The Goons who are doing the Coup.
We are unsure what else you call people who are staging a Coup because we have never before lived through one. We are going with Goons because it feels very appropriate. The definition at Merrian Webster seems very on the nose.
Also, you know what these guys don’t want? They don’t want us looking too closely at who they are, just like they don’t want us knowing exactly what they are doing. Otherwise, Elon wouldn’t have taken to Twitter to claim that even naming the goons who were dismantling the government was a crime.
It is not a crime. Not yet, anyhow.
Our focus here is on two things. First, to shine a light on these people. You don’t get to hold the Treasury hostage and whine when someone prints your name. We can’t let that become a thing. But second, we want to focus on how what these people are doing is going to affect you, your neoliberal family who reads the Times and thinks everything is just fine, and the MAGA folks who are about to get kicked in the nuts along with the rest of us. We want you to be able to share this with Aunt Joanie when you have to remind her that those nice young men don’t have a security clearance, and their code changes may leave us vulnerable to a cyber attack by foreign powers.
March 5th – whatever the fuck that was last night, this is still a coup.
The Trump administration claims gutting federal agencies will save money, but cutting the IRS means the government collects less taxes. “If you’re interested in the deficit and curbing it, why would you cut back on the revenue side?” one expert asks.By Andy Kroll for...
March 3rd – this is still a coup
Donald Trump is excited about one of the Treasury Department’s most sinister moves yet.By Hafiz Rashid for The New Republic, 3-3-2025Interesting choice of name that’s hard not to read as a play on New Venture Fund, a major center-left nonprofit that (among other...
As February ends, this is still a coup
Nearly 40% of the federal contracts that President Donald Trump’s administration claims to have canceled as part of its signature cost-cutting program aren’t expected to save the government any money, the administration’s own data shows.By Ryan Foley for Mother Jones,...
February 25th – this is still a coup.
The controversy started in a very Washington way: as a line item in a government spreadsheet buried on the State Department's website.By Bobby Allyn for WBEZ, 2-24-2025Feels like we are entering an era where the hushed conversation in a lot of (all-white) media...
Wear a Mask
It's time to dig your masks out and start wearing them again. We would say that you never should have hung them up. For disabled people, particularly those with a compromised immune system or Long Covid, the lack of masking in public spaces has made those spaces...
February 22 – This is still a coup, Luigi.
In an unprecedented purge of the military’s senior leadership Friday night, President Donald Trump fired the top US general just moments before his defense secretary fired the chief of the US Navy and the vice chief of the Air Force. By Oren Liebermann and Haley...
February 20th – this is still a coup
An Agriculture Department spokesperson told NBC News that officials are "working to swiftly rectify the situation."By Allan Smith, Melanie Zanona and Laura Strickler for NBC News, 2-18-2025“If Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the...
February 17th – we are still in a coup
The White House has banned reporters from the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One after AP refused to adopt Trump’s new name for the Gulf of Mexico. Democray Now! 2-17-2025At an elementary school at Fort Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne...
Welcome to Is This a Coup?
WELCOME!! This is the first installment from The Cranky Great Grandma! Are you sitting there scratching your head, wondering what the hell just happened in our country? It’s called a “coup”. No, not where you keep your chickens, although with the price of eggs...
Democracy Now!
One of the reasons Donald and Elon can pull off their coup in broad daylight is because the media has failed us. We are being "there are good people on both sides" to death. NY Times, CNN, and even MSNBC are barely scratching the surface of what is going on. "Where am...
Kelly Hayes and “Organizing My Thoughts”
We love Kelly Hayes for several reasons. We learned how to be better abolitionists thanks to her. Through her writing, we learned how to think about the actions and the community we build. We gave "Let This Radicalize You" to our kids for Christmas one year. She is a...
Support Transgender Folks Who Are Incarcerated
Transgender people are under attack. Well, that's not entirely true. Transgender people have been under attack for years now; it's just gotten way worse over the last year or so. There are those people who argue that the transgender population is so tiny it's not...
February 15th – we are still in a coup
On top of the human cost, the US’s soft power and influence is disappearing. Russia and China will fill the voidBy Devi Sridhar for the Gardian, 2-13-2025The interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District and five officials with the federal public integrity unit quit...
February 12th – We are still in a coup
Agencies continue to suspend funding, despite multiple court orders blocking the federal freeze. Experts say the Trump administration’s actions set the stage for challenges to Congress’ authority — and the limits of the presidency. By by Jake Pearson and Anjeanette...
February 9th – While we watched the Super Bowl there was still a coup
For those of us in the Catholic community, cruelty should be especially alarming — and a call to action.By Staff from National Catholic Reporter, 2-6-2025At the Department of State, they've removed all photos of previous secretaries of state that lined the walls...
Edward “Big Balls” Coristine
Three years ago, when Edward "Big Balls" Coristine registered Tesla.Sexy LLC, could he have known where it would lead? When he set up the AI-powered Discord Bot Helfie in Russia, did he know it could someday become a security clearance challenge when he did a coup?...
February 7th – We are still in a coup
We’re as freaked out and angry as everyone else.By Annie Porter for Slate, 2-7-2025Just received this photo from a friend of a warehouse in Kinshasa. These are tuberculosis medications--ALREADY PAID FOR--that aren't being distributed due to the Trump...
February 6th – We are still in a coup
Palantir’s stock soared this week as its CEO cheerfully screamed, “We’re doin’ it,” on an investor call—clarifying that “it” includes “on occasion” killing people.By Sophie Hurwitz from Mother Jones, 2-6-2025“If Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the...
Don’t Just Do Nothing
Two things are very important to us. One is to call this what it is: a coup. The other: now, what do we do? There has been a lot of talk about what will work and won't in the time of Trump. We like this Zine as a starting point. "Just Don't Do Nothing" is by Jewish...
Big Boy Elon
Elon. Oh, big boy Elon. What is there to say? He's a Nazi. That was a Nazi salute. We all saw. Then, he video linked into a campaign event for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The AfD is a suspected extremist organization for white supremacists. Elon told the...
Trump 2.0
Donald Trump is a racist, genocidal authoritarian who should never have been able to run for president a second time after trying to overthrow the government in 2021. As the kids say, that's it. That's the skeet. However, he did run, he won, and here we are. We do not...