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Jesse Tarbert

@jessetarbert.bsky.social

writer / researcher / historian in Washington DC. www.jessetarbert.com Studying the civil service, racism, antigovernment politics. Wrote a book: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/when-good-government-meant-big-government/9780231189736

223 Followers  |  231 Following  |  44 Posts  |  Joined: 21.09.2023  |  2.2199

Latest posts by jessetarbert.bsky.social on Bluesky

CBS News: Some NYPD officers worry about Mandani becoming NYC mayor the Free Press reports.

CBS News: Some NYPD officers worry about Mandani becoming NYC mayor the Free Press reports.

Promoting the editor-in-chief's personal side project. Zero named sources in a story that promotes the editor-in-chief's personal political position. Misspelling the subject's name. It took one day for CBS News to become a conservative blog.

www.cbsnews.com/video/some-n...

13.10.2025 16:02 β€” πŸ‘ 6026    πŸ” 1822    πŸ’¬ 158    πŸ“Œ 174

In Boston, no less

12.10.2025 23:40 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Happy Birthday! (It’s my birthday too!)

08.09.2025 13:02 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

So, historically speaking, in addition to just being stupid, Trump's plan to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War is essentially a big F-U to the Navy and the other service branches.

02.09.2025 12:39 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

It would take 26 years, WW2, and the start of the Cold War for reformers to overcome that resistance.

02.09.2025 12:37 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

In 1921, the Harding administration proposed creating a new "Department of Defense" by merging the Dept of War (also known as "the Army") with the Dept of the Navy. However, the idea was quickly dropped because partisans of the Navy feared that the Army would dominate in the new organization.

02.09.2025 12:33 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Are there any Dem senators physically capable of this?

29.06.2025 00:47 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
George H. W. Bush And Ronald Reagan Debate On Immigration In 1980 | TIME
YouTube video by TIME George H. W. Bush And Ronald Reagan Debate On Immigration In 1980 | TIME

Worth rewatching this if you've seen it before, and watching if you have not seen it. Any discussion of the Democrats' supposed leftward lurch should include this as context. Reagan and Bush were to "the left" of most elected Democrats today on immigration

youtu.be/YsmgPp_nlok?...

27.06.2025 14:12 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Can none of these guys even read Wikipedia? In 1947, the Department of War (also called "the Army") was split into the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force. Those departments, with the Department of the Navy, were then placed under a new department, the Department of Defense.

25.06.2025 20:21 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I wonder if the Foreign Policy Establishment types who turned against Biden after the Afghanistan withdrawal are having any regrets

17.06.2025 18:41 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Bob Costas Condemns Mainstream Press for Doing β€˜MAGA Media’: β€˜There Really Isn’t Two Sides’ Legendary sportscaster Bob Costas blasted the media over its handling of President Donald Trump'sΒ second term during an awards ceremony on Monday night. The post Bob Costas Condemns Mainstream Press for Doing β€˜MAGA Media’: β€˜There Really Isn’t Two Sides’ first appeared on Mediaite.

Bob Costas Condemns Mainstream Press for Doing β€˜MAGA Media’: β€˜There Really Isn’t Two Sides’

10.06.2025 12:47 β€” πŸ‘ 2647    πŸ” 534    πŸ’¬ 43    πŸ“Œ 39

Some of y’all can’t handle 2 high agency males going at it and it really shows

06.06.2025 13:11 β€” πŸ‘ 1307    πŸ” 86    πŸ’¬ 62    πŸ“Œ 126
Preview
A Fatal Tesla Crash Shows the Limits of Full Self-Driving As Elon Musk touts robotaxis in Austin, federal regulators are investigating whether Tesla’s system is dangerous even with a human behind the wheel.

BIG doc score by @danahull.bsky.social

@bloomberg.com is publishing photos & partial footage of a fatal Tesla crash, which was recorded by the Model Y and downloaded by police, for the 1st time after obtaining the images & video through a public records request
www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

05.06.2025 03:37 β€” πŸ‘ 122    πŸ” 64    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 2

Supreme news judgement on display here. Maybe, in some ways.

28.05.2025 11:27 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Open AI’s valuation is at $400 billion. They used about 190,000 books to train their plagiarism bot. Randomly saying 25% of their value comes from that stolen dataset, I think they owe the authors about $526,000 per stolen book.

27.05.2025 10:28 β€” πŸ‘ 2615    πŸ” 851    πŸ’¬ 57    πŸ“Œ 137

What does it mean to move β€œright” on immigration? Offer govt services to undocumented a la Reagan and Bush circa 1980 primary? Remove all govt oversight and let the free market decide?

21.05.2025 14:04 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Rubio had decreed that certain critical programs β€” such as aid to Ukraine and Syria and costs related to the PEPFAR program to combat HIV in Africa β€” would continue to be funded. Several times, USAID managers prepared packages of these payments and got the agency’s interim leaders to sign off on them with support from the White House. But each time, using their new gatekeeping powers and clearly acting on orders from Musk or one of his lieutenants, Farritor and Kliger would veto the payments β€” a process that required them to manually check boxes in the payment system one at a time, the same tedious way you probably pay your bills online. Meanwhile, AIDS clinics shuttered and staff found themselves stranded in unstable countries such as Congo. A pregnant woman in an undisclosed country has sued the Trump administration because she was denied a medevac helicopter. In another case, I was told, an employee in southern Africa who needed chemotherapy was also denied a chopper because no one would authorize the money.

Rubio had decreed that certain critical programs β€” such as aid to Ukraine and Syria and costs related to the PEPFAR program to combat HIV in Africa β€” would continue to be funded. Several times, USAID managers prepared packages of these payments and got the agency’s interim leaders to sign off on them with support from the White House. But each time, using their new gatekeeping powers and clearly acting on orders from Musk or one of his lieutenants, Farritor and Kliger would veto the payments β€” a process that required them to manually check boxes in the payment system one at a time, the same tedious way you probably pay your bills online. Meanwhile, AIDS clinics shuttered and staff found themselves stranded in unstable countries such as Congo. A pregnant woman in an undisclosed country has sued the Trump administration because she was denied a medevac helicopter. In another case, I was told, an employee in southern Africa who needed chemotherapy was also denied a chopper because no one would authorize the money.

Much of what DOGE is doing is illegal. Much of it will create long-term and lasting damage to America. This is the clearest example of an action that was illegal, anti-democratic, but also sped past any moral grey zones to being deeply evil.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/what-doge-...

17.05.2025 16:48 β€” πŸ‘ 1070    πŸ” 359    πŸ’¬ 29    πŸ“Œ 9

The President of the United States is making economic policy judgments based on his own experience with his spoiled super-rich grandchildren

04.05.2025 19:31 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

In the U.S. in 1825, *452* out of 1000 children born died before their 5th birthday.

By 1925, that number was 135 out of a 1000 children.

Today, in 2025, that number is *7*

And it is entirely due to advances in medicine, public health, and technology.

9/

26.04.2025 01:35 β€” πŸ‘ 5374    πŸ” 1353    πŸ’¬ 45    πŸ“Œ 74

I now believe that some of my problems in later life are due to food dye in the heroin I was consuming for 20 years.

by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

30.04.2025 19:46 β€” πŸ‘ 6345    πŸ” 1063    πŸ’¬ 130    πŸ“Œ 37

I thought β€œI know … where I’m going” was a clue, haha!

Btw, I nearly fell over when you explained that Shortnin Bread was a β€œpig-killing song” in the last episode. So good

21.04.2025 02:19 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Roud #5701?

21.04.2025 01:26 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
No free government can survive that

No free government can survive that

is not based on the supremacy of law

is not based on the supremacy of law

Saw some resistance graffiti, carved into stone on the Department of Justice building

15.04.2025 20:48 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

It’s called sports

07.04.2025 18:01 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

It’s called sports

07.04.2025 18:01 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

One reason they established a national income tax was that they realized that relying too much on tariffs ends up leading to corruption!

(Which is of course why Trump and his allies like tariffs)

02.04.2025 20:51 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

One reason they established a national income tax was that they realized that relying too much on tariffs ends up leading to corruption!

(Which is of course why Trump and his allies like tariffs)

02.04.2025 20:51 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

When did they start with this β€œDepartment of War” business? Do they think that we just renamed it because of woke or something? (Note: the DoD is in fact *not* the same organization as the Department if War)

31.03.2025 02:42 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

In the debates about national budget system in 1919-21, Taft himself favored the bill calling for an independent auditor

07.03.2025 12:29 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

and experienced. The guy was assistant secretary of the Navy during World War One!

01.03.2025 19:11 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

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