Mar
29
2025

"But Waste Was of the Essence of the Scheme"

Via Ann Althouse: Jon Stewart performs his classic oh-no-how-can-people-be-so-stupid mugging...:

The discussion is about that tortuous regulatory path just one bit of Biden's "Build Back Better" agenda must follow. (Click the "Watch on X" button for a text version.)

Ann comments, sagely:

[…] I'm going to assume that some smart people knew what they were doing and plenty of people made money doing things this way

Exactly right.

While Jon is mugging, his interviewee, Ezra Klein, is plugging. Specifically, his book Abundance; I looked at Kevin D. Williamson's comments about the book here, which obliterated my desire to read even a library's copy. But I may change my mind about that.

Our headline is one I've used before: from Robert Frost's poem "Pod of the Milkweed", which I've shamelessly employed in a context he may not have intended. Some of that sweet Federal cash might eventually "trickle down" into actual rural broadband projects, but not before the bureaucratic hordes have received their share.

Also of note:

  • Grasping at straws. The "O'Keefe Media Group" (OMG) breathlessly reports on the antics of an institution of higher education in my state that is not the University of New Hampshire: LEAKED PHONE CALL Reveals Southern New Hampshire University Defying Trump Executive Order on Eliminating DEI in Curriculum: “The Federal Government Has No Impact on Courses at SNHU”.

    A leaked phone call obtained by O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) exposes Southern New Hampshire University is continuing to integrate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) into its sociology courses, despite President Trump’s executive order aimed at limiting DEI teachings in federally funded schools. The audio and supporting documents reveal that the university is teaching students topics like “Why white school districts have so much money,” revealing the institution is disregarding federal mandates.

    Did you know that the Trump White House took it into its head that it was empowered to regulate the course content of universities via executive order?

    No, neither did I. And in fact it did no such thing.

    OMG points its readers to Executive Order 14173, titled "Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity". And (I hasten to say) it is pretty much a good idea.

    But it doesn't say one thing about altering the curriculum. In fact, down in Section 7 ("Scope") there are a couple of provisos that I'm pretty sure rule that out:

    (b) This order does not prevent State or local governments, Federal contractors, or Federally-funded State and local educational agencies or institutions of higher education from engaging in First Amendment-protected speech.

    (c) This order does not prohibit persons teaching at a Federally funded institution of higher education as part of a larger course of academic instruction from advocating for, endorsing, or promoting the unlawful employment or contracting practices prohibited by this order.

    So OMG has served up a big fat bullshitburger. Some local hotheads have been sucked in, regrettably. Comments have been left.

  • Plenty of casualties, though. Noah Rothman counsels against an economic version of a "land war in Asia": You Can’t Win a War on Prices.

    To hear Donald Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, Peter Navarro, tell it, the president’s proposal for a 25 percent tariff on imported cars and auto parts will do everything and nothing all at once.

    The tariffs will yield a bounty of at least $100 billion in revenue to the U.S. Treasury, which will be paid not by domestic consumers but foreign producers. American automakers and repair shops will “eat” whatever additional costs are imposed on them, which, we should remember, amount to nothing. In addition, Congress will pass a retroactive tax cut to cover the zero additional costs that consumers will incur as a result of these tariffs. And none of this will contribute to inflation. It makes sense if you don’t think about it.

    Made me wonder where my new Impreza was made. Turns out … Indiana! Who knew?

  • Eloquence, thy name is Cline. Drew Cline looks at Competition and the purpose of educational choice. He cheers the passage of New Hampshire House Bill 741, which modifies the state's ompulsory Attendance law. The key change being from this language:

    A parent of any child at least 6 years of age and under 18 years of age shall cause such child to attend the public school to which the child is assigned in the child's resident district.

    to this:

    A parent of any child at least 6 years of age and under 18 years of age shall cause such child to attend a public school.

    There are further changes, but that's the biggie.

    School choice supporters voted for open enrollment for the simple reason that there’s never been any truth to the ad hominem attacks on them. The point of school choice isn’t to destroy public schools. It never has been. The point is to create a marketplace in which every student is matched with the education that best fits that student’s needs.

    Ad hominem? I have in mind John Shea who wrote last month in my local paper about the "powerful forces" who are "deliberately, strategically, and openly working to destroy universal public education." I have little doubt that he'll change his mind about that.

  • Speaking of hotheads… An amusing headline from Hayden Daniel at the Federalist: National Review Is No Different From A Leftist Rag On 'Signal Gate'

    In the midst of the fallout from the leak of a Signal chat group, dubbed “Signal Gate” by some of the more unimaginative denizens of the left, National Review Executive Editor Mark Antonio Wright decided to write a piece titled, “Yes, Pete Hegseth Should Be Fired for What He Texted — and for Lying About It.”

    'Tis true that leftist rags are saying nasty things about Hegseth. I would bet that Mark Antonio Wright's article is easily distinguishable from them. But (in any case) truth is a defense, so echoing Mark's bottom line:

    Pete Hegseth foolishly placed highly sensitive national defense information about an impending U.S. military action on a non-secure system that was already compromised. Then he spent several days obfuscating and lying about it.

    So?


Last Modified 2025-03-31 6:09 AM EDT