Uncle Remus And Modern Analogue

One of the most famous of trickster stories in the Uncle Remus collection was written by Joel Chandler Harris and published in 1881, The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story.  

As the story goes, Br'er Fox constructs a sticky doll out of a lump of pine tar and turpentine and dresses it in some clothes.  Along comes Br'er Rabbit who politely addresses the figure but receives no response.  Offended by what he perceives as the tar baby's lack of manners Br'er Rabbit loses his temper and throws a punch resulting in his fist becoming hopelessly stuck in the tar.  Enraged, Br'er Rabbit strikes with his other paw, followed by kicking with both feet and ending with a head butt leaving him completely entangled in the grip of the Tar-Baby.

In a continuation of Harris' tale several stories later there is the ending; How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp For Mr. Fox.   

With his nemesis helplessly stuck, Br'er Fox speculates on how to dispose of Br'er Rabbit.  The powerless, yet cunning rabbit pleads; Do anything you want with me - roast me, hang me, skin me, drown me - but please, Br'er Fox, don't fling me in that briar patch.  The sadistically-inclined Br'er Fox gullibly believes that this will inflict the maximum pain on Br'er Rabbit so he tosses him directly into the briars.

Finding himself in the thorny thicket, the resourceful rabbit easily escapes and taunts the fox with; I was born and raised in the briar patch!  

The roots of this tale likely find their origins in the oral traditions and folklore of enslaved Africans that were collected by Harris during the reconstruction period following the war between the states. 

Br'er Rabbit is the personification of the West-African trickster; a metaphor of a physically weaker individual who relies-upon quick thinking and psychology to outwit the stronger aggressor.  The Tar-Baby is a euphemism for a sticky and complex problem that worsens the more someone struggles against it. 

My introduction to this tale dates to my early childhood and I really haven't thought much about it since.  

Until recently.

Even after six and a half decades and a fable dating back almost 150 years-ago,  I am mindful of a sticky situation half-way around the world complicated by the impulsive actions of one solitary man, seemingly out-witted by a weaker foe.

I sure hope he extricates himself from this to every American's mutual satisfaction as I want policy that improves your and my prosperity and general lot in life.  

Along with making the world a safer place.

The Perfect Metaphor

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia - Jeanine Pirro - stated in a court filing that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting pool was the "result of flawed installation by the contractor" rather than vandalism, prompting her office to drop charges against a former Olympic athlete and three other individuals.

Prosecutors noted that they received new evidence and information showing that the peeling sealant stemmed from poor contractor work and a rushed installation rather than intentional cutting by individuals.

Pirro isn't stupid and clearly knows if she pursued this nonsense she'd face disbarment. 

Speaking from the Oval Office yesterday Mr. Trump had this to say, "Frankly, I think she choked because the judge was really vicious.  Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department, and I guess she choked.  I don't know what the hell happened."

The Reflecting Pool is actually a perfect metaphor for Mr. Trump; and he created it himself. He's gonna drain it, repaint it and start over.   All the while expecting a different result. 

You read it here first. 

Any bets the algae makes a a return appearance? 

Managing Pond Scum

Schadenfreude is the pleasure we feel when witnessing the misfortune of others.  While it may seem mean-spirited, and even vindictive; if you feel guilty about the satisfaction you experience when someone else messed-up don't be too hard on yourself.  It happens.  I admit to feeling a wee bit mirthful over the president's ongoing battle with pond scum.

Anybody who has lived on a farm, had a neglected backyard pool, pond, gone fishing or otherwise been anywhere near a body of water knows that algae happens once the weather warms-up.  Where I live excess nutrient runoff can create entire dead zones in Green Bay and close beaches to swimmers.  When that happens both us and our dogs stay out of the water until the danger passes.  Hey!  What about your ponds and creek?

Good question.  All three bodies of water on our property support a wealth of diversity including aquatic plant life to animals.  There is no excess nutrient runoff in the ponds because we don't apply any.  Natural algae growth and protozoans support insects and animals on the low end of the food chain. Which, in-turn, support amphibians and reptiles and birds like cranes, ducks and herons.  I can't speak for runoff in the creek because I cannot control agricultural applications upstream or downstream; but it certainly supports bait fish and crawdads.  Speaking for myself, we use best management practices (BMPs) for riparian habitat.

Does the water on my ponds and creek look like drinking water?   Nope.  Would I drink it?  Nope.  Does it look better than the Reflecting Pool water?  Absolutely.  The biophilia is in balance.  You cannot win a fight against Ma Nature and science.

Algae blooms have long thrived in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool since it opened in 1922.  It is filled with stagnant tidal water from the Potomac River further enriched with excess nitrogen and phosphorus runoff which algae loves.  Mr. Trump's own Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will tell you that the water in the pool is unsafe for swimming, fishing or supporting aquatic life.  It is hazardous.  

The president has insisted that his $14 million renovation this spring would forever banish the cloudy, algae-infested water as a consequence of sealing the leaks, filtering the water and painting the bottom American Flag Blue.   

Following the renovations it was refilled with the same nutrient-rich tidal water (not treated city water), wildlife defecated in the pool, it is shallow, fetid and foul and warmed-up in the summer sunshine.  Summers in D.C. are sweltering and the dark blue bottom exacerbated the problem by absorbing more heat and voilà, the largest algae bloom in recent memory!

Mr. Trump wanted blue and he got green.  And lots of it. 

He looked at the algae and blamed imaginary enemies, because enemies are easier than learning.  In the last five days it seems at least five individuals have been cited, arrested or otherwise detained for poisoning or vandalizing the Reflecting Pool.  I don't believe the Reflecting Pool was sabotaged; because I haven't been witness to mug shots or the drama of  a Trumpian perp walk.  The real cause is usually the obvious; it is simply dirty water, full of food for algae, followed by hot weather and now the bottom is delaminating possibly because of shoddy installation by a no-bid contractor and/or the president's own motorcade driving across it.   

 

The president called it an attack because the real answer is too complicated for him to grasp.  Another excuse from the man who shouts at people but cannot shout science out of the water. I guess he missed the class. 

The toxic Reflecting Pool is actually a perfect metaphor for Mr. Trump; and he created it himself. He's gonna drain it, repaint it and start over.   All the while expecting a different result.

So here we are; the National Guard has been tasked with watching paint peel from behind a newly-installed chain link fence and Donald Trump may go down in history as the only US President to be outwitted by a single celled organism.

You can't make this stuff up if you tried.... 

 

Standing Watch

Since it opened in 1922 the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been an ideal incubator for algae growth.

It is filled with tidal water (not chlorinated city water), wildlife defecate in the pool, it is shallow, stagnant and warms-up in the summer sunshine.  Since Mr. Trump had it painted a darker American Flag Blue, it now heats-up faster and warmer.  

The Trump administration has reached the stage of its Reflecting Pool saga where soldiers now stand guard over a pond full of scum and the internet has decided that image needs no embellishment to be devastating. 

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.... 

 

DOGE Update

In the aftermath of the inauguration of Donald Trump we've witnessed the exiling of DOGE Bro Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk's waffling on his promise of $2 trillion of government spending cuts.   

I have two DOGE updates:  Privacy and Theatrics.

Last week we learned that a federal judge halted access to the US Treasury's payment systems by Elon Musk's team of DOGE apparatchiks. The order came in response to a lawsuit filed by 19 state attorneys general accusing the president of failing to faithfully execute the nation's laws when he granted DOGE unfettered access to the federal payments system.

The White House had previously defended the DOGE's access as READ-ONLY, yet in the ruling the judge specifically invoked the Watergate Era Privacy Act of 1974, which states:  no agency shall disclose any record which is contained in a system of records by any means of communication to any person or to another agency.  

Let me begin by making abundantly clear I'm all about rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.  I embrace audits that adhere to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. I believe in accountability. I place a high value on transparency. I hold close Reagan's admonition to Trust, But Verify.  Privacy is at the top of my list; which happens to be why I applaud the court ruling.

I would not voluntarily release my tax returns, charitable contributions, investment account and banking information, social security records, medicare details (including health records) or any other personal identifiers or privileged information to anyone without my prior written consent and assurance this information would be safeguarded.  

Rooting out fraud while simultaneously erecting appropriate firewalls to protect the integrity of a citizen's privileged personalty are not mutually exclusive. In my previous life my employer guarded this same information on behalf of their clients as if it were the Crown Jewels.  A security breach was always on the short list of of existential risks facing any financial services firm.  

To-wit, a couple of my MAGA pals think I'm nuts.  I'm overreacting.  Between you and me, for a couple of guys who howl at every opportunity about their impeccable conservative credentials; privacy ranks close to the bottom of priorities.

Go figure.  

Considering that Mr. Musk hasn't passed senate review or approval, has not received a security clearance, issued written ethics guidelines, or defined for anybody what he and his team intend to do with this data; naturally many of us have concerns.  Will they safeguard your identity?  Share it with whomever they please?  Retain it indefinitely?  Sell it?  Blackmail people with it? 

The question to you, dear readers, is the defense of personal information unreasonable?  

Would YOU voluntarily release the foregoing to Elon Musk without reservation?

Ponder that.

Meanwhile, DOGE has dismantled a Federal agency - USAID.  I've substituted a WIKI web link as the official .Gov website has been disappeared.  Meanwhile the name of the agency has been stricken from the building.  

Image - NBC

To be clear, the loss of USAID has no direct impact on my life so I don't have a dog in this fight.  Although I wonder if this signifies that we've thrown-in the towel on soft-power influence in response to stuff like Communist Red China's Belt and Road initiative, or North Korean and Soviet designs on African natural resources. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, I want to highlight the messaging power of what is known in political vernacular as a Play to the Base*  

Both Democrats and Republicans engage in these dramatic flourishes; and in this instance Elon Musk is championed for slaying the Great White Whale of foreign aid corruption.  Apologies for the Herman Melville metaphor but Trump is a master of this sort of theater.  

Consider this:

As crazy as it sounds opinion polling suggests that a plurality of Americans believe anywhere from 25 to 31 percent of the entire federal budget is foreign aid.  Wasteful fraud and abuse.  Every last damn dollar going to ungrateful heathens.  Naturally, that belief is fallacious because it is opinion and not fact.  US foreign aid (economic, nutrition, health and military) has historically hovered around 1% of the entire US budget; with USAID a small part of that total.  I've blogged about this before.

2023 aid managed by USAID totaled about $40 billion. You and I would likely agree that this sounds like a king's ransom to an average American; correct?  Yet in the grand scheme of our federal budget it is pocket change in the government's couch cushions.

If you unpack the numbers in the context of the entirety of the federal budget the savings amounts to 2% of Elon Musk's $2 trillion savings boast. 

Considering the context of erasing an entire agency; and assuming Washington never feeds another hungry Sub-Saharan child, vaccinates any heathens suffering an epidemic or offers any similar disaster aid these savings become basically permanent.  I take no issue that they are savings.  They are permanently exceedingly small.  

Even so, in the eyes of Trump supporters Musk is a Giant Killer.  

The melodrama of sweeping furloughs of slothful and ungrateful government workers, the erasure of an entire agency along with the trope of chiseling the name from the facade of the empty building is as close as you can get to modern-day angry Jesus giving the money changers the heave-ho from the temple.  

The theatrics are priceless.

So, let's agree this scalp in Musk's belt in only the first three weeks of the administration is yeoman's work. Or is it like the Battle of the Greasy Grass?  Spoiler Alert: The plains Indians took many scalps and still lost the war.

Ask yourself this:

Is the DOGE willing to hunt and scalp the prize 800 pound gorilla?

Or the administration to settle on collecting some small scalps for Reality TV* and forfeit the war?

Only time will tell.

Pro Tip Alert!  Be sure to stock-up on popcorn and adult beverages.  Both a Budget Reconciliation and the Debt Ceiling are in the on-deck circle.  I'm told it's gonna be easy peasy as Trump controls both Houses of Congress.