The Cabinet Meeting from Hell

are they beginning to eat their own?

The NYT in a long and detailed report complete with quotes says that there were two nasty confrontations between Elon Musk on the one hand and Marco Rubio and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on the other. Musk insulted Rubio in highly bitter terms. Both Rubio and Duffy suggested Musk was a liar. Trump sat by and watched.

Several things are happening here. The antipathy toward Elon Musk is beginning to reach a critical stage. Musk’s imperious, dictatorial manner was going to offend the other egos in the cabinet. He has already insulted Rubio at State, Duffy at Transportation, Collins at the VA and Bessent at Treasury. The simmering conflicts between Rubio and Duffy and Musk exploded Wednesday night. The cabinet secretaries resent Musk firing their people. They’ve also discovered that they can’t do their jobs without staff.

This was bound to happen, because of the egos involved and Trump’s allowing the unelected and unconfirmed Musk and his bots to roam free without portfolio or supervision.

Musk is there to do Putin’s bidding while the helpless puppet Trump stands aside. Trump finally stuck up for Rubio, but he added that if the cabinet secretaries didn’t make the required cuts, Musk would do it. So nothing has changed. Musk (and Putin) are presiding over the destruction of the US government.

Trump has his role. He is left alone to destroy the economy and our foreign relations with tariffs, NATO, Ukraine, ignoring inflation, playing with vaccines, FDIC and the Fed, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security and innumerable other destructive acts. The only person who benefits from all of this is Vladimir Putin.

Let’s look at the reality. We are alone in the world now. Trump has done Putin’s work for him. We face the possibility of a NATO without the United States. There is every possibility Putin will defeat a depleted Ukraine and set his sights on Poland. The Europeans will be left to combat this aggression on their own. We will complete the process of making ourselves a global pariah.

I’ve said repeatedly that this gang was on a path to self destruction. Their actions and the results of those actions is unsustainable. Play with institutions and programs that are sacred to Americans and you will bring people out into the streets, soon. They are hell bent one causing damage as quickly as possible. That in turn will spur escalated boycotts and large numbers of people taking to the streets.

Let’s look at the worst-cass scenario: the threat that he assembles armed mobs from among his loyalists who will fire on demonstrators. The day he does that is the day Republicans in Congress will have to act. Killing and injuring Americans could bring about impeachment. The public will turn against Trump en masse, and these members want re-election badly. Once he crosses those lines, he becomes an albatross.

We cannot have Trump shooting at people so boycotts are the preferred action for now. But either way, the damage to the economy of rolling boycotts and Trump’s idiotic economic policies will only help Democrats politically, because of the pain it will cause.

I’m not suggesting that political gain is worth the human tragedy. What I am saying is that this is going to happen anyway, and she Democrats need to be prepared with proper messaging and preferably, new leaders. No one is going to vote out our existing leadership, but already alternative voices are taking hold and rallying Democrats. This is welcome and all for the good.

The Republicans are on a path to destruction. People won’t tolerate malevolent toying with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The consequences are unpredictable, but we need to be prepared do take advantage and frustrate Trump, Musk and yes, Putin.

Let us boycott big business, but let us also prepare to take to the streets of every city in the land. Overwhelm the junta and make a coherent reaction impossible by sheer force of numbers. Provoke sympathy from Americans who by now realize they were bamboozled by Trump. We must strive to stop this process in its tracks (with some help from Trump’s cabinet),

and to simultaneously plan for the cleanup job that will be a necessity in the wake of the era of Trump.