Fridays with Nicole Sandler

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29 replies
  1. P J Evans says:

    When the elected Rs can’t do the right thing, in spite of saying that they know these are unqualified people, then I’m not sure than anything legal will work.

    Reply
  2. dopefish says:

    Another good show for this terrible timeline.

    Regarding Musk and the DOGE kids pawing through the U.S. government’s sensitive computer systems…

    Bloomberg has an article up with this headline:
    Musk’s DOGE Teen Was Fired By Cybersecurity Firm for Leaking Company Secrets
    Its paywalled, but the article reports that a 19-year-old member of Elon Musk’s DOGE team, was fired from an internship in 2022 at a cybersecurity company called Path Network.

    A spokesperson for the Arizona-based hosting and data-security firm said Thursday: “I can confirm that Edward Coristine’s brief contract was terminated after the conclusion of an internal investigation into the leaking of proprietary company information that coincided with his tenure.”

    Afterward, Coristine wrote that he’d retained access to the cybersecurity company’s computers, though he said he hadn’t taken advantage of it.

    “I had access to every single machine,” he wrote on Discord in late 2022, weeks after he was dismissed from Path Network, according to messages seen by Bloomberg.

    Just the kind of trustworthy, moral person you want to have, hacking into U.S. government computer systems! What could possibly go wrong!

    Reply
  3. harpie says:

    https://bsky.app/profile/rparloff.bsky.social/post/3lho5iruiqc2z
    February 8, 2025 at 7:46 AM

    Here is Judge Paul Engelmayer’s remarkable TRO barring (in effect) DOGE from accessing Treasury’s payment system & ordering (in effect) any DOGE person who has had access to destroy anything already copied. A short thread … [link][screenshot][THREAD]
    […]
    Judge Engelmayer accepted the [19 blue state] AG’s argument below, pending full briefing, that letting politically appted SGEs access this material, formerly managed by “a limited number of career civil servants” poses “huge cybersecurity risks” & danger that their residents’ sensitive PII will be “compromised.”
    /6

    Reply
  4. harpie says:

    The Elite Lawyers Working for Elon Musk’s DOGE Include Former Supreme Court Clerks
    Much attention has been paid to the young Silicon Valley engineers working for Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, but the group has also hired high-powered legal talent. https://www.propublica.org/article/elon-musk-doge-lawyers-supreme-court
    Justin Elliott, Avi Asher-Schapiro and Andy Kroll Feb. 7, 2025, 5:25 p.m. EST

    […] But ProPublica has identified three lawyers with elite establishment credentials who have also joined the DOGE effort.

    Two are former Supreme Court clerks — one clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts, another for Justice Neil Gorsuch — and the third has been selected to be a Gorsuch clerk for the 2025-2026 term.

    Two of the lawyers’ names have not been previously reported as working for DOGE.

    All three — Keenan Kmiec, James Burnham and Jacob Altik — have DOGE email addresses at the Executive Office of the President, according to records reviewed by ProPublica. Altik was recently an attorney at the firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, but his bio page is now offline. Neither the White House nor any of the three lawyers immediately responded to requests for comment about their roles. […]

    I read somewhere that MU$K wrecking crew was paid [by US?] 7 million dollars in the first week.

    Reply
    • harpie says:

      ROBERTS and GORSUCH should recuse from the
      challenges to DOGE soon to be in front of SCOTUS.

      Kmiec clerked for ALITO on Federal circuit court.

      Reply
      • harpie says:

        Altik clerked for TRUMP appointee to DCCC Judge Neomi Rao “known for critiquing the administrative state“.

        […] He also interned at a nonprofit called the New Civil Liberties Alliance, which has been at the forefront of legal efforts to rein in the power of federal agencies. […]

        Reply
      • wa_rickf says:

        Justices Roberts and Gorsuch will remove themselves from any DOGE SCOTUS case in front of them, just as soon as Thomas recuses himself from any Harlan Crow SCOTUS case.

        Reply
    • Savage Librarian says:

      There’s also this:

      “Trump AG Pick Linked To Musk’s Fraud Lawyer” – David Sirota, 11/21/24

      “Bradley Bondi [reported as Pam’s brother] was listed in federal documents as Musk and Tesla’s attorney in the company’s 2018 battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a series of Musk’s tweets that the agency said misled shareholders about the financial status of the company, boosting Tesla’s stock price and leading to “significant market disruption.” 
      …..
      “Barron’s additionally reports that Brad Bondi “worked on the deal that led to Trump Media’s public listing.”

      https://www.levernews.com/trump-ag-pick-linked-to-musks-fraud-lawyer/

      Reply
  5. dopefish says:

    Over at Press Watch, Dan Froomkin makes a point about how most of the media is not treating the authoritarian takeover of the United States with the urgency it deserves:

    ‘Trump Brazenly Defies Laws’ is not an A17 story

    At what point – if any — will the national media recognize that we are in state of national emergency? What action by Trump or Musk — if any — would send them into five-alarm mode about the U.S. becoming an authoritarian country? And what should they do then?

    Reply
    • Rayne says:

      That’s a pretty solid guess, even money.

      The orange twatwaffle just fired the Kennedy Center’s director and appointed himself to that position instead because only culture he likes should be awarded honors. I’ll hazard a guess this was to prevent Swift from being awarded honors during his regime.

      Reply
        • Rayne says:

          Of course, but think beyond taste or even how much this reeks of totalitarianism.

          This is another opportunity to grift — IOW, cross my palm with Bitcoin and I’ll make sure you’re feted at Kennedy Center.

      • Matt Foley says:

        Several championship teams refused to visit Trump in the WH his first term. Eagles say they won’t go to WH if they win this time. I’m betting he’s attending in person so they can’t stop him from visiting the locker room for a photo op. He can’t stand to have attention on someone else.

        Reply
  7. coral reef says:

    Can anyone answer some of these questions. 1. How illegal is all this? For example, Kennedy Center firing and self-appointment. 2. If a judge rules for a TRO and is ignored, what enforcement options are there? 3. Can Trump just preemptively pardon anyone who breaks the law on his order (or with his acquiescence)? 4. What redress is there if the answer to 3 is yes? 5. Is there any point at which you think some elected Republicans might defect from Trump?

    Reply
  8. Rayne says:

    Parking this here in an open thread:

    TFG decided to drop news about new tariffs this evening, taking advantage of Super Bowl media coverage to do so.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/09/trump-to-announce-25percent-steel-and-aluminum-tariffs-in-latest-trade-escalation.html

    I swear to gods this asshole — or someone operating him like a meat puppet — is using tariff news like this to short the market. They’re likely playing with currencies but the operation is like TFG’s good old pump-and-dump in real estate.

    Watch currencies especially USD by 10:00 am ET tomorrow, Monday — of course, because that’s how this works. Start the run up during or just before the weekend and then watch for the drop Monday.

    I’ve been meaning to write a post about this but I just don’t have time right now. I’ve written before that this asshole has likely been part of market shorts beginning with Boeing in December 2016 when he fucked with Boeing’s contract for Air Force One before he was even sworn in.

    The parallel between his bullshit announcement tonight and the Boeing crap back in 2016? Aeronautics will be deeply affected by tariffs on metals — and Russia had been spying on aeronautics firms before 2016.

    I need to go to bed. I’ll probably have nightmares about this crap.

    Reply
  9. wa_rickf says:

    Currently in Rio. Brazil has a tremendous iron ore export business. Trump wants to place a tariff to bring Brazilian iron ore into the U.S. Brazilians are not happy campers.

    In thinking about Trump and fighting back, my personal opinion is to do deal with Trump EXACTLY how he deals with others: Suing in court

    Sue Trump for anything and everything and to tie everything up in court, just as he does. #WinningStrategy

    ————-

    Then there is Elmo. Elmo lusts after Brazil’s lithium deposits. Brazil is denying Elmo this resource.

    Reply
  10. wa_rickf says:

    It’s completely laughable that JD Vance and Elmo are questioning the judiciary’s authority to serve as a check on Trump’s executive power.

    As anyone who has had ever had an introductory civics class knows, if a president disagrees with a court order, the remedy is to appeal. There’s a reason Trump and fiends don’t like that option: they know their actions are illegal and many will be rejected even by Trump’s own SCOTUS justices.

    As stated above: Deal with Trump EXACTLY how he deals with others – sue Trump for anything and everything and tie every Trump Admin decision up in court, just as he does.
    (Take a play out of THAT narcissist’s own play book – narcissists hate being treated how they treat others.)

    Reply
  11. wa_rickf says:

    Real-life consequences of Trump’s actions.

    I have an appointment at the American consulate in Rio this afternoon. I found on at .gov a remedy to my spouse’s immigration situation last November 2024 and screen shot it. I found found the exact section I was looking for many times prior to January 20, 2025 just reassure myself I was reading the section correctly.

    I placed into Google the exact same verbiage, today, I have placed before into Google, and now NOTHING from .gov comes up. At least I have the screen shot.

    Reply
  12. Matt Foley says:

    “Trump quits golf game after 9 holes because he has a country to run” said no one ever.

    OMG he is SUCH a crybaby loser. He knows the Eagles don’t like him* so he skipped out early to try to one-up them.

    *https://www.the-sun.com/sport/13471064/philadelphia-eagles-white-house-super-bowl-trump-snub/

    Reply

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