No More Rule Of Law

Talking Poiints Memo has been considering what the publication calls “Musk’s Little Green Men.”

The little green men are the Musk operatives who have been taking over the top federal administrative agencies–the Office of Personnel Management, the OMB, GAO, the Treasury Department…).  TPM asks “Who are these guys?” and the answer turns out to be far from comforting. These Musk flunkies are young men between 19 and 24 years of age. Several are college dropouts who left to go into tech and are currently interning at Thiel’s or Musk’s companies. At least one is a “Thiel fellow.”

They know a lot about computers–and nothing, obviously, about the Constitution or the rule of law.

These interns have gained access to the private information of millions of government employees. They have connected insecure computers to the secure ones used by the federal agencies, allowing them access that could allow them to cut off payments to government vendors, Social Security recipients, humanitarian NGOs and state governments.

Like Musk, these young “techie nerds” are unelected, unappointed and unauthorized– and happily violating numerous laws.

As Josh Marshall writes,

In other words, hard right, techno-red-pilled bros, who now have access to things like your social security checks (whether you get them or not), your financial and, likely in some cases, medical records and at least the ability to shut down whole sections of the federal government at will by simply turning off their funding spigots. (Not good!) It sounds crazy and absurd to think that individual people could have that kind of power absent anything the law recognizes. But this is what it means when you’re this far up (or down, choose your metaphor) in the brain stem of the national government. This is what it means when you have access to the central Treasury Department payment network. You can simply turn off a spigot of funding. (I’ve now had it described to me precisely how you do it.) If you have that access, whether it’s legal or not isn’t relevant. The best analogy I can provide is that there’s some person at your bank who could just change a setting and suddenly all your checks and payments would be rejected and your funds would be frozen. Now imagine if “you” is NIH or USAID or … well, Social Security.

Musk is claiming that they’ve “found” $4 billion dollars of “waste” a day, and is threatening to turn it off. Of course, what Elon Musk considers “waste” is undoubtedly similar to the version of “free speech” with which he destroyed Twitter’s utility and credibility. 

Whether Musk’s version of “waste” is accurate or not, however, is beside the point. What he and his band of techie hackers are doing is illegal. Monumentally illegal. 

Senator Ron Wyden has challenged the hacking–noting that Musk lacks a security clearance and has multiple conflicts of interest. (The full text of his letter is available here.

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.”

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.

Americans did (narrowly and with the help of significant voter suppression) elect one megalomaniac, but no one cast a vote for Elon Musk. No voter, no legislative chamber, no public official was empowered to authorize his takeover of vital federal agencies, or the substitution of his opinion about expenditures for that of Congress.

While Trump diverts public attention by undermining what had been the world’s strongest economy, terrorizing immigrants and making the country safe for White Christian Nationalists, Musk is managing the coup.

Neither respects–or obeys–the law.

26 Comments

  1. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) appeared on PBS News Hour last night and cheered on Musk & Co.’s intrusions into our personal data and his disruption of essential governmental functions, despite the threat to national security and despite the clear illegality of his actions. Republicans in Congress, en masse, are supporting the coup without reservation.

  2. one mistake,hack or allowing private enterprise to comprimise any of this stops stuff. now how may russians and others are trying to hack into this, and what happens when its locked up/out for ransom? seems wall street didnt,like the point fall on MTV tarrifs,hense the 25 day delay.. yea right. whos in charge here?

  3. A federally legalized group of blooming Edward Snowdens with Trump and Musk support and SCOTUS’ immunity for Trump’s Executive Orders and other actions protecting them.

    Trump is determined to “take over” another country; he is floundering around the swamp seeking support when other countries express no interest in his takeover. He now has a strong support from another national leader in Israel’s Bibi to take over Gaza. Another Trump hotel and golf course location? What will Musk’s DOGE provide for this action?

  4. You have to give credit to this action for its boldness, whether you like it or not. This is illegal and un-Constitutional, and they are simply ignoring that and taking over. Bold. Evil and wrong, but very bold. And. As long as the US Congress is left wriggling in the dirt like the spineless worms we are learning that they are, and the SCOTUS is compliant, the coup has been accomplished.
    One thing that worries me is this: there is a paradigm shift happening in our country. What happens after the paradigm has shifted? Everything goes back to normal and we live in the new paradigm, as if there was never any other way to think about it. The Overton window has moved, and what was once unthinkable in America has happened, or will happen if we do not act swiftly and strongly.
    We cannot wait for the government to do something. That would be a long wait.
    And where is the media? I watched PBS last night and there was no mention of the coup except for Senator Johnson who, as J. Street mentioned above, has already obeyed. Has there been any coverage on any of the mainstream media?

  5. Ron Johnson has always been the turd in Wisconsin’s punch bowl. Remember his trip to Russia a few years back?

    What has to happen before the worms in Congress act to prevent total collapse of our government is for Trump to be gone. Doesn’t matter how. Vance, et. al., don’t project the fear of not being re-elected to those guys that the orange hairball does.

    The Democrats look like they’re stepping up to the plate and taking off the “we go high” gloves – finally. We’ll see very soon what they can do. Meanwhile, as many of us on this blog have written, the baboons are in the pantry and being exceptionally stupid. That kind of stupid means that they have no clue OR care about the consequences of their actions. When things collapse, these idiots will turn around and say, “What happened?”

  6. We are experiencing a pandemic, and MTV Inc. (Musk, Trump, Vance) is now spreading computer viruses from .gov computers to others.

    The operatives are amateurs who do not know how everything is connected. I see no evidence that they know you and I are connected and part of that network.

    Trump is the membrane outer shell of the virus, protecting it from our immune system’s search for and destruction of threat systems.

    This could well be a fatal infection. I’m so sorry.

  7. I’m worried sick, but more so because of the lack of any action to stop it. The tiptoe approach is a failure. Are we this vulnerable to scammers and lunatics? Is there not even one guard rail? Where are we going and why am I in this hand basket??

  8. If the Democrats are done listening to Michelle Obama, they could refuse to enter the Chambers and vote to confirm Trumpolini’s nominations. This would violate standard protocols, but as Sheila mentioned above, Musk and Trump have already deviated from them. If they think it is a coup, don’t participate in it. Work stoppage!

    The media is ignoring the EOs signed by Trumpolini declaring a national emergency, giving him broad powers. If he wants DOGE to do something, they can.

    Wyden’s bogeyman scare is just nonsense. China doesn’t need to steal data about Americans, and neither does Russia. Neither of those countries is a national security risk. As Edward Snowden revealed, the US government is THEE national security risk in this country and everywhere that USAID and NED set up shop.

    AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, X, Google, Verizon, and others collect everything we do online and send it to the NSA. They collect every keystroke, email, and text. Our smartphones, TVs, Fitbits, and other devices collect data about us and store it on massive black site NSA servers. Julian Assange told us two decades ago that Google was much more than a search engine. That’s why he created Wikileaks, which was 100% encrypted so the governments couldn’t access whistleblowers’ data. Americans were told to hate Assange and Snowden. Guess who’s relevant again? They were just way ahead of their time.

    The Tech Bros taking over Washington were almost all beneficiaries of In-Q-Tel venture capital funds (CIA). They were screened and vetted and agreed to the demands made upon them. Thiels’ models came from scrapped government projects. Congress wouldn’t fund them due to legality, but Silicon Valley emerged, and those models of spying and collecting our data were okay because it was a “private company.”

    This is fascinating to watch, and we are only two weeks into it…

  9. The thing that I am not seeing very many people think about, and I would like to make sure that we do… they can not just turn off payments, they can *change* data in the system. They can make any private individual or public entity *look* as if they have committed tax fraud. Or voter fraud. And then use that to justify whatever they want to do against that individual or entity, including whatever other dictatorial move they would like to take next…

  10. Todd – “If the Democrats are done listening to Michelle Obama, they could refuse to enter the Chambers and vote to confirm Trumpolini’s nominations. This would violate standard protocols, but as Sheila mentioned above, Musk and Trump have already deviated from them. If they think it is a coup, don’t participate in it. Work stoppage!”

    OMG – “violate standard protocols” – that’s what “Profiles in Courage” do when democracy is threatened. That’s what John McCain protested when he saved Obamacare by turning down his thumb for his vote.

  11. Scott Lehigh in today’s Boston Globe: ” it will be up to this country’s indifferently informed, easily deceived, readily distracted citizenry to discern the truth and defend democracy.” I wouldn’t count on that….

  12. Please stop using your energy to comment here and pick up the phone and call Todd Young. I was practically weeping in my phone call. Tell him, as I did, that Musk violates auditing principles. If he wants to make a difference – then have an audit plan not ninja IT guys. Call Banks (even if it is a lost cause ) and make his assistants listen to you. If you have Republican representatives – call them. The Dems have to speak up. How would Republicans who own businesses (oh that’s you Mike Braun) – want auditors coming in like Ninjas? More phone calls. More outrage. Take the outrage from these pages and put it to use. Please even though I do enjoy the comments here.

  13. Where are the guard rails? Why has this been allowed to continue? Okay–the democrats in DC are feckless and mainstream media is owned by the billionaires and so ‘real’, investigative reporting stopped many, many years ago.
    I don’t expect much from people–historical human nature demonstrates are ability to ‘fold’ to perceived power en masse; but to learn that our institutions are unable to stave back a coup in only 2 weeks is alarming and disappointing.

  14. Vern, I don’t think that anyone in the MAGAT world would ask what happened.
    It’s far more likely that they will simply blame Biden and his crime family for whatever fiasco they have created.

    Todd, has there ever been a time in human history that change was accepted without sacrifice? Assange was among the first of the online journalists. Never expect the general public to give credence to anyone who does something radical or new.

    Dan, any coder worth his or her salt can turn off payments, without changing any data. All you need is access to the source code.

    The quorum in both houses is a majority of the members, and in the House a quorum is considered present unless it’s proven not to be. However, I’m not sure that people who have no problem violating the Constitution, can be counted on to adhere to “Robert’s Rules of Order”.

  15. Phillip Bump in today’s Post: “The resulting risk is that Trump gets what he wants: A presidency that diverges from how American presidents have served in the past in favor of a presidency that resembles how Russia’s president serves in the present.”

  16. Well, anyone with a brain could have seen this coming a mile off, actually more than a mile! And it could have been prevented with one simple edict?! National emergency, martial law! There is no use in complaining about the cost of a ticket, after the train left the station.

    Everyone knew when that train was going to leave, and the consequences of it. And still, the train left on time, and most are standing there picking their nose.

    The Jerusalemites said to Jeremiah: ‘God is not interested in the earth. He has forsaken it. He will not do good or evil. Even if The end times come someday, it will not come in our day, not in this generation.’ The warning witness is indifferently brushed aside by millions who merely fail to act upon it. That indifference is enough to
    those smugly indifferent or those whose supposed superior intelligence will not let them consider the warning, who brush it aside with an airy dismissal that deluded simpletons were warning of the world’s end in their father’s day or grandfather’s day, who say things will go on as they have in times past, should remember that the scoffers reasoned the same in Noah’s day and in Lot’s day and in Jeremiah’s day. The apostle Peter warned of the presence of such superior scoffers in the “last days”. 2nd Peter 3:3-7.

    As it was in the time of Noah, so will it also be in the time of the Son of Man. Men were eating and drinking, taking wives and giving wives, up to the very day Noah entered the Ark, and the Deluge came and destroyed them all. As it was also in the time of Lot; they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building; but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from the sky and destroyed them all. Exactly so will it be on the day that the veil is lifted from the Son of Man.” (Luke 17:26-30,

    All fiction? Actually, it really does align with prophetic writings. All what’s happening, and what has happened in the past, cannot so easily be written off as a delusional illusion. Somewhere down the line here, the unregistered people will not be able to get the basic rights that humans should have. They will not be able to buy food, they will not be able to acquire shelter, they will not be able to receive medical care, they will not be able to acquire education!

    Papers Please! Ihre Papiere bitte! No papers? Execution or concentration camp, really one in the same.

  17. Mr. Nice Guy, and standard procedure for the Dems has to be over!
    “Nice” just makes people like Trump salivate.

  18. I have a suggestion for those who live in the Indianapolis area: contact the office of Congressman Andre Carson and request that he schedule a town hall, which is what Hakeem Jefferies suggested. His local office number is: (317) 283-6516. If he does schedule a town hall–SHOW UP AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

  19. I attended the 5050 1 march in Indianapolis today. It was well-attended and peaceful. The signs were varied and to the point…all of the many points. After marching around the statehouse once, taking a few pictures and talking to a few people, I went home, feeling pretty good about the beginning of an opposition.

  20. My husband and I also attended the demonstration at the Statehouse today. There were hundreds of people all concerned about our Democracy and the hostile illegal takeover of the checkbook of Federal Government. A lot of support was shown/heard by passing traffic too. This Indiana protest added into the other 49 States protests will be noticed.

  21. Trump stated to the world he wants to take over Gaza and remove all Palestinians. His press secretary, when question at the press conference about the issue, said Trump wants to rebuild Gaza FOR the Palestinians. Being deaf, I need to ask if anyone else saw this press conference and was there actually musical background for the limbo dance governing they are performing? And who filled out her dance card?

  22. How much danger are we in as individual citizens in terms of having our indentities stolen, bank accounts compromised, etc? Are there steps we as individuals can take to minimize our personal risks? Please address this in a column soon.

  23. The dems are getting an AUDIT of their slush fund /payback accounts. American taxpayers want it cleaned up. The DEMs have been found out – they created it and now it’s going to STOP. No wonder they are shrieking. Elon is just exposing it and he could give a rats ass about your “private” info. Wasn’t it the LEFT that targeted conservative groups with the DOJ and IRS.
    Your party is OVER….. Team Trump – America First back in charge.
    DEAL WITH IT – YOU LOST and are losing more and more each day. People are sick of your liberal agenda! Clamor all you want about your perceived impending doom of the Trump administration while your own house is burning to the ground. Oh it must be climate change?????

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