Tootfinder

I had set up a Gumroad account years ago to experiment with some digital sales and subscription stuff but after reading that the CEO of Gumroad worked for DOGE and Musk I deleted that fucking account.
Most of us don't have a lot of power individually but we can still make choices about the platforms we use (and don't use).
➡️

WIRED Talked to a Fired DOGE Staffer About Who Was Really in Charge
Sahil Lavingia, who says he was fired from DOGE after speaking out about his experiences there, told WIRED about how he communicated with the group, who appears to be in charge, and what might be coming next.

When Brooke Nichols plugged in the data, she couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing.
The mathematician and professor of infectious diseases at Boston University had created a model to predict the human cost of the Department of Government Efficiency’s (Doge) USAid funding cuts.
As Elon Musk, the head of Doge, arrived at the White House on Friday afternoon
to be congratulated by President Trump for his work slashing the federal budget,
the number of deaths on Nichols’…

Doge cuts to USAid blamed for 300,000 deaths — most of them children
Elon Musk’s tenure running Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has, according to the academic Brooke Nichols, caused thousands of ‘preventable deaths’

“I’ve never hurt anyone!” – Elon Musk
Kills 300,000 children. https://mas.to/@bascule/114598860129053617

Musk’s DOGE took control of the U.S. Institute of Peace. It brought roaches and rats to D.C. headquarters, court docs say | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-doge-institute-of-peace-headquarters-b2761367.html

The evidence here is very simple: if you go into DOGE actually trying to improve efficiency, and then try to work transparently and report the truth that existing government teams are functioning very efficiently already, they will can you. https://sahillavingia.com/doge

DOGE Days
My experience joining the United States DOGE Service as a software engineer, and what I learned along the way.

PBS station WNET removed at least three educational TV episodes that discuss transgender identity and drag expression, following a DOGE subcommittee hearing (Nikita Mazurov/The Intercept)
https://theintercept.com/2025/05/29/drag-trans-pbs-wnet-censorship-d…

PBS Station Wipes Drag and Trans Content After DOGE Outcry
PBS producer WNET quietly erased episodes containing a drag queen and a trans character from its platforms.

Yikes: DOGE deploying AI to hastily port SSA’s COBOL to Java. https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/

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.

The chief executive of the
United States Institute of Peace (USIP) says
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency
left the nonprofit’s Washington, D.C., headquarters in disarray,
full of water damage, rats, and roaches, according to a new sworn statement first reported by Court Watch.
The statement from the executive, George Moose, comes just a few days after a federal judge ruled that DOGE’s takeover of the nonprofit was illegal.
And this week, Mu…

DOGE left United States Institute of Peace office with water damage, rats, and roaches | TechCrunch
The chief executive of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) says Elon Musk's DOGE left the nonprofit's Washington, D.C., headquarters in disarray.

Le DOGE a le soutien des Américains. Arrêtez de vous faire des illusions, les gens.
Source : https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/polls/doge-elon-musk.html

'Embarrassment:' Trump admin asks judge to hide it's tactics for mass layoffs - Alternet.org
https://www.alternet.org/trump-doge-layoffs-judge/

Good riddance. It was always meant to end eventually, 2 big egos can’t stay together for a long time. But with all the damage that he did, I’ll be having a hard time forgiving anyone still supporting him. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/us/politics/elon-musk-…

Yikes: DOGE deploying AI to hastily port SSA’s COBOL to Java. https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/

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.

Oh, my. How interesting.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/28/trump-tax-bill-weakens-doge-cost-cutting-efforts-elon-musk

Oh, my. How interesting.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/28/trump-tax-bill-weakens-doge-cost-cutting-efforts-elon-musk

I just ran across this on LinkedIn: yet another study showing that LLMs embed and amplify human biases in the training data—this time in resume screening.
Yet this is the technology Trump, Musk, and DOGE want to use to rewrite things like HUD regulations and to replace human support agents.

Gender, race, and intersectional bias in AI resume screening via language model retrieval
Kyra Wilson and Aylin Caliskan examine gender, race, and intersectional bias in AI resume screening and suggest protective policies.

"Under the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, if Congress rejects the rescission package or does nothing, the administration must release the money back to the intended recipients — effectively undoing the DOGE cuts."
What are your bets?
https://www.

DOGE Zuhause #burokratieabbau

Even Trump started to doubt Musk and DOGE’s promise to cut $1 trillion, report claims: ‘Was it bulls***?’ | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/politics/trump-musk-doge-cuts-promise-b2761354.html

Ska bli intressant att se när någon om 10 år gör en kalkyl av hur mycket pengar "DOGE" kostade amerikanska skattebetalare.

"Malgré des semaines de couverture médiatique négative, des déportations très médiatisées de migrants et d'étudiants munis de visas, et une décision négative de la Cour suprême, l'immigration reste le dossier le plus populaire de M. Trump : 47 % l'approuvent, tandis que 51 % le désapprouvent, selon un sondage New York Times/Siena College réalisé ce mois-ci."
#Trump

18F announces a legal challenge to the dismantlement of the department by DOGE
https://18f.org/announcement-of-legal-challenge/

DOGE's push from tape archives to cloud-based "permanent modern digital records" (not a thing) opens the door to increased software obsolescence, hacking, and climate impact. Greater transparency? Maybe—or these wannabe nerds just plan to surveil and monetize govt data

I just ran across this on LinkedIn: yet another study showing that LLMs embed and amplify human biases in the training data—this time in resume screening.
Yet this is the technology Trump, Musk, and DOGE want to use to rewrite things like HUD regulations and to replace human support agents.

Gender, race, and intersectional bias in AI resume screening via language model retrieval
Kyra Wilson and Aylin Caliskan examine gender, race, and intersectional bias in AI resume screening and suggest protective policies.

Zo kan hij zijn bedrijven nog sneller de grond in jagen
https://nos.nl/artikel/2569129-musk-stopt-als-adviseur-van-regering-trump-na-bezuinigingsmissie

New @… post on the Florida DOGE audit of the state universities:
https://ufwatch.org/florida-doge-audit-of-state-universities/
You can keep up with more important news for University of Florida folks via:
Mastodon/Fediverse: @…
BlueSky: @ufwatch.bsky.social
Newsletter/Website: ufwatch.org
RSS: ufwatch.org/rss

Ruling that the law should be applied is a coup, apparently.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/may/29/donald-trump-tariffs-court-elon-musk-us-politics-live-news-updates?CMP=share_btn_url

Some reporting on #nasa getting the #doge in #nyc
https://www.fastcompany.com/91333946/this-iconic-nasa-office-changed-climate-science-forever-doge-plans-to-kill-it
I put up some history here in happier times.
https://fediscience.org/@atthenius/110991531387943903

#ZuckNews Of The Day*
WASHINGTON, DC Apr/26, 2025: Several leaks from the White House have confirmed that the two "100 foot flagpoles" that Trump has ordered for the lawn of the White House are in fact 100 foot tall head-only solid gold statues of himself and Elon Musk. DOGE operatives are already at Fort Knox directing the transportation of the material to Washington, using the newly …

https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/05/doge-reportedly-planning-a-hackathon-to-build-mega-api-for-irs-data/

In announcing her resignation from the National Science Board, Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social details #DOGE interference in National Science Foundation #NSF grant making. «

DOGE’s Bigballs is a notable cyberthief. Clean OPSEC amirite https://www.reuters.com/world/us/doge-staffer-big-balls-provided-tech-support-cybercrime-ring-records-show-2025-03-26/

This whistleblower account is really bad. This needs a congressional hearing but I wouldn’t count on it before mid-terms.
https://mastodon.social/@mattjay/114356086813609251

Texas governor signs law creating state DOGE https://ground.news/article/rss_4628_1745425025355_7

Evil is afoot
https://www.wired.com/story/palantir-doge-irs-mega-api-data/

DOGE’s Bigballs is a notable cyberthief. Clean OPSEC amirite https://www.reuters.com/world/us/doge-staffer-big-balls-provided-tech-support-cybercrime-ring-records-show-2025-03-26/

Very cool and very normal https://mastodon.social/@verge/114315519690612580

I'm getting car insurance ads "from" DOGE in my Gmail... Advertiser information says it's from "Larry 24 LLC", which has other car insurance ads. Can't find any other info about this company.
Like a grift remora following the big grift shark
#ads #doge

Now OpenAI wants to buy Chrome, and Perplexity's CEO admits his new AI-powered browser will track your history to sell you ads. As with DOGE's migration of the government to the cloud, AI is a smokescreen for a wholesale data grab https://

Here’s a reason to never use Gumroad.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91330297/doge-sahil-lavignia-gumroad

Thanks to DOGE, Gumroad’s founder has a second job with the VA
The creator economy pioneer Sahil Lavingia on his eyebrow-raising decision to embrace DOGE—and, after thinking it over, open source.

Am I the only one who can't help reading this in Zap Brannigan's voice?
Speaking to a group of reporters earlier this month, Musk implied that DOGE is self-sustaining and could carry on without him. “DOGE is a way of life,” he told them, “like Buddhism.”

https://futurism.com/elon-musk-cuts-funding-for-internet-archive

Forcing regime change in America
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/02/doge-civil-servant-purge/681671/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK38OD13Rx0lhyd5fWjR1YAEk

"DOGE had by fiat the authority to give thumbs up or down to grant applications which had been systematically vetted by layers of subject matter experts" https://time.com/7285045/resigning-national-science-foundation-library-congress/

Why I’m Resigning from the NSF and Library of Congress
I cannot participate in systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging.

More press on the fate of #nasa in #nyc #doge
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/nyregion/nasa-office-columbia-seinfeld-toms-restaurant.html

I think it ranks low on a list of priorities, but as a long-term effect of #DOGE, it's natural that this will make working for US Government much less appealing. I expect US Government workforce management to be much more difficult (less effective & more expensive) in the coming decades.
The implications are:
1. spending more on advertising and recruiting
2. spending more on sa…

And net of the damage that DOGE is leaving in its wake—both to the lives of real people and to the US brand of the US—its total impact might well be negative. Very negative. 
(Speaking of #runninggovenrmentlikeabusiness)

"We are NIH people and we are horrified about the takeover of US scientific and medical research and the damage to future cures for Alzheimer’s and cancer.
But we also believe in human rights and keeping people from starving. The DOGE kids are in far over their heads and they will pay for this." From:
https://bsky.app/profile/altnih4science.bsky.social/post/3lpiquozhsk22

We are so very very screwed folks. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/edward-coristine-big-balls-doge-elon-musk-trump-team.html

I think it ranks low on a list of priorities, but as a long-term effect of #DOGE, it's natural that this will make working for US Government much less appealing. I expect US Government workforce management to be much more difficult (less effective & more expensive) in the coming decades.
The implications are:
1. spending more on advertising and recruiting
2. spending more on sa…

https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/114472455736482190