Tag: Cabinet

Secretary Of Treasury To Be

My continuing look at the possible people that are being considered for the cabinet and admin of president-elect Biden…..this time I look at the proposal of ex-Fed chief Yellen as the next SecTreasury….

The first woman to lead the Federal Reserve is set to become the first female Treasury secretary. Sources tell the Wall Street Journal and the AP that President-elect Joe Biden has tapped 74-year-old labor economist Janet Yellen, who chaired the Fed from 2014 to 2018, for the role. Yellen also served as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers during Bill Clinton’s second term. If she is confirmed by the Senate, Yellen will lead the Biden administration’s efforts to help the economy recover from the pandemic, though unlike in her role in the Fed, she will have to deal with a deeply divided Congress on measures including another stimulus bill, the New York Times notes.

Yellen has long focused on reducing unemployment and fighting income inequality, though she has also warned that federal spending should be reduced to a more sustainable level. In a September interview with the Journal, she said Congress needs to spend more to fight unemployment and save small businesses. “There is a huge amount of suffering out there. The economy needs the spending,” Yellen said. Politico reports that before news of the Yellen pick emerged, Biden said Democrats would be pleased with the choice. “You’ll find it is someone who I think is—will be accepted by all elements of the Democratic Party, from the progressive to the moderate coalitions,” he said.

Once again Biden is turning to those people that will continue the slide of the Middle Class….so his promises in campaign were total BS as I said it was…..

She has had 30 years of fighting unemployment and wage inequality….so far it has been for naught…..

Just another Centrist” without anything new to bring to the table….typical Biden .

The only thing to change will be the gender of the secretary of the Treasury if she is confirmed by the Senate.

So far I am batting a 1000…I said after he was declared to be the winner of 2020 that little will change…..and so far I am right on target.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will Michele Be The New SecDef?

SecDef?

That is government-speak for Secretary of Defense.

I have been spending some time trying to help my readers get a grip on the people that Biden will choose for his cabinet and in turn will be leading our many policies…….,many of those policies have been failures but few will admit.

The front-runner for SecDef is one Michele Flournoy.

I remember her back during the Obama days when he was searching for a SecDef and Chuck Hagel was the leading contender….the year was 2012…..

With opponents of a potential nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R – NE) as Secretary of Defense now centering on the idea that nominating a “white man” would reflect badly on the administration, former Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy has emerged as a seeming consensus candidate for advocates who see her as less likely to make any real policy changes.

A former appointee under President Clinton, Flournoy founded the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) to advocate a more “pragmatic” national security policy. In practice this has meant a policy that never questions the notion that military action abroad is a “force for good,” while arguing distinctions without a difference, as when Flournoy endorsed “withdrawing’ from Iraq by leaving 60,000 troops there more or less indefinitely.

Appointed the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy by President Obama in 2008, Flournoy rarely made waves, backing the administration’s policy without exception. A lone noteworthy spot in this term was in 2010, when the Pentagon publicly repudiated her for saying it was unlikely that the US would attack Iran in “the near term.”

(antiwar.com)

I find Biden uninteresting and she will be the perfect fit in his cabinet…..Flournoy’s general uninterestingness makes her a model choice for lobbyists hoping to keep policy unchanged and the gravy train flowing.

Like I said she is the hands on favorite to lead the Pentagon…..but unlike a loyal readers of IST, https://libertasandlatte.wordpress.com/  I do not think she is what this country needs…..at this time.

She is tied tooth and nail to the defense industry and their desires may well come before the needs of the troops.

Even her thoughts are scary…..

The next Pentagon chief could cement the US’ already hard defence line on China, with one contender suggesting that American forces could bolster deterrence with the ability to “sink all” Chinese vessels “within 72 hours” in the South China Sea.

“For example, if the US military had the capability to credibly threaten to sink all of China’s military vessels, submarines, and merchant ships in the South China Sea within 72 hours, Chinese leaders might think twice before, say, launching a blockade or invasion of Taiwan; they would have to wonder whether it was worth putting their entire fleet at risk,” Flournoy said.

Defence and diplomatic observers said that realising that idea would come at huge cost but appointing its advocate would signal that the US would keep piling military pressure on China.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/11/15/20/a-harder-us-line-potential-pentagon-chief-floated-idea-to-sink-china-fleet-in-72-hours

These things said need to be scrutinized……and scrutinized hard!

But she is still the duck in the barrel for Defense…..Defense News takes a look at her…..

The next U.S. defense secretary must be prepared to invest heavily in game-changing technology, even if it comes at the cost of existing capabilities, in order to maintain a credible deterrent for China and Russia, according to former Pentagon official Michèle Flournoy.

“Our ability to deter is — it’s not gone, but it’s an eroding asset,” Flournoy, who is seen as a top contender for the job of defense secretary should former Vice President Joe Biden win the November presidential election, said at the Aspen Security Forum on Aug. 6. “And we’ve got to pay attention now to making sure that we attend to that and invest in” needed capabilities.

“I think there’s, sort of, two parallel efforts that have to happen. One is investments that may take a decade to be fully realized and integrated into the force. Another is the question of, what can we do in the next five years with what we have, but use it differently,” she explained.

https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2020/08/10/flournoy-next-defense-secretary-needs-big-bets-to-boost-eroding-deterrence/

These endless wars will remain endless….and corporate profits will increase and the troops will be second thought….not much changes.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Biden Right Wing Administration

Once again I would like to point out that I have stated and firmly believe that there is NOTHING progressive about the incoming Biden admin…..in fact I have shown that his picks will most likely be more right wing than anything….

Here are some of the possibilities for a Biden cabinet….the most positive thing I can say about these possible choices is they are Centrist……https://lobotero.com/2020/11/10/bidens-attempt-to-heal-the-country/

His choices do not bid well for any sort of change from the previous years….

Lists of prospective cabinet nominations leaked to the media from Biden campaign sources are loaded with figures from the right wing of the Democratic Party or the national security establishment, such as Michele Flournoy for Secretary of Defense, Lael Brainard for Secretary of the Treasury, and Susan Rice or Chris Coons for Secretary of State. These lists generally include more Republicans than figures from the Sanders-Warren wing of the Democratic Party.

If anything, congressional Democrats have taken the lead in what amounts to a campaign to purge the left wing of the Democratic Party in a preemptive effort to appease the Republicans. Senator Joe Manchin, a notorious right winger in the Democratic caucus, blamed the poor performance of Democrats in races for Senate and House seats on “socialism,” which he claimed, without a shred of evidence, was the reason for most people in his state of West Virginia voting for the Republicans.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/11/09/elec-n09.html

Progressives have called on Biden to look elsewhere for his cabinet members…no CEOs, nor lobbyists, etc……

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of Biden’s former presidential rivals, also weighed in on the issue on Monday, saying that a new White House that rejects corporate lobbyists is one way to right the wrongs of the current administration.

“Trump’s government—run by the corporate lobbyists, for the corporate lobbyists—has devastated programs and rules that help working people,” tweeted Warren. “Americans have made it clear: the last thing they want is for Washington to again hand over the keys to giant corporations and lobbyists.”

Rejecting such corporate influence, as Demand Progress pointed out Monday, would simply be in line with what most voters want:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/10/biden-must-not-appoint-single-corporate-lobbyist-lawyer-or-executive-top-posts-say

I agree with this push…but I am a realist and know that the cabinet will be stocked with the donor class…..but that is not what many of us voted for….actually too many voted for anyone but Trump….and that is not a plan that will lead this country forward…..the status quo will remain.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden’s Attempt To Heal The Country

The slogan going around is that Biden will be the “Great Unifier”…..a slogan I do not buy into…why?

No matter who wins the election, Americans should not expect to see a heightened sense of national unity or higher levels of satisfaction with the political system in the months to come.  A preponderance of evidence suggests that today’s political and ideological divisions have been building for so long that no single candidate or policy agenda could possibly reverse them.  Congressional gridlock, eroding public trust, and partisan polarization are not media creations; they are observable and measurable realities.  Tackling these issues will be a long, arduous task—if it can be done at all.

Polling numbers point to a decades-long slide in trust of political institutions and a popular perception of dysfunction in Washington.  Only 20% of respondents now say that they trust the federal government to do what is right “just about always” or “most of the time,” down from a peak of 77% in the early 1960s and down from the 21st-century high of 54% in the weeks after 9/11.  Even during the anti-Washington zeitgeist of the Watergate era, 42% of Americans expressed high levels of confidence in Congress, but in 2020 only 13%

did.

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/178027?mc_cid=80c975ddcf&mc_eid=91f0c9a21d

This news will keep the dream alive for more corruption and lies to be tolerated….think 2024 (more on that later)…..

I will be looking into the picks president-elect Biden will put onto his cabinet….but first let us look at the front runners for now…..

  • Defense: Michele Flournoy, WestExec Advisors CEO and former under secretary of Defense for policy.
  • State: Susan Rice, former Obama national security advisor and former UN ambassador.
  • Treasury: Lael Brainard, Federal Reserve governor.
  • Justice: Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama.
  • Homeland Security: Alejandro Mayorkas, former deputy secretary of Homeland Security.
  • Commerce: Meg Whitman, CEO of Quibi and former GOP candidate for governor of California.
  • Veterans Affairs: Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
  • EPA: Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board.
  • UN Ambassador: Wendy Sherman, director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership.

For more top picks—and a deep dive into alternates—see the full piece at Politico.

Gee…I was right when I stated that no “progressives” or progressive ideas would see the light of day…..these early picks show just how dull and unimaginative the Biden administration will be.

Corporate America will make out like a bandit…..no gun needed for the robbery….

I am waiting for the proper time for me to utter the 4 most wonderful words in the English language….”I Told You So”!

Just a reminder of what I said about the coming Biden administration……https://lobotero.com/2020/11/09/biden-wins/

Hopefully true “Progressives” will remember this betrayal by a corporate candidate that promised to make things better.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Dear Democrats–Great Idea But Laughable

I have often stated that I think Dems have great ideas they just suck at politics…..and a recent attempt by Progressives if Biden is elected is another of those great ideas I speak of but it is also goddam hilarious.

The Progressive want Biden to pledge to deny lobbyists and other sycophants places in the cabinet….

A group of progressive lawmakers, candidates, and organizations have collectively signed a letter urging Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to eschew appointing corporate executives and lobbyists to his administration if he is elected, Politico reported Friday. 

According to Politico, signatories to the letter include Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), and New York congressional candidate Jamaal Bowman.

Groups that signed include Public Citizen, Communications Workers of America, Greenpeace USA, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee—which is closely associated with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Our Revolution, founded by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

“One of the most important lessons of the Trump administration is the need to stop putting corporate officers and lobbyists in charge of our government,” the letter, which was delivered to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Friday morning, states.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/16/aoc-and-other-top-progressives-urge-biden-if-elected-deny-k-street-wall-street-execs

Let me reiterate….a great idea….but laughable.

Does anyone really think that Biden will ignore all those big dollar donors after he is elected?  Again damn laughable!

A great idea that is more theatrics than actual policy desires…..

I am all for getting “fat cats” out of the government but it is just a dream that they will ever be eliminated from the reins of power…..after all they do want something for all that cash they spread about like so much fertilizer.

Money is why you will never be in government….that is unless you sell what is left of your soul to the soulless….it is never about the service but rather the money and the influence.

I have let it be known what I think we should do with these sycophants…..https://lobotero.com/2020/09/22/arrest-the-lot-of-them/

Dems please stop cracking wise and focus on an actual Progressive agenda that will benefit the people….all the people.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

He Is Just Not Qualified!

Closing thought–17Aug20

That seems to be a major theme running throughout the Trump administration…..at this point we could be talking about many within the White House

Trump has an actor from a TV show as an economic adviser….He has a family member that is his foreign policy adviser that would not recognize foreign policy if it bit him in has ass…..then there is a major donor that gets the Postal Service…….. and the list goes on and on…..

The latest unqualified person to get a seat at the big table in the White House is the newly appointed Secretary of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf……

The top two officials in the Department of Homeland Security were improperly appointed to the posts under federal law by the Trump administration, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog said Friday. The Government Accountability Office says acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and his acting deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, are ineligible to run the agency under the Vacancy Reform Act, per the AP. GAO said it has asked the DHS inspector general to review the situation and determine if the violation affects decisions they have taken at a time when Homeland Security has been at the forefront of key administration initiatives on immigration and law enforcement. Both men should resign, said the Democratic chairs of the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

“GAO’s damning opinion paints a disturbing picture of the Trump Administration playing fast and loose by bypassing the Senate confirmation process to install ideologues,” Reps. Bennie Thompson and Carolyn Maloney said in a statement. DHS had no immediate comment. The GAO analysis traces the violation back to a tumultuous period at DHS in 2019 when Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned. It found that she was improperly replaced by Kevin McAleenan under the rules governing succession in federal agencies. McAleenan altered the rules of succession after he was subsequently removed, but GAO’s legal analysis concluded that the later appointments of Wolf and Cuccinelli were invalid. DHS is the third-largest Cabinet agency, with about 240,000 employees.

https://www.businessinsider.com/watchdog-says-acting-dhs-chief-not-legally-eligible-serve-role-2020-8

The only qualification one needs to be part of the Trump White House is to be an ass kisser and a yes man…

And now you know why our standing in the world sucks so bad….we have NO ONE capable of putting this country on the right path….or even to return it to it’s former self.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Corruption: Presidential Perspective

There is lots of noise these days about the Trump admin and how corrupt it has become…..but what about the other presidents that are said to have been corrupted as well?

A couple of cabinets that come to mind are Harding, Grant and Jackson…but could there be others?

Throughout American history, some presidents have had better taste than others when selecting the members of their Cabinets. The president’s Cabinet includes the vice president plus the heads of the departments of the executive branch of the government. With all those Cabinet members, sometimes not everybody has the best interests of the nation at heart.

Read on to discover which presidents appointed the most corrupt Cabinets. And get the details on how President Donald Trump’s Cabinet compares on page 7.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/culture/presidents-with-corrupt-cabinets-and-how-donald-trump-compares.html/

Along the same lines as corrupt is the fact that some of the same presidents are considered some of the most notorious in our short history…..

From Richard M Nixon, who resigned following the Watergate scandal, to the impeached Andrew Johnson, historian Adam IP Smith considers five of America’s most disreputable presidents…

https://www.historyextra.com/period/modern/the-5-most-notorious-presidents-in-us-history/

I always like to see the story of our presidents side by side……comparisons is always a good thing….helps presidents live up to the potential that the voters gave them…..unfortunately some have not lived up to their potential.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

A Cabinet Meeting From Political Hell

I remember one of Trump’s first cabinet meetings when they all got together and spent their allotted time massaging Trump’s genitals….it was embarrassing to anyone that holds our system in awe.

But Trump has topped that embarrassing moment with a further and more embarrassing moment……Trump wet on an hour plus rant against the Dems and the media…..

This is 6 of the most bonkers statements in the meeting….

President Donald Trump held a press availability during a Cabinet meeting on Monday, during which he went on a number of tangents and rants. Here are six of the wildest moments:

Schiff Is The Whistleblower’s Informant

6 Bonkers Moments From Trump’s Cabinet Meeting

The time was a rambling ranting mess….I wish that the above 6 were the only falsehoods spoken by our Dear Supreme Monarch…..but they were not…..

President Donald Trump delivered a blistering and rambling monologue to the journalists he allowed into his Cabinet meeting for more than 70 minutes on Monday. His press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, later tweeted, “I hope we see honest reporting from today’s mtg.”

We can honestly tell you that Trump’s remarks were highly dishonest.
We’re still looking into some of the President’s claims. We can report that at least 20 of them were false:
 
I wish that I could say that there was anything accurate in the words thrown out by the president…..I wish I could but alas I cannot….
 
But for doubters….please watch all 1 hour and 12 minutes of this presser……and then make up your own mind….it is a long video but illustrates just how badly Trump is going off the rails……
 
 
Yet more proof…..if you do not see his delusion then you do not want to see it for whatever reason…..and yes it is a long one but the rambling is very telling……
 
 
They say, the MSM, that the country is getting weary of all this silliness by our president and his toadies…..

You know, I’m old enough to remember when Republicans in Congress called down fire and brimstone on the Obama administration for not cooperating with Congressional oversight in the Benghazi probe. Here’s a 2012 clip of Congressman Trey Gowdy blasting executive branch members at an oversight hearing. Gowdy has just joined Team Trump, to help Build The Stonewall.

This ought to be a big deal to conservatives: to protect the right of Congress to do oversight on the imperial executive. I don’t respect the administration’s contempt for Congress. We all know Adam Schiff gonna Adam Schiff, but Trump brought this entire mess onto himself, and he can’t bluster his way out of it.

People — including Republican voters — are getting fed up with it. These numbers are not moving in the way the president needs them to:

Trump Fatigue

Personally I think that is good news….but sadly I am not buying it at all……I think that his falsehoods and BS is just making him stronger with the Alt Right and the bigots in our nation.

I mean I have a problem with our representatives that should be above reproach should ever use the language this president does…..

President Trump turned his fire on members of his own party Wednesday—and they did not take kindly to being called “human scum.” “The Never Trumper Republicans, though on respirators with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our Country than the Do Nothing Democrats,” the president tweeted. “Watch out for them, they are human scum!” Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger said it was time for lawmakers to talk to each other “as grownups,” the Hill reports. “To call anybody human scum is beneath the office of the presidency. You can’t say that, right? You’re the president,” he told CNN. “You have different standards.”

Peter Wehner, a Trump critic who served in the previous three Republican administrations, said he considers the insult a “badge of honor,” USA Today reports. “What those of us who are ‘human scum’ … particularly appreciate is how you’ve more than validated our concerns about you-psychologically, morally/ethically and in terms of temperament/judgment,” he tweeted. “You turned out to be at least as bad as we warned you’d be.” Trump, in other tweets,criticized William Taylor, the former top diplomat to Ukraine who testified at an impeachment hearing this week. “It would be really great,” Trump said, if people in his administration “could stop hiring Never Trumpers.”

Never thought I would live to see the day when an American would be called an enemy for disagreeing with another American….is this what you Americans really want?

That is NOT the nation I took an oath to protect.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Defense Or War?

Let’s look at the Department of Defense……until 1949 was called the “War Department”…..

On this day in 1789, 07August, the War Department became an institution…

On this date, President George Washington signed into law a bill that established the U.S. War Department. The measure had moved through the First Federal Congress (1789–1791) with relatively little controversy. With Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., of Connecticut presiding over the Committee of the Whole, the House debated the authorization bill in late June 1789. Pro-Administration Representative Egbert Benson of New York introduced an amendment to include a phrase to the effect that the War Department Secretary would be “removable by the President,” echoing language that had been included in a much more rancorous debate a few days earlier about the duties and powers of the proposed Secretary of Foreign Affairs (later the Secretary of State). Roger Sherman of Connecticut and John Page of Virginia opposed Benson’s amendment, but it carried narrowly, 24 to 22. The entire bill passed the House easily on June 27, with little debate in an unrecorded vote. Soon thereafter, the Senate passed the bill. In choosing the department’s first secretary, President Washington preferred continuity. He nominated Henry Knox—a key aide during the American Revolution and, since 1785, the secretary of war under the Articles of Confederation.

In 1789 Congress created the War Department to administer the field army commanded by the president and secretary of war. After the War of 1812, Secretary of War John C. Calhoun reorganized the department and introduced a system of bureau chiefs with a commanding general in the field. The bureau chiefs advised the secretary of war and commanded their own troops and field installations. The secretary typically supported the bureaus in disputes with the commanding general. Congress regulated the bureaus in minute detail, and their bureau chiefs often relied on federal lawmakers for support. The Spanish-American War demonstrated a need for more effective control over the department and its bureaus, and the debate over how to do so reshaped the War Department during the twentieth century. In 1903 Secretary Elihu Root asserted department control by appointing a chief of staff and a general staff for planning. Yet, his successor, William Howard Taft, reversed this position, subordinated the chief of staff to the adjutant general, and reinvigorated the traditional secretary–bureau chief alliance.  Under the National Security Act of 1947, as amended in 1949, the War Department became the Department of the Army within the Department of Defense, and the secretary of the army became an operating manager for the new secretary of defense.

All this history is just the intro into something that I completely agree with…..the DoD is no longer about defense but rather WAR….so why not return to the days of yore and rename the institution to reflect its true nature……War Department or the Department of War.

As a nation, we have failed to heed President Eisenhower’s prescient 1961 warning to “guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” Our failure to heed that warning—conversely the immense growth of the military-industrial complex—can, to a significant degree, be attributed to a simple change in nomenclature that was nothing short of Orwellian.

In 1949, the U.S. “War Department,” which had been established in 1789 and operated as such until 1947, was renamed the “Department of Defense”. The Secretary of War became the Secretary of Defense. As a result, no matter how offensive the nature our policies, objectives, military presence or weaponry, every dollar spent and every life lost in combat have been classified as necessary to the “defense” of this nation.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/07/20/why-we-must-restore-title-war-department

These conflicts are more about aggression than defense….so rename it the WAR Department.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Buy Your Career

It is not something new that the wealthy buy their positions in any presidential administration….it is just a way of life in the DC or our political system.

So when I read the William Barr had gave a bunch of dollars to the GOP Senate…..I was not surprised….may be you will be……

Attorney General William Barr donated $51,000 to the committee tasked with electing Republican senators just as the Republican-led Senate began considering his nomination in late 2018.

Quartz released the details of the conveniently timed donations in a report on Thursday.

Barr occasionally made political donations to the Republican Party between 1993 and 2018.

“In the lead up to his Senate confirmation hearings for attorney general earlier this year, his giving habits suddenly changed,” Quartz reported. “Barr’s donations became far more frequent, notable for their size, recipients, and possible utility to him.”

He gave thousands to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) between November 7, 2018, and February 14 of this year, when he was confirmed. Barr’s nomination was publicly announced by Trump on December 7.

https://shareblue.com/william-barr-gave-senate-gop-cash-just-months-before-confirmation/

Again the old saying holds true….”American politics is the best government money can buy”……

And tomorrow is the big day….a former DoJ employee testifies before Congress…..and the games will begin in earnest.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”