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One of the key problems with Elon and DOGE in general is that they keep making very confident claims without putting in any effort to verify that they have thei

One of the key problems with Elon and DOGE in general is that they keep making very confident claims without putting in any effort to verify that they have their facts in order. It's gross negligence because we know that have access to the necessary resources to verify each claim they make. The more skeptical part of me wonders if this is all part of the broader Trump strategy to flood the media with as much misinformation as possible. An adversarial party can produce bullshit at a much higher rate than it can be verified. Based on the communications we've seen so far, I find it hard to believe that these people are acting in good faith. It's not even that I'd expect perfection. If the DOGE team was producing tons of claims acting in good faith, they'd probably make some mistakes. But the failure rate smells of malicious action or incompetence.

ahiknsr 2y ago
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tstrimple 2y ago
Elon has stated that you're "retarded" if you believe the government uses SQL. So it's difficult to assume any level of competence from him or his team or anyone who continues to prop him up quite frankly. This should be a blatant and obvious tell to anyone with passing technical abilities. But many seem to lose all ability to reason when it comes to supporting Trump and people around him like Elon.
- vkou 2y ago
  The ability to reason isn't lost, it's replaced with motivated reasoning. They are tangentially pursing <some political goal I agree with>, thereby I will latch onto <whatever implausible deniability they have for what they are doing>.
watwut 2y ago
The other key problem is that they knowing confidently lie on top of just not caring about the truth. Also, the strategy of "flooding the zone" is something Bannon openly talked about. When these people say they will do X and we then see them doing X, we really should stop saying things like "skeptical paranoid part of me think they might be doing X".
TheOtherHobbes 2y ago
I'm finding it hard to constrain my vocabulary in this situation. Let's just say my contempt for this utter clown is NP, and my disappointment that critical government systems lack the security required to stop this nonsense is almost as large.
- TheNewsIsHere 2y ago
  The BFS systems do have the proper security according to a very recently filed affidavit from a career IT manager with direct knowledge of those systems. There was reporting earlier that Marko Elez had been using personal devices to connect to Treasury systems. In testimony the manager wrote that his access was exclusively by means of a special issue BFS laptop with DLP software and “enhanced” monitoring. But he also noted that Elez was given far broader access than even auditors were typically granted. And that testimony didn’t ameliorate other concerns. And of course that’s just BFS. I’m not at all disagreeing with you though. The lack of adults in the room, the apparent lack of proper background checking, the fact that the kids DOGE has running around have no real experience, it’s all alarming. And no one seems interested in talking about it. The legal world is on fire right now. The lawyers that keep the country running in accordance with the laws are sounding the alarm and no one seems interested in answering and it’s $&)@-/; embarrassing as a country.
gorbachev 2y ago
That's because they've decided what the problem is before any evidence. They're not looking for problems, they're looking for the evidence to prove they were right.

ahiknsr 2y ago

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tstrimple 2y ago

Elon has stated that you're "retarded" if you believe the government uses SQL. So it's difficult to assume any level of competence from him or his team or anyone who continues to prop him up quite frankly. This should be a blatant and obvious tell to anyone with passing technical abilities. But many seem to lose all ability to reason when it comes to supporting Trump and people around him like Elon.

vkou 2y ago
The ability to reason isn't lost, it's replaced with motivated reasoning. They are tangentially pursing <some political goal I agree with>, thereby I will latch onto <whatever implausible deniability they have for what they are doing>.

watwut 2y ago

The other key problem is that they knowing confidently lie on top of just not caring about the truth. Also, the strategy of "flooding the zone" is something Bannon openly talked about. When these people say they will do X and we then see them doing X, we really should stop saying things like "skeptical paranoid part of me think they might be doing X".

TheOtherHobbes 2y ago

I'm finding it hard to constrain my vocabulary in this situation. Let's just say my contempt for this utter clown is NP, and my disappointment that critical government systems lack the security required to stop this nonsense is almost as large.

TheNewsIsHere 2y ago
The BFS systems do have the proper security according to a very recently filed affidavit from a career IT manager with direct knowledge of those systems. There was reporting earlier that Marko Elez had been using personal devices to connect to Treasury systems. In testimony the manager wrote that his access was exclusively by means of a special issue BFS laptop with DLP software and “enhanced” monitoring. But he also noted that Elez was given far broader access than even auditors were typically granted. And that testimony didn’t ameliorate other concerns. And of course that’s just BFS. I’m not at all disagreeing with you though. The lack of adults in the room, the apparent lack of proper background checking, the fact that the kids DOGE has running around have no real experience, it’s all alarming. And no one seems interested in talking about it. The legal world is on fire right now. The lawyers that keep the country running in accordance with the laws are sounding the alarm and no one seems interested in answering and it’s $&)@-/; embarrassing as a country.

gorbachev 2y ago

That's because they've decided what the problem is before any evidence. They're not looking for problems, they're looking for the evidence to prove they were right.