There was a thing on the news ... last night? sometime recently ... about the online application for a job with the new administration. It's multiple pages, some 63 questions, and they go into a lot of detail. Now ... there have been complaints about it infringing on applicants' privacy but it occurs to me that it's probably a good way to avoid embarrassing information coming out later. And the plum book's out, if anyone's interested.

If you watch Reagan-era SNL, all the jokes are about how he can't remember anything and/or has no idea what's going on around him. It's kind of creepy in retrospect.

Yeah it was noticed. Thatcher comment about him was: "Poor dear, there's nothing between his ears". Aside from right wing pushback, Reagan was famous for ignorance and outrageous lies long before he showed any Alzheimer's symptoms. So the Alzheimer's lapses were not that out of line with Reagan in peak mental health. Which goes back to the point that we've had plenty of Presidents and Vice Presidents who were not qualified to run a lemonade stand. The awfulness of the Bush years did not come just from unique evil and stupidity on the part the administration. It came in part from a shell-shocked opposition who never stood up to it the way it could have even as a minority party, and certainly never made full use of the power it had when it took control of Congress in the past two years.

OTOH, I didn't realize that the president elect had to fund his transition. I would think it would be in the best interests of the country to make sure a transition went smoothly.

Congress funds it, but the funding level was set some decades ago IIRC, and is not adjusted for inflation, so it taps out at 5 million and change.

ETA: Funding level was set at $5 mil in 1988 and the only adjustment since then was the addition of a few hundred thousand directed specifically for training.

Aside from right wing pushback, Reagan was famous for ignorance and outrageous lies long before he showed any Alzheimer's symptoms.

I seem to recall a penchant for great anecdotes that had no basis in reality.

I was looking at the plum book yesterday. I would be really interested in a low-level secretarial job, but nsm moving to DC.

I guess Joe the Plumber is sort of the modern anecdote with no basis in reality.

I seem to recall a penchant for great anecdotes that had no basis in reality.

Or were actually stuff from movies he'd been in (including his time in the military).

I seem to recall a penchant for great anecdotes that had no basis in reality.

That's what was so great about them.

IOW, to paraphrase Rove, Reagan proved that reality doesn't matter.

Well, except for the reality hangover we're currently in.

I think by law they can't use any campaign money towards the transition, though.

Huh. I think that's weird.