To start, call every member of the Senate Treasury Committee TODAY. Ranking member Ron Wyden, OR, is onto Musk’s illegal Treasury coup and has responded with a stern letter. But it’s time for more. How about bringing a cadre of Senators to the Treasury armed with your cell phone cameras and showing the nation what is happening? Bring the press! This is a national emergency. Act like it.
The DOJ/FBI/AG didn't have the balls to step-up and arrest an insurrection leader for seditious conspiracy/insurrection when Biden was snoozing through his feckless, cowardly 4 yrs., so I doubt that any of Tramp's appointees will arrest and jail this latest billionaire Ketamine addicted mood disordered Nazi loving madman and insurrectionist.
None of this started with Musk or Trump. It started with apathy. Voting the same, tired people in Congress. None of what is happening is a surprise. We all knew what would happen. Now we get what we deserve. Come on, Democrats! Show some spirit. Show anything.
It started in the late 60s after trust in government collapsed due to Civil Rights and Vietnam. Vietnam was rightly seen as abhorrent but the broader white population turned away from belief in liberal governance in the wake of the Civil Rights movement.
What is the likelihood that the whole tariff business is to facilitate insider trading. If I know in advance when the threats will be made and when they will be removed I’m going to make a fortune. Same with the value of the dollar.
This will surely end up in the courts, but it won't be resolved until it reaches the supreme Court. And, there is the heart of the Constitutional crisis. Trump is in office unconstitutionally, elected with the full support of the supreme Court. The supreme Court has consistently refused to enforce the 14th Amendment, beginning with overturning the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1875 and ending with forcing all 50 states to place Trump on the ballot. https://nevinhoraceoliphant.substack.com/p/our-constitutional-republic?r=3sr22y
Chief Justice Roberts swore in the man that deceived him and the American people 8 years ago and attempted to overthrow his own government, what makes you think the Court will betray him now?
Nah, Tramp wasn't hypocritical enough this time to place his tiny hand on the Bible, so he didn't actually swear to anything, let alone to God, his allegiance to the Constitution OR the American people.
It's tempus fugit -- time flies -- and point taken. Awaiting the growth of outrage from ... whom -- the senate? They're asleep. The people? They're otherwise engaged. Steve Bannon? Useless. I fear we're on our own here, and history is slow and argumentative.
Hi Michel, all good points but I couldn't pass by without saying it - the considered saviours list to pin the future hopes of US democracy on included... Steve Bannon?
Can a better list be bought from Canada, and would it attract a 25% surcharge?
Cannon despises Musk but his best days are long gone. Perhaps a congressman whose ancestors emigrated legally from south of the border could take the bull by the horns.
Hi Will, a great read. Just wanted to throw a point up - there seems to have been a lot over the last decade of "well that could NEVER happen".... followed by it happening. Carl, in the comments here, talked about mass psychosis - it's well outside of my wheelhouse but certainly there seems to be a distinct disconnect between assumed norms and reality.
Which brings me to your assumed point about debt and it "must go out on time". Particularly foreign debt - the largest line item on the fed budget - dwarfing even the defence budget.
Perhaps consider that both Trump and Musk are pursuing this strictly in business terms but with a cool new feature of personal immunity.... and with a process Trump is VERY comfortable with:
1. Take foreign debt, cast it as 'not American debt' thus not important,
2. Default on said debt and provide the credit agencies with plausible cover to minimise the damage to US ratings - or just threaten them.
3. Ignore international responses mumbling 'sovereign immunity' or 'national security risk' or some such.
Filing bankruptcy for a subsidiary and just moving on is Trump's "thing to do" on any given Tuesday in years gone by. It's well documented. The response/recourse for other countries & parties is the WTO - well, Trump is busy wiping out lots of international obligations and memberships whilst the US supreme court has made it clear their aversion to subordination to other jurisdictions.... don't you feel you may still be assuming a norm where he simply is not? Also, re: Musk, he isn't on the hook for all of this (a quick phone call gets a pardon) so, if anything, he is even more likely to be reckless.
My point to all this being, perhaps you're still including presumptions they aren't. You're assuming a lot right now to assume they won't take the hit and burn some allies (and rivals) in the short term under "America First" ideology.
By any purely mathematical measure defaulting foreign debt or forcing it's renegotiation is the quickest way for them to correct the budget. The only thing stopping that is the law... and that seems like quite an assumption right now.
They need Tariffs for the revenue and they need foreign debt obligations to 'go away'. Both are needed if you're goal is a surplus - reducing other federal spending items simply won't cover the gap, and that's before you consider further tax cuts for the 1%. Can you honestly say you can't picture Trump saying 'lets not pay and see what happens' with foreign debtors? Note: not domestic debt, only foreign debt. Domestic debt has voters.
Excellent analysis and trailblazing as a path. I too look for a way to extract the country from the mass psychosis. Few stop to think about the root cause of this dilemma, but Carl Jung understood it well. Mass psychosis is the advent of deluded people. You see those questioned at a Trump rally and you say “How can they be that deluded?” And then you forget about that delusional interview you just watched with YOUR OWN EYES. You do not do the next step: add it all up. It adds up to Mass Psychosis. You are led by a psychopathic neo-fascist that has deluded masses of people.
I have been witnessing the total destruction of Palestine/Gaza in the last15 months primarily with the help and complicity of my country, the USA. I will be watching the much greater decay and destruction of my country, the USA, in the next four years. We all owe these to Joenocide Biden for making these catastrophes possible.
Even worse, if Musk's overt efforts are stopped, what kind of nefarious malware that he controls has he already been installing in computers in every nook and cranny of our government? And if Elon controls it, then so does Putin, and/or Xi Jinping.
Before I left for a Fulbright trip back to Malawi, where I had been stationed in U.S. Peace Corps many years before, I had never heard the term "state capture". I doubt if many others in America had heard of it or understood it.
When I got to Johannesburg, South Africa on my way to Malawi, I began to find out what it was and how three Indian conmen, now hiding out in the Emirates, had actually managed to take control of most of the national government of the Republic of South Africa, from the Presidency on down. They focused first on networking and corrupting high government officials with massive bribes of funds that were stolen from their agencies. These guys, the Gupta's, managed to take so much control, especially over the state-connected energy sector and the water supply as well, that they controlled the government of the Republic of South Africa. They had 'captured' the state.
Elon Musk grew up under state capture and my belief is that this unelected 'official' who runs an unauthorized (by Congress) agency that has grabbed power from the Treasury Department on down. He's virtually a co-President at this point, working with an old man not in the very best of health either physically or mentally, whom he is able to manipulate apparently with little difficulty.
I have just set it up with my investment advisor to sell everything I have in the stock market should there be a sudden decline in prices. Our initial setting is to sell when my stocks experience a 10% loss in value. That will help me secure most of the money that I expect to depend upon when I no longer am able to work, but I do understand that in a small way, my sales will be adding to the problem with the market, when and if it occurs. But I don't want to be broke at this age.
My belief is that Trump is intent on establishing a Fascist state in which he would be President for Life and able to do whatever he wishes, Constitutionally or not.
We're just now beginning to look at a range of options for that very question.
I wonder where Bernard Baruch, who foresaw the 1929 crash of the stock market that led directly to the Great Depression, and who later became a financial advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt, put all the money he had pulled out of the market before the crash.
I'm no fan of Will Stancil, but this is spot on. The crisis is here, now, and unless legal action is taken immediately and results in consequences there will be no going back.
Pardon my ignorance as I have never served in the armed forces and don't know much about how they would/should respond to this five alarm fire - but when does the military, adhering to their Constitutional oaths, go in an arrest every single one of these traitors? Starting with trump, Musk this entire dumpster fire of a cabinet and then moving on to every traitor in Congress and the Supreme Court? Enough with decorum and "protecting norms." These people are enemies of the state and should be treated as if they were Russian or North Korean chaos agents actively sabotaging our government.
To start, call every member of the Senate Treasury Committee TODAY. Ranking member Ron Wyden, OR, is onto Musk’s illegal Treasury coup and has responded with a stern letter. But it’s time for more. How about bringing a cadre of Senators to the Treasury armed with your cell phone cameras and showing the nation what is happening? Bring the press! This is a national emergency. Act like it.
The DOJ/FBI/AG didn't have the balls to step-up and arrest an insurrection leader for seditious conspiracy/insurrection when Biden was snoozing through his feckless, cowardly 4 yrs., so I doubt that any of Tramp's appointees will arrest and jail this latest billionaire Ketamine addicted mood disordered Nazi loving madman and insurrectionist.
I feel like the Democrats are worried about weeds on the path while the forest fire rages in the tree crowns.
What an excellent idea!
None of this started with Musk or Trump. It started with apathy. Voting the same, tired people in Congress. None of what is happening is a surprise. We all knew what would happen. Now we get what we deserve. Come on, Democrats! Show some spirit. Show anything.
It started in the late 60s after trust in government collapsed due to Civil Rights and Vietnam. Vietnam was rightly seen as abhorrent but the broader white population turned away from belief in liberal governance in the wake of the Civil Rights movement.
Aside from Trump’s complicity, the new Treasury Secretary needs to be removed for this breach.
Rather obvious he must be stopped. What is missing is the “how”. Unless someone takes the bull by the horns here all will be lost. Tempus fugit.
Divest from Tesla. Break him financially.
If he's shorted his own stock that probably won't work. In regular times this would be completely illegal but there's no one left to enforce the law.
What is the likelihood that the whole tariff business is to facilitate insider trading. If I know in advance when the threats will be made and when they will be removed I’m going to make a fortune. Same with the value of the dollar.
This will surely end up in the courts, but it won't be resolved until it reaches the supreme Court. And, there is the heart of the Constitutional crisis. Trump is in office unconstitutionally, elected with the full support of the supreme Court. The supreme Court has consistently refused to enforce the 14th Amendment, beginning with overturning the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1875 and ending with forcing all 50 states to place Trump on the ballot. https://nevinhoraceoliphant.substack.com/p/our-constitutional-republic?r=3sr22y
Chief Justice Roberts swore in the man that deceived him and the American people 8 years ago and attempted to overthrow his own government, what makes you think the Court will betray him now?
Nah, Tramp wasn't hypocritical enough this time to place his tiny hand on the Bible, so he didn't actually swear to anything, let alone to God, his allegiance to the Constitution OR the American people.
It's tempus fugit -- time flies -- and point taken. Awaiting the growth of outrage from ... whom -- the senate? They're asleep. The people? They're otherwise engaged. Steve Bannon? Useless. I fear we're on our own here, and history is slow and argumentative.
Hi Michel, all good points but I couldn't pass by without saying it - the considered saviours list to pin the future hopes of US democracy on included... Steve Bannon?
Can a better list be bought from Canada, and would it attract a 25% surcharge?
Cannon despises Musk but his best days are long gone. Perhaps a congressman whose ancestors emigrated legally from south of the border could take the bull by the horns.
You have someone particular in mind?
He is an asshole with attitude and agenda. We need more Luigi's. Asap.
I had to edit my comments because forgot about his NAZI salute.
Hi Will, a great read. Just wanted to throw a point up - there seems to have been a lot over the last decade of "well that could NEVER happen".... followed by it happening. Carl, in the comments here, talked about mass psychosis - it's well outside of my wheelhouse but certainly there seems to be a distinct disconnect between assumed norms and reality.
Which brings me to your assumed point about debt and it "must go out on time". Particularly foreign debt - the largest line item on the fed budget - dwarfing even the defence budget.
Perhaps consider that both Trump and Musk are pursuing this strictly in business terms but with a cool new feature of personal immunity.... and with a process Trump is VERY comfortable with:
1. Take foreign debt, cast it as 'not American debt' thus not important,
2. Default on said debt and provide the credit agencies with plausible cover to minimise the damage to US ratings - or just threaten them.
3. Ignore international responses mumbling 'sovereign immunity' or 'national security risk' or some such.
Filing bankruptcy for a subsidiary and just moving on is Trump's "thing to do" on any given Tuesday in years gone by. It's well documented. The response/recourse for other countries & parties is the WTO - well, Trump is busy wiping out lots of international obligations and memberships whilst the US supreme court has made it clear their aversion to subordination to other jurisdictions.... don't you feel you may still be assuming a norm where he simply is not? Also, re: Musk, he isn't on the hook for all of this (a quick phone call gets a pardon) so, if anything, he is even more likely to be reckless.
My point to all this being, perhaps you're still including presumptions they aren't. You're assuming a lot right now to assume they won't take the hit and burn some allies (and rivals) in the short term under "America First" ideology.
By any purely mathematical measure defaulting foreign debt or forcing it's renegotiation is the quickest way for them to correct the budget. The only thing stopping that is the law... and that seems like quite an assumption right now.
They need Tariffs for the revenue and they need foreign debt obligations to 'go away'. Both are needed if you're goal is a surplus - reducing other federal spending items simply won't cover the gap, and that's before you consider further tax cuts for the 1%. Can you honestly say you can't picture Trump saying 'lets not pay and see what happens' with foreign debtors? Note: not domestic debt, only foreign debt. Domestic debt has voters.
Food for thought.
Excellent analysis and trailblazing as a path. I too look for a way to extract the country from the mass psychosis. Few stop to think about the root cause of this dilemma, but Carl Jung understood it well. Mass psychosis is the advent of deluded people. You see those questioned at a Trump rally and you say “How can they be that deluded?” And then you forget about that delusional interview you just watched with YOUR OWN EYES. You do not do the next step: add it all up. It adds up to Mass Psychosis. You are led by a psychopathic neo-fascist that has deluded masses of people.
https://open.substack.com/pub/hotbuttons/p/comes-a-time?r=3m1bs&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
I have been witnessing the total destruction of Palestine/Gaza in the last15 months primarily with the help and complicity of my country, the USA. I will be watching the much greater decay and destruction of my country, the USA, in the next four years. We all owe these to Joenocide Biden for making these catastrophes possible.
Even worse, if Musk's overt efforts are stopped, what kind of nefarious malware that he controls has he already been installing in computers in every nook and cranny of our government? And if Elon controls it, then so does Putin, and/or Xi Jinping.
Before I left for a Fulbright trip back to Malawi, where I had been stationed in U.S. Peace Corps many years before, I had never heard the term "state capture". I doubt if many others in America had heard of it or understood it.
When I got to Johannesburg, South Africa on my way to Malawi, I began to find out what it was and how three Indian conmen, now hiding out in the Emirates, had actually managed to take control of most of the national government of the Republic of South Africa, from the Presidency on down. They focused first on networking and corrupting high government officials with massive bribes of funds that were stolen from their agencies. These guys, the Gupta's, managed to take so much control, especially over the state-connected energy sector and the water supply as well, that they controlled the government of the Republic of South Africa. They had 'captured' the state.
Elon Musk grew up under state capture and my belief is that this unelected 'official' who runs an unauthorized (by Congress) agency that has grabbed power from the Treasury Department on down. He's virtually a co-President at this point, working with an old man not in the very best of health either physically or mentally, whom he is able to manipulate apparently with little difficulty.
I have just set it up with my investment advisor to sell everything I have in the stock market should there be a sudden decline in prices. Our initial setting is to sell when my stocks experience a 10% loss in value. That will help me secure most of the money that I expect to depend upon when I no longer am able to work, but I do understand that in a small way, my sales will be adding to the problem with the market, when and if it occurs. But I don't want to be broke at this age.
My belief is that Trump is intent on establishing a Fascist state in which he would be President for Life and able to do whatever he wishes, Constitutionally or not.
And you are putting it where? A bank account? It makes sense to not have it in the stock market but where will it be safe?
We're just now beginning to look at a range of options for that very question.
I wonder where Bernard Baruch, who foresaw the 1929 crash of the stock market that led directly to the Great Depression, and who later became a financial advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt, put all the money he had pulled out of the market before the crash.
Elon is a Non-State Actor just like Global Jihad. He wants to supplant himself for the State. He’s ultra vires and he’s fair game.
Plutocratic Technocratic Zionist Dictatorship!
I'm no fan of Will Stancil, but this is spot on. The crisis is here, now, and unless legal action is taken immediately and results in consequences there will be no going back.
Pardon my ignorance as I have never served in the armed forces and don't know much about how they would/should respond to this five alarm fire - but when does the military, adhering to their Constitutional oaths, go in an arrest every single one of these traitors? Starting with trump, Musk this entire dumpster fire of a cabinet and then moving on to every traitor in Congress and the Supreme Court? Enough with decorum and "protecting norms." These people are enemies of the state and should be treated as if they were Russian or North Korean chaos agents actively sabotaging our government.