Kid Musk:
Elon Musk's unchecked power is illegal and unconstitutional. Privately many Republicans concede this. So, why aren't they standing up to Elon? Were they to do so, it might lessen the heat at their Town Hall meetings because clearly, their constituents want him out.
Art by Kevin Kreneck. For more Graphics and Greeting Cards, go to https://kkreneck.wixsite.com/mysite
Yeah, they're trying to re-write history.
The new Republican Jan 6 commission is re-investigating the events of Jan 6 with an emphasis on discrediting the original members of the first commission. All this is an attempt to somehow shift blame from Republicans to Democrats for the events of that fateful day.
Art by Kevin Kreneck. For more Graphics and Greeting Cards, go to https://kkreneck.wixsite.com/mysite
Exit the caring nation; enter the police state.
The Trump administration continues to de-fund and eliminate most departmental agencies that cater to the needs of regular people, while continuing to subsidize and cut taxes for Corporate America. Bottom line, Trump and his cronies are attempting to destroy the democratic state, leaving Trump and his Billionaire buddies in charge.
Art by Kevin Kreneck. For more Graphics and Greeting Cards, go to https://kkreneck.wixsite.com/mysite
Democrats are plenty mad at Sen. Charles Schumer and nine other Democratic senators who blocked the filibuster that threatened to force the federal government to shut down, in the hopes it would force Republicans to negotiate with Democrats.
The rank and file wanted Democrats to stand up and fight the Republican attempts to replace democracy with dictatorship. When House Republicans brought up a partisan stopgap resolution that was drafted without Democratic input and would allow the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE tech bros to carry out their efforts to slash the federal bureaucracy, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries rallied the House Democrats in opposition, but the stopgap resolution passed 217 to 213 on March 11, with one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, opposing it and one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine. supporting it. Then House Republicans left town, daring Senate Democrats to filibuster and force the shutdown three days later.
Schumer at first said Republicans, who have 53 senators, lacked the Democratic votes to reach the 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster. Schumer proposed an amendment to reduce the stopgap to one month, giving both parties work on a compromise, but he got a hard no from the Republican leadership.
In the end, Schumer concluded, “While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse. I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.”
Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Gary Peters of Michigan, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, as well as Angus King — an independent senator from Maine, who caucuses with Democrats — voted to close the filibuster and let the CR proceed.
After the vote, Schumer rejected calls for him to step down, saying he believed he was doing the “right thing for America” and for his party in voting to keep the government open. During a shutdown, he said, “the Executive Branch has sole power to determine what is, quote, ‘essential.’ And they can determine without any court supervision.”
Outraged voters need to remember that Democrats are not the bad guys in this situation. Republicans are in control of the House, the Senate and the White House. Democrats may fight them, but they can’t win, as Trump and Musk have effectively neutered any Republicans in Congress who might show a spine. All Trump has to do is call potential mavericks and threaten to promote a Republican primary opponent, who will be financed by Musk, in the next election.
Many Republicans are convinced shutting down government is a good thing and, during a shutdown, Trump and Musk would continue finding places to cut government agencies and employees in pursuit of dismantling the “deep state.”
Congressional Republicans, who control the oversight committees, have refused to call Musk to the Capitol to explain how his DOGE bros, with their sketchy backgrounds, are qualified to find “waste, fraud and inefficiency” in government agencies, when it seems they are arbitrarily ordering the layoffs of probationary federal employees, who have less job protection, and shutting down government offices, with most of the savings going to pay for tax breaks for billionaires.
Musk in February labeled Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and “one big pyramid scheme,” fueling concern that he was making the case to dismantle key social safety net benefits, which is a longtime goal of right wingers. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Musk’s comments show that Republicans are “coming after Social Security and Medicare. And they aren’t even hiding it.”
Republicans aren’t demanding that Musk show his work, either. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., defended Musk, saying his scrutiny of Social Security is focusing on “fraud, waste and abuse.” (Social Security’s inspector general in August 2024 reported that between fiscal 2015 and 2022, less than 1% of its payments were “improper,” most of which are overpayments, and they do attempt to recover those overpayments.)
Martin O’Malley, who served as Social Security commissioner during the Biden administration, said he expects the reorganization and staff cuts being steered by Musk and DOGE to cause a meltdown that could interfere with benefit payments that go to more than 73 million retirees and disabled Americans.
Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek threatened to shut the whole agency down March 21 because he’s angry a federal judge temporarily blocked Musk and his DOGE hackers from accessing sensitive information at the agency.
“Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency,” Dudek said. Again, Republican congressional leaders are not showing concern, although unnamed Republicans have told reporters they wish Musk would shut up about calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme. And Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick didn’t help when he said on a podcast that anyone calling for help because their Social Security check didn’t come is likely a fraudster.
“Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She thinks something got messed up and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise screaming, yelling, and complaining,” said Lutnick, a multibillionaire who could easily cover his mother-in-law’s expenses until Social Security gets sorted out.
Democratic leaders must do a better job messaging. of course, but Schumer isn’t going anywhere, and his term runs through 2028. Democrats’ best hope right now is getting federal courts to reverse Trump’s illegal actions that shut down agencies, intimidate liberal advocates and twist immigration laws to deport or deny entry to foreign nationals who criticize Trump.
Democrats must come up with strong candidates to replace retiring Sens. Gary Peters in Michigan, Tina Smith in Minnesota and Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire. They also need candidates for special elections in Ohio to fill the remaining two years of JD Vance’s term and one in Florida to fill the remaining two years of Marco Rubio’s term after he became Secretary of State. Democrats also expect a tough re-election race for Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia,
Endangered Republican incumbents include Susan Collins in Maine and Thom Tillis in North Carolina. In Texas, incumbent Sen. John Cornyn may face a Republican primary challenge from right wingers who think he’s not crazy enough, so Democrats should put up a strong challenger in case it turns out to be an open seat and Texas Latinos decide they have had enough of Trump’s harassment of Browns.
The best course forward is not to burn Teslas, but win back the House and Senate in 2026 and make Trump a lame duck. — JMC
In his first six weeks back in power, Donald Trump betrayed democracy, the rule of law, neighboring trade partners as well as our allies overseas, his own supporters at home and the principles that have kept the United States a beacon of hope at home and abroad over the past century.
It is time for defenders of democracy to challenge the Great Betrayer, as well as Republicans who enable his power grabs.
The challenge was brought March 4 with Trump’s speech before the joint session of Congress, where Republicans celebrated the return of their leader, who had spent the past four years fighting criminal charges for his attempt to rig the 2020 election — while baselessly claiming Democrats had stolen the election from him — and his attempt to mount an insurrection with a violent assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election — an insurrection that cost the lives of five police officers and injured 174 more. Trump has pardoned the assailants.
Trump also was found liable in separate cases in New York courts for fraud and for sexual assault and later he was convicted on 34 felony counts involving his use of business funds and documents to cover up his adulterous affairs before the 2016 election. A partisan majority on the Supreme Court obstructed the work of a special prosecutor who had brought indictments in Florida and D.C. involving the alleged insurrection and Trump’s refusal to return classified documents he had taken from the White House.
After his inauguration, Trump proceeded with his plan to rule as a dictator, issuing executive orders setting aside acts of Congress, congressional appropriations and at least one article of the Constitution. He let centibillionaire Elon Musk set up an independent Department of Government Efficiency, operating under White House authority, as young computer hackers with sketchy backgrounds were sent into federal agencies to search computer files and, apparently arbitrarily, identified areas of potential “waste, fraud and abuse” that had escaped the attention of actual government auditors, such as inspectors general, whom Trump had summarily and illegally fired.
One of DOGE’s first moves was to shut down the US Agency for International Development, which was authorized by Congress in 1961 to unite several programs that provided humanitarian assistance for underdeveloped countries and counter the Soviet Union’s influence during the Cold War. It earned a good reputation for providing food and medical care to stop epidemics from spreading, as well as socioeconomic development. But USAID’s inspector general had initiated a probe of Musk’s Starlink satellite business. Musk said USAID was a “criminal organization” and that it was “beyond repair” and needed to be shut down. Trump ordered USAID merged into the State Department, despite warnings the move was illegal, and blocked payment of $2 billion to contractors for work that already been done.
The Supreme Court provided a glimmer of hope March 5 when it ruled 5-4 that US District Judge Amir H. Ali had the authority to order the administration to restart the payments. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s three liberal justices in the ruling, which stirred hope the court won’t endorse Trump’s dictatorial powers, but it apparently shows four justices would give Trump whatever he wants.
DOGE has continued to call for thousands of federal workers to be fired, with the main targets being those who have been working less than a year, since they generally have less civil service protection.
Former Social Security commissioner Martin O’Malley predicted the slashing of 7,000 jobs in the agency would cause disruption within three months of payments to some of the 73 million Americans who rely upon Social Security benefits. He also told Rolling Stone the gutting of employees and offices will also prevent Americans from easily applying for benefits and delay processing of disability claims.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to cut 80,000 jobs from the agency that provides health care and other services for millions of veterans, according to an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press. That would require terminating tens of thousands of employees hired in a VA expansion during the Biden administration, including those who care for veterans impacted by burn pits under the 2022 PACT Act.
In the week before his speech to Congress, Trump had brought Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House on Feb. 28. But instead of negotiating to continue supporting Ukraine’s three-year-long attempt to defeat Russia’s invading army, Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance tried to browbeat Zelenskyy into capitulating, while news crews, including the Russian news service Tass, broadcast the debacle, as Vance lectured Zelenskyy on how he had not been properly thankful for everything the U.S. had done for Ukraine (while Trump was negotiating with Putin on the terms of “ungrateful” Ukraine’s surrender). Trump ended up stopping intelligence sharing with Ukraine and left other support to NATO allies in Europe.
Democrats faced a challenge in how to respond to Trump’s March 4 speech to Congress. Democratic congressional leaders favored maintaining decorum at Trump’s speech to Congress, though many carried paddle-sized placards with messages of opposition.
US Rep. Al Green of Houston played the role of Old Testament prophet, pointing his cane and calling out Trump’s lies and Republicans for moving to slash Medicaid, which provides health care for many of Green’s working-class constituents. When Green refused to sit down and shut up, House Speaker Mike Johnson ordered the sergeant at arms to remove Green and let Trump continue with his lies.
Green went peacefully, and many Democrats applauded him for at least demonstrating resistance, but Republicans later moved to punish Green for his behavior.
Green was brought up for censure by the House, despite a history of Republicans heckling Democratic presidents Obama and Biden without retribution. Biden actually turned the heckling to his advantage in 2024, when Rep. Margorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) yelled out “Liar!” after Biden chided Republicans for floating the possibility of cuts to Social Security and Medicare. When others echoed Greene’s objections, Biden responded, “We all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right? ... We’ve got unanimity.” But Trump is not sharp enough to engage in a conversation that extends beyond his limited vocabulary of insults, and he had no answers to Al Green’s accusations.
Ten Democrats joined Republicans in voting to censure Green, but dozens of fellow Democrats accompanied Green to the well of the House and sang “We Shall Overcome” in a show of solidarity, causing Speaker Johnson to declare a recess.
Democrats at home may grumble that their congressmembers are not aggressive enough in their resistance to Trump and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate, but the best thing Democrats can do is remain unified, hoping for cracks in the Greedy Oligarch Party, and prevent bad things from getting passed, at least until next year, when Republicans can be called to account for enabling Trump and his oligarchs in their attempts to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other programs for working families.
Until then, Democrats must hold the line in Congress and keep voters informed. In the meantime, don’t despair. Organize. —JMC
