Archive for 2025

February 3, 2025

FLASHBACK: Sorting for Stupidity? Thoughts on the state of the federal government. “Thus, my hypothesis is that these factors produced a new kind of sorting among the bureaucrats, in which the brighter ones were more likely to leave meaning that, over time, the people staffing the agencies would become, on average, dumber.  And note the double whammy – the agencies are becoming dumber because they were more powerful, since that produced the lobbying dynamic that made the smarter people more likely to leave.”

Posted at 12:10 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Feb 3rd, 2025

A LOT OF WINNING GOING ON:

But I’m not tired of it.

Posted at 12:09 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Feb 3rd, 2025

FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!

Posted at 11:51 am by Glenn Reynolds on Feb 3rd, 2025

#WINNING: BREAKING: Mexico Caves to Trump, Will Send Troops to Border.

Related:

Plus:

Posted at 11:49 am by Glenn Reynolds on Feb 3rd, 2025

REMINDER: The Deep State is bipartisan.

There’s a lot of (your) money at stake.

Posted at 11:40 am by Stephen Green on Feb 3rd, 2025

WINNING: Donald Trump statement.

I just spoke with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico. It was a very friendly conversation wherein she agreed to immediately supply 10,000 Mexican Soldiers on the Border separating Mexico and the United States. These soldiers will be specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our Country. We further agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period during which we will have negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level Representatives of Mexico. I look forward to participating in those negotiations, with President Sheinbaum, as we attempt to achieve a “deal” between our two Countries.

Tariffs are Trump’s way of wielding the power of the American consumer to protect America’s interests. The intent wasn’t to start a trade war but to curtail the cartels’ drug war on the US.

So far, so good. Now let’s see what Canada does.

Posted at 10:57 am by Stephen Green on Feb 3rd, 2025

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Safety panel urges NASA to reassess Artemis mission objectives to reduce risk.

A safety panel is calling on NASA to reassess to plans for upcoming Artemis missions, arguing that the agency is packing too many objectives into each mission.

At a Jan. 30 public meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), members reiterated past concerns about the number of first-time objectives planned for Artemis 3, the first crewed lunar landing of the overall campaign, and later missions.

“Each first milestone carries its own individual risk and, as these risks are compounded and aggregated, it only increases the overall risk posture for any individual flight mission,” said Bill Bray, a member of the panel. “It really begs the question, is it time for the agency to reassess the current mission objectives and its approach for Artemis 3 and beyond, with the goal to better balance the risks across all those flight tests?”

ASAP has previously expressed its concerns about the number of firsts on Artemis 3, such as in its most recent annual report released in early 2024. That report listed 13 separate firsts for the mission, mostly tied to the Starship lunar lander and new spacesuits being developed by Axiom Space.

That list has only grown since then, he noted, with changes to the heat shield for Orion. NASA announced in December that it would reformulate the Avcoat material used in the heat shield for Artemis 3 and later missions to prevent the heat shield erosion seen on the Artemis 1 reentry.

Those concerns extend beyond Artemis 3, Bray said, with later missions incorporating the lunar Gateway, the Blue Moon crewed lunar lander and a lunar rover. “Each of these elements under development and delivery requires a near-perfect program execution across a complex set of tests and milestones and, frankly, there’s very little room for failure.”

Problems with a single key element, he concluded, “will result in continued launch delays and an irregular and erratic cadence of mission flights,” an issue ASAP has also previously raised. It also creates “an increased risk posture” for Artemis missions.

Getting rid of SLS and the Lunar Gateway would remove a lot of complexity and cost but would also increase reliance on Starship — which isn’t yet ready to go.

Posted at 10:38 am by Stephen Green on Feb 3rd, 2025

I FEEL LIKE THE PROPAGANDA PEOPLE AREN’T EVEN TRYING ANYMORE:

Posted at 10:00 am by Glenn Reynolds on Feb 3rd, 2025

BADLY BEHAVED GUESTS SHOULD BE SHOWN THE DOOR, FORCIBLY IF NEEDED:

They don’t seem to understand that the rules have changed and, most importantly, the Trump administration is depriving their enabling NGOs of oxygen.

Posted at 9:36 am by Stephen Green on Feb 3rd, 2025

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Good News — Dems Prove They Learned Nothing From 2024 Election. “It’s true that the Dems are commies now, but most of them like to be coy about it. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party is one big communist freak flag-flying festival. Once the word ‘labor’ is added to a political party’s name, Karl Marx is allowed a play date in Hell.”

Posted at 9:05 am by Stephen Green on Feb 3rd, 2025

OK, CHIEF: The DNC’s outgoing chair says Democrats should have stuck with Joe Biden in 2024.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Jaime Harrison reflected on why his party lost to Donald Trump and what might have happened had then-Vice President Kamala Harris had more time to campaign after Biden ended his reelection bid following a disastrous debate performance.

He also offered advice to his eventual successor, who will be chosen Saturday. The next DNC chair, Harrison said, needs to insist that the party not be a “rubber stamp” to its presidential candidate.

Here are excerpts from that conversation:

Why did Harris and Democrats lose the White House?

HARRISON: “I don’t know that there’s one answer. A lot of people like to come up with things, and they say it’s the economy. Well, it could have been a part of it. I think every state had their own little nuance. In Michigan, the Palestinian issue played something there.”

“The gap in which she lost wasn’t huge, but when you add up little pockets where it’s, some people because of Gaza, some people because of the economy, some people because she was a woman. And I think in many of those states, those little nicks here and there added up to how she lost in some of those states.”

Message: A vacant-eyed, mouth-breathing Biden is still a better candidate than Harris.

I wonder how Harris and her people are responding to that message.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):

Posted at 8:34 am by Stephen Green on Feb 3rd, 2025

HE’S NOT WRONG:

Posted at 8:30 am by Glenn Reynolds on Feb 3rd, 2025

CHANGE:

UPDATE: Just Like That: USAID Is (Mostly) Dead. “As a practical matter, as long as the president can get DOGE to go through the books it will be hard to revive the agency in its current form because, simply put, it is corrupt to the core. . . . You may think of foreign aid in terms of keeping the poorest of the poor from dying horrible deaths, but the meat and potatoes of USAID is extending the tendrils of power for the transnational elite and funding political operations. The censorship-industrial complex depended almost entirely on this slush fund.”

Posted at 8:28 am by Glenn Reynolds on Feb 3rd, 2025
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