The Harambe Bureau
Elon Musk and his army of youth technofascists take a hack saw to the federal government, amplified by a slew of viral misinformation. Also, TOTI now has Bluesky!
Another week where TOTI initially covered entirely other topics (remember the tariffs?) and then post-by-post was dissembled to make space for even more shocking developments. The newsletter version of a reverse Theseus’ Ship.
This was a difficult one to compile, and not just because of the sheer volume of content. The degree to which online misinformation now drives decision-making at the highest level of government is difficult to wrap one’s head around, as is the potential for real-life harm stemming from those decisions.
So, what better week to incorporate Bluesky into TOTI. I resisted for some time, since I’m of the belief that liberals retreating into their own information ecosystem helped get us into this mess. Plus. it’s just one more site to monitor in this short and precious life. But as Twitter gets less and less usable, enough of the discourse is shifting there that it seems like a disservice to ignore it at this point. And, I hate to admit it but it is true: it is just much nicer over there.
Elon Musk shows no signs of slowing down in his efforts to dismantle the entire U.S. government. Though his Department of Government Efficiency is theoretically restricted to it IT realm of the former U.S. Digital Service – since renamed the U.S. DOGE Service, a Russian nesting doll of acronyms – Musk and his army of youth technofascists gained access to the Treasury’s payment system and have since taken a hack saw to the entire apparatus.
WIRED, a technology media outlet, was the first to report on the Musk Youth:
The six men are one part of the broader project of Musk allies assuming key government positions. Already, Musk’s lackeys—including more senior staff from xAI, Tesla, and the Boring Company—have taken control of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and General Services Administration (GSA), and have gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, potentially allowing him access to a vast range of sensitive information about tens of millions of citizens, businesses, and more. On Sunday, CNN reported that DOGE personnel attempted to improperly access classified information and security systems at the US Agency for International Development and that top USAID security officials who thwarted the attempt were subsequently put on leave. The Associated Press reported that DOGE personnel had indeed accessed classified material. –WIRED
Though WIRED has since amended its article to name those involved, its initial reluctance to do so – and Musk et al’s weaponization of that narrative with absurd claims of “doxxing” – speaks to the secrecy this administration will demand and enable moving forward.
Shocking only because I mostly assumed over racism is no longer disqualifying in the Trump/Musk administration, one DOGE employee, Marko Elez, has already had to submit his resignation based on comments he made on social media.
“I was racist before it was cool.”
“I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth.”
But by Friday morning, Elez appeared to be on his way back to DOGE, after Musk posted a poll about reinstating Elez, to which Vice President JD Vance responded with his support.
We’re all about to learn if we can withstand four years of governance by edgelords who are too young to even rent a car.
By now, everybody is aware of this team’s laser-like focus on the U.S. Agency of International Development (talk about good acronyms), which as of this week all but ceases to exist. With all but 300 of the agency’s 14,000 employees now laid off, the country not only risks the immediate well-being of thousands of aid recipients around the world, but is also handing China and Russia the gift of a vacuum of soft power in many countries critical to our national security.
And, just as much of our modern politics boils down to conservatives being afraid of cities, it turns out they’re also afraid of… USAID?
But, of course, DOGE isn’t limiting itself to USAID. In the wake of last week’s tragic plane crash in the Potomac River, the Department of Transportation has announced that it will tap DOGE to address its outdated systems.
What’s most frustrating, of course, is that there is wasteful spending in the government, just not where DOGE is looking. (Surely, not a coincidence.)
It’s possible a court will intervene and stop all this – indeed, given how Trump’s second term has gone, that’s not unlikely. Or, better yet, maybe an asteroid will hit. But no matter what happens in the coming days, we now live in a world ruled by random Twitter account, where misinterpreted screenshots stand in for the truth and the outcomes of your actions don’t matter if you’re first and foremost owning the libs.