Biden's Cabinet of Curiosities

[crimson5pheonix]

snip

Well thank you for commenting, here's my rebuttal.

It’s Joe Biden’s Swamp Now

So far, Joe Biden’s transition has hired liberally from Wall Street and corporate America, chosen appointees who have made multiple trips through the revolving door, and recruited fans of fossil fuels in the middle of a climate crisis. It’s little different than what we saw under Donald Trump.

jacobinmag.com

I'm still going to keep this up because I don't want what I know is going to happen to happen. An era of "feel good" policy from Biden that ruins the country even further from where Trump left it, and an absolute complacency about it. As for losing my mind over every issue of minor corruption Trump throws out, nah. But I did find something else I'll make a post about here in a minute.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Facing Opposition From Progressives, Gina Raimondo Withdraws From Consideration as Biden's HHS Chief

"We're in the middle of the worst public health crisis in modern history—it is absolutely amazing that a person with this particular record is even in CONTENTION for the nation's top healthcare job," said one journalist.

www.commondreams.org

Ayyyyyy, some good news!

 

[tstorm823]

Protip: the only people who will be, are apologists and bad-faith actors to poison the well and distract from well-founded criticisms of her conduct and policy positions, by alleging racism and sexism. Which has been fauxgressives' modus operandi for, what, eleven or so years running now?

By my count, 56 years.

 

[Silvanus]

* Secretary of Health & Human Services: Xavier Beccera.

Former Democratic Representative, & former attorney-general of California. Has consistently voted against cuts to social security & medicare; supported the Dreamers & DACA.

So, a pretty progressive voting record as a representative. But as attorney-general, his most ignominious act was to threaten reporters with legal action unless they destroyed a leaked list of police officers with criminal convictions.

----

Meanwhile, the Guardian has two less-than-flattering op-eds on Biden's cabinet-building.

Neera Tanden's unremorseful bullying should disqualify her from Biden's cabinet | Arwa Mahdawi

It isn’t fair women are consistently judged more harshly than men – but we don’t fix it by holding women to lower standards

www.theguardian.com

Joe Biden’s drive for diversity in top political jobs is only an illusion of change | Nesrine Malik

He may have selected a cabinet that looks like America, but the president-elect’s picks are just business as usual, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

www.theguardian.com

 

[Silvanus]

And another:

* Secretary of Defence: Lloyd Austin.

Retired 4-star general; former commander of Central Command. Part of the coalition force in Iraq. Like Mad-Dog Mattis, he'll require a waiver in order to be sworn in, because defence secretaries are legally meant to be civilians who haven't served in the military in the last 7 years.

My immediate response: at least its not Michele Flournoy, who had been heavily rumoured for the post. Flournoy was a defence advisor for Obama, and a strong advocate for military intervention in both Libya and Syria. She also pushed for the doubling of US troops in Afghanistan. In short, one of the most extreme "interventionists" in the team back then.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Xavier is a breath of fresh air in these picks, seemingly on the up and up for being an alright pick. I can always be disappointed when the actual work gets done, but at least I'm at a level where I can be disappointed instead of just posting the Vect picture again.

As for Lloyd, it's hard to tell to what extent military picks are part of the swamp-thing morass, because they're all so incestuous that untangling the webs of money and murder gets hard,

Biden’s Pentagon Pick Reveals a Limited Imagination

Every contender for the Defense Department had deep ties to weapons makers.

prospect.org

But this guy for certain is taking money hand over fist to see Yemen bombed, so any step above Flournoy he may be is a minimal one.

 

[Gergar12]

Biden picks retired general Lloyd Austin to run Pentagon

If confirmed, the retired general would become the first Black defense secretary.

www.politico.com

Biden picks the former commander of CENTCOM to lead the defense department. He's failed in creating a proxy group in Syria against Assad(then again who could succeed there?) but fought off ISIS in Syria, and Iraq, and knows his way around conventional warfare.

Experienced people are saying his posting will undermine civil-military relations, but I disagree. Trump has already tried to do a political/military coup, and this pick could put an end to that.

 

[Gergar12]

You have got to be kidding me.

President-elect Joe Biden is considering Pete Buttigieg for the ambassadorship to China, Axios reports

Biden eyeing Buttigieg for China ambassador

Letting him deepen his foreign policy chops could boost Buttigieg's future.

www.axios.com

One of the most important jobs in the diplomatic corps, and they are giving it to an inexperienced mayor of a small town.

 

[Seanchaidh]

You have got to be kidding me.

President-elect Joe Biden is considering Pete Buttigieg for the ambassadorship to China, Axios reports

Biden eyeing Buttigieg for China ambassador

Letting him deepen his foreign policy chops could boost Buttigieg's future.

www.axios.com

One of the most important jobs in the diplomatic corps, and they are giving it to an inexperienced mayor of a small town.

Ambassadorships are a pretty traditional way of rewarding people who have been helpful to your campaign, though one would think not so much the more important ones. The thing is, there's really not that much talent at the top of either party. Why should there be when everyone who is anyone has failed upwards?

 

[crimson5pheonix]

'A Terrible Decision': Progressives Denounce Biden Pick of 'Mr. Monsanto' Tom Vilsack as Ag Secretary

"We need a USDA Secretary on the side of everyday people. If this is not the fox guarding the henhouse, it's pretty damn close."

www.commondreams.org

:/

 

[Trunkage]

Ambassadorships are a pretty traditional way of rewarding people who have been helpful to your campaign, though one would think not so much the more important ones. The thing is, there's really not that much talent at the top of either party. Why should there be when everyone who is anyone has failed upwards?

He could have been given the Maldives or something. You need someone smart to go against China. They’ve been running rings around the US for at least 2 decades

 

[Gordon_4]

And another:

* Secretary of Defence: Lloyd Austin.

Retired 4-star general; former commander of Central Command. Part of the coalition force in Iraq. Like Mad-Dog Mattis, he'll require a waiver in order to be sworn in, because defence secretaries are legally meant to be civilians who haven't served in the military in the last 7 years.

My immediate response: at least its not Michele Flournoy, who had been heavily rumoured for the post. Flournoy was a defence advisor for Obama, and a strong advocate for military intervention in both Libya and Syria. She also pushed for the doubling of US troops in Afghanistan. In short, one of the most extreme "interventionists" in the team back then.

That seems like an odd rule to me. Like, having a former high ranking officer as Defence Secretary always made sense to me. Like your Attorney General should probably have been a lawyer, or in the US a constitutional scholar at least. And so on.

 

[Seanchaidh]

He could have been given the Maldives or something. You need someone smart to go against China. They’ve been running rings around the US for at least 2 decades

Part of the problem is that it's been a point of liberal propaganda to pretend that Buttigieg is capable.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

That seems like an odd rule to me. Like, having a former high ranking officer as Defence Secretary always made sense to me. Like your Attorney General should probably have been a lawyer, or in the US a constitutional scholar at least. And so on.

Theoretically the defense secretary has a lot of civilian power, and military officials should have as little civil power as possible.

Of course the problem is that a lot of the people who would be considered on either side of the "fence" are apart of the same blob of military corporatism anyway.

 

[Gergar12]

Ambassadorships are a pretty traditional way of rewarding people who have been helpful to your campaign, though one would think not so much the more important ones. The thing is, there's really not that much talent at the top of either party. Why should there be when everyone who is anyone has failed upwards?

That's is only true for ambassadors to allies and small countries. For example, for Russia, you need to be actually competent, and for China, you need to have in the past had your state done a lot of trade between your state or area, and China. My guess is that the trade is done between China, and South Bend isn't worth justifying the ambassadorship.

 

[Trunkage]

Part of the problem is that it's been a point of liberal propaganda to pretend that Buttigieg is capable.

Capable is a relative term. But in this case, he relatively doesn’t met capable

 

[Seanchaidh]

That's is only true for ambassadors to allies and small countries. For example, for Russia, you need to be actually competent, and for China, you need to have in the past had your state done a lot of trade between your state or area, and China. My guess is that the trade is done between China, and South Bend isn't worth justifying the ambassadorship.

You're operating under the assumption that either party has officials that care about something other than personal enrichment and career advancement. More important a criterion than anything related to job performance is perceived loyalty to the clique.

 

[Gordon_4]

Theoretically the defense secretary has a lot of civilian power, and military officials should have as little civil power as possible.

Of course the problem is that a lot of the people who would be considered on either side of the "fence" are apart of the same blob of military corporatism anyway.

Well I did say former officer but why the need to wait seven years if that’s the constitutional concern?

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Well I did say former officer but why the need to wait seven years if that’s the constitutional concern?

Because the "theoretically" needs a lot of qualifying, quotation marks, italics, and winking. Anyway I think the theory of it is after 7 years a lot of the people in the military will have cycled out or transferred, so a former officer wouldn't be connected to as many people in the military and their information would be out of date.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

The Cabinet Selection Process Is Veering Off Course

What was supposed to be a return to seriousness and expertise has been a hodge-podge of favor-trading and ill-considered decisions.

prospect.org

More information on Fudge in the Housing and Urban Development and Tom Vilsack in the USDA. In short, they're pigeonholing the black lady to work the inner city job that she doesn't have experience on and giving the USDA to someone farmers universally hate because he was there before and fucked it up.

And then there is further talks of how these decisions are being made and it's (insert Vect.png) nepotism and box ticking, just like the Trump administration.

Sometimes this works out fine—Becerra has a good record on healthcare. But the process seems broken. Records have taken a back seat to friendships and paybacks and diversity goals. People are not being set up to succeed. Impressions are being given that HUD and Interior are not important federal agencies but political chits to be handed out. And it augurs very poorly for governing in the Biden era, if it’s characterized by a lack of pre-planning and dashed-off ideas.