Mallory McMorrow doesn't claim to have all the answers for the Democratic Party. But as the 38-year-old Michigan Democrat gears up for a likely Senate run next month, she says generational change is needed--including at the leadership level. read more
DOGE cuts are making the Social Security Administration fall apart.
The Internet Archive is among the few efforts that exist to catch the stuff that falls through the digital cracks, while also making that information accessible to the public. read more
Advocates say the changes will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable Americans. read more
It has been difficult to chronicle the enormous losses to Palestinian families during Israel's offensive in Gaza, one of the most destructive in recent history. Working with journalists in Gaza, we reconstructed what happened to one large family in a single moment.
Compare this reporting from the Washington Post with a report put out yesterday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on the dangers DOGE poses for Social Security, emphasis mine:
The Administration, Musk, and DOGE have engaged in four types of activities that each present a clear danger to Social Security but together create the potential for significant damage to the program:www.cbpp.org
Launching rhetorical attacks on Social Security programs, including false claims of massive fraud--providing a pretext for actions that could undermine eligible beneficiaries' access to benefits.
Engaging in deep cuts to staffing, new restrictions on phone-based services for the public, and "agency-wide . . . restructuring" and "massive reorganizations" of SSA that are neither well thought-out nor wise " all of which threaten SSA's ability to serve seniors and people with disabilities effectively while providing a potential excuse for privatizing key services.
Jeopardizing the reliability of SSA's systems, including through the sharp reduction of staff with technical expertise of systems that serve some 73 million people, or 1 in 5 people in the United States, each month.
Threatening the security of people's personal information by giving untrained DOGE political appointees unprecedented access to sensitive SSA data.
These four dangers (see Figure 1) compound one another--rather than making improvements that would help Social Security beneficiaries now or in the future. Social Security is highly accurate and efficient--with a payment accuracy rate of 99.7 percent and administrative costs of only 0.5 percent--and has successfully paid benefits for over 85 years. After years of underfunding, SSA needs more staff--not fewer--to give the nation's retirees and people with disabilities the service they deserve.
When you've lost the National Review:
This episode is a product of this administration's flippancy. Its casual unseriousness is what produced a text message in the first place. So, too, did that outlook license the way in which the administration's principles disclosed its internal disputes, which are of inestimable value to our enemies, to say nothing of our capabilities. That same unseriousness produced this unsatisfying cleanup operation, which fails to marshal a persuasive argument and relies instead on the assumed partisanship of the intended audience. We have seen this sort of thing a lot from Republicans in the second Trump era. . . .www.nationalreview.com
Maybe it's better that Trump 2.0 has dispensed with Biden's mock solemnity even if it has retained his insouciance. Still, the degree to which this administration seems comfortable discussing matters both grave and trivial as online gamers would in a Discord forum is as puerile as it is reckless.
The work of government is serious business. The American public deserves serious people at the helm. So far, and for elusive reasons, this presidency seems to believe that voters will disregard its mistakes if its officials act as though anyone who notices and objects to them are picayune obsessives and cranks. This strategy, such as it is, is not working.
"These are the very changes Visitor_ assured us weren't Trump's doing and have been in the works for years."
This story keeps getting worse and worse. It turns out that the SSA is rolling out changes to the phone service in just two weeks rather than in two years as would normally be the protocol, and all because DonOLD Trump is pushing them to do so:
Social Security rushing service cuts at White House request, sources saywww.axios.com
The Social Security Administration is rushing cuts to phone services at the White House's request, the agency's acting commissioner told Social Security advocates in a meeting on Monday, two sources who attended tell Axios.
Why it matters: These changes will strain the already struggling Social Security system and could even deprive some people of benefits entirely, according to current and former employees and advocates for retirees. . . .
Driving the news: Acting commissioner Leland Dudek said the changes in question would usually take two years to implement, but will be made in two weeks instead, the two sources said, on condition of anonymity due to fears of retaliation.
Dudek also said the changes, happening so fast and with little public understanding, will create opportunities for scammers, one of the sources said.
Dudek acknowledged the policy could increase fraud risks for beneficiaries, according to one attendee. He said in the past Social Security had been too "thoughtful" in considering beneficiaries before making changes.
Too "thoughtful" in considering beneficiaries in the past?!? You have to ask yourself: Why the rush? And the answer seems to be, by their own admission, that they want to prevent people from receiivng benefits:
These changes will strain the already struggling Social Security system and could even deprive some people of benefits entirely, according to current and former employees and advocates for retirees. . . .
Some beneficiaries could effectively be blocked from receiving benefits, per an internal Social Security memo, viewed last week by Axios.
During the campaign when Trump spouted lies about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eathing the cats, eating the dogs, eating the geese and promised to deport them, I guess some people thought he was going to make exceptions for their friends and relatives, who weren't Haitians living in Ohio:
Trump says he would revoke Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants in Springfield if electedwww.cnn.com
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would revoke Temporary Protected Status for the Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, and deport them if he is reelected in November.
"You have to remove the people, and you have to bring them back to their own country. They are, in my opinion, it's not legal," Trump said in an interview with NewsNation.
Trump, asked if he would revoke the migrants' Temporary Protected Status, said, "Absolutely. I'd revoke it, and I'd bring them back to their country."
In related news:
"Deport every person under the sun": ICE detains Cubans during immigration appointmentswww.miamiherald.com
Cuba doesn't consistently accept American deportation flights--as many as 42,000 Cuban nationals remain in the U.S. despite having deportation orders. That means that deportation to Cuba is a headache for the federal government. Several Latin American countries have agreed to accept U.S. deportees from other countries, and experts warn that Cubans could also be sent to Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama. Under a deal it brokered with the Biden administration, Mexico already takes back Cubans who arrive at the southwest border. An El Salvador mega-prison recently received hundreds of Venezuelans as part of a deal the Trump administration made with Salvadorean president Nayib Bukele last month.
Lawyers note that for South Florida's Cuban community, many of whom supported Trump's presidential campaign, the rapid immigration enforcement changes may come as a surprise.
"People come out in favor of the face-eating leopards," Prada said. "And then they get surprised when the leopard eats their face."
The detainment of Cubans by ICE in Miramar is stoking fear in South Florida's immigrant community, said Allen, a Miami immigration attorney for over three decades. He said he believes the Trump administration is trying to "intimidate" people and cause panic so they voluntarily return to their home countries.
The panic, however, isn't only affecting immigrants, Allen said. Immigration officers are being pressured for not detaining enough people, and judges and government lawyers are also being strong-armed into rejecting people's efforts to stay in the U.S.
Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social
The first and most important thing to know about last night's Exec order is that it's intended to break current law and allow people throughout the federal gov look at yr tax returns. Beyond that it's intended to compel states to turn over all their data to the fed govt.
2/ Taken together it's intended to create big data sets about targeted citizens for various kinds of harassment, intimidation, prosecutorial abuse etc. Very standard big brother stuff. Much of it is against current law. But more generally, when you pay taxes you give the govt info for ...
3/ for the specific purpose of collecting taxes, not to use for other reasons. This isn't some vague concept. It's the law. Similarly, when you indirectly give medical information, it's for the purposes of either anonymized public health data or for reimbursement through Medicare/Medicaid, etc.
4/ The point is the information is provided for specific lawful reasons and "silo'd" inside the government precisely because it's provided only for that reason. The aim of this new EO is to create thick packets of data on targeted individuals, for a different kind of federal govt that aims ....
5/ to punish or go to war with people who don't do as the incumbent president says or refuse to support the president. It goes back to the foundations of the civil compact itself. We choose elected officials to serve the public and do so impartially. The Trump model is you get executive ...
6/ power and use it to go to war with the people who don't support you.
7/ Final point. In general, I don't like to "AI" every issue. But here it has some relevance. These are potentially very big data sets across many aspects of life, economic transactions, medical records, political activity, educational records. It's very much the kind of stuff you'd want to pour ...
8/ machine learning/AI models and generate lists of people who might be inclined to oppose the incumbent President and then financial resources, social networks, etc that wld make them powerful opponents. We shld be assuming this kind of administration will already be doing stuff like that ...
9/ with data that can be purchased commercially - the kind of profiles generated by sales data, social media graphs and so forth. But there's a reason why IRS data is so prized and guarded. Sure you can buy a lot of data abt anyone just for a price. But when you layer on IRS data, medical records...
10/ you go to a whole new level. This stuff is deeply inculcated in the career staff at the IRS. Very, very strict need to know barriers to access to tax and financial data. There's been a steady flow of firings and resignations at IRS over the last six weeks as DOGE keeps demanding more access ...
11/ to data and more specifically as they demand that law enforcement and ICE get access to tax records. Now it's important to be clear here. When there's a criminal investigation the appropriate authorities already can get access. But that's the same way that the cops can get a warrant from a ...
12/ judge to search your home. The whole framework of probable cause etc. The analogy here would just be the cops can go into any home they want at any time. The point being DOGE has already been at work on what this EO demands.
skywriter.blue
PS I won't be surprised if the DOGE boys end up cutting back or even eliminating the FHA mortgage program that Turner is supposedly making sure illegals don't gain access too.