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[Cathar]

My spidey sense are tingling on that. I can't imagine someone whose job is to gather intel on foreign countries being immune to legal prosecutions in those very countries. I mean spies are regularly captured even among allies and traded against one another, that's part of the game, that's how Sergei whatshisnamesky ended up in UK.
But I can't imagine one of them going in broad daylight, being caught red handed, flashing some kind of immunity and going scot free. A CIA director is just the diretor of US Central Intelligence Agency, she'll be the boss of the spies, she's not a diplomat nor a politician, and is totally foreign to Europe's interest. Why would Europe give her immunity ? Why Europe would even want to have her come to them in the first place?

[smjjames]

Yes, you're right, having immunity wouldn't make sense, but it does put the US in a bind diplomatically should she be arrested because of the fact that she is a cabinet member.

The whole values part is also important though.

[Cathar]

To be fair this might shed some light on who gave the donald his idea on waterboarding

[smjjames]

He had his ideas on waterboarding way before he became President.

[sluissa]

I'm reasonably sure his idea of waterboarding involves a fun day at the beach.

[misko27]

Tillerson out? Why? Calling Trump a moron wasn't enough to get him out, and whatever disagreements he's had he's already had for months. And Pompeo... God, I wish I could remember my White House Kremlinology (hehe), I seem to remember something important about Pompeo or his relationship with Trump or the CIA...

On one hand, this is going to make those North Korea talks even harder. On the other hand, Tillerson has been pretty much single-handedly dismantling the State Department from what I've heard, so it's not necessarily a bad choice in the long-term, just highly unusual in the short term. On the other-other hand, Tillerson was one of the adults in the room on many issues (not all issues mind, just many), from the Iran Deal to Paris Climate Accord to North Korea (Ironic that Trump takes the diplomatic angle on that one, just as he sacks the guy who pushed for it the most). I wish I remembered more about Pompeo, can't remember what his deal is; whether he's a sycophant or Bannonite or "globalist" or what.

How is it that Jeff Sessions of all people is still in Cabinet and no one else is?

[smjjames]

Tillerson out? Why? Calling Trump a moron wasn't enough to get him out, and whatever disagreements he's had he's already had for months. And Pompeo... God, I wish I could remember my White House Kremlinology (hehe), I seem to remember something important about Pompeo or his relationship with Trump or the CIA...

On one hand, this is going to make those North Korea talks even harder. On the other hand, Tillerson has been pretty much single-handedly dismantling the State Department from what I've heard, so it's not necessarily a bad choice in the long-term, just highly unusual in the short term. On the other-other hand, Tillerson was one of the adults in the room on many issues (not all issues mind, just many), from the Iran Deal to Paris Climate Accord to North Korea (Ironic that Trump takes the diplomatic angle on that one, just as he sacks the guy who pushed for it the most). I wish I remembered more about Pompeo, can't remember what his deal is; whether he's a sycophant or Bannonite or "globalist" or what.

Not sure if he's unquestioning sycophant level loyalty, but they do have an actual working relationship, has Trumps ear, and Trump trusts him. He's not bannonite and I don't know his stance on being "globalist", but he is pretty hawkish on foriegn policy. Not sure where on the scale of hawkishness on foriegn policy he is compared to other Republicans.

There's also reason to be concerned about his credibility and honesty as he misrepresented the CIA statement saying that they found no effect on the final vote when the CIA never made any judgement on that.

How is it that Jeff Sessions of all people is still in Cabinet and no one else is?

Probably because it'd be even more of a hassle to replace Sessions, given that whoever replaces him would be able to fire Mueller and Democrats want to make sure 10,000% with negative infinity doubt sure that the new AG won't fire Mueller.

[SaberToothTiger]

us comic book villain level petty evil confirmed

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Sessions is staying by way of the elf-magic, yes yes, Trumple cannot see the Sessions and he cannot fire whom he cannot see.

[Frumple]

Just you wait, MSH. One of these days trump will send out a tweet firing his entire cabinet and every part of the executive whether he has the authority to or not, and then yell about intending it and follow through on live TV.

All the racist cookies in the world won't save sessions at that point.

[Trekkin]

Tillerson out? Why? Calling Trump a moron wasn't enough to get him out, and whatever disagreements he's had he's already had for months. And Pompeo... God, I wish I could remember my White House Kremlinology (hehe), I seem to remember something important about Pompeo or his relationship with Trump or the CIA...

At a guess, some part of this is fallout from Hope Hicks departing; we would expect the threshold for dismissal from Trump's cabinet to drop as he loses people who have normally moderated his more impulsive behavior. Disagreements over the idea of meeting with Kim may have precipitated it, to be sure, and it's not like he did an excellent job at the State Department according to its own personnel, but that he was fired via Twitter without an obvious reason would suggest that this is a Trumpian impulse given free reign.

Cohn is arguably another example of the same phenomenon: Trump, with fewer people around who know how to handle him, is going to collide with the "adults in the room" parts of his administration more readily and get rid of them more rapidly.

[smjjames]

Plus the fact that he is so attentive and responsive to Fox News that I swear Fox will, accidentially or intentionally, make Trump do something incredibly unwise.

He's already gotten to the point where he's unrestrained and theres barely any control or buffer to his impulses.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Alex the Oracle decodes the deep state messaging of Tillerson's farewell address.

[smjjames]

So, something I just want to point out: McCain hasn't left Arizona since December, due to treatment for his brain cancer. This means that the Senate is at a 50-49 split. Losing a single Republican voter means losing the vote.

Expect no new legislation until McCain returns, which could be not for a very long time.

No new major legislation anyway, they can still do legislation, just nothing that requires relying solely on Republican votes. The fact that it's midterms already complicates the votes anyway, so, they weren't likely to get anything big done just because of that.

Not sure why McCain doesn't bow out, maybe to ensure that there is a Republican getting the seat. Then again, the Arizona governor doesn't appoint a replacement, so, it wouldn't really be 100%.

[Gentlefish]

I don't think that's quite the case. All told, I think McCain takes his job seriously and won't step down unless it's made clear in no uncertain terms he won't be able to handle the responsibility of his work and be, essentially, forced to retire.