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Oklahoma Representative James Bridenstine, a Navy Reserve pilot, was confirmed as NASA's 13th administrator on Thursday.
In a 50-49 vote Thursday, Oklahoma Representative James Bridenstine, a Navy Reserve pilot, was confirmed as NASA's 13th administrator, an agency that usually is kept away from partisanship. His three predecessors — two nominated by Republicans — were all approved unanimously. Before that, one NASA chief served under three presidents, two Republicans and a Democrat.
The two days of voting were as tense as a launch countdown.
A procedural vote Wednesday initially ended in a 49-49 tie — Vice President Mike Pence, who normally breaks a tie, was at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida — before Arizona Republican Jeff Flake switched from opposition to support, using his vote as leverage to address an unrelated issue.
Thursday's vote included the drama of another delayed but approving vote by Flake, a last-minute no vote by Illinois Democrat Tammy Duckworth — who wheeled onto the floor with her 10-day-old baby in tow — and the possibility of a tie-breaker by Pence, who was back in town.
(Score: 5, Informative) by edIII on Friday April 20 2018, @11:24PM (1 child)
The Republicans are responsible for the massive bloat and inefficiencies as much as the Democrats, but are just more fucking hypocritical and deluded.
I'll give you welfare programs as an example. The actual assistance part of it was corrupt as fuck. Now I don't know if the private citizens that got paid for operating the beautician schools where Republican or not, but I sure as fuck know that anybody with two brain cells can figure out that 10,000 young girls trying to cut hair in a city that can only support 4,000 of them is fucking stupid on many levels, most poignantly economically.
It's awfully hard to criticize some of these programs when they were corrupted from the start as a pork barrel project for Senators and their wealthy friends. If we were to actually audit all of our government spending for the last 100 years, you would find that a lot of that government money ended up in the hands of people close the politicians and the wealthy elite. Not only that, but that the projects had most of their cost being the profit for c-suites on up. Two million for the actual labor, two million for materials, and twenty million for the c-suites and share holders.
When we laugh/cry about a hammer being two hundred fucking dollars, and being sold tenpenny nails for 10 dollars a piece, who is ending up with that money?
Republicans can try to lie to us all they want. We've never had a properly operated social program to begin with, everything is horribly mismanaged, and nobody is looking over at the greedy fuckers in the corner that know our problems would go away if they just paid us more.
Living wages reduce the load on social programs dramatically. In part because if the middle class is super strong, they also tend to not be like the avaricious sociopathic elites, but concerned for the welfare of the poor. Tithing, religious organizations, and just plain ol' hospitality and generosity can largely help alleviate the plight of the poor. When America is bereft of the strong union factory jobs that used to put food on the table, and savings in the bank, it's no surprise that we're all struggling to the extent that we can't adequately help each other. Hence, the all of the sudden need for massive social programs, UBI, etc.
I would LOVE smaller government. Tighter, more efficient, more transparent, more effective, you name it. Let's just kill and gut every elite and politician out there, start paying ourselves living wages to create a strong middle class again. Government can get a lot smaller when we don't actually have a need for a larger government.
Ultimately the problem is corrupt human beings. People so faulty by design that they should be put down Spartan style. It's the fact that the majority of us are incapable of dealing with the threat represented by having the sociopathic and deeply avaricious become the scourge of the c-suites, elites, and politicians that keeps us where we are. Our own good nature prevents us from expelling the evil abhorrent filth that the elites represent. We're unable to defend ourselves against it.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by captain normal on Saturday April 21 2018, @12:30AM
"Let's just kill and gut every elite and politician out there"...How, if you don't kill off all their bosses, is that going to do any good Just yesterday, Randall Stephenson CEO of ATT pressured the Justice Department to allow it to swallow up Time Warner. ATT was broken up years ago for monopolistic and unfair business practices yet here is the giant zombie rising from the grave out to destroy all the good from years of somewhat real competition. Wonder just how much ATT has put out to politicians? Not only money, but also golf junkets, fishing trips etc?
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--