Thus spake a cheeky Labour MP after Boris Johnson’s fledgling government went down to a major defeat in the House of Commons *and* lost their majority because of 21 defections from the Tory caucus. The “unknown” MP turned out to … Continue reading Not A Good Start, Boris
Ted Cruz meets a bug. Continue reading Tweet Of The Day: Bugging Tailgunner Ted
Pedro Bell, 1950-2019. Continue reading Album Cover Art Wednesday: Pedro Bell, R.I.P.
This asshole: NEW: A Mississippi venue allegedly cancelled a couple’s wedding plans after discovering the couple was a black man + a white woman. “We don’t do gay weddings or mixed race, because of our Christian race—I mean, our Christian belief,” a woman says. More: https://t.co/9P0ZjNu3M0 pic.twitter.com/XKlRRSL44B — Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) September 1, 2019 Of course it’s just regular old white bigotry, and nothing to do with Christianity at all, but what interests me immensely is this woman’s all-too-common misconception that having “faith” in something means you’re above reproach, you don’t have to back your shit up, you you get … Continue reading To Argue My Faith
WHY: The most important campaign news of the summer was Elizabeth Warren’s surge. Early in the year, her campaign was foundering. She was in fifth place, with a mere 6 percent support. We gave this guy a ton of money to read the Quinnipac poll for us. Great use of what we’re being told is journalism’s scarce resources. “An all-voucher system would be a shock to the educational system, but the shakeout might be just what the system needs,” they continued. This is exactly the argument that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos uses to support school choice. No, the argument Betsy uses is that we … Continue reading Why Does Brooks Always Flap His Mouth When It’s My Day to Blog?
Parading with Harry, Adlai, Jack, Lyndon, Hubert, and Fritz.
Continue reading Fog Of Historical Pictures: Labor Day Edition Revisited
OK folks – slack-off time is over, with means it’s time to don our ISO suits and push open the airlock!
First up? Leaking on The Darnold!
( I know it’s a long article, but bear with me)
Leak Plugged? Trump’s Personal “Gatekeeper” Hits The Exit
Hotair ^ | 08/30/2019 | Ed MorrisseyPosted on 8/30/2019, 9:17:32 AM by SeekAndFind
In any White House, discretion is a prized value in staffers, and perhaps even more so in the Donald Trump era. As Trump’s personal assistant in the Oval Office, Madeleine Westerhout should have known that better than most. Yet Westerhout has been shown the door, as multiple news organizations reported overnight, for sharing personal information about the First Family with reporters:
President Trump’s personal assistant Madeleine Westerhout resigned from her job abruptly, a White House official and another person familiar with the situation told NBC News late Thursday night.
One of the sources said that Westerhout left the job because she shared personal information about the president’s family and Oval Office operations at an off-the-record dinner with reporters earlier this month in Bedminster, N.J., where a Trump-owned golf club that the president often visits in summer months is located.
All of the outlets reporting this departure call it a resignation, but they all also strongly suggest that the resignation came under considerable duress. The New York Times first reported it and noted that the sequence of events started when Trump found out she was leaking information to reporters, and that she’s already persona non grata anywhere in the White House. Needless to say, that’s not a departure on mutually agreeable terms.
The Times’ Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman also take note of Westerhout’s political pedigree:
“Ms. Westerhout, a former Republican National Committee aide who also worked for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, reportedly cried on election night because she was upset over Mr. Trump’s victory. As such, the president at first viewed her warily, as a late convert to his cause who could not be trusted.”
(snip)
Ms. Westerhout’s power in the White House came almost entirely from proximity. She is not a name-brand White House aide and has never appeared on television, unless it was an accidental shot of her hovering behind her boss. But while she was not a decision maker, she enjoyed unique access to Mr. Trump.
Trump tends to be a little paranoid about working with other Republicans, but in this case his first instinct might have been correct. Karni and Haberman hint at Westerhout’s state of mind in the last paragraph of the above excerpt. Politico later reported that Westerhout was attempting a little empire-building in the White House, which might have led to a slap-down or two from more senior officials:
“In the past six months, Westerhout had tried to expand the boundaries of her job to encompass a broader set of tasks and to include foreign travel, said one adviser close to the White House, who suggested Westerhout had tried to act like a de facto chief of staff. This irked several White House officials and Cabinet secretaries who thought she should stick to her primary task of serving as the president’s personal secretary with a desk just outside the Oval Office. …”
(snip)
The close White House adviser called this “the final straw” for someone who did not have many allies left in the building.
Under those circumstances, one has to wonder whether Westerhout got set up by rivals within the White House. That’s the kind of games that get played when low-level staffers try acquiring power at the expense of others with better connections. It’s just as likely, if not more so, that a lack of success led Westerhout to lose her sense of discretion and/or attempt to gain more power by manipulating the press against her real and perceived rivals.
At least, those are the fun explanations. If this turns out to be just the mundane circumstance of a secretary with trouble keeping her mouth shut after having a couple of drinks, it’ll be a disappointment. Even so, Westerhout’s exit will serve as a warning to others to keep their mouths shut whatever the circumstance might be.
To: SeekAndFindThis is
appallingappealing.
FIFY.
I’ll repeat myself….President Trump would’ve fared better if he had surrounded himself with loyal “little folk”
Yes – because The Darnold’s love of “little folk” (as opposed to power players) is SO well-known…
Deplorables who were with him from the beginning.
6 posted on 8/30/2019, 9:28:03 AM by grania (“We’re all just pawns in their game”)
To: SeekAndFind
Continue reading “Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – open wide for chunky edition”
This week Kick went to kindergarten. She put on her brand-new shoes and brand-new backpack and brand-new jacket and she marched up to the schoolhouse door. The bell rang, she took a deep breath, and she walked inside. So how does this work, I’ve been asking my friends, the ones with older kids. I just, like, send her to school? “Yup.” If she does okay they don’t call me? I don’t get pictures? There’s no minute-by-minute accounting of every second of her life away from me? If I call them to ask, just casually, like hey how’s it going, I … Continue reading Her Uncompromised Mortality
Of all the horrible things I’ve seen about the Bret Stephens debacle, a real-time implosion of ego and stupidity combined with an almost pathological need to step on one’s own dick in public, by far the worst to me is this: “I would welcome the opportunity for you to come to my home, meet my wife and kids, talk to us for a few minutes, and then call me a ‘bedbug’ to my face,” he continued. “That would take some genuine courage and intellectual integrity on your part. I promise to be courteous no matter what you have to say.” … Continue reading My Wife and Kids
Suitcase Joe exists: There’s not a lot of big moments, but there’s a lot of little moments that impact me when I’m in Skid Row. There are people down there who really have nothing at all. I have come to know them as friends. They invite me into their tents to let me hang out and really see who they are. They have so little, yet they’re kind enough to offer me their food and time. It amazes me to see such generosity coming from people who lack even basic essentials, many of whom have been let down by the … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks