A senior executive at the Social Security Administration was physically dragged from his office this week after clashing with DOGE, according to The Washington Post.

Greg Pearre, a career civil servant who led an IT team working on the agency’s data systems, was removed over his opposition to a DOGE plan to cut off immigrants from key financial services, three people told the Post.

The scheme cooked up by Elon Musk’s DOGE squad falsely lists thousands of migrants as dead in a Social Security database known as the “death master file.”

Being entered into the death database cuts a person off from crucial financial services, like the ability to receive government benefits and access a bank account or credit card.

    • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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      If Harry and Lloyd were president and vice president, they would be smarter and more competent than who are currently in charge.

  • tibi@lemmy.world
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    This sounds oddly similar to the early days of SS which started as an organized bunch of goons serving the nazi party as security guards.

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      To be clear for any dummies like me who just woke up and are reading this, this comment is comparing DOGE to the early days of the Nazi Schutzstaffel, not comparing Greg’s bravery to the early days of Social Security

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    Oh this just keeps getting more and more fun every day as someone who is on SSDI, Medicaid/Medicare, and HUD housing. Cut my SSDI and I lose access to everything. I mean it’s “illegals” now, the rest of us “parasites” next?

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      That’s exactly it. Owners want people desperate, because desperate people work for less. As you point out, they start with “illegals”, but they will eventually come for the old and the disabled too, because some people will have to pick up where Social Security left and care for them and, in doing so, will become even more desperate. Who will risk their job fighting for their rights knowing that not only their own livelihood, but also that of their old mother or their disabled brother is on the line? We need to be clear: this is not about government efficiency or even a crackdown on “illegals”, but a war — the owners’ war on us workers and our kin.

      They’ve been manufacturing consent in a similar way in Germany, agitating against immigrants and dubbing some or all people in your situation “Sozialschmarotzer” –“social parasites”–. Under the pretense of fighting those threats they conjure, they’ve been dismantling social security — without DOGE’s viciousness, but bit by bit.

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        because some people will have to pick up where Social Security left and care for them and, in doing so, will become even more desperate. Who will risk their job fighting for their rights knowing that not only their own livelihood, but also that of their old mother or their disabled brother is on the line?

        This is true for those who have support locally. I don’t have anyone I can rely on locally right now if this starts happening to the DML. There is no other safety net for me. The safety net I do have was already riddled with holes and partially on fire BEFORE Jan 20th.

        Also, this hasn’t even started happening and already people are struggling paycheck to paycheck and won’t risk it by protesting – at least not to the point where we can get sustainable numbers over weeks in all 50 states.

  • rockettaco37@lemmy.world
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    So we’ve officially got a Gestapo in the country now?

    C’mon guys… let’s wake the fuck up here.

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    Why isn’t this DOGE person arrested for assault? We need the name, if our justice system fails to work because of the government prevents it then our Constitution grants us the right to correct this via the 2nd Ammendment.

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      Because it’s sensationalised and he didn’t physically dragged from his desk by Doggy goon.

      But his objections did not go over well with Trump political appointees. And so on Thursday, the security guards in Pearre’s office told him it was time to leave.

      They walked Pearre out of the building, capping a momentous internal battle over the novel strategy

      The article is based on another article by Washington Post, which did not mention any goon from Doggy nor any dragging.

    • Jhex@lemmy.world
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      Why isn’t this DOGE person arrested for assault?

      Because the rule of law has collapsed in America. Stop waiting for it, you are already there

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      They have been rolling with either DC police or the Marshalls. Can’t remember, but they are bringing guns and muscle.

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    Fun fact, this is “assault” and the guy has a wonderful civil case.

    Fun fact #2: civil cases are not criminal cases and are not subject to pardons.

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        Can’t pardon a lawsuit. Lawsuits are civil; pardons are for criminal cases. Those staffers could be bankrupted, which would be hilarious.

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          Elon will just pay the settlement for them with $DOGE or $TRUMP. Monetary punishment is not a deterrent for anyone in the current administration.

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            Doesn’t mean people shouldn’t still sue and bleed that fuck dry like he’s bleeding everyone else.

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              Keep suing it until the rest of the shit bags cut the line, turn on them, and leave them for dead. Like Giuliani

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            Elon will just pay the settlement for them with $DOGE or $TRUMP.

            Or he just won’t. What’s anyone going to do about it?

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              Judges have broad power to enforce civil settlements. Just look at all the shit that NY did to Trump to collect on the E Jean Carroll lawsuit. I’m not sure whether she actually collected, but I assume he sold enough $TRUMP to easy marks to pay for it all.

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                She hasn’t seen a dime from him and never will in the remainder of her lifetime. If she was much younger and trump hadn’t won again she might have had a chance, but her victory is basically symbolic only. I’m sure you know that the rich can just keep appealing what amounts to forever since the legal system crawls at the speed of a sloth. Legal, and especially financial consequences do not apply to oligarchs.

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                  It got far enough that the judge made Trump secure a bond for the full amount in case he couldn’t pay. I assume he finally did pay up, in fact it might have forced him deeper into crypto once he realized people would pay for his shitty tokens.

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            Correct. For criminal acts. As Mitt Romney said, “Corporations are people, my friend.” (Yes, I know corporate personhood makes no sense, but this is the messed up world we live in.)

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              I understand that. And as you noted we’re well past the point of law and making sense. 2 plus 2 is now fish because the Supreme Court said so.

              I hope we have some legal sense remaining to where what you’re saying makes sense. It would be a small confirmation law is still a thing.

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                We’re not past the point of law, there’s just an executive-in-chief who thinks he is. Law still applies to everyone else.

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                  He’s openly defying the SCOTUS, and nothing is happening. The law doesn’t apply to him, therefore it doesn’t apply to us. We are all already dead in the US. Stay armed. If they come for you, make them pay with their lives. Make them fear “just following orders.”

                  If you’re in the US, you’re already dead. Your body just hasn’t gotten the message yet. Fight like the cornered badgers we are.

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              source

              However that’s just one of many sources where you can learn more about this. Don’t know the legitimacy of this particular site.

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                Holy shit! He’s basically given them a license for unlimited money laundering with no repercussions! 🤬

                As for The Hill, it’s generally skewed to the Right (though not as far right as the fascist GOP) on anything subjective, but usually pretty reliable otherwise.

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      Christ, first it was politely holding up paddles, now it’s a fucking lawsuit

      We are BEYOND all that shit my dudes.

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    The Daily Beast is really burying the actual story with that headline. The article is about Musk declaring alive people “dead” in a federal database. A database that is referenced by the whole world.

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      Well, I suppose it’s time for the banks to move away from using Social Security numbers as a form of identification. Honestly, they should have done this years ago. SSNs were never intended to be used as a form of ID, but they were convenient, so banks did it anyway. But if Social Security records are no longer reliable, they no longer reliably list living and dead people, then banks will need to move to other forms of identification.

    • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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      I think the rest of the world will stop trusting the US’s word about the status of anything. The boy who cried wolf has contracted rabies.

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      Ya know, dead people have some crazy perks.

      They don’t owe anything on their debts, for one.

      Time to max out those credit cards!

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        Being “dead” isn’t ideal if you have a mortgage that the bank can foreclose on.

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      I’m honestly not a fan of calling these people nazis, as there is a very clear definition of what a national socialist is, and throwing any far right authoritarians in with them diminishes that definition.

      They’re MAGA, let’s tie that definition to their actions. This is MAGA behaviour, this is what MAGA does.

      EDIT: Oh cool, so this is just an echo chamber then? We got people straight up calling me a nazi sympathizer for trying to make the point that maybe not every god damn authoritarian is a “nazi”.

      You know, just call them whatever you fucking like. I’m done.

      • comfy@lemmy.ml
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        as there is a very clear definition of what a national socialist is

        Hardly. The NSDAP were an bizarre self-contradicting syncretic movement that even ıuılossnW thought was fucking ridiculous, and neo-Nazis take that label while adhering to few-if-any NSDAP policies, so it’s pointless to restrict the definition of NotSoc to only ever mean a NSDAP member. Were Strasserists NutSacs? Were the copycat fascist movements in other countries NotSoc? And most importantly - why does it even matter if they are or aren’t? Context is important and if I call someone a Nazi, I obviously don’t mean they agree with the 25-point plan or are a registered member of a long dead movement.

        We’re not throwing in ‘any far right authoritarians’, we’re throwing in ones who are mirroring the early years of the historical Nazi regime - rising from failed liberalism, using emergency presidential powers to dictate, ultranationalism (see Canada, Greenland), deporting political enemies and locking certain minorities in camps, scapegoating queer peoples, leading figures are even copying the salute to show off. Why bother nitpicking when the comparison is perfectly appropriate? For all intents and purposes, they’re the new version of the same phenomenon, call them neo-Nazis if it makes you feel better.

        “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”

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          or are a registered member of a long dead movement.

          Oh, it should be long dead, but it’s not. There is a significant amount of people that legitimately think “Hitler was right”. Those you’re referencing aren’t all Nazis (though some certainly seem to be, or at least are heavily inspired by) they’re fascists.

          Using the word “Nazi” instead of “fascist” limits the useful historical comparisons that you can draw from and can have a blinding effect on making important comparisons. I do disagree with Stormdahl about ‘just calling them MAGA’ but I do agree with them that MAGA =/= Nazi just because it’s an explicitly fascist movement.

      • workerONE@lemmy.world
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        National socialist is just a spin to sound nice. Nazis were in no way socialists. It doesn’t make sense to me why you are trying to preserve this label, maybe you can explain and I just don’t get it.

        • WhatsTheHoldup@lemmy.ml
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          National socialist is just a spin to sound nice. Nazis were in no way socialists.

          I agree they were in no way socialists, but “national socialism” isn’t a spin. It’s what the word nazi literally means. It’s a shortening of the German word Nationalsozialistische.

          It doesn’t make sense to me why you are trying to preserve this label, maybe you can explain and I just don’t get it.

          Nazism is an ideology which informs the behavior of Nazis.

          Nazis are antisemetic and blame the Jews for the failures of society. When you call Trump a Nazi you might be confused as to why he loves Israel.

          Nazis are Aryan Supremacists, they believe in the superiority of their racial identity. When you call Elon Musk a Nazi you might be confused as to why he’s encouraging so much immigration of Indians via the H1-B visa.

          The much more general term fascist avoids the ideology directly tied to Nazism (antisemitism, Aryan supremacy). The new fascism is built on anti-wokeness and rich people supremacy and is a distinct form of fascism separate from Nazism.

          It has a bunch of technofeudalist angles like forcing AI in places it doesn’t belong, complete surveillance, cryptocurrencies, etc that need a new label to accurately describe.

          Technofeudalism is the term I think is more descriptive, albeit less provocative.

          • workerONE@lemmy.world
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            That’s a great answer, but I do believe Trump and Musk are white supremacists. Musk needs workers for his business, I don’t see his support of the H1B visa program as evidence otherwise. It’s a financial decision for him.

            Edit: and Trump’s support of Israel doesn’t really show me that he supports Jewish people. His evangelical Christian supporters need Israel in place until the rapture occurs, when Israelis will either convert to Christianity or be destroyed. Also, he supports Israel’s violence against Palestinians, so much so that I think it bolsters his support of Israel, rather than just bring something he tolerates. I think that’s all racism. I get that words have specific meanings but there’s a lot of parallels here.

      • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
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        The only group ever claiming to be “national socialists” were, in fact, not socialists at all so there’s no fucking reason to give a single shit about diminishing the definition of a fucking lie. They were Nazis, and these current assholes are also Nazis.

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          No idea why you’re arguing semantics. I’m not trying to make a point that there’s a difference here. Nazis and national socialists are the same, we’re in agreement.

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        You’re technically correct. But nazi has become a shorthand for fascist over the years and they are definitely fascists.

        • stormdahl@lemmy.world
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          No, by definition they’re not fascists either, but these words get thrown around so much that they’ve lost all meaning so sure. Call them whatever the fuck you like.

          • spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            No, by definition they’re not fascists either

            Lol, so you don’t actually know what fascists are. Literally the definition of fascism:

            a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition

            Please, explain how “by definition” they’re not fascists when the political philosophy they’re putting in place is fascism.

            (If you’re wondering why you’re being called a sympathizer, it’s [charitably] because you’re saying things that the Nazis say, and you don’t understand the words you’re [mis]using.)