Elon Musk

DE4173 · February 5

Halifax2TheMax · February 6

Elongitaint ain’t as wicked smaaaaht as everyone makes him out to be. Bah, bah, bah, bah, you keep telling yourself that. From Letter From An American:

This morning, Anna Wilde Mathews and Liz Essley Whyte of the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk’s team has accessed payment and contracting systems at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Mathews and Whyte note that CMS sits at the center of the country’s healthcare economy. In 2024, it disbursed about $1.5 trillion, or about 22% of the total amount of the federal total.

On X, Musk said “this is where the big money fraud is happening.” But, in fact, CMS is not operating without oversight. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which operates out of the Department of Justice, investigates healthcare fraud. In June 2024 it announced criminal charges against 193 defendants across 32 federal districts who allegedly participated in healthcare fraud schemes that involved about $2.75 billion in intended losses and $1.6 billion in actual losses.

Indeed, as Eric Levitz of Vox pointed out, “DOGE has not presented evidence of ‘fraud’; they have highlighted millions of dollars worth of spending that Musk considers wasteful. By contrast, the [General Accountability Office] identified $233 billion of fraud in 2024. We don’t need to let a billionaire ignore federal law to do government oversight[.]”

“It is extraordinary how much access Elon Musk and his sort of creepy 22-year-old henchmen have to all of our data,” Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) told MSNBC today. “They have information that would allow them to shut down your tax refund, your Medicare payment…. Potentially, they know everything about you and your family, and the reality is that this could get dystopian very quickly…. If you were to start speaking ill of Elon Musk on social media, Elon Musk might be able to stop or delay your tax refund, or your mom's Social Security benefit, in part because we have no window into what's happening inside the Department of [the] Treasury right now."

While Murphy didn’t say it explicitly, control over such information also gives Musk power over business rivals and political leaders. When Musk’s team went into the Department of Labor today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) noted that “[h]e could manipulate quarterly job numbers and much more. We are talking about MARKET MOVING INFORMATION! Do employers want Musk to have access to any of their confidential data?”

Today, when asked about Musk’s conflicts of interest as he reviews federal spending while also receiving more than $15 billion in federal contracts, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump had already promised that “if Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, that Elon will excuse himself from those contracts.” Donald Kettl, a scholar of public policy, told Dana Hull of Bloomberg: “I don’t know of any other case, anywhere, in which an individual could determine for himself whether he had a conflict of interest. In fact, self-determination of a conflict of interest is itself a conflict of interest.”

battle1 · February 6

24-20 🦅

mickeyrat · February 6

https://www.threads.net/@thedailyshow/post/DFtevWjx5h_?xmt=AQGzCT7fEjqDTFk-71wJY1EgdUJsmamknlV6W7nGzrKOWg

Hawk123 · February 7

Wait, I thought the orange clown was president.

OnWis97 · February 7

I wonder whether Elon will tweet that. He tweets hundreds of times a day and I bet he'd love to while knowing it's a bad idea.

Gern Blansten · February 7

You know that drives trump crazy...I hope the media keeps at it.

OnWis97 · February 7

It's like a high-profile (relative to the state of magazines today) version of a political cartoon. It's irreverent, rooted in figurative truth, and punching up. I dig it.

DE4173 · February 7

TRUMP: “Is Time magazine still in business? I didn’t even know that..." 🤣

Poncier · February 8

DE4173 said:

TRUMP: “Is Time magazine still in business? I didn’t even know that..." 🤣

Oh, he knows

https://youtu.be/scWmQZ4gr8o?si=8JaqYB6mNao72e5n

DE4173 · February 8

Yes he does. It's one of those several "shot" attempts that evades the question.

brianlux · February 8

Gern Blansten said:

You know that drives trump crazy...I hope the media keeps at it.

Is that real or photo-shopped? I'm guessing the latter.

OnWis97 · February 8

The magazine cover? It's real and it's spectacular.

brianlux · February 8

Son of a gun, it is!

Gern Blansten · February 8

brianlux said:

Gern Blansten said:

You know that drives trump crazy...I hope the media keeps at it.

Is that real or photo-shopped? I'm guessing the latter.

I doubt that they took an actual picture of Musk at the desk if that is what you are asking.

OnWis97 · February 8

Gern Blansten said:

You and onebrianlux said:

Gern Blansten said:

You know that drives trump crazy...I hope the media keeps at it.

Is that real or photo-shopped? I'm guessing the latter.

I doubt that they took an actual picture of Musk at the desk if that is what you are asking.

You and I interpreted the question differently…you thought he meant to ask if the cover used a photoshopped picture and I thought he meant to ask if someone photoshopped a Time cover that doesn’t exist.

i guess we both responded correctly.

Gern Blansten · February 8

OnWis97 said:

Gern Blansten said:

You and onebrianlux said:

Gern Blansten said:

You know that drives trump crazy...I hope the media keeps at it.

Is that real or photo-shopped? I'm guessing the latter.

I doubt that they took an actual picture of Musk at the desk if that is what you are asking.

You and I interpreted the question differently…you thought he meant to ask if the cover used a photoshopped picture and I thought he meant to ask if someone photoshopped a Time cover that doesn’t exist.

i guess we both responded correctly.

lol...yeah I didn't scroll down enough before I responded

I hope SNL takes off with the President Musk trend. He will go fucking nuts

DE4173 · February 8

I hadn't watched SNL lately, so not sure if they have a Musk character already. If they don't have one currently, who would play a great one? 👀😄

OnWis97 · February 8

(Redacted error)

The comments on this video are unbelievable.

There is no reaching them.

Tim Simmons · February 8

agreed. unhinged shit

Elon Musk

Comments

Categories