Since we were lately talking about cartoon characters, I would like to discuss Heckle and Jeckle, also known as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Of course DOGE is their proposed agency, The Department of Government Efficiency.
The best article I have found on DOGE is in The New Republic, by Matt Ford, November 22, 2024:
The More You Learn About Elon Musk’s DOGE, the Less Sense It Makes | The New Republic
"Broadly speaking, Musk and Ramaswamy have three stated goals. The first one is to massively reduce the number of federal regulations. They argued that two recent Supreme Court rulings—West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency in 2022 and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo earlier this year—compel them toward action. “Together, these cases suggest that a plethora of current federal regulations exceed the authority Congress has granted under the law,” they wrote."
"The Supreme Court suggested no such thing. In the West Virginia case, the Supreme Court struck down a defunct Obama-era plan for regulating power-plant emissions and limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to enact future regulations of those emissions. The conservative majority invoked the “major-questions doctrine” to argue that Congress hadn’t spoken clearly enough to grant the agency the power to issue such a consequential ruling. Contrary to what Musk and Ramaswamy suggest, the court said that this doctrine was reserved for “certain extraordinary cases,” suggesting that most federal regulations would not fall under its scope."
"One aspect of this scheme that sticks out is the claim that Musk and Ramaswamy would use “advanced technology” to decide which regulations to cut. If that is a reference to artificial intelligence programs, then it could be a serious mistake. Not only are AI programs generally untrustworthy and unreliable, but they are ill-suited to complex legal work. Judges have had to castigate lawyers for filing AI-written briefs that included fake citations to nonexistent court cases. Using AI to throw out existing regulations would practically invite legal challenges under the APA’s “arbitrary and capricious” standard."
"...There are some things that the Trump administration could lawfully attempt to do to reduce the number of civil servants. One option would be reduction through attrition by imposing a hiring freeze on new federal employees. When Trump tried imposing one three days into his first term, however, it faced a chaotic rollout and had numerous exemptions. He eventually scrapped it four months later for practical reasons."
"Another would be to end work-from-home policies for most federal employees, which has often led to departures in private-sector companies that tried to reverse the post-Covid trend. The Trump administration, via the Office of Personnel Management, would almost certainly be able to end federal work-from-home policies that became popular during the Covid-19 pandemic. Every agency has different work-from-home rules, however, so it’s not clear how impactful such a change would be."
"Loper Bright is much more consequential: The justices used that case to overturn the Chevron doctrine, which had required courts to defer to federal agencies when interpreting the scope of those agencies’ regulatory portfolio. That will have major consequences for when courts review new regulations in the future. At the same time, the conservative majority asserted that old court decisions will generally remain intact. “We do not call into question prior cases that relied on the Chevron framework,” the court explained. “The holdings of those cases that specific agency actions are lawful—including the Clean Air Act holding of Chevron itself—are still subject to statutory stare decisis despite our change in interpretive methodology.”
"How would these regulations be eliminated? Musk and Ramaswamy said that DOGE will work with “legal experts embedded in government agencies” who are aided by “advanced technology” to create lists of regulations that they think are invalid. (They did not elaborate upon the “advanced technology” they plan to use.) From there, Trump would use the list to “immediately pause enforcement” of the targeted regulations and “initiate the process for review and rescission” of them. “This would liberate individuals and businesses from illicit regulations never passed by Congress and stimulate the U.S. economy,” Musk and Ramaswamy claimed."
"Presidents cannot simply make federal regulations disappear via executive order. The Administrative Procedures Act, or APA, and other federal laws typically set out the bureaucratic process for crafting regulations. Rescinding a regulation generally requires the agency to go through the same process as creating one. Failure to follow this process can lead a federal court to invalidate those efforts. Trump and his allies are well aware of this: Their sloppy approach to the regulatory process led to dozens of defeats in court during his first term."
There is more to the article, the whole thing is worth reading.
Some personal reflections: there have been shares all over social media that Ramaswamy was quoted as saying that he would like to downsize the federal workforce, "...if your social security number ended in an odd number, you'd be out." This of course elicited outrage. There is not the possibility of eliminating that many jobs. Musk wants to end the ability of working from home, and require a 5 day a week required in-person presence. The hope is that people would "self-deport" from work ( I mean resign volumtarily).
So neither of these birds hold any elected office, or are proposing to be part of an agency that requires congressional approval. Though it would actually require approval to create the agency. They would serve at Trump's pleasure. How that would work long term is an open question. My guess is until one or both of them p*ss off Trump.
Right now Musk is sitting at the cool kids' table, going everywhere with Trump. JD Vance apparently isn't cool enough, he was tasked with shepherding Matt Gaetz through the process of getting rejected.
We have been told, and told, and told, that the election results were due to "the economy, stupid". So we have a proposed agency, the heads of which want to have a massive layoff in the nation's largest employer. Since the federal government employs approximately 2 million people, that would have a significant impact. The stereotype is that government workers are in a cushy ivory tower. But it includes postal employees, Social Security workers, engineers, Veteran's Administration people, etc. The government couldn't function without them. Of course that's what Musk and Ramaswamy envision. This actually worries me more than the nominees for positions that require Congressional approval. At least there are some obstacles there.
They don't want to leave Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the ACA alone either. Wonder if anyone is having buyer's remorse yet?
One source of hope is that this administration will be a collection of egomaniacs who will all be vying for influence and power while waiting for the main egomaniac to either die or complete his journey to the land of dementia. To the extent Trump is still a conscious agent, he’ll probably continue his style of fomenting division. So I hope these hyenas will resort to cannibalism and not get anything done. But there will be chaos, nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteThis should be interesting. I have read that some who know both DC and Musk wonder how long he will stay before walking away. There will definitely be big obstacles to their plans, including opposition from Republicans who see threats to their constituents. And lawsuits galore if too many regulations that are there to protect water and air are on the chopping block.Lots of Constitutional issues.This might even prove to be occasionally entertaining as it plays out.
ReplyDeleteGenerally the federal government shrinks its workforce by a hiring freeze, but they don’t last long. The other is a Reduction in Force, known by the acronym RIF. RIF has a verb form - a govt employee might say they are worrying about being RIFfed.The general rule is last in, first out according to hire date. But of course there are always ways around it. I actually don’t remember many RIFs during my 50+ years living her. Or hiring freezes. A few.
Thanks for the link to the New Repub story. I will try to study it. My take also is that Musk will become frustrated with not being able to make unilateral decisions as if he were a CEO.
ReplyDeleteMeantime, Vance is now in charge of babysitting Hegseth. I don't expect that appt to make the cut.
Musk and Ramaswamy might come up with a few good ideas, but more by accident than by any firm grasp of what the country needs or how govt depts work.
In the same vein, Kennedy is making noise about moving Medicare away from expensive surgeries and procedures by reducing the payout for doctors who perform them. The alternative would be to try to manage chronic diseases. But hard to know what that means. Would someone age 80 who needs an aortic valve replacement be denied the surgery and put on drugs and diet to ease the inevitable heart failure even though survival rates are close to 100 percent? Would a 70 year old leukemia patient with co-morbidities be denied a stem cell transplant since the survival rate in the elderly is only about 40 percent? Medicare currently pays for both these operations. I think we need to be more pragmatic about the standard of care for old people, but I don't want Mr Dead Brain Worm in charge of those decisions.
"I don't want Mr Dead Brain Worm in charge of those decisions."
DeleteMe neither, Jean. I think people need to make informed decisions about their own care. For some people it makes sense to roll the dice with a procedure that isn't guaranteed. With others, it doesn't, especially if the odds are that the suffering it causes wouldn't be worth it.
My oncologist has been very supportive helping me argue with the cardiologist against open heart surgery. Now that I'm over 70, I am eligible for the transcath mitral valve repair procedure, which is basically day surgery. Weirdly, the heart condition has stabilized at the moderate-to-severe stage, and intervention is not absolutely necessary because the rest of the heart is in good shape so far. So I am glad I did not let them crack my chest open five years ago and start rummaging around in there with mitral clips and Watchman gizmos and pacemakers. But I would not want to withhold treatment from others just because I gambled on "leave me the hell alone" route and things worked out.
DeleteMy brother had open heart valve replacement in his 50s. You were smart to avoid that if possible. It was a rough, painful recovery. He had to sleep in a recliner for weeks. Since he was young enough that they figured a pig valve would eventually have to be replaced, they gave him a metal valve. Which means he is on blood thinners for the rest of his life. Those have their own bunch of complications and caveats.
DeleteA few years ago my husbands cardiologist referred him to an electrophysiologist for a pacemaker consultation because of some aberrations in his tests. My husband did not want to do it without a second opinion, so canceled the appointment to have it placed. The second opinion tests did not show a problem so he didn’t get the pacemaker. Two years later his heart apparently skipped a beat, causing him to pass out and fall from the ladder. He now has a pacemaker - too late.
DeleteTook care of my mom after open heart surgery for valve replacement. Lots of monitoring, diet, and exercise to supervise, along with a constantly changing array of oral and injectable meds. Raber could not cope with any of that. He is forgetful and becomes very mixed up when he is stressed out or has to deal with too much info.
DeleteReagan instituted a hiring freeze that lasted 15 years at my place. We essentially lost a generation to learn the ropes and the culture. I remember Reagan wouldn’t get his picture taken with the federal employee of the year. Nice to be loved and appreciated. If Musk fires 90% of the workforce, the best people will probably be part of the loss. Of course, it’ll be no skin off him. I don’t know if he’s covered by conflict of interest laws. I’m pretty sure the egomaniac wants to be the first trillionaire. Getting his hands into the deep pockets of the government may help.
ReplyDeleteFifteen years! I never heard of a long hiring freeze around here from a federal employees I knew at various agencies., They worried about RIFs, but none of our friends or neighbors ever lost their jobs in a RIF. The government would collapse if 90% of the workforce is fired. I have read that about 4,000 jobs have been targeted to fire people seen as trump resisters to be replaced by loyalists. Apparently some govt employees are worried that AI will be used to comb through text messages, social media etc to identify them. Overall downsizing of the workforce will not be a quick and easy task unless they want to risk their own voters no longer receiving their varied and many govt services in a timely manner and getting mad, flooding the offices of their congressional reps of both sides with complaints and calls for help. There may be a lot of new openings in Congressional offices for caseworkers coming up.
DeleteSimilar freeze going on in the humanities in colleges and universities for decades. Reduce tenure jobs, replace instructors for gen ed classes with low paid temps, and pretty soon there's no one to teach Milton, Shakespeare, Chaucer, or Beowulf. Friend who is director of special collections where we attended grad school together said there's now one Shakespeare class. Used to be three. Nobody left for Milton. Chaucer and Beowulf were taught for awhile in Modern English translation when the Middle and Old English profs retired, but now even those are gone. It's hard when the world tells you that what you spent years learning is now garbage can info. Small group of us are trying to encourage young people to keep medieval lit alive. The folks in England are having some success. Here Anglo-Saxon studies attracts a lot of white boys interested in Thor, which is a bit disturbing.
DeleteI can only speak locally but we had no new hires for that length of time and then, around 2000, they started with a trickle and then a flood. Not a good way to preserve a culture and expertise. Maybe it had to do with being out of the Washington zone. Also, I worked for the Army. My guess at this moment is they’ll turn over the running of military equipment over to Raytheon. Internal expertise has become rather anemic. It’s almost to the point where it’s whatever the contractor says anyway.
DeleteJean, it seems from articles I’ve read here and there that the humanities are pretty much dead in high schools and colleges. It also seems that those who are pushing hardest for a revival of classical studies and the humanities in general are conservative Catholic schools. It might be one of the few things I agree with them on, but I would reserve judgment since I don’t know how they are teaching the courses - what slants or biases they are incorporating.
DeleteAbout young guys interested in Thor and Norse mythology, I think it's kind of like the women interested in Wicca. They've constructed in their minds a version of the past that didn't exist.
DeleteYes, and some of them seem enamored of warrior culture and veer toward white power. Some don't like to be reminded that the Anglo-Saxons were farmers and craftsmen first. Only a very small percentage of people were involved in marauding and fighting, and usually not as a regular occupation. Making sturdier plows and stretchier socks was way more important to the survival of the community than better swords and chain mail.
DeleteI think there is good reason for pessimism in Trump's second term. One of the arguments of the WSJ Editorial Board throughout the campaign was that we had already seen what a Trump presidency was like, and the "guardrails" held. Even if that is true, Trump 2.0 is quite different from the original, making nonsensical appointments to a great many cabinet positions. True, Gaetz didn't make it, but it seems quite likely that Hegseth, Kennedy, Gabbard, and Oz will.
ReplyDeleteIt may not be the case that the best lack all conviction, but it almost sometimes seems like the worst are full of a passionate intensity. See, for example, David Mamet's opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal titled Decline and Fall of America? Not Yet Trump appears to have broken the codependency of the woke and averted a destructive revolution. Here's a sample:
For the past four years Israel has been the leader of the free world. The Jewish state has been the West’s sole protection against Islamist terror, fighting while reviled by the people and countries it was protecting. Its position was similar to that of Donald Trump—demonized, persecuted, targeted for violence.
Now that Israel and the U.S. will again be allies, we can hope Iran will be returned to the Iranian people, Gaza will become a wealthy city-state, and there will be that biblical peace in which each may sit under his fig tree and be unafraid. . . .
During the past four years, American politics has been dominated by a coalition each of whose members, like codependent kin, has its own investment in group integrity and the power it derives therefrom. The superrich, academia, Islamists, Marxists and the media have colluded to suppress the true and impose the false.
We know that their perfidies, lawfare, slander, blacklisting and civil persecution were practiced on conservatives and Republicans, particularly on Mr. Trump. But the suppression was targeted primarily at their own voters.
To remain unthreatened by reason, the liberal populace had to be convinced to endorse various lies and fantasies: Black Lives Matter, Israel’s perfidy, unlimited abortion as a woman’s right, men’s right to compete in women’s sports, the abolition of the police, Mr. Trump’s demonic power and so on.
It is astonishing to accuse those who opposed Trump of collusion "to suppress the true and impose the false" while not at minimum acknowledging Trump himself is certainly the most egregious liar ever to run for president.
I don't read the Wall Street Journal, for one thing, it's paywalled with a hefty subscription price. For another, it's not my field of interest.. But I have to say I'm shocked at this excerpt. Maybe I stereotyped it, but I had thought of it as appealing to the staid, financially conservative, gray flannel suit crowd. But this sounds like it could have come out of the Epoch Times. Seriously, the "codependency of the woke"?
DeleteWe have heard all the *smart* analysis saying that the Dems lost because they lost the non- college educated, working class people. Maybe in part they lost the gray flannel suit crowd too.
I agree with you that Trump is the most egregious liar ever to run for president.
The WSJ was bought by Murdoch several years ago. Politically it then shifted far, far to the right. I stopped reading it.
DeleteWhen I spent my one year in the federal bureaucracy salary was dependent on civil service classification and years of service. The big game appeared to be to get one's service classification raised by adding to one duties especially by tasks that meant your functioned without supervision and/or to increase the number of people you supervised. This game was aided by the government periodically reevaluating positions and downgrading their classification which essentially meant a salary freeze because you were at the top of the salary range for your grade. If this is still the main game in town, it is difficult to see how it would fit into any attempt of Trump administration to control the bureaucracy.
ReplyDeleteOff topic - I just read that the skull of Thomas Aquinas will be in DC at the end of the month. Ugh. I think I’ll skip it. Stanley it will also be in Baltimore and Philadelphia in case you have an interest in relics. I think that relic worship should disappear, along with indulgences, which were ignored for a long time but now they’re back. Unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI love Catherine of Siena, and it makes me sick that they have her head in a box for people to gawp at. Pilgrimage to a burial site is one thing. But I wish the Church would make an effort to pull together these scattered bits and entomb them together. I never understood why it's OK for saint parts to be strewn around, but the local priest said I would be asking Raber to commit a sin if I asked him to scatter my ashes where my cats are buried.
DeleteBody parts of saints or anyone else gross me out, so I'm not one who makes relics pilgrimages. To a degree it may be a cultural thing. Our priest studied in Rome for awhile and he said it seemed like the Italians were more into that kind of thing.
DeleteI was reading about one culture, I'm not remembering where it was, where it was the custom to dig up the bones of ancestors after a certain length of time had passed, and clean them up, and re-bury them. I'm really glad that I don't have to observe that custom!
I guess if people find meaning in bodily relics, fine for them, but it's not something that resonates with me .i agree with Jean that relic culture is inconsistent with the church's teaching about proper burial or inurnment.
I do have a little reliquary, kind of a pendant, that was among my grandmother's things. It contains a third class relic, a little piece of cloth. That seems a lot different than body pieces. It is a relic of St. Frances Cabrini. Grandma had visited her shrine in Colorado one time when she was traveling there.
Thanks for the heads-up, Anne. The relic will be at the Dominican Church of St. Patrick on 16 December. This is one of two skulls which I guess means the saint had two heads. I may go. I can visit downtown Philly, get the awesome vegan ”cheesesteak” at the Reading Terminal Market. Several blocks away is the Mütter Museum which houses the grisly collection of mummified medical anomalies which were used for education of physicians. One can even see Grover Cleveland’s tumor. That would make it a day.
DeleteHaven’t been to Philadelphia for a few years. I’m not a vegan so when I do go there, I get the real thing. I haven’t found a Philly Cheesesteak anywhere else that is a real Philly Cheesesteak - no matter what the menu says. Don’t bother to order them anymore. Only in Philly.
DeleteTwo skulls???
Speaking of grisly relics, I recommend Sarah Vowell's "Assassination Vacation," weird and.fascinating.
DeleteMy favorite story about relics came from a friend from Chile. The family went to Chile every year, flying on the day after Christmas. After one trip he told us that friends of theirs in Chile were related to a Chilean priest who was to be canonized at the end of December. . So he asked them why they didn’t go to Rome for the ceremony. The reply - “someone had to stay here to make the relics”.
DeleteAfter all, how many thousand pieces of the True Cross, or Mary’s cloak are there in the world? Two skulls for Aquinas.
DeleteThe Church doesn't know which skull--the one in Priverno or the one in Toulouse--is really Thomas's, so both are venerated. There seems to be noise about doing a DNA test on both skulls and comparing them to the rest of the skeleton buried (I think) in Toulouse.
DeleteDNA would prove only which skull goes with the rest of the bones, but not whether those bones are St Thomas. So it seems likely to me that the Church would continue to allow both relics to be honored.
I suppose you could argue that it's faith that makes the relics venerable, like the shroud of Turin, which many people still venerate as a holy image despite its having been proven a fake, if not an outright hoax. If I recall, our late friend Tom Blackburn found viewing the shroud a holy experience.
In addition, the skull that is not Thomas's might be that of another holy person. When St Cuthbert's tomb was opened, there were other bones in the coffin. It was thought that these might have been the remains of other saints hastily included in Cuthbert's coffin as they were spirited away from his original resting place in the wake of the Danish invasion.
Anne, I am always amazed when I try one of those vegan cheesesteaks at the Reading Terminal. I will probably do so again because I still don’t believe they taste so good. Taste and texture. I don’t trust my memory. Or I must be crazy. I am a died-in-the-wool Philadelphian and take my cheesesteaks seriously. But I have consumed great cheesesteaks out of the Philadelphia area. Sadly, my favorite restaurant in that city is gone now, a victim of the COVID quarantine. The City Tavern was a reconstruction of the original attended by the architects of the Constitution. It had original cuisine from that era, including a vegan tofu offering from a Ben Franklin recipe. The servers were outfitted historically correctly. Even the lighting was reduced to candlelight levels. Once, there was a harpsichordist performing. Pure fun.
DeleteJust wondering, how do you make a cheesesteak sandwich without any steak? Vegan cheesesteak just seems like a contradiction in terms. My husband likes cheesesteak, so I have experimented a little. You can get frozen pre-chopped steak. Turned out tough and gristley. Better results were from a package of Hormel beef tips and gravy. Best results were just going to Subway and picking one up.
DeleteI e never tried a Subway cheese steak. Since I’ve had so many tough and gristly ones outside of Philly, I gave up.
DeleteStanley, we never went to City Tavern. It sounds like we missed something good and now it’s gone.
DeleteSorry you missed it, Anne. Great experience. The chef was from Germany but he was really into the Revolutionary Era cuisine.
DeleteAs usual, Jean, you add to my knowledge of saints and the hagiography thereof. I understand Scorcese is doing a tv series on four saints. Available on Fox Nation or YouTube primetime or premium. Not familiar with those conduits for things like this. Anyway, hope you get to watch it. Would love to hear your critique.
DeleteKatherine, it is a contradiction. But I tried them and they taste like something made with meat and cheese. I’ve eaten those fake burgers and they tasted fine, but something would upset my stomach. I felt like it was whatever they added to be the fake blood. I gave up on them.
DeleteScorsese's "Saints": yes, heard about this. I expect the series will eventually shake down to a platform I can access.
DeleteWhile we're waiting to see it, for cinematic saints' lives, none better than the 1928 silent French film, "The Passion of Joan of Arc." Maria Falconetti is too old to play the part, but is otherwise wonderful. There is no sentimentality, gilding the lily, or glamor. Joan is exhausted, terrified, confused, and trying to hold on to her faith. I expect that's what martyrdom looks like, and the end is awfully hard to watch.
There have been several soundtracks written for the movie. I found the one on the Criterion Collection a bit ethereal and cloying. After about 39 minutes, I turned it off. It did switch the sound back on toward the end, where it is more effective.
I thought about showing it to my media class, but chose a different silent film that had more American social themes, "Broken Blossoms." Racial prejudice, guns, and domestic violence--problem in 1918, and a problem now.
Jean, you should try the version of that 1928 film with the sound track by the Anonymous Four. I don't think you would find it cloying. Gave the DVD of it to our pastor, at the time, for Christmas. He loved it. He liked things that were a little steampunk, for want of a better word.
DeleteThat was the soundtrack that set me off. Likely my personal problem. I have some kind of misphonia going on, combination of stress and tinnitus apparently. I wear sound muffling headphones when Raber wants to listen to music on the TV.
DeleteThat wasn't my favorite Anonymous Four recording. I liked their medieval Christmas music better.
DeleteThey've done some Hildegard of Bingen recordings that some of my medieval-minded friends like. I get a kick out of BardCore. Here's Lady Gaga's Bad Romance getting the medieval treatment. Makes me think about Eleanor of Aquitaine and her bad romances: https://youtu.be/i2zpbcW-h-c?si=_Q56QRJGTvJDF-tt
DeleteI didn't know until I read these comments what a cheese steak was. I thought it was a big hunk of cheese (with no meat). A "steak" made out of cheese.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid, we visited relatives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but the real treat was visiting York, my father's home town, where my grandfather still lived. There was a great farmer's market which is still there (Penn Market). I loved getting the big soft pretzels and eating them with mustard.
Soft pretzels were a big thing in Philadelphia. At my parish elementary school, the nuns gave us a candy break in the morning and a soft pretzel break in the afternoon. If you went to the front and purchased a soft pretzel, you were besieged on the way back to your desk by your fellow students calling “SHARE, SHARE, SHARE!”
DeleteA candy break and a soft pretzel break! All we got was a milk break.
DeleteJean and Katherine, revNorse mythology. I have read that some of Hegseth’s tattoos are favored by white nationalists enamored of Viking warriors.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this guys stated opinions are plenty disqualifying, imo, without seeing his tatts. Always disconcerting when wackos appropriate cultural symbols and turn them into an in-your-face challenge I confess I feel creeped out when I see people displaying overt Christian symbols and messages. Saw "Jesus is Lord of this home" on a plaque over the fireplace at somebody's house one time. Made me wonder "wife-beater" or "recovering addict"?
DeleteBack to tariffs.Apparently trump plans to u ikaterally destroy what was once known as NAFTA. He wants a 25% across the board tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada, as well as China. They are our three largest trading partners.Mexico has already announced it will retaliate if this happens. Get ready for inflation to go up. If won’t be reflected in the CPI immediately because of lags in the system. But prices will go up.
ReplyDeleteI see that the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, had some sharp words for Trump on the subject of tariffs, pointing out how they would hurt both countries. She also countered the narrative of drugs and crime coming across the border from Mexico. She pointed out that Mexico didn't manufacture the guns used in crimes, and that the demand for drugs was fueled by Americans.
DeleteTrump said he destroyed NAFTA last time, but didn't he just change a few things, rename it, and take credit?
You have it right.A couple of tweaks and a new name to feature the US - USMCA - United States-Mexico- Canada Agreement.An un-pronounceable acronym unlike NAFTA. But his ego - the US had to be first. America First, after all.
DeleteSounds like shutting the barn door after all the horses have run off. You can’t rebuild manufacturing capability AND expertise overnight. And imposing tariffs as punishment for illegal drugs and immigrants sounds like typical Trump craziness. This is a tax on ordinary people. If things are bad in four years, I just might vote to keep the clown in so the country gets a good dose of him. If I’m still around, that is. No country for old men.
DeleteIf he tries to run in 2028, they'll have to get rid of an amendment in order for it to happen. I think that would require more than a simple majority. Personally I think he will be too far into dementia. He's got a good start already. Poor Joe Biden was deemed too old, we don't have a double standard or anything.
DeleteYeah, Vance is counting on it. Trump can dump Elon but he’s stuck with Vance.
DeleteWait for those tariffs to drive up all those OTC and generic drugs we get from abroad, assuming that the countries that make them don't decide to retaliate by creating shortages.
DeleteAccording to Google: China is the source of 95% of U.S. ibuprofen imports, 91% of hydrocortisone imports, 70% of acetaminophen imports, and 40–45% of penicillin imports.
Common generics are:
Atorvastatin (Lipitor)
Lisinopril (Zestril)
Albuterol (Accuneb, Ventolin, Proair, Proventil)
Levothyroxine (Synthroid, Unithroid, Levoxyl, Levo-T, Euthyrox)
Amlodipine (Norvasc, Amvaz)
Gabapentin (Neurontin)
Omeprazole (Prilosec)
If Trump decides to impose tariffs on Day 1, US manufacturers will have to scramble to ramp up production.
I'm hoping he'll just impose a few token tariffs, keep the ones that are already in place, and beat his chest about it. Do the silverback gorilla, alpha male act, and claim credit for "solving the problem". Are we tired of winning yet?
DeleteMy husband has several meds on that list
DeleteSo do I. Cholesterol and blood pressure control. What gets me is why are they made in China and India? It has to be highly automated and made in big vats. Labor has to be a small part of their manufacturing. Considering how Big Pharma fleeces us, they can’t even throw crumbs to the American worker? I’m all for exempting drugs from patent control, like economist Dean Baker recommends.
DeleteI have a couple of them myself.
DeleteIf they are going to do a bunch of deregulation, would we trust US factories to do it right? Not that I trust China in that regard.
DeleteI'm mildly encouraged that (a) Gaetz's nomination already has crashed and burned, while (b) he's floating his worst ideas (tariffs, DOGE) before he's even sworn in. Maybe all his worst ideas can be killed off before he's actually back in the White House.
ReplyDeleteOne down and about three to go. Hagseth, RFK, and Tulsi Gabbard need to be next. I'm already so tired of the DOGE boys, who don't even have any reason to be there except being Trump's new best friends forever. I think it's likely they'll overstep, and end up out of favor.
DeleteIn the case of Elon Musk, that's pretty much a guarantee. Musk has been in trouble with the federal government before; I'm pretty certain his primary angle in all this is to get the SEC off his back for good. I also think he was genuinely pissed off about collaboration between the government and Twitter (and other social media platforms) to impose groupthink and filter out dissent, and so I'd look for him to try to constrain government from being able to do that in the future.
DeleteFWIW, I just finished reading a biography of Ike called Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith. At the risk of incurring Jean's wrath, it has made me yearn for the 1950s - or any decade with a rational, moderate, peace-loving president who genuinely desired to serve his country.
ReplyDeleteI remember Eisenhower. I was in grade school when he was president. My parents liked him. If the Republicans had run someone like him this time I wouldn't be worried.
DeleteOutside of advising and being obnoxious, Ramaswamy and Musk have only advisory powers as DOGE-heads. The fact that Trump is wasting taxpayer time and money distracting everybody with these two dorks is irritating but not necessarily a catastrophe for Life As We Know It. They will eventually weary of being court jesters and go back to building their bunkers and tending their personal sperm banks. (Douglas Rushkoff has a new book, Survival of the Richest, in which he examines the strange mindset of the mega rich tech bros. Hoping to read it over Xmas season.)
ReplyDeleteI have some hope that Hegseth and maybe Kennedy are too nutty even for the spineless GOP Senate and will go the way of Gaetz. I think Gabbard and the rest will get confirmed.
But I'm sick of Dems and Never-Trumpers running around screaming in terror and making dire predictions. Move to Canada or put that energy into letters to your elected representatives, folks. Several times a week if necessary.
You're right that Dems going around freaking out doesn't accomplish anything.
DeleteI will be interested to hear your take on "Survival of the Richest". I wonder if it will say anything about transhumanism. I don't know if Musk is into transhumanism, but he hangs around with people who are. They think they can extend the human lifespan by hundreds of years. I've no idea why anyone would want to!
Yah, the transhumanists and the effective altruists. One of the reasons I try to flog my faith back to life occasionally is because it offers a response to these reptiles. They clearly have not watched "Metropolis," which offered a response to the dangers of technocracy 100 years ago. But, oops, the humanities and art does not serve the technocracy, so it just doesn't get taught or funded any more, so voices that might protest are methodically getting shut down. Rushkoff did some documentaries for PBS on advertising and social media that I used to like to show my mass comm students.
DeleteI’m sure Elon of Mars wants to live forever, even if he’s a brain in a vat connected to twitter so he can annoy everyone ad infinitum. I think he funds some of that chips-in-your-brain research which is transhumanism. Funny that he is on the outs with his trans offspring. Isn’t changing your body gender a transhumanist sort of thing? Also funny how the people who were afraid that vaccines were putting chips in your head voted for the guy whose friend-for-now wants to put chips in our head.
DeleteI don't think the transhumanists really understand what consciousness is. I don't know that anyone does. Even if somehow all your memories and knowledge could be transferred into some kind of robot, it wouldn't be "you".
DeleteI forget which one of Asimov's books dealt with life extension. But it didn't sound like fun to me.
Rushkoff was on "On the Media" talking about his book. In arguing with one of the tech bros about these issues, one said that Rushkoff raised questions only because "you're a human." Apparently some think they have already ascended beyond mere humanity.
DeleteStanley, interesting point: If people convert to cyber consciousness, what happens to gender? Won't that become irrelevant? What happens to sexuality and procreation? Apparently the bros don't like to have to procreate thru women. Rushkoff said women "terrify" them. Cyber procreation eliminates the need for sexual reproduction and erases women. But it also erases men.
Interesting little hellscape that the technocrats propose, and I look forward to reading more! For instance who's gonna keep the generators running for them to stay plugged into their cyber-beingness? Guessing they're still gonna need us meat sacks to run the power grid and keep us doing their evil bidding.
Also wonder if they're going to try to awaken and download into the ether all those rich people who had themselves cryogenically preserved. Or at least the ones who haven't turned into a puddle of goo due to inadvertent thawing episodes.
And are they going to take their biological children into the Brave New World? Or just the ones they still like?
Isaac Asimov was already talking about some of this stuff in the Caves of Steel books, and those were published in the 50s and 60s. These life-extended people were so icked out by the idea of physical contact with other humans (their actual preference was to do it with robots) that they had to set up teleconference dates to get psyched for actual sex, to reproduce their super selves. It was written before the days of surrogacy or they probably would have gone that route.
DeleteThe life-extended ones had to be super-ascetic in order to maintain their health. No junk food or sugar, and no drinking, drugs, or smoking. Be religious about physical fitness. And had to be hyper- vigilant about germs. They paid a heavy price for those extra years.
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DeleteI have not read a lot of Asimov, so thanks for these leads. Just re-read Kurt Vonnegut's "Fortitude," apropos of longevity and weird science. Reminds me of his other very short story, "Harrison Bergeron," about brain chip implants and the tyranny of mediocrity. I used to sneak that into our unit about Poe, and students liked it. You can read it free on the Internet Archive.
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If an immortalized human were possible, there are still accidents and murder. Hang around long enough and a meteor gets ya. Tolkien’s elves were naturally immortal but they apparently could die in battle or from foul play. What is frightening is that people like Elon could hang around long enough to annoy the rest of us for a long time. One thing to look forward to if I live long enough, is to, for a while, live in a world without Trump. And then live long enough to visit the Trump Presidential Library. I haven’t read comic books in a long while.
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