Confirmed by Trump via Twitter.

No chaos. Just High Energy!!

Well, technically, State isn't at the White House...

---

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

Who's next, Kelly, McMaster or Jared/Ivanka?

---

Suffer Well.

rex spoke in agreement with brits who condemned russia for poisonings. can't do that with putin, er trump in charge.

trump is low emotional iq guy.....love his new waters nickname "don the con"

This is Jared's job to lose, just as soon as he gets that pesky clearance issue cleaned up. Or maybe Tiffany has some time in her hands,

---

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

This sort of falls into the "If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it" department. Tillerson's State Department has been effectively nonexistent from the outset.

---

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

This is yet another re-shuffle. So now presumably the CIA will be without a permanent head for some time. Hopefully the next person won't be a die-hard politican like Pompeo, and will be a career intelligence person.

Time to start the Kelly watch.

Oops, just read this:


Seems he committed the unforgivable sin.

---

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

Don't forget Sessions...

Sadly this is playing out exactly how I thought it would, like a season of the Apprentice. The capable level headed people are the first to go. The people that stay on the longest are the sycophantic yes people and the lying backstabbers.

You would have thought calling your boss a "moron" would be the relevant sin, but apparently not.

In same tweet he named Gina Haspel as the CIA director.

---

Suffer Well.

None of the above is the right answer. His personal assistant John McEntee just got walked out the door. http://thehill.com/...red-from-role-report

Not sure which paragraph is worse for him:

---

Suffer Well.

Its as if Donnie is a kid with ADHD and him mom keeps forgetting to give him Ritalin and then refuses to acknowledge the chaos it causes.

- "No, Mrs. wormwood, Donnie is not causing chaos in your classroom. He's just high energy"

---

Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

The capable level headed people are the first to go.


Take a look at the pic in the middle of the story. You sure you want to describe most of them as capable? For sure Rex was a good guy and could have been competent, maybe a couple others, but the rest? It really does look like a line up from the old Apprentice, and looks like they are all going to end up that way too.

And now Larry Kudlow? I always would get a kick out of him on the business channel, almost no one ever agreed with him, he was the devils advocate among the real professionals. Of course he will be the one the Donald hires..I wouldn't move in just yet Larry, maybe rent an apt, month to month for awhile.




https://www.cnn.com/...ite-house/index.html

The worst thing in that article is where it stated that McEntee is rejoining the campaign. It's horrible that there even IS a campaign. Pres Trump has been in office just about a year, and there's already a campaign in place for his reelection.

Ridiculous.

---

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

  
Trump is such a pussy. Didn't even have the balls to call Rex or bring him in face to face. He can't even fire someone in a professional way.

edit: It is being reported that Tillerson found out he was fired when Trump tweeted it.

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Suffer Well.

Kelly goes before Javanka so they can say that Kelly didn't force them out.

---

“Read the transcript.”

Not sure how competent Rex Tillerson really was...

"Under Tillerson’s watch, 60 percent of State’s top-ranking career diplomats resigned and new applications to join the foreign service fell by half, according to a November count by the American Foreign Service Association.

This hollowing out of the foreign service, combined with Tillerson’s inability to appoint people to vital positions like ambassador to South Korea, delayed American responses to major crises and weakened the State Department for a “generation,” according to George Washington University’s Elizabeth Saunders.

This can’t all be blamed on Tillerson: Even a skilled and experienced diplomat would have had trouble maintaining influence in the chaotic Trump White House, a place where foreign policy is often made by tweet. As if to underscore the point, Trump announced Tillerson’s departure in a tweet — before the secretary himself could make a statement.

Yet scholars and foreign policy practitioners across the political spectrum agree that he deserves much of the blame.

"I think he really will go down as one of the worst secretaries of State we've had," Eliot Cohen, counselor to the State Department under President George W. Bush, told Axios’s Jonathan Swan."


https://www.vox.com/...red-state-department

Ah, she meets my basic criteria of not being a career politician. On the surface, not terrible.

I read that as giving the president massages and thought, 'wow, this seems like a dirty job Mike Rowe should feature'.

Got fired for a 'security issue'. Does that mean he stole office supplies or brought his girlfriend in the back door?

---

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Reportedly fired by tweet. You have to wonder if he enjoys humiliating people or just doesn't have any sense of propriety whatsoever.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

This. No guts, no class.

Those are not mutually exclusive options....

Looks to me like that guy manages his White House staff like a lot of SOB billionaire businessmen manage their companies... like SOBs. Jack Walsh, anyone? One of our old CEOs at my airline back in the day was the same way (Donald Nyrop).

Personally, I don't care if he puts a nutless monkey in charge over at State. ;-)

---

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Rex can now go back to Exxon-Mobil, and re-work the Rosneft deal in the open.

His State Dept. role and efforts, have been as highly effective as Trump in keeping sanctions from implementation. His silence and low profile are very well planned and executed, in order to keep his Russian Friendship Medal polished. He has been in their pocket from the start too.

He is either a categorical a failure, or another Kremlin Stooge.

Not a comment on Rex's departure but you folks should spend some time working at a place like Facebook or Microsoft. Your head would spin at how quickly executives are moved around and/or out on a yearly basis.

What a shit show.

Now the Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein is being fired for contradicting the account of Rex Tillerson’s dismissal according to a White House official.

---

Suffer Well.

One wonders if it would have made more sense to fire all these staff tomorrow, after the special election in PA's 18th district.

Criterion.

Yes, I'm a pedant this morning.

Dick.

Fix that shit. :)

---

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

a) boo, tech firms aren't as stable as the government of the united states of america!

or

b) yay, the government of the united states of america is more stable than tech firms!

---

____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

I think all those folks in western Pennsylvania couldn't care less about what's happening with Rexxon and the State Department, and probably couldn't name the current Secretary of State if you held a gun to their heads.

It's obvious Donny Two Scoops wants his staff people to understand he's the boss and if they can't get with his (personally demented) view on that particular subject they're going to be let go in as publicly bloody a way as possible. For the encouragement of the others, so to speak. ;-)

To me, he's a typical Theory X manager (Two Scoops, not Rexxon... who also seemed to be guarding State prerogatives and its so-called "independence" on a few occasions).

---

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

On a related note, Trump's personal assistant was just fired and escorted from WH grounds reportedly for background check problems and investigation for possible financial shenanigans...and then promptly reassigned to the Trump reelection campaign.

You can't make this shit up.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

Hahahaha!

No idea what that guy wants. I don't think even he knows what he wants, because that also seems to change by the day or by the hour.

---

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

That's called the 'Wasserman-Schulz' exit

Yep. Noted in post 13.

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Suffer Well.

I think its more of a realization that fundamentals are fundamentals and high turnover doesn't necessarily mean poor leadership or a sign that things are going pear-shaped. Typically its just finding someone to get just that extra 1%. Again, not commenting on this particular case.

Didn't see the part about him being toxic for continued employment in the White House but apparently perfect for the Trump campaign.

Draining the swamp directly into his swamp boat, it seems.

---

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

The White House is Running Flawlessly!

So much energy!

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

2:00 PM Eastern the man himself, former Sec State will speak.

This is going to go one of two ways...

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Suffer Well.

On a related note, Trump's personal assistant was just fired and escorted from WH grounds reportedly for background check problems and investigation for possible financial shenanigans...and then promptly reassigned to the Trump reelection campaign.

"We only want our very best. Not hacks. We want the experts and our finest people. Not the B-Level, C-Level people, we want A-Level only" - Trump on who he's going to hire to work with him in the White House

How's he doing on this? :-)

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

https://twitter.com/...s/973607371258785792


How you like that Steve?

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Suffer Well.

"So much winning"

Are you tired of all the winning yet? :-)

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Talking now. He's going to work until 31st March to help in the handover.

Taking the high road....


ETA: He did say he got a phone call from the president a little after noon (which was after the Tweet). He didn't thank the president in his closing remarks.

Taking the high road and not a single mention of Trump.

I think that's how diplomats say "Fuck You."

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Suffer Well.

I'm confused, I thought crazy lefties thought Tillerson is also a Russian stooge? Maybe, as one of the chief nutcases on ST you can provide a list of exactly who is, and who isn't a Russian stooge.

Not a comment on Rex's departure but you folks should spend some time working at a place like Facebook or Microsoft. Your head would spin at how quickly executives are moved around and/or out on a yearly basis.

It's probably more relevant to compare the Whitehouse from past administrations than to compare it with the private sector and when you do that, it is a shit show.

But, But... HILLARY!!!!

I'm confused, I thought crazy lefties thought Tillerson is also a Russian stooge?

You can go back and read my posts as I was one who thought highly of Tillerson and thought he was one of the few adults in the Whitehouse.

Trump is the typical coward though, firing him on Twitter to avoid confrontation. That's quite a leader you got there.

news also now reporting that the undersecretary - the one who announced that illerson has been fired - has been fired too.

no chaos! no chaos! you're the chaos!

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____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Don't know if you are Russian,but you are a stooge jewbuk

Fair enough. Trump is not a politician though, which is why I initially thought of the private sector comparison.

We apologize for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible have been sacked.

***

We apologize again for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.

***

The directors of the firm hired to continue the credits after the other people had been sacked, wish it to be known that they have just been sacked.

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Maybe, maybe not.

In past administrations, were personal or political relationships, or loyalty more important than the ability to do the job?

But, but, but Hillary kept a sexual predator on staff, I assume out of personal loyalty. Is that better than the 'chaos' of firing people?

The current body-count

http://abcnews.go.com/...on/story?id=49334453

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Speaking of body counts

http://mobile.wnd.com/...st-intriguing-cases/

Wow, just wow.

...or in a tech startup. The rate of turnover at the WH is pedantic in comparison.

I had a feeling I'd trigger something like that

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Well, the hyperbole of calling the turnover at the WH a 'body count', does tie in nicely to the Clinton body count.

Are you able to discuss the issue outside the context of "Hillary." E.g. if something is bad, just because Hillary might have also done something bad (valid or not) in some different time and context is eventually going to strain at credibility. It appears defensive rather than rational.

Why do you hate HDS sufferers?

Honestly, from having lived out here in flyover country for some time and working with a ton of people on a daily basis as they go about their workaday world, this sort of stuff is only of interest to the punditry and to people like us. Other than activist-type right and activist-type left, I haven't found anyone who really cares about what person that guy in the White House is hiring or firing at any given moment as long as their paychecks keep coming in and they can save a little money for retirement and take a week-long vacation to Disney World every once in awhile.

One thing's for sure, though. The media's hair sure seems to catch fire every time Donny Two Scoops hires or fires someone. You'd think it was, like, the Deluxe Edition of "The Apprentice" or something. ;-)

Eh, I keep reminding myself: we've survived 44 presidents. We'll certainly survive the 45th, no matter how many terms he ends up serving.

---

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

He's only the first Dictator of the US though, so we're not sure that's gonna work out, as we have no historical background [other than Nixon, perhaps?]

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Are you able to discuss any issue outside the context of "Hillary."

Fixed it for you.

You must be new around here.

Fair enough. Trump is not a politician though, which is why I initially thought of the private sector comparison.


"If Donald Trump runs the country like he runs his business, then God help us" - Mike Bloomberg

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Hey, some people are happy he has run a business and not a career politician.

.

Oh, I think this firing supports the narrative. Instead of Romney, the job went to a guy Trump had reportedly never met and who was literally a “friend of Putin” and whose former company would benefit from a better relationship with Russia (as would the oligarchs).

But then, uh oh, he’s willing to say that the Russians are carrying out hits on former spies in the U.K. Then he’s fired so fast that heads are spinning.

While we’re on the topic, when is Trump going to implement those sanctions that were almost unanimously supported by Congress?

Wait - you work at an airline hub, right? How can that possibly be "flyover country"?

Fix that shit!

Cool, it has been years since someone posted nutbaggery from world net daily. We better get Hillary out of the Whitehouse straightaway.

---

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Hahahahahahahaha!

I'd say even an airline hub, in Michigan, qualifies as "flyover country," because for damn sure most of the planes coming into this hub soon enough leave to go elsewhere. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

http://www.businessinsider.com/...ver-the-most-2014-10

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I admire your optimism.

drn92

Can you discuss the issue at all?

Is the President's tendency to quickly, and seemingly without regards to personal or professional relationships, fire people a good or bad thing?

As pointed out, this is very common in successful businesses. Where is someone isn't doing a good job they are quickly replaced. It's often said that being able to fire people is a sign of a good leader, since it's nearly impossible to always hire the right people, since you never know how they are going to perform until they are actually doing the job. Hiring people is easy, firing them is hard.

The Left said that the Trump campaign was in chaos when he fired/hired people, yet it worked out very well. Trump put people in place that he thought were the right people for each phase of the campaign (nomination, election, etc).

The Hillary bit was 2 things, a trigger for the TDS sufferers, and a case study in the opposite; keeping people on the job because of personal reasons or out of 'loyalty', even though they aren't doing a good job, or in Hillary's spiritual adviser, sexually abusing women.

There are plenty of jobs that people have gotten for their political support, or party loyalty. Trump has appointed many of those, but it seems, that at least in positions that he thinks are important, he's willing to fire anyone, in order to get the 'right' person in that position.

You missed one: direct relatives. Positions filled by direct relatives appear safest.

Also I don't know what you mean by "without regards to personal or professional relationships." I wouldn't subscribe to that notion at all. Pleasing Trump personally seems to be a considerable factor. Comey being the extreme example. It's hard to prove, because of course most (but not all) who leave take the high road. Not to say that pleasing your boss *shouldn't* be a factor. But in this case it seems to be a considerable factor. Let's not pretend it's all about some objective metric of "job performance."

From what I understand, after looking into Rexxon and his policies -- which I really don't care about in the least, to tell the truth, but it's interesting to study the dynamics of these State Department doings -- it looks like he was at odds with pretty much every major foreign policy stance Donny Two Scoops had, from the Paris climate accords to the Jerusalem embassy to the North Koreans to the Iran nuclear deal.

It also looks like it was his activities relating to the latter that finally got him kicked off "The Apprentice" by his boss. It appears he may have been working behind the back of that guy in the White House, with the European Union, to prevent the US from scrapping the Iran deal. No big secret that the EU wants the deal kept in place, for fear of US withdrawal from it (and it's not a treaty, so Two Scoops can pretty much do what he likes, apparently) jeopardizing various lucrative deals the EU had going with Iran at the same time.

I'd argue that the means and manner by which Rexxon was let go were wrong, of course. There are better and more face-saving ways to let a high-level senior officer of a company go (and it looks like the Manhattan real estate developer is running one of his companies, for good or ill), and they should have done so. But that's a bit of a distraction. It looks to me like, after a bit more than a year at the helm, Donny Two Scoops is less amenable to relying on the advice of so-called "insiders" who may or may not have his best interests at heart (State is notorious for having its own best interests, and the interests of others, including other foreign governments, at heart... which is one reason why it's called "Foggy Bottom").

Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel (hard a$$es both) are very much in line with the kind of aggressive foreign policy, one which that guy in the White House believes puts American interests first (and I'm not saying I agree with that policy), the Prexy wants. I don't know that Haspel will survive a Senate confirmation, either, given her past. I also think there'll be plenty of others in the administration who get the chop if it looks like they're clashing with Two Scoops' agenda. He's certainly proven he's not afraid to throw someone over the side if they work back-channel against him or go public with their disagreements.

Who knows? Maybe it was the guy from Manhattan's intention all the time to use (and I do mean use) insiders in major posts until he got the lay of the land and then toss them over the side once he was satisfied he'd learned enough about whatever their departments' roles are? It certainly wouldn't be out of character for the guy, would it? ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

i think the other reason that it's important completely aside from the systematic way in which the white house operates as a whole is the extent to which the turnover rate speaks to trump's own brand:

he specifically touted himself as having a long line of 'the best people' ready to slot into roles where they would solve problems that had been left unsolved by previous administrations who simply did not have the best people.

it also speaks to trump's brand of 'stability,' which again he's used as a selling point. similarly, this stability was going to allow him to confront and solve problems that others couldn't. a high rate of turnover from key positions contradicts his claims of stability in really obvious, outward-facing ways.

so, turnover can be bad in and of itself insofar as it undermines trump's own claims about himself - claims that were central to his sales pitch as a candidate.

---

____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Yep. Like it or not, the President should have a Secretary of State that he can work with, who speaks with the same voice (no small task when you're speaking for a guy like Trump) and largely shares the same foreign policy vision. Tillerson wasn't that guy in any respect, and I'm not the least bit impressed with his job performance even under those difficult circumstances. Wrong guy for the job in this administration. And with the looming Boy King Summit, now rather than later is the right time to get the foreign policy house in order.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

You make a good point but it begs the question. Why the fuck did Trump pick Tillerson in the first place? Why did he not figure out that they had different view points? Or why did he ignore that he knew that and pick him anyway?

---

Kevin

http://kevinmetcalfe.dreamhosters.com
My Strava

He didn't call him a moron;
He called him a f*cking moron.
C'mon, let's use our #bestwords

Umm -- POTUS didn't give a reason for the firing, let alone a reason for the timing of the firing.
But none of will argue that Trump did run a very successful business.

Raises the question, not begs. Fix that shit!

Imagine you apply for a job you have no working knowledge about, didn't really want, and didn't expect to get, then when you get it you find yourself scrambling to get a thousand things done in short order. You're probably inclined to take recommendations of people you trust and offer jobs to people you've admired from a distance.

He's figured out that Tilllerson doesn't fit his young administration and replaced him with someone he's developed a working relationship with. Setting aside his sniveling coward (to quote Senator Cruz) method, replacing him now was the right move.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

Kudos on your astute observation: POTUS likes 'em young

Russia connections... (no idea if that should be in pink or not)

I think Tillerson is a pretty straight shooter (so don't think he would have anything to do with any of Trump's possible questionable links to Russia), but his strong Russia connections could have assuaged Trump that he wasn't hiring someone who would be a Russia hawk.

"Boy King Summit." I LOVE IT!! Hahahahahahahahahahaha! :-)

---

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

More info on Rexxon's back-channel maneuvering on the Iran deal, which was what apparently got him fired (disclaimer: the cited source is funded by one of those conservative rightwing billionaire types ;-).

Donny Two Scoops' position on the Iran Deal is apparently as follows: If the European states which used to join us in economic sanctions before Barack Obama's deal with Iran let them out of it agree to force Iran to agree to actual inspections, performed by people called "Not the Iranian Government itself," (hahahaha!) of suspected nuclear sites, and agreed to limitations on ballistic missile technology, etc., then that guy in the White House would go along with the Iran Deal for a while. But not forever, which was something he'd made clear before, sources say.

It was Rexxon's job to go out to the European states and sell them on this.


Instead, of course, he walked back from what Two Scoops was demanding and instead made softer offers he was never authorized to make -- to appease Iran.

"The abrupt firing Tuesday of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson follows months of infighting between the State Department and White House over efforts by Tillerson to save the Iran nuclear deal and ignore President Donald Trump's demands that the agreement be fixed or completely scrapped by the United States, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.

In the weeks leading up to Tillerson's departure, he had been spearheading efforts to convince European allies to agree to a range of fixes to the nuclear deal that would address Iran's ongoing ballistic missile program and continued nuclear research.

While Trump had prescribed a range of fixes that he viewed as tightening the deal's flaws, Tillerson recently caved to European pressure to walk back these demands and appease Tehran while preserving the deal, according to these sources. The Free Beacon first disclosed this tension last week in a wide-ranging report.

White House allies warned Tillerson's senior staff for weeks that efforts to save the nuclear deal and balk on Trump's key demands regarding the deal could cost Tillerson his job, a warning that became reality Tuesday when Trump fired Tillerson by tweet."

---

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

You make a good point but it begs the question. Why the fuck did Trump pick Tillerson in the first place? Why did he not figure out that they had different view points? Or why did he ignore that he knew that and pick him anyway?

The fact that he hired Tillerson is a perfect example of how Trump doesn't have strong views on foreign policy (or domestic for that matter). If he did, he would have hired someone who reflects those views. Trump was hiring people and assumed that they would simply bend to his views, that they worked for him and would simply repeat whatever he wanted on a given day. He's realizing that some people do in fact have certain beliefs about how the world should work and they are willing to stand up for them.

Who knew foreign policy could be so difficult?

It's may be difficult, but everyone on 'our' side better be singing from the same hymnal. If he disagreed with the President's demands on Iran, he should have worked that out with the President. Not go behind his back and make offers he shouldn't be making. Or resign because he disagrees with the President's direction.

It's may be difficult, but everyone on 'our' side better be singing from the same hymnal. If he disagreed with the President's demands on Iran, he should have worked that out with the President. Not go behind his back and make offers he shouldn't be making. Or resign because he disagrees with the President's direction.

I agree that the SOS should be in line with the President but Tillerson has been on the opposite side of things since Day 1 which does beg the question why he was appointed in the first place. I think Trump appointed him because he thought Tillerson would bow down and blindly go along with him whenever he figured out what his next position was on foreign policy. The fact that he appointed Tillerson just proves Trump didn't have a clear vision of foreign policy which of course is no surprise to anyone.

The problem isn't with Tillerson, he didn't change his views on anything. The problem is with Trump.

Or, Trump wanted to hear opposing views, and wanted people to challenge him.

Of course, in the end, it's his way or the highway.

If Tillerson only wanted to do things his way, he shouldn't have taken the job. Or done a better job convincing the President of the merits of his way.

If he disagreed with the President's positions, he needed to either go along, or move along.

Working behind the President's back should have resulted in his firing.

That's the thing - there is no hymnal. Trump just makes sh*t up. Or asks the last guy what he was singing, then says "great, let's go with that", 'til he talks to the next guy.

Apparently Ambassador Nikki Haley wants to get fired too.

http://thehill.com/...isoning-ex-spy-in-uk

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Suffer Well.

Trump has said he likes conflict and he likes opposing views. Then he said he fired Tillerson because they weren't on the same page. So which is it? Conflicting opinions or yes men? I think we know the answer.

So all of that has hurt our foreign policy, to this point, how? Just curious. Because it seems like most of the hyperventilating overseas is coming from folks and countries who are more upset about the possible loss of lucrative monies than anything else. Except for all that climate accord stuff, I guess. Is there any money to be made in trading carbon credits? I really don't know.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

You just know the country is in good hands when the most apt comparison is a Monty Python absurdity.

Now if only we can work in another Trump cabinet sketch invoking Biggus Dickus...