Transition Team/Cabinet Thread

[Virginiá]

So how does the Sessions pick affect pot?

The measure that defunded DoJ activities against medical marijuana in states where it is legal is still active, so Sessions wouldn't be able to investigate or prosecute medical marijuana patients/growers/dispensaries/etc. However, the measure regarding defunding DoJ activities against legalized cannabis failed by a relatively small margin (iirc) in the last budget.

That being said, it's possible that pro-cannabis groups/lobbyists manage to get a defunding measure in the budget and thus prevent Sessions from doing anything against legalization.

Trump said he wanted to leave it to the states, and from a political perspective, there is nothing beneficial about starting a war on pot right now - not when legalization is so popular. It would use up valuable political capital on a fruitless endeavor. It definitely would look bad on Trump's administration, at least in the legalized states. With that in mind, I'm not convinced the next 4 years will be that bad for legalization/med. marijuana.

[Virginiá]

So how many billionaires or otherwise very wealthy people are we up to now? (+Romney potentially)

Bernie Sanders must be beside himself right now.

[Virginiá]

How would Trump and Republicans justify Petraeus after spending the entire election season going after Clinton for mishandling classified information when in fact Petraeus was actually charged and convicted for mishandling classified materials while smuggling them to Broadwell - arguably worse actions than what they were accusing Clinton of.

This would be the ultimate form of hypocrisy! Especially if he was nominated/confirmed for Secretary of State. I mean how can one top this. It's ridiculous.

[Virginiá]

Why is Trump always hunched over like that? He's always leaning forward like that in just about every picture of him sitting that I've seen.

Exactly how bad is his posture?

[Virginiá]

https://www.fastcocreate.com/3066397/the-secretary-of-labor-brought-to-you-by-carls-jr-is-our-latest-idiocracy-moment (clip from film included)

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I never thought I'd live to see this level of absurdity.

[Virginiá]

Even by Republican standards, this is too much. This is a plutocratic cabinet. I expect a pro-business anti-regulation conservative cabinet, but just because you are pro-business doesn't mean you should be OK with corporate America and the 1% literally controlling the government. This kind of situation stinks of future corruption and crony capitalism, and it is detrimental to the well-being of our country and future prosperity to continue allowing so much concentration of power into the top 1%.

[Virginiá]

Honestly, I don't understand why Heidi would even want to join his administration. It's looking like it will have great potential to be spectacularly corrupt and hated, and by joining she will buy herself only an extra 2 years in public office assuming she were to lose in 2018, so how is this good for her? Does she really want being a member of Trump's cabinet on her resume? His reelection is no more a shoe-in than hers, so it's quite possible that she gets just 2 more years at the expense of her integrity/image. Just seems like a sucky deal to me.

But, then again, maybe I'm looking at it wrong.

[Virginiá]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/ryan-zinke-interior-secretary-trump-232590

Politico reporting that Zinke has been selected as Interior Secretary. No word on if he has accepted the offer or not. I hope this is true, because this will eliminate Tester's toughest challenger!

Fantastic! Do you know who would fill Zinke's House seat? He just won Montana's at-large House election, so who replaces him? Will Bullock be able to appoint a replacement?

[Virginiá]

Yeah because nothing says respect like quotas.

Wouldn't even be talking about the idea of quotas if they didn't insist on keeping it a boys club term after term.

[Virginiá]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/12/vincent-viola-army-secretary-trump-232809

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