Trump tracking thread / general hell thread

[gorzek]

Trump is halting production of pennies, which is somehow not the worst idea ever, but talk about grasping at straws.

Lol. They're just throwing as much shit at the wall as they can, and grabbing direct sources of control (i.e. Treasury payment systems) as quickly as they can, and are going to see what sticks in the ensuing chaos. I think we probably won't see people actually taking efforts to physically regain control of agency buildings and administrative access for the moment, everyone is still focused on the "legal" route such as injunctions and lawsuits, which don't matter if Musk doesn't listen to them as he allegedly has direct control over the payments. When and if the actual funding vanishes, and the employees are all gone, there may be a militarized effort to take back the buildings and admin controls, but maybe not...and it might be too late by then.
Either way, all this instability is going to have a ripple effect down the chain to state and local-level programs, whether or not the shit ultimately sticks. Having worked a long time for programs that are funded largely by federal and state grants, the amount of local economic instability that will be caused by all this is almost unimaginable. Schools, universities, community mental health, workforce development, healthcare, research...it's all going to get pretty rough pretty fast. And it's already happening where I am. Research programs shutting down, bhc/cmh and state agencies tightening their belts...this is all occurring just from the threat of having funding cut. Mind you these programs are already insufficiently funded for the level of need.

Yeah, you're not wrong about any of that... the damage done will persist, even if the actions that caused it are halted. Holding back funding for even a month can be a fatal blow for a lot of projects.
Weird how "making America great" means kneecapping all the things that give us any kind of competitive edge, like medical research.
Our enemies just get to sick back and laugh as the country destroys itself at the behest of dipshit billionaires.
Destroying the American empire would be a cool outcome except for all the suffering of innocent people it will also cause. But that's how it always goes when things collapse, I guess.