Senator demands to know status of 'duplicate' Social Security database 'immediately' (September 2025)
www.theregister.com

... A US Senator is demanding answers after a Social Security Administration (SSA) employee who blew the whistle on DOGE dealings involuntarily resigned last month, citing workplace hostility in response to his concerns.

Republican Senator Mike Crapo (it's pronounced Cray-poe), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to the SSA's commissioner, Frank Bisignano, giving him just two weeks to provide answers to concerns raised last month by now-former SSA Chief Data Officer Charles Borges.

The former CDO's whistleblower complaint alleged that the presidentially approved cost-cutting unit had duplicated a critical database filled with taxpayer information, known as Numident, to a test cloud environment that wasn't managed by Borges or SSA, and which allegedly is without any oversight controls.

Numident is used to store records of every person who has ever applied for a Social Security Card in the United States.

Crapo's questions are numerous, but one with a much shorter deadline stands out: He wants to know whether that duplicate database "was accessed, leaked, hacked, or disseminated in any unauthorized fashion," and he wants it "immediately upon receipt of this letter."

"As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, I must take very seriously every allegation made by a protected whistleblower," Crapo added. "Further, given the large amount of sensitive data under SSA's control, I consider the protection and security of PII held by the agency to be a matter of first importance." ...

The government already knows a lot about you. DOGE is trying to access all of it (March 2025)
www.npr.org

... Elon Musk's team within the Trump administration has sought sweeping access to databases that store personal information on millions and millions of Americans.
The General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate, is identifying property to divest, and the agency has abruptly fired more than 1,000 workers and is targeting an overall 63% reduction in headcount at its Public Building Service division.
Politics
DOGE's effort to slash government is now coming for buildings and people who run them

The data collected and maintained by the government isn't just your name, home address, and Social Security number.

Some federal agencies store information that many people don't share even with their closest friends and family: Medical diagnoses and treatment. Notes from therapy sessions. Whether a person has filed for bankruptcy. Detailed income information.

And now, Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has accessed heavily safeguarded databases that store such personal information, raising deep alarm among federal workers and privacy advocates. ...

AI is screening your resume. Here's how to make it past the bots
www.npr.org

... Applying for a job has never been easier"or more inhuman.

In a few clicks, you can upload your resume to any job board. But that convenience means more people are applying to each posted job.

"We see a lot of companies ... close the application after 24 hours because they already got hundreds and thousands of resumes," journalist Hilke Schellmann told NPR's Manoush Zomorodi. "Hiring managers are overwhelmed and they want a solution," Schellmann said.

To navigate the deluge, employers are turning to artificial intelligence"algorithms that scan resumes, rank candidates, and even analyze video interviews. Schellmann, author of The Algorithm: How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted & Fired & Why We Need To Fight Back Now, spent years investigating these systems and their failures.

The Unpredictable Bias in "Smart" Hiring

AI promises to remove human bias, but often amplifies it. Some tools claimed to assess confidence, enthusiasm, or teamwork via facial expressions and tone of voice.

At an HR-tech demo in 2018, Schellmann saw a system predicting job success from facial cues. "Who knew facial expressions in an interview were predictive of success in the job?" she said.

But a computer vision and facial expression psychologist that Schellmann talked to was baffled. "They're like, no, this is just correlation. These are just signals that we can now record and analyze. They thought this was pure rubbish, and could actually cause bias and discrimination." ...

Trump's 10% credit card cap deadline is here. Will card companies comply?
www.cbsnews.com

... President Trump had set Jan. 20 as a deadline for credit card companies to lower their interest rates to 10% for one year. Now that the date has arrived, most banks and card issuers have largely kept their rates unchanged, while also pushing back against an idea that they say lacks key policy details necessary for them to comply.

Mr. Trump announced the cap on Jan. 9, giving banks and issuers just 11 days to meet his demand. In his Truth Social post announcing the proposal, he said he wanted to ensure that Americans wouldn't get "'ripped off' by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%, and even more, which festered unimpeded during the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration."

The interest rate cap has drawn bipartisan support from some lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri. If enacted, the proposal could save consumers $100 billion per year in reduced interest payments, but the banking industry warns that it could backfire because issuers would be forced to reduce credit access to millions of consumers. ...

Venezuela has received $300 million in funds from oil sales, acting president says
www.reuters.com

... Trump said separately on Tuesday his country had taken the 50 million barrels out of Venezuela, and was selling some of it in the open market, though shipping records show that volume has not yet been exported.

Reuters reported last week that four Venezuelan banks had been notified by the country's government that they would split $300 million of oil revenues deposited in an account in Qatar, enabling them to sell dollars to Venezuelan companies that need foreign exchange to pay for materials.

"We should inform you that we have gotten funds, from the sale of oil, and we have gotten, of the first $500 million, $300 million," Rodriguez said at an event in Caracas.

"These first funds will be used through the exchange market in Venezuela, by national banks and the central bank, to consolidate and stabilize the market and protect the incomes and purchasing power of our workers."

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Rodriguez's brother, lawmaker Jorge Rodriguez, said a reform of the country's main oil law expected to be debated for the first time this week will be based on a partnership structure first introduced during President Nicolas Maduro's administration, though he provided no details. ...

Duke Ellington - Stormy Weather (1953)
www.youtube.com

(an instrumental, no lyrics in this one ...)

www.realclearpolling.com

... RCP Average 11/3 - 1/13 -- 36.3 56.6
Spread -20.3 ...

And Israel/Hamas ...
www.realclearpolling.com

... RCP Average 10/16 - 1/12 -- 47.3 46.3
Spread +1.0 ...

President Trump Job Approval
www.realclearpolling.com

...
RCP Average 1/7 - 1/19
Approve: 42.4
Disapprove: 55.6
Spread: -13.2

President Trump Approval - Economy
www.realclearpolling.com
RCP Average 12/12 - 1/18
Approve: 40.9
Disapprove: 55.9
Spread: -15.0

President Trump Job Approval - Immigration
www.realclearpolling.com
RCP Average 12/12 - 1/19
Approve: 47.0
Disapprove: 51.0
Spread: -4.0

President Trump Job Approval - Inflation
www.realclearpolling.com
RCP Average 12/2 - 1/19
Approve: 37.6
Disapprove: 60.6
Spread: -23.0

President Trump Approval - Crime
www.realclearpolling.com
RCP Average 12/2 - 1/19
Approve: 47.2
Disapprove: 48.5
Spread: -1.3

Bolshoi - A Way (1986)
www.youtube.com

Lyrics excerpt ...

genius.com

...
[Verse 1]
We're in love, let's be together
Happy times or heavy weather
Mother says, "Today's a special day"
So let's not fight, okay, yeah

[Verse 2]
When you were at school, you were a honey
The boys all loved you, you loved their money
The boys would stare, you'd cross your legs
And then you'd toss your hair

[Chorus]
Away
Yes, you get by
A way

[Verse 3]
Money's scarce but family honor
Brings it home, brings it home
And down the shop, the tongues, they snicker
TV dinners, beer and liquor, oh, yeah

[Verse 4]
Skeletons fall out of cupboards
Curtains drawn fall open to allow
The light shows up the dust
That plays around your face

[Chorus]
Away
Yes, you get by
A way

Away
Yes, you get by
A way

[Bridge]
Innocence and lies don't make a perfect match
Leave your door unlatched
I know a word can be untrue
And yet still move you

All the time they bring their friends 'round
Dress you up, show you up
And all the time they told you it was true
Well, I'll believe you now

But then, I just don't know
I think I have to reconsider, yeah
I know when she got married
She looked fine in white and lacy frills

Oh yeah, she had a baby
It was painful, it was worth it
And all the time they stuck the knife in
Pulled it up and twisted it around
...

The Most Transparent Administration in History! (March 2025)
www.whitehouse.gov

Pitch Drop experiment
smp.uq.edu.au

... We're home to the famous Pitch Drop experiment, which holds the Guinness World Record for the longest-running laboratory experiment.

The experiment demonstrates the fluidity and high viscosity of pitch, a derivative of tar that is the world's thickest known fluid and was once used for waterproofing boats.

Thomas Parnell, UQ's first Professor of Physics, created the experiment in 1927 to illustrate that everyday materials can exhibit quite surprising properties.

At room temperature pitch feels solid - even brittle - and can easily be shattered with a hammer. But, in fact, at room temperature the substance -- which is 100 billion times more viscous than water -- is actually fluid. ...

Federal government loses Emergencies Act appeal, court says use during convoy protest was unreasonable
www.cbc.ca

... Federal Court of Appeal upholds decision that protest did not meet threshold of national security threat

...

How we got here

What began as a protest largely against vaccine requirements attracted thousands of people to the capital for weeks, many in trucks, who had a slew of grievances aimed at Trudeau and his government. ...

Trump trade advisers plot dollar devaluation
www.politico.com (April 2024)

... Economic advisers close to former President Donald Trump are actively debating ways to devalue the U.S. dollar if he's elected to a second term -- a dramatic move that could boost U.S. exports but also reignite inflation and threaten the dollar's position as the world's dominant currency. ...

Springsteen tells ICE get the f--- out,' pleads for America's future at surprise N.J. performance
www.nj.com

... Nearing the end of his surprise performance in Red Bank Saturday night, Bruce Springsteen paused to address the crowd, hoping not to be "out of order" and disrupt the benefit concert's otherwise convivial atmosphere.

Springsteen began to explain the origin of his 1978 song "The Promised Land," noting "I wrote this song as an ode to American possibility, it was (about) both the beautiful but flawed country that we are, and to the country that we could be."

Springsteen, 76, then pivoted to condemnation, urging the audience inside the Count Basie Center for the Arts to stand against the Trump administration's deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in American cities, particularly in Minneapolis. ...