Part 8 of a Newer Deal: immigration, budgets, emoluments and... no, the President doesn't own the White House!

 Amid the daily drenching of treasonous-lunacy, can we agree to wish calm-sanity on the world in 2026, as we leave benighted 2025 behind us? 

I'll drop a little humor into this missive at the very end, along with Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah & Kwanza etc. wishes. But meanwhile...

...let's keep poking at on my 35+ - likely futile - proposals that liberals, Democrats and their residually-sane conservative neighbors might enact, to fix many flaws exploited lately by enemies of our enlightenment and republic.

This series began with an appraisal of political tactics to win elections, especially the most successful one of the last 50 years, the "Contract With America" concocted by Newt Gingrich in 1994 to bury any remnants of the Rooseveltean coalition, commencing decades of Republican dominance. A 'contract' hypocritically betrayed by the GOP! Still, it worked for them. We need to know why.

In Part Three I listed my own proposed winning promises!  Some need legislation to either overcome a veto or await a non-traitor president. (Though far easier to pass than a Constitutional amendments, so stop whining about the Electoral College!) But half a dozen are internal reforms Congress can make no matter who's in the Oval Office. 

In Parts 4-7 I commenced dissecting and explaining each of the proposals. Some would directly solve some of the weaknesses Donald Trump has exposed in the U.S. system. 

So, let's continue.

== The immigration dilemma ==

Scream "racism!" all day, but that won't cancel a fact few liberals ever admit or confront. That enemies of the Enlightenment and liberalism found an effective tactic, a way to f---up western nations, politically. 

The tactic? Drive hmany thousands of hapless, innocent refugees across borders into generously liberal democracies! Then watch, giggling, as millions of voters in those countries swing rightward at the polls.

Cringe and deny and evade thinking about it, all you like. But when your enemy employs a winning tactic - in this case leveraging your own goodness and generosity against you - it might be sapient to notice! (As you should notice the tactical effectiveness of the Gingrich 'contract.')

Dig it. In order to do good things in this world (many of them suggested in this series) you must have political power! And sorry - alas - that means prioritizing. 

You can't do everything. So do things first that will both improve matters and win more elections and give us the power to do more good things! Um... duh?

Anyway, here I offer a potential way to approach that sweet spot in a vexing issue. Remaining generous,while countering the till-now 100% effective Putin refugee ploy.

 IMMIGRATION REFORM: There are already proposed immigration law reforms on the table, worked out by sincere Democrats and sincere Republicans, back when the latter were still a thing. These bipartisan reforms will be revisited, debated, updated and then brought to a vote. 

 

In addition, if a foreign nation is a top ten source of refugees seeking U.S. asylum from persecution in their homelands, then by law it shall be incumbent upon the political and social elites in that nation to help solve the problem, or else take responsibility for causing their citizens to flee. 

 

Upon verification that their regime is among those top ten, that nation’s elites will be billed, enforceably, for U.S. expenses in giving refuge to that nation’s citizens. Further, all trade and other advantages of said elites will be suspended and access to the United States banned, except for the purpose of negotiating ways that the U.S. can help in that nation’s rise to both liberty and prosperity, thus reducing refugee flows in the best possible way. 

== Hurt him where it hurts most ==

 

This next one is self-explanatory. 

It plugs a gaping hole that has allowed a maniac to run wild with public property, while refusing all accountability and grabbing bribes, hand over fist!

THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE MANAGER: By law we shall establish under IGUS (the Inspectorate) a civil service position of White House Manager, whose function is to supervise all non-political functions and staff. This will include the Executive Mansion’s physical structure and publicly-owned contents, but also policy-neutral services such as the switchboard, kitchens, Travel Office, medical office, and Secret Service protection details. There are no justifications for the President or political staff to have whim authority over such apolitical employees. 

With due allowance and leeway for needs of the Office of President, public property shall be accounted-for. The manager will allocate which portions of any trip expense should be deemed private and thereupon – above a basic, reasonable allowance – shall be billed to the president or his/her party. 

This office shall supervise annual physical and mental examination by external experts for all senior office holders including the President, Vice President, Cabinet members and leaders of Congress.

Any group of twenty senators or House members or state governors may choose one periodical, network or other news source to get credentialed to the White House Press Pool, spreading inquiry across all party lines and ensuring that all rational points of view get access.

 

== Cancel the many levels of graft! (Well... a lot of them) ==

Here's another one that may seem obvious. Only note what I say about presidential libraries! These have morphed into massive ego shrines, where ex-presidents get to "keep" the lavish gifts they receive from individuals and foreign potentates, so long as they are officially 'on (permanent) loan' from the National Archives!

Donald Trump has even declared that he plans to 'donate' the big Qatari 747 jet, via the Archives, to his post-presidential library for his own personal and permanent use!

Dig it: we can get Obama and Clinton and (maybe reluctantly) GW Bush to sign off on this. And we can word it in a way where the grifters cannot plausibly refuse.

EMOLUMENTS AND GIFTS ACT: Emoluments and gifts and other forms of valuable beneficence bestowed upon the president, or members of Congress, or judges, or their staffs shall be more strictly defined and transparently controlled. 

All existing and future presidential libraries or museums or any kind of shrine shall strictly limit the holding, display or lending of gifts to, from, or by a president or ex-president, which shall instead be owned and held (except for facsimiles) by the Smithsonian. 

Donations by corporations or wealthy individuals to pet projects of a president or other members of government, including presidential libraries or inauguration events, shall be presumed to be illegal bribery unless they are approved by a nonpartisan ethical commission.

 

== And finally... ==

Finally, here's one they'll never pass, though it could benefit the nation, immensely.

BUDGETS: If Congress fails to fulfill its budgetary obligations or to raise the debt ceiling, the result will not be a ‘government shutdown.’ Rather, all pay and benefits will cease going to any Senator or Representative whose annual income is above the national average, until appropriate legislation has passed, at which point only 50% of any backlog arrears may be made-up. 

== Were these ones kinda 'obvious'? ==

Yeah, obvious, schmobvious. They must be explicit in order to be useful as a sales-pitched Newer Deal!

And if you pass most of them, you'll make clear what should have been, back when Pelosi, Sanders, Schumer, AOC, Liz Warren and the resut united to pass the 2021-22 Miracle Bills. That Democrats are serious about wanting democracy and institutions to work.

Turns out those miracle bills were far from enough! So let's get on with the job of rescuing a flawed system. One that only happened to give humanity its best and most hopeful era, ever.

The Greatest - GI Bill - Generation is watching us. Let's not let 'em down.

Continuing with Part Nine....

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             == Oh, yeah... here's that humorous lagniappe... ==

I promised wry amusement. Re the Epstein pedophilia and now 'redaction' scandal:  this was all eerily predicted in a fun/absurd Kirsten Dunst film "Dick" (1999). Nixon hires two flakey 15 year olds as White House dog walkers... who fall in love with him and croon fantasies into the president's office tape recorder... 

...tapes that soon are subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee. And Dick realizes... "I can survive all the rest, the burglary, the coverups, the bribes.... But messing with 15 year olds will get me lynched!" 

      So he erases their love songs, leading to the 18 minute "Gap"!

In light of the the pathetic Bondi 'redactions' and Epstein's pal -- the pussy-grabber -- having on-record said "I like 'em young" ... have I uncovered "Dick" as an important part of the training set for the AI that's running this simulation? 

Tell me another place online where you get connections like this!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah & Kwanza etc. wishes for sanity, peace and joy in years ahead. 

And to hell with the aliens who've been shining a stoopidity ray upon us. Vamoose, twerps, or we'll getcha, someday.