I got run over by a steam roller on Sunday evening, and then it backed up and ran over me again a few times on Monday and Tuesday. I am, of course, speaking metaphorically as the steam roller is whatever the latest viral syndrome is that’s felled me and I’m now on my fourth day in bed. I am starting to feel more human and am planning on returning to the land of the living (and work) on Friday assuming I do not backslide. This is the fourth virus to wreak havoc on my finely attuned internal systems since New Year’s and I am getting awfully tired of getting over something, feeling normal for a week or so and then sinking back into hacking cough, collywobbles, and fuzzy thinking. I think this one has been influenza A from symptomatology (although I haven’t been formally tested – not much to do one way or another besides wait it out) but I have been in touch with my doctor and have friends available should I collapse in a puddle on the floor. Haven’t quite gotten to that point but there were a few moments on Monday night… the last time I felt so ill was my initial covid infection three years ago.
As I’m mainly lying around feeling sorry for myself, I’ve had more than enough time to watch bad television, do some reading. work a bit on new writing projects (not sure I’m doing my best work on these. I will definitely reread before submitting as I don’t want to come across as a complete lunatic), and catching up on the news. I have kept my promise to myself to avoid TV news but that doesn’t mean I don’t fall down rabbit holes of reportage and analysis of the chaos emanating form DC these days. When I last wrote one of these pieces, the immediate reduction of indirect costs on NIH grants had just been announced, roiling academic health centers nation wide. The attorneys general of the blue states banded together and got a court injunction blocking this, but it only covers the blue states that sued. Steve Marshall, our current attorney general is sort of a Ken Paxton manque best known for suing to protect monuments glorifying the confederacy from removal, keeping innocent men on death row (before executing them with nitrogen gas), refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Biden presidency, and pushing hard to end DACA. He’s unlikely to go to bat against anything for which Trump and the Muskrats push.
We do have one public servant who seems to understand the major catastrophe significant reductions to NIH funding could unleash on UAB, Birmingham, and the state of Alabama, senator Katie Britt. I may not agree with her politics but she strikes me as being reasonably intelligent regarding realpolitik. She appears to be working behind closed doors on potential solutions. I doubt she’ll get very far. As far as our other senator goes, the less said about him, the better. Scrolling through comments on political articles (and weeding out the obvious bots and trolls), those who appear to be in favor of DOGE actions appear to have little understanding of how any government processes work and certainly seem to think that national budgets are akin to family budgets worked out at the kitchen table. News flash: they aren’t.
DOGE, of dubious legality and certainly staffed with people who would not be able to get positions of governmental power in ordinary times (Elon Musk himself is limited by his open admission to freely using psychoactive drugs), is acting as if it is working on a hostile takeover of a failing business. The purpose of a business, in a capitalist society, is to make profit for the owners of business. This is not the purpose of a national government. A national government is there to protect the citizenry and create conditions under which they can thrive. The US hasn’t been doing a very good job of this latter in recent decades (which is why we are where we are) but axing large portions of the government is unlikely to improve anything for anyone.
The constitution was not written by stupid people. They set up the system of checks and balances to make sure that the executive and legislative were responsive to the people through the mechanism of elections. If the people don’t like what you’re doing, out you go with the next election cycle. The allocation of funding was very deliberately given to the legislative, not the executive and we have a chance every two years to change the composition of the legislature. One has to wonder why there are not howls of execration form both house and senate at the usurpation of their constitutional duties. Especially as the Republicans have a fairly slim majority. Are they all scurrying around in backrooms saving their own special slices of pork or are they secretly in favor of a dismantling of bureaucracy? Quite frankly, the federal government is overdue for a major audit but I’d feel much better if it were being undertaken by apolitical forensic accountants and not by a ketamine addicted billionaire with multiple conflicts of interest backed up by some grad students with no qualifications other than computer skills.
If the opposition truly wants to oppose, the first thing to do would be to drive a wedge between Trump and Musk. Musk’s power derives solely from what Trump grants to him. There isn’t room in the oval office for two megalomaniacal egos. A constant messaging that Trump isn’t really in charge (and yesterday’s press conference gives plenty of fuel for that fire) should provoke him to shove Musk out of the spotlight PDQ. The fact that such a thing isn’t happening to any great extent again makes me wonder what’s really going on in the back rooms of DC. Whatever it is, they and theirs will be the first to be protected. Those of us outside of those charmed circles better hang on. The weather’s going to get rougher.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 