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The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

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Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#521

Post by kelnos »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #391
iamleppert wrote: post #274

The next four years are going to be a test of the US Constitution. But when they are up -- and they will be, and people are more angry at Trump than the last time around the pendulum swings wildly back again, as it always does, what is going to happen to Musk and the rest of them?

I worry more about what will happen to the US then. The backlash is going to be very tempted to fight fire with fire, to fight unconstitutionality with unconstitutionality. Can we get back to a functioning rule of law and a limited government at the end of this? I'm... hesitant.

The problem is that the optimistic approach requires that there's enough left of the government in order to use legal means to stop the catastrophe. I really really hope there will be, but right now I'm worried that's a losing proposition.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#522

Post by fullshark »

varsketiz wrote: post #359

Curious european here. Do you think we will see some serious mass protests in big USA cities if this continues? By this I mean "reckless" action by Musk and Trump.

No one cares about protests even if they happen. Remember all the women's march / pussy hat protests? What a great instagram opportunity that was. They are chances for people to cosplay as "members of the resistance" as they live their day to day lives as urban PMC drones.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#523

Post by zb3 »

stainablesteel wrote: post #516

I found Bukele's comments to be eye opening, https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1886059275174506850 > Most governments don’t want USAID funds flowing into their countries because they understand where much of that money actually ends up. > While marketed as support for development, democracy, and human rights, the majority of these funds are funneled into opposition groups, NGOs with political agendas, and destabilizin…

This was basically Open Society Foundations but using taxpayer funds.. of course leftist groups will complain, this is expected.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#524

Post by SauciestGNU »

concordDance wrote: post #417
eutropia wrote: post #224

There are people in this thread claiming that Wired "doxxed" these engineers working for Musk dismantling things they don't understand; however didn't Musk publicly mock individual federal employees on his twitter account, drawing the eyes of millions onto random government functionaries for no other reason than to capriciously taunt them about being fired? I hope people condemning the former also condemn the latter.

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Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#525

Post by megous »

afavour wrote: post #95
xnx wrote: post #73

Are such drastic action appropriate given the current state of the US? The US probably hasn't been this economically dominant since after WWII. Feels like Chesterton fences are getting torn up left and right by people too young and incurious to possibly understand why those fences might be there.

Never appropriate. The actions are entirely unconstitutional. If the US decided to disband USAID it would have to be an act of congress, unelected friends of the president don’t come close to being able to make that call.

Too late, Musk already has direct access to Treasury systems:

https://www.crisesnotes.com/elon-musk-wants-to-get-operation...

And can incite people against anything he chooses on X, like:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1885964969335808217

and he can certainly act quicker than any checks and ballances. We'll see how the system works to get rid of the chaos monkey on the inside.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#526

Post by alfalfasprout »

eutropia wrote: post #224

There are people in this thread claiming that Wired "doxxed" these engineers working for Musk dismantling things they don't understand; however didn't Musk publicly mock individual federal employees on his twitter account, drawing the eyes of millions onto random government functionaries for no other reason than to capriciously taunt them about being fired? I hope people condemning the former also condemn the latter.

How exactly is this doxxing? When you're backchanneling cabinet-level access to a sizable chunk of the country's personal data (and a nontrivial amount of classified information to boot) you're now essentially operating as a public figure.

This is reporting in the public interest. Nothing they revealed isn't available already as verifiable public information.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#527

Post by medler »

stainablesteel wrote: post #516

I found Bukele's comments to be eye opening, https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1886059275174506850 > Most governments don’t want USAID funds flowing into their countries because they understand where much of that money actually ends up. > While marketed as support for development, democracy, and human rights, the majority of these funds are funneled into opposition groups, NGOs with political agendas, and destabilizin…

It’s not Elon Musk’s place to make spending allocation decisions for the US government. The Constitution assigns that power to Congress. It is not hyperbolic to say that if Elon/Doge can arbitrarily cut spending, then Congress has effectively been abolished, and the US Constitutional order is over.

Now, if Elon wanted to review spending allocations and recommend cuts to Congress, that would be fine. I would be in favor of that, provided he accessed the data in a legal and privacy-respecting way.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#528

Post by bagels »

sanderjd wrote: post #340
adamredwoods wrote: post #240

I'm concerned about my US bonds, as the way to access them is through a government website. Are these people going to block my access and steal my money? >> “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the ri…

Investors' faith in US bond and equity markets is, unironically, the most powerful immediate-term check on the current administration. The longer-term check is the midterm elections in 2026. If they really screw things up, as they appear to be doing, that's their deadline for fixing them.

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Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#529

Post by yongjik »

iAm25626 wrote: post #411

History doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes. Komsomol/Soviet, Red guards/China. Ideology fan the flame of youth into fanatic. Who/what is providing the necessary guardrail? God speed America. Future belong to the young. Make good/long term decision.

The similarity with Red Guards is too uncanny to ignore.

I guess we should be thankful that the new Red Guards aren't beating federal employees to death. Yet.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#530

Post by kelnos »

emagdnim2100 wrote: post #204

disappointing to see so many “hacker” news comments complaining about lack of credentials or system-specific expertise. yes, existing government systems are insanely complex - that’s part of the problem! the essential complexity is not higher than that of a brain-computer interface, or an interplanetary rocket. we don’t even know what these kids’ mandate is (also disappointing). but if your general premise is “smart…

"Smart" isn't enough when dealing with systems like these. I want smart and experienced.
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