Schadenfreude— With A Flamethrower… When the Deportation Bus Comes for You

Are You Watching The Unmaking Of Musk's Government Gremlins?

In the early 1930s, there were some Jews who voted for Hitler and worked with the Nazis. That went badly for them. Yesterday when I read that one of the founders of Latinas for Trump, Florida state Sen. Ileana Garcia, is disappointed that Trump is savagely rounding up and deporting law abiding Latinos, she issued a statement “As the state senator… and the daughter of Cuban refugees, who are now just as American, if not more so than Stephen Miller, I am deeply disappointed by these actions. And I will not stand down. I want to put myself on record: ‘This is not what we voted for. I have always supported Trump, through thick and thin. However, this is unacceptable and inhumane. I understand the importance of deporting criminal aliens, but what we are witnessing are arbitrary measures to hunt down people who are complying with their immigration hearings— in many cases, with credible fear of persecution claims— all driven by a Miller-like desire to satisfy a self-fabricated deportation goal. This undermines the sense of fairness and justice that the American people value.” My reaction was horrific but when I calmed down, I modulated my disdain for this piece of shit. Trump congressional puppet Maria Salazar feels badly too. I wish her all the worst.

On Sunday, a quintet of Washington Post reporters wrote about how DOGE employees are being kicked out of their jobs. I don’t feel badly for them; I just feel badly that they’re not being put before walls and summarily executed. “As Musk departed, some of his top lieutenants were streaming out of government. Among those heading for the exits even before Musk and Trump began feuding, according to a White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information: longtime aide Steve Davis, who was overseeing cost-cutting efforts; lawyer James Burnham, DOGE’s general counsel; and DOGE adviser Katie Miller, who is married to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Katie Miller is now ‘working for’ Musk. Meanwhile, Cabinet officials— some of whom had clashed with Musk— are moving to rehire workers who had been pushed out by DOGE.”

At the Federal Aviation Administration, for example, the DOGE team suffered a setback this week when leadership nixed their access to FAA buildings, a command center in Warrenton, Virginia, and the Air Traffic Academy in Oklahoma City, according to an employee briefed on the matter and records obtained by The Washington Post. Four DOGE staffers were also stripped of their credentials and user accounts inside the FAA’s internal computer systems, the records show.

As of June 2, the staffers— Brady Glantz, Samuel Smeal, Tom Kiernan and Theodore Malaska, all of whom are employees of Musk’s SpaceX— no longer bear the title of “senior adviser to the administrator” on their online profiles within the agency, per the records. In fact, their profiles no longer show any job title at all— nor an affiliated organization, manager, email or phone number, the records show.

In a briefing Monday, managers explained their removal by noting the team owed its creation and power to an executive order, not an act of Congress— and that Musk was stepping down after his term as a “special government employee” ended, according to an employee who attended, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

“So they’re being pushed out,” the employee said.

… Resistance to DOGE in other agencies predated Musk’s blowup with Trump. In early May, staffers who said they were with DOGE roamed around secure facilities within Navy Air Station Patuxent River, a Defense Department installation in Maryland where test flights and other sensitive work are carried out. One DOGE staffer reportedly walked in behind another government worker to gain access to the building, a Defense employee said— prompting a warning from installation security officials.

“At this time, [Navy Air Systems Command] Security is considering this an unauthorized access attempt,” a security official wrote in email obtained by the Washington Post. The email instructed staffers to report people representing themselves as DOGE staffers to security officials or base police, to refuse to allow anyone to follow them into buildings, and to be on alert for suspicious behavior.

In a statement, a Navy official denied that DOGE’s entry into an air station was treated as a security breach. “DOGE representatives met with NAVAIR personnel … The meeting was scheduled. We have no record of DOGE seeking unauthorized entry into NAVAIR facilities on NAS Patuxent River,” said Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a Navy spokesman. “Reports to the contrary are unsubstantiated.”

… [A]s the week wound down, some federal employees took a few moments to celebrate the diminishment of DOGE, however brief. One Interior employee said he and colleagues worked extra-hard, reveling in their government jobs as DOGE seemed to be on the way out. Then he went home and ate some ice cream.

At the FAA, a group of staffers went out for post-work drinks to toast the banishment of DOGE staff.

Then they offered a more solemn toast to the more than two dozen colleagues they’d lost along the way.

Tiny violins? Cry harder, Ileana. Seppuku (切腹), anyone? You helped build this machine— this racist, xenophobic, paranoid, authoritarian meat grinder— and now you want to claim surprise when it chews up the very people you pretended to champion. Are you that stupid? Do you think we are that stupid? You stood beside a man who called immigrants “rapists,” who locked children in cages, who deployed ICE as a paramilitary force— because you thought your community would be spared. You deluded yourself into believing proximity to power would shield you from its consequences. But fascism doesn’t differentiate. It feeds on loyalty, then spits it out the second it’s inconvenient. You’re as complicit as you are pathetic.

"Landmine Diplomacy" by Nancy Ohanian

And as for DOGE, let the purge continue. Let every last tech-fascist creep who signed up for this grotesque power trip be escorted from the premises without ceremony or severance. Let them taste the cold indifference they brought to government, and may their names be forgotten faster than their fake job titles. These people weren’t “disruptors.” They were parasites grifting on the taxpayer dime, bypassing democratic processes, infiltrating secure facilities like cosplaying villains from some Ayn Rand fanfic.

Katie Miller, James Burnham, Brady Glantz, Tom Kiernan… you’ll all be remembered not as innovators but as lackeys for a failing demagogue and a cartoon plutocrat with a martyr complex. You had no qualifications, no credibility, no legitimacy and no business being anywhere near the levers of power— just vibes, cruelty, and a Muskian belief in your own supremacy. Now you're nothing again. So yes… here’s to the career civil servants drinking to your demise. Here’s to the ice cream and the post-work beers. Here’s to the federal workers who actually believe in service. And here’s to the hope that someday soon, this whole rancid era— DOGE, Trump, Musk, Miller— will be remembered the same way we remember other cautionary tales: as a warning about what happens when you mistake branding for governance, and cruelty for strength. And if you're still throwing your lot in with Trump after all this? May your fate be just as humiliating and unceremonious. May your name be misspelled on the resignation letter they hand you  to sign, and may the door hit you on the way out— hard enough to leave a big dark bruise shaped like reality.