Trump / Musk (other than DOGE) Omnibus Thread
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4thgenheel
Honored Member
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they're gonna get her killed.
never thought i'd say this, but i hope cheney has some good protection.
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I assume she does
Her Dad made like a Billion dollars on War mongering
Not on her-but there is Big money there that can protect her
JCTarheel82
Iconic Member
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Terribly depressing how badly America has lost the information war. And worst of all, our defeat was made possible only by a complicit Republican party acting as an insider threat on behalf of our foreign adversaries. Thanks, Pubs!
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CIA sends White House unclassified email with names of agency new hires
“The CIA has sent the White House an unclassified email listing all new hires that have been with the agency for two years or less in an effort to comply with an executive order to downsize the federal workforce, according to three sources familiar with the matter – a deeply unorthodox move that could potentially expose the identities of those officers to foreign government hackers.
The list – which includes everything from new analysts to trainees preparing to operate under cover – only provides first names and last initials, officials said. The sources described that decision as the “least bad option” that career officials determined to comply with President Donald Trump’s order while still attempting to safeguard the identities of officers.
But some of the employees have “uncommon” first names, one of the sources noted, meaning that if a foreign intelligence service were to gain access to it, some of the officials could be easily matched with publicly available data and possibly identified.
Although new hires are unlikely to have yet been deployed undercover overseas, as a practical matter, the CIA may now consider it too risky to send them to dangerous postings for fear they will be identified before they even start. In other words, it’s possible that the move may have ended some young officers’ careers before they even started, according to two sources familiar with the situation. …”
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White House Orders C.I.A. to Send an Unclassified Email With Names of Some Employees
C.I.A. Sent an Unclassified Email With Names of Some Employees to Trump Administration
The list of partial names was provided in an effort to comply with an executive order to trim the federal work force.
“The White House ordered the C.I.A. to send an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency over the last two years to comply with an executive order to shrink the federal work force, in a move that former officials say risked the list leaking to adversaries.
…The agency normally would prefer not to put these names in an unclassified system. Some former officials said they worried that the list could be passed on to a team of newly hired young software experts working with Elon Musk and his government efficiency team. If that happened, the names of the employees might be more easily targeted by China, Russia or other foreign intelligence services.
One former agency officer called the reporting of the names in an unclassified email a “counterintelligence disaster.”
…Current officials confirmed that the C.I.A. had sent the names of employees to the Office of Personnel Management, complying with an executive order signed by President Trump. But the officials downplayed security concerns. By sending just the first names and initials of the probationary employees, one U.S. official said, they hoped the information would be protected.
But former officials scoffed at the explanation, saying that the names and initials could be combined with other information — from driver’s license and car registration systems, social media accounts and publicly available data from universities that the agency uses as recruiting grounds — to piece together a more complete list. …”
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Continued
“… In 2024, the C.I.A. had its best recruiting drive since the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. C.I.A. officers, because of their intense training, have a long probationary period, up to four years. However, the White House required only the names of people who had served two years or fewer.
Under William J. Burns, the former C.I.A. director, the agency put a new emphasis on trying to recruit a diverse group of officers, arguing that overseas spying operations required people with an array of language skills and cultural knowledge. He focused particularly on expanding the agency’s coverage of China, creating a China center at the headquarters that included analysts, operatives and others. When Mr. Burns arrived at the agency in 2021, about 9 percent of the agency’s budget was devoted to China-related analysis and espionage; today it is closer to 20 percent.
So any large-scale culling of more recent hires could have a disparate impact on Mandarin speakers and technology experts, along with the agency’s minority work force.
But current officials said the C.I.A.’s new director, John Ratcliffe, was prioritizing China and did not want to see any mass exodus of people with expertise in that area.
The Trump administration has made quick work of diversity programs, ordering them shut down and scrubbed from websites.
… The White House-ordered review of probationary hires comes as Mr. Ratcliffe has begun an effort to push long-tenured agency officers to retire early. Mr. Ratcliffe, officials said, hopes to clear a path to leadership jobs for midcareer officers.
… National-security-related agencies had originally been exempted, at least partially, from the governmentwide “fork in the road” offer to leave their jobs that was extended last week. But Mr. Ratcliffe pushed to have a version of the offer extended to his work force.
Under the C.I.A.’s program, the agency will retain some say over the timing of when anyone leaves to ensure that critical areas have enough officers. …”
“… In 2024, the C.I.A. had its best recruiting drive since the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. C.I.A. officers, because of their intense training, have a long probationary period, up to four years. However, the White House required only the names of people who had served two years or fewer.
Under William J. Burns, the former C.I.A. director, the agency put a new emphasis on trying to recruit a diverse group of officers, arguing that overseas spying operations required people with an array of language skills and cultural knowledge. He focused particularly on expanding the agency’s coverage of China, creating a China center at the headquarters that included analysts, operatives and others. When Mr. Burns arrived at the agency in 2021, about 9 percent of the agency’s budget was devoted to China-related analysis and espionage; today it is closer to 20 percent.
So any large-scale culling of more recent hires could have a disparate impact on Mandarin speakers and technology experts, along with the agency’s minority work force.
But current officials said the C.I.A.’s new director, John Ratcliffe, was prioritizing China and did not want to see any mass exodus of people with expertise in that area.
The Trump administration has made quick work of diversity programs, ordering them shut down and scrubbed from websites.
… The White House-ordered review of probationary hires comes as Mr. Ratcliffe has begun an effort to push long-tenured agency officers to retire early. Mr. Ratcliffe, officials said, hopes to clear a path to leadership jobs for midcareer officers.
… National-security-related agencies had originally been exempted, at least partially, from the governmentwide “fork in the road” offer to leave their jobs that was extended last week. But Mr. Ratcliffe pushed to have a version of the offer extended to his work force.
Under the C.I.A.’s program, the agency will retain some say over the timing of when anyone leaves to ensure that critical areas have enough officers. …”
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Pete Hegseth’s Venmo: Defense Contractors, UnitedHealth Execs, Fox, and Friends
The VA may be the next government agency to go dark, if Pete Hegseth’s digital Rolodex is anything to go by.
prospect.org
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“… The individual transactions on Hegseth’s Venmo account are private, but what remains public is his list of friends; at most, that can indicate accounts he’s repeatedly transacted with. At the very least, this list represents phone contacts that were transported into his account as Venmo friends. As Joe Biden found out the hard way, a publicly available network of associates of the head of the Pentagon could be a national-security risk.
… Heavily featured in the list are a new generation of tech-centric defense contractors hailing from Silicon Valley, a break with the old-guard citadel in Northern Virginia. These include officials with GOP mega-donor Peter Thiel’s Palantir and Palmer Luckey’s Anduril.
… Defense is not the only industry group well represented in Hegseth’s Rolodex with business decisions sitting before the Pentagon. Spread out across Hegseth’s Venmo are senior members of UnitedHealth Group, which is based in Minnesota, where Hegseth unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2012. A UHG vice president, product director, and a public affairs consultant who has represented the health giant all show up as well.
The secretary of defense has been a long-standing proponent of privatizing the Department of Veterans Affairs, even advising the Trump White House during its first term to take steps to outsource more VA health operations, because government health care, in his words, “doesn’t work.” UnitedHealth is already the largest private administrator of Medicare Advantage, the private Medicare option, and would be uniquely well positioned to move into the veterans market should the opportunity present itself. In fact, it already has.
… Little attention was paid during Hegseth’s confirmation hearing to his former role as CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, a Koch-backed initiative that supports privatizing vast swaths of the VA. Numerous individuals with ties to the Koch network appear in Hegseth’s contacts, mainly for the Stand Together group, an umbrella organization that directs funding to various free-market causes. …”
… Heavily featured in the list are a new generation of tech-centric defense contractors hailing from Silicon Valley, a break with the old-guard citadel in Northern Virginia. These include officials with GOP mega-donor Peter Thiel’s Palantir and Palmer Luckey’s Anduril.
… Defense is not the only industry group well represented in Hegseth’s Rolodex with business decisions sitting before the Pentagon. Spread out across Hegseth’s Venmo are senior members of UnitedHealth Group, which is based in Minnesota, where Hegseth unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2012. A UHG vice president, product director, and a public affairs consultant who has represented the health giant all show up as well.
The secretary of defense has been a long-standing proponent of privatizing the Department of Veterans Affairs, even advising the Trump White House during its first term to take steps to outsource more VA health operations, because government health care, in his words, “doesn’t work.” UnitedHealth is already the largest private administrator of Medicare Advantage, the private Medicare option, and would be uniquely well positioned to move into the veterans market should the opportunity present itself. In fact, it already has.
… Little attention was paid during Hegseth’s confirmation hearing to his former role as CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, a Koch-backed initiative that supports privatizing vast swaths of the VA. Numerous individuals with ties to the Koch network appear in Hegseth’s contacts, mainly for the Stand Together group, an umbrella organization that directs funding to various free-market causes. …”
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Hegseth is not the first politician to get caught in this trap — it happened to Biden when he was first elected POTUS, though his public info was mostly a list of family, so it didn’t get a ton of media attention.
In any event, an excellent reminder to check your privacy settings in Venmo.
In any event, an excellent reminder to check your privacy settings in Venmo.
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“…
Attorneys for the Justice Department have agreed to temporarily restrict staffers associated with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing information in the Treasury Department’s payment system.
The agreement comes after a group of union members and retirees sued the Treasury Department alleging that providing DOGE access to the federal government’s massive payment and collections system — and the personal data housed in it — violated federal privacy laws.
"The Defendants will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service," the proposed order says.
The order would allow exceptions for two special government employees at the Treasury — Tom Krause and Marko Elez — saying they are permitted access "as needed" to perform their duties, "provided that such access to payment records will be 'read only.'"
The restricted access would remain in effect pending a subsequent hearing on the lawsuit. The judge still needs to sign off on the proposed order. …”
www.nbcnews.com
——
A) Horse is out of the barn on info already shared
B) what is oversight mechanism for two excepted employees who report to Musk?
Attorneys for the Justice Department have agreed to temporarily restrict staffers associated with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing information in the Treasury Department’s payment system.
The agreement comes after a group of union members and retirees sued the Treasury Department alleging that providing DOGE access to the federal government’s massive payment and collections system — and the personal data housed in it — violated federal privacy laws.
"The Defendants will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service," the proposed order says.
The order would allow exceptions for two special government employees at the Treasury — Tom Krause and Marko Elez — saying they are permitted access "as needed" to perform their duties, "provided that such access to payment records will be 'read only.'"
The restricted access would remain in effect pending a subsequent hearing on the lawsuit. The judge still needs to sign off on the proposed order. …”
Trump administration agrees to restrict DOGE access to Treasury Department payment systems
The agreement came in response to a lawsuit accusing Treasury of committing an "unlawful action" by giving private info to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
www.nbcnews.com
——
A) Horse is out of the barn on info already shared
B) what is oversight mechanism for two excepted employees who report to Musk?