If you read nothing else today about DOGE’s ongoing coup against the American people, read this resignation letter ([archive copy]), written by 21 dedicated public servants who resigned today from the U.S. “DOGE” Service rather than being forced to lend legitimacy to, or worse participate in, DOGE’s dismantling of the U.S. government.
In other news:
- A few days ago, MSNBC posted a video montage on TikTok ([archive copy]) of federal workers who’ve been fired telling their stories about what the impact will be. I’m one of the people in the montage. A couple days later, Laverne Cox, who has seven million followers, reposted it on Instagram.
- Yesterday, Jacobin magazine published an interview of me by Branko Marcetic: “This Fired Federal Worker Wants His Colleagues to Fight DOGE” ([archive link]).
- At the Associated Press, Brian Slodysko and Byron Tau broke the news about the group of USDSers who resigned today: “Federal technology staffers resign rather than help Musk and DOGE” ([archive link]). I am quoted:
Of the 40 people let go earlier this month, only one was an engineer — an outspoken and politically active staffer name Jonathan Kamens, who said in an interview with the AP that he believes he was fired for publicly endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, on his personal blog and being critical of Musk in chats with colleagues.
“I believe that Elon Musk is up to no good. And I believe that any data that he gains access to is going to be used for purposes that are inappropriate and harmful to Americans,” Kamens said.
WHDH Boston also ran the AP article ([archive link]); I’m sure a lot of other outlets ran it as well, but that’s the one I know about. - Bobby Allyn at NPR also writes about the group resignation: “21 DOGE staffers resign, saying they won’t help ‘dismantle’ public services” ([archive link]). I am quoted:
Among the 40 who were terminated earlier this month was Jonathan Kamens, a DOGE engineer who said he believes he was targeted for publicly endorsing Kamala Harris for president.
“The U.S. Digital Service spent more than a decade making government better to serve normal, everyday people,” Kamens told NPR. “Elon Musk doesn’t care about any of that. All he cares about is seizing power and making his obscene fortune even larger.” - Again at the AP, Brian Witte and Rodrique Ngowi published an article today about my firing from the VA based on an interview they did of me Monday night: “Fired cybersecurity chief for Veterans Affairs site warns that health and financial data is at risk” ([archive link]). There’s too much to quote, go read the whole thing!
- The AP also quoted me ([archive link]) more briefly about that in today’s live news feed about the Trump presidency. The important bits:
“Given how the government has been functioning for the last month, I don’t think the people at VA … are going to be able to replace me,” Kamens told The Associated Press. “The security posture of the site is going to degrade. And eventually I think there will be a security incident resulting from the lack of adequate security oversight.” …
“I don’t think they should have access,” Kamens said. “These are people who have never been background-checked.” - Over at Stars & Stripes, Linda Hersey writes, “VA fires 1,400 workers in second round of cuts” ([archive link]). I am quoted:
“All of the people I served with were overworked. The staff the VA had before the firings was not able to meet existing demands for services and care,” said Jonathan Kamens, who was fired Feb. 14 as an information security worker at VA.gov, the agency website. “The work still needs to get done and now there are fewer people to do it.” - Over at The Hill, Lauren Irwin writes “Former VA cybersecurity official warns DOGE access threatens sensitive data” ([archive pdf], since the site won’t let its articles be archived), which seems to be mostly a rehash of the AP article above about my firing from the VA.
Stay tuned, there’s more coming. I’m not going to say more than that now, I don’t want to spoil the surprise. 😉
