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SpaceX engineers brought on at FAA after probationary employees were fired
- dashundchen 2y agoExcellent reporting by Wired. I've been impressed by the depth of their coverage in the past year. This is outright corruption. These ghouls don't even attempt to hide the conflicts of interest. Musk is hiring employees from his own company SpaceX, using a backdoor to avoid vetting, to an agency that regulates his own company, to change critical safety systems. After the secretary of that department outright lied about what's happening. Meanwhile contracts continue to be awarded to SpaceX with no attempt from Musk to recuse himself or separate the conflict of interest. > By the time these posts were made, though, according to sources who were granted anonymity because they fear retaliation, SpaceX engineers were already being onboarded at the agency under Schedule A, a special authority that allows government managers to “hire persons with disabilities without requiring them to compete for the job,” according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
- insane_dreamer 2y ago> special authority that allows government managers to “hire persons with disabilities Just to add to the irony, that type of authority is exactly the type of "DEI" practice that Elon/Trump is railing against as "corrupt/Marxist". Piling on corruption under the guise of rooting out corruption. It's an old trick used by dictators in other countries.
- titzer 2y agoIt is 100% Orwellian doublespeak. It should be a five alarm fire, but cowed media outlets are incapable of calling it out for some reason. Probably because they are terrified of the consequences. Preemptive surrender. Dark times ahead.
- smashah 2y agoFrom the transparency of the comments, it's clear many people are in denial about this. The media enjoy the circus, even if it's on fire.
- yujzgzc 2y agoThe outcome of "calling it out" for 8 years straight is a comeback with popular vote win. So I think it's reasonable to change a strategy that has failed so miserably for so long.
- sho_hn 2y agoIndeed. The problem is that the voting base has been carefully groomed for many years to distrust independent journalism, and "calling out" anything is just perceived as partisan and not to be trusted.
- ziddoap 2y ago>So I think it's reasonable to change a strategy that has failed so miserably I'm not sure how a strategy of "ignore it and don't mention it" is going to perform better than "call it out"...
- yujzgzc 2y agoA working theory would be that people do not believe that there can be bad consequences until they get burned more, so things will need to get worse for a specific set of people. It's the strategy of falling to the bottom of the pool so you can push on the floor to kick yourself back up. But if you've got other ideas go for it.
- Glyptodon 2y agoThat's not how I would describe the overall behavior of the media for the last 8 years. Though obviously a large amount of people don't believe anything except what they want to hear.
- sidibe 2y agoThe only strategy that works apparently is to let them screw up the country so badly people believe it.
- dandanua 2y agoLike they care at all about using anything else that gives them more power and control. They will use all the freedom created by the previous generations of Americans to reduce as much freedom for others as they can. Fascists do fascists things.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jklinger410 2y ago> This is outright corruption. These ghouls don't even attempt to hide the conflicts of interest. It was better when folks in the FAA tried to hide their conflicts of interest!
- wat10000 2y agoUnironically yes. The need to hide them makes it more difficult to have them.
- HanClinto 2y ago> Excellent reporting by Wired. I've been impressed by the depth of their coverage in the past year. Depth of reporting is not accuracy, and there may be a bit of illusion here. For instance, the bit you cite (their reporting on Schedule A) is a great example of lazy reporting for a cheap "gotcha" to amplify ragebait with misinformation -- the Wired reporters either couldn't be bothered to look up the various forms of Schedule A hiring (in this case, Schedule A (r) [0] vs. Schedule A (u) [1]), or they are intentionally mis-reporting in order to add more outrage. Only section U deals with disabilities -- section R deals with temporary hiring. I think you and I are walking away with very different impressions of the quality of Wired's "depth of coverage". [0]: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-5/part-213/subject-group-ECFR2a2db745208d125#p-213.3102(r) https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-5/part-213/subject-group-... [1]: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-5/part-213/subject-group-ECFR2a2db745208d125#p-213.3102(u) https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-5/part-213/subject-group-...
- maxerickson 2y agoIs the idea that software experience has been holding the FAA back? The vague applicable part of the r is this: professional/industry exchange programs that provide for a cross-fertilization between the agency and the private sector to foster mutual understanding, an exchange of ideas, or to bring experienced practitioners to the agency; Amazing that rocket application guys are the most valuable experts when dealing with air traffic control.
- yubblegum 2y ago> This is outright corruption Mars, baby. You ain't seen nothin yet. I noted downvotes of displeasure. Rebuttal would be more informative. Focus on "cost savings" and doing away with "corruption". Bonus points for connecting dot$ between El Doge's various businesses and the MIC.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoNo conflict of interest here! Move along, folks.
- sjsdaiuasgdia 2y agoBut...but daddy Trump says Elon can totally be trusted to remove himself from any conflicts of interest! >When questioned about potential conflicts between Musk’s private business interests and his government work, Trump said: "He won’t be involved." >Musk echoed the sentiment, saying “I’ll recuse myself." >Trump added that “if there's a conflict, he won't be involved. I mean, I wouldn't want that, and he won't want it."
- bena 2y agoSomeone noted that determining if something is a conflict of interest for you is in itself a conflict of interest.
- sjsdaiuasgdia 2y agoYes, exactly. By definition, you cannot police your own conflicts of interest.
- xrd 2y agoThey've certainly recused themselves from a conflict of intelligence and/or common decency.
- whatever1 2y ago[flagged]
- torlok 2y agoTrump launched his shitcoin 1 month ago, and it's already a distant memory.
- mschuster91 2y ago"Firehose of bullshit" at an unprecedented scale, that's what this is.
- rtkwe 2y agoIt's an intentional strategy. It's a more intense form of the classic Gish galloping technique to just spam the zone with so many actions it's impossible to meaningfully talk about all of them.
- rob74 2y agoThat coin is not even in the top 10 of the worst things he did recently. My personal "worst of" is (in no particular order): - siding with Putin and scolding Ukraine for being attacked by Russia (although this follows a tried-and-tested pattern: according to the Nazis, the Poles were also to blame for being invaded in 1939) - interfering with European politics to support populist/far-right parties like the Reform UK or AfD (who also side with Putin - starting to see a common thread here...) - and of course the dismantling of USAID, because money spent on helping other countries (especially poor shithole countries and countries who have the nerve to disagree with you) is wasted, right? Why not put it into the woodchipper and spend the money on tax cuts for the rich instead?
- rsynnott 2y agoOne assumes that Putin has gotten the ol' piss tape out of storage.
- CamperBob2 2y agoIt makes no sense. Who cares about the supposed 'pee tape' at this point? If such a thing were released, it would only excite the Trump base more. Ordering sex workers to urinate on a bed that Obama slept in? I wouldn't put it past Trump and Musk to conjure something like that up on purpose. Clearly Putin has something on Trump, but what could that possibly be? He owns most of the system and controls the rest.
- EcommerceFlow 2y ago[flagged]
- asciii 2y agohttps://archive.ph/sVJ7m https://archive.ph/sVJ7m
- grandempire 2y ago> Schedule A, a special authority that allows government managers to “hire persons with disabilities This is misleading: Schedule A(u) is for disabilities. Schedule A(r) is for short term appointments with a cap of a few years. I believe they are simply using short term positions. https://handbook.tts.gsa.gov/hiring-staying-or-changing-jobs/hiring-authorities/ https://handbook.tts.gsa.gov/hiring-staying-or-changing-jobs... I believe schedule A refers to a whole set of options to forgoe the standard job posting and interview process, where disability is only one such exemption. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-5/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-213/subpart-C/subject-group-ECFR2a2db745208d125/section-213.3102 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-5/chapter-I/subchapter-B/...
- eblume 2y agoYour link says that A(r) still requires posting the jobs officially, though. It certainly seems like they skipped that. Also, the director lied.
- grandempire 2y agoThe article implies they lied about having disabilities which is not true. This carries more weight than failure to post a job properly.
- eblume 2y agoI'm saying that they may still have done exactly that. If they were using A(r), they would have posted the job.
- grandempire 2y agoThe choices to accomplish this goal are a) use a temporary employment justification b) lie about having a disability Why would they do b) when a) is true and carries no risk? You’re not being reasonable.
- 2y ago
- outside1234 2y agoWhen do we start the general strike? Because that is what is going to take to stop this corruption, which otherwise will be endless.
- walls 2y agoI'm not sure why people think that would change anything. The people in charge are completely insulated to any repercussions and aren't accountable to anyone. Any Republicans who turn against the regime will be ousted and replaced with bootlickers.
- CuriouslyC 2y agoWorse than that, Republican elected officials are scared of violent retaliation by Trump's mob of goons for disloyalty.
- lawlessone 2y agoI don't think they would be insulated from a general strike.
- walls 2y ago[flagged]
- actionfromafar 2y agoIt took 48 minutes.
- spacemadness 2y agoAnd watching anything reasonable takes get downvoted into the grey if they mention any skepticism over anything Elon does.
- rsynnott 2y agoGot to say, I expected Trump take 2 to be bad, but I am quite surprised at how _rapidly_ the US is moving towards the Russian mafia state model, and how quiet the legislature is being about it.
- GiorgioG 2y agoThe legislature are the henchmen. Why would they be anything but quiet?
- righthand 2y agoThe legislature that spent the last 20 years not legislating and ousting anyone who tried legislating across the aisle with Democrats? They’re mostly feckless cowards serving now. I don’t think they would actually know how to write real legislation that benefited the people and not their lobbied interests.
- mrcode007 2y agoIt’s mostly because most Americans have very little clue of what the end state and the process to get there looks like. A lot of commonalities like borderline legal or gray area business practices are often extolled as virtues here or “clever business hacks”. It takes only a few to apply them in the direction that a lot of folks are simply unfamiliar with without having lived in the Soviet bloc.
- addandsubtract 2y agoThey also think they can reverse it easily. "How bad could it be in 4 years?"
- mrcode007 2y agoWe have a 28 year blueprint of how bad it can get and it starts in 1997 Russia One thing people don’t anticipate is that the government can step in and nationalize enterprises. US hasn’t done that in a while but I’d be watching for hostile political takeovers at some point in the future. Last time it happened was with General Motors in 2008 but it’s a tool that exists and can be used in a different direction.
- zvorygin 2y ago[flagged]
- raindy_gordon 2y agoYou can be ok with the “what” and disagree with the “how” and the “why”.
- jzb 2y agoThere is no light you can shine on this that makes it look good. None. It's corrupt to the core. You can want a government organization or whatever to be run more efficiently and still find it horrifying when a private actor runs amok in that organization with obvious, blatant conflicts of interest and no oversight. You are right about one thing: Musk and Trump are the enemy. You may mean that as snark, but it's the truth. This isn't "oh, Musk and Trump are Republicans, so anything they do is bad" -- this is "Musk and Trump are mask-off fascists tearing down government to serve their interests to the detriment of almost everyone else".
- mazugrin2 2y agoIs there a good light under which to view this? It's corrupt. Isn't that far worse than whatever benefit you presume "HN" would be cheering?
- Smeevy 2y agoYour pearl-clutching is a bit overwrought here. "That poor, poor, richest man the world. He's demonstrating that he's above the law every day, but someone on the internet doesn't trust his motives. Hasn't this man been through enough?"
- dylan604 2y agoThis is so much wannabe driving a narrative of your own choosing. If you can’t see the difference from generic hiring of engineers to fix an “ailing” government agency vs doing the same thing being led by the guy that owns the company said engineers are beholden while working for the very agency that directly regulates said company immediately after said owner has gone in and wiped out the employees of the agency so that it is now staffed with yesmen, then you're just not anyone near the same spaceport as reality. Run on sentences be damned this is such a head in the sand comment you’ve made
- ChrisArchitect 2y agoPreviously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43101009 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43101009
- trust_bt_verify 2y agoMust be an interesting topic!
- Glyptodon 2y agoIt really bothers me that there are a bunch of goons who flag every single story about the stuff Trump and Musk are up to. Really makes you realize that a solid chunk of HN or even HN itself aren't on the up and up.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoYeah, pretty shocking. Not sure what intellectual gymnastics you have to do to defend Trump/Musk's actions -- either you've drunk the Kool Aid, are cashing in on the scam, or don't care as you already have yours. Having said that, one group that are happy with Trump are the crypto bros, because the SEC just dropped its lawsuit against Coinbase as a result of their support for Trump's re-election.
- anter 2y agoVery happy with the people doing that, keeps the place sane. If you want a dozen daily hysterical takes on the latest thing that Trump&co did, go on r/politics. I have no interest in seeing any of that here.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoConsidering that the most upvoted and active posts are related to DOGE, it appears that your interests are not aligned with the interests of many others on the site. I don't want to hear about Trump all day either. I'd rather just hear about tech and science. But what's happening is having a huge impact on tech and science. If it weren't for Musk and DOGE these posts wouldn't even be here, so you can blame them.
- grandempire 2y ago> it appears that your interests are not aligned with the interests of many others on the site. You cannot see all the comments left here. So you don’t know what’s being said, as a whole. Everyone is concerned about quality, but I don’t think what you’re describing is characteristic of a curious community.
- bestouff 2y agoThe flagging gets out of control on HN these days. @dang can we start flagging some flagging ?
- pupppet 2y agoMake flagger usernames public.
- dang 2y agoThe flags are a function of the repetition. We turn off flags sometimes but we can't do it too much or the frontpage would be only about this. I've been posting a lot about this—ironically I suppose, since the moderation comments are even more repetitive. Here are some recent posts: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43093299 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43093299 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43051836 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43051836 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42978389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42978389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011 If you (or anyone) will take a look at those, then if you still have a question that isn't answered there, let me know and I'll take a crack at it.
- dylan604 2y agoVouching should be something for flagged as well
- pintxo 2y agoFunny that people focus on the „Schedule a“ part, when the actual problem is the worst form of regulatory capture this seems to be by the looks: the regulated industry simply taking over the regulator.
- grandempire 2y agoWhoever wrote the schedule A line intended to mislead, rather than inform. So I can’t trust that the other material here isn’t misconstrued.
- smsm42 2y agoIt is. The article full of innuendo seemingly linking personnel reductions at FAA with recent catastrophes. While they don't say it explicitly they write it so that the casual reader would conclude those ate related events. They also call the new employees "not fully vetted" while not specifying which vetting is needed and knowing they are seasoned competent professionals who held multiple positions of trust. Again, creating an impression of impropriety without any substance to back it up.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago"FAA spokesperson Steven Kulm told WIRED that "the FAA is overseeing the SpaceX-led mishap investigation." The FAA did not respond to further questions about whether the presence of SpaceX engineers at the agency would constitute a conflict of interest. In September, the FAA proposed $633,000 in fines following two 2023 incidents in which SpaceX allegedly did not follow its license requirements, violating regulations. Responding to an X user posting about the penalties, Musk wrote, "The fundamental problem is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA!" Shortly afterward, Musk called for FAA head Mike Whitaker to resign. In January, more than three years before his term was due to end, Whitaker did resign." Musk also threatened litigation. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/17/elon-musk-says-spacex-will-sue-faa-for-regulatory-overreach.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/17/elon-musk-says-spacex-will-s... Whitaker's replacement has promised to reexamine the SpaceX matter. https://www.surfrider.org/news/surfrider-sues-faa-to-address-spacex-impacts-on-boca-chica-beach https://www.surfrider.org/news/surfrider-sues-faa-to-address...
- perks_12 2y agoI am all for removing the enormous overhead created at regulatory agencies all over the western world. i do not think that this is the way to do it. if trump was cutting jobs left and right or maybe even slash an agency, fine. but getting in a HNWI to rule over himself is the worst nightmare. this will not end well.
- klipt 2y agoCareful, it may soon be illegal to say this. > Trump's pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, has vowed to "come after" the media
- smsm42 2y agoYes, it is alarming. May even develop into FBI just forcing private companies to ban speech they don't like! Oh wait tgeycalready did: https://www.newsweek.com/fbi-colluded-twitter-suppress-free-speech-where-outrage-opinion-1768801 https://www.newsweek.com/fbi-colluded-twitter-suppress-free-...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- lesuorac 2y agoFor the record, the Twitter Files detail what Trump's Administration did as he's the president at the time.
- smsm42 2y agoHe was the President, true, but claiming he was in control of the same FBI which actively tried to pin treason on him is going a bit too far I think...
- dave333 2y agoUnder Biden, the FAA was slow walking SpaceX approvals. Now the political wind has reversed, Musk is stretching the limit on what he can get the FAA to do. If the worst that happens is SpaceX gets to crash its rockets faster then no worries. FAA and aviation in general may or may not benefit from any reform due to Musk, but the worst thing is the indication of how Musk is operating in all other areas of government - underhanded techniques to push an agenda to the limit.
- trust_bt_verify 2y ago> Under Biden, the FAA was slow walking SpaceX approvals. Source?
- dave333 2y agoLacking a whistleblower this kind of thing is impossible to prove, but is obvious from the public conflict.
- trust_bt_verify 2y ago> obvious So just relaying your feelings on the subject, rather than adding any facts to the conversation. cool cool cool…
- dave333 2y agoThe main point I made was how it indicates what Musk is doing and how he is doing it so you are nitpicking an irrelevance...
- trust_bt_verify 2y agoYou are claiming your main point is obvious with nothing to back that up, but sure you can hand-wave that away as irrelevant.
- 2y ago