I don’t even disagree with his answer, but what actually counts is your voting record, you smug motherfucker

I strongly doubt most people are aware of anything about this

He’s on Medicare, not Medicaid, but I agree. Trump doesn’t need their votes anymore, and Musk never did.

He watches a lot of Fox News, so he thinks he’s informed, but he’s really just full of propaganda. At least at this point he knows better than to debate politics with me, so it’s pretty civil when I visit or call. But also on the rare occasion he decides to press a matter, he knows he can never win. I will bring receipts.

My father is the quintessential baby boomer: he’s retired and lives off of a federal pension and Social Security, and he’s a three-time Trump voter. When I said in a recent call that I wondered if they would go after his pension or Social Security, his response was basically that his income is safe because he’s already collecting on it.

He didn’t have to say that he didn’t care about anyone else: it was implied. I doubt he cares if anyone younger (including me) can ever can draw on the system we’re paying into, because he got his.

Trying to install loyalists to ensure the military won’t go against him when the time comes

All these right wingers talk big about a civil war because they think liberals and leftists in places like Oregon and Washington State don’t own guns.

Uh, they’re wrong.

The board is planning to fight Trump’s order, three of those people told The Washington Post. In an emergency meeting Thursday, the board retained outside counsel and gave instructions to sue the White House if the president were to remove members of the board or attempt to alter the agency’s independent status.

I’m kind of amazed that they’re fighting to retain independence.

When we finally claw our way out of this mess it’s going to take so long to rebuild

First of all, that’s within the margin of error, so the headline is pure clickbait copium.

Second, it’ll take some time for the effects to be reflected in the economy, even with tariffs. Give it time; it will drop further once it impacts people directly.

You need to push back hard. If they come at you to arrest you (as a sitting representative), maybe it’ll wake people up. You just have to hope they aren’t going to barge in at 6 am with machine guns, because historically that doesn’t end well for anyone.

Yes.

Interesting read. Basic conclusion from 2015 is that a presidential system is inherently flawed and systemic forces are pushing us toward repeated high-stakes crises. An accurate read of the situation at the time.

With that in mind, it’s interesting that the author minimized the likelihood of a coup. The natural outcome of increased power in the executive, increased gridlock in Congress, historically low approval of Congress, and the expectation that presidents are held accountable by the citizenry for the state of the country (all things that were cited in the essay) is an executive who decides to bypass Congress in bigger and bigger ways in order to get things done.

What’s a bit surprising is the majority in Congress supporting and welcoming that move.

They’re already doing that:

https://www.wrvo.org/2025-01-31/new-york-doctor-accused-of-sending-abortion-pills-across-state-lines-now-facing-criminal-charges

As for the comment about death penalty states executing inmates more barbarically without these drugs: you can’t control what other states do. You can only choose not to participate.

Before I read this, I thought maybe the proposal would be to stop hearing cases—period. General strike of the judiciary. Shut down all criminal and civil hearings in protest of the government ignoring its orders.

It’s still fantasy, but it would be way more effective.

All those things can be true and it’s still an argument on procedural grounds that loses the forest for the trees. Why were they fired? Was that firing legal? For example, the firings prima facie did not follow the statute that she cites about 30 days’ notice. This slow judicial response has resulted in an almost complete inability for the system to effectively respond to internal threats over the last 8 years.

As our democracy teeters on the brink, what’s important is following decorum and protocol.

I don’t care. Six months is an insane time frame relative to the impacts and is honestly feeding into Musk et al’s narrative about government inefficiency. I understand a thorough audit takes time, but set a goal to release a preliminary report by end of March with an overview of major findings and then release the full report by June. But then they might have to work overtime…

Otherwise they might as well throw their report directly in the trash because it’ll end up being the Mueller and Smith investigations all over again: too late to matter.

Sorry civil servants, you were fired so Trump could build the most expensive ballroom on the planet and the world’s richest man could plunder even more corporate welfare for himself.

The Adams election was like a preview of the Trump election for me. Many of us saw this man was a corrupt, lying egomaniac well before the election, because so much of the reporting made it crystal clear. And we did our part by spreading the word and voting against him, and in the end none of it mattered one iota because voters disliked de Blasio (Biden) and wanted a major change and were too dumb to see Adams (Trump) for what he actually was.

Really interesting article, thanks for sharing.