Trump Administration* - Fired / Quit

[Vrede too]

Sudden Departure Of White House Global Health Security Head Has Experts Worried

Rear Adm. Tim Ziemer, the head of global health security on the White House’s National Security Council, left the Trump administration on Tuesday. The news was announced one day after an Ebola outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo....

Ziemer, who had been described as “one of the most quietly effective leaders in public health,” was widely lauded in the global health community for his work on the President’s Malaria Initiative, which helped save 6 million lives, before joining this administration.

“Admiral Ziemer’s departure is deeply alarming, especially when the administration is actively working to cut funds that addressed past pandemics like Ebola,” Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), the vice ranking member of the foreign affairs committee, told HuffPost in a statement. “Expertise like his is critical in avoiding large outbreaks.” ...

Ziemer’s exit follows the departure last month of White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert, who was another champion of investment in global health security. Bossert left the day after Bolton began as national security adviser.

Ron Klain, the former Ebola “czar” under President Barack Obama, told HuffPost the combination of their departures was a blow to global health security.

“Proposing a rescission of Ebola contingency funds on the very day that a new Ebola outbreak is announced is badly misguided; forcing out the two top officials in charge of epidemic response at the White House – Tom Bossert and Tim Ziemer – is even worse,” Klain said. “Doing it all at the same time shows a reckless disregard for the dangers we face.” ...

Beth Cameron, who previously served as the senior director for global health security and biodefense on Obama’s NSC staff and is currently the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s vice president for global biological policy and programs, called his departure “a major loss for health security, biodefense, and pandemic preparedness.”

“It is unclear in his absence who at the White House would be in charge of a pandemic,” Cameron said, calling it “a situation that should be immediately rectified.” ...

Given his choice in sexual partners, you would think that Dolt .45 would be more concerned about communicable diseases.

[rstrong]

Sudden Departure Of White House Global Health Security Head Has Experts Worried

From Sunday:

Trump Picks TV Snake Oil Salesman Dr. Oz, of All People, to Serve on Health Council

So Trump's health guru is probably on it. He just needs to select a sponsor whose product he'll promote as a cure for Ebola.

[GoCubsGo]

Sudden Departure Of White House Global Health Security Head Has Experts Worried

From Sunday:

Trump Picks TV Snake Oil Salesman Dr. Oz, of All People, to Serve on Health Council

So Trump's health guru is probably on it. He just needs to select a sponsor whose product he'll promote as a cure for Ebola.

Dr. Oz?
Doogie Howser wasn't available? I think he had better ratings.

[Vrede too]

Missed this one in February:

US' top North Korea diplomat announces surprise retirement

[Vrede too]

Missed these two in February:

Fired Pentagon Official Was Exploring Plea Deals for 9/11 Suspects at Guantánamo

Before his sudden firing last week, the Pentagon official who oversaw military commission trials at Guantánamo Bay was exploring potential plea deals to end the long-delayed prosecution of five suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks, a move that would foreclose the possibility of execution, according to several people familiar with the matter.

No deal was imminent, the people said, but the talks were active and contemplated the defendants — including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described architect of the attacks — pleading guilty and probably receiving life sentences. Most of the people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.

The Pentagon has refused to explain the moves in public, and it provided no rationale to the men when they were handed one-paragraph letters notifying them of their dismissal, one person said.

It is not clear whether the settlement talks prompted the Trump administration’s abrupt ouster on Monday of the official, Harvey Rishikof, who was the military commission system’s so-called convening authority. His legal adviser, Gary Brown, was simultaneously fired.

But either way, Mr. Rishikof’s discussions with defense lawyers about a potential way to bring a swifter end to the Sept. 11 case in a way that could be deemed favorable to the accused appears likely to inject the firings into the already troubled proceedings.

Under the military commission rules, the convening authority — not prosecutors — negotiate plea deals with the defense, and even the appearance of “unlawful command influence,” or attempts by superiors to influence the handling of a case, is forbidden.

David Nevin, the lead defense lawyer for Mr. Mohammed, said he had asked Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, the lead prosecutor, this past week to provide information about the basis for Mr. Rishikof’s firing as a matter of so-called discovery, the process by which the government must turn over to the defense relevant information in its possession.

“The firing fairly raises the question of whether it constituted unlawful influence on the convening authority, and we have an obligation to try to learn everything we can about that,” Mr. Nevin said.

Guilty pleas would offer a way out of a complex case that has been mired in years of pretrial hearings and is certain to face many more years of appeals if it ever gets to trial and results in convictions. Taxpayers have already spent hundreds of millions of dollars pursuing the case, and plea deals would bring earlier closure to victims’ families.
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But striking such a deal would mean giving up on winning death sentences against defendants accused of aiding the murder of nearly 3,000 people, and could amount to surrender over the idea of using military commissions to prosecute terrorism cases.

Mr. Rishikof was removed by Jim Mattis, the secretary of defense, and Mr. Brown was removed by William S. Castle, the acting general counsel of the Pentagon, according to a statement issued on Monday by Tom Crosson, a spokesman for the Office of the Secretary of Defense....

Meanwhile, the federal courts keep successfully convicting terrorists at a fraction of the cost.

[Vrede too]

White House eliminates top cyber adviser post

... Rob Joyce, Trump’s first coordinator, who came from the NSA, left the White House on Friday and will return to Fort Meade (NSA)....

Trump lawyer (Jay Goldberg) blasts Giuliani, asks if Cohen was a “mob" fixer

Just how many Klowns can they fit in that Kar anyhow?


Pruitt loses his fourth EPA aide this week — and more might be on the way

EPA Hid Scott Pruitt’s Dinner With Climate Denier Accused Of Child Sex Abuse
The EPA knew Vatican treasurer George Pell was under investigation, but went ahead with the dinner during Pruitt’s trip to Italy.

[Vrede too]

Press aide who mocked McCain is out at the White House

[billy.pilgrim]

Press aide who mocked McCain is out at the White House

But not because if mocking McCain

[Vrede too]

Two of Scott Pruitt's top aides resign amid EPA scrutiny

There's also:

Emails: Pruitt used EPA aide to inquire about Chick-fil-A business opportunity (for his wife)

Worth posting again: Pruitt has a difficult job competing with Bolton, Jim Bridenstine, Carson, DeVos, Gina Haspel, Thomas Homan, Mnuchin, Mick Mulvaney, Kirstjen Nielsen, Ajit Pai, Perry, Pompeo, Wilbur Ross, Sessions and Zinke for WORST agency head, but I think he may be winning.

[Vrede too]

Yellowstone boss says Trump administration forcing him out

This is all about subsidizing welfare ranching on our public lands at the expense of wild bison.
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/

[GoCubsGo]

More Agent Orange fatigue. It feels like "let's just destroy anything good about this country".

[O Really]

More Agent Orange fatigue. It feels like "let's just destroy anything good about this country".

It does indeed. It wouldn't be so bad if Trump actually had any opinion on how to improve things, or if he hired administrators who knew anything at all about what they're responsible for. I could live with, say, changes in EPA regulations if there was some plan for an alternative - even if I disagreed with the alternative. But he's (they've) replaced, rebuilt, revised, improved absolutely nothing - simply destroyed. Makes me glad to be old.

[Vrede too]

More Agent Orange fatigue. It feels like "let's just destroy anything good about this country".

It does indeed. It wouldn't be so bad if Trump actually had any opinion on how to improve things, or if he hired administrators who knew anything at all about what they're responsible for. I could live with, say, changes in EPA regulations if there was some plan for an alternative - even if I disagreed with the alternative. But he's (they've) replaced, rebuilt, revised, improved absolutely nothing - simply destroyed. Makes me glad to be old.

Another one can't take the spiteful ODS wrecking ball mentality:

Veteran Justice Department Lawyer Resigns, With Obamacare Lawsuit Possibly A Factor

[GoCubsGo]

Sarah Sanders, Raj Shah planning to depart the White House

Tick tock on ole smokey eye

[Vrede too]

DOWNGRADE
Report: Rudy Giuliani's Son Loses High-Level White House Clearance

Months after President Donald Trump advocated for Rudy Giuliani’s son, Andrew, to be promoted, John Kelly stripped the younger Guiliani of his high-level West Wing clearance, reports Axios. After meeting with Rudy and Andrew Giuliani for dinner at Mar-A-Lago several months ago, Axios reports, the president instructed body man Jordan Karem “to ensure Kelly promoted Andrew to special assistant to the president." Two unidentified White House sources cited by Axios, however, claim that Kelly won’t promote Andrew because they believe he “subverts the chain of command.” Another source claimed that Kelly revoked Andrew’s blue pass a few weeks ago and left him only with a green pass, meaning he cannot visit the West Wing without an escort.

[Vrede too]

White House deputy chief of staff to leave in July

The White House aide who led the planning for President Donald Trump's meeting last week with North Korea's Kim Jong Un has decided to leave the Trump administration to return to the private sector.

Joe Hagin, the White House deputy chief of staff for operations, has served in every Republican White House since the Reagan administration. He held the same title in George W. Bush's White House.

Hagin's departure comes as the Trump administration continues to set records for staff turnover. More than 60 percent of those who served in senior positions at the beginning of the administration have exited....

Comment:

sometimes people just get tired of being mistaken for a Nazi because of the people they work for

[billy.pilgrim]

"James D Melville Jr, a career diplomat who serves as the US ambassador to the eastern European country, told friends and family in a private Facebook post that he was cutting his 33 year career as a senior foreign service member short after the president attacked NATO"

"A Foreign Service Officer’s DNA is programmed to support policy and we’re schooled right from the start, that if there ever comes a point where one can no longer do so, particularly if one is in a position of leadership, the honourable course is to resign. Having served under six presidents and 11 secretaries of state, I never really thought it would reach that point for me,” Mr Melville wrote in the post, which was acquired by Foreign Policy magazine."

[GoCubsGo]

DRAIN THE SWAMP!!

[Vrede too]

DRAIN THE SWAMP!!

Bad link, you added a comma at the end. Here:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/scandal-plag ... 06318.html



Kristin Mink and toddler - 1
Pruitt - 0
3 days, impressive.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/te ... 27cceba2bb

Comments:

Just saw a picture taken from space. The earth is smiling :-)

lmao, thoughts and prayers

[Vrede too]

I'll see this 9 page list, and raise it by 700. Call it the Pruitt Effect.

Dismantling the EPA: 700 Flee Agency As Trump Nixes Regulations, Enforcement

... According the Dec. 15 New York Times, Trump’s military-industrial complex had revoked 67 rules, withdrawn 635 planned regulations, declared 244 rules “inactive,” and “delayed” 700 others. News reports in January indicated that Trump had bragged about repealing 22 regulations for every adopted new one adopted: 67 rules nullified against three new ones. Significantly, around Feb. 3rd, the Senate reversed the Stream Protection Rule that sought to protect surface water and drinking water sources from mining debris. A separate rule that required mining, gas and oil companies to report payments to foreign governments and aimed at punishing bribery, was also repealed.

On Jan. 15, nine of the 12 members of the National Park System Advisory Board resigned, the Washington Post reported, in protest over Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s refusal to meet with them. On Dec. 18, 2017, Trump announced that the government will no longer regard climate change by name as a national security threat....

By Dec. 23, 2017, more than 700 employees of the Environmental Protection Agency had left the agency, and of them, over 200 were scientists, and 96 are environmental protection specialists, the New York Times reported. Thomas Burke, a former EPA science advisor told the Times, “The mission of the agency is the protection of public health. Clearly there’s been a departure in the mission.”

Note that this article is from the Spring and that many of its citations are from last Winter.