MUST WATCH Breaking News: The DOGE/Russia Connection

No hyperbole: This may be the tip of the biggest iceberg in US history.

NOTE: The Maddow link (which I previously watched) is now redirecting to something completely unrelated. Full official clip not available yet. Whole show required NBC account.

UPDATE: Found/replace segment with a new link. Let’s see if this lasts. Also some additional thoughts/analysis below.

NPR had an explosive, long, well-sourced story yesterday about what DOGE has been doing at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which may point to a pattern that they have done in other agencies.

And to say this is explosive might be the understatement of our lives. But first a little background…

Since Musk and his young DOGE Douches came on the scene there’s been a ton of completely warranted speculation as to what they are actually doing. Of course, they say it all been an effort to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in different departments of the Executive Branch. But even taking that at face value has been hard given all the lies, mistakes firing people, and shifting numbers.

It’s also been shady as hell and not hard to connect dots from the people they were going after and investigations into Musk or places where Musk stood to gain billions by replacing operating systems. And then there was just really shady shit — like gaining access to the super-secret payment system of the entire federal government or gaining access to everyone’s Social Security information and everything that relates to it.

As stunned as I was reading the NPR story, that was exponentially magnified as I stewed on the possibilities with my wife waiting to see if Maddow reported. Thankfully, she did and had the extremely brave whistleblower and his lawyer.

Here is the show in full. Skip to around 10:10 where she transitions into DOGE and also gives some background.

LINK TO FULL VIDEO HERE

Sometimes, there’s something about seeing that is much more visceral than reading it and I have to tell you I was seriously shaken as this report unfolded and it clearly connected the dots on speculation that is almost unthinkable in its magnitude.

The reason I was wildly speculating is that there has been something deeply disturbing about what might be going on under the surface in regards to Trump, Musk, and Russia. A few weeks ago I write about it as a possibility that couldn’t be ignored. Even then. From my article WTAF is Going on Between Trump, Putin & Musk?

I guess you could make a legitimate argument that Trump is hell bent on Dictatorship and Musk is a willing ally. Or that Musk wants to suck even harder at the government udder via billions more in contracts. That’s obviously true and happening as we speak. And why not be the maniacal power behind the throne?

But, I think we might all be scared to connect those paper placemat dots that reveal the shirtless KGB guy on a horse who is actually controlling the big picture. Is it really that far-fetched to believe that Trump is both Putin and Musk’s bitch?

Well, that theory has become much, much closer to a reality.

For starters, given the timeline of the data steal with Russian IP attempt to get into the system using DOGE-CREATED user names and passwords it’s almost impossible to not conclude the obvious: That Musk, DOGE, and likely Trump are giving Russia our most valuable secrets.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Based on what the whistleblower and his lawyer said, there is very likely evidence that the same thing has been happening at other departments. Maybe ALL department.

Take a second to let even that broad possibility sink in.

Now add the Department of Defense to the thought exercise. Let your mind wander into the possibilities of that.

This would be nothing short of a history-altering event, the magnitude of which cannot be overstated.

I haven’t watched any news today, so I don’t know if it’s being picked up or to the degree to which it is. I would not be surprised if it’s not being given the importance that it deserves. But, this is a story that that can’t be kept under wraps for long. As Rachel says:

Watch this space.

Some Additional Thoughts

This story doesn’t seem to be getting much traction in traditional media, which really is unbelievable to me. Based simply on this single story of a giant data exodus alone — regardless of where it was going, and with no Russian context — it should be huge.

As a long time media watcher, and watching the Maddow segment again, I think there might be a purposeful reason for that.

The whistleblower (Daniel Berulis) and his lawyer seemed to be making a very calculated appearance on Maddow. The lawyer basically said it — that he had whistleblowers from other agencies with similar information that were afraid to come forward. Not come forward or go on record in the traditional sense — but to do it publicly, without blurred faces or altered voices.

Berulis basically said the same thing. That tells me that the Maddow story was akin to a stress test for other informants. The lawyer wants as many people on record as possible before going all in and creating the maximum impact.

The lack of many others running with this story could be indicative of news orgs fully understanding the possible magnitude and waiting for that big launch and also scrambling to both independently confirm parts of the NPR story, and put their own stamp on it with additional reporting. There’s also the fact that news organizations are scared and have already been silenced by the Trump Regime.

I’ve been a close student of the media for a long time. Something along those lines seems to be going on. As far as true journalism has fallen, I simply can’t believe that this could be swept under the rug.

Some other thoughts:

NPR had a perfunctory follow-up that you can read here.

Seemingly perfunctory. That DOGE Douches are being remotely re-assigned to the NLRB is odd. Like back to the scene of the crime odd. And the "nothing to see here” statement from the White House is weird in it’s traditional cover-up normalcy. When a bad story breaks against Trump the norm it to all-out counter attack against the media outlet, reporter, etc. This seems out-of-step with that near-Pavlovian reaction.

I’ve been trying to check myself all day to make sure I’m not letting my emotions get me ahead of critical thought and dot-connecting deduction.

The coincidence of Russia using DOGE keys to get into the servers is virtually impossible.

But, there is maybe one somewhat plausible alternative theory. That is that DOGE itself was hacked and the Russian IP piggy-backed on their own (likely) nefarious data steal.

Here’s the problem with that.

For all their mucking through systems, it’s been pointed out many times by experts that these dudes are not remotely qualified to find waste, fraud and abuse. That’s a very specific analytical job. Culled from Musk’s various companies, these guys are not that. They are basically hackers with a specific set of skills and a legitimizing job title and who knows what kind of cut from their operations.

The idea that these guys would leave themselves vulnerable to attack is hard to believe. Even without any of the Russian context.

Unless — and I’m wildly speculating here — that the DOGE backdoor was purposefully left open for Russia to get in through as a plausible deniability failsafe if DOGE was caught.

Listen, I have been a very close student of everything Russia, Russia, Russia since it all came to the surface in 2015. Very, very little of that was disproven in any way. It’s always been there. And I believe in my heart (and more importantly) mind that it remains the 90% of the iceberg under the surface of the water.

Just last month I revisited the subject in a brilliantly-titled rant called Trump is Still Putin’s Bitch which you can read here. I wrote it because none of this has gone away. And when you put yourself in that Putin bitch mindset, everything makes sense and everything comes together.

I went to school for Journalism and worked at a local newspaper chain for a number of years before I jumped to advertising. The principles, the ethics, of journalism meant something to me in practice, even if it was on a local level.

And ever since I’ve always tried to force myself to put my partisanship aside and look at things critically, through that lens. That means questioning assumptions and trying to cordon off any inherent bias to look at things logically.

But, then there’s Occam's Razor:

Occam's Razor is a problem-solving principle that suggests, when faced with competing explanations, the simplest one is usually the best. It encourages choosing the explanation that requires the fewest assumptions and is easiest to verify. Essentially, it prioritizes simplicity over complexity when evaluating different theories or solutions.

Everything I’ve read, watched, studied and processed about this giant subject tells me that this is the culmination of a narrative we have all watched with our own eyes.

If that’s even half true, it’s a staggering thing.

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