Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Trump 2.0 might as well use bombs and arson

If citizens feel whipsawed by the contradictions and backpedaling by Trump 2.0 policy malfeasance, it is hardly surprising. It’s not just the obvious intention to privatize government services things ought to be public (and not-for-profit), it’s the threat those privatizing efforts pose to “Americans’ health, safety, and economic security,” writes Heather Cox Richardson.

Social Security is a perennial target for the right, and is once again. Trump 2.0 will sabotage it, collapse it, then argue that Republican dysfunction by design is reason to kill it:

In another blockbuster story that dropped yesterday, the Social Security Administration announced it will begin to withhold 100% of a person’s Social Security benefits if they are overpaid, even if the overpayment is not their fault. Under President Joe Biden the agency had changed the policy to recover overpayments at 10% of monthly benefits or $10, whichever was greater.

Those who can’t afford that level of repayment can contact Social Security, the notice says, but acting commissioner Leland Dudek has said he plans to cut at least 7,000 jobs—more than 12% of the agency—although its staff is already at a 50-year low. He is also closing field offices, and senior staff with the agency have either left or been fired.

How about some more whipsaw?

Dudek yesterday retracted an order from the day before that required parents of babies born in Maine to go to a Social Security office to register their baby rather than filling out a form in the hospital. Another on Thursday would also have stopped funeral homes from filing death records electronically.

One new father told Joe Lawlor of the Portland Press Herald that he had filled out the form for his son’s social security number and then his wife got a call saying they would have to go to the Social Security office. But when he tried to call Social Security headquarters to figure out what was going on, the wait time was an estimated two hours. So he called a local office, where no one knew what he was talking about. “They keep talking about efficiency,” he said. “This seemed to be something that worked incredibly efficiently, and they broke it overnight.”

Why Maine, asked Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent. I can think of one reason.

Cruelty may be the point, and retribution may be Trump 2.0 policy, but chaos is the plan. It’s also an M.O. Streamlining government to save money isn’t the goal. Whatever else they fail at, Republicans are hell at sowing chaos. And sabotage.

You may recall how in Gov. Scott Walker’s Wisconsin Republicans in 2011 passed a strict voter ID bill that disproportionately impacted “elderly voters, young voters, students, minorities and low-income voters.” To obtain the IDs, they would have to visit their local DMV offices with sometimes hard-to-get documents. Then Walker announced plans to close as many as 16 of them across the state before reversing after the backlash.

I wrote recently about a North Carolina bill that would make holding voter registration drives using official voter registration forms a misdemeanor. Making government user unfriendly is policy.

Musk-Trump chaos is already hurting the economy and the people who live with it, the New York Times editorial board suggested on Saturday. They need “a government that is steady and reliable“:

But in their campaign to shrink the federal government, Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump have defied laws passed by Congress, and they have challenged the authority of the federal courts to adjudicate the legality of their actions. Mr. Trump recently referred to himself as a king and then insisted he had been joking, but there is no ambiguity in his assertion of the power to defy other branches of government. It is a rejection of the checks and balances that have safeguarded our nation for more than 200 years. Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump are not trying to change laws; they are upending the rule of law.

That’s not a byproduct. That’s their program, sabotaging democracy and replacing it with something far worse except for everyone except the elite.

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Trump welcomes Putin, abandons liberal democracy

Donald Trump’s Oval Office ambush of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (with a strong assist from J.D. Vance) was embarrassing and shocking in perhaps equal proportions. The convicted felon now occupying the White House got there with the approval of not even half of American voters (and only 64 percent of them) and with a little help from a “friend” of his and an enemy of democracy: Russian president Vladimir Putin. Trump immediately set about surrendering U.S. leadership in the post-WWII order. He has in fact already dismantled it. As obsessed as Mr. America First is with winning, the real winner of the 2024 presidential elections was Putin, writes Franklin Foer in The Atlantic.

The Oval Office shouting match was a fist-pump moment for Putin signifying his “ultimate victory,” the moment when “the United States, became his most powerful ally.”

Except Foer’s conclusion is only true if one accepts (as the felon-who-would-be-king does) that Trump is the state. The other half of U.S. voters would strenuously disagree. But we do not control the levers of federal power nor speak for the United States in international fora. That is a problem we struggle to remedy. “Donald Trump does not speak for me” on a tee-shirt is little consolation to the people of war-torn Ukraine Trump has abandoned:

Because the Trump administration has cut off arms to Ukraine, it will exhaust caches of vital munitions in a few months, so it must hoard its stockpiles, limiting its capacity to fend off Russian offensives. Because the U.S. has stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv, the Ukrainian army will be without America’s ability to eavesdrop on Russia’s war plans. All of these decisions will further demoralize Ukraine’s depleted, weary military.

Just three years ago, as European and American publics draped themselves in Ukrainian flags, Putin’s Russia seemed consigned to international isolation and ignominy. For succor and solidarity, Putin was forced to turn to North Korea and Iran, an axis of geopolitical outcasts. But Trump is bent on reintegrating Putin into the family of nations. He wants Russia restored to the G7, and it’s only a matter of time before he eases up on sanctions that the Biden administration imposed on Russia. And Trump has done more than offer a place among the nations. By repeating Russia’s own self-serving, mendacious narrative about the origins of the Ukraine war, he lent American legitimacy and moral prestige to Putin.

Trump has surrendered America’s 80 years of world leadership in less time than he took to bankrupt his Atlantic City casinos. Trump has set out a welcome mat for the world’s kleptocrats, especially Russian ones long thought to launder money through Trump properties:

His Treasury Department announced that it would weaken enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act; his Justice Department disbanded a task force charged with targeting Russian oligarchs and relaxed the Foreign Agents Registration Act, such that Putin’s allies can hire lawyers and lobbyists without having to worry about the embarrassing disclosure of those relationships. The Trump administration has essentially announced that the American financial system is open for Russia’s kleptocratic business.

Trump has cut off support for Ukraine’s F-16s, including their radar jamming capabilities. France’s Mirage fighters are taking up that slack, reports Forbes.

The Guardian adds:

The US has rejected a Canadian proposal to establish a task force that would tackle Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of oil tankers, according to reports last night.

Canada, which has the current Group of Seven presidency, proposed the measure ahead of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Quebec later this week.

In negotiations to agree a joint statement on maritime issues, the US is pushing to strengthen language about China while watering down wording on Russia, the reports said.

The “shadow fleet” refers to ageing oil tankers, the identities of which are hidden to help circumvent western economic sanctions imposed on Moscow since it launched its full-scale military invasion of Ukraine at the start of 2022.

Trump’s affinity for Putin amounts to “autocrat envy,” Susan Miller, the former head of counterintelligence at the C.I.A., tells the New York Times:

“Trump likes Putin because Putin has control over his country,” she said. “And Trump wants control over his country.”

Why Are We Surprised by the Trump-Putin Alliance? reads a Foreign Policy headline. “Trump’s MAGA ideology aligns more closely with Putin’s vision of state, society, and global order than with Western liberal democracy.”

As Trump prepares for his summit with Putin, we should all be worried. Trump is well on his way to making the U.S. a pariah state.

(h/t DJ)

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Mediaite reports on the latest GOP 2028 tea:

When President Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Fox News last month, anchor Bret Baier asked what should have been a softball question: “Do you view Vice President JD Vance as your successor, the Republican nominee in 2028?”

Trump’s response was glaring.

“No, but he’s very capable,” the president said matter-of-factly. “I mean, I don’t think that it, you know, I think you have a lot of very capable people. So far, I think he’s doing a fantastic job. It’s too early, we’re just starting.”

Well! That’s quite a denial.

However, according to Mediaite, people around Trump weren’t surprised because he’s really grooming his number one son, Don Jr to run. Yes, you read that right.

Three high-level sources told Mediaite that Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son and an omnipresent MAGA evangelist across the internet, is seriously considering a run for president in 2028.

“Don has been the most politically involved of all the Trump kids and has always kept the lanes open for a presidential run,” one White House insider and close friend of the Trump family said. “He is a valued voice for his father, and a real possibility to be a contender in 2028.”

Trump Jr. boasts his own loyal following, a successful show on Rumble, and a strong presence on social media with more than 14.6 million followers on X. He serves as a key advisor to his father – he was credited with advocating for Trump to choose Vance as his running mate – and hit the campaign trail aggressively in the run up to the 2024 election.

What else do you need? It certainly isn’t brains, character or experience, which means he’s totally qualified.

The insiders all said that he’s keeping a lid on this talk for now because he doesn’t want to start a battle with JD (another living nightmare) but that it’s almost a sure thing. I would guess the real reason they aren’t openly talking about it yet is because that would just emphasize Trump’s lame duck status and he’s got a lot of pay-back to get to before he’s finished.

Junior sent this characteristically classy response to Mediaite:

I accurately predicted that my buddy JD would be an instant power player in national GOP politics, so your theory is that I worked my ass off to help get him the VP nomination because I want to run for president in 2028? Are you fucking retarded? I’m actually glad you’re printing this bullshit though because at least now the rest of the press corps will see how shitty your “sources” are and how easily you’re played by them. Congrats, moron.

He’s running!

I’m going to make the early prediction that he’ll be about as successful as Ron Desantis in 2024. But I do relish the bloody battle between him and JD Vance.

Trump on Putin: "I think we're doing very well with Russia. But right now they're bombing the hell out of Ukraine. I'm finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine. And they don't have the cards … in terms of getting a final settlement, it may be easier dealing with… pic.twitter.com/t1fU3pgzX0

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 7, 2025

That’s “easier dealing with Russia” Great.

REPORTER: You said on social media that Russia is pounding Ukraine. Why not provide Ukraine with air defenses?

TRUMP: Because I have to know that they want to settle. We want them to settle. pic.twitter.com/GU2RfpVqDh

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 7, 2025

Trump: "Despite the Russia Russia Russia hoax I've always had a good relationship with Putin. He wants to end the war. And I think he's gonna be more generous than he has to be."

(Russia continues to bomb Ukraine, so it doesn't seem like Putin really wants the war to end.) pic.twitter.com/gbt3yCDFWL

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 7, 2025

Just a bizarre scene in The White House as Trump says Putin is hitting Ukraine harder than before but also says Putin wants it to end pic.twitter.com/YCodXDee1W

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 7, 2025

That’s right. You heard him say in that last one:

“I actually think he’s (Putin) doing what anybody else would do. Probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now. He wants to get it ended. And I think Ukraine wants to get it ended, but I don’t see. It’s crazy. They’re taking tremendous punishment. I don’t quite get it.”

That’s Donald Trump endorsing Putin’s massive bombardment and murder of Ukrainians, due to the withdrawal of American military support and intelligence. All in order to force the Ukrainians to surrender, give Putin their land and Trump whatever the hell he wants.

US Intelligence Ban Leads to Heavy Ukrainian Losses

written by EUToday Correspondents March 8, 2025

The decision by the United States to suspend military intelligence sharing with Ukraine has contributed to significant battlefield losses, with Russian forces advancing along key frontlines.

Reports indicate that the halt in intelligence support has resulted in heavy casualties among Ukrainian troops and has impacted their ability to conduct defensive and offensive operations.

Impact on the Battlefield

According to a report by Time, citing five senior Western and Ukrainian officials and military officers, the loss of intelligence data has had severe consequences. “There are hundreds of dead Ukrainians because of this pause,” one officer in Kyiv stated anonymously.

That’s what we’re talking about and I honestly think he’s normalizing this to the point that America working hand in glove with Russia to help them invade their neighbor is now going to be an official American policy. This is what we do now.

I am sickened by this and the fact that the gaseous, orange incubus is simply getting away with it because the Republicans in the congressional majority, most of whom know very well what he’s doing, are so consumed by their own ambition or fear that they refuse to utter a word. In fact, they clap and bark like trained seals at everything this freak says.

The third baby hatched!

If you have no idea what I’m talking about scroll down to the Friday Night soother. 🙂

I urge you to take the time to listen to that discussion between Chris Hayes and Josh Marshall about the “anti-constitutional” posture being assumed by the Trump administration.

They discuss a couple of important articles from the past week. Here is a gift link to the NY Times piece they mention about Trump telling the cabinet members they are in charge of cuts. Here’s that one quote (oh my God…)

[Transportation Secretary]Mr. Duffy said the young staff of Mr. Musk’s team was trying to lay off air traffic controllers. What am I supposed to do? Mr. Duffy said. I have multiple plane crashes to deal with now, and your people want me to fire air traffic controllers?

Mr. Musk told Mr. Duffy that his assertion was a “lie.” Mr. Duffy insisted it was not; he had heard it from them directly. Mr. Musk, asking who had been fired, said: Give me their names. Tell me their names.

Mr. Duffy said there were not any names, because he had stopped them from being fired. At another point, Mr. Musk insisted that people hired under diversity, equity and inclusion programs were working in control towers. Mr. Duffy pushed back and Mr. Musk did not add details, but said during the longer back and forth that Mr. Duffy had his phone number and should call him if he had any issues to raise.

The exchange ended with Mr. Trump telling Mr. Duffy that he had to hire people from M.I.T. as air traffic controllers. These air traffic controllers need to be “geniuses,” he said.

Sure. We don’t need to fund anymore scientific research but the nuclear physicists can do something useful and become Air Traffic Controllers instead.

Here’s a gift link to the Washington Post article in which the Republican Senators give away their power to Elon Musk. But not to worry, Elon says all they have to do is give him a call if they have concerns about his cuts. I’m not sure why the taxpayers should pay their salaries anymore.

And here’s Josh Marshall’s scoop on the unbelievable new claim of executive power in which they say that the appointments clause in the constitution is unconstitutional:

O’Connell said that the White House’s line of reasoning could create an opening for the Trump administration to bypass the Senate and install commissioners and board members at agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Federal Election Commission. 

“That will be taking a lot of power away from the Senate power that is grounded in the Constitution and power that they have protected statutorily because they excluded these agencies from the Federal Vacancies Reform Act,” she told TPM.

It appears that the Senate Republicans would rather do anything than actually fight for their own prerogatives.They just can’t do it. So it will be up to the courts to decide whether “the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution” trumps “the Appointment Clause of the Constitution” which would mean that there is no constitution except Article II.

He doesn’t understand what Act Blue does, obviously, so he thinks he can stop these protests by going after it. The groups he mentions are not funded by George Soros or any other billionaire. (DSA lol) Act Blue is just a pass through organization for small donors.

What this shows is that Musk is feeling the pressure:

[Tesla] CEO, billionaire oligarch Elon Musk, who had formerly cultivated the image of an altruistic innovator, is now the face of chaotic disruption in Washington and the most influential ally of President Trump. As a result, Tesla owners who disapprove of the MAGA regime are trading in. A redditor recently explained their decision to get rid of a Model 3: “Last week it hit me: The resale market and eventual trade-in value for this car could fall off a cliff at any time,” they wrote on r/RealTesla. “There’s no telling what lunatic antics Musk could further debase himself with. Our car could become completely unsellable as customers reject the brand at all levels.” Dealers they visited in Southern California reported that their lots were being flooded with unwanted Teslas, this owner added. 

Just six weeks into Trump’s second term, with Musk attached to his hip, it is suddenly clear that Tesla could be in big trouble. Eco-conscious customers, critical to its bottom line, are boycotting the brand. Sales have plummeted across the board. Tesla’s latest product, the stainless steel-paneled Cybertruck, was a maligned flop, and Musk has yet to make good on fevered visions of breakthroughs in artificial intelligence tech for autonomous vehicles. Anti-Tesla sentiment is at an all-time high, whether expressed through rude bumper stickers and peaceful protest or vandalism and arson, in part because Musk has continually stoked tension with his far-right politics. He is amplifying white nationalists on X, his social platform, and, in an astounding display at an inauguration event in January, gave a raised-arm salute recognized by neo-Nazis as an unambiguous “Sieg Heil” gesture. (He has, of course, laughed off any criticism.)   

The head of Tesla, who according to a poll last month is disliked by more than half of Americans, is also courting the rage of millions as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by threatening programs including Social Security and Medicare. In seeking a means to retaliate against the wealthiest man alive, their attention has been drawn to Tesla, in which Musk holds an approximately 13-percent stake that accounts for a substantial share of his fortune. His total net worth is down $121 billion from its peak in December, when the company had a market capitalization well in excess of $1 trillion — the gains of a post-election rally wiped out entirely, with the stock price tumbling 38 percent just since Trump’s inauguration. This downturn comes as warning signs of an imminent recession continue to multiply.

I’m seeing many fewer Teslas in my neighborhood than a year ago but there are plenty of other EVs. This is the beating heart of Tesla’s target audience.

The article goes on to point out that the sales have been flat for some time, that his “self-driving” promises have failed to deliver and that the Cybertruck is widely considered to be an unsafe, hideous piece of junk among other things. What with his rockets blowing up and his car company failing, maybe Musk ought to quite the government and pay a little more attention to his companies.

Musk gets a ton of money from government contracts and I think we can be sure that he won’t go broke any time soon. But with the destruction of Twitter as a mainstream social media platform, he’s busily destroying his brand among the very people who buy his product and if that’s not a sign that his entrepreneurial “genius” is overrated, I don’t know what is.

Also note that he’s even more toxic in Europe which has pretty much stopped buying his vehicles altogether. He’s considered a monster all over the world.

The NYT: As President Trump seeks to purge the federal government of “woke” initiatives, agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid, according to a compilation of government documents.

I can understand that they want to erase all references to straight, non-white people and women. Who needs ’em. But I can’t believe they eliminated the word victim. How will they describe themselves without it?

Update — policing science as well. This is from the National Cancer Institute

Peanut allergies are controversial? Who knew?

Coming soon to a federal agency serving you

An “important safety recall” on my car arrived via U.S. Mail the other day. The notice arrived, it said, “in accordance with the requirements of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act” (NHTSA, passed in 1966). A wiring issue could cause “the unintentional deployment of the airbag(s).” Dealers will fix the defect at no cost.

It’s the newest car I’ve ever owned and my first recall. Your recall mileage may vary. Literally.

The notice is required under Sec. 113 of NHTSA:

SEC. 113. (a) Every manufacturer of motor vehicles shall furnish notification of any defect in any motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment produced by such manufacturer which he determines, in good faith, relates to motor vehicle safety, to the purchaser (where known to the manufacturer) of such motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment, within a reasonable time after such manufacturer has discovered such defect.

(b) The notification required by subsection (a) shall be accomplished—

(1) by certified mail to the first purchaser (not including any dealer of such manufacturer) of the motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment containing such a defect, and to any subsequent purchaser to whom has been transferred any warranty on such motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment; and
(2) by certified mail or other more expeditious means to the dealer or dealers of such manufacturer to whom such motor vehicle or equipment was delivered.

(c) The notification required by subsection (a) shall contain a clear description of such defect, an evaluation of the risk to traffic safety reasonably related to such defect, and a statement of the measures to be taken to repair such defect.

Yup, that’s pretty much what arrived in the mail (not from Tesla). But it got me thinking.

NHTSA is now administered by Donald Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. He got into a little Cabinet Room dustup this week with Elon Musk, he of reusable self-parking rocket booster and “rapid unscheduled disassembly” fame. With his youthful but inexperienced DOGE saboteurs, Musk is bringing his cutting-edge, rapid unscheduled disassembly technology to bear on a government agency serving you. For example, the one required by law to set safety standards for motor vehicles and ensure I got the recall notice that was dropped into my mailbox by a union mail carrier.

The New York Times reported on the cabinet meeting here (gift link):

At least two secretaries aired their grievances about Musk and engaged in heated clashes with the billionaire. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was particularly incensed. After Musk accused him of failing to slash his staff, Rubio accused Musk of not telling the truth and asked, sarcastically, if he wanted the State Department to rehire staff just to fire them again.

Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, accused Musk of trying to lay off air traffic controllers. Musk called that “a lie,” asking for their names. The exchange ended with Trump telling Duffy that he had to hire people from M.I.T. as air traffic controllers because they need to be “geniuses.”

(See where our genius of a president is headed here.)

So one musk ask, who will be left to ensure that a rapid unintentional airbag deployment doesn’t punch me in the face, blacken my eyes, and injure my passengers, other motorists and pedestrians once Musk and DOGE are done with the rapid intentional firings of federal safety watchdogs?

Musk has given us multiple fireworks display now that have disrupted air traffic and airline passengers’ lives to avoid being killed by his cosmik debris. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow took note.

Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) adds:

Why have are our FAA resources, reduced as they are after Elon Musk took a DOGE-ian chainsaw to them recently, been forced to scramble to protect civilian and commercial aircraft from yet another “rapid, unscheduled disassembly“?

Why wasn’t the FAA given enough advance notice of the possible (and likely) threat from debris so that flights could be re-routed or delayed BEFORE the launch attempt?

The reach of this fuckery is breathtaking:

Photographs and videos posted on the social media site X by users saying they were along the Florida coast showed the spacecraft breaking up. The falling debris disrupted flights at airports in Miami, Orlando, Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, and as far away as Philadelphia International Airport.

In other words, most of the eastern U.S. affected — no big deal. But that’s likely an understatement; you know the cascade of effects must have been wider given how tightly planes are scheduled.

Luckily, I filed my taxes early and electronically, and my refund dropped into my checking account a week later. So IRS computers haven’t experienced “rapid unscheduled disassembly” just yet.

But Musk and his DOGEes have turned their gaze upon the Social Security Administration’s computers, the ones that ensure my monthly check (and yours) drops into my checking account without disruption (CNN):

Millions of Americans could soon feel the impact of the deep staffing cuts being planned at the Social Security Administration, which is undergoing a massive reorganization that the acting commissioner has acknowledged is being steered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The loss of experienced employees who manage Social Security’s fragile and interdependent web of computer systems will likely leave the agency vulnerable to technical outages and, potentially, interrupt the benefit payments that are sent to more than 73 million retirees, people with disabilities and others, Martin O’Malley, who served as commissioner under the Biden administration, told CNN.

The former Maryland governor predicted a meltdown could occur within 90 days, though other employees and experts were unsure of the timing even as they agreed the risk exists.

“Everything they’re doing is driving this agency to system collapse,” O’Malley said of Social Security’s new management. “It will lead to interruptions in service, and that will ultimately cascade into more frequent system interruptions for the processing of claims, ultimately leading to system collapse and eventually the interruption of benefits.”

One wonders how long “leaders” on Capitol Hill will allow this uber-rich, seig-heiling sociopath to treat the United States of America and people like you as his personal playthings.

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Have you fought the coup today?
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
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