All The Best Coup Reporting Plus Ways To Take Action
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The same corporate, commercialized system for informing the public that normalized Trump for the last decade is now normalizing Elon Musk’s coup and the end of America. Below is a collection of all the best reporting I’m seeing. Follow and subscribe to these sources and then tell your family and friends to do the same. We only get out of this mess if we are aware of what’s happening.
Weird, wild stuff is happening in America. Watch this video of a random man blocking members of Congress from entering the Department of Education.
I’ll start with some articles on the context of the coup. Below that I will include terrifying reporting. Below that, where to go to learn about resistance. Scroll as needed.
Coup Context
Send the below articles to your friends and neighbors who need to understand the moment AND why their regular sources of information are causing them to miss it.
Timothy Snyder - Of course it’s a coup
Imagine if it had gone like this.
Ten Tesla cybertrucks, painted in camouflage colors with a giant X on each roof, drive noisily through Washington DC. Tires screech. Out jump a couple of dozen young men, dressed in red and black Devil’s Champion armored costumes. After giving Nazi salutes, they grab guns and run to one government departmental after another, calling out slogans like “all power to Supreme Leader Skibidi Hitler.”
Historically, that is what coups looked like. The center of power was a physical place. Occupying it, and driving out the people who held office, was to claim control. So if a cohort of armed men with odd symbols had stormed government buildings, Americans would have recognized that as a coup attempt.
And that sort of coup attempt would have failed.
Now imagine that, instead, the scene goes like this.
A couple dozen young men go from government office to government office, dressed in civilian clothes and armed only with zip drives. Using technical jargon and vague references to orders from on high, they gain access to the basic computer systems of the federal government. Having done so, they proceed to grant their Supreme Leader access to information and the power to start and stop all government payments.
That coup is, in fact, happening. And if we do not recognize it for what it is, it could succeed.
Parker Molloy - The Media Is Missing the Story: Elon Musk Is Staging a Coup
In the past two weeks, Elon Musk — a man no one elected to any office — has gained unprecedented access to Social Security payment systems, fired federal workers, shuttered entire agencies, and installed his loyalists throughout the government. If this were happening in any other country, we'd call it what it is: a coup.
Oliver Darcy - Trumpocalypse Now: News outlets aren’t ignoring Trump’s disturbing actions, but they’re failing to present the extreme measures coming out of Washington as an urgent crisis.
Terrifying Updates
Musk Watch - Musk associates given unfettered access to private data of government employees
The civil servants who oversee the OPM’s information technology services were then instructed to provide access to Musk's associates, according to the OPM staffers who spoke to Musk Watch. One of the OPM staffers received an email from the agency’s new leadership instructing them to give Musk’s team “access [to] the system as an admin user" and "code read and write permissions."
“They have access to the code itself, which means they can make updates to anything that they want,” the staffer explained.
It’s being reported that one DOGE member, Marko Elez, resigned after his bigoted views were discovered, but it appears several of the young men aiding Musk’s coup have ties to neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Chad Loder Bluesky Thread:
Wired.com - DOGE Teen Owns ‘Tesla.Sexy LLC’ and Worked at Startup That Has Hired Convicted Hackers
A young technologist known online as “Big Balls,” who works for Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has access to sensitive US government systems. But his professional and online history call into question whether he would pass the background check typically required to obtain security clearances, security experts tell WIRED.
Carl Quintanilla’s post links to Washington Post (don’t subscribe to WaPo)
Dannagal Young - National Science Foundation deletes decades long tracking of global temperatures.
Talking Points Memo - Musk Cronies Dive Into Treasury Dept Payments Code Base
NBC News reports on DEI Watchlist by American Accountability Foundation while giving zero context that AAF was the org that harassed Biden nominees until they withdrew their nominations and is funded by Donor’s Trust, the donor-advised fund of racist, right-wing billionaires like the Uihlein, Bradley, Coors, Scaife, and Koch families.
Jamelle Bouie provides essential context:
Kim Kelly reports that DOGE is coming after the Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This report from S&P Global contextualizes why this could upend our economy. More terrifying commentary from Michael Sainato here.
Senator Ed Markey was denied entrance to the EPA and mainstream media is headlining it like Democrats are in the wrong for being “anti DOGE.” America should be framed as being anti-DOGE because DOGE is destroying America. Here’s reporting from The New Republic on Trump’s anti-environment moves.
Trump is hinting at not leaving office after 2028 and mainstream media is telling us that it can’t happen even as Trump has spent the last three weeks illegally violating several parts of the Constitution.
Substitute teachers in Texas are asking ICE to come arrest kids.
ACTION: What Can Be Done?
I think informed people who want to do something about things like a coup happening in America often feel unsure of what can be done. I also think they get demoralized if the answer isn’t a quick fix. After all, they have jobs, relationships, children, and a whole life to attend to. The thing is that the work of saving democracy isn’t very sexy and it requires effort. If that feels overwhelming just do one thing that you can manage. Everything helps.
Indivisible has multiple action steps that you can take here.
Be like the Visibility Brigade. Guerilla messaging is essential in a time when our regular sources of information are insufficiently making things clear. Be information, literally. Wear shirts or hats or hang signs outside you home that stand up for democracy and sound the alarm.
Incredible media critic Dan Froomkin has started Heads Up News. Read the entire about section here, but here’s a snippet:
You want to know who’s making a difference -- to cheer them on and maybe even help them out.
The corporate media isn’t telling you.
Every Wednesday, Heads Up News gives you a heads-up on the week’s most consequential acts of resistance, along with profiles of people making a difference, and other news from greater “fighting-back” community.
Go subscribe to Heads Up News.
Josh Marshall writes about what options for resisting the coup are available to the opposition party at the federal level.
Ok, this post was pretty ad-hoc and I never quite arrived at a consistent formatting style, but I think you’ll forgive me. Reminder to follow and subscribe to the sources in this post. You can follow them on social media or get a subscription to their newsletters/newsrooms. Here’s to healthier information.
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In addition to other programming, I livestream about media and democracy every Monday-Wednesday 2:30-4:30pm ET. You can watch me do it live and check out all my content on Twitch and YouTube. I’m also on TikTok and Instagram and Bluesky. Every like, follow, repost, and subscribe helps me grow and continue the work of changing our information ecosystem to one in which we all achieve healthier outcomes.