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Good reporting here. Clarifies why the kid was fired for leaking documents - it was specifically for leaking internal corporate documents to a competitor.

The details about cybercrime discords involved in SWATting and DDOS attacks are fascinating.

The idea that anyone involved in this would be fast-tracked for a clearance is beyond the pale.

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He was in the com chat, which is a domestic tier one threat. There is no way any fast-tracking would solve this, unless monsieur big balls is an American spy, when in reality he's an overly caffeinated kid who has no idea how bad he's screwing up his, and while we're at it our country's, future.

I personally think it says volumes about how those in the Trump-Musk group (Musk group?) see this. They see the task as infiltrating an adversary, requiring someone with the technical skills to do so but who is also disposable. This in their mind is not about improving anything in the government for citizens, or with regard to US interests, it's about gaining access to a hostile entity without regard to their interests or the long-term interests of the persons actually doing the activity. It doesn't matter if they compromise US security, because the US is a hostile adversary, and they don't want to deal with people who might hesitate because of families or a reputation to uphold. If this person gets in trouble for security breaches or racism or whatever, they just fire them and replace them with another 19 year old with nothing left to lose and/or plenty of time left to go another path later.

That’s generally true of political operatives.

The problem here is having such activities in his past makes him an exploitable by criminal organizations or foreign adversaries who would seek the sensitive information he now has access to.

Second point is fair.

First point is not even true of the Watergate burglars. What makes crime indistinguishable from politics here is the recent ruling on presidential immunity.

I’ve lost track of the argument here.

I was actually thinking of Hunt and Liddy, who did nothing of worth after their infamy. I don’t think the actual burglars did either?

> They see the task as infiltrating an adversary, requiring someone with the technical skills to do so but who is also disposable.

People who have had access to that kind of data, and who have those kinds of skills, you'd better be careful about how you dispose of them. (Consider the term "blowback".)

come on, your average 1337 h4x0r does not have a criminal syndicate ready to exact revenge for their fallen comrade

Seems more likely that this can be completely subdued when the outcome of swatting is not a nuisance, but a conveniently extra-judicial raid by armed militia.

Or indeed that they are a hostile adversary to the US who have achieved some successes adversarial to the US.

I feel like from the perspective of the US, if we frame this conflict/battle for control of US services and computer systems, we needn't say 'the US is a hostile adversary'. It's fair to frame it as 'the US is the US, and the people seizing control of the systems against the interests of the US are hostile adversaries of the US'.

The specifics of who they're working for, how, why etc. can still be up for speculation or further discovery, but we needn't frame it as 'perhaps the US is actually the enemy and Musk's people are actually the liberators'.

> I personally think it says volumes about how those in the Trump-Musk group (Musk group?) see this.

It's more the Musk, Thiel, Vance Group. Trump is simply a tool.

He wields the sharpie. He's basically a notary public.

> I personally think it says volumes about how those in the Trump-Musk group (Musk group?) see this. They see the task as infiltrating an adversary..

This is what actual schizophrenia looks like.

Seriously yes. Having lived with someone who is schizoaffective, I recognize what is happening to America as an acute manic episode with psychosis and hallucinations.

This assumes that leaking is a compulsive behavior. The federal government has stronger incentives to offer for not leaking information. Getting fired is nothing.

On the other hand there might exist a deal where everyone involved is guaranteed a pardon as an incentive to sow as much chaos as possible.

The idea that the federal government is entity able to look after it's own interests has taken quite a hit in my mind with recent events.

It's so strange to see this become a Partisan Issue so quickly and easily, when just a few short years ago everyone on the Internet cheered on Ron Paul's cries to Audit The Fed. (Yes, I know, “the Fed” means the Federal Reserve, and not the federal government—but that's clearly in the cards, too.)

And it's not as though the pre-smartphone Internet was majority Republican, of course—quite the opposite, if anything!

An audit means transparency and accountability, neither of which we have here.

One must ask oneself if one's views on the matter would be the same if the exact same actions were done by one's preferred political party, and reported upon favorably instead of unfavorably.

Uh, I guess one mustn't ask oneself this, judging by downvotes!

> Ron Paul's cries to Audit The Fed

Its "End the Fed"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_the_Fed

Yes, that the title of a book he wrote, as well as his eventual end goal for sure.

But he and others (including his son Rand, and Bernie Sanders) have also used the phrase “Audit The Fed” repeatedly as well, for various “Federal Reserve Transparency Acts”[0] over the years, since 2009—including a bipartisan one with Senator Grassley just this past November.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Transparency_A...

This guy still thinks the employees of the fed gov(e.g. big balls) is working hard to protect his info

Eh, I think "stealing is bad" is a plenty sufficient rationale for the vast majority of people not to engage in this type of behavior regardless of what kind of threats people dangle over their head.

Obviously this kid would reasonably expect to get a pardon for any law he breaks anyway so long as he breaks it in service of the cult.

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