With Elon Musk and his cronies infiltrating various government agencies, Trump's buddies are being given access to way more information than should be allowed.
Public Citizen just filed another lawsuit against the Trump regime.
We are demanding an immediate halt to the massive and patently illegal invasion of privacy being carried out by Elon Musk’s “DOGE” at the U.S. Treasury Department.
This new lawsuit follows the separate one we filed — just moments after Trump was sworn in on January 20 — about how his so-called Department of Government Efficiency is operating in secrecy.
Here are the basics on this new lawsuit:
The Treasury Department possesses sensitive personal and financial information for millions and millions of Americans who send money to or receive money from the federal government.
Federal laws protect such information from improper disclosure and misuse — including by barring disclosure to individuals who lack a lawful and legitimate need for it.
But instead of protecting Americans’ private information as required by law, Scott Bessent — Trump’s jillionaire Treasury Secretary — allowed DOGE full access to the data.
And he punished the Treasury employee who — in accordance with his job duties and the law — tried to protect that information from improper access.
Public Citizen is representing the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees, and the Service Employees International Union in this case, with co-counsel at State Democracy Defenders Fund. As our new lawsuit spells out, the scale of this intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented.
This lawsuit demands an immediate end to the systematic, continuous, and ongoing violation of federal laws that protect the privacy of personal information contained in federal records.
America’s recovery will occur only when those who voted for Trump understand his true nature and goals, which are becoming more obvious everyday. His remarks in response to the recent tragedy over the Potomac were prejudiced and inconsistent. He blamed it on DEI because he believes you need white skin and male genitalia to have a difficult and responsible job. DEI hiring has been in effect since 2013, that means during Trump's tenure. In spite of his assertion that unqualified minorities are responsible for this disaster and that if we leave DEI hiring policies in effect more tragedies will occur, Trump has stated that the public should feel perfectly safe flying.
In fact, more disasters are likely as his ketamine fueled hatchet man, Elon Musk, continues to cut the federal budget without regard for the health and safety of the public. The accident may have had something to do with one air traffic controller trying to do the job of two and Mad Musk’s DOGE will likely result in more unnecessary deaths.
It is all theater, an act! Has anyone considered that the threat of tariffs with Mexico and Canada is a distraction from what Musksputin is doing? Keep attention here not there.
Yesterday morning on my way home from work I listened to Fox and Friends and Speaker Johnson was on and he said what Musksputin was doing and it was great and he was behind it!! Happy because Musksputin was finding waste, fraud, and abuse; and, they were going to be using what Musksputin finds in the Reconciliation Bill that the House will be putting forward. That Musksputin was going to go through all the Deptartments, all the while The Hosts cheered!!!!
When I got home I had to vomit, our government has turned on us!!
Joannie, the threat and actual implementation of tariffs really wasn't a distraction, or a "pressure" tactic. Trump finally saw at the last SECOND what his tariffs were beginning to do to the S&P 500 because of what Canada and Mexico were going to do with tariffs on US goods, creating a tariff war in the region. He IMMEDIATELY pulled the plug on the tariffs and got to "save face" when the two other countries came out and said they would beef up the border on their sides. Trump unequivocally blinked.
Seriously, what in the actual fuck do we expect from a guy who outright said he would do this? And, a guy who circumnavigated prosecution in the courts. And who Merchan idiotically refused to sentence BEFORE the election. And the guy who was at the core of the ultra corrupt supreme court's immunity ruling. He has their outright blessing with their ruling that if it's a presidential act, he can't be prosecuted. The challenging part is he is outright breaking the law and it has to be proven that what he is doing is not a presidential act. Good luck with that.
Mike, Trump, though, Musk's actions, cannot, by the rules of the constitution, circumvent the purse strings, especially regarding USAID, a quasi-governmental agency, not under the executive branch like DOJ and FBI, that was created AND funded by Congress. The incels and Musk are breaking the laws, accessing confidential information here and Trump has created for himself plausible deniability because Musk is a freelancing, loose cannon running amuck.
Thank you, Mary. I understand all of that. The problem is "the rules" aren't being followed and there should be zero confidence in the R majorities in both houses of Congress and a corrupt Supreme Court to enforce them. They have already showed they are unwilling to do so, willfully turning themselves into servants of Trump, not co-equal branches of government.
Musk and his group are committing treason. They should be arrested immediately and jailed. Trump actually bears the responsibility of the actions of his advisors. That he isn't reigning this in proves he's allowing it to happen.
Elon's actions are unprecedented in US history. An agent of the President who violates the Constitution and federal laws. Who is legally empowered to stop him? (I have an inkling how CS Lewis would have handled this!)
If the President and his agents ignore the Constitution, the top law of the land, I'm wondering how the federal, state and local governments, business owners and citizens should behave. If the top law of the land no longer applies in our society, perhaps chaos in the streets is the expected result. Why should I stop for a red light? Why should I pay my taxes and bills? Why should I be nice to my neighbor? Why should I pay for groceries? And if this is our near future, what is a good hedge to survive and benefit from the chaos?
The President has violated his oath of office, again. Two weeks in. Will someone tell him he's not allowed to do this? Otherwise, Elon will decide, any given day, which agencies and departments he doesn't like, shut them down (or co-opt for his own use) and millions of Americans will be harmed.
It is sad that a 91 year old man, Senator Chuck Grassley, was groveling at the Orange Emperor's feet, begging him to carve out an exception for tariffs on potash from Canada, or else Iowan farmers would have to pay far more for this fertilizer. Doesn't this ancient fart (he is even older than I am) realize that these tariffs hurt all Americans and American businesses?
I’m near the Treasury Dept, waiting for the 5:00 pm demonstration to be held there. We must protest wherever there’s an opportunity. Hopefully congressional leaders will be here and spearhead this!
Beautiful! Exquisite! Inspirational! Have you considered that the individual we need that has all of the qualities you have described is YOU?! I could get behind that!
Jamie Raskin, Adam Shiff, Eric Swalwell and many others, if given the air time, could rally this nation against Trump. Katie Porter, who lost the primary for Democratic nominee to the Senate from California to Adam Schiff, is really bright and capable of using visual aids very effectively to support her arguments against Maga and for progressivism.
Sadly Steve, the American public did vote for Musk knowing of his powerful influence over Trump and his enormous economic power over Republicans in Congress! In essence the MAGA world made him co- President. And as for violating our laws, Trump has immunity. America is in deep trouble.
True. They thought it wasn't working for them before and gave it away to trump et al despite the warnings. Wait until they realize they're getting fucked by the same people they voted for. The pain is welling up and is about to hit them right in the ass.
Every American must pay VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO ELON MUSK! TRUMP FIRED 12 WATCHDOGS! MUSK HAS TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS AT HIS FINGERTIPS! NEVER SWORE AN OATH NOT THAT IT MATTERS WITH THIS ADMINISTRATION. TRUMP IS DISMANTLING ALL PROTECTION AGENCIES! WANTS TO OWN GAZA STRIP TO DEVELOP CITIES, REAL ESTATE. ETC. THAT PIECE OF LAND IN GAZA ON THE WATER IS BEAUTIFUL! TRUMP WANTS TO MAKE IT LIKE THE RIVIERA. HE APPOINTED ALL MORONS IN HIS CABINET AND THE MONKIES WILL DO ANYTHING HE WANTS. HE OWNS ALL THE SPINELESS RUPUBLICANS!! NO GUARDRAILS ON HIM. TRUMP AND MUSK ARE GONNA SWINDLE MASS AMOUNTS OF FUNDS FROM TREASURY AND NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW! THEY AREN'T BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE! SO DISGRACEFUL! HE HASN'T DONE ONE THING FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TWO WEEKS IN CUZ HE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THEM. I WATCH THE NEWS AND THEY ALL LET EVERYTHING SLIDE. THEY HAVE THEIR HEADS UP THEIR ASSES! WTF!!! WHO'S PAYING ATTENTION!!!
20 thousand government workers were bamboozled into accepting the fraudulent 'early buy out'......'and stay home and relax or take your dream trip and get paid till September!' Didn't momma tell ya...'if a person makes an offer and says ypu only have 3 days to decide', especially if it's as critical as your career for God's sakes....its a scam. The Washington Post had an article about this....as though it was an honest offer...'Get paid thru September!!!!'. It's true that the budget doesn't even go thru September.....its a scam.
Wake up people! This impacts EVERYONE in America! This from Tristan Snell: "DOGE" does not exist. It is not a real department. It has never been a real department. Elon Musk has no legal authority and has zero congressional approval. Anything to do with "DOGE" is ILLEGAL. author of "Taking Down Trump: 12 Rules for Prosecuting Donald Trump by Someone Who Did It Successfully" @tristansnell.bsky.social. And this from MN Senator Amy Klobuchar: An unelected billionaire now has unprecedented access to U.S. citizens Social Security, tax returns, and even veteran benefits. This is an alarming breach of trust and privacy. And this from MN Senator Tina Smith: "I'm getting thousands of calls".... Your member of Congress needs to hear from you (Democrat or Republican) and that you are not okay with this or any of the garbage. They, like Mike Johnson, may not care now, but.....the longer this goes on and the more people get burned, and burned they will, the heat gets hotter and hotter and hotter on those that hurt Americans........Examples: MN CD7 is "represented" by MAGA Michelle Fischbach, but she is getting torched for her lack of concern about rural childcare. And then she and the other 3 MN Republicans reps. complain about a childcare fraud case - but she was a NO SHOW when meetings were held in HER CD7 to work on solving the rural childcare situation. And she is supporting the opening of mining in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, one of the most visited wilderness areas in America. And she claims to be Pro-life, and pro-family, and pro-child and then supports the Trump freeze on support for these very things. Up close and personal experiences need to be shared and used to show that these Bad actors and Bad actions have Bad impacts on Good people!!!
Trump is not president; Musk is president. The plutocrats used trump to get in the door, and now they will discard him and put in the theocratic, Vengeful God-fearing fascist maniac, Vance. He is the devil incarnate. The plutocrats will find a way to get rid of trump. The billionaires want all the money in the whole world, and they will attack each other like sharks with bloodlust to get it..
We are a now a full-frontal fascist nation.
Our Brand of Capitalism took 248 years to get here, and now it will be impossible to get rid of it. Our stench of captialism - aka'fascism. is entrenched. Not even burning down the whole country would solve our poroblem;-the problem of belief in Our Brand of Capitalism is what we must relinquish forever.
First, when that happens (in a few hundred years it must happen)) we have to use the New Consitution I have shown printed out in this column over and over,..
LETTER TO AMERICA
Because of the direct results of OUR BRAND OF CAPITALISM, a fascist rules our nation. We must free ourselves from fascism and establish a new constitution; the 6 necessary articles of it are shown below. We must use the techniques of Non-Violence as established by MLK and Mahatma Ghamdi and never resort to violence because violence merely begets violence. We Americans shall suffer the cruelty of all fascism until the fascists relent and by virtue of their own conscience for the cruelty they bestow upon us.
Here are my 6 articles, necessary as a basis for a new constitution
1) We the People shall treat all human being as our brothers, no matter what their skin color or place of birth originally. We are all responsible for the well-being and health of one another and shall love one another as though they are our brothers and sisters, through all adversities of life.
2) We all shall accept responsibility for the fine education, free healthcare, and guaranteed job opportunity in total equality for all women and men throughout this land. No one shall ever be unemployed as long as they are good citizens and loyal to this document's premises.
3) We, the people, shall not allow a classist society to exist with billionaires and poor side by side. The rich shall be taxed until their income is no more than two times that of the highest paid blue-collar worker
4) All housing shall be equally fine for all our people.
5) There will be no Poor class, and all citizens people will share in the national wealth equitably.
6) All citizens shall study economics thoroughly so no leader can fool them and become a demagogue. All citizens shall take two years studying the economic basis of Henry George and vote every two years on whether they want to be a Georgist society or not,
Public Citizen just filed another lawsuit against the Trump regime.
We are demanding an immediate halt to the massive and patently illegal invasion of privacy being carried out by Elon Musk’s “DOGE” at the U.S. Treasury Department.
This new lawsuit follows the separate one we filed — just moments after Trump was sworn in on January 20 — about how his so-called Department of Government Efficiency is operating in secrecy.
Here are the basics on this new lawsuit:
The Treasury Department possesses sensitive personal and financial information for millions and millions of Americans who send money to or receive money from the federal government.
Federal laws protect such information from improper disclosure and misuse — including by barring disclosure to individuals who lack a lawful and legitimate need for it.
But instead of protecting Americans’ private information as required by law, Scott Bessent — Trump’s jillionaire Treasury Secretary — allowed DOGE full access to the data.
And he punished the Treasury employee who — in accordance with his job duties and the law — tried to protect that information from improper access.
Public Citizen is representing the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees, and the Service Employees International Union in this case, with co-counsel at State Democracy Defenders Fund. As our new lawsuit spells out, the scale of this intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented.
This lawsuit demands an immediate end to the systematic, continuous, and ongoing violation of federal laws that protect the privacy of personal information contained in federal records.
America’s recovery will occur only when those who voted for Trump understand his true nature and goals, which are becoming more obvious everyday. His remarks in response to the recent tragedy over the Potomac were prejudiced and inconsistent. He blamed it on DEI because he believes you need white skin and male genitalia to have a difficult and responsible job. DEI hiring has been in effect since 2013, that means during Trump's tenure. In spite of his assertion that unqualified minorities are responsible for this disaster and that if we leave DEI hiring policies in effect more tragedies will occur, Trump has stated that the public should feel perfectly safe flying.
In fact, more disasters are likely as his ketamine fueled hatchet man, Elon Musk, continues to cut the federal budget without regard for the health and safety of the public. The accident may have had something to do with one air traffic controller trying to do the job of two and Mad Musk’s DOGE will likely result in more unnecessary deaths.
It is all theater, an act! Has anyone considered that the threat of tariffs with Mexico and Canada is a distraction from what Musksputin is doing? Keep attention here not there.
Yesterday morning on my way home from work I listened to Fox and Friends and Speaker Johnson was on and he said what Musksputin was doing and it was great and he was behind it!! Happy because Musksputin was finding waste, fraud, and abuse; and, they were going to be using what Musksputin finds in the Reconciliation Bill that the House will be putting forward. That Musksputin was going to go through all the Deptartments, all the while The Hosts cheered!!!!
When I got home I had to vomit, our government has turned on us!!
t
Joannie, the threat and actual implementation of tariffs really wasn't a distraction, or a "pressure" tactic. Trump finally saw at the last SECOND what his tariffs were beginning to do to the S&P 500 because of what Canada and Mexico were going to do with tariffs on US goods, creating a tariff war in the region. He IMMEDIATELY pulled the plug on the tariffs and got to "save face" when the two other countries came out and said they would beef up the border on their sides. Trump unequivocally blinked.
Seriously, what in the actual fuck do we expect from a guy who outright said he would do this? And, a guy who circumnavigated prosecution in the courts. And who Merchan idiotically refused to sentence BEFORE the election. And the guy who was at the core of the ultra corrupt supreme court's immunity ruling. He has their outright blessing with their ruling that if it's a presidential act, he can't be prosecuted. The challenging part is he is outright breaking the law and it has to be proven that what he is doing is not a presidential act. Good luck with that.
Mike, Trump, though, Musk's actions, cannot, by the rules of the constitution, circumvent the purse strings, especially regarding USAID, a quasi-governmental agency, not under the executive branch like DOJ and FBI, that was created AND funded by Congress. The incels and Musk are breaking the laws, accessing confidential information here and Trump has created for himself plausible deniability because Musk is a freelancing, loose cannon running amuck.
Thank you, Mary. I understand all of that. The problem is "the rules" aren't being followed and there should be zero confidence in the R majorities in both houses of Congress and a corrupt Supreme Court to enforce them. They have already showed they are unwilling to do so, willfully turning themselves into servants of Trump, not co-equal branches of government.
Musk and his group are committing treason. They should be arrested immediately and jailed. Trump actually bears the responsibility of the actions of his advisors. That he isn't reigning this in proves he's allowing it to happen.
Elon's actions are unprecedented in US history. An agent of the President who violates the Constitution and federal laws. Who is legally empowered to stop him? (I have an inkling how CS Lewis would have handled this!)
If the President's agent violates the Constitution with the President's consent, that is a violation of the Presidential Oath of Office. Impeachable.
How many Americans KNOW this?? The Democrats haven't educated Americans on what is implacable. It will therefore become.....normal
If the President and his agents ignore the Constitution, the top law of the land, I'm wondering how the federal, state and local governments, business owners and citizens should behave. If the top law of the land no longer applies in our society, perhaps chaos in the streets is the expected result. Why should I stop for a red light? Why should I pay my taxes and bills? Why should I be nice to my neighbor? Why should I pay for groceries? And if this is our near future, what is a good hedge to survive and benefit from the chaos?
The President has violated his oath of office, again. Two weeks in. Will someone tell him he's not allowed to do this? Otherwise, Elon will decide, any given day, which agencies and departments he doesn't like, shut them down (or co-opt for his own use) and millions of Americans will be harmed.
It is sad that a 91 year old man, Senator Chuck Grassley, was groveling at the Orange Emperor's feet, begging him to carve out an exception for tariffs on potash from Canada, or else Iowan farmers would have to pay far more for this fertilizer. Doesn't this ancient fart (he is even older than I am) realize that these tariffs hurt all Americans and American businesses?
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/03/grassley-trump-tariffs-congress-farm-states
I’m near the Treasury Dept, waiting for the 5:00 pm demonstration to be held there. We must protest wherever there’s an opportunity. Hopefully congressional leaders will be here and spearhead this!
Beautiful! Exquisite! Inspirational! Have you considered that the individual we need that has all of the qualities you have described is YOU?! I could get behind that!
Possible next leaders of a new Democratic Party: David Hogg, Max Frost, AOC, Chris Murphy...
Jamie Raskin, Adam Shiff, Eric Swalwell and many others, if given the air time, could rally this nation against Trump. Katie Porter, who lost the primary for Democratic nominee to the Senate from California to Adam Schiff, is really bright and capable of using visual aids very effectively to support her arguments against Maga and for progressivism.
Sadly Steve, the American public did vote for Musk knowing of his powerful influence over Trump and his enormous economic power over Republicans in Congress! In essence the MAGA world made him co- President. And as for violating our laws, Trump has immunity. America is in deep trouble.
I worry about the serfs, and how they vote, but it is not as if they care about the country.
True. They thought it wasn't working for them before and gave it away to trump et al despite the warnings. Wait until they realize they're getting fucked by the same people they voted for. The pain is welling up and is about to hit them right in the ass.
Every American must pay VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO ELON MUSK! TRUMP FIRED 12 WATCHDOGS! MUSK HAS TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS AT HIS FINGERTIPS! NEVER SWORE AN OATH NOT THAT IT MATTERS WITH THIS ADMINISTRATION. TRUMP IS DISMANTLING ALL PROTECTION AGENCIES! WANTS TO OWN GAZA STRIP TO DEVELOP CITIES, REAL ESTATE. ETC. THAT PIECE OF LAND IN GAZA ON THE WATER IS BEAUTIFUL! TRUMP WANTS TO MAKE IT LIKE THE RIVIERA. HE APPOINTED ALL MORONS IN HIS CABINET AND THE MONKIES WILL DO ANYTHING HE WANTS. HE OWNS ALL THE SPINELESS RUPUBLICANS!! NO GUARDRAILS ON HIM. TRUMP AND MUSK ARE GONNA SWINDLE MASS AMOUNTS OF FUNDS FROM TREASURY AND NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW! THEY AREN'T BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE! SO DISGRACEFUL! HE HASN'T DONE ONE THING FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TWO WEEKS IN CUZ HE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THEM. I WATCH THE NEWS AND THEY ALL LET EVERYTHING SLIDE. THEY HAVE THEIR HEADS UP THEIR ASSES! WTF!!! WHO'S PAYING ATTENTION!!!
20 thousand government workers were bamboozled into accepting the fraudulent 'early buy out'......'and stay home and relax or take your dream trip and get paid till September!' Didn't momma tell ya...'if a person makes an offer and says ypu only have 3 days to decide', especially if it's as critical as your career for God's sakes....its a scam. The Washington Post had an article about this....as though it was an honest offer...'Get paid thru September!!!!'. It's true that the budget doesn't even go thru September.....its a scam.
Choosing between Trump and Musk to run the government is like choosing between contracting Bubonic Plague and Smallpox.
Wake up people! This impacts EVERYONE in America! This from Tristan Snell: "DOGE" does not exist. It is not a real department. It has never been a real department. Elon Musk has no legal authority and has zero congressional approval. Anything to do with "DOGE" is ILLEGAL. author of "Taking Down Trump: 12 Rules for Prosecuting Donald Trump by Someone Who Did It Successfully" @tristansnell.bsky.social. And this from MN Senator Amy Klobuchar: An unelected billionaire now has unprecedented access to U.S. citizens Social Security, tax returns, and even veteran benefits. This is an alarming breach of trust and privacy. And this from MN Senator Tina Smith: "I'm getting thousands of calls".... Your member of Congress needs to hear from you (Democrat or Republican) and that you are not okay with this or any of the garbage. They, like Mike Johnson, may not care now, but.....the longer this goes on and the more people get burned, and burned they will, the heat gets hotter and hotter and hotter on those that hurt Americans........Examples: MN CD7 is "represented" by MAGA Michelle Fischbach, but she is getting torched for her lack of concern about rural childcare. And then she and the other 3 MN Republicans reps. complain about a childcare fraud case - but she was a NO SHOW when meetings were held in HER CD7 to work on solving the rural childcare situation. And she is supporting the opening of mining in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, one of the most visited wilderness areas in America. And she claims to be Pro-life, and pro-family, and pro-child and then supports the Trump freeze on support for these very things. Up close and personal experiences need to be shared and used to show that these Bad actors and Bad actions have Bad impacts on Good people!!!
Trump is not president; Musk is president. The plutocrats used trump to get in the door, and now they will discard him and put in the theocratic, Vengeful God-fearing fascist maniac, Vance. He is the devil incarnate. The plutocrats will find a way to get rid of trump. The billionaires want all the money in the whole world, and they will attack each other like sharks with bloodlust to get it..
We are a now a full-frontal fascist nation.
Our Brand of Capitalism took 248 years to get here, and now it will be impossible to get rid of it. Our stench of captialism - aka'fascism. is entrenched. Not even burning down the whole country would solve our poroblem;-the problem of belief in Our Brand of Capitalism is what we must relinquish forever.
First, when that happens (in a few hundred years it must happen)) we have to use the New Consitution I have shown printed out in this column over and over,..
LETTER TO AMERICA
Because of the direct results of OUR BRAND OF CAPITALISM, a fascist rules our nation. We must free ourselves from fascism and establish a new constitution; the 6 necessary articles of it are shown below. We must use the techniques of Non-Violence as established by MLK and Mahatma Ghamdi and never resort to violence because violence merely begets violence. We Americans shall suffer the cruelty of all fascism until the fascists relent and by virtue of their own conscience for the cruelty they bestow upon us.
Here are my 6 articles, necessary as a basis for a new constitution
1) We the People shall treat all human being as our brothers, no matter what their skin color or place of birth originally. We are all responsible for the well-being and health of one another and shall love one another as though they are our brothers and sisters, through all adversities of life.
2) We all shall accept responsibility for the fine education, free healthcare, and guaranteed job opportunity in total equality for all women and men throughout this land. No one shall ever be unemployed as long as they are good citizens and loyal to this document's premises.
3) We, the people, shall not allow a classist society to exist with billionaires and poor side by side. The rich shall be taxed until their income is no more than two times that of the highest paid blue-collar worker
4) All housing shall be equally fine for all our people.
5) There will be no Poor class, and all citizens people will share in the national wealth equitably.
6) All citizens shall study economics thoroughly so no leader can fool them and become a demagogue. All citizens shall take two years studying the economic basis of Henry George and vote every two years on whether they want to be a Georgist society or not,