Let’s look to Argentina’s battle with dengue for some clues about how this might go.

There was a big hootenanny at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday night. It was there that we learned that RFK Jr. would be joining the Team of Rejects in January. But one of the honored guests was Javier Milei, the libertarian president of Argentina, the guy who has virtually demolished that country’s government. Almost right on his 100th day in office, as dengue fever was running wild in Argentina, the country was struck with two massive storms back to back. From El Pais:

The far-right administration of Javier Milei—who took office this past December—has ruled out increasing the budget for awareness campaigns, or even mandating vaccinations against this tropical infection. This inaction is due to the government’s attempt to reduce public spending and pay down debt—two of Milei’s main campaign promises. The initial economic figures announced by the government following the implementation of this strategy have earned the approval of the financial markets.

Any event—such as the ongoing dengue crisis—can reveal yet another fragile flank of the Argentine economy. The outbreak of the disease exemplifies the international isolation that the South American country suffers from. Buenos Aires has faced obstacles regarding the importation of repellents, or the supplies needed to make them. Insecticides have disappeared from all supermarkets and pharmacies in the country’s main cities (dengue is primarily transmitted from person to person via mosquito bites). This has forced the administration to lift all obstacles to the arrival of repellent-related products from other countries, while exempting them from tariffs and sales taxes. In 2023, the local economy was one of the most protectionist in Latin America, with a mere 0.25% share in global import trade—the lowest rate in history—according to the Economic Research Institute of the Córdoba Stock Exchange. “The country remains in an environment of critical stagflation: that is, without growth and with inflation going through the roof,” summarizes Luca Sibani, the director of discretionary strategies at Epsilon Capital.

Nevertheless, this seems to be where the incoming administration is headed, except here, it’s also fueled by the independent lust for vengeance that drives the president-elect. “Disruption,” that magic conjuring word of the techno-bro oligarchy, is all. One of the only excuses Republican senators have been able to muster for Matt Gaetz’s preposterous nomination to be attorney general has been that Gaetz will crack heads and “shake things up” at the Department of Justice. And then there’s childlike vandal Elon Musk, the billionaire who has attached himself so tightly to the president-elect that even the president-elect apparently is getting sick of him. Musk has explained that we peons may have to go through the Tribulation before he and the new masters of the universe lead us into the lower-class precincts of paradise. And disruption is now taking applications! From NBC News:

“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting,” the so-called Department of Government Efficiency said on X. “If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon … Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants,” the post said. Musk said separately that the jobs would be unpaid but that they would “greatly help America.” “Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lots of enemies … compensation is zero,” he wrote. “What a great deal!”

If you take an 80-hour a week job for no money, your IQ is prima facie not high. Quod erat demonstrandum, dumbass.