Deb Haaland becomes the first Native person ever in the history of the United States to be appointed to a cabinet position. https://t.co/KiqfPNbizi
— Rebecca Nagle (@rebeccanagle) December 17, 2020
… The Interior Department is tasked with protecting the nation’s natural resources and honoring the government’s federal trust responsibilities. It manages America’s vast public lands and coastal waters while overseeing prominent departments such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education. The agency employs 70,000 people.
Haaland’s nomination has been backed by many Indigenous leaders, advocates and allies for weeks.
More than 130 tribal leaders collaborated to write letters to Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, citing Haaland’s bipartisan leadership. Native organizations including NDN Collective and IllumiNative created online campaigns, and celebrities like Mark Ruffalo have offered support via social media…
Many of Haaland’s colleagues in Congress also had rallied behind her. In mid-November, more than 50 House Democrats penned a letter to the Biden transition team backing her for the post.
On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined in, saying Haaland “knows the territory,” and if Biden nominated her, “he will have made an excellent choice.”…
I’ve seen Very Sensible People muttering about ‘the Democrats’ thin margin’ in the House, but for some reason, it always seems to be a woman or a Black man who’s expected to turn down a promotion for ‘the good of the party’, so my take is: Okay, so now we bust humps to put another good Democrat in Rep. Haaland’s vacated seat.
From the Washington Post, which seems to have been first with the news:
… In selecting 60 year-old Haaland, a member of Pueblo of Laguna, Biden has placed the descendant of the original people to populate North America atop a 171-year-old institution that has often had a fraught relationship with 574 federally recognized tribes.
Born in Arizona to a Native American mother who served in the Navy and a Norwegian American father who was an active-duty Marine, Haaland bounced between 13 public schools as the family moved between military bases. She worked at a bakery starting at the age of 15 and went to law school with the help of student loans and food stamps, occasionally experiencing homelessness as a single mother.
Now, after serving a single term in Congress, she will oversee a department that manages roughly one-fifth of land in the United States. While she hails from a top oil- and gas-producing state, has pledged to transform the department from a champion of fossil fuel development into a promoter of renewable energy and policies to mitigate climate change.
“I come from New Mexico. It’s a big gas and oil state. And I care about every single job,” Haaland said in a recent interview with The Washington Post. But she added: “We don’t want to go back to normal, right? We don’t want to go back to where we were because that economy wasn’t working for a lot of people.”…
Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee and helped lead the campaign on behalf of Haaland, said that “any comment that she’s not qualified for the job is wrong, and a cheap shot.” By selecting Haaland, Grijalva added, Biden is helping “begin to rewrite a legacy in this country. And I think that’s good given everything else that’s going on around us.”…
ETA:
The Bureau of Indian Affairs was originally in the Dept. of War.
It moved to Interior in 1849.
Since then Interior oversaw countless policy disasters—some downright horrific.Indians have gone from the enemy, to a problem, to participating, to leading.
https://t.co/SxwJ3OoBb1— Elizabeth A. Reese (Yunpovi) (@yunpovi) December 17, 2020
germy
YES!
I was hoping for this.
dr. bloor
Haaland won 60% of the vote in the general election, FFS. They’re not sending a Republican to replace her.
Excellent choice, btw. This sort of thing gives me faint hope.
Cacti
Since it’s an open thread, I had to throw this out there.
Trump’s neighbors in Palm Beach are saying he can’t claim Mar-a-Lardass as his permanent residence, because his agreement with the City doesn’t let any member live there more than 7 days consecutively, and 21 days total in a calendar year.
In which case…
Wouldn’t that mean he illegally registered to vote in Florida, and illegally voted there?
germy
I need to wait to hear how Susan Collins feels about this, before I can form an opinion.
This is what she said about Mayor Pete:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-17/joe-biden-introduces-pete-buttigieg-as-his-transportation-chief/12992632
I mean, Ms. Collins is always right about everything, so Biden should definitely take her advice on his staff choices.
Kent
Well, I assume they can hold her seat in the next special election.
Kent
@germy: Maybe she wants the job. Heh!
Cacti
@germy: Well, to be fair, Pete doesn’t have that all-important credential for Republican DOT Secretaries:
Being a Senator’s wife.
MazeDancer
How wonderful!
Must be excitement across the West.
To put things into perspective, as a former resident of Santa Fe, my first reaction to seeing BLM used as an acronym for Black Lives Matter was to immediately think “What does the Bureau of Land Management have to do with Racial Justice?”
trollhattan
@germy:
That might possibly be Susan Collins achieving Peak Susan Collins.
What Furrow Alert Level did the Mayor Pete appointment achieve? Ditch? Swale? Slot Canyon?
Rahm. Nice try, lady.
jl
@MazeDancer: Growing up out west near a lot of federal land, I had a similar confusion from time to time.
But I think understandable, since you could never be sure whether a BLM story was about the protests against police abuse, or some sovereign citizen yahoos shooting up some BLM hydrologist’s pick-up truck.
debbie
Glad for the nomination, but hope her seat in the House can be held for a Democrat.
dr. bloor
@Cacti: IIRC, this was raised as an issue at the time he declared residency in FL, so one would hope the questions about the legitimacy of his vote in November were settled beforehand.
The more interesting piece is how the residency-going-forward issue plays out. As much as I’d like to see him get screwed on MaL, the Palm Beach municipal govt’s apathy about enforcing conditions of the contract over the years will make for a huge mess in court. And even if Trump is forced to buy a nearby estate, it’ll be some idiot in OK or MS paying for it.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Cacti: it means the Third Lady also cast an illegal vote.
trollhattan
Great circle of life. In light of our incoming Interior Secretary.
Westlands Water District is the nation’s largest and most powerful. Their lands are all in the Coast Range rainshadow and rely on groundwater and federal irrigation water to grow anything. Their head lobbyist is David Bernhardt. The outgoing Interior Secretary is David Bernhardt.
This has been another episode of “How Western Water Politics Works.”
Jharp
So cool.
I am very interested in seeing what new she brings to the table.
And damn it’s nice to get news like this one again. I’ve become quite inured to eating shit sandwiches for the past 4 years.
jl
@dr. bloor: ” And even if Trump is forced to buy a nearby estate, it’ll be some idiot in OK or MS paying for it. ”
What digs the future ex-president Trump can afford will depend how quickly all the people he’s rooked can get their money back.
So, maybe that is why he is threatening to hunker down in the WH after the inauguration. He might figure his housing tenure will last longer there.
Cacti
Given what we know about Donald Trump, and Florida state government, I would lean towards “not bloody likely”.
Xantar
Heck, I think the Secretary of Interior for the next 200 years should be Native American. It seems only fair.
Dan B
Our best friend’s father worked at BIA. It was a pit of
viperssadistic f*#ks. He hid from the monsters in the basement law library, discovered treaties that he turned, with allies, into tribal sovereignty and then, recognizing sovereignty meant nothing without money, pushed through gaming. BIA still has many monsters who live to torment native people. I hope Haaland can replace them.zhena gogolia
@Xantar:
Me too!
mrmoshpotato
Chris doesn’t care much for the other C&L staff. LOL Read this. Read this now.
Brachiator
I do believe I am a bit choked up.
dr. bloor
Eh, I’m not optimistic (although I never am). He’s already raised a metric butt-tonne of cash since November with the “Stolen” scam. As for folks getting their money back, that’s likely measured in years if not decades rather than weeks and months–if they have the intelligence to sue.
zhena gogolia
@mrmoshpotato:
That is so cute!
zhena gogolia
I AM SO FUCKING PROUD TO BE A DEMOCRAT
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
We’re not fuckers.
narya
@MazeDancer: And I, having gone to BurningMan and having a friend who has gone for decades, had the same reaction to the acronym.
I’m excited about this pick, too.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Orilly?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Present company excluded.
Jeffro
temporarily hijacking the thread to note that Michael Gerson has gone full Betty Cracker here: trumpov and his party are threatening our constitutional order.
No, not the headline, sillies! This part
LOL x eleventy
dexwood
I’ll repeat what I wrote in an earlier thread – mrs. dexwood was dancing and cheering when she heard the news. Deb Haaland is a distant cousin of hers. Like Haaland, she also has roots in the pueblos of Laguna and Jemez. Celebrating here tonight.
sab
Any one from NM: hpw does she pronounce her name? Hayland, or Holland, or some other way? I have a surname that is always mispronounced and it annoys me. Also too I rhymed Kamala with Pamela for far too long.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Bumper sticker?
Rotating tag?
¿Porqué no los dos?
feebog
Haaland is an excellent choice. As is Michael Regan for EPA Director. Joe Biden is keeping his promise to make his cabinet and staff look like America.
SiubhanDuinne
LOL
jeffreyw
Amir Khalid
@sab:
I know of two Norwegian football players, father and son, named Haaland. Their name is pronouced HAH-land. If the Secretary designate’s name is of Norwegian/Scandinavian origin, that’s the pronunciation I’d go with.
Cheryl Rofer
@sab: Holland is close to what I hear most of the time
dexwood
dexwood
@Amir Khalid: That is how our family pronounces it.
Keith P.
@germy:
Good lord, what planet is she living on? Not even Biden wants *that* much of an Obama retread, so why would the GOP? maybe she’s actually being clever and just trying to slow Mayor Pete’s ascent to handicap the Dem field in 2024…other that that, I dunno what she’s thinking.
Jay
Frankensteinbeck
@jl:
Not going to happen. On the other hand, I am confident that money will drain through Trump’s tiny fingers like water. His businesses were already losing money when he became president. All business except that directly related to his being president dropped like a rock as he became hated. The income that he has been depending on will vanish a month from now, and is probably already nosediving because the rich don’t need to suck up to him for favors. When enough of the base realize Trump can’t overturn the election that they stop sending him money, he’s going to drown in red ink.
jeffreyw
@dexwood: That’s great!
mvr
Makes me really happy. And optimistic that a couple of national monuments are going back to their original sizes.
Mike in NC
Trump’s first Interior Secretary was Ryan Zinke, an ex-Navy SEAL and big game hunter from Montana who was, like most Trump cabinet members, fairly unqualified to do the job and he stepped down after various scandals.
This is a massive improvement.
Geminid
@germy: I think Sue Collins is the only person I’ve heard of who actually likes Rahm Emmanual!
Jay
Danielx
@germy:
Uh-oh! Furrowed brow alert!
Susan Collins can fuck right off too.
Danielx
@Cacti:
Probably, but at the time – or now for that matter – it wasn’t like Trump worried about the legality of anything he did in Florida. As to the neighbors and Palm Beach in general, his lawyers will tie them up in court forever or until he dies.
trollhattan
@Geminid:
I don’t think she likes Rahm. I think she’s being “Clever Susie” and clumsily trying to trick Joe. As if.
Geminid
@trollhattan: I was thinking maybe Collins had a crush.
rikyrah
Great choice???
rikyrah
@germy:
PHUCK that trick
schrodingers_cat
OT: IT experts what do you think about Telegram?
NotMax
Trivia: Oldest living former cabinet member turned 100 on December 13th. George Schultz, Secretary of Labor and also later Secretary of Treasury under Nixon.
Former cabinet member whose time of service goes back the furthest is Ramsey Clark, who was LBJ’s Attorney General. He turns a spry 93 tomorrow.
Youngest living former cabinet member was Obama’s Secretary of Education, John King Jr., who will be 46 come his birthday next month.
Mary G
Boo fucking hoo:
I like to think he sat by his phone ordering it to ring, and then when the chime came, it was a notification that Mayor Pete had scored the gig, so he destroyed his phone.
Frankensteinbeck
@NotMax:
Most recent former cabinet member was Bill Barr, but we’ll see who Trump fires for disloyalty tomorrow.
Woodrow/asim
@schrodingers_cat: What purpose will using Telegram serve for you?
There’s nothing horrifically wrong with it, mind. It’s just that another tool might serve your goals better, depending on what they are.
NotMax
@Frankensteinbeck
Technically, he doesn’t become former until Xmas Eve. Currently in his lame schmuck period.
schrodingers_cat
@Woodrow/asim: Its a group of people that I have met on Twitter trying to counter the firehose of bullshit that is coming from the Modi government. The cable and print media are mostly in BJP’s pocket. This is a regime that imprisons journalists, protesters etc. So people are worried about their security. Most of them are in India. People are trying to settle on a platform to discuss stuff between ourselves.
Benw
Since it’s OT: let’s go Chargers!
Uncle Omar
Slate has an article up about the chumps who bet with off-shore internet casinos that Trumpov would be re-elected. At one point the chumps had to bet $775 to win $100. And still they did. The casinos made millions. The chumps are pissed and think they should get their money back or that the casinos shouldn’t have paid the bets on Biden–of which there weren’t anywhere as many as there were on Trumpov. Maybe the casinos should buy Trumpov a mansion in West Palm–or somewhere with no extradition agreement.
Another Scott
@schrodingers_cat: My former hair stylist had family in Iran and was on it. It seems like a very capable and popular app.
Understand the encryption features and the limitations if you’re interested in it for those reasons. (IIRC, it doesn’t encrypt everything by default, and stuff on your phone in particular won’t be encrypted, so if the authorities grab your/your correspondents’ phone, all bets are off.)
Signal is another app that might be worth considering – it can encrypt SMS message (it doesn’t try to do as much as Telegram does).
HTH a little. Good luck.
Cheers,
Scott.
Gin & Tonic
@schrodingers_cat: It is difficult to recommend something that will reliably protect you from the resources of a sophisticated nation-state. If you are afraid of being kidnapped from a neutral country, rendered to some other and executed (a la Iran) then you can’t trust anyone or anything.
That said, Signal is viewed as less susceptible than Telegram.
Omnes Omnibus
If one is in that position, then commenting about it here is a mistake. It’s one of the things I find amusing about one of our commenters who talks a big game about violent resistance when the right does its inevitable takeover. If they are right, they are already on a list.
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: These are just regular folks for the most part who don’t necessarily know each other personally but want to do something about the relentless BJP propaganda and need a messaging app to talk to one another. Telegram is the consensus choice. I just wanted to know more about the app before I decide to join or not.
mvr
Perhaps getting on that list is kind of a pre-commitment strategy?
If you know they are coming for you you might as well resist with whatever you’ve got.
Omnes Omnibus
@mvr: Maybe. But my understanding of secret resistance organizations is that they work better if they aren’t particularly public. Faux tough guy blowhards on the other hand….
schrodingers_cat
@Another Scott: Thanks it does help.
sdhays
@Gin & Tonic: I seem to recall it being suggested that Signal has a relationship with US intelligence.
Gin & Tonic
@schrodingers_cat: Telegram is not a terrible choice. But only you can assess the degree of risk you are willing to tolerate.
That said, if this is a group of people who don’t actually know each other, you should assume everyone in it is either compromised or a hostile actor.
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: You are making this operation sound scary.
Gin & Tonic
@sdhays: You can do your own research. I’m not going to get into that here.
Gin & Tonic
@schrodingers_cat: I am a realist. How do you know these people are who they purport to be? How do you know they know how to maintain operational security? It’s hard.
Assess what’s at risk, and make your decisions based on that.
Yutsano
Every time I see this news I get more chuffed about it.
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: I only know the person who has put the group together.
catclub
@Jeffro: but really, the ‘going Jen Rubin’ part is that he is calling out the entire GOP, minus about three people, as eager accomplices.
catclub
also later Secretary Of State under reagan.
Benw
Yay Chargers! I did not see that coming
jonas
And, more recently, Theranos board member. Guy really knew how to detect and vouch for reliable and honest leaders…
Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
burners, separate pay as you go accounts, gps/camera/mike off,
TOR is pretty good.
Nothing personal that’s not generic.
Sam
@debbie: it’s a pretty safe blue seat. the problem with the thin margin is that, while hers and 2 other seats are vacant (which will be until sometime in March/April, the right-wingers in the Dem caucus like Josh Gottheimer and Henry Cuellar hold MASSIVE leverage over Pelosi for basically anything. Once those seats get filled, the right-wing Dems have rather less power.
Sam
@dr. bloor:the problem with the thin margin is that, while hers and 2 other seats are vacant (which will be until sometime in March/April, the right-wingers in the Dem caucus like Josh Gottheimer and Henry Cuellar hold MASSIVE leverage over Pelosi for basically anything. Fortunately, once those seats get filled, the right-wing Dems have rather less power, but the intervening 2-3 months is a pretty valuable chunk of legislative time. There’s a reason “100 days” are a thing.