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The [Trump Cabinet] thread
Hacksaw
J. Duggan Esq.Wrestler at LawRegistered User regular
J. Duggan Esq.Wrestler at LawRegistered User regular
Hey-oo friends, this here is a place to discuss Trump's cabinet picks, both confirmed and awaiting. Avoid deviating into a general Trump Administration thread, as that will almost certainly get us locked and I will be super sad about that.
TRUMP'S CABINET SO FAR:
Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education and despoiler of our children's future.
Jeff Sessions, Attorney General and Lost Cause fetishist. Hates weed, literally all transfolk, transfolk who use weed, most Central and South American immigrants, immigrants who smoke weed, and the Ku Klux Klan white people who smoke weed.
Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State and former ExxonMobil CEO who is totally not a close friend of Vladimir Putin you guys.
James Mattis, Secretary of Defense and annoyed by the fact that everyone in the Pentagon jokingly refers to him as "Mad Doggie Dogg".
Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation and noted turtle fancier.
Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA and likely searching through your internet history as you read this.
John Kelly, Secretary of Homeland Security and paranoid that all taco trucks in America contain Al Qaeda terrorists (they don't).
Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of the objectively lesser of the two Carolinas.
Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury and totally gives all other Steves a bad name.
Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency and former recurrent villain on the popular 1990s children's cartoon show Captain Planet.
David Shulkin, Secretary of Veterans Affairs and person about whom I do not have a witty comment prepared.
Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce and infamous robber baron the likes of which not seen since the days of Upton Sinclair.
Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior and probably felt Brokeback Mountain robbed of the Best Picture Oscar of 2005 by that insufferable pile of celluloid known as Crash.
Ben Carson, Director of the Department of House and Urban Development. Alleged plans post-confirmation include having grain storage pyramids build near all major metropolitan centers in America.
Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services. Once attached a skeleton to a patient's existing skeleton, thus creating a Super Skeleton. The patient later had the extra skeleton removed, becoming a Normal Skeleton once more.
Rick Perry, Secretary of Energy, former governor of YEEHAW TARNATION Texas and failed Dancing With the Stars contestant.
Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget who probably throws pennies off of overpasses because chaos amuses him.
TRUMP'S CABINET THAT HAS NOT BEEN CONFIRMED BUT PROBABLY WILL BE BECAUSE WHO ARE WE KIDDING:
Andrew Pudzer, presumptive Secretary of Labor and former CEO of a bunch of mediocre fast food restaurants most famous for making people poop entire bricks of self-loathing shortly after consuming their products.
Alexander Acosta, presumptive Secretary of Labor and one-time former competitor for the title of "GOP Teen Heart-Throb King" along side "Little" Marco Rubio, Paul "Gun Show" Ryan, and Eric "Representative Starscream" Cantor.
Sonny Perdue, presumptive Secretary of Agriculture and possibly the lesser evil of the two Perdues currently serving in the US Senate (though only the future knows if that will hold true).
Now: DISCUSS!
TRUMP'S CABINET SO FAR:
Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education and despoiler of our children's future.
Jeff Sessions, Attorney General and Lost Cause fetishist. Hates weed, literally all transfolk, transfolk who use weed, most Central and South American immigrants, immigrants who smoke weed, and the Ku Klux Klan white people who smoke weed.
Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State and former ExxonMobil CEO who is totally not a close friend of Vladimir Putin you guys.
James Mattis, Secretary of Defense and annoyed by the fact that everyone in the Pentagon jokingly refers to him as "Mad Doggie Dogg".
Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation and noted turtle fancier.
Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA and likely searching through your internet history as you read this.
John Kelly, Secretary of Homeland Security and paranoid that all taco trucks in America contain Al Qaeda terrorists (they don't).
Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of the objectively lesser of the two Carolinas.
Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury and totally gives all other Steves a bad name.
Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency and former recurrent villain on the popular 1990s children's cartoon show Captain Planet.
David Shulkin, Secretary of Veterans Affairs and person about whom I do not have a witty comment prepared.
Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce and infamous robber baron the likes of which not seen since the days of Upton Sinclair.
Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior and probably felt Brokeback Mountain robbed of the Best Picture Oscar of 2005 by that insufferable pile of celluloid known as Crash.
Ben Carson, Director of the Department of House and Urban Development. Alleged plans post-confirmation include having grain storage pyramids build near all major metropolitan centers in America.
Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services. Once attached a skeleton to a patient's existing skeleton, thus creating a Super Skeleton. The patient later had the extra skeleton removed, becoming a Normal Skeleton once more.
Rick Perry, Secretary of Energy, former governor of YEEHAW TARNATION Texas and failed Dancing With the Stars contestant.
Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget who probably throws pennies off of overpasses because chaos amuses him.
TRUMP'S CABINET THAT HAS NOT BEEN CONFIRMED BUT PROBABLY WILL BE BECAUSE WHO ARE WE KIDDING:
Andrew Pudzer, presumptive Secretary of Labor and former CEO of a bunch of mediocre fast food restaurants most famous for making people poop entire bricks of self-loathing shortly after consuming their products.
Alexander Acosta, presumptive Secretary of Labor and one-time former competitor for the title of "GOP Teen Heart-Throb King" along side "Little" Marco Rubio, Paul "Gun Show" Ryan, and Eric "Representative Starscream" Cantor.
Sonny Perdue, presumptive Secretary of Agriculture and possibly the lesser evil of the two Perdues currently serving in the US Senate (though only the future knows if that will hold true).
Now: DISCUSS!
Hacksaw on
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I for one am glad that an upstanding southern gentleman like Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III shall be looking out for our interests as Attorney General...who am I fucking kidding Archie Bunker would be a fairer AG than this nincompoop.
And if southern is necessary in any replacement for Jeff, I vote for a Stuckey's Pecan Log.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Because like, we know he hates it.
I can top that. He was named for his dad, who was named for Jefferson Davis.
In other cabinet news, Manchin came out as a no vote on Price today. Pressure does work.
@Elki @ElJeffe @Irond Will @Jacobkosh
Is this an appropriate place to discuss last night's Warren/McConnell/Sessions shenanigans since it was directly related to confirmation or should that deserve a separate thread?
Actually commit federal resources to prosecuting usage/minor dealing. AFAIK Weed is still Schedule 1 and federally illegal, it's just that the federal government pretty much lets states do their own thing.
Huge huge worries for:
LGBT discrimination
Police accountability for overuse of force and straight up racism
Voting rights
Black people in general
At the moment, pretty much just pressure the local and county level law enforcement agencies to vigorously enforce the federal marijuana statutes as contained in the CSA (21 U.S.C. § 811) by claiming they override any state laws and make sure any such arrests arrive in federal court. Outside of that he can't do anything at the national level.
He can bring the power of his office to bear when it comes to peppering areas with upcoming referendums or votes on decriminalization with noise about withdrawing or reassessing what and how DoJ funds and assets are used in their jurisdictions and otherwise be an overbearing dickhead about shit when it comes to the smaller local battles.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
So you can still get fired for consuming even in states where it's legal. And if you have a federal job it's still "forbidden" but I just see it as a stalemate for now. I don't know what he can do because it's not like he can force the states to change their laws.
Yeah, I'm inclined to agree. Not that weed prosecution makes any sense, but at least it's like... an issue you have to choose to become entangled with? Still potentially life-ruining for anybody who has currently been running a successful legal dispensary, if they go whole-hog about it.
He cannot force local police to do anything. He can tell fed police to investigate and enforce federal marijuana law where in previous years they have not.
He could potentially file lawsuits or something about state laws, I'm just speculating here, but certainly possible.
I mean the federal law can likely override state law; the issue is that it'd take a ton of manpower to actually start making small-time arrests.
In the past, they've done it by threatening legal action in Federal courts against marijuana stores and their landlords. That would be how they crack down on it and force it back to de facto criminalization, not going after users. And with the strict records most states are requiring for marijuana businesses, it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel.
Which I'm perfectly fine with. I just don't recall him being anywhere near as outspoken or generally fiery as he has been lately.
You forgot to also include that he is a shitbag who supports civil forfeitures.
I don't like how a ton of these things are going to come down to what side of the bed Kennedy woke up on or how much Roberts cares about his legacy in the history books.
LGBT discrimination - I think this might be a mixed bag. A ton of shit targeted at homosexuals and bisexuals might get nixed given how things went for same-sex marriage. On the other hand, there was hobby lobby. I'd say the transgender rights is probably on the most shaky ground, since that is an area where Sessions could get away with being super shitty, by not looking out for them and current backwards views on the issue given a free pass.
Police issue - I worry a bunch of shitty police departments will be allowed to get away with being shitty for no good reason, often for racist reasons. Only bright spot is that I could see Sessions overstepping on the civil forfeiture bullshit and that bullshit ends up finally getting nuked because there is agreement even in conservative circles that it is pretty shitty (unfortunately, with racism being an issue I could totally see it being revamped to get a free pass by forcing people to plea bargain).
Voting Rights - This is what I worry about the most, is that he'll use the office to try and further undermine voting rights. Not only will he fail to go after cases where people are being disenfranchise, but he'll probably try to get organizations that help people register and get them to the polls shut down with bullshit lawsuits.
Minority Rights - He is going to be absolute shit here. Like with get out the vote groups, I wouldn't be surprised if used bullshit promises to take many of the advocate organizations to court for bullshit reasons, in a shitty attempt to get them shut down.
Marijuana Legalization - I wonder if his bullshit will force the end game on this issue. IIRC wasn't there a legal argument that the federal government overstep it's authority with prohibiting pot and if a state, like Colorado, went to court the federal regs on it might get quashed?
Women's Reproductive - I would ad this to the list as well. I think we're all underestimating what a piece of shit he'll be and discounting that he'll likely find ways to waste tax payer money and resources for pointless cases. The problem with pointless cases brought by the government, is that it can really fuck over non-profits that have tight budgets.
Honestly, with Sessions as AG, I'm wondering if ethical lawyers, working for the federal government, might be better off going into the private market and working for someone like the ACLU or another non-profit. I'm willing to bet that Sessions and Congress will try running out anyone that doesn't toe the line. Plus, they might very well see their salaries get cut or stagnate anyways under a Republican administration with a GOP Congress. Finally, I wouldn't be surprised if Sessions pushed for being allowed to contract outside of the government for expensive lawyers and it seems we've been seeing Republicans do this the state and local level when their party does control the attorney office for the local and state governments. So might as well force Sessions hand, help out in opposing the shit he'll back and be able to unload on him and his party for wasting taxpayer money on expensive private lawyers; especially, if those lawyers lose a ton of cases.
He's always been our slightly more progressive senator compared to Wyden
But I think right now he is really seizing the moment. Both he and Wyden are really.
Part of it too is they know they are uber safe, and can really get out there. I love it. We just need to move all us fired up Oregonians to like, Utah or something haha.
You can talk about it here.
Two things about this:
1) Holy crap was this sexist. At least two other Dems later read the same letter without objection. Both were men. (One was Merkley, surprise!)
2) This seemed unusually hamfisted from McConnell. He is many things, most of them dickish, but he is rarely this overt in being an asshole.
He's flailing. This isn't turning out how he wanted or expected.
Or he knows he just doesn't have to give a fuck anymore because lol WTF is anyone actually going to do about it?
He hasn't had a Trump in office before.
We're entering True Colorsville. Please keep your arms & legs inside the car at all times.
(The latter is still fucking awful and shameful, though.)
It kind of amazes me how they seem to be going for broke this time. Every horrible thing they have wanted but were never able to actually do. Just jumped right to cartoonish levels of supervillainy.
So either they are only looking 5m ahead an not worrying about the re-election problems that stem from potentially taking healthcare from 20m people, destroying schools, etc...
Or they think they will never lose again. (granted, if they mess with the voting system, they may have good cause to have hope here)
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
They, at the very least, won't lose again before they die or retire rich as shit.
Indeed it is.
As someone who has zero interest in weed, a very mean and petty part of me really wants Sessions to try and crack down on state-level legal recreational marijuana.
Only because I'm hoping it'll piss off those libertarian Trump supporters who can apologize all the live long day for those other four things Sessions, Trump, and Bannon will actively try to undermine but cannot stand the idea of the suddenly now evil federales going after their precious recreational weed.
It'd also be a huge public relations nightmare, especially if they go after medical marijuana as well.
I guess? He could just be a giant asshole, too
Mitch McConnell Sees ‘High Level of Satisfaction’ With Trump Administration
It should also be noted that the reason why they like weed being illegal is because it allows them to easily incarcerate many black and brown folks.
You know the whole reason it was made illegal in the first place.
I mean, that gaping chest wound to the bureaucracy that he isn't even bothering trying to fill? That's also a problem that will probably come back to bite all of us in the ass. Though...I'm not sure his appointees would be doing much better, even though they'd try to do a heck'uva job
Cute hashtag and all, but Sessions is now officially the AG. So there's that.