DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack • Hacker News Board

Re: DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack

#151

Post by buzer » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 10:15 PM UTC

outside1234 wrote: post #82

impulser_ wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't. They are informing the President and the President does it either by EO or asking congress.

The president can't decide to stop spending money Congress has passed by EO.

That sounds weird. I can understand that you cannot take money that was promised for thing X and spend in thing Y but if you can reduce the X spending I don't think there is any issue.

Now I do not know if Congress has explicitly required X to provide certain thing. If they did then there might be some issue if X fails to provide it. It's probably easy to say someone is accountable for it if it's something objective (let's say building for Congress) but if it's subjective it could get tricky.

Re: DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack

#152

Post by littlestymaar » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 10:16 PM UTC

ty6853 wrote: post #88

dylan604 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hope it will be get reined in before oops. they already have access to data, and there's no unseeing what they've seen.

I was assured right here on HN that the data was public to begin with, and downvoted for suggesting it was possible unseen corruption. Hopefully if that is true they find it just matches what has released publicly. https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ty6853&next=42914628...

This whole operation is as related to finding corruption exhibits as the Moscow trials were to finding traitors in the Red Army.

It is a (ridiculous) pretext for purging the system from people that the new power deems “uncooperative”.

Re: DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack

#153

Post by randallsquared » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 10:16 PM UTC

darth_avocado wrote: post #63

jklinger410 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> DOGE is obviously a completely illegal operation This narrative infuriates me. Either you are right, and entire wings of our government are abetting a coup, or you are wrong, and our government has huge back doors that no one is watching. Both realities reveal something urgently broken with the United States. In a way that should scare the entire western world to its core.

DOGE is not illegal. However the legality of some of the things they do is under question. The current government, including DOGE is being operated like “Just do as many things as possible, so that the lawsuits can’t keep up”. While lawyers are busy trying to stop big things, many small but important items will slip through the cracks and will take decades to undo. Edit: BTW this strategy has always been available, i…

> it’s just that career politicians aren’t incentivized to do this for “good” because they want long political careers.

That's not why: Reagan, Clinton, W, and Obama all had the opportunity for sweeping changes of this magnitude without regard to further political careers, but none of them wanted to make radical changes. Their view of the US government (even Reagan's!) was "basically doing a good job, but maybe needs a tweak". The current administration does not appear to share this view, though we'll see how that goes.

Re: DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack

#154

Post by msarvar » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 10:21 PM UTC

generalizations wrote: post #143

msarvar wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OP asserted that USAID was created by EO and that the president is free to do what he wants with it. That statement is blatantly false. How does court decide is not relevant to this discussion, because as you said it is speculative.

[flagged]

Well my luck, turns out he can't do transformations either.

> Sec. 7063. (a) Prior Consultation and Notification.--Funds appropriated ... may not be used to implement a reorganization, redesign, or other plan described in subsection (b) by ... the United States Agency for International Development ... without prior consultation ... with the appropriate congressional committees.

> (b) ... a reorganization, redesign, or other plan shall include any action to

> (1) expand, eliminate, consolidate, or downsize covered departments, agencies ...

> (2) expand, eliminate, consolidate, or downsize the United States official presence overseas ...

> (3) expand or reduce the size of the permanent Civil Service, Foreign Service, eligible family member, and locally employed staff workforce of the Department of State and USAID from the staffing levels previously justified to the Committees on Appropriations for fiscal year 2024.

Re: DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack

#155

Post by shafyy » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 10:21 PM UTC

darth_avocado wrote: post #63

jklinger410 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> DOGE is obviously a completely illegal operation This narrative infuriates me. Either you are right, and entire wings of our government are abetting a coup, or you are wrong, and our government has huge back doors that no one is watching. Both realities reveal something urgently broken with the United States. In a way that should scare the entire western world to its core.

DOGE is not illegal. However the legality of some of the things they do is under question. The current government, including DOGE is being operated like “Just do as many things as possible, so that the lawsuits can’t keep up”. While lawyers are busy trying to stop big things, many small but important items will slip through the cracks and will take decades to undo. Edit: BTW this strategy has always been available, i…

> BTW this strategy has always been available, it’s just that career politicians aren’t incentivized to do this for “good” because they want long political careers.

Or, you know, maybe it's also because politicians who are not total psychos don't want to fuck over an entire country for their own gains.

Re: DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack

#156

Post by dangus » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 10:22 PM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #65

code_runner wrote: post #41

DOGE is obviously a completely illegal operation, and I really do hope it will be get reined in before they can cause an issue so big that _even trump's croniest cronies_ have to admit what is going on. For someone who claims to love freedom of speech, Elon is pretty quick to determine who can say what, and how much access to _his_ data people have.

> hope it will be get reined in before oops. they already have access to data, and there's no unseeing what they've seen.

Of course there is “unseeing.” They can be tried for rather obvious crimes and thrown in prison.

Re: DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack

#157

Post by tmaly » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 10:23 PM UTC

code_runner wrote: post #41

DOGE is obviously a completely illegal operation, and I really do hope it will be get reined in before they can cause an issue so big that _even trump's croniest cronies_ have to admit what is going on. For someone who claims to love freedom of speech, Elon is pretty quick to determine who can say what, and how much access to _his_ data people have.

I just saw a thread by a lawyer on X that broke down the EO creating DOGE.

It was very interesting how they got around things.

Re: DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack

#158

Post by the_optimist » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 10:23 PM UTC

nimish wrote: post #62

code_runner wrote: post #41

DOGE is obviously a completely illegal operation, and I really do hope it will be get reined in before they can cause an issue so big that _even trump's croniest cronies_ have to admit what is going on. For someone who claims to love freedom of speech, Elon is pretty quick to determine who can say what, and how much access to _his_ data people have.

Is it? It's explicitly just a rename of the USDS. Them not using govslack is stupid though

[flagged]

Re: DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack

#159

Post by dangus » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 10:24 PM UTC

olalonde wrote: post #115

code_runner wrote: post #41

DOGE is obviously a completely illegal operation, and I really do hope it will be get reined in before they can cause an issue so big that _even trump's croniest cronies_ have to admit what is going on. For someone who claims to love freedom of speech, Elon is pretty quick to determine who can say what, and how much access to _his_ data people have.

Stupid question but don't the Republicans control all branches of government? Couldn't they just declare whatever DOGE is doing legal (if it's indeed illegal)?

That’s like asking if Darth Vader would release a report on whether the destruction of Alderaan was legal.

Re: DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack

#160

Post by olalonde » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 10:24 PM UTC

kemayo wrote: post #123

olalonde wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stupid question but don't the Republicans control all branches of government? Couldn't they just declare whatever DOGE is doing legal (if it's indeed illegal)?

They could†, but they haven't. †: They actually couldn't, without stripping the filibuster from the Senate.

Not familiar with "filibuster". Does it mean that Democrats could effectively prevent a potential "DOGE is legal" bill from passing by endlessly debating it?