Hurray! The whole purpose of your work is being validated. Judd Legum, you deserve this recognition for the value of all of your hard work and research in the interest of benefiting the American people. Caleb Ecarma found you to help bring the light to the machinations of Elon Musk.
How is it possible that the anti-American Putin, and the anti-everyone but himself Musk are able to have this power to dismantle our government? Thank you for giving our courts and judicial system evidentiary material to utilize in stopping this outrageous assault to our Democracy.
Yes ! Thank you for the energetic investigation into this insanity . Again I am wondering if Substack isn’t the best option for news and analysis and opinion. These are enormously important stories and INVESTIGATIONS. We all need to hold outlets like the NYT to this standard. Don’t abandon them because our voices are needed to get them to INVESTIGATE AND REPORT.
Great work by the Popular Information team! Keep it up! If only the NYT, WaPo and other formerly reliable news sources would return to their solid roots.
A judge may have issued the TRO, but we’ve already seen that the Trump administration ignores those rulings and plows ahead.
There's no set back if the TRO is ignored, which it will be. There needs to be an enfocred Cease and Desist order issued on any and all of DOGE, as it is acting as a unlawful government agency without Congressional authorization, in an illegal manner, to invade the privacy of secured government information an all levels, in regards to not only Federal employees but state and local workers and most all records regarding American citizens. How is this not obvious? Where is law enforcement. These persons from top to bottom need to be arrested and jailed. Why all Americans aren't outrage and swarming the congress is beyond my comprehension...even the MAGA crowd should be enraged...their private information is now in the hands of the very "Swamp People" they are always complaining about.
Not if you detain the individual with pardon power, in isolation, for domestic terrorism. Govt. employees have been terrorized along with regular citizens and politicians. There are definite laws against threatening government officials. These threats are report on and recorded daily. If necessary and if law enforcement won't act perhaps it's time for the military to step in and remove and detain the criminals, as that is what they are?
The military should never "step in" on law and order matters. Unfortunately, and I am really sorry to say this, your scenario is not going to work. From the top down, law and order belongs to the DOJ and the DOJ belongs to Trump.
If Congress does not wake the f up, and no one really believes that Rs will have a come to Jesus moment until it is too late, we must mobilize. This fight here by Judd and Musk Watch is a start. But we, the supporters, are the resistance. Viva la Resistance and all that but those guys, those French resistance fighters? They blew things up. It's frightening to think this could come to that but it is more scary to let it roll over us, isn't it?
No. — Your scenario is very far from reality, practicality & legality. It would be a disaster. Those who would love such a disaster best are our adversaries. For instance, It could easily lead to our military being at war with itself — same story for civilians.
That just means reporters have to keep watch. When they violate the court order, there are serious consequences, including criminal contempt and in a proper case loss of law licenses.
Federal law enforcement is in the federal agencies headed by the minions of the Orange Felon.
I am not certain most Americans understand what happened or are certain it did happen. This victory should help stir folks and their interest. We have forgotten that Social Security was controversial when it began. The public was also skeptical about a government agency having so much information on individuals.
For that reason:
— “Regulation No. 1
Because of the importance placed on privacy in the Social Security program, the very first regulation adopted by the new Social Security Board in June 1937 was its rules regarding confidentiality of its records. Regulation No. 1. governed privacy and disclosure of Social Security records; copies were distributed to every employee of the organization; although it has been revised many times over the years, it continues to govern disclosure of information even to the present day.” —
Read it before it goes away. This is considered an “archived page”.
We know that the DODGY (dishonest/unreliable) crew have accessed personal and sensitive information on federal employees and, it appears, on private citizens (through social security and treasury). Getting court orders to halt the further theft of information is necessary- but not sufficient.
The trump-musk regime have proven that court orders are a nuisance which they feel free to ignore (like the orders to release funding which they continue to defy). Time marches on and orders are defied. Then what?
Also, because there is no internal mechanism to hold DODGY accountable, we have no way of knowing exactly what personal and sensitive information has been accessed and extracted, what has been done with it and how it could be used in the future. The theft of this information can cause irreparable harm to individuals and to this country.
As a high school teacher (NYC, retired), I developed a class called Privacy. We looked at the privacy torts among many other ways and means of having and losing privacy. I used as an underpinning text, The Right to Privacy by Caroline Kennedy and Ellen Alderman. It was an interesting class.
I started every term by asking the simple question: what is privacy and what do you want private? Most agreed the bathroom was a place for privacy but beyond that they could not wrap their undeveloped brains around the idea that they could have something to keep private. First, they were kids and second they had been putting their lives on line their whole lives.
I believe these DOGE Bros may be the product of online lives where nothing seems to be private, where people spill all and where information is available to anyone with good computer skills. And because the SCOTUS has been murky at best on privacy (not mentioned in the Constitution), the issue is still not clear.
Mark my words: if this case gets to that court, they will f it up.
Well done, PI team! Sadly, the genie is out of the bottle. That data will never be secure again. Do you think criminal charges could be brought against these thieves? At the very least, each employee should be compensated in a class action suit.
It seems that the former outlets of record have been corrupted, probably by the need to retain advertisers. Their editors, at least, have lost their sense for the truth.
Judd, I heard Big Balls family includes spies on Russia. (Michael Sellers nostalgic article of 80s CIA Russia work includes his grandfather.$ Does he speak Russian? Has he been there? Any other way to vet Doge team—who are in essence spies hacking the US government for the Trump’s stakeholders? Will we get a ransomware note soon telling us to pay a “tax” to access our internet accounts? I’ve stopped my income tax withholding that’s for sure.
Jacob Silverman recently reported on that. A shorter version is at Gizmodo and links the the original article. It has a few other details on the kid’s “work history.”
Kudos to Judd and PI!! This is the kind of meaningful investigative reporting we need; reminiscent of Watergate and the fall of Nixon. Only it's not a massive news corporation with all the requisite funds and legal support, it's a Substack newsletter. SMDH - love to you and your team!!
Hurray! The whole purpose of your work is being validated. Judd Legum, you deserve this recognition for the value of all of your hard work and research in the interest of benefiting the American people. Caleb Ecarma found you to help bring the light to the machinations of Elon Musk.
How is it possible that the anti-American Putin, and the anti-everyone but himself Musk are able to have this power to dismantle our government? Thank you for giving our courts and judicial system evidentiary material to utilize in stopping this outrageous assault to our Democracy.
Recognition and protection
Yes ! Thank you for the energetic investigation into this insanity . Again I am wondering if Substack isn’t the best option for news and analysis and opinion. These are enormously important stories and INVESTIGATIONS. We all need to hold outlets like the NYT to this standard. Don’t abandon them because our voices are needed to get them to INVESTIGATE AND REPORT.
"Again I am wondering if Substack isn’t the best option for news and analysis and opinion. "
In my opinion, yes. Substack is the best and most useful choice for news.
thank you for your invaluable work.
Great work by the Popular Information team! Keep it up! If only the NYT, WaPo and other formerly reliable news sources would return to their solid roots.
A judge may have issued the TRO, but we’ve already seen that the Trump administration ignores those rulings and plows ahead.
There's no set back if the TRO is ignored, which it will be. There needs to be an enfocred Cease and Desist order issued on any and all of DOGE, as it is acting as a unlawful government agency without Congressional authorization, in an illegal manner, to invade the privacy of secured government information an all levels, in regards to not only Federal employees but state and local workers and most all records regarding American citizens. How is this not obvious? Where is law enforcement. These persons from top to bottom need to be arrested and jailed. Why all Americans aren't outrage and swarming the congress is beyond my comprehension...even the MAGA crowd should be enraged...their private information is now in the hands of the very "Swamp People" they are always complaining about.
Arrested, pardoned, lionized.
Not if you detain the individual with pardon power, in isolation, for domestic terrorism. Govt. employees have been terrorized along with regular citizens and politicians. There are definite laws against threatening government officials. These threats are report on and recorded daily. If necessary and if law enforcement won't act perhaps it's time for the military to step in and remove and detain the criminals, as that is what they are?
The military should never "step in" on law and order matters. Unfortunately, and I am really sorry to say this, your scenario is not going to work. From the top down, law and order belongs to the DOJ and the DOJ belongs to Trump.
If Congress does not wake the f up, and no one really believes that Rs will have a come to Jesus moment until it is too late, we must mobilize. This fight here by Judd and Musk Watch is a start. But we, the supporters, are the resistance. Viva la Resistance and all that but those guys, those French resistance fighters? They blew things up. It's frightening to think this could come to that but it is more scary to let it roll over us, isn't it?
Need to look to motivators that are more threatening than those of Trump and MAGA.
No. — Your scenario is very far from reality, practicality & legality. It would be a disaster. Those who would love such a disaster best are our adversaries. For instance, It could easily lead to our military being at war with itself — same story for civilians.
With the proper command structure and being the only viable enforcement structure remaining outside of Trump's sphere of influence..
where else would we turn to stop these teenagers from fulfilling there task of gutting the country's infraturcture? We the people can't seem to do it.
That just means reporters have to keep watch. When they violate the court order, there are serious consequences, including criminal contempt and in a proper case loss of law licenses.
Lest you forget...Trump has pardon powers and if he can pardon the Insurrectionists...?
The feds don’t control law licenses.
Federal law enforcement is in the federal agencies headed by the minions of the Orange Felon.
I am not certain most Americans understand what happened or are certain it did happen. This victory should help stir folks and their interest. We have forgotten that Social Security was controversial when it began. The public was also skeptical about a government agency having so much information on individuals.
For that reason:
— “Regulation No. 1
Because of the importance placed on privacy in the Social Security program, the very first regulation adopted by the new Social Security Board in June 1937 was its rules regarding confidentiality of its records. Regulation No. 1. governed privacy and disclosure of Social Security records; copies were distributed to every employee of the organization; although it has been revised many times over the years, it continues to govern disclosure of information even to the present day.” —
Read it before it goes away. This is considered an “archived page”.
https://www.ssa.gov/history/reg1.html#:~:text=Because%20of%20the%20importance%20placed,regarding%20confidentiality%20of%20its%20records.
Copied and filed on private server.
We know that the DODGY (dishonest/unreliable) crew have accessed personal and sensitive information on federal employees and, it appears, on private citizens (through social security and treasury). Getting court orders to halt the further theft of information is necessary- but not sufficient.
The trump-musk regime have proven that court orders are a nuisance which they feel free to ignore (like the orders to release funding which they continue to defy). Time marches on and orders are defied. Then what?
Also, because there is no internal mechanism to hold DODGY accountable, we have no way of knowing exactly what personal and sensitive information has been accessed and extracted, what has been done with it and how it could be used in the future. The theft of this information can cause irreparable harm to individuals and to this country.
Judd- please investigate
Nice "DODGY" "DOdGE" "DODGI" I knew there would be a way to switch it up... Thank you
As a high school teacher (NYC, retired), I developed a class called Privacy. We looked at the privacy torts among many other ways and means of having and losing privacy. I used as an underpinning text, The Right to Privacy by Caroline Kennedy and Ellen Alderman. It was an interesting class.
I started every term by asking the simple question: what is privacy and what do you want private? Most agreed the bathroom was a place for privacy but beyond that they could not wrap their undeveloped brains around the idea that they could have something to keep private. First, they were kids and second they had been putting their lives on line their whole lives.
I believe these DOGE Bros may be the product of online lives where nothing seems to be private, where people spill all and where information is available to anyone with good computer skills. And because the SCOTUS has been murky at best on privacy (not mentioned in the Constitution), the issue is still not clear.
Mark my words: if this case gets to that court, they will f it up.
Invaluable reporting enables the courts to act, thank you!
Well done, PI team! Sadly, the genie is out of the bottle. That data will never be secure again. Do you think criminal charges could be brought against these thieves? At the very least, each employee should be compensated in a class action suit.
It seems that the former outlets of record have been corrupted, probably by the need to retain advertisers. Their editors, at least, have lost their sense for the truth.
Thank you and congratulations.
Thank you!!!
Judd, I heard Big Balls family includes spies on Russia. (Michael Sellers nostalgic article of 80s CIA Russia work includes his grandfather.$ Does he speak Russian? Has he been there? Any other way to vet Doge team—who are in essence spies hacking the US government for the Trump’s stakeholders? Will we get a ransomware note soon telling us to pay a “tax” to access our internet accounts? I’ve stopped my income tax withholding that’s for sure.
Jacob Silverman recently reported on that. A shorter version is at Gizmodo and links the the original article. It has a few other details on the kid’s “work history.”
https://gizmodo.com/doge-staffer-known-as-big-balls-reportedly-the-grandkid-of-a-kgb-spy-2000567020
Great reporting and investigating! Hopefully the rights of citizens will be ruled equally important when the case reaches the Supreme Court.
Hell yeah! Go get 'em, Judd!
Kudos to Judd and PI!! This is the kind of meaningful investigative reporting we need; reminiscent of Watergate and the fall of Nixon. Only it's not a massive news corporation with all the requisite funds and legal support, it's a Substack newsletter. SMDH - love to you and your team!!