#Trump losing control to Musk

[remembertheplunge]

the three Musk-e-teers

I had a thought in the gym this morning, listening KPFA radio about how Musk and Trump are vying for who will be President, that Musk, Trump and Vance are the Tree Musk-e-teers from the Dark Side!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

It is hard to imagine a worse candidate for the American presidency in 2024 than Donald J Trump. His history of dishonesty, hypocrisy and greed makes him wholly unfit for the office. A second Trump term would erode the rule of law, diminish America’s global standing and deepen racial and cultural divides. Even if he loses, Mr Trump has shown that he will undermine the election process, with allies spreading unfounded conspiracy theories to delegitimise the results. There are prominent Republicans – such as the former vice-president Dick Cheney – who refused to support Mr Trump owing to the threat he poses. Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under Mr Trump, calls his former boss a “fascist”. America was founded in opposition to absolute monarchy. The Republican nominee models himself after the leader he most admires: Russia’s autocratic president, Vladimir Putin. Mr Trump’s authoritarianism may finish US democracy. He has praised and promised to pardon those convicted in the January 6 insurrection. He has suggested bypassing legal norms to use potentially violent methods of repression, blurring the lines between vigilantism, law enforcement and military action, against groups – be they Democrats or undocumented immigrants – he views as enemies. His team has tried to distance itself from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and its extreme proposals – such as mass firings of civil servants and erasing women’s rights – that poll poorly. But it is likely that, in office, Mr Trump would adopt many of these intolerant, patriarchal and discriminatory plans. He aims to dismantle the government to enrich himself and evade the law. If Republicans gain control of the Senate, House and White House, he would interpret it as a mandate to silence his critics and entrench his power. Mr Trump is a transactional and corrupting politician. His supporters see this as an advantage. Christian nationalists want an authoritarian regime to enforce religious edicts on Americans. Elon Musk wants to shape the future without regulatory oversight. Both put self-interest ahead of the American people. Democracy erodes slowly at first, then all at once. In office, Mr Trump appointed three supreme court justices, who this summer blocked efforts to hold him accountable for trying to overturn the 2020 election: their immunity ruling renders the president “a king above the law”, in the words of the liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor. Since Kamala Harris stepped into the spotlight following Joe Biden’s exit, her campaign has been a masterclass in political jujitsu, deftly flipping Mr Trump’s perceived strengths into glaring weaknesses. With a focus on joy, the vice-president sharply contrasted with Mr Trump’s grim narrative of US decline. In their sole televised debate, Ms Harris skillfully outmaneuvered Mr Trump, who fell into her traps, appearing angry and incoherent. She is confident and composed. He sounds unhinged. [...] Political hope fades when we settle for what is, instead of fighting for what could be. Ms Harris embodies the conviction that it’s better to believe in democracy’s potential than to surrender to its imperfections. The Republican agenda is clear: voter suppression, book bans and tax cuts for billionaires. Democrats seek global engagement; the GOP favours isolation. The Biden-Harris administration laid the groundwork for a net zero America. A Trumpian comeback would undo it. A Harris win, with a Democratic Congress, means a chance to restore good governance, create good jobs and lead the entire planet’s climate efforts. Defeating Mr Trump protects democracy from oligarchy and dictatorship. There is too much at stake not to back Ms Harris for president.

The Guardian Editorial Board's endorsement of Kamala Harris for the 2024 US Presidential Election (10.23.2024).

The Guardian’s editorial board gave a powerful endorsement for Kamala Harris, as our democracy’s survival depends on her winning.

[selkies-world]

Something something, Trump's vice saying that they need to execute people who don't support Trump, something something, Trump banning abortion & reproductive health care & birth control, something something, Trump saying Puerto Ricans just multiply and have lots of babies, something something, Trump being funded by Elon Musk, something something, Musk openly stating that the economy will suffer because Trump will give him free reign to have his Meta wetdream come true at the expense of the entire country, something something, Trump wanting to put transgender kids in "homes" away from affirming parents & wanting to have transgender adults "imprisoned" or put into "homes" or "camps", something something, Trump & Putin & Farage, something something, Trump & the big red button, something something, does nobody else remember Trump threatening Nuclear War with Russia & China & North (?) Korea over petty or racist things BEFORE RUSSIA THREATENED THE WORLD WITH NUCLEAR WW3 IF WE INTERVENE AND STOP RUSSIA INVADING UKRAINE, something something, Trump's supporters seeing him as the mesiah and saviour and King David and other god-like personas rather than a deeply flawed and power-hungry man with mental health issues who is not fit to run one of the biggest and most powerful and influential countries in the world, something something, leaving disabled and chronically ill people to die or suffer without medicare, something something, making it illegal to miscarry (& probably to have a stillbirth), something something, didn't somebody say it'd be okay under Trump to euthanize people who can't / won't contribute to the industrial capitalist society? Something something, Trump saying he wants the generals Hitler had, something something, the Nazi Euthanasia Programme (T4, I think?), something something, look in a history book and tell me what happened to the Jews & blacks in Germany when they were taken to centres & divided into those who could provide labour (& who were taken to concentration camps to becomes slaves and endure torture) and those who could not provide labour.

Look in a history book, and you will see that WW2 started in the 1930s, but there were signs of it coming on the 1920s. There was a build up, there was a gradual inclination towards it, and it was that inclination which put Hitler in power - before that inclination happened, he was the leader of a very unpopular party whom nobody paid much attention to. There were signs, there were bridges crossed, there were decisions made, there were votes won and there were more and more slippery steps to take before Germany announced war in the 1930s. And throughout all of that time, it was the minorities, those who would suffer the most just for existing, who felt the pressure first while the rest of society began to celebrate Hitler. It was these people who were growing uncomfortable with the fact regular education had been replaced by swastikas in schoolbooks, and with Hitler being featured in children's rhymes as a friendly father figure to guard over them all - and more so with the fact this was mandatory for every child to learn, and that teachers had two choices: teach children what Hitler wanted them to learn, or lose their jobs, in the best case scenario.

WW2 didn't just 'happen' in the 1930s; it was already being created in the 1920s.

We know this. We also know that we can match Trump's movements almost exactly to the steps taken by Hitler in the late 1920s & early 1930s. We know where this path leads, because we saw it before. We know where this path leads, because we have been down it before. We know where this path leads, because we were swept along by the current last time it happened.

It hasn't even been 100 years since WW2 began. It hasn't even been 100 years since the Holocaust; there are people who survived it who are still alive today.

It hasn't even been 100 years since the world went through what was perhaps the worst war in human history, to date.

Please do not make the world go through it all again. Because this time, there is different technology, different threats, and I promise you, it will not be the victory you want.

I know you're angry at the world. I know you're hurt, hurt to the point of being numb. I know you're tired and I know you're scared. I know you're scared of the unknown, which is why you might not be sure about voting for Kamala. Better the devil you know, and all that. But, America, I promise you, if you vote for Trump on Tuesday, you will damn your country, your people, and the rest of the world, to Hell. This election isn't happening in a vacuum - none of your elections have. Did you know that the UK celebrated when Obama legalised gay marriage? Did you know that multiple countries now celebrate 2 pride months, June and July, since Trump changed when the USA would celebrate it last time he was on power? Did you know that Scotland, Ireland and Wales study your civil war and your resistance and your wars of independence as intensely as we study the French revolution? Did you know that when JFK was assassinated, there were memorials and vigils held in multiple countries? Did you know that the global variation of English, AKA Globish, is more strongly influenced by US-English than British English, Australian English or Canadian English? Did you know that people who barely speak English can sing country songs word for word, with an American accent? Did you know that up until 2016, a lot of people in other countries saw the USA as the land where dreams come true - a whole country with the magic of Disneyland, where anyone can become anything, where the wildness is still free and where there are sights and sounds found nowhere else in the world? Did you know how influential you, your people and your country is to the rest of the world?

You're not voting in a vacuum, because the USA doesn't exist in a vacuum. I know you're scared - you know this election is important. I know you're hurt, because you haven't been listened to in the past, and Biden betrayed your trust, and you have no reason to vote blue this time around because you don't think Kamala will keep her word. I know you're reluctant to vote for her because she isn't openly stating that she will help Palestine; but the truth is that she and Biden have been trying to negotiate a ceasefire between Isreal and Palestine for a while now, while Trump has been in frequent communication with the leader of Isreal and has been encouraging the genocide to continue. This is what he does without the backing of your country behind him; what do you think he would do with the power of the Whitehouse backing him, when nobody can tell him no, when he will be seen by many as being above the law? Do you really believe that he'll save you, or anybody but himself, when push comes to shove?

Maybe Kamala isn't a Saint. Maybe her rule won't be perfect. Maybe it won't give you back the America you remember from your childhoods, and maybe she won't give us back the America we imagined your country to be. But she will save the planet from desolation, she will protect your people, she will protect your land, she will offer a chance for us to survive the climate crisis, and she will protect your sisters, daughters, wives, mothers, aunts and grandmothers.

If an 8 year old girl is raped by a neighbour, does she deserve to die in labour? Does she deserve to live with the changes forced on her body for the rest of her life, before it was ready? Does her mother deserve to watch her daughter go through that? Does her father deserve to watch his little angel suffer like that? Or does that little girl deserve a doctor who is allowed to save her life and what's left of her childhood?

Trump will condemn that little girl to death if she carries the baby to term and isn't provided the best medical care available. Trump will have that girl imprisoned if she has a stillbirth or miscarries. Trump will have that girl and her family imprisoned if she tries to have it aborted. Trump will condemn that girl for the rest of her life, due to something she had no control over and did not want or deserve. And he will say it's alright, maybe even good, that she suffered like that, because it's what she deserved. He will make up lies about her and her mother and her father. He will make them all into monsters for the rest of your people to hate, condemn and mock.

Kamala will save that little girl's life. Kamala will give that mother her little girl back, safe and healthy. Kamala will give that father his little angel back for him to protect.

Please, America. Please vote blue on Tuesday. Please vote for Kamala. Please vote for Harris. Please. Please, please, please.

Voting BLUE doesn't mean that you're saying "I agree with everything Kamala says, and I think she is a Saint, and I think she's going to save the world, and I think her plans are perfect."

That isn't what you're saying, if it isn't how you feel.

Voting BLUE means that you're saying "I disagree with Trump, and I don't want to turn the USA into the West's Russia, and I don't want to lose everything I know to the third world war, and I don't want to subject the USA to another civil war," because I promise you, that is what he will do if he gets your vote.

[bitchy-peachy]

Oh great, the diarrhea Trumpshit is threatening to go to Venezuela (I see this as a threat to the people of the country) if he loses the elections.

Rapists, child molesters something something borders something something "not sending their best."

Yes, that's what Trumpshit exactly is. Not the best. Just a useful puppet from pieces of shit afraid of not being able to control anyone.

Oh, I forgot gringo exploiting shits that move to suffering countries call themselves "expats". Ain't that cute?

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Leopards Are Telling You That They Will Eat YOUR Face

By Paul Krugman

Opinion Columnist

Do you know this widely cited meme, introduced in a��2015 tweet?

“I never thought leopards would eat MY face,” sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.

It’s hard to explain why this is perfect, but it is. If Donald Trump wins, there will eventually be a lot of sobbing among people who voted for him.

Some of this will involve the frightening reality of authoritarianism; if you think you’ll be unaffected by a second Trump presidency because you aren’t undocumented or Puerto Rican or a Democratic politician, I encourage you to reassess. But I’ll get to that next week. Today I want to talk about more prosaic economic issues.

Many analysts have pointed out that Trump’s proposed tariffs would hurt most Americans, with only high-income individuals gaining enough from his tax cuts to make up the difference. Trump, of course, insists that taxes on imports — which are, essentially, a sales tax — won’t hurt American consumers. But, as The Washington Post reports, corporations are already getting ready to raise prices.

The inflationary impact of tariffs will, however, probably be only the beginning of the pain for millions of Americans if Trump wins. Over the past few days, two people who will very likely have a lot of policy influence if Republicans prevail have let the leopard out of the bag on what else we should expect from a Trump administration.

Perhaps most notably, Elon Musk — who Trump promises to appoint as the head of a government efficiency commission — says he could cut “at least $2 trillion” in federal spending, around 30 percent of the budget, declaring that it would be relatively easy given the amount of government waste, although he recently acknowledged that doing so “necessarily involves some temporary hardship.”

Those remarks alone tell you two things. First, that Musk doesn’t understand federal spending. Second, a new Trump administration would probably inflict a lot of hardship on millions of Americans, and it’s unlikely that it would be temporary.

Does the government waste money? Of course it does; so does every large organization — do you believe that every dollar Tesla disburses is well spent? But anyone asserting that waste accounts for a large fraction of federal spending really has no idea what the government does.

The federal government is best thought of as an insurance company with an army. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, military spending, plus veterans’ benefits and interest payments on the debt account for about three-quarters of overall spending. Much of the rest involves essential functions of government, from operating the courts to providing air traffic control.

So any attempt at spending reductions on the scale Musk is talking about would necessarily involve savage cuts in programs millions of people depend on. Trump has said that he won’t cut Social Security or Medicare, but his tax proposals would undermine their finances, and he conspicuously hasn’t exempted Medicaid, which covers around 70 million people.

Musk-style spending cuts, then, would almost certainly result in hardship for many Americans.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson is promising “massive reform” of the Affordable Care Act — “no Obamacare,” he declared. We don’t need to speculate about what that would mean. In 2017, Trump and his congressional allies almost passed a health care “reform” that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would have increased, by 2026, the number of Americans without health insurance by 23 million; those losing coverage would disproportionately be Americans with preexisting conditions, who need insurance most.

Many potential Trump voters are probably unaware of what’s in store and imagine that Trump would just snap his fingers and “fix” what he insists is a terrible economy. The reality, however, is that America’s economic performance under the Biden-Harris administration has been very good, especially compared with that of other countries. We’ve grown much faster than any other major wealthy nation, and we’ve substantially outperformed projections, both those made before Covid-19 struck and those made at the beginning of the Biden administration.

This achievement, says The Wall Street Journal, is “remarkable”; The Economist calls it “glorious.” Neither is what you’d call a left-wing rag.

It’s true that we had a burst of inflation in 2021 and 2022. But that was a global phenomenon; other nations had similar bursts. Furthermore, inflation has come way down, and although many remain upset, understandably, about the higher level of prices, most workers, especially the lowest paid, have seen wages outpace inflation since the start of the pandemic.

By the way: When Ronald Reagan’s re-election campaign proclaimed “It’s morning again in America,” both unemployment and inflation were substantially higher than they are now.

Would Trump do even better than Biden? Or better than Kamala Harris? There’s an unusual consensus among economists that Trump would preside over a worse economy, especially higher inflation, than Harris.

If he wins, many Trump voters are likely to experience buyer’s remorse.

Will they express their disappointment at the ballot box in 2028? They will if they can. But that assumes a free and fair election. Trump has given us plenty of reason to believe that if he wins, 2024 may be the last time America has anything resembling that.

[pip-n-flinx]

It occurs to me that we're likely going to get an unpleasantly close look at how Putin rigs his elections in Russia. The assasinations, the jailed opposition, the control of the media. Trump and Musk have been in regular contact w/ Putin and - lets be honest - have no ideas to call their own. So they'll just be borrowing what worked for Putin. We probably won't have another phone call asking a secretary of a US state to "find" the votes. It'll be losing votes, closing polling places, challenging ballots, and moving fast to squash any public dissent.

If we're really unlucky, the III% and folks like them will become American Wagner.

[dwestfieldblog]

LUNATICS RUN THE ASYLUM

(I began this in late October before the election and don’t want to edit, just to insert what a great victory for Putin in the USA eh? The End starts here. Wilhelm Reich was right. Ever read The Psychology of Fascism? Do.)

See Trump ‘dancing’ on stage for thirty minutes like a tacky cruise ship comedian, hear him say the January 6th 2021 riots were ‘a day of beauty and love’? A deranged liar, a racist, sexual scumbag, mocker of afflictions, disparager of captured soldiers, fondler of his daughter, friend of Epstein…a deeply corrupted, petulantconvicted criminal who should be in prison, or at very least a mental hospital having straitjacketed remedial English lessons. Never let a man with a small dick (or one testicle) be the Fuhrer. And he wants Robert F Kennedy, a loony who was against covid vaccines etc, to be in charge of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention etc. Selling bleach cures?

Doubling down on all his pet eating nonsense and boasting of using ‘the weave’ when he delivers speeches and interviews…rather than the insane ramblings of a bigoted idiot. The ‘weave’? As if he is a master story teller with arcs and plot lines only he can perceive with random surrealist chaos. His weave is a tangled web of malignant and despicable lies. … The orange Don praised Hitler’s generals for their loyalty and ranting about ‘enemies within’ needing to have the army turned on them. General Mark Milley said; ‘(Trump) is the most dangerous person to this country…a fascist to the core’. And sofa humping Vance the Vice called him the ‘candidate of peace’. Christ on a trampoline.

So, a fascist German teams up with a South African racist, what could go wrong? The world’s richest man with the cheapest soul, AKA ‘Free speech’ (unless you disagree with him) Misinformation Musk jumping up and down on stage beside him, crying that if Trump loses, it ‘will be the last election’. As if Kamala is going to go all totalitarian in the USA. Perhaps ‘Dark Maga’ has his eye on a future presidency…his appalling interview with (yes, that’s right, Tucker Carlson the Putin fellating lapdog) was almost all inverse to actual facts and wilfully blind to what DT has actually said and done…and the evil direction to which he moves. So much for ketamine Elon. Trump is the ‘antichrist’.

Musk (who has top secret security clearance in the US) has been in regular contact with Putin since 2022. Baldie recently asked Musk not to deploy the Starlink internet system for Taiwan as a favour to his mate President Xi. Lovely people. Meanwhile Elon started to bribe folk one by one in the swing state Pennsylvania with one-million-dollar lottery gifts. That’s how desperate he is/was for the toupéed man baby to win. At the same time hoping the US will default on its deficit in January because he (and Trump) can make a mint with gold and crypto and become de facto Masters of North America. ‘Normal’ people losing their jobs and savings are irrelevant to these filth-pig ass clowns, yet these are the ones who are the most gullible to Donalds tangled weave and will vote for their own redundancy. Like turkeys voting for Christmas.

The whole crap sack of main Trump fans are deranged. Musk, Vance, Majorie Taylor Greene (she of the ‘Jewish space lasers’ idea) the evil ugly bitch ‘proud Islamophobe’ Laura (‘If Kamala wins, the White House will smell like curry’) Loomer, the grifters and utter cowards of the Republican party, Mike Johnson, Fox News, the corrupted judges, nutjobs R F Kennedy and Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, the Proud Boys aka the KKK, the foul coven of unholy money worshipping evangelicals, those in the UK who support him…Russell Brand, Lawrence Fox, Nigel Farage, Tommy Robinson, Piers Morgan, Boris, and around the world, Orban the toad in Hungary, Netanyahu the corrupt, Kim Wrong ‘Un and of course Putin, who needs his fat Caligula gimp back in power.

By his sycophants and masters, shall thee know him.

One of Putin’s billionaire shoeshine boys, Bidzina Ivanishvili of the Georgian Dream party has promised a ‘Nuremberg trial’ of the opposition parties if he wins. (The recent election seems doubtful but it is always the way that the older and the rural will vote more than the younger. He wants to turn the country into another Belorussia…Many old fools miss Stalin; the good old days of show trials, neighbours denouncing each other…dragged screaming into the past.

China and India continue to buy Russian oil and gas and thus support the orc invasion, London is still laundering oligarch money, Iran sent attack drones and ballistic missiles to Russia…who then complain about the West sending munitions. Both sides fighting a proxy war, seems safer that way for the rest of us than going nuclear. So far. Putin has sent the first of a possible ten thousand north Korean troops to be cannon fodder in Ukraine as well as early release for Russian prisoners of all ages if they fight. And as for the Middle East…. Arg.

Arg. Perhaps it is because this year I finally realised how old I am/appear to be, and all which that entails…and am projecting my sense of dread into apocalyptic visions of total dystopia. BUT. It really does seem as if the dark forces are coalescing and metastasizing all over the world.  The Bastards will never earn respect through fear but will be increasingly paranoid power mad energy vampires seeking complete control. Full spectrum dominance indeed. And all the Ego Immortals will live forever on a Musk space station, uploaded as cyber souls in a virtual paradise with E Lon as The Creator. What is left of humanity will be enslaved (to an even greater degree than before), working to extract the very last goodness from the planet to build the machines…rhodium in its high-speed state and white powder gold and etc. Arg.

All those who fell for the con trick of ‘it’s us against the Illuminati/New World Order and the corrupt old system’, who voted against their democracies and for the axe, will be confused to find themselves in a corrupt system of a real New World Order where their lives have blatantly zero value other than as slaves. A planet run by types such as Putin, Xi, Trump and Musk. The twisted, evil and insane men will spin this globe into a nightmare holocaust of oblivion. So, congratulations suckers. Here is your world, now eat your own excrement.

‘Better the pride that resides in a citizen of the world, than the pride that divides when a cloth or rag is unfurled’.  Neil Peart. Damn right. And no religions too.

Seems likely that my future postings will stick to writing about everything other than politics, religion and totalitarianism. Perhaps a goulash of multicoloured collage stuff from here on out. Diaries, musings, ‘poetry’, memories and recommendations… staying weird but without all the endless ranting. Might be healthier for us perhaps.

Right now (October 31st) I feel the world as we knew it in terms of basic Western democracy is very close to being destroyed by the machinations of the East, but mostly thanks to the greedy scum over here aided by the badly educated drones who yearn at heart for the forced order of tyranny. As long as they feel a ‘purpose’ to their lives. Which will be to serve those who declare themselves their betters, with the liar’s promise of a better life in return for complete acquiescence, obeisance and obedience. Or else.

Nothing seems to have changed much in human evolution, it is the same do-do, just more fake alpha males like scared children seeking total control for their own security.  Bastards leading idiots, revolutions turning…into the system.  Primate survival updated with weapons of mass destruction and harnessing viruses. Enough money BUYS ‘justice’, rich criminals are never punished, con merchant priests still fool their flocks with utter bullshit to get their cash and bathe in hero worship.

The best minds are ridiculed, mistrusted, absorbed and diluted by the mainstream or worse by the dumbest neophobes. Art, theatre, writing, science, collectively the humanities, regarded with suspicion, too gay, too intellectual, progress is the Devil. Only soundbite Tik Tok bread and circuses reality tv gameshow soap operas are acceptable. Short attention spans are encouraged, so as to blind-side the public to the perpetual ‘find the lady’ con trick perpetuated by the State.

Humans are easy to rile up and manipulate when they are desperate, so to the ruling classes (and those who would be so) it is always worth keeping their citizens and voters on a knife edge of stress via finance, health and existential threats. Those who think Trump will root out the ��deep state’ blah blah and take power from the rich are going to have a rude awakening from the American Dream, as he will just keep the money where it always stays. With the plutocracy. The billionaire tax dodgers who demand you pay them to exist.

The East has taken its revenge and infiltrated the West to the extent that its own people are turning against themselves in the name of patriotism and ‘God’. Their puppets are numbered heavily among the leaders on the Right and the rising populists…traitors who are selling out their countries for power, status and wealth. The mass who supports them are usually the mentally vulnerable, those who have been encouraged to be scared and angry among the elderly, the young and the working classes, and the middle class who feel their comfortable lifestyle is in danger.

All are being manipulated by actual, genuine enemies to divide and conquer for them. Break up Europe, the United Nations, NATO, Britain and North America…Trigger events to cause a steady flow of endless refugees so all member states are deeply freaked by foreigners. ‘There are no natives anywhere in the world – everyone is from somewhere else – all people are refugees, immigrants or aliens.’ George Carlin

‘Think for yourself, question ‘reality’, question ‘authority’ Practice good mental operational security…critical thinking. Ignoring actual global warming as we bury deeper into virtual reality and tik tok dumbing down with absolute denial, Sidestep the madness, close down and go within. Remain in this world to work but with as much amused detachment as you can manage. The scared children have voted for what they believe will bring security. Not much of that when daddy is crazy. Poison is often part of the cure but Trump is just corrosion. So, over the Rubicon we go. ‘Russia can do whatever the hell it wants’. They will. Their carefully placed and financed useful idiots/ poleznye idiot in high places in the West will take the gold and betray..

So, no more politics from here on out. Enough already. The present is tense, so love, laugh, learn and live, Reconnect. Love again…and remember…

‘Magnetic and gravitational fluctuations appear to cause the majority of occult phenomena and alter brain wave patterns…psychic windows, hallucinations external and mental.’  Stay fine😊

[misfitwashere]

Friends,

Elon Musk says that if Trump loses, “I’m fucked.”

Why would the world’s richest man be “f*cked” if Trump loses? 

Because under a Harris administration, Musk may be held accountable for his many abuses of power — for busting unions and mistreating workers, for using SpaceX and Starlink to monopolize America’s satellite and space infrastructure, and for using his social media platform to knowingly spread dangerous lies.

When I say “may be held accountable,” I don’t mean Musk would be punished for supporting Trump, as Trump has promised to punish his opponents. Instead, Musk’s many possible violations of the law, including some that are quite recent, may finally catch up with him under a Harris administration. 

Musk’s daily million-dollar sweepstakes giveaways to people who have registered to vote in battleground states appear to be clear violations of campaign finance law, which makes it illegal to pay money to people to register to vote. 

Campaign finance law also makes it illegal for superPACs to coordinate with candidates. As the person in charge of one of the largest superPACs supporting Trump, Musk’s frequent conversations with Trump would appear to run afoul of these provisions, as well. 

In addition, Pennsylvania — the state where Musk began his million-dollar sweepstakes — prohibits illegal lotteries and deceiving consumers by not providing a complete set of contest rules including odds of winning and details on how winners are selected. The district attorney of Philadelphia filed a lawsuit Monday to halt Musk’s giveaway. 

Musk may also be held accountable for conflicts of interest between his being in “regular contact” with Russian president Vladimir Putin, as reported by The Wall Street Journal last Friday, and his status as one of the most important national security contractors to the U.S. government through his SpaceX and Starlink enterprises. 

The Journal reports that Musk’s regular discussions with Putin — confirmed by several current and former U.S., European, and Russian officials — have involved business and geopolitical tensions. 

Musk’s SpaceX, which operates the Starlink satellite system, has a $1.8 billion contract with U.S. military and intelligence agencies. It’s the primary rocket launcher for NASA and the Pentagon. It launches vital national security satellites into orbit and is the company NASA relies on to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. 

To effectuate these contracts, Musk says he has top-secret security clearance. 

How can someone who runs two of America’s most important military and intelligence agencies, and who has top-secret security clearance, be secretly meeting with Putin? 

At one point, Putin reportedly asked Musk to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to two people briefed on the request.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said The Wall Street Journal’s report should prompt an investigation.

Musk's conversations with Putin would clearly violate Musk’s security clearance if he failed to properly report them to the U.S. government. If classified information was leaked, Musk could be required to give up control of SpaceX, which holds the majority of his companies’ government contracts.

Musk has also been in contact with other high-ranking Russian officials, according to The Wall Street Journal, including Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin’s first deputy chief of staff. Last month, the U.S. Justice Department accused Kiriyenko of creating some 30 internet domains to spread Russian disinformation, including on Musk’s X, where it was meant to erode support for Ukraine and manipulate American voters ahead of the presidential election. 

If Musk has been a witting conduit for Russian election disinformation, he could lose control of X. He could even go to jail. 

Musk’s and Russia’s interests have increasingly overlapped. Russian forces occupying the country’s eastern and southern swaths have started using Starlink to enable secure communications and extend the range of their drones. Russian troops also began using Starlink terminals, brought in through third countries, undermining one of Ukraine’s few battlefield advantages. 

Earlier this year, Musk gave airtime to Putin and his views on the U.S. and Ukraine when X carried Tucker Carlson’s two-hour interview with Putin inside the Kremlin. In that interview, Putin said Musk was “a smart person” and “you need to find some common ground with him, you need to search for some ways to persuade him.”

But what may get Musk really “f*cked” is his leading role in the emerging anti-democracy movement. 

Since Musk was born in South Africa, he’s ineligible to become president of the United States. But that doesn’t seem to be stopping him. He’s planning to become CEO of the United States of America, Inc. 

The anti-democracy movement includes Musk, along with Peter Thiel (the self-styled libertarian who once wrote: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible” and who invested $15 million in JD Vance’s bid for the Senate), JD Vance, Blake Masters (in whose Senate bid Thiel invested $10 million), tech entrepreneur David Sacks, and blogger Curtis Yarvin. 

Yarvin, who comes as close as anyone to being the intellectual godfather of the anti-democracy movement, has written that real political power in the United States is held by a liberal amalgam of universities and the mainstream press, whose commitment to equality and justice is eroding the social order. 

Yarvin believes democratic governments should be replaced with sovereign joint-stock corporations whose major “shareholders” select an executive with total power, who serves at their pleasure. Yarvin refers to the city-state of Singapore as an example of a successful authoritarian regime.

How to achieve Yarvin’s vision? The first step, as Vance offered in a 2021 podcast, is to replace “every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state … with our people.”

The second step? We can only guess, but Trump has offered Musk a position in his administration to head up “government efficiency.” 

In early October, Musk registered with the Texas secretary of state’s office a new corporation called United States of America, Inc. 

If Trump becomes president, will Musk’s United States of America, Inc. replace the administrative state?

[head-post]

Terrifying methods of defending democracy

As the old tools of propaganda lose their efficiency, the impact on society becomes increasingly sophisticated, affecting the recipient on a subconscious level.

On Monday, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared a video compilation of moments impacting viewers, collected from various sources. The billionaire commented on the footage with a short “Hmm,” apparently calling for reflection on the video’s content.

People need to start taking to the street. This is a dictator!

“Enemies of the state.”

Biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalised.

“When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?”

US Democrats adopted the use of indirectly guiding supporters to eliminate their opponents. Instead of a direct instruction, they say something along the lines of “this person is evil” or “he/she threatens you and your safety.”

The move is presumably designed for the bigoted consumer, as the vast majority will deliberately miss the message. However, there is sure to be someone who will try to address the threat. And he or she will be genuinely convinced that of doing the right thing.

This was the principle that guided the attempted assassin of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. So was the man detained for threatening Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. The suspect in the attempted elimination of Trump was no exception. On Sunday, Ryan Wesley Routh attempted to assassinate US Republican leader and presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Dangerous rhetoric

Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, accused Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden of inciting divisive “rhetoric.” They claimed that the Democrats’ words played a role in the second assassination attempt on the Republican nominee, according to The India Today.

Donald Trump emphasised that the suspect, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, repeated what Biden and Harris said about Trump allegedly posing a threat to American democracy if he wins the upcoming November election.

Routh was also recently interviewed on his efforts to recruit Afghans to support Ukraine. In an April post on social media, which he actively maintained, the suspect emphasised:

Democracy is on the ballot, and we cannot lose.

Routh was arrested shortly after he was spotted hiding with a rifle behind bushes at Trump’s golf course in Florida. US Secret Service agents opened fire, and he fled before being later arrested. An AK-47 was found in the bushes where Routh was aiming from.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that US authorities had been warned about a “suspected Trump gunman.” Later, US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene confirmed that Routh was linked to the Ukrainian nationalist Azov Brigade.

Elusive mastermind

Amid the assassination attempt, J.D. Vance called on Democrats to “tone down the rhetoric.” He also expressed his admiration for Trump’s call for peace and calm amid a tense political climate.

The rhetoric is out of control. It nearly got Steve Scalise and many others killed a few years ago. It nearly got Donald Trump killed twice.

Both presidential candidates Trump and Harris condemned the assassination attempt, calling the perpetrator an enemy of the democratic world. However, an expert examination is expected to find Routh mentally unfit. This will allow him to escape a fair criminal punishment, with his mastermind escaping punishment.

Immediately after the attempted assassination, most mainstream media outlets began publishing articles stating that the shooting had nothing to do with Trump. One by one, they admitted the attack, but none of them acknowledged the incorrectness of their first statements.

A new tool of covert propaganda is designed for people like Ryan Wesley Routh. Through media, speakers, newspapers, and social networks, the hidden organiser implants the necessary opinion into the minds of people. The mastermind creates the conditions, encouraging individuals to take an independent initiative. As a result, there are no ties to the real initiators of the process.

New technologies operate in such a way that there are no intermediaries between a supposed customer and a real performer, which makes it impossible to trace the perpetrators.

Read more HERE

[mudwerks]

(via Why Elon isn’t paying his bills? – On my Om)

Musk, once again, is taking a page out of Donald Trump (again). Trump often used bankruptcy to stiff his creditors. Musk wants to do the same to the Wall Street banks  — he bought Twitter for $44 billion: $24 billion of his own money, $7 billion from others, and $13 billion in debt from various banks, including JP Morgan. His interest payments are about $300 million — he has paid out $600 million so far, and the next one is due in September 2023. The banks can’t sell that debt — Elon has done a great job destroying what was already an overpriced company.

In fact, the Twitter buyout may be one of the very worst acquisitions in the history of Wall Street, with something like $37 billion in value flushed—the $31 billion of equity and about half of the value of the $13 billion of debt, or another $6 billion—pretty much as soon as the deal closed. Wall Street banks that still own the $13 billion of senior debt to sell it to other investors, unless they are willing to take a huge writedown—on the order of 50 percent—to move the debt off their balance sheets. At some point, the Federal Reserve, the banks’ prudential regulator, is going to force them to sell the debt, perfect their losses, or to take a serious impairment charge against the debt and perfect that loss. By not paying his bills as they become due—so that he can scare the big Wall Street banks that own Twitter’s $13 billion of debt to sell it to him at a steep discount.

By getting the banks off his back — remember, they charge him $1.2 billion a year in interest payments —he might offer them a few billion upfront and get them off his back. He won’t like to lose Twitter to bankruptcy — he needs to control his propaganda network.

[an insight into how bad a businessman elon really is - ed.]

[mariacallous]

With no new messages from Q in almost three years and former US President Donald Trump facing mounting legal woes, one would think that the QAnon political conspiracy was losing steam. But, on November 22, Elon Musk may have renewed hope for conspiracists around the world: As the US was preparing for Thanksgiving, Musk tweeted “Q*Anon” out to his 164.5 million followers.

Musk’s post, which has been viewed 7.8 million times, linked to a story referencing a secret OpenAI project known as Q* (pronounced Q star). Instantly, the online spaces where QAnon still flourishes—message boards, Telegram, and X itself—lit up with excited believers cheering Musk’s post. They claimed it was an endorsement of their worldview and, despite years of failed promises, confirmation that they were on the right path.

“Let’s gooooooo,” wrote Erica, a member of a prominent QAnon channel on Telegram, in response to Musk’s post. “The sheep will read QAnon [and] hopefully they’ll ask themselves why he did it, and look for answers, same way we all did,” a QAnon believer wrote on Truth Social. “Loud and Clear,” another wrote on X in a reply to Musk’s post.

Other QAnon figures flagged that the way Musk wrote QAnon—with a star symbol between Q and Anon—was a reference to the oft-used, and inaccurate, refrain within the community that claims the phrase QAnon is a media construction. “The asterisk separates Q and Anon,” an X user wrote in response to Musk’s post, “He knows exactly what he’s doing.” “Message received,” another wrote. On QAnon Telegram channels over the weekend, Musk’s recent posts were dissected as if there were messages written directly by Q, and some users decoded the dates and times of Musk’s posts on Twitter to try and discern a hidden meaning. QAnon believers also shared increasingly radical conspiracies about Musk, including apparent links between Musk’s tweet and the involvement of AI in the 2024 election. The same platforms where these discussions are occurring were also primary vectors for election conspiracies in 2020.

With the 2024 election now less than a year away, and almost a quarter of the country believing in some aspects of QAnon, it’s clear that the conspiracy movement could play a key role: Trump continues to court the group’s attention; one of their own, the QAnon Shaman, is now running for Congress; and, just last week, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a US representative from Georgia, appeared on one of the most popular online QAnon shows and discussed the conspiracy that the FBI was behind the January 6 attack on the Capitol. On X, the conspiracy and its promoters have flourished since Musk took control of the company last November. And now, Musk’s use of the term QAnon serves as the X owner’s most explicit endorsement of the movement to date.

Musk’s supporters were quick to defend his reference to QAnon, claiming in the replies that this was just Musk trolling. Even if he was, that doesn’t really matter: QAnon adherents see it not as a joke, but as a wholehearted endorsement from one of the most powerful people in the world. “While Musk isn’t explicitly endorsing QAnon, he’s making a thoughtless joke that Q believers will absolutely interpret as an endorsement,” Mike Rothschild, the author of The Storm Is Upon Us, a book about QAnon, wrote on X.

And while some QAnon followers realize Musk could be trolling, they also believe he is signaling to them. “The fact that he has been highlighting Q quite a bit over the last week or two is pretty interesting. One way to highlight is to troll. Musk does this often,” one user of a QAnon message board wrote, echoing similar comments from others.

This is hardly the first time Musk has interacted with and posted dog whistles to the QAnon community. Immediately after Musk took control of what was then Twitter, the platform reinstated the accounts of almost all the QAnon promoters who’d been banned from the platform in the wake of the Capitol riot. He has also interacted with many of them. In March, Musk posted “Free Jacob Chansley,” the man better known as the QAnon Shaman who is now running for Congress in Arizona. (At the end of March, Chansley was released early from a 41-month sentence in federal prison, which he’d been serving after taking part in the Capitol riot.)

Musk and X did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

A few days before Musk’s QAnon post, left-wing media watchdog Media Matters had published a report claiming that X was ��placing ads for Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity next to pro-Nazi content.” In response, Musk boosted a baseless conspiracy that Media Matters founder David Brock was linked to Pizzagate, the thoroughly-debunked precursor to QAnon that claimed Democrats were running a child sex trafficking operation from the basement of a pizza joint in Washington, DC. The Media Matters report also said that Musk has boosted the antisemitic conspiracy theory on X that Jewish people are helping “hordes of minorities” who are “flooding” into the country to replace white people. Days after the report was published, Musk filed a lawsuit against Media Matters.

Some influential QAnon figures have told their followers that they are now on the offensive against Media Matters, and claimed that the organization’s attacks on Musk are all part of a plot to disrupt the 2024 election. “They know what another year of increasing free speech on X does to all their precious false narratives in an election year in 2024. They need to take Musk and X out now,” a QAnon promoter who has organized a number of Q conferences in recent years wrote on his Telegram channel.

[june-egbert-official]

Okay but there's an option Zane is ignoring; you tell him the truth and he says he likes his better. He outright waves you off. He doesn't argue or insist. He's just tells you his story is cooler and asks if you wanna buy shit.

He's doing it as a bit to sell weapons. He knows a past time like baseball won't sell stuff to people who are constantly in peril. But hearing that they are used by mighty warriors who beat each other to a pulp?

Also consider:

200 years is plenty of time to lose knowledge that isn't preserved away from radiation, marauders, and greed. LOOK at all your burnt books in Fallout. Bonus points if the technological stuff keeps getting snatched up by groups like the Brotherhood.

"so nobody from Boston, no Red Sox fans, were ghouls?" Ghouls are barred from entering Diamond City.

Also consider; people TODAY, in 2024, right this very second, believe the Earth is flat. Despite literal verifiable evidence to the contrary. That vaccines cause autism or implant microchips to mind control you. That evolution isn't real. That Donald Trump is a secret mastermind or Elon Musk is self-made. Like. In 2024. Many of these have persisted. All of these can be observed as false.

Finally... Do You think people don't have dumb opinions on 1824? C'mon.

Fallout 4 isn't perfect, and it's got SO many flaws. But not this. Zane's just an idiot.

Todd Howard’s brain is equal parts American idolatry, stupidity, and a pathological need to lie

[bllsbailey]

Shutdown Imminent as Lawmakers Nix GOP's Plan B Spending Stopgap

The House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a Republican-led funding bill aimed at averting a government shutdown.

Now, federal agencies are due to run out of cash on Friday night and cease operations starting this weekend.

The contentious legislation would have suspended the country's borrowing limit for President-elect Donald Trump's first two years in office and dozens of debt hawks in the Republican ranks rebelled against their own leadership to sink the package.

Hardline conservatives voted with most Democrats to help tank the measure.

It was a defeat for the Republican leader, who with tech billionaire Elon Musk -- his incoming "efficiency czar" -- had thrown his weight behind the plan.

It was supposed to fix a mammoth bipartisan package that both men had sabotaged on Wednesday amid conservatives' complaints about extras in the package ballooning its overall cost.

The retooled version was considered under a fast-track method that required two-thirds support but Democrats had been clear that they would deny Republicans the votes they needed to make up for the rebels in their ranks and it failed to win even a straightforward majority.

"The... proposal is not serious, it's laughable. Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown," Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said ahead of the vote. The White House described it as a "giveaway for billionaires."

Republicans will likely try again with a more pared-down version, although the party leadership offered no clear path forward, telling reporters they would have to meet to discuss a Plan C.

A shutdown now looks almost certain -- meaning the closure of all manner of federal agencies and potentially sending almost a million workers home without pay over Christmas.

Funding the government is always fraught and lawmakers are under pressure this time around because they failed to agree on full-year budgets for 2025 despite months of negotiations.

Party leaders had landed on a stopgap bill -- known as a "continuing resolution" (CR) -- to keep operations functioning through mid-March.

Major Trump donor and ally Musk spent much of Wednesday bombarding his 208 million followers on X with posts trashing the deal, and amplifying complaints from debt hawks in the House who balked at numerous expensive add-ons shoehorned into the package.

Twelve hours later, Trump, who appeared to be playing catch-up, began threatening the reelection prospects of Republicans thinking of supporting the package and demanding out of the blue that the bill increase or even scrap the country's debt limit.

- Speaker under fire -

Government functions are due to begin winding up at midnight going into Saturday, with an estimated 875,000 workers at risk of being furloughed without pay and essential staff working during the holidays without a paycheck.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has been facing criticism from all sides for his handling of the negotiations and his gavel looks likely to be under threat when he stands for reelection in January.

The Louisiana congressman appeared to have misjudged his own members' tolerance for the original CR's spiraling costs, and for allowing himself to have been blindsided by Musk and Trump.

Democrats, who control the Senate, have little political incentive to help Republicans and Jeffries has insisted they will only vote for the bipartisan package, meaning Trump's party will have to go it alone on any further efforts.

This is something the fractious, divided party -- which can afford to lose only a handful of members in any House vote -- has not managed in any major bill in this Congress.

While voicing frustration over spending levels, Trump's main objection to the original CR was that Congress was leaving him to handle a debt-limit increase -- invariably a contentious, time-consuming fight -- rather than including it in the text.

President Joe Biden's spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the veteran Democrat "supports the bipartisan agreement to keep the government open... not this giveaway for billionaires that Republicans are proposing at the 11th hour."

[itsjohnnybad]

Not only do they not understand that, but they don’t even want to. I’ve read so many comments and answers just here on Quora alone where they’re all either very smugly insisting that they’re delighted with the election results and that now “the country will be what it’s supposed to be,” or they’re whining about losing friends and family members because of their extremely deluded and disastrous choice—-and they seriously seem to think that they’re the victims here.

They “victimized” the rest of us by putting an unquestionably sociopathic, narcissistic, truly evil person into the highest office perhaps in the world, and yet they’re happy about the way it turned out? They actually admire him for being “as smart as Hitler was?” They seriously think that he’s going to do anything for them, given his chummy and very close butt-buddy relationship with Elon Musk and like “elites?” (Didn’t they used to say they first voted for Trump because he wasn’t one of “the elites?” How ironic that he’s now been bought by the biggest “elite” in the world.) And they’re truly astounded that anyone would decide to cut whatever cords that tied them to those they used to be close to?

Pardon my French (no insult intended to the French people), but what the fuck did they expect? If someone they claim to care about is going to get a royal screwing from the soon-to-take-office (I think I just threw up in my mouth a little at that one) dictator-wannabe—and very well will be—and his far-right, literally fascist agenda and they made it happen by voting for him, do they really expect their once-close family member or friend to say, “Well, that’s okay—you just voted to take my SS retirement away and to abolish the ACA, which is the only healthcare system I can afford and on which my whole family depends, and on top of that you voted for someone to have absolute power and control over every single facet of my life, all the way down to whom I love and marry and what I say in public or private? AND you know he’s already said he’s going to make everything more expensive by instituting tariffs on foreign-made goods, that he really isn’t going to be able to reduce grocery prices after all, and that he’s going to wreak havoc on the economy by deporting millions of immigrants who practically make up the whole farming industry? Well, hey, that’s okay; it’s not your fault—you do you”? (Of course, that’s provided any MAGAT could even understand that, which wouldn’t be a very sure bet.)

I very fortunately don’t even have any MAGA friends—I wouldn’t have any MAGA friends—-but I have cousins and their families who are down-home redneck Southern Baptist evangelical Trumpsters through and through—-and every one of them are dead to me. I don’t communicate with them anymore. I don’t care what they think. I wouldn’t even attend their funerals if they were to literally die now. And on Quora, where I used to let anyone say anything they wanted on my posts, if any MAGAt tries to post a single word on them now, the author is just quietly blocked, muted, and deleted. I don’t tell them; I don’t even (virtually) speak to them at all. They’re just gone; I don’t even read their moronic comments beyond the least amount of words necessary to identify them as Trumpsters. I can tell by the first few words—-most people can—-and it’s B/M/D. Into the great black Void.

Hey, they asked for this. They don’t get to play the injured innocent now that they’ve literally destroyed so many people’s lives and livelihoods. They knew what they were inviting into the White House. It’s not like they weren’t aware that the viper was a viper; that’s exactly what they want him to be—-as long as his venom doesn’t creep into their bloodstreams. It will, of course; it’ll poison the whole world, let alone America, and then they’ll be saying, “But we didn’t think he meant us!” They’re already saying that—-evidently it’s fine and dandy for Trump to thoroughly nuke everything and everybody else, as long as it doesn’t affect them. And they still think anyone with two brain cells to rub together would want a “friend” like that?

Not I. Every MAGAt currently wasting valuable oxygen simply by being here and breathing it in might as well not be as far as I’m concerned; like my redneck cousins, they’re dead to me. And I don’t give a ripe fuck about them or their opinions. As long as they stay off my feed and out of my space, I don’t even acknowledge their existence. And if they do attempt to cross over into my area, they’re simply sent off into the Void.

Hey , you break it; you bought it. That has never been more true than it is now. They made that flea-and-tick-ridden bed; now they can just lie in it. Case effing closed.

(Seen on Quora. I feel the same way)

[darkmaga-returns]

Twitter Hypocrisy

by Owen Ashworth | Nov 26, 2024

The U.S. election is now over and Donald Trump will be the next president. Elections come and go, but a theme tends to stay: when the establishment wins, we must unite around the winner. But when they lose, their rhetoric always clashes with the reality.

We are going to see this, and already were experiencing it, with Elon Musk and Twitter. As soon as Elon Musk bought Twitter, establishment politicians immediately set their sights on restraining the platform, but this discourse went into overdrive when Elon endorsed Trump and joined his team. There is more than enough evidence that there may be an ulterior motive pushing the critics.

In the United Kingdom, the primary critics are members of the Labour government who now control a huge majority in the House of Commons, so there should be no doubt that they could pass legislation penalising Twitter (now “X”) if they so decide. Home Office Minister Jess Phillips says she is reducing her use of the platform because it has become “a bit despotic.” Josh Simons, the Labour member of Parliament for Makerfield, said of Elon Musk, “He’s turned X into a megaphone for foreign adversaries and far-right fringe groups seeking to corrupt our public sphere. Nobody should have that power.”

Peter Kyle, the Technology Secretary (yes, we have a government bureaucrat for everything in the United Kingdom), has suggested that we should treat tech giants like nation states. The implication is that they need to be tackled and corralled into line with the state’s values. I’m no expert on how X operates, whether or not the algorithm boosts particular individuals over others, and I am fully aware of the potential problems of Elon Musk being so close to the next U.S. administration, but it seems coincidental that as soon as Elon Musk and Donald Trump team up, the establishment media and politicians come out in full throated criticism of X instead of the timid criticism that inspired the insipid Online Safety Act. One would not be remiss to suspect that before Elon Musk bought Twitter, the establishment felt like they had control of the reigns of social media—at least enough control to not crow about it regularly. But now that there has been a rebellion, they feel they need to amplify their rhetoric to bolster the political capital to take on Elon and X. One thing is true: there was nowhere near the amount of outcry when Matt Taibbi broke the Twitter files.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Chris Britt, Florida Politics

* * * *

THE LONG SURRENDER

TCinLA

Dec 12, 2024

As Trump’s incoming administration vacillates between the absurd, the dangerous, and the totally farcical, critics and opponents appear to have gone from outrage to numbness. It turns out that “flooding the zone with shit” works.

Trump has now hauled out the “heavy artillery” to enforce discipline in the former Republican Party, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Donald Trump, Inc.

That “heavy artillery” is the world’s richest man, Elmo, whose $300 billion fortune is nearly incomprehensible when one tries to understand such vast wealth under the control of a single individual. For Elmo, putting $150 million into supporting Trump during the campaign was the equivalent of using the couch change. He can double or triple the amount of money available to a political campaign with the snap of his fingers, and not even miss it.

That is what has changed the Senate this week. The Great Gerrymander committed 12 years ago and continuing today means that a minimum 95% of Republicans who win an office can expect to hold that position for as long as they wish. This is “The Solid South” of the first half of the 20th Century, when the Confederacy effectively controlled national politics regardless of which party held the White House, through seniority in the House and Senate that gave them the chairmanships of every important congressional committee, and thus total control of the Article II constitutional power.

Basically, the only way a Republican officeholder can be turned out of office now is through a successful challenge from someone further to the right than the incumbent is, in the primary election. Elmo’s statement this week that he would fund a primary challenge to any and all Republican senators who refused to support Trump’s cabinet nominees threw the fear of God in every GOP senator. They know that facing a primary challenger with unlimited financial support through Elmo’s PAC, they would lose the campaign before the vote happened. The donors they have depended on in previous elections will take one look at a candidate that well-financed and decide further support of their friend, the incumbent, is a bad investment. Without the support to run an effective campaign, the only alternative will be to announce their retirement.

Sadly, as has been shown since 2021, the only people in the GOP with a moral compass and a strong backbone have already been driven from office and out of the party. Liz Cheney could have held her congressional seat for life; she lost in 2022 to an incompetent opportunist by 30 points. That was not lost on every other Republican in congress.

In addition to the heavy artillery of Musk, the potential “hold out” senators have been subjected to a terror campaign by the MAGA freaks - threatening phone calls and emailsifthey fail to “vote right.” Senator Joni Ernst - who had serious and credible reasons for not wanting Pete Hegseth sitting in the Pentagon in the office of the Secretary of Defense - was hit within days of her “non support” becoming public with a targeted ad campaign in Iowa telling voters to call their senator and tell her they wanted her to vote for Pete. Being the good lemmings they are, they followed orders.

Then Charlie Kirk announced, “This is not a joke, everybody. The funding is already being put together. Donors are calling like crazy. Primaries are going to be launched.”

And this past Monday, Senator Ernst announced she was “supporting Pete through this process.”

The position of every Republican in Congress now is that they must vote for every single thing that Trump wants; if they ever disagree with him on anything - no matter how small - the political movement they have given their life to will crush their career and make their life hell. This is Authoritarianism on Steroids. Authoritarianism in a form we haven’t quite seen before, but still very much authoritarianism.

It took Adolf Hitler 90 days from accepting the offer of the Chancellorship of Germany the night of January 31, 1933, to consolidate his dictatorship and overthrow the Weimar Republic.

Using the power of Musk and the other Silly Con Valley Bros - and their billions - Trump could have things consolidated by the end of January, ten days after taking the oath of office.

We are facing a political Blitzkrieg as thorough as anything the failed General Maurice Gamelin faced in May 1940 when he uncomprehendingly watched Rommel’s panzers crossing the pontoon bridges over the Meuse River on their way to the Channel. And we are led by fools in the Democratic Party like congressman Ro Khanna, who said today that “resistance is futile,” led by 81 congressmen who voted with 200 Republicans for the National Defense Authorization Act - which contained the MAGA poison pill of denial of treatment for transgender children of military personnel. The 81 claim they were “being responsible” in insuring that “must pass” legislation did so; had they vote No and the bill failed, the Republicans would have been forced to negotiate to get the “must pass” legislation passed, and the price of the necessary Democratic support would have been removal of the poison pill, which MAGA Mike Johnson would have been forced to accept.

This “surrender in advance” by the Democrats is even worse than the Wray resignation announcement at the FBI.

The Republicans in House and Senate sit in terror of doing anything “wrong,” while the Democrats in both houses are incapable of breaking free of the “go along to get along” mentality that they grew up in, when they were dealing with opponents who were also equally committed to maintaining the constitutional democratic republic. They appear incapable of realizing that they now face an enemy who is dedicated to the destruction of that republic.

This seems like a good time to remind you that none of this is remotely normal; you are not the crazy ones.

What, after all, did we expect, when America elected a rapist, a seditionist, a 34-times convicted felon, who trafficked in bigotry and racism, lied with abandon, and promised a reign of retribution?

[TCinLA]