Eyes on the Prize Griffin Gallas

Any time I learn about the civil right era I can't help but think about my ancestry. Being a white male I was born with an advantage to begin with. But to think that my ancestors could have potentially been apart of the anti-civil rights movement makes me sick. Watching the mistreatment of black people in America on video is disgusting and constantly shocks me given the community i've grown up in. Something interesting about the film for me is the difference between de jure and de facto discrimination. De jure discrimination was interesting to me because in the film, African Americans speak about the aspects of this reality. Black people were being discriminated against by law in the south and there was close to nothing they could do about it. This led to the civil rights movement.

Donald Trump's Cabinet - Ryan and Quinn

Mike Pence: Mike Pence was in the house of representatives in 2000, and he was the governor of Indiana in 2013. Prior to his career in politics, Pence worked an attorney and talk radio host. He is a christian, conservative, republican. He is anti-abortion and wanted to defund planned parenthood. He wants a low corporate tax. He went to Hanover College in Indiana for Law. His political career started off with a rough start. He had two unsuccessful runs in congress. In 2000 he was elected to the House of Representatives for the 2nd district of Indiana. Then from 2002-2010 he was elected to the house of representatives for the 6th district of Indiana. Then in 2012 he was elected governor of Indiana.

Tom Price: Congressman Tom Price has represented Georgia's 6th congressional district since 2005. He was an orthopedic surgeon. He was instrumental in replacing the affordable care act. He is now the secretary of health and human services and he is likely to implement legislation to replace affordable health care.

KT McFarland: Was born in 1952 in Madison Wisconsin. She has been serving as a Fox News national security analyst, host of its DEFCON program. Donald Trump has elected KT McFarland to be his Deputy National Security Advisor. She ran as a republican for a seat in the senate, but democratic Hillary Clinton came up with the seat. KT McFarland is very critical of President Obama’s handling of the problem in the Middle East. She wants to be more aggressive with the problem overseas and get it under control.

Trump's Cabinet: Tess and Caroline

Betsy Devos:

Betsy DeVos is Trump’s pick for education secretary. She has no experience dealing with public schools,  and has never attended one or sent her kids to one. According to the Washington Post, she also has no experience “as an educator or education leader”. She supports charter schools, school voucher programs, and has experience lobbying for them. DeVos also advocates for online learning, home schooling,etc, basically anything but government funded schools. The voucher she advocated for would take money from public schools and provide taxpayer money to fund private schools. DeVos is a billionaire with a long history of money scandals that has no experience in government. She “stands at the intersection of two family fortunes that helped to build the Christian right”(New York Times). Devos is very religious and has participated on many Christian councils pertaining to politics. Her policies and ideas are dangerous to public education. She is only in the interest of making money, and has zero experience with public schools. Her extreme Christian values might contribute to major changes in American public education as well. She is not the right choice for this job, and her position may lead to major consequences.

Mike Pompeo:

Congressman Mike Pompeo had been the US Representative for Kansas since 2011. President Elect Donald Trump has appointed Pompeo as the CIA director. Although he has experience in government he does not have experience working with the CIA at any level.  He has very conservative views similar to Trumps. As said in the New York Time article about Trumps cabinet, “he is building an administration that looks a whole lot like himself.” Pompeo has made controversial statements including writing a 48 page addendum discussing how he believe Hillary Clinton is to blame for the incident in benghazi. He also believes Edward Snowden is a traitor to the US and deserves the death penalty for sharing the information that he did. Pompeo will be stepping up as CIA director and taking on challenges such as investigating Russian cyber-hacks and activity related to Isis. These broad conservative one sided claims do not help solve problems and need to stop when dealing with issues that affect our country's safety. Because he has no experience in the CIA he can only do so much to help the progress of the program. No policies have been shared about actions he is planning on taking once he is CIA director. We can only hope that even with a lack of experience that he will be successful in his job as CIA director.

Nikki Haley: Nikki Haley, South Carolina Governor, is Trump’s choice to be the UN Ambassador. She is “the daughter of immigrants, supports free markets and trade, and earned international attention for speaking out against the Confederate flag battle”(New York Times). She hasn’t always agreed with Trump’s politicians, and brings diversity to his cabinet. Haley has experience dealing with international issues concerning Syrian refugees and conflicts in Israel. She is pro-life and anti-abortion. Some are worried that her experience is “limited to South Carolina”, but she has more political experience than most of Trump’s nominees. She is probably the least contested of his choosings because she can appeal to a wide range of people and has a good rack record in SC. Her future policies as US Ambassador as not known because she lacks experience in federal government and concerning issues overseas. Overall, the majority consensus is that she is a good politician with lots of potential but not a whole lot of experience abroad.  

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.

Donald Trump's Cabinet- Ayoub and Frances

Since his election in November, President-elect Donald Trump has been selecting and announcing nominees for his cabinet positions. Each nominee has seemed to generate more controversy than the previous one. Here's our take on Trump's picks for Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Treasury, and Ambassador to the United Nations.

Secretary of Defense: General James Mattis 

Mattis most recently served as 11th commander of United States Central Command. Before being appointed to that position by President Barrack Obama, he served as commander of United States Joint Forces Command from November of 2007, to August of 2010. During this time he concurrently served as NATO's supreme allied commander. His political party is independent, meaning that congress's makeup should not affect him. Republicans have vowed to support Mattis, and there has been talk of using the threat of a government shutdown to sway Democrats to vote for him. Mattis has not suggested any new policy positions thus far, so many of his decisions cannot be predicted at this time. However due to Trump nominating him, there is likely similar views between the two men, as has been the case with many of Trump's nominations so far.

Secretary of Treasury: Steve Mnuchin

 Prior to his nomination as Secretary of the Treasury, Mnuchin was a successful banker. He's most prominently known for being the Executive Vice President at Goldman-Sachs, where he worked for 17 years. He has also been the a chief executive at Dune Capital Management, a privately owned hedge-fund management company. Mnuchin has also successful revitalized a failed bank, IndyMac, during and after the 2008 recession. Most recently he served as the Campaign Finance Chairman for the Trump campaign. His nomination incited tensions among Trump supporters, some of whom had lost their houses or businesses to Goldman-Sachs. Many Democrats in Congress have vowed not to approve Mnuchin, although he has donated to democratic politicians in the past. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Shumer pledged to stop Mnuchin's appointment, as did Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The Republican party does have the congressional majority, and are on track to confirm Mnuchin's appointment unless Democrats can turn votes. Steve Mnuchin has called for major tax reform and lifting regulations on banks, ideas that are supported by Trump and his allies. There aren't many specifics known about Mnuchin's policy ideas but he is very trusted and supported by Trump, so there is bound to be correlation between their views. 



United States Ambassador to the United Nations: Nikki Haley

Before she accepted Donald Trump's nomination for United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley was a critic of the President-elect. She endorsed Marco Rubio during the primaries and often called for Trump to release his tax returns. As for political experience, Haley is currently serving her second term as Governor of South Carolina. Prior to becoming the governor she served in the South Carolina House of Representatives for six years. Little is known about Haley's foreign policy views other than the fact that she is Pro-Israel and supports tough immigration policies. Although she supports tough immigration policies, she was a critic of Trump's proposed Muslim ban. Haley has virtually no international experience, which is worrisome considering her job would be to represent the United States international actions. It is not known what change Haley will bring, besides promoting isolationist ideas. By nominating Haley, Trump is including traditional Republican values in his cabinet and adding diversity (Haley is Indian-American). It is likely that Nikki Haley will be confirmed by Congress because of her traditional GOP status. She has support from the majority party and is seen by Democrats as one of the more moderate members of Trump's cabinet. 

Despite their differences the three nominees discussed above, they will all have to face congressional confirmation. According to The New York Times "such close scrutiny of nominees, now taken for granted, is relatively recent in the history of the Senate's exercise of its constitutional confirmation power." Although these candidates are likely to be confirmed, they will still face a hard road to confirmation, which will hopefully prove that they are ready for their jobs.

Frances Hubbard

Donald's Cabinet- Xavier and Ginger

Scott Pruitt was appointed by Donald Trump to be the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. This is ridiculous because Pruitt has a history of being skeptical that climate change even exists. How can someone that doesn’t believe in climate change be in charge of the branch of the government that addresses climate change. He was a lawyer that specialized in Constitutional law and also served as the Oklahoma Attorney General. He does have some political background, but none of it was related to environmental protection. Therefore he really isn’t qualified because he doesn’t have experience related to the job. Scott Pruitt doesn’t have a high likelihood of being confirmed by senate. Even though the senate is mostly made up of Republicans who commonly don’t like to put a lot of money into environmental protection, there are probably enough people who don’t want someone who could potentially destroy the EPA from the inside out by ignoring environmental law. It really could go either way, depending on each senator's individual beliefs. It is without a doubt that Pruitt will hurt the progress that has already been made in this department. He’s sued the EPA five different times, so it’s pretty obvious he doesn’t want to help protect the environment, yet that is supposed to be his new responsibility with the Trump presidency.

                                 

Rick Perry was chosen to be the secretary of energy. This is also an insane nomination because when Perry was running for president in 2011, he said he wanted to get rid of the department of energy. Now he could be in charge of a department that he wanted to completely eliminate. Despite this though, he does have the qualifications for the job. He was the Governor of Texas, where he was enthusiastic about extracting fossil fuels for energy. Even though he was a big supporter of using unsustainable sources of energy, he also was hugely successful in implementing wind power as a large source of energy in Texas. Energy research isn’t the only thing he’ll have to deal with, the Secretary of Energy also has the responsibility of dealing with things related to nuclear energy, which he doesn’t have experience in. There is a big chance that he could be confirmed because the majority of Senate is Republican, so a lot of people may share the same views as him. He’s also shown that he doesn’t just have some experience, but that he has had success with energy in Texas.  It really could go either way though, because it is only a slight majority, and there could be some Republicans who don’t think someone who literally wanted to destroy the department of energy should be in charge of it.

                                

Rex Tillerson has been appointed secretary of state. He has had no political background before this as he was the CEO of Exxon Mobile. But what Rex does offer is relationships with Putin and other foreign leaders. Most people don’t believe he will get the 51 votes needed but what he says he will do as secretary of state is make peace with the Russians to suppress the Chinese instead of mending relationships.

                                       

Sofia and Michael- Trump's Cabinet

1. Scott Pruitt (Head of EPA)
a) Experience:
E. Scott Pruitt has been the Attorney General of the State of Oklahoma since 2011, and has a long career in public service. Between 1998 and 2006, Pruitt served in the Oklahoma State Senate. Prior to his career in politics, he practiced law with a specialty in Constitutional Law, Contracts, Insurance Law, Labor Law, and Litigation and Appeals.

b) Likelihood for success:
Pruitt is in denial of climate change and a close ally of the fossil fuel industry. He has been a key architect of the legal battle against Obama's climate change policies and is supporting Trump's determination to dismantle Obama's efforts to counter climate change. I think he will be successful at supporting the Trump and helping him with his efforts to "cancel" the Paris accord and take down Obama's Clean Power Plan. But looking at the rest of the world, our planet is going to be destroyed much sooner than we anticipated.

c) New policies? Help or hurt progress in that department?:
Pruitt and Trump are threatening to dismantle the EPA and roll back many of the gains made to reduce Americans' exposures to industrial pollution. Ken Cook, head of the Environmental Working Group, said Pruitt could be the most hostile EPA administrator toward clean air and safe drinking water in history. So it looks like Pruitt is going to be reversing more policies than implementing new ones. This will inevitably hurt progress in the EPA, all in all harming Americans and the entire planet.

2. Rex Tillerson (Secretary of State)
a) Experience:

President elect Trump is choosing who will represent what part of the government will represent his cabinet. Some of these decisions are said to be controversial, for example  Mr.Tillerson the CEO of oil and gas company Exxon mobil has been chosen by Trump to be the Secretary of State. Tillerson has been a part of Exxonmobil since 1965 and became Chairman and CEO in 2006. The job of secretary of state is to advise the president on foreign policy. But according to his resume it will be hard to speak about pollution especially because it is ironic that his company is a large contributor to pollution in our environment.

b) Likelihood for success:

Exxon is know internationally and is one of the largest oil companies in the world. The job of the secretary of state is to serve as the president's adviser on foreign policy and to conduct negotiations related to foreign affairs. Negotiations are a big part of this job, and this job requires the secretary of state to represent the president globally with other foreign leaders. Mr.Tillerson is known world wide so people might say he is the man for the job. But Oil is on the rise again and many disputes in the middle east have been caused because of Oil.

c) New policies? Help or hurt progress in that department?:

The temptation to make business negotiations is to large, Tillerson is clearly business qualified. But the progress that will be made won't be for America. It will be for big corporations like Exxon. They will be the benefit from Tillerson not the people who voted for Trump or for the rest of America. In the article by the New York times they discuss how these decisions can cause “conflicts of interest” that may lead to business dealings and lobbying activities that could serve as a problem. This is true because the business side of the story will definitely influence decision making and certain policies that will be represented with specific countries primarily the ones with huge Oil industry partnerships.

3. James Mattis (Secretary of Defense)
a) Experience:
Mattis ia a 44-year old veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He capped his career as the head of the U.S. Central Command, where he was in charge of all American forces serving in the Middle East and oversaw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

b) Likelihood for success:
Mattis was a very successful commander and is good at keeping the US as the commander of the global commons and keeping us as the most feared nation, as well as a strong ally to many. He has handled conflict in the Middle East, but at the same time we have killed a scary amount of civilians and completely mishandle the conflict there if we're trying to achieve peace. But it looks like Trump is going to be preventing terrorism in the US as much as he can and trying to accumulate as much power as he can. I guess Mattis will be good at preserving America's power.

c) New policies? Help or hurt progress in that department?:In a 2005 conference he was reported to say “I like brawling, it's fun to shoot and it's one hell of a hoot.” Mattis is clearly experienced in the war front, he has lead armies his whole career but the policies he might put into action may be more than what we are asking for. As the secretary of defense they have second power for the military right after the president. And Trump does not know the first thing about keeping America safe. Mattis is one of those people appointed that may be cause more harm than good.


Quote from article: "He is building an administration that looks a whole lot like himself." Trump and Pruitt have congruent opinions about the environment, thus there will be no one in the Trump administration trying to help the problem of climate change. This quote describes what Trump is trying to achieve. Trump has been trying to make the Government into a business. But the two do not combine. Tillerson already having partnerships with foreign leaders like Putin through business should not be the kinds of relationships being built within government. It should be about values and laws not money and oil.

Trump's Cabinet - Daniel and Chloe

Rex Tillerson is currently the Chairman and CEO of Exxonmobil, and has been educated in Civil Engineering from UT Austin. He is currently the candidate for the Secretary of State. His business dealings with foreign governments does not give him enough experience in representing and furthering US national interests. There is a high chance of Mr. Tillerson being placed as the Secretary of State because many in the Republican controlled Congress have business and financial ties to the oil industry, which Mr. Tillerson represents. While it is not typical for the Secretary of State to propose policies independent of the President and his agenda, they do consult and enforce the policies created by the President or Congress. Rex Tillerson would most likely promote legislation that aims to increase cooperation with the Russian Federation, based on his relationship with Mr. Putin and various business dealings, by lowering the sanctions placed on the country.

Ben Carson is a retired neurosurgeon and former Presidential candidate. He is the nominated Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. His background of neurosurgery does not particularly apply to his new position. There is a Republican majority in the Senate currently which means that Ben Carson is likely to be confirmed.  Ben Carson has expressed no future plans so far for development.

Betsy DeVos is currently the chairwoman of the American Federation for Children. She is involved in the movement to privatize public education, and has also moved to spread charter schools across Michigan. Ms. DeVos currently faces criticism for not having ever taught, and her support for private school vouchers, as well as charter schools, has caused many to worry she may drastically reform the current education system in a negative manner. She is likely to be confirmed by Congress because she is a Christian conservative who holds more traditional values, which is a demographic a majority of Congress members have. As stated above, Ms. DeVos will attempt, as she has in the past, to pass legislation that aims to increase the funding and creation of more charter schools, as well as create a voucher system for private schools. She may also attempt to reform the current education policies in place.

Trumps Cabinet Mollie and Thomas

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.

Eyes On The Prize - Henry Finer

The Movie “Eyes On The Prize” is an emotional movie that is filled with sad subject matter and scenes but the part that had the most impact on me was the death of Emmett Till. This part of the movie left me so sad since it’s on thing to hear about the horrible things that blacks had to endure but to see the pictures of Emmett Till's mangled body leaves a far greater impact. This part just showed how horrible the racism was in America and seeing the murders being able to walk free made this part that much more sad and hard to watch. It not only showed the racism that the people practiced in the South but the racism in the justice system as well.