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The Doge Takeover Is Worse Than You Think
- echelon_musk 2y agoI'd say it's as bad as I thought.
- addaon 2y agoIs this literally just a three-sentence "story"?
- Jtsummers 2y agohttps://archive.is/zoeHJ https://archive.is/zoeHJ
- only-one1701 2y agoYou need to have a subscription to read (I don't).
- jcgrillo 2y agoYou can just click the little "reader" button in firefox to bypass most of those paywalls. The only one I've found it doesn't work for is WSJ. Some sites you have to catch it mid refresh.
- CharlesW 2y agoNo. https://archive.is/zoeHJ https://archive.is/zoeHJ
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Terr_ 2y ago... No? I count 14 paragraphs, perhaps something isn't loading properly? I do not have a subscription, but it might be one of those "you've reached X articles today" things, or else some ad-blocker or privacy feature (not-)helping.
- addaon 2y agoHm. Fair enough. I looked for some indication that there was more content, but didn't see anything at all... Just a "Join the WIRED community to add comments" flag, but no indication that "joining the community" would let me see content. Not blocking Javascript or anything, either. Weird.
- frereubu 2y agoThe fact that you didn't notice this was becaue you weren't subscribed doesn't say much for the designers at Wired!
- g00k 2y ago[flagged]
- frereubu 2y agohttps://archive.is/zoeHJ https://archive.is/zoeHJ
- leotravis10 2y agoArchived link: https://archive.ph/zoeHJ https://archive.ph/zoeHJ
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ranger_danger 2y agoThere are so many holes in this story you can't even put cheese on it. It falls just short of asserting that the entire point of the presidency is executing Curtis Yarvin's conspiracy plan. Surprised they didn't mention Krasnov.
- goatlover 2y agoWell, Project 2025 and conservative tech billionaires have banded together and we see the executive branch executing the playbook.
- TheAlchemist 2y agoDon't worry. Musk is already sending his people from SpaceX to help solve the problems. And in the process kick competition (Verizon) from a 2.4B$ contract and secure it for SpaceX. But that's normal, there is no conflict of interest as he's not DOGE chief, Amy Gleason is. Why it was Musk then than run the first Cabinet meeting ? One has to wonder. I'm at a loss of words frankly about what's happening in the USA. This Trump idea about selling citizenship for 5M$ may actually be good - you bet Russian Oligarchs are salivating - this kind of blantant corruption was hard to achieve even in the early post-URSS Russia.
- lbrito 2y ago"I'm at a loss of words frankly about what's happening in the USA" If you need inspiration, try imagining how this debacle would be portrayed by US media if it happened elsewhere in the planet: a populist buffoon propped by and quickly funnelling government money to oligarchs. "Banana republic", "third-world country" and "failed state" are adjectives that I've seen more than once in similar circumstances.
- krapp 2y agoBut that's impossible in the US. We have a Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Our government cowers in fear of our well armed populace and would never dare step out of line, because if they did, we would surely water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants. You must simply be mistaken, lbrito. Everything is fine. Nothing to see here.
- yeah879846 2y agoI'm real interested in why my taxes are going to vegan local climate action
- jiggawatts 2y agoThese “I’m just concerned about the waste” criticisms from the right are… awfully selective. No concern about the $150B increase in military spending. No comments at all. No concern about abandoning Ukraine to Russia after having invested hundreds of billions in military aid to keep Russia out of Europe. No concern about the billions spent on fossil fuel subsidies. Etc, etc… But oh my gosh, someone spent a poomfteenth of a fraction of a percent on something that sounds “left wing” then BURN IT ALL DOWN! I welcome government efficiency, and clearly some programs were stupid and wasteful. However, that’s clearly not what DOGE is about. They’re not looking into general waste or corruption. Instead they’re doing a drag-net operation and cancelling anything and everything with certain key words Musk doesn’t personally like. Disagree? Name one program that DOGE has cancelled that was sponsored by someone on the right. Just one.
- jcgrillo 2y agoA whole bunch of farmers in predominantly red states, many of them trump voters, are totally fucked this year because their crops were going to USAID. It's not about "efficiency" or "the economy", it's about wrecking shit so bad the tech oligarchs can seize power. They're trying to make curtis yarvin's insane bullshit real.
- alabastervlog 2y ago> They're trying to make curtis yarvin's insane bullshit real. There's a non-zero chance this is exactly what's going on, at least for an influential faction in the administration (there seem to be... a few factions, at least for now). Vance has alluded to Yarvin a couple times in interviews, and AFAIK Thiel's outright said he likes Yarvin's ideas. Not sure how Musk feels about the guy. A decent news media would have hammered anyone connected to the campaign over that kind of thing, any time they got a chance. We don't have that, though.
- black_puppydog 2y agoSo it's exactly as bad as it seemed. But it's nice to have all (well, most) of it written down in a coherent form. This must have been cathartic for Mr Barrett. Hope he gets a good sleep now. :)
- black_puppydog 2y agoaaaaand it's gone. brigaded. oh well... too bad, it's a decent summary (plus some opinion) for those who didn't see all the individual news items.
- lbrito 2y agoSad to see how extremely activist HN has gotten in the last couple years. Basically anything slightly unflattering towards the M-word man is instantly flagged.
- spacemadness 2y agoHey, if you're going to destroy the country you need all the help you can get from your online friends.
- goplayoutside 2y agoConsider switching to an alternative front end, such as https://hckrnews.com/ https://hckrnews.com/ . They offer different features, and some continue to show flagged submissions for some time.
- pupppet 2y agoOh look a flagged DOGE submission. Shocking.
- anon7725 2y agoTo avoid getting flagged, you have to encode DOGE submissions as 1) flavor-of-the-month JavaScript framework 2) breathless AI boosterism or 3) CEO / founder hagiography
- TheNewsIsHere 2y agoDOGE actually is a sort of a form of at least 2 and 3.
- cratermoon 2y agoYou know 100% if this were happening at a well-known corporation it would be all over hacker news, discussing the privacy and security implications.
- fabian2k 2y agoAnd for some reason the vouching mechanism isn't available for these submissions like it is on comments.
- blastonico 2y agoBut I think it's great. So I believe it's even greater.
- solid_fuel 2y agoThis is pretty much the worst case so far of what I expected from this quite literally criminal administration. The conflicts of interest here are simply staggering. I can’t imagine why any American would accept that Elon Musk should be allowed to award federal contracts to himself. Government efficiency is a laudable goal but this team… this team isn’t it. These actions have severe implications for the future of science and industry in this country. And the cronyism is a blatant distortion of the free market – how is anyone supposed to compete to provide good service to the government, when the person issuing contracts is also selling services to the government. Just look at Verizon versus SpaceX and the FAA system. I can understand why people don’t want to see this discussion here, especially users who aren’t American and thus aren’t directly affected. And I can understand not wanting to engage for ideological reasons, a feeling of helplessness, or simply an attitude that they don’t want to engage in politics. Unfortunately, politics sometimes chooses to engage with us - regardless of what we want. A world where government contracts are not given to whoever can provide the best service, but rather to whoever will provide the largest kickback is a recipe for a future where the basic infrastructure we rely on doesn’t work. We do have a voice here – we don’t need to simply accept that this is the state of affairs. If you’re concerned about this like I am, I encourage you to pick up a phone and call your representatives. It only takes 5 minutes. Congress has all the power to stop these conflicts of interests and demand that cuts are done in an accountable and responsible way. I called mine and asked a few simple questions – what is Elon Musk doing in the government, why is he talking over the president in interviews, and why is he allowed to give contracts to companies he owns?
- thefz 2y ago> I can understand why people don’t want to see this discussion here, especially users who aren’t American and thus aren’t directly affected TBH from Europe I can sense already some news fatigue. US defaultism is palpable, especially considering that the US is perceived not as the biggest or most important - we are talking about 300mil people - but rather as the loudest, noisiest kid in the back of the room, which honestly isn't even that funny, interesting or brilliant.
- rsynnott 2y ago
- SoftMachine 2y agoFlagged of course.
- tmaly 2y agoI stopped reading after the words “Big Balls”
- insane_dreamer 2y agoWondering at what point the whole DOGE thing implodes on itself. Or will Elon "declare victory" (like Bush did in Iraq) and goes back to interplanet colonization now that he's "fixed government"? It's like one of those captivating TV shows where you can't wait to find out what happens in the next episode. Would be amusing and entertaining, except for the part that America is getting actually f*ed.