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The first three weeks of Donald Trump's second administration have seen a flurry of vicious executive orders aimed at the federal workforce, trans people, government agencies, and others—all while Elon Musk and his deranged band of young sociopaths, otherwise known as the "Department of Government Efficiency," have been set loose on the Treasury's payment system and other key functions of the state. In this episode, we talk with John Ganz to try to make sense of it all: how to avoid getting sucked into the political quicksand of debating conservatives about line items in a budget, what Trump and Musk really want, how "presidential" political systems break down, and, generally, how to think about What's Happening Now.

Sources:

James Burnham, The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom (1943)

— The Managerial Revolution: What Is Happening in the World  (1941)

George Orwell, "Second Thoughts on James Burnham," Polemic, May 1946

John Ganz, "What Happened Here," Unpopular Front, Feb 4, 2024

Nathan Tankus, "Elon Musk Wants to Get Operational Control of the Treasury’s Payment System," Notes on the Crises, Feb 3, 2024

Karen Yourish, et al, "All of the Trump Administration’s Major Moves in the First 17 Days," New York Times, Feb 6, 2024

Yoni Applebaum, "America's Fragile Constitution," The Atlantic, Oct 2015

Eric Rauchway, Why the New Deal Matters (2021)