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from the do-you-really-want-Donald-Trump's-ear? dept.
The CEOs of Tesla, Uber, and Pepsi have joined President-elect Donald Trump's "Strategic and Policy Forum":
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped three additional high-profile chief executives including Tesla's Elon Musk to join a group that will meet regularly to give input on job creation and the economy.
Trump announced the first batch of CEOs for his "strategic and policy forum" on Dec. 2. The group is led by Stephen Schwarzman, the chief executive of Blackstone. Trump's transition team now said the group would expand to include Tesla's Musk, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, and Pepsi chief Indra Nooyi.
From the article at The Wrap:
Trump announced the initial 16 members earlier this month, and the group will be chaired by Blackstone CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman. According to a press release distributed by Trump's transition team, "Members of the Forum will be charged with providing their individual views to the President — informed by their unique vantage points in the private sector — on how government policy impacts economic growth, job creation and productivity."
Also at WSJ (paywalled).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @02:09PM
Musk is not only an immigrant, but has been one of the most outspoken individuals in relation to the dangers of head-in-the-sand mentality when it comes to the human contribution to climate change. And he also, in a rare moment of direct political involvement, said Trump "was not the right man for the job." That Trump is now still seeking him out to help advise him I think shows Trump really is genuinely interested in trying to "make America great again." I think it's time we move beyond Clinton, but I think this really has to be contrasted there to emphasize how incredible this. Had Clinton become president every single appointment would read pretty much straight off a list of "donations" to her campaign or 'foundation.' Instead of seeking out people that would help improve the country as much as possible, she would be seeking out people that improve her own personal status in life as much as possible. Of course that's nothing unique to her, that's pretty much establishment politicking 101.
I suppose we do need to give it some time. Obama's first action on his first day of office, 8 years ago, was to officially close Guantanamo Bay - fulfilling one of his campaign promises. It's still open. Nonetheless, I'm quite excited by this direction for now. And I have hopes when he was the best and brightest informing him about climate change, digital privacy/rights, etc that his stances might be able to genuinely evolve.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @02:33PM
Musk is not only an immigrant, but has been one of the most outspoken individuals in relation to the dangers of head-in-the-sand mentality when it comes to the human contribution to climate change.
Lol. Its a symbolic non-job. Typical trump showmanship. Meanwhile the people he's actually appointed to real jobs in the government are hardcore head-in-the-sand types. Don't be a sucker for this reality-show misdirection.
Had Clinton become president every single appointment would read pretty much straight off a list of "donations" to her campaign or 'foundation.
That's just fantasy on your part. Clinton was a normal politician and normal politicians appoint donors to 2nd tier ambassadorships. Not to cabinet level positions. [politico.com] And definitely not goldman sachs people [rollingstone.com] because in the unlikely event that she would have been so tone-deaf, Sanders, Warren and Ellison would have screamed bloody murder and held her accountable to her campaign rhetoric. Nobody in the GOP is raising a finger to hold Trump accountable.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @03:21PM
Here are a few names for you: Rahm Emanuel, Robert Homats, Stephen Friedman, Diana Farrel, Mark Patterson, Adam Storch, Gary Gensler. That's just a sampling of the Goldman Sachs ONLY crew that Obama filled his cabinet and executive level positions with. Look at all his appointments and it's a typical establishment quid pro quo pool party. Add in ties to the "Clinton Foundation" (whose donations have mysteriously dried up now that her political time is over) and his entire cabinet was nothing but cronyism which clearly has some degree of transitivity. Again this is not unique to Obama and wouldn't have been unique to Hillary.
Some of Trump's picks for cabinet level positions have been absolutely disconcerting. But at the same time he's also appointing non-politicians, military generals, and even his previous rivals, who absolutely do stand outside this political nonsense that's been holding back America for so long. Nuance, something missing in modern discussion. I mean you link to Rolling Stone like that's a reasonable thing to do. Today a good chunk of the country thinks we just elected Hitler. And a good chunk also thinks we just elected a a modern day FDR (irony notwithstanding). Not supporting sources who have thrown away all notions of integrity over agenda would be a nice first step there for all of us.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @03:29PM
(1) Obama Not Clinton
(2) Not significant donors, unlike say Mnuchin who personally contributed over $400K
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @05:13PM
You are being misled by your news sources. FEC regulations prohibit a single individual from directly donating anywhere near $450k to an individual's campaign. There are lots of ways to get around this, but they leave less and less of a public paper trail. Some, such as donations to certain types of political action organizations, enable donors to keep their identity completely secret. The point here is you're comparing apples to oranges. I'm certain this Mnuchin individual did contribute $400k, however saying the typical cronyism is less shall we say "generous" is simply false. You're comparing what was likely his total "donation" to only "donations" for previous administrations tied to public records. Suffice to say, Obama was putting a much higher price on his cabinet seats than just that $2700 or whatever the relevant individual FEC limit was at the time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @06:19PM
> however saying the typical cronyism is less shall we say "generous" is simply false.
Well you are encouraged to provide proof for these claims.
Oh, that's right you have none. Just hand-waving bullshit that is so insubstantial that it can't be disproven.
Convenient as hell, eh?
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @02:47PM
Musk is not only an immigrant,
So is Trump's wife.
She even appears to be an illegal immigrant. [foxnews.com]
But she and Musk have something very important in common. Guess what that is!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @04:46PM
So is Trump's wife.
She even appears to be an illegal immigrant.
But she and Musk have something very important in common. Guess what that is!
They both suck Trump's cock!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @03:21PM
Picking Musk is just one of a variety of recent Trump actions that seem to be "conciliatory".
This editorial properly (IMO) places them as the last step in a successful scam:
Trump blows off working class
A friend of mine, an expert car mechanic, once told me of losing $30,000 in a commodity deal. It was one of those investment swindles then making the rounds. I asked my friend whether he felt angry. “No,” he answered. “I could have tripled my money.” He had no idea that he had been hosed.
Every successful scam ends with a “blow-off.” That’s when the con artist, having relieved the mark of his money, gets rid of the victim. That can be done several ways. Often the chump is too embarrassed to complain. Or he can be intimidated into silence.
The ideal victim is the one who, like my friend, gets taken but doesn’t know it. Such trusting people often come back for more.
Donald Trump is now at the blow-off stage of his hustle to win the support of blue-collar whites.
He started with an in-your-face double cross, filling his administration with the very Wall Street financiers he promised to defang. Then he chose for labor secretary Andrew Puzder, a fastfood executive hostile to a decent minimum wage and several other worker protections.
Blue-collar America has indeed been hurt by mass immigration, especially the illegal kind. On this issue, Trump campaigned as a hard-liner. But Puzder has been a champion of cheap foreign labor. The department he would head is supposed to punish employers who hire undocumented workers.
Trump’s low regard for working stiffs hasn’t exactly been a closely held secret. He ran for president having already employed illegal labor, stiffed his contractors and defrauded the little guys attending Trump University. So how did he get their vote? “There’s nothing a con artist likes better than exploiting the sense of unease we feel when it appears that the world as we know it is about to change,” Maria Konnikova writes in her book “The Confidence Game.” Globalization and automation have put factory workers under enormous stress. Trump checked off all boxes in the art of the con. 1) Learn what the target wants. 2) Play on that desire. 3) Create an emotional foundation based on rapport and an illusion of empathy.
The revolution in information technology also helps. The Trump campaign spread fake news to trap low-information voters in an alternate reality it could control.
A common trait among fraud victims is a desire to believe that things will work their way.
How will labor respond to the Trumpian blow-off? Some may resist. The president of the local steelworkers union flatly announced that Trump “lied his a-- off” about the number of jobs he saved at the Carrier plant in Indianapolis. Trump hit back with an insulting tweet, and others threatened the labor leader’s family.
Some may quietly obey rather than expose themselves to such intimidation. And still others will continue to believe that Trump has their interests at heart – or that he’s not doing what he’s doing.
One wishes a better outcome for American workers of all colors. They’ve suffered enough.
Creators Syndicate
Froma Harrop