(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
The good, bad, and ugly of executive orders [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-24
The good, the bad, and the ugly
Trump has issued a barrage of executive orders as promised. Some might actually do something good and some are mind bogglingly stupid. Evidently they were developed by many people with their own agendas. Can we make any sense of them? I could only find four of the 36 orders or soon to be orders I examined that seemed good and six that might be good. The winner was “Can’t possible help” with 9. I guess he’s not a total idiot. Here’s an attempt.
The good
There is really two subsets here — good and maybe good.
Good
* End catch and release — seems a bad idea to just release illegal immigrants into the population. Wouldn’t a better idea be to immediately adjudicate if the US wants them?
*Designate drug gangs and cartels as foreign terrorist organizations — certainly true.
* Seek capital punishment of illegal immigrants who kill law enforcement agents
*Not an executive order but trump seems to be threatening tariffs if foreign countries don’t stop drugs from entering the U.S. — might be his best “Art of the Deal” if it works.
Maybe Good
*Declared an emergency at the US border — popular with many and enables other actions.
*Deployed troops to the southern border — they will do administrative actions that might free up ICE agents for more useful work.
*Resume building the wall — who knows, maybe it helps a little and it does provide jobs.
*Restart the “Remain in Mexico” policy — might keep criminals out of the U.S.
*Reinstate military personnel who did not get a Covid shot — maybe and probably just more harping about I did everything right about Covid and I’m not letting you forget it.
*Ended weaponization of the federal government — I guess it doesn’t apply to the new FBI director.
The bad
There are two subclasses here — vindictive and can’t possible help
Vindictive
* Suspend refugee resettlement- the US is a signatore to treaties that facilitate people fleeing dangerous countries. Seems just aimed at Mexicans he has badmouthed since the golden escalator speech. This could be in the Stupid category also.
*Remove job protection for tens of thousands of civil servants- do you think it’s because they don’t support his stupid policies?
*Suspend foreign assistance programs — for countries that haven’t offered help to build a Trump Hotel and Golf Course I suspect.
*Remove security clearances from people who didn’t support him — what a surprise.
*Remove security protections from people who Iran has threatened and who didn’t support him — the definition of vindictive.
Can’t Possible help
* Hiring freezes in the federal government- many civil servants are going to be fired or leave, is it possible they did something useful?
*Stop work from home for government employees- just find a baby sitter, what’s the problem?
*End DEI policies and lay off people involved — can you say “white supremacy ”?
*Direct agencies to address “cost of living” — well it was a campaign issue. It’s harder than I thought to bring down the cost of eggs.
*Freeze issuing new regulations- isn’t that what the government does?
* Create DOGE - part of the new oligarchy.
*Remove “non-binary” from passports and government documents- is this really a problem that needs any attention?
*Extend the deadline for TikTok — it’s a law passed by congress.
*Renaming Mt McKinley- surely a big government problem.
The ugly
There are two subclasses here also — stupid and dangerous
Stupid (does he understand anything?)
*End birthright citizenship- it’s in the constitution, the president can’t change the constitution by himself. The scary thing is what if it goes to the Supreme Court and they agree.
*Declared a national energy emergency- part of the “drill baby drill” nonsense. US produces more oil than any other country and exports oil products.
*Issued a memorandum asking for government wide ideas on reducing inflation- the president can’t do much if anything to reduce inflation. It’s caused by supply and demand of products.
*End the EV car mandate — there is no such thing. He can’t change the $7500 tax rebate for the purchase of an EV as it’s a tax issue set by congress.
*Restore “freedom of speech” — I think that really means learn to live with republicans hateful ideas and lies.
*Established External Revenue Service to collect tariffs from countries- ain’t going to happen but at least he is recognizing that foreign countries don’t pay tariffs, that’s a start.
*Rename Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America — is the world really going to care?
Dangerous
* January 6 pardons — probably the worst action, unpopular even with republicans
*Withdraw from The Paris Climate Agreement — anyone who can spell science knows there is a climate problem. Ask the people in LA.
*Stop leasing land for wind farms — will he ever get over the “windmills “ visible from his golf courses?
*Removes the US from WHO — they didn’t agree with his Covid “ policies “. What could possibly go wrong?
*Remove FEMA — he seems to want to do this because he can’t always direct where the money goes. What a guy!
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/1/24/2298903/-The-good-bad-and-ugly-of-executive-orders?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
