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DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

wsj.com

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Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#51

Post by kccoder »

entropicdrifter wrote: post #8
hackermeows wrote: post #5

Wonder how Elon is getting the clearance for this , dude smoked weed on camera , isn’t that automatically disqualifying for gov clearance ?

Presidential mandate

By winning a plurality of the vote and being within a couple thousand votes in a few swing states changing the outcome?

He won, but just.

Not that it matters. Serial violators of others' autonomy aren't know for coloring between the lines. Give them a femtometer and they take a light-year. And when you're a star, or president, they let you do it.

Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#53

Post by brewdad »

travismark wrote: post #43
mullingitover wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Either _the party of law and order_ doesn't understand how risky this activity is, doesn't care or both If they hadn't already obviously ceded that title before 2025, they certainly did when over a thousand duly convicted violent partisan offenders were pardoned. These weren't just random people, they were accomplices of the person who pardoned them. We're in an autocratic United States now, where no crime, no matt…

a president cannot pardon or commute state crimes. most states have crimes against violence

The majority of governors are all in on this new Republicanism. They can pardon any crime that Trump can't. Blue state governors can be leaned on extremely hard and most will have to give in if their Federal dollars are on the line. This isn't 2006 anymore.

Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#54

Post by acdha »

archagon wrote: post #34

I wonder why he resigned. Half the administration seems to have ties to white supremacy, if not ouright neo-nazism.

They have tried to walk the line just enough to keep the media unwilling to use precise terminology, and to give voters who aren’t committed Republicans plausible deniability. Remember how Project 2025 was open but Trump kept pretending that he didn’t agree with so many of his former staffers, associates, and donors? That was to allow the people who mostly want tax cuts, the Muslims who have religious opposition to LGBTQ rights, the Jews who are Israel hawks, etc. to tell themselves it was safe to vote for him.

Direct statements approving of wiping Gaza and Israel off the earth or disparaging Indian engineers pierce the veil of self-deception and force lukewarm supporters to acknowledge who they’re backing. It’s the same reason why they’re arguing that Musk threw a “Roman salute” hoping that the median voter doesn’t know as much about the Italian fascist movement.

Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#55

Post by marcusverus »

Nevermark wrote: post #23
DonHopkins wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I wish that made no sense. But instead we get dark synergy… Cruelty is the point. Chaos is the point. Stupidity is the point. Lies are the point. Racism/anti-“different” (including different ideas) is the point. Impunity is the point. Destruction is the point. What they have in common are in-our-face demonstrations of centralizing power, designed to encourage their base vicariously while stealing their lunch. And dis…

[flagged]

Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#57

Post by mullingitover »

scarface_74 wrote: post #45
mullingitover wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't Musk+Trump, it's Musk+Thiel+Yarvin+Heritage+Vance, with Trump as a hood ornament. His job is simply to sign whatever they put in front of him and play golf. Cholesterol getting the best of Trump isn't going to derail this, since Vance is more than happy to continue the amassing of unchecked executive power. "You won't have to vote again."

The difference is that it is never about policy with MAGA voters. It’s about Trump. You see how quickly MAGA voters went from “America first. No foreign entanglements” to “let’s send troops to the Middle East to clear out Gaza” as soon as Trump said we should do so? Anytime that Trump hasn’t been on the ballot since 2018, Trump voters stayed home. Presidents have always been about personality and not policy. Biden an…

> The difference is that it is never about policy with MAGA voters. It’s about Trump.

This is why there's an effort to centralize power in the executive at a blistering pace, so the opposition can be permanently defeated even without Trump.

Watch for three things: ignoring the courts, snuffing out the influence of non-party sources of authority (the press, academic institutions), and centralization of police power. I don't think they're going to wait past April before they do all three.

Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#58

Post by dragonwriter »

ilaksh wrote: post #22
strangeloops85 wrote: post #3

If you're having a team going into every bit of government data, you might want to vet them. Beyond eugenicists and racists, if they're getting anywhere close to SCIFs, make sure they fill out that SF-86 accurately. And maybe even if they're not, have them go through regular clearance procedures. Yes, it takes time. But right now, DOGE seems like a huge security risk for the USG what with it setting up backdoors ever…

My take is that we actually need more efficiency in government, and from a technology standpoint, they might have some good ideas. I have a very pro-technology worldview. I'm independent leaning left but I thought that Democrats have been extreme, wasteful and untrustworthy in their own ways. It's very unfortunate that this stuff like efficiency and technology integration is now associated so closely with neo-Nazis.…

> It's very unfortunate that this stuff like efficiency and technology integration is now associated so closely with neo-Nazis.

I don't think “efficiency and technology integration” is. I think DOGE is because its being done by neo-Nazis and in support of a blatantly fascist administration and doing things that look a lot more like ideological censorship and corrupt self-dealing than efficiency and technical integration, including specifically targeting things in government that actually did efficiency and technical integration.

Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#60

Post by throwaway784989 »

kccoder wrote: post #50
runjake wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk has, and has had, top secret security clearance for years, due to his SpaceX work launching spy satellites for the US government.

The president has top secret clearance and doesn't have access to personal tax returns. I don't believe there is a blanket "all things included" security clearance.

This is correct. There is no "you get access to everything" kind of clearance. That includes the President. Congress has the power to get access to anything, but even then there is a tight process limited to a handful of congresspeople.

A core part of this sort of security is compartmentalization. A person who has "top secret" level clearance has it for specific subject matter. Their clearance is worthless if they're outside those boundaries.

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