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Comment by sQL_inject | Hacker News Reader

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You’ve drawn a false dichotomy. It is possible both for the existing system to be full of waste and for the process of shining the sun onto “blight” (good word) to raise significant, even catastrophic, security concerns with lasting implications. Bad + bad doesn’t necessarily = good.

There is no outrage in the article. Its a very calm and level headed article.

Your comment brings no evidence and goes in a rhetoric that has not yet to be proven, it's like saying that Potomac River mid-air collision was caused by DEI affirmative laws/actions[0].

0. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/us/politics/trump-plane-c...

If you change things without the consent of stakeholders, you will find the changes undone in short order (or even overreacted to) despite their potential. The early wins are pyrrhic and take on a new opportunity cost as the community churns through events of no confidence.

>seemingly without audit or checks and balances

Federal agencies are regularly audited - internally by their own inspectors general, and externally by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) - and most of those reports are publicly available. There are numerous checks on these agencies including management by the president, who can typically fire at will, and oversight by Congress.

Like him or not, Elon Musk is not an auditor, has no relevant experience or expertise and is deeply compromised as he profits from large federal contracts. Giving him unchecked power with no accountability is not the proper way to shine a light on fraud, it's a way to get more of it.

GAO audit is not a perfect tool, the evidence is a $2 trillion deficit that is ballooning every year. Very easy to pass GAO audit as long as there is some "paperwork" backing the expense.

What DOGE/Musk is doing is auditing expenses not in terms of "have these expenses been properly authorized with the paper trail?", but rather "are these expenses vital for the US taxpayer, can we remove them?"

GAO can only find some bogus expenses without paper trail

DOGE is funding expenses with proper and perfect paper trail, but ultimately unnecessary for the US taxpayer

The deficit is a result of deficit spending authorized by Congress. Audits have nothing to do with reducing the deficit.

DOGE is literally one deeply compromised person deciding what is "necessary" or "unnecessary" to spend, after Congress already authorized it. That is blatantly unconstitutional. There are checks and balances in the system for a reason.

checks and balances led to 36 trillion debt, they are not working

I have news for you. The Republican budget plan will increase the debt by about 4 trillion [1], an unprecedented amount. They're slashing spending in tiny departments and then handing out multiples of that as tax breaks, mostly to very wealthy people. So if you're relying on "DOGE" and the Trump administration to bring down the debt, you're going to be disappointed.

The last budget surplus was under Clinton.

[1] https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-reveal-trump-tax-plan-w...

Don't let someone "fix" things that is clearly looting the government for his own gain as part of a coup. There are endless ways to address your concerns without supporting someone throwing around literal nazi salutes.

From a security standpoint, we have a private citizen who is a) not American born, b) didn't apply to work for the government and hasn't been vetted, c) an apartheid sympathizing nazi who did a sieg heil on national television, d) shows anti-democratic tendencies, e) insists he and he alone can save the world, privately, f) hired programmers who are literally stealing the government on thumb drives and personal devices with untold security implications, g) making government entities who are in charge of personal data breach their own TOS and privacy policies, h) doesn't have any SOPs for what he's doing, and doesn't seem to see the value in them, i) isn't revealing any details, reports, or data despite claiming he is, j) is dismantling institutions that were put in place by bipartisan acts of congress, k) is dismantling institutions that benefit Americans, l) is dismantling institutions that would otherwise prevent him from committing fraud, m) ignores the judicial branch, n) is the wealthiest person in the world with countless conflicts of interest, o) is in a position to pursuade the government to do business exclusively with his companies, p) is going to funnel resources to his companies, q) is taking rights and liberties away from Americans......

I mean I'm just gonna stop. The icing on the cake is he's the richest man alive. This is literally a page from a dystopian non-fiction novel and you're passive aggressively playing devils advocate, or you're honestly oblivious.

There is no rationale. It’s all ideological fear based thinking.

Every objection shown here and elsewhere on the internet is all hypothetical that have applied for the last 100 years.

I also think people are in shock that there is a president who is actually doing their job. Doing a real service to the American people by exposing fraud and corruption.

One tell tell sign we have is wedging the democrats try to rebrand them selfs and holding rallies and marches. You see they would not need to be on the streets if they believe any of what they were saying, as they are in congress and have actual power.

Just in case you missed it. When your congress members are heading up rallies and protests and in front of the camera yelling “we will win”, you always know they have no leg to stand on.

Furthermore you can fact check anything they say and find it be categorically wrong.

People are in fear that their world view will be shattered if the man and men they hate the most actually do something good.

You don't really understand politics.

Democrats, i.e. politicians associated with the DNC, are generally fine with this because they've been bought out by corporate interests, which expect to profit under fascism.

Your average person is very concerned, for very good reason.

>There is no rationale.

He listed 15 points. How many do you need for "rationale"

>Every objection shown here and elsewhere on the internet is all hypothetical

No, Musk publically did most of the actions listed. he admits to at least half of them and then doesn't deny a few others.

>I also think people are in shock that there is a president who is actually doing their job.

No, they are in fear of being deported, having their data comprommised, antagonizing our neighbors unnecessarily, not understanding how tarriffs actually work, cancelling funding that congress already appropriated (and in in NY's case, stealing their money), leaving WHO and silencing the CDC as we have a transforming Bird Flu, theatening SS and Medicaid... Need I go on? It's been a month.

>One tell tell sign we have is wedging the democrats try to rebrand them selfs and holding rallies and marches.

How so? people are always protesting, and if you dig deep enough you can find anyone talking about anything. That's always the process; people protest, get the attention of reps, reps propose stuff, and repeat. A closed mouth doesn't get fed.

I saw people talking about California seceding from the US. How viable is that? basically.

>Just in case you missed it. When your congress members are heading up rallies and protests and in front of the camera yelling “we will win”, you always know they have no leg to stand on.

So we all lose? It's a rally, not a formal press conference. That's the definition of a rally:

>a mass meeting of people making a political protest or showing support for a cause.

It's an awareness and morale step between the boring meetings.

>Furthermore you can fact check anything they say and find it be categorically wrong.

okay, I'm waiting for you to fact check one of the above 15 points.

>People are in fear that their world view will be shattered if the man and men they hate the most actually do something good.

we're in 2025 now, not 2021. You said a lot but this was just all drivel with no sort of backing. Some of it is just outright wrong.

> Doing a real service to the American people by exposing fraud and corruption.

Musk spent $260,000,000 of his personal money funding the Trump presidential campaign and has been rewarded with a new government agency, its actions kept confidential by Executive Order, with himself appointed to police his own conflicts of interest. That is corruption.

The amount of faith you've placed in an emotionally compromised, ketamine fueled narcissistic nazi sympathizer is tragically misplaced.

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