Desperate Times Do NOT Call For Incremental Measures
Trump’s across-the-board headcount slashing— without regard to functionality— has been catastrophic in, for example, the Congo. But most Americans won’t care if the Congo sunk into the ocean never to be seen again. However, closer to home, the battle to stop the avian flu is in trouble thanks to indiscriminate purges by DOGE Muskrats. “Laboratories in a national network of 58 facilities responding to the spread of bird flu,” wrote Marcia Brown, “were notified Friday that 25 percent of the staff in a central program office coordinating their work were fired in the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal employees. The same mentality oversaw the firing of nuclear safety workers, leaving the nuclear safety apparatus in the country… less safe. The Trump administration is flailing to rehire the fired workers but so far without success.
The Trump-Musk administration’s gutting of the federal workforce is not just reckless— it’s a deliberate act of sabotage disguised as governance. These aren’t strategic reductions; they’re ideological temper tantrums, blind purges carried out with the finesse of a wrecking ball swung by a man who doesn’t know— or care— what he’s destroying. Nuclear safety, pandemic preparedness, environmental protection, food security— none of it matters to an administration that sees expertise as an obstacle and competence as a personal affront. The firings aren’t about efficiency; they’re about vengeance. Vengeance against a civil service that dares to know more than its rulers, against scientists who refuse to bow to anti-intellectualism, against regulators who won’t let billionaires loot with impunity. And when the consequences hit— when bird flu spreads unchecked, when nuclear sites are left under-supervised, when entire agencies are forced to scramble to rehire the very people they just fired— the administration won’t take responsibility. They’ll blame the “deep state,” the media, the workers themselves, anyone but the incompetent ideologues who caused the disaster.
It would be senseless to look for real leadership from genetically cautious, political machine establishment hacks like Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. “Democrats,” reported CNN over the weekend, “remain essentially leaderless, with prospective future presidential candidates largely sitting back and allowing others to be the first ones through the buzzsaw of Trump and his cheerleaders, none eager to be the face of a party just yet.” Among prospective presidential candidates Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy is the exception to that. Including Murphy, here are a dozen Democrats in Congress proactively leading serious attempts at resistance.
Why isn’t Schumer on the list? Ryan Wolin hit the nail on the head last week with a memo that could have come from Schumer’s office:
Desperate times call for incremental measures.
As radical conservatives gut our institutions left and right, America needs an opposition leader with strength and resilience. Until we find that person, I will lead the charge. And I vow to fight for democracy every weekday of my life.
To the millions of enraged citizens who need a voice— I will be your soft whisper.
To the civil servants fighting back against unlawful purges—vI’ll be with you every other step of the way.
To the conservatives who might underestimate me— you have no idea what I’m capable of fitting into a slideshow about the value of norms.
I will shrug the opposition into dust. When I’m through, they won’t know what hit ’em— or that they even got hit at all.
To paraphrase Roddy Piper, I came here to chew bubble gum and express mild indignation… and I’m all out of bubble gum.
Our party must act swiftly. There’s no time for hesitation. Or delay. Or dawdling. Or dragging our feet. Or indecision. Or dilly-dallying. Or stalling. Or hemming and hawing. Or equivocation. Or grandstanding. Or mincing words. Or slow-walking. Or procrastinating.
It’s time to gently place caution to the wind. It’s time to sit up and fight. It’s time for Democrats to stop playing our usual softball— and start playing the kind of softball that uses the smaller, slightly firmer ball. We need to throw the old Democratic playbook out the window, see what page it lands on, then enact the boldest plan on that page.
Republicans aren’t prepared for the amount of raw passion our newsletters are gonna have.
And if they think we’ll just roll over, then the joke’s on them. Because we’ve already rolled over, so the next time we roll over, we’ll actually be rolling back into a proper defensive position. They poked the bear. Well, this bear has claws— and those claws can organize telethons.
Things may seem dire, but fear not, America. I, Chuck Schumer, am here to roll up my sleeves and save democracy.
Though I may roll them back down if my forearms get chilly.
Let’s contrast that with what Jamie Raskin actually did say to his followers today when he castigated the Musk-Trump regime for axing the CFPB, the agency that has successfully fought the banksters stealing from ordinary citizens and small businesses. Raskin has been rallying with protestors against Musk and Trump’s corrupt lawlessness over and over since Trum[’s inauguration. “There’s a story behind the attack on each of the federal agencies they’re systematically trying to destroy,” he wrote. “Musk wants to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which, since its creation, has returned more than $21 billion to American consumers from different predators, including payday lenders, check cashers, low-road auto loan companies, credit card companies drunk on late fees and banks high on overdraft fees. That is what the government is supposed to be doing— fighting for the common good and saving money for consumers like U.S. armed service members, veterans, seniors and working-class Americans— not further enriching the plutocrats, the autocrats, the billionaires and the con-artists who want to kill government for the people. But the Musk-Trump co-presidency is doing whatever it can to promote corruption: sacking 17 Inspector Generals in federal departments—the anti-fraud, anti-corruption fighters who saved us $91 billion last year from waste, fraud and abuse, shutting down the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and closing down the Justice Department unit targeting Russian, Chinese and Iranian companies evading American sanctions.”
He reminded his supporters that “We don’t have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk, and this fascist-saluting billionaire government contractor— who was facing hundreds of complaints about, and investigations into, Tesla and his other businesses in the federal agencies he has seized control over— has no rightful power over our financial payment systems, the American people’s financial data, our federal laws, our legislative appropriations or our Constitution. That’s why I’m joining fellow outraged Americans, especially federal workers, every day to flood the political zone with protests, marches and demonstrations to build the forces we need to defend strong democracy, freedom and progress. As I told the protesters at the Treasury Department, NOAA and the CFPB: A rally a day keeps the fascists away. Elon Musk didn’t create the CFPB— the U.S. Congress did that. And just like Elon Musk did not create the CFPB, and never did anything to build it, he doesn’t have the power to destroy it. Even the president, who was actually elected to something, cannot destroy the CFPB. And who in the hell ever elected Elon Musk to anything?”
America: Together, we’re going to fight to restore constitutional government, bring back the rule of law and make democracy work again for the common good and the common man and woman.
I’m grateful beyond measure to have you by my side in this fight, and know together we’ll resurrect America from the schemes of the autocrats, plutocrats, theocrats and oligarchs. Hang tough!!
In his own e-mail, Chris Murphy sounded like he was talking to Schumer and Jeffries, making it clear that “it does not matter what cabinet nominee Republicans put on the floor, I will vote against them. I will not vote for any Trump cabinet nominee who is willing to implement his blatantly unconstitutional seizure of government for the billionaire class… Republicans know they are dangerously unqualified. They know people will die because they voted to confirm RFK Jr. Republicans are rubber-stamping every nominee because they are in a cult. Trump is testing them, and to a person, they are all falling in line. Every one of them has made the choice to let everything proceed as normal. In a cult, you do whatever the leader tells you to do— even when it’s ridiculous, dangerous or risks harm to your own family. So I don’t think we have any choice other than to wage a daily, loud, urgent fight against the takeover of government by the billionaire class.”
And here’s the part Schumer and Jeffries need to be paying attention to: “It’s probably clear to you that not everyone is there. Some Democrats believe you should reserve power, wait in the bushes, maybe once a week fight. I vehemently disagree. We are watching a Constitutional crisis unfold and staring the end of democracy in the face. But you’re telling me that the best strategy, the strategy that will appeal to the majority of Americans, is if we just stand down, let it happen, and hope at some point everyone in Washington overnight pivots on a dime to stop it at the last minute... seriously? How the heck does that work? There is no chance of stopping and reversing what’s happened if we don’t build the mass public opposition now. We did not save the Affordable Care Act because of one day of protest. It took ten years of protests, movement building and mass shootings to pass the first gun safety law in three decades. Change requires building power— and no, we do not have ten years. But in the face of a crisis like this, I don’t believe it will require ten years. But the level of opposition required to stop Trump and Musk’s constitutional crisis can’t be built overnight. They believe they are invincible and a cult of Republican senators who privately disagree are publicly allowing themselves to be steamrolled and humiliated. The only way that changes is if enough of us come together to be as loud and visible as possible. We cannot be silent as Trump and Musk seize control of government. I’m doing everything I can to lead that effort— including putting significant resources from my campaign to build this movement and be ready for whatever Elon Musk and his corporate and billionaire friends throw at me.”
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