quote -Q-:
"How many 'common men' are in Trump's cabinet?"
~~~~~~~~
... I looked up the backgrounds for a few of the nominees:Defense: James N Mattis"Mattis was born on September 8, 1950, in Pullman, Washington. His mother's name is Lucille (Proulx) Mattis. His father worked as a merchant mariner and his mother had worked in Army Intelligence in South Africa during the Second World War. He was raised in Richland, Washington, and graduated from Columbia High School in 1968. Mattis earned a BA degree in history from Central Washington University in 1971.
He initially enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1969. He later earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Central Washington University and was commissioned a second lieutenant through the Reserve Officers' Training Corps on January 1, 1972."
√ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_MattisHomeland security: John F Kelly"Kelly was born on May 11, 1950 in Boston, Massachusetts, where he was also raised, in an Irish-Catholic family. Before he turned 16, he had hitch-hiked across the country at least once, including a freight-hop from Seattle to Chicago. He then served for one year as a United States Merchant Marine.
Kelly initially enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1970, and was discharged from active duty as a sergeant in 1972, after serving in an infantry company with the 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Following graduation from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1976, he was commissioned on December 27, 1975 ... He received a Master of Science degree in National Security Studies from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service in 1984."
√ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kelly_(Marine)
CIA director: Mike Pompeo"Pompeo was born in Orange, California, the son of Dorothy (née Mercer) and Wayne Pompeo. He attended the U.S. Military Academy where he majored in Mechanical Engineering, graduating first in his class in 1986 and subsequently serving in the Regular Army as an Armor Branch cavalry officer from 1986 to 1991. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He then worked as a lawyer for Williams & Connolly.
As a teenager, he enrolled at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He graduated first in his class from West Point in 1986. According to his official biography, he then served as a cavalry officer patrolling the Iron Curtain before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He also served with the 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry in the Fourth Infantry Division. He served his last tour in the Gulf War."
√ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_PompeoAttorney general: Jeff Sessions"Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was born in Selma, Alabama, on December 24, 1946, the son of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, Jr., and the former Abbie Powe.[2] His father owned a general store in Hybart, Alabama, and then a farm equipment dealership. Both of Sessions' parents were of primarily English ancestry, with some Scots-Irish. In 1964, Sessions became an Eagle Scout, and later, he earned the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award for his many years of service.
After attending Wilcox County High School in nearby Camden, Sessions studied at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, graduating with a B.A. degree in 1969. He was active in the Young Republicans and was student body president. Sessions attended the University of Alabama School of Law and graduated with a J.D. degree in 1973... Sessions is a Sunday school teacher at the Ashland Place United Methodist Church in Mobile, where he and his wife are members."
√ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_SessionsEnergy: Rick Perry"A fifth-generation Texan, Perry was born on March 4, 1950, in Haskell, Haskell County, Texas, and raised in Paint Creek, Haskell County in West Texas, the son of cotton farmers Joseph Ray Perry and Amelia June Holt Perry, and he has an older sister, Amelia Shaye "Milla" Perry Jones (born July 27, 1948). Perry's ancestry is almost entirely English, dating as far back as the original Thirteen Colonies. His family has been in Texas since before the Texas Revolution.
His father, a Democrat, was a long-time Haskell County commissioner and school board member. Perry has said that his interest in politics probably began in November 1961, when his father took him to the funeral of U.S. Representative Sam Rayburn.
Perry was in the Boy Scouts (BSA) and earned the rank of Eagle Scout. The BSA has honored Perry with the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. Perry graduated from Paint Creek High School in 1968."
√ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_PerryHousing and urban development: Ben Carson"Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Sonya (Johnnie) (née Copeland) and Robert Solomon Carson, Jr. (December 27, 1914 – August 29, 1992), a World War II U.S. Army veteran, then a Baptist minister, and later a Cadillac automobile plant laborer. Both parents came from large families in rural Georgia and were living in rural Tennessee when they met and married. Carson's mother was 13 and his father was 28 when they married, and after his father finished his military service, they moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Detroit, where they lived in a large house in the Indian Village neighborhood...
In 1959, when Carson was eight, his parents separated and he moved with mother and brother to live for two years with his mother’s Seventh-day Adventist older sister and her sister’s husband in multi-family dwellings in the Dorchester and Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston. In Boston, Carson’s mother attempted suicide, had several psychiatric hospitalizations for depression, and for the first time began working outside the home as a domestic worker ..."
√ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_CarsonSmall business administration: Linda McMahon"McMahon was born Linda Marie Edwards in New Bern, North Carolina, the daughter of Evelyn and Henry Edwards. She was an only child and grew up as a "tomboy", playing basketball and baseball. Her parents were both employees at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, a military base. She grew up in a conservative Baptist family, and was raised a Baptist, though she converted to Catholicism in her later years.
Linda M. Edwards, at the age of 13, met Vincent K. McMahon, then age 16. Her mother worked in the same building as McMahon's mother, although they had not met.
Vince's mother became good friends with the Edwards family, and Vince, who had lived with several abusive stepfathers, enjoyed the feeling of stability that he felt at the home. Edwards and McMahon dated throughout their high school years. She attended New Bern High School and Vince attended nearby Fishburne Military School."
√ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_McMahon