Elon Musk’s Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly Of The Us Government

Almost 250 years aft nan Declaration of Independence, America has gotten herself a caller king. His punishment is Elon Musk.

“Wait a minute,” you whitethorn beryllium saying. “What astir President Donald Trump?” Trump ran, overmuch for illustration Silvio Berlusconi earlier him, chiefly to debar prosecutions. He has ne'er liked being president and he has already gotten what he wants. He’s not nan powerfulness center. Musk is.

Consequently I will not beryllium bothering pinch immoderate statements Katie Miller of DOGE and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt are putting out. We each personification eyes; we tin spot what is going on. Musk has taken complete nan civilian government. This is simply a billionaire pulling a heist connected nan afloat nation.

We each learned successful 2022, pinch nan weaponization of SWIFT, that method systems are a guidelines of power. By controlling nan infrastructure, Musk controls nan nation. The 2 astir evidently important agencies connected that database are nan Treasury, which controls nan money, and nan Department of Energy, which controls nan atomic secrets. Less evidently important but arsenic troubling is nan General Services Administration, which is efficaciously nan infrastructure of nan authorities itself.

The GSA, an agency astir of america personification ne'er had to deliberation about, is successful title of buildings, sure. But too it runs an atrocious batch of nan method infrastructure of nan authorities — it is fundamentally nan feds’ IT. If nan US authorities were a brain, nan GSA is nan encephalon stem, nan information that manages heartbeats and breathing truthful they’re beneath nan level of thoughts.

“This is nan largest accusation breach and nan largest IT accusation breach successful our country’s history—at slightest that’s publically known,” a contractor who’s worked connected classified systems astatine authorities agencies told The Atlantic.

Here’s nan threat intelligence squad astatine nan Treasury, arsenic reported by Wired, conscionable to underline nan seriousness of Musk’s access: “We further impulse that DOGE members beryllium placed nether insider threat monitoring and alerting aft their entree to costs systems is revoked. Continued entree to immoderate costs systems by DOGE members, moreover ‘read only,’ apt poses nan azygous apical insider threat consequence nan Bureau of nan Fiscal Service has ever faced.” After The Washington Post inquired astir that memo, nan personification who wrote it was ”removed” by contractor Booz Allen. But a 2nd informing memo was too sent by a Treasury insider, informing of risks from DOGE.

Judge Paul Englemayer granted a impermanent restraining bid to 19 states seeking to halt Musk and crew’s entree to nan Treasury systems. Englemayer wrote that nan states would acquisition “irreparable harm successful nan absence of injunctive relief.” Why? “Both because of nan consequence that nan caller argumentation presents of nan disclosure of delicate and confidential accusation and nan heightened consequence that nan systems successful mobility will beryllium overmuch susceptible than earlier to hacking,” he wrote.

Fantastic. This is an agency that controls $5 trillion, and contains delicate individual accusation for — among others — American spies abroad. It’s also, by nan way, taxation season. And now Trump says that “we personification small indebtedness than we thought of?” Boy, that sounds for illustration a nosy caller measurement to default connected a loan. It’s a terrifying imaginable if you are a finance-knower: US bonds are nan safest assets successful nan world, astatine slightest for now, and making them risky shakes nan instauration of nan world financial system. On nan different hand, Trump mightiness conscionable beryllium saying crap again.

Oh, sure, yes, location are those challenges successful nan courts to Musk’s entree to nan Treasury, and to shutting down USAID, which whitethorn bully person been illegal. Here’s nan thing: Musk doesn’t attraction astir laws. Remember erstwhile he was meant to personification a “Twitter sitter” aft nan clip he pretended he wanted to return Tesla private? The courts ordered one. It has ne'er appeared. Or perchance we should talk astir nan depositions he hasn’t shown up for. Or each nan authorities requests to spread Tesla’s alleged Autopilot that he’s ignored. And fixed nan lying astir nan Treasury access, I don’t deliberation we tin norm retired nan anticipation that Musk and co. simply dishonesty nether oath. He’s too sewage himself a cadre of elite lawyers, 2 of whom clerked for blimpish Supreme Court justices, to logic for him successful court.

So it’s nary existent astonishment that he’s posting worldly connected X that indicates he isn’t taking nan tribunal bid to backmost distant from nan Treasury seriously. “Corrupt judges protecting corruption,” Musk wrote of nan tribunal order. Congressman Darrell Issa wrote that he was “immediately introducing authorities adjacent week to extremity these rogue judges,” which Musk quoted pinch American emblem emoji. Vice President JD Vance, nan nation’s highest-ranking kiss-ass, wrote connected X, “Judges aren’t allowed to powerfulness nan executive’s morganatic power.” Vance has ever been successful nan moving to beryllium Yale Law School’s astir embarrassing graduate, a competitory endeavor; calling for a coup successful usurpation of his oath of agency and a basal knowing of nan Constitution beautiful overmuch cements him astatine nan apical of nan list.

Are we still a federation of laws? Is anyone checking to spot if nan tribunal bid will beryllium followed? About nan only things Musk hasn’t taken complete are nan taxable and norm enforcement. What happens if he evidently ignores a tribunal order, and nan tribunal issues a warrant for his arrest? Does location norm enforcement broadside pinch nan tribunal aliases pinch Musk?

Regardless of Musk’s individual contempt for nan law, there’s too nan truth of nan January 6th pardons, which sent a clear message: breaking nan norm is okay, arsenic agelong arsenic Trump thinks it’s okay. And since Trump is efficaciously Musk’s puppet, Musk has carte blanche. The astir these tribunal orders mightiness do is springiness surface to staffers astatine these departments to contradict Musk’s squad entree to nan things they want. Of course, we already cognize those staffers tin beryllium fired and replaced.

What has our Congress been up to while this conflict takeover of our authorities has been happening successful plain sight? Well, nan Democrats are still penning powerfully worded letters, and showing up astatine protests, and allowing glorified promenade cops to move them distant from nan departments Musk has already conquered. The closest they’ve recreation to action is Senator Cory Booker’s threat of a indebtedness default aliases authorities shutdown. The Republicans… reside from nan ones vociferously approving of Musk usurping their power complete nan nation’s spending, they look to beryllium Milford Men. They are caller to make a equine a consul.

Musk is now flexing his power. After his staffer Marko Elez resigned for saying he “was racist earlier it was cool,” Musk put up a canvass connected X, nan go-to groyper platform, asking if Elez should beryllium reinstated. As of this writing, nan reply was “yes.” Elez had publication and represent entree to nan Treasury’s systems.

Should Elez recreation back? Local lapdog Vance thinks so! (Sure sounds for illustration Vance is taking orders from Musk alternatively than nan different measurement around.) Musk past posted that Elez “will beryllium brought back.” That does alternatively make it clear who’s successful charge, doesn’t it?

So now that Musk has powerfulness of nan courageousness of nan government, let’s spot his extraordinarily reckless history pinch payments and IT systems. When Musk was moving nan institution that would spell PayPal, it had what his coworker and buddy Peter Thiel called “a runaway fraud problem.” When Thiel thought astir penning a book astir nan experience, he said he’d title nan Musk conception “The Man Who Knew Nothing astir Risk.”

This whitethorn explicate why Musk has hired Edward Coristine, who was fired from a cybersecurity patient for “leaking psyche accusation to nan competitors,” according to an psyche relationship reported by Bloomberg. Oh, and too he’s connected a watch database for nationalist cybercrime enforcement, and worked astatine a startup pinch convicted hackers. Now, of course, he’s sewage entree to our government’s psyche systems. Neat! Also there’s Gavin Kliger, who seems to personification his ain liking successful achromatic supremacy. It’s unclear what he does astatine nan Office of Personnel Management, but he astir apt should not beryllium successful that building astatine all.

No wonderment they’re hiding from nan regular USDS employees.

This benignant of sloppiness makes consciousness for those of america who followed Musk’s Twitter takeover. Musk has a existent liking successful moving accelerated and breaking things, pinch an accent connected breaking things. For instance, there’s nan clip a “bug” restored deleted tweets. Or that clip backstage tweets were made public. Or nan older images that nary longer displayed.

Now, ideate this astatine nan Treasury, pinch a bunch of children who don’t cognize COBOL toying pinch nan systems. Even a flimsy bug tin fuck up trillions of dollars — during taxation season. I don’t want to deliberation astir what happens pinch a bug successful nan codification astatine DoE, because 1 imaginable reply is simply a leak of our atomic secrets — which is point we, arsenic a nation, utilized to return truthful earnestly that we executed people.

Oh sure, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright says that nan DOGE dorks don’t personification entree to atomic secrets but hey, retrieve erstwhile nan Treasury said DOGE didn’t personification represent entree and that was not existent astatine all?

Even discounting nan anticipation of immoderate catastrophic mistake, let’s deliberation astir what occurrence would look for illustration for King Elon. Judging by his constant, unhinged posts connected X, his hiring practices, and his support of Germany’s far-right party, it seems for illustration he’s down pinch achromatic supremacy. That too clears up immoderate mobility astir his let’s-argue-about-whether-it’s-a-Nazi-salute “gesture” astatine nan inauguration; it was meant immoderate to awesome he could opportunity aliases do point he wants without consequence and to occurrence up his guidelines of racists. So that astir apt intends migration cutoffs isolated from successful nan cases of H-1bs that now activity for illustration indentured servitude, and authorities portion connected anyone who hires women, trans people, aliases non-white men. The non-prosecution of dislike crimes, obviously. I’m not assured successful continued protections for abortion aliases moreover commencement control, because of Musk’s weird pronatalist thing.

Musk’s paramount goal, however, is ever for Musk to get overmuch money and power. This usually comes astatine nan disbursal of virtually everyone else.

So it’s not difficult to ideate that intends his AI endeavor gets embedded successful nan government, X becomes nan main level for each authorities communications (and perchance too nan main costs provider, conscionable for illustration WeChat, because that’s nan benignant of constituent you tin do successful an authoritarian government), Starlink becomes nan de facto nett provider, and abruptly each authorities charismatic drives a Cybertruck. What happens to nan different tech giants? Well, turns retired they were sucking up to nan incorrect guy. Bad news for Blue Origin and OpenAI: King Elon holds a grudge.

Anyone who objects gets shipped to Guantanamo, aliases amended yet, El Salvador. After all, Musk already has a pet prosecutor, Ed Martin, who (while not advocating for nan past activity of insurrectionists) told Musk that he’d statesman proceedings astatine Musk’s referral and anyone who has “broken nan norm aliases moreover acted simply unethically” tin expected to beryllium chased “to nan extremity of nan Earth.” This is to opportunity point of nan anticipation of stochastic portion from achromatic supremacists, spurred by posts connected X.

The only constituent we each really personification going for america is that Musk has a mini team. Sure, they tin download a ton of delicate authorities accusation — not great! — but they can’t tally each of these agencies astatine once. And nary of these group has nan 20 years’ acquisition pinch COBOL that would beryllium basal to return this worldly complete quickly. Leaving reside Musk’s propensity for fucking astir and uncovering out, his expertise to powerfulness each these systems remains somewhat constricted by his staffing. Maybe he tin get Trump’s group to thief him, but fixed Musk’s arrogance, I fishy Musk will want to hand-pick a team; I’d conjecture he assumes Trump’s group are idiots, fixed really easy he’s tally done them.

But nan overmuch systems Musk has entree to, and nan overmuch accusation he tin futz astir with, nan overmuch apt it becomes that point catastrophic happens. Because it seems Congress won’t act, and Musk tin disregard nan courts astatine will, it seems that nan defense of citizens’ backstage data, classified information, and each authorities payments falls connected authorities staffers and their unions alone.

There’s a logic Musk-hater Steve Bannon has been daring him to commencement taking a look astatine nan Pentagon. Bannon knows that’s wherever this each falls apart. The taxable has been suspiciously quiet astir this nonstop threat to nationalist security, and there’s nary telling really nan spies feel. Given really overmuch of nan authorities Musk has taken over, an anti-Musk junta isn’t beyond nan ray — and while Musk presumably has backstage security, location are a batch overmuch group in, say, nan Army.

This strikes maine arsenic an all-or-nothing action for Musk. If he wins, he rules nan astir powerful federation connected Earth. If he loses, he’s going to personification ineligible headaches for nan remainder of his life, perchance moreover nan benignant that onshore him successful jail. X continues to hemorrhage money, Tesla’s declining income drawback up pinch nan company, and perchance worst for him, he’s publically humiliated — having gone from King Musk to point astatine all. I expect him to conflict bony and nail to clasp connected to nan powerfulness he’s grabbed. The mobility is if he’ll personification to.