The Trump Elon Musk Problem Just Got Worse, Patel & Gabbard Say IGNORE MUSK, & Blake Lively Updates
PDS Published 02/24/2025
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I saw this utterly cursed AI video of Trump kissing Elon Musk’s feet, so now you have to see this utterly cursed AI video of Trump kissing Elon Musk’s feet.
Right, when I say kissing, I mean Trump is really going to make out town on those little piggies, which are on two left feet.
All this while the text “long live the real king” is on screen too, and you’ll notice this video is being played on a monitor in what looks like an office hallway.
And according to multiple reports, those are the halls of the Washington DC headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.[]
A reporter for the Washington Post said she was sent the clip from multiple people inside the building, learning it was playing on screens throughout the headquarters. [][]
An independent journalist also posting on Bluesky that sources told her the clip played on a loop for five minutes and:[]
“Building staff couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so sent people to every floor to unplug TVs.”
Tons of people also noting that the “long live the real king” text seemed to be a reference to a Truth Social post Trump made about himself last week.[]
With the official White House account also posting a fake magazine cover of Trump in a crown with the phrase “long live the king.”[]
When asked to respond to this apparent hack, a spokesperson for HUD told the Daily Beast:
“Another waste of taxpayer dollars and resources. Appropriate action will be taken for all involved.”[]
But as for who got that video to play on those screens?
Well, right now, that is unclear, and any guesses are just speculation.
But you did have outlets like New York Magazine noting that the Housing and Urban Development HQ probably has quite a few angry people in it. []
Rolling Stone also calling the action an apparent digital protest. []
Because over the weekend, it was reported that the Trump Administration and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are looking to reduce HUD by about half.[]
With the Associated Press reporting that this would specifically impact those who support disaster recovery, rental subsidies, discrimination investigations, and more.[]
So that could make for someone somewhere in this world to be mad at Trump and Musk.
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But that’s not the only thing Elon’s done to piss off government workers – and now, Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and numerous other Trump-appointed agency leaders are telling their employees to ignore him.
Right, and specifically what I’m talking about here is an absolutely wild directive Musk made on Saturday, with him posting on X:
“Consistent with [President Trump’s] instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”[]
With that seemingly in response to a post Trump made on Truth Social earlier that day where he wrote:
“ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE. REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAGA!”[]
And, true to his word, federal workers started getting emails directing them to do just that.
According to copies of the email obtained by media outlets and screenshots circulating online, the message was sent from the HR arm of the Office of Personnel Management with the heading, “What did you do last week?”[]
And, like Musk said, it directed employees to reply “with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
With the message also instructing workers to “not send any classified information, links, or attachments” and giving them a deadline of 11:59pm EST to respond.
Though, very notably here, the email didn’t make ANY mention of Musk’s threat that failure to reply would be taken as resignation.
So, unsurprisingly, the curt email and Musk’s separate threat sent the federal workforce spiraling into absolute chaos as agency employees and leaders alike struggled to determine the legal and logistical implications for the 2.3 million workers.
First of all, it’s unclear if this is actually mandatory because the official email said nothing about Musk’s threat.
A threat that also appears to explicitly contradict an assessment from the OPM earlier this month stating that any responses to government-wide emails must be “explicitly voluntary.”
With legal experts also arguing that it would be illegal for the government to take a lack of a response as a resignation because, under federal law, government employees’ resignations must be voluntary.
Additionally, despite Elon’s repeated insistence on X that this will be an easy project that should only take a few minutes, that just simply isn’t the case for many workers.[][]
Right, for one thing, some federal employees aren’t allowed to reveal information about their work to third parties without getting specific approvals first.
Then there are plenty of people who can’t check their emails and aren’t able to respond in the roughly 48-hour timeframe.
Like, for example, Defense Department employees who are on duty tours in remote locations.
As well as the many, MANY workers who have been put on administrative leave and can’t log into government devices or emails.
And beyond all that, the email also says not to include any confidential information.
But for many people who work in roles that deal with intelligence, defense, national security, or other similar issues, most if not all of their work is confidential or top secret.
And even just revealing the non-confidential elements could still be a problem, with one active-duty military officer explaining to The Washington Post:
“Even if people don’t send classified information, the aggregation of all this information in one place would become classified information, which is a national security violation. The military cannot function without the DOD federal workforce. This is a national security issue to treat the workforce this way.”
So, as a result we’ve seen many agencies and divisions issuing their own directives to employees explicitly telling them not to comply.
Right, like I mentioned at the beginning of the story, this included Tulsi Gabbard, the director of the office of national intelligence.
With her writing a message reviewed by The New York Times where she ordered all intelligence community officers not to respond to the email, citing “the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work.”
The Times also reported that similar instructions were given to employees of the Departments of Defense, State, Energy, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security.
And, according to The New York Post, the directives not to respond to the email also extended to the Departments of Education, Commerce, and Energy.
But in all the confusion and chaos, numerous federal employees across different agencies received contradictory messages.
For example, WaPo reported that, on Saturday, the Justice Department told all managers that their employees should be instructed to submit responses by the deadline.
But the next day, Kash Patel, the director of the FBI — which is part of the DOJ — wrote a letter to all agency employees telling them to “pause any responses,” explaining:
“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures.”[]
Health and Human Services employees were also allegedly told to respond to the email at first, but then hours later the department told all employees to “pause” responses.
And workers at agencies under DHS — including the Secret Service and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — were instructed to reply before the department sent a note telling everyone to do the exact opposite.
Hell, some agencies didn’t even think the email was real at first, with leaders at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric leadership initially sending a message to some staff saying:
“It is possible that this new message sent outside of normal business hours was sent in error and/or is a phishing attempt.”
And instructing them not to respond until the message could be verified as authentic.
And as if this couldn’t be any more confusing, it’s also been reported that the email made its way into the inboxes of people who weren’t supposed to get it at all.
Right, this email was just meant for the executive branch, but sources told WaPo that some judges and judiciary staff received it as well, despite the fact that they literally work in the judicial branch.
So, unsurprisingly, Musk’s post and the OPM email have generated a TON of backlash.
We saw unions that represent federal workers and Democrats slamming the move, echoing the widely-held legal consensus that Musk’s threat is illegal, and urging more departments to tell their employees not to respond.[][][]
With one of the most notable responses come from Sen. Tina Smith, who got into a heated back-and-forth with Musk himself after tweeting:
But, VERY significantly here, we’ve even seen some Republicans chiming in here.
This including Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who called the request “absurd” and defended government employees, writing on X:
“If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he's trying to cut.”[]
Beyond that, you also had at least one Republican lawmaker questioning the legality, with Rep. Michael Lawler telling reporters:
“I don’t know how that’s necessarily feasible. Obviously, a lot of federal employees are under union contract.”[]
Right, and to that point, just this morning, we saw unions representing federal employees bringing a lawsuit against Musk’s resignation threat.
Arguing that it violated procedural requirements under the Administrative Procedure Act.
But, throughout all of this, Musk has continued to double down, continually making posts reaffirming his support for the initial threat. [][][]
And as far as how Trump has responded to all this, he initially indicated his support with a Spongebob meme making fun of the outrage — wow, what a cursed fucking sentence…[]
With him taking a firmer, non-meme stance during a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron this afternoon:
2:13 - 2:27
But a reporter followed up by noting that some agencies instructed their employees not to respond despite Musk’s threat and asking Trump whether he has any concerns about the disconnect there.
And Trump responded by falsely claiming that only agencies concerned with confidential matters of security had taken those steps, and adding:
2:53 - 3:05
So yeah… that’s where we are for now.
And we’ll just have to wait and see how all this plays out with the lawsuit and also whether actions will actually be taken against people who don’t respond.
But with all this, I’d really love to know your thoughts in those comments down below.
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Blake Lively is accusing The Hollywood Reporter of sexism.
This stems from a cover the outlet recently published about the ongoing legal battle between her and her “It Ends With Us” co-star and director, Justin Baldoni.
And this story is a deep, deep, rabbit hole, so I’ll give you the quickest of TLDRs on it:
In December, Blake filed a complaint accusing Justin of conducting a public smear campaign against her after she reported alleged inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment on the set of the film.z[]
That complaint ended up being the precursor to a lawsuit that she filed just about two weeks later,
And Justin is countersuing both Blake and her husband Ryan Reynolds for $400 million, accusing them of defamation and extortion, alleging they tried to gain creative control over the film he was directing.
Justin is also suing the New York Times, as the outlet broke the story about Blake’s initial complaint.
There have been tons of updates on their claims since, tons of comments from both parties, and there are people in either camp, right, Team Blake or Team Justin, but that is the basis of everything.
And The Hollywood Reporter just ran a cover story about it, with artwork depicting Blake coming at Justin from behind with a slingshot, aiming what appears to be a cell phone at him.
But this got the outlet a lot of backlash from people who felt the image trivialized Blake’s accusations of sexual harassment. [][]
With some writing:
“weird ass cover to make about a case that literally involves a man sexually harassing a woman in the workplace………the way this cover seems to imply blake is attacking justin????? disgusting.”[]
“less than 10 years ago the hollywood trades were regularly exposing decades of sexual abuse in all areas of the industry and now they print AI-generated covers mocking even very powerful, famous, and wealthy victims of sexual harassment.”[]
Though, it is worth noting that while several posts accused The Hollywood Reporter of using AI to make this cover, the artist behind it denied using AI.[]
But, the biggest name to condemn the cover was Blake herself, because over the weekend a spokesperson for her told E News that:
“The Hollywood Reporter should be ashamed of itself. The framing in this picture is outrageously insulting as it plays into every sexist trope about women who dare file a workplace complaint, turning them into the aggressor, and suggesting they deserve the retaliation that comes their way."[]
As for the body of the article itself, it actually spends most of the time questioning if this rift has less to do with gender equity and power dynamics and actually stems from a religious clash.[]
Diving into Justin’s belief in the Baha'i (Buh-hi) religion, noting that many higher ups at his Wayfarer production company are part of the same faith.
Reporting they bring their faith into industry meetings, and claiming that they made their religion very present on set as well.
With the story at the end questioning if both Blake and Justin could be right in their individual fights and perspectives on this situation.
And Blake’s rep said it was offensive to suggest that Blake’s complaints merely stemmed from cultural misunderstandings.[]
But while people on Blake’s side saw the cover story as an attack on her, some people on Justin’s side saw it the other way, viewing it as a religious hit piece, or at least a general attempt to boost Blake’s image. [][]
Though, some on Justin’s side did applaud the cover, seeing it as a Hollywood institution turning on a Hollywood power couple.[]
Which is not too surprising, because with every update we get to this story, there are tons of different takes that follow on both sides, right.
With both teams generally viewing each new headline as their side being maliciously and unfairly attacked, or as proof that their side has been right the whole time.
And people are pretty firmly on one side or the other, right, Team Justin or Team Blake.
The Cut even just did a report noting you can see that many tabloids appear to be taking sides of their own in their coverage.
Right, some are fast to report what Justin’s team is saying or what Justin is feeling, others about Blake’s side of the story.
And while this will likely be far from the last time we hear about this case, I would love to know your thoughts on this here.
Whether it be the cover itself, the way the two camps are sort of unfolding, the way responses play out, anything here.
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What do you do when the very people who are supposed to care for you instead imprison you, gaslight you, and exploit you for money?
The answer, apparently, is to sue them into oblivion.
And that’s exactly what’s happening to the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, the only for-profit psych hospital in D.C. [Image]
Right, because there are a lot of crazy allegations here, but this lawsuit focuses on one particular plaintiff simply known as Jane Doe.
With it stating that last April, she got into an argument with her soon to be ex-husband, then went for a walk to calm down. [Quote, find “divorce”]
But her husband reportedly told the police she was suicidal and had borderline personality disorder. [Quote same link, find “borderline”]
This even though, according to the suit, neither claim was true.
So the cops reportedly surrounded her, handcuffed her, and took her to the city’s 24-hour behavioral health crisis center.
Where a physician reportedly spoke with her for less than five minutes, then, after telling her she needed to “spend time with her emotions,” involuntarily committed her for the night. [Quote same link]
Now around 9 p.m., a nurse reportedly observed that Doe was “calm” and “denied suicidal ideations. [Quote same link, find “9:17”]
But that same night, a different doctor whom she never met reportedly transferred her to the psych hospital for a seven-day involuntary commitment, leaving her “stunned and terrified.” [Quote]
So off she goes, reportedly restrained in an ambulance, and when she gets there she meets a resident psychiatrist.
With that doctor reportedly describing her as “calm, cooperative, and engaged in conversation.” [Quote]
Adding that she was “very future-oriented” and had “a strong desire to live.” [Quote same link]
And noting that she didn’t have any psychiatric history except for a diagnosis of adjustment disorder she said stemmed from stress. [Quote same link, find “adjustment”]
In fact, the doctor’s assessment of her was glowing, with him observing a “linear and logical thought process,” “no delusions elicited,” “denial of suicide,” no hallucinations, “alert and oriented to person, place, and situation,” “above-average intelligence,” “good judgment,” and “good awareness.” [Quote same link]
But that doctor reportedly lacked the authority to discharge her, and the hospital kept Doe committed.
Reportedly determining she had a “severe disturbance of affect, behavior, thought process or judgment.” [Quote same link]
So that day and the next, the suit alleges she received no therapeudic treatment whatsoever, not that she would have needed it if her account is true.
Then she says she asked to call an attorney but was told her unit did not have a working telephone. [Quote same link, find “telephone”]
With a doctor later reportedly writing a progress note that claimed she was disheveled, had paranoid delusions, had impaired short-term memory, and showed “poor judgment due to noncompliance with treatment” as well as “poor” insight based on unawareness of the extent of her illness. [Quote same link]
Then as the cherry on top: “current suicidal/homicidal ideation with intent, realistic plan, and/or available means.” [Quote same link]
But on her fourth day there, the lawsuit says that Doe used “her own ingenuity and effort” to obtain access to a hospital worker’s phone and make an unsanctioned call to a public defender. [Quote same link]
With a judge almost immediately ordering the hospital to end her commitment. [Same quote]
Meanwhile, the same doctor who reported all those symptoms just a day earlier now reported that the suicidal ideation had completely disappeared, according to the suit. [Quote same link, find “suddenly”]
Which alleges that the doctor falsified the time on the report to make it look like it was written before the judge’s order. [Quote same link, find “8:00”]
And as a final goodbye, the hospital reportedly wrote in a discharge summary that Doe was offered therapy, daily treatment meetings, exercise and healthy food as well as outdoor access. [Quote, find “healthy food”]
But the lawsuit disputes all of that, saying she got zero time outdoors, had broken sinks, was uncomfortably cold, and received a grand total of 30 minutes of therapy over four days.
But she says she wasn’t the only one in that hospital being abused, and her lawyers claim it wasn’ the only hospital with these kinds of practices.
Right, because they say it was acquired by Universal Health Services, the largest operator of private for-profit hospitals in the country, in 2014.
And with more than 400 facilities in the U.S. and U.K., the company allegedly lures in patients, then involuntarily commits them regardless of whether its medically necessary, just to squeeze insurance payments out of them.
With the lawsuit citing a 2023 earnings call in which United’s chief financial officer reportedly said that “increasing occupancy is the most significant opportunity we see in our behavioral business.” [Quote]
As well as another call in which he reportedly acknowledged a corporate strategy of “simply admitting patients whose insurance will pay us more.” [Quote same link]
And for context, these allegations aren’t even new.
Right, in 2020, the company and one of its facilities in Georgia agreed to pay 122 million dollars to settle very similar claims. [Quote, find “122”]
Including that they billed for medically unnecessary inpatient behavioral health services, billed for services that weren’t delivered, and paid kickbacks to federal health-care beneficiaries. [Same quote]
So now you have D.C.’s deputy mayor for health and human services telling The Washington Post that in less than five months, the city has reviewed 600 cases, or nearly every involuntary admission to the hospital. [Quote same link, find “600 cases”]
And this newest lawsuit is trying to rope in thousands of former patients who were involuntarily committed as part of a class-action against United.
So if that happens, we may or may not see a lot more stories like Jane Doe’s coming out in the future.
Links:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/02/24/psychiatric-institute-washington-lawsuit-medical-neglect/
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Germans woke up this morning to a very different political landscape after parties on the right won big in yesterday’s election.
Friedrich Merz’s conservative CDU won nearly 29% of the legislative seats while the ruling SPD -- which had scored almost 26% of the seats in 2021 -- could now barely get 16%. []
This means that Merz is expected to be the next Chancellor of Germany, marking a return to power for the CDU which had long ruled under Angela Merkel. (hard G on Angela)
But possibly the biggest winners were the far-right AfD.
In the 2021 elections, they got just under 13%, and even lost throughout the eastern part of Germany -- where they are the most popular -- to the left-wing SPD. []
This time however, they scored an outstanding 20.8%, making them the second biggest party in the legislature and the single biggest win for a far-right party in Germany since World War II. []
Their rise isn’t a complete shock, as they’ve had success in local state elections recently.
So with two parties on the right winning big it seems like an easy coalition, right?
The CDU is FAR more centrist than the AfD and CDU leaders promised that they wouldn’t form a coalition with the AfD.
Instead, Merz said:
“We have received a clear governing mandate, and we accept it.”
“Looking at the Bundestag seat distribution, we are in a position to form a black-red coalition — and that is precisely what we intend to do.”
The black-red referenced there is the colors the CDU and SPD use, which is a centrist-coalition that ruled for a long time under Merkel.
But that doesn’t really show why the CDU is so anti-AfD.
To see that, you really need to understand just how fundamentally they differ on key issues like immigration.
The AfD is well known for being extremely anti-immigrant and in particular anti-Muslim.
But the CDU has a much more optimistic view of immigration and diversity within Germany.
(That being said, even the CDU has started to get more hardline on immigration to the point that it broke a promise to never work with the AfD to work on an anti-asylum bill).
Another massive difference is their views on the economy.
If it was the AfD’s choice there would be no government regulation and little taxes, whereas the CDU has a more traditional right-wing view of the economy that sees some regulation.[]
It’s also important to note that the CDU is pro-EU where the AfD wants to leave it.[]
On social issues it’s much the same: the CDU doesn’t want to change pro-LGBTQ legislation while the AfD wants traditional gender roles and restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights.
If the AfD sounds a lot like the turn the Republican party has made under President Donald Trump, it’s because they’re big fans.
“Trump and Vance and Musk and others in the Trump team stand for a fight against woke-ism and for a fight for the freedom of speech and these are things we can also (agree on).”
People like Musk weren’t shy about showing their support for the AfD.
Right, he made a ton of posts on X pushing for Germans to vote for the AfD.
Speaking of which, the demographics of the vote were also interesting.
The short version is that the CDU did not do well with young people -- instead the SPD got most of those votes.
But the vote highlighted how differences stemming from the Cold War are still around.
Right, the AFD won every state in Eastern Germany minus Berlin, which itself was split between East and West.
But the big question is what happens from here.
In the long term there are fears that this could show that the AfD is going to score big in the 2029 elections, leading Merz to say that “This election might be our last chance to restore public trust.”
But in the short term Merz is likely going to be chancellor and he hopes that a power sharing agreement with the SPD will be made by Easter.
But possibly the biggest shakeup from this election will be what happens internationally.
Right, Trump seemed to be stoked on the results, saying:
“LOOKS LIKE THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY IN GERMANY HAS WON THE VERY BIG AND HIGHLY ANTICIPATED ELECTION. MUCH LIKE THE USA, THE PEOPLE OF GERMANY GOT TIRED OF THE NO COMMON SENSE AGENDA…”
But the conservative party -- and especially Merz -- don’t seem to like Trump very much.
Following his victory he came out and bashed the Trump administration for being so blatant about its support of the AfD.
On top of that, Trump has shaken Merz’s former belief in NATO, with the likely-Chancellor pushing for “independent European defense capabilities.”[]
The feeling that there needs to be a stronger EU was probably reinforced this weekend after Trump and Musk spent it bashing Ukraine with claims that it started the war and that Zelensky was a dictator.[]
Something Germany disagrees with, so much so that they’re looking to increase their support for Ukraine… which requires more weapons manufacturing capabilities.
All that has led some to claim that between Germany’s push for a strong EU and Trump’s anti-NATO rhetoric… we might be seeing the “end of the Post-War World.”
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