Elon can do whatever he wants but the reality is that Trump created the American-centered voting block in 2015-2016 and reaffirmed it in 2024 with his decisive win and then secured it with the mix of Cabinet members from across the political spectrum. Lincoln did this with his "Team of Rivals",2005, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Now, he has to defend it the rest of his tenure in office and JD Vance with Marco Rubio(likely) will follow as the next Presidential team. We will need a consistent 3 terms to turn this mess around to regain the Constitutional authority lost to decades of erosion. Along the way, the people want transparency for all the top-down shenanigans that were undertaken by both Dems and Repubs to keep themselves in power AND we want our money back!!
Exactly. I, myself and me alone joined that coalition, divested of either party personally but seeing clearly where my issues are being at least paid more than lip service. Even Republicans seem somewhat adrift. That is worrying. They need to back the President fully and give me a good reason to vote for them with enthusiasm.
I'm with you. The Republican-value set stopped being representative of their claimed constituency a long time ago. I became Independent 15yrs ago and when I tried to vote in Albany, NY for Trump was met by the voting "volunteers" who tore my ballot so that it would not process. This screwed my morning time schedule as I had to now get to the back of the line. The Democratic machine won that day. I opened my eyes that they would go to this extent to prevent Trump from winning believing Independent voters would likely vote for him.
No longer there. A government-centered city has a curious cultural vibe. It seemed that most people I met had a hidden agenda vying for advancement by associating themselves with influencers. I found them pretty empty as individuals. There was not much substance but for those who worked with their hands basically.
Genuine despicableness. The sickness of The Machine. Musk suffers from that disorder and I can't picture him recovering from it. He's 'Mr. MAGA Through Machine Worship,' basically.
They didn't. They simply made it more difficult for Independents to vote is my guess. Lengthening time to vote screwed with people's schedules and for me, I did not vote that day. I saw them tear by ballot but did not understand the significance at first. They certainly knew the outcome and delayed in telling me the ballot was torn.
Is that not what Trump has been talking about…transforming the old”Republican“ party? It is now morphing into the American party…the dems are the Marxist party. The problem (or one of many) is the people of power in the party who put the “faces” into positions of power…the political jockeying…It’s not whoever wants to run gets to run…it’s whoever is “approved” by the political power structure and we all know now BOTH sides were equally corrupt and working for the same side!!!!!…the DARK SIDE!!!!!🤯😡🤬 That power structure needs to be shattered, swept up and deposited in the trash …How? I have no idea…I just know in order for us to be able to see change in Congress, we need to not just have elections without cheating, we need to have real choices of candidates!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “They” … whoever “they “ are have been choosing and manipulating the candidates before we even get a choice!!!!! It’s great we have the administration we have… but this is like we’ve landed at Normandy and we’re DEFINITELY NOT going to be home by Christmas!!!!!!! We’re in the thick of the battle and it’s DEFINITELY NOT an assured victory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've been a huge Elon fan since forever, but after the Trump tiff (in which he badly embarrassed himself) I felt he needed to go and sit this out for a while, concentrate on his excellent businesses, and keep quiet on the political scene. Sadly, he has not done so. And whilst I (per my prior comments on Jenna's stack) *do* believe the current red/blue uniparty needs dismantling by a new entrant, I don't think this is going to be the one.
Elon called out Trump on his hypocrisy (granted, in a very immature way). DOGE identified billions in fraud, waste and abuse and Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill still funded all that waste and added hundreds of billons more. I'm with Elon in that I'm extremely disappointed Trump promised a balanced budget, put a team in to identify reductions and just ignored all their work.
Whilst I share your disappointment at the BBB, and the further increase in national debt that it comes with, I would say the following:
1) Elon's way of addressing it was ridiculous and made him look like a BBB himself (Bloody Big Baby)
2) The system by which bills are passed is what really needs changing. This budget reconciliation is the one vote you only need 50 votes (instead of 60) in the senate to win. Therefore it makes total sense to pack everything into it which Trump needs to start actioning his agenda. Even with 3 likely rebels "we" (I'm not red or blue, but I'm MAGA) still have 50, and Vance can break the tie in our favor.
3) DOGE's work has not been "ignored". It will really start to be noticed next year when the budget reductions associated with it come into force.
In summary, I agree that the spending has to be cut, but I think this subject is nuanced and this bill gets on with Trump's agenda - albeit with a heavy caveat that the spending seriously needs to come down in future legislative actions.
I mostly agree with what your saying but counting on a future congress to address the debt/deficit is wishful thinking. I've heard this "Now is not the time" rhetoric for five decades now. It never comes to fruition. I supported Trump based on what he said his agenda was hoping to see him bust the gate on the corral wide open. Right now I only see the horses lined up at the feeding trough.
Again, I agree with this sentiment and at a high level I am completely with you. I will be patient this one, last time. But if we don't see big cuts in expenditure (or massive increase in revenue - either will do, if it cuts the deficit) by next year, I will feel just as betrayed as you clearly do.
So you have a theory? I assumed they name these things the opposite with what they actually do; to deceive the sleeping masses and confuse those who are barely aware of what they're actually doing.
Like the "Patriot Act." It wasn't patriotic, it actually took away rights of the patriots.
Haven’t followed this particular tiff, nor have I read the BBB. Are you able to give a couple of examples of DOGE reductions that were ignored? Or things in the bill that you don’t like? I was angry to hear that the BBB adds to the deficit, and not sure I believe the story that it will “reduce it in the long run.” We don’t have a “long run” if hx holds true and the D’s win the midterms. I’m concerned. The L has some traction with the “chaos” narrative; never mind that it’s largely L initiated or L spin on the topics. TIA, and no worries if my ? is too intensive.
One easy example is look at https://doge.gov/savings and scroll down to any of the Department of Defense examples. In the BBB the DoD budget was INCREASED by ~$150 billion. So obviously, none of the DoD savings were implemented.
Preventing the States from regulating AI is totally against the 10th amendment. It's unconstitutional. But they're pushing it through anyway forcing the States to sue the Feds in court.
Elon Musk’s life plan has been to develop viable, slick solutions to market needs/desires. I believe he is reacting to the real life problem that neither of our two major political parties (nor any of our single issue parties) actually represent the American people. He’s a problem-solver.
I lean libertarian, but what I notice is that libertarians aren’t really interested in what the majority wants nor in spending the time to pursue building a political base and governing - (ie: leave me the F alone so I can live my life) Hard to take on the Leviathan with that attitude 😆 just sayin’
Losertarians lose because they are really an anarchist party. They don't want government.
In The Law, Bastiat defines two parties. One party supports 'negative' laws, laws that protect the lives, liberty and property of individuals, and the socialists who support 'positive' laws to control the lives, liberty and property of individuals.
The libertarians ran a homosexual that couldn’t really define the platform of his party. It was just “we’re against everything and have no idea how to fix it—or even what needs fixing. We’re just against it.” I’ve come to think about libertarians as those who think they’re the smartest and above the fray, so anytime something goes wrong they can say they knew it wouldn’t work.
They want all their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but don't want the responsibility to protect their rights or the rights of others.
Makes you wonder if there are any libertarian combat veterans; meaning, are there any veterans who went in--and came out--as libertarians, or any veterans who hadn't thought about libertarianism before but came out of combat convinced it was the way to go.
"I thought everybody had to support the Constitution."
Bastardizing Shakespeare, "When libertarians are cut, do they not bleed? When they are persecuted, do they not assert their 'rights under the Constitution?'"
All that you wrote about the problems associated with third parties is true. There is one other problem: the states all have written laws making it next to impossible for third party candidates to get on the ballot. It’s in their interest to do so. Third parties have to raise more money and find more qualifying signatures on petitions. Elon hasn’t thought this through.
lol! Best description of Elon ever. And just in case you guys haven't seen the epic Musk impression on the Kill Tony Netflix Special, here's a little peek: https://youtube.com/shorts/DS0lxQGpWjw
Shane Gillis' Trump impression is even better!
In terms of the drama, you all know what I think. It's all fake and we are just talking about the shadows on the wall instead of the shadow makers. Continue to be distracted by the nonsense so we don't talk about the much bigger issues going on behind the scenes and also in our faces.
Thank you for the Monday morning laughs Jenna! Have a great week everyone!
Musk is Trump 3.0 (Trump is Trumps 1.0 and 2.0). Don't forget that Trump threw his hat in the ring after being ridiculed by Obama at a ha-ha "roast." Trump 1.0's motivation was not ideological. It was unadulterated determination to make Barack eat his words. (Trump 2.0/Cleveland 3.0 thought he'd better have a plan if he accidentally got elected non-consecutively, and introduced, some, ideology.)
It's hard to guess why Musk does what he does because of the crazy factor: I mean, if someone gave you a formula for generating a "Buy" signal in the form of an equation that looked like:
I think Musk feels embarrassed (he did it himself) about being outside looking in, and wants to prove everyone wrong, Trump especially. He might be able to pull it off--even with a 3rd party. For example, I don't think it's against the law to offer a $250,000 "signing bonus" for joining a new political party, and if enough people joined, Duverger's Law might actually flip to its favor. However, if he got elected, his administration would be more like Trump 1.0 than philosophical, a "populist" rather than a considered approach. The problem, as we've seen, is that populists's feel "their gut(s)" is a truer guide than any stuffy old philosophy, or principle, or writing of a founding father.
Their motto? 𝘕𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘳!
An alternate approach which seems to me from-30,000-feet-below-the-penthouse ought to be just dumb-simple is for Musk's mega-organization to swallow Trump's mega-organization for breakfast. That done, Musk could simply run Trump's presidency his way.
AND at least it would take the current guesswork out of who bought whose votes. Imagine being paid up-front for what your vote was going to cost you over the next term...
Ever since Musk came onto my radar, I have not been able to get a read on him. He is a shape shifter. If it was not for brain chip and being worth over 400 billion, I would chalk him up as one of the brilliant paste eaters at the back of the class. At this point, I am thinking he, himself, is funded. But, I really do not know.
At least Elon is trying to change the system, so I give him credit for starting the conversation.
We'all know the system is broken and we're given two options: Bad and Worse. So we hold our nose and vote Bad. The two parties rigged access to the ballot preventing third parties, or independents, from appearing and there's no way they would voluntarily change that. Elon has the $$$ so he might actually make something happen. (I'm an optimist and I voted for Ross Perot!)
"They really hate the Fed." Another way to describe them would be to say that they "understand the fed and our fiat money system. There are good reasons that our two prior central banks were eliminated.
And let's not forget Henry Ford's take on central banks. "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
Elon can do whatever he wants but the reality is that Trump created the American-centered voting block in 2015-2016 and reaffirmed it in 2024 with his decisive win and then secured it with the mix of Cabinet members from across the political spectrum. Lincoln did this with his "Team of Rivals",2005, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Now, he has to defend it the rest of his tenure in office and JD Vance with Marco Rubio(likely) will follow as the next Presidential team. We will need a consistent 3 terms to turn this mess around to regain the Constitutional authority lost to decades of erosion. Along the way, the people want transparency for all the top-down shenanigans that were undertaken by both Dems and Repubs to keep themselves in power AND we want our money back!!
Exactly. I, myself and me alone joined that coalition, divested of either party personally but seeing clearly where my issues are being at least paid more than lip service. Even Republicans seem somewhat adrift. That is worrying. They need to back the President fully and give me a good reason to vote for them with enthusiasm.
I'm with you. The Republican-value set stopped being representative of their claimed constituency a long time ago. I became Independent 15yrs ago and when I tried to vote in Albany, NY for Trump was met by the voting "volunteers" who tore my ballot so that it would not process. This screwed my morning time schedule as I had to now get to the back of the line. The Democratic machine won that day. I opened my eyes that they would go to this extent to prevent Trump from winning believing Independent voters would likely vote for him.
The cheek of that worker. Did you report it? Nasty POS.
No! In Albany, it is a long time Democratic Machine. I would only make myself a target.
Infuriating but I hear ya. Hang in there.
No longer there. A government-centered city has a curious cultural vibe. It seemed that most people I met had a hidden agenda vying for advancement by associating themselves with influencers. I found them pretty empty as individuals. There was not much substance but for those who worked with their hands basically.
Genuine despicableness. The sickness of The Machine. Musk suffers from that disorder and I can't picture him recovering from it. He's 'Mr. MAGA Through Machine Worship,' basically.
How did they know you voted for Trump?
They didn't. They simply made it more difficult for Independents to vote is my guess. Lengthening time to vote screwed with people's schedules and for me, I did not vote that day. I saw them tear by ballot but did not understand the significance at first. They certainly knew the outcome and delayed in telling me the ballot was torn.
Is that not what Trump has been talking about…transforming the old”Republican“ party? It is now morphing into the American party…the dems are the Marxist party. The problem (or one of many) is the people of power in the party who put the “faces” into positions of power…the political jockeying…It’s not whoever wants to run gets to run…it’s whoever is “approved” by the political power structure and we all know now BOTH sides were equally corrupt and working for the same side!!!!!…the DARK SIDE!!!!!🤯😡🤬 That power structure needs to be shattered, swept up and deposited in the trash …How? I have no idea…I just know in order for us to be able to see change in Congress, we need to not just have elections without cheating, we need to have real choices of candidates!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “They” … whoever “they “ are have been choosing and manipulating the candidates before we even get a choice!!!!! It’s great we have the administration we have… but this is like we’ve landed at Normandy and we’re DEFINITELY NOT going to be home by Christmas!!!!!!! We’re in the thick of the battle and it’s DEFINITELY NOT an assured victory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amen to all of the above.
I've been a huge Elon fan since forever, but after the Trump tiff (in which he badly embarrassed himself) I felt he needed to go and sit this out for a while, concentrate on his excellent businesses, and keep quiet on the political scene. Sadly, he has not done so. And whilst I (per my prior comments on Jenna's stack) *do* believe the current red/blue uniparty needs dismantling by a new entrant, I don't think this is going to be the one.
Elon called out Trump on his hypocrisy (granted, in a very immature way). DOGE identified billions in fraud, waste and abuse and Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill still funded all that waste and added hundreds of billons more. I'm with Elon in that I'm extremely disappointed Trump promised a balanced budget, put a team in to identify reductions and just ignored all their work.
Whilst I share your disappointment at the BBB, and the further increase in national debt that it comes with, I would say the following:
1) Elon's way of addressing it was ridiculous and made him look like a BBB himself (Bloody Big Baby)
2) The system by which bills are passed is what really needs changing. This budget reconciliation is the one vote you only need 50 votes (instead of 60) in the senate to win. Therefore it makes total sense to pack everything into it which Trump needs to start actioning his agenda. Even with 3 likely rebels "we" (I'm not red or blue, but I'm MAGA) still have 50, and Vance can break the tie in our favor.
3) DOGE's work has not been "ignored". It will really start to be noticed next year when the budget reductions associated with it come into force.
In summary, I agree that the spending has to be cut, but I think this subject is nuanced and this bill gets on with Trump's agenda - albeit with a heavy caveat that the spending seriously needs to come down in future legislative actions.
I mostly agree with what your saying but counting on a future congress to address the debt/deficit is wishful thinking. I've heard this "Now is not the time" rhetoric for five decades now. It never comes to fruition. I supported Trump based on what he said his agenda was hoping to see him bust the gate on the corral wide open. Right now I only see the horses lined up at the feeding trough.
Again, I agree with this sentiment and at a high level I am completely with you. I will be patient this one, last time. But if we don't see big cuts in expenditure (or massive increase in revenue - either will do, if it cuts the deficit) by next year, I will feel just as betrayed as you clearly do.
Anyone wonder why "Build Back Better" (bbb) and "Big Beautiful Bill" (bbb) are what they chose to call these things?
So you have a theory? I assumed they name these things the opposite with what they actually do; to deceive the sleeping masses and confuse those who are barely aware of what they're actually doing.
Like the "Patriot Act." It wasn't patriotic, it actually took away rights of the patriots.
Yes, both use a barely concealed "666" in their names.
The luciferians love their symbolism. Hard not to notice after you study their antics for 25 years.
Haven’t followed this particular tiff, nor have I read the BBB. Are you able to give a couple of examples of DOGE reductions that were ignored? Or things in the bill that you don’t like? I was angry to hear that the BBB adds to the deficit, and not sure I believe the story that it will “reduce it in the long run.” We don’t have a “long run” if hx holds true and the D’s win the midterms. I’m concerned. The L has some traction with the “chaos” narrative; never mind that it’s largely L initiated or L spin on the topics. TIA, and no worries if my ? is too intensive.
One easy example is look at https://doge.gov/savings and scroll down to any of the Department of Defense examples. In the BBB the DoD budget was INCREASED by ~$150 billion. So obviously, none of the DoD savings were implemented.
Preventing the States from regulating AI is totally against the 10th amendment. It's unconstitutional. But they're pushing it through anyway forcing the States to sue the Feds in court.
Thank you Rebel! :)
Agree
Elon Musk’s life plan has been to develop viable, slick solutions to market needs/desires. I believe he is reacting to the real life problem that neither of our two major political parties (nor any of our single issue parties) actually represent the American people. He’s a problem-solver.
I lean libertarian, but what I notice is that libertarians aren’t really interested in what the majority wants nor in spending the time to pursue building a political base and governing - (ie: leave me the F alone so I can live my life) Hard to take on the Leviathan with that attitude 😆 just sayin’
Losertarians lose because they are really an anarchist party. They don't want government.
In The Law, Bastiat defines two parties. One party supports 'negative' laws, laws that protect the lives, liberty and property of individuals, and the socialists who support 'positive' laws to control the lives, liberty and property of individuals.
Thank you Jon for sprinkling some "conservative salt" on this salad.
The libertarians ran a homosexual that couldn’t really define the platform of his party. It was just “we’re against everything and have no idea how to fix it—or even what needs fixing. We’re just against it.” I’ve come to think about libertarians as those who think they’re the smartest and above the fray, so anytime something goes wrong they can say they knew it wouldn’t work.
Libertarians are worse than anarchists.
They want all their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but don't want the responsibility to protect their rights or the rights of others.
Makes you wonder if there are any libertarian combat veterans; meaning, are there any veterans who went in--and came out--as libertarians, or any veterans who hadn't thought about libertarianism before but came out of combat convinced it was the way to go.
The military swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the USA.
Libertarians don't support the US Constitution.
"I thought everybody had to support the Constitution."
Bastardizing Shakespeare, "When libertarians are cut, do they not bleed? When they are persecuted, do they not assert their 'rights under the Constitution?'"
All that you wrote about the problems associated with third parties is true. There is one other problem: the states all have written laws making it next to impossible for third party candidates to get on the ballot. It’s in their interest to do so. Third parties have to raise more money and find more qualifying signatures on petitions. Elon hasn’t thought this through.
lol! Best description of Elon ever. And just in case you guys haven't seen the epic Musk impression on the Kill Tony Netflix Special, here's a little peek: https://youtube.com/shorts/DS0lxQGpWjw
Shane Gillis' Trump impression is even better!
In terms of the drama, you all know what I think. It's all fake and we are just talking about the shadows on the wall instead of the shadow makers. Continue to be distracted by the nonsense so we don't talk about the much bigger issues going on behind the scenes and also in our faces.
Thank you for the Monday morning laughs Jenna! Have a great week everyone!
I am still laughing at “You hang up”/“No you hang up”. Great post today, thanks for the much needed laugh!
Hahaha!! Isn’t there a transhumanism party already?
Nailed it.
wonder what Bill Gates & his vaxtatorship party think?
Musk is Trump 3.0 (Trump is Trumps 1.0 and 2.0). Don't forget that Trump threw his hat in the ring after being ridiculed by Obama at a ha-ha "roast." Trump 1.0's motivation was not ideological. It was unadulterated determination to make Barack eat his words. (Trump 2.0/Cleveland 3.0 thought he'd better have a plan if he accidentally got elected non-consecutively, and introduced, some, ideology.)
It's hard to guess why Musk does what he does because of the crazy factor: I mean, if someone gave you a formula for generating a "Buy" signal in the form of an equation that looked like:
Price-of-Apple-tomorrow = Price-of-Apple-today * 1.00413% +/- SOME-WILD-ARSE-UNKNOWABLE-AMOUNT
you couldn't really act on it...
Musk-tomorrow = Musk-today * 1.00413% +/- SOME-WILD-ARSE-UNKNOWABLE-AMOUNT
Not helping.
I think Musk feels embarrassed (he did it himself) about being outside looking in, and wants to prove everyone wrong, Trump especially. He might be able to pull it off--even with a 3rd party. For example, I don't think it's against the law to offer a $250,000 "signing bonus" for joining a new political party, and if enough people joined, Duverger's Law might actually flip to its favor. However, if he got elected, his administration would be more like Trump 1.0 than philosophical, a "populist" rather than a considered approach. The problem, as we've seen, is that populists's feel "their gut(s)" is a truer guide than any stuffy old philosophy, or principle, or writing of a founding father.
Their motto? 𝘕𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘳!
An alternate approach which seems to me from-30,000-feet-below-the-penthouse ought to be just dumb-simple is for Musk's mega-organization to swallow Trump's mega-organization for breakfast. That done, Musk could simply run Trump's presidency his way.
hmm ... I can almost hear/see Musk musing, "Cool motto ... "
Hummm, accept the 250k and become debt free 🧐😎🙋🏼♀️
AND at least it would take the current guesswork out of who bought whose votes. Imagine being paid up-front for what your vote was going to cost you over the next term...
Well, it's a crapshoot now, so why not vote for what you know, vote for a guaranteed result. Ha! will never happen. An ideal world... no such thing.
Delusions of grandeur much? Join the Musktatorship? Yeah, like that’s going to happen.
Ever since Musk came onto my radar, I have not been able to get a read on him. He is a shape shifter. If it was not for brain chip and being worth over 400 billion, I would chalk him up as one of the brilliant paste eaters at the back of the class. At this point, I am thinking he, himself, is funded. But, I really do not know.
Damn this chick is good!
I have absolutely no clue except Elon has Father figure issues
At least Elon is trying to change the system, so I give him credit for starting the conversation.
We'all know the system is broken and we're given two options: Bad and Worse. So we hold our nose and vote Bad. The two parties rigged access to the ballot preventing third parties, or independents, from appearing and there's no way they would voluntarily change that. Elon has the $$$ so he might actually make something happen. (I'm an optimist and I voted for Ross Perot!)
"They really hate the Fed." Another way to describe them would be to say that they "understand the fed and our fiat money system. There are good reasons that our two prior central banks were eliminated.
And let's not forget Henry Ford's take on central banks. "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."