5mo ago

Top Social Security official steps down after disagreement with DOGE over sensitive data

www.nbcnews.com

Summary

Michelle King, the top Social Security official, resigned after refusing Elon Musk's request for sensitive records, including Social Security numbers and bank data.

Trump appointed Leland Dudek as acting commissioner and nominated Frank Bisignano for the role.

Nancy Altman of Social Security Works condemned DOGE’s request, warning, “I don’t think you can overstate how serious this breach is.”

DOGE’s similar attempts at the IRS and Treasury have sparked legal challenges over privacy concerns.

89 comments

STOP GETTING OUT OF THE WAY
Stay at your post for fuck's sake. Make them fight you. Drag it out, make it slow and expensive, make them look bad.
Don't just offer them your chair and the keys to the kingdom and tell them here let your stooge take over, have fun
- She's likely worried about repercussions, about her family. I wouldn't doubt that she already received threats.
  
  I 100% believe that's what's happening, and is part of the reason he's going after everybody's most personal details first. He wants blackmail material, for anybody who doesn't accept his buyouts.
  
  There are always very good reasons for pulling up stakes in the current climate but we can and should put social pressure on these people until they share those good reasons. And maybe they can't right now but don't let them off the hook because you can imagine a reasonable scenario.
  
  Well letting these fools keep doing whatever they want will put her family in much bigger trouble in the long term. Pathetic
  
  Imo if that's all it takes to make you quit you shouldn't have had the position in the first place.
  Edit: I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this. How is this not seen as pure cowardice? Is this not purely caving in to authoritative practice?
  Protecting yourself at everyone else's expense is exactly what fascists want. They want you so terrified of consequence that you just give up entirely. Fuck that. And fuck everyone who bends the knee or caves in to threats.
- I wouldn't put death or rape threats past the MAGA/DOGE team
- It's seriously upsetting to see how many in leadership want to save their bacon instead of doing what's right.
  
  Our leadership sure ain't courageous... Like at all. Pretty dang spineless.
Why are all you mfs resigning stand your ground come on. If you leave they just appoint some yes man fuck.
- Yeah I'd rather stay in place and use my knowledge to resist and work from within.
  
  If you're hours away from being fired, you can control the narrative by quitting and making the first statement.
  
  Hmmmm I'm conflicted
  Americans in general: stop quitting, stand your ground, do the right thing
  Also Americans: I can't be bother voting, it's all the same after all
  
  You wouldn't be allowed to stay in place. Get it?
- I assume, albeit with no proof, that they are being threatened, e.g. "w e know where your kids go to school."
- I assume they are being given the choice of resign or be fired.
  
  I’d take fores and hell they have to force me out the damn office
Why, why do they keep stepping down IT MAKES IT SO MUCH FUCKING EASIER FOR THEM. This is such bullshit and spineless behavior. They can't protect the American people if they FUCKING RESIGN. Like how does this in any way help us.
- It can be that they can't stop something, but their position makes them responsible, so all they can do is step down and refuse to be implicated. Or they are ordered to do a thing and can't refuse to do it, so they step down. Maybe it then turns out no one can do the thing due a few days while the person is replaced.
  We never get the nuance of these resignations unless they make their resignation letters public (and even then...). Could even be they have 30 years of service or whatever and would like to step down with some benefits for their families before they get fired and lose everything. Yeah it would be nice if they fought, but I can't begrudge a bureaucrat putting their family first in a losing fight.
  So I tend to give them the benefit of doubt. In the end, they aren't doing the easiest thing, which would just be to cooperate.
  
  There's also a lot of situations where there could be real legal implications via arcane administrative laws if they decide to sick the DOJ on them... We have seen already with Adams thing that they have no intention of the DOJ being impartial.
  
  Very well put.
- They were probably already fired but given the option to call it a resignation for financial benefits/easier to get remployed elsewhere. If they refused it wouldn't have made any difference I imagine.
Americans: please stop stepping down. Have some backbone, stay in your place and do the fucking right thing? All you do with stepping down is making it easier to put some trump loyalist in place
- Genuine Question, why step down and not hold the fort and be a massive pain to them?
  
  You think they won't fire them? Take a look around. Now you could say they should force them to fire them instead of resigning where they have some control, but the result is the same. It's going to be lackeys all the way down either way.
  
  She could have called the Union. Oh wait..
- And here’s a reminder that the US Army handbook on simple sabotage suggests more passive forms of sabotage if active sabotage isn’t possible. If you want to sabotage enemy war production efforts, the handbook suggests getting a job in management and then subtlety doing everything you can to grind things to a halt.
  Basically, intentionally become the manglement that every office drone and factory worker hates.
- Alternatively, sow chaos and step down. Everything Trump tears down is something he could use to keep people complacent. Since he's tearing down faster than he can rebuild we might even see an insurrection to topple the government and build something better. Holding out is just prolonging the decay and letting people accept the new norm of a dysfunctional government.
- That's not how this works.
  
  That's exactly how this works.
I had no idea how fragile the US was until trump retook office. Imagine if the Democrats did something like this? There would be outrage, riots, maybe even people storming the capitol. The police and law would get involved.... But this time not a sole is stopping Elon
- Elon needs a sole or 50 to the face.
- Hey man. They’re posting on social media that they’re sorry. You know. Thoughts and prayers! Must mean something cause they get lots of likes. Seems to be a small handful in each city that care enough to actually go outside and protest.
  
  Honestly, I don’t think that the current administration’s tactics would work without social media. Social media allows people to feel the outrage and feel like they’re making an impact, all without doing a damned thing to actually stop the current admin. Social media allows you to post online and feel satisfied with the engagement it got, because “maybe someone else will step up because of my post.” But it doesn’t actually spur any action on the poster’s part.
  I’d argue that posting about it is the best case scenario for fascism, because as long as people are allowed to post they won’t be motivated to actually start fires.
I used to play Battlefield 4 back in the day. If you abandoned your vehicle for any reason the enemy could come in and steal it for the enemy team. This means that instead of having 2vs2 tank fights, you might be able to force 3vs1 or even 4vs0 tank fights. There was an unwritten rule that if you are in a vehicle then you die in that vehicle to avoid that from happening. Your vehicle will not respawn if they are actively being used, even by the enemy. Today it feels like all the "pilots" are abandoning their "vehicles" while our "tickets" get drained.
All Americans should freeze their credit immediately.
- Should have after many credit leaks from credit companies
  
  The best time to freeze your credit was 10 years ago.
  The second best time its right now.
Great. Soon they will have teenagers directing all money into oligarch's pockets while people are homeless, starving and committing crimes against other subjects, all under the rule of a stupid, mob boss dictator.
- I mean... most of that was already happening
Don’t we need more people to step the fuck up?
- No, it's far more important to step aside.
  Remember there are always 2 parties involved in any bullying and it's on the victim to know when to step away, roll over, and let the bully do whatever they want cause otherwise it causes a scene.
Why resign? Keep refusing the order. You can’t keep blocking it if you don’t work there anymore. They will eventually fire you, but that will slow things down.
- It was probably a "you resign now after you tell me no, or we get you fired in an hour" or something along those lines.
  
  I'm gonna have to keep saying this, but if you know you're hours away from being fired, you can quit and make the first statement on the matter. That way, you control the narrative. If they got fired, they'd just be another static.
- Or they go right over their head because Trump respects nothing of procedure that doesn't benefit him, they slow down nothing, and now they're also complicit
So, either 90% of our admin is in on the coup and just doing little grand standing actions like "refusing DOGE", or they refused and the Russians found out about their families and sent a strongly worded letter saying it'd be a shame if something happened to their family.
I can see option two being the more likely case, but the cynic in me is saying these people are all in on it and there will be no one but the peasants to fight for their rights.
- Or maybe it's just a tired bureaucrat, at the end of their career, who cares little what happens to the plebes.
  Not everything has to be a deep-state conspiracy.
  
  Still a piece of shit.
- If the working class collectively resist they have no power. As usual. I suggest to do it instead of not
DOGE is doing a great job!
The record breaking speed at which they are transferring money from the poor to the oligarchs is unprecedented in American history. Remember everyone to work hard, we have to make sure those poor billionaires get the money the deserve .
_/s
Let's please stop pronouncing this piece of shit entity doge as "dozh" (doʒ), it's so ridiculous and we make fools of ourselves by parroting what we're told. We should deliberately "mispronounce" it, say something like dogie or dog-ee, I dunno--I'm sure you all can come up with something better.
Point is, I bet Musk gets a hard-on every time he hears reporters or democrats fall in line and repeat this ridiculous shit the way he likes it. "yes master dozh, dozh, tell me more about dozh master. 🤮 Disgusting. It's humiliating to cater to him like this. Fuck saying "dozh" like you're Musk's little bitch and stop running to serve to his every oligarchical whim like the lowly serfs he thinks of us as.
- Normally you are not supposed to include the O for of in acronyms.
  Technically it's the DGE, just as it's the FBI not the FBOI.
  Actually FBOI is kind of funny maybe we can change that rule.
  
  "Cheese it, the FBOIs!" 😄
- I pronounce it "Nazi". Just saying.
- I refuse to pronounce it at all. Fucking cringy. I just call them Elon’s Nerdtroopers.
  
  I've been calling them Hitler Youth
- I've been pronouncing it Douche
  
  I like that one
It's too bad all these brave lemmings didn't work their way up to high positions in the government. They would have fought the good fight but instead are relegated to talking big on the internet.
- They were so close to being heroes. The same people, I assume, who could never join the military because they would punch out the drill instructor.
- Yeah it's a shame must of us weren't born before WW2 ended or we might have been able to have a seat at the table.
  
  You think most of the leadership in federal agencies are over 80 years old?
  Michelle King has got to be in her mid-50s tops.
Everyone complaining about this and calling them a coward: Trump and his crimes won't respect the law now, what makes you think this bureaucrat can obstruct anything? Trump will absolutely go over the heads of anyone refusing his orders.
Better to resign and not be complicit than sit by and let your name be anywhere near this shit.
- People tried staying and being an "inside" ally during Trump's first term. In the end, it just helped his administration maintain a veneer of competency.
  Leave. Let the institution fall. Collapse of the systems people rely on is the only way to gather overwhelming popular support to contain Trump's destruction.
This already has me very worried since I get SSD benefits along with Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP due to a mental health impairment, and someone really needs to step the fuck up and get the DOGE NAZIS the fuck out of there.
I'm so mad! Here! Here's everyone's most important data! If you reveal it in a hacking attack, you better say sorry to every single American!
sounds like Trump is coming after your social security cheque
- The boomers in denial as they lose their ss is pretty funny.
  
  They'll blame it on the deep state.
Is disagreement the right word here?

89 comments