@Npars01
So after writing this 👆 last night...
An article appeared this morning in Guardian about the election being in the hands of the #oligarchs. They are the ones pulling the strings on Puppet Trump who is their #VeryUsefulIdiot.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

#RJK #Murdoch #Bezos et al all on the phone to him "persuading" him to do their bidding for their particular area of influence: oil coal media pharma finance tech ...

And there, at the top of the pile, with his batteries, cars, X, Space-X and direct phoneline to Putin, is #Musk. Grinning his stupid grin, jumping his stupid jumps, waving his stupid waves.
Hes ready to join a Trump government in charge and in control of industry cutbacks (of course he is) But remember he's also in charge of a space programme that can control satellites that control the function of global business and finance. He can shut us down and shut businesses out at any time he wishes.

And Musk's next big foray will be into AI - so he won't need little ppl on production lines. And if he's working with Putin he won't need #Trump or the American Constitution.

#usapol #usafascistshitshow #usapolitcs #TrumpIsALaughingStock #globalpolitics #oligarchy

"It’s difficult to convey to people how much the GOP has radicalized, how much the power centers of conservative politics are in the hands of extremists, how much the rightwing intellectual sphere is dominated by some really radical ideas that are being pushed into the mainstream."

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/18

"One of the most frustrating things about U.S. politics is that people who aren’t engaging with it much will look at you like you are some kooky leftist propagandist if you simply outline what the Republican Party is doing wherever it is in charge and explicitly promises to be doing in the future."

~ Thomas Zimmer

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/17

thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/it…

It Could Definitely Happen Here

Many Americans struggle to accept that democracy is young, fragile, and could actually collapse – a lack of imagination that dangerously blunts the response to the Trumpist Right

^{Thomas Zimmer (Democracy Americana)}

"It’s easy to look back at the Trump years and declare, “We survived!”—unless you’re one of the thousands of Americans whose death from COVID might have been avoided if not for Trump’s mismanagement, demagoguery, selfishness, penchant for conspiracy theories, and incompetence. There’s no guarantee that any of us, in the next crisis, will be lucky again."

~ Cathy Young

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/16

thebulwark.com/p/the-next-cris…

Trump’s COVID Response: A Preview of Disasters to Come

Based on his past record, Trump should not be anywhere near American government during the next national emergency.

^{Cathy Young (The Bulwark)}

“'By my calculations he will need 58,201 flights in fully loaded Boeing 737-800s to fly them all out' and five large-scale staging grounds the size of Houston, Porter reports, concluding that it is an impossible enterprise and Trump will fail, not before creating immeasurable hardship."

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/15

"When the goal is to crash the economy and cause widespread despair and ruin, depriving America of a labor force necessary for our productivity is just part of the plan. Here is the assessment of Washington Post economic columnist Edoardo Porter based on a 'reduced' proposal by Trump to deport 'only' 11 million 'unauthorized immigrants' from the U.S."

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/14

washingtonpost.com/opinions/20…

"If Trump returns to the White House, his plans for mass deportation would unfold on 'an incomprehensible scale,' as Melissa Gira Grant writes in an excellent essay for The New Republic. Removing 15 million people is equivalent to emptying out the populations of entire countries such as Belgium or Bolivia."

~ Ruth Ben-Ghiat

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/13

lucid.substack.com/p/trumps-ma…

Trump's Mass Deportation Machine in the Making

Trump's migrant detention system while president rehearsed his plans to turn the state into a mass deportation machine on an epic scale

^{Ruth Ben-Ghiat (Lucid)}

"Some people talk about Trump’s economic plans; others about his intention to undo the rule of law. In this five-minute video, I try to explain how the two relate: how lawlessness will wreck the economy."

~ Timothy Snyder

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/12

snyder.substack.com/p/trumps-l…

Trump's Lawless Crash (video)

Ending the Rule of Law Brings Down the Economy

^{Timothy Snyder (Thinking about...)}

Jay Kuo says that :Trump wants to destroy our government institutions, and he's recruited just the team to do it."

Kuo provides a list of Trump's proposed wrecking crew, led by Elon Musk and RFK Jr. He concludes,

"Fascism thrives in chaos and misery, and that is what a second Trump term expressly seeks to create."

~ Jay Kuo

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/11

thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p…

Trump's Second Term Plan To Empower Musk, RFK Jr. To Undermine Institutions

Donald Trump wants to destroy our government institutions, and he's recruited just the team to do it.

^{The Big Picture}

"This campaign is fueled by hate—hate for diversity, for progress, for women, for democracy, for expertise, for facts, for the truth itself. At its center is a pathetic, egotistical would-be dictator, fueled by his own petty, self-serving hatreds."

~ Elliot Kirschner

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/10

elliotkirschner.substack.com/p…

I Hate Hate

Sadly, it's on display

^{Elliot Kirschner (Through the Fog, by Elliot Kirschner)}

"Elon Musk could never have got himself elected into office in the US. But as the cost-cutting tsar, a made-up role Trump has promised him, he would exert extraordinary power to cause pain, with the only choice left to citizens being whether or not to hug it."

~ Zoe Williams

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/9

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

An excess of billionaires is destabilising politics – just as academics predicted

Politicians have always courted the wealthy, but Elon Musk and co represent a new kind of donor, and an unprecedented danger to democracy, writes Guardian columnist Zoe Williams

^{Zoe Williams (The Guardian)}

"If Trump wins, we’re entering uncharted territory where private actors with vast wealth and power join with a corrupt president to pursue their own ends and not those of the people of the United States. Welcome to oligarchy, American style."

~ Mona Charen

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/8

thebulwark.com/p/donald-trumps…

Donald Trump’s American Oligarchy

The billionaires are lining up to get their bread buttered.

^{Mona Charen (The Bulwark)}

Boddie quotes Jake Tapper of CNN:

"Just a reminder, RFK Jr has no medical license, and has made wildly inaccurate claims about all sorts of medicines. Frankly, this is what he said — kind of a deranged remark — about coronavirus."

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/7

"'I'm gonna let him go wild on health,' Trump said this week, referring to Kennedy. 'I'm gonna let him go wild on the food. I'm going to let him go wild on medicines.'"

~ Maya Boddie

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/6

alternet.org/tapper-trump-rfk/

CNN’s Tapper slams Trump and RFK Jr’s plan: 'There aren’t even words to describe what hackery that is'

CNN host Jake Tapper on Wednesday blasted Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s plan to join forces to take over medical government agencies. "I'm gonna let him go wild on health," Trump said this week, referring to Kennedy.

^{Maya Boddie (Alternet.org)}

"Last night, antivax crank Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—a man who once said Covid was possibly a bioweapon that had been 'deliberately targeted' to spare Ashkenazi Jews—told a group of supporters on a video call obtained by CNN that Trump had promised him 'control' over America’s public health agencies."

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/5

"And on Monday, he replied to an X account predicting 'markets would tumble' thanks to an 'initial severe overreaction in the economy' if Trump followed through on his mass-deportations strategy, before ultimately resulting in 'a healthier, sustainable economy.'

'Sounds about right,' Musk replied."

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/4

"Elon Musk, Trump’s richest and loudest backer and his 'secretary of cost-cutting'-to-be, has repeatedly suggested that the opening act of a second Trump presidency could be a period of serious economic turbulence. On a call last Friday, he warned that 'some temporary hardship' would be necessary to put America back on a sustainable fiscal course."

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/3

"In the closing days of the election, one party and its leading candidate are promising to inflict economic pain on the electorate; stating that they will turn over the top health agencies to one of the country’s leading vaccine skeptics; and pledging to pursue a disruptive, 'massive reform' to the nation’s healthcare system—historically, the sort of move that has proven extremely unpopular."

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/2

"MAGA’s closing pitch to voters: economic pain and health care sorcery:

With days to go, top Trump surrogates are laying out a presidency that they admit will include some suffering."

~ Andrew Egger

#Trump #ElonMusk #RFKJr #economy #oligarchs #EconomicElites #healthcare #vaccines
/1

thebulwark.com/p/magas-closing…

MAGA’s Closing Pitch to Voters: Economic Pain and Health Care Sorcery

^{Andrew Egger (The Bulwark)}