political

Election Reflection – Mr. Trump’s Cabinet and Conflicts of Interest

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I had originally intended to post these two topics separately, but the more I read and the more I thought about it, I realized that just like President-Elect Trump and his conflicts, his Cabinet has their own conflicts. In addition, there are conflicts between his Cabinet and himself that are being ignored. One question that should be asked is why has he picked who he picked?
After spending the whole campaign touting how he’d hire the best of the best in their respective fields to run the departments they have the experience with to make the best difference, this is who he has come  up with.

To quote the PEOTUS, “sad!”

What makes Ben Carson qualified to be the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development? The original pretense was that Dr. Carson lived in federal housing, commonly known as The Projects, but it’s been revealed and confirmed that he did not, in fact, live in low-income housing. He certainly grew up poorer than he is now, more than likely poorer than I was at the same age growing up in urban/suburbia, but it sounds like I’m more qualified. I mean, we’ve both lived in a house.

Betsy DeVos. Nominee for Secretary of Education. In this case, I actually am more qualified than Ms. DeVos, and should be considered for this Cabinet position. After all, I have a Master’s degree in Educational Issues, a Bachelor’s in elementary education, a graduate minor in medieval studies, and an undergraduate minor in political science. I am certified to teach in New York state from nursery/preschool through fifth grade, and from 7th to 12th grade in the subject of social studies. My certification in New York also makes me qualified to teach in several other states due to reciprocity. I was a teacher for a decade. I worked for the MWR department of the Department of the Navy and wrote the child development curriculums for their preschool aged program. How am I not a candidate for this Cabinet position? Could it be that I didn’t contribute exorbitant amounts of money to Mr. Trump’s campaign or to the RNC?

NSA Director nominee, Michael Flynn. A conspiracy theorist who recently tweeted about a Hillary Clinton connection to a pizza place, a false story that almost got someone killed when an armed gunman (are there any other kinds?) showed up looking for answers..

Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson who can’t answer a simple question about what Exxon/Mobil thought about climate change while he was there. Not now that he’s no longer with the company, but while he was there.

Do I really need to explain the objections to Senator Jeff Sessions? I think it might be different if over the past several years his attitude and opinions had changed, but they hadn’t. How can someone who doesn’t believe in civil rights for everyone be tasked with protecting everyone’s civil rights?

Winning the election partly on criticizing Clinton’s speeches at Goldman Sachs, cherry-picking her words to fit his narrative, as well as Ted Cruz’s wife’s association with them, and then hiring three, or is it four, former Goldman Sachs employees to run the economic aspect of his Administration.

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry for the Department of Energy, an area that when he was running for President said he would disband.

A head of the EPA that doesn’t believe that man contributes to global warming.

A head of Labor who was just described on Monday as not liking all of the blowback and “all the paperwork”. Being an employer, in fast food, no less doesn’t make you an expert in labor practices.

Searching for an Hispanic to run Agriculture. I guess because they know the most about farming because of crossing the border illegally to be migrant workers, right?

Mr. Trump declaring that jobs stay in the US but at the same time applying for a waiver for his companies to hire foreign labor as visiting workers.

The fiction of his transition team’s insistence that Mexico will pay for ‘the wall’. They won’t. They’ve said they won’t. Raising the import tariffs on Mexican goods will only negatively affect the poor people who the cost will be passed onto.

Chief of Staff Reince Preibus and incoming White House spokesman, Sean Spicer talking about moving the press corps away from the West Wing to accomodate more reporters. That is such a smokescreen. Have the main news groups stay there and rotate the other press passes. It’s really not that hard. And don’t threaten to throw out someone for simply doing their job. Watch some tapes of Josh Earnest, Robert Gibbs, and Ari Fleischer to get a feel for it if you’re that out of touch. Add Breitbart if you want. Just don’t let them sit in Helen Thomas’ seat. 

In addition, Mr. Preibus told news outlets that the ethics department needs to watch how they cover Mr. Trump and implied that there would be retaliation. It was basically reminiscent of The Incredible Hulk television series – you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry or unethical; whatever.

It’s not a Cabinet position, but bringing on Robert Kennedy Jr. as the head of his vaccine safety committee. Hiring someone already indisposed against vaccines instead of someone who has some kind of medical background just doesn’t make sense.

But what in this Cabinet does? It seems like Mr. Trump looked at a list of who is the most against this department and that’s who he picked to run it; the one person who will run it into the ground. Or they are the one person who will personally benefit from the changes they will implement in their department. Either way, it is not effective as a leadership role or reducing the conflicts of interest.

Most of these nominees haven’t undergone the required ethics committee clearance and haven’t completed the paperwork for the ethics committee. Senator Mitch McConnell is the biggest hypocrite of them all, suggesting that the ethics requirements can come later when he said the exact opposite in 2008/09 for President Obama’s nominees, who did not have any problem meeting the ethics guidelines

And let’s not forget the transition team’s request for the names of people in the energy department working on climate change/global warming issues and those civil servants working on women’s issues including family planning and contraception. The Trump transition team requested of Congress, and received a revival of an 1876 rule, the Holman Rule, gone since 1983, that will allow the new Administration to reduce federal workers pay to $1, thereby eliminating the need to actually fire people illegally, but force them to quit if they want to continue to support their families.

This is a Cabinet and an Administration starting things on the wrong foot, trying to swindle the people of the United States through showmanship and rhetoric and Twitter into creating a windfall for themselves.

We the people are the only ones to stand in their way, and we must act. We must Resist and use our First Amendment rights through speech, assembly and supporting the Free and Independent Press while we still can. Anyone who thinks this is hyperbole, please go look and see what the transition team has already done to benefit themselves. Follow Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary, Dan Rather, and Connie Schultz as well as the political team at Vox. Visit my new page for links and suggestions on places to read about what’s going on.

It’s up to us.

Thank you, President Obama

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Watching the President’s Farewell Address last night was like turning the page at the end of a chapter. I happily and gratefully and proudly voted for Barack Obama in 2008, knowing that not only was I getting a good and decent man who would be a great President, I was also making history, and I treated it as such.

As late as his election night speech was in 2008, we woke up our then-eleven year old to watch him live. We recorded it if I recall correctly. People would be talking about this for the rest of history. He will stand alongside George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and others who withstand the test of time.

When the Farewell Address began, I took the ear phones and tablets away from my younger kids, and made the television louder. We sat and ignored everyhting else around us for the near hour that he spoke, reminding us of the never ending (hopefully) and the ever constant responsibility we have to continue this American experiment. It is bigger than any one man (or woman).

Thank you.

Yes, We Can. And Yes, We Did.

We did on so many things, and it would be redundant to list them in my less polished way. Please watch the video and read the transcript. Remember what we accomplished together, through discourse and decency.

For the future, beginning in a little more than a week, I say: Fired up. Ready to go.

Full Transcript

The Election of 2016

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​I’m stunned. I’m also shocked and saddened. Yesterday morning, I awoke at 6:45am so I could take my daughter with me to vote before she had to go to school. We talked about the ballot, why I was voting for some people, why I wasn’t voting for others. We whispered so we didn’t disturb or bother anyone else voting at the same time. I took pictures of both the ballot and she and the ballot and before and after pictures before we left the house and after our election day breakfast at McDonald’s. I was sure that we had just voted for the first woman president. To be honest, that was a bonus. I was voting for Hillary Clinton, someone who I had admired and watched since I was out of college. I learned so much about her over the years; what she believed in, what she did and would do as a public servant.

When she became my senator, I knew she’d work her ass off, and she did.

She was a fantastic Secretary of State.

In 2000, I voted for Al Gore, John Kerry in 2004, President Obama in 2008 and 2012. I voted FOR them, not against their opponents. I did not want George Bush, John McCain, or Mitt Romney to be President, but I knew in my heart that if they became president, they would do their best to bring honor to the office. I am not so sure about that this year.

I can’t express what I’m feeling. I’m usually asleep when my two children get on the bus for school. This morning, I made sure I was awake so I would have time to hug them and talk to them about the election results. They were both worried. My son went to bed with a headache, and my daughter asked if she would be forced to wear a hood. Their reactions did not come from us directly, but from listening to Mr. Trump’s rhetoric for the past eighteen months.

I hugged them, and told them not to worry and we wold get through this. It would be okay. The don’t know because they’re too young, but we’ve been here before, and we’ve gotten through it.

This one is a little different.

I never thought I’d see a President endorsed so heartily by the KKK in my adult lifetime. I never thought we’d elect an open racist and misogynist in my adult lifetime, certainly not in the modern age. The VP, a heartbeat away from the Oval Office is a proponent of gay conversion therapy, funerals for fetuses while limiting the rights of the women carrying them.

This isn’t partisan to me. This is insane.

I had planned on this post being one of my reflections on 50. It was going to be about politics and my lifelong love of politics, but I can’t write about that and ignore what’s just happened this morning. I think I need to take a couple days away. There are some posts scheduled in my queue that will post automatically, and hopefully, I’ll be able to continue my 50 reflections, but today…today truly is a time for mourning.

Crime will go up.

Abortions will go up.

Hate crimes will go up.

Homelessness will go up.

Unemployment will go up.

If you look at the statistics over the last century, I think you’ll find that this is what happens when Republicans are in the White House.

On a personal note, my husband will probably lose his job, which will have financial ramifications for years to come.

This wasn’t one election. This was a lifetime. This will affect those not born yet.

We, as a country need to reflect on the last year; the attacks on women, the attacks on journalism and journalists, the attacks on Muslims and Latinos especially, and the continuing stereotyping of African Americans who according to Trump live in hell and the inner cities. I’ll have to mention that to my suburban neighbors.

We need to look at who we are as a country, as a people, and decide where we want to go from here. We need to pray and meditate on what is going on, in whatever way that each of us does. We just decided that the most qualified person in the last half century still isn’t good enough; we want the reality TV star, who may have only won because his campaign manager took away his Twitter and the FBI Director lit a fire on a burned out shell.

Every. Vote. Counts.

Al Gore told you.

Bernie Sanders told you.

Joe Biden and Barack Obama told you.

When will we listen?

When will we do what’s best for all of us, and not just a select few? For some reason, they think that a thirty year public servant is more elitist than a millionaire who lives in a penthouse and wouldn’t know the price of milk if he were standing in the grocery store.

I don’t know what else to say.

It’s too much to take in. It’s only been real for about two hours for me. I went to bed at 2:15am, thinking there was some hope. I woke up knowing it was over, not wanting to know the outcome, but needing to know so I could tell my kids in the morning that it would be alright.

Voting and Food

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​Today is Election Day, and while this election has been one for the history books in more ways than one, Election Day does have a rich history and tradition.

Many are calling for a national holiday, so everyone is able to vote on Election Day. I agree with this, but having a federal or state holiday doesn’t always ensure that everyone has the day off. Retail people are not off on most federal holidays as well as police and fire, so it’s not a sure thing.

When I was in elementary school, schools were closed on Election Day. The schools were the polling places, and it was better for everyone if kids weren’t disrupting the march of democracy. Even though we were home, we had a regular babysitter, so my parents still worked during their regular work hours and would need to vote afterwards. Not voting was never an option.

Coming home from work with little time for kids and dinner and getting out the vote, we often had a simple dinner, much the same when my brother and sister had their weekly allergy shots appointment. A simple dinner consisted of tuna fish sandwiches, egg salad for everyone but me, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese or if we were really lucky, McDonald’s.

In small towns across the country, food and voting go hand in hand. Just this week, I’ve seen signs and advertisements for a roast beef dinner, lasagna, and an apple pie festival. In the past, I’ve seen pot roast dinners, BBQ, and chili cook-offs, not to mention school and church bake sales to raise money for clubs and whatnot. 

How many ways do we have to encourage people to get out, drop their apathy and vote. Apparently, food is number one. 

This year, there is a lot of talk of taco trucks on every corner if a certain candidate wins, and what better day for tacos on Election Day Tuesday to make it a Taco Tuesday.

My family will probably get pizza so we can watch the returns late into the night.

Personally, I love the I voted stickers, but they usually don’t have those when I go. A chocolate chip cookie after voting wouldn’t be unwelcome.

Halloween and Political Statement

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​As Walter Cronkite said, “Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.”

My Halloween costume this year is a political statement. I’ve been shocked and appalled by the number of attacks, both verbally and physically on journalists in the past year and throughout this election cycle, mainly from one side in particular.

There is a reason that freedom of the press is in the first amendment; it is that important.

We can’t let serious presidential candidates mock journalists for their disabilities.

We can’t let candidates refuse press credentials to mainstream, reliable, longstanding investigative journalistic newspapers like The Washington Post, the paper that broke the Watergate scandal.

At the same time, we can’t let them issue credentials to their friends.

We can’t let campaign employees (Lewandowski) assault journalists (from Breitbart no less).

We can’t let journalists (like Amy Goodman) be arrested for inciting and disorderly conduct when she is working as a journalist (and has been for more than 20 years) and covering an important news story that you just don’t like (ND pipeline).

I’m certain that I’ve left out at least half a dozen incidents that I can’t recall at this moment.

This is for every journalist kidnapped while doing their job. At the most recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner, President Obama honored Jason Rezaian, journalist released from an Iranian prison. He stated, in part, “This year, we see that courage [Jason Rezaian] in the flesh and it’s a living testament to the very idea of a free press, and a reminder of the rising level of danger, and political intimidation, and physical threats faced by reporters overseas.” [And I would add, here at home as well.]

This is for David Bloom who died doing his job.

This is for Daniel Pearl who was murdered for his religion.

This is for Bob Woodruff who got a traumatic brain injury doing his job.
This is for Spotlight, the Academy Award’s Best Picture for 2016.

This is for every journalist who went to jail for protecting a source.

This is for the First Amendment and the freedom of the press.