Project 2025, like all of the attacks by Tr*mp/F'Elon/MAGA on our fundamental freedoms needs to be framed in the harm to everyday AMERICANS—not our democratic institutions.
The "unitary executive" theory must be talked about in the ways it hurts us (and certainly, that's a phrase itself that the average low-information voter/non-voter can't spend time deciphering). Of course, I understand The Big Picture readers are far removed from the segment of Americans who don't/can't vote regularly, but it would be extremely helpful for each of us to internalize the importance of framing, as we share this with less engaged people in our networks (because we are trusted messengers in our own social circles and now, more than ever, need to get louder).
What they are trying to do is remove any/all checks on presidential power, allowing Tr*mp (and his unelected billionaire crony/accomplice/puppetmaster, F'Elon) to rule over us completely unrestrained:
- MAGA wants to take away our freedoms, including deciding when, if or how to start or grow our families.
- MAGA wants government to monitor our periods and pregnancies, going so far as turning miscarriages into crimes they'd prosecute
- MAGA wants to nationally ban or severely restrict access to abortion, fertility services, and contraception
- MAGA wants take away our ability to thrive economically, by making massive cuts to our earned benefits in Social Security and Medicare, all to give price-gouging corporations even more money and control over our lives
At the end of the day, they want to rule us, not represent us and Project 2025 is the recipe for turning presidential power into a dictator's power—you have only to look at GOP-controlled trifectas to see how red states have already been beta testing Project 2025 since 2010 when redmap gerrymandered 1,000 seats away from voters.
Simply put, Project 2025 is their plan to control our families and decide our futures for us. But by standing in opposition, whether individually, together publicly, or via support for lawfare—as we have in the past, we can reject this attack and protect our freedoms.
And with much more disastrous impact to come quickly, his support will implode. It may actually be his own MAGA every day supporters who bring him down.
b) who is responsible for their suffering (a wealthy, well-connected few) AND why, and
c) how we can come together to make everyone's lives better
Here's the key, they need a breakthrough moment when they must reject their prior affirmation/alignment/belief/support of him. They must see in clear terms that he is doing direct harm to them, or violating a moral principle they hold sacred, only then, will they turn on him.
I dunno, have you talked with any of them? From the conversations I've had with them, there is nothing he could do, NOTHING, the delusions of grandeur run deep, he has "conditioned" them, across a decade. Full disclosure, I've -been- "paranoid, psychotic, and delusional", -clinically-, in my case it was drug induced, so I got better when I stopped taking amphetamines, in their case, it's not, but it's the same damn thing.
I've had conversations with them that were indistinguishable from one I had with a "crisis team" that got ME committed to a psych ward, I'm not even being hyperbolic here. Imagine if you will, in their heads, a giant cork board with photos, red string, and thumbtacks, in many ways, they are significantly crazier than I was, (and trust me, I was batshit mental at the time).
For me, the way out was simple, stop taking Adderall, for them, there is no simple solution, cause there's no drug causing it, there is only that cork board, and every day, all of the media they consume, F|Elon, GOP pols, and Rump himself, adds more pictures to it.
The bottom line is, we're dealing with a "mass psychosis" imo, they would set their own homes on fire and pull the walls in on themselves before they admitted their delusions were not real. I cannot adequately describe, having BEEN there, how frightening this is for me to watch. These kind of paranoid delusions had ME driving around with a loaded 9mm in my lap after all, cause some unknown "they" were out to get me, but THESE people, have been given targets, and man, it's scaring the hell outta me....
You're right....but we 'should' add to this that the MAGA base has a fundamental baseline agreement about inflicting pain on others. They are happy, over-joyed, to see others suffer. They WANT this. It starts to come undone when it starts to hurt them, but initially they see it as a mistake - they just got caught up in the pulling down of corruption etc. Just like this post alludes to, that point of vulnerability is where you can 'get in there' and start to see which of those red strings have started to fray and pop off the cork board. They DO NOT care about other people. That's why they love their leader. He gives less than zero f's...they just haven't caught on yet that those zero f's include them, too.
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.” ~Martin Niemöller
But, what has gotten lost in history, is that Martin was a nationalist, Nazi-supporter, and anti-Semite originally (i.e., he was a MAGA)—he only reached this conclusion after he HIMSELF was interned first at Sachsenhausen and then Dachau.
Of course, this doesn't apply to everyone, as not everyone will experience something personal that can cause that break, which is why, overall -- our focus should be on talking to people who share our values, but don't always have the agency, interest or understanding to act on them...not to focus on the opposition, per se.
Genuinely didn't know that, and I like to think I know a fair bit about the holocaust, that does get lost apparently, I musta daydreamed through that part of history class. ;)
Yeah, I don't agree with this notion of "trying to find common ground" with the magaloids. Oh sure, there probably is some, but they are wholly lost, they've shown their true colors now. It's a bit like hypnosis in that regard, their orange messiah couldn't have "conditioned" something into them that wasn't already there, he just brough it to the surface. In my own case (between like 2012-2014) it involved a lot of what you might call "gray hat" computer stuff (let imagination cover the rest), so my paranoia took that form.
One of these days I'll get around to telling that story in full on here, but for now, suffice to say, I did not turn into a racist bigot over it. That is something that in THEM, was already there, but is simply alien to MY personality, ie, I didn't start thinking Jews, or immigrants, or "the gays" or black people were out to get me, it was just "them", who I could not have defined if my life had depended on it.
It's sad, there were many of these magats I considered friends, but you know, if one is incapable of "live and let live", there isn't much "common" there I want to be associated with, how can you trust someone like that? Cause eventually, like in the quote, YOU'LL be their target, for one reason or another. I'm generally nice to everyone irl, if I have to deal with them day to day, I'm cordial enough. That being said, at this point, I'm not entirely sure I wouldn't throw them an anchor if they were drowning, in MY mind, most of em have proven themselves to be people the world would simply be better off without, I hate that I feel this way, but they've made their beds.
There is one quasi-amusing bit in all of this I take solace from, and who knows, maybe it'll shake something loose some day, the fact that they are all such thoroughly miserable people, now that many of US have cut them loose, they are finding that it's pretty awful when the only people they have to hang with, are EACH OTHER, which I find endlessly hilarious, poetic justice at its finest....
Yes, your last paragraph, particularly, I can see happening already, even in the UK. I suppose an analogy would be like a sea of concentrated bobbing turds, being corralled Ito a Sargasso like mass, & never becoming free enought to breakdown ecologically & atomically dissolve into elemental compounds more useful to society...like being absorbed into new life by a piece of seaweed or something vaguely pleasant.
I'm so sorry that you have to relive the craziness, even from the outside. You don't deserve that.
I think there's another element, that goes along with the mass psychosis - they're only starting to regret their vote because he's hurting THEM. They've lived a lifetime of racism, science denial, misogyny, Christian Nationalism and now that he's made it okay, they won't be able to easily give that up. So while they're big mad that their idol is hurting THEM, his loyal flock, they still believe in the principles that he banged into their brains with all the rallies and tweets and "truths". Most will never be able to get free of that insanity, and if our country ever gets free of this chaos and destruction, we'll still have to deal with people who willingly and enthusiastically take pleasure in hurting other people, even their own families.
Is there such a thing as mass deprogramming? And how do we deal with the tolerance paradox?
I'm sorry for your pain. I think that everyday we see greater and greater examples of the the enormity of the Goebbels -level disinformation and repetition campaign. Many factors had contributed to the initial creation of the cult of personality that is Donald Trump, especially mass media and social media profit algorithms. But this goes beyond normal cults of the past with the degree to which a completely insular alternate reality has been created. If you read any deprogramming experts, you will realize that there is no single approach or series of steps to dissolve a cult of such magnitude. Even if there were, it would have to be carried out organically and it would take decades.
COVID really brought it home for me. First, I couldn't believe that something like a pandemic where thousands of people were dying every week wouldn't help people put aside their differences to fight a common enemy (though I guess my disbelief started far earlier with Sandy Hook). But the level of gaslighting and delusion demonstrated by the willingness of MAGA to believe it was a hoax, some while lying on their actual deathbed, made me lose a lot of hope.
I do not know where we go from here. I only know that our republic can only stand so much division. Another civil war, a revolution, an invasion, or even a slow decline into irrelevance were all but unthinkable 20 years ago. No longer. The results of any of these are sure to be horrific for the world and all but a few Americans. As a kid, there weren't many things scarier than a nuclear war. I'm older and wiser now and I understand that at least a nuclear conflagration would be over quickly...
I foresee a possible "Seven Days in May" scenario playing out, where military leaders, alarmed by abysmal decision-making directly affecting US national security - e.g., rapprochement and even open cöoperation with Putin, or tRump ordering elements of the military to "do a Kent State" on peaceful protesters - will indeed act, forcibly detaining or "neutralizing" tRump, Vance, Hegseth et al, and quickly appointing a civilian "Government of Reconciliation" to put things right pending national elections on a "revised" timetable.
Think it "can't happen here"? Well, think again, as who could have really believed that the fascistic template served up by Project 2025 would ever be enacted, hmm?
On my facebook feed, when I post clearly and simply messaged concerns, the few MAGA people whom I have not yet blocked or unfriended still vehemently deny what is happening and argue with me and others who comment on my posts. Those in his cult will never see the truth or stop supporting the felon and his henchmen. We must win over the disengaged or non-voters in Red states, those who say “I don’t follow politics” or “both sides are just as bad.” We need to show them why politics matter and what the MAGA side is doing that hurts them individually
Some MAGAS that I’ve encountered have moved into the bargaining phase, claiming that the firings of employees and shuttering of agencies is necessary and will only last a short time until the “corruption” is identified and eliminated. They urge us unhappy folk to have patience, insisting that, in the end, all will be well. My guess is that this is the mantra being put out by Right Wing media.
I recently spoke with a conservative family member in Iowa who was convinced that Musk was simply "auditing" these federal agencies for waste and mismanagement, and that all of the budget cuts and staff firings were a good first step on the road to creating a more "efficient" government. When I pressed this person to describe what that looks like for a system that tries to meet the needs of 332 million people in this country, he immediately started the tired old "Democrats want to tax and spend us all into the Stone Age" tape.
It's clear to me that the people who are currently applauding what the Nerd Reich is up to are only on board for the destruction. They have no clue about what comes next, and they're fine with that.
Hahaha "Nerd Reich", I like that. Yeah, it's all unicorns and rainbows for these fuckwits till it's THEIR ass getting fired, then they're on Twitter, convinced it's just an oversight, sending him personal messages they think he's gonna see and change his mind, "please sir, I voted for you 3 times, I didn't know you'd fire ME, I got 2 kids and a mortgage!", like he gives a shit.
I love your analysis of the Project 25/MAGA/Executive Branch/Tech Bro attacks on the wellbeing of “ordinary” Americans and the importance of framing the harm they are causing so less engaged citizens will realize the dangerous moment we are in. I see everything through the lens of our rapid descent into fascism. It only took Hitler several weeks to destroy the German Weimar Republic. I try not to get sidetracked by the day to day executive orders and outrageous statements (such as Vance’s scolding of our European allies for not embracing the far right parties while he meets with the far right leaders during his visit to Germany). It is scary that the supine Republican majority in Congress seem to be ok with this attack on our democracy but I agree with you that we need to focus on the harm this assault is causing in the daily lives of the vast majority of people of good will. Thank you!
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.” ~Martin Niemöller
But, what has gotten lost in history, is that Martin was a nationalist, Nazi-supporter, and anti-Semite—he only reached this conclusion after he HIMSELF was interned first at Sachsenhausen and then Dachau.
We must at every cost not devolve to such a state, but until/unless everyday Americans who don't follow politics can see how this hurts them, they will not act accordingly.
Meanwhile, we must push back against the crime spree unleashed by Tr*mp/F'Elon (all so they can extend the 2017 tax handouts and steal our taxes to turn a government of, by and for the people into their personal feeding trough), and most importantly, push back on attacks on our freedom to vote -- if we don't have that, we don't have the power to remove them from office, and therein lies the true dictatorship.
Thanks for the Martin Niemöller detail. I had no idea his background was this interesting despite having quoted him many times. That makes the message so much stronger.
Absolutely! We need plain talk about what is happening now and what is about to happen to the people themselves. My 84 year old Mom keeps asking how the stock market is doing. I tell her the corporations will be fine, it is the people who will suffer. Then I give her examples, actual examples of benefits and entitlements that she depends on that may be impacted. The rural, elderly, infirm and disenfranchised will suffer like America has not seen since the Dust Bowl era.
You are right on it! Better messaging so they understand what is going on because they are going to bear the brunt of it. The king has already declared that he’s above any laws and he can break and remake them as he wishes. They are like lobsters being slowly boiled. The spell needs to be broken.
I think there is a plan by the GOP far right, and they are in a hurry to get as much done as possible because they can see that Trump isn’t going to last. For example, they want to get rid of USAID, and Trump’s goal is to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico. One plan is devious and hurtful to Americans and those we want to help, the other is just stupid. They want to strip out the FBI, and he wants to chair the Kennedy Center. Just looking at him, he doesn’t look well, and may already be a goner between the ears!
Vance is, I think, more intellectually capable than the citrus-hued gargoyle, but Vance lacks any semblance of the charisma the gargoyle exudes over his swarm of red-hatted followers, and blind devotion is needed to keep that bunch in thrall: nobody is going to happily follow Vance into the proverbial trenches. This gives me a wee (very, very wee) bit of hope.
Right, Vance will just be a figurehead, without all Trump’s nonsense, after the government has been overthrown. Those who made their investment in this MAGA government will reap the benefits — Vance included — and they will a go along their merry way.
Did you catch his speech to European leaders yesterday? He had the nerve to lecture us in Europe on free speech before he went off to meet the fascist German party AfD. He made no friends here.
I was in Spain not long after Obama took over from Bush — everyone told me how glad they were that Bush was out. I hope in four years Europeans will celebrate with us when Trump and his ilk are swept out like yesterday’s trash.
Hmm…Let’s assume Trump can’t fix the system so he can run for a third term (the obstacles are considerable and he would be 82 on taking office if he did, and won). Being the narcissist that he is, he can’t abide talk of ANYONE succeeding him, especially his poodle of a VP. But Vance wants it and would have the inside track unless DJT poisons his well with MAGA. Don Jr? “Thick as a brick”, according to Steve Bannon, who should know. So here’s the opportunity: DJT would be the king or the king-maker but no one else in the GOP has the charisma to capture the MAGA faithful and a voting majority, and they will descend into vicious fratricidal fights for the soul of the party and their cynicism and extremism will at last be exposed. For now, Democrats should be banging the drum about their cruelty and about the oligarch corruption, starting with Musk.
I sure didn’t vote for Vance, it is more accurate to say Peter Thiel bought him for us as Vance follows Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin’s dark enlightenment garbage.
The latter of the two items are there just to appease and pacify the Orange Palpatine because they need him right now for his signature, pics, and rally's. Once they don't need him and replace him it will be over for him. The only thing slowing everything up are the lawsuits right now.
Trump, his fascist wannabes (like Bannon, Miller, Vought, and the far too many other sociopaths running the country) are halfway to their goal of amassing all power into Trumps hands. They are not in favour of a unitary president, they are only in favour of a “trump” unitary president.
They are almost there!
They have destroyed the free press, and have destroyed facts, they have fractured the people!
Now their attack on the judiciary is in full swing. They are almost there with Bondi at DoJ and her signal that she will do whatever Stephen Miller and Trump tell her to do. Kash Patel, a disgusting phycopathic liar, and incompetent yes-man, will almost certainly head the FBI. So defense, law, intelligence is all compromised by these people who answer not to the American people, or the Constitution, but to Trump!
They have already disregarded court orders to reinstate funds for USAID, to stop the purge in the FBI, and to lock out Musk from Treasury but the so-called mass media have hardly given any notice of this as if they don’t mention it, it will go away!
Vance, our scum bag VP, has already said that the administration should ignore the courts. The courts may rule, so let them enforce the ruling!, as he is reported to have said (I paraphrase).
So two steps toward authoritarianism are all but in place. Kill the press, sideline the courts, divide the country, and Trump presents himself as the only one who can save the nation.
Americans, like millions in Nazi Germany, fascist Japan, and today in authoritarian Hungary and dictatorship Russia, China, North Korea, are very happy to be fools and drink this shit up.
This is until, as will happen here too, it starts to affect them personally and their families! People never think that this crap will affect them until it does! And it will. But then it is too late!
How long that will take to fully happen is anyones guess, but we are well on the road to that future.
Did you catch Vance’s speech to European leaders yesterday? He had the nerve to lecture us in Europe on free speech before he went off to meet the fascist German party AfD. He made no friends here.
Oh, right Scott! Bad on me for having witnessed Trump over the last ten years where he has lied, and lies, every time he opens his polluted hole of a mouth, and for the uncountable times Trump has, and continues, to castigate the press and call them “fake news” if he disagrees with whatever is being reported on, and watching him say everything and anything possible to divide the country and frame the press as “enemies of the people”!
You seem to be making the assumption that I must think the media is perfect. I don’t!
But I know that Trump has played a major part in denigrating the press to the point today where people find it hard to believe anything. The goal of authoritarians is to do exactly what felon Trump is doing. Lie, divide, attack the press, the courts, and the law!
The 4 year old X, musks son, is repeating what he is hearing from his dad and his dad’s cronies.
Drump doesn’t look well
Drump was publicly humiliated by a 4 year old
The world is watching and laughing at Donny. At not with. He got reamed by a 4 year old, nose picking brat.
My guess is, Drump is going to get rid of musk soon after this incident and the time magazine cover, with musk behind the Oval Office desk.
The entire administration is going to implode soon as it seems they all have their own agenda, even his cabinet.
If you scrutinize them, none of their policies, actions are lining up with drumpf they are going rouge
They are all acting independently. If each other
Because there is no real leadership
Not one with a sane, calm, leadership brain is in charge.
They are going to collapse upon theirselves.
By doing the things that they are doing, clashing with each other.
Total chaos.
Not to mention, our allies are all coming together against the USA
The Canadian boycott is extremely effective.
I personally, have not been ordering anything from Amazon. On purpose.
The tariffs and cutting the funding are going to make the grass roots maga’s pissed This is a good thing.
They are going to rebel against Drump, because no matter how Drump and his colleagues ( loosely) try to blame other people, Biden, etc.
they are hearing about the tariffs and the funding being cut off
It is even on Faux news. Maybe worded a little biased for Drump. But still
This anger these people have is going to be turned on the new administration.
These magas are also going to be turning on their representatives in the house and senate.
All the do nothing magas in the house and senate, most who didn’t vote for the moral thing because of threats and being primaried , are not going to be reelected because the maga voters are going to turn on them for doing nothing.
To your point about Trump getting rid of Musk. I think this is part of what they didn’t plan out. Personally I think musk is like the toothpaste you can’t put back in the tube. If Trump tells him to stand down, I think there’s a very good chance that Musk will probably say something like “make me.“ I think Trump and his minions have lost their ability to control Musk. And by then he’s going to have so much control over so many systems that he could used to threaten or blackmail.
I agree with an awful lot of the rest of your analysis.
1) The four year old has experienced Joe Biden as his president, and is not entirely aware that the president can change so when he's told he will go visit the president he wonders where Biden is.
2) His father has told him that his father is the real president.
It’s on YT- X first says to DJT “you’re not the president.” And a bit later he says, “ I want you to shush your mouth.” It’s somewhat difficult to hear , but not completely garbled or made up .. it’s the mic on the desk picking it up.
Some other things he does are nonverbal - he picks his nose quite overtly like 4 yos do, while looking at DJT and in close proximity to him.
He disrupts the meeting as 4 yos do , at this point EM picks him up and actually says “gravitas can be difficult sometimes .” Chuckling, trying to laugh it off - but underscoring why we generally are not allowed to bring children to work , esp in very serious settings with a lot of .. gravitas. 😵💫
Another interesting point - EM holds his hands in the steeple position - - nonverbal way of conveying authority - but almost tooooo much , bc it’s so obvious and a lot of people are aware of this cue now.
More oddly - X mimics the gesture while standing at EM knee , looking away from his dad doing the hand steeple. Xs isn’t very good - but it seems to me he’s being taught the gesture which looks odd on a 4yo- X adds a devious face to the gesture . As with the clip of him , I think this was caught on Rogan, where X says “they’ll never know…” it seems more and more that EM is educating his son in the way DJT was educated and the way he was educated - by a pathological father.
Lastly - EM openly flaunts formal WH dress code. Lil X actually dressed better than EM. I honestly hope this kid goes full rebellion in adolescence , please please God 🙏🏽 make it so
On a hot mic he was overheard mumbling, I can’t verify it but people are saying he told Trump to get out of his daddy’s chair. And to shut his face. I’ve listened to it a bunch of times and honestly can’t tell.
I agree with all, except I think they’re in the voting software and I fear nothing is being done or can be done about it. They will make sure Republicans win pretty much everywhere. I’m not a conspiracy theorist - but there is zero way I believe he won all 7 swing states. Nope. No way.
FYI, this group, along with Democracy Forward, are still deeply into investigating 2024 election fraud by Trump & Co. They have lawyers involved and have convinced a US congressman to call for an investigation.
Gotta agree - what are the odds statistically of ALL 7 swing states - that would make them not very swingy at all. That’s like better than a trifecta (?)
Palast, an investigative journalist, did an in-depth analysis of the 2024 election where he outlined the impact of all the voter suppression laws that the Right has enacted in various swing states in the last decade.
Palast writes, "if not for the mass purge of voters of color, if not for the mass disqualification of provisional and mail-in ballots, if not for the new mass “vigilante” challenges in swing states, Harris would have gained at least another 3,565,000 votes, topping Trump’s official popular vote tally by 1.2 million."
The only way around this is HAND COUNTED ballots. Zero faith in this environment anything can get done through Congressional investigations, and GOP probably won’t allow them to happen anyway. States need to implement hand counting again!!
Supposedly people were manipulated on x and Facebook etc to vote for trump or not vote. Famously Arabs were show kamela is a Zionist ads and Jews were shown Kamala 💕 the ayatollah ads. I didn’t see any of these but this little manipulation was documented by persons I believe.
I don't see this playing out without a confrontation between the courts via the US Marshall Service, whose director he hasn't yet replaced, and Trumpsters, somehow, somewhere.
I hope that a federal judge, however, is smart enough to forcibly evict the private citizen currently squatting in various government buildings instead of Trump minions.
Take out one of the major factions, the one nobody can argue has any right to be there.
Poke a big hole, and go from there. These morons will continue to battle each other even if Musk is taken out of the picture by the courts. They're peacocks of mendacity. They'll never truly get along.
This breakdown of events is absolutely masterful. I don't think you've written anything better, and that is saying something.
Something that is working against Trump and his Project 2025 is that they are private sector people. That is normally considered to be a good thing in this country, but in point of fact the private sector is only more efficient than the government in that they are generally allowed to fail, and they DO fail. Trump has bankrupted six businesses all by himself. If that is efficiency, then I am a carrot.
Most private sector enterprises are extremely feudal in their hierarchies, and subordinates do not dare question decisions made by higher ups. It results in an intellectual laziness and lack of rigor on the part of those higher ups. Such leaders make an enormous number of ad hoc and risky decisions, many of which push the boundaries of ethical and legal behavior. A great deal of effort therefore must be exerted inside many corporations to shield themselves from outside scrutiny and oversight. Donald Trump's own go-to has been the court of public opinion as a flanking maneuver. At the moment he is busy cutting the shrouds of that parachute.
That lack of analytical rigor is going to manifest with increasing frequency as we approach the moment of constitutional crisis.
I'd like to see the Space Nazi's despicable minions named PERSONALLY in numerous lawsuits for privacy and security violations. Ideally, BOTH civil and criminal.
They have been accessing systems with massive amounts of very personal data (including medical data) that does have laws protecting it. Get those sucmwads tied up in court (even though the Space Nazi will foot the bill), and they may realize that it's not all just fun and games.
Grifters do think it out, just not very deeply. Their Achilles heel is that they believe they’re smarter than everyone else and that’s what takes them down.
My first job out of law school was a judicial clerkship, and I’ve been saying what Jay has written here, that “Judges read the news. They know about the kinds of unconstitutional orders the Trump White House is issuing as though they were mere traffic tickets and not alarming attempts to shred basic civil rights. Credibility still matters in the courtroom, and the new administration has squandered valuable capital out the gate, all to please the MAGA racist wing of the party.” Ticking off the judiciary with an indefensible position is a losing legal strategy.
Don’t forget that Musk wants not only to dismantle the federal government, he wants to replace it with AI. To have his own chatbots replace the bureaucrats. This motivation explains a lot about what he and his lackeys are doing.
Question about those red states though: don't they have to realize what's being done to them and by whom? I'm not convinced it's enough to sway their vote, even at a small percentage.
Take a look at kentucky. Mitch McConnell is practically begging republicans to end this mess as he is realizing what he has done to help create this mess! I feel for kentucky, but mitch got what he deserved at the expense of his state.
I don’t feel a bit sorry for Kentucky. They voted for Mitch, they voted for Trump. Let them reap what they’ve sown. 100% of my sympathies lie with the ones who didn’t vote for them but are going to be collateral damage.
I just hope Mitch lives long enough to realize the full extent of the damage he caused and gets to see at least the beginning of history’s judgement.
Do you think he realizes or even gives a ff? Ffs f. I see him and Elaine cruising away through the gulf of trumpansee. Don’t let the red algae poison them on their way out! Hot fetid polluted mess it is off shore Alabama and Louisiana
I think there will come a point when their very ability to survive will be impacted. I'm talking the loss of medicaid, disability, SNAP on top of the rising cost of everything, will make it impossible to ignore.
There's nothing to think through when your only goals are the demolition of any part of government that might be able to investigate you and your businesses or to hold you accountable for your crimes. There's no plan to improve anything and there never was.
Project 2025, like all of the attacks by Tr*mp/F'Elon/MAGA on our fundamental freedoms needs to be framed in the harm to everyday AMERICANS—not our democratic institutions.
The "unitary executive" theory must be talked about in the ways it hurts us (and certainly, that's a phrase itself that the average low-information voter/non-voter can't spend time deciphering). Of course, I understand The Big Picture readers are far removed from the segment of Americans who don't/can't vote regularly, but it would be extremely helpful for each of us to internalize the importance of framing, as we share this with less engaged people in our networks (because we are trusted messengers in our own social circles and now, more than ever, need to get louder).
What they are trying to do is remove any/all checks on presidential power, allowing Tr*mp (and his unelected billionaire crony/accomplice/puppetmaster, F'Elon) to rule over us completely unrestrained:
- MAGA wants to take away our freedoms, including deciding when, if or how to start or grow our families.
- MAGA wants government to monitor our periods and pregnancies, going so far as turning miscarriages into crimes they'd prosecute
- MAGA wants to nationally ban or severely restrict access to abortion, fertility services, and contraception
- MAGA wants take away our ability to thrive economically, by making massive cuts to our earned benefits in Social Security and Medicare, all to give price-gouging corporations even more money and control over our lives
At the end of the day, they want to rule us, not represent us and Project 2025 is the recipe for turning presidential power into a dictator's power—you have only to look at GOP-controlled trifectas to see how red states have already been beta testing Project 2025 since 2010 when redmap gerrymandered 1,000 seats away from voters.
Simply put, Project 2025 is their plan to control our families and decide our futures for us. But by standing in opposition, whether individually, together publicly, or via support for lawfare—as we have in the past, we can reject this attack and protect our freedoms.
And with much more disastrous impact to come quickly, his support will implode. It may actually be his own MAGA every day supporters who bring him down.
Only if we make clear via messaging:
a) which values we ALL share in common
b) who is responsible for their suffering (a wealthy, well-connected few) AND why, and
c) how we can come together to make everyone's lives better
Here's the key, they need a breakthrough moment when they must reject their prior affirmation/alignment/belief/support of him. They must see in clear terms that he is doing direct harm to them, or violating a moral principle they hold sacred, only then, will they turn on him.
I dunno, have you talked with any of them? From the conversations I've had with them, there is nothing he could do, NOTHING, the delusions of grandeur run deep, he has "conditioned" them, across a decade. Full disclosure, I've -been- "paranoid, psychotic, and delusional", -clinically-, in my case it was drug induced, so I got better when I stopped taking amphetamines, in their case, it's not, but it's the same damn thing.
I've had conversations with them that were indistinguishable from one I had with a "crisis team" that got ME committed to a psych ward, I'm not even being hyperbolic here. Imagine if you will, in their heads, a giant cork board with photos, red string, and thumbtacks, in many ways, they are significantly crazier than I was, (and trust me, I was batshit mental at the time).
For me, the way out was simple, stop taking Adderall, for them, there is no simple solution, cause there's no drug causing it, there is only that cork board, and every day, all of the media they consume, F|Elon, GOP pols, and Rump himself, adds more pictures to it.
The bottom line is, we're dealing with a "mass psychosis" imo, they would set their own homes on fire and pull the walls in on themselves before they admitted their delusions were not real. I cannot adequately describe, having BEEN there, how frightening this is for me to watch. These kind of paranoid delusions had ME driving around with a loaded 9mm in my lap after all, cause some unknown "they" were out to get me, but THESE people, have been given targets, and man, it's scaring the hell outta me....
You're right....but we 'should' add to this that the MAGA base has a fundamental baseline agreement about inflicting pain on others. They are happy, over-joyed, to see others suffer. They WANT this. It starts to come undone when it starts to hurt them, but initially they see it as a mistake - they just got caught up in the pulling down of corruption etc. Just like this post alludes to, that point of vulnerability is where you can 'get in there' and start to see which of those red strings have started to fray and pop off the cork board. They DO NOT care about other people. That's why they love their leader. He gives less than zero f's...they just haven't caught on yet that those zero f's include them, too.
I refer to it as the "joy of hate."
unfortunate truth.
I am always reminded of this quote:
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.” ~Martin Niemöller
But, what has gotten lost in history, is that Martin was a nationalist, Nazi-supporter, and anti-Semite originally (i.e., he was a MAGA)—he only reached this conclusion after he HIMSELF was interned first at Sachsenhausen and then Dachau.
Of course, this doesn't apply to everyone, as not everyone will experience something personal that can cause that break, which is why, overall -- our focus should be on talking to people who share our values, but don't always have the agency, interest or understanding to act on them...not to focus on the opposition, per se.
Genuinely didn't know that, and I like to think I know a fair bit about the holocaust, that does get lost apparently, I musta daydreamed through that part of history class. ;)
Yeah, I don't agree with this notion of "trying to find common ground" with the magaloids. Oh sure, there probably is some, but they are wholly lost, they've shown their true colors now. It's a bit like hypnosis in that regard, their orange messiah couldn't have "conditioned" something into them that wasn't already there, he just brough it to the surface. In my own case (between like 2012-2014) it involved a lot of what you might call "gray hat" computer stuff (let imagination cover the rest), so my paranoia took that form.
One of these days I'll get around to telling that story in full on here, but for now, suffice to say, I did not turn into a racist bigot over it. That is something that in THEM, was already there, but is simply alien to MY personality, ie, I didn't start thinking Jews, or immigrants, or "the gays" or black people were out to get me, it was just "them", who I could not have defined if my life had depended on it.
It's sad, there were many of these magats I considered friends, but you know, if one is incapable of "live and let live", there isn't much "common" there I want to be associated with, how can you trust someone like that? Cause eventually, like in the quote, YOU'LL be their target, for one reason or another. I'm generally nice to everyone irl, if I have to deal with them day to day, I'm cordial enough. That being said, at this point, I'm not entirely sure I wouldn't throw them an anchor if they were drowning, in MY mind, most of em have proven themselves to be people the world would simply be better off without, I hate that I feel this way, but they've made their beds.
There is one quasi-amusing bit in all of this I take solace from, and who knows, maybe it'll shake something loose some day, the fact that they are all such thoroughly miserable people, now that many of US have cut them loose, they are finding that it's pretty awful when the only people they have to hang with, are EACH OTHER, which I find endlessly hilarious, poetic justice at its finest....
Yes, your last paragraph, particularly, I can see happening already, even in the UK. I suppose an analogy would be like a sea of concentrated bobbing turds, being corralled Ito a Sargasso like mass, & never becoming free enought to breakdown ecologically & atomically dissolve into elemental compounds more useful to society...like being absorbed into new life by a piece of seaweed or something vaguely pleasant.
☠️
I'm so sorry that you have to relive the craziness, even from the outside. You don't deserve that.
I think there's another element, that goes along with the mass psychosis - they're only starting to regret their vote because he's hurting THEM. They've lived a lifetime of racism, science denial, misogyny, Christian Nationalism and now that he's made it okay, they won't be able to easily give that up. So while they're big mad that their idol is hurting THEM, his loyal flock, they still believe in the principles that he banged into their brains with all the rallies and tweets and "truths". Most will never be able to get free of that insanity, and if our country ever gets free of this chaos and destruction, we'll still have to deal with people who willingly and enthusiastically take pleasure in hurting other people, even their own families.
Is there such a thing as mass deprogramming? And how do we deal with the tolerance paradox?
I'm sorry for your pain. I think that everyday we see greater and greater examples of the the enormity of the Goebbels -level disinformation and repetition campaign. Many factors had contributed to the initial creation of the cult of personality that is Donald Trump, especially mass media and social media profit algorithms. But this goes beyond normal cults of the past with the degree to which a completely insular alternate reality has been created. If you read any deprogramming experts, you will realize that there is no single approach or series of steps to dissolve a cult of such magnitude. Even if there were, it would have to be carried out organically and it would take decades.
COVID really brought it home for me. First, I couldn't believe that something like a pandemic where thousands of people were dying every week wouldn't help people put aside their differences to fight a common enemy (though I guess my disbelief started far earlier with Sandy Hook). But the level of gaslighting and delusion demonstrated by the willingness of MAGA to believe it was a hoax, some while lying on their actual deathbed, made me lose a lot of hope.
I do not know where we go from here. I only know that our republic can only stand so much division. Another civil war, a revolution, an invasion, or even a slow decline into irrelevance were all but unthinkable 20 years ago. No longer. The results of any of these are sure to be horrific for the world and all but a few Americans. As a kid, there weren't many things scarier than a nuclear war. I'm older and wiser now and I understand that at least a nuclear conflagration would be over quickly...
I foresee a possible "Seven Days in May" scenario playing out, where military leaders, alarmed by abysmal decision-making directly affecting US national security - e.g., rapprochement and even open cöoperation with Putin, or tRump ordering elements of the military to "do a Kent State" on peaceful protesters - will indeed act, forcibly detaining or "neutralizing" tRump, Vance, Hegseth et al, and quickly appointing a civilian "Government of Reconciliation" to put things right pending national elections on a "revised" timetable.
Think it "can't happen here"? Well, think again, as who could have really believed that the fascistic template served up by Project 2025 would ever be enacted, hmm?
On my facebook feed, when I post clearly and simply messaged concerns, the few MAGA people whom I have not yet blocked or unfriended still vehemently deny what is happening and argue with me and others who comment on my posts. Those in his cult will never see the truth or stop supporting the felon and his henchmen. We must win over the disengaged or non-voters in Red states, those who say “I don’t follow politics” or “both sides are just as bad.” We need to show them why politics matter and what the MAGA side is doing that hurts them individually
Some MAGAS that I’ve encountered have moved into the bargaining phase, claiming that the firings of employees and shuttering of agencies is necessary and will only last a short time until the “corruption” is identified and eliminated. They urge us unhappy folk to have patience, insisting that, in the end, all will be well. My guess is that this is the mantra being put out by Right Wing media.
I recently spoke with a conservative family member in Iowa who was convinced that Musk was simply "auditing" these federal agencies for waste and mismanagement, and that all of the budget cuts and staff firings were a good first step on the road to creating a more "efficient" government. When I pressed this person to describe what that looks like for a system that tries to meet the needs of 332 million people in this country, he immediately started the tired old "Democrats want to tax and spend us all into the Stone Age" tape.
It's clear to me that the people who are currently applauding what the Nerd Reich is up to are only on board for the destruction. They have no clue about what comes next, and they're fine with that.
Hahaha "Nerd Reich", I like that. Yeah, it's all unicorns and rainbows for these fuckwits till it's THEIR ass getting fired, then they're on Twitter, convinced it's just an oversight, sending him personal messages they think he's gonna see and change his mind, "please sir, I voted for you 3 times, I didn't know you'd fire ME, I got 2 kids and a mortgage!", like he gives a shit.
"I never thought leopards would eat MY face," sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.
EXACTLY...focus on voters who actually share our values already, but don't always act on them.
I love your analysis of the Project 25/MAGA/Executive Branch/Tech Bro attacks on the wellbeing of “ordinary” Americans and the importance of framing the harm they are causing so less engaged citizens will realize the dangerous moment we are in. I see everything through the lens of our rapid descent into fascism. It only took Hitler several weeks to destroy the German Weimar Republic. I try not to get sidetracked by the day to day executive orders and outrageous statements (such as Vance’s scolding of our European allies for not embracing the far right parties while he meets with the far right leaders during his visit to Germany). It is scary that the supine Republican majority in Congress seem to be ok with this attack on our democracy but I agree with you that we need to focus on the harm this assault is causing in the daily lives of the vast majority of people of good will. Thank you!
I am always reminded of this quote:
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.” ~Martin Niemöller
But, what has gotten lost in history, is that Martin was a nationalist, Nazi-supporter, and anti-Semite—he only reached this conclusion after he HIMSELF was interned first at Sachsenhausen and then Dachau.
We must at every cost not devolve to such a state, but until/unless everyday Americans who don't follow politics can see how this hurts them, they will not act accordingly.
Meanwhile, we must push back against the crime spree unleashed by Tr*mp/F'Elon (all so they can extend the 2017 tax handouts and steal our taxes to turn a government of, by and for the people into their personal feeding trough), and most importantly, push back on attacks on our freedom to vote -- if we don't have that, we don't have the power to remove them from office, and therein lies the true dictatorship.
Excellent read here, if you're interested:
https://www.readthedetox.com/p/trump-can-be-stopped
Thanks for the Martin Niemöller detail. I had no idea his background was this interesting despite having quoted him many times. That makes the message so much stronger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Niemöller
It definitely makes it far more poignant and illuminating.
I believe the harm already being done to his loyal MAGA supporters’ lives, and with much more impsct
Yes, talk in simple terms. Dems are so bad at this.
Absolutely! We need plain talk about what is happening now and what is about to happen to the people themselves. My 84 year old Mom keeps asking how the stock market is doing. I tell her the corporations will be fine, it is the people who will suffer. Then I give her examples, actual examples of benefits and entitlements that she depends on that may be impacted. The rural, elderly, infirm and disenfranchised will suffer like America has not seen since the Dust Bowl era.
You are right on it! Better messaging so they understand what is going on because they are going to bear the brunt of it. The king has already declared that he’s above any laws and he can break and remake them as he wishes. They are like lobsters being slowly boiled. The spell needs to be broken.
Superb newsletter. You can tell you are a chess player. Trump isn’t as smart as he thinks he is.
Nor is musk.
It would be impossible for anyone to be as intelligent as Musk thinks he is.
lol-so very true!!
I think there is a plan by the GOP far right, and they are in a hurry to get as much done as possible because they can see that Trump isn’t going to last. For example, they want to get rid of USAID, and Trump’s goal is to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico. One plan is devious and hurtful to Americans and those we want to help, the other is just stupid. They want to strip out the FBI, and he wants to chair the Kennedy Center. Just looking at him, he doesn’t look well, and may already be a goner between the ears!
Yeah, but if he doesn’t last, then JD Vance takes over. And he’s only 40 years old, and he has already shown that he’s sold his soul to MAGA.
What soul?
You’re right – – point taken Natalie.
Actually, I think he's sold his soul to the Tech Bros like Thiel, who groomed him.
I doubt there is any love lost between musk and Vance since they are both attention whores, and musk is winning in that race.
And Trump has said he doesn't see Vance as President in 2028. I suspect Trump sees Musk as being able to keep him in as President for Life.
Vance is, I think, more intellectually capable than the citrus-hued gargoyle, but Vance lacks any semblance of the charisma the gargoyle exudes over his swarm of red-hatted followers, and blind devotion is needed to keep that bunch in thrall: nobody is going to happily follow Vance into the proverbial trenches. This gives me a wee (very, very wee) bit of hope.
Right, Vance will just be a figurehead, without all Trump’s nonsense, after the government has been overthrown. Those who made their investment in this MAGA government will reap the benefits — Vance included — and they will a go along their merry way.
Did you catch his speech to European leaders yesterday? He had the nerve to lecture us in Europe on free speech before he went off to meet the fascist German party AfD. He made no friends here.
I was in Spain not long after Obama took over from Bush — everyone told me how glad they were that Bush was out. I hope in four years Europeans will celebrate with us when Trump and his ilk are swept out like yesterday’s trash.
Hmm…Let’s assume Trump can’t fix the system so he can run for a third term (the obstacles are considerable and he would be 82 on taking office if he did, and won). Being the narcissist that he is, he can’t abide talk of ANYONE succeeding him, especially his poodle of a VP. But Vance wants it and would have the inside track unless DJT poisons his well with MAGA. Don Jr? “Thick as a brick”, according to Steve Bannon, who should know. So here’s the opportunity: DJT would be the king or the king-maker but no one else in the GOP has the charisma to capture the MAGA faithful and a voting majority, and they will descend into vicious fratricidal fights for the soul of the party and their cynicism and extremism will at last be exposed. For now, Democrats should be banging the drum about their cruelty and about the oligarch corruption, starting with Musk.
Sold his soul to Peter Theil…..both are more dangerous than we know.
That's true but people don't like him…not even the OH people who voted him in as Senator!!!
Which begs the question - why did they vote for him? R after his name I suppose. Let the sheeple rule.
I sure didn’t vote for Vance, it is more accurate to say Peter Thiel bought him for us as Vance follows Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin’s dark enlightenment garbage.
The latter of the two items are there just to appease and pacify the Orange Palpatine because they need him right now for his signature, pics, and rally's. Once they don't need him and replace him it will be over for him. The only thing slowing everything up are the lawsuits right now.
Trump, his fascist wannabes (like Bannon, Miller, Vought, and the far too many other sociopaths running the country) are halfway to their goal of amassing all power into Trumps hands. They are not in favour of a unitary president, they are only in favour of a “trump” unitary president.
They are almost there!
They have destroyed the free press, and have destroyed facts, they have fractured the people!
Now their attack on the judiciary is in full swing. They are almost there with Bondi at DoJ and her signal that she will do whatever Stephen Miller and Trump tell her to do. Kash Patel, a disgusting phycopathic liar, and incompetent yes-man, will almost certainly head the FBI. So defense, law, intelligence is all compromised by these people who answer not to the American people, or the Constitution, but to Trump!
They have already disregarded court orders to reinstate funds for USAID, to stop the purge in the FBI, and to lock out Musk from Treasury but the so-called mass media have hardly given any notice of this as if they don’t mention it, it will go away!
Vance, our scum bag VP, has already said that the administration should ignore the courts. The courts may rule, so let them enforce the ruling!, as he is reported to have said (I paraphrase).
So two steps toward authoritarianism are all but in place. Kill the press, sideline the courts, divide the country, and Trump presents himself as the only one who can save the nation.
Americans, like millions in Nazi Germany, fascist Japan, and today in authoritarian Hungary and dictatorship Russia, China, North Korea, are very happy to be fools and drink this shit up.
This is until, as will happen here too, it starts to affect them personally and their families! People never think that this crap will affect them until it does! And it will. But then it is too late!
How long that will take to fully happen is anyones guess, but we are well on the road to that future.
Did you catch Vance’s speech to European leaders yesterday? He had the nerve to lecture us in Europe on free speech before he went off to meet the fascist German party AfD. He made no friends here.
Trump destroyed the media? That's the funniest thing you could have said.
He is a shiny object that distracts them. But they were adept at bread and circuses before. Still truth was more generally available
Thanks for evading my point. I'm shocked.
Oh, right Scott! Bad on me for having witnessed Trump over the last ten years where he has lied, and lies, every time he opens his polluted hole of a mouth, and for the uncountable times Trump has, and continues, to castigate the press and call them “fake news” if he disagrees with whatever is being reported on, and watching him say everything and anything possible to divide the country and frame the press as “enemies of the people”!
You seem to be making the assumption that I must think the media is perfect. I don’t!
But I know that Trump has played a major part in denigrating the press to the point today where people find it hard to believe anything. The goal of authoritarians is to do exactly what felon Trump is doing. Lie, divide, attack the press, the courts, and the law!
Ahem, I don’t even know you. How could I possibly make assumptions about you?
Oh, and here’s a little tip. Uncountable? Try innumerable next time.
As for the mainstream media, without flagrant bias it would not exist.
The 4 year old X, musks son, is repeating what he is hearing from his dad and his dad’s cronies.
Drump doesn’t look well
Drump was publicly humiliated by a 4 year old
The world is watching and laughing at Donny. At not with. He got reamed by a 4 year old, nose picking brat.
My guess is, Drump is going to get rid of musk soon after this incident and the time magazine cover, with musk behind the Oval Office desk.
The entire administration is going to implode soon as it seems they all have their own agenda, even his cabinet.
If you scrutinize them, none of their policies, actions are lining up with drumpf they are going rouge
They are all acting independently. If each other
Because there is no real leadership
Not one with a sane, calm, leadership brain is in charge.
They are going to collapse upon theirselves.
By doing the things that they are doing, clashing with each other.
Total chaos.
Not to mention, our allies are all coming together against the USA
The Canadian boycott is extremely effective.
I personally, have not been ordering anything from Amazon. On purpose.
The tariffs and cutting the funding are going to make the grass roots maga’s pissed This is a good thing.
They are going to rebel against Drump, because no matter how Drump and his colleagues ( loosely) try to blame other people, Biden, etc.
they are hearing about the tariffs and the funding being cut off
It is even on Faux news. Maybe worded a little biased for Drump. But still
This anger these people have is going to be turned on the new administration.
These magas are also going to be turning on their representatives in the house and senate.
All the do nothing magas in the house and senate, most who didn’t vote for the moral thing because of threats and being primaried , are not going to be reelected because the maga voters are going to turn on them for doing nothing.
I can’t stand to listen to the man, Drump or musk
I want the bumper sticker with little x’s quotes
Last
Anyone know any Luigi’s?
Send them to Washington DC
To your point about Trump getting rid of Musk. I think this is part of what they didn’t plan out. Personally I think musk is like the toothpaste you can’t put back in the tube. If Trump tells him to stand down, I think there’s a very good chance that Musk will probably say something like “make me.“ I think Trump and his minions have lost their ability to control Musk. And by then he’s going to have so much control over so many systems that he could used to threaten or blackmail.
I agree with an awful lot of the rest of your analysis.
Bannon et al wrote the playbook and Musk was not planned
I pray you are correct. Get rid of musk (and stop his contracts!!!), and that’s a huge step in the democracy direction!!!!
What did the kid say, I must have missed something.
It’s not clear and might not be considered to be reliable but something to the effect of, you're not the president and also told him to shush….
Yes, the question then is
1) The four year old has experienced Joe Biden as his president, and is not entirely aware that the president can change so when he's told he will go visit the president he wonders where Biden is.
2) His father has told him that his father is the real president.
Personally I think the second is the funniest.
It’s on YT- X first says to DJT “you’re not the president.” And a bit later he says, “ I want you to shush your mouth.” It’s somewhat difficult to hear , but not completely garbled or made up .. it’s the mic on the desk picking it up.
Some other things he does are nonverbal - he picks his nose quite overtly like 4 yos do, while looking at DJT and in close proximity to him.
He disrupts the meeting as 4 yos do , at this point EM picks him up and actually says “gravitas can be difficult sometimes .” Chuckling, trying to laugh it off - but underscoring why we generally are not allowed to bring children to work , esp in very serious settings with a lot of .. gravitas. 😵💫
Another interesting point - EM holds his hands in the steeple position - - nonverbal way of conveying authority - but almost tooooo much , bc it’s so obvious and a lot of people are aware of this cue now.
More oddly - X mimics the gesture while standing at EM knee , looking away from his dad doing the hand steeple. Xs isn’t very good - but it seems to me he’s being taught the gesture which looks odd on a 4yo- X adds a devious face to the gesture . As with the clip of him , I think this was caught on Rogan, where X says “they’ll never know…” it seems more and more that EM is educating his son in the way DJT was educated and the way he was educated - by a pathological father.
Lastly - EM openly flaunts formal WH dress code. Lil X actually dressed better than EM. I honestly hope this kid goes full rebellion in adolescence , please please God 🙏🏽 make it so
The mother’s curse!!! 🤪
On a hot mic he was overheard mumbling, I can’t verify it but people are saying he told Trump to get out of his daddy’s chair. And to shut his face. I’ve listened to it a bunch of times and honestly can’t tell.
Video of Musk’s son X talking g to Trump.
https://substack.com/redirect/89a02f5c-2bed-47ac-b238-b54cfae85a31?j=eyJ1IjoiYXA1NGsifQ.dfcDpe8zvQR0BqPFbtZIwsQu_W3ijJskj1s7rbev1Ic
I agree with all, except I think they’re in the voting software and I fear nothing is being done or can be done about it. They will make sure Republicans win pretty much everywhere. I’m not a conspiracy theorist - but there is zero way I believe he won all 7 swing states. Nope. No way.
https://smartelections.us/
FYI, this group, along with Democracy Forward, are still deeply into investigating 2024 election fraud by Trump & Co. They have lawyers involved and have convinced a US congressman to call for an investigation.
Gotta agree - what are the odds statistically of ALL 7 swing states - that would make them not very swingy at all. That’s like better than a trifecta (?)
Palast, an investigative journalist, did an in-depth analysis of the 2024 election where he outlined the impact of all the voter suppression laws that the Right has enacted in various swing states in the last decade.
Palast writes, "if not for the mass purge of voters of color, if not for the mass disqualification of provisional and mail-in ballots, if not for the new mass “vigilante” challenges in swing states, Harris would have gained at least another 3,565,000 votes, topping Trump’s official popular vote tally by 1.2 million."
https://www.gregpalast.com/trump-lost-vote-suppression-won/?mc_cid=68defdad46&mc_eid=c17f628d73
The only way around this is HAND COUNTED ballots. Zero faith in this environment anything can get done through Congressional investigations, and GOP probably won’t allow them to happen anyway. States need to implement hand counting again!!
Supposedly people were manipulated on x and Facebook etc to vote for trump or not vote. Famously Arabs were show kamela is a Zionist ads and Jews were shown Kamala 💕 the ayatollah ads. I didn’t see any of these but this little manipulation was documented by persons I believe.
And I thought I was a glass half full guy, lol.
I don't see this playing out without a confrontation between the courts via the US Marshall Service, whose director he hasn't yet replaced, and Trumpsters, somehow, somewhere.
I hope that a federal judge, however, is smart enough to forcibly evict the private citizen currently squatting in various government buildings instead of Trump minions.
Take out one of the major factions, the one nobody can argue has any right to be there.
Poke a big hole, and go from there. These morons will continue to battle each other even if Musk is taken out of the picture by the courts. They're peacocks of mendacity. They'll never truly get along.
Only Trump has immunity from illegal acts.
This breakdown of events is absolutely masterful. I don't think you've written anything better, and that is saying something.
Something that is working against Trump and his Project 2025 is that they are private sector people. That is normally considered to be a good thing in this country, but in point of fact the private sector is only more efficient than the government in that they are generally allowed to fail, and they DO fail. Trump has bankrupted six businesses all by himself. If that is efficiency, then I am a carrot.
Most private sector enterprises are extremely feudal in their hierarchies, and subordinates do not dare question decisions made by higher ups. It results in an intellectual laziness and lack of rigor on the part of those higher ups. Such leaders make an enormous number of ad hoc and risky decisions, many of which push the boundaries of ethical and legal behavior. A great deal of effort therefore must be exerted inside many corporations to shield themselves from outside scrutiny and oversight. Donald Trump's own go-to has been the court of public opinion as a flanking maneuver. At the moment he is busy cutting the shrouds of that parachute.
That lack of analytical rigor is going to manifest with increasing frequency as we approach the moment of constitutional crisis.
Maybe these judges need to do more than scold lawyers bringing bs before them.
I'd like to see the Space Nazi's despicable minions named PERSONALLY in numerous lawsuits for privacy and security violations. Ideally, BOTH civil and criminal.
They have been accessing systems with massive amounts of very personal data (including medical data) that does have laws protecting it. Get those sucmwads tied up in court (even though the Space Nazi will foot the bill), and they may realize that it's not all just fun and games.
Thought it out? Thought it out? Grifters grift. They don't think it out.
Their delusion includes 'God on Our side.' Empire's gonna empire and gods don't think.
Right, Joyce!
Grifters do think it out, just not very deeply. Their Achilles heel is that they believe they’re smarter than everyone else and that’s what takes them down.
My first job out of law school was a judicial clerkship, and I’ve been saying what Jay has written here, that “Judges read the news. They know about the kinds of unconstitutional orders the Trump White House is issuing as though they were mere traffic tickets and not alarming attempts to shred basic civil rights. Credibility still matters in the courtroom, and the new administration has squandered valuable capital out the gate, all to please the MAGA racist wing of the party.” Ticking off the judiciary with an indefensible position is a losing legal strategy.
I'd love to see some of the slimy lawyers representing the Government in these cases get sanctioned. That might start to make a few of them think.
But aren't the lawyers, knowing all of this, not wanting to be involved or doing a poor job of presenting so the other side will win?
Don’t forget that Musk wants not only to dismantle the federal government, he wants to replace it with AI. To have his own chatbots replace the bureaucrats. This motivation explains a lot about what he and his lackeys are doing.
Question about those red states though: don't they have to realize what's being done to them and by whom? I'm not convinced it's enough to sway their vote, even at a small percentage.
Even when the ruby red states get hurt, Trump will convince them not to believe their lying eyes, and it will be somebody else’s fault.
Cheetolini called the recent rise in Inflation "Biden's fault". The sheepole in the cowardly mass media didn't question it . . .
Sigh. I wonder how long he’s gonna be able to do that. At least it’s no longer Obama‘s fault, or Hillary - her emails!
But there are enough Trump voters who are not MAGA who will flip like pancakes when it hurts them personally. And it already is.
Take a look at kentucky. Mitch McConnell is practically begging republicans to end this mess as he is realizing what he has done to help create this mess! I feel for kentucky, but mitch got what he deserved at the expense of his state.
I don’t feel a bit sorry for Kentucky. They voted for Mitch, they voted for Trump. Let them reap what they’ve sown. 100% of my sympathies lie with the ones who didn’t vote for them but are going to be collateral damage.
I just hope Mitch lives long enough to realize the full extent of the damage he caused and gets to see at least the beginning of history’s judgement.
Did his hand of Voldemort finally clear up?
Do you think he realizes or even gives a ff? Ffs f. I see him and Elaine cruising away through the gulf of trumpansee. Don’t let the red algae poison them on their way out! Hot fetid polluted mess it is off shore Alabama and Louisiana
I think there will come a point when their very ability to survive will be impacted. I'm talking the loss of medicaid, disability, SNAP on top of the rising cost of everything, will make it impossible to ignore.
Yes. And all that so the trump taxes for the rich can be extended.
Particularly when corporate media won’t even report on much of anything.
Thank you for this excellent summary!
I wonder what republicans would say if we ever had a democratic president and they succeed with the unitary executive.
The Republicans don’t think there’s ever going to be another Democratic president.
There's nothing to think through when your only goals are the demolition of any part of government that might be able to investigate you and your businesses or to hold you accountable for your crimes. There's no plan to improve anything and there never was.