68 Comments

This is absolute insanity, the illegality of what is happening is beyond comprehension. If any of us walked into a bank and robbed it, or a store and stole something, we would be carted off to jail. But Trump and his lackeys are stealing the entire government and nothing is really happening. I feel like I am going insane.

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You're not going insane. The world is.

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Excellent summary. Keep up the good work. Thank you.

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According to the information about SGEs, Leon Elon should be sitting in a cell awaiting trial. Unfortunately, the AG is a puppet.

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1. Why isn’t anyone talking about Trump’s failure to comply with 5 USC 903 when he created DOGE (which says that only Congress can restructure an agency)? 2. It is all very well to talk about how many laws Musk is breaking, but who is going to enforce them? Certainly not Trump’s DOJ. 3. Has anyone looked at Musk’s South African roots? What was USAID doing in South Africa during the end of apartheid? He seems to have a personal vendetta against that agency, and many people around the world are going to die while he extracts his revenge. He has a conflict of interest and never should have been allowed anywhere near DOGE.

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Valid points Stodd

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What bothers me most is how weak our federal laws are when it comes to so many things in our government. That is why 47 and Republicans can disregard existing laws and traditions.

If we ever get people in office that truly care about and love our country and all its citizens, we should clearly codify what can and cannot be done in government office. No more laws suits— have every thing clearly in writing.

We should also have clear term limits. No more buying justices and politicians for life. And clearly defined what Federal Government should do.

Americans have little knowledge of their history or government. Some people don’t even know where all the states are in this country.

Our Ignorance is why Musk and Republicans can get away with so much , along with ingrained “ isms” and hatreds.

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The laws are clear. They are being ignored, and no one is enforcing them. (Pam Bondi? Seriously?). Part of our problem may be as simple as Musk’s not having grown up in this country and not absorbing “love of country” the way American children do, but that doesn’t explain Trump. The bigger problem is greed. Laws and morals can’t compete with good, old-fashioned greed.

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I agree with you on some points. Greed- absolutely!!

Many people talk of Trump in terms of health, but I have decided not to believe that is basis for what is happening.

Still believe laws need strengthening. Folks who have observed government much longer and better than I have mentioned need for change.

Musk , like so many see only what they can get out of our country. Not surprised bc that is the way South Africa and all of African countries are viewed— places to blunder- and sadly Africa and her people suffer.

Glad for Sub Stack. Can exchange ideas.

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WHAT? Musk tried Canada before he came to America. He was looking for a country to Rule. Even in Volunteer organizations there are always those who do not want to be an officer. . .they want to rule behind the stooge who is elected.

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If we had fewer "dear colleagues" in the Senate we might be able to Right this Ship of Evil. However, when ALL Democrats vote for Rubio and those bleating about MTV (MuskTrumpVance) had not voted for John Ratcliffe and Scott Bessent and Douglas Collins - as Democrats we might have felt better about the State of the Union

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Got it‼️

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It is important to avoid slippage even for a second in calling this a Department. You are inadvertently giving this effort more legitimacy. Please be more precise and careful.

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I agree here.

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Apparently Musk has determined that there is no conflict of interest in moving our air traffic control system to be dependent on his Starlink company. one more crime in the crime spree.

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Right now he is responsibile for the death of the 67 people needlessly killed by a lack of coverage thanks to his firing of the head of the FAA (by the way an elegant, brilliant white man) but then the FAA called out Musk on his violations!

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2dEdited

The crash was a tragedy, but it is wrong to unfairly politicize it. An acting FAA administrator would not have prevented this crash more than you or I (an actual air traffic controller) could have prevented it.

We still don't know why the helicopter didn't maintain visual separation with the aircraft, and we may never know it, but that operation is done a thousand times a day, Trump in office or not

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We were left without dearly needed personnel and had one person doing the job meant for two [one for the helicopter, one for the large jet]. Here's the "politization":

"Elon Musk, a close Trump advisor who also heads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had called for Whitaker’s ouster after the erstwhile FAA chief proposed more than $600,000 in fines for SpaceX — Musk’s aerospace firm."

Whitaker had 4 more years to go in his contract.

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Air traffic control wasn't the cause of the crash. Whitaker could not have prevented the crash.

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Extraordinary work. We need this more every day.

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Excellent reporting! Watch your back!

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Nice review. Well written. Thank you. You launched with original reporting and it moved the needle. Give us a sense of where you will be headed with your own reporting?

Is Musk acting alone? Who has actual knowledge of what is going on? How do we know this? What does POTUS know or understand? This will be important to track.

Can Musk be held personally accountable for damages and harm? Is he in big trouble—or not?

Republicans are banking on the fact that nobody wants to live All Elon, All The Time. They think this will go away. What we need is for Elon to go away. They think there will be no harm done. We need to track the harm done. Somehow the reporting needs to get under his skin and not just feed his narcissism. That will be a tricky job.

The key to handling everything, everywhere, all at once is being calm and methodical. Maybe establish a few categories of interest or misconduct using strong, catchy keywords so we can all grab on to?

Your last paragraph is important. Help us to clearly and simply see the facts about what is/was being done versus what supervisors or spokesman said at the time. This includes POTUS. I.e. What they said/what DOGE did. Dates and times will matter.

Again thank you for this great reporting.

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So, Musk is going to kill NOAA and the NWS because they report on climate? It sure is going to be fun until the hurricanes and tornadoes devastate red states and no one saw them coming. And Musk in the ATC system? Trump, Duffy and Musk have already crashed three planes (one yesterday in Alaska), how unsafe to they want to make it to fly? Does he understand that this will make it unsafe for his Gulfstream too?

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They record first. Report second. Those actions take essential data collection away from the people. Frightening.

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There might be a bright side, though. If there won't be proper hurricane warnings and FEMA's been eliminated so federal disaster relief is curtailed, then the red states might learn a valuable lesson when they're next hit by a hurricane. A very painful lesson, but it probably has to be in order to sink in.

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Why has Musk not been arrested yet? Talking in Congress is as lame a response as the Democrats could possibly do. Where is the calling for Musk's arrest in every news media at every opportunity until that becomes the mantra of the day?? Where is calling out Trump and the press secretaries lies with follow up questions??? Soon we'll have Stalin like kangaroo courts and all we get in response is handwringing ...

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Krister, I just want to amplify you because these are the big questions people out here are asking.

Why hasn’t he been arrested?

Why aren’t people abandoning their Teslas by the side of the road? Walking away from jobs at his companies? Protesting to their boards about an incompetent CEO? Why aren’t investors pulling out of his companies and ventures? Why aren’t bankers calling in his loans?

From one side we see Musk brazenly serving his self interest. Let’s look from other side—to see the total disregard he has for the consequences on investors, shareholders, workers and customers.

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He hasn’t been arrested because POTUS and DOGE immediately fired or caused the resignations of the heads of the DOJ & the FBI & replaced with their cronies so no law enforcement would stop him. I knew we were in trouble as soon as that happened.

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There's no one left in the pressers except right wing pseudo news outlets. The press secy has an easy job nowadays.

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All of this is absolutely terrifying. My father worked for the FAA for 27 years (plus 8 AF). My father was responsible for hiring ATC’s after Reagan fired the lot in 1981. Dad saw them after they tested. He ran a Flight Service Station, which was Tower support in those days. I’ve been around Towers and the FSS’s my entire life, since the mid 60’s. I swear when 45/7 says FAA he thinks it’s just controllers. And an automated system can NEVER take over human error and mechanical failure. I worked for the TSA in the beginning and they lost my SF-86 twice. So I’m completely out on the dark web and have to lock things down. That was OPM, so who knows what today’s employees will deal with. My life also evolved around weather. Both for the FAA and mom who was from Oklahoma (tornadoes). The thought of not having the National Weather Service to advise through storms is also terrifying. I might have more experience with this than the average person, but it doesn’t mean the population can live without it. Thanks for your hard work, Judd.

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Will Musk and his entourage write and publish for review/comment the specifications for this new traffic control system? I expect it needs to coordinate with other countries? Will he run full testing? A parallel system until proven? And all of the other steps taken when large critical systems of any sort are implemented? I am retired IT - Musk makes me very frightened.

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To me, the most likely thing to do him in is the harm his DOGE wrecking ball is already causing to people and institutions. And its going to get much worse. Thankfully, there are honest and influential media outlets like this and other entities (e.g., unions, non-profits) that are effectively sounding the alarm about the illegal, anti-democratic, and dangerous policies/ actions of the trump-musk administration and fighting back. But its the actual harm and devastation that's already been done and the fear of more and greater harm to come that will motivate people to wake from their stupor and push back. When he f**ks up air traffic control like he's done to every other business he's run and folks are straight up too scared to fly, even maga might join the resistance.

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Please get active on X twit. We are fighting hard against all of the propaganda nonsense on that platform. But there aren’t very many of us left. It’s important to put the correct messages in front of the eyeballs of the people who read that shit. Every day we have to work hard on that site Trump now has an account that he’s using to push the propaganda so it’s doubly hard now

Could people please help with this task because it’s really important

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God bless you and yours.

Do you think folks on these sites really believe anything you say??

Sometimes cannot reach brainwashed people.

Many are very comfortable in their bubbles.

Someone described Karolyn Levitt — new press secretary as being one of them.

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Going by her press conference the other day, she displayed the rigidity and lack of nuance to support that assertion. What I don’t understand is why the press corps didn’t push back, but I get that there are so many important questions that need to get on the record as having been asked…. Still, it was disheartening to listen to the mouthpiece of the new Office of Propaganda

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The legitimate press corps have been booted out of the room to be replaced with sycophants

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What important questions do the Press Corps ask? From what I can tell, they do not ask tough questions. They are afraid Trump will ban them or simply start having his news conferences in front of the noise of a helicopter like the first time.

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I'm still on it, but don't participate. Tell me bottom line what to say. I used to argue with Musk's points in a rational manner. (no sense being a fishwife)

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