I’d already mentioned in the last post that Musk and his private sector minions are taking over the payment system through which the federal government distributes money. Later today I read that Musk’s people — can we call them Muskies? — have taken over the General Services Administration, which manages federal offices and technology. This is from Wired:
And then I read this from Reuters:
Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials.
Since taking office 11 days ago, President Donald Trump has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.
There’s mounting evidence that even more than we know is being directed by Elon Musk and his private-sector employees, who are now fanned out across the government. He appears to have taken control of the federal payment system which allows his operatives to stop checks to any private individual in the country and/or examine all their personal financial information. According to The New York Times, Musk has tasked engineers with figuring out how to cut off the flow of funds from the Treasury to programs and priorities he believes conflict with the brief he received from Donald Trump. He has also taken control of some portion of the federal agency computer systems, allowing his operatives to lock federal workers out of key computer systems. We need a lot more reporting on just how he is exerting this power, specifically under what authority and who the people are he’s installed at these government agencies. Some have simply been appointed to new roles the old-fashioned way. But the best information we have about how “DOGE” is working suggests many are employees from his private companies operating with no legal authority at all.
There’s a pretty developed law that you can’t do stuff in the federal government if you’re not an employee of the federal government, or a contractor who is placed under the rules of the federal government. If you do do those things you become a de facto government employee and the law says you come under all sorts of record-keeping and disclosure requirements. Those requirements turn out to be quite important and consequential.
This is getting very frightening.
Oh, and Trump’s tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, and maybe China, are supposed to go into effect tomorrow unless something happens in the night to stop them.
Update: Trump administration forces out multiple senior FBI officials and January 6 prosecutors.
A letter sent to the fired prosecutors said their removal was based on their role in the Jan. 6 prosecutions. It cited an executive order Trump recently signed that called the Jan. 6 prosecutions “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years.”
In a separate memo to the FBI workforce sent out Friday night, the bureau’s acting director, Brian J. Driscoll, Jr., informed employees that acting Deputy Attorney General, Emil Bove, had asked for a list of all FBI employees who worked on January 6 cases for “a review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.”
“We understand that this request encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts,” Driscoll wrote. “I am one of those employees.”
It was not immediately clear why the FBI and DOJ officials had been ousted. The FBI and DOJ declined to comment.
A majority of FBI personnel may be targeted before this is over. A reporter asked Trump about it today, and he said he didn’t know this was happening.
I think Eloon and his gang are going to stop paying federal workers who are registered to vote as democrats, why else would they access HR data? If that happens and the GQP toadies in congress go along then we voters might he next. I have an IRA so I can get by without my SSI and VA check but lots of folks can't. We're Fucked!
I'm not saying any of this is untrue because I do not know but I'm looking for confirmation and reliable details. If it is, I see a lot of ways this could fall apart.
The first is the media. The Fourth Estate hasn't been great but Trump does not have control in the way successful dictators must. Second, there's too many people actively resisting who will be able to tell the media when and where Musk turns off the money. It can't be kept secret. Third, I seriously doubt that a majority in Congress are going to buy into an overt and illegal coup. Even with presidential pardons, members of Congress who facilitate actions that defraud citizens may be criminally liable back home.
Trump and Musk (if this is happening and if they do turn off the water to their "enemies" in violation of the law) will lose the sympathy and support of the vast majority of citizens. The conspirators may be flying high with the promise of presidential pardons for everybody for everything. There are state laws as NY showed Trump and civil penalties as E. Jean Carroll proved. Musk, if he's involved in damaging large numbers of citizens in CA may be on the receiving end of the largest class action civil suit ever conceived.
It's virtually impossible to tell what security measures are built into a financial system. Musk may have access but there may be only a handful of programmers who know how transactions are recorded and there's NO way to tell from the outside.
This (if it happens) goes FAR beyond what Congress has been appraised of. Many of those who wanted Trump are gonna get cold feet if they see this is happening and is real. Self-preservation is the first order of business – a successful impeachment becomes a real possibility.
Greatest crime on earth, there is no Smedly Butler to save the Republic. Americans have chosen the Racket and appointed their own torturers, the tech bros and their insidious surveillance/pleasure machine. The Old Republic is dead, welcome to the New Dominion, the South has risen again, let the proscriptions begin, etc., etc.
I have mourned the death of the Environment (we are passed climate tipping point) and now I mourn the end of the Republic. Watch that the Eye of Sauron does no focus on you and may you all survive the proscriptions.