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

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#237751: Apr 6th 2018 at 6:10:35 PM

The problem is that we need to balance fixing Trump's mess with also pushing an a domestic agenda that people want.

Lets make a couple baskets, just to organize it a bit better.

Administrative: Rebuilding the different agencies, regaining trust of the civil service, reinstating regulations, new regulations, etc.

Foreign: Rebuilding Relationships with allies, trade policy, dealing with Russia, China, North Korea, etc

Domestic: Infrastructure, healthcare reform, immigration, economic reform, etc.

[down] grin

edited 6th Apr '18 6:16:27 PM by megaeliz

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#237752: Apr 6th 2018 at 6:14:05 PM

Why make baskets? Does the USA's basket weaving industry need a boost?

LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#237753: Apr 6th 2018 at 6:16:23 PM

I don't really think there are any single big issues, because it all affects millions or possibly billions of people, and Trump is causing damage to all of it.

Which is I suppose the real issue, that there's just going to be so much that needs to be fixed, and the next president/congress alone likely won't have enough time/capital to do it.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#237754: Apr 6th 2018 at 6:17:54 PM

[up] Doesn't excuse us from trying.

The "X problem is to big, so why even bother trying to fix it" argument is really starting to annoy me. It's lazy, and an excuse to do nothing. note 

edited 6th Apr '18 6:23:59 PM by megaeliz

TroperOnAStickV2 Call me Stick from Redneck country Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: is commanded to— WANK!
Call me Stick
#237755: Apr 6th 2018 at 6:20:05 PM

Universal healthcare and a formal net neutrality law/some way of breaking up the current ISP monopolies. I'm aware that the latter is probably a slight case of Skewed Priorities, but after all the folderol they've pulled over the past year or so, I want to see them SUFFER.

EDIT: Whee, this thread is FAST. Doesn't help that I was multitasking while writing that.

edited 6th Apr '18 6:25:15 PM by TroperOnAStickV2

Hopefully I'll feel confident to change my avatar off this scumbag soon. Apologies to any scumbags I insulted.
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#237756: Apr 6th 2018 at 6:22:23 PM

[up]I don't think that's skewed priorities, internet access is massively important economically and the fact that it's so dominated by a few for-profit companies is unacceptable. Not to mention that rural areas are in dire need of government programs to extend internet availability to them.

edited 6th Apr '18 6:23:33 PM by Fourthspartan56

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#237757: Apr 6th 2018 at 6:22:40 PM

[up][up][up]Didn't mean to imply there was.

Although, I'm not sure how you got "why even bother trying to fix it?" from what I said.

edited 6th Apr '18 6:23:47 PM by LSBK

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#237758: Apr 6th 2018 at 6:23:22 PM

[up]For that it's worth I didn't see any such implication, it's a legitimate worry.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#237759: Apr 6th 2018 at 6:25:35 PM

[up][up] It wasn't really directed at you. It's more just built up frustration at the stupid arguments people make to do nothing. (See Gun Control)

Yomegami Since: Jan, 2011
#237760: Apr 6th 2018 at 6:29:37 PM

If the goal is to keep something like Trump from ever happening again, then I think an additional priority should be to bring the Fairness Doctorine or something similar to it back into existence. Because Fucks News, Sinclair, etc. really need to be struck dead somehow.

Icon by Civvi the Civilian!
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#237761: Apr 6th 2018 at 6:29:40 PM

I think you start with electoral reform and education reforms, because a well educated population able to exercise its democratic rights is how you sustain democrat control long enough to fix everything else.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#237762: Apr 6th 2018 at 6:31:09 PM

On an administrative front, filling all the vacant appointee positions wouldn't be too hard, and could only be a positive.

Anyone have any more ideas for administrative or foreign priorities they would like to see?

edited 6th Apr '18 6:41:22 PM by megaeliz

TroperOnAStickV2 Call me Stick from Redneck country Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: is commanded to— WANK!
Call me Stick
#237763: Apr 6th 2018 at 6:31:23 PM

... education reform is probably tied with some kind of internet fix for my #2 priority, actually.

Hopefully I'll feel confident to change my avatar off this scumbag soon. Apologies to any scumbags I insulted.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#237764: Apr 6th 2018 at 7:01:53 PM

Sessions orders 'zero tolerance' policy at Southwest border

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Friday he’s implementing a zero tolerance policy for immigrants illegally crossing the Southwest border.

Sessions notified all federal prosecutors along that part of the border of the new policy in a memo Friday and directed them to make prosecuting criminal immigration offenses a priority.

He also directed prosecutors to work with the Department of Homeland Security to develop guidelines for prosecuting offenses under immigration law. “To those who wish to challenge the Trump Administration’s commitment to public safety, national security, and the rule of law, I warn you: illegally entering this country will not be rewarded, but will instead be met with the full prosecutorial powers of the Department of Justice," he said in a statement.

The Department of Justice said the new policy is in response to a report from the Department of Homeland Security that showed a 203 percent increase in illegal border crossings from March 2017 to March 2018 and a 37 percent increase from February 2018 to March 2018 — the largest month-to-month increase since 2011.

“The situation at our Southwest Border is unacceptable,” Sessions said in the statement. “Congress has failed to pass effective legislation that serves the national interest — that closes dangerous loopholes and fully funds a wall along our southern border.”

Remember those Private Prison buddies I mentioned? This is where they come in.

edited 6th Apr '18 7:04:07 PM by megaeliz

TheRoguePenguin Since: Jul, 2009
#237765: Apr 6th 2018 at 7:07:04 PM

[up]Speaking of priorities, getting such prisons banned countrywide would be a big one.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#237766: Apr 6th 2018 at 7:18:06 PM

[up] That's also good.

Scott Pruitt is the swamp. In fact, that is an insult to swamps. Swamps play a very important ecological role, and help prevent flooding.

AP sources: EPA chief spent millions on security and travel'

WASHINGTON (AP) — Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt’s concern with his safety came at a steep cost to taxpayers as his swollen security detail blew through overtime budgets and at times diverted officers away from investigating environmental crimes.

Altogether, the agency spent millions of dollars for a 20-member full-time detail that is three times the size of his predecessor’s part-time security contingent.

New details in Pruitt’s expansive spending for security and travel emerged from agency sources and documents reviewed by The Associated Press. They come as the embattled EPA leader fends off allegations of profligate spending and ethical missteps that have imperiled his job.

Shortly after arriving in Washington, Pruitt demoted the career staff member heading his security detail and replaced him with EPA Senior Special Agent Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta, a former Secret Service agent who operates a private security company.

An EPA official with direct knowledge of Pruitt’s security spending says Perrotta oversaw a rapid expansion of the EPA chief’s security detail to accommodate guarding him day and night, even on family vacations and when Pruitt was home in Oklahoma. The EPA official spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Perrotta also signed off on new procedures that let Pruitt fly first-class on commercial airliners, with the security chief typically sitting next to him with other security staff farther back in the plane. Pruitt’s premium status gave him and his security chief access to VIP airport lounges.

The EPA official said there are legitimate concerns about Pruitt’s safety, given public opposition to his rollbacks of anti-pollution measures.

But Pruitt’s ambitious domestic and international travel led to rapidly escalating costs, with the security detail racking up so much overtime that many hit annual salary caps of about $160,000. The demands of providing 24-hour coverage even meant taking some investigators away from field work, such as when Pruitt traveled to California for a family vacation.

The EPA official said total security costs approached $3 million when pay is added to travel expenses....


....In his first three months in office, before pricey overseas trips to Italy and Morocco, the price tag for Pruitt’s security detail hit more than $832,000, according to EPA documents released through a public information request.

Nearly three dozen EPA security and law enforcement agents were assigned to Pruitt, according to a summary of six weeks of weekly schedules obtained by Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

Those schedules show multiple EPA security agents accompanied Pruitt on a family vacation to California that featured a day at Disneyland and a New Year’s Day football game where his home state Oklahoma Sooners were playing in the Rose Bowl. Multiple agents also accompanied Pruitt to a baseball game at the University of Kentucky and at his house outside Tulsa, during which no official EPA events were scheduled.

On weekend trips home for Sooners football games, when taxpayers weren’t paying for his ticket, the EPA official said Pruitt flew coach. He sometimes used a “buddy pass” obtained with frequent flyer miles accumulated by Ken Wagner, a former law partner whom Pruitt hired as a senior adviser at EPA at a salary of more than $172,000. Taxpayers still covered the airfare for the administrator’s security detail.

Pruitt’s predecessor, Gina Mc Carthy, had a security detail that numbered about a half dozen, less than a third the size of Pruitt’s. She flew coach and was not accompanied by security during her off hours, like on weekend trips home to Boston.

Pruitt has said his use of first-class airfare was initiated following unpleasant interactions with other travelers. In one incident, someone yelled a profanity as he walked through the airport.

But a nationwide search of state and federal court records by AP finds no case where anyone has been arrested or charged with threatening Pruitt.

Pruitt was accompanied by nine aides and a security detail during a trip to Italy in June that cost more than $120,000. He visited the U.S. Embassy in Rome and took a private tour of the Vatican before briefly attending a meeting of G-7 environmental ministers in Bologna.

Private Italian security guards hired by Perrotta helped arrange an expansive motorcade for Pruitt and his entourage, according to the EPA official with direct knowledge of the trip. The source described the Italian additions as personal friends of Perrotta, who joined Pruitt and his EPA staff for an hours-long dinner at an upscale restaurant.

Perrotta’s biography, on the website of his company, Sequoia Security Group, says that during his earlier stint with the Secret Service he worked with the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian finance police.

The EPA spent nearly $9,000 last year on increased counter-surveillance precautions for Pruitt, including hiring a private contractor to sweep his office for hidden listening devices and installing sophisticated biometric locks for the doors. The payment for the bug sweep went to a vice president at Perrotta’s security company.

The EPA official who spoke to AP said Perrotta also arranged the installation of a $43,000 soundproof phone booth for Pruitt’s office.

At least five EPA officials were placed on leave, reassigned or demoted after pushing back against spending requests such as a $100,000-a-month private jet membership, a bulletproof vehicle and $70,000 for furniture such as a bulletproof desk for the armed security officer always stationed inside the administrator’s office suite....

https://apnews.com/e2fdc3fe88be432792817795a34fda46

edited 6th Apr '18 7:20:03 PM by megaeliz

DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#237767: Apr 6th 2018 at 7:24:32 PM

[up] And Trump is doing his hardest to defend the guy. So much for the 'Modern' Teddy Roosevelt; Roosevelt would've beat this ass up and locked him up for life with his bare hands.

BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#237768: Apr 6th 2018 at 7:26:09 PM

The Fairness Doctrine really needs to be reinstated. That was another way of Reagan fucking us over.

Of course, Fox news would kick and scream that it would be the end of America and that THE LEFT is afraid of free speech. Or something.

Do not obey in advance.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#237769: Apr 6th 2018 at 7:28:51 PM

[up][up] That's Ryan Zinke actually.

As someone who has always been a National Park Nerd, and has secretly wanted to become a Park Ranger since forever (I once did a big project in high school on the history of National Parks), my loathing for him is on a more personal level.

edited 6th Apr '18 7:35:53 PM by megaeliz

Imca (Veteran)
#237770: Apr 6th 2018 at 7:32:59 PM

Unless I am understanding it wrong, wouldn't that actyaly HELP another Trump?

Given that a huge part of his ability to do what he did, was being treated as an equal to Hillary, just because he was opposing Hillary.

It sounds like a good idea on paper, but in practice some positions don't even deserve to be humored.

LinkToTheFuture A real bad hombre from somewhere completely different Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
A real bad hombre
#237771: Apr 6th 2018 at 7:37:11 PM

As an aspiring biologist/ecologist I have a very personal vendetta against Pruitt and Zinke

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
Izeinsummer Since: Jun, 2013
#237772: Apr 6th 2018 at 7:41:04 PM

Tactical moves: Require all voting machines to have an paper record for audit purposes. Move elections off tuesday, or make election day a national holiday - either one. Penalize state governments that have excessive queues at polling places.

The second two are simply to keep voting a practical possibility for everyone - A whole lot of people cannot stand in line for hours on end on a workday, which is one major way vote suppression works.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#237773: Apr 6th 2018 at 7:46:07 PM

[up] But where would we get the money to replace voting machines? The money that was appropriated in the "Help America Vote Act" is running out, and the machines are getting old.

edited 6th Apr '18 7:48:29 PM by megaeliz

Bur from Flyover Country (Living Relic) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#237774: Apr 6th 2018 at 7:46:19 PM

I want to be a beekeeper one day, but fat chance of that if Pruitt kills all the bees with his "well, we don't need living things anyways" attitude towards pesticides.

[up] My state could easily pay for a lot more stuff if they quit getting themselves sued by trying to pass unconstitutional laws. Actually, if they just stopped doing stuff to get themselves sued. Last year's cost alone was at least 23 million.

edited 6th Apr '18 7:50:15 PM by Bur

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#237775: Apr 6th 2018 at 7:51:17 PM

This is dumb, but the it made me laugh.

Democrats introduce 'PARADE' Act aimed at Trump's military celebration

Lawmakers are back to their old tricks, using acronyms to make their point even more obvious.

House Democrats on Thursday introduced the "PARADE" Act — otherwise known as the Preventing the Allocation of Resources for Absurd Defense Expenditures bill — which aims keep taxpayers from footing the bill if President Trump's dreams of a military parade do, indeed, come to fruition.

Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, introduced the legislation "to prevent taxpayer funded resources to bring an authoritarian-inspired show-of-force to life," a statement from his office reads.

“As a strong supporter of our military and their families, I know we are all beyond thankful for the sacrifices our military make on behalf of our country every day," Veasey said in a statement. "An expensive political ploy whose sole aim is to boost Trump’s approval ratings is an insult to their service and detracts from resources needed to provide meaningful assistance to veterans and current service members."

The White House confirmed earlier this week that the President directed the Department of Defense to explore options for a military parade celebration.

The White House statement came after a Washington Post report, detailing that Trump wanted a parade "like the one in France"

The parade in France Trump was reportedly referring to was a Bastille Day parade he attended with French President Emmanuel Macron in July. The parade included tanks, soldiers in gleaming helmets astride horses and jets flying overhead.

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, co-sponsored the PARADE legislation, explaining Trump's calls for the parade "reflects a testosterone-driven need for self-aggrandizement."

"We use our military force as an instrument for advancing our ideals, not to intimidate as showy tyrants and autocrats do," he said in a statement.

edited 6th Apr '18 7:52:03 PM by megaeliz


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