If you haven't been following the news recently, I recommend looking at my first post in this series to catch up.

Awareness of the situation is growing in America. Mainstream outlets finally started reporting on Elon Musk's takeover, primarily focused on his Treasury access. Protests have sprung up around the country for trans rights and against ICE. Schools have mobilized to defend their students. But as I continue to talk with folks about these events, there is still a major gap in understanding about the gravity of this situation.

My goal here is to lessen the load of awareness. I'll be focusing on the issues I believe are useful to making sense of this catastrophe. I am not a journalist and I am unrepentant in my bias towards justice, peace, and humanity. I'll do my best to limit hyperbole and speculation, but this is not a continuation of Trump's incompetent first term. It is a hostile takeover that seeks to establish a new autocratic government, at the cost of everyone's safety and prosperity.

Nothing is being stopped by the courts

Many folks are under the impression that the White House is being hauled to court and mired in paperwork. While it's true that many orders have been blocked, the administration simply does not give a damn. If there is one thing I want you take away from this piece, please let it be this: they have no intention of obeying any court orders. Our response to this crisis must bear this fact in mind.

• At least 40 lawsuits have been filed by states, unions, and other organizations seeking to block many executive orders and department memos. Many of these have acquired a temporary injunction while initial arguments are made.
• The Department of Justice is not enforcing compliance to any court order, and is lying to the press about the court orders being followed. While there are signs of reluctance to follow Trump's orders from FBI leadership, as of now there are no federal law enforcement agencies willing to enforce a court order.
• Musk stated this week that all regulations should be ignored and eliminated.
• The early retirement buyouts for federal employees were blocked, but department heads continues to offer the deal and insist it is legal.
• DOGE access to the Treasury has been blocked, but even if they complied with this order, they already installed backdoors to maintain access.
• Attempts to stop the elimination of USAID have failed, despite being blocked by court order. Over 90% of USAID employees have been placed on administrative leave and all program funding remains frozen.
• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is being dismantled in identical fashion to USAID. The CFPB was created after the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers against reckless and fraudulent business practices, especially from large banks. It has a $600 million budget with a record of returning $20 billion back to consumers.
• Congress is doing almost nothing of value. Democratic senators failed to reach the minimum votes just to subpeona Elon Musk. The best we've seen so far is some "rude behavior". Some have suggested just giving up because there are "no good options". Other senators have indicated the lack of resistance is due to death threats.
• Several protests have occurred outside embattled federal agencies (USAID, EPA, OPM, DOE), but private contracted security guards bar access to both congressmen and the public.

Elon Musk exerts control over more federal systems

Last week, Elon Musk already had control over 4 critical agencies: the General Services Administration (GSA), the US Digital Service (now DOGE), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the Treasury. These gave him the ability to dictate staffing and communication, grant or revoke building and computer access to anyone, and most importantly, control all forms of payments. This week, he began exercising that power.

• Musk has initiated the cancellation of 90% of federal leases with the GSA. This will eliminate most federal office space, laboratories, and warehouses, days after a universal return-to-office mandate was declared. It may also eliminate some post offices and court houses that use leased space.
• Musk is using Treasury access to stop payments to contractors. Trump has suggested they may stop paying some of the federal government's debts.
• Musk is using the OPM to place thousands of federal workers on administrative leave.
• DOGE has gained access to Medicare and Medicaid, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Commerce, Health and Human Services (HHS), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), the Department of Labor, the Small Business Administration, and more. As with other departments, we can assume this means they have unfettered access to all systems and databases.
• The Attorney General has repeatedly stated that federal resources will be used to protect DOGE workers. This statement came after many DOGE workers were identified by WIRED and ProPublica.

It bears repeating: Elon Musk now wields more power than any other individual on the planet. He has stated his intentions: immediate decimation of social services, punishment of political opponents, and further consolidation of power without transparency or accountability.

The purge of racial and gender identity continues

The chilling effect of Trump's executive orders against diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, "gender ideology", and the "woke agenda" is now being felt throughout the country.

• First, some good news: nearly all anti-trans orders and memos are being taken to court. Since the impact of these orders is much further downstream from the federal government, there is good reason to hope that some of these orders will be dismantled in the courts. However, it remains up to individual organizations to refuse to implement these orders. In response to protests, one hospital reinstated gender-affirming care for minors.
• The Department of Justice said it will begin investigating and prosecuting private companies with DEIA programs.
• A new executive order bans trans people from sports. It threatens prosecution for schools that don't comply, and directs the Secretary of State to promote this globally, including at the Olympics. The NCAA has already complied in advance, despite this not being law.
• Dozens more agencies have been ordered to eliminate references to transgender people, including the Department of Education and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
• A public watchlist of federal employees "associated" with DEIA has been created. The majority of employees on the list are people of color.
• More DOGE workers - young software engineers with unilateral control over entire federal agencies - have been identified with public statements on white supremacy.
• Many convicted members of the Jan 6 insurrection have been hired into federal positions after being pardoned. This is one of Project 2025's goals, to establish a vetted employee pool of people who have "shed blood" for the cause to guarantee loyalty. Ideal candidates have been canceled, ostracized, or jailed.
• The NSA is actively deleting all websites and content with banned keywords such as "bias" or "inclusion".
• Across federal buildings, murals, photos, and posters of women and people of color are being eliminated.

Universities are being defunded

One of the stated goals for Project 2025 and the tech oligarchy is to eradicate liberal sources of cultural and economic power - starting with higher education.

• The National Institute of Health announced it would drastically reduce its contributions to all research grants. This alone will be enough to shut down entire labs, departments, or even whole universities.
• The National Science Foundation has still not unfrozen grants, and some labs are already being forced to shut down. The NSF's guidelines for reviewing grants are so broad that nearly every research proposal has been flagged for review, regardless of whether it is related to DEIA.
• Universities remain silent because there have been repeated threats of stripping their tax-exempt status.
• Trump has ordered that the Department of Education should be dismantled. While some portion of the agency might remain to help enforce ideological orders, we can assume funding to schools will be slashed.

What comes next?

We have a pretty good idea of where this is headed because all of these actions align with Project 2025. We can project a bit further from the political beliefs of tech billionaires closely associated with Musk and Vance. They will continue to dissolve social services to increase the suffering and desperation of the poor and working class. They will eliminate all protections for labor while enabling unhindered greed and theft for the handful of richest men in this country. They will sell off public land and institutions to the highest bidder to transfer power to uncontrollable autocrats. They want America to become a network of corporations - not the idealized fantasy of the "competitive marketplace", but a place where every citizen is disposable and replaceable, whose only reason for existence is their ability to generate capital hour-by-hour.

We should regard their efforts as an orchestrated attack by hostile outsiders with the intent of dissolving American democracy for personal gain. Recognizing this threat doesn't require absolving America of its sins, of forgetting that many of these institutions which are crumbling have been responsible for immeasurable harm at home and around the globe. This takeover is, in many ways, a natural conclusion from American imperialism. But we must recognize that the future they're painting for us is even more bleak than any horrors we've yet known. They're calling it the new "Golden Age of America", the "Second Revolution", and they're willing to terminate anyone that stands in their way.

They've taken control of the necessary systems to execute their plan without obstruction, and they're building the cultural momentum to exterminate the opposition through their attacks on trans rights, immigrants, women, and people of color. They are still constructing the apparatus of loyalty and obedience, however.

We have a limited window to act before we permanently cross a threshold from which we can never come back. In a few more months, the cement will begin to dry, and our path becomes harder to change. No one knows what the future holds, but the less we fight now, the more misery awaits us in the years ahead.

What can be done?

Everything starts with conversation. Talk to your friends, your family, your colleagues. Share information and spread awareness. There can be no action without knowledge. Many people do not have quality sources of news anymore. They aren't aware of what's going on. As the attacks on the press and freedom of speech escalate, this will only get more difficult.

We have to find and meet with others who want to act. Nothing will change if we sit at home and scroll. Information and knowledge must be translated into movement. Share physical space with others who care enough to congregate and take time to discuss these issues. This is not the time to be ideologically picky or conduct purity tests. We must bias towards swift action.

From there, there are three options: labor, capital, and voice. All of these carry their own risks and challenges, but we can mitigate that risk by being part of an organized community.

I'll once again leave this with my favorite quote from Ursula Franklin to remind us of the goal.

Peace is the absence of fear. Peace is the presence of justice. Because of the work that all of us have done, we are very clear that peace, in fact, is a consequence. Peace, as it was defined in 1936 by R.B. Gregg, “is a by-product of the persistent application of social truth and justice and the strong and intelligent application of love.”