Morons

 HCR notes some of the ongoing if disorganized pushback against DOGE and catalogs some of their many abuses. She has described her writing as an attempt to create a primary source for future historians, which often makes it a nice resource. 

Anyway, there's a lot of evidence out there of DOGE just randomly gutting agencies without the legal authority to do so. As in, what they are doing are crimes. We know, however, that Trump's DOJ won't prosecute these crimes, and the tricky part if how to enforce civil decisions against the will of an illegal, unaccountable executive. 

Josh Marshall pushed a theory that I thought was interesting. The Muskenjugend or "microbros" who are at the heart of Musk's assault on a functioning government and are hoovering up data illegally are all quite young. Marshall posits that the reason Musk is relying on a bunch of zygotes is that older, more experienced people are very reticent to engage in rank lawlessness. He suggests that more experienced people are probably engaging in the following calculus:

But back in the real world those are still laws. And if you’ve got a career and a family and a mortgage, maybe you say you believe those theories but that’s still not the same as being perfectly happy to just walk into these places and just do absolutely whatever Elon tells you to do. Because sure Trump has your back today. But tomorrow is a long time. And there are state courts and prosecutors too and bar associations and civil suits. Even if you assume a future administration that is laggard in pressing legal consequences like the last one, those things still create headaches. Lawyers cost money. These are bad acts you’d probably prefer someone else do, especially if they’re willing.

I think that's right. Or to put it another way: Fascists are always idiots. Not drool on yourself, don't know what 2+2 type of idiots, but idiots nonetheless. They simply don't know what they don't know. Democratic liberalism is a process of engaging with the messiness of the world. It's malleable; it's means  different things at different times; it's receptive to feedback. Fascism is adult toddlerhood: a perpetual tantrum masquerading as strength. 

In the end, I do think this is what saves us. They can't even file a proper court motion, and as career prosecutors and civil servants quit, to be replaced by Trump loyalists, those loyalists will be unable to adapt to changing conditions. I mean, it will suck, but it won't be permanent.