No packages from China, code monkeys in DC, GOP butt kissing, orgy protocols
February 5, 2025
Be sure to visit KGB Overflow for all the cartoons, humor, news, and miscellany that didn’t fit in today’s KGB Report.
Disclaimer: The material contained here was accurate at the time of publication.
Things are probably much worse now.
US Postal Service suspends incoming packages from China, Hong Kong. That Temu package might be a little late.
25-year-old Elon Musk crony has total control over Treasury payments. What could go wrong?
Here’s the video from Wired summarizing Elon Musk’s ongoing takeover of Federal agencies.
This gift article from the New York Times provides perspective:
There is no precedent for a government official to have Mr. Musk’s scale of conflicts of interest, which include domestic holdings and foreign connections such as business relationships in China. And there is no precedent for someone who is not a full-time employee to have such ability to reshape the federal work force.
The historian Douglas Brinkley described Mr. Musk as a “lone ranger” with limitless running room. He noted that the billionaire was operating “beyond scrutiny,” saying: “There is not one single entity holding Musk accountable. It’s a harbinger of the destruction of our basic institutions.”
And Musk’s access to federal data “is an absolute nightmare”:
Alan Butler of the Electronic Privacy Information Center said “They’re not following the law, they’re not following any semblance of best practice, they’re just hacking and slashing government IT systems in a way that threatens national security and puts everyone at risk.”
Mary Ellen Callahan, former Chief Privacy Officer at the Department of Homeland Security, called DOGE’s access “a data breach of exponential proportions.” “If we lose control of that data, we’ve lost control forever,” she said.
It may have already happened. Josh Marshall reports that Musk’s IT people have “already made extensive changes to the code base” of the system that handles contract payments, tax refunds and Social Security benefits. Over 72 million Americans receive Social Security every month. Imagine the impact on the country if that system goes down. The thought of a 25 year old mucking with legacy COBOL code is truly terrifying.
Knee-deep in the hoopla
It’s nigh impossible to track all the inanity erupting every day. These seem to be the most significant:
Trump says US will ‘take over’ Gaza Strip in shock announcement during Netanyahu visit. He said that “this is not a decision made lightly. Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent.” Asked whether U.S. troops will be deployed to take over Gaza, President Donald Trump said: “We’ll do what’s necessary. … We’ll take it over and develop it.”
Trump seeks executive order, cooperation with Congress to shut Education Department.
Mt. Rushmore and a third term: GOP lawmakers rush to flatter Trump. (New York Times gift article.) Ass-kissing, spineless House Republicans want to amend the Constitution to give Trump a third term; rename Washington Dulles International Airport to Donald J. Trump International Airport; expunge his two impeachments; and add his face to Mount Rushmore.
Trump warns he left instructions to ‘obliterate’ Iran if he is assassinated
There’s finally some Tesla (TSLA) shareholder momentum to fire Elon Musk. Guess they found out about him moonlighting in DC.
Trump to sign executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports
Trump ‘does not have the authority to abolish’ USAID: Congressional Research Service
Signs of the Apocalypse, #982: Waffle House is placing a surcharge on every egg it sells.
Birds practice singing in their sleep. (I think it’s their form of snoring.)
If what’s happening in DC isn’t bad enough, the number of monarch butterflies is nearing a record 30-year low.
5 Costco items employees say you should never buy.
10 Myths About Memory. There are probably more, but they forgot.
From The Atlantic: “An orgy requires six to 20 people. Fewer than six, and the encounter is simply categorized by the number of participants: threesomes, foursomes, and so on. More than 20, and we’re back in the terrain of the sex party.”
You’re welcome.
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On This Day:
Among other things, today is- in no particular order of importance- National Fart Day, California Western Monarch Day, Move Hollywood and Broadway to Lebanon, Pennsylvania Day, National Chocolate Fondue Day, National Girls and Women in Sports Day, National Shower with a Friend Day, National Signing Day,National Weatherperson's Day, World Nutella Day, World Read Aloud Day, and Kashmir Solidarity Day.
Someone born on this date with quotable quotes (Click on link after name for quotes):
William S. Burroughs (1914), American writer (d. 1997)
Other birthdays:
Red Buttons (1919), American actor (d. 2006)
Hal Blaine (1929), American session drummer (d. 2019)
Hank Aaron (1934), American baseball player (d. 2021)
H. R. Giger (1940), Swiss painter, sculptor, and set designer (d. 2014)
Stephen J. Cannell, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
Nolan Bushnell (1943), American engineer and businessman, founded Atari, Inc.
Michael Mann (1943), American director, producer, and screenwriter
Christopher Guest (1948), American actor and director
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