Musk should be tried on a the charge of committing a crime against humanity as a consequence of abolishing USAID, but so should Russell Vought, who was as much a part of the intentional destruction of that life-saving body.
Musk’s specific beef with USAID was the USAID inspector general was investigating whether Musk had ordered his Starlink satellites in Ukraine to be turned off on two separate occasions before Russians made aerial attacks on Ukraine. Musk thinks anything he does should not be subject to scrutiny. This was the reason he used X to complain that USAID was “evil.” The consequences of shutting down USAID are dire. Many people who need the food aid USAID provided will starve without it. It also causes hardship to American farmers because USAID would purchase food crops for fair prices from American farmers and then distribute it to places where people were in need of food.
The current body count in Africa from these thugs is set at 600,000, of which 400,000 are children. The Bill Gates quote refers to the richest man killing off the poorest of children!
The world’s richest man taking food and medicine from the hands and mouths of the world’s poorest, forcing hundreds of thousands to die and millions more to suffer.
In your worst nightmare, you couldn’t make that up.
It is impossible to be the world's richest man in terms of money without stealing life from poor children. The real riches of life aren't financial and Musk is a sick hoarder.
That is sad, angering, and unnecessary. I believe it, and one man’s personal pique should never have been used to kill off human beings. Humans are far more valuable than money.
This should be the biggest story on earth. The richest man on the planet created famines all over the world unnecessarily, then bragged about it as cover so he could fire all the people at the organization investigating his crimes. Then he stole all of our data to boot. He starved those kids on behalf of Americans who were too stupid to understand what they were actually voting for.. If you voted for Trump in 2024 you have literal blood on your hands.
USAID must have been involved in helping South Africa make the transition away from the Apartheid system, back when Musk's family fled the country. Are you Elon's beef with USAID isn't about that?
From what I have read, the beef wasn’t about South Africa. It was about USAID having its inspector general investigate if Musk had turned off his Starlink satellites in Ukraine before two separate Russian attacks. Musk has some connections with Russia and China which are opaque. I think these connections along with Musk’s documented drug abuse played into the U.S. government’s refusal to give Musk a security clearance with SpaceX.
In December of last year, during President Biden’s last month in office, Musk was raising hell on X urging people to call their Congressional representatives to reject the spending bill. It ultimately passed after Musk got permission to build the two Shanghai Tesla factories he wanted. He had raised hell so he could get Congress to approve his factories.
Does he express a similar degree of hatred for the FAA and SEC when they regulate him and get in his way? I'm not disputing what you wrote, just noting that his hatred for USAID seems to be on another level for some reason. "Evil" is a pretty strong word.
No, he doesn’t express the same animosity toward the FAA or SEC. What I think is that Musk, like Trump, is both a sociopath and malignant narcissist. He once posted his thought on X that empathy is destroying Western civilization. He doesn’t believe his business operations should be disrupted by an agency primarily tasked with ensuring the world’s poorest, and he thinks empathy toward them is a waste of time and imterferes with his making money . He thinks the most important thing is making money without interruption.
Musk’s criticisms of certain provisions in Trump’s Big Ugly Bill caused him to have a falling out with Trump. It was a clash between two people with elephantiasis of the ego who can’t stand to hear themselves criticized.
Musk could not be more wrong in his criticism of empathy. He is utterly unaware that human societies cannot survive without empathy. Societies without empathy destroy themselves, and he and Trump can’t understand empathy as they are both sociopaths. They are both hellbent on destroying constitutional government (which we’ve not always achieved) for government which benefits only plutocrats. This is because these plutocrats have no limits or brakes on their greed.
I was referring to Musk having labelled USAID as evil. Strong word to describe a humanitarian agency.
And I might have added that this is the guy who did the Nazi salute at the inauguration, and convinced the president to only allow white South African refugees. It's all pointing the same direction.
As I recall it, the original spending bill had some provisions in it restricting US companies' ability to do business in China if high tech transfers might be involved. The bill as passed, after the Republicans refused to do it for a while, did not contain that clause. Coincidence? ...
Musk’s family actually moved to South Africa during Apartheid because they are racists. His mother is a Nazi and his father had been credibly accused of pedophilia for attacking his own daughters. The entire family is completely corrupt.
Actually, Maye Musk's father was a nazi sympathizer from what I've read. Remember, women are insignificant other than breeders or sex objects in that world, so don't be so harsh on Maye. Also, I think he has a Russian cousin from his mom's side by the surname of Haldeman? Perhaps that's where the Russian sympathy comes from?
I was on a tour in Southern Africa in May, and I pulled our S. African (white) guide aside and asked him his opinion of the Musks.... he quickly said, HE's an asshole, SHE's an asshole, and the kids are all Assholes...next question?
Oh, I think it's an extra reward to Musk that he has disrupted/ended aid to most of the brown and black world.
Everything about Starlink is dangerously opaque. He wanted S. Africa to contract with Starlink, but with only white people managing the starlink system in S. Africa. What fucking nerve he has. And his horrible, horrible father still lives there and give interviews on the downfall of America once whites become a minority in 10-15 years. Old man Musk just has to be the most racist man on the globe.
I recall reading in the press at the time that the MuskRat acknowledged turning the servers off (this was when Ukraine was using them to guide weaponry against the Russian Black Sea fleet). IIRC, Elon said he "didn't want Starlink to be used for warfare."
I remember that too, and back then I didn't really understand who Musk was. Just the guy who built electric cars. I was mad that one man could have so much influence over world events, and basically help Putin's invasion of Ukraine even though he didn't seem to have a dog in the fight on either side.
Well, at least they're not admitting that the sanctions have been hurting them. But the Russkies have been kicked out of some choice real estate in Europe.
Today's it is USAID which most Americans don't give a care about because it is lives of "those people". But tomorrow I predict it will be American lives.
We should not forget the last time a president, George W Bush, upon assuming office immediately gutted government programs of his predecessor. I know this because I was there.
One of the last contracts actions I handled while still in Government service as a lawyer and CPA was a termination claim in 2001 cancelling Clinton era contracts to repair and maintain levees protecting the city of New Orleans from hurricanes.
Bush may have terminated another 99 contracts with total value of about $1,000,000,000.00 (1 billion). To my knowledge there was no harm done by cancelling those other 99 contracts. But canceling the one contract that I personally know about cost about 2,000 American lives and many times the any savings from Bush terminating other contracts.
If we have learned anything it is that this is going to happen again and hopefully, unlike with Bush and Katrina, Trump, Musk and DOGE will be held accountable.
That is Government does many things that we are unaware of until Government stops doing them like protecting cities from natural disasters. Something DOGE did, and we will not know what it is until it happens, will be caused because of like with Bush and Katrina, DOGE, Trump and Musk willy-nilly gutting Government programs some years in the future will cause a disaster costing trillions and lives that far exceeding any benefits.
Pointing out those complicit in the actions of DOGE should be part of the campaign strategy in the coming elections. Do a split screen of the starving children with this bit from MTG’s resignation speech “led the effort to defund hard left politically biased NPR, PBS, and the corrupt USAID as the Chair of the DOGE Subcommittee.” Don’t let musk’s enablers off the hook.
The assault on government represented by DOGE is part of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 assault on government that dates back to Reagan.
What motivates the plutocrats above all is taxes. Who collects the taxes? Government. Therefore, Government bad.
Interestingly, it was Adam Smith himself who extolled the virtues of wise and strong government, and high taxes on the wealthy, as a means of a) ensuring that those made wealthy by his system would not be able to distort the market, and b) as a kind of redistribution to the rest of society to build things the capitalists were not interested in (like roads, bridges and schools - something we would call infrastructure).
Seen in this light, the plutocrats are the real socialists, for what is not paying your taxes but government welfare?
After the 2008 meltdown, there should have been many of those financial fraudsters in jail, but that did not happen! They were robbers and thieves of the highest order, but did not pay a price for their thievery!
Sad to say, but Obama did more to save Wall Street than he did Main Street, and almost 50% of Black wealth in the U.S. was lost during the Great Recession (housing foreclosures).
I think these folks have all bought into a kind of libertarian ethos, where paying taxes is seen as the gov't stealing "your money" that "you" worked to earn. No consideration is given to the fact that we live in a "society" and that for society to function, gov't must be funded. I think the only gov't function these billionaires see as valid are laws and the court system protecting their ill-gotten wealth from the plebes or from your run of the mill rioter who might break into their mansions to peel some of the gold off the walls.
Worse, some needs must be met, so when millionaires and billionaires don’t pay their fair share of taxes, federal and state governments are forced to pay for the services less wealthy people need. Everyone else subsidizes their greed, in other words. That’s why I say we need to raise taxes on the wealthy, raise the minimum wage, and most important of all, close tax loopholes only the wealthy use to avoid paying their fair share. In other words, keep Republicans out of power forever so they cannot reinstitute these destructive policies.
Yes, please say it louder. Not paying your taxes and not going to jail is government welfare. Not feeling obligations, just rights, is the worst form of communism.
Both of you are correct. Markets do not exist in a state ot nature, and Adam Smith always acknowledged the need for government as a participant in the economy. The laissez faire believers, the glibertarians, and so called free marketers have always refused to recognize that government has a legitimate role to play in the economy.
As for me, I am sick of supporting wealthy parasites whose gains come at the public’s expense and who use our publicly funded infrastructure and services to make big bucks, but who often pay their employees so poorly the employees are forced to seek public assistance. We need to tax both their incomes and wealth so they contribute to the costs of running our country. Rugged individualism is a myth foisted on us by people like Reagan, and trickle down economics essentially allows the plutocrats to use us as a public urinal.
All is good until it isn’t. I’d venture a bet that every single serious economic crash/ downfall has been responded to with parts of Plan A. At moments of clarity &outrage, usually coupled with bleatings from the ultra rich about their essentialist. As if…Let’s see if this happens again - AI over-betting, anyone? Then pounce withore of A.
Well, "Libtard", a repeat of 1789 or 1917 wouldn't be too pretty, would it? I just discovered that Don Jr's private equity fund snatching up nationalized shares of essential industries is also named 1789, same as his fancy Georgetown restaurant for networking connections.
Agree with your first statement, the Gilded Age was only possible because there was no income tax, although Reagan's legacy was the creation of an even bigger Gilded Age.
Disagree with your last statement, the top 1% only make $750,000 per year ($1.2 million in NYC), enough to qualify for the maximum Federal taxes (total taxes in NYC are 55%). I think you're referring to the top 0.01%, who might award themselves a salary of $1,000,000/ year, pay 55% on that, but this is only 1% of their net wealth. so their effective tax rate is 1% of their wealth.
Piketty is right, we need not only income tax, but a wealth tax of, say, 5% of assets per year, plus a 100% estate tax for inheritances above $5 million.
Exactly, and it's not just about current tax rates, but current gaping loopholes and all the lawyers and CPAs working for the 1%. When Jeff Bezos has a year or two when neither he, nor Amazon, pay taxes, you know how big our troubles are.
Trump has put sanctions on the ICC so that it can hardly prosecute anybody. That happened after S. Africa courts declared two or three people in Israel's govt, (yes, Bibi) to have committed genocide, so now we're not donating to the ICC at all, either.
I’d be happy to see his citizenship revoked and to see him exiled as a persona non grata, meaning he couldn’t come back. I don’t feel a deep need to see him dead or even in jail. I just want him gone.
Musk's DOGE fired something like 300,000 federal officials. For practically no real budgetary savings. Because he didn't know wtf the federal government actually does. GOP idiocy at its finest.
Pure disrespect for working people if you ask me. Standing on the outside looking in, many arrogant people think there’s nothing going on—people appear to do nothing. You can say this about ANY office building or business!
It's not that the oligarchs think people are doing nothing so much as they don't recognize the value of what people are doing - until it's too late. Of course, this implies that they don't recognize the value of people in general, at least those of us who aren't in the billionaires club.
And you never see them, because they live behind the gated communities, in special suburbs or parts of cities, not out here with us hoi polloi (sp? haven't used that for a while.)
This is a primary feature of narcissism. They don't do the work themselves--they are too good for it, that's for "little people." And those little people are very "stupid" (why else would they do all the work?). Because they are "stupid," the narc can do all their jobs, far better, for less, and etc etc etc. Yet when you actually put the narc in the situation where they have to provide all those functions, they can't because "it was harder than I thought it would be!"
YOUR work is NEVER valuable. Only THEY have value. And when they can't do what you could do because they lack the skills, abilities, and experience? Well those things must not have been very important after all.
Recall that when he was running for president, Rick Perry vowed he would eliminate the Department of Energy because he thought that department (over)regulated oil drilling. He had no clue as to what DOE actually did. So when Trump won his first term, he appointed Perry to run DOE because of Perry's vow to destroy the department. To his credit, Perry sailed into the position and learned that DOE wasn't at all what he thought it was, and he actually did a credible job running the place.
Voting for Republicans to run our country is voting for the petroleum industry and against addressing climate change. Staying home or voting for a candidate like Jill Stein is because you didn’t get your idea of the perfect candidate has the same effect. Just ask Al Gore.
Ironically, nobody needs to vote Green anymore because the Democrats adopted most Green policy positions via Biden's 2020 campaign. Fringe is now Center.
And tRump's idiot Secretary of Education is busy pulling a DOGE at the DOE. The lesson to be learned here is that The Inspectors General need to be brought out from under the Executive branch and with DOJ, need to be made 4th and 5th independent branches of the Government. We need to come up with new ways to appoint people to these departments. And somewhere in there we need to give the two of them acting in concert, to bring down a rogue Congress or Presidency. It will take Constitutional Amendments or a rewritten Constitution, but it has to be done, if we survive this.
Despite the fact the Musk hops around manically on stage, I see him as incredibly lazy. He did not make any effort to learn what the various government agencies do and how they maintain the government structure that has allowed him to profit so handsomely.
Excellent point. A 2025 $500 *billion* revenue shortfall is an enormous downside of GOP rule. And one that is intentional, as undermining the IRS ability to collect from the ultrawealthy has been a long-standing plank of GOP orthodoxy since even before Trump1; designed to keep ultra-wealthy tax cheats happy, and their political donations flowing.
It's not just you. And nowadays, "autocorrect" isn't just for grammar; it's a mashup with AI. A fellow member of my HOA uses AI for letters, and it changes words. It replaced "required" with "recommended." Not the same. This has led to spending a lot of time proofreading his letters.
Last week I did a search query on the origin of the word "lede," as in to "bury the lede." AI (always the first response now) said the spelling was to avoid confusion with the word for the metal lead. Think about this informational misfire and remember this is why AI is not (yet) capable of reliable info.
Edit: See comment from M Q below for why the AI answer was correct. My bad.
Apropos of nothing, I’ve read that the name Led Zeppelin had similar origins. Keith Moon, the drummer for The Who, predicted that Robert Plant and co. would "go down like a lead balloon". Jimmy Page supposedly changed the name to Led Zepplin after promoters kept calling them Lede.
I live for information like this! I'll look it up. Thank you, ISOequanimity.
BTW if you are the LEAST bit interested in music, I highly recommend the documentary "Count Me In." It's about the drummers (including Moon) who made music history. I watch it every few months on Netflix and pick up something new from it each time.
When I do such a search, I skip over the replies until I find the link to Wikipedia. Wiki has its own problems, since it can be edited by anyone, but it's generally accurate.
Oh yeah, I have found ChatGPT to be pretty clueless. It's not just the CEO's though. Remember Blake Lemoine, the Google senior engineer, who declared that their AI LaMDA was sentient? If anyone should have known better it should be him. I don't believe he was literally foaming at the mouth when he said that, but he might as well have been. "It's alive!!!"
If you had read (searched) further, you would have seen that, in fact, the AI response was correct. It comes from (the tail end of) a time when typesetting was done in lead (the metal) and instructions to typesetters could have been ambiguous.
M Q, thanks for not calling me an idiot. You're right however the AI answer never made any connection to printing or typesetting conventions. It seemed hung up on the metal lead. I was on an Android device and expanded the answer to read further but didn't see anything other than the metal itself. Now I'm curious and will ask my phone the question again to see if I just missed it. Thanks for the correction.
One CAN disable autocorrect, everyone should look into how to do it!
I did just that about a week ago, and while you WILL find that typing words becomes a bit more clunky (because you’re suddenly lacking the autocorrecting that had become “sub-conscious,), and you DEFINITELY have to carefully PROOFREAD, the benefits are myriad‼️👍
I don't remember how I did it, since it was years ago, but I've set things up so that my computer flags items that it thinks are mistakes, but it doesn't correct them. Basically, it's doing part of my proofreading job.
Also because I need to rant about this, I was at an Amtrak station recently where they're now using this text-to-speech thing to read the PA announcements. When it's telling you about TSA policies it's pronouncing it as "tee-sa". It's three capital letters! I think we have a long way to go until we get to AGI guys.
I still can't believe how bad the Google keyboard auto complete is in 2025. It always wants to use people's names and place names in place of common words (ie. may or May) so I end up with random capitalized words all over the place. I've spent years removing those suggestions as they come up.
That's why I shut off autocorrect. I still allow it to highlight "misspelled" words, and it's usually wrong, so I just add the word to the dictionary. I've added thousands of words to Firefox's dictionary, as well as MS Word's. No doubt I'll continue adding thousands more.
It’s not just you for sure. I’ve exchanged funny messages with others about AutoCorrect goof up. Here’s my best example. As a lawyer I do use the word lawyer in my communications occasionally! So one day I was dictating and I said “lawyer”, and AutoCorrect promptly changed it to “liar” and then changed it before my very eyes without me doing anything to “warrior”. I laughed and changed it back of course but I felt like I should say any lawyer could be any of those things at any point!
Of course it can. That's one of the first things I do when I get a new phone. I don't remember how - I go into Settings and tap on a bunch bunch of stuff till I get there.
Until the regime change, we’ve taken small steps of our own: 1) We cancelled Prime video the day after WaPo refused to endorse VP Harris. 2) Complete boycott of Amazon. We’ve found that we don’t need to be able to buy anything we want and have it delivered in two days. In fact, we’re happier without more stuff. 2) Whenever possible (and it almost always is), we buy “nearly new” on FBMP instead of retail. 3) No social media other than substack and FBMP. 4) Limiting travel. It’s destroying the climate. 5) I get my news from Substack, DW, and The Guardian. No more legacy media. 6) Donate more. 1 M of our neighbors lack running water. John Wesley got it right, imho: "Earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.”
Same will add to the list. Cancelled Disney+, HBO and HBO Max and basically anything that would go into the hands of these billionaires pockets. Find it refreshing to purchase in local stores may pay a touch more but the service is phenomenal and keeps them open. Buy even vegetables from local farmers and grow some as well. Have garnered a barter system with many neighbors that may have started to raise chickens and start up bee hives for honey. More of a community venture. Have upped contributions to NPR and any local news organizations and ACLU that was spent in years past on WaPo and all that in prior years that really don’t need. More to the fair minded reporting of the current events versus the slant of bias. Have friends who’ve sold their Tesla’s and gone in other directions. Now and in the future no Walmart, Target or big-box stores and biased media. They may have our data and who knows what and how it will be used, time will tell.. DOGE left a destruction and don’t know if we’ll ever get it all back again in the future. But we learn quickly as to what we hold dear.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." ~ Margaret Mead
Another thing to do is all that money no longer going to those billionaires am purchasing more food to donate to local food banks and shelters to use as well as some of that money being saved. This is just the start I’m afraid and with all the funds being taken away from SNAP and Medicaid and schools and all the services that so many need for whatever their circumstances the more people helped to bring up versus punching down adds to more fighting against the billionaires and tyranny.
Never doubt committed individuals…no matter their age, we may have grey hair and have lived awhile but still have spunk in the tank ..
It actually helps more people if you donate $ to food banks. They can get what they need and frequently can stretch those dollars much farther than food donors can.
That’s a good strategy, but I use DuckDuckGo which is private so you won’t get advertising messages as a result of your search. And you get the same results.
You’re so right. We have a list of criteria before we buy. What a shame. But it doesn’t have to be like this. Hopefully, after the regime change, sanity will return and “community values” like truthfulness, transparency, accountability, and honor will be valued more than wealth. Doing the right thing even when no one is looking. And knowing what the right thing is in the first place. I can’t wait.
Excellent list. You can completely Deactivate your entire Amazon account and deprive them of your data. no great loss. I’ve done it and found alternatives!
Trump fired all of the Inspectors General, thus eliminating any oversight of the plainly illegal things he wanted to do. Immediately we saw a tsunami of crime ranging from the comparatively petty (Trump crypto with the imprimatur of the Office of the President) to the staggering (Trump blatantly violating black-letter law and the plain language of the Constitution).
Had any other president unilaterally decided to eliminate entire agencies that had been established by act of Congress, he'd have been impeached. Had any other president unilaterally decided to to simply ignore congressional appropriations and refuse to fund agencies, he'd have lost in court almost instantly. Had any other president unilaterally created an entire government department that was beyond the control, oversight, and restraints of ANY government entity, he'd have been impeached.
But the Age of Trump is the Age of Criminals. And Trump is right when he says crime is out of control because he's committing those crimes and none of the people or institutions responsible will stand up to him.
"Thousands of dedicated federal employees were pushed out, taking their expertise and institutional knowledge with them, while those who remain are demoralized. Future recruitment of high-quality government workers will be much more difficult given the way their predecessors were treated."
Case in point - how the IRS is suffering a brain drain which impedes the enforcement of tax laws regarding the well to do. Oh wait - making sure the rich do not pay taxes is the MAGA agenda.
And a brain drain of scientists, researchers, and field personnel from USFWS, USDA, NPS, NIH, CDC, and FDA. The federal government already had a difficult time, given decades of ongoing underfunding staffing these agencies and departments with knowledgeable and highly credentialed people. Now it will be even more difficult to replace and restaff in the future.
It has also affected areas of the IRS which have nothing to do with collecting income and estate taxes. The IRS collects excise taxes for commercial vehicles, and commercial vehicle owners need to have file-stamped copies of VIN numbers to show to state vehicle licensing agencies to show they have paid any excise taxes due, or their vehicles are exempt from excise taxes. They must show this information in order to obtain registration, license plates and tags for their vehicles.
If it’s any consolation, many former IRS workers are moving to state and local government jobs and federal contractors. We also preserved what we could before we left, including all the code for Direct File.
The actual reason for Doge was to assemble all data, about all people, American and others, into a massive database provided by Palantir, Musk/Trump, succeeded. At the start I wondered why, they fought so hard to get access to data, no need, then it hit me, this was not about waste, it was a massive, Chinese/Russian, style citizen database, now almost complete.
I remember when the USA, was the home of the brave, when this would have been cause for a revolution.
Not only that, but I’m certain they handed our private data over to Putin’s government. What business does a foreign dictator have with Americans’ personal data?
Do you have a source for this? It has been said that DOGE’s irresponsible actions (consolidating sensitive data and disregarding and dismantling security protocols has made the data much more vulnerable to penetration by foreign state actors. I have not read that the data were actually shared with foreign governments.
If I remember right there were two separate incidents: (1) an enormous amount of data left the servers and the whistleblower wasn't sure where it went and (2) there was a log-in attempt from Russia using the correct password/ID; I think it was a DOGE staffer who was in that country for reasons nobody ever bothered to explain.
So no, there's no official report (that I know of) that Russia has all our data, but it's quite plausible that they do.
This is assuming Putin didn't just ask for it and get it.
I had read in an independent news article there was evidence there were data transmissions to Russia. This is all I recall. If I am incorrect about this, I am willing to admit I’m
Actually, I think I had read that as well, back when DOGE was trashing every agency in government. DOGE was always "dodgy", as Brits would say, and I have no trouble believing they were up to no good. But suspicion is not proof, of course. Still, I'd love to know who it was that they sent data to.
Completely agree on accountability for the regime in the future. There will need to be something akin to the Nuremberg trials to sort some of this out and hold people like Bondi, Patel, Noem, etc. accountable. Dems need to start planning for this.
There will be a lot to repair in government, but with the right incentives, I believe that there will be a lot of people eager to enter government to repair the damage done by this regime - almost a WWII type call to action, not just by politicians but by Federal employees eager to make a difference. Dems need to start planning for this.
" DOGE also seriously compromised the functioning of the US government. Thousands of dedicated federal employees were pushed out, taking their expertise and institutional knowledge with them, while those who remain are demoralized. "
To conservatives, this is a feature, not a bug. If they can cripple government functions, it supports Reagan's dictum that government is always the problem and never the solution. This makes it easier for those services to be privatized, and profit then extracted from the proles by themselves or their cronies. The tech bros and their conservative pals are anarcho-capitalists. They believe that the sole function of the government is to maintain a military to keep the world safe for corporations to make profits, along with a police force to keep the workers in line.
The main task of the new administration must be the retrieval of the data malevolently mined, although I suspect it is secured ”off-world” or sold on for nefarious purposes and therefore inaccessible. It is not a question of ‘changing one’s password’, the usual advice when hacked. I cannot imagine where one would start.
Professor Krugman: just SEEING "DOGE" written out like this makes my blood boil. i am also astounded that elon musk and his boy hacker gang, who all were supposed to be computer whiz kids, was unable to understand government databases filled with sensitive information that should be AND REMAIN private. i've read before that former DOGE busters are afraid they'll be criminally prosecuted (if the dems/democratic socialists ever win power) and all i can say is that every legal penalty they face should be DOUBLED just to send a message to all the other power-hungry sociopaths in this country who are already plotting to emulate their destruction. further, because musk is ultimately responsible for the actions of his boy hacker gang, he should also be prosecuted for every evil misdeed they committed. i am anti-death penalty, but musk and his fellow billionaire overlord sociopaths, is a situation where i would make an exception.
Somewhat off topic, but the idea that a single system creates "efficiency" is a tech-bro delusion. The last years of my employment were rendered painful by the replacement of multiple data systems with a single one, Salesforce. Tasks and reports I used to be able to do with ease were either extremely difficult to produce or had to be done by hand. Everything took longer. Privacy is extremely important, but user functionality is important as well.
One thing for certain, President Piggy will need to use two auto pens to sign all the pardons he will need to give to keep all his accomplices quiet and out of jail!! They must have adapted the auto pens to accommodate Piggy sized sharpies…
Yeah, the Dems are busy kissing up to Musk, they won't be helping prosecute him. They love his money too much, or fear it too much. More likely they fear Leonard Leo's friends on the Supreme Court, though, who will undo anything they try to do.
Too much damage to fix plus a Dem agenda to pursue. Assuming the Dems can win the presidency again, the new president should say "I expect Congress to be in session five days a week for the first year and I will "primary" any Senator and rep who doesn't put the pedal to the metal."
Absolutely not! Democrats should not govern by the same threats that so destroyed the country under Chump. Obviously, the voters could replace an ineffective member on Congress, but skip the petty threats to primary anyone who does not meet autocratic standards.
The retribution against our Nation is so appalling, yet far too many MAGA still believe all is well. As the holiday season is here, many will celebrate the birth of Christ while the Trump fascist regime seeks more to destroy.
Musk should be tried on a the charge of committing a crime against humanity as a consequence of abolishing USAID, but so should Russell Vought, who was as much a part of the intentional destruction of that life-saving body.
Musk’s specific beef with USAID was the USAID inspector general was investigating whether Musk had ordered his Starlink satellites in Ukraine to be turned off on two separate occasions before Russians made aerial attacks on Ukraine. Musk thinks anything he does should not be subject to scrutiny. This was the reason he used X to complain that USAID was “evil.” The consequences of shutting down USAID are dire. Many people who need the food aid USAID provided will starve without it. It also causes hardship to American farmers because USAID would purchase food crops for fair prices from American farmers and then distribute it to places where people were in need of food.
The current body count in Africa from these thugs is set at 600,000, of which 400,000 are children. The Bill Gates quote refers to the richest man killing off the poorest of children!
The world’s richest man taking food and medicine from the hands and mouths of the world’s poorest, forcing hundreds of thousands to die and millions more to suffer.
In your worst nightmare, you couldn’t make that up.
But I guess he’s not making enough money.
It’s a nightmare come true. I think they mean to do the same thing to Americans.
Agreed. Greed and stupidity are the rule. Skum may be a visionary, but his vision stops with more money.
For Musk, add in racism to the max.
He is already making enough money to get away with destroying whoever and whatever he wants. He doesn’t even have to spend his own money to do it.
It is impossible to be the world's richest man in terms of money without stealing life from poor children. The real riches of life aren't financial and Musk is a sick hoarder.
That is sad, angering, and unnecessary. I believe it, and one man’s personal pique should never have been used to kill off human beings. Humans are far more valuable than money.
The downsizing was part of Project 2025, which goes well beyond Musk. Not denying he had a special animus for USAID though.
"Humans are far more valuable than money." Musk obviously disagrees with you - unless the "human " in question is himself, anyways....
Correct, and Donald Trump also feels that way.
This should be the biggest story on earth. The richest man on the planet created famines all over the world unnecessarily, then bragged about it as cover so he could fire all the people at the organization investigating his crimes. Then he stole all of our data to boot. He starved those kids on behalf of Americans who were too stupid to understand what they were actually voting for.. If you voted for Trump in 2024 you have literal blood on your hands.
USAID must have been involved in helping South Africa make the transition away from the Apartheid system, back when Musk's family fled the country. Are you Elon's beef with USAID isn't about that?
From what I have read, the beef wasn’t about South Africa. It was about USAID having its inspector general investigate if Musk had turned off his Starlink satellites in Ukraine before two separate Russian attacks. Musk has some connections with Russia and China which are opaque. I think these connections along with Musk’s documented drug abuse played into the U.S. government’s refusal to give Musk a security clearance with SpaceX.
In December of last year, during President Biden’s last month in office, Musk was raising hell on X urging people to call their Congressional representatives to reject the spending bill. It ultimately passed after Musk got permission to build the two Shanghai Tesla factories he wanted. He had raised hell so he could get Congress to approve his factories.
Does he express a similar degree of hatred for the FAA and SEC when they regulate him and get in his way? I'm not disputing what you wrote, just noting that his hatred for USAID seems to be on another level for some reason. "Evil" is a pretty strong word.
No, he doesn’t express the same animosity toward the FAA or SEC. What I think is that Musk, like Trump, is both a sociopath and malignant narcissist. He once posted his thought on X that empathy is destroying Western civilization. He doesn’t believe his business operations should be disrupted by an agency primarily tasked with ensuring the world’s poorest, and he thinks empathy toward them is a waste of time and imterferes with his making money . He thinks the most important thing is making money without interruption.
Musk’s criticisms of certain provisions in Trump’s Big Ugly Bill caused him to have a falling out with Trump. It was a clash between two people with elephantiasis of the ego who can’t stand to hear themselves criticized.
Musk could not be more wrong in his criticism of empathy. He is utterly unaware that human societies cannot survive without empathy. Societies without empathy destroy themselves, and he and Trump can’t understand empathy as they are both sociopaths. They are both hellbent on destroying constitutional government (which we’ve not always achieved) for government which benefits only plutocrats. This is because these plutocrats have no limits or brakes on their greed.
Evil is the right word. Are you not paying attention? His direct actions have killed hundreds of thousands of people.
I was referring to Musk having labelled USAID as evil. Strong word to describe a humanitarian agency.
And I might have added that this is the guy who did the Nazi salute at the inauguration, and convinced the president to only allow white South African refugees. It's all pointing the same direction.
Musk is all about his offspring. Killing 600,000 humans increases the likelihood that his kids and their offspring will rule on Earth.
As I recall it, the original spending bill had some provisions in it restricting US companies' ability to do business in China if high tech transfers might be involved. The bill as passed, after the Republicans refused to do it for a while, did not contain that clause. Coincidence? ...
Nope. Muskrat got what he wanted, the ability to build Tesla plants in Shanghai.
Musk’s family actually moved to South Africa during Apartheid because they are racists. His mother is a Nazi and his father had been credibly accused of pedophilia for attacking his own daughters. The entire family is completely corrupt.
Actually, Maye Musk's father was a nazi sympathizer from what I've read. Remember, women are insignificant other than breeders or sex objects in that world, so don't be so harsh on Maye. Also, I think he has a Russian cousin from his mom's side by the surname of Haldeman? Perhaps that's where the Russian sympathy comes from?
I was on a tour in Southern Africa in May, and I pulled our S. African (white) guide aside and asked him his opinion of the Musks.... he quickly said, HE's an asshole, SHE's an asshole, and the kids are all Assholes...next question?
Oh, I think it's an extra reward to Musk that he has disrupted/ended aid to most of the brown and black world.
Everything about Starlink is dangerously opaque. He wanted S. Africa to contract with Starlink, but with only white people managing the starlink system in S. Africa. What fucking nerve he has. And his horrible, horrible father still lives there and give interviews on the downfall of America once whites become a minority in 10-15 years. Old man Musk just has to be the most racist man on the globe.
So he took away a lifeline that then allowed 600k to die? All to avoid scrutiny for helping Putin? He deserves punishment by chain saw.
Ooooooh, make it so! Or perhaps put him the Angola prison in Louisiana, with 90% black prisoners. What a dream!
And let his cellmate be Big Beautiful Bill!
Big Black Bill and his friends..!
We must all meet in the same room somewhere in the U.S. to exchange hugs! Thanks so much, Peter. 😂😍😍😍
I recall reading in the press at the time that the MuskRat acknowledged turning the servers off (this was when Ukraine was using them to guide weaponry against the Russian Black Sea fleet). IIRC, Elon said he "didn't want Starlink to be used for warfare."
I remember that too, and back then I didn't really understand who Musk was. Just the guy who built electric cars. I was mad that one man could have so much influence over world events, and basically help Putin's invasion of Ukraine even though he didn't seem to have a dog in the fight on either side.
Well, of course he did.....money and influence with dictators. He's coming across as oh, so similar, to the Epstein men.
Even self defence? Musk is likely another pro-Russia “conservative.”
Oligarchs thrive in the current Russian system set up by Yeltsin and maintained to mutual advantage under Putin.
Well, at least they're not admitting that the sanctions have been hurting them. But the Russkies have been kicked out of some choice real estate in Europe.
Today's it is USAID which most Americans don't give a care about because it is lives of "those people". But tomorrow I predict it will be American lives.
We should not forget the last time a president, George W Bush, upon assuming office immediately gutted government programs of his predecessor. I know this because I was there.
One of the last contracts actions I handled while still in Government service as a lawyer and CPA was a termination claim in 2001 cancelling Clinton era contracts to repair and maintain levees protecting the city of New Orleans from hurricanes.
Bush may have terminated another 99 contracts with total value of about $1,000,000,000.00 (1 billion). To my knowledge there was no harm done by cancelling those other 99 contracts. But canceling the one contract that I personally know about cost about 2,000 American lives and many times the any savings from Bush terminating other contracts.
If we have learned anything it is that this is going to happen again and hopefully, unlike with Bush and Katrina, Trump, Musk and DOGE will be held accountable.
That is Government does many things that we are unaware of until Government stops doing them like protecting cities from natural disasters. Something DOGE did, and we will not know what it is until it happens, will be caused because of like with Bush and Katrina, DOGE, Trump and Musk willy-nilly gutting Government programs some years in the future will cause a disaster costing trillions and lives that far exceeding any benefits.
Wow...... and do we feel bad that Cheney's died recently? Or is he having a cup of coffee with Nixon and Kissinger in Hell?
Pointing out those complicit in the actions of DOGE should be part of the campaign strategy in the coming elections. Do a split screen of the starving children with this bit from MTG’s resignation speech “led the effort to defund hard left politically biased NPR, PBS, and the corrupt USAID as the Chair of the DOGE Subcommittee.” Don’t let musk’s enablers off the hook.
The assault on government represented by DOGE is part of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 assault on government that dates back to Reagan.
What motivates the plutocrats above all is taxes. Who collects the taxes? Government. Therefore, Government bad.
Interestingly, it was Adam Smith himself who extolled the virtues of wise and strong government, and high taxes on the wealthy, as a means of a) ensuring that those made wealthy by his system would not be able to distort the market, and b) as a kind of redistribution to the rest of society to build things the capitalists were not interested in (like roads, bridges and schools - something we would call infrastructure).
Seen in this light, the plutocrats are the real socialists, for what is not paying your taxes but government welfare?
They believe in privatizing only their profits, while socializing their losses. To big to fail, too big to jail.
After the 2008 meltdown, there should have been many of those financial fraudsters in jail, but that did not happen! They were robbers and thieves of the highest order, but did not pay a price for their thievery!
Sad to say, but Obama did more to save Wall Street than he did Main Street, and almost 50% of Black wealth in the U.S. was lost during the Great Recession (housing foreclosures).
Bingo.
I think these folks have all bought into a kind of libertarian ethos, where paying taxes is seen as the gov't stealing "your money" that "you" worked to earn. No consideration is given to the fact that we live in a "society" and that for society to function, gov't must be funded. I think the only gov't function these billionaires see as valid are laws and the court system protecting their ill-gotten wealth from the plebes or from your run of the mill rioter who might break into their mansions to peel some of the gold off the walls.
Worse, some needs must be met, so when millionaires and billionaires don’t pay their fair share of taxes, federal and state governments are forced to pay for the services less wealthy people need. Everyone else subsidizes their greed, in other words. That’s why I say we need to raise taxes on the wealthy, raise the minimum wage, and most important of all, close tax loopholes only the wealthy use to avoid paying their fair share. In other words, keep Republicans out of power forever so they cannot reinstitute these destructive policies.
Yes, please say it louder. Not paying your taxes and not going to jail is government welfare. Not feeling obligations, just rights, is the worst form of communism.
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
I always believed that when Reagan discussed the joys of "trickle down" economics that he meant to say "Rush up".
Both of you are correct. Markets do not exist in a state ot nature, and Adam Smith always acknowledged the need for government as a participant in the economy. The laissez faire believers, the glibertarians, and so called free marketers have always refused to recognize that government has a legitimate role to play in the economy.
As for me, I am sick of supporting wealthy parasites whose gains come at the public’s expense and who use our publicly funded infrastructure and services to make big bucks, but who often pay their employees so poorly the employees are forced to seek public assistance. We need to tax both their incomes and wealth so they contribute to the costs of running our country. Rugged individualism is a myth foisted on us by people like Reagan, and trickle down economics essentially allows the plutocrats to use us as a public urinal.
Even the patronizing term "trickledown economics" was a conjob: it's actually trickleup economics.
I agree.
and whats your Plan B? I doubt denying the wealthy their promised tax breaks is in the cards.
All is good until it isn’t. I’d venture a bet that every single serious economic crash/ downfall has been responded to with parts of Plan A. At moments of clarity &outrage, usually coupled with bleatings from the ultra rich about their essentialist. As if…Let’s see if this happens again - AI over-betting, anyone? Then pounce withore of A.
I don’t have a plan B. This doesn’t mean that one doesn’t exist, or that it’s impossible to have a plan B, but someone else may have a plan B.
Well, "Libtard", a repeat of 1789 or 1917 wouldn't be too pretty, would it? I just discovered that Don Jr's private equity fund snatching up nationalized shares of essential industries is also named 1789, same as his fancy Georgetown restaurant for networking connections.
Tut tut, Robert. Why so pessimistic?
True that.....Eat the Rich!
Agree with your first statement, the Gilded Age was only possible because there was no income tax, although Reagan's legacy was the creation of an even bigger Gilded Age.
Disagree with your last statement, the top 1% only make $750,000 per year ($1.2 million in NYC), enough to qualify for the maximum Federal taxes (total taxes in NYC are 55%). I think you're referring to the top 0.01%, who might award themselves a salary of $1,000,000/ year, pay 55% on that, but this is only 1% of their net wealth. so their effective tax rate is 1% of their wealth.
Piketty is right, we need not only income tax, but a wealth tax of, say, 5% of assets per year, plus a 100% estate tax for inheritances above $5 million.
Exactly, and it's not just about current tax rates, but current gaping loopholes and all the lawyers and CPAs working for the 1%. When Jeff Bezos has a year or two when neither he, nor Amazon, pay taxes, you know how big our troubles are.
Gilded age 2.0.
I think that won't have any effect on the Space Laser Lady's popularity. Those starving kids are the wrong color for that.
Right. Plus she's represented the most conservative district in the nation, where they think she's just fine.
💯💯💯💯💯🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
In US criminal courts and in the World court. Musk et.al. should not be free anywhere.
Trump has put sanctions on the ICC so that it can hardly prosecute anybody. That happened after S. Africa courts declared two or three people in Israel's govt, (yes, Bibi) to have committed genocide, so now we're not donating to the ICC at all, either.
Elon is a criminal illegal immigrant. I say deport him to South Sudan (after confiscating all his US assets).
We need to force him to make restitution.
I’d be happy to see his citizenship revoked and to see him exiled as a persona non grata, meaning he couldn’t come back. I don’t feel a deep need to see him dead or even in jail. I just want him gone.
This is what "state's evidence" is for. Prosecute the DOGE babies and get them to flip against their DOGE daddy.
"Trust comes on foot and leaves on horseback" — Dutch proverb.
(Edit: Let’s add the original: “Vertrouwen komt te voet en gaat te paard”)
Musk's DOGE fired something like 300,000 federal officials. For practically no real budgetary savings. Because he didn't know wtf the federal government actually does. GOP idiocy at its finest.
Pure disrespect for working people if you ask me. Standing on the outside looking in, many arrogant people think there’s nothing going on—people appear to do nothing. You can say this about ANY office building or business!
It's not that the oligarchs think people are doing nothing so much as they don't recognize the value of what people are doing - until it's too late. Of course, this implies that they don't recognize the value of people in general, at least those of us who aren't in the billionaires club.
And you never see them, because they live behind the gated communities, in special suburbs or parts of cities, not out here with us hoi polloi (sp? haven't used that for a while.)
This is a primary feature of narcissism. They don't do the work themselves--they are too good for it, that's for "little people." And those little people are very "stupid" (why else would they do all the work?). Because they are "stupid," the narc can do all their jobs, far better, for less, and etc etc etc. Yet when you actually put the narc in the situation where they have to provide all those functions, they can't because "it was harder than I thought it would be!"
YOUR work is NEVER valuable. Only THEY have value. And when they can't do what you could do because they lack the skills, abilities, and experience? Well those things must not have been very important after all.
See "The Narcissist's Prayer."
Oh, for the days when even 19% of Americans belonged to strong labor unions, enforced with strong labor laws.
Recall that when he was running for president, Rick Perry vowed he would eliminate the Department of Energy because he thought that department (over)regulated oil drilling. He had no clue as to what DOE actually did. So when Trump won his first term, he appointed Perry to run DOE because of Perry's vow to destroy the department. To his credit, Perry sailed into the position and learned that DOE wasn't at all what he thought it was, and he actually did a credible job running the place.
At great expense to alternative energy growth. So, credible yes but also quite damaging to green energy expansion & growth. https://www.science.org/content/article/rick-perry-s-most-surprising-legacy-energy-secretary-could-be-bigger-science-budget
Voting for Republicans to run our country is voting for the petroleum industry and against addressing climate change. Staying home or voting for a candidate like Jill Stein is because you didn’t get your idea of the perfect candidate has the same effect. Just ask Al Gore.
Ironically, nobody needs to vote Green anymore because the Democrats adopted most Green policy positions via Biden's 2020 campaign. Fringe is now Center.
Which is rather astounding. I didn't think Perry had it in him.
And tRump's idiot Secretary of Education is busy pulling a DOGE at the DOE. The lesson to be learned here is that The Inspectors General need to be brought out from under the Executive branch and with DOJ, need to be made 4th and 5th independent branches of the Government. We need to come up with new ways to appoint people to these departments. And somewhere in there we need to give the two of them acting in concert, to bring down a rogue Congress or Presidency. It will take Constitutional Amendments or a rewritten Constitution, but it has to be done, if we survive this.
Edit: changed bring to be.
Many lives damaged by Musk and company's arrogance and ignorance as to how our government actually works.
Despite the fact the Musk hops around manically on stage, I see him as incredibly lazy. He did not make any effort to learn what the various government agencies do and how they maintain the government structure that has allowed him to profit so handsomely.
Why learn anything about anything? He's the richest person on the planet, which means he MUST know everything about everything already.
I should add "ungrateful" to lazy.
His inability to feel or express gratitude is kept afloat by his ocean-size sense of entitlement.
Firing IRS workers actually costs the government $500 billion in lost tax revenues. https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2025/03/25/irs-cuts-may-cost-500-billion-in-lost-tax-revenue-as-taxpayers-exploit-system/157841/
Excellent point. A 2025 $500 *billion* revenue shortfall is an enormous downside of GOP rule. And one that is intentional, as undermining the IRS ability to collect from the ultrawealthy has been a long-standing plank of GOP orthodoxy since even before Trump1; designed to keep ultra-wealthy tax cheats happy, and their political donations flowing.
Is it just me or has autocorrect something that you have to fight all the time? (I had to fix an autocorrect 'improvement')
It's not just you. And nowadays, "autocorrect" isn't just for grammar; it's a mashup with AI. A fellow member of my HOA uses AI for letters, and it changes words. It replaced "required" with "recommended." Not the same. This has led to spending a lot of time proofreading his letters.
Last week I did a search query on the origin of the word "lede," as in to "bury the lede." AI (always the first response now) said the spelling was to avoid confusion with the word for the metal lead. Think about this informational misfire and remember this is why AI is not (yet) capable of reliable info.
Edit: See comment from M Q below for why the AI answer was correct. My bad.
Apropos of nothing, I’ve read that the name Led Zeppelin had similar origins. Keith Moon, the drummer for The Who, predicted that Robert Plant and co. would "go down like a lead balloon". Jimmy Page supposedly changed the name to Led Zepplin after promoters kept calling them Lede.
I live for information like this! I'll look it up. Thank you, ISOequanimity.
BTW if you are the LEAST bit interested in music, I highly recommend the documentary "Count Me In." It's about the drummers (including Moon) who made music history. I watch it every few months on Netflix and pick up something new from it each time.
Thank you! I’ll definitely check it out!
When I do such a search, I skip over the replies until I find the link to Wikipedia. Wiki has its own problems, since it can be edited by anyone, but it's generally accurate.
I donate to Wikipedia regularly. It's where I start in order to get overviews and/or ideas where to find other sources that I can cite.
Meanwhile, the purveyors/profiteers are desperately trying to convince us it's "sentient". 🙄
CEOs maybe. CEOs are typically (monumentally) stupid about their actual tech. Most of them are educated to run businesses, not do groundbreaking tech.
If you talk to (at least) ChatGPT, it makes it very clear that it is not sentient.
Oh yeah, I have found ChatGPT to be pretty clueless. It's not just the CEO's though. Remember Blake Lemoine, the Google senior engineer, who declared that their AI LaMDA was sentient? If anyone should have known better it should be him. I don't believe he was literally foaming at the mouth when he said that, but he might as well have been. "It's alive!!!"
If you had read (searched) further, you would have seen that, in fact, the AI response was correct. It comes from (the tail end of) a time when typesetting was done in lead (the metal) and instructions to typesetters could have been ambiguous.
M Q, thanks for not calling me an idiot. You're right however the AI answer never made any connection to printing or typesetting conventions. It seemed hung up on the metal lead. I was on an Android device and expanded the answer to read further but didn't see anything other than the metal itself. Now I'm curious and will ask my phone the question again to see if I just missed it. Thanks for the correction.
More details (and better than my memory) from Merriam-Webster here:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/bury-the-lede-versus-lead
One CAN disable autocorrect, everyone should look into how to do it!
I did just that about a week ago, and while you WILL find that typing words becomes a bit more clunky (because you’re suddenly lacking the autocorrecting that had become “sub-conscious,), and you DEFINITELY have to carefully PROOFREAD, the benefits are myriad‼️👍
I don't remember how I did it, since it was years ago, but I've set things up so that my computer flags items that it thinks are mistakes, but it doesn't correct them. Basically, it's doing part of my proofreading job.
Also because I need to rant about this, I was at an Amtrak station recently where they're now using this text-to-speech thing to read the PA announcements. When it's telling you about TSA policies it's pronouncing it as "tee-sa". It's three capital letters! I think we have a long way to go until we get to AGI guys.
I turned mine off. I make plenty of typos, but I'm still smarter than an autocorrect. I just proof before I send.
I still can't believe how bad the Google keyboard auto complete is in 2025. It always wants to use people's names and place names in place of common words (ie. may or May) so I end up with random capitalized words all over the place. I've spent years removing those suggestions as they come up.
I consider autocorrect to be a “bad boyfriend” who doesn’t listen, puts words in my mouth and always thinks he’s right.
😂
That's why I shut off autocorrect. I still allow it to highlight "misspelled" words, and it's usually wrong, so I just add the word to the dictionary. I've added thousands of words to Firefox's dictionary, as well as MS Word's. No doubt I'll continue adding thousands more.
You and Shakespeare!
Lean in! Love it!
It’s not just you for sure. I’ve exchanged funny messages with others about AutoCorrect goof up. Here’s my best example. As a lawyer I do use the word lawyer in my communications occasionally! So one day I was dictating and I said “lawyer”, and AutoCorrect promptly changed it to “liar” and then changed it before my very eyes without me doing anything to “warrior”. I laughed and changed it back of course but I felt like I should say any lawyer could be any of those things at any point!
Of course it can. That's one of the first things I do when I get a new phone. I don't remember how - I go into Settings and tap on a bunch bunch of stuff till I get there.
Wonderful quote! So wise.
Never heard of. Ziekte komt te paard en gaat te voet!
Kijk, en die kende ik weer niet. Makes sense, though.
I didn't know that one, but it's so true. Thanks for providing this shorthand for <all this... >
Until the regime change, we’ve taken small steps of our own: 1) We cancelled Prime video the day after WaPo refused to endorse VP Harris. 2) Complete boycott of Amazon. We’ve found that we don’t need to be able to buy anything we want and have it delivered in two days. In fact, we’re happier without more stuff. 2) Whenever possible (and it almost always is), we buy “nearly new” on FBMP instead of retail. 3) No social media other than substack and FBMP. 4) Limiting travel. It’s destroying the climate. 5) I get my news from Substack, DW, and The Guardian. No more legacy media. 6) Donate more. 1 M of our neighbors lack running water. John Wesley got it right, imho: "Earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.”
We are doing exactly the same. It makes a difference!
Absolutely! The ocean is made up of many drops!
Same will add to the list. Cancelled Disney+, HBO and HBO Max and basically anything that would go into the hands of these billionaires pockets. Find it refreshing to purchase in local stores may pay a touch more but the service is phenomenal and keeps them open. Buy even vegetables from local farmers and grow some as well. Have garnered a barter system with many neighbors that may have started to raise chickens and start up bee hives for honey. More of a community venture. Have upped contributions to NPR and any local news organizations and ACLU that was spent in years past on WaPo and all that in prior years that really don’t need. More to the fair minded reporting of the current events versus the slant of bias. Have friends who’ve sold their Tesla’s and gone in other directions. Now and in the future no Walmart, Target or big-box stores and biased media. They may have our data and who knows what and how it will be used, time will tell.. DOGE left a destruction and don’t know if we’ll ever get it all back again in the future. But we learn quickly as to what we hold dear.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." ~ Margaret Mead
Wow! I’m printing this out. Thank you.
Another thing to do is all that money no longer going to those billionaires am purchasing more food to donate to local food banks and shelters to use as well as some of that money being saved. This is just the start I’m afraid and with all the funds being taken away from SNAP and Medicaid and schools and all the services that so many need for whatever their circumstances the more people helped to bring up versus punching down adds to more fighting against the billionaires and tyranny.
Never doubt committed individuals…no matter their age, we may have grey hair and have lived awhile but still have spunk in the tank ..
We’re doing the same!
It actually helps more people if you donate $ to food banks. They can get what they need and frequently can stretch those dollars much farther than food donors can.
That’s how Kimmel got back on the air, people canceled Disney etc. and it worked
Same. I use Amazon as a search engine and order directly from the vendor, when I can’t get it locally.
That’s a good strategy, but I use DuckDuckGo which is private so you won’t get advertising messages as a result of your search. And you get the same results.
Hmm but your cookies give data to Amazon? Just wondering.
Be careful with Facebook Marketplace: it’s crawling with scams that Zuckerberg won’t fix. He’s no better than Bezos.
You’re so right. We have a list of criteria before we buy. What a shame. But it doesn’t have to be like this. Hopefully, after the regime change, sanity will return and “community values” like truthfulness, transparency, accountability, and honor will be valued more than wealth. Doing the right thing even when no one is looking. And knowing what the right thing is in the first place. I can’t wait.
Excellent list. You can completely Deactivate your entire Amazon account and deprive them of your data. no great loss. I’ve done it and found alternatives!
Great idea! Thank you!
Trump fired all of the Inspectors General, thus eliminating any oversight of the plainly illegal things he wanted to do. Immediately we saw a tsunami of crime ranging from the comparatively petty (Trump crypto with the imprimatur of the Office of the President) to the staggering (Trump blatantly violating black-letter law and the plain language of the Constitution).
Had any other president unilaterally decided to eliminate entire agencies that had been established by act of Congress, he'd have been impeached. Had any other president unilaterally decided to to simply ignore congressional appropriations and refuse to fund agencies, he'd have lost in court almost instantly. Had any other president unilaterally created an entire government department that was beyond the control, oversight, and restraints of ANY government entity, he'd have been impeached.
But the Age of Trump is the Age of Criminals. And Trump is right when he says crime is out of control because he's committing those crimes and none of the people or institutions responsible will stand up to him.
"Thousands of dedicated federal employees were pushed out, taking their expertise and institutional knowledge with them, while those who remain are demoralized. Future recruitment of high-quality government workers will be much more difficult given the way their predecessors were treated."
Case in point - how the IRS is suffering a brain drain which impedes the enforcement of tax laws regarding the well to do. Oh wait - making sure the rich do not pay taxes is the MAGA agenda.
And a brain drain of scientists, researchers, and field personnel from USFWS, USDA, NPS, NIH, CDC, and FDA. The federal government already had a difficult time, given decades of ongoing underfunding staffing these agencies and departments with knowledgeable and highly credentialed people. Now it will be even more difficult to replace and restaff in the future.
It has also affected areas of the IRS which have nothing to do with collecting income and estate taxes. The IRS collects excise taxes for commercial vehicles, and commercial vehicle owners need to have file-stamped copies of VIN numbers to show to state vehicle licensing agencies to show they have paid any excise taxes due, or their vehicles are exempt from excise taxes. They must show this information in order to obtain registration, license plates and tags for their vehicles.
If it’s any consolation, many former IRS workers are moving to state and local government jobs and federal contractors. We also preserved what we could before we left, including all the code for Direct File.
Exactly. Not enforcing tax law is a feature not a bug.
The actual reason for Doge was to assemble all data, about all people, American and others, into a massive database provided by Palantir, Musk/Trump, succeeded. At the start I wondered why, they fought so hard to get access to data, no need, then it hit me, this was not about waste, it was a massive, Chinese/Russian, style citizen database, now almost complete.
I remember when the USA, was the home of the brave, when this would have been cause for a revolution.
This should terrify people.
So tired of the constant invasions of privacy, whether from Doge or corporations constantly seeking data. MYOB and you’ll be busy all of the time.
Not only that, but I’m certain they handed our private data over to Putin’s government. What business does a foreign dictator have with Americans’ personal data?
Do you have a source for this? It has been said that DOGE’s irresponsible actions (consolidating sensitive data and disregarding and dismantling security protocols has made the data much more vulnerable to penetration by foreign state actors. I have not read that the data were actually shared with foreign governments.
If I remember right there were two separate incidents: (1) an enormous amount of data left the servers and the whistleblower wasn't sure where it went and (2) there was a log-in attempt from Russia using the correct password/ID; I think it was a DOGE staffer who was in that country for reasons nobody ever bothered to explain.
So no, there's no official report (that I know of) that Russia has all our data, but it's quite plausible that they do.
This is assuming Putin didn't just ask for it and get it.
10-Q
I had read in an independent news article there was evidence there were data transmissions to Russia. This is all I recall. If I am incorrect about this, I am willing to admit I’m
Incorrect and mistaken.
Actually, I think I had read that as well, back when DOGE was trashing every agency in government. DOGE was always "dodgy", as Brits would say, and I have no trouble believing they were up to no good. But suspicion is not proof, of course. Still, I'd love to know who it was that they sent data to.
I'll bet that creep, Musk, is behind it.
DOGE stank of corruption from the beginning.
ever try to read the Patriot Act? Congress couldnt read it but they passed it anyway without reading it.
I remember when Republicans would have opposed a central database, seeing it as authoritarian. Those days are gone now.
It does.
Sure, there's all that. But when you thought it couldn't get any worse, there's always this:
https://whistleblower.org/in-the-news/mediaite-whistleblower-says-doge-stashed-300-million-social-security-ids-on-vulnerable-server/
DOGE wasn't just a bunch of arrogant fools acting like bulls in a china store. Arguably it was a data mining operation for ... who knows?
Completely agree on accountability for the regime in the future. There will need to be something akin to the Nuremberg trials to sort some of this out and hold people like Bondi, Patel, Noem, etc. accountable. Dems need to start planning for this.
There will be a lot to repair in government, but with the right incentives, I believe that there will be a lot of people eager to enter government to repair the damage done by this regime - almost a WWII type call to action, not just by politicians but by Federal employees eager to make a difference. Dems need to start planning for this.
Add Musk to the list.
I strongly agree: all chaos agents should be called to account.
" DOGE also seriously compromised the functioning of the US government. Thousands of dedicated federal employees were pushed out, taking their expertise and institutional knowledge with them, while those who remain are demoralized. "
To conservatives, this is a feature, not a bug. If they can cripple government functions, it supports Reagan's dictum that government is always the problem and never the solution. This makes it easier for those services to be privatized, and profit then extracted from the proles by themselves or their cronies. The tech bros and their conservative pals are anarcho-capitalists. They believe that the sole function of the government is to maintain a military to keep the world safe for corporations to make profits, along with a police force to keep the workers in line.
And with the dats, they might identify who gets what services, so there's a ready made client list
The main task of the new administration must be the retrieval of the data malevolently mined, although I suspect it is secured ”off-world” or sold on for nefarious purposes and therefore inaccessible. It is not a question of ‘changing one’s password’, the usual advice when hacked. I cannot imagine where one would start.
Put a freeze on your credit report at all three bureaus. Google how to do it. Very easy. That’s a good starting point
Professor Krugman: just SEEING "DOGE" written out like this makes my blood boil. i am also astounded that elon musk and his boy hacker gang, who all were supposed to be computer whiz kids, was unable to understand government databases filled with sensitive information that should be AND REMAIN private. i've read before that former DOGE busters are afraid they'll be criminally prosecuted (if the dems/democratic socialists ever win power) and all i can say is that every legal penalty they face should be DOUBLED just to send a message to all the other power-hungry sociopaths in this country who are already plotting to emulate their destruction. further, because musk is ultimately responsible for the actions of his boy hacker gang, he should also be prosecuted for every evil misdeed they committed. i am anti-death penalty, but musk and his fellow billionaire overlord sociopaths, is a situation where i would make an exception.
I would love to see these data thieves prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Somewhat off topic, but the idea that a single system creates "efficiency" is a tech-bro delusion. The last years of my employment were rendered painful by the replacement of multiple data systems with a single one, Salesforce. Tasks and reports I used to be able to do with ease were either extremely difficult to produce or had to be done by hand. Everything took longer. Privacy is extremely important, but user functionality is important as well.
One thing for certain, President Piggy will need to use two auto pens to sign all the pardons he will need to give to keep all his accomplices quiet and out of jail!! They must have adapted the auto pens to accommodate Piggy sized sharpies…
Meanwhile the Dems are more concerned with joining hands with MAGA in denouncing "socialism" rather than authoritarianism and fascism.
That is why after 50 years I changed my party affiliation from democrat to independent (aka democratic socialist)
Yeah, the Dems are busy kissing up to Musk, they won't be helping prosecute him. They love his money too much, or fear it too much. More likely they fear Leonard Leo's friends on the Supreme Court, though, who will undo anything they try to do.
Vote for Dems that don't take corporate donations....there are more and more of them. And if we get control of Congress, hmmmm!
Too much damage to fix plus a Dem agenda to pursue. Assuming the Dems can win the presidency again, the new president should say "I expect Congress to be in session five days a week for the first year and I will "primary" any Senator and rep who doesn't put the pedal to the metal."
Absolutely not! Democrats should not govern by the same threats that so destroyed the country under Chump. Obviously, the voters could replace an ineffective member on Congress, but skip the petty threats to primary anyone who does not meet autocratic standards.
I think the Speaker and Senate majority leader set the schedule. I agree that they need to work harder, though.
The retribution against our Nation is so appalling, yet far too many MAGA still believe all is well. As the holiday season is here, many will celebrate the birth of Christ while the Trump fascist regime seeks more to destroy.