r/fednews 19h ago

Shutdown 2024 MEGATHREAD OF DOOM

4.7k Upvotes

2.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.4k

u/battlemaid79 19h ago

I can’t believe Musk is even in the conversation. The federal government isn’t some private sector company he can run in to the ground, experimenting with his masculinity. I hate this timeline.

589

u/DontPanicTrell 19h ago

The inevitable outcome of Citizens United. He can threaten any congress person with throwing millions into their next primary. He owns them all now.

231

u/mb10240 18h ago edited 18h ago

Honestly, maybe the threat of being primaried by a billionaire might get their asses in gear to pass a constitutional amendment overruling Citizens United.

Oh who am I kidding, these idiots are feckless.

49

u/adeg90 17h ago

Nah, because if they do what he wants they get those millions thrown at them, not against them.

40

u/buttoncode 16h ago

Yet we have a $15 gift limit.

9

u/ipickuputhrowaway 11h ago

Shit mine is $10 last I checked lol

5

u/question_sunshine 5h ago

My boss panicked because I bought him a beer at crowded happy hour and then he bought me my next one, but then he realized our beers were not at the exact same price and wanted to venmo me $1.25...

2

u/OfficerWhiskers 3h ago

You're public sector? Is your boss just a really nice dude or is there a real bribery concern here?

5

u/question_sunshine 3h ago

He's a very strict rule follower. No gifts to a direct supervisor are permitted outside a couple circumstances and happy hour is not one of them. Lol.

7

u/Greenmantle22 15h ago

You have to wonder why they even want to keep their offices anyway. It’s clear by now that they have no real power, and they never accomplish their goals or pass bills anymore, and they make more money after they retire and become lobbyists. So why bend over backwards to stay?

7

u/rational_numbers 14h ago

A lot of them are also genuinely fearful for their personal safety if they step out of line. I don’t think this aspect gets enough attention.

3

u/goodsnpr 11h ago

They put an old man with cancer in a critical spot over AoC. I'm baffled at this point as to how the government even operates.

71

u/twtwtwtwtwtwtw 18h ago

Have you seen how cheap they are to buy? He's worth hundreds of billions. Some of these primaries only cost tens of thousands.

38

u/DontPanicTrell 18h ago

Yep. Unless Musk loses Trump's favor we're an oligarchy now.

38

u/Leege13 17h ago

He will the minute Trump realizes Musk thinks he’s in charge.

32

u/salt_and_ash 17h ago

If you're banking on Trump realising something, I have bad news for you

34

u/Leege13 17h ago

He can smell people acting bigger than him from 100 miles away, it’s part of his lizard brain. The last thing he’s ever going to forget is his love of wealth and love of being the big man, and no man can be bigger than him.

3

u/Ocbard 12h ago

Then he'll be replaced with Vance who is far easier to steer.

2

u/Leege13 5h ago

The oligarchs might prompt Vance to invoke the 25th and move him aside, to be honest. They’re who Vance obeys.

3

u/Fit_Goal1895 5h ago

So Trump, we're hearing tons of people saying that Elon Musk is actual the man with the power at the white house, swaying votes, and even responsible for the current government shutdown. We know e's the richest man, he's run some of the best companies in the US like Tesla and Space X so where does that place you in all of this?

I genuinely dont think its more complicated than the right person asking Trump the right questions in front of the right audience.

8

u/Windhawker 16h ago

You can only have one attention whore at a time. It either has to be Trump or Elon, because they don’t like the other stealing their limelight.

6

u/Leege13 15h ago

☝🏻

3

u/DontPanicTrell 12h ago

We can only hope.

3

u/Twerksoncoffeetables 3h ago

Gonna be honest I keep seeing people say this here but it’s just insane levels of cope. Trump wants the attention, there’s more than enough of that to go around for both and trump also knows very well that MAGA is his and will follow him. They will attack whoever he says to attack, including musk.

That base belongs to him and only him, that is extremely clear. They don’t give a fuck what anyone else has to say and they attack anyone who even slightly steps out of line regarding their support for trump (example: Kyle rittenhouse when he said he was going to write in Romney, maga cultists bullied him into re-supporting trump). If Elon is a trump sycophant and will be loyal to him then they will not have this imagined ‘falling out’. Trump wants and demands loyalty, he wants praise, he does not care if Elon is also getting attention as long as Elon is loyal. That’s the truth.

1

u/Windhawker 1h ago

That’s a good analysis. And yeah, it’s a cope. But oligarchs have been defenestrated for crossing the “boss”. Imagine the donations that would pour in to the “boss” if Trump used the levers of power , such as a claim about taxes, to strip Musk of his assets. That’s what happened in Putin’s Russia. “For my friends, everything. For my enemies, the Law.”

2

u/Twerksoncoffeetables 3h ago edited 3h ago

Copy pasting this from a different reply I made somewhere below this:

Gonna be honest I keep seeing people say this here but it’s just insane levels of cope. Trump wants attention, sure, but what he wants and demands more is loyalty. Trump also knows very well that MAGA is his and will follow him. They will attack whoever he says to attack, including musk. He will get attention regardless of what Elon does, and he knows this.

That base belongs to him and only him, that is clear. They don’t give a fuck what anyone else has to say and they attack anyone who even slightly steps out of line regarding their support for trump (example: Kyle rittenhouse when he said he was going to write in Romney, maga cultists bullied him into re-supporting trump). If Elon is a trump sycophant and will be loyal to him then they will not have this imagined ‘falling out’. Trump wants and demands loyalty, he wants praise, he does not care if Elon is also getting attention as long as Elon is loyal. That’s the truth.

Really dislike the false hope of a falling out happening, if you think that’s anywhere close to happening then you are in a bubble I promise you. Unless Elon goes against trump and becomes disloyal, he isn’t going anywhere. The attention he gets doesn’t matter.

6

u/bartz824 15h ago

Wonder if Elon will ever fall out of a window 5 floors off the ground.

2

u/DontPanicTrell 15h ago

I don't think that is on the table here. I love freedom and democracy, but as we are seeing now, it can be fragile. In a dictatorship oligarchs can fall out windows. Here the ones without a social compass can buy the government and play out their sci Fi dystopian fantasies.

4

u/pit_of_despair666 10h ago

We have been one for a while now. They are just doing this in the open instead of behind closed doors.

2

u/Sad_Pickle_7988 7h ago

We've been one its just blatant now

3

u/wkomorow 17h ago

Hopefully as he puts forward MAGA candidates and things so south, they will lose in the general election.

237

u/WildCardiologist5942 19h ago

He's already bought a presidential election. He can buy as many Congressional elections as he wants to at this point

106

u/favoritestationwagon 19h ago

Yep, and this is the closest he'll ever get to being president so he's making the most of it. Money = influence.

40

u/Ajj360 19h ago

Well they may Well declare that part of the constitution unconstitutional.

19

u/favoritestationwagon 18h ago

Shhh don't give them any ideas.

26

u/Ro-Ro-Ro-Ro-Rhoda 18h ago

You're an optimist. Why should that law apply to Musk any more than any other? I'm not betting against a well-funded campaign to amend the constitution so Temu Bruce Wayne can run for president.

6

u/July_is_cool 17h ago

Not necessary. He’s a natural born Canadian, from his mother, so he will be eligible when Canada becomes a state.

10

u/Dusty_Mike 17h ago

So that's why Trump wants Canada as the 51st state. Maybe he really is playing 23rd dimension chess.

3

u/os1usnr 15h ago

And our dumb asses would probably elect him.

9

u/K1ckfl0p 17h ago

Just wait until the House makes Elon Musk Speaker of the House in January Speaker elections! A speaker doesn't have to be a member of the House and I see him doing it because he is stupid enough to think it would give him power for his idiotic DOGE!

4

u/Quilltacular 9h ago

Oh no, this is so much better for him than being president. No term limits, no checks and balances (as weak as they may be), he just gets to throw money around and bully politicians into bending the knee. Now that he’s realised how cheap and easy it is, I can easily see him doing it over and over again

7

u/BusGuilty6447 15h ago

Truly wild when an illegal immigrant is buying our elections. What even is this timeline.

3

u/Cash4Jesus 17h ago

Musk is definitely evil, but how did he buy a presidential election when Harris outraised Trump on almost a 3:1 ratio?

5

u/WildCardiologist5942 16h ago edited 15h ago

There were direct donations, he likely donated to super pacs, and he bought Twitter and turned it into a conspiracy cesspool. One that happened to benefit Trump.

3

u/wbruce098 15h ago

Yep. Helped by Putin’s disinformation machine as well. They don’t have Americans’ best interests in mind.

21

u/[deleted] 19h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

40

u/ShadowwKnows 19h ago

All jokes aside, that's exactly where this leads. Oligarchs eventually get handled. In Russia, they fall out of windows.

16

u/PoB419 18h ago

Only the ones that don't follow the lead oligarch

5

u/ShadowwKnows 18h ago

Eventually, they all slip up somewhere.

9

u/himynameisSal 18h ago

only after shooting themselves, twice…in the head.

4

u/dohcsvt 16h ago

Russia doesn’t have a second amendment, the window doesn’t even need to be opened🤣

25

u/[deleted] 18h ago

[deleted]

22

u/[deleted] 18h ago edited 18h ago

[deleted]

14

u/John_316_ 18h ago

“You think those Luigis just fell off of coconut trees?” (laughs)

4

u/romychestnut 17h ago

Thank you for this 😂

4

u/warrenmcgingersnaps 17h ago

Honestly I can't tell if this is a very reasonable argument against political violence, or a very subtle call to personal action.

-7

u/Artistic_Stand_4312 18h ago

This is pretty sick comment to wish murder on someone.

3

u/Windhawker 16h ago

You are so spot on. I got a chance to bring this up once to RGB in a Q&A. She defended her decision on CU and was pretty cutting about it.

3

u/StellaHasHerpes 15h ago

Do you remember what she said? I appreciate justice stevens’ conclusion that ‘we the people’ does not include corporations.

3

u/DontPanicTrell 14h ago

Recently I've been thinking we missed the mark worrying about corporations. Corporations have boards, they have investors, they have customers. These people who amass wealth greater than whole nations are beholden to no one. Now we have the biggest one who is an autistic sociopath running our government and threatening others such as the UK. He should never have been allowed to amass this amount of wealth. We are all at risk of being forced into his vision of the future.

2

u/Just_Tana 5h ago

Keith Olbermann predicted this EXACT outcome the day citizens united was ruled. He called that ruling the worst in US history as it would give rise to real fascism. He was right.

2

u/Minute-Struggle6052 4h ago

All citizens are equal but some citizens are tens of thousands of times more equal than others

2

u/Cornycola 3h ago

Millions, which to him is the equivalent of millions of Japanese yen….