upsidedownmotter
No bio...
User ID: 3544
upsidedownmotter
13hr ago
New long article from N.S. Lyons in which he argues that Trump represents the end of the "Long Twentieth Century". Basically, his argument is that societies are experiencing a profound shift away from the "open society model" that was established after World War II. Trump marks the end of an era defined by an emphasis on diversity and inclusion, which were central to fostering progress in post-World War II societies.
upsidedownmotter
1d ago
Maybe not, but "sanctity" is not an argument.
upsidedownmotter
2d ago
Great insight, thanks.
Latest update is Musk instructing people to respond to an email or be fired:
“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished this week and cc your manager,” said the message, which was sent to federal employees on Saturday afternoon and seen by The New York Times.
Mr. Musk quickly accepted the challenge. “All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Mr. Musk wrote in a social media post on Saturday, saying his actions were “consistent” with the president’s demands. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” he added.
Does Musk have the authority to (I assume) instruct agency heads to fire people who don't respond to this email? And what's the timeline for responding?
Let's assume tens of thousands of people call his bluff and don't actually respond, and tens of thousands of others just miss the email. Are they really all going to be fired, and if not, does Musk then look impotent?
upsidedownmotter
2d ago
The New York Times has an alleged list of discrepancies in how DOGE has reported the amount of tax money saved through their cuts. Unusually for the NYT, it's not hidden behind a paywall. The alleged mistakes include:
- double-or-triple counting savings from certain contracts
- counting contracts ended under Biden
- claiming entire contract cancelled when only a part of it was
More specific examples include:
David Reid, an environmental scientist in Michigan, was surprised to learn his contract studying invasive species in the St. Lawrence Seaway was included on the list. “That contract wasn’t canceled by DOGE or anyone else,” he said. The contract expired on Dec. 31 and he decided to retire and not renew it, he said. “If they took credit for canceling the contract, they’re lying.”
Then there's the separate problem of not properly understanding how "donor-advised funds" work. FWIW, the previous link is very sympathetic to DOGE's work, but it's clear that some of the information being shared on who USAID funded (e.g., Bill Kristol) is misleading.
But really, I'm not sure how much the median voter will care about all this. I think the more volatile and easily exploited political issue are firings of veterans and employees who voted for Trump. They seemed to have focused on probationary employees because they're easier to fire, but that adds a level of arbitrariness to the process that will piss off swing voters come the midterms.
Overall, it seems like things may have been done a bit too hastily when there was probably time to take a more careful approach.
upsidedownmotter
5d ago
Late Tuesday night, President Trump suggested that Ukraine was responsible in some way for starting the war:
In Mr. Trump’s telling, Ukrainian leaders were at fault for the war for not agreeing to surrender territory and therefore, he suggested, they do not deserve a seat at the table for the peace talks that he has just initiated with Mr. Putin. “You should have never started it,” Mr. Trump said, referring to Ukrainian leaders who, in fact, did not start it. “You could have made a deal.”
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, he went on: “You have a leadership now that’s allowed a war to go on that should have never even happened.” By contrast, Mr. Trump uttered not one word of reproach for Mr. Putin or for Russia, which first invaded Ukraine in 2014, waged a low-intensity war against it through all four years of Mr. Trump’s first term and then invaded it in 2022 aiming to take over the whole country.
How seriously should we take this reproach? Is it just another tactic to extract concessions from Ukraine before sitting down with them to negotiate a potential deal?
This comes at a time when the President's approval rating is falling and there appear to some splintering among his voters. Though I don't think Ukraine by itself would affect midterm elections, rocking the boat too much and deviating too far from addressing the most important topic for most voters, the economy, may sour support for Republicans in two years.
Tulsi Gabbard is the latest official to tell her employees to ignore the email.
Musk is pushing his luck, right? It's only been a month and cracks are already forming among administration officials.
More options
Context Copy link