In the past week or so, the courts have begun to try to set some boundaries on the Muskā€“Millerā€“Trump administrationā€™s early blitz of recklessness.

. . .

This judicial review provides at least a small reprieve, hope that some of the administrationā€™s most destructive impulses will be stopped. Or at least pared back. But even with the courts stepping up, and even with the reality of the administrationā€™s ineptitude sinking in, this early Muskā€“Millerā€“Trump blitz remains veryā€”maybe irreparablyā€”damaging. Of course, there are a lot of moles to whack: the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are being dismantled at an alarming rate, and the court system is not known for being nimble. The administration is betting, perhaps rightly, that at least some of its thoughtless, lawless efforts will slip through the cracks.

But even if the courts caught them allā€”and even if every court facing each lawless escapade said, ā€œNope, thatā€™s not a thingā€ā€”still the entire process would be doing serious damage to our institutions. Think of it as someone spoofing your identity and going on a shopping spree with your credit cards. Even if the goon gets caught, you still have to go store by store to argue that the fraudulent purchase wasnā€™t legitimate and hope the debt is forgiven. And all the while, perhaps long after all the debts are dealt with, the torrent of uncertainty kills your credit score.

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    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      6 days ago

      Slowly degrading since what Nixon?

      Ifā€™s been being eroded for a long time, but just recently itā€™s become fragile enough to be unstoppable at any level.

    • Zink@programming.dev
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      5 days ago

      I donā€™t see anybody saying everything was fine. That doesnā€™t mean no room existed to get much, much worse.

    • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Hasnā€™t it been thoroughly sabotaged by Reagan already? Not to say that Trump canā€™t do a fine job setting the rubble on fire, but i concur that the US has been a mess for quite some time.

    • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      In comparison to what weā€™re probably going to be left with for the rest of our lives, what we had before MAGA will seem like a fucking utopia.

      • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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        6 days ago

        Anyone who thinks the US, post 9/11 as utopia, by most any measure, is looking at things through Rose Colored Lenses.