The Daily Populous Sunday February 9th, 2025 evening edition
Authored by salon.com and submitted by Murky-Site7468

Reps. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., are proposing a bill to stop billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle the federal government in its tracks.

The ‘‘Nobody Elected Elon Musk Act’’ is the latest push from Democratic lawmakers to rein in DOGE, the Trump administration cost-cutting scheme that has set its sights on USAID and the Treasury Department.

Musk’s front-seat role within the administration – parodied by a Time Magazine cover that the president seemed less than impressed with – has attracted major condemnation from elected officials and some setbacks from federal courts. Stansbury and Raskin’s bill would make the world’s richest man personally liable for his department’s dismantling of federal services.

Outside of Congress, federal workers, blue states and student groups have all filed lawsuits seeking to block the unelected billionaire’s goons from accessing the nation’s most sensitive data. A federal judge restrained the department’s unvetted lackeys from accessing payment systems on Saturday morning, emphasizing security and privacy risks.

On a Friday call, Stansbury estimated that Musk’s illegal activities would trigger “millions of dollars in damages.” She said the act proposal would make sure “the American taxpayers are not left on the hook for that liability… [and instead] the liability squarely falls on Elon Musk and those responsible for it.”

The bill is one of many from Hill Democrats aimed at firing back at the billionaire. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc., proposed a bill to axe Musk’s lucrative federal contracts at SpaceX earlier this week, while Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi filed legislation to protect taxpayer data from Musk’s reach.

LNMagic on February 9th, 2025 at 06:36 UTC »

Historian Robert O. Paxton outlined five stages of fascism in his work The Five Stages of Fascism (1998). Here’s a summary:

1️⃣ Initial Movement – A reactionary response to crisis, fueled by nationalism, resentment, and scapegoating. Fascist groups emerge, attacking perceived enemies (leftists, minorities, intellectuals).

2️⃣ Rooting in the Political System – Fascists gain legitimacy by allying with conservative elites, exploiting elections, or using violence to intimidate opponents. Democracy is weakened.

3️⃣ Seizing Power – Through legal maneuvers, violent coups, or emergency powers, fascists take control of the government. Opposition is repressed, and civil liberties are suspended.

4️⃣ Exercising Power – A full authoritarian regime forms, with a cult of personality, mass propaganda, secret police, and militarization. Dissent is crushed.

5️⃣ Radicalization & Decline – The regime either escalates into war/genocide (Nazi Germany) or stagnates and softens over time (Francoist Spain). Eventually, fascism collapses due to internal decay or external defeat.

Key takeaway: Fascism doesn’t always start with a coup—it often rises within a democracy and dismantles it from within.

We are in the middle of stage 3. Right now.

Arkmer on February 9th, 2025 at 02:02 UTC »

You don’t need an act. You need law enforcement. He’s not authorized to do literally any of the things he’s doing. And yes, I’m 100% certain of that. The government makes you sign a form for every individual system. Fuck, even the unimportant crap I work with took two documents with mine and high authority signatures. Can you imagine the authorization required to access the treasury?

The fact they even made it this far blows me away. Someone granted them access. Someone opened the doors. And let me tell you, Trump doesn’t know how to grant access beyond shouting into the ether and hoping someone complies.

Edit: Many of the responses here are just rolling over to comply in advance. You realize that helps them, right? You understand that you’re helping this along by, not just doing nothing, but suggesting they’ve won.

Do not comply in advance. Force them to force you.

Edit 2: I said “law enforcement”, not “professional law enforcement”.

snail-the-sage on February 9th, 2025 at 01:52 UTC »

It's absurd that we need legislation to criminalize this bullshit.