Month: February 2025

Musk Is Leading an ‘Administrative Coup’

Buck Banks

“Elon Musk is not the president, but it does appear that he—a foreign-born, unelected billionaire who was not confirmed by Congress—is exercising profound influence over the federal government of the United States, seizing control of information, payments systems, and personnel management. … It is nothing short of an administrative coup.”

— Charlie Warzel

20k Government Workers Accept Musk’s Buyout

Buck Banks

20,000

At least 20,000 federal employees have heeded the Trump administration’s call to leave their jobs and get paid through September, officials told news outlets yesterday, reported the Morning Brew newsletter. That means ~1% of the 2+ million-strong federal workforce is taking the deal first introduced in an email announcing a “Fork in the Road” (the same language Elon Musk used to offer buyouts to non-“hardcore” Twitter employees). This falls short of the White House’s goal of having 5% to 10% of federal staffers turn in their notice to cut down on government spending, but officials say the number continues to climb as the Feb. 6 deadline for accepting the offer nears.

Newsflash: Women Talk More than Men

Buck Banks

3,000

A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that women between the ages of 25 and 65—the life stages of early and middle adulthood—spoke on average about 3,000 more words per day than their male counterparts, reported Phys.org. Significant gender differences did not appear in the study’s other age groups: adolescence (ages 10 to 17), emerging adulthood (ages 18 to 24) and older adulthood (65 and up).

Rubio Set to Open U.S. Penal Colony in El Salvador

Buck Banks

“We can send them, and he [El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele] will put them in his jails. And he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States, even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents,” reported The New Republic.

— On Tuesday, Secretary of State Rubio and El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced they’d reached an agreement to “outsource” U.S. prisoners to El Salvador’s mega-prison. The agreement was initially supposed to cover alleged gang members, but was expanded.

Nobody Voted for Elon Musk

Buck Banks

Elon Musk may have pleasured himself with his ability to slash Twitter’s workforce and turn it into a janky site for fascist fanboys. But America is not a software company. And letting a thin-skinned, Ketamine-fueled, video-game cheating, Nazi apologist billionaire take over the machinery of the United States is not something that anyone voted for. Finally Democrats in Congress are beginning to make this point. But citizens, too, must be full-throated. Because none of us, not a single one of us, voted for Elon Musk.

— Clara Jeffery, Mother Jones

Trump Brings Clarity to Musk’s Role

Buck Banks

“Elon can’t do—and won’t do—anything without our approval and we’ll give him the approval where appropriate. Where not appropriate, we won’t.”

— “President Trump on Monday said there were curbs in place to prevent Elon Musk from doing anything in the government without the White House’s blessing, responding to growing confusion about who was overseeing Musk’s push to dismantle multiple agencies,” the Wall Street Journal reports.