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It's Time to Hit the Streets [1]

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Date: 2025-02-05

“If it’s not possible now (the destruction of the federal government), it will never be possible. This is our shot. This is the best hand of cards we’re ever going to have. If we don’t take advantage of this best hand of cards, it’s never going to happen.” – Elon Musk

***

I used to write a good number of letters to my representatives in Congress. I’d call their offices sometimes, too.

Not anymore. I commend anyone who does, but to me it’s pretty much a waste of time. The Republican Party has become so corrupt and our politics have become so polarized that I don’t think these things accomplish much anymore. And Democrats, having lost control of the White House and both chambers of congress, are pretty much powerless to do anything meaningful.

So, as I watch what’s going on in Washington it seems there’s only one course of action for regular citizens – hit the streets.

I’m not talking about simple protests where people politely walk around with signs. I’m talking about gumming up the works. Jamming the streets, surrounding buildings, general strikes, anything non-violent that makes the powers that be uncomfortable and maybe even grinds some aspects of our country to a halt.

Friends have told me this would only lead to four-time indicted, twice impeached, sexual assaulter, tax fraudster, insurrection inspiring, wannabe fascist dictator, convicted felon, President Donald Trump calling out the military and declaring martial law, something he would really like to do.

So what? He can’t put 330 million people under martial law. He can’t arrest half a million people if they all show up someplace. And besides, I like the visual of our military pushing around regular Americans – including senior citizens. That’s not a good look for the administration.

Why such extreme measures, if you call them that? It’s because I honestly don’t know how we can stop the destruction of our government, our democracy, and our rule of law that the Trump/Elon Musk steamroller is engaged in.

Think about it. Corrupt Republicans in Congress will do nothing, even as they watch their power taken away from them by the president and his team. Right now, our best hope is the courts, but we have our historically corrupt Supreme Court waiting at the end of any legal process. Do we trust them? I don’t.

So, if we screw things up enough maybe something will change. Maybe Republicans will have to do something. Maybe Trump and Musk will back down. I don’t know, but right now we’re our best hope.

I know, scary times.

We need to understand the scope of the destruction that Trump and Musk are engaged in. With the help of the great Heather Cox Richardson (if you haven’t subscribed to her Substack newsletter you can do so here) here’s a look at some of the things that have been going on in Washington.

Elon Musk and a team of six young male underlings have taken control over various computer systems within the federal government. They seem to keep moving from one to another but here’s at least a partial list:

*The U.S. Treasury payment system, which handles about $6 trillion in transactions a year for the government. This includes things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, contracts, grants, salaries for federal government workers, and tax refunds. This has allowed Musk to get access to our personal information as well as that of his business competitors. He claims he’s been cancelling transactions he thinks are wasteful.

*The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). This agency receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department, so this breach has compromised our national intelligence systems.

*The General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s more than 7,000 buildings. Musk has sent an email to regional managers telling them to begin ending the leases on federal offices.

*The Small Business Administration, including access to human resources, contracts, and payment systems

*The Department of Education. Musk and his gang have accessed sensitive internal data systems, including the personal information of millions of students in the federal student aid program. The goal seems to be dismantling the department from the inside before Trump tries to shut it down with an executive order.

As Richardson writes, different factions are determined to destroy the federal government and, “Now we are watching them do it.”

Here’s some other stuff Trump and his allies have been up to:

*Purging the Federal Bureau of Investigation of all six off its top executives and more than 20 heads of FBI field offices. The administration has asked for a list of FBI agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases to “determine whether any additional personal actions are necessary.”

*Firing 25 to 30 federal prosecutors who had worked on cases involving the violent insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and reassigned others.

*Firing 18 inspector generals across federal agencies.

*Launching indiscriminate immigration sweeps and announcing the opening of a 30,000-bed migrant detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

*Revoking protection for more than 600,000 Venezuelans legally in the United States and possibly also for Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans.

*Attempting to end birthright citizenship, which is in the U.S. Constitution. This has been blocked in the courts so far.

*Issuing executive orders purging transgender service members from the military, limiting access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth, and ordering trans federal prisoners to be medically detransitioned and then moved to facilities that correspond to their sex at birth.

*Imposing a freeze on foreign aid except for military aid to Israel and Egypt and cutting off about $60 billion in funding to the USAID, which provides humanitarian assistance to fight starvation and provide basic medical care for the globe’s most vulnerable and desperate populations.

*Attempting to “pause” federal funding and grants to make sure funding reflected Trump’s goals, an act called “impoundment” that’s illegal under federal law. A federal judge halted the freeze for now.

***

It’s just an endless stream of attacks. That’s the idea: to overwhelm us with a blizzard of executive orders and a seemingly endless series of power plays.

I don’t pretend to have any idea of how to go about the kind of civil obedience/defiance/unrest that’ll be needed, but there are people in this country who do. We need them to step up and be tough, smart, focused, non-hysterical, powerful leaders.

As Trump, Musk, and their cronies sink their tentacles deeper into our government it will get harder to pull them out. They’re only going to expand from there, going after things like the free press. We can’t wait four, or even two years to so something.

Folks, we’re not staring into the abyss. We’re in the abyss. And like any hole that keeps getting deeper, the longer we take to dig ourselves out the harder it will be to do so.

And right now, it looks like we’re the ones holding the shovels.

***

Thank you for reading my post. You can see my other writings on my blog: Musings of a Nobody. Please share and subscribe for free via email on its home page.

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