Below are posts associated with the “DOGE” tag.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump firings cause chaos at agency responsible for America's nuclear weapons'
One more thing right out of the Twitter playbook from DOGE: Firing people without understanding how important they are. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5298190/nuclear-agency-trump-firings-nnsa
the purpose of research isn't to fund universities
My stress and anxiety levels have been high ever since the second Trump administration began and immediately started taking an axe to all sorts of things that one should not take an axe to. For admittedly selfish reasons, though, I’ve been particularly anxious since Friday, when the NIH announced that it was dramatically cutting its support to universities (and other research institutions) in the form of indirect costs. I don’t do NIH-funded work, but we’re a very medically focused campus, and there’s no way that the $40 million that the University estimates we could lose over the next year isn’t going to have ripple effects across campus (not to mention the fact that my colleagues in the College of Communication and Information regularly look to the NIH as a source of funding health communication research).
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Normalizing Indian Hate Makes Me a Good Father and Husband'
McSweeney’s pulls no punches, but Vance has earned no mercy. https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/normalizing-indian-hate-makes-me-a-good-father-and-husband
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How close is Elon Musk to controlling a nuclear weapon?'
The headline is a little provocative, but it’s scary that we live in a world where it makes some sense. More broadly, though, I found that the first Trump administration converted me to nuclear disarmament—yes, this president is scary, but that any president has access to that much destructive power is scarier still. I expect I’ll go further in that direction this time around. https://www.theverge.com/policy/609110/elon-musk-doge-department-energy-nuclear-weapon-waste-cleanup-access
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Staffer with Elon Musk's DOGE amplified white supremacists online'
Starting to sense a pattern. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/staffer-with-elon-musks-doge-amplified-white-supremacists-online-2025-02-07/
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'First Cracks Appear: Some Conservatives Admit We’re In A Constitutional Crisis'
As usual, lots to like in this post from Mike Masnick. https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/04/first-cracks-appear-some-conservatives-admit-were-in-a-constitutional-crisis/
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Can anyone stop President Musk?'
I’m teaching a social media research methods class this semester, and I’m pretty sure I need to bring this article up in this week’s class. https://www.theverge.com/politics/605609/musk-trump-doge-takeover-crisis
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'A 25-Year-Old With Elon Musk Ties Has Direct Access to the Federal Payment System'
Resubscribed to WIRED because despite my efforts to focus more on tech news than political news, THEY HAVE BECOME ONE AND THE SAME IN REALLY WORRYING WAYS. https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-associate-bfs-federal-payment-system/
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Twitter Files Playbook Comes For The US Government'
More good writing from Masnick on scary stuff coming out of DC. https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/03/the-twitter-files-playbook-comes-for-the-us-government/
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The NTSB chooses Elon Musk’s X to update the press on plane crashes'
Lots of bad things are happening right now, but this one stands out. There’s no good reason for this except to make Musk happy. https://www.theverge.com/news/604740/ntsb-x-elon-musk-media-communication
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon’s Twitter Destruction Playbook Hits The US Government, And It’s Even More Dangerous'
Masnick pulls no punches. https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/31/elons-twitter-destruction-playbook-hits-the-us-government-and-its-even-more-dangerous/
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Exclusive: Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say'
Oh, he really is doing this like he did Twitter. That was a nightmare by itself. Exclusive:%20Musk%20aides%20lock%20government%20workers%20out%20of%20computer%20systems%20at%20US%20agency,%20sources%20say%20%7C%20Reuters https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-aides-lock-government-workers-out-computer-systems-us-agency-sources-say-2025-01-31/
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Treasury official retires after clash with DOGE over access to payment system'
Anyone who hasn’t should read one of two excellent books—Extremely Hardcore or Character Limit—on Musk’s takeover of Twitter, because I’m getting similar vibes here. Remember when Musk just refused to pay money Twitter owed because he didn’t feel like it? link to “Treasury official retires after clash with DOGE over access to payment system”