Meanwhile, Kushner is leaking to the White House interns that the Trump campaign was TOO INCOMPETENT TO COLLUDE WITH ANYONE (Kushner continues to be both a particle and a wave; his collusion cat is always dead, though), and then the interns told a reporter. This is a fine defense and not a sign of chaos or panic on anyone’s part.
.. And a lawsuit is alleging that the Trump White House was behind the bogus story on Fox News (retracted, with ZERO resignations) that Democratic National Committee employee Seth Rich was murdered for being the real source behind WikiLeaks.
Meet the woman who gives bridge tips to Warren Buffett and Bill Gates
“There’s a big difference between Bill’s and Warren’s approach to learning the game,” Osberg said. “Bill is very scientific. He reads and studies on his own. Warren enjoys playing. Warren has good instincts.”
“When I first met Warren, his game was ragged around the edges,” she said. “We would play in the evening, and I would go through teaching points. He absorbed it like a sponge. Bill is the same way. Pretty big brain capacity.”
.. Some people have paid millions just to have lunch with the Oracle of Omaha. Osberg trades gossip with him on the phone and plays bridge remotely with him three to four times a week.
.. Bear Stearns, the investment firm that failed in the 2008 crash, was known as “the bridge firm” because its top management and many of its quant geeks were players.
.. Famed value investor and Buffett mentor Ben Graham reportedly compared the strategy of bridge to the discipline of long-term investing.
.. “As Graham pointed out, playing your hand right — in bridge or in the stock market — generally leads to success in the long term. It doesn’t, however, guarantee you success right now. Sometimes, playing a hand the right way leads to failure; sometimes picking a stock for the right reasons results in a loss.
.. “Bridge can teach an investor the importance of sticking to a well-thought-out strategy.”
.. “Everyone loses more than they win,” Osberg said. “Losing is much more common. You have to develop a thick skin.”
.. But Buffett, the steely capital allocator who moves world markets with mere utterances, had enough.
Osberg recalls: “He said, ‘I can’t do it anymore.’ It was so stressful, he didn’t want to play in the finals.”
.. “I had no business being in it at all,” Buffett said. “We were playing people not as good as Sharon was, but a whole lot better than I was. I dropped out. I was on the board of USAir at the time, so I said I had to get back to a board meeting. This was not great behavior on my part. I love the game, but playing in tournaments is too many hours of concentration.”
At her peak, Osberg was one of the top players in the world.
“I am no longer a serious player,” she said. “I used to play just to win. Now I play for the beauty of the game.
Acting DEA administrator says Trump ‘condoned police misconduct’ in remarks about handling suspects
The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration said in an email to staff members over the weekend that President Trump had “condoned police misconduct” in remarking to officers in Long Island that they need not protect suspects’ heads when loading them into police vehicles.
.. Cox said the group’s view is the president’s remark “wasn’t funny. We were not laughing.”
.. “Even if it’s an attempt at humor, it sends the wrong message,” said Darrel Stephens, a former Charlotte police chief and now executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. “Officers are expected and almost always do act within a framework of their policies and procedures and within the law. … It’s not something that you should joke about.”
John Kelly cannot make Trump effective
First, this administration has zero legislative accomplishments and seems unable to negotiate with members of its own party. Kelly, who has been openly scornful of Congress, is unlikely to help in that regard.
.. (“If lawmakers do not like the laws they’ve passed and we are charged to enforce, then they should have the courage and skill to change the laws,’’ he said about congressional critics of immigration enforcement. “Otherwise they should shut up and support the men and women on the front lines.’’)
.. as the administration faces deadlines for the debt ceiling and the budget. Ironically, Trump needs help to close deals, and Kelly doesn’t have those skills.
.. Second, the president refuses to learn in office or master any level of detail. He therefore is far less influential in pressing lawmakers to pass his initiatives. Without understanding individual lawmakers’ objections, his ability to persuade and cajole them is limited to repeating empty talking points. The same problem that afflicted him in the health-care debate will be evident no matter what the topic.
.. it seems no one — not even Trump’s relatives and lawyers — can prevent him from digging himself a deeper hole.
.. Fourth, Kelly is more likely to accentuate Trump’s alienation from Republicans. Already strained because of health reform, the president’s serial outbursts and the Russia scandal, the relationship between Congress and Trump seems more like that between a president and the majority of the other party. In point of fact, Trump’s never really been a Republican
.. Kelly has no particular ideological leanings, no ties to the conservative movement and no experience in domestic policy. That leaves Trump even less tethered to his party than he was at the onset of his term.
.. Fifth, Trump refuses to be disciplined. He rejects the overwhelming sentiment among voters that Twitter is a dangerous distraction. Trump doesn’t agree. He tweeted againTuesday: “Only the Fake News Media and Trump enemies want me to stop using Social Media (110 million people). Only way for me to get the truth out!” Without a disciplined boss, the administration and Congress will be tied up in whatever controversy of the day Trump creates. Trump remains the obstacle that’s impossible to overcome. As long as he is there, effective leadership will be a fantasy.