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Category: Technology

Musk’s ‘freelance henchmen’ in DOGE are one scam away from a national security emergency

Musk’s ‘freelance henchmen’ in DOGE are one scam away from a national security emergency

The Atlantic reports: [Elon Musk’s] major contribution, repeated to Trump and his advisers down at Mar-a-Lago, was to reject thinking about government as a lawyer would—a collection of institutions bound by norms, laws, and rules, and controlled by policy and decree. The bureaucracy does not easily bend to white papers. “The government runs on computers” soon became a mantra repeated by Trump’s advisers, who found themselves in awe of his enthusiasm and speed, even as they expressed annoyance at having…

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Conflicts of interest: DOGE operatives at HUD from an AI real estate firm and a mobile home operator

Conflicts of interest: DOGE operatives at HUD from an AI real estate firm and a mobile home operator

Wired reports: On February 10, employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) received an email asking them to list every contract at the bureau and note whether or not it was “critical” to the agency, as well as whether it contained any DEI components. This email was signed by Scott Langmack, who identified himself as a senior adviser to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Langmack, according to his LinkedIn, already has another job: He’s the…

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America’s oligarchy is now fully exposed by Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Musk

America’s oligarchy is now fully exposed by Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Musk

Robert Reich writes: One of the unacknowledged advantages of the horrendous era we’ve entered is that it is revealing the putrid connections between great wealth and great power for all to see. Oligarchs are fully exposed and they are defiant. It’s like hitting the “reveal codes” key on older computers that let you see everything. On Wednesday, Jeff Bezos, the third-richest person in America, who bought the Washington Post in 2013, announced that the paper’s opinion section would henceforth focus…

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Tesla cars monitor everything — including you

Tesla cars monitor everything — including you

  The 2024 Tesla Model 3 has some of the most advanced navigation, autonomous driving, and safety features currently on the market, meaning it’s full of equipment that can record and track your surroundings—and you. How much data does Tesla collect? Where is it stored? And can you trust them to protect your sensitive information? WIRED decided to investigate.

Musk’s business empire is built on $38 billion in government funding

Musk’s business empire is built on $38 billion in government funding

The Washington Post reports: Elon Musk and his cost-cutting U.S. DOGE Service team have been on a mission to trim government largesse. Yet Musk is one of the greatest beneficiaries of the taxpayers’ coffers. Over the years, Musk and his businesses have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, often at critical moments, a Washington Post analysis has found, helping seed the growth that has made him the world’s richest person. The payments stretch…

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How the logic of technology threatens democracy and humanity

How the logic of technology threatens democracy and humanity

Mike Brock writes: [H]ere is what makes AI and Musk and Thiel’s belief in the logic of technology as the basis for civilization so authoritarian. There’s no room for emotion in the cold logic of math. This technocratic vision of society, where algorithms and “rational” systems dictate human affairs, is not just misguided—it’s fundamentally anti-human. It’s a worldview that reduces the rich tapestry of human experience to a series of equations, that sees efficiency as the highest virtue and messiness…

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It’s impossible to overstate the level of Elon Musk’s contempt — or the extent of his ignorance

It’s impossible to overstate the level of Elon Musk’s contempt — or the extent of his ignorance

Matt Bai writes: [W]hat’s happened at USAID over the past couple of weeks is unfathomable. A $50 billion agency — funded by taxpayers, empowered by Congress and employing something like 11,000 people around the world — is now tightly controlled by a handful of 20-something software engineers who have never worked a day in government. They disregard promises from the American secretary of state while agonized policy experts stand by helplessly. In the coming weeks, courts will have to decide…

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Tesla owners vent their anger at Elon Musk

Tesla owners vent their anger at Elon Musk

London Guerrilla Ad-fare: #Tesla the #Swasticar … from 0 to 1939 in just 3 seconds #Musk pic.twitter.com/y96FiQ5g1Z — Peter Speetjens (@PeterBeirut) February 24, 2025 The Guardian reports: When Mike Schwede first sat in a Tesla Roadster 15 years ago, he felt like it was a glimpse into the future. By 2016, he was the proud owner of a Tesla, revelling in the thumbs up he would get from other drivers as he whizzed along Europe’s highways in the electric vehicle….

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Musk has lost more than $100B since December as Tesla stock value sinks

Musk has lost more than $100B since December as Tesla stock value sinks

NBC News reports: Elon Musk’s status as the world’s wealthiest person is in no danger of changing. But since mid-December, the tech titan’s net worth has declined by more than $100 billion, or approximately 25%, as a sell-off in shares of Tesla, his electric car maker, has accelerated in recent weeks. On Tuesday, the stock closed down another 8% to $302.80 and is off 25% year to date. The latest drawdown comes as new data showed new Tesla vehicle registrations…

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$1.5 billion stolen from Bybit exchange in biggest crypto heist ever. Meanwhile, Argentina’s Milei under investigation

$1.5 billion stolen from Bybit exchange in biggest crypto heist ever. Meanwhile, Argentina’s Milei under investigation

Mashable reports: $1.5 billion. That’s the amount of money that has just been stolen by hackers from one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges. On Friday, Ben Zhou, cofounder and CEO of the crypto exchange Bybit, shared that hackers had gained control of Bybit’s ETH (Ethereum) wallet and transferred all of its holdings to an unknown crypto wallet address. Bybit ETH multisig cold wallet just made a transfer to our warm wallet about 1 hr ago. It appears that this…

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Tesla protests gain momentum

Tesla protests gain momentum

electrek reports: Protests at Tesla stores are gaining momentum across the US as people are fighting back against Elon Musk’s government takeover, and the hate is spreading to owners. Last week, we reported on a new effort to organize protests at Tesla stores worldwide, but primarily in North America. There were significant turnouts to disrupt Tesla operations by picketing in front of dozens of stores. But the movement is ongoing, and there were protests against this weekend and more planned…

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DOGE operative given access to Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

DOGE operative given access to Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Nextgov/FCW reports: Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old staffer in billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency with a reported history of interacting with hacking groups, has been given physical access to building facilities at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Coristine is listed with a DHS email address and has been seen inside CISA, according to a person familiar with the matter and a directory image viewed by Nextgov/FCW. It is not clear what systems he had access to. CISA and…

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How Trump’s bid to control lithium mining in Ukraine would benefit Elon Musk

How Trump’s bid to control lithium mining in Ukraine would benefit Elon Musk

The Daily Beast reports: Elon Musk‘s future prosperity is inextricably linked to lithium, the vital mineral required for many of his businesses, from Tesla to X to SpaceX. Tech may be marching into the future. But it is still battery-powered. Dubbed ‘white gold’, lithium is notoriously difficult to mine in the United States. A $1 billion lithium refinery that Musk is building in Corpus Christi, Texas could use as many as eight million gallons of water a day in a…

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Department of Government Inefficiency: DOGE’s only public ledger is riddled with accounting errors

Department of Government Inefficiency: DOGE’s only public ledger is riddled with accounting errors

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency say they have saved the federal government $55 billion through staff reductions, lease cancellations and a long list of terminated contracts published online this week as a “wall of receipts.” President Trump has been celebrating the published savings, even musing about a proposal to mail checks to all Americans to reimburse them with a “DOGE dividend.” But the math that could back up those checks is marred…

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New acting Social Security commissioner was under investigation when Musk team tapped him

New acting Social Security commissioner was under investigation when Musk team tapped him

Marisa Kabas reports: Acting Social Security Administration Commissioner Michelle King resigned over the holiday weekend after she reportedly refused to aid Elon Musk’s pseudo-agency, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with accessing sensitive beneficiary data. King left a vacancy that was immediately filled by Leland Dudek, a guy who most people at the agency had never heard of before. By Wednesday night, Musk was publicly praising him as a hero. What happened? In a now-deleted LinkedIn post on Friday from…

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The DOGE sysadmins alone know what they are doing

The DOGE sysadmins alone know what they are doing

Zeynep Tufekci writes: [Thomas Jefferson] feared that an elected authoritarian would not just pulverize the institutions meant to limit his power, but take them over to wield as weapons, thus further entrenching himself. Even Jefferson couldn’t have imagined a future in which the arsenal being deployed included centralized databases with comprehensive records on every citizen’s employment, finances, taxes and for some, even health status. After a judge blocked a Trump executive order, Elon Musk shared a post with his more…

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