Trump is the greatest example yet of the billionaires taking over our government. Every administration is beholden to the billionaires, but now we actually have many of them in the administration, rather than manipulating from behind the curtain. DOGE is just another one of the billionaire's projects to fool the public while enriching themselves. Just as one example, now they are going after the consumer protection agency, which has already been neutered by the billionaires over the years, because they want to kill it outright. Whenever Trump does something, ask who benefits and you will see that it is always the wealthy.
Hey, who needs protection from price-gouging fraudulent business practices, right?!? Man up, America! :-) At some point, at least some of our moronic fellow citizens who put these guys in office--yeah, we may as well consider Musk the co-POTUS by now, though I don't seem to recall he was on the ballot!--may start feeling "buyer's remorse." Consumer prices will be soaring going forward, not merely rising consistently. At some point, Mr. and Mrs. America will have borrowed the last penny--oops, pennies are on the chopping block!--any creditor will allow them, and consumer spending, which is 70% or more of US economy, will have to nosedive. Get ready for fireworks.
And the Trump Religious Sect of Christianity is in denial, blind and oblivious to these words in their Bibles:
Jesus to his disciples, Verily I say to you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Christ doesn't exclude rich people. He just knows most of them love and serve MONEY more than they love and serve God.
James, the Brother of Jesus is even more explicit in Chapter 5 of his Book in the Book of Books:
Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten.
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for THE LAST DAYS.
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by FRAUD, cries: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord Almighty.
A great part of Jesus' appeal was that there is ultimate justice, so here on earth we can suffer but not despair because God will judge. Then science came along, belief in an afterlife has plummeted and we have to rely on ourselves to see justice done here on earth. Americans have shown that if life is good, justice is forgotten, so here we are.
"Despite our rebel reputations, Americans are often more than deferential to authority."
Americans typically are full of bluster and bombast. Typically those are symptomatic of cowardice at the core.
"Congress, of course, holds the purse strings."
"Congress, instead of opposing Trump, should get ahead of him."
"Congress, instead of blocking Trump/Musk, should render them redundant by doing the people’s work. Make government accountable to the people again, and the people won’t feel that they need to vote for chaos agents like Trump."
The real power, embraced and properly wielded is with Congress. Congress can impeach the president. The president can't impeach Congress. Congress makes the laws. Constitutionally, the president only enforces them.
Unfortunately, we have a bunch of weak-kneed, spineless congressional placeholders who fanatically avoid doing their job, fear accountability, and would rather pass the buck than pass effective, visionary legislation.
Love your turning the BS meme that citizens have been abused with on its head! "If government's done nothing wrong, it has nothing to hide." Which tells us why they keep so much under wraps, talk in word salad, stay with talking points instead of talking honestly and interactively with we the people. Throw all the bums out!
"....can something good come from their 'Hulk smash!' attacks on the federal government?"
NO. They're smashing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. They're aiming to eliminate programs that matter to both U.S. and world citizens. They're doing it for their own benefit or to cause harm to other people or entities. And they're shredding the Constitution while they're at it. There's no scenario in which their seizing all power is a good thing.
As more than half the Congress is MAGA, there's no hope for the idea that they "should" be doing the right thing at this point. Even in the days of old, when Dems had a majority under Biden, the MAGA Senate still blocked the best proposals (not to say that plenty of Dems weren't supine, of course).
Well....wait. If the damage they're causing unites the country (except the hard-core cultists, of course) against them, gets out the torches and pitchforks, and teaches the willfully ignorant a lesson, perhaps there would be a silver lining.
One of the 1st thing Trump-Musk did was fire the Inspectors-General responsible for exposing waste, corruption and fraud in the Departments they oversaw. There is no oversight now except for Musk.
By Law, Inspectors-General cannot be fired without a 30 Day notice to the Senate with the Executive having to provide the reason for firing them, needing the consent of the Senate who appointed them.
The lily-livered Senate Republicans with the Moral backbone of a jellyfish, are more terrified of Trump today, than they were terrified of Trump supporters on January 6.
Just one more sign these UN-United States after 49 Years finally arrived at this place recorded by The Kansas City Times September 13, 1976, "He came to town for the Republican National Convention and will stay until the election in November TO DO GOD'S BIDDING: To tell the World, from Kansas City, this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered [...] He gestured toward a gleaming church dome. “The gold dome is the symbol of BABYLON,” he said.” [...] He wanted to bring to the Public’s attention an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a War with Russia.”
That 1976 FUTURE is NOW, with the Revelation of the details GENERALLY unfolding in the spirit of the letter.
The World is waking up to see Americans may hasten “its days are numbered” part of the 1976 Vision, and waits with bated breath.
When the Bolsheviks seized the reins of ass-backward Russia in 1917, Lenin ordered the public disclosure of the Tsar's secret diplomatic agreements with the western imperialist powers. (Russia, of course, had been pressed into alliance with UK, France and U.S. in the war with the Hun.) This rankled the imperialists more than a little! (gross understatement) Later of course, facing the hostility of the whole Capitalist world, the USSR was forced to adopt similar levels of state secrecy. Let's put Tulsi Gabbard in charge of airing ALL the CIA's dirty laundry in public! I double-, triple-dog dare her!! I am forced to predict IT WON'T HAPPEN. And what became of the supposed release of the previously most secret files on murders of JFK etc.? We're still waiting for that. BTW, Philip Agee exposed a lot of CIA dirt (primarily re: Latin America, where he had personal CIA experience) decades ago in his book "INSIDE THE COMPANY: CIA Diary." Imagine how much more voluminous an update on this stuff would be! Back up the truck and start loading the secret documents!
You ask: "It's our money, right?" No. Once They steal it from you, it's Their money, and being politicians, they will blow it on whatever is the next shiny project. It _was_ theoretically "representative" government, but that passed away decades ago. Now this entire bulwark stands in the social place which real government leadership should occupy, and it is armed and dangerous. It is government of, by and for, business.
I think the tremendous wealth of the few is outrageous because it is stolen public wealth. Imagine some individual holding, say, 50% of all wealth. Could anyone seriously deny that such a stranglehold on wealth is wrong? That the power available from that wealth is a good thing for one person to hold? We are moving toward that steadily and only law can stop it. The 1% is that because the law allows it, not because it is right.
It was the sacking of all the Attorneys General that left no doubt that this has nothing to do with efficiency and proper operation but is simply destruction. Musk has no knowledge of the assigned work being done within the agencies he is attacking. To do so and properly judge the efficiency of whatever is being done would take time and he shows no inclination to properly investigate, he is on a joy ride of destruction.
While appointees may be fired, I would think civil service law would offer protection for the rank and file who cannot be arbitrarily fired. In addition, how can the executive branch simply eliminate parts of government that Congress created with specific intent? Thus, as mentioned above, it would take investigation to show that an agency or part of it was not doing the job intended and Musk is conducting no investigations, it is more like there was a list of things to get rid of and now Musk is going down the list.
The courts will be very busy and the crunch will come when, frustrated, Trump will lash out and say that the courts have no authority to rule on what he does as he denounces this or that judge by name. He would then be at the point of refusing a court order. We will be at a crisis because the courts depend on the executive to carry out their rulings. It may come down to people subject to Trump's orders (police) refusing to carry them out but I fear that there will be very few who will do so. The "rugged individuals" will fold even with their country at stake if Trump is issuing the orders.
"Hulk Smash"? ... I believe that, "Flintstones BamBam" is more appropriate... At least when Hulk recovers, Hulk heels remorse... DJT doesn't express Remorse, and has the Sentience of a Paleolithic Toddler... Me, Me, Me ...
Youth is not disqualifying. I could take any one who can read and ask them if they would “pay for the products or services” based on reading the paragraphdps of the contract I told them to read, and compare specs to receiving documents and inspections done or not.
It does not take a SpaceX engineer to know delivered F-35s are based on failed specs.
It is not a good “look” to claim pursuing good governance is a constitutional crisis.
Build a new beast to break the last constructed beast is the 'Merican way, as alQueda, Hamas, Israel regularly show?
Is this the moment in US history when the principled people of all demographics redefine left & right by blocking, breaking or burying the elements they don't like, forcing representative government to comply with rather than control the electorate?
Get 'em off the couch and into the town square where the masses will decide what America should be?
If the destroyers of the house are worse than the damage inflicted to the house, you may find yourself standing in the open, with no shelter, being led by berserkers.
Be careful what you wish for ... few people have much sympathy for wasteful bureaucracy, but we should have sympathy for the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.
As George Bush the Lesser said, the US Constitution is just a scrap of paper. When it has paid the right sort of people to outright ignore it (and make laws ex post facto legalizing their actions if discovered) this has been done. Highly paid lawyers will weasel word around the letter and/or work to create precedents which redefine the intent & original spirit of this document as required, this too has been done.
"Rule of law" or "rules based order"? Nope. "Golden rule", they have the gold- so they rule.
Trump is the greatest example yet of the billionaires taking over our government. Every administration is beholden to the billionaires, but now we actually have many of them in the administration, rather than manipulating from behind the curtain. DOGE is just another one of the billionaire's projects to fool the public while enriching themselves. Just as one example, now they are going after the consumer protection agency, which has already been neutered by the billionaires over the years, because they want to kill it outright. Whenever Trump does something, ask who benefits and you will see that it is always the wealthy.
Hey, who needs protection from price-gouging fraudulent business practices, right?!? Man up, America! :-) At some point, at least some of our moronic fellow citizens who put these guys in office--yeah, we may as well consider Musk the co-POTUS by now, though I don't seem to recall he was on the ballot!--may start feeling "buyer's remorse." Consumer prices will be soaring going forward, not merely rising consistently. At some point, Mr. and Mrs. America will have borrowed the last penny--oops, pennies are on the chopping block!--any creditor will allow them, and consumer spending, which is 70% or more of US economy, will have to nosedive. Get ready for fireworks.
And the Trump Religious Sect of Christianity is in denial, blind and oblivious to these words in their Bibles:
Jesus to his disciples, Verily I say to you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Christ doesn't exclude rich people. He just knows most of them love and serve MONEY more than they love and serve God.
James, the Brother of Jesus is even more explicit in Chapter 5 of his Book in the Book of Books:
Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten.
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for THE LAST DAYS.
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by FRAUD, cries: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord Almighty.
A great part of Jesus' appeal was that there is ultimate justice, so here on earth we can suffer but not despair because God will judge. Then science came along, belief in an afterlife has plummeted and we have to rely on ourselves to see justice done here on earth. Americans have shown that if life is good, justice is forgotten, so here we are.
Need I mention that it is the fabulous wealth of American Zionists that allows them to run wild and fund AIPAC to the stars?
What was it Dan Quayle said back in the day "A Waste is a terrible thing to Mind"! :/ :O)
Truly prophetic words ...
"Despite our rebel reputations, Americans are often more than deferential to authority."
Americans typically are full of bluster and bombast. Typically those are symptomatic of cowardice at the core.
"Congress, of course, holds the purse strings."
"Congress, instead of opposing Trump, should get ahead of him."
"Congress, instead of blocking Trump/Musk, should render them redundant by doing the people’s work. Make government accountable to the people again, and the people won’t feel that they need to vote for chaos agents like Trump."
The real power, embraced and properly wielded is with Congress. Congress can impeach the president. The president can't impeach Congress. Congress makes the laws. Constitutionally, the president only enforces them.
Unfortunately, we have a bunch of weak-kneed, spineless congressional placeholders who fanatically avoid doing their job, fear accountability, and would rather pass the buck than pass effective, visionary legislation.
Love your turning the BS meme that citizens have been abused with on its head! "If government's done nothing wrong, it has nothing to hide." Which tells us why they keep so much under wraps, talk in word salad, stay with talking points instead of talking honestly and interactively with we the people. Throw all the bums out!
"....can something good come from their 'Hulk smash!' attacks on the federal government?"
NO. They're smashing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. They're aiming to eliminate programs that matter to both U.S. and world citizens. They're doing it for their own benefit or to cause harm to other people or entities. And they're shredding the Constitution while they're at it. There's no scenario in which their seizing all power is a good thing.
As more than half the Congress is MAGA, there's no hope for the idea that they "should" be doing the right thing at this point. Even in the days of old, when Dems had a majority under Biden, the MAGA Senate still blocked the best proposals (not to say that plenty of Dems weren't supine, of course).
Well....wait. If the damage they're causing unites the country (except the hard-core cultists, of course) against them, gets out the torches and pitchforks, and teaches the willfully ignorant a lesson, perhaps there would be a silver lining.
One of the 1st thing Trump-Musk did was fire the Inspectors-General responsible for exposing waste, corruption and fraud in the Departments they oversaw. There is no oversight now except for Musk.
By Law, Inspectors-General cannot be fired without a 30 Day notice to the Senate with the Executive having to provide the reason for firing them, needing the consent of the Senate who appointed them.
The lily-livered Senate Republicans with the Moral backbone of a jellyfish, are more terrified of Trump today, than they were terrified of Trump supporters on January 6.
Just one more sign these UN-United States after 49 Years finally arrived at this place recorded by The Kansas City Times September 13, 1976, "He came to town for the Republican National Convention and will stay until the election in November TO DO GOD'S BIDDING: To tell the World, from Kansas City, this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered [...] He gestured toward a gleaming church dome. “The gold dome is the symbol of BABYLON,” he said.” [...] He wanted to bring to the Public’s attention an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a War with Russia.”
That 1976 FUTURE is NOW, with the Revelation of the details GENERALLY unfolding in the spirit of the letter.
The World is waking up to see Americans may hasten “its days are numbered” part of the 1976 Vision, and waits with bated breath.
When the Bolsheviks seized the reins of ass-backward Russia in 1917, Lenin ordered the public disclosure of the Tsar's secret diplomatic agreements with the western imperialist powers. (Russia, of course, had been pressed into alliance with UK, France and U.S. in the war with the Hun.) This rankled the imperialists more than a little! (gross understatement) Later of course, facing the hostility of the whole Capitalist world, the USSR was forced to adopt similar levels of state secrecy. Let's put Tulsi Gabbard in charge of airing ALL the CIA's dirty laundry in public! I double-, triple-dog dare her!! I am forced to predict IT WON'T HAPPEN. And what became of the supposed release of the previously most secret files on murders of JFK etc.? We're still waiting for that. BTW, Philip Agee exposed a lot of CIA dirt (primarily re: Latin America, where he had personal CIA experience) decades ago in his book "INSIDE THE COMPANY: CIA Diary." Imagine how much more voluminous an update on this stuff would be! Back up the truck and start loading the secret documents!
You ask: "It's our money, right?" No. Once They steal it from you, it's Their money, and being politicians, they will blow it on whatever is the next shiny project. It _was_ theoretically "representative" government, but that passed away decades ago. Now this entire bulwark stands in the social place which real government leadership should occupy, and it is armed and dangerous. It is government of, by and for, business.
I think the tremendous wealth of the few is outrageous because it is stolen public wealth. Imagine some individual holding, say, 50% of all wealth. Could anyone seriously deny that such a stranglehold on wealth is wrong? That the power available from that wealth is a good thing for one person to hold? We are moving toward that steadily and only law can stop it. The 1% is that because the law allows it, not because it is right.
It was the sacking of all the Attorneys General that left no doubt that this has nothing to do with efficiency and proper operation but is simply destruction. Musk has no knowledge of the assigned work being done within the agencies he is attacking. To do so and properly judge the efficiency of whatever is being done would take time and he shows no inclination to properly investigate, he is on a joy ride of destruction.
While appointees may be fired, I would think civil service law would offer protection for the rank and file who cannot be arbitrarily fired. In addition, how can the executive branch simply eliminate parts of government that Congress created with specific intent? Thus, as mentioned above, it would take investigation to show that an agency or part of it was not doing the job intended and Musk is conducting no investigations, it is more like there was a list of things to get rid of and now Musk is going down the list.
The courts will be very busy and the crunch will come when, frustrated, Trump will lash out and say that the courts have no authority to rule on what he does as he denounces this or that judge by name. He would then be at the point of refusing a court order. We will be at a crisis because the courts depend on the executive to carry out their rulings. It may come down to people subject to Trump's orders (police) refusing to carry them out but I fear that there will be very few who will do so. The "rugged individuals" will fold even with their country at stake if Trump is issuing the orders.
"Hulk Smash"? ... I believe that, "Flintstones BamBam" is more appropriate... At least when Hulk recovers, Hulk heels remorse... DJT doesn't express Remorse, and has the Sentience of a Paleolithic Toddler... Me, Me, Me ...
Youth is not disqualifying. I could take any one who can read and ask them if they would “pay for the products or services” based on reading the paragraphdps of the contract I told them to read, and compare specs to receiving documents and inspections done or not.
It does not take a SpaceX engineer to know delivered F-35s are based on failed specs.
It is not a good “look” to claim pursuing good governance is a constitutional crisis.
The loyal opposition doth protest too much.
See the Execution of the Doge: https://wallacelive.wallacecollection.org:443/eMP/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=65216&viewType=detailView
Build a new beast to break the last constructed beast is the 'Merican way, as alQueda, Hamas, Israel regularly show?
Is this the moment in US history when the principled people of all demographics redefine left & right by blocking, breaking or burying the elements they don't like, forcing representative government to comply with rather than control the electorate?
Get 'em off the couch and into the town square where the masses will decide what America should be?
CSPAN clips going viral on Twix is a good sign.
Wrecking ball is appropriate when the termites have ruined the edifice.
The screaming about auditing treasury is amazing!
If the destroyers of the house are worse than the damage inflicted to the house, you may find yourself standing in the open, with no shelter, being led by berserkers.
A large part of the voters felt the previous situation was as evil as Trump and Musk.
I refuse to oppose gutting the bureaucracy because the gutters are not liked by the supporters of Biden's wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
At least US weapons and intel stopped bombing Russia.
Be careful what you wish for ... few people have much sympathy for wasteful bureaucracy, but we should have sympathy for the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.
@Bill Astore
As George Bush the Lesser said, the US Constitution is just a scrap of paper. When it has paid the right sort of people to outright ignore it (and make laws ex post facto legalizing their actions if discovered) this has been done. Highly paid lawyers will weasel word around the letter and/or work to create precedents which redefine the intent & original spirit of this document as required, this too has been done.
"Rule of law" or "rules based order"? Nope. "Golden rule", they have the gold- so they rule.
Mostly because it's being done by a pair of 20 year olds with no idea what they're looking at.
If you want to do an audit, use actual auditors with relevant experience.