Rich are getting richer: As Sieg heil!-giving hatchet man Elon Musk pillages the federal workforce and government grants and contracts through the Department of Government Efficiency, his company SpaceX stands to win billions of dollars in new federal support across several agencies. Minus two points for the rich getting richer. -2 [NYT]
Tesla Takedown: While Musk’s star rises in the administration, his standing in the court of public opinion is sinking. Attorney General Pam Bondi is threatening members of Congress who speak out against Musk, while a “Tesla Takedown” movement is growing. About 100 people protested outside a Tesla dealership in D.C. on Saturday, and an Arlington Tesla owner awoke Friday to find a swastika carved into the hood of his vehicle. Plus two points for speaking out, but minus one point because we can’t condone property destruction. +1 [Politico, Reuters, ARLnow, New York Magazine]
Makes sense he was friends with Phyllis Schlafly: Email-deleting acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin is “a typo-spewing henchman of the moment, eager to help Trump transform the Justice Department into a political tool—and unable to shut up about it,” Dan Friedman and Amanda Moore write in Mother Jones in an extended look at his antics and connections to the late Phyllis Schlafly, a homophobic conservative activist who led a successful campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment. Just this month, Martin reupped an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory he trotted out when he was working as a defense attorney for Capitol rioters that the Jan. 6 insurrection was staged by “Mr. Coffee.” Minus one point for picking the wrong friends and another for defaming Mr. Coffee. -2 [Mother Jones]
Coming for the libraries: The new acting director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Keith E. Sonderling, has promised to “restore focus on patriotism,” which many have taken as a threat to library and museum funding. Elizabeth Larison, director of a nonprofit alliance that advocates for First Amendment rights, says, “It seems now that the IMLS will be putting education and culture in service of nationalist propaganda, rather than in service of the American people.” Minus one point for misplaced patriotism. -1 [Hyperallergic]
Friday’s Needle rating: 30 Today’s score: -4 Today’s Needle rating: 26