(1) I have done work for federal contractors and had to apply for a security clearance. Within 5 months, I was notified that they had denied it because I had too much credit card debt. And reports are that Musk was denied a clearance since he is a drug user (ketamine) and has foreign connections to high level foreign government members like Putin and in China. The Congressman should have done his homework on that;
(2) I did have a temporary clearance to access some classified information at that contractor. However, I didn't have a "Need to Know" most of it. Therefore I wasn't allowed to access it. Even if I had Top Secret clearance, it wouldn't have allowed me to access it unless I had that need to know for my work;
(3) At this contractor, they keep track of PII (Personally Identifable Information) in their HR department. I would NEVER have had access to that information in my work, so they wouldn't even give me access to the server it was on, much less plug other devices into the network it was connected to; and
(4) Firewalls only block outside network access into devices. Even if our personal information was on a totally separate server at Treasury, by having access to the network, they would be able to access the server that held our information. They have had no oversight from responsible people in the government.
This letter is complete BS. The Congressman should have it spread to independent media outlets, and they should ask him on camera some questions about it. To have our elected representatives saying things that are not verified shows that they should be removed from office.
Imagine what could happen if millions lose their Social Security pension checks. For one, I would be in serious financial trouble. If forced to sell their homes and to take other extreme measures, imagine what people might do in reaction. Caution MAGA.
That said, I assume that if MAGA lips are moving, they are lying, Prove me wrong!
I wish someone on the inside (who claims to be working against this) would delay those checks for 10 days. Just go into the system and delay them without their overlords knowing. And let everyone start calling and protesting. It wouldn’t even take 10 days for everyone who receives those payments to turn this around.
I’ve suggested actions along this line to my liberal activist friends. The clutch their pearls. “We couldn’t do that.”
MAGA thrives when we complain about who’s getting hurt or that we are outraged. That’s the intent.
Instead, we have to suggest what the consequences for MAGA might be. They don’t seem to anticipate negative repercussions. Like most bullies, they back down.
EXACTLY. They expect the left to always follow the rules. I'm not advocating for chaos, but the left won't beat this by being polite and following rules. We must do things to cause temporary pain to avoid the permanent pain Republicans are going to cause if they succeed.
Depends on your definition of chaos. March in the streets and risk being shot. Become the “deep state” of MAGA’s fever dreams and you can have some fun.
For the record, civil servants have always been adroit at shifting between administrations. What they’ve never been willing to do is break the law. That’s why MAGA hates them.
I know. Republicans understand that everyone else refuses to act lawlessly like they do. So they run amok. I'm not advocating for no rule of law, but I think we have to realize that they have destroyed the Constitution and rule of law.
Our 2 biggest recipients of government funds via the US budget are the military and CORPORATE WELFARE. Elon Musk has received funds from that one in the past.
Americans don’t understand that the billionaire class are the biggest recipients of corporate welfare. They get bailouts and subsidies from the government for everything, and they don’t pay taxes.
One more bit of gaslighting: it doesn’t matter if Musk has the highest level Defense Department security clearance. I’ve had that and I couldn’t go rooting around Treasury Department computers. In addition to need to know, government systems are kept separate for a reason.
Thank you for providing this additional context. I've never had to obtain a security clearance. Many Americans would probably say likewise. So it is very helpful to hear about this from those who have done it.
Thanks for breaking down all the lies in that reply. The "out of control" spending narrative is completely false. At around 24% of the GDP, Government spending is within historical norms. Here is are the numbers since 1930:
This stops. Slap them with a civil case under IRC 7213A, IRC 7344, and IRC 7431. Believe it or not, Congress did enact a regime to discourage people from browsing through taxpayer records. If Musk’s goblins looked at IRC 6103 return information then, depending upon their employment status, somebody will pay. If the goblins aren’t officially on the civil service payroll then it would potentially be one thousand dollars per record viewed.
This has to stop. Treasury employees live with “need to know” restrictions about tax information every day. Musk’s goblins had no need to know.
You are an authority on this, Stephen. Thank you for citing these code sections and the penalties. Someone on the good team needs to count up these violations and send Elonald the bill.
I called my MAGA legislators again today and said if they weren’t going to protect the Constitution and stand up against Elon,please at least alert constituents to how they can protect themselves.
Got through to one MAGA staffer and she quietly listened to my concerns about data breach /suggestions.
Also shared how environment is ripe for scams, especially targeted at seniors .Yesterday got SS scam email and bank sent email to check security levels.Visit to CU on Fri to get 💵💵 and employee said scams off the charts.
Just started wearing my Ban Billionaires Not Books 👕with +++ responses.
FL…where Republicans who used to worship DeSantis are now calling him a “big government liberal”.
I have to say Florida has a whole mafia targeted at seniors. Maybe other probably do also. But I experienced it firsthand when I was in charge of my elderly aunt who lived in South Florida. I was agog at the number of people trying to steal from her daily. People we hired to stay with her. People who rang the doorbell and tried to take advantage of her because she was elderly and alone. People who called and sent letters that looked handwritten trying to swindle her out of her home.
And instead of doing anything about this, Republicans are supercharging this theft of senior American assets and financial resources. May they all burn in the hottest part of hell.
I hope your local person at least tried to pass on your concerns. It is unconscionable that they would allow their own constituents to suffer these violations without warning them. But they have no consciences. Clearly.
And FL Republicans are just kissing the dictator/king's ring now. No big surprise to me.
Ben Franklin came to me in dream last night, He told me, "It's not illegal to be an idiot, but it should be illegal to take advantage of stupid folks."
Revision -- Ben returned to me during my evening nap to chide me for paraphrasing him badly. He wished that I would be more genteel by saying, "It's no sin to be gullible. It is sinful to take full advantage of the gullible."
My husband and I were talking about this today. How these churches have trained so many Americans not to think or question, and how the Republican Party has defunded and destroyed education to the point that many Americans don't know how to think critically.
But I think being gullible is a choice. I could've stayed in Christian Nationalism, but I didn't. I chose to ask questions. I chose to read. I chose to travel. I chose to learn to think critically. It was a lot of work, and I'll be doing it for the rest of my life. It's far easier to choose to be gullible.
Yeah. I'm battling back-and-forth with myself on how to treat family, friends and neighbors regarding their gullibility towards drumpf. They're "nice people," lol. You're a therapist, so you know how our human nature is vulnerable to the influence of everything from our childhoods and younger days. I guess that we can be excused for our ignorance but comes a time where we should become cognizant of it and grow out of acting on it.
Correction: I’m not a therapist, but I have had therapy and heartily endorse it.
Still, I understand how much early indoctrination follows us thru life. It is important to create supportive environments for children to develop and thrive as they grow. Instead, we tell children to constantly be on guard for shooters. We tell them they don’t deserve free lunches. We tell them they must follow rules that violate their family’s faith or lack thereof. We tell children they can’t be who they are.
I went to the website for “Obama’s USDS”. Interestingly, it has Not been updated for 2025, but still includes the positive mission statement and definitions within specific areas to identify its purposes, unlike the new White House pages for Departments of Eduction, Treasury, Defense, etc. So anyone being told this is the same department would not see the 2025 version of Musk’s intentions to place the government in AI mode.
Secondly, as we attempt to interfere with the attacks on privacy, we need to consider who, what department, or which law enforcement agency and judiciary is going to arrest and hold these folk accountable. We need to develop a through line for the remedy of problems through to accountability. Currently it depends on the newly approved Trump Cabinet members who lied at their confirmation hearings and have stolen control of “the definition of constitutionality”. Vance says the judiciary does not have the power to question the actions of the president. Anyone think they plan to follow the law?
They are already refusing to follow the rule of law, which in my opinion means pursuing them in the courts is necessary but also pointless. By the time these things work their way through the courts, this will be long over. And Republicans know this. The complicit legislative branch is running out the clock until the executive branch has seized enough of what they need, and then they will say, "Fuck off to anyone who tries to stop us" and will do whatever they want. We really don't want to get to that point as a country, but I fear we will, because clearly nobody in left-leaning leadership made a plan for this. Their plan was "We will file lawsuits." Not realizing the rule of law they would rely on would be null and void. Or realizing it but not having the strength to do what was necessary to stop it before it got to this point. It is an abominable situation.
A couple of thoughts:
(1) I have done work for federal contractors and had to apply for a security clearance. Within 5 months, I was notified that they had denied it because I had too much credit card debt. And reports are that Musk was denied a clearance since he is a drug user (ketamine) and has foreign connections to high level foreign government members like Putin and in China. The Congressman should have done his homework on that;
(2) I did have a temporary clearance to access some classified information at that contractor. However, I didn't have a "Need to Know" most of it. Therefore I wasn't allowed to access it. Even if I had Top Secret clearance, it wouldn't have allowed me to access it unless I had that need to know for my work;
(3) At this contractor, they keep track of PII (Personally Identifable Information) in their HR department. I would NEVER have had access to that information in my work, so they wouldn't even give me access to the server it was on, much less plug other devices into the network it was connected to; and
(4) Firewalls only block outside network access into devices. Even if our personal information was on a totally separate server at Treasury, by having access to the network, they would be able to access the server that held our information. They have had no oversight from responsible people in the government.
This letter is complete BS. The Congressman should have it spread to independent media outlets, and they should ask him on camera some questions about it. To have our elected representatives saying things that are not verified shows that they should be removed from office.
Thank you for providing this added context, Dave. Much like everything else they do, it is "security clearances for ME and not for THEE."
The more important piece is the Need to Know, which Musk and his flying monkeys don't have.
Dave, my experience was the same.
Fight gaslighting. Show people what Musk/Trump are up to and how it affects their everyday lives. Make it personal.
Where are $26,900,000,000 of your Social Security funds going? Guantanamo Bay!
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/02/09/guantanamo-bay-will-take-billions-from-social-security-funding/
How many Americans may die as Trump cuts medical research funding to give tax cuts to billionaires? Check this map!
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/02/09/nih-funding-cut-to-pay-for-billionaire-tax-cut-covid-death-count/
American farmers ruined by Musk killing USAID: Check this map
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/02/08/american-farmers-ruined-by-musk-killing-usaid-check-this-map/
We need deep discussions like my newsletter today, but we also need LOTS of individual talking points. These are all great as always, Deepak.
Thanks, Deepak, for these links!!!
Imagine what could happen if millions lose their Social Security pension checks. For one, I would be in serious financial trouble. If forced to sell their homes and to take other extreme measures, imagine what people might do in reaction. Caution MAGA.
That said, I assume that if MAGA lips are moving, they are lying, Prove me wrong!
I wish someone on the inside (who claims to be working against this) would delay those checks for 10 days. Just go into the system and delay them without their overlords knowing. And let everyone start calling and protesting. It wouldn’t even take 10 days for everyone who receives those payments to turn this around.
I’ve suggested actions along this line to my liberal activist friends. The clutch their pearls. “We couldn’t do that.”
MAGA thrives when we complain about who’s getting hurt or that we are outraged. That’s the intent.
Instead, we have to suggest what the consequences for MAGA might be. They don’t seem to anticipate negative repercussions. Like most bullies, they back down.
EXACTLY. They expect the left to always follow the rules. I'm not advocating for chaos, but the left won't beat this by being polite and following rules. We must do things to cause temporary pain to avoid the permanent pain Republicans are going to cause if they succeed.
Civil disobedience comes in many forms.
Yes.
Depends on your definition of chaos. March in the streets and risk being shot. Become the “deep state” of MAGA’s fever dreams and you can have some fun.
For the record, civil servants have always been adroit at shifting between administrations. What they’ve never been willing to do is break the law. That’s why MAGA hates them.
I know. Republicans understand that everyone else refuses to act lawlessly like they do. So they run amok. I'm not advocating for no rule of law, but I think we have to realize that they have destroyed the Constitution and rule of law.
Exactly!
Meanwhile, members of congress need to get arrested live on TV and the internet trying to enter the federal buildings.
Exactly. This is exactly the kind of thing they should be willing to do.
I suspect we might see even MAGA up in arms. Literally.
They have been saying so for a long time. Plan for that contingency.
Our 2 biggest recipients of government funds via the US budget are the military and CORPORATE WELFARE. Elon Musk has received funds from that one in the past.
Americans don’t understand that the billionaire class are the biggest recipients of corporate welfare. They get bailouts and subsidies from the government for everything, and they don’t pay taxes.
One more bit of gaslighting: it doesn’t matter if Musk has the highest level Defense Department security clearance. I’ve had that and I couldn’t go rooting around Treasury Department computers. In addition to need to know, government systems are kept separate for a reason.
Thank you for providing this additional context. I've never had to obtain a security clearance. Many Americans would probably say likewise. So it is very helpful to hear about this from those who have done it.
Thanks for breaking down all the lies in that reply. The "out of control" spending narrative is completely false. At around 24% of the GDP, Government spending is within historical norms. Here is are the numbers since 1930:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYONGDA188S
Of this 24%, Federal welfare spending is currently around 2%, also within historical norms: https://tinyurl.com/3adbfy73
They love to invent problems to justify their own greed and desire to punish others.
Thanks for sharing these links, Metis. It helps to have every resource possible to push back.
This stops. Slap them with a civil case under IRC 7213A, IRC 7344, and IRC 7431. Believe it or not, Congress did enact a regime to discourage people from browsing through taxpayer records. If Musk’s goblins looked at IRC 6103 return information then, depending upon their employment status, somebody will pay. If the goblins aren’t officially on the civil service payroll then it would potentially be one thousand dollars per record viewed.
This has to stop. Treasury employees live with “need to know” restrictions about tax information every day. Musk’s goblins had no need to know.
You are an authority on this, Stephen. Thank you for citing these code sections and the penalties. Someone on the good team needs to count up these violations and send Elonald the bill.
I called my MAGA legislators again today and said if they weren’t going to protect the Constitution and stand up against Elon,please at least alert constituents to how they can protect themselves.
Got through to one MAGA staffer and she quietly listened to my concerns about data breach /suggestions.
Also shared how environment is ripe for scams, especially targeted at seniors .Yesterday got SS scam email and bank sent email to check security levels.Visit to CU on Fri to get 💵💵 and employee said scams off the charts.
Just started wearing my Ban Billionaires Not Books 👕with +++ responses.
FL…where Republicans who used to worship DeSantis are now calling him a “big government liberal”.
I have to say Florida has a whole mafia targeted at seniors. Maybe other probably do also. But I experienced it firsthand when I was in charge of my elderly aunt who lived in South Florida. I was agog at the number of people trying to steal from her daily. People we hired to stay with her. People who rang the doorbell and tried to take advantage of her because she was elderly and alone. People who called and sent letters that looked handwritten trying to swindle her out of her home.
And instead of doing anything about this, Republicans are supercharging this theft of senior American assets and financial resources. May they all burn in the hottest part of hell.
I hope your local person at least tried to pass on your concerns. It is unconscionable that they would allow their own constituents to suffer these violations without warning them. But they have no consciences. Clearly.
And FL Republicans are just kissing the dictator/king's ring now. No big surprise to me.
Ben Franklin came to me in dream last night, He told me, "It's not illegal to be an idiot, but it should be illegal to take advantage of stupid folks."
Revision -- Ben returned to me during my evening nap to chide me for paraphrasing him badly. He wished that I would be more genteel by saying, "It's no sin to be gullible. It is sinful to take full advantage of the gullible."
My husband and I were talking about this today. How these churches have trained so many Americans not to think or question, and how the Republican Party has defunded and destroyed education to the point that many Americans don't know how to think critically.
But I think being gullible is a choice. I could've stayed in Christian Nationalism, but I didn't. I chose to ask questions. I chose to read. I chose to travel. I chose to learn to think critically. It was a lot of work, and I'll be doing it for the rest of my life. It's far easier to choose to be gullible.
Yeah. I'm battling back-and-forth with myself on how to treat family, friends and neighbors regarding their gullibility towards drumpf. They're "nice people," lol. You're a therapist, so you know how our human nature is vulnerable to the influence of everything from our childhoods and younger days. I guess that we can be excused for our ignorance but comes a time where we should become cognizant of it and grow out of acting on it.
Correction: I’m not a therapist, but I have had therapy and heartily endorse it.
Still, I understand how much early indoctrination follows us thru life. It is important to create supportive environments for children to develop and thrive as they grow. Instead, we tell children to constantly be on guard for shooters. We tell them they don’t deserve free lunches. We tell them they must follow rules that violate their family’s faith or lack thereof. We tell children they can’t be who they are.
Two considerations.
I went to the website for “Obama’s USDS”. Interestingly, it has Not been updated for 2025, but still includes the positive mission statement and definitions within specific areas to identify its purposes, unlike the new White House pages for Departments of Eduction, Treasury, Defense, etc. So anyone being told this is the same department would not see the 2025 version of Musk’s intentions to place the government in AI mode.
Secondly, as we attempt to interfere with the attacks on privacy, we need to consider who, what department, or which law enforcement agency and judiciary is going to arrest and hold these folk accountable. We need to develop a through line for the remedy of problems through to accountability. Currently it depends on the newly approved Trump Cabinet members who lied at their confirmation hearings and have stolen control of “the definition of constitutionality”. Vance says the judiciary does not have the power to question the actions of the president. Anyone think they plan to follow the law?
They are already refusing to follow the rule of law, which in my opinion means pursuing them in the courts is necessary but also pointless. By the time these things work their way through the courts, this will be long over. And Republicans know this. The complicit legislative branch is running out the clock until the executive branch has seized enough of what they need, and then they will say, "Fuck off to anyone who tries to stop us" and will do whatever they want. We really don't want to get to that point as a country, but I fear we will, because clearly nobody in left-leaning leadership made a plan for this. Their plan was "We will file lawsuits." Not realizing the rule of law they would rely on would be null and void. Or realizing it but not having the strength to do what was necessary to stop it before it got to this point. It is an abominable situation.
I get the same kind of BS from my representative Pete Stauber. I think he swallowed the Kool aid.
They fully coordinate the talking points in these responses. Repetition of propaganda and lies makes them true to the cult.
And, Andra, THANK YOU for sticking with this. Your voice continues to lead the way, and your followers provide vital and authentic information!