This judicial review provides at least a reprieve, a small hope that some of the administration’s most destructive impulses will be pared back.

In the past week or so, the courts have begun to try to set some boundaries on the Musk–Miller–Trump administration’s early blitz of recklessness.

. . .

This judicial review provides at least a small reprieve, hope that some of the administration’s most destructive impulses will be stopped. Or at least pared back. But even with the courts stepping up, and even with the reality of the administration’s ineptitude sinking in, this early Musk–Miller–Trump blitz remains very—maybe irreparably—damaging. Of course, there are a lot of moles to whack: the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are being dismantled at an alarming rate, and the court system is not known for being nimble. The administration is betting, perhaps rightly, that at least some of its thoughtless, lawless efforts will slip through the cracks.

But even if the courts caught them all—and even if every court facing each lawless escapade said, “Nope, that’s not a thing”—still the entire process would be doing serious damage to our institutions. Think of it as someone spoofing your identity and going on a shopping spree with your credit cards. Even if the goon gets caught, you still have to go store by store to argue that the fraudulent purchase wasn’t legitimate and hope the debt is forgiven. And all the while, perhaps long after all the debts are dealt with, the torrent of uncertainty kills your credit score.

MBFC
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  • @jordanlundM
    2•6 days ago

    They aren’t interested in cutting waste. If they were, they would be slashing the Pentagon budget. Notice how all this talk of cost cutting, nobody is breathing a word about the Pentagon?

    Because that’s where the fraud, waste and abuse is.

    Remember the last time someone was supposed to take Pentagon waste seriously? No, of course not, because it was 9/10/2001.

    https://youtu.be/xU4GdHLUHwU

    • Flying Squid
      0•6 days ago

      This person has reached the absurd point with me of “it’s fine that Trump is firing the people responsible for safeguarding our nuclear weapons [which he’s in the process of doing] because they aren’t all that important to the safety of our nuclear weapons,” so I wouldn’t hold out much hope for their understanding what you’re saying.

      • @nwilz
        1•6 days ago

        Again, never made that argument

      • @jordanlundM
        2•6 days ago

        It’s not that they haven’t gotten that far, it’s that they simply are not interested in the largest source of fraud, waste, and abuse.

        If they were, they would have started with the biggest piece of the budget, not tiny slices like USAID.

        USAID makes up $40 billion… which sounds like a lot until you realize the DoD budget is $850 billion.