Closing in on Another Date Which Will Live in Infamy and the New Business as Usual

So now that we are closing in on another date which will live in infamy--the inauguration of Donald John Trump--perhaps it is time to take a few quick peeks at some of his advisers and cabinet choices.

Going in no particular order, we'll start with, Stephen K. Bannon, Trump's pick for his chief political strategist. Bannon, as we all know, ran the online ultra right wing organization, Breitbart. Years before he turned the news outlet into a labyrinth of conspiracy theories, xenophobia, and white supremacy bullshit he made films. He was so good at it he was once described by a colleague as the, "Leni Riefenstahl of the tea party movement." For those of you unfamiliar with Ms. Riefenstahl's work, she put together the seminal 1935 Nazi propaganda film, "Triumph of the Will."

Rex Tillerson has been tapped by Trump to become Secretary of State. He is the CEO of Exxon-Mobil and his company is heavily invested in business deals with the big orange guy's pal, Vladimir Putin. So much so, Putin awarded him a medal called The Order of Friendship. In addition, he was in charge when Exxon-Mobil played a part in a European consortium named Infineum which did business with Iran, Syria, and Sudan while those countries were under sanctions imposed by the United States.

Georgia representative, Tom Price is scheduled to head the Department of Health and Human Services. He is so anti-choice he received zero ratings from Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro Choice America. He did, however get a 100% rating from the National Right to Life Center. He has also opposed legislation which would make it illegal to discriminate against a person based on sexual orientation.

Jeff Sessions is Trump's pick for Attorney General. He once said, "I thought the KKK was okay until I found out they smoked pot."

Trump's National Security Advisor will be Michael T. Flynn. He was the guest of honor and paid keynote speaker at a dinner thrown by RT, the Russian government's English language news agency. During the meal he dined with none other than Vlad P. himself. In addition while Flynn was participating in the presidential campaign he promoted various conspiracy theories regarding Hillary Clinton as well as fake news stories about her. His son, Mike Flynn Jr. continues the family tradition  by keeping alive, through social media, the hideous accusation that Mrs. Clinton and John Podesta ran a child prostitution/slavery ring out of the back room of a Washington D.C. pizza joint.

The new White House Counsel will be Donald F. McGahn II. A while back he defended then Texas representative Tom Delay. At the time the congressman was running a super-pac that got way too cozy with another organization, the U.S Family Network which was conveniently located in the same office building. The USFN was catching heat because of their practice of accepting large donations from, you guessed it, Russian tycoons.

Steven Mnuchin has been nominated as Secretary of the Treasury. He ran a bank, OneWest, which was described as a, "foreclosure machine." At one point they foreclosed on an elderly Florida woman because she owed them twenty-seven cents.

Wilbur Ross, the choice for Secretary of Commerce, ran a company called W&L Ross &Co. The SEC fined the firm $2.3 million and the corporation was forced to reimburse investors $1.8 million in fee overcharges.

Then there is Secretary of Labor nominee, Andrew Puzder. He is the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns the Hardee's and Carl Jr's burger chains. He is so well thought of by his employees--you know, his labor force--hundreds of them showed up outside the capitol the day of his Senate hearing to protest his nomination.

For the sake of brevity let's end with Oklahoma Attorney General, Scott Pruitt who is the choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency. He has spent his entire political career doing two things. One has been to deny climate change is happening, although that view was modified rather quickly when he faced the Senate confirmation panel. The second is suing the EPA over regulations he will now be in charge of enforcing.

Yes, it is a corrupt and sordid lot. One which is peppered with run amok neo Nazi propagandists, right wing hacks, slavish tools of Vladimir Putin, and billionaires who padded their pockets by using business practices which are at best questionable if not outright criminal.

Well, what should we expect from a guy who admits he likes to grab women by their, "pussies," and makes up vile and grotesque lies on the fly?

Indeed. What we are now witnessing is the new business as usual.

May God help us all.




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Note: There were many sources used to gather the information listed above, however Wikipedia provided the majority of it.