Haste of the Avenging Hound, 63rd Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Castor): I'm hearing more and more voices in the media, both mainstream and social, saying the recent actions by Musk and Trump ("Mumps") are nothing short of a coup. I don't agree. The coup already occurred last summer while you were distracted by the presidential campaign and the current events are merely the dictates and whims of the installed autocrats. 

The United States of America was taken over last summer by a radical, extremist, right-wing junta of Supreme Court activist judges, many of whom were installed by Mumps himself with the active assistance of the Senate's Moscow Mitch. Sadly, most of what follows is a rehash of something I posted last July.

Even before Mumps first election, the court had already been leaning far to the right under two older justices (Alito and Thomas) appointed by earlier Republican presidents. Those two judges openly received lavish gifts from wealthy donors, and made little effort to conceal their rampant corruption and ideological prejudices. They ruled in Citizens United that corporate interests can contribute virtually unlimited funds to political campaigns ("corporations are people"), putting citizens, you know, "we, the people," at an unfair disadvantage to the monied interests of business.  They largely repealed the Voting Rights Act. 

But with Mumps' first-term appointments of Keg-Stand Kavanaugh, Anne Gorsuch's son, and the handmaiden Amy Boney Carrot, any and all restraints were removed. The two were able to lead the other conservatives into ever-more extreme decisions, upending and overturning decades of precedent. The corruption and partisanship became more blatant and evident, and they even narrowed the scope of federal bribery laws, ruling that it wasn't illegal to pay off politicians, so long as the payment was made after a favorable decision and not before, in other words, a "gratuity" or tip for a favorable action and not an explicit bribe. They reversed Roe v. Wade, affirmed the right to discriminate against gays, approved gerrymandering, and denied student-loan forgiveness while still allowing subsidies to big oil and other industries. 

But even all that, as bad as it was, wasn't the coup. The coup occurred last summer when the judges gave themselves unparalleled political power, overturning the so-called Chevron deference and declared that only the Courts, not government agencies, can interpret Congressional acts to set standards and enforce regulations. The right-wing justices basically neutered Congress and set up the Executive Branch to run free. Then for the final coup de grace, they ruled that the President has absolute immunity for official acts, and they are the only ones who can determine what was official and what was not. They even acknowledged that should the president decide to have a political opponent assassinated, that could be construed as an "official act," and immune from criminal prosecution. 

The absolute immunity decision was the final stage of last summer's coup. It basically set the president up as above the law, different and above all the rest of the citizens, a king as it were. If Kamala Harris and the Democrats had won the 2024 election (and assuming that litigation or violence didn't overturn the election), the Court would have exercised their self-appointed powers to overrule any actions that didn't please their monied benefactors until a Republican finally came into power. 

Like this country's Founding Fathers, I bow to no king, and I will not bend the knee to Mumps or the court. I do not recognize or acknowledge their legitimacy or authority. On this matter, I do not think, or speak, or write with moderation. I am in earnest, I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard.