The Anticipatory Joy of Total Control

 

The Anticipatory Joy of Total Control

Outsourcing Major Governance to a Heavily Conflicted, Unelected Billionaire

"Let’s just say there was a billionaire who’s made most of their money from businesses whose success was based on government contracts and subsidies… The way you go from being billionaire to being a trillionaire is getting hold of govt. data and using it for your next business." 

Ryan Girdusky, former Senate campaign staffer for JD Vance

Not to mention that said billionaire can make Donald Trump even wealthier. Wink, wink. But if you’re wondering how the markets view this unilateral private civilian Department of Government Efficiency (Musk’s DOGE) onslaught added to the February 4th implementation of new US tariffs, virtually every global trading exchange is down, including in the US. Even Bitcoin and crypto in general are down. Shock, the tariffs on Mexico and Canada have been delayed as Trump hints Europe may be next. These falling stock markets are not really focused on recent high school grads as part of DOGE staffing or that most of them have inadequate security clearance to view the records and documents they see… they can even overlook the wholesale takeover of federal agencies (the federal check-writers, the agency that implements congressionally approved foreign aid, etc.), the locking out of the career federal workers, many employed for decades, from their agency’s computer systems or the wholesale access DOGE workers can see details of virtually any private citizen they choose.

With a crystal clear blueprint to follow (and following, they are) – Project 2025 – Trump’s strategy of executive order “shock and awe” is rolling out so fast that those impacted, including the relevant legal community, are intentionally being overwhelmed. Trump’s lackies in Congress, privately expressly their disdain for this flood of directives, mouth the “we love Trump” mantra as if saying a prayer to the Almighty, and Trump is exceptionally certain this his Supreme Court has been tamed into nothing more than his rubber stamp. I sure hope not! Even as the DOGE et al ethnically cleanse key words and phrases from government websites, I wonder what is happening with the volumes of personal information that the Musk cabal has gleaned already.

Even as the payout freeze was withdrawn and its flaws outlined the lower court that enjoined the edict, there is a slow recognition among some diehard MAGAns and others who voted for Trump, that none of this reality would a. happen so soon, or b. be so dire and extreme… but if Trump can overwhelm the system, dump thousands of federal employees before the relevant courts can react, shut down entire federal agencies (like the foreign aid USAID administrator – after the fact, Trump named Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, as head of USAID… but USAID already reported to him!) and shut down the relevant bureaucracies needed make payments, in a bare-faced attempt to circumvent the federal payout freeze withdrawal, courts faced with restoring what was illegally done are up against a monumental challenge. Trump, Musk and extreme MAGAns are happy as clams; their “villains” are cowering or heading for the hills, and while Trump’s polling numbers are falling faster than the stock market, assuming there are still midterm elections, he knows he’s got pretty free rein for two years. Lower prices for ordinary goods? Prioritizing how we deport undocumented workers? Better and more accessible healthcare? Forgetaboutit!!!! Yesterday’s news.

Nobody seems to care about genuine security clearances for those exposed to some of our nation’s most sensitive information, and yes, that does include information based on which nations are recommended for aid and what they do with it if granted. There is obviously a no-hold-barred grand plan, which Mr Trump hell-bent at achieving 100%. Writing for the February 3rd Los Angeles Times, Doyle McManus summarizes the assault this way: “In a blizzard of executive orders, Trump has halted federal spending on clean energy, infrastructure, foreign aid and anything connected with ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’; frozen most federal hiring; stripped thousands of civil servants of job protections and proposed subjecting them to political loyalty tests; summarily fired prosecutors and targeted FBI agents involved in prosecuting him; and attempted to end birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented migrants.

“Some of those actions may not stand. The White House canceled a poorly drafted order halting federal payments after it touched off nationwide chaos. A federal judge blocked enforcement of Trump’s birthright citizenship decree, calling it ‘blatantly unconstitutional.’.. But taken together, the actions add up to a concerted campaign to give Trump more direct power over federal programs and spending than any president in recent history… ‘This is fundamentally an attempt to redefine the president’s powers under the Constitution,’ said Donald F. Kettl, former dean of the University of Maryland’s school of public policy. ‘It’s seismic.’… The Constitution says setting spending levels for federal programs is up to Congress, not the president — the role traditionally known as the ‘power of the purse.’ Trump is trying to change that.

“Earlier presidents have tried to use executive orders to try to sidestep Congress. But Trump’s actions over the last two weeks have been far broader and more sweeping than his recent predecessors’… His most dramatic attempt to expand presidential power has been his orders to freeze spending on programs he doesn’t like… Trump has made clear he believes a president can unilaterally block funds that Congress has approved.”

What is equally clear is the alienating friendly or potential friendly countries – from Demark to Mexico and Canada – there is a message for the entire planet. With Trump in charge, any shared confidential information may not be so confidential, any US treaty can be breached at any time at a presidential whim, and if “you” are counting on US pledges, perhaps you need to cozy up to the only real superpower big enough to counter Trump… albeit a nasty choice… China.

“[Even] as Beijing calculates the impact of the tariffs on China’s weak economy, it is surely also taking stock of the openings that Mr. Trump’s other moves are giving China… As President Trump was locked in a war of words with the leader of Colombia over the military deportation of migrants, China’s ambassador to Colombia declared that relations between Beijing and Bogotá were at their ‘best moment’ in decades.

“Zhu Jingyang, the ambassador, later said that it was a coincidence that he posted his comment on social media last week, a day after Mr. Trump said he would slap tariffs on Colombia. But the public outreach suggested that Beijing saw an opportunity to strengthen its hand in the high-stakes superpower rivalry between China and the United States… Two weeks into the second Trump administration, Mr. Trump’s aggressive ‘America First’ foreign policy holds both promise and peril for Beijing….

“Mr. Trump has alienated U.S. allies and partners like Canada and Mexico by imposing steep tariffs on their exports. He has weakened America’s global authority by cutting foreign aid and withdrawing from the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement, a U.N. climate pact.” We can certainly expect a bevy of trade realignment treaties, even with European stalwarts, but might we see a new Chinese military presence in the Western Hemisphere, perhaps a base or two? I just want to know, what’s in all this vituperative retribution against loyal Americans for me… and more importantly, my granddaughter? Ever wonder what makes mega-corrupt nations?

I’m Peter Dekom, and it sickens me to watch the richest man in the world partner with the angriest president we have ever experienced to remake America into a billionaire tax haven and a pig’s trough of deals for those rich enough to play the game.