Drain The Swamp? Charlie Pierce Comments.

Click here for my earlier post, "Trump's Appointments So Far."

Now here's one of my favorite commenters, Charlie Pierce, at Esquire. I've reproduced his article -- "Donald Trump. Goldman Sachs. What Could Go Wrong?" -- subtitled, "Drain the swamp with the people who drained the economy":

Remember back in 2008, when Democratic candidate Barack Obama won a convincing victory over John McCain, who was representing a fairly well discredited Republican Party? The first thing all the sharp people decided that the new president immediately should "reach out" and hire some Republicans out of the many who could be found in David Brooks' contact list—like Bob Gates, for example, or that nice Mr. Comey over at FBI. Just to bring the country together, like the new president said he wanted to do, right?

OK. So now there's a new president-elect and nobody is telling him to keep, say, Tom Vilsack at Agriculture, not that he'd listen anyway. Instead, he seems to be trolling for underlings in two places—the executive washrooms of Goldman Sachs, and the comment sections of Fox Nation. Let's take a look at some of the folks whose names are currently under consideration, instead of waiting for El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago to hire them and make the electric Twitter machine cry mercy again.

More after the jump.




*****

First, there's rootin' tootin' David Clarke, the Lord High Sheriff of Milwaukee and a man who has to dial "1" and an area code to reach lunacy. He is said to be a candidate to be Secretary of Homeland Security. With Lawrence O'Donnell on Tuesday night, journalist Roland Martin ran down most of the 411 on this particular resident of the banana farm, including the fact that he's currently under investigation because, in the last couple of months, one inmate in Clarke's jail died of thirst and another one gave birth, only to have the newborn die on the floor.

Two years ago, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm blistered Clarke after Clarke had written an open letter in which he demanded that Chisholm suspend all plea bargains and non-prison sentencing. As The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported at the time:

"I know this does not affect you. Your agency does not investigate homicides, nor does it have the capacity to do so after long years of neglect at your hands," Chisholm wrote. The DA noted that his office had more than 370 open sexual assault cases. He said taking them all to trial, without considering what is best for victims and the community, would be "a travesty." Like homicides, the cases would back up for years, evidence would go stale and many offenders would avoid conviction and go free, Chisholm said. He also laid out his office's record in prosecuting domestic violence and firearms-related crimes…"I am tired of the inability of law enforcement to engage in focused efforts to get gun offenders off the street and then blaming prosecutors, judges and state laws for increases in gun violence," Chisholm wrote…"I know it's more fun to style yourself as the lone voice saying things no one else will say, but the things you say have all been said before, and require neither courage nor particular insight. "The public has a right to see their elected officials are committed to solving problems not engaging in demagoguery," Chisholm wrote, before closing with the admonition, "Get out of the announcer booth, Coach, and get your team on the field."

I look forward to DA Chisholm's appearance at Clarke's confirmation hearings.

Then there's the outside contender for head of the Environmental Protection Agency, which Trump says he wants to do away with anyway, so who cares. He's apparently considering a woman named Kathleen Hartnett White, a product of that "business-friendly" atmosphere of which Texas Republicans are so proud. This has set off the alarm bells at The Texas Observer. During her time at TCEQ, White was consistent in her positions: Trying to curb carbon emissions is "futile," renewables are "a false hope" and "carbon dioxide has none of the attributes of a pollutant." Among her stranger beliefs is that "fossil fuels dissolved the economic justification for slavery" and that the United Nations has "revealed themselves" as advocating for communism as "the only system of government which effectively would reduce carbon dioxide." OK, about that slavery thing. Quoth White:

In 1807, the British Parliament finally passed William Wilberforce's bill to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire. In the same year, the largest industrial complex in the world powered and illuminated by coal opened in Manchester, England. Thus began the century-long process of converting mankind's industry from the power of muscle, wood, wind, and water to stored solar energy in fossil fuels. Fossil fuels dissolved the economic justification for slavery.

That so much of the British industrial miracle involved American cotton that was not picked by jolly volunteers is one of the many chunks of history through which White apparently slept. Anyway, the more important thing is that she seems to be a true acolyte of America's extraction industries. And she takes pains not to disturb the business-friendly atmosphere while not giving much of a damn about the actual atmosphere.

Among the most significant decisions during her time on TCEQ is her handling of a 2003 audit of the agency. The report found that for 80 enforcement cases TCEQ pursued between 2000 and 2003 the agency could have issues $8.6 million in fines, but instead it settled for about $1.6 million. As a result, "violators often have economic benefits that exceed their penalties, which could reduce their incentive to comply," the report's authors noted.

And then there's this, which came out Wednesday afternoon, from ABC News.

The Palin aide tells ABC News that in "recent days," Palin told Trump transition officials: "I feel as though the megaphone I have been provided can be used in a productive and positive way to help those desperately in need." The VA is the largest government agency with over 300,000 federal employees and a budget of $182 billion for 2017.

Oh, why the hell not? The meteor's overdue anyway.