 So I don't think that anything I'm about to tell you is super surprising. In fact, it shouldn't surprise you at all if you're paying attention. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that it is any less infuriating because it is. I mean, of course, Joe Biden is rewarding corporate America with top positions in his administration and transition team after they helped get him elected specifically with very large campaign contributions. So in these times reports, one third of Biden's Pentagon transition team hails from organizations financed by the weapons industry. The president-elect is drawing from hawkish think tanks funded by arms companies. And as Sludge reports, Biden to tap fossil fuel-friendly representative for White House job, top Democratic oil and gas pack money recipient, Representative Cedric Richmond, will be hired for an advisory role according to reports. And Sludge writer Donald Shaffer Richmond, who was Biden's campaign co-chair and transition co-chair, has one of the most oil and gas-friendly voting records among all Democrats in Congress. Richmond was one of 28 House Democrats to vote in favor of approving construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in 2015, which would connect Canadian oil fields to existing pipeline systems that terminate near the Gulf Coast. As Sludge previously reported, Richmond has made a habit over the years of raking with Democrats to vote in favor of Republican energy bills. Richmond, a member of the Moderate New Democratic Coalition, has voted in favor of many Republican bills opposed by environmentalists over the years, including Representative Mark Wayne Mullen's bill to exempt cross-border pipelines from environmental review, Representative Joe Barton's bill to reverse the crude oil export ban, Representative Doc Hastings' bill to expand offshore drilling, and Representative David McKinley's bill to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating the disposal of toxic coal ash. Richmond is not just a big oil and gas booster, he's also a top Democratic recipient of the industry's money. Richmond has received $340,750 from the industry over the course of his House career, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Only four other current Democratic members of the House have taken more oil and gas money than Richmond. So he is appointing a fossil fuel shill to his team. And of course, the sunrise movement, who he met with surprisingly, is now speaking out because they feel as if this is a betrayal. Now it may not be a shocking betrayal, but it still is a betrayal nonetheless, because Joe Biden did make an improvement, right? When he was running in the Democratic Party primaries, his bill when it comes to climate change was trash. I mean, he acknowledges climate change, the bar is really low, it's better than Donald Trump, but he did make an improvement after he won the primary when they did these committees between him and Bernie Sanders. So the sunrise movement is speaking out now. As the Daily Poster reports, Varshini Prakash, the sunrise movement's executive director who served on Biden's policy task force, said in a statement, today feels like a betrayal because of one of President-elect Biden's very first hires for his new administration has taken more donations from the fossil fuel industry during his career than nearly any other Democrat. Prakash called Richmond's election an affront to young people who made President-elect Biden's victory possible. Yeah, and she is absolutely correct. This is what we all expected. I mean, it's always the case that whatever Joe Biden does, nine times out of 10 is going to be better than what Donald Trump would do or would have done. But still, that doesn't make what he's doing acceptable. Just because he's better than Trump doesn't mean that we give him a pass for everything. Now that he won, we have to hold his feet to the fire and pushing him left is going to be almost impossible, I think, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we don't exert pressure. That doesn't necessarily mean that we don't try to stop him from doing the most harmful things. So now, before this is official, I think it is important to speak out and relentlessly criticize him because we can't have these types of shills in his industry because, guess what, if you had these folks in his administration, they're going to be influencing him at every step of the way. So if we actually took his climate change policy, elements of which he took from Bernie's policy, not all, but some, do you honestly think he would put that forward? Of course not. It would be watered down if they even talked about legislation assuming Democrats were able to take back the Senate, depending on the outcome of two runoff races in Georgia. So it's disgusting, but I mean, it's not like the defense industry shills on the transition team and Richmond in his administration are outliers because he has a lot of shills in his administration and to recap Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times kind of lays it out. So far, the White House staff we know of includes Ronald Klain, a venture capital executive. Great. Thank you. I mean, he was tapped likely because of his handling of the Ebola crisis, but I don't think that a venture capital executive is someone who should be in a position of power. We have a former pharmaceutical insurance lobbyist, a fossil fuel industry shill, as we recently learned learned about, and the co-founder of a firm that represents big pharma and private equity. Yeah, so not great. And that's not to say that every single one of his picks will be terrible. He could choose Deb Haaland to be Interior Secretary. She's not the worst option. She's not my favorite, but I mean, she would be fine. But these are the people who are going to be influencing him. So even if he puts any progressives in his administration that she had to be determined, there's still already enough people that will influencing to do bad things. So to the people who thought that Biden would somehow be a breath of fresh air, you were wrong. He was going to be terrible. And the left knew that he was going to be terrible, hence why we were sounding the alarm. And Biden is already proving leftists who are skeptical, correct. So here's the thing. I mean, regardless if we are dissatisfied with Biden or you're satisfied with Biden, that doesn't matter because like it or not, if Biden and Democrats don't use this time in office to deliver and materially improve Americans lives, there's going to be another turnover in the government. Republicans will take back control of government. So either you actually make some changes or people will not turn out again. And that's that's what we're dealing with. And it's not something that, you know, only affects Biden. If he loses, he's going to be okay. But you know, when Democrats are incompetent, that affects everyone. Republicans policies are harmful to everyone. So, you know, you're hurting people if you don't actually deliver. Because when Americans stay home, Republicans win. So, you know, this is a really bad sign. And I hope that the folks who were, you know, anticipating that they'd use this time with Biden as president to return to brunch acknowledge that if you truly care about the country and don't want Republicans to take control and an even, you know, more insidious fascist to come to power after Donald Trump, you have to fight Biden at every step of the way. Because if we don't, Republicans will win. Republican success is going to hinge on how successful Biden is as presidents. And we're not off to a great start.