Musk (And His Underlings) Now Have Your Most Private Information

The United States government has sensitive and very private information on American citizens. It needs that information to properly and efficiently administer government programs.

This is not bad. There are laws protecting the privacy of that information. All government employees cannot access that information - only those with a need to know to properly do their jobs, and they are not allowed to make any of that information public. 

Any government employee that accesses that information without authorization or releases that information is breaking federal law. They will not just be fired, but will also face being charged with a crime. 

This is as it should be. Americans have a right to privacy, and that extends to private information collected and kept by the government.

Sadly, Donald Trump does not believe that. While he's fought tooth and nail to keep his own information private, he doesn't think other citizens should enjoy that same right.

He has created a fake agency (not authorized by Congress) for his billionaire buddy, Elon Musk. Musk has hired young computer programmers, and with Trump's blessing, they are accessing the private information of American citizens in all government agencies.

This "Department of Government Efficiency" is not a branch of the government, and anyone working for it is not a government employee. They are private citizens. Supposedly, they are looking for government fraud. But if fraud is suspected, why were not forensic accountants hired instead of computer programmers? Most of these young programmers wouldn't recognize fraud if it hit them in the face.

So what are they doing. Are they downloading our private information? If so, what are they going to do with it? Are they programming changes in the government agencies -  changes that have not been authorized by Congress. It doesn't matter, since as private citizens they should not have access to that information in the first place.

Your private information is no longer private. You can thank Trump for that. We must just hope they don't use this information to harm us. That may be a vain hope though, since narcissists Trump and Musk care for no one but themselves.

Only 27% Get Coronavirus Info From Trump's Briefings

The chart above is from the Knight Foundation / Gallup Poll -- done between April 14th and 20th of a national sample of 1,693 adults, with a 3 point margin of error.

Trump has been holding almost daily briefings on the Coronavirus pandemic. He's doing that because he knows he screwed up by delaying any action to stop the virus from spreading until it was too late. He's using those briefings to try and rehabilitate his image with the voters. And sadly, those briefings contain less information about the virus than self-congratulations from Trump on how good a job he has done.

But the people aren't stupid. They know that the briefings are just Trump's way of trying to rewrite history with lies. Only 27% say the briefings are a major source of Coronavirus information for them -- while 26% say they are a minor source and 46% say they are not a source at all.

Trump's lies are getting out to his base, but few others. While 64% of Republicans say his briefings are their major source of virus information, only 23% of Independents and 5% of Democrats say that.

The briefings are not accomplishing their goal -- to rehabilitate Trump's image. Other polls have repeatedly shown that the public does not trust Trump and don't approve of how he's handling the pandemic. That's why his aides are trying to get him to cut back on the briefings.

Public Thinks Russia Has Compromising Info On Trump

Have you wondered why Trump has been so lenient on Russia? The public sees Russia as an enemy or a country that is not friendly to the United States. But they don't think Trump views Russia that way.

Immediately after being sworn in, Trump tried to remove sanctions against Russia, and return to them property the had been seized by the government. He was stopped only by congressional action (and even members of his own party were shocked). He then refused to put into actions further sanctions passed overwhelmingly by Congress (and approved of by both parties).

He did kick out some Russian diplomats (spies) after the poisoning of a man and his daughter in Great Britain (which was undoubtably done by Russia) -- but even then he waited until public opinion (both in this country and among our allies) forced him to do it. He later said he thought he had been too harsh in that action.

Then there is the fact that Trump has never said a negative word about Putin. In fact, he has done just the opposite -- calling him a good leader, saying he trusted his word that Russia didn't interfere in the 2016 election, and congratulated him on his own electoral victory.

Why does Trump regard Russia and Putin as friends when they very clearly aren't? It has brought up the question of whether Russia possesses some kind of compromising information on Trump (such as the infamous "pee tape", evidence of money laundering, or some other kind of chicanery). I believe they do possess some kind of information that Trump doesn't want made public -- and it looks like I'm not the only one thinking that.

A new poll shows that 53% of the American public believes Russia has compromising info on Trump, while only 35% say they don't believe that. That's a significant 18 point gap. And that is the opinion of both genders, all age groups, and the racial/ethnic groups questioned.

The chart uses information in a recent Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between April 20th and 24th of a random national sample of 1,193 voters, with a 3.4 point margin of error.

Trump's Amazing Hypocrisy About Protecting Classified Info

(Caricature of Donald Trump is by DonkeyHotey.)

Donald Trump railed about Hillary Clinton refusing to protect classified information by using a private e-mail server (even though it has been shown that no classified information was exposed to anyone who didn't have the right to see it). Unfortunately, he has not been so strict about protecting classified information in his own administration -- allowing many to see that info without the proper security clearance. Here is how NBC News puts it:

If there was one issue Donald Trump campaigned on more aggressively than the others in 2016, it was the importance of handling classified information — when it came to Hillary Clinton’s private email account and server. 

“She set up this illegal server knowing full well that her actions put our national security at risk and put the safety and security of your children and your families at risk,” Trump said in Phoenix, Ariz., on Oct. 29, 2016. . . .

Why is this stroll down memory lane important? Yesterday, we learned that White House senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner — who had access to highly classified information and was even viewing the Presidential Daily Brief — lost his top-security clearance. 

That came, of course, after NBC News reported that scores of top White House aides, including Kushner, lacked permanent security clearances. And also yesterday we learned from the Washington Post that officials “in at least four countries have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter.” 

And who can forget this story from last spring? “President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.” 

We’ve seen the Trump White House engage in plenty of hypocrisy over the past year — the vows to clean up the “swamp,” the promises that wealthy Americans wouldn’t benefit under the tax law — but its carelessness about who is seeing classified information might be the biggest hypocrisy of all.

Trump Wants A Secret (And Authoritarian) Government

(This image is by Taylor Jones at cagle.com.)

Donald Trump has been president for less than a week, but he has already done some very troubling things (considering he is leading a free and democratic country).

For starters, he seems to have decided that he can pick and choose the news media that has access. He has said that he will pick the media outlets that get to enter the presidential press room -- which means essentially that he will also deny entry to other media outlets.

Trump is a narcissist, and is easily angered when any of the press criticizes him or calls him out on the lies that he (and his surrogates) tell. He puts his own image above the rights of the American people to have a free press.

But that is just the beginning. The Trump administration has also issued a gag order for scientists and others working for the United States government. Those working for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Park Service have been told they cannot communicate any of their findings to the media (or on social media). Obviously these agencies were chosen because they are the most likely to have information disagreeing with the policies of Trump (and his GOP buddies in Congress).

Trump not only wants to pick which media gets access, but also wants to control everything bit of information that comes out of government. He may think that is his right, but he is wrong. That kind of secrecy and control of information may be appropriate for a dictatorship or a minority, but it is anathema to the very idea of a democracy.

A democracy, which the U.S. claims to be, depends on the people having as much information as possible -- so they can make informed decisions about their government. And the most open government, that provides the most information to its citizens, is the best democracy. A democracy will die without a free flow of information, and in a democracy, the citizens have the right to know not only what their government is doing, but also what facts it has found on important issues.

Trump is not happy with try to guide a democracy. He wants to be the ultimate power that decides everything for the people. But that's not democracy -- it's tyranny. The press and the people need to use all the tools at their disposal (courts, Constitution, demonstrations, etc.) to fight Trump's attempt to stifle the flow of information. Our democracy depends on it.