"So Long Dearie" the White House press secretary wants to spend quality time with her growing family

Trump’s Constant Calls to Karoline Leavitt Really Backfired
Echo report published in New York Magazine Intelligencer by Margaret Hartman

When White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Wednesday that she will leave her job by the end of the month, there was a lot of speculation about her motivations. In a lengthy statement posted to social media, the 28-year-old mother of two, who just returned from maternity leave on July 16, said she wanted to focus her attention on her kids.

Being a mother and welcoming a new baby while working in one of the most demanding jobs in the world has been the most rewarding yet challenging season of my life, to say the least. The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life.

But is that just cover for drama within the Trump administration? Or is Leavitt, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2022, plotting to enter politics like former White House press secretary turned Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders❓

New reporting suggests Leavitt’s stated explanation is broadly accurate and not unique to the Trump administration. 

People often exit White House roles after just a few years as they are incredibly demanding jobs that leave little time for family life. 

But there is a Trumpy twist to the story that explains why Leavitt came back from maternity leave only to quit less than a month later, leaving the administration with no clear successor just a few months before the midterms.

Sources told The Daily Mail that Trump really wanted Leavitt to stay on as press secretary, and it sounds as though his aggressive effort to communicate this might have backfired. Rather than letting her recharge during her leave, he kept pestering her about when she was coming back:

One source close to Leavitt — the youngest ever White House press secretary — reveals she had been strongly weighing whether to quit during maternity leave, as the president would contact her often and repeatedly ask when she was coming back.

Another source added that Leavitt has been experiencing extreme “burnout.”

“It was a very stressful job to do with her children. She never got any sleep, and she didn’t want her performance to slip either, so she decided to stay as long as she could and do the job well,” the source told the Mail. “The president did everything he could to keep her.”

Everything except letting her fully detach from work, apparently.

Insiders said Leavitt has been telling people for two months that she felt ready to leave but she had to figure out how to exit without infuriating her boss.

“She was just trying to figure out how to politely step down with [Trump’s] blessing,” one source said.

It looks like Leavitt pulled it off. While Trump is known for berating staffers on their way out, he said on Truth Social that Leavitt quitting to focus on her family is “a decision I totally understand and respect”.

But any parent applying to fill Leavitt’s role should be clear on the fact that Donald “She Takes Care of the Baby” Trump doesn’t really “totally understand and respect” the sanctity of parental leave.

P.S. Maine Writer: Although I respect Karoline Leavitt's resignation decision, she will not be missed. Nevertheless, being around Trump too long is just dangerous. Trump is haunted by thwarted assassination attempts, real or manufactured and his assorted paramours, whoever they are, get in the way of working with him. 

Enjoy Barbara Streisand's terrific performance in Hello Dolly: "So Long Dearie❗"

What's in a name for Stephen King? Terrible Iowan confusion!

Isaac Stanley-Becker, The Washington Post • November 5, 2018
(This column was re-published in the Bangor Daily News)

It's certainly understandable why the author Stephen King wants to see the right wing political Republican Steve King to be defeated in Iowa. The two men, the novelist and the zealous politician, are polar opposites in every conceivable way. First of all, Stephen King  the author is intelligent....that's just for starters....

Author Stephen King posted to Twitter: "Iowans, for personal reasons I hope you’ll vote Steve King out. I’m tired of being confused with this racist dumbbell."

The horror writer Stephen King probably didn’t intend his story “Graveyard Shift,” first published in 1970, to be a metaphor for political depravity. It’s about a man who toils in a textile mill, where rats have turned the forbidding basement into their own corrupt kingdom.

But this is 2018, the year that everything — even Barbra Streisand ballads — became about politics in the age of President Donald Trump. And King, like everyone else, is coming out swinging on social media. So it’s not hard to envision how he would apply his sickening story to the queasy state of the nation.

On Sunday, King let slip (?ahhh MaineWriter edit- I'd hardly say Mr. King "let slip". Rather, his Tweet was candid and overt!) who, in his portrayal, the reviled queen rat might be — someone who, in the writer’s words, he has “personal reasons” for disliking.

The short story is set in Maine, but King briefly turned his attention to Iowa, where one of the president’s congressional acolytes is facing his first credible challenger in years. The best-selling author and deep-pocketed Democratic donor asked Iowa residents to vote against Republican Rep. Steve King because, the King of fright tweeted, “I’m tired of being confused with this racist dumbbell.”

The King of Congress might well relish the author’s disparagement. On Saturday, the Republican responded to an onslaught of criticism fueling a fundraising blitz by his Democratic opponent — first-time candidate J.D. Scholten — by taking aim at “Left Coast billionaires.” The portmanteau of sorts blended two of King’s most common slights, left wing and East Coast.

A wave of criticism has buffeted the eight-term congressman in recent days.

Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Republican campaign arm, last week assailed King on Twitter for “white supremacy and hate.” 

Another Republican, Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida, said on MSNBC that he would never vote for “someone like Steve King,” even if it meant forfeiting control of the House, calling his colleague’s statements and actions “disgusting.”

Intel, AT&T, Purina and Land O’Lakes pulled financial support. Meanwhile, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, called on House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wisconsin, to censure King for statements and affiliations “that are anti-Semitic and offensive not just to the Jewish community, but to all Americans.” The Republican leader has not done so.

The backlash stems from Congressman King’s record of racially incendiary rhetoric and his association with figures, in the United States and abroad, with Nazi ties. 

In fact, he took to Twitter last year to declare his support for ethnic nationalism, writing, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,” His party didn’t rebuke him in June when he retweeted a message from a self-described “Nazi sympathizer.” Last month, he voiced support for Faith Goldy, an unsuccessful Toronto mayoral candidate who has promoted the baseless notion that a “white genocide” is underway. And last week, reports surfaced that the Iowan King had met in August with members of an Austrian political party founded by former Nazis, during a trip funded by a group that promotes awareness of the Holocaust.

At an Iowa town hall last week, King erupted when an attendee asked him whether his hard-line views on race and identity bore resemblance to those of Robert Bowers, the man accused of gunning down 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

“You’re done. You crossed the line. It’s not tolerable to accuse me to be associated with a guy that shot 11 people in Pittsburgh,” King said. “This is over, if you don’t stop talking.”

It remains to be seen whether the controversy that has engulfed the right-wing congressman will alter his fate on Tuesday. Despite one poll last week, by a Democratic firm, finding that King had only a one-point lead over his opponent, most surveys show a more comfortable gap between him and Scholten, a former minor league pitcher and paralegal.

The two sparred on Twitter.

IA - Steve King tweeted “My opponent is the antithesis (the opposite) of Iowa values. My record proves I embody them. Don’t let the million$ from Left Coast billionaires pay in advance and buy your Congressman.”

J.D. Scholten tweeted “.@SteveKingIA, you’ve had a lot to say about me lately, and seem to have some misconceptions about my campaign. How about we give the people what they want and deserve, and meet somewhere in the district tonight to hold a live impromptu debate? #IA04 Anyone else want to see that?”

J.D. Scholten tweeted “If you look up ‘desperate’ right now you will see an image of @SteveKingIA…”

Scholten retweeted the novelist’s appeal to Iowa voters. But the name-calling was hardly reserved for the Hawkeye State Republican. King, the author, reached back into his 1982 short story “The Raft” — or perhaps another tale of horror at sea — to find an insult for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. “Crawdad,” he called him.

Trump supporters can't hear truth - echo opinion

Donald Trump white's only supporters are obviously hearing impaired. Otherwise, they would be able to hear and understand his incendiary messaging. An echo opinion by Leonard Pitts published in the Montana Standard newspaper:

(Be sure to check out this link to Barbara Streisand's new release: "Don't Lie To Me")

Barbara Streisand wrote & produced a new release:
Don't Lie To Me

Leonard Pitts opinion link is here. https://mtstandard.com/opinion/columnists/leonard-pitts-reality-always-has-the-last-word/article_3668a0ec-ddbb-5551-9168-38923a4cf252.html

"If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Just knock the hell -- I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees." — Donald Trump, Feb. 1, 2016

"I'd like to punch him in the face." — Donald Trump, Feb. 22, 2016

"You know, part of the problem ... is, nobody wants to hurt each other anymore, right?" — Donald Trump, March 11, 2016

"Any guy that can do a body slam ... he's my guy." — Donald Trump, Oct. 18, 2018, praising Rep. Greg Gianforte, who was convicted of assaulting a reporter

"We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that threats or acts of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America." — Donald Trump, Oct. 24, 2018

Lord, this guy...

He just can't help himself, can he? Seems like every time he opens his mouth, out falls the bovine excreta, great lumps of hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance.

Trump is arguably America's most enthusiastic proponent of political violence. He made a statement deploring political violence. This, as investigators sought the person who sent explosive devices to CNN as well as to Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Maxine Waters, Eric Holder and other prominent critics of Trump's chaos presidency.

No, Trump isn't the first president to say something at sharp variance with what he said before. Obama once claimed he never said, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."

George W. Bush once claimed his administration never advocated "stay the course" in Iraq.

But this guy, Lord, this guy, with him, it's not a sometime thing. Rather, it is every day, all the time, as if in his world, words have no fixed meaning and people, no memory. So that what he said with seeming sincerity on Tuesday can be demolished by what he says with seeming sincerity on Wednesday and he doesn't care — indeed, he marvels that anyone does — because, hey, Tuesday's gone. And Thursday's coming.

This ongoing insult of reality, this daily denigration of truth, is epidemic among Trump's people. Unable to face what is, they live in a kingdom of lies, seek sanctuary down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Indeed, Trump cultists — Lou Dobbs, James Woods, Rush Limbaugh, Candace Owens and more — have already suggested the bombs were part of a Democratic plot to sway the coming election.

When Pitt wrote this opinion column, the authorities had not yet named a suspect. So, theoretically, conspiracy theorists created the lie that it was possible the bombs were (incedulously) assembled in Nancy Pelosi's kitchen. But let's just say that's ... unlikely.

Meantime, this guy, this morally deformed 72-year-old brat, had a theory of his own. After bombs were sent to people he has spent years insulting ("low IQ," "crooked," "ignorant,") and to a network he has spent years condemning ("enemies of the people"),Trump tweeted that the "anger" in our society is a result of media's "false and inaccurate reporting."

So in other words, if reporters would just stop challenging him, stop questioning him, stop behaving as if words have meaning and people, memories, all will be well. He probably even believes that.

But the issue here is not news media. Nor is it civility or Republicans being yelled at in restaurants.

No, the issue is reality and the fact that it becomes no less real because you don't acknowledge it. That's what the Trump cult has never figured out. Reality will always have the last word. And you may run from it, but you can never escape.

Not even down a rabbit hole, not even in a kingdom of lies.

Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and bestselling author. His column appears on the Missoulian Opinion page each Sunday.