is simply a reflection of the ignorance of the DOGE boys Musk has infiltrated into government, the shoddiness of the AI tools they’re using, or simply a disinterest in giving a fuck, because once Elon claims this website says something, the right wing will follow along like sheep.
There’s still a lot of reporting to be done, but thus far outlets have shown that DOGE:
Took items that added up to $16B and claimed it represented $55B of savings
Claimed an $8M savings over a multi-year contract represented $8B total savings
Claimed credit for things that happened under Joe Biden, such as lease cancelations and Jimmy Carter’s death
Included contracts that haven’t been canceled and ignored costs that such cancelations will necessitate
As I said, thus far, this NPR piece captures how badly the DOGE boys are misunderstanding basic things about federal contracting — and also seeking immediate cuts rather than the kind of gradual reorganization that results in savings over time.
That might support a conclusion that these people are just epically incompetent. Except as DOGE gets caught in its errors, something else is happening: it is attempting to cover up its work.
The DOGE website initially included a screenshot from the federal contracting database showing that the contract’s value was $8 million, even as the DOGE site listed $8 billion in savings. On Tuesday night, around the time this article was published, DOGE removed the screenshot that showed the mismatch, but continued to claim $8 billion in savings. It added a link to the original, incorrect version of the listing showing an $8 billion value.
By Wednesday morning, DOGE had updated its list to show $8 million in savings, though it did not acknowledge the error or explain how it might affect its calculation of total money saved, which remained unchanged. A loss of $8 billion in savings would represent nearly 15 percent of the total savings claimed by DOGE.
A screenshot of the DOGE website on Tuesday. The image showing the $8 million value of the contract was later removed.Credit…The New York Times
Even the $8 million is an upper bound on the amount saved by canceling the contract. Since $2.5 million had already been spent on the contract, according to data on USAspending.gov, that suggests that canceling it saved $5.5 million at most.
This thread, from a pseudonymous person on Xitter whose findings have been corroborated and picked up by others, notes several other attempts to cover up errors:
DOGE stopped triple-counting one line item
DOGE was claiming credit for the 80% of an IT contract that had already been spent
But having identified systematic problems (which NPR also did), DOGE not only didn’t make those fixes systematically, but it continues to claim it has identified $55B of savings.
This is a government website.
At some point, the continued claim of savings based on systematic errors, the continued claim of $55B in savings, amounts to fraud. Deliberate deception in service of justifying DOGE.
DOGE has found fraud. The fraud it is engaged in in plain sight on its success page.
The DOGE fraud is coming from inside the house.
That, plus some of the court filings submitted in lawsuits, has led me to suspect something else is going on. It’s not, as the very good NPR piece suggests, that Elon’s DOGE boys don’t know what the fuck they’re looking at, though I have no doubt they don’t (I’m also not sure anyone has a basis to assess their coding; Edward “Big Balls” Coristine’s former colleagues mocked his skills when the learned he had joined DOGE).
“There’s no doubt that these young people [Musk] has working for him are very intelligent coders, genius coders, but they’re limited,” retired senior contracting officer Christopher Byrne said, referring to DOGE team members who have apparently been identifying cuts across government agencies. “They don’t understand the processes, they don’t understand how things work, they don’t understand contracts, they don’t understand grants,” Byrne said.
Rather, I think it stems from the fact that Trump (and Project 2025, in the guise of DOGE) are using an existing entity — the United States Digital Service, an entity set up by Barack Obama — to do something entirely different.
Trump first repurposed USDS on his first day in office, with an Executive Order. That order generally called for DOGE to do the kinds of things it had been doing — technological modernization, of the sort smart engineers might be qualified to do.
Sec. 4. Modernizing Federal Technology and Software to Maximize Efficiency and Productivity. (a) The USDS Administrator shall commence a Software Modernization Initiative to improve the quality and efficiency of government-wide software, network infrastructure, and information technology (IT) systems. Among other things, the USDS Administrator shall work with Agency Heads to promote inter-operability between agency networks and systems, ensure data integrity, and facilitate responsible data collection and synchronization.
But then on February 11, Trump issued an Executive Order vaguely ordering DOGE to do far more, including firing a shit-ton of people.
To restore accountability to the American public, this order commences a critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy. By eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity, my Administration will empower American families, workers, taxpayers, and our system of Government itself.
[snip]
Reductions in Force. Agency Heads shall promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs), consistent with applicable law, and to separate from Federal service temporary employees and reemployed annuitants working in areas that will likely be subject to the RIFs. All offices that perform functions not mandated by statute or other law shall be prioritized in the RIFs, including all agency diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; all agency initiatives, components, or operations that my Administration suspends or closes; and all components and employees performing functions not mandated by statute or other law who are not typically designated as essential during a lapse in appropriations as provided in the Agency Contingency Plans on the Office of Management and Budget website. This subsection shall not apply to functions related to public safety, immigration enforcement, or law enforcement.
Even the declarations submitted in lawsuits reflect this disjunct. Take the February 13 declaration DOGE member Adam Ramada submitted in a lawsuit the University of California Student’s Association filed against the Department of Education. In ¶3 of his declaration, Ramada describes that Trump’s EO authorizes DOGE to “modernize government technology.”
3. On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14,158, redesignating the United States Digital Service as the United States DOGE Service. The E.O. directs the USDS to modernize government technology and software to increase efficiency and productivity and to follow rigorous data protection standards and comply with all relevant laws when accessing unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems. It likewise directs agencies to ensure USDS has full access to all unclassified agency records and software and IT systems.
But the very next paragraph describes that he has been tasked to do something else.
4. I have been detailed to the Department of Education since 28 January 2025 to, among other things, assist the Department of Education with auditing contract, grant, and related programs for waste, fraud, and abuse, including an audit of the Department of Education’s federal student loan portfolio to ensure it is free from, among other things, fraud, duplication, and ineligible loan recipients. In addition, I help senior Department leadership obtain access to accurate data and data analytics to inform their policy decisions at the Department. One other USDS employee is also currently detailed to the Department of Education to assist me.
Later, the same declaration describes the access that six DOGE personnel have to student data as stemming entirely from a hunt for waste, fraud, and abuse.
9. The relevant employees require access to Department of Education information technology and data systems related to student loan programs in order to audit those programs for waste, fraud, and abuse.
An updated Ramada declaration filed February 16 disputed plaintiffs’ claim that 37 people had access to student information by claiming only six people were implementing Trump’s DOGE order(s). But by that point, technological modernization went completely unmentioned. And Ramada added a hunt for contracts that were “inconsistent with leadership’s policy priorities,” something not in his original declaration.
7. I am aware of the list of thirty-seven individuals whom Plaintiff’s counsel “believe have been given access to one or more ED records systems,” according to Plaintiff’s message to Defendants’ counsel on February 15, 2025. As stated above, there are only six of us at the Department whose primary role is implementing the President’s executive order. I am not aware of any DOGE-affiliated individuals other than the six listed above who have been granted access to Department information technology and data systems or who have otherwise received any Department information protected by the Privacy Act or section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code.
8. Thus far, the six of us have primarily worked to identify contracts and grants that are wasteful, abusive, or inconsistent with leadership’s policy priorities.
9. It came to my attention today that one of the six employees referenced above has not yet completed ethics or information security trainings. He has been directed to complete both this week and has indicated that he will do so. [my emphasis]
In other words, Trump used the pre-existing entity focused on technological modernization as a front to — first — hunt things that Elon Musk called fraud but were really just things he could spin out of context to inflame the mob, and then use that paranoia to start firing masses of people and getting rid of DEI.
This has nothing to do with the technical mandate of USDS. Which may be why the former Director of Data Science at USDS resigned Wednesday.
But given DOGE’s failure to show any fraud yet, it likely also has little to do with finding waste, fraud or abuse.
DOGE’s “receipts” page appears to be cover, something to show to credulous Republicans to convince them this effort is in pursuit of something good, a hunt for waste, fraud, and abuse. But hidden within a claim to be pursuing technological modernization which got broadened to incorporate an apparently false claim to be hunting fraud is an effort to cut programs appropriated by Congress at scale.
That’s why DOGE’s receipts page is so shoddy. It’s not that the DOGE boys are not accountants, though they are not. It’s that their function is something other than the EO authorizing their work says it is, and the DOGE receipts page exists solely to sustain the fraud that they’re still pursuing waste, fraud, and abuse.
Update: After posting this and calling on Ron Wyden and Patty Murrray to ask GAO to investigate whether DOGE is committing fraud, I learned that GAO confirmed it opened an investigation (at that point limited to DOGE access to Treasury) requested by Wyden and Elizabeth Warren on February 12.
https://www.emptywheel.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-20-at-4.24.07 PM-1.png6662278emptywheelhttps://www.emptywheel.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Logo-Web.pngemptywheel2025-02-20 12:13:362025-02-21 06:01:17The DOGE Fraud Is Coming from Inside the House
64replies
observiter says:
EXCELLENT piece.
I wonder if this exercise is actually Musk forming a new (privately-owned) company (that he owns/runs) to serve as SOLE data processor/manager/reviewer (decisionmaker?) over the U.S. government. Transfer all data and associated functionalities over to this/his company. Unify ALL government back office in this/his one company. And, of course, the U.S. government would be his customer and he would charge them whatever for these services.
I’m not good at the proper posting of links. Search online for Colossus and Memphis, TN. There are EPA concerns, power supply concerns, etc. Or search for GROK….seems ALL of the data being accessed will feed into this ‘privately funded venture’. There are local EPA concerns, power supply concerns, etc.
Longtime GSA employee quits rather than give Musk ally access to Notify.gov The leader of the Technology Transformation Services at GSA wanted access to a text messaging platform for government agencies.
A government engineer at the General Services Administration quit Tuesday after being asked to give a political appointee associated with Elon Musk administrative access to the agency’s texting platform called Notify.gov, which helps government agencies send text reminders about benefit programs like Medicaid.
The head of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services — Thomas Shedd, a longtime Tesla alum — has been requesting administrative access to all components of the system without a clear reason for needing that access, according to an internal message from the GSA engineer viewed by Nextgov/FCW. The news was first reported by 404 Media.
Shedd “would be able to view all personally identifiable information (PII) moving through the Notify system, including phone numbers and variable data for members of the public,” the employee — who appears to have worked at the agency for the past decade — wrote.
The system includes information like the email addresses, phone numbers and IP addresses of those the government is contacting, according to its privacy impact assessment, which notes that “minimizing access” is part of the system’s security. Shedd currently doesn’t have access to the system, according to Will Powell, GSA’s acting press secretary.
With the access he’s requesting, the Tesla alum would both “be able to download and store this data without anybody else receiving a notification” and “be able to fully manage the access of others, including granting the same access to others or removing it from existing team members,” the employee who quit wrote.
(More at the link.)
Fortunately, Musk and DOGE are such principled protectors of privacy that there’s nothing to worry about here, right?
In my contractor days in the Pentagon, when I went to a meeting I always identified myself by name, followed by “…contract support to (HQ directorate name and staff component).” If someone in the meeting tried to corner me on what the client would say or do, I would state “I am a contractor, not a government employee. This is how I would advise my client, but the final decision is theirs.”
I think most GOP members know it. But they have wanted to have the government shrunk small enough to drown in the bathtub for decades. This is their golden opportunity. They can let Doge do it and never have to go on the record with the difficult votes that would be needed to, for example, fire nuclear safety workers, or people who work to keep the drinking water safe, fight pandemics, or keep planes from crashing into each other.
Selling of the government to the world’s richest man is just the price for fulfilling the dream.
And Doge gives the GOP Congress just enough cover to satisfy the rubes for the short period of time they figure the revolution needs to be successful. The actions are fast, the courts are slow.
Oh there is plenty of substance there. We have no idea what Musk and his Muskateer Hackers are doing. The potential back doors they may be installing could devastate the government for years.
Even if they did nothing more than what we can see, which is next to nothing, they have undermined the public’s confidence in what the government says from here out.
Will you ever be able to trust the security of your information ?
tldr: DOGE claims savings from ‘Blanket Purchase Agreement’ contracts – blank contracts for possible periodic purchases – as ‘savings’ even though they have never been used. In addition, these contracts haven’t even been cancelled – they have just been amended to prevent their use for any purchases related to DEI. There are many of them – 3 for $30,000,000 each at DHS, on which ZERO dollars have been actually saved.
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Bombay Troubadour says:
This is a dangerous PR stunt to make the tax bill more palatable. Paid for to a large extent by people and families that didn’t do anything to deserve the rug getting pulled. Unfortunately it will work.
IIRC, upwards of 75% of the PPP Covid relief funds went to people who it was not intended for. If the stated DOGE goal is to lower deficits then it makes little sense, but “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”
It is far past time we curbed this DOGE.
Two THREADs on Bluesky that I found interesting in regard to this topic:
1] GREAT Thread re: USDS from Emily Tav:
[BIO: Policy + design + tech. Angry optimist. // Teaching + researching at Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy. Co-Curator of an oral history of the US Digital Service origin story // ex: @usds // @whitehouse @ashoka]
I have remained fairly silent over the past few weeks, largely because I have been processing the reality of an organization dedicated to improving government services being repurposed into the vector of destruction of those very same services.
I wrote up some thoughts. Quick tl;dr [Link][THREAD]
The US DOGE Service has taken control of critical systems, data, and infrastructure—in a word, power—across the federal gov. As I helplessly watch, I am coming to terms with the fact that the Trump admin understands something few others do:
Tech infrastructure is the infrastructure of *everything.* […]
One of the key questions in America: who is runs DOGE?
Who is gutting our federal agencies and suctioning their data? Trump is playing golf; DOJ says it’s not Musk (who like Trump is more a hype man anyway).
So ask: who pushed Musk to buy Twitter? Peter Thiel, who wants to run governments by AI. 1/ [THREAD]
[…]
Elon’s hacker kiddies are the public face of DOGE, but the recruitment was done by Peter’s Palantir folks. And America’s new Federal Chief Information Officer, installed in January, is Gregory Barbaccia, a longtime Palantir exec. More on him later. 3/ […]
And then there’s this from a link in that bsky thread:
“Renaming” the US Digital Service
“The DOGE (“Department of Government Efficiency”) grift has begun with a Jan 20th executive order “renaming” the US Digital Service. And giving it vague new instructions. All federal agencies are required to share not only technology and systems access–which would make sense if you were building tech products–but adding in data (“agency records.”)
Why give unlimited access to agency data? The US Digital Service didn’t need unlimited access to that information before. It’s the opposite of “efficiency” to get access to information you don’t need. But like most of the Trump grift, words are often used to describe the opposite of reality. You don’t need access to agency records to improve government websites. But you do need it to gain secret market advantages or the ability to target anyone you want.”
Translation: Orwell nailed it.
I hope one or several of those legal orgs (Eisen’s, e.g.), that have been executing the dozens (soon to be myriad) of resistance lawsuits, can find a statute or constitutional provision that’s been violated to hitch these heinous actions to a very big, new one that encompasses this issue.
This is invasion of privacy on an almost unbelievable scale, especially with AI adepts working the levers. The potential for harm, both accidental and intentional, is staggering.
This is an infinity-alarm fire. Time is absolutely of the essence.
And to follow up with respect to the various other immediate harms that DOGE is flagrantly inflicting on people and systems: maybe they are meant as mere distractions from the big one, described by Ms Pequeno.
These are malignant people doing this to us, and they’re executing a conquering blitzkrieg, explicitly so stated by them in advance. This is the headline, folks.
Obama can make it such. He instituted the USDS, after all. I’m contacting Rubin and Eisen.
Here in Putin’s hefty sublet nation,
Musk juiced it up with acceleration
and Republican administration:
Transnational Criminal Organization.
Just to make it unqualifiedly clear,
Recollect it comes with its own King Leer,
A Don who often lusts to domineer,
When he’s not ensnared by his puppeteer.
The 2025 Manifesto,
And the DOGE blitzkrieg, storming TCO,
One’s got con-vention, & one’s got brio,
But more than anything, they’ve got ego.
His lip curled up in a viscous sneer,
Mr. Grab-‘em-by-the-pussy, then jeer,
The only thing he’ll ever volunteer
is he wants to be a magnate, King Leer.
His predilection for his vocation
revolves around his wish for predation,
If he can’t secure appropriation,
He’ll get all he can through vexation.
Words matter. Journalists and editors can do the public an enormous service by startling their otherwise-lulled readers with the slap of truth. Why does the New York Times pull its punches when its stories could serve as a perfectly timed uppercut to the grotesque glass jaw that is “my Administration,” the Musky hobby lobby slash playpen for spoiled little Nazis-in-waiting?
The example here looks insignificant. From Marcy’s post above: “…DOGE removed the screenshot that showed the mismatch, but continued to claim $8 billion in savings. It added a link to the original, incorrect version of the listing showing an $8 billion value.” The problem? That “original” version was not “incorrect.” Incorrect is when you get a security code and reverse a couple of numbers. Incorrect implies lack of culpable motive. That original version–the one DOGE kept linking to, after the grand New York Times caught them out–was (at the very least) FALSE.
Incorrect is “Oopsie.” What Trump, Musk, Vought, and their henchmen are doing…is not an oopsie.
But the Times wants to preserve its access to “my Administration,” that game of Telephone that circulates rumors to Maggie Haberman so she can tease them on CNN; and they learned a decade ago that Trump gets clicks.
The whole exercise is about access to data in an uncontrolled manner, and zero oversight where it will be used/manipulated/’edited’. McCarthy in the ’50s was notorious for using faked data (“I have here in my hand…”) but with the modern tools it will become even more difficult to prove government fakery. That’s even before considering what Putin, MBS, KJU, etc. will do with our secrets. Keep your own paper copies, you may need them. For example, look out for bogus tax claims where the government claims you didn’t pay them or took unauthorized deductions.
So, what could possibly be keeping Convict-1 on Putin’s leash? He already has the WH, the levers and guardrails secured with his lackeys, a subservient GOP in Congress, a pet Supreme Court majority. I really do not see how Convict-1 could be attacked easily in political terms and given how he really doesn’t care what we think of him I doubt the polling affects him either. That includes embarrassing stuff like pee tapes, etc., so what does Putin have on Convict-1 to keep him in line so thoroughly? It has to be really big, bigger than shooting someone on Fifth Avenue. Any ideas?
I always keep my paper tax return copy.
I kept my pay stubs, too. (Friend found they were needed, once, when the guy in charge of sending the money to the government stole the FISA deduction money and fled the country. His pay stubs proved he’d had it deducted from his pay. The IRS was happy with him, but I don’t know if they ever caught up with the embezzler.)
The one thing that would turn this whole country against both of them. And quickly. MADD isn’t just for nukes
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Also, all their talk of “cutting waste” is a deliberate distraction from the increased waste of fuel and water due to deregulation (e.g., more gas guzzlers, getting pounded by a nice hot hard shower).
Here is a 62 year old’s point of view. If you can’t see it for what it is, a blatant disregard for the Constitution, a takeover in progress at EXPEDENTIAL speed, with a Wag The Dog (check out the movie) staff. Nothing but spinners who claim there is no wrongdoing, even when caught with the “Hand In The Cookie Jar.” History: To come to authoritarian rule: 1: Create an enemy (Democrats) 2: Convince a mass following that this is the Enemy and rile them to anger 3: Proceed with the takeover with no or little opposition. Note: NO (I mean none, zero, nada) dictatorship/authoritarian rule has EVER helped the general public or people. Only oligarchs’ (which means filthy rich) benefit. The young people in this country are in trouble and for the first time in my life I will see the younger generation with LESS wealth than the previous. The average person working an average job will be hit the most. Advice: When property values plummet ( I’ve seen it 3 times in my life) buy a home so you have something to leave your children for they will need it!!! FACT: Average age of a child leaving the home with a college degree 28. Fact: Average child leaving the home does not purchase (can not afford) a home instead they have to rent for 5-8 years. Save some money for the future economy is drastically in trouble. Also keep up on world events. Put The Guardian, The Toronto Star, The Independent, Global Times (China), Russia Today and The New York Times in your bookmarks and check front page DAILY because of how fast this is going. Good Luck All (everyone).
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Thank you. This was great example of reporting that I am sending off to all of my people on the fence, or who have bad info streams.
I have been saying for years that if the Ds went after corruption, they would have had a winning ticket.
I didn’t expect MAGA to take this platform, but I am not surprised that it is all a ruse to grift themselves. That is to be expected from peole who have always stolen the ideas of others as their own.
I have had to take a break from the firehouse of info, but I always come back here to get digestible information I can disseminate to my friends and family.
Marcy your reporting is my pacifier to not freak the f out everyday I decide to turn on the news.
So many people are scared and confused and straight fact reporting is a breath of fresh air that keeps me sane while engaged.
Breaking news: Trump is preparing to dissolve the leadership of the U.S. Postal Service and absorb the independent mail agency into his administration, potentially throwing the mail provider and trillions of dollars of ecommerce transactions into turmoil. [link]
I can’t think of anything more calculated to get *everyone* mad at him and President Musk. EVERYONE uses snailmail. Including newspapers, manufacturers, and Amazon.
Exactly. Dogs are loyal to a fault. DOGE is DODGY has hell, and nothing like a dog.
The old joke is, “The difference between your wife and your dog is, if you lock your wife and your dog in the trunk of your car, when you open it, the dog will be overjoyed to see you”.
Dogs don’t like the Felon47, and I’ll bet they don’t like the muskrat, either. My bet is that neither have ever had a pet of any kind.
Being called a dick, was he really called a dick by a congresscritter?, being called a dick is probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said to Elon Musk.
The actual “threat”, as I understand it, is not that he called Musk a dick (he did do that too). It’s from a remark on a CNN interview where Garcia said that constituents want their elected Dem officials to “bring an actual weapon to a barfight”. He was speaking metaphorically, trying to emphasize that Dems need to up their fight level.
Anyway, Musk complained to Ed Martin that Garcia was making veiled threats on his life, which caused Martin to send a “please clarify what you meant” letter to Rep. Garcia. Essentially a “free speech chiller” shot across the bow from Musk via Martin.
Here’s an interview between Jen Psaki and Rep. Garcia explaining all of this:
President Musk revealing how dim he really is, by not recognizing the phrase as non-literal.
But then, I doubt he’s ever even heard of bar fights. (He looks like the kind of guy who drinks alone at home, because no one wants him around.)
These people are literally drunk with power. Did you see Musk wielding the chainsaw over his head at CPAC? And Argentine president Millei cheering him on in the background? Both celebrating their contributions to the destruction of governance, any governance…
Matt Foley says:
“If you don’t fight like hell you won’t have a country left.”
‘I don’t effing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in, they can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the effing mags away.”
The article is correct in that the entire point of the DOGE effort is to feed red meat to wingnuts whose most fervent belief is “no free shit to black people “.
Just a day after Kash Patel is confirmed to lead the FBI, the leader of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Ivan Raiklin, who fancies himself the Secy of Retribution and has a target list, are holding a press conference outside of the US Capitol. [link][screenshot]
In that screenshot:
**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
**Attention Media Representatives and Interested Parties:**
Press Conference
Enrique Tarrio and the Proud Boys, Stewart Rhodes and Ivan Raiklin request your presence at the Eastside of the US Capitol tomorrow 2/21/25 Friday promptly at 1pm Est.
“…PPD IS ADVISING THAT MOGUL IS PLANNING ON HOLDING AT THE WHITE HOUSE FOR THE NEXT APPROXIMATE TWO HOURS, THEN MOVING TO THE CAPITOL.”
1:25 PM Leadership Signal Chat:
RHODES: [Capitol, East] “Pence is doing nothing. As I predicted.” 1:26 PM WATKINS tells her group: “Move.”
1:26 PM U.S. Capitol Police orders evacuation of the U.S. Capitol complex 1:27 PM BIGGS, NORDEAN, OTHER PB’s saying they’ve stormed the Capitol 1:28 PM Rep. Pramila JAYAPAL (D-Wash.) texts her husband, Steve Williamson:
This is seriously crazy. Police have been breached. Chaos is going to break out and violence too.
1:29 PM Multiple buildings on the Hill are now being evacuated. [K. Collins tweet] 1:29 PM President Trump called for his supporters to march from the White House area down Penn toward the Capitol. Hundreds doing so now. [Ford Fischer VIDEO] 1:30 PM [just before] Leadership Intel Chat [in response to a claim by an Oath Keepers affiliate that Antifa had breached the Capitol]:
RHODES: “Nope. I’m right here. These are Patriots.”
1:30 PM People inside DNC bldg. told to shelter in place 1:31 PM [Freedom Plaza] JONES: They just breached the Capitol 1:38 PM RHODES: all i see trump doing is complaining. … so patriots are taking it into their own hands. they’ve had enough.
[OTHER]: Are we militia yet?
TARRIO: Yep. [] Make no mistake… [] We did this…
3:30 PM RHODES/OK’s gather on North East Capitol Steps 4:13 PM Jim ACOSTA tweets:
A source close to the White House who is in touch with some of the rioters at the Capitol said it’s the goal of those involved to stay inside the Capitol through the night.
4:14 PM PB’s group chat:
TARRIO: They’ll fear us doing it again…
[OTHER]: So what do we do now?
TARRIO: Do it again.
[^^ There’s a missing comment in the pokey] 5:58 PM RHODES to OLD Leadership Chat:
Trump needs to act as Commander in Chief.
We laid out his course of action on our two open letters.
He still has ALL of those options.
7:41 PM RHODES to Leaders; Signal:
The founding generation Sons of Liberty stormed the mansion of the corrupt Royal Governor of Massachusetts, and trashed the place. They also jumped on board a ship carrying East India Tea, and dumped it in the harbor. We are actually in a far more deadly situation given the FACT that enemies foreign and domestic have subverted, infiltrated, and taken over near every single office and level of power in this nation. We have one FINAL chance to get Trump to do his job and his duty. Patriots entering their own Capitol to send a message to the traitors is NOTHING compared to what’s coming if Trump doesn’t take decisive action right now. It helped to send that message to HIM. He was the most important audience today. I hope he got the message.
EXCELLENT piece.
I wonder if this exercise is actually Musk forming a new (privately-owned) company (that he owns/runs) to serve as SOLE data processor/manager/reviewer (decisionmaker?) over the U.S. government. Transfer all data and associated functionalities over to this/his company. Unify ALL government back office in this/his one company. And, of course, the U.S. government would be his customer and he would charge them whatever for these services.
Call it…the DOGE Company.
Why do you hate job creators so much?
/s
Why do they have to fire so many people to create some new jobs /s
Correct: government jobs are not real jobs but hand-outs. /s
I’m not good at the proper posting of links. Search online for Colossus and Memphis, TN. There are EPA concerns, power supply concerns, etc. Or search for GROK….seems ALL of the data being accessed will feed into this ‘privately funded venture’. There are local EPA concerns, power supply concerns, etc.
From Government Executive:
(More at the link.)
Fortunately, Musk and DOGE are such principled protectors of privacy that there’s nothing to worry about here, right?
No worries; on Fox Stephen Miller looked right into the camera and said you can trust Musk.
heh.
If that’s not reason for worry, nothing is.
i’d question the Pope if Miller endorsed him…
@ neetanddave:
Like the Pope I, too, am suffering from Musk’s Numb-Own-ya
Was that before or after he peeled off the silicone mask to reveal the Lizard Man inside?
I’m hoping that Congress wakes up and notices that none of this is actually being done by a government department, or actual government employees.
In my contractor days in the Pentagon, when I went to a meeting I always identified myself by name, followed by “…contract support to (HQ directorate name and staff component).” If someone in the meeting tried to corner me on what the client would say or do, I would state “I am a contractor, not a government employee. This is how I would advise my client, but the final decision is theirs.”
It’s a basic ethics thing.
I think most GOP members know it. But they have wanted to have the government shrunk small enough to drown in the bathtub for decades. This is their golden opportunity. They can let Doge do it and never have to go on the record with the difficult votes that would be needed to, for example, fire nuclear safety workers, or people who work to keep the drinking water safe, fight pandemics, or keep planes from crashing into each other.
Selling of the government to the world’s richest man is just the price for fulfilling the dream.
And Doge gives the GOP Congress just enough cover to satisfy the rubes for the short period of time they figure the revolution needs to be successful. The actions are fast, the courts are slow.
The courts are too slow. A week after a judge ordered USAID payments unfrozen, they are still not being paid out. Judge Ali admonished the gov’t again, but didn’t hold them in contempt.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/20/judge-warn-trump-administration-foreign-aid-00205377
I’ve posted this before, but this affirms my suspicion. Musk is Trump’s Wizard of Oz.
No substance, all propaganda.
Wicked Witch of the West, more like, with a crew of evil monkeys.
As to substance, Musk is likely collecting some of that in various forms right now.
True, dat—Stephen Miller is the Wizard, aka the “Man Behind the Curtain.”
Oh there is plenty of substance there. We have no idea what Musk and his Muskateer Hackers are doing. The potential back doors they may be installing could devastate the government for years.
Even if they did nothing more than what we can see, which is next to nothing, they have undermined the public’s confidence in what the government says from here out.
Will you ever be able to trust the security of your information ?
Here’s another good example of DOGE smoke and mirrors:
https://x.com/AliceFromQueens/status/1892095449789612201
tldr: DOGE claims savings from ‘Blanket Purchase Agreement’ contracts – blank contracts for possible periodic purchases – as ‘savings’ even though they have never been used. In addition, these contracts haven’t even been cancelled – they have just been amended to prevent their use for any purchases related to DEI. There are many of them – 3 for $30,000,000 each at DHS, on which ZERO dollars have been actually saved.
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The latest bright idea is to send “DOGE refund checks” to everyone who’s paid “net income taxes”, from the imaginary savings they’re claiming to have made.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/20/2305021/-Trump-may-try-to-buy-off-Americans-with-DOGE-refund-scam
and blow up inflation like the stimulus checks did…
Unlikely. People needed that money!
no doubt,but it didn’t just appear and caused inflation to spike. prices went craz.
https://reason.com/2023/02/02/covid-stimulus-spending-played-sizable-role-in-inflation/
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This is a dangerous PR stunt to make the tax bill more palatable. Paid for to a large extent by people and families that didn’t do anything to deserve the rug getting pulled. Unfortunately it will work.
IIRC, upwards of 75% of the PPP Covid relief funds went to people who it was not intended for. If the stated DOGE goal is to lower deficits then it makes little sense, but “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”
It is far past time we curbed this DOGE.
A report on NPR today said based on their analysis it would amount to about 11$ “refund” to each American taxpayer…
Two THREADs on Bluesky that I found interesting in regard to this topic:
1] GREAT Thread re: USDS from Emily Tav:
[BIO: Policy + design + tech. Angry optimist. // Teaching + researching at Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy. Co-Curator of an oral history of the US Digital Service origin story // ex: @usds // @whitehouse @ashoka]
https://bsky.app/profile/emilytav.bsky.social/post/3liiomlaib22a
February 18, 2025 at 9:02 PM
2] THREAD from CapitolHunters:
https://bsky.app/profile/capitolhunters.bsky.social/post/3lil7lpbhv22w
February 19, 2025 at 9:10 PM
And then there’s this from a link in that bsky thread:
“Renaming” the US Digital Service
“The DOGE (“Department of Government Efficiency”) grift has begun with a Jan 20th executive order “renaming” the US Digital Service. And giving it vague new instructions. All federal agencies are required to share not only technology and systems access–which would make sense if you were building tech products–but adding in data (“agency records.”)
Why give unlimited access to agency data? The US Digital Service didn’t need unlimited access to that information before. It’s the opposite of “efficiency” to get access to information you don’t need. But like most of the Trump grift, words are often used to describe the opposite of reality. You don’t need access to agency records to improve government websites. But you do need it to gain secret market advantages or the ability to target anyone you want.”
Translation: Orwell nailed it.
I hope one or several of those legal orgs (Eisen’s, e.g.), that have been executing the dozens (soon to be myriad) of resistance lawsuits, can find a statute or constitutional provision that’s been violated to hitch these heinous actions to a very big, new one that encompasses this issue.
This is invasion of privacy on an almost unbelievable scale, especially with AI adepts working the levers. The potential for harm, both accidental and intentional, is staggering.
This is an infinity-alarm fire. Time is absolutely of the essence.
https://kathleenpequeno.com/2025/01/hollowing-us-digital-service/
And to follow up with respect to the various other immediate harms that DOGE is flagrantly inflicting on people and systems: maybe they are meant as mere distractions from the big one, described by Ms Pequeno.
These are malignant people doing this to us, and they’re executing a conquering blitzkrieg, explicitly so stated by them in advance. This is the headline, folks.
Obama can make it such. He instituted the USDS, after all. I’m contacting Rubin and Eisen.
King Leer
Here in Putin’s hefty sublet nation,
Musk juiced it up with acceleration
and Republican administration:
Transnational Criminal Organization.
Just to make it unqualifiedly clear,
Recollect it comes with its own King Leer,
A Don who often lusts to domineer,
When he’s not ensnared by his puppeteer.
The 2025 Manifesto,
And the DOGE blitzkrieg, storming TCO,
One’s got con-vention, & one’s got brio,
But more than anything, they’ve got ego.
His lip curled up in a viscous sneer,
Mr. Grab-‘em-by-the-pussy, then jeer,
The only thing he’ll ever volunteer
is he wants to be a magnate, King Leer.
His predilection for his vocation
revolves around his wish for predation,
If he can’t secure appropriation,
He’ll get all he can through vexation.
Brilliant, SL!
They’re working hard to send Democracy on permanent vacation.
“TCO.” It has a certain stickiness to it.
Notify Wikipedia. Total Cost of Ownership, move over!
Awkward, could be a new page and a new link in the disambiguation of “TCO” at Wikipedia.org.
Or a subset of “transnational organized crime” — see disambiguation at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOC
Words matter. Journalists and editors can do the public an enormous service by startling their otherwise-lulled readers with the slap of truth. Why does the New York Times pull its punches when its stories could serve as a perfectly timed uppercut to the grotesque glass jaw that is “my Administration,” the Musky hobby lobby slash playpen for spoiled little Nazis-in-waiting?
The example here looks insignificant. From Marcy’s post above: “…DOGE removed the screenshot that showed the mismatch, but continued to claim $8 billion in savings. It added a link to the original, incorrect version of the listing showing an $8 billion value.” The problem? That “original” version was not “incorrect.” Incorrect is when you get a security code and reverse a couple of numbers. Incorrect implies lack of culpable motive. That original version–the one DOGE kept linking to, after the grand New York Times caught them out–was (at the very least) FALSE.
Incorrect is “Oopsie.” What Trump, Musk, Vought, and their henchmen are doing…is not an oopsie.
But the Times wants to preserve its access to “my Administration,” that game of Telephone that circulates rumors to Maggie Haberman so she can tease them on CNN; and they learned a decade ago that Trump gets clicks.
The whole exercise is about access to data in an uncontrolled manner, and zero oversight where it will be used/manipulated/’edited’. McCarthy in the ’50s was notorious for using faked data (“I have here in my hand…”) but with the modern tools it will become even more difficult to prove government fakery. That’s even before considering what Putin, MBS, KJU, etc. will do with our secrets. Keep your own paper copies, you may need them. For example, look out for bogus tax claims where the government claims you didn’t pay them or took unauthorized deductions.
So, what could possibly be keeping Convict-1 on Putin’s leash? He already has the WH, the levers and guardrails secured with his lackeys, a subservient GOP in Congress, a pet Supreme Court majority. I really do not see how Convict-1 could be attacked easily in political terms and given how he really doesn’t care what we think of him I doubt the polling affects him either. That includes embarrassing stuff like pee tapes, etc., so what does Putin have on Convict-1 to keep him in line so thoroughly? It has to be really big, bigger than shooting someone on Fifth Avenue. Any ideas?
I always keep my paper tax return copy.
I kept my pay stubs, too. (Friend found they were needed, once, when the guy in charge of sending the money to the government stole the FISA deduction money and fled the country. His pay stubs proved he’d had it deducted from his pay. The IRS was happy with him, but I don’t know if they ever caught up with the embezzler.)
The one thing that would turn this whole country against both of them. And quickly. MADD isn’t just for nukes
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Here are some thoughts on the subject:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/19/2236080/-Does-Putin-Own-Trump
Also, all their talk of “cutting waste” is a deliberate distraction from the increased waste of fuel and water due to deregulation (e.g., more gas guzzlers, getting pounded by a nice hot hard shower).
Here is a 62 year old’s point of view. If you can’t see it for what it is, a blatant disregard for the Constitution, a takeover in progress at EXPEDENTIAL speed, with a Wag The Dog (check out the movie) staff. Nothing but spinners who claim there is no wrongdoing, even when caught with the “Hand In The Cookie Jar.” History: To come to authoritarian rule: 1: Create an enemy (Democrats) 2: Convince a mass following that this is the Enemy and rile them to anger 3: Proceed with the takeover with no or little opposition. Note: NO (I mean none, zero, nada) dictatorship/authoritarian rule has EVER helped the general public or people. Only oligarchs’ (which means filthy rich) benefit. The young people in this country are in trouble and for the first time in my life I will see the younger generation with LESS wealth than the previous. The average person working an average job will be hit the most. Advice: When property values plummet ( I’ve seen it 3 times in my life) buy a home so you have something to leave your children for they will need it!!! FACT: Average age of a child leaving the home with a college degree 28. Fact: Average child leaving the home does not purchase (can not afford) a home instead they have to rent for 5-8 years. Save some money for the future economy is drastically in trouble. Also keep up on world events. Put The Guardian, The Toronto Star, The Independent, Global Times (China), Russia Today and The New York Times in your bookmarks and check front page DAILY because of how fast this is going. Good Luck All (everyone).
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Thank you. This was great example of reporting that I am sending off to all of my people on the fence, or who have bad info streams.
I have been saying for years that if the Ds went after corruption, they would have had a winning ticket.
I didn’t expect MAGA to take this platform, but I am not surprised that it is all a ruse to grift themselves. That is to be expected from peole who have always stolen the ideas of others as their own.
I have had to take a break from the firehouse of info, but I always come back here to get digestible information I can disseminate to my friends and family.
Marcy your reporting is my pacifier to not freak the f out everyday I decide to turn on the news.
So many people are scared and confused and straight fact reporting is a breath of fresh air that keeps me sane while engaged.
A genius guy named Mark….something, created a wayback machine for government sites where you can see sites pre-Jan 20.
https://govwayback.com/
o/t USPS:
https://bsky.app/profile/washingtonpost.com/post/3linklas4wk2w
February 20, 2025 at 7:33 PM
The Post Office is NOT subject to The Executive.
It says so IN Article I of the Constitution…Congress
There’s a screenshot here…the Board has retained counsel and
has instructed them to sue the WH if any action is taken.
https://bsky.app/profile/joshuajfriedman.com/post/3linm2jr3as2s
February 20, 2025 at 7:59 PM
I can’t think of anything more calculated to get *everyone* mad at him and President Musk. EVERYONE uses snailmail. Including newspapers, manufacturers, and Amazon.
I don’t think the President would be a good candidate to trust with grandma’s mail order meds.
Or the vote by mail.
Are you saying DOGE is a dog?
Savage Librarian, how do we incorporate that into every comment and post, DOGE is a dog?
I think that framing does dogs a disservice, since I have never met an evil dog. But DOGE is dodgy AF.
Exactly. Dogs are loyal to a fault. DOGE is DODGY has hell, and nothing like a dog.
The old joke is, “The difference between your wife and your dog is, if you lock your wife and your dog in the trunk of your car, when you open it, the dog will be overjoyed to see you”.
Dogs don’t like the Felon47, and I’ll bet they don’t like the muskrat, either. My bet is that neither have ever had a pet of any kind.
“if you lock your wife and your dog in the trunk of your car,”
What?!
Congressman Robert Garcia is being threatened by President Musk, via acting DC DA Martin. For “threatening” him, by calling him a dick.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/20/2305123/-Congressman-who-called-Musk-a-dick-gets-put-on-notice-by-DOJ
Being called a dick, was he really called a dick by a congresscritter?, being called a dick is probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said to Elon Musk.
The actual “threat”, as I understand it, is not that he called Musk a dick (he did do that too). It’s from a remark on a CNN interview where Garcia said that constituents want their elected Dem officials to “bring an actual weapon to a barfight”. He was speaking metaphorically, trying to emphasize that Dems need to up their fight level.
Anyway, Musk complained to Ed Martin that Garcia was making veiled threats on his life, which caused Martin to send a “please clarify what you meant” letter to Rep. Garcia. Essentially a “free speech chiller” shot across the bow from Musk via Martin.
Here’s an interview between Jen Psaki and Rep. Garcia explaining all of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d899ZktCAo8
President Musk revealing how dim he really is, by not recognizing the phrase as non-literal.
But then, I doubt he’s ever even heard of bar fights. (He looks like the kind of guy who drinks alone at home, because no one wants him around.)
These people are literally drunk with power. Did you see Musk wielding the chainsaw over his head at CPAC? And Argentine president Millei cheering him on in the background? Both celebrating their contributions to the destruction of governance, any governance…
“If you don’t fight like hell you won’t have a country left.”
‘I don’t effing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in, they can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the effing mags away.”
Aw, where’s that famous MAGA sense of humor? What happened to free speech and rhetorical hyperbole?
The article is correct in that the entire point of the DOGE effort is to feed red meat to wingnuts whose most fervent belief is “no free shit to black people “.
INSURRECTIONISTS getting the Gang back together at the scene of the crime. TODAY.
Brandi Buchman:
https://bsky.app/profile/brandibuchman.bsky.social/post/3liodn3k6hc2j
February 21, 2025 at 3:01 AM
In that screenshot:
1:25 PM SECRET SERVICE:
1:25 PM Leadership Signal Chat:
1:26 PM U.S. Capitol Police orders evacuation of the U.S. Capitol complex
1:27 PM BIGGS, NORDEAN, OTHER PB’s saying they’ve stormed the Capitol
1:28 PM Rep. Pramila JAYAPAL (D-Wash.) texts her husband, Steve Williamson:
1:29 PM Multiple buildings on the Hill are now being evacuated. [K. Collins tweet]
1:29 PM President Trump called for his supporters to march from the White House area down Penn toward the Capitol. Hundreds doing so now. [Ford Fischer VIDEO]
1:30 PM [just before] Leadership Intel Chat [in response to a claim by an Oath Keepers affiliate that Antifa had breached the Capitol]:
1:30 PM People inside DNC bldg. told to shelter in place
1:31 PM [Freedom Plaza] JONES: They just breached the Capitol
1:38 PM RHODES: all i see trump doing is complaining. … so patriots are taking it into their own hands. they’ve had enough.
2:38 PM Unknown to OK “Leaders” chat:
2:38 PM TARRIO [on sm]: “Don’t fucking leave.”
2:39 PM PB group chat
3:30 PM RHODES/OK’s gather on North East Capitol Steps
4:13 PM Jim ACOSTA tweets:
4:14 PM PB’s group chat:
[^^ There’s a missing comment in the pokey]
5:58 PM RHODES to OLD Leadership Chat:
7:41 PM RHODES to Leaders; Signal:
And, I’m sorry, but I just want to add links to two photos and I’ll be done.
2:00 PM https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1460433188074016771
5:04 PM https://x.com/LeahMillis/status/1611340468226342913
What’s the diff between RFK and Ashli Babbitt?
The worms only ate his brain.
This joke kills at MAGA rallies.