Trump was only supposed to hurt “those people”: “Jennifer Piggott proudly hung a red-and-blue Trump campaign flag outside her one-story home during the November election race. Now, after she was abruptly fired from her civil service job, her days of supporting the president are over. “Piggott is among more than 125 people dismissed in February […]
When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton simply replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” DOGE is targeting the IRS for massive cuts. And that’s where the money is, to be sure. But robbing the IRS of personnel will ensure that the wealthy and corporations will keep the money they were supposed to pay […]
What does one do if they possess valuable skills and lose their job? Well, intelligent, ambitious and entrepreneurial Americans market their skills to other employers looking to hire talent. But the NIH Office of Defensive Counterintelligence and Personnel Security thinks the people they fired shouldn’t hire themselves out to the highest bidder in a free […]
A former mentor once explained to me why America would be better off if scientists ran the country. While technocracy isn’t inherently anti-democratic—America could simply elect scientists and engineers—the notion smacks of elitism. Of course, this country was founded on the idea of elitism. Only property-owning White men could vote. The president was appointed by […]
Both my dad and my father-in-law worked throughout their post-military careers at Y-12 in Oak Ridge. During the war, Y-12 was the site of uranium enrichment by the calutrons (K-25 was the gaseous diffusion plan, enrichment by gas chromatography). Having grown up in Oak Ridge, I’m quite familiar with its role in national security, unlike […]
Wanna know why nobody wants to cut defense spending? It’s because defense dollars are spread all over the country. There’s a military installation in every state. Many companies have contracts with the DoD. So any discussion of cuts ends up with folks saying “don’t cut our piece, cut their piece.” No Congressman wants their piece […]
The smirking faces of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have joined the smirking face of Donald Trump in threatening to burn down government in order to save it. What they’re announcing sure sounds bad to me (eliminate a third of federal spending, including cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid). Over at eatingpolicy.com, Jennifer Pahlka […]
DOGE today, gone tomorrow “With a little more than a month until Inauguration Day, one of the most fascinating parts of the new administration isn’t being led by President-elect Donald Trump. The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has arguably garnered more attention than Trump’s plans for tax cuts, tariffs, and immigration. Co-heads Elon Musk […]