Trump is Launching a New Tech Group To 'Transform and Modernize' the US Govt (recode.net) 192
President Donald Trump announced on Monday he has signed an executive order creating a new technology council to "transfer and modernize" the U.S. government's IT systems. From a report: The gathering is part of a new effort, called the American Technology Council, commissioned by Trump in an executive order signed this morning. The effort seeks to bring leading government officials together with Silicon Valley's top minds in order to "transform and modernize" the aging federal bureaucracy "and how it uses and delivers information." Trump isn't the first sitting U.S. president to look to Silicon Valley in an attempt to bring government into the digital age. His predecessor, former President Barack Obama, similarly launched efforts like the U.S. Digital Service, which the administration billed at the time as a "startup at the White House" that sought to pair tech experts with federal agencies that needed help. Over 20 technology chief executives will attend meetings at the White House in early June to talk about improving government information technology, the report adds.
Nerd Harder! (Score:2, Insightful)
This will be where they implement the backdoors that aren't....
Jared? (Score:3)
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Got et by a swamp gator.
Re:Jared? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yep. The problem isn't that the government isn't "digital" enough, the problem is that it's run by people who wouldn't recognize the scientific method if it was served to them on a plate with a sprig of parsley on top.
If he goes to Silicon Valley all he'll find is a bunch of people who want to sell him a lot of useless new computers+software under a lucrative government contract.
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First you need to understand how government operates...
And before y'all get the snide jokes rolling, recognize that our government is largely more effective than most on the planet AND that solutions intended for private sector fail horribly in this space (look up Mcnamara how his business-like management of the Vietnam War failed)
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/09/world/mcnamara-recalls-and-regrets-vietnam.html
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If the US Gov. is "more effective than most" it's mostly because it has more money to burn.
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nah we just have less visible corruption. Interactions with federal civil servants don't require you to provide a bribe to get them to do their job.
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And then the Trump Tweet claiming "Oracle sold me the best deal ever for routers!"
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At least it's not D-Link.
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Yep. The problem isn't that the government isn't "digital" enough, the problem is that it's run by people who wouldn't recognize the scientific method if it was served to them on a plate with a sprig of parsley on top.
If he goes to Silicon Valley all he'll find is a bunch of people who want to sell him a lot of useless new computers+software under a lucrative government contract.
If he goes to Silicon Valley all he'll find is a bunch of people who fetishize 'data' and algorithmic analysis over critical thinking, reasoning, reliability engineering, or domain knowledge skills. We tried this in 2008 and a bunch of the data experts failed then too, because this shit is actually hard and usually doesn't get solved by the creative destruction of a new image recognition app to replace bureaucrats.
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I thought so too, but I think he read the order as "transfer and monetize"
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He was the spokesman for Subway, but he got into some trouble I heard.
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THAT Jared, Jared Fogel (sp?) IS in jail..... The Jared being discussed is Trump's son-in-law, who is not (at least at this point) in jail.....
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I'm pretty sure they're the same guy. You ever see them together?
Please don't move to public cloud. (Score:1, Interesting)
I worry about government use of modified public cloud services. We should ban government from using pure cloud solutions because the companies can hold the government hostage with the "big off switch". The gov needs to control the DataCenters that run the operations that citizens rely on.
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I worry about government use of modified public cloud services. We should ban government from using pure cloud solutions because the companies can hold the government hostage with the "big off switch". The gov needs to control the DataCenters that run the operations that citizens rely on.
And so we should continue to host internally on IIS servers using Access and Visual Basic front ends?
Next, you'll be advocating we keep COBOL.
Or Lotus Notes.
Re: Please don't move to public cloud. (Score:1)
Get real. I mean modernize but keep control. For os and database systems we have enough good people in government to form a Linux distribution and an open source database platform and come up with a total open fips compliant workflow that can run anywhere there's a hyypvisor.
Then throw a team at forking open stack as the base and adding all the things gov needs, then have darpa build a standardized hardware platform and then manufacture the damn things by the container full.
Re: Please don't move to public cloud. (Score:5, Interesting)
Um...
I believe the NSA is rather good at this. (I'm being serious)
Maybe they can redeem themselves and put some of that internal cloud capability they have up for general government usage?
They have the following skills/assets already in-house:
* Security
* Archiving
* Indexing
* Infrastructure
* Scalability
* Tons of other crap.
I'll give bonus points for re-using the existing equipment and drop table-ing the meta data they have on US citizens.
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They have the following skills/assets already in-house:
* Security
Are you kidding? They couldn't prevent one of their sysadmin contractors from walking out with all of their sensitive info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Between NIST & NSA published standards (available on both web sites, more with gov/mil access) every MS product and many of the *NIX flavors have been secured (for the most part). The problem is the bureaucracy -- the documentation, paperwork, politics, more paperwork, studies, dick sucking, etc... required to get an agency (hell, a sub-department) to change anything is so mind numbing it is just not worth the effort for the most part. If you climb the ladder high enough to actually be able to change s
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Well, much of our nuclear systems are still using PDP-11s
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are those the only 2 options? you argue bigly!!!
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IIS? Hell I'd love to run it from the ISS!
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This is less of a concern. The cloud infrastructure used by the gov is for the most part, a completely separate infrastructure from the regular cloud setup the rest of us use. They have already gone through the FISMA compliance process, and their are agreements in place to try to mitigate your concerns.
As for being held hostage, well that happens in gov owned and operated datacenters too. Most government entities use contractors still to manage or build/maintain applications. I can say from personal exp
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The new tech group will give it the most serious and urgent consideration, and insist on a thorough and rigorous examination of all the proposals, allied to a detailed feasibility study and budget analysis before producing a consultative document for consideration by all interested bodies and seeking comments and recommendations to be included in a brief for a series of working parties who will produce individual studies which will provide the background for a more wide-ranging document considering whether or not the proposal should be taken forward to the next stage.
Just like every other time this has been proposed, except this time with Trump running things it'll be even more dysfunctional.
Let the filling of the Feeding Trough begin (Score:5, Insightful)
Said the CEO of Oracle: what ya need there is a collection of giant databases...and cloud, let there be cloud
Said the CEO of Microsoft: what ya need there is a PC or MS compatible computing thing on every desk...and cloud, let there be cloud
Said the CEO of Apple: what ya need there is a collection of iThings for instant communication...errr..with the cloud, let there be cloud
Said the CEO of IBM: what ya need there is a Watson AI Cloudy Thingy in every agency...more cloud for every one
etc.
etc.
etc.
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So it just could be that Trump has cloudy judgement.
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Said the CEO of Oracle: what ya need there is a collection of giant databases...
Said the CEO of Microsoft: what ya need there is a PC or MS compatible computing thing on every desk...
Said the CEO of Apple: what ya need there is a collection of iThings for instant communication...
Said the CEO of IBM: what ya need there is a Watson AI Cloudy Thingy in every agency...
etc...
That's what happens when you get a bunch of blind men and an elephant. [wikipedia.org]
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Said the CEO of Oracle: what ya need there is a collection of giant databases...and cloud, let there be cloud Said the CEO of Microsoft: what ya need there is a PC or MS compatible computing thing on every desk...and cloud, let there be cloud Said the CEO of Apple: what ya need there is a collection of iThings for instant communication...errr..with the cloud, let there be cloud Said the CEO of IBM: what ya need there is a Watson AI Cloudy Thingy in every agency...more cloud for every one etc. etc. etc.
Hey, to be fair here, that Obama Care website filled up a bunch of pigs too, much like the stimulus plan of 2008 that Sherriff Joe was supposed to keep track of every dollar.....
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The stimulus plan was mostly targeted tax breaks, except for direct bailouts that were given to auto companies and a few major banks (those who had been pressured by the Bush administration to buy toxic assets, thereby jeopardizing their own solvency). Of that latter, every single penny was paid back to the US taxpayer, with interest, and actually made a tidy profit.
So if you're trying to compare "that Obama Care website" (there were actually dozens, and still are) to the 2008 stimulus plan, you're saying
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Comon... Really you don't see how these things where the products of intense lobbying efforts and designed to line specific pockets? Are you blind or is there lots of sand between your eyes and daylight?
In the spirit of bipartisanship, can we not agree that BOTH sides engage in this mutual back scratching behavior to varying degrees? I won't quibble about which side is worse at such behavior as long as you admit it's happening no matter who's in power...
Right idea... wrong company... (Score:1)
Oracle and Apple aren't even in the top 100 technology contractors [washingtontechnology.com]. IBM and Microsoft are dwarfed by companies a lot of people have never even heard of, CSRA, CACI, SAIC, Harris, etc. Public sector contracting is it's own unique beast and succeeding in Federal contracting requires a unique combination of political prowess and tolerance for bureaucracy and, at times, sheer stupidity that many companies just won't tolerate... or even understand.
These companies are masters at gaming the system and competing
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Eisenhower was speaking from experience after helping create the actual complex. In today's politics, the less experience the better...
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If he listens to any of those particular assholes, I hope it's IBM and not any of the other BMs on your list. At least they might deliver working solutions.
Coincidence? Probably not. (Score:5, Funny)
The story immediately preceding this one is titled "There's No Good Way To Kill a Bad Idea." I see a theme emerging here, and feel like running for cover. Very fast.
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Well it obviously worked so well when Obama did it that we need to do it again.
Frankly this just sounds more like both political parties have figured out how to get silicon valley onboard to justify taking their lobbying dollars.
Re:Coincidence? Probably not. -OT- (Score:3)
Why is everybody's response to a perceived Trump criticism: "something something OBAMA something something!"? It's silly. OmniGeek never said Obama would have done it better. Frankly, I'm not sure OmniGeek even has a problem with Trump's proposal, he just found the juxtaposition humorous.
For the record, I also had the same problem with criticisms of Obama being met with "At least he's not Bush!" That's just lazy rhetoric.
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To be clear, most "transform" or "modernize" efforts, regardless of the political faction that launched them, and regardless of their innate merit, seem to run aground somewhere around halfway through when they start impinging on the interests of powerful political or institutional constituencies. Those that get through to the point of concrete proposals or final reports tend to be sent off to die of neglect in a legislative subcommittee.
In the case of Trump's proposals, I think this will be a good thing, a
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Re:Coincidence? Probably not. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, that whole healthcare thing was clearly just the left chanting "racist, sexist, misogyny."
Ditto for pulling the US economy out of the real estate crash. And repealing "don't ask, don't tell." And banning enhanced interrogation. And opening diplomatic relations with Cuba after 50 years. And the Opening Doors program that reduced homelessness among veterans by almost 50%. And putting ITT out of business and ending decades of exploitation of students. And improving school food nutrition standards.
Yes, the left spends a lot of time chanting about racism, sexism and misogyny. Perhaps if the right stopped being a bunch of racist, sexist, misogynists, the left would have time to tackle other issues. Until then, we aren't going to shut up and we will keep calling you out and exposing your behavior.
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Perhaps if the right stopped being a bunch of racist, sexist, misogynists, the left would have time to tackle other issues
Yeah, there it is, you can't help it can you. It is actually funny at this point. Go join your local Blackbloc rioters to show your tolerance. That's all you got. Keep it up, and never win another election (except in PDR of California)
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The biggest irony is that if I had said that, the right would have called me an anti-white racist misandrist.
Re:Coincidence? Probably not. (Score:5, Insightful)
TBH, this is another "Trump is evil" post
Nah, nothing of the sort. I see no use of polarizing terms, even.
This is why 1/2 of America doesn't take the whiny left seriously any more. The left has no ideas left, and all they have is "RACIST, SEXIST, MISOGYNY" chants and rioting.
I think this is why more than 1/2 of america strongly dislikes Trump (and his blind supporters) Being divisive and using polarizing terms and assigning imaginary actions to those not marching to the cliff with you does not make for a conversation starter. You might want to check your meds.
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Actually, I understand why the pervious poster was on a rant.... He did read the post... AND The fine article attached....
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Yeah, because I didn't vote for Trump or Clinton, I must be a Trump supporter. more wonderful binary logic ... yawn
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You didn't vote for Trump? Is he too left wing for you?
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By "too far left" you mean "lots of government" ... then probably. Because the alternative is always more government as a solution to everything, right?
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Why don't you go and live on a desert island like Robinson Crusoe? No government there, until Man Friday turned up.
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ooooh sad AC is so mean ... Waaaa.
We need to build a yuge fire (Score:1)
Wall
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just like china... because governing is not easy!!
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Very long, thin garrisons.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pini... [pinimg.com]
If you get a bad room it's a hell of a walk to the toilet.
A "royal" regime (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A "royal" regime (Score:5, Insightful)
Some of Trump's other ways to "modernize" government, based on recent statements and actions:
1. Libel laws should be adjusted making it illegal to mock or contradict the US President.
2. Laws on disclosure, conflicts of interest, or dealings with foreign powers should be repealed.
3. Any news organization determined to be promulgating Fake News as determined by the Chief Executive or the Ministry of Truth should be shut down. In the spirit of item #1, this includes annoying venues such as the Onion or Saturday Night Live.
4. Any scientifically-measured data that does not uphold the statements of the President or his duly appointed relatives/cronies should be tagged as Fake News and treated as outlined in item #3.
5. Any laws of nature deemed inconvenient to the President or his duly appointed relatives/cronies should be summarily repealed.
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He really would like to be a dictator I think. He admires Putin, embraced China, embraced Turkey's update to a dictatorship, just invited the guy from the philipines, just complained that those archaic rules in the senate(those rules that let opposing voices stop a dictator) were stopping progress, hates the press for their constantly going off topic... The guy is used to running a corp with one shareholder, he ran a small dictatorship, found it efficient (and dictatorships are efficient) and would like to
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And then follow up with a feel-good "Two Minutes of Hate".
Re:A "royal" regime (Score:5, Insightful)
So you're whining about two positions, his daughter and son-in-law, that could be questionable out of five million? It's really hard to take you people seriously.
Congress passed an anti-nepotism law after JFK appointed his brother to attorney general to prevent future administrations from appointing family members to positions in the government. Just like most reform laws from the last 50 years, Trump is ignoring that one too.
http://time.com/4574971/donald-trump-transition-jared-kushner-legal-anti-nepotism-law/ [time.com]
It's really hard to take you people seriously.
If Hillary was POTUS and she appointed Chelsea as a special adviser, the Republicans would be screaming for impeachment.
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Golly he should be impeached by now right?
It's not a question of if, it's when Trump will get impeached. Nixon resigned after he lost support of 75% of the Republicans in Congress.
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You're wrong.
I got the 2016 election wrong. So what?
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You honestly fail to grasp that the nearer to the top a position is, the more impact it has?
No wonder you can't take them seriously. Honestly, it's amazing you remember to breathe.
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And 5 million who need leadership. Trump administration is behind in filling the key positions that always change when the power structure changes, and this is further behind than other modern administrations. Chris Christie was supposed to be leading this transition team before he got dumped, and after that it hasn't gathered much steam. The result is that a lot of people that the work should be delegated aren't there. The high level governing via daily press-report disguised as executive order isn't gett
How will that help (Score:5, Insightful)
If 1% of the people that voted for Hillary donate $50/month, then every democrat running for congress or the senate in 2018 will get about $1 million.
Hillary outspent Trump about 10-1 and still lost.
So plainly the notion that money is the absolute determinant in politics is false.
Given the Democrats penchant for blowing money or horrifically inept candidates, why would you continue to be such an enabler? What makes you think Democrats will change for the better if you keep funding the corrupt organization of the past, the kind that hand-picked Hilary over Sanders?
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So plainly the notion that money is the absolute determinant in politics is false.
Oh no, the Republican gerrymandering [washingtonpost.com] is also a significant factor.
North Carolina [talkingpointsmemo.com], Wisconsin [salon.com], Pennsylvania [cmu.edu], Michigan [metrotimes.com], Virginia [richmond.com], Texas [washingtonpost.com], Alabama [al.com], Florida [sacbee.com], and Georgia [slate.com] all demonstrate the effectiveness of that manipulation.
Of course, they already lost in Arizona, so it won't be long before the people start taking back the power. Then what will they do?
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Oh no, the Republican gerrymandering is also a significant factor.
Yep, sure is, like I was saying money doesn't matter much.
Of course, they already lost in Arizona, so it won't be long before the people start taking back the power.
Trump *was* the people taking back the power. Sorry if you are too blind to see that. Voting for Trump was Voting Truth to Power - the ultimate political power embodied by Hillary Clinton. Voting for Sanders would have worked just as well, but the DNC chose to take away the will
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the kind that hand-picked Hilary over Sanders?
No one wants to seem to admit that they did this because she had a better shot at it than Bernie:
https://www.theguardian.com/co... [theguardian.com]
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ber... [msnbc.com]
The Democrats have always been comfortable with their minority block....if they picked Bernie, they probably would have been crushed in November.
She never had a better shot (Score:2)
I voted for Trump, but would have voted for Sanders had he been running.
What could the press possibly put up on Sanders than was worse than they put up about Trump? Not that they would have anyway, Sanders would have been untouched by the press.
But on top of that Sanders had no stench or corporations, of dishonesty, or just downright inhumanity that the Clintons have worked hard to obtain over decades. Sanders would have been the rational sane choice compared to Trump, but as it was you had Trump and the
New Math - 304 - 232 = "Rounding Error" (Score:2)
That is some horribly inept analysis. Hillary won the popular vote and lost the electoral college by a rounding error.
That is some horribly inept math. Clinton had 232 electoral votes, Trump had 304. 304 - 232 = 72, that is a pretty large round number and pretty far from a "rounding error". That is a massive electoral victory that showed how screwed Clinton was, a few more states could have swung her way and she still would have lost.
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There are moderate rebels in Syria. Or at least, there were. There was a sizable Syrian rebel force that was fighting to create a secular state and thought ISIS and AQ were both backwards rednecks. Unfortunately, there were more AQ and ISIS guys with more guns and support and basically executed the leaders and outspoken proponents of that ideology. The remainder are still out there, but in a much more reduced role.
Source: I have lots of Syrian Moderate Muslims friends who were sending much material and mone
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It's true. Facts _are_ flamebait to liberals.
It's like . . . (Score:5, Funny)
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As part of my retirement plan, I will seriously brush up on COBOL in the year 9995. In about the year 9997 everyone will start getting worried about the Y10K problem. People will think Y10K will be the end of civilization as we switch over to five digit years. There will be lots of COBOL work available.
The problem is ... (Score:1)
Start with the EPA! (Score:1, Offtopic)
We don't need no stinking EPA website. It just confuses people. Too much information.
Let's simplify government!
https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
Monetize (Score:1)
It should be easy (Score:5, Insightful)
Just like fixing healthcare and the tax code revising the entire IT infrastructure for the federal government should be easy right?
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The Orange Guy: "It looks so simple when they do it in the movies."
Great! (Score:2)
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NT4.0sp6a might be more accurate :/
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Well, I see plusses and minuses. (Score:2)
"Transforming" the government is something a bunch of Silicon Valley executives could no doubt accomplish. The problem is that "transformed" isn't necessary "better".
Facebook has transformed peoples' lives, to the point it's regarded indispensable for many. It hasn't really made their lives better.
"Transformation" is a goal without a point of view; and blank screen on which anyone is free to imagine whatever colors he likes. Not like "cheaper". Cheaper is quite concrete. "More responsive" would be hard
The Cyber (Score:5, Interesting)
So we have to get very, very tough on cyber and cyber warfare. It is a, it is a huge problem. I have a son.
He's 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it's unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it's hardly do-able. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing, but that's true throughout our whole governmental society.
What a fucking moron.
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Hey, don't bash him too hard! He obviously knows the cyber and cyber warfare huge, hugely even. He is stating a fact, it is tough to secure cyber! And lastly, he takes the blame, "WE are not doing the job WE should be doing".... ;-) If he could cyber good like the good cyber people do, we would do better cyber!
Another thing, "He's 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it's unbelievable." -
I can't count how many times I've heard parents dote on their kids on how great the
Misread that (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh, "Transform and Modernize", or "Transfer and Monetize"?
Good luck with that (Score:2)
To modernize Federal IT, one must first find money to modernize Federal IT, then one must make broad, sweeping changes to Federal procurement rules.
I don't see either of those happening. If they do, I don't see the second ending at all well.
Elephant (Score:2)
Trump will modernize government the same way his sons have modernized African wildlife.
I believe slashdot put up a story (Score:2)
That should have been a comment to https://slashdot.org/story/17/... [slashdot.org]
Wrong..just wrong. (Score:2)
Has this ever worked? (Score:2)
Transform the truth (Score:2)
Signing an executive order means nothing. (Score:1)
Congress has to fund it.
The president has to ACTUALLY staff it. Mr. Trump still has THOUSANDS of jobs STILL unstaffed. He can't implement policy. It's like walmart can't restock produce shelves because they cut staffing levels too low.
It's like Mr. Trump is talking to empty chairs (sort of like Clint Eastwood), giving them orders, smiling and looking proud. But empty chairs can't implement his policies.
His incompetence is the only thing making his presidency remotely bearable.
This group should be outside the government itself (Score:2)
If POTUS were to set up such a group within the government, the Democrats would be able to forum-shop for some municipal night court judge to kill it in its crib.
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appropriate use... finally
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On Soviet Russia, rug sits on YOU!