"Cutting 50% of staff is especially alarming because the [Social Security] agency is already substantially understaffed. Even as the population it serves has grown, its funding and staffing levels have been consistently dropping to a 50 year low. In other words, SSA staff are already doing more with less."

~ Pamela Herd and Don Moynihan

#Musk #Trump #DOGE #destruction #FederalGovernment #firings #workers #SocialSecurity #SSA
/9

https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/trump-is-trying-to-kill-social-security

"An SSA employee we spoke to, who we are not naming because of concern for retribution, said:

'They are effectively looking to dismantle SSA in a matter of months. With no study. No planning. No insider knowledge. Nothing.'"

#Musk #Trump #DOGE #destruction #FederalGovernment #firings #workers #SocialSecurity #SSA
/10

"He wants us fighting with each other. He wants us firing guns at each other. And he wants us isolated from the rest of the world and the rest of our allies. That’s what he wants. He’s said as much."

Olear thinks it's no accident that "everything [Musk-Trump are] doing is designed to make us weaker." Musk and Trump are colluding with Putin to accomplish this, he maintains.

#Musk #Trump #Putin #Russia #FederalGovernment #destruction #firings
/12

"The U.S. government is currently under the control of a deeply ignorant, vengeful megalomaniac with zero impulse control. And it’s not just Elon Musk: Trump shares the same characteristics."

And "having ignorant men with poor impulse control running things has to be bad for business."

~ Paul Krugman

#Musk #Trump #FederalGovernment #chaos #destruction #firings #economy
/13

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/surprise-chaos-is-bad-for-business

"Since returning to office, Donald Trump has swiftly reoriented US foreign policy around Russia’s best interests. …

Whenever Trump talks about Putin or Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, he does so in much warmer terms than he does with respect to democratic leaders like France’s Emmanuel Macron or Canada’s Justin Trudeau. It’s not a performance."

~ Stephen Robinson

#Musk #Trump #Putin #Russia #FederalGovernment #destruction #firings
/14

https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-vance-munich-orwellian-free-speech

"He feels a genuine rapport with autocrats, dictators, and outright thugs. There’s no such connection with our European allies, who[m] he openly antagonizes."

#Musk #Trump #Putin #Russia #FederalGovernment #destruction #firings
/15