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In this episode, we start taking a look Trump’s picks for his cabinet members; beginning with his choices for Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury. Just to be sure we have some perspective, we go over the job descriptions and look at some of the individuals that held these positions during the Obama and G.W. Bush administrations. You might say we have some concerns…
Will ‘drain the swamp’ be Trump’s first broken promise?- Politco
Rex Tillerson, an Aggressive Dealmaker Whose Ties With Russia May Prompt Scrutiny- NY Times
Trump’s Treasury Secretary Pick is a Lucky Man. Very Lucky. -ProPublica
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Interesting discussion of Tillerson. A couple weeks ago, Rachel Maddow did a segment on Tillerson and some of his “coporate diplomacy” around the world…it is an interesting look at how he has spent a portion of career directly opposed to American foreign policy.
I remember hearing Kellyanne Conway defending Tillerson from criticism that he’s too financially enmeshed with Russian interests by responding “it’s not like they’re friends.” As if that was the concern, as if we were worried that Tillerson would struggle to choose between his best good friend Putin and America’s interests, as if a member of Trump’s inner circle would hesitate to sell out any of their loved ones for some meager financial gain.
The whole thing is just some humiliating clown show endurance test. Reporters are shouting policy questions about deteriorating relationships with foreign nations as he shuffles in and out of his hotel restaurant like he’s Burt Lancaster at the Brown Derby, with Don King standing just in frame wearing a denim jacket and waving a cheap American flag, as the president elect says something noncommittal and insipid, which gets reported as breaking news, because it’s the closest thing to meaningful interaction with the press he’s had in months.
I don’t mean to be a downer, but as far as I can tell, everything’s real fucked up and hopeless.
It seems like the best thing to be said about Mnuchin is that his profiteering off of the foreclosure crisis was so egregious that his appointment has resulted in some Trump voters recognizing that it’s a bad thing to give political power to a man who abuses his wealth to victimize and defraud hardworking people… because they literally needed to see the man who kicked them out of their homes be rewarded, by the man they elected, for that point to sink in. In keeping with traditional conservative values, they learned their lesson once it happened to them, personally, and they were no longer in a position to do anything useful.