Month: March 2018

Hope Hicks resigned yesterday.

The young lady was the White House Communications Director, and Donald Trump’s longest serving political aide, having been with him since the beginning of the Presidential campaign. Her resignation came just a couple of days after she testified before the House Intelligence Committee, where she admitted that she’d had to tell a few “white lies” on behalf of her boss, the President.

Gee, that’s surprising.

She will soon be under “Russia-gate” Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s microscope. Good luck with that, Hope.

Hicks was the fourth White House Communications Director to either resign or be fired since Donald Trump became President about 14 months ago.

It must be a tough gig working for the Liar-in-Chief. (One fact-checking news site has reported that the Prez averages 5.9 public falsehoods per day, which is quite high, even among politicians. If he ever needs another job, he could be a car salesman.)

News agencies, which track such things, report that key staff turnover in the Trump Administration is easily the highest on record.

Some appointees have been fired, some were let go after scandals emerged, and others (like Hope Hicks) have resigned to “pursue other opportunities”. In the latter category, one wonders if their departure was due to the almost constant need to lie on behalf of the Boss. Probably, at some point, you can’t stand yourself.

Then, there might be the damage their association with his Administration would do to their professional reputation. (“I served for a year as Special Counsel to President Trump”…”Thank you, Sir, for interviewing, but that vacancy was filled earlier today. Have a nice day.”…pause, “Who’s next?”)

Quite a few individuals, whom the President nominated for important Administration roles, did not survive security vetting, some dropped from consideration when conflicts of interest were discovered, and others were flat-out rejected by the Senate as being not qualified.

The list of casualties in the first 14 months is lengthy, including:

James Comey, Director, F.B.I

Rachel Brand, Assoc. Attorney General (resigned)

Steve Bannon, Chief Political Strategist

Philip Bilden, nominee for Secretary of the Navy (withdrew, conflict of          interest)

Richard Cordray, Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

James Donovan, nominated for Deputy Secretary of the Navy (withdrew, conflict of interest)

Michael Dubke, Director, White House Communications (resigned)

Michael Flynn, National Security Agency Advisor (resigned, has plead guilty to Special Counsel Mueller)

Mark Green, nominee for Secretary of the Army (withdrew, conflict of interest)

Gerrit Lansing, White House Digital Officer (resigned, failed to pass FBI background check)

Jason Miller, nominated as White House Communications Director (withdrew)

Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services (resigned when his use of costly private charter planes created a scandal)

Reince Priebus, White House Chief of Staff (fired)

Todd Ricketts, nominee for Deputy Secretary of Commerce (withdrew, conflict of interest)

Anthony Scaramucci, White House Communications Director (fired after 10 days after profanity-laced comments to New Yorker Magazine)

Walter Shaub, head of U.S. Office on Government Ethics (resigned after clashing with President Trump on ethics)

Michael Short, Senior White House Assistant Press Secretary (resigned)

Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary (resigned)

Robin Townley, aide to NSA Advisor Michael Flynn (rejected due to failure to obtain security clearance)

Vincent Viola, nominated to be Secretary of the Army (withdrew, conflict of interest)

Katie Walsh, Deputy White House Chief of Staff (resigned)

Caroline Wiles, White House Director of Scheduling (resigned after failing a background check)

Sally Yates, Acting Attorney General

Andrew McCabe, Deputy Director F.B.I. (resigned after Trump said publicly that he wanted him out)

Preet Bharra, New York Federal Prosecutor (fired by Trump for investigation of Wall Street companies and Trump investments)

Patrick Kennedy, Undersecretary for Management, State Department (resigned)

Boris Epshteyn, head of White House TV surrogate operations (resigned)

Angella Reid, White House Chief Usher

John Thompson, Director of the Census (resigned)

Chuck Rosenberg, acting Director of the Drug Enforcement Agency (resigned)

Omarosa Manigault Newman, White House Director of Communications for Office of Public Liaison (resigned)

Rob Porter, White House Staff Secretary (resigned after allegations of spousal abuse by two former wives was made public)

Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to the President

Hope Hicks, White House Communications Director (resigned)

President Trump’s White House turnover rate was 34 percent in his first year.

That’s three times as high as President Obama’s in the same period, and twice as high as President Ronald Reagan’s, which until now was the modern record-holder. Of the 12 positions deemed most central to the President, only five are still filled by the same person as when Mr. Trump took office.

Another key appointee, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who is supposedly a roving Special Ambassador tasked with bringing peace to the Middle East, etc., has been unable to clear security checks. He lost his interim Top Secret rating this past week (why did he have one?) because of his shady dealings and the fact that foreign governments were targeting him. Kushner could be “pursuing other opportunities” in the near future.

Washington D.C. rumor mill has it that the next big-shot heads on the chopping block (that the President seems anxious to fire) are Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. And, NSA Advisor H.R. McMaster is also looking over his shoulder, as he recently contradicted The Boss about Russian involvement in the 2016 elections.

Of course, the President has been, for many months, trying to figure out a way to stop the “Russia-gate” investigation. He will only be able to do so if he fires (a) fires Jeff Sessions or (b) Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and replaces either with a stooge, who will then fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Another option would be to fire White House Chief of Staff Kelly, appoint Jeff Sessions to that position, appoint a political hack like Trey Gowdy or David Nunes to be Attorney General, and then have them fire Rod Rosenstein, Robert Mueller, anyone who looks cross-eyed at the President, and any Democrat who works in the F.B.I.

Option three would be to appoint Wayne LaPierre, the Executive Director of the NRA, to replace the Attorney General. He could then have his goons clean house and replace everyone in the F.B.I. with patriotic ‘Mericans.

Option four is to replace all top government officials with members of the Trump family. He is said to be considering that. Maybe he can find another role for Jared.

Unemployment is at historic lows, except in the White House.

Remember this:

The best? He didn’t hire them, then hand-selected a bunch of lobbyists and kooks, most of them have been fired or quit, and now it’s getting to the point that Donald Trump will accept just about anyone…he’s actually reached the BOTTOM OF THE BARREL.

According to the President, everything is fine in the White House; his staff just needed a little fine-tuning.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE (3/13/18): Yesterday, President Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. This is the guy who used to run Exxon-Mobil, the sixth largest company in the United States. He was the highest level Trump appointment to a Cabinet position…third in line to the Presidency.

President Trump regularly disagreed with his Secretary of State; it happened so often that it seemed that they never talked together…about foreign policy. Not that it’s so important.

A number of months ago, Tillerson was quoted as saying that Trump “is a fucking moron”.

Today, Trump also fired Steven Goldstein, Tillerson’s public affairs spokesman, for having the audacity to report that Tillerson found out about his firing through one of the President’s “tweets”.

This pretty much confirms Mr. Tillerson’s previous estimation of Donald Trump.

Hopefully, this good man can get his job back with Exxon-Mobil.

The President has now nominated CIA Director/former Kansas congressman/Trump bootlicker Mike Pompeo for the Secretary of State position. Just what we need: a defense “hawk” running our diplomatic corps. Pompeo will do his best to beat plowshares into swords.

Pompeo’s upward move will create a vacancy in the CIA  Director slot. Word has it that Mr. Trump asked O.J Simpson if he would consider being appointed, but the Juice declined, fearing the impact it would have on his reputation.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE UPDATE: Later in the day, President Trump fired his longtime aide, John McEntee, who is under investigation by the Secret Service for financial wrongdoing.

Not Fake News: The President then turned around and appointed McEntee to his 2020 re-election campaign committee.  (I’m not making this stuff up, folks!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve sometimes said that, if I had to live my live over, I’d become a veterinarian: I love animals.

Today, when Charlie and I were about to take the dogs on their morning constitutional, we spotted a baby rabbit on our doorstep. It looked like a mouse, it was so small. We’ve been in Bear Creek for thirty years and I’ve never seen one so small. I picked it up and it fit comfortably in the palm of my hand.

We didn’t know what to do, as it seemed that the little thing was either lost from it’s Mommy, or…ugh!…maybe its mother was taken by a coyote last night. Anyway, the poor little animal was cold and all alone, and we didn’t know what to do.

We ended up taking it to our vet, and got the opinion that it has just been weaned and probably wandered away from the nesting location to start its own life. So, they recommended that we return “Roger” to the area where we found him and let him take his chances.

We put him down in a warm spot under a small blanket near some food that a neighbor had put out and left him there.

An hour later…Roger had waddled off.

Our best wishes go out to the lad. Bear Creek is thick with owls, ravens, hawks, coyotes, bobcats, etc., looking for snacks.  He’d better keep his head down.

Back at home, I began another day of tending to our pack of dogs.

It’s become quite a chore lately. Jay Jay is still on a strict regimen of food supplements and eye drops due to his recent double cataract operation. I have to give the set of five eye drops twice a day, with a five-minute break between drops. So, that’s two 25-minute treatments per day.

Then, there’s Booger. Somehow, she found a way to scratch her right eye on something last weekend. We think that Baby might have pawed her and scratched the cornea. Anyway, Booger’s right eye looks horrible, and the vet has her on pain killers (several times per day), and two types of eye drops (four times per day). Again, there must be a 5-minute break between treatments. Ugh!

And, of course, when we had Booger down to the vet, they ran her annual blood and fecal tests, and, wouldn’t you know it, she’s come down with Giardia. That’s the nasty intestinal parasite which plagued poor Baby in her first six months or so.

Giardia is communicable among dogs in a home, because they share the same water bowl. So, the vet says that all three of the dogs must go on the anti-parasite pills, which I must give them twice a day with their meals.

Holy shit! It’s a good thing I’m retired…I’m spending a good part of my day nursing these mutts!

Does anyone need a dog?

Back in the day, when I was a kid, we had a German Shepherd named “Tina”. I can remember when we took her to get spayed, and one time when she got attacked, got a paw ripped, and had to get sewn up. But, in the dozen years that we had her, those are probably the only times that we took her to the vet. She was a dog, for God’s sake.

Nowadays, we see the vet more than we see our own doctor. Those are some pampered pets, I tell ya’. No one can accuse us of animal cruelty.

Our vet bill this year will be $10K.

Like I say, I should have become a vet.