Speaker 1: Native Lamb Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Reason Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. I am happy to be here with you
Speaker 1: all today. This is my second solo pod with Native
Speaker 1: Lampod and as we say normally, with my co hosts
Speaker 1: who aren't with me of course, because it's a solo pod,
Speaker 1: Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillum shout out to tiff is
Speaker 1: her birthday week. Welcome home, y'all. So today we are
Speaker 1: getting back into it. Last week, as you all know,
Speaker 1: we covered the federal funding freeze, and this week I
Speaker 1: want to talk about President Elon Musk. There are gonna
Speaker 1: be a couple of these in this series. I think
Speaker 1: next we're going to talk about Steven Miller, who is
Speaker 1: the Deputy chief of Staff for Policy at the White House.
Speaker 1: But today I think it's really really important for us
Speaker 1: to dive into the role that Elon Musk is playing
Speaker 1: in the federal government, the fact that it is very
Speaker 1: much outside, perhaps illegal, and he is waiting in the water,
Speaker 1: maybe drowning in the water, with conflicts of interest. So
Speaker 1: we're going to get into that, I think first and
Speaker 1: foremost what I really want to talk about. Actually, before
Speaker 1: I get into anything, let me offer this disclaimer, because
Speaker 1: what we know about this White House and the Trump
Speaker 1: administration is they are highly litigious. So to cover my
Speaker 1: home behind iHeart and reason choice media, let me say this.
Speaker 1: I am acknowledging that they are very litigious. That what
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about today is going to infuriate
Speaker 1: some associated with the federal government. Whether they are contractors,
Speaker 1: Elon Musk acolytes, Trump acolytes, fans, MAGA protesters, or anything else,
Speaker 1: the fact that remains that they are litigious. So I
Speaker 1: want you to ensure I want to ensure that you
Speaker 1: know the sources. I will cite the sources as much
Speaker 1: as I can. I will do my best to say
Speaker 1: what is alleged. I will let you know what is
Speaker 1: a theory and what is my inner holy ghost, the
Speaker 1: black woman's discernment, and let you know that it is just.
Speaker 2: That a theory.
Speaker 1: And then I will also be sure as always to
Speaker 1: let you know what is a fact, because facts matter
Speaker 1: in a day and age where they could not convince
Speaker 1: us more that they do not.
Speaker 2: They matter.
Speaker 1: And I will also make sure that I am diligent
Speaker 1: about this because.
Speaker 2: I think that these are Donald Trump's puppet masters.
Speaker 1: Starting of course, with Elon Musk, I said, I think
Speaker 1: that means it's a theory. So one of the things
Speaker 1: that we will also continue to go back to is
Speaker 1: Project twenty twenty five. In Project twenty twenty five, efficiency
Speaker 1: or inefficiency is mentioned at least sixty times in that document.
Speaker 1: So it's no wonder that the Trump administration is working
Speaker 1: diligently to come up with something that makes government more efficient.
Speaker 1: In fact, they created an agency, because you know, Republicans
Speaker 1: are apparently about big government these days, they added a
Speaker 1: new agency. That agency is called the Department of Government Efficiency,
Speaker 1: because the best way to make government more efficient is
Speaker 1: to add another agency. I'm just kidding if you can't tell.
Speaker 1: So the other thing that I think we should talk
Speaker 1: about is who Donald Trump and Elon were, where their
Speaker 1: relationship originated, and how we got to this very treacherous place.
Speaker 1: So on July thirteenth, twenty twenty four, Elon Musk went
Speaker 1: to the platform that he purchased formally known as Twitter
Speaker 1: to endorse Donald Trump. Since then, the evil brother to
Speaker 1: True Social has seemingly suppressed the content of its most
Speaker 1: progressive users, and has amplified content that is relate to,
Speaker 1: related to and bolsters the once banned President Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: So let's talk briefly about who Elon Musk is. So
Speaker 1: he is a South African born entrepreneur. He is believed
Speaker 1: to be the richest man in the world, with a
Speaker 1: reported net worth of more than four hundred and ten
Speaker 1: billion dollars. One hundred and fifty billion of that four
Speaker 1: hundred and ten billion has been garnered since the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four election. You heard me right, So he got
Speaker 1: a whole additional one hundred and fifty billion dollars since
Speaker 1: the election. I think that is worth noting. Next, this
Speaker 1: former h one B visa holder. As I said, he
Speaker 1: is the South African born richest man in the world.
Speaker 1: Elon Musk got rich from building companies like PayPal and
Speaker 1: then going on to invest in companies like Tesla, which
Speaker 1: most of us know him from.
Speaker 2: And SpaceX.
Speaker 1: This election cycle, he establish a pack called America Pack
Speaker 1: for those of you who don't know, a pack stands
Speaker 1: for political Action committee. So he founded America Political Action
Speaker 1: Committee and according to FBC filing, spent seventy two million
Speaker 1: dollars to support the election of Donald J.
Speaker 2: T Donald J.
Speaker 1: Trump so again July endorsement established his America Pack spends
Speaker 1: seventy two million dollars of his own money to help
Speaker 1: get Donald Trump elected. I would say a theory is
Speaker 1: he did a little bit more than that. You all
Speaker 1: know my theory if you watch the podcast. If you
Speaker 1: don't know my theory, watch the podcast. It is a theory.
Speaker 1: It is not confirmed, but I believe that the SpaceX
Speaker 1: Satellite Division might have had something to do with this
Speaker 1: electoral victory.
Speaker 2: So there's that now.
Speaker 1: I want to also say that that it is that. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm just going back to the facts. Let me go
Speaker 1: back to the facts. Don't ever bouy my theories for now.
Speaker 1: So one of Trump's earliest advisors, Steve Bannon, who you
Speaker 1: are may remember. His name may ring a bell because
Speaker 1: he was held in contempt of Congress for not cooperating
Speaker 1: with Congress. He said recently that Elon Musk's sole objective is.
Speaker 2: To become a trillionaire.
Speaker 1: There is apparently trouble in paradise because Steve Bannon and
Speaker 1: Elon must don't rock with each other. Steve Bannon was
Speaker 1: fired in the last Trump administration, but he is still
Speaker 1: a diehard Maga. So the Magas are scrapping. So he
Speaker 1: said that his only goal is to become a trillionaire.
Speaker 1: He says that white South Africans are the most racist
Speaker 1: on the planet. It's funny to watch the pot calling
Speaker 1: the kettle black, or maybe to watch the pot calling
Speaker 1: the kettle white, or to say that the sheet and
Speaker 1: the wall match. I don't know, but I just think
Speaker 1: it's worth noting. So they're fighting, there's trouble in paradise.
Speaker 1: He said that he was going to see to it
Speaker 1: by inauguration that Elon Musk did not have the unfettered
Speaker 1: access that surprise he has. So Steve Bannon, you fail,
Speaker 1: Try again, for try again now. I want to just
Speaker 1: get into the frail a little bit around what's happening
Speaker 1: in South Africa. You would will have just noted that
Speaker 1: most recently, Donald Trump said that he was going to
Speaker 1: cut off all funding the South Africa. I keep emphasizing
Speaker 1: the South African born Elon Musk for a reason.
Speaker 2: Elon Musk might have something to do with this policy.
Speaker 1: So South Africa just announced a land expropriation law, and
Speaker 1: that law passed last month. It is designed to redress
Speaker 1: the apartheid era confiscation of land owned by black people,
Speaker 1: and Donald Trump, in response to this law passing in
Speaker 1: South Africa, made this statement on true social South Africa
Speaker 1: is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly.
Speaker 1: A massive, a massive human rights violation at a minimum
Speaker 1: is happening for all to see. The United States won't
Speaker 1: stand for it.
Speaker 2: We will act. Also note this part.
Speaker 1: Also, I will be cutting off all future spending, all
Speaker 1: future funding. I'm sorry about that, all future funding to
Speaker 1: South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has
Speaker 1: been completed. Now, what is fascinating about this is Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: Mister America first himself is real focused on where he's
Speaker 1: going to, you know, lay down the law on a tariff.
Speaker 1: He drew that back, he pulled that back, and now
Speaker 1: he's talking about funding the South Africa. And South Africa
Speaker 1: only receives foreign aid from US to the tune of
Speaker 1: four hundred million dollars annually and it's mostly for health programs,
Speaker 1: primarily focused around HIV AID support. So it's fascinating that
Speaker 1: he's tied this land expropriation law that is designed to
Speaker 1: give people back the land that they once had and
Speaker 1: he's saying, we're not going to do this. Now what
Speaker 1: you should also know and then I'm gonna get back
Speaker 1: to America, roll with me to South Africa a little
Speaker 1: bit longer. Elon Mus's hometown homeland home country. Land ownership
Speaker 1: has been a very contentious issue in South Africa. This is,
Speaker 1: according to BBC, for more than a century. In nineteen thirteen,
Speaker 1: British colonies authorized British colonial authorities pass legislation that restricted
Speaker 1: the property rights of the country's black majority. Again, the
Speaker 1: law that was just passed is designed to give back
Speaker 1: black folks the land that they once had. The Native's
Speaker 1: Land Act left the vast majority of the land under
Speaker 1: the control of the white minority and set the foundation
Speaker 1: for the forced removal of black people to poor homelands,
Speaker 1: homelands and townships. And this is more than three decades ago,
Speaker 1: until the end of apartheid. Now, the other thing that
Speaker 1: I think is worth noting is that Elon mu Us
Speaker 1: had something to say and it sounded very similar to
Speaker 1: what Donald Trump said around returning the land.
Speaker 2: And it being a racist policy.
Speaker 1: So the Washington Post said that South Africa's government has
Speaker 1: framed land reform as a moral social and economic imperative.
Speaker 1: I think many of us would agree with that given
Speaker 1: our own experiences in this country because of the systemic
Speaker 1: dispossession of black South Africans under apartheid. The country did
Speaker 1: a land audit in twenty seventeen, and that land audit
Speaker 1: says that the white population in South Africa owned seventy
Speaker 1: two percent of individually owned farms and agricultural holdings. Mixed
Speaker 1: race citizens also known as coloreds in South Africa owned
Speaker 1: fifteen percent, Indians owned five percent, In Africans owned four percent. Now,
Speaker 1: what you need to know is, according to the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two census in South Africa, white folks made up
Speaker 1: seven point three percent of the population, but again owned
Speaker 1: seventy two percent of the farms and agricultural lands. So
Speaker 1: when Elon Musk says, why do you guys have openly
Speaker 1: racist ownership laws, he's not looking at the data and
Speaker 1: he's not looking at the impact, not even the intention
Speaker 1: of the law. We talked several times now about what
Speaker 1: the intention of that law is. But Elon Musk is
Speaker 1: focusing on the fact that white South Africans like him
Speaker 1: are going to perhaps get land snatched, that they're not
Speaker 1: even occupying. By the way, it is unoccupied land, unclaimed
Speaker 1: land that they are returning back to black citizens.
Speaker 2: And that is what is bizarre to me.
Speaker 1: But what is very clear to me is you know,
Speaker 1: for Elon Musk, if it don't make dollars, it don't
Speaker 1: make sense. He says, well, it's been noted that Musk's
Speaker 1: Starlink satellite internet service was denied and this is a
Speaker 1: company that is a subsidiary of SpaceX. It was denied
Speaker 1: a license in South Africa because it doesn't meet affirmative
Speaker 1: action criteria.
Speaker 2: All of this story to say to you.
Speaker 1: That if Elon Musk doesn't have a direct financial opportunity.
Speaker 2: Or a potential, he don't care.
Speaker 1: So the reason that Elon Musk is tweeting about South
Speaker 1: Africa and its racist laws ownership laws is really because
Speaker 1: this is a theory, by the way, is really because
Speaker 1: Elon Musk is frustrated by the fact that his company,
Speaker 1: Starlink Satellite was denied a license in South Africa. So
Speaker 1: now he's questioning everything they do to create equitable outcomes
Speaker 1: for people who have suffered under an apartheid system and
Speaker 1: still haven't seen equity, equality and justice. If we're honest.
Speaker 1: So he has Donald Trump in the fray around the
Speaker 1: expropriation law, but really he wants to upset what's going
Speaker 1: on in South Africa because he didn't get a contract
Speaker 1: which brings us to the United States. So what we
Speaker 1: also know is that Elon Musk has marched his white
Speaker 1: man privilege into the White House, into the White House
Speaker 1: complex at that with office space in his role as
Speaker 1: the Department of Government Efficiency lead, and Donald Trump has
Speaker 1: named him a special government employee. There is a big well, actually,
Speaker 1: there are several big issues with Elon Musk being named
Speaker 1: a special government employee, especially because in some ways it
Speaker 1: appears so again this is a theory, it appears that
Speaker 1: Donald Trump and his administration don't understand that conflict of
Speaker 1: interest and ethics still apply to special government employees. So
Speaker 1: I want to get into that a little bit because
Speaker 1: I think it's important to understand. One, Elon must South
Speaker 1: African descent, since they can't stand immigrant so much. It
Speaker 1: depends apparently white immigrants are in the clear, but he's
Speaker 1: a South African immigrant who now has unfettered access to
Speaker 1: the federal government. Anybody that has created an obstacle for
Speaker 1: him economically he's going after we saw him do that
Speaker 1: most recently with the South African president, and he's gotten
Speaker 1: Donald Trump in the frey there.
Speaker 2: But furthermore, furthermore.
Speaker 1: We need to understand what he plans to do with
Speaker 1: the Department of Government efficiency and how it will benefit
Speaker 1: President Elon Musk. So I got a question, Lolo, you
Speaker 1: just sent me from someone who said, who is leading
Speaker 1: the investigation? What investigation are y'all talking about? I've been
Speaker 1: talking for a long time. Just run that thing back
Speaker 1: for me.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So, now let's go into Elon musk potential bias as
Speaker 1: a special government employee, the conflicts of interests that are there,
Speaker 1: as well as the government business he has, and why
Speaker 1: this might create a much larger issue. So special government
Speaker 1: employees are defined in eighteen USC. Section two oho two,
Speaker 1: that is, Title eighteen of the United States Code, Section
Speaker 1: two zero two.
Speaker 2: What can we do that does not include the Supreme Court?
Speaker 1: Okay, these questions are I'm gonna keep I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: through my monologue and then I'll go back to these questions.
Speaker 1: But a special government employee means that the person's work
Speaker 1: does not normally exceed one hundred and thirty days annually.
Speaker 1: We know there's three hundred and sixty five days in
Speaker 1: a year. One hundred and thirty days may not It
Speaker 1: may be no problem. Elon muss and his friends may
Speaker 1: be no problem. They sleeping in government buildings, we'll get
Speaker 1: into that later.
Speaker 2: May not be a problem.
Speaker 1: But there are some other problems. So special government employees
Speaker 1: do have rules that apply to them. Donald Trump seemed
Speaker 1: to try to skirt by this issue in a press
Speaker 1: conference yesterday when he said, you know, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Elon Musk is a special government employee who also isn't
Speaker 1: getting paid, So we'll call them a special government volunteer.
Speaker 1: Maybe they intend to introduce a new category of employee
Speaker 1: where none of the conflict of interests and ethics rules
Speaker 1: apply to them, or for now they do.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: While he doesn't have to comply with every ethics rule
Speaker 1: and conflict of interest rule that it normally applies to
Speaker 1: a full time government employee, appointed position, et cetera, special
Speaker 1: government employees do have rules, and especially around financial disclosures, ethics,
Speaker 1: and misuse of position. So the in the misuse of
Speaker 1: position part of the law, it says you cannot use
Speaker 1: public office for their own private gain or private gains
Speaker 1: of friends. Okay, So remember that eighteen USC. Two eight
Speaker 1: A says it prohibits you from participating personally and substantially
Speaker 1: in any particular matter that affects your finance interests as
Speaker 1: well as the financial interests of your spouse, minor child,
Speaker 1: general partner, an organization in which you serve as an officer, director, trustee,
Speaker 1: general partner, or employee, or an organization with which you
Speaker 1: are negotiating or with which you have an arrangement for
Speaker 1: perspective employment. So we are going to shortly get into
Speaker 1: the many places where Elon Musk's companies have government contracts
Speaker 1: and why it is a problem that he accessed all
Speaker 1: of the payment systems for the Department of Treasury, along
Speaker 1: with several others. So I don't know if Donald Trump
Speaker 1: and Elon Musk will get rid of FDIC. Congress can
Speaker 1: introduce legislation to stop them. And I'm just stopping here
Speaker 1: because there are more questions that are coming in and
Speaker 1: I think that what is most important is for the
Speaker 1: Democratic minority in the Senate and the House to find
Speaker 1: who their potential are allies are on the other side
Speaker 1: of the out and the Senate, in the House that
Speaker 1: are in districts where their majorities are thin. Maybe they
Speaker 1: were formerly blue districts. Maybe they are districts where they're Republicans,
Speaker 1: but they're not really Trumpers like that, and so they
Speaker 1: don't want to give him unfettered access to destroying the government.
Speaker 1: Those are the folks who they should be looking to
Speaker 1: ally up with, to align with, to determine what the
Speaker 1: steps forward could be to introduce legislation to stop some
Speaker 1: of what's happening. The majority is razor thin in the House,
Speaker 1: and it's razor thin in the Senate. They definitely don't
Speaker 1: have anywhere near sixty votes. So there are a number
Speaker 1: of things that can and should be done. I'm assuming
Speaker 1: that on these retreats and conferences that are currently being
Speaker 1: held that they're talking about these things.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I want to get into two. I was gonna say
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, President Donald Musk elon Musk conflicts of interest. So,
Speaker 1: according to the New York Times, Tesla has three hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty two thousand, which isn't a lot in federal contracts,
Speaker 1: but there are federal contracts. No less, SpaceX has fifteen
Speaker 1: point four billion dollars in contracts with nine different departments
Speaker 1: and three different government agencies.
Speaker 2: These are all at the federal level, and.
Speaker 1: Tesla and SpaceX, according to the New York Times, are
Speaker 1: the subject of more than twenty investigations or reviews by
Speaker 1: five different departments and six agencies in the federal government.
Speaker 2: So that is significant.
Speaker 1: Six figures in contracts for Tesla, billions of dollars in
Speaker 1: contracts for SpaceX, the subject of more than twenty investigation
Speaker 1: or reviews by five different departments and six agencies. One
Speaker 1: of these that you probably are already guessing is the
Speaker 1: Department of Treasury. So by election day, just so you
Speaker 1: all understand, by election day, according to New York Times,
Speaker 1: Elon mus led companies were in several battles across agencies
Speaker 1: and departments, including being fined. So that brings us back
Speaker 1: to the Department of Government efficiency. That's for a minute,
Speaker 1: to stop here at what happened with Treasury. So there
Speaker 1: are questions coming in about the Treasury department. What's going on,
Speaker 1: How does it impact us? The Department of Treasury literally
Speaker 1: is the entity that prints our money. It is literally
Speaker 1: the entity that is charged with holding banks accountable to
Speaker 1: ensure that our money is protected. Somebody asked about FDIC.
Speaker 1: The Department of Treasury is responsible for more than one
Speaker 1: billion payments per year, totaling five trillion dollars. Elon Musk
Speaker 1: has said to let him into the Department of Treasury
Speaker 1: because he could trim more than a trillion dollars from
Speaker 1: the federal deficit. The payments that the Department of Treasury
Speaker 1: oversees include all types of sensitive information, including bank accounts
Speaker 1: and social Security numbers, as well as all of those payments,
Speaker 1: so it is very, very important that we understand what
Speaker 1: they have access to at this point. There are several
Speaker 1: laws that Elon Musk's team could be violating. We went
Speaker 1: through some of those relative to a special government employee
Speaker 1: and their conflicts of interests, their financial disclosure requirements when
Speaker 1: they're supposed to wall themselves completely off. We know that
Speaker 1: he is an officer of a company that has federal
Speaker 1: government contracts, a founder of a company that has federal
Speaker 1: government contracts, and he is now in there tinkering with
Speaker 1: his competition's payments. It's just a bridge too far from me.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I want to also go to OPM, which has not
Speaker 1: been discussed as much. What you should know is OPM
Speaker 1: is discussed, so is USAID. By the way, you all,
Speaker 1: i'm sure, have been seeing a lot of things about
Speaker 1: USAID in the news. USAID and OPM are talked about
Speaker 1: in the Project twenty twenty five. There's one part on
Speaker 1: page two seventy one where they're talked about in the
Speaker 1: same paragraph. It is important for you to understand that
Speaker 1: Elon Musk is not doing anything, as Donald Trump said
Speaker 1: himself in a press conference, that hasn't already been authorized.
Speaker 1: Donald Trump made not necessarily be the one who authorized
Speaker 1: it or one who authorized it. But let me tell
Speaker 1: you who is the authors of Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: The Heritage Foundation, the same Heritage Foundation that gave Ronald
Speaker 1: Reagan his blueprint, the same Heritage Foundation that gave George
Speaker 1: hw and George W. Bush their blueprint. There's nothing new
Speaker 1: under the sun, y'all. They have just renamed the thing
Speaker 1: and they've gotten a little more Rogan reckless. The reason
Speaker 1: you see Republican senators and members of the House on
Speaker 1: TV saying tough, it's gonna be alright, y'all, just don't
Speaker 1: want to trim the fat because you like bureaucracy.
Speaker 2: That's not it.
Speaker 1: They want bureaucracy, but only if it results in payments
Speaker 1: for their friends, and if they can be punitive and
Speaker 1: stop payments for grants that look into climate change and
Speaker 1: grants that go to HBCUs and opportunities like funding people's
Speaker 1: social security because you know they've been trying to cut
Speaker 1: that for a long time. This is what we end
Speaker 1: up with. We talked about the impowerment clause last week
Speaker 1: just a little bit again. It is they're now saying
Speaker 1: that it doesn't necessarily have to be empowerment. They are
Speaker 1: just reviewing, and that review could be a long time,
Speaker 1: which means that they're halting payments. All of that is problematic,
Speaker 1: and it is by design in Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: So Office of Personnel Management, which is also referenced several
Speaker 1: times over again in Project twenty twenty five. What you
Speaker 1: should know is that Musk associates, musk acolytes, including past
Speaker 1: and present employees of his, have taken over OPM, which
Speaker 1: is the Office of Personal Management. Literally, they have put
Speaker 1: in sofa beds near the old director's office. They are
Speaker 1: demonstrating to them that you can't even get up here
Speaker 1: to the fifth floor if you don't have a security clearance.
Speaker 1: And we don't approve you. And while they're doing all
Speaker 1: of that, they are locking out senior officials at OPM.
Speaker 1: According to routers from Key Systems, Elon's team has gotten
Speaker 1: into a system called the Enterprise Human Resources Integration. That
Speaker 1: system contains highly personal information for government personnel across agency,
Speaker 1: across department. It includes information like your birth dates, social
Speaker 1: security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades, length of service
Speaker 1: of government workers, and any disciplinary action. All of that
Speaker 1: is in OPM files. That includes staffing information for members
Speaker 1: of Congress. So again, when you think about the retribute
Speaker 1: of nature of Elon Musk and Donald Trump, this is
Speaker 1: a way to punish their enemies, going into treasury to
Speaker 1: halt payments, going into the OPM files to disclose data
Speaker 1: and information that doesn't belong to them. And moreover, there
Speaker 1: are certain things that the federal government has done to
Speaker 1: keep our information safe from safe from foreign entities. They
Speaker 1: are circumventing all of that, which also makes our information
Speaker 1: vulnerable and susceptible to hacks by foreign government entities. I
Speaker 1: want to go briefly into GSA. GSA is responsible for
Speaker 1: every lease of federal office buildings and according to the AP.
Speaker 2: Just last week.
Speaker 1: Last week, an email from Washington headquarters of GS was
Speaker 1: sent and it instructed every regional manager to terminate leases
Speaker 1: on roughly seventy five hundred federal offices nationally. That initiative
Speaker 1: is being led by another Elon Musk employee. Her name
Speaker 1: is Nicole Hollander, and I believe she worked for X.
Speaker 1: I didn't put that down, but that was another thing
Speaker 1: to just be mindful of. They are doing this across
Speaker 1: the board from Treasury OPM GSA.
Speaker 2: We just talked about.
Speaker 1: Office of Management and Budget, as you know, is responsible
Speaker 1: for the federal funding freeze last week. They're doing this
Speaker 1: at USAID USA jobs and so even if you ever
Speaker 1: applied for a federal government job, your information is in there,
Speaker 1: all susceptible to being shared.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Department of Education, we know that they're going in planning
Speaker 1: to essentially gut the Department of Education. You all know
Speaker 1: Project twenty twenty five and in most Republican talking points
Speaker 1: for the throughout the years, they wanted to gut the
Speaker 1: Department of Education SBA. They're going to do the same
Speaker 1: thing at SBAS that they did with Treasury. Any if
Speaker 1: you have an SBA loan, if you have an SBA grant.
Speaker 1: If you have an SBA special classification, all of that
Speaker 1: information is subject to being shared now, so a lot
Speaker 1: of folks are asking what will people do to fight back.
Speaker 1: It is imperative that you reach out to your member
Speaker 1: of Congress and say you might be overwhelmed. I'm overwhelmed.
Speaker 1: I don't know where we go from here, but what
Speaker 1: I do know is I elected you to fight, and
Speaker 1: here are the expectations I have of you and sharing them,
Speaker 1: sharing with them with their staff what you think they
Speaker 1: should be doing. We are seeing that there are all
Speaker 1: types of lawsuits being filed by unions who work with
Speaker 1: federal government employees, by folks who are challenging thee the
Speaker 1: Trump administration's birthright citizenship position. There are all types of
Speaker 1: lawsuits that are being filed around this Elon Musk having
Speaker 1: unfettered access to governmental government employee data, government contracts, et cetera,
Speaker 1: especially those of UH those employees and former employees of
Speaker 1: his who have not been fired file hire they should
Speaker 1: be fired hired by the Feds to have any access
Speaker 1: to this information, and how it makes us susceptible to attacks.
Speaker 1: All of that is being challenged in the courts, but
Speaker 1: there are things that members of Congress can and should do.
Speaker 1: You can reach your member of Congress by calling to
Speaker 1: zero two two two four three one two one. That
Speaker 1: is the Capitol Hill Operator. They can transfer you to
Speaker 1: your uh, your member of Congress, to your senator, to
Speaker 1: to be connected with them and to share what you
Speaker 1: think should happen. All good ideas are all ideas right
Speaker 1: now are good ideas. There are no bad ideas. We've
Speaker 1: got to talk about how to fight, how to protect
Speaker 1: what we know is ours. Now. This democracy is fragile,
Speaker 1: it is trash, it is frustrating. But I think that
Speaker 1: we've seen very quickly within the last couple of weeks
Speaker 1: that so much can change in a matter of moments,
Speaker 1: that while it hangs in the balance, that there's something
Speaker 1: about that democracy that's worth protecting. So as we weighe
Speaker 1: through Elon Musk's conflicts of interest, as we get frustrated
Speaker 1: by the laws that are seemingly broken, some more apparent
Speaker 1: than others, and the physical proximity to the president that
Speaker 1: Elon Musk has, we know that he is still shooting
Speaker 1: himself in the proverbial foot. So, while the tariffs are
Speaker 1: right at Tesla's door, with Forbes reporting a dippinent stock.
Speaker 1: It costs Elon Musk nearly twelve billion dollars to be
Speaker 1: closely associated with this president and to be supporting policies
Speaker 1: that may actually cause him economic harm. So this is
Speaker 1: a reminder to him that nobody's safe in a Trump universe.
Speaker 1: And even if you find yourself doing his bidding, ask
Speaker 1: Michael Cohen about how that goes. Ask Steve Bannon about
Speaker 1: how that goes. So President Elon Musk for now, but
Speaker 1: it'll be President Stephen Miller tomorrow and we'll talk about
Speaker 1: that next week. Before I go, I'm gonna see if
Speaker 1: there are any other questions. It doesn't appear that there
Speaker 1: are any. I'm thirty minutes in. It's supposed to be
Speaker 1: a fifteen minute podcast, and so I just will say
Speaker 1: until next time.
Speaker 2: Oh no, there are more questions. Should Doge exist? Hell no?
Speaker 2: Does the doge? Only?
Speaker 1: Does the Doge make suggestions only for which federal office
Speaker 1: they want to cut funding for? But who makes the
Speaker 1: final decision? Yes, Donald Trump is ultimately the final arbiter.
Speaker 1: But it sounds like he is refering to Elon Musk.
Speaker 1: Can Elon and his team be banned from this info
Speaker 1: and this new department by law. Yeah, the law needs
Speaker 1: to be passed, and sadly it would need to be
Speaker 1: signed into law by Donald Trump unless there was a
Speaker 1: veto proof majority, and I think that would be really
Speaker 1: challenging right now. And then there's a last question. The
Speaker 1: gentleman that blocked Elon from accessing the system then resigned.
Speaker 1: Has anyone talked to him? I believe you're talking about
Speaker 1: the gentleman from the Department of Treasury. I don't know
Speaker 1: if anybody's talked to him, and he may have resigned
Speaker 1: just for moral reasons. Was he paid off? I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I will tell you who is paid off. A
Speaker 1: good number of federal government employees to the tune of
Speaker 1: twenty thousand, which makes up about one percent of the
Speaker 1: overall federal government staffing, took out. Took the payouts, which
Speaker 1: means that taking a payout, getting paid even through November
Speaker 1: of this year, you are no longer eligible for a
Speaker 1: federal pension. There. I'm sure we'll be a court battle
Speaker 1: around that as well. Don't take the payout, hold your ground,
Speaker 1: stay in your ground, make sure that you fight until
Speaker 1: the end. Keep sharing this information. Congressoman Maxine waters put
Speaker 1: up on the Financial Services Committee page on the ranking
Speaker 1: member sides. Of course she's a ranking member. A whistleblower
Speaker 1: sheet that you can fill out form you can fill out.
Speaker 1: Please make sure you are sharing information with members of
Speaker 1: Congress who care, who will fight for you. That is imperative. Again,
Speaker 1: call your members two zero two two two four three
Speaker 1: one two one, and until next time, Welcome home, y'all.
Speaker 2: This is long.
Speaker 1: I didn't even get through all my notes, but there's
Speaker 1: a lot going on. Look up SBA, look up USA job,
Speaker 1: look at Department of Education, Treasury. It's all happening at
Speaker 1: the same damn time. If you got friends that work on,
Speaker 1: work there. Check out your strong friends and know this
Speaker 1: will always be a safe space for us.
Speaker 2: Welcome home, y'all.
Speaker 1: Native Lampard is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
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