• The always-excellent Ezra Klein has a terrific interview with Paul Krugman on the Trump tariffs, available as a podcast and in print in the NYT – ‘Paul Krugman on the Biggest Trade Shock in History’
Worth considering…
• Well, better hope the next pandemic is not right around the corner – because we definitely won’t be ready. Katelyn Jetelina expounds on the body blows public health is taking from this administration in her latest Your Local Epidemiologist.
John Gruber has an apt quote from Hanna Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism in a March 25 Daring Fireball post:
“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”
and then there’s this one from Arendt, same source:
“Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow.”
it seems pretty clear that she was right.
• There are of course innumerable opportunities for corruption in this new administration; here the Washington Post comments on one of the more egregious, re. cryptocurrency. An excerpt:
“Trump, who evidently sees crypto as a vehicle to make money, is increasing the urgency of this conversation by providing cryptocurrencies with a new nefarious use: funneling money into the president’s pocket in exchange for governmental favors.”
Apparently not only is science is out of fashion, the White House is for rent as a commercial venue (more quid pro quo, anyone?),and it’s just fine to turn our back on our allies, but the EPA’s mission is now to forward the interests of industry. Sigh.
I think Matt Yglesias is right with this sentiment:
“It drives me crazy that the very same progressives who shit on Democrats for not being able to stop bad things Republicans do after they lose elections spend all the time before elections shitting on the idea of being more pragmatic and moderate and winning more seats. If there were four more House Democrats, none of whom supported any policy changes in a progressive direction whatsoever, that would still give Democrats a majority and the ability to block all kinds of GOP fuckery. That’s true on DOGE, it’s true on Medicaid and SNAP for billions of poor kids. It’s actually a really big deal. If you want to stop Republicans from doing bad things, you need to win races. You need to back moderates in red-leaning districts and encourage party leaders to take popular positions and win.”
Some particularly timely quotes from Teddy Roosevelt (courtesy of Robert Reich):
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
***
“To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”
***
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”
• I have to agree with Zynep Tufekci, writing on the Texas measles outbreak in the NY Times:
“All governors should be launching campaigns to increase measles vaccination coverage, but some states are led by people who promote falsehoods. And some Americans live deep in echo chambers where most of what they hear about vaccines are lies and disdain. It won’t be possible to reverse all this quickly. Perhaps the best we can do is inform parents skeptical of vaccines what they’re risking, before it’s too late.”