DL Open Thread: Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Elon Musk Takes Over America While D’s Apologize Over Hunter Biden’s Pardon. No, not at the same time. But Democrats have now proven themselves utterly incapable of pushing back at all on the oligarchy they have allowed to happen. They are feckless, lacking feck. A non-citizen who is a Nazi sympathizer and a racist now holds the fate of the country in his hands:
Since declaring his support for Donald Trump in July of last year and subsequently spending more than $250m on his re-election effort, Elon Musk has rapidly accumulated political influence and positioned himself at the heart of the new administration. Now as prominent as the president himself, Musk has begun to make use of that power, making decisions that could affect the health of millions of people, gaining access to highly sensitive personal data, and attacking anyone who opposes him. Musk, the world’s richest man and an unelected official, has achieved an astonishing level of power over the federal government.
Many of Musk’s actions have taken place without forewarning or transparency, sowing chaos and confusion among the thousands of people employed at the agencies like USAid that he has gone after. Humanitarian organizations that rely on US funding have halted operations and laid off staff, while government workers have been locked out of their offices. He is operating Doge as an unofficial government department with no congressionally approved mandate while he technically holds the position of “special government employee”, which allows him to sidestep financial disclosures and a public vetting process.
As other Democrats and government oversight groups began to respond to the breakneck series of actions from Musk’s team, on Tuesday the Tesla and SpaceX CEO continued to plow ahead with his cuts and told his supporters: “We’re never going to get another chance like this.”
The concerns from watchdog organizations have borne out. Musk and employees of Doge have gained access to sensitive government systems in the treasury department and USAid in recent days, as well as exerted control over the office of personnel management (OPM) and the General Services Administration, which handles federal real estate, with the goal of ending office leases. Two federal workers additionally sued on Tuesday for a temporary restraining order against Doge for allegedly operating an illegal server in OPM.
Did I mention Musk is a racist?:
Trump declared on Monday that he would shut down all aid to South Africa, Musk’s country of birth, over what he alleged was a “massive human rights violation” in the form of a new land rights law. Musk has repeatedly accused the South African government of racism against white people and falsely claimed that the government is allowing a “genocide” against white farmers.
You’re all capable of finding your own examples of the danger that Musk/Trump poses. We’re talking the end of the Republic as we know it. Where the fuck are the Democrats? Oh, Chris Coons wrote an Op-Ed somewhere? That’ll leave a mark. You simply have to do anything and everything every day. Unless, as I suspect, most of them don’t really care. Typical Democratic response, courtesy of Josh Marshall:
From TPM Reader NL …
I called Senator Warner’s office to get a sense for what they are doing to raise the salience of Elon Musk’s illegal takeover of the Treasury Payments system.
The very polite staffer said that Senator Warner will be issuing a statement soon. She politely explained that this is how members of Congress communicate their position.
Dude, these people are just lost. They don’t get it or don’t want to get it.
There are many ways to skin a cat. But statements that go out via press release are meaningless. That is no longer how news works. Full stop.
Bottom line: This is a war that only one side is fighting:
With this war raging, where are the Democrats?
They should have a war room that operates 24/7 to generate and voice loud and smart opposition to the Trump-Musk onslaught. They need to be coordinating messaging and running a nonstop firehose of social media. A never-ending string of fiery speeches on the House and Senate floor, obstructionist tactics, the exploitation of every possible forum and platform. Their best and most media-savvy members—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Chris Murphy, say—should be denouncing and decrying on a daily basis. Instead of licking wounds, Democrats ought to be showing some fight, conveying the perilous reality of the moment, and presenting themselves as a fierce and united bulwark against this treacherous attack. It’s not about moving to the left or to the right. They need to rush to the barricades. All of them.
Trump Calls For US Takeover Of Gaza. Makes sense, nothing the Palestinians need more than a shitty high-rise hotel:
President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed that the United States take a “long-term ownership position” over Gaza, moving its residents to a “good, fresh, beautiful piece of land” in another country and developing the war-torn territory under U.S. control, offering a vision of mass displacement likely to inflame sentiments in the Arab world.
Trump’s proposal, which he offered as he welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, was likely to provoke a furious reaction from many Palestinians as well as their Arab allies in the region, since it suggested permanently removing Gaza’s 2.2 million residents from Palestinian territory and settling them outside of their land. It would also pull the United States even more deeply into the conflict by taking over territory that belongs to Palestinians.
Betcha Schumer doesn’t say a fucking word about this idea. Bad Democrats, worse Democratic leaders.
Speaking of Shitty Democrats–Bethany’s Boy Toy?:
There you have it. I’m sure those who voted for Matt Meyer in the primary will be determined to go out there and vote for someone who shows no signs of getting over his BHL fixation. Oh, Brett Saddler? He’s the guy who depends on elected officials to pay his salary. I’m sorry, but there’s no way I can vote for this guy.
What do you want to talk about?
I’m really tired of listening to people saying “ooh, the Democrats.” THEY HAVE NO POWER. You want them to shout at clouds. Sure, they could. And if you think it would stop a single thing that’s happening I have some Trump bitcoins to sell you.
Except they do. They can grind the Senate to a halt. Just like the Rethugs did when the D’s had the majority.
The Trumpies are ignoring Congress. The GOP is too scared of his brownshirts to even intervene in him taking over budgeting.
And what’s to say Democrats aren’t throwing sand in the gears in the Senate? If it comes to it a bunch of them in swing states will acquiesce (hi there, Fetterman), and for the same reason the GOP runs so scared – threats to their families from Trump’s brownshirts.
Lots of people, here and all over the country, want to hear fighting words. That accomplishes nothing of value except maybe keep up morale, which I’d argue is not their job. That’s therapists’ work.
If the Democrats do the work of throwing sand in the gears, I don’t really care what they say. I, too, would rather hear fighting words, but I agree with Josh Marshall: If they don’t do the work, what they say doesn’t matter.
There’s a reason the book was called Profiles in Courage. There’s also a reason it was so short.
How can that nit wit Tommy Tuberville block all military raises and promotions (while in the minority) for a year and Democratic Senators can’t do squat in face of pure criminality?
Senate Democrats certainly suck, so I get your pessimism. But I don’t get your cynicism, Al. Defeat is probable, but doing nothing is the only way to ensure that outcome.
So while it is probably useless and stupid I will be in Dover this afternoon holding up a little sign.
Go ahead. But as I said, they have cut the Senate out of the loop. They could stop all proceedings and it wouldn’t matter. In case you hadn’t noticed, none of the GOP senators has any clue what’s going on. They are as much in the dark as we are.
A million-person march on DC, sure, and someone should be organizing it. But it’s pretty obvious it’s not going to be Democrats.
They. Are. Scared. All senators, R and D, get death threats daily, aimed not at them but at their families. They’re told “we know where your kids go to school,” etc. There are a lot more Luigis on the brownshirt side than on ours.
All it would take is a few GOP senators with guts to stand up to this. As I said, there’s a reason Profiles in Courage was so short.
Would help if fetterman wasnt a waste of space
You do realize that nobody to the left of Fetterman is going to win that seat when it comes up for election next year, right?
I’m not writing Fetterman off yet. He is in a fight to keep his seat
in what is now a red state, so unlike safe-seat Coons, I’m willing to forgive Fetterman a large amount of cross-aisle rhetoric.
He has voted for some Trump nominees, but only in votes that were already lost with or without him. He has not yet turned into a spoiler vote like Manchin/Sinema. Let’s see how he votes on votes that matter.
I think it’s cool that you predict elections now. You would be quick to forgive the Zionist dolt with a broken brain and basketball shorts though I guess.
Will Fetterman’s brain survive two years? I guess it doesn’t matter though. Centrist Dems would vote for any drooling, half-dead fool out there and be proud of it!
Why would coons or LBR take a stance? All they have to do is travel around, smile for some cameras, tell constituents “I’m working hard for you” and collect a great salary and incredible pensions. Their biggest stress is making sure they get reelected but as long as they make their rounds in DE they’re golden