Transition Team/Cabinet Thread

[emailking]

He could also just commute the probation.

[emailking]

MSNBC says it's Tillerson for SoS and Bolton for Deputy SoS.

[emailking]

NBC is the only outlet reporting that Tillerson is Trump's pick.

Could they be wrong? Please be wrong.

I doubt Andrea Mitchell's reporting is wrong, but since they're not announcing it until next week he could change his mind possibly, like with the VP pick.

[emailking]

Too many vaccines can cause a weakening of our immune systems. If few people ever developed anything more serious than the common cold usually, mostly currently harmless flu strands would have death rates skyrocket. It is not healthy to prevent 99% of non-fatal diseases.

That is not true at all.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/109/1/124

[quote]DO VACCINES “WEAKEN” THE IMMUNE SYSTEM?

Vaccines may cause temporary suppression of delayed-type hypersensitivity skin reactions or alter certain lymphocyte function tests in vitro. However, the short-lived immunosuppression caused by certain vaccines does not result in an increased risk of infections with other pathogens soon after vaccination. Vaccinated children are not at greater risk of subsequent infections with other pathogens than unvaccinated children. On the contrary, in Germany, a study of 496 vaccinated and unvaccinated children found that children who received immunizations against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, Hib, and polio within the first 3 months of life had fewer infections with vaccine-related and -unrelated pathogens than the nonvaccinated group.

[emailking]

Fun Fact: Trump is the first president since Carter to not have a Hispanic member of his Cabinet.

I’m not surprised by this. Perdue is probably not the worst choice and not somebody who worries me. But he should have picked Abel Maldonado. I think it’s troubling that 80% of his cabinet members are old white men. Actually sad, because we’re a more diverse nation. Especially the number of women should be significantly higher.

Oh my God, give me a break. It shouldn't be troubling at all that he picked his cabinet in the way he did. Race and gender aren't a qualifier to becoming a cabinet secretary. I wouldn't want a cabinet formed up of people that were only selected because of race or gender. The only people that should be in the cabinet are the people that can help implement what the President wants to do and that is what Trump did.

But having 80% white men is unlikely by chance alone. So either:

1. The best people that can help implement what the President wants are predominantly white men.
2. There was an unconscious racial & gender bias in the selection process.
3. There was an explicit racial & gender bias in the selection process.
4. It happened that way by random chance.

You think 1 is that case, I assume. But any of 1, 2, or 3 is troubling and sad, as he said. 4 is possible but pretty unlikely.

[emailking]

You're delusional if you ignore these facts and just assume the cabinet is like that because Trump is racist/sexist whatever

I didn't assume that.

[emailking]

The diversity of the country is irrelevant to selecting cabinet nominees. You do have a point that there is more people qualified to the jobs more than likely but at the end of the day it is who Trump can work with the best that gets a cabinet job. Gender doesn't matter; age doesn't matter; race doesn't matter. The broader argument you're conveying is essentially that because America is so diverse we should have a cabinet that is equivalent to the racial and gender percentages in America. The cabinet isn't supposed to reflect the population of the United States, it is to implement policy decisions that the President allows. I would also just like to reiterate that race, gender and even age do not matter at all.

But it's the fact that they shouldn't matter that makes the end result troubling. Somewhere, they're mattering. Maybe they're mattering in Trump's mind. Maybe they're mattering the composition of the Republican party (and conversely of the Democratic party). Maybe they're mattering in the kind of people who can get ahead in this world. Each of these possibilities is sad and troubling in its own way. If race and gender didn't matter at all then the composition of the cabinet would look like the composition of America in terms of race and gender with a high degree of likelihood. And that wouldn't be because race and gender were taken into account in the selection process. It would be because they weren't.

[emailking]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/us/politics/trump-comey-fbi-director-.html

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Anyone surprised?

Why would they be?  This position is supposed to transcend the standard political appointment process.

The FBI has a set term. Hillary couldn't have dumped him even if she won and desired too.

The President can remove the FBI director. It says so in that article.