 As Joe Biden becomes the president of the United States, the term change on the outside continuity on the inside does in fact come to mind. And I'm not trying to like perpetuate this false equivalence between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party because there are meaningful differences. There is differences when it comes to the rhetoric that they use that does in fact influence culture. You know, there are differences when it comes to voter suppression and what have you. But when it comes to neoliberalism, you know, finding market based solutions for issues that plague American society, foreign policy. These things don't necessarily change and where there is change, where there is a difference, it's not significant enough. So while I fully expect Joe Biden to reduce drones, you know, we had Obama increase the number of drones when he took office and then he scaled them back and then Trump scaled them back up. I do expect Biden to reduce them to Obama era levels, you know, towards the end of Obama's administration. But I don't expect Joe Biden to end drone use altogether. I don't expect Joe Biden to reign in US imperialism like some things never change in government. And that's because our institutions have been corrupted by the virus known as capitalism. But I want to talk about some things that folks have to pay attention to within the Biden administration. And this is corruption. Like of course, Donald Trump is one of the most overtly corrupt presidents in US history. But corruption that we see when it comes to individuals getting government jobs after coming straight from the industry like regulating industries that they came from. This is something that we cannot normalize and just because it's a common phenomenon doesn't mean that we should accept it. So Joe Biden's defense secretary pick is a literal shill for the military industrial complex. He came from the defense industry and he will now be Joe Biden's defense secretary if approved. This is something that we can't accept. So as Rebecca Keel of The Hill reports, President-elect Joe Biden's choice to be defense secretary retired General Lloyd Austin stands to make up to $1.7 million when he leaves the board of defense contractor Raytheon Technologies Corp. If he's confirmed according to his financial disclosure forms. The disclosures released Sunday do not give an exact value of Austin stock holdings related to his position on the Raytheon board of directors but placed the range from 800,000 to about $1.75 million. In ethics forms Austin pledged to fully divest from Raytheon within 90 days of being confirmed as well as to precuse himself from decisions involving the company for a year unless a Pentagon ethics official determines the need for his participation outweighs the perception of a conflict of interest. It's not uncommon for defense secretaries to have ties to contractors. Three of the people who led the Pentagon in the Trump administration had defense contractor connections. Former Secretary James Mattis was on the board at General Dynamics. Former Secretary Mark Esper was Raytheon's top lobbyist and former acting secretary Patrick Shanahan was an executive at Boeing. So this is just outrageous. Like anyone who cares about corruption and money in politics and the swamp, Republican or Democrat should care about this, should be outraged by this. Now certainly I will say that legally it is important that he sever his ties with Raytheon but having said that though, what's going to stop him from going back to Raytheon once he's out of a job in government? It's just troubling because it still incentivizes bad behavior and to be clear when I say bad behavior I mean warmongering, saber rattling because all of this is good for the business known as war which is of course a business in our late stage capitalist system but it's not just Austin who is a shill for the military industrial complex. There are others in Biden's administration who have lots of conflicts of interests and they were financially benefiting from industries that they will be overseeing, Janet Yellen and Anthony Blinken. And this is pointed out in I think a brilliant article by The Daily Poster and none of this is surprising but it's still infuriating. It's titled Biden's Revolving Door and Andrew Perez, Walker Bragman and Julia Rock explain how there are direct conflicts of interest with some of Biden's nominees and this just isn't being talked about by folks in mainstream media. So they report when President-elect Joe Biden's Treasury Secretary nominee, Janet Yellen, disclosed that she accepted big speaking fees from major corporations and industry groups. Many liberal pundits quickly defended her and suggested the revelations are not newsworthy. However, The Daily Poster has found that many of those same companies and groups have been lobbying the agency Yellen has been selected to run. Anthony Blinken, Biden's pick for Secretary of State, has been consulting for giant companies with interests before his new department as well. Many of the financial firms, banks and industry groups paying Yellen will have business before her Treasury Department. Investment Bank City Group paid Yellen a combined 1.1 million for six speeches between March of 2019 and October of 2020. The company lobbied the Treasury Department this year on COVID relief, financial form rules, housing finance reform, cyber security legislation and anti-money laundering legislation. Goldman Sachs, which paid Yellen more than $67,000 for a speech in June, reported lobbying Congress and Treasury this year on implementation of Democrats 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law and issues related to capital and resolution. As for Blinken, Biden's Secretary of State designate disclosed his clients as the secretive consulting firm West exec advisors. Biden's nominee for director of national intelligence, Avril Haynes, reported that she was paid $180,000 by controversial data mining company and US intelligence contractor, Palantir. According to a Daily Poster review, Blinken advised seven companies that have recently lobbied the State Department, including aerospace manufacturer Boeing and Blackstone Group, the world's largest private equity firm, social media giant Facebook and pharmaceutical company Gilead. Boeing is one of the country's largest defense contractors, relying on the US government for a substantial portion of its revenue. The State Department helps Boeing sell commercial planes overseas and it also approves foreign arms deals by companies like Boeing. So ask yourself this, knowing that there are all of these conflicts of interest, do you honestly believe that these individuals are going to be impartial when they serve in these roles within Biden's administration? You'd have to be naive to think so. But this is such a common occurrence that it's not talked about in mainstream media and when it is, you know, mainstream media pundits will literally defend these individuals. Janet Yellen was defended by the mainstream media, MSNBC. And on top of that, like even some progressive organizations like the, I think it was the PCCC, they were pleased and praised Biden for appointing Janet Yellen to be Treasury Secretary. So I mean, like the bar is so low in America that out of all of the folks in DC, like the least corrupted individual is worthy of praise, apparently. Now, maybe there are less corrupt people than Janet Yellen for this position. In fact, I'm certain that there are. But we become so accustomed to corruption and legalized bribery in America because we live in a late-stage capitalist society where literally every single thing has become commodified. It's become an industry. Politics, elections have become commodified. War is a money-making industry. And when you have this marriage between industry and governments, that is precisely when democracy fails. That's exactly why we're seeing such a low approval rating for Congress. So many policies that are very popular not to get passed, such as Medicare for All, you know, federal marijuana legalization. It's because, you know, whatever the private interests want, that's what we often see become law. And that's not just me saying that. Like, as a political commentator, I think this is obvious. But this is backed up by political science studies. In fact, Dr. Gillins and Paige in a 2014 Princeton University study found when it comes to policy outcomes, special interests and elites, they dictate what becomes law, whereas average citizens, like, we have a statistically insignificant impact on policy outcomes. Like, that tells you that we are in a late-stage capitalist society, which makes democracy, like, almost impossible to thrive here. So, you know, if Biden is going to be a successful president, he's going to have to curtail the corruption that we see in D.C. But the question is, why would he do that when he is incentivized to keep this system going? This same system that we need him to, you know, change is what helped him get elected. Health insurance industry insiders donated to Joe Biden. They held fundraisers for him. So do we expect him to rein in the health insurance industry? Do we expect him to take on the very system that helped him get elected? And the answer, I think, is no. So, you know, I want folks to understand that this is not something that should be normalized, just because it is a common phenomenon that doesn't necessarily mean that we should get desensitized to it. We should still see this and be outraged to it. This is corruption. These conflicts of interest are completely unacceptable. And it's why we have to completely eradicate money in politics and decommodify elections. Otherwise, capitalism is going to kill everything about our society, including democracy itself. I'm mostly speaking to, you know, my liberal brothers and sisters here that you all understand that now is not the time to go to brunch. Now is the time to be motivated. Now is not the time to praise Joe Biden because things feel normal again. Now is the time to truly push for change because if we don't, then guess what's going to happen? We're going to see another demagogue emerge that may be worse than Donald Trump. And the writing's been on the wall for quite some time, so you can't, like, act surprised if this does happen again. You've been warned, so please don't go to sleep during these years. Actually pay attention and fight with leftists and organizers and activists who have been fighting this capitalist system that has ruthless for decades now. You know this, you know this thing.