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> 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> on behalf of
Steve Jones <thatoneguyst...@gmail.com>
*Sent:* Sunday, February 16, 2025 9:41:06 PM
*To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <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> 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 <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.
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