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

Re: courts, it would be different if there were such a thing as the judicial police that could go arrest people. Not so great when you tell the executive to arrest itself and it says "no, I don't think I will."

Congress at least has the sergeant at arms. Which I must admit would be a badass mid-tier action movie. (Teal and orange poster.

Starring I dunno Aaron Eckhart as... the Sergeant at Arms. His buff actual arms showing a tattoo of the Capitol dome, cradling a machine gun. Tagline: "He's Gonna Get Legislative on Your Ass."

Sidekick: Alison Brie as... The Parliamentarian. She takes off her glasses and loosens her bun when shit goes down. Comic relief character is a pot-smoking IT guy they call "Joint Session." Played by I guess Kal Penn.

Trump only ever turns on ppl less rich than him. he is awed by Elon the same way he is with Putin, the whole reason he got into this is to get the respect of people like that. imo he'd be happy to let Elon be acting president going forward as long as Elon pats him on the back once in a while

The whole thing with Trump turning on people because he gets jealous of the attention only ever happens with people Trump thinks he is superior to. He definitely does not think that about Elon, because Elon is richer than him.

In terms of Trump and Elon, we should in no way rule out the possibility of straightforward bribery. It would be nothing for Elon to have had a conversation during the transition, with a promised payout per year in exchange for various things. Whatever Trump‘s actual net worth is, I’m pretty sure a $5 or $10 billion lump sum would be enough to get his attention.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-07/musk-s-doge-teen-was-fired-by-cybersecurity-firm-for-leaking-company-secrets?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTczODk1NzgyMSwiZXhwIjoxNzM5NTYyNjIxLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTUkJXMTlUMVVNMFcwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiIyQjE3NzFFOTlEODc0QzRDOTY1Njg1RTZBQkJGM0QwRCJ9.PzPv9vq6-ukfVt3y5WF0PBy_lGW7WBwsNaXdP8fUOSo&leadSource=uverify%20wall

One of the DOGE staffers (the chud in the blazer and shorts) was fired from an internship for stealing company information and giving it to a competitor.

this guy

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/beavisandbutthead/images/b/b1/Butt-head.png

Amanda Marcotte's Salon column today points out that Trump is fine with Musk taking control because it's less work for him and lets him just be the tv president like he was the tv businessman on the apprentice.

eh, I have a feeling Trump's ego isn't going to like this:

https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/TIM250224-Musk-Cover-FINAL.jpg

Anything to boost his blood pressure.

yeah its plain to me that trump just wants a "head of state" role this time and dgaf about the rest of it. in his first term he clearly assumed thats all that being the president meant, and was massively frustrated and disappointed to discover that there was more to it than that and he was expected/required to do things. not this time.

I’d suggest Trump isn’t following or even particularly interested in the Project 2025 playbook. He is following the Putin playbook for taking and consolidating authoritarian power. Republicans in Congress see the writing on the wall and are probably calculating that they’d rather stay on his team and be part of his puppet government rather than getting jailed or disappeared. He is allowing Project 2025 to happen as a display of his overwhelming power, and as a means to an end. Basically he is signing whatever executive orders are put in front of him, in his usual transactional manner, either to reward the factions who helped him to power, or as part of a negotiation for more power. Musk is a wildcard who is following his own playbook and has been given free reign as a reward for financing Trump’s win, but also because what he is doing serves Trump’s goals of sowing chaos and destabilizing/defanging agencies that are not seen as loyal (and maybe also to serve as a distraction or patsy). But then I also think that Trump promised Netenyahu Palestine on a platter if he kept killing Palestinians long enough to divide Democrats and swing the US election his way.

he's pretending that the Time cover doesn't bother him ('They're still around?') but you know it does... he made fake Time covers for his office in Mar-a-Lagoo!

The New Yorker had a similarly themed cover for its inauguration week issue, but you know Trump cares way more about Time.

https://media.newyorker.com/photos/6781b40651e5eadfb23015da/master/w_1600,c_limit/2025_01_20.jpg

a federal judge has put a stay on the plan to put usaid on administrative leave. guess we find out tonight if we still have a constitutional order

In response to Maxwell Frost's post about trying to enter the Department of Education, Musk tweeted, "No such department exists in the federal government."

This is a department created by an act of Congress, signed into law by a U.S. president, and an unelected South African billionaire is telling us it no longer exists.

Reagan tried to get rid of Dept of Education

2+2=5

Republicans have talked about it for years but they’ve never had the votes for it (because for whatever reason abolishing the Department of Education sounds bad to people). But it can’t be deleted in a tweet.

yeah its plain to me that trump just wants a "head of state" role this time and dgaf about the rest of it. in his first term he clearly assumed thats all that being the president meant, and was massively frustrated and disappointed to discover that there was more to it than that and he was expected/required to do things. not this time.

― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Friday, February 7, 2025 4:27 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I have a very different read

Project 2025 *is* the Trump agenda. The point is to purge the government of disloyal elements and build a dictatorship.

don't forget selling everyone else out for personal gain, along the way

Right. I see Doge as just project 2025 on doublespeed. Gut it all as fast as possible, before anyone had a chance to stop them.

Still waiting for Trump's future best selling book where he lays all this out very clearly, The Audacity of Crime.

A figurehead tv president wouldn’t be as ambitious as he has been… or take on so much personal risk by breaking the law constantly for nine years

He is going for a big prize

From a Facebook acquaintance:

"I always get my social security direct deposit on the first Wednesday of every month, without exception. Not this month though. Still waiting. WTF?"

If that is going on we will hear more about it soon enough

the mini-Musks have to okay every single payment, might take a while

Gotta feel like Social Security payments not coming through has to be a tipping point.

Am I misremembering, or was it Musk who threw out that insane, "we'll save money by cutting off the SSNs that end in odd numbers" plan?

Trump declared today that they need to look at social security because a lot of it is going to "illegal immigrants" (obv, that is completely false).

Thsi is the schedule for SS payments, it doesn't look like the first wednesday of the month is part of the schedule so that acquaintance may be mistaken.

https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10031-2025.pdf

social security is going to hamas condoms

'Condoms For Hamas' should be a song in the new Team America musical

He's also apparently signing an executive order to bring back plastic straws.

To be fair, I support banning paper straws, and I'm as left as it gets.

the Krazy Straw industry has powerful lobbyists up there

They suck

There are better eco friendly alternatives to plastic straws. The agave fiber straws.

I think this is what they mean by not chasing every squirrel

what happened to making all the documents on the JFK/RFK/MLK assassinations public?

this is one of my all-time lol memes when i first saw it: https://ifunny.co/video/the-liberal-leaving-my-body-when-my-straw-starts-to-xP60XPbEA

Do not. Forget. Your dying. King.

Am I misremembering, or was it Musk who threw out that insane, "we'll save money by cutting off the SSNs that end in odd numbers" plan?

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, February 7, 2025 5:54 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

That was Vivek Ramaswamy's proposal to randomly purge the Federal workforce: https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/video-shows-ramaswamy-discussing-cut-federal-workforce-not-social-security-2024-11-26/.

I haven't heard that name recently; did he run afoul of Elmo?

He is running for governor of ohio apparently

So these much publicized usaid payments apparently were public information already.

The republicans are acting like elon exposed some hidden trove of payments

lolz, Trump just revoked Biden's security clearance.

I’m waiting for the executive order that says Biden lost in 2020

I haven't heard that name recently; did he run afoul of Elmo?

Charlemagne the God confronted him about this, but Vivek said no, no, they're all still pals, just wanted to try out something new.. but it seems clear he was forced out, DOGE isn't big enough for both of them