Politics-What's on your mind?

[GeorgiaMa'am]

I'm afraid that Jimmy Carter is probably seriously declining in his health. He's 96 years old, after all. But not only that, he didn't attend the inauguration ceremony today. I also noticed that he recently did not attend another gathering where all of the other former presidents were in attendance (although I can't remember what that event was). In both cases, he did make statements that were read aloud at the events.

Whatever anyone may think of President Carter's failures and successes as Governor of Georgia and President of the United States, he is a good man. I believe he has been a force for good in the world. I hope he is well and that he will continue to be with us for a long time.

[~ocean]

I love the way he thinks ~ our President " Biden tells appointees 'I will fire you on the spot' for showing disrespect to colleagues " so many people were bullied by that psychopath. ~ they will find their way back !

[Kätzchen]

Nancy Pelosi invoked Dinah Washington today during her press conference. That makes my heart happy to know that a larger body of voters chose sanity and voted for a Biden-Harris administration.

I also like how she said that lawmakers who had ties to Jan 6th will be prosecuted for their roles in the violent insurrection.



Also, I loved the beautiful coats Dr. Jill Biden and Vice President wore on inauguration day. So beautiful, the colors they wore.

[Orema]

Biden Has Already Fired Three of Trump’s Worst Appointees
By Mark Joseph Stern. Jan 20, 20216:44 PM


President Joe Biden arrives to swear in presidential appointees during a virtual ceremony at the White House. Jim Watson/Getty Images

Many of Donald Trump’s most notorious appointees, including his Cabinet secretaries, resigned shortly before Joe Biden took office. But myriad officials whom Trump installed in the executive branch remained in spite of their antagonism toward the new president’s agenda. Hours into his presidency, Biden has already ousted three of his predecessors’ most unqualified and corrupt appointees. This clean break sends a clear message that Biden will not tolerate hostile Trump holdovers in his administration, including those with time remaining in their terms.

First, Biden terminated Michael Pack, who was confirmed to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media in June. Pack sought to transform the agency, which oversees the international broadcaster Voice of America, into a propaganda outlet for Trump—despite a statutory mandate that prohibits such political interference. He purged the staff of VOA and its sister networks, replaced them with Trump loyalists, demanded pro-Trump coverage, and unconstitutionally punished remaining journalists who did actual reporting on the administration. In a perverse move, he refused to renew visas for foreign reporters who covered their home countries, subjecting them to retribution by authoritarian regimes. Pack also illegally fired the board of the Open Technology Fund, which promotes international internet freedom, and replaced them with Republican activists.

Following whistleblower complaints, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel found a “substantial likelihood” that Pack had violated federal law and engaged in “gross mismanagement.” He was eight months into his three-year term when Biden demanded his resignation shortly after taking the oath of office. In his resignation letter, Pack complained that his termination “will long be viewed as a partisan act” without any apparent sense of irony.

Second, Biden sacked Kathleen Kraninger, who was confirmed as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2018. Kraninger, who had no previous experience in consumer protection, immediately tried to undermine the agency’s role as a watchdog for the financial sector. She scrapped a landmark rule that restricted predatory payday lending, pressuring staff to downplay the resulting harm to consumers. And she refused to enforce a federal law that protected military personnel against a broad range of predatory lending. Her decision yanked federal support from military families who were defrauded by lenders. In the midst of the pandemic, Kraninger also approved a rule that allows debt collectors to harass Americans with limitless texts and emails demanding repayment.

Through the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress gave the CFPB’s director significant independence by barring the president from firing her over political disagreements. In 2020, though, the Supreme Court found this protection unconstitutional. Kraninger supported that decision, which paved the way for her termination on Wednesday. Had the court upheld the agency’s independence, Kraninger could have remained in office through the end of 2023.

Third, Biden demanded the resignation of Peter Robb, who was confirmed as the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel in 2017. The NLRB was created to enforce federal laws that guarantee workers the right to form a union and bargain collectively. Yet Robb is vehemently anti-union; during his tenure, he tried to limit employees’ free speech, give managers more leeway to engage in wage theft, hobble unions’ ability to collect dues, and prevent employers from helping workers organize. He also tried to seize near-total control of the agency by demoting every regional director and consolidating power in his office. If successful, this gambit would’ve given him unprecedented authority to bust existing unions and prevent new ones from forming.

Robb’s term is set to end in November, but Biden has authority to fire him before then. On Wednesday evening, Robb announced that he would not step down voluntarily, stating that his resignation “would set an unfortunate precedent.” (In reality, the precedent has already been set: President Harry Truman demanded the resignation of NLRB general counsel Robert N. Denham in 1950 over political disputes.) Biden fired him shortly thereafter.

Pack, Kraninger, and Robb are the tip of the iceberg: Trump spent his presidency packing the federal government with Republicans eager to undermine the missions of the agencies they led. But Biden’s aggressive action upon taking office should be encouraging for progressives, since it indicates that the new president will move swiftly to fire Trump allies with high positions in the executive branch. Moreover, Biden should not have much trouble replacing these holdovers with Democrats in control of the Senate. (Republicans cannot filibuster nominees to the executive branch.) The new president undoubtedly faces legislative challenges ahead. But in the meantime, he can rapidly erase the legacy of the Trump administration by simply replacing Trump’s lackeys with qualified civil servants eager to do the job right.

Update, Jan. 20, 2021: This article has been updated to note that Peter Robb refused to step down.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...eter-robb.html

[Orema]

Why Congress Gave Lloyd Austin a Pass
Another retired general will be secretary of defense—and nobody in Washington seems that bothered by it.

By Fred Kaplan, Jan 21, 20215:34 PM


Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on Tuesday. Greg Nash/Pool/Getty Images

And so another retired general will be secretary of defense. When President Joe Biden nominated former Army commander Lloyd Austin for the post last month, several senators—including some Democrats—said they would oppose his confirmation, leery of eroding the tradition of civilian control over the military.

The Defense Department’s founders, back in 1947, were so adamant about civilian leadership that they wrote a law barring military officers from taking the job until at least seven years after retiring—unless both houses of Congress pass a formal waiver exempting them from the rule. After voting to grant a waiver to retired Gen. Jim Mattis at the start of the Trump administration, Jack Reed, top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, pledged never to do so again, saying that it shouldn’t happen more than once a generation. (Mattis was only the second defense secretary in history to get a waiver; the first was Gen. George Marshall, in 1950.)

But on Thursday, after the House approved a waiver, the Senate Armed Services Committee—which Reed now chairs—did the same, and then confirmed his nomination, on a voice vote. The full Senate is almost certain to do the same.

Congress gave Austin a pass for three reasons. First, the Senate tends to let a president choose his top Cabinet secretaries as long as they’re at least somewhat qualified for the job, and Austin—who was the Army’s vice chief of staff as well as commander of U.S. Central Command—is certainly qualified.

Second, Austin would be the first Black defense secretary, and rejecting him, for whatever reason, would send a dangerous signal at a time when even the Joint Chiefs of Staff have openly expressed concern about the rise of white supremacist views within the military ranks. (Rep. Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, made precisely this argument on Monday in a letter urging colleagues to vote for a waiver.) This is especially true since Austin, in his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, committed to rooting out extremist views from the armed forces as a top priority. (He also pledged zero tolerance of sexual harassment.)

Finally, at that same hearing, Austin said many times, in many ways, that he would rely heavily on the Pentagon’s top civilian officials, turning to them for advice even more than he would turn to the Joint Chiefs. He even said that he would regard the presumptive deputy secretary of defense, Kathleen Hicks, as a “partner” in setting policy—unusual, as deputy secretaries usually play a more managerial role, running the Pentagon’s day-to-day operations. Austin also said he would routinely consult with Colin Kahl, nominated to be undersecretary of defense for policy, touting him at one point as a “very talented young man.” (Kahl will turn 50 this year, though Austin, who is 67, has known him since Kahl was in his late 30s. The two worked closely together during President Barack Obama’s first term, when Austin was the last commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Kahl was deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East affairs.)

Austin’s pledge to work with the Pentagon’s top civilians seemed sincere—he also knew Hicks from when he was commander of CentCom and she was deputy undersecretary for policy. More than that, it stood in stark contrast with Mattis, who, as defense secretary, surrounded himself with a tight entourage of fellow Marine officers and ignored or dismissed civilian advice and analysis. In part for that reason, Mattis was an undistinguished secretary. Though he earned plaudits and scorn for restraining Trump’s belligerence toward U.S. allies, he imposed no discipline on the military’s unleashed appetite for weapons systems and left no legacy on defense policy broadly.

In other words, a great military commander doesn’t make a great secretary of defense; if anything, history suggests the contrary. The two jobs entail very different skill sets. Mattis’ failure, which highlighted this distinction, heightened many lawmakers’ concerns about confirming Austin; they didn’t want the militarization of the job to become normal.

So why did Biden choose Austin? The reason seems clear: Biden has known him for many years, trusts his judgment, and regards him as a member of his inner circle. The same is true of the other top members of his foreign policy team. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and Colin Kahl all worked as Biden’s national security adviser when he was vice president; Blinken also served as Biden’s staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines also worked on Biden’s Senate staff, then became Obama’s deputy national security adviser and deputy director of the CIA, where she continued to have contact with Biden.

Biden and Austin got to know each other well in Iraq, when Austin was commander of U.S. troops and Biden was entrusted by Obama to work out the details of the American withdrawal. The two became particularly close when Biden’s late son, Beau, served on Austin’s staff in Iraq in 2008–09. As Bryan Bender and Lara Seligman reported in Politico, “Austin and the younger Biden attended Mass together, sitting side-by-side almost every Sunday, and they kept in touch after Beau returned from his deployment.”

There’s nothing wrong with this. A president must have trust in his Cabinet secretaries, especially the defense secretary, who speaks with the highest authority in advising him whether or not to send troops into combat. And this trust can be based on whatever makes the president comfortable. Biden is comfortable with Austin. Austin says he’ll rely for advice on a very competent crew of civilian advisers—not just Hicks and Kahl, but also 22 new midlevel specialists, many of whom worked in the transition team (along with Hicks and Kahl), don’t require Senate confirmation, and were sworn in on Wednesday.

Maybe it will all work out.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...se-waiver.html

[Bèsame*]

I loved how the women made such a huge statement yesterday. Loved each outfit too!

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Originally Posted by Orema

. . . By Fred Kaplan, Jan 21, 20215:34 PM

. . . even the Joint Chiefs of Staff have openly expressed concern about the rise of white supremacist views within the military ranks.

This is so disheartening. I thought the military was one of the great equalizers, like all "I've got your back" and bro-ey, exposing people from different areas of the country to each other, etc. I have probably absorbed too many "join the Army" commercials and movies and episodes of MASH.

Of course, they're misogynistic as hell.