Coming soon to a federal agency serving you

An “important safety recall” on my car arrived via U.S. Mail the other day. The notice arrived, it said, “in accordance with the requirements of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act” (NHTSA, passed in 1966). A wiring issue could cause “the unintentional deployment of the airbag(s).” Dealers will fix the defect at no cost.
It’s the newest car I’ve ever owned and my first recall. Your recall mileage may vary. Literally.
The notice is required under Sec. 113 of NHTSA:
SEC. 113. (a) Every manufacturer of motor vehicles shall furnish notification of any defect in any motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment produced by such manufacturer which he determines, in good faith, relates to motor vehicle safety, to the purchaser (where known to the manufacturer) of such motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment, within a reasonable time after such manufacturer has discovered such defect.
(b) The notification required by subsection (a) shall be accomplished—
(1) by certified mail to the first purchaser (not including any dealer of such manufacturer) of the motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment containing such a defect, and to any subsequent purchaser to whom has been transferred any warranty on such motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment; and
(2) by certified mail or other more expeditious means to the dealer or dealers of such manufacturer to whom such motor vehicle or equipment was delivered.(c) The notification required by subsection (a) shall contain a clear description of such defect, an evaluation of the risk to traffic safety reasonably related to such defect, and a statement of the measures to be taken to repair such defect.
Yup, that’s pretty much what arrived in the mail (not from Tesla). But it got me thinking.
NHTSA is now administered by Donald Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. He got into a little Cabinet Room dustup this week with Elon Musk, he of reusable self-parking rocket booster and “rapid unscheduled disassembly” fame. With his youthful but inexperienced DOGE saboteurs, Musk is bringing his cutting-edge, rapid unscheduled disassembly technology to bear on a government agency serving you. For example, the one required by law to set safety standards for motor vehicles and ensure I got the recall notice that was dropped into my mailbox by a union mail carrier.
The New York Times reported on the cabinet meeting here (gift link):
At least two secretaries aired their grievances about Musk and engaged in heated clashes with the billionaire. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was particularly incensed. After Musk accused him of failing to slash his staff, Rubio accused Musk of not telling the truth and asked, sarcastically, if he wanted the State Department to rehire staff just to fire them again.
Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, accused Musk of trying to lay off air traffic controllers. Musk called that “a lie,” asking for their names. The exchange ended with Trump telling Duffy that he had to hire people from M.I.T. as air traffic controllers because they need to be “geniuses.”
(See where our genius of a president is headed here.)
So one musk ask, who will be left to ensure that a rapid unintentional airbag deployment doesn’t punch me in the face, blacken my eyes, and injure my passengers, other motorists and pedestrians once Musk and DOGE are done with the rapid intentional firings of federal safety watchdogs?

Musk has given us multiple fireworks display now that have disrupted air traffic and airline passengers’ lives to avoid being killed by his cosmik debris. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow took note.
Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) adds:
Why have are our FAA resources, reduced as they are after Elon Musk took a DOGE-ian chainsaw to them recently, been forced to scramble to protect civilian and commercial aircraft from yet another “rapid, unscheduled disassembly“?
Why wasn’t the FAA given enough advance notice of the possible (and likely) threat from debris so that flights could be re-routed or delayed BEFORE the launch attempt?
The reach of this fuckery is breathtaking:
Photographs and videos posted on the social media site X by users saying they were along the Florida coast showed the spacecraft breaking up. The falling debris disrupted flights at airports in Miami, Orlando, Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, and as far away as Philadelphia International Airport.
In other words, most of the eastern U.S. affected — no big deal. But that’s likely an understatement; you know the cascade of effects must have been wider given how tightly planes are scheduled.
Luckily, I filed my taxes early and electronically, and my refund dropped into my checking account a week later. So IRS computers haven’t experienced “rapid unscheduled disassembly” just yet.
But Musk and his DOGEes have turned their gaze upon the Social Security Administration’s computers, the ones that ensure my monthly check (and yours) drops into my checking account without disruption (CNN):
Millions of Americans could soon feel the impact of the deep staffing cuts being planned at the Social Security Administration, which is undergoing a massive reorganization that the acting commissioner has acknowledged is being steered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The loss of experienced employees who manage Social Security’s fragile and interdependent web of computer systems will likely leave the agency vulnerable to technical outages and, potentially, interrupt the benefit payments that are sent to more than 73 million retirees, people with disabilities and others, Martin O’Malley, who served as commissioner under the Biden administration, told CNN.
The former Maryland governor predicted a meltdown could occur within 90 days, though other employees and experts were unsure of the timing even as they agreed the risk exists.
“Everything they’re doing is driving this agency to system collapse,” O’Malley said of Social Security’s new management. “It will lead to interruptions in service, and that will ultimately cascade into more frequent system interruptions for the processing of claims, ultimately leading to system collapse and eventually the interruption of benefits.”
One wonders how long “leaders” on Capitol Hill will allow this uber-rich, seig-heiling sociopath to treat the United States of America and people like you as his personal playthings.
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