yellow dahlia
yellow dahlia's JournalRally on TUESDAY APRIL 22, 2025 - SOCIAL SECURITY office, Newport
SOS - Save Our Security!TUESDAY APRIL 22, 2025, 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM
We will rally to show support for SOCIAL SECURITY and their staff.
Social Security Administration office
130 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI
We object to the firings of valuable career civil servants at the Social Security Administration.
We need to protest the cuts being implemented by DOGE.
DOGE is still accessing our data, despite court orders.
We do not want to be required to use X for Social Security Administration communications.
Please stay on the sidewalks, and respect all private property. The plaza where the office is located is private property.
We will bring extra signs for those who don't have time to make one.
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A friend and I created a new Facebook page - Accidental Activist, Rhode Island - in order to share postings of local protests and rallies in Rhode Island and other nearby locations. There are so many rallies and protests going on, even in our little Ocean State.
(P.S. Is it okay that I mention the Facebook page here on DU?)
Senator Chris Van Hollen - showing what it means to fight.
He persevered, and was finally able to meet w/ Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Should this be in latest breaking news?
Here are links to recent articles.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/chris-van-hollen-meets-kilmar-abrego-garcia-el-salvador-rcna201830
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-senator-van-hollen-says-he-met-wrongly-deported-man-el-salvador-2025-04-18/
Here is a link to the map for the HANDS OFF SOCIAL SECURITY events, in case you want to find one in your area.
https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/hands-off-social-securityHANDS OFF SOCIAL SECURITY! Rally - Newport, RI on Tuesday April 15 from 3pm to 5pm
SOS - Save Our Security!Come rally with us to say HANDS OFF SOCIAL SECURITY!
Tuesday, April 15, 2025 • 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Social Security Administration office
130 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI
In addition to protesting the cuts to Social Security from DOGE, let's show our support for the staffers at the Social Security Administration.
The plaza where the office is located is private property.
Please stay on the sidewalks, and respect all private property.
Parking is not always easy in Newport. Please respect street signs.
This rally was organized as part of the HANDS OFF SOCIAL SECURITY call to action, from Social Security Works. For more information, see: https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/hands-off-social-security
The attempts to dismantle Social Security continue. The plan is to cut 87% of the staff at the regional offices.
https://www.wired.com/story/social-security-administration-regional-office-elon-musk-x/
DOGE employees are still accessing data despite court orders.
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/11/nx-s1-5352470/doge-musk-social-security-voting
Social Security senior staff are being removed when they stand up to the invasion by DOGE.
https://www.alternet.org/doge-social-security/
"Government Spending Continues to Climb Even as DOGE Touts Cuts"
Source: WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Anthony DeBarros and James Benedict
April 11, 2025 5:30 am ET
A Wall Street Journal analysis of daily financial statements issued by the Treasury Department found government spending since the inauguration is $154 billion more than in the same period in 2024 during the administration of President Joe Biden.
DOGE launched its cost-cutting with a shock-and-awe campaign terminating at least 25,000 probationary federal workers and slashing funds for foreign aid. Some laid-off government workers have gotten their jobs back, and the termination of probationary employees is currently being litigated.
“I think the net effect of DOGE on federal spending, at least insofar as we can track it in the daily Treasury statement, has been pretty small,” said Don Schneider, deputy head of U.S. policy at Piper Sandler. “It will take time for those savings to accumulate, but it will also be dependent on the administration prevailing in court over some of these actions.”
There is a chart - I love a good graphic.
Here is the full article, without the paywall:
https://archive.ph/tMBuf
On the Chyron just now - muskRAT says protests are funded by George Soros. He can't fathom
that people would give of their time and energy for the greater good.
These rallies were extremely well pulled together - big and small. It required the effort of many. What was really great about today's protests was that anyone could organize one.
I went to a small local protest organized by a regular woman in the community. She handed out small flags to most of the crowd. She ran out of flags. She didn't expect the close to 200 people who showed up.
When she handed flags to us, we chatted. She told us she thought she might get as many as a couple of dozen people. But she wasn't sure if it would only be her and a few friends.
She must have organized it in recent days. I found out about it late last night. We had planned on going to the biggest demonstration in our state, at the Capital. Instead, we made the decision this morning, to go to the smaller protest a couple of towns over. I am so glad we did. It felt good to be a part of making this small protest bigger.
There was an incredible camaraderie. People were making friends, and exchanging numbers. We knew there would be more protests to come.
There was a wonderful array of home made signs. A young boy had a sign on cardboard which read: "Trump is SUS". We had to ask what it means. It means Trump is "suspect". We got a laugh out of our lack of knowledge of today's slang. Many of us who attended were older. Many of us are in this to save our Democracy for the next generation.
This is what Democracy looks like. This is what grass roots looks like. There was no evidence of George Soros. There was no need for a billionaire's money.
All that is needed is the heart and creativity of a woman of retirement age, who cares about her country and cares about Democracy...and the reinforcements from an equally concerned citizenry. She deserves the tip of a hat. 
MuskRAT cannot fathom the creativity and selfless effort of others. He has no concept of empathy and community.
We made four signs. The one that seems appropriate to end with is: "This is not efficiency. This is a Crime Spree". Criminals like MuskRAT and the Grifter in Chief can't fathom the spirit of "We The People" that brought people together today.
I have some follow up about Social Security.
There have been a few threads about Social Security in the past couple of days.
I started paying close attention, because I got a (supposed) email from Social Security on Saturday.
I called my local office today. I used the phone # for the local office, which I had in my file.They answered within a few minutes.
Here are some things I learned;
1) The information officer said - SS did not email me. That's what I thought. She said I could report this to the IG. I am holding off for now, because I do not know that I can trust the management at SS - so unfortunate.
I explained to her that yesterday I logged into my account w/ the username and password I created, when I signed up for SS a couple of years ago. (As part of that process, I received a verification code on my phone.) Once on my portal page, I was instructed that I should change my sign up method to login.gov or ID.me. I did not do so, because I had seen on this forum that people were being required to upload a photo of themselves. I was not going to provide Eloon and his hacker punks with the ability to use facial recognition on me. (After they also have all my personal info also - no way.)
2) The woman at SS told me - I do not have to change my log in method. She said I can continue to use the old method of logging in w/ username and password.
3) She said I will not be required to upload a photo ID for identification.
She has answered some questions. But other questions remain. Why are people on this forum having experiences contrary to her information?
I have heard one DUer say they received a text inquiry from SS - that should not be so. I have heard more than one person say they were required to upload a photo. One DUer mentioned uploading a video, and doing a virtual interaction of some sort, as well.
I am not sure of the complete story about login.gov. I spoke to someone at my Congress critter's office, and they were able to determine that it is. Here is what I may have figured out. It is a log in provider for many governmental agencies, that has now been incorporated into the Social Security sphere. How that happened, I don't know. Whether or not it is the best option for us to use w/ SS - I don't yet know.
I plan on pursuing this further, and will keep you all informed.
If you have any unusual interactions to share, please do. I will try and "catalogue" them.
Melanie Stansbury exposing DOGE for the scam it is.
Quick summary: Melanie Stansbury, in her no nonsense style, connects the dots of Musk's infiltration into our government systems, such as the FAA and NOAA for his own benefit.
Here is the link to the youtube video.
I am trying to figure out how to insert the transcript, as well.
DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Code Base in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse
Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years—DOGE wants it done in months.SOURCE: WIRED
Makena Kelly
Mar 28, 2025
The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.
/snip
Under any circumstances, a migration of this size and scale would be a massive undertaking, experts tell WIRED, but the expedited deadline runs the risk of obstructing payments to the more than 65 million people in the US currently receiving Social Security benefits.
/snip
Like many legacy government IT systems, SSA systems contain code written in COBOL, a programming language created in part in the 1950s by computing pioneer Grace Hopper. The Defense Department essentially pressured private industry to use COBOL soon after its creation, spurring widespread adoption and making it one of the most widely used languages for mainframes, or computer systems that process and store large amounts of data quickly, by the 1970s. (At least one DOD-related website praising Hopper's accomplishments is no longer active, likely following the Trump administration’s DEI purge of military acknowledgements.)
/snip
SSA’s core “logic” is also written largely in COBOL. This is the code that issues social security numbers, manages payments, and even calculates the total amount beneficiaries should receive for different services, a former senior SSA technologist who worked in the office of the chief information officer says. Even minor changes could result in cascading failures across programs.
Here is a link to the article:
https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
Stopping Autocratic Legalism in America - Before It Is Too Late
Source: Verfassungsblog
by Scott Cummings, 26 March 2025
As the Executive Orders targeting law firms underscore: the entire legal profession is next. This is no coincidence.
/snip
But today, America has become the world-leading incubator of a far more dangerous innovation: democratic backsliding, in which autocracies develop through law, not force. What we have learned from researching backsliding countries around the world—and what this administration has learned too—is that lawyers are the crucial ingredient for autocracy to flourish: designing, drafting, and defending legal rules that weaken independent democratic institutions and undermine resistance.
This is why, for democracy—in America and Europe—to stand a fighting chance, lawyers committed to the rule of law must take action now.
Here is the full article: https://verfassungsblog.de/stopping-autocratic-legalism-in-america-before-it-is-too-late/
I just saw this guy on Rachel. He is is the Robert Henigson Professor of Legal Ethics at the UCLA School of Law, Guggenheim Fellow, and Director of the Program on Legal Ethics and the Profession.
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