- Paul Krugman about Elon Musk, fraudster;
- Brian Tyler Cohen on how Musk’s search for fraud is only to advance his personal interests;
- How if Musk were trying to find fraudulent spending, he would have gone in with accountants, not computer programmers, with a link to USASpending.gov;
- Connie Willis summarizes the press conference with Elon Musk, and Trump in the background;
- Short items: about 218 GOP representatives who have no purpose but to make up hysterical lies; RFK Jr. confirmed, why not a flat earther to head NASA?; How Ted Cruz thinks studying solar eclipses is “woke”; how Europe no longer relies on the US as a reliable ally; how Trump is pondering the birthright citizenship of Native Americans; how DEI is the new N-word; and how the removal of the T from LGBTQ is an Orwellian rewriting of history.
Paul Krugman, 13 Feb 2025: Elon Musk Is Faking It, subtitled “The fraudster who cried ‘fraud'”
Krugman starts with that howler about how USAID supposedly spent $50 million on condoms to Hamas. There was no evidence. (Turns out it wasn’t $50 million and it was to a province in Mozambique, not the area in the Middle East.)
Anyway, the incident demonstrated the level of care and understanding that DOGE is bringing to its alleged mission of identifying waste, fraud and abuse.
But both Trump and Musk insisted that DOGE has already found billions, maybe tens of billions, of waste and fraud. Here’s a complete list of the specific examples Musk gave during the press conference:
[ THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK ]
That’s right: Musk has yet to offer any specific examples of government waste. The closest Musk came to specifics was his assertion that DOGE had done…
Just an unlikely assertion, no names, that people 150 years old are getting Social Security.
But back to that Oval Office scene. Musk also asserted that
there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position, which is what happened at USAID
Is this true? What are these peoples’ stories, if they exist? Sorry, Elon, but why should we believe you when the obvious explanation is that you are taking us for fools?
Just as Reagan did decades ago, complaining about welfare queens driving Cadillacs. Anyway, Krugman shows how the Federal workforce has actually *declined* relative to the size of the population, ever since about 1968.
So why is Musk obsessed with reducing the federal headcount? Is he just ignorant of the basic facts? Or is all the talk about efficiency cover for a purge intended to replace professional civil servants with political loyalists? Both, if you ask me.
In particular, he’s purging inspectors and employees of government organizes who were inspecting his own organizations…
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Along the same lines, there was a story this morning about the US government agreeing to buy $400 million in armored Teslas. But the deal was retracted after the news got out. You see what he’s up to.
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Here’s a new guy I’ve seen on Facebook recently. Wikipedia: Brian Tyler Cohen. I checked out his Substack.
Brian Tyler Cohen, 11 Feb 2025: Elon’s fraud search exposed as a fraud, subtitled “DOGE is supposed to root out waste, fraud, and abuse– but thus far, it’s only served Elon Musk’s personal interests.”
The talking point being trotted out by the right is actually quite clever: Elon is rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, and if you don’t blindly support him, then you must be in favor of waste, fraud, and abuse. Let me just say, first and foremost, that I agree with his stated mission. But Elon is undermining that mission every step of the way.
Consider his intervention with USAID. First off, so as not to bury the lede: The USAID inspector general was investigating Musk’s SpaceX Starlink satellite terminals, which were purchased with agency funds. In other words, one of Elon’s first targets just so happened to be an agency that was threatening his own business interests. Not a great start.
But let’s dig a little deeper.
About how USAID was “a tool for soft power” whose services will likely be filled by… China, its Belt & Road Initiative.
Does that seem like it’s in our national interest? No. But it sure is in favor of one particular person’s interest: a billionaire who has invested a lot of time building up his portfolio in China. Tesla’s Shanghai plant is the company’s largest factory, accounting for half of Tesla’s global car production. In other words, while dismantling USAID hurts American interests abroad and hurts those who rely on America for help, it’s a gift to the one country that Elon stands to benefit from helping… while also ending an investigation into his own possible corruption. Lose-lose for America, win-win for Elon.
Followed by the dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (which conservatives hate because they dislike being regulated, especially when they’re trying to take advantage of people, as has been happening with all those predatory loans students have been saddled with for decades).
To be clear, the CFPB literally only exists to protect consumers from predatory banks and financial institutions. Its budget is about $800 million… but it’s returned over $21 billion to 205 million consumers.
…
Frankly, if he was serious about his mission of rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, he would start with the agency that serves as a poster child for financial mismanagement. The Pentagon has failed seven – SEVEN – audits in a row. And yet he starts with the CFP, the one agency tasked with helping consumers from predatory banks? With USAID, which offers medical care and clean water to Third World nations? That is why Elon’s commission looks, sounds, and smells like a sham. Because thus far, the biggest beneficiaries aren’t working class Americans, but rather Elon Musk himself.
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And via folks on Facebook…
Sarah Pinsker on Facebook (friends’ only post):
If they were investigating spending, they would have gone in with accountants. [Rather than computer programmers.] If they had a problem with what they found, the lawful way of dealing with it would have been through legislation and reallocation through Congress. A President has the right to present a budget reflecting their priorities, but not to arbitrarily cut spending allocated by Congress.
Here’s the link: USASpending.gov.
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Connie Willis, 12 Feb 2025: Today is Lincoln’s Birthday–and Tulsi Gabbard Just Got Confirmed
Mostly about the press conference by Elon Musk in the Oval Office with Trump just sitting there at his desk. Quite a long post; just a bit:
Yesterday Trump and Musk (or Musk, with Trump there) held a press conference in the Oval Office that was like nothing ever seen before:
–Trump sat slumped at the Resolute Desk, glaring, sullen, and often with his eyes closed, while Musk stood beside him, fielding nearly ALL the questions from the reporters. As Bill Palmer reported, “He just sat there, looking confused, like he didn’t know or care what was going on.”
…
–Musk stammered and spoke incoherently about what he was trying to do. He made wild accusations of kickbacks, waste, and fraud, but presented no evidence and no specifics. (A number of people online concluded he was drugged.)–Musk claimed, “We’re trying to be as transparent as possible,” and then said as proof, “We post our actions to X and the DOGE website.” (Neither of which are public.)
…
–Musk called the agencies he was gutting “the unelected fourth branch of government.” (They are in fact part of the Executive Branch and completely official.)–Musk also said, “The people voted for major government reform and that’s what the people are going to get,” and I immediately thought of H.L. Mencken’s saying, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”
–Trump looked drugged, too, and barely aware of what was happening. At one point he said he totally trusted Musk and at another roused himself to attack the judges who have ruled against him and Musk in court, saying, “So maybe we have to look at the judges because I think it’s a very serious violation,” and then sank back into himself.
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Just some headlines.
For the subtitle:
Salon, Amanda Marcotte, 13 Feb 2025: Musk took all their power, so Republicans remake Congress into a ministry of disinformation, subtitled “Do taxpayers need to pay 218 full-time GOP representatives whose only job is making up hysterical lies?”
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Nothing means anything to these people. Why not hire a flat earther to run NASA?
NY Times, 13 Feb 2025: Senate Confirms Kennedy, a Prominent Vaccine Skeptic, as Health Secretary, subtitled “The vote capped a remarkable rise for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was confirmed by a Republican Senate in a chamber where his father and uncles once served as Democrats.”
(You see the NYT style of trying to take a wide, historical, ‘fair’, perspective.)
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I completely understand how people like Cruz think science is “woke.” Because it’s real, and it doesn’t prioritize white Christian men.
NPR, 13 Feb 2025: Sen. Ted Cruz’s list of ‘woke’ science includes self-driving cars and solar eclipses
Among 3,400 NSF grants Cruz labeled “woke DEI” and advancing “neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda.”
Characterized here as “Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has labeled a solar eclipse research initiative for kids as part of the ‘radical left’s woke nonsense.'” Or is he trolling us? How could his accusations possibly make any kind of sense?
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Politico, 13 Feb 2025: Europe braces for a future without the US as a reliable ally
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Where would he send them? (America is only for white men!)
Salon, Russell Payne, 23 Jan 2025: “Excluding Indians”: Trump admin questions Native Americans’ birthright citizenship in court, subtitled “The Trump admin is leaning on a pre-14th Amendment law in its fight to redefine birthright citizenship”
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It’s the new N-word.
The Guardian, Mehdi Hasan, 11 Feb 2025: What Republicans really mean when they blame ‘DEI’
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People who read books understand this immediately, from Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.
NY Times, 13 Feb 2025: U.S. Park Service Strikes Transgender References From Stonewall Website, subtitled: “The ‘T’ was removed in references to L.G.B.T.Q.+ on the official site for the Greenwich Village monument, which marks a milestone in the fight for gay rights. Later, the Q+ also disappeared.”
Soon they will insist that there are no transsexuals, that there never were any transsexuals.
