Notices by Jonathan Kamens (jik@federate.social)

ALEXANDER: Tonight, NBC News has learned defense secretary Pete Hegseth is considering firing military generals in some of the department's most senior officers as early as this week, according to two defense officials and three congressional sources. Most of those targeted have been closely associated with former defense secretary Lloyd Austin, who served under former president Biden and have worked on DEI initiatives or have voiced opinions that Trump allies view is politically
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out of line with his agenda, the officials said. Late tonight, the Pentagon said Hegseth is looking to cut 8% of next year's defense budget, totaling around $50,000,000,000. It comes as Elon Musk's DOGE employees are now working inside the Pentagon, according to senior officials, eyeing staffing cuts there. Overnight, president Trump, alongside Musk, dismissed concerns about conflicts of interest with Musk's businesses, even though the tech billionaire's companies, like SpaceX,
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have massive contracts with the federal government.

TRUMP: "If there's a conflict, you won't be involved. I mean, I wouldn't want
that, and he won't want it."

ALEXANDER: First, the mass firings, now the fallout. Across the country, growing protests opposed to the president's efforts to rapidly shrink the federal workforce.
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***

Jonathan Kamens was fired just days ago from his job overseeing cybersecurity for the VA's website.

ALEXANDER: Your firing has a potential to have a direct impact on the benefits American veterans receive. Right?

KAMENS: So, many veterans rely exclusively on VA.gov for accessing their benefits because it's difficult for them to get out of the house and get to a VA medical center. If VA.gov goes down, then those people can't get to their benefits.

***
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ALEXANDER: Still, the president and his top lieutenant, both appearing today at a Saudi investment conference in Miami, are defending their reshaping of the federal government.

MUSK: I think what we're seeing here is, the sort of the thrashing of the the bureaucracy as we try to restore democracy and the will of the people.

ALEXANDER: Musk also insisted the majority of federal workers are anti Trump, noting DC is largely democratic.
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But more than 80% of federal workers are not in DC, spread throughout the rest of the country. The acting FAA administrator revealing a letter to staffers today obtained by NBC News, special government employees who work for SpaceX have now visited the FAA's command center and will be going to other FAA sites to engineer solutions. While the administrator says the agency is keeping employees who perform safety critical functions, its union says some FAA jobs already eliminated
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I appeared tonight on the #NBCNightlyNews in a segment by Peter Alexander. I recommend the whole segment (only 3 minutes), or you can fast forward to 1:10 to see my 26 seconds.

I'm not going to hide, not going to back down, not going to run. What's happening inside the federal government is endangering our democracy and harming the American people. I dissent.

(Video transcript in the replies.)

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/hegseth-considering-firing-top-military-officers-232433221645
#politics #USPol #Trump #DOGE #VA #coup #resist #NBC

Here's why veterans should be worried about the privacy and security of their VA data.
In the fediverse you can follow @fedsagainstdoge.bsky.social .
Please get involved!
* contact your congresspeople daily
* hit the streets
* support Federal Workers Against DOGE!
The only way we stop this is if people get off the sidelines.
Original source: https://www.instagram.com/federalworkersagainstdoge/reel/DGPKCrZRDd8/
#politics #USPol #DOGE #USDS #VA #resist #privacy #infosec

The Boston Herald just reported (https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/02/18/boston-man-who-oversaw-va-information-security-swept-up-in-doge-cuts-veteran-privacy-at-risk/, unpaywalled at https://archive.ph/Okmu7) on my firing from USDS from my position overseeing information security for VA.gov.

It's a very good article! Kudos to Herald reporter Lance Reynolds.

If you're curious about the one minor quibble I have with this article, head over to my blog (https://blog.kamens.us/2025/02/18/boston-herald-article-about-my-termination-by-doge/) to read more.

#politics #DOGE #VA #USDS #infosec

I got a LinkedIn connection request from the president of a company that "protects judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers - and their families - by helping them safeguard sensitive personal information and defend against online and offline threats. Proud to be working with the New Jersey State PBA, the State Troopers Fraternal Association, the Metropolitan Transit Authority PBA and many others…"
Yeah… that's a big nope from me.
#ACAB

If you know of or are involved with an organization that helps people in a way that the #TrumpAdministration doesn't approve of, and the org is worried about continuing to do their work while protecting their employees, volunteers, and clients, I am happy to meet for free with the org to work through with them what their threat model is and how they can improve their security posture. They can reach out to me on Signal at jik.87. Please :boostRequest: for reach.
#politics #USPol #resist

My post here about getting fired from USDS went viral, but my post on LinkedIn about it (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn🇱🇮activity:7296541591333203969/) went REALLY viral. It was the top post linked to the top article in the Top News section on the LI home page for about 12 hours. It's gotten >123k impressions so far.
I'm enjoying blocking all the people who post comments justifying the government's actions and deleting their comments from the post. Fuck 'em, we're way past dialogue at this point.
#politics #USPol #DOGE #coup

If you want to start understanding what #ElonMusk is trying to do to the federal government, I encourage you to read @davekarpf's most recent piece, linked below.
Then subscribe to read more, because he is a brilliant and insightful historian who is calling it like it is on a way that few people are equipped to do.
"The Tech Barons have a blueprint drawn in crayon. They have not thought any of this through."
#politics #USPol #coup #DOGE
https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/the-tech-barons-have-a-blueprint

This is blowing up, so I want to take this opportunity to point federal workers and everybody who gives a shit about them to Federal Workers Against DOGE at https://www.instagram.com/federalworkersagainstdoge/ or @fedsagainstdoge.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy (bridge should be enabled soon). The goal of the group is to inspire federal workers to feel brave enough to defy and disobey illegal orders from DOGE.
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BREAKING: A bunch of U.S. Digital Service employees (including me) were fired tonight. It's still unclear exactly how many. There is no visibility whatsoever into what determined who was let go. Legacy USDS (i.e., pre-DOGE) leadership was not involved in the decision about whom to let go and was not notified in advance that people were going to be fired.
#politics #USPol #DOGE #coup #USDS
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Before I was fired tonight, I was in charge of information security for VA.gov, which has millions of users per month and stores and processes huge amounts of veterans' personal information. I've been told by people I've worked with that I'm the best at what I do of anyone they've ever worked with. Now there will be _no one_ in charge of information security for VA.gov.
Does this seem like improving government efficiency?
#politics #USPol #DOGE #USDS #VA
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I can't wait until my son graduates from high school so I can unsubscribe from the school newsletter and stop reading the pro #Israel propaganda they send out virtually every week.
(Please resist the urge to reply asking why my son is at that school. He knows what's what, what to regard and what to disregard, and the school is delivering enough of what he needs for all of us to put up with the bullshit for another year and a half. Then we're out of that community for good.)

There's a "Saturday Night Massacre" situation playing out in #NYC. #Bondi keeps ordering attorneys to file to dismiss the charges against Eric Adams, and they keep refusing/resigning. I believe she's gone through 4 attorneys so far. These aren't Democrats, they're attorneys whom Trump considered loyal enough to keep on and in some cases even appointed them after the inauguration.
This level of defiance is encouraging!
#politics #USPol #resist
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/defiance-in-new-york/sharetoken/d3ab086e-8280-4859-8e18-a314f8b23797

Today's #WriteYourReps:
I asked my U.S. Senators and Representative why the heck they aren't emailing me daily. I subscribed to their mailing lists nine days ago and haven't heard anything from them since. What the heck?
#politics #USPol

Today's #WriteYourReps:
I didn't actually write to my reps today, I called them all to invite them, on behalf of Federal Workers Against DOGE, to speak at the rally we're organizing at HHS HQ this Friday. I hope at least one of them takes us to on the offer!
Rally info: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/defend-hhs-from-a-doge-coup
#politics #USPol #DOGE #coup