"HUGE red flag moment here by DOGE.
US Institute of Peace is a 501c3 - an independent non-profit entity, not a govt agency.
If DOGE can do this to USIP, what's to stop them from breaking into offices of other NGOs that receive US funds?"
-J Konyndyk
"Happening now at the USIP: "DOGE has broken into our building," acc to USIP Acting President & CEO George Moose."
-E Miolene
@georgetakei
I wrote both my senators about this and also my congress rep.
I encourage every US citizen to do the same.
I'm under no illusion that writing letters or making calls is the solution. And I'm not sure how much it will help. But we have to make our voices heard somehow and I'm unable to go to any protests in person.
"In the #tech bro world #ElonMusk comes from, the definition of "freedom" is that rich people get to treat everyone else however they like, without that pesky #government coming in to protect people's #safety, autonomy or civil #rights. As Duran explained in his newsletter, "These cities will be controlled entirely by tech #billionaires and #corporations, operating outside of #US laws.""
https://www.salon.com/2025/03/17/the-dystopian-freedom-cities-dream-fueling-elon-musks-destruction/
The dystopian "freedom cities" dream fueling Elon Musk's destruction
Tech's plans for billionaire-rule expose why #Musk wants to end #government by the people
https://www.salon.com/2025/03/17/the-dystopian-freedom-cities-dream-fueling-elon-musks-destruction/
"what the #SiliconValley billionaire class considers "freedom cities" is simply neo-feudalism, a plan to end the concept of #citizenship & make every working person a serf whose entire life is controlled by the whims of their boss. "
These Are the 10 DOGE Operatives Inside the Social Security Administration
The team working at the Social Security Admn appears to be among the largest DOGE units deployed to any #government agency.
https://www.wired.com/story/doge-operatives-access-social-security-administration/
"While it’s been unclear even to well-placed insiders what specifically #DOGE is doing inside the #SocialSecurity Admn, #Musk has repeatedly voiced his desire to “eliminate” large parts of the system"
Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 16, 2025
https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2025/03/16
#ElonMusk, #Doge & the #Trump administration are skewered in #Doonesbury #Comic strip.
"In just seven years, we shrunk the federal workforce by 426,000, consolidated 800 agencies and eliminated 640,000 pages of rules...
And you didn't notice because the process was carefully planned and responsibly executed.
It never disrupted essential public services. Compare that to now."
First the Republican Party entered a state of full-blown moral collapse. Now they are doing the same to the entire country. There will be a reckoning.
#coup #MoralCollapse #MoralInjury #corruption https://lucid.substack.com/p/we-are-living-through-moral-collapse
Rolling Stone: Outgoing Broadband Chief Issues Stark Warning Against Elon Musk
“Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” wrote Evan Feinman
Who DOGE Hurts: Gutting NOAA
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/who-doge-hurts-gutting-noaa
"the #NOAA was preparing to lay off more than 1,000 workers...
People who live in #hurricane & #tornado country keep their “NOAA #weather radios” handy...
In theory, it sounds like one more bad thing to worry about. In practice, it’s much worse. We’ve just had a demonstration of precisely how effective NOAA is & what we stand to lose without it."
The White House propaganda team now has an official "Rapid Response 47" account on Xitter that is posting straight fascist propaganda using detainees as props. Folks we don't know anything about all these people he's deporting. All we know are the claims Trump makes. I wouldn't take him at his word on any of them.
#coup #fascism #RegimeChange #Deportation
“Judges Become Targets in Combative Political Environment; Early court rulings against Trump provoke fury from some of president’s supporters”
-R Hasen
“Judges fear that the messages from on high are whipping up
THREATS & POTENTIALLY VIOLENCE AGAINST JUDGES & THEIR FAMILIES.”
#Coup #Trump #Conspirators #Musk #DeathThreats #Violence #Trump #Repubicans #Constitution #ContemptOfCourt #Treason #USPol
"I find it odious when the world’s richest man cackles about #America shoving programs for needy children “into the wood chipper.”
When you meet those dying #children and look into their eyes and hold their hands and feel faint heartbeats flutter, you can’t bear the gleeful laughter. You see children just like your own and hang your head in shame."
#GiftArticle #GiftLink
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/15/opinion/foreign-aid-cuts-impact.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4E4.H8Lx.GD39rucUfloD&smid=url-share
Tesla Autopilot drives into "Wile E Coyote" fake road wall.
"While most companies developing self-driving technologies have been using a mix of sensors (cameras, radar, lidar, and ultrasonic), Tesla insists on only using cameras."
https://electrek.co/2025/03/16/tesla-autopilot-drives-into-wall-camera-vs-lidar-test/
Since Arlington National Cemetery removed information about prominent Black, Hispanic, and female service members, as well as topics such as the Civil War, from its website, it's a reminder that the U.S. has rewritten history before. How many of us learned about the Tulsa massacre from Watchmen? Southern schools used rewritten history books glorifying the traitors after the Civil War through modern times. But the sweeping scale of the whitewashing undertaken by the lawless Trump regime is on the scale of 20th century fascist regimes. #military #racism #fascism #DOD #coup https://taskandpurpose.com/news/arlington-cemetery-scrubs-website-dei/
Robert O. Paxton's 5 stages of fascism:
1. Intellectual exploration, where disillusionment with popular democracy manifests itself in discussions of lost national vigor
2. Rooting, where a fascist movement, aided by political deadlock and polarization, becomes a player on the national stage
3. Arrival to power, where conservatives seeking to control rising leftist opposition invite fascists to share power
4. Exercise of power, where the movement and its charismatic leader control the state in balance with state institutions such as the police and traditional elites such as the clergy and business magnates.
5. Radicalization or entropy, where the state either becomes increasingly radical, as did Nazi Germany, or slips into traditional authoritarian rule, as did Fascist Italy.
Reitred Federal Judge: "What has happened with Elon Musk, well, I have called it a coup. If it succeeds, it will have been a coup. In other words, if the definition of a “coup” is a small group of people who are not elected — and there was Musk — who are taking over the power of the government, yes, I would call it a coup. I mean, he — there are challenges around the country to his authority, to Musk’s authority — Musk, who is not confirmed by Congress, who was selected by means that no one exactly knows, who was given powers that no one knows about, who is getting access to information that only government officials who have been appropriately selected can get. And if he’s successful in that — there are challenges to that. If he is successful, yes, I would call that a coup."
#coup #corruption https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/14/nancy_gertner_constitutional_crisis
"The regime won't merely use [government databases] for nefarious purposes. Musk's wrecking crew will be able to change what's inside those databases – and I believe it's a certainty that at some point they will.
Are you old enough to be collecting Social Security payments or Medicare? Musk's incels could decide that you don't deserve any of that, and delete you from the system. That's what people with access to "everything, including source code," can do. When people working in good faith are replaced by people who exemplify bad faith, expect the worst."
#coup #corruption #SocialSecurity
https://cornerstone.dangillmor.com/essentials-march-14-2025/
Trump and Musk Are Getting Their Butts Royally Spanked in the Courts
Some 25,000 federal employees will be back at work Monday. Look beyond Capitol Hill: The resistance, in fact, is strong.
https://newrepublic.com/post/192759/trump-musk-doge-court-rulings-butts-spanked
"Granted, these are temporary injunctions... But if the way the arguments unfolded Thursday is any indication... the administration has a long way to go in making arguments the #court will find credible."
