Coop Scoop Special Election Edition #9: Executions and Economic Hardship Trump and Musk Vow
Making America Great Again With Machine Guns and Severe Austerity
November 2, 2024
By Marc Cooper
With 96 hours to go before the most important election since the Civil War, there is so much craziness coming from MAGA that it is really a difficult task to decide where to begin. And the news is so full of bombshells, it feels like we are on the Maginot Line and it presents a real challenge to us substackers to tell you something you probably already know.
But today’s news makes it 100% clear that we are facing a deranged fascist who, as I have noted earlier wants to govern as a sort of Junta. JD Vance as VP, nut case RFK Jr. as health advisor making sure we get rid of measles vaccines for kids, and none other than the richest man in the world in charge of “fixing the economy” that has been recognized as being the best recovery from the Covid pandemic in the world but apparently needs to be crushed anyway.
Ok, I didn’t start with Trump’s completely insane mumblings about military tribunals and Liz Cheney having to face “nine rifle barrels.” Let’s go first with Musk who Trump has named as head of some fantasy commission to reduce the size of the economy. —- which he interprets as drowning the government and shrinking your waistline by six inches via the type of austerity program that is imposed on broken economies, not on the robust, growing and relatively healthy one we have now.
Consumer confidence and consumer spending is up as we are now in a trend of unexpected growth and low unemployment. And inflation at less than 3% , though Musk says his whole plan is to reduce inflation —- which I guess does not include his bloated ego or that of his Orange pal.
Yet, as I said yesterday, it sure looks to me like Musk is experiencing a psychotic break, or he’s a whole let dumber than his fans think or he’s just plain crazy like Trump. Or maybe all three.
The decidedly non-socialist Marketwatch reports the outlines of Musk’s severe austerity plan that is typical of dictatorships coming to power during a severe economic crisis — no matter that the Wall Street Journal ran a headline boasting the US now has the strongest economy in the world. Marketwatch:
“Obviously a lot of people who are taking advantage of the government are going to be upset about that. I’ll probably need a lot of security…Everyone,” Musk said, will be taking a “haircut.”
“We have to reduce spending to live within our means,” said the richest man in the world. “That necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.”
Describing government spending as “a room full of targets,” Musk said: “Like, you can’t miss. Fire in any direction, and you’re going to hit a target.”
He said, “I think once the election takes place we’ll immediately begin looking at where to take the most immediate action.”
Now that sounds like real fun, no? Especially the part about Trump’s hairpiece taking a cut and Musk cutting what exactly? Um, everything. Though I have to guess his RocketX worth billions from the U.S. government will not even get trimmed though those juicy contracts must make him the undisputed Welfare Queen in the country.
Which should be a late wake up call for disengaged middle class suburbanites who believe naively they will be “safe” because of what state they live in or some other form of denial.
Marketwatch continues:
This is not the usual picture when a politician and his campaign promise austerity, hardship, deep budget cuts, a likely economic “overreaction” and a slump in the stock market. You usually hear those things proposed during a deep crisis, when desperate times supposedly demand desperate measures.
Instead, Musk’s agenda is like your new family doctor promising a major dose of brutal chemotherapy when you are perfectly healthy and cancer-free.
This should also indicate to the naive that Musk is no brighter a businessman than the NBC-created image of the stumblebum “mogul” Donald Trump who has driven every enterprise he has owned into bankruptcy.
This radical austerity plan will be loathed by consumers who will see lost jobs, slashed social security and other “targets” this madman decides to fire at. And don’t think for a minute that business leaders will also not oppose this as it will spell economic ruin for many and will likely provoke chaotic social disorder if these two psychos get into power next week.
If you are out canvassing or phone banking as you should be, your coordinator will offer you talking points. But I strongly suggest you be very specific about Musk’s plans to impoverish them and please give them a copy of the Marketwatch piece to ponder. The link is above.
This is very real, folks. I have seen these programs imposed in Chile and Argentina. And during the initial Pinochet-Milton Friedman austerity plan in Chile, I had one upper middle class relative reduced to going door to sell individual eggs. That;’s apart from a rash of bank closures, soaring unemployment that was so bad that the Chilean dictatorship had to start a minimum wage make-work program with peon wages so the poor could at least buy bread. And the austerity eventually led to a popular uprising against the dictatorship in 1983 that then led to a plebiscite that deposed Pinochet 5 years later.
The crisis that Musk is dreaming of creating will meet equal resistance because I don’t think after bitching and moaning for four years about what has actually been a growing economy, Americans are not in the market for radical belt-tightening, or a mass “haircut” or any other euphemism for a premeditated depression.
The one honest thing Musk said is that he damn well will need more security, a whole lot of it. There are going to be millions of very angry people, especially the MAGA working class stiffs who think these gangsters are going to bring them prosperity, not a handout of Spam with Kraft Mac and Cheese.
If you think this is just bluster, then go ahead and sit out the election and take a chance. I for one take him dead seriously. He’s the richest man in the world, he is integral unfortunately to our national security apparatus (our rocket program depends on him) and has tremendous power, as do all oligarchs. He has the most not to mention his own web platform where he is spoon feeding hundreds of millions a steady diet of disinformation, lies and threats.
Meanwhile, Trump is doubling down on his second administration being primarily one of revenge and violence. It seems Trump is either very scared and desperate or his mental illness is quickly deepening. Not only does he continue to threaten Liz Cheney but anybody else he can think of for 5 seconds with execution after being held in a military tribunal. This is frightening rhetoric. Not that he can do much of this until or unless he establishes a true presidential dictatorship. But he is not joking. He’s nuts enough to believe his own rhetoric and we can see in living color what his intentions are. If he completes 10 percent of his threats it will still be a nightmare. And there’s no reason to believe, if elected, he won’t try for the other 90%. And if you want to sleep soundly do not even imagine what other werewolves he will pack into a rubber stamp cabinet.
For nine years now we have been mocking him, denouncing him, and getting spooked by him but I think there are way too few Americans that are taking these threats as real. “American Exceptionalism” is not a vaccine against authoritarianism. During his first term he was hemmed in by the so-called “adults” around him (too few who have denounced him) and hes being treated with kid gloves by a DOJ that seems to be run by a meek and cowardly Merrick Garland.
And the fascist enablers on the Supreme Court have given him immunity for basically anything he wants to do, legal or otherwise, as long as he is president. Please re-read that last sentence and memorize it. Though at least the Arizona Attorney General says he has launched a criminal investigation into Trump’s death threats he issued this week.
Oh, did I mention that on the stump yesterday, this mad idiot simulated oral sex in a meltdown he had because for the second rally in a row his mic went dead? A very stable genius.
Anything else to say this morning will be repetitive. Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst. Do not submit to fear. Pull out every voter you can find and get them to the polls. No matter how freaked out you are, maintain your calm and remember there are more of us than them. “Us” just needs to get out our voters and persuade the 1 or 2 people you might know who are still in denial about what’s at stake.
I continue to believe Trump can be beaten next Tuesday. Some Americans might be fully enrolled in the MAGA cult but not the majority of us. ++
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