All of DOGE’s work could be undone as lawsuit against Musk proceeds

Musk’s X posts bragging about DOGE may trigger reversals of its biggest wins.

See full article...

 

[jerminator]

That stood out to me the most from this article, the government saying "there isn't a law saying he can't do this so he can" which, like, most kids learn at a young age isn't how things work in practice.

It's like when people post clearly wrong stuff online, and other people say "hey that's wrong," and then they go "prove I'm wrong" instead of proving that they're right, because they know they're not right.

You do realize that the legal systems of non totalitarian states are actually based on the principle that what's not explicitly illegal is permissible? In other words you are born free and laws are there to protect society from obviously negative effects of that freedom. The problem here is that there is an explicit law on the books not allowing the orange shitstain to do just what he did and he ignored it. That's the problem.

 

[launcap]

I still really hope, given how law is Calvinball anymore anyway, this somehow results in a criminal conviction of Musk for treason.

Hate to point this out but Musk isn't a US citizen and so can't be prosecuted for treason.. (Well, maybe SA or Zimbabwe could..)

 

[Komarov]

Hate to point this out but Musk isn't a US citizen and so can't be prosecuted for treason.. (Well, maybe SA or Zimbabwe could..)

He is.

 

[late heavy bombardment]

Gotta wonder if the likelihood of a US-Iran conflict would be reduced if DOGE hadn't summarily fired experienced State Department people - who could have labelled Trump's folly for what it is.

 

[launcap]

You do realize that the legal systems of non totalitarian states are actually based on the principle that what's not explicitly illegal is permissible? In other words you are born free

Actually, in places like France and Germany, the opposite is true. Things are explicitly illegal unless permitted by law (there are obviously parameters round that). They have a legal system derived from the 18th Century French system, as promulgated by Napoleon.

In contrast, legal system derived from English Common Law (ie, the UK and all its former colonies) are the other way round - that everything is legal unless specified otherwise in law.

So, unless what Musk/Trump et. al. does is specifically illegal and can proved to be against a law then it's legal. It might be unconstitutional (and I don't know enough about US law to know whether unconstitutionality is itself illegal but I suspect that it is) and prosecutable under that basis (which seems to be the basis of this court case).

Now all I have to hope for is that the UK MAGA-light (Farage and his band of performing fascists) fail to get anything like a mandate at the next election. Lets hope that the Lib Dems and Greens can form some sort of coalition government and kick the current utterly incompetent parties out of dominance.

Mind you, the tories seem to be managing to make themselves irrelevant..

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Hate to point this out but Musk isn't a US citizen and so can't be prosecuted for treason.. (Well, maybe SA or Zimbabwe could..)

I imagine that there's still some pretty damn serious charges that could be brought against him for mis-use of government information, and mis-handling of government information (via his DOGE kiddies utter lack of security).

 

[Sulla]

I wonder if the Supreme Court can/might/will throw out the lawsuit as frivolous. Perhaps it depends on how much favor Elon currently has at the royal court. The king seems to be distracted by a crusade in Persia though.

Even if the case gets before Trump's tame SCOTUS, it will just decline to hear the case (if DOGE wins in lower courts) or rule in DOGE's favor (if DOGE loses in lower courts).

 

[MilanKraft]

As much as I want to be excited to see possible actual justice sometime over the next few years, I've just been disappointed too many times already.

You're right to be sober about it.

Even if closet nazi man loses in the initial action, it will be appealed and up the chain it will go, all the way to SCOTUS if a sympathetic MAGA judge can't be found earlier in the sequence. And, SCOTUS being mostly spineless most of the time now, they'll over-rule on behalf of the Billionaire Bro Club, whose knob they have polished at pretty much every opportunity since Citizens United (or as I call it: "Citizens Defeated").

 

[Carewolf]

You do realize that the legal systems of non totalitarian states are actually based on the principle that what's not explicitly illegal is permissible? In other words you are born free and laws are there to protect society from obviously negative effects of that freedom. The problem here is that there is an explicit law on the books not allowing the orange shitstain to do just what he did and he ignored it. That's the problem.

True, but I read the statement as being in the context of rules saying "You must do X", then aguing there is no rule explicitly staying you can not do Y.

 

[Carewolf]

Actually, in places like France and Germany, the opposite is true. Things are explicitly illegal unless permitted by law (there are obviously parameters round that). They have a legal system derived from the 18th Century French system, as promulgated by Napoleon.

No.. The Difference in the two system is that in one all rules are based on law, and in the other it is also based on legal precedent. Under both everything not explicitly marked illegal by law (napoleonic law), or legal precent (common law) is legal.

 

[Teletype]

I think it's actually a tax credit so it applies mostly to higher income people. If you're Doing overtime at McDonalds you probably are getting a tax refund already so the tax credit doesn't even help you.

That's not how it works. A refund just means you had more withheld than you owe. A tax credit reduces what you owe, so it can result in a bigger refund (or less you have to send to the IRS). Tax credits are subtracted from the tax bill, unlike deductions, which just reduce income.

 

[dzid]

Is anyone going to jail? That's the only outcome I want to see.

No. No one is going to jail (perhaps we'll see a bit of accountability theater). A scan of 'redactedreport' on Substack should make that clear enough, as just one example (not 'proof', true, but damn...)

Musk and the other morbidly wealthy oligarchs are fairly well insulated in the short term, although that doesn't mean I think investigative and legal action shouldn't be pursued.

Those women who were abused by our elite have been trying to do us a favor. Don't expect them to name perps, and I'm pretty sure they're not expecting accountability until the long process of addressing the institutional failures has run its course.

A healthy society would shun anyone (and their businesses) even tangentially associated with the Epstein files. In the absence of legal accountability, they ought to be excluded from society on a moral basis. That goes for those who take their money as well. Assume guilt for them and their associates and families, politics be damned. Is that fair? No. Fuck them. Only when they feel that kind of pressure will they begin to turn on each other (and they will).

Having seen up close the lifelong PTSD associated with child rape, they deserve nothing less, and waiting for someone else to do something only allows time for dirtbags to normalize CSAM and perpetuate the big business that is sex trafficking.

 

[Teletype]

We need to think big about what happens after we get control of the government back. You're right that if we keep doing things "business as usual," this will have affects on advertising and polarization for decades. Let's not allow that to happen.

What we need is massive anti-corruption legislation. We need to shut down the companies and organizations that collaborated with the Trump Regime and jail the people who collaborated with the Trump Regime. All of them.

Going forward, even the hint of corruption, of manipulating voters, of doing shady propaganda, must be terrifying to be accused of. We need to create a situation where the government is so transparent and everything has to be run so squeaky-clean and anti-corrupt that no one would even dare to do something that might create the appearance of corruption.

Now how do we get there?

In a sense, all of that was done after Watergate. Special prosecutors, government inspector generals, etc., etc. But it was too easy for a GOP Congress and mafia executive branch to undo it all.

 

[wrecksdart]

It's not. Legally, the department is defined by 10 USC § 111. The Secretary position is defined by 10 USC § 113. That's legally. When terrible people have full control of the government, they can ignore the law for a while.

Your second URL goes to section 111 and not 113, here's the correct URL for anyone wanting to read it: 10 U.S. Code § 113 - Secretary of Defense. That said, I agree entirely with your comment...but let's all hope they can't ignore the law for too long.

And a related thought: one of the things that's largely protected America is that this administration is both corrupt and incompetent. Which leads to stuff like this: Prosecutor admits government lacks evidence of misconduct by Fed chair (WaPo gift link)

What frightens me to the core is that there must be people of trump's ilk, corrupt and malignant authoritarian wanna-bees, who will exercise effective and competent control of all the same government apparatuses towards their evil desires. I don't think it's Vance or Rubio, but I feel like the populists who come after trump have the potential to be 100X worse.

 

[RZetopan]

Are you saying she used a Genius Visa, the likes of which are sued to get Einstein level academics into the US for some hard hitting academic work, fraudulently?

Looking through Einstein's published papers, I failed to find even one reference to “be best” or “I don't care, do you?”. Perhaps I missed those. Of course, she brought in her parents to the US as well, something the Orange Goblin continually rails against. High-priced “escorts” always seem to get very special treatment from Der Orange Führer. Just like the illegals he hires at his golf clubs.

 

[DancesWithBikers]

I know this isn't the scope of the case.

I know it's not the point of this lawsuit.

I still really hope, given how law is Calvinball anymore anyway, this somehow results in a criminal conviction of Musk for treason.

This is another upvote just for the Calvinball reference.

 

[wrecksdart]

When, oh when, will the revolution start? Surely we have to be at a tipping point by now.

Ahh, yes, a revolution in America, a country with one of the highest rate of per capita gun ownership in the world--I'm sure that will solve all of our problems of delayed/denied law and not enough order. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[azazel1024]

Its not. Higher income people are "exempt" so don't get regular overtime. I know from experience.

Because I'm salaried and my employer pays my overtime at a fixed converted hourly rate based on my salary, I can't claim that tax credit. There's no 0.5 to save taxes on. I get paid 1.0 overtime.

And as you said, most hourly workers who DO get the 0.5 don't save on taxes either because they make so little to start with.

It was a gimmick bait and switch that doesn't help hardly anybody.

Yup. All that. You've got a fairly narrow gap of people who are hourly, get OT pay at above their hourly, and make enough to pay taxes.

Just like the "no tax on social security income" is simply an income deduction for those 62 and older. And only for $6000 of income. You would not believe how much misinformation I've had to dispel about that. It didn't help that right afterwards the SS commissioner blasted out an email that also falsely claimed that SS earnings would not be taxed because of hatch act violating reasons and credits being given.

 

[EnPeaSea]

Historically, if you get alot of unhappy citizens, it ends with a revolution.

The trick is to keep the citizens unhappy at each other instead of the ruling class. Tell the torch-holders that the pitchfork-holders want to take the torches and vise-versa.

 

[AverageDutchGuy]

It is completely impossible to undo the sheer amount of damage that DOGE has already done and the sheer amount of damage the chaos and destruction it has caused will continue to do for likely decades, if not forever. Even IF Musk is found to be personally liable and the government somehow manages to strip him of all his assets and sell them for damages, it's never going to actually undo a lot of the actual damage.

 

[steelcobra]

The trick is to keep the citizens unhappy at each other instead of the ruling class. Tell the torch-holders that the pitchfork-holders want to take the torches and vise-versa.

Meanwhile:
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/02...-media-outlet-in-the-country-even-queer-ones/

 

[EnPeaSea]

Meanwhile:
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/02...-media-outlet-in-the-country-even-queer-ones/

Oh, indeed, the messaging is much more in one direction. Conservatives are quite adept at propaganda that outsizes the perceived threat of "others", encouraging "us" to act, and when "others" respond, that's more evidence of how bad the "other" is.

 

[jules007]

The sentencing should be as follows:

• ALL of Musk's money taken away
• Prison for life
• Complete undo of any changes his group made

 

[dzid]

Oh, indeed, the messaging is much more in one direction. Conservatives are quite adept at propaganda that outsizes the perceived threat of "others", encouraging "us" to act, and when "others" respond, that's more evidence of how bad the "other" is.

So we call the dipshits out on it. How about when they screech about 'crime' we say, yeah, let's talk crime: how come you never talk about rapists? I think fewer rapists would be great.

What's your position on that? What are you doing about it? Nothing, because donors matter, not real people. You suck.

 

[EnPeaSea]

So we call the dipshits out on it. How about when they screech about 'crime' we say, yeah, let's talk crime: how come you never talk about rapists? I think fewer rapists would be great.

What's your position on that? What are you doing about it? Nothing, because donors matter, not real people. You suck.

Took me just a moment to read "you" as directed at conservative, not me

 

[anonymousmonk]

But not the damage that occurred by letting that idiot(and his goons) run free.

Especially leaking all the SSNs and other sensitive data. We may never know how far that damage spirals out and it could have ramifications long into the future.

 

[dzid]

Took me just a moment to read "you" as directed at conservative, not me

My apologies. I think more in terms of up/down than left/right these days. Carville supporting Janet Mills while dissing Platner based on misleading or dated info is equally harmful.

 

[JMTronicHobbyist]

"But he said he's autistic" or whatever his groveling fanboys say to excuse his fucking heinous behaviors.

In that case he'll never have a good life, never able to play baseball according to brainworm.

 

[EnPeaSea]

My apologies. I think more in terms of up/down than left/right these days. Carville supporting Janet Mills while dissing Platner based on misleading or dated info is equally harmful.

All good, and yeah, I started with up/down but shifted into left/right because the up has had a much easier time at manipulating the right (which is not to say that they are not manipulating the left, they are just not going as conspicuously at it)

 

[graylshaped]

Actually, in places like France and Germany, the opposite is true. Things are explicitly illegal unless permitted by law (there are obviously parameters round that). They have a legal system derived from the 18th Century French system, as promulgated by Napoleon.

In contrast, legal system derived from English Common Law (ie, the UK and all its former colonies) are the other way round - that everything is legal unless specified otherwise in law.

So, unless what Musk/Trump et. al. does is specifically illegal and can proved to be against a law then it's legal. It might be unconstitutional (and I don't know enough about US law to know whether unconstitutionality is itself illegal but I suspect that it is) and prosecutable under that basis (which seems to be the basis of this court case).

Now all I have to hope for is that the UK MAGA-light (Farage and his band of performing fascists) fail to get anything like a mandate at the next election. Lets hope that the Lib Dems and Greens can form some sort of coalition government and kick the current utterly incompetent parties out of dominance.

Mind you, the tories seem to be managing to make themselves irrelevant..

There is more than one axis. What may not be illegal as a matter of criminal law may still have consequences under civil law.

 

[Dumpy Hampsterfire]

Here's one reason why the US system is broken - all of these arguments were made at the time, and it has still taken the court a year to do anything about it. All the personnel and offices of those agencies are gone. A governmental system that cannot handle psychotic attacks like this is not viable. The US needs to not just remove the criminals that are currently looting it, but re-organize in a way that prevents this.

* And hold those responsible accountable.

The problem is - the cure is as bad as the damage done by the disease, maybe even worse in some ways. To get every last responsible or complicit person out of power (in DC and beyond) is going to require some seriously dogged determination, years of effort.... and a McCarthyism level of invasion of privacy and selective ignoring of Constitutional rights of those at fault. Which treads the very thin line of being absolutely no better than they are, and being seen as even worse by "that" side of the aisle. It will definitely impede efforts to try and unify views to move forward together and right the wrongs.

Will it even matter? That's hard to say. I sure hope so. The nation survived the Civil War, in spite of lingering scars and resentments still festering (and being actively capitalized on).

The events of the last 16 months have gone to great lengths to undo 248 years of effort to become better, even as we continue squander what the framers of the Constitution envisioned. Perfect, no. But they built the foundation for us to make improvements without discarding everything. And yet here we are.

What will come out of this period of time, as a nation, and we as its citizens.. will not be the same as what stepped into this insanity. There is no simple or clean way to put the toothpaste back into the tube. To try and fix all of this is going to hurt everyone. The era of the US being a 'leader' of the free world is close to over; Nothing is impossible but the situation sure feels like it's reaching that tipping point, doesn't it? Who has the charisma to pull it off? Personally, I can't think of anyone who is truly suited for the job.

It will take a generation or more before other nations consider trusting us again, assuming we can even manage to right the ship and keep it on course. It takes years to build trust, and only a second to piss it all away.

-edited for typos.

 

[excognita]

Framing DOGE's work as "wins" is journalistically irresponsible.

The outcomes are patently anti-science, anti-democracy, and designed to benefit a small number of wealth hoarders and religious zealots that support a white christian ethnostate.

Don't underestimate the harms of platforming ideologies for the sake of neutrality. It is possible to apply the paradox of tolerance without sacrificing your principles. Look to the New York Times: by platforming transphobes, the paper has become a much-cited reference in genocidal anti-trans legislation by far right, bad faith actors.

 

[Faceless Man]

Ahh, yes, a revolution in America, a country with one of the highest rate of per capita gun ownership in the world--I'm sure that will solve all of our problems of delayed/denied law and not enough order. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, they keep saying that's what they need the guns for, I'm just wondering when they're going to step up.

 

[BrewerBob]

Look, all that time you're not working for the company, you're stealing the company's money.

Besides, if you want to show your commitment to the company, you'll willingly work longer hours for no pay. Don't you want to be a team player? If you don't sacrifice your free time for no compensation, people might think you're not committed to this job...

When, oh when, will the revolution start? Surely we have to be at a tipping point by now.

Sounds a lot like the difference between the Japanese and the Italians. The Italians work to live. The Japanese live to work.

They both build beautiful stuff. Mine is a Kawasaki Vulcan S.

 

[Beckler]

Framing DOGE's work as "wins" is journalistically irresponsible.

The outcomes are patently anti-science, anti-democracy, and designed to benefit a small number of wealth hoarders and religious zealots that support a white christian ethnostate.

Don't underestimate the harms of platforming ideologies for the sake of neutrality. It is possible to apply the paradox of tolerance without sacrificing your principles. Look to the New York Times: by platforming transphobes, the paper has become a much-cited reference in genocidal anti-trans legislation by far right, bad faith actors.

Careful, there - they just banned someone on pg. 1 for calling them biased basically!

 

[Dzov]

Here's one reason why the US system is broken - all of these arguments were made at the time, and it has still taken the court a year to do anything about it. All the personnel and offices of those agencies are gone. A governmental system that cannot handle psychotic attacks like this is not viable. The US needs to not just remove the criminals that are currently looting it, but re-organize in a way that prevents this.

Not sure this is possible when existing laws and the constitution are straight ignored by the party in charge of all three branches of government.

 

[NeutrinoSunset]

This is pointless. As stupid as it is, Musk was acting on the orders of Trump, and your Supreme Court has already decided that Trump is above the law.

So not matter how long this runs, there is no convievable way it will ever result in anything of any consequence.

The bottom line is you are all Trumps bitches for the next 3 years.

 

[Uragan]

This is pointless. As stupid as it is, Musk was acting on the orders of Trump, and your Supreme Court has already decided that Trump is above the law.

Musk isn't above the law though.

So not matter how long this runs, there is no convievable way it will ever result in anything of any consequence.

Not true.

The bottom line is you are all Trumps bitches for the next 3 years.

Man... what's it like to be a try-hard edgelord?

 

[zunipus]

Chatter and muddle all they like. Blatantly: Musk needed Senate confirmation. DOGE was an unconstitutional CRIME. Failing to treat it that way is also a crime.

 

[Erris]

Their biggest win was stealing all the private info on US citizens and giving it to Palantir.