TME™ or Follow the Money
Feb. 3rd, 2025 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mallorys_cameraAlways follow the money.
Tea leaves can be read in the NYSE’s ticker symbols: If the drop this week is less than, say, 5%, then the market believes that the insane tariffs are a temporary blip & the economy will continue to function more or less like normal.
Except: The BIG thing is actually Elon Musk’s takeover of the U.S. Treasury.
Everything else—with the possible exception of the neutralization of the FBI (which might have prevented Elon Musk’s takeover of the U.S. Treasury)—is smoke & mirrors. And, yes, that includes the insane tariffs & the immigrant crackdown.
Elon Musk’s takeover of the U.S. Treasury is a bloodless coup.
And apparently, there’s nothing that any of us can do about it. If you think calling your congresscritters or marching on your state capital is gonna do a damn thing, think again. The Blue echo chamber is not gonna provide you with any kind of asylum.
Sometime yesterday, Musk chirped that Twitter X is going to begin integrating banking services with social media.
It’s not at all inconceivable to me that today or tomorrow, Trump will begin oinking about how the FDIC is an unnecessary federal bureaucracy. Trust in the Bank of Elon, My Fellow Americans!
###
I feel like I’m living inside some sort of insane Phil K. Dick story: Yes, the info about the coup is out there, but you have to be reasonably adept at connecting the dots to see it, and meanwhile, the headlines keep chirping, Here’s what they wore to the Grammies! Hey, the Superbowl is coming up, and you need a dip recipe! Say, there’s a new superhero movie coming out!
The only thing that can possibly work to prevent the U.S. from becoming a slave colony Of TME™ (Trump Musk Enterprises) is some kind of all-in boycott of every Trump/Musk supporter/enabler—possibly coupled with mass demonstrations. Complete disengagement from TME™ enablers like Facebook, Twitter, Tesla, Home Depot, Lowe’s, McDonald’s, Target, Walmart, etc., etc., etc.
But I can’t even get myself to quit Facebook, so you know how likely that is to happen.
And look at that! After an initial dip, the stock market is rebounding. (In part, I guess, because the Mexican tariffs are on a one-month delay.)
We are fucking doomed.
###
Still, life goes on, doesn’t it?
Shortly, I must toddle out to the car, remove the Hideous White Stuff that fell on my car during last night’s storm, and hope the roads are clear enough to drive to the gym.
It Is What It Is.
The Shawangunk Dems sent out an email last night, Rally in Albany! February 5th!, and despite my complete disillusionment with Democratic-inspired public protests—the Democrats are useless, ditto public protests unless they’re reported on (and these won’t be)—I would go were it not for the fact that I am TaxBwana-ing that day.
The Shawangunk Dems’ message also included info on that New York doctor who was just indicted in Louisiana for providing a young woman with mifepristone and misoprostol. Turns out she is a local.
This woman is a bona fide hero in my book. Kathy Hochul, the largely useless Governor of New York, has vowed to support her, but I don’t see how she can. Blue states will be targeted however possible: States that have "expansive" social safety nets for the wrong people, states with sanctuary cities, states that refuse to work with ICE—their funding will be cut off.
Tea leaves can be read in the NYSE’s ticker symbols: If the drop this week is less than, say, 5%, then the market believes that the insane tariffs are a temporary blip & the economy will continue to function more or less like normal.
Except: The BIG thing is actually Elon Musk’s takeover of the U.S. Treasury.
Everything else—with the possible exception of the neutralization of the FBI (which might have prevented Elon Musk’s takeover of the U.S. Treasury)—is smoke & mirrors. And, yes, that includes the insane tariffs & the immigrant crackdown.
Elon Musk’s takeover of the U.S. Treasury is a bloodless coup.
And apparently, there’s nothing that any of us can do about it. If you think calling your congresscritters or marching on your state capital is gonna do a damn thing, think again. The Blue echo chamber is not gonna provide you with any kind of asylum.
Sometime yesterday, Musk chirped that Twitter X is going to begin integrating banking services with social media.
It’s not at all inconceivable to me that today or tomorrow, Trump will begin oinking about how the FDIC is an unnecessary federal bureaucracy. Trust in the Bank of Elon, My Fellow Americans!
###
I feel like I’m living inside some sort of insane Phil K. Dick story: Yes, the info about the coup is out there, but you have to be reasonably adept at connecting the dots to see it, and meanwhile, the headlines keep chirping, Here’s what they wore to the Grammies! Hey, the Superbowl is coming up, and you need a dip recipe! Say, there’s a new superhero movie coming out!
The only thing that can possibly work to prevent the U.S. from becoming a slave colony Of TME™ (Trump Musk Enterprises) is some kind of all-in boycott of every Trump/Musk supporter/enabler—possibly coupled with mass demonstrations. Complete disengagement from TME™ enablers like Facebook, Twitter, Tesla, Home Depot, Lowe’s, McDonald’s, Target, Walmart, etc., etc., etc.
But I can’t even get myself to quit Facebook, so you know how likely that is to happen.
And look at that! After an initial dip, the stock market is rebounding. (In part, I guess, because the Mexican tariffs are on a one-month delay.)
We are fucking doomed.
###
Still, life goes on, doesn’t it?
Shortly, I must toddle out to the car, remove the Hideous White Stuff that fell on my car during last night’s storm, and hope the roads are clear enough to drive to the gym.
It Is What It Is.
The Shawangunk Dems sent out an email last night, Rally in Albany! February 5th!, and despite my complete disillusionment with Democratic-inspired public protests—the Democrats are useless, ditto public protests unless they’re reported on (and these won’t be)—I would go were it not for the fact that I am TaxBwana-ing that day.
The Shawangunk Dems’ message also included info on that New York doctor who was just indicted in Louisiana for providing a young woman with mifepristone and misoprostol. Turns out she is a local.
This woman is a bona fide hero in my book. Kathy Hochul, the largely useless Governor of New York, has vowed to support her, but I don’t see how she can. Blue states will be targeted however possible: States that have "expansive" social safety nets for the wrong people, states with sanctuary cities, states that refuse to work with ICE—their funding will be cut off.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 08:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 09:54 pm (UTC)But, essentially, we like each other. So we started talking again, only now we don't do politics.
I assume she voted for Trump in 2020 & 2024, too. In 2016, she was agog over Trump's manliness, and I assume she is even more agog now. America First! doncha know.
But she's the only Trump supporter with any exposure to what I write, and I assume she doesn't read it.
Most Americans are completely uninterested in politics, you know. 😀
no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 11:08 pm (UTC)Wow.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 11:45 pm (UTC)*GLOMPS YOU*
no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 11:47 pm (UTC)I am always your friend, too.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-03 10:17 pm (UTC)Otherwise, we just keep doing what we can. I saw a great conversation that a person working at an agency threatened with funding evaporation had with their boss about not complying in advance--it was really good, and I took it to heart--but I don't work in a situation where I can exercise that sort of resistance. So I have to think about and put into practice what little I **can** do.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-04 12:01 am (UTC)So long as they don't start piping Zyklon-B into those Guantanamo cells where they'll be housing all those undocumented immigrants...
no subject
Date: 2025-02-04 02:02 am (UTC)