I don’t think my Republican friends and neighbors fully meant their vote to unleash the full catastrophe now unfolding. Many debatable policy actions may have been predicted, but others would not have been anticipated.

The extent of the elimination of substantial vital foreign aid opens up huge opportunities for China and Russia to extend their influence into regions where the U.S. has had influence. Also, probably not anticipated when voting was the extent of massive firings of loyal civil servants who just showed up each day to do the work on their desks.

But beyond that, no one voted to turn control of the treasury to Elon Musk, unelected and lacking security clearance. A man with extensive business in China has access to key passwords and vital data, including all IRS data, our computer systems, check-writing — or payment withholding for Social Security monies, Medicare, and most other government functions.

He’s in charge now, and our system of government, our democracy, is being scrapped. I don’t know if President Trump could stop him, even if he wanted, nor could Congress or the courts. And a technological catastrophe looms, since Musk’s team, with access to all treasury’s software and code, and reportedly may be rewriting the code to gain control of the systems.

And during the changeover, the probability of widespread crashes is high; as people who have worked for a company during system changeover can attest. At such times, computer systems are easily derailed.

The arrogance of billionaires.

James Cogan, Lewiston