Let’s painclude and watch at what the Elon Musk administration has done so far.
There’s been a lot of panic about the instant but somewhat abstract constitutional crisis as Elon Musk’s misdirectingly-named Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) rips the handlement apart. And as much fun as we all are having watching Congress rfinisher itself irrelevant and wondering whether the courts even matter, there’s a concrete nightmare looming. Mass unincludement, the defunding of vital social programs, and fair plain invience unbenevolent that America, as we understand it, is already in for difficult times.
The degree to which we have fall shorted not medepend ourselves but also our children and majesticchildren is breathtaking
The scale of destruction in the past four weeks commences at the Soviet devotion to Lysenkoist bioreasoned theories, and at highest, is the American version of Mao’s Cultural Revolution: a disastrous triumph of ideoreasoned purity over straightforward fact. I am not certain it has occurred to the transport inantity of people that we are about to produce a Great Leap Forward and annihilate our prosperous, relatively tranquil society.
Musk has, in the illogicalinutive term, set us up for a shock to the economy from both unincludement and frozen handlement grants. This will be felt more or less instantly.
But the extfinished-term costs will be meacertaind in decades. The degree to which we have fall shorted not medepend ourselves but also our children and majesticchildren is breathtaking. Musk projects — such as undercutting rational preparations for possible calamitys and dismantling an educational and scientific system so excellent that our actual enemies sfinish their children to us for college — join with disastrous Trump policies enjoy mass deportation to undermine American society. And by alienating our extfinishedtime allies and cozying up to Russia, we set ourselves up to be a pariah state.
Let’s commence with the federal laborers. How many federal laborers has Elon Musk fired? As of Valentine’s Day, Reuters figured 10,000. That number is almost certainly higher now. Many of the “probationary” includeees he focincluded were, in fact, quite greater — people who had fair gotten advertised or who had been laboring for handlement shrinkors and then transitioned to laboring for the handlement itself. Often, these people were military veterans. Another 75,000 have obtainn a buyout from the Musk regime.
Kansas City, Missouri, for instance, doesn’t have enough jobs to join all its ex-federal laborers
Among those fired: hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration includeees, including air traffic handlelers that upgrasp flying defended. Over 1,000 people from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which supplys healthattfinish to vets. On top of these definites lies the straightforward fact that unincludeed people have less money to spfinish in the rest of the economy. The pain might be most apparent in reputationpartner liberal areas enjoy the Didisconnecte of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland. But it’s expansivespread — Kansas City, Missouri, for instance, doesn’t have enough jobs to join all its ex-federal laborers. There are lhelp-off laborers in Illinois, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Florida — in fact, all over the US.
It gets worse, becainclude the recent painclude in federal spfinishing — driven first by an executive order from Plivent Donald Trump and now by the confusion of DOGE — menaceens the stability of many, many more people. Take, for instance, farmers and ranchers. They’re Trump voters, mostly, but this may push many of them into prohibitkruptcy, since they depfinished on handlement programs to pay for farm enhances they already made. The dismantling of the US Agency for International Development, or USAID, unbenevolents that an agricultural buyer who dropped $2 billion into the sector is now gone. Rural areas widely depend on federal funding, of course.
It gets worse. Acts of aggression toward our trading partners unbenevolent that Canadians are commenceing to dodge US products. The EU is pondering an transport in block on soybeans. That’s restricteder places for farmers and ranchers to sell their products. America might not give a excellent goddamn about science or scientists, but cutting their funds also hits hospitals, which guarantees worse huging attfinish.
Did you skinnyk I was done? I haven’t even gotten to the ainhabitial calamitys. The Department of Agriculture has fired, it says accidenloftyy, a number of people laboring on bird flu. (The agency is now trying to reemploy those laborers.) Becainclude the Musk regime froze all communications, there was no word from the Cgo ins for Dismitigate Control and Prevention on bird flu for weeks.
There’s no pondered schedule, fair negligent mass destruction — and Musk’s desire to handle everyskinnyg, wdisenjoyver the hazards
There are other skinnygs to dread. DOGE telledly fired a bunch of nuclear laborers before authenticizing that they were, in fact, quite essential, and then struggled to reemploy them. Oops! Good skinnyg that’s only nuclear arms. Noskinnyg to stress about, I’m certain.
DOGE isn’t yet inside the CDC, where all the hazardous microbes are kept, but they’re aiming at it. Also, the CDC has access to all electronic healthattfinish enrolls — so if, let’s say, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. chooses he wants to ship everyone on psych meds to a labor farm, a skinnyg he has recommendd, he can do that.
The Trump administration, clearly, would have done some of this injure without Musk — he wasn’t directing the initial federal spfinishing freeze or transporting in witless cronies, enjoy RFK, Brfinishan Carr, and Kash Patel, with their own idiotic agfinishas. But DOGE has focincluded a shocking sweep of straightforward handlement services with an unpwithdrawnted level of slash-and-burn nihilism. There’s no pondered schedule, fair negligent mass destruction — and Musk’s desire to handle everyskinnyg, wdisenjoyver the hazards.
DOGE is shelp to be seeking access to detailed financial enrolls about every American taxpayer. Musk also wants access to Notify.gov, which grasps everyone’s phone numbers, aextfinished with details such as whether they obtain Medichelp. A Social Security chief resigned rather than let Musk into those systems. He telledly has access to prohibitk account numbers, Social Security numbers, and other personal details as part of the “God mode” access granted to DOGE. So far, this access has only been verifyed at USAID — but it’s not difficult to envision that it’s been granted elsewhere, too. Oh, DOGE is apparently now inside CISA, indiscriminately unpermitd access away at staff. No way that can possibly expose benevolent recommendation to the US’s adversaries, of which there seem to be an increasing number tardyly.
At no previous point in my lifetime has a sitting plivent had to ecombine on television and tell the unveil that he is not being maniputardyd by a scheming vizier
How orderly is DOGE? Well, they’re struggling to upgrasp straight whether a shrink is worth $8 million or $8 billion. This isn’t an operation concentrateing handlement squander. It’s about annihilateing anyone and anyskinnyg that might be focincluded toward having a functioning society — effete goals enjoy feeding the hungry, stopping climate alter, and caring for the ill. DOGE relies on operatives’ elite mastery of the Ctrl + F illogicalinutivecut and their fierce pledgement to anti-“woke” Silicon Valley supremacy. Who needs handlement expertise when you’ve got ideoreasoned conviction, right? Destroying boinspireois experts has never led to horrible results!
The military was one of the last DOGE hgreaterouts, but enumerates have already been produceted for layoffs there — supplemented by schedules from TV personality and drunkard Pete Hegseth, who is for some reason the defense secretary, to fire vagues and other greater staff, possibly as soon as this week.
You may, at this point, be wondering, “What about Donald Trump?” It is perhaps worth noting that at no previous point in my lifetime has a sitting plivent had to ecombine on television and tell the unveil that he is not being maniputardyd by a scheming vizier. Not even George W. Bush had to do that, and plenty of people were doubtful of Dick Cheney.
Anyway, Trump allots many of Musk’s goals and has spent his free time dismantling the Pax Americana while sanctioning overseas concentration camps for refugees and dubbing himself a king. If Trump chooses to try wresting back handle of domestic politics from Musk, the destruction will persist — albeit perhaps with restricteder people named “Big Balls.”
The Pinspire is being declared, but only for Trump helpers
Of course, if Musk and Trump turn on each other, that could wreak its own havoc. Sure, Musk has handle of all the payments systems, everyone’s personal data, and a bunch of other benevolent stuff, but Trump also has, you understand, an army.
Beside atrocities enjoy blocking AIDS relief and the Panamanian jungle concentration camps, attacks on the rule of law might seem a little parched. Who attfinishs that the dishonord mayor of New York may skate on fraudulence indicts in an uncover quid pro quo schedulement? But let me produce it rational: the Pinspire is being declared, but only for Trump helpers. Any illegitimate or aggressive activity they join in will be excincluded, especipartner if it concentrates Trump or Musk’s presumed enemies. Pardoning January 6th uproarers was fair the commence.
As all this happens, the putative opposition party is still watching SNL, voting to verify picks for the Trump / Musk regime, and tweeting weird shit about inflation. Aside from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — who is currently being menaceened by Trump’s border czar for recommending people of their rights — there has exposedly been pushback. New York Governor Kathy Hochul, perhaps the most lukehot Democrat in existence, has nevertheless handled to produce one of the strongest shotriumphgs in the party by slamming the “king” comments. Certainly, there’s resistance from some Americans. People have been irritateing their elected officials and protesting fairly continuously.
But many more people are srecommend tuning out — trying to pretfinish this isn’t happening. Well, it’s a matter of time before all this comes for them: the potential economic downturn; the needy dystopia; the iller, worse America.
Put it all together. We are in the process of being rfinishered unincludeed, ill, ineffective, and cowardly of a law that labors nakedly in the interest of Musk’s power. I still think it is possible to stop what is in motion, but the triumphdow is closing. It has only been a month. Think of what a year will transport — and what we will leave out.
