National Security Adviser- Michael Flynn. Sterling armed forces commander and 3 star general he is kind of ordinary. Although he has quite a desire for politics. He is rigid to the extreme and has made multiple sexist, Islamophobic, racist pronouncements. Not an ideal choice, but I just read about Bannon, so you should do your own homework on Flynn. He was chosen for his extremist views. I would rather we find someone leaning both ways toward the middle. But, that is just my view. I could be wrong.
Senior Advisor- Jared Kushner- He was born into 1% type of wealth. Has been extensively involved in real estate leveraged by the wealth he was born into. He doesn't look old enough to shave and he has ZERO experience in politics. He is a sociopath and an orthodox jew and therefore is in constant struggles with Bannon (remember he is a devout antisemitic). His influence is on the wane. An an unknown source says, "He does not look well." But, isn't the biggest problem is that he is Donald Trump's son in law? Trump is determined to overturn nepotism laws on his son in laws behalf. This somehow seems to me to conflict with the reason someone would pass a law barring nepotism, especially if it involves two rich families.
Counsellor to the President- Kellyanne Conway-
She went college.
In 1982, she won the New Jersey Blueberry Princess pageant, according to the conservative news site Newsmax. But, as Conway told Newsmax in 2008, she was not only a pageant winner but also named the World Champion Blueberry Packer, because she spent eight summers packing blueberries on a farm. She was known as the fastest packer.
She is married with four children.
She has worked "extensively" with Republican lawmakers advising about women's voting.
At work she has been nicknamed the "The Trump Whisperer". (I did not make that up)
She once tried stand up comedy. (I did not make that up)
Conway uses terms like "fake news" and "alternative facts" regularly when she needs to obscure the truth. She appeared on Meet the Press on Jan. 22 to say that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer lying about the crowd size at the inauguration was just him presenting an "alternative fact." My question is does she also condone an "alternative truth"?
And finally, this from the Associated Press yesterday Feb. 3rd, 2017,
A top aide to President Donald Trump said Friday she misspoke when she cited a 2011 "massacre" in Kentucky that never happened.
A day earlier, during an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Kellyanne Conway defended Trump's temporary ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations by saying that former President Barack Obama instituted a similar policy for Iraqi refugees in 2011.
"President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized in Kentucky, and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre, Conway said. "Most people don't know that because it didn't get covered."
That is because, it never happened. It is an "alternative fact".
Secretary of State- Rex Tillerson- Mr. Tillerson, "Rex", is very, very, stupid rich. He has at least one special interest...oil. His only jobs appear to have been with ExxonMobil reaching the pinnacle job of CEO in 2006. In some of his jobs he became good friends with some Russians it is rumored by me.
Name: Rex Wayne Tillerson
Age: 64 (born March 23, 1952)
Family: Married, with four children
What he used to do: Tillerson joined ExxonMobil in 1975 as a production engineer. He rose through the ranks, becoming general manager in 1989 and production adviser to the Exxon Corp. in 1992. In 1998 he became vice president of Exxon Ventures and president of Exxon Neftegas Limited, where he was responsible for the company's holdings in Russia, including the Caspian Sea and the Sakhalin Island area. In August 2001 he was promoted to senior vice president of the ExxonMobil Corp. and became CEO in 2006. He has no previous public sector experience.
Education: B.S., civil engineering, University of Texas at Austin
Relationship with Trump: Tillerson emerged as a late contender on what seemed to be an ever expanding list of possible nominees for secretary of state. He met with Trump on Dec. 6, and the two convened for a second time on Dec. 10. Tillerson has a history of donating to Republicans in recent years. According to Federal Election Commission filings, he donated $50,000 to Mitt Romney's presidential victory fund in 2012 and gave $5,000 to Right to Rise, a super PAC backing Jeb Bush, in August 2015. But his FEC records do not show any donations to Trump during the 2016 campaign.
Trump and Exxon relationship: Trump owned ExxonMobil stock. His 2015 financial disclosure filing lists $50,000 to $100,000 worth of assets in ExxonMobil.
Things you might not know about him: In 2015, when he was CEO of ExxonMobil, Tillerson appeared on Forbes' most powerful people list.
He has a strong relationship with Russia:
Tillerson's business relationship with Russia dates to the 1990s, when he assumed responsibility for all of ExxonMobil's holdings there. In 2011 the company forged a deal with Russian oil company Rosneft, which at that time was 75 percent owned by the Russian government. The deal gave ExxonMobil access to Arctic oil deposits, and Putin attended the signing ceremony. In 2013 the two companies expanded their partnership. That year, Tillerson received the Russian Order of Friendship from Putin.
He does not believe in investing in renewable energy (what a surprise)
He believes we should lift sanctions imposed on Russia when it invaded it's neighbor Ukraine and stole the Crimea peninsula.
You make the call!
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin- Now this is my website and this guy is a very bad man, who deeply injured hundreds of thousands and probably millions of American families. They will never be the same again.
Stevie is a Sociopath. He is a liar challenging the champ, Pinochio.
Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has criticized Wall Street bankers
for their excessive political influence, attacked hedge fund managers for getting away with“murder” under the current tax code, and claimed that he would self-fund his campaign to avoid being beholden to special interests. “The hedge fund guys didn’t build this country,” Trump said on “Face the Nation” recently. “These are guys that shift paper around and they get lucky.” Donald Trump is a liar too. DH
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin- Now this is my website and this guy is a very bad man, who deeply injured hundreds of thousands and probably millions of American families. They will never be the same again.
Stevie is a Sociopath. He is a liar challenging the champ, Pinochio.
Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has criticized Wall Street bankers
for their excessive political influence, attacked hedge fund managers for getting away with“murder” under the current tax code, and claimed that he would self-fund his campaign to avoid being beholden to special interests. “The hedge fund guys didn’t build this country,” Trump said on “Face the Nation” recently. “These are guys that shift paper around and they get lucky.” Donald Trump is a liar too. DH
But now Trump has tapped Steve Mnuchin, a 53-year-old Wall Street hedge fund and banking mogul, to be his campaign’s national finance chair.
Trump’s earlier rhetoric aside, it’s actually a good match. Mnuchin is CEO of Dune Capital Management, a hedge fund has had business dealings with Trump. Both Trump and Mnuchin earned their first fortunes the old fashion way: they inherited it. Trump took over his father Fred’s real estate empire and expanded it through questionable business practices. Mnuchin, also the scion of a wealthy and well-connected family, graduated from Yale in 1985 and soon wound up working at Goldman Sachs, where his father Robert had been a general partner. You will remember, I hope, that Goldman Sachs is the Darth Vader of investment banks. Not my invented name. DH
Both Trump and Mnuchin have run businesses accused of widespread racial discrimi-nation, and they both represent the excessive wealth and greed of the billionaire developer and banker class. And both men have hedged their political bets, donating big bucks to Democrats as well as Republicans.
During his 17 year tenure at Goldman Sachs, Mnuchin led the mortgage Department when it created Collateralized Debt Obligation and Credit Default Swaps. Those are the mortgage products that played a Big Part in the Big Short that caused the Economic Meltdown of 2008, according to Bloomberg.
His boss at the time was LLoyd Blankfein, who is now the CEO of Goldman Sachs and the subject of a Trump campaign AD that suggested Hillary Clinton and Blankfein were Global Elites robbing the working class of their wealth.
Mnuchin left Goldman Sachs in 2002 to start a hedge fund, according to Business Insider, and, later, an investment fund with George Soros, a billionaire Democrat who has called Trump a “con artist and a would-be dictator.” The Trump campaign included Soros in the ad with Blankfein and Clinton.
He faces intense scrutiny for his role in the Economic Meltdown of 2008.
Once the Great Recession began in 2008- Thanks, in part, to the toxic mortgages Mnuchin helped to package and sell at GOLDMAN SACHS, Mnuchin made a number of shrewd moves that would leave him with $46 million dollars in profits according to the Wall Street Journal.
In 2009, as the global economy spiraled downward, Mnuchin led a group (which included Soros) that bought the housing lender IndyMac. They renamed it OneWest, and Mnuchin served as its chairman.
OneWest was allegedly very shady. It reportedly tried to foreclose on a 90-year-old woman over a 27-cent payment error; it held back a large number of homeowners’ insurance claims after Hurricane Sandy, according to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo; and it faces accusations of refusing to issue mortgage loans to people of color and not locating bank branches in minority communities.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren even called Mnuchin the “Forrest Gump of the financial crisis” because, presumably, he stumbled into situations that made him rich — at the expense of average Americans, according to Warren.
“His selection as Treasury Secretary should send shivers down the spine of every American who got hit hard by the financial crisis, and is the latest sign that Donald Trump has no intention of draining the swamp and every intention of running Washington to benefit himself and his rich buddies,” she said. Mnuchin was the national finance chair for Trump’s presidential campaign but he’s never held a role in government. "Over his business career, he was never particularly involved in politics, nor did he publicly express an interest in public policy,” The New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote. “He never ran a large organization or showed himself to be an accomplished economist.”
Now the mainstream press (which is typically careful about vetting a story) has reported that he lied about mortgage fraud abuses at his notorious OneWest Bank, which is a name change from IndyMac which he and others purchased for a song from the FDIC. Steven Mnuchin testified at his Senate confirmation hearing that OneWest did not participate in Robo-Signing techniques to defraud Borrowers. Robo-Signing is a slang term for counterfeiting and forging important home loan instruments. OneWest actually is actually known for horrifying abuses such as these. He got very rich selling bundled hopelessly flawed home loans while he was with Goldman Sachs and is now getting rich collecting from the Borrowers he scammed at Goldman Sachs several years ago with fraudulent collection action today. The deregulation of the Mortgage Industry (the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1934) opened up the window for massive fraud for Goldman Sachs and OneWest and he is now advising Trump, who is listening, to deregulate the industry further. Trump is now calling for further deregulation of the mortgage industry. This is NOT what Trump pledged during his campaign. He was going to drain the swamp (Washington DC was built on a swamp) and reign in the bankers. That is not the intention of Mnuchin and Trump. Trump astonishingly has appointed Gary Cohn the #2 man (president) at Goldman Sachs as his Chief Financial Advisor. If you leave your money in a 401k, bonds, or stock, you should consider what you are going to retire on.
For the story of his bold faced lying, which everyone had to know, at his Senate confirmation hearing, see my blog from yesterday entitled "Steve Mnuchin is a big fat liar" or something like that. Click Here
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE- General James Mattis
He served with the United States Marines for 40 years. He gave serious thought about running against Trump for President.
He has been quoted more than once saying ""Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight," he said during a 2005 forum about war strategies in San Diego. "You know, it's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up-front with you, I like brawling. You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them"
And...." he told a group of Iraqi commanders, "The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some assholes in the world that just need to be shot."
But, I have to cut him some slack there. You don't want a pussy running a war. But, his lack of civility and discretion in not keeping those thoughts to himself is a bit of concern. But, look at what Patton accomplished in WWII.
Mattis is favored by both Republicans and Democrats. In an interview with NPR, Michèle Flournoy — who served in President Barack Obama's Defense Department and was rumored to be the top pick for Secretary of Defense if Hillary Clinton had won the election — praised Mattis as a wonderful choice for the role."General Mattis is a storied and much respected military leader," she said. He's a student of history. He's a strategic thinker, and he also has real passion for, you know, the care of the men and women in the U.S. military and their families. So, you know, I think he would be an outstanding candidate."
He is very well known as a scholar by his contemporaries. He does not like Iran.
Democrats are warning that Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Trump's pick for attorney general, is trying to "rebrand" after failing to be confirmed as a federal judge in 1986 because of racism allegations.
Ross D. Franklin/AP
His Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill are hoping to advance Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions' nomination to serve as U.S. attorney general at warp speed. Leaders at the Senate Judiciary Committee have already announced that confirmation hearings for the nation's next top law enforcement officer will begin Jan. 10, well before Donald Trump's inauguration.
But Democrats and civil rights advocates are signaling that the path for Sessions may not be as rapid, or as smooth, as Republicans would like.
Sessions, 69, returned his questionnaire to the committee amid little fanfare late last Friday evening. The former U.S. attorney and attorney general for the state of Alabama dutifully listed his employment record. But under a section asking for "any unsuccessful candidacies you have had for elective office or unsuccessful nominations for appointed offices," Sessions didn't mention his failed bid for a federal judge post.
Back in 1986, the Republican-led Judiciary Committee, the same panel that will consider his nomination next year, rejected him for a lifetime-tenured judgeship after lawyers testified he had a record of making racially insensitive statements. Sessions denied he was a racist, but he acknowledged he made a joke about thinking members of the KKK were all right — until he learned they smoked marijuana.
At the time of his nomination last month, Trump described Sessions in a written statement as "a world-class legal mind." The transition team has pointed to Sessions' support for a congressional award for civil rights hero Rosa Parks; his vote for Eric Holder Jr., the first black man to serve as attorney general; and his assistance in helping the Southern Poverty Law Center to sue the Ku Klux Klan into bankruptcy in 1981.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights isn't so certain Sessions will enforce the civil rights laws on the books. The coalition of more than 200 human rights groups wrote lawmakers earlier this month to condemn the nominee as the wrong man for the job.
"Senator Sessions has a 30-year record of racial insensitivity, bias against immigrants, disregard for the rule of law, and hostility to the protection of civil rights that makes him unfit to serve as the Attorney General of the United States," they wrote.
Ten years after the Senate turned him away for a judgeship, Sessions was elected a U.S. senator — and he won re-election three more times. He went on to serve on the Judiciary Committee, where he vetted the records of two of President Obama's Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who will become the panel's lead Democrat in January, sought to pump the brakes on the Sessions nomination Tuesday. She said lawmakers need more time to consider his record, which spans more than 150,000 pages. And she has yet to agree to limit the attorney general confirmation hearing to just two days.
Instead, Democrats are pointing to four days of hearings the Judiciary Committee held for former Sen. John Ashcroft before he became President George W. Bush's first attorney general.
Feinstein pointed out that Sessions still hasn't turned over complete information on which Republican candidates he has endorsed over the years. Nor, she wrote, has he turned over several speeches he gave on behalf of Trump on the campaign trail.
"These events, which happened only very recently, obviously are highly relevant to Senator Sessions' ability and intent to serve as an independent Attorney General," Feinstein wrote. "It also appears there are other missing speeches, such as a speech at an event called 'Restoration Weekend' from 2003 and a speech at a Federation for American Immigration Reform event in 2007."
At some points during the presidential race, Sessions appeared to throw his support behind Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country. In December 2015, at a Judiciary Committee meeting, Sessions spoke out to oppose an amendment sponsored by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy that sought to affirm that the U.S. should not bar immigrants from entering its borders based on their religion.
"With regard to immigration, it is our responsibility to protect the rights and well-being first of American citizens," Sessions said at the time. "Fundamentally, foreign nationals living in foreign countries do not have a constitutional right to enter the United States. ... The goal is to select immigrants for admission based on the benefits they provide to the society, based on skills, ages, values, philosophy, income, etc."
That resolution later passed with bipartisan support, 16 to 4.
And, one more thing about that questionnaire: Sessions was asked to provide the 10 most significant cases he "personally handled" as a lawyer. His list includes eight cases that were not listed in his 1986 judgeship materials, including four civil rights cases. But those newly listed cases date to the mid-1980s, something Democratic aides are casting as an effort by Sessions to belatedly "rebrand" himself as a civil rights advocate. They also question whether Sessions did much more than attach his name to legal filings, a somewhat pro forma step for U.S. attorneys.
Lawmakers have already collected several letters of support for Sessions, from former Republican Justice Department leaders who described him as a "person of unwavering dedication to the mission of the department — to assure that our country is governed by the fair and even-handed rule of law."
The Major City Chiefs Association, which represents police officials in big metropolitan areas, praised his "storied record of service to our nation and our justice system."
Sen. Charles Grassley, the Iowa Republican who leads Judiciary, has predicted Sessions will achieve confirmation next year.
"I trust the other side will resist what some liberal interest groups are clearly hoping for — an attack on his character," Grassley said after Trump announced the choice. "The confirmation process of John Ashcroft to be attorney general turned into a reckless campaign that snowballed into an avalanche of innuendo, rumor and spin. That will not happen here."
president elect donald trump
jeff sessions
u.s. senate
confirmation hearings
attorney general
SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR Ryan Zinke—Montana congressman, former Navy SEAL commander and member of the famous Seal Team 6.
He is not much of a friend of the environment.
Described by
Sophie Kleeman of Gizmodo as:
12/15/16 11:39am "Zinke is the fourth and final horseman of Trump’s environmental apocalypse. His political tenure has been marked by firm opposition to environmental policies, despite his alleged fandom of Theodore Roosevelt. Zinke joins Scott Pruitt, tapped to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, a department he loathes; Rick Perry, nominated to head the Energy Department, which he promised to get rid of; and Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil and Trump’s pick for Secretary of State.
Sonny is a a big fan of the Confederacy. As I reported a few weeks ago, Perdue displayed a disturbing nostalgia for the Confederacy while governor (2003-2011)—not a great look for the incoming head of a federal department that, in 1999, settled a landmark lawsuit charging systemic USDA discrimination against black farmers between 1983 and 1997, agreeing to pay out $1.25 billion to harmed farmers. (Okay, that's a big flag DH)
Sonny enacted severe voter ID laws. Voter fraud is vanishingly rare, and laws requiring photo identification at polling places target black voters with "almost surgical precision," a federal court ruled last year. In 2005, Perdue signed into law one of the nation's first "strict" ID laws—the very first of many in former Confederate states—requiring people to either present a current photo identification card or be denied the vote. Perdue vigorously defended it through several legal challenges. It remains in place.
He championed immigration crackdowns. In 2006, then-Gov. Perdue mashed up the voter-fraud myth with another racially tinged fantasy, this one fervently held by Perdue's new boss, Trump: that undocumented immigrants burden taxpayers by siphoning welfare benefits. "It is simply unacceptable for people to sneak into this country illegally on Thursday, obtain a government-issued ID on Friday, head for the welfare office on Monday and cast a vote on Tuesday," he declared. He backed up his harsh words with a crackdown on undocumented workers. Coupled with the George W. Bush administration's simultaneous get-tough efforts, the Georgia law worked perhaps too well. Here's an Associated Press piece from September 2006:
STILLMORE, Ga. Associated Press – Trailer parks lie abandoned. The poultry plant is scrambling to replace more than half its workforce. Business has dried up at stores where Mexican laborers once lined up to buy food, beer and cigarettes just weeks ago.
This Georgia community of about 1,000 people has become little more than a ghost town since Sept. 1, when federal agents began rounding up illegal immigrants.
The sweep has had the unintended effect of underscoring just how vital the illegal immigrants were to the local economy.
Perdue doubled down in 2009, signing another tough immigration bill. By 2010, when preparing to leave office, he had changed his tune a bit—perhaps chastened by how much Georgia's ag industry relies on migrant labor. He declined to express an opinion about the renewed immigration crackdown being promoted by his successor, but he did tell the Associated Press that "the Republican Party needs to be very, very careful that it maintains the golden rule in its rhetoric regarding immigration policy." He added that the GOP needs to make sure that "people of color and people who are not US-born'' are made to feel welcome, adding, "And I think that's the challenge of the Republican Party.''
Sonny is tightly intertwined with the industry he will now regulate. Before entering politics, Perdue sold fertilizer. As governor of Georgia, he led the nation's number-one chicken-producing state, and over his career in politics he netted $328,328 in donations from agribusiness interests, including $21,000 from Gold Kist, a large, Georgia-based chicken-processing company that was later taken over by chicken giant Pilgrim's Pride. He now runs a company that trades agricultural commodities globally.
Sonny enjoyed the spoils of cronyism. Back in 2005, Georgia state Rep. Larry O'Neal—Perdue's lawyer—managed to pass what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called a "seemingly mundane tax bill" that was "designed to allow Georgians to delay paying state taxes on land they sell in Georgia if they buy similar property in another state." The bill included a "a last-minute change, which would make the tax break retroactive to land sales made in 2004." Voila. "And just like that, Gov. Sonny Perdue saved an estimated $100,000 in state taxes," the AJC reported, adding this:
Without the backdated tax break, the governor would have had to pay taxes on money he made in 2004 by selling property he owned in Georgia. Later that year, he used $2 million in proceeds from the sale of that Georgia land to buy 19.51 acres near Florida's Walt Disney World."
Then there was the time in 2010, at the tail end of his second term as governor, when Sonny Perdue named his cousin, David Perdue, Jr., to the board of the Georgia Ports Authority. According to the AJC, it was a plum post for David, who had just stepped down as chief executive of Dollar General discount stores:
The board sets policy and oversees management of the quasi-state agency that rakes in some $67 billion in revenue statewide. And it’s viewed as a prestigious panel, where powerful Georgia business and political leaders rub shoulders. The chairman while [David] Perdue served on the board was Alec Poitevint, former head of the state Republican Party who went on to manage the 2012 GOP national convention.
Meanwhile, that same year, Sonny Perdue "while he was still governor, met with ports officials to discuss opportunities for his private grain and trucking businesses at the port once he left office," the AJC reports, citing emails it obtained through the state's Open Records Act. Then, in 2011, after Sonny Perdue left office, he and David Perdue launched Perdue Partners—"a global trading company that facilitates US commerce focusing on the export of US goods and services through trading, partnerships, consulting services, and strategic acquisitions." The paper adds:
Records obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records request paint an even more complicated portrait, showing that a trucking company purchased by both Perdues hauled cargo at the port while David was on the board making important decisions about the port’s operation.
With his stint on the port authority board on his resume, David Perdue leapt into Georgia politics—in 2014, he was elected to the US Senate.
If it had been me choosing, I would not have appointed Sonny. There is a pattern here folks.
Secretary of Commerce- Wilbur Ross
Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's pick for commerce secretary, is one of the wealthiest members of Trump's cabinet. Billionaire Wilbur Ross Jr. is one of the wealthiest members of what's being called Donald Trump's "gilded cabinet." I could not find who to attribute that quote to, but it's a mouthful.
CNN had a quick bio that I thought would work well here.
Reposted from CNN in part:
THE REST OF THE CABINET AND ADVISORS SOON
TO RETURN TO TOP OF BLOG CLICK HERE
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE- General James Mattis
He served with the United States Marines for 40 years. He gave serious thought about running against Trump for President.
He has been quoted more than once saying ""Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight," he said during a 2005 forum about war strategies in San Diego. "You know, it's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up-front with you, I like brawling. You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them"
And...." he told a group of Iraqi commanders, "The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some assholes in the world that just need to be shot."
But, I have to cut him some slack there. You don't want a pussy running a war. But, his lack of civility and discretion in not keeping those thoughts to himself is a bit of concern. But, look at what Patton accomplished in WWII.
Mattis is favored by both Republicans and Democrats. In an interview with NPR, Michèle Flournoy — who served in President Barack Obama's Defense Department and was rumored to be the top pick for Secretary of Defense if Hillary Clinton had won the election — praised Mattis as a wonderful choice for the role."General Mattis is a storied and much respected military leader," she said. He's a student of history. He's a strategic thinker, and he also has real passion for, you know, the care of the men and women in the U.S. military and their families. So, you know, I think he would be an outstanding candidate."
He is very well known as a scholar by his contemporaries. He does not like Iran.
He has already clashed with some of the rest of Trumps transition team.
Attorney General of the United States- Jeff Sessions
There has been much written about Jeff Sessions. I found an NPR story from December that summed it up. I am reposting the NPR article below:
NPR Politics
IS SESSIONS, TRUMP'S ATTORNEY GENERAL PICK, TRYING TO PAPER OVER HIS RECORD?
Ross D. Franklin/AP
His Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill are hoping to advance Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions' nomination to serve as U.S. attorney general at warp speed. Leaders at the Senate Judiciary Committee have already announced that confirmation hearings for the nation's next top law enforcement officer will begin Jan. 10, well before Donald Trump's inauguration.
But Democrats and civil rights advocates are signaling that the path for Sessions may not be as rapid, or as smooth, as Republicans would like.
Sessions, 69, returned his questionnaire to the committee amid little fanfare late last Friday evening. The former U.S. attorney and attorney general for the state of Alabama dutifully listed his employment record. But under a section asking for "any unsuccessful candidacies you have had for elective office or unsuccessful nominations for appointed offices," Sessions didn't mention his failed bid for a federal judge post.
Back in 1986, the Republican-led Judiciary Committee, the same panel that will consider his nomination next year, rejected him for a lifetime-tenured judgeship after lawyers testified he had a record of making racially insensitive statements. Sessions denied he was a racist, but he acknowledged he made a joke about thinking members of the KKK were all right — until he learned they smoked marijuana.
At the time of his nomination last month, Trump described Sessions in a written statement as "a world-class legal mind." The transition team has pointed to Sessions' support for a congressional award for civil rights hero Rosa Parks; his vote for Eric Holder Jr., the first black man to serve as attorney general; and his assistance in helping the Southern Poverty Law Center to sue the Ku Klux Klan into bankruptcy in 1981.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights isn't so certain Sessions will enforce the civil rights laws on the books. The coalition of more than 200 human rights groups wrote lawmakers earlier this month to condemn the nominee as the wrong man for the job.
"Senator Sessions has a 30-year record of racial insensitivity, bias against immigrants, disregard for the rule of law, and hostility to the protection of civil rights that makes him unfit to serve as the Attorney General of the United States," they wrote.
Ten years after the Senate turned him away for a judgeship, Sessions was elected a U.S. senator — and he won re-election three more times. He went on to serve on the Judiciary Committee, where he vetted the records of two of President Obama's Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who will become the panel's lead Democrat in January, sought to pump the brakes on the Sessions nomination Tuesday. She said lawmakers need more time to consider his record, which spans more than 150,000 pages. And she has yet to agree to limit the attorney general confirmation hearing to just two days.
Instead, Democrats are pointing to four days of hearings the Judiciary Committee held for former Sen. John Ashcroft before he became President George W. Bush's first attorney general.
Feinstein pointed out that Sessions still hasn't turned over complete information on which Republican candidates he has endorsed over the years. Nor, she wrote, has he turned over several speeches he gave on behalf of Trump on the campaign trail.
"These events, which happened only very recently, obviously are highly relevant to Senator Sessions' ability and intent to serve as an independent Attorney General," Feinstein wrote. "It also appears there are other missing speeches, such as a speech at an event called 'Restoration Weekend' from 2003 and a speech at a Federation for American Immigration Reform event in 2007."
At some points during the presidential race, Sessions appeared to throw his support behind Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country. In December 2015, at a Judiciary Committee meeting, Sessions spoke out to oppose an amendment sponsored by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy that sought to affirm that the U.S. should not bar immigrants from entering its borders based on their religion.
"With regard to immigration, it is our responsibility to protect the rights and well-being first of American citizens," Sessions said at the time. "Fundamentally, foreign nationals living in foreign countries do not have a constitutional right to enter the United States. ... The goal is to select immigrants for admission based on the benefits they provide to the society, based on skills, ages, values, philosophy, income, etc."
That resolution later passed with bipartisan support, 16 to 4.
And, one more thing about that questionnaire: Sessions was asked to provide the 10 most significant cases he "personally handled" as a lawyer. His list includes eight cases that were not listed in his 1986 judgeship materials, including four civil rights cases. But those newly listed cases date to the mid-1980s, something Democratic aides are casting as an effort by Sessions to belatedly "rebrand" himself as a civil rights advocate. They also question whether Sessions did much more than attach his name to legal filings, a somewhat pro forma step for U.S. attorneys.
Lawmakers have already collected several letters of support for Sessions, from former Republican Justice Department leaders who described him as a "person of unwavering dedication to the mission of the department — to assure that our country is governed by the fair and even-handed rule of law."
The Major City Chiefs Association, which represents police officials in big metropolitan areas, praised his "storied record of service to our nation and our justice system."
Sen. Charles Grassley, the Iowa Republican who leads Judiciary, has predicted Sessions will achieve confirmation next year.
"I trust the other side will resist what some liberal interest groups are clearly hoping for — an attack on his character," Grassley said after Trump announced the choice. "The confirmation process of John Ashcroft to be attorney general turned into a reckless campaign that snowballed into an avalanche of innuendo, rumor and spin. That will not happen here."
president elect donald trump
jeff sessions
u.s. senate
confirmation hearings
attorney general
SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR Ryan Zinke—Montana congressman, former Navy SEAL commander and member of the famous Seal Team 6.
He is not much of a friend of the environment.
Described by
Sophie Kleeman of Gizmodo as:12/15/16 11:39am "Zinke is the fourth and final horseman of Trump’s environmental apocalypse. His political tenure has been marked by firm opposition to environmental policies, despite his alleged fandom of Theodore Roosevelt. Zinke joins Scott Pruitt, tapped to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, a department he loathes; Rick Perry, nominated to head the Energy Department, which he promised to get rid of; and Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil and Trump’s pick for Secretary of State.
He opposed the EPA’s Clean Water Rule and Clean Power Plan, and voted against myriad environmental protection proposals. He’s also a supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline.
“Though Mr. Zinke has expressed support for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and opposes the sale of public lands, he has prioritized the development of oil, gas and other resources over the protection of clean water and air, and wildlife,” said Theresa Pierno, president of National Parks Conservation Association, told the New York Times. “Mr. Zinke has advocated for state control of energy development on federal lands, a move that threatens our national parks.” (Zinke, in a departure from the views of other conservatives like Ted Cruz, has advocated for state control of federal lands, which aligns with Trump.)
Zinke’s selection also appears to be a continuation of the tradition of climate change skepticism within the President-elect’s cabinet. In 2014, he denied that climate change was a hoax (phew!) but argued that it wasn’t “proven science either.” (What?)
Secretary of Agriculture- Sonny Perdue
Former Governor of Georgia. He is a big rich farmer. But, lots of trash talk about corruption and oddness. Too much to dismiss. You know. Where there's smoke there's fire. The research required to scope Sonny was difficult and others had done it well. I settled on reposting a "MOTHER JONES" News Magazine article from JAN. 23, 2017 3:36 PM Ag Editor for mother jones.Sonny is a a big fan of the Confederacy. As I reported a few weeks ago, Perdue displayed a disturbing nostalgia for the Confederacy while governor (2003-2011)—not a great look for the incoming head of a federal department that, in 1999, settled a landmark lawsuit charging systemic USDA discrimination against black farmers between 1983 and 1997, agreeing to pay out $1.25 billion to harmed farmers. (Okay, that's a big flag DH)
Sonny enacted severe voter ID laws. Voter fraud is vanishingly rare, and laws requiring photo identification at polling places target black voters with "almost surgical precision," a federal court ruled last year. In 2005, Perdue signed into law one of the nation's first "strict" ID laws—the very first of many in former Confederate states—requiring people to either present a current photo identification card or be denied the vote. Perdue vigorously defended it through several legal challenges. It remains in place.
He championed immigration crackdowns. In 2006, then-Gov. Perdue mashed up the voter-fraud myth with another racially tinged fantasy, this one fervently held by Perdue's new boss, Trump: that undocumented immigrants burden taxpayers by siphoning welfare benefits. "It is simply unacceptable for people to sneak into this country illegally on Thursday, obtain a government-issued ID on Friday, head for the welfare office on Monday and cast a vote on Tuesday," he declared. He backed up his harsh words with a crackdown on undocumented workers. Coupled with the George W. Bush administration's simultaneous get-tough efforts, the Georgia law worked perhaps too well. Here's an Associated Press piece from September 2006:
STILLMORE, Ga. Associated Press – Trailer parks lie abandoned. The poultry plant is scrambling to replace more than half its workforce. Business has dried up at stores where Mexican laborers once lined up to buy food, beer and cigarettes just weeks ago.
This Georgia community of about 1,000 people has become little more than a ghost town since Sept. 1, when federal agents began rounding up illegal immigrants.
The sweep has had the unintended effect of underscoring just how vital the illegal immigrants were to the local economy.
Perdue doubled down in 2009, signing another tough immigration bill. By 2010, when preparing to leave office, he had changed his tune a bit—perhaps chastened by how much Georgia's ag industry relies on migrant labor. He declined to express an opinion about the renewed immigration crackdown being promoted by his successor, but he did tell the Associated Press that "the Republican Party needs to be very, very careful that it maintains the golden rule in its rhetoric regarding immigration policy." He added that the GOP needs to make sure that "people of color and people who are not US-born'' are made to feel welcome, adding, "And I think that's the challenge of the Republican Party.''
Sonny is tightly intertwined with the industry he will now regulate. Before entering politics, Perdue sold fertilizer. As governor of Georgia, he led the nation's number-one chicken-producing state, and over his career in politics he netted $328,328 in donations from agribusiness interests, including $21,000 from Gold Kist, a large, Georgia-based chicken-processing company that was later taken over by chicken giant Pilgrim's Pride. He now runs a company that trades agricultural commodities globally.
Sonny enjoyed the spoils of cronyism. Back in 2005, Georgia state Rep. Larry O'Neal—Perdue's lawyer—managed to pass what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called a "seemingly mundane tax bill" that was "designed to allow Georgians to delay paying state taxes on land they sell in Georgia if they buy similar property in another state." The bill included a "a last-minute change, which would make the tax break retroactive to land sales made in 2004." Voila. "And just like that, Gov. Sonny Perdue saved an estimated $100,000 in state taxes," the AJC reported, adding this:
Without the backdated tax break, the governor would have had to pay taxes on money he made in 2004 by selling property he owned in Georgia. Later that year, he used $2 million in proceeds from the sale of that Georgia land to buy 19.51 acres near Florida's Walt Disney World."
Then there was the time in 2010, at the tail end of his second term as governor, when Sonny Perdue named his cousin, David Perdue, Jr., to the board of the Georgia Ports Authority. According to the AJC, it was a plum post for David, who had just stepped down as chief executive of Dollar General discount stores:
The board sets policy and oversees management of the quasi-state agency that rakes in some $67 billion in revenue statewide. And it’s viewed as a prestigious panel, where powerful Georgia business and political leaders rub shoulders. The chairman while [David] Perdue served on the board was Alec Poitevint, former head of the state Republican Party who went on to manage the 2012 GOP national convention.
Meanwhile, that same year, Sonny Perdue "while he was still governor, met with ports officials to discuss opportunities for his private grain and trucking businesses at the port once he left office," the AJC reports, citing emails it obtained through the state's Open Records Act. Then, in 2011, after Sonny Perdue left office, he and David Perdue launched Perdue Partners—"a global trading company that facilitates US commerce focusing on the export of US goods and services through trading, partnerships, consulting services, and strategic acquisitions." The paper adds:
Records obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records request paint an even more complicated portrait, showing that a trucking company purchased by both Perdues hauled cargo at the port while David was on the board making important decisions about the port’s operation.
With his stint on the port authority board on his resume, David Perdue leapt into Georgia politics—in 2014, he was elected to the US Senate.
If it had been me choosing, I would not have appointed Sonny. There is a pattern here folks.
Secretary of Commerce- Wilbur Ross
Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's pick for commerce secretary, is one of the wealthiest members of Trump's cabinet. Billionaire Wilbur Ross Jr. is one of the wealthiest members of what's being called Donald Trump's "gilded cabinet." I could not find who to attribute that quote to, but it's a mouthful.
CNN had a quick bio that I thought would work well here.
Reposted from CNN in part:
Ross can easily be cast as a Wall Street robber baron. He once said on Bloomberg TV that "the 1 percent is being picked on," and he was reportedly the "Grand Swipe," or leader, of Kappa Beta Phi, a secret society on Wall Street.
His businesses have been forced to pay fines to the government several times, including as recently as August of 2016 to the SEC for failing to disclose fees his firm was charging. In 2013, he sat on the board of a company that agreed to pay over $2 billion in a settlement over its handling of subprime loans.
And in 2006, 12 people died in an explosion a West Virginia mine his company purchased.
Additionally, Ross can be criticized for his closeness to Trump, both as a major donor to his campaign and as someone who personally helped Trump in business. In the 1990s, he helped Trump retain control of a failing casino in Atlantic City.
Further, with no experience in government and decades-long ties to Wall Street, critics point out his lack of qualifications to run a vast government agency and question if he would act on behalf of the people at large as opposed to the narrow interests of the financial sector.
The secretary of commerce also oversees the collection and distribution of information about the country, from the constitutionally-mandated census to the National Weather Service.
What made Ross who he is?
Born in New Jersey and a graduate of both Yale and Harvard, Ross made his career on Wall Street. He worked as a bankruptcy adviser before starting his own firm, purchasing businesses in some industries Trump mentioned frequently on the campaign trail, including coal and steel. Through his efforts, Ross has amassed some $3 billion, although a Bloomberg analysis showed his more recent performance flagging.
Asked by CNN's Erin Burnett if he represented the elite interests Trump promised to drive out of politics, Ross argued he did not because of his positive relationships with blue collar workers and unions.
"The fact that you're successful doesn't mean that you can't relate to working people," he said.
He would be replacing another billionaire, Penny Pritzker, the current head of Commerce.
If confirmed, he would be the oldest person ever appointed to head the Commerce Department.
Ross' nickname is the "King of Bankruptcy," and Trump has repeatedly called himself the "king of debt."
THE REST OF THE CABINET AND ADVISORS SOON
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