Whether it has already happened is debatable, but this event is inevitable.
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lol…surprise surprise.
I would be pretty surprised if Elon and Trump actually get along. They are simply too alike and we all know that there can only be one king in the castle.
Trump knows Elon can never be President, so its less of an issue.
If you think of this whole thing as a 15th Century medieval court it starts to make a bit more sense.
A medieval court where everyone is the jester/fool?
Trump will always have his favourites.
Problem is he will swap them around from time to time.
I expect the same to happen to Musk.
I personally don’t think Musk cares. He just wants taxpayer $$ for his pet project (Mars) so being close to Trump gets him closer to that goal.
Once he gets those taxpayer subsidies, he will fade away as Trump focuses on someone else.
Every time I read stuff on DOGE all I can think is that we have before us the billionaire version of let’s defund the law and order so they can do what they want in markets. Kennedy wants to take aim at health and Elmo and team are taking aim at everything else but particularly financial regulators. It’s just hitting me that this is going to be the worst government ever if they do half of what they aim to do.
I have contributed to the “Milestones to Authoritarianism” thread. But, I might be trapped in a 20th century mindset.
There have to be dozens of scifi movies where the government is just a huge, for profit corporation. Maybe that’s the better model.
The result of Musk/Trump is going to be a regulatory system re-worked so that if favors big corporations over consumers and small firms. Trump will appoint people who work for the corporations, Musk will help him identify and fire everyone else. Musk and others are legally untouchable because they are rich and because enough judges will favor them. Anyone who gets in the way will be targeted by Musk’s online horde and by explicit lawfare from Trump.
Here is their first target:
It’s really a slick thing that the GOP has managed to do. Never before have I seen people celebrate voting in leaders that have clearly articulated regressive policies. For example the tariffs are now being talked about as a tool for foreign affairs it’s not clear what the economic gains will be because success is now being measured on non-economic measures. I am no longer sure there is an economic policy at all.
It would have been better if the government owned the corporations but we may well end up with oligarchs as the billionaire class consolidates both economic wealth and political power.
This is a nightmare.
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Success was never relevant. Claiming victory regardless of the outcome was the plan.
Maybe we can get through the next 2 months where Trump threatens a lot of his policy, people react, and he claims victory before even taking office. Back to business as usual on Jan 20. Trump golfs, Musk does his billoinaire dance, and Vivek just carries on talking about doing things.
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I really wish that would happen. Each of them including RFK are going to at least push their pet projects and that is going to be a problem in the first year of this regime.
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That is a possiblity, but also realize that for much to happen, the second Trump administration needs to be more competent than the first one. Repeal and replace, infrastructure, the wall, etc. Not much actually happened. Elmo and Vivek have 0 real authority. R’s will have a small majority in the House.
Trump could certainly do a lot of damage, but he’s lazy and will throw them all under the bus the second any of them make him look bad.
Tom Homan and Stephen Miller IMO are the two real dangers to keep an eye on. Americans don’t care enough if “bad” people are treated poorly as long as they are convinced the person did something wrong.
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This is the issue. Trump may spend his time using the DOJ to get even (a very bad thing). Meanwhile, the thousands of people he appoints will be pushing their pet projects or more likely some businesses pet projects.
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The House margin is tight but they’ll vote it through. The Senate needed 50+1 votes to repeal without replacing last time and came up one short; this time, they can afford to lose 3 and I can’t think of a 3rd and 4th after Collins and Murkowski who would give a thumbs down. Outside chance for Vance’s replacement, no chance for Rubio’s replacement, and I assume none of those who have been elected (except Romney, so N/A now) since the last attempt.
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This is but one example of ‘efficiency’ being just moving something from government/public sector to the private sector. Most of the cuts they want to make are not cuts they are just reallocations from public to private pockets.
Who needs the FDIC and banking regulations?
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/trump-advisers-seek-shrink-or-eliminate-bank-regulators-wsj-reports-2024-12-13/
In fairness, federal financial regulation in the US is a bureaucratic mess of somewhat conflicting / overlapping agencies.
Some cleanup of that mess would, in principle, be a good idea. However, I question the motives/goals of those doing the cleanup.
Was it in a thread here on GoA that we were discussing Canada’s continued sell-off and privatization of various government services? Airlines, phone/internet, highways, utilities, etc.
Seems like a good model to continue to maximize profits. Privatize the postal service, the fire departments. Why not eventually privatize the police and the military?