Vittoria Elliott

The US is a Cancer with a Sagittarius rising, actually.

ICE Says Critical Evidence In Abuse Case Was Lost In 'System Crash' a Day After It Was Sued The government also said "we don't have resources" to retain all footage and that plaintiffs could supply "endless hard drives that we could save things to."

Feds now claim a "system crash" that happened immediately after ICE was sued is the reason why 10 days of footage from inside the Broadview Detention Center has been lost.

Unreal hearing on this earlier:

www.404media.co/ice-says-cri...

This industry is full of wildly talented and criminally underemployed people who would capably occupy highly visible roles with integrity and insight.

This piece addresses some of the MANY, many thoughts/feelings I have had in recent days. As much as the whole debacle is a spectacle, we all should be asking ourselves hard questions about who and what is rewarded in our industry.

Elon Musk Gave Away $474 Million in 2024, Mostly to Entities He Controls Elon Musk’s foundation gave away a record $474 million in 2024, with the vast majority again going to entities he controls.

Elon Musk’s foundation gave away a record $474 million in 2024, with the vast majority again going to entities he controls

And this is likely just the beginning.

So if you're someone in government, tech, immigration, etc and you want to talk about what you're seeing, you can find me on Signal at Vittoria89.82. We can speak anonymously.

That means combining SSA data with all this other data could lead to inaccuracies about who is a citizen and who isn't. Without proper cleaning and oversight people could be denied the right to work or vote based on bad data, according to experts I spoke to.

And that's just the first issue. SSA data was never collected to be used for citizenship verification. SSN's are issued to people who legally work and live in the US, so if you say, naturalize after being here legally, SSA isn't going to record that change, because your SSN will stay the same.

SSA finally issued a SORN for what it was already doing. But here's the thing: "If the government starts using the database and does not put out the appropriate disclosure and then later does put out that appropriate disclosure, they still have violated the law," @adamdschwartz.bsky.social

This was a BIG deal, particularly because you can't just share data across agencies. The Privacy Act of 1974 requires that if data is going to be shared between agencies and/or used for purposes other than what it was collected for the government has to put out a System of Record Notice (SORN)

DOGE Is Building a Master Database to Surveil and Track Immigrants DOGE is knitting together data from the Department of Homeland Security, Social Security Administration, an IRS that could create a surveillance tool of unprecedented scope.

In April @makenakelly.bsky.social and I reported that DOGE + DHS were pulling together a master database, combining data from multiple government agencies, including the IRS, SSA, DHS, and state voting data, likely housed in the USCIS SAVE database

www.wired.com/story/doge-c...

Social Security Data Is Openly Being Shared With DHS to Target Immigrants For months, the Social Security Administration was quietly sharing sensitive data about immigrants with DHS. Now it’s official.

SCOOP: Last week, the Social Security Administration published a notice saying it will be sharing "citizenship and immigration information” with DHS, confirming what WIRED reported months ago. Follow along with me below...

www.wired.com/story/social...

Forbes headline Nov. 18, 2025: "Serious $1 Trillion Crypto Price Crash Warning Sparks Panic As Bitcoin Drop Suddenly Accelerates"

BBC headline from Nov. 18, 2025: "Google boss says trillion-dollar AI investment boom has 'elements of irrationality'"

Financial Times headline from Nov. 18, 2025: "Fund managers warn AI investment boom has gone too far"

Guardian headline from Nov. 18, 2025: Crypto market sheds more than $1tn in six weeks amid fears of tech bubble

starting to think that repeatedly sinking trillions into Silicon Valley's new favorite toy while tech companies spend millions to kill any meaningful regulation is actually not going to end well

Social Security Data Is Openly Being Shared With DHS to Target Immigrants For months, the Social Security Administration was quietly sharing sensitive data about immigrants with DHS. Now it’s official.

NEW: For months, the Social Security Administration was quietly sharing sensitive data about immigrants with DHS. Now it’s official.

read @telliotter.bsky.social:

Social Security Data Is Openly Being Shared With DHS to Target Immigrants For months, the Social Security Administration was quietly sharing sensitive data about immigrants with DHS. Now it’s official.

NEW: Social Security Data Is Openly Being Shared With DHS to Target Immigrants

from @telliotter.bsky.social
www.wired.com/story/social...

C.D.C. Links Measles Outbreaks in Multiple States for the First Time

"Heck of a job, Bobby."

"If the outbreaks cannot be extinguished by January, the anniversary of the first cases in Texas, the United States will lose what is known as “elimination status” as determined by the World Health Organization."

(gift link)

ICE Air’s Sloppy, Dangerous Deportation Flights - The American Prospect Poor planning, mechanical issues, serious safety lapses, and the shutdown are taking a toll on Avelo, America’s most famous deportation airline, internal documents show.

it turns out the Avelo ICE Air deportation flights are plagued with severe safety violations. excellent reporting from @gbrockell.bsky.social prospect.org/2025/11/17/i...

All MAGA Wanted Was the Epstein Files. Now They're Ignoring Them For years, MAGA influencers demanded the release of the Epstein files. Now that 20,000 documents have been released, many raising questions about Donald Trump, they're shrugging.

NEW from my colleague @davidgilbert.bsky.social : In a move that will likely surprise no one, after years of calling for the release of the Epstein files, the right is...not super interested
@wired.com

www.wired.com/story/maga-w...

Jeffrey Epstein Claimed Intimate Knowledge of Donald Trump’s Views in Texts With Bill Gates Adviser In text messages from 2017, Jeffrey Epstein seemingly represented himself as positioned to pass information from the Trump White House to Bill Gates through an intermediary.

New scoop from my @wired.com colleagues! In text messages sent in 2017, Jeffrey Epstein appears to position himself as a middleman between the Trump administration and Bill Gates. @leahfeiger.bsky.social @timmarchman.bsky.social

www.wired.com/story/jeffre...

This DOGE Whistleblower Is Running for Office WIRED spoke with Chuck Borges, the former SSA data chief turned DOGE whistleblower, who is running to represent southern Maryland in the state’s senate.

ICYMI, my colleague @makenakelly.bsky.social interviewed a DOGE whistleblower at the Social Security Administration who is now running for office for @wired.com

www.wired.com/story/doge-w...

Publicly messaged something entirely different. It’s common that journalists will “save” good info for a book, but this never sat right with me.

For anyone surprised by what we are seeing re: Michael Wolff, I’d like to remind people that in Feb 2020, he was speaking with Trump about the pandemic. In those convos, Trump acknowledged he knew how bad it was about to get. And then Wolff sat on that knowledge as people died and the Trump admin…

Record Numbers of Younger Women Want to Leave the U.S. The percentage of younger women in the U.S. who express a desire to migrate permanently has surged in the past decade.

"In 2025, 40% of women aged 15 to 44 say they would move abroad permanently if they had the opportunity. The current figure is four times higher than the 10% who shared this desire in 2014, when it was generally in line with other age and gender groups."

© Reuters Subscribe = US intel revealed Israeli officials discussing use of human shields in Gaza, sources say By Erin Banco November 12, 2025 1:07 PM CST • Updated 19 hours ago Aa SERGENCY

Another Reuters exclusive

The Biden administration acquired evidence in the last months of its term that senior officials in the Israeli government were openly discussing the ongoing use of Palestinians as human shields by the IDF in Gaza. They sat on the evidence.

Shutdown Deal Kills Food Safety Rules After lobbyists spent big on the Trump administration and Democratic defectors, the government funding bill cut food-contamination rules and limited ultraprocessed-food research.

After lobbyists spent big on the Trump administration and Democratic defectors, the government funding bill cut food-contamination rules and limited ultraprocessed-food research.
www.levernews.com/shutdown-dea...

"what's the point of standards" is a hilarious thing to say out loud where people can hear you

Israeli Spyware Maker NSO Gets New Owners, Leadership and Seeks to Mend Reputation Investors led by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds have taken a controlling stake in the company behind Pegasus, and former Trump official David Friedman has been named executive chairman.

"NSO Group, the Israeli company behind Pegasus spyware, says a group of investors led by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds has acquired a controlling stake in the firm, which has named a former Trump official to lead an effort to restore its battered reputation."

WGA East Statement on the firing of Conde United Workers “The Writers Guild of America East condemns the unlawful firing of four members of Condé United, who were terminated for demanding answers as to why Condé Nast unceremoniously shuttered Teen Vogue, a publication known for its fearless reporting on topics like reproductive rights, the labor movement, and climate activism. These workers were fired for engaging in collective action, a right guaranteed under federal law. Retaliation for union activity has no place in our industries. We stand with our friends and colleagues at the New York NewsGuild and demand that these workers be reinstated.”

The WGA East stands with @condeunion.bsky.social and @nyguild.bsky.social! #1u

How Elon Musk boosted false USAID conspiracy theories to shut down global aid Musk drove fringe viewpoints on USAID into the mainstream on X as the Trump administration halted the humanitarian relief agency’s work.

in Feb. 2025, I worked on this story about why & how Elon Musk suddenly put an end to USAID… www.nbcnews.com/politics/dog...

The AP tracked down details of some of the people killed in President Trump's military strikes on drug smugglers he describes as narco-terrorists.

They were, with one exception, not high-level criminals. One was a fisherman. One was a bus driver; another a taxi driver.

apnews.com/article/trum...