Enemy of the people: Elon Musk

[Winehole23]

it's a literal government takeover by a foreign subversive

Let’s be crystal clear about what’s happening: A private citizen with zero Cons utional authority is effectively seizing control of critical government functions. The Cons ution explicitly requires Senate confirmation for anyone wielding significant federal power — a requirement Musk has simply ignored as he installs his loyalists throughout the government while demanding access to basically all of the levers of power, and pushing out anyone who stands in his way.

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/31/...ore-dangerous/

[Winehole23]

There also appears to be an effort to use IT credentials from the executive office of the president to access GSA laptops and internal GSA infrastructure. Typically, access to agency systems requires workers to be employed at such agencies, sources say. While Musk’s team could be trying to obtain better laptops and equipment from GSA, sources fear that the mandate laid out in the DOGE executive order would grant the body broad access to GSA systems and data. That includes sensitive procurement data, data internal to all the system and services GSA offers, and internal monitoring software to surveil GSA employees as part of normal auditing and security processes.

The access could give Musk’s proxies the ability to remote into laptops, listen in on meetings, read emails, amongst many other things, a former Biden official told WIRED on Friday.

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-mus...dministration/

[Winehole23]

Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials.

[….]

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

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

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

Again, Elon has not been nominated as an officer of the US, and the Senate has not even been given the ability to review any such nomination. Instead, he’s basically acting like he runs the government and is slashing and cutting with wild abandon.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/mus...ay-2025-01-31/

[Winehole23]

ladies and gentlemen, Mike Masnick

Millions of people actually depend on the US government functioning. You can’t just have some random jackass show up and rip out fences and assume won’t go south. They went completely south with Twitter, but that was just a random social media site people could move on from. This is the most powerful country in the world, and it’s being ripped apart by someone with no concern or care for the actual damage he’s doing.


I would be among the first to say that the federal government needs massive reform, just as I thought that Twitter needed a major overhaul (one of the reasons I wrote my Protocols not Platforms paper was to try to inspire that kind of overhaul). But there are smart ways to do it and then there’s this: which is just utter destruction while looking over his shoulder to see if the nihilistic kids who worship his every move are finding it entertaining.


There’s a crucial lesson here about thoughtful reform versus destruction: Musk’s approach to ins utions resembles a toddler “fixing” a grandfather clock by removing its pendulum. Yes, the clock needed maintenance — but now it can’t tell time at all. The federal government absolutely needs reform, but what we’re seeing isn’t reform — it’s vandalism dressed up as innovation. And unlike Twitter, where users could move to Mastodon or Bluesky (or just log off entirely), there’s no backup government waiting in the wings when Musk’s wrecking ball finishes swinging.

[Winehole23]

[Winehole23]

[Winehole23]

i need someone to ask john roberts if nondelegation applies to handing over the entire federal government to a single unelected billionaire

[Winehole23]

IF YOU DON'T ADVERTISE ON MY APP I WILL SUE YOUR ASS

gov.uscourts.txnd.393003.74.1.pdf

[Winehole23]

Who knew Biden could have just stormed into the White House, handed a friendly billionaire the keys to all the federal buildings, fired anyone who might have voted for Trump and imposed the Green New Deal, police, gun and voting reform and Roe v. Wade by force, without barely a peep from Congress.

[Winehole23]

Is there a word for when a bunch of private citizens following orders from an unelected billionaire occupy government buildings and cut off communications?

[Winehole23]

this is a coup

Congress has the power of the purse

giving an unelected, unappointed person control of the US system of payment as well as HR is a five-alarm fire

[Winehole23]

I know there are some tech savvy journalists following me, let me know if you're interested in the security outcomes of random computers being plugged into federal government department networks and I'll try to get you in touch with someone with explicit expertise who can tell you how bad it is

[Winehole23]

if the US cons ution still applies, the president can't nullify spending

[Winehole23]

Sen. Wyden testing the oversight angle, at least someone on Capitol Hill is talking about this

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., demanded answers from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent today following a report that personnel affiliated with Elon Musk have sought access to a highly sensitive Treasury Department payment system. That system, which is maintained by non-political staff, disperses trillions of dollars each year, such as Social Security and Medicare benefits, tax credits for individuals and businesses, grants and payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk-owned companies.


Senator Wyden wrote in a new letter: “To put it bluntly, these payment systems simply cannot fail, and any politically-motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy. I am deeply concerned that following the federal grant and loan freeze earlier this week, these officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programs. I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, mission-critical systems … The federal government is in a financially precarious position, currently utilizing accounting maneuvers to continue paying its bills since it reached the debt limit at the beginning of the year. I am concerned that mismanagement of these payment systems could threaten the full faith and credit of the United States.”

His letter continued: “The press has previously reported that Musk was denied a high-level clearance to access the government’s most sensitive secrets. I am concerned that Musk’s enormous business operation in China -- a country whose intelligence agencies have stolen vast amounts of sensitive data about Americans, including U.S. government employee data by hacking U.S. government systems -- endangers U.S. cybersecurity and creates conflicts of interest that make his access to these systems a national security risk.”

https://www.finance.senate.gov/chair...ayments-system

[Winehole23]

presumably there are a lot of pissed off civil servants who can speak to what's been going on

[Winehole23]

Spiegel reports that Musk now also has access to sensitive data of compe ors with regard to their financial dealings with the government.

[Winehole23]

Chuck Schumer: out to lunch

[ducks]

Chuck Schumer: out to lunch

He is old and not all their
Where are the young and upcoming liberals
Harry lol

[Winehole23]

now comes the spin

[Winehole23]

[Winehole23]

“'They seem to want Treasury to be the chokepoint on payments, and that’s unprecedented,' the person added, emphasizing that it is not the bureau’s role to decide which payments to make — it is 'just to make the f-ing payments.'"

[ducks]

No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.

[Thread]

No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.

Then?

Let us proceed...

[ChumpDumper]

No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.

Why should Elon have all your information?

[Thread]

Why should Elon have all your information?

Everybody has got it. EVERYBODY. You can't go to the in' public library and use their CPU's without them knowing precisely what you're perusing every second. You can't step out of the house in this country without cameras on every other telephone pole recording every move you make.

, Dumper, they'd be inside the wire if they could get away with it.

Grow up, Dumper.