You beat me to it again!Vrede too wrote: ↑Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:49 pmVP Q-tip may be trying to get dropped from the ticket without looking like a quitter:GoCubsGo wrote: ↑Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:42 pmPosting preemptively cause the clock is now ticking.
HHS Sec. Azar says 'window is closing' to curb coronavirus spike
In contrast to Trump, Pence encourages wearing masks to prevent coronavirus spread
Even the rattiest rats are abandoning ship.Another watchdog at US State Department abruptly gone
The internal watchdog looking into accusations about arms deals against US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo abruptly quit Wednesday, just months after his predecessor was fired.
Stephen Akard --the State Department's acting inspector general -- is a longtime aide to Vice President Mike Pence and his installation in May had widely been seen as a way to keep a friendly figure in the role....
Akard's departure comes just as his office finalizes a report on Pompeo's controversial decision to bypass Congress to sell $8.1 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies.
President Donald Trump fired Akard's predecessor, Steve Linick, in May on Pompeo's advice as he probed the affair.
Linick was also looking into allegations that Pompeo abused his power by asking a State Department employee to run personal errands such as walking his dog and going to the dry cleaner.
Pompeo has said that he did not approve of Linick's work and that Trump had authority to remove him regardless of the reason.
A former Pompeo aide last week told lawmakers investigating Linick's firing that State Department employees had voiced concern about the arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Lawmakers had warned that the weapons sale would lead to more suffering in Yemen, where a Saudi-led air campaign has hit schools, hospitals and other civilian sites as the kingdom tries to dislodge Huthi rebels.
Pompeo bypassed Congress by declaring an emergency involving Iran, which backs the Huthis....
Good riddance.Trump's top Iran envoy quits as US bids to extend Tehran embargo
The Trump administration’s lead diplomat on Iran, Brian Hook, has announced his resignation days before the US attempts a high-stakes gambit against Tehran at the United Nations.
Ugh.He will be replaced by Elliott Abrams, who will combine the Iran special representative job with his current role as special envoy for Venezuela. Abrams is a hawk on both countries – and has combined Iranian and Latin American issues before, when he was a significant figure in the Iran-Contra affair under the Reagan administration....
US diplomat convicted over Iran-Contra appointed special envoy for Venezuela
Elliott Abrams, who was linked to failed coup against Chávez, to join Pompeo to urge security council to recognize Guaidó as head
... Abrams is widely remembered in Central America, but particularly from his time in the Reagan administration, when he tried to whitewash a massacre of a thousand men, women and children by US-funded death squads in El Salvador, when he was assistant secretary of state for human rights.
He shrugged off the reports as communist propaganda, and insisted: “The administration’s record in El Salvador is one of fabulous achievement.”
Abrams also helped organise the covert financing of Contra rebels in Nicaragua behind the back of Congress, which had cut off funding. He then lied to Congress about his role, twice. He pleaded guilty to both counts in 1991 but was pardoned by George HW Bush.
More than a decade later, working as special Middle East adviser to former president George W Bush, Abrams was an enthusiastic advocate of the Iraq invasion. He was in the White House at the time of the abortive coup in 2002 against Hugo Chávez. The Observer reported that Abrams gave the green light to the putsch, another an inspector general enquiry found no “wrongdoing” by US officials.
That was not enough to erase his reputation as the assistant secretary of dirty wars. The message sent by his return to the front rank of US diplomacy will not be missed in Caracas....
He has competition.neoplacebo wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 3:59 pmIf possible, Elliot will fuck things up in a manner not previously seen, trump will declare victory, and the gullible will gush in awe.
PINO Administration* - where corruption and incompetence repeatedly intersect.Congressional watchdog finds acting DHS chief Wolf, senior aide not legally qualified
The top two officials at the Department of Homeland Security, acting Secretary Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, the senior official performing the duties of deputy secretary, are not legally qualified to hold those positions, a government watchdog concluded Friday.
The Government Accountability Office said Wolf and Cuccinelli assumed those jobs under an order of succession that was issued by an acting secretary who himself had no authority to hold his job. That former acting head was Kevin McAleenan, who took over after the last Homeland secretary to be confirmed by the Senate, Kirstjen Nielsen, resigned.
GAO's conclusion has no force of law, but the agency said it is referring its conclusion to the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general. Friday's findings could, however, be cited in lawsuits challenging DHS policies, including stricter immigration controls....
Lawyers for protesters in Portland said it would also aid their lawsuit against the deployment of DHS agents in response to violence at the city's federal courthouse....
RCP says:... The decision is almost certainly influenced by the awkward position in which Pendley’s nomination put Republican Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Steve Daines (Mont.) ― two close Trump allies facing tough reelection bids. Both earned rare points with the conservation community with the passage of a major public lands package that they helped champion through Congress, and a vote to confirm Pendley would have undercut if not entirely spoiled that victory.
... But the withdrawal will change little in the near term. Pendley will continue to lead the bureau as deputy director for programs and policy, according to a spokesman for the Interior Department, the bureau’s parent agency....
The article has lots of detail about how awful Pendley is. 
Another observation; it takes some people longer than others to realize and take a stand for principles. I posit that Kellyanne took too long....way too long. But then there are those, like trump and pp, who will NEVER realize or stand for principles, but instead double down on unprincipled and dishonest life.O Really wrote: ↑Mon Aug 24, 2020 12:12 amThree observations:
If she really is leaving because she puts her kid's/family's welfare over Trump, then she's due more praise than scorn;
She (and maybe her family) will be yet one more who thought they could get close to Trump and not end up with a ruined life;
The fact that she signed up with Trump, did what she did for as long as she did is conclusive proof that she's a worthless lying dirtbag of a person with no redeeming qualities and probably the kid would be better off without her.
The 26 pages! of this thread suggest otherwise.Trump Has A Record Of 'Hiring Excellent People,' Adviser Says After Bannon Arrest
President Donald Trump has a track record of “hiring excellent people,” a senior adviser said Sunday in response to the arrest of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon ― the seventh arrest of a member of Trump’s 2016 campaign team on federal charges.
“I think you take a look at the great people President Trump has surrounded himself with, some of the brilliant women and some of the brilliant leaders,” Jason Miller said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He added: “I would say that overall the president has had a very good track record of hiring excellent people.”
List of PINO team criminality as of Dec 04, 2019, with subsequent updates:When confronted with the prior indictments or convictions of several other Trump staffers ― specifically Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen, Roger Stone ― Miller said each had “made some serious mistakes in their life that had nothing to do with President Trump.”
Opps.Miller went on to name some of Trump’s current senior staff, including Stephen Miller and Kellyanne Conway, as individuals he’s “proud to call” his teammates.
"excellent people"... Trump named Miller White House communications director, but he withdrew from the job after reports of an extramarital affair with a fellow campaign official, which resulted in a legal battle over attorney fees and child support. Miller rejoined the Trump campaign in June as a senior adviser, Politico reported.
Todd also asked Miller about audio released Saturday of Trump’s older sister, former federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry, in which she disparaged her brother.
“He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean, my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people — not do this,” Barry told her niece, Mary Trump, in recorded audio obtained by The Washington Post. “His goddamned tweet(s) and lying, oh, my God. I’m talking too freely, but you know, the change of stories, the lack of preparation, the lying — holy shit.”
Miller brushed off Barry’s comments, chalking them up to “sibling rivalries.”
“When you get to the White House you have family members who decide to voice their sibling rivalries,” he said.
"slither"
I thought her last day was yesterday. AFAIK Cheetohead didn't even give a cursory thx, wonder if George Conway and the Lincoln Project took the shine out of her good graces.
Barr’s removal of career national security official, weeks before election, raises concerns
Current and former national security officials are raising concerns over Attorney General William Barr's recent decision to remove the head of a Justice Department office that helps ensure federal counterterrorism and counterintelligence activities are legal – and replace him with a political appointee with relatively limited experience.
"It's very alarming," said Katrina Mulligan, who worked for the Obama administration in several national security roles and then, after President Donald Trump's inauguration, joined the Office of Law and Policy in the Justice Department's National Security Division.
For much of the past decade, that little-known office has been led by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brad Wiegmann, a 23-year career public servant, not a political appointee. But two weeks ago, Wiegmann, 54, was told he is being reassigned and replaced with a political appointee, according to a Justice Department spokesman and sources familiar with the matter....
Vrede too wrote: ↑Sat Aug 29, 2020 11:29 pmFDA ousts spokesperson after 2 weeks
Emily Miller's short tenure was marked by repeated clashes over the agency’s communications approach.
There are no good guys in this sordid tale about the people tasked with partially protecting us from a pandemic.
Most chaotic, corrupt and incompetent admin* ever.Second Trump appointee out at FDA amid credibility concerns
A second Trump administration appointee has been ousted at the Food and Drug Administration in the wake of the agency's botched announcement about an experimental therapy for COVID-19, which medical experts said damaged the health regulator's credibility with the public.
An FDA spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that John “Wolf” Wagner, a political appointee installed by the White House earlier this summer, is no longer heading the agency’s office of external affairs. Instead, Heidi Rebello, a longtime FDA career official, has stepped into the position on an acting basis, overseeing all FDA public communications. Politico first reported the news.
The shakeup comes just five days after conservative communications specialist Emily Miller was removed from her post heading the agency’s press office. Miller served just 11 days on the job and helped coordinate the agency’s announcement that it had granted emergency authorization to convalescent plasma for COVID-19 patients.
That announcement triggered a backlash last week after FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn was forced to correct misstatements that inflated the potential benefits of the therapy. The decision to authorize the treatment also followed threats and complaints from President Donald Trump, raising concerns that the FDA had buckled to political pressure from the president.
Health experts and former FDA officials say Hahn tarnished the agency’s reputation at the moment it’s needed most: as agency scientists prepare to decide whether upcoming coronavirus vaccines are effective and safe to be given to millions of Americans. Public doubts about the vaccines could derail U.S. plans for a mass vaccination effort....
Vrede too wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 3:54 pmHHS official Rick Bright says he was ousted after raising concern about coronavirus drug Trump had toutedVrede too wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 6:43 pmHead of vaccine development alleges 'cronyism' after being removed from post
Rick Bright claims he's being "sidelined" amid pandemic.
Not actually "Fired / Quit" yet, but still . . .
HHS whistleblower Rick Bright resigns from government
Rick Bright, the federal vaccine chief-turned-whistleblower who was reassigned to a different agency and subsequently criticized the Trump administration's pandemic response, has left the federal government, Bright's lawyers announced on Tuesday.
"Dr. Bright was forced to leave his position at NIH because he can no longer sit idly by and work for an administration that ignores scientific expertise, overrules public health guidance and disrespects career scientists, resulting the [sic.] in the sickness and death of hundreds of thousands of Americans," lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks said in a statement....