UPDATE 3:
@Based MikeLee: This has the feel of a coup--not a military coup, but a judicial one
@elonmusk: Yes
@BasedMikeLee is or claims to be the U.S. Senator from Utah. (Link is to X)
I suppose "appears" ought to be seeded through this update. There are 6,600 replies to @BasedMikeLee, and I can't read them b/c I have never Joined Twitter or X, so have been unable independently to verify the Musk reply.
Sub-update
Raw Story also reports that based in his statements, Musk appears "poised" to defy the judicial pause order issued last week on his activities.
...
UPDATE 2:
Cuts....and of COURSE, data harvesting.
And the overlapping, synergistic, interests here of PUTIN-MUSK-TRUMP could not be clearer.
Observation: It is possible for a country to be at war without even recognizing it. Until it is too late. It is not too late.
DOGE already has potentially had access to nuclear weapons info at the Department of Energy.
Commentary from a random observer:
x
Dear enablers to this treason,
none of them care about you and you will also be liquidated when they are done with you. you see, you are easily replaced and not special.
— Dr. Harmony (Patsy Evans Ph.D.) (@drharmony.bsky.social) February 7, 2025 at 6:35 PM
....
UPDATE (and arguably, proof texts):
And (do please excuse the terrible profanity):
.
Getting serious, on to the main post:
_______________________________
The United States of America is under strategic, concerted attack by a TROIKA of grandiose, malignant personalities whose interests have now meshed, at least for the moment, all of them in powerful and complementary strategic positions:
1. Putin
2. Trump
3. Musk
Responding to a comment on Andrew Kimball's post, I finally managed to put this in words, after trying to for some days. I take the liberty of reposting with edits and additions. Please read Kimball too.
Of the three, Putin is the most intelligent, the most strategically minded and relentless.
The single quickest single route to understanding who Putin is and what Russia has become under his dictatorship may be William Browder's very readable, harrowing, book Red Notice about what led to the Magnitsky Act in 2012 (sanctions). There is also a sequel, Freezing Order. I can recommend as well The Man Without a Face by Masha Gessen. Both of these authors btw have taken extreme personal risks to bring us this information.
Putin has hated the U.S. for decades, the Magnitsky Act and of couse Ukraine being only the latest causes. He takes these challenges personally, and is relentless, only doubling and quadrupling down after defeats to a degree that most of us would find incredible.
And now, in Ukraine, his back is against the wall.
Putin has been involved in manipulating U.S. politics since at least 2016. Trump is his creature. Putin wants above all to Make Russia Great Again, and to that end, neuter the U.S, isolate it economically, politically, and militarily, and reduce it to an immiserated corruptocracy just like Russia. Trump is on the way to do just that for him.
Trump has street-smart cunning, intuition, and a relatively small bag of mobsters' and conmen's tricks that he work skilfully, over and over, thanks to understanding well certain vulnerabilities of normal human nature. What he really wants is to hurt, humiliate and immiserate as many people as possible, and to be the inescapable center of the world's attention in so doing. From Putin's viewpoint he is a a front man, and indispensible as such.
Musk is even more of a delusional idiot, but his total lack of boundaries, his tech, and stable of monkeywrenchers are a key part of the strategy. Putin has been way ahead of us for years in comprehending and strategically exploiting the potential of tech in general, social media, energetic young monkeywrenchers, and even AI, from its most primitive stage, to surveil, manipulate, harrass and control. Notably when he remotely manipulated our elections on Trump's behalf in 2016.
Both Trump and Musk were actually reported as being in phone contact with Putin during the election runup in 2024; nothing was done.
And there is a shit ton more evidence, but I can't write the encyclopedia and you probably remember.
Yes, there are other interests and personalities in the mix too, including right-wing religionists. I'm not dismissing them.
I think a great deal can be understood strategically in terms of these three.
And we are, above all, in desperate need of a General Eisenhower. Or perhaps better said, a Franklin Delano Roosevelt and General Eisenhower. But here we are.
In the absence of such recognized leadership, tactics may hold the line for a while. The civil service, though ambushed, is organizing. Not all judges are suborned or allied with the attackers. Not all media are supine. Conventional politics remains necessary, though not sufficient. The Democratic Party has new leadership.
This is, unmistakably, an existential battle for the soul and safety of the U.S.
And yes, we need leadership on the level of an Eisenhower, leaders who can see into the chaos, discern the most effect points to muster our efforts, inspire, and coordinate the whole.
But in the absence of such, at least for the present IMO it's the responsibility of each of us to keep awake, make the best assessment of the situation that we can, and step up for our country.
We can none of us do more than what we can....
Yet what there is that we can see, let us do that, the best that we are able according to our strength, position and particular skills.
Whenever there is a chance, unite with others. Form coalitions. And not give up the ship.
That's all.
Thanks for reading.
x
"There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it. But you do not stand alone. You will learn that your trouble is but part of the trouble of all the western world."
--J.R.R. Tolkein, The Fellowship of the Ring. (Rivendell)
Time stamp: Sat., Feb. 8, 2025, 8:48 a.m.
— Clio2 (@clio2.bsky.social) February 8, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Indeed. Hungary. France. Germany. And more. And not the west alone.
One other footnote, you can skip: I have a worry about the Superbowl.
At best, it may only be the modern equivalent of a Roman circus, in which the emperor gets to enjoy the adulation of his biggest crowd yet, with the humiliation of his defeated enemies, including those who simply would rather he did not pollute this space too, and the Black players who have seen the traditional anti-racism message in the end zone erased this year at the royal command.
Unfortunately for peace of mind, I've also read the works of Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, Miyamoto Musashi, and John Le Carre. ;-/
And therefore it strikes me forcefully that all eyes and thoughts being focused for several hours on a singular place and spectacle presents a number of opportunities for bad things (to term these loosely).
One kind would be to enable activities that happen elsewhere, offsite, where everyone is not looking. At worst, an actual invasion or takeover somewhere.
Another would be to use the spectacle as a stage for some other enactment. Even, potentially, for what they keep talking about, a "false flag" operation that could send the nation into a tailspin and provide the excuse for martial law, or worse.
Well, I'm an inveterate fictionalizer, you can probably fictionalize in greater detail just as well or better, and there is nothing to be done about this potential, I suppose. But it feels better just to share.
Good luck to all of us going forward.
🌱🕊🌻🦄🐱🦋🌈❤
