A Coup in Progress: Fight the Power, No Silence, No Surrender
“There’s not a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk.”-- Rep. Jamie Raskin
I spent the early morning trying to chase down a rumor concerning half a million Social Security checks that won’t get sent due to Elon Musk’s hackers diddling with government payment systems. What I initially saw on Xitter isn’t verifiable, and it is more likely to be misinformation coming from somebody with bad intentions.
The Musketeers are diddling with government computers.
As Musk’s representatives have sought an increasing amount of data from a greater number of federal agencies, their actions have also spawned concerns about the security of classified or sensitive government systems.
Inside the Education Department, some staffers are deeply alarmed by the fact that DOGE staffers have gained access to federal student loan data, which includes personal information for millions of borrowers. Some employees have raised the alarm up their chain of management, several staffers told The Post.
DOGE team members may not be properly authorized under the Privacy Act of 1974 to see the data, experts said. That law says federal agencies cannot disclose an individual’s private information from a set of government records without the written consent of the person.
And they’re busy hiding their work, via 404 media:
The messages indicate that, under Elon Musk’s leadership, DOGE is actively taking steps to make sure its communications and records are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, a records transparency law commonly used by journalists and lawyers to hold government accountable. Instead, DOGE is asserting that rather than reporting up through the Office of Management and Budget as the United States Digital Service did for years, it is reporting through the Executive Office of the President and to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Under OMB, it was generally subject to FOIA. Under the White House Chief of Staff, records it creates are generally not subject to FOIA.
“A 25-Year-Old With Elon Musk Ties Has Direct Access to the Federal Payment System,” by Wired’s Vittoria Elliott, Dhruv Mehrotra, Leah Feiger and Tim Marchman:
“[Marko] Elez’s privileges include the ability not just to read but to write code on two of the most sensitive systems in the US government: the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). Housed on a top-secret mainframe, these systems control, on a granular level, government payments that in their totality amount to more than a fifth of the US economy. … [He’s] a 25-year-old who graduated Rutgers University in 2021 and subsequently worked at SpaceX [and X].”
Talking Points Memo additionally reports that Elez
“not only has full access to these systems, he has already made extensive changes to the code base for these critical payment system.”
Given the confusion surrounding events in Washington DC, just about any tale might be true, or it might not. Lots of bad stuff is happening, but an ever-growing part of the population seems to be catching on. There are little sparks everywhere as citizens are getting fired up about a coup in progress.
Seventeen cities nationwide saw protests against the administration’s deportation scheme. In Barrio Logan, the ramp to I5 was blocked for a bit, and a larger group set up a blockade on Logan Avenue.
This coming Sunday, the Bishops of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego are inviting people of all faiths to protest and protect from fear and deportation all our sisters and brothers who are immigrants here in our country. An interfaith service (2pm) will be held in St. Joseph Cathedral; a march will proceed from that location (2:45pm) to the Federal Building at 880 Front Street, (0.8 miles away). At 3:30 there will be a prayer vigil in front of that building, which houses many federal offices
Although it's a futile gesture at this point, Congress member Al Green of Texas announced this morning that he’s filing articles of impeachment in response to the lawlessness of the Trump administration. I’m nearly certain such a move will be quashed by the GOP House majority with the complicity of Democrats too stupid to realize the value of at least putting this idea on the table.
Groups like Third Act and Indivisible have flooded switchboards with calls and rallied outside the Treasury. Some Congressional leaders have begun to find their voice. (More info on upcoming protests below)
We need to make sure there is no misunderstanding about what is happening in ways that will affect every American. The bru-ha-ha about Trump’s proposed takeover of the Gaza strip is about nothing that will ever happen.
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) suggested that Trump was trying to distract people from “the real story—the billionaires seizing government to steal from regular people.”
Yes, there really is a top down coup in progress, which proposes to neuter our notions of separation of powers, representative democracy and create a power vacuum.
Of Course It’s Coup, by Timothy Snyder:
The ongoing actions by Musk and his followers are a coup because the individuals seizing power have no right to it. Elon Musk was elected to no office and there is no office that would give him the authority to do what he is doing. It is all illegal. It is also a coup in its intended effects: to undo democratic practice and violate human rights.
In gaining data about us all, Musk has trampled on any notion of privacy and dignity, as well as on the explicit and implicit agreements made with our government when we pay our taxes or our student loans. And the possession of that data enables blackmail and further crimes.
In gaining the ability to stop payments by the Department of the Treasury, Musk would also make democracy meaningless. We vote for representatives in Congress, who pass laws that determine how our tax money is spent. If Musk has the power to halt this process at the level of payment, he can make laws meaningless. Which means, in turn, that Congress is meaningless, and our votes are meaningless, as is our citizenship.
Pandora’s box has been opened by the oligarchs and their vassals, what happens now is up to the American people.
There Is No Going Back by Jamelle Bouie at The New York Times:
Trump may have lied about the influence of the far right on his plans, but it is clear that his voters did not anticipate anything other than a return to the status quo before the pandemic. What they’re getting instead is a new crisis pushed on by a dangerous set of corrupt oligarchs and monomaniacal ideologues. As dangerous as the president and his allies are, however, their hold on government is not as total or complete as they imagine. The president’s opponents, in other words, still have room to maneuver.
But as those opponents strategize their response, it is vital that they see the important truth that there is no going back to the status quo ante. President Trump and Elon Musk really have altered the structure of things. They’ve taken steps that cannot be so easily reversed. If American constitutional democracy is a game, then they’ve flipped the board with the aim of using the same pieces to play a new game with their own boutique rules.
And so the president’s opponents, whoever they are, cannot expect a return to the Constitution as it was. Whatever comes next, should the country weather this attempted hijacking, will need to be a fundamental rethinking of what this system is and what we want out of it.
Anything less will set us up for yet another Trump and yet another Musk.
We can’t expect the courts to put a stop to this. They can delay, and possibly obstruct some of what’s going on, but the real challenge will come from the citizenry. Plus, I don’t think reported delays in obeying court orders are being caused by chaos within agencies; some of these plotters really do think they’re above the law.
Here’s Joyce Vance, with Is It Really a Coup? writing at Civil Discourse:
The lawyers are at work, too. So far, they’ve convinced courts to enjoin Trump’s birthright citizenship plans and his effort to stop federal spending that offends his sensibilities. Today, lawyers filed two separate cases designed to prevent the FBI from firing agents who worked on January 6 cases and to keep the Justice Department from making their names public. Placing faith in the courts feels like unsteady ground in light of the Supreme Court’s willingness to give Trump a pass on criminality. Having already given him immunity from criminal prosecution for any official acts he commits, perhaps the conservative majority will see the wisdom of declining to consolidate all of the power of government in the hands of the president.
There is still plenty of fight left in our democracy, but it’s an all-hands-on-deck moment. This isn’t a coup with tanks in the streets and mobs overrunning government offices. It’s a quieter coup, a billionaires’ coup. Talk with the people around you about what’s happening and what it means if they’re not aware.
Call it what it is: A coup. Let’s make sure it doesn’t succeed.
We should all agree on this point, regardless of what the people willing to compromise on their values are saying, right? As Hamilton Nolan at How Things Work says in The Business Community Is Extraordinarily Stupid:
The business lobby’s many years of selfish conduct and support for deleterious public policies have produced so much inequality and undermined our democratic institutions so successfully that we are now watching a strongman seize control of our government. Smooth move, you fucks. You are grasping roaches. Your efforts have gotten us here.
All the Koch Brother/ Federalist Society types who invested so much money in capturing the courts for the right wing have gotten us here. All the nice Chamber of Commerce types who supported the Republican Party even as it radicalized further and further because they wanted those tax cuts have gotten us here. Some of these people still anticipate that the second Trump administration will be a prosperous time for business. They are wrong.
Putting zealots and incompetents and outright grifters in positions of great power in the government does not produce the stability and social health inherent to business growth. We, the people, will not like oligarchy, but neither—I assure you—will all the businessmen who are not, themselves, oligarchs. Watch and see.
As of this writing, there are two active elements in opposing the Muscovites’ takeover: (others may arise)
Targeted, small in size events, like just showing up outside the offices of elected officials who should (and sometimes do) know better.
And,
The upcoming expiration (mid March) of the continuing resolution to fund the government, along with the expiration of the emergency measures to raise the federal debt ceiling.
What we’re looking at is a government shutdown; Republicans will need at least a few Democrats on the Hill to go along with whatever is offered up. All Democrats have to do is say “no,” which is why the first element is critical.
Jennifer Scholtes Via Politico: Why Washington is getting nervous about a shutdown
“I don’t think anybody thinks a shutdown is a good thing. But the politics are such that we could certainly stumble into one without meaning to,” said House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.).
What about a bipartisan deal? Looking less likely by the hour, given the contentious political climate in Trump’s Washington. Dems “say any good faith agreement with their GOP counterparts is meaningless if Trump disregards the will of Congress by using ‘impoundment’ to withhold funding they pass into law.”
There are smaller demonstrations scheduled outside State Capitol buildings today in all 50 states. They are smaller because they’ll have an impact with less danger for participants.
The 1500 insurrectionists pardoned by the President are, in many cases, already working with local extremists to harass protestors. Incoming FBI Director Kash Patel is saying that federal employees can be arrested for “disloyalty.” Associate President Elon Musk is calling opponents by a variety of disparaging names, suggesting that they are breaking the law.
Indivisible has a ‘We Choose to Fight’ campaign in progress. While DC area activists are showing up outside buildings being targeted by Musk’s hackers, local groups are being encouraged to make appearances outside US Senators’ local offices to drop off petitions and letters urging them not to cooperate with any part of Trump’s agenda.
Tomorrow (2/6, 9:30 - 10:30 am), local Indivisible Chapters and allies are meeting up outside the offices of the San Diego Office of Senator Alex Padilla (600 B Street, Suite 2240 San Diego, CA 92101.)
Our messages are to demand they stand up for democracy and obstruct the illegal use of power over our Treasury, the halting of Congressionally approved foreign aid, the racist attacks on immigrants and DEI programs, and we demand they do everything possible to block the confirmation of nominees that are intent on carrying out unconstitutional actions outlined in Project 2025.
This will be a peaceful, non-violent gathering. Try to carpool with friends and bring signs. Another option is the Trolley. According to google maps, the 5th Avenue station on the MTS Blue Line, is a three minute walk to Sen. Padilla's office.
Here’s a snip from the larger plan of action:
And don’t stop at an email. Plan a district office visit this week. Show up and demand that they find their spines. You can use this toolkit to plan a visit or find one that’s already been scheduled by activists in your area.
Senate Democrats can shut this down. They have the tools (and we literally told them how):
⚡ Vote NO on every Trump nominee.
⚡ Block unanimous consent to grind Senate business to a halt.
⚡ Call for quorum checks to stall every move Republicans make.Call. Show up. Make them feel the pressure. No more complicity. No more business as usual. When we said fight, we meant fight.
Also, Call House Members. Download the 5 Calls App on your phone. Simply enter your address, and it will instantly display your Congressmembers and Senators, providing direct assistance in making calls to their offices.
The Last Days of American Orange Juice By Yasmin Tayag at The Atlantic
The primary cause is a disease known as citrus greening. When tiny, hard-to-control insects called Asian citrus psyllids feed on orange trees, they inject bacteria that floods the tree’s veins. Fruits become rancid, misshapen, and discolored, and within a few years, the tree dies. Around the world, millions of acres of orange trees have succumbed, and in the past 20 years, production in Florida’s storied orange groves, which once supplied the majority of America’s juice, has declined 92 percent. What little fruit is left on the trees gets blown to the ground by hurricanes, which are becoming more destructive in the state.
Growers have a few tools to mitigate the disease, such as antibiotic injections and plant-growth sprays to boost fruit production, but they are costly and labor-intensive to use. Many have given up and sold their generations-old groves to real-estate developers; in January, one of Tropicana’s suppliers, Alico, announced that it will no longer invest capital in its citrus operations once the current crop is harvested, because its business is no longer “economically viable.”
Citrus greening has no cure: Labs around the country are racing to develop disease-resistant trees, but research is slow because trees take up to eight years to bear fruit, Tripti Vashisth, a citrus expert at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, told me. At the rate trees are dying, a solution is likely to come too late.
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Fears for the Feds: San Diego Prosecutors Who Aided J6 Cases Face Trump Trouble by Ken Stone at Times of San Diego
On Jan. 6 — two weeks before Trump’s second inauguration — a news release crowed: “San Diego Trial Team Plays Critical Role in Landmark DOJ Effort to Prosecute January 6 Defendants.”
The San Diego DOJ release didn’t name names.
But it said five prosecutors and an intelligence analyst from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego handled more than 60 cases — including nine trials.
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FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States (Satire) via The Onion
A recently declassified CIA report confirmed that all known al-Qaeda-affiliated organizations—from Pakistan to Yemen, and from Somalia to Algeria—have been instructed to kick back and enjoy the show as the United States’ federal government, energy grid, and industrial sector are rendered impotent by internal dissent, decay, and mismanagement. According to statements made by top-level informants and corroborated by leading Western terrorism experts, if seen through to its conclusion, al-Qaeda’s current plot could wreak far more damage than the events of 9/11.
In the past year, money transfers to al-Qaeda cells around the world have reportedly been accompanied by instructions to use the funds to outfit safe houses with the proper equipment to receive American cable news broadcasts and view top U.S. news websites, allowing terrorists to fully relish each detail of the impending demise of the last global superpower.
Additionally, FBI officials made public an internal al-Qaeda video today in which the terrorist organization’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri chillingly exhorts his followers to “take a load off” and “unwind” in the name of jihad, and really cherish the victory over their enemy.
