Baffled European

Category: USA

  • A question of honour

    A sliver of sanity in the US as a judge rules that you can’t simply declare thousands of people to be “dishonourable” and exclude them from the army. The trans soldiers are thus to be reinstated, after months of being illegally discriminated against. But their cards are marked and the government won’t stop there.

    The most galling thing of this episode (so far) is that President Bonespurs himself, who was too scared to join the army, is the one who decides who is “honourable” or not. This order violates the very constitution he swore an oath of honour to protect.

    But what is honour anyway, and why is it so important? Everybody knows what it is, but defining it is more difficult.

    In the Middle Ages, people relied on oaths of fealty to maintain the structure of society. From peasants to the King, everybody promised to serve their Lord and Master. Anybody who broke this oath was dishonourable. They were outcast, shunned by all who knew them.

    Losing your honour was a terrible punishment. Gentlemen would fight duels to the death over “honour”. This was still commonplace at the time the US constitution was written.

    We don’t bother with “honour” much nowadays. We have NDAs and other legal instruments to precisely define people’s behaviour, rather than relying on a vague and outdated concept. Losing your honour today is pretty meaningless and explains why it is no impediment to becoming president.

  • How to avoid a revolution

    If I were a dictator, there are a couple of things I would do.

    For a start, I would keep the army happy. What soldiers don’t want to see is thousands of their comrades in arms kicked out for no good reason. Not to mention the way that old heroes are being erased from the record for racist and sexist reasons, because those soldiers don’t fit into the perfect image that their masters demand.

    That’s not to mention abolishing assistance for veterans. A lot of old soldiers have trouble adjusting to civilian life and it’s good that the government at least tries to help them, even if it doesn’t always work.

    Even the dumbest grunt must surely notice how badly the government is treating their comrades and how they themselves will not get any support in the future. That’s not what they were promised when they joined up.

    Then there’s the social security cheques. I would make sure these were paid on time and in the full amount. People depend on this money for survival and there will be a big problem if hundreds of thousands suddenly cannot afford to eat. Especially if they are armed.

    That’s what I would do at any rate. The US government is not doing either of these things. My conclusion? Obviously they’re not trying to set up a dictatorship. Thank goodness for that.

  • Performative politics

    The USA has a new war on drugs. This time it is not crack cocaine, but the opiate fentanyl. This has been a growing problem in recent years and everybody promised to sort it out as part of their election campaigns.

    So far, the president has cancelled scanning machines to check for smuggled drugs, and pardoned a notorious drug dealer who profited from sales of the drug in its early days. He has hit Canada and Mexico with tariffs – this was the original of many reasons for the tariffs – and is threatening military action against his neighbours if they don’t sort out the US fetanyl problem.

    This seems to fit into a pattern of typical policy making for Maga. First, get rid of any policy that is grounded in reality or might be effective in any way. Second, invent an insane policy that cannot possibly work, but insist it is the only way, or that it will get results fast.

    The point of all of this is not to actually do anything, but to give the appearance of doing something. This policy will never solve the fetanyl problem, because it does nothing to address either the problem or its causes. However, they can say they are doing something to their supporters. When everything gets worse, they can blame Canada, Mexico, Kulaks, leftists, whoever, in order to distract from the fact that they aren’t doing anything.

    I have a feeling this is going to be normal governance.

  • +3° cannot be avoided

    We’ve been having a dry spell. It hasn’t rained for weeks. Drought is a problem here in Brandenburg and it’s getting worse. Due to climate change.

    Of all the vandalism caused by the new US administration, probably the most predictable was climate science.

    The history in USA policy goes back to when daddy Bush decided to rename climate change “global warming” because it sounded positive. Something that we would want, rather than a bad thing. That set the tone for the next thirty years of obstruction, where climate change deniers sought to prevent any action taken to reduce CO₂ emissions.

    Now the pretence is over. They are not going to do anything about climate change. In fact, there are even moves in some states to make renewable energy illegal.

    Why are they doing this? To own the libs, obviously, but there must be a bit more than that. Do they think reality is whatever they say it is? That there is no objective reality? Maybe they genuinely think climate science is all a giant hoax?

    Whatever the case, the USAians have decisively rejected reality and embraced a fantasy instead. This cannot end well. Reality always wins in the end.

    Beyond the USA, it’s worth pointing out that if the governments of the world had shown as much enthusiasm for this issue as they have for tooling up for a great big fight, it would be solved by now.

  • Make America Healthy Again

    Outbreak of measles in Texas. The result of a long campaign by anti-vaxxers.

    RFK Jr is responsible for the outbreak. In the sense that it is his job at the moment, as well as him being one of the most prominent anti-vaxxers of the last 25 years.

    I see RFK giving an interview in a fast food restaurant. He’s saying how good the food is for you. Endless anti-vax drivel. He sounds more like an activist trying to get their points in rather than a government minister.

    He seems to be settling scores as well. He’s sacked a load of researchers from the CDC (disease control) and set the rest over to researching the non-existent autism-MMR link. They all know it’s a waste of time, but that’s their job now. He will want results though.

    This is in addition to all the other closures in his department. Some look like revenge from the covid time, others are just wanton vandalism. Is this “small government”? At some point, things will actually genuinely stop working.

    What is worst about all of this is the rejection of reality. It’s like he takes every single piece of medical advice and rejects it. Deliberately and knowingly. Why? This looks like a common feature in the government as well.

    And the title of this blog? That is literally his slogan.

  • Freedom of speech

    One of those minor calamities today, in which most of a pizza topping, but none of the base, landed on a hot pizza stone. I will have to scrape that thoroughly to atone.

    Meanwhile in the USA it’s great to have protests against the disaster that is befalling the country, but authoritarians don’t like protests. As a result they are paying particular attention to silencing their critics.

    The easy stuff is things like the climate institutes. Maga doesn’t want to hear about subjects like this, why should we pay for it then, so just shut them all down and the problem goes away, simple.

    Other institutions like universities rely on government money but can’t be got rid of so easily. They are therefore being extorted to either ban student protest or become more racist. They will make a bold stand this time, but they will be worn down over time. That’ll sort itself.

    What do you do with the rest of the population?

    There have been a series of blatant violations of the First Amendment, arresting people merely for expressing an opinion. I presume the courts will sort these cases out fairly. As they will to the others that the government arrests in order to harass, threaten and quieten. The point is the arrests.

    The present government will continue to terrorise its opponents until people stop criticising them, or until somebody powerful enough tells them to stop it. Which is going to happen first?

  • You say you got a constitution

    Lots and none at all it is with the news. So much going on and no way to make any sense out of it. So I decide to spend my Sunday listening to the cricket and baking some bread.

    In the lunch break I switch on the telly to see if ZDF can enlighten me. It seems they don’t know what’s going on either, but they did have a montage of the chaos.

    I have to feel sorry for a lot of the USAians in the report. The gangster has tipped their lives upside down for no good reason and they don’t know what has hit them.

    All of them, every last one, appeals to the constitution. It’s a holy document to them. The last guarantee of their rights.

    It’s been clear for a long time that it doesn’t work properly and that some major changes are needed to update it from the pre-industrial world it was written in. Stuff that should be in there is grafted on as law and it ends up as an endless mass of litigation.

    But it worked, sort of, until now, because the constitution has installed a convicted fraudster as president. Fortunately it covers itself by insisting the president must swear an oath – on his honour, mind – to uphold the constitution.

    I think the USAians should address these issues.

    More immediately though, congratulations to India on winning the Champions Trophy!