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Now that the Government’s “war on Whitehall” seems to be over 👇, a thread on this curious episode.
TL;DR Absolutely nothing has changed in the civil service, apart from the identities of a few very senior office holders (1/20)
Firstly, the ‘war’ does genuinely seem to be over. Congrats to Tom Scholar on his reappointment, kudos to the PM & Chancellor for a wise decision, and to Simon Case for whatever he’s done to bring these pointless hostilities to an end at such an important time (2/20)
But it’s worth asking: what has this latest attempt, accompanied as it has been by ferocious (if mostly anonymously briefed) rhetoric, actually involved?
The answer is, by historical standards, virtually nothing at all. There have been two discernible strands of activity (3/20)
First, there’s been the defenestration of about half a dozen very senior officials, including, most unusually, the cabinet secretary.
But the replacements have been career insiders, cut from the same cloth. Sometimes they’ve been a good bit younger, but not always. (4/20)
TL;DR Absolutely nothing has changed in the civil service, apart from the identities of a few very senior office holders (1/20)
Significant - congratulations (if that is the right word for a reappointment; given the last 12 months I guess it is) to Tom Scholar. The survivor of the s**t list and HMT leadership recognised https://t.co/68FP1QGQ5c
— Alex Thomas (@AlexGAThomas) January 6, 2021
Firstly, the ‘war’ does genuinely seem to be over. Congrats to Tom Scholar on his reappointment, kudos to the PM & Chancellor for a wise decision, and to Simon Case for whatever he’s done to bring these pointless hostilities to an end at such an important time (2/20)
But it’s worth asking: what has this latest attempt, accompanied as it has been by ferocious (if mostly anonymously briefed) rhetoric, actually involved?
The answer is, by historical standards, virtually nothing at all. There have been two discernible strands of activity (3/20)
First, there’s been the defenestration of about half a dozen very senior officials, including, most unusually, the cabinet secretary.
But the replacements have been career insiders, cut from the same cloth. Sometimes they’ve been a good bit younger, but not always. (4/20)
I think there is a good fucking reason why JOSH HAWLEY has been pushing the fairness doctrine but for social media. How can anyone propose government intervention into what kind of politics gets oxygen when the majority of the House GOP voted the way they did yesterday?
He knows what he is proposing. He knows it is a backdoor. He knows it can entrench and promote white supremacist fascist propaganda forever. He is counting on there being a backdoor when he takes the presidency.
Look at all the calls to police the social media companies for “bias” against conservatives. Look how it propped up the kind of speech that took us to yesterday. “Fairness” and “political neutrality” were euphemisms for forcing platforms to carry propaganda and incitement.
CDA 230 is a sideshow but it’s not an empty one.
There’s a lot of good-hearted and intelligent people who are going to fall for this shit in the coming days. Do not forget where Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz have stood on 230, fairness doctrine, and the like. Do not forget who they were when they took their masks off yesterday.
Curious - do you think it doesn\u2019t work because it\u2019s obsolete in the social media era, or that it\u2019s impossible to enforce for Fox and Newsmax?
— SIMD Crawford (@omershapira) January 7, 2021
He knows what he is proposing. He knows it is a backdoor. He knows it can entrench and promote white supremacist fascist propaganda forever. He is counting on there being a backdoor when he takes the presidency.
Look at all the calls to police the social media companies for “bias” against conservatives. Look how it propped up the kind of speech that took us to yesterday. “Fairness” and “political neutrality” were euphemisms for forcing platforms to carry propaganda and incitement.
CDA 230 is a sideshow but it’s not an empty one.
There’s a lot of good-hearted and intelligent people who are going to fall for this shit in the coming days. Do not forget where Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz have stood on 230, fairness doctrine, and the like. Do not forget who they were when they took their masks off yesterday.
Video Length Clue
Leads to Cue-Drop 21
I’ve dumped some crumbs like this over the weekend which started the intense shilling. At this point we are far enough along you can paint the picture without risk of jeopardizing the operation
... https://t.co/5lLOlivTsk
Leads to Cue-Drop 21
I’ve dumped some crumbs like this over the weekend which started the intense shilling. At this point we are far enough along you can paint the picture without risk of jeopardizing the operation
... https://t.co/5lLOlivTsk
— General Flynn (@GenFlynn) December 24, 2020
This column by @jackmintz raises some concerns as a potential policy response to the expected cancellation of the KXL permit.
1/
First, Dr Mintz cites numbers for direct and indirect jobs created by KXL for both Canada and USA. It isn’t clear where these numbers came from or if they are permanent jobs. Methods for calculating induced jobs are notorious for their unreliable and non-robust methodology.
2/
Second, Dr Mintz proposes that Canada retaliate with duties and other trade restrictions, as what happened with aluminum. However, KXL is very different, and this changes the scope of available responses, especially under our trade agreements.
3/
Canada viewed the US duties on aluminum and steel as violating trade agreements. The retaliatory duties were permitted under those agreements as a response to those violations. They are not permitted in response to cancelling KXL.
4/
It is also somewhat odd to see an economist arguing for a trade war in any event, especially one tat would be initiated by a small, trade-exposed economy against a much larger economy. No one wins in a trade war.
5/
1/
"Given the even greater importance of energy exports, Canada should not stand idly by now." - @jackmintz discusses Canada's reaction to Biden's potential decision to cancel Keystone with @financialpost -https://t.co/9Mr68imG3P
— Policy School (@policy_school) January 20, 2021
First, Dr Mintz cites numbers for direct and indirect jobs created by KXL for both Canada and USA. It isn’t clear where these numbers came from or if they are permanent jobs. Methods for calculating induced jobs are notorious for their unreliable and non-robust methodology.
2/
Second, Dr Mintz proposes that Canada retaliate with duties and other trade restrictions, as what happened with aluminum. However, KXL is very different, and this changes the scope of available responses, especially under our trade agreements.
3/
Canada viewed the US duties on aluminum and steel as violating trade agreements. The retaliatory duties were permitted under those agreements as a response to those violations. They are not permitted in response to cancelling KXL.
4/
It is also somewhat odd to see an economist arguing for a trade war in any event, especially one tat would be initiated by a small, trade-exposed economy against a much larger economy. No one wins in a trade war.
5/
Here's a thread of all of @LLinWood's recent 🔥 tweets for your safe keeping.
Mike Pence @vp @mike_pence is disloyal to @realDonaldTrump. Mike is also a traitor to We The People.
— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) January 4, 2021
Mike is a good friend to CCP. Too good.
I don\u2019t trust Mike Pence at all. Do you?https://t.co/6NTUl3PDeq
I want to call out this particular point in my larger tweetstorm, because it sorta maps onto a dumb talking point from the left: "The government can borrow and spend any amount we want. American *can't* have a Greek-style debt crisis, because we borrow in our own currency!"
My right-wing followers, of course, understand why this won't fly: America borrowing in dollars, and under US law rather than some neutral third country, is not a law of nature. People with money could easily decide it was too risky to make us dollar-denominated loans.
(Or at least, at any price we'd want to pay.)
What would make them decide this? The fastest way would be for America to borrow a metric crap ton of money, and then default or let inflation eat away the value of our loans so we're repaying pennies on the dollar in real terms.
And since the "America can't have Greek-style debt crisis" talking point is genreallly only uttered by people who are urgin gus to do exactly the sort of thing that make it more likely we'll have trouble borrowing money in dollars, this is just deeply, deeply silly.
I mean it would probably work for a while--as Adam Smith said, "There's a lot of ruin in a nation". I am prepared to concede that the natural stopping point of this binge might be quite a few years away. I only say there is some stopping point.
But American institutions are strong in significant part because we don't let politicians act like Donald Trump, particularly not when they get close to the white house. It's not a law of nature; it's something we're actively doing. If we stop doing it, we lose our immunity.
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) January 8, 2021
My right-wing followers, of course, understand why this won't fly: America borrowing in dollars, and under US law rather than some neutral third country, is not a law of nature. People with money could easily decide it was too risky to make us dollar-denominated loans.
(Or at least, at any price we'd want to pay.)
What would make them decide this? The fastest way would be for America to borrow a metric crap ton of money, and then default or let inflation eat away the value of our loans so we're repaying pennies on the dollar in real terms.
And since the "America can't have Greek-style debt crisis" talking point is genreallly only uttered by people who are urgin gus to do exactly the sort of thing that make it more likely we'll have trouble borrowing money in dollars, this is just deeply, deeply silly.
I mean it would probably work for a while--as Adam Smith said, "There's a lot of ruin in a nation". I am prepared to concede that the natural stopping point of this binge might be quite a few years away. I only say there is some stopping point.
