DOGE Updates

[JohnsonJones]

  On 2/22/2025 at 6:51 PM, NeuroTypical said:

What's your source for that claim?  What is your understanding of what an "SS investigator" looks like, and what going out to investigate looks like?

Here's what the report says about recovering: 

But again, recovery is only part of it.  The report talks about the need to make changes and improvements so more improper payments can be detected in the first place.  It talks about how systems are put in place to "help detect" improper payments, and it talks about how those systems need to be improved.  Sometimes the process to detect doesn't even exist - it talks about that on page 34.     Random audits of a tiny sample of payments always discover unflagged, undetected improper payments where nobody was sent out to investigate.  

It also mentions that for every improper payment they actually do discover, SSA thinks it costs them $.08 for every dollar collected to get the dollar back.   So for that $71.8 billion of improper payments they actually discovered, they had to spend almost six billion dollars to correct the error. 

I'm not satisfied with an explanation about why waste happens, I want the waste reduced.  Eliminated if possible.  I'm hopeful that DOGE isn't just accepting explanations about how problems only happen occasionally or rarely.   As the report notes: "SSA issues over $1 trillion in benefit payments annually. Even the slightest error in the overall payment process can result in billions of dollars in improper payments."

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Personal experience working in conjunction with the system, along with a lot of other information regarding what some people would consider paper law. 

Not something I tend to discuss on this forum.  I focus more on the historical side of things, especially as I am now teaching (and hopefully retiring at the end of the semester finally, though there has arisen a complication with that).

If you are truly interested you can Message me privately, but any discussions in this regard are strictly private.

[Carborendum]

I'm going to make a prediction about Medicare.

So far, DOGE has been staying away from Medicare because it is obvious it is considered necessary for our current system of healthcare.  My question, then, is why are Democrats screaming and hollering that DOGE needs to keep their hands off of it?  To me, it seems almost gaslighting to tell them to keep their hands off of it when they haven't touched it and (AFIK) no one has said that they are going to get rid of it. 

Eventually, they will audit it just like every other government function.  And we'd expect that (just like every aspect of government) we'll at least find a moderate amount of fraud, waste, and abuse.  So, again, I ask, "Why are they screaming about it?"

So far, when the Dems have been screaming at DOGE to stay away from something, it is because there is something to hide there.  The louder they scream to stay away from something that DOGE has already been staying away from, the more likely it is that there is a greater fraud, waste, and abuse going on than we thought.

Edited March 12 by Carborendum

[NeuroTypical]

  On 3/12/2025 at 1:22 PM, Carborendum said:

"Why are they screaming about it?"

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Because they believe drumming up fears will win votes for them, and lose votes for the other guy.   It's politics 101.

I mean, it's possible that discovery of how things work in Medicare might make them look bad, but occam's razor would seem to indicate plain old fear-drumming is the most likely reason.  

The last time I heard this level of disaster and doom pedaling was during the welfare reform parts of Gingrich's Contract with America.  I remember Maxine Waters standing up and screaming, genuinely shrieking, about how the R's welfare reform would result in "bodies stacked like cordwood" as the poor people began dying off as the checks were stopping.     In reality, what happened was the FedGov got out of the welfare business and just did block grants to the states so they could handle welfare themselves.  It worked so well that within a decade the Dems were claiming the welfare reform was their idea.

[LDSGator]

  On 3/12/2025 at 4:54 PM, NeuroTypical said:

Because they believe drumming up fears will win votes for them, and lose votes for the other guy.   It's politics 101.

 

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It’s a bit more complicated than that. Some people genuinely think government is a good thing, and they are gravely concerned about what will be taken away from them.
 

It’s not what I believe-frankly when the government shuts down I want to drink champagne. I love what DOGE claims to but I see the other side’s POV.  

[Carborendum]

  On 3/12/2025 at 4:54 PM, NeuroTypical said:

Because they believe drumming up fears will win votes for them, and lose votes for the other guy.   It's politics 101.

I mean, it's possible that discovery of how things work in Medicare might make them look bad, but occam's razor would seem to indicate plain old fear-drumming is the most likely reason.  

The last time I heard this level of disaster and doom pedaling was during the welfare reform parts of Gingrich's Contract with America.  I remember Maxine Waters standing up and screaming, genuinely shrieking, about how the R's welfare reform would result in "bodies stacked like cordwood" as the poor people began dying off as the checks were stopping.     In reality, what happened was the FedGov got out of the welfare business and just did block grants to the states so they could handle welfare themselves.  It worked so well that within a decade the Dems were claiming the welfare reform was their idea.

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I suppose that's entirely possible.  But certain circumstances that have come to light so far would at least hint at something more targeted.  Their recent antics are beyond the norm even for them.  To cry out an accusation that wasn't even part of the conversation?  Usually, they scream about a topic that has already been entered into the record/debate.

You could be right.  I guess we'll see.

[Ironhold]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-violence-protest-elon-musk/

For the past few weeks now, people have been targeting Tesla vehicles, charging stations, and retailers for vandalism and arson. 

Individual owners have reported finding fliers on their cars declaring the vehicles "swatsticars" and threatening violence if the owners do not trade their vehicles in for something else, and at least one report is now saying that someone has leaked the information of various Tesla owners online so that the owners can be targeted directly. 

As you can imagine, my efforts to inform various Musk opponents of this trend has fallen on deaf ears as they don't want to admit it's happening. 

[Carborendum]

  On 3/18/2025 at 9:34 PM, Ironhold said:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-violence-protest-elon-musk/

For the past few weeks now, people have been targeting Tesla vehicles, charging stations, and retailers for vandalism and arson. 

Individual owners have reported finding fliers on their cars declaring the vehicles "swatsticars" and threatening violence if the owners do not trade their vehicles in for something else, and at least one report is now saying that someone has leaked the information of various Tesla owners online so that the owners can be targeted directly. 

As you can imagine, my efforts to inform various Musk opponents of this trend has fallen on deaf ears as they don't want to admit it's happening. 

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They know it is happening.  But they all-too-quickly assume it is just an isolated incident that keeps happening all over the blue states.  So, there's no need to worry about it.

[Traveler]

 

  On 3/18/2025 at 9:34 PM, Ironhold said:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-violence-protest-elon-musk/

For the past few weeks now, people have been targeting Tesla vehicles, charging stations, and retailers for vandalism and arson. 

Individual owners have reported finding fliers on their cars declaring the vehicles "swatsticars" and threatening violence if the owners do not trade their vehicles in for something else, and at least one report is now saying that someone has leaked the information of various Tesla owners online so that the owners can be targeted directly. 

As you can imagine, my efforts to inform various Musk opponents of this trend has fallen on deaf ears as they don't want to admit it's happening. 

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  On 3/18/2025 at 9:57 PM, Carborendum said:

They know it is happening.  But they all-too-quickly assume it is just an isolated incident that keeps happening all over the blue states.  So, there's no need to worry about it.

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I believe we are looking at the equivalent of modern era Gadianton Robbers.

Here is an AI overview: In the Book of Mormon, the Gadianton robbers were a secret, criminal organization founded by a Nephite named Gadianton, known for their use of murder, plunder, and secret oaths to destabilize society and overthrow governments.

 

The Traveler

[mordorbund]

  On 3/18/2025 at 10:33 PM, Traveler said:

Here is an AI overview: In the Book of Mormon, the Gadianton robbers were a secret, criminal organization founded by a Nephite named Gadianton, known for their use of murder, plunder, and secret oaths to destabilize society and overthrow governments.

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Kishkumen has left the chat.

[Carborendum]

Thank heaven for government incompetence.

Proof that Dems purposefully imported illegal immigrants to change the voting demographics.
Proof that Dems funded Taliban.

Edited April 3 by Carborendum

[NeuroTypical]

Heh.   Yeah.  "Institute of Peace".   This is news story #2 about it.  News story #1 was pretty wild too:

 

[Phoenix_person]

 

https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/whistleblower-org-says-doge-may-have-caused-significant-cyber-breach-us-labor-2025-04-15/

I've been seeing a lot of DOGE cybersecurity concerns in the "Resistance" corners of social media. Usually the citation work is sketchy at best, and I'm not interested in verifying every story I see on the internet, so I usually make a mental note (in case it comes up again) and move on. But this was the second time this week I've seen Russian hackers mentioned, and since there's a whistleblower complaint to Congress involved, it wasn't hard to find an article from a credible source. I hope Republicans are looking at things like this as closely as they looked at Hillary's emails.

Edited Thursday at 09:42 PM by Phoenix_person

[Carborendum]

  On 4/17/2025 at 9:41 PM, Phoenix_person said:

I hope Republicans are looking at things like this as closely as they looked at Hillary's emails.

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Don't worry, they have a cloth.

[NeuroTypical]

  On 4/17/2025 at 9:41 PM, Phoenix_person said:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/whistleblower-org-says-doge-may-have-caused-significant-cyber-breach-us-labor-2025-04-15/

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may have been 
appeared to have been 
data almost never directly leaves 
an NLRB spokesperson as disputing Berulis' claims and saying there had been no breach. 
attempted logins apparently included correct username and password combinations but were rejected by location-related conditional access policies.
reportedly asking outsiders for feedback.

That stuff causes epic yawns.

 

As he and his colleagues prepared to pass information they'd gathered to CISA he received a threatening note taped to the door of his home with photographs of him walking in his neighborhood taken via drone, Andrew Bakaj, Whistleblower Aid's chief legal counsel, said in his submission to Cotton and Warner.

That claim briefly raises a concerned eyebrow, even though I'm suspicious that such tactics would come from any government agency or operative or quasi-group or whatever.  I mean, when the govt wants to silence someone, they can't do better than obvious attempts to bully into silence?  If there's a group notorious for bullying people into compliance, it's unions.

 

Bakaj declined to share the note with Reuters Tuesday.

lol nvm, the epic yawn wins this one.  A professional whistleblowing group that can't be bothered with showing evidence?   

Yeah, it never hurts to keep a skeptical eye out. But in this case, my skeptical eye is being cast at the whistleblower org's story.

 

In related news, the place I work for makes stuff for network security monitoring.   They have a wall full of monitors displaying the current state of cyberattacks and other nefarious action around the globe.  Cool format intended to look like something out of a sci-fi movie.  (We just sell stuff to the network security people, we don't do it ourselves, so this display is there to look cool and entertain while informing.)  Anyway, there are always millions if not billions of hacks and attacks and ban attempts and things happening all over the world, all the time.   Deep pockets and governments are two of the top five target groups.   So if something happened, the fact that it happened after DOGE happened to be there doing stuff, would seem coincidental.

 

But yeah, it never hurts to keep a skeptical eye out.

Edited Friday at 01:44 AM by NeuroTypical