Phyllis Fong, who was investigating Neuralink, "forcefully removed "

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Her role was to enforce animal welfare laws. Simply investigating if those were upheld in extremely public examples of cutting chimps heads open who later died, doesn’t appear political to me.

No, not equally.

Let’s assume the decision to investigate an inappropriate number of test animals dying (per internal complaints) is completely political. That investigation is just one of many by the inspector… perhaps the others are in most Americans’ interests. And still Musk and government have millions of dollars of contracts in shares interest.

Now let’s assume the inspector’s firing was a political move by Musk. All of the other non-connected investigations which may have positive impact are without a lead. And Musk’s other interests in the government are still very much intact.

And finally where are the checks and balances when there is no threat of losing re-election.

Says the guy boo-hooing about the richest man in the world being "persecuted".

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I guess one minor distinction is the piece of legislation Congress passed that outlines the specific process for firing Fong, which was not followed, whereas I assume you have no such protection on your job?

Just a minor distinction though!

> If I got fired from a private company security would also remove me

This is closer to the head of security at your company’s girlfriend not liking you and having him remove you from the premises. Trump may not have the legal power to fire her. So she isn’t fired, she’s just being removed because she investigated the ersatz VP.

This mistaken belief that government works like a corporation is the essence of fascism. Corporations are inherently authoritarian, government should not be. The entire point of bureaucracy is that supreme power should not vest into one person, but rather be divided amongst many people and mediated by a system of rules.

This is my big struggle with all of this. His first term I felt America was duped by a con man so protested and made a fuss on social media. Americans saw the first four years and astonishingly decided they wanted more of it, by a decent margin.

So while I absolutely hate what is going on right now this seems to be what the people wanted. I question each day whether that needs to be respected or we should resist.

I also wonder if his supporters have any idea of what is going on. I am sure fox news isn't covering any of this and if they are it's probably being spun in some horrific way.

Americans are desperate. May not be felt among the HN crowd, but standards of living in the US have been declining consistently for a long time [1]. Remember that Trump was not re-elected to a second term initially specifically because he failed to deliver on his promise of "MAGA". He instead did a Jeb Bush presidency, complete with Wall Street (Mnuchin) and the CIA (Pompeo) running the country exactly as would have occurred had Bush won. So Americans tried Biden, in the hopes of a return to Obama era America. This obviously didn't happen, as standard of living continued to decline. So they tried Trump again, in sheer desperation.

I don't see a positive future for the US, as it is so clearly a declining empire, exhibiting every textbook symptom. The startup/tech crowd loves talking about cheap phones and "services", but the reality is bleak outside of this narrow tech bubble.

1. https://www.oftwominds.com/blogjun24/negativity6-24.html

Thanks to California's incredibly slow counting system it was a lot closer in popular vote than it initially appeared.

I also spoke when I voted for my Senators and Congressmen/women. I voted for Congress to do their jobs.

A minority spoke clearly. Many of "the people" didn't vote, and Trump got less than 50% of those that did.

Can we then openly call republican voters guilty then? Instead of pretending that people voting for that party are good people? I do agree that many wanted the harm and that is why they voted for Trump.

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Trump has decided he controls the purse (a privilege of the legislative branch that he legally DOES NOT HAVE), has begun to fire people illegally and ignoring the legal methods (such as Fong), is doing so through someone who is not part of the federal government and has active conflicts of interest (Musk), and is actively working to remove the 22nd amendment that prevents him from becoming a dictator for life. Most of congress has just bent over and let him, seemingly.

What exactly do you think is "gonna be just fine" about the most intense set of attacks of democracy this country has ever seen?

The Chinese century, if I had to bet.

This extreme cynicism is part of what got us here. People have made this cynicism manifest. They're making the government of their imaginations real.

Lawsuits take a very long time, but a court injunction can control which way that time is spent.

A number of (especially recent) administrations have performed a large number of legally questionable acts which were often structured in such a way as to be difficult to challenge (the CFPB comes to mind). Trump’s innovation seems to be taking this tactic to an extreme, remarkably early in this administration.

Except that nothing is illegal now, Biden showed that with blanket pardons. So for all intents and purposes they will do what they like and Trump can just wipe it clean at the end.