British Disarmament in the Nineteen Twenties.

Posted on March 15, 2025 by jsh54

Britain’s military spending had soared during the First World War. It remained high in the immediate aftermath of the war: £766 million in 1919–20. Then, in August 1919, led by the Secretary of State for War and Air,[1] the Cabinet’s Committee of Imperial Defence adopted the “Ten Year Rule”: the government would base its defense budgets “on the assumption that the British Empire would not be engaged in any great war during the next ten years.”

From January 1920 to July 1921, Britain suffered a severe recession. In 1921, the media titan Lord Rothermere founded the “Anti-Waste League” to pressure the government.[2] It worked: the government appointed a budget-cutting Committee on National Expenditure with Sir Eric Geddes as chairman. What followed became known as the “Geddes Axe.”[3] In the end, total defense spending fell from £189.5 million (1921–22) to £111 million (1922–23), before rebounding to £114.7 million in 1924–25.[4]

Then a series of international agreements altered the context. The Washington Naval Conference (1921-22) prevented a naval arms race between Britain, the United States, and Japan. The Dawes Plan (1924) conceded to German objections on reparations. The Locarno Pact (1925) stabilized relations in Western Europe between Germany and its former opponents. In 1925, the new—and very popular in Britain–League of Nations began pushing for a World Disarmament Conference that would reduce “offensive” weapons almost out of existence. The Versailles treaty had substantially disarmed Germany; now it was time for the other powers to follow suit. A reduced chance of war would justify deep cuts in military budgets. In 1928, in light of all these developments, the Chancellor of the Exchequer[5] persuaded the Cabinet to make the “Ten Year Rule” permanent unless specifically changed by the government.

In the early Thirties, the Great Depression forced still more economies: defense spending fell to £102 million in 1932. In April 1931, the First Sea Lord told the Committee of Imperial Defense that “owing to the operation of the ‘ten-year-decision’ and the clamant need for economy, our absolute [naval] strength also has … been so diminished as to render the fleet incapable, in the event of war, of efficiently affording protection to our trade.” Moreover, if the Navy had to move the bulk of its strength to the Far East to deal with Japan, it would have the means to defend neither Britain’s overseas trade nor Britain itself.

In September 1931, Japan seized the Chinese outlying province of Manchuria. On 23 March 1932, the Cabinet formally abandoned the “Ten Year Rule.” However, it stipulated that “this [change] must not be taken to justify an expanding expenditure by the Defence Services without regard to the very serious financial and economic situation” of Britain.

Then, in January 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. War was less than seven years, not ten, away. Much rearmament would have to be done in great haste.

[1] Winston Churchill.

[2] See: Anti-Waste League – Wikipedia and Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere – Wikipedia Comic in light of current events. However, it was his rival, Lord Beaverbrook, who was the immigrant.

[3] On Geddes, see: Eric Geddes – Wikipedia On the Committee on National Expenditure, see: Geddes Axe – Wikipedia

[4] For its part, social spending (education, health, housing, pensions, unemployment) fell from £205.8 million (1920–21) to £182.1 million (1922–23) to £175.5 million (1923–24), before rising to £177.4 million (1924–25).

[5] Winston Churchill.

“I hate rude behavior in a man.”–Woodrow F. Call, “Lonesome Dove.”

Posted on March 5, 2025 by jsh54

What is a “manly man”? My grandfather pretty much abandoned his wife and two sons during the Twenties. My Dad grew up in the Depression. He picked fruit in California; logged in Montana; worked on a government survey ship in the Gulf of Alaska; was the assistant manager of a movie theater in Portland, Oregon; soldiered on Guadalcanal and Bougainville; was a ski-bum in Sun Valley and a cab driver in Seattle and Anchorage; and—eventually—owned a small business that put a roof over our heads and food in our bellies, along with many other things. He smoked two packs of Camels a day. He read a lot of high-end trash.[1] He knew many “colorful” expressions, but he did not use them indoors or in front of women and children. He never raised his voice to–let alone hit–my Mom or me and my siblings. (He did punch out a tug-boat captain who disrespected my Mom.) He taught me to sail, to ski, to drive a car (with a manual gear-shift), and to shoot both long guns and pistols (which we had around the house in an unlocked rack) and gun safety (“always check in the breech”). He believed in individual achievement and personal responsibility. He always voted straight-ticket Republican, except for the time he voted for McGovern because he was so angry about the waste and lies of the Vietnam War. He intensely disliked rich swells, especially rich swells who went into politics and took up the cause of the “common man.” (This meant FDR and all the Kennedys.) He and my Mom believed that “a woman’s place was in the home” and that “a man had to provide for his family.” He and my Mom were casual racists, just like most other White people of the time outside the South. He was the finest man I’ve ever known.

He offered an example of “traditional masculinity,” rather than “toxic masculinity.” That distinction began when the term “toxic masculinity” was taken up by men’s movements in the 1980s and 1990s. Gender differences are essentially hard-wired, rather than socially constructed.[2] “Toxic” masculinity could appear where men had lost contact with real or “deep” masculinity. Masculinity became “toxic” when men lost comradery with other men and when they repressed emotions. From there, the term crept into academic studies and, from there, into the media in the 2010s. Along the way, however, it became generalized to describe ALL masculinity. In part, this seems to have occurred among people—feminists, gay-rights activists–struggling courageously for their own liberation. In part, this sprang from “gray wolf” behavior among academics.[3] In part, this seems to have resulted from the intellectual laziness of people in the media.[4] There followed a moral panic over behavior attributed to many men.[5]

Social movements swing like a pendulum, taking ever more extreme positions. So it was with “toxic masculinity.” Recent studies find that many male Trump voters support abortion rights, gender equality, and openness about emotions, but don’t believe that women’s progress has come at the expense of men. They’re just sick of being stigmatized.[6]

Believing a man should provide for his family is preferable to abandoning that family.

[1] Kenneth Roberts, C.S. Forester, and John D. MacDonald.

[2] On “Social Construction” see Social construction of gender – Wikipedia Lots of jargon.

[3] Pack hunter – Wikipedia

[4] See: Toxic masculinity – Wikipedia, “Terminology.”

[5] Moral panic – Wikipedia

[6] Claire Cain Miller, “Many Trump-Voting Men Feel Under Fire, Yet Defy Stereotypes,” NYT, 5 March 2025.

Diary of the Second Addams Administration 9.

Posted on February 27, 2025 by jsh54

New York City Mayor Eric Adams had been critical of President Joe Biden’s policy on illegal immigration. He became so after the administration’s “Remain in Texas” policy had collapsed, flooding Democratic cities in the North with illegal immigrants. Adams and newly-elected President Donald Trump drew together. So far, so good. Bipartisanship is still possible!

However, a problem existed. Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York had accused Adams of various serious crimes. It seemed possible, if not certain, that Adams would be out as mayor.

In mid-February 2025, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove declared that the mayor’s parochial legal difficulties were harming his ability to assist the President’s national immigration policy.[1] Bove ordered Danielle Sassoon, the acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to drop the charges against Adams “without prejudice.” Sassoon requested a meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi to discuss her concerns that this was a corrupt bargain; Bondi declined to meet with Sassoon, who then resigned. Bove then ordered Sassoon’s deputy to dismiss the charges. He got a less politely phrased response than Sassoon had provided, and the deputy resigned. So did a bunch of other lawyers who wouldn’t be caught dead doing what Bove wanted. Finally, the charges did get dismissed. Then four deputy mayors of New York City resigned.[2]

At the moment, Adams remains Mayor. Perhaps not for long. Voters will have a chance to turf him out at the next election. They’re likely to do so. Adams is besmirched by the deal, so the chances of him losing re-elections are increased. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has contemplated removing him from office even before an election. The Department of Justice retains great leverage over Adams. The charges were dismissed “without prejudice.” This means that they can be reinstated whenever the Trump administration finds Adams insufficiently co-operative with something (anything) in the future. Or even when he is no more use to them.

What does the Trump administration get out of this deal? It gets unrestricted access to the denizens of New York City’s vast jail system. Any illegal immigrant who is arrested for something is liable to find themselves on a federal government airplane bound for a banana republic.[3] In effect, the NYPD becomes an extension of the effort to expel illegal immigrants.

Trump, Bove, and Adams have come in for much abuse in the media for their apparent deal. So they should. If the sweeping pardons for the 6 January 2021 rioters[4] are added to this deal, then the administration can’t escape being called for its own “weaponization” of the law.

Nor is Adams out of the woods even over the short-term. Bove may have requested that the charges be dropped, but the presiding judge has to agree to it. It isn’t certain that he will agree. On the one hand, the whole thing stinks to high Heaven. On the other hand, prosecutors cut deals with criminals all the time. They do so when the alleged criminal agrees to cooperate with the government in pursuit of some larger goal. The government can argue that there’s no difference between Adams and a drug-dealer. OK, not a good re-election campaign slogan.

[1] “The U.S. at a Glance,” The Week, 21 February 2025, p. 7.

[2] “Justice Department: Condoning corruption under Trump?” The Week, 28 February 2025, p. 6.

[3] I can just hear people saying “You mean ANOTHER banana republic!”

[4] “Cop-beaters” in the frank words of the Wall Street Journal.

Diary of the Second Addams Administration.

Posted on February 25, 2025 by jsh54

Is the bureaucracy of the Executive Branch of the government of the United States lean, agile, innovative, and filled with able idealists? Or is it bloated, hide-bound, unwieldy, and ill-suited to the needs of the new century? It’s a fair question to ask.

President Donald Trump and Court Wizard Elon Musk appear to believe that it is the latter, rather than the former. For Trump, there seems to be the added flaw in the bureaucracy’s hostility to him during his first term. He may well want “revenge” both for their past hostility and to prevent anticipated resistance in his second term. For his part, Musk portrayed himself as battling an “unelected bureaucracy” in order to “restore the will of the people.”

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has taken on the task of reducing the federal workforce.[1] In mid-February 2025, DOGE began firing people in big chunks and very rapidly. In addition to the thousands of US AID workers on the chopping block, the Department of Agriculture took a heavy hit: 4,000 at the Department and a further 3,400 at its subordinate National Forest Service. Health and Human Services lost 5,200; the Energy Department lost 2,000; and the Department of Veterans Affairs lost 1,000.[2] Within these departments, some areas were hit particularly hard: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Nuclear Security Administration. More lay-offs took place at the Federal Aviation Agency and the National Park Service.[3] All this is alarming to terrifying.

At the same time, and with murky intent, DOGE went after the vast troves of data on ordinary Americans held by the federal government in the data centers of the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Treasury, and other agencies.[4]

In his first term, Trump caught a lot of criticism for treating China as a real danger by plastering it with tariffs, trying to build a wall at the southern border to resist massive illegal immigration, and denigrating our NATO allies. Then Joe Biden kept the tariffs, Russia’s attack on Ukraine revealed that the European allies have been pacifists for decades, and the failure to resist illegal immigration helped cost the Democrats the 2024 election. Now, some Democrats are admitting that a problem exists, even while they drag on Trump’s coat-tails. One journalist at the Washington Post accepted that problems did exist with the federal bureaucracy, but objected to indiscriminate mass firing. On the other hand, others stuck to their last, claiming that the firings were part of “a coup.” Competent civil servants would be driven out to make space for incompetent Trump loyalists. That argument is hard to refute when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Kash Patel, and Peter Hegseth can be offered as evidence.

Two questions arise. One, is Trump just trying to scare the bureaucracy into compliance? Two, how can a log-jammed legislature reform and reduce a behemoth?

[1] “Trump makes mass layoffs across government,” The Week, 28 February 2025, p. 4.

[2] Currently, the federal government employs about 2.1 million civilians and about 600,000 military personnel.

[3] For context, the Department of Agriculture which includes the National Forest Service, employed 93,000 people at the end of the Biden administration, so the cuts amount to about 7.5 percent of the workforce; Health and Human Services employed about 83,000 people, so the cuts amount to about 6 percent of the workforce; The Department of Energy employed 14,000 civilians and 93,000 contractors, so the cuts amounted to 14 percent of the civilian workforce; and the Department of Veteran Affairs employed over 400,000 people, so the cuts are microscopic.

[4] Why do they need such information? They aren’t saying. Why not? They’re up to something.

No more coals to Newcastle.

Posted on February 21, 2025 by jsh54

By the mid-Thirties the international situation had begun to darken. It was not yet Desperate. The worst—another World War—might still be avoided. Serious men had to deal with situations in a realistic way. What were the situations?

First, there was the conflict between the “democratic” and “status-quo” powers (Britain, France, and the United States) and the “authoritarian” and “revisionist”: powers (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Communist Russia, and Imperial Japan. Each of the “revisionist” powers desired to expand its territorial control over adjoining areas. To accomplish these goals they would have to overthrow the system of international order—often called the Versailles settlement—created after the First World War. Beyond that common goal they were often at odds among themselves.

Second, there were the military realities. The conventional economic policy adopted to respond to the Depression (1929-1939) combined lower taxes with spending cuts, while limiting international trade (autarky). Where countries stuck with this policy, military budgets suffered. Where they did not stick with this policy, they rearmed faster. Meanwhile, autarky spurred both isolationism and aggression.

Third, Britain had three enemies threatening its global position: Germany in Europe, Italy in the Mediterranean, and Japan in the Far East. It had the military resources to fight one major war at a time. Britain lacked good allies. America was deeply isolationist; Communist Russia hated capitalist counties—democratic or authoritarian; and France had been “bled white” in the First World War, while the Depression intensified partisan polarization. If Britain fought one major power, the other two enemies would pile on. Unless they were bought off or deterred.

In July 1934, Austrian Nazis had tried to seize power. Hitler’s fingerprints were all over the failed coup. The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini ordered four army divisions to the border with Austria to deter German intervention. In London and Paris, this seemed a good omen.

In March 1935, Nazi Germany declared that it would begin rearmament in violation of the Versailles Treaty. In April 1935, representatives from Britain, France, and Italy met in the resort town of Stresa. They agreed to resist any further German violation of the Versailles Treaty. During the conference, the Italians raised the issue of Ethiopia. Italy wanted to take over a big chunk of Ethiopia. This was Italy’s bill for helping contain Germany. The demand embarrassed the British, so it never made it into a written agreement.

Mussolini had not abandoned his goals. In October 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. Public opinion, but especially “progressive” opinion, in both Britain and France went wild. Demands rang out for support for the League of Nations and economic sanctions on Italy.

British and French leaders still hoped to save the Italian alliance against Germany. In December 1935, British Foreign Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare met secretly with French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval. They agreed on a plan that gave most of Ethiopia to Italy while leaving a fragment independent. News leaked, public opinion revolted, the plan was abandoned, and Hoare resigned. King George V said “Ah well Sam, no more coals to Newcastle, no more Hoares to Paris.”

Lesson: If you want the “status quo” in one area you may have to accept “revisionism” in another. Who is the main enemy? What are the alternatives?

War with China.

Posted on February 16, 2025 by jsh54

At the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the defeated Nationalists withdrew from Chinese mainland territories. Some entered the remote border areas of Laos and Thailand. Most of them crossed the Formosa Straits to the island of Taiwan. Here they created their own country.

The Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC) has never recognized Taiwan as independent. In similar fashion, it refused to recognize any of the territorial losses during the age of European imperialism. Where it could do so, it made good its claims: Shanghai and Tibet. Other places had to wait for their “liberation.” Recently, China has retaken Hong Kong and Macao. Now, attention has shifted to Taiwan.

As part of President Richard Nixon’s “opening to China,” American policy toward Taiwan became more ambiguous. In 1979, the United States ended diplomatic relations with Taiwan while re-establishing them with the PRC. In 1982, the Reagan administration said that it would not pursue “a policy of ‘two Chinas’ or [of] ‘one China, one Taiwan’.” All subsequent administrations have made clear American opposition of a declaration of independence by Taiwan. They have believed that such a declaration would trigger an invasion by the PRC. If that happened, then the United States might be drawn into a wart with China. This would upset many apple-carts.[1] So, American policy effectively has been to trust in the eventual evolution of the PRC toward the kind of society which Taiwan would willingly join.[2]

For the United States, the situation is more complicated than before. For one thing, some serious observers of military affairs doubt that the United States now could win a conventional war with China in the Western Pacific. Rearmament and rebuilding the defense industrial base could take some time. What id China pounces before then? For another thing, there is a suspicion that China’s aims extend well beyond merely regaining “lost” territory. Taiwan forms the center of what strategists call the “first island chain” cutting off China from easy access to the Pacific. Japan and the Philippines are the two other links in the chain, but it is anchored at either end by South Korea and Vietnam. What if the Chinese determination to “restore” Taiwan forms merely an entering wedge for a larger plan of aggression? For yet another thing, Taiwan has become a major industrial economy. In particular, it is home to the Taiwan Semi-conductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC if you want to go check the contents of your IRA). Chinese rule would both mark a further shift in the balance of power and harm America’s economy.

In 2023, the CIA assessed that Xi Jinping had instructed military leaders to “be ready [to invade Taiwan] by 2027.”[3] In mid-December 2025, the navy of the PRC carried out maneuvers in the waters around Taiwan. The 90-ship group was, in the view of the Taiwanese military, practicing a “blockade exercise.”[4] Blockade would be one way of bringing Taiwan to its knees. Bombing would be another. Invasion—amphibious and airborne–would be yet another.

All this is worth public discussion. Now and not later. We don’t have much “later.”

[1] See David Sacks in While Pledging to Defend Taiwan from China, Biden Shifted on Taiwan Independence. Here’s Why That Matters. | Council on Foreign Relations

[2] See: Wilkins Micawber. Sounds like goofy American optimism, until you consider the alternative.

[3] “The World at a Glance,” The Week, 14 February 2025, p. 9.

[4] “The World at a Glance,” The Week, 20 December 2024, p. 9.

Diary of the Second Addams Administration 7.

Posted on February 15, 2025 by jsh54

Elon Musk posed a question during a meeting with the press in the Oval Office: “If the bureaucracy is in charge, then what meaning does democracy actually have?”[1] It’s a fair question. In the guise of the “administrative state,” has concerned political scientists for some time.[2] A revolt against the “Eurocrats” of the European Union is a large part of what drove “Brexit.”[3] In short, there’s serious intellectual positions behind some of President Donald Trump’s policies, along with all the other motivations.

Trump has issued a snowstorm of Executive Orders (EOs).[4] Democrats in Congress could think of nothing to do, so they blustered. Progressive journalists fumed that “Musk is in charge of the U.S. government.” Until Trump casts him aside as he did others before.

Not so with many groups and people outside of Congress. “The old plan sufficeth them”: they sued. As a former White House lawyer said, agencies and laws created by Congress can only be closed by Congress. What Trump is doing is “shattering the fundamental checks and balances of our constitutional order.”[5] Attorneys General in Democratic states and unions representing federal employees went to law. Judges—Democrats and Republicans—issued temporary stays on a bunch of the administration’s policies.

The administration did not always comply with these court orders. Vice President JD Vance argued that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.” What constitutes “the executive’s legitimate power”? Lawyers and the courts will sort out that claim.[6] Elon Musk said that the judge who had barred his men from Department of the Treasury records should be impeached.[7] President Trump himself said that his administration was searching out corruption and that “maybe we have to look at the judges.”[8]

Nothing dismayed, the administration ripped away $900 million from one agency within the Department of Education. The group “tracks student progress and educational best practices.” Declining student test scores indicate that the taxpayers aren’t getting much for their money.

What happens when Trump and Musk start cutting at the Department of Health and Human Services, or at Social Security, or at the Department of Defense? Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, and Defense are three of the four leading shares of government spending. As Willy Sutton said when asked why he robbed banks: “It’s where the money is.”

[1] “Trump, allies rage at courts amid judicial pushback,” The Week, 21 February 2025, p. 4.

[2] See: Administrative state – Wikipedia

[3] Although it is possible that an English hatred of the Scots after the campaign for Scottish independence also contributed to the surge of nationalism. In news broadcasts, Cross of St. George flags were all over the place.

[4] See: Diary of the Second Addams Administration 2. | waroftheworldblog

[5] Charles Raul in the Washington Post, quoted in “Trump, allies rage at courts amid judicial pushback,” The Week, 21 February 2025, p. 4.

[6] Top of the line in utility sports,Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts! #thesimpsons – YouTube “Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts.”

[7] On the status of Federal judges, see: United States federal judge – Wikipedia Impeachment is probably the only way to remove a federal judge before s/he dies. It would take a two-thirds majority in the Senate to remove a judge. In the current state of the Senate, this will not happen. So Musk is annoying a judge in the Southern District of New York, which deals with all sorts of complicated cases touching on financial crimes, among other things. Smart.

[8] “If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze into you”—Friedrich Nietzsche. If you see my point. Guy wrote the best bumper-stickers.

The Hundred Days.

Posted on February 14, 2025 by jsh54

Elected as President in November 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) took the oath of office on 4 March 1933. His inaugural address mixed optimism with slashing attacks on those whom he blamed for the country’s problems. He would seek “broad Executive powers to wage war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.”

Good for his word, FDR launched an astonishingly fast transformation of the government and its policies. This first sprint became known as “the Hundred Days.” He ordered banks closed to halt panics; called Congress into a special session beginning on 8 March 1933; sent Congress new banking laws that were passed and returned to FDR for his signature in less than a day; sent Congress a bill to reduce government spending, including cuts to the pensions of military veterans; and sent Congress a bill to begin repealing Prohibition.

FDR began the regulation of the markets for stocks and bonds with the Securities Act of [May] 1933. In 1935, it was followed up in the Creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to make sure banks complied. The Banking Act of 1933 (commonly called the Glass-Steagall Act) required the separation of commercial and investment banking.

Early on, FDR adopted a policy of promoting inflation, chiefly with the aim of reducing the burden of debt on borrowers. On 18 April, he issued an Executive Oder regulating the outflow of gold from the United States; shortly thereafter Congress passed a resolution abolishing the anti-inflationary “gold clauses” in public and private contracts. In July, he told the American representatives to an international economic conference to refuse to “peg” the dollar to any fixed exchange rate. In November, FDR would order government purchases of gold to pump paper currency into the economy. By January 1934, the currency had been devalued by 40 percent. Thereafter, the Gold Act of 1934 empowered the Treasury to manage both domestic credit and the international value of the dollar.

He then turned to revolutionizing basic government policies on the economy. He had been persuaded of the merits of central planning of the economy. On 16 March 1933, FDR sent Congress a bill to create an Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) that would restrict the massive production that had created a glut on the market. The AAA would limit farm production in order to raise the price of key staple crops—and therefore the income of farmers. The markets were drowning in corn, wheat, cotton, and hogs. Production would be cut back. The Agricultural Adjustment Act passed Congress on 12 May.

At the same time, FDR pushed for a National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). As in agricultural policy, the bill broke with the traditional reverence for the “free market” and “laissez-faire.” The Act encouraged business sectors to organize markets, production, and prices to stop over-production and stabilize prices. To these measures was added a Public Works Administration to put the unemployed back to work until business revived. Mixed in with the NIRA’s planning element were other long-sought reform goals: shorter working hours, higher pay, the right to unionize, an end to child labor. The NIRA passed on 16 June.

There was much else. TVA; CCC; FDIC; “relief,” later with a work requirement added. The point is that FDR moved fast and broke with all sorts of precedent. People saw him acting with energy and confidence, even if no one knew if it would work. It was worth a shot.

Diary of the Second Addams Administration 6.

Posted on February 12, 2025 by jsh54

President Donald Trump tasked “Special Government Employee” Elon Musk with downsizing government.[1] Musk, it is often pointed out, is an “unelected billionaire.”[2] Musk immediately exhibited the drive and ruthlessness that made him a billionaire in the first place. In his own offensive phrase, he and his myrmidons “spent the weekend feeding US AID into the wood chipper.”[3] He also sent his people into the Treasury Department Finance section, the General Services Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Veterans Administration, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Education. In most cases, they seemed to be after the computer and record systems.[4] Along the way, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) e-mailed federal employees offering a choice between resigning now and receiving eight months’ pay or risking being fired at some point in the future.

Criticism followed. Senator Charles Schumer warned that “an unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government.” Yale historian Timothy Snyder called it “a coup.” Journalist David Rothkopf warned of the approach of “the worst form of malevolent dictatorship.” Senator Elizabeth Warren insisted that “Elon Musk is seizing the power that belongs to the American people.”[5]

Lawyers saw the Musk task force’s actions as “wildly illegal” and unconstitutional. Neither they nor President Trump can close down federal agencies created by Congress or impound funds appropriated by Congress.

A final, perhaps revealing, criticism is of the people doing Musk’s work. They are “a coterie of engineers barely out of college.” They are “young” and they are “engineers.” In contrast, Charles Schumer is 74, Elizabeth Warren is 75, Dick Durbin is 79, Mark Warner is 70, Amy Klobuchar is 64, Tammy Baldwin is 62, Cory Booker is 55, Chris Murphy is 52. All are lawyers. Many of the younger-than-them people on their staffs doubtless are also lawyers.

Do engineers and lawyers think in different ways? Not being one or the other, it’s difficult to say. However, law schools instill a reverence for precedent.[6] Engineering schools emphasize problem-solving and simplification.[7] On the second issue of older versus younger, there are both stereotypes and more evidence-based analyses.[8] It should surprise no one that young engineers think and act differently from aged lawyers. One thing that is clear is that the “Old Order” is unable to address our national problems. Will a “New Order” make them worse?

[1] Musk is commonly identified as “the world’s richest person,” rather than as the “creator of several massively innovative companies—including one that may have to bring back two astronauts stranded on Gilligan’s Satellite.

[2] All Cabinet members are “unelected.” According to a 2021 article in Forbes, the median wealth in the “poor man’s cabinet” of Joe Biden was $5.5 million; average wealth was $6.8 million. The figures were far higher for the first Trump cabinet, and for the first Obama cabinet. Musk isn’t a cabinet-member, but the principle is the same.

[3] Bing Videos Well, he likes the Coen Brothers.

[4] “Musk launches offensive on government agencies,” The Week, 14 February 2025, p. 4.

[5] Although, in fact, the American people delegated all those powers to their elected government. The current head of the Executive Branch of that government is Donald Trump.

[6] Precedent – Wikipedia

[7] There is an interesting analysis at Do Engineers Think Differently? Yes, Learn The 6 Ways | Engineer Calcs

[8] See: Old Versus Young: The Cultural Generation Gap | The Pew Charitable Trusts and II. Generations Apart — and Together | Pew Research Center

Diary of the Second Addams Administration 5.

Posted on February 11, 2025 by jsh54

From the adoption of the Constitution until 1974, Presidents were assumed to have the power—inherent in their office–to not spend money appropriated by Congress.[1] In 1801, Thomas Jefferson chose to prioritize debt reduction over national defense. He impounded $50,000 that had been appropriated for gunboats requested by the Navy. Many of his successors impounded funds.

By the early 1970s, members of Congress believed that President Richard Nixon was abusing his official powers in a variety of ways. One example came in his impoundment of appropriated funds. Nixon held up spending on “water pollution control, education and health programs and highway and housing construction.”[2] The amount came to “$53.2‐billion during its first five years in office.”[3] In the context of other struggles with President Nixon, House Speaker Carl Albert called it a struggle between Congress and “one-man rule.” On a broadly bipartisan basis, Congress struck back. The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 barred the President from impounding funds appropriated by Congress.[4] It did permit a Presidential request for “rescission” if approved by Congress.[5] Already mired in “Watergate,” Nixon signed the bill into law. As a result of Nixon’s surrender, the law was never tested before the Supreme Court. Do extreme cases make good law?

That doesn’t mean that Presidents think that impoundment is a bad idea. Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all supported the restoration of the authority stripped from the office because of that damn fool Nixon. Other unsuccessful candidates for President—John McCain, Al Gore, and John Kerry—supported restoring the authority to impound.[6]

Which brings us to President Trump. During the campaign, he promised to “squeeze the bloated federal bureaucracy for massive savings.”[7] From the get-go he stopped appropriated spending on D.I.E. initiatives; payments to non-governmental organizations; foreign aid (for a 90 day review period); and all federal loans and grants (almost immediately rescinded). Trump wants to bring the issue to the Supreme Court for the hearing it didn’t get in the 1970s.

The key issue here is self-restraint. The ballooning national debt, fueled by unbalanced annual budgets, threatens the financial stability of the government. Nixon’s abuse of the powers of his office went well beyond what other presidents had done, alarming many people in both parties. Trump seems determined to disrupt the established “way we do things around here” patterns that have taken the United States to the brink of multiple crises. He, too, is alarming people in both parties. He wouldn’t be on the verge of shifting the balance of power if all of us had shown more self-restraint. Not meant as an exculpation of Trump.

[1] Impoundment of appropriated funds – Wikipedia

[2] Richard D. Lyons, “Nixon’s Impounding of Billions in Federal Money Is Complicated Issue, Abounding in Misconceptions,” NYT, 7 October 1973.

[3] Compared to $39 billion impounded by Lyndon Johnson.

[4] Passed by the House 385-23 (204 Democrats and 181 Republicans voting in favor); passed by the Senate 80-0 (50 Democrats and 29 Republicans).

[5] Since then, Congress has rarely approved rescission requests, so Presidents rarely request them.

[6] President Joe Biden did not.

[7] Charlie Savage, “Are Presidents Empowered to Block Spending Authorized by Congress?” NYT, 29 January 2025.