The Sanity Project

Rebuilding from the wreckage

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In the roughly three weeks since my post on “Why America is dying,” things have continued on the same course. Trump is defying court orders, trying to annul pardons (Biden’s preemptively pardoning his inner circle was disgusting but legal), and in general playing the role of someone with absolute power. This should have been a golden opportunity for the Democrats, but their response has been inept, and their popularity has tanked. Charles Schumer declares that the Republicans’ “whole goal is to reduce taxes” as Trump imposes destructive taxes by executive decree. That’s insane both tactically and factually.

It’s an “I told you so” moment for libertarians. Give the government, and the president in particular, unlimited power, and it will eventually be turned to evil ends. But libertarians are in disarray too, and too many who call themselves by that name support Trump. The United States is in for a long stretch of bad years, even if the Democrats recapture Congress in 2026. It may fall to pieces. Parts may secede, but someone who wants to annex Canada and Greenland isn’t likely to let any territory go peacefully.
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Misinformation on social media: A personal example

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged Internet SanityProject on by

Social media websites are notorious for letting inaccurate information spread without correction. It’s often unintentional; someone makes a mistake that gets widely repeated, or a joke is taken as a serious claim. This morning I found I was part of this, as people boosted and favorited (terms vary with the platform) a mistake which I made.

I run a feed of news for filkers, appropriately called “Filk News” (on Bluesky and on Mastodon). On Sunday, March 9, the USA and Canada moved to Daylight Saving Time, but Europe doesn’t till later. There are several online filk gatherings with international attendance, so this could confuse people about when meetings start in their time zone. For example, Eurofilk is 6 PM Central European Time, which normally makes it noon US Eastern Time, but for three weeks it’s 1 PM Eastern Time.
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Anatomy of Trump’s SSA data grab

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged DOGE law liberty technology on by

In my previous post, I talked about inconsistencies in the reporting about what DOGE is doing and can do. I wrote the article on March 9 and had it appear publicly early on March 10, following my usual practice. About the time it appeared, I came upon a Washington Post article that linked to a detailed court filing that helps to clarify things. It’s a terrifying story, so here’s another post on the same day.
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Unraveling DOGE reporting

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged DOGE journalism law liberty on by

A lot of what’s allegedly happening with DOGE doesn’t make sense. Some things just can’t be happening as reported; others need explanations that no one is giving. The news media are doing their usual bad job of delivering facts.

To start with, what is DOGE? The “Department of Governmental Efficiency” isn’t a department of the government, in spite of its name. Officially, it’s a “special commission” created by the president. It has no power over anybody beyond its own employees. Yet we keep hearing of government employees being fired by DOGE. A notice of termination by DOGE to, for example, a Department of Energy employee has no more significance than one from me. Either the terminations are actually coming from somewhere else, or people are complying for no apparent reason.
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Americans do not have a commander in chief 2

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We’re regularly subjected to the obscene notion that the president of the United States is the “commander in chief” of the American people. It’s part of the cult of the presidency, the notion that we live or should live under a powerful ruler. It’s an idea that goes against everything the country was founded on.

The Constitution says: “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.” If you’re in those categories, then he’s your commander. Otherwise, no. If you’re a civilian employee of the executive branch, he’s your boss, not your commander.
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