The pessimism, wrong track numbers and general vibes on the economy are already low so I will be surprised if these layoffs don’t turbo charge the negative vibe. (I’ve been surprised by this stuff before, so don’t take my word for it…) Anyway, here are some predictions from economists: The job cuts could ultimately be the biggest in U.S. history. IBM’s purge of about 60,000 workers in 1993 is thought to be the largest corporate layoff. The Trump administration’s purge of federal workers may ultimately amount to the biggest job cut in U.S. history, which is likely to have ramifications for the economy, especially at the local level, according to economists. […] There were about 220,000 federal employees with less than a year of tenure as of May 2024, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Additionally, more than 75,000 federal workers have accepted a buyout offer, according to a Trump administration official. They agreed to resign but get paid through September.
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“Billionaire Elon Musk issued an ultimatum to federal employees Saturday, saying in a post on his social media platform X that employees must respond to an email justifying the work they completed this week or resign.” — NBC News
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The spirit of innovation is back in the White House. After decades of bureaucratic stagnation, the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been given a sweeping mandate to streamline operations and eliminate government waste, which is why I’m demanding that all three million federal workers stop what they’re doing and write an email that no one will read.
When James Murdoch was considering marrying Kathryn Hufschmid, he invited her to meet his family while they were holidaying on a super yacht off the coast of Australia. During the holiday, she caught Rupert cheating at Monopoly. Murdoch just smirked and shrugged. This morsel is from an article just published in the Atlantic by McKay Continue reading »
“Don’t send that little red Pommie Commie up here again!” That was the message from Toowoomba in Queensland after a visit by activist Wendy Turner, who had migrated from England as a young mum in 1977 to live in what journalist Chris Masters called “The Moonlight State”; Queensland during the reign of Joh Bjelke-Petersen. On Continue reading »
If people want to know how genocide can occur, just look to our politicians who have done nothing to stop the crime of the century, Israel’s live-streamed mass slaughter of Palestinians and erasure of Gaza. We are witnessing a moral and intellectual breakdown in which the respectable position is not to condemn Israel’s grotesque crimes Continue reading »
The environmental disasters on every street corner are prompting a local backlash.
“Donfather’s Bill’ is now law – a killer blow for Climate 200 and Community Independents, delivered on the 11th hour through an unholy alliance of the two mafia-like bosses, Albanese and Dutton. Will Simon Holmes a Court seize his Mandela Moment and remake our Parliamentary democracy to fit for purpose? In 1961 Nelson Mandela convinced Continue reading »
If a younger me had come across an article written by an older me arguing that the Bible should be taught in schools, I’d have assumed some serious u-turn was in my destiny. Have I suddenly gone happy-clappy? Have I joined some evangelical revival? A hard no to both. But hear me out – this Continue reading »
Peanut Butter is a staple diet for many of us living busy lives and seeking tasty nutrition in a jar. And for those like me who love Bega’s brand of (Smooth) PB (see how it naturally aligns with ‘Personal Best’?), we can be doubly proud that the Australian-owned company behind this brand is part of Continue reading »
Fox News just screamed the quiet part — and told a brutal truth.
Thousands of customers are threatening to stop using the supposedly LGBTQ+ inclusive retail giant
Considering the carnage being inflicted upon the country by the Trump administration over the past four weeks you would think that the GOP would be the most unpopular political party in the country. After all, the polls show that the public is very unhappy with Donald Trump’s policies while the Republican elected officials appear to be in a state of suspended animation unable to exercise their own prerogatives as an equal branch of government even as the president and his henchmen usurp their power while basically laughing in their faces. Sadly, despite the fact that the GOP is extremely unpopular, the prize for most loathed political party at the moment belongs to the Democrats. The numbers are very bad. According to the Quinnipiac poll, 57% of registered voters have an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party. It’s the highest that’s been since they started asking the question back in 2008. By contrast only 45% of voters are unhappy with the GOP. The Democrats are at a lukewarm 31% favorability rating.
“What’s it going to take for us to wake up…?” I thought I’d lived through history during the assassinations of the 1960s, the Apollo 11 moon landing, Watergate and Nixon’s resignation, September 11, and the election of the first Black president. Then came Trumpism, COVID, and the upending of constitutional order. This feels more like the end of history. Heather Cox Richardson makes history her business. She brings that perspective to Elon Musk’s nuttiness even as “the lug nuts on the wheels of the Musk-Trump government bus” seem to be coming off. Fellow historian Timothy Snyder concurs, posting, “Something is shifting. They are still breaking things and stealing things. And they will keep trying to break and to steal. But the propaganda magic around the oligarchical coup is fading.” Let’s hope. Richardson writes from Maine: Historian Johann Neem, a specialist in the American Revolution, turned to political theorist John Locke to explore the larger meaning of Trump’s destructive course.
The New Yorker is responsible for the twentieth-century’s American high-brow voice.
So, Merz is likely Germany’s next Chancellor. He’s said one good thing:
“My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA.
“After Donald Trump‘s statements, it is clear that the Americans, at least this part of the Americans, this administration, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.”
Excellent. The first step in recovery from being a slave, or vassal, is admitting the problem and deciding to stand up.
No wonder DJT hates Volodymyr Zelenskyy On the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (ICYMI: Ukraine did not start it, DJT.), coverage in The Washington Post and The New York Times spotlights U.S.-Ukraine relations and what Donald Trump’s fluffing of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin means for the world more than it addresses what Ukraine continues to suffer at Putin’s hands. CNN on this anniversary leads with the war’s impact on Ukraine itself: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday hailed Ukraine’s “absolute heroism” as he marked the third anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, and as European leaders began arriving in the capital Kyiv in a show of support for the embattled country. “Three years of resistance. Three years of gratitude. Three years of absolute heroism of Ukrainians. I am proud of Ukraine!” Zelensky wrote on X alongside a video showing scenes from the frontline and Ukrainian civilians supporting war efforts during the grinding conflict. “I thank everyone who defends and supports it. Everyone who works for Ukraine.
I’m here to sound the alarm about the greatest crisis of our time—and it has nothing to do with the usual suspects: climate change, AI taking our jobs, or something about TikTok. It’s the two-sentence headline. Yes, those insidious double declarations that now infest every opinion section, every analysis, every “think piece” about how modernity is falling apart (it is).
Now you might be wondering: Two sentences? Really? Isn’t that just efficiency? Why complain about a little clarity in an otherwise messy world? And to that, I say, “Exactly.” Journalism, at its core, was never meant to be tidy. It was meant to ramble, to overwhelm, to occasionally bury the lede so deep you’d need a headlamp to find it. The two-sentence headline is destroying that sacred chaos. Worse, it’s making us think in neatly packaged dichotomies, and if there’s one thing the human mind abhors more than nuance, it’s being spoon-fed the illusion of nuance.
February 24, 2025 The *&%$!#! Baseball Study Why Are Fans of Fact-Focused Teaching Still Citing a Small, Unconvincing Experiment from the ’80s? By Alfie Kohn Traditional education has more often been practiced by default than explicitly defended. For the last few years, however, we have witnessed a defensive, defiant embrace of instructional strategies that turn back the clock, notably a ... Read More
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