Elon Musk Steps in It in Wisconsin
Susan Crawford beat Brad Schimel by ten points last night in significant part by yoking Schimel to Elon Musk, who dumped millions into the race.
As I’ve been saying for months, this could undercut Elon’s efforts to silence right wing opposition to his destruction using primary challenges; if last night was any indication, that would backfire.
But there are several ways Elon’s involvement in the race could have further repercussions. After WI didn’t (yet) pursue legal action after Elon offered the same kind of soft bribes he used in last year’s election, the winner of his $1 million check posted a video effectively confirming that her vote was one of the things she did for the money.
On Tuesday, Musk’s super PAC, America PAC, pulled a video from X featuring $1 million giveaway winner Ekaterina Deistler in which she said she received the money, in part, to “vote.” X is owned by the tech billionaire.
“My name’s Ekaterina Deistler,” she said in a video posted Monday morning. “I did exactly what Elon Musk told everyone to do: sign the petition, refer friends and family, vote, and now I have a million dollars.”
But the video was taken down yesterday, and America PAC posted a new video of Deistler on X on Tuesday afternoon.
“My name’s Ekaterina Deistler, and I’m from Green Bay, Wisconsin,” she said in the new video. “I did exactly what Elon Musk told everyone to do: sign the petition, refer friends and family, and now I have a million dollars.”
Then there’s the backlash from comments Elon and Antonio Gracias made, claiming that someone would be arrested the next day, at a rally for Schimel.
Tech billionaire and senior Trump adviser Elon Musk appeared to boast of advance knowledge of a planned arrest related to alleged Social Security fraud during an appearance on a live stream Monday night promoted to his more than 200 million social media followers, frustrating top law enforcement officials, multiple sources told ABC News.
“Yes. In fact, I believe someone is going to be arrested tomorrow,” Musk said in response to a question about whether U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi would prosecute fraud found within the Social Security system.
Musk, discussing the alleged planned arrest, said, “This is someone who actually stole 400,000 social security numbers and personal information from the Social Security database, and was selling social security numbers and all of all the identification information in order for people to basically steal money from Social Security.”
[snip]
Musk did not say how he came to know about the alleged planned arrest, but sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that Musk was referring to an ongoing federal investigation, and that his public disclosure of the matter disturbed top law enforcement officials with knowledge of the probe.
Previewing an arrest before it takes place would conflict with standard practice intended to protect potentially sensitive law enforcement operations and those involved in carrying them out. [my emphasis]
ABC’s story on the blabbing suggests this is just about law enforcement worrying about tipping someone off. But when you add in Gracias’ comments, it may turn out to be more. Gracias effectively leaked details not just of Social Security data, but of Social Security data collated with data from other sources, such as DHS databases.
Gracias alleged that they had identified and reported undocumented immigrants improperly receiving Social Security and registering to vote — allegations that ABC News has not verified.
“The defaults in the system, from Social Security to all of the benefit programs, have been set to max inclusion, max pay for these people, and minimum collection. That’s what’s happening. We found 1.3 million of them [undocumented immigrants] already on Medicaid, as an example,” said Gracias.
“We actually just took a sample and looked at voter registration records, and we found people here registered to vote in this population, yes, and we found some by sampling that actually did vote, and we have referred them to prosecution at the Homeland Security investigation service already,” Gracias said.
These are the kinds of DOGE claims that always collapse upon review (and Elon and his DOGE boys seem not to understand that undocumented workers actually keep Social Security afloat with payments they will never recoup). But they also evince visibility into data from several agencies (and state voting records) at once — the kind of intra-agency dissemination that unions have posited as a heightened privacy risk, one that would require additional privacy assessments. And the theory of fraud here doesn’t match the claimed actions DOJ has laid out in response to lawsuits. So this may help unions and others as they try to fight back against DOGE.
Elon’s intervention in Wisconsin didn’t help Schimel. And he may have caused himself further problems along the way.
Update: FedScoop confirms that DOGE, including Big Balls, has access to USCIS data.
If it’s what you say, I love it!
You’re killing me! LOL!
There was a big discussion of Elon trying to buy a WI State Supreme Court seat at Fox News.com yesterday. Of course Faux framed it as necessary for Elon to do because of evil liberal judicial rulings thwarting Trump’s P25 implementation agenda. (Faux is all-in on P25 implementation).
The MAGAts were 100% in support of Elon buying seats and elections and they cited George Soros as the one “who started this.” MAGAts view Elon as their “George Soros.”
Checking in to Fox to find out the subject of today’s Two-Minute Hate this morning, I learn that Fox is all in on misrepresenting how Social Security works.
That, it seems to me, should be an area that libs should be running teach-ins (or whatever the modern equivalent is) for oldsters.
Remember the Paul Ryan ad pushing granny over a cliff? We need more of those today.
https://youtu.be/b9s-hoDlbL0?si=z_9X5oQ5DUFL7btk
” `The defaults in the system, from Social Security to all of the benefit programs, have been set to max inclusion, max pay for these people, and minimum collection.’ … said Gracias.”
What absolute cr*p, as anybody who makes a living based from a paycheck rather than loans secured by unrealized capital gains knows. Does he even know what a personal Social Security history looks like? And yet this guy is a Silicon Valley A-lister.
What you get from SS is based on your pay history – which they have, because FICA. It’s not “max pay” unless you “max paid in”. Which most people getting it never were, because that max is above what most people are paid (and isn’t high enough, as it misses the people making $200K/year and up).
Speaking of FICA payment history, my Millennial son in MT just sent this text to me:
“Make sure you and mom get SS to mail you documents that verify everything, in case you have to challenge anything in the future. They’re planning to rewrite the code for the system, which will likely destroy a lot of records.”
We have received statements over the years listing our FICA history, but I doubt we’ve saved them — I mean, why would we? I think it’s a good suggestion.
I got one last week, glanced over it, saw $3200+ when I retire, and chucked it. I gotta dig it out of the trash and put it in my safe depost box at the bank. Trash day is Friday.
You can download your payment/income history on social security. At least until the doge boys screw it up.
…and as I think about it, it would make a great Dem strategy for all Dem Congresspeople to issue press releases advising their constituents to do that, although snail mail isn’t necessary — yet.
Here’s the online SS page that let’s you know how to get your history via your personal SS account (which is easy to set up),
https://blog.ssa.gov/access-your-earnings-history-with-my-social-security/ and you can print it out and even take a screen shot of it, as a fallback if DOGE totally fucks the whole thing up, as we should expect from a crew whose “administrator” has declared SS a Ponzi scheme. Folks who don’t have internet access would have to visit an SS local office, I guess; I don’t know that I’d trust waiting for a snail mail response under the current regime.
If the Dems, on a large scale, could urge their constituents to scramble & get their history, it would create a large scale awareness of Musk’s intentions, and put actual, individualized dollar signs on the personal stake everyone has in this wrecking-crew’s project to “upgrade” (i.e., “fvck around with”) SS’s digital infrastructure.
I’m forwarding this idea to my delegation today.
This got me wondering.
Q: If your FICA records get Musked where else can I find it?
A: a) W-2 and 1099 history or b) IRS tax return history (at least your income anyway) or c) other?
Q: Where to find my a) W-2 and 1099 history?
A: I don’t know. Anyone know?
Q: Where to find my b) IRS tax return history?
A: IRS has it up to last 10 years. Don’t know if beyond that.
From IRS:
Q7. How do I request a transcript for an older tax year when it’s not available online? (updated Oct. 3, 2024)
You must submit Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, to request a transcript for a tax year not available online.
If you’re using individual online account, tax return and record of account transcripts are only available for the current tax year and three prior tax years. Generally, tax account transcripts are available for the current year and nine prior tax years unless certain conditions apply.
Note: There is a “show all +” expand button below the online tax account transcript type that may provide additional tax years.
Tax return and tax account transcripts are limited to the current and prior three tax years when using Get transcript by mail or the automated phone transcript service.
“… I don’t know that I’d trust waiting for a snail mail response under the current regime…”
I’m in that situation regarding 2024 taxes. I had to snail mail file this year because I got married to a non-American and we are applying for residency.
I had to include a W7 – request for a tax ID with my filing – else I would have eFiled as I usually do.
I am so glad I listed the Rio address for the tax ID to be sent to, instead of my address in the U.S., given actual Trump voters have had their spouces rounded up because they applied for residency, but are living in the U.S. anyway. The penalty for that is a 10-year ban. I would be so beside myself if that happened to me and my spouse. We are (trying) to doing everything right – namely stay away until approved.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/03/16/mass-deportation-ice-detains-non-criminals/82304354007/
re-Matt Foley April 2, 2025 1:44 pm
Q: If your FICA records get Musked where else can I find it?
A: c) other: if you have your last, or closest to year-end if can’t find last, paystub of a year.
If you don’t have it, request from your employers if they’re still around.
Q: Where to find my a) W-2 and 1099 history?
A: IRS transcripts, and last paystub of a year from employer or client.
re-Matt Foley April 2, 2025 1:44 pm
On second thought, aren’t all your SS earnings listed on ssa.gov?
Can’t you jut print that?
See BRUCE F COLE April 2, 2025 1:02 pm
“Folks who don’t have internet access would have to visit an SS local office, …” Local office is a joke when the nearest office is almost 100 miles away.
xyxyxyxy,
My point is: if SS site disappears your whole history where else can you find it? I didn’t save all my income records since 1975! The last 10 years isn’t enough and neither is pay stub from latest employer.
Log in to your account at Social Security. You may have to set up a login account but that’s quick.
Go to the page where you can get a replacement card.You can download your entitlement letter if you are already a recipient.
Your payment history is on the page towards the bottom. Print it out. Also you may want to screen-shot the page, or scan the print-out.
The phrase “No one voted for Musk!” seems to have resonated in Wisconsin and elsewhere, but it’s not quite right. Musk *did* get one vote — Trump’s — and that was all he needed to win.
If *that* catches hold, it’s a whole new problem from both Musk and Trump.
The cross-agency dissemination of sensitive data only makes the link between Musk and Trump stronger. Musk’s need to run his mouth about what he knows and what he can do (or thinks he can do) just adds to the likelihood that these problems will blossom for Trump and Musk alike.
Now if we can get musk to inject himself into other elections in 26!
“I did exactly what Elon Musk told everyone to do.”
That belongs on a red hat.
Saw this posted by a Musk worshipper:
——
Approximately 7 million number holders, all listed age 120+, have now been marked as deceased, as of a post by DOGE on X on March 24, 2025.
——
He seems upset that when you die you get to keep your S.S. number. Guess he thinks we’ll run out of numbers.
He doesn’t seem to know that the default birth date is set that way intentionally. No one is over 120 years old.
The God of the Old Testament, after Noah lived 900 years or so, declared that 120 years would be the longest any human could live. I only know this as my grandmother would always say, “May you live 120 years” on my birthday. Of course I waited till I was 40+ to actually do the work to find out.
Eternal life fanatics talk of multi century life spans. What would that be like?
“I’ve been telling you for three hundred years, don’t leave the garbage can in front of the garage door!”
“Guess he thinks we’ll run out of numbers.”
At the rate Musk is sowing his seed, we might.
Its so infuriating that these idiots can go in and wreck things willy-nilly that take decades and expertise to create and will take time to rebuild-assuming they can be. Destroying is easier than building.
From Signalgate to PrigNullGate.
I ran into a hard-to-believe headline in my Google News feed earlier this morning: Warren Buffett buys Tesla for $1 trillion in cash, but willing to keep Elon as the company’s figurehead. Long article with many details.
Turns out it was an April Fools prank article published yesterday.
“Repubs say Schimel loss proves Soros’ bribes even bigger than Musk’s.”
I made that one up myself.
Lindell says it’s rigged, but I thought he was bankrupt with a huge judgement hanging over any money he can make. How is he funding the ‘investigation’ unless Elno is behind it?
Fun fact: the market cap of $TSLA at close April 1 was $864 B.
And it’s grossly overrated, at that.
“Elon and his DOGE boys seem not to understand that undocumented workers actually keep Social Security afloat with payments they will never recoup”
Oh yes they do. It’s part of the plan to destroy Social Security.
I agree, Elno’s plan is that it will be privatized and sucked hollow by ‘management fees’ like any other VC takeover. Convict-1 / Krasnov will get his cut as well.
IIRC; there’s a tech-bro billionaire fever-dream to turn the SS Trust Fund into a “sovereign wealth fund” controlled by them. What could possibly go wrong…?
Interesting. 100% of the trust fund had already been borrowed and spent by Congress. As of today, due to tariffs, I’d guess the demand for usa treasury securities will be cooling. We’ll see at Monday’s auction.
IIRC there were rumblings that Elon himself would get busted for violating WI law on election interference by ‘things of value’. Too bad he didn’t get a perp walk especially given his comments about SSA fraud leading to someone’s arrest. I would note that possessing 400k SSNs tells me it was an insider job off of a government or big bank database since the lower level identity thieves simply cannot accumulate that many numbers rummaging through the trash.
In a semi-related note I would observe that the WI race was in Elno’s view as much about keeping the women in their place as anything else. He and Convict-1 / Krasnov appear to be in sync on this, and would prefer the WASP-y troglodyte to ensure the GOP remained in control in WI and its congressional delegation.
As a sign from heaven, it also appears A. Justin Sterling passed away recently. He’s a ‘relationship guru’ behind the hypermasculinity movement (think tom-toms in an energy circle) and doubtless jumpstarted the current incel attitudes.
SF Chronicle article for more depth: http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/a-justin-sterling-20239069.php
So, while it’s gauche to speak ill of the dead, I’ll mention what worthwhile contribution he made:
Re. “keeping women in their place” – I recently watched the Netflix show Adolescence with my teen kids (excellent show) and they schooled me on someone referenced in the show, Andrew Tate, one of the pillars of the redpill/manosphere/incel community, a real piece of work who proudly and openly embraces misogyny and is under investigation for many horrific crimes against women and minors. He believes women are property and should have no rights, and should be fully controlled by men. He’s human scum. Which of course makes him Trump’s kind of guy, and the Trump Admin helped him out with some legal issues in Romania, where he’s been charged with human trafficking, as well as testing the waters of supporting him in other ways in maga world. Trump surrogates like Dana White and Elon have openly embraced him, as have Trump’s failsons. Part of the plan to just put the misogyny front and center I guess.
https://www.newstatesman.com/world/americas/north-america/us/2025/03/why-donald-trump-embraced-andrew-tate
Trump hasn’t merely supported Tate, and his brother-in-slime; his administration brought them back from Romania to evade rape charges there.
Unfortunately, Trump himself can’t be held solely responsible for centering misogyny. We knew who he was (and he’s stayed that way, appointing alleged sexual predators like Pete Hegseth and RFKJ to his cabinet), but we elected him. Misogyny saturates this culture, along with its twin, racism. We have been systematically (hello, Vladimir Putin!) acculurated to hate each other, and women and brown people make the easiest targets.
Trump should be known as the terrorist king of punching down. He is a coward who tries to accrue strength from other bullies like the Tates while subjugating those much weaker than he is.
Unfortunately (again) he is now president. That makes all of us weaker than he is.
“You should only say good things about the dead. Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”
–Bette Davis (allegedly)
Elon said the fate of the country, even the world rested on this race. And Wisconsin responded accordingly.
But this victory margin yesterday is no bigger than the previous supreme court race in 2023. It’s basically the same result. Wisconsinites are just sick if living under the thumb of the Koch whores who have dominated the court over the last 15 years. They are finally freeing themselves from the corruption that ran rampant on the court.
Stanley Woodward for Associate US Attorney…Better than a judgeship?
I spent the morning calling Democratic senators asking them to use the tactics senator booker did and stand up and hold the senate floor. To shut down the body from normal business without shutting down the government. To give voice to the outrageous actions of the administration. I ask those here to do the same. I believe this is a way to circumvent the press and force the conversation they refuse to give voice to.
Good on you. A filibuster only works so many times, though, before the media will become bored and blow them off. What’s the next form of disruption Senate Dems — or even House Dems — can use to both pour sand in the gears AND disrupt media’s business-as-usual approach to covering Congress?
It is not a filibuster. It is holding the senate floor to disrupt business as usual. Imagine holding the floor for a week. At first the press would continue to ask conservatives on their shows to discuss. But after a few days, I believe that folks will see and hear some of what is being said. It eliminates the fascists voice from the senate for as long as they hold the floor. It is the spectacle. Government shuts down but government services continue. It is not a one off. Do it over and over and over again. Democrats seem to punch hippies and one another when they lose elections. I have never seen someone win a fight by punching themselves in the face. Cory booker seized the national attention. Build on it. Escalate it hold the floor for a week. You ask what’s the next form. I don’t know, but this one worked. Why stop?
I can think of a six hour question that includes videos and charts that confronts the media’s support of the current form of fascism. Criticizing the media from the senate floor will go a lot farther than criticizing the media from here. I have been paying attention to you since Jane Hampshire. I am sure you could do much better than me. What’s next? Recruiting folks like you to work with senators in coming up with the presentation would go a long way. It’s what the right has done for decades. Coordinating with its bases activists who have a media voice. It works.
When I read the line:
“This is someone who actually stole 400,000 social security numbers and personal information from the Social Security database, and was selling social security numbers and all of all the identification information in order for people to basically steal money from Social Security.”
My first thought was: so, they finally caught Big Balls?
Exactly! That was my first thought too. Thank you, SelaSela.
Much-ass, Gracias.
One of the conservative justices in WI is tantrumming over Crawford winning, blaming everyone but the conservatives’ policies.
When I first glanced at that headline, my initial reading was…
“Elon Musk Steps ON It”
With perhaps the ‘it’ in question being his…
And I’m thinking… first off, I hope he was wearing golf shoes at the time, and secondly, geez… Elon must have one of the shortest pairs of legs ever seen on a hominid life form to accomplish that…
And then I looked closer and saw that it said he’d stepped IN it, not ON it…
A bit disappointing, but I can settle for that…