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DOGE

Federal Unionists Say It’s Not Game Over, It’s Game On

April 5, 2025 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. , , ,
A scrappy network of federal unionists is leading the response to the Trump administration’s attacks on their workplaces, including Trump’s March 27 order purporting to end union contracts covering most federal workers. Where the Federal Unionists Network has led, union leaders have followed. In a Zoom event that drew 65,000 viewers, FUN got official support from all the significant federal unions for their bottom-up organizing approach to the Trump onslaught. Federal worker unions are in the crosshairs because they are defending the jobs and agencies that Trump and Elon Musk have been trying to eliminate by illegally bypassing Congress and violating laws governing federal employment.

HHS Employees Learn Of Layoffs When Their ID Badges Stop Working

April 3, 2025 Jory Heckman, Federal News Network, , , , ,
The Department of Health and Human Services is laying off thousands of employees, in some cases eliminating entire offices and programs. HHS began sending reduction-in-force (RIF) notices around 5 a.m. EDT Tuesday morning, according to more than half a dozen employees who spoke to Federal News Network. Several HHS employees shared photos of staff waiting in long lines to get into their buildings. Employees targeted by the RIF learned their Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards were deactivated. “The way people are finding out whether they are RIF’d this morning is to go through this very long process to get to the building and to go through security, and then badge-in at the main atrium.

Recording Reveals Social Security Head’s Thoughts On DOGE And Trump

March 30, 2025 Eli Hager, Pro Publica. , , , ,
Since the arrival of a team from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Social Security is in a far more precarious place than has been widely understood, according to Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration. “I don’t want the system to collapse,” Dudek said in a closed-door meeting last week, according to a recording obtained by ProPublica. He also said that it “would be catastrophic for the people in our country” if DOGE were to make changes at his agency that were as sweeping as those at USAID, the Treasury Department and elsewhere.

Tesla Car Boycott Goes Global In Defiance Of CEO Musk On Week Seven

March 30, 2025 John Zangas, DCMediaGroup. , , ,
Washington DC — Hundreds of Tesla electric vehicle dealerships saw lines of citizens line up outside them urging consumers to boycott the flailing car company. The decentralized grassroots actions have targeted the world’s richest man, Elon Musk over his continued interference in Federal government operations. A surge of anger towards the mega billionaire has fueled the Tesla dealership boycott actions which are now in their seventh week. The boycotts are credited with taking down, at least in part, over 40% of the car company’s stock value.

Could Elon Musk Actually Destroy Social Security As We Know It?

March 25, 2025 Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org. , , ,
Why is Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, hyperventilating about Social Security? Why is he inventing unhinged tales about “fraudulent” hordes of Social Security grifters? Why is his “DOGE” chopping away staffers at the already understaffed Social Security Administration? Let’s start with the political reality that most Americans see Social Security as absolutely essential to their future financial security. These average Americans, Musk and his like-minded super wealthy fear, are eventually going to start demanding that America’s rich pay a far bigger share of the revenue Social Security so desperately needs.

Tesla Boycott Actions Keep Going And Going Six Weeks On

March 25, 2025 John Zangas, DC Media Group. , , ,
Arlington, VA — At about 12:30 on Saturday afternoon about 20 arrived early and circled up nearby the Arlington Tesla dealership to discuss safety and security of the ongoing weekend boycott rally which was to begin at 2 pm. The main organizers of Third Act of Virginia asked participants to agree with a thumbs up of a short list of positive behaviors that would keep the boycott action inclusive, safe, and non-confrontational towards Tesla customers. They discussed deescalation as a method of diffusing tensions during conflict. Third Act of Virginia is a grassroots organization dedicated for those 60 years and older, or in the “Third Act” of their lives and wanting to give time and resources back to their communities.

How To Avert The Imminent Collapse Of Social Security

March 24, 2025 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , ,
The Social Security Administration (SSA), which has been understaffed for a long time, is now facing collapse within months if changes made by the Trump administration are not reversed. 73 million people in the United States rely on Social Security for part or all of their income. Clearing the FOG speaks with Alex Lawson of Social Security Works about the cuts to the SSA workforce, the closure of regional and local offices and other changes that are going to lead to beneficiaries not receiving their checks and possibly the end of this 89 year old institution. Lawson describes how people can join the struggle to save Social Security. Visit SocialSecurityWorks.org.

Trump Administration Threatening To Shut Down Social Security

March 22, 2025 Linda Benesch, Social Security Works. , , , ,
The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, on the news that Trump-appointed acting commissioner Leland Dudek is threatening to shut down Social Security rather than comply with a court order to stop Elon Musk’s DOGE from continuing to access sensitive Social Security data: Donald Trump and Elon Musk installed Leland Dudek as acting Social Security commissioner six weeks ago. Plucked from administrative leave, Dudek was elevated over more than 100 higher-qualified civil servants because he was willing to give Musk’s DOGE complete, unfettered access to Americans’ most personal, sensitive data.

Failing To Read The Room, Trump Treats Whites Like N-Words And Loses Ground

March 20, 2025 Jon Jeter, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
On a recent episode of her podcast, Hysteria, the host, Alyssa Mastromonaco, a former White House deputy chief of staff, read a tweet from a woman who identified herself as Marylin, complaining about the newly formed Department of Governmental Efficiency and its hatchet man, the billionaire entrepreneur, Elon Musk: “My daughter is losing her job thanks to DOGE. I voted for President Trump three times. My daughter is a hardworking, excellent worker for the. . .National Forest (Service). She doesn’t work for DEI; she runs the office. I am pissed at POTUS and Elon Musk. It’s not right.”

As DOGE Mauls Social Security, Profit-Hungry Private Equity Is Swooping In

March 17, 2025 Tyler Walicek, Truthout. , , ,
The Social Security Administration (SSA), an irreplaceable lifeline for 73 million people, is only the latest venerable U.S. institution to be hit with a campaign of media falsehoods and startling internal sabotage efforts, all on the orders of Trump and the reactionary right. This has taken its most visibly outrageous form in the bureaucratic pillaging committed by Elon Musk’s self-proclaimed “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), the widely loathed advisory body with a meme-derived name as juvenile as its staffers. But this week, a still-more ominous threat appears to be circling.

Tesla Takedown Protests Grow With Grassroots Spirit For Fifth Week

March 16, 2025 John Zangas, DC Media Group. , , , ,
Arlington Virginia—On week five of the Tesla Takedown protests one could be led to believe a block party was in full swing outside the Tesla dealership in Arlington, Virginia. Many went with their signs and banners but some brought sound systems with playlists and boomed the line with resistance dance music. And the music was in the right key of freedom to dance. Someone even brought a case of Budweiser nonalcoholic energy drinks in the classic aluminum cans. The community got a large share of favorability ratings from passersby honking their support and thumbs up for the block long protest line.

Who’s Running The DOGE Wrecking Machine?

March 16, 2025 By Christopher Bing, Avi Asher-Schapiro and Annie Waldman, ProPublica. , , ,
When President Donald Trump announced his marquee government cost-cutting initiative, he left no doubt about whom he intended to run it: Elon Musk. Still, questions about the scope of Musk’s authority have hounded the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency ever since. As DOGE began to order massive budget cuts and layoffs, and those affected by the moves began to raise questions in the press and in court about their legality, administration officials equivocated on Musk’s exact role, asserting he was simply a senior adviser to the president and had no official position in DOGE.

Trump Labels Tesla Dealership Attacks As Domestic Terrorism

March 13, 2025 Alexis Sterling, Nation of Change. , , , ,
President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that attacks on Tesla dealerships and vehicles would be classified as acts of domestic terrorism, escalating his support for Tesla CEO Elon Musk amid the company’s stock decline and ongoing protests. The declaration follows weeks of demonstrations against Musk’s deepening political ties to the Trump administration, including his role in government restructuring and his controversial far-right rhetoric. The statement came during a White House event where Trump stood alongside Musk, who had brought several Tesla vehicles for a photo op.

The Greatest Threat To Social Security In Its 90 Year History

March 9, 2025 Nancy Altman, Counter Punch. , , , ,
The last few weeks have been the most destabilizing for Social Security in its 90-year history. America’s historic retirement security program has survived world wars, pandemics, and recessions. But without a rapid course correction, it may not survive Donald Trump and Elon Musk. In mid-February, Musk demanded access to private Social Security data. When the Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) declined, President Donald Trump immediately replaced her. He leapfrogged over 120 more senior employees to install a DOGE sympathizer, Leland Dudek.

Who’s Fighting Back (And Not) Against Cuts in Veteran’s Administration

March 7, 2025 Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon, Popular Resistance. , , , , ,
Among the Republican voters experiencing buyer’s remorse are more than a few military veterans who chose Trump over Harris by a margin of 65 to 34%, according to some exit polls. Their shock and dismay surfaced in DC this month during the legislative conference of the reliably conservative and hawkish Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), which has 1.4 million members. In the run-up to that annual event, VFW national commander Al Lipphardt, urged his members to “march forth” and “engage with lawmakers” to “stop the bleeding” at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
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