Yeah, really. It may come down to what the soldiers think is a legal order. If they think it's illegal, they are under no compulsion to follow it. On the good side, if there is a good side, even Republicans in Congress are unhappy with some of the nominations and there could be a party revolt, of sorts. Even the Republicans are wincing at the choice for Attorney General.
Someone I know has a theory that the radical Republicans were using Trump in a "Weekend at Bernie's" sort of way. He's moribund, but he's the "face" that they could trot out in front of the masses to garner votes. They wanted to get Vance into a position where he'd take over, and get the Congress behind them as well. So his own party could potentially "Article 25" Trump and then have basically free-reign. (It does track, come to think of it.)
More worrying to me, in an immediate way, is the doom-spending. Apparently, and this is all second-hand info to me, the credit card debt a huge number of people are carrying in this country is astronomical. People have spent up to the limits, and are either barely making the minimum payments or not making them at all. Those that can spend are still spending wildly. [I have to admit, I've been stocking up on durable goods and other items that might be impacted by a tariff in the future. But I'm paying cash.] So that can't continue indefinitely. Once Trump's minions pull out the economic rug, so to speak, it'll tip over. Jobs get lost = people without income default on credit cards & mortgages. (They may default even if they ARE working.)That hits investors, which would hit more jobs, which would hit everyone along the chain. It's always been a tightrope for any government to walk, but without highly talented people doing the driving... we're in for a crash. I'm seriously thinking of moving some of my retirement money out of stocks into something safer. The stocks have made me an unusually high return recently, but it doesn't feel good at all for the future. Just not quite sure where to put it. My old standby of US Savings Bonds has a minimal rate of return and a long period of the money being tied up. I'd say government bonds, but somehow they don't feel as sturdy as in the past. But that could just be my general sense of foreboding permeating my planning.
Dear gods, he just nominated a TV Talk-show doctor to manage Medicare and Medicaid.
Brainworm guy (RFK) wants people to drink raw milk and is an anti-vaxxer, but he's to be in charge of Health and Human Services. There are times I wish I'd bought that land out in the country and just put in the solar panels and an Earthship... now is one of them. My nightmare of the week is that H5N1 mutates (as seems to have happened with that poor teenager in Canada last week) and runs amok. Trump's people - a TV host and BrainWormGuy - in charge of the response. Already saw how Trump handled Covid (oh it's nothing, it'll go away... take some horse de-wormer and gargle with bleach....). Note to self: order more N95 masks.
Putin is waging a brilliant war.
