Today’s Theme:
Cabinet Appointee Incompetence
Yesterday, peregrinekate asked why I was focused on the Price nomination for HHS instead of DeVos for Education.
I answered that I thought the Price nomination was a more strategic one to oppose because delays in putting the HHS Secretary in place will also delay discussions on the ACA replacement plan, which gives us more time to educate people about how their health care will be impacted, and rouse them to contact their Republican lawmakers about it.
She responded with some resources that helped me clarify my thinking on this:
The Red Queen (about her and her family's political objectives)
Privatize, Monetize, Weaponize (about her attack on MI public schools)
On the DeVos Family's Theocratic Aims
Those resources show that DeVos is categorically unfit to be Secretary of Education for our public school systems. I am also concerned about her sheer incompetence.
The Hearing Yesterday Put Devos’s Incompetency On Display
A major debate in education is whether or not to assess performance by proficiency-based conformance to standards, or to measure students based on their growth. Despite DeVos’s avowed commitment to education, she didn’t know this, and so she couldn’t even answer when Sen. Franken asked her about it.
Her responses to the other Democratic senators were no better. She was unprepared, couldn’t answer basic questions and she refused to make commitment after commitment to support public education. It seemed clear that she’s going to try to drive an agenda at the Department of Education. It’s also clear that she may lack the basic competency she needs to drive any agenda.
Here are the actions for Wednesday, January 18 - two days before Donald Trump’s Inauguration.
Key Actions Today:
These are the actions that I’m personally committed to accomplishing today:
- Find out where your Congressperson/Senator stands now on the ACA: stand firm, fix, repeal/replace, repeal/delay or something else, as reported in the news media.
- Invite someone you know to listen in to your calls today. You can make the calls together and that may encourage them to make their own calls, once they see how the calls go.
- Call your senator. If you’ve been calling the local office, try the state or national office. Or vice versa. Ask the person who answers what the person’s current position is. Given all the protests, it might have changed or softened, at least publicly. That’s good for us to know.
Then tell them that you are also concerned about DeVos as Secretary of Education and urge Republican Senators to ask themselves if she has the basic competency she needs to drive Republican priorities on education, based on yesterday’s performance in committee.
- Then call your 2nd Senator.
- Then call your Representative.
Inauguration Weekend in DC: Latest update here. Final update tomorrow.
Key Messages Today:
- If ever a potential cabinet member demonstrated their incompetence during a committee hearing, DeVos did, so a vote for her is a vote that says you actively support the destruction of our childrens’ futures.
- Trump is entering office as a historically unpopular president who lacks the support of 2/3rds of the American people, including many who already regret their votes for him.
- Republicans who hitch their wagons to Trump are risking everything - including American democracy itself - for short-lived political gains.
Developments in the Past 24 Hours:
- It feels more and more like we’re living in a bad scifi dystopia: Trump now wants to waste our precious troops’ time, money and energy on parades!
- Trump’s team can’t get the story straight on replacement plans for ACA — probably because they know they’re toast once people start actually losing health insurance or forced back into junk insurance plans.
- Meanwhile, CBO Report shows that 18 million people would lose health care immediately and the number would rise to nearly 30 million if the ACA is repealed — and everyone would immediately pay 25% more for health insurance, not to mention the increases in deductibles and annual limits.
- Ex-Apprentice contestant is suing Trump for defamation -and her attorney is Gloria Allred. I wonder if Trump might have met his match in Ms. Allred for showmanship and attention-seeking and she far exceeds him in competence, so this should be interesting!
- Good News: President Obama issued pardons and commuted sentences yesterday. We all celebrate Chelsea Manning’s but he also released Oscar López Rivera, who has been incarcerated for advocating Puerto Rican independence, and spent most of his adult life behind bars.
Tweet of the Day:
Resources to Bookmark:
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Thank you for all the recommends, shares, callouts and tweets!
If you’re new to this, it’s the last in a series of diaries with action items specific to resisting Trump’s takeover of America. Here is the first diary in the series: A Ten Point Action Plan for Resisting Putin’s Takeover of America
- Bonus #2: If you are dedicated to this fight, please consider following the Kos Group “Sons and Daughters of Liberty.” I’ll post these Action Lists there, as well as other diaries that offer concrete opportunities to take action. That way, you’ll be able to read them even if they don’t make the Rec List. If you’d like to play a more active role, send me a Kosmail and I’ll add you to the group.
- Bonus #3: Sign up for Twitter and let us know you’re there. If you’re not on Twitter already, consider signing up with your DailyKos handle. My handle is @Kascade_Kat - share yours in the comments so that we can amplify each others’ messages.
- Bonus #4: Share your plans for Inauguration Day and the day after. If you’re going to the protest in DC and want to meet up with other Kossacks, post something in the comments thread. I’m going to DC and I’m bringing two people with me. Parallel marches are happening on other major cities.
Remember - history has its eyes on us this time.