Musk now controls all US payments 🚨 | USDA freezes payments to farmers

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“… during a live audio chat on his X platform on Sunday night …Musk framed his vision of DOGE's work in ideological terms, disparaging the "tyranny of the bureaucracy" as unaccountable to American voters. Later in the conversation, he called for the "wholesale removal of regulations."

Musk has a long history of sparring with and outright defying federal regulators who oversee his sprawling array of businesses.

… "In terms of rule of law, we are losing it rapidly," said Eric Rubin, a retired ambassador who spent nearly 40 years in the foreign service.

"Musk and DOGE are intentionally creating hundreds of potential court cases that could take months or years to resolve," he said. "But who knows what kind of damage they can inflict before that happens." …”
 
(NPR continued)

“… Something else that has drawn scrutiny: what security clearances Musk and other DOGE staff hold.

Multiple reports indicated DOGE representatives sought access to a "secure compartmented information facility," or SCIF, at USAID, which is a room containing sensitive documents that only someone with a high-level security clearance is permitted to enter.

"No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances," Katie Miller, a DOGE official, wrote on X on Sunday. Leavitt said on Monday she did not immediately have information about Musk's security clearance to share with reporters.

Rubin, the retired foreign service officer, said the possibility of a government employee accessing SCIF material without the proper clearance is concerning, adding that "there are zero exceptions" to the restricted access, given these rooms contain sensitive material. …”
 
From a political comms standpoint….and maybe a better discussion for a different thread….but shouldn’t it be fairly easy for liberals in politics and the media to turn Musk into a big-time villain? Richest person in the world? Who was not born in USA? Assuming such control over viral government stuff and maybe over folks’ personal information?

How hard can it be??

I don’t claim to be a brilliant political strategist — though I do think billboards ALL OVER THE PLACE about the horrible things Trump/GOP/Musk are doing to people is also obvious…

But, dang. How’s about teeing off on this jerk??
 
From a political comms standpoint….and maybe a better discussion for a different thread….but shouldn’t it be fairly easy for liberals in politics and the media to turn Musk into a big-time villain? Richest person in the world? Who was not born in USA? Assuming such control over viral government stuff and maybe over folks’ personal information?

How hard can it be??

I don’t claim to be a brilliant political strategist — though I do think billboards ALL OVER THE PLACE about the horrible things Trump/GOP/Musk are doing to people is also obvious…

But, dang. How’s about teeing off on this jerk??
do you realize how far behind the curve liberals are here?

For several years, liberals embraced Musk. Electric vehicles instead of fossil fuels; space exploration; free speech—these are all liberal ideals that Rs have historically been against, but which musk seemingly embraced.

It’s only been the last ~5 years that Musk has revealed himself for the abhorrent asshole he is. And it’s understandable that Dems would have difficulty pivoting from “let’s make a deal with Musk to put more EV chargers in the US so we can expand EV use” to “fuck, never mind—he’s a Nazi.”
 
I do understand. I do.

It’s incredibly depressing.

I was just thinking of how overwhelming it is. Do you defend the general concept of USAID? Or get stuck debating aid to Ukraine in 2014 vs. RFK, Jr’s allegations about USAID paying for a coup?

So much insanity cutting in so many directions all at once in confusing ways, even for those who want to try and keep things legitimately straight.

But maybe that’s why simplifying things with Musk as catchall villain — and he seems intent on being pretty catch all, and villainous at this point — could cut through the craziness.
 
There's no reason for the DOGE criminals to have admin rights on these systems unless they want to control who does/doesn't have access as well as steal, manipulate, delete, or fabricate data so it's pretty easy to deduce what's happening here.
 
But maybe that’s why simplifying things with Musk as catchall villain — and he seems intent on being pretty catch all, and villainous at this point — could cut through the craziness.
I totally agree that it would be useful to vilify Musk as part of the push back campaign. Americans are easily spooked. And it would help to separate Musk from Trump. That combo has got to be separated.
 
That list excludes the primary holders of Federal debt - Americans.

IMG_4872.jpeg

Yes, I should have said foreign-owned debt.

Still, it's remarkable that Japan is number one. I would have thought China would number one.
 
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Yes, I should have said foreign-owned debt.

Still, it's remarkable that Japan is number one. I would have thought China would number one.
I would have thought so too but I knew Japan was pretty high up there. They buy quite a bit to help their exports. Some of the same reasons that China buys but Japan had more money for a lot longer.
 
Kevin Drum's guess

Elon Musk is building a report writer

The single weirdest thing Elon Musk has done is to take control of the Treasury's payment system. What's the point? Every dollar the federal government spends goes through a bunch of steps to make sure it's legitimate, approved, and due for payment. *After* that's all done, Treasury cuts the checks. It's a purely mechanical process. "Control" of the system gets you nothing.

So what is Musk up to? The conspiracy theorists think Musk is planning to insert himself in this process and simply halt any check writing he disapproves of. But this isn't just illegal, it's wildly illegal. There's just no way Musk could be thinking of doing this.

So what is he doing? Here's a guess: Musk's minions are writing some kind of custom reporting system. If you want to track literally every cent the government spends, this is the place to do it. [...]

So then, what does Musk plan to do with his nifty new reporting app? Beats me. I imagine he's designing it to notify him of discrepancies of some kind. Or to track down every last DEI-related payment. Or create God's own pivot table of regulatory spending.

I mean, who knows? But Musk figures that knowledge is power, and he's not wrong about that. The Treasury payment system might be the ideal high ground for Musk to build a personal source of spending knowledge that's independent of having to ask OMB or agency heads or anyone else anytime he wants to know something. If I were him, this is absolutely the kind of thing I'd be highly motivated to do.

If this is the case, Musk is keeping it hush-hush because he doesn't want anyone to know he's building this independent power center. But there's nothing illegal about it as long as the president and Treasury secretary both approve.
 
Kevin Drum's guess

Elon Musk is building a report writer

The single weirdest thing Elon Musk has done is to take control of the Treasury's payment system. What's the point? Every dollar the federal government spends goes through a bunch of steps to make sure it's legitimate, approved, and due for payment. *After* that's all done, Treasury cuts the checks. It's a purely mechanical process. "Control" of the system gets you nothing.

So what is Musk up to? The conspiracy theorists think Musk is planning to insert himself in this process and simply halt any check writing he disapproves of. But this isn't just illegal, it's wildly illegal. There's just no way Musk could be thinking of doing this.

So what is he doing? Here's a guess: Musk's minions are writing some kind of custom reporting system. If you want to track literally every cent the government spends, this is the place to do it. [...]

So then, what does Musk plan to do with his nifty new reporting app? Beats me. I imagine he's designing it to notify him of discrepancies of some kind. Or to track down every last DEI-related payment. Or create God's own pivot table of regulatory spending.

I mean, who knows? But Musk figures that knowledge is power, and he's not wrong about that. The Treasury payment system might be the ideal high ground for Musk to build a personal source of spending knowledge that's independent of having to ask OMB or agency heads or anyone else anytime he wants to know something. If I were him, this is absolutely the kind of thing I'd be highly motivated to do.

If this is the case, Musk is keeping it hush-hush because he doesn't want anyone to know he's building this independent power center. But there's nothing illegal about it as long as the president and Treasury secretary both approve.
 
I totally agree that it would be useful to vilify Musk as part of the push back campaign. Americans are easily spooked. And it would help to separate Musk from Trump. That combo has got to be separated.
liberals aren't good at playing these games. However, American should not be the stupid... and nobody looks that bad next to Trump.
 
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