Let’s see, so far we have a guy from Alabama dedicated to upholding the fine Southern tradition of voting prevention heading up the Justice Dept, an alleged reincarnation of Patton affectionately known as “Mad Dog” for Defense Secretary, a general who wants to expand the al Qaeda terrorist training camp in Guantanamo for Homeland Security, a conspiracy theorist as National Security Advisor, a fast food billionaire who opposes health care benefits and better wages as Labor Secretary, a guy with a plan to dismantle health care access as HHS, a neurosurgeon with zero leadership experience for Housing, a fake wrestling nut job for SBA, a billionaire who wants to divert funds from public schools for Education, a climate change denier from fracking earthquake country for EPA, an Interior Secretary who wants to sell off public lands and half of the top management of Goldman Sachs for the rest.

What could go wrong?

When I read the headline I was thinking of office secretaries …

Trump sure is enjoying himself. How easy it is for a man who says what he pleases, when he pleases, and expects acolytes. He is without conscience. He is vengeful.

It is disturbing how many climate science deniers are being packed in. Clearly, the Koch and big fossil apparatus for making black look white has scored a great success with this hollow man. Being two-dimensional is an asset on TV, and Trump is too busy figuring out camera angles and how to get what he wants and hurt anyone who tells the truth about him to do much else.

Rex Tillerson is a monstrous choice as our ambassador to the world. He will bend every conflict towards more toxic air, earth, and water.

Exxon, the top U.S. producer of oil and gas and a well-documented funder of climate science denial, actually leases more land in Russia than it does in the U.S.

“Exxon boosted its Russian holdings to 63.7 million acres in 2014 from 11.4 million at the end of 2013, according to data from U.S. regulatory filings,” reported Bloomberg in March 2014. “That dwarfs the 14.6 million acres of rights Exxon holds in the U.S.”

Former CEO and chairman Lee Raymond put Exxon’s view of itself and its loyalty to the U.S. bluntly.

“I’m not a U.S. company, and I don’t make decisions based on what’s good for the U.S,”

https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/12/10/trump-putin-exxon-mobil-state-depa…

So first we are treated to the most massive self-serving ego to ever run for President, then to the unbelievable spectacle of Evangelicals acting as if he is the second coming, and finally to the mind bending turn of blue collar Democrats acting like he is one of them. Now we witness a parade of men of supposed great character who during the election detested him and are now genuflecting at his court at Trump Tower.

Trump has turned over a massive rock in America and what has crawled out becomes more and more depressing as this act runs its course. When people finally wake up to who this man really is, it will be from the largest hangover ever experienced in our history.

Trump by all evidence seems set to ignore the main function of a president, which is to work for the security and common good of the US people. He appears to be working for himself, gratifying his ego with delusions of grandeur, and secondarily for his offspring. What other president ever had to have his adult “kids” around him at work? Are they there to protect him from himself, or to lay plans for further enrichment of the Trump fortune? Who voted for Ivanka or Jared or the animal-shooters Eric and Donald II? Meanwhile, for national security advisor, he picks a person of extraordinarily poor judgment, Gen. Flynn, who promotes bizarre conspiracy theories of the sort that can get innocent bystanders killed. Trump’s contempt for the US and its citizens is clearly reflected in his choice of people whose only qualification seems to be reluctance to challenge him on anything, and whose competence is highly questionable. Trump is profoundly wrong that anyone who is a real estate developer, or from the military, or a business executive is automatically able to deal with complex national and international issues. This is the most incompetent crew ever assembled by a president.

Every time I read about another “winner” selected by our bloviating, ego-driven, thoughtless, cruel, TV showman president-elect, I think of a true Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower. Toward the end of his term Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex. Drumpf’s cabinet IS the military-industrial complex and it truly scares me.

The appointments do seem more consistent with Pence than with Trump. Pence is a hard-right orthodox “movement conservative” who is ideologically committed to eliminating any government programs and services that benefit non-wealthy Americans. With a Republican Congress also committed to that goal, you’d expect cabinet appointments who are ideologically opposed to the mission of the departments and agencies they will head, along with representatives of industries agencies regulate. Their job will be to purge and gut their organizations, and specifically to not enforce “burdensome” laws and regulations.

That seems to be just what Trump is doing, possibly with Pence calling the shots in the background. Instead of what Trump sold as a populist administration that would serve as the “voice” of the middle class, we have a “movement conservative” administration committed to destroying the middle class and returning to the country to latter-day versions of the robber barons who dominated the Gilded Age of the 1890s.

I wonder how long it will take all those angry red-state voters who overwhelmingly rejected “movement conservatism” by choosing Trump over Jeb!, Cruz, or Rubio to realize they fell for what may be the biggest bait-and-switch swindle in history.

He has turned the whole process into a series of reality TV auditions. I am sure this appeals to his supporters who apparently have a tenuous grip on actual reality. It should by now be clear, based on his cabinet picks, there will be a disconnect between his actions and his words. ” I will not change Social Security or Medicare ” but then select a cabinet secretary who favors the Ryan goal of dismantling both programs. It will be interesting to watch his supporters react to reality.

Irony of ironies, Trump does not seem to fit the bill we paint of him. He is a child-man that, born and raised in luxurious privilege, and enslaved by ‘possessions’, was not given the chance to grow up; hence, its not really his fault that he behaves so unpredictably, gloats on his ‘noble ignorance’, allows his life to remain simple and straightforward by ignoring reality, and facts, toxic to him, which made him, by force, a ‘natural’ liar whenever he opens his mouth. He just can’t help it. And now, he is surrounding himself with a bunch of men, military and otherwise, to draw some love from, to be understood in a hostile world unwilling to concede his right to enrich himself with our taxes. That he is a predator (sexual, or with hands up) leaves no doubt, although not his fault, he just wasn’t taught otherwise. His father, aside from instructing him on the ‘benefits’ of discriminating against minorities, made Donald’s business blunders disappear with family money, greed being just a sideshow to seek relevance. Being unscrupulous and unrepentant and humble-deficient is not his fault either, given the lexicon he was given. The choosing of an awful cadre of misfits in his inner circle may be Bannon/Flynn’s doing, as Trump may be ‘legit’ in claiming ignorance. The fact that the new ‘secretary-elects are totally foreign to public service, and completely ignorant of the posts assigned to, doesn’t seem to matter to demagogue Trump, or so no one else can take the limelight.

Looks like the cats out of the bag and it’s Tillerson that has the coveted thumbs up. Poor Mitt.

Is the president elect stuffing his Cabinet with these truly unthinkable cast of characters just to see what he can get away with with Congress? A kind of throw them so many unqualified choices just to see how far he can go?

Is this all just a big joke to the president elect? A sort of soap opera of will he chose X? Or will he chose Y? A stayed tuned for the next episode of America’s Next New Cabinet Member”? The list appears to be an assortment of pay to play and paybacks.

No one who has any kind of ties to Putin should even be mentioned in the same breath as the words, “Cabinet post”.

It is up to The GOP and Congress to get some moral backbone and put a stop to some of these choices. And it is up to us, the popular vote public to make sure Congress understands that there will be consequences in 2018 if the president elect is allowed to tie his cabinet choices to Putin.