Shortly after 1:00 this morning, Vittoria Elliott, Dhruv Mehrotra, Leah Feiger, and Tim Marchman of Wired reported that, according to three of their sources, “[a] 25-year-old engineer named Marko Elez, who previously worked for two Elon Musk companies [SpaceX and X], has direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the US government.”
When It’s Not Just A Coup But A CFAA Violation Too. Legal Issues from the tic-tac-DOGE dept by Cathy Gellis
“I think a colorable, non-frivolous argument can be made that Elon Musk, and everyone on his DOGE team accessing the federal government’s computer infrastructure, is potentially personally liable for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).”
I think it's actually called TREASON...the TRESPASSING OF FEDERAL PROPERTY and ACCESS to SECURE DATA protected by a FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY. It's quite simple...YOU ARREST THE PERPETRATORS as they have no AUTHORIZATION nor do they have SECURITY CLEARANCE STATUS. The Media should frame it as 'ELONGATE'...and the MILITARY should send MUSK and his CRONIES to Guantanamo Bay indefinitely. SITUATION RESOLVED!
When Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid pmts don't go out... Modifying Code, on live Systems without testing will get you fired in most places... Why wasn't Security Called when they stormed in on a Weekend?... Untested Code? Have 'Trojan Horses', and 'Backdoors' been introduced... Are they there any logs of the changes, or Back-Out Plans if things go Bad?
Clearly, Trump has no idea what is going on and now wants to take over Gaza. The man is cray-cray and everything everyone warned about with Project 2025 is taking place in spades.
For most of the past 50 years I have been on-call to fix abends in various systems 24/7/365. When there is an abend, we used to fix the bug in the program and then run the fix live usually against millions of insurance policies. And if we messed up by changing financial values, it was caught immediately in the various balancing programs and audit trails required.
But starting in the late 1980's many companies found it difficult to hire people capable of fixing a problem on a timely basis so that systems would be available for the users first thing in the morning. And so they bypassed the bad data, until a fix could be implemented with proper testing and auditing protocols.
What these morons is doing, is putting live untested code into the systems, bypassing audit checks and balancing routines. If I had done this even once without proper sing-offs not only would I have been terminated, but I would have been black-balled from ever working for any financial services firm again.
I'm sure the Republicans in the Senate and House are totally and completely clueless as to the damage Musk is doing otherwise, they would stop it.
What makes anyone believe they will not come for your Social Security or Medicare or VA Benefits or even your income tax refund.
Next they will start changing the IRS systems so Congress needn't bother defunding it.
The oligarchs have won and there's no one to stop them.
Nobody has WON...yet ! You are right..every day they WILL be more ENTRENCHED AND MAKE IT HARDER. I am sorry to tell you .... that if you are Hungry, you will COMPLY. But we now SEE what they are doing and they must be STOPPED...and they can be stopped..WE HAVE THE NUMBERS of People, and The American People will resist ..........NEVER ever give up !!! ever.. :) Its not over but they did start a very big FIGHT xo
We clearly have new traitors showing their faces in the senate. Not Republicans, we know what they’re about. No. Our Democratic senators who’ve been voting along with Republican senators to confirm these completely unacceptable nominees for the Cabinet. You can’t get through to John Fetterman‘s office, just hangs up or busy. He’s a snake and not worth my time any longer.
We need to focus on who’s willing to be a leader and fight.
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is my focus. Support her! Listen to her! Send letters of support of her over Democrats voting with Republicans (copies to your traitor senators) phone calls, e-mails show up at heir offices. Too progressive for you? Now is not the time. We cannot continue to wallow in despair. We are people in search of a leader! She is speaking up! We can amplify her. Stop bothering with the traitors, we know who they are. I keep a running tab of which Democrats vote along with Republicans and I’m extremely disappointed whose names I’ve seen. Reuben Gallego? Right out of the gate? Really Reuben? Traitor.
I know! Why aren’t the federal courts not under his thump not stopping this. How is it possible for us to all just watch this and no one is doing anything. And the confirmation s. I’m speechless. What is hsppening?
Please do not use the term cray-cray, it is offensive to people within the mental health community. While he may be mentally ill, a better term for him would be deranged or insane.
The Gaza plan is a real and not a new thing. 3/19/2024 The Guardian reported on Jared Kushner’s interest in building on Gaza’s waterfront property. This would involve moving Palestinians to the Negev Desert.
We are fortunate that our Constitution is printed and written on paper, not that that solves all of these problems and sting doings. Thank you for the many explanations.
That all depends. Having worked on many major systems in my career, there were systems set up that would make it virtually impossible to introduce changes that couldn't be tracked and there were others where you could relatively easily slip a "monkey patch" into the code that couldn't be tracked. The latter of course is VERY bad but it isn't always easy to prevent. Like anything else, especially in computer software, it depends on the code.
The worst part of this is that undoing the changes, assuming some level of normality actually was to return, might turn out to be very difficult or even virtually impossible. I have seen systems which got f**ked up by improper changes and we didn't have appropriate software and data backups required to undo the resulting disaster. One would hope that a system as critical as the one being screwed with would be more resilient but it is just as possible that most people involved in making changes all assumed that something like this could never happen so they might have not put the proper "restore" mechanisms in place. After 50 years doing software on systems of all sizes, this happens more often than anyone would ever want to acknowledge.
I have some hope that this could be reversed but not 100% faith that I am right.
No Lizzy...it will take time, and it will be a fight, yes it will...but they do not deserve this beautiful Country !!!! That was the envy of the WORLD...no no no. Have faith that the 1,000,000 to 1 odds is the only way - and WHAT a WAY ...no other country that has that.... even Russia has only 1/3 and we have the advantage of KNOWING what is control is coming...and resisting the CONTROL.... Never ever loose faith (no matter what ;) xox
The other issue is that wingnuts want to sell this idea of the United States coming back again as an economic powerhouse. It won’t happen, and they will ensure that any gains from business success continue to go to oligarchs like Muskrat. We have a different economic system than we did, say, in the early 1960s. The shortsighted behavior of our manufacturers taking American production abroad allowed China to grow at our expense and to receive proprietary manufacturing information at our expense. The only way we can even get a larger piece of the pie is by unionizing, strengthening the Wagner (NLRB) Act and abolishing Taft Hartley in its entirety. We also need to attack monopolies and oligopolies. All of these ideas are anathema to people like Trump and Musk.
It’s so stupid because even without a a “larger piece of the pie” we were still the wealthiest country in the world. The problem is greed of the oligarchs. They can never have enough, and won’t share with the average American.
And maybe…we will emerge from our collective ennui with something better because we’ve been forced. (Trying to be optimistic here—don’t shoot the messenger.)
Where is the tipping point from which there is no return? It passed, too late. We had an election, and this is what the people wanted. I hope you will not be directly affected, although most of Trump's voters will be. The last thing we want to hear from Trump voters is, "This is not what we expected."
Harvey, I've been saying for a while that the only apparent way out of this disaster movie (if only that's what this is) is that pain is widely distributed across all classes, or at least across the masses. It's unfortunate for those with the least who daily, perennialy, struggle to survive.
If enough of us are affected -- given Lone Skum's filthy fingers getting into every aspect of our lives from financial to food safety and security, perhaps then, and only then, will we decide that the Maga movement must be ripped root and branch from power.
But it maybe too late -- I fear Lone Skum is building redundancy and resilience in the systems he now controls.
I think we are here. It's heartening to hear Democrats rail against what's happening. But they aren't DOING anything. The fact that they aren't DOING anything means they are complicit.
There is a Christian Nationalist element in the military, but the military takes seriously its position of being under civilian control. The problem is the supine Republicans in Congress and the Senate, and not enough Democrats are calling out this behavior as unconstitutional and illegal.
The Democrats are outnumbered .... the courts became stacked...the last hope is the People ...... and I would always bet on the American People .... this will be hard but what choice have you ....give up and live as Russia does...today ??? Not without a fight xo
Kathy, I agree, and I've thought for a while that Schumer is not the man for this moment in time. Perhaps we need a woman -- Elizabeth Warren would do a far better job.
Rs are long past caring. And with the last election’s results, I’d bet they’ve convinced themselves this is what people want because of the R trifecta. And I can’t blame them for thinking that, really.
Treason is very narrowly defined in the Constitution for a reason, but the breaking into government computer systems is highly illegal and is not in the best interest of the United States or its citizens. There is also a constitutional violation in that Trump is president and is attempting to usurp Congress’s control over the budget, and is delegating this power and access to government computers to a private citizen without Congressional authorization. This is total chutzpah on the part of Trump and Musk
Exactly. I get how most Republicans could be corrupted, stupid, selfish, bigoted and evil. But how could it be that 99% of them are marching lockstep behind President Musk?
I listened to Senator Ron Johnson last night on the NewsHour. He is just as crazy as the Orange Menace. He actually normalized RFK, Jr. WTF?
Senator Collins who is sometimes viewed as sane, just announced her support for Putin puppet Gabbard. Can't explain this....
This is not a Congress of the American People. This is a group of "nobles" kissing the ring of a Mad King. F*ck the peasants.
Wait, wait! I figured out what is motivating the Republicans in the kings courtage. They were promised beach front condos in "Mar a Gaza"!!!
It IS treason....as we come OUT of the shock and awe designed to overwhelm in a take over...NO MORE EVIDENCE NEEDED HERE........Listen for resistance as the USA will very soon be an Autocracy. That IS what is happening and the hurtful truth is that every day that passes is one more department or area of Government to use to their FULL control. Listen for what to DO as I have seen several write up's on these pages supporting Trump with disinformation here ! So they are reading these bits too to try to spread disinformation among the aware AND to listen to what we now KNOW. I am so sorry for the strong talk here, I understand how awful this is to read, but we have SEEN this exact play book in History as Ann Applebuam has reiterated last night on Bullark. To break all Democracies ...it had to break the US first....but this is the biggest and hardest domino to fall....however if it falls, and it could .....if we don't Wake Up fast...well then we will be very very unhappy. All except the very very rich xox
Shauna,extraordinary clear and visionary post. You mentioned that to break Democracies, the US should be broken first and the rest are going to fall, is the key point and final goal of the maga billionaires and Project 2025 architects. That scenario is not only the key point and the final point but also, the point of no return.
If we try to resist or fight back, even militarily, can they hold us hostage by controlling our nation’s financial system?
Federal Courts? Trump has pardon power and he is immune. How close are they to “checkmate?”
Heather’s letter tonight is one of the most sobering. Each day we allow to slip past without stopping this coup brings us closer to completion of Project 2025.
True...the last hope is our sheer numbers of people and our determination...comply or resist ??? which will it be? .... that is now all that is left - they know it now we are catching on
It is TREASON. But WHO is going to do anything about it. Spineless Republicans? The media could stand up, until the air waves are cut off like "they" are trying to defund NPR.
Federal laws are being broken! Someone call the FBI! Oh, wait, musk owns the FBI! Fortunately, there are Federal agents in the FBI, CIA who are ready, will, and able to fight against this evil. We have to find and mobilize them along with the rest of America.
They believe, and may be right, that the executive order creating DOGE gives them cover. Meanwhile, that executive order was an 'official act'. They believe they are untouchable. Are they?
But as the article pointed out, without a normally-functioning DOJ, who or what agency can prosecute the offence under criminal law? Who will do the arrest? How do you I prison someone legally if the normal system has been highjacked? Proof comes when the prosecution clearly demonstrates under the rules of evidence that the accused had violated the written law. Who is going to do all that when those in control are the the ones breaking the law?
Remember when Musk told us it would hurt. That is what Goebbels told the German people, and yet they were encouraged to be patriotic and tough it out. I am terrified for everyone. They are moving the money out of the economy.
Crash the dollar. Replace with crypto. So oligarchs of the world can unite, embezzle their respective countries wealth, avoid taxes, avoid sanctions, free to pilfer and pillage both earthly resources and wield ultimate control over all people and planet.
Demonstrations of solidarity assures those suffering in silence that they are not alone. They also pierce the veil of feigned normality and legitimacy about what the Republican Party is doing. It is essential, however, that participants in demonstrations are peaceful. The point is to pull others in from the sidelines.
I know exactly what you mean.. actually one of Their distractive strategies, over the years, was to have us all working 8 days a week, too busy to see what They’re doing.
Kathy, you ARE helping! Through your being here, through your words, you buttress up the solidarity with your presence. This is so in body, and in spirit. I suggest that even the most disabled among us has presence equally at the table. The tiny acts of solidarity we CAN find through our inventive genius, are incalculably valuable, and comforting to others. Smile, open a door, let someone in front of you, gladden the heart of a child, a new parent. In doing so, you're flooded with good hormones, your own happiness chemicals. Skip the addictive stuff, and go out and make some good news of your own. You likely will find an island of humanity previously unknown to you. Remember, they can NEVER have that in their miserable world of never having enough !
YES JL. As news overwhelms and distortions prevail, what reaches pro-Trump people who allow this, I hope that "Piercing the veil of feigned normality" can flip them. "The point is to pull others in from the sidelines." What information moves and how is critical, those images of people in the streets -- now and as history looking back, I'm praying it's a tipping point.
sorry..that isn't going to happen ... they stacked the deck and control everything ...when they got the Supreme Court that was a big big win. There are no other options left but to resist and stop anything they want. The many many good American People are IT - look to other Autocracies...to take back your Country WILL be a fight :( :( Listen for what to DO to help xo
First you have to resist, be successful and take control and then arrest are going to follow, not all the way around. Start fighting back and keep the faith.
We have to do what the Native Americans did in the 1970's -- take over Federal office buildings and demand access to their computer systems like Musk did.
Dozens of people inside the Senate and Congressional office building and their various satellite offices is the only way they will listen at this point. And take over the Supreme Court building as well.
Protests aren't going to change the minds of any Republicans in Congress or the Senate. Demand the personal laptops of Senators and Congressmen and confiscate all of their correspondence and publish their browsing history. Apparently, that's public information that each of us should have access to. If Musk and his tech-bros can access secured financial data, what harm is it in revealing correspondence and browsing history.
AGREED...Take BACK today what they are STEALING !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today .... as everyday their control is greater and greater ...but they can NEVER OUTNUMBER US....IMPOSSIBLE :) it is the one mistake they made !!!!!!!!!! ( And that we are AMERICAN ! )
RESIST, RESIST, RESIST....they started this War on the American People.... but what a Country to try to steal...1,000,000 to 1 !!! Not good odds for them !!!
I'll be at the state house in Concord, NH at noon on 2/5. I'm tired of complaining and waiting for someone to save us. We are the adults now. No one is coming to save us. Time to act now.
The people are IT...no one can overcome the sheer volume of American People...NO OTHER (BEGINNING TAKE OVER ) has the numbers of the USA !!! I know this is the one and biggest mistake they made.............too many of us.....and too few of THEM !
Elon has added the Executive Branch to his asset portfolio. He paid $290 million for it. With Donald's help he has control of the Legislative Branch as well. And who in the Judicial Branch has the power to stop Elon and his team from committing crimes? The rules, the laws, the Constitution, do not apply to Elon. Like Russia, there are some people in America who are above the law.
you are right. BUT Russia doesn't have 3.5 Americans...who are NOT going to roll over...America has been thrown into in a Civil WAR with the Autocratic Take over of their Government...and it will be uncomfortable BUT we No Longer have a choice but to get our FREEDOM back. The only ways is how other countries topple their Governments....Putins only FEAR is his people rising up...and the longer we delay the more control and fear they instil, then the American people too will comply, out of fear. We ARE NOT there yet..but daily they win more control :(
Ed Nuhfer. It was clearly written down in actual writing, publicly, for all to see.
No I didn't vote for it, but I knew they would do this. It was very clear.
Everybody knew.
It's just that a lot of naive people thought it was silly, a bit far fetched. "They'll never really do that"
But they said very very clearly exactly what they were going to do. And they are doing it.
Do you really think that the millions of people that did vote for this thought "oh! they're not really going to do what they say..... and wrote down in great deal.
Yes. They said this is what they would do. Project 2025. We can't be Hungary because we are too big and diverse to end up that way. It will be something else, and I think a lot of something else's because we are 50 states and the D.C. and Puerto Rico and other territories.
There are things Trump has said that I have taken seriously, and they include his attacks on women, people of color, “DEI,” the right to vote, and mass deportation. Where I think he’s lying is that he claims he’ll do things to benefit his less affluent voters, or to do anything that will benefit anything or anyone except for the morbidly rich and big corporations.
And Canada, and Mexico, and Greenland ....... this is BIG plans here and I am so so sorry to say...it will be need a big fight BACK BUT as the red states SEE what is happening (remember they are being FED by Fox News that anything Trump does is perfection - daily !!!!) once they feel something...if not too late ..they will join in too xo
they will not stop being paid if they go along with the take over...Join "Hitlers team" to Protect themselves...they are now just pawns too :( BUT we have 1,000,0000 to 1 odds here in a fight...AND we have the best minds and strongest of people. Keep Faith , realize that there is way more good people than bad - they are ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED...help your neighbours - support yourself mentally and friends...there have been take overs before and the have People won back....with far less capabilities than the USA !!!!!! Never ever loose Faith... ever xo
The good people have not taken action in the past. "It's free speech so he's allowed to lie." Heaven forbid he be prosecuted for slander and liable. "Let him say what he wants. It's okay if it's not true, it's just alternative facts." The only person with the guts to stand up to him and push back was E. Jean Carroll. We let the Supreme Court give him immunity. Any judge who says someone is above the law should have been disbarred, especially the ones who lied during their confirmation hearings. We're too nice. In order to have a tolerant society you must be intolerant of intolerance. We let them get away with too much like an indulgent parent badly spoiling an unruly child instead of taking firm and decisive corrective action. Now they have turned into a monster. I fear there will have to be bloodshed.
Ed, this is from a friend's wife (actually, he was one of my recruits and is still active duty law enforcement):
"Loving watching a bunch of ineffective, inefficient, corrupt politicians melt down. They are so arrogant and threatened by competent, efficient, pro active adults who get shit done they can't handle it."
My 94yo Fox-watching, T💩p-voting mother was aghast that her Meals-on-Wheels would most likely be cut or demolished. She’s depended on it for a decade. “You voted for it, mom.” “No I didn’t!” The leopard will eat her face.
Derek, she was bamoozled like too many. Now the consequences will leave them without…. I must say I feel for older people dependent on social security plus all the other services WE all pay for through taxes.
No..most have NO IDEA and will be overwhelmed last as they took over FOX and feed them lies and disinformation for YEARS NOW......BUT Project 2025 knew...like Hitler..it is a small group of nefarious minds that create the PLAN...and this is very WELL PLANNED !!! But take heart and SEE the resistance starting(FBI) before they can stop it !!! And there will be more now that we KNOW what in fact they ARE DOING.
Yes they did. This time around everyone knew that trump is a liar and a con man. And a racist. They are too and this is exactly what they voted for. If they were upset musk has their SS numbers they would be protesting too.
Do you really suppose that anybody understood what this Deep State malarkey was about and what was truly intended? Aren't you the least bit shocked by what has transpired? The administration is now in the position of having to face a blizzard of lawsuits before judges, Republican as well as Democrat, who will know that their own personal data is no longer private but in the hands of a racist South African billionaire and his team of Gen Z nerds. The language about the Deep State during the campaign was essentially about two things: the so-called weaponisation of law enforcement agencies and the DoJ and the culture war stuff - not this.
Time for a federal government wide 'go slow' effort. Show up for work, occupy your space so you can't be locked out, but do as little as possible. I once led a documentation strike at a group home to protest onerous practices there. We took care of the residents, but did not document anything except medications. No documentation meant no billing. Worked like a charm.
“So many of these things are so wildly illegal that I think they’re playing a quantity game and assuming the system can’t react to all this illegality at once.”
And that my friends is at the heart of this treason!
Christopher asks a question undeserving of sarcasm. There is a new consensus, albeit a narrow one. The people whom I know who voted for the '24-carrot' scheiße-head have expressed to me that they are fed up with career politicians and bureaucrats. Still, I can not believe that this bread-&-fracases is what they signed up for. They voted for cheaper eggs, not creepy dregs.
AND your economics where still the envy of the World ... as autocratic countries have internet too and SEE you ..they just cannot speak because they are not FREE to
This might WORK !!!!!!!!! YES...lawsuits by "regular citizens harmed"...so hopeful !!! And "regular Citizens " can RESIST = Ie the Treasury Dept (too late here but there are many more departments ! ) The FBI ........all the departments can shutter or shut down or deny access ...as they are going to "shut down very soon anyway" with Loyalists of Trump.....Why not shut down 1st with the People who know how to work with their processes vs shut down with new Loyalists who haven't' a clue what to DO !!! What IS the saying " Power to the PEOPLE " Oh there IS Light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Faith :)
" the government should regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. The idea was to use tax dollars to create national wealth. The government would hold the economic playing field level by protecting every American’s access to education, healthcare, transportation and communication, employment, and resources so that anyone could work hard and rise to prosperity."This is the definition of liberal government according to Professor. I think liberal government is the government of democracy, but the name needs to be changed. It is widely misunderstood now socialism and Marxist. I suggest a new name: "Lincoln government." President Lincoln is the one noone opposes. Even Trump says he is next to Lincoln.
The question is who, or what, is going to stop this? The legislative branch is complicit and the judiciary is headed by a Supreme Court that has already granted immunity to the president. Trump’s first term was like the burglar testing all the locks in the neighborhood - the second term is like the burglar hitting all the vulnerable houses; which is turning out to be most of them. Welcome to the “imperial presidency.”
There are better names for it, like espionage, CFAA violations and criminal negligence. But treason has to involve some direct act of giving aid and comfort to an enemy, and most legal scholars say it's limited to times when Congress has declared war on "the enemy." So as awful as it is, we need to find terms other than treason to describe it.
True. No one in their right minds could ever think it would be in the national interest to have a narcissistic sociopathic and morbidly rich private citizen have access to proprietary government information, and to strip the power of the purse from Congress. Congress and the Senate are loaded with Trump toadies or people who are too chicken to call out Trump’s and Muskrat’s behavior as both illegal and unconstitutional.
A major part of why I try to avoid "treason" is because it's often the rallying cry of the right for anything that involves social services - they immediately jump to the conclusion that it's communist and therefore treason.
Are we threatened with censorship soon on Heather’s site?
Yes.
Both Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell today broadcast news of the convicted criminal in the White House now moving to extend his criminality to kill the U.S. commercial free press with next us, the non-commercial voices, so none can question any of his criminality.
Nor none can question, either, his allies (Musk, Bondi, Bessent, Hegseth, Patel, Morocco, Gabbard). Nor the thug militias for more criminality.
Many here on Heather’s site dislike my focus on humanities being taught in schools, cited in media. Most take them for granted as if somehow, like democracy, private forums like Heather’s will always be available.
Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell beg to differ. The criminal-in-chief has already set criminality in motion like Orban’s in Hungary, Putin’s before that. And when the American free press is killed, need any be surprised that the criminality next comes for sites such as here?
You are right, they have told us what they plan and are well on the way “flooding the zone with Schitt.” What you think could never happen here, is happening here NOW
Yes, JDinTX -- what we've always loathed in pathetic history "is happening here," now.
I had one reason I wanted also to post something (somewhat) lighter accompanying this (mine a bit below on the orange felon on Gaza) -- my debt owed to Lawrence O'Donnell.
He's raging and well so most recently on the supine, dumb, elite, and "access"-mad Washington D.C. press corps. While deadly serious things are underway (Lawrence most angry at the damages to so many from Musk's killing of U.S.A.I.D.), the D.C. elites just ignore that -- zero refs or Qs to that at a most recent large press conference.
But they are jumping all over the orange felon's press conference with international criminal Netanyahu. They don't know, the D.C. idiot press, that they've been had. Trump's ideas are preposterous, outrageously, frivolously stupid. But the press eats it up, feasts on palpable nonsense, and for that ignores, can't see or care about the real and vast human damages the damaged fool Musk occasions to so many poor, unfortunate non-elite around the world.
The Gaza, and West Bank Initiatives are Extremely Dangerous for the USA... View the Press Conference with Netanyahu today... Seems that DJT is deteriorating Rapidly, and Netanyahu looks like that Alley Cat that just swallowed the Canary... Will the US Public Welcome being involved in a Guerilla War in Gaza just so there can be a Kushner/Trump Resort? Netanyahu definitely got the better end of the Deal... So much for DJT's Deal-Making Skills... This will aid Netanyahu by providing cover for the IDF to withdrawal... The insertion of U.S. forces would put the USA in another Guerilla War, and paint a Target on every American in the Middle-East... Once again, Israel would WIN. USA Lose... DJT has been bought, and has gone insane...
But the real reason for the Gaza pitch is distraction. Every minute spent worrying about Panama, Greenland, Canada, Mexico and now Gaza is a minute not focused on the complete takeover of the inner workings of our Federal Government by Chairman Musk.
Today or tomorrow, TV $Trump will announce something even crazier. Probably withdrawing from NATO, putting tariffs on Europe, "giving" Taiwan to China in a "deal" for some bullshit project.
Trump is the TV president. He likes to be on TV. He likes to watch TV.
But he has the intellectual depth of a guppy. He has a role as an actor in the biggest reality show ever. But he is really just the apprentice.
This TV series unfolding is funded, produced and directed by Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and friends. Take another look at who was at Trumps side when he was sworn in (did he really FORGET to put his hand on the Bible?).
Netanyahu's face at the Press Conference said it all, in my imagination: "President Trump is out of his gourd....I would have never believed this if I were not standing here! He did not consult me about this?
I am looking at all these news people taking this in as if this is actually a good idea....unbelievable.....why did I not try this??? Oh well, I did bomb and destroy everything with US equipment...maybe he will set me up with a nice place on the coast ?"
Sad that our media is a choice between Rupert and clones, and our MSM’s fascination with shinny objects. Their mascot must be the bower birds, but the birds have a reason to collect shinny objects. No excuse for our MSM
"Many here on Heather’s site dislike my focus on humanities"...F***k 'em Phil, we all have some things we need to say, and we have a 1st amendment. Mine are: "'Restructure the DNC to be an effective opposition' and 'be prepared' and recently 'Kayfabe'"
So you just carry on, because you are right most of the time.
I may be correct, "bruce" (lower case yours), and it may be a bit of "me, me, mine."
But Dems really, really failed recently. Their emphasis on money, fund-raising, more money, more money, and celebrities.
No way a convicted criminal (and rapist, and life-long business fraud) and no way an insurrectionist (per the Constitution) should get to the White House.
The humanities could keep us in touch with what and who we love. Instead, without them (as Orwell plainly saw in "Politics and the English Language") we drift. We float into the inertia, magnetic force field, and momentum of abstracted language, abstracted categories (whereby for the billionaires the schools dehumanize, the legacy press dehumanizes).
The DNC should have kept their Ears to the Ground... Conducted more Focus Groups in Contested Areas... Why did essentially the whole County shift to 'Red'?...
There has been a plan to destroy the US Democracy for who knows how long ??? BUT in the last 10 years with Putin and Trumps 1st SECRET MEETING for hours (that..was treason ! ) I believe , right or wrong doesn't really matter now...came the PLAN...then Biden ( and the American People ) messed everythings up but only for 4 more years and BINGO...the won. Now...yes they did win ....and the Democrat were given NO POWER to resist... everything is stacked...EXCEPT WE HAVE 1,000,000. TO 1 odds against them....we can take back anything stolen and smell the SMOKE...we now HAVE TOO...we must resist everywhere as the FBI digs in 1st more must follow everywhere to SAVE the Country ... as every day they get more and more entrenched...it will be as ugly and Nazi Germany and we all know how that played out once Hitler got full control with the SS = our FBI ! this is a very serious time in American History and a full on call to Action or compliance ???
2024 was one of the highest voter turnouts in many years. 1/3 and more of the electorate have been disengaged for a very long time, you know that, right?
You are correct. About 66% of eligible voters participated. A record high. But still pathetic. Here is how it was in rough numbers:
Trump - 77 million
Harris - 75 million
Stayed Home - 89 million
"Stayed Home" were disillusioned, or high, lazy, ignorant, or didn't give a shit or think all politicians are the same or "GAZA"! - you name it. Oh, and there is the bunch that Phil refers to that are clueless about the "humanities" or civics or how a democracy is structured and who wants to vote for a black woman married to a Jew and the other guy is old and cuckoo. "Hon, grab me a beer...I said GRAB ME A Beer!"
Then there was the big one: the price of eggs. Damn those politicians. Why can't they just make the chickens lay more eggs?
In Australia, voter participation in Federal elections is over 90%. Why? Voting is mandatory. The penalty for not voting is $25. Sounds a little silly. But it works. But Americans have a strong opposition to doing things that work in other countries, so there you have it.
That is why there needs to be a massive housecleaning at the DNC. I am a Democrat, but the DNC offers employment to failed posters and political consultants who still are stuck in the Clinton wars of the 1990s. They need to elect younger people who are more in touch with what is actually happening, develop their own press outlets to correctly counter the misinformation of Fox and other right wing media outlets (it’s about 30 years late,) and start committing to all working people of all colors.
Hopefully private news/substack and blue sky can keep going...It would be hard, but it is done in Russia, but we have more on our side here and a history of democracy.
Alarming that Rubio is saying deport us citizens to ElSalvador prisons. WTF? Why isn’t that a headline? Steve Banon rule, “flood the zone with shit. MSM can only focus on one story, epically over the weekend. So we flood with st least three big outrage stories every day”
Please remember, though, too, that this hysteria comes in a package -- a calculated, pre-meditated, mega-well-funded package.
Nothing human about it. No conscience for lives hit. No humanities in any of the power-players and their many, many college-"educated" sycophants.
The corporate, and the billionaires (90% far-right) have schemes, abstractions to sell. The universities where they got their packaging all had zero humanities. These universities were administering only to the elite of standardized testing success.
Nothing human about them but greed, and more greed, as in the multiply-bankrupt, multiply rapist, all-his-life con man and finally convicted criminal in the White House.
Dems? Also dehumanized. Zero humanities in their educations, too.
For the same reason that no one seems concerned that the “Raken Lily Act” specifies that habeas corpus doesn’t apply to an undocumented immigrant who is accused of a crime and can be detained indefinitely without a hearing or conviction.
Here’s a PSA- If your US Passport is expiring soon, or you don’t currently have one, do so immediately. They’ll be checking everyone’s papers soon. And, they will undoubtedly add tripwires to the process for anyone with the “wrong” last name, zip code or profession.
I think there’s a game of SQUIRREL going on here! We are all looking for that fine, funny, furry fellow climbing up some tree lookin’ for nuts, when in reality there is a tarantula traipsing up our trousers.
Is this Musk/Trump adventure happening to cut off funding to Congressionally approved programs? (Schumer and Jeffries think so.) Or HIDE Trump’s program to hide his potential waste, fraud & abuse!? OR, BOTH? I’m going with BOTH - the 2 birds with 1 stone theory! THAT is EFFICIENCY!!
Of course, then we have the Donnie & Bebe bromance going on at the same time! Is this a game of DOUBLE SQUIRREL (and Double Tarantula) going on? And do these “games” decimate the news media? Yup! I think Senator Chris Murphy has it right, but, watch out for a Triple Squirrel out there somewhere on the Ukrainian border!!
It’s almost too late for that. With Bondi now in charge of the cops who’s going to arrest Musk and his hacker ludites? And now Congress is now infertile as is SCOTUS. The coup has been accomplished. There will probably be a state visit by Putin next week.
Musk is a naturalized citizen, not native born. His citizenship can be revoked and he can be deported. All it takes is the will to put those wheels in motion and see it through.
Unfortunately there is now no one with the will, power and courage to do so.
It feels like we’re fighting this battle based on an old set of rules (US law and justice). To them, these rules don’t apply. We’re being steamrolled and it’s moving quickly.
To think that just days ago Mexico and Canada sent firefighters to help put out the fires in LA. But who will put out the flames that are burning down our Constitutional Republic?
By the time the law wades through all this clearly illegal crap it won’t matter, because it will be a done deal and the damage may be irreparable. Those MAGAs who lose their Social Security and all other financial support will no doubt wail and gnash their teeth, but Elon and his mechanics will have moved on. Our laws were not designed to prosecute this monumental kind of “smash and grab “ brazen theft.
Yes, that’s why they’re sleeping there. They know they’re racing against time. It’s way too easy. No one stopping them, limited protest, full access without interruption, and help from employees.
Someone who works inside needs to take one for the team. Pull the plug somehow. Interrupt. They’re going to destroy things with or with the employees so people need to stop helping them.
If it smells and looks like a skunk, you can be sure it’s a skunk. Now it’s too late for the good military generals to ironically save the union from itself. And it’s mostly our fault.
The U.S. is going to move 1,8 million Palestinians out of Gaza so the World's Master Real Estate Developer can develop it as luxury, 3rd-home, and recreation haven for the world's billionaire and oligarch classes.
It's like that other Great Idea, the Trail of Tears when nearly 200 years ago that other happy racist in the White House, Andrew Jackson, had the U.S. military force off their land the Cherokee and all the other tribes then in southern Appalachia. So other racist speculators could profit from the good soil, many rivers, coal, timber, and abundant minerals there.
Jared and his real estate developer father-in-law have always had Gaza in their sites. Too bad so many Gen-Z sat out the election as a protest vote against the atrocities perpetrated on the Gazans.
Trump/Netanyahu is an exercise in genocidal autocracy, and USA is about to abandon the UN. You could also say, Hamas bit off much more than it could chew, and the whole Gazan population is about to pay for it. What about all the Palestinians living in the West Bank which the settler side of Israel want to take over as well?
The thing that concerns me is that at some point, Israel may come to a point where they can no longer maintain control over the West Bank, and they will have to retreat into Israel proper. Israeli journalists Hirsh Goodman and Gershom Gorenberg have discussed this as a real possibility.
I believe the West Bank has abt 3 million Palestinians, not including those remaining in East Jerusalem, and they represent about 85% of the population there. Trump is unbelievable. American troops on the ground ?
Yeah, complete with hot and cold running terrorists too. I can't think of any better way of setting off them off than just saying we'll take over Gaza, much less trying to do it. Expect more terrorism in the Mideast and the US.
I don’t like Hamas, who have an iron grip on Gaza and put their own people in danger, but does Trump really think Egypt and Jordan are going to take in Palestinians from Gaza? I think it’s a pipe dream more than anything else.
Last night I watched AOC’s livestream. She said that Musk is redirecting funds (pillaging) the Treasury in order to fund the tax cuts passed in 2017, which sunset soon. Anyone have thoughts on this?
I wish I didn’t live so far from DC because I’d take time off to protest there too. But I’m calling my reps, I’m steady the word, and when HCR gives an assignment I’m doing it with A+ effort.
I think all 435 members of Congress and 100 senators need to go home and file lawsuits in the states. because they are threatening the whole country. As weird as we all are, we still belong to this country.
What good are lawsuits? They do nothing. We have no justice department, the supreme court has said rumpy is above the law. If someone doesn't move fast with the loyal military we have left it's going to be a done deal and will take a very long time, if ever, to recover. It may already be too late. There's no longer time to go through the courts.
Are we sure the cuts are going to hit everyone? With AI involved and the masters of all our social media data -- Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, TikTok -- in on this coup, can we be sure they won't be just for anyone who didn't vote R?
It should be. But when the person authorizing all this has immunity, he'll okay anything, and when the people he has doing it for him will be pardoned, I don't know that we have any legal bridges left standing.
They are. The code being written and inserted will allow access to and control of payments to specific individuals. So SS payments to just registered Dems in a town can be cut off while payments to Reps continue unchanged.
Those Dems are traitors. Exactly what happened with the election. Dems scream warnings, people yawn. What will it take. Rupert will never tell the MAGAts. Of course, Rupert is a magat
Why in the world aren't these criminals being arrested?!?!?!!!! I truly do not understand. They are no different than any other citizen (other than working for fascists and a dictator) who would be nailed by police in a minute.
We have him to thank for our Republican senators violating their oaths of office twice to acquit an obviously guilty president. History will teach about Mitch McConnell’s perfidy.
The FOP is not too happy with Trump for pardoning and freeing people convicted of crimes in connection with their January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection. They revoked their endorsement of Trump right after Trump freed the insurrectionists.
How are Fox, OAN, and other right-wing news and commentators reporting this? More lies and fantasy? Who will they blame when eggs go to $12, vaccines are no longer available, schools - especially special ed programs - close, immigrant employees and business owners disappear?
Right-wing news organizations have largely portrayed Elon Musk's recent actions with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as necessary interventions to reduce government waste and increase accountability.
Fox News Coverage:
Addressing Fraudulent Payments: Fox News reported that Musk criticized the Treasury Department for approving payments to known fraudulent or terrorist groups, highlighting DOGE's role in uncovering such inefficiencies.
Targeting USAID: The network described DOGE's focus on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as an effort to reform an agency with a global footprint, suggesting that USAID had become a "viper's nest" of inefficiency.
Political Reactions: Fox News highlighted Democratic lawmakers' concerns over Musk's access to sensitive Treasury data, framing it as partisan opposition to necessary government reforms.
Support from Republican Senators: The outlet featured statements from Republican figures, such as Senator Joni Ernst, who defended DOGE's initiatives and advised critics to "get used to this," emphasizing the administration's commitment to reducing government waste.
Overall, right-wing media outlets have depicted Musk's actions through DOGE as bold and necessary steps to streamline government operations, reduce waste, and enhance efficiency, often downplaying or dismissing concerns about overreach or potential legal issues.
Who the hell is Musk to determine what are or are not fraudulent payments? The investigation of alleged fraudulent payments and activities and determination of enforcement action is the province of each agency's Inspector General . . .oh, oops! Ain't got no more of those.
Exactly. Without knowing the performance requirements of each program and how to evaluate compliance, they have no basis for making such determinations.
I love how they repeat government waste and no doubt there is some but now there's no oversight, but the biggest rebuttal to this is the reality that Trump chose to fly immigrants out on military planes costing $800,000 as opposed to commercial flights that would have cost $21,000. Clearly waste in government is another lie Trump choses to play.
The real waste in government comes from military contractors padding bills, from subsidies to wealthy corporations, and tax cuts to morbidly wealthy people. The corporations and wealthy can and should be paying much more in taxes, and the real complexities of the tax code come about from lobbying by the morbidly rich and corporations to create all sorts of dubious loopholes to avoid paying more taxes. Then, the same people turn around and encourage Congress and the Senate to reduce funds for IRS enforcement and oversight, which lets both groups abuse the tax system for their own personal gain.
Laurie, a friend's wife wrote this on FB last night:
""Loving watching a bunch of ineffective, inefficient, corrupt politicians melt down. They are so arrogant and threatened by competent, efficient, pro active adults who get shit done they can't handle it."
I have no idea how they will respond, but I can suspect that it will involve blaming Democrats and the Democratic Party.
My Social Security check gets direct deposited in my checking account the fourth Wednesday of the month. I’m going to be a little nervous until then, and probably thereafter until that South African bastard gets destroyed.
Am I going to get a letter stating, “There are some questions about your eligibility….”?
I got mine on the 3rd and when I saw it in my account, the sound that escaped my lips was somewhere between relief and anguish. This kind of stress on people old enough to receive Social Security is a special kind of evil.
Frump may have immunity for illegal acts while he’s president but what about the people who do his bidding g? If they break the law they are not immune. Surely THEY can be charged? If everybody who broke the law, shat on the constitution could be held accountable?
If there is anything left of our justice system after, say, Thursday — maybe. This feels like doom. Am I crazy to hold out hope that if we keep fighting, if Congress protects its own power (if not ours), that something of our democracy can be salvaged?
You have no choice. The lassitude of the millions who didn’t vote, the ignorance of magas, the corruption of the voting systems, the gerrymandering, the slow grinding of the gears of the law, the vile vampires of the Supreme Court, all together put these evil men in power. The Constitution has been savaged.
US citizens have to resist, gave to fight back, have to bring them all down or the Republic will be unrevivable
The Supreme Court needs to change of the immunity clause and I believe there is something about the constitution in there - if not, they need to go to the Supreme Court because violations of the constitution and laws created (like Congress controls the purse) should be impeached. I'm hoping they have attorneys working on this now.
Senator Thom Tillis may have said “there are kinks in the slinky “ but he will ignore the kinks to approve anything Trump wants. Tillis has caved and approved each nominee for the Cabinet positions. I have called him, written him, and repeated this over again. He gave me some blabbing nonsense answer in how he is supporting President Trump’s vision for the country. I haven’t received any response from him or any of my elected officials about Musk. I will not stop calling him and anyone else.
As for Trump and Bibi with Gaza. Shame on both of them.
Musk must be stopped. Trump must be held accountable as well as everyone who is involved with the illegal invasion of our country. It’s not an invasion with guns and military might yet it is an invasion which can cause extreme damage and suffering to destroy our democracy in our country.
It puts me in mind of Trump’s lies about the “deep state.” The only real deep state is the one Trump wants to create for his own benefit. Governmental agencies and cabinet offices are accountable to the Constitution, not to a specific person who happens to be president. Trump thinks he was elected as a dictator, and that all agencies and cabinet offices should be under his personal control and their employees swear personal allegiance to him. This is a flagrant constitutional violation. These agencies derive their legitimacy from legislative action, and they do not owe personal allegiance to Trump, but to the Constitution.
Here is an article that explains how maybe just maybe what he did and is doing is more than illegal
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/04/when-its-not-just-a-coup-but-a-cfaa-violation-too/
When It’s Not Just A Coup But A CFAA Violation Too. Legal Issues from the tic-tac-DOGE dept by Cathy Gellis
“I think a colorable, non-frivolous argument can be made that Elon Musk, and everyone on his DOGE team accessing the federal government’s computer infrastructure, is potentially personally liable for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).”
I think it's actually called TREASON...the TRESPASSING OF FEDERAL PROPERTY and ACCESS to SECURE DATA protected by a FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY. It's quite simple...YOU ARREST THE PERPETRATORS as they have no AUTHORIZATION nor do they have SECURITY CLEARANCE STATUS. The Media should frame it as 'ELONGATE'...and the MILITARY should send MUSK and his CRONIES to Guantanamo Bay indefinitely. SITUATION RESOLVED!
Where is the tipping point from which there is no return?????
When Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid pmts don't go out... Modifying Code, on live Systems without testing will get you fired in most places... Why wasn't Security Called when they stormed in on a Weekend?... Untested Code? Have 'Trojan Horses', and 'Backdoors' been introduced... Are they there any logs of the changes, or Back-Out Plans if things go Bad?
Clearly, Trump has no idea what is going on and now wants to take over Gaza. The man is cray-cray and everything everyone warned about with Project 2025 is taking place in spades.
For most of the past 50 years I have been on-call to fix abends in various systems 24/7/365. When there is an abend, we used to fix the bug in the program and then run the fix live usually against millions of insurance policies. And if we messed up by changing financial values, it was caught immediately in the various balancing programs and audit trails required.
But starting in the late 1980's many companies found it difficult to hire people capable of fixing a problem on a timely basis so that systems would be available for the users first thing in the morning. And so they bypassed the bad data, until a fix could be implemented with proper testing and auditing protocols.
What these morons is doing, is putting live untested code into the systems, bypassing audit checks and balancing routines. If I had done this even once without proper sing-offs not only would I have been terminated, but I would have been black-balled from ever working for any financial services firm again.
I'm sure the Republicans in the Senate and House are totally and completely clueless as to the damage Musk is doing otherwise, they would stop it.
What makes anyone believe they will not come for your Social Security or Medicare or VA Benefits or even your income tax refund.
Next they will start changing the IRS systems so Congress needn't bother defunding it.
The oligarchs have won and there's no one to stop them.
Nobody has WON...yet ! You are right..every day they WILL be more ENTRENCHED AND MAKE IT HARDER. I am sorry to tell you .... that if you are Hungry, you will COMPLY. But we now SEE what they are doing and they must be STOPPED...and they can be stopped..WE HAVE THE NUMBERS of People, and The American People will resist ..........NEVER ever give up !!! ever.. :) Its not over but they did start a very big FIGHT xo
We clearly have new traitors showing their faces in the senate. Not Republicans, we know what they’re about. No. Our Democratic senators who’ve been voting along with Republican senators to confirm these completely unacceptable nominees for the Cabinet. You can’t get through to John Fetterman‘s office, just hangs up or busy. He’s a snake and not worth my time any longer.
We need to focus on who’s willing to be a leader and fight.
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is my focus. Support her! Listen to her! Send letters of support of her over Democrats voting with Republicans (copies to your traitor senators) phone calls, e-mails show up at heir offices. Too progressive for you? Now is not the time. We cannot continue to wallow in despair. We are people in search of a leader! She is speaking up! We can amplify her. Stop bothering with the traitors, we know who they are. I keep a running tab of which Democrats vote along with Republicans and I’m extremely disappointed whose names I’ve seen. Reuben Gallego? Right out of the gate? Really Reuben? Traitor.
How is it the whole system appears to have just abandoned itself to this nazi in three days? Is there no one with the ovaries to stop this?
I know! Why aren’t the federal courts not under his thump not stopping this. How is it possible for us to all just watch this and no one is doing anything. And the confirmation s. I’m speechless. What is hsppening?
Please do not use the term cray-cray, it is offensive to people within the mental health community. While he may be mentally ill, a better term for him would be deranged or insane.
I’d thought it was a dumb enough term to be seen as, well, insulting to those who are choosing to be perverse.
That’s your focus right now?
Gary Loft,
Trump has said that he wants to come for our Social Security and Medicare. With Musk and his minions in charge, it is possible.
The Gaza plan is a real and not a new thing. 3/19/2024 The Guardian reported on Jared Kushner’s interest in building on Gaza’s waterfront property. This would involve moving Palestinians to the Negev Desert.
Thank-You Gary...
We are fortunate that our Constitution is printed and written on paper, not that that solves all of these problems and sting doings. Thank you for the many explanations.
Paper burns. . .
Republicans are just fine with all this, as their corporate donors demand.
''When Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid pmts don't go out''
You're 100% correct - the shit will hit the proverbial fan from sea to shining sea!
Not knowing how this works, my question is: If they make changes, do we lose the original code? Or is it preserved somewhere, somehow?
That all depends. Having worked on many major systems in my career, there were systems set up that would make it virtually impossible to introduce changes that couldn't be tracked and there were others where you could relatively easily slip a "monkey patch" into the code that couldn't be tracked. The latter of course is VERY bad but it isn't always easy to prevent. Like anything else, especially in computer software, it depends on the code.
The worst part of this is that undoing the changes, assuming some level of normality actually was to return, might turn out to be very difficult or even virtually impossible. I have seen systems which got f**ked up by improper changes and we didn't have appropriate software and data backups required to undo the resulting disaster. One would hope that a system as critical as the one being screwed with would be more resilient but it is just as possible that most people involved in making changes all assumed that something like this could never happen so they might have not put the proper "restore" mechanisms in place. After 50 years doing software on systems of all sizes, this happens more often than anyone would ever want to acknowledge.
I have some hope that this could be reversed but not 100% faith that I am right.
Sigh...
I understand the software is in COBOL. The people who used that are probably all collecting SS themselves. Or already deceased.
Honestly, with or without a tipping point, I don't see us ever returning to what we once thought we had, for better and for worse.
No Lizzy...it will take time, and it will be a fight, yes it will...but they do not deserve this beautiful Country !!!! That was the envy of the WORLD...no no no. Have faith that the 1,000,000 to 1 odds is the only way - and WHAT a WAY ...no other country that has that.... even Russia has only 1/3 and we have the advantage of KNOWING what is control is coming...and resisting the CONTROL.... Never ever loose faith (no matter what ;) xox
The other issue is that wingnuts want to sell this idea of the United States coming back again as an economic powerhouse. It won’t happen, and they will ensure that any gains from business success continue to go to oligarchs like Muskrat. We have a different economic system than we did, say, in the early 1960s. The shortsighted behavior of our manufacturers taking American production abroad allowed China to grow at our expense and to receive proprietary manufacturing information at our expense. The only way we can even get a larger piece of the pie is by unionizing, strengthening the Wagner (NLRB) Act and abolishing Taft Hartley in its entirety. We also need to attack monopolies and oligopolies. All of these ideas are anathema to people like Trump and Musk.
It’s so stupid because even without a a “larger piece of the pie” we were still the wealthiest country in the world. The problem is greed of the oligarchs. They can never have enough, and won’t share with the average American.
And maybe…we will emerge from our collective ennui with something better because we’ve been forced. (Trying to be optimistic here—don’t shoot the messenger.)
I love your optimism. I think we need to hold onto that as we fight for our lives.
I think .. we are there - depending on if the People (like the FBI ) start to resist ...or stay in shock and are taken over
You’ve passed that point, sadly.
Where is the tipping point from which there is no return? It passed, too late. We had an election, and this is what the people wanted. I hope you will not be directly affected, although most of Trump's voters will be. The last thing we want to hear from Trump voters is, "This is not what we expected."
Harvey, I've been saying for a while that the only apparent way out of this disaster movie (if only that's what this is) is that pain is widely distributed across all classes, or at least across the masses. It's unfortunate for those with the least who daily, perennialy, struggle to survive.
If enough of us are affected -- given Lone Skum's filthy fingers getting into every aspect of our lives from financial to food safety and security, perhaps then, and only then, will we decide that the Maga movement must be ripped root and branch from power.
But it maybe too late -- I fear Lone Skum is building redundancy and resilience in the systems he now controls.
Love your moniker for him. My dyslexic brain did that for me yesterday, at least with the last name.
We need to think about tipping back. It’s sustained public protest. Sit ins. Marches. Disruption.
Stop the coup.
Hakeem Jeffries can identify about 20 House Republicans who possibly could flip. Three are Cuban Americans from Miami. Here's a letter from a MAGAT, my rep, who represents a majority Dem district. https://files.constantcontact.com/1849eea4801/cd2e90be-43c8-4171-b3c6-a357621f7db9.pdf?_gl=1*uo1jgf*_ga*MDMwMjhjMzctZTFlNy00YzExLWE3NTEtZGUxMmY1OGY0YjEw*_ga_14T5LGLSQ3*MTczNzc0NTk1My4zLjEuMTczNzc0Njg2Ny44LjAuMA..
Please identify all these reps and interview them. Pressure them.
These first 100 days, at most. Every obey in advance the tipping point gets closer & closer.
Jhon, the tipping point will be the midterm election, if we have one at all.
I think we are here. It's heartening to hear Democrats rail against what's happening. But they aren't DOING anything. The fact that they aren't DOING anything means they are complicit.
We already passed it.
That is the $64,000 question, John.
Why the fuck doesn’t someone in our military walk in and just arrest him?
They control the Military ...sorry
There is a Christian Nationalist element in the military, but the military takes seriously its position of being under civilian control. The problem is the supine Republicans in Congress and the Senate, and not enough Democrats are calling out this behavior as unconstitutional and illegal.
Rep LaMonica McIver is on it. “We are at war! Shut this city down!” She shouted at a speech outside the Treasury.
“WE WILL FIGHT BACK. We are at war. God damn it, shut down the city!” LaMonica McIver
https://youtu.be/P-s_rIJ0uYE?si=jp_cLkVHVd7vYRIN
The Democrats are outnumbered .... the courts became stacked...the last hope is the People ...... and I would always bet on the American People .... this will be hard but what choice have you ....give up and live as Russia does...today ??? Not without a fight xo
I will NOT bet on any MAGAt. Ever. Well, except to do anything to feed their hateful, angry amygdalae.
Kathy, I agree, and I've thought for a while that Schumer is not the man for this moment in time. Perhaps we need a woman -- Elizabeth Warren would do a far better job.
Rs are long past caring. And with the last election’s results, I’d bet they’ve convinced themselves this is what people want because of the R trifecta. And I can’t blame them for thinking that, really.
And the FBI and Homeland Security.
Patricia, under whose authority? Hegseth's?
Treason is very narrowly defined in the Constitution for a reason, but the breaking into government computer systems is highly illegal and is not in the best interest of the United States or its citizens. There is also a constitutional violation in that Trump is president and is attempting to usurp Congress’s control over the budget, and is delegating this power and access to government computers to a private citizen without Congressional authorization. This is total chutzpah on the part of Trump and Musk
What Congress Kathy, we don't have a Congress
Exactly. I get how most Republicans could be corrupted, stupid, selfish, bigoted and evil. But how could it be that 99% of them are marching lockstep behind President Musk?
I listened to Senator Ron Johnson last night on the NewsHour. He is just as crazy as the Orange Menace. He actually normalized RFK, Jr. WTF?
Senator Collins who is sometimes viewed as sane, just announced her support for Putin puppet Gabbard. Can't explain this....
This is not a Congress of the American People. This is a group of "nobles" kissing the ring of a Mad King. F*ck the peasants.
Wait, wait! I figured out what is motivating the Republicans in the kings courtage. They were promised beach front condos in "Mar a Gaza"!!!
Did I imagine the ''For Sale'' sign on the lawn at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave?
Bill if no were tragic it would be funny.
Thanks for your reply 👍
With the current SCOTUS tee'd up to give them the authoriztion to continue according the the directives of a president!
It IS treason....as we come OUT of the shock and awe designed to overwhelm in a take over...NO MORE EVIDENCE NEEDED HERE........Listen for resistance as the USA will very soon be an Autocracy. That IS what is happening and the hurtful truth is that every day that passes is one more department or area of Government to use to their FULL control. Listen for what to DO as I have seen several write up's on these pages supporting Trump with disinformation here ! So they are reading these bits too to try to spread disinformation among the aware AND to listen to what we now KNOW. I am so sorry for the strong talk here, I understand how awful this is to read, but we have SEEN this exact play book in History as Ann Applebuam has reiterated last night on Bullark. To break all Democracies ...it had to break the US first....but this is the biggest and hardest domino to fall....however if it falls, and it could .....if we don't Wake Up fast...well then we will be very very unhappy. All except the very very rich xox
Shauna,extraordinary clear and visionary post. You mentioned that to break Democracies, the US should be broken first and the rest are going to fall, is the key point and final goal of the maga billionaires and Project 2025 architects. That scenario is not only the key point and the final point but also, the point of no return.
If we try to resist or fight back, even militarily, can they hold us hostage by controlling our nation’s financial system?
Federal Courts? Trump has pardon power and he is immune. How close are they to “checkmate?”
Heather’s letter tonight is one of the most sobering. Each day we allow to slip past without stopping this coup brings us closer to completion of Project 2025.
True...the last hope is our sheer numbers of people and our determination...comply or resist ??? which will it be? .... that is now all that is left - they know it now we are catching on
Seditious Conspiracy
CFAA
Treason
The MAGA movement made perfectly clear on 1/6/21 that treason is not an impediment for them.
It is TREASON. But WHO is going to do anything about it. Spineless Republicans? The media could stand up, until the air waves are cut off like "they" are trying to defund NPR.
Spineless Democrats???
Federal laws are being broken! Someone call the FBI! Oh, wait, musk owns the FBI! Fortunately, there are Federal agents in the FBI, CIA who are ready, will, and able to fight against this evil. We have to find and mobilize them along with the rest of America.
They believe, and may be right, that the executive order creating DOGE gives them cover. Meanwhile, that executive order was an 'official act'. They believe they are untouchable. Are they?
But as the article pointed out, without a normally-functioning DOJ, who or what agency can prosecute the offence under criminal law? Who will do the arrest? How do you I prison someone legally if the normal system has been highjacked? Proof comes when the prosecution clearly demonstrates under the rules of evidence that the accused had violated the written law. Who is going to do all that when those in control are the the ones breaking the law?
Why isn’t everyone saying THIS!!!
Unfortunately, it won't fix the damage they have done.
FBI has been taken over. Federal prosecutors have been fired or are MAGA. tfg uses pardons liberally, and he owes Musk ..
ok Jones, do it.
Remember when Musk told us it would hurt. That is what Goebbels told the German people, and yet they were encouraged to be patriotic and tough it out. I am terrified for everyone. They are moving the money out of the economy.
Crash the dollar. Replace with crypto. So oligarchs of the world can unite, embezzle their respective countries wealth, avoid taxes, avoid sanctions, free to pilfer and pillage both earthly resources and wield ultimate control over all people and planet.
They are called Libert-Aryans.
Here is what Olga Lauman is saying on her Trump Tyranny Tracker: Day 16
https://open.substack.com/pub/trumptyrannytracker/p/trump-tyranny-tracker-day-16?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Nice turn of phrase, Ted.
Musk is lying. He and Trump want to reduce the population to peonage, even as they suck up our tax dollars to live high on the hog at our expense.
they have enough money...They instead will stop giving you money to buy food :( that is the CONTROL and comply
There are rallies planned at every state capital in the nation later today. Come out.
That will do nothing. Only when the perpetrators and their enablers are arrested will this stop.
Demonstrations of solidarity assures those suffering in silence that they are not alone. They also pierce the veil of feigned normality and legitimacy about what the Republican Party is doing. It is essential, however, that participants in demonstrations are peaceful. The point is to pull others in from the sidelines.
I wish you luck, with your protests. But they should have happened years ago.
I wish I could, but I have to work. I’m not implying that the protesters don’t, and I agree with their protests.
I know exactly what you mean.. actually one of Their distractive strategies, over the years, was to have us all working 8 days a week, too busy to see what They’re doing.
Kathy, you ARE helping! Through your being here, through your words, you buttress up the solidarity with your presence. This is so in body, and in spirit. I suggest that even the most disabled among us has presence equally at the table. The tiny acts of solidarity we CAN find through our inventive genius, are incalculably valuable, and comforting to others. Smile, open a door, let someone in front of you, gladden the heart of a child, a new parent. In doing so, you're flooded with good hormones, your own happiness chemicals. Skip the addictive stuff, and go out and make some good news of your own. You likely will find an island of humanity previously unknown to you. Remember, they can NEVER have that in their miserable world of never having enough !
These 50501 protests run from noon to 7 pm to allow more people who work “9 to 5” to participate.
I hope everyone will be safe. Not everyone is able to take part.
YES JL. As news overwhelms and distortions prevail, what reaches pro-Trump people who allow this, I hope that "Piercing the veil of feigned normality" can flip them. "The point is to pull others in from the sidelines." What information moves and how is critical, those images of people in the streets -- now and as history looking back, I'm praying it's a tipping point.
sorry..that isn't going to happen ... they stacked the deck and control everything ...when they got the Supreme Court that was a big big win. There are no other options left but to resist and stop anything they want. The many many good American People are IT - look to other Autocracies...to take back your Country WILL be a fight :( :( Listen for what to DO to help xo
First you have to resist, be successful and take control and then arrest are going to follow, not all the way around. Start fighting back and keep the faith.
We have to do what the Native Americans did in the 1970's -- take over Federal office buildings and demand access to their computer systems like Musk did.
Dozens of people inside the Senate and Congressional office building and their various satellite offices is the only way they will listen at this point. And take over the Supreme Court building as well.
Protests aren't going to change the minds of any Republicans in Congress or the Senate. Demand the personal laptops of Senators and Congressmen and confiscate all of their correspondence and publish their browsing history. Apparently, that's public information that each of us should have access to. If Musk and his tech-bros can access secured financial data, what harm is it in revealing correspondence and browsing history.
AGREED...Take BACK today what they are STEALING !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today .... as everyday their control is greater and greater ...but they can NEVER OUTNUMBER US....IMPOSSIBLE :) it is the one mistake they made !!!!!!!!!! ( And that we are AMERICAN ! )
In essence, Martial Law through our Military!
100%
“Shut this city down!” Rep LaMonica McIver
“”WE ARE AT WAR!””
RESIST, RESIST, RESIST....they started this War on the American People.... but what a Country to try to steal...1,000,000 to 1 !!! Not good odds for them !!!
Shauna, the odds are against us but the fight is worthy.
I'll be at the state house in Concord, NH at noon on 2/5. I'm tired of complaining and waiting for someone to save us. We are the adults now. No one is coming to save us. Time to act now.
The people are IT...no one can overcome the sheer volume of American People...NO OTHER (BEGINNING TAKE OVER ) has the numbers of the USA !!! I know this is the one and biggest mistake they made.............too many of us.....and too few of THEM !
Hope this is just the beginning of a successful resistance movement.
Elon has added the Executive Branch to his asset portfolio. He paid $290 million for it. With Donald's help he has control of the Legislative Branch as well. And who in the Judicial Branch has the power to stop Elon and his team from committing crimes? The rules, the laws, the Constitution, do not apply to Elon. Like Russia, there are some people in America who are above the law.
you are right. BUT Russia doesn't have 3.5 Americans...who are NOT going to roll over...America has been thrown into in a Civil WAR with the Autocratic Take over of their Government...and it will be uncomfortable BUT we No Longer have a choice but to get our FREEDOM back. The only ways is how other countries topple their Governments....Putins only FEAR is his people rising up...and the longer we delay the more control and fear they instil, then the American people too will comply, out of fear. We ARE NOT there yet..but daily they win more control :(
What happens if the consensus actually votes for an illegal takeover of the evil deep state..... actually votes for it to be destroyed?
Did you vote for Musk and his employees to take over the Treasury and your information? Where is that consensus of actual votes you are talking about?
Ed Nuhfer. It was clearly written down in actual writing, publicly, for all to see.
No I didn't vote for it, but I knew they would do this. It was very clear.
Everybody knew.
It's just that a lot of naive people thought it was silly, a bit far fetched. "They'll never really do that"
But they said very very clearly exactly what they were going to do. And they are doing it.
Do you really think that the millions of people that did vote for this thought "oh! they're not really going to do what they say..... and wrote down in great deal.
It will be.... you know, like in Hungary.
Yes. They said this is what they would do. Project 2025. We can't be Hungary because we are too big and diverse to end up that way. It will be something else, and I think a lot of something else's because we are 50 states and the D.C. and Puerto Rico and other territories.
There are things Trump has said that I have taken seriously, and they include his attacks on women, people of color, “DEI,” the right to vote, and mass deportation. Where I think he’s lying is that he claims he’ll do things to benefit his less affluent voters, or to do anything that will benefit anything or anyone except for the morbidly rich and big corporations.
And Canada, and Mexico, and Greenland ....... this is BIG plans here and I am so so sorry to say...it will be need a big fight BACK BUT as the red states SEE what is happening (remember they are being FED by Fox News that anything Trump does is perfection - daily !!!!) once they feel something...if not too late ..they will join in too xo
Read up on Curtis Yarvin. That’s exactly what he has been encouraging the gop do. He is Musk’s political technologists.
Exactly. And I read Project 2025 in a group that discussed it as we went along. All of this is expected except for the Musk-factor and the speed!
It is all the terrifying cartoons with the evil villain, only this is our lives.
Yes..Musk was a gift to them...hence the bromance and Hitler salute....
I assume that Republicans in Congress will be motivated to stop Musk when they stop getting paid.
they will not stop being paid if they go along with the take over...Join "Hitlers team" to Protect themselves...they are now just pawns too :( BUT we have 1,000,0000 to 1 odds here in a fight...AND we have the best minds and strongest of people. Keep Faith , realize that there is way more good people than bad - they are ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED...help your neighbours - support yourself mentally and friends...there have been take overs before and the have People won back....with far less capabilities than the USA !!!!!! Never ever loose Faith... ever xo
The good people have not taken action in the past. "It's free speech so he's allowed to lie." Heaven forbid he be prosecuted for slander and liable. "Let him say what he wants. It's okay if it's not true, it's just alternative facts." The only person with the guts to stand up to him and push back was E. Jean Carroll. We let the Supreme Court give him immunity. Any judge who says someone is above the law should have been disbarred, especially the ones who lied during their confirmation hearings. We're too nice. In order to have a tolerant society you must be intolerant of intolerance. We let them get away with too much like an indulgent parent badly spoiling an unruly child instead of taking firm and decisive corrective action. Now they have turned into a monster. I fear there will have to be bloodshed.
They are on a Separate System... They always get Paid....
As HCR has said, they are messing with the algorithms. Always is apparently over.
You will be paid if you COMPLY...that is next and that will be a great shock
Musk can afford to make every Congress critter a ten millionaire or more. Republicans folded. Took the money over the constitution.
Ed, this is from a friend's wife (actually, he was one of my recruits and is still active duty law enforcement):
"Loving watching a bunch of ineffective, inefficient, corrupt politicians melt down. They are so arrogant and threatened by competent, efficient, pro active adults who get shit done they can't handle it."
This is what they think.
I think the 70 or so million that voted for Trump Vance did vote for it to be destroyed.
My 94yo Fox-watching, T💩p-voting mother was aghast that her Meals-on-Wheels would most likely be cut or demolished. She’s depended on it for a decade. “You voted for it, mom.” “No I didn’t!” The leopard will eat her face.
Wow, Derek. Send this idea to The Lincoln Project. Get that little story up on the airwaves!
Derek, she was bamoozled like too many. Now the consequences will leave them without…. I must say I feel for older people dependent on social security plus all the other services WE all pay for through taxes.
I’m speechless however.
We need an army of computer whizzes. More…..
No..most have NO IDEA and will be overwhelmed last as they took over FOX and feed them lies and disinformation for YEARS NOW......BUT Project 2025 knew...like Hitler..it is a small group of nefarious minds that create the PLAN...and this is very WELL PLANNED !!! But take heart and SEE the resistance starting(FBI) before they can stop it !!! And there will be more now that we KNOW what in fact they ARE DOING.
Yes they did. This time around everyone knew that trump is a liar and a con man. And a racist. They are too and this is exactly what they voted for. If they were upset musk has their SS numbers they would be protesting too.
That’s what happened
Do you really suppose that anybody understood what this Deep State malarkey was about and what was truly intended? Aren't you the least bit shocked by what has transpired? The administration is now in the position of having to face a blizzard of lawsuits before judges, Republican as well as Democrat, who will know that their own personal data is no longer private but in the hands of a racist South African billionaire and his team of Gen Z nerds. The language about the Deep State during the campaign was essentially about two things: the so-called weaponisation of law enforcement agencies and the DoJ and the culture war stuff - not this.
Christopher, we have a front row seat to watch this...
Time for a federal government wide 'go slow' effort. Show up for work, occupy your space so you can't be locked out, but do as little as possible. I once led a documentation strike at a group home to protest onerous practices there. We took care of the residents, but did not document anything except medications. No documentation meant no billing. Worked like a charm.
How about treasonous??
- Pulled Quote -
“So many of these things are so wildly illegal that I think they’re playing a quantity game and assuming the system can’t react to all this illegality at once.”
And that my friends is at the heart of this treason!
Gee, helpful question.
Christopher asks a question undeserving of sarcasm. There is a new consensus, albeit a narrow one. The people whom I know who voted for the '24-carrot' scheiße-head have expressed to me that they are fed up with career politicians and bureaucrats. Still, I can not believe that this bread-&-fracases is what they signed up for. They voted for cheaper eggs, not creepy dregs.
Career politicians who listened to lobbyists and ignored their constituents.
AND your economics where still the envy of the World ... as autocratic countries have internet too and SEE you ..they just cannot speak because they are not FREE to
This might WORK !!!!!!!!! YES...lawsuits by "regular citizens harmed"...so hopeful !!! And "regular Citizens " can RESIST = Ie the Treasury Dept (too late here but there are many more departments ! ) The FBI ........all the departments can shutter or shut down or deny access ...as they are going to "shut down very soon anyway" with Loyalists of Trump.....Why not shut down 1st with the People who know how to work with their processes vs shut down with new Loyalists who haven't' a clue what to DO !!! What IS the saying " Power to the PEOPLE " Oh there IS Light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Faith :)
Here is Olga Lautman's Trump Tyranny Tracker Day 16.
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/february-4-2025?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
" the government should regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. The idea was to use tax dollars to create national wealth. The government would hold the economic playing field level by protecting every American’s access to education, healthcare, transportation and communication, employment, and resources so that anyone could work hard and rise to prosperity."This is the definition of liberal government according to Professor. I think liberal government is the government of democracy, but the name needs to be changed. It is widely misunderstood now socialism and Marxist. I suggest a new name: "Lincoln government." President Lincoln is the one noone opposes. Even Trump says he is next to Lincoln.
Arrest the little intern perps and put them in jail cells.
The question is who, or what, is going to stop this? The legislative branch is complicit and the judiciary is headed by a Supreme Court that has already granted immunity to the president. Trump’s first term was like the burglar testing all the locks in the neighborhood - the second term is like the burglar hitting all the vulnerable houses; which is turning out to be most of them. Welcome to the “imperial presidency.”
Ya think?!?
Lock him up. But the cops are in trump's pocket.
How are all these actions not treason?
They are.
they ARE
There are better names for it, like espionage, CFAA violations and criminal negligence. But treason has to involve some direct act of giving aid and comfort to an enemy, and most legal scholars say it's limited to times when Congress has declared war on "the enemy." So as awful as it is, we need to find terms other than treason to describe it.
True. No one in their right minds could ever think it would be in the national interest to have a narcissistic sociopathic and morbidly rich private citizen have access to proprietary government information, and to strip the power of the purse from Congress. Congress and the Senate are loaded with Trump toadies or people who are too chicken to call out Trump’s and Muskrat’s behavior as both illegal and unconstitutional.
Those computers are all at risk. The hacking by our enemies has most likely already begun.
Sabotage... CyberWar... This is the 21st Century...
Cyber war.. against your own citizens..
At least as a matter of law.
A major part of why I try to avoid "treason" is because it's often the rallying cry of the right for anything that involves social services - they immediately jump to the conclusion that it's communist and therefore treason.
I don't want t be like them
my thoughts exactly!
Treasonous acts of malicious intent and sabotage.
It's not treason if you are rich enough and belong to the "in" crowd...
Are we threatened with censorship soon on Heather’s site?
Yes.
Both Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell today broadcast news of the convicted criminal in the White House now moving to extend his criminality to kill the U.S. commercial free press with next us, the non-commercial voices, so none can question any of his criminality.
Nor none can question, either, his allies (Musk, Bondi, Bessent, Hegseth, Patel, Morocco, Gabbard). Nor the thug militias for more criminality.
Many here on Heather’s site dislike my focus on humanities being taught in schools, cited in media. Most take them for granted as if somehow, like democracy, private forums like Heather’s will always be available.
Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell beg to differ. The criminal-in-chief has already set criminality in motion like Orban’s in Hungary, Putin’s before that. And when the American free press is killed, need any be surprised that the criminality next comes for sites such as here?
You are right, they have told us what they plan and are well on the way “flooding the zone with Schitt.” What you think could never happen here, is happening here NOW
Yes, JDinTX -- what we've always loathed in pathetic history "is happening here," now.
I had one reason I wanted also to post something (somewhat) lighter accompanying this (mine a bit below on the orange felon on Gaza) -- my debt owed to Lawrence O'Donnell.
He's raging and well so most recently on the supine, dumb, elite, and "access"-mad Washington D.C. press corps. While deadly serious things are underway (Lawrence most angry at the damages to so many from Musk's killing of U.S.A.I.D.), the D.C. elites just ignore that -- zero refs or Qs to that at a most recent large press conference.
But they are jumping all over the orange felon's press conference with international criminal Netanyahu. They don't know, the D.C. idiot press, that they've been had. Trump's ideas are preposterous, outrageously, frivolously stupid. But the press eats it up, feasts on palpable nonsense, and for that ignores, can't see or care about the real and vast human damages the damaged fool Musk occasions to so many poor, unfortunate non-elite around the world.
Republicans are destroying our favorable relationship with much of the world in short order.
The Gaza, and West Bank Initiatives are Extremely Dangerous for the USA... View the Press Conference with Netanyahu today... Seems that DJT is deteriorating Rapidly, and Netanyahu looks like that Alley Cat that just swallowed the Canary... Will the US Public Welcome being involved in a Guerilla War in Gaza just so there can be a Kushner/Trump Resort? Netanyahu definitely got the better end of the Deal... So much for DJT's Deal-Making Skills... This will aid Netanyahu by providing cover for the IDF to withdrawal... The insertion of U.S. forces would put the USA in another Guerilla War, and paint a Target on every American in the Middle-East... Once again, Israel would WIN. USA Lose... DJT has been bought, and has gone insane...
All probably true and nuts.
But the real reason for the Gaza pitch is distraction. Every minute spent worrying about Panama, Greenland, Canada, Mexico and now Gaza is a minute not focused on the complete takeover of the inner workings of our Federal Government by Chairman Musk.
Today or tomorrow, TV $Trump will announce something even crazier. Probably withdrawing from NATO, putting tariffs on Europe, "giving" Taiwan to China in a "deal" for some bullshit project.
Trump is the TV president. He likes to be on TV. He likes to watch TV.
But he has the intellectual depth of a guppy. He has a role as an actor in the biggest reality show ever. But he is really just the apprentice.
This TV series unfolding is funded, produced and directed by Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and friends. Take another look at who was at Trumps side when he was sworn in (did he really FORGET to put his hand on the Bible?).
Apache,
Netanyahu's face at the Press Conference said it all, in my imagination: "President Trump is out of his gourd....I would have never believed this if I were not standing here! He did not consult me about this?
I am looking at all these news people taking this in as if this is actually a good idea....unbelievable.....why did I not try this??? Oh well, I did bomb and destroy everything with US equipment...maybe he will set me up with a nice place on the coast ?"
Sad that our media is a choice between Rupert and clones, and our MSM’s fascination with shinny objects. Their mascot must be the bower birds, but the birds have a reason to collect shinny objects. No excuse for our MSM
"Many here on Heather’s site dislike my focus on humanities"...F***k 'em Phil, we all have some things we need to say, and we have a 1st amendment. Mine are: "'Restructure the DNC to be an effective opposition' and 'be prepared' and recently 'Kayfabe'"
So you just carry on, because you are right most of the time.
I may be correct, "bruce" (lower case yours), and it may be a bit of "me, me, mine."
But Dems really, really failed recently. Their emphasis on money, fund-raising, more money, more money, and celebrities.
No way a convicted criminal (and rapist, and life-long business fraud) and no way an insurrectionist (per the Constitution) should get to the White House.
The humanities could keep us in touch with what and who we love. Instead, without them (as Orwell plainly saw in "Politics and the English Language") we drift. We float into the inertia, magnetic force field, and momentum of abstracted language, abstracted categories (whereby for the billionaires the schools dehumanize, the legacy press dehumanizes).
The DNC should have kept their Ears to the Ground... Conducted more Focus Groups in Contested Areas... Why did essentially the whole County shift to 'Red'?...
Why did so many people fail to vote?
There has been a plan to destroy the US Democracy for who knows how long ??? BUT in the last 10 years with Putin and Trumps 1st SECRET MEETING for hours (that..was treason ! ) I believe , right or wrong doesn't really matter now...came the PLAN...then Biden ( and the American People ) messed everythings up but only for 4 more years and BINGO...the won. Now...yes they did win ....and the Democrat were given NO POWER to resist... everything is stacked...EXCEPT WE HAVE 1,000,000. TO 1 odds against them....we can take back anything stolen and smell the SMOKE...we now HAVE TOO...we must resist everywhere as the FBI digs in 1st more must follow everywhere to SAVE the Country ... as every day they get more and more entrenched...it will be as ugly and Nazi Germany and we all know how that played out once Hitler got full control with the SS = our FBI ! this is a very serious time in American History and a full on call to Action or compliance ???
2024 was one of the highest voter turnouts in many years. 1/3 and more of the electorate have been disengaged for a very long time, you know that, right?
Fewer Votes were cast in 2024 than 2020... Maybe more People have tuned out... More Despair.... Societal Breakdown.... etc...
Frank,
You are correct. About 66% of eligible voters participated. A record high. But still pathetic. Here is how it was in rough numbers:
Trump - 77 million
Harris - 75 million
Stayed Home - 89 million
"Stayed Home" were disillusioned, or high, lazy, ignorant, or didn't give a shit or think all politicians are the same or "GAZA"! - you name it. Oh, and there is the bunch that Phil refers to that are clueless about the "humanities" or civics or how a democracy is structured and who wants to vote for a black woman married to a Jew and the other guy is old and cuckoo. "Hon, grab me a beer...I said GRAB ME A Beer!"
Then there was the big one: the price of eggs. Damn those politicians. Why can't they just make the chickens lay more eggs?
In Australia, voter participation in Federal elections is over 90%. Why? Voting is mandatory. The penalty for not voting is $25. Sounds a little silly. But it works. But Americans have a strong opposition to doing things that work in other countries, so there you have it.
Yes, Frank. I work the polls and we had a higher turnout than 2020, which was a very big year.
That is why there needs to be a massive housecleaning at the DNC. I am a Democrat, but the DNC offers employment to failed posters and political consultants who still are stuck in the Clinton wars of the 1990s. They need to elect younger people who are more in touch with what is actually happening, develop their own press outlets to correctly counter the misinformation of Fox and other right wing media outlets (it’s about 30 years late,) and start committing to all working people of all colors.
did they ? I am no longer CERTAIN Elon ( who knew the winner of the election prior to anyone ? ) did not just interfere with DISINFORMATION ????????
Hopefully private news/substack and blue sky can keep going...It would be hard, but it is done in Russia, but we have more on our side here and a history of democracy.
Alarming that Rubio is saying deport us citizens to ElSalvador prisons. WTF? Why isn’t that a headline? Steve Banon rule, “flood the zone with shit. MSM can only focus on one story, epically over the weekend. So we flood with st least three big outrage stories every day”
Yes, Ted.
Please remember, though, too, that this hysteria comes in a package -- a calculated, pre-meditated, mega-well-funded package.
Nothing human about it. No conscience for lives hit. No humanities in any of the power-players and their many, many college-"educated" sycophants.
The corporate, and the billionaires (90% far-right) have schemes, abstractions to sell. The universities where they got their packaging all had zero humanities. These universities were administering only to the elite of standardized testing success.
Nothing human about them but greed, and more greed, as in the multiply-bankrupt, multiply rapist, all-his-life con man and finally convicted criminal in the White House.
Dems? Also dehumanized. Zero humanities in their educations, too.
For the same reason that no one seems concerned that the “Raken Lily Act” specifies that habeas corpus doesn’t apply to an undocumented immigrant who is accused of a crime and can be detained indefinitely without a hearing or conviction.
Here’s a PSA- If your US Passport is expiring soon, or you don’t currently have one, do so immediately. They’ll be checking everyone’s papers soon. And, they will undoubtedly add tripwires to the process for anyone with the “wrong” last name, zip code or profession.
I think there’s a game of SQUIRREL going on here! We are all looking for that fine, funny, furry fellow climbing up some tree lookin’ for nuts, when in reality there is a tarantula traipsing up our trousers.
Is this Musk/Trump adventure happening to cut off funding to Congressionally approved programs? (Schumer and Jeffries think so.) Or HIDE Trump’s program to hide his potential waste, fraud & abuse!? OR, BOTH? I’m going with BOTH - the 2 birds with 1 stone theory! THAT is EFFICIENCY!!
Of course, then we have the Donnie & Bebe bromance going on at the same time! Is this a game of DOUBLE SQUIRREL (and Double Tarantula) going on? And do these “games” decimate the news media? Yup! I think Senator Chris Murphy has it right, but, watch out for a Triple Squirrel out there somewhere on the Ukrainian border!!
Why isn't musk in jail yet? And his minions who stole governed data? There are still jails and jailers, right?
It’s almost too late for that. With Bondi now in charge of the cops who’s going to arrest Musk and his hacker ludites? And now Congress is now infertile as is SCOTUS. The coup has been accomplished. There will probably be a state visit by Putin next week.
Musk is a naturalized citizen, not native born. His citizenship can be revoked and he can be deported. All it takes is the will to put those wheels in motion and see it through.
Unfortunately there is now no one with the will, power and courage to do so.
It feels like we’re fighting this battle based on an old set of rules (US law and justice). To them, these rules don’t apply. We’re being steamrolled and it’s moving quickly.
ACLU
The DoJ, and FBI have become DJT's Weapon...
The last option is to shut down DC. Like Maidan in Ukraine. Practice corporeal politics. Physically present in the sit in.
Yes, sit-ins. And I really like the idea of closing down freeways such as in LA. We need to mob the capitol.
Peaceful protest. Not a mob.
But the perps are the judge and jury.
it appears that jail and jailers are only for us.
Who controls law enforcement in the capitol and federal buildings?
The Department of Injustice
Every department, including ones with all our information. No one will escape
or, TC. The Department of Silly Works. or the Department of Redundancy Department.
Doge is dodgy.
Ministry of Love.
Who would put him there?
Not for long. Purge. Privatize.Pardons.
Rubio just said he wants to send US Citizens to ElSalvadorian Prisons. Offshoring the US Department of Corrections.
To think that just days ago Mexico and Canada sent firefighters to help put out the fires in LA. But who will put out the flames that are burning down our Constitutional Republic?
Deb Pierce McCabe,
Trump gave his response to Mexico and Canada and to our Constitution: "My way or the highway!"
By the time the law wades through all this clearly illegal crap it won’t matter, because it will be a done deal and the damage may be irreparable. Those MAGAs who lose their Social Security and all other financial support will no doubt wail and gnash their teeth, but Elon and his mechanics will have moved on. Our laws were not designed to prosecute this monumental kind of “smash and grab “ brazen theft.
Sadly, I am beginning to understand the appeal of vigilantism 😔
Yes, that’s why they’re sleeping there. They know they’re racing against time. It’s way too easy. No one stopping them, limited protest, full access without interruption, and help from employees.
Someone who works inside needs to take one for the team. Pull the plug somehow. Interrupt. They’re going to destroy things with or with the employees so people need to stop helping them.
Thank you Heather for everything. Your video chat and this letter
If it smells and looks like a skunk, you can be sure it’s a skunk. Now it’s too late for the good military generals to ironically save the union from itself. And it’s mostly our fault.
Whoo-ee! -- yippie kai-yi! -- hurrah! -- hot dog! -- hubba-hubba!
The U.S. is going to move 1,8 million Palestinians out of Gaza so the World's Master Real Estate Developer can develop it as luxury, 3rd-home, and recreation haven for the world's billionaire and oligarch classes.
It's like that other Great Idea, the Trail of Tears when nearly 200 years ago that other happy racist in the White House, Andrew Jackson, had the U.S. military force off their land the Cherokee and all the other tribes then in southern Appalachia. So other racist speculators could profit from the good soil, many rivers, coal, timber, and abundant minerals there.
Happy times, no? So good to be an American!
....and he has insulted Dubai, Egypt, UAE, Qatar...etc....Israel....Turkiye, Greece, Italy, France (Mon Dieu).....
I think he just broke the Guiness Book of World Records for insults in one statement.
Canada and Denmark too.
Trump could rate a whole chapter in that book.
Sad but true, and all repubs are on board. Cheney and Kinzinger hardly qualify anymore.
I still appreciate them! Just started subscribing to Kinzinger. He makes sense and is ready to defend the committee on Jan 6th. Check it out!
No Kinzinger to for me. Full stop 🛑for his anti-abortion stance. Nope.
Yes, too bad they are like the Lone Ranger.
We need to build an army of Lone Ranger. Hy-o Slllvver
Jared and his real estate developer father-in-law have always had Gaza in their sites. Too bad so many Gen-Z sat out the election as a protest vote against the atrocities perpetrated on the Gazans.
Trump/Netanyahu is an exercise in genocidal autocracy, and USA is about to abandon the UN. You could also say, Hamas bit off much more than it could chew, and the whole Gazan population is about to pay for it. What about all the Palestinians living in the West Bank which the settler side of Israel want to take over as well?
The thing that concerns me is that at some point, Israel may come to a point where they can no longer maintain control over the West Bank, and they will have to retreat into Israel proper. Israeli journalists Hirsh Goodman and Gershom Gorenberg have discussed this as a real possibility.
I believe the West Bank has abt 3 million Palestinians, not including those remaining in East Jerusalem, and they represent about 85% of the population there. Trump is unbelievable. American troops on the ground ?
That is a truly insane idea.
Yeah, complete with hot and cold running terrorists too. I can't think of any better way of setting off them off than just saying we'll take over Gaza, much less trying to do it. Expect more terrorism in the Mideast and the US.
I don’t like Hamas, who have an iron grip on Gaza and put their own people in danger, but does Trump really think Egypt and Jordan are going to take in Palestinians from Gaza? I think it’s a pipe dream more than anything else.
With genocide to follow
Last night I watched AOC’s livestream. She said that Musk is redirecting funds (pillaging) the Treasury in order to fund the tax cuts passed in 2017, which sunset soon. Anyone have thoughts on this?
I wish I didn’t live so far from DC because I’d take time off to protest there too. But I’m calling my reps, I’m steady the word, and when HCR gives an assignment I’m doing it with A+ effort.
Did she say what they were DOING about it? I realize there are minority and maybe all they can do is make noise. But I'm not even hearing noise.
I think you arent looking at independent journalism or BlueSky then. It isnt going to come and bite you
It's coming out now.
I think all 435 members of Congress and 100 senators need to go home and file lawsuits in the states. because they are threatening the whole country. As weird as we all are, we still belong to this country.
What good are lawsuits? They do nothing. We have no justice department, the supreme court has said rumpy is above the law. If someone doesn't move fast with the loyal military we have left it's going to be a done deal and will take a very long time, if ever, to recover. It may already be too late. There's no longer time to go through the courts.
" She said that Musk is redirecting funds (pillaging) the Treasury in order to fund the tax cuts passed in 2017, which sunset soon. "
Directly or indirectly. Also to bypass rule of law.
I am waiting for the first howls of anguish from the MAGA dupes who were sure Trump meant that those drastic cuts were just for Democrats…
Are we sure the cuts are going to hit everyone? With AI involved and the masters of all our social media data -- Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, TikTok -- in on this coup, can we be sure they won't be just for anyone who didn't vote R?
Exactly, Lizzy. I think that is exactly what they’re doing. AI can cross reference all of that shit very quickly.
We shall see! I think that could well be a legal bridge too far!
It should be. But when the person authorizing all this has immunity, he'll okay anything, and when the people he has doing it for him will be pardoned, I don't know that we have any legal bridges left standing.
That’s my fear honestly.
I swear that’s what they thought!
They are. The code being written and inserted will allow access to and control of payments to specific individuals. So SS payments to just registered Dems in a town can be cut off while payments to Reps continue unchanged.
Shame on the Democrats who voted in favor of Scott Bessent to be Secretary of the Treasury who then in turn handed over the keys to Elon Musk.
Those Dems are traitors. Exactly what happened with the election. Dems scream warnings, people yawn. What will it take. Rupert will never tell the MAGAts. Of course, Rupert is a magat
Why in the world aren't these criminals being arrested?!?!?!!!! I truly do not understand. They are no different than any other citizen (other than working for fascists and a dictator) who would be nailed by police in a minute.
Hitler made every action the Nazi’s did legal. I don’t think these cretins care because our SC is complicit in treason.
This is true. We are completely fucked.
And Mitch says he’s still a Republican. Sad that he’s proud that he sold his soul for such and betrayed his country…
We have him to thank for our Republican senators violating their oaths of office twice to acquit an obviously guilty president. History will teach about Mitch McConnell’s perfidy.
That douchebag is gross. He looks like a Podling (and not a cute one) that got his lifeforce sucked out of him. Pathetic.
he has the look of the Dorian Gray portrait.
Lol! Oh yes. :DD
By whom?
Couldn't some staffer have made a call to the police when Musk and bad nerds broke in? Unless the local cops already sold out, which is possible.
The FOP is not too happy with Trump for pardoning and freeing people convicted of crimes in connection with their January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection. They revoked their endorsement of Trump right after Trump freed the insurrectionists.
How are Fox, OAN, and other right-wing news and commentators reporting this? More lies and fantasy? Who will they blame when eggs go to $12, vaccines are no longer available, schools - especially special ed programs - close, immigrant employees and business owners disappear?
Right-wing news organizations have largely portrayed Elon Musk's recent actions with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as necessary interventions to reduce government waste and increase accountability.
Fox News Coverage:
Addressing Fraudulent Payments: Fox News reported that Musk criticized the Treasury Department for approving payments to known fraudulent or terrorist groups, highlighting DOGE's role in uncovering such inefficiencies.
Targeting USAID: The network described DOGE's focus on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as an effort to reform an agency with a global footprint, suggesting that USAID had become a "viper's nest" of inefficiency.
Political Reactions: Fox News highlighted Democratic lawmakers' concerns over Musk's access to sensitive Treasury data, framing it as partisan opposition to necessary government reforms.
Support from Republican Senators: The outlet featured statements from Republican figures, such as Senator Joni Ernst, who defended DOGE's initiatives and advised critics to "get used to this," emphasizing the administration's commitment to reducing government waste.
Overall, right-wing media outlets have depicted Musk's actions through DOGE as bold and necessary steps to streamline government operations, reduce waste, and enhance efficiency, often downplaying or dismissing concerns about overreach or potential legal issues.
Who the hell is Musk to determine what are or are not fraudulent payments? The investigation of alleged fraudulent payments and activities and determination of enforcement action is the province of each agency's Inspector General . . .oh, oops! Ain't got no more of those.
And, what exactly do they define as "inefficiencies"?
Exactly. Without knowing the performance requirements of each program and how to evaluate compliance, they have no basis for making such determinations.
Trump could care less, but yes, of course. That's what adults do.
Not going fast enough into their pockets.
I love how they repeat government waste and no doubt there is some but now there's no oversight, but the biggest rebuttal to this is the reality that Trump chose to fly immigrants out on military planes costing $800,000 as opposed to commercial flights that would have cost $21,000. Clearly waste in government is another lie Trump choses to play.
The real waste in government comes from military contractors padding bills, from subsidies to wealthy corporations, and tax cuts to morbidly wealthy people. The corporations and wealthy can and should be paying much more in taxes, and the real complexities of the tax code come about from lobbying by the morbidly rich and corporations to create all sorts of dubious loopholes to avoid paying more taxes. Then, the same people turn around and encourage Congress and the Senate to reduce funds for IRS enforcement and oversight, which lets both groups abuse the tax system for their own personal gain.
“Get used to this” republicans cowards who will support the treason. No surprise
I’m curious hope the conversations are going on the far right chat rooms and websites, too
You won't like what they're saying. They are all in with this garbage.
Laurie, a friend's wife wrote this on FB last night:
""Loving watching a bunch of ineffective, inefficient, corrupt politicians melt down. They are so arrogant and threatened by competent, efficient, pro active adults who get shit done they can't handle it."
I have no idea how they will respond, but I can suspect that it will involve blaming Democrats and the Democratic Party.
My Social Security check gets direct deposited in my checking account the fourth Wednesday of the month. I’m going to be a little nervous until then, and probably thereafter until that South African bastard gets destroyed.
Am I going to get a letter stating, “There are some questions about your eligibility….”?
I got mine on the 3rd and when I saw it in my account, the sound that escaped my lips was somewhere between relief and anguish. This kind of stress on people old enough to receive Social Security is a special kind of evil.
That surety may become a thing of the past. They will likely destroy agencies before individuals. But we all are in the cross hairs.
it's going to be the longest instead of the shortest month for that 4th Wednesday.
Indeed!
Frump may have immunity for illegal acts while he’s president but what about the people who do his bidding g? If they break the law they are not immune. Surely THEY can be charged? If everybody who broke the law, shat on the constitution could be held accountable?
If there is anything left of our justice system after, say, Thursday — maybe. This feels like doom. Am I crazy to hold out hope that if we keep fighting, if Congress protects its own power (if not ours), that something of our democracy can be salvaged?
You have no choice. The lassitude of the millions who didn’t vote, the ignorance of magas, the corruption of the voting systems, the gerrymandering, the slow grinding of the gears of the law, the vile vampires of the Supreme Court, all together put these evil men in power. The Constitution has been savaged.
US citizens have to resist, gave to fight back, have to bring them all down or the Republic will be unrevivable
Trunp would pardon them
If they are charged under State laws I don’t think he can
like if all states start suing the federal government...
not if he's impeached. We have to reach out to members of the Republican Party.
And he can pardon them
The Supreme Court needs to change of the immunity clause and I believe there is something about the constitution in there - if not, they need to go to the Supreme Court because violations of the constitution and laws created (like Congress controls the purse) should be impeached. I'm hoping they have attorneys working on this now.
So who’s gonna be around to charge them?
Senator Thom Tillis may have said “there are kinks in the slinky “ but he will ignore the kinks to approve anything Trump wants. Tillis has caved and approved each nominee for the Cabinet positions. I have called him, written him, and repeated this over again. He gave me some blabbing nonsense answer in how he is supporting President Trump’s vision for the country. I haven’t received any response from him or any of my elected officials about Musk. I will not stop calling him and anyone else.
As for Trump and Bibi with Gaza. Shame on both of them.
Musk must be stopped. Trump must be held accountable as well as everyone who is involved with the illegal invasion of our country. It’s not an invasion with guns and military might yet it is an invasion which can cause extreme damage and suffering to destroy our democracy in our country.
It’s not just our country. They are worldwide And ruthless.
Absolutely!!
It puts me in mind of Trump’s lies about the “deep state.” The only real deep state is the one Trump wants to create for his own benefit. Governmental agencies and cabinet offices are accountable to the Constitution, not to a specific person who happens to be president. Trump thinks he was elected as a dictator, and that all agencies and cabinet offices should be under his personal control and their employees swear personal allegiance to him. This is a flagrant constitutional violation. These agencies derive their legitimacy from legislative action, and they do not owe personal allegiance to Trump, but to the Constitution.