I hope this means that others will stand up to this shit, but I’m sure they’ll find some flunky to carry out their orders sooner rather than later… after all, there are plenty of people who would rather be in a position of power rather than have morals.
I’m starting to think that we’re going to have to get to an utterly unthinkable place before this stops and we can right the ship and fix this stupid country.
maybe I’m just being too cynical here, but… 
things just keep spiraling downward with no end in sight.
I don’t think the United States survives this.
I want musk’s and Donny’s version of the US to not survive this. The imperialistic, patriarchal, hetero-fascist, xenophobic, white supremacist side that the US has always had needs to die. I hope the version Emma Lazarus wrote about on that great big metal lady in NYC can come through though. It really does feel like the uneasy coexistence of both halves can no longer abide.
On the contrary, I think it does. Kind of.
Rome didn’t fall when Augustus claimed the title of Imperator, it just (in retrospect) stopped being the Republic of Rome, and became the Roman Empire.
Similarly, Musk doesn’t want the end of the United States of America, he just wants to turn it from the Federal Republic of the USA into the Empire of the USA.
And in this recreation of the lead up to Caesar’s Civil War, he’s playing the part of Crassus, with the difference of not dying before the action starts.
I think we have effectively already ended being the United States of America. To play off what @Catsidhe states, I don’t think we stop existing, but the USA is no longer the same country. We certainly don’t have the same structure of government as we had even a month ago. I don’t know what we are now, but are not the same country anymore.
I felt much the same way at the end of the first trump term. Even if things had continued along normally from there it would have been uneasy, but now even if we somehow come to an end of this insanity over the next four years without utter collapse and we have still have some semblance of a democracy, I don’t think the difference between the pro-fascist and anti-fascists can be resolved.
Well this is escalating quickly. 
Well if Georgia Power is saying the boxes don’t belong to them and they’re unmarked, obviously the proper thing to do is remove them. They’re probably a danger to the community, possibly some sort of IED, but luckily there just happens to be brave citizens in the area that know how to deal with such things. No need to thank them!
Especially as the boxes seemed to face only one direction, so anyone arriving with a ladder and other tools from the opposite direction would be entirely anonymous.
this would be faster
And always wear your Luigi mask.
Mama mia! 
I’m certain that there are many important lessons to be learned from this tragedy and only hope that the current administration won’t get in the way of the investigation more than they already have. It seems entirely likely that Trump may take a sharpie to the final report and write “it was caused by DEI!!” in crude lettering in the summary.
They may have been flying about 78’ higher than they were supposed to be (possibly because of instrumentation issues) but that still would have been close enough to get into serious trouble if a jet passed directly overhead and they were hit by the wake turbulence.
Ultimately it was probably a combination of several factors, which is often the case.
This comes across as a bit more dramatic than it actually is (no matter what outlets like the German version of Pravda try make it look like).
The actual term here is “unusual emergency situation beyond governmental control and substantially harmful to the state’s financial capacity”.
It’s about article 115, section 2 Basic Law and how to be able to borrow more money/run a larger deficit than planned for:
Article 115 - Limits of borrowing
(1) The borrowing of funds and the assumption of surety obligations, guarantees or other commitments that may lead to expenditures in future fiscal years shall require authorisation by a federal law specifying or permitting computation of the amounts involved.
(2) Revenues and expenditures shall in principle be balanced without revenue from credits. This principle shall be satisfied when revenue obtained by the borrowing of funds does not exceed 0.35 per cent in relation to the nominal gross domestic product. In addition, when economic developments deviate from normal conditions, effects on the budget in periods of upswing and downswing must be taken into account symmetrically. Deviations of actual borrowing from the credit limits specified under the first to third sentences are to be recorded on a control account; debits exceeding the threshold of 1.5 per cent in relation to the nominal gross domestic product are to be reduced in accordance with the economic cycle. The regulation of details, especially the adjustment of revenue and expenditures with regard to financial transactions and the procedure for the calculation of the yearly limit on net borrowing, taking into account the economic cycle on the basis of a procedure for adjusting the cycle together with the control and balancing of deviations of actual borrowing from the credit limit, requires a federal law. In cases of natural catastrophes or unusual emergency situations beyond governmental control and substantially harmful to the state’s financial capacity, these credit limits may be exceeded on the basis of a decision taken by a majority of the Members of the Bundestag. The decision must be combined with an amortisation plan. Repayment of the credits borrowed under the sixth sentence must be accomplished within an appropriate period of time.
So it’s the black zero fucking things up again. Why am I not surprised.