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Meanwhile 'Uncle Sam' will also not let SpaceX hire non-citizen PhDs from US universities. Sometimes it feels like various branches of the US government are se
by fooker 3y ago
Meanwhile 'Uncle Sam' will also not let SpaceX hire non-citizen PhDs from US universities.
Sometimes it feels like various branches of the US government are set up to sabotage each other.
- propaganja 3y agoThe rabbit hole goes much deeper than that, and more believable by the day.
- firtoz 3y ago> Explaining why this was way off-piste, the DoJ said in a statement yesterday: "Under these regulations, asylees, refugees, lawful permanent residents, US citizens and US nationals working at US companies can access export-controlled items without authorization from the US government. Therefore, these laws do not require SpaceX to treat asylees and refugees differently than US citizens or green card holders."
- ITAR_throwaway 3y ago> Under these regulations ... lawful permanent residents ... can access export-controlled items without authorization from the US government. As someone who works on ITAR-regulated things, that is flat-out wrong.
- krisoft 3y agoThe text of the law seems to disagree with you? § 120.62 U.S. person. U.S. person means a person who is a lawful permanent resident as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(20) or who is a protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). And this seems to be interpreted by people[1] that employing lawful permanent residents does not need export authorisation. 1: https://exportcompliancesolutions.com/blog/2018/09/20/u-s-persons-include-just-citizens/ https://exportcompliancesolutions.com/blog/2018/09/20/u-s-pe...
- fooker 3y agoI am not saying the government has made a technical mistake, I'm saying the regulation is nonsense. Sneaking in spies as refugees is a fairly common strategy.
- subroutine 3y agoYeah, a refugee who is also a highly qualified rocket scientist should raise some healthy suspicion at the least.
- Nullabillity 3y agoDo you think rocket scientists are just… immune to war?
- Detrytus 3y agoI think that rocket scientists are usually cherished by totalitarian regimes, not persecuted.
- surfpel 3y agoThat’s a narrow view of where refugees come from. Also doesn’t consider that they can become a talented rocket scientist after becoming a refugee.
- throwaway290 3y agoIf you are smart enough to be a rocket scientist you are more likely to be smart enough to see when your country is being ruled by thieves and going to the dogs. Either you hide it and leave ASAP, you don't hide it and try to change your country for the better (= jail, regime doesn't like people like that) or you suppress your conscience (or not have it) and enjoy a nice lifestyle. The last option is more rare because smart people are usually allergic to propaganda
- Detrytus 3y ago
- elif 3y agoYeah... But spaceX does have to face the consequences if one of them ends up being a foreign intelligence asset. Seems like a reasonable precaution to me considering the stakes. Besides, they have the largest applicant pool of any company in the country. It's completely reasonable to believe this is purely a consequence of meritocracy and not even a conscious choice.
- iraqmtpizza 3y agohow much secret information is SpaceX really getting from the federal government? probably near nothing
- kcplate 3y agoWell, they certainly know plenty more details about the military payloads they occasionally carry than the general public.
- iraqmtpizza 3y agoprobably not much more than you can tell by looking at it. there's no way to hide in space except by bringing your own cover. other than what it looks like, they know its mass, how to move it around, and how it physically separates from the launch vehicle. not particularly interesting
- krisoft 3y ago> they have the largest applicant pool of any company in the country. What do you mean by that? How would that be even possible with ITAR? > It's completely reasonable to believe this is purely a consequence of meritocracy and not even a conscious choice. How can it be “not even a conscious choice”? This is a large company. They train their HR people who they can or cannot hire. How can that training be “not even a conscious choice”?
- 1letterunixname 3y agoThe government isn't a hivemind, it's a "city" unto itself with different factions with different interests. Only when one awakens to this reality can one see what is going on is not necessarily a malicious, cynical conspiracy by design but ambivalent neglect by Tragedy of the Commons for the most part. Except for campaign financing pulling the strings of the political class at the top, that adds a good 90% of the corruption.
- eru 3y agoMoney isn't actually all that important in politics. Including campaign financing. See https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in-almonds/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in... for some numbers and a deeper analysis. (Also, whenever you hear about some scandal in the news that involves politicians and money, the sums are almost always laughably low compared to eg government budget or compensation for top CEOs in the private sector. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDU_donations_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDU_donations_scandal for a German example.) I agree with the rest of your comment about organisations being made up of different people with different motivations, not a hive mind.
- willcipriano 3y ago[flagged]
- naasking 3y ago> Sometimes it feels like various branches of the US government are set up to sabotage each other. Not sabotage each other, but sabotage people they no longer like.
- fooker 3y agoDirectly yes. In this case though, Spacex is enormously important to US national security and NASA. It's effectively NASA skunkworks.