Tim Hadley

Worth a read: Francis Fukuyama’s latest post at Persuasion, “A Letter to Elon Musk”:

In any event, firing government bureaucrats is not necessarily a path to greater efficiency. It is a widely believed myth that the federal bureaucracy is bloated and overstaffed. This is not the case: there are basically the same number of full-time federal employees today as there were back in 1969, about 2.3 million. This is despite the fact that the government now disburses more than five times as many dollars as it did back then. In fact, you can argue that the government is understaffed, due to relentless pressure over the decades to keep headcounts down.

Instead, Fukuyama recommends deregulatory measures, targeting the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which stands in the way of many energy efficiency and infrastructure projects, and the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), which impose mind-boggling burdens on government purchasing, along with providing better recruitment, training, professional development and pay for federal employees—de-bureaucratizing the bureaucracy.

Via Damon Linker:

I suspect there’s a lot more going on than just those two factors, but there’s no denying that they are important. (I wonder, though—what’s the source data set?)

One of the office spaces I use is expanding. The work will be done soon.

Place Adolphe Max, Paris (IX^e), France, 6 juin 2023.

Denver Performing Arts Complex, May 23, 2023

Fall 2018. Kodak Portra 400 (120 format), Yashica-D. At Lac Amora Park in Broomfield, Colorado, looking northwest.

Damir Marusic, in “Complacency and the Coming Storm” at Wisdom of Crowds:

“Autocracy versus democracy” does not usefully describe the moment. It feels like a discarded line from some kind of late-night brainstorming session. … No, it’s not about democracy versus autocracy. The wheels are coming off. Our predecessors bequeathed to us a period of unprecedented tranquility. They were not infinitely wise in getting us here — no wiser than we are. But we grew up used to it in ways they could never imagine. We assumed order was normality, that peace was what naturally arose when power-hungry hyperpowers minded their own business. A better and more just world was there for the taking, if only we were moral enough to push for it.

An exaggeration, perhaps; and yet, I find myself wanting to respond to the unfolding global disorder by just doubling down on my effort to focus on my regular daily life—work on client projects, get the kids to school and back and to appointments, clean the gutters, winterize the sprinklers, wash the dishes, sweep the floor. There is a lot to be said for the mental and spiritual health aspects of focusing on the now and just doing what one can. But at the same time, I have the nagging sense that there is more global disorder and disruption to come, that the U.S. government has been so hollowed out by partisan efforts to incapacitate it that it would not be able to respond, and that the U.S. economy would not be able to handle a major conflict in Asia—to say nothing of the military, which would be undersupplied due to the lack of a sufficient domestic production base.

See also:

Rennes, France; 13 June 2023.

It seems that the F-35 is so stealthy that if the aircraft is separated from its pilot while in flight, the aircraft can no longer be found.

I should really try this sometime.