First In Line for the Gelding Stand
Republicans line up for Musk's treatment.
US Senator Thom Tillis finally had the courage to speak out. It seems that Musk and Trump's attacks on federal agencies are indeed unconstitutional or, as he put it, "runs afoul of the Constitution." But, there was nothing he would do about it.
Elon Musk is "deleting" congressionally authorized spending, making illegal buyout offers, threatening Federal Employees, running rampant through classified and unclassified data, and violating privacy laws all with a team of eugenicists, dubious crypto dealers, and straight up hackers.1
They have access to social security, medicare and medicaid, the treasury payments system, NOAA and it's lifesaving system weather models, and private data on millions of individuals and businesses. Musk, the largest government contractor in history, can read or even mess with data on all of his competitors, but neither the White House nor Republicans in Congress see the conflict of interest. They are too busy ranting about shrimp. Musk's team is removing or altering public data, hiding systems from view, and installing their own unsecured servers.
This, Thom Tillis agrees, it "runs afoul of the Constitution."
But, "Nobody should get a bellyache about it."
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
Senator Tillis, and all of his colleagues swore that oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution. Their entire purpose is based on it. Trump is cutting that power off right in front of their eyes, and all they want to do is watch.
Postscript: On Plans: As has been noted elsewhere this is part of a larger plan. Everything Trump has done is consistent with the strategy proposed by Curtis Yarvin to effectively end Democracy and to produce a corporate state as described below. Given the exact parallels we should presume that the plan will be followed unless we stop it.
Postscript: On Fear: It is also true that this is motivated by fear as much as other things. This post quoted below is serious. But fear the fear will not go down. Appeasement never works. They tried that after January 6th, and look where it got them.
TODO: To quote US Senator John Kennedy "Call someone who cares!"
First, Musk cannot do what he is doing without his underlings. If the Democrats are not organized enough to subpoena the acting President then go after the sketchy kids who are enabling his coup/autoglope. One has already backed off because of his horrid views. What about the others. Call the Oversight Democrats and demand they do more on this.
If you live in North Carolina, call Senator Tillis and ask him about this violation of his oath. Ask him why he solicited testimony from Danielle Hegseth about Pete Hegseth’s abuse and drinking. Then, when the time came to stand up, he hung her out to dry. If he won’t defend women, or the U.S. Constitution, then ask him if he has any line at all. Numbers here: https://www.tillis.senate.gov/
If you live in another state call your own Senators and ask them how they feel about his views and his actions. And the kinds of people he’s bringing in to do it. And demand that they uphold their oaths, even if Tillis never will. And assure them if you can that we respect the constitution and our own privacy, even if they can't be bothered to care.
Beyond that the next step is to get everyone else to care. In particular, focus on the normies.
Focus on the Normies
In the wake of Trump's entirely predictable strikes against the constitution, his call for genocide in Gaza, his wide assault on immigrants, and his decision to go all-in on removing women and minorities from the military, security, science, even space
Postscript 4/17:
Republican Senator Murkowski has spoken up to admit much of what we already suspected.
While I respect Senator Murkowski a great deal this illustrates a, if not the, key problem.
I am on my own. I do not have armed guards, constitutional guarantees of speech and debate, a constitutional role, or even guaranteed healthcare. If Senator Murkowski, or indeed anyone in congress were to lose their jobs tomorrow they would still be ok and would likely retain many privileges or at least connections.
If those highly protected people are too scared to stand up for the rule of law, how do they think we feel?
Any legislator that is too scared or self-gelded to do their jobs needs to go, and go now.
See also this detailed writeup here: https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/113957683483583881 Thanks to
Also the team at the Treasury has been treated as an insider threat.
And each day it gets worse. And worse.