DOGE Catch-All
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This was always the plan
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www.washingtonpost.com
U.S. pushes nations facing tariffs to approve Musk’s Starlink, cables show
Some countries have turned to the satellite internet firm in conjunction with trade talks, State Department staffers wrote. The U.S. has a strategic interest in countering Chinese internet providers, but Musk’s role complicates the picture.May 7, 2025 at 2:06 p.m. EDT
Less than two weeks after President Donald Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on goods from the tiny African nation of Lesotho, the country’s communications regulator held a meeting with representatives of Starlink.
The satellite business, owned by billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, had been seeking access to customers in Lesotho. But it was not until Trump unveiled the tariffs and called for negotiations over trade deals that leaders of the country of roughly 2 million people awarded Musk’s firm the nation’s first-ever satellite internet service license, slated to last for 10 years.
The decision drew a mention in an internal State Department memo obtained by The Washington Post, which states: “As the government of Lesotho negotiates a trade deal with the United States, it hopes that licensing Starlink demonstrates goodwill and intent to welcome U.S. businesses.”
Lesotho is far from the only country that has decided to assist Musk’s firm while trying to fend off U.S. tariffs. The company reached distribution deals with two providers in India in March and has won at least partial accommodations with Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam, although this is probably not a comprehensive count.
Carolina Fever
Inconceivable Member
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DOGE Put a College Student in Charge of Using AI to Rewrite Regulations
A DOGE operative has been tasked with using AI to propose rewrites to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s regulations—an effort sources are told will roll out across government.
DOGE Put a College Student in Charge of Using AI to Rewrite Regulations
A DOGE operative has been tasked with using AI to propose rewrites to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s regulations—an effort sources are told will roll out across government.
“… Sweet—who two sources have been told is the lead on the AI deregulation project for the entire administration—has produced an Excel spreadsheet with around a thousand rows containing areas of policy where the AI tool has flagged that HUD may have “overreached” and suggesting replacement language.
Staffers from PIH are, specifically, asked to review the AI’s recommendations and justify their objections to those they don’t agree with. “It all sounds crazy—having AI recommend revisions to regulations,” one HUD source says. “But I appreciated how much they’re using real people to confirm and make changes.”
… One HUD source who heard about Sweet’s possible role in revising the agency’s regulations said the effort was redundant, since the agency was already “put through a multi-year multi-stakeholder meatgrinder before any rule was ever created” under the Administrative Procedure Act. (This law dictates how agencies are allowed to establish regulations and allows for judicial oversight over everything an agency does.)
Another HUD source said Sweet’s title seemed to make little sense. “A programmer and a quantitative data analyst are two very different things,” they noted. …”
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“… Jennifer Burdick, a Philadelphia-based attorney representing clients seeking disability benefits, said that in the past week a new phone line operated by an artificial intelligence system has complicated her efforts to get help for her clients. In one case, she and her paralegal had to call repeatedly before they were connected with a human to discuss a client who never got their disability check last month.
“Many times when you say ‘agent’ it won’t put you through to the hold line, it’ll act like it didn’t hear what you said,” Burdick said. “This is causing some confusion. People are getting frustrated and trying to tell it what they mean, and instead of that being effective at all, it’s been spitting out weird Social Security knowledge.”
When a Post reporter called the phone line Friday afternoon, it took eight attempts to get transferred to an agent. The AI bot asked the reporter several times to end the call and gave unrelated information about a cost-of-living adjustment, Medicare Part B’s premium and benefits available to people after the retirement age.
Social Security has said it plans to roll out the automation to all field offices by this summer, and it is already in use in more than 350 field offices in the Southeast and Northeast as of the end of April.
A spokesperson said the agency is “constantly improving the feature,” which can be “affected by many factors, including background noise, quality of the connection, and clarity of speech.”…”
Breaking it isn’t a failing or a bug; it’s the chief feature.
superrific
Master of the ZZLverse
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I have a feeling that the AI generated regs would not be viewed favorably by a reviewing court.
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NDAs for VA employees working on staff reduction plans prompts House Dems probe
The use of non-disclosure agreements could "chill employees from disclosing violations of waste, fraud and abuse," top oversight Democrat says.
www.govexec.com
House Democrats are probing whether the Veterans Affairs Department is unlawfully preventing its employees from engaging with lawmakers or other oversight bodies, asking the agency to provide more information on the “gag orders” it has implemented for part of its workforce.
The letter from House Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Gerry Connolly, D-Va., follows Government Executive’s reporting that VA was requiring employees working on the department’s plan to slash its workforce to sign non-disclosure agreements. The unusual move has prevented supervisors from sharing basic information with staff and raised questions about whether VA was skirting whistleblower protection laws.
“To ensure that the Trump Administration is not unlawfully prohibiting or intimidating current or former employees from communicating any such abuses to Congress, we request documents and information related to these reports,” Connolly said in a letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins on Tuesday.
VA has in recent weeks held meetings with representatives from across the department to discuss its workforce reduction plans after standing up a Reorganization Implementation Cell. Senior Executive Service and General Schedule-14 and 15 employees serving in those roles have signed NDAs that prohibit them from discussing those efforts. Government Executive first reported that VA plans to cut its workforce down to fiscal 2019 levels, leading to cuts of around 80,000 employees.
Connolly suggested the NDAs raise questions about efforts to “undercut whistleblower protections.” By law, any NDAs in government must include language that affirmatively states the agreements do not supersede employees’ right to discuss the matters at hand with Congress, inspectors general or the Office of Special Counsel. NDAs within federal agencies are typically limited to procurement-sensitive discussions and national security settings that include classified information and deploying them for personnel matters is rare.
Carolina Fever
Inconceivable Member
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Trump is a loser again.
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Supreme Court Blocks Release Of DOGE Records
The Trump administration will not have to provide documents and testimony about billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency—at least for now—as Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts granted the government’s request to temporarily halt movement in a case over whether DOGE has to be transparent about its actions.
Supreme Court Blocks Release Of DOGE Records In FOIA Case
The Trump administration claimed the request for documents was “extraordinarily overbroad and intrusive."
www.forbes.com
This bullet point considering how DOGE efforts were conducted
The Trump administration has argued the requests for information made by left-leaning watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which brought the case, are “extraordinarily overbroad and intrusive.”
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ZenMode
Legend of ZZL
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Elon Musk's bromance with President Donald Trump has taken a hit after the tech billionaire blasted the White House for 'undermining' him and treating DOGE like 'whipping boys.'
The billionaire Tesla CEO spoke to the press before launching a SpaceX Starship into the stratosphere on Tuesday night and unleashed on Trump's $3.8 trillion spending bill.
'It undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' Musk bluntly told CBS.
'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it.'
Musk - who spoke to multiple outlets about the White House betrayal - went on to decry the treatment he and his baby-faced DOGE henchmen had received.
'DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,' he told the Washington Post.
'Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.'
After helping Trump win the 2024 election with outrageous financial contributions and stage-jumping endorsements, Musk earned the title of 'First Buddy' in the White House.
For the first several months of Trump's second term, Musk was everywhere - briefing Trump personally, gutting federal departments and even bringing his son, X, along to crucial meetings in the Oval Office.
www.dailymail.co.uk
The billionaire Tesla CEO spoke to the press before launching a SpaceX Starship into the stratosphere on Tuesday night and unleashed on Trump's $3.8 trillion spending bill.
'It undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' Musk bluntly told CBS.
'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it.'
Musk - who spoke to multiple outlets about the White House betrayal - went on to decry the treatment he and his baby-faced DOGE henchmen had received.
'DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,' he told the Washington Post.
'Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.'
After helping Trump win the 2024 election with outrageous financial contributions and stage-jumping endorsements, Musk earned the title of 'First Buddy' in the White House.
For the first several months of Trump's second term, Musk was everywhere - briefing Trump personally, gutting federal departments and even bringing his son, X, along to crucial meetings in the Oval Office.
Musk blasts Trump's spending bill for 'undermining' DOGE
The world's richest man switched out his MAGA cap and black blazer for an 'Occupy Mars ' t-shirt as he returned to his roots to launch a SpaceX Starship on Tuesday night.
Mulberry Heel
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We as a nation are going to pay a terrible price for the complete stupidity of what we're doing right now. It will take awhile, but if this keeps up then China will replace us as the world's most influential nation, because they're going to step in and step up and start paying for and supporting all of the international and global organizations and projects we're abandoning willy-nilly with no real thought or planning, other than it will piss off liberals. Of course Trump doesn't care as he likely won't live long enough to experience the real effects of what he's doing.