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Air (she/her)
@madmaymermaid.bsky.social

I’m a government budget analyst. I’ve worked with auditors. Many of us could have told you this Day 1! However, we’re just worthless bureaucrats trying to steal money according to the rapist felon and his billionaire Nazi handler.

Gnat on the Wall
@travelgnat.bsky.social

I’ve been audited and I’ve conducted audit of contractors- and it’s been obvious from the first that this was not an audit. When you do an audit, you first have to identify the question or focus of the audit. You identify what data you need which includes documents, but also interviews.

Gnat on the Wall
@travelgnat.bsky.social

Critical to any audit that yields accurate findings is auditors taking the time to understand what they’re auditing. They spend a lot of time reviewing documents, processes, policies, contracts, etc. And they confirm that understanding before they finalize their findings. DOGE did none of this.

John Millington
@zapitron.bsky.social

I think the first clue that all they were doing was stealing, was when they decided that one of their very top priorities was to fire all the auditors. They telegraphed to the public that they did not want anyone watching whatever they were doing, especially people experienced in fraud detection.

Anton Shadow
@antonshadow.bsky.social

Returning Workers, After Court Order, Have Had To Revert To Server Backups After Malware Was Discovered, Planted By DOGE's Data Manipulators/Hackers, Who Attempted To SABOTAGE The Systems. Hopefully All Government Servers Are Backed Up To ROMs, Which Can't Be Altered, And Are Usually Off Site.

stevekremer.bsky.social
@stevekremer.bsky.social

Has DOGE inadvertantly proved that there is almost zero "fraud" and very little "waste" in federal government spending? Remember when Ramaswarmy and Musky were going to cut $2T from federal spending. Now, we are seeing forecasts that DOGE is going to be a "net loss" for the government.

Gnat on the Wall
@travelgnat.bsky.social

I don’t think so. They really haven’t tried to do anything serious about fraud, waste, or abuse. The problem is that the government already spends a lot of time looking for these things. But it’s hard. And a lot of waste is hidden in programs that have powerful advocates.

Gnat on the Wall
@travelgnat.bsky.social

Think of it this way- almost all federal spending creates jobs or pays benefits to people and someone’s congressional district. Members of Congress aspire to leadership positions on powerful committees were they can have more say in decisions.

Darwin Origi
@sakho.bsky.social

Surely there are waste and bureaucracy. But instead of fixing that, they are pushing the country decades back while making everything they touch vulnerable to security breaches inadvertently or advertently.

Air (she/her)
@madmaymermaid.bsky.social

I love how bureaucracy is a dirty word to many people. Why? People just hate competence, checks on power and authority, etc? I’ve worked with hundreds of elected officials and I’d pick a bureaucrat over them any day of the week.

Darwin Origi
@sakho.bsky.social

That’s a different debate which will take long hours. Just anecdotally I’ve heard from Pete Buttigieg and Jon Stewart why there can be less red tapes and hoops to do things progressively.

stevekremer.bsky.social
@stevekremer.bsky.social

I call bullshit on the "waste" and "fraud." Having been an executive in both the public and private sector, I can attest that the auditing and oversight in the public sector is 10X greater than in the private sector. Ever thought about who was making claims of public sector fraud? Projection?

Darwin Origi
@sakho.bsky.social

On fraud, I agree. Based on what I’ve seen on Wired and other platforms independent media, after DOGE happened, it seems provable that this does not exist. While on waste, for example: we’re spending on wars, bailouts and tax breaks. Not that the employees are the waste. Rather they’re important.

StatsJew
@statsjew.bsky.social

Any big organization will have wasteful stuff; federal government has pretty mediocre hiring processes and contracting red tape can exclude small companies. But I wouldn't say it's significantly worse overall than waste in the private sector.

Darwin Origi
@sakho.bsky.social

Absolutely agree. I didn’t mean in any way that the employees are the waste. I meant how the taxation is done and where it’s spent (tax breaks, bail outs, wars).

Patty Quinn
@pattyq.bsky.social

Maria Ressa saved Rappler in the Philippines by storing the server outside of the country's jurisdiction. I know little about the technology here, but was it possible to locate government servers outside of U.S. jurisdiction to prevent the destruction Elon and his flunkies are doing?