More Trump Administration Shenanigans

Observant1

Bolded text added for emphasis.

"Trump campaigned on the promise to 'immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One,' but his tariffs have already helped to push inflation upward. Josh Dawsey and Ryan Felton of the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Trump warned the chief executive officers of some of the country’s top auto manufacturers not to raise prices because of the 25% tariffs he has just put on cars and car parts, telling them that the tariffs are good for them."

"On Saturday, Trump denied he had made such a request and told NBC News’s Kristen Welker that 'I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American cars.'”

“'I couldn’t care less,' he repeated. 'I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are going to buy American-made cars. We have plenty.' A White House aide told NBC News that the president was referring to foreign car prices."

"And then there is Friday’s story that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been taking not only his brother but also his wife along with him to 'meetings with foreign military counterparts where sensitive information was discussed.' Katherine Long, Max Colchester, Daniel Michaels, and Lindsay Wise of the Wall Street Journal note that her inclusion in such meetings is unusual."

"The MAGA Republicans’ worldview is the same as that of the Confederates who preceded them: some people are better than others and have the right to rule. It is no coincidence that Trump recently called for the restoration of Confederate statues. But if that worldview is correct, then getting rid of President Joe Biden’s inclusive economy and hiring practices and putting white men in charge of everything should mean exactly what Trump is promising: a golden age of America."

"Instead, the strong economy the Biden administration created is tumbling, and Trump administration officials seem to have no plan to stop it except to 'Trust in Trump.' The officers in charge of keeping the nation safe have instead broken the law in an epic fail demonstrating that they have no foreign policy plan except military strikes highlighted with emojis. They appear to disdain national security procedures."


"And the Signal scandal appears to have been just the tip of the iceberg. Tonight, Alexander Ward, Josh Dawsey, and Meridith McGraw of the Wall Street Journal reported that two U.S. officials told them that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz 'has created and hosted multiple other sensitive national-security conversations on Signal with cabinet members.'”

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-30-2025

Junkster

And here is even more.

https://time.com/7272921/social-security-new-identity-proofing-policy-how-to-prepare/

Not even going into the details of the above link regarding the upcoming changes on the new Social Security ID policies other than it is a killer for those in rural areas. Believe it or not, here in rural KY there are older people who don’t access the internet or even have an email address.

Anna

A couple of days ago people started reporting that they could not even login into their social security accounts. Since I have had both a login.gov and ID.me account since their inception and, since getting them setup, have never had a problem, I decided to try using login.gov to log into ssa.gov. Login.gov blocked me saying I needed to verify my identity.

This "verification" went through all the steps it took to set up a login.gov account originally except, this time, instead of going smoothly, it kept rejecting my information and making me start over. It would not let me complete it on my PC so I had to switch to my smart phone and start over.

The main sticking point was the facial recognition where you input your driver's license and a on-the-spot photo of your face. I failed the match at least three times and was nearing my last chance when it verified the match the fourth time. Same driver's license and same face in front of the cell phone camera. All the photos were of similar quality so it wasn't just a bad photo problem. It took about a half hour to 45 minutes to complete. (originally when I first set it up, it took about 5 to 10 minutes.) I admit I have lost some weight since the driver license photo was shot but, if this or my couple of years additional age was the problem, the photo match part is BS. Any human would have, in a glance, recognized the match.

Most people would probably have given up if this happened to them thinking something was really wrong with their identity at SSA. I had used login.gov a couple of days before to login into VA.gov so I didn't believe there was any REAL problem. It felt more like harrassment than a true problem with my information, like a challenge to drive me away. So I tried the login at a couple more government sites I have dealings with and got in but was told login.gov was sharing my new account with the new site. It seemed to really be resetting up old accounts as new accounts, linking established government sites to the new account, and establishing a new share with all the agencies.

I couldn't help remembering that the court told DOGE they could not access personal information in databases and, paranoidly, mused as to whether it applied to retaking that information and capturing the input during the verification. After all, it wasn't the already established personal information already in the data base. The court order said nothing about trapping personal information on the fly. Probably not but, since I have DOGE boys sterotyped as children trying to show they are smarter than dumb court judges, I mused on the little things that could be done to get around the language of a court order even when the intent of that language was clear.

Mark

@Anna - FWIW I had similar problems logging into SSA over the weekend. I was asked to change my login to either a login.gov or an ID.me account. Since I had an ID.me account already for VA I thought ok, I'll use that. Nope, I had to go through all the verification steps again to proceed. Long delays but I eventually got it completed. (All of this just to see last year's SSA benefit statement in order to proceed with my tax filing. I never received my usual snail mail statement. I'm guessing that may be a thing from here on out.

Edit: Makes me wonder what manner of hoops Junkster's friends w/o internet or computers in KY have to go through.

stillers

WOW, who could have imagined there would be problems with this?

Anna

@Mark You made me curious about ID.me so I first logged into IRS to make sure it worked at a site I had successfully used it for (last time maybe a week ago). Then I tried id.me at SSA.gov and it worked there too (I don't think I have ever used id.me for SSA before). ID.me didn't make me verify even though I thought login.gov and id.me were run by different entities. I don't know if login.gov notified id.me about yesterdays successful verification. Of course, id.me might do it to me tomorrow or the next day. Could be, it just wasn't my turn.

Mark

@Anna - I can't be sure but my experience left me with the impression that even though I had the ID.me account with the VA I'd still have to go through the verification process again at each government site I wanted to use it for. So much for government efficiency.

Anna

@Mark For login.gov, after I went through all I described above, login.gov simply asked at a new site if I was OK with sharing my information so, after SSA, I shared it with OPM and VA. The IRS only uses ID.me so it was the only one I had, prior to today, used it for login. Today I used id.me for both IRS, then SSA, and it didn't even ask for the share permission at SSA. It just connected me to the website. I don't remember if ID.me asks for share permission for all government sites when you first set it up or not. Right now, it appears I can use both login methods for SSA and they both work. So try ID.me at another site and see. I predict it won't make you verify again since it, presumably, is a single login for multiple government sites.

Derf

@Mark @Anna Thank your for reporting. A few months back I tried registering for login.gov . Frustration set in & decided to try again later. Next attempt more of the same!
I decided to see if VA could get the job done. Yes they did I'm happily to report. It did take a bit of time , but hopefully I'll have no problems going forward.

I was told that my photo of drivers license, both sides, may have contributed to my not having any luck with my registration. Camera flash I believe he said.

I believe ID.me will be kicked to the curb at sometime in the future for VA login. I'm not sure of the date, but that is why I was trying to get registered with login.gov in the first place.

Crash

I quit years ago, trying to keep my SSA online account current. I had no reason to do so, except that once per year, I'm required to change my password. And they did not let me simply reverse some digits or letters. I appreciate the security tightness. Did not appreciate the stupid junk, just to keep an online account active, when I never use it, anyway. Glad there have been no interruptions in getting my monthly SS money electronically sent to the credit union.

But your reports make me want to pull my teeth out. So much for gummint SERVING the people. MAGA Repugnant Orange Party are traitorous scumbag suck-hole mountains of aardvark vomitus.