>DOGE currently has FEMA employees tasked with combing through grants for DEI-related keywords for all grants dating back to 2021. DOGE’s list of “problematic" keywords include: Disadvantaged, Marginalized, Underserved, Environmental Justice, Climate, Equity, Equitable, Inclusion, Diversity, and Culture.
It's sad how the "big tech" fear involves installing an administration that emulates the arbitrary nature of big tech, in spades.
We're watching the ultimate destructive expression of the comp sci "oh, we can just automate that" hubris.
Is there anything we can do?
I don’t mean to ask that and imply that there is nothing. I mean it as an honest question. Is there a process or organization to snap into right now to help?
Why does everything D0G3 get flagged?
If they would rather lean into bureaucratic evils like TSA with similar ferociousness (and saving hundreds of millions or even billions easily), they would get some points to burn on unpopular fascist moves. But no lets target the weakest in society, for sure easy targets with little to defend themselves.
And ... there we go - flagged by Musk's tech bros again. HN is starting to feel like X -- I've deleted my X account, and might have to do the same here.
I've now switched my primary HN link from the home page to /active, where, thankfully, flagged posts still show up.
Big tech comes to destroy America.
As a European this is just so terrifying and fascinating to watch at the same time. I really wonder (and hope for the best) what comes out of all this. With Trump and Musk and this agency that isn't one and all the presidential orders. Will we look at this some time later and think "well, that was really stupid, do not try again" or will the world burn down over this? Crazy times.
This confirms all my biases and comes from a source I don't recognize. That trips my anti-confirmation bias heuristics.
Can someone do a journalism on this and get 1-2 other independent sources?
Oh look this has already been flagged.
I think it’s important to recognize that HN is most likely supportive of the Trump/Musk regime. Remember that Gary Tan wanted to run the same playbook in the city of San Francisco.
Please keep this in mind when posting here.
Finally, depending on where we end up, I wonder how history will remember HN.
> DOGE claims to be auditing FEMA. But sources within FEMA report that the DOGE employees are primarily “computer science guys” and do not understand the basics of financial management. In one instance, a coder brought in by DOGE confronted a FEMA staffer about mismanagement of funds. The FEMA staffer clarified that no funds were allocated during the time period in question and that the DOGE representative simply misunderstood the data.
I say this as a UKian with a constitutional monarch as head of state:
These actions suggest that today the United States seems to have a de facto King with far greater powers than even those held by George III at the time the founders decided that America did not need a King.
They might not be called that, but they have the ability to exert behaviours akin to an English monarch not seen much since Henry VIII. Arguably, we're heading into Magna Carta territory.
The checks and balances are about to get a big test. I hope they work, and I'm proven wrong.
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here is doge https://www.doge.gov/
The security and intelligence apparatus made bet big that they could prevent a second trump election, after quite successfully destabilising the first -- they failed. And now the very system of unaccountable executive power which has been built up, is now being used against the executive itself.
This makes me increasingly concerned for a similar turn of events in the UK (ie., given the many actions of the UK state to enable state propaganda, censorship of the UK internet, and tracking of all citizens -- how these will be used if a far-right party comes into power.
> DOGE is also working with a FEMA IT Specialist and a grant director, according to Drop Site’s reporting. “Everyone is complying. Everyone is afraid to lose their jobs,” sources within FEMA told Drop Site. They describe the situation as FEMA employees following a “chain of command and that leads to DOGE even though they’re not part of it.”
This is how a democracy slowly falls into fascism. Not because it's a overnight coup d'Ă©tat, but because people freely give power away instead of resisting, and just agree to actions they never would otherwise.