by jimmydoe on 2/6/25, 7:21 AM
He won the popular vote. Afaics majority of America prefer to be ruled by the rich. Honest even DEM won, it can be seen as ruled by rich too. To not to be ruled by the rich, so much legislation change is required, I don’t think that’s feasible democratically/peacefully.
by jayloofah on 2/6/25, 5:36 AM
Hope this stays up, possibly the most important news to appear on HN today. Edit: Flagged off in 3 minutes...
by SubiculumCode on 2/6/25, 7:42 AM
What Trump is doing to NIH..I have never felt more abused.
by roenxi on 2/6/25, 5:40 AM
USAID is a key plank in the US overseas propaganda and regime change system. If moving further towards oligarchy [0] involves shutting that down and promoting global stability then it may well be worth it. Indeed, it'll be interesting to see if any evidence is uncovered that operations funded by it were also influencing the US. It is hard to see how they could operate without spreading domestic misinformation, we live in an era where communication networks are global.
Although given all the attention that Elon attracted its way it'll probably have to rebrand even if it does survive the Trump administration. It'll have the same problem as the National Endowment for Democracy in that too many people will know which names to keep an eye out for.
[0] In practice the US has always been quite oligarchic.
by arunabha on 2/6/25, 7:42 AM
This is clearly a deliberate shock and awe campaign by Trump and his acolytes to cause as much chaos and damage as possible before they encounter resistance. Another objective is to likely bring a case about the constitutionality of the Impoundment act in front of a conservative supreme court.
What's sickening is that the norms might be permanently changed even if Trump and Elon are pushed back. The next president with an authoritarian bent will have plenty of precedent to justify similar behaviour.
by Blackstrat on 2/6/25, 12:28 PM
When you cite an article by a very wealthy socialist, crying about oligarchy and a kleptocracy, you have no credibility from the outset. Further, I've yet to see anyone cite a Constitutional authorization for USAID. The US government is trillions in debt and spends massive amounts of our tax dollars on things for which there is no Constitutional authority. What is happening now isn't any of the things that folks here, in the media, and on the left are screaming. It's the exact opposite. And again, as history has shown, if Musk had been acting on behalf of democrats and had maintained the left wing Twitter echo chamber, he be hailed as the man that saved our "democracy". And BTW, the US is not and was never intended to be a democracy. It was founded as a republic though events have eroded that for more than a century.
by suraci on 2/6/25, 5:39 AM
> Elon Musk and his unelected minions at DOGE have forced out officials at the Treasury Department and illegally shut down US AID – a program which, among other things, helps feed and provide medical help to starving and desperate children all over the world.
Pfft, among other things
by aristofun on 2/6/25, 2:35 PM
Unfortunately democrats should have thought about the consequences when they were pushing woke agenda, when they were too dumb and weak in external affairs, when they were busy dividing and polarizing society, waiting out instead of proactively solving hard problems and making hard choices.
They were investing in Trump’s popularity.
In similar way how communists and socialists were investing in hitler’s back in the days.
People were so fed up with all the nonsense and weak stupid leaders that they would fall for anyone with a tiny drop of sense, some patriotism and some balls.
by markhahn on 2/6/25, 7:11 AM
Their ethic is to win by any means.
The purpose of shock-and-awe is to change the facts on the ground,
before and institutional guardrails can engage.
It's less fait accompli than humpty-dumpty.