The chief of staff conundrum

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by Sandy Shanks, Dec 10, 2018.

  1. kriman

    kriman Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I never said it was a new thing. I find it to be a very bad idea, especially when it is used almost exclusively. .
     
  2. TexMexChef

    TexMexChef Well-Known Member

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    It already is. we have headed down that road long ago.
     
  3. kriman

    kriman Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I don't recall it ever being used nearly exclusively as a method of collecting testimony. Irregardless, this is as wrong as it gets. As a policy, it is worse than anything Trump has done. This is a most glaring example of "the end justifies the means". Sometimes, the end is simply not worth it. I firmly believe that sometime in our future, we will regret heading down this road.
     
  4. Sandy Shanks

    Sandy Shanks Banned

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    Mick Mulvaney will become the acting White House chief of staff at the end of the year, Trump announced in a tweet on Friday. He most recently served as the Office of Management and Budget director. While Mulvaney was named as an acting chief of staff, he will step down from his role as OMB director, a White House official said. Why is Mulvaney moving from a critical role in the White House to a thankless role which can only hurt him politically?

    That is a good question.

    Sources inside the White House said that the decision to appoint Mulvaney as his chief of staff began to materialize for Trump around 4 p.m. Friday afternoon..

    Trump had been marinating on this idea throughout the day and ultimately decided to pull the trigger because the speculation and bowing out of candidates had begun to get out of hand.

    The decision, the official said, was driven by a desire inside the West Wing to put an end to the immense speculation of the last week and to give what had become a chaotic process "a certain degree of finality."

    Earlier, Mulvaney had indicated that he was not interested in the chief of staff job, instead indicating that he was interested in moving up to lead the Treasury or Commerce departments.

    He can forget that now. Trump chose one of his few remaining loyalists to take the job for the time being. All this suggests Mulvaney is simply a band-aid on gaping wound. It has been another bad week for Trump, and they seem to be getting worse.
     
  5. Dayton3

    Dayton3 Well-Known Member

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    Sandy thinks if a Democratic activist talks about what they think President Trump has done on MSNBC that it constitutes a "charge".
     
  6. Sandy Shanks

    Sandy Shanks Banned

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    Slate has an interesting point of view about all this.

    It’s unclear what exactly Trump means by “acting” chief of staff. The position is not a Senate-approved one, and the president can therefore appoint whoever he wants on a permanent basis. The choice of words may signal his and Mulvaney’s understanding of the appointment as a short-term one, but, according to the Associated Press, Mulvaney’s term will be open-ended. According to NBC News, Mulvaney asked for the “acting” title, as he wanted to ensure an easy escape from the position if it became necessary.

    Nobody wants the job. The sycophant did as he was told.
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2018
  7. Sandy Shanks

    Sandy Shanks Banned

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    The Hill reports, "The White House confirmed Friday night that Mick Mulvaney will stay on as the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) even after he takes over as President Trump's acting chief of staff."

    Trump changed his mind ... again. He must really be desperate. Now he is forcing Mulvaney to take on two full-time jobs.

    The question that needs to be asked is, why is Mulvaney doing this? One possible answer is, this is all for show. Mulvaney's primary job will remain budget director, and Trump will be acting as his own COS. Trump didn't want to admit to that chicanery for obvious reasons.
     
  8. Vet1966

    Vet1966 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I love the great job Mick Mulvaney has done at the CFPB - taking all of that money away from the Democrats and decimating the department into a fading powerless shadow.

    He will be the perfect Chief of Staff and I do believe he will do to the WH Deep State what he has done to the staff at the OMB and CFPB.

    I like Mick Mulvaney - he is in tune with the Trump agenda and seems to enjoy the challenge. Time will tell.
     
  9. Sandy Shanks

    Sandy Shanks Banned

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    Mick Mulvaney called then-candidate Donald Trump “a terrible human being” in a video from November 2016.

    “We have perhaps two of the most flawed human beings running for president in the history of the country,” Mulvaney said. “So I have to step back and look and say, ‘OK, what do y’all, the majority of the folks who vote for me, want me to do?’ In order to accomplish that, I have to support Donald Trump, and he has to win.”

    “Yes, I’m supporting Donald Trump,” Mulvaney said. “I’m doing so as enthusiastically as I can, given the fact that I think he’s a terrible human being. But the choice on the other side is just as bad.”


    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/15/mulvaney-trump-terrible-human-being-1066657
     
  10. Vet1966

    Vet1966 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    How do you like them apples - President Trump is not a nice human being !

    SO WHAT!! Have you never heard that nice guys finish last.

    I don't expect my President to be a "nice human being" - I expect him to be my champion to do whatever has to be done to make America Great Again. To fight hard and dirty for what you love is a good thing.
     
  11. Sandy Shanks

    Sandy Shanks Banned

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    I don't think a President has to be an ******* to be effective, and it is quite typical of a Trump fan that you would say he had to be. You are okay with the idea that the President you chose is a sociopath.

    That is not surprising at all.
     
  12. Sandy Shanks

    Sandy Shanks Banned

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    I think Mulvaney has done an adequate job as budget director, but you avoided an important detail. Did you read the post just above yours?

    Here is that important detail.

    The Hill reports, "The White House confirmed Friday night that Mick Mulvaney will stay on as the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) even after he takes over as President Trump's acting chief of staff."

    Trump changed his mind ... again. He must really be desperate. Now he is forcing Mulvaney to take on two full-time jobs.

    “Yes, I’m supporting Donald Trump,” Mulvaney said. “I’m doing so as enthusiastically as I can, given the fact that I think he’s a terrible human being. But the choice on the other side is just as bad.”
     
  13. Vet1966

    Vet1966 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    You're right - Obama was an ******* and was about the least effective President in history.
    On the other hand, President Reagan was a wonderful and caring man and was prevented from being an effective President by the same forces that spew their 24/7 lies against President Trump.

    Meanwhile, in spite of the 24/7 stream of lies out of the fake news, President Trump is the most effective President in modern history. Have you noticed that Obamacare is on its deathbed.

    Let's build that wall!
     
    Dispondent likes this.
  14. Vet1966

    Vet1966 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Do you have a problem understanding nuance?

    The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the business division of the Executive Office of the President of the United States that administers the United States federal budget and oversees the performance of federal agencies. The OMB has done quite well while Mulvaney took charge of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and basically destroyed its effectiveness as a Democrat fund raising tool without any issues concerning the effective administration of the OMB.

    There is no reason that Mick Mulvaney can't continue to oversee the OMB while he acts as chief of staff for the President.

    You make the mistake of assuming that Mulvaney will fill the role of "Chief of Staff" in the traditional political sense rather than change the focus to that of a Director of Operations, or Chief Operations Officer (COO), who would oversee the day-to-day activities of the Executive Branch at the direction of the chief executive.

    Consider that the two jobs; running OMB and being the Director of Operations dovetail nicely into a single management tool.
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2018
  15. Dispondent

    Dispondent Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Can't be much worse than a president that doesn't even know how many states there are...
     
  16. Sandy Shanks

    Sandy Shanks Banned

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    Obama has not been our President for nearly two years. Get yourself up to date.

    So, according to you, being the budget director and Trump's COS are both part-time jobs.

    Many would disagree. They are both full-time jobs, but Trump was desperate because no one wanted the COS job. Somehow he compelled Mulvaney to take on both jobs, and many are wondering why Mulvaney accepted. Trump is damaged goods and his future is uncertain, yet Mulvaney put his political future in Trump's hands.
     
  17. Sandy Shanks

    Sandy Shanks Banned

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    Trump's fans love to compare Trump to Obama. That is interesting because Obama was a sub-standard President. He was a community organizer and a two-year junior Senator thrust into the job by the Democrats. Donald Duck could have been the Democratic nominee in 2008 and he would have won. Complicating the issue, Obama was black. Millions of Americans resented a black President.

    Those Americans voted for the bigot, Donald Trump, in 2016.

    What Trump's fans are saying is that, yeah, Trump is a bad President but he is not as bad as Obama.

    How do we know Trump's fans think Trump is a bad President? Because, like this poster, his fans can't defend Trump. He is that bad.

    But not as bad as Obama, they say.
     
  18. Dispondent

    Dispondent Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Trump isn't a bad president. We are safer today than when he took office, the economy is strong, and the only real problems surrounding Trump are whatever liberals are whining about on any given day. We have had more stability in Trump's first two years than we did in Obama's eight...
     
  19. Sandy Shanks

    Sandy Shanks Banned

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    Currently his harsh tariffs and his trade war with China has wiped out all gains for the year in the stock market. Everyone with an IRA or mutual fund has lost money.

    By declaring Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Trump has removed the U.S. as a power broker in the Mideast and replaced by Russia.

    Trump has made the U.S. a pariah on climate change by making us the only country not a member of the Paris Accord. He thinks climate change is a Chinese hoax. The past two years have seen once-in-500-year-storms occur frequently with surreal weather making weather history.

    He has threatened NATO and angered the leaders of the free world, Trudeau, May, Macron, and Merkel to name four.

    He removed the U.S. from the JCPOA that permanently barred Iran from making a nuke and replaced it with harsh language and weak sanctions. Russia is Iran's ally and technology and weapons supplier.

    Trump, in a stunning rebuke of the US intelligence community, declined to endorse the US government's assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, saying he doesn't "see any reason why" Russia would be responsible.

    "I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today," Trump said.

    According to Giuliani, Trump’s written answers to the special counsel’s questions say the Trump Tower Moscow discussions may have continued even later, “up to November 2016,” he told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday."

    In other words, during the entire course of the Presidential election campaign, Trump was busy negotiating with the Putin government.

    This explains Trump's lavish praise of Putin during the campaign and beyond. See "80 times Trump talked about Putin"

    This explains Trump's subservience to Putin at Helsinki when both were standing before reporters at a press conference.

    This explains why Trump, to this day, refuses to blame the Putin government for interference in our election, and why he spurns American intelligence on the issue.

    This explains why Trump collaborated with the Russian government in the first place.
     
  20. Sandy Shanks

    Sandy Shanks Banned

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    Provide examples of those lies.

    I have asked that several times of posters who said exactly what you said. I have yet to get a response.
     
  21. Dispondent

    Dispondent Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Trade war? That's just liberal hogwash because Trump is the first person to actually take a stand against the exploitation by China. For decades China has taken advantage and nobody did anything. Trump is finally trying to get America on better footing and liberals are defending Chinese exploitation to score cheap political points. Pathetic.

    Being a 'power broker' wasn't working, Trump took a stand. That's his prerogative as president. Making a decision is what leaders do, sadly Democrats haven't produced a leader since JFK.

    Man made climate change is a hoax, and the US was expected to pay the brunt of it. Trump once again put US interests over those of globalist liberals that hate America. Your 'examples' just prove that Trump is looking out for the US.

    Trump was right to threaten NATO, they too have been exploiting the US and not paying their fair share. I thought liberals were into that, guess just one more example liberal hypocrisy.

    The Iran deal was junk, everyone knew it, Trump was smart to get us out of that mess. Another Obama failure left for Trump to fix. You have not made a single valid point, except you appear to hate America and love everyone that exploits America...
     

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