At this rate he might actually be serious about calling the Proud Boys in as his personal guard
Meanwhile, the opposition party are doing what to curtail what is clearly a modern coup? I know Bernieâs been talking up a storm, but as your rightful president, nobody ever seems to want to get on board with him about being truthful and honest about the problems the country actually faces.
Itâs hard to keep track of all this as an outsider looking in, I canât imagine how confusing it must be for those on the ground floor such as yourself.
Iâve found legal eagle and leeja miller videos helpful for keeping track of the nuance and legal insanity of the whole thing as a European. The comedy slant of a YouTube video journalist always helps soothe the chaos a little too, I donât think I could digest the current news stream from a straight man in a suit.
Youâll find no greater den of scum and adolescents
It has happened before. People seem to forget. Or maybe they just have blind faith. There are some words I heard repeatedly over the last year. Do not trust in a system simply because it has existed for so long. They can and do fall.
You know, I look at DOGE, and I think âdisposableâ. From Trumpâs point of view, Musk included.
If, by some accident, DOGE achieves its aims without causing absolute disaster, Trump will take the credit. If, as seems likely, the actions of DOGE result in millions on the breadline, street riots, and extreme violence from the authorities in a desperate attempt to maintain order, then Trump will throw Musk and his pals under a bus - with possible criminal charges added.
What I donât get in this whole thing⌠The president doesnât make the budget, as far as I know. ANd then, the budget needs to get aproved by the senate, and thatâs basically turned into a traditional standoff between the parties at the end of the year. And the budget for this year was already made. Sooooo⌠How can they just suddenly change it on a whim?
Thatâs a dangerous line of thought, though. With the authority that DOGE has right now, Musk can essentially confront the government with âquos testiculos habesâ.
For a period of time, they had the rights to modify the code of the treasury system. If they left a back door in there that canât be found, Musk can shut down the government in a heartbeat. Or just transfer all the governments money to himself.
It might seem preposterous, but if heâs half as clever as he wants us to think, and as ruthless as he currently appears to be, he is by now in a position to execute a coup whenever he feels like it.
This is why all of this matters so much.
The voters thought, ok, he has some crazy far-flung ideas. But we have checks and balances. Congress will stop him from carrying out all these extreme ideas.
People were warned. Do not trust the system simply because it has existed for so long. They can and do fail.
This is proving to be true.
Trump is breaking laws and showing he has no regard for civil rights, worker protection, the list goes on. And he is leaving no protections for anyone to run to because he is dismanteling one government agency after another with 100s of 1000s being laid off across all agencies.
And one thing Trump knows better than anyone; turning to the courts for a decision takes years.
This is why the flurry of activity. Hit hard. Hit fast. By the time any part of the system that still remains can respond, he will have finished the task of gutting the entire thing.
We are seeing one of the biggest criminal gangs in history in action. There is no transparency. The agencies that would provide that, are gutted.
The Democrats showed up and found themselves locked out of Federal buildings. Unable to see what was happening.
Associated Press was barred from the White House because they refuse to print Gulf of America.
Rights? Checks and balances? Transparency? Things of the past.
And still, the majority of people blindly believe that it is going to somehow make everything better BUTâŚreality is slowly catching up.
Investors are largely ignoring tariffs. Investors now see them as a bargaining tool to put pressure and not something he intends to inact long term. So they say, bluster. Pushover. Offer him anything in return and they go away.
Inflation just rose yet again.
Prices are climbing higher.
There is real fear of stagflation which is the worst scenario a country could face. High prices and no growth.
Consumer spending has plunged yet again.
EV makers are foretelling 1000s of layoffs.
Jobs are being lost.
And now, in a turn-about-is-fair-play move, the stickers we saw on gas pumps of Biden saying âI did thatâ, with his hand pointed at the gas price, are now showing up with Trumpâs picture and his hand pointing at egg prices.
There are a lot of protests going on. The media just is not covering them.
Checks and balances? Nope. Laws? No time and no one to enforce them.
He put his people over every agency.
They all answer to him.
This is a man who has never had to answer for anything he has ever done. He came to office to see to it he never does.
Well, perhaps by administrative trickery. But what Musk doesnât have is key supporters carefully planted throughout key areas of government and the judiciary - which Trump does. He doesnât have an electoral mandate - which Trump does, and perhaps most importantly, he doesnât have hundreds of thousands of heavily armed lunatics ready to hit the streets - which, as we saw at the Capitol riots, Trump also does.
Itâs one thing to declare a coup on paper. Itâs quite another to have the muscle to make it stick.
So⌠if I get that right, his current strategy is to just put new bosses in the agencies (which he has the authority to do), and they then go on to dismantle the agency (which they now have the authority to do)? Is that about it?
Itâs a bit more than that. If that system goes down, the government is insolvent. The consequences of that are rather far-reaching.
Iâm not sure now that weâre talking about the same thing, I took your post to suggest that Musk was intent on taking power for himself, rather than acting as Trumpâs back-room agent. And my reply was addressed to that premise - i.e. itâs technically possible, but Musk doesnât have the popular support. Having brains and technical skill wonât help if an angry mob tears your head off.
Hmmm, no, I actually wouldnât expect that. But I would definitely expect him to have left⌠insurance in that system since he had the oportunity. And âAll I have to do is press that button and all your money goes to my bank account, and you might not survive long enough to get it backâ seems pretty powerful insurance to meâŚ
The difference with this admin over the past ones, yes they can put their own people in charge over all the agencies, but usually you have a very vigorous vetting system where people are thoroughly checked to see if they are ethical in their views and actions. That has not really happened because Republicans have the upper hand and enough votes to clear these people.
Trump had 4 years and a lot of help to work this all out.
The only fallback the Democrats have to stall any of this is a government shutdown. There is a possible one next month. But I wonât hold my breath over it since there is talk of changes and whatnot that may allow the government to bypass and change so many of these long-standing rules, it could all be changed by then.
An interesting thing happened yesterday. Putin was talking about the US government in his own country. And even he said the woman in charge of the FBI should cause all of America to be very worried. I wonder what he knowsâŚ
you now understand