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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

#301

Post by mschuster91 »

javcasas wrote: post #258
maCDzP wrote: post #110

European here, giving my two cents on how this looks from the other side of the Atlantic. Heh In my country there are laws stopping agencies doing a simple SQL join between two databases, even within the same government agency. There is a separate agency that handles the requests when agencies want to join information. I am not an expert in the matter. But my gut is telling me that our experiences with east Germany a…

Do you know why in Portugal they have 4 different ID numbers? It is like that to prevent the state from persecuting people on the base that it is hard for a branch of the government to figure out who is someone based on a number from a different branch. Do you know why they want to prevent the government from persecuting people? Because it has already happened, and the portuguese don't want it to happen again.

Same here in Germany, only recently we got the tax ID number as a global primary key to the objections of many privacy activists.

Ex-Yugoslavian countries have had a global ID forever - the JMBG or, in Croatia, OIB [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unique_Master_Citizen_Number

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

#302

Post by Vilian »

hunvreus wrote: post #255
maCDzP wrote: post #110

European here, giving my two cents on how this looks from the other side of the Atlantic. Heh In my country there are laws stopping agencies doing a simple SQL join between two databases, even within the same government agency. There is a separate agency that handles the requests when agencies want to join information. I am not an expert in the matter. But my gut is telling me that our experiences with east Germany a…

What you're describing is very similar to what most large enterprise companies do: layers upon layers of red tape and convoluted regulations for the sake of "security." This is a big reason they can’t get anything done or retain talent. Government is no different. European democracies have been dying from the same sclerosis their legacy multinationals have. The US is going through actual change. The outrage over thin…

It's not euro democracies that look like they are dying, comparing government to companies, yeah, iro ic that is USA that forgot the meaning of the word democracy

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

#303

Post by jonahbenton »

scarab92 wrote: post #273
javcasas wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know why in Portugal they have 4 different ID numbers? It is like that to prevent the state from persecuting people on the base that it is hard for a branch of the government to figure out who is someone based on a number from a different branch. Do you know why they want to prevent the government from persecuting people? Because it has already happened, and the portuguese don't want it to happen again.

[flagged]

All of these assertions are provably false.

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

#304

Post by squigz »

potato3732842 wrote: post #300
eecc wrote: post #201

IMHO it's a bit of a shame that the productivity and efficiency gains that computing and cybernetics can bring to complex systems -- including government -- are always tainted and currently championed by anti-social elites that use them to break apart these collective machines. Bureaucracies are a common good, and it should be in everyone's interest to apply state-of-the-art system engineering to make them as valuabl…

[flagged]

> They're positioned to make money hand over fist no matter how things go.

This is why they tend to move toward other things, like ... dismantling the US government.

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

#306

Post by CyberDildonics »

scarab92 wrote: post #273
javcasas wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know why in Portugal they have 4 different ID numbers? It is like that to prevent the state from persecuting people on the base that it is hard for a branch of the government to figure out who is someone based on a number from a different branch. Do you know why they want to prevent the government from persecuting people? Because it has already happened, and the portuguese don't want it to happen again.

[flagged]

Trump has prohibited Musk from being involved in any reviews where he was a material conflict (FAA for example).

You keep saying things that are blatantly untrue, people give you massive evidence they aren't true, then you keep saying them. Why is that?

Elon Musk’s Companies Were Under Investigation by Five Inspectors General When the Trump Administration Fired Them and Made Musk the Investigator

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2025/02/elon-musks-companies-...

https://www.levernews.com/trump-purges-inspectors-general-in...

Agency sent a memo to all agency staff notifying them that “all election security activities” would be paused pending the results of an internal investigation. The memo also stated that the administration was cutting off all funds to the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center—a Department of Homeland Security–funded organization that helps state and local officials monitor, analyze, and respond to cyberattacks targeting the nation’s election hardware and software.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/02/trump-doge-layof...

FDA staff were reviewing Elon Musk’s brain implant company. DOGE just fired them.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/17/fda-...

https://gizmodo.com/doge-reportedly-cuts-fda-employees-inves...

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

#307

Post by _heimdall »

drowsspa wrote: post #18

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?

Democracy is held together by people willing to follow the rules.

In Trump's first administration they realized the trick is to just move so fast that you flood the system and can do whatever you want before anyone sees through all the noise or has a chance to stop you. Steve Bannon was interviewed on camera saying as much.

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

#308

Post by crabmusket »

WesternWind wrote: post #188
scarab92 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[dupe]

See I know something of what actually wanting to fix the government's waste fraud and abuse would look like. It would be beefing up the IRS (where every dollar more than pays for itself), it would be banning people in congress from buying individual stocks; it would be a lot of things that deeply nerdy policy wonks have been saying for years. That's not what I'm seeing happen. I'm not seeing cost benefit analysis, I'…

This is a great article on finding actual savings. Surprise surprise, it doesn't look like scapegoating and witch hunting the enemy of the week. https://prospect.org/economy/2025-01-27-we-found-the-2-trill...

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

#309

Post by dzdt »

jongjong wrote: post #168
frigg wrote: post #153

[flagged]

[flagged]

Reference please! To my knowledge DOGE has not uncovered any obvious cases of financial fraud. Every example of their cost-cutting that I've looked at (and I've dug!) has been lawfully congressionally appropriated funds being spent according to guidelines from the previous administration making reasonable interpretations of the congressionally passed budget. The new administration forbids spending on initiatives related to increasing diversity, equity, or inclusiveness or decreasing climate change, as well as disapproves of most kinds of foreign aid. None of this is fraud.

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

#310

Post by jrs235 »

RichardLake wrote: post #105
drowsspa wrote: post #18

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?

The enforcement of these laws should be a function of the executive. There are ways for the supreme court or congress to intervene when the executive isn't doing their job. Sadly that requires them to believe a series of checks and balances is necessary. Given that it is down to the voters, and they thought a racist, rapist, conman should be president giving them the power of the executive - which has been growing in…

It seems the only thing the supreme Court can do now days is rule if something is unconstitutional or if a last has been broken. But has no check on the executive according to the regimes arguments. The only check is for Congress to impeach and convict apparently. And there are too many demagogue followers in those changes for that to ever happen.
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