By Kate Anderson Bower
Since Howell G. Crim, (click here) who ran the White House executive residence from 1938 up until 1957, the chief usher has stayed put long after the president who hired him leaves office. In the last 132 years only nine people have held the position. The continuance of this long tradition, and the White House residence staff’s singular exemption from partisanship, seemed to suffer grievous injury Friday when staffers learned that Chief Usher Angella Reid, hired by the Obamas in 2011—the first woman, and second African American, to hold the job—was reportedly asked to leave.
There are approximately 95 full-time employees on the residence staff, these are the chefs, maids, florists, butlers and ushers who tend to the 132-room mansion that is the most recognizable symbol of the presidency. The White House Usher’s Office is at the center of the finely tuned operation. The chief usher runs the show. He or she is responsible for overseeing the funds allocated by Congress to run the house....
Either Trump is going to govern or he is going to play politics, there is no room for both. The campaign trail takes shape during the third year of a presidential re-election, but, not in the first six months in office.
Bannon is running around the "Trump Universe" stating he is coming out of his closet; he isn't really a racist. Really?
May 7, 2017
By Peter Maass
...The French novel (click here) is called “The Camp of the Saints,” and Bannon recommended it on several occasions when he was executive chairman of Breitbart News, to justify what he perceived as a mortal threat that whites face from immigration.
The book, published in the 1970s, had existed for decades as an obscure cornerstone of the utmost fringes of white racism. The Indian children in the novel were referred to as “little monsters,” and the adults were described as sexual maniacs who filled their ships with “rivers of sperm, streaming over bodies, oozing between breasts, and buttocks, and thighs, and lips, and fingers.” The novel ended with hundreds of thousands of them taking over France and, by extension, the West....
Actions speak louder than words. The second generation of racist power brokers are already in full swing and nurtured by Bannon and Brietbart.
...Paradoxically, a clue to Hahn’s radicalization is located at Harvard-Westlake. The school has a surplus of famous alumni, from Shirley Temple to Sally Ride, Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Matthew Weiner (the creator of “Mad Men” who named one of his show’s characters for a popular teacher at Harvard). But the school has another alum who is more infamous than famous: Alex Marlow, the editor-in-chief of Breitbart.
Marlow graduated from Harvard-Westlake in 2004, before Hahn, and for a long time nobody at the school seemed to know or care where he had ended up. The school took notice in 2016, when Marlow was quoted in a New York Times profile of Bannon. A school official posted the story on Facebook. Parents and alumni of Harvard-Westlake were aghast. “This is an embarrassment to our school, and to our fantastic community,” read one of the comments on the post....
Comey's dismissal is pure politics. He didn't deliver Hillary to trial and Trump is fully aware the growing campaign of his adversaries for 2020. His ratings are suffering and Comey was the best option he had.
May 9, 2017
By Michael D. Shear and Matt Apuzzo
Washington — President Trump (click here) has fired the director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, over his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, the White House said on Tuesday.
Mr. Comey’s dismissal was a stunning development for a president that benefited from the F.B.I. investigation of the Democratic nominee during the 2016 campaign. Separately, the F.B.I. also is investigating whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election.
The abrupt firing raised questions over whether Mr. Trump was trying to influence the Russia investigation. But he said he was following recommendations from the Justice Department, which criticized how Mr. Comey concluded the investigation into Mrs. Clinton.
“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau,” Mr. Trump said in a letter dated Tuesday to Mr. Comey....
I agree Mr. Comey uses his power inappropriately, that was especially true with the 2016 election. I suppose the handwriting was on the wall he was going to be a political victim.
If President Obama showed him the door he would have been criticized as a political activist. But, Trump had to get rid of Comey because Hillary wasn't on trial. It wasn't enough Comey put the last nail in the Hillary election coffin, Comey was suppose to take the attack even further to secure his place in Trump's White House.
I think Comey may have a path to sue and receive a nice payoff. Political fodder have unions standing with them to receive their pension and a nice check to sooth the wounds. Comey will be hired within a short period of time by Wall Street. Does anyone think he might be the next Snowden?
The "Hillary Football" is now handed off to Jeff Sessions. It was stated he might seek prosecution of Hillary, before Trump was elected. Sessions sees Hillary as a target. There is that mess over the Clinton Foundation, but, with Trump's family spanning the globe and reaping profits sown with White House clout, there is hardly room for the Trump White House to seek still yet another "Hillary, Witch Hunt."
May 9, 2017
Emily Shugerman
Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin isn’t mad, just disappointed. (click here)
The Stanford-educated lawyer who successfully brought about a block on Donald Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban” says the Trump administration's attacks on the judiciary are cause for concern.
“I think what makes it more discouraging [is] when you have people at the highest levels of government making those statements,” Mr Chin told The Independent. “It’s almost like they don’t understand that power that comes with the office that they have, or that they’re exploiting it unnecessarily....”
I agree and the power they have is either squandered on politics or profits.
