{"id":90927,"date":"2025-02-13T03:13:37","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T03:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/13\/200pm-water-cooler-2-12-2025-dogebags-to-infest-entire-federal-government-with-bolshevik-style-parallel-party-structure\/"},"modified":"2025-02-13T03:13:37","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T03:13:37","slug":"200pm-water-cooler-2-12-2025-dogebags-to-infest-entire-federal-government-with-bolshevik-style-parallel-party-structure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/13\/200pm-water-cooler-2-12-2025-dogebags-to-infest-entire-federal-government-with-bolshevik-style-parallel-party-structure\/","title":{"rendered":"2:00PM Water Cooler 2\/12\/2025: DOGEbags to Infest Entire Federal Government with Bolshevik-Style Parallel Party Structure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Bird Song of the Day<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Patient readers, I apologize for the enormous typo. This is what I (and you) get then I deviate from my standard template. \u2013lambert<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/macaulaylibrary.org\/asset\/629899494\/embed\" height=\"300\" width=\"640\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Brown Thrasher, Sippo Lake\u2013Exploration Gateway, Stark, Ohio, United States.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><em><strong>By Lambert Strether<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a quotation from John D. MacDonald\u2019s <em>Pale Grey for Guilt<\/em> that I can\u2019t find; of the villain, mild-mannered economist sidekick Meyer remarked (as my memory has it): \u201cI seem to have taken a dislike to the fellow.\u201d This Musk dude. It\u2019s really too much. He\u2019s ruined my timeline, and looks to ruin more than that. So I thought I  would devote most of today\u2019s Water Cooler Elon and his doings, especially DOGE (the so-called Department of Government Efficiency), which has just ballooned in size, if not in stature, owing to a new Executive Order From Co-President Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Readers will also notice that after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2024\/07\/kamalas-campaign-blasts-off-with-an-explosion-of-snark.html\">decrying snark<\/a> \u2014 and with much success, avoiding it \u2014 I have returned to my roots c. 2003, by inventing a term of abuse for a political opponent: DOGEbag. Nobody seems to know quite what to call the Elon\u2019s callow lackeys at DOGE, so I thought I would step in. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/elon-musk-government-young-engineers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Young, inexperienced engineers<\/a>,\u201d as Wired has it, is obviously far too polite. \u201cDOGE kids\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lemonde.fr\/en\/pixels\/article\/2025\/02\/07\/who-are-the-doge-kids-the-disciples-of-elon-musk-tasked-with-hacking-the-us-federal-government_6737883_13.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">LeMonde<\/a> and \u201cKids of DOGE\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/video\/kids-of-doge-engineer-big-balls-goes-viral-another-musk-staffer-resigns-after-racist-posts\/10437129\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Hill<\/a>, aren\u2019t nearly judgmental enough, leaving out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/one-elon-musks-doge-kids-181406909.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">tantrums<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/video\/kids-of-doge-engineer-big-balls-goes-viral-another-musk-staffer-resigns-after-racist-posts\/10437129\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">testosterone-fueled nicknames<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawfaremedia.org\/article\/doge-betrays-foundational-commitments-of-the-privacy-act-of-1974\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the casual law-breaking<\/a>, and their angiogenic pathways to Thiel and his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Musk-NRx-Memo-February-5-2025.pdf\">neoreactionary<\/a> network. Sadly, \u201cgreasy beavises\u201d is just too esoteric.<\/p>\n<p>So, DOGEbag with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5chI-AiNIWc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the soft \u201cg\u201d <\/a> (I mean, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.urbandictionary.com\/define.php?term=Douchebag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">obviously<\/a>), that being the dominant pronunciation, from the world of coins, but also with the hard: That is, a brownish bag in which one takes the leftovers home, there to be devoured by small animals (or left rotting in the fridge). Do feel free to propagate! (\u201cBut we\u2019re rooting out fraud!\u201d Oh? Where are the audit reports?)<\/p>\n<p>And with that prolix introduction, on to the Executive Order, and as much demolition of Elon\u2019s absurd and insulting meme-age as I can get to, because there\u2019s a lot. I won\u2019t be doing Covid today, and probably no other Water Cooler feature but the Birdsong and the (very lovely) Plant.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Trump\u2019s Newest Executive Order<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cImplementing The President\u2019s \u201cDepartment of Government Efficiency\u201d Workforce Optimization Initiative\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/02\/implementing-the-presidents-department-of-government-efficiency-workforce-optimization-initiative\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Whitehouse.gov<\/a>]. Let\u2019s start with Section 3:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Sec. 3. Reforming the Federal Workforce to Maximize Efficiency and Productivity. (a) Hiring Ratio. Pursuant to the Presidential Memorandum of January 20, 2025 (Hiring Freeze), the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall submit a plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government\u2019s workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition (Plan). .<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Swell, except it makes no sense to take hire one employee for every four that depart <em>for all agencies<\/em>, because that penalizes lean agencies (say, Social Security) and allows bloated agencies (say, the Pentagon) to remain bloated. More:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>. Each Agency Head shall develop a data-driven plan, in consultation with its DOGE Team Lead, to ensure new career appointment hires are in highest-need areas.<\/p>\n<p>(i) This hiring plan shall include that new career appointment hiring decisions shall be made in consultation with the agency\u2019s DOGE Team Lead, consistent with applicable law.<\/p>\n<p>(ii)  The agency shall not fill any vacancies for career appointments that the DOGE Team Lead assesses should not be filled, unless the Agency Head determines the positions should be filled.<\/p>\n<p>(iii) Each DOGE Team Lead shall provide the United States DOGE Service (USDS) Administrator with a monthly hiring report for the agency.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In other words, as far as hiring goes, the DOGE \u201cTeam Lead\u201d is functionally the agency head. A stronger way of saying this is that the DOGE, essentially a party faction (despite its dubious status as a \u201ctemporary organization\u201d in the Executive Office of the President) is both parallel and superior to the Executive Branch as provided for in Article II. Interestingly \u2014 and this speaks well of whatever the organizing entities behind DOGE have been \u2014 this is just what the Bolsheviks did, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Union_Republics_of_the_Soviet_Union\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">when they consolidated power in the Soviet Union, c. 1936<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Along with the state administrative hierarchy, , which allowed the Politburo to exercise large amounts of control over the republics. , and appointments of all party and state officials required approval of the central organs of the party.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>History doesn\u2019t repeat\u2026[1]. Do note that Trump\u2019s expansion of DOGE cannot be based on any hard or performance-related data that any members of the public have been permitted to see (see below on DOGE\u2019s site). That means \u2014 hold onto your hats here, folks \u2014 that this decision is (a) entirely political and (b) probably gamed out in advance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOTE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Policy and Regime of Extraordinary Measures in Russia under Lenin and Stalin\u201d Europe-Asia Studies (1995). The term <em>chrezvychaishchina<\/em> is also suggestitive:<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/emergency.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"334\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-287101\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/emergency.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/emergency-300x167.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Elon Musk\u2019s Many Careless Memes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The man is a posting machine:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/musk_tweets.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"1237\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-287105\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/musk_tweets.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/musk_tweets-146x300.jpg 146w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/musk_tweets-497x1024.jpg 497w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Despite being controlling six companies and sharing the Presidency with Trump, Elon seems never to sleep! Perhaps some shareholder could ask him about that. Be that as it may, the trade-off between quantity and quality is pretty clear in the following examples\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>DOGE\u2019s Website<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here it is:<\/p>\n<p><center> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Elon Musk to reporter: \u201cWe post our actions to the DOGE website. All our actions are maximally transparent. I don\u2019t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qX0KHBxdq2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/qX0KHBxdq2<\/a> website\u2014it\u2019s literally a blank page! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/K2xjGBSmoa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/K2xjGBSmoa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jon Cooper \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@joncoopertweets) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joncoopertweets\/status\/1889457290857664831\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">February 11, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>That was February 11. The Department of Government Efficiency \u2014 replete as it is with Silicon Valley brain geniuses \u2014 can\u2019t throw together a site overnight? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.doge.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Here is is, you try <\/a>it:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/doge.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1706\" height=\"1128\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-287106\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/doge.png 1706w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/doge-300x198.png 300w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/doge-1024x677.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/doge-768x508.png 768w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/doge-1536x1016.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/doge-624x413.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1706px) 100vw, 1706px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The DOGE website is so transparent <em>it\u2019s like there\u2019s nothing there<\/em>! But wait, it gets better. I have helpfully highlighted the tagline: \u201cAn official website of the United States government\u201d Here\u2019s how a <em>real<\/em> government department does it:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/treasury.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1632\" height=\"632\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-287107\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/treasury.png 1632w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/treasury-300x116.png 300w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/treasury-1024x397.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/treasury-768x297.png 768w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/treasury-1536x595.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/treasury-624x242.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1632px) 100vw, 1632px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Three parts: (1) The flag, (2) the tagline, and (3) the \u201cHere\u2019s how you know\u201d link. That\u2019s how the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">State <em>Department<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><em>The Health and Human Services Department<\/em><\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defense.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Defense <em>Department<\/em><\/a> all do it. The DOGEbags copied only the text, part 2 (or maybe their AI did, I don\u2019t know), and not the flag (they must hate our country) or \u201cHere\u2019s how you know\u201d (of course, with DOGE, you never do know, so maybe that\u2019s fair). \u201cDetails count.\u201d \u2013Peter Wrinberger, Bell Labs. Cf. Luke 16:10. NOTE The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IRS<\/a> uses (1) and (2), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usa.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">USA.gov<\/a> uses (1)-(3). The White House does not. So what <em>is<\/em> DOGE? Part of the White House, or not? <\/p>\n<p>UPDATE Apparently, the original doge.gov \u2014 yes, *.gov \u2014 was <a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/doge-website-ai-american-flag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">formatted like a coin scam<\/a>. Some DOGEbag removed the AI slop, but left the butchered tagline. Was somebody in charge of the website project? If so, who? Is everything DOGEbags do like this? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eschatonblog.com\/2025\/02\/good-enough-for-journalism.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Atrios has an excellent timeline<\/a> of how our famously free press covered this farce. Not in detail, I assure you!<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Stanning for Malcolm Tucker<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I can almost forgive Elon for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cryptotimes.io\/2025\/02\/11\/elon-musks-new-avatar-harry-bolz-coin-pumps-17000-in-30-mins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">using his official position to pump (and, I assume, dump<\/a>)\u2026. <\/p>\n<p><center> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The most powerful person in government other than POTUS, who has been in bleary-eyed conspiracy-theorizing spiral for weeks and who the WSJ reported has used &#8220;LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms and ketamine&#8221; in a manner that has alarmed his companies&#8217; execs and board members, has\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Ae4Lm60s5e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/Ae4Lm60s5e<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jessesingal\/status\/1889380930697252997\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">February 11, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>\u2026. because the man knows his classics (NSFW):<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Malcolm Tucker in the USA - In the Loop\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MLIP0ZtoiO4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Rather the flip side of the West Wing, both \u201cIn the Loop\u201d and \u201cThe Thick of It\u201d are.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Elon Understands Neither Social Security Numbers Nor SQL<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s start with the SQL:<\/p>\n<p><center> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">TIL Elon has never used SQL <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6ewtNHoIga\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/6ewtNHoIga<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 James Rosen-Birch \u2696\ufe0f\ud83d\udd4a\ufe0f (@provisionalidea) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/provisionalidea\/status\/1888662805588619373\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">February 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>(<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/SQL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Structured Query Language<\/a> (SQL) is a domain-specific language used to manage data, especially in a relational database management system (RDBMS). It is bog standard across the corporate world and the Federal government). Elon\u2019s response and (to his credit) the Community Note:<\/p>\n<p><center> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">TIL Elon has never used SQL <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6ewtNHoIga\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/6ewtNHoIga<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 James Rosen-Birch \u2696\ufe0f\ud83d\udd4a\ufe0f (@provisionalidea) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/provisionalidea\/status\/1888662805588619373\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">February 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>More importantly, Elon doesn\u2019t understand the technical issue, which centers on the word \u201cdeduplication\u201d in his first post. First, deduplication doesn\u2019t work the way Elon thinks it does. Quoting (sorry) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/facepalm\/comments\/1in5kda\/comment\/mc8pq7o\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Reddit\/r\/facepalm<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>De-duplication has nothing to do with how many times a given SSN is stored in a database. De-duplication is a process used during backup of the full database, not just the data within. After the first full backup of the original database, the next backup de-dupe process reads and stores raw data blocks from the entire database structure, skipping duplicate blocks during the backup storage process, writing only changed blocks out to the backup repository while updating a key\/block pointer at the destination.<\/p>\n<p>De-duplication was developed and adopted to help enhance and speed up backup and recovery times and save on disc space\/transport requirements. Applying de-duplication to ASCII data stores during backups can realize upwards of 50-to-1 reduction in storage space requirements for long term backup repository needs.<\/p>\n<p>Below is a good Wiki article describing this in greater depth.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Data_deduplication<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Second, even if \u201cdeduplication\u201d worked the way Elon thinks it does, SSN keys can and do duplicate, because they are not \u201cprimary keys\u201d <em>to the Social Security Administration<\/em>, at least. This is <a href=\"https:\/\/thedatageneralist.medium.com\/elon-musk-does-not-understand-data-modeling-4b73a25a0665\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the best explanation<\/a> I have found:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Every table in a well-designed database requires a primary key. This is a unique identifier that ensures every row in the table is unique, which maintains data integrity. To the data modeling novice, SSN would seem to be the obvious choice as a primary key since it is supposed to be unique for each citizen, permanent resident, or eligible nonimmigrant workers in the United States. One reason why SSN might not be the primary key is due to the sensitivity of the information. Because SSN\u2019s are personal identifiable information (PII), the information must be managed with stricter security requirements than non-PII data. In this situation, an organization might create a new, unique identifier (or primary key) for individuals so the SSN is masked for most users in the organization.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Along the same lines from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/SQL\/comments\/kdcmaz\/what_is_the_best_practice_when_it_comes_to_using\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Reddit\/r\/sql<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Do not use SSN or any information that can be used to identify a person. You can get into a lot of trouble doing it. Other then being hacked, the personal information is all over the place for anyone to see. Hackers, developers, etc. Most corporations are encrypting personal information. If they have not yet they likely will do it soon. If you have it set up as a key that is going to turn into a lot of problems.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>One of the golden rules of primary keys is that you control their creation. An SSN is a terrible key because it is just a string that has no check digits and is created by someone else. Worse yet, it can change or be entered incorrectly. That\u2019s apart from the whole privacy issue. It may be stored encrypted as a search field if that is really necessary, but it should never be stored as plain text.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Now, to be fair to Elon, we can\u2019t be 100% sure that SSN is not a primary key, because we do not have access to the Social Security Administration\u2019s database schema (the SQL code that defines the database structure, including its keys).<\/p>\n<p>Bottom line here is that when Elon screams fraud, assume he\u2019s wrong until proven otherwise. NOTE <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/elon-musk-major-social-security-warning-fraud-billion-week-lost-2029244\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Newsweek fell for this<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DOGEbags in Breaking Stuff<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cDOGE Is Hacking America\u201d [Bruce Schneier and Davi Ottenheimer, <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2025\/02\/11\/doge-cyberattack-united-states-treasury\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Foreign Policy<\/a>]. \u201c. Just as launching a nuclear missile requires two separate officers turning their keys simultaneously, making changes to critical financial systems traditionally requires multiple authorized personnel working in concert. This approach, known as \u201cseparation of duties,\u201d isn\u2019t just bureaucratic red tape; it\u2019s a fundamental security principle as old as banking itself. When your local bank processes a large transfer, it requires two different employees to verify the transaction. When a company issues a major financial report, separate teams must review and approve it. These aren\u2019t just formalities\u2014they\u2019re essential safeguards against corruption and error.\u201d \u2022 \u201cMove fast and launch things,\u201d eh?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTreasury officials: Musk ally \u2018mistakenly\u2019 had power to alter payments system\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/02\/11\/musk-ally-mistakenly-power-alter-payments-system-00203714\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Politico<\/a>]. \u201cTreasury Department officials said Tuesday that the agency last week \u2018mistakenly\u2019 and \u2018briefly\u2019 gave a member of Elon Musk\u2019s team the power to alter a sensitive federal payments database, prompting an internal forensic investigation that remains ongoing\u2026 Senior Treasury officials wrote in sworn declarations that Marko Elez, a 25-year-old former SpaceX and X engineer, was erroneously granted \u2018read\/write\u2019 privileges to a secure payments system on Feb. 5.\u201d \u2022 Oh, totally \u201cmistakenly.\u201d How are we sure Little Marko didn\u2019t install any back doors?<\/p>\n<p>Whoops, the DOGEbags almost broke the mortgage market:<\/p>\n<p><center> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">True. Heads were spinning across the mortgage industry today. \u201cThe DOGE guys are knocking down walls without knowing where there\u2019s financial plumbing,\u201d said a mortgage industry source. \u201cEventually, they are gonna to put a hole through something that matters.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Capitol_Forum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">@Capitol_Forum<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/P61ayWZZy6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/P61ayWZZy6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Patrick Rucker (@PatrickMRucker) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PatrickMRucker\/status\/1889434070486229294\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">February 11, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>DOGEbags in the Midst of a Constitutional Crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy DOGE is unconstitutional\u201d [Alan Charles Raul, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/2025.02.12-013508\/https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2025\/02\/11\/trump-congress-courts-doge-musk\/#selection-473.0-476.0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WaPo<\/a>]. A Reaganaut (!). \u201cThe radical reorganization now underway is not just footfaulting over procedural lines; it is shattering the fundamental checks and balances of our constitutional order. The DOGE process, if that is what it is, mocks two basic tenets of our government: that we are nation of laws, not men and that it is Congress which controls spending and passes legislation. The president must faithfully execute Congress\u2019s laws and manage the executive agencies consistent with the Constitution and lawmakers\u2019 appropriations \u2014 not by any divine right or absolute power\u2026. Even under the most aggressive view of the president\u2019s \u201cunitary executive\u201d control over the entire executive branch and independent agencies, it is Congress\u2019s sole authority to appropriate and legislate for our entire government. But in the end, the president is constitutionally stuck with the policies for the federal government that Congress enacts and appropriates. No one man in America is the law \u2014 not even a Trump or an Elon Musk. So, how can the radical overhaul Trump and Musk are undertaking be reconciled with our constitutional order? Quite simply, it cannot be. Congress must step in to enact this radical transformation \u2014 or the Supreme Court must stop it.\u201d \u2022 Let me know how that works out\u2026. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot Hyperbole Anymore: Musk Is In Charge of the US Government\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/edblog\/not-hyperbole-anymore-musk-is-in-charge-of-the-us-government\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Talking Points Memo<\/a>]. On the Hiring Approval Section in the EO: \u201cI tell ya, I\u2019m tryin\u2019, dear friends. I\u2019m struggling here not to engage in hyperbole. But I don\u2019t know what else to call these people besides political commissars. And again, they report to Elon Musk. He\u2019s already very clearly operating here as an independent actor whose actions the President blesses after he\u2019s found out what\u2019s happened. This is a parallel overlaying of authority over the entire structure of the U.S. government.\u201d \u2022 Yes, Stalin would totally have loved running DOGE.<\/p>\n<div class=\"printfriendly pf-alignleft\"><a href=\"#\" rel=\"nofollow\" onclick=\"window.print(); return false;\" title=\"Printer Friendly, PDF &amp; Email\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none; -moz-box-shadow: none; box-shadow:none; padding:0; margin:0\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.printfriendly.com\/buttons\/print-button-gray.png\" alt=\"Print Friendly, PDF &amp; Email\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/02\/200pm-water-cooler-2-12-2025-dogebags-to-infest-entire-federal-government-with-bolshevik-style-parallel-party-structure.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bird Song of the Day Patient readers, I apologize for the enormous typo. This is what I (and you) get then I deviate from my<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-spotlight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}