Mastodawn

It's hard to believe we are now ending just the second week of this new administration, which feels like several months already. But that's all part of the ideological blitzkrieg, right? Flood the zone.

The lack of any coherent response from Democrats to some of the blatantly illegal and gonzo stuff the White House and Herr Musk are now pulling is staggering. But it's a useful signal that it might make more sense for strategists to focus their efforts on identifying the vanishingly few senior GOP lawmakers who still have a spine.

You know, so-called "Party of Lincoln" members who have some vague recollection of the fact that we live in a republic that is to be governed for, by and of the people. And that pretty much the whole point of the Constitution is to make it so that no one branch of government -- but particularly the executive -- can seize too much power. Perhaps appealing to their sense of self preservation is the best strategy going forward.

@briankrebs is amazing to me how little spine congress has to let the president take so much of their power. It’s disgusting.

bendodge Feb 1, 2025

@gh0sti @briankrebs Congress cedes it gladly. Most of them don't want to do any hard work of reading and writing.

@bendodge @briankrebs Jon Stewart when he was trying to help the 9/11 volunteers the congressman said they didn’t have time to write the bill. THEY DIDNT HAVE TIME TO DO THEIR JOB!! The fuck is wrong with them?

bendodge Feb 1, 2025

@briankrebs wish we could get a president who'd lean on Congress to return to normal rules of procedure and remember how to debate and legislate. The Congress Clown Show leaves a huge power vacuum for the exec.

Tytrater Feb 1, 2025

@briankrebs There are decades where nothings happens, and weeks where decades happen

Cali Feb 1, 2025

@briankrebs I read a comment somewhere that posited the following - this is designed to be shocking to get people out protesting, thereby opening the door to some type of martial law. Now, it was only someone’s opinion, but you could see how that wouldn’t be off the table as an option - either accidentally or by design

SensibleOtter Feb 1, 2025

I have two major concerns, right now:

1. DEI is a beautiful distraction.
Whilst it is 100% part of the plan, why is it THE ONLY THING we ‘hear’ about. Trumps playbook is using my this as the most visible verbiage on everything. They know that everyone will be yelling ‘Racist’ at the top of their lungs and focusing on the removal of words about minorities.
Meanwhile, for every removal of DEI specific actions, there will be a more subtle and background removal of general liberties.

Nick Feb 2, 2025

@OtterlySensible @briankrebs Agree on the DEI focus. But what I’ve noticed is that the mainstream media is totally focused there and on social media people are concerned about the bigger issues. I guess that’s the corporate controlled media for you… it’s all a con now.

SensibleOtter Feb 1, 2025

2. The Musk playbook
Yeah, at first I thought he was a hanger-on to the powerful elite. Then maybe he was a useful idiot to help trump.
Now that we see more, I wonder if he has read Mein Kampf and feels he can take his cue from that.
Hitler’s rise to power involved a RW Fascist allying himself with LW Socialists, because that was where he got the influence, support and power. Hitler was made chancellor by the political elites who thought they could easily control him.

SensibleOtter Feb 1, 2025

Hitler wasn’t German, and used loopholes to attain German citizenship. Now the US Constitution doesn’t contain any similar loopholes … but … in the case of major crisis, such as War or ‘Economicial Collapse’ then emergency powers could be granted and expanded, in theory, to allow a non native born person to be able to temporarily hold the position. This has huge similarities to the Reichstag Fire situation that Hitler used.

Now all of this assumes that he wants to be The Big Man himself, but he could also assume enough riches and power (data maybe 🤔) to just wield infinite power over the government as its Puppet-Master.

Tgdchris Feb 1, 2025

@briankrebs https://mastodon.social/@xs4me2/113925354125368850

Nicholas Feb 1, 2025

@briankrebs if we are dependent on people in Congress with an R, we are doomed!

Nico Erfurth Feb 1, 2025

@briankrebs with the nearly completely MAGA-fied Republican Party, how will the US get out of this? It feels like what’s happening right now is what McConnell and players like the heritage foundation have been prepared for years. It’s at least two years of free reign with checks and balances effectively not existing anymore.

The Republican Party has shown that they are willing to use immense voter suppression to get into power, now they can use even more to stay in power.

Nico Erfurth Feb 1, 2025

@briankrebs i also fear that they will find ways and „reasons“ that 47 can just become 48. after that there is hopefully some kind of natural age limit.

Kinene⭐🐻Feb 1, 2025

@masta @briankrebs They have been preparing for this for years, since the New Deal.

Nicole Parsons Feb 1, 2025

The problem with fascism is their deluded belief that their autocracy will last a 1000 years. Hitler lasted 12.
https://www.britannica.com/story/why-was-nazi-germany-called-the-third-reich

When it became obvious that they would lose WW2, what did the Axis forces do?

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/death-marches

Instead of bolstering their frontline troops, they used their paltry remaining rail stock to evacuate concentration camp inmates away from the front, hoping to avoid discovery of their monstrous acts.

https://www.porta-polonica.de/en/atlas-of-remembrance-places/roma-ligocka-girl-red-coat-schindlers-list

1/3

Why Was Nazi Germany Called the Third Reich? | Britannica

A bit of background on the First and Second Reichs.

Encyclopedia Britannica

Nicole Parsons Feb 1, 2025

2/3

Instead of shipping more supplies for the war effort to the front, they used limited petrol to dig up & burn bodies buried in mass graves.

Republicans will likely do the same; continue their inhumanity right to the bitter end.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratlines_(World_War_II)

Then they'll use ratlines to escape while ordering their dupes to cover their tracks for them, leaving them holding the bag.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_trials

Suggestion: try to get copies of fingerprints, retinal scans, & DNA for...

Ratlines (World War II) - Wikipedia

Nicole Parsons Feb 1, 2025

3/3

...Republican billionaires & key staff like Stephen Miller.

Get passport numbers too.

Foreign passports too. Thiel, Musk, etc have citizenship in several countries.

We're going to need that.

PS.
Looking forward to Musk's "Eichmann Trial" ?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichmann_trial

Eichmann trial - Wikipedia

Kinene⭐🐻Feb 1, 2025

@Npars01 They also starved their own citizens. I knew several German immigrants who were children during the war. They told me during the final years, the military took up all the real food, and left the populace to starve. The bakeries were making bread from bad flour and sawdust („Erzatz”), and there was little else available.

Germany was also running out of draft age (young) men, and started drafting teens and "seniors."

Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴‍♂️📷 🗺️Feb 1, 2025

If only Trump had a Congressional Question Period he had to answer to regularly ?

Curioso 🍉 🇺🇦 (jgg)Feb 1, 2025

I'm not sure Democrats can do much at this time.

Simply, people didn't vote them enough.

AlgoCompSynth by znmeb 🇺🇦Feb 1, 2025

@briankrebs I don't think there's a solution that involves persuading Republican elected officials anywhere to defy Donald Trump, Elon Musk, or any other Republican for that matter. If they could be persuaded, we would have done it when we had the White House and the Senate.

The way forward is more school bus drivers telling ICE agents, "gargle my balls", and other *organized* action on the ground, not expecting to change the minds of the millionaires who write the tax laws.

Bill Feb 1, 2025

Why isn't Elon musk being charged with cybercrimes?

Mike Hartwell Feb 1, 2025

@briankrebs The illegal stuff is in courts as we speak. And if found unconstitutional it is rejected. That is how the system works. However, you are right to point out the Democrat partisans are not standing up and showing We the People how they will do it better.

David J. Atkinson Feb 1, 2025

@Oldmikie @briankrebs Yes, that is what I believed. I was wrong. It is aspirational thinking, not realistic thinking. The system no longer works (if it ever did). Manifestly unconstitutional acts are not ultimately rejected, they are papered over. The Supreme Court as the ultimate arbiter of Constitutionality is a relatively recent invention. We know now that #SCOTUS is as political and corruptible as the other “equal” branches of government. Appeals to the Supreme Court are not guaranteed to result in received wisdom nor result in corrective action.

Mike Hartwell Feb 5, 2025

@meltedcheese @briankrebs I understand I am not happy about the system But The "opposition" MAGA and Trump want to push the limits of "constitutionality" rather than give up we need to keep pushing them with the law even if the SCOTUS is on their side. Notice many of the minions follow Trump because he fights fights fights. (rightly or wrongly). They do not follow us liberal progressives because we give up. Yes most of OUR elected representatives are corrupted. But we must keep trying.

David J. Atkinson Feb 5, 2025

@Oldmikie @briankrebs I understand your position. I do not advocate giving up, not at all. We should keep pushing in all the ways you say. In the last three days, since I wrote the toot to which you responded, events have moved very fast and the situation is even more dire. There must be quick and direct action to stop the injury they are causing before it gets much worse. #SCOTUS can sort it out later, as they do, in the fullness of time. That might take years. Right now, #democracy in the US does not have the luxury of time.

Mike Hartwell May 22, 2025

@meltedcheese @briankrebs I do not support violence, I think all that will do is upset people. Direct action is fine but the constitutional Republic does not need factional strife.

BrianKrebs May 22, 2025

@Oldmikie @meltedcheese Probably what we are talking about here is by a factor of thousands of cuts. So feel free to be a cutter.

David J. Atkinson May 24, 2025

@briankrebs @Oldmikie “Direct Action” doesn’t equate to violence against people. I agree with you on non-violence, but not unconditionally.
Direct Action in my mind is primarily directed at property and processes. Blocking roads for example, or defacing billboards. The general idea is disruption; to make business as usual impossible.

Mike Hartwell May 27, 2025

@meltedcheese @briankrebs I sort of understand. My definition of "Direct Action" is to organized protests like the Selma March for civil rights. Or the BLM protests in 2020. (kind of a theme there) BUT nonsense like vandalizing Teslas or assassinating people or blowing up buildings do nothing but piss people off.

Mike Hartwell May 28, 2025

@meltedcheese @briankrebs look back through the history of violent direct action. Name one instance where violence gained the objective. Of a better world, better environment, better lifestyle, wtf.I think direct action is the dull and difficult process of getting like minded individuals elected. From county commissioner to POTUS.

David J. Atkinson May 28, 2025

@Oldmikie @briankrebs The choice of examples varies by what you mean by violence and who you think attained their objective and for how long. It is also a matter of scale, and how you much attribution you assign to direct violence in attainment of some objective. Violence is highly disruptive and that is also sometimes a goal. Violence is highly provocative and maybe getting attention is the goal. Here are a few examples off the top of my head. They are all arguable.

— Multiple events that sparked the American Revolutionary War (resistance to the Stamp Act ‘Boston Tea Party”, beatings of British troops garrisoned in private homes, guerrilla attacks on British retreating from Concorde and Lexington, the “Battle of Bunker Hill” …)

— French Revolution (overthrow of the monarchy)

— Russian Revolution (overthrow of the monarchy)

— US civil unrest leading to end of American war in Vietnam.

— Afghanistan Taliban resistance to Soviet then American (Coalition) occupation.

— Greenpeace and others’ disruption of Japanese whale hunting.

— Sabotage of heavy equipment at controversial fossil fuel-related construction sites.

Mike Hartwell May 30, 2025

@meltedcheese @briankrebs You missed the part about the French conducting piracy on the high seas and disrupting the British supply lines. Or the Days of Rage in 1968. Or Kent State. Or the bombing of the federal building by McVeigh. Or the anthrax letters. Or the wars of conquest by the USA government against all sorts of people. If by accomplishment you mean continued death destruction and revenge then yes it accomplishes things. If you mean progress towards a more perfect union then no.

Mike Hartwell May 31, 2025

@meltedcheese @briankrebs I agree. What I think is needed is an understand ing of the objective of the violent direct action. Is the objective of blowing up a building killing 168 people to exact revenge for the massacre of the Branch Davidians. Or is the assassination of Brian Thompson just a publicity stunt to shine a light on predatory insurance companies.

Mike Hartwell May 31, 2025

@meltedcheese @briankrebs I disagree violence is easy to identify no matter the example, destruction or damage to someone else's person or property is violent. To use one of your examples blocking a highway. I consider that non violent but it does piss people off. Whether that aids getting publicity for a cause is the debate.

David J. Atkinson May 31, 2025

@briankrebs @Oldmikie I disagree with your definition of violence. i’m sure people have divergent opinions, as we do. I think we could have a discussion about direct action and set the issue of violence aside for the moment.

Mike Hartwell Jun 2, 2025

@meltedcheese @briankrebs Note the news stories, in Colorado a demonstration supporting Israeli hostages get attacked by a fanatic with homeade flamethrowers shouting "Free Palestine". Both are direct actions The hostages must be returned and Palestine must be freed. But....

David J. Atkinson Jun 2, 2025

@Oldmikie @briankrebs You’ve convinced me that “Direct Action” is not well-defined, at least not well enough to categorize incidents like Colorado for our purposes here. In the case of the Colorado fanatic’s attack, I consider that an individual act of retribution. It was not political direct action. Israel’s attack on Gaza is national-state violence. I would not include warfare within the scope of direct action. The taking of the Israeli hostages probably should be considered direct action, but not the accompanying massacre of people at the music festival and kibbutz. That was gratuitous violent terrorism. Unless provoking Israel’s highly predictable response was their political objective, the overall attack was a poor choice. Lastly, it is important to evaluate these examples not just on the dimension of violence, but also on the basis of tactical value, effectiveness, norms and ethical rationale.

Bottom line, direct action or not, it is not easy to say whether an action is justifiable or not without being clear about these multiple dimensions. For nation states, the international laws of war provide the structure that lets us see what is and is not a war crime. There is no international equivalent I know of (other than domestic law) for non-state resistance including direct action. All in all, it is easy to see how reasonable people may disagree.

I suggest we close this thread now.

Mike Hartwell Jun 5, 2025

@meltedcheese @briankrebs Agreed. BUT I also think it illustrates the problem of emotional/ideological fanaticism controlling "direct actions" The Colorado assholes attack just pissed people off and the nitwits like MAGA pretend this is some anti semite action.

Mike Hartwell May 31, 2025

@meltedcheese @briankrebs PS: Your examples of Vietnam, Afghanistan etc. ignore the FACT that those wars were either started by lies (Vietnam) or were an excuse to control Afghan mineral deposits (about $3T and lots of rare earth minerals) The American protests did help limiting the capability of politicians and business interests in just killing everybody. And Afghanistan went on for 20 years before the politicians cut deals with each other.

Mike Hartwell May 23, 2025

@meltedcheese @briankrebs I would say the SCOTUS (est 1789) has always been politicized and corruptible. We the people allow it. Honesty, integrity, and ethics are not requirements for holding public office.

FinchHaven sfba Feb 2, 2025

"...it might make more sense for strategists to focus their efforts on identifying the vanishingly few senior GOP lawmakers who still have a spine"

I keep thinking that there has to be *some* Republicans who must realize that with Trump they're on a suicide mission

There will be no going forward for the Republican party -- after Trump -- if the some part of the Republican party doesn't begin to at least neuter Trump and Vance -- if not stop Trump outright

At the moment the Republican party has no future

John Breen Feb 2, 2025

@briankrebs But what do we do about the Supreme Court ?

Mike Crampton Feb 2, 2025

@briankrebs https://mstdn.ca/@BHTC_Mike/113928685562225213

Mike Crampton (@[email protected])

Folks are having a hard time appreciating this: The only people who can stop what is happening in the United States right now are Republicans. Only about 20% of Americans, at most, are true Trumpers who actively endorse the cruelty agenda. But that has been shown to be more than enough to effect institutional takeover if not blocked by other Republicans.

Mastodon Canada

Mark Mercer Feb 2, 2025

You're absolutely right about how shameful the #Democrats non-response to Trump / Musk illegal gonzo actions are.

But it's even worse. This weekend the Democratic Party held its elections for the new Chair of the Democratic National Committee. Anybody who wanted reach change and renewal barely got a handful of votes, if that. The winner was Ken Martin, who either was gaslighting or is totally clueless (or both):

He actually said that the Democrats "have the right message."

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/01/dnc-chair-election-takeaways-ken-martin-00201948

If Democrats had the right message we wouldn't have gotten such a huge shellacking in November. But hey, Martin is a very connected big fundraiser, so it's clear that the #DNC remains "business as usual."

He also claimed that Harris ran a good campaign. Which clearly was not true - not all the way to the end. Sure, she came out of the gate fairly well, and built up a lot of momentum .

But then the ex-Obama "pros" and other DNC Machine types got in, and we got things like campaigning with the Cheneys, all tho super-rich celebrities, and no specifics about how she would make lives better for "everyday American" working class and middle class people.

"Opportunity Economy" meaningless words instead. Not everyone wants to start a business nor can - they just want to work an honest day each day and be able to afford groceries, home insurance, car insurance, health care, all of which were skyrocketing.

Chester Wisniewski 🇨🇦Feb 2, 2025

@briankrebs The problem is the country has forgotten the preamble. It is "We the people" not "Me the people". All of the wealth has been transferred leaving just crumbs. It leaves people susceptible to the "me first" mentality these tyrants appeal to as they scramble to survive.

I only hope that Canada's unity survives this and we don't fall into the "me" group as well. Collectivism doesn't have to be socialism or communism, it can just be compassion, understanding, and a united cause.

Andreas K Feb 2, 2025

@briankrebs
Ah but their sense of self-preservation would dictate keeping their head down, voting as their Glorious Leader demands, and watching out what jokes are told at their homes.

PhillyChuck Feb 5, 2025

@briankrebs They are rapidly changing their role model to be the part of George Lincoln Rockwell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lincoln_Rockwell

George Lincoln Rockwell - Wikipedia

Mike Hartwell May 29, 2025

@briankrebs I think the Democrat party has settled on the strategy of silence. It seems that DNC types that letting Trump run roughshod over the USA means the Democrats will win by default. My concern is that real issues like immigration, healthcare, environmental protection, mass transportation, education will be ignored while partisan vendetta becomes the new norm.