Already Brad Raffensperger (did we think he was a good guy in late 2020? um, no) has asked the DOJ to dismiss a pro-voter case in Georgia. No matter how much of a change of heart happens in Red states, they will be vote-suppressing as much as possible. So... 2/
it's important that voters show up in utterly overwhelming numbers, that any Senate seats in purple states and R districts in blue states get the full force of our campaigns and money. The built-in and gerrymandered R bias is only going to grow. 3/3
"Until a few days ago I thought a gratuitous trade war would actually happen, since tariffs have been a Trump obsession for decades. But his ignominious climbdown over tariffs..."
He got 8 out of 10 Premiers on all ends of the political spectrum to agree on one thing. And boosted Trudeau's numbers
Just one thing you may have missed... it's likely Musk hates USAID specifically because of its anti-Apartheid programs, ans also USAID was in the middle of investigating contracts with StarLink.
With those in mind, Musk's obsession w/ ending USAID make more sense...
Good article as always. And as a child of the 60's, I loved that your musical coda this time was Fleetwood Mac "Don't Stop". Thinking that you might find a way to use Buffalo Springfield's "Stop Children - What's that Sound" some day?
‘an integral part of the autogolpe… is the terrifying attempt of Musk and his acolytes to seize control of the Treasury payments system and give crucial power to rewrite the code to a 25-year-old who turns out (surprise!) to be a racist and eugenicist.’ — Paul Krugman
Note that if they're working with Russia a leetle too closely, this is actually a planned FAILED autogolpe.
It's tempting to assume along your line of reasoning that these people are trying to make an unassailable fortress state, and that's the danger. But the rubble may be the intent: no fortress.
It's the Putin playbook. Lighting fires everywhere, saying things that don't make sense, all to distract from the real agenda. Except it isn't quite, and that might be the hope. Power is much less concentrated in the US, and Trump doesn't have a KGB network to do his dirty work.
Aside from federal workers in the trenches, I'm amazed at just how easily so many Americans who made an oath to defend the Constitution, from enemies foreign or domestic, seem to have been complicit.
GAME OVER. If you had control of the payment system (of the freaking US Gov!), and you lacked scruples, you'd have ALREADY written the code to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars bit-by-bit, along with cleaning the audit trail, and the only ones who could detect or undo it are retired.
Insisting that dems do something that voters explicitly tied their hands to prevent them doing is magical thinking. All we can do is mobilize for the special elections and mid terms. That's the last barricade.
"Musk reposted an X post claiming “all the elections are rigged and fake, all the liberal media outlets have no audience and are kept alive by USAID funding...Musk’s commentary: “Yes.”"
No one who cares about democracy should ever fund this man by buying a Tesla
It's the same. B******* that they've been pushing for 30 goddamn years. Oh my God npr calls so much. Oh my God we're helping people in other countries blah blah, blah blah blah. These are rich people that are trying to get rid of spending to justify their tax cuts. It's that simple
"Autogolpe" ties together several threads. The attack on USAID makes more sense domestically if understood as surgery to cut off the USA from its many international friends and supporters while Musk/Trump consolidate their new foothold on power.
Calpers and other state employee retirement funds should divest from Tesla immediately. If you’re a state employee, call your agency and demand divestment.
It seems that if you work for the federal government you can be fired on a whim for voicing an opinion critical of Musk or Trump. Are there no laws against this? Surely this goes against freedom of speech?
Thank you for acknowledging the reality that "cutting waste" was always just a lie. Please continue to use your access and profile to push back on any news outlet that publishes a "Musk reviews spending" headline or story, looking at you @nytimes.com and @wsj.com and @washingtonpost.com
Another insightful post by @pkrugman.bsky.social. It is too easy to become distracted by the silly things the President says on any given day. The real story is the attempt to make himself a King.
I appreciate a clear eyed take on american events but I think Mr. Krugman is still too optimistic that trump will be stopped. I'm not sure that is possible anymore. Not until Republicans stand up. Canadians do not expect reprieve and recent polls indicate we are ready to fight back.
While Trump/Musk is focused on this nonsense the economy is starting to fracture. I give till the end of the year before crisis point hits and when it does Trump will see his popularity tank and the Republicans will either act to remove him or they will be out of power for quie some time.
The most terrifying has been the length of time Trump has remained unchecked by Republicans. 9 years. I believe the alliance is, R's get P25 and Trump gets to pillage the Treasury. R-States will get their own monarchies as they see fit.
I don't think that pillaging the Treasury was in the original plan. He made so many preparations for grift and bribery from non-government sources,I don't think he imagined drinking straight from the tap.
Could you give us a sense of where we are heading to? I cannot see the pace of the last three weeks continue indefinitely. Is there any chance to see Trump imploding in the near future? (He looks wasted). Are the Maga voters going to swiftly wake up? Where are the Democrats? Musk running for life?
I would welcome an article on what must happen to state income taxes in rich and poor states if federal govt transfers between the states are really cut.
Those who believe this is a farce, ACT. Trumusk is just cutting jobs on a whim. They want to reduce the workforce by 5% by any means. That is not how to run a business or gov’t. Stand Together & Act on 2/11
Although a Constitutinal Republic we are perceived as an oligarchy, and based on recent history, include attributes of other forms of government from mobocracy to cryptocracy.
What will be the American autogolpe?
I suggest Trumpocracy:
A trumpery of failed forms of self-dealing, incompetent, repressive governments serving the interests of the few to satisfy the sociopathy of one.
I thought it was self evident that the convicted felon would become a dictator if elected. The ignorant masses that elected him are still not paying attention. They don't even know what's going on. We have to reach them.
"the full support of every Republican in the House and the Senate." And lots of Dems as well. Any Democrat who voted for any of the nominees should be primaried. That would be all of them you say? (Rubio 99-0) Then so be it. Time to stop protecting these collaborators.
Paul, I hope you don’t mind me saying that amongst engaged Australians like me (and I’m sure other democracies are the same), the discussion with my peers is whether we can really count the United States as one of the functioning democracies any more.
We completely lost that status when Trump won 2024.
He "won" in 2016 because the base function of democracy is broken here. Then he stacked the USSC with quack. That lying criminal quack enabled his crimes and he really did win in 2024.
That's not functioning democracy, not remotely close.
Comments
Don't expect the DOJ to do anything to enforce the VRA or take on any new voter suppression cases. 1/
He got 8 out of 10 Premiers on all ends of the political spectrum to agree on one thing. And boosted Trudeau's numbers
With those in mind, Musk's obsession w/ ending USAID make more sense...
It's tempting to assume along your line of reasoning that these people are trying to make an unassailable fortress state, and that's the danger. But the rubble may be the intent: no fortress.
The pie chart clarifies so well. And I went to Julien Miguel (You Tube) to learn how to pronounce autogolpe
Today I learned...
No one who cares about democracy should ever fund this man by buying a Tesla
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/elon-musk-trump-usaid/681607/
"Corrupted democrats want to keep wasting taxpayers' money, blah blah, more power to the president" and so on
@calpers.bsky.social please take note.
But we don't know if all or only some of them will reign, by the end of this plan.
I'm sure it's on the table now, though.
https://bsky.app/profile/nahyatx.bsky.social/post/3lhoz3dsju22n
I suggest Trumpocracy:
A trumpery of failed forms of self-dealing, incompetent, repressive governments serving the interests of the few to satisfy the sociopathy of one.
without a keel, the ship of state can be pushed in any direction by a small group
This is why I fqqn hate MAGA.
Now where are all those supposedly Constitution loving Republicans?
Yes, that's what it is. The rest is clickbait, the supposed plans are distractions.
I wonder when non-ideological business leaders in the USA (not the pro-fascist minority) start to worry that Trump/Musk will damage USA exports.
He "won" in 2016 because the base function of democracy is broken here. Then he stacked the USSC with quack. That lying criminal quack enabled his crimes and he really did win in 2024.
That's not functioning democracy, not remotely close.