This Is So Much Worse Than Last Time

[Celerity]

Why Democrats and the media are struggling to capture the insanity—and danger—of the new Trump administration.



https://newrepublic.com/article/191153/trump-musk-treasure-government-breach

https://archive.ph/wjUal



There is practically no way to describe what is currently happening in the United States without sounding hysterical, or like some sort of crank—or, maybe, insane. But here goes!

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has seized control of the Treasury Department. He is deciding who the government pays and who it doesn’t. The federal payment system he has access to contains the Social Security numbers and even the bank account information of nearly every American. It also has information about Musk’s private-sector competitors that he can now use for his own self-enrichment. Musk has given a handful of inexperienced young coders control over this sensitive system, where they can—and reportedly have—started to mess with its code. At least one of them is not even old enough to drink. This is a hostile takeover of the finances of the U.S. government. It’s blatantly unconstitutional. It’s a coup. It sounds like the treatment for a Gerard Butler action flick.

That’s not all! Trump and Musk have shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development and cut off nearly all foreign aid. This will have devastating consequences for global health, global democracy, and the future of American soft power. Speaking of: Trump has spent the early days of his presidency threatening 25 percent tariffs against Mexico and Canada for no real reason, other than that he thinks a tool that worked more than a century ago will work now. (It won’t.) Even if he doesn’t end up enacting these tariffs—which would likely be a form of economic suicide—he has already likely damaged the future of any trade agreement between the U.S. and its closest allies. He has also pardoned over a thousand violent insurrectionists and now seems ready to fire hundreds of FBI agents who helped prosecute them.

But there’s more! The administration is freezing funding for climate and infrastructure spending despite numerous court orders. Trump just released a ton of water into California’s Central Valley in a publicity stunt. All he accomplished is screwing over farmers who will likely need that water in the summer; it did absolutely nothing to fight the (mostly contained) fires that devastated the state last month. His administration is waging an all-out war against trans people and seems on the verge of all but ending gender-affirming care for minors. As I write this, American planes are flying migrants to Guantánamo Bay, where they will be held in a concentration camp. Secretary of State Marco Rubio—supposedly one of the normal people in this administration!—just reached an agreement with El Salvador where it will accept deportees of all nationalities, including Americans.

snip

[Dave Bowman]

1. Interesting article, thanks.

[GusBob]

2. These articles are the same as last time

All they do is rehash all the bad things DT does for the past week.

Nothing gets done and next week it’s a new list

[Celerity]

6. DU has a 4 paragraph rule, and I almost never 'chop & change' an article (cherry-pick 4 paragraphs), as I do not want to

be seen as disingenuously slanting things in a certain direction. I have seen that done far too often on here, with OPs leaving out major points in the article they chose to post that refute the slant the OP author is trying to impart.

The article I posted goes beyond just a rehash, you just have to read beyond the part I posted. If you chose to not do so, I understand, but I am not going to change the way I post OPs.

cheers

Cel

[GusBob]

9. Not a knock on you or DU rules

I spent 4 years reading articles like this, similar tones, similar themes, similar words even

They are all very much formula and pretty much write themselves.

If one pays close attention, it shall be 4 more years of the same type of journalism. Print journalism is a dying media

It is worse than before, granted. But overall, the song remains the same

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. If one pays close attention, it is clear that this time is different, regardless of what media says or doesn't say. nt

[GusBob]

11. Well

Maybe folks were not paying close attention last time huh?
Despite it being hashed and rehashed

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. tRump 1.0 was nothing near as severe as 2.0. Who pays attention is not the point

Sure, the media likes talking impending disasters all the time. It sells eyeballs to advertisers, their real customers.

But the disaster talk is sometimes overdone and sometimes underdone. In tRump 1.0 it was about right, clearly overdone for Biden, and right now it is underdone for tRump 2.0. For example, the media is not paying much attention to Muck seizing data and to the many disruptions of government function, and Muck was not part of 1.0.

This is also due in part to the successful "flooding the zone" going on with so many executive orders and all kinds of news happening.

It doesn't matter that it is only dimly impinging on the consciousness of the great unwashed masses now. What matters is that objectively, as documented in multiple way on DU, tRump 2.0 is much worse than 1.0.

[dalton99a]

3. Kick

[dweller]

4. Well , at least the pic is new

Caption : Don unloads in diaper at press conference



✌🏻

[Initech]

5. It's literally making me sick to my stomach every day.

Like I knew things would get this bad, but holy fucking shit, it's way worse than we could ever imagine. And these sick fucking freaks are only just getting started. Elon is a psychopath and he needs to be thrown in prison now.

[Solly Mack]

7. ...

[Skittles]

8. he was new and had handlers last time

now he is surrounded by bootlickers, with predictable results

[Initech]

13. Not just bootlickers, but the worst, most despicable human beings on earth.

People like Alex Jones, Marjorie Greene, Nancy Mace, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Sean Hannity, Elon Musk, I could spend all night, but we know who the usual suspects are. They all need to be brought to justice.

[Skittles]

14. gawd, what a sick bunch

they're just SLUDGE, utterly despicable

[Initech]

17. This is the real swamp that needs to be drained!

Fuck all of them and their megachurch and talk show host bosses too!

[ibegurpard]

16. He has handlers this time

They're just not institutionalists and are intent on destroying the govetnment.

[UTUSN]

15. My life: NIXON the worst; Raygun the worst; W.Shrub the worst; now this.

[calimary]

18. And trump beats 'em all.

[AdamGG]

19. When he said, "vote for me and I'll fix it so you never have to vote again"

That wasn't just rhetoric. In his first term he had lots of bullshit bluster that didn't accomplish anything. This time, the ultra-right had prepared a very orchestrated plan to dismantle the government and do it quickly. They started by firing all of the Inspectors General who would have reported the actions to Congress as illegal. By the time the shallow thinking base feels the consequences, it's going to be too late.

A segment on the far right has always wanted to reduce the government to nothing but the military and law enforcement. It's hard to understand where the abyss that we are plunging into will end. I'm 60 and depend on ACA Marketplace healthcare and was counting on Medicare after that and it's hard to believe that they will remain unscathed.

What Musk is doing seems blatantly illegal, but no mechanism is stopping it. They've planned this take down for quite a while. When Musk moved to buy Twitter almost 3 years ago, helping Trump must have been the primary goal. I don't think Trump is capable of this level of long term planning. There have been some larger forces at work - especially Putin.

[Demovictory9]

20. Kick