Attn E. Musk

 

Elon Musk sent an outrageous, degrading, disturbing, and ominous email to federal employees with the subject line, “What did you do last week?”

 

“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc: your manager. Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments. Deadline is Monday at 11:59pmEST.”

Intimidation and the threat of termination are clearly the intent of this cruel tactic. Thousands of federal employees have already been fired or are under the threat of being fired without just cause or recourse.

No doubt thousands of Trump supporters voted themselves out of jobs. I find it rather more difficult to pity them, than to sympathize with the other victims who had the good sense to not vote for Trump.

I’m lucky to not be in their position. And it’s a good thing because my response to this unprecedented and unjustified demand would be something like this:

 

Attn Mr. Co-dictator, Supreme Chancellor, Oligarch Overseer, Prefect of Political Purges and Purification, (or whatever title you hold,) Musk,

Thank you for your interest in my profession.

Since you are not my supervisor, and you may very likely not be qualified to evaluate my job performance, would you please forward me your resume summarizing your expertise in my field?

It is apparent you do not fully understand my duties, nor do you adequately comprehend the nature of yours.

After reviewing the list of those you have fired, it has become clear that you have negatively impacted our Constitutional provisions for the general welfare and common defense.

You fired 400 maintenance and other technicians within the Federal Aviation Administration, the essential agency that assures aviation safety for the American people. This action, along with similarly misconceived politicized dismissals at the Center for Disease Control, Department of Education, and National Institutes of Health, directly undermine important Constitutional provisions for the general welfare of the American people.

Summarily firing vital staff at the National Nuclear Security Administration was an impulsive and ill-considered measure that weakened of our common defense.

Slashing the employees at the IRS interferes with our Constitutional taxation and reduces vital revenues that sustain government services for the people of the United States. Many of us see it as no coincidence that this also makes it far easier for the economic elites to cheat the rest of us by not paying their fair share of taxes. 

How many millions of our tax dollars go to you again, Mr. Musk?

And who would profit by dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that has returned $20 billion to the American consumer? Wouldn't that be the Wall Street banks and tech billionaires like you moving into financial services, Mr. Musk? But we're supposed to trust your judgement whether there is a conflict of interest, so it's all fine.

While you demand accountability from everyone but Trump and his loyal cronies, you fired Inspectors General who identified $183.5 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse, only to mistake $8 million for $8 billion.

In considering your lack of foresight, callous negligence, and egregious lapses of judgment, it would be incumbent upon any reasonable and honest American to question your patriotism, qualifications and competence, sir. 

If it were up to me, I’d have to say, “Mr. Musk, you and your inept, unvetted, and unqualified geek squad are FIRED!” 

Also, answering to you, and responding to your email are not in my job description.

Please see the Department of the Interior’s standardized position descriptions at its website.

A Fascist Oligarchy

 

Recently I was talking to a friend about the state of our country and mentioned, "America is becoming a monster that devours itself". 

It’s taken almost 250 years, but the radical Right fascists have succeeded.

The Republicans have brewed their perfect storm to destroy a republic of, by and for the people. It took some time, but their fascist oligarchy is here now, and the destruction will be devastating and lasting.

Their slow-moving coup was facilitated from the beginning by the founders' antiquated and antidemocratic Electoral College and Senate. Those bastions of inequality should have been removed when slavery was abolished. Instead, they allowed the road to fascism to be paved by the "Reagan Revolution" that let the corporate foxes into the regulatory henhouse. They installed into our government shills who stood diametrically opposed to Constitutional taxation, regulation of commerce, and provision for the general welfare 

The radical Right needed to establish a propaganda network to con the public into believing they worked for the working class. Enter Murdoch's FOX(R) and Limbaugh to drive home their divide and conquer strategy. They would dupe millions of poorly educated and semi-literate Americans with their hate and lies. 

Next, they needed to fill the courts with partisan ideologues who would do their bidding. This is how the 2000 election was handed to Bush, the first audible death knell to democracy. That president went on to wage a war based on lies, only to be reelected. The country was proving itself to be easily misled by the radical Right. The next ominous red flag was when, for the first time in memory, rights were curtailed for women.

The time had come for Trump’s Big Lie and crime spree.

From there on the road to fascism was paved by Mitch McConnell's refusal to convict Trump in his J6 impeachment trial and his treacherous theft of the Supreme Court, packing it with a MAGA majority willing to immunize Trump from justice and deny the 14th Amendment's protection against insurrectionists.

But they still needed a weak and divided opposition, which Joe Biden gave them by breaking his promise to not run for reelection. Dropping out after his weak debate only added to the appearance of the party's disarray.

The corporate media's failure to focus on Trump's crimes just to keep their "horse race" ratings up was the final nail in democracy’s coffin. Now they are quickly falling in line to escape Trump’s wrath and retribution.

Already Google has removed Gulf of Mexico from their maps and replaced it with Trump’s decreed Gulf of America. What’s next? The “East American Ocean” and the “West American Ocean” instead of the Atlantic and Pacific?

It shouldn’t be surprising that corporate entities instantly fail historian Timothy Snyder’s first lesson on tyranny. “Don’t obey in advance”.

Trump’s autocratic oligarchy has taken power and is actively dismantling any governing authority that regulates banks and corporations. It has shut down America’s best foreign relations agency USAID. They’d rather see food rot and medicine expire than send to the poor people most in need. 

Greed, hate, power, cruelty, and dominance are their only values. They take joy in inflicting suffering in the people they hate. They will demonize and scapegoat minorities and the powerless. The unelected autocratic oligarch Elon Musk declared USAID is a "criminal organization" without evidence. Trump accused the employees of being "radical leftists".

And here we see the ugly true nature of fascists. They will always seek to scapegoat and punish anyone they hate, including all who oppose or even inconveniences them. Under a convicted felon in the White House the Justice Department and FBI are being purged of competent lawyers and agents who upheld their oath to defend our Constitution and rule of law by investigating the serial criminal president. 

Tyrants value and demand loyalty to the leader. They resent and scorn an impartial judiciary. This is why Trump installed radical right loyalists into the Supreme Court who would advance his political agenda and even grant him blatantly unconstitutional immunity from the law. The noble ideal in the words "Equal Justice Under Law" over the entrance to the Supreme Court no longer applies in the United States. 

Along with equal justice, Trump and his loyalists have also terminated America's tradition of peaceful transfer of power.

It's always dictatorship over democracy for radical right authoritarians. They want to rule, not govern. Having no conscience, cruelty always trumps compassion.

Under their rule they are endangering the health of Americans by muzzling and dismantling the CDC and NIH. Human suffering and death means nothing to these sociopaths.

Provision for the general welfare be damned. Corporate welfare and a police state will be all that remains of a federal government that was once intended to be of, by, and for the people. These days white (un)Christian nationalists are the only "real Americans". 

“We the people” no longer matter. It’s now all about “We the wealthy elites and Trump loyalists” fleecing and subjugating Americans in a deliberately and systematically demolished republic.

Trump's Police State

 

A recent photo of integrity being scrubbed from the FBI Academy at Quantico.

Over that past few decades I’ve been predicting, “When fascism comes to America, we will vote for it, and it will be welcomed and embraced”. America’s march into fascism is now well under way. The radical Right propaganda empire founded by Rupert Murdoch, with allies like Rush Limbaugh, will have done its job. We have more radical Right propaganda outlets than even corporate media outlets, which have already hosted radical Right voices.

This isn’t new for White Nationalist America. These propagandists continue a heritage left them by the likes of the hugely popular pre-WWII radio personality and Nazi sympathizer Father Coughlin. 

The grandchildren of his fans are now all on board the Trump Train to chaos, cruelty and ultimately an economic collapse, if he has his way. So what can we expect to happen to justice and law enforcement under the authoritarian rule of a convicted felon?

We can expect with certainty institutionalized corruption and criminal malfeasance after Trump’s mass firing of independent inspectors general at several federal agencies and of Justice Department/FBI lawyers. We’re seeing the beginning of a massive politically motivated purge of capable public servants whose only “fault” was honest performance of their duty and to not be Trump loyalists. This is the only reason they are being eliminated, and likely to be replaced by loyalist radical Right enablers.

Trump Derangement Syndrome has been institutionalized and infected all branches of the Federal Government. 

The purging of the DOJ and FBI of employees who swore an oath to the Constitution but refuse to swear loyalty to the Felonious Fuhrer is a glaring red flag of fascism. They were sent a letter under the subject “Notice of Removal from Federal Service”. The letter from acting Attorney General James McHenry to the DOJ officials said they cannot be “trusted” to “faithfully” implement Trump’s agenda.

“You played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump. The proper functioning of government critically depends on the trust superior officials place in their subordinates,” McHenry wrote. “Given your significant role in prosecuting the President, I do not believe that the leadership of the Department can trust you to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully.”

And there it is. The mission of the DOJ and FBI is no longer enforcing the law and indicting criminals by gathering evidence that would stand in a court of law.

It’s now about “implementing Trump’s agenda”. 

For Trump and his authoritarian cartel, upholding the Constitution clearly isn’t their priority.

From the New York Times:

The top agent at the F.B.I.’s New York City field office vowed in a defiant email to his staff to “dig in” after the Trump administration targeted officials involved in the investigations into the Jan. 6 attack — and praised the bureau’s interim leaders for defending its independence.

“Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy,” wrote James E. Dennehy, a veteran and highly-respected agent who has run the largest and most important field office in the bureau since last September.

An F.B.I. spokeswoman declined to comment on internal bureau communications.

The email came after the Justice Department ordered the F.B.I. on Friday to collect the names of bureau personnel who helped investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, raising the possibility that Mr. Trump’s political appointees plan to purge career bureau officials, including rank-and-file field agents. That number could reach 6,000 — or about a sixth of the bureau’s 38,000 employees, according to the F.B.I.

In Trump’s Swamp of liars, criminals, sociopaths, and other such reptilians the FBI’s mission statement no longer applies.

Mission

Our mission encompasses all that we do as an organization—protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.

No more of that. Trump wants a police state to enforce his will and to prosecute and punish those he hates. And it has nothing to do with the rule of law. It is purely a dictator’s purge to facilitate his totalitarian ambitions.

Another red flag was the whole-hearted endorsement of Trump by the Fraternal of Order of Police.

Note how this endorsement completely ignores the fact that they endorsed a convicted felon who had a large number of additional evidence-supported felony indictments. This is the madness that begets tyranny.

How deranged is that? Here we have an extreme case of mass law enforcement Trump Derangement Syndrome. It is the same deranged extremism that sent a violent mob to overturn an election. It is as toxic as the case of the deranged Red Hats on the Supreme Court granting immunity to their fellow corrupt radical Right authoritarian and serial criminal. He just happened to be the career advancement benefactor for enough of them to demolish our nation's core democratic value of equal justice under law. 

And how could they have not known Trump had been promising to pardon his thugs he called “hostages” all along? They certainly had no objection to Trump’s other promise to weaponize law enforcement against officers and lawyers who were honorably performing their jobs by gathered evidence, due process, and restraint.

Ah, but soon the very fine police officers would be troubled when their Felonious Fuhrer did what he clearly intended to do.

The hypocrites at the Fraternal Order of Police KNEW about Trump’s felony conviction, indictments, and attempts to overturn the 2020 election in addition to his promise to release his thugs, but they endorsed him anyway. Note how they "both sides" the issue with false equivalence on Biden.

There was reasonable doubt and trial issues for Biden's pardon cases. There was no doubt as to the guilt of Trump's unrepentant thugs.

Unfortunately, there is also no doubt that there is disturbing percentage of police officers ready to enforce a tyrant’s rule. You can’t have a police state without willing police accomplices who inevitably embrace fascism.  Any dissenting officers will be purged.

Americans voted for a fascist presidency, and it has arrived. Will they learn from this mistake? Probably not, but the next two elections will tell us how much worse it could be,  how many people will suffer, and how much longer this tragedy will darken our republic.