Well there’s the issue of the Sec Def nominee not having been out of the military for the required 7 years, necessitating a waiver from Congress. (Just like Mattis, of course.) It seems pretty mild compared to where we’ve been, but it’s absolutely a given that the right will immediately come at everything Biden does as if the Trump administration’s, ahem, irregularities never happened, and the mainstream media will probably fall for that framing.
Strollen
3045
Well according to the article some blacks “leaders” want every cabinet to be black, ditto for women, and Hispanic “leaders”. Didn’t mention gay leaders I guess they are still at the stage they’ll be happy to have Mayor Pete as a token gay person. General Austin is the closest thing to being botched, and while I oppose the nomination, it is no way botched IMO.
Nesrie
3046
Discussion should happen, and if it is transparent, even better. There is nothing wrong with asking, and that does not a scandal make.
Tortilla
3048
Well said. But of course the media can’t run that as a headline, so BIDEN SCANDALS will continue to pop up as headlines.
Menzo
3049
Yeah, “Democratic leaders have healthy, spirited debate about makeup of Biden’s cabinet” isn’t a juicy-enough headline.
I don’t recall much discussion of trump’s cabinet picks but I think that’s because they were universally regarded as terrible and/or unqualified.
DJT’s were almost entirely unqualified ‘fox guarding the henhouse’ types.
Nesrie
3052
Trump’s brand doesn’t allow him to change his mind nor accept advice so debate would’ve been pointless.
At the beginning of his term I recall a lot of chatter about how the Mattis and even Tillerson types were going to ‘rein him in’ and all that. On the other hand, you also had DeVos, who was clearly a preposterous and unqualified (or anti-qualified) choice from the get-go. I think Rick Perry at Energy was an an inaugural cabinet member too?
Nesrie
3054
And all that talk didn’t change a thing, was never going to either. Discussions in the Democratic circle might actually result in changes and heck, might even take place before a decision is even made.
Strollen
3055
My good friend, just reminded me that I thought that Steve Mnunchin would be a ok as Sec. Treasury. I said if you grade on curve Mnunchin was pretty good. He and Pelosi actually reached a few compromises, and we haven’t defaulted on the debt, and dollars are still be printed. For the most part Trump’s cabinet has been a disaster but that’s generally the fault of Trump as much as the cabinet secretaries.
So TIME announced Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as “Person of the Year”…
…and my Conservative Facebook friends are going apoplectic in their rage that TIME would choose “two worthless politicians who haven’t even done anything yet!” over front line hospital workers and others who have kept the country running during the pandemic. They’re now circulating petitions and calling on each other to condemn Biden and Harris for stealing this honor like they stole the election, as if Biden and Harris had any control over what the editors at TIME decided to do with their magazine.
While I completely agree that TIME fucked up and should have named medial professionals and essential workers worldwide as their “People of the Year”, the hypocrisy from Conservatives right now is so thick it makes a Kardashian jealous. So NOW you’re mad that medical and essential workers were not honored despite the fact that for the last 12 months you’ve literally posted over and over again about how “it’s just the flu!”, “open the economy!”, “masks don’t help!”, “the numbers are fake!”, etc, etc. etc., putting their lives in danger and making their jobs ten times more difficult while flaunting every single guideline and recommendation and calling most of them liars and “sheep”. I guaranty that had TIME named TRUMP as Person of the Year these same folks would not have made a fucking peep about how medical professionals and essential workers got screwed over by TIME.
KevinC
3057
I totally agree that frontline workers are real heroes but when that encompass tens and hundreds of thousands of people I can see why it doesn’t fit a Person of the Year declaration.
To be clear, though, I’d be totally for a People of the Year award this year. :)
Zylon
3058
Time once picked millions of people as the “person” of the year.
Why does anyone give a fuck about Time’s person of the year any more? Or ever, for that matter? Since when has Time been relevant to anything?
Menzo
3060
That’s a fair point, but you know who really gives a fuck about Time Magazine? Donald Trump. The guy lives in the late 80s and early 90s and that was when Time Magazine was at its height of influence. I’m sure it just kills him to look at that cover.
The fake Time cover that DJT has hanging in his shitty golf clubs.
Also a computer, of course.
