DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Code Base in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse
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.
The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months.
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.
“Of course, one of the big risks is not underpayment or overpayment per se; [it’s also] not paying someone at all and not knowing about it. The invisible errors and omissions,” an SSA technologist tells WIRED.
This proposed migration isn’t the first time SSA has tried to move away from COBOL: In 2017, SSA announced a plan to receive hundreds of millions in funding to replace its core systems. The agency predicted that it would take around five years to modernize these systems. Because of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the agency pivoted away from this work to focus on more public-facing projects.
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 (At least one DOD-related website praising Hopper's accomplishments is no longer active, likely following the Trump administration’s DEI purge of military acknowledgements.)
As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found. In fact, SSA’s core programmatic systems and architecture haven’t been “substantially” updated since the 1980s when the agency developed its own database system called MADAM, or the Master Data Access Method, which was written in COBOL and Assembler, according to SSA’s 2017 modernization plan.
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Life in Post Democracy Era: The Trump 2/Elon Dictatatorship
aka toilet paper.... or else you will be seeing bidets in public bathrooms insteadCobraCommander wrote: Fri Mar 28, 2025 4:24 pmLumberThe Evil Genius wrote: Fri Mar 28, 2025 4:13 pm
Not surprising. Canada really doesn't need the US.. but we need Canada for oil, electricity, tourism, etc.
Not that there is anything wrong with using water to clean your butt 
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skinsfan4128
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun Jan 05, 2025 8:04 pm
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Had enough of Cheeto Jesus and his useless ass kissers. What worries me is that he's going to push our country into needless, ridiculous wars with what for decades been our allies. This is exactly what this orange assclown touted. Remember, project 2025?
God help us all, cause this pumpkin looking fuck is going to bring us to our end if someone/folks don't stop it.
HTTR!
God help us all, cause this pumpkin looking fuck is going to bring us to our end if someone/folks don't stop it.
HTTR!
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hail2skins
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- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2025 12:31 pm
- Reactions score: 17
Critics see Trump attacks on the ‘Black Smithsonian’ as an effort to sanitize racism in US history
President Donald Trump’s order accusing the Smithsonian Institution of not reflecting American history notes correctly that the country’s Founding Fathers declared that “all men are created equal.”
But it doesn’t mention that the founders enshrined slavery into the U.S. Constitution and declared enslaved persons as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of the Census.
Civil rights advocates, historians and Black political leaders sharply rebuked Trump on Friday for his order, entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” They argued that his executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution is his administration’s latest move to downplay how race, racism and Black Americans themselves have shaped the nation’s story.
“It seems like we’re headed in the direction where there’s even an attempt to deny that the institution of slavery even existed, or that Jim Crow laws and segregation and racial violence against Black communities, Black families, Black individuals even occurred,” said historian Clarissa Myrick-Harris, a professor at Morehouse College, the historically Black campus in Atlanta.
The Thursday executive order cites the National Museum of African American History and Culture by name and argues that the Smithsonian as a whole is engaging in a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history.”
Click on the link for the full article
President Donald Trump’s order accusing the Smithsonian Institution of not reflecting American history notes correctly that the country’s Founding Fathers declared that “all men are created equal.”
But it doesn’t mention that the founders enshrined slavery into the U.S. Constitution and declared enslaved persons as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of the Census.
Civil rights advocates, historians and Black political leaders sharply rebuked Trump on Friday for his order, entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” They argued that his executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution is his administration’s latest move to downplay how race, racism and Black Americans themselves have shaped the nation’s story.
“It seems like we’re headed in the direction where there’s even an attempt to deny that the institution of slavery even existed, or that Jim Crow laws and segregation and racial violence against Black communities, Black families, Black individuals even occurred,” said historian Clarissa Myrick-Harris, a professor at Morehouse College, the historically Black campus in Atlanta.
The Thursday executive order cites the National Museum of African American History and Culture by name and argues that the Smithsonian as a whole is engaging in a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history.”
Click on the link for the full article
Judge releases detained Venezuelan couple with temporary protected status
A federal judge on Friday ordered the release of a Venezuelan couple who were detained by immigration authorities this month despite having legal authorization to live and work in the United States, calling their apprehensions baseless and unlawful.
At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema granted a petition for release filed by the couple, who received temporary protected status after crossing the border illegally in October 2022.
Brinkema rebuked government officials for claiming in court that the couple posed a public threat and ordered both of them released straight from the courthouse.
“There is no reason why they’re being held,” the judge said. Addressing a government lawyer, Brinkema said, “If this was a criminal case … I’d throw you out of my chambers.”
“This is a terrible, terrible affidavit,” the judge said of Weiss’s declaration, describing it as “pure hearsay,” “assumptions” and “putting words in people’s mouths.”
The judge’s decision came on the same day that the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to clear the way for officials to resume use of a controversial wartime authority known as the Alien Enemies Act to speedily deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. U.S. officials cited a different law to detain the couple pending deportation proceedings.
Click on the link for the full article
A federal judge on Friday ordered the release of a Venezuelan couple who were detained by immigration authorities this month despite having legal authorization to live and work in the United States, calling their apprehensions baseless and unlawful.
At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema granted a petition for release filed by the couple, who received temporary protected status after crossing the border illegally in October 2022.
Brinkema rebuked government officials for claiming in court that the couple posed a public threat and ordered both of them released straight from the courthouse.
“There is no reason why they’re being held,” the judge said. Addressing a government lawyer, Brinkema said, “If this was a criminal case … I’d throw you out of my chambers.”
“This is a terrible, terrible affidavit,” the judge said of Weiss’s declaration, describing it as “pure hearsay,” “assumptions” and “putting words in people’s mouths.”
The judge’s decision came on the same day that the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to clear the way for officials to resume use of a controversial wartime authority known as the Alien Enemies Act to speedily deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. U.S. officials cited a different law to detain the couple pending deportation proceedings.
Click on the link for the full article
Trump rambles incoherently about 'new theory' of magnets during rant on 'fraud'
President Donald Trump complained about a "new theory" on magnets in a rant against waste, fraud, and abuse.
During Wednesday's remarks at the White House, Trump was asked how he could be sure Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency was properly cutting spending.
"There's tremendous fraud," the president insisted. "And it's hard to believe that you can have that kind of fraud... What we're going to do is, tomorrow I'm having a news conference. I'm going to read to you some of the names that hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars have been given to."
"And if you tell me that we should be giving money to those things, those entities, I think you'll probably have to leave as a reporter because you're not very talented," he told a reporter. "When you look at the kind of money, billions and billions of dollars being thrown away illegally."
Trump blamed, without providing evidence, airplane manufacturer Boeing for some fraud.
"You know, Boeing, we're not happy with the service we're getting in terms of those planes," he ranted. "Look at — take a look at the Gerald Ford, the aircraft carrier, the Ford. It was supposed to cost $3 billion. It ends up costing like $18 billion."
"And they have all magnetic elevators to lift up 25 planes at a time, 20 planes at a time," Trump continued. "And instead of using hydraulics, like on tractors that can handle anything from hurricanes to lightning to anything, they use magnets."
"It's a new theory. Magnets are going to lift the planes up and it doesn't work. And they had billions and billions of dollars of cost overruns."
President Donald Trump complained about a "new theory" on magnets in a rant against waste, fraud, and abuse.
During Wednesday's remarks at the White House, Trump was asked how he could be sure Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency was properly cutting spending.
"There's tremendous fraud," the president insisted. "And it's hard to believe that you can have that kind of fraud... What we're going to do is, tomorrow I'm having a news conference. I'm going to read to you some of the names that hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars have been given to."
"And if you tell me that we should be giving money to those things, those entities, I think you'll probably have to leave as a reporter because you're not very talented," he told a reporter. "When you look at the kind of money, billions and billions of dollars being thrown away illegally."
Trump blamed, without providing evidence, airplane manufacturer Boeing for some fraud.
"You know, Boeing, we're not happy with the service we're getting in terms of those planes," he ranted. "Look at — take a look at the Gerald Ford, the aircraft carrier, the Ford. It was supposed to cost $3 billion. It ends up costing like $18 billion."
"And they have all magnetic elevators to lift up 25 planes at a time, 20 planes at a time," Trump continued. "And instead of using hydraulics, like on tractors that can handle anything from hurricanes to lightning to anything, they use magnets."
"It's a new theory. Magnets are going to lift the planes up and it doesn't work. And they had billions and billions of dollars of cost overruns."