Notices by Paul Chambers🚧 (paul@oldfriends.live)

Does anyone know where to find a list of posts or conversations that you muted on #Mastodon web. This seems like it should be easy to find but I've looked extensively. #Feditips #MastoAdmin

I replied to a post re Denny's and the hours spent there in college earlier. That made me think about another restaurant in my college town. A "pay what you can" restaurant.

For decades before I went to college in the 90s, a little old lady had a restaurant that was attached to her home. She was in her 70s by the time I got to college. It was like a large cafeteria style addition to her home that seated around 75 people.

Many moons before, she started cooking meals for hungry and poor college students in Appalachia.

At some point, she made it a "Pay what you can" restaurant. It was home cooked, real food. The only drink was water, coffee and tea.

I remember eating many meals there when I was in college. Sometimes I had very little to pay, sometimes I had more and overpaid the suggested price.

There was no cashier. You went through the line, got your food, ate and on the way out there was a "Pay what you can" wooden box.

Many locals of all ages ate there because the food was so good, not just hungry college kids. It was open from like 11am to 4pm. Many students would step in the back and wash dishes, by hand, for 15 minutes or so after eating.

There was no loitering allowed, it wasn't a study hall, etc. There was no religious angle. It wasn't a "soup kitchen." After you ate and you left.

That always made an impression on me and actually was the first step into having a progressive, compassionate political stance.

17/ This is moving faster than I thought. Musk and DOGE are already doing item one on the list in the 1st post in this thread, destabilizing SSA with staff cuts and closing offices.

Now, on to item two. "Elon Musk's so-called DOGE group has been granted access to sensitive income data from the Department of Health and Human Services"

"DOGE has recently been trying to check personal tax records against federal benefits, grants and student loans, aiming to link together traditionally separated government systems" #SocialSecurity #USPol

🔗 Elon Musk's team reportedly given access to 'sensitive income data' https://www.rawstory.com/elon-musk-access-income-data/

21/ New internal Social Security Administration (SSA) memo, sent on March 13, details Trump DOGE's plan to sabotage the Social Security Administration, changes "that would debilitate the agency, cause significant processing delays, and prevent many Americans from applying for or receiving benefits" #SocialSecurity

The changes would increase field office traffic, longer call wait times, and delayed processed, as well as disproportionatly impact on vulnerable populations

A DOGE workaround of the new policy means these claims will never be approved without using ID-Proof internet or making an in-person visit.

https://popular.info/p/exclusive-memo-details-trump-plan

:webarch: https://archive.ph/PkaLZ

I hate this feck'n thread but it must continue. The policy says they fear "congressional scrutiny" so make your voices heard.

🚨 22/ Acting Social Security head consults with Justice Dept. on whether to close agency — Leland Dudek says he will ‘terminate access by all SSA employees’ to IT systems: report

Acting commissioner says it should shut down Social Security Administration.

Bloomberg News reported, “As it stands, I will follow it exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems,” the report quoted Dudek as saying.

“Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency,” Dudek said, according to the report.

It's worthy to note, the entire agency runs via an "IT system" setup.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-the-social-security-administration-temporarily-shutting-down-acting-commissioner-says-it-should-following-doge-related-court-order-d8822dc1 #SocialSecurity

https://archive.ph/vjDkw

4/ Musk Ally At GSA Demands Admin/Root Access to System That Lets Government Text the Public

404 Media, "Notify.gov contains not just the phone numbers of everyday people but also information about whether they participate in government programs such as Medicaid, which is based on a person's financial situation. In recent days, Musk has become obsessed with the idea of "fraud" in #Medicaid, #Medicare, and #SocialSecurity, and in identifying those he suspects are committing fraud."

A worker resigned in protest rather than giving Thomas Shedd access to Notify.gov, which they said would allow him to see "all personally identifiable information moving through the Notify system, including phone numbers," 404 Media has learned.

Shedd is a former Tesla engineer who now runs Technology Transformation Services (TTS), a group of coders and software engineers within the GSA, who is closely allied with Elon #Musk and #DOGE. #USPol

https://www.404media.co/musk-ally-demands-admin-access-to-system-that-lets-government-text-the-public/

6/ Although the Social Security Admin has privacy notices posted throughout, this morning I got a pop-up when I logged in to the system. These policies aren't new. The pop-up, where I got it, and I've been into the system thousands of times both personal and as a beneficiary representative, is new, esp where it popped up at after I logged into the secure part of the website.

There may be a gut DOGE reaction when people, esp the media, starts reporting about them. They aren't new policies.

"We will disclose information under this routine use only in situations in which SSA may enter into a contractual or similar agreement with a third party to assist in accomplishing an Agency function relating to this system of records."

The full pop-up, "Sections 205 and 233 of the Social Security Act, as amended, allow us to collect this information.

Furnishing us this information is voluntary. However, failing to provide all or part of the information may affect the accuracy of your earnings record.

We will use the information you provide to correct your earnings record.

We may also share your information for the following purposes, called routine uses:

To employers or former employers, including State Social Security administrators, for correcting and reconstructing State employee earnings records and for Social security purposes; and

To contractors and other Federal agencies, as necessary, for the purpose of assisting the Social Security Administration (SSA) in the efficient administration of its programs.

We will disclose information under this routine use only in situations in which SSA may enter into a contractual or similar agreement with a third party to assist in accomplishing an Agency function relating to this system of records.

In addition, we may share this information in accordance with the Privacy Act and other Federal laws. For example, where authorized, we may use and disclose this information in computer matching programs, in which our records are compared with other records to establish or verify a person’s eligibility for Federal benefit programs and for repayment of incorrect or delinquent debts under these programs."

5/ New: DOGE cancel leases and close Columbus, #Ohio Social Security office and the bankruptcy clerks office.

#SocialSecurity
DOGE website shows two Columbus leases canceled

https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/doge-website-shows-two-columbus-leases-canceled

8/ Musk hints at cutting $500 billion from 'entitlements' like #SocialSecurity and #Medicare during a CPAC interview.

https://www.alternet.org/musk-cutting-social-security/ #Doge

Video of interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p3tpSkPc_s

I hate this thread.

7/ Social Security is the latest front in Trump and Musk’s attack on trust in government

The MSNBC columnist linked to a February 17 article by Wired's David Gilbert, who debunked the Musk/DOGE claims about Social Security payments and Americans who are 150.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-musk-social-security-doge-government-trust-rcna192793

9/ Statement from the Musk-appointed head of SSA celebrating the deletion of research grants studying the financial security of the older adults and the disabled. https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v80n1/index.html #SocialSecurity #USPol

About the program:
🔗 A Look Back at the Last Decade of the Retirement Research Consortium and Disability Research Consortium (publiched Feb 2020)

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v80n1/v80n1p1.html

:archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20250202092306/https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v80n1/v80n1p1.html

:archive: https://archive.ph/bgOWE

14 / Social Security offices in 'chaos' as DOGE cripples services

"And this week, the long-struggling disability benefits system came under threat as backlogged state offices that review claims were told there would be no more overtime or hiring."

The report adds that some offices are unable to pay phone bills due to a DOGE freeze on credit cards, and that other offices are having to absorb the call volume causing massive delays in processing retirement claims as calls go unanswered." #SocialSecurity #doge

As reported elsewhere in this thread, doge has already started closing local offices

https://www.rawstory.com/doge-social-security-2671281956/

15/ FALSE ALERT: FYI, if you come across this story, "Social Security will suspend payments for 90 days," Microsoft , Edge and MSN is feeding it out in Edge Web browsers. It won't take time for people to see it, spread it and start panicking. The headline is false.

MSN is feeding some third-party website site, in what appears to be AI garbage in the Edge start page "news" sections.

The article rehashes others who say the actual damage being done could slow or cause the payment system to collapse but then frames it as "The combination of reduced staffing and increased demands could result in a 90-day suspension of Social Security payments."

Even that is conjecture.

This is false. SSA isn't pausing payments.

#SocialSecurity

The article is: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/social-security-will-suspend-payments-for-90-days/ar-AA1AkFhE

19/ JFC moment. A short read of a court filing regarding #SocialSecurity data and doge and the delicate nature of the data, how the current commissioner got put in and a lot of bells and whistles. #USPol
It's been reported on in the press, but read this short, double spaced court filing.

Ex-Social Security official describes ‘significant’ risk of sensitive data going to wrong hands under DOGE, handled based on three myths.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.577321/gov.uscourts.mdd.577321.22.10.pdf

h/t @tiamat271

18/ Social Security to begin withholding 100% of benefits again for agency fault overpayments as Trump reinstates plan to recover 100% of overpayments, until the overpayment is made up

#SocialSecurity is bringing back a controversial plan to fix its mistakes by withholding people's benefits. The agency had just sought 10% of funds it accidentally overpaid. Now it wants 100% repaid.

That's a reversal of a change to withhold only 10% of a recipient's benefits in event of an overpayment to reduce "financial hardship on people with overpayments. In the past, people lost their homes as benefits were cut off to make up an overpayment. #USPol #SSA .

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/03/08/social-security-overpayments-march-2025/82049805007/

20/ DOGE and Social Security declared a living man dead, robbed his bank account to claw back "erroneous" payments because he was dead — Man is still waiting on it to be fixed because of short staffing.

I think another lesson here is, if you collect Social Security, move your deposit to another account as soon as possible.

From the article:

Johnson’s strange trip through the netherworld began in February, when a letter from his bank arrived addressed to his wife, Pam.
“We recently received notification of LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s passing,” it began. “We offer our sincerest condolences …”

At first she figured it was a scam — her husband, after all, was sitting right there. But then the bank got to the point.

“We know this is a difficult time, and we’re here to help,” the bank wrote.

“We received a request from Social Security Administration to return benefits paid to LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account after their passing.”

“There’s nothing you need to do — we’ve deducted the funds from LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account.”

🔗 Here’s a ‘dead’ person on Social Security in Seattle, with plenty to say

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/heres-a-dead-person-on-social-security-in-seattle-with-plenty-to-say/

:webarch: https://archive.ph/ssEdM
#SocialSecurity #USPol

Phase one of Elon's DOGE's Social Security actions is going to be like this,

*Layoffs. Gut the staff so workload can't be processed so new beneficiaries, except maybe retirees, won't get benefits, appeals wont's be processed, etc

*Fraud claim: Find any and every error and clerical error, overpayment, minor, harmless infractions, like bank account balances being over the asset limit for a few days for SSI disabled while their bills are processed, etc, even if not the fault of the beneficiary, and claim fraud and take program banishment, repayment and criminal action against the beneficiary.

*AI Computer photo/social media crosschecking, Run scans on social media to find disabled people doing normal things and claim they are able to do things they have said they are not, and run them up the flagpole for fraud

*Appeals: Gut the administrative law judges so beneficiaries who are able to appeal, can't get their appeals processed.

*Media: Claim high fraud and abuse, claim lower numbers of beneficiaries, etc and media will eat it up without evidence #SocialSecurity #Doge #USPol #SSA

Mark my words/

3/ Top Social Security official exits after clash with Musk’s DOGE over sensitive data demand #USPol

archive https://archive.ph/UD0Sz for https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/17/doge-social-security-musk/

2/ In the mid-aughts, I actually represented someone during a formal conference appeal who had their SSI disability cutoff and received a large overpayment bill from Social Security because their private, elderly landlord only went to the bank and deposited rent checks every few months.

Every so often, SSA does an asset review, bank accounts, cash on hand, etc, of persons receiving SSI.

Her rent payments weren't being withdrawn from her bank account even though she was writing the checks, so, several times per year, she had more cash in her checking account that showed up on her statements she submitted during the asset review than the law permitted her to have at one time.

This had other repercussions, like her Medicaid, which had eligibility attached to her SSI eligibility, being affected, also.

It was finally resolved but it was a big headache that lasted well over a year.

I can see Elon and his #doge boys running computer crosschecking programs, crosschecking bank records, etc, and kicking people off without any due process or understanding and wrecking their lives.

10/ Anxiety Mounts Among Social Security Recipients as DOGE Troops Settle In

Elon Musk’s team has descended on an already understaffed Social Security Administration, which now faces further workforce cuts and closures of vital local offices. The consequences could be significant for millions of the most vulnerable Americans.

https://www.propublica.org/article/doge-social-security-elon-musk-trump-closures-benefits