Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

711–720 of 839 posts

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#711

Post by b_davis_ »

scrapcode wrote: post #320
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very similar to the story about the Supercharger network. Apparently the boss of the team was told to make layoffs, she did some but not enough to please Musk, so Musk in a face to face meeting demanded she make more. She said they couldn't without affecting delivery. Musk fired her. Then fired the team. Then hired the team back because she was correct. But not before lots of ongoing projects got stalled because cont…

In that case I'd say it seems to have proven effective for Musk multiple times now, so why stop now? In his experience, he can just keep shit-canning feds until something immediately bad happens - say he is sorry and give them a job back. As others have already pointed out, the real damage is silent, has already been done, and will be suffered by generations to come while being able to blame others.

Reputation takes a life time to build, and can be squandered in a minute.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#712

Post by b_davis_ »

wat10000 wrote: post #362

In the first Trump admin, Rick Perry was picked to head the Department of Energy with the goal of shutting it down. These cockwombles thought the DoE was about pushing green energy and recycling and stuff like that. Once on the job, Perry discovered that he was in charge of the nation’s nuclear arsenal. To his credit, he course corrected and seems to have done a decent job once he found out what it was. It’s the same…

Ask a resident of Texas, we knew Rick Perry. He was not known for his high IQ. However, he bucled down and did an acceptable job running the DOE.

One could hope that at least some of the current cabinet will rise to the occasion.

With our supreme leader, many in 2016 thought he would rise to the occasion; perhaps behave like a statesman in foreign affairs, and to respect the office of the presidency. It did not happen then and will not happen now.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#713

Post by fach »

refurb wrote: post #697
insane_dreamer wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> stems from weak regulation in the US to begin with I don't know about that, but certainly it has exposed a significant weakness in the US democratic structure: it is based on the supposition that everyone will follow the rules (i.e., accepting the results of an election, following the laws passed by congress, etc.) A president who defies both conventions and laws is hard to stop. The only mechanism is impeachment,…

> I don't know about that, but certainly it has exposed a significant weakness in the US democratic structure: it is based on the supposition that everyone will follow the rules (i.e., accepting the results of an election, following the laws passed by congress, etc.) A president who defies both conventions and laws is hard to stop. This isn't true at all. The main way the President is stopped is through the courts, w…

> This isn't true at all. > > The main way the President is stopped is through the courts, which is already underway, but Trump has actually prevailed in several decisions (e.g. right to cancel government contracts, right to fire probationary employees) while blocked other (e.g. birthright citizenship).

It is absolutely true. The judiciary has no mechanism to _enforce_ laws. Enforcement belongs to the executive branch. Therefore, if the judiciary makes a decision, and the president chooses to not follow the court's order, there is little the courts can do. It can certainly threaten fines and contempt of court to executive officials and even the president, but the president has control over both the DOJ/law enforcement to carry out the ruling as well as having blanket pardon powers.

> Impeachment is a very high bar which is usually reserved for serious violations of the law or process. We aren't anywhere close to that.

The current sitting president lead an insurrection against the United States and was not convicted in Congress. We've already crossed the threshold and gone well past the point of Congress acting to hold the executive branch accountable. Now given Musk's threats of financially backing primary candidates against dissenters, there is no incentive to act.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#714

Post by 7speter »

nerdix wrote: post #607
insane_dreamer wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> stems from weak regulation in the US to begin with I don't know about that, but certainly it has exposed a significant weakness in the US democratic structure: it is based on the supposition that everyone will follow the rules (i.e., accepting the results of an election, following the laws passed by congress, etc.) A president who defies both conventions and laws is hard to stop. The only mechanism is impeachment,…

This is correct. I don't think it is possible to design a democratic system that is impervious to authoritarianism when a large enough percentage of the population is in favor of it. After the last election, it is clear that a slight majority of Americans are either in favor of outright authoritarianism or are at least not turned off by it. I wonder how much is this is "rational" due to Congress being broken as an in…

The whole reason why Biden can be described as “timid” regarding executive power usage was the possibility that Trump would become President again.

…And here we are

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#716

Post by 7speter »

chinathrow wrote: post #297
mschuster91 wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We are stumbling fools without systems and rules (organizations, institutions, laws, regulations, ...) to rely on. The wide masses yes - the 1% who is looking to profit immensely from the upcoming chaos not. DOGE is not about trimming government costs, it is about allowing the large companies to rip off the masses without repercussions (e.g. the planned demise of CFPB or OSHA/DoL) and it is about preparing the tran…

The rich are endangering their riches in this experiment. The pitch forks will have their field day eventually. 2014 https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchfor...

Pitchforks effectiveness comes into question when the rich has a sophisticated surveillance system backed by ai.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#717

Post by someothherguyy »

someothherguyy wrote: post #262
roenxi wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't look like DOGE is trying to fund anything; at this stage my guess is they're trying to hack off the propaganda arm of the CIA/NSA and the web of NGOs on the theory that it is funding anti-Trump messaging. Otherwise targeting USAID for savings early is a bit pointless; what is $50 billion a year to the US government? They're $36 trillion in debt with no plausible path out of the hole. Annual deficit is arou…

There are some hints toward this, like with recent reporting : https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-gop-panel-ap... > Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said she has expressed “concerns” to leaders about the prospect of steep spending cuts and told reporters that, before she agrees to vote for the budget resolution, she wants “better clarity” about the next stage — especially when it comes to cuts. “$4.5 tri…

I made this comment before digging deeper into appropriations impoundment.

However, it still seems plausible (in my limited understanding) that this strategy could still be the goal, if the goal is to first push appropriations impoundment to SCOTUS.

Here is the best cited and approachable article I found on the subject within the context of these events:

https://www.yalejreg.com/nc/the-overlooked-conundrums-of-imp...

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#718

Post by hakfoo »

Sabinus wrote: post #688
insane_dreamer wrote: post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US just decided to negotiate with Putin directly, leaving Europe out of it even though they're the ones affected by the Russia-Ukraine war, not the US. And Vance explicitly said that Russia can't be expected to go back to the pre-war borders. In other words, Russia gets what they want (Donbas).

Trump also ruled out plenty of (admittedly high risk) interventions and solutions before the negotiations. Why would he make concessions for nothing in return? I thought he was meant to be a great negotiator and businessman.

The perceived return could be timing and presentation.

If he has to spend the rest of his term negotiating back and forth over which flag flies over a particular outhouse in Western Crimea, he may not see that as being a successful deal-maker.

Being able to say "we got buy-in for our first proposal, took me four days to end the conflict" fits his image.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#719

Post by DANmode »

refurb wrote: post #699
DANmode wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not who you asked, but: "Remove the people between you and your doctor."

Unless you're paying for it 100% out of pocket, this will never happen. In all socialized systems the government decides what your doctor can do, 100% of the time. Of course from a patient perspective it looks much less restrictive, but that's only because your doctor never brings up treatments that aren't paid for. One of the big issues with the US system is that the patient is put right in the middle of the decisio…

After going through 8 specialists, I ended up learning a bunch myself, and paying out of pocket for the last one.

Patients need to be more involved.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#720

Post by 7speter »

llamaimperative wrote: post #557
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> many in this country are It's exposing the intellectual bankruptcy of the Silicon Valley elite. Between the stupidity and kowtowing it has revealed a startling amount of groupthink and cowardice, even among people I once held as independent thinkers.

I highly recommend everyone read the Curtis Yarvin NYTimes interview [linked below] to see the full extent of the intellectual bankruptcy. This guy is apparently seen as some meaningful thinker by the Silicon Valley elite (Vance and Andreesen have quoted him), but in literally his 3rd sentence just straight up lies. Yarvin's claim: "[In] F.D.R.’s first inaugural address,... he essentially says, Hey, Congress, give me…

To further drive home what actually happened with FDR, his policy proposals were repeatedly taken to the Supreme Court and a lot were struck down. It took the SCOTUS to realize that they would soon face a legitimacy crisis if they continued to enact the policy perspective that they wanted.

Oh, and before someone comes and brings up the court packing proposal, it didn’t have to happen, and FDR’s main claim to making the proposal was that he had a mandate based on his, iirc, at the time 3rd supermajority sweep of the electoral college, unlike, say our current President who claims a mandate while not even winning 50% of the popular vote and fell way short of even 400 electoral college votes.

Post reply on HN