I saw this article a week ago: https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/business-inputs/article/2025/02/10/small-businesses-farmers-financial
Without knowing more I’m not sure I agree with USDA giving grants to farmers for all these projects, but it also seems like Congress appropriated the money. I worry that farmers and contractors who got grants under the REAP program and have spent or committed some of it are going to get stiffed. For example, we use one farmer’s grain setup as an AP site, and he is upgrading his grain dryer, bins and a new taller grain leg, partially with money from a USDA grant. Something about energy efficiency I think. We moved our equipment to a temporary location and I believe the leg has been demolished, not sure if the dryer is gone. I haven’t checked with the farmer yet, but I suspect his grant may be gone. You mention environmental compliance, if that’s what the $8million was for, there are lots of environmental issues at farms with things like fertilizer and pesticide runoff into streams and groundwater, and manure lagoons, that are not just woke BS. Plus there are future issues with avian flu, some experts are saying it won’t be controlled until they close up the poultry barns and install ventilation systems with HEPA filters. So far we seem to be whistling past the graveyard on bird flu. But you’re right, I can’t tell from a database if the $8million USDA contract was good spending or bad. One can only guess if the DOGE wiz kids did more than running the database through an AI program, or just flagging keywords that seemed woke, or just simply looking for dollar amounts to cut. Like the whole online debate about whether DOGE really discovered a whole bunch of people born on May 20, 1875 who are receiving Social Security benefits, or if that is just a default date in the software. From: AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> On Behalf Of Adam Moffett Sent: Monday, February 17, 2025 9:57 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <af@af.afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] DOGE website (www.doge.gov) You can search all the spending records here: https://www.usaspending.gov/ You can also download a Postgres database of the entire record.....which I want to do, but I'll have to upgrade my hard drive because it's quite large. They also have an API. The problem you still have is that knowing that $8mil was spent on a USDA contract for some environmental compliance thing-a-ma-bob doesn't tell you what that really did or what value came from it. I.E.: spending is already transparent. The uncertainty and doubt are on what that spending actually meant. It would be great if there was an easy way to find all of it. And by the way, even if every single thing DOGE cuts is really fraud and waste it's still just taking a whiz on a bonfire. We're running deficits in the trillions now. We are in the upside-down demographic crunch caused by retiring baby boomers. We had known this was coming for decades and nobody did anything about it. Our number one expenditure in 2024 was 1.46 trillion dollars for Social Security. We're on track for the Social Security fund for old-age and survivors to be depleted in 2033, and from then on the shortfalls will become additional deficit spending. Medicare was almost another trillion in 2024 and is expected to grow about 7% per year through 2032. Interest on our existing debt is our #3 spending item right now, and it will become #1 within 10 years. As the interest payments grow the problem becomes a self-reinforcing feedback loop. DOGE cuts and tariffs are not even going to put a dent in this problem, and meanwhile we're getting more income tax cuts. It'll be interesting to see how the predictions change next year, but it seems like we are driving towards a cliff and putting our foot on the accelerator. The longer we put this off the more painful it will become to deal with. And it looks like we're going to put it off until we have a financial implosion. I would LOVE for the Trump administration to prove me wrong, but In the meantime, I'll be thinking about how to survive and prepare my children for an economic collapse coming in the next couple of decades. -Adam _____ From: AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com <mailto:af-boun...@af.afmug.com> > on behalf of Steve Jones <thatoneguyst...@gmail.com <mailto:thatoneguyst...@gmail.com> > Sent: Monday, February 17, 2025 9:00 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <af@af.afmug.com <mailto:af@af.afmug.com> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] DOGE website (www.doge.gov <http://www.doge.gov> ) A better question is why do we have to take their word for it when it's spent? The good, final outcome of this is there is a framework in place now for all future spending to be on public record in a clear and transparent manner, publicly accessible, with the spend requests and links to the outcome reports. That should t require foia My guess is half of what they claw back will ultimately be paid out when it's explained and justified. On Mon, Feb 17, 2025, 7:23 AM Adam Moffett <dmmoff...@gmail.com <mailto:dmmoff...@gmail.com> > wrote: Steve, An example I just saw on doge.gov <http://doge.gov> was an $8mil USDA contract with a screen shot of a record. Nothing on the screen demonstrates how it was waste, fraud, or abuse. The title of the contract was some fluffy sounding thing about environmental compliance, and as far as I can tell the title is what we’re supposed to accept as evidence. That was an example from the day’s “batch” with no information provided about whatever else was canceled that day. Maybe they’ll publish more details later for “maximal transparency”, but right now we are forced to take their word for it. It’s fair to have a problem with unelected bureaucrats wielding most of the power of the federal government, but the same should not become OK just because the bureaucrat is an ideologically appropriate apparatchik. Get Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef> _____ From: AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com <mailto:af-boun...@af.afmug.com> > on behalf of Steve Jones <thatoneguyst...@gmail.com <mailto:thatoneguyst...@gmail.com> > Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2025 9:41:06 PM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <af@af.afmug.com <mailto:af@af.afmug.com> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] DOGE website (www.doge.gov <http://www.doge.gov> ) yeah, super scary. boogeyman level On Sat, Feb 15, 2025, 6:17 PM Jason McKemie <j.mcke...@veloxinetbroadband.com <mailto: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 <mailto: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 <http://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 <mailto:AF@af.afmug.com> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com <mailto:AF@af.afmug.com> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com <mailto:AF@af.afmug.com> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
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