this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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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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[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 45 points 1 day ago (6 children)

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.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I would not be the least surprised if the sum total of the "l33t h4x0r skills" of these teenagers boils down to knowing the least bit about whatever the latest Javascript frontend framework is, combined with some LLM to help them with it....this is what happens when a whole lot of idiots think that being young == being tech-savvy.

People hand the tech decisions over to complete morons with no understanding and so much Dunning-Kruger that they not only don't know shit about something like PLCs, and may not have even heard of them, they'll be too fucking arrogant to ask people that DO know, because, gosh, they might be OLD (i.e., > 30 years old) or something.

[–] btaf45@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

"Move Fast and Break Things" for government translates to...

Move fast to give billionaires gigantic tax cuts and break Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

[–] YerLam@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago

Move (money to cronies and debtors) fast, break things (people).

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