[rayiner]

> This is the people’s property, not his. We have three branches of government, due process, checks and balances, we don’t have a dictatorship and frankly everyday this is looking more and more like a soft coup.

Yes, it’s the people’s property, being granted to private third parties by the executive branch under block grants from Congress. And the people elected Trump as the President in part based on his promise to scrutinize how unelected civil servants were managing all this. This is the elected leader of the executive branch delegating authority to his agent to regulate performing discretionary functions of the executive branch. That’s responsive government, not dictatorship.

We just had an election where both parties ran on an anti-immigration platform, and the more extreme guy won. If that didn’t result in canceling discretionary grants to refugee resettlement programs that would have meant democracy doesn’t work.

Demanding that someone write a report and have some committee is absurd. You can never change an organization that way. What you’re really demanding is that unelected civil servants be allowed to prioritize what they want instead of what the voters want.

I encourage you to listen to this NYT podcast about immigration: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/29/podcasts/the-daily/electi.... It details how for decades immigration policy has departed from what Congress actually enacted and what voters wanted. A lot of that was due to state department just doing whatever it wanted—e.g. turning the H1B from a temporary worker program into a vehicle for permanent immigration. That’s a profound failure of democracy.

[selimthegrim]

> And the people elected Trump as the President in part based on his promise to scrutinize how unelected civil servants were managing all this.

By having a bunch of unelected non civil servants run rampant? Having a guy who registered as a foreign agent of Turkey (Flynn) tweeting out details in a manner that could put people under threat? What line is there that they would cross that would concern you? If they ordered Muslims to swear loyalty oaths or leave that would be fine with you? Keep in mind in this discussion there is precisely one party that’s been threatened with death by Muslims and it’s not you.

[rayiner]

> By having a bunch of unelected non civil servants run rampant?

This is where you’re going off the rails. Civil servant is a constitutionally meaningless label. There’s the President, Principal and Inferior Officers, then employees and volunteers with ministerial authority. Civil servant isn’t a special category. It’s not a constitutionally recognized authority that somehow must be protected from the President and his agents.

And to be clear I don’t dislike civil servants. I worked with great civil servants at FCC. But their job is to do what the elected President and confirmed appointees say. There’s great civil servants, and there’s crappy ones. A genius from SpaceX is probably substantially smarter and more diligent than the average.

> What line is there that they would cross that would concern you?

The only “line” that’s been crossed is an imaginary one between different categories of unelected employees whose authority derives entirely from the elected president and senate confirmed political appointees.

> If they ordered Muslims to swear loyalty oaths or leave that would be fine with you?

Elon is the good guy. He tweeted about NED, which I didn’t know about. Their web page crows about helping to overthrow democracy the government in Bangladesh. When I told my dad about it—who has been a USAID contractor his whole career—he was like “yeah, NED is a CIA front.” He also pointed out that USAID under Samantha Powers has become enormously political and has been turned into a vehicle for destabilizing foreign governments. I hate that’s true—our thanksgivings are literally a USAID reunion. But it’s not surprising that the state department has been using the goodwill of an agency that builds hospitals in Bangladesh to export their crazy ideas around the world.

Muslims should be supporting what Trump and Elon are doing. This is the first break in the bipartisan consensus in favor of American Empire. I grew up listening to complaints about the state department meddling in other countries’ internal affairs. And this is the first chance I’ve seen in my lifetime to fix that.

[selimthegrim]

I do agree about NED (what did they do in BD?) My parents voted for Trump. To say the least this is causing friction. I have a little trouble believing people like Mike Flynn have their safety and best interests in mind.

> A genius from SpaceX is probably substantially smarter and more diligent than the average.

This hardly strikes me as a democratic sentiment or one that has anything to do with Constitutional governance. I went to school with a lot of geniuses, people certainly smarter than your SpaceX employees. I don’t know that then or now I would give them untrammeled run of the government.

> Muslims should be supporting what Trump and Elon are doing. This is the first break in the bipartisan consensus in favor of American Empire.

I seem to remember an anecdote from partition of Bengal about a goat getting its head stuck in a pot and the village headman’s preferred solution being to decapitate the goat.

[rayiner]

> My parents voted for Trump. To say the least this is causing friction.

So did my mom! Elon pushed her over the finish line.

> I have a little trouble believing people like Mike Flynn have their safety and best interests in mind.

I agree. But I think well-intentioned but ignorant moralists are even more dangerous. I’m shocked at how quickly the anti-imperialist left has flipped when State/the CIA put up some rainbow flags.

> This hardly strikes me as a democratic sentiment or one that has anything to do with Constitutional governance.

It’s orthogonal to constitutional governance. If someone isn’t politically accountable (either elected or a political appointee) then I’d rather they be competent than simply long-tenured.

> I seem to remember an anecdote from partition of Bengal about a goat getting its head stuck in a pot and the village headman’s preferred solution being to decapitate the goat.

We will find out.

[selimthegrim]

Actually, I think the story might’ve had to do with the communal award (of separate electorates to untouchables)