Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

T R E 4 5 O N

All hail the time of the bunny!

When we show up, we win.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

We still have time to mess this up!

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

The words do not have to be perfect.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / The People vs. Musk

The People vs. Musk

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THE PEOPLE VS. ELON MUSK

About to join Chris Jansing on @msnbc.com to talk about the PeopleVMusk.org campaign—to ensure Susan Crawford wins the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, instead of Elon Musk’s puppet Brad Schimel.

[image or embed]

— Ben Wikler (@benwikler.bsky.social) March 6, 2025 at 1:49 PM

Ben Wikler and the Wisconsin Dems are taking the fight to Trump and Musk.  I like what I’m seeing.   He should have been the DNC Chair, dammit.  Let’s not turn back the clock in Wisconsin.

Something good:

In a court case that could very well define the limits of Donald Trump’s presidential power, a federal judge Thursday reinstated a member of a federal labor agency, warning of the damage to the country if Trump continues to rule as if he were a king.

U.S District Judge Beryl Howell reinstated Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board after Trump removed her without providing any cause, issuing an opinion that suggests the case could be a broader test of the “unitary executive theory.”

“An American President is not a king — not even an ‘elected’ one — and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute,” Howell wrote.

Something decidedly not good, except that perhaps it will open up some eyes:

Driving while black.  Shopping while Puerto Rican.

Milwaukee drew national attention this week after a report said U.S. citizens were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after being overheard speaking Spanish in a store.

Elected officials and immigration rights groups say they are working to authenticate the incident but have few details to go on. ICE did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

Telemundo Puerto Rico reported a Puerto Rican mother, her 3-year-old son and mother-in-law were taken into custody by ICE while shopping at an unnamed store in Milwaukee on Jan. 24.

New: ICE denies report that officers detained Puerto Rican family in Milwaukee
According to the TV station’s report, ICE bused the family and several other Spanish-speakers from the store to an unidentified detention center. Telemundo aired a live audio interview with a relative, who was not named.

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.

Sheriff’s offices in Milwaukee County, Waukesha County, Sheboygan County and Kenosha County said they had no record of the family being detained in their jails.

“It should also be noted that we would not house a 3-year-old in our facility under any circumstances,” said Amy Tesch with the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department in an email Thursday.

Telemundo’s report erupted online. U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and thousands more shared Telemundo’s story on social media.

Moore told the Journal Sentinel she’s still gathering information about the incident but hasn’t been able to verify it.

“However, regardless of its validity, many of my constituents are concerned about mass deportation efforts,” Moore said in a text message Thursday.

Ald. Jose Perez says his office is also working to authenticate the incident.

“Any time an allegation occurs in Milwaukee, I will exhaust every resource I have to verify it for accuracy and respond,” Perez said in an email Thursday.

Local immigrants’ rights groups like Forward Latino and Voces De La Frontera are also looking into the report.

 

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

125Comments

  2. 2.

    Scout211

    Louise Penny, a favorite of many commenters here, is boycotting the US.

    Celebrated Canadian author Louise Penny announced Friday that she will be boycotting the U.S. due to President Donald Trump’s plan to put tariffs on all goods from Canada.

    In a statement posted to her official Facebook account, the murder mystery novelist said she does not feel she can enter the U.S. “until that economic sword, that could throw hundreds of thousands of Canadians (as well as Americans) into poverty, is removed completely.”

    It seems like a small thing but in today’s world of social media, celebrity voices can bring attention to important issues.  And in this era of boycotts, she is risking some sales.  But good for her.

  4. 4.

    WaterGirl

    How can anyone see a clip of Musk making his Nazi salute and see it for anything but exactly that?

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    I may be losing my ability to predict what BJ peeps are interested in these days.

  6. 6.

    Asparagus Aspersions

    View from abroad (resident of France, spouse of Canadian, employed in the international sector) : In the last two weeks, a Norwegian colleague who is a naturalized American told me he was considering selling his home in CA.

    A Franco-American friend is worried about flying home (“I  just – what if they detain me for some reason?” Not that I could reassure her that that was an unfounded fear, because who knows with these people?)

    An American friend who has worked for USDA for 20 years and who is undergoing cancer treatment was given 15 minutes to clear out her desk. A friend who works for USDA is frantically applying for jobs after a 50 percent reduction in her team’s workforce was announced for April.

    A Slovakian coworker came to my desk to ask me to explain what was going on. A British American coworker asked if I wanted Monday therapy coffees.

    Canadian Spouse, a couple weeks ago: “Canadians are systematically booing the American national anthem! Do you know how rude that is? Do you know how much you’d have to piss off Canadians to make them be so rude??!”

  7. 7.

    Citizen Alan

    @WaterGirl: Easy. It’s people who are also nazis in every way that matters, but don’t wish to be called out on it. So they make excuses. What percentage of americans today would be perfectly fine with literal death camps for people they consider undesirable? We all know it’s at least 27%. But personally, I would put it in the 40+% range.

  8. 8.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl: I am apparently losing my ability to predict what BJ peeps are interested in these days.

    LOL.  This bj peep is here!

    Moar cowbell anger needed, I guess.

    But please don’t?

  9. 9.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl: How can anyone see a clip of Musk making his Nazi salute and see it for anything but exactly that?

    But who ya gonna believe, Fox News or your lying eyes?

  12. 12.

    Parfigliano

    That’s funny. These people are not going to stop at Fed Judge rules.

    They are fascist.

  13. 13.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl: Sorry, not yours!  It was the generic “you,” for the people you were mentioning that don’t see his salute as a Nazi salute.

    Sorry! I guess it was not well stated by me.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    @Scout211:  No, I understood what you were saying.

    But I would always trust my lying eyes over something someone else tells me!  So I was putting myself in their shoes, and saying I would still trust my lying eyes. :-)

  16. 16.

    Spanky

    Somewhat on-topic and always of interest to jackals of a certain age:  My Social Security deposit for March just landed in my bank account. So the machine is still ticking despite taking a licking.

  17. 17.

    Scout211

    Breaking: DOGE backs down.    It was all a mistake, people.  They really  didn’t really mean it.  🙄

    UPDATE: March 7 — The Social Security Administration announced Friday it had reinstated the contracts it had canceled.

    “I recently directed Social Security employees to end two contracts which affected the good people of the state of Maine,” Social Security Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek said in a press release. “In retrospect, I realize that ending these contracts created an undue burden on the people of Maine, which was not the intent. For that, I apologize and have directed that both contracts be immediately reinstated.”

    ETA: Background:  In the morning thread we discussed the contracts that were canceled, which resulted in requiring new parents in Maine  to go to the Social Security office to register their newborns for a Social Security number instead of getting one at the hospital.

  18. 18.

    Geminid .

    @WaterGirl: Hey WaterGirl, thank you for another excellent post!

    I wonder if you have read the New Lines Magazine article about Elon Musk by Capetown-based reporter Joseph Dana. It was published February 17 with the title:

       The Worldview of the Afrikaner Diaspora Now Haunts the US

    Elon Musk and other tech moguls with roots in apartheid era South Africa have been shaped by the history of right wing white nationalism.

    I commented about the article last month and linked to it a couple times, but you stay busy and might have missed it. Anyway, it’s worth reading and might be suitable for a post.

    I’ll try linking it again:

    https://www.newlinesmag.com/argument/the-worldview-of-the-afrikaner-diaspora-now-haunts-the-us

    Ed. New Lines Magazine articles are long and in-depth, and this one is no exception. The conclusion:

       Apartheid’s deepest ideas are back. They are circulating in the Western world. They have purchase.

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    @Scout211:  From your linked article.

    What they kind of said:

    “In retrospect, I pulled my head out of my ass.”

    What probably actually happened:

    “I thought we could get away with this, but I guess we couldn’t.”

  20. 20.

    Old School

    I can’t find any follow-up to the Milwaukee story even though it’s been a month.  The woman says it happened.  ICE denies it.

  21. 21.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid .: You have upped your linking game! :-)

    Thanks for that, I had totally missed it before.  I’ll give it a read.

    P.S.  Has the writer of that article been put in jail yet?

  22. 22.

    sentient ai from the future

    @Scout211: “let’s see what we can get away with” is the motivating force behind all these fash goons

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    @Old School:

    The woman says it happened.  ICE denies it.

    Of course they did.  Of course they would.  At this point, I don’t believe a thing anyone in ICE would say.

  24. 24.

    Hungry Joe

    Gotta weigh in on/pipe up about vandalizing Teslas: My brother, sister, and sister-in-law all drive Teslas, bought years ago because they wanted to switch electric cars. Back then Musk was known, if at all, as just this weird tech guy. Can’t see how trashing their cars, or celebrating the trashing of their cars — and they’re Democrats, all them — helps anyone or furthers any cause.

    (I’m not saying people here are doing it, but I’ve seen it around.)

  25. 25.

    Gretchen

    I know I keep saying this but I just don’t understand how they can just cancel contracts. Doesn’t law school start with contracts class because they are so central to our legal system? People sign an agreement and both sides commit to do what they’ve agreed to do? How can DOGE just say nope, not doing it? Do we even have a legal system if there are no contracts?

  26. 26.

    Emily B.

    @Asparagus Aspersions: Just spent a couple of days in Montréal. Got to hear the US national anthem booed at Centre Bell. The Canadians we had conversations with were (still) friendly enough to us as individual Americans, but they expressed absolute fury toward Trump. Even the bartender at a big Irish pub near Centre Bell, who I would imagine is usually pretty diplomatic, was scathing….

    Honestly, despite our feelings of embarrassment about the US treatment of Canada, it also felt great to be in a country where no one has any illusions about him.

    And then on the return trip on Amtrak, US Customs ordered everyone out of our seats and into the cafe car, and then searched our bags. I’ve taken that trip at least 7-8 times over the past decade. Never had that experience before.

    We figured they were looking for fentanyl to justify Trump’s tariffs.

  28. 28.

    sentient ai from the future

    @Hungry Joe:

    from my understanding it’s not random everyday teslas that are getting trashed. it’s the wankpanzers (which is a terrible car in the first place, so the only reason to own one is because you’re stanning for the fascist, and you are also stupid and have too much money) and cars at the dealerships, i.e. new purchases.

    but you are very concerned about a thing that does not appear to be happening, noted.

  30. 30.

    WaterGirl

    @Hungry Joe: Curious, are they thinking of selling?  I sure wouldn’t be comfortable driving around in one or owning one at this point.

  31. 31.

    sentient ai from the future

    @Steve LaBonne: “if we don’t do [stupid bullshit] you’re not going to have a country anymore” was, like “democracy dies in darkness” more of a threat than a call to action.

  32. 32.

    Hungry Joe

    @sentient ai from the future: No, I’m concerned about things that ARE happening: I’ve seen two pictures of vandalized Teslas. Why would I make that up? (A: I didn’t make it up.) (And I never engage in comment combat, so I’m gone.)

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @Gretchen: I think that exact thing every time they cancel something or pull the rug out of something.

    The unspoken word in front of “contract” is “legally binding”.

  34. 34.

    sentient ai from the future

    @WaterGirl: also, great trade-in allowances on the polestar vehicles. i’ve only driven the polestar 2, not the 3 but it is very good (though my usual complaints about the touchscreen apply)

  35. 35.

    Geminid .

    @WaterGirl: Yes, I think I’m 3 for 3 linking in March. I attribute this success to the lengthening days; mentally, I am solar-powered.

    New Lines Magazine is published by Washington-based, Syrian-American journalist Hassan I. Hassan. It is quite a resource, with good articles on a wide range of subjects.

    I was introduced to Mr. Hassan this winter by British-Lebanese war correspondent Oz Katerji. He recommended Hassan as a reliable reporter on Syrian matters.

  38. 38.

    sentient ai from the future

    @Hungry Joe: two pictures of vandalized teslas without a lot of additional context is some pretty thin gruel, friend.

  47. 47.

    JoyceH

    I just called John Thune’s office and left a voice mail message. The recording said to leave name address phone number and email but I said something to the effect that “my name is Joyce Harmon and you don’t have to get back to me, you just have to do something. I’m not Senator Thune’s constituent but he’s the Majority Leader of the Senate and he’s going to have to take action pretty soon. The overall problem we have in this nation right now is that the President is crazy. Out of everything that’s been going on, just isolate the issue of Canada and try to make it make sense. You can’t make it make sense until you realize that the president is crazy. I can’t believe you can’t see that yourself, you must know it’s true. Things are only going to get worse until you in the House and Senate take back your power and do something about the fact that the president is crazy.”

    Suggest we all start doing this to every Republican with a speck of power – and repeat repeat repeat “ the president is crazy.”

  48. 48.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Hungry Joe: I know some truly wonderful people who went all in on Teslas and I’m certain they’re horrified to see them become “Swasticars,” so I get it.

    In that boat I’d probably put a “I bought it before I knew he was a Nazi” sticker on it.

    Of course, that would piss off the Phony Stark fanboys, so…

  49. 49.

    Spanky

    @Phylllis: My birthday is the first of the month.

    (Not March.

    ETA it seems to always hit the 1st Friday after the 1st Wednesday, so it came right on time.

  50. 50.

    dexwood

    @Hungry Joe: ​
      I know a guy who drives a Tesla car that put a custom made bumper sticker on it that says: I Bought This Car Before I Knew Musk Was an Asshole. He gets many compliments on it.

  51. 51.

    TBone

    I got an A in Contract Law at Penn State (DelCo extension). Of course, that was many years ago. There are six elements that must be present for a contract to be legally enforceable, and these are frequently open to interpretation, shall we say. These elements are Offer, Acceptance, Awareness, Consideration, Capacity and Legality.  The law is a many-faceted thing and, of course, what is “legal” depends upon many variables.  I could go on at length but you’d all fall asleep.  Types of contracts, varying laws and regulations they’re subject to, waivers and addendums, blah blah blah …

    Always have a real attorney who specializes in the area of law you’re contracting about review everything before you sign anything.

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    @TBone: We are talking about government contracts here.  Contracts with States.  Contracts with unions.

    Pretty sure no one did those on the cheap by asking their brother-in-law to give them a once over.

  53. 53.

    TBone

    @WaterGirl: that wasn’t the gist of my comment but okay. I was merely explaining how the basics work.  Employment Law is a specialty niche.

    Even government contracts must contain those basic elements.

  54. 54.

    bluefoot

    @WaterGirl: Considering the Chicago police has a history of disappearing people (Homan Sq), not believing ICE is the sensible move.

  55. 55.

    Spanky

    @TBone: Not just generic contract law. The Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) govern nearly all Fed contracts, and it’s an NYC phonebook-sized document,  back when those things were paper.

  56. 56.

    trollhattan

    @Professor Bigfoot: ​
    It takes a long time for a car model/brand to cycle through its lifespan because they get resold and then sold at least a second time.

    Presuming Tesla resale values are plunging that means foremost they become more attractive to those on a limited budget.

    Meanwhile, the big question on the table is what do current owners do? Stick with the brand, go elsewhere, leave the EV market? All three will happen and we won’t know which predominates for awhile. Musk-Trump Inc. will put their thumbs, elbows, knees on the scales to harm Tesla’s direct competitors. Nevertheless there are lots now and California outlaws the sale of new ICE vehicles in ten years.

    They’re trying to stop that, too.

    NorCal has LOTS of Teslas and will continue to, even as he openly hates us. They last a long time, longer than your cousin’s friend’s Corolla.

  59. 59.

    TBone

    @Phylllis: great film!  I saw it again on TCM last year.

    There is a reason my home office printer sits unused without ink hahahaha!

  65. 65.

    hitchhiker

    I want them to be asked a lot of questions about their “revolution.” They’re justifying all the “mistakes” by saying, basically, hey, we gotta break a lotta eggs here because this is a big, juicy, historical, epic, wonderful REVOLUTION!

    So, which revolution is it most like? Cuba? American, 1776? French? Because in every case you can name, revolution is when the people take over. And this is not that.

    This is the rich guys who already have everything taking even more, and pretending they’re doing it for us.

    Who in the administration is not rich? Let’s see a list.

    Why are you in such a hurry that you have to make so many mistakes? What would happen if you slowed down enough to understand what workers are necessary and which ones could be reassigned or riffed? Why are you going after such small potatoes, when so much of the discretionary federal budget is spent in the Dept of Defense?

    They’re so stupid, it’s physically painful to witness.

  66. 66.

    TBone

    @NotMax: now that I think back, I seem to remember being so young that I changed the TV channel because John Houseman gave me the creeps.  I was 13 when that show aired and didn’t give a hoot!

  67. 67.

    sentient ai from the future

    @WaterGirl: I don’t know him, I thought the claims he was making on behalf of other Tesla owners needed more support, because they conflict with what I know of the situation.

    I also think we have a responsibility to be mindful of the narratives we endorse, explicitly or implicitly, in this information warfare environment where the fash has a pretty extensive propaganda machine.

    I mean, sure, tone, I guess, but “care to support that claim?” also rubs people the wrong way. I’m open to being wrong, and it’s important to me to change my priors when presented with evidence they are incorrect.

    so those are my reasons. Whether or not you find them acceptable or understandable is out of my hands.

  70. 70.

    sentient ai from the future

    as I was saying about musk’s team the other day, now supported by reporting at rolling stone.

    rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/doge-staffer-corcos-wife-ties-russian-oligarch-123529167…

    because if twittter’s IT department is pwned by a nation state, then all those USB drives and hardware they plugged into critical infrastructure must be assumed to have contained extremely targeted malware.

    ALSO, via krugman’s post today, a detail that caused me to smack my gob was that treasury computers were reported to have had fucking keyloggers installed after doge’s team of locusts descended.

  73. 73.

    Bill Arnold

    @Scout211:

    In retrospect, I realize that ending these contracts created an undue burden on the people of Maine, which was not the intent.

    What the fuck was Leland’s intent, then?
    Should we assume that it was anything other than Mr. Trump’s petty retribution against the governor of Maine?

  74. 74.

    TBone

    @TBone:

    As Swisher said, “why do you rob banks? Because that’s where the money is. Why do you rob government agencies? Because that’s where the data is.” In the DOGE eat DOGE world of AI, anything is possible.

  75. 75.

    Matt McIrvin

    @2liberal: For what it’s worth (maybe not much), almost simultaneously with Disney/ABC killing 538, Nate Silver put his own opinion poll aggregator online:

    natesilver.net/p/trump-approval-ratings-nate-silver-bulletin

    He’s using a lot of the same polling data but his model aggregates it slightly differently, so his aggregate still shows Trump with 48.1% approval vs. 47.4% disapproval, but the trend is clearly not in Trump’s favor.

    These polls all have wildly different systematic house effects, so the value at any given time is going to depend a lot on how you weight and adjust the different polls.

  76. 76.

    sentient ai from the future

    @Bill Arnold: “not without abundant evidence” mutters William of Ockham from the corner of the coffeeshop

    alternate response: “intent ain’t magic, motherfucker”

  77. 77.

    patrick II

    Trump viewed the ravaging of twitter and turning into a chaotic tight wing he’ll hole SD a success and he wants the same food the U.S. government.

  78. 78.

    TBone

    @NotMax: thanks! I will watch that!

    Asidedly, IMO there is no “intelligence” involved from what I can see.  It’s just a mechanical parrot.  Which reminds me of a joke I saw yesterday.  What do you get when you cross a parrot and a shark?  (Something that will never stfu till it takes your ear off.)

  81. 81.

    sentient ai from the future

    @TBone: it is a statistical mash-up machine. Which is why the part where the ai companies pretend it is something else, because it gives entities like Tesla and UnitedHealth the ability to avoid culpability for harmful decisions, is so critical. If the public believes this shit is magic and not the parlor trick that it is, then we arent seeing who the real villains are.

  84. 84.

    raven

    @Baud: The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has resumed, over a decade after its disappearance on March 8, 2014, during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. The renewed effort is led by the maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity, operating under a “no find, no fee” agreement with the Malaysian government, which has pledged a $70 million reward if the wreckage is found within 18 months.

  86. 86.

    TBone

    @NotMax: does quantum computing have the capacity to change that equation, is my question.

    Not in its current state, obvs, but there is a new space race on.

  87. 87.

    WaterGirl

    @2liberal:

    Although both races are nonpartisan, substantial partisan differences exist in views of the candidates, majority of voters aware balance of the state Supreme Court will be affected

    Also:

    Trump’s job performance: 48% approve, 51% disapprove
    Wisconsin voters overall are skeptical of tariffs and DOGE
    Large partisan divides shape opinion on most policy issues
    MILWAUKEE – A new Marquette Law School Poll survey of Wisconsin finds that large percentages of registered voters remain unfamiliar with the candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the state superintendent of public instruction less than a month before the April 1 elections.

    Among registered voters, 38% don’t offer an opinion on state Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel, former state Attorney General, saying they haven’t heard enough about him or they don’t know if they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of him. Considerably more, 58%, say they don’t have an opinion of Schimel’s opponent, Susan Crawford.

    In the election for state superintendent of public instruction, 64% lack an opinion of incumbent Jill Underly and 71% haven’t heard enough about her opponent, Brittany Kinser.

    This Marquette Law School Poll survey was conducted Feb. 19-26, 2025, interviewing 864 Wisconsin registered voters, with a margin of error of +/-4.6 percentage points. To cover more topics a number of items were asked of a random half-sample of 432 registered voters with a margin of error of +/-6.6 percentage points.

    Awareness of the candidates is greater among those who say both that they are certain to vote in the election and that they are very enthusiastic about voting. Table 1 shows the relationship between certainty of voting and enthusiasm for each candidate, as well as the favorable and unfavorable opinions for each. Those very enthusiastic to vote are somewhat more familiar with each candidate than the separately measured group of those who say they are certain to vote. Schimel is the best-known candidate, followed by Crawford, Underly, and Kinser for both those certain to vote and those very enthusiastic. Kinser has the most positive net favorability, followed by Crawford, Underly, and Schimel.

    Hopefully the new The People vs. Musk will get the race more traction.  So many people out there who choose to be ignorant.  Amazing.

  92. 92.

    Kristine

    @WaterGirl: I know some SFF writers from the UK and other locations will not be attending this year’s Worldcon in Seattle. A couple mentioned that they will not visit the US, period.

  93. 93.

    WaterGirl

    @Bill Arnold:

    Should we assume that it was anything other than Mr. Trump’s petty retribution against the governor of Maine?

    No, we should not!  :-)

  95. 95.

    sentient ai from the future

    @WaterGirl: sometimes my generalized hostility to people making claims on the internet without providing evidence, or for that matter personally evidencing a sense of proportion, does leak out. *shrug

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    @Steve LaBonne: Well, on the plus side, as the refrigerators land on the heads of people who cannot be bothered to pay attention, I imagine they will start paying attention.

    Like the Hispanic fellow who thought they would only be going after “the illegals” and not brown-skinned good guys like himself.

  99. 99.

    Steve LaBonne

    @WaterGirl: Millions of excess deaths from Trump I’s gross mishandling of the pandemic and it all went down the memory hole. (Sorry, I’m feeling even crabbier than usual today.)

  100. 100.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @trollhattan: I live in The Land of Ice And Snow (and Salt); so there are limits to any car’s longevity here. I don’t think we’ve seen Tesla’s long-term survivability up here, yet… but the fact that the Cybertruck cannot handle a car wash is, unfortunately, not a good indicator.

    But I dig what you’re saying, and just like Cali ICE cars last a lot longer, it stands to reason the EVs would there, too.

    It’s a shame Tesla’s board doesn’t fire him and solve a lot of problems, but there it is.

  101. 101.

    jackmac

    @Scout211: If Louise Penny is risking book sales because of her U.S. boycott, I’d like to help offset that by purchasing one of her mysteries. I hope others do the same.

  104. 104.

    danielx

    @Gretchen: ​
     
    From everything I’ve been able to discern, DOGE is taking their cue on contracts from Felonious Orange himself. He has always regarded a signed contract as a starting point for negotiations. The only way to not get ripped off by him is not to do business with him in the first place, as many small business owners have found to their sorrow. Elon Musk appears to hold the same views.

  105. 105.

    WaterGirl

    @Professor Bigfoot: When I worked at the vet school, I was friends with a couple (both vets) who moved here from New Jersey because their windshield wipers only lasted a couple of months before they would disintegrate and start to smear on the windows.

    They figured that wasn’t a good sign.

  107. 107.

    WaterGirl

    @danielx: It’s my fervent hope that the courts disabuse Trump of that notion.

    It’s also my fervent hope that the Supreme Court will come to regret their Presidential immunity decision.  They basically left it that there was a lot of wiggle room and that the Supreme Court would be the arbiter of whether the president goes too far.

    I also presumed the intent of that was to make sure the Republican presidents couldn’t be touched, and that Democrats would have far more limitations.

    Now at least – with them as the arbiters – there’s wiggle room for them to rein in President Musk’s lackey, Trump.

    Hope springs eternal.

  108. 108.

    jackmac

    @Emily B.: My wife and I had a similar experience as yours on Amtrak. We were traveling on a train as authorities came to our sleeping car to verify our identity and papers and check baggage.

    Except this was a train traveling through East Germany in the late 1980s enroute to Berlin and the authorities were East German customs (possibly military — I don’t remember, we were groggy).

    Yeah, that’s where we seem to be at these days.

  111. 111.

    Redshift

    @hitchhiker:

    What would happen if you slowed down enough to understand what workers are necessary and which ones could be reassigned or riffed? Why are you going after such small potatoes, when so much of the discretionary federal budget is spent in the Dept of Defense?

    They’re so stupid, it’s physically painful to witness.

    Because if they slowed down, it would give people time to realize they have no legal authority to do the things they’re doing, and the president doesn’t have the authority to let them just ignore laws.

    They may be stupid, but the reason their actions make no sense isn’t because of that, it’s because they were lying about what they’re doing in the first place. It’s not about efficiency or saving money, it’s about destruction, looting, stealing information, and cherry-picking data to make up “corruption” stories. And more broadly, to usurp the powers of Congress while pretending they’re not.

  112. 112.

    sheila in nc

    @Spanky: ​
      Former Fed here; as I recall many Federal contracts come with language to the effect that the contract may be terminated at any point for any reason at all.

  113. 113.

    Mai Naem mobil

    Why do the GOP, its leadership and its allies all act Russian assets?

    Also too my sisters moniker for Edolph is Xhole which I love.

  116. 116.

    TBone

    @rikyrah: when I was a yute, we crossed some borders from Germany into Austria & Switzerland where the jack-booted guards had what appeared to be Uzis.

  120. 120.

    Geminid .

    @Steve in the ATL: I think the Uzi submachine gun was widely adopted for a while, in the 1960s  and 70s.. Then it was supplanted by improved weapons from European manufacturers like Heckler-and-Koch.

  121. 121.

    TBone

    @Steve in the ATL: Uzis became de rigueur in some European nations.  I checked.  Also, I’m not an expert on automatic weapons yet, which is why I said they appeared to be.

  124. 124.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    I’m interested in maintaining my VA healthcare. I find it good and consistent. I’ve been using it for something like 2 1/2 – 3 decades now and I have 5 appointments scheduled for this year, and have already been twice. I pick up a hearing aid this Wed. I called today to see if I still have an appointment and it took almost 1/2 hr waiting to talk to someone. shitforbrains has/is in the process of destroying OUR government. It might be that he has help with someone who seems to be from out of town…. although I’d bet he’s capable of destroying a lot on his own. Making better not so much. I have no idea what I’ll do if the VA closes and I imagine that a lot of citizens that earned and use the healthcare from the VA will be just a tad more than just pissed off. Like Me. shitforbrains never served or even seemingly came close. Many citizens likely still alive have served and use the VA healthcare system we ALL EARNED. I don’t know about today’s pay levels in the military but I’d bet it’s not much better relatively than I saw 50+ yrs ago, and I ran a department on a US Navy vessel, as an E5, maintaining/repairing gyrocompasses, internal communications equipment, specialty generators, and other gear that was vital to the ship’s ability to operate and be able to carry out it’s mission, because I was the highest rated crew person in that specialty. There was equipment below the waterline and up the mast about 75 feet off the water. I spent time both down and up and all the way forward and all the way aft. There were supposed to be 2, with ranks above me, but there never was in just over 2 yrs I was assigned there. I’m proud to say that we always had  fully operational systems for my time on that ship. I taught my crew how to do the work, stood armed watch in port with orders to shoot to kill. Sure I complained, we all did. Often the food was eatable only because it was all there was. Sometimes it was actually decent.

    There were parts of my time in that I enjoyed, and then there were  months. But I got to see a lot of the world, and didn’t have to ever use my weapon. I don’t just use the VA, I EARNED IT. And so did a lot of other people.

    And that’s just one person. There are millions others that have done the work, millions others that are very good citizens, watching our country being torn apart by someone that never has and his buddy, who can never spend all his money, even if he tried, and he’s still greedy as fuck. Oh humanity, how did we get here?

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