45 Comments
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Odis H Johnson's avatar

With control over our government pay systems, how do we know he hasn't already paid himself billions, if not trillions already? This could be paid into overseas accounts all over the world and untraceable and unreturnable. How can we (and trump) be sure he is not securing control over the government for himself to establish his own Reich? trump himself could become expendable when he is the self proclaimed holder of all departments of the US government and exiled or otherwise disposed of.

Jacek Lubecki's avatar

Spot on. I agree especially about the falling out scenario: Trump and Musk will have a dramatic break sooner or later. So will Trump and JD Vance. No person with a brain can survive being with Trump.

Susanna J. Sturgis's avatar

Much depends on whether Trump can control the billionaires or the billionaires will control him. (I'm including Peter Thiel, the billionaire behind JD Vance, along with Musk, and I don't think Zuckerberg, Andreesen, and the rest of them are all that far away.)

Phyllis M Southworth's avatar

My beloved Dad, a WWII recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross for doing his part in combating NAZI Germany, is rolling in his grave right now. And his stupid "military" son voted for the Trump Regime. Thank God his daughters are smarter than that.

Lois Weiss's avatar

My father -in-law served in WWII as well. He was actually exempt from the draft as he was a physician, had 3 children, and was older. However, he saw what was coming, trained as a flight surgeon, and enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor. He won a Purple Heart. My husband also served. They are both spinning in their graves!

Claire's avatar

There’s no doubt in my mind that Dump is allowing Musk to loot the treasury and gather sensitive personal information on ALL of us, only to use it for himself after he kicks Musk out. The only problem with that is that Musk will still have the data to do with as he pleases. If this isn’t a constitutional crisis then I don’t know what is.

Jim's avatar

As well as calling the MAGAts "contemptible fools", he also called them "subtards"! Ha! Nevertheless, everything that's happening with DOGE is unConstitutional and blantantly illegal.

Andrew's avatar

Great article, Olivia, thank you. We've goota get Eloi back to South Afrika.

Michael J. Devereaux's avatar

Kryptonite? Agree with what you say about Elon Musk and he must be stopped. But there's no magical bullet nor kryptonite. The criminal convicted felon, sexual offender Putin-lover Trump must be voted down, beaten politically. That requires better, responsible pro-democracy citizens like yourself to run.

Bonnie Council's avatar

I honestly don’t think we can wait until the next election to put better people in office. This Project 2025 & Musk shock & awe approach has a goal & that goal is to completely destroy any semblance of our democracy within trump’s first 100 days. All bets are off that there will even be another election.

Kay Morris's avatar

These MAGA people are already paranoid so reading about Muskrat being in their files is probably going to set a few off. I hope they terrorize that man like they have many innocent people. But, he is not innocent. This is by design. They are trying to break the bank.

Denise Westby's avatar

I'd like to know HOW TO GET HIM AND HIS MINI-ME TROUP OUT OF OUR GOVERNMENT. NOW. Not later. I can see him selling our data to China. He's only in this as a game. He with the most, wins.

Christa Slaton's avatar

Love this newsletter. It is so insightful and informative.

Lois Weiss's avatar

Musk owns us. He paid 230 billion dollars of us. He doesn’t care about MAGA, Trump or anyone but himself. In my opinion, he wants to own the world by harnessing all the power he can. My hope is that Benedict Donald will realize that Musk wants control of everything sooner rather than later. Musk is overplaying his hand. People are riled up that Trump has been handed the keys to the national checkbook!

resolve's avatar

All too true in the end of that chapter, Olivia.

Ruth 🟦's avatar

Olivia, I assume Donald will continue to pile up the injunctions. Can you tell me how and who will enforce these federal court orders? Because right now, it feels like we have a lot of law enforcement capture all the while the psychopathic South African and his incels are barricaded inside our systems.

Also, how could a person become a “special govt employee” without drug testing?

Once they physically remove him, IF they physically remove him, who will go through their coding changes and ensure back doors and other malicious code hasn’t been added?

Finally, Elmo’s hackers are very mysterious. They may well be foreign nationals, further threatening national security?

Sorry, that is a lot of questions for you, but maybe you could use these questions as inspiration for your next piece? Many, many of us are wondering about these things.

Taco the Man's avatar

I guess this is what the US public wants

Greta Raney's avatar

What the US public who voted for trump wanted and what they are getting are two vastly different things. I suspect that, even when they are faced with the undeniable truth of what is happening, they will continue to go along with it. Much easier to blame the dems and the immigrants than admit you were played.

Tam B's avatar

Maybe... but maybe not. If they ever come to the conclusion that he has been lying to them, they just might turn on him... and remember... they have guns... just sayin

Greta Raney's avatar

Hopefully the first part without the guns.......

Susanna J. Sturgis's avatar

Why do you say that? Only 49% of the 63% of eligible voters who turned out to vote actually voted for Trump, and (even though I do not have a high opinion of those people) I don't believe this is what they were voting for. Racism, sexism, deporting migrants, dumbing down education -- this is what they were voting for, not Elon Musk on a rampage.

Greta Raney's avatar

You're right. While they were busy spewing their hate they didn't see Elon buying himself a soon to be president and the US government. Elon played everyone and made billions doing it. Remember you have to spend a little to make, in elons case, billions.

Tam B's avatar

He totally knew what he was doing when he bought twitter...

Susanna J. Sturgis's avatar

MUSK knew what he was doing, but all too many US voters don't have a clue.

Larry Rosen's avatar

I just read that Wikipedia may be his next target.

Tam B's avatar

Grrrr.... I saw that too! Control the information, control the population...

Bonnie Council's avatar

I’ve said that all along. People called Musk crazy. I said crazy like a fox. He’s a clear & present danger & we need to get him out of our government, even though the biggest damage may have already been done.

Lois Weiss's avatar

No, no, no. We don’t want this. We need to stick together and take action now. There are a lot of us who didn’t vote for him, don’t want him and don’t want Musk.

CHARLOTTE YAGER's avatar

So glad you are here for us. Continue to speak out. I for one join in echoing all your thoughts. You do not sugarcoat. Thank you!

Sue Donovan's avatar

We all assume there will be a “next election.” Getting Trump OUT the first time was no easy task. Authoritarians do not respect term limits. Putin was elected with term limits; he brushed them aside the way Trump tried to repeal the 14th Amendment. He called it to “birthright citizenship” and signed an EO to abolish it.

For me, the big question is how much of a stomach do Americans have when it’s time for Trump to leave and he refuses to budge? I can see him say, “MAKE ME!!!”

Thus far, he has shown nothing but disdain for the rule of law or the constitution.

Russia has elections, too. They are only for show.