Trump Removes Anthony Scaramucci From Communications Director Role (nytimes.com)

Maggie Haberman, Michael D. Shear, and Glenn Thrush reporting for The New York Times: President Trump has decided to remove Anthony Scaramucci from his position as communications director (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternative source), three people close to the decision said Monday, relieving him just days after Mr. Scaramucci unloaded a crude verbal tirade against other senior members of the president's senior staff. Mr. Scaramucci's abrupt removal came just 10 days after the wealthy New York financier was brought on to the West Wing staff, a move that convulsed an already chaotic White House and led to the departures of Sean Spicer, the former press secretary, and Reince Priebus, the president's first chief of staff. From a report: Anthony Scaramucci will be leaving his role as White House Communications Director," the statement read. "Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best." Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is scheduled to brief the press corps, on-camera, at 12:45 pm PST. Scaramucci was given the job on Friday, June 21, and by Thursday, July 27, became something of a national laughingstock when The New Yorker reported his profanity-laced conversation with the magazine's Washington correspondent the night before. He was hired by the president to take charge of a communications operation in disarray, and his hiring coincided with the departure of White House press secretary Sean Spicer. Scaramucci, in his conversation with The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, was extremely critical of White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and predicted, correctly, that then-chief of staff Reince Priebus would be removed from his position. Following the publication of Lizza's article, it became an open question in Washington whether Scaramucci would keep his job.

Comments

I don't like Trump, but

[93 Escort Wagon]

He made a good decision here.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Rei]

Immediately after making the bad one to put him in the role in the first place.

Again and again I can't help but be reminded of this video. "If we screw up your vetting process, the next one is FREE!!!!!!"

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

When you have to keep firing people that you've hired it generally points to you not being a very good judge of character.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

He made a good decision by removing that guy he just appointed for no apparent reason? Yeah, I suppose he did, but in context he made a terrible decision to have him there in the first place, so I don't get the point in saying he 'did good' reacting to his fuck up. He's still incompetent.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

It was Kelly.
It wasn't trump as he is too dumb to do that.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Nidi62]

Part of me wonders if this was planned all along (and by all along I mean the last few days) as a way to get rid of Preibus. Trump obviously isn't happy with the GOP and getting rid of Priebus was a good way to put a shot over the GOP's bow. So, bring in Mooch, have him get into a pissing match with Priebus, use that as an excuse to get rid of Priebus, and bring in Kelly who might be more loyal to Trump. Then, when Mooch has done his job, cut him loose. Trump gets to get rid of poor Spicey, gets to rebuke the GOP over their failed repeal of Obamacare, and gets a new Chief of Staff and (eventually) a new Communications Director.

Of course, the other part of me thinks Trump is so unhinged and disjointed he can't even plan far enough ahead to decide whether he wants original or extra crispy KFC waiting for him in the limo that takes him from Air Force One to Mar a Lago on his biweekly "definitely not golfing" weekend golf trips.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[UnknowingFool]

If only Trump listened to Trump who criticized Obama for having 3 Chiefs of Staff in 3 years. The Internet is forever.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[v1]

Was this a position that had to be confirmed? Idiots appointing idiots is bad enough, but the appointed idiots getting confirmed is all that much worse

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[cayenne8]

Scaramucci, Scaramucci....will you do the Fandango?

Thunderbolts and lightning, very VERY frightening ME!!

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[h33t l4x0r]

That may have been true for previous administrations, when the White House was more of a workplace and less of a reality show.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[eliphalet]

No, it's a White House staff position, so no confirmation needed.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[DontBeAMoran]

And you can't even blame the voters because a minority put him in charge in the first place!

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

A workplace with a revolving door for their workers says a lot about their management and how the company is ran. There are companies big (to big to fail) and small that run this way. It shows utter incompetence from the top down. Fortunately in our case, it doesn't always sink a company or in this case a government. We will recover and America will be great once again. We just have to wait out the orange pussy grabber to finish not doing his job and move forward.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[sysrammer]

I wonder myself. Trump is able to give the Chattering Classes plenty of fuel to keep them occupied, while slowly filling the positions that he needs with people loyal to Trump and not an ideology. It takes time to execute regime change as practiced in America.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Heathren-bert]

Thank $deity that I'm not the only one who thinks of that when I hear his name...

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

That may have been true for previous administrations, when the White House was more of a workplace and less of a reality show.

Reality has nothing to do with it, dearie.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[ranton]

Regardless, the fact that the Trump admin lets him go knowing that it's going to make them look bad is actually encouraging to me. When you make a mistake and instantly correct it, that's YUGE. Most government officials at that level tend to double down.

You could probably find a silver lining when buried under 50 feet of shit. Just because a bad mistake blows up in your face immediately does not mean fixing it after the fact is laudable. We have seen from both the Flynn and Scaramucci situations that the Trump administration didn't do anything until things had gotten quite bad already.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Trump has bragged about hiring people who are not of good character in the Art of the Deal. Like, he hired a man with a criminal record to handle the proceeds of his all cash business , and then laughed at the other employees when his criminal manager stole the money collected to buy flowers for a grieving coworker's family. And published it in a book.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[quantaman]

Part of me wonders if this was planned all along (and by all along I mean the last few days) as a way to get rid of Preibus. Trump obviously isn't happy with the GOP and getting rid of Priebus was a good way to put a shot over the GOP's bow. So, bring in Mooch, have him get into a pissing match with Priebus, use that as an excuse to get rid of Priebus, and bring in Kelly who might be more loyal to Trump. Then, when Mooch has done his job, cut him loose. Trump gets to get rid of poor Spicey, gets to rebuke the GOP over their failed repeal of Obamacare, and gets a new Chief of Staff and (eventually) a new Communications Director.

Of course, the other part of me thinks Trump is so unhinged and disjointed he can't even plan far enough ahead to decide whether he wants original or extra crispy KFC waiting for him in the limo that takes him from Air Force One to Mar a Lago on his biweekly "definitely not golfing" weekend golf trips.

10 days is more long term planning than I'd generally give Trump credit for.

Besides, replacing Priebus with Kelly who then turfed Spicer would have been pretty good optics. In that scenario you have the "disciplined military man coming in and taking charge" narrative.

Instead Trump looks like a fool for hiring Scaramucci and looks weak for having is Chief of Staff come in and reverse his hiring position. Plus, you have yet another instance of someone joining the administration and losing their reputation in the process. You're not going to have much luck recruiting good people.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

As well it should remind you, as Scaramucci is the Italian form of Scaramouch as mentioned in Bohemian Rhapsody, and that's the only reference in popular American culture.

And conveniently, it fits Scaramucci perfectly! From Wikipedia:

Scaramuccia (literally "little skirmisher"), also known as Scaramouche or Scaramouch, is a stock clown character of the Italian commedia dell'arte (comic theatrical arts). The role combined characteristics of the zanni (servant) and the Capitano (masked henchman). Usually attired in black Spanish dress and burlesquing a don, he was often beaten by Harlequin for his boasting and cowardice.

So how does that apply to Scaramucci?

• means "little skirmisher"
• stock clown character
• combined characteristics of servant and henchman
• beaten for his boasting and cowardice

Could you get a more perfect name?

dom

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

Great. So at best this means that he's got a talent for collecting syncophants, at the cost of working with his party and y'know, everyone else in the world. He seems to think that his powers are absolute, when in point of fact it's Congress that has all the cards. His voice does not outweigh theirs. If he wants to play King, he will discover that the Founders did in fact set up a democracy.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed, it's becoming increasingly clear that he can't manage the job as the President, he can't even manage his own god damned office!

People are getting hired and fired faster than in a Monty Python skit on crack and his circle is getting quite heavy on ex-military people which isn't necessarily a good sign for a supposedly civilian government.

I can't help but wondering what people would make of this soup if it happened in any other country...

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Trump is so unhinged and disjointed he can't even plan far enough ahead to decide whether he wants original or extra crispy KFC waiting for him in the limo

Hey, what you're in the mood for can change rapidly. If yhou have enough money, having both waiting seems perfectly reasonable!

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Krakadoom]

That is a fairly ridiculous statement. Making a horrendous decision and then acting to correct it only after it can't be concealed or managed anymore is not "good decisionmaking". It's having your hand forced in spite of yourself.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[HornWumpus]

Trump is fighting with the RNC establishment. But nobody is talking about it, not even the Ds.

I've said it before, the DNC and RNC have 'mutually assured destruction' dirt on each other. Trump can trigger that data dump without even knowing what he's doing.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[HornWumpus]

What kind of moron wrecks a good paying scam to steal $100 from a flower fund? That's not bad character, that's just stupid.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Zero__Kelvin]

How could you have possibly missed "burlesquing a Don"??!?

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[upl8n87447]

It wasn't Trump that decided "The Mooch" needed to go. It sounds like new Chief of Staff Kelly was responsible for making that decision. Trump, running out of options for staff, had no choice but to agree.

Trump is a complete disaster. He tweets about how great the economy is doing under him, but the economy was on an uphill climb before he ever became President. He's only been president for 7 months! He has done literally nothing that could be construed as having major impacts on the economy, unless he believes his mere presence moves markets.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Chris Mattern]

and that's the only reference in popular American culture.

Well, not quite the only.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[thewolfkin]

but you don't get points for fixing something you broke. That's like getting a clap on the back for saving someone's life when you're the reason they're in danger in the first place.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[SCVonSteroids]

No kidding, I even got down-modded just for saying it!

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Billly Gates]

Well an old despair.com poster once stated "Morale: often the best solution is to fire all the unhappy people". Sadly and with a sense of irony it correct.

It is not a character flow if you need to do a turn around. It's appropriate. All the time shows not a character flow but rather under paying and inappropriately managed.

A famous MBA book called Good To Great companies that have did an amazing turn around and compare them it a competitor which was the former market leader.

Basically it boiled down to a CEO saying THIS IS BULLSHIT! We need a change with his senior executives. They implement a turn around and give a "Bus is moving in a new direction. Either get on the bus or get off?". The gray hairs who while and others who do pissing contests are fired. Morale is improved and direction changes. Then company takes bigger competitor down and wins!

Trump is inappropriate and unprofessional. This caused his staff to do the same and in fight. Gen Kelly is a no nonsense guy who wants discipline and teamwork. Yes firings should continue and staff should report to him. Not Trump since he won't change. When change needs happening it's best to use those who are not so disgruntled they can't get unboard.

Oh and those fired from such positions almost always are happier. It serves no one good to keep bitter angry people who cause problems and not solutions

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[AmiMoJo]

The Trump "Administration" has turned your government into a reality TV show, but instead of going to the green room to bad-mouth the other contestants in private they just go on CNN or Fox or Twitter.

The only real upside is that the whole this is so ineffective it can't do as much damage as people feared. The wall can't get funded, Obamacare is still there... The closest they have come to actually doing something is the half-assed travel ban, despite Trump's best efforts to screw his future self.

SAD.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[gtall]

If the RNC and Trump are busing screwing each other over, why should the Democrats do anything but stand back and let them have it?

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[shanen]

HOW can that be insightful? The reference of "He" is not clear unless you refer back to the Subject: line. Okay, so it's #PresidentTweety, but I STRONGLY doubt this was even his decision. The Mooch is the Donald's soulmate. You don't fire your TRUE soulmate.

I think this decision came directly from General Kelly. Trump has curled into the fetal position and has retrogressed to his high school days in the fake military private school. In Trump's delusional memory he was a YUGE success as a fake platoon commander.

Really. NOT a joke. Look it up in such sources as Trump Revealed . His beloved dad sentenced him there for obedience training when he got too gangsta and started playing with knives. (The book is already a bit fuzzy in my recollection, but I think Trump now claims (as reported in the book) that he doesn't even remember the knives.)

(So far the only reference to the book, but I bet I don't even get an informative mod... Maybe there are some other good references in the discussion, but I just haven't found them yet?)

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[gtall]

Sigh...I'm afraid you are right. There goes my morning shot of stupid with my coffee in the morning news. I don't know how I'll get off to a good start now.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[h33t l4x0r]

It sounds like a lot of people missed the part of the story where "The Mooch" accuses Priebus of being behind the leaks. Trump believes it, boots Priebus, but then realizes he's been had and boots The Mooch. They really should be televising, this stuff is gold.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[michaelcole]

Unblocked version: http://www.funnyordie.com/vide...

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[gtall]

So now Trump has joined the party of...of...well, there's him....his vapid daughter, her husband who's just as egotistical as Scaramucci but been around Trump long enough to know he won't be for long if he lets it out. I suppose there's his N. Korean cabinet except for Mattis, "oh, great and esteemed leader, its my life's ambition to serve you"....soon they'll be carrying around those little notepads and pens to write down the glorious leader's thoughts. I suppose there are a few moral degenerate Republicans in Congress who will support him if it means they get to continue screwing poor people and non-whites.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Pseudonym]

Exactly. Interfering might cause the RNC and Trump to agree on something and this is not in the D's best interest.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[gtall]

Scaramucci losing his reputation? Errr...this is the same Scaramucci who transplanted his Wall Street behavior to the national press so we could all see. No, I think his reputation is firmly in tact.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Pseudonym]

The phrase "reality show" is understood to mean televised nonscripted surreality. Not actual reality.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[BarbaraHudson]

Maybe in the future they should do so, just to avoid messes like this.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[ganjadude]

a minority ALWAYS puts the president in being that the vast majority of the population doesnt vote.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[haruchai]

"All Trump has to do is actually prosecute Hillary"

Prosecute her for what? Losing the election?

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[shanen]

If there was a "stimulating" mod and I ever got a mod point to give, I'd give you one. You made me realize that Kelly has to go after Ivanka and Jared now. That's going to be the REAL test of the FAKE presidency. Also, Kelly needs to take away #PresidentTweety's Twitter machine and put a leash on him.

All of this is only possible if Trump remains in his current fetal position, as noted above.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[haruchai]

a minority ALWAYS puts the president in being that the vast majority of the population doesnt vote.

While I would like to see more people voting, it probably wouldn't do much to change the outcome.
America's election rules make gerrymandering by either side relatively easy & the only states that matter are swing states with significant numbers of electoral votes. If 100% of eligible voters in non-swing states voted, the only likely difference in the outcome would be the voter head count & demographics.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Gr8Apes]

At least Rocky Horror is entertaining. This reality show is frightening.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Gr8Apes]

He's only been president for 7 months! He has done literally nothing that could be construed as having major impacts on the economy, unless he believes his mere presence moves markets.

Of course he does!!! Haven't you been listening to him?

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

Flynn and Sessions both went through confirmation process. While I might agree with your premise, some things would have to be fixed first. Confirmation should not just be a rubber stamp. In all previous administrations there were people put forward, then congress actually did its job and few had to withdraw. You did not see this with Trump.

There was a time both parties were about putting the country first and not the party first. They have both historically paid the price for this as well but when it is for the good of the country it should be seen as worth it.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Newander]

True. Like every other reality show.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

I've got a better take:

Trump is fighting the establishment because he and the people that support him are incompetent pieces of shit and they have to resort to the techniques of tinpot dictators to stay in office.

The establishment, as you like to use as a slur, is a whole lot of people that do the very hard job of running the most powerful country on earth. You know. Experts. The people you trust when sitting on your couch and bullshitting about topics you don't understand doesn't cut the mustard.

Running under the assumption that booting out "the establishment" and replacing it with people like Trump (And trump's supporters) will do anything but bring chaos and ruin and death is exactly why people like yourself should never vote.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder myself. Trump is able to give the Chattering Classes plenty of fuel to keep them occupied, while slowly filling the positions that he needs with people loyal to Trump and not an ideology. It takes time to execute regime change as practiced in America.

Except there was nothing stopping him from picking a hardcore loyalist for Chief of Staff or Press Secratary right from the start.

All he has done has burned credibility that might have allowed him to squeak some of theses more extreme hacks into jobs that required confirmation.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[sysrammer]

Well, honestly, this is trickle-down economics in a nutshell... economic progress proceeds by providing more luxuries to the rich. Back in the real world this is a recipe for wasteful and dangerous misallocation of resources.

This is actually kind of insightful. Well, interesting, anyways.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[MachineShedFred]

Remember, if you bought milk on the day he was hired, it will still be fresh* the day after this guy has been fired; though Scaramucci will probably be quite sour.

This guy was worse at his job than milk.

* yes, even in the US where we still use century-old pasteurization where other regions of the world have moved on to far better technology

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[youngone]

Prosecute her for what? Losing the election?

I don't mean to sound flippant, but that is a possibility. Countries with a shaky grasp of democracy do it all the time, Pakistan being a fairly good example.
It seems a logical extension of the winner takes all mind-set that seems to have taken over US politics recently.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Sparowl]

Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening?

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Rei]

Well, at least this particular fiasco is over. Now Scaramucci can go home to spend more time with his fam... ... oh. :(

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

That you don't recognize Trump as an even bigger shyster is telling

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[J. J. Ramsey]

Don't know if he can do the Fandango, but he sure can do the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[mattack2]

What do other regions of the world use? How much longer does the milk last?

I just buy a gallon & freeze it in plastic bottles I already have, so it's not too big a deal. I use it mostly for coffee, so just leaving the frozen one out for a few minutes melts enough to use for coffee quickly, then just put in the fridge & it stays partially frozen for a while..

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

He may regret not being more like Steve Bannon.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[CanadianMacFan]

In Canada we have fine filtered milk alongside pasteurized milk. It's a little bit more expensive ($4.99* version $4.29 for 4 litres). On the outer bag it says it's guaranteed to stay fresh for 15 days longer than traditionally pasteurized milk. I notice a difference in taste but I can't say it's not just in my head.

But I can say it does say fresh longer. I mainly use it for tea and the extra shelf life allows me to buy 4 litres instead of 2 litres of the pasteurized milk (which is more than $3.50). I could freeze the bags but I'd forget to take them out and so it's just easier for me to get the 4 litres of fine filtered milk.

* If you think that the price of milk is expensive (it is compared to the US but it doesn't have the additives that US milk does) a few years ago when China was buying up powdered milk like crazy and the price of milk shot up in most places across the world we were paying the same price for milk. We pay a consistent price over time for our dairy so while it doesn't even it the situation isn't as bad as most people make out. We are always going to pay some more for our milk just because of our geography compared to a farmer in the southern US. Cows for the major of places in Canada need to be housed in winter and fed. There is no place for them to graze during that time.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[mattack2]

Can you recycle the bags?

I can put the gallon plastic jugs in our weekly recycling (and hopefully they actually ARE being recycled).

15 days longer sounds like between 3 weeks and a month to stay fresh? I think the date on milk I buy can be more than a week out from today.

(BTW, you cannot accurately guess my political affiliation by the recycling question.)

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[CanadianMacFan]

I wouldn't want them to vote. If they can't be bothered to actively participate then imagine how they would vote if they did. It's bad enough some of the reasons people vote the way they do now such as for the best looking candidate or that's the way their parents voted.

You don't just want numbers of people voting. You want people who make informed decisions about the issues, the parties, and the people running for election to be voting.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Food waste is a pretty big problem in general, but extra KFC and needing 8 vacation homes are very different classes of problems. The US produces enough chickens to waste some, whereas there aren't enough good vacation houses.

But, I will point that I was commenting on Trump's decision making abilities. Ignoring decisions that are completely unimportant is a valid strategy.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[Jesus H Rolle]

What do other regions of the world use?

HTST (high temp, short time). It makes the milk tastes burnt, but they don't know any better and it'll keep for a long time at room temperature a day as long as you keep the box sealed.

The US uses UHT, which is lower temperature for a longer time and retains flavor.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[Jesus H Rolle]

Actually I switched UHT and HTST. Whatever.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Gussington]

The phrase "reality show" is understood to mean televised nonscripted surreality. Not actual reality.

"Reality show" means scripted to look unscripted with actors you can pay much less for and replace a lot more easily. Nothing about Reality TV is real.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[davester666]

But now who will SNL use as part of their skits with Trump? Just Bannon gets boring.

I was looking forward to something like an Austin Powers setup, with Dr. Evil and the mooch portrayed as mini-me (hyper-agressive sycophant looking for a father-figure).

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Gussington]

Also, Kelly needs to take away #PresidentTweety's Twitter machine and put a leash on him.

Always thought it would be funny if Twitter blocked his account. He'd be lost without it. They could then hand it out to late night comedians each week for lulz.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[mattack2]

Do you mean sealed as in never opened or just re-sealed?

If it doesnâ(TM)t last any longer in the fridge after opening, itâ(TM)s not that interesting to me.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Anonymous Coward]

These "experts" have utterly failed to take care of this country, indicated by the levels of corruption, lack of general welfare for the public, poor infrastructure, literally poisoning the public (Flint, MI) and doing fuck-all to remedy it, I could go on.

I'm not saying Trump's any better. I cannot find it in myself to defend him or his cronies. But to assert that "the experts" are capable of doing their job is laughable. The talking points don't matter. I don't give a fuck what party hat they're wearing. I care about results, and the United States simply does not deliver on that front. Take a good look at our country and ask yourself if anyone in a position to change it gives a fuck.

The answer is "no", and you need only look to your local community to see evidence of that.

What we need is competency and an administration that cares about doing its job as a government. And by "administration" I mean the whole damn thing. Every branch is corrupt as fuck, in bed with corporations. Wipe it out and start something new, because clearly the idiots on Capitol Hill are out of touch and unfit for purpose.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[PoopJuggler]

Don't forget about Don Jr. who thinks Democrats aren't even people.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[gsslay]

The real problem is the kind of people that set themselves up to be politicians starting in fucking high school. Until Trump, nobody that had lived a life was perceived as electable.

Yeah, you want someone who's lived the hard-knock life of being the son of a multi-millionaire and gone on to racked up six bankruptcies. That's six times he's walked away from a failed business owing other people money.

Just the kind of guy who has the experience, qualifications, probity and wisdom to lead a country.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[gsslay]

unless he believes his mere presence moves markets.

There's no accounting for what Trump believes. He only has to say something for it to become cast-iron fact in his mind.

The rest of us live in the real world.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[DThorne]

That was my first thought. There's nothing to admire here - as usual Trump screwed up hiring that toad in the first place. With Kelly he was given an ultimatum - don't bother hiring me unless I can do my job, and Trump did what he always does: cede to the last thing he's heard. I don't see Kelly lasting, though, since next on the list is presidential access from his inner circle and tweet vetting, and I can't see those happening, at least not permanently. Even if Kelly succeeds at all these things and more, he might help crush the image of a White House in complete chaos, but he's still a symbol of isolation from the party Trump ostensibly belongs to.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[dougdonovan]

tony. i think dennys or mcdonalds is hiring.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[topology]

You are experiencing the halo effect: https://www.psychologytoday.co...

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[kilfarsnar]

A reality TV show is one step up from the previous Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Seriously, what did Obama do that was so terrible? I disagreed with him on foreign policy (he basically continued what Bush started), the use of drones and his war on whistle blowers. I never voted for him. But really he wasn't too bad considering what one can reasonably expect from a President. People act like the country is so much worse off after his term, but I just don't see it.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[ganjadude]

i dont disagree with that at all, in fact id argue there around 20-30 million people voting today who know nothing about what their vote is actually for and shouldnt be voting

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[K. S. Kyosuke]

These "experts" have utterly failed to take care of this country, indicated by the levels of corruption, lack of general welfare for the public, poor infrastructure, literally poisoning the public (Flint, MI) and doing fuck-all to remedy it, I could go on.

That's like accusing CERN physicists of being a disappointment on the basis of not having invented a warp drive yet. You expect politics to be absolutely flawless? Not to mention that, e.g., levels of corruption (aside from your idiotic lobbying and campaigning practices) in the US are pretty decent.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[UnknowingFool]

Next thing you'll be telling me is that the whole moon landing is a hoax.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[Ol Olsoc]

On the outer bag it says it's guaranteed to stay fresh for 15 days longer than traditionally pasteurized milk.

Hit it with some Gamma rays - ~70 kGy and it can be fresh for a long, long time, since that seems to be the most important thing to some folks.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[painandgreed]

Seriously, what did Obama do that was so terrible?

Besides the contingent where race is an issue, and they do exist in sizable populations, at least in the South, it's pretty much just a case of him being the 'wrong lizard'.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[painandgreed]

Part of me wonders if this was planned all along (and by all along I mean the last few days) as a way to get rid of Preibus. Trump obviously isn't happy with the GOP and getting rid of Priebus was a good way to put a shot over the GOP's bow. So, bring in Mooch, have him get into a pissing match with Priebus, use that as an excuse to get rid of Priebus, and bring in Kelly who might be more loyal to Trump. Then, when Mooch has done his job, cut him loose. Trump gets to get rid of poor Spicey, gets to rebuke the GOP over their failed repeal of Obamacare, and gets a new Chief of Staff and (eventually) a new Communications Director.

If Trump was capable of such planning and schemes to begin with, he would have never needed this planning and schemes.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[ausekilis]

It's called Nominative Determinism, and it happens today. Many names have their origins in what the person did (e.g. "Smith" as a blacksmith), but now we find humor when that person ends up getting a job fitting their name. I knew a PhD with the last name Blaise (pronounce "Blaze") who specialized in pyrotechnics.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[CanadianMacFan]

No, neither the bag containing the milk or the outer bag are recyclable. There are three bags of milk that come when you buy 4 litres. Almost 20 years ago they did collect the bags for recycling where I live but they stopped it. All down to supply and demand plus how much garbage people mixed in with it. The outer bag is the perfect size for my kitchen garbage container so I keep them and they get reused.

There used to be (still could be) a convenience store that sold 4 litres of milk by the jug but you had to pay a deposit for the jug. When you returned the jug you got the deposit back and they washed and sanitized the jug in order to reuse it again. The only thing that really got lost was the cap. They didn't always come back. Even if they did they couldn't put on a new safety ring to indicate that the jug had not been opened yet. Still it was a lot better than tossing them out.

I just looked at the latest bag of milk I bought. I picked it up from the store on July 27, the date on the tag is August 20, and I know that I'll have at least three days after that and up to a week before it'll start going off.

(BTW, your political affiliation never even crossed my mind and why ruin a nice conversation about how milk is different in our parts of the world by bringing political affiliations into it.)

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[mattack2]

(BTW, your political affiliation never even crossed my mind and why ruin a nice conversation about how milk is different in our parts of the world by bringing political affiliations into it.)

since most people (at least in the USA) think recycling (and electric cars, etc.) is an ultra-left wing thing.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[SCVonSteroids]

Power through numbers, my friend.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[haruchai]

Gerrymandering only affect the national level at the House. Senate and President cannot be gerrymandered

True. That's where voter suppression, er, I mean millions of illegal Mexican voters, comes in.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[GodfatherofSoul]

As well it should remind you, as Scaramucci is the Italian form of Scaramouch as mentioned in Bohemian Rhapsody, and that's the only reference in popular American culture.

Very wrong. There was a movie called Scaramouche which I'm assuming the song references. It has what's arguably considered the greatest swordplay in American cinema.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[kilfarsnar]

ObamaCare is the worst thing to ever happen to the American people.

Do you remember the "Let's go ahead and pass this so we can see what is in it." Who is so dumb that they pass a bill without reading it?

Really, the worst thing? Do you have an argument or is this just more assertion? I do remember "Let's go ahead and pass this so we can see what is in it." and I didn't like that one bit. I also remember that it was Nancy Pelosi who said that, so I'm not sure how it's germane.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[Rakarra]

But now who will SNL use as part of their skits with Trump? Just Bannon gets boring.

I was sad that Sean Spicer left the administration, but mostly because I loved Melissa McCarthy's Spicer character.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[sysrammer]

"_______ is the worst thing to ever happen to the American people."...is what people say when they have no knowledge of history.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[sysrammer]

Not dem. Not rep. Hmm, Libertarian? No, you would have told us. Green? Too obvious. War & Peace party?

Let's try this: "The Rock for President". How doth thee answer, yay or nay?

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[HornWumpus]

In modern history, since the invention of TV news? Name one.

Gary Hart got kicked for one proven affair. Bill Clinton knew he was going to be a politician in fucking high school. Sure he did lots of dirt, but he never ever allowed anything on the record. Do you remember the student council assholes? That's 99% of who runs for office.

Re:I don't like Trump, but

[HornWumpus]

Yet he was still the lessor of the evils on the ballot.

Re: I don't like Trump, but

[HornWumpus]

You and the moderators don't even know what 'shyster' means. It's not a generic insult you moron. Trump has not passed the bar.

Once again...

[Anonymous Coward]

...a political story is posted, exempted from any and all usual Slashdot posting processes.

Is someone at Slashdot pushing a political agenda?

Re:Once again...

[guruevi]

Yeah, anything else gets delayed by days, to the point we're getting year-old stories. But Trump fired someone "News for nerds, stuff that matters"?

Re:Once again...

[bobbied]

The "communications director" resigning at the Whitehouse is somehow more important than the first day of a new Chief of Staff? Yea... That makes perfect sense...

Re:Once again...

[guruevi]

In this administration? Not really. Changes seem to be afoot every day and most of these are political appointments. People who do the actual work don't get their announcement.

Re:Once again...

[__aaclcg7560]

Slashdot has been posting political stories ever since Al Gore invented the Intertubes.

Re:Once again...

[MountainLogic]

At least in the early days the political articles were the minority and had a modicum of relationship to technology. Now its just fake tech news. Sad.

Re:Once again...

[sysrammer]

I had just made my rounds of all the lying news sites (which are all of them, depending on who you speak to). I went to /. for some idle chit-chat with AC's and the usual gang of idiots.

To my surprise, a current event! More current than all the news sites that I had just read!

I just want it on record that I consider this disappointing, and another sign that /. has hit bottom. I do not come to this site to read current events! I do not come to this site to read about "News for Nerds", whatever that really means.

I come here to read and write snarky comments with the other poseurs, er, posters that gather here.

Re:Once again...

[BarbaraHudson]

...a political story is posted, exempted from any and all usual Slashdot posting processes.

I've submitted stories and had them posted within the hour. It all depends on the timing.

Also, for all those complaining about posting a political story in politics.slashdot.com, in this case it's because slashdot doesn't have a comedy.slashdot.com. Because this administration is truly a comedy of errors. The difference is that, unlike Shakespeare's play, the main character will not have a happy ending.

Re:Once again...

[CanadianMacFan]

it's been a long time since the "News for nerds" thing has applied. So please everyone, stop bringing it up. Everyone knows the site has changed and not for the better. If you want "News for nerds" then start up your own site with a different tag line that means the same thing because that's the only way you are going to get what you want. Maybe you can get unicode support too.

Re:Once again...

[__aaclcg7560]

[...] polluting it with your noisome digital diarrhea.

You're sadly mistaken, sir! I posted 19 comments yesterday. My trolls posted two to three times as many comments.

Re:Once again...

[ls671]

Yes, I know by now. You have posted this comment at least a zillion times. Thank You!

Re:Once again...

[__aaclcg7560]

19 posts yesterday, and you earned about $2.50!

No, I made $25 on Monday from someone ordering $400 in running shoes over the weekend. I made a $5 bounty on an Audible membership yesterday. Still waiting for 13 products to ship.

What an amazing business you have...

Revenue stream... one of many in my business.

I'm sure it's a more valuable use of your time than meeting a nice girl and starting a family [...]

I've dated many girls over the years. Most weren't interested in marriage and value career over family. Of course, I avoided the psychotic bitches like the plague. Have enough of those in my extended family.

[...] or maybe going out and getting some exercise.

I'm losing one pound per week with my current diet and exercise program, for which someone is already calling BS on.

Re:Once again...

[__aaclcg7560]

And how many hours did you spend spamming Slashdot on Monday?

I spend 15 minutes per day or eight hours per month. Keep mind that I read Slashdot every day.

You spend hours doing it, too - so your hourly rate is STILL below minimum wage.

Only on Slashdot is $20+ per hour considered below minimum wage.

Records

[deadwill69]

Man this crew is setting some records! I wonder how many more they'll set before the summers out. All this entertainment and still haven't passed anything of mention.

Re:Records

[geekmux]

Man this crew is setting some records! I wonder how many more they'll set before the summers out. All this entertainment and still haven't passed anything of mention.

Well, Trump did champion the concept of Drain the Swamp a time or two.

Perhaps he overlooked the fact the swamp was on his own property...

Re:Records

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

Man this crew is setting some records! I wonder how many more they'll set before the summers out. All this entertainment and still haven't passed anything of mention.

Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) has a link to a Reddit article that listed something like more than 50 "accomplishments" that Trump has done with the article being created to specifically rebut the idea that he's done nothing. About half of them were executive orders Trump signed and I honestly right now have no way to know if those are accomplishing anything or not. He's been pretty busy deporting illegal immigrants, and I have one friend who supports Trump who really likes this a lot. So I'm just pointing out that Trump supporters have the view that he's out there changing stuff for the better and making a difference just about every day and the rest of us who say "What exactly has he done beside deport a bunch of people?" are delusional.

Re:Records

[barc0001]

This administration also recently secured a record for the lowest approval rating ever at the 6 month mark, so there's that.

Re:Records

[Gilgaron]

I could see defending those consistently in that he's 'undoing' the previous orders. But yeah, they won't blink about anything further. I looked up the reddit thread and it is kind of surprising that even a pseudointellectual like Adams would link it... between the list of incomplete half measures and the comment section which appears to consist primarily of various misspellings of phrases related to drinking liberals tears... Has conservatism reduced itself to schadenfruede?

Re:Records

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean the same Scott Adams who has no military or engineering experience yet is a Fox news expert on North Korean missile technology? That guy has gone around the bend.

Re:Records

[sysrammer]

Yep. Once precedent is set, it will be used as a weapon by the other side. Often to better effect, because they have experience to go by.

Re:Records

[Carewolf]

Yep. Once precedent is set, it will be used as a weapon by the other side. Often to better effect, because they have experience to go by.

Obama was the president that used the fewest executive orders in recent history. Trump is on track to break the record in most, so not following the precedent set by Obama.

Re:Records

[CanHasDIY]

About half of them were executive orders

You mean like those same illegal and unconstitutional executive orders Obama had done that Republicans were having apoplectic seizures over?

To be fair, I believe a fair amount of them have been reversing Obama's Executive Orders. Seems a legit use of the tool.

As I always say, "When your guy does it, it's great. When the other guy does it, it's a travesty."

Yea, still waiting for the person who will diminish the power of the office myself...

Re:Records

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, Trump has "accomplished" plenty of damage. If he weren't incompetent it would be so much worse. Various pieces of the U.S. government are basically running on autopilot, halted, or doing random stuff because nobody knows what the administration's actual policies are. And things are going in reverse in terms of filling positions to implement anything. There appear to be many people who have no better understanding of how the U.S. government works than Trump does and believe anything the con-man-in-chief says even if it directly contradicts reality. Seems there is plenty of delusion to go around.

Re:Records

[MightyMartian]

Adams is exhibiting the same irony that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did. Doyle's creation, Sherlock Holmes, was about as materialist as one could be. He believed everything had a rational explanation, appeared to reject the idea of the supernatural (hence his deduction that the Curse of the Baskervilles was a silly piece of folklore being used to cover a crime), and yet Doyle bought into all sorts of spiritist claptrap, going so far as to defend those two fraudster girls and their "faerie pictures".

In other words, both Adams and doyle suffer that most peculiar of human conditions; cognitive dissonance. It's bizarre that Adams can't see that Trump is as good an example of the boss character in his comics as one could imagine,

As to Trump's accomplishments, yes he's signed some executive orders, but really, the big ticket items like the wall (which now looks from proposed expropriations will be little more than about 800 miles of more fence) and health care are bust. Just wait for tax reform. As it is, his political capital is so low, his own party clearly thinks he's either an idiot or deranged (or both), and at six months in, he's not accomplished anything of any great importance. Heck, there are a huge number of unfilled appointments that he hasn't got to, so he hasn't even been able to get anywhere near to completing one of the more basic aspects of his job.

Re:Records

[MightyMartian]

I remember having a brief email exchange with Jerry Pournelle about ten years ago over some comment he'd made on his website about how evolution was pretty shaky (in particular that life could have begun on Earth), and invoking some sort of panspermia. I was taken aback, and just emailed him to suggest that research into abiogenesis was ongoing, and it was a bit premature to declare it impossible for life to evolve on earth. He shot back that no less than Fred Hoyle had advocated for panspermia. My reply was that while Hoyle was a very good astronomer, he wasn't a biologist or an organic chemist, so it struck me that to use him as an authority on such matters was a bit of an appeal to authority. In return I got back a pretty snarky reply about how he couldn't understand how I could question someone like Hoyle.

Some people have some pretty overblown views on their own abilities, and when people around them act like they are an authority, they seem to quickly buy into their own hype.

Re: Records

[Dragonslicer]

William Henry Harrison still has him beat.

Re:Records

[Kierthos]

Well, Bush the first issued less, but he only had four years. Also, that's probably the limit of "recent history" (for a certain value of recent).

Trump's also on track to spend more money on vacations/golf trips in his first year than Obama spent in eight.

Re:Records

[HornWumpus]

The Shockley/Chomsky syndrome. They are good at one thing, so they are experts on something completely unrelated.

Re:Records

[CanadianMacFan]

He may be draining the swamp a person at a time but he keeps restocking it. We should have asked about the asterisk beside the slogan: Drain the Swamp*

Re:Records

[phantomfive]

Scott Adams saw a rising star early and attached himself to it. It's worked: he's sold a ton of his books and made a bunch of money off of it.

ANd if you object to calling Trump a rising star, I understand......call him a rising hot air balloon instead.

Re:Records

[bingoUV]

Holmes did not reject the idea of the supernatural, he even mentioned supernatural concepts while discussing it. Only his personal tradition, seeing some material evidences, and a wish to exhaust this-worldly investigations before ceding to supernatural led him to provisionally reject supernatural conclusions in the beginning.

  He said, and I quote "I have hitherto confined my investigations to this world. In a modest way, I have combated evil, but to take on the Father of Evil himself, would, perhaps, be too ambitious a task".

Re:Records

[houghi]

He will blame it on other people and say he needs another 4 years and people will vote for him.

Re:Records

[jandersen]

Well, to defends Doyle (and Holmes), at that time scientifically based atheism was at best seen as an oddity or excentricity, since everybody "knew" that there was a God and that "there is more than meets the eye". This kind of worldview is still around, but fortunately seems to be on decline (which is one reason why fundamentalists from all religions feel they are under pressure and need to take up arms). We simply cannot judge Sherlock Homes or Doyle on their scientific outlook as compared to modern standars - for the time, he was probably amazingly bold.

Re:Records

[bingoUV]

Yes, i was myself defending Doyle from the charge of hypocrisy. The parent post of mine was saying that Doyle believed in supernatural stuff in his personal life, but he made his Holmes completely reject supernatural hypotheses.

Re:Records

[sysrammer]

I wasn't being specific about Exec Orders, but, in general. Executives and legislators get constant criticism for what they do, and "illegal" and "unconstitutional" get thrown around a lot. Some is just partisan bs. But some is in a gray area where there's no precedent.

F'rinstance, passing major legislation via a budgeting rule at one time was considered a "trick", and "probably unconstitutional", when it was done. But once the regimes change, the new regime looks and says: here's a technique that we can use.

Maybe in 3 1/2 years from now

[hoffmanjon]

Trump will finally have a staff in place that can run the White House.

Re:Maybe in 3 1/2 years from now

[ClickOnThis]

Trump will finally have a staff in place that can run the White House.

Yeah. The next President's.

I guess Trump dislikes looking in the mirror

[Mostly a lurker]

Scaramucci strikes me as awfully similar in many ways to Trump himself - a foul mouthed, self centered narcissist. I guess Trump does not like to have others like himself around. What surprises me is that he did not realize what Scaramucci was like before appointing him. I guess, as usual, Trump failed to listen to those around him.

Re:I guess Trump dislikes looking in the mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

Scaramucci was using an social engineering tactic called mimicking that is useful in ingratiating yourself to your target. Ever seen side by side video of both he and Trump speaking? He puts froth the same sort of mannerism and gestures that Trump does.

It was Trump's new chief of staff (Kelly) that demanded Scaramucci be gone, no one who was career military is going to put up with the likes of Scaramucci's BS.

Re:I guess Trump dislikes looking in the mirror

[sysrammer]

"He puts froth the same sort of mannerism and gestures that Trump does."
QFTFS
Quoted for True Freudian Slip.

Re:I guess Trump dislikes looking in the mirror

[HornWumpus]

When someone gives me their hand like that, I just assume they want it kissed, like an upper class French lady from 100 years ago. It's sometimes a little awkward when I do.

Re:I guess Trump dislikes looking in the mirror

[haruchai]

"Trumps handshake thing was a bit extreme"

When Trump met Putin, he shook his hand pretty much like a normal human would.
I guess he knew better than to arm wrestle the boss.

Re:I guess Trump dislikes looking in the mirror

[UnderCoverPenguin]

It was Trump's new chief of staff (Kelly) that demanded Scaramucci be gone, no one who was career military is going to put up with the likes of Scaramucci's BS.

Yet he puts up with Trump's?

This isn't an SNL skit?

[UnknowingFool]

If I were to write a comedy skit about this presidency, no one would buy it because it would be too far fetched.

Re:This isn't an SNL skit?

[ClickOnThis]

If I were to write a comedy skit about this presidency, no one would buy it because it would be too far fetched.

But it would be funny. This isn't.

Re:This isn't an SNL skit?

[organgtool]

Talk show hosts are finding the Trump presidency to be a comedy gold mine. And the only thing it's costing us is our credibility in the world.

Re:This isn't an SNL skit?

[Gravis Zero]

But it would be funny. This isn't.

You say that but the second I read the headline I began to laugh. ;)

Re:This isn't an SNL skit?

[sysrammer]

Well, this presidency definitely has enough cowbell if nothing else.

QFLOL

Re:This isn't an SNL skit?

[jellomizer]

The Simpsons originally had Trump as President as a joke. Where Lisa Simpson became president to fix his mess.

The Simpson writers were figured out of all the public figures he would make the worst president to pick. But the world is a crazy place.

Re:This isn't an SNL skit?

[shanen]

Hmm... Insightful? But so short?

Oh well. Moot for me since I'm never going to see another mod point to give.

However, I already said that along the lines of "As a novel, I would have already thrown it away for going beyond the limits of how far and high I can suspend my disbelief."

Re:This isn't an SNL skit?

[nine-times]

I wonder what the writers of Veep think about all this. The whole show is sort of, "Wouldn't it be funny if the President [originally the Vice President] were an incompetent narcissist? We could create all kinds of absurd scenarios involving terrible decisions, people backstabbing each other, etc."

This last season wasn't very good. Maybe it was just because they looked at reality and said, "Well how are we supposed to satirize this?"

Re:This isn't an SNL skit?

[swillden]

This last season wasn't very good. Maybe it was just because they looked at reality and said, "Well how are we supposed to satirize this?"

I don't know about Veep, but I've seen interviews with Alec Baldwin (plays Trump on Saturday Night Live, if anyone didn't know that) and Robin Wright (plays Claire Underwood on House of Cards) and both commented that Trump has been a challenge for their writers, because it can be hard to find something to do that is more extreme and crazier than what the actual POTUS has really done.

Re:This isn't an SNL skit?

[Tablizer]

Whenever SNL writers finish a draft, news comes out that gives then even better material, so they wad up the draft and start over.

It's like being a web front-end dev: new month = new style fad, except SNL's choices change daily.

Re:This isn't an SNL skit?

[nine-times]

Yeah, part of what made me think of this is that I've read other writers talk about the problem in general, not related to Trump. Basically, the idea of satire is to point out issues by exaggerating them to the point of absurdity. When the issue they'd like to indicate is already absurd, it makes it difficult to create effective satire.

Re:This isn't an SNL skit?

[JackieBrown]

Come on. The rest of the world (at least the loud internet portion) has not found the US credible in over a decade. Who cares?

Next huge war where Europe needs us again, we will get that respect back. I just hope we hold back and let enough get destroyed so the rest of the world learns they need their own damn military instead of relying on ours while constantly bashing it.

Re:This isn't an SNL skit?

[sysrammer]

No, I would realize that I was reading a fan reboot of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Re:This isn't an SNL skit?

[shanen]

Okay, funny, but I already noted my lack of mod points to give.

never cross the memes!

[Thud457]

You're FIRED!

And you're fired!
And you're fired!
You're ALL GETTING FIRED!

LOL, in a whistling past the graveyard way...

Re:never cross the memes!

[jellomizer]

You may not like Trump (I don't) but laughing at his misfortune, is also laughing at your own, even if you are not a US citizen.
If the US goes down in chaos, so will the rest of the world. Laughing now at his misfortune, is only leading to your own. Sure you want your side to win, and the people who voted for the other side to loose, and loose so bad that they knew that they are wrong... But that doesn't happen, at least not without complete crippling defeat.

Re:never cross the memes!

[upl8n87447]

Sometimes laughing is the only thing you can do when confronted with the absurdity that's impacting your life. The laughing is also a big fat "we told you so". Sadly, this creates a defense mechanism in Trump voters who now believe they need to defend / rationalize their choice.

The man still has a 38% approval rating. 4 out of 10 Americans think he's doing a good job. If that isn't hilarious in its absurdity, then I don't know what is.

Re:never cross the memes!

[Anonymous Coward]

Upd Late touched on it.

The US is going down in flames like it or not. The fact that somebody like Trump could even get elected is a death-sentence. The problem isn't the guy in the captain's chair. The problem is all the guys who wanted him in the captain's chair.

No turning back now. The damage is done, and the full extent of the USA's complacency as #1! #1! #1! is coming home to roost. Most people in the USA believe that the USA was #1 because of superior virtue and American exceptionalism. Perhaps in the 22nd century, some people might be able to do an accurate postmortem. People in the USA never realized what actually propelled them to #1, so they have no clue how to continue to be an example to the rest of the world.

It's all downhill from here. You can either angst and be emo, or you can laugh about it.

Re:never cross the memes!

[BarbaraHudson]

Really? Trump failing is going to be HUGE in term of benefits, same as he's already destroyed the Tea Party by accident. He's got both sides of both houses ignoring him and talking about working together. He is demanding they try again to pass a health reform bill, and the senate just said no, they're moving on.

Re:never cross the memes!

[haruchai]

"The fact that somebody like Trump could even get elected is a death-sentence. The problem isn't the guy in the captain's chair. The problem is all the guys who wanted him in the captain's chair"

This is point I've been making since that orange-tinted fucknut with the Pomeranian on his head descended down the golden escalator. Trump is entitled to be a raging lunatic asshole; that's his right in a free country.
The problem is that tens of millions of people chose him over 2 dozen Republicans of varying but largely superior qualifications to be their nominee and over 60 million wanted him as chief exec of the world's most powerful country.

Re:never cross the memes!

[Gr8Apes]

The man still has a 38% approval rating. 4 out of 10 Americans think he's doing a good job. If that isn't hilarious in its absurdity, then I don't know what is.

So does that mean almost 4 in 10 Americans would cut off their nose to spite their face instead of admitting they're idiots and had their asses handed to them?

Re:never cross the memes!

[Stealthey]

Uhm, the world is already adjusting to that scenario...all eyes on Merkel

Re:never cross the memes!

[sysrammer]

"People in the USA never realized what actually propelled them to #1, so they have no clue how to continue to be an example to the rest of the world."

I'm not sure about that. Total warfare with unconditional surrender as the goal was one of the methods. With nuclear weapons that is now a MAD option.

So we have our proxy wars and our security theater. Many look around and say "the world has never been in a worse state". Others look around and say things like "we're not killing each other by the hundreds of millions like we did last century" or "chances of being terror victim is less than a lightning strike". But that suits almost nobody's agenda.

Re:never cross the memes!

[fatwilbur]

he man still has a 38% approval rating.

New to politics? Why otherwise would this be surprising to you? People generally dislike politicians.

Approval ratings for the premiers (roughly equivalent to governor I suppose) of the Canadian provinces were recently published. Only one managed to get over 50% approval (53%) and all of the major economic provinces had approvals worse (to far worse) than Trump.

Re:never cross the memes!

[CanadianMacFan]

And Wynne will probably get back in to screw up Ontario some more.

Re:never cross the memes!

[MobyDisk]

The problem is that tens of millions of people chose him over 2 dozen Republicans of varying but largely superior qualifications to be their nominee

The Republican party nominated Donald Trump because the nomination process is mathematically stupid. He won with a minority of the voters supporting him. The party didn't choose him, the poor process did. It really only works if there are only 2 candidates. With so many, it was botched.

Had he not eeked out enough votes in the end to get the required, the decision would have gone to the party leadership. They would have picked someone else. If the other Republican candidates weren't so arrogant, they could have dropped out earlier and rallied around one other candidate. The parties need to fix their nomination process. But even after this debacle they still won't. The voting public just doesn't understand the process. I wonder if you gave them a vote, but the vote was meaningless, if they would still support the process.

Re:never cross the memes!

[Gussington]

Sure you want your side to win...

Don't let the media fool you, most people's 'side' is sanity. Most Western democracies have sane candidates on both sides of politics, but the US is unique as all of their right candidates are completely fucking nuts. The current guy goes beyond words. GWB was a moron. GHWB was almost passable. Reagan was a fucking looney... etc. The ones that seem ok (eg Romney) never get the vote.

Re:never cross the memes!

[Gussington]

"The fact that somebody like Trump could even get elected is a death-sentence. The problem isn't the guy in the captain's chair. The problem is all the guys who wanted him in the captain's chair"

This is point I've been making since that orange-tinted fucknut with the Pomeranian on his head descended down the golden escalator. Trump is entitled to be a raging lunatic asshole; that's his right in a free country..

+1. Lunatics will be lunatics, but who votes them into power, and what environment allows that to happen? Symptom, cause etc...

Re:never cross the memes!

[Arzaboa]

This was in regards to trump, not premiers, governor's, senate or house members.

In the U.S., for presidents, 38% is a terrible approval rating.

Carter was not re-elected after 4 years as he got close. Nixon resigned halfway through his term. Bush was only at that at the very end of his presidency and term limit. Otherwise, you have to go back to Truman, and the same holds true there.

A rating at this point in any presidency is considered terrible by any measure. Citation

Re:never cross the memes!

[Calydor]

The expression you're looking for, I think, is the one about not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Re: never cross the memes!

[PoopJuggler]

4 in 10 Americans can't even spell the word "face".

Re:never cross the memes!

[quenda]

In the U.S., for presidents, 38% is a terrible approval rating.

Terrible?! After what Trump has said and done, it is fuckin' amazing!!
Anybody else would be lucky to hit double digits in the circumstances.

Re:never cross the memes!

[tbannist]

The ones that seem ok (eg Romney) never get the vote.

My problem with Romney was that he seemed clueless. He either didn't understand that almost half of poor people vote for Republican candidates or he didn't have the balls to say so in front of a private audience. His whole "half of them will never vote for me" thing told me that, either way, he was incompetent. Really, as a professional politician, it's his job to know who votes for him. Not knowing who votes for you or being ashamed of the people voting for you is just ridiculously incompetent.

Re:never cross the memes!

[jellomizer]

We normally have about 25% who will support that party no matter what. 20% will support that one party unless a particular line had been crossed. 10% Are in the middle, can support one side or the other depending on how they feel at the time. Then 20% will support the other party until they have crossed some line, and 25% will support the other party no matter what.

Elections are normally won, by that 10% of moderates.
During the past election, Watching the polling directions, Trump was normally below Clinton, except for a few spikes around the emails being in the news. Right before the elections the emails had resurfaced, causing the swing. Chances are if the elections happens a few weeks later it would be a different result.

Re:never cross the memes!

[Keith Henson]

"The fact that somebody like Trump could even get elected is a death-sentence. The problem isn't the guy in the captain's chair. The problem is all the guys who wanted him in the captain's chair"

It's not the first time something like this has happened. I hesitate to bring up the canonical German case, but it has similar economic aspects. The US has been on an upward economic slope for such a long time that it ending or flattening puts the affected people under stress.

Humans evolved strategies during the stone age to cope with such stress. The stress was always one of not enough resources for the population. The solution was to attack neighbors and appropriate their resources. The lead up to war started with the spread of xenophobic memes. Eventually, irrational leaders become attractive and led the tribe into war. Win or lose, the balance between population and resources was restored. Because the young women were booty, the genes for this behavior become universal. https://www.academia.edu/77738...

Re:never cross the memes!

[Gussington]

Not knowing who votes for you or being ashamed of the people voting for you is just ridiculously incompetent.

A career in business and politics evaporates for one ill thought out comment at a dinner party? Look I don't like the guy, but everyone says stupid shit sometimes, and if that's the benchmark for failure what does that say about the current clown-chief?

Re:never cross the memes!

[quenda]

20% will support that one party unless a particular line had been crossed.

A lot of us thought that line was crossed with Pussygate. We were wrong. Russia collusion? Water off a ducks back. It seems Trump was right when he said he could 'shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters'.

Elections are normally won, by that 10% of moderates.

That works if everybody votes, e.g. in Australia where not voting can get you a $20 fine.
In the US, politicians also win by telling their base that the opponent is evil and will destroy the country if they don't go and vote.

Re:never cross the memes!

[tbannist]

A career in business and politics evaporates for one ill thought out comment at a dinner party?

It wasn't an "ill thought out comment at a dinner party", it was part of a speech given to a group of big money backers. Because it was part of prepared speech, that means the statement had been pre-approved, memorized, repeated and then defended, even though it should have been obviously false.

Look I don't like the guy, but everyone says stupid shit sometimes, and if that's the benchmark for failure what does that say about the current clown-chief?

I think I'm saying that Trump makes just about every other Republican look good in comparison.

Re:never cross the memes!

[Rakarra]

So does that mean almost 4 in 10 Americans would cut off their nose to spite their face instead of admitting they're idiots and had their asses handed to them?

Cutting off their nose to spite their face made up the mentality of a good chunk of Trump voters.
"You hate us, you demean us? Well we're not going down without a fight. We're taking you with us."

Re:never cross the memes!

[Rakarra]

A lot of us thought that line was crossed with Pussygate. We were wrong.

I assumed (hoped) that Trump was going to lose a lot of the evangelical vote with that. Turns out their hatred for that sort of chicanery only extends to when a Democrat does it with consenting women. So much for their moralizing.

Re:never cross the memes!

[sysrammer]

That's interesting. I'll check the link out.

Re:never cross the memes!

[sysrammer]

Is that you, Jr.?

Re:never cross the memes!

[sysrammer]

Ha, yeah, pretty much.

The way that i see it is:
RNC - We need someone to run against Obama.
Reps - He's probably unbeatable. I don't want to screw my chance when he's termed out.
RNC - We need someone to run. Else someone with no qualifications will decide to run.
Reps - Well, Romney's pretty well set.
RNC - And we didn't plan on running him after Obama anyways...
MR - Oh, all right. If I don't run there's no telling who might run.

Reaching for the prize.

[fahrbot-bot]

Three more Communications Directors and Trump gets a set of steak knives.

Re:Reaching for the prize.

[Kierthos]

He needs a new set, what with always ordering his steaks well-done.

Re:Reaching for the prize.

[AmiMoJo]

As long as he has to eat Trump Steaks with them...

Re:Reaching for the prize.

[radarskiy]

cofveve is for closers

Re:Reaching for the prize.

[ebvwfbw]

Don't let them cut you unless there is no choice.

This tweet, six hours old, has not aged well.

[MAXOMENOS]

Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2017

Re:This tweet, six hours old, has not aged well.

[cryptizard]

Also, every president in recent memory has presided over a "highest stock market ever" moment because the stock market generally keeps going up in the medium/long term...

Re:This tweet, six hours old, has not aged well.

[DontBeAMoran]

...the stock market generally keeps going up in the medium/long term.

Just like MoonCoin!

What?

Stop laughing.

Re:This tweet, six hours old, has not aged well.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep, it's what the old classic How to Lie with Statistics illustrates by pointing out the close relationship between the salaries of Presbyterian ministers in Massachusetts and the price of rum in Havana. It's frightening how easy it is for people to be fooled by arguments that amount to nothing more than the fact that any number of things are (either positively or negatively) correlated with the passage of time. ...and so we persist in electing leaders who make decisions with their gut and we insist on them having few qualities beyond being telegenic and "likeable". Plato's philosopher kings seem as distant an ideal now as they did nearly two and a half millennia ago.

Re:This tweet, six hours old, has not aged well.

[ayesnymous]

Cryptocurrencies don't have central banks propping them up indefinitely.

Could image over greed prevail

[shuz]

Given the wealth that most of the cabinet and staff have in the current white house it confuses me why many of them would want to risk image issues or care to face the daily workload and headaches that these positions entail. Though many are earning a comfortable salary, the money pulled in is likely secondary to the access to impact decisions as well as access to information. Given the chaos and drama however we must be left to think carefully about what kind of corruption might be brewing behind this relatively opaque administration. Like a poorly tuned monitoring system there is so much noise in US politics right now it is difficult to pick out where the real harm to the world might be.

Re:Could image over greed prevail

[jeff4747]

IMO:
1) They vastly underestimate the work required. These are people who believe government doesn't do anything, so the people running the government must not do anything. So they believe the job is easy.

2) They have egos larger than galaxies, more fragile than egg shells, and relish the opportunity to show just how great they are.

Unfortunately these positions mean they are not always surrounded by obsequious underlings eager to sing their praises, so their incompetence becomes rapidly apparent. Thus damaging their massive but fragile egos.

Which causes them to lash out, demonstrating more incompetence, causing more damage, and so on.

Re:Could image over greed prevail

[Gussington]

Most accurate comment of the day.

Is the constant shake-up good for things?

[ErichTheRed]

Most business organizations I've witnessed tend to thrive when there's a level of stability. For example, people know they should talk to Person X in charge of Process Y directly to get the real deal on things. It's good to get people out who are pretty toxic, but doesn't government work the same way? Don't companies and wealthy people use the back-channel methods to actually get work done?

We'll see what happens...I'm hoping that there's just a ton of drama, things basically get parked for 4 years, and other countries don't see it as an opportunity to get ahead while everyone's distracted.

Re:Is the constant shake-up good for things?

[Gilgaron]

Yeah with a constant churn responsibilities and tribal knowledge fall apart. Where they can, I guess congress can 'route around' the executive branch for some things. I have a hard time envisioning him vetoing anything that gets hyped on Fox and Friends. But the house and senate leadership will be just as headless as they were for healthcare so who knows.

Re:Is the constant shake-up good for things?

[grasshoppa]

Do we really want our government thriving?

Personally, I don't. A healthy economy needs two things: Stability and to be left alone. An incompetent government that can't pass any legislation is generally a good thing.

Re:Is the constant shake-up good for things?

[jeff4747]

For example, people know they should talk to Person X in charge of Process Y directly to get the real deal on things. It's good to get people out who are pretty toxic, but doesn't government work the same way?

Government doesn't work the same way....it takes the same situation and turns it up to infinity.

The way to get things done is to find the low-level office worker who actually does the work of the executive she nominally works for and get her to want to help you.

Re:Is the constant shake-up good for things?

[MightyMartian]

To be fair, Ryan and McConnell were given an impossible task, at least on the timelines Trump wanted. Now I'll concede that the GOP deserved this slapdown because it's now clear that for seven years that they were trying to bring Obamacare down, they had no intention of ever actually doing so, so whatever damage they take from their base is well-earned. At the end of the day, however, they set about to climb a very high mountain in a very short period of time, knowing full well that it had very low chances of success.

Of course, now that the Republicans officially own Obamacare (oh, the irony), despite Trump's commitment to let it die, they can't politically afford to do so, so once this bruising summer is behind them, they'll have to reach over top of Cruz, Rand, and the House Freedom Caucus and try to pull something together with the Democrats.

Re:Is the constant shake-up good for things?

[Billly Gates]

Chicken and the egg. According to Collins book "Good to Great" a shakeup is necessary to turn around a shitty organization. A good organization run right with competent management and a vision with processes doesn't need to rock the boat.

What makes them great is not that they do not fire. It is that they have a cult like atmosphere and have a well greased machine running.

A poorly run organization who turns into a great one in that MBA book I mentioned first changed direction from the top down and gave a "This bus is now going to a new destination. Either you can get on the bus or get off? Your pick". The people who hate change and whine all the time and bring morale down will fight tooth and nail and be fired. Morale is then improved and new talent comes in mixed with those on this new direction.

Before you know it you have a great organization and less firing as those who are there want to be there and are competent and going with the plan. I think Kelly will bring discipline and leadership with his NO BS foot down from the infighting and unprofessionalism imitated by the President himself. This new chain of command he wants to run like the military so people won't go around superiors and talk directly to the president which is what the White House is now.

Re:Is the constant shake-up good for things?

[sgage]

".I'm hoping that there's just a ton of drama, things basically get parked for 4 years, and other countries don't see it as an opportunity to get ahead while everyone's distracted."

It's a nice thought, but you know what US administrations do when things get bad for them - they start wars. That's what I'm afraid of. There are a lot of people in govt that want wars here and there, and Trump has already shown that he'll do what he's told.

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[bobbied]

What on earth are you talking about? Mockery of Democracy? That's what is going on in Venezuela over the weekend not in the Whitehouse right now.

This guy was obviously not a good fit for the Whitehouse "Communications Director" given his current situation. But truth be told, I don't imagine that this guy is necessarily in a good place in his personal life, with his wife divorcing him on the same day as his youngest child was born during his first week on a really high pressure, high stakes, publically visible job.

Personally, I'd cut him a big break...Most of us wouldn't handle any one of these pressures very well...

Rearranging Deck Chairs?

[pr0t0]

Agreed, but wow. As others have pointed out, Mr. Trump does not appear to be a good judge of character. Or perhaps his team of advisers are not. Either way, this administration seems unable to keep its (White) house in order. Is this how they conduct all of their affairs? This should be simple as this is a process where they control all/most of the factors. What happens when this administration is dealing with another country, or sensitive situation, where they do not control many/most of the factors?

At every turn, all I see is people looking to get their name tied to national politics, and a leader looking to hand out personal favors, seemingly without the understanding that real consequences and real harm can be done. And don't get me wrong, I think most people who go into politics on both sides of the aisle do it because they are power-hungry assholes. But most of them seem to realize what's at stake.

This lot seems to think of all of this as a popularity contest and resume-builder, like they've been elected to student council.

Re: Rearranging Deck Chairs?

[UnknowingFool]

I can only guess but former Marine General John Kelly seems to be a no-nonsense kind of person. That and Scaramucci did something that you should never do to Trump: upstage him.

Re: Rearranging Deck Chairs?

[MightyMartian]

And how long do you imagine Trump is going to tolerate Kelly? Yes, a lot of people are pinning their hopes on Kelly bringing some order to the White House, but by and large the disorder is coming from Kelly's new boss, which means the person most in need of being controlled is the President himself, and he does not appear to be the kind of man who will tolerate being handled.

I wish General Kelly the best of luck. I don't imagine he'll be around long himself.

Re: Rearranging Deck Chairs?

[Reaper9889]

I do not like Trump, but things he is good at:
He is good at picking one word to say about oppeonts that fits well enough for them to get in trouble over it.
He is good at changing the subject - that said, it has gotten harder for him with some of these russia investigation stuff,
Sounding honest - i.e many people seem to believe that he says.
He was reasonably compentent with his companies, in the sense that he could not have won that much more by investing all his money in top 100 stocks, when he started AND got a name out of it.
He seemes to value family highly.
He sounded better to enough people than Hillary Clinton.

Re: Rearranging Deck Chairs?

[UnknowingFool]

And how long do you imagine Trump is going to tolerate Kelly?

I don't expect Kelly to last long if he challenges Trump; however, it is highly doubtful that Scaramucci would be back if Kelly is fired. Just like I don't expect Sean Spicer to return either.

Re:Rearranging Deck Chairs?

[acrimonious howard]

What happens when this administration is dealing with another country, or sensitive situation, where they do not control many/most of the factors?

Too late, see recent N. Korea progress on nuclear missiles.

Re: Rearranging Deck Chairs?

[acrimonious howard]

I'm glad your not the typical trumpite, with 100% glorious reviews of el commandante, but even with carefully chosen words, I still have to bring inline some reality:

I do not like Trump, but things he is good at: He is good at picking one word to say about oppeonts that fits well enough for them to get in trouble over it.

Shit-talking. Got it.

He is good at changing the subject - that said, it has gotten harder for him with some of these russia investigation stuff,

More caca from the cabeza, ok.

Sounding honest - i.e many people seem to believe that he says.

Ya, more people believe this president than any other, well, except for ... all of them in the last 70 years.

He was reasonably compentent with his companies, in the sense that he could not have won that much more by investing all his money in top 100 stocks, when he started AND got a name out of it.

So he's an average businessman? I could find a lot of numbers to disagree, but I'll give you that. Granted, it doesn't really qualify for "things he's good at."

He seemes to value family highly.

As opposed to all those other politicians who claim to hate family.

He sounded better to enough people than Hillary Clinton.

Popular vo... 20 years of faux... Bah, fine, I'll give you this one too. Final score, pros: "shit-talking" and "more popular than Hilary." Yay. Man, the cons list would take years. Heh, I said 'Con'.

Re: Rearranging Deck Chairs?

[tbannist]

He was reasonably compentent with his companies, in the sense that he could not have won that much more by investing all his money in top 100 stocks, when he started AND got a name out of it.

I am assuming you mean top 100 performing stocks, and that would be false. Trump would have approximately the same net worth if he had invested all his money in the stock market index companies, so his performance with his companies is about average despite the occasional illegal and many unethical things he has done to try and ensure their success.

He sounded better to enough people than Hillary Clinton.

Define "enough", two million more people voted for her. Most of the vote broke down along party lines and the negative campaigning was just enough to depress the Democratic vote to allow Trump to eek out a narrow victory in the electoral college.

Re: Rearranging Deck Chairs?

[Reaper9889]

He was reasonably compentent with his companies, in the sense that he could not have won that much more by investing all his money in top 100 stocks, when he started AND got a name out of it.

I am assuming you mean top 100 performing stocks, and that would be false. Trump would have approximately the same net worth if he had invested all his money in the stock market index companies, so his performance with his companies is about average despite the occasional illegal and many unethical things he has done to try and ensure their success.

No, I meant top 100 largest. I thought these index companies would be the biggest companies and would be expected to have as good a leader as money can buy. Hence he is roughly as good at running companies as money can buy (doing illegal stuff doesnt really detract from that - it would go on a cons list instead of this pros list). Is this incorrect?

Note, I agree that Trump isnt a nice guy to put it mildly, and I would much have prefered Hilary (or Sanders to Hilary)- I was trying to provide a pro list, since it was asked for and I think it is important to be able to see the strengths people have, even if I dislike them.

He sounded better to enough people than Hillary Clinton.

Define "enough", two million more people voted for her. Most of the vote broke down along party lines and the negative campaigning was just enough to depress the Democratic vote to allow Trump to eek out a narrow victory in the electoral college.

Enough = he didnt need more voters - he won.

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[DontBeAMoran]

1. The whole planet is sick of your so-called "left vs right" debates, you're all right-wing as far as the rest of us are concerned.

2. This is Slashdot, left vs right debates should not belong here.

True

[ArchieBunker]

Every other story here is days or weeks old. Trump staples some papers and immediately gets posted.

The Apprentice: White House Edition

[Tablizer]

Entrumpy: In Chaos We Trust

Re:The Apprentice: White House Edition

[phantomfive]

It's not really surprising that the guy whose tagline is "You're Fired" actually does a lot of firing.

Re:The Apprentice: White House Edition

[Tablizer]

Some hoped the You're-Fired meme was merely to induce drama for TV excitement, and as President he'd be more thoughtful. Not. What's next, DC Spin the Bottle? It would be a hoot to see T's chubby ass try to play Twister; somebody could get hurt.

Re:The Apprentice: White House Edition

[phantomfive]

They could have kept it All in the Family, but nooooooo.........we wanted american treasure but got lost.

Re:The Apprentice: White House Edition

[sysrammer]

I'd like to see him bring back Gary Busey as White House Press Secretary.

There's simply no job security with Trump as POTUS

[Lisandro]

This is killing me. I was really looking forward for more of Mario Cantone as Scaramucci on The President Show.

Not revoved, Forced out

[Trax3001BBS]

With the potty mouth remarks Anthony Scaramucci made late Thrusday he coudldn't of lasted. On CNN that same morning Anthony Scaramucci watched what he said while making it apparent he has a long time hatred of two members of Trumps staff (and what I watched).

When his nemesis Reince Priebus was fired Friday and Trump said nothing of Anthony Scaramucci, I figured it over for Trump. Put in another postion (couldn't define removed) I figure he's on a clock.

Go figure. I don't do political post, so the one I do - if you read around this post alone could be/become seen as anti-trump and charitable under some old/new rule/law.

Re:Not revoved, Forced out

[Trax3001BBS]

With the potty mouth remarks Anthony Scaramucci made late Thrusday he coudldn't of lasted. On CNN that same morning Anthony Scaramucci watched what he said while making it apparent he has a long time hatred of two members of Trumps staff (and what I watched).

When his nemesis Reince Priebus was fired Friday and Trump said nothing of Anthony Scaramucci, I figured it over for Trump. Put in another postion (couldn't define removed) I figure he's on a clock.

Go figure. I don't do political post, so the one I do - if you read around this post alone could be/become seen as anti-trump and charitable under some old/new rule/law.

Damn - charitable = chargeable

Scaramoosh!

[phantomfive]

Too bad, I was hoping to see him do the Fandango.

Re:Scaramoosh!

[phantomfive]

It's been done https://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10933669&cid=54915343/ before you copycat.

HE DIDN'T DO IT I WILL NOT LET HIM GO!

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[Lisandro]

Personally, I'd cut him a big break...Most of us wouldn't handle any one of these pressures very well...

You know, if you don't like petting scorpions, you shouldn't get a job petting scorpions.

What's really terrifying is that the WH has become a toxic place for any remotely competent people in the US. What's left after The Mooch?

In the future...

[istartedi]

In the future, everybody will be a member of Trump's cabinet for 15 minutes.

Re:In the future...

[painandgreed]

In the future, everybody will be a member of Trump's cabinet for 15 minutes.

It's Trump's job program.

Re:In the future...

[istartedi]

I miss Conan. Not enough to pay for premium content... but that was a fun bit. I assume that's what you're referencing. Did Conan actually do that? If so, I swear I didn't see it because like I said, I'm cheap.

This just in..

[cyberchondriac]

Trump impeaches Trump, then has him removed from the Presidency.

But seriously, this admin has higher turnover than a freakin' MacDonalds.
Though in the particular case of Scaramucci, I fully support this move.
Hey, fugettaboutit.

The Fandango

[Whorhay]

Personally I think Scaramucci's firing came down to his refusal to do the Fandango.

To Quote Porky Pig:

[Hartree]

"Th-Th-The, Th-Th-The, Th-Th... That's all, folks!""

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[Nidi62]

What's left after The Mooch?

Kalanik might be looking for a temp gig while he waits to triumphantly return to Uber

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[sysrammer]

I'll agree. From OP "The majority of people don't want to be subjected to more leftist nonsense about affirmative action, about transsexuals, about -isms and -phobias, and about so-called "social justice" in general. They don't want to be subjected to virtue signalling. They don't want to read comment after comment full of pathetic insults like "Drumpf" and "orange skin" and "small hands" and "bad hair"."

I'll include I didn't want all the similar crap from rightists the previous eight years. But, as has been documented for thousands of years, people "reap what they sow".

I'm sick of it all. There's plenty of blame to go around. We need some adults in government. We need some adults here.

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[jellomizer]

Trump is still a Mockery of Democracy, independent on what is happening in Venezuela. The U.S. system of checks and balances is still in effect, and we still have enough adults in the room to prevent pure chaos.

Re:Yup

[jellomizer]

If he resigns the Presidency goes to the Vice President. I will still take him over Trump. At lease Pence for the most part will work for the U.S. People, even though I disagree with much of his stances.

They've got plenty of money

[rsilvergun]

now they want power.

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[Anonymous Coward]

So let me get this straight. Your evidence for a massively popular right wing upsurge are the results of two very close elections, both nearly civilization destroying in the stupidity of their outcomes?

Dumpster Fire

[Mysticalfruit]

This is partially a dumpster fire.

Remember that a dumpster fire is where you specifically would light the dumpster on fire behind the store and when everybody ran out to put the dumpster out (to keep the whole building from burning) the thieves would run in and rob the place blind.

We're so busy watching the dumpster burn we missed the part where the republicans after instituting the nuclear option have appointed hundreds of judges. Trump will be a bad memory but these ass clowns will be with us for a long time.

Yeah, a big chunk of the GOP leadership is aghast by what's going on the WH, but it's not stopping them from taking advantage of the situation.

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[penandpaper]

It would be nice to stop hearing 'right-wing' and 'left-wing' used as insults. It's not an insult to disagree.

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[penandpaper]

all the similar crap from rightists the previous eight years

8 years ago it was avoidable if you didn't want to see it. I could open up a gaming forum (as an example) and be not be inundated with -isms and -phobias. Today, it's every other thread.

The crap is more common and more in your face from both sides.

He Wasn't Fired. He Resigned.

[Anonymous Coward]

And Trump wouldn't accept his resignation. The conversation was leaked.

Scaramouche: Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Trump: Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
Scaramouche: Let me go!
Trump: Bismillah! We will not let you go
Scaramouche: Let me go!
Trump: Bismillah! We will not let you go
Scaramouche: Let me go.
Trump: Will not let you go
Scaramouche: Let me go.
Trump: Will not let you go.
Scaramouche: Let me go. Ah
Trump: No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Scaramouche: Oh mamma mia, mamma mia, mamma mia, let me go

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[MightyMartian]

So what is it that you want? People who feel they have been treated unfairly to keep their mouths shut? Gays back in the closet, lest your tender sensibilities be offended?

Just when I thought

[stabiesoft]

The WH Reality TV show was getting boring. This morning I was thinking, wow, nothing happened on Sat/Sun/Mon, time to change channels, and then bam, right back to crazy. When does Ivanka start showing some boobies in see thru's like Paris & Kim? That will certainly up the ratings.

Re:Scott Adams

[MightyMartian]

I have yet to be convinced that Trump is a great anything. He appears to have no ability to manage anything, seems to have no real ideas of his own, and generally just seems to spout off and threaten. I'm beginning to think the blowhard on the Apprentice wasn't just a bit of acting, this is actually who Donald Trump is; an ignoramus with an undue and unearned amount of clout.

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[MightyMartian]

So what you're saying is that President Trump appointed a Director of Communications who is mentally unstable.

That would explain the call to the New Yorker journalist. The Mooch is out of his mind. Frankly it sounded more like coked out of his mind, but let's just go with him being mentally unstable.

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[MightyMartian]

Exactly. I think, at least thus far, the containment of the Trump Administration would have made Madison proud. Despite all the drama, Congress and the Courts are doing their job. There are still a hundred ways for things to get worse, but at the end of the day, impeachment and the 25th amendment are still there if Trump crosses the line into true madness.

This is what bad leadership looks like.

[surfcow]

Ever work under a little Caesar, a bully?

I am pretty confident a national lottery would pick a better president.

Re:The song plays on..

[HornWumpus]

Look on the bright side...the 'Fat Bottomed Girl' isn't in the white house.

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[bobbied]

Personally, I'd cut him a big break...Most of us wouldn't handle any one of these pressures very well...

You know, if you don't like petting scorpions, you shouldn't get a job petting scorpions.

What's really terrifying is that the WH has become a toxic place for any remotely competent people in the US. What's left after The Mooch?

LOL.. Toxic is it? So the Whitehouse is a "toxic place" now eh? Apart from all the bloviating by the press who have been proudly declaring "This is Trump's worst day ever" for months... HOW DO YOU KNOW? I'm not seeing anybody who was actually there (past or present) saying anything approaching this, are you? All I'm seeing is a bunch of people in the press out speculating that this is what's going on. I don't trust their speculations... They've been wrong more than they've been right about Trump so far.

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[MightyMartian]

It's called the Electoral College.

Leaked video of internal White House discussions

[shanen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

If you pay close attention, you'll notice the big dog himself flopping down on the right side while his minions run around barking and panicking.

ALL OUT THERMONUCULAR HECK!

[Thud457]

ahhh, we all thought we were ALL GOING TO DIE in five minutes the whole time the sainted Reagan was in office.

The difference is that Trump lets it all hang out for everyone to see.

Re:ALL OUT THERMONUCULAR HECK!

[wonkey_monkey]

The difference is that Trump lets it all hang out for everyone to see.

At least if Reagan had done that, we wouldn't have to squint.

U.S. has a yuuge "margin of error"

[iMadeGhostzilla]

Margin of Error is a term in geopolitics measuring how much room a country has for making mistakes. It consists of two parts: how much danger the nation faces and how much power it has. US probably enjoys the largest margin of error of all developed nations. (Israel for example has a small margin of error.) So we're going to come out fine. Like Jeff Bridges, I'm rooting for Trump to do well by the country. Stranger things have happened.

Re:U.S. has a yuuge "margin of error"

[sysrammer]

I'd like any prez to do well. I agree we have a margin of error. Trump is a disruptive agent. It depends on which cabal that ends up controlling, er, backing him. I keep in mind Douglas Adams and his dissertations on what makes a good prez and who should get the job.

Re:U.S. has a yuuge "margin of error"

[iMadeGhostzilla]

I hear Trump is getting a second head and a third arm attached

News for nerds?

[iamacat]

Sure this guy is a jackass and we can't wait for him to screw up so badly that he gets kicked out. But I am already very well informed about his progress in this direction from other sources. In fact I stopped watching CNN because hearing about one guy 24/7 is just not that interesting. You do realize you are just feeding the troll with all the free attention right? There must be other interesting and nerdy things happening in the world, that can be discussed in this unique place rather than echoing the rest of Internet.

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[wonkey_monkey]

a Mockery of Democracy

A Demockery?

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[Lisandro]

LOL.. Toxic is it? So the Whitehouse is a "toxic place" now eh?

Absolutely. Besides possibly Tillerson there's not a single competent staff member in Trump's cabinet. It is staggering, and it is only getting worse.

And remember, even Tillerson is officially out because he "needed some time off". What was the last time you heard about a Secretary of State taking time off?!

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[bobbied]

Trump is still a Mockery of Democracy, independent on what is happening in Venezuela. The U.S. system of checks and balances is still in effect, and we still have enough adults in the room to prevent pure chaos.

OK.. Care to outline HOW Trump is doing this?

Personally, I think things are working AS DESIGNED, which is entirely different than the previous "I have a pen and a phone" occupant of this office, who, failing to accomplish nearly ALL of his legislative goals from his first midterm on, was left with no other choice but to subvert congress and ignore the courts as much as he could.

Glad you see that Venezuela's current election is a REAL Mockery of Democracy, mainly because it is anything but free and fair both in speech and political views in that country. Just like North Korea is a Mockery (the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea... Right).

Where is Trump doing stuff like this? Or is there some other way he's doing what you claim?

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[sysrammer]

Frankly, I'd like "my side" to quit acting like "the other side".

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[bobbied]

So, no Secretary of State has EVER taken a vacation before?

Hillary did...Was Obama's Whitehouse Toxic too? I didn't think so, I a doubt you did either. Clinton and Obama's relationship was obviously strained at times, but nobody called it "toxic". Oh no, that's something reserved for Trump by those who want to bash him for anything they can dream up.

So you are just reading into this what you want to see. Everybody is saying Tillerson isn't leaving his position, he's just taking a break, you'd call it a vacation if you were being fair.

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[MightyMartian]

One of the firmest measures of low morale in an organization is the level of turnover.

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[MightyMartian]

If my boss was trying to push me into a needless war with North Korea, which is really a proxy war with China, which could turn into a real war with China, I'd probably be cashing in some my sick days as well.

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[MightyMartian]

This is a pretty vague answer. What side is yours, how is it acting like the other side, and why is either side perceived by you to be behaving badly?

Activism is at the very core of American life. From the very beginning, the idea of concerned groups of citizens gathering together for a cause, whether that be Abolition, women's suffrage, or heck, taxation with representation (to go ALL the way back) have been a feature of American life. I'm sure there were people who groaned every time someone brought up slavery or women lacking voting rights, and you can be sure there were some soon-to-be Empire Loyalists who were sure tired of all those cranky irritable colonists bitching and moaning about King George.

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[bobbied]

Unknowingly YES.

But he dealt with it pretty quickly, just like he's done in the past with others on his staff. Your point?

Countercoup by the military?

[shanen]

You got me to wondering if this entire thing is a countercoup by the military after Putin's coup. Interesting that so many of them are from the Marine Corps. I find that especially worrisome insofar as the Marines' tradition is personal loyalty to the captain of the ship, not loyalty to such higher entities as the nation, the Constitution, or even the ship itself...

Also worrisome that Kelly might be following the dictum about the impossible merely taking a little longer. Curing #PresidentTrump or making him fit to serve as president is as impossible as anything gets. Potentially dangerous delusion?

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[MightyMartian]

My point is that someone with no communications experience and who was apparently mentally unsound was appointed as Director of Communications, quickly went on a vulgarity-laden on the record tirade to a reporter, and it wasn't until General Kelly was appointed Chief of Staff that this man was thrown out.

Apart from the possibility of mental disturbance, why is it exactly that this man was appointed to a position for which he no experience at all to begin with? Trying to claim it's a win for the Trump Administration that they outed him doesn't seem to grapple with the fact that he was there at all.

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[bobbied]

One of the firmest measures of low morale in an organization is the level of turnover.

Unless the leader is trying to find the team that achieves his desired results and it mixing things up by trying new people? Remember this is the chief Executive working out his management team in his own way. He's not a long term politician who has established advisers and donors to appease with his appointments, he's a brash Real Estate developer who got elected because he WASN'T all the things you seem to want.

What's wrong with turn over in the Whitehouse? Nobody leaving is airing any kind of beef with Trump. Everyone of them (with the exception of James Comey who really wasn't Whitehouse staff) is leaving on good terms with glowing and positive things to say. Doesn't sound very Toxic to me..

Trump is looking for people who get results, the ones he wants. If you don't produce, or don't mesh with the parts of his team that ARE working, he doesn't mess around. Nothing wrong with that management style at the executive level.

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[Trogre]

It's also a complete misnomer - leftists aren't always liberals.

Consequently, conservatives aren't always right-wing.

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[Trogre]

1. The Electoral College exists. This is a good thing, because it prevents a very small number of heavily populated states from dictating an election.
2. > half of the population is not a requirement in first-past-the-post, nor should it be. Imagine you get 40% of eligible voters voting for candidate A, 20% for candidate B, 10% for candidate C, 5% for candidate D and the other 25% not counted for whatever reason (eg abstaining or spoiled votes). By your logic there is no clear winner here and another election would need to be called.

Old trick

[WaffleMonster]

Hire someone to get rid of people (Priebus, Spicer) and then fire them. Seen it done twice at companies I've worked previously.

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[acrimonious howard]

(paraphrasing multiple comments) I'm sick of people talking about politics, especially nerds that are rewarded for putting time and research into their comments.

Well, I agree it's not the main purpose of the site. But I'll take this discussion over reddit actually, I think the reward system is just better here.

We need some adults in government.

So how do you propose to get adults elected, if you discourage political speech and discussion? Compare this place to the average discussion online or otherwise, include ease-of-access, and remember youtube exists.

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[dave420]

So America's democracy is functioning because at least it's not as bad as Venezuela's... And it's somehow normal for a White House administration to get through prominent staff members like tic-tacs? really?

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[bobbied]

So America's democracy isn't functioning because your candidate didn't reach the White House like everybody expected?

My Venezuela example was merely to illustrate a "democracy" that wasn't working, where political opposition is routinely jailed by the government. Obviously the USA isn't that bad. I could have used other examples like "The Peoples Republic of Korea" where everybody votes in every election on pain of death, but there is only one choice on the ballot. Kim gets elected in a landslide every time. THAT is a mockery of democracy.

Re:Mockery of Democracy

[bobbied]

If your point is that Trump made a mistake when he hired the Mooch... Point taken, he was a bad choice and it was obvious his first week.

However, that issue has now been corrected, so what's your beef? That Trump made a mistake? Who hasn't? Are you perfect? (unlikely) Was Obama perfect? (absolutely not).

Obama had folks leave his administration on bad terms and go on to write books about how bad things where in the White House. I don't see ANYBODY leaving Trump's White House staff who is upset about it... Granted it will take a few months to see if they are going to shop book deals or not, but it doesn't look like they are leaving on bad terms, even Mike Flynn who got the "you are fired" treatment right out of the gate.

So how's this Mooch thing so hugely bad? I don't think it's a biggie, but hey, if that's all you guys over there got, fire away! It's going to be out of the news cycle in a few days anyway and nobody will likely remember anything about it next week.

Trump has done one thing I NEVER thought possible.

[gosand]

He makes George W. Bush seems presidential.

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[sysrammer]

Activists are fine. Activists in the flyover states got Trump elected.

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[sysrammer]

Perhaps. I'm not sure. I remember a lot of crap posts about "Shrub". And during the 2008 election there was lots of crap from both sides. Lots of people complained of course. And I didn't see much improved discourse over Obama's 8 years.

What is see is: People that used to complain bitterly about the "other" side doing despicable things, and complaining about it, switch completely around. Suddenly when "their" side was doing the exact same things, it became "a reasonable thing to do".

I've seen this in our history, and in the history of other countries in the world. It's almost like it's something that humans do.

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[sysrammer]

"You are a mewling, puking, despicable person for holding the views that you have."

This is the level of most of the "discussion". I don't think it's useful for solving problems. It is useful for expressing the emotion of hate.

Oh shit, you're right.

Re:Slashdot is facing some discouraging trends.

[sysrammer]

ditto

Re:There's simply no job security with Trump as PO

[sysrammer]

Yeah, I saw a news segment about the firings, and they also showed quick flicks of the actors that just lost their income streams, such as Melissa McCarthy as Spicer.