Dear America,
With each passing day, the Trump administration goes farther past travesty and that much closer to catastrophe. As if the Canada-Mexico-China tariff fiasco wasn't enough, Trump added threats to Panama and Greenland, and now Gaza as if he never heard of international law. The nations being threatened, as well as much of the rest of the world, reacted with indignation and repudiation of America's reputation as a force for law and justice resulting in what appears to be at least a temporary pause in Trump's imperialistic overreach, but I guess he got restless and bored. Elon Musk's schoolboy staff of nerds at what Trump has denominated "DOGE"--Musk is reputed to have staffed his quasi-agency with a staff of twenty-odd year old tech vandals who apparently know no bounds and aren't really keen on prudent restraint or deference to law and authority--are now demanding access to the data and software that controls the issuance of checks from the federal government. I am retired and live in part on my social security benefits, which means that a troop (as in monkeys) of precocious twerps are trying to gain access to the check-issuing mechanism that makes it possible for me to pay my mortgage. They claim the right to peremptorily stop those checks from issuing, and I don't mind telling you that I am more than annoyed that my financial well being seems now to be in the hands of barely-post-pubescent smart-asses who think they rule the world under the aegis of Trump and Musk. Who died and made them kings?
But perhaps worse is the fact that the Republican Party is acting as enabler by never making a sound about all this other than to say, "if you say so, sirs." Rather, they sit on their fat, callow behinds counting the days until the 2026 election on the presumption that Trump's plurality will protect them in their bids for continuing tenure in congress. I mentioned Social Security, and that program makes the point. It is what is called an entitlement and it is paid pursuant to the Social Security Act of 1935 as modified by a set of amendments embodied by another act that became law in 1939 taking the program from the states and vesting its powers in the federal government. If Musk and his Muskymouse club have a problem with the program, they should be talking to their congresspeople and senators about repealing the laws, but instead, they are demanding the power to stop the checks, which are the products of entitlement under established law, from going to the people who are entitled to them. To Trump's credit, he has insisted that he has no intention of interfering with Social Security, and I assume that Musk and the Musketeers won't meddle with the program. But there are other programs...functions of enacted law...with which they apparently do intend to interfere. If such were not the case, why would they have gone to Scott Bessent, Trump's Secretary of the Treasury, to enlist him in ordering those who oversee issuance of the federal checks for all programs to give their little league team access to the programming and information through which the checks come into being and get sent to their intended destinations, as well as to the entitlement information and personal data of the recipients, which is confidential for a reason: prevention of its use by unauthorized persons in committing fraud, among other crimes. Those checks also go to federal employees, soldiers and sailors, law enforcement officials, congresspeople and senators, cabinet members (who don't need the checks because Trump appointed almost exclusively billionaires for the most important cabinet posts), veterans entitled to disability benefits and on and on, and that's where the prospect of catastrophe comes in.
Suppose these juvenile delinquents and Musk succeed in interdicting payment of federal funds to the wrong programs...like defense and law enforcement. In the immediate aftermath of doing so, little might happen, but over the course of, say, a year, imagine what chaos might ensue. And if they interfere with the well being of the employees of the IRS, if tax collection stops or is significantly diminished, how will the government at large function. If people don't get paid, they might not come to work, and if a thing like that eventuates, the national downward spiral could be, as I said, catastrophic.
I don't mean to be an alarmist...well, yes I do. If you have a Republican congressperson or Senator, you might want to ask him or her what he or she is doing in anticipation of this wild usurpation of the power to govern. After all, that's their job.
Your friend,
Mike
With each passing day, the Trump administration goes farther past travesty and that much closer to catastrophe. As if the Canada-Mexico-China tariff fiasco wasn't enough, Trump added threats to Panama and Greenland, and now Gaza as if he never heard of international law. The nations being threatened, as well as much of the rest of the world, reacted with indignation and repudiation of America's reputation as a force for law and justice resulting in what appears to be at least a temporary pause in Trump's imperialistic overreach, but I guess he got restless and bored. Elon Musk's schoolboy staff of nerds at what Trump has denominated "DOGE"--Musk is reputed to have staffed his quasi-agency with a staff of twenty-odd year old tech vandals who apparently know no bounds and aren't really keen on prudent restraint or deference to law and authority--are now demanding access to the data and software that controls the issuance of checks from the federal government. I am retired and live in part on my social security benefits, which means that a troop (as in monkeys) of precocious twerps are trying to gain access to the check-issuing mechanism that makes it possible for me to pay my mortgage. They claim the right to peremptorily stop those checks from issuing, and I don't mind telling you that I am more than annoyed that my financial well being seems now to be in the hands of barely-post-pubescent smart-asses who think they rule the world under the aegis of Trump and Musk. Who died and made them kings?
But perhaps worse is the fact that the Republican Party is acting as enabler by never making a sound about all this other than to say, "if you say so, sirs." Rather, they sit on their fat, callow behinds counting the days until the 2026 election on the presumption that Trump's plurality will protect them in their bids for continuing tenure in congress. I mentioned Social Security, and that program makes the point. It is what is called an entitlement and it is paid pursuant to the Social Security Act of 1935 as modified by a set of amendments embodied by another act that became law in 1939 taking the program from the states and vesting its powers in the federal government. If Musk and his Muskymouse club have a problem with the program, they should be talking to their congresspeople and senators about repealing the laws, but instead, they are demanding the power to stop the checks, which are the products of entitlement under established law, from going to the people who are entitled to them. To Trump's credit, he has insisted that he has no intention of interfering with Social Security, and I assume that Musk and the Musketeers won't meddle with the program. But there are other programs...functions of enacted law...with which they apparently do intend to interfere. If such were not the case, why would they have gone to Scott Bessent, Trump's Secretary of the Treasury, to enlist him in ordering those who oversee issuance of the federal checks for all programs to give their little league team access to the programming and information through which the checks come into being and get sent to their intended destinations, as well as to the entitlement information and personal data of the recipients, which is confidential for a reason: prevention of its use by unauthorized persons in committing fraud, among other crimes. Those checks also go to federal employees, soldiers and sailors, law enforcement officials, congresspeople and senators, cabinet members (who don't need the checks because Trump appointed almost exclusively billionaires for the most important cabinet posts), veterans entitled to disability benefits and on and on, and that's where the prospect of catastrophe comes in.
Suppose these juvenile delinquents and Musk succeed in interdicting payment of federal funds to the wrong programs...like defense and law enforcement. In the immediate aftermath of doing so, little might happen, but over the course of, say, a year, imagine what chaos might ensue. And if they interfere with the well being of the employees of the IRS, if tax collection stops or is significantly diminished, how will the government at large function. If people don't get paid, they might not come to work, and if a thing like that eventuates, the national downward spiral could be, as I said, catastrophic.
I don't mean to be an alarmist...well, yes I do. If you have a Republican congressperson or Senator, you might want to ask him or her what he or she is doing in anticipation of this wild usurpation of the power to govern. After all, that's their job.
Your friend,
Mike
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