Where the DOGE Operatives Are Now (wired.com)

by droidjj 34 comments 64 points
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34 comments

[−] cdrnsf 28d ago
It's a shame that anyone hired them. There's nothing like failing upwards.
[−] expedition32 28d ago
There's no accountability in Western society for corruption. At least the CCP occasionally executes someone to make a point.
[−] downrightmike 28d ago
And steal organs from dissidents
[−] MSFT_Edging 28d ago
If you actually follow those claims, you'll find a report published by a cohort partially composed of Falun Gong members.

The actual report points to about 60-80 possible instances of doctors not putting in the maximum amount of effort to save a life over a period of 20-30 years.

Not exactly systemic like people parrot. Sorta like how people endlessly repeated "social credit score" despite most Chinese acknowledging it barely existed for a majority of the population.

[−] capitainenemo 28d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_organ_harvesting_from_F...

"Since 2005 China's Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu acknowledged on several occasions that approximately 65% of organ transplants in China were sourced from executed prisoners.[33][34][35] In 2006 the World Medical Association demanded that China cease harvesting organs from prisoners, who are not deemed able to properly consent.[36]"

...

"Experts have also expressed concern that in addition to executed prisoners, non-death-row political prisoners and prisoners of conscience are also being used to supply the organ transplant industry.[39][40] Researchers, including ones affiliated with The Epoch Times, the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China, and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, point out that data from China between 2010 and 2018 may have been falsified or manipulated because of "contradictory, implausible, or anomalous data artefacts" and because they match a quadratic equation with model parsimony that is one to two orders of magnitude smoother than those of other nations."

65% would be tens of thousands...

[−] downrightmike 28d ago
It's like going out of your way to hire north korean IT workers to ensure all your stuff gets stolen and ransomwared.
[−] miltonlost 28d ago
Jeremy Lewin was the cause of so many deaths from his actions here. I wonder if he smiled as he cut USAID funding. I wonder if he laughed when vaccines weren't delivered and babies died.
[−] tokyobreakfast 28d ago
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[−] krapp 28d ago
What do you think people are going to do, exfiltrate their SS and IRS data to Palantir to have them profiled and classified as enemies of the state?
[−] pstuart 28d ago
That's crazy! That should be the President's job.
[−] krapp 28d ago
No no no, the President's job is to start a holy war* in Iran to distract the country from his pedophilia.

* sorry "special operation"

[−] righthand 28d ago
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[−] palmotea 28d ago
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[−] MSFT_Edging 28d ago

> Some of those guys will almost certainly grow out of it.

We send teenagers to prison for less societal damage. They don't get an opportunity to "grow out of it". I don't know why these teenagers should get more benefit of the doubt.

[−] atmavatar 28d ago
This 100%.

For the benefit of those outside the US: when I was growing up, and we constantly had police officers talk to us in school as part of the ill-fated DARE "just say no" campaign, the next most common phrase we heard was "tried as an adult".

i.e., if you were 14 or older, you couldn't drink, vote, or even get a learner's permit to drive a motor vehicle, and you were probably flooded with all kinds of hormones making it even more more difficult to regulate yourself, but you'd be put in prison with adults rather than go to juvenile hall if you were ever convicted of a crime, and any felonies would stay on your record permanently, essentially ending any hope you'd have at a normal life.

While I have some sympathy for the youngest members of DOGE, they are actually old enough to be legal adults, and I would point out that their youthful naïveté and the "but they're just kids" response to any attempts at holding them accountable is precisely why they were chosen for their roles.

[−] palmotea 28d ago

> We send teenagers to prison for less societal damage. They don't get an opportunity to "grow out of it".

Yeah, but in those cases there are literal laws against what they did, and usually the morality is much more stark (e.g. killing a guy).

Also, the "logic" of being harsh to immature person X so we have to be harsh to every immature person just doesn't fly.

> I don't know why these teenagers should get more benefit of the doubt.

Because this was a more ambiguous situation (e.g. politically polarized) and almost certainly the people who were supposed to know better were telling them they were doing a good job. I'm saying forget the teenagers, and focus on the real bad guys.

[−] krapp 28d ago
They should be growing out of it in prison.
[−] tombert 28d ago
Sorry, no. Are they adults or not? Are they considered mentally disabled? If they are adults they should be held to the same standards as adults. If they're given adult privileges then they are grown ups.

I get a little annoyed at this reasoning because I remember at one point when Donald Trump Jr. did something idiotic in 2017, they were acting like he was "just a dumb kid" as like a 37 year old man. I'm younger than that now, and if I committed a crime I'd still get charged as an adult.

[−] righthand 28d ago
Hey you gotta start being scum somewhere if you think tearing down democracy is a good idea or “teaching a lesson” to your fellow citizens through destruction. They earned all the titles coming their way. Scum is the nicest thing we can call them.
[−] palmotea 28d ago

> Hey you gotta start being scum somewhere

Can you tell me when it started? Because I don't think this is the first time I've seen these kinds of problematic comments from you.

[−] righthand 27d ago
January 20, 2025

You shouldn’t tell people they’re not allowed to be upset, because doing so is problematic behavior anywhere.

[−] raw_anon_1111 28d ago
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[−] tokyobreakfast 28d ago
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[−] scarecrowbob 28d ago
"No need for hyperbolics, no one will take you seriously."

There are some groups of people, many on this forum or even this thread, whose respect for my position would make me believe there is likely an error in my position.

[−] righthand 28d ago
I think all Google employees are scum too. Same for Meta and Microsoft and Twitter and Amazon employees. Basically all of big tech are complicit scum.

I dont use Google so not a public utility for me. Maybe a public cess pool operated by scum?

[−] lamasery 28d ago

> > scum people trying to destroy democracy and government services

> No need for hyperbolics, no one will take you seriously.

Everything but "scum" was just a statement of fact, though? I guess maybe people trying to wreck government services and subvert democracy might not qualify as "scum people" to everyone.

[−] drivebyhooting 28d ago
I disapprove of this kind of article. These useful rubes are not powerful masterminds.

Why go on a witch hunt to hold a 19 year old responsible, when meanwhile Mark “they trust me dumbfucks” Zuckerberg is left off the hook for his teenage improprieties?

[−] beart 28d ago
You are assuming these people were just following procedure. This is not accurate. There is at least one case where data was taken and intended to be improperly used at a private company.

These people are more than useful rubes. They actively committed unethical (if not illegal) acts.

[−] Larrikin 28d ago
Maybe we would have been better off if people went after Zuckerberg when he was 19 too
[−] dwb 28d ago
Why not both? I really don’t think they are rubes. I wouldn’t have done anything like this at 19, and nor would any of my friends at the time.
[−] sys_64738 28d ago
This does not waive Zuck of his crimes either. But all these DOGE perps need to serve life in prison without parole as a warning sign to any others who engage in such a brazen and unaccountable task. People want every one of these criminals to answer severely for their part in it. That includes all their financial assets being seized by the next incoming administration. I'd go further and seize all financial assets of their parents, siblings, children, et al. Those around them that allowed such criminality to be executed should suffer as well.
[−] cdrnsf 28d ago
Zuck should be held accountable for myriad things.
[−] fzeroracer 28d ago
They actively violated the law under the guidance of someone that had no right or reason to be five miles within the government sphere. We can and should arrest every single one of them and work our way up the ladder to Musk.
[−] UncleMeat 28d ago
We can do both.

I dunno, I feel like the kid who used ChatGPT to decide to cut funding to a program such that tens of thousands of people now die deserves some social criticism. People should experience shame when entering in to such a project.

A kid who breaks into a car to steal a backpack gets railroaded into prison. That's orders of magnitude less harmful to society than what these guys did.

[−] miltonlost 28d ago
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[−] tmaly 28d ago
I can't help but notice the quality of the writing on this article is very low. Years ago Wired use to write with quite a bit more flair.