This judicial review provides at least a reprieve, a small hope that some of the administration’s most destructive impulses will be pared back.

In the past week or so, the courts have begun to try to set some boundaries on the Musk–Miller–Trump administration’s early blitz of recklessness.

. . .

This judicial review provides at least a small reprieve, hope that some of the administration’s most destructive impulses will be stopped. Or at least pared back. But even with the courts stepping up, and even with the reality of the administration’s ineptitude sinking in, this early Musk–Miller–Trump blitz remains very—maybe irreparably—damaging. Of course, there are a lot of moles to whack: the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are being dismantled at an alarming rate, and the court system is not known for being nimble. The administration is betting, perhaps rightly, that at least some of its thoughtless, lawless efforts will slip through the cracks.

But even if the courts caught them all—and even if every court facing each lawless escapade said, “Nope, that’s not a thing”—still the entire process would be doing serious damage to our institutions. Think of it as someone spoofing your identity and going on a shopping spree with your credit cards. Even if the goon gets caught, you still have to go store by store to argue that the fraudulent purchase wasn’t legitimate and hope the debt is forgiven. And all the while, perhaps long after all the debts are dealt with, the torrent of uncertainty kills your credit score.

MBFC
Archive

  • akilou@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    11 days ago

    I’m a federal employee. You have no idea the stress my family and I have been dealing with since that motherfucker swore in.

  • Freefall@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 days ago

    We had their playbook with p2025 and did nothing. They started enacting it, and we still do nothing. We could have shock-and-awed them right back with prepared lawsuits and movements blow for blow, and nothing.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      We had their playbook with p2025 and did nothing.

      Liberals ran out their strongest champions

      • Chuck Schumer
      • Richie Torries
      • The Cheney Family
      • The UK Labor Party campaign staff
      • Ted Cruz’s former chief of staff at the Lincoln Project
      • Some very reputable and trustworthy staffers from AIPAC

      And spent over $1B of donor money in order to tell people that only Joe Biden Kamala Harris can Beat Trump, after a no-contest primary. A full year of campaigning. They brought Jeff Flake up as a surprise guest for the DNC!

      You can’t reasonably call that nothing. It felt like less than nothing.

  • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
    0·
    9 days ago

    I have so many ideas about it, before it even began. Good luck to you all, may we survive this next fascist cycle

      • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
        0·
        9 days ago

        Another asswipe Ivan. The Russian infantry is accepting applications. Don’t worry, the NATO tungsten will greet you.

        • NastyNative@mander.xyzEnglish
          01·
          8 days ago

          Another armchair general who seems more inclined to see others suffer than to advocate for peace. Perhaps they should consider directly engaging in the conflict in Ukraine if they truly believe in such an approach.

  • thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 days ago

    The U.S.A. is done. Such sabotage by Trump, Musk and MAGA takes decades to recover from. 40 to 50 at least; rebuilding the civil service, amending all the laws back to normal, fixing the Supreme Court, probably needing Constitutional amendments. This easily echos for a hundred years.

      • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
        0·
        10 days ago

        a century of “Red Scare” has made you believe that everything evil in the world is russian.

        While such a simplistic worldview might help you retain sanity in this world, if you look closely, it is the opposite of helpful, as it prevents you from seeing things as they are, and taking effective action.

        • Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world
          0·
          7 days ago

          Red Scare refers to the Commies under the bed fantasies of the Cold War. Russia hasn’t been communist/socialist since Yeltsin. Russia is now a mafia kleptocracy. And mafia Russia is a hostile foreign power. Opposition to Putin and Russian criminality is not a red scare thing because communism isn’t what’s the problem or the source of opposition to Putin’s Russia. It’s Russian mobsters who all report to Putin, who also owns and controls Trump and much of the GOP

  • yenahmik@lemmy.world
    0·
    9 days ago

    I just need to shout this into the void:

    Fuck this fucking bullshit. What the hell is wrong with this country. I fucking hate this timeline.

      • redwattlebird@lemmings.world
        0·
        9 days ago

        I think your country’s terrible voting and political system is largely to blame… Given that it’s so easy for an unelected official to sweep in and dismantle everything.

        • Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de
          1·
          9 days ago

          True, but Dems made a terrible system even worse by refusing to hold a primary. When you add that in with liberals funding a genocide, promising to add fascist Republicans to their cabinet, and offering zero policies that people actually care about like free healthcare, it is painfully clear that Liberal capitalist politicians did everything they could to throw this election.

        • TangoNoir@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          9 days ago

          The most blame goes to billionaires and allowing corporations to be people.

          Most people that voted for this have been brainwashed heavily for many years by the super wealthy to think they want this.

          It’s not an excuse but think about it: if our country had provided better over all education and actually kept the super wealthy and our media in check then this wouldn’t be happening.

          We should have been fighting really hard to reinstate things like fairness doctrine and to have more news outlets that didn’t rely on ad revenue this whole time.

          The problem with progress in the US is we are never able to focus on the most crucial issues first. There’s so many people and views etc. and everyone has different priorities. Rich people don’t have this problem because they all have the same driving goal: money.

          So, there’s blame to go around but citizens pointing at each other is not going to fix anything.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    I actually do.

    We’re entirely fucked.

    We’re going to spend the rest of our lives witnessing the enshitification of this nation. Even if we completely turn this crash and burn around, we’ll then spend the rest of our lives watching things being slowly rebuilt as traitorous Republicans continue to obstruct.

    I don’t think a lot of Americans are grasping exactly how hard we fucked ourselves by refusing to responsibly inform ourselves even to a minimal degree.

    • Random Dent@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      As someone currently living in Canada, the US is badly fucking up a lot of it’s international relations too. I’ve heard several people here say that even if if the US unfucks itself right away (which it won’t), it’s still going to be a long time before things will be right again.

      You don’t go around threatening neighbours and allies like this and then expect to be able to just walk it back overnight.

      • PunnyName@lemmy.world
        0·
        10 days ago

        USAID was, more than anything, a means of positive international relations. It was a 2 prong approach of foreign aid and foreign good will. The mid 1900s US made a lot of fucking enemies, and USAID was one very solid method of trying to overcome the damage wrought by our government.

        And now TB supplies – that were already paid for – are rotting in warehouses (among many other issues). Not only will that harm people, it will harm our reputation, AND increase antibiotic resistant TB, which will in turn affect the rest of the world including the US itself.

        And that’s only one piece of the very large clusterfuck.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
          1·
          10 days ago

          USAID was a great investment, a cheap investment that returned good value, even beyond things like lives saved and people brought out of poverty. In many ways it was being a good neighbor.

          It would still be a great way to spend our money if we doubled it or tripled it or more

          • Ithorian@lemmy.world
            01·
            9 days ago

            It was a great source of corruption too, we must be real at this point, end USAID is a joke and a stupid move but probably half of it was doing corrupt business with Americans money. Its not an easy subject

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
              1·
              8 days ago

              I very much doubt it, and the white house press secretary holding up a contract that was lawfully fulfilled as an example of fraud, is not going to cut it

              I’m more worried about future fraud, if we really do continue spending the money but at personal whim and with no one to manage the process. A no-bid procurement order describing $400M of “armored Tesla’s” is a much clearer case of fraud, as-is firing inspectors and watchdogs for doing their job

      • phx@lemmy.ca
        0·
        9 days ago

        Yeah, even just kicking out these crazies isn’t a good fix because they’ve already demonstrated they’re more than willing to lie, cheat, and steal to hold on to or gain power.

        The only justice I’d trust would need to come at the end of a rope, and it’d need to include a LOT of colluders at the very least in cells as well. That includes certain media organizations that helped enable this shit-show as well.

        After all that, the American public needs to force better, including proper regulation and enforcement of public over corporate interests. While some of it has been astroturfing, the embedded cleptocracy and corporate interest in the Democratic party also needs to be fixed (or both parties turfed and new better choices), because “lesser evil” is not good enough.

        Other countries should also take heed from the US situation. This is what happens when you continually tolerate the intolerable, and when your government is owned by a billionaire+ untouchable aristocracy with a corporate shield protecting them from consequences.

        • SabinStargem@lemmings.worldEnglish
          1·
          9 days ago

          I would argue that America needs a whole new economic system. A big problem with what we had up to now, is that people are too poor, tired, unable to form communities, and lack the time to do all the things that are needed for a democracy. If you can’t afford the price of travel, shelter, food, and losing your job, you can’t visit Washington to protest, let alone long enough to make a difference with like-minded people.

          The wealthy, on the other paw, can freely travel, network, and simply not worry about being ruined if they dare to do something beyond basic survival.

          America needs an economic system that promotes agency of every single citizen. That means guaranteeing survival, ensuring enough vacation time to permit protesting, and decent wealth accumulation for the poorest American. Without that, it isn’t possible for the ordinary person to exert meaningful political influence.

          • TotalCourage007@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            9 days ago

            You mean we should stop enslaving citizens to corporations yes? That is practically capitalist kryptonite.

            I don’t believe anyone should be able to be worth billions if we actually value humanity.

    • DarkSpectrum@lemmy.world
      01·
      10 days ago

      I don’t think a lot of Americans are grasping exactly how hard we fucked ourselves by refusing to responsibly inform ourselves even to a minimal degree.

      This! Methods that lower general intelligence:

      • Content Streaming - its starts with Bluey

      • Gaming - iPads have replaced paper in schools, in car trips colourful gems pop instead of engagement with the world. Adults game the night away, streaming live. Kids aspire to be them.

      • Social media - Algorithms, echo-chambers, bots, keyboard warriors, content cencorship and manipulation, advertising, yuck.

      • Dating Apps

      • AI - We’ll become dependent and lower general critical thinking skills.

      • Legalisation of marijuana. - Its political support should be a concern. While it may be seemingly harmless at an individual level, there seems to be issues with mass use. How many users abstained from voting?

      • Underfunded, cookie cutter lower education. There is no flexibility for the diversity of people and development potentials. Teaching children non-denominational meditation and concentration, or helping them observe but reconcile simple contradictory expressions of duality in existence, would strengthen their conciousness significantly.

      • Over emphasis on technical STEM in higher-education without equally supporting the arts and philosophy.

      • Cultural over-emphasis towards individual monetary wealth over knowledge, spirituality or even concern for the wealth of those around them. Prevents empathy.

      All of these focus on separating the individual from other individuals. The darkness does not want connected families or communities. It wants you to feel alone, helpless and willing to hand over your power.

      We have all seen the US police force’s brutality under democratic law. How much worse could it be under authoritarian rule? My advice would be to immediately set up public meetings with local law enforcement at the officer level, start a collaborative dialogue and get to know each other, fast.

  • WatDabney@sopuli.xyz
    0·
    11 days ago

    Not personally and directly, no, but broadly, yes - I do know the irreversible damage they’re doing.

    And here’s the real key to it all - none of it is accidental. The damage is the point.

    Their goal is actually very simple - it’s to utterly destroy every aspect of the government that benefits the common people or inconveniences the wealthiest few, in order to convert it explicitly and entirely into a mechanism for protecting and expanding the privilege of the wealthiest few at the expense of everyone else.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              1·
              9 days ago

              I have no idea why you think this is what money is being wasted on. We’re already seeing the effect of downsizing the FAA. Do you think regular plane crashes are going to lower taxes?

              • nwilz@lemmy.world
                01·
                9 days ago

                First that’s a strawman, I never made that argument, but if I did you would have to provide evidence that downsizing the faa would cause regular plane crashes.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  9 days ago

                  It’s literally already happening.

                  And it’s hard to know what argument you’re making when your responses are one and two words.

            • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
              0·
              9 days ago

              They aren’t interested in cutting waste. If they were, they would be slashing the Pentagon budget. Notice how all this talk of cost cutting, nobody is breathing a word about the Pentagon?

              Because that’s where the fraud, waste and abuse is.

              Remember the last time someone was supposed to take Pentagon waste seriously? No, of course not, because it was 9/10/2001.

              https://youtu.be/xU4GdHLUHwU

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                0·
                9 days ago

                This person has reached the absurd point with me of “it’s fine that Trump is firing the people responsible for safeguarding our nuclear weapons [which he’s in the process of doing] because they aren’t all that important to the safety of our nuclear weapons,” so I wouldn’t hold out much hope for their understanding what you’re saying.