The #IRS’s #privacy dept was largely sidelined from the talks, & its #IT dept took over implementing the data sharing. That team had largely been taken over by ofcls from #Trump’s US #DOGE Service, the White House’s “efficiency” office charged with shrinking the federal government.

#Treasury ofcls justified the data-sharing agreement by arguing #immigration enforcement was pursuing individuals who had violated #criminal statutes, though immigration violations are generally #civil, not criminal.

When the #IRS began conversations with #DHS over data sharing after #Trump returned to the White House, snr IRS employees warned admin ofcls that the program was likely #illegal & could sweep up misidentified people….

During meetings on the project, one IRS staffer asked #immigration ofcls how many people with the same name may live in the same state,…illustrating how easy it would be…to inadvertently breach taxpayers’ #privacy, including those who are not targets of immigration investigations.

There is little evidence that undocumented #immigrants have attempted to participate in US elections, nor is there a link between undocumented immigrants & higher levels of crime.

#law #privacy #immigration #InfoSec #Trump

In a statement, a #DHS spox said that under the data-sharing agreement, “the government is finally doing what it should have all along.”

“Information sharing across agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, determine what public safety & terror threats may exist so we can neutralize them, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, & identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense,” spox said.

#law #immigration #InfoSec #Trump

Charles Littlejohn, an #IRS contractor, pleaded guilty in 2023 to leaking the #tax returns of Donald #Trump & other wealthy individuals.​

Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison. Trump in January sued the IRS for $10 billion in damages related to the Littlejohn leak. [For he but not for thee]

#law #privacy #immigration #InfoSec

When the #IRS shared the addresses with #DHS, it also inadvertently disclosed private information for thousands of #taxpayers erroneously, a mistake only recently discovered, said people familiar….

The affected individuals could be entitled to financial compensation for each time their #information was improperly shared. And government officials can personally face stiff #civil & #criminal penalties for sharing #confidential #tax information.

#law #privacy #immigration #InfoSec #Trump

"Epstein, it turns out, was a major early investor in the crypto industry. In the backrooms of MAGA-land, passing around under-age girls is a lot like passing around insider crypto deals."

#Trump #Epstein #HowardLutnick #EconomicElites #TechBros #SiliconValley #broligarchy #crypto
/6

"Not only did he stay in close contact with Epstein, the two men [Epstein and Howard Lutnick] appear to have gone into business together.

But, at this point, who could possibly be surprised? The more we learn, the more pedophilia and criminal use of cryptocurrency look related, even like different aspects of a single conspiracy."

~ Paul Krugman

#Trump #Epstein #HowardLutnick #EconomicElites #TechBros #SiliconValley #broligarchy #crypto
/5

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-banality-of-maga-evil

"The hideous crimes of Trump's ICE in the present and the revelations about the hideous crimes of the past that implicate so many rich and powerful white men, including Trump and his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, are together a sort of pincers move. They corral the administration from two angles, clarifying its utter disregard for the human rights of, well, everyone but powerful white men."

~ Rebecca Solnit

#Trump #Epstein #ICE #EconomicElites #patriarchy
/1

https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/auspicious-omens-and-excellent-insubordination/

"It turns, out destroying people’s lives and livelihoods with no allegiance to anything but your own wealth and power is always evil. So, it turns out, it’s the same guys. Same billionaires. Same vibes. Same moral black hole—just different crimes on different days."

~ Cliff Schecter

#Trump #Epstein #EconomicElites
/2

https://www.blueamp.co/p/donald-trumps-super-predator-billionaire

"When you strip away their jargon of 'network states' and 'effective altruism,' you’re basically looking at a reboot of white supremacy and fascism. These people don’t believe capitalism is compatible with democracy."

~ Wajahat Ali

#Trump #Epstein #EconomicElites #TechBros #SiliconValley #broligarchy #fascism #WhiteSupremacy
/3

https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/epsteins-genocidal-crypto-bros-are

"They are offended by minority rights, democracy, the free press, and MeToo because these are gateways to accountability, restraints, reform, and the masses actually transforming our corrupt institutions to benefit the majority."

#Trump #Epstein #EconomicElites #TechBros #SiliconValley #broligarchy #fascism #WhiteSupremacy
/4

Federal #courts have since blocked the data-sharing arrangement, holding that it violates #taxpayers’ rights, though the #FederalGovernment appealed those rulings.

Before the agreement was struck down, #DHS requested the addresses of 1.2 million individuals from the #IRS. The tax agency responded with data on 47,000 individuals, acc/to court records.

#law #privacy #immigration #InfoSec #Trump

#Federal #law mandates strict protections of the identities of #taxpayers, including sharing data within the #FederalGovernment. Undocumented #immigrants have for years paid #taxes with assurances that doing so would not result in them being targeted by #immigration enforcement.

But in a controversial decision, #Treasury, which oversees the #IRS, in April 2025 agreed to provide #DHS with the names & addresses of individuals the #Trump admin believed to be in the country illegally.

The Internal Revenue Service improperly shared confidential tax information of thousands of individuals with #immigration enforcement officials, acc/to 3 people familiar with the situation, appearing to breach a #legal #firewall intended to protect taxpayer data.

The erroneous disclosure was only recently discovered, the people said. The #IRS is working with officials from #Treasury, #DOJ & #DHS on the #Trump admin’s response.

#law #privacy #InfoSec #DOGE

This has to be a #DOGE Easter Egg.

#IRS “improperly” [accidentally-on-purpose] disclosed #confidential #immigrant tax data to #DHS

The #tax agency only recently discovered the “mistake” & is working with other federal agencies on a response.

#law #privacy #immigration #InfoSec #Trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/02/11/immigrants-irs-dhs-tax-data/

"By housing TikTok’s data on Oracle’s cloud infrastructure—a firm whose multibillion-dollar existence is owed in part to U.S. intelligence and law enforcement contracts, and whose co-founder Larry Ellison recently bragged about AI ushering in an era where “citizens are on their best behavior”—the government has finally achieved its aim of securing the app by integrating it into its domestic surveillance dragnet. Considering the drive to secure TikTok was driven by fears of what the notoriously repressive nation of China might do with our private data, this outcome is, at the very least, highly ironic.

The technical wizardry of this surveillance relies on your Mobile Advertising ID, or MAID, a unique string of alphanumeric characters assigned to every smartphone. Every time an app, be it TikTok or a simple weather tracker, makes a bid to show you an advertisement, if your location services are enabled, it shares both your MAID and your precise GPS coordinates to thousands of private bidders. In the past, this metadata has been used by the Pentagon to identify targets.

Data brokers like Venntel and Babel Street harvest these “bid-stream” crumbs into massive, searchable oceans of movement. For ICE, this means they no longer need a wiretap; they can access a digital twin of your life, where your TikTok scrolling habits are pinned to a physical map of your home, workplace, and your child’s school or day care."

https://newrepublic.com/article/205956/americanized-tiktok-backdoor-ice-surveillance

#USA #SocialMedia #TikTok #Oracle #Surveillance #Censorship #ICE #Immigration #Trump

Classified hearing erupted in frustration as officials refused to say whether Trump wants to renew powerful surveillance law | CNN Politics

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/09/politics/fisa-section-702-renewal-classified-hearing-frustration

#USPol #surveillance #Republicans #MAGA #GOP #Trump #politics #press

How autocracy (Trump) in the US, destroys science and research, https://open.spotify.com/episode/6KduJi09Od0ycrpq8F0x0A?si=0VlWnNdoR9iSBr4cSHvIIA&t=973&pi=KD1EwB_UTMqhF
#trump #science #research #podcast #autocracy

Freedom of Speech or plain old CENSORSHIP? How do these guys still have the nerve to preach Europeans about freedom of speech? This is State-led TOTAL SURVEILLANCE that has absolutely nothing to do with freedom.

"Since last March, the Department of Health and Human Services has been using AI tools from Palantir to screen and audit grants, grant applications, and job descriptions for noncompliance with President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting “gender ideology” and anything related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), according to a recently published inventory of all use cases HHS had for AI in 2025.

Neither Palantir nor HHS has publicly announced that the company’s software was being used for these purposes. During the first year of Trump’s second term, Palantir earned more than $35 million in payments and obligations from HHS alone. None of the descriptions for these transactions mention this work targeting DEI or “gender ideology.”

The audits have been taking place within HHS’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF), which funds family and child welfare and oversees the foster and adoption systems. Palantir is the sole contractor charged with making a list of “position descriptions that may need to be adjusted for alignment with recent executive orders.”

In addition to Palantir, the startup Credal AI—which was founded by two Palantir alumni—helped ACF audit “existing grants and new grant applications.” The “AI-based” grant review process, the inventory says, “reviews application submission files and generates initial flags and priorities for discussion.” All relevant information is then routed to the ACF Program Office for final review."

https://www.wired.com/story/hhs-is-using-ai-tools-from-palantir-to-target-dei-and-gender-ideology-in-grants/

#USA #Trump #Surveillance #Palantir #ChildWelfare #DEI #GenderIdeology

Archived lists!

#ICELeak

For people in the US where the site doesnt work anymore!

https://archive.ph/icelist.is

#US #USA #Trump #Europe #EU #Data #Hacking #ICE

"Many of those people have now diverted their investments toward AI companies and their associated phenomenal capital expenditures. So there may simply be fewer buyers-of-last-resort available to keep things from spiraling out of control."

#crypto #bitcoin #Trump #economy #market #AI
/10

"When we say $2 trillion was lost from the crypto ecosystem, we should also be clear about where it went. It went nowhere. That money was never real to begin with. …

My hunch is that the current crypto crash is tied to the AI bubble. The price of bitcoin & other cryptocurrencies has been backstopped by a lot of very rich tech and finance people, who keep the whole system afloat by providing liquidity when it falls below a predetermined threshold."

#crypto #bitcoin #Trump #economy #market
/9

"Cryptocurrencies are crashing right now. You love to see it. A few months ago, the price of bitcoin was close to $125,000. Last night it hit a low of $60,000. It has bounced back to around $70,000 now. ...Paul Kedrosky flagged yesterday afternoon that the broader crypto ecosystem has shed $2 trillion."

~ Dave Karpf

#crypto #bitcoin #Trump #economy #market
/8

https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/on-crypto-crashes-and-fake-money

Philip Gourevitch responds to the New York Times headline which — predictably — frames the crypto crash as something happening "despite" Trump's support:

"Despite? Or because there is no surer indicator that something is a scam?"

#crypto #bitcoin #Trump #economy #market #NewYorkTimes
/7

https://bsky.app/profile/pgourevitch.bsky.social/post/3me63ghqy3s2m

"Tim Miller and Catherine Rampell give their takes on the crypto crash, why Bitcoin and meme coins are plunging, and what the sell-off says about speculation, interest rates, and the broader economy. They break down why crypto hasn’t held up as an inflation hedge, how rising rates are squeezing risky assets, and why Trump-world’s deep exposure to crypto and speculative stocks suddenly looks a lot more precarious."

#crypto #bitcoin #Trump #economy #market
/6

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-crypto-grift-is-imploding

"At least some young men supported Trump because they believed that he would enhance their crypto investments, and have remained favorable because he seemed to be delivering. I don’t know how many bitterly disillusioned bros there will be now, but there will be some."

#crypto #bitcoin #Trump #economy #market
/5

"But it also means that everyone who bought Bitcoin in the belief that Trump would make Bitcoin greater than ever has lost money, in many cases a lot of money. So this is another case of ETTD: everything Trump touches dies.

Finally, this crash may have political consequences."

#crypto #bitcoin #Trump #economy #market
/4

"The fact that BTC is now lower than it was before the 2024 election is significant in two ways. It shows the limits of political favor — all the boasts about making American a crypto superpower, all the deregulatory talk and pardons for cryptocriminals, in the end couldn’t defy gravity."

~ Paul Krugman

#crypto #bitcoin #Trump #economy #market
/3

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/crypotocrash

(continued from /1)

"having signaled his intention to support crypto on the campaign trail. It was last down 12.6% at $63,525, on track for its largest one-day fall since November 2022.

Roughly $1 billion in bitcoin positions have been liquidated in the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinGlass."

#crypto #bitcoin #Trump #economy #market
/2

"Bitcoin plunged on Thursday, its decline accelerating amid weakening risk sentiment driven in part by volatility in precious metals and a broad selloff in tech shares.

The world's largest cryptocurrency fell to a low of $63,295.74, its weakest level since October 2024, a month before Republican Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election," (continued in /2)

~ Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, Rae Wee and Amanda Cooper

#crypto #bitcoin #Trump #economy #market
/1

https://www.reuters.com/business/bitcoin-slumps-with-key-70000-level-sight-2026-02-05/

BREAKING NEWS:

people who play casinos rigged by whales lose their money to said whales

more news on this truly shocking revelation can be found today in various social media posts by two bit degenerates bemoaning their place as the fucking obvious suckers in the fucking obviously rigged games

for the rest of us, rejoice

because the pathetic joke that is #cryptocurrency plays a big role in #corruption and #crime on the right. this hurts #MAGA

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/technology/bitcoin-price-drop-crypto-market.html

#bitcoin #trump #crypto

Alt...

Crypto Takes a Deep Slide Despite Trump’s Support Even with strong backing from the White House, the price of Bitcoin is now lower than when President Trump was elected in 2024. 4 min read {A chart showing a steep rise when Trump takes office for bitcoin's price, then a steep drop in the last few days}

"We’re in the midst of another crypto winter. Both Bitcoin and total crypto market cap are down about 40 percent from their peaks. ...

As I wrote last October, crypto has become a Trump trade.

Now almost all of that surge is gone. Bitcoin sold for about $69,000 just before the 2024 election; it reached a peak of almost $125,000; but just before this post went live it was under $71,000."

~ Paul Krugman

#crypto #bitcoin #Trump #economy

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/is-this-cryptos-fimbulwinter

It’s known as “Don Colossus.”

At 15 feet tall, the #statue of #Trump, mounted on its 7,000-pound pedestal, is about the height of a 2-story building—a giant effigy cast in bronze & finished with a thick layer of gold leaf.

For >1 year, the golden statue has been at the center of one of the stranger moneymaking ventures of the Trump era. A group of #cryptocurrency investors paid $300k to have a sculptor create it as a tribute to Trump….

Then they used it to promote a #memecoin called $PATRIOT.

Oh my god

No

‘Don Colossus,’ a Golden Statue of #Trump, Waits for Its Home

A group of #cryptocurrency investors backing a #memecoin hopes the #statue will soon be installed at one of Trump’s golf courses in Florida.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/technology/trump-statue-don-colossus.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

The staff reduction is a significant psychic blow at the Post, known in history books for its #Watergate revelations & most recently for aggressive coverage of #Trump’s cutbacks to the federal workforce, & for #journalism in general.

Staff members in the #newsroom were told they would be getting emails with one of two subject lines, announcing that the person’s role has or hasn’t been eliminated.

#WashingtonPost #journalists #news #InvestigativeJournalism #FourthEstate #Bezos #billionaires

"Though Epstein has gone, the cryptocurrency infrastructure he helped to rescue, the ideological antipathy to regulation in Silicon Valley, and the dark, unaccountable influence of crypto politics in our democratic elections remain one of his most damaging legacies."

#Epstein #Trump #pedophiles #EconomicElites #coverup #Putin #SteveBannon #NigelFarage #PeterThiel #crypto #TechBros #SiliconValley
/16

"The web of ties between Epstein, Moscow and Silicon Valley leads back to Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage. ...

As Epstein and Thiel’s finances aligned, so did their politics. Both men were unusually important early backers of Donald Trump’s first presidency."

~ Peter Jukes

#Epstein #Trump #pedophiles #EconomicElites #coverup #Putin #SteveBannon #NigelFarage #PeterThiel #crypto #TechBros #SiliconValley
/15

https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/in-putins-orbit-the-crypto-politics

"Jeffrey Epstein was not a self-made man. His success, especially in the early days, depended on the largesse of the rich and powerful men and women with whom he curried favor. He was an opportunist. His genius, if we can call it that, lay in cultivating and leveraging relationships with important people, both in the United States and around the world."

~ Greg Olear

#Epstein #Trump #pedophiles #EconomicElites #coverup
/1

https://gregolear.substack.com/p/the-epstein-files

"He made himself indispensable to these individuals. ...

Below is the real 'Epstein list.' Not the men accused of raping and sexually abusing the girls trafficked by him and Ghislaine Maxwell—although there may well be a significant overlap on that odious Venn diagram."

#Epstein #Trump #pedophiles #EconomicElites #coverup
/2

"Here is a list, long but hardly exhaustive, of the individuals who elevated him, who hired him, who funded him, who enabled him, who befriended him, who partook of his services, and, in some cases, were his partners in crime."

The preceding is Greg Olear's introduction to a previous article he wrote compiling a tally of the rich and famous who interacted with and sustained Epstein — see the link below.

#Epstein #Trump #pedophiles #EconomicElites #coverup
/3

https://gregolear.substack.com/p/redacted-the-real-epstein-list

"Donald Trump was mentioned more than 38,000 times in the latest batch of Epstein files, according to a New York Times review of the Justice Department’s Friday public release of some three million pages from the sprawling investigation into child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein."

~ Elle Quinlan Houghtaling

#Epstein #Trump #pedophiles #EconomicElites #coverup
/4

https://newrepublic.com/post/206023/how-often-donald-trump-mentioned-epstein-files

"Given that the DOJ has released only half of the Epstein files in its possession and that DOJ lawyers heavily redacted them, it is reasonable to assume that Trump is mentioned tens of thousands of times in addition to those already disclosed."

~ Robert B. Hubbell

#Epstein #Trump #pedophiles #EconomicElites #coverup
/5

https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/preparing-for-the-shutdown-battle

“'Proof' never really had any meaning with Trump. He is functionally immune from proof of wrongdoing. The Supreme Court confirmed and compounded that fact with its decision making him legally immune from prosecution for any action he takes as president."

~ Lucian K. Truscott

#Epstein #Trump #pedophiles #EconomicElites #coverup
/6

https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/proof-and-truth-and-lies