At this point, Musk and his coterie of sociopathic right-wing tech bros are probably a greater threat to American democracy than Donald Trump. I mean, Trump is pushing 80, and have you seen him lately? He looks like shit. More than usual, even!
I’m not trying to minimize the danger of Trump. He’d do a ton of damage without the broligarchy, of course — we all sat through this horrendous movie before. But with any luck, he’ll die of cheeseburgers or become incapacitated soon enough. The broligarchy will endure, and right now, they’re taking sledgehammers to the U.S. government under Trump’s auspices.
Trump is and always has been a viscous slurry of greed, grievance and wholly unearned self-regard, but I don’t think he has any native ideology. He just gloms onto that of whichever person or group is effectively manipulating his vanity at any given moment. He has no innate ideology but picks it up by contact.
As I mentioned the other day, Trump was pals with Caitlyn Jenner and said he was fine with her using any bathroom she chooses, triggering a Gays for Trump boomlet among Log Cabin types in 2016. Now, Trump 2.0 is all-in on a fascist attack on trans rights.
I suspect Musk has a lot to do with the ferocity of the attack. He’s a shitty person and worse father, so he didn’t handle it well when his daughter transitioned and subsequently announced she wanted nothing to do with him.
I don’t talk about it much, but I know something about parenting a gender fluid child. It’s challenging because the world sucks ass for anyone who doesn’t fall neatly into a pink or blue box. But if you’re a halfway decent parent, you don’t make it about yourself; you love and support your child.
That was never going to happen with Musk, obviously, so he set out to create a world where his daughter can’t exist by conquering what he and other shitty humans call the “woke mind virus.” And here we are.
The social fallout from all this bullshit is and will be devastating. But these fuckers have plans to do much more than reverse the relatively puny efforts the U.S. has made to extend equality beyond straight, Christian, white men.
They want a durable right-wing kleptocracy where the entire society is oriented around their needs and everyone exists to serve them. As the right-wing broligarchy’s chief “thinker” Curtis Yarvin says, to take the U.S. in the direction they want, they ultimately have to destroy American democracy and replace it with a dictatorship. That’s what this DOGE nonsense is all about — destroying the government.
Trump is probably too dim to understand that he’s the figurehead in all of this. And even if he were capable of comprehending it, he probably wouldn’t care as long as long as they keep the bribes flowing and he gets to act with impunity.
Meanwhile, the broligarchy knows they’d occupy the same catbird seat under JD Vance (that is, in fact, why the broligarchy put him there). So they don’t really need Trump to keep breathing for the next four years.
Anyhoo, we’ll see whether they can pull this shit off or not. The ham-handed rollout and hasty walk-back gives me hope. We, the governed, are the last line of defense. We can be the DOGE catchers.
Open thread.
greenergood
I just can’t believe how nuts this whole week has been – trying to describe to my friends here in the UK, they’re like ‘WTF’? It just feels like the ‘rule of law’ is now just a joke, overseen by a ‘human’, who actually is being directed by a group of Christian nationalist guys who’ve been waiting for years, to find the transactional, TV star, nutcase to enthusiatically adopt their racist campaign – just needed to find the right racist, you know the one who’s been on the TEEVEE! for ten years … my hope is that they are so eager for their hopes’ fulfillment that they eff up magnificently – but we need to wait and see …
A Ghost to Most
“viscous slurry of greed, grievance and wholly unearned self-regard”
That was how Silicon Valley looked to us in 1983, when we bailed. The Selfish joined forces with the Self-righteous, and here we are.
Jeffro
The stories coming out about Musk & Co working to access sensitive government data (including payments) are quite scary. No one elected that clown, no one has vetted his minions, and for the LOVE OF THE FSM what are we doing here, Congress
W
T actual
F
suzanne
Vance is the puppet for Yarvin, Thiel, and more of the world’s worst people. They want a neomonarchical government headed by an extreme Catholic. It terrifies me so much that TFG might be….. less bad.
Leto
That’s what I was posting about downstairs, but it’s also the intent of Project 2025. They’re all in this to destroy democracy and establish a kleptocratic kakistocracy. Also you don’t catch a rabid DOGE; Atticus Finch showed us what you needed to do with them.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Jeffro: They’re not just trying to take over the government, they plan to steal everything they can lay their hands on.
Kay
I just love this post. Thanks BC.
I keep thinking about how insane this all is. Just ten years ago we were a relatively normal country. Imagine it’s 2015 and you could look ahead and read this:
Leto
@Jeffro: yeah, the Wired story lays more of it out. Idk what Dems can do, but I hope it’s something. As so many have noted, they’re here to smash it all, and rob us blind. And it’s just the second week. Fuuuuuuuuuudge.
theturtlemoves
Stop buying Teslas. Starve the beast. Apartheid Clyde’s wealth is all on paper and depends on a wildly overvalued stock. Tank the shit out of actual sales of actual cars, which he is trying his damnedest to accomplish on his own, and all his fluffers on Wall Street are going to have to finally admit they’ve been letting him blow smoke up their asses for years.
trollhattan
@suzanne:
Exactly. Vance, as objectively awful as he is, is a stalking horse for people who are far worse and more ambitious.
Librarian
Also, Musk has gotten a senior Treasury official to resign and is trying to get control of the government payment system, the system that pays out SS and Medicare benefits, so he will have control of the spigots of government money. Trump and Elon Musk Just Pulled Off Another Purge—and It’s a Scary One | The New Republic
Steve LaBonne
@Jeffro: Unless Republicans in Congress are getting their beaks wet themselves- and given the contempt in which the techbros hold them, I highly doubt they would bother paying them off- they are remarkably stupid for just giving up all of their power for nothing, not even their phoney baloney jobs which many of them won’t be keeping much longer. I have never seen such a mass exhibition of utter spinelessness.
JetsamPool
As far as I can tell, Musk thinks he has bought a controlling interest in the government and can just stroll in and take over any agency or department he wants. The attempted takeover of the Bureau of Fiscal Services is particularly concerning. Am I the only one who is leaping to the conclusion that this is another way to get around the injunction against the spending “freeze” and reinstitute it by other means?
Kay
@theturtlemoves:
I agree. Boycotts can be ineffective but that one would work.
Steve LaBonne
@Librarian: It’s fucking terrifying.
Steve LaBonne
@JetsamPool: That plus diverting some of the money for his own ends. You know these rich mofos never spend a penny of their own money if they can possibly help it.
Jeffro
@Mr. Bemused Senior: it’s like a mob bust-out of a restaurant, only it’s EVERY restaurant, grocery store, and farm, all at once
(extrapolating that metaphor…do you get it yet, America? the broligarchs will literally steal the last crumb off your table)
(and burn your ‘restaurant/grocery store/farm’ to the ground)
(AND send you the bill to rebuild)
Kay
@Librarian:
It’s going really fast.
I can’t even absorb the anti democratic/plutocrat acceleration news on any given day.
trollhattan
Because a not-insignificant part of me is still fourteen, I can read the name of this forthcoming act in only one pronunciation: Bereishit Dance Company
Lord Fartdaddy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
The one big advantage we’d have with Vance is that he isn’t Trump. He’d be marginally more competent and less emotionally broken, but he, like every other assbag waiting in the wings, is a black hole of charisma. Vance, Cruz, Tom Cotton, Noem, all of these people are hospices where charisma goes to die. It’s inconceivable that any of these zeroes could ever command the loyalty Trump does. That alone will make it easier to fight them, because there are so many assholes who will only come out to vote if they can pull the lever for their hero.
suzanne
Oh, I will note that I’ve been out of town this week — currently delayed in Chicago — but I saw a black swastikar. I think it might be slightly less bad than the stainless. Still ugly as fuck.
trollhattan
20 quatloos to BC for “broligarchy.”
Kay
I will never, ever forgive the powerful people who didn’t stand up to this insanely reckless, radical experiment these arrogant assholes are running. Just the amount of callous indifference it takes to put and leave these malicious actors in powerful government positions is breathtaking.
Belafon
When Musk installs his access to the Treasury Department servers and hackers ransomware the entire government on his back, it’s going to be hilarious I tell you. /sarc
E.
Kakibroligarchy? Brostocracy? What’s it going to be I wonder???
suzanne
@Lord Fartdaddy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Vance scares me more than Trump.
Belafon
@Kay: The list of people who own this starts with the millions who voted for him, then the millions that didn’t vote against him.
TONYG
@theturtlemoves: I would never buy a Tesla (even if I could afford one) unless I was forced to do so at gunpoint. But there’s a significant cohort of very stupid white men in this country who are Elon fan-boys, and some of them buy those shitty cars. They are the ones keeping Elon afloat.
Belafon
@Belafon: What it was supposed to say:
The list of people who own this starts with the millions who voted for him, then the millions that didn’t vote against him.
New Deal democrat
***HOLY SH*T!!!***
Somebody at the CDC apparently just decided to disobey T—-p’s directive, and updated the COVID wastewater and death data for the past two weeks through the 25th.
No update on variants yet, but crossing fingers.
I took screenshots in case it suddenly disappears.
I will take good news where I can find it!
(BTW, wastewater particles went up last week, but not by much. Deaths increased through January 4, but preliminarily look to have stabilized since. Through January 4, the 52 week total of deaths is down to 45,300 – also good news!)
Dorothy A. Winsor
Pete Hegseth picked a heck of a week to quit drinking. /s
Kristine
@Jeffro: Just tried calling both my senators. Both DC offices have been swamped/full mailboxes and aren’t taking any calls. I may try the local offices.
trollhattan
@TONYG:
NorCal is blanketed with Teslas and not many owners I know seem to think about Musk whatsoever. It’s a thing they drive while never again paying six bucks for gas.
Leto
@Librarian:
Oh don’t worry, he has some high school kid all lined up and ready to… do something. You know, “tech shit” or some other type of dumbass “wizardry.” Not actual knowledge, experience, or competency, no…
hueyplong
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I guess if he’s drinking we’re granted those hours when he’s blacked out or busy assaulting someone.
By most reports, Musk’s drug of choice only makes him more active.
TBone
I believe Donold inherited Fred Trump’s ideology of white supremacy. Ole Fred was busted at a KKK rally once.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_Trump
Video deets
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kj3nFrhjYAA
https://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Old_Man_Trump.htm
trollhattan
@New Deal democrat: Historically (from my beartrap memory) late November through January have been our peak covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths. In our area the jumps were substantial and startling.
It’s nice to not have it “making news” but suppression of data seems baked in now.
Leto
@Kay: and suddenly Denmark’s societal outlook on wealthy people doesn’t look so weird…
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@suzanne: Vance is the Catholic Rethugs scaremongered about in 1960.
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat: The MWRA updated its Boston Biobot numbers–looks like there was a sort of modest second peak in the north system, but not as big as the first one. Overall, I think we can say at this point that Boston’s 2024-25 winter COVID wave was more modest than last year’s… but anecdotally, there seems to be a major wave of some other nasty respiratory infection in the Northeast, maybe RSV. Lots of people getting pretty sick in a way that consistently tests negative for COVID, and for the median victim at this point in time, it’s as nasty as COVID or more so
edit: judging from the state dashboards, it might just be flu. RSV’s down, flu is up.
TBone
@New Deal democrat: thank you! Not obeying is a very good sign!
theturtlemoves
@TONYG: There aren’t enough of the fanboys who haven’t already bought one, though, particularly now that he’s trying really hard to alienate their core customer base of environmentally conscious consumers. There’s too many better alternatives now that don’t have shitty build quality, one stupid touch-screen to control everything, and an association with a drug-addled Nazi who cheats at video games. It does piss me off that the Tesla P/E ratio is so wildly out of whack because Cathie Wood and the other fanboys/girls treat it like it isn’t a car company, which it actually is. A shitty car company that makes ridiculous stainless steel dumpsters.
TBone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: snort!
Phylllis
@theturtlemoves: A Tesla was offered in one of the Price is Right showcases in the past week or so. I was rooting for the contestant to bid $1.00. She didn’t, but I damn sure would have. Also, now they’re giving away Tesla’s on TPIR? Seems kind of desperate.
TBone
@theturtlemoves: the
StarkinkStarlink satellite leases are lucrative and mostly paid by our tax dollars.Now Ronnie Raygun’s bonkers at the time “Star Wars” program looks a bit different in hindsight because I’d hope a hacker would blow some shit up in outer space. Unless falling debris is too risky (which doesn’t bother Elno because it falls on poor people when he has rapid unplanned disassemblies).
Chris Johnson
@hueyplong: and irrational. Which is a kind of good fortune. That man is trying to put an insane fantasy into practice with NO concept that Putin is fixing to undermine him the instant he’s vulnerable.
Villains don’t work together nicely.
hueyplong
@Chris Johnson: Really hope that last statement holds up.
Steve LaBonne
The Muskrats have seized control of the OPM computer systems that contain the personal data of Federal employees. This is going very far very fast.
Peale
@Kay: Yep. And the whole thing about eliminating all research into Climate Change and any mitigating efforts or anything like that. Like 10 years ago, it was those Tech types who were selling middle class liberals hard on this green utopia future, with green cities, and clean pod transportation, and vertical farming and walkable cities so nice that even the building had trees growing out of them. And it was all a lie and they all failed to deliver it. And so we don’t notice how much they’ve failed and how much money and time they’ve wasted, they’ve gone all in on offering up a tech dystopia where we’re mining coal to build the power plants to feed their crypto and GENAi farms that they claim will replace us.
They have failed on everything that they did. Except for advancements in medicine…which delivered an amazingly quick vaccine for a global pandemic. And the tech bro response to that has been to delve into alternative medicine, expensive injectables, shrooms, pot, and magic spells, all while ripping up the system that produced that one good thing.
Sister Golden Bear
This will (not) end well… Musk Aides Lock Workers Out Of Federal HR System
tobie
Thank you, BC, for this primer on Musk’s single-minded obsession with trans people. It’s cruel. It’s baseless. It has everything to do with his weird mindset and America’s susceptibility to propaganda.
I’m hoping against hope that some federal workers will file lawsuits against Trump/Musk’s OPM. Many of us would contribute to a legal fund. Will keep eyes peeled.
Lapassionara
@Kay: Ditto! I am out of adjectives. How this craziness hasn’t spooked the markets is beyond me. How are we going to ever get rid of this craziness? Breaking the US government in two short weeks.
ETA, who elected Musk?
bjacques
Caitlyn Jenner found what being “one of the good ones” was worth, when she turned up at a CPAC event out a few years ago and was chased out of the venue.
I remember a year or so snickering over an article about a washed up Curtis Yarvin creeping on trust fund fascists in New York’s Dimes Square. Oh well. Times may be flush for him, but he’s still just a pet philosopher and not a very smart one at that.
Fascism looks like the most efficient in terms of government and the economy but is the least, while democracy is the opposite.
Chief Oshkosh
Call me Mr. Sensitivity; hell, I didn’t even know you had kids!
Sister Golden Bear
Speaking of which…. Education Dept Told To Drop LGBTQ Protections — and make sexual predators great again.
Motivated Seller
I feel like this is getting the same reaction as the insurrection. Lots of people be like, “oh he’s just making noise”, followed by “that can’t happen here”, to “he’s not smart enough to pull it off” then, “the guardrails will hold”. I predict this will quickly lead to, “hey, where are all the air-traffic controllers?”
I just hope that it won’t be the rest of America on the plane.
Parfigliano
Steve LaBonne
@Motivated Seller: We’re all on the fucking plane. And it’s in a powered flight into terrain.
Leto
Via Heather Cox Richardson’s substack article:
Ramona
When it first rolled out, I was chilled to the core. Mainly because we cannot rely on the corrupt Roberts Court. But, their hasty and lie studded rollback leaves me hopeful for the first time since inauguration that we the people stand a chance.
Sister Golden Bear
@trollhattan: I own a Tesla 3, which I bought several years ago before we knew how awful Musk was, and when there weren’t many alternatives. (At the time the Leaf had issues with battery longevity, and Chevy was saying they were going to discontinue the Bolt.) I went to EV to help the planet, along with replacing my gas furnace with a heat pump.
Unfortunately, I’m not in a position right now to sell it and get a different car. #NotAllTeslaOwners
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Sister Golden Bear:
–Doing Best Yakov Smirnov Impression–
“What a country!”
One can read that sooooo many ways. :(
Regarding Tesla ownership: Yeah, until maybe the last 4 years, they had the build quality of a 1980 Chevy Citation but that’s changed for the better, I digress. The president of one of the Registered Neighborhood Orgs that I’m on the board, like you mentioned, owns a Tesla 3 that he bought prior to the Plague Times. He’s a retired UU pastor, one of the Electricity Uber Alles crowd, big on climate change activism and is downright embarrassed now. But is also in no position to unload it.
Happy in my 2023 Bolt EV.
New Deal democrat
@Lapassionara:
So long as investors in the aggregate think that T—-p’s policies will act to increase corporate profits, the market will advance. That sentiment may change very quickly if a serious trade war actually materializes, or deportations cause food prices to spike, denting consumer spending on other things.
Betty Cracker
@Leto: Warren is right. As usual.
Kristine
Wound up leaving messages with Durbin’s and Duckworth’s Chicago offices.
Chief Oshkosh
@Steve LaBonne: If this reporting is accurate, this is the whole ballgame. This is a true auto-coup.
rikyrah
They want to erase the 20th Century.
That has been obvious.
Which is why the birthright citizenship nonsense with the 14th Amendment is a TROJAN HORSE.
EVERY advancement of this country has had its basis in BROWN V BOARD
The FOUNDATION of Brown is the 14TH AMENDMENT
Don’t ever forget that.
Leto
@New Deal democrat: wish this was reflected in my investment portfolio. Since his election… ugh.
Adrian Lesher
Trump has long had a persistent bigotry, and his father was a Klan sympathisers. So to say he has “no ideology” avoids the fascist-friendly prejudices he has long carried with him.
Salty Sam
I saw a banana-yellow one yesterday. It upped the ante for fugly.
Betty Cracker
@Adrian Lesher: I was trying to make the point that Trump’s ideology is acquired through contact, not thinking. He was raised by a racist, fascist prick, so of course he’s always been a racist, fascist prick. He didn’t arrive there through reason.
Chris Johnson
@Sister Golden Bear: This matters. Musk has close ties to Russia and its hackers, so he’s got Boris from Goldeneye in there doing… what?
It sounds like that’s HR systems. I don’t know if they connect to systems where he could do stuff like convert the Treasury to rubles and send it overseas, that would clearly be Treasury. I don’t know if what he thinks he’s doing is practical or just lunacy that he thinks is the greatest secret plan ever. Note that he also thought Feds would accept his evil plan of offering them vacation time and free pay in exchange for quitting (and thus not being eligible for any of that). Some of these people are making enemies out of competent career bureaucrats who aren’t on drugs and aren’t stupid. I don’t know what will happen.
Steve LaBonne
@Chief Oshkosh: Musk believes he has bought controlling interest in the US government and there doesn’t seem to be anything to stop him. And remember, he said before the election that he WANTS to crash the economy.
zhena gogolia
@Sister Golden Bear: There’s no way to stay pure. We’re soaking in it! (a retro reference that maybe only NotMax will get)
rikyrah
what the phuck is this nonsense?
Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) posted at 2:59 PM on Thu, Jan 30, 2025:
Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just sent out a memo directing staff to “give preference to
communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average” https://t.co/O1EIxjUPdz
(https://x.com/kenklippenstein/status/1885070288573845735?t=0T9MfZBLBR_ra8HsPYGiTA&s=03)
Steve LaBonne
@Chris Johnson: He’s trying to do the same thing at Treasury and I have no idea what’s going to stop him.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I heard some Bob Dylan on the way home. “The pump don’t works cuz the vandals stoles the handles.”
rikyrah
Paul Blumenthal (@PaulBlu) posted at 3:23 PM on Wed, Jan 29, 2025:
NEW: A confidential OMB document shows that the Trump administration’s funding freeze is part of plan to provoke a court challenge over the Impoundment Control Act: https://t.co/6AdB7c5x0u
(https://x.com/PaulBlu/status/1884714097351987539?t=vedo7gG_ePqPstsxCNwDqg&s=03)
Ohio Mom
@theturtlemoves: I would be extremely surprised if anybody in the Balloon community is currently considering buying a Tesla.
We are collectively not buying a gazillion Musl vehicles. Everyday I don’t buy another one. I don’t think that qualifies as a boycott though.
Sign me,
I never got into eating grapes again after the late 1960s UFW-sponsored boycott
trollhattan
@Sister Golden Bear:
Only Tesla owners I would take pains to deride would be Cybertruck drivers. Clearly an FU vehicle in the same fashion as an F-150 Tremor (an actual thing sold here in California).
My work group of six engineers and not-an-engineer myself has three Tesla drivers, all white. The cars, not the engineers.
Engineers lurve them.
The ultimate counterpoint to Cybertruck has to be this. Saw my first the other day, in Cabana Yellow. Adorable.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
And some bozo is telling me I shouldn’t be pissed that 22 Dem Senators voted to confirm this sick weirdo?? Fuck that shit.
lowtechcyclist
@trollhattan:
Looks like it has plenty of room for rakes and shovels and other implements of destruction. But it looks too nice to put a half ton of garbage in.
dexwood
@Sister Golden Bear: I met a guy last week who owns a Tesla. He had a custom bumper sticker made – I bought this car before I knew Musk was an asshole. You might consider doing something similar.
Westyny
@New Deal democrat: Markets are down last time I looked. Freaked by the tariffs.
rikyrah
Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) posted at 3:49 PM on Fri, Jan 31, 2025:
BREAKING: Trump officials are putting a pause on most federal government websites. They are expected to go dark at 5 p.m., Trump officials told me. @CBSNews
(https://x.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1885445212270375024?t=zdKH77JT9kF4JUo3fAY_Ag&s=03)
Other MJS
Bravo, BC! Sometimes the First Felon himself is the shiny object distracting us.
Baud
@rikyrah:
They’re a few minutes behind then.
TBone
@Steve LaBonne: we need Anonymous!
https://www.anonymoushackers.net/anonymous-news/what-has-anonymous-done/
rikyrah
Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) posted at 4:01 PM on Fri, Jan 31, 2025:
Wealthy people joining the government is not new, but the levels of extreme wealth in the new Trump administration are unprecedented, and bring up lots of potential ethics problems. https://t.co/4NzhZRZ2oW
(https://x.com/CREWcrew/status/1885448220253323487?t=7WV5z6UWZQb0zX346S8F1Q&s=03)
different-church-lady
A hallmark of all bullies: changing the “rules” at random.
Ksmiami
I think we are going to have to destroy the Republicans before they destroy the country. No pity, no mercy. They are Confederate traitors.
@New Deal democrat: it’s starting to.
rikyrah
Acyn (@Acyn) posted at 3:57 PM on Fri, Jan 31, 2025:
Trump on federal workforce: Everybody is replaceable. We will get very good people to replace them. But we love to have them leave. Remember this, we want them to go into the private sector. It is our dream to have everybody working at the private sector, not the public sector. https://t.co/3zdxuHB3CO
(https://x.com/Acyn/status/1885447437495787574?t=IyZFaATqhaCt6tBRuujnDw&s=03)
different-church-lady
@rikyrah: “…potential…” Fh.
Belafon
@rikyrah: That way they’re beholden to shareholders, not citizens.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@lowtechcyclist:
Butbutbut, he said he was gonna be all bipartisany and stuff. Tammy Baldwin even said:
To echo what you said, Fuck. That. Shit.
TBone
@Ksmiami: NO QUARTER
The Coup:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=acT_PSAZ7BQ
Steve LaBonne
@rikyrah: “It is our dream to outsource their functions to the private sector at 3x the cost, and Musk and I will take our cut from the contractors.”
rikyrah
Jasmine Crockett
@JasmineForUS
If you think this is ok, something is wrong with you. Explain an unelected, unvetted, unconfirmed, individual who hasn’t been subjected to the same security clearances or higher as these civil servants has the authority to do this?! This feels as if we are being attacked from within, FULL FUCKING STOP! In a minute, I think they are going to continuously ignore court orders that are granted against them. You see what happens, America, when you put a conman convicted felon into the White House… HE DOES NOT ABIDE BY THE LAW. It feels like y’all literally told the robber to come on in and rob us blind.
Courage is not where you stand in times of comfort, but where you stand in times of discomfort… I’m ready to see some Republicans find their spines! We have to do what’s right, TOGETHER!
https://x.com/JasmineForUS/status/1885428552079991168
rikyrah
One of my colleagues’ husband is public policy person that deals with HIV.
He just called him and told him that nearly all HIV content has been REMOVED FROM THE CDC’S WEBSITE.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@rikyrah:
We’ll see unicorns first, or kittens pooping rainbows.
But, good on Madame Congresswoman for saying it like it is in words everybody understands. And hey, if it were me, I’d have used fuck like a comma in that statement.
That’s why she’s in Congress and I’m just a lone, old-school librul screaming into the void.
cope
@zhena gogolia: And me, Marge.
sentient ai from the future
@New Deal democrat: until the ratings agencies have had enough and downgrade us
Other MJS
@Steve LaBonne:
@Sister Golden Bear:
Jesus Fried Chicken. How can they do that? Can someone sue?
trollhattan
Depending on the weight of your inlaws? :-P
TBone
Mood music (warning! ICP Jugalos explicit performative violence which I find cathartic)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_N1Rh3w0zq4
Leto
@rikyrah: I see Ms Crockett and I are 100% simpatico on this.
Steve LaBonne
Josh Marshall reminds us that both the expiration of the CR that currently funds the government, and the need to raise the debt ceiling, are coming at us quickly. House Democrats will have some leverage, especially on the debt ceiling.
zhena gogolia
@cope: Yep.
And with that, I have to go do something else to save my sanity. Can’t save the country from my little house, I’m sorry.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Wait ’til he learns about heavily Catholic areas with predominantly Hispanic populations. “I just promised to send money there?!?”
It ain’t all Duggars, dude.
Leto
@lowtechcyclist: I really like it, but the range is pretty limited. Even by EV standards.
Jeffro
time to put it to the American people: you on board with this? want everything privatized? fire, police, teachers, sewer, roads?
defense?
your Social Security and health coverage?
it’s a time to choose, that’s for sure
Geminid
DC all-news station WTOP reports that numerous senior FBI officials were told today to retire or resign by Monday, or be fired. The purge could extend to “hundreds” of agents.
Their national security correspondent, J.J. Green, said this could affect hundreds of ongoing investigations including many involving sensitive counter-terrorism and counter-espionage matters. Green said the targets are agents involved in various investigations involving Donald Trump and his henchmen. Green pointed out that FBI agents do not choose the cases they are assigned.
This purge may not a simple matter of veangence; it will open up billets for Trump supporters. I expect some of them will be law enforcement officers convicted of crimes in the January 6 insurrection.
Also, there was a meeting of Office of Personnel and Management this morning where managers were told to provide organizational charts by Monday. They were told the plan is to cut 30% of positions initially and eventually, 70%.
cain
Apparently some govt sites are down?
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-admin-take-down-most-government-websites-5-pm-cbs-reports-2025-01-31/
This is some epic shit going on. We are spiraling fast. We need to start calling the GOP people and do some high pressure shit on them because this isn’t right.
Bill Arnold
@Librarian:
They want full, realtime control (preferably with an API) over all payments made by the US Goverment, so that they can:
– Turn off payments to enemies instantly and with fine-grained control
– Turn on/expedite payments to their friends and allies of convenience. And also “payments”.
Mr. Musk is violating his oath of naturalization, and I expect that many or most of his lackeys have not even taken the oath of office.
rikyrah
@Geminid:
Then FIRE THEM.
MAKE THEM FIRE YOU.
TBone
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
A followup salute!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cI4q5EiNKQU
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@lowtechcyclist:
Car & Driver has driven both versions:
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a63305277/2025-volkswagen-id-buzz-rwd-test/
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a62638170/2025-volkswagen-id-buzz-test/
Neither gets great highway range unless you limit your top speed to 65mph and even then, something like my Bolt easily outranges them. The RWD version they tested cost $66K, the AWD version cost $72K.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Kay,
I read in the Morning Thread that you are RENTING an apartment in Europe?
You staying that long that you need an apartment?
New Deal democrat
@Matt McIrvin: JP Weiland says it’s the seasonal flu:
https://bsky.app/profile/jpweiland.bsky.social/post/3lgjmbrjcmc2t
Leto
Convince the public that government doesn’t work, and then install the corporatists into power to dismantle everything. This is how you run a country like a business. Good job, you worthless fucks.
Baud
Via reddit, mood improver
Old School
@Leto: They can sell off the property and then lease it back!
Baud
rikyrah
Michelle_BYoung (@michelle_byoung) posted at 2:16 PM on Fri, Jan 31, 2025:
Putin sent him to destroy us from within. First our reputation in the world, our foreign policy (so we can’t operate as a check on him) & to make us weaker we will have a food crises, and maybe even another pandemic while he guts the institutions responsible for those things
(https://x.com/michelle_byoung/status/1885421815490564437?t=Zjj16FwUAng6Mn62zn9cnQ&s=03)
Propane Jane™ 🔥💣 (@docrocktex26) posted at 2:05 PM on Fri, Jan 31, 2025:
Seems so obvious that as Putin’s puppet, his primary objective is destroying all of our alliances, beginning with the countries we share a continent/borders with. Literally pulling us into an axis of evil while the most uneducated and bigoted among us cheer and troll.
Propane Jane™ 🔥💣 (@docrocktex26) posted at 2:31 PM on Fri, Jan 31, 2025:
Precisely. And tens of millions of Americans (mostly White) are hoping and praying he’s successful, that’s the truly deplorable part. All b/c they hate Black people and we had a stellar Black POTUS for 8 years. Just burning it all down with Putin b/c of envy, stupidity & spite. https://t.co/m2jjZcYCFQ
(https://x.com/docrocktex26/status/1885425682647281918?t=GUaeRrJ01EwXvKwLBSiCqg&s=03)
Jay
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjr8jv2yjz9o
Galento
“We, the governed, are the last line of defense.”
True. So why is there nothing in the way of physical protest? The only thing that is going to stop this is masses of citizens, and so far it’s crickets. At this rate it’s going to be over before most non-political people understand what hit them.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Voting for Kamala Harris would have been easier.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: and when the MAGAts deny it, let’s ask, “ok…he isn’t Putin’s puppet…but if he WAS…what would be any different?”
(nothing, of course)
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
The article doesn’t say whether these were Harris voters.
Baud
@Galento:
Most people wait until they are hit.
Bill Arnold
@New Deal democrat:
An influenza stats table I’ve been tracking for years was updated, too. (not bird flu.)
It (the influenza table) very much looks like an auto-generated page that just uses a database, and the database is getting updated.
Kayla Rudbek
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): Vance, Kavanaugh, Coathanger Barrett, Alito, Thomas, Leonard Leo for starters.
MobiusKlein
@rikyrah: I just check myself . A few pages remain, but lots of dead links, and google searches that point to dead pages.
I filled out the survey, and noted how important it is that health information be isolated for political influence.
Tim in SF
I wish people would stop mentioning Trump’s health. The country is chock-full of older, sicker, meaner people who keep on getting older, sicker, and meaner every day. Some of them die, but most of them don’t.
As much as I’d like to see him choke on a Big Mac and then stroke out on the floor of the Oval Office, all on live TV, we just can’t rely on him dying in office.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Oh, I’m sure the Trump Administration is working on a plan to ban this procedure for women under the age of 50. Or, you know, throw doctors in jail for performing the procedure.
In the meantime, good for these young women. Frankly, if all young women in this country pulled a Lysistrata movement, I wouldn’t blame them at all. In fact, I’d cheer them on.
@schrodingers_cat: at least one of the young women quoted in the article pretty much says the same thing. Or maybe it was just that they were noting that fear of Trump was driving it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Josh Marshall over at Talking Points says the White House is out of the loop as what is Musk is doing
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/white-house-says-we-were-out-of-the-loop-on-everything
Sounds to me like Musk decided to stage a coup. I recall him doing something like this at Paypall to Thiel
Old School
@Baud:
Have they considered how this will affect Department of Transportation allocations?
rikyrah
@Geminid:
MAKE THEM FIRE THEM.
PERIOD.
70%
UH HUH
UH HUH
WTFGhost
When Trump dies, a member of the bar will be President. That *greatly* reduces the ability to lie to the courts. For a successor to Trump to be found, it must be someone who is not a member of the bar who can be disciplined for defrauding the courts.
So the good news is Trump is likely *it*. No one else has his raw capacity for lying, his complete disregard for consequences, his “worse, and to an extent never seen before, totally unprecedented, he’s a total crook, and a really low IQ person” willingness to ignore the Constitution and the rule of law.
Also I think not, which is kinda fascinating in its Descartian rejection of existence for something far sweeter and more blissful.
rikyrah
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Do you even believe that? They don’t know?
Leto
@Jay: whelp, here’s another Constitutional showdown.
Matt McIrvin
@Tim in SF: I figure Trump’s gonna live to be 100, just getting meaner as he goes. The question is just whether he’s satisfied with the immunity he’s got or if he’s going to make a bid for President for Life so he can keep doing more crimes.
Baud
@Old School:
I doubt it. Kids today only think of themselves.
Leto
@rikyrah: no; it’s all coordinated. Maybe the fat fuck doesn’t know, because he doesn’t give a shit, but people like Russ Voight who helped write P2025, and has been a key architect in all this, that dick dribble is part of all this.
Miss Bianca
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I’m not sure how even Trump can justify “I was out of the loop” on this one. People should be asking him if he has President Musk’s permission to be squatting in the White House.
Kayla Rudbek
@rikyrah: to expand on what I said about this over on Bluesky, my pasty white American ass is not willing to go riding the bike out in rural Red states. They’re the jackasses that throw things at cyclists, try to run us off the roads, rolling coal at us, etc. And they get away with murdering cyclists by hitting them with cars and trucks. I was safer in rural Belgium and France where I barely spoke French, could have easily been mistaken for a German thanks to my brand of bike panniers, and had a risk of encountering unexploded WWI ordnance than I would be on a bicycle tour in the USA.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
They aren’t detail people and this how Musk does his take overs. So it’s likely.
Geminid
@rikyrah: I would note that Rep. Crockett is calling for Republicans to find their spines. She’s not echoing the calls of many people for Democrats to find their spines.
Crockett is smarter than that. She knows better than to pursue the divide-and-be-conquered strategy that some are urging with no thought for the consequences.
Trump and his henchmen are glad to see Democrats firing at each other instead of them. That’s a sucker’s game.
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And he is going to wake up one of these days shut out, if Musk pulls this off.
Remember, Musk did this to Peter Theil at Pay Pall.
Bill Arnold
@Sister Golden Bear:
Wow.
Exclusive-Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say (Tim Reid, 2024/01/31)
Have these people taken the oath of office? Are they USA citizens? Do they know that identity theft is a federal felony and a felony in most states, and misuse of PII is a felony in some states?
Kayla Rudbek
@trollhattan: Duffy is married to a Mexican woman and has 9 kids from what I gathered on Bluesky. So I’m not sure if he’s Opus Dei or Evangelical. With a last name like Duffy I would suspect he’s part Irish as well. I don’t want to go looking for his bio any further than that (although with my luck he’s probably a fellow Notre Dame alumnus)
Baud
Linked In recommends that I follow Vivek Ramaswamy.
Chief Oshkosh
@Bill Arnold: I’ve got a bad feeling that none that matters at all anymore
ETA: This really is bad, though I have to begrudgingly admit, it’s what I would’ve done if I wanted to bring the entire government to heel.
ETA2: Now it won’t matter if government workers refuse to resign. They simply won’t get paid. And millions of people’s personal financial (and other) information is going to be…mishandled.
Tim C
Related, I didn’t know the numbers on Medicaid were this slanted in Oregon. Anyone else in other states know if the Rural Red areas are as dependent on Medicaid as here?
https://www.wweek.com/news/2025/01/29/in-oregon-trumps-base-would-suffer-most-from-medicaid-cuts/
Bill Arnold
@Parfigliano:
You are too nice.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Bring a team of minions in and do a mass firing is what Musk did at Twitter.
Jeffro
@Geminid: I agree with this 100%
Now is a time for folks to lean on REPUBLICANS…GOP elected officials most especially…and tell them it’s last call.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Chief Oshkosh:
Yup, laws are for the little people.
Kayla Rudbek
@Miss Bianca: 4B movement (started in South Korea) and is spreading to the USA.
Leto
@Kayla Rudbek: agree with this. It was glorious riding around in Belgium. Trying to ride here in PA? Fuck that noise. I stick with trails, and only trails.
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: very likely, but until that happens they’re working together to destroy it all.
@Bill Arnold: we were discussing this earlier, but no, they don’t have the appropriate clearances. They haven’t cleared their background checks, haven’t been issued the appropriate clearances, and I also don’t know how they’re exactly gaining access to the systems if they don’t have those credentials. At this point, legality is so far behind them they can’t even see it in the rear view.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That the White House to admit they are out of the loop sounds like they having their doubts.
And Musk and Theil are just rich idiots. They tried this crap like dozens of times in California, break the state up, build Bioshock for real. They aren’t invincible. Musk just doing the same shit he does with ever business take over because he is lazy, except it’s the Federal government, not some stock scam that no gives a shit about.
Dan B
@New Deal democrat: The CDC took down their HIV / AIDS pages and the Youth Health pages. I believe women’s health as well.
Chief Oshkosh
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I hope you’re right and I hope that the reporting on this has been inaccurate.
Spanky
@Baud:
… down a dark alley.
Kelly
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: If I recall correctly Peter Thiel booted Musk out of Paypal
Leto
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: did Musk and Thiel have direct access to the levers of California government? There’s a big difference between that and what’s happening now. I mean, we’ll unfortunately have to wait to see how this plays out.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Chief Oshkosh: It’s not – what happened when Musk tried to shut the government down and people started pushing back; Trump undercut Musk.
Heck, Musk coup against Theil didn’t work because it was to stupid for the Pay Pall BoD.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Leto: Of course not. but they keep on trying and trying until they started join up with Trump. No one liked their ideas which was basically turn California in this rich man’s paradise and turn the rest of us into servants.
Leto
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: they have Texas for that.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, the Paypal BoD realized Musk was an idiot, reinstalled Theil and Theil gave Musk the boot.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Texas talked Musk talked him into building his water intense battery Giga factory into a part of Texas with no water rights. So, maybe not.
Baud
I wonder if Musk knows he can’t replace fired government workers with H-1B’s.
Ohio Mom
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: According to Ohio Dad, it was more complicated than that, and Musk managed to make money even as he was sent packing by PayPal.
frog
@rikyrah:
Hmmm. This spat with Putin over Ukraine could be just theater.
Bill Arnold
@rikyrah:
Ugh. FWIW, much, maybe all of public-facing government web sites are on at least one archive site.
Kelly
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Thanks. I was unaware of the full story
Geminid
@Spanky: Well, at least that’s one thing to look forward to. If Vivek Ramaswamy runs for Ohio Governor next year he will provide some comic relief.
sab
@Steve LaBonne: They still are getting a regular government paycheck and amazing benefits. Senators are mostly quite wealthy, but often just through networking opportunities. Congress critters on the right are just professional hacks. Without the political connections they don’t have much going.
Leto
On the Philly local news, there was a small plane crash in North East Philadelphia; small plane crashed either into a row home, or right beside it. Row home on fire, believe there was two people in the plane.
Jay
https://www.wonkette.com/p/elon-musk-now-in-charge-of-paying
Worth looking at, if you like train wrecks,….
https://mockpaperscissors.com/2025/01/30/news-that-will-drive-you-to-drink-2237/
MobiusKlein
More insane crap, water edition.
Some flood and irrigation dams got orders to let water flow at nearly flood levels, for WTF kinds of reasons.
They are manic idiots pressing buttons they know nothing about.
https://sjvwater.org/trumps-emergency-water-order-responsible-for-water-dump-from-tulare-county-lakes/
sab
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yep.I always believe alcoholics who promise to quit drinking at the snap of their fingers. A normal person would have quit drinking after the first (of many) blind drunk rape accusations w/ expensive settlements.
Hopefully he will be passed out drunk in our first national defense emergency so that some number two will make any decisions that need to be made. Everyone willing to work near him knows this is how it must proceed.
Geminid
@sab: Yeah, gerrymandering has led to a race to the bottom among House Republicans, and sometimes through the bottom.
I saw this last year in the Oversight Committee hearings. I joked with a friend that they needed a “slaughter rule” like they have in Little League baseball. After 8 or so Republicans made fools of themselves the hearing would be called off.
On the other hand, Democrats seem to maintain quality in all districts.
trollhattan
@Kayla Rudbek:
Where do they FIND these people?!?
sab
We just bought an EV Honda Civic today. Delivery next week whenever my check can clear. We figure it’s our last car ( we are old) and we should buy it before the tariffs kick in. Maybe even before Congress repeals all the EV tax credits. Not holding my breath on that.
Sweet car. Lovely color. But it is a Civic (boring even as a sporting hatchback.)
I cannot express how much I will miss my FIT. Apparently they still sell them in Europe. Just not here. The car dealership is lusting after it as a trade-in, but we are passing it on to a kid. If she trades it in for something larger I will disinherit her with a testy codicil to my will. She already did this to the last Civic we gave her. Traded it in on a lemon Pilot.
Kayla Rudbek
@trollhattan: St. Mary’s in Minnesota for undergraduate, William Mitchell law school (the “night school” so much less selective than University of Minnesota), only six children, wife of Mexican descent (so he’s probably an Opus Dei Catholic)
No Nym
@Jeffro: I think America already chose. The few low-info voters I know are completely unaware that any of this is happening, or they don’t care.
Kayla Rudbek
@sab: yeah, the Honda Fit can handle a tandem bike sans wheels inside of it if you carefully position the bike between the front seats.
sab
@Kayla Rudbek: My FIT at ten years old and 90 k miles was in human terms just through grad school. It has more than half its life ahead if its owner is responsible.
The kid getting it drives badly and thinks huge cars are safer. I would have liked to give it elsewhere, but we have been generous to her brother. We have been generous to her but just on a month to month basis. That adds up but she and her siblings don’t see that.
Poor sweet car.
scav
@MobiusKlein: Shit.
Stomping on rural farmers though, that’ll endear him.
sab
I commented a while back that we are off Book of Faces because our kids share too much and that shocks us.
Another jackal commented that I share quite a lot so who am I to judge.
I see the point, but I don’t share much. Or I share carefully.
Our FIT I am sharing too much so that if the owner ( my stepdaughter) sells that poor lovely car away she and the World will know why I would be so very angry.
cope
@sab: My wife and I each had Fits until we traded both in on a used HRV. I loved whipping it around with the five speed manual.
My wife still misses hers five years on. Great little cars. We could carry both our ten foot kayaks in one car (tailgate open, front passenger and both back seats laid down). I’m happy with the HRV but not a fan of automatics.
scav
Tulare county was apparently the #1 ag producing county in the U.S in 2022. link Most milk in the nation. Oranges too, so the war on breakfast continues.
Matt
@suzanne:
What we need is a dark-money group to spend millions boosting the anti-papists in Evangelical-land. It’d be hilarious to see Vance standing in front of a burned-down church complaining about the KKK.
Sister Golden Bear
@dexwood: I just ordered one myself.
cmorenc
@theturtlemoves: I for one, will absolutely refuse to buy a cybertruck.
Ok, getting more serious, my wife was Tesla-curious for replacing her 2010 Honda Insight. I helped talk her down off that ledge as I also helped her become more aware of what Musk is really about.
Kayla Rudbek
@sab: I wish I lived closer so I could offer you the Blond Tardis aka my 2004 Prius as a trade for your Honda Fit
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@cmorenc:
There are tons more options out there for an EV that will be better than a Tesla on a variety of levels.
Citizen Alan
@cmorenc: Never in my life have I even thought about keying someone’s car, but every time I get within 50 feet if a Wankpanzer, my fingers start to creep towards my pocket.
TBone
@Baud: aaaah, I love the smell of crushed swasticars!
Kayla Rudbek
@Matt: yeah, Vance is a poseur convert so his ancestors were the ones burning down the Catholic Churches, and he doesn’t understand that the KKK is the enemy like I know in my bones
Kayla Rudbek
@Citizen Alan: in my darker thoughts, I have been turning ideas around in my head about the OSS sabotage manual, specifically updating the idea of “box of nails/thumbtacks in the path of the tires” to include some sort of adhesive to get the nails to stick to the tires
Grin and Bare
All of MMWR is gone to the public. Even internally, most is not currently available.
Here is a wayback link for MMWR, for anyone who wants it:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250123035302/https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/index.html
TONYG
I have a dumb question for any legal minds on this thread … Is the fact that (somehow) “Aides to Elon Musk have been charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency” in any way legal??? I know that talking about laws at this point is silly, but … WTF???