recently-seen interesting things

or, slowing the doomscrolling

i read an article talking about the skills gap in the great plains. as usual, people want to earn more, but lack the skills companies want; companies in turn can't find enough trained people.

( but a few states are doing something about it )

=•=•=•=

the beeb has a short article on why only the US government shuts down. shortened further, we find the key difference:

America's federal system of government allows different branches of government to be controlled by different parties. It was a structure devised by the nation's founders to encourage compromise and deliberation, but lately has had the opposite effect.

That's because in 1980, the Attorney General under President Jimmy Carter's administration issued a narrow interpretation of the 1884 Anti-Deficiency Act. The 19th Century spending law banned the government from entering into contracts without congressional approval; for almost a century, if there was a gap in budgets, the government had allowed necessary spending to continue. But after 1980, the government took a much stricter view: no budget, no spending.

That interpretation has set the US apart from other non-parliamentary democracies, such as Brazil, where a strong executive branch has the ability to keep the lights on during a budget impasse.

right: it's not a constitutional requirement, nor even a law, but merely a previous attorney general's opinion. which means, as far as I can tell, the current attorney general could simply change it back by saying he has a different opinion.