It is on. Elon Musk is burrowing into a hostile takeover of the US government, regulations and economy.
He is clearly quite used to getting everything he wants by any devious means or blatant powerplay. Donald Trump is turning out to be just a minor buffoon at Elon’s service, a pliable, if blustering, Muskateer.
Elon bought him, and he’s now using him in many ways:
- Musk demanded access to more than $6 trillion in US government payouts: everything from Grandma’s Social Security check and all her personal information to Medicare payments, government contracts, and literally tens of thousands of financial functions affecting every single American. Trump’s indentured squad had to fire a few key folks to clear the way, but now, in the name of efficiency, it’s all there for Musk.
- Musk’s team have denied officials at the United States Office of Personnel Management access to the workings of OPM and have instead installed themselves in those offices, moving luxury sofa beds into the DC offices on upper floors, offices with panoramic views accessible only with security escorts. Some 2.2 million workers are now subject to any treatment, job loss, and even pension loss.
- Remember that federal government building where you went to get much-needed unemployment insurance when the company you worked for laid off skilled workers? Yeah, chances are that building will close and be listed for sale as Musk begins shutting down some of the General Services Administration, putting buildings up for sale and terminating unknown numbers of some 7,500 building leases GSA administers.
This is tantamount to a blitzkrieg on the capacity of the US government to serve the US people and the pushback has begun.
- The Center for Biological Diversity and others have launched notice of lawsuits aimed at the openly self-enriching conflicts of interest in having a billionaire with massive government contracts now in charge of oversight of all those contracts. In stark terms, Musk’s industries that have proven again and again to be bad actors in environmental pollution and yet now increasingly control the regulators. Conflict of interest red flags should be all over the field.
- When, some two weeks ago, Musk gave his infamous Nazi salute, the reactions were swift and categorical. Author Rivera Sun, for example, said, “Take that Nazi salute seriously. Last time, 70 million people died.” She called for nonviolent people power in the streets.
- Some of the lawsuits assert that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is itself illegal under various laws such as the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
- While Democrats in office have criticized Musk, few Republicans are doing so, yet. In Europe, however, more political leadership is speaking out against Musk’s stated support for the neo-Nazi AfD party. While the leaders of Italy and Hungary are pro-Musk, leadership in Norway, Germany, France and Spain have denounced much of what Musk is doing globally.
- More and more independent citizen groups are beginning to formally oppose the most egregious of Musk’s actions and words. When Musk posted that Germans should move past any guilt about the European Holocaust, for example, reactions were swift.
When Germany rolled over Poland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium and other countries in the 1939-1940 offensive, many lost hope, seeing the ferocious Nazi military as unstoppable.
Then the world united and stopped it.
We can stop Musk too, but this time with what William James (echoed by Jimmy Carter some 66 years later) called the “moral equivalent of war.” Nonviolent civil resistance, with a synthesis of the inside game (politics) and the outside game (“street heat”), holds the most promise. More regular folks need to start observing and then observers need to start taking action.
Watergate led to Nixon’s downfall. ElonGate is a harbinger of defeat for Musk and Trump.
Dr. Tom H. Hastings is Coördinator of Conflict Resolution BA/BS degree programs at Portland State University. His views, however, are not those of any institution.
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