The Borg
Forced assimilation leads to resistance.
Inside ‘the Blob’: How Bureaucrats Brought Down Britain’s Leader
Were these the same people Keir Starmer sent over to the US to work on the Presidential campaign for the Democrats?
‘A new documentary from Palladium Pictures and The Wall Street Journal examines how Britain’s permanent bureaucracy—nicknamed “the Blob”—played a pivotal role in ending Liz Truss‘ brief tenure in late 2022 as prime minister.
‘Through interviews with Truss and other key players, director Michael Pack, a former CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, reveals how unelected technocrats and civil servants—Britain’s equivalent of the American deep state—pushed back against her economic reforms, ultimately leading to her resignation after just 44 days in office.’
The regulators can investigate whomever they like.
‘WEAPONIZATION: Biden publicly ordered 11 federal agencies to 'look' into Elon Musk. All 11 opened investigations. Then all 11 funneled a total of $300M to Reuters who then who won a Pulitzer Prize for their relentless attack pieces against the billionaire.’
Twitter Files Extra: How the Files Could Help Incoming Investigators
Investigations into the bureaucracy could explode in the new Administration. Could these be made more effective with the kind of radical transparency Matt Taibbi favors?
What will that mean for sentiment?
‘It’s been rumored Executive Branch teams in the next administration may be considering new investigations into government censorship, perhaps with cooperation of Congress. If any transition officials are on the fence about undertaking such a job, they should know there’s a lot of information in unpublished Twitter Files that could be used to speed up/simplify such queries. The DSAC Portal, Teleporter, and Twitter’s PSP are just three communications channels whose contents we couldn’t see, but someone with more complete access might. We have names, dates, and email addresses ready to make the checking easy.’
Waste, Fraud, and Abuse at the Department of Energy
This phrase, “waste, fraud, and abuse,” has particular significance in government.
We’re going to see more of it in the coming two years, I think.
‘NEW: The Department of Energy's inspector general is calling on the Biden admin to halt its rapid-fire green energy loan program. The IG says the program "poses a significant risk of fraud, waste, and abuse" and notes that the DOE has failed to *track conflicts of interest.*’
Repeal the Corporate Transparency Act
I suspect the principal beneficiaries of this act are lawyers and corporate compliance organizations like CSC.
They’re based in Delaware.
Yet another example of bureaucracy underestimating how difficult small business is.
‘The law took effect last Jan. 1. It requires corporations or limited liability companies of fewer than 20 employees and $5 million or less in revenue to disclose details about their beneficial owners to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Failure to comply can result in up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
‘The law defines a beneficial owner as any person who “directly or indirectly, through any contract, arrangement, understanding, relationship, or otherwise—(i) exercises substantial control over the entity; or (ii) owns or controls not less than 25 percent of the ownership interests of the entity.” FinCEN estimates the law applies to 32.6 million small businesses and associations.’
Trump revisits plan to privatize USPS, a first-term goal that didn’t go far
Want to cut costs? Find the bleeding and spin it off or sell it, so you can concentrate on what’s working.
The USPS hasn’t worked in a while.
Now, do Amtrak.
‘President-elect Donald Trump says his next administration is revisiting plans to possibly privatize the Postal Service, after repeatedly scrutinizing the agency’s operations during his first term in office.
‘The first Trump administration unveiled plans to restructure and potentially privatize USPS as part of a 2018 government reorganization plan, but the proposal never gained momentum after pushback from unions and Congress.’
Midnight regulations on chip access
The collateral damage of regulations never seems to factor into their calculus.
What does restricting access to chips in the Middle East and Southeast Asia do for US foreign relations? What downstream impacts from diminished US impact can affect US interests pejoratively? Was this factored into the decision?
Is it even possible to block China’s access to these chips?
‘The U.S. is preparing rules that would restrict the sale of advanced artificial-intelligence chips in certain parts of the world in an attempt to limit China’s ability to access them, according to people familiar with the matter.
‘The rules are aimed at China, but they threaten to create conflict between the U.S. and nations that may not want their purchases of chips micromanaged from Washington.
‘…The purchasing caps primarily apply to regions such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East, the people said. The rules cover cutting-edge processors known as GPUs, or graphic processing units, which are used to train and run large-scale AI models.’