#23 SIPRnet is too low of a classification level for something like this. It should have taken place in a SCIF. Or over government issued encrypted phones.

More: It's worth taking a moment to put this number into some context in case half a trillion dollars doesn't do it for you. Non-defense discretionary spending is the cost to fund the U.S. government once you take out mandatory spending (mostly Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) and the cost of the U.S. military. For 2023 that number was $917 billion. So that's most of the stuff we think of as the government, apart from those payment programs and the military. In other words, in about eight weeks DOGE managed to lose the U.S. government " more or less light on fire " more than half of what goes to all non-defense discretionary spending.

They had what had to be a TS/SCI Special Access level conversation on Signal with some of the highest positioned members of our government with the editor of the The Atlantic included on the thread AND NOBODY KNEW!

People have been prosecuted for lesser mistakes.

Thoughts and prayers for the mass murder of school children. Imprisonment of "domestic terrorists" in a foreign gulag for vandalizing a car.

Are we great yet?

More: Dudek's threat to block SSA employees from using the agency's IT systems " a move that could halt Social Security payments " came in response to a judge's temporary restraining order in a case brought by the AFL-CIO labor union. The order bars Social Security Administration officials from allowing DOGE, including Musk, and the SSA's DOGE team to access personally identifiable information. It also directs Musk and DOGE to delete from their possession all non-anonymized personal data, and bars them from having access to SSA computers or code.

Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander wrote that the SSA had likely violated administrative and privacy laws when it gave DOGE "unbridled access to the personal and private data of millions of Americans, including but not limited to Social Security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, drivers' license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates, and home and work addresses."

She added that the "defendants, with so-called experts on the DOGE Team, never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA's entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government."

Hollander's order does allow the SSA to grant DOGE members "access to redacted or anonymized data and records" if they receive standard training for employees who generally work with Social Security data systems, to ensure they understand applicable federal laws, regulations, and policies that protect the privacy of personally identifiable information.

In other words, Musk and DOGE must comply with existing privacy laws. According to Dudek, Trump's acting commissioner for the Social Security Administration, this requirement is a reason to threaten to halt the safety net program that 71 million Americans rely on for support.

Dudek's comments come as DOGE moves to close dozens of SSA offices, potentially limit phone services, and demand that beneficiaries travel to visit offices in-person to verify their identities " changes that stand to overwhelm the system and prevent seniors and the disabled from receiving their checks.

I defy anyone to list even on good reason for this.

As a former custodian of classified documents this is unfathomable.

UK did the same thing

Remember when the government at least pretended to not be in the business of picking winners and losers?

It would be kind of funny if it weren't so tragic.

Trump getting played is, well, expected. The cost of his incompetence paid by the Ukrainian people is unacceptable.

That's a good start.