Fantastic article; supports my thesis all along.
“If you can’t delete a department, then why not just break it until it doesn’t work?”
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People argue that we have checks and balances, we have laws and courts, and we have too many things in place to prevent a coup from the inside. To that, I say, doesn’t that only matter to people who think any of that matters? It’s like saying, “I told the scorpions we have rules against stinging in this house, so quit panicking.”
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As the old saying goes… "When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king; the palace becomes a circus.”
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Good one!
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What could go wrong?
But that’s the point, isn’t it?? Musk WANTS the country to go wrong…
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“Farritor wasn’t subject to a standard background check that every other federal employee or contractor has to go through.”
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It’s just all so unbelievable. In the morning, I wake up and forget. It’s only for a moment, but damn, that moment is nice.
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Musk was fully aware of those regulations; he’s doing a “What are you weaklings going to do about it? I will get my way once it gets to the Kangaroo Court…”
So we are left with two camps now: do we once again go to the Supreme Court and test the definition of Insanity? After their “Trump is King” decision?? Or do we now accept that laws only exist when all parties involved respect them, and the administration now has a new principle of law: are you in The Club? (the Ulbricht pardon was a prima faciae example of that in action…) The Supreme Court has jumped the shark and now runs with The Club principle.
Just another shout out: does anybody have the name(s) of his personal security firm(s) that Musk used to block Congress members from entering Department of Ed? Personal name(s) will work too...
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I had breakfast with my dad two days ago. He’s a staunch Trump supporter. I asked him what he thought of the Jan 6 pardons. He said “I don’t know all the background behind it”…giving Trump the benefit of the doubt".
I think progressives need to get out of the way and let conservatives and Trump wreck the country. Historically, that’s been the only time we’ve made real change. The 13th amendment only passed after the Civil War ravaged the country, FDR was only able to pass the New Deal after the Great Depression, the civil rights and voting rights acts were only passed after the turmoil of the civil rights movement, Obama was elected after the 2008 financial crisis, and Joe Biden was elected because of the police brutality and the pandemic.
Sun Tzu said “The opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself”.
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OK, got some answers on the Musk security thing.
Musk used to use “Gavin de Becker Associates” for security; he then enlisted some of them for a dedicated private security firm called “Foundation Security” (I imagine with all the heat he has been getting, he must have by now changed the name of that division…)
Justin Riblet is one of the people at Foundation Security.
Since Justin is easily accessible online, I guess he will step back from covering Musk now, since his cover is effectively blown…
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I read the guy standing at the door was Jim Hairfield, a deputy assistant secretary in the Department of Education’s Office of Security, Facilities, and Logistics Services. On the DoE website, they list him as: Jim Hairfield, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Security, Facilities and Logistics Services.
Scary concept but you have a point… Problem is will we have a country should we let MAGA loose… ? They want to do away with the constitution and give powers to the president he simply does not have. How far do we let this go if we get out the way?
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This is the way I see it playing out:
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Bondi at DOJ is a cult member; even if a circuit court asks for an injuction, she will not enforce it in good faith; she will do some play acting, much like Aileen Cannon did.
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So it comes down to this now: an appeal to the Supreme Court. Roberts told Stupid Hitler on his Inauguration day that he can’t keep testing well-established precedent. With this brazen ignoring by Musk of an injunction, it is conceivable that Roberts and ACB form an alliance to start voting against Trump. If they decide to do that, a majority of Repubs in Congress will tell Stupid Hitler he has to knock it off (or Article 25, or whatever…)
If Roberts+ACB fail to do that, then what the hell is the point of a federal system that overtly sanctions lawlessness?? Time to partition along State lines, forming alliances as they see fit to form new countries; time is afforded for the minorities in cracker States that don’t buy lawlessness to move to the States that want to have a rule of law. [Note to readers presuming racial bias in what I am saying: people of ANY race who want a political system founded on some of the principles of the Enlightenment are a minority in “cracker” States…]
It will be a Pyrrhic victory for someone like Musk; yes, you trashed America just like you did Twitter; but now we will have a chance to replace it with something that is designed better, given our experience, like Twitter was replaced by Bluesky.
To rectify the mistakes of the US for these new replacement federation(s), I would propose the following:
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Stringent laws against gerrymandering.
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ALL balloting is secured by petition, with a significant number of signatures for higher office; an ample timewindow to vet all signatures. Being a member of a party will not give you an advantage.
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Equal time for balloted candidates, and campaign advertising limits.
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Strict finance reporting for candidates, with serious penalties for failing to do so.
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Candidates can only hold ongoing traded assets through a blind trust.
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Ranked balloting for all votes and referendums, to cut down on wasteful and time-consuming primaries.
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Rules preventing a regulator from working for an industry they once regulated (along with increased pensions, to dismiss the excuse for why that is permitted…)
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Subsidized education (preferably for STEM courses of studies…), to never again allow ignorant voters to be deciding on issues and political representation.
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More precise rules to insure better antitrust enforcement.
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More precise rules on POLLUTION: air, water, and soil. [There is no need for a debate on how much climate warming is in play; we can agree that we don’t want dirty air.] At a minimum, CHARGEBACKS for those selling products that cause this.
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[Note that refugees from the Dem Party would fight tooth and nail the idea that being in a party is no longer essential; but this is going to be Darwin. Either we remove the design flaws embraced by thugs, or we continue to wallow in shit with the consequences of not having addressed that…]
It’s not like all of our political processes have to be reinvented! We know what works by now, and can adopt for a regional federation. Just do what we have been doing, and add in the principles bulleted above. If anything is counter to these design principles: chuck it!
Wholly inadequate; there has to be a PENALTY when you defy a court order. That is a fundamental principle of law.
Time to get out of this clown car and form a new country/countries along State lines…
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Reading this morning’s headlines, looks like my idea for next steps is not being taken as all that crazy.
Let’s start drafting the paperwork and go about this in a decorous way; possibly get the U.N. involved, and we should have some secret discussions with countries to start fashioning trade agreements as a new entity/entities.
If Trump wants to fight it: we fought a King then, and we can fight one now. And if you don’t want to fight him, America deserves to be folded; it will be a case of simple Darwinism…
“…When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation…”
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I’m sorry. Glenn Kirschner has lost the story line here:
“Well, an administration has stocked positions of law enforcement with yes men; so clearly, because there’s a law, the marshals under Biondi will have to comply…”
Please, stop already. It’s time to move on and have a serious discussion of partition, and decide along what State lines they should be formed and what remedies they want to apply to governance to prevent something like this from happening again…
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They all share a creepy behavior thing; I think it hints at their inhumanity…
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Beam me up Scottie; time for some of the States to meet and decide on a new federal alliance that would preserve a rule of law, craft improvements to governance that can prevent corporate co-option, and come up with the mechanics for an exit from the U.S., covering both paths of an amicable and non-amicable parting of the ways. If federal assets were not to be divvied, there’s interesting possibilities for States to skip out on federal debt obligations. We would need to conduct discrete trade negotiations with countries around the world.
Spoiler alert to the article below: not much…
And if any of the States fail to pursue that option, please do shut the fuck up and enjoy your new dictator…
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