Enjoy the chicken while you can
Stefanik says Musk did not give the Nazi salute; Case of measles in Rhode Island
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Buried deep in a New York Times story about the Trump's administrations's cuts to the federal government Sunday was this this chicken McNugget that might come back to haunt you while barbecuing sometime in the near future.
An executive order from last week froze hiring, rescinded job offers, canceled scientific meetings and health employees were barred from talking to the public all in an effort to curb federal spending.
What Republicans - and many Democrats - have been saying for the years is the federal government is a gluttonous behemoth sucking us dry that needs to be reined in.
So the Office of Personnel Management instructed all agency heads to turn over the names of employees in their probationary periods by Jan. 24 so they can be terminated more easily.
The sad reality is millions of government jobs are so intertwined with every part of our daily life we will all be effected.
Which brings me back to your chicken barbecue.
Jacqueline Simon, the policy director for the American Federation of Government Employees, told the New York Times those terminations could have "damaging effects on government services."
Like inspecting chickens.
When we think of the faceless government bureaucracy, we don't often think about chickens so you might be surprised to learn that one of the important jobs of the Deep State is inspecting poultry farms to prevent diseased animals from entering the food supply.
This is not a very glamorous job.In fact, Simons says most of those food inspectors don't make it through their probationary period.
She told the Times the work is "dirty and dangerous."
If the probationary employees are fired as intended by the Trump administration, there will a shortage of inspectors in meat processing plants.
That means all those chicken breasts, thighs, legs and Super Bowl wings go uninspected.
We all hate paying taxes.
We all agree there is too much bureaucracy.
But most of us would grudgingly agree cutting back on meat inspections might not be the place to scrimp.
It's one example of the how the federal government directly influences our lives.
Yes, I'm disgusted by Trump's pardons of those convicted on Jan. 6, but I don't expect to run into the Proud Boys touring the Chapman anytime soon.
While I'm sure there are millions of dollars in waste in the federal government, most of us would agree Lake George and the Adirondacks need to be protected. The tourists they bring to our region have become our core economic engine.
Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York who was trounced while running for governor in 2022, has been nominated to run the Environmental Protection Agency, despite his lack of any experience in environmental protection.
There is a theme here with Trump's cabinet picks - inexperience.
Zeldin's Senate confirmation has not yet been scheduled, but he has already hired more than a dozen deputies and senior advisors with one thing in common - they are NOT environmentalists.
Zeldin's second in command is a lawyer who recently challenged a ban on asbestos. Most of us would not buy a home with asbestos in it.
Zeldin also hired a former oil lobbyist to work on auto emissions and another oil and chemical company lobbyist to regulate air pollution. The people previously fighting to make pollution regulations more lax are now in charge of enforcing the pollution regulations.
That's a head-scratcher.
So the rollback of all the green energy initiatives is only half the problem. The EPA seems poised to the the ENPA - Environmental Non-Protection Agency.
“It’s alarming to see former industry lobbyists and attorneys who, until recently, were paid by their clients to weaken pollution standards, nominated to high-ranking positions at E.P.A. where they will have the power to undermine regulations meant to protect the public from these same industries,” Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, told the New York Times.
The one thing that has been proven over and over again is that the federal government is so bloated that corruption is commonplace, especially during Trump's first term.
After the Watergate scandals a half-century ago, Congress installed offices inside agencies as an independent check against mismanagement and abuse of power. It has become a valuable way to root out waste, fraud and abuse.
So late Friday night, Trump fired 17 inspector generals.
The firings may be illegal since any termination is supposed to be reported to Congress 30 days before and give reasons for the terminations.
It was inspector generals who often were the first to reveal some of Trump's abuses of power during his first term and led to his first impeachment.
And while most presidents have put their assets in a blind trust so they have no financial conflicts of interest, Trump has begun new businesses that have made him billions of dollars in the opening days of his administration that he is not even trying to hide.
And it's only been a week.
So enjoy the chicken while you can.
Don't accept pardons
We cannot ever accept Trump's pardons of those convicted of Jan. 6 offenses.
Consider this from U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly while approving the pardons from her court:
“Dismissal of charges, pardons after convictions, and commutations of sentences will not change the truth of what happened on January 6, 2021. What occurred that day is preserved for the future through thousands of contemporaneous videos, transcripts of trials, jury verdicts, and judicial opinions analyzing and recounting the evidence through a neutral lens. Those records are immutable and represent the truth, no matter how the events of January 6 are described by those charged or their allies.”
Including the current president.
Stefanik backs Musk
During Rep. Elise Stefanik's confirmation hearing last week, Sen. Chris Murphy asked her about the reported Nazi salute that Elon Musk gave during a speech after President Trump's inauguration.
“No, Elon Musk did not do those salutes,” Stefanik shot back at Murphy, but then contradicted herself by saying she was not at the rally. “But I can tell you I’ve been at many rallies with Elon Musk, who loves to cheer when President Trump says we need to send our U.S. space program to Mars. Elon Musk is a visionary.”
Murphy pushed back.
"Over and over last night, white supremacist groups and neo-Nazi groups in this country rallied around that visual," Sen. Murphy said. "Does it concern you that those elements of the neo-Nazi and white supremacist element in the United States believe that what they saw last night was a neo-Nazi salute?”
Rep. Stefanik deflected the question by saying she did not believe the question was important enough for her to answer.
“These are the questions I choose to ask because I think that your work and the administration’s work on antisemitism only comes with real impact and credibility if it holds both right and left accountable,” Murphy responded.
Trust newspapers
I truly believe if everyone stopped watching prime time cable news shows for a week and read a respected newspaper they would be more informed and have a different perspective of the world.
My former colleague Maury Thompson found this quote he shared with me last week from William Allen White, an editor and publisher from the 1940s.
"People change their paper not because of its politics but because of its integrity. They want an honest paper, well-written, where they can find all the news to which they are entitled."
Vaccinations
To follow up on Saturday's guest essay from Dr. Kathleen Braico on the importance of vaccinations, she let me know that the first case of measles since 2013 was recently reported in Rhode Island. The patient was a young unvaccinated child who had been traveling internationally. Thankfully, the child did not have any school or day-care contacts and is doing well at home.
Dr. Braico wanted to know how dangerous even one case of measles could be. She pointed out that measles can live up to two hours in an airspace after and infected person leaves the area.
That means someone infected with no symptoms could walk down the jetway leaving a plane and an unvaccinated person could come down with measles just from breathing the same air. If you are vaccinated, you have a 97 percent chance of not getting measles.
Dr. Braico points out that an infected individual is contagious up to four days before a rash breaks out making measles one of the most contagious diseases in the world today.
"Why Trump will fail"
That was the headline on David Brooks' column in the New York Times on Thursday.
Brooks is a deep thinker who likes to give politicians the benefit of a doubt. His summary of Trump's first days in office tells us a lot:
"The colorful menagerie of people who make up the proposed Trump cabinet all have one thing in common: They are self-identified disrupters. They aim to burn the systems down," Brooks wrote. "Disruption is fine in the private sector. If Musk wants to start a car company and it flops, then all that’s been lost is investor money and some jobs. But suppose you disrupt and dismantle the Defense Department or the judicial system or the schools? Where are citizens supposed to go?"
It's a question we might be asking ourselves sooner rather than later.
Ten Commandments
Louisiana passed a law last year requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom in the state.
Naturally, it was challenged in court for violated the separation of church and state where an appeals court struck down the law as unconstitutional.
The Federal Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans heard the appeal via Zoom on Monday and did not seem inclined to override the lower court's ruling, even thought the Fifth Circuit has a reputation of being one of the most conservative in the country.
"I'm respectful of the Ten Commandments and I think everybody is," said Judge Catharina Haynes (She was appointed by George W. Bush), "but that doesn't mean it has to be put in every classroom in a state under the First Amendment."
Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez wanted to know if any courts had ruled in favor of Ten Commandments requirements in schools since it was struck down in 1980 by the Supreme Court.
After the hearing, Judge Haynes said the court would rule quickly on the matter.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
You’re right, you probably won’t run into a Proud Boy at the Chapman Museum, but their comrades are in your area. Trump’s mass pardon empowered all the like minded MAGA rebels. I’m sure you see their flags on the pick-up trucks and the banners on front lawns throughout Warren County. The pardons caused a danger to every community in the country.
And the fact that domestic terrorists were pardoned, yet my law abiding daughter can't get on a domestic flight as of May due to being trans........shows you where we are headed. And it's nowhere good.