This increasingly looks like a pretext to fire some people and later hire new ones, but with the right ideological mindset. As someone born and raised in Eastern Europe, I have seen this going on for more than 30 years, and you folks start looking increasingly like us (and that is not a compliment).
I expect a few months down the line, they will say that they actually need more people, and then argue that the new hires will be much better than the old one. Everything else is a circus to divert attention, and it appears to be working.
I'm really surprised that Krugman hasn't pointed out the 4 Medicare/Medicaid fraudsters that Trump pardoned on 1/20/2021. They bilked us out of a combined $2 billion and change.
And then there's also the Medicare/Medicaid Senator from Florida - Rick Scott. The records are sealed but rumor has it that he stole several hundred million from Medicare/Medicaid. And Matt Gaetz's daddy did the same thing.
Well said, I came here to make those same observations! Not too many know about Daddy Gaetz because he sold the company just before the investigation, and turned the skimmed money into real estate.
That musical Coda this morning? They look like dudes but they aren’t. Which brings to mind which are fake ladies and which are real ladies. Same with Musk. And he brings to mind that someone needs to take Elon out to dinner — if ya know what I mean.
Another observation: it seems that Paul attracts a majority of men while Joyce Vance and Heather Cox attracts mostly women. Interesting isn’t it.
Do you have any data to back up your observation? Fox news also uses wiggle words to plant a suggestion while saying nothing: "Observation" "Seems" "Interesting isn’t it"
Inference from imputed gender of commenter avatars is shaky logic, to be polite. Let alone that those who comment are a self-selected group, maybe not a statistically valid representation of the columns readership.
This dude - I recognize him from my days reading NY MAG comments, he's a notorious troll who uses multiple identities (at least there he did) and was - if I recall correctly - blocked or removed multiple times but kept reappearing like a pustulent boil that just won't go away. The 4th grade repeating what you say back to you are his trademark, as well as one word replies like "gibberish." I'm sure I'll get some pithy reply to this.
I still can't help but wonder what hold Musk has on The Orange One? tRump is brash and obnoxious - a noisy con man, so what is keeping him sitting at the desk while a 3 year old picks his nose next to him... after all, he worries how he appears on TV and about his ratings. I remember a similar image of him in Helsinki with Vlad gloating next to him...
Trump is for sale to the highest bidder. In 2016 it was Putin. Now it's Musk. Having been bought and paid for Trump has to show complete deference to his owners.
I feel a bit creepy myself (maybe all the Trumpmusk slime has rubbed off on me) but I find myself wishing the same. However, unlike them, I wouldn't take pleasure in anyone's suffering, or use that to prove to myself how clever and special I am. I just want them gone.
Trump and Musk could disappear immediately but the problem would remain because 77 million Americans share their world view, and another 90 million aren’t offended enough to vote.
Well see, I'm the opposite. I don't want them dead. I want them to understand things from my point of view, to really feel how much suffering they're causing, and to care about it. Is that so much to ask?
Putin doesn't go in much for bribery as a means to control people, as a bribed person is always free to turn on their paymaster (either out of conscience or out of greed).
He prefers blackmail, and the fact that former girls from Jeffrey Epstein's island have accused Trump of raping them may well be key (along the fact that most of Putin's male fifth columnists in the West have form for sexual harassment).
I think Putin is flexible. Bribes, blackmail, threats - whatever gets the job done. Trump is addicted to his luxurious lifestyle which in 2016 and before was apparently bankrolled by Russia. Both through Russian loans for his businesses and money laundering for Russian oligarchs. Now that Trump has Musk, Thiel, and the Project 2025 people he isn't as financially dependent on Russia. Now Putin is apparently relying more on threats of assassination. At any rate Trump is still subservient to him as we are seeing now, both with Trump's talk of ending the Ukraine war to Russia's advantage and installing pro-Russian fellow travelers in charge of US intelligence.
Do you think there are really salacious facts from Trump's youth that could derail him and his agenda now? Suppose it came out that he had had a long affair with Ivanka and that he's the father of her two oldest kids. That's about the worst revelation I can imagine, from Trump's perspective. Would that knowledge make a dent in his base's adulation?
Musk and Trump have a symbiotic relationship. Musk and other oligarchs paid to put him in office and are now flooding their social media platforms with disinformation that is justifying his implementation of more-and-more autocratic policies. We are already at the point where he is testing the waters to see if he can get away with ignoring court orders. As a political expert recently said, when the Executive can decide which court orders to obey and can decide that the Executive's orders are lawful, we are in a dictatorship.
It’s trumps only real business model, licensee deals. He has licensed out his demagoguery and MAGA to Musk to run the show. Trump is there to be cruel and perform Continous firehouse of outrageous stupidity, a distraction while they rob the country blind.
That kid is very big into the schnoz, but apparently was caught on a hot mic saying “You’re not the president and I want you to go away” and “I want you to shut your fucking mouth up” to Trump in the Oval Office during whatever we’re calling that pressconferencedebacle. Priceless.
Until reading a comment below, I didn't understand what this comment was getting at....OMG how HILARIOUS!!! His little ears have picked up on what the adults (techies, JD Vance?) have been saying when not in the company of Trump or his other handlers. When most inconvenient, the things that come out of the mouths of babes!
Trump's handlers are telling him that Musk is the front guy who's gonna take all the heat when the "small folks" realize they've been played and their own social safety net is gone, not just their neighbors. Robespierre. He was totally it, until he wasn't.
Moneymaker.
Elon's throwing money at Trump making him a real billionaire.
Big Guns.
Musk is happy to use his money to threaten anyone who crosses them in anyway. Primary challenges, hostile buyouts, lawfare, social media attacks.
Musk is using Russel Voight to do the purge while Trump distracts with false, outrageous, crazy talk. Musk is quietly arranging the installation of AI to take over each department as he sees fit, for his advantage in everything.
There are some very smart and caring people at the Tech Policy Press. Everyone should give the link below a read and figure it out, and soon.
Trump is sent by God. He is the Orange Highlighter of Corruption that SHOWS US what NOT TO DO. Unfortunately the CINO (Christian in name only) of America do not understand the message, yet.
It is worse than that. The people who already accepted this offer have no official guarantee of their buyouts, and there is reporting that some accounts and payments were already canceled outright without Congressional authority.
Musk is trying to buy OpenAI. AI depends on having data. Connect these dots. The danger is plain to see, but we’re treating things as if they’re not connected.
Some people still call them clowns. So many are ignoring our own warnings that if trump won it will have been the last election.
People still have a wait and see attitude instead of getting a head of the problem.
I think musk wants OpenAI in order to eliminate a competitor. And do what he did to Twitter control the information that people can consume through his filters essentially making it closed AI for all of us this way, the political technologist, the posters and alternative facts campaign, a pretty picture while the house is burning down. And the masses will believe it.
Americans are so stupid these obvious lies and manipulations keep working. They just want an excuse to replace people loyal to the country with people loyal to them alone.
The fact that people who are being brought in or going along with the charade are basically swearing loyalty oaths to Trump and Musk is going to give us both a handy resources and full legal pretext to send everyone involved in this criminal coup to prison for the rest of their lives. Every. Single. One.
They don't want a radicalized center. It's not going to be Obama-time reach-across-the-aisle smiley faces next time. If they ever lose a shred power they're going to lose EVERYTHING.
Honestly I'm ready for the military to just kickstart this shit whenever. I'm checking my watch every day. Once the Constitutional crises start piling up it just may happen.
If only Trump and Musk’s fathers used condoms. My civil service colleagues and I have been collecting evidence of the muskrat’s criminal fraud activity. He is falling for our traps and will end up in jail with the orange felon, where they belong. We are all FBI agents now: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/we-are-all-fbi-agents-now
Trump and project 2025 IS following the Russia and Hungary PLAYBOOK...but...he didn't factor in the Patriotic American PEOPLE ...... fatal mistake ..... not going to work. It will likely be a fight even if they feign co-operation at some point for a bit.....it is their power and $$$ money vs us...and they will choose themselves - they MUST and we MUST...but we have 341, 145, 670 against 1 - last count
Do you even realize how few that is. I wanna believe but alas I just don't. Two thirds of the population, either by voting orange or by simply not caring enough to bother, want this. All the 50 state capital protests, great, I even participated. They don't even register in the media, local, national, social, none of it. Boycotts, super. Amazon stock went down by something like 1.8%. That's like a rounding error. I mean its like someone moved the decimal point...literally. They have more money than God. I think it's gonna take something pretty substantial, maybe even monumental, to stop this freight train from plunging off the cliff. I mean I'm here for it whatever that is but it's going to have to do better than this.
I think it's a serious mistake to assume DJT stands alone. He certainly does have company, allies, and hangers-on who will support the Trump admin. At this point our best hope is that the Trump admin gets drowned in a bathtub.
I don't believe it ..... I KNOW it...I feel it. Trump/Putin tried this out in the wrong Country....And we are only getting started...Yes...it's a huge mountain of deceit. But what is the alternative for us now ? The American People will rise... and cue Pauls music lol "Oh What a Day " nothing worth doing ...well, is usually easy. Our Freedoms since the 1940's were on the backs of the Hero's who died for that Freedom for us. Seems we now need to pick up the baton ... or we could google how bad things really are in Russia or Hungary ?? hint..having Freedom and then have Autocracy ..... will hurt like hell .... I would always bet on the People :) I feel it :)
Shauna, you're either very naive or you're a Russian troll; if the former, please STOP, because you're harming everyone.
What you "feel" isn't borne out by facts -- verifiable facts, evidence-based facts. Horrifyingly, a lot of Americans are apathetic. Forty years of ruinous GOP economic policies have concentrated massive wealth in very few hands, such that someone like fElon can buy an election and control djt, who needs felon's money to pay off his legal debts and the judgments against him. And for almost 40 years, the GOP has run an effective propaganda machine such that lots of low-info behaviors have swallowed lies (abut who is harming them) and have continued to vote for GOPs, who actually *are* harming them.
If you care at all about American democracy, then stop "feeling" and "believing" and start DOING. Join your local Dem chapter. Join Indivisible and MoveOn, and participate in the actions. Call GOP reps and sens, even if they aren't yours, and tell them you want them to shut down felon's criming NOW. Participate in the 2-28-25 buying blackout. And so on.
Oh...and we will NEED to back up the FBI prior to an attempted roll over to the NEW "KGB or SS" is the plan...a sinister mandate for the notorious Kash Patel....Will we be SHOCKED, surprised ??? Not any longer...LOCK HIM UP ..is where we have to get to...albeit..sounds good over my coffee..they have all the advantages ...for today
Musk couldn't possibly get a security clearance, with his publicly acknowledged history of ketamine use. Also, Elon, I worked for the DOJ for over 39 years. Our work desktops ( later laptops) were configured to deny access to certain types of websites, and video games were off limits.
So, Elon, you're on a work improvement plan, and if you don't shape up, you're gone- and your booger picking tot is too.
Having worked in the Social Security Administration for the years 1973-2008, I can tell you unequivocally we don't have 150 years olds collecting benefit! Decades ago my colleagues were involved with the Centenarian project. This meant personally interviewing 100 years old by sending a field representative to the house, nursing home etc. to determine if the person was alive, and where they were living. We also had another project that matched Medicare rolls with SSA benefit rolls, and Medicaid rolls with the SSI rolls. If there was no activity on one of those records for a period of time, a face to face interview was required. Musk is trolling us. It's shameful we have to waste any time answering trolls.
Apparently the super genius and his team of elite coders are so clueless and inexperienced that they don't realize all the birth years showing as "1875" in the SSA data is a commonly used placeholder COBOL programmers use when the birth year is unknown.
Every computer date format has a date that it references from. So for instance the Linux time_t format is an absolute time (i.e. you need a time zone to resolve it), which is stored as an integer representing the number of microseconds since Jan 1, 1970 at midnight GMT.
The ISO 8601 date format is referenced against May 20, 1875, the date of the Metre Convention.
"there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position"
Musk has a point here. Consider Chief Justice John Roberts. Despite only making a few hundred thousand dollars a year in salary, he's managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars . . . because his wife has been systematically taking bribes from companies with business before the Court. So maybe that's how they made their money.
Or consider Justice Clarence Thomas, who likewise gets a mere pittance in salary, yet has millions accrued . . . by being given "gifts" from billionaires with business before the Court.
I'm sure these are the kinds of cases Musk is talking about. Right?
I've read in other Substacks that Musk is going after government agencies that are or have been investigating him or his companies. Once he fires agency staff, the investigations -and possible fines - disappear.
With Trump-Musk, follow the grievance, follow the money. All the rest is largely theater to distract us.
I've read that too. Specifically about Starlink and how USAID, which paid for the receivers in Ukraine, found that some had made their way into Russia and were investigating. Not only do we need to be our own FBI, we need to be our own CIA as well.
I worked for 25 years at a town hall in Norway, there were 16 000 inhabitants. Of course there was waste, but we worked with auditors and local politicians to find improvements. Nobody could have walked in the door and found any fraud in two days.
I doubt Musk and his band of elves could even describe in a sentence or two what these agencies do and what American interests they were created to meet.
It WASN’T an audit. It was a theft. The orange tool is just too stupid to understand that… yet. Trump will learn the hard way when his own personal information is doxxed to his enemies by Musk’s petulant little teens.
fake justifications AND to give to the RICH...where is Robin HOOD ??? I guess they are in the courts daily fighting back..but other hero's will emerge....The Art and Music community hasn't even gotten started yet with motivation and solidarity ..... but it only took Hitler 33 days to overthrow the entire Germain Government and we are day 24..time is of the essence
Let's hope there are plenty of American HEROES around, we sure need 'em! Hint: don't look to Hakeem for heroism. He can't figure out how to message better.
It's coming. The courts have already put up a few detours and a few Senate Republicans are beginning to stir. It's growing. When the time comes, it will explode.
Someone also tried to collect SS in my name a few years ago. I was contacted by the SS administration and the attempted fraud was stopped. The problem is: thanks to DOGE's attacks against the federal workforce and the loss of expertise, this sort of "catch" may not happen in the future.
"We" save nothing. "They" save trillions. That feedback noise you hear is the sound of plutocrats waging class war against the rest of us while screaming "class war" at anyone who points out the obvious fact.
Pretty sure they (the billionaires, heritage foundation, white nationalists, maga congress etc) have succeeded in their plan to break government, declare government is broken, take over said government, and destroy democracy. Whatever we are living under now, it is not democracy.
As PJ O’Rourke once wrote: “The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.” They’ve been doing it for 40+ years!
I agree with you, that we have only remnants of our treasured Democracy; although not in the Federal Government but in The Courts, in the hands of Governors, and in the spirit of Woke Democrats (the empathetic ones, not the Karen’s).
The brazenness of the Trump leading edge destruction shows that the democratic hold-outs/Resistance have a monumental fight to preserve Constitutional Democracy.
They must persist in throwing up roadblocks to harass this Trump/Oligarch scheme pending the election midterms. Then, at least Congress can join the Resistance.
Even then, the odds that an Autocracy will be defeated aren’t very good. But it’s worth the risk and effort to try.
We agree with you about the Courts being key to resisting tyranny.
The major tests will be regarding “unfair deportations”, “FBI Retributions”, “Abrupt Firings of Civil Servants” and “Musky Intrusions into Fed Financial Databases”.
The Trump AG will try every lever Trump has to discourage the Courts.
That AG is not off to an auspicious start with the Eric Adams fiasco and publicly announcing that she's "filed charges" against NY state officials, when she actually only filled a civil lawsuit that is likely to crash and burn at the first hearing.
Thank you for writing this. I found it remarkable that after Musk’s “comprehensive” analysis of waste, he can’t understand what use USAID has for condoms.
Yesterday Trump promised us more examples. Based on what he said I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that they will be more half-truths and lies, this time probably designed to gin up anger over the migrant “crisis”.
We are about to watch the gaslighting like a fugue reaching its crescendo.
I'd have thought that (for anyone worried about migrant influxes) that condoms for Africa would be a win-win policy, especially as (unlike in almost the entire Global North) desired fertility is considerably lower than actual fertility in many African countries.
Professor Krugman: this is a prime example of how important it is to learn geography, as well as reading comprehension.
and during that "press conference" in the oval office, trump looked like a sedated zoo animal, merely present for appearanes, to be seen, whilst elon muskrat ranted in front of the cameras and his spoilt brat told trump to "shut TF up" and to "just leave" already. oh, and wiped boogers on trump's desk. it was spectacularly revolting. i hope the salivating press got their cheap clicks.
I’d like to make two points regarding Musk’s claim: “there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position, which is what happened at USAID”
The first point is that I personally know individuals who came from wealthy families with net worths in millions and CHOSE a career in government service, rather than in business, and have loved serving their country.
And, I assume that there are lots of other ways these civil servants may have accumulated wealth - a successful spouse, investing over many years in a stock market that has soared for decades!
And, my second point is how in hell did Musk get access, if it actually exists, to this kind of personal data of Federal Employees, including USAID to make this claim???
Oh, and I guess there’s a third point too. Musk knows thanks to public information, that Senators, including many Republicans, are worth tens of millions - yet he doesn’t claim that they are guilty of fraud or corruption and that’s how they accumulated their wealth…
Finally, to the GOP congresspersons for your silence. You know better. And soon he’ll come for you.
First, the only federal employee earning "a few hundred thousand dollars" is the president with a salary of $400,000. The only people earnings over $300,000 are supreme court justices. The people earning over $200,000 but under $300,000 are the vice president and house speaker along with some doctors, dentists, and SEC examiners. None of these people could be considered bureaucrats.
Second, its weird how Musk throws out a salary of "a few hundred thousand dollars" like it is a pittance. For the great majority of people this would be a huge salary. With this type of salary many people could accumulate millions of dollars by simply investing a large chunk of it in index funds.
My question is, how does he know the net worth of the individuals working there? For example, I would be surprised if my employer knew what my exact net worth is. They certainly know how much I get paid and how much 401k match I get. But how do they know what the value of my current bank and investing accounts are?
I think the obvious answer is that they wouldn't, if they were just pulling data from where they allowed to have access to. One explanation why they might have more information is that they possibly already have some people singled out and know more about them than they should. But there are plenty of other reasonable examples as to why a government employee might be wealthy (wealthy families, spouses, inheritance, investing, etc..)
It is just a witch hunt, plain and simple, and a particularly insidious one too. Show the common people examples of rich government employees, and therefore they must be defrauding the government. Very much a populist message.
Yes, I thought mainstream reporters were ignoring the significance of the net worth statement. Are they looking at financial disclosure forms for employees? Or are they cross-referencing information about employees with other federal databases, which would include tax returns? That would be consistent with the vacuuming up of data that everyone fears, but which is prohibited by law and recent judicial decisions. Why isn't a reporter asking why Elon Musk is looking at individual finances in such detail and what is the source of his information?
"Musk knows thanks to public information, that Senators, including many Republicans, are worth tens of millions - yet he doesn’t claim that they are guilty of fraud or corruption and that’s how they accumulated their wealth…"
Actually, I saw a quote just yesterday from Musk about just such a thing -
A quote from the article you linked to. Did you read it at all?
"The top 10 traders in 2024 list was made up of six Republicans and four Democrats with five Congress members having returns of more than 100% in 2024."
And trading on insider information is not the same as using public funds or defrauding the government.
I think you are touching on something we need to keep saying, often and everywhere: Musk is running the country, Acting President Musk, And we should refer to trump as POTUSINO (Prez ... IN NAME ONLY). It'll drive 'em all nuts.
It is quite plausible for a USAID employee to have a net worth in the 10s of millions based on a $200,000/yr salary. It's not that sinister. USAID employees typically don't pay taxes in the country where they reside, and often get housing allowances. In any case, it is a job where you can save a great deal and then invest that money in real estate and the stock market. So sure, a few canny investments 20 years ago and you might be worth $10 million today. Especially if you bought Tesla stock. Does Musk really have a problem with that? No, he's just grandstanding.
My father-in-law worked for USAID, starting circa 1959. He was no idealist, but had been born dirt poor and between ROTC and working had attended college. He loved the idea of the housing allowance and I think there were hardship bonuses for certain countries. There was nothing to spend money on in some of these countries, no shopping malls, expensive restaurants, etc. He invested 99% of his salary. You could also import things, via the embassy "big pouch", like electronic equipment and a car. When they left a country, they could sell this stuff at a profit. They were also some of the cheapest people I ever met and made every penny count. They did have a substantial net worth while he was still working, considering he and his wife had started with nothing when they married.
Musk is likely unaware of thrle Thrift Savings Plan. It was created as part of the then new retirement system for federal employees (FERS). Employees contribute a set sum of their salary and thr government matches that sum.
Employees who chose to remain in the old CSRS system could also create TSP's, but did not receive a matching contribution as we had pensions.
If an employee is prudent and than lets their TSP grow, those accounts can provide a generous return.
Examples or data would be nice to see. As a US citizen living in a foreign country I still pay US taxes and taxes in the country I live in. So I would classify your assertion another urban myth unless you can provide some verifiable data.
Brilliant! Love the “THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY…”… that got me for a minute because I noticed it (dark background) before my eyes got to reading the paragraph above. Great laugh and an even greater point. Awesome article. Thanks for writing!!
Musk already has the information you are so worried about. Social security numbers, bank account numbers, emails. He has the highest security clearances because he has NASA and military contracts for SpaceX and Tesla... We're talking about a guy who built PayPal, Tesla and owns a social media platform! Stop being so naive.
This increasingly looks like a pretext to fire some people and later hire new ones, but with the right ideological mindset. As someone born and raised in Eastern Europe, I have seen this going on for more than 30 years, and you folks start looking increasingly like us (and that is not a compliment).
I expect a few months down the line, they will say that they actually need more people, and then argue that the new hires will be much better than the old one. Everything else is a circus to divert attention, and it appears to be working.
I'm really surprised that Krugman hasn't pointed out the 4 Medicare/Medicaid fraudsters that Trump pardoned on 1/20/2021. They bilked us out of a combined $2 billion and change.
And then there's also the Medicare/Medicaid Senator from Florida - Rick Scott. The records are sealed but rumor has it that he stole several hundred million from Medicare/Medicaid. And Matt Gaetz's daddy did the same thing.
Well said, I came here to make those same observations! Not too many know about Daddy Gaetz because he sold the company just before the investigation, and turned the skimmed money into real estate.
Yes, and it's all so written in Project 2025.
Here is one more research:
https://open.substack.com/pub/valeriiterentev/p/musk-spreads-another-lie-about-fema?r=1npyai&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Thanks for posting!
That musical Coda this morning? They look like dudes but they aren’t. Which brings to mind which are fake ladies and which are real ladies. Same with Musk. And he brings to mind that someone needs to take Elon out to dinner — if ya know what I mean.
Another observation: it seems that Paul attracts a majority of men while Joyce Vance and Heather Cox attracts mostly women. Interesting isn’t it.
Another observation, not really true (said a woman who reads all of them).
Hear hear! Lots of women read Paul's work. Here's another one.
Me too!
I am a woman
Yes! hello, I read them, and Robert Reich.
Ditto, ditto. I'm a cis white male, age 69, who reads Krugman and Richardson every day, and Joyce Vance whenever she's brought to my attention.
Same.
Do you have any data to back up your observation? Fox news also uses wiggle words to plant a suggestion while saying nothing: "Observation" "Seems" "Interesting isn’t it"
"many people are saying... "
My personal favorite, it's an easy Trump tell that a lie is coming.
Just looking for attention - again.
What a ridiculous uninformed observation.
What's up with you, 'dude'? Something about your observations smells rotten to me. If I'm wrong, please explain.
...or anyone else, it would appear.
Inference from imputed gender of commenter avatars is shaky logic, to be polite. Let alone that those who comment are a self-selected group, maybe not a statistically valid representation of the columns readership.
Yet another woman who reads two of them and others. This is tangential anyway, possibly to troll women.
Are your first two initials RR?
This dude - I recognize him from my days reading NY MAG comments, he's a notorious troll who uses multiple identities (at least there he did) and was - if I recall correctly - blocked or removed multiple times but kept reappearing like a pustulent boil that just won't go away. The 4th grade repeating what you say back to you are his trademark, as well as one word replies like "gibberish." I'm sure I'll get some pithy reply to this.
They were. The posts on his timeline are identical to when that was his pseudonym just a couple of days ago. He changed it in the meantime.
The Purge Pretext. No question about it. It's right there in Project 2025.
Is obeisance an ideology? Kleptocracy might loosely be called an "ideology", but I think that's debatable.
I still can't help but wonder what hold Musk has on The Orange One? tRump is brash and obnoxious - a noisy con man, so what is keeping him sitting at the desk while a 3 year old picks his nose next to him... after all, he worries how he appears on TV and about his ratings. I remember a similar image of him in Helsinki with Vlad gloating next to him...
Trump is for sale to the highest bidder. In 2016 it was Putin. Now it's Musk. Having been bought and paid for Trump has to show complete deference to his owners.
I’m looking forward to the day that Trump’s lifestyle finally catches up to him and he has a stroke or cardiac event.
I feel a bit creepy myself (maybe all the Trumpmusk slime has rubbed off on me) but I find myself wishing the same. However, unlike them, I wouldn't take pleasure in anyone's suffering, or use that to prove to myself how clever and special I am. I just want them gone.
Trump and Musk could disappear immediately but the problem would remain because 77 million Americans share their world view, and another 90 million aren’t offended enough to vote.
they don't have to suffer; it can be quick and painless (?)
Well see, I'm the opposite. I don't want them dead. I want them to understand things from my point of view, to really feel how much suffering they're causing, and to care about it. Is that so much to ask?
I'd be happy if it were a permanent case of laryngitis, if there were such a thing.
That reminds of the saying "Everyone brings joy. Some when they arrive, and some when they go."
I'm not sure about the cause of death. I hear that people with Trump's lifestyle get strangled by someone named Narcissus.
Lol, love this. Narcissus drowned looking at himself in a pool of water I think. I could be wrong. It's been a hot minute since school.
Putin doesn't go in much for bribery as a means to control people, as a bribed person is always free to turn on their paymaster (either out of conscience or out of greed).
He prefers blackmail, and the fact that former girls from Jeffrey Epstein's island have accused Trump of raping them may well be key (along the fact that most of Putin's male fifth columnists in the West have form for sexual harassment).
I think Putin is flexible. Bribes, blackmail, threats - whatever gets the job done. Trump is addicted to his luxurious lifestyle which in 2016 and before was apparently bankrolled by Russia. Both through Russian loans for his businesses and money laundering for Russian oligarchs. Now that Trump has Musk, Thiel, and the Project 2025 people he isn't as financially dependent on Russia. Now Putin is apparently relying more on threats of assassination. At any rate Trump is still subservient to him as we are seeing now, both with Trump's talk of ending the Ukraine war to Russia's advantage and installing pro-Russian fellow travelers in charge of US intelligence.
Do you think there are really salacious facts from Trump's youth that could derail him and his agenda now? Suppose it came out that he had had a long affair with Ivanka and that he's the father of her two oldest kids. That's about the worst revelation I can imagine, from Trump's perspective. Would that knowledge make a dent in his base's adulation?
For some it would only increase their admiration. Yeesh.
Musk and Trump have a symbiotic relationship. Musk and other oligarchs paid to put him in office and are now flooding their social media platforms with disinformation that is justifying his implementation of more-and-more autocratic policies. We are already at the point where he is testing the waters to see if he can get away with ignoring court orders. As a political expert recently said, when the Executive can decide which court orders to obey and can decide that the Executive's orders are lawful, we are in a dictatorship.
It’s trumps only real business model, licensee deals. He has licensed out his demagoguery and MAGA to Musk to run the show. Trump is there to be cruel and perform Continous firehouse of outrageous stupidity, a distraction while they rob the country blind.
That kid is very big into the schnoz, but apparently was caught on a hot mic saying “You’re not the president and I want you to go away” and “I want you to shut your fucking mouth up” to Trump in the Oval Office during whatever we’re calling that pressconferencedebacle. Priceless.
Until reading a comment below, I didn't understand what this comment was getting at....OMG how HILARIOUS!!! His little ears have picked up on what the adults (techies, JD Vance?) have been saying when not in the company of Trump or his other handlers. When most inconvenient, the things that come out of the mouths of babes!
Directly from the mouths of babes, lol.
Biggest laugh I’ve had I. A very long time.
I think it's the $250 million he paid to have him elected president.
tRump is not submissive except with Putin and with Musk. I think they know the Orange MAGAt did something highly illegal…
Money. Musk has more money then Trump.
Musk is a catspaw for Trump (who doesn't need money anymore – he has a nation).
He's past caring. He won and will reap as much as a trillion by corruption.
Divide and conquer.
Trump's handlers are telling him that Musk is the front guy who's gonna take all the heat when the "small folks" realize they've been played and their own social safety net is gone, not just their neighbors. Robespierre. He was totally it, until he wasn't.
Moneymaker.
Elon's throwing money at Trump making him a real billionaire.
Big Guns.
Musk is happy to use his money to threaten anyone who crosses them in anyway. Primary challenges, hostile buyouts, lawfare, social media attacks.
I kind of think of Melon Musk as tRump’s Rasputin.
Maybe he just likes someone who creates all the chaos he enjoys watching while he eats burgers, dreams up weird things to add or play golf.
He doesn't have any hold on DonnyJon. He's doing exactly what DonnyJon wants to do himself, but he hasn't sworn to uphold the Constitution.
What isn’t debatable is that Muskrat Economics is an austerity program for us and a huge benefit for him .
That much is a certainty.
What’s not in 2025?
Musk is using Russel Voight to do the purge while Trump distracts with false, outrageous, crazy talk. Musk is quietly arranging the installation of AI to take over each department as he sees fit, for his advantage in everything.
There are some very smart and caring people at the Tech Policy Press. Everyone should give the link below a read and figure it out, and soon.
https://www.techpolicy.press/anatomy-of-an-ai-coup/
Animal Farm 2.0
The Heritage swine cry, Downsize! Downsize!
Lean and mean—no fat, no ties.
Yet Musk, the stallion, sniffs the air,
Sees a prize just waiting there.
In weeks, the pigs will wire the pen,
AI shall rule instead of men.
No horse to toil, no man to scheme,
Just code to dictate every dream.
From Greenland’s ice to Panama’s sand,
One great farm, one iron hand.
All animals equal? That’s passè
Now AI rules, and none say neigh.
Muskrat is no stallion, he's a pig, as is Trumpty Dumpty. The only question is, which one is Napoleon and which is Squealer?
Four legs good, two legs better!
Trump is sent by God. He is the Orange Highlighter of Corruption that SHOWS US what NOT TO DO. Unfortunately the CINO (Christian in name only) of America do not understand the message, yet.
https://www.djtpresidentiallibrary.com/are-we-ready-for-god-s-intelligence-test
When will they get enlightened?
It is worse than that. The people who already accepted this offer have no official guarantee of their buyouts, and there is reporting that some accounts and payments were already canceled outright without Congressional authority.
Musk believes he can get away with making promises of severance then simply not pay it because HE ALREADY got away with it at Twitter.
Dirty rotten scoundrels
Well, they should’ve known better. I bet those who resigned voted for him.
Many of those that resigned were going to quit this year anyway. Some people already have other jobs lined up, so there was no risk in quitting.
It’s also very much about getting the data.
Musk is trying to buy OpenAI. AI depends on having data. Connect these dots. The danger is plain to see, but we’re treating things as if they’re not connected.
Some people still call them clowns. So many are ignoring our own warnings that if trump won it will have been the last election.
People still have a wait and see attitude instead of getting a head of the problem.
I think musk wants OpenAI in order to eliminate a competitor. And do what he did to Twitter control the information that people can consume through his filters essentially making it closed AI for all of us this way, the political technologist, the posters and alternative facts campaign, a pretty picture while the house is burning down. And the masses will believe it.
I totally agree with ths comment.
Musk and Trump’s routine is actually unbelievably transparent and worthy of trashy dictatorships like Ceauscescu of Romania.
The real tragedy here is that half of the American public, knowing what a criminal and con man Trump was in his first term, chose to reelect him.
Not hiring new ones. The great AI replacement has begun. No one expected it would begin with our federal government.
https://www.techpolicy.press/anatomy-of-an-ai-coup/
Americans are so stupid these obvious lies and manipulations keep working. They just want an excuse to replace people loyal to the country with people loyal to them alone.
The fact that people who are being brought in or going along with the charade are basically swearing loyalty oaths to Trump and Musk is going to give us both a handy resources and full legal pretext to send everyone involved in this criminal coup to prison for the rest of their lives. Every. Single. One.
They don't want a radicalized center. It's not going to be Obama-time reach-across-the-aisle smiley faces next time. If they ever lose a shred power they're going to lose EVERYTHING.
Honestly I'm ready for the military to just kickstart this shit whenever. I'm checking my watch every day. Once the Constitutional crises start piling up it just may happen.
AI taking over your writings. I have the same problem.
Yup. That's Trump's business model.
If only Trump and Musk’s fathers used condoms. My civil service colleagues and I have been collecting evidence of the muskrat’s criminal fraud activity. He is falling for our traps and will end up in jail with the orange felon, where they belong. We are all FBI agents now: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/we-are-all-fbi-agents-now
Oh please make it so!
Trump and project 2025 IS following the Russia and Hungary PLAYBOOK...but...he didn't factor in the Patriotic American PEOPLE ...... fatal mistake ..... not going to work. It will likely be a fight even if they feign co-operation at some point for a bit.....it is their power and $$$ money vs us...and they will choose themselves - they MUST and we MUST...but we have 341, 145, 670 against 1 - last count
Do you even realize how few that is. I wanna believe but alas I just don't. Two thirds of the population, either by voting orange or by simply not caring enough to bother, want this. All the 50 state capital protests, great, I even participated. They don't even register in the media, local, national, social, none of it. Boycotts, super. Amazon stock went down by something like 1.8%. That's like a rounding error. I mean its like someone moved the decimal point...literally. They have more money than God. I think it's gonna take something pretty substantial, maybe even monumental, to stop this freight train from plunging off the cliff. I mean I'm here for it whatever that is but it's going to have to do better than this.
I think it's a serious mistake to assume DJT stands alone. He certainly does have company, allies, and hangers-on who will support the Trump admin. At this point our best hope is that the Trump admin gets drowned in a bathtub.
@Shauna -- sounds like you still believe in American Exceptionalism, against all evidence to the contrary
I don't believe it ..... I KNOW it...I feel it. Trump/Putin tried this out in the wrong Country....And we are only getting started...Yes...it's a huge mountain of deceit. But what is the alternative for us now ? The American People will rise... and cue Pauls music lol "Oh What a Day " nothing worth doing ...well, is usually easy. Our Freedoms since the 1940's were on the backs of the Hero's who died for that Freedom for us. Seems we now need to pick up the baton ... or we could google how bad things really are in Russia or Hungary ?? hint..having Freedom and then have Autocracy ..... will hurt like hell .... I would always bet on the People :) I feel it :)
Shauna, you're either very naive or you're a Russian troll; if the former, please STOP, because you're harming everyone.
What you "feel" isn't borne out by facts -- verifiable facts, evidence-based facts. Horrifyingly, a lot of Americans are apathetic. Forty years of ruinous GOP economic policies have concentrated massive wealth in very few hands, such that someone like fElon can buy an election and control djt, who needs felon's money to pay off his legal debts and the judgments against him. And for almost 40 years, the GOP has run an effective propaganda machine such that lots of low-info behaviors have swallowed lies (abut who is harming them) and have continued to vote for GOPs, who actually *are* harming them.
If you care at all about American democracy, then stop "feeling" and "believing" and start DOING. Join your local Dem chapter. Join Indivisible and MoveOn, and participate in the actions. Call GOP reps and sens, even if they aren't yours, and tell them you want them to shut down felon's criming NOW. Participate in the 2-28-25 buying blackout. And so on.
I never heard Captain Kirk put it just that way.
I don’t think he ever had to say please 😁 but I think Picard used the command more than Kirk.
Thank you for the flashback…good memories.
Love this! We ARE all FBI agents now!! Great article. Thanks for sharing.
One problem with that otherwise good plan: SCOTUS already told us Trump's immune, and Trump can pardon whoever he wants.
Not sure if impeachment would even work. Something else may have to remove him from office.
Tea?
Oh...and we will NEED to back up the FBI prior to an attempted roll over to the NEW "KGB or SS" is the plan...a sinister mandate for the notorious Kash Patel....Will we be SHOCKED, surprised ??? Not any longer...LOCK HIM UP ..is where we have to get to...albeit..sounds good over my coffee..they have all the advantages ...for today
Thank you for making me laugh with that first sentence.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Musk couldn't possibly get a security clearance, with his publicly acknowledged history of ketamine use. Also, Elon, I worked for the DOJ for over 39 years. Our work desktops ( later laptops) were configured to deny access to certain types of websites, and video games were off limits.
So, Elon, you're on a work improvement plan, and if you don't shape up, you're gone- and your booger picking tot is too.
Probably take it to state court in NY or CA or somewhere.
Tell us more about this evidence.
Good work, but don't plan on them in jail. Pardons. Pardons for everyone.
Having worked in the Social Security Administration for the years 1973-2008, I can tell you unequivocally we don't have 150 years olds collecting benefit! Decades ago my colleagues were involved with the Centenarian project. This meant personally interviewing 100 years old by sending a field representative to the house, nursing home etc. to determine if the person was alive, and where they were living. We also had another project that matched Medicare rolls with SSA benefit rolls, and Medicaid rolls with the SSI rolls. If there was no activity on one of those records for a period of time, a face to face interview was required. Musk is trolling us. It's shameful we have to waste any time answering trolls.
Apparently the super genius and his team of elite coders are so clueless and inexperienced that they don't realize all the birth years showing as "1875" in the SSA data is a commonly used placeholder COBOL programmers use when the birth year is unknown.
Specifically because COBOL uses the ISO 8601 format.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601
Every computer date format has a date that it references from. So for instance the Linux time_t format is an absolute time (i.e. you need a time zone to resolve it), which is stored as an integer representing the number of microseconds since Jan 1, 1970 at midnight GMT.
The ISO 8601 date format is referenced against May 20, 1875, the date of the Metre Convention.
That hilarious and sad at the same time. On a serious note - why isn’t there a blow horn countering every false statement these clowns make.
I'm sure Musk's kiddies are allergic to COBOL...
Actually, one of those Muskrats is taking a speed lesson in COBOL.
OMG! That's funny.
COBOL FOR DUMMIES
I’ll send musk the COBOL users guide for windows sitting on my desk.
Thank you for “factually” enlightening us and for your years selfless service!
Yup. Techno-faux genius Musk never heard of data entry errors or computer bugs.
It's so very disappointing how easy the trolling can be....
"there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position"
Musk has a point here. Consider Chief Justice John Roberts. Despite only making a few hundred thousand dollars a year in salary, he's managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars . . . because his wife has been systematically taking bribes from companies with business before the Court. So maybe that's how they made their money.
Or consider Justice Clarence Thomas, who likewise gets a mere pittance in salary, yet has millions accrued . . . by being given "gifts" from billionaires with business before the Court.
I'm sure these are the kinds of cases Musk is talking about. Right?
Ha - my exact comment but with better examples. Thomas is the poster child for what Musk claims to have found and yet...
I wish!
I've read in other Substacks that Musk is going after government agencies that are or have been investigating him or his companies. Once he fires agency staff, the investigations -and possible fines - disappear.
With Trump-Musk, follow the grievance, follow the money. All the rest is largely theater to distract us.
I've read that too. Specifically about Starlink and how USAID, which paid for the receivers in Ukraine, found that some had made their way into Russia and were investigating. Not only do we need to be our own FBI, we need to be our own CIA as well.
Merry, I'm glad you had details.
Plus a dose of messianic narcissism.
I worked for 25 years at a town hall in Norway, there were 16 000 inhabitants. Of course there was waste, but we worked with auditors and local politicians to find improvements. Nobody could have walked in the door and found any fraud in two days.
I doubt Musk and his band of elves could even describe in a sentence or two what these agencies do and what American interests they were created to meet.
It WASN’T an audit. It was a theft. The orange tool is just too stupid to understand that… yet. Trump will learn the hard way when his own personal information is doxxed to his enemies by Musk’s petulant little teens.
Thr Inspector General positions were created ro provide an avenue for reporting fraud and waste. The U.S. also has the GAO.
They could - if they themselves were acting fraudulently.
fake justifications AND to give to the RICH...where is Robin HOOD ??? I guess they are in the courts daily fighting back..but other hero's will emerge....The Art and Music community hasn't even gotten started yet with motivation and solidarity ..... but it only took Hitler 33 days to overthrow the entire Germain Government and we are day 24..time is of the essence
Let's hope there are plenty of American HEROES around, we sure need 'em! Hint: don't look to Hakeem for heroism. He can't figure out how to message better.
It's coming. The courts have already put up a few detours and a few Senate Republicans are beginning to stir. It's growing. When the time comes, it will explode.
Someone also tried to collect SS in my name a few years ago. I was contacted by the SS administration and the attempted fraud was stopped. The problem is: thanks to DOGE's attacks against the federal workforce and the loss of expertise, this sort of "catch" may not happen in the future.
I wonder how much money we'll "save" by not investigating tax cheaters too...
"We" save nothing. "They" save trillions. That feedback noise you hear is the sound of plutocrats waging class war against the rest of us while screaming "class war" at anyone who points out the obvious fact.
They better hope that scream can't be heard by those who are 2nd Amendment Rights nuts.
👍
Pretty sure they (the billionaires, heritage foundation, white nationalists, maga congress etc) have succeeded in their plan to break government, declare government is broken, take over said government, and destroy democracy. Whatever we are living under now, it is not democracy.
As PJ O’Rourke once wrote: “The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.” They’ve been doing it for 40+ years!
Wow, there's a name I haven't seen a long while! Thanks for jogging my memory.
Becky,
I agree with you, that we have only remnants of our treasured Democracy; although not in the Federal Government but in The Courts, in the hands of Governors, and in the spirit of Woke Democrats (the empathetic ones, not the Karen’s).
The brazenness of the Trump leading edge destruction shows that the democratic hold-outs/Resistance have a monumental fight to preserve Constitutional Democracy.
They must persist in throwing up roadblocks to harass this Trump/Oligarch scheme pending the election midterms. Then, at least Congress can join the Resistance.
Even then, the odds that an Autocracy will be defeated aren’t very good. But it’s worth the risk and effort to try.
We agree with you about the Courts being key to resisting tyranny.
The major tests will be regarding “unfair deportations”, “FBI Retributions”, “Abrupt Firings of Civil Servants” and “Musky Intrusions into Fed Financial Databases”.
The Trump AG will try every lever Trump has to discourage the Courts.
That AG is not off to an auspicious start with the Eric Adams fiasco and publicly announcing that she's "filed charges" against NY state officials, when she actually only filled a civil lawsuit that is likely to crash and burn at the first hearing.
It depends on what happens with the courts.
“This space intentionally left blank” is the most hilarious use of the phrase I’ve ever seen! I need to use it to this effect in my legal memos. 🤣 👏
I found an actual massive waste that could fill the void. get the DOGE kids on it! https://www.npr.org/2025/02/13/g-s1-48571/trump-administration-order-400-million-worth-of-armored-teslas
Thank you for writing this. I found it remarkable that after Musk’s “comprehensive” analysis of waste, he can’t understand what use USAID has for condoms.
Yesterday Trump promised us more examples. Based on what he said I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that they will be more half-truths and lies, this time probably designed to gin up anger over the migrant “crisis”.
We are about to watch the gaslighting like a fugue reaching its crescendo.
I'd have thought that (for anyone worried about migrant influxes) that condoms for Africa would be a win-win policy, especially as (unlike in almost the entire Global North) desired fertility is considerably lower than actual fertility in many African countries.
Professor Krugman: this is a prime example of how important it is to learn geography, as well as reading comprehension.
and during that "press conference" in the oval office, trump looked like a sedated zoo animal, merely present for appearanes, to be seen, whilst elon muskrat ranted in front of the cameras and his spoilt brat told trump to "shut TF up" and to "just leave" already. oh, and wiped boogers on trump's desk. it was spectacularly revolting. i hope the salivating press got their cheap clicks.
It’s great to see your “fact” based analysis.
I’d like to make two points regarding Musk’s claim: “there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position, which is what happened at USAID”
The first point is that I personally know individuals who came from wealthy families with net worths in millions and CHOSE a career in government service, rather than in business, and have loved serving their country.
And, I assume that there are lots of other ways these civil servants may have accumulated wealth - a successful spouse, investing over many years in a stock market that has soared for decades!
And, my second point is how in hell did Musk get access, if it actually exists, to this kind of personal data of Federal Employees, including USAID to make this claim???
Oh, and I guess there’s a third point too. Musk knows thanks to public information, that Senators, including many Republicans, are worth tens of millions - yet he doesn’t claim that they are guilty of fraud or corruption and that’s how they accumulated their wealth…
Finally, to the GOP congresspersons for your silence. You know better. And soon he’ll come for you.
First, the only federal employee earning "a few hundred thousand dollars" is the president with a salary of $400,000. The only people earnings over $300,000 are supreme court justices. The people earning over $200,000 but under $300,000 are the vice president and house speaker along with some doctors, dentists, and SEC examiners. None of these people could be considered bureaucrats.
Second, its weird how Musk throws out a salary of "a few hundred thousand dollars" like it is a pittance. For the great majority of people this would be a huge salary. With this type of salary many people could accumulate millions of dollars by simply investing a large chunk of it in index funds.
https://www.ntu.org/foundation/tax-page/salaries-for-members-of-congress-supreme-court-justices-and-the-president
My question is, how does he know the net worth of the individuals working there? For example, I would be surprised if my employer knew what my exact net worth is. They certainly know how much I get paid and how much 401k match I get. But how do they know what the value of my current bank and investing accounts are?
I think the obvious answer is that they wouldn't, if they were just pulling data from where they allowed to have access to. One explanation why they might have more information is that they possibly already have some people singled out and know more about them than they should. But there are plenty of other reasonable examples as to why a government employee might be wealthy (wealthy families, spouses, inheritance, investing, etc..)
It is just a witch hunt, plain and simple, and a particularly insidious one too. Show the common people examples of rich government employees, and therefore they must be defrauding the government. Very much a populist message.
Yes, I thought mainstream reporters were ignoring the significance of the net worth statement. Are they looking at financial disclosure forms for employees? Or are they cross-referencing information about employees with other federal databases, which would include tax returns? That would be consistent with the vacuuming up of data that everyone fears, but which is prohibited by law and recent judicial decisions. Why isn't a reporter asking why Elon Musk is looking at individual finances in such detail and what is the source of his information?
"Musk knows thanks to public information, that Senators, including many Republicans, are worth tens of millions - yet he doesn’t claim that they are guilty of fraud or corruption and that’s how they accumulated their wealth…"
Actually, I saw a quote just yesterday from Musk about just such a thing -
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/elon-musk-questions-congress-members-wealth-where-did-they-get-all-the-money/ar-AA1yULcj
Of course, his list included mostly Democrats...
A quote from the article you linked to. Did you read it at all?
"The top 10 traders in 2024 list was made up of six Republicans and four Democrats with five Congress members having returns of more than 100% in 2024."
And trading on insider information is not the same as using public funds or defrauding the government.
Trump has a salary of hundreds of thousands and has accrued by grift a wealth of billions (he says). Is Musk attacking Trump?
And Silent co-conspirators, most of the Dems in congress
I think you are touching on something we need to keep saying, often and everywhere: Musk is running the country, Acting President Musk, And we should refer to trump as POTUSINO (Prez ... IN NAME ONLY). It'll drive 'em all nuts.
It is quite plausible for a USAID employee to have a net worth in the 10s of millions based on a $200,000/yr salary. It's not that sinister. USAID employees typically don't pay taxes in the country where they reside, and often get housing allowances. In any case, it is a job where you can save a great deal and then invest that money in real estate and the stock market. So sure, a few canny investments 20 years ago and you might be worth $10 million today. Especially if you bought Tesla stock. Does Musk really have a problem with that? No, he's just grandstanding.
My father-in-law worked for USAID, starting circa 1959. He was no idealist, but had been born dirt poor and between ROTC and working had attended college. He loved the idea of the housing allowance and I think there were hardship bonuses for certain countries. There was nothing to spend money on in some of these countries, no shopping malls, expensive restaurants, etc. He invested 99% of his salary. You could also import things, via the embassy "big pouch", like electronic equipment and a car. When they left a country, they could sell this stuff at a profit. They were also some of the cheapest people I ever met and made every penny count. They did have a substantial net worth while he was still working, considering he and his wife had started with nothing when they married.
Musk is likely unaware of thrle Thrift Savings Plan. It was created as part of the then new retirement system for federal employees (FERS). Employees contribute a set sum of their salary and thr government matches that sum.
Employees who chose to remain in the old CSRS system could also create TSP's, but did not receive a matching contribution as we had pensions.
If an employee is prudent and than lets their TSP grow, those accounts can provide a generous return.
Examples or data would be nice to see. As a US citizen living in a foreign country I still pay US taxes and taxes in the country I live in. So I would classify your assertion another urban myth unless you can provide some verifiable data.
Brilliant! Love the “THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY…”… that got me for a minute because I noticed it (dark background) before my eyes got to reading the paragraph above. Great laugh and an even greater point. Awesome article. Thanks for writing!!
I agree, very clever. Another reason I’m pleased to be reading Paul’s column here and not in the “failing New York Times.”
"All thr 'news ' we can fit"
I have to agree. Prof Krugman going feral on Substack has been bringing me so much joy in these dark times.
THIS WAS A THEFT! Trump was played for the FOOL he is. Musk stealing our private information is not an “audit”. Teenage CODERS ARE NOT ACCOUNTANTS!
Musk already has the information you are so worried about. Social security numbers, bank account numbers, emails. He has the highest security clearances because he has NASA and military contracts for SpaceX and Tesla... We're talking about a guy who built PayPal, Tesla and owns a social media platform! Stop being so naive.
Actually he was denied that clearance. Not sure it’s been approved yet. Far from naive, just nice.