News

 

News

From the news last night:

The Houthis attacked several U.S. ships last night.

Melania has declined the 'transition tea' with Jill Biden because Jill insulted her family during the campaign. She's becoming one of my favorite Americans.

Chris recommends the podcast 'Sold a Story' on Spotify, on American education. It is very good, upsetting and surprising. Two amazing stats: 35% of 4th graders can not read. 85% of Black students in 4th grade can not read. And the reasons are infuriating.

Target has a Merry Christmas campaign for the first time in years.

Trump’s election drove the largest single-day increase in the U.S. dollar in more than two years, and the third largest in the last decade.

Kamala's campaign spent $1 billion. Billion. And they paid the entertainers who appeared for her. $1 million to Oprah.
 
Some remarkable Trump announcements last night.

---Huckabee to Israel; hopefully he will be busy and will do fewer ads. 

---Rubio to State; a turnaround from 'little Mario.'

---Homan, a real bull, is 'Border Czar; his boss at the Department of Homeland Security, will be Kristi Noem, the diminutive puppy assassin. It's hard to imagine that relationship. And DHS is a big job

---Pete Hegseth as Defense? He is a decorated veteran from several tours in the Middle East with a Princeton and Harvard background who has been a vocal critic of how the military has been organized and marketed. So this might be an innovative and revolutionary appointment. But he has run only a charity. And this is a really big job. On the other hand, has Lloyd Austin done a good job?

---Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, to overhaul the federal government, leading what is called the Department of Government Efficiency. These are actually good, important ideas and I guess there's no reason they can't be entertaining.

Several of his foreign policy appointees are pro-Ukraine. Surprising.

The crucial positions of Education and Attorney General are pending. Both departments have been nightmares and need serious guidance.

Business and government are logical mergers. But are they? Herbert Hoover's election was powered by his engineering background, the success he had earlier in repatriating Americans caught in the first war, and his managing the Americans' effort to feed Europe after the war. His election was felt to be a victory for efficiency and objectivity in government with more than a dash of philanthropy. The depression and his position in it were complex but he was blamed and that positive narrative was destroyed.
In 1947 President Truman appointed Hoover to a commission, which elected him chairman, to reorganize the Executive Departments. He was appointed chairman of a similar commission by President Eisenhower in 1953. The Executive benefitted from both commissions’ recommendations.

So the Department of Government Efficiency run by successful entrepreneurs is not new but success is not a certainty.