It is amazing to me how quickly our already flawed democracy is degrading. What is happening is really a political "blitzkrieg" It reminds me of how Hitler ramped up his forces and invaded Austria and the world, including the U.S. convinced themselves that Hitler had some justification and that he would not go any further. Trump and his minions are driven by a thirst for power and greed. Elon Musk is a non-elected person currently wielding immense power in a totally authoritarian manner. I suspect Trump is allowing this because: a) he agrees with the power grab and b) if it goes south and citizens finally arise en masse in protest, he can blame Musk and others. Trump lacks a lot of knowledge and interpersonal skills, but he is "smart" when it comes to wielding power and lying or hiding what he is really doing.
From the world's leading expert on the history of fascism, Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism (New York: Random House, 2004), page 218: "Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion." This definition fits Trump and his movement perfectly. Paxton points out that fascism begins as a form of grass-roots populism within the context of a parliamentary or democratic system that voters perceive as failing them. The bad news is that German and Italian voters never gave Hitler or Mussolini the kind of vote share that Trump received in Nov. 2024. The US electorate is thus even more deranged and corrupt than the German and Italian electorates were a century ago.
I’ve worked with legacy government data systems enough to know how easy they are to break and how utterly dependent every task that must be performed is upon its dependability. The scale here is almost infinite. I say this not because a fear some 18 year old Muskaholic will get in there and stupidly mess up some code. It’s the deliberate breakage that will be catastrophic.
In the North, we have a name for what is wrong with Elon Musk. It’s called cabin fever. That’s when you start acting really weird, but you don’t know it.
Oh Rupert! Since when has Trump honred any agreement? Ever? He breaks contracts he negotiates on the regular, marriage vows - this time it's for reals! -, and every other kind of agreement whenever it suits him. Why would a trade deal he negotiated be any different?
I have passed it around to everybody I know. Some just do not want to get enlightened.
The best part of your article is the following:
Diane Battista
4m
Article I. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives…. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States….— United States Constitution.“
Charlie Sykes started his article today with the above
Then wrote
““The second paragraph of Charlie's article says it all
"If you're keeping track at home: the president has just unilaterally launched a trade war with our closest trading partners; and the world’s richest man — unelected by anyone to anything— has taken control of the US Treasury’s $6 trillion payment system, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the General Services Administration (GSA), while locking out actual government employees from computer systems that run the government.
This all may look like bureaucratic inside-baseball. But “these are not policy tweaks.
They are a hostile corporate takeover of the federal state.”
So this seems like good day to dust off historic relics. Like the actual Constitution."
https://open.substack.com/pub/certainthoughts/p/in-case-of-emergency-break-glass?utm_source=app-post-stats-page&r=c8x12&utm_medium=ios
It is amazing to me how quickly our already flawed democracy is degrading. What is happening is really a political "blitzkrieg" It reminds me of how Hitler ramped up his forces and invaded Austria and the world, including the U.S. convinced themselves that Hitler had some justification and that he would not go any further. Trump and his minions are driven by a thirst for power and greed. Elon Musk is a non-elected person currently wielding immense power in a totally authoritarian manner. I suspect Trump is allowing this because: a) he agrees with the power grab and b) if it goes south and citizens finally arise en masse in protest, he can blame Musk and others. Trump lacks a lot of knowledge and interpersonal skills, but he is "smart" when it comes to wielding power and lying or hiding what he is really doing.
From the world's leading expert on the history of fascism, Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism (New York: Random House, 2004), page 218: "Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion." This definition fits Trump and his movement perfectly. Paxton points out that fascism begins as a form of grass-roots populism within the context of a parliamentary or democratic system that voters perceive as failing them. The bad news is that German and Italian voters never gave Hitler or Mussolini the kind of vote share that Trump received in Nov. 2024. The US electorate is thus even more deranged and corrupt than the German and Italian electorates were a century ago.
I’ve worked with legacy government data systems enough to know how easy they are to break and how utterly dependent every task that must be performed is upon its dependability. The scale here is almost infinite. I say this not because a fear some 18 year old Muskaholic will get in there and stupidly mess up some code. It’s the deliberate breakage that will be catastrophic.
Someone on MSNBC did, tonight.
actual government employees...
What makes them actual ? Probably DEI and a brother of a sister of my uncle which can get you a job from home...
In the North, we have a name for what is wrong with Elon Musk. It’s called cabin fever. That’s when you start acting really weird, but you don’t know it.
Oh Rupert! Since when has Trump honred any agreement? Ever? He breaks contracts he negotiates on the regular, marriage vows - this time it's for reals! -, and every other kind of agreement whenever it suits him. Why would a trade deal he negotiated be any different?
The CCP would never allow an Elon to disrupt the functions of the state, much less completely destroy it.
See: Jack Ma.
Where is the federal litigation to stop Elon in his tracks for his unlawful acts?
Was it not a red flag when Mitt Romney when he was running for president declared that “corporations were peopler too”?????
Trying to justify corporate money being more infused into our political elections?
And I once thought the Second Amendment sounded a bit anachronistic - "ou contraire"!
Control is always done through money
Once all these payments are stopped, and the money is taken it will never come back. It will never be reinstated.
That is how you collapse an intended target is financially causing great pain and suffering without remorse or regard.
It is the nature of the personality
They don’t care about anything legal or what the court say they’re going to do whatever they want
They they are in the process of executing their plan that has been spoken out in public view and earshot for decades
It is nothing but cruelty masquerading around as fiscal, responsibility and governing.
Republicans keep talking about
ANTIFA
Anti-fascism
Why have the Republicans been criminalizing this and making it a bad thing?
Shouldn’t everybody in this country be anti-fascism?????
Excellent article
I have passed it around to everybody I know. Some just do not want to get enlightened.
The best part of your article is the following:
Diane Battista
4m
Article I. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives…. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States….— United States Constitution.“
Charlie Sykes started his article today with the above
Then wrote
““The second paragraph of Charlie's article says it all
"If you're keeping track at home: the president has just unilaterally launched a trade war with our closest trading partners; and the world’s richest man — unelected by anyone to anything— has taken control of the US Treasury’s $6 trillion payment system, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the General Services Administration (GSA), while locking out actual government employees from computer systems that run the government.
This all may look like bureaucratic inside-baseball. But “these are not policy tweaks.
They are a hostile corporate takeover of the federal state.”
So this seems like good day to dust off historic relics. Like the actual Constitution."