Unelected South African drug addict takes over the government

I don’t want to exemplify Murc’s law, or be one of those football fans who demand that the coach run the touchdown play, but I’m somewhat perplexed why something as utterly and outrageously illegal as Elon Musk’s decision to shut down a federal agency created and funded in the current budget is being treated by prominent Democrats as not particularly noteworthy.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is being gutted by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting operation in a shocking operation that launched over the weekend. 

In the wake of President Trump’s executive order freezing foreign assistance, USAID’s website has been taken offline, hundreds of contractors have been laid off and employees are being locked out of their accounts one-by-one without notice. Musk said early Monday that Trump “agreed” to shut down USAID, which for more than 60 years has administered billions of dollars of humanitarian and development assistance around the world. 

“We are terrified,” said one USAID employee, who was granted anonymity for fear of retribution. The employee said they woke up without access to internal systems, including their email, with “zero communication.”

Personal services contractors, who lack the legal protections of government employees and make up about half of the agency’s workforce, started getting shut out of systems Sunday, according to two USAID employees. They also said some direct hires were being impacted.

One described seeing their colleagues’ Google Chat images crossed out one-by-one Sunday evening, indicating their accounts were deactivated.

Shortly after midnight, USAID employees received an email reviewed by The Hill that said their headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building would be closed Monday and instructing them to work remotely.

Another USAID employee said their colleagues were being blocked from entering a second USAID office in southwest D.C. by men who identified themselves as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). They later stepped aside, the employee added.

“USAID is a ball of worms. There is no apple. And when there is no apple you just need to get rid of the whole thing. That’s why it’s got to go. It’s beyond repair,” Musk said early Monday on social platform X Spaces. 

He later posted, “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.”

I’m no Don Draper, but besides press conferences on the Capitol steps (which aren’t happening either AFAIK) why isn’t this leading to a social media blitz in which people are asked by the Democratic party and its leadership why an unelected South African drug addict who likes to make Nazi salutes in public should be allowed to import his native land’s white supremacist ideas into the USA, via flatly illegal actions, like shutting down a fully-funded government agency? References to his fake video game skills and 27 kids by 14 different women (or whatever) also seem like good ideas if anybody’s asking.

I mean I realize there’s outrage fatigue now, but if you can’t get behind the idea of throwing Elon down the well so our country can be free then I really don’t know what to say.

. . . this is a good start.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) is taking a page out of Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) playbook Monday by promising to block all diplomatic posts until funding and staff for the United States Agency for International Development are restored.