Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

[LordMortis]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Katie Britt has been working to make sure the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency doesn't hit what she called “life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions,” including her state's beloved University of Alabama.

So long as Leopards don't touch her face. They need to stay in their lane, making blue states more efficient.

[Pyperkub]

Red State begging for Federal funding!

[Kraken]

Some GOP politicians are concerned:

“We need to have a conversation with DOGE and the administration about exactly what they’ve done here,” said Simpson, a seasoned lawmaker who sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee. “It’s a concern to all of us.”

Glad that they're concerned. Here's looking forward to when they have a discussion and possibly elevate this to holding some meetings.

I won't rest until they form a committee.

[Holman]

Some GOP politicians are concerned:

“We need to have a conversation with DOGE and the administration about exactly what they’ve done here,” said Simpson, a seasoned lawmaker who sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee. “It’s a concern to all of us.”

Glad that they're concerned. Here's looking forward to when they have a discussion and possibly elevate this to holding some meetings.

I won't rest until they form a committee.

And, dare we hope, release a statement?

[Max Peck]

I done gone and read a bunch of different meanings for -roro and I still got nothing.

The explanation I've seen is that it is short for "roger roger" and is used in the sense of a sign-off meaning "bye, contact me if you're interested", which seems to be based on the use of roger in the Malaysian(?) expression "pape roger", allegedly. Anyway, that usage makes sense if someone says they just slorped up a database, since it basically says to hit them up if you're interested in what they found.

[Enough]

Some GOP politicians are concerned:

“We need to have a conversation with DOGE and the administration about exactly what they’ve done here,” said Simpson, a seasoned lawmaker who sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee. “It’s a concern to all of us.”

Glad that they're concerned. Here's looking forward to when they have a discussion and possibly elevate this to holding some meetings.

I won't rest until they form a committee.

And, dare we hope, release a statement?

I am hearing there will be a strong statement that calls for the parties to work together on reducing taxes and the cost of government for the American people.

[Holman]

DOGE Website Hacked and Defaced

According to the hackers, the DOGE site’s security flaws stemmed from its use of a database known as Cloudflare Pages—an unsecured platform that anyone with access could edit. This oversight allowed the intruders to deface the website with messages like, “this is a joke of a .gov site” and, “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN -roro.”

I done gone and read a bunch of different meanings for -roro and I still got nothing.

Also is this what happens when President Leon tries to create something rather than buy someone else's work?

My first impression is that "roro" in this context is "LoLo " upside down. In real words, mocking laughter.

(The font in the screenshot of the original message makes the r's of "roro" look more like upside-down letter L's.)

[Blackhawk]

It's usually used to refer to someone who is mentally challenged.

[Kraken]

My only association was Scooby Doo, but I guess that would be ro-ro.

[Blackhawk]

That would be ruh-ro.

[$iljanus]

That would be ruh-ro.

Scooby would definitely say that DOGE is "ruh-ro"

[Smoove_B]

Imagine publishing classified information on a website and nothing happens:

Elon Musk’s team at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has posted classified information about the size and staff of a U.S. intelligence agency on its new website, raising bigger concerns about where Musk’s programmers got this information and what they are doing with it.

...

The website states in tiny print at the bottom that its database excludes information from U.S. intelligence agencies.

But an easy search shows that DOGE’s database provides details on the National Reconnaissance Office, the federal agency that designs, builds and maintains U.S. intelligence satellites. Not only are NRO’s budgets and head counts classified, but the prospect of Musk’s tech team meddling in sensitive personnel information is setting off alarms for some in the intelligence community.

“DOGE just posted secret NOFORN info on their website about [intelligence community] headcount, so currently people are scrambling to check if their info has been accessed,” said one Defense Intelligence Agency employee, who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation from senior leaders.

NOFORN stands for “Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals,” meaning information in this category can’t be shared with any foreign governments, international organizations or foreign nationals without specific authorization.

Official response:

Hours after this story published, a White House spokesperson said in a statement that DOGE did not share classified information ― even as NRO’s classified information was still accessible on DOGE’s website.

“DOGE did not share classified information, any assertion to the contrary is a lie,” said the spokesperson. “Yesterday the accusation was DOGE was not transparent and today the accusation is DOGE is too transparent. Stop the fearmongering, DOGE’s mission remains to cut waste, fraud, and abuse and are doing so with the proper security clearances and following the law.”

[Zarathud]

I would expect the CIA analysts are screaming about the security breaches. But this is the same President who took classified materials back to Mar a Lago and stored them in the bathroom.

[Kraken]

That would be ruh-ro.

However one spells it, "ruh-ro" is an appropriate comment where it appears. When I read -roro I heard ruh-ro.

[LordMortis]

That would be ruh-ro.

However one spells it, "ruh-ro" is an appropriate comment where it appears. When I read -roro I heard ruh-ro.

That was my first instinct based on DOGE but roro instead of ruh ro had me headscratching. That said, I've moved on. Publishing classified information and responding with “DOGE did not share classified information, any assertion to the contrary is a lie" from a bunch of people whom last I recall are without passing actual security clearance protocols also while claiming that pointing out what they are doing with actual facts is fearmongering as they cut funding and responsible for mass firings is a little concerning.

[LordMortis]

This is fine

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/nx-s1-52 ... rings-nnsa

Scenes of confusion and chaos unfolded over the last two days at the civilian agency that oversees the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, as the Trump administration's mass firings were carried out before being "paused" on Friday.

This account of firings at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is based on interviews with several current and former NNSA employees who asked to remain anonymous, fearing retribution from the Trump administration.

Officials were given hours to fire hundreds of employees, and workers were shut out of email as termination notices arrived. The terminations were part of a broader group of dismissals at the Department of Energy, where reportedly more than a thousand federal workers were terminated. It was all a result of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative to slash the federal workforce and what Musk and President Trump characterize as excessive government spending.

The NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy that oversees the U.S. stockpile of thousands of nuclear weapons. Despite having the words "National" and "Security" in its title, it was not getting an exemption for national security, managers at the agency were told last Friday, according to an employee at NNSA who asked not to be named, fearing retribution from the Trump administration. Just days before, officials in leadership had scrambled to write descriptions for the roughly 300 probationary employees at the agency who had joined the federal workforce less than two years ago.

...continues at the link...

[Holman]

I refuse to believe that the Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies are lazy and incompetent enough NOT to have turned at least one of Musk's DOGEboys into an active source by now. Unless they owned Musk himself already.

[Blackhawk]

I refuse to believe that the Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies are lazy and incompetent enough NOT to have turned at least one of Musk's DOGEboys into an active source by now. Unless they owned Musk himself already.

I've been considering the possibility that Musk is working with a competing nation since day one. It would certainly represent a masterful espionage operation on their part.

[LordMortis]

What defines day 1? For me it didn't begin to get consideration until his Red Pill nonsense nor serious consideration until after backers made it easy to buy Twitter. After that, everything had to pass the check "am I being paranoid?" and it was insane how much did. By the time Ukraine was being invaded... Until then I still "wanted" to believe it was just greed.

[LawBeefaroni]

I think he, and most of the billionaire class, consider themselves extra-national. They are above governments and don't hold allegiance to any nation. He's not anti or pro USA/China/Russia, he's pro Musk. World leaders are just pawns to be manipulated, bought, and swindled. The US is just the fattest pig and eventually it too must be slaughtered and butchered.

[LordMortis]

I think he, and most of the billionaire class, consider themselves extra-national. They are above governments and don't hold allegiance to any nation. He's not anti or pro USA/China/Russia, he's pro Musk. World leaders are just pawns to be manipulated, bought, and swindled. The US is just the fattest pig and eventually it too must be slaughtered and butchered.

I call them world citizens but, yeah. I don't know that he's brave enough to swindle nor to try and buy Putin but working with him to improve the power of Leon uber alles, definitely. As to what that means? I've yet to see anything that leads to believe there any possibility of good. The Dank and Musky Foundation as his charitable face shows that as clear a clean plane of glass.

[LordMortis]

Remember this

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/tech/elo ... index.html

$6 Billion plan to feed the world if he could...

Instead he'd rather

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/wor ... 404374007/

Food going to waste in warehouses

Almost 282 million people in 59 countries and territories experienced extreme food shortages that threatened their lives or livelihoods in 2023, according to the 2024 Global Report on Food Crises.

Until USAID food purchases and deliveries resumed late Monday as part of a waiver, more than 475,000 metric tons of U.S. food commodities − corn and cornmeal, lentils, pinto beans, rice, sorghum, vegetable oil, wheat and yellow split peas − bound for overseas were at risk of being wasted, according to a USAID official briefed on the matter.

This food, grown by American farmers, is enough to feed 36 million people.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the turmoil at USAID, said more than 29,000 metric tons of food commodities were, as of Monday, sitting on the floor in USAID warehouses in Houston, unable to be loaded onto waiting U.S.-flagged ships for transportation to hungry people in Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti and Sudan. USAID food also was waiting to be loaded at ports in Boston; Chicago; Miami; New York; Norfolk, Virginia; and Savannah, Georgia, according to the official, who shared an internal USAID memo on the topic.

[Pyperkub]

Chesterton's Fence applies

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/14/climate/ ... ings-trump

Trump officials fired nuclear staff not realizing they oversee the country’s weapons stockpile, sources say

[Holman]

I refuse to believe that the Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies are lazy and incompetent enough NOT to have turned at least one of Musk's DOGEboys into an active source by now. Unless they owned Musk himself already.

I've been considering the possibility that Musk is working with a competing nation since day one. It would certainly represent a masterful espionage operation on their part.

Isn't it known that Musk was in independent contact with Putin before the election, and perhaps throughout the current Ukraine war?

I assume that an American talking with Putin is being monitored, but fat chance of anything coming of that now.

[waitingtoconnect]

People who know musk have been saying he views this as his chance to rule the world.

He’s already intervening in the Canadian, German and Australian elections due this year. And in Uk politics he’s helped bring a political party from nowhere to an election winning position in less than six months.

His goal is to create an Anglophone empire, what George Orwell referred to in his book as Oceania. Orwell was mocking evangelicals in the 19th century who saw this as a requirement to save civilisation from non-white people.

[waitingtoconnect]

Put a human face in what Doge is doing.

To Ranger Brian.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NationalPark/s/BKYbJPXpme



Man is being accused on Facebook of being fake by maga trolls as well.

There’s also a number of Maga types putting up April 20 can’t come fast enough on various social media channels.

[RunningMn9]

What’s happening on April 20?

[Kraken]

There’s also a number of Maga types putting up April 20 can’t come fast enough on various social media channels.

I'll bite...what's happening on 4/20? Other than 420, I mean.

[LawBeefaroni]

There’s also a number of Maga types putting up April 20 can’t come fast enough on various social media channels.

I missed it, what is April 20? Other than Musk's second or third favorite dumb joke.




Also, we can only hope these price cuts and safety shortcuts are as ill-advised as all the rest:

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said last month that Musk is working with the company to help speed delivery of the Air Force One replacements.

Trump is also interested in changing the color scheme of Air Force One from light blue to a darker blue. An earlier attempt by Trump to switch the colors was dropped by then-President Joe Biden after a study concluded that doing so would require additional testing and cause further delays, adding to the cost.

[Blackhawk]

I believe that's the 90-day mark from Trump signing all of his executive orders, and will see protections stripped from federal employees, and anti-discriminatory policies fully eliminated.

[Alefroth]

Also Hitler's birthday.

[LordMortis]

Also Hitler's birthday.

I did not know that. That would add a whole new dimension to President Leon's love for the day.

[Kurth]

I’ve been thinking about Elon Musk and DOGE and his concerted, almost manic, effort to eviscerate the federal government. In trying to understand Elon’s motivation and end game, it struck me that maybe it’s ridiculously simple: When you are the richest individual in the world and worth $430 billion dollars, who is your only real threat? Who or what is the only thing that is bigger than you? I think it’s the federal government. I think Elon is trying to kill the federal government because he wants to feel secure knowing he is truly at the top of the food chain.

[Smoove_B]

I'm sure that's part of it, yeah.

But I also think he's absolutely acting as the proxy-President right now - his son gave away the plot when he blurted out what he's hearing his dad say when they're alone. Everything he's doing/encouraging feeds his ego - I'm sure X is filled with people telling him how smart and great he is for creating DOGE.

[Blackhawk]

My pet theory with Elon is that he's still an insecure high school kid who prefers to get lost in a game of D&D than face the real world. He just happens to be one who got lucky enough to survive the early internet and became insanely rich because of it. You can see it in the way he dabbles in various tech fields - a little bit of space, a little bit of sci-fi supercar, and so on. He's playing a real-life game of "Let's be big and powerful" because it makes him feel good and 'impresses' people. And now he's getting to play it in the biggest, most impressive way that he could ever imagine.

I've seen similar behavior in others (although obviously at a much reduced scale.)

Now, it's irresponsible to attribute everything any human does to a single motivation. Human motivations are like Venn diagrams - we have a bunch of them, and tend to focus our energies where they overlap. Most of what we discuss is the more overt motivations. This isn't one of those - I just think it's one of the deeper, more ingrained factors in what he does.

[Holman]

Oh, look. It appears that yet another of Musk's DOGEstaffen is motivated by an embrace of Neo-Nazi RightThink.

[hepcat]

Even if the reason for all this shit is that they’re just young and being stupid…THAT SHOULD BE A GODDAMN REASON THEY SHOULDN’T BE TOUCHING CLASSIFIED PERSONAL INFORMATION OF THIS TYPE, NOT AN EXCUSE.

Fucking J.D. Couchfucker trying to tell everyone that just pisses me off.

[Blackhawk]

According to a certain family member, your doctor, car dealer, and all sorts of other people have your SSN, so why not Musk and his secretive police?

[Skinypupy]

According to a certain family member, your doctor, car dealer, and all sorts of other people have your SSN, so why not Musk and his secretive police?

This seems to be the prevailing opinion from my MAGA family members as well.

[Grifman]

According to a certain family member, your doctor, car dealer, and all sorts of other people have your SSN, so why not Musk and his secretive police?

This seems to be the prevailing opinion from my MAGA family members as well.

Because I chose to give them my SS - I had no say as to whether Musk would have it.