Comic Shift

This move is merely fostering inclusivity

If the past few installments to The Great Change have given you whiplash, you are not alone. I had been developing my overarching theme of climate solutions, moving from cool new technology to structural reform, when suddenly, much of what I was saying lost its urgency. As if correcting from a spin on icy roads, the blog veered from the wow factor of carbon engineering to the Teenage Ninja Muskrats. Well, at least I still have my job.

The U.S. federal government employs more than 2.3 million workers. Their total compensation makes up about 6.6 percent of the U.S. budget. If you wanted to trim one trillion dollars off the budget, you might start with some obvious pigs like the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. After two decades of cost overruns topping two trillion and change (change for trillions being counted in tens of billions), we’ve discovered that the Chinese Air Force can defeat it with a low-tech drone swarm that can be mass-produced faster than smartphones.

Shuttering the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) returned to the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) an annual budget of $823 million, less what was…