It could be seen coming right after the assassination attempt on Trump. Musk used it as an excuse to go full tilt in support of Trump. Something snapped in Musk's brain. When criminal investigations were starting on Trump, Musk made a public statement pleading with Democrats to not create a situation where Trump's only ability to save himself from prison would be reelection. Like numerous others who once spoke out against Trump, he not only aquiesced to Trump but went full-force support of him.
https://www.politico.com/news/magaz...riffs-unconstitutional-supreme-court-00203178 excerpt: "Trump levied tariffs during his first term, but this time is different. That’s because on Monday, Trump invoked a law — the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — that has never been used to impose tariffs before, let alone tariffs of this breadth and magnitude. (The Mexico and Canada tariffs were quickly put on hold before going into effect, though Trump could always resuscitate them, and he is apparently planning to open up another front in his trade wars by imposing similar tariffs on goods from the European Union. The China tariffs, meanwhile, are still on.) Scholars of trade law say the move will likely be challenged in court because it arguably exceeds the presidential authority established under the Constitution, though whether this Supreme Court would rule against Trump is far less certain. If he succeeds, Trump will end up fundamentally altering the balance of power between the three branches of the federal government — giving him and future presidents tremendous power to impact the global and domestic economies without any input from the elected representatives of Congress. And Republicans who go along with this gambit may regret it later on if and when a President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or a President Pete Buttigieg deploys these powers."
Bannon pleads guilty in 'We Build The Wall' NY fraud case to avoid prison time. Trump ally Steve Bannon pleads guilty and avoids jail time in border wall fraud case
Trump says he will move 2 million Palestinians out of Gaza and find them good housing, safe communities, and good jobs Trump's supporters were hoping he would do those types of acts for themselves. Whatever happened to America First. Trump didn't mention all of these quests about taking over Canada, Greenland, Panana, and Gaza during his 2024 campaign. Trump Says He May Cut Aid to Jordan and Egypt if They Don’t Take Gazans excerpt: “We’ll build safe communities a little bit away from where they are where all of this danger is,” he said. “In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land.” Once moved out, he said, Palestinians “would have much better housing” than they have in Gaza and would not need to return. “I’m talking about building a permanent place for them,” Mr. Trump said.
Trump Says He May Cut Aid to Jordan and Egypt if They Don’t Take Gazans excerpt: "President Trump said on Monday that he could cut aid to Jordan and Egypt if they refused his demand to permanently take in most Palestinians from Gaza, substantially increasing the pressure on key allies in the region to back his audacious proposal to relocate the entire population of the territory in order to redevelop it. The president also said from the White House that if Hamas did not release all the remaining Israeli hostages by “12 o’clock on Saturday,” the cease-fire agreement with Israel should be canceled. “All hell is going to break out,” Mr. Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office, while acknowledging that the choice over ending the cease-fire ultimately fell to Israel."
‘Ridiculous blunder’: Trump wades into California’s water wars – and strikes some of his strongest supporters Billions of gallons of irrigation water were wasted under Trump’s orders in what now appears to be a political stunt Gabrielle Canon Tue 11 Feb 2025 06.00 EST ‘Ridiculous blunder’: Trump wades into California’s water wars – and strikes some of his strongest supporters excerpt: The move is just the latest in a series of misinformed attempts Trump has made to wade into California’s water wars, adding new challenges and conflicts over the state’s essential and increasingly scarce water resources. But in what now appears to be just a political stunt, Trump has struck some of his strongest supporters. Many counties across California’s rural Central valley – home to much of its roughly $59bn agricultural industry – backed Trump in the last election, forming a red strip at the heart of the blue state. “It is almost mind-boggling that this has happened,” said Thomas Holyoke, a professor of political science and water expert at California State University, Fresno, calling the act a “ridiculous blunder”.
It cost an estimated $20 million to fly Trump to the Super Bowl that he left early, apparently because the team he picked to win was going to lose (and Trump's pick did lose). Where was Musk and his Department Of Government Efficiency to prevent that waste.
Trump picked the team that lost. Now Trump can use his Sharpie pen to rewrite the score such that the team he picked to win is the 'winner'. He can also claim the team he picked to win was the real winner and that the officials and other team cheated his team out of a win. Then he can have a riot on the field to try to change the final score, injuring officials and police officers who he says attacked him and were unfair to him. After that, he can go on a years-long campaign decrying how the officials and other team cheat. "You have to watch them! You have to watch them all the time to prevent their cheating!" Using Musk's money, he can bribe officials for upcoming games to throw them so that his picked team is the one that wins.
Hegseth changes name of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg. This time, however, it is being named after Roland L. Bragg, a WWII hero, not Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general. Fort Liberty to be renamed Fort Bragg, but not for Confederate officer excerpt: "The base was originally named after North Carolina native Gen. Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general, when it opened in 1918. In 2020, in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, Congress ordered a plan to rename any military posts and federal assets that honored Confederate leaders. Fort Bragg was changed to Fort Liberty and was the only base that wasn’t named after a specific person."
Hegseth may have done such a change because it could make it more difficult for the name to be changed from Bragg to another name in the future because it would be snubbing a WWII hero. In that regard, Hegseth and others get it both ways. They can imagine that the current Bragg name honors a Confederate general (although techinically it doesn't) while making it more difficult to remove the Bragg name in the future.
Andy Kim says he's willing to shut down the government to stop Trump from continuing to dismantle it.. Sen. Andy Kim says he's open to shutting down the government if Trump continues dismantling agencies excerpt: “They are simply trying to dismantle the government,” Kim told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker. “So yes, look, if we have to take steps to be able to hold them accountable, use the leverage that we have to force it, I cannot support efforts that will continue this lawlessness that we’re seeing when it comes to this administration’s actions.” Kim added that working together to fund the government “only for them to turn it around, to dismantle the government, that is not something that should be allowed.”
Vance and Musk question the authority of the courts as Trump's agenda faces legal pushback excerpt: “The pace of this assault on the Constitution in order to serve the billionaire class, it is absolutely dizzying. And so, you have to run a full-scale opposition," Murphy said. "Ultimately, you’ve got to bring the American public into this conversation because we need our Republican colleagues in the House and in the Senate ultimately to put a stop to this. You cannot just rely on the court system.”
Vance and Musk question the authority of the courts as Trump's agenda faces legal pushback excerpt: “I think this is the most serious Constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly, since Watergate," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said on ABC’s “This Week.” “This is a red alert moment when this entire country has to understand that our democracy is at risk." Murphy expressed concern that the courts are ill-prepared for the onslaught they are facing.
Vance and Musk question the authority of the courts as Trump's agenda faces legal pushback excerpt: "Deputy White House chief of staff of Stephen Miller called the ruling “an assault on the very idea of democracy itself.” What we continue to see here is the idea that rogue bureaucrats who are elected by no one, who answer to no one, who have lifetime tenure jobs, who we would be told can never be fired, which, of course, is not true, that the power has been cemented and accumulated for years, whether it be with the Treasury bureaucrats or the FBI bureaucrats or the CIA bureaucrats or the USAID bureaucrats, with this unelected shadow force that is running our government and running our country,” Miller said on Fox News Channel’s "Sunday Morning Futures."
Musk is questioning the authority of courts over him. Vance and Musk question the authority of the courts as Trump's agenda faces legal pushback excerpt: "Over the past 24 hours, officials ranging from billionaire Elon Musk to Vice President JD Vance have not only criticized a federal judge's decision early Saturday that blocks Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department records, but have also attacked the legitimacy of judicial oversight, a fundamental pillar of American democracy, which is based on the separation of powers. “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Vance wrote on X on Sunday morning."
Difference between Trump and Mussolini: The first had his ear grazed by a bullet, the latter his nose.
The last line of defense against the right / republican dismantlement of the government is the court system. The system has proven to be effective so far--HOWEVER---when they ( you know who they are) start saying that the court system should be ignored if they don't get rulings in their favor----well---that's the beginning of the end. The liberalization of the USA, fought for for decades and decades with blood sweat and tears against conservative forces , is now disappearing by design. The end of slavery, the Jim Crow era, women being able to vote and to buy property , consumer protection laws that help guard against being ripped off by businesses, desegregation of schools, all these government departments that have helped people around the world--( although , I'm sure that there is and has been waste in ALL departments of government that could and should be weeded out, but the elimination of whole departments and the firing of thousands of workers arbitrarily is horseshit) Trump showing up has given the republicans their fondest and most desired dream that they've had for DECADES! Hang on--it's gonna' get bad. Real bad.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/11/trump-court-clash-00203580 excerpt: "Unfreeze spending. Un-fire appointees. Un-delete websites. Un-gut research grants. Un-fork Elon Musk’s bureaucrat resignation program. Federal courts are ablaze with orders blocking many of President Donald Trump’s early efforts to transform the federal bureaucracy and expand executive power. The adverse rulings, though temporary, are defining the first chapter of Trump’s second presidency. Over a 24-hour period starting Monday morning, six judges took steps to rein in the new president. More emergency orders are expected Tuesday and later this week. They follow nine other orders in the previous two weeks abruptly halting some of Trump’s aggressive executive actions, at times warning that they flagrantly violate federal laws and the Constitution."