Just getting around to listening to this episode but wanted to say that Sarah’s comment about Trump being a “veneer of change” would be a great clip to share on IG
RE: Seeing government do good things. I think about the person on your podcast who used campaign funds to contribute her community ALL THE TIME. Does anyone know who that person was, or where I can find that episode? I know campaign dollars are not tax dollars but I think using the inexplicable amount of money we raise for community building could go a very long way.
NASA is “constrained” because when they blow up a rocket, it puts the entire agency at risk. Elon can blow up all the rockets he wants so long as he tells investors there is a big payoff coming some day soon. It’s not reasonable to compare them because they operate under such different standards.
I also noticed you didn’t mention that so much of Elon’s money comes from stock manipulation (aka lying) and federal contracts. A huge portion of his wealth should be returned to taxpayers, his victims and unwilling investors.
We’ll see if he’s still employed after his 130 days are up. I’m betting he will be and no one will stop him. At best there will be a lawsuit and he’ll keep destroying on the job while it worms its way through our jammed up sclerotic legal system that is busy dealing with all the other plainly illegal things Trump is doing.
To the question of Elon's vision... I know we all need to be careful of cable news, but Rachel Maddie has been highlighting reporting from desperate sources about how many of Elon's big cuts have pretty obvious correlations to agencies that have constrained his companies: FAA that cited SpaceX for the explosion over the Caribbean, FDA and USDA that were investigating aspects of Nueralink development, CFPB that would regulate (and potentially block) Twitter's forthcoming payment features, and on and on and on... The vision is revenge and retribution, almost as if Trump was speaking directly to Elon when he made that speech last year
Government can and should be more efficient, but people have to be willing to accept some nepotism, waste, fraud, etc. for true efficiency to happen. Private businesses can experience all of this, and no one really cares, but if there is even a smidgeon in government, people get very upset. Which I understand because the government is answerable to the people, not just owners or stockholders. But that is a big reason why there are so many cumbersome rules in place. For instance, the procedures to get SNAP and maintain it are onerous. But everyone wants to make sure that no one who doesn't "truly need" food paid for by the government gets it. It would probably be cheaper to have a more streamlined system that allows some people get services who don't need it than all the rigamarole that people have to go through now, but taxpayers bristle against that. Another good result would be that people who actually DO qualify for services would get them. There are a shocking number of people who qualify for services who don't apply because it is too daunting.
As for people not understanding the government and all it does - they never will, and I don't expect them to. It is too big and complex for people to understand all the departments, jobs, and roles in government. Heck, just today on Nextdoor when people were complaining about their utility bills, someone explained all the things that their fees pay for beyond gas and electricity - grid maintenance and upgrades, inspections, repairs, power line replacements, storm-related expenses, labor, safety measures, and other operational costs. Most people had no idea, so I don't think there is any way a person can truly know and understand all the federal government does. And that's OK!
So I'm a bit late to the party, but here is what my brain keeps bumping up against in all of these discussions (here and elsewhere.) I agree that the government needs to change...to become more flexible and more responsive to the people who use it. I don't think it needs to downsize (it is very understaffed as it is - # of employees peaked under Reagan & GHW Bush and is currently at the same level as it was in the late 1960s.) The issue is how complicated it has become to navigate and how hard it is to get anything done.
But what I can't get beyond is how does that happen when Trump and Elon are not good faith actors? All these conversations are framed around promoting efficiency and eliminating waste and fraud. Yet everything they are doing (and the reasons behind why they are doing it) are based on out and out lies. They don't care about how the government works or even if it works. All they care about is power and control and being able to use the government for their own goals, not to make it work better for the rest of us.
Which puts us in a position of both having to defend the institution (which as we have seen is not good politically) but someone has to do it because in order to save and make it better, we also have to understand that government does have value and purpose. We can't cut through all the regulations to simplify them or reorganize agencies without first understanding why those regulations and agencies were created the way they were in the first place (often for very valid reasons!) I'm also trying to remember to have compassion for my desire to defend during all these conversations about what is wrong. Just hate that we don't have a good faith partner in the President (or Musk or Republicans) in these efforts.
Also, I'm not sure whether to thank Sarah or not for mentioning The Storm Before the Calm. I just finished it today and it's giving me a lot of sit with - including whether the patterns he highlights point to his conclusions or whether it more like wishful thinking and wanting reassurance that all this upheaval is happening for "a reason".
This is what I’m having problems with too. We’re talking about doing a remodel on a house that’s on fire, and calling the arsonist who started the fire a visionary. I have no capacity to see good in any of this. I have no faith that Elon Musk has a vision of anything other than serving himself
I agree with the sentiments of getting more people involved in their communities and government but struggle with the idea of mandatory service for many reasons. What if we put more incentives on voluntary service? Like a tax deduction for volunteering in public services? So if that year you volunteered at the library, state/national forest, public school, etc for so many hours you would get an attractive tax deduction. It would cost more in taxes for the government but potentially save some labor costs and would increase community involvement. I do think about how that would make filing taxes even more of a pain though 😆 having to prove your service.
My spouse, a web developer who has worked for Department of Defense, NIH, and USDA, suggested a central depository database with city, state, county, and zip code that all departments use. This sounds small but he said the amount of time he wastes fixing this just for the USDA is too much.
Project 2025 special education- part 1. Because federal government funds special education, there should be 1 document for the 504 and then 1 document for Individual Education plan (IEP) school age kids 5-21, 1 document for Infants and toddlers (birth to 3) and 1 document for Community Based Services (3-5) I teach in Maryland near a military base. I teach students who have lived all around the US. Each state has a different form and with different amounts of information provided. Every time a kid transfers, a new plan has to be written and meetings have to be held. This would reduce workload on special education teams and would help families of kids with plans lives easier. It would also be easier for schools to plan if families know ok, we are moving in 6 weeks, let the new school know and they can be ready to go when the kid starts instead of weeks later as often happens.
I am feeling pretty distressed about the shift in foreign policy, but instead of leaning into that, I am going to take a minute to be enraged about the coverage of how this is going down. If Biden had said about Zelensky, “He should have never started it,” everyone would freak out about how he was old, confused, and senile, and what a catastrophe that was for America and the world. Instead, when Trump says it, he’s deliberately rewriting history. Why can’t Trump be old, senile, and confused? Maybe he actually doesn’t know what he’s talking about but he’s surrounded himself with leaders who bend the world and even remake it according to his senior moments.
Former military spouse here - I think mandatory military service is a very, very bad idea. Love y'all, but the military isn't psychologically healthy for service members or their families. Hardest years of our lives. We both considered ending our own lives at certain points. Just my two cents. I would do anything to prevent my son from experiencing what we did.
I would still disagree with mandatory. Many, many people we knew suffered psychologically that didn't have spouses, too. My husband got mentally unstable from years of intensive sleep deprivation and basically zero time for rest or a life, even setting our needs as a family aside. I realize our experience isn't everyone's, and some branches are better than others, but I just can't get on board with mandatory. I can't. Especially if we are talking men and women. I can promise you with the mental health issues already had as a young woman, I wouldn't have survived that. Not everyone is cut out for what the military requires of you.
My spouse did 20 years in subs and we were pretty lucky in who he worked for and it was still so intense. We did two years of geo-bach life because he would be out to sea for 300 plus days. Hope you both have good supports now
Ouch...that's so, so intense. I hope you have a good support system now as well. Sub life is very challenging on everyone. And I'm sure you know how rigorous the demands are on our spouses when they're underway. Not much sleep, which can really mess with a person. We do now. He did shore duty (which was actually lovely) and then left in the middle of the 2020 lock down of course 😂 it was a wild time.
Oddly enough shore duty was pretty tough for the type of work he did. He has been retired for 11 years or so and we still live in a Navy town, which we enjoy (not that I ever participated in Navy activities). I imagine 2020 was a wild time to be on active duty.
Aw that's a shame shore duty wound up being hard, too. I know that can most definitely happen. We got very lucky, he trained candidates at OCS in Rhode Island for 2 years. I bet it felt good to retire after such an intensive experience! I do miss the community in the military. Nothing like it anywhere else.
My husband served in the Coast Guard and I feel proud of his service, grateful for the lasting support we get through VA programs, feel like it was probably a net positive in his life, and also some of the most difficult experiences of his life and hardest pressure on our relationship. He would be coming up on retirement now if he stayed and I have zero regrets that he did not.
I can relate that that Maggie. Thank you and your husband for the sacrifices that were made. It certainly isn't ALL bad, lots of things factor in. I am also proud of what my husband endured and it helped his career tremendously, but...yeah. He was Navy and served on submarines and it was brutal. He also happened to have a Captain who was blatantly sadistic and it did not help things. He had no life whatsoever outside of work for three years and we had a child with special needs that I saw him through the first three years of his life entirely alone. I wouldn't wish what we went through on anyone...I think military service should be optional based on how dark I know it can be. That said, other forms of mandatory community engagement I am more receptive to.
I love all the enthusiasm for Beth to write a new vision as an alternate to Project 2025!
And, Beth - if/when you need a mental break from that hard work, perhaps you could grace us with your list of top bags for various occasions! I love bags but don't have any that I enjoy that much, so any personal recommendations would be most welcome! Thanks!
The common ground between Russia and the US is (Christian) anti-liberalism and imperialism now. China will be happy to join the imperialist part of it.
I don’t think the government is too big. I think it’s too slow and isn’t responsive to the needs of the people. That’s why people aren’t satisfied. So cutting employees and services isn’t going to help with that. In many cases, it would mean hiring more people. Getting rid of red tape would be huge, but probably needs the input of Congress. I think we need to define the problem better than accepting at face value that the government is too big.
Just getting around to listening to this episode but wanted to say that Sarah’s comment about Trump being a “veneer of change” would be a great clip to share on IG
RE: Seeing government do good things. I think about the person on your podcast who used campaign funds to contribute her community ALL THE TIME. Does anyone know who that person was, or where I can find that episode? I know campaign dollars are not tax dollars but I think using the inexplicable amount of money we raise for community building could go a very long way.
NASA is “constrained” because when they blow up a rocket, it puts the entire agency at risk. Elon can blow up all the rockets he wants so long as he tells investors there is a big payoff coming some day soon. It’s not reasonable to compare them because they operate under such different standards.
I also noticed you didn’t mention that so much of Elon’s money comes from stock manipulation (aka lying) and federal contracts. A huge portion of his wealth should be returned to taxpayers, his victims and unwilling investors.
We’ll see if he’s still employed after his 130 days are up. I’m betting he will be and no one will stop him. At best there will be a lawsuit and he’ll keep destroying on the job while it worms its way through our jammed up sclerotic legal system that is busy dealing with all the other plainly illegal things Trump is doing.
To the question of Elon's vision... I know we all need to be careful of cable news, but Rachel Maddie has been highlighting reporting from desperate sources about how many of Elon's big cuts have pretty obvious correlations to agencies that have constrained his companies: FAA that cited SpaceX for the explosion over the Caribbean, FDA and USDA that were investigating aspects of Nueralink development, CFPB that would regulate (and potentially block) Twitter's forthcoming payment features, and on and on and on... The vision is revenge and retribution, almost as if Trump was speaking directly to Elon when he made that speech last year
Government can and should be more efficient, but people have to be willing to accept some nepotism, waste, fraud, etc. for true efficiency to happen. Private businesses can experience all of this, and no one really cares, but if there is even a smidgeon in government, people get very upset. Which I understand because the government is answerable to the people, not just owners or stockholders. But that is a big reason why there are so many cumbersome rules in place. For instance, the procedures to get SNAP and maintain it are onerous. But everyone wants to make sure that no one who doesn't "truly need" food paid for by the government gets it. It would probably be cheaper to have a more streamlined system that allows some people get services who don't need it than all the rigamarole that people have to go through now, but taxpayers bristle against that. Another good result would be that people who actually DO qualify for services would get them. There are a shocking number of people who qualify for services who don't apply because it is too daunting.
As for people not understanding the government and all it does - they never will, and I don't expect them to. It is too big and complex for people to understand all the departments, jobs, and roles in government. Heck, just today on Nextdoor when people were complaining about their utility bills, someone explained all the things that their fees pay for beyond gas and electricity - grid maintenance and upgrades, inspections, repairs, power line replacements, storm-related expenses, labor, safety measures, and other operational costs. Most people had no idea, so I don't think there is any way a person can truly know and understand all the federal government does. And that's OK!
So I'm a bit late to the party, but here is what my brain keeps bumping up against in all of these discussions (here and elsewhere.) I agree that the government needs to change...to become more flexible and more responsive to the people who use it. I don't think it needs to downsize (it is very understaffed as it is - # of employees peaked under Reagan & GHW Bush and is currently at the same level as it was in the late 1960s.) The issue is how complicated it has become to navigate and how hard it is to get anything done.
But what I can't get beyond is how does that happen when Trump and Elon are not good faith actors? All these conversations are framed around promoting efficiency and eliminating waste and fraud. Yet everything they are doing (and the reasons behind why they are doing it) are based on out and out lies. They don't care about how the government works or even if it works. All they care about is power and control and being able to use the government for their own goals, not to make it work better for the rest of us.
Which puts us in a position of both having to defend the institution (which as we have seen is not good politically) but someone has to do it because in order to save and make it better, we also have to understand that government does have value and purpose. We can't cut through all the regulations to simplify them or reorganize agencies without first understanding why those regulations and agencies were created the way they were in the first place (often for very valid reasons!) I'm also trying to remember to have compassion for my desire to defend during all these conversations about what is wrong. Just hate that we don't have a good faith partner in the President (or Musk or Republicans) in these efforts.
Also, I'm not sure whether to thank Sarah or not for mentioning The Storm Before the Calm. I just finished it today and it's giving me a lot of sit with - including whether the patterns he highlights point to his conclusions or whether it more like wishful thinking and wanting reassurance that all this upheaval is happening for "a reason".
This is what I’m having problems with too. We’re talking about doing a remodel on a house that’s on fire, and calling the arsonist who started the fire a visionary. I have no capacity to see good in any of this. I have no faith that Elon Musk has a vision of anything other than serving himself
Yes yes yes to Project 2029. Whatever help/assistance you need to get it done, I’m available.
I agree with the sentiments of getting more people involved in their communities and government but struggle with the idea of mandatory service for many reasons. What if we put more incentives on voluntary service? Like a tax deduction for volunteering in public services? So if that year you volunteered at the library, state/national forest, public school, etc for so many hours you would get an attractive tax deduction. It would cost more in taxes for the government but potentially save some labor costs and would increase community involvement. I do think about how that would make filing taxes even more of a pain though 😆 having to prove your service.
My spouse, a web developer who has worked for Department of Defense, NIH, and USDA, suggested a central depository database with city, state, county, and zip code that all departments use. This sounds small but he said the amount of time he wastes fixing this just for the USDA is too much.
Project 2025 special education- part 1. Because federal government funds special education, there should be 1 document for the 504 and then 1 document for Individual Education plan (IEP) school age kids 5-21, 1 document for Infants and toddlers (birth to 3) and 1 document for Community Based Services (3-5) I teach in Maryland near a military base. I teach students who have lived all around the US. Each state has a different form and with different amounts of information provided. Every time a kid transfers, a new plan has to be written and meetings have to be held. This would reduce workload on special education teams and would help families of kids with plans lives easier. It would also be easier for schools to plan if families know ok, we are moving in 6 weeks, let the new school know and they can be ready to go when the kid starts instead of weeks later as often happens.
I am feeling pretty distressed about the shift in foreign policy, but instead of leaning into that, I am going to take a minute to be enraged about the coverage of how this is going down. If Biden had said about Zelensky, “He should have never started it,” everyone would freak out about how he was old, confused, and senile, and what a catastrophe that was for America and the world. Instead, when Trump says it, he’s deliberately rewriting history. Why can’t Trump be old, senile, and confused? Maybe he actually doesn’t know what he’s talking about but he’s surrounded himself with leaders who bend the world and even remake it according to his senior moments.
Former military spouse here - I think mandatory military service is a very, very bad idea. Love y'all, but the military isn't psychologically healthy for service members or their families. Hardest years of our lives. We both considered ending our own lives at certain points. Just my two cents. I would do anything to prevent my son from experiencing what we did.
What if there are no military families? Single people serve and get married when their service ends.
I would still disagree with mandatory. Many, many people we knew suffered psychologically that didn't have spouses, too. My husband got mentally unstable from years of intensive sleep deprivation and basically zero time for rest or a life, even setting our needs as a family aside. I realize our experience isn't everyone's, and some branches are better than others, but I just can't get on board with mandatory. I can't. Especially if we are talking men and women. I can promise you with the mental health issues already had as a young woman, I wouldn't have survived that. Not everyone is cut out for what the military requires of you.
My spouse did 20 years in subs and we were pretty lucky in who he worked for and it was still so intense. We did two years of geo-bach life because he would be out to sea for 300 plus days. Hope you both have good supports now
Ouch...that's so, so intense. I hope you have a good support system now as well. Sub life is very challenging on everyone. And I'm sure you know how rigorous the demands are on our spouses when they're underway. Not much sleep, which can really mess with a person. We do now. He did shore duty (which was actually lovely) and then left in the middle of the 2020 lock down of course 😂 it was a wild time.
Oddly enough shore duty was pretty tough for the type of work he did. He has been retired for 11 years or so and we still live in a Navy town, which we enjoy (not that I ever participated in Navy activities). I imagine 2020 was a wild time to be on active duty.
Aw that's a shame shore duty wound up being hard, too. I know that can most definitely happen. We got very lucky, he trained candidates at OCS in Rhode Island for 2 years. I bet it felt good to retire after such an intensive experience! I do miss the community in the military. Nothing like it anywhere else.
My husband served in the Coast Guard and I feel proud of his service, grateful for the lasting support we get through VA programs, feel like it was probably a net positive in his life, and also some of the most difficult experiences of his life and hardest pressure on our relationship. He would be coming up on retirement now if he stayed and I have zero regrets that he did not.
I can relate that that Maggie. Thank you and your husband for the sacrifices that were made. It certainly isn't ALL bad, lots of things factor in. I am also proud of what my husband endured and it helped his career tremendously, but...yeah. He was Navy and served on submarines and it was brutal. He also happened to have a Captain who was blatantly sadistic and it did not help things. He had no life whatsoever outside of work for three years and we had a child with special needs that I saw him through the first three years of his life entirely alone. I wouldn't wish what we went through on anyone...I think military service should be optional based on how dark I know it can be. That said, other forms of mandatory community engagement I am more receptive to.
I love all the enthusiasm for Beth to write a new vision as an alternate to Project 2025!
And, Beth - if/when you need a mental break from that hard work, perhaps you could grace us with your list of top bags for various occasions! I love bags but don't have any that I enjoy that much, so any personal recommendations would be most welcome! Thanks!
The common ground between Russia and the US is (Christian) anti-liberalism and imperialism now. China will be happy to join the imperialist part of it.
I don’t think the government is too big. I think it’s too slow and isn’t responsive to the needs of the people. That’s why people aren’t satisfied. So cutting employees and services isn’t going to help with that. In many cases, it would mean hiring more people. Getting rid of red tape would be huge, but probably needs the input of Congress. I think we need to define the problem better than accepting at face value that the government is too big.
Sarah Longwell’s focus group podcast from today (2/22) with Kara Swisher is a great complement to this episode.