Maniac Elon Musk Is Stripping the Government for Spare Parts

Imagine a judicial rating system operating under “The Apprentice” rules

War Department Photo

“Character is not a function of cash” has often been used in the context of defending poverty from the widespread insinuation that poor people lack morals.

The opposite is true, namely that having wealth does not automatically mean people are ethical and of good character. Howard Hughes comes to mind when considering the existence of wealthy people who’ve crossed the threshold into anti-social behavior. Fame plus means can also be a deadly combination, as we’ve seen with Pop Star Michael Jackson and a host of evangelical figures.

It should be clear to any reasonable observer by this point that Elon Musk has been possessed by the demons of self-importance, arrogance, and megalomania. Is it his wealth that drew him to the dark side, or is it a feebleness brought on by poor breeding, or is it a function of his drug infused environment?

What we do know at this point is that his words and deeds mark him as abnormal. He believes that his fortune comes from being above/smarter than/ whiter than other humans. Musk and others of this ilk regard themselves as destined to be leaders in many senses of the word.

Historian Heather Cox Richardson describes how the man who characterizes empathy as a weakness needs dehumanization as a guidepost, lest he be tempted by suffering and pain to deviate from the path of techno-fascist nirvana.

• Lately, political writers have called attention to the tendency of billionaire Elon Musk to refer to his political opponents as “NPCs.” This term comes from the gaming world and refers to a nonplayer character, a character that follows a scripted path and cannot think or act on its own, and is there only to populate the world of the game for the actual players. Amanda Marcotte of Salon notes that Musk calls anyone with whom he disagrees an NPC, but that construction comes from the larger environment of the online right wing, whose members refer to anyone who opposes Donald Trump’s agenda as an NPC.

• In The Cross Section, Paul Waldman notes that the point of the right wing’s dehumanization of political opponents is to dismiss the pain they are inflicting. If the majority of Americans are not really human, toying with their lives isn’t important—maybe it’s even LOL funny to pretend to take a chainsaw to the programs on which people depend. “We are ants, or even less,” Waldman writes, “bits of programming to be moved around at Elon’s whim. Only he and the people who aspire to be like him are actors, decision-makers, molding the world to conform to their bold interplanetary vision.”

After six weeks as Dr. Destructo ripping out the old wiring of governance, Musk has become aware of public opposition and the target of protests. He’s looking for headlines about “wins,” and the best his team can do is make easily disproved claims about cost savings.

The basis for the DOGE effort is not about making government more efficient, rooting out fraud, or ideologically narrow: it’s about a group of people who, in one way or another, believe their fortunes entitle them to dismember democracy in favor of an autocracy. “All men were created equal” is, for them, the basis for bureaucracies built around giving “parasites” validation for their existence. If that sounds like a fascist rationalization to you, give yourself a pat on the back.

As Tesla’s sales and stock prices have slumped, Musk certainly isn’t acting like a winner. He’s making excuses faster than a loser at a casino. A habitual sharing of slanders and making ego-boosting insults are hurting his other businesses: $9 billion in contracts alone for Starlink in Latin America and Italy.

Musk’s net worth dropped by $29 billion on Monday as his personal brand is becoming toxic to many investors. Newsweek says he’s taken a $100 billion hit this year.

X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter, and a major interchange for right wing propaganda, crashed repeatedly on Monday. Elon Musk’s past episodes of excuse-making to cover up poor management at X, have left tech experts doubting his claim about an DDos attack. (Remember ‘the little boy who cried wolf’ story?)

The world’s wealthiest man is blaming protests at Tesla dealerships on a conspiracy run by five people, three of whom are Jewish and two who are doing it from their graves. His favorite president declared the boycott “illegal” and promised to personally buy a vehicle amid a stock market “correction “ brought on by a trade war with Canada.

Act Blue, the entity that serves as a digital one-stop pass through for Democratic donors (the GOP version is WinRed), is supposedly paying activists employed by five groups. House Speaker Mike Johnson has fallen back on ye olde George Soros conspiracy claims.

Paul Krugman explains in The Paranoid Style in MAGA Policy:

• While rule by crazy conspiracy theorists is an unquestionably bad state of affairs, let me lay out two specific reasons it’s bad.

• First, it means that the people in charge won’t learn from failure. When things go wrong — when planes crash, or forests burn, or children die of preventable diseases, or the economy enters stagflation — it won’t be because policies should be reconsidered. It will be because sinister globalists are plotting against America. And the beatings will continue until morale improves.

• Second, there will be a search for scapegoats. Much of the federal government is already in the midst of a de facto political purge, with professional civil servants replaced by apparatchiks and job cuts falling most heavily on agencies perceived as liberal. These purges will intensify and broaden, increasingly extending to the private sector, as the administration proves itself incapable of governing effectively.

Donald Trump claims to have directed law enforcement to illegally snatch a pro-Palestine activist off his front porch and promises more to come. The problem here is that Trump thinks he can do away with due process and deport people not charged with any crime. Given the amount of fear mongering directed at Palestinians, some Americans actually think this is a good idea.

Today it will be Palestinians, tomorrow it will Gays… did you see Trump reposting a picture of a pink triangle, the patch Hitler’s Nazi’s made LGBTQA people wear? And the day after it will be Jews, I bet. Or maybe even Democratic Senators…

Elon Musk is trying to get ahead of the curve by calling out Senator Mark Kelly as a traitor for having the nerve to visit Ukraine and praise the bravery of its people.

In an interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox, Musk referred to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid as areas to be eliminated. He says they’re rife with fraud and used by Democrats to attract “illegal immigrants” who will vote for their candidates.

Opposition to the House version of a continuing resolution to fund the government for six months (while the right wing bickers) is now focused on Musk’s slashing operation and its general disregard for the rule of law.

Democrats are (correctly) surmising that budgets passed by Congress will simply be ignored by the Trump administration. Republicans believe they can fool the American people into blaming Democrats, and they might just get away with it.

Some salvation may lie in the Senate’s version, though the hurry up in the House of Representatives is designed to back the upper chamber into a corner where no compromises are possible.

The bottom line for what Musk/Trump are doing to the federal government is to turn public opinion against the social safety net, basic research, and educational standards. What they are doing to Veterans Administration in terms of service cuts and staffing, for example, will make room for proponents of privatization.

Paul Krugman, writing in the appropriately named The Economic Excuse Industry Is Booming:

• Musk’s DOGE claims to have found $105 billion in savings, but the “receipts” it has offered are riddled with errors and account for only a fraction of that total. And even if DOGE’s claims were true, which there is no reason to believe, they would amount to less than half a percent of GDP — hardly the massive “detox” Bessent claims justifies poor economic performance.

• While Musk hasn’t saved a significant amount of money, however, he has done a lot of damage to government operations, crippling crucial agencies, firing crucial workers and undermining morale and confidence. This is a detox? It looks more like a poisoning.

The same approach to other government agencies will apply until it reaches the levels of balancing governance. Imagine a Congressional Ethics office headed by Alex Jones. Maybe he’ll offer a discount on his “supplements” to cooperating members. Imagine a judicial system operating under “The Apprentice” rules.

Yes, this seems ridiculous. But remember, repealing Roe v Wade seemed impossible not long ago.

U.S. Is Added to Human Rights Watchlist via Time Magazine

• The move comes amid President Donald Trump’s “assault on democratic norms and global cooperation,” said CIVICUS—a global alliance and network of civil society groups, including Amnesty International, that advocates for greater citizen action in areas where civil liberties are limited—in a press release. The organization also cited the Administration’s cut of more than 90% of its foreign aid contracts and its crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) —which Trump called “ illegal and immoral discrimination programs ”—through executive action.

• “The Trump Administration seems hellbent on dismantling the system of checks and balances which are the pillars of a democratic society,” said Mandeep Tiwana, Interim Co-Secretary General of CIVICUS, in a press release. “Restrictive Executive Orders, unjustifiable institutional cutbacks, and intimidation tactics through threatening pronouncements by senior officials in the Administration are creating an atmosphere to chill democratic dissent, a cherished American ideal.”

• Other countries on the watchlist include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, Pakistan, and Serbia.

***

More People in ICE Custody Means Smaller Meals and Delayed Medical Care, Detainees Say by Kate Morrissey at Beyond the Border

• A few who had spent time in state prison before being transferred to ICE custody said they received much better treatment in prison than in ICE custody.

• Notably, immigration custody is not criminal custody, meaning it cannot be used as punishment. Legally, it is supposed to be used to hold people who are considered flight risks or dangerous while they go through immigration court proceedings or wait for deportations.

• In addition to the problems with food and medical care, the three facilities don't have enough clothing to give to new arrivals, particularly socks and underwear, the detainees said. ICE detention standards require facilities to provide two pairs of socks and two pairs of underwear.

***

First Porn, Now Skin Cream? ‘Age Verification’ Bills Are Out of Control by Rindala Alajaji at Deep Links:

• Let’s be clear: no method of age verification is both privacy-protective and entirely accurate. The methods also don’t fall on a neat spectrum of “more safe” to “less safe.” Instead, every form of age verification is better described as “dangerous in one way” or “dangerous in a different way.” These systems are inherently flawed, and none come without trade-offs. Additionally, they continue to burden adults who just want to browse the internet or buy everyday items without being subjected to mass data collection.

• For example, when an age verification system requires users to submit government-issued identification or a scan of their face, it collects a staggering amount of sensitive, often immutable, biometric or other personal data—jeopardizing internet users’ privacy and security. Systems that rely on credit card information, phone numbers, or other third-party material similarly amass troves of personal data. This data is just as susceptible to being misused as any other data, creating vulnerabilities for identity theft and data breaches. These issues are not just theoretical: age verification companies can be—and already have been—hacked. These are real, ongoing concerns for anyone who values their privacy.