Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Nathan Tankus, proprietor of the Notes on the Crises newsletter, to discuss the reporting that Elon Musk and his associates have taken over crucial payment controls in the Treasury Department. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Trump’s shutdown of USAID, tariffs on México, Canada, and China, Trump’s funding freeze and firing of the head of the CFPB, Israel’s bombing of the West Bank, Louisiana’s arrest warrant against a New York doctor over reproductive care, major pro-immigration protests, and Ken Martin’s election to the chair of the DNC, before expanding on the enraging inaction of Democratic Party Leadership in the face of Trump’s destruction of the administrative state. Nathan Tankus then joins, diving right into the escalating Elon Musk-related crises that began at the core of the US government this past weekend, zeroing in on the biggest of the three, Elon’s aggressive takeover of the US Treasury, including a dissection of their data and payment systems. Expanding on this, Tankus tackles the incredibly complex and sensitive nature of the data and systems the Trump regime is after, with key, veteran Treasury officials resigning in the wake of Musk’s advances, unpacking the extensive risks of allowing Musk and Co. access to this information, from the obvious (giving the utmost sensitive data on US citizens to a private actor) and institutional (our entire country runs on the treasury making these payments) to how it could bolster the Trump’s administration’s disregard for agency cooperation. After briefly touching on the genuine illegality of many of these actions (and why that likely won’t matter), Nathan walks Sam and Emma through the role of mission-critical systems like the Treasury, and the intrinsic need to embrace the inefficiency of a system when constantly necessary to build up its robustness and reliability in case of crisis, before wrapping up by touching on Trump’s path to the Supreme Court over the Impoundment Control Act.
And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma watch cosplay icon Kristi Noam defend Trump’s warning of some “short-term pain” for the US public over his tariff agenda, unpack ICE’s ongoing campaign of tyranny, and listen to Canadian sports fans rain down jeers to the US National Anthem. Steve Bannon has some thoughts on the liberal world order and the value of Right-Wing Populism, Chappelle Roan highlights exploitation in the music industry, and the Daily Wire’s Andrew Klavan waxes poetic on the “laws of nature” that lead to women getting beaten by their husbands, plus, your calls and IMs!
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Check out Notes on the Crises here: https://www.crisesnotes.com/#/portal
Check out an abridged version of Nathan's piece at Rolling Stone here: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-elon-musk-treasury-payment-system-dangerous-1235254831/
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