5 ms·

I know that the whole following-the-law thing is not en vogue in DC these days, but what was the procurement process that could have ended up with Grok as the s

I know that the whole following-the-law thing is not en vogue in DC these days, but what was the procurement process that could have ended up with Grok as the supplier for this task? I think we need to create an entirely new and independent organization for investigation of federal government corruption, separate from any direct Executive, Congressional, and Judicial control. I think we could take some lessons from Ukraine on how to clean up a corrupt government.

tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
[flagged]
- freitasm 8mo ago
  Their consitution says elections can't be hold in times of war.
  - tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
    [flagged]
    - jmye 8mo ago
      > Who cares? There's no way this is a serious comment from a serious person. > everything to do with the genocide of slavs Confirmed, unmitigated botfarm horseshit.
      - tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
        [flagged]
        jmye 8mo ago
        > It's most definitely a serious comment from a serious person. It literally isn't, no matter how many lies you make up about it. What politicians did in the 90s has no relevance today and pretending they're the same is, again, unmitigated horseshit from someone who thinks everyone will just nod with him when he screams that 1+1=3 now. For the rest? "I know you are but what am I" should've been left in elementary school. What you're saying is bullshit. You're using words you don't understand because you think making things emotional will get you points, you're pretending that Ukraine is just throwing people away and not, you know, ensuring that it continues to exist as a country, and you don't even know what the fuck "events leading up to ... 2013" means, given that it's followed by "and then a hostile foreign country invaded. Twice."
        tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
        So history has no relevance? Who is being unserious again? Excuse me, but you're the one that started off with the insults, become emotional, adopted an aggressive tone and started swearing. Regardless, Ukraine won't exist without a working-age male population. I very much do understand what events transpired between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the present. I also don't view the situation in a vacuum nor do I pretend it's a simple case of bad guys versus good guys.
    - sjsdaiuasgdia 8mo ago
      Putin can stop invading Ukraine whenever he wants to. If your home is invaded by burglars, is that also "two sides"?
- sjsdaiuasgdia 8mo ago
  Well, we (the US) do have the advantage of not having a much larger nation next door that has decided they want a bunch of our territory and are willing to commit a lot of their own male population to the effort. The meat grinder only exists at Putin's insistence. He can make that stop any time he wants to.
  - tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
    [flagged]
- epistasis 8mo ago
  Really hope that you think that upholding a constitution that explicitly forbids elections during war time is not somehow "corruption." The assertions you're repeating here show that you follow some extremely biased and incorrect propaganda. Further, it's a highly Russian biased source of news, wherever you get it, and Russia is far more corrupt and lawless than even the US or Ukraine. NABU in Ukraine has been far more effective at prosecuting corruption in Ukraine than any US organizations. They merely had to say they were going after Zelenskyy's number 2, and that man was out of the government, while the investigation continued! Meanwhile we have top level cabinet members in the US committing egregious perjury in front of Congress nearly every week, without any results. I mention Ukraine because it's a country where they inherited a culture of mass government corruption from the Soviet Union, but have had success in making it less corrupt, through lots of citizen muckracking, and the US has moved to where the Ukraine was in the past.
- estimator7292 8mo ago
  [flagged]
  - tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
    I never said the US didn't have its own issues re: corruption. It definitely has them in spades. That doesn't mean Ukraine isn't just as if not more corrupt.
    - dontblokmebro70 8mo ago
      >That doesn't mean Ukraine isn't just as if not more corrupt. How does one prove your argument? It seems you are just lazily both sides-ing a complex and not easy to compare situation. How does one compare trump's 10 billion dollar theft of the taxpayer to anything ukraine does? Putin is more known for his wild, unfettered corruption. Why not compare him to the ukraine?
- wat10000 8mo ago
  What alternative do you propose to “throwing their male population into a meat grinder”?
  - tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
    Sue for peace? All wars are a racket meant to benefit the military industrial complex and corporations - Major General Smedley D. Butler spelled this out for all of us quite clearly in his book War is a Racket. The war in Ukraine is no exception, and has been in the works for decades (since the collapse of the soviet union at the very least, if not longer). IFM structural adjustments and World Bank loans destabilized the nation. When Ukraine wanted Russia to bankroll their loan instead of the IMF, a CIA-backed coup known as Euromaidan followed and kicked the entire conflict off in 2013/14. Again - I'm not excusing Russia here, obviously they escalated the situation with the invasion, but wars can't be viewed in a vacuum. I know that most people don't want to discuss the actual reasons the war started and is being fought, and instead want to go with the reductionist and feel-good, Russia bad Ukraine good logic. As I said in another comment, there are no good guys in corrupt and evil wars and the war in Ukraine is definitely one of those.
    - wat10000 8mo ago
      What conditions would be acceptable for ending the war? Surrender the whole country? Surrender part of it, then wait for the Russians to violate the agreement again?
      - tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
        Ukraine will cease to be a country without a working-age male population. What agreement are you referring to when you say again exactly? The war started in 2014 over Russia offering to bankroll a loan that was previously issued by the IMF / World Bank, and was up for renewal (with structural adjustments of course). Also the ousting of former president Viktor Yanukovych during Euromaidan played into it.
        8mo ago
embedding-shape 8mo ago
> but what was the procurement process that could have ended up with Grok as the supplier for this task? Why do you think there would be a "procurement process"? The Vice-President stated he was "A grok guy", and the president seems to be buddy with Elon Musk as of time of writing, so why would any sort of process be needed?
- lokar 8mo ago
  I’m not sure if you are serious, it if you are…. Congress has the authority to spend money, not the president. The way they do this is by telling the president how much to spend on what. It would mostly be impractical for them to detail every expense. So, they give more general directions and limits, and also impose requirements for how the president (or his deputies) go about it. This includes many many specific procurement procedures.
  - embedding-shape 8mo ago
    > Congress has the authority to spend money, not the president. In practice, or by paper/pesky "laws"? Because sending $10 billion to organizations the president see fit, certainly makes that seem less true in practice.
    - lokar 8mo ago
      The law is not self enforcing
      - lokar 8mo ago
        FWIW, I think/hope that the long term outcome of this president and SCOTUS rulings will be that the president has much more authority in areas spelled out for him in the constitution, and in areas where congress gives it away freely, AND, an a result, congress stops open ended / broad delegation to the president.
      - monkpit 8mo ago
        Have you read the news lately? Checks and balances are dead. It’s unenforceable.
burningChrome 8mo ago
>>> we could take some lessons from Ukraine on how to clean up a corrupt government. You sure about that? 2015 - Welcome to Ukraine, the most corrupt nation in Europe: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/04/welcome-to-the-most-corrupt-nation-in-europe-ukraine https://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/04/welcome-to-the-... 2016 - Ukraine: Fantastically Corrupt: https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economic-issues-watch/ukraine-fantastically-corrupt https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economic-issues-watch/uk... Despite more than 10 years of activity of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Ukraine is still considered one of the most corrupt countries of Europe. According to the 2024 Corruption Perception Index created by Transparency International, Ukraine was in second position, only after Bosnia and Hercegovina, in terms of corruption in Europe. In a recent survey carried out at national level, 91.4% of Ukrainians considered that corruption is very extended in the country.
- epistasis 8mo ago
  Oh yeah, I am sure about that. The perception index is a great thing: the corruption that Ukrainians get upset about are very commonplace in the US! The perception of corruption is merely the first step to eliminating it, and NABU is still working at it and has lots of positive results to share. We can't look to, say, France because France hasn't made any progress because it started as high-trust and fairly low corruption, whereas NABU actually does have results to look at. For the US to improve its corruption problem, it needs to look to where there are actual results, and Ukraine is far better than either France or Bosnia and Hezegovina.

tinfoilhatter 8mo ago

[flagged]

freitasm 8mo ago
Their consitution says elections can't be hold in times of war.
- tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
  [flagged]
  - jmye 8mo ago
    > Who cares? There's no way this is a serious comment from a serious person. > everything to do with the genocide of slavs Confirmed, unmitigated botfarm horseshit.
    - tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
      [flagged]
      - jmye 8mo ago
        > It's most definitely a serious comment from a serious person. It literally isn't, no matter how many lies you make up about it. What politicians did in the 90s has no relevance today and pretending they're the same is, again, unmitigated horseshit from someone who thinks everyone will just nod with him when he screams that 1+1=3 now. For the rest? "I know you are but what am I" should've been left in elementary school. What you're saying is bullshit. You're using words you don't understand because you think making things emotional will get you points, you're pretending that Ukraine is just throwing people away and not, you know, ensuring that it continues to exist as a country, and you don't even know what the fuck "events leading up to ... 2013" means, given that it's followed by "and then a hostile foreign country invaded. Twice."
        tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
        So history has no relevance? Who is being unserious again? Excuse me, but you're the one that started off with the insults, become emotional, adopted an aggressive tone and started swearing. Regardless, Ukraine won't exist without a working-age male population. I very much do understand what events transpired between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the present. I also don't view the situation in a vacuum nor do I pretend it's a simple case of bad guys versus good guys.
  - sjsdaiuasgdia 8mo ago
    Putin can stop invading Ukraine whenever he wants to. If your home is invaded by burglars, is that also "two sides"?
sjsdaiuasgdia 8mo ago
Well, we (the US) do have the advantage of not having a much larger nation next door that has decided they want a bunch of our territory and are willing to commit a lot of their own male population to the effort. The meat grinder only exists at Putin's insistence. He can make that stop any time he wants to.
- tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
  [flagged]
epistasis 8mo ago
Really hope that you think that upholding a constitution that explicitly forbids elections during war time is not somehow "corruption." The assertions you're repeating here show that you follow some extremely biased and incorrect propaganda. Further, it's a highly Russian biased source of news, wherever you get it, and Russia is far more corrupt and lawless than even the US or Ukraine. NABU in Ukraine has been far more effective at prosecuting corruption in Ukraine than any US organizations. They merely had to say they were going after Zelenskyy's number 2, and that man was out of the government, while the investigation continued! Meanwhile we have top level cabinet members in the US committing egregious perjury in front of Congress nearly every week, without any results. I mention Ukraine because it's a country where they inherited a culture of mass government corruption from the Soviet Union, but have had success in making it less corrupt, through lots of citizen muckracking, and the US has moved to where the Ukraine was in the past.
estimator7292 8mo ago
[flagged]
- tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
  I never said the US didn't have its own issues re: corruption. It definitely has them in spades. That doesn't mean Ukraine isn't just as if not more corrupt.
  - dontblokmebro70 8mo ago
    >That doesn't mean Ukraine isn't just as if not more corrupt. How does one prove your argument? It seems you are just lazily both sides-ing a complex and not easy to compare situation. How does one compare trump's 10 billion dollar theft of the taxpayer to anything ukraine does? Putin is more known for his wild, unfettered corruption. Why not compare him to the ukraine?
wat10000 8mo ago
What alternative do you propose to “throwing their male population into a meat grinder”?
- tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
  Sue for peace? All wars are a racket meant to benefit the military industrial complex and corporations - Major General Smedley D. Butler spelled this out for all of us quite clearly in his book War is a Racket. The war in Ukraine is no exception, and has been in the works for decades (since the collapse of the soviet union at the very least, if not longer). IFM structural adjustments and World Bank loans destabilized the nation. When Ukraine wanted Russia to bankroll their loan instead of the IMF, a CIA-backed coup known as Euromaidan followed and kicked the entire conflict off in 2013/14. Again - I'm not excusing Russia here, obviously they escalated the situation with the invasion, but wars can't be viewed in a vacuum. I know that most people don't want to discuss the actual reasons the war started and is being fought, and instead want to go with the reductionist and feel-good, Russia bad Ukraine good logic. As I said in another comment, there are no good guys in corrupt and evil wars and the war in Ukraine is definitely one of those.
  - wat10000 8mo ago
    What conditions would be acceptable for ending the war? Surrender the whole country? Surrender part of it, then wait for the Russians to violate the agreement again?
    - tinfoilhatter 8mo ago
      Ukraine will cease to be a country without a working-age male population. What agreement are you referring to when you say again exactly? The war started in 2014 over Russia offering to bankroll a loan that was previously issued by the IMF / World Bank, and was up for renewal (with structural adjustments of course). Also the ousting of former president Viktor Yanukovych during Euromaidan played into it.
      - 8mo ago

embedding-shape 8mo ago

> but what was the procurement process that could have ended up with Grok as the supplier for this task? Why do you think there would be a "procurement process"? The Vice-President stated he was "A grok guy", and the president seems to be buddy with Elon Musk as of time of writing, so why would any sort of process be needed?

lokar 8mo ago
I’m not sure if you are serious, it if you are…. Congress has the authority to spend money, not the president. The way they do this is by telling the president how much to spend on what. It would mostly be impractical for them to detail every expense. So, they give more general directions and limits, and also impose requirements for how the president (or his deputies) go about it. This includes many many specific procurement procedures.
- embedding-shape 8mo ago
  > Congress has the authority to spend money, not the president. In practice, or by paper/pesky "laws"? Because sending $10 billion to organizations the president see fit, certainly makes that seem less true in practice.
  - lokar 8mo ago
    The law is not self enforcing
    - lokar 8mo ago
      FWIW, I think/hope that the long term outcome of this president and SCOTUS rulings will be that the president has much more authority in areas spelled out for him in the constitution, and in areas where congress gives it away freely, AND, an a result, congress stops open ended / broad delegation to the president.
    - monkpit 8mo ago
      Have you read the news lately? Checks and balances are dead. It’s unenforceable.

burningChrome 8mo ago

>>> we could take some lessons from Ukraine on how to clean up a corrupt government. You sure about that? 2015 - Welcome to Ukraine, the most corrupt nation in Europe: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/04/welcome-to-the-most-corrupt-nation-in-europe-ukraine https://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/04/welcome-to-the-... 2016 - Ukraine: Fantastically Corrupt: https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economic-issues-watch/ukraine-fantastically-corrupt https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economic-issues-watch/uk... Despite more than 10 years of activity of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Ukraine is still considered one of the most corrupt countries of Europe. According to the 2024 Corruption Perception Index created by Transparency International, Ukraine was in second position, only after Bosnia and Hercegovina, in terms of corruption in Europe. In a recent survey carried out at national level, 91.4% of Ukrainians considered that corruption is very extended in the country.

epistasis 8mo ago
Oh yeah, I am sure about that. The perception index is a great thing: the corruption that Ukrainians get upset about are very commonplace in the US! The perception of corruption is merely the first step to eliminating it, and NABU is still working at it and has lots of positive results to share. We can't look to, say, France because France hasn't made any progress because it started as high-trust and fairly low corruption, whereas NABU actually does have results to look at. For the US to improve its corruption problem, it needs to look to where there are actual results, and Ukraine is far better than either France or Bosnia and Hezegovina.