Year: 2025

Lawyers, next time, talk to the techs

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date February 6, 2025

I’m following several lawsuits related to recent Trump/DOGE antics. Among them is a lawsuit by the Alliance for Retired Americans related to DOGE access to Treasury fiscal systems.

First of all, none of the DOGE techies who have been mentioned at Wired have the expertise to even understand the Treasury systems, much less modify them without hopelessly breaking them. Most of the DOGE people are script kiddies, not folks who have worked with large enterprise systems—especially systems likely to have been written in Java.

Secondly, most of these people have no training in working with larger enterprise systems. Working with Teslas and space ships does not equip you to create the massive systems in place at Treasury and likely many other government systems. Heck, there’s no indication any of them even know how to use project management systems such as Git, if this screenshot of a X-witter post is any indication.

Rookie Mistake 1: no backups

To stop the costly destruction that could be catastrophic for so many people in this country, lawyers for several groups filed a lawsuit against Treasury, demanding that DOGE be stopped from potentially damaging these essential systems. They also asked for a Temporary Restraining order to take effect while the case is litigated.

During a hearing yesterday, the judge and both sides agreed to a proposed order to ‘maintain the status quo’ of the systems by only allowing limited read-only access to DOGE ‘special employees’. However, they agreed to let Treasury employees unfettered access to the systems.

Any person who is an employee (but not a Special Government Employee) of the Department of the Treasury and who has a need for the record or system of recordsin the performance of their duties;

Employees like Thomas Shedd, who was brought in by DOGE. Employees like Shedd who is an employee solely because of DOGE coercion.

Employees like Shedd who can now rummage about these systems without any hindrance, doing whatever he wants to these systems.

Legal folk: you don’t like techies like me to write about or dabble with the law because we’re not experts. At the same time, you don’t bring in tech experts likebe me to ensure you’re not making a terrible mistake with the legal agreements you make. And this was a hell of a bad agreement.

You should have phrased the order to only include employees who were employed in the Treasury before January 1, 2025. Now, DOGE could tell Bessant to ‘hire’ any number of DOGE people who will have free reign over these system, and they won’t violate this court order.

In fact, Bessant can go to Congress or write letters to Congressional members stating that the DOGE special employees have read-only access, while DOGE-affiliated techs have unrestricted access to everything.

Bad call. Really bad call. Lawyers, next time, talk to the techs.

Also published at Substack

Tags DOGE

Government

President Mump’s Script Kiddies Government

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date February 3, 2025

Comment at Substack

Several of us watched in horror and anger as President Musk/Trump turned loose script kiddies with nicknames like “BigBalls” onto the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the General Services Administration (GSA), and USAID.

We sat appalled when reading how these same script kiddies locked out government employees, accessed top-secret information, and then were given the keys to the Treasury’s payment system—the government’s checkbook.

Musk bragged about his efforts, talking about shredding USAID and cutting off payments—a man who doesn’t work for the government, doesn’t know how governments actually work, doesn’t care if they work, and is stupid enough to think the deficit would be magically erased if we just used a blockchain.

And Congressional Republicans? Though it’s difficult for them to stand in front of a camera without a spine, several did manage to prop themselves up against a wall long enough to swear loyalty to The Mump.

Good, respected long-time civil servants have been forced to resign solely because they tried to protect our systems from the naughty children and their demented leader. Other employees have been confused and threatened by Musk messages sent from OPM demanding they basically resign—no matter who they are or how important their work. After all, a working government isn’t important to Musk: only tax breaks and unlimited funds from NASA.

The other Presidential half took a break from destroying our economy with ill-considered and thoughtless tariffs against this country’s closest friends…and two days of golf…to celebrate the damage his better half has done. Without Ivanka, Trump doesn’t know what to do and he needs someone to ghost act the Presidency for him.

What’s needed now is for Democrats to stand up, and by this I don’t mean writing pained letters expressing their concern to someone like waterboy Rubio, who was off threatening other countries.

Get out of the Congressional building, and go to the USAID building, the OPM buildings, the Treasury, press cameras in tow and tell the American people that our country is under attack, and it’s not happening at the border.

(I understand this might be difficult for Congressional Democrats, after recently pledging themselves to be The Grownups in The Room, but I know there are members who are just as mad as the rest of us.)

Another hope is the flood of lawsuits I hope will be hitting the courts starting today, because of the script kiddie violations of several privacy and security laws—not to mention lawsuits by organizations tasked with work by the USAID and now being cut adrift.

Oh, and taking down the USAID government website, and delisting it from name servers? Even a 14 year old would sneer at the childishness of this action.

You can’t erase the government because you’re rich think you and can do anything you want.

Sources

Turmoil inside USAID: DOGE reps take over offices, senior officials placed on leave

Elon Musk says President Donald Trump has ‘agreed’ USAID should be shut down

There are several reasons Musk wants to control Treasury payments. None of them are good.

Elon Musk’s task force has gained access to sensitive Treasury payment systems, sources say

Exclusive: Musk aides lock workers out of OPM computer systems

Musk associates given unfettered access to private data of government employees

Breaking Down OPM’s ‘Fork in the Road’ Email to Federal Workers

Elon’s Twitter Destruction Playbook Hits The US Government, And It’s Even More Dangerous

The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover

Trump says USAID run by “lunatics” as Dems demand answers on DOGE visit

Header image by DonkeyHokey CC BY-SA 2.0

Tags Mump

Constitution Immigration

Subject to the jurisdiction…Trump just stated no one can enforce migration law against migrant mothers

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date January 21, 2025

Trump

Among the appalling, thoughtless, reckless, and inane executive orders trump issued on Day One, the one considered the most *bonkers is the one to end birthright citizenship.

Yes, is it is true that for over a 130 years, courts have deemed that birthright citizenship is protected by the 14th Amendment, which states:

All people born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

According to Trump’s executive order:

Among the categories of individuals born in the United States and not subject to the jurisdiction thereof, the privilege of United States citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States: (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.

A lawsuit has already been filed on this order, and I expect others—many others, and not filed in Texas—to follow.

But let’s take a moment to look at Trump’s action another way.

What Trump is saying is that the parents of the child are not subject to jurisdiction, and therefore the the child isn’t a citizen. Technically, the ‘not subject to jurisdiction’ has meant that children of certain foreign diplomats who have immunity from our legal jurisdiction aren’t automatically made citizens when born in the US. According to USCIS:

A person born in the United States to a foreign diplomatic officer accredited to the United States is not subject to the jurisdiction of United States law. Therefore, that person cannot be considered a U.S. citizen at birth under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This person may, however, be considered a permanent resident at birth and able to receive a Green Card through creation of record.

The person born to a foreign diplomat is not a US citizen by birth because the child’s parent or parents are not subject to jurisdiction. So, what does that subject to jurisdiction mean, exactly?

What it means is the parent or parents can’t be arrested, handcuffed, detained, or charged with a crime—no matter how serious their actions—unless the country that sent the diplomat waives immunity.

Though the immigrant parent or parents are not diplomats, the concept of not subject to jurisdiction doesn’t mysteriously attain a new meaning in our legal system. It is a plainly understood concept that disdains wiggle room.

So, Trump is saying. is that the parents are not subject to jurisdiction. This means the parent or parents can’t be handcuffed, arrested, detained, charged with any crime, or taken to court. Our immigration laws would have no impact on these individuals, because they’re not subject to jurisdiction.

Ipso facto if Trump’s administration wants to continue removing birthright citizenship from the children of these immigrants, then his administration must agree not to handcuff, arrest, detain, charge, or take any other legal action against the child’s parent or parents. Since deportation is a legal action, the **US could not deport the parent.

Could the administration deport the children, instead? I don’t see how, according to our laws. If the administration wants to arrest, detain, and/or deport the child, they’d have to demonstrate the child was here in violation of immigration law, but how could they do so?

According to Cornell Law:

Infancy is an affirmative defense offered by a defendant in a criminal proceeding that the defendant did not have the mens rea necessary to be charged with the crime on account of their age. In other words, the defendant was too young to possess the capacity to understand the wrongfulness of their actions.

In other words, the child did not have the criminal intent to violate the law, and therefore hasn’t broken any law. Even without the infant defense, the baby did not enter the country illegally, they did not cross the border to our country illegally, they did not overstay their visa illegally…they’re just here. As if by magic. And we have no laws on magic.

Still, if Trump wishes to up his deportation numbers, he could deport the children…to the country of their birth. We can live with this.

*Most bonkers, if you ignore that whole Gulf of America thing.

**The executive branch can declare an individual as persona non grata and ask them to leave the country, but this concept is based on the fact that they were originally welcomed to the country, and it gets more twisty from there.

Substack link for commenting

Tags Executive Order, Trump

Photography Places

Silent Sunday Jan 19 2025

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date January 19, 2025

Japanese Garden in Missouri Botanical Garden in winter

Tags silentsunday

Social Media

Zuckerberg leaves us with one question

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date January 8, 2025

It wasn’t difficult to quit X-witter years ago, and I really haven’t missed it.

It also wasn’t difficult to quit Threads, and I’ve never been interested in Instagram.

So far, Bluesky isn’t evil and I hope it stays this way. And Mastodon’s purely distributed and open nature prevents Mordor from claiming it.

But Facebook…

Zuckerberg has always been a smarmy self-serving asshole of the first degree. Now, with his Trump ass-kissing to a humiliating degree, I, like many of you, are left having to make a decision about staying or going.

After some thought, I decided I’m both staying and going.

The ways I’m staying

I co-admin for a group, New Savannah Town Square. The good thing about being admin for this group is I and the other co-admin are boss.

Zuckerberg can let all sorts of MAGA crap into Facebook, but that doesn’t mean they can come into our group. As I posted recently:

Lies will be blocked
Misinformation will be deleted
Bigots will be banned

Zuckerberg doesn’t care if he’s crawling in the dung heap but the rest of us do. I can’t control Facebook generally, but I can control what happens in this group.

In addition, I have friends I keep in contact with on Facebook. Currently, I’m trying to locate them in Mastodon and Bluesky and creating lists in both services so I can actually go out and see a feed with just my friends and not a lot else. It’s easier to keep in contact with folks using this approach than Facebook with all the ads and cruft.

BUT…not everyone is in Mastodon and Bluesky and I’m not willing to abandon my connections to them in Facebook. Yet.

The Ways I’m going

I’m keeping my posts private, no longer commenting on any posts other than those belonging to friends, and I will block with wild abandon and glee.

I won’t read the comments to posts of public officials. I learned this by reading the comments on Savannah Mayor Van Johnson’s posts (a lot of really nasty racists in this area). Frankly, I think every government and public official account should close comments to all their posts considering the filth coming their way. However, their choice. Mine is to not engage.

In addition, I will spend less time on Facebook, more time here at Burningbird. And for those folks who like posts in an email, I copy my Bb posts to Substack (which has its own issues but does provide rent-free commenting and email support).

However, just because I’m not closing down my Facebook account doesn’t mean I’m not keeping my bags packed, ready to bug out. There’s always that question in the back of my mind:

Should I stay or should I go?