"Today, the stock market dropped dramatically upon news that Trump intended to go through with his tariffs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 650 points, down 1.48%. The S&P fell 1.76%, and the Nasdaq Composite, which focuses on technology stocks, fell 2.64%."

~ Heather Cox Richardson

#Musk #Trump #Putin #StockMarket #economy #Dow #Nasdaq #SandP #tariffs #recession
/1

heathercoxrichardson.substack.…

March 3, 2025

As seemed evident even at the time, the ambush of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on Friday was a setup to provide justification for cutting off congressionally approved aid to Ukraine as it tries to fight off Russia’s invasio…

^{Heather Cox Richardson (Letters from an American)}

#Trump trashes the federal work force for not being at work in person since the pandemic, & says those who “resist this change will be removed from office immediately.”

The days of being ruled by “unelected bureaucrats” are over, Trump says.

#Democrats scoff & point up at the gallery where #Musk is sitting.

#USpol #FactCheck #TrumpLies

#Trump falsely stated that #DOGE has found “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud.” DOGE has claimed to have cut $9 billion thus far.

Trump is talking about firing federal workers & “reclaiming power from bureaucrats.” His efforts to expand presidential power by firing workers and removing independent agency leaders have been largely blocked so far in federal courts.

#FactCheck #TrumpLies #Musk #USpol

A lot of boos as #Trump praised #ElonMusk & #DOGE.

Trump is lying about something that he & #Musk have said before: that there’s massive “fraud” in #SocialSecurity being paid out to deceased Americans still in the system.

Analysts & watchdog groups have thoroughly DEBUNKED this crap.

The problem is neither new nor a sign of widespread fraud, but a technological issue w/Social Security’s tracking system & does not represent a source of significant spending.

#FactCheck #TrumpLies

🧵 reportedly, #Trump going to blame #Biden [shocker 🙄] for inflation, including egg prices specifically. The price of a dozen #eggs in US cities hit a record $4.95 in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as millions of hens have been slaughtered in the hopes of containing a bird flu outbreak.

Not for nothing, #Musk fired the folks working on #BirdFlu & Trump has an #antivaxxer, #RFKJr, in charge of the #HHS.

Anxiety Mounts Among Social Security Recipients as DOGE Troops Settle In
—

Elon Musk’s team has descended on an already understaffed Social Security Administration, which now faces further workforce cuts and closures of vital local offices. The consequences could be significant for millions of the most vulnerable Americans.
propublica.org/article/doge-so…

#News #DOGE #SocialSecurity #ElonMusk #Trump #Musk

What Are DOGE’s Plans for the Social Security Administration?

^ProPublica

"How does Elon Musk use the word 'fraud' to dismantle the US federal government?

The term is not as an attempt to describe the world, but to change it. It is a political tool, used by a politician to justify a political action: regime change to oligarchy."

~ Timothy Snyder

#Musk #Trump #FederalGovernment #fraud #firings #workers #billionaires #EconomicElites #TaxCuts #Medicaid
/3

snyder.substack.com/p/the-frau…

The "Fraud" Fraud

How DOGE destroys

^{Timothy Snyder (Thinking about...)}

"Musk's 'fraud' rhetoric is presented as an anti-politics, as something fresh and exciting. But it is in fact a politics, a very old sort, the politics of oligarchy. As he himself has made clear himself, Musk is a politician with a program. It is to disable the rule of law, leaving no barriers to his oligarchical power. In this scheme, the only parts of government meant to function are the ones used to silence people who point out this obvious truth."

#Musk #Trump #fraud #LawandOrder
/4

"A recent poll suggests that 70% of Americans believe government expenditures are filled with waste, fraud, and inefficiency....

The GOP is now broadly using the fraud trope to justify cutting any popular program. Medicaid is up next."

#Musk #Trump #FederalGovernment #fraud #firings #workers #billionaires #EconomicElites #TaxCuts #Medicaid
/2

"Musk and Trump’s focus on fraud is nothing new. Fraud has always served as a powerful political trope, one that provides a rationale for cutting government. Accusations of fraud were used to discredit Black elected officials during Reconstruction. Ronald Reagan’s Welfare Queen was an especially effective trope directed against poverty-based policies."

~ Pamela Herd and Don Moynihan

#Musk #Trump #FederalGovernment #fraud #firings #workers #billionaires
/1

donmoynihan.substack.com/p/mus…

Musk’s Fraudulent Fraud Squad

A tired trope gets a new lease of life

^{Pamela Herd (Can We Still Govern?)}

"This is not about personal liberties or free markets. It’s about making the Post more amenable to the Trump administration so that Jeff Bezos’s businesses will not be punished."

~ Jonathan V. Last

#WashingtonPost #Bezos #MediaFailure #capitulation #EconomicElites #billionaires #Musk #Trump #oligarchy
/9

thebulwark.com/p/the-washingto…

The Washington Post and Autocracy’s Asymmetric Advantage

Liberalism is afraid to take its own side.

^{Jonathan V. Last (The Bulwark)}

"When billionaires take control of our communication channels, it’s not a win for free speech. It’s a win for billionaire babble.

When they talk of 'personal liberties and free markets' they mean their own liberties to become even richer and more powerful, as the rest of America slides into greater economic insecurity and fear."

~ Robert Reich

#WashingtonPost #Bezos #MediaFailure #capitulation #EconomicElites #billionaires #Musk #Trump #oligarchy
/8

robertreich.substack.com/p/its…

It's the oligarchy, stupid.

Friends,

^{Robert Reich}

"At key moments, Leavitt visibly seethed at the media. And we think we know why: On Tuesday, consumer confidence registered another big drop, and Leavitt was simply unable to defend the glaring Trump-Musk failures we’re seeing."

#Musk #Trump #media #KarolineLeavitt #economy
/7

"At Tuesday’s media briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the White House will now decide who attends briefings, an effort to insulate President Trump from tough scrutiny. She also offered awful spin about the developing Elon Musk fiasco."

#Musk #Trump #media #KarolineLeavitt #economy
/6

newrepublic.com/article/191984…

Trump Press Sec Seethes at Media over Musk as More Bad Econ News Hits

As press secretary Karoline Leavitt snaps at tough questions over the Elon Musk fiasco, an MSNBC writer discusses how Leavitt’s display pulled the curtain back on Trump’s hidden vulnerability.

^{The New Republic}

"The Opinions section is being told what their opinions are to be, from now on. And they seem to align with current thinking by the Trump regime’s current scumbag leaders. …

From a very quick survey by me of Wapo staffers: This is the worst thing to happen to The Washington Post ever in its 147 year life, including the Janet Cooke scandal."

~ Gene Weingarten

#WashingtonPost #Bezos #MediaFailure #capitulation #EconomicElites #billionaires #Musk #Trump
/5

geneweingarten.substack.com/p/…

(Heart) Breaking News

From Update (4:30 p.m.)

^{Gene Weingarten (The Gene Pool)}

"The message could not be clearer: editorial independence is dead at the Washington Post. Opinion editor David Shipley, recognizing this fact, has already resigned rather than oversee this ideological narrowing. ...

Democracy dies in darkness? No, it dies when billionaires decide they want their media properties to serve their personal ideological agendas rather than the public interest."

#WashingtonPost #Bezos #MediaFailure #capitulation #EconomicElites #billionaires #Musk #Trump
/4

"The audacity of claiming that free market ideas are 'underserved' in American media is staggering. Has Bezos somehow missed the existence of The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Bloomberg, Fox Business, CNBC, and countless other outlets that have spent decades championing free-market capitalism?"

#WashingtonPost #Bezos #MediaFailure #capitulation #EconomicElites #billionaires #Musk #Trump
/3

"In a stunning announcement today, Jeff Bezos declared that The Washington Post's opinion section will now exclusively focus on 'personal liberties and free markets.' …

Today's announcement takes things to an entirely new level of billionaire meddling."

~ Parker Molloy

#WashingtonPost #Bezos #MediaFailure #capitulation #EconomicElites #billionaires #Musk #Trump
/2

readtpa.com/p/jeff-bezos-just-…

Jeff Bezos Just Announced The Washington Post Will Now Be His Personal Megaphone

With its new "free markets and personal liberties" mandate, democracy dies not in darkness but in billionaire ideology

^{Parker Molloy (The Present Age)}

Interview: "Federal workers are staging mass protests to Save Our Services"

“They’re trying to immiserate the working class, & they’re doing it through the federal workforce.

"It’s about gutting the services that create a safety net... because the more miserable we are, the easier it is for them to exploit us.

“The whole public sphere is at stake.”

~Chris Dols

democracynow.org/2025/2/20/dog…

#USPol #SaveOurServices #Trump #Musk #Oligarchy #GeneralStrikeNow #ResistFascism .

“Grand Theft Government”: Federal Workers Send SOS over Musk-Led Mass Firings, Service Cuts

Amid the indiscriminate dismantling of the federal government by the Trump administration’s Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, federal workers, thousands of whom could lose their jobs, are fighting back.

^{Democracy Now!}

Da der Staat sowieso kaum mehr als eine Exekutivgewalt für Big Business ist und der Staatsapparat sowieso längst mit Konzernen verschmolzen ist, ist es nur konsequent, dass ein Organ namens Staatsschutz tätig wird, um Konzerne wie Tesla und Elon Musk gegen lästigen Aktivismus zu verteidigen.

zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/deu…

#Musk #Tesla #Protest #Repression #Antireport

Protest gegen Musk bei Tesla-Werk - Staatsschutz ermittelt

Noch ermittelt der Staatsschutz gegen unbekannt. Doch Aktivisten geben sich bereits als Urheber einer Protestaktion gegen die viel diskutierte Gruß-Geste von Elon Musk zu erkennen.

^ZDFheute

Elon Musk to reporter: “We post our actions to the DOGE website. All of our actions are maximally transparent. I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization.”

Here’s the doge.gov website IN ITS ENTIRETY. It’s literally a blank page!

#Musk #doge #Trump #coup #uspolitics

Poll result: Who loves Elon in government?

On the question of who wants "Musk to have less influence over government spending & operations," nearly half of respondants said yes.

However, "nearly three-quarters of Republicans surveyed said Musk & DOGE should have 'a lot' or 'some' influence."

motherjones.com/politics/2025/…

#DOGE #Musk #Trump #USPol #PollResult #CapturedState .

ProPublica has identified three lawyers with elite establishment credentials who’ve joined the DOGE effort. Two of their names haven’t been previously reported as working for the Elon Musk-led initiative.

Here’s what we know about them: propublica.org/article/elon-mu…

#News #Law #SupremeCourt #SCOTUS #DOGE #ElonMusk #Musk #USPolitics

These Are Some of the Lawyers Working for Elon Musk’s DOGE

Much attention has been paid to the young Silicon Valley engineers working for Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, but the group has also hired high-powered legal talent.

^ProPublica

Unbelievable

#ElonMusk’s US #DOGE Service are feeding sensitive data into #AI software via #Microsoft’s #cloud

#Musk’s US #DOGE Service have fed sensitive data from across the #Education Dept into #ArtificialIntelligence software to probe the agency’s programs & spending….
The AI probe includes data w/personally identifiable info for people who manage grants, & sensitive internal financial data…

#law #security #InfoSec #CyberSecurity #NationalSecurity #Trump #TrumpCoup
washingtonpost.com/nation/2025…

Interview: I Was Fired by Trump in his Anti-DEI Purge, Gutting of Agencies

Karla Gilbride from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was fired by Trump along with two commissioners at the federal agency that enforces civil rights law in the workplace.

The EEOC was created as part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and is tasked with investigating discrimination based on race, ethnicity, sex & other characteristics.

democracynow.org/2025/2/5/trum…

#TrumpPurge #Musk #BoughtGovernment #USPol .

I Was Fired by Donald Trump: Top Lawyer at EEOC Speaks Out on “Anti-DEI” Purge, Gutting of Agencies

We speak with Karla Gilbride, the former general counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, who was fired by President Trump in late January along with two commissioners at the federal agency that enforces civil rights law in the wo…

^{Democracy Now!}

#Musk says he's working to shut down #USAID as employees told to stay home

Musk does not have the authority to shut down a government department and the legality of such a move is in question.

#USPol #auspol

bbc.com/news/articles/cdjdmx12…

Trump considers merging USAID into US State Department

The international aid agency's website is down and security officials were put on leave, US media reports.

^{Kayla Epstein (BBC News)}

Unless you don’t mind Elon Musk, and his team of unelected, illegitimate techbros sifting through all your social security personal/financial data, CALL YOUR THREE CONGRESS MEMBERS TODAY AND TELL THEM TO STOP DOGE!

Find your House Member: house.gov/representatives

Find your two Senators:
senate.gov/senators/index.htm

#musk #elonmusk #doge #trump #AI #government #techbros #hackers #coup #congress #senate #resist #fightback #america #USA #US #USAID

« #Italian gov’s possible adoption of #Starlink satellite comms system would b politicl & economic error, domestic & #EU legislators have warned, as gov doubled down on decision & #Musk revelled in the debate

If deal→signed, #Italy→1st EU country 2 formally engage w/ Musk’s #SpaceX. But would raise ?? abt its alignment w/ #European strategic priorities, including setup of EU’s #IRIS2 constellation, while potentially costing Italy jobs, sovereignty, & strategic autonomy»

euractiv.com/section/politics/…

Italy’s potential Starlink deal under fire over political, sovereignty, economic fears

Musk hinted that others will follow Italy's lead in working with his satellite communication service.

^{Alessia Peretti (EURACTIV)}

"Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars"

It's great to see someone FINALLY mention the magnetosphere issue, in the very first sentence no less, but this article rips into the idea so much more thoroughly than that, and with admirable gusto.

#skeptic #musk #mars

defector.com/neither-elon-musk…

Der Messenger #Telegram ist für eine sichere Kommunikation nicht geeignet - standardmäßig sind die Nachrichten nicht einmal Ende-zu-Ende verschlüsselt. Besser geeignet sind #Signal oder #Threema. Übrigens: Elon Musk ist das Paradebeispiel eines Trolls. Einfach ignorieren. 😉

Wer eine Entscheidungshilfe für einen Messenger sucht: messenger-matrix.de/messenger-…

#sicherheit #security #schwachstelle #e2ee #vulnerabilty #musk #durow

Finally saw the new Cybertruck in person

#meme #shitpost #StolenFromReddit #tesla #musk #cybertruck

Call me old-fashioned, but if a car kills people at ten times the rate of other cars,
the company covers up the data,
and the CEO lies to the public and says the cars are safer…

I think that CEO should go to jail on fraud charges.
#Musk #fraud #DOJ #WhiteCollarCrimeSpiking
prospect.org/justice/06-13-202…

So I understand that the bird site has started blocking links to common/known Mastodon instances, and that doesn't seem like free speech to me. So... I did a thing.

If you go to spacekaren.sucks it is now a URL shortener that blocks the twitter user agent. That means you can share that link that will redirect to your Mastodon account without the pouty baby stopping you. If you find this helpful can you boost so others can find it? #TwitterMigration #Mastodon #Musk #introduction

Can't figure out what's more unnerving:

#Musk owning #Twitter, or the people at #hive (#hivesocial) thinking star signs are on equal footing to #pronouns.