After Cheeto Jesus’ inauguration, he announced with great fanfare two councils of CEOs all designed to Make America Great Again, whatever that means.  The two councils, the Manufacturing Council and the Strategy & Policy Forum, were supposedly organized to help shape policy to increase business and generate jobs for American workers.  In reality, though, they were simply figurehead in nature, designed to reward CEOs for supporting Trump.  In fact, to my knowledge the councils never actually met outside of the initial photo ops, and were just used to raise the profiles of its members.

All that puffery came crashing down the last few days after Trump’s catastrophic response to the violence in Charlottesville, defending neo-Nazis and racist white supremacists and attacking the media for simply asking questions.  In the face of this disaster, CEOs began bailing from the Manufacturing Council. Today, the Strategy & Policy Forum met in a conference call, and in the face of a crowd of CEOs ready to resign, they disbanded.  Later, through Twitler, Trump also disbanded the Manufacturing Council.  I guess he decided that the defections were simply too glaring to gloss over.

This development is not insignificant.  Think about it – Trump rode to the WH on the backs of bigots and the ignorant; but worse, he also rode on the shoulders of business executives who were so self interested in stuffing their wallets even more full that they allowed themselves to be used to elect a depraved carnival barker.  These very same executives are now fleeing like rats off a sinking ship.

It appears that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had himself a snot nosed walleyed his fit at the White House in front of a crowd that included Reince Priebus, Jared Kuchner, Tillerson’s Chief of Staff Margaret Peterlin.

Tillerson exploded over issues that had been building for months.  The straw that broke the camel’s back was Johnny DeStefano, a political operative for Trump, telling Tillerson who he could and could not hire at the State Department.

Tillerson also complained that the White House was leaking damaging information about him to the news media, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Above all, he made clear that he did not want DeStefano’s office to “have any role in staffing” and “expressed frustration that anybody would know better” than he about who should work in his department — particularly after the president had promised him autonomy to make his own decisions and hires, according to a senior White House aide familiar with the conversation.

Yeah, well, we all know that the president’s promises are biodegradable.

Tillerson, who I imagine is pretty much used to getting his way, decided that maybe the president’s young and inexperienced crew might respond to hollering and promises to get a switch off the willow tree in the backyard.

They didn’t.

Kushner, who has cornered the market on gall, reportedly told Tillerson’s chief of staff that his “outburst was completely unprofessional.”

Oh, I imagine that Tillerson is going to have something to say about that, don’t you?

Screw Mika and Trump – this is the fight I want to watch.

Remember how Trump said he would hire the best people? Well, he never actually said best for who.

Lynne Patton has been appointed to oversee the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Region II, which includes New York and New Jersey, where she’ll oversee distribution of billions of taxpayer dollars.

Who is Lynne Patton?  Honey, she’s a party planner for the Trump family who even oversaw Eric Trump’s wedding.

“Responsible for organizing, executing and assisting with upscale events and celebrity golf tournaments,” her LinkedIn profile says. “Handle celebrity talent acquisition for various marketing projects, philanthropic events and golf tournaments.”

Region II oversees payments of HUD funds to properties owned by . . . are you ready for this? Trump and Kushner.

I got the best frauds. And the best liars too.

Thanks to Carl and Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen for the heads up.

In case you missed it, here is the Mar-a-Lago war room —

You’ll note that they are all sitting on the standard issue war room delicate gold rattan chairs.

If some of these names are not familiar to you, here’s a handy guide.

Seriously, y’all, what the hell is that Steve Miller guy doing in there?  I mean, except to make Bannon look sane.

I agree with El Jefe below.  This whole bombing thing was a fake reality show.

And in Irony of the Hour, Sean Hannity on September 3rd, 2013.

UPDATE:  Well, here ya go.

Raytheon stock surged Friday morning, after 59 of the company’s Tomahawk missiles were used to strike Syria in Donald Trump’s first major military operation as President.

…

The shares of other missile and weapons manufacturers, including Boeing(BA, +0.83%), Lockheed Martin(LMT, +1.17%), Northrop Grumman(NOC, +0.90%)and General Dynamics(GD, +0.93%), each rose as much as 1%, collectively gaining nearly $5 billion in market value as soon as they began trading, even as the broader market fell.

Goes a long way explaining everything, doesn’t it?

Yesterday, just moments after ExxonMobil announced a $20 billion spending program in the Gulf of Mexico, the White House released a statement that copied the company’s press release virtually word for word.  It seems that Tillerson’s former company has accomplished taking over the White House, even to the point of issuing its press statements.

Traditionally, presidents pose with their spouses and children for Christmas photos.  Here are a few examples:

Then there is Cheeto Jesus:

That’s right.  Because nothing says Merry Christmas like a raised fist.  You know what happened – CJ realized he hadn’t tweeted a holiday greeting yesterday and ordered one of his minions to find a Christmas photo of himself.  Since his handlers hadn’t had a Christmas photo taken, they just grabbed the first one they found.  It looks like this was taken at one of his Gloat Tour rallies and it’s the closest he could get to an actual Christmas photo.

I continue to ponder one word descriptors of this guy, and the only one that comes to mind is vulgar.