(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Some Things You Ought To Think About [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-02-12

When I look at what’s going on in Washington, I sometimes get this surreal feeling of how can this be happening.

Here’s Elon Musk and his team of boys ripping through the government, cutting programs, firing people, generally slashing and burning their way to gutting whatever they can get their hands on.

None of them have been elected. None of them have been appointed by Congress. Probably none of them have official security clearances. And here they are usurping Congress’s power of the purse and handing it to the executive branch in clear violation of the law.

Think about this, how can Musk be allowed to decide what programs, contracts, and people stay and which go when his companies have been awarded, according to ABC News, at least $18 billion in contracts over the last decade with the same government? Is he going to take a good look at them?

Musk is cutting things like foreign aid to sick and starving children, funding for medical research, the Department of Education, all while he gets a big cut of the pie he’s trying to slice to pieces.

I have a feeling his piece isn’t going anywhere.

Here’s some other stuff to think about:

***

Think about this, Donald Trump campaigned on lowering prices for consumers. Well, U.S. inflation rose to 3 percent in January, the New York Times reported.

I know, it’s probably not fair to criticize our four-time indicted, twice-impeached, sexual assaulter, tax fraudster, insurrection inspirer, wannabe fascist dictator, convicted felon president, seeing as how he’s been in office less than a month. (Is that all? My God, it seems like years.)

But here’s the thing, I haven’t seen Trump do one thing to try to lower prices, which he promised to do. In fact, the tariffs he’s always threatening other countries with will raise prices, as they’ll be paid by U.S. companies and passed on to consumers.

It’s be nice if it looked like he was trying to do something other than consolidate power into an imperial presidency, destroy the government, and seek revenge on his enemies.

***

Think about this, Trump portrayed America as a country full of people who couldn’t afford to buy a dozen eggs (which are now much more expensive, by the way), but he told us it would be great if we could scrape together enough money to buy his crypto memecoin.

Well, a bunch of folks did, and they’ve lost a total of about $2 billion on the deal, according to the Fortune website. Meanwhile, the Trump organization and its partners gained $100 million in trading fees. Good gig if you can get it.

Last week, Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, filed a complaint with the Department of Justice and the U.S. Office of Government Ethics calling for an investigation into whether Trump illegally solicited gifts in the form of his memecoin. Ya think?

Of course this is just a waste of time. The Department of Justice is run by Trump’s handpicked attorney general/puppet Pam Bondi. Plus, Trump fired the head of the Office of Government Ethics this week and named one of his buddies, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, as its interim head.

And so it goes in the swamp.

***

Think about this, we have a law called the Impound Control Act that clearly states a president cannot withhold funds appropriated in legislation by Congress, but this is exactly what Trump and Musk have been trying to do. A 1975 U.S. Supreme Court decision – Train v. New York – upheld the law.

Plus, we have the Constitution, that document Republicans love except for the parts they hate, that gives the power of the purse to Congress, not the president.

So, how come Republicans have no problem with what’s going on? You hear nary a peep out of them as this unlawful power grab unfolds.

Perhaps it’s because Trump has cut off their ball sacks and has them hanging somewhere in the White House, trophies to serve as a reminder of the incredible collective cowardice and corruption of his party.

***

Think about this, while Trump and Musk’s blatant violations of the law are okay, the GOP does seem to be working its way to taking a stand – against the judges that don’t give Trump what he wants.

Musk posted on his propaganda site X that U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer is a “corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW!”

Now a GOP circus clown named Eli Crane, who moonlights as a U.S. congressman, has said he drafted articles of impeachment against Engelmayer, who had the audacity to issue an injunction stopping Musk and his team from accessing the Treasury Department payment system.

House Speaker/Trump bootlicker/squish Mike Johnson said he agrees with the position of Vice President/guy looking for something to do J.D. Vance, who said, “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

“The courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out,” Johnson said. “What he’s doing is good and right for the American people.” HuffPost reported that the speaker made these comments during a press conference in the basement of the Capitol.

Yeah, Johnson does look like a guy who spends a lot of time in the basement. Still, both he and Vance’s arguments have no validity.

We’re not talking about “the executive’s legitimate power.” We’re talking about if the president is exceeding his authority. Of course that’s a question for the courts. That’s their job.

And Johnson talking about allowing “these processes to play out” is ignoring a key tool of our justice system: issuing an injunction to stop a particular action until an official decision is made so that the action in question doesn’t cause irreparable harm before a final ruling is issued.

It’s how the law works, guys.

***

This may all seem like a lot to think about, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg that our democracy and rule of law are heading toward, and we all know that hitting an iceberg doesn’t usually end well.

Trump and his gang are trying to flood the zone. They’re throwing so much stuff at the wall that they’re hoping we can’t keep track of it and the normal safeguards, like Congress (forget them, the GOP controls both chambers and has proved itself time and time again as a criminal enterprise operating under mob boss Trump), the legitimate media, the courts, and the court of public opinion won’t be able to stand up to him.

But we have to stand up to him. We have to see what’s happening. We have to be constantly educating ourselves about what’s going on in our country – and I’m not talking about the Right-wing lying machine and its media partners.

They want us to quit. They want us to give up. They want us to be overwhelmed. They want us to be lazy and stupid and uncaring. They want us to become so emersed in our own lives and problems that the greater good for the country and the world is less than an afterthought.

If that happens, they win. We can’t let that happen.

We can’t let them win.

***

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.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/12/2303344/-Some-Things-You-Ought-To-Think-About?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/