Critically, the damage to the National weather service and FEMA is intolerable. Hurricanes, Tornadoes, snow storms and heavy flooding rains do terrible damage to our nation every year, and are a far greater threat than enemy attacks.
Republicans are devoid intellectually having not seen the most obvious in that as a population grows, so too must a government just to maintain basic services, and a growing population provides the needed revenue.
Trump's theory for eliminating FEMA is that the states should take care of themselves after a disaster. Many of the Blue states will be able to (barely) deal with most disasters, but I suspect the Red states will just devolve into "personal responsibility" mode and leave their citizens to cope as individuals.
In some ways, I wish that were true but I doubt that that is what will happen. ICE doesn’t seem to be sending it’s Storm Troopers into work places at, for instance, meat processing plants in Texas or Nebraska where they could probably scoop up thousands of undocumented immigrants because the disruption to those communities would be devastating and hurt Trump supporters. Instead we are seeing performative enforcement in Democratic cities. All of these “personal responsibility” folks in Red States who have been sucking on the teet of the largesse provided by Blue States through the Federal government will be screaming for aid and they will get it because they voted for Trump. Blue States will be told to “go pound sand” in the spirit of fiscal responsibility.
The difficulty ICE is having finding undocumented individuals is directly proportional to the role those individuals fill. The more useful and concentrated the undocumented are the harder it is to locate and remove them. We would cease food production without them. ICE knows it, Tom Holman knows it, Christie Noem knows it and it might have even dawned on the fat head in Washington too. Oh, and if you want to test this theory out in your own community look on the roof. The young men working up there is absolutely necessary and undocumented.
Have you seen the pictures of ICE racing across Ventura CA agricultural fields where migrant workers are planting and weeding? OXNARD, Calif. (KABC) -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targeted workers on produce farms in Ventura County Tuesday morning in one of the latest raids in Southern California
ICE is perfectly within the law to swoop into workplaces to check on documentation, and as Willy Sutton would have said, “Because that’s where the money (ie, illegal immigrant) is.” So why don’t they do it? Because for years and years, in both Democratic and Republican administrations, it hurts donors as well as local communities. The hypocrisy here is staggering. If America wants to get control of its borders and of immigration, all the Law needs to do is charge the employers, starting with the boss. A jail term for, say, an agri-business CEO or for the CEO of JBS because his farm or his Meatpacking plant turned a blind eye to a worker’s documents, and the word would get out in an instant. Problem solved - migrants will not risk life and limb to get to the U.S. illegally if no one will employ them.
Mandatory minimums! 10 Years first offense + huge fines. Hire an undocumented person lose your car, your house, your freedom. It's called deterrence. Or to flip Bobbie McGee "When you got something you got something to lose."
Arrest the bosses okay but we need immigration and so does the world. This is performative for a reason. When Stephen Miller takes a job at a meat packing plant or harvests crops or spreads bitumen on a roof he will earn my respect. All he has ever done is jaw-jack and make trouble. Those are the guys we should keep out of government
We're not going to hurt the people we really need. We can manipulate the electorate to believe just about anything. These are two essential things to understand about politics.
That would only work for small businesses, who hire undocumented people because 1. the competition uses them thus offering lower prices, and 2. they are the ones who show up for work every day, timely.
The big produce growers, mega dairy farmers, "meat-packers" aka slaughterhouse owners, RE-developers, hospitality chain owners, all donate to politicians - who never have enough in the re-election fund. Why do you think this went on for so many years.
Deport them without proper legal process or recourse, right? Only target Blue states or Blue cities, right? The responsibility lies with the employers in this case.
I never mentioned due process, in blue or red states - it goes without saying that EVERYONE, including illegal entrants (let’s abandon the euphemism of “undocumented”) is entitled to a proper hearing. My point is, if you want to get a proper grip on the problem, start with the employers.
Prez Obama deported 3 Million migrants. Are you telling me, that while all statistics show migrants to be less likely to commit a criminal act than a US citizen, still about 20% of illegal immigrants were hardened criminals? Where can I find those numbers?
You are absolutely right, on everything. I mentioned both Democratic and GOP administrations to make the point that they BOTH have been performative about this: Republicans far more cynical yes, but Biden took 20 months to actually do anything about the border; it wasn’t the Republicans (they, and Trump), stymied him later. And George W. tried to do a comprehensive immigration reform bill, and was blocked by his own party. I’ve never implied any false equivalence on this problem but no one is entirely blameless either. For example, we STILL suffer bleeding-heart “progressives” who would allow essentially open borders, even though it was obviously a gift to Trump and Republicans (these are the same ilk who gleefully stone the Guard and burn cars in Los Angeles).
I doubt that progressives are in favor or totally open borders, but on the other hand, US malfeasance in Central America for more than a century is the root of the problem.
Its is not the "bleeding heart progressives" that want open borders. It is the employers who love to get the cheapest labor available. Until the situation got out of hand. For lack of proper immigration regulation, the cartels managed to take over during the last few years - earning a lot of money. They used loopholes like asylum seeking. All we asked for and still ask, is a better system. Better for the US, fairer for the migrants. A chance to come here, even if we do not have a US Citizen family member who can sponsor.
Those people now fleeing through the SoCal en SJ Valley fields, should have gotten Green Cards. A long time ago.
I know, I live there. On the local news, we get helicopter views and the protests are only a few hundred people in a couple of small areas. Only a few dozen have caused any issues, as well and that was mostly a few days ago.
With 4,000 national guard and 700 marines - federal law enforcement outnumbers protesters far more than 10 to 1 and that is before you even add in cops.
It is all nonsense and thus, likely all for a takeover and positioning for a possible coup. I bet they never leave our state. 1 in 8 Americans live in CA so if they take our independence down first that is a huge chunk.
Also, blue states need to call in their own national guard ASAP so that Trump looks silly for doing it. Then they stay under state control. If they are worried about optics, keep them inside various buildings with some tasks unless needed.
They know that if meat prices go up they lose. They know that we depend on the work done by these at least 11 million workers to run our economy, build our houses, pick our crops.
We need rational reform! We had it and it was stopped to create the chaos and division. Point this out! We need these workers!
To think otherwise is a joke!
Stephen Miller is the devil in these details…they want militarized violence.
Do not let them get away with this manufactured chaos…the GOP owns this hate and fear. Donny is their drug dealer.
There was a bipartisan immigration bill that really sought to fix a lot of the problems with our immigration system. And it was all set to pass until Trump said no to his Republican sheep, and they did not pass it. Trump wanted that immigration as a campaign issue. I feel like Democrats should bring that bill back and introduce it into the Senate and see what happens now.
GOP are economic morons. By consolidating to a single FEMA you get economies of scale. Why replicate funds and management in 50 separate states? Averaging independent events over a large population makes insurance efficient.
The funds might be replicated, but the management isn't. Every state has its own set of unique disasters to be prepared for. For example, CA has to deal with major earthquakes, the midwest has to deal with tornadoes, NY deals with blizzards, nor'easters and sometimes tropical storms, the gulf coast gets pummeled by hurricanes, etc., etc.
I’m not buying it. So all the flooding states replicate flood control. All the earthquake states replicate earthquake rescue, etc. Everyone has blackouts, terrorism, car pileups…
A conservative once argued to me that by providing aid to the poor, the government was robbing Christians of opportunities to save their souls with charity. Seriously.
That's an interesting point. Better to just eliminate poverty altogether, which will automatically eliminate hunger and starvation. A UBI would go a long way to that end.
Not in the true sense of the word, of course. Just whatever whim pops up in his hollow skull. To him and his cult, that qualifies as a "theory". Neil DeGrasse Tyson would of course chuckle at the notion.
I hate to see the term “theory” used in this context. Use “guess” or “conjecture” or “assertion” or “wild-ass speculation” or something along those lines’ “Conspiracy theories” aren’t theories. They are the nonsensical ramblings of a confused mind.
Inertia. The effects of the administration's stupidity are just beginning. Ask again after a few months. Oh, and, increasingly, pay attention to the sources. These guys are not at all above cooking the books.
Call me cynical, but I think 47's motivations in regards to FEMA are a bit more mercenary. By withholding critical disaster relief, 47 will have a huge lever that he can employ to better control what state's do and don't do. Don't think the state is cooperating enough with ICE? Well, governor, we're really sorry about your tornado, but we think you should be able to pay for the damage yourself.
"even across state lines" -- that's kind of an important point. Hurricanes and floods don't observe state lines. Especially floods, since so often, rivers ARE the state line.
Good point. Large-scale disasters (e.g., Helene in NC) quickly overwhelm local and regional resources. If the usual responders can't get through on the usual roads and bridges, state and local aircraft are damaged or grounded, and those responders are themselves impacted by the events, who ya gonna call? Then, it's wildfires here this year, tornadoes there next year, floods in another place after that; sometimes several at once, thousands of miles apart.
Then there's that little fact that most of the states at risk of hurricanes and tornadoes are among the least affluent and begin with substandard infrastructure when the storms hit. California has huge capacity to respond, Louisiana not so much.
Bottom line: Trumpism just doesn't care about suffering.
All the main switching offices were flooded. Lost communications from the coast north more than 50 miles. FEMA had just got taken over by Homeland Security. Lost its seat at the big table and had its budget drained for security at the borders. Disasters occur; but catastrophes are created and usually self inflicted. That would have been GW Bush.
I don't think Musk is a fraud. I think he is delusional and believes what he believes until he has been proven wrong 20 times. AND if Bessent and Trump thought there was $2T of waste to be found in the federal government they are just as delusional as he is .
It's not clear (to me to be sure) that Elon was ever *actually* on about "waste and fraud" at all.
Nowadays, Big Data is coming to be ~everything, and so those who are able to corral such data - especially when it's particularly crucial *personal* data, is the root of terrifying power.
I think it will come to be seen (much more clearly than it has as yet,) that what Elon (and Peter Thiel) are really after with their "DOGE" Trojan horse is the complete extraction of all of our dulcet government's data that they have about us.
I hope everybody knows about Cambridge Analytica at this point, and the technological weapons and tactics employed - now over a decade ago to tilt the results of two very important election outcomes: First Brexit, and then the 2016 presidential one over here.
I can't recall who (just recently) said it, but the remark was:
This comment is correct. Muskrat fervently wishes to end federal oversight of his businesses, and DOGE accomplished much of that, but the real endgame - envisioned by Thiel, Andreesen and the rest of the broligarchy - is control of electoral results through micro-targeting. The (documented) exfiltration and aggregation of massive federal data files from multiple agencies will be used by Palantir and others
Ah yes: Andreesen. Like Peter Thiel, he's quite a bit better at kinda keeping himself behind the curtain these days!
I remember him from those days when he was working on "Mosaic" (as that very early-days web browser was then called.) This, of course is what subsequently evolved into Netscape. Jim Clark grabbed up Andreesen from the Supercomputer Center at UIUC (Urbana-Champaign,) because Jim could see why these web-browsing technologies were going to be so very important.
And that's how Jim achieved his then objective of becoming a billionaire.
He was a bit disgruntled that he didn't reach *nearly* adequate financial heights after our having started Silicon Graphics.
It is clear that Elon and DJT totally believed in February that thousands of dead people were fraudulently receiving Social Security checks. As Noah Smith points out, the belief in rampant waste in the federal government is a core tenet of conservative mind furniture.
Conservative "mind furniture" - What a delightful bit of language! :)
And I agree completely (or at least hope so) as to my notion that the purloining of the contents of the Federal databases was quite purposeful - that it *will* all come out (eventually.)
It's a bit hard (for me) to think that anyone could really believe that there was anything significant in this idea that dead people (or 200 year-olds) have been receiving benefit payments. But perhaps I'm naive about just how naive people can be ;)
I assumed they mistook payments made from SS to the minor children of the dead for actual payments to the dead. Also including payments to the spouses of the dead.
I assumed so too. But was amazed to discover Musk c.s. did not know that since 2015 payments to anyone over 115 are not automatically done anymore but first scrutinized.
Yes, such a thing is of course *possible* - and of course a surviving *spouse* does get a portion their deceased marital partner's benefits after their death (my mother is an example there.)
But, I just sort of read the *tone* of the comments that seemed to be coming forth when Trump and certain others were beating that drum.
It had all the ear-markings of the kind of disinformation I think we've seen to be rather the *rule* there, than the *exception*
And I believe that at this point we may have some actual *data* that reveals something like the facts: Not the "alternative facts" (which I believe is called an 'oxymoron')
But good for you, that you were more generous in your allowance there.
Yep. Sadly, yep. All about the data. More precious than gold as it keeps coming in and updates ... at government expense. All about the access in perpetuity to the most accurate data in the world. Yep. Mission accomplished.
Back when I was at Sun (Microsystems) and "the Web" was coming into being, a number of us were becoming quite concerned about *privacy* in the emerging Digital Age.
Scott McNealy had a perky retort:
"Privacy? There is no privacy. Get over it!"
I chuckle a bit about how grossly we underestimated - back then, just how right it seems that Scott was :)
And now of course, it's not just about the Big Data and its aggregation:
It's about how you can *really* make things that act upon that *operational* with the now-emerging AI we see racing ahead like a quasar.
Sorry: Perhaps I'm engaging in a bit of my own Shock Doctrine with remarks like these ;)
There's also this thing about associating the *personal* data with the much much larger *aggregated* data from others, and other sources.
Perhaps - to follow your metaphor: the personal data allows the construction of a very simply parameterized model about characteristics of that individual. With a collection of such things (as from a group of voters in a given district,) you have a pretty good 'Plutonium trigger.'
Now you "shape" that with a bit of the influencing secret sauce, and then you fire it into the Uranium mass of the bomb used for that voting district.
This is a bit of a rough metaphor, but it may give a bit of an idea about the way this class of cyber-weaponry is effectuated.
This is pretty much what Project Alamo, with Cambridge Analytica and Facebook's help did leading up to the 2016 election here.
Things are *much* much more sophisticated nowadays.
But Musk hit Trump hard with his allegation that Trump is in the Jeffrey Epstein pedo files. Which tweet he deleted soon after.
Which is probably why Trump just staged his LA send-in-the-marines reality TV extravaganza. Anything to stop people talking about the years he palled around with America's most prolific pedophile.
but there are scores if not hundreds of pics - many currently circulating (again) - of Trump and Epstein in buddy-buddy positions (Trump often as the supplicant, judging from body language) ... so what can there be in the "files" that would surprise us?
Michael Wolff (sp?) claims that the final dump of trophy photos taken from Epstein's NYC brownstone--and never released to the public--includes some pix of Trump. With underage girls.
The first Epstein investigation in Palm Beach is proof that with enough power and money, pretty much any law enforcement problem can be "fixed." Or at least hugely ameliorated. As with DA Alex Acosta, who despite a mountain of evidence involving over a dozen molested teens, slapped Jeffrey with only *one* count of soliciting an underage prostitute. This is the same POS Acosta that Trump made Secretary of Labor in '16.
If, as you believe, there's nothing *new* in the Epstein files, why has DJT kept them under wraps?
I suspect the LA flexing is more distraction from the regime’s economic incompetence. Recent economic data hasn’t been favorable (I.e. manufacturing job losses, lower than expected new jobs), and the trade talks with China started again on Monday. The regime probably didn’t expect China to cave and didn’t want the media focused on the talks because it would bring the foolish trade war back into focus. BTW, those talks concluded with an agreement on a framework to adhere to an agreement they reached a month ago. So, basically a framework for concepts of a plan. No meaningful progress.
Yes, I found it more than a coincidence that Garcia was suddenly brought home after the Musk revelation and now Trump is rushing in to set his likely planned coup (getting military into the blue states and the few large blue cities in TX like Austin and Dallas) a bit early. Either they have a heads up on some SCOTUS rulings and want to get a bit ahead of that or they know Musk may now spill the beans on their plans - or maybe both.
I also saw a clip of Kash on Rogan and when he was asked about Musk's Epstein claims, Kash said something like he does not get involved in these squabbles. Conspicuously absent was any denial of Musk's claim unless that was simply not in the clip I saw. Certainly Kash would have access to those files, one would think.
For ten years they were besties. Trump even said in an interview that he wondered if Epstein was allowing “the neighborhood kids to use his pool” because the girls were so young.
It has served to instill fear in the federal workforce, which is part of the governing policy of mediocre narcissistic "leaders". This is the way sociopaths in leadership manage their businesses, the way sociopaths with political power govern. The fear is key. Mobbing/bullying tends to be frequently used to sew division among colleagues, in order to have more control over the workforce & prevent them from uniting against their mediocre "leaders". What's been going on in corporations has been a reflection of our larger society today. Many voters said they wanted their elected "leaders" to run government like they run their businesses. Well, they got it; welcome to our new world under the thumbs of bullies!
You're a fraud only if you pretend to be telling the truth when you know you that you are telling a lie. By definition, delusional person cannot be a fraud. When a schizophrenic person tells you what their voices are saying, that is not fraudulent.
Person can be delusional on some issues and fraudulent on others but not delusional and fraudulent on the same issue. You can only deceive others on issues where you know the truth.
That is true, but we have no way to know when someone's position on a given issue is base on delusion or fraud. Also worthwhile taking into account is denial - that is, where someone isn't delusional so much as lying even to themselves.
You are the delusional fraud, posting the most laughable hagiography I've ever seen!
Such garbage, written at maybe a 6th grade level, and likely mostly created by an LLM. Its big conclusion is that Musk is the smartest and greatest person alive, one of the smartest and greatest ever to walk the Earth, and if you disagree then you are just too stupid to comprehend his genius. Also, anything he does that is crazy or stupid is just because he is an awkward autustic person and that's ok!
All just assertions, of course, no evidence or sources are needed. The empty brained author at one point says that they try to feel empathy for ChatGPT.
The fact that you shared this seriously, and not as a comedy bit, shows that everything you say is useless. Worse than useless, as you goal appears to be making everyone else as dumb as you. As dumb as the author of that crap you shared. Who is anonymous, of course. Is it you, Kathleen?
The article concludes that he is going insane because he has created an internal reality where the future of humanity depends solely on him and no one can take the kind of pressure. I believe you didn’t read through to the end. I am not Kathleen.
I don't recommend giving it any engagement. The summary is that Elon Musk is an incredible super genius, playing 5D chess, should never be second guessed, anything stupid, evil or crazy he does is due to autism/other people steering him wrong/we just can't comprehend his thought processes. Etc etc.
Hence, my reference to it as "hagiography". Which, frankly, is giving it WAY too much credit. "Steaming garbage written by a sixth grader" is closer to the mark.
I already found it and read it, just now. The writer tries to peel layers of the Musk onion. If you think this is a hagiography, you have read the article not close enough. Sorry to say so.
I never said it was OK. I'm just saying that Musk isn't smart about everything. He famously made a bet that there would be only 30,000 deaths from COVID, and he sure wasn't smart about that.
The "article" was not "merely bad" it was grotesque. And if that unredeemable tripe was not LLM assisted, then the writer is simply THAT shitty all by themselves - claiming the composition did not involve LLMs is not the defense you think it is (and how do you know it wasn't? Did you write it? Certainly it is bland and of low enough quality that it is on par with LLM "creations"). By sharing it, you show that you read it and thought it useful and informative and that others should also read it. Which reflects even more poorly on yourself, to be taken in by such obvious nonsense. I am not bothering to click that link, because who cares what bet Musk made on Covid deaths. Whatever bet he made is irrelevant and stupid, just like anyone who thinks this has any value at all.
Why don't you query the author. I have been reading him for over a year now, and he is one of the most open and honest people I know. I know he will respond to your question.
Kennedy had promised not to touch ACIP—but he betrayed that promise. Vaccine programs have saved millions of lives, and now U.S. vaccine policy may likely fall under the control of a group of conspiracy theorists, ignorant of any medical knowledge.
That’s because Russell Vought, architect of 2025 plan that Trump is following regardless of him saying he didn’t know anything about it, is now in charge of DOGE and he’s smart. Evil but smart.
Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to your own reps, as well as those in other states on a specific committee important to a topic you’re sharing. Use your voice and make some “good trouble.”
Today, I was looking for the GIS map of hurricane frequency to calculate the risk factor for a major investment in Florida, and found out that it was removed from the website, the ftp server, the archives. Everywhere. This isn’t going to be replicated by the private sector, would have cost pennies to continue to host, and means that we’ll mis-price the risk by hedging our uncertainty. This haphazard slash and burn approach to scrubbing anything that even hints of climate change (this one probably didn’t have that built into the estimations) is discouraging investment. Frustrating, and I’m sure my story is trivial compared with others, but surely symbolic of the utter stupidity of the team in charge.
I saw that after a month, St. Louis MO County finally got Trump's disaster approval for the damage a line of tornadoes did back in May. I guess MO didn't kowtow enough earlier. Tough shit if you had to live on someone's couch while your home and belongings were scattered over a city block. Are we great yet?
I still have to wonder if Musk did indeed follow through with "anything can be hacked". The idea that Trump won ALL the swing states by such tiny margins...it just didn't seem possible. Meddling with some voting machines, maybe??
To me, the smoking gun is not that he won the swing states by tiny margins, but that the margins were all just large enough to avoid triggering an automatic recount.
They actually weren’t tiny margins. I despise this administration but I don’t want to see the Left acting like the Right and screaming “fraud” without proof, just because we didn’t like the result.
Let’s place the blame where it belongs: the American voting public. They’re largely ignorant and lack understanding of how the country works. I would argue that a majority can’t name the three branches of government and also can’t name their two senators.
They voted for cheaper eggs, lacking any understanding that in our capitalist system, with the exception of the impact of trade wars and tariffs, presidents have nothing to do with retail prices, CEO’s do.
They trusted Trump and Republicans more on the economy even though Trump ran up the highest annual deficit in history at over $3.1 trillion and he was the only president since Hoover to have negative job growth.
And their racism and sexism prevented them from voting for Harris as well as their hatred of immigrants.
The fact that Trump’s 48% positive job approval rating means that about 75% of Republicans actually think he’s doing a good job supports the notion that he won the tossup states.
The only place the margin was small was WI, where Trump won by 29,397 votes (0.87%), but those 10 electoral votes wouldn’t have changed the result. Trump still would have had 302 (to 236).
Thank you for your comment. Trump and his minions like to portray his win as "a landslide", "historic", "mandate from the American people". He had/has no problem telling bald-face lies to get what he wants. Biden then Harris were set on their heels by inflation and rising costs of groceries. And when a big portion of the public is only hearing Fox News then that's all they believe. I've had people tell me they voted for him because he was a businessman and would be good for the economy, which to me is just bizarro thinking. He ran again to stay out of jail and line his and his family's pockets. Rs in Congress are terrified of him. He is a bully, through and through. Dems simply can't or don't know how to grab the megaphone, and Rs do all the messaging. Part of me thinks we would have been better off with him winning in 2020 and having to reap what he sowed with the pandemic. It would have been a disaster and we'd never hear from him again.
There's an investigation into this currently in Rockland county, NY. I hadn't given it much credence but a judge ruled the allegations are serious enough for the case to proceed to discovery.
As someone who knows some stats, Election Truth Alliance has some interesting statistical results that are hard to explain. Vote need auditing in many states.
I would guess he has his boys install back doors everywhere, so he can continue to drain the private data at least, and who knows if they installed a skimming "feature" (snagging a penny on each transaction or something).
I wish I could discount that. I try to avoid conspiracy ideation. And yet... there are lawsuits in play where swing state voters swear that they voted for Harris in counties that recorded 0 Harris votes, but plenty for downticket Democrats. It is a nagging doubt that keeps growing. Nonetheless, as John Gregory puts it below, there is nothing we could do about that, even if it were proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Our entire system is based on the sanctity of elections. There is no mechanism to just hit CTRL-Z and undo a fraudulent one.
I still remember the comment of a NYT reader when the rumours of the “argument” between Musk and Bessent in the cabinet (apparently calmed down by Trump) was reported for the first time: “You really understand how bad things are when you realise Trump is the only adult in the room”.
How can anyone get around just intense anger at the people who are so damned dumb as to believe the right wing propaganda? By definition half the population is of below average intelligence. When that half calls the shots a society cannot survive.
Intelligence can't be the measure by which bad choices are scored. There are many who live good lives with little reason. Their counterparts are those who reason their way to great evil.
True, Al. My only caveat is that reason is not the only reason (ha ha) we make decisions. Our minds include other capacities of knowing, like that hard-to-pin-down element of intuition that sometimes informs our decisions. And the hard-wired stuff, like reactions of disgust, which actually have to be blunted by misinformation and disinformation on repeat. Many of us are being brainwashed into a distorted kind of 'reasoning' that indeed has nothing to do with intelligence, per se. More like a hypnotic trance enhanced by crowd hysteria. (But call me crazy,)
There's lots of ways to explain it, Leigh. Intelligence gets a bad rap unless it meets the approval of the speaker. Most have an innate sense of good and evil. We are experiencing that much smaller group who can spot one another across a crowded room. They have found their moment and have coalesced through the centrifugal force of culture around the current president.
In my experience they have different goals, not that they are merely poorly informed or lack intelligence. Many of them are fatalists who expect to die relatively young because that’s the tradition in their families, so they want maximal entertainment while they are still alive. Others want to meet Jesus as soon as possible while fulfilling their desire to feel superior to their neighbors, classmates, coworkers and family members. This last motivation is under appreciated. Much of the MAGA psychology seems rooted in unresolved early childhood grievances against parents and siblings, even for the non evangelical Christians members of the cult.
Cult's as I think of them are in tension with society. However, one defines what Trump is selling the voting democratic society has defined him as society and those not endorsing him as a cult. He is in the process of nailing down further definitions of society and cult with speed and precision. Citizens who do not think as he does are being defined as a dangerous cult.
We humans are a mind-bogglingly confused and confusing bunch, aren't we? Which is why, maybe, I'm still a person with her own set of challenges, despite a life spent as a therapist and a whole lot of cushion sitting alongside...
In corporate America (especially tech), this kind of thing happens ALL THE TIME. The process is
1. The board/CEO/somebody brings in a youngish new C?O to "fix things".
2. New C?O gets a whiteboard overview of business processes and thinks he understands everything.
3. Broad layoffs ensue focused on replacing the most expensive (== experienced) workers. The workers in a best position to leave (with most sought after skills) leave voluntarily. Some are replaced with younger or off-shore workers.
4. Crisis ensues. Business processes break. Customers leave. Nobody knows what's going on anymore. I can tell personal stories I've experienced as both an employee and a customer.
5. The new C?O is pushed out. Some old employees are lured back at higher pay. The bleeding is stopped. But nobody is works hard anymore. Product quality is bad, customer service is bad, innovation stops. Customers notice and seek out competitors. The organization goes into long slow decline.
While fun to imagine, I doubt the story. Musk was not there to find fraud wate and abuse as you or I think about it. He is (as they are still working on it) there to create a database that can pull a Russian style dossier on whom ever they decide to go after. Several ex-doge, after leaving have reported its all about the data. As for waste, fraud and abuse, it is, as it always has, them who are the worst offenders. trump first said it was rigged and it was--by him. He is the biggest fraudster. They are all into their necks in waste fraud and abuse doing jobs they aren't qualified for and honestly too stupid to do. They are destroying their agencies, hiring others just as unqualified and spending money like crazy on stuff like a dictator style parade, fake health reports, arranging shake down tours for trump and the like. Then of course is trumps own corruption.
I completely agree with this. Musk and DOGE will take the fall for "chaotic" cuts and some federal workers will be rehired, but others will have moved on. Then Russell Vought will use the opportunity to hire crony loyalists into the open positions which, as outlined in Project 2025, was always the plan all along. They want to replace large parts of the civil service, not just the top positions but all throughout government, with their own people who'll support their agenda. These guys don't care if their actions degrade government services, that's a feature to them not a bug. They don't think their base will connect the damage to government services with their actions and if the services are worse, it justifies further cuts and privatization.
It appears that Musk wanted to install someone at the IRS that would allow his companies to avoid paying a lot of taxes they owe. Why else would Musk get that juiced up about the rejection of his choice to run the IRS? And wouldn't that give Bessent grounds to call Musk a total fraud?
The Washington Post reported the reversals of the DOGE devastation at the IRS right after Trump nixed Musk's choice to run the IRS:
"At the IRS, managers received a notice on May 19, a Monday, that all probationary workers would be coming back to the office on Friday, according to a copy obtained by The Post. The turnaround was so swift that some probationary staff probably wouldn’t have a desk or a laptop initially, the announcement acknowledged: “If a seat assignment is not available … your employees should begin teleworking until local management secures a seat assignment for them.”'
Krugman pointed out in a previous post that reducing the tax gap shouldn't disrupt our economy. The tax gap is about $600 billion or 2% of GDP of pure fraud that Biden's beefing up of the IRS would have recovered a chunk of if it wasn't reversed by Rs and DOGE.
But the mother of fraud, waste, and abuse in America is our healthcare system. Weighing in at over $4 trillion a year, radical reforms could eventually cut that by at least a $1 trillion and extend healthcare coverage to all Americans. Negotiating for prescription drugs alone could save $300 billion or around $1000 a year on average per person in America.
I mean it's the same reason DOGE kneecapped the FAA.
There was no plausible argument to kneecap the FAA as part of a "government efficiency" thing. There were a lot of reasons for Elon Musk to kneecap the agency that keeps telling him his idiotic space travel business can't blow up rockets in the Gulf of Mexico at will, though.
It's astounding the Dems don't hammer on these facts nonstop. Fixing tax evasion and gross inefficiencies in the heath care "system" (extortion racket) alone would save over $1trillion/yr. Musk was a joke, a bad one. Congress knows where the fraud and waste is, and refuse to do anything about it because they are paid to look the other way.
So much of the damage Musk has done to this country seem to be part of the plan Vought and his Project 2025 were aiming for: return us to a primitive society based on an all-white, evangelical model. We can't let them codify the damage already done with the Rescission Package before Congress this week. Call your reps!!
It's really an early insight into the way that the emerging (perhaps now-emerged) tech billionaires (along with the other wealth-elite) have or are seizing all of the power in our lovely little picnic here in America :)
He coined the delightful moniker: "Neo-feudalism" to describe the apparent direction of 'governance' we seem to be entering at the present.
Perhaps you will enjoy him (and his writing,) if you've not run across those as yet.
In my opinion we should never neglect to mention that musk made out bigly. He short-circuited numerous investigations into his companies and hoovered up the personal data of American citizens.
I think that we need to take seriously the possibility that the disruption and chaos were the point all along. Musk accomplished something: He eliminated everyone investigating him and trying to regulate his companies and he has even more government contracts than before. The rest of are screwed, but Musk is doing OK. Plus, do we really believe much of anything that anyone in the Trump administration says?
If they don't self-deport, the next Democratic administration should deport them to Supermax for all the felonies that led to them getting access to the government computer systems.
I can't find a reference to them "self-deporting" - unless you mean they are leaving government "service" or perhaps SpaceX. I was hoping that some of them were here on some kind of visa and returning to from whence they came.
No, he's angry because the bill blows up the deficit and is "wasteful". He's calling for more cuts but not saying anything about the tax breaks for the wealthy which are the real reason the bill adds to the deficit.
In part — he wants DEEPER cuts. But the GOP will still be happy maintaining the defunding of science, public broadcasting, and soft power initiatives, with the social safety net in greater tatters than it is now.
If the government wants to eliminate waste and fraud, there is an obvious target: the defense budget. It has been common knowledge for decades that defense contractors levy hugely excessive charges for the work they do. Remember the $600 toilet seat? Despite the fact that the Pentagon has failed seven audits, it appears to be untouchable.
Critically, the damage to the National weather service and FEMA is intolerable. Hurricanes, Tornadoes, snow storms and heavy flooding rains do terrible damage to our nation every year, and are a far greater threat than enemy attacks.
Republicans are devoid intellectually having not seen the most obvious in that as a population grows, so too must a government just to maintain basic services, and a growing population provides the needed revenue.
Trump's theory for eliminating FEMA is that the states should take care of themselves after a disaster. Many of the Blue states will be able to (barely) deal with most disasters, but I suspect the Red states will just devolve into "personal responsibility" mode and leave their citizens to cope as individuals.
In some ways, I wish that were true but I doubt that that is what will happen. ICE doesn’t seem to be sending it’s Storm Troopers into work places at, for instance, meat processing plants in Texas or Nebraska where they could probably scoop up thousands of undocumented immigrants because the disruption to those communities would be devastating and hurt Trump supporters. Instead we are seeing performative enforcement in Democratic cities. All of these “personal responsibility” folks in Red States who have been sucking on the teet of the largesse provided by Blue States through the Federal government will be screaming for aid and they will get it because they voted for Trump. Blue States will be told to “go pound sand” in the spirit of fiscal responsibility.
The difficulty ICE is having finding undocumented individuals is directly proportional to the role those individuals fill. The more useful and concentrated the undocumented are the harder it is to locate and remove them. We would cease food production without them. ICE knows it, Tom Holman knows it, Christie Noem knows it and it might have even dawned on the fat head in Washington too. Oh, and if you want to test this theory out in your own community look on the roof. The young men working up there is absolutely necessary and undocumented.
Have you seen the pictures of ICE racing across Ventura CA agricultural fields where migrant workers are planting and weeding? OXNARD, Calif. (KABC) -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targeted workers on produce farms in Ventura County Tuesday morning in one of the latest raids in Southern California
California didn't vote for 45, he's happy to damage their economy.
Probably just for show!
Tell that to the people who are detained and deported.
They are hunted because Trump is upset with Newsom.
ICE is perfectly within the law to swoop into workplaces to check on documentation, and as Willy Sutton would have said, “Because that’s where the money (ie, illegal immigrant) is.” So why don’t they do it? Because for years and years, in both Democratic and Republican administrations, it hurts donors as well as local communities. The hypocrisy here is staggering. If America wants to get control of its borders and of immigration, all the Law needs to do is charge the employers, starting with the boss. A jail term for, say, an agri-business CEO or for the CEO of JBS because his farm or his Meatpacking plant turned a blind eye to a worker’s documents, and the word would get out in an instant. Problem solved - migrants will not risk life and limb to get to the U.S. illegally if no one will employ them.
Mandatory minimums! 10 Years first offense + huge fines. Hire an undocumented person lose your car, your house, your freedom. It's called deterrence. Or to flip Bobbie McGee "When you got something you got something to lose."
Arrest the bosses okay but we need immigration and so does the world. This is performative for a reason. When Stephen Miller takes a job at a meat packing plant or harvests crops or spreads bitumen on a roof he will earn my respect. All he has ever done is jaw-jack and make trouble. Those are the guys we should keep out of government
We're not going to hurt the people we really need. We can manipulate the electorate to believe just about anything. These are two essential things to understand about politics.
That would only work for small businesses, who hire undocumented people because 1. the competition uses them thus offering lower prices, and 2. they are the ones who show up for work every day, timely.
The big produce growers, mega dairy farmers, "meat-packers" aka slaughterhouse owners, RE-developers, hospitality chain owners, all donate to politicians - who never have enough in the re-election fund. Why do you think this went on for so many years.
The point would be to make it like the drug war. Go after the big boys. And yes, it will never happen all this is for show, political theater.
What's the minimum jail time for staging a coup?
Deport them without proper legal process or recourse, right? Only target Blue states or Blue cities, right? The responsibility lies with the employers in this case.
I never mentioned due process, in blue or red states - it goes without saying that EVERYONE, including illegal entrants (let’s abandon the euphemism of “undocumented”) is entitled to a proper hearing. My point is, if you want to get a proper grip on the problem, start with the employers.
And your economy will implode. There is a reason those employers hire the undocumented. White Americans don't want to do those jobs.
Just give needed workers Green Cards. All problems solved.
Temporary work permits are an abomination.
Prez Obama deported 3 Million migrants. Are you telling me, that while all statistics show migrants to be less likely to commit a criminal act than a US citizen, still about 20% of illegal immigrants were hardened criminals? Where can I find those numbers?
You are absolutely right, on everything. I mentioned both Democratic and GOP administrations to make the point that they BOTH have been performative about this: Republicans far more cynical yes, but Biden took 20 months to actually do anything about the border; it wasn’t the Republicans (they, and Trump), stymied him later. And George W. tried to do a comprehensive immigration reform bill, and was blocked by his own party. I’ve never implied any false equivalence on this problem but no one is entirely blameless either. For example, we STILL suffer bleeding-heart “progressives” who would allow essentially open borders, even though it was obviously a gift to Trump and Republicans (these are the same ilk who gleefully stone the Guard and burn cars in Los Angeles).
I doubt that progressives are in favor or totally open borders, but on the other hand, US malfeasance in Central America for more than a century is the root of the problem.
Its is not the "bleeding heart progressives" that want open borders. It is the employers who love to get the cheapest labor available. Until the situation got out of hand. For lack of proper immigration regulation, the cartels managed to take over during the last few years - earning a lot of money. They used loopholes like asylum seeking. All we asked for and still ask, is a better system. Better for the US, fairer for the migrants. A chance to come here, even if we do not have a US Citizen family member who can sponsor.
Those people now fleeing through the SoCal en SJ Valley fields, should have gotten Green Cards. A long time ago.
Yes, they intentionally targeted large cities in blue states as well as a few blue cities in Texas like Austin and Dallas.
They're trying to set off violence so Mango Mussolini can try to invoke the Insurrection Act. That's all this performative crap in LA is about.
I know, I live there. On the local news, we get helicopter views and the protests are only a few hundred people in a couple of small areas. Only a few dozen have caused any issues, as well and that was mostly a few days ago.
With 4,000 national guard and 700 marines - federal law enforcement outnumbers protesters far more than 10 to 1 and that is before you even add in cops.
It is all nonsense and thus, likely all for a takeover and positioning for a possible coup. I bet they never leave our state. 1 in 8 Americans live in CA so if they take our independence down first that is a huge chunk.
Also, blue states need to call in their own national guard ASAP so that Trump looks silly for doing it. Then they stay under state control. If they are worried about optics, keep them inside various buildings with some tasks unless needed.
See the most recent Ann Telnaes cartoon. Mango Mussolini indeed, right to the headgear.
They know that if meat prices go up they lose. They know that we depend on the work done by these at least 11 million workers to run our economy, build our houses, pick our crops.
We need rational reform! We had it and it was stopped to create the chaos and division. Point this out! We need these workers!
To think otherwise is a joke!
Stephen Miller is the devil in these details…they want militarized violence.
Do not let them get away with this manufactured chaos…the GOP owns this hate and fear. Donny is their drug dealer.
Point this out!
Bring back the guardrails!
These ICE raids will only occur in blue states or in very blue cities in red states (e.g., Austin). Mark my words.
You hit the nails smack on their heads.
I suspect that red/purple states with Democratic governors will also be denied aid.
It's already happened. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Arkansas governor) had to beg Trumpkopf for help after getting clobbered by a violent twister.
https://arkansasadvocate.com/briefs/arkansas-request-for-federal-disaster-assistance-approved-after-initial-denial/
Until the blue states refuse to pay any more federal taxes.
There was a bipartisan immigration bill that really sought to fix a lot of the problems with our immigration system. And it was all set to pass until Trump said no to his Republican sheep, and they did not pass it. Trump wanted that immigration as a campaign issue. I feel like Democrats should bring that bill back and introduce it into the Senate and see what happens now.
Unfortunately ICE is raiding meat processing plants and arrested 80 people in Omaha yesterday.
https://www.wowt.com/2025/06/10/ice-conducting-operations-south-omaha/
Omaha votes Democratic
above link is unrelated infomercial spam. Reported
I thought it was about HHS secretary Kennedy:-)
If he were only so easy to report and delete!
GOP are economic morons. By consolidating to a single FEMA you get economies of scale. Why replicate funds and management in 50 separate states? Averaging independent events over a large population makes insurance efficient.
Trump doesn’t care how much extra states will have to spend. His ONLY interest is federal spending.
That is why he has a military parade. It saves a lot of money. Otherwise he would have to pay himself for his birthday party.
Yep!
Agree. My comment was meant to be about state vs federal spending. In a choice between the two, he cares nothing about state spending.
The funds might be replicated, but the management isn't. Every state has its own set of unique disasters to be prepared for. For example, CA has to deal with major earthquakes, the midwest has to deal with tornadoes, NY deals with blizzards, nor'easters and sometimes tropical storms, the gulf coast gets pummeled by hurricanes, etc., etc.
I’m not buying it. So all the flooding states replicate flood control. All the earthquake states replicate earthquake rescue, etc. Everyone has blackouts, terrorism, car pileups…
Easier to grift out of 50 smaller organizations, perhaps?
Or believe that churches and non-profits can handle the problem.
A conservative once argued to me that by providing aid to the poor, the government was robbing Christians of opportunities to save their souls with charity. Seriously.
I wish I could Like this comment, but white evangelicals make me ill. Seriously.
"They have already had their reward."
That's an interesting point. Better to just eliminate poverty altogether, which will automatically eliminate hunger and starvation. A UBI would go a long way to that end.
We've already seen how that works out. A thousand points of light - really tiny, barely visible points.
Trump theorizes?
Not in the true sense of the word, of course. Just whatever whim pops up in his hollow skull. To him and his cult, that qualifies as a "theory". Neil DeGrasse Tyson would of course chuckle at the notion.
I hate to see the term “theory” used in this context. Use “guess” or “conjecture” or “assertion” or “wild-ass speculation” or something along those lines’ “Conspiracy theories” aren’t theories. They are the nonsensical ramblings of a confused mind.
That works for me. I think "theory" is ok as long as it's understood to be metaphorical or euphemistic - in this case at least.
You do not have to suspect the "personal responsibility" part. That is the way Texas effectively works right now.
Professor Krugman, could you explain the latest inflation data from an economist’s perspective?
The core PCE in May is 2.8%, which is below the lower end of expectations.
https://imgur.com/NayX6X1
https://imgur.com/FJD5ZkV
The unemployment rate in May is 4.2%, and the Atlanta Fed is forecasting a 3.8% GDP growth for the second quarter.
https://imgur.com/IuwqHE2
https://imgur.com/QxGve8Q
How is the U.S. economy performing so well despite the erratic economic policies?
Inertia. The effects of the administration's stupidity are just beginning. Ask again after a few months. Oh, and, increasingly, pay attention to the sources. These guys are not at all above cooking the books.
Call me cynical, but I think 47's motivations in regards to FEMA are a bit more mercenary. By withholding critical disaster relief, 47 will have a huge lever that he can employ to better control what state's do and don't do. Don't think the state is cooperating enough with ICE? Well, governor, we're really sorry about your tornado, but we think you should be able to pay for the damage yourself.
"even across state lines" -- that's kind of an important point. Hurricanes and floods don't observe state lines. Especially floods, since so often, rivers ARE the state line.
Good point. Large-scale disasters (e.g., Helene in NC) quickly overwhelm local and regional resources. If the usual responders can't get through on the usual roads and bridges, state and local aircraft are damaged or grounded, and those responders are themselves impacted by the events, who ya gonna call? Then, it's wildfires here this year, tornadoes there next year, floods in another place after that; sometimes several at once, thousands of miles apart.
Then there's that little fact that most of the states at risk of hurricanes and tornadoes are among the least affluent and begin with substandard infrastructure when the storms hit. California has huge capacity to respond, Louisiana not so much.
Bottom line: Trumpism just doesn't care about suffering.
All the main switching offices were flooded. Lost communications from the coast north more than 50 miles. FEMA had just got taken over by Homeland Security. Lost its seat at the big table and had its budget drained for security at the borders. Disasters occur; but catastrophes are created and usually self inflicted. That would have been GW Bush.
I don't think Musk is a fraud. I think he is delusional and believes what he believes until he has been proven wrong 20 times. AND if Bessent and Trump thought there was $2T of waste to be found in the federal government they are just as delusional as he is .
Here's a very good take on Musk's personality:
What is it like to be Elon Musk?
Grokking the Mind of an Eccentric Billionaire
https://extelligence.substack.com/p/what-is-it-like-to-be-elon-musk
Dear Kathleen,
It's not clear (to me to be sure) that Elon was ever *actually* on about "waste and fraud" at all.
Nowadays, Big Data is coming to be ~everything, and so those who are able to corral such data - especially when it's particularly crucial *personal* data, is the root of terrifying power.
I think it will come to be seen (much more clearly than it has as yet,) that what Elon (and Peter Thiel) are really after with their "DOGE" Trojan horse is the complete extraction of all of our dulcet government's data that they have about us.
I hope everybody knows about Cambridge Analytica at this point, and the technological weapons and tactics employed - now over a decade ago to tilt the results of two very important election outcomes: First Brexit, and then the 2016 presidential one over here.
I can't recall who (just recently) said it, but the remark was:
"Politics [now] is Technology.'
Terrifying, but I do think - quite true.
This comment is correct. Muskrat fervently wishes to end federal oversight of his businesses, and DOGE accomplished much of that, but the real endgame - envisioned by Thiel, Andreesen and the rest of the broligarchy - is control of electoral results through micro-targeting. The (documented) exfiltration and aggregation of massive federal data files from multiple agencies will be used by Palantir and others
to assure continued Republican dominance.
Ah yes: Andreesen. Like Peter Thiel, he's quite a bit better at kinda keeping himself behind the curtain these days!
I remember him from those days when he was working on "Mosaic" (as that very early-days web browser was then called.) This, of course is what subsequently evolved into Netscape. Jim Clark grabbed up Andreesen from the Supercomputer Center at UIUC (Urbana-Champaign,) because Jim could see why these web-browsing technologies were going to be so very important.
And that's how Jim achieved his then objective of becoming a billionaire.
He was a bit disgruntled that he didn't reach *nearly* adequate financial heights after our having started Silicon Graphics.
... Another tale from the trenches :)
Love tales from the tech trenches! Please keep them coming.
It is clear that Elon and DJT totally believed in February that thousands of dead people were fraudulently receiving Social Security checks. As Noah Smith points out, the belief in rampant waste in the federal government is a core tenet of conservative mind furniture.
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/at-least-five-interesting-things-438
As for illicit seizure of our data, we shall see. It will become apparent
Conservative "mind furniture" - What a delightful bit of language! :)
And I agree completely (or at least hope so) as to my notion that the purloining of the contents of the Federal databases was quite purposeful - that it *will* all come out (eventually.)
It's a bit hard (for me) to think that anyone could really believe that there was anything significant in this idea that dead people (or 200 year-olds) have been receiving benefit payments. But perhaps I'm naive about just how naive people can be ;)
I assumed they mistook payments made from SS to the minor children of the dead for actual payments to the dead. Also including payments to the spouses of the dead.
I assumed so too. But was amazed to discover Musk c.s. did not know that since 2015 payments to anyone over 115 are not automatically done anymore but first scrutinized.
Jennie,
Yes, such a thing is of course *possible* - and of course a surviving *spouse* does get a portion their deceased marital partner's benefits after their death (my mother is an example there.)
But, I just sort of read the *tone* of the comments that seemed to be coming forth when Trump and certain others were beating that drum.
It had all the ear-markings of the kind of disinformation I think we've seen to be rather the *rule* there, than the *exception*
And I believe that at this point we may have some actual *data* that reveals something like the facts: Not the "alternative facts" (which I believe is called an 'oxymoron')
But good for you, that you were more generous in your allowance there.
They are not naive. Not stupid, either. They are willfully ignorant.
Well I'm certain that there is at least *some* of that going on Rex.
At the very least though, I do believe that folks can get swept up in these kinds of "joining in with silly behaviour at the party."
It's not as often *individually* malicious I always want to believe.
We are all rather vulnerable to suggestibility - especially if one happens to find oneself in an echo chamber :)
But perhaps I'm too much of an optimist?
Yep. Sadly, yep. All about the data. More precious than gold as it keeps coming in and updates ... at government expense. All about the access in perpetuity to the most accurate data in the world. Yep. Mission accomplished.
Fred,
Back when I was at Sun (Microsystems) and "the Web" was coming into being, a number of us were becoming quite concerned about *privacy* in the emerging Digital Age.
Scott McNealy had a perky retort:
"Privacy? There is no privacy. Get over it!"
I chuckle a bit about how grossly we underestimated - back then, just how right it seems that Scott was :)
And now of course, it's not just about the Big Data and its aggregation:
It's about how you can *really* make things that act upon that *operational* with the now-emerging AI we see racing ahead like a quasar.
Sorry: Perhaps I'm engaging in a bit of my own Shock Doctrine with remarks like these ;)
I think you're right, though. Disorganized data is useless, but if it can be organized, it's power. At this scale, it's nuclear weapon scale power.
Yep. That's the basic idea.
There's also this thing about associating the *personal* data with the much much larger *aggregated* data from others, and other sources.
Perhaps - to follow your metaphor: the personal data allows the construction of a very simply parameterized model about characteristics of that individual. With a collection of such things (as from a group of voters in a given district,) you have a pretty good 'Plutonium trigger.'
Now you "shape" that with a bit of the influencing secret sauce, and then you fire it into the Uranium mass of the bomb used for that voting district.
This is a bit of a rough metaphor, but it may give a bit of an idea about the way this class of cyber-weaponry is effectuated.
This is pretty much what Project Alamo, with Cambridge Analytica and Facebook's help did leading up to the 2016 election here.
Things are *much* much more sophisticated nowadays.
It was always only about the data heist.
https://open.substack.com/pub/tjm1/p/surveillance-state-entrepreneur?r=9r06r&utm_medium=ios
Wow Tim. Thanks for your great cartoons!
We can certainly use more of this sort of antidote to what's going on.
We all admired the Monty Python crew's great work [somewhat] along these lines.
Lampoon, satire, ... quick wit and ready repartee.
Thanks for lightening up my breakfast
But Musk hit Trump hard with his allegation that Trump is in the Jeffrey Epstein pedo files. Which tweet he deleted soon after.
Which is probably why Trump just staged his LA send-in-the-marines reality TV extravaganza. Anything to stop people talking about the years he palled around with America's most prolific pedophile.
but there are scores if not hundreds of pics - many currently circulating (again) - of Trump and Epstein in buddy-buddy positions (Trump often as the supplicant, judging from body language) ... so what can there be in the "files" that would surprise us?
Michael Wolff (sp?) claims that the final dump of trophy photos taken from Epstein's NYC brownstone--and never released to the public--includes some pix of Trump. With underage girls.
The first Epstein investigation in Palm Beach is proof that with enough power and money, pretty much any law enforcement problem can be "fixed." Or at least hugely ameliorated. As with DA Alex Acosta, who despite a mountain of evidence involving over a dozen molested teens, slapped Jeffrey with only *one* count of soliciting an underage prostitute. This is the same POS Acosta that Trump made Secretary of Labor in '16.
If, as you believe, there's nothing *new* in the Epstein files, why has DJT kept them under wraps?
I suspect the LA flexing is more distraction from the regime’s economic incompetence. Recent economic data hasn’t been favorable (I.e. manufacturing job losses, lower than expected new jobs), and the trade talks with China started again on Monday. The regime probably didn’t expect China to cave and didn’t want the media focused on the talks because it would bring the foolish trade war back into focus. BTW, those talks concluded with an agreement on a framework to adhere to an agreement they reached a month ago. So, basically a framework for concepts of a plan. No meaningful progress.
Yes, I found it more than a coincidence that Garcia was suddenly brought home after the Musk revelation and now Trump is rushing in to set his likely planned coup (getting military into the blue states and the few large blue cities in TX like Austin and Dallas) a bit early. Either they have a heads up on some SCOTUS rulings and want to get a bit ahead of that or they know Musk may now spill the beans on their plans - or maybe both.
I also saw a clip of Kash on Rogan and when he was asked about Musk's Epstein claims, Kash said something like he does not get involved in these squabbles. Conspicuously absent was any denial of Musk's claim unless that was simply not in the clip I saw. Certainly Kash would have access to those files, one would think.
For ten years they were besties. Trump even said in an interview that he wondered if Epstein was allowing “the neighborhood kids to use his pool” because the girls were so young.
Much as I despise Trump I have to point out that other men palled around with Epstein too, like Bill Clinton and Bill Gates.
Trump is coming for Musk's wealth and likely his companies, too. Count on it.
It has served to instill fear in the federal workforce, which is part of the governing policy of mediocre narcissistic "leaders". This is the way sociopaths in leadership manage their businesses, the way sociopaths with political power govern. The fear is key. Mobbing/bullying tends to be frequently used to sew division among colleagues, in order to have more control over the workforce & prevent them from uniting against their mediocre "leaders". What's been going on in corporations has been a reflection of our larger society today. Many voters said they wanted their elected "leaders" to run government like they run their businesses. Well, they got it; welcome to our new world under the thumbs of bullies!
People can be both delusional and fraudulent. Feeling sure about getting away with committing fraud is pretty delusional.
I think he's delusional, believes what he believes - regardless of how many times he's proven wrong - >and< is a fraud.
You're a fraud only if you pretend to be telling the truth when you know you that you are telling a lie. By definition, delusional person cannot be a fraud. When a schizophrenic person tells you what their voices are saying, that is not fraudulent.
Not true. Someone who's delusional can still lie knowingly. Just one look at the Pathological Liar in Chief is proof of that.
Also, one can be delusional without hearing voices.
Person can be delusional on some issues and fraudulent on others but not delusional and fraudulent on the same issue. You can only deceive others on issues where you know the truth.
That is true, but we have no way to know when someone's position on a given issue is base on delusion or fraud. Also worthwhile taking into account is denial - that is, where someone isn't delusional so much as lying even to themselves.
Why do the voices in my head tell me to drink more water?
Because you're dehydrated maybe?
You are the delusional fraud, posting the most laughable hagiography I've ever seen!
Such garbage, written at maybe a 6th grade level, and likely mostly created by an LLM. Its big conclusion is that Musk is the smartest and greatest person alive, one of the smartest and greatest ever to walk the Earth, and if you disagree then you are just too stupid to comprehend his genius. Also, anything he does that is crazy or stupid is just because he is an awkward autustic person and that's ok!
All just assertions, of course, no evidence or sources are needed. The empty brained author at one point says that they try to feel empathy for ChatGPT.
The fact that you shared this seriously, and not as a comedy bit, shows that everything you say is useless. Worse than useless, as you goal appears to be making everyone else as dumb as you. As dumb as the author of that crap you shared. Who is anonymous, of course. Is it you, Kathleen?
The article concludes that he is going insane because he has created an internal reality where the future of humanity depends solely on him and no one can take the kind of pressure. I believe you didn’t read through to the end. I am not Kathleen.
I must have missed something. I looked all over this site but could find nowhere a "hagiography" dedicated to Elon Musk?
Oh, sorry for the confusion. Not on this site, no. I was referring to this link posted by Kathleen Weber above. https://extelligence.substack.com/p/what-is-it-like-to-be-elon-musk
I don't recommend giving it any engagement. The summary is that Elon Musk is an incredible super genius, playing 5D chess, should never be second guessed, anything stupid, evil or crazy he does is due to autism/other people steering him wrong/we just can't comprehend his thought processes. Etc etc.
Hence, my reference to it as "hagiography". Which, frankly, is giving it WAY too much credit. "Steaming garbage written by a sixth grader" is closer to the mark.
I already found it and read it, just now. The writer tries to peel layers of the Musk onion. If you think this is a hagiography, you have read the article not close enough. Sorry to say so.
I never said it was OK. I'm just saying that Musk isn't smart about everything. He famously made a bet that there would be only 30,000 deaths from COVID, and he sure wasn't smart about that.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-covid-bet
BTW, your AI detection meter is broken.
The "article" was not "merely bad" it was grotesque. And if that unredeemable tripe was not LLM assisted, then the writer is simply THAT shitty all by themselves - claiming the composition did not involve LLMs is not the defense you think it is (and how do you know it wasn't? Did you write it? Certainly it is bland and of low enough quality that it is on par with LLM "creations"). By sharing it, you show that you read it and thought it useful and informative and that others should also read it. Which reflects even more poorly on yourself, to be taken in by such obvious nonsense. I am not bothering to click that link, because who cares what bet Musk made on Covid deaths. Whatever bet he made is irrelevant and stupid, just like anyone who thinks this has any value at all.
Why don't you query the author. I have been reading him for over a year now, and he is one of the most open and honest people I know. I know he will respond to your question.
Musk and Trump have split up, but DOGE continues to thrive.
https://www.wired.com/story/doge-recruiting-spree-elon-musk/
Even though not fired by DOGE, experts are still inappropriately dismissed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/health/rfk-jr-cdc-vaccine-panel.html
Kennedy had promised not to touch ACIP—but he betrayed that promise. Vaccine programs have saved millions of lives, and now U.S. vaccine policy may likely fall under the control of a group of conspiracy theorists, ignorant of any medical knowledge.
That’s because Russell Vought, architect of 2025 plan that Trump is following regardless of him saying he didn’t know anything about it, is now in charge of DOGE and he’s smart. Evil but smart.
Call. Write. Email. Protest peacefully. Unrelentingly.
Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to your own reps, as well as those in other states on a specific committee important to a topic you’re sharing. Use your voice and make some “good trouble.”
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit?usp=drivesdk
Today, I was looking for the GIS map of hurricane frequency to calculate the risk factor for a major investment in Florida, and found out that it was removed from the website, the ftp server, the archives. Everywhere. This isn’t going to be replicated by the private sector, would have cost pennies to continue to host, and means that we’ll mis-price the risk by hedging our uncertainty. This haphazard slash and burn approach to scrubbing anything that even hints of climate change (this one probably didn’t have that built into the estimations) is discouraging investment. Frustrating, and I’m sure my story is trivial compared with others, but surely symbolic of the utter stupidity of the team in charge.
And the real irony is that most of those natural disasters occur in bright red MAGA states.
I saw that after a month, St. Louis MO County finally got Trump's disaster approval for the damage a line of tornadoes did back in May. I guess MO didn't kowtow enough earlier. Tough shit if you had to live on someone's couch while your home and belongings were scattered over a city block. Are we great yet?
And on May 23, they approved the disaster declaration for the April 2-22 storms, tornadoes, and floods in Arkansas.
I still have to wonder if Musk did indeed follow through with "anything can be hacked". The idea that Trump won ALL the swing states by such tiny margins...it just didn't seem possible. Meddling with some voting machines, maybe??
To me, the smoking gun is not that he won the swing states by tiny margins, but that the margins were all just large enough to avoid triggering an automatic recount.
"I actually tell our people, we don’t need your vote! We got so many votes, we don’t need them!" - Donald Trump, June 14, 2024
I've long thought that this particular quote was worthy of more scrutiny than it has received.
Oh GOOD point! I hadn't thought of that.
They actually weren’t tiny margins. I despise this administration but I don’t want to see the Left acting like the Right and screaming “fraud” without proof, just because we didn’t like the result.
Let’s place the blame where it belongs: the American voting public. They’re largely ignorant and lack understanding of how the country works. I would argue that a majority can’t name the three branches of government and also can’t name their two senators.
They voted for cheaper eggs, lacking any understanding that in our capitalist system, with the exception of the impact of trade wars and tariffs, presidents have nothing to do with retail prices, CEO’s do.
They trusted Trump and Republicans more on the economy even though Trump ran up the highest annual deficit in history at over $3.1 trillion and he was the only president since Hoover to have negative job growth.
And their racism and sexism prevented them from voting for Harris as well as their hatred of immigrants.
The fact that Trump’s 48% positive job approval rating means that about 75% of Republicans actually think he’s doing a good job supports the notion that he won the tossup states.
The only place the margin was small was WI, where Trump won by 29,397 votes (0.87%), but those 10 electoral votes wouldn’t have changed the result. Trump still would have had 302 (to 236).
Thank you for your comment. Trump and his minions like to portray his win as "a landslide", "historic", "mandate from the American people". He had/has no problem telling bald-face lies to get what he wants. Biden then Harris were set on their heels by inflation and rising costs of groceries. And when a big portion of the public is only hearing Fox News then that's all they believe. I've had people tell me they voted for him because he was a businessman and would be good for the economy, which to me is just bizarro thinking. He ran again to stay out of jail and line his and his family's pockets. Rs in Congress are terrified of him. He is a bully, through and through. Dems simply can't or don't know how to grab the megaphone, and Rs do all the messaging. Part of me thinks we would have been better off with him winning in 2020 and having to reap what he sowed with the pandemic. It would have been a disaster and we'd never hear from him again.
There's an investigation into this currently in Rockland county, NY. I hadn't given it much credence but a judge ruled the allegations are serious enough for the case to proceed to discovery.
https://www.newsweek.com/2024-election-lawsuit-advances-2083391
Yes, there is something here. Look at these electoral districts:
Ramapo 21 Harris 2 votes, Gillibrand 102
28 5 64
30 3 36
35 0 331 (!)
41 3 36
45 0 34
55 2 909 (!)
58 1 544 (!)
84 0 30
86 6 86
88 3 45
95 4 514 (!)
97 0 292 (!)
98 5 735 (!)
This did not come out well. First number is Ramapo ED, second is Harris vote (single digit), third is Gillibrand vote.
As someone who knows some stats, Election Truth Alliance has some interesting statistical results that are hard to explain. Vote need auditing in many states.
https://electiontruthalliance.org
Sadly, we will never know.
or be able to do anything about it, even if it is proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
Maybe we will. Guys like that make a lot of enemies.
I would guess he has his boys install back doors everywhere, so he can continue to drain the private data at least, and who knows if they installed a skimming "feature" (snagging a penny on each transaction or something).
Take a look at https://electiontruthalliance.org/ and help with a request to get the audit going. Also see https://dissentinbloom.substack.com/p/the-machines-were-changed-before for more evidence that points to hacks in advance.
I wish I could discount that. I try to avoid conspiracy ideation. And yet... there are lawsuits in play where swing state voters swear that they voted for Harris in counties that recorded 0 Harris votes, but plenty for downticket Democrats. It is a nagging doubt that keeps growing. Nonetheless, as John Gregory puts it below, there is nothing we could do about that, even if it were proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Our entire system is based on the sanctity of elections. There is no mechanism to just hit CTRL-Z and undo a fraudulent one.
I'll worry more about conspiracy ideation when the <edited> quit conspiring to commit felonies. Until then, <edited>.
I wonder too. Sadly, I doubt that there will ever be a legitimate investigation.
It's possible. The machines in some states were compromised.
I still remember the comment of a NYT reader when the rumours of the “argument” between Musk and Bessent in the cabinet (apparently calmed down by Trump) was reported for the first time: “You really understand how bad things are when you realise Trump is the only adult in the room”.
How can anyone get around just intense anger at the people who are so damned dumb as to believe the right wing propaganda? By definition half the population is of below average intelligence. When that half calls the shots a society cannot survive.
It's low and disinformation combined with below average intelligence and fear of social change, remember. Nothing is determined by only one thing.
Intelligence can't be the measure by which bad choices are scored. There are many who live good lives with little reason. Their counterparts are those who reason their way to great evil.
True, Al. My only caveat is that reason is not the only reason (ha ha) we make decisions. Our minds include other capacities of knowing, like that hard-to-pin-down element of intuition that sometimes informs our decisions. And the hard-wired stuff, like reactions of disgust, which actually have to be blunted by misinformation and disinformation on repeat. Many of us are being brainwashed into a distorted kind of 'reasoning' that indeed has nothing to do with intelligence, per se. More like a hypnotic trance enhanced by crowd hysteria. (But call me crazy,)
There's lots of ways to explain it, Leigh. Intelligence gets a bad rap unless it meets the approval of the speaker. Most have an innate sense of good and evil. We are experiencing that much smaller group who can spot one another across a crowded room. They have found their moment and have coalesced through the centrifugal force of culture around the current president.
Birds of a feather...
In my experience they have different goals, not that they are merely poorly informed or lack intelligence. Many of them are fatalists who expect to die relatively young because that’s the tradition in their families, so they want maximal entertainment while they are still alive. Others want to meet Jesus as soon as possible while fulfilling their desire to feel superior to their neighbors, classmates, coworkers and family members. This last motivation is under appreciated. Much of the MAGA psychology seems rooted in unresolved early childhood grievances against parents and siblings, even for the non evangelical Christians members of the cult.
Cult's as I think of them are in tension with society. However, one defines what Trump is selling the voting democratic society has defined him as society and those not endorsing him as a cult. He is in the process of nailing down further definitions of society and cult with speed and precision. Citizens who do not think as he does are being defined as a dangerous cult.
We humans are a mind-bogglingly confused and confusing bunch, aren't we? Which is why, maybe, I'm still a person with her own set of challenges, despite a life spent as a therapist and a whole lot of cushion sitting alongside...
I've long thought that the biggest difference between Democratic voters and Republican voters is that the former have better bullshit detectors.
Well the trouble with democracy is that it tends to the lowest common denominator on policy.
My father used to say: "Thinking is hard work, that's why so few people do it!"
In corporate America (especially tech), this kind of thing happens ALL THE TIME. The process is
1. The board/CEO/somebody brings in a youngish new C?O to "fix things".
2. New C?O gets a whiteboard overview of business processes and thinks he understands everything.
3. Broad layoffs ensue focused on replacing the most expensive (== experienced) workers. The workers in a best position to leave (with most sought after skills) leave voluntarily. Some are replaced with younger or off-shore workers.
4. Crisis ensues. Business processes break. Customers leave. Nobody knows what's going on anymore. I can tell personal stories I've experienced as both an employee and a customer.
5. The new C?O is pushed out. Some old employees are lured back at higher pay. The bleeding is stopped. But nobody is works hard anymore. Product quality is bad, customer service is bad, innovation stops. Customers notice and seek out competitors. The organization goes into long slow decline.
So true! But you forgot the part about bringing in consultants who are about 25 years old.
While fun to imagine, I doubt the story. Musk was not there to find fraud wate and abuse as you or I think about it. He is (as they are still working on it) there to create a database that can pull a Russian style dossier on whom ever they decide to go after. Several ex-doge, after leaving have reported its all about the data. As for waste, fraud and abuse, it is, as it always has, them who are the worst offenders. trump first said it was rigged and it was--by him. He is the biggest fraudster. They are all into their necks in waste fraud and abuse doing jobs they aren't qualified for and honestly too stupid to do. They are destroying their agencies, hiring others just as unqualified and spending money like crazy on stuff like a dictator style parade, fake health reports, arranging shake down tours for trump and the like. Then of course is trumps own corruption.
I completely agree with this. Musk and DOGE will take the fall for "chaotic" cuts and some federal workers will be rehired, but others will have moved on. Then Russell Vought will use the opportunity to hire crony loyalists into the open positions which, as outlined in Project 2025, was always the plan all along. They want to replace large parts of the civil service, not just the top positions but all throughout government, with their own people who'll support their agenda. These guys don't care if their actions degrade government services, that's a feature to them not a bug. They don't think their base will connect the damage to government services with their actions and if the services are worse, it justifies further cuts and privatization.
It appears that Musk wanted to install someone at the IRS that would allow his companies to avoid paying a lot of taxes they owe. Why else would Musk get that juiced up about the rejection of his choice to run the IRS? And wouldn't that give Bessent grounds to call Musk a total fraud?
The Washington Post reported the reversals of the DOGE devastation at the IRS right after Trump nixed Musk's choice to run the IRS:
"At the IRS, managers received a notice on May 19, a Monday, that all probationary workers would be coming back to the office on Friday, according to a copy obtained by The Post. The turnaround was so swift that some probationary staff probably wouldn’t have a desk or a laptop initially, the announcement acknowledged: “If a seat assignment is not available … your employees should begin teleworking until local management secures a seat assignment for them.”'
Krugman pointed out in a previous post that reducing the tax gap shouldn't disrupt our economy. The tax gap is about $600 billion or 2% of GDP of pure fraud that Biden's beefing up of the IRS would have recovered a chunk of if it wasn't reversed by Rs and DOGE.
But the mother of fraud, waste, and abuse in America is our healthcare system. Weighing in at over $4 trillion a year, radical reforms could eventually cut that by at least a $1 trillion and extend healthcare coverage to all Americans. Negotiating for prescription drugs alone could save $300 billion or around $1000 a year on average per person in America.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/06/06/doge-staff-cuts-rehiring-federal-workers/
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/doge-tax-gap
I mean it's the same reason DOGE kneecapped the FAA.
There was no plausible argument to kneecap the FAA as part of a "government efficiency" thing. There were a lot of reasons for Elon Musk to kneecap the agency that keeps telling him his idiotic space travel business can't blow up rockets in the Gulf of Mexico at will, though.
It's astounding the Dems don't hammer on these facts nonstop. Fixing tax evasion and gross inefficiencies in the heath care "system" (extortion racket) alone would save over $1trillion/yr. Musk was a joke, a bad one. Congress knows where the fraud and waste is, and refuse to do anything about it because they are paid to look the other way.
Paul,
While I just made a comment of the kind in reply to your preceding post - "Wake Up and Smell the Corruption"
I want to say again, that It is a pleasure to read absolutely everything that you write.
Oh, and I must also repat: Your art of the "Musical Coda" really is genius!
So much of the damage Musk has done to this country seem to be part of the plan Vought and his Project 2025 were aiming for: return us to a primitive society based on an all-white, evangelical model. We can't let them codify the damage already done with the Rescission Package before Congress this week. Call your reps!!
The adjective you were looking for isn't "primitive" , it's "antebellum". They want to go back to the Confederacy.
Or feudal.
Judith,
Do you happen to know about Anand Giridharadas (as yet?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anand_Giridharadas
He's quite a sharp tack, who is also very articulate and I enjoy listening to.
He wrote this rather wonderful book ("Winners Take All") back in 2018:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winners_Take_All:_The_Elite_Charade_of_Changing_the_World
It's really an early insight into the way that the emerging (perhaps now-emerged) tech billionaires (along with the other wealth-elite) have or are seizing all of the power in our lovely little picnic here in America :)
He coined the delightful moniker: "Neo-feudalism" to describe the apparent direction of 'governance' we seem to be entering at the present.
Perhaps you will enjoy him (and his writing,) if you've not run across those as yet.
Kindly,
-d
"Antebellum!"
Toute a fait mon vieu!
[Oops: Mixing a little French in here with the Latin, which is a total incongruency [slash] anachronism to that which you are referring.
And of course they were *not* speaking French in any of those colonies at the time :) ]
My "representative" is a Republicrudite.
All the more important to demand he block this package - and the Bog, Horrendous Bill!!
Remember when Trump and company floated the idea of “refund checks “ to every American taxpayer thanks to these waste and fraud discoveries?
I know a woman who was almost giddy about the possibility .
“Do you really believe that,?” I asked her. “Oh yes. They are finding all these dead people who’ve been getting Social Security”
I know she had lots of company in embracing this fantasy. This is a problem.
In my opinion we should never neglect to mention that musk made out bigly. He short-circuited numerous investigations into his companies and hoovered up the personal data of American citizens.
and he got billions in new contracts.
I think that we need to take seriously the possibility that the disruption and chaos were the point all along. Musk accomplished something: He eliminated everyone investigating him and trying to regulate his companies and he has even more government contracts than before. The rest of are screwed, but Musk is doing OK. Plus, do we really believe much of anything that anyone in the Trump administration says?
Doge bros "self deporting" in the absence of their ketamine pharaoh 😅
If they don't self-deport, the next Democratic administration should deport them to Supermax for all the felonies that led to them getting access to the government computer systems.
I can't find a reference to them "self-deporting" - unless you mean they are leaving government "service" or perhaps SpaceX. I was hoping that some of them were here on some kind of visa and returning to from whence they came.
That was in an earlier post. The author meant that some of the DOGE appointees are voluntarily leaving government.
"America will spend years paying the price for Musk’s fraudulence."
Truer words have never been written.
DOGE may have been a joke, but Congress is trying to codify their cuts. A back door, but still dismally effective.
I know I’m having trouble keeping up with everything, but I thought I saw that Musk is angry because Congress is NOT codifying his cuts?
No, he's angry because the bill blows up the deficit and is "wasteful". He's calling for more cuts but not saying anything about the tax breaks for the wealthy which are the real reason the bill adds to the deficit.
In part — he wants DEEPER cuts. But the GOP will still be happy maintaining the defunding of science, public broadcasting, and soft power initiatives, with the social safety net in greater tatters than it is now.
If the government wants to eliminate waste and fraud, there is an obvious target: the defense budget. It has been common knowledge for decades that defense contractors levy hugely excessive charges for the work they do. Remember the $600 toilet seat? Despite the fact that the Pentagon has failed seven audits, it appears to be untouchable.
I read that the $600 toilet was for the entire toilet and it was one designed to be used in submarines. The price was very reasonable for that.