Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Crises

I think about this a lot. The amazing thing about Trumpistan is that, so far, we haven't had a true crisis that will require a competent, cogent response from our government. Trump and the GOP have hollowed out much of the federal bureaucracy, especially at the policy level. The State department has been gutted, much of the financial policy team is filled with cranks and ideologues and national security is basically meatsack Mike Pompeo.

Staring at a potential war in the Gulf and/or a recession is scary for this reason.  Dubya was largely incompetent, but he had a Treasury Secretary in 2008 who wasn't a complete idiot. I guess Mnuchin isn't the WORST person in the executive, but....c'mon.

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