“It might be helpful for you to know that you are not alone. And that in the long, twilight struggle which lies ahead of us, there is the possibility of hope.”
“The Long Twilight Struggle.” Babylon 5, created and written by J. Michael Straczynski, Season 2, Episode 20, 1995.
Here’s what I’ve found interesting:
- Why, yes, people are working to save our democracy;
- How a foreign reporter would write about last week (“White Nationalist Forces Consolidate Power Alongside Musk’s Junta”);
- The MAGA feeding frenzy against our democracy is an assault coming from many directions;
- The media continues to fail us by missing the story of Elon Musk’s coup;
- Democratic State Attorneys General have been preparing for this situation;
- Wondering whether the credit rating agencies will take Musk’s payment system and Treasury bill attacks seriously;
- Suggestions about how to message against DOGE’s theft of our sovereignty;
- Are laws just vibes now; and
- Let’s not allow Trump to rewrite the history of the January 6, 2021, insurrection he instigated.
Here we go. I’m glad you’re here.
#1
Democracy is Crumbling. Is Anybody Doing Anything? (Sherrilyn Ifill, Sherrilyn’s Newsletter, Link to Article)
To overcome or even slow the momentum of the forces arrayed against us will require our resolve, and an ecosystem of resistance – litigation, activism, organizing, direct action, communications, political pressure, and our voices raised to speak truth to power. We may not be able to score a knock-out punch, but we can score a series of technical knockouts against our opponents to reduce the intensity of their efforts. This will take all of us, committing to do what we can.
To insist that nothing can be done is to surrender to the pull of inertia. To numb ourselves and settle for watching our country’s demise, rather than fight it. If this seems like an option to you it is only because you are unable to imagine how truly bad it can get for our families, our friends, and our communities. I am clear that it can and may become not just worse, but intolerable for many, many people, and that none of us will be immune. That recognition makes it clear to me that there is no option but to fight.
Despair and believing that you are powerless is a form of “obeying in advance” (Timothy Snyder’s term) which ensures the victory of autocracy. I understand the exhaustion, anger, the feeling of being overwhelmed and the grief that those of us who believe in democracy, equality and justice are experiencing right now. And painful as it is, I have accepted that there are no guarantees that we can overcome all that we are facing. But I do know that unless we fight, we cannot prevail.
Fortunately, many people are in fact “doing something.”
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
While sharing all the horrific events since President Trump’s election, I have not done enough to feature the work many people have done to fight back against these horrors. It’s time to start correcting that error.
As Ifill notes, far too many Democratic political leaders were slow to respond. However, resisting the ongoing Musk-Trump coup is not just their job. Many people are working every day to minimize the harm and set the stage for a potential democratic renewal.
The resistance to Musk-Trump must be a many-legged stool so it can continue to stand even if one or two legs partially collapse.
Ifill lists the various ways people are responding to the coup. There were rallies in all 50 states. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez confirmed, calls to our Representatives and Senators are making a difference on both sides of the aisle. Groups like Indivisible and new apps like 5Calls make contacting our federal elected officials easier. Federal workers are continuing to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution. As Ken White explained, people are helping out in their local communities, remembering that “kindness, decency, and fidelity to American values are defiance in the face of Trumpism.”
We are facing the most significant challenge to our Constitutional order since the traitors in the Confederate States of America launched their military effort to protect slavery.
Musk and Trump have a great deal of power, and the Republican Party and far too many judges appear unwilling to live up to their Constitutional checks-and-balances responsibilities.
So, we can’t expect to win every battle. However, our large coalition can win some of them and minimize the harm the Musk-Trump Administration intends to create.
I will work to compile a list of ways people can help to include in this newsletter going forward. Please email me at craig@cheslog.com if you have any suggestions for that list.
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#2
White Nationalist Forces Consolidate Power Alongside Musk’s Junta (Garrett Graff, Doomsday Scenario, Link to Article)
Two weeks into a fast-moving coup by a South African tech oligarch, the United States — which was already deep into planning for its 250th birthday next year — hangs suspended this weekend in a liminal state somewhere between the constitutional republic it has been for 249 years and an authoritarian regime akin to Europe’s infamous fallen democracy, Hungary.
Following the alarming purges of the security services last week and the successful capture of the national treasury and other federal agencies by technical junta forces loyal to centibillionaire Elon Musk, the country’s constitutional system seemed to awaken from slumber this week.
Although by Monday Musk reigned unquestioned as head of the government, he appears content to allow the country’s elected president, Donald Trump, to remain the ceremonial head of state, and overall the political situation seemed to stabilize as the week progressed. Amid widening protests by opposition leaders and the public, damning media reports, and a flurry of court orders that blocked or slowed some of the most controversial power grabs, the country even appeared — at least temporarily — to pull back from the abyss.
Nevertheless, tensions remained high on the streets of the federal district known as Washington and uncertainty filled governmental offices.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
Garrett Graff once again provides one of the best summaries of the ongoing Musk-Trump coup by taking a step back and recapping the previous week of our constitutional emergency in the way U.S. foreign correspondents would about other nations.
This remove provides clarity about what we are experiencing. So much can get lost in our national myths.
Graff’s article strips that away and leaves a clear view of the multifaceted attack on our Constitutional system. I hope he continues to write them.
#3
MAGA Feeding Frenzy Has Caused a Constitutional Crisis (Thomas Zimmer, Democracy Americana, Link to Article)
But the most plausible interpretation, I believe, is that it isn’t just one thing. The assault is coming from several directions. There are the reactionary elites mostly aligned with Heritage and Project 2025; there are the America First nativists; there are the techbro feudal barons. There is also, let’s not forget, Donald Trump as a slightly idiosyncratic factor, driven entirely by a sense of grievance, a desire for revenge, and his personal obsessions (tariffs, for instance; and the urge to install a politics of domination both domestically as well as on the world stage). All of these different factions of the Trumpist Right have been let loose on the government. Invoking the will of the president, they have declared themselves masters of the world. It is genuinely unclear how much coordination there is between them. Their actions add up to an often chaotic, but nevertheless comprehensive assault on the constitutional order. Less the execution of a single master plan – and more a MAGA feeding frenzy.
Let’s look at what these different factions have been up to, where they align, where we can discern their distinctive fingerprints, and where we might expect friction.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
I believe it is vital to remember that this attack against our Constitutional system is coming at us in several different ways. They aren’t just flooding the information zone with shit (as Steve Bannon famously declared). But we also see the people implementing Project 2025, others following Musk, and the always unpredictable grievance merchant Donald J. Trump.
Zimmer reviews how each of these groups is using the moment to achieve their goals. It is overwhelming. However, these groups are not ideologically consistent, and there will be contradictions and rivalries about which those of us resisting these efforts can seek to take advantage.
This is one of the reasons elected Democrats should take every opportunity to throw sand in the gears of these efforts. The longer the process takes, the better the chance these contradictions will lead to fights among the MAGA faithful.
#4
The Media Is Missing the Story: Elon Musk Is Staging a Coup (Parker Molloy, The Present Age, Link to Article)
This is what a coup looks like in 2025. It doesn’t require tanks in the streets or soldiers storming buildings. It just needs control of the bureaucratic machinery that makes government function. By seizing these mechanisms while Trump provides political cover, Musk is accumulating unprecedented power for an unelected individual. As president, even Trump should not have this kind of power.
The mainstream media’s failure to recognize this as a constitutional crisis is itself a crisis. When Treasury’s acting Deputy Secretary resigns after 30 years of service rather than grant Musk access to payment systems, that’s not just a personnel change — it’s a warning sign. When Musk baselessly claims that Treasury officials “literally never denied a payment” to terrorist groups, that’s not just political rhetoric — it’s laying groundwork for seizing control of federal payments.
We’ve seen this pattern before. As Jared Yates Sexton writes in his newsletter, this is about oligarchs using Trump as a figurehead while they strip government assets and consolidate power. Trump signs the orders, but it’s Musk and his allies who are writing them.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
Far too much of our press is failing the Orwellian struggle to see what is in front of their nose. They continue to normalize what’s not normal in a democracy and both-sides issues where the choice is between authoritarianism and Constitutional democracy.
This is failing our democracy—it doesn’t matter if this dynamic exists because billionaire owners are seeking to protect their government contracts or if reporters only understand how to discuss politics by being stenographers.
Thankfully, some independent journalists and publications have risen to the moment. Wired, for example, has had scoop after scoop after the Musk coup of the federal government’s administrative and technological systems. Molloy shares a few other outlets doing great work right now. I plan to continue featuring them in this space.
Also, I think it would be great if some reporters read the two DOGE Executive Orders (the original one and the one Trump signed today) and note that Elon Musk is not legally in charge of DOGE even if we take what the president has authorized at face value. He’s officially a part-time unpaid consultant. As Andy Craig notes in this BlueSky thread, every story that calls Musk the “head, leader, or chair” of DOGE is misleading its readers or viewers.
This point has been important to Federalist Society members for years. Relatedly, as Professor Jacob Levy noted on BlueSky, “At this juncture it’s worth remembering that Aileen Cannon threw out the documents case against Trump on the theory (made up by Clarence Thomas in a dissent that no one joined) that Jack Smith, who *was* accountable to the Senate-confirmed AG, had no authority bc Congress hadn’t created the job.”
Yep. There’s some important news being made out there. I hope more reporters will try to find it.
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#5
‘We saw this coming’: State attorneys general are ready for Trump 2.0 (Candice Norwood, The 19th, Link to Article)
Less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to significantly restrict birthright citizenship last week, nearly two dozen state attorneys general filed lawsuits seeking to block the order. Two days after that, a federal judge in Seattle issued a two-week pause on the measure as the court considers a more extensive hold on the policy.
This week, another federal judge temporarily blocked the administration’s attempt to freeze federal assistance and loans. This came after another joint lawsuit with 22 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia challenged the move.
This swift legal action from some of the country’s top law enforcement officials was months in the making, former Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum told The 19th.
“We saw this coming, even though we hoped it wouldn’t. We started preparing as the Democratic AGs almost two years ago for the potential eventuality,” Rosenblum said in an interview days after Trump’s inauguration. “I believe that there’s no group better prepared to push back where appropriate.”
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
These Democratic Attorneys General have been active from Day 1 of the Trump Administration. They have been going to court to seek relief from a variety of illegal and unconstitutional Trump Administration executive orders and Musk Department of Government Efficiency decrees.
They have been successful and understand the crisis in ways some of their federal elected counterparts have been slow to acknowledge.
I am also intrigued that the Democratic AGs are seeking relief only for their states and not nationwide, which could end the Republican free-rider problem. Republicans should have to pay the political consequences for explaining in public how essential this “wasteful” government spending is for their states (Wonkette’s Gary Legum explains Republican U.S. Senator Katie Britt’s realization of this concept).
Democrats need to do everything they can to slow down this coup and force Republicans to own the unconstitutional actions of the Musk-Trump regime. It is great to see the Democratic Attorneys General doing their part.
#6
Watch The Credit-Ratings Agencies (Brian Beutler, Off Message, Link to Article)
But that is the niche they occupy, and will continue to occupy so long as people with money respond to their pronouncements. Institutional investors will adjust their decision making if S&P tells them certain rock-solid investments are actually shakier than they appear. They’ll demand higher interest rates, or put their money elsewhere.
That brings us to the present—the Trump administration’s claim of unchecked power to honor or disregard its payment obligations, its lawless and opaque meddling with the payment system the Treasury Department uses to honor American spending commitments, and the swift erosion of the rule of law.
If ratings agencies were able to detect political instability by watching contentious or irresponsible legislative fights play out, you’d think they’d be able to draw some conclusions based on the fiat transformation of the U.S. system of government from a democratic republic into whatever this is.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
Remember when S&P reduced our national credit grade when Republicans held the Obama Administration hostage for concessions before increasing the national debt limit in 2011? Brian Beutler does. And we should as well.
What do the credit ratings agencies think about the Musk-Trump Administration’s decision to defy the Constitution and stop Congressionally mandated spending? What do they think about President Trump’s contention that some of the nation’s $36 trillion national debt may not be legitimate?
As Beutler explains, the current national debt limit problem—and whether the current debt still has the full faith and credit of U.S. taxpayers—is a far more serious crisis than the one S&P used to hit the Obama Administration.
Will the credit agencies react to it? Or will this be another example—as we learned when they backed mortgage-backed securities during the 2008 financial crisis—of their inability to do the job we expect them to do?
#7
Countering Musk’s DOGE Theft (Jason Sattler, Frame Lab, Link to Article)
What if a coup happened and nobody noticed?
That seems to be what’s occurring as Elon Musk and his shock troops roll through the federal government, cutting off congressionally mandated funding for essential services, threatening the lives, in one instance, of an 86-year-old woman in need of dialysis.
Most Democratic leaders chose to stay quiet on the sidelines over the last few weeks. Meanwhile, the press is proving incapable or unwilling to describe what is happening to our country. The New York Times reported on “Elon Musk and His Allies Storm Into Washington and Race to Reshape It,” which couched the story in Musk’s PR by noting that he is “reprising the playbook he used after buying Twitter in 2022.” The story failed to explain the utter lawlessness of approaching our representative government like it’s a private company you’ve just purchased. It also failed to note that Musk destroyed some 80% of said company’s value.
Compare that to Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan, who called Musk’s actions “an attack on the Constitution as profound as the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.”
Politics is a battle for brains. Most of us on the Democratic side still live in the 18th-century mentality that all we have to do is present the facts, and reason will solve everything. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Facts must be framed.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
National Democrats have had a messaging problem for, well, almost forever. They fail to understand that just repeating facts or passing great laws is no longer enough to secure electoral victories.
Democrats must consistently highlight how the Musk-Trump regime’s actions threaten essential services and the well-being of every person in the United States. What does cutting the National Institutes of Health mean? How does USAID help protect people in the United States?
We need to find these messages and repeat them over and over again. We also need to look not just at legacy press outlets but on social media.
Are Democrats up to the job? Some of them have proven to be, and hopefully they will lead whether or not the leadership is on board.
#8
Are laws just vibes now? (Don Moynihan, Can We Still Govern?, Link to Article)
So, yes, the effects of this change will be harmful, maybe dire. But there’s another reason the Trump administration shouldn’t be capping the NIH overhead rate, a simpler reason: It’s illegal.
A LAW ENACTED IN 2024, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act prohibits the administration from changing overhead rates without congressional approval. Congress, in its infinite wisdom, has reserved this to be a congressional power. The practice began in 2017, the last time that Trump tried to cut indirect rates, so there is no real doubt about congressional intent. When Project 2025—which President Trump insisted was unaffiliated with his policy agenda—proposed cutting indirect rates, the author of that section identified Congress as the relevant actor, not Trump.
That should be the end of the story.
But of course it won’t be. The Trump administration announcement made no reference to the law. This is becoming a distinct pattern: The White House issues an executive order, memo, or press release. The order makes a legal claim that grants the power to make sweeping changes. Everyone panics. Then someone points out it sounds pretty illegal, citing statute and precedent. [Update: 22 blue states have now sued on NIH]. But we still panic anyway, because we no longer believe the president considers himself bound by the law.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
Many of the awful things the Musk-Trump Administration is attempting to do could be legal.
The Republican majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate could pass laws allowing much of what we are seeing. President Trump could then sign these bills into law.
At least, that’s what School House Rock taught us.
Yes, our government is inefficient. But it was designed by the founding generation to be inefficient to protect the people from tyranny. That’s why we have a separation of powers and checks and balances.
Elon Musk and the tech broligarchs may not approve. But the process of changing our government cannot legally be granted to an unpaid presidential advisor cosplaying as the head of a government department. The Constitution can be amended. Laws can be enacted.
And we should insist upon our Constitutional processes even if Republican legislators are too scared to live up to the Oaths they took to defend the Constitution and the inherent rights of our Article I institutions.
The Reality of the January 6, 2021, Insurrection
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump instigated a violent insurrection against the United States government.
People were hurt and police officers died protecting the Capitol. Vice President Pence and other elected officials just barely escaped danger. Our national streak of peaceful transfers of power ended.
It was not, as Trump claims, a “day of love.” And we must resist his efforts to rewrite the history of that dark day.
Post-Game Comments
Today’s Thought from my Readwise collection:
“The politics of an authoritarian country are structured in a very primitive way: you are either for the regime or against it. All other political options have been completely obliterated.”— Patriot: A Memoir by Alexei Navalny.
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