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DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

theatlantic.com

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Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#711

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I loathe working places where they just give you all the permissions because it's "easier". One risk is if something does happen, and they don't have exceptional tracing and logging, (and let's be honest, at an organization sloppy enough to hand out privileges like candy, what's the chance of that?) it's difficult or impossible to pin down the source to any individual. As a result, both responsibility and suspicion i…

A second thought. It leads to lazy application development. Whenever you have production intervention that happens more than a few times, you should just make a feature that does it safely via application code.

I've definitely worked in places where "Move fast and break things" tended to focus on breaking things. There would be bugs that we didn't fix because "We can just fix the database when it happens." It would take 2hours to fix a bug that would cause of 10's of hours of weekly support request, but the focus would always be on building new features, of which 10% got any real usage.

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#712
post #30

I find it wild that apparently there is no law onto which government workers can cling to refuse these requests. Is it all just based on conventions, goodwill and culture?

Why do you want them to refuse audit requests? There is no upside to hiding egregious government waste other than paying politicians via kickbacks more than what is legally mandated.

That's misinformation. They are not "audits".

They are sincerely following Project 2025, decimating government, and very likely to fire A LOT more federal workers over the summer, then they will install Loyalists throughout.

Billionaire Musk .. aka "The Auditor" .. is "primarying" or threatening to fund opposition candidates for Senators who fight him on this.

It's an autogolpe.

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#713

I hope they at least open the original documents to the American public, instead of posting on X. IMHO the public should have the rights to review and grill the officials about the spending.

I hope they stop what they are doing. I hope they follow the law.

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#714

Because there are bigger fish to fry, I think people don’t appreciate the sheer cost of the system rebuild that will be required for security reasons later. There’s absolutely no telling what additional software has been installed alongside existing, or which systems have been modified that would require audit. Purging this will be an absolute fucking nightmare to the American taxpayer. This may turn into one of the…

Yes. Even if DOGE is operating without any ill intent, and I don't think they have ill intent, the possibility of errors alone is massive and they need to slow down. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/17/trum...

[flagged]

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#715

I find it wild that apparently there is no law onto which government workers can cling to refuse these requests. Is it all just based on conventions, goodwill and culture?

[dupe]

> The pushback seems to mostly be “I don’t like Musk in particular, and thus I don’t like that Musk in particular has this access”

You are either delusional or purposely misrepresenting facts

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#716

Hear me out. Elon wants ultimate control over people’s lives and choices. Why he would want this is a psychological question about which we can only speculate. This is a change from (at least in appearance) his previous libertarian leanings. Whatever the case, this is the plan: 1) Acquire god mode access to government systems and citizens information (contacting, grants, spending, taxes, SSI benefits, you name it). 2…

You are not alone in this supposition.

I believe it's called an autogolpe as Trump is supporting him in this.

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#717
post #639

Putting aside the whole idea that Elon "bought" his way into this position, it's crazy this is the path that Trump is taking. He has a house and a senate that would likely happily cut all these programs, and it could be done legally and without all this mess. Why let Elon run roughshod over the government?

It's in the Project 2025 playbook. They're trying to overwhelm everyone so you can't possible keep track of all they're doing. Store security could handle one shoplifter at a time; but when you have a riot and mass looting - you have fewer options and often just step aside and let them loot. Then deal with the mess later. Also - he's a narcissist and he wants all the credit. Also - he's a wannabe dictator, and on his…

Not related to Project 2025, and they have countless times said they aren't associated with that project.

But yes, "Flood the Zone" is the strategy to combat Democrat's media and court strategies.

It was started by Steve Bannon in 2018, but expanded massively under Stephen Miller.

The rest of your post is just hysteria so I won't comment on that.

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#719
post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often what you'll find is that the power was limited through separation of privileges. One person would not be able to do much beyond a limited boundary. Sounds like that's no longer true.

“Often” false. I’d bet 60-70% of the Fortune 500 doesn’t fully adhere to these “best practices” maybe only the government when handling classified information comes close.

They're not talking about Fortune 500 companies, they're talking about the literal government and the rules for sharing information between agencies.
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