Planned Obsolescence

Plus: New York (the adult playground), almost to Mars, Elon Musk's sins, and more...

Education Secretary chosen: Yesterday, President-elect Donald Trump announced his pick for heading up the Education Department: Linda McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive who ran the Small Business Administration for a substantial portion of his first term. "We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort," says Trump, semi-acknowledging the tension between his vow to abolish the department and the fact that he just appointed its chief.

Currently, McMahon serves as chair of the America First Policy Institute, which is a think tank full of Trump-administration veterans who have been boning up on policy priorities in preparation for a second term in the White House. She and her husband, Vince, have been in charge of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) for years, and the company—under its former name—was started by the McMahon family. McMahon served on the Connecticut State Board of Education for one year, starting in 2009, but otherwise has pretty much no education experience. Maybe that's not so bad, though: Her actual views appear to be pretty aligned with Trump's, who holds plenty of views on this issue that libertarians can get behind.

McMahon is pro–charter schools and a proponent of school choice. "We must require high standards and accountability for teachers and school administrators, and I support the current review of the teacher evaluation process that the State Board is undertaking," she wrote on her campaign website in 2010, when she was running for U.S. Senate to represent Connecticut. (She was defeated.) "Apprenticeship Programs are a pathway to successful careers," wrote McMahon on X yesterday, signaling a possible priority. "Switzerland provides a model the rest of the world can adapt. They employ Apprentices in 230 Occupations and most of their CEOs were Apprentices."

Trump has claimed he wants to abolish the whole department, which he would need not only congressional approval for but, more specifically, a supermajority of senators.

But we haven't always had it, and it's not implausible that we could do away with it in the future. It was only formed in 1979, and is mostly a source of an awful lot of bureaucracy (some 4,000 employees and an almost $240 billion budget, which is small by federal government standards) as well as legitimately bad policies, like the Title IX-related changes that made way for the erosion of due process rights for men accused of rape and sexual assault on campus, which were positively altered under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos during Trump's first term. The Department purports to collect data on America's public schools, establish financial aid policies and administer those programs, and oversee programs related to disabled and ESL students, among other functions.

The "department has no constitutional business existing," writes Neal McCluskey in the latest issue of Reason. "But eliminating the programs it administers, many of which predate the department, is just as important." McMahon might be a welcome step in that direction, at least.

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Scenes from New York: From Curbed: "Large, commercial leases going to 'adults wanting to play' are 'one of the hot commodities,' says Walter Marin, an architect who is working with developers bringing a series of adult obstacle courses to the city. And a city report, issued last week, boiled changes in retail spaces since 2020 down to 'less merchandise and more experiences': luxe gyms and pickleball, escape rooms and ping-pong courts. In Hell's Kitchen last month, 80 adults in buggy, plastic VR headsets wandered around a 7,000-square-foot former BMW showroom imagining themselves in ancient Giza scaling pyramids, crawling through tunnels, and rowing down the Nile."

Look, better this than being shut-ins, but I just want to clarify that I am never leaving Queens as I am a normal God-fearing patriot slash mom who doesn't need a pickleball VR escape room.

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QUICK HITS

• Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, whom Donald Trump has tapped to serve as attorney general, was purportedly seen having sex with an underage girl at a party years ago, though the girl has testified that Gaetz did not know her age at the time. "A lawyer representing two women who testified that former Representative Matt Gaetz paid them for sex told multiple news outlets on Monday that one of the women described witnessing Mr. Gaetz having sex with an underage girl at a party in 2017," reports The New York Times. Gaetz has resigned from the House in preparation for serving as head of the Department of Justice, so Speaker Mike Johnson says the House Ethics Committee's report no longer need be released, as Gaetz is no longer in office. (Odd logic.)
• The New York Times has decided, for some reason, that Elon Musk is public enemy No. 1 and that there's no crime worse than economic development of shitty towns gentrification:

NYT on @elonmusk is so wild. His great crimes? Not enough "community outreach." And SpaceX driving housing costs up in Brownsville. And a few Bastrop residents are like "this was farmland oh no now it's not" (yeah, guess what, you're on the outskirts of *Austin* this was always… pic.twitter.com/V1QCigEWPB

— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) November 20, 2024

• "President-elect Donald Trump's dramatic search for a Treasury secretary continues as he's scheduled to hold interviews Wednesday with former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh and Apollo Global Management Inc.'s Marc Rowan, according to people familiar with the matter," reports Bloomberg.

Rowan is a perfect choice for Treasury because he has not had a single thought unrelated to markets or Hamptons restaurants in decades and in that way he's like many of us. pic.twitter.com/NkP3P0DJwB

— Will Manidis (@WillManidis) November 20, 2024

• This is very cool:

It's insane how close we are to this. Once they master orbital refueling and ship landings, there's really no reason why they can't start taking shots at Mars. Low risk, cargo only, but still. Those are the two main obstacles left, and they're quite surmountable. https://t.co/mSDkFqrSUA

— Payton Alexander (@AlexanderPayton) November 20, 2024

• Bless the biohackers, for they shall inherit the Earth (or at least give the rest of us useful information about extending health span and lifespan):

A new study is out: things that make you age faster, and slower, according to 16 epigenetic age clocks.

???? pic.twitter.com/M6ngkOKjdS

— Bryan Johnson /dd (@bryan_johnson) November 19, 2024

• Please, for the love of God, stop hiring Gen Zs and just deliver mail on time:

On the route we all fam

— U.S. Postal Service (@USPS) November 19, 2024