DOGE, Do-nothing Congress, Trump & Entertainment

 

I have lived just outside the Washington, DC beltway for more than 30 years in suburban Maryland and Virginia. For several years I commuted daily into Washington. Washington is a dynamic city with first class museums, beautiful monuments, amazing restaurants and the heartbeat of our federal government. One thing that has resonated with me over the decades is the fact there is virtually no traffic when the government is shut down and only ‘necessary’ employees are required to show up for work. If government employees are not ‘necessary’ why are we paying them with our tax dollars? 💸 

The outcry over Elon Musk and the DOGE team looking for efficiency, fraud, wasted taxpayer dollars, and  right sizing the government puzzles me. I can only suppose that those howling the loudest are afraid DOGE will discover boondoggles, shell companies, the fact that many who work at federal agencies do zero productive work while having more protections than any civilian employees, and that the massive waste caused by the regulatory environment just perpetuates the perception of ordinary Americans that government serves itself.

Yes, jobs will be eliminated. Grants will be revisited and conditions revised. Pork may be made into sausage. Automation will replace people.Contracts will be reviewed and revised with a much  lower allowance for charging overhead. 

But,  it is time we returned to a meritocracy.  Perhaps the audacity of Donald Trump and his fearlessness may give Congress the impetus to do its job. I am furious that so much time, money and argument is wasted on showboating. Just STFU, figure out how to play together in the sandbox, and fix the broken system. For once in my lifetime, I want to see the political class do the right thing for the USA instead of perpetuating the status quo and pandering to special interests to get re-elected. 

In the meantime, I’ll read media reports, social media posts, listen to the apoplexy and enjoy the show. Trump is a showman. I’m enjoying the show. 

Lockerbie with Colin Firth on Peacock

 

My reaction to the first two episodes of Lockerbie, starring Colin Firth, was visceral. December 21, 1988 Libyan operatives smuggled explosives onto Pan Am Flight 103.by way of Malta, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, raining debris over the village and killing several people on the ground. 

This event is personal for me, in part  because I heard about the terrorist attack when I landed in Cincinnati that same evening following air travel from Chiang Kai Shek Airport in Taipei, Taiwan. I’d flown that Pan Am Flight from Heathrow in the past. Ultimately, it was the death for Pan Am, which had been the American flag ship airline from the early days of commercial aviation. Lockerbie defined the moment for me.

I was living in Asia during Tiananmen Square, the 1st gulf war, terror attacks on US facilities.  I knew people who were traumatized by the bombings in Lebanon, the evacuation of US citizens in Tehran during the revolution, the airline and cruise ship high jackings, and understood that if we were in danger- the best places to find help included the Swiss and Canadian government entities…not the US. How disappointing to know that my own government did not have the best interests of its citizens at the forefront.

Perhaps it is for this reason that I felt the agony of those fighting for answers after Lockerbie. Secrecy     Y governmental entities is toxic. It erases trust of citizens. Maybe this is why so many Americans applaud DOGE. Transparency! Light! Peeling away the layers of the onion. 

The people are entitled to truth. God bless Dr. Swire for reminding me that government owes us truth. Lockerbie is a reminder of that. Obfuscating is wrong. Opacity is wrong. We, the people, deserve truth.