Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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El Guapo
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Paingod wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2018 1:20 pm
El Guapo wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2018 12:56 pm
Kraken wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2018 12:29 pm He was supposed to be one of the few adults providing daycare to the TIC, but lately he seems to have lost control over his charge. Toddlers gonna toddle.

Maybe instead of generals and politicians they should be interviewing experienced babysitters.
Well, more than that, Kelly also has quite a few noxious views of his own, particularly as to immigrants and minorities.
And we're hoping that Trump will slide in a more qualified, less biased staffer? I expect him to pick someone that's absolutely against whatever the role is and seeks to rip it apart from the inside-out.
I mean, ultimately the rot is at the center, so no appointee will ever fix the problem. I'm just saying that I dislike Kelly and won't miss him. I may well dislike the next person more, who knows.
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Moliere
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Image

Best Treasury Secretary ever. A weak U.S. dollar = winning, right?
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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It does invite foreign investment. :think:

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Moliere
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Wait, so Chinese companies buying up American companies = winning?
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Remus West
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Moliere wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2018 10:56 am Image

Best Treasury Secretary ever. A weak U.S. dollar = winning, right?
Make the Rubles they were paid worth a whole lot more here. They are just giving themselves well earned raises.
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Moliere
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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The Senate Confirms a New Fed Leader
On Tuesday, the Senate quickly and easily made Jerome Powell the 16th head of the Federal Reserve Board with an 84 to 13 vote. Powell will officially begin his stint as the leader of the nation’s central bank in February.

The speed and ease of the confirmation of Trump’s nominee isn’t much of a surprise: Selecting Powell, instead of more conservative or hawkish options such as Kevin Warsh and John Taylor, was seen as a sensible compromise that could ensure a swift and painless vote. Powell offers qualifications that appease both the GOP and Democrats: He’s a moderate Republican with a track record as a Fed governor of supporting the previous Fed chair (and Obama appointee) Janet Yellen, while remaining open to the idea of deregulation, according to statements he’s made in the past—a key Trump goal.[/quote[
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malchior
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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The dismantling of the leadership of the State Department is nearly complete. This is nothing short of a disaster as we signal a retreat from the world stage...for almost no reason.
Take senior diplomats: With Shannon’s announced resignation, the one remaining career ambassador will be Stephen Mull, who is on sabbatical. Of the six undersecretary positions at the department, four remain unfilled by permanent appointments. Shannon in his interview to CNN and the AP pointed out that 60 percent of the department’s workforce has been there for 10 years or less. This says young people still want to work at the department, but it also speaks to the loss of institutional memory at the organization.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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I believe the Senate is FINALLY approving a new director for the USPTO today. It's about time, and from all signs, they actually made a smart choice.
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Paingod
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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pr0ner wrote: Mon Feb 05, 2018 1:39 pm I believe the Senate is FINALLY approving a new director for the USPTO today. It's about time, and from all signs, they actually made a smart choice.
Probably not an office on Trump's radar, and filling it was delegated to a subordinate of a subordinate who made a good choice as a practical joke.

It's damn hard to not be massively cynical about every aspect of this administration.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Pure dereliction of duty at CFPB with Mulvaney in charge.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will not be conducting a full investigation of Equifax, the credit agency whose trove of Social Security numbers, addresses, credit card details, and other information belonging to more than 140 million people was hacked in May, according to a report from Reuters.
There will be no accountability from the Federal Government if you lose customer data. That is the message that the business world just heard from the government. We'll be testing if the market or the States (especially NY or CA) will protect us
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Not cabinetry, but...



Alternate caption I saw today: "Who would’ve guessed back then that Porter might actually be the worst person in his photo?"
Spoiler:
Senior WH aide Rob Porter resigned today after it came out that two ex-wives had complained and had photographic evidence of physical battery. The administration knew about this when Porter was hired.

Kelly wanted him to stay on and "fight it."
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Kelly truly wants us to turn back the clock to the 50s where women were treated as sacred (and occasional punching bags).

Also some details that both show what a sack of shit Kelly is here and how dysfunctional the WH is at the same time. Porter was vetting Trump's information and worked to sideline Kushner and Ivanka. This is a living nightmare, right?
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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There's an ad for Another Period (starring Riki Lindhome and occasionally Kate Micucci of Garfunkel and Oates) where cops come upon a couple tussling. They inquire whether "this woman" is bothering the man, who replies "she's my wife". The cops laugh and say "well, just don't kill her, haha" and walk away.

I remember when Kelly was seen in an optimistic light. He was going to get in there and clean out the rat's nest in the WH. Unless they're his rats, I guess.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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I'm a little worried about Hope Hicks.

She is known to have dated Porter and Lewandowski (because apparently the Trump administration is high school), both of whom have physically assaulted women.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Hope has already taken the job as Kate Middleton’s stand in at public events, so don’t worry too much about her. She’s getting out.
Covfefe!
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Opiod issues solved!
Attorney General Jeff Sessions thinks the U.S. could easily combat the growing opioid crisis by taking over-the-counter medications for pain and "tough it out."

"I am operating on the assumption that this country prescribes too many opioids," Sessions said Wednesday as he touted the Trump administration's efforts to combat drug abuse and trafficking. "People need to take some aspirin sometimes and tough it out a little."

Sessions made the during a 25-minute speech to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa Bay, Fla., according to the Tampa Bay Times.

He went on to describe how White House chief of staff and former Marine Gen. John Kelly refused opioids after a recent minor surgery.
...
Sessions blasted marijuana as a gateway drug and lamented the country's more permissive attitude toward pot.

He pointed at weed use as a path toward opioid addiction, although most research shows that heroin use often starts with prescription abuse.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Paingod
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Having seen someone in so much pain that they looked like they'd rather be dead, I think Sessions should shove his head so far up his ass that his ears flutter against his lungs when he tries to breathe, and then tough it out.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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I usually dont say this but I hope he dies after suffering horribly for a good while. Take a sledge hammer and break every bone in his body and ask if he wants an aspirin for that. Die you stupid bastard.
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GreenGoo
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Opioids are almost certainly being over prescribed.

That doesn't mean they should go away, or an aspirin will solve all problems. Sessions diminishes peoples' suffering by suggesting an aspirin and a little toughness is the solution for opioid addiction, and that's where the tone deaf nature of this administration shows itself.

I don't know what the solution should be, but I know it is not going cold turkey and "toughing it out".
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Jeff Sessions wrote:Just rub some dirt in it.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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That's a pretty widely held line of thinking: that addiction, mental illness, basically any malady that's not visible, is a moral failing, and you could fix it if you were just a little stronger or better. That line of thinking is what makes them able to cut all kinds of aid programs, because they're not taking away something people need to survive, they're practicing tough love that will help force people to be better and overcome those fake problems. If they still can't, well, they don't deserve help and might just be criminal.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Federal agents and Boston police have seized more than 33 pounds of fentanyl — enough of the deadly synthetic opioid to theoretically kill every man, woman and child in Massachusetts — funneled in by Mexico’s vicious Sinaloa cartel.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_ ... _s_biggest
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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You know what would stop that? A big wall, like them chinamen have.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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GreenGoo wrote: Fri Feb 09, 2018 7:27 pm You know what would stop that? A big wall, like them chinamen have.
Damn straight. Nothing stops drug addiction like a physical wall.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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If we’d built a damn wall between the U.S. and Italy maybe we wouldn’t have had so much trouble with the mafia way back when. :snooty:
Covfefe!
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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According to the VA Inspector General's office, Sec Shulkin had his deputy make false statements so his wife could fly to Europe on the taxpayer's dime.
Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin’s chief of staff doctored an email and made false statements to create a pretext for taxpayers to cover expenses for the secretary’s wife on a 10-day trip to Europe last summer, the agency’s inspector general has found.

Vivieca Wright Simpson, VA’s third-most senior official, altered language in an email from an aide coordinating the trip to make it appear that Shulkin was receiving an award from the Danish government — then used the award to justify paying for his wife’s travel, Inspector General Michael J. Missal said in a report released Wednesday. VA paid more than $4,300 for her airfare.

The account of how the government paid travel expenses for the secretary’s wife is one finding in an unsparing investigation that concluded that Shulkin and his staff misled agency ethics officials and the public about key details of the trip. Shulkin also improperly accepted a gift of sought-after tickets to a Wimbledon tennis match, the investigation found, and directed an aide coordinating the trip to act as what the report called a “personal travel concierge” to him and his wife.

“Although the [inspector general’s office] cannot determine the value VA gained from the Secretary and his delegation’s three and a half days of meetings in Copenhagen and London at a cost of at least $122,334, the investigation revealed serious derelictions by VA personnel,” the watchdog concluded.
Only the best people. The. Best. :roll:
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LordMortis
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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All that says is it's time to put the partisan Inspector General on trial and have them replaced, defunded, or the objects of their inspection under deregulation so the corrupt remnants of the Obama administration can't pursue their deep state agenda.

Edit:

Whoops, I did forget something. How much did Hillary spend on travel when she was in federal government and running for president?
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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An ethics committee told us that Drumpf had numerous conflicts of interest at the start of his presidency.

Ethics committees are no longer necessary.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Meanwhile, will Trump ever appoint a science advisor? The Magic 8 Ball says Ask again later.
Some wondered whether Trump has any interest in science at all.

Rush D. Holt, a physicist and former congressman who now leads the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest scientific society, said every president should have a science adviser, noting that they can help “recognize the science in an issue that is not obviously scientific.”

“The most serious problems come when there is a president who willfully ignores and does not have any apparent interest in science or in seeking credible information and advice from scientists,” Holt said.
Ehh, bunch of eggheads anyway.
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GreenGoo
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Real estate deals are more art than science anyway.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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NPR
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is facing a fresh wave of criticism after reports surfaced the agency approved more than $31,000 on a new office suite dining room set and for allegations brought by a former HUD official claiming she was told by her superiors that "$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair."

According to the New York Times, a "custom hardwood table, chairs and hutch" was purchased a month after a whistleblower complaint was filed alleging Candy Carson, the wife and informal adviser to HUD Secretary Ben Carson, was pushing for elaborate modifications to the drab décor of the department's offices.

The whistleblower was Helen Foster, a career HUD employee. She filed a complaint in November alleging she was demoted and replaced after refusing to exceed the legal $5,000 limit on redecoration. The existence of the complaint was first reported Tuesday by The Guardian.

In a statement, HUD spokesperson Raffi Williams denied Foster's allegations of lavish spending, adding that Carson had different chairs in his office but that they were not new purchases, but rather ones that came from HUD's basement.
...
According to the Guardian, Foster was first urged by then acting HUD director Craig Clemmensen in January last year to help Carson's wife get the funding to redecorate Carson's office.

In an interview with CNN Tuesday, Foster said she was pressured and retaliated against for not following through on finding more money. She was also told that past administrations always found the funding.
...
Kaplan said his client is seeking compensatory damages and reinstatment as HUD's chief administrative officer. He adds that "a public apology by HUD would go a long way in restoring Helen's reputation."

HUD officials provided receipts that showed HUD spent $3,373 on window treatments, including wooden blinds and another $1,100 on furniture repairs.

In a separate receipt, dated December 21, an item labeled "Secretary's Furniture Procurement" for the amount of $31, 561 was made to the Baltimore-based contractor Sebree and Associates, LLC.

Officials at HUD said the secretary did not purchase the table. That was bought by "career staffers in charge of the building." The old table and chairs from the mid 1960s were "deemed unrepariable." NPR has not confirmed who gave the O.K. for that purchase and has sought clarity from HUD about why the purchase of the new table did not fall under the $5,000 new decor cap.

The complaint over HUD's decoration spending comes as the agency has been embroiled in other controversies in recent weeks. The Trump administration is proposing more than $8 billion in cuts to HUD's budget or more than 14 percent from current levels.

Secretary Carson is also facing allegations that he may have violated ethics rules by allowing his son, Baltimore businessman Ben Carson, Jr., to organize "listening tours" for his father in that city last summer. The secretary has called on HUD's inspector general to review whether there were any violations.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Moliere
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Hope Hicks is out.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Aka Trump’s beautiful, silent eye candy. I bet he’s pissed now.
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LordMortis
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Ever get the feeling they should post this around the white house staff breakroom?

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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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The Hill
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson on Thursday ordered his agency to cancel an order for a $31,000 dining room set for his personal office.

"I was as surprised as anyone to find out that a $31,000 dining set had been ordered," Carson said in a statement. "I have requested that the order be canceled. We will find another solution for the furniture replacement."

He added that he might choose a different dining room set, but that his "preference" would be a more "reasonable" price tag.

"My wife also looked at catalogs and wanted to be sure that the color of the chair fabric of any set that was chosen matched the rest of the decor," he said. "I made it known that I was not happy about the prices being charged and that my preference would be to find something more reasonable."

Carson aide Armstrong Williams originally provided the statement to CNN.
...
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) announced on Wednesday that his committee will probe Carson's "excessive spending" on the redecoration of his office.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

Post by Ralph-Wiggum »

Just in case you thought Russia's influence ended at the election....

A new New Yorker profile of Trump-Russia dossier author Christopher Steele reports on a lesser-known memo the former MI-6 spy allegedly discussed with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators. According to the report, in late November 2016, Steele relayed information from his Russian sources that senior Kremlin officials had intervened to block Mitt Romney as President-elect Trump’s choice for secretary of State. Reporter Jane Mayer writes that Moscow had asked Trump to appoint someone who would be willing to lift sanctions related to Ukraine and cooperate with Russia’s involvement in Syria. Romney, long a vocal hawk on Russia, declined to comment for the report. The White House said the former GOP presidential nominee was never a first choice for the job, and declined to comment on “any communications that the Trump team may have had with Russia on the subject.”
Black Lives Matter
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LordMortis
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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LordMortis wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:25 pm Enlarge Image
Heh heh. Frankie is a former student of mine!
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Re: Donald Trump's Cabinet picks

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Another one bites the dust
Gary Cohn is resigning as National Economic Council director amid a battle over tariffs within the Trump administration, the White House said Tuesday.

...

Several high-profile White House staffers have left or announced plans to leave, including communications director Hope Hicks and Dina Powell, a fellow Goldman Sachs alum who became deputy national security adviser.

Pressed on the matter during a press conference with the Swedish prime minister, Trump said there was "tremendous energy" in the White House and that "many, many people want every single job."

"Believe me, everybody wants to work in the White House. They all want a piece of that Oval Office; they want a piece of the West Wing," Trump told reporters. "And not only in terms of it looks great on their résumé; it's just a great place to work."
Love that last part. There's still plenty of scum and villainy out there, waiting for their shot at the big time!
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