DOGE Catch-All

[nycfan]

‘‘Delete’ is one of their favorite terms’: Inside DOGE’s IRS takeover ahead of tax season​

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/15/politics/doge-irs-takeover-irs-tax-season/index.html

“… Within minutes of showing up, a twenty-something software engineer dispatched from DOGE began demanding access to the tax collection agency’s most protected internal databases – first the IT systems and then one containing the personal and financial data for millions of American taxpayers and another system housing IRS contracts.

… Another DOGE staffer sought to shut down nearly all of IRS’s congressionally funded programs and initiatives planned for this fiscal year – many aimed at modernizing the agency and improving the tax filing process.

As DOGE has set up shop inside the IRS over the past month, the agency has fired thousands of workers and auditors and set out to shutter more than 110 taxpayer assistance offices across the country. Widespread layoffs are in the works, with plans to cut nearly 20% of all IRS employees by May 15.

The barnstorming, which has played out at multiple agencies, has thrown the IRS into turmoil at the height of tax season. While the business of processing returns and issuing refunds has been ongoing, sources say these DOGE actions could undermine the long-term operations of the IRS, which handles nearly all accounts receivable for the federal government. …”

“… “They just randomly drop by people’s offices, demanding access to systems; they’re bullying us and there’s no discipline in what they are doing, which really worries me,” said one IRS employee.

“It’s a clusterf***, and I can’t believe no one is stepping in to do anything,” said another top staffer who worked at the IRS.

“We are paralyzed,” said a third IRS source.

Another current IRS employee, who works outside Washington and is a local union leader, said it’s now routine to see people crying in the office and managers going around apologizing for firings they had no decision in.

“Morale is suffering,” the person said.

… Along with reducing headcount, sources say that it appears that DOGE’s priority at the IRS has been around accessing its vast data systems.

… The employee told CNN Corcos was making the demand without “fully understanding how the agency works within the federal government.”

“They’ll come in and say we’re going to delete that initiative– ‘delete’ is one of their favorite terms,” said the IRS employee.

“So, we are scrambling to figure out ‘Does Sam have that authority? Does Gavin have that authority? Did Treasury give them that authority?’”

Corcos also pushed for a fast-tracked background check which would have required federal employees to work on the weekend so he could quickly gain access to the IRS IT system.

By the following Monday, the agency’s top HR officer was placed on administrative leave and told she was dismissed for being insubordinate after Kliger’s demand for an expedited background check for his DOGE partner had not been fulfilled over the weekend, sources said. …”

 

[1moretimeagain]

The DOGE guys in their 20s will probably be a delight for decades to come.

 

[Tarheeljoe]

 

[DiehardHeelFan]

Here’s a ‘dead’ person on Social Security in Seattle, with plenty to say​

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/heres-a-dead-person-on-social-security-in-seattle-with-plenty-to-say/

 

[nycfan]

DOGE representatives visit US Institute of Peace, are turned away​

DOGE representatives visit US Institute of Peace, are turned away

U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) officials said several members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) arrived unannounced with FBI agents on Saturday but were denied access to the bu…

thehill.com

“U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) officials said several members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) arrived unannounced with FBI agents on Saturday but were denied access to the building after being approached by their counsel.

“They were met at the door by the Institute’s outside counsel who informed them of USIP’s private and independent status as a non-executive branch agency. Following that discussion, the DOGE representatives departed,” Gonzo Gallegos, USIP’s director of communications, said in a statement to The Hill.

… USIP is a national non-partisan organization created by Congress and dedicated to protecting U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad according to their website.

It uses federal funding to perform its mission and works closely with the Department of Defense.

A Senate-confirmed Board of Directors made up of the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and President of the National Defense University governs the USIP in an effort to align with each presidential administration and their national security efforts.

“As an independent, non-profit organization established by Congress, USIP remains committed to the cooperation and comity with the Trump Administration it has exhibited in its work with seven administrations since its founding under President Ronald Reagan,” Gallegos said after the DOGE visit. …”

 

[nycfan]

OPINION: Mr. Musk, How Much Is a Ukrainian Child Worth?​

Thanks to the Trump administration and their so-called DOGE initiative, led by Elon Musk, funds have been pulled from countering Russia’s kidnapping of Ukrainian children.

Opinion: Mr. Musk, How Much Is a Ukrainian Child Worth?

Thanks to the Trump administration and their so-called DOGE initiative, led by Elon Musk, funds have been pulled from countering Russia’s kidnapping of Ukrainian children.

www.kyivpost.com

“… More than 19,500 Ukrainian children have disappeared into Russia. Some were taken from orphanages and hospitals; others were kidnapped from occupied territories. All have undergone the same process – forced name changes, new passports, and indoctrination into the “Russian world.” They are taught to forget the Ukrainian language. To despise the country they came from. To never learn the truth about their origins.

This is not a conspiracy theory or propaganda. There are documented testimonies from children who managed to escape.

Twelve-year-old Makar, one of the few lucky ones who was returned to Ukraine, described how Russians at a so-called “rehabilitation center” told him his Ukrainian parents had abandoned him and that he would now finally have a “real family” – a Russian family. Imagine the psychological trauma of a child made to believe their parents had discarded them while being given a new identity, a new language, and a new life they never wanted.

And what about the children who were in orphanages or whose parents were killed in the war? They are the easiest prey. In Russian government records, these children do not exist as Ukrainians. They are now “rescued orphans” meant to be adopted by Russian families and raised as small patriots of the new empire. Their past has been erased. Their names changed. Their future sealed. This is not assimilation – it is cultural genocide.

… While humanitarian organizations, led by Save Ukraine, are trying to locate and bring back the stolen children, someone is now preventing them – Elon Musk. The visionary, the man who loves to play Messiah, has decided to cut funding for the team working to find and return abducted Ukrainian children. …”

 

[nycfan]

OPINION: Mr. Musk, How Much Is a Ukrainian Child Worth?​

Thanks to the Trump administration and their so-called DOGE initiative, led by Elon Musk, funds have been pulled from countering Russia’s kidnapping of Ukrainian children.

Opinion: Mr. Musk, How Much Is a Ukrainian Child Worth?

Thanks to the Trump administration and their so-called DOGE initiative, led by Elon Musk, funds have been pulled from countering Russia’s kidnapping of Ukrainian children.

www.kyivpost.com

“… More than 19,500 Ukrainian children have disappeared into Russia. Some were taken from orphanages and hospitals; others were kidnapped from occupied territories. All have undergone the same process – forced name changes, new passports, and indoctrination into the “Russian world.” They are taught to forget the Ukrainian language. To despise the country they came from. To never learn the truth about their origins.

This is not a conspiracy theory or propaganda. There are documented testimonies from children who managed to escape.

Twelve-year-old Makar, one of the few lucky ones who was returned to Ukraine, described how Russians at a so-called “rehabilitation center” told him his Ukrainian parents had abandoned him and that he would now finally have a “real family” – a Russian family. Imagine the psychological trauma of a child made to believe their parents had discarded them while being given a new identity, a new language, and a new life they never wanted.

And what about the children who were in orphanages or whose parents were killed in the war? They are the easiest prey. In Russian government records, these children do not exist as Ukrainians. They are now “rescued orphans” meant to be adopted by Russian families and raised as small patriots of the new empire. Their past has been erased. Their names changed. Their future sealed. This is not assimilation – it is cultural genocide.

… While humanitarian organizations, led by Save Ukraine, are trying to locate and bring back the stolen children, someone is now preventing them – Elon Musk. The visionary, the man who loves to play Messiah, has decided to cut funding for the team working to find and return abducted Ukrainian children. …”

Elon Musk's DOGE Cuts Hit Team Saving Kidnapped Ukrainian Children​

Elon Musk's DOGE cuts hit team saving kidnapped Ukrainian children

The work of a Yale University team that helped rescue Ukrainian children abducted by Russia has been defunded, according to reports.

www.newsweek.com

“… The i Paper says Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has paused financial support for researchers at Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL).

A university spokesperson confirmed to Newsweek that government funding for its work on the war in Ukraine had been discontinued.

… The Ukrainian government has said that nearly 20,000 children have been abducted by Russia from the occupied territories of Ukraine since the start of the war as part of a program to eradicate Ukrainian identity. Kyiv says the children are put into camps and foster homes, indoctrinated to Russian customs and brainwashed into turning against Ukraine. The decision to cut funding for the U.S. program could harm Ukraine's ability to reunite children with their families.

Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Children's Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, have been issued with arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the deportation of Ukrainian children.

… The U.S. government has paused funding for the Yale University team which used open source technology including satellite imagery, social media and Russian publications, to trace the lost children and share their findings with the Ukrainian authorities to help them locate the abducted minors.

Ukrainian organization Bring Kids Back UA, is one of the groups relying on the evidence to help find children and repatriate them.

The Yale lab is part of the Conflict Observatory program, set up with funding from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations to investigate Russia-perpetrated war crimes.

A report before Trump's inauguration said the lab gathered evidence on 314 children from Donetsk and Luhansk provinces in eastern Ukraine aged between two and 17, according to the i Paper.

U.K. outlets The Mirror and the Telegraph also reported the defunding story which was carriedby Ukrainian news outlets amid a growing debate over recent U.S. federal cuts impacting Washington's international programs.

A Yale spokesperson told Newsweek the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) were notified government funding for their work on the war in Ukraine had been discontinued. …”

 

[ChileG]

Here’s a ‘dead’ person on Social Security in Seattle, with plenty to say​

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/heres-a-dead-person-on-social-security-in-seattle-with-plenty-to-say/

When people here say they support “some” of what DOGE is doing, is this it?

I can already see it, a wave of the hand and “mistakes happen.”

 

[ChileG]

Elon Musk's DOGE Cuts Hit Team Saving Kidnapped Ukrainian Children​

Elon Musk's DOGE cuts hit team saving kidnapped Ukrainian children

The work of a Yale University team that helped rescue Ukrainian children abducted by Russia has been defunded, according to reports.

www.newsweek.com

“… The i Paper says Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has paused financial support for researchers at Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL).

A university spokesperson confirmed to Newsweek that government funding for its work on the war in Ukraine had been discontinued.

… The Ukrainian government has said that nearly 20,000 children have been abducted by Russia from the occupied territories of Ukraine since the start of the war as part of a program to eradicate Ukrainian identity. Kyiv says the children are put into camps and foster homes, indoctrinated to Russian customs and brainwashed into turning against Ukraine. The decision to cut funding for the U.S. program could harm Ukraine's ability to reunite children with their families.

Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Children's Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, have been issued with arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the deportation of Ukrainian children.

… The U.S. government has paused funding for the Yale University team which used open source technology including satellite imagery, social media and Russian publications, to trace the lost children and share their findings with the Ukrainian authorities to help them locate the abducted minors.

Ukrainian organization Bring Kids Back UA, is one of the groups relying on the evidence to help find children and repatriate them.

The Yale lab is part of the Conflict Observatory program, set up with funding from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations to investigate Russia-perpetrated war crimes.

A report before Trump's inauguration said the lab gathered evidence on 314 children from Donetsk and Luhansk provinces in eastern Ukraine aged between two and 17, according to the i Paper.

U.K. outlets The Mirror and the Telegraph also reported the defunding story which was carriedby Ukrainian news outlets amid a growing debate over recent U.S. federal cuts impacting Washington's international programs.

A Yale spokesperson told Newsweek the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) were notified government funding for their work on the war in Ukraine had been discontinued. …”

Maybe this is the “some” that is supported.

 

[wmheel1287]

When people here say they support “some” of what DOGE is doing, is this it?

I can already see it, a wave of the hand and “mistakes happen.”

The people that support "some" of what DOGE does will never in a million years take ownership of anything negative from it, no matter how horrendously bad.

 

[finesse]

Been like that for years. Conservatives only supported the good parts. It's not their fault the some honest mistakes were made.

 

[StrangePackage]

The people that support "some" of what DOGE does will never in a million years take ownership of anything negative from it, no matter how horrendously bad.

These are the same people who were saying that Trump's denial of Project 2025 was sincere and it was a smear to associate him with it, and now claim that he ran on doing this and people voted for him to do this.

They know they're morally bankrupt raging hypocrites, but they do not care.

 

[finesse]

These are the same people who were saying that Trump's denial of Project 2025 was sincere and it was a smear to associate him with it, and now claim that he ran on doing this and people voted for him to do this.

They know they're morally bankrupt raging hypocrites, but they do not care.

They "know" God will forgive them. After all, they're only doing the things he's too powerless or had forgotten to do.

 

[nycfan]

“Unintended consequences”?

 

[nycfan]

“Unintended consequences”?

“At Veterans Affairs facilities in Detroit and Denver, staff reductions have led to canceled health programs and left homeless veterans without their dedicated coordinator to help them find an apartment and line up a deposit.

In Alabama, job cuts at the Education Department have slowed efforts to get disabled children access to classrooms.

And in California, Yosemite National Park paused new reservations for more than 500 campsites during peak summer months because of staffing uncertainty.

An unprecedented effort to shrink the federal labor force is impeding work at government sites across the country and spawning unintended consequences for services Americans rely on.

…After facing years of bipartisan criticism from Congress, the Department of Health and Human Services late last year hired a transplant surgeon to help implement fixes to the system that regulates organ transplants.

Dr. Jayme Locke, who left her post at the University of Alabama Birmingham for the federal job, was recently fired as a probationary worker. Transplant experts had hoped she would preside over a new era of making improvements instead of just studying them. Dr. Locke declined to comment. HHS didn’t respond to a request for comment.

…Weather balloons, which capture information on temperature, humidity and wind, aren’t going up regularly in Albany, N.Y., or Gray, Maine, and launches have stopped altogether in Kotzebue, Alaska, due to staffing shortages at the National Weather Service.

National Parks and other federal lands are cutting hours at visitor centers. More than 700 Park Service employees took the government’s resignation offer, according to an email to supervisors seen by The Wall Street Journal. Roughly 1,000 probationary employees were fired, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit advocacy group. …”

 

[Healing]

“Unintended consequences”?

Yeah, that headline is about as disingenuous as it gets.

 

[nycfan]

 

[Patb78]

I hate it for them. But what the fuck did they expect? He told them he was going to do exactly what he is doing. Why should they be surprised?

 

[altmin]

I hate it for them. But what the fuck did they expect? He told them he was going to do exactly what he is doing. Why should they be surprised?

"Almost 90 percent of voters in this Appalachian county in Kentucky’s southeastern corner voted for Trump,"

 

[BlooVooDoo]

I hate it for them. But what the fuck did they expect? He told them he was going to do exactly what he is doing. Why should they be surprised?

They are going to learn the value of good government the hard way. At least those that survive will.