I guess you could call the executives that ran ENRON "turnaround artists" as well, I want that sort of behavior far away from my government though. I've heard the argument many times that our institutions will provide the guardrails to keep our democracy healthy. They can't do their job if they no longer exist or are gutted. Hopefully the judicial branch will provide some resistance to this nonsense, but we're going to be staring down the barrel of a constitutional crisis if the current administration just ignores judgements they don't like.
I'm all for getting rid of bureaucratic bloat and waste, that's not what this is though. On Sat, Feb 15, 2025, 6:42 PM Chuck <ch...@go-mtc.com> wrote: > When large publically traded companies are on the rocks they bring in a > new CEO to turn things around, sometimes parting it out. Our nation is the > largest publicly owned business on the planet. It has some turn around > artists at the helm. Sit back and watch the show. Some good may come of > all of this. Highly entertaining at the least. The republic is very likely > to survive and could actually benefit from a good house cleaning, > Sent from my iPhone > > On Feb 15, 2025, at 6:17 PM, Jason McKemie < > j.mcke...@veloxinetbroadband.com> wrote: > > > This seems about par for the course with these guys. Scary stuff. > > I love how this administration uses the term "maximally transparent", or > some derivation thereof everywhere they can. I guess if you say it enough, > it must be true, right? > > On Sat, Feb 15, 2025 at 5:59 PM Ken Hohhof <khoh...@kwom.com> wrote: > >> https://www.wired.com/story/doge-website-is-just-one-big-x-ad/ >> >> >> >> DOGE’s Website Is Just One Big X Ad >> >> *The source code for the new Department of Government Efficiency’s >> “official US government website” points to X as its primary source of >> authority, while sharing links to the site sends users to x.com >> <http://x.com>.* >> >> >> >> At a press conference in the Oval Office >> <https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/12/tech/elon-musk-x-oval-office/index.html> >> this >> week, Elon Musk promised the actions of his so-called Department of >> Government Efficiency (DOGE) <https://www.wired.com/tag/doge/> project >> would be “maximally transparent,” thanks to information posted to its >> website. >> >> At the time of his comment, the DOGE website was empty >> <https://bsky.app/profile/joncooper-us.bsky.social/post/3lhwsmk4iac2u>. >> However, when the site finally came online Thursday morning, it turned out >> to be little more than a glorified feed of posts from the official DOGE >> account on Musk’s own X platform, raising new questions about Musk’s >> conflicts >> of interest in running DOGE >> <https://www.npr.org/2025/02/12/nx-s1-5293382/x-elon-musk-doge-cfpb>. >> >> DOGE.gov claims to be an “official website of the United States >> government,” but rather than giving detailed breakdowns of the cost savings >> and efficiencies Musk claims his project is making, the homepage of the >> site just replicated posts from the DOGE account on X. >> >> A WIRED review of the page’s source code shows that the promotion of >> Musk’s own platform went deeper than replicating the posts on the homepage. >> The source code shows that the site’s canonical tags >> <https://moz.com/learn/seo/canonicalization> direct search engines to >> x.com rather than DOGE.gov. >> >> A canonical tag is a snippet of code that tells search engines what the >> authoritative version of a website is. It is typically used by sites with >> multiple pages as a search engine optimization tactic, to avoid their >> search ranking being diluted. >> >> In DOGE’s case, however, the code is informing search engines that when >> people search for content found on DOGE.gov, they should not show those >> pages in search results, but should instead display the posts on X. >> >> “It is promoting the X account as the main source, with the website >> secondary,” Declan Chidlow, a web developer <https://vale.rocks/>, tells >> WIRED. “This isn't usually how things are handled, and it indicates that >> the X account is taking priority over the actual website itself.” >> >> Advertisement >> >> All the other US government websites WIRED checked used their own >> homepage in their canonical tags, including the official White House >> website. Additionally, when sharing the DOGE website on mobile devices, the >> source code creates a link to the DOGE X account rather than the website >> itself. >> >> “It seems that the DOGE website is secondary, and they are prodding >> people in the direction of the X account everywhere they can,” Chidlow adds. >> >> Alongside the homepage feed of X posts, a section of Doge.gov labeled >> “Savings” now appears. So far the page is empty except for a single line >> that reads: “Receipts coming soon, no later than Valentine's day,” followed >> by a heart emoji >> <https://www.wired.com/story/heart-emoji-lost-all-meaning/>. >> >> A section entitled “Workforce” features some bar charts showing how many >> people work in each government agency, with the information coming from >> data gathered by the Office of Personnel Management in March 2024. >> >> A disclaimer at the bottom of the page reads: “This is DOGE's effort to >> create a comprehensive, government-wide org chart. This is an enormous >> effort, and there are likely some errors or omissions. We will continue to >> strive for maximum accuracy over time.” >> >> Another section, entitled “Regulations,” features what DOGE calls the >> “Unconstitutionality Index,” which it describes as “the number of agency >> rules created by unelected bureaucrats for each law passed by Congress in >> 2024.” >> >> The charts in this section are also based on data previously collected by >> US government agencies. Doge.gov also links to a Forbes article from last >> month that was written by Clyde Wayne Crews, a member of the Heartland >> Institute, a conservative think tank that pushed climate change >> disinformation >> <https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/news/heartland-institute-leak-exposes-strategies-of-climate-attack-machine/> >> and >> questioned the links between tobacco and lung cancer >> <https://www.tobaccotactics.org/article/heartland-institute/>. It is >> also a major advocate for privatizing government departments >> <https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/in-shift-key-climate-denialist-group-heartland-institute-pivots-to-policy/> >> . >> >> The site also features a “Join” page which allows prospective DOGE >> employees to apply for roles including “software engineers, InfoSec >> engineers, and other technology professionals.” As well as requesting a >> Github account and résumé, the form asks visitors to “provide 2-3 bullet >> points showcasing exceptional ability.” >> >> The website does not list a developer, but on Wednesday, web application >> security expert Sam Curry outlined in a thread on X >> <https://x.com/samwcyo/status/1889527715029557607> how he was able to >> identify the developer of the site as DOGE employee Kyle Shutt. >> >> Curry claims he was able to link a Cloudflare account ID found in the >> site’s source code to Shutt, who used the same account when developing Musk’s >> America PAC >> <https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-america-pac-election-denial-community-x/> >> website. >> >> On Thursday, Drop Site News >> <https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/doge-fema-funding-access-social-security-numbers> >> reported, >> citing sources within FEMA, that Shutt had gained access to the agency’s >> proprietary software controlling payments. Earlier this week, Business >> Insider reported >> <https://www.businessinsider.com/doge-staff-list-white-house-2025-2> that >> Shutt, who recently worked at an AI interviewing software company, was >> listed as one of 30 people working for DOGE. >> >> Neither Shutt, DOGE, nor the White House responded to requests for >> comment. >> >> >> -- >> AF mailing list >> AF@af.afmug.com >> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >> > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >
-- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
