I don’t think we fully appreciate the insane hubris of acting like you can send a couple of IT guys into a massive and complex government department and they will uncover in days what career watchdogs tasked with monitoring for waste, fraud, and abuse couldn’t. - ThreadSky

schooley.bsky.social • 89 days ago

I don’t think we fully appreciate the insane hubris of acting like you can send a couple of IT guys into a massive and complex government department and they will uncover in days what career watchdogs tasked with monitoring for waste, fraud, and abuse couldn’t.

Comments

br4zuc4br.bsky.social•89 days ago

using AI 😄🥴

starlightshelling.bsky.social•89 days ago

Exactly!

jamesmpope.bsky.social•89 days ago

There’s no strategy.
Insanity is not a strategy.

wndlb.bsky.social•89 days ago

And generations of consultants

timblytidwit.bsky.social•89 days ago

I for one appreciate it 😂

charva42.bsky.social•88 days ago

None of these departments were anywhere near fully staffed for the workload. And the number of statutes and requirements they have to follow makes challenging this stuff almost impossible. Government isn’t supposed to be agile. It needs to exist as a solid foundation that allows innovation to happen

ingahansen.bsky.social•89 days ago

Their goal was never to find waste.

calebcressman.bsky.social•89 days ago

They are just copying all the data and taking control of all the computer systems in every department of the government so they can have full autonomous control with zero transparency or oversight. It’s a coup

freakanatcha.bsky.social•88 days ago

Elmo: We haven't used nuclear weapons in 70 years, so we don't need to pay experts to watch over them

furrfu.bsky.social•89 days ago

Some people want to uncover fraud. Some just want their boss to do well.

sharonfox.dev•89 days ago

Devil's Advocate: I think this could be possible, but only with the right people. Sending 19 year olds won't do the trick. Sending someone with years/decades of IT experience may allow them to at least collect and formulate the data into an ingestible format for someone else to determine the result.

caleb-j.bsky.social•89 days ago

it's only insane if you think that's the reason we're there instead of the real reason: enriching DT and Musk by selling state secrets, crashing our economy, and then issuing martial law.

foglightmj.bsky.social•89 days ago

It's more like tricking people into thinking it could be done like that--and likely some used to blaming "the government" and "taxes" for everything are fooled by it all until it hits their job or their need.

lindavt.bsky.social•89 days ago

It’s not hubris. It’s bullshit.

kellumdander.bsky.social•89 days ago

I worked as a rockstar systems analyst and business process specialist for 20+ years. My work is mentioned in textbooks. I understand heterogeneous information systems.

The *only* things the doge crew could possibly be doing, are espionage and sabotage.

crispb.bsky.social•89 days ago

It’s not hubris because they were not tasked with that. They were tasked with taking over the IT systems and payment systems so when everyone is fired they can take over the functions on behalf of a private firm.

webrant.bsky.social•89 days ago

It can't be espionage and sabotage if the world's most overvalued man who spent $250 million to get you elected does it. With specifically recruited nazi youth who have a track record of security breaches.

albertsquest.bsky.social•89 days ago

They start with the ideology that government itself is fraud by its very existence. So, when they find money appropriated by Congress and spent for its intended purpose, to them, it's all fraud.

portlandval.bsky.social•89 days ago

They don’t know ANYTHING about the complexity of the agencies they are dealing with nor the digital codes from the 1980s Fortran. It’s ridiculously insane and arrogant too. Being illegal is just the tip of the iceberg.

petersjvecrumba.bsky.social•88 days ago

Clearly it was never about any of that. It's only about access and leaving a wake of destruction to cover their tracks.

latentcall.com•88 days ago

This is the hubris of all Silicon Valley software engineer morons tbh

dsanford0.bsky.social•89 days ago

Experience with gov IT systems and Conway's Law know that a deep knowledge of the organization, laws, and regulations governing the specific government services offered is essential for implementing safe changes. Losing the gov $14 billion, like X, will be easier. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law#:~:text=Conway's%20law)

lamonjay.bsky.social•89 days ago

Make no mistake they are looking for something and it isn't fraud .

lamonjay.bsky.social•89 days ago

Oh I think they can steal lots of data in that amount of time

caitbsky.bsky.social•89 days ago

It’s almost like it’s a look-over-there distraction, while someone else steals all the money from the vault 💸

automationbias.bsky.social•89 days ago

It’s the same naïveté that tech bros have about legacy code, like, “Let’s ditch this super complex thing and rewrite it from scratch” without having any awareness that the complexity is a result of smart people laboring for years to handle a million edge cases

caitbsky.bsky.social•89 days ago

Rewriting decades-old stable legacy code you don’t have detailed requirements for, is far more dangerous than you realise, because you don’t actually know what it does, you just think you do.

jjsands.bsky.social•89 days ago

Exactly. What auditing standards are they using? Oh, right, vibes. I would also like to know where DEI stops and the Civil Rights Act and Equal Protection begin.

longrovebridge.bsky.social•89 days ago

I’m in IT and it’s like watching Jurassic Park and Laura Dern cracks the system in seconds. So not realistic.

thedingodave.substack.com•89 days ago

THey didn't know what COBOL is, so HOW are they supposed to get ANY information that points to ANY waste, fraud, or abuse???
This is a farce! DOGE is a shadow entity, with NO oversight, NO transparency, and SO FAR, NO PROOF OF ANYTHING!

jenniferb-3.bsky.social•89 days ago

Because it was never about that. It's about getting rid of what they don't like without going through Congress

profklm.bsky.social•89 days ago

But it only takes "a couple of IT guys" to copy the entire department's data/database to external hard drives. And that may be the real mission

br1ckd.bsky.social•89 days ago

I have been saying this since day 1. Over 25 Yr in IT myself. I know the first thing they would do is clone everything, which is exactly why they strong armed their way in to every locations and just went at it. It's already too late, all the data on every system they touched has been taken.

geekprivateers.bsky.social•89 days ago

🎯🎯🎯

jamieosborn.bsky.social•89 days ago

Surely they’ve been given a $ target to cut and they are slashing anything they can. Gotta pay for those tax cuts right?

gerrygambino.bsky.social•88 days ago

The destruction is their goal, though.

Then we'll get MuskCo stepping up to take over these functions (badly).

stevewmobb.bsky.social•89 days ago

They are enjoying the destruction

redback.bsky.social•89 days ago

Insane hubris does explain a lot of the shit that's going on.

schooley.bsky.social•89 days ago

Honestly I think there’s an institutional paralysis going on toward a lot of this stuff because it’s so surreally stupid.

pmacl.bsky.social•89 days ago

Yes, but I also suspect some of the existing leadership is participating /guiding the destruction?

sillythecat.bsky.social•89 days ago

Being in dismay of your opponent's stupidity is NOT an excuse for inaction. That is a Dem cop out mentality. That is basically the mentality of Schumer and his ilk and the reality is they have little gift for real leadership and no stomach for real action.

dkmarsh.bsky.social•89 days ago

Serially stupid, too.

oregonipa.bsky.social•89 days ago

They don’t have to find waste. They just have to say they did. I was watching a Sarah Longwell focus group and Trump voters think Elon is uncovering massive fraud and waste

redback.bsky.social•89 days ago

Immense power and stupidity.

east-bay-teacher.bsky.social•89 days ago

Living in the Dullardarchy

ljlawyers.bsky.social•88 days ago

What a great turn of phrase.

lifenotes2.bsky.social•88 days ago

✅

unbound55.bsky.social•89 days ago

I had to transition some code I wrote to a more talented developer long ago, and it took time. Despite good formatting and lots of inline comments, he was confused for a good while just because he'd never written anything like it.

That's how I know there is zero chance DOGE has even a small clue.

murielfp.bsky.social•89 days ago

Emphasis on the insane part.

robert-moriyama.bsky.social•89 days ago

To say nothing of the fact that they can probably do major damage with a few keystrokes (removing privileges from key users, deleting vital files, ... the list goes on).

markstacky.bsky.social•89 days ago

I repair stuff for a living - usually by driving around to places where no one has seen me before.

When you act like you're supposed to be there and carry around a tool (any) and some paper (any) you can do almost whatever you want. Only real exception I've run into is the military and casinos.

recursiverealms.com•88 days ago

That isn't what or why they did it... that was just the cover.

corbyntravers.bsky.social•89 days ago

They just label as "fraud and waste" anything they see that they don't like. Were probably schooled by T on the kinds of things he wanted them to look for.

studentsdemocracy.bsky.social•88 days ago

Tuskeegee Airmen
Black vets in Arlington
Navajo code talkers
Jackie Robinson

QUIK QUESTION
how does "erasing" ANYONE
help with "efficiency or cost savings" ??

michigan-candide.bsky.social•88 days ago

And the best they’ve been able to accomplish is removing references to someone whose actual name is Gay. 🤷🏻‍♀️

denverchick.bsky.social•89 days ago

It was never about fraud. If it was, they would have sent in forensic accountants.

axeshun.bsky.social•88 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/joshtpm.bsky.social/post/3ll52lufvkc2z

theghostofmrhand.bsky.social•89 days ago

And the media falling for it, holy shit

sandyyohowyoudoing.bsky.social•89 days ago

Falling for it or complicit? A lot of the mainstream media is owned by billionaire magats. Not hearing much about all those protests and town halls either.

swmark78.bsky.social•89 days ago

They aren't even IT guys. They are hackers who's only "IT" experience is being security threats everywhere they've worked/interned.

issuefortyfive.bsky.social•89 days ago

I have somehow been blessed throughout my career with IT guys who absolutely could go into a government agency and fix everything but they’ve also been the kind of guys who wouldn’t go into a government agency and fix it by canceling HIV treatment grants to Ghana.

issuefortyfive.bsky.social•89 days ago

Which I do think is like a minimal qualification for being a decent human being.

zaph0d42.bsky.social•89 days ago

"I don't know what you do, so you're fired."

"That's because you don't have a Q level clearance. Thx, bye!"

"Well, fuck."

spriddler.bsky.social•89 days ago

They were never trying to find fraud...

13thfloor.bsky.social•89 days ago

I've been working at my "new" place for more than 2 years and still don't know everything about how things work, specifically the interconnection of all of the moving parts. The system is just too complex to jump in and know everything measured in hours

auntiemamelives.bsky.social•89 days ago

Dunning-Krueger

jwbfat16.bsky.social•88 days ago

almost-MAGA, "What is this? What does it do?"
MAGA, "Never mind. That's a woke question. Break it."

puffin60.bsky.social•89 days ago

It's all so much like Dunning-Kruger. If you can believe you can Google about vaccines and know more than an immunologist you can believe DOGE investigations are legit.

keithrrichard.bsky.social•89 days ago

MAGA is anti education. They believe what they are told.

jennifereccles.bsky.social•89 days ago

And people with actual auditing and complex systems qualifications. I mean FFS, if you've ever worked in a large organisation, you know how complex it is.

aesonim.bsky.social•88 days ago

The point is, they have an agenda. And it's not that.

trawna.com•89 days ago

I know what you’re saying, and I agree with others here about the actual goals, but isn’t their stated (and perhaps even truly held) position that the career watchdogs have been in on the grift all this time, and hence not actually trying to find or eliminate waste?

wordworkin.bsky.social•89 days ago

They don't know snobol, cobol, and fortran. The career IT guys and gals do.

wewereright.org•89 days ago

it's not hubris, that's the scam. This has only been about shutting down the many investigations into Elon's various businesses. Notice that as soon as those were shut down, Elon moved into car sales mode.

germyf.bsky.social•89 days ago

It becomes much easier to understand if you assume that effective monitoring was never even close to the actual objective.

gort88.bsky.social•88 days ago

What I find disturbingly hilarious is that these self-hyped tech bros are apparently just using a simple-minded text search for trigger words like "gay."

Rank amateurs.

A thorough analysis of complex legacy systems often coded in COBOL, etc., can take ACTUAL experts MONTHS to complete.

[==*==]

onlylovecanfill.bsky.social•88 days ago

Nothing makes sense except that it’s a coup

jamesegraham.bsky.social•89 days ago

*a couple of 18-25 year old "IT guys."

go-beavs.bsky.social•89 days ago

No shit!

damnstraight42.bsky.social•88 days ago

It’s all a scare and fear BS tactic to placate to the MAGA base. DOGE is actually creating a huge legal sinkhole for themselves and once Trump is out of office these people will face very serious consequences.

vernsdigitaltwin.bsky.social•89 days ago

The accountant buddy in “Dave” just needed a weekend, right? How hard could it be?

cindy-apodaca.bsky.social•89 days ago

Flying out of Austin, TX today and saw a fan boy wearing a DOGE shirt and a stupid look on his face. 🙄

korkie.bsky.social•89 days ago

Tech guys don't uncover fraud, they hack code. Auditors and Inspectors General uncover fraud.

sandyyohowyoudoing.bsky.social•89 days ago

And this is my nightmare. Hacked treasury code with a back door. One day they disappear. The treasury is emptied into crypto. Country is destroyed.

korkie.bsky.social•89 days ago

Hacked code and our bank accounts are drained... My nightmare.

thebobcentury.bsky.social•88 days ago

The company I work for is a microdot compared to the Federal government, and I guarantee it would take longer than a month for an outside analyst to discover any new efficiencies or cost savings. It's just so transparently not what they say it is.

helchose.bsky.social•89 days ago

I work in IT and it's taken me, personally, nearly 10 years to learn the ins and outs of my company's own systems, and we're a big company but still far smaller than many federal agencies Musk is claiming to understand.

helchose.bsky.social•89 days ago

DOGE is, without exaggeration, a fraudulent scam against the United States and the American People.

helchose.bsky.social•89 days ago

Agrees

thad-mckraken.bsky.social•88 days ago

I listened to him talk about fleeing to Mars as some sort of solution to climate change all the way back in 2016 and immediately called bullshit. The guy has been very very stupid the entire time. I have no clue how so many people got duped.

4peoplebythepeople.bsky.social•88 days ago

I think I have an inkling. In America, we have an almost absurd fascination with wealth and the wealthy...to the point where we have a tendency to automatically and often illogically elevate someone simply based on their net worth.

thad-mckraken.bsky.social•88 days ago

People just wanted to believe in a STEM super hero so bad. They wanted a tech savior/super genius so desperately they seemingly weren't paying any attention to what the dude was actually saying. Like, Mars has a climate that's inhospitable to humans. You know that, right? Right?

helchose.bsky.social•88 days ago

I attended a talk in 2019 with a NASA scientist working on Mars technology in the Arctic, and he was asked in the Q&A about Musk's plans to go to Mars by 2024, and he responded flatly "Musk isn't going to Mars anytime soon."

I took it in the moment as rivalry, but now I see why he said that.

thad-mckraken.bsky.social•88 days ago

Talking about building a colony on Mars is crazy. Like, living on Mars would suck soooooo bad. Obviously. Talking about it like it's a solution to climate change is so stupid it's hard to even fathom, because of you know, the inhospitable climate. To this day no one calls him out on this.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply