Incompetents, Zealots and Criminals (Lawyers, Guns and Money)

Before I begin my rant I want to put forth two things:

1.    President Trump was legitimately elected by our electoral process.

2.    President Trump in no way has been shown to have colluded with the Russians.
      (To influence the 2016 Presidential Election)

That being said, were you to send a gunman with an AR-15 through an unguarded White House you would have difficult time doing more damage than has already been done to the President's, staff, Cabinet, trusted advisors and campaign staff.  25 bodies that have been fired, resigned or indicted.  Think of what FOX News and Breitbart and MSNBC and CNN would have done to the Obama administration with similar carnage.  Evidence that an inexperienced “Community Organizer” could not possibly manage a White House much less a country.  So many average appointees and yet however bad, I thought they were, they have been worse and a lot of them have been fired or resigned under Twitter fire from the man who empowered them.

But with the Big Orange Man… we are numb.

So my question, for all of you, is…

WHEN DO YOU BEGIN TO HOLD A MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR THE KIND AND CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE HE HAS SURROUNDED HIMSELF WITH AND RELIES ON AND TRUSTS?

WHEN?

WHEN DOES THE BUCK STOP THERE?

As a boss I have always been responsible for the people I hired.  My clients held me responsible. My partners held me responsible.  My bank account held me responsible.  For years I have lectured High School kids that if you show me your friends I can tell what kind of person they are.  That gets truer as you get older, or it should.

But as long as our president is angry.  As long as he “says what is on his mind”, he is bullet proof to criticism of the literal madness that has affected his White House.  This same ⅓ of the country that will not leave his side would have impeached our immediate Ex President as a matter of national security if he had hired and fired such an array of incompetents, zealots and criminals.  HW would not have faired a great deal better… and Bill Clinton (or God forbid HILLARY!...) forget about it.

For your consideration:

April 10, 2018 Tom Bossert, President's Chief Adviser on Homeland Security:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-homeland-security-adviser-resigns-amid-continued-turnover-in-trump-administration/2018/04/10/15db518a-3ccb-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html?utm_term=.1efc408f546e
March 27, 2018:  David Shulkin.  VA Director he inherited from Obama. Replaced with Trumps personal Doctor.  What could go wrong? See below from when I originally wrote this.  Took a month and a half.

March 22, 2018:  HR Mc Master National Security Officer.  Replaced by the rabid John Bolton.

March 16, 2018:  Andrew Mc Cabe.  Set to retire in 48 hours.  Hardly counts.

March 13 2018: President Donald Trump's longtime personal aide John McEntee was fired because he is currently under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes, a source familiar with his firing told CNN.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/13/politics/john-mcentee-white-house-security-clearance/index.html?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email

March 13 2018: Rex Tillerson.... I have no words.  The last grown up officially left the building.  I believe he was Secretary of State.  No big deal.I am sure the President would tell he was "not very involved".

March 7 2018:  Gary Cohn.  Cohn, a classic Democrat gone bad was a former Goldman Sachs banker who was all on board for the making the rich, richer tax cut which proved to be the only legislative success of the Trump first term.  Still, he was a free trade guy and he lost the battle when the President announced tariffs and then refused to back down.  Another one bites the dust as he announced his resignation yesterday and markets opened today down 150 points.  Not earth shaking.  It will be interesting to see if the Republican old school, free tradists will do anything to stop the Tariffs and also interesting to see if they are right about their disastrous effects.

NPR Weighed in with this summary of Trumps departure schedule:  https://www.npr.org/2018/03/07/591372397/white-house-staff-turnover-was-already-record-setting-then-more-advisers-left


2-28-18  Hope Hicks!?  This one is surprising and has to be difficult for the President who clearly relied on her and trusted her.  She appears to be a very talented person but has all the problems that any 28 year old person sitting in the most powerful circles in the world might get.  It is my hope that when her parents found out she was dating alleged wife abuser Rob Porter that they said, "YOU COME HOME RIGHT NOW YOUNG LADY!"  Good for her to get out but she was almost the enabler in chief.

2-28-18  Josh Raffel.  https://www.axios.com/scoop-josh-raffel-leaving-white-house-1519758344-420c51f4-093a-4457-afce-595c50236061.html
He was Communications director for The Office of American Innovation in the White House and ended up being a Jared and Ivanka confidant and champion.  Interestingly he was formerly a Democrat but everyone seemed to like him.  This does not seem to have to do with anything related to our President although EVERYTHING relates to our President.  Jared just lost his security clearance today and now he has lost an ally in the Royal Court.

2-22-18   UPDATE! I don't know what choice I am going to have other than to
update. Robert Weaver, Mr. Trump’s former nominee to lead the Indian Health Service, alleges that he was forced by an official in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “to decide to withdraw or to face the public humiliation of having the White House withdraw my nomination.” I would suspect there will be 10 more bodies this year!

2-15-18    George David Banks, “Senior White House Official:  Resigned because marijuana use didn't allow him to get a security clearance.  

2-10-18            David Shulkin, VA Director (Has not yet resigned or been fired)  takes his wife to

England (the VA does a lot of business there) and There are memos which clarify that his staff invented an “honor” so that agency Would pay for his wife.  According to the Wall Street Journal, “Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin improperly accepted a gift of Wimbledon tennis tickets, misspent taxpayer money and misused department resources in an official trip to Europe last year, according to an inspector general’s report released Wednesday.”  

2-10-18    David Sorenson, White House Speech Writer:   Resigns after allegations of
                 spousal abuse allegations.

2-7-18        Rob Porter Resigns. Staff Secretary (or was fired, the story changes every day)
                 over spousal abuse allegations.

1-20-18            Omarosa Manigault Newman,White House Office Of Public Liaison:  Who knows

why she was fired/resigned. Manigault Newman reportedly drew scrutiny from White House chief of staff John Kelly. She also came under fire for bringing her 39-person bridal party to the White House for a photoshoot in 2017. She is now back on reality TV discussing her time in the White House and How she was “ganged up on” and discussing how God talks to the Vice President.

9-29-17    Tom Price, Health and Human Services Secretary: The movie came after Price 
                 received major criticism following reports of his use of private planes.

8-25-17           Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to Trump.  According to Fox News, “White

House officials told Fox News that Gorka did not resign but confirmed that he “no longer works” with the administration. However, Gorka insisted to the Washington Examiner that he did actually resign.

8-18-17           Steve Bannon, White House “Chief Strategist”:  I am not going to talk about him

but his fall from grace was spectacular.  In every way a classic Trump appointment and departure.

7-31-17           Anthony Scaramucci, White House Communications Director:  Once again, a

Classic Trump appointee on July 21st was murdered by his own troops 10 days later after an inexcusably arrogant interview he gave “off the record he thought”.

7-28-17           Reince Priebus, White House Chief of Staff:  Thought he could ride the whirlwind.

Not a bad guy it seemed and it had to be a relief to leave. He made his own bed

by dealing with the devil.

7-25-17           Michael Short, Assistant Press Secretary:  Quit when the Mooch was hired and

made clear he intended to fire him.  I don't know anything about him.

7-21-17           Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary.  Has a nice man ever been so

overwhelmed by a job, ever in his life.  I cant even make fun of him.  He assumed that the old rules regarding how a President should act, still met something and he was embarrassed every day.  He had to go.  Now we have Sarah Huckabee Sanders who is awesome at resolutely justifying every contradictory statement of our commander in chief.

7-6-17              Walter Schaub, Director of Ethics:  Surprisingly resigned.  Surprisingly clashed

with the President over...everything?

5-17-17           Michael Dubke, White House Director of Communications:  Personal reasons.

3-30-17           Katie Walsh, Deputy Chief of Staff:  Quit when healthcare repeal failed.

2-13-17            Michael Flynn, National Security Adviser:  He could not tell the truth regarding his

business dealings and his meetings with foreign officials.  He has now pled guilty to a felony.

It might be unfair to put Schaub on this least.  He was really just a holdover from previous administration who he consistently fought with also.  I didn't name the following holdovers who are no longer serving but it is impressive:

James Comey, FBI Director:  Fired

Sally Yates, Assistant Attorney general, Fired

Preet Bharara:  Manhattan Federal Prosecutor, Fired

Richard Cordray: Consumer Finance, Quit to run for Governor

Andrew Mccabe: Number 2 at Justice, TERMINAL LEAVE

The list does not include his campaign team members:

Paul Manafort:       Indicted

Rick Gates:            Indicted and as of 2/19/18 apparently will be copping a plea to
                           Testify against Manafort.

George Papadopoulos:    Indicted

Carter Page:                     Mentally Ill?

We have a lot to answer for with what we are tolerating from this man.  Seriously, please, consider this.  Other than the Obama holdovers he has surrounded himself with 18 people in his campaign, his cabinet 18 people who he has either fired, or resigned or have just abused their office and embarrassed themselves and our country.  This does not take into account Jeff Sessions who he is always about to replace and Rex Tillerson who has been undercut so many times that he is totally ineffective and incredible as a representative of the US, calling the President “a moron”.  All of his cabinet appointees have been specifically appointed to dismantle and decapitate their particular branches.  I will not rail against this, he ran on being a disruptor and these people will certainly make their branches smaller, less effective and generally non existent in our lives and it will take a lot to revive them but that is not the point.

The point is this.  We have elected a President (legitimately and without collusion) who does not hold himself accountable for anything.  Everything is someone else's fault.  He cannot help “the mess” of a country he was left with (or the 8 year economic recovery he inherited). But we are all accountable or the people we hire, for the people we surround ourselves with.  We have never had a President who exhibited such dramatically poor judgment in who he relied on, ever.  Look at this list.  Internalize it.  There will be more.  Think about it.  Pray about it.  We are in trouble with this lack of leadership and we are careening dramatically off course.  I don't have an answer, I am NOT calling for his impeachment but I am calling for all of us, to hold this man accountable for his actions.