Please stop this train

As mentioned earlier this week, technological change is progressing rapidly and government regulation is having trouble keeping pace. But it is now clear that is not the greatest of our problems – the government itself doesn’t seem capable of keeping pace in a safe and secure manner. It added a (quite responsible) journalist to its war planning Signal chat, did not notice, did not notice when he left, and did not seem too concerned when it was brought to their attention – by the journalist.

The members of that chat have now most clearly demonstrated what we’ve known all along: they do not have the experience, patience, insight or standard of care needed to understand how to conduct government business or why details matter. They are full to the brim with arrogant highs for their ‘tech savvy chats’, flying bombs, and disdain for Europe, the public’s knowledge, and respect for law and security. And “no, no, of course not” is the response of those who should be in charge of oversight and sanctioning misuse of these unapproved communication technologies for sensitive conversations, despite a decade of bluster and false outrage about the imagined sins of her emails.

There is so much wrong with this episode of “Federal Follies, the Malignant Edition” that I cannot hit all the issues here. I don’t think i will even try; most are well-covered elsewhere. There’s not much specifically economic, though the Atlantic editor’s uncertainty about whether the chat was real or not until the bombs actually fell could clearly lead to a discussion of imperfect information and game theory. We’ve either got intense stupidity combined with unfathomable arrogance (this seems to be the angle the administration will go with) or someone on Mike Waltz’s team is sending out a call for help from inside the house. In either case, who knows what else has been/ will be leaked elsewhere and why. What a total mess.

But I have found a quite appropriate poem, written by a most appropriate poet. Follow the link on his name for more.

Signal Service
Franklin Pierce Adams

Time-table! Terrible and hard
  To figure! At some station lonely
We see this sign upon the card:
[Footnote Asterisk: Train 20: Stops on signal only.]

We read thee wrong; the untrained eye
  Does not see always with precision.
The train we thought to travel by
[Footnote Dagger: Runs only on North-west division.]

Again, undaunted, we look at
  The hieroglyphs, and as a rule a
Small double dagger shows us that
[Footnote SmallDoubleDagger: Train does not stop at Ashtabula.]

And when we take a certain line
  On Tues., Wednes., Thurs., Fri., Sat., or
    Monday,
We're certain to detect the sign:
[Footnote SectionMark: $10 extra fare ex. Sunday. ]

Heck Junction--Here she comes! Fft! Whiz!
  A scurry--and the train has flitted!
Again we look. We find it--viz.,
[Footnote DoubleBar: Train does not stop where time omitted.]

Through hieroglyphic seas we wade--
  Print is so cold and so unfeeling.
The train we wait at Neverglade
[Footnote Paragraph: Connects with C. & A. at Wheeling.]

Now hungrily the sheet we scan,
  Grimy with travel, thirsty, weary,
And then--nothing is sadder than
[Footnote PointingHand: No diner on till after Erie.]

Yet, cursed as is every sign,
  The cussedest that we can quote is
This treacherous and deadly line:
[Footnote TripleAsterisk: Subject to change without our notice.]