Moneywise: MTG’s $1T fraud claim debunked by experts

In a digital post dripping with outrage, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene echoed the claims made by [F’]Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, alleging widespread fraud within the Social Security system.

“Our own government just blindly sends checks to anyone and everyone whether citizen, non-citizen, dead or alive,” Greene said in a recent post on X, formerly Twitter. “We must end this malpractice and outright waste, fraud, and abuse. This is the mission of DOGE.”

Why does Georgia keep electing this brainless piece of sh*t?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/mtg-warns-the-us-government-just-blindly-sends-checks-to-anyone-whether-dead-or-alive-citizen-or-non-citizen-here-s-her-solution-to-save-1-trillion-of-waste-fraud-and-abuse/ar-AA1F3gGq

Independent: Elon Musk endorses conspiracy theory around Biden’s cancer diagnosis

Musk endorsed a theory accusing the Democrats of an “evil” plan to get rid of Biden as president and to replace him with former Vice President Kamala Harris

President Donald Trump’s ally, [F’]Elon Musk, endorsed a conspiracy theory about former-President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis in a post on X.

On Sunday night, right-wing podcast host Clint Russell took to to accuse the Democrats of forging an “evil” plan to get Biden elected into office and strategically drop out because of his diagnosis, to pave the way for Kamala Harris to take the reins.

F’Elon & King Donald are simply despicable. Just have the grace to let Biden deal with his illness peacefully.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-conspiracy-theory-biden-cancer-b2753683.html

Moneywise: Social Security Administration issues a statement countering Elon’s claim of a ‘huge problem’ with dead beneficiaries, says it gets roughly 3M death notices a year. But how accurate are they?

Amid widespread confusion and accusations from Elon Musk suggesting “millions of dead people” are receiving benefits, the Social Security Administration has issued a clarification.

In a recent press release, the SSA says it receives more than three million death notices every year. The release offers a glimpse behind the curtain to explain how deaths are reported to the agency and why the SSA believes that, contrary to Musk’s claims, the records on file are “highly accurate.”

“Of these millions of death reports received each year, less than one-third of 1 percent are erroneously reported deaths that need to be corrected,” the SSA states in its press release.

https://moneywise.com/news/americas-social-security-administration-issued-statement-on-devastating-erroneous-death-reports-confirms-it-gets-roughly-3m-death-notices-each-year-how-accurate-are-they

USA Today: Thousands of federal employees are on a roller coaster of being fired, rehired

‘Inefficency in the name of efficiency,’ according to one federal employee who was fired, rehired and may be fired again.

In recent months, tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, rehired and threatened with firing again.

For now, they have a two-week reprieve, after a federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration not to carry out any additional firings for two weeks, but the administration has asked the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling.

But employees describe weeks of uncertainty, worry and doubt as their jobs are off, then on, then off again.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/05/18/federal-employees-fired-rehired-await-court-decision/83600693007

Intelligencer: Donald Trump Is a Crook, But He’s Their Crook

What does seem genuinely new, even by the standards of America’s warped history, is the unabashed corruption. No president, really, has favor-traded like Trump. No president has ever tried to blatantly enrich himself like this while in office. No president has ever hung a for-sale sign over the White House — not like this, anyway. Trump is poised to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, which feels like something of a capstone to his latest corruption binge. He would be able to use the plane while in the White House and transfer it to his presidential foundation when he’s out of office. Trump’s inaugural committee also gobbled up $239 million from wealthy business interests who are desperate to curry favor with such a nakedly transactional president. The amount far outstrips the $107 million Trump raised for his committee back in 2017, and since there is no way to spend so much cash on dinner and events, it appears Trump might have a slush fund for the rest of his life.

And then there’s his crypto hustle ….

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/qatar-plane-trump-corruption.html

MSNBC: Trump’s plan to deport Afghan refugees is a national disgrace

There’s no group more deserving of TPS than the Afghans who are now on the fast track to deportation.

Earlier this month, the United Nations published its latest update on human rights in Afghanistan. Here are a few of the findings: On Feb. 23, 18 people were flogged for “crimes” ranging from homosexuality to extramarital affairs. They then received sentences of between one and five years in prison. On March 3, “Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” agents made a surprise visit to a hospital and ordered staff not to attend women who weren’t accompanied by a male relative. Between Jan. 17 and Feb. 3, 50 men from the Ismaili community were abducted and interrogated on religious subjects. Those who refused to convert to Sunni Islam were beaten and threatened with death.

This is Afghanistan under Taliban rule, and it is where the Trump administration plans to send Afghans who are now living safely in the United States. 

Americans owe a special debt to our Afghan partners, who served honorably in and alongside our armed forces and trusted the United States to stand by them instead of abandoning their country to the Taliban. The Trump administration’s decision to betray the Afghans who thought they were safe on American soil is an act of supreme cruelty and callousness. Our Afghan friends don’t deserve a one-way ticket back to the theocracy they left behind — they deserve to be Americans.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-ends-afghan-protections-afrikaners-rcna207127

DMR News: DOGE Engineer’s Computer Infected by Malware, Leaked Data Exposed Online

The controversies surrounding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continue as a software engineer becomes the latest victim of a data breach. A report from Dropsite News (via ArsTechnica) revealed that a DOGE software engineer’s computer was infected by info-stealing malware. The affected engineer, Kyle Schutt, is not only a staff member at DOGE but also works for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

According to the report, Schutt previously had access to a core financial management system at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which he was evaluating while working with DOGE. It is suspected that Schutt had exposure to sensitive FEMA data, which pertains to the security of civilian federal networks and the United States’ critical infrastructure.

The bad actors behind the malware attack were able to access Schutt’s computer, and the stolen data was subsequently leaked online through a “stealer logs” database. Schutt’s credentials were shared multiple times, with the first occurrence happening in 2023. The report also stated that Schutt appeared in 51 data breaches since the infection, though there’s no indication that his files were fully compromised.

Mediaite: Elon Musk’s DOGE Deletes Dozens of Claims of Cost-Cutting After Investigation Reveals They Are False

Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency deleted over 30 different government contracts from its website’s “Wall of Receipts” this week after a New York Times investigation found them to still be active.

What do you expect from F’Elon Musk?

Politico: ‘Glaring red flag’: Treasury DOGE team discloses bank stock holdings

The Trump administration official overseeing the Treasury Department’s massive financial operations reported owning stock in many of the large banks and companies that do business with the department, according to disclosures obtained by POLITICO.

Tom Krause, who is also the lead official for Treasury’s DOGE team, reported hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of shares in a wide range of financial companies, including those that provide services to the unit Krause oversees.

He and two other Treasury DOGE team members — Todd Newnam and Linda Whitridge— also reported owning shares of Intuit, the parent company of TurboTax, which has lobbied heavily against IRS Direct File, a program targeted for elimination by Elon Musk and DOGE.

&c.

Who cares about a little conflict of interest when you’re working for the Grifter-in-Chief?

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/14/treasury-doge-disclosures-bank-stocks-00347972

ABC News: Dems want investigation into whether Trump admin helping Musk make Starlink deals

As President Donald Trump continues his first foreign trip through the Middle East, a group of Senate Democrats are calling for an investigation into whether the Trump administration is clearing hurdles for Starlink, a company led by White House senior adviser Elon Musk, to strike foreign deals.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Attorney General Pam Bondi [Bimbo #3], acting Director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics Jamieson Greer, acting Inspector General of the State Department Arne Baker and White House ethics official Scott Gast, the senators called for an investigation into whether the administration is “intervening” to benefit Starlink as it “negotiates tariff agreements and other matters with foreign governments.”

“These reports indicate that Mr. Musk may be using his official role and his proximity to the President as leverage for his own personal financial benefit — even if it comes at the expense of American consumers and the nation’s foreign policy interests,” the senators wrote. “These actions raise questions about whether Mr. Musk or other administration officials may be violating ethics or other laws.”

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senate-democrats-investigation-trump-administration-helping-musk-make/story?id=121795283