I think it's less about "25-year-old" and more about unvetted stranger with no clearance given unfettered read-write access to the money of a country apparently not run by a dictator, but elected officials(none of which were involved).
How is this possible with any auditing/compliance framework in place? Any basic framework that I have been part of, the developers can't have access to production, and we have to show rigorous testing processes are passed before we update production.
> How is this possible with any auditing/compliance framework in place?
It is not, what happened is someone said “I have authority from the President which trumps your ‘frameworks’ and ‘processes’, and if you fight me on this you will be fired and then we’ll bring in your replacement with the same deal and repeat as necessary until there is compliance with our demands”.
Not commenting on this particular case, but on the general sentiment.
Aristotle did say in Politics IV that appointing public office by lottery, drawing from the real public, is more democratic (power to the people) than elections, which is an oligarchic exercise.
I've always held the opinion that elected officials should have to use public health care, send their kids to public schools, and use public transport.
This would ensure that they would have to maintain these institutions and be able to face their constituents on the daily.
The thing I find most worrisome is that Musk, as part of SpaceX, was denied security clearance because of his extensive foreign ties. Now he has effectively-unsupervised access to the entire federal system.
Interesting how you assume everyone with concerns must have voted for them. Maybe brush up on how voting percentages work - you'd be surprised how many Americans can be affected by election outcomes regardless of how they personally voted. Math is fun that way!
Funny how quickly we jump to 'you must have voted for them' these days. Maybe the real problem isn't who voted for who, but how we've all gotten so used to seeing each other as enemies instead of neighbors who sometimes disagree. Just a thought.
This assumption, that everyone upset about these actions voted for them, is only half the fallacy. The corollary and equally mistaken assumption is that people who voted for them are upset about the actions.
Plenty of people are happy about the actions because it’s exactly what they voted for – “promises made, promises kept.” This isn’t implementing some secret agenda without warning; it’s a fulfillment of a central campaign promise.
Exactly. The results of the US Presidential Election in 2024 show us that slightly more than 1 in 5 Americans cast a ballot in favor of Donald Trump.
assumptions: The publicly-available vote count numbers are correct and the US has a total population of around 341 million people.
The view that our Republican party got a "conservative mandate" and "won by a landslide" is an interesting one when considered with the above facts. They won by a margin of ~1.6% of the votes cast. The victory looks like a large one only when viewed through the distorted lenses of our Electoral College system.
> Maybe the real problem isn't who voted for who, but how we've all gotten so used to seeing each other as enemies instead of neighbors who sometimes disagree. Just a thought.
Exactly. Divide and conquer. Historically it's been pretty effective.
Lately I just cant get the thought out of my head that 69% of Americans either directly or tacitly approved Trump's agenda.
A big chunk of those people now voicing concerns did not vote to prevent the course we are now on because "both sides are the same," or variations of that demonstrable falsehood.
Americans experienced 4 years of the crazy just being superficial. They expected more of the same, not 4 years of the crazy going everywhere.
In term 1 Trump cabinet and staffers were Bush veterans whereas this term they are Trump loyalists. I tried convincing people that this time would be very different, but I got shouted down.
If it's in COBOL you can probably count on one hand how many people have knowledge of the nuts and bolts of those systems and usually the new people talk to the old people.
Why do people keep harping on the age. I don't care about how old they are, I know plenty of cracked teenagers. I care that they have no constitutional authority.
The age emphasizes the absurdist, incompetent slapdash nature of the whole thing. It's not a grizzled expert aiding a coup, it's some kid fucking around.
>I care that they have no constitutional authority.
Opinion article that at least explains some of the authority that DOGE may have. DOGE is operating under U.S. Digital Service which was started by Obama, not congress, with a mission to assist other government services with technology, and may have authority via OMB and the president if the affected departs resist.
Nice to finally get some details, instead of rank speculation on all sides.
It’s called “experience”. HN skews young white and male, and if there’s one thing young white male coders are NOT is “humble.” Any decades plus veteran of the industry who has hired new college grads knows a lot more than you seem to.
Readit News
The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910910 - Feb 2025 (2691 comments)
It is not, what happened is someone said “I have authority from the President which trumps your ‘frameworks’ and ‘processes’, and if you fight me on this you will be fired and then we’ll bring in your replacement with the same deal and repeat as necessary until there is compliance with our demands”.
Do people believe in these?
I've had tons of access over the years to all sort of projects right to my laptop, despite compliance and audits.
Aristotle did say in Politics IV that appointing public office by lottery, drawing from the real public, is more democratic (power to the people) than elections, which is an oligarchic exercise.
I've always held the opinion that elected officials should have to use public health care, send their kids to public schools, and use public transport.
This would ensure that they would have to maintain these institutions and be able to face their constituents on the daily.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy
Funny how quickly we jump to 'you must have voted for them' these days. Maybe the real problem isn't who voted for who, but how we've all gotten so used to seeing each other as enemies instead of neighbors who sometimes disagree. Just a thought.
Plenty of people are happy about the actions because it’s exactly what they voted for – “promises made, promises kept.” This isn’t implementing some secret agenda without warning; it’s a fulfillment of a central campaign promise.
assumptions: The publicly-available vote count numbers are correct and the US has a total population of around 341 million people.
The view that our Republican party got a "conservative mandate" and "won by a landslide" is an interesting one when considered with the above facts. They won by a margin of ~1.6% of the votes cast. The victory looks like a large one only when viewed through the distorted lenses of our Electoral College system.
> Maybe the real problem isn't who voted for who, but how we've all gotten so used to seeing each other as enemies instead of neighbors who sometimes disagree. Just a thought.
Exactly. Divide and conquer. Historically it's been pretty effective.
A big chunk of those people now voicing concerns did not vote to prevent the course we are now on because "both sides are the same," or variations of that demonstrable falsehood.
Deleted Comment
In term 1 Trump cabinet and staffers were Bush veterans whereas this term they are Trump loyalists. I tried convincing people that this time would be very different, but I got shouted down.
Or making and hiding fraudulent payments.
Opinion article that at least explains some of the authority that DOGE may have. DOGE is operating under U.S. Digital Service which was started by Obama, not congress, with a mission to assist other government services with technology, and may have authority via OMB and the president if the affected departs resist.
Nice to finally get some details, instead of rank speculation on all sides.
https://thehill.com/opinion/5126111-department-government-ef...
'Go haywire': Onlookers freak out as 25-year-old set loose on Treasury computer system