# 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:** 2
**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, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/21 "2021-01-21T07:28:26Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > 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. Well let him get busy then! For sure, Trump left Biden with plenty of material to work with! ETA: As we’re seeing already, Biden is on it! ---
**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, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/22 "2021-01-21T07:28:59Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > What’s a reactionary to do? Lots and lots of reactioning. ---
**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, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/23 "2021-01-21T07:32:34Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > There are some appointees in civil service who can’t be easily fired. This makes no sense at all that I can comprehend. Civil Service is for employees who are hired through a merit hiring system, and are then protected from firing for political ends. How does a political appointee get hired directly into the Civil Service system? Anyone who is hired politically should be subject to being fired politically. (I get that a political appointee can get himself moved from there into a Civil Service position, a maneuver known as “burrowing in”. Is that the kind of situation that you are referring to?) ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/24 "2021-01-21T11:20:04Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > How does a political appointee get hired directly into the Civil Service system? [Trump changed the rules right before the election, and packed in as many people as he could.](https://www.justsecurity.org/73213/politicizing-the-civil-service-how-a-new-executive-order-destabilizes-the-u-s-government/) ---
**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, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/25 "2021-01-21T11:23:24Z")
That makes it sound so easy! So one president can change the rules that way on short notice to pack political appointees into Civil Service jobs and Biden can’t pack the same political appointees right back out? Or change the rules on equally short notice so he can? It just doesn’t even make any sense for a president to be able to unilaterally hire a political appointee for a burrowed-in post right from the start, that another president can’t unilaterally un-hire. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/26 "2021-01-21T11:26:49Z")
There was a lot of debate at the time about whether it was a legitimate order, but Trump’s whole thing is to barrel ahead without asking for permission, and there was an election looming, so there wasn’t really a way to put on the brakes. The assumption was that it was just another headache being deliberately manufactured to make Biden’s first couple of months more difficult and less effective. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/27 "2021-01-21T15:41:08Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Trump’s whole thing is to barrel ahead without asking for permission- And no one ever called him on it!! ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/28 "2021-01-21T15:43:55Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > > [@Cervaise](#): > > > > Trump’s whole thing is to barrel ahead without asking for permission- > > And no one ever called him on it!! Well, 80 million of us just did. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/29 "2021-01-21T15:48:57Z")
So we did, hehe. Take that! 🖕🏽 (A useful emoji in this discussion.) ---
**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 21, 2021, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/30 "2021-01-21T17:46:42Z")
It’s been one full day that Biden has been President, and I haven’t been lied to once yet! It feels weird, but also feels good. I feel like I should have one of those “worker safety” signs instead of “# Days Without An Injury” it should say “# Days Without A Presidential Lie”. It’s been while since it moved off of zero. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/31 "2021-01-21T19:52:13Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > 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 You should have said, “Next two days”. ---
**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 21, 2021, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/32 "2021-01-21T19:59:21Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > You should have said, “Next two days”. Sorry. I have become so used to everything happening “in two weeks” and then never happening. ---
**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 22, 2021, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/33 "2021-01-22T02:48:24Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I feel like I should have one of those “worker safety” signs instead of “# Days Without An Injury” it should say “# Days Without A Presidential Lie”. It’s been while since it moved off of zero. In Trump time it should have been #Hours without a Presidential Lie. Only long when he was sleeping, and I wouldn’t be sure he didn’t lie in his sleep. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/34 "2021-01-22T03:13:45Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I wouldn’t be sure he didn’t lie in his sleep. Almost everyone does sleep laying down. Did you leave this door wise open on purpose…did I stumble into the pun incubator thread by mistake? ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/35 "2021-01-22T03:20:50Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > pun incubator Good band name. Or album title. ---
**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 22, 2021, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/36 "2021-01-22T07:01:54Z")
Biden cleans house at Voice of America. He asked for resignation of Michael Pack, Trump’s propagandist toady there for the last several months, also setting off a cascade of firings or resignations of associated Trump toadies there. > **[At Voice of America, a sweeping ouster of Trump officials on Biden’s first...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/at-voice-of-america-a-sweeping-ouster-of-trump-officials-on-bidens-first-full-day/2021/01/21/4827f3cc-5c2c-11eb-8bcf-3877871c819d_story.html)** > > With a veteran reporter taking the place of controversial overseer Michael Pack, the dominoes started falling in other top offices. Article mentions a variety of scandal and turmoil at the Voice of America and related agencies during Pack’s brief tenure. ---
**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 22, 2021, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/37 "2021-01-22T08:05:56Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > Almost everyone does sleep laying down. > > Did you leave this door wise open on purpose…did I stumble into the pun incubator thread by mistake? I was going to say he would lay in his sleep, but I was chicken. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/38 "2021-01-22T14:57:00Z")
That was eggsellent judgment on your part. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/39 "2021-01-22T15:14:00Z")
(opens thread, sees pun war) What fresh shell is this? ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007/40 "2021-01-22T15:33:44Z")
Apparently now Biden has a lie/false statement. The score is now Trump “too many to count” Biden 1 > **[Fact check: Biden falsely claims journalists had all said his vaccination...](https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/22/politics/fact-check-biden-100-million-doses-vaccine-goal-media/index.html)** > > President Joe Biden delivered a factually accurate Thursday speech about the coronavirus pandemic. But then, after he signed a series of executive actions intended to address the crisis, he was asked by a reporter whether the vaccination goal he... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extricating-us-from-the-imbroglio-repairing-the-damage/931007.md?page=3)