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“… Probationary workers across multiple federal health agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services received virtually identical letters Saturday evening informing them they would be terminated from their positions, sources told CBS News.
"Unfortunately, the Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the Agency's current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment at the Agency," read the letter obtained by CBS News.
The letter was signed by Jeffrey Anoka, acting head of human resources for the Department of Health and Human Services. One health official told CBS News thousands of letters were sent out Saturday. …”
Diplomacy by Fox News zingers. Bill O’Reilly must be so proud.Hegseth: “Thank you, and we’re glad to take some questions.”
First questioner: “what the fuck is wrong with you?”
I think reporting this story is important because paving over the Rose Garden carries symbolic weight much like renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Mt. Denali and suggesting seizing the Panama Canal, the annexation of Canada, and purchase of Greenland.I've never claimed to have my finger on the pulse of popular opinion. It just seems like it's something that's always reported . . . in normal times. But we're looking at multiple constitutional crises plus the absolute corruption of the DOJ and the rose garden just seems so utterly insignificant.
But it would certainly not be the first time where my intellectual priorities differ from that of the public.
“…The idea that government is fundamentally suspect has been around for so long, has become so widely held — and has had such a dumbing-down effect on public conversation — that a full-throated defense of the ideals and institutions of American government seems cringe-worthy.Bluesky
bsky.app
“… Flooding the ether with bad ideas isn’t Trump’s unique know-how — it’s standard autocratic fare. Hannah Arendt used the word “preposterous” to describe the ideas that underpinned 20th-century totalitarian regimes. Bad ideas do a lot of the work of building autocracy.
By forcing us to engage with them, they make our conversations, our media and our society dumber. By conjuring the unimaginable — radical changes in the geography of human relationships, the government and the world itself as we have known it — they plunge us into an anxious state in which thinking is difficult. That kind of anxiety is key to totalitarian control.
Life under autocracy can be terrifying, as it already is in the United States for immigrants and trans people.
But those of us with experience can tell you that most of the time, for most people, it’s not frightening. It is stultifying. It’s boring. It feels like trying to see and breathe under water — because you are submerged in bad ideas, being discussed badly, being reflected in bad journalism and, eventually, in bad literature and bad movies. …”
Because once Trump enacts his tariffs on Canada, we're going to need to get our lumber from somewhere. No need for rangers when the trees are going to get cut down.Why are rangers at our National Parks being fired? Pitiful. Already understaffed and over worked. I get it, private enterprise can be good but the government should contribute to parks, museums, libraries and such.
That’s a really good opinion piece. We see it on here every day. Smart people who have become so inculcated with years and years of bad information that they truly, sincerely believe it and will not consider the possibility they might be the victims of a massive disinformation campaign. And now they’re so bought in they can’t even speak out against the obvious authoritarianism we’re seeing on a daily basis.“…The idea that government is fundamentally suspect has been around for so long, has become so widely held — and has had such a dumbing-down effect on public conversation — that a full-throated defense of the ideals and institutions of American government seems cringe-worthy.
… Trump’s other bad ideas have the same effect.
… the argument Democrats have advanced against all of Trump’s bad ideas boils down to “You can’t do that.”
Actually, it would appear, he can.
…Admonitions to obey the law will not stop Trump and will not dissuade his supporters.
Trump’s bad ideas must be countered with good ones. His attack on the government has to be contrasted with a vision of how the system could work and should work — for the people, not the emperor-in-the-making.
This is an extremely difficult kind of resistance to muster because it calls for clear thought and inspired vision just when the onslaught of bad ideas, and the anxiety they engender, make it so difficult to think clearly and envision a future….”
H. L. Mencken spoke to this in the early 20th century.
Mencken, the curmudgeonly Sage of Baltimore, turned phrases that I sometimes quote today. 'No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. ' 'American democracy consists of jackals worshiped by jackasses. ' 'For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.
Words to live by in these troubled times.
That is my favorite. There are rarely simple solutions to complex problems, and those who peddle such solutions are charlatans. Our obligation as responsible citizens is to call them out.“For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.”