After President-Elect Biden announced his new national security team, a group of experienced, highly competent professionals, Senator Marco Rubio mocked them in a tweet, mostly because they are well-educated. Presumably he’s trying to grab Trump’s mantle as champion of the uneducated.
Brianna Keillor of CNN shredded Rubin’s baloney, pointing out that the Trump administration included many Ivy League graduates, such as Trump, who went to Penn and frequently boasted about his Ivy League credentials. Neither Biden nor Harris are Ivy Leaguers. Marco Rubio of full of baloney, even if it’s shredded.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Biden’s National Security Team is definitely experienced and competent, but at what?
https://www.dailyposter.com/p/the-national-security-revolving-door
Dienne, you never complained as much about Trump’s inexperienced mean-spirited choices as you do about Biden’s choices. Why?
I’ll give an answer. Biden should take criticism from the left as a compliment. It means we have some hope that, with our influence, he might make some good decisions. Criticizing Donald Trump or any of his supporters is and has always been an exercise in futility, a waste of time.
More: https://prospect.org/world/how-biden-foreign-policy-team-got-rich/
And more: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/biden-administration-access-sirota-flournoy-austin-pine-island-capital-partners
Interestingly, none of those results come up on a google search about Biden’s natsec team. Nearly every single result parrots the state line that Biden’s picks are qualified and competent. The few exceptions are obvious right-wing nutjobery like the Washington Examiner. ask yourself why Google would keep well-researched and documented articles out of their search results that happen to be critical of the war-profiteering of these appointees? But the U.S. doesn’t have state controlled media. Um hm.
Not state controlled. . .
but oligarchic (money) controlled media.
Oligarch controlled media and an oligarch controlled state. The Biden administration so far has deep ties to the financial-military industrial complex. Robert Reich warns that this return to business as usual will lead to more economic peril for the vast majority of people and, therefore, more white nationalism. Looks like we’re in for another long decade, folks.
“business as usual” is how we got here
Sad, but true in my estimation also.
Everything you say is true but………….we are damn lucky to be rid of Trump, that’s big. At least with Biden, there’s a chance of some progress via the progressives in the party, such as AOC, Ilhan Omar, Pressly, etc. And then there are the courts, Biden will not be appointing people like Kavanagh or ACB. I’ll take the Democrats over the current far right wing Q-Anon/libertarian/neo-Bircher/Ayn Randian GOP.
I consider myself to be solidly on the Left of the American political spectrum, but you guys are are miles away from me. “Looks like we’re in for another long decade, folks.”?????? Have you been in a coma for the last four years? Nothing is easy in a democratic republic, nothing is quick, nothing is absolute. If that’s what you’re looking for, then seek our your nearest dictatorship. Then you’ll have the luxury of never having to think about politics ever again.
You must adore Pompeo and Stephen Miller.
Yes, being rid of Trump, Barr, Pompeo, Miller, ad nauseam is progress. Biden is selecting qualified and capable people and they are not all corporate sellouts.
Not a logical response at all-actually I find it to be ludicrous and risible. Not liking and critiquing either side of the political duopoly doesn’t mean at all that one favors the other side.
It really is weird that some here are having complete meltdowns and tantrums about the election of an administration that will replace an authoritarian regime built on ignorance, hate, divisiveness, fighting every type of consensus-driven scientific, factual evidence, and would likely have sealed the death of republican governance had it stayed in office. I need some thesaurus-tical help here to find the proper words to describe this exponential weirdness.
Greg, agreed. The ouster of Trump is a victory for democracy, ethics, and decency. Four more years of Trump and this society would be finished as a democracy.
Mitch McConnell will block any progressive legislation unless the two Georgia Democrats win their Senate seats.
Biden is a good man, a decent man, a centrist. He is not Bernie. He is not from the party’s left wing. If McConnell holds the Senate majority, he will block every progressive nominee and every progressive proposal.
I’m thrilled that Biden won. I’m also convinced that he was the only Democrat who had a chance of beating Trump.
Not saying I’m not glad Biden won. I am thankful and relieved he won, and he and his administration will do worlds better than the last four years. Just saying there’s room for improvement. As someone said, “He’s exceeding our low expectations.” Admit it: We have very low expectations these days. Let us raise them. We won!
As I have told my children…..It’s not “where” you go to school but “what” you do with the education you receive at school that matters.
Biden proves that point.
I have told my nieces and nephews, it’s not “where” you go to school, but the name of the school (in that city or town) that matters.
Brianna Keillor offers a thoroughly professional job of deconstructing and criticizing the idea that being uneducated is an asset. Notice also Brianna Keillor’s start in journalism. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with bachelor’s degrees in mass communications and psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.
I have often wondered why schools and teachers seem to be held fully responsible for the performances of their students and graduates. That certainly seems to be a mindset that permeates policy thinking for pre-K-12, where data gathering is relentless and now bridges into social-emotional learning (SEL).
Students, teachers and schools are responsible for meeting from 15 to 35 SEL standards, all based on the work of The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). More than one standard is uncommonly met by Trump and his supporters. Examples: Demonstrate empathy, demonstrate ethical decision-making and social responsibility, demonstrate social maturity and behaviors appropriate to the situation and environment. These demonstrations are expected of still growing children and teens, but not of adults, including elected officials?
We might add to the expectations for children and teens specific “character strengths” for personal and social conduct. Consider those marketed by Angela Duckworth to elementary and secondary schools.
–Strengths of Heart (gratitude, purpose, self-control, social/emotional intelligence),
–Strengths of Mind (curiosity, self-control, zest) and
–Strengths of Will (grit, mindset, optimism). Noteworthy is the absence of truth-telling in Duckworth’s idea of worthy character strengths..
Beyond varied “accountability schemes” for elementary and secondary education (including ESSA requirements), only a few major efforts hold post-secondary schools accountable for the performances of their graduates. So Penn, Harvard, and Yale, and others are off the hook. The performances of their graduates is left to the judgment offered by fame and publicity, as if attending and completing studies is sufficient. The school provides a reputation by proxy, with fame a function of sufficient publicity of “the right kind.”
For postsecondary schools with no deep history and mythology that attendance bestows prestige, there is a different system of “accountability.” It is focussed on rates of on-time completion of programs and economic outcomes for graduates (ROI or return on investment).
These values are prominent in the compulsive the efforts of Bill Gates’ Data Quality and Workforce Data Quality campaigns. In the Workforce Data Quality campaign “success” is measured by completion of a program (in less than six years), and evidence of being in the workplace for five to eleven years after graduation.
Absent from these efforts is any concern for graduates who may enter into public service or engage in civic activities that reflect a concern for justice and the well-being of others. If those value are prized as outcomes of postsecondary education, they will be acknowledged (if at all) in alumni awards and in marketing the institution, whether it had a direct role in producing those accomplishments or not.
I doubt if Trump’s alma mater, Penn will soon feature Trump as an exemplary graduate, but I could be wrong, very wrong. Perhaps Trump is THE exemplary graduate of Penn soon to be given an honorary doctorate for … you name it.
Click to access DQC-Workforce-Linkages-Roadmap-09262018.pdf
Since my husband gets the Wharton alumni magazines, from what I have read, most of the alumni is embarrassed by Trump’s association with U Penn. The institution is happy to receive his donations, which more than likely, greases the wheel so that his progeny may attend this prestigious institution. The school also likes to point out that Trump spent his first two years at Fordham, and he was a transfer student in his junior year. A former admission counselor also stated that Trump’s claim of a stellar academic career at the school were totally bogus.https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/11/donald-trump-2016-wharton-pennsylvania-214425
cx:claims
Trump’s aunt told Mary Trump that Donnie paid a substitute to take his SATs.
I also saw an interview with Mary in which she claimed that Trump is dyslexic. He certainly seems to have difficulty reading from a teleprompter.
When you come from a wealthy family you don’t even need to have good SAT scores.
Schools like Harvard have a completely separate admissions program for those with money and $$$ beat test scores every time.