actually operating, unlike the rest of Trump’s departments. So Kelly must look fantastic.

  11. 11.

    Hal

    http://www.theonion.com/article/reince-priebus-forced-back-into-ancient-puzzle-box-29803

    Reince Priebus Forced Back Into Ancient Puzzle Box After Being Tricked Into Saying Name Backwards

    Priebus, a wily, mystical creature who has reportedly carried out right-wing political trickery at numerous points throughout recorded history, was said to be delivering a speech on traditional family values when he unthinkingly read the words “Subeirp Ecnier” aloud off the teleprompter, immediately causing the lights in the Omni Hotel to flicker and sending a powerful, chilling wind through the convention hall.

  12. 12.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Morzer: As others have noted, thank God we have an experienced, level-headed person running the country. And with such fantastic advisers, too!

  14. 14.

    lamh36

    Now some reports that he “resigned” yesterday. Jared & Ivanka wanted Reince out.

    @funder
    #Breaking: Reince resigned yesterday-via @PrestonCNN

  15. 15.

    Yarrow

    Friday news dump! Priebus out now is a little sooner than I expected, though.

    @Adam L Silverman: LOL. That’s hilarious. Maybe she doesn’t like his coke habit personality either.

  16. 16.

    Droppy

    You know, for the first time in my old life, I feel not just discouraged about my country, but really kind of anti-patriotic. Not that I have had anything like the experience a black man of my age would have had to make me see how the country is fundamentally flawed. I admit that it took this for me. But to live in a place where it was possible within its system for a person like this to be made our president – that there were enough people, even if not a majority, but still plenty of them – to let this happen. I just hate that it is possible, and I am not in favor of the system that allowed it to happen.

  17. 17.

    MattF

    “To ensure attendance at the next Cabinet meeting, we will play a game of Musical Chairs. Anyone who can’t find a chair in the first two minutes will be fired”.

  20. 20.

    Morzer

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Well, it seems that Tony Auto-Fellatio has won this latest round of Musical Chairs hosted by The Trump Crime Organization. Careful with that fandango, Scaramooch. It’ll bite you in the ass much sooner than you expect.

  21. 21.

    debit

    @Major Major Major Major: The thing that makes me laugh is picturing Reince telling himself, with every insult, with every slight and slur, with every verbal slap that it was all going to pay off in the end, that he would be recognized for his hard work and loyalty, that it would all pay off in the end.

    How’s that shit sandwich taste, Reince? Good? Go ahead, choke it down. Every single little bit of it. I hope the taste stays with you the rest of your miserable life.

  22. 22.

    kindness

    You know all those rumors about the CIA being involved in JFK’s assassination? What are they waiting for with this one? What more do they need, a Bay of Pigs?

  24. 24.

    Morzer

    @Origuy:

    Guess Scaramooch really is going to have to bone up on sucking his own cock after all. Maybe someone in the White House can help him out with the Protocols of the Elders of Bannon.

  25. 25.

    patrick II

    This makes perfect sense. Anthony Scaramucci goes on a nearly insane, vulgar and what should be internationally embarrassing public vendetta against Priebus, and he keeps his job and Priebus get fired. Got it.

    I say “should” be embarrassing which it is for us, but for Donald watching someone suffer at his hands temporarily quenches his thirst for sadism.

  26. 26.

    different-church-lady

    “Mr. Priebus? There’s a Mr. Mueller on line two. Would you like to take the…”

    “GIVE ME THAT THING RIGHT THIS SECOND!!”

  27. 27.

    lamh36

    Son of a bish…damn…they kicked Reince OFF DA PLANE!!!

    @JaredRizzi
    Priebus essentially kicked to the curb off of AF1, per @joshgerstein pool report

  28. 28.

    Hoodie

    If Mooch is to be believed, Reince Effin’ Priebus apparently felt he needed to protect America from Trump. If a scumbag like Priebus thinks Trump is a monster that requires control, we may be grossly underestimating how big a monster he really is.

  30. 30.

    Morzer

    @Hoodie:

    Priebus apparently felt he needed to protect America from Trump

    Groveling is not a containment strategy.

  31. 31.

    schrodingers_cat

    John Kelly has been the commissar of T’s Icestapo. Not too many people pay attention to what happens to immigrants, so Kelly’s reputation as a non crazy person has survived intact. We will see for how long?

  34. 34.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I guess by the end of all the Trump administration managerial positons will be filled by generals doing it out of sense of duty to the country (and they will be viewed as untanted by the Russians and enough self control to avoid public dramas)

  38. 38.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    I mean it feels like Adam is defending Kellys lack of civilian political experience by pointing to his experience as a senior officer. I just think it’s totally inappropriate for someone as authoritarian as Trump to be surrounded by generals in non military positions.**
    ** and soldier scholar supreme McMaster hasn’t covered himself in glory either.

  40. 40.

    MattF

    I guess the ‘anti-leak’ strategy at the White House is to fire the leakers and replace them with psychopaths. But I have this vague, uneasy feeling that there’s a flaw in that strategy. Can’t quite put my finger on it…

  43. 43.

    Yarrow

    @lamh36: Bwahahahaha! That is awesome. Kicked off the plane. Did they abandon him on a glacier like on a reality show when someone gets voted off?

  45. 45.

    MaryL

    @Hoodie:

    If Mooch is to be believed, Reince Effin’ Priebus apparently felt he needed to protect America from Trump.

    A more effective way to do that would maybe have been to not working to get him elected.

  46. 46.

    SFAW

    @Hoodie:

    we may be grossly underestimating how big a monster he really is.

    Hard to do. About the only thing left for him to do is open some Camps, and frankly, I don’t have too tough a time believing he’d consider it for blacks, browns, liberals, Dems, and anybody else who doesn’t get their Two-Minute Love on (of President* Lying Littledick, that is), every damn day.

    The toughest part isn’t BELIEVING that he’d do something(s) beyond the realm of reason — it’s figuring out what those things could be.

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: This leaked specifically to make sure Mueller picks up on it. We now have evidence of Russian wet work on US soil.
    https://www.buzzfeed.com/jasonleopold/putins-media-czar-was-murdered-just-before-meeting-feds?utm_term=.dmmoz080w#.kiX8EXgX9

    But the two FBI agents — as well as a third agent and a serving US intelligence officer — said Lesin was actually bludgeoned to death. None of these officials were directly involved in the government’s investigation, but they said they learned about it from colleagues who were.

    “Lesin was beaten to death,” one of the FBI agents said. “I would implore you to say as much. There seems to be an effort here to cover up that fact for reasons I can’t get into.”

    He continued: “What I can tell you is that there isn’t a single person inside the bureau who believes this guy got drunk, fell down, and died. Everyone thinks he was whacked and that Putin or the Kremlin were behind it.”

    In another previously unreported revelation, the two FBI agents said it was the Department of Justice that paid for the hotel room where Lesin died. DOJ officials had invited the Russian to Washington to interview him about the inner workings of RT, the Kremlin-funded network that Lesin founded, they said.”

  53. 53.

    Ruckus

    @Hoodie:

    we may be grossly underestimating how big a monster he really is.

    Not all of us.
    Most of us on this blog would be a far better choice for president than the fuckstick who is in the building. At the very least we fucking try to do the real job, and even if we failed miserably, we’d have done at least a 10000% better job than drumpf and his useless crew.

  55. 55.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: You didn’t go with the one at the link I sent you? I’m not angry, I’m hurt…

  56. 56.

    Immanentize

    @kindness:

    JFK told Kruschev I’ll leave Castro alone
    If you take away those missles
    They’re too damn close to home
    The CIA, the Cubans and the underworld bosses
    Decided that was it, they had to cut their losses

    Was Not Was — Eleven Miles an Hour

  57. 57.

    dmsilev

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m sure his replacement at DHS will be bad (nobody good would accept a nomination from Trump), but if we’re lucky it won’t be quite as bad. If we’re not lucky, it’ll be Jeff Sessions transitioning over from AG.

  58. 58.

    Felonius Monk

    If Kelly didn’t insist that Trump agree that he (Kelly) is the Mooch’s boss, then Kelly’s tenure will be short and unpleasant.

    Rooting for multiple injuries.

  60. 60.

    Morzer

    Anna Fifield‏Verified account @annafifield 2h2 hours ago

    Replying to @annafifield
    Amid North Korean provocations: the Trump admin has not yet nominated an ambassador to South Korea, new envoy to Japan hasn’t arrived.

    Whocouldapredicted….

  61. 61.

    lamh36

    So the spin is that Cheeto got rid of the “establishment” folks in the administration…

  64. 64.

    katep

    @Droppy: It just sort of takes your breath away, doesn’t it? I spend a lot of time trying to figure if this is who the country has always been and I’ve just been blind? Or if this is truly something new. I know history and was never in the “exceptionalism” fantasy but I thought we had progressed as a people.

  65. 65.

    Immanentize

    @Yarrow: Fair enough. But there is no doubt in my mind that the guy isn’t just experimenting, he’s using.

  67. 67.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Amanda in the South Bay: I am not. This is a major problem. He has excellent credentials as a Marine. He has no explicit experience for this job whatsoever. The implicit political experience he has as a general officer/flag officer is unlikely to be sufficient for what he’s been tasked to do. And I doubt he’ll be able to fix the one problem that is the prime driver of all the other problems at the White House: the President, his temperament, his lack of experience, his incuriousness, and his preference for a chaotic, disordered work environment with multiple competing centers of power and influence all competing for the President’s attention and favor.

    He’s being set up for failure and I fully expect that is what will happen no matter how good a Marine he is.

  68. 68.

    Morzer

    @katep:

    In many ways, we have. Trump’s failed far more than he has succeeded. What he has done (inadvertently) is show us areas where we urgently need to clean up, reform, even transform the system.

  69. 69.

    Yarrow

    @Immanentize: Agreed. That’s why I said coke habit, not experimentation. He needs it to keep going, but it also makes him out of control.

  70. 70.

    Mike in DC

    If he fires Sessions next, if there is any real resistance to Trump left in the GOP, it will finally manifest itself. I think there will be, but it will be underwhelming. Maybe 20% of the electeds will stand up to him. But that would be enough.

  71. 71.

    StringOnAStick

    @Adam L Silverman: It is very interesting that this story points out that it was the DOJ who paid for the room Lesin was staying in when he was killed, almost as if his location was set up beforehand to make things easier…

  72. 72.

    LAO

    @Adam L Silverman: Well, I did and let me tell ya what happened. She deflated it, tore off the bandage and ripped out her stitches. Yesterday afternoon was, ah, eventful.

  73. 73.

    Zelma

    Has it occurred to anyone else that there is now no one in the White House who has any ties or loyalty to the Republican Party in a political sense? Trump has basically declared his independence from the GOP. Perchance the GOP should declare its independence from him.

  74. 74.

    SFAW

    @Immanentize:

    But there is no doubt in my mind that the guy isn’t just experimenting, he’s using.

    Wearing my Louis Renault, “I’m shocked, shocked!” face

  75. 75.

    Chris

    @Hoodie:

    Don’t give Priebus too much credit. Remember that in 2016, many Republicans were anti Trump because they felt they couldn’t trust him to support a proper True Conservative agenda. It’s entirely possible that Priebus means “he didn’t do enough to help us take health insurance from millions!”

  76. 76.

    Immanentize

    @Adam L Silverman:

    “I would implore you to say as much. There seems to be an effort here to cover up that fact for reasons I can’t get into.”

    I read this part of the article and thought the exact same thing. One of the crazy news paranoid people (a woman, can’t remember her name) said that Mueller’s people were considering the death penalty for treason. I thought that was just crazy shit, until I started to think about whether revealing agents names in Russia who then are assassinated would be enough to pull that legal trigger. Probably, but another guess, if such information exists, is that they would use the threat to flip someone….

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    @schrodingers_cat: I do not know him. Never met him. I have a close friend and colleague – a retired Marine colonel (actually I have several of these as I served on joint teams for several years with senior Army and Marine colonels) – who knows him well and thinks very highly of him as a Marine. I spoke to him a few minutes ago and he thinks this is not going to be a good assignment for Kelly.

  80. 80.

    Schlemazel

    Glad to see you mention that generals are political creatures. There has been a growing mythos that somehow generals are all results oriented and above all that other stuff. The handful of generals I have worked with (admitted small sample size) were all the biggest kiss up kick down political bunnies I have ever worked with

  82. 82.

    lamh36

    @Olivianuzzi
    Follow
    More
    It’s impossible to overstate the hatred towards Priebus both inside the White House and from Trump allies on the outside.

    Replying to @Olivianuzzi
    A brief collection of nicknames for Priebus used by White House officials and others: Rancid Penis, Reince Penis, The Penis, Little Penis.

    I hope Reince has some protection.

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: We have exactly the same number we had this morning: 4. All they’re doing with Kelly is move him around on the org chart. Whether having two retired four stars as cabinet secretaries, going to one as a cabinet secretary (Mattis), one as chief of staff of the White House, a retired three star as one of the National Security Council Chief of Staff, and a serving three star as the Assistant to the President-National Security Advisor is a good idea or not is debatable.

  87. 87.

    Jay S

    @debit:

    The thing that makes me laugh is picturing Reince telling himself, with every insult, with every slight and slur, with every verbal slap that it was all going to pay off in the end, that he would be recognized for his hard work and loyalty, that it would all pay off in the end.

    There’s always the book deal!

  88. 88.

    Elizabelle

    Talk about a way to knock the healthcare bill fiasco off the front page.

    But I am still doing our victory lap. It is sweet.

  90. 90.

    Immanentize

    @Adam L Silverman: But Kelly himself has demonstrated some very bad qualities — he doesn’t seem to at all understand the concept of civilian accountability or rule. He has made some, at best, borderline racist comments. He has also proven to be an unreconstructed autocrat who hates being questioned. He is one dangerous person, especially when mixed with Trump. He could bring order, or he could set the whole place on fire.

  91. 91.

    Elizabelle

    CNN: reports that Priebus’s 189 day term as chief of staff is shortest tenure in history.

    Uh, stay tuned.

  93. 93.

    lamh36

    @WestWingReport
    Sign of an amateur White House: there was some good economic news today (GDP), yet Priebus firing makes it – and chaos – the lead (1)

  94. 94.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I value the competence of our military, but as my career Air Force BIL said, the military tends to believe in military solutions. That many military guys in charge is not a good thing.

  96. 96.

    Immanentize

    @StringOnAStick: Lesin was in a room paid for by the DOJ because he had a meeting with the DOJ the next morning. Not really suspicious, although that info. could have been leaked….

  99. 99.

    SFAW

    @Adam L Silverman:

    his incuriousness,

    No disrespect to you, Adam — honest! — but I hate that fucking word/phrase, especially when applied to President* Lying Littledick. He’s not “incurious” — he’s an ignorant, stupid motherfucker who is PROUD of how stupid and ignorant he is. And, just because he doesn’t Tweet “I’m proud of being ignorant” doesn’t mean he doesn’t declare it to the world every fucking day.

    Sorry, Adam, you just happened to be the unlucky SOB who triggered my reaction. I still love you (“in a manly, patriotic way” as General J.C. Christian might say).

  100. 100.

    lamh36

    No offense Adam, but the rest of the military guys currently in the admin, have all been heaped with praise from both sides and folks on here, and yet…to a man…they have all been BIG disappointments and the defense of their every move is thin at best.

    So excuse me if I’m thinking Kelly will do no better…smh

  102. 102.

    Adam L Silverman

    @schrodingers_cat: DHS Secretary requires Senate confirmation. The issues now will how long will it take to find and nominate a replacement. How long it will take for that person to do all the background work so that the Senate can take up the nomination. And how long it takes the Senate, who’s calendar has almost no white space on it until the end of the fiscal year to take up the nomination and get the nominee confirmed.

  103. 103.

    Shakti

    My mother just blurted out that shit to me when I came in.

    Why is a random general the Press Secretary now? Is Kelly going to hold press briefings and be the secretary of Homeland Security or does Trump have to find a new Homeland Security head?
    He’ll probably demand Kelly wear his uniform to briefings and yell about the army to all the White House press stenographers.

    Ugh.

  104. 104.

    Mike in NC

    Got invited this week to attend the retirement ceremony of my old Navy roommate, who went on to be a three-star admiral. Suspect he was unhappy with a deranged CINC, and he certainly can’t be alone in that feeling.

  105. 105.

    Adam L Silverman

    @katep: This is what part of the country has always been. And it always makes a strong appearance after a period of progress and forward movement.

  110. 110.

    Adam L Silverman

    @StringOnAStick: I don’t think that was the case. I think they did the booking because it allowed them to mask his movements. And it put him in a place they knew about. I don’t think this was a FBI problem.

  112. 112.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: I’m sorry. I’m now no longer hurt. I’m sad that I set you and Molly up for that.

  116. 116.

    Chris

    @Schlemazel:

    Part of the general increadingly awed reverence with which the public treats the military as a whole.

    I’m not big on pining for the past, but I really do think we’ve gotten a lot less healthy on this since the days when jokingly irreverent stuff like Willie and Joe or MASH were accepted parts of how we portrayed the military.

  119. 119.

    different-church-lady

    @Elizabelle: MRS. TEASDALE: Why, I’ve never been so insulted in my life!

    GROUCHO: [LOOKS AT WATCH] Well, it’s early yet.

  120. 120.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Kelly is a douchebag suckup. He’s been a raging asshole at DHS, and is not going to take this job very well, either.

    I hope his tenure is as short and miserable as anyone who comes into fuckface’s orbit can be, with an aftermath marked by heavy drinking and sleeping pill use.

  122. 122.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: The wheels fell of a long time ago. The President recognized this fact, which allowed him and his backers to walk right through the destruction and hollowing out caused by Citizen’s United and take over.

  123. 123.

    Yutsano

    @Elizabelle:

    CNN: reports that Priebus’s 189 day term as chief of staff is shortest tenure in history.

    General Kelly: Hold my beer.

  125. 125.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman: Maybe he got drunk, then fell down several flights of stairs, in front of a car, down an elevator shaft, and onto a truncheon six or ninety times? Stuff happens…

  126. 126.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Schlemazel: I’ve fortunately worked for a number of very good ones, but they have to be political to get where they are and to survive. It doesn’t make them bad, it is simply the reality. But I’ve seen some bad general officers and they are a real problem.

  127. 127.

    Ruckus

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    That many military guys in charge is not a good thing.

    Which is why they were not put in charge over 200 yrs ago, why we have civilian controlled military. Their solutions are mostly to military problems as well, which often gives them the wrong answer when dealing with civilian issues. They really are two very different realms. Sometimes those realms cross paths or needs but not all that often. It’s why most upper level military folks would make bad presidents.

  128. 128.

    Hoodie

    The military guys Trump is surrounding himself with are likely exempt from Trump’s bullying because he only picks on people he thinks are vulnerable. The presence of the military guys also feeds his narcissism, e.g., all the stuff about “my generals.” They’re daddy figures and he’s probably intimidated by them. The guy is clinical.

  131. 131.

    lamh36

    Wow… per pool…Reince got off Air Force One…Reince and Trump aide walked off AF1 to Surburban…then Aide got out…and went to another vehicle…because since the news had been announced, so Reince wasn’t gonna be a part of the motorcade…so they aide et all went along in the motorcade…and Reince went his way all alone in his surburban…

    WOW!!!

  135. 135.

    Immanentize

    @Adam L Silverman: That’s it — thanks. I do not take her seriously. I am just trying to figure out if there would be any circumstance where good attorneys would think that was an appropriate punishment — and the only one I can imagine is outing our agents who were then killed.

  137. 137.

    Shakti

    @Immanentize: Whoops. That said, it’s still a ridiculous lateral transfer. Because nothing says “political point man for legislation and getting White House staff to stop ‘leaking’ ” like “I’m a general who heads DHS”. How the hell is he going to do both at the same time?
    And what does it say that Press Secretary and Chief of Staff feel virtually identical with Trump? Is this is his love of authoritarianism showing itself? How the fuck did he hire people for his businesses if he acted like he did when filling his Cabinet?

  138. 138.

    schrodingers_cat

    I have question for all you military experts, why did T choose these generals to serve in the admin? On whose recommendation? Some Republican or Vladdy?

  139. 139.

    Quinerly

    I’m in moderation for quoting Scaramucci’s nickname for Priebus. Forgot how skittish this blog is over the word, “P*nis.” Jeez….

  140. 140.

    Fair Economist

    @Zelma:

    Has it occurred to anyone else that there is now no one in the White House who has any ties or loyalty to the Republican Party in a political sense?

    I was going to say something about that. We’re down to Sessions, who seems to be on the rocks too, and maybe Sarah Sanders, who probably doesn’t have much authority.

  141. 141.

    Immanentize

    @Adam L Silverman: OK, I have one possible reason Kelly would take the position — Mattis, Tillerson and some other Secretaries told Trump to get his act together and to make sure he had “help” doing that, they insisted that Trump take Kelly as CoS or they would walk. Kelly would certainly play in that situation.

    ETA Clarity — AND, didn’t you tell us, Adam, that Mattis actually outranked Kelly and that might be a good thing?

  143. 143.

    lamh36

    Yess!!! I can watch Hardball tonight!

    @yashar
    On a major news night, @joyannreid is filling in for Chris Matthew on Hardball….such a crazy, crazy day.

    Unless, of course, Tweety decides the news was too big to not be on air.

  148. 148.

    Mike in NC

    @Morzer: Jared can handle being both Ambassador to South Korea and head of the Department of Homeland Security. As Donny Two Scoops himself might ask, “How hard could it be?”.

  151. 151.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    My first thought was, How is this going to affect what ICE is doing? They’ve already slipped the leash, so I don’t see having no boss at all as working out very well for the groups that are already being targeted. Yikes.

  152. 152.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Immanentize: Being a good Marine and/or Marine general doesn’t necessarily make one a good cabinet secretary no matter one’s expertise from working in Central and South America as the SOUTHCOM Geographic Combatant Commander.

  155. 155.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Elizabelle: For a chief of staff that is not chosen at the end of a presidential term. There were two shorter ones, but they both came at the end of their presidents’ terms.

  156. 156.

    Bobby Thomson

    Turns out the president can’t amend the Constitution with a speech or a tweet. Who knew?

  157. 157.

    Elizabelle

    @Fair Economist: Sarah Sanders?

    That’s Possum Queen to you. (Commenter Virginia’s name for that wretched press secretary. Real possums are smarter, more truthful, and just plain better mammals.)

  163. 163.

    Brachiator

    @Adam L Silverman:

    . This follows a busy day for the President. Earlier, in an address on cracking down on MS 13 and other gang violence to Suffolk County, NY Police he gave them permission to engage in police brutality.

    Today’s Google doodle commemorates the 2017 Silent March of African Americans down 57 Street in New York City to protest violence directed towards black people in America, including the then recent East St Louis riots.

    So much irony.

  164. 164.

    Chris

    @lamh36:

    Personally, my support for Mattis was based on the expectation that he’d be a hard line voice on Russia, which I want lots of right now. That and the fact that he was the only major Trump pick who wasn’t obviously corrupt or a fascist.

    I never expected more and certainly don’t deny his shortcomings.

  167. 167.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @raven:

    Jesus – that’s the tech dive from hell. Exotic gas mixes, current, murk, staged bottles, probably a dozen long deco stops. I’m guessing at least a full day of diving.

  168. 168.

    trollhattan

    @Droppy:
    I hear you. In my lighter moments I let myself believe these are the waning hours of a long-needed exorcism, and the patient–our nation–is going through the convulsions that proceed the demon being released. We’re under the control of dead-enders, yuge, unclassy dead-enders. They always eventually hit that dead end.

    I had another analogy about my dog and her tapeworm, but yuk.

    “Devil: GET OUT!”

  169. 169.

    Mike in NC

    @Mike in DC: Trump is fully committed to getting rid of both Sessions and Mueller in the next several weeks. He really does think he’s presiding over a Reality TV show.

  171. 171.

    Mnemosyne

    @LAO:

    Our kitty Keaton did that at the vet while he was getting IV fluids. Wait, let me correct that — he did it TWICE! They eventually had to tie the collar on him to stop him from pulling the IV out.

  172. 172.

    debbie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Yeah, but can he stand up to Moushy?

    Has anyone seen full shot of the guy? Is he tall, average, what? I haven’t seen a full length shot, but he comes across as a little guy with a Napoleonic complex.

  173. 173.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: No offense taken. I met Secretary Mattis once for a few minutes and provided support to CENTCOM when he was the Commander. As I did when GEN Austin replaced him. LTG McMaster has provided references for me and I think highly of him based on what he’s done. I do not know Secretary Kelly, but had only heard good things about him. I think Secretary Mattis has done okay. I think LTG McMaster is ultimately set up for failure – he should have retired and then taken the position he is in as it would have given him more room to maneuver (I was not consulted, so my advice is worth nothing). He is caught between his duty as a serving general officer and the lack of independence that causes to prevent him from doing what he needs to do. I think Secretary Kelly is being set up for failure in taking the chief of staff position.

  174. 174.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Mike in NC:
    I believe the Senate Judiciary Committee was working on legislation to make it harder for Mueller to be fired.

    I can only hope that those fired by Trump decide to turn state’s evidence against him.

  176. 176.

    GregB

    Gen. Kelly was yukking it up with Circus Peanut Ceasar about using a sword on the media.

    Chortle…..What a gas.

  177. 177.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Shakti: He’s not press secretary. He’s chief of staff. But his problem is going to be whether the Director of Communications, Scaramucci, and every other director, senior advisor, whatever report to him. If they don’t, then he’s chief of staff in name only.

  179. 179.

    sherparick

    Reference the speech, the set-up was one of the classic “they say” (who the hell are “they”) that Trump likes to set up as the authority for his lies and BS. So to get the hate and police brutality justification, he goes on a rif about human trafficking at the 27:41 mark, saying it is is the worse its has been in a “thousand years.” Apparently, the North and South Atlantic African Slave trade is one of those little obnoxious bit of “fake news” that he would like to pretend did not happen.

  180. 180.

    raven

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: They covered a lot of detail in the documentary. The dude said he wasn’t really focused on breaking the record (I assume it has since been broken) more on putting the plaque on the ship. I rented it on Amazon for a couple of bucks so it was worth it. His team was interesting, especially the Korean dude.

  181. 181.

    sukabi

    @Yarrow: from the sounds of his quest to get close to Drumpf, he may have offered up his wife as a “pot sweetener”.

  183. 183.

    raven

    @tybee: We’re headed to Edisto in a couple of weeks. I know it’s not th greatest time for fishin but, hey, that’s what I got!

  185. 185.

    J.

    Now playing at the White House, “Throw Reince Priebus from the Train“!

    Also, anyone else think Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” should be the theme song of this White House, or that the late-night talk shows should play it in the background whenever Trump fires someone, or someone resigns?

  189. 189.

    Mike in DC

    @Mike in NC:
    Well, he could fire Sessions and Mueller, veto the sanctions bill while unilaterally lifting sanctions, and pardon everyone including himself, then openly dare Congress to lift a finger against him. They would, eventually, but first Paul Ryan would give the bravest “troubled AND concerned” noncommittal statement he’s ever given.

  191. 191.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: No. As you know as well, if not better than I, one can excel as a leader – formal or informal – in one assignment and be terrible in another.

  196. 196.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: This is going to be the issue. If Scaramucci, Bannon, Miller, Hicks, everyone else at the White House does not report to Kelly then he is chief of staff in name only.

  200. 200.

    different-church-lady

    @J.:

    Now playing at the White House, “Throw Reince Priebus from the Train Plane“!

  203. 203.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:

    one can excel as a leader – formal or informal – in one assignment and be terrible in another.

    And that’s without leaving their area of expertise, let alone in entirely different areas, say military and political. Or business and political.

  205. 205.

    different-church-lady

    @Quinerly:

    MSNBC is telling me that Scaramucci has written “self help books.”

    That’s got to be a typo. They must mean “Can’t help himself books”

  206. 206.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The way your link embedded made it look like this:

    Anthony Scaramucci’s wife files for divorce
    The White House’s potty-mouthed new communications director has been dumped by his beautiful blond wife because of his “naked

    What a relief that the next word was “ambition.”

  208. 208.

    Brachiator

    @Adam L Silverman:

    .. Yesterday was the anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid passing.

    Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. Maybe some insane response from Trump to North Korea.

  210. 210.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Quinerly:

    MSNBC is telling me that Scaramucci has written “self help books.”

    That must be the origins of his extensive knowledge of auto-fellatio.

  211. 211.

    Quinerly

    @Major Major Major Major: I took a peek on Amazon..looks like 3 or 4 books on entrepreneurs and hedge funds. Not really what I would categorize as “self help.” The pretty lady pundit mislead me.

  215. 215.

    lamh36

    On MSNBC…Howard Fineman made a good point, with the appt of Kelly, Cheeto is doubling down on “us vs the other”…i.e. White Nationalism!

    And that should scare us all…

  216. 216.

    Mike in NC

    Kelly needs to have his tailor sew bullseyes to the back of his suit jackets.

  220. 220.

    schrodingers_cat

    As he loses on all other fronts he is going to double down on the immigration crackdown, that’s why Kelly is in the WH. Cue the entirely appropriate Nazi analogies

  224. 224.

    lamh36

    On MSNBC…Howard Fineman made a good point, with the appt of Kelly, Cheeto is doubling up on “us vs the other”..

    To my mind that means embracing white nationalism vs those foreigners/immigrants/Chicagoans/anyone NOT white

    And that should scare us all…

  228. 228.

    Miss Bianca

    @Droppy: and for this middle-aged white person, to know that for every dipshit out there who voted for Orangemandias, there’s apparenty a corresponding dipshit who keeps crwoing that it’s all the Dems’ fault for running such a flawed candidate. Jesus wept.

    And yet, strangely…I’m probably feeling *more* patriotic than I ever have before. Maybe I’ve finally shaken off my lefty knee-jerk reflexive anti-American malaise and really committed myself to fighting for the soul of this country. I dunno.

    ETA: completely o/t, but I’m watching a mousie run around my office and really missing the office kitties right now.

  229. 229.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @sukabi:

    I predict that before Thanksgiving there will be a strongly-sourced rumor of an ongoing affair between Scaramucci and Ivanka. You read it here first.

  231. 231.

    Elizabelle

    Now granted, we are speaking of radical Republicans, and the worst president in history (contender for top 3, closing in and leading in the “cognitive difficulties” category) but…

    if you loved your spouse, would you let him/her take a high level job in the Trump administration?

    Because there is no loyalty, and Trump will shit midas everyone he encounters.

  233. 233.

    Brachiator

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    .I predict that before Thanksgiving there will be a strongly-sourced rumor of an ongoing affair between Scaramucci and Ivanka. You read it here first.

    And their love child shall be named Jon Snow.

    ETA. Gratuitous Game of Thrones reference…

  234. 234.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    We’re only a couple more firings away from an “In Memoriam” slow action video set to Sarah McLachlan…

  237. 237.

    lamh36

    Welp…

    @tarapalmeri
    Tara Palmeri Retweeted Tara Palmeri
    WH Official: Anthony Scaramucci still reports directly to POTUS, not new COS Kelly

  241. 241.

    Immanentize

    @lamh36: Oh, that will work out nicely!

    So Scaramucci does not actually start work until August 15. And he can only do that if the sale of his company to China is approved. I predict he will serve zero days as a government official.

  243. 243.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Immanentize:

    I heard it was the Kush and the Mooch that were dancing the fandango with two backs.

    Anyhow, you never heard of a trio?

  245. 245.

    debbie

    @Miss Bianca:

    I know! I stopped at the store after work to pick up some bread and salad stuff and when I got back in the car, they were announcing Preibus’s dismissal.

  249. 249.

    sigaba

    @MisterForkbeard:

    This… seems like a really weird job for Kelly. “Chief of Staff” isn’t something that usually goes to career military.

    Alexander Haig

  251. 251.

    lamh36

    Wow…Prez wasn’t upset w/the Mooch, he was more upset with Reince for not fighting back…smh

  254. 254.

    TenguPhule

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    I guess by the end of all the Trump administration managerial positons will be filled by generals doing it out of sense of duty to the country (and they will be viewed as untanted by the Russians and enough self control to avoid public dramas)

    Or military dictatorship run by General RIppers.

  255. 255.

    TenguPhule

    @Zelma:

    Trump has basically declared his independence from the GOP.

    I recall a chap named Adolf did something similar to his original brownshirts once they started to become a liability.

  256. 256.

    Kathleen

    @MisterForkbeard: Well, Fuckles Todd said on NBC Nightly News that this could be a turning point for good and Michael Kelly was such a smart appointment and smart man and this could really work if Trump lets him do his job.

    Paging Villago Delanda Est, please pick up the courtesy phone at the customer service counter.

  259. 259.

    sukabi

    @SiubhanDuinne: eeewwwww. As revolting as jared is “the mooch” is that ^10.

    Still think he tried to pimp his wife for the job. I hear that’s popular with cokeheads.

  260. 260.

    lamh36

    @Quinerly: According to the reporters, Jared & Ivana want Bannon gone too.

    But unlike Reince and the rest who have tried to burn no bridges…Bannon. I’m betting Bannon will BURN THE PLACE DOWN upon his exit!

  262. 262.

    TenguPhule

    @Bonnie:

    You can’t run a country by tweets sent by a twit.

    Oh yes you can.

    But only in one direction.

    Down.

  263. 263.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @katep:

    I spend a lot of time trying to figure if this is who the country has always been and I’ve just been blind?

    The answer to that, which I learned during the Obama presidency, was “Ask any black person.”

    @lamh36:

    Prez wasn’t upset w/the Mooch

    Prez is not going to be upset with Mooch. Mooch flatters him to an extent normal people don’t have the brazen chutzpah to consider. Mooch described Bannon and Priebus as betrayers to Trump when he insulted them. To Trump, the entire world is about him and no flattery is too absurd or overdone. Mooch understands this. Mooch is going to be effectively president pretty damn soon.

  265. 265.

    TenguPhule

    @Chris:

    That and the fact that he was the only major Trump pick who wasn’t obviously corrupt or a fascist.

    That we know of so far.

    /Its sad that this is becoming not a matter of if, but when

  266. 266.

    Quinerly

    @lamh36:
    I had read about Javanka wanting him gone. I’m pretty sure he won’t go quietly. So do we think he’s next?

  267. 267.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Mooch flatters him to an extent normal people don’t have the brazen chutzpah to consider.

    Scaradouche wants this new job [when it starts] really really badly. Or he wants the sale of his Skybridge fund to Venezuelan / Chinese money-launderers to get regulatory approval really really badly.

  269. 269.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Quinerly:
    I think so. The arrival of the grand master of all suck-ups is dropping a bomb on the balance of power in the administration. My prediction, based on traditional politics in the court of weak kings, is that Bannon will be next, and then Mooch will start laying the ground to oust Javanka. His most powerful rival for the Tsar’s love will have to go, but first needs to be isolated as Mooch builds up his status as ‘guy who spots traitors.’

    A lot of it, even most of it, will be quiet internal conversations with Trump himself. Given the family – and yes, this is gross – I would expect stuff like asides of “Man, can you believe a wimp like that is bangin’ Ivanka?”

    EDIT – And as gross as that hypothetical example really, really was, imagine how Trump would receive it. Run it through Trump’s many issues.

  270. 270.

    TenguPhule

    @hueyplong:

    Is Putin going to allow this Mooch guy to be the puppet master?

    Mooch thinks he’s the smartest person in the room.

    If Putin can’t exploit that then I expect dogs and cats will formally declare a lasting peace between their species.

  271. 271.

    lamh36

    The fact that Kelly was okay with leaving DHS so abruptly and with no real acting leadership…makes me think even less of him than I would just cause Trump chose him.

    If immigration and terrorism is SOOOOO important to you…why would you be ok with leaving the dept central to enforcing laws and policies pertaining to those issue, LEADERLESS…for at least until the Fall…

  274. 274.

    Barbara

    @Kathleen: Todd would say that. In fact, I think he would say that whenever anybody leaves and somebody new comes on board.

  275. 275.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Quinerly:

    Scaramucci has written “self help books.”

    1. Appoint yourself as CEO. It’s denigrated as “pilfering” if you are merely an employee.

  276. 276.

    Barbara

    @Bonnie: I think we will increasingly the same kind of reaction we saw with the announcement about transgendered military personnel — a statement that the agency will await specific instruction from the president. There is a decent chance that he might even forget all about it.

  280. 280.

    Dmbeaster

    So did Priebus find out on the radio while driving out of town for a summer weekend to a Trump property (which wont refund)?

  281. 281.

    TenguPhule

    Oh this doesn’t sound sinister at all.

    You’re saving American lives every day, and we have your backs — believe me — we have your backs 100 percent. Not like the old days. Not like the old days. (Applause.)

    You know, when you wanted to take over and you used military equipment — and they were saying you couldn’t do it — you know what I said? That was my first day: You can do it. (Laughter.) In fact, that stuff is disappearing so fast we have none left. (Laughter.) You guys know — you really knew how to get that. But that’s my honor.

    how tough are these guys, MS-13? He said, they’re nothing compared to my guys. Nothing. And that’s what you need. Sometimes that’s what you need, right?

    For many years, they exploited America’s weak borders and lax immigration enforcement to bring drugs and violence to cities and towns all across America. They’re there right now because of weak political leadership, weak leadership, weak policing, and in many cases because the police weren’t allowed to do their job. I’ve met police that are great police that aren’t allowed to do their job because they have a pathetic mayor or a mayor doesn’t know what’s going on. (Applause.)

    we’re liberating our American towns. Can you believe that I’m saying that? I’m talking about liberating our towns. This is like I’d see in a movie: They’re liberating the town, like in the old Wild West, right? We’re liberating our towns. I never thought I’d be standing up here talking about liberating the towns on Long Island where I grew up, but that’s what you’re doing.

    And I can tell you, I saw some photos where Tom’s guys — rough guys. They’re rough. I don’t want to be — say it because they’ll say that’s not politically correct. You’re not allowed to have rough people doing this kind of work.

    Your Second Amendment is safe. I feel very good about that. It wasn’t looking so good for the Second Amendment, was it, huh? If Trump doesn’t win, your Second Amendment is gone. Your Second Amendment would be gone.

    But I have a simple message today for every gang member and criminal alien that are threatening so violently our people: We will find you, we will arrest you, we will jail you, and we will deport you.

    It’s essential that Congress fund another 10,000 ICE officers — and we’re asking for that — so that we can eliminate MS-13 and root out the criminal cartels from our country.

    Now, we’re getting them out anyway, but we’d like to get them out a lot faster. And when you see these towns and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon — you just see them thrown in, rough — I said, please don’t be too nice. (Laughter.) Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over? Like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody — don’t hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, okay? (Laughter and applause.)

    And I have to tell you, you know, the laws are so horrendously stacked against us, because for years and years they’ve been made to protect the criminal. Totally made to protect the criminal, not the officers. If you do something wrong, you’re in more jeopardy than they are. These laws are stacked against you. We’re changing those laws. But in the meantime, we need judges for the simplest thing — things that you should be able to do without a judge. But we have to have those judges quickly. In the meantime, we’re trying to change the laws.

    The previous administration enacted an open-door policy to illegal migrants from Central America. “Welcome in. Come in, please, please.”

    As a result, MS-13 surged into the country and scoured, and just absolutely destroyed, so much in front of it. New arrivals came in and they were all made recruits of each other, and they fought with each other, and then they fought outside of each other. And it got worse and worse, and we’ve turned that back.

    In the three years before I took office, more than 150,000 unaccompanied alien minors arrived at the border and were released all throughout our country into United States’ communities — at a tremendous monetary cost to local taxpayers and also a great cost to life and safety.

    I’m sure these all sounded better in the original German.

  285. 285.

    TenguPhule

    @schrodingers_cat:

    He is of German ancestry, isn’t he?

    Yes, but the Germans disowned his ancestor for failing to serve his country.

    ETA: You’re right to be worried. Especially that last bit of his speech where he blames CHILDREN for “illegals” crimes.

  286. 286.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    Politically correct! Blue Lives Matter!11111!

    /I’m more concerned about the ones that cheered

  289. 289.

    sm*t cl*de

    @TenguPhule:

    I’m sure these all sounded better in the original German.

    Trumpf has never forgiven the Central Park 5 for being innocent.

  290. 290.

    Susan K of the tech support

    @lamh36:

    the rest of the military guys currently in the admin, have all been heaped with praise from both sides and folks on here, and yet…to a man…they have all been BIG disappointments and the defense of their every move is thin at best.

    How much of “commendable” is a statement about the environment of the military itself? Tucked within a structure with clear procedures and expectations, a sterling character reputation is one thnig. Take the general out of that environment, surround him with gaslighters and millionaires and mobsters, and they just aren’t the exemplary person they were before. If anything, they’re worse at dealing with dysfunction because, on the whole, they’ve been immersed in a comparatively functional environment all the while. (I remember seeing someone on twitter mention that the people who really knew what to do in situations like this are people who’ve had to put up with tons of abuse and dysfunction—if you can find out how to protect yourself and even excel with all that bullcrap, then that makes you a high achiever indeed.

  294. 294.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Come on, now. This wouldn’t be a good assignment for ANYONE!~!

    Marine General with political experience not withstanding, no one is prepared and able to manage this kind of cluster-Fuq/—I mean NO one!!!

    I wish him the best of luck, and advise him to get everything in writing, on paper, with ink.

    And don’t cross any dark streets without looking both ways.

    And don’t eat out much.

  303. 303.

    But her emails!!!

    @J R in WV:

    I don’t wish Kelly any luck. He may have been a good Marine, but his performance as Secretary of Homeland Security confirmed for me that even if he’s competent he’s almost as big an anti-american shithead as the rest of the Trump crew. He took the job and he’s been enabling the departments under him to shit on foreigners, undocumented immigrants and Americans with a skin tone darker than copier paper.

  306. 306.

    No One You Know

    @MisterForkbeard: I confess to profound unease about a military guy being chief of staff, given who and what this POTUS is. “Advising?” What advising, when orders are so easy?

  308. 308.

    Ithink

    @raven:

    Wait, what happened to Cornerstone?@schrodingers_cat:

    German by his father & Scottish by his mother; I have no friends of his similar ancestral extraction that are remotely proud or prideful of the fact now that he’s president.

  309. 309.

    Sam

    It won’t be Kelly’s organizational skills that will be tested, it will be his honor.

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