It’s in GD
here you go; been pretty quiet for a while.
Oh God. I just pictured the dryads fighting over who gets to wear purple today. Please don’t do this to me!
The New York Times has a review (paywall warning) of a new book, A Very Stable Genius, by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists with the Washington Post. Among other things, the review says,
"At a later meeting in the White House Situation Room, Trump began speaking, not for the first time, about his desire to make a profit from the deployment of American soldiers. Tillerson had finally had enough. The authors describe the moment. The secretary of state stood, facing away from the president and toward officers and aides in the room.
‘I’ve never put on a uniform, but I know this,’ the authors quote Tillerson saying. ‘Every person who has put on a uniform, the people in this room, they don’t do it to make a buck. They did it for their country, to protect us. I want everyone to be clear about how much we as a country value their service.’
Trump grew red in the face, but saved his fire for later. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff later called Tillerson, his voice unsteady with emotion, to thank him."
He wanted, essentially, to turn the US armed forces into a mercenary force.
I don’t believe that exchange happened at all. And if it did happen, Tillerson AND the CJCS are both even bigger morons for not resigning right then and there.
Well, one reason not for them to resign is that they were able to quash that ridiculous idea. Someone weaker in the job might not have been able to do so.
There are a lot of stories like that from this administration, of the more responsible members like Mattis and Tillerson doing end-runs around Trump’s worst excesses (Gary Cohn swiping NAFTA papers off Trump’s desk, Mattis keeping Trump from pursuing a more aggressive Iran policy) until either they got fired or left in frustration. And now there’s are no grown-ups left to stop him.
:dubious: No wonder Tillerson didn’t last five minutes in the administration.
That bookis going to be all over everywhere with excerpts galore. Here’s one at axios:
Whether it happened or not, there’s no way to know, but I could definitely see the story as possible.
One unmistakable pattern that’s plainly visible in this administration is that many of Trump’s aides have remained on the job far longer than they wanted to, forced to make choices they never imagined they’d have to, trying to be the guardrails against this president’s impulsiveness and manifest corruption.
From Sessions to Mattis, to Cohn, to McMaster, to Bolton, to Kelly, Nielsen, to Tillerson…almost to a man (woman), they agreed to join the administration because they believed that they could find a way to make meaningful contributions - not necessarily to their country as a whole, but to their cause at least. In each case, they all wore out their welcome because there was ultimately a moment at which they realized they were asked to live and work in the realm of the absurd.
And don’t tell me that this is just the media sensationalizing these accounts. If it’s one or two anecdotes, okay, maybe the media are working with unreliable sources, or maybe it’s a case of a “source” and sour grapes. But in every case, this pattern has played itself out over and over and over again. We have a pretty good understanding of how this White House operates.
Honestly, I have a hard time believing that Bannon quote. That one line from Pelosi sent shivers down his neck? Nope.
Phil Rucker is the White House Bureau Chief for the Washington Post. Carol Loennig is an admired staff writer for the same paper. Both have won Pulitzer prizes for their work in journalism. AIUI, their sources are meticulously vetted and they are not likely to sacrifice their hard-won reputations to make controversial assertions without multiple confirmations.
If the tale is in their book, I have no problem taking them at their word – especially on this particular subject.
It was probably just some head lice making a run for it.
All-right-y then! YOU have a hard time believing it. Good enough for me! :rolleyes: Both sides make up shit all the time, amirite? :dubious:
Good lord ThelmaLou, what the fuck is wrong with you sometimes?
Individual 1 says he doesn’t know Lev Parnas. Ol’ Lev used to work for Fred Trump when Donnie was working for him.
(my bold) So, she somehow didn’t see the photo just before the interview? Or Faux couldn’t bother to show it to her? (They thought they’d lose ratings if they showed her up?) Or the Jawed One attempted a dodge by not saying, outright, “Don’t know him, never met him” and going instead with an evasive weaselling along the lines of never hearing his name mentioned to her “…ever, a single time!”?
It was my attempt to match your (IMHO) stupid comment with one of my own. Did I succeed?
Nobidy really cares what you do–or do not–believe.
That was funny as hell. 
Now we know why Bannon always wears at least 3 shirts.
This is apparently also the meeting when Tillerson (after Trump left) called him a ‘fucking moron’, which has been previously reported upon. What is added now is ‘context’.