Short takes

Two judges have ordered more than 20,000 probationary workers rehired as of Monday, March 17.

I am trying to imagine what they will find when they get to wherever they work.

Will the building be unlocked? Many government buildings were briefly for sale, then taken off the market; there’s no way to know how much of their contents was moved or disposed of.

Will the workers have what they need? Desks, chairs, computers?

Or will they be locked out of the buildings or otherwise kept from working?

J.D. Vance does not strike me as terribly educated about music, and he has said that he doesn’t see the point of listening to classical music. (How Republican, to dismiss more than 1200 years of culture because he hasn’t heard it.) However, he and his wife showed up at the Kennedy Center and were loudly booed at a performance of classical music by the National Symphony Orchestra.

I’m only sorry the booing didn’t start earlier, and louder, and last longer. Vice presidents live lives sheltered from the opinions of those who are affected by their views; this time, at least, he got to hear some feedback.

I do not know what could possibly have been in Sen. Chuck Schumer’s mind today, when he abandoned his standing as Senate minority leader and his longstanding work with the Democratic Party to vote *with* the Republicans to advance the budget that is full of gifts for Trump and Musk and shards of broken cinders for everyone else. None of the Democratis Senators who put in long hours of work against this bill are happy, and many feel deeply betrayed. I am disappointed in him, both as a Democrat and as a former New Yorker who was represented by him for years.

Elder statesmen in politics, particularly in the Senate, generally want people to remember their actions as their legacy, what they have done that lasts. Schumer better hope this isn’t one of those actions; his name has been significantly tarnished by his vote today.