John Skiles Skinner

Software engineering manager of SecureDrop (npub1vvy…4kzm) at Freedom of the Press (npub1hxa…caxd)
Previously, 18F software engineer until we were "deleted" by DOGE

Website: https://skiles.blue
Pronouns: any!

Last Notes

2025-09-21 19:49:22 UTC

"six of her 13 children have died. Usman, 40, told CNN her most recent loss was in March, just days after a US-funded nutrition program that had provided therapeutic food packets to her malnourished twins was abruptly halted"
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/21/africa/nigeria-malnutrition-crisis-usaid-intl
https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/carhengeclub/media_attachments/files/115/244/015/891/375/990/original/4228f3b51ae04bdc.jpg

2025-08-28 18:15:11 UTC

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Broken link, fyi

2025-08-17 02:13:21 UTC

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CDC leadership also hasn’t been very communicative. To be fair to them, their staff who would would have dealt with this situation were mostly fired by DOGE.
So my fellow civil servants at the CDC feel abandoned. They are hated with a murderous rage and no one cares.

2025-08-17 02:13:03 UTC

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Trump has made no comment. The White House has found the time to post a video of the arrest of that guy who threw a sandwich at a cop, but nothing about a cop killed defending the government's own employees.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose district includes parts of Atlanta, has also said nothing.

2025-08-17 02:09:11 UTC

A terrorist targeted federal workers last week. There wasn’t much reporting on it. But I’m not finished thinking about it! 🧵
An anti-vaxxer fired more than 500 gunshots into CDC Atlanta, shattering 150 "blast-proof" windows on 6 buildings. Employees were pinned down in terror.

2025-06-17 01:45:45 UTC

The majority of DOGE's "work" is to use LLMs to search federal grants for the keywords "LGBTQ," "BIPOC," and similar, and then to cancel those grants.
They are targeting minorities in the most literal, automated way. The outcomes of this are all over their own website:
https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/carhengeclub/media_attachments/files/114/696/161/023/437/669/original/de0bd9f9e8ce4741.png
https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/carhengeclub/media_attachments/files/114/696/161/040/889/149/original/d4b38868f2ea3d92.png
https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/carhengeclub/media_attachments/files/114/696/161/033/035/685/original/0657eb3bbaa0a0ea.png

2025-03-22 00:07:25 UTC

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Together, these two faiths crave the end of American liberal democracy and government. You can smell it at GSA.
They won't replace us with AI because 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍. They want our work to end. DOGE is firing us as fast as possible, and that is the whole plan.

2025-03-22 00:05:36 UTC

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While saying "this is incredible" over and over, Musk's GSA head Stephen Ehikian asked GSAi to "write me a website." The output was not compliant with federal law. It said "Welcome to Our Company" on it and did not resemble a federal website at all.
😟 This garbage demo had a terrified audience

2025-03-22 00:05:12 UTC

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As a fed, I am accustomed to knowledgeable and diverse coworkers who don't get snookered by the latest buzzwords.
But yesterday at GSA headquarters, 6 white guys in suits (one without a tie!) took the stage. They demo'd GSAi like it was pure magic to them.
https://www.wired.com/story/gsa-staff-all-hands-meeting-ai/

2025-03-22 00:04:00 UTC

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As my coworker explains in this demo, we knew AI's capability is limited
"The principle is to show you *not* that AI is great for everything, not to try to encourage you to stick AI into every product.... You can get yourself into trouble thinking that it can do things that it can't."
https://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/carhengeclub/media_attachments/files/114/203/153/682/909/593/original/74f40089fcbec9d4.mp4

2025-03-22 00:03:29 UTC

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No one from the new admin wrote a single line of code for it. But GSAi has become their proud "AI-first strategy."
(Previously at my job, rather than AI or any tech we put *people* first. See 18F's work on "human-centered design.")

2025-03-22 00:02:30 UTC

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From Nov 2023 to Jan 2024 I worked on a tool we called the AI sandbox. Our goal: let federal software devs test out AI tools in a safe way, to discover if they have any use.
Renamed GSAi, the tool has been claimed by DOGE. It is being rolled out on an alarming accelerated schedule.

2025-03-22 00:02:11 UTC

I helped build a government AI system. DOGE fired me, rolled the AI out to the whole agency, and implied the AI can do my job and the jobs of the others they've fired.
It can't. But, what DOGE accidentally revealed about themselves in the process is fascinating. 🧵

2025-01-25 23:23:40 UTC

* Waste queer-phobes' money
* Speak in a way broligarchs cannot control
* Hack the planet 🌎
https://johnskinnerportfolio.com/blog/domain_name_battlefield/
My article in @npub19he…ynqw Magazine