The only secure job in this White House is slate cleaner

From BUSINESS INSIDER:

President Donald Trump on Monday removed Anthony Scaramucci as the White House communications director after he had served in the role for 10 days, The New York Times and other outlets reported.

The decision came at the urging of the new White House chief of staff, John Kelly, The Times reported, adding that it was unclear whether Scaramucci would leave the White House or remain employed in another capacity.

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The Revolution won’t be televised, but the propaganda will be!

From the Portland Press Herald:

Marc McCutcheon of South Portland was watching WGME’s evening newscast as he has for half a century when something came on that shocked him.

In the midst of the local news, a taped commentary from President Trump’s former special assistant Boris Epshteyn appeared on the screen, trumpeting the administration’s position with what he thought selective use and abuse of facts.

McCutcheon, a small-business owner and political independent, describes the experience as “surreal,” “extremely jarring” and “so out of place with the friendly, local broadcast from news people I’ve come to trust over the years.” There was no rebuttal, no context, no alternate point of view – a situation he found concerning.

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Mischief of Staff

From BUSINESS INSIDER:

President Donald Trump on Friday replaced White House chief of staff Reince Priebus with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

…snip…

CNN reported that Priebus offered Trump his resignation on Thursday.

…snip…

The episode marked the end of a weeklong saga involving Priebus and new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. Priebus had worked hard to block Scaramucci’s appointment, but Trump decided to hire him anyway.

Original painting Facts of Life by Norman Rockwell 

It’s Mini-Mooch. Watch your front!

“As you know from the Italian expression, the fish stinks from the head down, but I can tell you two fish that don’t stink, and that’s me and the president. I don’t like the activity going on in the White House. I don’t like what they’re doing to my friend.”

–Anthony Scaramucci

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Schooling Betsy

From NEW REPUBLIC:

Conservatives frame privatization as a civil rights issue, but Trump’s extreme agenda is energizing racial justice and public education advocates.

Last September, at a rally in Roanoke, Virginia, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump made a promise to black America. “I will fight to make sure every single African-American child in this country is fully included in the American dream,” he said. “That includes the new civil rights issue of our time: school choice.” This has been a familiar refrain for Trump. “At rallies last year across the country,” The New York Times reported in March, “Trump said over and over again that he would use the nation’s schools to fix what he described as failing inner cities and a virtual education crisis that most hurts black and Hispanic children. In North Carolina, he called school choice ‘the great civil rights issue of our time.’ In Florida, he declared that ‘every disadvantaged child in this country’ should have access to school choice.”

“School choice” is conservative-speak for charter schools and vouchers, both of which represent a different degree of privatization in education. Vouchers use taxpayer dollars to fund attendance at private and religious schools, while charters are publicly funded but, in many cases, privately controlled. Trump’s education policy advocates for both, and in his controversial appointment of Betsy DeVos as education secretary, he elevated a longtime champion of the cause.

Original painting, Happy Birthday Miss Jones, with apologies to the late, great Norman Rockwell

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obSESSIONS

From the DAILY BEAST:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has no plans to leave office, as friends say he’s grown angry with President Donald Trump following a series of attacks meant to marginalize his power and, potentially, encourage his resignation.

“Sessions is totally pissed off about it,” said a Sessions ally familiar with his thinking. “It’s beyond insane. It’s cruel and it’s insane and it’s stupid.”

Uh-oh! Little Ernie…I mean, Little BeauBeau is pissed off! Ever see The Help, Twitler? Better not eat the cookies…especially the chocolate ones, no matter how beautiful they are.

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Giuliani as AG? That’s enough to make me toss my cookies!

From AXIOS:

President Trump is so unhappy with Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he has raised the possibility of bringing back Rudolph Giuliani to head the Justice Department, according to West Wing confidants.

• In internal conversations, Trump has recently pondered the idea of nominating Giuliani, a stalwart of his campaign.

• Even before last week’s blast at Sessions in a New York Times interview, Trump had expressed fury at Sessions — also one of the first prominent Republicans to back the Trump campaign — for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.

Rudy replacing Ernie…I mean, Beauregard? The cookie factory would never be the same!

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They’ll get the most beautiful cake with the most beautiful file in it!

From BUSINESS INSIDER:

Speculation is mounting that President Donald Trump could issue a pardon to members of his family and close associates who are suspected of colluding with Russia in the 2016 campaign.

…snip…

The June 2016 meeting of Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner and Russian go-betweens promising dirt about Hillary Clinton raises the specter of criminal liability under campaign finance laws.

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(Don’t strain your dear little eyes, Raisinettes. That’s Paul Manafort in the top floor cell and Michael Flynn in the bottom. The guard with the gun is Robert Mueller.)