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Elon Musk Closes Deal - Owns Twitter

lizkat said:
To get back to the thread topic of Mr. Musk....

www.borowitzreport.com

Musk Tricks Trump Into Signing Reverse Mortgage on White House

“Maybe it’s time for your home to start taking care of you," Musk said.
www.borowitzreport.com www.borowitzreport.com

Honestly sometimes the only way I can get myself to read anything online in the morning is to start with The Borowitz Report.
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I’m pleased with the vibe on Mastodon, it tends to run liberal, I’ve seen people selling fried MAGOTs but no MAGOTs selling Orange Cheetos.
 

Elon Musk made a virtual appearance at a rally for the far-right Alternative for Germany party on Saturday, reiterating his support ahead of the country’s Feb. 23 snap election and telling the crowd that it’s time to “move on” from “past guilt.”

The Tesla CEO addressed the crowd alongside party leader Alice Weidel, saying that the party is the “best hope for Germany” and calling to “preserve German culture” and “protect the German people.”

“Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents,” Musk said, seemingly referencing the country’s history with the Nazi party.

“It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” Musk added, to cheers from the crowd of some 4,500 people.
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Truly the Henry Ford of our generation.
 
Pumbaa said:
Truly the Henry Ford of our generation.
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I used to think that, but then I read about Ferdinand Porsche. Yeah, that porsche.

Porsche was a member of the Nazi Party and an honoraryOberführer of the Allgemeine SS, of the German National Prize for Art and Science, the SS-Ehrenring and the War Merit Cross.
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An important contributor to the German war effort during World War II, Porsche was involved in the production of advanced tanks such as the VK 45.01 (P), the Elefant(initially called "Ferdinand") self-propelled gun, and the Panzer VIII Maus super-heavy tank, as well as other weapon systems, including the V-1 flying bomb
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Yeah...
How the fuck does this happen?

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  • Musk aides restrict access to federal employee data systems
  • Musk's team works around the clock, installs sofa beds at OPM
  • Concerns include cybersecurity and lack of oversight
WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - 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.
Since taking office 11 days ago, President Donald Trump has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.

Musk, the billionaire Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab CEO and X owner tasked by Trump to slash the size of the 2.2 million-strong civilian government workforce, has moved swiftly to install allies at the agency known as the Office of Personnel Management.
The two officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said some senior career employees at OPM have had their access revoked to some of the department's data systems.

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.
Musk, OPM, representatives of the new team, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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I hope these teams setting up beds at OPM aren't like the teams that WERE at Twitter. They are in for a rude awakening when this is all over. There's a reason emo loves H1B visas, you can be gone five minutes before you realize it when emo wants.
 
Jay Mysteri0 said:
Yeah...
How the fuck does this happen?




I hope these teams setting up beds at OPM aren't like the teams that WERE at Twitter. They are in for a rude awakening when this is all over. There's a reason emo loves H1B visas, you can be gone five minutes before you realize it when emo wants.
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At this point, it doesn’t matter how illegal it is. Trump won’t prosecute, and we can see that Republicans in Congress are already wearing out their knee pads, just 11 days in.
 
Jay Mysteri0 said:
Yeah...
How the fuck does this happen?
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Jay Mysteri0 said:
I hope these teams setting up beds at OPM aren't like the teams that WERE at Twitter. They are in for a rude awakening when this is all over. There's a reason emo loves H1B visas, you can be gone five minutes before you realize it when emo wants.
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They're exactly like that. The aides he appointed have moved the OPM's agency management officer to a different office on a different floor to get her out of the way. They shut down database access to career civil servants except for email (so they can ask questions or fire them, one supposes)... He's running a key federal agency as though it is just another of his private fiefdoms.... and as if the data belongs to him personally.
 
More on how great it's been going at the office of personnel management under Musk's rearrangements

www.yahoo.com

Trump Broke the Federal Email System and Government Employees Got Blasted With Astonishingly Vulgar Messages

Reply All Turns out that putting a bunch of teenagers in charge of the federal government's HR agency wasn't the smartest move. Late last night, a recently unearthed exploitation in the Office of Personnel Management's new DIY email server reportedly leaked several email lists to the public. As...
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com
 
lizkat said:
More on how great it's been going at the office of personnel management under Musk's rearrangements

www.yahoo.com

Trump Broke the Federal Email System and Government Employees Got Blasted With Astonishingly Vulgar Messages

Reply All Turns out that putting a bunch of teenagers in charge of the federal government's HR agency wasn't the smartest move. Late last night, a recently unearthed exploitation in the Office of Personnel Management's new DIY email server reportedly leaked several email lists to the public. As...
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com
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One point had been raised that this shit should alienate any competent federal employee regardless of political views. the GOP agenda might be to weaken the fed gov, but trump's power is ultimately wielded through the federal government.
 
We are so fucked

GivjdsoWsAAKRXX


www.msnbc.com

Opinion | There are several reasons Musk wants to control Treasury payments. None of them are good.

An unelected and unaccountable billionaire wants to dictate what working families can and cannot afford.
www.msnbc.com www.msnbc.com
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It’s barely been two weeks, but Elon Musk’s attempts to run the federal government like one of his businesses have already resulted in a level of chaos and inefficiency we’ve never before seen in Washington.

Earlier this week, the White House took a page straight out of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s playbook and attempted to freeze federal funding for SNAP, Medicaid and other programs working families rely on — a move so disastrous that the courts intervened and the administration had to reverse course. Musk and his allies have also been busy firing the federal workforce, offering “deferred resignations” and replacing longtime civil servants with his personal lackeys. The Office of Personnel Management, the key staffing agency for the entire federal government, is being run by a cadre of Musk cronies.
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And Friday, the highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department, David A. Lebryk, reportedly resigned after refusing to hand Musk’s lackeys the keys to the government’s entire payment system and the $6 trillion in payments the system processes annually.

The Treasury’s payment system is responsible for delivering trillions in Social Security payments, Medicare benefits and more to millions of Americans across the country. It’s not yet entirely clear what Musk plans to do with this system, which has historically been overseen by a small number of career officials. But a few possibilities have emerged.

First, accessing the Treasury’s payment system could be a path to freezing government funding, as the administration attempted earlier this week. Musk could halt payments to programs like Medicaid, Meals on Wheels, Head Start and more, maneuvering around the courts. Musk has already directed his engineers to find ways to turn off the flow of money to programs he and President Donald Trump oppose. With the keys to the Treasury’s payment system, he can unilaterally cut off these funds right at the source.
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Musk could also get his hands on the “Do Not Pay” system that lists individuals or contractors the government has blacklisted, theoretically granting him control over whom the government does business with. Government contracts have been central to Musk’s $400 billion net worth; his companies have signed billions of dollars’ worth of government contracts. He could easily place his rivals on the Do Not Pay list or turn the spigot back on for friends who have been blacklisted.

While the Trump administration has sworn up and down that it will not touch Social Security and Medicare, it’s hard not to question whether this access would put these payments right in DOGE’s crosshairs. Initially, Musk pledged that DOGE would cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. Achieving that goal is nearly impossible without going after Medicare and Social Security. And though Musk has since tempered expectations on the commission’s cost-cutting goals — saying there is “a good shot” at cutting $1 trillion — even a reduction of that size would do incredible damage to our country’s social safety net.

Nor is Musk chasing these cuts for their own sake. He’s helping congressional Republicans attempt to pay for a new round of tax breaks for corporations and the ultrawealthy — including Musk himself.
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Ranking member Wyden of the Senate Finance Committee did send a letter to Bessent (Trump's new head of Treasury) asking for details on this whole issue of classified data access by DOGE hires. Not clear if, when or how he got any personalized response short of a possible shrug and "watch this" kind of behavior from Musk after Bessent had granted the access.

www.finance.senate.gov

The United States Senate Committee on Finance

Wyden Demands Answers Following Report of Musk Personnel Seeking Access to Highly Sensitive U.S. Treasury Payments System
www.finance.senate.gov
 
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