DL Open Thread: Wednesday, March 26, 2025

This thread may be shorter than usual.  There is just so much to unwind about the House ‘debate’ on the Musk-Pass bill that I found it hard to sleep last night.

Then again, this thread may not be shorter than usual.  All depends on what I find.  Let’s go searchin’.

Trump Signs Another Unconstitutional Executive Order.  This one designed to chill election turnout:

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday requiring people to provide documents proving they are citizens when they register to vote, a mandate that experts said could prevent millions of Americans from voting.

The order reflects Trump’s long-standing fixation on election administration as well as his baseless claims following the 2016 and 2020 presidential races that both were riddled with fraud, particularly illegal voting by noncitizens. There is no evidence that widespread corruption, by noncitizens or others, tainted either contest.

Click the link to see the numerous other times Hegseth has blistered his foes for ‘careless’ handling of classified information.  I’m sure the troops feel secure in the knowledge that this guy holds their fate in his hands.

Anecdotal, Granted, But Encouraging:

Democrat James Malone has won an open Pennsylvania state Senate seat in a major upset in a district that comfortably voted for President Trump in November, Decision Desk HQ projects. 

Malone, the mayor of East Petersburg, is projected to defeat Republican Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons to represent Senate District 36 for the remainder of former state Sen. Ryan Aument’s (R) term. Aument resigned from his office in December to become the state director for McCormick, who took office in January.

Parsons was considered likely to win in the conservative-leaning district, which President Trump carried in November with 57 percent of the vote and McCormick won with 56 percent. Aument had even been unopposed in his last election in 2022.

How ICE Illegally ‘Disappeared’ People:

They didn’t know where they were going.

Some called their families in tears. Others sent confusing messages to their attorneys, saying that ICE agents had told them that they were headed back home — to Venezuela.

But only hours later, the Trump administration would deport these detainees to El Salvador. It capped what TPM has identified as a multi-week effort to prepare for the removals while concealing its plans for as long as possible. The administration carefully orchestrated the removals so as it make it nearly impossible for attorneys to notice and sue, and for courts to intervene to slow down or halt the deportations. Once it became clear that Trump was invoking the Alien Enemies Act to remove more than one hundred Venezuelans without due process, the deportations were already underway: detainees had been prepositioned to depart, with many lawyers unaware or unable to contact their clients. Deportees were over the Gulf of Mexico by the time the court issued its order to freeze deportations, on their way to an El Salvadorian work camp.

That’s just the start.  This is a must-read.

‘Only The Best People’:

The best-known member of Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent, according to digital records reviewed by Reuters.

Edward Coristine is among the most visible members of the Doge effort that has been given sweeping access to official networks as it attempts to radically downsize the US government. It is headed by Musk – the world’s richest man – with a powerful mandate from Donald Trump.

Past reporting had focused on the staffer’s youth – he is 19 – and his chosen nickname of “bigballs,” which became a pop culture punchline. Musk has championed the teen on his social media site X, telling his followers last month: “Big Balls is awesome.”

Beginning around 2022, while still in high school, Coristine ran a company called DiamondCDN that provided network services, according to corporate and digital records reviewed by Reuters and interviews with half a dozen former associates. Among its users was a website run by a ring of cybercriminals operating under the name “EGodly,” according to digital records preserved by the internet intelligence firm DomainTools and the online cybersecurity tool Any.Run.

How Musk Attracts Chinese Investors To Space-X.  Yes, there is a Delaware connection:

Elon Musk’s aerospace giant SpaceX allows investors from China to buy stakes in the company as long as the funds are routed through the Cayman Islands or other offshore secrecy hubs, according to previously unreported court records.

The rare picture of SpaceX’s approach recently emerged in an under-the-radar corporate dispute in Delaware. Both SpaceX’s chief financial officer and Iqbaljit Kahlon, a major investor, were forced to testify in the case.

Experts called SpaceX’s approach unusual, saying they were troubled by the possibility that a defense contractor would take active steps to conceal foreign ownership interests.

Kahlon, who has long been close to the company’s leadership, has said he owns billions of dollars of SpaceX stock. His investment firm also acts as a middleman, raising money from investors to buy highly sought SpaceX shares. He has routed money from China through the Caribbean to buy stakes in SpaceX multiple times, according to the court filings.

The legal dispute centers on an aborted 2021 deal, when SpaceX executives grew angry after news broke that a Chinese firm was going to buy $50 million of the company’s stock. SpaceX then had the purchase canceled. In separate testimony, the rocket company’s CFO explained that the media coverage was “not helpful for our company as a government contractor.” SpaceX’s business is built on those contracts, with the U.S. government paying the company billions to handle sensitive work like building a classified spy satellite network.

The Delaware court records reveal SpaceX insiders’ intense preoccupation with secrecy when it comes to China and detail a network of independent middlemen peddling SpaceX shares to eager Chinese investors. (Unlike a public company, SpaceX exercises significant control over who can buy into the company, with the ability to block sales even between outside parties.)

But the case leaves unanswered the question of exactly what percentage of SpaceX is owned by Chinese investors.

Hmmm, I wonder how and/or if yesterday’s legislative action might impact this case…OK, that does it. Can’t hold back any longer.  Gotta go write my wrap-up of what happened in Dover yesterday.

What do you want to talk about?