DOGE Catch-All | DOGE ledger “riddled with errors”

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Why in the world might Elon want control over the payment systems? Hmmm.

www.techdirt.com

Add Elon’s Buddy Larry Ellison To The Creditors List Of Those That Twitter Is Refusing To Pay

We already knew that Twitter had stopped paying its cloud computing bills from Google and Amazon as Elon continues his “pursuit of profitability” that he himself destroyed in Twitter (remember, Twi…
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We already knew that Twitter had stopped paying its cloud computing bills from Google and Amazon as Elon continues his “pursuit of profitability” that he himself destroyed in Twitter (remember, Twitter was profitable in 16 of the previous 20 quarters before Elon took over at a much higher run rate, before Elon drove away somewhere around half of the advertising revenue of the company while simultaneously saddling it with massive debt). I may not be a massively successful business man, but I’m having trouble with the business logic of driving away half of revenue for no clear reason, while increasing the company’s expenses through unnecessary debt financing, combined with trying to make up the difference by breaching contracts left and right.

* * *

Either way, apparently Google and Amazon aren’t the only cloud providers Elon stiffed: the latest news is that they’re not paying their Oracle cloud bill.

Representatives for Oracle have started directly calling current and former Twitter employees in an attempt to collect on past-due invoices well into the six-figure range, the people said. Oracle has for several years provided Twitter with data-storage services, one of the people added.
 
nycfan said:
“… David A. Lebryk, who served in nonpolitical roles at Treasury for several decades, is expected to leave the agency soon, the people said. President Donald Trump named Lebryk as acting secretary upon taking office last week. Lebryk had a dispute with Musk’s surrogates over access to the payment system the U.S. government uses to disburse trillions of dollars every year, the people said. The exact nature of the disagreement was not immediately clear, they said.

Officials affiliated with Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” have been asking since after the election for access to the system, the people said — requests that were reiterated more recently, including after Trump’s inauguration.

… Typically only a small number of career officials control Treasury’s payment systems. Run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the sensitive systems control the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses and more nationwide. Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people across the country rely on the systems, which are responsible for distributing Social Security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal personnel, payments to government contractors and grant recipients and tax refunds, among tens of thousands of other functions.

… Musk has sought to exert sweeping control over the inner workings of the U.S. government, installing longtime surrogates at several agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, which essentially handles federal human resources, and the General Services Administration, which manages real estate. (Musk was seen on Thursday visiting GSA, according to two other people familiar with his whereabouts, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal matters. That visit was first reported by the New York Times.) His Department of Government Efficiency, originally conceived as a nongovernmental panel, has since replaced the U.S. Digital Service.

… Still, the possibility that government officials might try to use the federal payments system — which essentially functions as the nation’s “checking book” — to enact a political agenda is unprecedented, said Mark Mazur, who served in senior treasury roles during the Obama and Biden administrations. …”

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It would be hard to overstate how much mischief could be done by someone of bad faith (or merely misguided or incompetent) getting access to this system.
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Control of the Bureau of Fiscal Service is a big, big deal. If Elon's minions control disbursements, we are going to start seeing things like the federal government withholding Milley's military pension and delays in AWS payments if there's an article they don't like in the Post.

It's what Trump and Musk do routinely in their private businesses, but it's illegal and unconstitutional for the executive branch. The injured parties can sue, but that takes time and the leverage imposed will be significant.
 
nycfan said:
“… David A. Lebryk, who served in nonpolitical roles at Treasury for several decades, is expected to leave the agency soon, the people said. President Donald Trump named Lebryk as acting secretary upon taking office last week. Lebryk had a dispute with Musk’s surrogates over access to the payment system the U.S. government uses to disburse trillions of dollars every year, the people said. The exact nature of the disagreement was not immediately clear, they said.

Officials affiliated with Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” have been asking since after the election for access to the system, the people said — requests that were reiterated more recently, including after Trump’s inauguration.

… Typically only a small number of career officials control Treasury’s payment systems. Run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the sensitive systems control the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses and more nationwide. Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people across the country rely on the systems, which are responsible for distributing Social Security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal personnel, payments to government contractors and grant recipients and tax refunds, among tens of thousands of other functions.

… Musk has sought to exert sweeping control over the inner workings of the U.S. government, installing longtime surrogates at several agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, which essentially handles federal human resources, and the General Services Administration, which manages real estate. (Musk was seen on Thursday visiting GSA, according to two other people familiar with his whereabouts, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal matters. That visit was first reported by the New York Times.) His Department of Government Efficiency, originally conceived as a nongovernmental panel, has since replaced the U.S. Digital Service.

… Still, the possibility that government officials might try to use the federal payments system — which essentially functions as the nation’s “checking book” — to enact a political agenda is unprecedented, said Mark Mazur, who served in senior treasury roles during the Obama and Biden administrations. …”

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It would be hard to overstate how much mischief could be done by someone of bad faith (or merely misguided or incompetent) getting access to this system.
Click to expand...
WTF? I do not understand why some of these people just fold and quit. I’d be blowing the whistle to Congress and if Trump wants to be rid of me, make him fire me after that.
 

Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say​



“… The two officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said some senior career employees at OPM have had their access revoked to some of the department's data systems.

The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said.

"We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems," one of the officials said. "That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications."

Officials affected by the move can still log on and access functions such as email but can no longer see the massive datasets that cover every facet of the federal workforce. …”
 
Continued

“… Don Moynihan, a professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, said the actions inside OPM raised concerns about congressional oversight at the agency and how Trump and Musk view the federal bureaucracy.

"This makes it much harder for anyone outside Musk's inner circle at OPM to know what's going on," Moynihan said.

MUSK INFLUENCE

A team including current and former employees of Musk assumed command of OPM on Jan. 20, the day Trump took office. They have moved sofa beds onto the fifth floor of the agency's headquarters, which contains the director's office and can only be accessed with a security badge or a security escort, one of the OPM employees said.

… "It feels like a hostile takeover," the employee said.

The new appointees in charge of OPM have moved the agency's chief management officer, Katie Malague, out of her office and to a new office on a different floor, the officials said.

…
The acting head of OPM, Charles Ezell, has been sending memos to the entire government workforce since Trump took office, including Tuesday's offering federal employees the chance to quit with eight months pay.

"No-one here knew that the memos were coming out. We are finding out about these memos the same time as the rest of the world," one of the officials said. …”
 
The buyout stuff can be pretty effective at convincing folks that have full retirement earned and just had counted on doing their jobs 2,3,4 more years. MCcroy did it and gutted a lot of expert and Manager level folks
I got my 8 month buyout
 
Huh? said:
Control of the Bureau of Fiscal Service is a big, big deal. If Elon's minions control disbursements, we are going to start seeing things like the federal government withholding Milley's military pension and delays in AWS payments if there's an article they don't like in the Post.

It's what Trump and Musk do routinely in their private businesses, but it's illegal and unconstitutional for the executive branch. The injured parties can sue, but that takes time and the leverage imposed will be significant.
Click to expand...
 
There's no way this ends with Elon Musk living in this country. If he tries to stay, he will be killed. Probably executed; vigilante if not. This isn't something I want to see, but that's how the authoritarianism always ends. Trump's family will also have to flee; if they don't I'd imagine Saddam and his kids will have company in hell.
 
superrific said:
There's no way this ends with Elon Musk living in this country. If he tries to stay, he will be killed. Probably executed; vigilante if not. This isn't something I want to see, but that's how the authoritarianism always ends. Trump's family will also have to flee; if they don't I'd imagine Saddam and his kids will have company in hell.
Click to expand...
Hell isn't real.
 
nycfan said:




Hostile takeover of the Federal Government by the Technoligarchs is underway.
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I worked for one of Marc Andreesen’s companies, LoudCloud. Founders were Andreesen, Ben Horowitz, Tim Howes (helped create LDAP), and In Sik Rhee.

I was in sales in the New York office. Our regional VP said she’d fire us if we sold a deal to a dot.com. We signed some good Fortune 500 companies. Not enough.

Andreesen was still mostly the fat, anti-social computer geek he’d been since before Netscape. Ben was sharp; but, goofy - ALL of the Silicon Valley conference rooms were named after rap stars. Tim Howes was sharp as hell and great with clients, customers, and prospects. In Sik - he wanted to be in front of customers; one couldn’t let him meet with customers or prospects.

Andreesen was getting fit. He had consultants who helped him dress and speak. Kudos to him - he knew his weaknesses and was trying to fix them.

He was a draw to some prospects (he was still the Internet wunderkind to some). He was not good in front of Fortune 500 executives.

I’m not surprised that he’s a TechBroligarch.

I’m not surprised he’s a whiny-as-hell billionaire.
 
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