Comment by ganoushoreilly

Comment by ganoushoreilly 2 days ago

70 replies

I understand you're frustrated because of who and what. Do you have any direct evidence they are stealing data? I see a lot of these responses that are emotional but at a factual basis it doesn't appear that way. Just as raw un restricted read/write access is constantly alleged, but we have in turn found out that isn't the case.

I really think we're getting to a point where people are too hyper emotional and sensational about most topics which further limits real discussion and response.

As for the idea of nickle and dimming, everything adds up and they're no where near done yet. Sunlight is the best disinfectant and we need a lot of it. Nearly every person that has run for president in modern years has stated they would go after excess spending and fraud, yet none follow through. This time someone is. If years of doing nothing gets us further down the debt rabbit hole, what harm is being done?

jhp123 2 days ago

> Just as raw un restricted read/write access is constantly alleged, but we have in turn found out that isn't the case.

Marko "normalize Indian hate" Elez did have read/write access, as DOGE lawyers admitted in court after first claiming that he did not[0].

[0] https://thehill.com/business/5141149-former-doge-employee-ed...

  • dazilcher 2 days ago

    He was mistakenly given write access by the treasury department employees in charge of managing DOGE permissions. He resigned a day later, likely before he even realized he had write access. In that short window, he accessed the system "exclusively under the supervision of Bureau database administrators", and the initial treasury department investigation did not find any misuse of said write permissions.

    I don't see how this can be blamed on DOGE. If anything it shows that DOGE employees are closely monitored, and their access is minimized and audited.

    https://www.zetter-zeroday.com/court-documents-shed-new-ligh...

  • ganoushoreilly 2 days ago

    and they immediately course corrected as they should

    • jhp123 2 days ago

      let me ask you a question. Richard Nixon had a special team under his direct control, they're popularly known as the white house plumbers. He asked this team to engage in activities not directly authorized by congress including various wiretaps and break-ins. Eventually these activities were discovered, it became a scandal and ended his Presidency.

      Do you think Nixon did something wrong by creating this team?

      If not, then we have an answer for why most people see this whole thing differently from you — most people see the Nixon presidency as clear overreach and abuse of power.

      If so, what is the significant difference between Nixon's plumbers and the DOGE team, in your view?

      • ganoushoreilly 2 days ago

        Were the "white house plumbers" operating in the clear? On a defined task that was campaigned on? Working with legal as well as existing employees within each organization (yes I get they were simply stealing info)?

        This was campaigned on, The election was won. In this instance the outcome is what the majority elected. You don't have to like it, some may change their mind, but this was made clear as a goal from day 1.

        I've also not been cagey in my support. I fully support what is going on. If you see overreach follow the processes in place and litigate. That's how the country works. There's two distinct issues people have here, the "WHO" and the "WHAT" no one questions the "WHY", because no one can stand here and say we don't need to have cuts across the board. Ignoring the "WHO", the "WHAT" so far has been pretty clear. It's things that socially are supported by one party and not the other. This is the outcome of an election and it's going to keep going until someone proves they are outside of their authorities and the courts agree.

        It sucks to have a narrative perspective for years and then see everything supported under that narrative cut back. I get the emotions, but ultimately none of that matters if we can't afford to keep the proverbial lights on.

      • ModernMech 2 days ago

        Nixon had a 25% approval after he left office. I think there's a baseline of about 20-30% of people who are pro-authoritarian, and they don't really want to admit it yet, but they're fine with their team doing whatever they want, as long as they get their way.

      • cryptonector 2 days ago

        Trump is not directing "wiretaps" or "break-ins" into entities outside the executive branch of the federal government.

    • stouset 2 days ago

      By re-hiring him?

      • ganoushoreilly 2 days ago

        Sure. They made a decision and stand by it as is their luxury. Yelling at the vacuum of the internet about it may score emotional points but it won't sole the core frustrations people have. The common argument is "yes we need to do it, but do it another way" to which I say, it hasn't been done another way and plenty have had time to do it. Pushing things off and procrastinating in general, combined with a President that is largely supported and on a 2nd term, with no need to pander means you get exactly what was voted for.

        The left had their turn to "fix things" they didn't. The right are trying now, and maybe their methods are wrong, but they're trying. What you're seeing is a power struggle playing out, the people who've been king of the hill are being throw to the side and don't like it.

    • pixelpoet 2 days ago

      Sorry but this is very clearly moving the goalposts; you asked, got a very seriously problematic example, and then brushed it off with "yeah but..."

      Come on man, are we really at the level of just letting that slide and pretending this is a legit operation? That Musk has only the best intentions, as his track record clearly shows right?

      I can't believe what I'm seeing, the world has gone fully crazy.

      • ganoushoreilly 2 days ago

        Yep it's legitimate and I see no issues with it. The track record of the last admin was crazy were you saying the same things then? The left screamed trust the science in one breath over covid, then said science is fluid in the other when it came to biology. The left went to far and 15 or so years of being propped up and supported has gone by the wayside. I get it, people are upset, but at the end of the day we're here because of the "crazy" spending on "crazy" ideas.

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guax 2 days ago

Sunlight is publish the findings and take action after.

They're firing people's, seeing the repercussion and the publishing a list of program names. Not evaluations, not analysis. Nothing substantial, just gotcha out of context strings.

Do you think the entirety of USAID was "fraud" and waste? What about the US park service?

I am not American and the only time I saw my country do this kind of action in this manner was during its military government.

arrosenberg 2 days ago

I have common sense. They put the least serious people possible in charge of it, so of course I'm not going to take it seriously.

> I really think we're getting to a point where people are too hyper emotional and sensational about most topics which further limits real discussion and response.

Maybe, but this has nothing to do with emotion. I'm not a moron. An actual audit would be great, but would take more than the 30 days that Trump has been in office. They are lying, so I am left to speculate as to what.

> This time someone is.

Do you have any direct evidence they are doing something about it? I see several people supporting these actions that are based on emotion, but at a factual basis, it appears you are just regurgitating party propaganda.

  • ganoushoreilly 2 days ago

    Who do you propose be put in charge? Why when the Democrats were in power weren't they put in charge before?

    As for an actual audit, those have been done left and right. Audits only validate where the money is going not why.

    Clearly they are doing something, budgeted spend is being cut and most notably if they weren't doing anything we wouldn't be having this discussion. We are also only a handful of weeks into the presidency. They're being very clear about what they are doing. Looking line by line at some of these cuts, I've yet to see anyone here actually debate the validity of all of the spend. Yes good programs will likely be impacted, things will be course corrected and brought back where appropriate.

    It's a painful process no mater who is executing it. The only way to reduce the budgetary spend of the country is to do just that, cut spend. You start small and work your way up.

    • trts 2 days ago

      interesting to behold this inversion where the "conservative" side is taking dramatic and rapid action, changing things quickly, while the "progressive" side vociferously defends the status quo

      • aredox 2 days ago

        The conservative side is not taking action, it is regressing things to pre-1968 norms.

        Progressives weren't defending the status quo, they were trying to improve the lives of people who were at the bottom of social order for centuries.

      • ganoushoreilly 2 days ago

        It is, the right appears to be playing the same hand the left has for years and the people are supporting it. Naturally this makes someone that has strong left leaning convictions frustrated as they come the realization that they aren't the majority and the numbers of people that support one narrative on the internet aren't a reflection of society as a whole. The bigger picture is this isn't localized, that's how you know it's a larger problem. Countries around the world are having the same discourse and results. People are done with it. Identity politics is over. Spending excess money to support these groups is over.

    • aredox 2 days ago

      For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

      You are embracing those clear, simple answers. You are going to pay dearly for it.

      • ganoushoreilly 2 days ago

        We’ll have to disagree. I believe the mindless waste of the past administration and their programs and narratives on things like biology were clear simple and wrong.

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  • theultdev 2 days ago

    [flagged]

    • arrosenberg 2 days ago

      > Right, which is why it's still ongoing. They have a year to complete it.

      So maybe the President's special boy shouldn't be tweeting that 150 year olds are receiving Social Security payments because he doesn't understand cobol's datetime system. That only way I take these people seriously is the way I would take a toddler with a lit torch seriously.

      • ganoushoreilly 2 days ago

        We don't have the data in front of us to actually prove your point one way or the other. Resulting to name calling and hyper emotional responses doesn't elicit the behavior of cooperation. Instead, engage on data and facts.

        If you said "He's making statements without any data to back up his claims" I'd respond, at this point you're correct, we do not have the data to verify. Collectively we could ask for more transparency. The result is we agree more data is needed.

      • pests 2 days ago

        While I disagree with everything going on, the cobol date time thing is just some myth everyone came up with. Go find me a single source to that claim because I can’t.

    • JohnMakin 2 days ago

      So, where is your evidence that fraud of such scale is happening in the federal budget that requires unprecedented (and likely extremely illegal) access by people who are not qualified to be running a gas station IT system, let alone the entire financial and IT backend of the federal government? This is such a dishonest discussion and I suspect you types know it.