🍃Carkner🥺lol the MLA and AHA are posting the full depositions of the DOGE guys who cut NEH funding on their youtube channels. I don't know if I'm going to laugh or cry or both while listening to these.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22tvt2-IvmU
YouTube
I've been listening to it while working yesterday and today and got most of the way through video 4.
My interpretation is that he is truly and fundamentally ignorant, but also playing ignorant for the deposition, pretending not to understand things or forgetting the timeline of what he did or who was involved.
He really can't explain what DEI coherently or how he applied it as a metric to deny grants.
https://youtu.be/VATymXTpT1s?si=oAj9LL2ibwerxjVN
Justin Fox Deposition (Part 4) in MLA-ACLS-AHA Lawsuit about the NEH
To him, anything involving a minority is DEI and is "wasteful spending." But he can't explain why, or refuses to explain why coherently. He just perpetually goes back to "compliance with the Executive Order"
He pretends like he understood the EO and used it to personally assess each grant, but at the same time he can't define DEI in the present day nor summarize the EO he faithfully applied for months.
He pretends like he personally read and assessed every grant, but also used ChatGPT to write up summaries and a binary Yes/No on whether they contained DEI.
The lawyer is asking him why he has to use ChatGPT if he already read and understood all of them himself, which he never answers with any kind of clarity.
I'm taking a break from no-nothing Musk fanboys and listening to the one with their boss at NEH, Michael McDonald. Unlike Justin Fox, this guy is not only a lawyer but a former conservative legal activist and very smug and confident in his long-held beliefs against affirmative action. But he's also unwilling to lie or play the fool in the same way, so between him and the others, they kind of betray one another.
https://youtu.be/KiDcKST03Zk?si=nzRXUrUx-6fQ5R_f
Michael McDonald Deposition in MLA-ACLS-AHA Lawsuit About the NEH
unlike Justin Fox, who nervously clammed up whenever the lawyer defending him objected to something, and in a few cases didn't know how to proceed, in this case this guy rolls his eyes and gets a contemptuous look whenever she objects to something. like, "How dare this woman interrupt me"
After 1h55 he is asked about the ChatGPT-generated spreadsheets used to deny millions of dollars in NEH grants. He does not understand that the two DOGE guys did not write it themselves. A real generational gap in MAGA fundamentalism.
here's the part where the ChatGPT prompts were just read aloud to him and he is asked if that is how his underlings were deciding to cut thousands of grants. it all seems to be new to him. it was his responsibility!
https://youtu.be/KiDcKST03Zk?si=TosSyyEIKWRwe8Sq&t=7750
https://youtu.be/KiDcKST03Zk?si=TosSyyEIKWRwe8Sq&t=7750
Michael McDonald Deposition in MLA-ACLS-AHA Lawsuit About the NEH
I asked the MLA on bluesky and they replied that all the documents being shown to people in these depositions are available online. the one with chatGPT generated rejection pretexts is document 11.
https://www.mla.org/Resources/Advocacy/Joint-Lawsuit-over-Dismantling-of-National-Endowment-for-the-Humanities/Discovery-Documents-in-NEH-Lawsuit
Discovery Documents in NEH Lawsuit
Exhibits related to the motion for summary judgment filed by the MLA, ACLS, and AHA in our lawsuit to restore the NEH are linked below.Download All FilesExhibitsExhibit 1: Transcript of video-recorded deposition of Justin Fox, January 28, 2026Exhibit 2:...
continuing listening to the McDonald testimony and at about 3h42 (lol) he's saying they felt an extreme pressure and time crunch to make the cuts as soon as possible so he was relying on the ChatGPT generated spreadsheet to make his decisions, not referring back to the original applications because he "didn't have time," so he relied on the summary and proposed decision. for this they pay people three figure salaries and give the big titles!
god help me, I'm onto the deposition of the next DOGE dork, the boss of the previous guy, the one with "more seniority" (which must be measured in months, right?)
the undue confidence of this guy ... like, of course he deserved to be appointed to a three-figure salary job in the government making management decisions with no experience. He was interested in policy after all!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkCz-Sw4kLY
Nathan Cavanaugh Deposition in ACLS-AHA-MLA Lawsuit About the NEH, Part 1 of 6
whenever the description is read to him of an LGBT grant he cut the funding to he always smirks and puts his hands to his face and looks around as if he's trying not to laugh
https://youtu.be/9r5A5UGsb-Y?si=EURY6x7lluDNy2HI&t=3693
Nathan Cavanaugh Deposition (Part 2) in MLA-ACLS-AHA Lawsuit about the NEH
at this part later in the deposition there's an interesting glimpse into the ubiquitous use of self-deleting signal chats as the method of communication in DOGE and their affiliates. honestly such a plague on modern politics and record keeping. Signal is invaluable for activist but utterly criminal IMO for use in government to avoid scrutiny
https://youtu.be/eUKEiAF3mis?si=jjUo7CmZNWsPLZfP&t=109
Nathan Cavanaugh Deposition (Part 6) in MLA-ACLS-AHA Lawsuit about the NEH
a few minutes after this he says he actually wanted to work for DOGE for free and "Wasn't allowed" and that making 150K a year was nothing to someone as wealthy as him. then only a few minutes later he mentions his former boss is now an investor in his new post-DOGE startup. the grift runs deep with these guys
the fuck lol, all the videos went private while I was in the middle of watching them?!
hmm this was added to their documents page (which is still up):
"Pursuant to an Interim Order issued by the district court in our lawsuit on March 13, 2026, we have taken the video depositions down, pending a determination from the Court on the government’s request that the videos not be publicly available." 😬
"Pursuant to an Interim Order issued by the district court in our lawsuit on March 13, 2026, we have taken the video depositions down, pending a determination from the Court on the government’s request that the videos not be publicly available." 😬
Jeremy@carkner Another example of weaponized incompetence, as far as I can tell.
Thanks for sharing this. Maybe I should have a listen to some of it just so I'm better informed. Not sure I have the fortitude currently, however.
@steamworkgroup I don't necessarily recommend it. I'm just morbidly curious. coverage in NYT, JTA and elsewhere gives the gist of it but not necessarily the subjective experience of listening to this guy