Federal workers are being swept into the fight between Donald Trump and federal courts, with four FEMA aides fired Tuesday for being "deep state activists."
Summary
A senior FEMA official froze grant funding despite a federal judge’s order to resume payments.
Stacey Street, FEMA’s Grant Administration director, emailed subordinates to freeze awards in an urgent email just after the judge’s order.
The freeze affected programs for emergency preparedness, homeland security, firefighting, church security, and tribal safety.
Trump called for FEMA's termination, criticizing its aid distribution. The White House defended Trump's executive authority, rejecting court injunctions as politically motivated.
Exactly. Who the fuck is going to stop them? You want to hit them with another lawsuit and say they should go into time-out? Legal orders mean nothing anymore. Everyone will carry on listening to their direct supervisor because they don’t want to get fired sooner. Just following orders here, boss.
Courts can deputize bailiffs. You ever see an Old West movie where a judge appoints a posse to round up a criminal? That's something courts can do. I'm sure there are no shortage of currently out of work federal employees who would be more than willing to volunteer for the job. And I'm sure you would have no problem finding people willing to donate firearms to arm these bailiffs as necessary.
The only reason we haven't seen violence already is that people are afraid of being arrested and thrown in prison themselves. The fed workers know full well that what Musk is doing is incredibly illegal. The only reason he hasn't been lynched by a gang of angry fed employees is that no one wants to go to jail forever. But if they are simply enforcing court orders, and are legally empowered to use force to stop these people? Well now they have the full power of the law behind them, and they aren't facing personal criminal liability. The courts need to deputize large numbers of bailiffs and haul Musk and his goons into court, at bayonet point if necessary.
Remember when a professor says democracy will be considered dead when they go against the courts? Welcome to your new autocracy, they're defying all court orders.