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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Summary

DOGE staffers Tyler Hassen and Bryton Shang tried pressuring the Bureau of Reclamation to open a California water pump to aid Los Angeles during January’s wildfires, though the system couldn’t reach the city.

When denied, they flew there to do it themselves but failed due to maintenance and access restrictions.

Critics called DOGE a “slapstick operation of 20-somethings they’re seeing as whiz kids but have zero knowledge.”

Trump later ordered dam releases, flooding farmland. Critics called DOGE’s actions reckless and uninformed.

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[-] OkBananas@lemmy.world 56 points 1 month ago

There needs to be more articles like this that calls them out by name. It’s easy to name Trump and Musk, but call out the cronies too!

[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago

Too much credit is given to Trump, which means that if Trump leaves office people will think everything is fixed despite all the other people who steer Trump towards his worst impulses will still be around wreaking havoc.

Trump is 90% a figurehead for the shitty conservatives who wrote Project 2025. He didn't come up with most of this stuff, he is just going along with it. The 10% of the time things are his idea are fucking terrible too, but he definitely doesn't deserve most of the credit.

[-] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago

Yeah but it's MAGA's weird adoration of Trump that makes this all possible. Also Trump did say he wasn't going to do Project 2025 during the campaign. People either believed this (despite him being convicted of 34 counts of fraud) or actually wanted Project 2025.

There will always be ghouls that will want to do these kinds of things. But what needs to happen is for voters to learn that bad things happen when you vote for someone like Trump who enables this kind of thing.

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[-] Yoga@lemmy.ca 42 points 1 month ago

First, the power was off due to planned maintenance. Second, Shang wasn’t an official federal employee yet, meaning he couldn’t access the pump. Hassen couldn’t do it either, CNN reports, because he had to fly back before the power would be restored.

“They didn’t get their photo op,” an unnamed source with knowledge of the incident told CNN, adding it represented “what DOGE has been this entire time — this slapstick operation of 20-somethings they’re seeing as whiz kids but have zero knowledge.”

lol that's amazing levels of incompetence.

[-] IamAnonymous@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Who paid for the flights? American tax dollars or Elon, because it was poorly planned and inefficient which goes against the ideology of DOGE

[-] 800XL@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Anyihing where Trump or Musk are involved there's incompetence.

[-] ehxor@lemmy.ca 41 points 1 month ago

Reminder: pronounce DOGE as “doggy” to deny them legitimacy

[-] Nastybutler@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago

I've been pronouncing it "doogie" because it makes it seem as silly as it is

[-] ehxor@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago

I like your approach. It certainly makes me think of how all the people involved are like way too young.

I’m going to keep going with “doggy” because it reinforces to me how the decision making is on par with toddler logic

[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago

Or just DGE like it would be if it were an actual bureau, DOGE is what they want because it minimizes legitimacy of government itself.

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[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 35 points 1 month ago

These idiots actually thought the only reason the fires were still burning is because someone hasn't opened up a faucet yet, and that no one else but them have thought of it.

[-] xye@lemm.ee 27 points 1 month ago

Yelling at various department managers and threatening to call Musk might work for the agencies they’ve gutted, but yeah fucking with any fire department during an active wildfire…I don’t care who you are, you’re gonna have a bad time. Possibly shovel related.

[-] DavesNotHere@lemm.ee 11 points 1 month ago

They weren’t fucking with the fire department. They were trying to open massive water pumps (incapable of delivering water anywhere near the fires mind you) that have the capacity to flood entire towns. If you or I did that we’d be facing terrorism charges.

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[-] lepinkainen@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago

I wish I had the confidence of a DOGE tech bro even for a week.

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 21 points 1 month ago

Ya know when you're a teenager and you have these delusions of grandure, and think the world would work just fine if you were allowed to run it, because these "Stupid Adults don't know ANYTHING!"

That's DOGE

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

“Stupid Adults don’t know ANYTHING!”

I mean... these are adults.

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 7 points 1 month ago

Only if you look at their chronological age and not their behavior.

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

All I'm saying is is that I could have absolutely have done a better job as a teenager then these fuckwits.

[-] StopTouchingYourPhone@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

Imagine Bryton and Tyler showing up at your workplace in the middle of a crisis to take selfies and tweet about how they fixed your problems.

[-] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago

It feels like the plot of an episode of Parks and Rec, but like, stupider, and not funny at all

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[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

They should have been arrested.

[-] MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

They should have ~~been arrested~~ had the absolute shit beat out of them.

[-] MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 month ago

Our boys in blue are fully capable of doing both.

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[-] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 month ago

A couple of terms that need to be resurrected and put into common use during this MAGA Occupation:

[-] futatorius@lemm.ee 10 points 1 month ago

The fucking idiots were not just wasting water, they were depleting the reservoirs. That water will be sorely missed in the dry season.

[-] eran_morad@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

This was all by design. It’s meant to fuck over this year’s harvest and drive food prices up.

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[-] caffinatedone@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago
[-] randompasta@lemmy.today 25 points 1 month ago
[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)
[-] noxypaws@pawb.social 9 points 1 month ago

Uncensor your fucking shit for the love of fuck

[-] tburkhol@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Most of us, raised by Hollywood, imagine critical infrastructure has guards and ID checks. Keys. Guys with machine guns. The last 10 years, it's pretty clear the major controls are just that no one tries. "I'm from DOGE" is going to be the penetration tester's go-to social engineering hack for the next four years. Just walk in, press the Big Red Button, and leave.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago

This instance shows that it is, in fact, how that works, at least in part:

Shang wasn’t an official federal employee yet, meaning he couldn’t access the pump.

No credentials, no access. Most infrastructure like this has physical security like fencing, padlocks, steel doors, and so on. I don't know if there's a break-in alarm, but even if not, they'd still have to figure out how to access the pumps and turn them on. They're probably computer-controlled, so you'd have to get access to the computer system. I'm sure you could override it on the PLC, or just plain hotwire it, but that takes a whole new set of skills.

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[-] pyre@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

this whole organization runs exactly like a Seth Rogen / Michael Cera / Jonah Hill movie, except no one is likeable.

[-] Hayduke@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

If DOGE was a movie, it would be Sausage Party.

[-] redlemace@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

it's not about the water, it's about OBEYING them. If Trump, his oligarchs or their puppets tell you to jump you jump or ask 'how high' but don't question them and surely don't disobey them

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[-] meowmeowbeanz@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 month ago

Flying across states for a photo op? Taxpayer money well spent—if you're making satire.

🐱

[-] Numinous_Ylem@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Tyler Hassen and Bryton Shang are fascist toadies.

[-] TylerBourbon@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

These Doggy stooges are sooooo freaking annoying.

[-] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 month ago

Elon Musk needs to be tried and sentenced to death given the level of his crimes committed in and to the US.

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

failed PR attempt

[-] teft@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

A full department staffed by people who haven’t heard of unknown unknowns.

[-] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

The problem is the effects of their actions are absolutely known, and quite predictable, as long as you can think more than 1 layer deep.

Too much fire? Easy, release all the water now!... Except we were clearly holding that water for a reason, otherwise the fucking dam wouldn't be there in the first place...

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[-] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

They look like my dad after he finds a new jacket at Costco.

[-] Kalysta@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago
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this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
260 points (99.2% liked)

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