I recall a conversation with a senior person at OMB just after Obama got elected. He said:

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The political weather vane snapped off the mast.

This time the building was lifted into the sky and dropped on a witch.

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Originally posted by Tubetone:

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Originally posted by rpm2010:

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Originally posted by Tubetone:
Whether its mayors or Mexico or the UN, other leaders do not like having Trump's will imposed on them. But, we needed someone to add clear leadership to the helm of government.

. . .

There will never be a full acceptance by those who must bend to President Trump's leadership. Some won't like it because of their egos. Some will not like the policies. Some will not like his/her own perceived loss of political power. And, some will not like it because of prejudice no matter how much Trump's leadership may benefit them and others.

Start with Mexico's President. What the hell is he talking about...turning 50 Mexican consulates into centers to give legal advice to "immigrants"?

https://www.aol.com/article/ne...ect-immigr/21663288/

People not legally here are gonna' make those consulates crowded. I guess the Mexican government is committed to illegal activity by its citizens in another country - ours. After spending our tax dollars for those here illegally the course is finding its limit.

BTW, I know many people who are not here legally and they are some very fine people by nature and thankful to be here - but they are not here legally. Heck, the best man at my wedding 40 years ago was Mexican but he was here legally and saw illegal aliens as, well, lawless.

That Mexico would pursue an approach that says it will use our law to perpetuate lawless activity shows that President Trump must act and how skewed Mexico's views have become. It is as if our laws don't matter now except to interfere with our sovereignty.

Mexico complaining about a wall when it uses walls and harsh laws to protect its own southern border shows more than a little hypocrisy. And, sanctuary cities seems like a misnomer to me. When we give federal tax money to subsidize lawless activity, how is that money something to which such cities are entitled?

Agree, its crazy to hear the Mexcian President speak as if he really cares about the illegals coming over, because that's what the wall is all about.

"Where there is a Mexican migrant at risk that requires our support, your country should be there"

The "your country should be there" is a laugher, that's right Mexico should be there for the Mexican citizens while they live in Mexico, but they aren't...that's why they're all crossing illegally into the US. And if I get the jist of what he (Mexican Pres.) was inferring to, he wants the Mexican consulates to give "legal" advice to the illegals to make it difficult for the US to deport them...build the wall!!

Sanctuary cities don't seem to care about losing Fed money and want to continue what they're doing...about the only thing that would hurt them is loss of tourism dollars.

If I were a Klingon, I'd call the last week glorious.

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Originally posted by 2000Z-71:

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Originally posted by parabellum:
CUT for anyone who can identify the novel from which I got the phrase "Nits grow into lice."

James Michener's "Centennial" when the commanding officer justified the fictional account of the Sand Creek Massacre.

Which came from the this quote:

Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians! ... I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians. ... Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice.

— Col. John Milton Chivington

Chivington said this during the Sand Creek Massacre. Centennial's Skimmerhorn character was based on the real life Chivington.

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"Where there is a Mexican migrant at risk that requires our support, your country should be there"The "your country should be there" is a laugher, that's right Mexico should be there for the Mexican citizens while they live in Mexico, but they aren't...that's why they're all crossing illegally into the US. And if I get the jist of what he (Mexican Pres.) was inferring to, he wants the Mexican consulates to give "legal" advice to the illegals to make it difficult for the US to deport them...build the wall!!

...it has nothing to do with the Illegals, it has everything to do with the money they send back.

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Originally posted by navyshooter:

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"Where there is a Mexican migrant at risk that requires our support, your country should be there"The "your country should be there" is a laugher, that's right Mexico should be there for the Mexican citizens while they live in Mexico, but they aren't...that's why they're all crossing illegally into the US. And if I get the jist of what he (Mexican Pres.) was inferring to, he wants the Mexican consulates to give "legal" advice to the illegals to make it difficult for the US to deport them...build the wall!!

...it has nothing to do with the Illegals, it has everything to do with the money they send back.

More like it has everything to do with the US as Mexico's safety valve so they don't have to deal with their own social problems.

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Originally posted by navyshooter:

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"Where there is a Mexican migrant at risk that requires our support, your country should be there"The "your country should be there" is a laugher, that's right Mexico should be there for the Mexican citizens while they live in Mexico, but they aren't...that's why they're all crossing illegally into the US. And if I get the jist of what he (Mexican Pres.) was inferring to, he wants the Mexican consulates to give "legal" advice to the illegals to make it difficult for the US to deport them...build the wall!!

...it has nothing to do with the Illegals, it has everything to do with the money they send back.

Got it...build the wall QUICKER!!! Yup, once the wall is up, Mexico will have to deal with the millions who would have normally crossed over to the USA for us to take care of. They will have to deal with THEIR OWN PROBLEM.

The President is now speaking at the GOP Retreat. A very cordial welcome from the audience, and President Trump starts off with "Nice to win! It's been a while, right? Remember?"

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"Mexico offers and demands respect as the fully sovereign nation we are," he insisted.

and the US demands and expects the same

What a joke. If you have to "demand" respect, you've already lost.

I despise The Washington Post.

It's 4 people.

Josh Rogin
The State Department’s entire senior management team just resigned
By Josh Rogin January 26 at 11:02 AM

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s job running the State Department just got considerably more difficult. The entire senior level of management officials resigned Wednesday, part of an ongoing mass exodus of senior foreign service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era.

Tillerson was actually inside the State Department’s headquarters in Foggy Bottom on Wednesday, taking meetings and getting the lay of the land. I reported Wednesday morning that the Trump team was narrowing its search for his No. 2, and that it was looking to replace the State Department’s long-serving undersecretary for management, Patrick Kennedy. Kennedy, who has been in that job for nine years, was actively involved in the transition and was angling to keep that job under Tillerson, three State Department officials told me.

Then suddenly on Wednesday afternoon, Kennedy and three of his top officials resigned unexpectedly, four State Department officials confirmed. Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Ambassador Gentry O. Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Missions, followed him out the door. All are career foreign service officers who have served under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

[In his first major TV interview as president, Trump is endlessly obsessed with his popularity]

Kennedy will retire from the foreign service at the end of the month, officials said. The other officials could be given assignments elsewhere in the foreign service.

In addition, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Gregory Starr retired Jan. 20, and the director of the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations, Lydia Muniz, departed the same day. That amounts to a near-complete housecleaning of all the senior officials that deal with managing the State Department, its overseas posts and its people.

“It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that’s incredibly difficult to replicate,” said David Wade, who served as State Department chief of staff under Secretary of State John Kerry. “Department expertise in security, management, administrative and consular positions in particular are very difficult to replicate and particularly difficult to find in the private sector.”

Trump jokes Tillerson finding Senate confirmation 'tougher than he thought' Play Video1:31
Addressing a crowd of diplomats at a dinner event Jan. 17, Donald Trump joked that secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson is finding his Senate confirmation tougher than anticipated. (AP)
Several senior foreign service officers in the State Department’s regional bureaus have also left their posts or resigned since the election. But the emptying of leadership in the management bureaus is more disruptive because those offices need to be led by people who know the department and have experience running its complicated bureaucracies. There’s no easy way to replace that via the private sector, said Wade.

“Diplomatic security, consular affairs, there’s just not a corollary that exists outside the department, and you can least afford a learning curve in these areas where issues can quickly become matters of life and death,” he said. “The muscle memory is critical. These retirements are a big loss. They leave a void. These are very difficult people to replace.”

Whether Kennedy left on his own volition or was pushed out by the incoming Trump team is a matter of dispute inside the department. Just days before he resigned, Kennedy was taking on more responsibility inside the department and working closely with the transition. His departure was a surprise to other State Department officials who were working with him.

[‘They never saw this coming’: A Q&A with Kellyanne Conway]

One senior State Department official who responded to my requests for comment said that all the officials had previously submitted their letters of resignation, as was required for all positions that are appointed by the president and that require confirmation by the Senate, known as PAS positions.

“No officer accepts a PAS position with the expectation that it is unlimited. And all officers understand that the President may choose to replace them at any time,” this official said. “These officers have served admirably and well. Their departure offers a moment to consider their accomplishments and thank them for their service. These are the patterns and rhythms of the career service.”

Ambassador Richard Boucher, who served as State Department spokesman for Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, said that while there’s always a lot of turnover around the time a new administration takes office, traditionally senior officials work with the new team to see who should stay on in their roles and what other jobs might be available. But that’s not what happened this time.

The officials who manage the building and thousands of overseas diplomatic posts are charged with taking care of Americans overseas and protecting U.S. diplomats risking their lives abroad. The career foreign service officers are crucial to those functions as well as to implementing the new president’s agenda, whatever it may be, Boucher said.

[What’s the method in Trump’s madness?]

“You don’t run foreign policy by making statements, you run it with thousands of people working to implement programs every day,” Boucher said. “To undercut that is to undercut the institution.”

By itself, the sudden departure of the State Department’s entire senior management team is disruptive enough. But in the context of a president who railed against the U.S. foreign policy establishment during his campaign and secretary of state with no government experience, the vacancies are much more concerning.

Tillerson’s job No. 1 must be to find qualified and experienced career officials to manage the State Department’s vital offices. His second job should be to reach out to and reassure a State Department workforce that is panicked about what the Trump administration means for them.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.819735805039

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Originally posted by parabellum:
The President is now speaking at the GOP Retreat. A very cordial welcome from the audience, and President Trump starts off with "Nice to win! It's been a while, right? Remember?"

This speech is beautiful so far. I love it.

The President said that both he and the Mexican president agreed to cancel the meeting. I don't believe that, but what's important is that the President then said "We'll go a different route." which I take to mean that Mexico wll not be consulted on the matter and the US Gov't will recoup the cost of the wall via our constant transactions with Mexico.

In other words, Jose Jimenez, we're gonna build the wall and your crappy country is going to pay for it and that's the end of the discussion.

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Got it...build the wall QUICKER!!! Yup, once the wall is up, Mexico will have to deal with the millions who would have normally crossed over to the US. They will have to deal with THEIR OWN PROBLEM.

... it is one thing to have free immigration to jobs. It is another thing to have free immigration to welfare. And you cannot have both. If you have a welfare state, if you have a state in which every resident is promises a certain minimal level of income, or a minimum level of subsistence, regardless of whether he works or not, produces it or not. Then it really is an impossible thing.

---Milton Friedman

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Originally posted by RAMIUS:

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Originally posted by parabellum:
The President is now speaking at the GOP Retreat. A very cordial welcome from the audience, and President Trump starts off with "Nice to win! It's been a while, right? Remember?"

This speech is beautiful so far. I love it.

I'll bet there was an implied "and I did it without any help from some of you pricks" behind his smile.

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Originally posted by stickman428:
And the winning continues! State dept's entire senior management team just resigned.

Link to article

Good, saves the time and effort of firing them.

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“Department expertise in security, management, administrative and consular positions in particular are very difficult to replicate and particularly difficult to find in the private sector.”

They did the President a huge favor. This is an opportunity to reconfigure things the way he wants them to be.

Hahahah!

Trump: what the hell is going on in Chicago with the murder rate??

Guy from the audience: Democrats!

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Originally posted by nhtagmember:

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"Mexico offers and demands respect as the fully sovereign nation we are," he insisted.

and the US demands and expects the same

My understanding is that Mexico is a perfect example of a double standard. They aggressively protect their southern border against illegal immigration, those coming into Mexico, in violation of Mexican law, for personal gain. And at the same time Mexico aggressively promotes illegal immigration going across their Northern border to the US, in violation of US law, for personal gain.

Oh, schnap! The prez said "Radical Islamic Terrorism."

Is that allowed? I thought that the POTUS was prohibited by law of uttering this phrase.