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The ‘New Democrat’ machine is busy with potential cabinet picks for Biden. The general theme reminds me of “Back to the Future” — all the same neoliberal players on the DC merry-go-round. I intend to make this a running thread
First up: Susan Rice for Secretary of State. Sure the GOP grumbled about her involvement with Benghazi, but am indisputable truth is that she & Richard Clarke are largely responsible for the failure of the US to intercede in the #RwandanGenocide https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/16/genocide-under-our-watch-rwanda-susan-rice-richard-clarke/
A blogger once named Susan Rice as one of the “luminaries of the make war not love club” https://marknesop.wordpress.com/2017/01/02/get-in-there-and-win-one-for-mom-and-apple-pie-non-combatant-molly-mckew-pounds-the-war-drum/ This apt summation reveals the perspective she would bring to the role of Secretary of State
As a disabled veteran, I am especially incensed by the prospect of Pete Buttigieg as VA Secretary. He is completely unqualified to take the helm. Let’s begin with his military experience itself — he did just enough to put a bullet point on his résumé https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/26/heaven-protect-us-from-men-who-live-the-illusion-of-danger-pete-buttigieg-and-the-us-military/
There is an overlap between Buttigieg’s time in the Navy Reserve & his employment with McKinsey, a consultancy already leeching funds from the VA https://www.propublica.org/article/how-mckinsey-is-making-100-million-and-counting-advising-on-the-governments-bumbling-coronavirus-response https://twitter.com/HollyBlomberg/status/1202463021550821376
McKinsey was also involved the Veteran’s CHOICE Act https://www.va.gov/opa/choiceact/documents/assessments/Integrated_Report.pdf This terrible program proceeded with the idea that privatization would improve VA function — a neoliberal perspective that operated (& continues to operate) by stripping funds from the VA
Neocon Michèle Fluornoy has been suggested for Secretary of Defense. Fluornoy sits on the CNAS board “the new American Enterprise Institute in that it is left-neocon central in the way that AEI and PNAC performed a similar function during the Bush years” https://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/05/12/the-new-neocons/
“The advocate of endless war and limitless Pentagon budgets would be exactly the wrong choice for Biden’s defense secretary” https://consortiumnews.com/2020/09/25/will-michele-flournoy-be-the-angel-of-death-for-the-american-empire/
Unsurprising that Flournoy adopts an aggressive posture toward China https://www.ft.com/content/3757b62e-8882-4b53-8fd0-75a9bad2bc3e
On to the Treasury Department: Likely Biden nominee Lael Brainard holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard, where her mentor was über neoliberal Larry Summers. She worked at McKinsey after college, then on to the Clinton White House NEC in 1997 https://prospect.org/economy/liberalish-complex-odyssey-of-lael-brainard-biden-treasury-secretary/
Although she has deviated from the centrist consensus from time-to-time, an area where Brainard is consistently bad is trade policy. For WJC in 1997 she helped implement NAFTA & China’s entry into the WTO. She was a strong supporter of the TPP as well
The Economist, a magazine founded on the notion of screwing over the working class to benefit bankers & oligarchs, is singing Brainard’s praises https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/10/24/the-front-runner-for-joe-bidens-treasury-boss-has-a-mighty-cv
(image source: https://a.co/bbMfT54 )
(image source: https://a.co/bbMfT54 )
You may recall Biden’s potential UN Ambassador from the contentious 2016 Democratic Primary. I know I do. Wendy Sherman spent a lot of time “whipping” votes for Hillary Clinton’s vision of *progressive* mediocrity https://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2020/08/democrats-adopt-fossil-fuel-industrys.html
Just who is Wendy Sherman? She’s yet another repeat player who got their start during the Clinton administration. During the Dubya years Sherman took up residence at the Albright Stoneman Group (you remember Madeline “500,000 dead Iraqi children was worth it” Albright right?)
Just one example of Wendy Sherman’s lack of diplomatic prowess http://www.koreatimesus.com/activists-demand-us-apology-over-wnedy-shermans-remarks/
Let’s look at Biden’s proposed Secretary of Education, current NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia. She’s pushed back against the ridiculous standardized testing regimen & ‘No Child Left Behind’, but she supports Common Core https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/lunch-lady-rises-to-union-leader-and-takes-on-all-comers/2014/08/11/04895a82-1e46-11e4-ae54-0cfe1f974f8a_story.html @trekkerteach12 any thoughts?
For HUD Secretary Biden is looking at Jacksonville, FL Mayor Alvin Brown. Brown spent time in Bill Clinton’s administration & was on Hillary’s proposed list for HUD in 2016. One report tried to flesh out what Brown would bring to the table & it was...vague https://www.jacksonville.com/article/20110510/NEWS/801251993
Weird to see Biden floating LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s name for a cabinet position (Department of Transportation) given the Democratic Party’s usual hyper vigilance about ‘optics’ https://yashar.substack.com/p/exclusive-mayor-of-los-angeles-repeatedly
Biden supporting Mitt Romney for HHS Secretary seems plausible https://buffalochronicle.com/2020/11/07/mitt-romney-has-been-asked-to-lead-health-and-human-services-in-biden-administration/
Comparison between “Obamacare” & “Romneycare” https://www.diffen.com/difference/Obamacare_vs_Romneycare
*When he ran for POTUS in 2012 Romney said he preferred state-based healthcare solutions to federal
Comparison between “Obamacare” & “Romneycare” https://www.diffen.com/difference/Obamacare_vs_Romneycare
*When he ran for POTUS in 2012 Romney said he preferred state-based healthcare solutions to federal
Possible National Security Advisor Anthony Blinken started working with Biden in 2002 when he was staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee & Biden was chairman. Is Blinken Biden’s ‘Rasputin’ when it comes to matters that involve Israel? https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/biden-will-oppose-singling-out-israel-un-campaign-tells-arab-activists
Re: Super Tuesday quid pro quo: Biden is looking at Amy Klobuchar for Attorney General. Seems like just yesterday we learned about her involvement in the wrongful prosecution of #MyonBurrell https://apnews.com/article/115076e2bd194cfa7560cb4642ab8038
Nominating cabinet members is only part of the story. @kgosztola has done a real public service with this deep dive into the Biden-Harris Transition Team naming “agency review teams.” Horrific reminder that fascism to Mussolini was the merger of state & corporate power
https://twitter.com/kgosztola/status/1326387797347930114
https://twitter.com/kgosztola/status/1326387797347930114
In addition to @kgosztola’s thread (mostly focuses on intelligence community & foreign policy), look at this nightmare looming for the Labor Department under Biden’s administration https://twitter.com/bigblackjacobin/status/1326277377190748161
Nepotism + corporatism = Whatever role Doug Emhoff will play in the Biden administration https://thehill.com/homenews/525326-harriss-husband-leaving-law-firm-for-role-in-biden-administration
If you knew the Chairman of the world’s most prominent shadow bank https://www.dw.com/en/blackrock-the-secret-world-power/a-18653761 would you make him the head of the CIA? That’s Biden’s plan per @nytimes (though the article omits the Blackrock association for Tom Donilon) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/us/politics/biden-cabinet.html Homage to Allen Dulles?
Source Re: Tom Donilon & BlackRock https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/biographies/thomas-donilon
For anyone who didn’t get my reference to Allen Dulles https://exploringrealhistory.blogspot.com/2019/02/part-1-devils-chessboard-allen.html
Biden named Obama’s Ebola Czar (& Biden’s former Chief of Staff when he was VP) as his Chief of Staff. More on Klain’s bio https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/10/17/ron-klain-bio-resume-recount-stimulus-ebola-czar/17430563/ https://twitter.com/freep/status/1326701767820763136
Ron Klain has been Biden’s right hand man for years (apart from the time he resigned in 2011 to do venture capital). Klain also has some gems from his corporate & lobbying work http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/14/AR2008111403922.html
With his 2011 swing through the revolving door into the private sector, Klain also became a member of ThirdWay. HT @PatTheBerner https://twitter.com/thirdwaytweet/status/59963360594231297
ThirdWay (aka Wall Street on the Potomac) is the ‘think tank’ heir to the Democratic Leadership Council. It represents government of the corporations, by the corporations, & for the corporations https://www.alternet.org/2013/04/have-wall-streets-third-way-democrats-ever-been-right-about-anything/
Since Biden is looking at Heidi Heitkamp as his topic pick to lead the USDA, it’s worth considering who Trump’s top pick for the post was in 2016 (yes, you guessed it). She “sided with Republicans in the past on environmental regulations and food labeling” https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-heidi-heitkamp-agriculture-pushback-232530
If Susan Rice doesn’t get the nod for Biden’s Secretary of State, there’s always a neoliberalcon in the wings: Senator Chris Murphy. We’ve all seen his eagerness to enable war for empire, but he also checks the enable right-wing Israel at all costs box https://mondoweiss.net/2020/11/trump-made-netanyahu-look-bad-but-thats-over-now-sen-chris-murphy/
Mark the calendar: In the biggest FU yet to both leftists & an international community exhausted from US war making, Biden considers naming HILLARY CLINTON as UN Ambassador https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/biden-administration-hillary-clinton-un-ambassador-b1722378.html
Did you know that the portion of Biden’s transition team tasked with Department of Defense issues appears to be sponsored by all of the big defense contractors? Unsurprising as CSIS’s very own Kathleen Hicks is Biden’s Pentagon guru https://www.voltairenet.org/article30064.html https://twitter.com/SkepticalVet/status/1327440799693475841
Although Cedric Richmond JUST won reelection to Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District, he’s walking away to become Biden’s ‘senior adviser in the White House Office of Public Engagement’ — insuring that BigOil will always have the President’s ear https://www.dailyposter.com/p/news-bidens-first-climate-appointment
Next we have Counselor to the President-elect Steve Ricchetti. Sure he started with the Clinton admin & served as Biden’s COS during the Obama years, but his lobbying work in between shows the insidious nature of the revolving door & pervasive corporate influence https://twitter.com/msinsulindpndnt/status/1328901724501897217
