In the past week or so, the courts have begun to try to set some boundaries on the Musk–Miller–Trump administration’s early blitz of recklessness.
. . .
This judicial review provides at least a small reprieve, hope that some of the administration’s most destructive impulses will be stopped. Or at least pared back. But even with the courts stepping up, and even with the reality of the administration’s ineptitude sinking in, this early Musk–Miller–Trump blitz remains very—maybe irreparably—damaging. Of course, there are a lot of moles to whack: the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are being dismantled at an alarming rate, and the court system is not known for being nimble. The administration is betting, perhaps rightly, that at least some of its thoughtless, lawless efforts will slip through the cracks.
But even if the courts caught them all—and even if every court facing each lawless escapade said, “Nope, that’s not a thing”—still the entire process would be doing serious damage to our institutions. Think of it as someone spoofing your identity and going on a shopping spree with your credit cards. Even if the goon gets caught, you still have to go store by store to argue that the fraudulent purchase wasn’t legitimate and hope the debt is forgiven. And all the while, perhaps long after all the debts are dealt with, the torrent of uncertainty kills your credit score.
I’m a federal employee. You have no idea the stress my family and I have been dealing with since that motherfucker swore in.
A relative of mine is a state employee… he had two reports that’d applied for transfer to the equivalent federal departments… and those two have now withdrawn their requests.
I wish you the best of luck and I thank you for your contribution to public well being.
They wouldn’t have been hired anyway. We had people who were supposed to start on Monday, January 27th. On Thursday the 23rd, their offers were rescinded and we were told they wouldn’t be starting. I can only imagine. Of course they had already quit their previous job. Now what the fuck are they doing?
No, he bought his way in and probably holds dirt over Trump. This wasn’t random chance.
Dirt? Guy is a convicted felon, says and does monstrous things openly, and denies things he just did on video the day before. He promoted a violent attack on his own government. He is dirt, he lives dirt. Unless it’s a video of him literally beheading dozens of kittens, I can’t imagine it would give him any leverage. Not even sure if that would either sadly.
and probably holds dirt over Trump.
Possibly that Trump wasn’t legally elected and Elmo rigged the election for him. It would explain Trump’s servile attitude in the oval office earlier. Elmo’s fucking kid basically told Trump to STFU.
Not personally and directly, no, but broadly, yes - I do know the irreversible damage they’re doing.
And here’s the real key to it all - none of it is accidental. The damage is the point.
Their goal is actually very simple - it’s to utterly destroy every aspect of the government that benefits the common people or inconveniences the wealthiest few, in order to convert it explicitly and entirely into a mechanism for protecting and expanding the privilege of the wealthiest few at the expense of everyone else.
And they announced it and fully laid out a plan ahead of time. This should come as a surprise to no one who is literate.
It burns my ass that some folks actually bought the whole “Trump doesn’t support Project 2025” bullshit. I cannot imagine being such a gullible, credulous moron.
I actually do.
We’re entirely fucked.
We’re going to spend the rest of our lives witnessing the enshitification of this nation. Even if we completely turn this crash and burn around, we’ll then spend the rest of our lives watching things being slowly rebuilt as traitorous Republicans continue to obstruct.
I don’t think a lot of Americans are grasping exactly how hard we fucked ourselves by refusing to responsibly inform ourselves even to a minimal degree.
As someone currently living in Canada, the US is badly fucking up a lot of it’s international relations too. I’ve heard several people here say that even if if the US unfucks itself right away (which it won’t), it’s still going to be a long time before things will be right again.
You don’t go around threatening neighbours and allies like this and then expect to be able to just walk it back overnight.
USAID was, more than anything, a means of positive international relations. It was a 2 prong approach of foreign aid and foreign good will. The mid 1900s US made a lot of fucking enemies, and USAID was one very solid method of trying to overcome the damage wrought by our government.
And now TB supplies – that were already paid for – are rotting in warehouses (among many other issues). Not only will that harm people, it will harm our reputation, AND increase antibiotic resistant TB, which will in turn affect the rest of the world including the US itself.
And that’s only one piece of the very large clusterfuck.
USAID was a great investment, a cheap investment that returned good value, even beyond things like lives saved and people brought out of poverty. In many ways it was being a good neighbor.
It would still be a great way to spend our money if we doubled it or tripled it or more
Yeah, even just kicking out these crazies isn’t a good fix because they’ve already demonstrated they’re more than willing to lie, cheat, and steal to hold on to or gain power.
The only justice I’d trust would need to come at the end of a rope, and it’d need to include a LOT of colluders at the very least in cells as well. That includes certain media organizations that helped enable this shit-show as well.
After all that, the American public needs to force better, including proper regulation and enforcement of public over corporate interests. While some of it has been astroturfing, the embedded cleptocracy and corporate interest in the Democratic party also needs to be fixed (or both parties turfed and new better choices), because “lesser evil” is not good enough.
Other countries should also take heed from the US situation. This is what happens when you continually tolerate the intolerable, and when your government is owned by a billionaire+ untouchable aristocracy with a corporate shield protecting them from consequences.
I would argue that America needs a whole new economic system. A big problem with what we had up to now, is that people are too poor, tired, unable to form communities, and lack the time to do all the things that are needed for a democracy. If you can’t afford the price of travel, shelter, food, and losing your job, you can’t visit Washington to protest, let alone long enough to make a difference with like-minded people.
The wealthy, on the other paw, can freely travel, network, and simply not worry about being ruined if they dare to do something beyond basic survival.
America needs an economic system that promotes agency of every single citizen. That means guaranteeing survival, ensuring enough vacation time to permit protesting, and decent wealth accumulation for the poorest American. Without that, it isn’t possible for the ordinary person to exert meaningful political influence.
As much as I agree, it will take things getting a lot worse before people do anything like that. A lot of the most heavily armed are the ones who voted for this. The pickup full of hillbillies are still in the denial phase. They still think things won’t affect them, or that it’ll be temporary. They are all for “those people” taking the brunt of the actions right now. They’ve convinced themselves that only the “libtards” are affected, and they aren’t.
It’s going to take a deep hit to their way of life for anything more than peaceful protests and voting advocacy (which definitely fucking vote) happens.
As much as I agree, it will take things getting a lot worse before people do anything like that.
agree completely. we are as a nation and as a community too desperate or complacent to ‘take to the streets’ at this point. until fascism and austerity reaches one’s own doorsteps, most will wait and see and carry on with their boring daily routines.
that said, it will gradually change though, already has. it’s reached the doorstep of more people today than it did 10 years ago. what will be your personal breaking point? what is your neighbors breaking point? no one knows. I for one won’t be sitting back doing nothing until then. it’s time to talk to the neighbors friends and family and decide in advance as a community what we’re going to do before they drain us dry or drag off grandpa for re-education at Guantanamo.
A lot of the most heavily armed
sounds to me like we shouldn’t wait around for those guys to wake up. maybe some of us on the left should arm ourselves instead?
I don’t think a lot of Americans are grasping exactly how hard we fucked ourselves by refusing to responsibly inform ourselves even to a minimal degree.
This! Methods that lower general intelligence:
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Content Streaming - its starts with Bluey
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Gaming - iPads have replaced paper in schools, in car trips colourful gems pop instead of engagement with the world. Adults game the night away, streaming live. Kids aspire to be them.
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Social media - Algorithms, echo-chambers, bots, keyboard warriors, content cencorship and manipulation, advertising, yuck.
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Dating Apps
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AI - We’ll become dependent and lower general critical thinking skills.
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Legalisation of marijuana. - Its political support should be a concern. While it may be seemingly harmless at an individual level, there seems to be issues with mass use. How many users abstained from voting?
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Underfunded, cookie cutter lower education. There is no flexibility for the diversity of people and development potentials. Teaching children non-denominational meditation and concentration, or helping them observe but reconcile simple contradictory expressions of duality in existence, would strengthen their conciousness significantly.
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Over emphasis on technical STEM in higher-education without equally supporting the arts and philosophy.
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Cultural over-emphasis towards individual monetary wealth over knowledge, spirituality or even concern for the wealth of those around them. Prevents empathy.
All of these focus on separating the individual from other individuals. The darkness does not want connected families or communities. It wants you to feel alone, helpless and willing to hand over your power.
We have all seen the US police force’s brutality under democratic law. How much worse could it be under authoritarian rule? My advice would be to immediately set up public meetings with local law enforcement at the officer level, start a collaborative dialogue and get to know each other, fast.
If you think Bluey lowers kids intelligence or “separates the individual from other individuals” then you’ve never watched Bluey.
It’s a great resource for teaching emotional intelligence to kids and empathises the importance of quality time with family. I don’t think you could have picked a worse children’s TV show example.
To add more context - I’m a federal employee who has received these Fork emails -
They always come out at night, usually ~ 8-9 pm Eastern. One came out on a Sunday night. So you show up for work the next morning and that’s what’s waiting for you. I’m convinced this is done on purpose, to fuck with us.
As Vought (perfect Bond villain name, right?) said:
“Put Them In Trauma”
They literally want to traumatize us. They hate us because for decades we’ve been the only ones to tell them no. No, Elon, you can’t fuck all kinds of shit up when you launch a spaceship. No, Elon, you can’t make the stock market go haywire because you were high and tweeted something stupid. No, Elon, you can’t make a deal with the Pentagon and then run to Putin and do something completely different.
Elon does not like to be told no, but Elon can’t go 5 minutes without acting like the entitled dipshit that he is, so here we are.
And so, ~ 2.5 million civil servants - scientists, healthcare researchers, USAID, engineers, doctors, etc etc, will feel his wrath because he can’t be told no.
I took a big pay cut for this job because I valued job security over money after growing up in a household where jobs were not guaranteed and my parents struggled. Finally I got there after trying for years, and now Elon has to throw a shit fit.
But it’s not about me - I’ll be ok, but many others won’t. And we won’t get it back without a lot of work, work that I’m not sure that we, as a country, are going to be willing to do. The brain drain and decades of knowledge capture will be lost forever. And that’s by design - now we can all go work for contractors with fewer benefits and no job security and help Elon to make even more money.
One of the Fork emails taunted us by saying that we should be happy to leave our low productivity jobs in government so that we could go work high productivity jobs in the private sector. (So funny!) I know that’s bullshit, but also I’m old enough to not let 4chan incels trigger me that easily.
I do worry about my younger/newer coworkers though, whose heads are spinning. So, I try to help them. I’m educating them about the union and hopefully giving them the tools to get through this and deal with what comes after in the best way possible, whatever that may be.
So the next time you have to go to some annoying government place with a long line and you’re tired and hungry and frustrated, please try to remember that whoever you end up coming face to face with may have just gotten another email trolling them and telling them what a piece of shit they are and they should resign from their jobs. Just give them some grace. Be kind.
This is a great resource, and I hope it helps a lot of people.
My agency, and my job specifically, must be done right or people could get hurt. So things like renaming files or purposefully scheduling meeting conflicts aren’t options. I need to find specific bits of technical information to ensure a design is safe. I need to have meetings for safety reviews and make sure there isn’t anything that my group missed that could end up hurting someone.
I’m not saying these won’t be helpful to us in the future, if my agency’s current mission were to change in some way, but right now it’s the same as it was during the last administration. I will keep it in my back pocket though for when I feel it’s necessary.
Thank you!
Deliberately sabotaging your job as a government worker (assuming you’re not working in a military industrial complex or enforcement job) plays directly into the right’s framing of government as inefficient. It’s important that public-facing positions be competent to foster public trust; after all, those positions are what conservatives dismantle first as pretext to abolish an agency. After public discontent sets in through first-hand experience dealing with understaffing, those public services become ripe for privatization.
We had their playbook with p2025 and did nothing. They started enacting it, and we still do nothing. We could have shock-and-awed them right back with prepared lawsuits and movements blow for blow, and nothing.
We had their playbook with p2025 and did nothing.
Liberals ran out their strongest champions
- Chuck Schumer
- Richie Torries
- The Cheney Family
- The UK Labor Party campaign staff
- Ted Cruz’s former chief of staff at the Lincoln Project
- Some very reputable and trustworthy staffers from AIPAC
And spent over $1B of donor money in order to tell people that only Joe Biden Kamala Harris can Beat Trump, after a no-contest primary. A full year of campaigning. They brought Jeff Flake up as a surprise guest for the DNC!
You can’t reasonably call that nothing. It felt like less than nothing.
At least they brought war criminal Dick Cheney on board, that made sure they would be completely useless.
The DNC and their non-spoiler neoliberals are still getting their sweet sweet oligarch bribe checks, so all is right with the world as far as they’re concerned.
They’re literally more defensive about any actual leftwing movement to get them to defend the people from the murderous capitalists destroying us and the planet for short term profit.
We either need a populist to steal the DNC’s machine from them as they’re kicking and screaming like Trump did the RNC, make a 3rd party, the best option have a hot revolution starting with Wall Street, or accept this hell as we sleepwalk into oblivion.
Blue no matter who is rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship. I voted for Harris out of some harm reduction, but the capitalists are the problem and own both parties. Republicans revel in the cruelty and are simply louder about it. Democrats will support your freedom to be LGBTQ… As you die in the gutter of poverty, exposure, and capital defense force brutality. Here have an affirmation ribbon to use as a blanket and/or snack in your cardboard box as they support the industry denying the claims for the nerve damage that made you lose your shitty subsistence job when your treatment would cut into their profit expectations.
Both parties support the “Freedom” of the rich to toss capital batteries they broke into the trash when they’re no longer of use to their bottom line. Freedom without social responsibility is a rampage.
This is not the Democrats fault. It is the fault of those that voted for Trump. The knew exactly what he was, and still voted for him. They wanted this.
I’m suspect of posts that blame Democrats, are these posts put up by paid shills?
WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW IS THE FAULT OF TRUMP, AND HIS MAGA FOLLOWERS!!!
Pelosi defends lawmaker stock trades, citing ‘free market’ https://apnews.com/article/business-nancy-pelosi-congress-8685e82eb6d6e5b42413417f3d5d6775
The fascists are worse. I voted Harris with a funeral dirge in my heart out of harm reduction, but make no mistake, all we’ve been arguing for half a century is the rate of decline. A little slower under neoliberals, a little faster under Fascists.
NOTHING CAN IMPROVE until our government knocks our oligarchs down to size. Both parties are very well paid by the oligarchs to defend them from us. The oligarchs are running the asylum because both parties let them.
Republicans having no meaningful opposition on the shape and priorities of the economy for so long made them this bold. Every cycle in most of our lifetimes, both parties have been marching rightward. I fully expect next cycle for neoliberals to advocate “more humane” concentration camps in their never ending March to the new middle, already deep into fascist crazy town.
Please, before you suspect anybody of being a shill, read carefully what’s written. He described what the Democrats are doing. And you say it’s not the Democrats fault! What?
It’s apparently true: The people who voted for Trump are responsible for Trump being in power.
And nobody claims otherwise. But Trump becoming president has an economic backdrop that goes a long way back. It’s rooted in the neoliberal economic model that become popular in the 1960s and had taken over the whole world by the 2000s. It took the chains off of capitalism that workers united in Unions and parties had imposed on it. Because the old Social Democrat parties who people obviously trusted due to their history suddenly sided with the capitalists, everybody was caught on the wrong foot. Many fell for the lies that were peddled for why public services suddenly had to be privatised and made them their own fetish.
Since then a massive amount of wealth has been shifted to the capitalists while social services eroded. And now many people just feel completely left alone. Because they are. And they suddenly see the world as a place of dark forces, where everybody has to fight for themselves, where scamming people is a viable business model, where truth is a concept from some other time. Yeah, so some people say the Dems have their fair share in all this, because they sold out to the capitalists, thereby creating a feeding ground for fascists like Trump.
On the other hand OP was mostly saying how despicable the Dems are acting right now. So yeah.
This is not the Democrats fault.
No blame goes to the Dems at all?
None?
Not even any blame for running bad campaigns, with bad candidates? Three times in a row? No blame for relying on “Not Trump” as a campaign strategy? No blame for insisting the economy is grand, even though all the voters are saying otherwise?
Poor Democrats. They’re only a ragtag group of activists that are the largest political party outside of Asia with billions of dollars at their disposal! What leverage do they have? /s
The paid shills aren’t the only ones saying that D isn’t doing anything. D is saying they’re not doing anything. Critically reexamine your unquestioning loyalty and need to give them the guac guac at every turn.
why even bother focusing on this? “it’s this guy’s fault!” ok. so what? it will be four years if we even get a chance to vote again. the only thing we should be talking about is resistance.
