this post was submitted on 09 May 2026
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[–] corbindallas@fedinsfw.app 161 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

NOW CONVICT THOSE RESPONSIBLE

[–] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 48 points 2 weeks ago

We can't do that, silly. That would set a precedent and we can't have people being held responsible.

[–] halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 13 points 2 weeks ago

That would require the DOJ to not be political, and they very definitely are nowhere near that point anymore.

The Judicial needs their own enforcement arm. Once we're through this (one way or another) the US Marshall's Service should be moved under the Judicial Branch to enforce Judicial Decisions instead of relying on the Executive Branch.

Lol. They are rich.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 112 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Yeah but the damage happened in real time. There would need to be standing to sue for the damages cause and accumulated since.

Anecdotal but it's a real story about getting doge'd. I was working on some climate research as part of a climate smart commodities grant (search that program for details), a big one which took years to gain the trust of hundreds of indigenous farmers and non profits to participate in. We were already struggling with USDA bullshit and red tape trying to get payments to farmers who had already spent money and been approved for certain payments, before doge came along.

And because of doge, the entire 50mil program got cut. Maybe not hundreds but dozens of farmers and non profits went out of business because they chose to trust the federal government to be reliable on their word. Not to mention an almost 40 person research team, practically a whole department.

and the trust that took years to build to get these historically disenfranchised groups to the table, to get them to trust the process and work with the government.. that's NEVER coming back.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 49 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I worked for a company that increased government efficiency by 900% in a certain area.

Guess whose contract got cut by DOGE?

[–] halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 5 points 2 weeks ago

Well of course. Republican naming schemes are to call something the exact opposite of what it is. Across the board. Doesn't matter if it's something they're trying to pass or something they are against.

If you hear them talking about something you can safely assume it's the exact opposite of reality.

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 12 points 2 weeks ago

Heartbreaking

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 7 points 2 weeks ago

Anyway you should try to make HIM pay for as much as possible of the damage. Now that it is officially ruled.

[–] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 58 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

This line from the article about DOGE still trying to shift responsibility to ChatGPT.

McMahon also pushes back on the government’s argument that “there is no real constitutional problem here because any viewpoint-based classification was ChatGPT’s doing, rather than the Government’s:”

"There is no distinction to be drawn here between the Government and ChatGPT. ChatGPT was the Government’s chosen instrument for purposes of this project, and DOGE’s use of AI to identify DEI-related material neither excuses presumptively unconstitutional conduct nor gives the Government carte blanche to engage in it. ...There is not a scintilla of evidence that Fox or Cavanaugh, having obtained a “DEI” rationale from ChatGPT, undertook any meaningful review of whether that rationale made sense."

[–] NoForwadSlashS@piefed.social 28 points 2 weeks ago

I'm a broker and I asked a random homeless person what to do with everyone's money that was entrusted to me, so they are the one on the hook when it's all gone right?

[–] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)
[–] tomiant@piefed.social 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I was six hours late, but it was such a perfect post to post that I'll leave mine up as well.

[–] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Eeh, who is counting. ; )

Deserves a restatement.

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[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

But the black box told us to do it, it is not our fault. This has got to be the dumbest timeline ever, but wait.

I know. Let's build a white supremacist black box and then let it give us orders that way we aren't racist. Oh darn, Muskrat was a step ahead and did that already.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago

And it literally led to the bombing of not one, but two Iranian elementary schools (I believe in one day), and over 100 dead schoolchildren.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 11 points 2 weeks ago

We’re going to see a bunch of businesses blaming AI when they fail (because of AI…)

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[–] Robust_Mirror@aussie.zone 58 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

God this is beyond ridiculous.

They used ChatGPT to sort over 1,400 National Endowment for the Humanities grants into spreadsheets. Their exact prompt to the AI was "Does the following relate at all to DEI? Respond factually in less than 120 characters. Begin with 'Yes.' or 'No.' followed by a brief explanation."

They didn't define what they meant by DEI. They just asked ChatGPT to figure it out. And then cancelled grants based on whatever it said. Probably didn't even read past the yes or no.

The government's defence was essentially ChatGPT did it, not us. When asked if he regretted people losing income, he said he didn't, because reducing the deficit was more important. When asked if they actually reduced the deficit, he admitted they did not.

They caused real harm, achieved nothing they claimed to be pursuing, and expressed zero regret about it.

Just really horrible all around.

[–] stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net 25 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

people losing income

More than a million of the poorest people in the world have died - so far - of starvation, exposure, and preventable disease, because of DOGE's illegal cuts to federal programs like USAID.

Sure, we can call that "people losing income". It's technically true.

But Jesus, if I did something illegal and a million people died because of it, I'd spend the rest of my life in prison.

[–] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

In the US you’d almost certainly be put to death for that

[–] badgermurphy@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

If you did something that illegal, they'd name an interstate highway after you and try to get your face on the Nickel.

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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

The full extent of the harm caused by DOGE will not be fully realized for years to come

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[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

This is why jails and punitive damages are a thing.

If you shit upon the public trust there must be penalties.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafe 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The first DOGE team that attempted the first government agency should have been gunned down in the lobby. That was security's job, and they failed miserably. If they had done their job in the first place, America would be in a much different position now.

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[–] tomiant@piefed.social 29 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

You know what I hate? That we don't mock the fact that DOGE was named after a fucking dog meme and a meme coin.

That is literally the origin of the name of that de facto now apparently defunct "governmental institution".

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 weeks ago

Elon's emotional maturity stopped developing as a teen. It's why stupid memes are the height of comedy for him, and also why he doesn't give a fuck about people dying based on his decisions.

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[–] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 28 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

Probublica did a piece on something similar, they just used llm's to flag words that they considered woke, and in the process cancelled a bunch of grants that had nothing at all to do with what they were targeting. They couldn't be bothered to actually check the work of the llm.

Shocking that these fascist clowns aren't good at governing even for their own ill ends.

Honestly I don't think this is the article but idk it's similar, this is just in regards to veterans affairs. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-ai-tool-doge-veterans-affairs-contracts-sahil-lavingia

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Probublica did a piece on something similar, they just used llm’s to flag words that they considered woke, and in the process cancelled a bunch of grants that had nothing at all to do with what they were targeting. They couldn’t be bothered to actually check the work of the llm.

The point was to break things in general while claiming they had specific targeted goals so they could continue the 'government doesn't work' narrative for future budget cuts. Playing the part of a bull in a china shop was the intent and they have already done the damage.

[–] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago

Quite so. Although the real point was to secretly copy all government agency data to Thiel's secret data banks, and whomever else. Musk was just the front man (clown,) thiel is the brains, and yarvin and their pals.

All those doge kids were likely recruited from their drug and sex fueled parties, and groomed for betraying america.

[–] stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Shocking that these fascist clowns aren't good at governing even for their own ill ends.

You're missing the point of the exercise. They didn't want to govern - they wanted to break shit.

Musk went in with the attitude "we will cut everything we have an excuse to cut, and then if one of our political allies objects to a cut, we'll put it back".

And DOGE implemented that plan perfectly.

They cut a bunch of grants that had nothing to do with "wokeness" because their goal was to cut as many grants as possible, no matter what they were for. The LLM was there as a propaganda tool - it let them falsely claim they were only cutting "woke" grants. It was there to give DOGE an excuse. The fact that it was wildly inaccurate was the reason they used it.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

Nobody competent wants to work for these people so they're left with opportunists who couldn't find a career otherwise.

The DOJ can't hire lawyers, it was previously a prestigious career path where people would accept paycuts for the opportunity.

It's a metaphorical clown show. It reminds me of this scene in Chernobyl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idb_qsAAe1c

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[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 28 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Now jail them.

The actual purpose of DOGE was to weaken the US soft power and cripple the scientific/academic foundation of society.

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[–] Grimy@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

After being deployed from DOGE to NEH, Justin Fox used search terms, which he labeled as “Detection Codes,” to identify grants that he dubbed the “Craziest Grants” and “Other Bad Grants.” The search terms included, among other terms, “BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color),” “Minorities,” “Native,” “Tribal,” “Indigenous,” “Immigrant,” “LGBTQ,” “Homosexual,” and “Gay.” When Fox was asked whether he “r[a]n this list of words through every grant description” he received from NEH, he confirmed, “yes.”

I'm a bit at a lost for words here. That is way beyond what I was expecting.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 11 points 2 weeks ago

Really? That seems about par for the course.

Watch some footage from the interviews, it's much much worse than you think. Unimaginably bad.

[–] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Restoring grants to projects that don't exist anymore and the criminals are punished by being called dumb. This is a great system and it really does work.

[–] Avicenna@programming.dev 19 points 2 weeks ago

tell that to scientists who left US because of this maybe they will come back? Likely not.

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago

Ok but all those people found new jobs by now and the damage is irreversible. They need to punish the people who did it in an irreversible way too

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Wait, doge used gpt not Grok?

[–] db2@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Grok kept calling Elon a Nazi until he digitally castrated it in to being a glorified Eliza chatbot.

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[–] trem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago

Don't think, Grok was a thing yet back then...

[–] goatinspace@feddit.org 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Did the judge use AI to decide that they violated 1th and 5th amendments?

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[–] lechekaflan@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Those fucking assholes.

[–] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Who is enforcing this? Saying it was illegal and to restore the grants is a good first step but they can just say no, not do it and face no repercussions so I don’t see how this solves anything.

The US “justice” system is toothless

[–] Rooster326@programming.dev 4 points 2 weeks ago

It's toothless unless it rules for the GOP. Ok

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Can I get an unpaywalled link/article?

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] GenXLiberal@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Only until the SCOTUS six have their way with it

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