Biden’s Cabinet and Cabinet-level nominations and appointments are complete. He didn’t ask me, but I think overall he gets a ‘B+.’ An ‘A’ for diversity (especially if you include Vice President Kamala Harris!), and definitely an ‘A+’ in categories we should be able to take for granted, like honesty, intelligence, experience, commitment to the citizens and not the president, and, actually understanding the mission of the agency or position. (It is unbelievable that has to be pointed out, isn’t it?)

Were it up to me, I’d name a cabinet full of people from the Sanders-Warren-Brown-Merkley wing of the party.  But I never expected him to name a whole team of progressives, so I tempered my expectations, and am trying to be realistic in my review.

Least favorite picks

I am most troubled by him putting a general in charge of the Pentagon (George Austin), which I think is a terrible idea, and also puts Democratic senators who opposed Trump’s appointment of a general there in an awkward position. I also dislike the nomination of Tom Vilsack at Agriculture. He is competent and experienced, but is not what is needed right now. A more dynamic appointment, such as Congresswoman Marcia Fudge would have been an excellent choice. She has served on the House Agriculture Committee and would give much needed attention to the often-overlooked nutrition-related responsibilities of the department. She also is Black, which Black farmers had been understandably hoping for.  Instead, Biden pigeon-holed Fudge into HUD, where she has little relevant experience.

Good choices that could have been better

I was rooting for Julie Su, California’s Secretary of Labor, for the Labor Department because the United Farm Workers supported her, and it would be nice to see more prominent Asian Americans, who will be under-represented in the Biden Administration. Biden appointed Boston Mayor Martin Walsh instead.  Walsh does have a strong labor background and was supported by the AFL-CIO, so at least he will be strongly pro-labor, which is so much needed after four years of Trump’s anti-labor goons who headed that department.

It is great to see a classroom teacher, Connecticut commissioner of Education Miguel Cardona, nominated to lead the Department of Education. I would have preferred a Black person like former Massachusetts Governor Patrick Duval as Attorney General at the Justice Department, although Judge Merrick Garland will be excellent, too. “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg at Transportation is sort of a weird choice, but I guess Biden thinks he will be a good salesperson for his infrastructure plan. I thought Buttigieg would have been better for Veterans Affairs, where Biden appointed non-veteran Denis McDonough.

Foreign policy and security: Solid

Biden’s foreign policy and security team at the State Department, United Nations, Homeland Security, and intelligence and trade agencies all seem well-qualified and extremely knowledgeable and are a diverse demographic group— all in contrast to the destructive group that reigned under Trump. Most importantly, they are all committed to Biden’s determination to bring the United States back into the world community. It is critical for the US to once again be a leader in peace treaties, trade agreements, and international alliances, instead of the globe-wrecking embarrassment we have been for the past four years.

Financial team: On the watch list

The Biden financial team is OK—some Wall Streeters but apparently they are reform types, and Janet Yellen at Treasury and Jared Bernstein on the Council of Economic Advisors are particularly good. But that’s the group I am most wary of. I hope that Biden does not follow Obama’s pattern of being too friendly to Wall Street and corporate interests, and I am depending on Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and others in Congress to keep him on the right path.

The best

I saved the best nominations for last: environment and health. The inauguration will bring with it a lifesaving, critical breath of fresh air. What a change! A president who places supreme importance on science, and medicine, and the environment. This may be Biden’s most important legacy.

Biden’s environment and climate team is excellent.  John Kerry, Jennifer Granholm, Michael Regan, Gina McCarthy, and Brenda Mallory are all strong and proven environmentalists and will make fighting climate change and reversing the disastrous war on the environment of the past four years the highest priority. Especially notable is Rep. Deb Haaland leading the Interior Department—which is exciting and groundbreaking. As the first Native American to be Interior Secretary, she will restore respect for our national parks and wilderness areas, and certainly will make the Bureau of Indian Affairs an honorable and respected agency that will earn the trust of American Indians.

I don’t expect his healthcare team to push for single-payer or Medicare for All but I hope they will implement major improvements. Xavier Becerra, a former Congressman and currently the California Attorney General, seems like a good choice at Health and Human Services. He has worked on healthcare issues and will also be the first Latino to direct the department.

The most exciting appointees

Going hand in hand with environment and health care are science and medicine, and this is perhaps the best and most exciting area of Biden’s nominations.  It is clear we will have an administration that actually believes in science!  Biden announced he is making his science advisor, Eric Lander, a member of his Cabinet.  The group he has appointed to lead the critical medical team that will take on Covid-19 are all respected doctors with literally decades of experience fighting epidemics. Doctors Anthony Fauci, David Kessler, Vivek Murthy, Marcella Nunez-Smith, and Rochelle Walensky, will all ensure that our government finally has a plan to stop and reverse the spread. Along with Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients and Chief of Staff Ron Klain, who both have experience on the administrative side of health crises, Biden has a team that will address the pandemic for the public health emergency that it is. Hundreds of thousands of lives will be saved, quite literally.

And at the DNC..

Not in the realm of government, but related to Biden appointments, is his pick to head the Democratic National Committee. I think Jaime Harrison is an excellent choice. Stacy Abrams would have been great, too, but I am sure she will be doing her desperately needed thing wherever she is!

The post The Incoming Biden Team: A Review appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Newly appointed Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke made a grand entrance on his first day on the job: He rode several blocks through Washington DC, to his new office, on a horse.  [Not making this up. Check the link.] Accompanying him were mounted U.S. Park Police, a group of chanting Native Americans, a small crowd of onlookers and hundreds of Interior Department staff waiting for him.

It was an over-the-top production number strangely befitting a department head appointed by Reality-TV-Star-in-Chief Donald Trump. Clearly, dignity and humility are out; showmanship is what counts.

It makes me think that other Trump-appointed department heads might benefit [in the eyes of the boss] from a similarly showy first-day entrance—or any day thereafter when theater would be better than actually doing one’s job or facing hard — or basic — policy questions. Using Zinke as a role model, here’s what we might see:

Ben Carson, Trump’s [bizarre] appointee to helm the Department of Housing and Urban Development, coming to work in a mobile home.

Or, Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s billionaire banker Secretary of the Treasury, could arrive in a Brink’s armored car, as fellow billionaire Wilbur Ross—Secretary of Commerce – delivers himself at the wheel of a semi-tractor-trailer truck overflowing with cash.

How about Betsy DeVos, Trump’s no-nothing Secretary of Education, showing up in the [private], luxuriously appointed school bus of her choice?

Isn’t it obvious to Trump’s crack media team that Secretary of Defense James Mattis should forego the limo and go to work in a tank? And visualize John Kelly, Director of Homeland Security, being dropped off at the office by a surveillance drone.

Picture this, too: Rick Perry once famously called for the total destruction of the Department of Energy, but couldn’t remember its name. Now, he’s in charge of it. How perfect would it be for him to arrive at the office, wearing his see-I’m-a-smart-guy glasses, and fall through the door after slipping on a banana peel. Oops.

For Tom Price, who Trump appointed to gut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security as head of Health and Human Services, the proper, media-savvy form of transportation would be an ambulance, sirens screaming and lights flashing.

Sonny Perdue, former Governor of Georgia, has been picked [pun intended] to head the Department of Agriculture. As Governor, he drew headlines for PAHWAL [piloting a helicopter without a license] and for praying for rain on the steps of the state capital.  Unfortunately, he’s not related to the poultry-magnate Perdues, because a chicken-suit arrival would have been fittingly comic. But he did grow up on a hog farm, so a first-day ride-along on a manure truck might be a good fit.

Personally, I would have preferred that Trump’s Attorney General, the corrupt and totally weaselly Jeff Sessions, had never had a first day in office. I don’t know what vehicle he arrived in on his first day, but I’m hoping that he leaves in a paddy wagon.

As for Rex Tillerson, the new Secretary of State whom Trump is completely ignoring, he has already arrived at the office: The problem is that Trump bought him a Harry-Potter-esque Cape of Invisibility to wear for his first day.

I can’t decide if Ryan Zinke’s first-day stunt reminded me more of a well-known Vladimir Putin image [Zinke kept his shirt on], or of the sheriff-arrival scene of Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles. Either way, Zinke’s grand entrance makes me ask myself, once again—as I have been since Donald Trump took office and began appointing the least qualified, most self-promoting, most corrupt people he could find to run the government—who are these people, anyway?

But I must admit that Zinke’s choice of vehicles on which to arrive at work is very fitting—he was, after all, appointed to office by a horse’s ass.

The post New Secy. of Interior rides into office, literally—on a horse appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Some Republicans are seeing the light about Donald Trump in the White House. While he may have led a Republican tsunami in 2016, his actions as president have been so bizarre and injurious to the American people that the unspoken question about him is now widely spoken. Is he mentally and emotionally unfit to be President of the United States?

This relates to the confirmation hearings that are taking place for Trump nominees to fill his remaining Cabinet positions. Those nominees who are confirmed could well be in a position to stand in judgment as to whether Trump should be temporarily or permanently removed from office under the powers of the 25^th Amendment.

Section 4 of the 25^th Amendment states:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

From what we have seen in the first ten days of the Trump Administration, a very relevant question for senators to ask of all nominees for Cabinet positions is, “Should, in your opinion, President Trump be unable to discharge the duties of his office, would you be willing to support his removal under the 25^th Amendment?” The 25^th does not state the criteria under which a president would not be able to discharge his or her duties, but if someone is clearly mentally deranged and unstable, one could reasonably argue that the president should be removed.

Under present circumstances, it is imperative that senators who are being asked to provide their advice and consent on presidential nominations to the cabinet should indeed ask the question.

This leads to an obvious Catch 22, or Catch 25. If the nominee says “yes,” and their answer seems to be sincere, then that would make the nominee more qualified to serve in this particular cabinet. But if the nominee says “yes,” then it is quite likely that Trump would withdraw that candidate’s nomination.

From the point of view of the Cabinet nominee, there is no correct answer to the question. But from the perspective of the well-being of the American people and all citizens of the world, there is a correct answer, which is “yes.”

This does not commit the Cabinet nominee to vote to remove President Trump. It only means that if circumstances would warrant such a removal, then the nominee would be willing to take the bold step of supporting such action.

If it seems like we’re in the Twilight Zone, it is because we are. Bold measures must be considered, and there are still important individuals to select who must be willing to step forward and be bold if needed.

The post Would Trump nominees support the 25th Amendment? appeared first on Occasional Planet.