Turning On The Giant Faucet Of Bullshit - US Politics February 2025

I think the point of all this is to have direct say or what does or doesn't get paid for, what gets taxed. This gives him the power to force orgs, states, other countries to knuckle under in a show of subservience. We'll see if this actually works or just pisses off lots of people while crashing the economy.

direct say *over

xp has anybody that was ever involved with trump not ended up the fall guy ultimately?

I dont think Trump really gives a fuck about anything anymore.

His brain is pudding. "Donald Trump," cognitively speaking, is a collection of about a dozen misremembered 19th century economic and racial doctrines, endlessly repeated placeholder phrases ("like no one's ever seen before") and personal grudges he wants to use state power to avenge.

Glad I bought a car last year. People who want to buy one this year are gonna be fucked with a capital F.

Trump letting Musk take the fall if things turn sour is plausible enough, but right now it's just another fond wish located in an imaginary future. It's becoming clear that the current assault by Musk and DOGE is an attempt to seize as many nodes of power in the government as possible and cripple their ability to serve as instruments that could used by the opposition for impeding Trump's government by decree. He's not going to abandon that effort until he feels cornered.

Why is musk doing this

He was once liked

Schumer on X and Bluesky keeps mentioning some of the bad stuff happening, but he never really says what he is gonna do. Dems could at least be trying to slow things down in Congress, trying to determine who has standing to possibly challenge Musk actions in court, but I haven't seen many actions other than by the 22 states who challenged the spending freeze in several courts.

Calling out Trump as bad or stupid to those who already know that is not enough to help out the federal government employees losing their jobs or being placed on administrative leave, it's not enough to restore malaria and HIV medications to folks around the world . Maybe there isn't much Schumer can do, but I would like to see he and Jeffries trying. Also Maga is being told that Musk and Trump are getting rid of woke stuff that is a waste of money, while they're planning in the upcoming reconciliation bill to cut taxes and regulation by massive amounts for rich people and corporations .

While some are moving on to the tariffs stuff, Trump (no matter how dumb he may be) is stillenabling stuff like the following re dei at the Dept of education -

But according to interviews with those placed on leave and people familiar with the notifications, the department appeared to have cast a wide net, suspending people whose job titles and official duties had no connection to D.E.I., and whose only apparent exposure to D.E.I. initiatives came in the form of trainings encouraged by their managers. One of the training workshops that employees speculated may have led to their being flagged took place more than nine years ago.

Hopefully union lawyers can try to oppose these things, but it would be nice to know that Schumer and Jeffries are supporting the unions and helping them bring legal actions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/us/politics/trump-dei-education-department.html

Maybe there isn't much Schumer can do, but I would like to see he and Jeffries trying.

But...it's the weekend! Check back on Monday afternoon (seriously, they're OOO until 3 PM ET tomorrow).

I realize that it’s hard to take advice or comfort from Ezra Klein, but I do think he’s right about this:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-trump-column-read.html?unlocked_article_code=1.t04.BACp.b8IuPSbMH4kp&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

If Trump tried to pass this agenda as legislation, it would most likely fail in the House, and it would certainly die before the filibuster in the Senate. And that would make Trump look weak. Trump does not want to look weak. He remembers John McCain humiliating him in his first term by casting the deciding vote against Obamacare repeal.

That is the tension at the heart of Trump’s whole strategy: Trump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern like a president. He is trying to substitute perception for reality. He is hoping that perception then becomes reality. That can only happen if we believe him.

The flurry of activity is meant to suggest the existence of a plan. The Trump team wants it known that they’re ready this time. They will control events rather than be controlled by them. The closer you look, the less true that seems. They are scrambling and flailing already.

… What Trump wants you to see in all this activity is command. What is really in all this activity is chaos. They do not have some secret reservoir of focus and attention the rest of us do not. They have convinced themselves that speed and force is a strategy unto itself — that it is, in a sense, a replacement for a real strategy. Don’t believe them.

rump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern like a president.

otm

I don't see scrambling and flailing yet tho

He offers some examples but also assumes more will be evident soon.

I don't see scrambling and flailing yet tho

Or failure.

We are in an era of lawlessness. Not criminality — lawlessness. The law, as written on paper, no longer matters, because the response to "You can't do that!" has become "Fuck you, stop me," and the response to "You must do this" has become "Fuck you, make me."

^^ sadly otm rn

idk, a whole lot of these things will fail, and/or will be significantly curtailed. It's just that the mechanisms for that — primarily through the courts, but also through other institutions — move a lot more slowly than the blizzard of executive orders.

Trump is not following the "norms" or the constitution and he's getting away with it and praised by MAGA, no matter whether his real reasons are being afraid of being humiliated by a US senator or 12 degree chess. He's got enough supporters thinking he is showing that he is in command, and there's not a strong enough media or opposition party that is challenging him.

And Trump has lots of judges in the courts who can help him

Maybe. I'm not persuaded. I do think he's weaker than he looks.

A lot of autocrats come into power, immediately start doing a terrible job, tank the economy, take a big hit in popularity, cant get any of their agenda off the ground… and still remain in power for a good long time through various combinations of coercion, corruption, inertia, and force. In fact thats usually the norm, not the exception. Im nit seeing any evidence that this will be any different

Like, most autocrats are “weak”. Thats why they have to do what they do the way that they do it

I wish I had your confidence.

i think so much of this is powered by Trump, if he dies or becomes thoroughly incapacitated and it's JD Vance who's owning the libs by doing this bullshit i think much of the uh "charm" of this con largely evaporates.

at least that's what i cling too sometimes tbh

I do think he's weaker than he looks.

He's far too weak to accomplish much within the legal limitations of his office. The difficulty here is that Trump's greatest strength is the weakness and fragmentation of the forces arrayed against him. He is daring his opposition to force him act within the law. It's the job of Congress and the courts to act as the brakes on his government-by-decree and it ought to be in their glaringly obvious self-interest, because once Trump is a law unto himself they lose their power and very reason for existing, they've cut their own throats and occupy empty offices empty of authority.

what's happening to USAID is a disgrace

xxp No I agree w/you curmudgeon, I am very pessimistic. I think he's "weak" in the same way Putin is weak - whether he's popular or flailing or effective or hated is beside the point imo bc he and his cabal are not going to give up the reigns of power voluntarily now that they are in control

sorry i'll stop dooming on this thread now. its been a tough weekend.

To be clear I'm not sanguine about the damage Trump is already doing and the further damage he can and will do. There are plenty of things that are clearly in his power, and plenty of other things courts may let him get away with. But this shock-and-awe blizzard is intended to stun people into inaction or capitulation by creating an appearance of essentially an authoritarian takeover of the entire government. And a significant amount of that is just bluster and air. Check back in six months and see if he seems stronger or weaker than he did on Jan. 31.

Do Schumer and Jeffries have a qualified media communications staff that can counter the Trump take on podcasts, social media, mainstream media, and also getting on Fox News to try to make those in the right wing bubble at least be aware of contrary arguments?

if anyone has seen their social media posts over the past week, the answer is 'absolutely not'. Jeffries bascially waved his fucking hands in the air and said 'thoughs and prayers' and Schumer spent yesterday posting on bsky (and maybe elsewhere) 'well things are going to be more expensive now'.

No idea if there was Dem presence on sunday news media (or if sunday morning news media even matters anymore).

I liked the ezra piece.

primarily through the courts

How many divisions has the Pope? Etc.

But I can see merit in the Kleinian view here

One of my wife’s best friends works for USAID and it is not good, to say the least.

A lot of autocrats come into power, immediately start doing a terrible job, tank the economy, take a big hit in popularity, cant get any of their agenda off the ground… and still remain in power for a good long time t

How many of these autocrats came into power in a robust and longstanding federal republic? It's going to be a struggle to draw meaningful parallels between Falangist Spain or Peronist Argentina here.

Yeah. We can argue in good faith about the weakness of our institutions and how well they can stand successive blows like this, but Falangist Spain and Peronist Argentina were in far more doleful conditions than we are.

NO disrespect meant but... you sure?

Spain was in a civil war and a military coup installed Perón. But ymmv!

Can’t speak for Argentina, but unlike Falangist Spain we did not just go through a five-year bloody civil war in the middle of a world economic depression nor are there is a Cold War anymore that let the US prop Francisco Franco up as an anti communist bulwark

otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETC9cbIoIxk

"WIRED has identified six young men—all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24, according to public databases, their online presences, and other records—who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles in Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, tasked by executive order with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” The engineers all hold nebulous job titles within DOGE, and at least one appears to be working as a volunteer."

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-government-young-engineers/

white tech bros

Spain was in a civil war and a military coup installed Perón. But ymmv!

But but but Americans had to pay little more for groceries and (briefly) gas, plus they had to stay inside in their homes for varying durations of time almost 5 years ago, which in their eyes is a bigger tragedy than those things put together.

It's nuts that this same crybaby contingent is a-ok with Musk/Trump saying things <might> be hard for a little while.

More reasons I don’t share the confidence that some upthread expressed re stopping Trump and Musk-

The two top security officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development were put on administrative leave on Saturday night after refusing to give representatives of Elon Musk access to internal systems, according to three U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/us/politics/usaid-official-leave-musk.html?unlocked_article_code=1.t04.aird.4eZYva313dtC&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Ok... as much as it grieves me, I'm afraid you leave me no choice - I admit it! The comparisons between 2025 USA and Falangist Spain and Peronist Argentina are limited! And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids.....

curmudgeon, I've read all the stories you've posted and we always need palliatives.

Re Sting

I hope the tech bros love their children too

Stopping Trump and Musk in the near term isn't in the cards, they have control of the government and courts. They don't have popular support, they don't control state governments, they'd have a helluva time remaking the military in 2-4 years. What Is To Be Done is the same answer as ever - civil disobedience, labor organizing, mutual aid.

Hegseth may not last two or three months

How does Musk have control of jack shit? He’s not an elected official and he does not hold a recognized position in the government.

Ok, being optimistic that Trump and Musk will eventually fail may help relieve your pain symptoms here, but for others like me your palliative care is not working and is making me feel worse . Maybe I am wrong and / or there is no right or wrong and we all have to deal with this via our own approaches which I guess may be what you are saying.

I mean, as one of the few queer brown people on ILX living in one of the reddest parts of Miami-Dade and programmed as I am, I can't despair.