Information is valuable. A commodity even. Sometimes it’s priceless. Elon Musk isn’t the first person to try to get hold of all the information on people, businesses and even governments (not just ours) collects and maintains but he’s the first private citizen to have come up with a ruse to allow him to gain a terrifying amount of information our government collects and maintains. DOGE was a ruse, a means for him to get the access he needed.
It was all a distraction. Just as a magician carries off their magic tricks by distraction and misdirection Musk’s antics (sometimes at maniac levels) were nothing but a distraction. Chain saw images on social media for example. Jumping around the stage next to Trump. Weird appearances in the Oval Office. And the nonsensical ‘blind guy with a meat cleaver’ cuts to federal agencies (followed by “Oops” rehires sometimes) gave newsies tons of stuff to write about. All the while, Musk had a select team in agencies “looking at” all kinds of databases and archives of how things are run. And copying it!
Musk of course denied what few questions were raised about the possibility and would deny it now. Perhaps even under oath. Hell, it was only probably a couple dozen or so who did the actual work and no what he now has. A billion each should buy their silence and that would add up to mere tip money for the world’s richest man. To be fair a handful of journalists/outlets did at least raise a few questions back in the spring. However remember the environment back then.
Trump had not just major universities but iconic news outlets paying him off to keep him from coming down on them even harder. He made threats and even used government to affect media goings on. The Paramount merger for example. The intimidation was real and though some stood up to him many were afraid to. Musk knew from the start that Trump would be on a vindictive tear against anyone who’d slighted him in the past – especially news outlets and journalists. It was a PERFECT opportunity to, with Trump providing cover to conduct the biggest information theft in history.
Trump likely didn’t know, and if told Elon would copy some stuff didn’t really care. He figured HIS fat white butt would be okay and that’s all that would have mattered. Or, he might have demanded a payoff from Musk to have the carte blanche Musk’s people got. Regardless of those details, the ones that really matter is a small group of Musk’s computer experts fanned out into agencies to ‘look at things’ in the guise of ‘improving government efficiency.’ None of them had knowledge of the agencies they were sent to. Nor did they have clearances that would normally be required. Just Trump’s orders via the Cabinet heads (or acting ones) to ‘give them the access they ask for.’
It’s equally appalling and terrifying. There was palatable fear that existed from the corner offices of news outlets down to almost all journalists. Musk’s people were accessing IRS files, or Social Security’s records, or Medicare/Medicaid files or federal housing program records and so on. Any contact you’ve had with or any government agency you’ve recieved a service from is in some database somewhere. Musk’s minions got access to it all. As I’ve said sometimes questions were raised but quickly swatted aside with talk of Musk’s people being limited to “Read Only” access – they couldn’t delete or change files.
“Read Only.” Since you’re using a computer to read this I assume at times you’ve gotten a file that was read only. Or perhaps as I’ve sometimes done with my own stuff inadvertently opened it in read only form. And it’s just like the term says. You can read it but can’t make a single change. All you can do is close it. Unless you’ve got certain skills…
There ARE in fact ways to work around read only access. But that’s jumping ahead. I’m going to provide a link to an article I should have mentioned already. It explores the legality of all this and let’s just say there have been issues from the start. This analysis from the University of Cincinnati Law Review might seem a bit dauting. I supposed if you don’t like digging into discussion of laws/statutes, their history and all of it in legal type thinking and writing it could be dense. I happen to enjoy this type of thing but realizing many folks don’t I’ll try to summarize the main issue.
As Watergate unfolded and people became aware of abuses of power Congress pass the Privacy Act of 1974. For those who aren’t, or at least within five or so years of being senior citizens allow me to explain how different things like record keeping were back then. Yes, computers existed but big ones that could handle enormous amounts of data, say a database of social security accounts (not just retirees receiving benefits but everyone paying in), or all the tax filings were few and far between. They were HUGE, needing large rooms to handle what whatever the computer you’re reading this can do. They were also expensive as hell to maintain and computer time was so expensive that software teams would spend weeks, even months trying to shave off a half-second from the execution time for a standard task.
So, records were and I kid you younger folks not pretty much all paper files in manila file folders. It’s not like no one ever envisioned that one day we’d have far better and faster computers that could process information in ways people have taken for granted for several decades now. But those who wrote the privacy act didn’t do so with a digital age in mind because it was nothing but a far off dream that might not happen in their lifetimes. As things progressed it became apparent we could start creating digital records, which led to the creation of the USDS, the United States Data Service.
Careful safeguards were built into the USDA and now we get to the heart of the matter. Trump’s Executive Order creating DOGE played it as a ‘rebranding’ of USDS an DOGE would reign supreme. That’s where the legal conflicts (mess actually) began and has been playing out. Sorry to have made you sit through that but as you’ll see if you’ve stuck with me you’ll understand why. And, as I said if you’re the type who likes to do a deep dive the linked article is worth your time.
As I’ve mentioned most of Musk’s key DOGE folks parachuted in from nowhere. Trying to get names (other than the infamous “Big Balls” kid who’s last name was Constantine) they kept as low a profile as they could. I suspect staffers at agencies were fearful of losing their own jobs if they named names! Anyway, it’s true that instant clearances were granted to see sensitive and in some cases classified data/information. It’s also true that none of these people knew jack about the work the agencies they were installed in actually did. These were coders – software engineers. Talented in their limited area of understanding computer code and how information was processed but that’s all. Give them a task, say ‘create a computer program to do such-and-such’ or ‘this program does such-and-such, see if you can expand to include this or that’, or ‘make it run better.’
Or, as I believe in my heart happened her COPY it and even “Copy it without leaving evidence you did so.” The fact is, “Read Only” files can be copied. I’m sure like me you’ve copied them to your own computer. You can even forward them to other individuals and/or places. And THERE is where the truth of things should terrify everyone. I’ve taken downloaded PDF files and copied them, then converted them into a format where I CAN edit or manipulate them. I
‘ll bet you have too. In my case I freely admit that other than Microsoft Word and Excel I’m pretty much a luddite when it comes to computer stuff. I can use them and do basic maintenance like manage monthly updates, defrag the hard drive or add and delete programs/apps. The computer equivalent of checking the oil or radiator fluid on a car and adding some if needed. Maybe change an air filter. BASIC. Yet I can convert a read only file into something I can edit. Or convert a database into something I can create specific searches to create a specific subset(s) of data I want. What someone with actual knowledge and skills can do boggles my mind.
So now imagine someone with ill intent having everyone’s social security, tax, or medical data in some database having a copy of that database. Let’s say they start playing with that data after converting it from Read Only capability. Let’s go on to say they might want to take what they’ve done and use if for less than good purposes. You know the old line about ‘three types of lies – lies, damned lies and statistics’Â Imagine taking Social Security or tax data and creating a misleading picture.
Or HHS partnering up with RFK, Jr. to create misleading data about vaccinations and outbreaks of diseases, and him claiming he was using “government data!” It gets worse. What about SELLING data to businesses? Elon is addicted to money and with what he’s surely now got he could turn data mining from a Little League baseball player into the Incredible Hulk. Or, since he’s gotten his mitts into classified information he could make a fortune selling it to other governments.
In the hands of the wrong person this is as grave a threat to every American as we can imagine short of the nukes starting to fly or a well organized global attack with something like Ebola. We’ve already lost more privacy than we want to admit to ourselves. The laws haven’t kept up with the digital age, and worse prosecutions of those who violate those laws seldom happens and when it does like most white collar crime the punishment almost never comes close to being enough to deter others.
Now imagine someone like Elon Musk possessing all that information. We worried Bill Gates once had such designs but he also seemed to have a sense of responsibility about him. The Zuckerberg came along and tried to get access to and control over everyone’s personal information. At least we could console ourselves with him just being an asshole with delusions of grandeur who wanted more money. But at least he didn’t have, or seem to have bouts of crazy.
Elon Musk however is at least partially nuts. Power hungry, even more of a narcissist than Trump AND showing signs not so much of dementia but a tenuous hold on reality at time. And he does some dangerous ass drugs. It you want to wonder what could be worse than Trump, Elon Musk could very well be the answer. And every bit of information the government has ever collected from/about you is in his possession. Just like he planned it when he partnered up with Trump. He was ready to go when Trump was sworn in and while we looked at chain saw waving and crazy ass mass firings his team was going about the task he had in mind all along.
Trump enabled Musk to create an exact duplicate of Pandora’s Box and I for one have no doubt Musk did exactly that. He can open it any time he wants to, and if he thinks he might get taken down he just might. Just like Trump would do but Musk, for all his faults is smart (unlike Trump who’s always been a dumbass and a lazy one at that) could do more damage than even Trump could do.
So far Musk has behaved himself but the time may well come when he decides to use the information he should never have been allowed to collect to screw over EVERYONE.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
