Wednesday, May 27, 2020

U.S. National Security Council Staff Now At Half Of President Obama Levels

President Trump with his national security adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, in Los Angeles, September 18, 2019 (Tom Brenner / Reuters)

New York Post: Trump’s national security chief slashes staff to half of Obama levels

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien has dramatically slashed the size of the National Security Council — reducing the headcount to half of what it was during the Obama era, The Post has learned.

The job cuts are an attempt to streamline the foreign policy outfit, which ballooned under the Obama administration to almost 240 staffers — still up from 115 during Condoleezza Rice’s tenure as George W. Bush’s NSA in the early 2000s, a senior White House official said.

By the end of this summer, the NSC will consist of just 105 staff, the official said.

Read more ....

WNU Editor:This cut in staff has also resulted in the elimination of leaks. Is there a leak?

29 comments:

Anonymous said...



Beshear is the second governor to face an implied threat of assassination by way of an effigy. On May 14, protesters tussled over a brunette doll hanging from a noose on the steps of the Michigan Capitol, just days after local reports had surfaced Facebook posts making threats against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Whitmer also accused the GOP of inciting the violent protests. The governor told "Axios on HBO" on Monday that Republicans in the Michigan legislature had been encouraging protesters in her state. She added that she had asked the Trump administration to dial back the president's provocative rhetoric on Twitter, where he has called to "LIBERATE" Michigan and voiced support for armed protesters there.

"The heat is ratcheting up," she told Axios.

In Kentucky on Sunday, protesters hung a sign around the dummy's neck that said "sic semper tyrannis," a Latin phrase meaning "thus always to tyrants" that John Wilkes Booth claimed he shouted after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln. The violent symbol marked the crescendo of a protest attended on Sunday by the Kentucky Three Percenters, a chapter of a far-right militia group affiliated with the Patriot movement.

"Let's start by calling it what it was and what it is, actions aimed at creating fear and terror," Beshear said, describing the protesters' actions.

Beshear said they had "chanted and heckled" on the other side of a window where his children often play. His children, ages 10 and 9, were not home during the protest, he added.

Unknown said...

The difference between a businessman & lawyer/politician as President. Nixon formed the plumbers & got up to all sorts of illegal jiggerypokery. Wonder what Obamagate will reveal? Will Obama be the Nixon of the 2qst century? Keep ducking 🖖😎

Anonymous said...

You're losing

Anonymous said...

"Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen," Trump tweeted on Wednesday. "We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016."

....happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020

The president's comments come a day after he accused Twitter of “stifling FREE SPEECH."

The move by the social media giant to fact-check the president was a first for the platform, which has received a growing amount of flak about how it deals with misinformation and false statements on its website.

On Trump's tweets, the platform placed warnings, noting that the president's claim that California would send mail-in ballots to anyone living in the state was false. Twitter, in its fact-check, also pointed out that Trump himself voted by mail in the Florida Republican presidential primary this year.

Several states already utilize widespread mail-in ballots, including Oregon, Utah and Nebraska.

Twitter also received criticism from the president's reelection campaign.

“We always knew that Silicon Valley would pull out all the stops to obstruct and interfere with President Trump getting his message through to voters. Partnering with the biased fake news media ‘fact checkers’ is only a smoke screen Twitter is using to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility,” Brad Parscale

Anonymous said...

You're still losing

Anonymous said...

Donald Trump has built just THREE MILES of entirely new border wall where no barrier existed before, Department of Homeland Security reveals

President Trump has built just three miles of primary wall on the U.S.-Mexico border where no barrier existed before
A new report out of Customs and Border Protection and obtained by The Washington Post revealed the numbers
Overall, 194 miles of border wall have been constructed, but all but 16 miles are replacing previous structures
Of the 16 miles of new construction, 13 were to create new secondary walls, while three represented new primary border wall
In the past, Trump has blasted the media for not crediting his building of replacement wall as keeping his campaign promise
During the 2016 campaign, Trump told supporters he'd build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and make Mexico pay for it

Anonymous said...

12:39 is Fred or someone imitating him.

I take it that Fred is not a fan of James Burnham or has not read him.


James Burnham and the COVID-19 Resistance: Only Power Restrains Power

Democrat politicians have taken the opportunity to take a serious disease with the same potential as flu to go Von Munchausen by proxy on the American public in order to seize power.

Democrats who have violated social distancing

Virginia governor
Michigan governor
Illinois governor
Chicago Mayor

"Rules for thee but not for me!" Indeed

At the end of the year, where I live, there will be nearly the same amount of people murdered as dead from COVID-19

With a roaring economy maybe that number would be smaller by 25% or 50%.

But to Democrats Black Lives do not Matter except as a prop.

Anonymous said...

Mexico is paying for the wall. They are not getting as many remittances from illegals.

Squirrel is not that smart.

Has "the slows" as Abraham Lincoln would say.

Anonymous said...

President Trump has been in the Oval Office for more than three years and has yet to claim a foreign policy doctrine of his own. The time may have come to bestow one upon him. Call it the Withdrawal Doctrine.

Trump has a slogan — “America First” — but not a doctrine, a term reserved for broad constructs that explain a good many specific policies. The Truman Doctrine communicated that the United States was ready to provide help to countries threatened by Soviet-backed Communism. The Carter Doctrine proclaimed U.S. determination to defend the Persian Gulf. The Reagan Doctrine signaled U.S. intent to support “freedom fighters” against Soviet-backed regimes. In every instance, allies and foes alike, along with Congress and the American public, were intended audiences.

Withdrawal is no less central to the Trump presidency. He has pulled the country out of every manner of multilateral agreement and institution overseas in the name of going it alone. Going it alone, though, makes little sense in a world increasingly defined by global challenges that can best be met through collective, not individual, action.

Anonymous said...

The psychology of insults and name calling

Anonymous said...

You're still losing

Anonymous said...

Losing

Anonymous said...

The autobiography of a loser!

Anonymous said...

PHreD insults people's intelligence by insisting that Russian Collusion is real after the testimony of the Clapper, Brennan, and others came out, where they said they had no proof.

In sworn testimony in a committee meeting they said they had no proof. In public they said they had proof.

PhreD attached to their public pronouncements like a remora.

No brains or no shame.

Anonymous said...

Lapides is lounging in his smoking jacket listening to Joan Baez sing about "Joe Hill" dreaming of the faculty lounge.

Anonymous said...

http://extragoodshit.phlap.net/

http://extragoodshit.phlap.net/

Anonymous said...

THE TRUTH SHALL ME THEE FREE

Anonymous said...

all we are saying is...

Anonymous said...

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE JOE DEMAGIO?

Anonymous said...

Trump Said, ‘I Have the Best Words.’ Now They’re Hers. Trump Said, ‘I Have the Best Words.’ Now They’re Hers.

Anonymous said...

Lapides the loser!

Anonymous said...

Hey Freddie how's waiting ( that you mentioned constantly) for the Mueller Report going?

Anonymous said...

I remember that. Fred Lapides said wait for the report. Report has come and gone.

Now the Schiff Star Chamber proceeding have been released. It showed that Brennan, Clapper and company lied.

Still Fred is invested in Russian Collusion.

I am worried about war with China. Of course I have been worried about that for 10 years. So nothing new except China is more active, stronger and more provocative. What China is doing might not be anymore than air punches. that is a bull pretending they are going to punch you and pulling the punch or stopping an inch from your face. Kids use to do that to each other in middle school and early high school.

Technically they have not battered you. If you say it is a threat then some lame 'educator' will recite "sticks and stone ...". So the bully may get away with assault with the full knowledge of an authority figure (edumacator). If you did not stop walking forward or slow your step, the bully could claim it was "your fault", because his fist was there 1st. That is you were "Travelling".

All that high school bullshit is not any different than playing chick on the high seas and in the air, actual ramming, making threats about sailing the Straits or Taiwan or the South China Sea. etc. The only differences is a greater number of people and there are big toys.

The threat of war seems greater and all Lapides can think of is to lie about collusion to convince people to vote for his chosen part, The Democrats/Socialist.

Of course Lapides will claim that 1/2 the dossier has been verified as being true. For instance Trump's surname is surprise Trump!

Mike Feldhake said...

Intelligent conversation guys....not :(

Anonymous said...

Masks Sold by Former White House Official to Navajo Hospitals Don’t Meet FDA Standards

New information from the Indian Health Service calls into question why the agency purchased expensive medical gear that it now cannot use as intended.


Republicans have wanted to excise Steve King from their ranks for years. Next week, they will have their best shot.

The Iowa Republican with a history of racially-charged — sometimes racist — rhetoric on white nationalism, immigration and multiculturalism is facing his toughest race since he was elected to the House almost 20 years ago. He is underfunded, abandoned by longtime allies and down in the polls as a formidable coalition mobilizes against him in the GOP primary.

Major Republican power players in Washington and Iowa — from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and operative Karl Rove, to former Gov. Terry Branstad and evangelical leaders — have ganged up to take him down.

“It’s business, it’s conservative and more moderate, too. It’s basically the whole collection,” said Nick Ryan, a veteran GOP operative who has long opposed King. “You’re seeing all segments of the Republican Party really coming together and working together in an effort to defeat King, and that’s something that’s never happened before.”

Anonymous said...



David Bossie and Corey Lewandowski, two key allies and former political advisers to Donald Trump, went to the White House last week to issue him a warning: The president was slipping badly in swing states, and he needed to do something to fix it.

Three days later, the Trump campaign’s political directors in Arizona and Florida — states the president won in 2016 but where surveys show him lagging — were summoned to the White House Roosevelt Room. The officials offered a detailed rundown of his organization in the battlegrounds and tried to reassure the president that he was on firm ground.

After his May 18 meeting with Bossie and Lewandowski, Trump called his top campaign lieutenants to vent his frustration about his political standing.

Bossie and Lewandowski, who served as top aides on Trump’s 2016 effort, complained to the president about his political operation. Trump’s campaign team, in response decided to rush their Arizona and Florida representatives onto airplanes for a Thursday meeting with the president.

Republicans involved with setting up the Thursday meeting with Trump's state directors said they were taken aback by Bossie and Lewandowski’s warning. They felt the need to mollify Trump, who has been kept abreast of his reelection effort but hasn’t always been aware of the granular, on-the-ground details.

The sequence, which was described by four people familiar with what transpired, offered the latest snapshot of Trump’s angst about his battleground state standing. With just five months until the election, the president has been privately expressing concern about his poll numbers and senior Republicans are openly sounding alarms about his swing state prospects.

Neither Bossie nor Lewandowski, who is currently serving as a senior adviser to the reelection campaign, responded to requests for comment. A Trump campaign spokesman declined to comment.

Bossie, a Republican National Committee member from Maryland, was seen with Trump twice over the Memorial Day weekend, including a visit to the president's golf course in Sterling, Va.

Arizona in particular emerged as a trouble spot for the party. Trump won the state by more than 3 percentage points in 2016, but recent polls have shown him trailing Joe Biden there. A Democrat hasn't carried the state in a presidential election since Bill Clinton in 1996.

Anonymous said...

Panting

Anonymous said...

Panting

Anonymous said...

Mike,

Fred is not having a conversation. He is walking out of the echo chamber, coming here, and screaming talking points.