Virtually 250 years after the Declaration of Independence, America has gotten herself a brand new king. His identify is Elon Musk.
“Wait a minute,” chances are you’ll be saying. “What about President Donald Trump?” Trump ran, very similar to Silvio Berlusconi earlier than him, primarily to keep away from prosecutions. He has by no means preferred being president and he has already gotten what he desires. He’s not the ability heart. Musk is.
Consequently I cannot be bothering with no matter statements Katie Miller of DOGE and White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt are placing out. All of us have eyes; we are able to see what’s going on. Musk has taken over the civilian authorities. This can be a billionaire pulling a heist on the whole nation.
Listed below are the issues Musk has put in his IT Renfields at:
All of us discovered in 2022, with the weaponization of SWIFT, that technical methods are a supply of energy. By controlling the infrastructure, Musk controls the nation. The 2 most clearly important businesses on that listing are the Treasury, which controls the cash, and the Division of Power, which controls the nuclear secrets and techniques. Much less clearly important however equally troubling is the Normal Providers Administration, which is successfully the infrastructure of the federal government itself.
“Continued entry to any cost methods by DOGE members, even ‘learn solely,’ possible poses the only best insider risk danger the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever confronted.”
The GSA, an company most of us have by no means had to consider, is accountable for buildings, positive. But in addition it runs an terrible lot of the technical infrastructure of the federal government — it’s principally the feds’ IT. If the US authorities had been a mind, the GSA is the mind stem, the half that manages heartbeats and respiratory so that they’re under the extent of ideas.
“That is the most important knowledge breach and the most important IT safety breach in our nation’s historical past—at the very least that’s publicly recognized,” a contractor who’s labored on categorized methods at authorities businesses advised The Atlantic.
Right here’s the risk intelligence crew on the Treasury, as reported by Wired, simply to underline the seriousness of Musk’s entry: “We additional suggest that DOGE members be positioned below insider risk monitoring and alerting after their entry to cost methods is revoked. Continued entry to any cost methods by DOGE members, even ‘learn solely,’ possible poses the only best insider risk danger the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever confronted.” After The Washington Publish inquired about that memo, the one who wrote it was ”eliminated” by contractor Booz Allen. However a second warning memo was additionally despatched by a Treasury insider, warning of dangers from DOGE.
Choose Paul Englemayer granted a brief restraining order to 19 states looking for to halt Musk and crew’s entry to the Treasury methods. Englemayer wrote that the states would expertise “irreparable hurt within the absence of injunctive aid.” Why? “Each due to the danger that the brand new coverage presents of the disclosure of delicate and confidential data and the heightened danger that the methods in query shall be extra susceptible than earlier than to hacking,” he wrote.
Is anybody checking to see if the courtroom order shall be adopted?
Improbable. That is an company that controls $5 trillion, and comprises delicate private data for — amongst others — American spies overseas. It’s additionally, by the best way, tax season. And now Trump says that “we now have much less debt than we considered?” Boy, that seems like a enjoyable new method to default on a mortgage. It’s a terrifying prospect if you’re a finance-knower: US bonds are the most secure belongings on the earth, at the very least for now, and making them dangerous shakes the inspiration of the worldwide monetary system. Then again, Trump may simply be saying shit once more.
Oh, positive, sure, there are these challenges within the courts to Musk’s entry to the Treasury, and to shutting down USAID, which can nicely have been unlawful. Right here’s the factor: Musk doesn’t care about legal guidelines. Bear in mind when he was meant to obtain a “Twitter sitter” after the time he pretended he wished to take Tesla personal? The courts ordered one. It has by no means appeared. Or possibly we should always speak in regards to the depositions he hasn’t proven up for. Or all the federal government requests to repair Tesla’s so-called Autopilot that he’s ignored. And given the mendacity in regards to the Treasury entry, I don’t suppose we are able to rule out the chance that Musk and co. merely lie below oath. He’s additionally acquired himself a cadre of elite legal professionals, two of whom clerked for conservative Supreme Courtroom justices, to argue for him in courtroom.
So it’s no actual shock that he’s posting stuff on X that signifies he isn’t taking the courtroom order to again away from the Treasury severely. “Corrupt judges defending corruption,” Musk wrote of the courtroom order. Congressman Darrell Issa wrote that he was “instantly introducing laws subsequent week to cease these rogue judges,” which Musk quoted with American flag emoji. Vice President JD Vance, the nation’s highest-ranking kiss-ass, wrote on X, “Judges aren’t allowed to manage the manager’s professional energy.” Vance has at all times been within the working to be Yale Regulation College’s most embarrassing graduate, a aggressive endeavor; calling for a coup in violation of his oath of workplace and a primary understanding of the Structure just about cements him on the prime of the listing.
Are we nonetheless a nation of legal guidelines? Is anybody checking to see if the courtroom order shall be adopted? About the one issues Musk hasn’t taken over are the army and regulation enforcement. What occurs if he clearly ignores a courtroom order, and the courtroom points a warrant for his arrest? Does home regulation enforcement aspect with the courtroom or with Musk?
The Republicans are able to make a horse a consul
No matter Musk’s private contempt for the regulation, there’s additionally the very fact of the January sixth pardons, which despatched a transparent message: breaking the regulation is okay, so long as Trump thinks it’s okay. And since Trump is successfully Musk’s puppet, Musk has carte blanche. Essentially the most these courtroom orders may do is give cowl to staffers at these departments to disclaim Musk’s crew entry to the issues they need. In fact, we already know these staffers might be fired and changed.
What has our Congress been as much as whereas this hostile takeover of our authorities has been taking place in plain sight? Properly, the Democrats are nonetheless writing strongly worded letters, and displaying up at protests, and permitting glorified mall cops to show them away from the departments Musk has already conquered. The closest they’ve come to motion is Senator Cory Booker’s risk of a debt default or authorities shutdown. The Republicans… apart from those vociferously approving of Musk usurping their management over the nation’s spending, they seem like Milford Males. They’re able to make a horse a consul.
Musk is now flexing his energy. After his staffer Marko Elez resigned for saying he “was racist earlier than it was cool,” Musk put up a ballot on X, the go-to groyper platform, asking if Elez must be reinstated. As of this writing, the reply was “sure.” Elez had learn and write entry to the Treasury’s methods.
Ought to Elez come again? Native lapdog Vance thinks so! (Certain seems like Vance is taking orders from Musk moderately than the opposite manner round.) Musk then posted that Elez “shall be introduced again.” That does moderately make it clear who’s in cost, doesn’t it?
“The Man Who Knew Nothing about Threat.”
So now that Musk has management of the center of the federal government, let’s contemplate his terribly reckless historical past with funds and IT methods. When Musk was working the corporate that might grow to be PayPal, it had what his coworker and buddy Peter Thiel referred to as “a runaway fraud drawback.” When Thiel considered writing a ebook in regards to the expertise, he stated he’d title the Musk chapter “The Man Who Knew Nothing about Threat.”
This may increasingly clarify why Musk has employed Edward Coristine, who was fired from a cybersecurity agency for “leaking inner data to the rivals,” in response to an inner message reported by Bloomberg. Oh, and in addition he’s on a watch listing for federal cybercrime enforcement, and labored at a startup with convicted hackers. Now, in fact, he’s acquired entry to our authorities’s inner methods. Neat! Additionally there’s Gavin Kliger, who appears to have his personal curiosity in white supremacy. It’s unclear what he does on the Workplace of Personnel Administration, however he most likely shouldn’t be in that constructing in any respect.
No surprise they’re hiding from the common USDS workers.
This type of sloppiness is smart for these of us who adopted Musk’s Twitter takeover. Musk has an actual curiosity in transferring quick and breaking issues, with an emphasis on breaking issues. For example, there’s the time a “bug” restored deleted tweets. Or that point personal tweets had been made public. Or the older photographs that not displayed.
Unhealthy information for Blue Origin and OpenAI: King Elon holds a grudge
Now, think about this on the Treasury, with a bunch of kids who don’t know COBOL toying with the methods. Even a slight bug can fuck up trillions of {dollars} — throughout tax season. I don’t wish to take into consideration what occurs with a bug within the code at DoE, as a result of one potential reply is a leak of our nuclear secrets and techniques — which is one thing we, as a nation, used to take so severely that we executed folks.
Oh positive, Secretary of Power Chris Wright says that the DOGE dorks don’t have entry to nuclear secrets and techniques however hey, keep in mind when the Treasury stated DOGE didn’t have write entry and that was not true in any respect?
Even discounting the opportunity of some catastrophic mistake, let’s take into consideration what success would appear to be for King Elon. Judging by his fixed, unhinged posts on X, his hiring practices, and his help of Germany’s far-right occasion, it looks as if he’s down with white supremacy. That additionally clears up any query about his let’s-argue-about-whether-it’s-a-Nazi-salute “gesture” on the inauguration; it was meant each to sign he might say or do something he desires with out consequence and to fireside up his base of racists. In order that most likely means immigration cutoffs besides within the instances of H-1bs that now work like indentured servitude, and authorities strain on anybody who hires ladies, trans folks, or non-white males. The non-prosecution of hate crimes, clearly. I’m not assured in continued protections for abortion and even contraception, due to Musk’s bizarre pronatalist factor.
Musk’s paramount objective, nevertheless, is at all times for Musk to accumulate more cash and energy. This normally comes on the expense of actually everybody else.
So it’s not onerous to think about meaning his AI endeavor will get embedded within the authorities, X turns into the primary platform for all authorities communications (and possibly additionally the primary cost supplier, identical to WeChat, as a result of that’s the sort of factor you are able to do in an authoritarian authorities), Starlink turns into the de facto web supplier, and immediately each authorities official drives a Cybertruck. What occurs to the opposite tech giants? Properly, seems they had been sucking as much as the unsuitable man. Unhealthy information for Blue Origin and OpenAI: King Elon holds a grudge.
The army has been suspiciously quiet about this direct risk to nationwide safety
Anybody who objects will get shipped to Guantanamo, or higher but, El Salvador. In spite of everything, Musk already has a pet prosecutor, Ed Martin, who (whereas not advocating for the final wave of insurrectionists) advised Musk that he’d start proceedings at Musk’s referral and anybody who has “damaged the regulation and even acted merely unethically” can anticipated to be chased “to the tip of the Earth.” That is to say nothing of the opportunity of stochastic violence from white supremacists, spurred by posts on X.
The one factor all of us actually have going for us is that Musk has a tiny crew. Certain, they will obtain a ton of delicate authorities knowledge — not nice! — however they will’t run all of those businesses directly. And none of those folks has the 20 years’ expertise with COBOL that might be essential to take these items over shortly. Leaving apart Musk’s propensity for fucking round and discovering out, his capacity to manage all these methods stays considerably restricted by his staffing. Possibly he can get Trump’s folks to assist him, however given Musk’s vanity, I believe Musk will wish to hand-pick a crew; I’d guess he assumes Trump’s individuals are idiots, given how simply he’s run by way of them.
However the extra methods Musk has entry to, and the extra knowledge he can futz round with, the extra possible it turns into that one thing catastrophic occurs. As a result of it appears Congress gained’t act, and Musk can ignore the courts at will, it appears that evidently the protection of residents’ personal knowledge, categorized data, and all authorities funds falls on authorities staffers and their unions alone.
There’s a cause Musk-hater Steve Bannon has been daring him to start out having a look on the Pentagon. Bannon is aware of that’s the place this all falls aside. The army has been suspiciously quiet about this direct risk to nationwide safety, and there’s no telling how the spies really feel. Given how a lot of the federal government Musk has taken over, an anti-Musk junta isn’t past the pale — and whereas Musk presumably has personal safety, there are much more folks in, say, the Military.
This strikes me as an all-or-nothing motion for Musk. If he wins, he guidelines probably the most highly effective nation on Earth. If he loses, he’s going to have authorized complications for the remainder of his life, possibly even the kind that land him in jail. X continues to hemorrhage cash, Tesla’s declining gross sales meet up with the corporate, and possibly worst for him, he’s publicly humiliated — having gone from King Musk to nothing in any respect. I count on him to struggle tooth and nail to carry on to the ability he’s grabbed. The query is that if he’ll should.
