paulproteus (u/paulproteus)

paulproteus commented on What's happening inside the NIH and NSF science.org/content/blog-... · Posted by u/rrock

zpeti · a year ago

Who says they are illegal? Can you cite some sources please? Like actual legal experts, not the guardian.

As far as I know, the chevron deference ruling makes it easily arguable that these agencies don't necessarily have any legal standing anyway.

The 8 month buyout was completely legal, Clinton did the same.

I actually find it highly unlikely any of this is illegal, it's just completely unbearable to anyone who is part of the bureaucracy. But prove me wrong. Show me the legal opinions.

paulproteus · a year ago

https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-legal-challenges...

Seven restraining orders. Seems like lots is not legal.

paulproteus commented on What's happening inside the NIH and NSF science.org/content/blog-... · Posted by u/rrock

refurb · a year ago

Ok, so all payments are paused while funding is reviewed? Allowance for emergency payments to keep the lights on?

This is taxpayers money and these agencies report to the President under the executive power. A shocker that government agencies might need account for spending.

And I’m sorry “its not a lot of money” doesn’t fly when all the “its not a lot of money” is $8 trillion dollars. The federal deficit will never get smaller if nobody looks at the “its not a lot of money” line items.

paulproteus · a year ago

8 trillion is the amount the debt rose while Trump was in office last time: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/us-debt-by-president...

How much do you think he will raise it by during this term?

paulproteus commented on Payments crisis of 2025: Not “read only” access anymore crisesnotes.com/day-five-... · Posted by u/shinryuu

Bloating · a year ago

Depends on which tribe is in charge

paulproteus · a year ago

I don't see how that relates to my comment. Can you elaborate?

paulproteus commented on The Constitutional Crisis Is Here theatlantic.com/politics/... · Posted by u/iNic

readthenotes1 · a year ago

Things have been moving so fast, and there are so many people who are confused, including myself, I am wondering where "bypass the Constitution entirely" comes from?

E.g., USAID. It wasn't shut down, it was moved into the State Dept and the law clearly says the Secretary of State should be setting its direction. The current Secretary of State has said that Congress has been frustrated for decades at how USAID has been spending money without legislative direction. Well, no maybe that'll be fixedm

Trump's E.O. stopping payments only did so for those not required by existing legislation. A judge paused part of that e o., and I've heard nothing about the executive branch ignoring the judges order.

Does legislation specify how payment processing in the Dept of Treasury works, that is, that there be an office of payment processors that do nothing but click "ok" to the tune of over $250B in overpayments in 2023?

Now, maybe if he actually does try to completely disband the department of education then we will have a constitutional crisis if Congress doesn't pass a law authorizing that first.

Everything else so far seems to be just stirring the pot.

paulproteus · a year ago

I found this helpful to keep me up to date on the legal situation of various executive orders: https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-legal-challenges... . Overall for me, 8 executive orders subject to restraining orders sounds like the executive branch vastly exceeding its authority, which for three weeks of government, sounds like a constitutional crisis.

paulproteus commented on America desperately needs more air traffic controllers cnn.com/2025/02/04/busine... · Posted by u/mooreds

AutistiCoder · a year ago

I've dreamed of having an AI model run ATC.

Just train an AI on ATC recordings and other data, maybe throw in some reinforcement learning,and then test it in low-stakes commercial airspace (like a regional airport)

paulproteus · a year ago

Sounds good! Maybe you can start a business and have a low-stakes regional airport work with you. I think the main way to do it is as an add-on/assistant for the existing toolset.

paulproteus commented on The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE wired.com/story/elon-musk... · Posted by u/medler

adastra22 · a year ago

Do you have specific questions? I really don’t think it is complicated. They’re doing what they say they are doing: instrumenting up the government to see what it is doing, and reorganizing it from the ground up to be more efficient. So far all their actions are in line with this.

It’s like a creditor-initiated bankruptcy proceeding. An agent comes in and stops all transactions, audits the assets and liabilities, and comes up with a plan. That’s what they are working on right now.

I’m trying to be objective in my description. I’ve personally worked for the government before and I think they are being hopelessly naïve in thinking that the government can fixed in this way, and also appear to be dangerously ignorant of the law (or counting on executive pardons). But I do t think there is any intentional malice or corrupt intentions here.

paulproteus · a year ago

Gotcha. The reason I was mystified is that the budget is written by Congress, so I would guess a phone call to a leader in Congress with a desired budget number would do the job. Given that this doesn't seem to be the plan, I couldn't tell if maybe they had some other goal. I hope that explains how someone could be mystified.

paulproteus commented on The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE wired.com/story/elon-musk... · Posted by u/medler

adastra22 · a year ago

I know some of the people involved, and named in this article. So do many other people on HN. I pitched my startup to one of these zoomers just a few months ago. I can tell you that whatever this is, it isn't that kind of cronyism corruption. We can do better than such accusations, and that's what the person you are replying to is asking for.

paulproteus · a year ago

Since you know the people in question, do you have any ideas? I am honestly mystified myself and hopeful someone who knows the people in question can shed some light.

paulproteus commented on Payments crisis of 2025: Not “read only” access anymore crisesnotes.com/day-five-... · Posted by u/shinryuu

paulproteus · a year ago

Trillions of debt is a congress issue. Maybe this congress can pass some bills to resolve it. Not sure how that's relevant to 25 year olds since there are no current 25 year old congress members.

paulproteus commented on Medical billing firm Medusind discloses breach affecting 360k people bleepingcomputer.com/news... · Posted by u/guiambros

SoftTalker · a year ago

It’s time to start penalizing these companies in a way that hurts. The real cost of asking hundreds of thousands of people to “monitor their accounts and credit” and the costs of resolving any fraud needs to be assessed, probably at treble damages.

paulproteus · a year ago

One good option is FTC action. They have worked on this in the past, e.g. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2018/10/... https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2018/01/...