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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#268301: Jan 23rd 2019 at 3:56:34 AM

Lets put it this way- yes the list of every little thing they do seems long, but I believe that the lions share of resources is going toward deportations, a mission which is completely futile from a law enforcement perspective. Remove deporting people, and what's left isnt enough for a stand alone agency. The FBI could absorb it all with barely a hiccup.

Archons propsal isnt a bad one, though.

Edited by DeMarquis on Jan 23rd 2019 at 6:57:34 AM

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#268302: Jan 23rd 2019 at 4:50:00 AM

[up] I wouldn’t say that the lion’s share of resources go towards deportation. ERO only has about 3,000–6,000 officers (this number has fluctuated quite a lot over the years, it’s actually been dropping under Trump) out of 20,000 ICE employees total. HSI, the part of ICE that does all the other investigative stuff, usually has around 8,000-9,000 officers for reference.

I will mention, though, that ERO’s budget is gigantic for how many people it employs. In fact, it has one of the largest budgets per employee in the entire government.

Despite that, though, deportation really only involves roughly about a third of the agency. You could fire everyone involved in that and the agency would pretty much be fine, which is what the next Democratic President should be doing quite frankly. The money can then be put back into the other end of ICE or sent to agencies like ORR, who are in charge of housing migrant children.

I’m not sure deportation should even really be a thing we’re doing at all. Unless they’re committing serious crimes here or their home country has a legitimate reason to want them back people shouldn’t be deported under any circumstances.

Edited by archonspeaks on Jan 23rd 2019 at 5:05:22 AM

They should have sent a poet.
Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
#268303: Jan 23rd 2019 at 6:30:36 AM

[up]Well, we do need a mechanism for deporting people unless we want to allow anyone who enters the US to stay. (Which is an option, of course, but not one that will get majority support in the US.)

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#268304: Jan 23rd 2019 at 6:32:30 AM

If it needs to be pitched as destruction to sell it to voters so be it, but I’m the context of the conversation here we’re really just talking about a rebranding.

Sure, and I have no problem with acknowledging that it would be a defacto rebranding.

My point is just that serious politicians can have good reasons to push for the 'destruction' of ICE without being silly.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#268305: Jan 23rd 2019 at 6:57:14 AM

Not that this pages-long debate on whether ICE should be disbanded or rebranded isn't interesting, but there are other things to discuss.

Like the vote to reopen the government on Thursday. From what I understand, there are two potential budgets. The first one, as already mentioned, is DOA, since it contains a lot of hardline immigration policies.

There's another one, though, that funds the government through 2/8 (admittedly, not a very long time... couldn't they come up with a longer time frame?). Catch is, it doesn't contain border wall funding, so Trump will not sign it. My question is, will there be enough support in Congress at this point to override his veto, or is it just as DOA as such a thing was a month ago?

Oh, and just to make things worse: Even though the IRS is technically open during the shutdown, many employees are not showing up, which means delays on refunds. A lot of us depend on refunds. If I don't get one in the usual time frame all because Trump can't budge an inch on the wall issue... that is not cool.

Edited by speedyboris on Jan 23rd 2019 at 8:59:47 AM

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#268306: Jan 23rd 2019 at 7:00:07 AM

There almost certainly won't be enough support for overriding Trump's expected veto. His popularity hasn't fallen enough and we aren't close enough to another election for Republican lawmakers to feel any pressure to reopen the government.

Assuming that there will be a vote on a continuing resolution, of course.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#268307: Jan 23rd 2019 at 7:01:48 AM

Most articles I've read on the Thursday votes believe that both bills are going to fail, but that they'll hopefully open up the door for more negotiations.

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#268308: Jan 23rd 2019 at 7:06:51 AM

IMO, the principal reason that either bill is being advanced is in order to push shutdown blame off the Senate Republicans. Or maybe my opinion on them is overly unkind.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#268309: Jan 23rd 2019 at 7:07:06 AM

The pessimist in me says one of the bills will fail,and will be the one Trump doesn't want to sign

The optimist in me agrees with [up][up] that neither bill will pass

Edited by Ultimatum on Jan 23rd 2019 at 3:07:34 PM

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Hylarn (Don’t ask)
#268310: Jan 23rd 2019 at 7:11:08 AM

Any bill needs bipartisan support to pass, which means that neither will

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#268311: Jan 23rd 2019 at 7:49:20 AM

[up][up] Unless I'm misunderstand something, I think you mixed up optimist and pessimist there.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#268312: Jan 23rd 2019 at 7:52:51 AM

Most likely, Biden would just continue Obama's shittiest policies, like drone warfare and the lenient attitude with bailing out the people at fault for economic crises. But that's suggesting Biden would win, which he won't cause all his rape stuff is gonna come out hard in the primaries.

It probably wouldn't if it was a room full of white guys with guilty consciences like a lot of primaries wind up being. But this year, he's got some fierce competition from the X chromosome. He's sharing the spotlight with Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Kristen Gillibrand, and Tulsi Gabbard who is a person that sucks as a person but is still a woman. That shit is not going to slide.

This year's Democratic primary is a bad place to be a man who likes to grope women inappropriately.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#268313: Jan 23rd 2019 at 7:56:21 AM

"From the X chromosome" is a strange way of phrasing it, seeing as everyone has to have one.

TechPriest90 Servant of the Omnissiah from Collegia Titanica, Mars, Sol System Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
AzurePaladin She/Her Pronouns from Forest of Magic Since: Apr, 2018 Relationship Status: Mu
She/Her Pronouns
#268315: Jan 23rd 2019 at 7:57:17 AM

[up][up] And, not to be a complete pedant, Trans Women would have a Y chromosome and still count.

[up] Not the IRS' fault, I don't think. They aren't the ones shutting down the Government.

Or ARE they?

[down][nja]

Edited by AzurePaladin on Jan 23rd 2019 at 10:58:46 AM

The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer
speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#268316: Jan 23rd 2019 at 7:57:57 AM

[up]x2 The IRS isn't the enemy here.

AzurePaladin She/Her Pronouns from Forest of Magic Since: Apr, 2018 Relationship Status: Mu
She/Her Pronouns
#268317: Jan 23rd 2019 at 8:10:51 AM

Also, something we missed, it seems: Pete Buttigieg, a mayor from South Bend, Indiana, has joined the race.

I know very little about him, and there seems to be things to like and to dislike about him. Regardless, I'll throw this out there in case anyone wants to discuss.

The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#268318: Jan 23rd 2019 at 8:15:51 AM

Senate Dem introduces 'Stop Stupidity' act to end government shutdowns

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/426459-senate-dem-introduces-stop-stupidity-act-to-end-government-shutdowns

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Tuesday introduced legislation to prevent future government shutdowns in the event of funding lapses.

The Stop Stupidity (Shutdowns Transferring Unnecessary Pain and Inflicting Damage In The Coming Years) Act would automatically renew funding for all aspects of government, besides the legislative branch and president's office, at the same level as the previous year.

A press release about the legislation said that such a policy would keep the government running in the event that lawmakers are not able to pass a funding bill due to policy differences.

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#268320: Jan 23rd 2019 at 8:23:58 AM

State Department cancels border security conference due to shutdown over border security

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/01/22/politics/state-dept-border-security-conference-postponed/index.html

Washington (CNN) — In the midst of a partial government shutdown stalemate over a border wall, the State Department has had to cancel, for now, an international conference focused on border security — due to that very shutdown.

The 16th International Export Control and Border Security Conference was scheduled to take place in Edinburgh, Scotland, in mid-February, with a goal of preventing the proliferation and transfer of weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons across borders.

However, it has been postponed "due to uncertainty associated with the continuing partial U.S. federal government shutdown," according to a letter obtained by CNN, signed by Kathryn Insley, the director of the Office of Export Control Cooperation. In the letter, dated January 16, Insley wrote that they "are working to identify alternative dates" and would be in contact with participants "as soon as we are operational again."

Edited by sgamer82 on Jan 23rd 2019 at 9:24:23 AM

Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#268321: Jan 23rd 2019 at 8:44:08 AM

@Raineh Daze: In fact, most people have 22 X-Chromosome Pairs, only the last Chromosome is a Y-or-X Chromosome.

Leviticus 19:34
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#268322: Jan 23rd 2019 at 8:50:07 AM

Sen. Jon Tester Asks Colleagues to Stand Up to Trump on The Shutdown.

I like this guy. This blunt honesty about the shitshow that is happening is very much needed.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#268323: Jan 23rd 2019 at 9:28:53 AM

Tester is one of the most moderate/conservative Democrats in the Senate (though he votes with his party of most of the biggest issues); no surprise considering that he represents Montana. Him going after Trump and the Republicans is a good sign that Democratic ranks are not going to break.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#268324: Jan 23rd 2019 at 10:41:10 AM

OK, what is this about? Biden’s Paid Speech Buoyed the G.O.P. in Midwest Battleground

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#268325: Jan 23rd 2019 at 10:59:49 AM

Cohen is delaying his testimony to Congress, citing Trump's threats against his family.

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/01/23/politics/michael-cohen-testimony-postponed/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

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