Trump promised lots of tariffs in his campaign, and he delivered on his promises. He's just doing what people want, and apparently they want tariffs regardless of likely economic cratering. That's democracy in action. In any case, it looks like the stock market is already doing an impression of that airplane over the Potomac.
I assume no one replied to my last post with the pile of links, because of how bewildering all of that was. Note that this is what living in America is like these days, completely bewildering.
I do want to follow up on one thing I mentioned ... actually apparently I forgot to include it, it got lost in editing? Okay, so new topic. Imagine this, you show up at work and some folks from this new, temporary government office show up and demand full access to your computer systems. They want all of the personnel files. The security team says "no, you can't get access to everything, you don't have a security clearance to see everything." And then everything gets resolved by suspending all of the security officers from work.
This is what happened at USAID, a former government agency, this week: USAID security leaders removed after refusing Elon Musk's DOGE employees access to secure systems.
But good news, they don't have to go to work! The office has been shut down by Elon Musk: Elon Musk says he and Trump are shutting down USAID. I'm sure the personnel files are being forwarded to prosecutors, since it's already been concluded that they're a criminal organization. It goes without saying that the United States will not be resuming non-military foreign aid to any countries.
I'm sure that more federal workers will think about that buyout offer: Trump offers incentives to US federal workers to quit jobs -- nearly everyone working for the government got an email offering them 8 months of severance to quit. All they have to do is agree to resign now, and later Trump will work out the details of how they will get paid. (Apparently I skipped this topic too. It's dizzying!)
I assume no one replied to my last post with the pile of links, because of how bewildering all of that was. Note that this is what living in America is like these days, completely bewildering.
I do want to follow up on one thing I mentioned ... actually apparently I forgot to include it, it got lost in editing? Okay, so new topic. Imagine this, you show up at work and some folks from this new, temporary government office show up and demand full access to your computer systems. They want all of the personnel files. The security team says "no, you can't get access to everything, you don't have a security clearance to see everything." And then everything gets resolved by suspending all of the security officers from work.
This is what happened at USAID, a former government agency, this week: USAID security leaders removed after refusing Elon Musk's DOGE employees access to secure systems.
Quote:“No one feels safe to go anywhere near the Ronald Reagan Building,” where USAID is headquartered, a USAID official told NBC News. “We just had Elon Musk call us a criminal organization. Our security chief was escorted out. We know we are being surveilled by DOGE.”
But good news, they don't have to go to work! The office has been shut down by Elon Musk: Elon Musk says he and Trump are shutting down USAID. I'm sure the personnel files are being forwarded to prosecutors, since it's already been concluded that they're a criminal organization. It goes without saying that the United States will not be resuming non-military foreign aid to any countries.
I'm sure that more federal workers will think about that buyout offer: Trump offers incentives to US federal workers to quit jobs -- nearly everyone working for the government got an email offering them 8 months of severance to quit. All they have to do is agree to resign now, and later Trump will work out the details of how they will get paid. (Apparently I skipped this topic too. It's dizzying!)
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto