Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 07:03 AM

A piece from Michael James on Facebook, which is well worth a read. I’ve C&P’d it because I know we have members who won’t go to FB…

”OK, HELLO WORLD...

For most of my adult life, I worked as a journalist in this country and credibly, factually, told the public thousands of stories at the Detroit News, New York Daily News and as head writer for a TV show on ESPN. None of the stories I have ever written is more important than the one I am writing now.

If you will indulge me a lack of brevity this one time, I will explain.

It begins with the three times I realized that the safety and security we so prize here in the United States of America is an illusion. It's not and never was true. It doesn't exist. We only believed it did.

The first time I realized it was in the aftermath of 9/11. After I witnessed the World Trade Center towers crumble before my eyes little more than a mile from my New York City apartment, authorities posted police with automatic weapons and huge American flags at the entrance to every bridge and tunnel in the city.

We felt safe seeing those images, but each time I ventured through those tunnels and over those bridges, I had a question:

"What's stopping that truck in front of me from being laden down with fertilizer and explosives? Who knows what's in the trunk of every car in front and back of me?"

We weren't safe at all. Terrorists just didn't decide to blow us all to hell.

The second time I realized there is no such thing as safety and security came when Donald Trump promised building a wall at the Southern border to keep illegals out.

I thought, "Mexicans are renowned for building tunnels from Mexico directly to homes on the U.S. side in Texas and California to smuggle in people and drugs. How can a wall prevent that?"

A wall could not make us safe at all. We only believed it could.

The third time I realized safety and security is an illusion was on January 6th, 2021, when Donald Trump's MAGA supporters overran the United States Capitol - the seat of power of the US government - injuring law enforcement officers and defacing the offices of cowering, terrified duly elected lawmakers.

The ease with which they penetrated our most sacred symbols of the rule of law and order in America showed me that if this could be done by only a few thousand mostly-unarmed citizens, there really is no such thing as safety and security in this country.

We only believed there was.

The final time I realized there is no safety and security in the United States of America has come in the last three weeks, or rather, since Donald Trump returned to The White House.

Under the guise of weeding out corruption and with South African-born Elon Musk as the tip of the spear, Donald Trump and his Republican confederates have turned every facet of American government upside down, installed inexperienced and unqualified loyalists in positions of power in every sector of government and thrown thousands of hard-working Americans - many of whom voted for him - out into the streets.

While stunned, outnumbered Democrats were frozen to inaction, Trump, through executive order, made laws, changed laws and ignored orders from courts to stop in his tracks.

While those of us who opposed him screamed that his actions and those of Elon Musk were tantamount to creating a fascist government and a dictatorship, we were only partially right.

See, people, Trump's dictatorship has already begun. It is HERE. It is NOW.

For those who don't believe this is true, what we all missed while focusing on the flood of executive orders and bizarre musings of taking over the Gaza Strip, annexing Canada as the 51st state against their will, purchasing Greenland to rename it Red, White and Blueland and taking over the Panama Canal is this:

Trump was merely testing the waters to see how much power and authority he truly had. The final step in his plan will be to ignore any and all court challenges aimed at stopping him.

What should be clear to you now is that there was really only one barrier to Donald Trump taking over this country and remaking it in his image:

The fact that the only thing that has kept our democracy in place since it was written in 1787 is a piece of paper called the U.S. constitution.

That constitution only works if our politicians RESPECT the power within, the rule of law.

Donald Trump clearly does not respect the constitution as have all other United States presidents before him.

Worse, without respect for the constitution and our laws, THERE IS NO AUTHORITY LEFT TO STOP HIM.

There is no police force who can reign Trump in.

There is no military to reign Trump in.

There are no lawmakers or judges to reign Trump in.

And soon, as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer declared recently during a speech at Miami Dade College, Donald Trump will refuse to comply with all orders of the court - and his takeover will be complete - for there is no authority remaining to police him.

Like Sotomayer, the American Bar Association just released a statement declaring that, “Trump is not following the rule of law.”

Now, the reason why the ABA sounds like a kid screaming, “Charlie hit me!” is because they’ve reached the conclusion that there is nothing they can do about Trump not following the rule of law. This has never happened before in the history of this country, but it IS happening now.

Hey, America, hey World, you can call it a monarchy, or fascism or a totalitarian government or a dictatorship, but whatever you call it, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are the law of the land now.

Don't believe me?

The 1,500 January 6th rioters who were tried and convicted in federal courts?

Trump freed them. On Day 1.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who was brought up on corruption charges after a decade-long investigation?

He cozied up to Trump, who ordered his Department of Justice to drop the charges.

If that's not enough, I think Donald Trump has one more trick up his sleeve, as I predict he is being lobbied at this very moment to grant clemency to an old friend who has been accused of pedophilia, drugging and raping male and female victims, physically assaulting others and possibly sanctioning numerous murders over the past 30 years.

So what, pray tell, will you say when Donald Trump pardons Sean Diddy Combs?

The lyrics to that song you sang in grade school has changed, folks:

This land is NOT your land.
This land is NOT my land.
NOT from California.
NOT to the New York Islands.
NOT from the Redwood Forest
NOR to the Gulf of America waters
This land belongs to Trump and E.

In less than a month back in office, all of the checks and balances have been removed. Republicans control the house and the senate. Every cabinet pick Trump proposes will be confirmed. No decision he makes, whether it's instructing the Treasury Department to stop making the penny or bringing back the plastic straw, is being denied.

While his supporters cheer his every move, they have yet to see the cost cuts Elon Musk and his team of hackers make under cover of darkness are hurting American farmers, American workers and those in the poorest red states in the country who voted for him.

For them, and us, it's already too late to realize it's too late.

If you saw Musk recently in the oval office with his young son holding court while Trump sat idly by, you should have realized the richest man in the world controls the supposed most powerful man in the world.

Only Elon Musk is holding Elon Musk accountable and Trump - who is likely paying Musk back for whatever he did to help him take the 2024 election - is allowing it to happen.

As you read these words, it is likely that Elon Musk has already had his hackers place back doors into every major computer system across the US government, which gives him the power to shut down any program he chooses at any time on an app while sitting in the driver's seat of his Tesla.

For those in the back or in the nosebleed section or under a rock, let me say it again:

Elon Musk and Donald Trump are the law of the land. Today. Right now.

The United States of America is no longer a democracy. We are now a dictatorship.

In closing, let me say that I don't believe in presenting problems without offering solutions. There IS something we can do to fight this takeover and resist this bloodless coup that has stripped away the sense of freedom we have known all of our lives - but it will require of us a resolve and action most of us have never known or shown.

It will require us to unite, fight, stand up, risk our lives and our liberty - because one thing dictators have never fully understood is that THE PEOPLE truly are the power.

Think of it this way: if we don't want the price of an automobile in America to be $50,000, well, if nobody buys those cars, there won't be a $50,000 car in America.

With that in mind, should Elon Musk and Donald Trump try to dump hundreds of thousands of federal employees out into the streets, simply refuse to leave. If forced from your offices, show up to work en masse the next day - and every day after - and make sure NOBODY goes into those offices.

If Trump's new Department of Defense head Pete Hegseth makes a demand of the 3.5 million workers he now oversees, what can he possibly do if they disobey in the name of American democracy?

The same goes for new national security director Tulsi Gabbard, who has never worked in security or run a department of ANY kind. The same goes for new secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, new Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - or any other Trump appointee.

None of these figureheads - not even Trump himself - can do anything without our complicity.

Lastly, this battle is only just beginning. You must protect your physical and mental well-being.

You don't have the time or energy to fight meaningless squabbles on social media against Trump's MAGA sycophants who believe every narrative they sell.

No matter if they are friends or family or casual acquaintances on social media, SILENCE THEIR VOICES and influence. Block, snooze, delete or ignore them.

For me, the purge begins TODAY! I’d love to tell the people going away that it isn’t personal, but their blind belief system is a direct threat to me, my friends, family, neighbors, fellow Americans, Canadians, Palestinians, and, well, you get the picture.

Trust what your eyes and ears are telling you. Hope that they will catch up and join our fight against this power virus threatening our country and the world.

Lastly, remember the words of philosopher Bertrand Russell, who said roughly this of how fascism begins:

"First they fascinate the fools. Then they muzzle the intelligent."

If you've gotten this far, it's because you're not a fool.

We got here because all of our lives we believed in that concept devised by our founding fathers of "We The People."

Well, the only way out from under the megalomania of Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their collaborators is to make every day January 6th.

If you feel so moved, please share my post. If not, please act in some way. We need all hands on deck.

If we want our democracy back, starting today, starting now, we must BE THE PEOPLE.”

BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID, AMERICA.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 07:04 AM

And you’ve been told, Don.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 07:05 AM

It has already been established in court that the president cannot commit a crime in the execution of his duties. What make everyone think that he will not use that ruling to change deny any future election results or even alter the constitution so he can stand again and never be ousted?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 08:49 AM

And verily Trump said "I am the Messiah and landlord"
The crowd shouted in unison "You are the Messiah oh lord"
One lone voice cried "No he's not"
The crowd murmured 'who was that?'
"It's me Elon MUSK, I am the Messiah".
"I shall resurrect apartheid, fascism, and oligarchy for eternity"

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 10:15 AM

The Supreme Court left themselves the task of sorting of issues, if they are in the executive job or not. But you'll notice that none of these acts have had Trump insist that they be taken to that court. There is still a mystery, as to weather that court will decide they are completely irrelevant or not.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 10:22 AM

He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy...

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 10:25 AM

Columnist Sheila Kennedy posted this editorial on Saturday:

On February 13th, Robert Hubbell’s daily letter included a (partial) list of what Trump/Musk had done in the first days of the administration.

Pardoned 1,500 insurrectionists who assisted Trump in his first attempted coup.

Converted the DOJ into his political hit squad by opening investigations into members of the DOJ, FBI, Congress, and state prosecutors’ offices who attempted to hold Trump to account for his crimes.

Fired a dozen inspectors general, whose job it is to identify fraud and corruption and to serve as a check on abuses of power by the president.

Fired dozens of prosecutors and FBI agents who worked on criminal cases relating to Trump

Fired dozens of prosecutors who worked on criminal cases against January 6 insurrectionists

Opened investigations into thousands of FBI agents who worked on cases against January 6 insurrectionists

Disbanded the FBI the group of agents designed to prevent foreign election interference in the US

Disbanded the DOJ group of prosecutors targeting Russian oligarchs’ criminal activity affecting the US

Fired the chairs and members of the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, and the Federal Election Commission and refused to replace them, effectively shutting down those independent boards in violation of statute

Shut down and defunded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Shut down and defunded USAID by placing virtually the entire staff of the agency on leave

Impounded billions of dollars of grants appropriated by Congress to USAID, National Institutes of Health, Department of Education, and the EPA, all in violation of Article I of the Constitution, which grants Congress the power to make appropriations

Allowed a group of hackers to seize control of large swaths of the federal government’s computer network by attaching unauthorized servers, changing and creating new computer code outside of federal security protocols, creating “backdoors” in secure systems, installing unsanctioned “AI” software to scrape federal data (including personal identification information), and installing “spyware” to monitor email of federal employees

Disobeyed multiple court orders to release frozen federal funds (an ongoing violation; see the NYTimes on Wednesday)
Granted a corrupt pardon to the Mayor of New York in exchange for his promise to cooperate in Trump’s immigration crackdown

The occasional trolls who visit this site to register their approval of these illegal and unconstitutional measures discount their illegality, confirming disdain for what is a significant protection of individual liberty–the insistence that the ends cannot justify the means. The entire Bill of Rights is founded on that premise, which is central to the rule of law.

It requires a total lack of civic literacy and historic understanding to look at that list and approve of those actions–to fail to see that they are fundamentally contrary to sound policy, to the rule of law, and to America’s global interests and stature.

Members of Congress should be the first line of defense against this coup. Most of these arbitrary actions can only be properly and constitutionally taken by Congress, and the actions comprising the Trump/Musk coup send an unmistakable message that our co-Presidents find Congress irrelevant and expendable. One might expect even MAGA Senators and Representatives to object to their political castration, but–as James Baldwin once noted–in order for evil to flourish, “it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.”

Unfortunately, MAGA Senators and Representatives only come in two flavors: Christian Nationalist (in Indiana, think Jim Banks) and spineless (in Indiana, think Todd Young). The Christian Nationalists are profoundly, if ignorantly, anti-American; the spineless are interested only in retaining their positions–positions that their meek obedience has divested of any significance other than the right to retain a title and receive a paycheck.

America’s government has three branches (someone needs to explain them to Tommy Tuberville), so in the absence of a live and breathing Congress, it is falling to the courts to restrain our would-be co-Kings. However, it looks all too likely that our would-be monarchs will ignore the courts–echoing Jackson’s infamous statement that “the courts have issued their decision, now let them enforce it.”

If that happens, it will be left up to We the People to counter this coup, and we can’t wait until the midterm elections, by which time our overlords may have put even more vote suppression laws on the books. We must participate in protests, in general strikes, in civic resistance of all kinds. Jessica Craven has posted about several:—a nationwide protest on February 17, a one-day general strike on February 28, and a “total shutdown” on March 15.

Studies have determined that participation in non-violent protest by only 3.5% of a population forces political change. We the People can do this.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 10:48 AM

”Studies have determined that participation in non-violent protest by only 3.5% of a population forces political change. We the People can do this.”

But what’s the likelihood that 3.5% of ‘We the People’ will do this? Judging by the lack of interest/action so far, it will be closer to 0% than 3.5% who will have the cojones to get involved in trying to put the brakes on the Mango Mussolini and President-by-Proxy Musk.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 11:12 AM

Copied/vPasted from BBC Red Button (apologies for tyops):

The US government is trying to rehire nuclear safety employees it had fired on Thursday, after concerns grew that their dismissal could jeopardise national security.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) workers were among hundreds of employees in the energy department who received termination letters.

The Department is responsible for designing, building and overseeing the US nuclear weapons stockpile.

That needs no comment from me whatsoever.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 11:26 AM

Dave, that was the very naughty scene I pictured.

Elon Musk needs to make surgery more efficient so he is deleting scalpels and substituting machetes.

The Supreme Court has already ruled that any official act of the President is legal. Like Nixon said "If the President does it, its legal" If the Democrats advance their case to the Supreme Court they have an uphill fight to declare unconstitutional executive orders illegal and not official. A normal court would find anti-constitutional orders to be open and shut illegal.
This court however is not normal.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 12:15 PM

Machetes? nope: dwarf axes.

A traditional Dwarf axe is on one side a pickaxe, to extract interesting minerals. The other side is a war axe, to deal with the sometimes very unreasonable people who own the land with the interesting minerals in it.

            -- from L-Space's entry for Dwarfs

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 12:31 PM

.... Mind you, with a Dwarf axe sharp enough to be grave goods* and a steady hand, you could shave the hoar frost off a judge's disapproval.

* Only DEATH's scythe is sharper.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 01:59 PM

It's a mattock, MaJoC. As in "Dwarves weilding double-handed battle mattocks" (Battle of the five armies (I think))

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Helen
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 02:44 PM

Another way to fight back is to hit them where it hurts: the hip pocket nerve.

This article is from the Snopes fact-checking site:

Tesla Made More Cars Than It Sold in Q1 2024, Some of Which Were Visible from Space


"Claim:

"As of the end of the first quarter of 2024, nearly 50,000 unsold Tesla vehicles were sitting in parking lots across the U.S. and visible from space.


"What's True

"Tesla produced almost 50,000 more vehicles in the first quarter of 2024 than it delivered to customers. At least some of these unsold vehicles were visible from space, as seen in reports and images from the time. Subsequent financial reports indicated the overstock was likely reduced by some amount over the course of the year.
What's Undetermined

"We have not been able to determine whether all the nearly 50,000 unsold vehicles from the first quarter of 2024 were located in the U.S. (for example, we found reports of unsold Teslas being stored in Germany)."

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Justa Picker
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 07:33 PM

This article reprinted from Nov 6th, 2024, exquisitely sums up the CDN perspective by journalist Andrew Coyne.

Andrew Coyne is a highly respected Canadian columnist with the Globe and Mail and a regular panelist on CBC's The National, who has previously worked with Macleans Magazine (Senior Editor) and the National Post.
.....

“Nothing mattered, in the end. Not the probable dementia, the unfathomable ignorance, the emotional incontinence; not, certainly, the shambling, hate-filled campaign, or the ludicrously unworkable anti-policies.

The candidate out on bail in four jurisdictions, the convicted fraud artist, the adjudicated rapist and serial sexual predator, the habitual bankrupt, the stooge of Vladimir Putin, the man who tried to overturn the last election and all of his creepy retinue of crooks, ideologues and lunatics: Americans took a long look at all this and said, yes please.

There is no sense in understating the depth of the disaster. This is a crisis like no other in our lifetimes. The government of the United States has been delivered into the hands of a gangster, whose sole purpose in running, besides staying out of jail, is to seek revenge on his enemies. The damage Donald Trump and his nihilist cronies can do – to America, but also to its democratic allies, and to the peace and security of the world – is incalculable. We are living in the time of Nero.

The first six months will be a time of maximum peril. NATO must from this moment be considered effectively obsolete, without the American security guarantee that has always been its bedrock. We may see new incursions by Russia into Europe – the poor Ukrainians are probably done for, but now it is the Baltics and the Poles who must worry – before the Europeans have time to organize an alternative. China may also accelerate its Taiwanese ambitions.

At home, Mr. Trump will be moving swiftly to consolidate his power. Some of this will be institutional – the replacement of tens of thousands of career civil servants with Trumpian loyalists. But some of it will be … atmospheric.

At some point someone – a company whose chief executive has displeased him, a media critic who has gotten under his skin – will find themselves the subject of unwanted attention from the Trump administration. It might not be so crude as a police arrest. It might just be a little regulatory matter, a tax audit, something like that. They will seek the protection of the courts, and find it is not there.

The judges are also Trump loyalists, perhaps, or too scared to confront him. Or they might issue a ruling, and find it has no effect – that the administration has called the basic bluff of liberal democracy: the idea that, in the crunch, people in power agree to be bound by the law, and by its instruments the courts, the same as everyone else. Then everyone will take their cue. Executives will line up to court him. Media organizations, the large ones anyway, will find reasons to be cheerful.

Of course, in reality things will start to fall apart fairly quickly. The huge across-the-board tariffs he imposes will tank the world economy. The massive deficits, fuelled by his ill-judged tax policies – he won’t replace the income tax, as he promised, but will fill it with holes – and monetized, at his direction, by the Federal Reserve, will ignite a new round of inflation.

Most of all, the insane project of deporting 12 million undocumented immigrants – finding them, rounding them up and detaining them in hundreds of internment camps around the country, probably for years, before doing so – will consume his administration. But by then it will be too late.

We should not count upon the majority of Americans coming to their senses in any event. They were not able to see Mr. Trump for what he was before: why should that change? Would they not, rather, be further coarsened by the experience of seeing their neighbours dragged off by the police, or the military, further steeled to the necessity of doing “tough things” to “restore order?”

Some won’t, of course. But they will find in time that the democratic levers they might once have pulled to demand change are no longer attached to anything. There are still elections, but the rules have been altered: there are certain obstacles, certain disadvantages if you are not with the party of power. It will seem easier at first to try to change things from within. Then it will be easier not to change things.

All of this will wash over Canada in various ways – some predictable, like the flood of refugees seeking escape from the camps; some less so, like the coarsening of our own politics, the debasement of morals and norms by politicians who have discovered there is no political price to be paid for it. And who will have the backing of their patron in Washington.

All my life I have been an admirer of the United States and its people. But I am frightened of it now, and I am even more frightened of them.”

Written by Andrew Coyne.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Helen
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 12:16 AM

I assume that this is an "oh $h1t, what have we done?" moment:

Trump administration tries to rehire fired nuclear weapons workers in DOGE reversal

"In short: The Trump administration has halted the firing of hundreds of workers in nuclear weapons programs.

"It comes after 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration were abruptly laid off last week.

"The Pantex Plant was one of the hardest offices hit, seeing about 30 per cent of the cuts.

"The Trump administration has halted the firings of hundreds of workers in nuclear weapons programs, with experts cautioning that a new cost-cutting task force will put communities at risk.

"US officials said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off on Thursday.

"According to the officials, some employees lost access to their email before they had learnt that they were fired and were locked out of their offices on Friday morning."

....

"While some of the Energy Department employees who were fired dealt with energy efficiency and the effects of climate change, many others dealt with nuclear issues.

"This included managing massive radioactive waste sites and ensuring the material does not further contaminate nearby communities.

"Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and Senator Patty Murray of Washington, both Democrats, called the firings last week 'utterly callous and dangerous.'"

....

"Nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists director Edwin Lyman said the firings could disrupt the day-to-day workings of the agency and create a sense of instability over the nuclear program both at home and abroad.

"'I think the signal to US adversaries is pretty clear: throw a monkey wrench in the whole national security apparatus and cause disarray,'" he said.

"'That can only benefit the adversaries of this country.'

"Many federal employees who had worked on the nation's nuclear programs had spent their entire careers there and there was a wave of retirements in recent years that cost the agency years of institutional knowledge."

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Helen
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 12:39 AM

On second thoughts, this will probably be a Trump statement, "oh $h1t Elon, what have YOU done?". (Friends until they become enemies.)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 07:11 AM

I can imagine how busy the Chinese State hackers are with following the emails to all the US nuke bomb employees. No time for lunch, maybe they're eating hot pockets too.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 08:53 AM

In Russia, there are 2 cities that no longer appear on maps after a relaxation of nuclear weapon security and safety. I would not expect Elon to know this or if he did, give a crap.
In Trump's first term our nuke facility at Hanford in Washington state had an accident. His selected energy dept head Rick Perry was out of his depth.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 10:41 AM

Elon got Donald to order $400 million dollars of Tesla vehicles on the taxpayer's backs. They will all be those hideous pick ups. How is that for government efficiency?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 03:55 PM

Trump has completed 1/48th of his term so far. 47 to go.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 05:32 PM

BOOOOOOO BOOOOOOO BOOOOOOOO

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Helen
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 05:44 PM

Hey Donuel, do you need to write a parody of Star Spangled Banner? :-)

Hockey fans in Montreal loudly boo American anthem at Canada-U.S. 4 Nations matchup

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Helen
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 09:08 PM

Looking at the lyrics of Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key makes me see that it could be a rallying cry for the Anti-Trump and Anti-Musk brigade, for example these four lines:

"When our land is illumined with Liberty's smile
If a foe from within strike a blow at her glory
Down, down with the traitor that dares to defile
The flag of her stars and the page of her story!"


Maybe it's time for all of the true Americans to start fighting back. Like SRS, hitting the politicians with wave after wave of motivating information.


Star Spangled Banner

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Wh?re the foe's haughty host in dr?ad silence reposes
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave

When our land is illumined with Liberty's smile
If a foe from within strike a blow at her glory
Down, down with the traitor that dares to defile
The flag of her stars and the page of her story!
By the millions unchained, who our birthright have gained
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained!
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
While the land of the free is the home of the brave
See pop shows near Sydney
Get tickets as low as $139

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 11:31 PM

Musk is moving in on Social Security. I wonder if the idiot has ever been in a subway, if he knows what the term "third rail" means. If he actually wants to see the public completely explode, just try it.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 02:22 AM

I didn't know but do now - The third rail of a nation's politics is a metaphor for any issue so controversial that it is "charged" and "untouchable" to the extent that any politician or public official who dares to broach the subject will invariably suffer politically. (wikipedia)

speaking of wikipedia as we were! - Wikipedia Prepares for 'Increase in Threats' to US Editors From Musk and His Allies The Wikimedia Foundation is building new tools that it hopes will help Wikipedia editors stay anonymous in part to avoid harassment and legal threats as Elon Musk and the Heritage Foundation ramp up their attacks on people who edit Wikipedia. Some of the tactics have been pioneered by Wikimedia in countries with authoritarian governments and where editing Wikipedia is illegal or extremely dangerous.

Last month, Forward obtained a document created by the Heritage Foundation called “Wikipedia Editor Targeting,” which set a goal to “identify and target Wikipedia editors abusing their position by analyzing text patterns, usernames, and technical data through data breach analysis, fingerprinting, HUMINT (human intelligence), and technical targeting.” (read on)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 07:00 AM

> Elon got Donald to order $400 million dollars of
> Tesla vehicles on the taxpayer's backs.

Are those the stainless-steel ones that rust?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 07:36 AM

”When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a sultan.
The palace becomes a circus.”

Ancient Turkish proverb…

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 09:12 AM

Thanks for the Turkish proverb, BwM. Number Ten Downing Street, under de Pfeffel's misrule, deteriorated into the sort of eternal piss-up that'd shame a US frat house. And the bar steward still protests he was hard done by.

Meanwhile, back at the point, last week's New European featured an article by Matthew D'Ancona under the headling American Caesar. I've been thinking awhile that we've been through the reigns of Caligula and Claudius, and are now starting that of Nero. The entirety of the Old Man Log poem bears reading, including the sub-refrain "It was an emergency measure only" tolling like a funeral bell, but it ends:

Yet I am, I must remember, Old King Log.
I shall lie inertly in the stagnant pool.
Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud catch out.

       -- Robert Graves: Claudius the God

But I may be wrong: we may all be in for a time of Domitian.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 12:20 PM

Found the article I referenced a while back - from Elon Musk’s Enemy, USAID, Was Investigating Starlink’s Contracts in Ukraine
The agency was in the midst of a probe into the billionaire's equipment at the time of Musk's assault.

Since coming into power, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has barraged USAID, the international aid agency that dispenses food and supplies to nations all over the world. It is likely that the agency will soon be shuttered and could be subsumed into the U.S. State Department. Now, new reporting shows USAID was actually investigating equipment from one of Musk’s companies at the time that he attacked the agency.

The Lever reported Tuesday that USAID’s inspector general was in the process of investigating its own public-private partnership between Musk’s Starlink and the Ukrainian government at the time that the billionaire’s DOGE crippled the agency. Publicly available information about that probe is still online. An announcement from last May reads: “The USAID Office of Inspector General, Inspections and Evaluations Division, is initiating an inspection of USAID’s oversight of Starlink satellite terminals provided to the Government of Ukraine. Our objectives are to determine how (1) the Government of Ukraine used the USAID-provided Starlink terminals, and (2) USAID monitored the Government of Ukraine’s use of USAID-provided Starlink terminals.”

Musk has called the agency “evil” and a “criminal organization,” though the fact that USAID was investigating the Starlink activities may suggest ulterior motivations for the billionaire’s vitriol. It’s unclear what the Starlink probe’s status is right now.

He's clearing out all of his critics, plain and simple.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: The Sandman
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 12:52 PM

Trump thinks he is a business man, he appears to be pragmatic, I agree he has an unpleasant bullying personality, and he is not a successful business man, companies associated with him have failed 6 times, I think his China import tax policy will fail.
But I am not in a position to bring about his Presidential downfall, so I am not going to waste too much mental energy on him

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 01:18 PM

Let all the evil in the mud hatch out
is one of my favorite quotes of revenge. thanks MaJoC

I did not know the Star Spangled Banner had the word 'Birthright' which is was Trump wants destroyed. I believe I have never used the word spangled in a sentence before now. Helen stay tuned for the Reality Star Strangled Banner headlines.

According to its former director, Social Security is very fragile and likely to have failures in a skeleton crew scenario.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Helen
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 01:51 PM

Donuel, I don't think I have ever heard the full lyrics of Star Spangled Banner. I know I have heard the word "spangled" to describe drag queens' outfits, if that helps. :-D

"Reality Star Strangled Banner" is funny. I had been thinking about words rhyming with the song title. Spar, czar, scar, bizarre, tangled, mangled, jangled, spanner, hammer, etc and found a website for rhyming words.

Words That Rhyme With STAR

SRS, that article finally makes sense of why Musk, wearing his SuperDOGE cloak, targeted USAID from the start. No hesitation, just go for the jugular. He was covering his own back.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 02:58 PM

Another Musk coup for his company, leading (he hopes) to a lucrative government contract: Musk helped fire hundreds of FAA workers. Now, his SpaceX employees could fill the void
The move to bring in more experts within Musk’s circle follows the Trump administration’s decision to fire hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration personnel

A team from Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been drafted in to help overhaul the U.S. air traffic control systems.

The move to bring in more experts within Musk’s circle follows the Trump administration’s decision to fire hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration personnel.

SpaceX already holds billions in government contracts. Its staff visited Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia Monday, according to Transport Secretary Sean Duffy, who said that President Donald Trump has “ordered” him to “deliver a new, world-class air traffic control system that will be the envy of the world.”

“Tomorrow, members of @elonmusk’s SpaceX team will be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in VA to get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision how we can make a new, better, modern and safer system,” Duffy said in a post on X Sunday.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 03:06 PM

Stephan 'Goebbels' Millar rudely went on CNN and accused the host and CNN of subterfuge and deliberate support of crimes and government waste when asked what Elon and Doge was doing. He actually began yelling and sounded more Hitleresque than usual.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 03:17 PM

> Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out
> is one of my favorite quotes of revenge. thanks MaJoC

FTFY.* Oh, and it wasn't revenge that Claudius had in mind, but a purging of the body politic to make room for a return of the Republic. Sadly, "making room" doesn't work in real life, and history is littered with counterexamples.

.... And here I was, about to suggest that Isildur is turning into a pale imitation of Mordor before our eyes .... Aside: One of the big spytech firms is called Palantir, presumably for a nontrivial reason.

* I used to get that wrong too, till I looked it up recently.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 04:08 PM

That is a great quote, one that somehow I missed over the years of watching the old Claudius programs. I finally found the whole thing:

The frog-pool wanted a king.
Jove sent them Old King Log.
I have been as deaf and blind and wooden as a log.
The frog-pool wanted a king.
Let Jove now send them Young King Stork.
Caligula's chief fault: his stork-reign was too brief.
My chief fault: I have been far too benevolent.
I repaired the ruin my predecessors spread.
I reconciled Rome and the world to monarchy again.
Rome is fated to bow to another Caesar.
Let him be mad, bloody, capricious, wasteful, lustful.
King Stork shall prove again the nature of kings.
By dulling the blade of tyranny I fell into great error.
By whetting the same blade I might redeem that error.
Violent disorders call for violent remedies.
Yet I am, I must remember, Old King Log.
I shall float inertly in the stagnant pool.
Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 04:26 PM

And at risk of turning this into a poetry thread, but a friend reminded me of Yeats recently.

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst   
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   
The darkness drops again; but now I know   
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

There's nothing better than a really good poet to find a way to express righteous anger.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 05:04 PM

Wrong or right is not the issue but merely my perspective. Your research does go deeper.
If 'let all...' were the last words of Claudius as he lay poisoned or stabbed or both, it was not a living revenge he was stating but rather a vengeful curse that the State and murderous personal vendettas deserved.

Stephen Miller on CNN was repeatedly asked to calm down but could not set aside his 3rd Reich style rhetoric.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: robomatic
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 05:47 PM

Neither can you, apparently.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 06:28 PM

With the firing of all the scientists under the claim that fraud and cost-cutting is the issue, science itself is being claimed as a fraud.
Scientists in the NIH, CDC, FDA, VA who save lives in a variety of ways are deemed frauds. Well, my friend, disease is not a fraud. Botulism and Listeria are not a fraud. Musk's teenage and 20-something hackers are not looking for fraud, do not know how to, and have purposely not found any.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 06:43 PM

Apparently, there is no proof that "let all the poisons in the mud hatch out" were I CLAUDIUS' last words but rather a theatrical addition in the broadcast spoken of earlier.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 07:06 PM

There's no proof of any of that, it is a literary work by Robert Graves. This is a non-issue.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 11:39 PM

Trump has fired all the employees of the JFK Presidential Library so the library is now closed. However, the Reagan and Nixon Libraries are untouched.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Richard Atkins
Date: 19 Feb 25 - 12:58 AM

Shame on the USA for voting for this president in the first place. He and Putin think It's fine to reap gains taking over other countries as Hitler did. God help Ukraine and not America under this convicted liar

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 19 Feb 25 - 02:35 AM

The Mango Mussolini now saying that Ukraine ‘should not have started the war’.

WTF?

Ukraine is fucked, and so is the US.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Feb 25 - 04:32 AM

I wonder how history will view Trump.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Feb 25 - 05:29 AM

Just as you thought he couldn't sink any lower

Here’s Why Trump May View Andrew Tate As An Ally

I suppose criminals and sexual predators need to stick togther

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Feb 25 - 05:30 AM

and 399

Someone else can have 400 :-)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47th President/ Musk Coup
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 19 Feb 25 - 05:37 AM

Aaaaww, go on then Dave - 400! ;-)