Did Someone Say Nukes 😱💩 ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️ 💩😱

Whack A Mole²:  President Musk and his band of miscreant minions keep mucking around inside the technology systems that keep the government working.  With Trump’s support, he’s cutting programs, sending out illegal “quit now or else” missives, and otherwise wreaking havoc. Musk’s efforts have resulted in lawsuits from Democratic state Attorneys General, employee unions, and various other pro-democracy organizations.  So far, the federal courts are upholding democracy, staying much of Trump and Musk’s illegal endeavors. To that end, federal judges have limited the number of Elon’s junior techno fascists who can access the Treasury payment system, while also ruling that their access be “read” only; they’ve frozen the “quit now or else” program” in part because the promise to provide departing government employees with eight months of severance is unfunded and thus likely illegal; they’ve frozen the freeze on government loan and grant programs; and they’ve ruled against Trump’s plan to eliminate birthright citizenship. The problem is that Trump, who’s been told by the Supreme Court that he’s a king with infinite amounts of immunity, is largely ignoring their rulings even when he pretends to be complying. So, even though Trump’s been blocked from cutting off payments to entities like community health programs, regional hospitals, and head start programs, a number of them report that their access to the Treasury funding portal has disappeared; as a result, they have started to lay off employees and cancel classes and appointments.  While we’ve been told that PEPFAR, the enormously successful Bush era AIDS program, isn’t to be affected by foreign cuts, it has been which has frozen the delivery of lifesaving drugs and, together with research cuts, left drug trial patients hanging in limbo. Similarly, loads of food bought from American farmers, are rotting away in various ports because the USAID workers responsible for getting the food to the organizations that then get it to the starving have almost all been put on permanent leave.  That’s not an exaggeration, fewer than 300 of the approximately 13,000 employed by USAID are expected to remain as a result of Trump’s cuts. Secretary of State Marco Rubio who once was one of USAID’s biggest supporters is, unsurprisingly, totally in Trump’s camp and while he’s paying some lip service to continuing “worthy” aid, he’s not because if he doesn’t stick to the party line, he’ll be kicked to the curb and unlike a lot of Trump’s other appointees, he needs his State Department salary because he’s got a rather paltry net worth.  Theoretically eliminating USAID requires Congressional action.  We’ll know eventually but by then the damage will have been done.

The Minions: As to Musk’s minions, Marko Elez who up until yesterday had access to the Treasury system, resigned after the Wall Street Journal revealed that his social media posts include the following pearls of wisdom: I was racist before it was cool; I would not mind if Gaza and Israel were wiped off the face of the Earth; you could not pay me to marry outside my ethnicity; and normalize Indian hate. Good riddance: but has anyone at the WSJ or elsewhere looked at Musk’s X posts because they’re far worse. According to Wired Magazine another one of Musk’s minions, 19-year-old Edward Coristine who goes by the name of Big Balls on LinkedIn, has several Russian websites and has been known to hire “reformed” hackers, is knee deep in the US Government infrastructure right now.  To state the obvious, it’s unlikely he’d ever pass a real security vetting. Nevertheless, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who’s been sipping the Kool-Aid wants us to believe that Musk’s team is totally trustworthy and “highly qualified.”  That sentiment is apparently shared by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy who is totally okay with Musk’s minions “plugging in” and “making upgrades” to the air traffic control system and according to CNN with Energy Secretary Chris Wright who controls our nukes and is giving access to the Energy system to Musk’s team.  Who needs the nuclear suitcase when you have access to the nuke operating system?  Worth reminding everyone that when Musk fired Twitter staff and made “upgrades” to X it repeatedly crashed, a big yawn for X but a total disaster when planes and nukes go awry.  As to Elon’s focus on dismantling USAID, which represented a teeny party of the US budget, apparently, he still harbors resentment for USAID over its role in eliminating South Africa’s apartheid regime.  Moreover, by burning USAID to the ground, he’s getting rid of their investigation into alleged illegal acts by his StarLink company in Ukraine. It’s always personal with these guys which also explains why among her first official acts, newly sworn in Attorney General Pam Bondi has dissolved the FBI’s efforts to combat foreign interference in US elections. Then again, since she’s also now overseeing a purge at the FBI, maybe there would be no one left to staff that effort anyway.   

Confirmations:  After an overnight stalling effort by Democratic Senators, Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025, was confirmed yesterday, by a vote along party lines, to head the Office of Management and Budget. During his confirmation hearing Vought said that he would hold up legislatively approved government funding, a clear violation of the Impoundment Control Act. He held up Ukraine aid during Trump’s last administration, which led to Trump’s first impeachment, but we all know that Trump’s Congressional cronies gave him a pass for that so why follow the law now?  I guess we should appreciate that unlike a lot of Trump’s other nominees, including his SCOTUS choices, Vought is honest about his nefarious intentions. The Committee vote on FBI Director nominee Kash Patel has been delayed one week, mostly a stalling tactic by Democrats because no Republicans seem at all concerned by his enemies list or his questionable sources of income, including rather large payments from Trump’s Truth Social and equity in a clothing company that advertises where else, but on Truth Social because money goes round and round.     

Media:  Trump is suing 60 Minutes, upset about how they edited their Kamala Harris interview.  CBS has released the unedited version of her interview, and it’s a nothing burger, just routine editing but CBS’s owner Paramount Global is still close to giving Trump a settlement payoff to make his lawsuit go away to get its sale to Skydance over the finish line.  For his part Trump still wants both CBS and 60 Minutes eradicated.  And why not try, those tactics are generally very productive in autocracies.      

Fog:  There’s still lots of chatter about Trump wanting to turn Gaza into a Mar a Gaza beach resort empty of Gazans,  the announcement that according to the NY Times surprised his staff. Every time someone on his staff walks back or modifies his statement, Trump brings it up again. It’s not happening which isn’t to say that it won’t be discussed endlessly.   

#BringThemAllHomeNow