Trump's cabinet Natalie and Bronson

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency: Scott Pruitt has been the Attorney General of the States of Oklahoma since 2011. His only relative experience with environmental protection that he has had was he has some experience in public service. His level of success could be great in another field but for Administrator of the EPA he does not have that much potential for success. He has been a close friend to the fossil fuel industry and he has been trying to contradict and appeal Obama's climate change plan because he does not believe in climate change. His new policy that he will bring is opposite of that from Obama’s because he does not believe in climate change.

Chief Strategist: Steve Bannon

With the job of executive director of Breitbart.com, an alt-right media site, come the extremely conservative views which belong to Steve Bannon. Bannon is an alt-right, white supremacist who has been running a website since 2012, and may become the chief strategist to the President of the United States. Bannon has no experience is politics, as he was formerly a businessman and a filmmaker. Although the congress is republican majority, Bannon is not guaranteed to pass. His alt-right views are not incredibly popular amongst most Americans and politicians. His amazingly racist, anti-muslim, anti-semitic, and anti-immigrant views would bring an already destructive administration to it’s knees, hurting the American people and Trump’s reputation.

Secretary of State: Rex Tillerson

The current CEO of Exxonmobil, Rex Tillerson is about to become the Secretary of State for the Trump administration. As an oil tycoon and a businessman, Tillerson has almost no experience in congress or in politics of any kind. Because the congress is a republican majority, and is very interested in money from oil, Tillerson is likely to be approved as the Secretary of State. The most concerning new policy which Tillerson would bring to the White House is his rosy view of Russia. Exxonmobil has billions of dollars worth of business with moscow that would only be allowed to go through if the U.S. lifted sanctions on Russia. Tillerson’s deals with Russia have great potential to get in the way of the foreign affairs of an entire nation. Tillerson poses a threat to a nation that has been enemies with his new best friend for the past 65 years.

Elect Trump's Cabinet Nominees- Zoe and Miles

Steve Bannon has no experience in politics. Previously he was chair of Breitbart News and Chief executive officer of Donald Trump’s campaign. Steve Bannon does not have any experience working in our government and therefore is not likely to succeed as chief strategist and senior counsel. Even though the Congress is made up of mostly Republicans, he still lacks the experience necessary. Steve Bannon has been associated with the group that calls themselves “alt-right”, they are extremely conservative and are known to be racist, sexist, etc. Steve Bannon is extremely wealthy and a known businessman. His policy will most likely favor the upper-class of America. His policy will also most likely be on a conservative bias and will hurt the progress our country has made thus far. Steve Bannon reportedly said in 2014 “I’m a Leninist. Lenin want to destroy the state, and that’s my goal, too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” This quote proves our point that Steve Bannon will set our country backwards in progress.

Rex Tillerson has been nominated for Secretary of State. He is CEO and Chairman of Exxonmobil, his net worth is currently 150 million. As a CEO Rex has experience in being in charge, but has no political experience. Rex Tillerson has an ok chance at succession because the congress is majority Republican. Many republican congressmen support oil companies and oil deals which is what Rex Tillerson is most experienced in. He also has experience working foreign governments through his company. His policies most likely support conservative and Republican view. He also may be bias towards large corporations and the oil industry.  His policy will most likely hurt the progress our government has made.

John Kelly has been nominated for Secretary of Homeland Security. He has been working in the military for decades and has served as the United States Southern Commander. He also is a retired Marine Corps general. He has a lot of experience within our military and has experience as a leader within our military. While he has no experience in politics, he still has qualifications for the job. Given the current congressional makeup he is likely to succeed because he identifies with the independent party so he may appeal to both parties at times. He may appeal to

Republicans more because of his expertise in southwest border control. His policy may change immigration laws in our country. He will most likely attempt to make it harder for immigrants to come and stay in our country, setting us back in progress.  

Trumps cabinet- Thomas and Mollie

1. Ben Carson nominated for secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Ben Carson was nominated to the position of secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban. Before this nomination and his run in the republican primary Ben Carson was a very successful neurosurgeon. He is not qualified for this position because he has no background in its field, he was a doctor and surgeon and the  Housing and Urban Development department's goal is to raise homeownership and he really had no education or background that qualifies him to complete this task. He has a likelihood of being successful in his ideas because the house and senate are both republican. Although he may be successful in his own eyes and in the eyes of other conservatives, he may be seen as not successful and messing things up by liberals. I don't think Carson will have any new policies, he's so uneducated about the department that I feel he doesn't want to look bad and mess anything up so he's just gonna sit back and do nothing because he doesn't really know what to do in the position he's in. Carson will most likely get confirmed by the republican led senate, although according to the New York Times, he is facing much more scrutiny now than other cabinet nominees in the past because of Trump’s lack of transparency to his taxes and business interests (“Now the billionaires Betsy DeVos, Linda McMahon and Wilbur L. Ross Jr., and the multimillionaires Rex W. Tillerson, Ben Carson, Elaine Chao, Steven Mnuchin, Representative Tom Price, Andrew F. Puzder and Todd Ricketts can expect much of the same scrutiny.”).

2. Attorney General Jeff Sessions

Jeff Sessions has been nominated for Attorney General of the United States. Previous to this nomination Sessions was, and is, an US senator from Alabama, and had held the position of US Attorney of Southern District Alabama, as appointed by Ronald Reagan. While Sessions is not the most qualified for his position, he has held federal attorney positions in the past and knows how government works-- which is more than I can say for most of the other cabinet nominees. It depends your views when determining of Sessions will make progress in his position, seeing as that the Attorney General don’t decide policies, but rather act as the highest law enforcement official in the country. This means that Sessions will take a much more hard line conservative stance towards movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, which for certain people may be seen as progress. In terms of confirmation I believe Sessions will be confirmed, not only due to his experience which qualifies him for the job, but also because of his current position as a senator from Alabama who has ties to the republican majority house and senate. The positions Sessions is nominated for doesn’t actually decide policies, and so he will probably not bring about new policies. Although, Sessions would be the chief law enforcement official in the nation, and will be allowed to decide who is prosecuted and how harshly they will be tried. It seems that the attorney general nominee will take a much more conservative and emboldened stance than our current attorney general, Loretta Lynch. His close ties to the conservative republicans lead me to believe that he will not do wonders for the liberal agenda.

3. Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis

James Mattis has been nominated for Secretary of Defense of the Unites States. Mattis is a veteran of the US Navy Corps, and served as commander of US Central Command for three years up until 2013. I believe this gives him experience, although he may not have been successful in these positions, as in he may not have reflected the values of the country when commanding their military. Although, Mattis definitely knows the inner workings of our country’s military and has worked in defense for his whole life. The position of Secretary of Defense doesn’t necessarily entail control over policies, and so I doubt that Mattis will make large scale political change. Mattis was already a cabinet member under Obama, placing him on the more liberal side of Trump’s cabinet picks. This, I think, makes it very likely for him to be confirmed for the position.

Trump Cabinet Elliot and Reyanna

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Ben Carson

1. Ben Carson has no experience on the area that he has been nominated for. He is a neurosurgeon, therefore his nomination is questionable in terms of his experience in the category. Neurosurgery is obviously far from managing housing and urban development in terms of the skillset it takes to handle these two occupations. Ben Carson has even stated himself that he is very skeptical of his own abilities to run the position that he was given, and that he is reluctant to take it. However, he is a very esteemed neurosurgeon and is considered by Trump to be a strong leader and an innovative thinker, so we will see how that turns out.
2. I think that given the congressional makeup Carson has a decent chance of making it to the head of the department, but not a definitive or even highly probable chance. Because the congress is a republican majority, Trump’s cabinet picks will be thought of as more than that of a democrat’s cabinet picks. However, most of these people are not stupid, and they have some sort of common sense. The fact that Carson’s history is so lacking could very well make the majority of congress reject Trump’s nomination. Still, even taking this into mind, no congressmen have actively spoken out against this nomination or have hinted that they will not approve, even though many have questioned his qualifications.
3. Ben Carson has absolutely no vision for his position, or at least not one that he has articulated. As said above, he is very reluctant to accept this nomination because he conceded that he has minimal to no political background whatsoever, except for his presidential campaign. Moreover, he is not well versed in this issue, and this will detriment his ability to form decisions based on prior knowledge and experience in the field. Thus, I do not know of any plans he has come up with, and I do not expect to see solid plans coming from him anytime soon.

Secretary of Education

Betsy DeVos

1. DeVos has no personal experience in the field of education. She has business experience, serving as chairwoman of the Windquest Group, and has been active in the Michigan Republican Party. DeVos is a strong proponent of school choice and school vouchers and served as chairwoman of the board of Alliance for School Choice. She heads the All Children Matter PAC which she and her husband founded in 2003 to promote school vouchers, tax credits to businesses that give private school scholarships, and candidates who support these causes. Her other activities on behalf of public-school reform have included membership on the boards of directors of the Advocates for School Choice, the American Education Reform Council, and the Education Freedom Fund. She has chaired the boards of Choices for Children, and Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP). Though this is an impressive resume, it does not relieve the fact that she has never actually served as an educator or administrator in the education system.
2. DeVos has a fairly good chance of making it through the confirmation process, especially given that Republicans have a strong congressional majority. Her announcement was praised by conservative school choice advocates, and Jeb Bush called her an "outstanding pick." In addition, American education labor leader Randi Weingarten called her "the most ideological, anti-public education nominee" since the position became a cabinet position and The Washington Post noted that "Trump's embrace of DeVos shows a willingness to look outside his circle of loyalists".
3. DeVos’ policies will be detrimental to the public education system. She has been a strong advocate for steering taxpayer money for public education to private, charter schools. There is no doubt that under her leadership, funding for public schools will suffer.

Secretary of Commerce

Wilbur Ross

1. Ross is an American investor, and former banker, known for restructuring failed companies in industries such as steel, coal, telecommunications, foreign investment and textiles. He specializes in leveraged buyouts and distressed businesses. As of August 2014, Forbes magazine lists Ross as one of the world's billionaires with a net worth of $2.9 billion. Given his experience in business and trade, he is one of Trump’s more qualified picks. However, he has no direct government experience and his long ties to Wall Street leave many to wonder if he will have America’s best interests at heart.
2. It is very likely that Ross will be confirmed. He was formerly a Democrat, and just recently became a registered Republican in November 2016, giving him bipartisan appeal.
3. Ross has said that his first priority as Secretary of Commerce will be to renegotiate trade deals, such as NAFTA. It is hard to say if this will or will not be beneficial to U.S. business dealings- we’ll see in the next four years.

New York Times Article: “He is building an administration that looks a whole lot like himself,” said Senator Patty Murray of Washington

She is definitely right. All three of the nominees we have analyzed are like Trump, either billionaires (DeVos and Ross) or multimillionaires (Carson). We are skeptical that people in such positions of privelege will have the interests of all Americans at heart.

Trump´s Cabinet- Ethan H and Max

Rex Tillerson

1. Rex Tillerson has been appointed as the Secretary of State. Previous to this position he was the CEO of Exxon Mobile. Although he does not have any political experience, he does have relations with Putin and other foreign leader due to their massive world reach and other negotiations that have been made.
2. Many members the Senate do not believe that he will get the 51 votes required to be sworn in. Even if he does, it will be an uphill battle for him to try and work against democrats and Republicans who do not support Trump.
3. He will attempt to make peace with the Russians to suppress China, instead of healing overall political relations

¨Those nominations will go to a committee that has not previously required nominees to file a tax return along with other financial disclosures¨

Jeff Sessions

1. Jeff Sessions is being appointed as Attorney General. As of now he is a senator from Alabama and used to be an Attorney General in Alabama. He is one of the few in Trumps cabinet with political experience.
2. Sessions will most likely succeed due to him betting swing votes and his major experience working in government before.
3. He will probably stay moderate and not create any new major policies, except for halting the process of a few.

Betsy Devos

1. Betsy Devos is being sworn in as Secretary of Education. She is a chairman of American Federation for children. She has no political experience in a government sense. She has given major donations to congress. She also has no experience working in schools either as a teacher or as an administrator.
2. She will not succeed, because of her plans. Democrats and some Republicans will not pass any bills to defund public schools, so she will accomplish nothing in office.
3. She wants to defund public school and move into more private and other schools for profit.

Oscar Camacho - Erin Brockovich

Oscar Camacho

I believe that Erin Brockovich's aggressive pursuit for a job stems from her being a single mother. As a single mother, naturally, she has the pressure of supporting multiple children solely from her own income. I think that because she lives a simple and financially disadvantaged life, she doesn't necessarily have a greater sense of right and wrong but she is more outspoken than others which may give off that impression. She lives a more stressful life so she is a little more extreme in her expressions towards what she think is right and wrong, but it doesn't mean she has a greater sense of morality than others. Erin is not pushy, she is just, again, more outspoken. Her lack of proper experience in law may explain her not following office etiquette (regarding how she dresses and speaks). As far as her "pushy" attitude, this could be more of a psychological issue than personal characteristic. The stressors in her life (financial unsustainable, dependants, relationships) could be the reason why she is perceived to have a "short fuse".

I think attorney Masry is a bit merciful for at least giving Brockovich a job at his firm. He does seem a bit disinterested and unsure of Erin's drive and willingness to give everything she can to her job. Throughout the entire movie I think he definitely must've put in more work and time into her case than other clients. I think because of her attitude and persona, she might have seemed more "real" with "real feelings"; traits that aren't necessary attributed to multi-million dollar corporations. She made it more personal between them by never holding back in the way she spoke and the degrees she'd go to get information (breaking in into the water plant). I think that in paper, an attorney should spend equal time and effort for each of their clients but in reality, some clients have bigger issues where more is at stake that require more hours and effort to be invested into them.

After looking at the dictionary definition, I think Erin has incredible work ethic. She gave it 1000% by going above and beyond to get the information she needs. She broke into facilities and seduced people into granting her permission to access sensitive information. She saw her clients as actual people with problems that persists after their meeting with her. I think Erin is simply more committed to her job, not necessarily does this mean that she wants to be a permanent employee, but she simply has a way better work ethic. This could be explained by her also seeing her clients as real people, so she is willing to do more for those human beings. She sees herself as something far more superior than Mr.Marsy's secretary. She clearly shows a drive to go further and be seen as someone who knows her stuff, not just some low-ranking employee.

I completely agree with her work ethic, and approach to appeal to the corporate attorneys. The attorneys do not seem to have a sense of right and wrong and only seems to do exactly what they are told to do, completely disregarding the fact that a town-full of lives are in danger. I agree with Erin in the fact that you can't always go by the book and be at least a little human and sympathetic for the danger you are placing in the lives of others and the moral responsibility that comes with being in that position.

President Cabinet - Emma Ringstand and Henry Finer

Emma Ringstad & Henry Finer

AP Government p. 5

12/13/16

Scott Pruitt was recently appointed to be Administrator of the EPA. He has been the Attorney General of the state of Oklahoma since 2011 and between 1998 and 2006 he served in the Oklahoma State Senate. However, neither of these jobs give him and experience or knowledge about our environment and it’s issues. Scott Pruitt is a known republican therefore he should have no issue getting his policies through the current republican congress. Scott Pruitt has been known to believe that climate change is not real, so he will most likely set back the progress we have made reducing our carbon footprint and the standards we created to reduce companies pollution.  

Andy Puzder has been appointed as the new Secretary of Labor. Hannity.com states, “ Andy Puzder is the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, which include the Carl's Jr./Hardee's chain.” He has experience working in the labor department, being an executive of a company with a large labor force. He most often identifies with Republican establishments and has affiliated himself with known Republicans such as Mitt Romney, which means that he will most likely have success in Congress because the current Congress is majority Republican. He disagrees with the increase in minimum wage as well as very anti-labor. Therefore he will most likely prevent the wage increase, which in turn hurts the progress of that movement.

Ben Carson: Department of Housing and Urban Development

Ben Carson has been recently appointed by President Elect Trump as the head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Before Ben Carson run for the presidency in the 2016 election he was neurosurgeon. Other than his attempt at the presidency Carson has no political experience and prior to his acceptance of this role in the cabinet Carsons advisor stated, "Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he's never run a federal agency. The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency." Carson ran under the republican platform and has some strong conservative believes. It shouldn’t be hard for Carson to get through what he wants being that congress will have a republican majority for the next two years. Some of these things that Carson could try and get through would be to reduce government agencies helping in low income areas being an opponent to many government programs put in place to help the poor. Carson believes that “the people have the responsibility to take care of the indigent in our society. It’s not the government’s job.” Other programs Ben Carson would likely try to repel would be Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, which he believes is “government overreach” and stop other programs put in place to help out these communities. Some positives Ben Carson could bring to this agency is if he applies his medical background to help with the connections between low income areas and poor health.

PEOTUS Cabinet Nominees Blog Assignment Ethan Mitzen and Nick Baumann

Sessions (Attorney General):

• Jeff Sessions is a senator from the state of Alabama and a former Attorney General of Alabama. He has a vivid racist past and as such was denied an appointment to federal judgeship during the Reagan Administration. Jeff Sessions is documented as being anti-Civil Rights and Voting Rights, but the Attorney General controls the Department of Justice which oversees those issues. While Jeff Sessions does have the legal experience for this position, he is by no stretch of the imagination a legal prodigy and his racist views call into question his ability to administer his department and fulfill his duties
• Jeff Sessions is probably the nominee thus far that is least likely to be nominated (other than perhaps Rex Tillerson) due to his clearly racist past. It was enough to keep him from becoming a federal judge in the 1980s so it is likely to be enough to keep him from becoming Attorney General in 2016/17
• Jeff Sessions would bring a variety of new policy to the Department of Justice as opposed to the current AG, Loretta Lynch. Lynch is a progressive who believes in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, and Voting Rights, whereas Sessions does not believe in any of those things. Jeff Sessions as AG of the United States would cause immense harm to progress made in judicial branch of government, as well as fail to protect American citizens from government overreach in the realms of cybersecurity and first / fourth amendment protections
• We believe that Jeff Sessions is unqualified to be Attorney General of the United States because he is a documented racist and does not believe in the things that the Department of Justice stands for
• “‘[Trump] is building an administration that looks a lot like himself.’” (NYT)

DeVos (Education):

• Betsy DeVos is a lobbyist and advocate for charter schools from the state of Michigan. She has a detailed history of funneling millions of dollars into pro-charter school causes, and is documented in saying that she does not believe in child labor laws, saying that mining would be “exciting life” for young children. Under her influence, the state of Michigan declared that the right to literacy is not guaranteed as a way to justify the underfunding of Detroit public schools
• Betsy DeVos does not have any clear ties to Russia or a vivid racist past (although her anti-public education activism has disproportionately affected minority students), and we have a majority conservative congress so her appointment is very likely
• Betsy DeVos will take the Department of Education in a drastically different direction than Arne Duncan and John King Jr because those people believed in public education and DeVos does not. She will hurt the progress made in that department by destroying public education as we know it and promote charter schools with more zeal than previous secretaries have.
• We believe that Betsy DeVos is unqualified to be Secretary of Education because she has never been an educational administrator or teacher and believes in privatizing education, which runs counter to the mission of the department
• “Ms.DeVos… married into the Amway fortune” (NYT)

Carson (Housing and Urban Development):

• Ben Carson is a retired Neurosurgeon and a former candidate for President of the United States.
• Ben Carson is identified as a Republican, and when Trump won the presidential race, Carson joined Trump’s transition team as the Vice Chairman. He was offered a position in administration, but declined saying,”The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency.”
• Ben Carson does not have a likelihood for success in this department because he has no prior experience in housing.
• A new policy that Carson could put into place would be something that benefitted the poor people of the US.
• Unfortunately, Carson is likely to do more harm than good because of his minimal experience in housing. He would be a more fitting candidate for the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
• “Mr. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon” (NYT)