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

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.

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.

And he has all sorts of business dealings with foreign governments that make him a security risk in a bunch of different ways. He's not the boss of a single person in the federal government. I can't believe there won't be some kind of legal challenge to his status.

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.

Oh they will definitely eventually fail. Probably multiple times in multiple ways. That doesn't mean they won't do a lot of bad things, but nothing about this current shitstorm is remotely sustainable.

I mean, believing that Musk and Trump have either the capacity or frankly the attention span to shape a functioning, sustainable autocratic state is at odds with what we know from experience with both of them.

I need musk to vacate the premises. It’s one thing to watch rump and his homies do their thing but that nazi clown needs to be put back where he belongs in the private sector. I would prefer he melt but that’s tbd.

https://scontent-lga3-3.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/475757363_10161489258458095_3842773108521414284_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=j0hI3i5Ut6EQ7kNvgGUDv3T&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-3.xx&_nc_gid=A_ybm5L-4DdxUT194z1Zd9Y&oh=00_AYDOc3LPfNb12HWyk94l2AZW_IECxqIPbrCK23n64SvlOQ&oe=67A5EF81

so one theory is that trump is setting up musk as the "fall guy" in case the plan to build a dictatorship fails.

however, this seems weird as putting musk in charge of so much makes trump look weak. it would especially be true if trump tries to argue that musk was responsible for driving the big initiatives at the beginning of the administration.

I need musk to vacate the premises.

Wait till he or one of his manchild lackeys accidentally or deliberately causes the federal government to miss a payment to Raytheon or Blackwater. He'll vacate the fuckin' earth.

I saw that Musk ceased payments to government contractors as of today, so curious to see how well that pans out for him. what kinds of contractors I don't know.

i'm not a lawyer but he quite literally is not allowed to do that

Ha, headlines say that he is ceasing all contractor payments, but he's not ceasing payments to himself or to any military contractors but he did, based upon advice from felon and retired lt general Michael Flynn shut down payments by the US Department of Health and Human Services to Lutheran Family Services, a faith-based charity that has been providing social services to refugees.

of course he isn't ceasing payments to himself

at what point do americans start the well armed militia thing

i'm not a lawyer but he quite literally is not allowed to do that

― treeship., Sunday, February 2, 2025

It doesn't matter if he is allowed to do that, he's doing it and nobody is going to stop him, and by the way he is never going to jail

We have let arsonists take over our government. All of my rich republican friends assured me that Trump wasn't going to start trade wars, that it was all a bluff, and that lower tax rates on capital gains would be good for them etc. Even non-rich people like my sister and her husband bought into that. My sister sat across the sofa from me last fall and was so sure that his tariffs were a bluff, that they would never be imposed

the well armed militia thing

um, that's supposed to be well-trained militia

honestly I thought the same thing, like this is what he does, I figured the endgame was him implementing then pulling the tariffs because Mexico agreed to hire a few more border cops or whatever, then prices come down and he gets to brag about how he Art of the Deal'd away fentaynl (as it kills more teenagers than ever), it works because the media falls for this shit hook line and sinker, that said if that was the plan he wouldn't be doing this with 3 countries at once, kinda think there really is no plan here

Xxxpost to that ezraklein article:
Speed and force are 100% a strategy unto themselves.
Maybe unsustainable long term, but by then the situation has changed, and the damage has been done...
They don't require a coherent long term strategy because they're not trying to build anything.
They just want to wreck shit, hurt people and steal money.
As somebody said upthread, it's a school shooter mentality.

sink the US into a Depression and then claim that he needs a third term so he can solve it

Luigi Natione

how many more years do we think this guy has left? hes 78 and has spent every single day the last 9 years cranked out and angry

Ppl kept saying that during the ny trial but

sabrina carpenter just won best pop vocal album. i felt like you all should know.

I would even settle for a well-dressed militia

sure but he's very visibly deteriorated over the years, he is clearly not the same guy he was in 2016 or even 2020

Sabrina Carpenter/Chappell Roan 2028

frogbs: this has been a recurring theme on ilx, wishing/hoping he would die, but bad people like him aren't going to die on our schedule so let's stop speculating

you can say that about Musk too, I don't think he ever came across as smart exactly and his public speaking skills have always sucked but he wasn't different from most techbros - good at bullshitting and saying things that seemprofound if you don't think about them too much, now he has the sort of energy I recognize from meth heads who are a week out from overdosing or getting arrested

you guys. beyonce. best country album.

They don't require a coherent long term strategy because they're not trying to build anything.
They just want to wreck shit, hurt people and steal money.
As somebody said upthread, it's a school shooter mentality.

― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Sunday, February 2, 2025 8:36 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i don't think trump believes this is what he is doing.

do any of you think that fascism is actually coming, is close, already arrived? i'm not sure what people think it looks like, but when it's "how is he doing it? that's not allowed! that's clearly against the law!" and it keeps happening and no one seems to be in a position to put up effective opposition, and people who oppose these things within the government get removed. i'm not saying anyone here is a perpetual eyeroller of "fascism", but a lot of people are, and i think the time is past to make an adjustment

any chance of a military coup?

to make a similar sweeping statement, i think it's not surprising that schumer et al aren't doing anything and have no effective message - they are out of new ideas. they are stuck somewhere, i don't know where, but not here. there are different ideas on the left, but they're not acceptable to the upper-middle and above class liberals who make up the bulk of the party and their voters because they involve moving on from capitalism and endless growth

sabrina carpenter just won best pop vocal album. i felt like you all should know.

No trophies for art.

it would be nice if a MSM outlet would call out the illegality of this shit this week

MSNBC does. All the time. They've devoted 10 years to documenting Trump's crimes.

yeah i don't think trump has gotten a free pass from the media, overall. he just built power regardless.

i think it's not surprising that schumer et al aren't doing anything and have no effective message - they are out of new ideas. they are stuck somewhere, i don't know where, but not here. there are different ideas on the left, but they're not acceptable to the upper-middle and above class liberals who make up the bulk of the party and their voters because they involve moving on from capitalism and endless growth

it's not surprising because their portfolios will profit handsomely from the boots on our necks.

Except for about 20 mins on Chris Hayes' segment, MSNBC devotes more time to Trump's perfidies than, no surprise, progressive policy.

https://newrepublic.com/post/190784/trump-lawsuit-funneling-info-federal-workers-elon-musk

This lawsuit was filed against Musk earlier this week but it has gotten little attention and no judge has issued a temporary restraining order against Musk. In the spending freeze case at least 2 judges granted tro's.

Scott, looks like no one at the Grammys has had the courage to speak out about Trump or Musk. The Grammys are on CBS whose corporate owner is trying to work out a settlement with Trump over some ridiculous lawsuit he filed against them. The owner of CBS wants to merge with another company and thus is bending the knee

A group of about eight DOGE officials entered the USAID building Saturday and demanded access to every door and floor, despite only a few of them having security clearance, according to a Senate Democratic staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the incident.

When USAID personnel attempted to block access to some areas, DOGE officials threatened to call federal marshals, the aide said. The DOGE officials were eventually given access to “secure spaces” including the security office.

The Senate staffer also said top officials from USAID’s office and the bulk of the staff in USAID’s Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs were put on leave later Saturday. Some of them were not notified but had their access to agency terminals suspended.

Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for DOGE, said on X that “no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.”

i'm having that unsettling feeling where i keep forgetting that doge is a joke about dogecoin, which is a cryptocurrency which is itself a joke about how things of utter nonsubstance have value if you will it into existence with your techbros and money you got from your dad

no. there has been no politics tonight. other than a black woman winning best country album.

x-post

Oh and the lawsuit I mentioned was filed against the Trump administration for giving info to a Musk company employee. I misstated it above.