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This is what I saw most recently: [0]. Whether or not it could be vaguely considered to be congressionally authorized (the executive branch has leeway in the ex

This is what I saw most recently: [0]. Whether or not it could be vaguely considered to be congressionally authorized (the executive branch has leeway in the execution of said laws) is more or less irrelevant to whether it's wasteful and/or fraudulent, but it looks like those examples were not documented in law anyway. I imagine it will be thousands and thousands of examples of "small time corruption" with a few million here and a few tens of millions here that in no sane world should be spent. And for some reason, people prefer to hate billionaires that create wealth when instructed by multimillionaires who siphon wealth from taxpayers but happen to own newspapers. > You have no reason to believe Elon is either competent, nor independent, nor well-intentioned on any of this. You could say the last two about anyone, but to deny that Elon is competent, especially coming from an anonymous internet commenter... okay. [0] https://x.com/ricwe123/status/1887562751364481290 https://x.com/ricwe123/status/1887562751364481290

llamaimperative 2y ago
If only there were professionals we could pay to go into an organization and find waste, fraud, and abuse so we wouldn't have to rely on people like @ricwe123 on X. Ah, yes, there are. They're called auditors. They audited USAID 4 months ago. The entire US government spent only $7.7MM on Politico over the last 12 months. Oooo spooky stuff, if only there was a way to see what for! Turns out there is. You can scroll down and see the shocking revelation that the US government paid a news publication for subscriptions to a news publication! Similar to how if you work in the energy industry, for example, a smart employer would pay for energy trade publications so you can do your job better. https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/fa0cefae-7cfb-881d-29c3-1bd39cc6a49e-C/latest https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/fa0cefae-7cfb-881d-29c... In fact you can drill down all the way to individual line items. Here's the 49 subscriptions to Politico Pro that HHS, an organization with 83,500 employees, purchased. Looks suuuuper abusive... /s https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_75F40120P00453_7524_-NONE-_-NONE- https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_75F40120P00453_75... > to deny that Elon is competent Please show evidence of Elon being a competent public sector financial auditor. Or are we to believe that competence is just arbitrarily cross-applicable?
- lend000 2y ago
  Millions of dollars worth of subscriptions for reporting on government press releases with added spin seems like a great example of waste to me... The government shouldn't be paying any media outlets purely due to the conflict of interest, regardless. > Or are we to believe that competence is just arbitrarily cross-applicable? I would wager that even you are more competent than the average auditor, assuming you know how to program. I'm seeing a lot of appeals to authority and credentialism, and assumptions that people who are hired by bureaucrats and politicians to audit themselves have better aligned incentives than a wildcard entrepreneur. If we can't agree on the fundamental axioms, I don't see this conversation going anywhere.
  - llamaimperative 2y ago
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llamaimperative 2y ago

If only there were professionals we could pay to go into an organization and find waste, fraud, and abuse so we wouldn't have to rely on people like @ricwe123 on X. Ah, yes, there are. They're called auditors. They audited USAID 4 months ago. The entire US government spent only $7.7MM on Politico over the last 12 months. Oooo spooky stuff, if only there was a way to see what for! Turns out there is. You can scroll down and see the shocking revelation that the US government paid a news publication for subscriptions to a news publication! Similar to how if you work in the energy industry, for example, a smart employer would pay for energy trade publications so you can do your job better. https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/fa0cefae-7cfb-881d-29c3-1bd39cc6a49e-C/latest https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/fa0cefae-7cfb-881d-29c... In fact you can drill down all the way to individual line items. Here's the 49 subscriptions to Politico Pro that HHS, an organization with 83,500 employees, purchased. Looks suuuuper abusive... /s https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_75F40120P00453_7524_-NONE-_-NONE- https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_75F40120P00453_75... > to deny that Elon is competent Please show evidence of Elon being a competent public sector financial auditor. Or are we to believe that competence is just arbitrarily cross-applicable?

lend000 2y ago
Millions of dollars worth of subscriptions for reporting on government press releases with added spin seems like a great example of waste to me... The government shouldn't be paying any media outlets purely due to the conflict of interest, regardless. > Or are we to believe that competence is just arbitrarily cross-applicable? I would wager that even you are more competent than the average auditor, assuming you know how to program. I'm seeing a lot of appeals to authority and credentialism, and assumptions that people who are hired by bureaucrats and politicians to audit themselves have better aligned incentives than a wildcard entrepreneur. If we can't agree on the fundamental axioms, I don't see this conversation going anywhere.
- llamaimperative 2y ago
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