I can’t believe i used the word doge to describe a government agency. I hate the internet.
Blackmail.
Oh, so now you’re saying mail is DEI, I can’t even with you people.
They can match employee lists against public donor lists and start targeting people.
I’m still fucking bitter that the meme Elon latched onto was Doge. I fucking loved that meme and hate that it now has ties to fucking fascism.
Par for the course. Nazis have done the same thing to everything from Pepe the frog to the swastika itself.
Do I remember correctly that Pepe dies in the comic because the author didn’t want to keep producing material for them to hijack?
To me, it’s ok, because the people behind it pronounce it dōj and I always pronounced it doggy. So now we know the evil pronunciation is dōj.
It’s from Homestar Runner originally and unfortunately the Nazis picked the correct pronunciation
It’s from Homestar Runner originally and unfortunately the Nazis picked the
correctevil pronunciationOf course they did, they are evil.
;_; but I pronounce it that way - like the old Venetian head of state.
The power of doggy compels you
Doggy is a pretty damn cute name for the meme
I pronounce it like doge. You know, like dog but with a long o, since that’s normally what happens when you add an e at the end of a word.
Con, cone.
Dog, doge!
Don’t get me wrong, it’s terrible that they were granted access to very sensitive information (government contracts, employee data, probably tax returns last I heard) with no oversight. That’s gone, no way back.
But make no mistake, this is not a heist. It’s a coup. They are seizing control of meta-infrastructures of the government: payroll, contracts, payments, communications, software. This is how you hold a country hostage.
No doubt, what, are we going to elect a Democrat and elon will just willingly answer to that guy? Yeah fucking right.
The only way we’re going to get our country back is if we get a sane Democrat in office that rules the same way Trump does.
So it’s never happening.
You can’t play by the rules while your opponent cheats and expect anything but to lose.
Yep. Ive stopped playing by the rules now.
Laws are far less important to me than they were a few months ago. Just following the example of the “leadership”…
Man I bet George Washington is stoked that we’ve skipped hereditary monarchies and went straight to emperors
The way things are going, the next “vote” you’ll get is to ratify the new and improved constitution. I’ve actually seen a couple of coups first hand, that’s usually how it goes.
People don’t get to vote for a new constitution. That’s for states or Congress.
At least not with ballots, anyway
Ah, I’ve only seen it done by referendum because parliament / congress had been dissolved by then. But hey, YMMV
The real answer is that as long as nothing becomes violent, the only thing that they can really do is to slowly Take away the supports of the people that are relying on them and provide information that might be harmful to potential employers to increase the number of people that are subservient to the state or otherwise financially incapacitated.
If it becomes violent, then they can use that information to identify the easiest targets for them to take out first And the people most likely to provide resistance should they be given time to gather together.
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They can glean where the absurd amounts of money that our government has been wasting on completely ridiculous things has been going for decades.
Yeah there was a probably a nicer way to do what they are doing but given how slow the cogs of government turn this is probably the “better” way to achieve what they are looking for. By rushing through the door and looking at as many things as possible they are essentially overwhelming the system with speed. By the time the law and due process catch up they will have already reported back all the many, many ways the government has been basically burning our tax dollars on shit we never voted for while telling us there is no money to be had for the things we have been asking for.
I understand the worry that this is coup and I will likely be downvoted for this comment, but if you choose to believe that they are actually trying to trim the fat this was going to be the only way they could get that much data without having to slog through miles of red tape and Democrats trying to block them from digging into financial records the entire time.
They have already uncovered so much insane spending that im actually concerned how bad it’s going to get as they dig down further. The Democrats were doing exactly the things they constantly accused the Republicans of doing for years. They were directly paying politico to report what and how they wanted. They were using USAID primarily as a tool for meddling in foreign governments and hiding behind it being a global aid organization (the money spent of being used as a shadow government nearly doubles what I USAID actually spent on giving aid).
Seeing as there is nothing I can do about it as an individual I am choosing to sit back and watch it unfold. Worst case out country folds itself in half and things get spicy for awhile. Best case we cut wasted spending and government bloat significantly while also shining a light into all the dark corners of government that the public has never even been made aware of.
The problem is literally none of these people are equipped to make informed decisions. Every single one is a techbro which means they know fucking nothing about how anything functions in the government. Simply put they lack the education and experience to make any informed decisions.
Why would you think a business guy who is a fucking idiot and a bunch of twenty something programmers are going to understand the US budget and economy? You might as well pick pre-schoolers as they are just as equipped
I don’t think you have any understanding of what is going on here.
I never said they have any idea what they are doing. I said that’s what they are trying to do. Time will tell if they succeed in finding all the money that leaks out of our government like a colander.
I agree that there are probably many, MANY more people who would be more qualified to be doing this particular job, but that’s not what we got.
I’m just along for the ride at this point. If y’all wanna storm the White House for a real revolution let me know. Until it reaches that point I’m just gonna choose to hope some amount of good can come from all this.
It probably won’t, but you never know. Crazier things have happened.
The thing is that’s not what they are trying to do. That is what the propaganda sources you follow are telling you they are doing.
This is about laying the groundwork for the fascist coup.
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I don’t follow any propaganda sources lol. I don’t use Twitter. I don’t watch fox news or whatever it is you are assuming I do.
I consume a great amount of news from across the spectrum and I try to find the truth that I assume lies somewhere in the middle.
I speak to my far left friends and family about politics often. I speak to my handful of right leaning friends and family a bit less, but I still talk to them fairly often.
I recognize my methods aren’t perfect but it’s better than most people will do these days.
You posted a Sinclair owned station so yes you did post a propaganda source even if you are unaware of that fact.
Alright man. You find a source you like. Pretty much every news source has reported on the USAID situation.
All that with data they stole from the American people.
Not really sure what you mean by that. This is data the American people would never even know about in the first place.
And as far as I am aware they only have “read” access. They haven’t actually done anything but point out their findings.
You mean Americans would have never known about their private data? How sinister.
Actually sounds like unspeakably good stewardship which is unheard of these days.
Yeah there was a probably a nicer way to do what they are doing
I understand the worry that this is coup
but if you choose to believe
Seeing as there is nothing I can do about it
I empathize with the sentiment, but you’re delusional.
Listen, I don’t know a ton about USAID, so I won’t defend it-though I’ve personally not seen any reporting that supports what you’re saying. Keep in mind, this isn’t Trump’s first rodeo. USAID was operating under him during his previous term.
What I’d really like for you to explain is how NOAA is presumably burning tons of cash in a way that doesn’t benefit taxpayers.
If they were really interested in trimming the fat, they’d go after the DoD, which is where they’d likely “recover” the largest amount. But I’d guess they don’t touch that budget at all. And in the unlikely event they did, you can bet anything to do with SpaceX won’t be touched.
KUTV is considered a “center” news source so I hope that will be acceptable for you.
I don’t know anything about NOAA so I can’t speak to that particular topic at this time, but I am curious so I will be taking a look when I get a chance.
You are absolutely fucking right that the DOD is a giant money burning machine. 5k for 1 screw or whatever that meme was (assuming it’s true) is just downright irresponsible spending. Something tells me they won’t be touching DOD, but we can remain hopeful that it will be receiving similar scrutiny.
And yes it seems unlikely that Musk and gang are gonna throw the books of space x open for the public but you never know. We are in a wild fuckin timeline right now.
Your source, KUTV, is a Sinclair owned station. They have an insane pro-fascism bias. You might want to find a balanced informed source rather than a propaganda source.
https://www.allsides.com/news-source/kutv
They specifically don’t use ownership as a measurement for bias. They rate news outlets on the content only.
I doubt that will do much to change your opinion on the matter but I figured I would at least let you know where I got the information that KUTV was a center news source.
I try to keep myself informed from news sources across the spectrum, but that is often easier said than done.
Hmm yesterday you were spouting transphobe shit, today you’re spouting maga shit. I’m thinking maybe Lemmy isn’t the place for you and you should just delete your account and go back to Reddit.
You will not find friends here. No one wants you here.
I find it fascinating how often you people dig through peoples accounts before you attack them. I literally never look at how old anyone’s accounts are or their previous comments or posts.
I’m not gonna delete my account and go back to reddit. Mostly because I’m still banned from the entirety of reddit on all my accounts for “breaking reddit TOS”. They immediately denied my appeal asking what rule I broke and still never told me what rule I supposedly broke.
Lemmy is for anyone. Just because you don’t like my opinions doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to be here. Block me if you want but I’ll continue using the site as I please.
You would be wrong that I have not found friends where. You would be right that they are super rare, but I have found a handful of other moderates bouncing around.
You don’t want me here. Unfortunately I don’t give a shit what you want as I don’t know you and I don’t owe you anything.
Have a nice day.
Don’t have to dig at all. I see transphobes and I tag them as such. Next time I see a comment from you I already know what type of person you are. I tag transphobes, Zionist, racists, idiots, trolls, and fascists.
Also, no, Lemmy.world (where your account is hosted) is not for everyone. You may feel free to spin up your own domain and host your own user account. But break enough of these rules in .world and you will be banned.
-Have a nice day bigot 💋
It’s like all the problems with the people on the far left all bundled into one lovely person.
I will have a nice day. Thanks.
Hopefully your time here opens your eyes to a more realistic understanding of what is going on as right now you seriously are holding on to a ton if really flawed ideas
It’s worrying to me that you think Lemmy has a real grasp of what’s going on. This entire site and the majority of its users are so far off the left deep end that they haven’t been able to see a moderate thought in years.
I’m sure many of my opinions are flawed to you as I am sure many of your opinions are flawed to me.
The difference is I am willing to discuss your opinions without labeling you instantly, downvoting you and then blocking you. You guys seem to be very eager to label me any number of things, downvote immediately (and go downvote all my other comments elsewhere like weirdos) and then either block me or ban me.
I see most of you as well intentioned people. Humans. We might have a different outlook on things but you are still a person. Most of you guys see me as evil and think I deserve to die. It’s easier to dismiss people after you demonize them.
I know I’m not perfect. I certainly never claimed to be. I just think it’s a very bad idea to immediately dehumanize anyone I disagree with.
Im not the majority of users but what you can find here are some people who are educated in political philosophy/economics and have government experience and some of us do know what we are talking about.
Im not talking about your opinions. You are holding some views that are at odds with objective facts.
While many might insult you I have not. I suspect we are both adults and I treat others as they treat me. You have not attacked me so I will not respond in kind.
The one thing that you should understand is many of us here are not straight so if you support the Trump administration in any way you are supporting making me less equal to you. That is going to understandably be hard for most to get over as how do you treat someone who voted to have people like myself lose equal rights? How should people view the guy who supports fascist candidates and their criminal actions?
Lucky for you I do not support Trump or the right. I was a lifelong Democrat until I switched to independent in 2020. I didn’t vote for Kamala or Trump in 2024 though so many people around here have basically lumped me in as a Trump supporter because would not “vote blue no matter who”. I live in California so my protest third party vote did exactly what I wanted. My state still went blue, but the deathgrip the Democrats have held in California is clearly slipping and they need to see that.
My stance on the whole gay rights thing is my stance on pretty much everything in a similar vein. I do not care what consenting adults do with other consenting adults and I think the government should have absolutely zero sway over any of that. Marry who you love. Fuck whoever you want. I do not care.
Same goes for abortion. I am staunchly pro choice. I don’t agree with pretty much any of the leftist talking points around their pro-choice stances, but I believe the only three people who should have any say on terminating a pregnancy are the two people that caused the pregnancy and whatever doctor they choose to see about it. Nobody else should have a single iota of say over what happens.
I’m an open book. Ask me anything and I’ll answer truthfully.
Thanks for taking the time to write this. On the few occasions I’ve had insights to the scale of government waste it’s been eye watering. Of course, that doesn’t change anything about my views regarding trump and musk, but I agree with your point… How else could someone tackle a problem of this scale?
Regardless though, it was just nice to read a thoughtful point of view that counters the prevailing emotions on here
The issue is they are completely wrong about theor perspective.
Musk and the programmers he brought are incapable of understanding what they are dojng because they have no background in economics other than Musk who repeatedly shows a glawef understanding of Macro.
The budget is massive and almost no individual is equipped to do this quickly.
What they ARE doing us laying the ground work to create a police state. That has been a goal of Musk/Thiel/Ellison for years now.
Organizational waste in general seems like an inevitability. Corporations have waste too – this isn’t unique to governments
And what Musk is doing has nothing to do with efficiency
Honestly, I used to say the same thing when my background was mostly large multinationals, banks etc. But I’ve seen things in government contracts that are way beyond anything I came across in the private sector. If I extrapolate my experience across the rest of the government, it’s easy to imagine just how much money is being wasted, and most of it goes straight into the hands of huge consultancy firms.
And it makes sense right? The government is held to way more account than the private sector. Ass covering twinned with lack of accountability is rife. Huge amounts of money are thrown into projects that simply cannot fail or some aspect of the country risks complete shut down.
I’ve no idea what the fix is, but I believe there is an issue here that is unique to the government. Of course though, it’s so sad to think that people would turn to hate and fascism as any kind of solution.
