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NASA Is Back To Work, But the Effects of the Government Shutdown Linger (theverge.com)
Following a record 35-day government shutdown, thousands of civil servants and contractors are heading back to work this week at NASA's various centers throughout the country. "These first few days back on the job will be consumed with practical matters, such as figuring out employee backpay and how to dive back into projects," reports The Verge. "The shutdown will undoubtedly result in delays for some of NASA's long-term programs, too, but it'll be a while before the space agency can fully assess the extent of the damage." From the report: To explain how NASA is adjusting in the wake of the shutdown, the space agency's administrator Jim Bridenstine addressed employees during a town hall meeting this afternoon at NASA's headquarters in Washington, DC. "Welcome to 2019," he said during the meeting, which was live-streamed on NASATV. "NASA is now open and we're very thankful for that." The comment was met by applause from those in attendance, while Bridenstine went on to acknowledge that it's been a rough start to the year for the agency. "I want to say thank you for your patience and for your commitment to this agency and to the mission we all believe in so dearly."
Bridenstine told the room that some NASA employees did leave during the shutdown, though it wasn't a substantial amount. "We didn't have a mass exodus," he said. "I think had this gone on longer, we would have. But we did lose people -- onesies and twosies -- across the agency and even here at headquarters. That is absolutely true." Perhaps those hit hardest at NASA were the agency's contractors. [...] Each company funded by NASA has its own contract with the agency, and the provisions of those agreements differ from contract to contract. Some contractors were paid their funding in advance of the shutdown, allowing them to continue working mostly unfazed. However, the employees of contractors who did not receive funding in advance were unable to bill for the hours that they worked during the shutdown. And it's possible they'll never receive compensation for that time. "NASA is in the middle of selecting new planetary missions to pursue, as part of its New Frontiers and Discovery programs -- and the shutdown may have delayed that process, says Casey Dreier, chief advocate and senior space policy adviser at The Planetary Society," reports The Verge. "Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science, pushed back the date for when the agency would accept applications for new science research proposals. And there's uncertainty surrounding the new giant rocket NASA is working on to take astronauts to the Moon and beyond, called the Space Launch System." Boeing told Politico that the shutdown delayed testing of the rocket's hardware.
Bridenstine told the room that some NASA employees did leave during the shutdown, though it wasn't a substantial amount. "We didn't have a mass exodus," he said. "I think had this gone on longer, we would have. But we did lose people -- onesies and twosies -- across the agency and even here at headquarters. That is absolutely true." Perhaps those hit hardest at NASA were the agency's contractors. [...] Each company funded by NASA has its own contract with the agency, and the provisions of those agreements differ from contract to contract. Some contractors were paid their funding in advance of the shutdown, allowing them to continue working mostly unfazed. However, the employees of contractors who did not receive funding in advance were unable to bill for the hours that they worked during the shutdown. And it's possible they'll never receive compensation for that time. "NASA is in the middle of selecting new planetary missions to pursue, as part of its New Frontiers and Discovery programs -- and the shutdown may have delayed that process, says Casey Dreier, chief advocate and senior space policy adviser at The Planetary Society," reports The Verge. "Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science, pushed back the date for when the agency would accept applications for new science research proposals. And there's uncertainty surrounding the new giant rocket NASA is working on to take astronauts to the Moon and beyond, called the Space Launch System." Boeing told Politico that the shutdown delayed testing of the rocket's hardware.
Everything was tip-top and humanity was on its way towards space dominance but then came the dreadful Government Shutdown of â18/â19 and all was lost. Forever.
China is doing far more launches than the us right now. US needs to catch up with China.
You get free vacation and get back pay. Why would you want to quit that?
a) The contractors don't get back pay. A lot of them were basically unemployed for a month.
b) People don't like idiot bosses. And Trump is both the biggest idiot and the biggest boss on the planet.
I stole this Sig
Because of the uncertainty. The rumor mill had this head butting continuing for months as both sides dug in their heels. And the uncertainty continues as this is only a three-week reprieve where both sides promise to negotiate constructively. If neither side is willing to compromise on their "core" principals, we can possibly see another furlough on Feb 15.
So some people are looking at other agencies and private sector jobs where their work isn't interrupted as a bargaining chip. A five-week delay in many projects can result in months of lost progress and difficulties in rescheduling resources just to get back to where they were on Dec 22. If your expertise is in demand why not change jobs to get the same pay doing work that will actually result in something important.
So, yes, I understand why some employees changed jobs rather than stay home, uncertain how long they would need to wait for a paycheck, and frustrated about lost work.
---
I'm pretty sure that all government agencies are facing the same problems why should NASA be any different this is a waste of an article
Show us on the doll where the mean orange man hurt you...
However, the employees of contractors who did not receive funding in advance were unable to bill for the hours that they worked during the shutdown. And it's possible they'll never receive compensation for that time.
Why would that be? They have a work order or a contract, and the proof that the work has been done. The contractor companies should deal with this anyway, not their employers, while the freelancers and independent consultants, if there are any, should be able to bill normally. Just a little later that usually.
during this (or any of the dozens of previous shutdowns) is too stupid to be working at such an agency anyway.
1. If you have been employed for over a year and have not yet set aside enough money to get by for a month, yet you have a smartphone or a new car, you are a fool. No job is guaranteed, and government jobs which are as close to guaranteed as possible, have a long history of experiencing shutdowns. Responsible adults maintain a personal/family "rainy day fund".
2. Banks and credit unions across the country offered no-interest loans to federal employees affected by the shutdown. This was an easy thing for them to do since the employees ALWAYS get their pay after the shutdown ends and so these financial institutions were only going to lose some interest and only for a few customers and for only weeks..... in exchange for great PR and customer loyalty.
3. Most Americans do not get an extra month of paid vacation near the holidays like this. These people are getting paid for that time, even though they did not show up and work.
4. Many institutions and groups of citizens were so moved by stories of hardship that they offered these government employees all sorts of free stuff.
Personally, I'd love to have a job that does shutdowns like this every couple of years. The strange bit is that you never see government employees fussing about private sector employees getting unemployed as the result of some government action.... and when THAT happens, the job loss is usually permanent and involves no back pay.
well for one, becuase NASA is a civillian agency
Show us on the doll where the mean orange man hurt you...
My brain.
Seriously, I don't understand this big group of his supporters who can't perceive how comically incompetent he is.
Look at Sryia, the Prime Minister of Turkey gets Trump on the phone and convinces Trump to promptly pull out of Syria without any consultation with his military causing his Secretary of Defence to resign!
Then someone finally clues Trump into the fact that the Turkish Prime Minister just wanted the US out so they could take out the Kurds (the US allies in the conflict), which Trump should have known if he spent 2 minutes reading up on the conflict. So then Trump is frantically backtracking and trying to put conditions on his withdraw.
And then the shutdown, he meets with Democratic leaders, "proudly owns the shutdown", gets talked out of it by his advisors who know it's an awful idea, gets talked back into it by right wing pundits riling up their audience, and then shuts down the government with no leverage and no chance of success. His only possible "out" a declaration of emergency. A plan that was just a transparent ploy by his staffers to get him to sign a spending bill and then yell at the courts for blocking him instead.
But this goes on for a month and he says We will not cave!.
And then a day later he caves.
And this is just over the past month and a half with a Christmas break thrown in!
He's just stumbling into self-inflicted disaster after self-inflicted disaster.
I stole this Sig
I've seen other articles say similar things such as furloughed govt employees will not be given backpay. This seems to me unethical at the least, and should be illegal.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
Seriously you look like some snivelling lefty who spends his time screaming about 'her turn', 'communism good' and 'orange man bad'.
Nowadays I can't even tell if your type is a paid advocate, willingly misinformed or just a plain idiot.
Frankly, with news being what they are these days, I don't dare have an opinion on US politics at all.
you must be a moron, stop watching the mainstream lies...
Trump is just exposing the corruption for everyone to see..
So clearly, you're either ignorant or a liar. Either government employess were forced to come to work without pay (like the TSA), or they were furloughed, meaning they didn't go to work AND didn't get paid (like the IRS). In NO way was there any "extra month of paid vacation" for ANYBODY.
I laugh when media claim the US lost money with the shutdown. Does any gov agency make money? No, they provide services that the tax payers pay for through taxes. What surprises me is how many of these gov employee's laid off couldn't survive a month without pay? Talk about living pay check to pay check. In the end you can blame Congressional gridlock yet again for not being able to come to a agreement even in times of a complete crisis. This is truly embarrassing.
You're either blind as a bat, or copping out, or in denial. Maybe all three.
Contractors are either prepaid or postpaid. They do not work for free, billable hours will be billed. A contracting company HAS to pay their employees and agency contracts, even if they were temporarily unpaid are invoiced because the contracts say so. It's one of the reason so many governments use contractors because they aren't counted as headcount and contracts cannot be affected by legislation.
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I used to enjoy political caricatures. But since they more and more resemble reality, it's become kinda hard to enjoy them.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You get free vacation and get back pay. Why would you want to quit that?
ISS ... ehhh Houston.. we have a problem... .........
Houston...
ISS... I repeat... Houston... we have a problem....
35 days later
Houston... ISS this is Houston... How is it hangning? ...... .....
ISS....
Houston... I repeat... ISS... how is it hanging? Sorry that we have no spacecrafts to come and pick you up... but thats no reason to give us attitude!
ISS...
#learntocode
Isn't that what you fucking leftists told coal miners to do when they lost their job.
Why the fuck should we even care at this point what you think? You told people to throw kids into a woodchipper because they wore a red hat. Its literally time to stop taking demands of leftists/liberals seriously. All they do is attack/oppress people and refuse to work with anyone. If they had any honesty or cared about the hundreds of people overdosing they would have approved a wall, but politics is more important to them.
ISS Astro-Nots hanging on wires
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIy6dkOAaAI
Show us on the doll where the mean orange man hurt you...
My brain.
Make...america....great...again!
Despite the constant negative press ....COVFEFE!
Doze mexxikanss .. dey took our jeeeeebs! DEY... TOOK... OUR.... JEEEEAAABBBBS!
We need a wall! The great Wall of Americaaaa
Make COV and FEFE great again! Trump forever! 4 more years... 4 more years...
Behold the glorious might of Covfefe.
I think that this is true for all of the agencies effected by the shutdown. I am a ham radio operator and I have been waiting forever for a license Administrative Update from the FCC to take effect. I moved just after the shutdown so my license still shows my old address and telephone number. When I woke up this morning, I had an email in my inbox informing me that the administrative update has been completed but I am unable to download a copy of the corrected license because the FCC ULS is down. Normally this would make me growl a little but this is just part of the start up so I should unpack my patience.
So clearly, you're either ignorant or a liar. Either government employess were forced to come to work without pay (like the TSA), or they were furloughed, meaning they didn't go to work AND didn't get paid (like the IRS). In NO way was there any "extra month of paid vacation" for ANYBODY.
This is a great example of "fake news". They'll all get back pay, nobody lost anything.
Do you have ESP?
> "think for yourself"
Do you mean make stuff up? Believe what you want to believe? What amazing news source do you have that is completely fact checked with an impeccable track record and no agenda? To my knowledge, no such thing exists. And _please_ don't tell me you believe everything Donny tweets.
By the way, audio and video can be manipulated to make people say anything. So if you heard it or saw it on a screen, doesn't mean it's true. So really, there's precious little that we little people can actually count on to be true.
Not all goverment contracts are pre or post paid. The contract my company has is for the right to perform research over a 1 year period with up to 4 renewals. If the goverment is closed my company can not legally bill for work not performed. Since we could not work and charge time to the contract the company and workers did not get paid. So we were forced to use vacation or not get paid. We will not get reimbursed from the goverment. And no a contracting company does not have to pay employees for work not performed.
"So some people are looking at other agencies and private sector jobs where their work isn't interrupted as a bargaining chip."
Yeah, instead they can get laid off to improve the bottom line at any time, what a massive improvement
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
And all the people planning on buying a car/house when the ACA doubled their insurance instead of dropping it by the promised $2500?
Oh yea, according to President Carter they are all racists if they point it out.
Typical government apologist. "Screw anyone else, its a national DISASTER to get paid 2 weeks late and as for all those killed by illegals, screw you. You should have been thrown into a woodchipper with high school kids because I bet you wore a red hat."
Yea, that's about how I see it. You leftists have lost ALL sympathy from me, especially when calling for the killing of kids for wearing red hats. Glad you had fun picking on kids, this one isn't going away and is even worse than Hillary calling half the country "deplorable".
Show us on the doll where the mean orange man hurt you...
My brain.
Seriously, I don't understand this big group of his supporters who can't perceive how comically incompetent he is.
....
He's just stumbling into self-inflicted disaster after self-inflicted disaster.
For myself he makes me question whether are race is competent enough to survive long term. I'm not honestly sure we are. I could easily see us somehow destroying ourselves one way or another, and never really traveling and spreading to the stars.
Seriously, even now, roughly half of our leaders appear to be willing to let the country burn, or at least smolder, in the name of party unity. About 40% of the population is the same. No that's not true, you have the same kind of thing on the other side. It's probably 60 or 70%, just with a different side.
Perhaps we will have a national religion where we honor the great orange one in ten years, or, slightly more likely, his spiritual descendant. Either way, the shutdown is basically the same thing as if say a major company shutdown its production for a month. You don't get the month's of production back just because you paid the people, nor all the secondary effects. At best you can pay some overtime and get some of it back. The health damage from people skipping medicine and such may, in some cases, be permanent.
--- "To my knowledge, no such thing exists"
You are absolutely correct. But there is unedited footage out there if you look for it..
--- "doesn't mean it's true"
True again, but without being TOTALLY cynical, we have to start somewhere. But the new Anti-Trump religion is a little ridiculous, in my opinion...
And to correct my earlier post: I meant Feb 15th - I was thinking about 21 days when I wrote the date.
Show us on the doll where the mean orange man hurt you...
My brain.
Seriously, I don't understand this big group of his supporters who can't perceive how comically incompetent he is.
Sorry for clipping your salient points, but it was to cut down on over-quoting for readability's sake.
In any 2 party democracy (US, UK, Australia and Canada for example), you will have 45% of voters who will always vote party A and 45% of the people who will always vote party B. The remaining 10% who are willing to change their votes are the ones who make the decisions for everyone.
Because of this I'm not worried about trumps popularity, its the 10% who make the decisions and given the midterms, they've voted against him (G.W. bush didn't lose the house until the middle of his second term in comparison).
However there are a large percentage of the 45% who will always vote R who are deliberately cutting themselves of from any information that could contradict what they believe. They cocoon themselves with Fox News and believe anything contrary is a conspiracy. To these people it doesn't matter how bad he is, as long as the other side doesn't win. These delusionals aren't powerful though. They'll talk about revolution, but will give up as soon as they run out of hot pockets.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Actually Congress passed a bill to pay all 800,000 workers regardless of whether they were forced to work or furloughed.
https://www.govexec.com/pay-be...
And contractors who had to come in are also paid as they were working (I was a contractor during the Gingrich shutdown back in the 90's and had to come to work).
The only ones likely not getting paid are the contractors that didn't go to work, which depends on the company as some would pay anyway or have their contractors work on other contracts, go to training, etc, and any of the support industry that depend on money from these workers.
[John]
Shit better not happen!
This is a great example of "fake news". They'll all get back pay, nobody lost anything.
Are you for or against the statement? The post by NoNonAlphaCharsHere is correct and is pointing out the "fake news" (#3) from the AC post. If you said the fake news is from NoNonAlphaCharsHere's post, you are the one who is trying to spread fake news. And it shows that you have neither worked nor had friends working for the government but rather want to spout completely wrong information to others, who don't know anything about how furlough works, in order to support your own agenda. However, if you agreed with NoNonAlphaCharsHere, then that's fine.
P.S. I have friends who work for government and either were furloughed or worked without pay during the period of shut down. They weren't affected in getting by during the time but they DID NOT have free month vacation as the AC said.
I like that we're withdrawing from foreign wars in which we never should have involved ourselves in the first place. I would welcome withdrawals from Afghanistan and Iran as well. In fact, if Trump brought about a situation where we weren't fighting anyone or sending our troops in to any country to fight or occupy, I would be very happy indeed. I had hoped, after Bush, that Obama might bring us peace, but he just multiplied our overseas meddling.
As for the shutdown, I would like to see many of the workers who were furloughed instead transferred to private sector jobs. Even the airlines want to privatize the FAA; the TSA does not seem to be an improvement on pre-9/11 security, which was private. Much of NASA is pointless given private sector companies like SpaceX; the Space Launch System is redundant and pointless. The shutdown highlighted where privatization makes a lot of sense.
And the other side only listens to MSM that says "Russian Collusion" for every broadcast. Seriously, how can you listen to that nonsense constantly? It's because you want to believe it.
With a large group that votes one way without thinking it is much much easier to hide election fraud.
If you only need to throw out or change 5% of the ballots to make the scales tip in your favor it is much harder to detect that any tampering has been going on compared to if you had to dabble with 30-40% of the ballots.
Contractors are either prepaid or postpaid.
Correct. The prepaid ones could work during the shutdown for as long as their contract continues. The post-paid ones could not: that would violate the anti-deficiency act, which says people can't do work for the government in anticipation of congress later deciding to pay them.
They do not work for free, billable hours will be billed.
Right. But it is ILLEGAL for them to bill hours if Congress has not authorized payment, so "do not work for free" translates to "do not work."
A contracting company HAS to pay their employees and agency contracts, even if they were temporarily unpaid are invoiced because the contracts say so.
Right. If they had a funded contract, they can continue working. It's only the ones that are on contracts that have not been funded that were a problem. (And the ones on contracts that were scheduled to be renewed after the new year, but the paperwork hadn't been completed yet).
It's one of the reason so many governments use contractors because they aren't counted as headcount and contracts cannot be affected by legislation.
Half right. Contractors indeed aren't counted as headcount, but my god no, contracts sure CAN be affected by legislation. In particular, if there is no funding, there is no contract.
The result is, some contractors continued working, because their contracts were already funded, and they could continue working until whenever the contract was up for renewal (nobody could renew it, of course: no funding for it, and no civil servants to do it.) Some contractors could not.
I like that we're withdrawing from foreign wars in which we never should have involved ourselves in the first place.
It is true that we shouldn't have been there to begin with, but backing out before everything is finished is worse than not having been there in the first place.
It's like renovating a slightly run down house and quitting halfway through.
If you start you have to finish. Many of those who opposed the wars to begin with did so because they knew that it isn't something you can just jump into and be done with in a year, and half-assing it is worse than leaving it be.
I'm pretty sure that all government agencies are facing the same problems why should NASA be any different
1. Because this is news for nerds, and nerds are interested in NASA, but less interested in, for example, Bureau of Indian Affairs.
2. Because there was a televised address to NASA employees by the NASA administrator, giving details. If there was a televised address by the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, I didn't hear about it.
this is a waste of an article
Only if you're not a nerd.
Contractors are either prepaid or postpaid.
Correct. The prepaid ones could work during the shutdown for as long as their contract continues.
I should have added "could work during the shutdown UNLESS their work required them to be on-site (like, say, the janitors and cafeteria workers), or their work required them to work with civil servants (like, say, the secretaries), or their work required individual oversight by civil servants (like, say, technicians working on experiments overseen by civil servants), or they worked on assigned individual tasks that were billed on a task by task basis (like, say, graphic artists)."
35 days later
More like: 15 minutes later
ISS ... Baikonur. We have a problem.
Have gnu, will travel.
how comically incompetent he is
Well, he did reveal Pelosi and Schumer as the evil shits that they are. If that's not worth 35 days pay, I don't know what is.
I am a big supporter of Trump. I donâ(TM)t care if he is an idiot or not, I donâ(TM)t care if he runs things into the ground or not.
Trump is a bit of a nuisance, no doubt about that. Most people would be happy not to hear any further news about him and most leaders of the rest of the free world avoid him, because he cannot be taken seriously, and instead have resorted to administrative-level diplomacy
The question is: Why? Why would anyone except a few billionaires continue to support him? The damage this presidency causes to your country will take decades to repair, if it can be repaired at all, and the international balance of power has already shifted away from the US to China, Russia, and the EU. On top of that, the US/UK alliance is broken and the UK is leaving the EU. I just can't figure out what would motivate anyone to support any of this, this amount of self-destruction make no sense. Let me be clear: I perfectly understand why people voted for Trump in the first place, what I don't get is how anyone could support such an obviously retarded, illiterate narcissist moron now after all the damage he's done and all that idiocy from him. It makes no sense.
Maybe that's what he would like to do, but unfortunately he is also a pathological narcissist, which is dangerous because narcissists can be influenced and steered very easily by people who know how to exploit their mental illness. (It's easy because people with a narcissistic personality disorder crave for admiration and will fall prey to any kind of flattery in the most predictable way.)
The Verge is a naive political blog funded by who? Look into it.
Trump is a bit of a nuisance, no doubt about that. Most people would be happy not to hear any further news about him and most leaders of the rest of the free world avoid him, because he cannot be taken seriously, and instead have resorted to administrative-level diplomacy
The question is: Why? Why would anyone except a few billionaires continue to support him? The damage this presidency causes to your country will take decades to repair, if it can be repaired at all, and the international balance of power has already shifted away from the US to China, Russia, and the EU. On top of that, the US/UK alliance is broken and the UK is leaving the EU. I just can't figure out what would motivate anyone to support any of this, this amount of self-destruction make no sense. Let me be clear: I perfectly understand why people voted for Trump in the first place, what I don't get is how anyone could support such an obviously retarded, illiterate narcissist moron now after all the damage he's done and all that idiocy from him. It makes no sense.
Define "damage". Making European nations finally pay into NATO what they were obligated to pay?? How terrible. He, like many other americans, are sick of the US constantly being belittled by Europe, as they have been for the past 19 years, yet paying more than our fair share for *their* protection.
How much credibility and respect did we have in the world during Obama, when Russian planes buzzed our ships and Iranian fast boats harassed our navy every 3 weeks, and even took hostages, which Obama rewarded them for like an idiot. Notice how that shit has pretty much stopped.
Obviously you're anti-Brexit, pro Eu/pro Globalist, so you're going to push that narrative.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Dont tell the raving lunatic democrats that are modding themselves up in a giant circle jerk claiming the opposite
"His name was James Damore."
Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn
The US isn't going to build fewer submarines because France increased their quota. The whining about NATO is stupid, it doesn't actually cost us anything.
If you start you have to finish.
No, you don't. The idea that "quitting halfway through" is somehow worse than pouring more lives and money into a bad situation—that's the sunk cost fallacy. When a project is a loss, the right solution is to cut and run. There is no certainty that Afghanistan will ever be anything but a death trap, just as it was for the Soviets in the 80's. There is no certainty of a better outcome than the present, and there is considerable risk of the situation extending indefinitely leading to continuing losses. We've already been meddling in that country since 2001: that's eighteen years. There are adults entering college and able to vote who have never seen a day of their lives without US soldiers and money being thrown away in Afghanistan. If this is quitting halfway through, do you really think another eighteen years of loss is worthwhile? Cut the losses, let the Afghanis flourish or perish according to their own virtues and vices, and withdraw from all the other meddling like Iraq and Syria.
For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion(operation of wandering)(planet) so that they will believe the lie.
Mystery Red of the Great American Eclipse
It has blood on it!
ABCNews: Eclipse makes pendulum wander
Winter Sunlight
For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion(operation of wandering)(planet) so that they will believe the lie.
Mystery Red of the Great American Eclipse
It has blood on it!
ABCNews: Eclipse makes pendulum wander
Is that red shadow light always there, or does it fade in as NatGeo and WashPost show? Is the color distribution consistent with the model?
Nat Geo Eclipse 101
I would say that there are people who believe that securing the border is more important than funding NASA.
I'll come right out and say it. There are people in congress who believe, or say they believe, that all government programs that are not specifically and explicitly mentioned in the Constitution should be cut until the budget is balanced. They have a constituency who believes this too.
Now I don't believe that, but that doesn't prevent some representatives from voting that way. And a good number of citizens, at least enough to get representatives or senators elected.
People ask me how come the Republican didn't pass this stuff when they controlled both houses. One reason is that unless you have 2/3s of the Senate you can't vote on anything if the opposition party filibusterers, but the other is there are Republicans who vote against any law that does not include balancing the budget. People have made a big thing of Ocasio-Cortez voting against reopening government because the bill included funding for ICE. The Republicans have people who vote no for any spending bill which does not balance the budget, which is all of them.
Many people don't give a flying rats ass what non-Americans think of the U.S. They think other countries have taken advantage of U.S. largess for decades and are glad to see them pissed off by what the U.S. does.
Trump is doing exactly what they want to see. They want professional politicians to be unhappy with what he is doing. They want foreign global leaders to be upset, based on the premise that if a globalist doesn't like it it must be good for them. A lot of these people believe that most government workers are lazy and have exploited the system to pull in cushy salaries for doing stuff they consider useless or wasteful.
Don't throw rocks at me. I don't think that. But its not that hard to see what's going on.
Part of it is self interest. A working stiff, who just wants to be able to pay their bills, raise their family, and not get told they're deplorable, doesn't really care about what goes on outside their own city, town, neighborhood. A government shutdown that doesn't directly effect them is effectively ignored. If they think it will save them money or keep them safe they will even support it.
Just remember to most of the U.S. don't care about international balance of power, They don't know who is running Germany, the UK, China of the EU. Most could give a damn about Brexit or any of that.
The wars in that area of the world will never be finished. They've been fighting there since before the Romans and Persians and they will be fighting there when we're all dead and buried.
If we stay we will never be finished. For the love of Pete we still have bases in places that we finished fighting 70 years ago.
No. If Trump pulls us completely out of the Middle East I'd dance for joy. I'd be glad to see our Navy cut to a hundred ships, mostly littoral,and the other services cut commensurately. Let other countries defend themselves or hire mercs to do it. Who made it our job?
Seriously, I don't understand this big group of his supporters who can't perceive how comically incompetent he is. Look at Sryia, the Prime Minister of Turkey gets Trump on the phone and convinces Trump to promptly pull out of Syria without any consultation with his military causing his Secretary of Defence to resign!
Because he seems to understand the bigger picture that the US military does not need to be involved in endless policing operations around the world. And maybe Trump made major mistakes in the how the draw down was announced in this case, but it is hard to tell given that a big part of the media tries to report everything he does in a negative light. In the end the policy seems the right one to me and I am glad he is doing the same thing with Afghanistan.
And then the shutdown, he meets with Democratic leaders, "proudly owns the shutdown", gets talked out of it by his advisors who know it's an awful idea, gets talked back into it by right wing pundits riling up their audience, and then shuts down the government with no leverage and no chance of success. His only possible "out" a declaration of emergency. A plan that was just a transparent ploy by his staffers to get him to sign a spending bill and then yell at the courts for blocking him instead.
I don't like what is happening, but at the same time congress has been promising to fix the illegal immigration issue since Reagan. Trump seems to be very determined at fixing it. He is in charge of the executive branch and we expect him to enforce the laws. I am not saying it is justified that he refused to sign the funding bill for border wall funding, but at the same time we expect congress to try to help fix this problem regardless of how big of jerk Trump might be.
THINK FOR YOURSELF.
Nothing more amusing than a crowd of Trump supporters intoning in unison - "Think... for... yourself. Think... for... yourself."
Wasn't that a scene is Idiocracy?
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Frankly, with news being what they are these days, I don't dare have an opinion on US politics at all.
I think that the most important part to understand about US politics is that it's an extremely adversarial, first-past-the-post system. Here in Europe and many other places we're more used to proportional representation, coalitions and compromise. What it means is that Trump won the coin flip with Hillary for the presidency, the coin flip with Ted Cruz for the Republican candidacy and it's more or less coin flips all the way down. Basically you have to start off with a dedicated fan base/special interest group that think you're the very best or you're dead right out of the gate and then accumulate momentum as the lesser evil left standing.
I mean if you look at the Super Tuesday results for Trump it was like him 34%, the "establishment" candidates (Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, Carson) 66%. None of those managed to step up as the mainstream compromise, they kept in their corner fighting for their 5-30% until Trump was way past them in the outside lane. Sanders was also a far out candidate for the Democrats, if he had won against Hillary it would be like an entirely different faction of the party and the winner takes it all. That means there's an extremely lot of unreleased tension of like what could have happened if one of those coin flips had gone the other way. What you end up with is often not what people wanted, but a result of the way the dominoes fell and the options left at each junction.
Like now the President is very much at odds with his own party. Yes, there's an (R) behind all of them but the way the dominoes fell in the Congress, Senate and Presidential election is quite different and so they're not really all that much in agreement. And since they have different constitutional powers and are fighting for their own reelections they're not very keen on resolving their differences. Because no matter how fucked up they behave they know that when it comes down to (D) or (R) most will hold their nose and vote for the same side they always do, they just have to make sure their name is on the docket...
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
We dont give a fuck what European surrender monkeys think about American politics.
I'm pretty sure that all government agencies are facing the same problems why should NASA be any different this is a waste of an article
Certainly not all. It was a partial government shutdown. Interestingly when the shutdown started, none of the main stream news sources mentioned NASA was part of it, because unlike Slashdot, they don't cater to nerds.
This has nothing to do with NATO, your problem is that Trump is a moron. You've got a narcissist moron as president and you think that doesn't hurt your country? The effects are already there, the US is getting isolated more and more. If the trend continues even just the brain drain will get you into trouble in 10 years from now, not to speak of international relations.
How much credibility and respect did we have in the world during Obama,
A thousand times more than now. Maybe you should actually ask around in other countries what people think about your president. As I've said, these impressions last a long, long time. It will take decades for future presidents to build up America's reputation again.
Iranian fast boats harassed our navy every 3 weeks
Right, because you wouldn't care at all if the Iranian navy cruised around in front of New York just outside your border zone. Especially not if the Iranians had just invaded and destroyed Mexico or Canada in an aggressive war under false pretense. You would tell the US military to stand down out of respect for the Iranians. Are you guys really so fucking retarded that you cannot even understand the simplest actions of other countries? No wonder you defend Trump if that's your understanding of geopolitics and the motivations of other governments and their institutions...
Obviously you're anti-Brexit,
LOL, there is no need to be anti-Brexit, the Brexit and the current UK politicians speak for themselves...
Here is free advice to you which I'm sure you won't heed: Get a life! Read a book! Get some education and some basic clue about how the world works!
A big complaint is NASA has too many old guys and yet here comes another obstacle to get young people. Though civil servants will get back pay, many contractors will not (contractors make up the bulk of the workforce). Bright fresh 20-somethings hired for many positions including not-so-glamorous work like networks, servers, databases, and other stuff but shutdown comes along some take that other offer. Of course many say nobody noticed NASA was shutdown so why does it matter. We may find 20 years from now other countries doing all kinds of stuff in space and a magazine article will have a picture of a US rocket (take your pick) lifting off the pad with a ball and chain around it like the 1990s article about the Russian space program that shows the Soyuz lifting off the pad with a ball and chain around it.
mfwright@batnet.com
The contractors don't get back pay. A lot of them were basically unemployed for a month. b) People don't like idiot bosses. And Trump is both the biggest idiot and the biggest boss on the planet. [URL=https://xender.vip/]Xender[/URL] [URL=https://discord.software/]Discord[/URL] [URL=https://omegle.onl/]Omegle[/URL]
Even if they are right? Would Trump have survived a FPTP Super Tuesday?
If only the Democrats arranged a FPTP system in the primaries, would it then be a "pretty middle of the road" person against a right-wing jerk, leaving the clear election to the DNC?
Here a Kennedy Space Center, 11000 of the 13000 workers are contractors. Contractors do not receive backpay (although some of them could still work because their contracts were paid up). People seriously underestimate the size of the contractor workforce.
Or you could start your own business where you can lose everything you invested to start and more due to forces beyond your ability to control...
There is no absolute safety in any job. Work for the federal government was previously seen as lower paying and more bureaucratic than equivalent work in the private sector, but a far more predictable and a more steady income. Now it's not even that. Using federal worker pay as a bargaining chip in a ploy to pander to a political base was the most monumentally stupid thing I have ever seen a politician do. And that is not a high bar, by any means.
The employees still get screwed in a lot of cases, because most contracting companies don't have the resources to just pay all of their technical employees on indirect funds for 8% of the year (if they did it would mean that their overhead rates are too high), and just switching them to another actively funded contract probably screws over the customer on that active contract, because you can't just switch in a ton of temp workers for a month and expect to get a month of extra productivity.
Everything is proceeding exactly as planned. Enjoy your breadlines and mass shootings Americans!
Your english is atrocious there vlad.
Americans 'constantly' listen to 'broadcasts'?
What else do americans do?
Try the veal! /rimshot
Withdraw from Iran? Are you retarded?
Literally no different to any other President in recent memory other than the fact he lives in your head.
That explains the presidential election, but what the hell were people smoking during the primaries, really.
"Listen... To... Fox! Listen... To... Fox!"
"Media... Are... Liars! Media... Are... Liars!"
"Listen... To... Fox! Listen... To... Fox!"
"Truth... Isn't... Truth! Truth... Isn't... Truth!"
Dear NPC,
Wow.. You nailed all the recent idiotic liberal talking points in one post! Congrats!
AKA, reality.
And we'll see whose caved on Feb. 21st...
Trump again. Either he'll:
a) Forget the whole thing.
b) Try Emergency Declaration and probably get slapped down by the courts
c) Get a deal with some form of "wall" but with a lot of goodies that the Democrats really want.
Whatever leverage he had he's already blown.
But the fact that you think ANY of this stuff is true, means he's won again.. and you people have fallen for it again. How many times does he have to checkmate before all of you on the Left stop playing checkers???
Is that a Scott Adams fan I hear? And how much has Trump really won since the election?
I stole this Sig
Because he seems to understand the bigger picture that the US military does not need to be involved in endless policing operations around the world. And maybe Trump made major mistakes in the how the draw down was announced in this case, but it is hard to tell given that a big part of the media tries to report everything he does in a negative light. In the end the policy seems the right one to me and I am glad he is doing the same thing with Afghanistan.
That's not how you do the bigger picture.
How the bigger picture properly works is you go down into the fine details, figure out what is going on, and then you go back out and see the high level details. You then learn to figure out which of the fine details matter and which ones don't, and how to put those details together into getting the big picture right.
Seeing the bigger picture takes a lot of hard work and analysis of all the little bits in that picture.
The mistake that people make, and Trump more than anyone else, is to think that because an expert can summarize the big picture in a few sentences that they are now an expert if they can just say a few sentences on the topic.
Sure the US needs to have fewer foreign interventions. But that doesn't mean you should just rush out of every current foreign intervention. Maybe staying in Syria is the best of a series of not great options. I don't really know, but I do know that Trump doesn't have a clue, he's basically just button mashing.
I don't like what is happening, but at the same time congress has been promising to fix the illegal immigration issue since Reagan. Trump seems to be very determined at fixing it.
No he's very determined at getting a wall. Again if when he actually tries to talk immigration policy he's just randomly stumbling around.
He is in charge of the executive branch and we expect him to enforce the laws. I am not saying it is justified that he refused to sign the funding bill for border wall funding, but at the same time we expect congress to try to help fix this problem regardless of how big of jerk Trump might be.
It's the wall that's preventing the change at an immigration deal.
If the GOP thinks illegal immigration is such a big deal then they should be willing to give the Democrats something worthwhile like DACA. Trump actually had a deal for something like $27 billion for wall funding in exchange for DACA lined up, and then some hardliners wandered into the room and got him to scuttle the deal.
The reason is that the wall doesn't really do much to stop illegal immigration, it's basically just for show. But getting the wall is a big win for Trump, so if the Democrats give him the funding they'll want a big win in return. But the actual hardliners aren't going to agree to a big win for the Democrats in exchange for a white elephant (the Wall, they're already stuck with Trump), so a deal is really tough to make.
I stole this Sig
I don't think you get to call wars you started "foreign wars"
Show us on the doll where the mean orange man hurt you...
My brain.
Seriously, I don't understand this big group of his supporters who can't perceive how comically incompetent he is.
Sorry for clipping your salient points, but it was to cut down on over-quoting for readability's sake.
In any 2 party democracy (US, UK, Australia and Canada for example),
The UK, Australia, and Canada, are not 2 party democracies -- they are multi-party, they usually have 4 or more political parties.
For example, the UK Parliament has 9 parties:
Conservative Party
Co-operative Party
Democratic Unionist Party
Green Party
Labour Party
Liberal Democrats
Plaid Cymru
Scottish National Party
Sinn Féin
see: https://www.parliament.uk/abou...
The American political system is inherently unstable, with only two parties, it tends to be very polarised. In a multi-party democracy, when the major parties stop being representative, then new parties emerge -- in practice, this can't happen in the USA, though attempts have been made.
America is not really a democracy, it is essentially a 2 party dictatorship!
Probably New Zealand is the most democratic country in the world, as the relative proportions of the political parties in Parliament match those of the votes cast for each party.
see: https://www.elections.org.nz/v...
In EVERY SINGLE SHUTDOWN IN US HISTORY the congress has voted to give back pay to ALL furloughed workers.
The workers who were ordered to show up and work without pay because they had critical jobs get their pay (it's only delayed for the duration of the shutdown).
The workers who stayed home get their pay - so, yeah, it's a paid vacation.
NOT ONE FEDERAL WORKER will be paid a single dollar less for the year because of the shutdown. Just as in all previous shutdowns, congress already passed and the president had already signed the law enabling the back payments while the shutdown was underway.
In the future, save yourself some humiliation and do not post about something you are clueless about, and which everybody can easily check with a couple of minutes of Googling.
". Work for the federal government was previously seen as lower paying and more bureaucratic than equivalent work in the private sector, but a far more predictable and a more steady income. Now it's not even that. "
Yes, it still is. Nobody with a good job should have no savings to fall back on. And my local credit Union was giving personal loans on very good terms to federal employees, specifically because that IS reliable work, and everyone expected those workers to get their back pay. If they're still doing business with career criminals like Well fuckyo or blood of apartheid, they don't deserve such a loan. Banking with those shitheels is both asking to be abused, AND enabling abuse for others. (I was a WAMU customer, when they got bought out by Chase under bullshit premises, I switched to a credit Union.)
". Using federal worker pay as a bargaining chip in a ploy to pander to a political base was the most monumentally stupid thing I have ever seen a politician do. And that is not a high bar, by any means."
It makes sense in the context of Trump's other bad decisions. He has no choice but to get the wall built (never going to happen) or lose his base. Trump is used to shopping for manipulable dumbshits. But now he has to deal with the opponents before him, and they know what bullshit smells like. He painted himself into a corner with that wall bullshit, he wasn't smart enough to get out of it immediately while he still could, and now it's too late.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Sounds like you need to take your own advice. But maybe first you should realize much is out there to read is just propaganda, approved by your masters.
If the Iranians were cruising around in the Atlantic in neutral waters, we'd have no right to actually attack and take them hostage. We might not like it, we might launch ships to keep an eye on them, but attacking, boarding, and taking hostages is an act of war.
We have long had a presence in the mid-east and that's not going to change. We were begged by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to be there in the early 90s.
Making excuses for a terrorist-through-proxy supporting, theocratic nation like Iran tells me everything I need to know about you and your viewpoint.
And, we had just as narcissistic a president the last time. He never took blame or responsibility for anything, and took credit for everything.
Didn't really do much. Every other sentence he uttered began with "I". The difference was, muh racism, he was venerated no matter what he did or didn't do; won the Nobel Prize for no reason other than being elected as a minority.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
How the bigger picture properly works is you go down into the fine details, figure out what is going on, and then you go back out and see the high level details. You then learn to figure out which of the fine details matter and which ones don't, and how to put those details together into getting the big picture right.
While I generally agree with what you are saying I think it is even more complicated. When situations become complex (war, economics, life) you will find experts disagreeing on fundamental courses of action. In the operation Iraqi freedom, it took several years for the military to eventually change their tactics largely based on John Nagl's analysis of a previous successful counter insurgency of Malaysia described in his book "Eating soup with a knife". It took a lot of failure to change the tactics and someone had to choose the right expert to follow. And even then you will get lots of disagreement on whether it worked well. In Afghanistan within weeks the enemy (Al Queda and Taliban) were broken and on the run, but somehow 15 years later with all of our Iraqi counter insurgency knowledge, following the advice of experts who said we shouldn't leave, we are still in a stalemate where Taliban openly control many areas of the country. So my point is that it is hard to find the right expert for a given situation.
Trump doesn't have a clue, he's basically just button mashing.
Despite what you and a large part of the media say, many people that have worked with Trump say he is a good listener and asks good questions and he expects you to be prepared and know your stuff. So I am not convinced that Trump is clueless, but I think that is largely what the left media and Hollywood have conditioned us to believe. With ISIS, Trump asked his chosen expert General Mathis to come up with a plan within 30 days to defeat ISIS. While the strategy did not change drastically, things did change. The military was given the freedom to take action without having to go through layers of decision makers. They surrounded the enemy strongholds and destroyed them rather than allowed them to leave. They were given latitude to work closely with their Iraqi partners. And while there may still be many ISIS terrorists left, they no longer hold any territory and they are scattered and disorganized. Now at this point, I am guessing that Trump realizes we don't want to get drawn into another counter insurgency and rather than fight a counter insurgency again, he is doing the right thing and letting the surrounding countries (Syria, Turkey, and Iraq) deal with a group that they are probably better suited to understand and deal with at that level of conflict.
The reason is that the wall doesn't really do much to stop illegal immigration, it's basically just for show.
I have not tried to investigate this issue very much, but I am not convinced. There are many experienced experts (border patrol) who say the wall helps (though it is hard to get the unbiased information on this). If you were someone trying to get in the US, would you try to go over/under/through the wall? The problem with a wall, is you don't know who or what is behind it. Also, it gives a clear intent when someone is trying to get through a wall or is on the outside of the wall on our borde side, versus someone who just happens to be minding their own business on their side of the border. It also makes it hard for someone who is using a vehicle to get across the border, you can not exactly drive through it with out causing some notice. You would probably have to coordinate with someone on the inside. It also gives something to place sensors on that would be harder to trick or give false positives.
While I generally agree with what you are saying I think it is even more complicated. When situations become complex (war, economics, life) you will find experts disagreeing on fundamental courses of action.
Sure, but if qualified people can end up choosing A, B, or C that doesn't mean you should start choosing at random.
Not only are you less likely to choose the right among A, B, and C. But once people learn you're evaluating on the wrong criteria they're going to give you variants of A, B, and C that are much crappier that they should be.
So my point is that it is hard to find the right expert for a given situation.
But Trump isn't even getting the situations themselves right. Look at NK, there are two big directions pushed by the experts. 1) Be harsh and threatening enough that they have too cooperate, and 2) engage diplomatically and try to reduce the threat and liberalize the regime that way.
Trump started with #1 and almost started a Nuclear war by inflaming tensions with personal insults. Then he switched to #2, but he's doing it on the theory that NK is giving up its Nuclear weapons, which absolutely no expert thinks that's going to happen.
So what will happen? Either Trump will keep ignoring the situation, and give NK a deal where they're obviously cheating. Or the deal will fall apart and we'll be back to #1.
Despite what you and a large part of the media say, many people that have worked with Trump say he is a good listener and asks good questions and he expects you to be prepared and know your stuff.
Where is the evidence of this? Maybe it was true decades ago, and I'm sure there's a few current quotes since it's very obvious that he likes to be praised. But I haven't seen a single clip or even quotation that shows sharp attentive questioning.
So I am not convinced that Trump is clueless, but I think that is largely what the left media and Hollywood have conditioned us to believe.
So how do you explain my two original examples? Syria and the shutdown. Any informed person knew how they were going to end.
How do you explain him being off by orders of magnitude on the cost of health care insurance.
Or constantly confusing tariffs and interest rates.
How many times has he completely misunderstood some piece of legislation being debated?
He's really not in the loop.
With ISIS, Trump asked his chosen expert General Mathis to come up with a plan within 30 days to defeat ISIS. While the strategy did not change drastically, things did change.
ISIS was already collapsing when Trump took office.
The military was given the freedom to take action without having to go through layers of decision makers.
Perhaps he did, now here's a question. If he did remove those layers, why were they there in the first place?
If you don't have a deep understanding of what they were actually doing you can't actually be certain removing them was a good thing.
There's a lot of things that sound like really good ideas but never actually get done. And one of the main reasons that happens is that doing them actually turns out to be a really bad idea.
This is one area where Trump's instinct to judge a situation based on a superficial understanding tends to have very bad consequences.
They surrounded the enemy strongholds and destroyed them rather
I have not tried to investigate this issue very much, but I am not convinced. There are many experienced experts (border patrol) who say the wall helps (though it
I stole this Sig
Sure, but if qualified people can end up choosing A, B, or C that doesn't mean you should start choosing at random.
Trump started with #1 and almost started a Nuclear war by inflaming tensions with personal insults. Then he switched to #2, but he's doing it on the theory that NK is giving up its Nuclear weapons, which absolutely no expert thinks that's going to happen.
Maybe what you see as random is Trump trying different tactics that he think might work. If one tactic fails to work, do you continue to stick with it? Isn't that one of the primary lesson we have learned in all the wars we have fought. For example a tactic that worked well in Iraq did not work well in Afghanistan. So instead of constantly berating Trump for the mistakes, maybe we should commend him for being flexible and dynamic. In the wall situation, he was flexible in his negotiations, while the other side was not willing to negotiate at all.
So what will happen? Either Trump will keep ignoring the situation, and give NK a deal where they're obviously cheating. Or the deal will fall apart and we'll be back to #1.
I would say at least he tried different approaches. And while doing #1 he tried to get China involved and put pressure on N Korea. And while doing #2 he tried to get South Korea involved and I think there was some hint of progress on this. I don't think it is over yet, and so I guess we will see on this one. Either way, N. Korea is a bad situation (dictatorship with nuclear weapons) and there are not a lot of good options.
So how do you explain my two original examples? Syria and the shutdown. Any informed person knew how they were going to end.
Ok, I am in agreement with you that the Trump administration made a big mistake announcing withdrawal and not preparing our Kurdish allies for this announcement and not preparing them for the Turkey army coming in. So your point on this is taken even though I agree with the overall action.
On the wall issue, it is not over yet and so I guess we will have to see what comes of it. I don't think most Democrats care about fixing the border issue (feel free to show me where they are giving credible counter proposals) and so at the very least, if Trump fails, he will have made this even more apparent to the voters. In the end, he is the commander in chief responsible for enforcing our laws and if there is a significant majority on one side of congress that does not care to help enforce this particular law, the president does not have a lot of options. Maybe you don't agree that enforcing the immigrant laws are important, but assuming you do, what option would you suggest he do instead? My guess is that Trump is not opposed to any approach that will fix the immigration problem even if he currently claims the wall is the only way. However, I have not seen any viable alternatives. The alternatives are complex or expensive; strict national ID laws; pressure Mexico to secure their southern border; fix other countries economies; more border patrol; better border technology. And I think Trump is trying these approaches to some extent. He has tried to work with Mexico to better enforce our border (and I do agree that it was probably not helpful for Trump to say Mexico will pay for the wall). He supports the Democratic Venezuela leader which if successful will probably improve the economic situation South of Mexico. He has tried to temporarily add more border patrol such as calling up the national guard.
ISIS was already collapsing when Trump took office.
It is possible that the actions Trump and his general made no difference to the eventual outcome, but the actions do seem sensible to many military experts; were counter to the previous administration generals who thought overwhelming force would backfire; and seems to have been successful.
Perhaps he did, now here's a qu
Maybe what you see as random is Trump trying different tactics that he think might work. If one tactic fails to work, do you continue to stick with it?
The problem is a) he's choosing terrible tactics to attempt, and b) he's doing a very poor judge of evaluating their success and knowing when to switch.
In the wall situation, he was flexible in his negotiations, while the other side was not willing to negotiate at all.
Not really. Last year I think the Dems offered $27 billion or something in wall money in exchange for DACA and some other stuff. Trump accepted the deal and then blew it up after the hardliners got to him.
For the shutdown he didn't offer anything. How budgeting is supposed to work with US style division of power is you say "I really want X and in exchange I'll give you Y".
Trump's offer was a wall for not shutting down the government. That isn't an offer it's a hostage taking. Not negotiating is exactly what the Democrats should have done.
If Trump wants a wall he needs to offer them something beyond not deliberately breaking the country.
And while doing #2 he tried to get South Korea involved and I think there was some hint of progress on this.
SK never thought anything useful would come of Trump's attempts. They were trying to get Trump to the negotiating table so he'd stop escalating the situation into a war that could kill millions of South Koreans.
I don't think it is over yet, and so I guess we will see on this one. Either way, N. Korea is a bad situation (dictatorship with nuclear weapons) and there are not a lot of good options.
You do what everybody else has done for the past few decades, try to keep them contained until the regime liberalizes and collapses. To this point Trump has been counter-productive since they've gotten a lot of sanction relief and Kim a lot of prestige in exchange for saying the words "denuclearize".
On the wall issue, it is not over yet and so I guess we will have to see what comes of it. I don't think most Democrats care about fixing the border issue (feel free to show me where they are giving credible counter proposals) and so at the very least,
What is the border issue?
Drugs? The wall will do nothing to fix that, drugs come through points of entry. No point carrying crap through the desert when you can hide it in a truck.
Crime? Most studies find that immigrants, legal and illegal, commit crimes at lower rates. In either case it's not a big difference.
Jobs? The source of the decline of the White American blue collar work force isn't illegal immigration, it's mechanization.
Demographics? If you really care about that maybe you could slow the growth of the Latino population, though historically making the border harder to cross actually increases illegal immigration. The reason is that a lot of migrants are seasonal, they want to work in the US a few months and then move back. The harder it is to cross the border the more likely they are to simply stick around.
The alternatives are complex or expensive; strict national ID laws; pressure Mexico to secure their southern border; fix other countries economies; more border patrol; better border technology. And I think Trump is trying these approaches to some extent.
ID laws and drone surveillance would do more to reduce illegal immigration, though I don't think they help as much with overstaying visas.
The wall is actually very poor value compare to just a bunch of drones.
The context of what Trump is talking about in this interview appears to be getting insurance when you have a preexisting condition. It is not clear to me what Trump is saying with his example and the interviewer did nothing to ask Trump to clarify. I don't know what situation Trump is talking about when he says "Because you are basically sayi
I stole this Sig