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WASHINGTON—Oh, hell, why not one more little bit of weird-ass news on Tuesday, courtesy of Business Insider?

When asked about the discrepancies between Tillerson's public schedule and his reported movements, and why the department hadn't updated the press on his whereabouts, Nauert said Tillerson "does have the ability to go away for a few days on his own." "Just taking a little time off," Nauert said of Tillerson's unannounced absence. "He's got a lot of work. He just came back from that mega-trip overseas, as you all well know — many of you were over there with the G-20." Asked why she didn't just say Tillerson was on vacation, Nauert said she didn't know the standard protocol for listing private days. She said Matt Lee, a diplomacy writer for The Associated Press, would probably know.

The hell? The Secretary of State is "taking a little time off," and we don't know where, and the State Department spokesperson doesn't know if it counts as a vacation, but we should all ask the AP reporter if we want to know if the Secretary of State is on holiday on the company dime?

Secretaries of State don't normally "take a little time off" without notice. If this actually were Moscow in the old days, we'd be wondering why Tillerson didn't go to the opera tonight. There is nothing normal about these people. Nothing at all.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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