Failsafes refer to people making rational decisions in a rational process and preventing irrationality through majority vote and the friction of beuracracy keeping the train from derailing. Whoever is making the decisions right now is trying to carve glass with a sledgehammer. If they succeed, it'll be an amazing feat. If they fail, that glass sculpture is still fucked up and now someone's gotta clean up the mess. My second argument is also in reference to previous heads of other states that I don't want to bring up or name but there's a super scary, super long list of people who have fucked the world up in real bad ways. I'm trying real hard to toe the line here and not be super critical of our government and I'm failing spectacularly at it. Other people keep dropping the f-bomb, I'm pretty certain I haven't yet, but seriously. Damn.
Bannon et. al. are not acting irrationally. They're acting rashly. They're acting impetuously. They're acting amateurishly. but they ain't being irrational. Whoever is making the decisions right now is trying to open a can of beans with a scalpel. If they succeed, it'll be an amazing feat. If they fail, the scalpel won't cut much ever again. Your second argument is not an argument, it's an expression of unthinking fear. Your government is busily tearing itself apart over the civil rights of people that aren't citizens. If you aren't proud, you aren't paying attention.
I'm proud of the people at the women's march. I'm proud of the people rushing to the airports to offer legal aid, emotional support, and solidarity. I'm proud of the people determined to be vigilant day and night for the sake of their neighbors, their country, and the international community. I'm fucking terrified that any of this is happening and how much worse things could possibly get. This isn't sane and this isn't healthy and this isn't the direction I want the world to go.
Yeah but come on, of all the agencies to go rogue you just knew the Forest Service would be somewhere near the top of that list. At least given my encounters with Forest Rangers and the like.
Yeah but come on, of all the agencies that could possibly go political you cannot tell me that the Forest Service was on the short list. My great aunt Marge was a staunch Republican who, for 30 years, ran the FDR memorial in upstate New York. Generally they're above this sort of thing.