Lies, leverage, more lies, and links.

Good evening, regulators and regulatrices. As is probably clear to you, I'm still playing around with what I want this thing to look like, so if you've noticed the format shifting around a little bit, that's not carelessness—I'm iterating. That's what they call it in the corporate world. Here is some news:

• Remember how Elon Musk and his child saboteurs are messing around with the computer code that runs the U.S. Treasury payments system? Some articles have repeated Musk and the Trump administration's claims that he and his DOGE team just have "read-only" access to the code and can't actually make changes. That's not true. (Also: Wired has been doing yeoman's work reporting on this, and if you are so inclined, they have a deal right now to subscribe for one year for $5.)

• One more link from TPM: Josh Marshall explains that Democrats will have more leverage over Republicans in the coming weeks, because Congress will need to raise the debt ceiling and it's unlikely the GOP can do that without at least some Dem votes. To get those votes from Dems, Marshall says, "The standard should be no help on the budget or the debt ceiling until the lawbreaking stops. Period. End of story. No wilding gangs marauding through the federal government. End the criminal conduct. Period."

Sounds not unreasonable. If your House rep is a Democrat, call them and let them know you expect them to hold firm on this. "Stop supporting blatant lawbreaking" is not a big ask.

• I wrote a Facebook post on Wednesday about why Trump and Musk's flagrant disregard for the Constitution and rule of law creates a serious long-term problem because, if it's allowed to continue, it means nobody can rely on any continuity in the federal government when a new president is elected. The post got shared a few times, so I'm sharing it again here, in case you missed it. You should be able to read it even if you're not on Facebook anymore.

At the end of the post, I mention that people who want to read more stuff like it should subscribe to this newsletter. I cannot emphasize enough that you should tell everyone you know to do that. I have not had a real job since October. Even when I did have a real job, we were not the most financially responsible people. Julia has student loans. I don't have student loans, but I do have my secret second family in Provo to think about. My Mamluk, Bellworthy, said his $15-an-hour wage was "actually the bare minimum, according to this post I saw on LinkedIn." I immediately moved to restrict his internet access, but he continues to beat that drum unrelentingly. At this rate, Julia and I will be forced to cut our annual trip to Sandals down to one week. But if a mere 10,000 people signed up this weekend, that would change everything. TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO GIVE ME MONEY.

• The other day, Musk emailed federal employees to offer them buyouts if they were willing to resign. Right away, lawyers and knowledgeable government employees responded with posts about how the offer was almost certainly illegal, and how there was no guarantee anyone who took it would get their payment. (When Musk took over Twitter, he sent employees a nearly identical email offering buyouts and then proceeded to stiff them.) A Washington Post reporter got a hold of some audio confirming there's no legal recourse for government employees who take the offer, if the Trump administration decides not to pay them.

• If you want to get your dander up, Ask a Manager ran a selection of anecdotes about clueless executives saying and doing mind-bogglingly out-of-touch things to their employees. Here is one of the most incredible:

I worked at a company once where every year the owners would throw a party right before Christmas. To be fair, it was nice. It was a two-hour catered lunch in outside tents, and they honored all the employees who hit milestones. However, where they were a bit out of touch was with their gifts for the milestones. Mostly it was branded stuff, but I remember one year for the person who had been with the company 20 years, the owners praised the employee and then started talking about how they, the owners, always go on vacation to beautiful locations and how they wished they could share that with everyone. At this point, my friend is convinced this lucky employee is about to get tickets for a trip or a cruise or similar. But nope! What the employee got for their 20-year anniversary with the company was…

I promise you will not guess what the employee got. Go see—it's no. 2 at the link.

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Some programming notes: How are you doing? In case you missed it the other day, we have comments here now—just click the headline and check out the post on the website. (They're at the bottom.) Is there anything you're wondering or worried about? Any good news or bad news you think your fellow Having a Normal One readers would find useful or interesting? Put it in the comments! There's also the contact form, if you're more comfortable remaining anonymous.

And you asked and we listened. Well, I listened. The links on this website should open in new tabs now. It wasn't easy making that happen, but I knew it mattered to you. (It was super easy.)

😎

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