It’s been another week in kakistocracy hell, hasn’t it? Since Pillsbury Spock announced that he’s sending SpaceX engineers in to “fix” the FAA’s systems (including air traffic control), we’ve had two incidents (one in Toronto, one in Arizona). No one’s disputing the need to upgrade a system that was built in the last century, but the notion that a pod of spotty-faced brochachos can swarm in, survey a complex amalgamation of dependencies programmed in COBOL for mainframes and hawk up a “solution” in a week is risible.
Especially ones from SpaceX, a company whose rocket
launches more often end up in a fireball than orbit.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of federal workers in dozens of agencies across the country (including—kaching—the FAA!) have received termination notices via the electronic equivalent of scratchings on a cocktail napkin. You’re out, turn in your badge and laptop, take your crap; you have an hour. (No, I am not making that last bit up.) No further information, no process. No legality, actually.
This means that the work these people were doing was halted
suddenly, little to no chance of a handoff, so…there it sits. If they were managing
a contract or responding to a citizen’s inquiry, well, obviously the Muskrats
decided that they were superfluous to requirements so all the contractor or the
citizen will get is bounced emails and a phone that rings but is never
answered.
Yay.
So today’s earworm is “Which Side Are You On?”, a union
song written in 1931 by Florence Reece, activist wife of a United Mine Workers
organizer in Harlan County, Ky. The union was locked in a fight against mine
owners, who used every tool in their box, including intimidation by the local
sheriff. After her home was raided by deputies one night looking for her
husband, Reece sat down and wrote this, which has been a union anthem ever
since.
You can find plenty of recordings of Pete Seeger, God rest him, singing this, quite militant versions. But I’m giving you Natalie Merchant, because it’s more reflective. This is a time for everyone in this country to decide which side to take. Think about it.
©2025 Bas Bleu
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