The government of the United States is like a long-running legacy computer system.
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The government of the United States is like a long-running legacy computer system. It's 235 years of hot-fixes stacked on top of each other. Dig into the stack, and you will find forgotten relics.
Example. In the beginning, the US did not have an army. The states all had their own militias.
This turned out to be a bad plan for lots of reasons. So over time, state militias gradually got federalized. Today they are the National Guard.
But! Lots of states just ADDED a National Guard; it didn't replace the old militia. 20 states still have militias that report only to their governor.
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by [email protected]
Old relics tend to wither, even if they never die. But the problem with leaving them around is that eventually someone with bad intentions might find a use for them. It's like leaving loaded guns lying around on the floor.
In Florida, for instance, noted evil goblin man and Governor Ron DeSantis made news recently by attempting to revive Florida's State Guard (its ancient, moribund militia, disbanded in 1947) as his own private army.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/15/us/florida-state-guard-desantis.html
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Adrian Cochranereplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
@jalefkowit You're reminding me of a similar joke for the British:
"What does this 'Monarch' piece do?"
"Nothing anymore, but everything's tied into it so we're afraid to remove it." -
Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Adrian Cochrane last edited by
@alcinnz Britain's been doing the same thing for so much longer that nobody even remembers what some of the hotfixes were supposed to do anymore. The release notes were lost long ago
