# Extricating us from the Imbroglio: Repairing the Damage **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 20, 2021, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007 "2021-01-20T18:45:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/1 "2021-01-20T18:45:03Z")
I’ve suggested that the time has come to bring the Clusterfuck thread to its natural conclusion, and that we should now have a thread devoted specifically to all actions by the Biden Administration and Congress (and any other parties) to repair the damage. This effort will be a project enough, apart from all the other forward-looking activities we look forward to in the next few years. Unfucking the Clusterfuck will be a backward-looking project, looking back on all the mayhem and wreckage of the Trump years, and trying to fix as much as we can as fast as we can. I think it is worthy to have a thread devoted specifically to that project. What will the Biden Administration do? How many Trump appointees, policies, and regulations can be un-done, and how quickly? Can people like DeJoy be promptly shown the door? Can we get all those kids out of the cages? Let’s discuss it here. Let the Un-Clusterfucking begin! ETA: Note that I am specifically putting this thread here in Politics and Elections, not in the Pit. It may be a backward-looking thread, but unfucking the Clusterfuck is a positive thing we can all think highly of. Pit-worthy language should be perfectly acceptable here, as appropriate, but the overall attitude of the thread should be positive! ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/2 "2021-01-20T18:47:03Z")
Reverse the recent (last minute) order that allows white house staffers to lobby the government. Cancel Keystone Pipeline project ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/3 "2021-01-20T18:48:50Z")
I saw something in the news just yesterday about the Biden admin talking about cancelling the Keystone Pipeline. So that may be in the works already. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/4 "2021-01-20T18:51:44Z")
What I look forward to seeing most of all, and as quickly as possible, is a massive purging and detrumpification of the Executive branch. EVERY Trump appointee (directly or indirectly) should be reviewed and MOST of them should be kicked out. Not much we can do about all the judges. I am concerned about people who have fixed terms (I mentioned DeJoy above). AIUI, these people can be fired for good cause, but cannot be arbitrarily fired just at the President’s whim. Who are these people, and what can be done to axe them? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/5 "2021-01-20T18:53:08Z")
I likewise look forward to a massive review of EVERY Executive Order that Trump signed, with a view to repeal or amend as many as need to be repealed or amended (which I would expect would be a very great many of them). ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/6 "2021-01-20T18:53:57Z")
Watch for in the next weeks: - Rejoin Paris Climate Accord - Rejoin World Health Organization - Reaching out to NATO partners - Ending diversion of military money to border wall - reversing stupid exclusion of immigrants from the census - requiring use of masks in all federal buildings to fight covid - delaying housing foreclosures Here’s a good link to start with: > **[On Day One, Biden targets Trump policies on climate, virus](https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-inauguration-day-one-d6637de1ce993d272108337c1030b79d)** > > WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is moving swiftly to dismantle Donald Trump's legacy on his first day in office, signing ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/7 "2021-01-20T19:05:05Z")
Undoing trump’s Census hijack is supposedly one of Biden’s planned Day One E.O.s. [https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/biden-eo-will-officially-end-trumps-bid-to-weaponize-census-data-to-boost-gop-power](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/biden-eo-will-officially-end-trumps-bid-to-weaponize-census-data-to-boost-gop-power) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/8 "2021-01-20T19:15:24Z")
The Biden administration has taken down the “1776 Commission Report” webpage. It was up for only about a day. I downloaded the report, which is an unbelievable right-wing wishlist version of history. Sort of “A Patriot’s History of the United States” Lite. > **[Aw look, the 1776 Commission page on WhiteHouse.gov is DOWN](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/1/20/2010650/-Aw-look-the-1776-Commission-page-on-WhiteHouse-gov-is-DOWN?utm_campaign=trending)** > > The Biden Administration is moving fast on multiple fronts… including this one! Bye bye, racist-as-f^^k white supremacist government document that lasted two short days.  \[And now that this is on the Rec/Trending list, please allow me... (_A Patriot’s History of the United States_ is supposed to be a counterblast to Howard Zinn’s _A People’s History of the United States_, even down to copying the form of the title and even its typeface. I started reading it because I was curious to see how they answered Zinn’s stories about the atrocities of Columbus. They did it by basically ignoring them. [A Patriot's History of the United States - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Patriot%27s_History_of_the_United_States) ) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/9 "2021-01-20T19:29:38Z")
**Modding** : Not as good by any means but **Senegoid** (The Op) asked the mods to remove the F-word from the title while keeping the strong meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/10 "2021-01-20T19:32:00Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > **Modding** : Not as good by any means but **Senegoid** (The Op) asked the mods to remove the F-word from the title while keeping the strong meaning. Well, actually it wasn’t my idea or preference, but there was quickly an objection by someone to having the F-word in the thread title. So I reported that to the mods for their consideration. For the record, the original thread title was Unfucking the Clusterfuck: Repairing the Damage ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/11 "2021-01-20T19:33:44Z")
Thanks Senegoid and What\_Exit! 🥳 Yeah, Biden has a lot of work to do. And to his credit, he is rolling up his shirtsleeves and getting to work. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/12 "2021-01-20T19:45:45Z")
Just having Trump out of office is a start. Not having a conspiracy theorist as president is going to help immensely. @DrDeth mentioned rolling up his sleeves and getting to work, which is the tone that his inaugural address struck. He didn’t waste a lot of time speaking in platitudes; it was pretty much low-key, as if to say “_Thanks for this little party and all, but let’s not waste time here; let’s get to work._” ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/13 "2021-01-20T20:17:04Z")
The Biden-Harris transition team issued a press release this morning or last night outlining his day-one plans. It seems to have gotten munged in a transition of the website to [whitehouse.gov](http://whitehouse.gov), but you can read it [here](https://web.archive.org/web/20210120113055/https://buildbackbetter.gov/press-releases/fact-sheet-president-elect-bidens-day-one-executive-actions-deliver-relief-for-families-across-america-amid-converging-crises/), courtesy of the Internet Archive. ---
**Author:** ![tingbudong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tingbudong/32/520_2.png) [@tingbudong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tingbudong)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/14 "2021-01-20T20:34:38Z")
Chase down, purge, and rebuild anything that has that ghoul Stephen Miller’s fingerprints on that. 1776, census hit job…those are all his trademarks. I’m convinced that guy was the real power behind Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/15 "2021-01-21T05:19:00Z")
Here’s a clear example of the detrumpification I want to see done by Biden and reported/discussed in this thread: From the thread about Trump appointing Michael Ellis as NSA General Counsel: > [@Ellis as NSA General Counsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ellis-as-nsa-general-counsel/930995/11): > > Posted by @flurb: > > And in another sign that Biden is not fucking around, [he fired the general counsel at the National Labor Relations Board](https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/20/trump-labor-board-460978) after he refused Biden’s request to resign. This is an appointed – not civil service – position, but his term was not due to expire until November of this year. Here’s Biden firing a Trump appointee who was appointed for a fixed term, before that term is up. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/16 "2021-01-21T05:29:26Z")
Here’s another example of detrumpification, copied from the Biden First 1500 Days thread: Biden isn’t fucking around! > [@The Biden Administration - the first 1,500 days \[NOT an Afghanistan discussion\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/131): > > Heads are rolling: > > [https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/biden-michael-pack-kathleen-kraninger-peter-robb.amp](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/biden-michael-pack-kathleen-kraninger-peter-robb.amp) Biden has canned three Trump appointees already: - Michael Pack, the Voice of America guy who’s been trashing that and several related organizations; - Kathleen Kraninger (this is a name I haven’t even seen before), Trump’s head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (remember, the agency that Elizabeth Warren was supposed to head); - Peter Robb, Trump’s head of the National Labor Relations Board (this is the same guy mentioned in the above post). Can Louis DeJoy be far behind? From the linked Slate article: > [@](#): > > Hours into his presidency, Biden has already ousted three of his predecessors’ most unqualified and corrupt appointees. This clean break sends a clear message that Biden will not tolerate hostile Trump holdovers in his administration, including those with time remaining in their term. > > [. . .] > > Pack, Kraninger, and Robb are the tip of the iceberg: Trump spent his presidency packing the federal government with Republicans eager to undermine the missions of the agencies they led. But Biden’s aggressive action upon taking office should be encouraging for progressives, since it indicates that the new president will move swiftly to fire Trump allies with high positions in the executive branch. Moreover, Biden should not have much trouble replacing these holdovers with Democrats in control of the Senate. (Republicans [cannot filibuster](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/18/president-trumps-cabinet-picks-are-likely-to-be-easily-confirmed-thats-because-of-senate-democrats/) nominees to the executive branch.) ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/17 "2021-01-21T05:51:56Z")
I applaud the prospect of a return to the geopolitical conditions, behaviors and norms which lead to the rise of Trumpism. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/18 "2021-01-21T07:17:10Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Well, actually it wasn’t my idea or preference, but there was quickly an objection by someone to having the F-word in the thread title. So I reported that to the mods for their consideration. Don’t want to create a major hijack, but this strikes me as extremely selfish and entitled. Where do people get off telling people to change something like this and why do we censor ourselves to appease them? Clutch your pearls elsewhere. /hijack ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/19 "2021-01-21T07:23:35Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Here’s Biden firing a Trump appointee who was appointed for a fixed term, before that term is up. There are some appointees in civil service who can’t be easily fired. However they can be reassigned to important jobs like unfolding paper clips. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/20 "2021-01-21T07:25:50Z")
Someone on MSNBC and an interesting observation tonight. One of the things Trump learned to do was to do so many stupid things at once that it was hard to push back on all of them. Biden might be doing the same, but with good things. The moment you want to protest rejoining the Paris Accords he freezes deportations. What’s a reactionary to do? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007.md?page=2)