2016 Dec 3^rd

Steve Coll, a writer for “The New Yorker” has a piece about his eight-day travels around “The Sandbox” (Middle East) with General James Mattis. Coll is no fan of Donald J. Trump but he kept a diary of this trip and General Mattis made a very favorable impression on him. In spite of a plane break down stranding them on a ridiculously hot Egyptian runway for several hours, Mattis kept his cool. This coolness was also evident in White House briefings in which Mattis played a role. This is at least one cabinet pick that we can hope will turn out well. You may remember that it was Mattis who told Trump that he could get more information from a captive with a beer and some cigarettes than he could get by waterboarding him. That changed Trump’s mind about waterboarding’s effectiveness and, more importantly, it showed Mattis’ smarts when dealing with Trump!

Other Cabinet picks are much less promising: Betsy De Vos, I believe, is the least promising pick so far. She can do considerable damage damage to public education, which she seems to despise. She is a strong supporter of public tax money being funneled to religious schools, this in spite of SCOTUS decisions making it illegal to require either prayer or Bible reading in publically financed schools. Working to improve rather than abolish public education doesn’t seem to interest her.

 Sarah Palin is lobbying to be the next head of the VA. Yes, I’m serious; that Sarah Palin wants the job and as an early and enthusiastic Trump supporter she could well get it. I am a veteran, but thankfully I am not dependent on the VA for anything at all and right now I am very thankful for that.

The Secretary of State will probably be chosen and announced on Monday. The contestants are (Sounds like a game show doesn’t it, and why not!) Mitt Romney who has been willing to “bow the knee” to the King and confess that he didn’t mean any of those nasty things he said previously about the King’s character. Now we have some questions about Mitt’s character

If things hang together, he has a good chance of picking Rudy Giuliani as Secretary of State. I know that sounds improbable but except for Mattis which of his cabinet picks makes any sense at all. Watching this man perform at any Trump rally says all that needs to be said about him. Trump may see his behavior as appropriate for a Secretary of State, others will see it as symptomatic of a need for psychiatric counselling… or perhaps commitment.

Then we have Congressman Tom Price, the premier foe of the Affordable Care Act. He wants to abolish it and in the process privatize Medicare and reduce the benefits of Medicaid. What happened to the physician’s oath of first do no harm? I guess that only applies to knee replacements.