monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

In 1998, along with other West Point alumni, Pompeo founded Thayer Aerospace and Private Security, which received a 2% investment from Koch Industries.[16][17] In 2006, he sold his interest in Thayer, which was renamed Nex-Tech Aerospace, and became president of Sentry International, an oilfield equipment company, which was also a partner with Koch Industries.[16]

...Speaking about climate change in 2013, Pompeo said: "There are scientists who think lots of different things about climate change. There's some who think we're warming, there's some who think we're cooling, there's some who think that the last 16 years have shown a pretty stable climate environment."[51]

Pompeo has stated that "Federal policy should be about the American family, not worshipping a radical environmental agenda." He has referred to the Obama Administration's environment and climate change plans as "damaging" and "radical". He opposes the regulation of Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States, and supports eliminating the United States federal register of greenhouse gas emissions.[52]

Pompeo signed the No Climate Tax pledge of [the Koch brothers']Americans for Prosperity.[53]

In the assessment released in January 2017, the Intelligence Community concluded that “the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump” over the course of the 2016 campaign.

Let’s count the eye-opening things here.

1. Trump, whose television catchphrase was “you’re fired,” couldn’t bring himself to fire America’s top diplomat in person. This is similar to how he fired former FBI Director James Comey, sending his former bodyguard Keith Schiller to deliver the news. The two incidents together confirm frequent press accounts that, for all his bravado, Trump actually is loath to fire people himself.

2. Tillerson reportedly only found about his firing when Trump tweeted about it on Tuesday morning. This statement likely represents shock on the State Department’s part as well.

3. The lead State Department spokesman is openly insulting the president by leaking details about Tillerson’s dismissal that paint him in a negative light.

4. Tillerson, whose tenure at Foggy Bottom was widely seen among foreign policy experts as one of the worst (if not the worst) in modern history, still believed that he was doing a good job at the time of his firing.
5. It’s still unclear why, exactly, the secretary of state was just fired at this particular moment in his spectacularly unimpressive tenure as America’s top diplomat.

In the Trump administration, chaos is something of a norm. But is is shocking even when grading on that curve.

If there is an iron rule of management,this kind of turn over — both at the top, the middle and the bottom of your organization — signifies an organization in big trouble. The key to successful organizations is focus and execution, both are missing in organizations where goals change every two or three months and where those charged with implementation are either not in place or fear for their place.

Nothing chaotic or anything like that, nothing that any stable genius can't control.

The San Francisco spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has resigned over what he described as “false” and “misleading” statements made by top-ranking officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and ICE Acting Director Thomas D. Homan.

The now-former spokesman, James Schwab, told news outlets late Monday that his resignation stemmed from statements by Homan and Sessions that potentially hundreds of “criminal aliens” evaded ICE during a Northern California raid in February because Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warned the immigrant community in advance.

Schwab said he pushed back on that characterization — but said ICE instructed him to “deflect” questions from the news media.

“Many of them have a hatred for our country,” the Republican claimed. “I’ll tell you some more. My wife and I saw it again today. They have a hatred for God.”

From December 1 through March 11, during a period in which ICE’s inhumane tactics and clashes with state and local officials have led to increasing calls for accountability, [acting director] Homan has made 10 appearances on Fox (he “has been on Fox a lot,” Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt acknowledged last month). Over the same period, Homan has not appeared on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, or NBC, according to a Media Matters review.

Manchurian Candidate!