Trump's America (Casino & Slots!)

[RottingCorpse]

Well, we're here folks. Might as well get used to the new abnormal.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/who-is-in-president-trump-cabinet-231071

Meet Trump's Cabinet-in-waiting

He’s expected to reward the band of surrogates who stood by him.
Trumpworld has started with a mandate to hire from the private sector whenever possible.

President-elect Donald Trump does not have the traditional cadre of Washington insiders and donors to build out his Cabinet, but his transition team has spent the past several months quietly building a short list of industry titans and conservative activists who could comprise one of the more eclectic and controversial presidential cabinets in modern history.

Trumpworld has started with a mandate to hire from the private sector whenever possible. That’s why the Trump campaign is seriously considering Forrest Lucas, the 74-year-old co-founder of oil products company Lucas Oil, as a top contender for Interior secretary, or donor and Goldman Sachs veteran Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary.

He’s also expected to reward the band of surrogates who stood by him during the bruising presidential campaign including Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie, all of whom are being considered for top posts. A handful of Republican politicians may also make the cut including Sen. Bob Corker for secretary of State or Sen. Jeff Sessions for secretary of Defense.

Trump's divisive campaign may make it difficult for him to attract top talent, especially since so many politicians and wonks openly derided the president-elect over the past year. And Trump campaign officials have worried privately that they will have difficulty finding high-profile women to serve in his Cabinet, according to a person familiar with the campaign’s internal discussions, given Trump’s past comments about women.

Still, two Trump transition officials said they’ve received an influx of phone calls and emails in recent weeks, as the polls tightened and a Trump White House seemed more within reach.

So far, the Trump campaign and transition teams have been tight-lipped about their picks. (The Trump campaign has declined to confirm Cabinet speculation.) But here’s the buzz from POLITICO’s conversations with policy experts, lobbyists, academics, congressional staffers and people close to Trump.

Secretary of State

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a leading Trump supporter, is a candidate for the job, as is Republican Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.), the current chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Corker has said he’d “strongly consider” serving as secretary of State.

Trump is also eyeing former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.

Treasury secretary

Donald Trump himself has indicated that he wants to give the Treasury secretary job to his finance chairman, Steven Mnuchin, a 17-year-veteran of Goldman Sachs who now works as the chairman and chief executive of the private investment firm, Dune Capital Management. Mnuchin has also worked for OneWest Bank, which was later sold to CIT Group in 2015.

Secretary of Defense

Among the Republican defense officials who could join the Trump administration: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a close adviser, has been discussed as a potential Defense Secretary. Former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and former Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.) have also been mentioned as potential candidates.

Top Trump confidante retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, would need a waiver from Congress to become defense secretary, as the law requires retired military officers to wait seven years before becoming the civilian leader of the Pentagon. But Trump’s chief military adviser is likely to wind up some senior administration post, potentially national security adviser. And other early endorsers like Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) could be in line for top posts as well.

Attorney general

People close to Trump say former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s leading public defenders, is the leading candidate for attorney general. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another vocal Trump supporter and the head of the president-elect’s transition team, is also a contender for the job — though any role in the Cabinet for Christie could be threatened by the Bridgegate scandal.

Another possibility: Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, though the controversy over Trump’s donation to Bondi could undercut her nomination.

Interior secretary

Forrest Lucas, the 74-year-old co-founder of oil products company Lucas Oil, is seen as a top contender for Interior Secretary.

Trump’s presidential transition team is also eyeing venture capitalist Robert Grady, a George H. W. Bush White House official with ties to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. And Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., is said to be interested in the job.

Meanwhile, a person who spoke to the Trump campaign told POLITICO that the aides have also discussed tapping Sarah Palin for Interior Secretary. Trump has said he’d like to put Palin in his Cabinet, and Palin has made no secret of her interest.

Other possible candidates include: former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer; Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin; Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis; and Oklahoma oilman Harold Hamm.

Agriculture secretary

There are several names being considered by Trump aides for Agriculture secretary, according to multiple sources familiar with the transition. The president elect has a deep bench to pull from with nearly 70 leaders on agricultural advisory committee.

The most controversial name on the transition’s current short list is Sid Miller, the current secretary of agriculture in Texas, who caused a firestorm just days ago after his campaign’s Twitter account referred to Clinton as a ‘c---.‘ Miller said it was a staffer mistake and apologized.

Other names include Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback; Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman; former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue; former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as well as Charles Herbster, Republican donor and agribusiness leader; and Mike McCloskey, a major dairy executive in Indiana, according to Arabella Advisors, a firm that advises top foundations and is closely tracking both transition efforts.

Bruce Rastetter, a major Republican donor in Iowa, and Kip Tom, a farmer who ran for Congress in Indiana this year but was defeated in the primary, are also among those being considered, Arabella said.

Other top Republican insiders expect that Chuck Connor, president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, Don Villwock, president of the Indiana Farm Bureau and Ted McKinney, the current director of the Indiana Department of Agriculture in the Pence Administration, are also likely to be in the running for the post.

Commerce secretary

Trump is expected to look to the business community for this job.

Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, a Trump economic adviser, could fit the bill. Dan DiMicco, the former CEO of steelmaker Nucor Corp and a Trump trade adviser, is another possibility.

Trump is said to also be considering former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and even New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for the job.

Labor secretary

Like many Cabinet posts under Trump, the campaign and transition staff have been looking for a CEO or executive to lead the Labor Department. One possible name being bandied about is Victoria Lipnic, the Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission since 2010 who also served as an an assistant secretary of Labor for employment standards from 2002 until 2009. The Romney transition team reportedly also considered her for a top Labor post back in 2012.

Health and Human Services secretary

Among the names receiving buzz: Florida Gov. Rick Scott, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Ben Carson, former GOP presidential candidate. Carson has received the most attention lately for HHS, even from Trump himself.

At a recent anti-Obamacare rally, Trump went out of his way to praise Carson by calling him a "brilliant" physician. "I hope that he will be very much involved in my administration in the coming years," Trump said.

One longer shot would be Rich Bagger, the executive director of the Trump transition team and former pharmaceutical executive who led, behind-closed-doors, many of the meetings this fall with health care industry donors and executives.

Energy secretary

Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm has long been seen as a leading candidate for Energy Secretary. Hamm, an Oklahoma billionaire who has been a friend of Trump’s for years, has been the leading influence on Trump’s energy policy during the campaign.

If Hamm passes, venture capitalist Robert Grady is also seen as a top candidate, though he could also be in line for Interior.

Education secretary

Trump has made clear the Education Department would play a reduced role in his administration — if it exists at all, as he’s suggested he may try to do away with it altogether.

The GOP nominee has also offered a few hints about who he would pick to lead the department while it’s still around. Among those who may be on the shortlist is Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who ran against Trump in the primary but later endorsed the Republican presidential candidate. Education Insider, a monthly survey of Congressional staff, federal officials and other “insiders,” said in May that Carson was Trump’s most-likely pick.

Another possible education secretary under Trump is William Evers, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution who was worked on education matters for the Trump transition team. Evers worked at the Education Department during the Bush administration and served as a senior adviser to then-Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.

Veterans Affairs secretary

The name most commonly mentioned for Veterans Affairs Secretary is House Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller, who’s retiring from the House and was an early Trump backer.

Homeland Security secretary

One person close to Trump’s campaign said David Clarke, the conservative Sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wis., is a possible candidate for Homeland Security Secretary. Clarke has cultivated a devoted following on the right, and he spoke at the Republican National Convention in Ohio, declaring, "Blue lives matter." Christie is also seen as a possible DHS secretary.

Environmental Protection Agency administrator

While Trump has called for eliminating the EPA, he has more recently modified that positions, saying in September that he’ll “refocus the EPA on its core mission of ensuring clean air, and clean, safe drinking water for all Americans.”

Myron Ebell, a climate skeptic who is running the EPA working group on Trump’s transition team, is seen as a top candidate to lead the agency. Ebell, an official at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has come under fire from environmental groups for his stances on global warming. Venture capitalist Robert Grady is also a contender.

Other potential candidates: Joe Aiello is the director of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Environmental Safety and Quality Assurance; Carol Comer, the commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, who was appointed by Mike Pence; and Leslie Rutledge, the attorney general of Arkansas and a lead challenger of EPA regulations in the state.

Bryan Bender, Jeremy Herb, Connor O'Brien, Joanne Kenen, Marianne Levine, Michael Crowley, Doug Palmer, Nahal Toosi, Helena Bottemiller Evich, Zachary Warmbrodt, Ian Kullgren and Benjamin Wermund contributed to this report.

[nacho]

Man...that's all disheartening.

[nacho]

It's just today felt real. I think I was drifting around in a fugue state yesterday...

[RottingCorpse]

Everyone was in shock yesterday. That's like 9/12/01 too.

[RottingCorpse]

Reading about Trump's visit to the White House to meet with Obama today and this last paragraph really, really bothered me.

Breaking with longstanding protocol, reporters were not permitted to view Trump’s arrival at the White House. And the president-elect also traveled without a protective pool of reporters, who would typically follow his movements and keep Americans informed of his whereabouts and well-being in the event of a crisis.

You can read the whole report here:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-makes-first-white-house-visit-as-president-elect-180707756.html

[nacho]

Reading about Trump's viist to the White hHouse to meet with Obama today and this last paragraph really, really bothered me.

Breaking with longstanding protocol, reporters were not permitted to view Trump’s arrival at the White House. And the president-elect also traveled without a protective pool of reporters, who would typically follow his movements and keep Americans informed of his whereabouts and well-being in the event of a crisis.

You can read the whole report here:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-makes-first-white-house-visit-as-president-elect-180707756.html

Dude, Chris Christie on the Today show this morning told Matt Lauer: "I think it's about time for you to retire. Maybe I could host the show! We'll take a look at your contract."

And to put that in context:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErBHVk90B6o

[nacho]

Took 24 hours to break the first promise:

Washington (CNN):To shape his administration, President-elect Donald Trump is drawing squarely from the "swamp" he has pledged to drain.

Trump's transition team is staffed with long-time Washington experts and lobbyists from K Street, think tanks and political offices.

It's a far cry from Trump's campaign, which ended only Tuesday night, and message that he would "drain the swamp" in Washington. He has advocated congressional term limits and proposed a "five-point plan for ethics reform" that included strengthening restrictions on lobbying, including five-year bans for members and staff of the executive branch and Congress from lobbying, and expanding the definition of lobbyist to prevent more revolving door activity.

But he has so far fully embraced lobbyists within his transition, and all signs point to a heavy influence from longtime Washington Republican circles on his transition. And with Trump mostly skipping detailed policy proposals during his campaign, they can have a powerful impact on his agenda.


Leaders in his transition include former Rep. Mike Rogers, former Reagan Attorney General and Heritage Foundation fellow Edwin Meese, former President of Heritage Edwin Feulner, former Bush administration official and lobbyist Christine Ciccone, former Dick Cheney adviser Ado Machida, former Senate Budget Committee staffer Eric Ueland and former Sen. Jeff Sessions' chief of staff Rick Dearborn. The effort is chaired by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Trump counts former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Sessions as close advisers.

Lower level staffers assigned with crafting different departments are also heavily drawn from K Street, the center of lobbying in Washington, and congressional staff, according to a staff organizational chart obtained by CNN.

Sources close to the operation say Sessions and the conservative Heritage Foundation have had a strong role in shaping the transition, in addition to staffers from the Bush administration, K Street and Capitol Hill.

At a Heritage Foundation event Thursday, John Yoo, a Berkeley Law professor and scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, got a warm reception from the crowd by cracking about the closeness.

"I'm surprised there are so many people here because I thought everyone at Heritage was working over at transition headquarters," Yoo said on the panel about Trump's win. "I asked the taxi cab driver to take me to Trump transition headquarters and he dropped me off here, instead."

The crowd let out an appreciative laugh.

[nacho]

Meanwhile, Portland has lapsed into full on riots with "non-lethal munitions" deployed.

One of my authors is trapped at a convention in Oakland and has been tweeting/sending pictures of the (largely unreported) demonstrations there. She's terrified.

[RottingCorpse]

I mean, at least wait until he gets in office. All their doing now is building ammo for when he wants to organize a Gesatpo.

Also, Nubbins is my spirit animal. He posted on FB last night in a way that articulated exactly how I feel. I already can't take the whining. The keep here is to wait and if you know it's going to go as bad as everybody thinks, *quietly* organize.

Really though, I think it needs to be about protecting each other from the ignorant racists who think they've been given full reign to posse up on black, muslim, and gay people. And waiting. Henan't deliver on this shit. Too many entrenched influences (Military, intelligence, etc.) who aren't going to go along. Trump is a one term president, unless he Palpatines this shit. And even then. Remember I said it.

[nacho]

Certain birds at certain organizations have whispered to me that it's happy days again in contract land and there's already been communication from Trumplandia regarding the future of said contractors.

[RottingCorpse]

Yeah, there's lots of that undercurrent in my world as well. Missus RC said the mortgage industry is looking forward to pre-Great Recession days.

I'm going to be as my big FB post says. No more media blackout, and I'm going to be open to various sources. I know "bubble" is a buzzword right now, buy there's truth to that. We live in a age of propaganda, and I think being properly informed (and level headed) is going to be important.

Though I stand by my one-term prediction if the rules are played by.

[nacho]

Yeah, there's lots of that undercurrent in my world as well. Missus RC said the mortgage industry is looking forward to pre-Great Recession days.

I'm going to be as my big FB post says. No more media blackout, and I'm going to be open to various sources. I know "bubble" is a buzzword right now, buy there's truth to that. We live in a age of propaganda, and I think being properly informed (and level headed) is going to be important.

Though I stand by my one-term prediction if the rules are played by.

Your FB post is pretty much exactly what Sam Bee said on her post-election show.

As the protests spread, though, I have to admit... It's kind of fun now. I want to see what happens. I want to watch the world burn! (In a limited way.)

I'm loving how Trump is totally backpedaling. Not just the Washington insiders thing, but now he's flipping on Obamacare. God, at this rate he'll be talking about open borders before Christmas.

[nacho]

Man...what a ride.

Meanwhile in the president-elect's first interview, with US broadcaster CBS, Mr Trump said:

He would deport or jail up to three million illegal migrants with criminal links

Future Supreme Court nominees would be "pro-life" - meaning they oppose abortion - and defend the constitutional right to bear arms

He will not seek to overturn the legalisation of same-sex marriage

He will forgo the president's $400,000 salary, taking $1 a year instead

Interesting elements of populism there. More worrying, though, is the elevation of Priebus and Bannon, who are alt-right fuckos and proud white nationalists.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), will be his chief of staff.

In this role, he will set the tone for the new White House and act as a conduit to Congress and the government.

Stephen Bannon, from the Breitbart News Network, will serve as Mr Trump's chief strategist.

Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington

The man who built his campaign railing against The Establishment has chosen the chair of the Republican National Committee to be his chief of staff. It doesn't get much more establishment than Reince Priebus.
If there are clues to be gleaned from Mr Trump's first personnel decisions as president, it's that he's opting for a veteran party hand to manage the White House - although he's keeping an outsider devil on his shoulder in senior adviser Stephen Bannon, former head of the bomb-throwing Breitbart News.
Bringing Mr Priebus and Mr Bannon under the same roof should create some interesting tension. If correctly harnessed, the energy could provide drive to the nascent Trump administration. If things go wrong, it could tear the place apart.
Regardless of how it works out, Mr Priebus's elevation to this powerful position represents the culmination of a winning gamble for the Wisconsinite. While many in his party were urging him to abandon Mr Trump whenever his candidacy appeared on the verge of foundering, he committed - quietly, behind the scenes - to righting the ship.
It often didn't seem possible, but he succeeded - and now he has a White House office to show for it.
Elected chairman of the RNC in 2011, Mr Priebus has acted as the party's spokesman and chief fundraiser. He said it was "truly an honour" to join Mr Trump in the White House as chief of staff.
"I am very grateful to the president-elect for this opportunity to serve him and this nation as we work to create an economy that works for everyone, secure our borders, repeal and replace Obamacare and destroy radical Islamic terrorism," he added.
Correspondents say one of the big challenges of the new administration will be reconciling Mr Trump with the mainstream Republican party, where sharp divisions emerged during the primaries.

[RottingCorpse]

Bannon is worrisome. Priebus less so because rebuilding relationships with the GOP proper is going to be essential to Trump getting anything done.

The GOP proper (McConnell, Ryan, and all the old boys still trying to hang on to a modicum of political power) are in a interesting place. They can use Trump's newfound status rebuild the party a bit, but in doing so they may have to shift even further right than they were, when what I think they really need to do is moderate toward the middle. I don't tinker's going to be easy for Trump, at least not at first... but if he gets the ability to have the house on his side in most things, we could be in for a long four years.

[monkey!]

Does anybody think God Emperor Trump will do a single thing he promised so he could get elected and make his businesses rich?