BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG
We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
john kelly with his face in his hands in an attempt to hide the fact that he was at the meeting or that physical response when one covers one's face with a hand when one can't believe what they are hearing and seeing. Keep this in mind, john kelly is a drumpf/trump-pence republican, he is as corrupt and rotten as the rest of the administration, if he wasn't he wouldn't be part of it..... See why Trump tweeted and then deleted this embarrassing photo (we've got the screenshots!)
Friday April 13, 2018·11:04 AM EDT
Donald Trump wanted to show he’s a serious man who can hold serious meetings. Nothing says “I’m a serious person” like tweeting out photos of you taking a break from Fox News to attend a meeting where your fellow Republicans explain to you that your trade policies are moronic and ill-advised. That’s the scene in the image below as Donald Trump hosted an “Agriculture Roundtable” where red state senators who are worried about re-election and their farmer constituents tried to get Trump to walk back his tariffs and rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
In an attempt to prove he actually does occasionally take a break from Fox News and golfing, he sent out this now deleted tweet bragging about the meeting. Here’s a screenshot of the now missing tweet. Jump below to see why he deleted it.
That last picture on the bottom right? Let’s zoom in a little closer.
It appears that Trump has deleted this tweet—the one where, in the last image, you can see John Kelly with his head buried in his palm. pic.twitter.com/ExHgFzGYHH
john kelly fits in well in the White House, his misogny, racism, bigoty, as well as approval and protection of perpetrators of sexual assault, domestic violence and pedophilia reflect the beliefs and practices of NOT MY pres drumpf/trump, NOT MY vp pence and the rest of their administration. john kelly is a disgrace to the USMC and to the American Republic and he should resign, and if you click the link you can sign the petition from UltraViolet telling john kelly to resign.....
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly needs to resign immediately--can you sign the petition?
News broke on February 7th that not only has Kelly known that a senior White House aide beat two of his ex-wives--and was denied a security clearance because of it--Kelly also tried to talk him out of resigning, calling him "a man of true integrity and honor."2
It's not the first time Kelly has defended men who abuse women. Two years ago, he appeared as a character witness during the court-martial of a Marine colonel accused of sexually harassing two women subordinates--a man who was also later charged with sexually assaulting three children. Kelly called him "a superb Marine officer."3 Kelly's disregard for this kind of behavior disqualifies him to be in government at all, much less the second most powerful person in the Trump administration.
Enough. Kelly needs to go. Sources inside the White House say this latest incident has dealt Kelly's White House standing "a serious blow" that could lead to his end as Chief of Staff.4 If we pile on right now, we can force his resignation.
Tell White House Chief of Staff John Kelly: "Resign."
Kelly is a domestic abuse apologist and a racist. He does not deserve and cannot be allowed to serve the American people.
Rob Porter, the White House aide whose reputation Kelly tried to save, has a restraining order from his second ex-wife, whom he punched in the face. According to his first ex-wife, he would throw her down to, as she described, "grind a knee or elbow into my body."5 Yet Kelly urged Porter to "stay and fight" and pushed for him to get a top security clearanceeven after he knew the FBI denied it due to Porter's restraining order and lengthy record of abuse.6What's more, Kelly knew about the abuse since the fall, and shockingly not only decided to keep Porter but increased his responsibilities, including access to classified information and being the point person for determining what reached Trump's desk.7
Kelly not only defends abusive men, but also maligns Black and Brown people. Kelly said on Capitol Hill that some Dreamers--undocumented immigrants who were brought to America at a very young age--were "too lazy to get off their asses" to sign up for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which defers deportation.8 In reality, fear of deportation, along with significant financial and personal cost, drives many undocumented immigrants to avoid applying for DACA. Kelly has also falsely accused a Black congresswoman of corruption, claimed all that was needed to avoid the Civil War was a "compromise" on slavery, and called Confederate General Robert E. Lee an "honorable man."9
I was not one of the people deceived into thinking john kelly would bring some respectability to the drumpf/trump-pence administration and White House. NOBODY associated with this fascist administration has any class or respectability, if they did they wouldn't have anything to do with NOT MY pres drumpf/trump and NOT MY vp pence. john kelly has shown his true colors with his recent rants showing while he did serve in the U.S. military he was an unwilling defender of democracy and would be more at home in one of the dictatorships drumpf/trump-pence admire. And remember, the present cic, Not My pres drumpf/trump was saved from the Vietnam war by the best medical deferments available to the rich and powerful of the time (there is a history of draft dodging in drumpf's/trump's family). From DailyKos and Roll Call..... Chief of staff Kelly stunned by blowback after his slanderous attack on a Florida congresswoman
Tucked within this telling New York Timesprofile of White House chief of staff John Kelly is this nugget about how shocked he and other Trump aides were that his defamatory attack on Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson drew wide condemnation.
Mr. Kelly decided himself to head out to the White House briefing room to defend the president, colleagues said, and most of his remarks reflected on his own experience as the father of a slain soldier and the nature of military service. He brought tears to the eyes of other White House aides, who afterward traded emails expressing admiration for Mr. Kelly’s passionate defense of Mr. Trump. It was only afterward that they began to see how the attack on Ms. Wilson came to overshadow the emotion of the first part of his speech.
Mr. Kelly was surprised by the criticism of his speech, colleagues said, but he has not apologized to Ms. Wilson for making false statements about her. White House officials said they opted against it to avoid extending the story.
Let's review.
Kelly chose to make the remarks.
Aides were shocked that he got blowback after he smeared the reputation of a congresswoman who had close ties to the family of slain soldier Sgt. La David Johnson.
The slanderous attack apparently didn't register with White House aides because they were so wowed by Kelly's "passionate defense" of a pr*sident who has repeatedly attacked Gold Star families and had fueled a week's worth of controversy by telling bald-faced lies about his communication with the families of fallen soldiers—as if defending Trump was the honorable thing to do in the first place.
Kelly himself was stunned that the dishonorable act of flat-out lying to defend a pr*sident who himself had spent a week lying about Niger and Gold Star families wasn't well received.
Kelly, who had inserted himself into the conversation on his own volition, then decided for political reasons that he would just let his character assassination of Rep. Frederica Wilson stand—to avoid extending the story.
And yet, even as Trump—the guy Kelly was so insistent on defending—continued to extend the story by calling grieving widow Myeshia Johnson a liar, Kelly remained silent. In fact, Kelly allowed Sarah Huckabee Sanders to use his military service and Gold Star status to deny the truth that he had outright smeared Rep. Wilson.
It just goes to show: you can’t profess to be upholding some “sacred” set of ideals when you’re defending a guy who holds absolutely nothing sacred.
Email undermines veracity of president’s statement about Gold Star contacts
In the hours after President Donald Trump said on an Oct. 17 radio broadcast that he had contacted nearly every family that had lost a military servicemember this year, the White House was hustling to learn from the Pentagon the identities and contact information for those families, according to an internal Defense Department email.
The email exchange, which has not been previously reported, shows that senior White House aides were aware on the day the president made the statement that it was not accurate — but that they should try to make it accurate as soon as possible, given the gathering controversy.
Not only had the president not contacted virtually all the families of military personnel killed this year, the White House did not even have an up-to-date list of those who had been killed.
The exchange between the White House and the Defense secretary’s office occurred about 5 p.m. on Oct. 17. The White House asked the Pentagon for information about surviving family members of all servicemembers killed after Trump’s inauguration so that the president could be sure to contact all of them.
Capt. Hallock Mohler, the executive secretary to Defense Secretary James Mattis, provided the White House with information in the 5 p.m. email about how each servicemember had died and the identity of his or her survivors, including phone numbers.
The email’s subject line was, “Condolence Letters Since 20 January 2017.”
Mohler indicated in the email that he was responding to a request from the president’s staff for information through Ylber Bajraktari, an aide on the National Security Council. The objective was to figure out who among so-called Gold Star families of the fallen Trump had yet to call. Mohler’s email said that the president’s aides “reached out to Ylber looking for the following ASAP from DOD.”
Trump had said in a Fox News Radio interview earlier that day that he had contacted the families of “virtually everybody” in the military who had been killed since he was inaugurated.
“I have called, I believe, everybody — but certainly I’ll use the word virtually everybody,” Trump said.
Since then, the Associated Press contacted 20 families and found that half had not heard from Trump. It is not clear how many of the families that have heard from the president received the calls this week, since the controversy over his contacts with military families erupted. It is not clear when the White House first asked for data on Gold Star families, but it is clear that the answers had not been provided before Tuesday.
The Pentagon email indicates that 21 military personnel had been killed in action during Trump’s tenure, and an additional 44 had been killed by means other than enemy fire, such as ship collisions that took 17 sailors’ lives in the Pacific this summer.
Trump has clearly been active in reaching out to military families who have suffered the ultimate loss, as the AP reports show.
But the White House-Pentagon email scramble Tuesday undermines the veracity of Trump’s statement about his record of contacting all Gold Star families. The internal document also sheds light on how the White House staff, on this and other occasions, has had to go into damage-control mode when the president makes inaccurate statements.
On Oct. 18, the day after the president’s aides had sought and received the Gold Star family data from the Pentagon, a reporter at a White House press conference asked Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders whether Trump had in fact contacted all the families.
“The president’s made contact with all of the families that have been presented to him through the White House Military Office,” she replied. “All of the individuals that the president has been presented with through the proper protocol have been contacted through that process.”
That language is hedged. “Made contact” does not mean a phone call necessarily, and “through that process” could mean letters of condolence or other forms.
The administration echoed Sanders’ language Friday night.
“The White House ensured that the President had contacted all families of soldiers killed in action that had been presented to him through existing protocols,” spokesman Raj Shah said in an email.
White House chief of staff John Kelly on Thursday said he was "stunned" by the uproar over Donald Trump's phone call to the grieving widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed earlier this month in Niger. Kelly then proceeded to scapegoat Congresswoman Frederica Wilson for violating the sacred trust of a president.
"It stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation," said Kelly, a former four-star Marine General whose son was killed in Afghanistan in 2010. "Absolutely stuns me. And I thought at least that was sacred."
Let's just start by acknowledging that Rep. Wilson is not the one who started this conversation. If Kelly is looking for the culprit, he can walk straight into the Oval Office, because it's Donald Trump who has turned patriotism into a political weapon. It was Trump who in trying to explain his failure to contact the families of four fallen soldiers fumbled his way into falsely accusing President Obama of never having called Gold Star families. It was Trump who dragged Kelly's son, Marine Second Lieutenant Robert Kelly, into the political spotlight by pointing out that Obama hadn't called Gen. Kelly following his son’s death. It was Trump who in trying to cover his butt following the blowback over his lies and politicization of the issue made the clumsy call to a grieving widow in which he relayed that her husband “knew what he was signing up for." It was Trump who then lied again, tweeting that Wilson had "totally fabricated" his unconscionable comments and said he had "proof" that she had done so.
Well, that "proof" dissolved into the exceedingly thin air occupying Trump's head and so the White House sent Gen. Kelly out to address America about a story their boss has stoked all week. We can only take that as confirmation that Wilson's initial characterization of what Trump said was 100 percent accurate.
For his part, Kelly explained from the White House podium that Trump, who had supposedly already been making these calls, asked Kelly what he should say when he reached out to these four families. Trump also asked him if President Obama had called him and he told Trump, no. Kelly then relayed what he told Trump about these phone calls with the clear intention of explaining the terribly mangled sentiments Trump eventually delivered. Kelly quoted the person who had informed him of his son's death in 2010, his close friend Gen. Joe Dunford.
He said, Kel, he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. He knew what he was getting into by joining that 1 percent. He knew what the possibilities were, because we're at war. And when he died—and the four cases we're talking about Niger, my son's case in Afghanistan—when he died he was surrounded by the best men on this Earth: his friends. That's what the president tried to say to four families the other day. I was stunned at what I saw a member of Congress doing.
What's also stunning is what Kelly left unsaid. What about Trump lying about Obama's phone calls—did that violate a sacred trust? What about Trump using Kelly's son to deflect from his own failures—did that violate a sacred trust? What about Trump accusing Rep. Wilson of lying—did that violate a sacred trust? What about Trump insulting a Gold Star family during the campaign—did that violate a sacred trust? What about Trump turning this entire issue of fallen soldiers into a political weapon—did that violate a sacred trust?
“He knew what he was signing up for, but I guess it hurts anyway.” This was according to Wilson, who late yesterday told The Post that she had overheard the call on a speakerphone while riding in a limousine with Johnson when Trump called, and that this exchange made the widow cry. [...]
Wilson said she had known the slain solder for a long time, noting that he had passed through the mentoring program for boys of color she founded in Miami in 1993. It’s called the 5,000 Role Models of Excellence Project. She said she had “practically raised” him. She added that there is also a scholarship fund bearing his name.
Gen. John Kelly has made untold sacrifices for this country—not only did he lose one son, he still has another who is serving in the military. His service and commitment to our country are to be commended. But it is simply not fair to blame the way this conversation about military service, Gold Star families, and paying the ultimate sacrifice has devolved on a congresswoman from Florida. That defies reason, given the way Donald Trump has conducted himself over the past week. He’s led this race to the bottom.
IF it wasn't happening in the White House this would be funny. The cast of no class characters, the lying, cheating, leaking, backstabbing, bullying by twitter, is all so childish and yet this is the drumpf/trump-pence administration. It is no wonder drumpf/trump-pence get along so well with sleazy little anthony scaramucci, the new WH communications director and Not My pres drumpf/trump and NOT MY vp pence speak the same language. Here's the latest drama, from +NPR .....
Warning: This post contains some very graphic language (I filled in the blanks, NPR had "s*** my own c***" because I want to make it very clear to the Christian right wing what they elected. NPR did include "fucking" in their print version of this story).
Updated at 6:40 p.m. ET
The newly installed Trump White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, unloaded on the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and adviser Steve Bannon with some harsh language that would make a sailor blush.
In the interview, posted Thursday, with New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza, Scaramucci called Priebus "a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac."
Turning his attention to Bannon, Scaramucci said he had no interest in media attention. "I'm not Steve Bannon; I'm not trying to suck my own cock," Scaramucci said. "I'm not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the president. I'm here to serve the country."
On Thursday evening, Scaramucci followed up on Twitter, saying he would "refrain" from using such language.
Scaramucci was initially set off by a report in Politico that indicates he has assets worth as much as $85 million and that he took a $5 million salary from SkyBridge Capital, the hedge fund he founded, in the first half of the year.
Scaramucci tweeted Wednesday night suggesting that reporting the financial disclosure information was "a felony" and saying that he will contact the FBI.
"In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45."
The tweet has since been deleted.
On Thursday morning, Scaramucci called into CNN and all but accused Priebus of deliberately leaking the report.
"If Reince wants to explain that he's not a leaker, let him do that," Scaramucci said. "Let me tell you something about myself — I am a straight shooter, and I'll go right to the heart of the matter."
The Justice Department, meanwhile, says it is taking leaks seriously. DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement, "We have seen an astonishing increase in the number of leaks of classified national security information in recent months. We agree with Anthony that these staggering number of leaks are undermining the ability of our government to function and to protect this country. Like the Attorney General has said, 'whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail,' and we will aggressively pursue leak cases wherever they may lead."
The increasingly nasty contretemps playing out in the West Wing between Scaramucci and Priebus seems to have started when Priebus reportedly objected to Trump's hiring of the financier.
Priebus ally Sean Spicer, who was pulling double duty as communications director and press secretary, quit when Scaramucci was named to the job.
Scaramucci acknowledged to CNN that he and Priebus "have had odds. We've had differences."
Referring to his remarks last week that he and Priebus were like brothers, he elaborated.
"Some brothers are like Cain and Abel," he said. "Other brothers can fight with each other and get along. I don't know if this is reparable or not. That will be up to the president."
Of course, as every Sunday school graduate knows, in the Bible, Cain murdered Abel.
On Thursday, new White House Communications Director Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci gave a striking interview, if you want to call it that, with The New Yorker'sRyan Lizza. According to Lizza, Scaramucci pledged to fire "everyone in the [White House] comms team" in an attempt to flush out leakers, referred to White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus as a "f--king paranoid schizophrenic," and accused top a top White House adviser of trying to perform fellatio on himself. Like clockwork, memes and jokes about Scaramucci's interview surfaced on Twitter later that same day.
Scaramucci, a former investment banker, said a lot of things in that interview that you don't normally hear top White House officials saying. He distanced himself from another high-profile White House adviser, telling Lizza, "I’m not Steve Bannon, I'm not trying to suck my own c--k." He added that he'd like to "f--king kill all the leakers" in the White House, and cryptically suggested that one or more of those leakers had committed a felony.
"I've gotta start tweeting some s--t to make this guy crazy," Scaramucci said shortly before ending the interview. It was unclear to whom he was referring.
Needless to say, it's not every day that you hear a top government official speak with such, um, candor. The Twitter memes and jokes quickly followed.
Scaramucci and Preibus reportedly don't like each other very much, a report seemingly confirmed in this interview when Scaramucci referred to his colleague as "schizophrenic" and accused him of illegally leaking documents to the press.
He rose from relative state-party obscurity and reached an unlikely pinnacle as the man responsible for the agenda of the president of the United States.
Now, Reince Priebus is out of that job as White House chief of staff in the most significant shake-up of the rocky Trump presidency.
President Trump announced on Twitter on Friday that Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has been named as Priebus' replacement.
As chairman of the Republican National Committee during the 2016 presidential campaign, Priebus' team supplanted a thin Trump campaign with money and staff to help Trump win the presidency. That brought Trump and Priebus close, but it was never a natural fit — the mild-mannered, careful former Wisconsin Republican Party leader with the Midwestern accent, once critically described as the "nebbish's nebbish," and the flashy, cavalier New York billionaire.
Priebus' exit indicates the full decline in the White House of the RNC-led Washington wing. Priebus was the last of the high-profile RNC staffers to exit the West Wing. Months ago, Priebus' deputy, Katie Walsh — a former RNC chief of staff, who was accused of being a leaker by rivals inside the White House — left to work on an outside PAC supporting Trump. Then it was Sean Spicer, the beleaguered press secretary doubling as communications director, who left the day Trump brought on board New York financier Anthony Scaramucci as communications director.
Priebus' tenure lasted just seven months, an unusually short stint for a president's first chief of staff.
Priebus and "The Mooch"
Despite lauding Priebus in his first appearance in the White House briefing room, Scaramucci days later revealed simmering tensions with the then-chief of staff. Those tensions burst wide open into public view Thursday when it was revealed that Scaramucci, who refers to himself as "The Mooch," called a reporter and unloaded on Priebus.
Tensions between Priebus and new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci had come to a boil this week.
Alex Brandon/AP
"Reince is ... a paranoiac," Scaramucci told The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza. Scaramucci was annoyed, thinking his financial disclosure was leaked to the media. It turns out, a Politico reporter obtained it through a public-information request.
Fearful of an unscheduled meeting or phone call or even a rogue tweet at the thumbs of the president, Priebus made it a point of keeping close by Trump's side. But there were signs that Priebus was, at times, out of the loop, like when Trump decided to hire Scaramucci. Both Priebus and senior adviser Steve Bannon reportedly objected strenuously to the move.
The fact that Priebus is the one who is out certainly lends credence to the idea that the New York wing, which believes in letting Trump be Trump, is ascendant in the White House.
Embracing the tornado
As chairman of the RNC, Priebus had the unenviable role of trying to keep the roof on the Republican Party house with Trump, an outsider tornado, spiraling toward it.
Priebus tried to contain the tornado, getting Trump to agree to a pledge not to run third-party in the fall, if he lost the nomination. But the tornado of Trump only got stronger, and no amount of plywood and nails would keep the house in order.
Instead, Priebus opened the doors and arguably did more than anyone else in the party to embrace the coming force.
Priebus ally Sean Spicer left his post as White House press secretary on the same day Scaramucci's appointment was announced.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
That didn't mean he wasn't critical.
"No woman should ever be described in these terms or talked about in this manner. Ever," Priebus said in October when the Access Hollywood video was revealed. Trump was caught on tape bragging about grabbing women "by the p****," because "when you're a star, they let you do anything."
But Priebus had to temper his criticisms throughout the campaign, so he didn't suffer Trump's wrath — and the party didn't implode. During the general-election campaign, Priebus' RNC wound up supplementing Trump's skeleton campaign with millions of dollars in resources and hundreds of field workers in key states.
Loss of an ally
Priebus wound up winning over Trump. Perhaps it was a calculated decision to get support from someone with ties to a crucial state. Trump needed Priebus, a member of the so-called "Cheesehead Mafia." Priebus is close with House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fellow Wisconsinite. (Ryan is actually Priebus' congressman.)
Why make an enemy of Priebus, when he could be a critical ally, as Trump tried to get his agenda passed? But the wheels have been anything but greased. Priebus' exit comes a day after Republicans' health care efforts were sunk in Congress, at least for now.
A tax overhaul hasn't materialized, despite pledges of addressing it by the summer. And a conversation on infrastructure is only talk of the future.
A chief of staff traditionally is the gatekeeper for the president, but despite his best efforts, Priebus struggled to be that.
Trump has veered off-message in tweets, his handling of the Russia investigation, the firing James Comey as FBI director (arguably his most high-profile political miscue) and with his public shaming of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, which turned many congressional Republicans on the president.
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