Elon Musk’s first month of destroying America will cost us decades

Let’s pause and take a look at what the Elon Musk administration has finished up to now.

There’s been quite a lot of panic concerning the instant however considerably summary constitutional disaster as Elon Musk’s misleadingly-named Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) rips the federal government aside. And as much fun as we all are having watching Congress render itself irrelevant and questioning whether or not the courts even matter, there’s a concrete nightmare looming. Mass unemployment, the defunding of essential social packages, and simply plain incompetence imply that America, as we all know it, is already in for exhausting occasions.

The size of destruction up to now 4 weeks begins on the Soviet devotion to Lysenkoist organic theories, and at most, is the American model of Mao’s Cultural Revolution: a disastrous triumph of ideological purity over fundamental actuality. I’m not certain it has occurred to nearly all of people who we’re about to make a Nice Leap Ahead and destroy our affluent, comparatively peaceable society.

Musk has, within the quick time period, set us up for a shock to the financial system from each unemployment and frozen authorities grants. This can be felt kind of instantly.

However the long-term prices can be measured in many years. The diploma to which we’ve failed not merely ourselves but in addition our youngsters and grandchildren is breathtaking. Musk tasks — corresponding to undercutting sensible preparations for doable disasters and dismantling an academic and scientific system so good that our precise enemies ship their youngsters to us for school — mix with disastrous Trump insurance policies like mass deportation to undermine American society. And by alienating our longtime allies and cozying as much as Russia, we set ourselves as much as be a pariah state.

Let’s begin with the federal staff. What number of federal staff has Elon Musk fired? As of Valentine’s Day, Reuters figured 10,000. That quantity is sort of definitely larger now. Lots of the “probationary” workers he focused have been, in truth, fairly senior — individuals who had simply gotten promoted or who had been working for presidency contractors after which transitioned to working for the federal government itself. Typically, these folks have been navy veterans. One other 75,000 have taken a buyout from the Musk regime.

Amongst these fired: hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees, together with maintenance mechanics and workers in flight data. Over 1,000 people from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which offers healthcare to vets. On prime of those specifics lies the essential proven fact that unemployed folks have much less cash to spend in the remainder of the financial system. The ache is perhaps most seen in reputationally liberal areas just like the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland. But it surely’s widespread — Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, as an illustration, doesn’t have enough jobs to soak up all its ex-federal staff. There are laid-off workers in Illinois, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Florida — in truth, everywhere in the US.

It will get worse, as a result of the latest pause in federal spending — pushed first by an government order from President Donald Trump and now by the chaos of DOGE — threatens the steadiness of many, many extra folks. Take, as an illustration, farmers and ranchers. They’re Trump voters, largely, however this may push many of them into bankruptcy, since they relied on authorities packages to pay for farm upgrades they already made. The dismantling of the US Company for Worldwide Growth, or USAID, signifies that an agricultural purchaser who dropped $2 billion into the sector is now gone. Rural areas broadly rely on federal funding, in fact.

It will get worse. Acts of aggression towards our buying and selling companions imply that Canadians are starting to avoid US products. The EU is considering an import block on soybeans. That’s fewer locations for farmers and ranchers to promote their merchandise. America may not give a good goddamn about science or scientists, however cutting their funds also hits hospitals, which ensures worse affected person care.

Did you suppose I used to be finished? I haven’t even gotten to the existential disasters. The Division of Agriculture has fired, it says accidentally, a lot of folks engaged on chook flu. (The company is now trying to rehire these staff.) As a result of the Musk regime froze all communications, there was no word from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention on chook flu for weeks.

There are different issues to concern. DOGE reportedly fired a bunch of nuclear workers earlier than realizing that they have been, in truth, fairly needed, and then struggled to rehire them. Oops! Good factor that’s solely nuclear weapons. Nothing to fret about, I’m certain.

DOGE isn’t yet inside the CDC, the place all the damaging microbes are saved, however they’re aiming at it. Additionally, the CDC has entry to all digital healthcare data — so if, let’s say, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. decides he desires to ship everybody on psych meds to a piece farm, a thing he has proposed, he can try this.

The Trump administration, clearly, would have finished a few of this injury with out Musk — he wasn’t main the preliminary federal spending freeze or bringing in witless cronies, like RFK, Brendan Carr, and Kash Patel, with their very own idiotic agendas. However DOGE has focused a stunning sweep of fundamental authorities companies with an unprecedented stage of slash-and-burn nihilism. There’s no thought-about plan, simply careless mass destruction — and Musk’s need to manage all the pieces, regardless of the dangers.

DOGE is alleged to be in search of entry to detailed financial records about each American taxpayer. Musk also wants access to Notify.gov, which comprises everybody’s cellphone numbers, together with particulars corresponding to whether or not they obtain Medicaid. A Social Security chief resigned quite than let Musk into these methods. He reportedly has entry to checking account numbers, Social Safety numbers, and different private particulars as a part of the “God mode” access granted to DOGE. To date, this entry has solely been confirmed at USAID — however it’s not troublesome to think about that it’s been granted elsewhere, too. Oh, DOGE is apparently now inside CISA, indiscriminately hacking away at employees. No means that may presumably expose delicate data to the US’s adversaries, of which there appear to be an rising quantity recently.

How organized is DOGE? Properly, they’re struggling to maintain straight whether or not a contract is price $8 million or $8 billion. This isn’t an operation focusing on authorities waste. It’s about destroying anybody and something that is perhaps focused towards having a functioning society — effete targets like feeding the hungry, stopping local weather change, and caring for the sick. DOGE depends on operatives’ elite mastery of the Ctrl + F shortcut and their fierce dedication to anti-“woke” Silicon Valley supremacy. Who wants authorities experience once you’ve received ideological conviction, proper? Destroying bourgeois experts has by no means led to bad results!

The navy was one of many final DOGE holdouts, however lists have already been submitted for layoffs there — supplemented by plans from TV persona and drunkard Pete Hegseth, who’s for some motive the protection secretary, to fireplace generals and different senior employees, presumably as quickly as this week.

Chances are you’ll, at this level, be questioning, “What about Donald Trump?” It’s maybe price noting that at no earlier level in my lifetime has a sitting president needed to appear on television and inform the general public that he’s not being manipulated by a scheming vizier. Not even George W. Bush had to do this, and loads of folks have been suspicious of Dick Cheney.

Anyway, Trump shares lots of Musk’s targets and has spent his free time dismantling the Pax Americana whereas sanctioning abroad focus camps for refugees and dubbing himself a king. If Trump decides to strive wresting again management of home politics from Musk, the destruction will proceed — albeit maybe with fewer folks named “Large Balls.”

After all, if Musk and Trump activate one another, that might wreak its personal havoc. Positive, Musk has management of all of the funds methods, everybody’s private information, and a bunch of different delicate stuff, however Trump additionally has, you understand, a military.

Beside atrocities like blocking AIDS relief and the Panamanian jungle focus camps, assaults on the rule of legislation might sound somewhat dry. Who cares that the disgraced mayor of New York might skate on corruption costs in an open quid pro quo association? However let me make it sensible: the Purge is being declared, however just for Trump supporters. Any unlawful or violent exercise they have interaction in can be excused, particularly if it targets Trump or Musk’s supposed enemies. Pardoning January sixth rioters was simply the beginning.

As all this occurs, the putative opposition occasion remains to be watching SNL, voting to confirm picks for the Trump / Musk regime, and tweeting weird shit about inflation. Except for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — who’s presently being threatened by Trump’s border czar for informing folks of their rights — there has barely been pushback. New York Governor Kathy Hochul, maybe essentially the most lukewarm Democrat in existence, has nonetheless managed to make one of many strongest showings within the occasion by slamming the “king” comments. Actually, there’s resistance from some Individuals. People have been annoying their elected officials and protesting fairly continuously.

However many extra persons are simply tuning out — attempting to fake this isn’t taking place. Properly, it’s a matter of time earlier than all this comes for them: the potential recession; the impoverished dystopia; the sicker, worse America.

Put all of it collectively. We’re within the means of being rendered unemployed, sick, helpless, and petrified of a legislation that works nakedly within the curiosity of Musk’s energy. I nonetheless imagine it’s doable to cease what’s in movement, however the window is closing. It has solely been a month. Consider what a yr will carry — and what we’ll lose.

Correction Feb. 22, 2025: Removes inaccurate reference to air visitors controller firings on the FAA.