‘DOGE’ plans to rebuild SSA codebase in months, risking benefits and system collapse
“Risking” isn’t the right word here. More like “ensuring.”
Excerpt: In order to migrate all COBOL code into a more modern language within a few months, DOGE would likely need to employ some form of generative artificial intelligence to help translate the millions of lines of code, sources tell Wired. “DOGE thinks if they can say they got rid of all the COBOL in months then their way is the right way and we all just suck for not breaking shit,” says the SSA technologist.
Me again: For giggles, I checked in with AARP, and they’re giving a wee bit more of a damn than a month ago, but their coverage is still stupidly soft-spoken, polite, unpanicked about the vivisection of Social Security. I’m a bit more more concerned, because like lots of retired folks, Social Security is what prevents my homelessness.
Oh, well. Apparently there’ll be no defense of Social Security until people’s checks stop coming. What happens after that could be… interesting.
Appeals court clears way for Trump to fire leaders of ‘independent’ federal agencies
Trump regime argues in court that “mandate of the electorate” give him absolute power
AND NOW THE NEWS
#504
March 28, 2025
DEMOCRACY GOING, GOING, GONE…
Trump signs order targeting law firm where Robert Mueller used to work
Excerpt: “They’re all bending and saying, ‘Sir, thank you very much,’” Mr Trump said, adding that law firms are saying, “‘Where do I sign? Where do I sign?’”
⯐ Columbia University president steps down amid Trump’s crackdown
It’s unclear from the article whether former Columbia president Katrina Armstrong was too fascist, or not fascist enough…
Utah governor signs bill to phase out state’s universal mail ballot system
GIVE US YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR, YOUR HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE, SO WE CAN IMPRISON THEM
Russian scientist working at Harvard has visa secretly revoked, gets sent to Louisiana prison
Marco Rubio on Rumeysa Ozturk:
“We revoked her visa … once you’ve lost your visa, you’re no longer legally in the United States … if you come into the US as a visitor and create a ruckus for us, we don’t want it. We don’t want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country.”
“You’re here because of your tattoos”
“Felt like a kidnapping”: Wrong turn leads to 5-day detention ordeal
It “felt like a kidnapping” because it was a kidnapping.
ONLY THE RICH HAVE RIGHTS
Republicans vote to let banks screw over working Americans
Trump claims the right to ban 700,000 federal workers from having union representation
Woman arrested after miscarriage under Georgia abortion law
SCREW SCIENCE
FDA doctor who oversaw US program that developed coronavirus vaccines is squeezed out
Ending clinical trials with no warning — what Trump’s NIH is doing — leaves patients at peril
RFK Jr. to gut vaccine promotion and HIV prevention office, sources say
TO HELL WITH HEALTH AND SAFETY
San Jose approves $427 fee for first responder calls
Trump halts program to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells
Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in public drinking water
AND I SAY TO MYSELF, WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD
Trump pushes to control all of Ukraine’s mineral and energy assets in sweeping new demands
Trump says US will ‘go as far as we have to’ to get control of Greenland
Trump & Vance are psychotic enough to invade Greenland, and with effectively no honest media in the USA, Americans are so brainwashed they’d likely rally ’round the cause.
CRUELTY IS THE POINT
Trump pulls research funding to protect pregnant women from domestic violence, citing ‘DEI’
Trump administration investigating California law against forced outing of gay and trans kids
Trump regime moves to cut programs that fight child labor abroad
FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF DYSTOPIA
Influencer paid by Russia is added to White House press pool
Trump pardons three founders of BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange convicted of money laundering
Trump pardons Nikola fraudster Trevor Milton
AND ALSO
Greenpeace trial was really about crushing dissent
Satanic Mass at Kansas capitol goes about as well as you’d expect
Maybe there’s a better word than ‘psychotic’, but whatever the word, Musk is not mentally well
OUR FRIENDS, THE DEMOCRATS
US House Democrat backing El Salvador’s strongman president
EYE ON AI
Hayao Miyazaki, who said AI is “an insult to life itself,” reduced to AI-generated meme by OpenAI
And that’s the way it is,
and nothing will
meaningfully improve
until billionaires fear for their lives
3/28/2025
Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer. Tip ‘o the hat to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, Bleepity-Bleep, Toad’s Lily Pad, Voenix Rising, and anywhere else I’ve stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.
Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Joey Jo Jo emeritus, Jeff Meyer, John the Basket, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and proved that the world isn’t always shitty.
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