The Biden Cabinet and Administration

Thank you Doctor Freud.

It matters because representation matters - and representation matters not because of some tokenism box-checking but because lived experiences matter and if your decision making is informed only by the lived experiences of straight cis Christian White Men then there's a fuck-ton of Americans in your blind spot.

That would be Richard Grennell.

There have been targeted forgiveness programs for a while, for example when I was in college (2001-2005) they were offering forgivness for Teachers who would teach in critical need areas (the Delta, basically, in MS but it wasn't just in MS) and they do this with various other professions like medical.

Additionally, there's a forgiveness program for total and permanent disability after a few years.

There may be others.

The current crisis, though, has to do with the fact that over time the programs had been altered to make them safer and more profitable for the banks so the whole program inflated far beyond regular market inflation. The cost of an average year of college, relative to - say, the median income - now as compared to the ratio in even the 90's is astonishingly higher, and the debt load is dragging down the overall economy because 20 years of loan payments is sucking up money that could go to buy a house or start a business or whatever.

So many of the rock-ribbed conservatives i see saying "no one forgave my loan! Why should we do this for them now!?" are reading as if it's only the particular debtor who benefits, when in reality all of us would - at a time when the economy REALLY neds it.

Also, while Biden's preferred plan is bold compared to the past, it is very timid compared to what he could do, and what is needed, to inject funds into the economy and help speed a recovery after the plague is under control.

What makes it valuing a person by their gender rather than their capabilities, as opposed to valuing a person because of both their gender and their capabilities?

What is the difference between choosing a qualified woman without making an announcement that you are choosing a woman ahead of time and choosing a qualified woman while making the announcement ahead of time that your choice is going to be a woman?

Congress passed a program in 2007 that would allow people to have their loan debts forgiven if they could show that they spent 10 years working in public service capacities. The idea was that if you put in 120 payments toward your loans while working for the government or qualifying non-profits, the remainder of the loans would be forgiven. Unfortunately, the reality is that most of the people who have sought this forgiveness -- like 98+ percent -- have been denied.

This is the most pertinent point in the whole discussion. Any talk about a more progressive cabinet is nothing more than idle speculation and pipe dreams, as long as Mitch McConnell is running the Senate.

It might sound like it to you, but that only shows that you think the two are mutually incompatible. IOW : "A female of color can't be someone who is fully qualified."

That says a lot more about you than it does about Biden.

And honestly, I'm not sure McConnell will allow any cabinet without a fight.

Sure, they said stuff about the president deserving to pick the people who work for him. But they also left themselves an out: they said they'd confirm nominees who were "in the mainstream," and these are people who, to borrow a phrase from somebody on Twitter, apply the word "socialism" to any position to the left of hunting the homeless for sport.

Plus, McConnell knows that he doesn't even really have to pretend anymore. He knows that Democrats can win the popular vote by landslide margins and he'll still have a good shot at keeping his majority; he knows that there are no consequences for anything he does, no matter how craven and corrupt.

^ I gave that one an "agree" but it could just as well have been a

Because it is.

https://nypost.com/2020/11/28/senate-republicans-look-to-derail-joe-bidens-cabinet-nominees/

Basically, Rubio, Corwyn and Cotton are all talking smack about Biden's cabinet picks in what seems to be staking their claims for 2024.

Yep. And thanks to McConnell stretching the Kiddy-Fucker Hastert* Rule as far as he can, even nominees that would get a majority of the Senate don’t even get votes.

Has anyone looked into the Constitutionality of a law requiring the Senate to give up or down votes on a presidential nominee? I’m no lawyer but that would seem to be more in line with the original intent of ‘advice and consent’ than McConnell’s burn-it-all-down behavior.

*Is it just me or is the fact that the longest serving Republican Speaker of the House in history is a convicted ‘serial child molester’ (sentencing judge’s words) something that has been completely swept under the rug? And it ain’t like this is ancient history, IT WAS TWENTY FUCKING SIXTEEN!!!

There is a theory -- I don't know if there's any truth to it, or if it's one of those things you get when you combine constitutional literalism, a lack of knowledge of relevant statutes or case law, and wishful thinking -- that Kamala Harris actually has the power to take over the Senate at any time. She wouldn't have a vote, of course, but if the theory holds, she could break McConnell's obstructionism and let nominations and other bills come to the floor, where Republicans like Collins and Murkowski would be able to break with McConnell if they chose.

Do it. Make them take you to court. You might win and even if you don’t you’ll likely get a blue print for how to do it better next time.

We can’t let the Republicans be the only ones to play this game or there won’t be a game to play before much longer.

There's also the fact that Trump was able to have folks as "acting" officials far longer than the law allowed. I'm sure that if Biden attempts to do the same thing, the Republicans will suddenly find their outrage and lodge all kinds of objections to this. If the Dems are smart, they'll take advantage of this to not only ensure that no one else can do it again but to get Biden's cabinet picks confirmed.

As well as the fact that Kamala isn’t alone in being “A female of color and is fully qualified”. I’m certain olfella wouldn’t think choices would be limited if Biden said he would choose a white make who was qualified.

I'm not opposed to trying; I'm just wondering what the odds are.

Yes, our judges did the right thing pretty much across the board with Trump's attempts to overturn the election. But hand the conservative majority on the Supreme Court a case with a little more ambiguity, something that truly is a judgment call without a clear answer, and I suspect five of them will fall in line with whatever the Republican party wants.

That's my thinking.

If I were Biden and, say, Blinkin couldn't get a vote, I'd tell Mitch "Well since he was never rejected by the Senate, Blinkin is my Secretary of State. Bite me bitch."

photo of his press team released

So until Trump every 20th and 21st Century President has had a member of the other party in their cabinet. Only three presidents in history haven’t.

Obama had three off the top of my head, two SecDefs and one Transportation. And one of the SecDefs was a holdover from Bush. Also the Dem that Bush appointed was Transportation (it isn’t that ideological a position).

So the last two normal presidents had members of the opposite party as Secretary of Transportation. And the last normal one had a carryover from the prior admins cabinet.

An idea I have heard batted around is keeping Elaine Chao on as Transportation Secretary. The thinking is that it isn’t a super ideological position and could have some... legislative benefits.

Thoughts?

Only if Biden uses it as leverage to get Mitch to pass some shit. Otherwise, toss the wife of Mitch McConnell out on the street, if not into prison.

I would love to see joe try, but there are two problems with that. Mitch is the excxuse joe will have to give republicons everything they want, which is exactly what joe wants to do. Now joe has two years, at least, where he can pretend he wanted to fight and mitch stopped him. (That is if the reps win the GA senate run offs.) Even if GA dems win he will still say he wants to compromise to give reps more than they asked for because it makes the republicans sad when they do not get everything they want.

In reality what pressude could he put on Mitch if mitch remains king of the US senate? The KY lube race for miutch to remain king showed his p[eople will vote themselves into a grave to keep mitch there stopping everything he can. There is no shame to KY republicons. They have no morals. These are shit of shit human beings, and they love mitch. In the state of KY they are the most common people. Maybe if Mitch was not in the king seat being able tyo stop any vote he wants you might have some leverage, but instead of having a legislation that votes, we have decided one person gets to decide what we vote on most of the time. It would be one thing if one person could not stop votes on legislation, but that is not how it works.

The only thing we will see for the next two years is tax breaks for the rich, bigger military budgets, and banking/stock market deregulation. This is because those are the only things Nancy and Mitch will allow to go forward. OK, we might get more militarization of the police to kill those black people in white neighborhoods as they all love too.

I will just drop this here in case you decide to vote in the run offs.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumpist-lawyers-tell-georgia-republicans-205301955.html

You would not want to make trump mad. Someone should send your name to this guy so you can be drawn and quartered as the traitor you are for voting in the US.

Lin Wood is a character. Some people think he's brilliant, some think he's a "better call Saul" looking shyster. Regardless that's one lawyers opinion, not all lawyers' opinions.
Regardless the runoff is a little over a month away - a lot can change and a lot can happen.

I remember being told Biden is great and noi longer prejudiced because he ran with Obama. He evolved. He also is supposedly better and is no longer the senator from MBNA. I hate being correct that biden bootlickers are low information assholes who would vote against their own interests the same way cult 45 does, and were going to get fucked for it, but Biden is the same old Biden.

One of his new staff members Cynthia Hogan is a long time friend of his. She worked as a lobbyist for Apple and helped to get huge tax breaks for them as they were over in china because they do not like american workers getting paid so they went for slave chinese labor. She was the lead lobbyist who worked to get the trump tax cuts for the rich, but that does not stop biden from hiring her because he is just like he always was.

But wait, this gets worse.

She left apple to join fuckhead joe's campaign and helped him to chose his running mate, so it is not like this woman is just some member of his staff he likes to stick his fingers in. She lobbied for the NFL to keep their tax exempt status, and won. Maybe we could have some extra cash for the pandemic if the NFL and apple paid their taxes.

She did help Biden write the violence against women act, but I guess that does not cover interns who you vaginally rape with your finger. Or sniffing and molesting women which he still did after the act was passed. I wonder how many times he sniffed and touched her, and if she liked it. This same woman left to work for the NFL to help them avoid problems with all the rape cases that were popping up with their players and cover them up by lowering regulations. Maybe it is just fair and balanced to help women with their abusers, and then to help the NFL avoid problems with raping women.

Now in 1994 Joe wrote the crime bill which helped in so many ways to persecute black people and brown people, and I say that was the purpose of Joe and his crime bill, along with his drug war. But black people decided he has changed because he was Obama's VP and now does not think that way anymore. Guess who was one of his partners in writing that bill? There is video of Cotton eye joe specifically thanking her for her help writing that bill on the floor of the senate.

I fought against this guy and the biden bootlickers because he has never changed. He still has the same prejudiced people writing racist laws designed to harm the black community in the name of law and order. He still is hanging around with the same corporate lobbyinsts who want the donald trump tax breaks for the rich. He is still a rapey son of a bitch who hangs around with women who try to cover up rape for rich people while pretending to care about abuse of women.

For those who want a video


For those who want the intercept article and to read about it.

https://theintercept.com/2020/12/02/biden-transition-cynthia-hogan/

How much better is this fuck than trump again? Glad I am not black, poor, or have a vagina because this guy is going to make things so much worse for you all.

Facts are dumb claims cult 46 member @Quest with as much rebuttal as any trumpista can muster.

There is going to be a lot of toldja so for the next four years from progressives who pointed out Biden's flaws only to be told how great he is by the blind and poorly informed.

I cannot wait for the first of many unarmed b lack men to be killed and we see how he blames the victim. Maybe he will molest a staffer? I am also waiting for his tax cuts for the rich, increase in wars, deregulations on corporate finances and pollution, and his attacks on the rights of women and minorities.

Hey, if I am wrong you won't have to deal with your shitshow choice biden bootlickers. I would love to be wrong and see things much better in four years. Please mister biden actually evolve and be a better person and kick the scum out of your swamp. Please stop being a republicon asshole and I will sing your fucking praises.

In other words those facts that support my opinion are dumb because you do not want to admit to them just like a trumpista.

U.nless you would like to explain how this choice of a person who has helped make the trump tax cuts, cover up NFL abuse scandals, lobby for corporate corruption, and design the tough on crime legislation that has been used to destroy people in a very racial way (as it was designed) is a good choice. One might know republicon joe has a ton of talent to chose from, and yet he keeps chosing this person to help him organize and carry out this ideology.

This is evidence supporting my opinion that joe has not changed at all and is still the same old person. This is how an argument works. It is not dumb because it supports my point. It might be inconvenient and embarassing for you considering how you back the POS known as Joe Biden, but it is not dumb.

You show your lack of ability. You prove @Volpone right that this has turned into a leftie echo chamber where no argument against the great joe biden will be recognized and respected. That is fucking sad. Thank you for making him correct and showing everyone Biden Bootlickers are just as afraid of reality as the crazies on the right.

If you want me to stop pointing out how the right has you nailed, you might want to stop being a dumbfuck. I have found that even though they are quite unaware of their own problems, they do have something right about how this weak sauce libtard hole works. It is nice you are here because you would be an anchor to the left offsite. Don't go outside because your weakness will only bring the rest of us down.

Once Biden in sworn in, and Agolf Twittler is in the rear view mirror, we can talk about who should replace him. But I’m certainly not going to wish him ill before that happens, and not while VP Kamala Harris is an unknown. Will she govern like Senator Harris (ok) or AG Harris (meh-yuck)? The fact that this is a question, btw, entails that people do change when in different positions of power. So I’m not going to prejudge President Biden either.

Joe's a level head and a fairly practical middle-of-the-road Democrat. As far as "prejudging" him I'll say he'll do fine unless something really out of left field happens.