Soraya Nadia McDonald

@soraya.press

critic, publisher, head cunt in charge of Soraya [dot] Press | subscribe 👉🏽 soraya.press 📍Brooklyn

@donmoyn.bsky.socialReposted by @soraya.press

4. DOGE officials were told datasharing under certain conditions was illegal. The most obvious is IRS data. Need an act of Congress to share. They did not care.

Everyone in the agency knew that its data was valuable. That was the reason for the strict laws that prevented it from being exploited for profit or political gain. “He said this in a way that he expected everyone to clap when he was done,” said Kathleen. “No one said a word.” The people around the table – a group that included a woman who had worked at the IRS for 54 years, or 53 years and 50 weeks longer than Gavin Kliger – looked down, or away. Kathleen felt embarrassed for Gavin Kliger. But now it was clear what the meeting was about. Gavin wanted, in his words, “to explore how we can share our data with other agencies”. Interestingly, he never once mentioned Ice or DHS. Instead, that week, he sought to share data with himself, by trying to access files detailing IRS contracts with outside consultants that also contained taxpayer information. Kathleen denied him access.
@donmoyn.bsky.socialReposted by @soraya.press

3. DOGE made false claims about employee performance in order to fire them, but did not want to put their names to these emails. So they would coerce civil servants into doing so. If the civil servants refused, they were fired. (Not just DOGE, other Trump appointees like Kash Patel did this).

The revealing moments in the civil service were lonelier. They occurred inside people’s hearts and minds, and seldom leaked to the press. After his arrival at the IRS, one of Gavin Kliger’s first acts had been to demand that the agency fire its 6,700 probationary workers, who had yet to be granted civil service protection. By law they could be fired only for poor performance. Gavin had asked Traci DiMartini, in her capacity as head of human resources, to agree to put her name on an email to the mostly young employees telling them that they had failed at their jobs. The Doge people played this trick often. They’d use or try to use civil servants as a kind of ventriloquist dummy so that they, the Doge workers, could keep their names off official documents. But Traci took one look at the email, saw it was plainly a lie, and refused to have anything to do with it. The price of that single act of resistance was her job. Gavin didn’t have the authority to fire Traci, but his new acting commissioner did. “He asked Melanie to fire Traci, and Melanie did it,” said Kathleen.
@donmoyn.bsky.socialReposted by @soraya.press

Lewis also claims the footsoldiers had a certain type: white, middleclass, desperate to have Elon's attention. Many had been rejected from elite institutions and had a chip on their shoulder and enjoyed their sense of power over people who knew much more than they did.

The people who rallied to the cause and felt qualified to execute Elon Musk’s vision for the federal government shared certain qualities. They were mostly young white males. They were mostly from upper-middle-class or rich families. Most knew or pretended to know how to program a computer. Not all of them, but enough of them for there to be a pattern, had been rejected from the most selective colleges and universities and ended up feeling they’d been screwed by the admissions process. They landed at Penn instead of Princeton, or the University of Nebraska instead of Harvard, with a grievance that added to the foundation of their politics. They thought of themselves as the smartest people in the room and couldn’t understand why the rest of the room didn’t simply stand up and cheer. In Washington they borrowed from Elon Musk their status and sense of superiority. They also seemed to share his pleasure in the idea of people being afraid of them.
@brycecovert.bsky.socialReposted by @soraya.press

Lyft will pay $272 million to California drivers for misclassifying them as independent contractors from 2016-2020, the largest wage and hour settlement in state history. But Prop 22 means it faces no penalties for continuing to do so. www.fastcompany.com/91620939/lyf...

fastcompany.comLyft’s historic wage theft settlement fixes the past but ignores the futureThe $272 million settlement could compensate thousands of drivers for past grievances. But it does little to change the rules governing gig work today.
@lollardfish.bsky.socialReposted by @soraya.press

Listen: if you care about History, especially history written for broad audiences, we need review sites. It’s basically impossible for me to sell book reviews the mainstream media applications now. So I’m asking you to subscribe to this one.

Dr Surekha Davies, Historical Monster Consultant (she/her)@drsurekhadavies.bsky.social

The first book reviews in @draftingthepast.bsky.social are out, by @pharvey61.bsky.social & @lollardfish.bsky.social, of books by @kkdumez.bsky.social, @drkatiegaddini.bsky.social, & @jtpmedieval.bsky.social! 💙📚 🗃 #medieval #womenshistory #religioushistory www.draftingthepast.com/tag/book-rev...

draftingthepast.comBook Reviews - Drafting the PastReviews of nonfiction history books, coming soon!
@wajali.bsky.socialReposted by @soraya.press

We are being killed by the world's dumbest people.

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com

"AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect AI to cure cancer, says Palantir CTO"

businessinsider.comAI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect AI to cure cancer, says Palantir CTOSome AI believers expect the technology to make smoking-related health risks like cancer a thing of the past, Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar said.
@propublica.orgReposted by @soraya.press

NEW: After four witnesses recanted, a Pennsylvania man spent 20 years in prison insisting he was innocent of murder.

Records show his lawyer, to whom he wrote dozens of letters pleading for help, did little to help besides asking for more time.

with @inquirer.com

propublica.orgHe Waited Nine Years in Prison for His Lawyer to File a Single Brief. In This State, There’s No Rule Against It.Pennsylvania promises legal help to those who say they were unfairly convicted of crimes. Failed by a troubled system, some incarcerated people are left waiting years for their lawyers to act.
@kalimurray.bsky.socialReposted by @soraya.press

One very easy fix here: if you worked for DOGE, you are immediately barred from working on any federal contracts, www.acquisition.gov/far/subpart-....

Murshed Zaheed@murshedz.bsky.social

“many of his former DOGE foot soldiers have leveraged their government stints to fuel private-sector ambitions: building companies that tap government largesse or that deploy knowledge they garnered during their brief tenures in Washington.” It’s the accountability, stupid. cc: Democrats

washingtonpost.comThey came to Washington to dismantle government. Now, they’re profiting from it.DOGE alumni have leveraged their government experience, raising at least half a billion dollars for firms spanning cyberwarfare, AI and data centers, a Post analysis found.
acquisition.govSubpart 9.4 - Debarment, Suspension, and Ineligibility | Acquisition.GOV
@josephcox.bsky.socialReposted by @soraya.press

New: an AI company now lets cops identify specific houses, using data from Zillow and Airbnb, based on a single photo. It's part of Raven, previously called Geospy. Company previously demoed its tools to catch people vandalizing Flock cameras or protesters

www.404media.co/ai-company-l...

404media.coAI Company Lets Cops Pinpoint Specific Houses Based on a Single Interior PhotoRaven, previously called GeoSpy, lets cops figure out what specific Airbnb or Zillow property a photo was taken in.
Older posts