I think it’s already funny today! It’s a tragic lack of leadership in the US, but watching clowns fight can sure be entertaining.
1 Like
Did I miss Tillerson actually resigning? Because I would think this story is incompatible with continued employment in the Trump administration.
10 Likes
Clown fighting is not just for LA anymore it seems. I can totally see one of these spilling out into the Ellipse.
6 Likes
1 Like
I feel sorry for those guys guys with a bank account in the low millions. They must feel like the poor kids at the prep school.
3 Likes
Doesn’t fly.
If they all worked collectively to get rid of him, they would actually increase their own power base.
Pence would move up, would probably choose someone like Ryan or Tillerson as his Veep.
45 being in place is actually a drain on their power, as well as a black eye as their support base shrinks to only the loons who will never leave.
7 Likes
Yeah, well, Mr Oil is on TV saying nothing of the sort ever happened.
2 Likes
“Hang in there Rex! Just a few months more…”
3 Likes
Because, believe it or not, some people actually care about the US and rest of the world. Turning on him is unlikely to work (yet). If you’re going to remove the king, you better not miss. So the (not mutually exclusive) options people who dislike Trump, but work for him are:
- Do they best job you can on behalf of your country.
- Assume your spot will be filled with a moron, which harms the USA. (same logic applies when taking the job).
- Stick around and wait for an opportunity to accelerate impeachment.
We’ve got the same thing to consider: Do we encourage grownups to join and stay in the administration or leave? Remember, he gets to be president for 4 years no matter how many idiots are around him. But we have to live with the mismanagement. On the other hand, the worse he looks politically, the more likely the political calculus of impeachment look favorable for Republicans. Game theory writ large.
Moral of the stories: Damn if you do, damned if you don’t.
6 Likes
If you think Tillerson isn’t entirely complicit in the dismantling of the US State Department, I’ve got a bridge you might be interested in…
3 Likes
This is one of those times when you already find yourself in a terrible situation (Trump is president) and so all of your options have terrible outcomes. This is your leg being pinned under a tree and choosing between waiting and hoping for help or cutting your leg off and crawling to get help yourself. Those are two horrific options, but it’s no use to contemplate how horrific they are, the horrific part was inevitable the moment your leg was destroyed by a falling tree deep in the wilderness.
I honestly don’t know what to do. I think if I were in the administration I’d be doing my best to keep things functioning and making as many notes and recordings as I could for future criminal prosecutions. But I don’t know that I’d have the stamina to actually do that, and if I wasn’t willing to compromise myself I imagine I’d end up turfed pretty fast.
It’s that last bit that has me worried the most. Trump obviously demands that his subordinates prove their loyalty to him by compromising themselves in various ways. Many people involved in the administration aren’t just morally complicit in Trump’s stupidity, but they may also be materially complicit in some very shady, possible prosecutable actions.
8 Likes
That’s a bit harsh. He’s not seeking to dismantle it - he just believes it would benefit from the expertise of the private sector. So he’ll be outsourcing it - to Russia.
7 Likes
Usually you want more transparency in your government, but this one is just overtly broadcasting the really stupid policies to the whole world. We find out that Tillerson is working with back channels for North Korea, that stuff should be Top Secret, but still, knowing about it was a little relieving… but then trump tweets for him to not bother and threatens kju again.
In the old world you wouldn’t even want that statement to be in an encrypted email while discussing secret diplomatic policies. If something even a millionth as inflammatory as that were in those Benghazi emails Hillary would certainly be in jail.
3 Likes
By most accounts Pence is indeed very dumb, but “sycophantic”? He’d probably stab Trump in the back in an heartbeat if he thought he could get away with it.
Honestly, I have literally no idea what is going on inside Mike Pence’s head. Would he take a bullet for Trump? Is he already poisoning his Diet Coke? Who knows!
10 Likes
proving loyalty by compromising people so much that they could be blackmailed or extorted by the evidence you have gotten on them is a common tactic used by serial killers like Dean Corll, leaders of gangs such as Akku Yadav, psychopaths, abusive parents, and basically any type of horrible controlling dangerous narcissist who runs a cult, family, or any other organization where they know they will be doing bad things and need to implicate as many people as possible so that they won’t turn on them, struggle for freedom, or see themselves as separate from the instigator.
I think right now that is our government in a nutshell.
They may have been slimeballs with no real integrity to start with but now they are slimeballs with no integrity AND a blood contract to serve their orange overlord.
8 Likes
6 Likes
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called President Trump a “moron”, wanted to quit
To be fair, we’ve all been feeling that way recently.
6 Likes
Anyone here ever call your boss a moron in a private conversation?
