Civil Service Reforms Can Go Too Far

Source: Show-Me Institute
by David Stokes

“Tom Pendergast (and to a lesser extent his brother, James) cast a huge shadow over Missouri government and politics, both during his life and after. His corrupt domination of Kansas City politics eventually led to numerous changes in Missouri government. These changes include the Missouri Plan for selecting judges, putting the Kansas City police under state control, and numerous civil service reforms at the state and local levels in Missouri. One of these reforms is a subject of contention right now in St. Louis.” (12/20/24)

https://showmeinstitute.org/blog/municipal-policy/civil-service-reforms-can-go-too-far/

Biden’s Unsavory Judicial Legacy

Source: Wall Street Journal
by Kimberley A Strassel

“Democrats are fist-pumping this week as Joe Biden looks poised to beat Donald Trump’s first-term record for judicial appointments. If only that number were the Biden judicial legacy to prove most lasting. The Senate was preparing on Thursday to confirm two final judges, votes that would result in Mr. Biden tallying 235 judicial picks, one more than the 234 confirmed in the first Trump term. Democrats are raving about the number and the diversity of those judges, as well as Mr. Biden’s success in flipping the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals back to a liberal majority. Republicans are consoling themselves that Mr. Biden was unable to change the ideological direction of the Supreme Court or of two other circuits that Mr. Trump remade with majorities of Republican-appointed judges. But it isn’t the numbers or the faces that will define the Biden years.” (12/20/24)

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/bidens-unsavory-judicial-legacy-courts-law-politics-0dfeb602?st=4d8at7

Trump Wants to Make Us Pay More for Oil and Gas

Source: Beat The Press
by Dean Baker

“That is the implication of his latest threatened taxes on imports. Trump issued his threat on Truth Social, where he said that he would raise our taxes on the goods we import from Europe, unless European countries agree to buy more oil and gas from the United States. If Europe were to purchase more oil and gas from the United States it would raise prices of these products here, which is presumably Trump’s intention. He apparently wants to make people in the United States pay more for our gas in our car and the fuel we use to heat our homes and provide electricity.” (12/20/24)

https://cepr.net/trump-wants-to-make-us-pay-more-for-oil-and-gas/

Both parties accuse each other of legal warfare. Who is right?

Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle

Donald Trump and his allies have long complained that the president-elect has been the victim of ‘lawfare’: lawsuits and prosecutions by political opponents looking to settle their scores in the courtroom rather than at the ballot box. Now the tables have turned. ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million to settle a suit over a broadcast in which anchor George Stephanopoulos referred to Trump as a rapist. The House GOP issued a report calling for former congresswoman Liz Cheney to be investigated for ‘potential criminal witness tampering.’ And Trump is suing Iowa pollster Ann Selzer over a poll that (erroneously) showed Vice President Kamala Harris ahead in the state, which Trump has called ‘brazen election interference.’ Are Democrats getting their just deserts?” (12/20/24)

https://archive.is/KHVLV

How Musk Out-Maneuvered Trump

Source: The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner

“Elon Musk blew up a near-complete bipartisan budget deal with an avalanche of tweets contending that it was too costly, luring Donald Trump into demanding that Republicans kill it. But Musk’s real reason was that the agreement included painstakingly negotiated limits on American tech investment in China. Had that provision passed, it would have been costly to Musk’s extensive Chinese Tesla operations and future AI plans. Between Tuesday and Thursday, the budget deal collapsed. Trump, following Musk’s lead, threw in a new demand that the deal tackle the debt ceiling, always a politically tricky vote. But neither Democrats nor Republican fiscal hawks would give Trump that.” (12/21/24)

https://prospect.org/politics/how-musk-out-maneuvered-trump-government-funding-china/

Israel, Not the “Liberators” of Damascus, Will Decide Syria’s Fate

Source: Antiwar.com
by Jonathan Cook

“During Assad’s rule, Israel chiefly rationalized its attacks on Syria – coordinating them with Russian forces supporting Damascus – as necessary to prevent the flow of weapons overland from Iran to its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah. But that is not the goal currently. HTS’s Sunni fighters have vowed to keep Iran and Hezbollah – the Shiite ‘axis of resistance’ against Israel – out of Syrian territory. Israel has prioritized instead targeting Syria’s already beleaguered military – its planes, naval ships, radars, anti-aircraft batteries and missile stockpiles – to strip the country of any offensive or defensive capability. Any hope of Syria maintaining a semblance of sovereignty is crumbling before our eyes.” (12/20/24)

https://original.antiwar.com/cook/2024/12/19/israel-not-the-liberators-of-damascus-will-decide-syrias-fate/

New Jersey Drones: Policy Follows Panic … Ineffectually

Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp

“On December 18, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an alert banning drone flights over parts of New Jersey through next January 17 for unspecified ‘Special Security Reasons.’ The unspecified actual reason is lots of people getting creeped out because they believe they’re seeing lots of drones hovering over the state at night. There’s an element of panic here, and panic tends to spread and get silly.” (12/19/24)

https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19238

The Herculean Effort to Keep Trump Happy

Source: RealClearPolitics
by Froma Harrop

“The older he gets, the bigger the baby. Donald Trump has turned the U.S. government into one giant pacifier to calm his fear of seeming less than all-powerful. Consider those billionaires now dropping bags of gold at his feet, concerned that he would use his presidential powers to hurt them. … Reputable political analysts say this executive behavior reflects alarm that Trump might try to sabotage their business and hurt their investors. Anyway, the commentators add, paying a million or two in tribute is ‘just a rounding error’ to these guys. The analysts are not wrong. More amazing is that they would calmly portray threats toward leading American enterprises — engines of the economy, creators of jobs — as something a normal president would do. Another word for this is extortion. It’s the mobster message: ‘If you don’t want trouble, you know what to do.'” (12/19/24)

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/12/19/the_herculean_effort_to_keep_trump_happy_152111.html