Conversation

DOGE is a sledge hammer crew that busts down the front door of your house and smashes everything: windows, walls, doors, ceilings, floors. Just a total demolition crew.

Then a few timid US Senators come by and say, "Gosh, we just thought they were gonna check for termites and carpenter ants. Get rid of pests. Not destroy your home!"

Assuming you have the money and can find workers and get the permits, do you know how long it takes to rebuild a house in the USA? A finished home ready to move into? Let's pretend there are no glitches and let's pretend it'll take a year. I'm being very optimistic. (Especially as we deport many of the people who work in construction).

Now wreck a government agency--NOAA, for example--with 1000s of employees, and then imagine that we decide destroying that agency was a mistake. How long will it take to rehire the fired experts? How many won't come back? How long will it take to find, train, and replace experts? How long to replace the lost databases, the institutional knowledge, the relationships with other agencies, states, international organizations, scientists, specialists. How many younger scientists will emigrate to other countries and never look back?

If replacing your busted up home might take a year, replacing the skills and knowledge, the expertise and experience of the agency will take forever. And that's the point. Even if the courts side with the people, even if Congress wakes up (fat chance!), the sledge hammers are swinging. Oh, people will say "Ooops!" and "Oh, shit! Two full passenger jets just collided! Maybe we shouldn't have fired all those FAA employees! Where did that CAT 5 hurricane come from? Why didn't we get warnings? My house got washed away in the flood. Where's FEMA?"

The 'trickle down' way of helping people was always just pissing on the poor folks. That was the trickle. Now it's just a hijacking with malice aforethought. Also known as murder. Damn.