The Wombats - I Love America and She Hates Me

Musk Hates Govt $$$-- Unless it Goes to Him

Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have attacked multiple government agencies, claiming to find waste and fraud. But those claims continue to quickly collapse under independent scrutiny, with “billions” in so-called savings turning out to be fraudulent.

At the same time, the real cuts that DOGE has put in place have hurt ordinary people in the United States and around the world. Cuts to agencies like the United States Agency for International Development have reduced vital funding for American farmers, and multiple contracts canceled by DOGE are undermining services for military veterans.

Musk has repeatedly claimed these actions are saving taxpayers money and recently wrote, “There are millions of minor savings that add up to billions of dollars cumulatively.”  But years before he was gutting vital services and claiming to be in favor of saving tax dollars, Musk built his multi-billion-dollar empire on government handouts.

A Washington Post examination of Musk’s business affairs found that his companies received over $38 billion in government payments, from loans to contracts to tax credits, over the years. The Musk companies that benefited from this taxpayer financing include Tesla and SpaceX.    Musk has been on the government dole for over 20 years and had crucial support at both the federal and state levels. In fact, as he was spending millions to help elect Trump in the 2024 election—crusading against government spending in the process—Musk took in at least $6.3 billion from the government in that year alone.

Both Tesla and SpaceX have been the subject of complaints about safety, alleged discrimination, and other issues during that time. Since Trump took office the federal government has curtailed oversight and investigations related to the companies.  Yet despite this history, the Trump-led Federal Aviation Administration recently handed out a contract to Starlink, another Musk company. Starlink will be used in systems managing airline safety and was given the contract just weeks after Trump gutted the agency’s investment in diversity hiring, even as a shortage of air traffic controllers continues.

The contracts raise serious concerns about conflict of interest for Musk, but Trump recently told Fox News that the multi-billionaire had been given a green light to profit from the government even as he purportedly works for it.  Musk has portrayed himself as a self-made entrepreneur, but that isn’t true. He is a beneficiary of government handouts on a scale vastly outweighing what the average middle-class American receives. Empowered by Trump, Musk is undermining the safety net for those Americans while championing policies that will cut benefits for people without the gigantic fortune that he has access to.

Trump Bigotry May Threaten 2028 Olympics

The State Department is ordering officials worldwide to deny visas to transgender athletes who try to enter the U.S. for competitions.  This order, obtained by The Guardian, is particularly harsh as it could even place a lifetime ban on these athletes should their passport or visa information list their gender as something different than what they were assigned at birth. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is attempting to claim that this would be considered fraud.  “In cases where applicants are suspected of misrepresenting their purpose of travel or sex, you should consider whether this misrepresentation is material such that it supports an ineligibility finding,” reads the directive.  This development comes after Trump’s executive order banning transgender girls and women from competing in athletic for girls and women.   Specifically referring to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the president announced that he would direct Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to reject “any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes."

It is unclear how many international transgender athletes are slated to attend the Olympics.  The International Olympics Committee has allowed transgender people to participate in the games since 2004, and when similar pressure was mounting in 2021, the committee issued a statement showing their support for the LGBTQ+ community.   “The IOC will not discriminate against an athlete who has qualified through their [International Federation], on the basis of their gender identity and/or sex characteristics,” their website states.

IT Staff Assigned to Help Musk Tells Him to Fuck Off

Nearly two dozen federal technology workers just walked out the door rather than bow to billionaire Elon Musk, who they say is set on running the government into the ground with chaos and cronyism.  21 engineers, data scientists, and product managers who worked for what was once known as the United States Digital Service submitted a mass resignation letter in response to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency interloping in federal jobs and agencies.

In the joint letter, obtained by the Associated Press, staffers from the USDS wrote, “We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services. We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE’s actions.”   They also alluded to nameless DOGE bros wearing White House visitor badges infiltrating their office and grilling the nonpartisan staffers. The staffers told reporters these young men were rife with technological inefficiency, fandom for Musk, and ideological partisanship.

“Several of these interviewers refused to identify themselves, asked questions about political loyalty, attempted to pit colleagues against each other, and demonstrated limited technical ability,” the staffers wrote. “This process created significant security risks.”

This follows the layoffs of 40 USDS staffers earlier in February. After Musk's initial layoffs, 65 USDS employees remained—a third of whom just resigned.  Meanwhile, the White House is covering for Musk, claiming that he has nothing to do with the DOGE firings. When he isn’t sending micromanaging emails threatening federal workers to list five things they did that week or be fired, he’s brandishing bedazzled chainsaws at CPAC conference, shouting, “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy.”

Since being sworn in, Trump has given Musk full reign to use DOGE to illegally access sensitive data on private citizens. He has also dismantled federal agencies like the United States Agency for International Development and laid off thousands of federal employees in the name of “efficiency.”  “We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the USDS employees wrote. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”

Trump is Laying Eggs for the GOP

Foretold Times

Trump is Using His Administration to Prop Up His Failing Media Companies

After Donald Trump’s media company reported major losses in 2024, he now appears to be clearing the way for his business—and bottom line—to succeed. The Trump Media & Technology Group Corp’s recent 10-K filing listed multiple risk factors for why its platforms—such as Truth Social or the new Truth.Fi—might fail. 

One such factor is the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which Trump temporarily paused with a Feb. 10 executive order. The FCPA makes it illegal for U.S. companies to bribe foreign officials for government contracts.  Per Trump’s executive order, Attorney General Pam Bondi will revise the FCPA to "promote American competitiveness.” 

Another factor listed was Trump’s own track record of filing for bankruptcy.  "A number of companies that were associated with President Donald J. Trump have filed for bankruptcy. There can be no assurances that TMTG will not also become bankrupt,” the filing said.   Some of Trump’s bankrupt businesses include the Taj Mahal Casino, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, and Trump Castle Hotel & Casino.  Now with executive power, Trump’s business ventures might be positioned more favorably than ever before.

In a press release, Trump Media lied and said the “Biden-era SEC” was responsible for its major net losses. More specifically, it cited the SEC delaying Trump Media’s merger with Digital World Acquisition Corporation, which caused “significant legal expenses.”   In 2023, Trump’s company paid $18 million to settle an SEC investigation into its merger with DWAC just days after investors were arrested—and later sent to prison—for insider trading.  Despite its murky past, the future of Trump Media is looking bright—and riddled with corruption.

Manic Street Preachers - Critical Thinking

Vaccine Denier Leads the HHS as Measles and the Bird Flu Ravage the Nation

Vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reportedly laying off nearly half of the public health workforce, which handles responding to emergencies like the measles outbreak unfolding in Texas.

Employees at the Epidemic Intelligence Service, a vaunted training program run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are among the nearly 1,300 health workers being terminated. The EIS focuses on investigating disease outbreaks both domestically and internationally.

“This will destroy the EIS, which is one of the absolute crown jewels of global public health,” Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, told State news.

Along with firings at the National Institutes of Health, Politico estimates that RFK Jr., Elon Musk, and convicted felon Donald Trump have targeted at least 3,600 federal health workers in a downsizing effort of administrative infrastructure. Most of these initial HHS firings are of workers with the CDC and NIH. "This is absolutely tragic," one CDC employee told NPR. "If we lose these people, we lose important capacity and in a very real sense we lose our CDC future."

"The country is less safe,” former top-ranking CDC official Anne Schuchat told CBS. “These are the deployable assets critical for investigating new threats, from anthrax to Zika.”

Meanwhile, Texas is experiencing one of its worst measles outbreaks in decades. The number of confirmed cases, which started in the state’s under-vaccinated Gaines County, has routinely doubled. The Houston Chronicle reports that Texas health officials fear that 200 to 300 people have already been infected.  “HHS is following the Administration's guidance and taking action to support the President's broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government. This is to ensure that HHS better serves the American people at the highest and most efficient standard,” HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon said in a statement to NPR.

The dismantling of public health under the Trump administration continues as the United States also faces an ongoing avian flu outbreak, affecting livestock across the country and resulting in egg shortages and skyrocketing prices.

 

What Were Maga Dopes Thinking?

Greedy Asshole Elon Musk is Now Threatening Americans

Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette works at the Project on Government Oversight,a nonpartisan watchdog group focused on reducing bureaucratic waste. He also happens to be blind. So when he criticized Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service in testimony on Capitol Hill last week, Musk unleashed an online attack Hedtler-Gaudette described as “surreal” in its juvenile bigotry.

First, Musk retweeted a post on X noting that the “blind director of watchdog group funded by George Soros testifies that he does not see widespread evidence of government waste” and added two laughing/crying emojis. The tweet garnered more than 21 million views, and sparked dozens of hateful messages to Hedtler-Gaudette’s account.  “He couldn’t see shit … perfect excuse for being unable to perform your job,” one poster said. “The dei blind guy can’t see fraud. U can’t make up this garbage,” another wrote. 

One person even called for people to unearth Hedtler-Gaudette’s bank account.The episode illustrates how Musk’s unparalleled online reach has given him a powerful tool to attack individuals who criticize DOGE, with one post able to spark hundreds of blistering responses from his followers.

Last week, he amplified baseless claims about the judge who overturned Trump’s funding freeze on federal grants that named his government employee daughter. Musk has called for the dismissal of journalists who have written about DOGE, calling their actions “possibly criminal.” 

As he hunts for places to slash the federal bureaucracy, the billionaire has reposted the names and titles of individual government employees, insinuating they should be fired.Digital rights experts say the situation has created an unprecedented imbalance in power. Musk’s massive online following, his ownership of a social media platform where he can dictate content moderation rules, and his position heading a government entity with access to private data, give him a unique ability to threaten those who question him and chill dissenting speech. 

“People do not feel safe speaking out in this country against the government,” said Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington. “Because the government in the form of Elon Musk and President Trump himself will catalyze retribution.”Hedtler-Gaudette said that Musk’s decision to ridicule a blind, 38-year-old government waste expert exhibits something different: “He’s a fundamentally small person,” Hedtler-Gaudette said.

Trump and His Border Czar Are Spectacularly Failing

Tom Homan, Trump’s anti-immigrant border czar, has gone public with his belief that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York broke the law by educating migrant families on their constitutional rights. Ocasio-Cortez has provoked conservative ire by using her office to conduct educational webinars so that people can understand their obligations if an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid occurs.

In one pamphlet, the congresswoman notes that ICE agents must have a warrant signed by a judge to enter a home, and that it is everyone’s right to deny access if that document is not presented. The document also advises people that they have a right to remain silent.

“It’s like AOC and others don’t want ICE to enforce the laws that they enacted,” Homan said to Fox. “I’ve asked DOJ where is that line of impediment, of interference?” Homan has used several recent media appearances to criticize Ocasio-Cortez for her advocacy, and in a Fox News interview last week, he disclosed that he sent a letter to the deputy U.S. attorney general to ask for help against the congresswoman.

Ocasio-Cortez mocked Homan in a response to that appearance writing, “Maybe he can learn to read. The Constitution would be a good place to start.”  In fact, the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution guards against “unreasonable searches and seizures” by the government and has been a bedrock of American law since 1791.

Since Trump’s inauguration, the administration has tried to appear as if ICE is hard at work purging the criminal migrants that Trump has spoken about for years.  But the number of undocumented criminals Trump spoke about was always an exaggeration, and Homan has instead engaged in media spectacles instead of working to implement immigration reform.  When ICE raids have swept up people, many of those apprehended are not hardened criminals but children and pregnant women. Among those who have suffered harassment under the new, harsher approach are military veterans and Native Americans.

Trump is a bigot who has used immigration policy to impose his world view on the country. Ocasio-Cortez has been at the forefront of resisting his actions, so now the Trump team is trying to use their newfound power to silence her.

 

Trump is the New Napoleon

Convicted felon Donald Trump appeared to quote Napoleon Bonaparte (by way of Rod Steiger) after his blitzkrieg of executive actions and threats to federal agencies under Elon Musk were challenged in courts across the country, raising alarms that his administration is preparing to shred court orders and ignite a constitutional crisis.  “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” the president wrote on social media.

The president — whose efforts to gut federal funding, fire thousands of aid workers and unilaterally redefine the 14th Amendment were blocked in federal courts across the country in recent days — invoked a quote often attributed to Napoleon, who justified his despotic regime as the will of the people of France. The quote from a president with his own imperial ambitions appeared to come from the 1970 film Waterloo, in which Steiger’s Napoleon states that he “did not ‘usurp’ the crown. "I found it in the gutter, and I picked it up with my sword, and it was the people … who put it on my head,” he says. “He who saves a nation violates no law.”

The New York Times’s Jamelle Bouie called Trump’s latest statement “the single most un-American and anti-constitutional statement ever uttered by an American president.”  “We're getting into real Führerprinzip territory here,” added conservative Trump critic Bill Kristol, referencing executive authority under Nazi Germany, granting the word of the führer above all.

Within his first month in office, Trump’s allies have baselessly argued Trump’s supreme authority as president, immune from checks and balances, as his executive orders and Musk’s access to the levers of government face an avalanche of lawsuits and restraining orders.

Musk and other members of the Trump administration have smeared the judges who have ruled against them as “corrupt” and “evil” and threatened to impeach and remove them from the bench.

The world’s wealthiest man and his allies have repeated false and inflated claims about how the three branches of government operate, and how a system of checks and balances is designed to prevent the presidency from accumulating supreme authority.

Constitutional scholars and legal analysts are raising alarms about an impending constitutional crisis — which the White House blames on the judges, not the president’s spurious legal actions and the administration’s baseless insistence that he should not be subject to checks and balances in the courts.  Musk’s ongoing campaign to delegitimize the courts followed Vice President JD Vance’s claim that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

White House press secretary and Sean Spicer wannabe Karoline Leavitt accused the “media” of “fear mongering” about an impending constitutional crisis, attempting to claim that court-ordered injunctions against the administration have “no basis in the law.”

 

The Muskers Are Up to No Good

Djo - Basic Being Basic

Happy Valentines Day!

 

Mystery Seed Packages in Texas Stir Alarm

Mystery seed packets are back, according to Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. Miller says that the Texas Department of Agriculture recently was alerted to a mystery package containing unidentified seeds and a liquid container sent unsolicited from China. The package was sent to Clute, Texas, south of Houston. 

The TDA forwarded the package and its contents to USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) division for thorough identification and testing.  "Folks, please take this matter seriously. Receiving any unsolicited liquid or chemical at your doorstep poses a significant risk to the health of you and your family. We also cannot allow unidentified seeds to enter Texas. If planted, invasive plant species will substantially harm the Texas agriculture industry. The TDA will work diligently to identify these unknown seeds and liquids to protect Texas residents," said Commissioner Miller.

Mystery seed packets from China showed up in 2020, with Miller warning about them being mailed to multiple states and falsely labeled as jewelry or toys. The packages popped up in more than 30 states, including Texas.  Agriculture experts voiced concerns about the seeds, in particular about them being for invasive plant species.

Commissioner Miller says consumers should stay alert for any incoming unsolicited packages. If you receive a foreign package containing seeds, officials say do not open it.   Instead, keep the contents sealed in their original packaging, and immediately contact authorities.

 

So Much For Separation of Church and State . . .

Convicted felon Donald Trump said at his inauguration that he had been "saved by God." Now he appears to be returning the favor with an increasingly conservative, religious focus in his second term.  Three times married Trump signed an executive order to open a "Faith Office" at the White House, led by the televangelist Paula White, Trump's so-called spiritual advisor.  A day earlier Trump had unveiled a task force under new Attorney General Pam Bondi to root out what he called the "persecution" of Christians in the United States.

Unlike his predecessor Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, Trump rarely appears in church. He was confirmed into the Presbyterian church but said he was "non-denominational".  Then there are the sexual scandals -- and a criminal conviction for a porn star hush money case -- and the selling of US$60 Trump-branded Bibles on the campaign trail.  Yet evangelical Christians backed him in the 2024 election. 

The Republican has also appointed several cabinet members with links to Christian nationalists, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.  A number of other Trump associates have ties to the New Apostolic Reformation church -- a Christian nationalist movement that calls for the levers of government and society to come under Christian control. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has been linked to the movement, as has Paula White, who will head up his new Faith Office.

Hegseth, meanwhile, belongs to a church affiliated to the right-wing Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), a Christian nationalist group.  The movement wants to reestablish Biblical law, with some of its adherents calling for the repeal of women's right to vote, US media reported.

 

Trump is No Longer Deporting Detainees-- He's Releasing Them Back to the U.S.!

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is releasing detainees back into the United States, sometimes dozens per day, according to statistics obtained by CBS News.  This comes in stark contrast to the White House’s claims that ICE is arresting hundreds of “illegal immigrant criminals” on a daily basis.

According to government documents, facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border have a 38,521-bed capacity. At the time of the report, the facilities housed 42,000 immigrants.  Last Monday alone, ICE released 160 detainees. Following in the footsteps of Democrats’ solution to cramped border facilities, officials are releasing undocumented immigrants with ankle monitors to free up space. 

In a rush to solve the capacity issue, the Trump administration is turning to a few other eyebrow-raising solutions.  Earlier this week, Convicted Felon Donald Trump sent 10 Tren de Aragua gang members to Guantanamo Bay, the infamous military prison in Cuba known for housing terrorists.  Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are also reportedly eyeing a potential deal with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to ship convicted immigrants and U.S. citizens to a prison facility in the Central American country.  Acknowledging that the deportation of U.S. citizens is highly illegal, Trump still spoke highly of the potential deal on Tuesday.  "We'll have to find that out legally. I'm just saying if we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat,” he said.

Meanwhile, many of the undocumented immigrants being targeted by ICE do not, in fact, have prior criminal records.  NBC News reported, of the 1,200 people arrested by ICE in a single day, at least 566 had not committed any crimes and were only arrested because they lacked authorization to remain in the United States.

When asked last week how many of the people arrested had a criminal record, White House Press Secretary Bullshit Blondie Karoline Leavitt (of course) lied. "All of them,” she said, “because they illegally broke our nation's laws, and, therefore, they are criminals, as far as this administration goes."

 

River of "Blood" in Buenos Aires

A river in a suburb of Buenos Aires in Argentina has turned red, sparking concern among residents. Footage and images of the Sarandi watercourse - which flows into the Rio de la Plata estuary - show the sudden change in color.  Many residents and officials suspect the color change was due to chemical waste from the many industrial facilities in the area, particularly leather tanneries.

It is not the first time it has changed color, according to local media reports, with residents raising fears of contamination.  "I have lived here all my life. Today, we have this red water. It has been grey, it has been green, it has been violet, bluish... very brown," one resident told La Nacion.  "On other days we have a thick yellow layer that left the top hard and had an acidic smell," another local told Pagina 12.

Officials went to the site to take away samples of the red water for testing.  The region's environment ministry told La Nacion samples of the water would be analyzed to find out what "is causing the discoloration".  Later, the Buenos Aires Ministry of the Environment identified an "organic dye" as the probable cause and officials also noted the presence of aniline, a chemical used in dyes and other products.

 

DOGE Opposition is Getting Organized!

Three lawsuits dating back to Trump’s Inauguration Day challenge DOGE’s very existence, arguing it violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The 1972 law requires various advisory groups that may influence the president to be public, unbiased and transparent.  DOGE is not a federal department, and, they argue, therefore subject to these rules.

“DOGE’s unchecked secrecy, access and private influence — bought by political loyalty — is anathema to efficient, effective government,” reads one of the suits, filed by a consortium of six groups, including Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Indeed, any federally endorsed, but fundamentally private, advisory effort to shape how our government serves the American people must comply with federal transparency laws, including FACA. Defendants have not done so.”

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.276598/gov.uscourts.dcd.276598.1.0.pdf

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.276600/gov.uscourts.dcd.276600.1.0.pdf

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.276601/gov.uscourts.dcd.276601.1.0.pdf

Four additional lawsuits have been filed this week, each tied to DOGE’s actions at specific federal agencies:

1. On Tuesday, three union-affiliated groups sued the Treasury Department in U.S. District Court for turning over personal and financial information to DOGE. The list of allegedly compromised data includes millions of Americans’ names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, birthplaces, home addresses and telephone numbers, email addresses and bank account information. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Thursday ordered the Treasury to limit DOGE’s access to the records to two employees who were given read-only access.

2. On Wednesday, five government unions and the Economic Policy Institute filed suit in U.S. District Court over DOGE’s actions at the Department of Labor, where the plaintiffs argue DOGE’s data grab violates both the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Administrative Procedure Act.

(Musk’s siphoning up of Labor Department data deserves particular scrutiny. Tesla, the car company Musk owns, has been regularly accused of violating various labor laws; from 2014-2018, Tesla racked up three times more Occupational Safety and Health violations than its other top 10 competitors combined.)

3. On Thursday, the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees filed suit in U.S. District Court over the dismantling of USAID. The lawsuit contends that Congress (not Trump or Musk) is the only entity with the political power to shut down USAID, since it was created via congressional authorization.

4. On Friday, the University of California Student Association sued the Department of Education for failing to protect sensitive data from DOGE tied to federal student loans. The information includes student names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, driver’s license numbers and financial information on the students' parents.

 

Sam Fender - Arm's Length

Donald Trump Jr. Caught Illegally Hunting Ducks in Italy

Donald Trump Jr. has been accused of illegally hunting rare ducks in Italy as Italian activists blast him for his actions.  Environmentalists and local MPs have demanded an inquiry after claiming footage of a camouflaged Don Jr showed him shooting at the rare birds in a protected area. 

In the video published by the American website Field Ethos, which brands itself as a 'premier lifestyle publication for the unapologetic man', a group of people can be seen taking part in a hunting trip in a lagoon close to Venice and amongst the men is Don Jr.  In the almost six-minute footage, shot just before Christmas, Don Jr is seen popping out of a foxhole – in his camouflage gear - shooting at the ducks with several falling from the sky.

He is joined by a group of half a dozen other men who are enjoying their time in the marshes of north-eastern Italy.  One participant in the hunt says: 'It was a great duck shoot with a little bit of good eating in Venice,' and ends with one shooter saying: 'Don got about 50.' 

At one point in the video Don Jr is surrounded by an array of dead birds including an unusual amber colored duck which he says: "Is a rather uncommon bird in the area. I'm not even sure what it is."   The unidentified duck in question appears to be a Ruddy Shelduck which is a rare species in Europe and is reportedly believed to have a declining population. 

According to activists, the species is protected under the EU's Birds Directive and under Italian law it is illegal to kill the bird.  The video has sparked controversy in Italy with Italian environmentalist and Green party politician Andrea Zanoni accusing Don Jr of breaking a number of laws in the country. 

Zanoni has claimed that Don Jr killed a protected species without a regular license and also hunted in a conservation area protected by the European Union. He said the video was filmed recently in the Pierimpie valley south of the city of Venice.  The area is a special conservation area protected by European regulations that is known as the Middle Lower Lagoon of Venice. 

He added: "Like any foreigner, in Italy he was not allowed to hunt by law. In fact, in our country only residents of one of the Italian regions can hunt.  You need a hunting license issued by the police headquarters, but above all you need a hunting license issued only and exclusively to residents of one of the Italian regions, a mandatory document where you can note the date, place of hunting and quantity of animals killed divided by individual species."

 

More Details on Elon Musk's Hackers

Overnight, Wired reported that, contrary to published reports that DOGE operatives at the Treasury Department are limited to “read only” access to department payment systems, this is not true. A 25-year-old DOGE operative named Marko Elez in fact has administrator privileges on these critical systems, which directly control and pay out roughly 95% of payments made by the U.S. government, including Social Security checks, tax refunds and virtually all contract payments. Talking Point Memo's Josh Marshall is now confirming that Elez not only has full access to these systems, he has already made extensive changes to the code base for these critical payment system.

25-year-old Marko Elez is the seventh member of Musk's secret cabal of hackers to have been outed by media.  Elez (a former X and SpaceX engineer and a graduate of Rutgers University ) how has full access and is reportedly writing code in the most sensitive systems within government — The Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.

The payment system at the bureau is, in essence, the federal government’s checkbook. It contains highly sensitive and confidential personal information belonging to every taxpayer in the U.S and its scale is vast. It disbursed 87.9 percent of all federal payments through the 2023 fiscal year, according to figures on its website. In the same period, it collected $5.47 trillion in federal revenue.

Elez has reportedly been given administrator-level privileges that theoretically allow someone to change user permissions, delete and modify critical files that contain highly sensitive and confidential information. “You could do anything with these privileges,” a concerned source told WIRED.

25-year-old Gavin Kliger, who worked at AI company Databricks, has now been outed as the individual who sent a staff-wide email to USAID workers ordering them to work from home as Musk moved to shut down the department, the New York Times reported.  He is listed as a “Special Adviser to the Director” in the Office of Personnel Management, according to his LinkedIn. In his substack, Kliger referred to Matt Gaetz as a victim “of the deep state” and described  Pete Hegseth as “the warrior Washington doesn’t want but desperately need[s].”

The youngest of Musk’s crew, 19YO Edward Coristine, is still in college and is the heir to his father’s popcorn brand Lesser Evil.  Coristine completed a summer internship at Musk’s brain-computer interface company Neuralink, according to his resume.  He is listed as an “expert” within internal Office of Personnel Management records and reportedly appeared on a General Services Administration staff call, who did not know who he was or why he was there. 

23-year-old Luke Farritor, 23-year-old Gautier Cole Killian, 22-year-old Ethan Shaotran and 21-year-oldAkash Bobba all have working General Service Administration email accounts, and access to the agency’s IT systems

Senior Democrats, academics, economists and political commentators have sounded the alarm over the unconventional hires.  “What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan said. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”

Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren also wrote a furious letter to Treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Monday where she accused him of handing over access to the system to an un-elected billionaire and an unknown number of his unqualified flunkies.  “It is extraordinarily dangerous to meddle with the critical systems that process trillions of dollars of transactions each year,” Warren warned.

Three federal employees’ unions announced Monday they were suing the Trump administration to block DOGE’s access to confidential Treasury data.

So Who Exactly are Musk's Secret Henchmen?

Elon Musk’s takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college. Most have connections to Musk, and at least two have connections to Musk’s longtime associate Peter Thiel, a co-founder and chair of the analytics firm and government contractor Palantir who has long expressed opposition to democracy. 

There are six young men—all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24, according to public databases, their online presences, and other records—who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles in Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, tasked by executive order with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” The engineers all hold nebulous job titles within DOGE, and at least one appears to be working as a volunteer. The engineers are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran. 

The six men are one part of the broader project of Musk allies assuming key government positions. Already, Musk’s lackeys—including more senior staff from xAI, Tesla, and the Boring Company—have taken control of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and General Services Administration (GSA), and have gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, potentially allowing him access to a vast range of sensitive information about tens of millions of citizens, businesses, and more. On Sunday, CNN reported that DOGE personnel attempted to improperly access classified information and security systems at the US Agency for International Development and that top USAID security officials who thwarted the attempt were subsequently put on leave. 

The Associated Press reported that DOGE personnel had indeed accessed classified material. “What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”  Want to hear more about these jerks?

Trumpzilla on the Attack

Musk Continues to Wreak Havoc the Same Way He Ruined Twitter

Elon Musk hasn't let his efforts to fan the flames of right-wing extremism in Germany hamper his efforts to screw up the U.S. government the same way he has massively screwed up Twitter.  The Trump administration has given Elon Musk's deputies access to the federal payments system that controls the flow of trillions of dollars in government funds every year. Members of Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (Doge)-- which is not a government department-- now have access to sensitive personal information of millions of Americans. 

The Treasury division accessed by Doge handles payments of nearly $6 trillion for programs like Social Security, pays government salaries, and distributes money allotted by Congress. The access to the payment system was granted by incoming Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent late Friday, the same day when a longtime Treasury official named David Lebryk was placed on administrative leave and suddenly retired, the New York Times reported. Lebryk had strongly resisted allowing "Musk's lieutenants into the department's payment system, which sends out money on behalf of the entire federal government".  Typically, access to such a critical payment system is highly restricted to only a very few people.

"To put it bluntly, these payment systems simply cannot fail, and any politically-motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy," Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, wrote in a letter to Bessent.  "I am concerned that mismanagement of these payment systems could threaten the full faith and credit of the United States," he wrote.

Trump's Weaponization of the Government Continues

FBI agents who investigated convicted felon Donald Trump were fired by the bureau and “escorted out” of the Washington field office.  A so-called “purge” of rank-and-file agents and the heads of 20 field offices was announced earlier in the day. Among those who were axed was David Sundberg, who former FBI Director Christopher Wray appointed to head the D.C. field office in 2022.

NBC News' Ken Dilanian reported that a number of the FBI’s “top executives” were told they would be out of a job by Monday. Friday, Dilanian reported a “purge” was underway that could see the heads of up to 20 of the FBI’s 55 field offices relieved. According to Dilanian, “The purge is bigger than first understood, we are told, and includes more than 20 heads of FBI field offices, including the ones in Miami and Washington, DC.”

Also on the chopping block were agents involved in investigating Trump’s classified documents case as well as his Jan. 6 election interference case. The Hill reported Friday evening that the agents in Washington were “escorted out” of the building. Another source said officials in charge of the Washington, D.C., Miami, Seattle, New Orleans and Las Vegas field offices were removed.

Acting Attorney General James McHenry told the agents their role in investigating Trump was the reason for their dismissals.  “Given your significant role in prosecuting the President, I do not believe that the leadership of the Department can trust you to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully,” McHenry wrote in an email obtained by CNN.

During an Oval Office press conference, Trump denied that he ordered the firings-- which of course no one believes.