Tag: president

Part 131- Executive Orders

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment Law and Justice , , , , ,

  We have already started 2021 off with Capitol riots, our Commander in Chief getting Impeached for the SECOND time, and Inauguration Day. Yes, President Biden is now the 46th president of the United States of America. And as the current president, he has already started signing executive orders. Quite a lot, actually. Oh boy, here we go. 


The most basic question to ask at the moment is, “What is an executive order?” Well, here’s your answer. An executive order is just like what it sounds like. Orders produced by the President, head of the executive branch- that are generally directed to, and govern actions, by Government officials and agencies. Okay, maybe it’s not what it sounds like. To clarify, it’s a rule or order issued by the president to an executive branch of the government and having the force of law. Executive Orders are issued by the White House and are used to direct the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government. It states mandatory requirements for the Executive Branch and has the effect of law. Here’s an example of an executive order. ( Or two, or three)

Some of the most notable executive orders in the past include President Franklin D Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 ( February 19, 1942), which authorized the mass internment of Japanese Americans during WWII; President Harry S. Truman’s Executive Order 9981, which abolished racial segregation in the U.S. military; and President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Executive Order 10730, which dispatched federal troops to protect the civil rights of the Little Rock Nine during the integration of Little Rock’s Central High School. 

So far, as of today, President Biden has signed 30 executive orders. So, I’m going to list the top 5 which I think are the most important. This is for two reasons. One, it’s a better idea to point out the most important and key ones rather than all. Two, I don’t have enough energy to write about all 30.

  1. Executive Order on Organizing and Mobilizing the United States Government to Provide a Unified and Effective Response to Combat COVID-19 and to Provide United States Leadership on Global Health and Security

Section 1 ( Purpose):

  • ” The Federal Government must act swiftly and aggressively to combat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).  To that end, this order creates the position of Coordinator of the COVID-19 Response and Counselor to the President and takes other steps to organize the White House and activities of the Federal Government to combat COVID-19 and prepare for future biological and pandemic threats.” – White House

Section 2: (  Organizing the White House to Combat COVID-19. COVID-19 Response Coordinator)

Reason: One word to sum up 2020 is, Coronavirus. When we look back to 2020, we will forever remember what the pandemic did to our lives. There were huge numbers of deaths, and every day there were more cases reported than the last. Seeing how bad the virus was this time, the one next time will very much be much, much worse. We need to make sure we have some sort of firm plan and strategy for next time so that we don’t go through something worse.

2.  Executive Order on Protecting the Federal Workforce and Requiring Mask-Wearing  

 

Section 1 ( Policy): 

  • “It is the policy of my Administration to halt the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by relying on the best available data and science-based public health measures.  Such measures include wearing masks when around others, physical distancing… Put simply, masks and other public health measures reduce the spread of the disease, particularly when communities make widespread use of such measures, and thus save lives.” – White House

Section 3: ( Encouraging Masking across America)

Reason: Even though a vaccine is out, we must still wear masks to protect ourselves from the pandemic. Even though it shouldn’t be forced, it should be HIGHLY encouraged. Hopefully, if we encourage people to do so, they will agree to wear masks. They should still have an option on whether they want to or not, but encouraging helps as well. Especially now. Now that we are slowly, very slowly, fighting back against the virus, we shouldn’t stop what safety measures we were doing. 

3. Executive Order on the Revision of Civil Immigration Enforcement Policies and Priorities

Section 1 ( Policy): 

  • “Immigrants have helped strengthen America’s families, communities, businesses and workforce, and economy, infusing the United States with creativity, energy, and ingenuity.  The task of enforcing the immigration laws is complex and requires setting priorities to best serve the national interest.  The policy of my Administration is to protect national and border security, address the humanitarian challenges at the southern border, and ensure public health and safety.  We must also adhere to due process of law as we safeguard the dignity and well-being of all families and communities.  My Administration will reset the policies and practices for enforcing civil immigration laws to align enforcement with these values and priorities. ” – White House

Reason: America is like a Melting pot. ( I think of crayons when I hear this.) America is America because immigrants from all around the world come together, sharing just a little bit of their culture, their style, their flavor, and blending it with other cultures. Everything comes together, and you have America. It’s where a small crayon shaving from each country gets added to this melting pot to create something truly amazing.  Without it, it doesn’t feel right. Immigrants shouldn’t be treated harshly when they come. They should feel safe when coming and not threatened or worried that something would happen to them.  

4. Executive Order on Supporting the Reopening and Continuing Operation of Schools and Early Childhood Education Providers

Section 1 ( Policy):

  • “ Every student in America deserves a high-quality education in a safe environment.  This promise, which was already out of reach for too many, has been further threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic.  School and higher education administrators, educators, faculty, child care providers, custodians, and other staff, and families have gone above and beyond to support children’s and students’ learning and meet their needs during this crisis… However, leadership and support from the Federal Government are needed.  Two principles should guide the Federal Government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis with respect to schools, child care providers, Head Start programs, and higher education institutions.  First, the health and safety of children, students, educators, families, and communities is paramount.  Second, every student in the United States should have the opportunity to receive a high-quality education, during and beyond the pandemic.”- White House

Reason:  When the topic of reopening schools first came up, the president decided to hand it over to the state governors and let them decide. The state governors then decide to give it to school districts. They both passed down such an important thing to school districts, and let them decide what they want to do. It may be a pro, but I feel that it’s more like a con. If the federal government had taken this matter into its own hands from the beginning, it wouldn’t have been a problem now. Cases of COVID are popping up in schools, one after the other, and I think it would have been better if the federal government had originally taken this into their own hands instead of handing it down, twice. 

5.  Executive Order on Strengthening Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act

Section 1 ( Policy): 

  • “ In the 10 years since its enactment, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has reduced the number of uninsured Americans by more than 20 million, extended critical consumer protections to more than 100 million people, and strengthened and improved the Nation’s healthcare system.  At the same time, millions of people who are potentially eligible for coverage under the ACA or other laws remain uninsured, and obtaining insurance benefits is more difficult than necessary.  For these reasons, it is the policy of my Administration to protect and strengthen Medicaid and the ACA and to make high-quality healthcare accessible and affordable for every American.” – White House

Section 2 ( Special Enrollment Period): 

  • “The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered historic public health and economic crisis.  In January of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading, the Secretary of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency.  In March of 2020, the President declared a national emergency.  Although almost a year has passed, the emergency continues — over 5 million Americans have contracted the disease in January 2021, and thousands are dying every week.  Over 30 million Americans remain uninsured, preventing many from obtaining necessary health services and treatment…”

Reason: The ACA has helped many in the past ( not too long ago) for people who were in need of medical help and were uninsured. It helped reduce the number ( of uninsured Americans) by more than 20 million and was taken out. It’s a good thing that it will be reinstated and strengthened at this time, for COVID patients that are uninsured. Many, many Americans ( 30 mill. +) do not get the medical treatment and necessary health services required for COVID, simply because they are uninsured.  I think it will help to reduce the number of Americans dying from COVID if they get treated even without insurance. Yes, there will be more cases, but at least they will be treated and given the necessary health services to help them. 

I am truly sorry for posting this a week late. It just took a while to make sure I had everything in order and I had the right sources to update me and so on. I had to cut down the number of executive orders mentioned to save time, but I have linked a MarketWatch link with a list of key executive orders and a link from the White House with a list of the presidential actions and more details on it.  ( I have also added the link for each order listed after the first section.) I hope you are well, bye!

Sources:

Britannica- Executive orders

White House- Presidential Actions

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/all-of-president-bidens-key-executive-orders-in-one-chart-2021-01-21

Part 116- The First Presidential debate

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment Life during Pandemic, Politics , , , ,

 So, as we all know, the first presidential debate of the 2020 elections, happened on Tuesday, September 29th. I was super excited about this debate and was so ready to see how it turned out. Well, most of you know how it turned out. It wasn’t that great. But, what if there were hidden aspects of the debate. We mainly just saw a lot of bickering but, what if there was a strategy. What if the plan was to make this debate seem terrible? Let’s find out. 

You can find the debate anywhere on youtube and online, but I will put the link at the bottom. 

So, let me start off by saying, first and foremost, that the 2020 first presidential debate was terrible. It seemed terrible and wasn’t very good. I know that there may be a trick to it, and there may be something else under what happened, maybe a plan behind all this, but, I have to say, the result wasn’t that great. I have to say though, after reviewing some of the previous debates from each of them, presidential and VP debates, I saw that they are actually better in the debates than they were in what we saw on Tuesday. Take former Vice President Biden- Mr. Biden- for example. During the debate, we saw that he was faltering, repeating himself, stuttering, and wasn’t very clear with what he said. He was often repeating himself like he didn’t have his thoughts clearly assembled or like his thoughts were falling apart. Plus, he was often talking about how President Trump did something wrong or didn’t do anything as well when answering the questions. instead of answering what he would do, he often replied- often- what President Trump hasn’t yet done or how badly he’s done something on that topic. But, if we see some previous debates, like the VP debates in 2008 or in 2012, we see that they are a lot better, and it is much, much more different than the one on Tuesday.

( Link: 2008 VP debate)

I’m going to use the 2008 VP debate as my first example. In this one, Mr. Biden goes first to answer the first question, and his answer is very clear. It is very concise, clear, simple, proves his answer, and supports President Obama in every way. His thoughts are all collected and complete. To me, it looks like he may be talking to the moderator, as his eyes are sort of off to the side as if he is looking over there, but, when he speaks, it feels like he’s speaking to the people in the audience. Perhaps he was speaking to the people, and was looking to the audience on the right, or WAS speaking to the moderator.  Either way, his voice was well heard. When the other candidate was speaking, he was listening, mulling over what she was saying and her answer. Something you might say is, well, maybe Mr. Biden started to get more comfortable with the debates after winning the 2008 election and started speaking like he did in 2020 one. Perhaps he started to get cocky after this election. Not exactly.

( Link: 2012 VP debate) 

Check out the 2012 VP debate. Yes, he has sightly changed his attitude and way he reacts or facial expression when listening to the other candidate, but how he speaks is the same. Even though I may talk more about how they each spoke, I want to include facial expression and body language a little in this. It may be pretty minor, but it is pretty important. If you notice, in the 2020 debate, Mr. Biden was often smiling and sort of laughing at President Trump’s replies or response to the question. This also can be seen in the 2012 debate. In the 2012 debate, we see that he started to “loosen” up I guess, or started to lose the solemn blank face with precessing thoughts and changing it to a smiling, more emotion-filled face that can be seen while processing the information. The 2008 debate may be his first debate or first debate for a position, so he may not know what he should do. His expression was solemn and still during the first debate and is a bit expressionless, but what if later he decided to change that? That could be a possibility. We can also see, and hear, that in this debate as well, Mr. Biden is very clear and concise with his words. His thoughts are collected and together and he isn’t stuttering at all. 

Let’s move on. We can’t keep talking about Mr. Biden. We still have Mr. Trump to talk about and very little time to finish this post. I only have one video I’m going to use for this because, this is the first presidential debate of 2016, for him, and a look into how Mr. Trump debates. I may add another clip for a video later, but right now, I only have one video pulled up.

So, when we saw the 2020 debate, we saw that Mr. Trump was speaking over Mr. Biden, not letting him speak, and often arguing with the moderator. Is this the same as the 2016 debate? Mmm, not really. In the 2016 debate, he was actually much different. For some time. At the start of the first, 2-3 questions, Mrs. Clinton was speaking about how she viewed Mr. Trump’s plans and his strategies and his plans of growing the economy. She calls it, ” Trumpdump trickle down”. This is what I heard from the video, it may not be the exact thing she did, but it is what I heard. Anyway, when she said this, we saw that Mr. Trump slightly smiled. He was thoughtful and respectfully listening to what she said, and even though he may or may not have approved or liked what she said, he kept quiet and showed a simple expression to show what he thought, instead of telling what he thought. During his response, he stated what he thought from his answer and his response. But then later, you can slightly see, that he wanted to say what he was thinking. He wanted to interrupt and say a response to what she said. He even did that in between, but only slightly. ut then, it changes. We start to see a lot of what happened during the 2020 debate, here. President Trump kept speaking over Mrs. Clinton when it was her time to speak, he was talking bad about some of the things President Clinton has done during his terms, and it is ok to have opinions, but he was sort of stating it like it wasn’t his opinion. In my opinion, I think President Trump isn’t that great of a debater. He just wants to get his point through and make himself seem right and the other candidate isn’t.
Moving on, I want to talk about possible strategies these two candidates had in mind. ( I mean the candidates in the 2020 elections. We’re back in the future after touring the past.) I have a possible idea of the plan Mr. Biden may have had, that comes from West Wing. Beware spoilers. Anyway, in West Wing, when Matt Santos is running for president and chooses Leo to be his VP, Leo is getting ready for the VP debate. Leo is known to be really good at debates, and someone with a great political mind. He is phenomenal at debates and nails them, but when practicing, he isn’t that great. If you want to see the clip, you can see West Wing on Netflix, and the scene is from season 7, episode 10- running mates. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that Leo could have been setting a low expectation for the debate. A low expectation that he isn’t giving good answers, but in the end, wows them and turns out to be amazing. Same thing here. We saw that Mr. Biden is really good at debates, but wasn’t that great during Tuesday’s. What if his strategy is to make it seem that he isn’t that great, but during the next debate blows us away and shows that he is good? What if the plan was to lower the expectations and standards because he knew that there would be high expectations after seeing Mr. Trump’s debates in 2016, and how well Mr. Biden does during debates? What if he lowers/lowered the expectations so that in the end, he can twist the tables and wow everyone? Think about it, if the expectations are low and you don’t expect something great, wouldn’t you be amazed if, in the end, it was? What if that was the plan? But, then again, in West Wing, Leo was getting old and weaker. I say this with respect but, what if Mr. Biden has started to get worse or lose his skills of debating from old age? You never know.
Let’s think about Mr. Trump’s plan as well or his possible plan. The whole time, we saw Mr. Trump “attacking”/ not letting Mr. Biden speak. Probably, he would have watched past debates from Mr. Biden and got a strategy to attack Mr. Biden, so he loses his guard and doesn’t do well?  Or, what if it was also, to make the debate seem bad? I’m really into the whole, make the debate seem bad theory at the moment and it is really funny, just reading over and seeing, make it seem bad, lower standards, over and over again. But, it’s because it seems like a valid plan. Especially, when you think about how it could be Mr. Trump’s plan. Attacking Mr. Biden to lower Mr. Biden’s response or confidence, to make him seem like he isn’t a worthy candidate? Could that be a plan? 
Anyway, to end this blog, I hope you all got a new perspective on the 2020 debate. I know I did along the way and learned A LOT about both candidates and some of their styles of talking and their body language and facial expressions. I wish I could write more and talk more about the topic but it has been a long, 3 hours and 46 minutes, and typing opinions and watching political videos of great excitement and thrill is very exhausting so, I’ll have to say bye, and I hope to see you in the next post. 
 

Presidential Elections

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment Politics ,

I think that Donald Trump will be the next president because, he will make good changes and he will make America change in a good way. I think Hillary Clinton will not be the next president because she wants to be president like her husband was, Bill Clinton. Maybe the candidates must be nervous because this is something big that they never had to do. I think that Donald Trump is the right president for us, because he has done the things that a president would do. I think that Hillary is just doing things that no one has done, and wants to proove to others that she is perfect for president. I think that Hillary is going to make too many changes, and Donald is going to make the right changes, as president. I think that Bill is going to just vote for Hillary, not because she is his wife, because he wants her to be president also. I think that trump family want Donald  to be president because, they have seen him do the things a president would do. I think that President Obama was just like Donald but know he is doing his duties as president.