In the face of a looming constitutional crisis, where the administration refuses to obey direct court orders, we are not without some final cards to play.
I think Senator Kim's strategy of "just say no" to everything, including government funding is a real winner. Who is leading this charge? How can I find out more?
Jeffries has the real power. Democrats in the Senate cannot actually stop what the Republicans want to do--that is, if the Republicans can figure out what they want to do--because it will be done through reconciliation and cannot be filibustered. But unless Lil' Mikey Johnson can get all Republicans to work together, he's going to need Democrats to get a budget passed and the debt limit raised.
I hope Jeffries stands his ground. I messaged him today to urge him to say no, all down the line. Unlike many Congresspeople, he allows messages from non-constituents.
Sure. That's his style. Make threats, get pushback, back away. Then do it over again. Typical narcissistic bully. We need to make him own this stinking mess until we reach critical mass for the general strike.
Democracy Labs is using your suggestion of highlighting Musk's unpopularity tied to how if affects people's every day lives - especially in red states. In each case there is a link to Musk's DOGE boys and the congressperson / Senator for the district which being hurt. So it becomes clear to a farmer (say) hurt by the shutdown of USAID why he is suffering and who the elected rep to hold accountable it. The blogs and maps are being published twice a day in line with the latest Musk outrage.
American farmers ruined by Musk killing USAID: Check this map
Elise Stefanik's district includes wheat farmers who will suffer due to closure of USAID. Let's attach names of officials allowing this seizure to happen to the jurisdictions being decimated. That map is important!
This is how I'm approaching Trump-supporters in my own network. It allows me to express concerns and discuss current affairs without seeming like I'm directly confronting their choices (or as just "one more Democrat crying about Trump"). I've also used my own personal experiences working for a tech company for illustrations.
Since my husband, mom, brother & I are all on SSA, I clicked on that article. There were a lot of statistics, but I didn't see anything that definitively stated that SSA money would be going to pay for G. Bay. What did I miss?
I've seen similar articles following the Democracy Labs proforma pop up in mainstream media. Good stuff.
It's a useful approach so long as the info is valid and supporting sources are transparent.
Without these, trust is further eroded, and trust is vitally important in an information ecosystem saturated with disinformation & misinformation.
It's essential for effective & ethical influence within strategic comms.
For those of you with experience or interest in the media, digital and cybersecurity space, Corneliu Bjola, Head of the Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group, has developed a framework for managing information warfare (hybrid attacks).
He calls this Dynamic Information Resilience (DIR).
He uses the recent Romanian elections as a case study before breaking down his framework into 4 components.
Bjola's positioned his framework within the context of NATO, its allies and partners, but his insights are applicable and useful.
Algorithmic invasions: How information warfare threatens NATO's eastern flank
Here's a recent article (Feb 11 25) by Eitvydas Bajarūnas, Visiting Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), arguing that hybrid warfare should trigger Article 5:
I know. I am very disappointed in Fetterman. He comes from my mom's area in PA and she voted for him when he lived there. She's too far gone in her dementia now to realize what is happening and that is a blessing
You are spot on, Stephen! I have a friend who had several mini-strokes and she just appeared to be slightly confused. One day we were talking about the upcoming provincial election (BC, Canada) and she mentioned she thought she might vote for xx candidate (conservative) as they 'seemed like a good choice". I reminded her that she had always supported the Green Party for as long as I knew her. Then she had a stroke that completely obliterated her memory and she is no longer in a position to vote.
Sad :( I've watched my very intelligent mother deteriorate for 20 years. It's hard to watch. The one thing she does know for sure- she still hates frump with a passion LOL
IF YOU HAVE A DEMOCRAT AS A SENATOR OR REPRESENTATIVE HERE'S HOW TO CONTACT THEM TO DEMAND THEY STAND UP. https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member. Kuo's suggestions for not going along with anything is an absolutely necessary first step by Democrats. You can tell them to stop cooperating with ANYTHING the sig heil corp (aka, GOP) suggests.
Did that this morning!! Will do every day if I have to. My Representative's office was the only one who answered. The other two senators were voicemail only. I got the info from 5calls.org
Thank you, Jay. I’ve been saying this for days. Wasn’t it Nancy Reagan who came up with the slogan “Just say No” back in the day. She was talking about drugs, I think, but it definitely works now for our politicians. NO is a complete sentence.
Pretty sure she hadn’t copyrighted it, Jay. Although you can never be certain. Perhaps I should do a search on it (just for sheetz and giggles though ).
I just wrote my two senators, who are both Democrats, not to comply with anything the Republicans need regarding new laws to be passed or raising the debt ceiling. I am going to be writing my representatives now. If we’re in a crisis, let’s behave as if we’re in a crisis. Gloves off, stop playing by the rules because we’re the only ones who do, and take some action. Please everyone who reads this blog write to your senators and your Congress people and tell them to follow senator Brian Schatz and refused to comply. Thank you it’s up to us.
The IRS doesn’t get too excited unless you owe. Make your deductions during the year. 3 person house. Take 3 deductions. Every paycheck. Unlikely you will owe or be owed at the end of the year. Plus you had your money all year. Refunds are loans to the government. They use it all year and then give you it back with no interest. It is a bad loan at that.
Just my take. Be gentle in any correction. Oh wait I don’t care.
As a layman. You can increase your exemptions by updating your W4. Then you will owe when doing your return. So keep money to the side to pay up. You can do that a couple of years before the IRS complains and tells you have prepay more. But most impact is in the first year when we deny the free credit. If enough citizens do that it should make an impact.
Senators Schatz and Kim are to be commended and supported. The "Schatz Maneuver" should be acted upon forthwith by every Democratic Senator just on principle starting immediately.
It’s the simple things I don’t understand how this is happening. How did they get into USAID and other agencies to begin with – was it breaking and entering. And what documented authority did they have to break into our national computer systems? Would I be able to speed and run red lights just because Musk doesn’t like red lights or wants to travel at any speed he wants?
Trump created DOGE as a part of the Executive office of the President. It's not an actual department, only Congress can create those. Musk is defined as a "Special Government Employee."
After he created DOGE, Trump issued an order giving political and "special government employees" access to computer systems. This is the order US District Court Judge Engelmayer granted a temporary restraining order against on Saturday.
The employee at Treasury who said "no" and refused to grant Musk access was put on administrative leave by the Secretary of the Treasury (and then the employee subsequently retired.) Until Judge Engelmayer issued his TRO, federal employees were faced with a choice: comply or be put on administrative leave.
Yes, a judge would eventually determine what happened to you was illegal, but justice doesn't always go quickly, and good luck paying your bills in the meantime.
Furthermore, if you say no, you'd simply get bypassed until DOGE/Elon found an employee who either agreed with them (like Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre finally found people), or much more likely, an employee who is in an economic circumstance where getting put on unpaid leave would be financially crushing. Therefore the employee would feel like they had no choice but to comply.
"The White House knows that it can’t just eliminate a congressionally authorized agency such as USAID..."
Yes, but who is going to stop them? The GOP-controlled SCOTUS? The GOP-controlled House? The GOP-controlled Senate? The military? Cops? Mobs in the streets? There is literally no one to stop what's going on right now. Laws mean less than nothing to Trump, Musk, and the rest of their enablers. Please tell me I'm wrong.
Thanks for that. Of course I did. I think that Trump and Company are not going to stop until they are physically confronted with troops or police and taken away. They will disregard anything anyone says in Congress, in a courtroom, in a stop-work action, anywhere. They will push and push and push and unless they are interdicted forcefully and taken away to jail cells they will NEVER STOP. We are under attack to the same extent as if we were being invaded by another country's army, or maybe rather by pirates. I'll be happy to be proven wrong.
It may come to having to confront the “in the streets” as Jeffries has said. My goal here was to show that there still are legislative tools to deploy that we should definitely explore even as we challenge them in the federal courts everywhere.
I think one thing that will stop them is if/when the economy starts to tank. In certain sectors there have already been layoffs. Thats going to continue. That sort of thing has ripple affects (people start holding onto money they have, and stop spending it). I've already seen anecdotal reports of that too.
And then there are tariff and trade impacts. There already is a buy Canada movement on Canada. Expect other movements like that. Coupled with immigration policy and a bundled avian flu response, and things are going to get more expensive (outside the 2% Fed inflation target).
I would expect unemployment numbers to tick up mid to late Spring, GDP growth to slow, and inflation to grow, into the Fall if nothing is done.
While its, unfortunately, going to be a slow motion disaster I expect public sentiment to turn against their idiocy.
A Government shutdown in March would likely accelerate this.
Yes! Write your congress people and urge them to say NO to any & all republican bills, stymie every nominee, SUE them, whatever it takes so republicans take the heat for every thing happening. No bail-outs for Johnson any more.
Good article. To pick a nit: I think you meant "Hobson's choice," not "Hobbesian choice." Yes, the Rs probably are stumbling up to a Hobson's choice.
(Hobbes was the 17th century political philosopher who wrote in Leviathan that man's life without government would be "nasty, brutish, and short.")
It could be said that the Dems are as well: either Just Say No, which will have many unpleasant consequences but may ultimately force some return to legality and coherent procedure, or collaborate in the budget and debt ceiling work while plastering labels like "comity" and "bipartisanship for the good of the country" and other such bullshit on it. The latter would be capitulation, a complete abandonment of Dems' present role as Loyal Opposition.
It's crucial that the demand for participating in the budget and debt work is a complete knocking-off of all illegal executive orders and other illegal behavior, restoration of the computer software to its pre-Musk state, and a restoration of all fired or "on leave" employees to full and regular duty. Anything less, such as a few little changes at the margin, about which Trump will lie and act in bad faith, will be unacceptable.
About defiance of court orders: it's pretty tough to put much hope in a circular MAGA firing squad, with Musk in the middle of the circle, as the means by which the rule of law survives. There's no shortage of anti-American MAGAts unconcerned by mere annoyances like judicial rulings as they go about imposing their oligarchic christo-fascist autocracy.
About Senate Dems pulling out all the procedural stops: To do anything less would be dereliction of duty. As has now become popular to say, they need to channel Mitch McConnell and act likewise. Norm Ornstein enumerated several specific tactics Dems can use here: https://contrarian.substack.com/p/fighting-the-putsch . As soon as I finish this note, I'll be emailing a summary of Ornstein's list to my senators.
I think Senator Kim's strategy of "just say no" to everything, including government funding is a real winner. Who is leading this charge? How can I find out more?
I believe Hakeem Jeffries, in the House, has made the same threat.
Jeffries has the real power. Democrats in the Senate cannot actually stop what the Republicans want to do--that is, if the Republicans can figure out what they want to do--because it will be done through reconciliation and cannot be filibustered. But unless Lil' Mikey Johnson can get all Republicans to work together, he's going to need Democrats to get a budget passed and the debt limit raised.
I hope Jeffries stands his ground. I messaged him today to urge him to say no, all down the line. Unlike many Congresspeople, he allows messages from non-constituents.
I am curious if we just say no and get trump to back off - could he just turn around and start breaking things all over again??
Sure. That's his style. Make threats, get pushback, back away. Then do it over again. Typical narcissistic bully. We need to make him own this stinking mess until we reach critical mass for the general strike.
I hope so.
Democracy Labs is using your suggestion of highlighting Musk's unpopularity tied to how if affects people's every day lives - especially in red states. In each case there is a link to Musk's DOGE boys and the congressperson / Senator for the district which being hurt. So it becomes clear to a farmer (say) hurt by the shutdown of USAID why he is suffering and who the elected rep to hold accountable it. The blogs and maps are being published twice a day in line with the latest Musk outrage.
American farmers ruined by Musk killing USAID: Check this map
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/02/08/american-farmers-ruined-by-musk-killing-usaid-check-this-map/
Cancer patients sacrificed to give billionaires more tax cuts: National Institute of Health defunded
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/02/10/cancer-patients-sacrificed-to-give-billionaires-more-tax-cuts-national-institute-of-health-defunded/
Where are $26,900,000,000 of your Social Security funds going? Guantanamo Bay!
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/02/09/guantanamo-bay-will-take-billions-from-social-security-funding/
How many Americans may die as Trump cuts medical research funding to give tax cuts to billionaires? Check this map!
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/02/09/nih-funding-cut-to-pay-for-billionaire-tax-cut-covid-death-count/
Who exposed a list of CIA agents by unclassified email and put a target on their backs?
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/02/09/cia-names-exposed-by-unclassified-email/
Thank you for this!
This should be effective also
I am going to repost if you don’t mind
"I am going to repost if you don’t mind"
I'm pretty sure that is Dem Labs #1 goal - to get people to amplify their content!
🌊🌊🌊
Yes. Please do.
Elise Stefanik's district includes wheat farmers who will suffer due to closure of USAID. Let's attach names of officials allowing this seizure to happen to the jurisdictions being decimated. That map is important!
If you zoom into the map you will see the congressional districts and the rep.
Did you have something else in mind?
This is how I'm approaching Trump-supporters in my own network. It allows me to express concerns and discuss current affairs without seeming like I'm directly confronting their choices (or as just "one more Democrat crying about Trump"). I've also used my own personal experiences working for a tech company for illustrations.
Since my husband, mom, brother & I are all on SSA, I clicked on that article. There were a lot of statistics, but I didn't see anything that definitively stated that SSA money would be going to pay for G. Bay. What did I miss?
I've seen similar articles following the Democracy Labs proforma pop up in mainstream media. Good stuff.
It's a useful approach so long as the info is valid and supporting sources are transparent.
Without these, trust is further eroded, and trust is vitally important in an information ecosystem saturated with disinformation & misinformation.
It's essential for effective & ethical influence within strategic comms.
For those of you with experience or interest in the media, digital and cybersecurity space, Corneliu Bjola, Head of the Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group, has developed a framework for managing information warfare (hybrid attacks).
He calls this Dynamic Information Resilience (DIR).
He uses the recent Romanian elections as a case study before breaking down his framework into 4 components.
Bjola's positioned his framework within the context of NATO, its allies and partners, but his insights are applicable and useful.
Algorithmic invasions: How information warfare threatens NATO's eastern flank
https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2025/02/07/algorithmic-invasions-how-information-warfare-threatens-nato-s-eastern-flank/
Here is the report into the disinformation campaigns and influence operation in Romania (case study), for all you data nerds:
Networks of Influence: Decoding foreign meddling in Romania’s elections
https://fpc.org.uk/networks-of-influence-decoding-foreign-meddling-in-romanias-elections-a-collaborative-investigation-into-disinformation-campaigns-and-influence-operation/
Talking of NATO... and broadening the scope.
Here's a recent article (Feb 11 25) by Eitvydas Bajarūnas, Visiting Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), arguing that hybrid warfare should trigger Article 5:
Using NATO’s Article 5 Against Hybrid Attacks
https://cepa.org/article/using-natos-article-5-against-hybrid-attacks/
Many of us don't have legal expertise, but we do have extensive comms and tech experience.
It's another way we can fight back.
Thank you for the links. I'll be doing some writing!
There will be a protest at the CFPB today against musks illegal shut down of the bureau. Come join us!
@ 4:15
Ok
How to get the traitor fetterman on board ?
He is supposed to be a democrat
Goes around voting for trumps nominees and praising trump
Even went to mar a lar go
I think he has had more strokes
Can he be recalled also?
Where is Luigi when you need him?
Call him. As often as you can or feel comfortable. Rotate among his offices.
I know. I am very disappointed in Fetterman. He comes from my mom's area in PA and she voted for him when he lived there. She's too far gone in her dementia now to realize what is happening and that is a blessing
Personality changes after stroke and other types of brain damage are not uncommon. Certainly, he needs to be retired at the end of his term.
You are spot on, Stephen! I have a friend who had several mini-strokes and she just appeared to be slightly confused. One day we were talking about the upcoming provincial election (BC, Canada) and she mentioned she thought she might vote for xx candidate (conservative) as they 'seemed like a good choice". I reminded her that she had always supported the Green Party for as long as I knew her. Then she had a stroke that completely obliterated her memory and she is no longer in a position to vote.
Sad :( I've watched my very intelligent mother deteriorate for 20 years. It's hard to watch. The one thing she does know for sure- she still hates frump with a passion LOL
Yea I know. My mother had a stroke 20 years ago, her personality changed a lot. But I thought he had the stroke before he ran as a Democrat?
He al most died. It was during the campaign. He was aphasic (couldn’t speak) for a while.
Ah yea I remember that now.
I am a Pennsylvania Democrat who has been calling and emailing Sen. Fetterman daily, telling him that people see him turning into a Republican!
I am concerned about Fetterman too!
IF YOU HAVE A DEMOCRAT AS A SENATOR OR REPRESENTATIVE HERE'S HOW TO CONTACT THEM TO DEMAND THEY STAND UP. https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member. Kuo's suggestions for not going along with anything is an absolutely necessary first step by Democrats. You can tell them to stop cooperating with ANYTHING the sig heil corp (aka, GOP) suggests.
Did that this morning!! Will do every day if I have to. My Representative's office was the only one who answered. The other two senators were voicemail only. I got the info from 5calls.org
Thank you, Jay. I’ve been saying this for days. Wasn’t it Nancy Reagan who came up with the slogan “Just say No” back in the day. She was talking about drugs, I think, but it definitely works now for our politicians. NO is a complete sentence.
I am “borrowing” her line as an easy way to remember it.
Pretty sure she hadn’t copyrighted it, Jay. Although you can never be certain. Perhaps I should do a search on it (just for sheetz and giggles though ).
That's what my calls are going to be now. Just say no.
I just wrote my two senators, who are both Democrats, not to comply with anything the Republicans need regarding new laws to be passed or raising the debt ceiling. I am going to be writing my representatives now. If we’re in a crisis, let’s behave as if we’re in a crisis. Gloves off, stop playing by the rules because we’re the only ones who do, and take some action. Please everyone who reads this blog write to your senators and your Congress people and tell them to follow senator Brian Schatz and refused to comply. Thank you it’s up to us.
Did this. I heard calls are better. Maybe I'll just go every route!
Can we in the public also ‘just say no’ and refuse to pay federal taxes? I never envisioned myself even thinking about such a step, but I am now.
Most of us pay taxes through payroll deductions - it's automatic.
Also, not paying or filing your taxes is a crime. The IRS will eventually come after you.
The IRS doesn’t get too excited unless you owe. Make your deductions during the year. 3 person house. Take 3 deductions. Every paycheck. Unlikely you will owe or be owed at the end of the year. Plus you had your money all year. Refunds are loans to the government. They use it all year and then give you it back with no interest. It is a bad loan at that.
Just my take. Be gentle in any correction. Oh wait I don’t care.
Right. They already have my money. Here’s hoping they’ll give some of it back when I file my return and if I have a refund coming.
I would hurry up. I filed a week ago and got my refund today. Was scared to death they’d screw up the IRS so bad, . I would not get it at all.
As a layman. You can increase your exemptions by updating your W4. Then you will owe when doing your return. So keep money to the side to pay up. You can do that a couple of years before the IRS complains and tells you have prepay more. But most impact is in the first year when we deny the free credit. If enough citizens do that it should make an impact.
same
Thank you for the analysis.
Senators Schatz and Kim are to be commended and supported. The "Schatz Maneuver" should be acted upon forthwith by every Democratic Senator just on principle starting immediately.
I am putting my money on the Cheneys sending in tactical teams when its clear King Musk has every intention of (continuing to) break laws.
Maybe Dick can take Musk on a hunting trip...
God, I hope so.
Kim i agree
It’s the simple things I don’t understand how this is happening. How did they get into USAID and other agencies to begin with – was it breaking and entering. And what documented authority did they have to break into our national computer systems? Would I be able to speed and run red lights just because Musk doesn’t like red lights or wants to travel at any speed he wants?
Trump's new cabinet appointees gave them access.
Trump created DOGE as a part of the Executive office of the President. It's not an actual department, only Congress can create those. Musk is defined as a "Special Government Employee."
After he created DOGE, Trump issued an order giving political and "special government employees" access to computer systems. This is the order US District Court Judge Engelmayer granted a temporary restraining order against on Saturday.
The employee at Treasury who said "no" and refused to grant Musk access was put on administrative leave by the Secretary of the Treasury (and then the employee subsequently retired.) Until Judge Engelmayer issued his TRO, federal employees were faced with a choice: comply or be put on administrative leave.
Yes, a judge would eventually determine what happened to you was illegal, but justice doesn't always go quickly, and good luck paying your bills in the meantime.
Furthermore, if you say no, you'd simply get bypassed until DOGE/Elon found an employee who either agreed with them (like Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre finally found people), or much more likely, an employee who is in an economic circumstance where getting put on unpaid leave would be financially crushing. Therefore the employee would feel like they had no choice but to comply.
Aha! Now we only have to wait for Trump to disagree with these judges.
Great essay. I must have SOME hope. Just Say No sounds like a smart move among few options.
"The White House knows that it can’t just eliminate a congressionally authorized agency such as USAID..."
Yes, but who is going to stop them? The GOP-controlled SCOTUS? The GOP-controlled House? The GOP-controlled Senate? The military? Cops? Mobs in the streets? There is literally no one to stop what's going on right now. Laws mean less than nothing to Trump, Musk, and the rest of their enablers. Please tell me I'm wrong.
Did you bother to read this?
Thanks for that. Of course I did. I think that Trump and Company are not going to stop until they are physically confronted with troops or police and taken away. They will disregard anything anyone says in Congress, in a courtroom, in a stop-work action, anywhere. They will push and push and push and unless they are interdicted forcefully and taken away to jail cells they will NEVER STOP. We are under attack to the same extent as if we were being invaded by another country's army, or maybe rather by pirates. I'll be happy to be proven wrong.
It may come to having to confront the “in the streets” as Jeffries has said. My goal here was to show that there still are legislative tools to deploy that we should definitely explore even as we challenge them in the federal courts everywhere.
Hi, I really do agree with what you say, we need to try all legislative and legal possibilities, but I'm having a bad day (bad several weeks, actually, since the election) and I'm feeling somewhat pessimistic about the peaceful options. As witness: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/us/trump-unfreezing-federal-grants-judge-ruling.html?unlocked_article_code=1.v04.7Npd.S5KFDd67H89N&smid=url-share
I think one thing that will stop them is if/when the economy starts to tank. In certain sectors there have already been layoffs. Thats going to continue. That sort of thing has ripple affects (people start holding onto money they have, and stop spending it). I've already seen anecdotal reports of that too.
And then there are tariff and trade impacts. There already is a buy Canada movement on Canada. Expect other movements like that. Coupled with immigration policy and a bundled avian flu response, and things are going to get more expensive (outside the 2% Fed inflation target).
I would expect unemployment numbers to tick up mid to late Spring, GDP growth to slow, and inflation to grow, into the Fall if nothing is done.
While its, unfortunately, going to be a slow motion disaster I expect public sentiment to turn against their idiocy.
A Government shutdown in March would likely accelerate this.
Yes! Write your congress people and urge them to say NO to any & all republican bills, stymie every nominee, SUE them, whatever it takes so republicans take the heat for every thing happening. No bail-outs for Johnson any more.
I just contacted my senators and urged the them to join senators Kim and Schatz in protest. I hope everyone else does too.
Money talks: economic blackout. Do not spend one fucking penny for one day—everyone in the US. The power of the purse.
Be careful with your dollars. Spend only on essentials. Buy Canadian and Mexican goods when you can.
That day is Friday, February 28, 2025 - with, perhaps, more days to follow.
Yes! I’m in!
Good article. To pick a nit: I think you meant "Hobson's choice," not "Hobbesian choice." Yes, the Rs probably are stumbling up to a Hobson's choice.
(Hobbes was the 17th century political philosopher who wrote in Leviathan that man's life without government would be "nasty, brutish, and short.")
It could be said that the Dems are as well: either Just Say No, which will have many unpleasant consequences but may ultimately force some return to legality and coherent procedure, or collaborate in the budget and debt ceiling work while plastering labels like "comity" and "bipartisanship for the good of the country" and other such bullshit on it. The latter would be capitulation, a complete abandonment of Dems' present role as Loyal Opposition.
It's crucial that the demand for participating in the budget and debt work is a complete knocking-off of all illegal executive orders and other illegal behavior, restoration of the computer software to its pre-Musk state, and a restoration of all fired or "on leave" employees to full and regular duty. Anything less, such as a few little changes at the margin, about which Trump will lie and act in bad faith, will be unacceptable.
About defiance of court orders: it's pretty tough to put much hope in a circular MAGA firing squad, with Musk in the middle of the circle, as the means by which the rule of law survives. There's no shortage of anti-American MAGAts unconcerned by mere annoyances like judicial rulings as they go about imposing their oligarchic christo-fascist autocracy.
About Senate Dems pulling out all the procedural stops: To do anything less would be dereliction of duty. As has now become popular to say, they need to channel Mitch McConnell and act likewise. Norm Ornstein enumerated several specific tactics Dems can use here: https://contrarian.substack.com/p/fighting-the-putsch . As soon as I finish this note, I'll be emailing a summary of Ornstein's list to my senators.
Ah thanks for the catch!