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White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders strongly reacted to the FBI’s failure to preserve months worth of text messages between agents assigned to investigate President Donald Trump, in a Tuesday interview on Fox News.Previous reports revealed that the two agents, who were involved in an extra-martial affair with one another, had sent each other texts disparaging Trump and praising former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. One of the agents, Peter Strozk, was one of the top FBI agents to oversee the investigation into Trump campaign and was deeply involved in investigating Clinton’s use of a private email server.The justice...

“Never Trump” Members Have Hijacked the Presidential Personnel Office, Attack Trump Loyalist White House Staffers and Interns Multiple sources within the White House have confirmed that Jana Toner, a member of the Presidential Personnel Office, is regularly heard publicly insulting prominent pro-Trump media figures, including former Breitbart Technology editor Milo Yiannopoulos and Infowars founder Alex Jones. Mrs. Toner has even told White House interns that sharing content from Mr. Yiannopoulos or Mr. Jones’ Infowars on social media is grounds for dismissal. Furthermore, two White House interns recounted how other employees with the Presidential Personnel Office, at the direction of Mrs....

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told friends he thinks he will be lucky to last a year leading the State Department, according to a new report. Foreign policy leaders, including Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, have been clashing with West Wing insiders, such as adviser Sebastian Gorka and chief strategist Steve Bannon, over foreign policy outlook and strategy, Reuters reports: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told friends he will be lucky to last a year in his job, according to a friend, while two officials said national security adviser H.R. McMaster was frustrated by what he...

One-eighth of Donald Trump’s term of office is past. While there have been notable accomplishments, it was far less productive than either the president or his supporters wanted. Arguably, that’s substantially because the Trump administration is largely staffed by people who do not support the president and his policies. Most worked previously for Barack Obama. This is an obvious formula for disaster. Yet, a Trump subordinate frequently at odds with his boss, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, recently told his staff that there are "no [Obama] hold-overs" on the National Security Council (NSC). Any there who previously worked for Obama...

Di Leo: The Deep State -- an Institutional Barrier Against Draining the Swamp By John F. Di Leo - As the Trump Administration began, two terms took over our discourse, from keyboard warriors on social media to the formal political theorists of the mainstream media. These two terms are not exactly antonyms, as one is a verb and the other is a gerund, but they certainly are diametrically opposed to each other: Draining the Swamp on the one hand, and the Deep State on the other. Draining the Swamp was easy to say, easy to understand, easy to cheer for....

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the government's personnel office has resigned in the wake of a massive data breach on her watch. A White House official says President Barack Obama accepted the resignation of Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta on Friday morning. She'll stay on the job through the end of the day. The official says deputy director Beth Cobert will become acting director starting Saturday.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says the U.S. has deployed 80 military personnel to Chad to help located more than 200 girls kidnapped in Nigeria.

SEALs aren’t supposed to find themselves in trouble that they can’t get out of. That’s why the Navy is seeking to buy 300 new survival kits for the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, sometimes known as Navy SEAL Team 6. They’re the guys who raided Osama bin Laden’s compound in May 2011 and sent him on an all-expenses-paid trip to the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Save for the downed stealthy MH-60 Black Hawk chopper, the mission was a grand success. But, being military men, they have to prepare for worst-case scenarios. That’s where Wednesday’s solicitation for what they call...

Okay, the professional civilian here, again. While reading more about D-Day and its aftermath, I'm finding that it was policy to constantly infuse already-existing Army units with new people, the units having been worn down by "attrition." I had always assumed that it was policy, once a unit was all torn up, battered up, decimated, that it was pulled back, and an entirely new unit was sent in. And while being pulled out of action, two purposes were served; that of giving the survivors a chance to catch their breath, and giving commanders time to build them back up to...

This website is a handy reference tool for mapping relationships within industry, government and lobbying firms. Simply go to http://www.muckety.com and enter the firm name - i.e., "Cerberus" or "FN" and follow instructions. Names of prominent players can also be searched for relationships within the complex.

It looks like 3 times will not be a charm when it comes to getting someone - anyone - honest enough and subservient enough to run the Department of Commerce for President Obama. First, it was Bill Richardson who somehow slipped under the radar of Obama's super sharp vetters, having problems with cronies back in New Mexico. Then it was Judd Gregg who withdrew his name after Obama blindsided him by politicizing the census. Now it's Gary Locke - former Governor of Washington and now lobbyist for a firm that does a lot of business in China - who may...

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq, Nov. 24, 2008 – Army Spc. Anthony Calhoun has discovered that sometimes the things we don’t plan, work out the best. Army Spc. Anthony Calhoun, left, 10th Mountain Division Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System operator and New Orleans native, reviews retirement paperwork with Army Staff Sgt. Ellis Andrew, common ground station noncommissioned officer in charge, 10th Mountain Division, and native of Rochester, N.Y. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Amber Emery  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Calhoun didn’t plan to enlist in the Army. But once he did, he realized it was his calling. From...

Nuclear Weapon Personnel Reliability Program: Cocaine History a Disqualifier I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though… (Barack Obama, “Dreams From My Father,” page 93, paperback edition. http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/streetterms/ByAlpha.asp?strTerm=B, “Blow” = “Cocaine; to inhale cocaine; to smoke marijuana; to inject heroin”) The Obama campaign at least sanctions (and may promote actively) the spread of rumors to the effect that John McCain has a neurodegenerative disease, usually by citing age as a risk factor for such diseases. Dozens of posts to this nature appear...

One windy afternoon last week at the border fence, a construction platform carrying a crew of National Guard personnel moved slowly along the barrier, sparks flying from blowtorches as the guardsmen straightened and retrofitted the steel posts. For most of them, it would be their last task on the border. “I'll go wherever they want me to go,” said Staff Sgt. Dan McBride, 44, the crew's supervisor, a mail carrier from Fresno who plans to go back to his full-time job for a while before his likely deployment to Iraq in February. “But this has been sweet, San Diego.” After...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28, 2007 – Following the philosophy that recovering from an injury is easier with family nearby, a Virginia group is helping to make that possible for wounded explosive ordnance disposal technicians from any branch of service. “Wounded EOD Warrior Foundation is dedicated to helping our wounded explosive ordnance disposal technicians and their families in their greatest time of need,” said Sherri Beck, foundation president. “We are hoping to relieve some of the financial stress involved when a loved one is injured, (and) we also believe that having family present is an integral part of the healing process.”...

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2007 – The most successful team in Major Leagues Soccer’s 11-year history paid special tribute to America’s military men and women here last night. D.C. United hosted its 8th Annual Armed Forces Appreciation Day with several pre-game festivities at RFK Stadium. More than a thousand military personnel were invited to the game free of charge, and the team distributed military appreciation T-shirts to the first 5,000 fans. “It is a privilege and an honor for D.C. United to host members of the armed forces and their families each season,” Stephen Zack, D.C. United executive vice president,...

The military isn't full of poor, uneducated kids, but it doesn't look anything like America. November 3, 2006 SINCE John Kerry "botched" a joke and implied that those without education "get stuck in Iraq," political leaders from both parties have been piously describing U.S. troops as valiant young Einsteins in desert camouflage. But deep down, a lot of them probably think Kerry is right. If those grunts were half as smart as members of Congress, they'd be on Capitol Hill getting sucked up to by lobbyists instead of sucking up dust in Baghdad's bloody alleys — right? Demographically, the military...

An Iraqi soldiers shakes hands with a fellow soldier during the graduation ceremony. Seventy soldiers from the 8th Iraqi Army Division graduated Friday from a course on maintaining accurate and reliable personnel and security records. The soldiers who graduated from the two-week Unit Transition Point course were all assigned to the either brigade or battalion personnel departments. The training was conducted by instructors from Iraqi Ground Forces Command in Baghdad and monitored and supervised by Multi-National Division Central-South military transition team officers. The first week of the course was devoted to training on high-technology devices for fingerprinting as well...

Chinooks Keep Trucks, Personnel off Perilous Roads The 4th Infantry Division’s Combat Aviation Battalion saves lives by transporting soldiers and equipment. By U.S. Army Spc. Creighton Holub 4th Infantry Division CAMP TAJI, Iraq, July 21, 2006 -- CH-47 Chinook pilots with the 4th Infantry Division’s Combat Aviation Battalion move an average of 40 pallets of equipment and supplies throughout Baghdad every night. They’ve also kept an estimated 3,000 trucks and more than 7,000 soldiers off the roads of Baghdad since their arrival. “We’re preserving democracy one pallet at a time,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Phillip Lopez, a Chinook...

RUSTAMIYAH, Iraq, May 30, 2006 – NATO servicemembers are working with Iraqis here to train the new Iraqi army. Rustamiyah is the home of the Iraqi Military Academy and the Iraqi Joint Service College. It is also the temporary home of 80 NATO servicemembers who are helping the Iraqi army become a modern, effective force. Italian air force Brig. Gen. Agostino Mazzei leads the NATO effort here, and Italy is the lead nation in the effort. During a recent interview, the general said the NATO and Iraqi personnel went through a lot in setting up the course, but it was...