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Nearly 250 years after the Declaration of Independence, America has gotten herself a brand new king. His identify is Elon Musk.“Wait a minute,” you might 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 needs. He’s not the ability middle. Musk is. Consequently I can’t 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 your entire nation.Listed here are the issues Musk has put in his IT Renfields at:All of us discovered in 2022, with the weaponization of SWIFT, that technical programs are a supply of energy. By controlling the infrastructure, Musk controls the nation. The 2 most clearly important businesses on that checklist 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 fee programs by DOGE members, even ‘learn solely,’ possible poses the only best insider menace 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 additionally 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 respiration so that they’re under the extent of ideas.“That is the biggest knowledge breach and the biggest IT safety breach in our nation’s historical past—at the least that’s publicly recognized,” a contractor who’s labored on categorised programs at authorities businesses advised The Atlantic. Right here’s the menace 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 underneath insider menace monitoring and alerting after their entry to fee programs is revoked. Continued entry to any fee programs by DOGE members, even ‘learn solely,’ possible poses the only best insider menace danger the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever confronted.” After The Washington Put up inquired about that memo, the one that 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.Decide Paul Englemayer granted a short lived restraining order to 19 states in search of to halt Musk and crew’s entry to the Treasury programs. 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 info and the heightened danger that the programs in query shall be extra susceptible than earlier than to hacking,” he wrote.Is anybody checking to see if the court docket order shall be adopted?Implausible. That is an company that controls $5 trillion, and accommodates delicate private info for — amongst others — American spies overseas. It’s additionally, by the way in which, 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 property on the planet, at the least for now, and making them dangerous shakes the inspiration of the worldwide monetary system. However, Trump would possibly 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. Keep in mind when he was meant to obtain a “Twitter sitter” after the time he pretended he needed to take Tesla personal? The courts ordered one. It has by no means appeared. Or possibly we should always discuss 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 assume we are able to rule out the likelihood that Musk and co. merely lie underneath oath. He’s additionally acquired himself a cadre of elite legal professionals, two of whom clerked for conservative Supreme Court docket justices, to argue for him in court docket.So it’s no actual shock that he’s posting stuff on X that signifies he isn’t taking the court docket order to again away from the Treasury significantly. “Corrupt judges defending corruption,” Musk wrote of the court docket 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 chief’s official energy.” Vance has all the time been within the operating to be Yale Legislation 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 checklist.Are we nonetheless a nation of legal guidelines? Is anybody checking to see if the court docket 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 court docket order, and the court docket points a warrant for his arrest? Does home regulation enforcement aspect with the court docket or with Musk? The Republicans are able to make a horse a consulRegardless of Musk’s private contempt for the regulation, there’s additionally the actual 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. Probably the most these court docket orders would possibly do is give cowl to staffers at these departments to disclaim Musk’s crew entry to the issues they need. After all, we already know these staffers will be fired and changed.What has our Congress been as much as whereas this hostile takeover of our authorities has been occurring in plain sight? Effectively, the Democrats are nonetheless writing strongly worded letters, and exhibiting 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 menace 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 look 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 ought to be reinstated. As of this writing, the reply was “sure.” Elez had learn and write entry to the Treasury’s programs.Ought to Elez come again? Native lapdog Vance thinks so! (Certain seems like Vance is taking orders from Musk relatively than the opposite manner round.) Musk then posted that Elez “shall be introduced again.” That does relatively 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 heart of the federal government, let’s contemplate his terribly reckless historical past with funds and IT programs. When Musk was operating the corporate that might change into PayPal, it had what his coworker and buddy Peter Thiel known as “a runaway fraud downside.” When Thiel considered writing a ebook in regards to the expertise, he mentioned he’d title the Musk chapter “The Man Who Knew Nothing about Threat.”This may occasionally clarify why Musk has employed Edward Coristine, who was fired from a cybersecurity agency for “leaking inside info to the rivals,” in accordance with an inside message reported by Bloomberg. Oh, and likewise he’s on a watch checklist for federal cybercrime enforcement, and labored at a startup with convicted hackers. Now, in fact, he’s acquired entry to our authorities’s inside programs. 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 in all probability shouldn’t be in that constructing in any respect.No marvel they’re hiding from the common USDS staff. This sort 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 photos that now not displayed.Unhealthy information for Blue Origin and OpenAI: King Elon holds a grudgeNow, think about this on the Treasury, with a bunch of kids who don’t know COBOL toying with the programs. 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 attainable reply is a leak of our nuclear secrets and techniques — which is one thing we, as a nation, used to take so significantly 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, bear in mind when the Treasury mentioned DOGE didn’t have write entry and that was not true in any respect?Hm! Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty ImagesEven discounting the opportunity of some catastrophic mistake, let’s take into consideration what success would appear like for King Elon. Judging by his fixed, unhinged posts on X, his hiring practices, and his assist 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 needs with out consequence and to fireplace up his base of racists. In order that in all probability means immigration cutoffs besides within the instances of H-1bs that now work like indentured servitude, and authorities stress 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 aim, nonetheless, is all the time for Musk to accumulate more cash and energy. This normally comes on the expense of actually everybody else.So it’s not arduous to think about which means his AI endeavor will get embedded within the authorities, X turns into the primary platform for all authorities communications (and possibly additionally the primary fee supplier, identical to WeChat, as a result of that’s the type 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? Effectively, seems they had been sucking as much as the incorrect man. Unhealthy information for Blue Origin and OpenAI: King Elon holds a grudge.The army has been suspiciously quiet about this direct menace to nationwide securityAnyone who objects will get shipped to Guantanamo, or higher but, El Salvador. In any case, 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’ll obtain a ton of delicate authorities knowledge — not nice! — however they’ll’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 things over shortly. Leaving apart Musk’s propensity for fucking round and discovering out, his potential to manage all these programs stays considerably restricted by his staffing. Possibly he can get Trump’s folks to assist him, however given Musk’s conceitedness, I believe Musk will wish to hand-pick a crew; I’d guess he assumes Trump’s persons are idiots, given how simply he’s run by means of them.However the extra programs 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, categorised info, 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 menace 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 essentially 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 type 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 anticipate him to combat tooth and nail to carry on to the ability he’s grabbed. The query is that if he’ll must.
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