so i'm confused now. were the people who believed he would do what he repeatedly and forcefully said he would do get it right, or did the people who presumed he was bullshitting?
@Phil @freemayonnaise @Harald_Korneliussen we'll disagree that that's the best way to go. i still want a state that can, say, participate credibly in alliances. tbf, we've fucked it up pretty badly already.
@freemayonnaise @Phil @Harald_Korneliussen truly a pleasure! i think so well of you too, my dear interlocutor who is fine with people who worked with USAID in good faith getting tortured so Elon can play USAID files, thinks that would serve a larger, noble purpose.
@Phil @freemayonnaise @Harald_Korneliussen if players are rogue, i think the accountability has to be imposed on those players, rather than the people they dupe.
@freemayonnaise @Phil @Harald_Korneliussen if you say so. you are really a delightful person to share a discussion with.
@Phil @freemayonnaise @Harald_Korneliussen my view i'm not so optimistic... i agree we'd be better off with a new regime that made administrations budget their secrecy more carefully, made it scarce. but that again would be work for Congress, if it is to outlast an administration.
@freemayonnaise @Phil @Harald_Korneliussen i agree secrecy is overused and abused by the bureaucracy.
that doesn't mean secrecy never has a role, or that it's legit and not evil to undo it basically randomly.
@Phil @freemayonnaise @Harald_Korneliussen i guess i can't disagree with "it's virtuous to screw people over because they should know better than to trust me because i don't trust myself to act well." it's a case you can make, but i think we need a capable government which means we actually have to act well.
@Phil @freemayonnaise @Harald_Korneliussen he absolutely can stop any further covert aid (unless Congress has mandated it, which i doubt). he just shouldn't fuck over people who relied in good faith on a promise of discretion from prior administrations. and it'd be a more permanent change if Congress did it.
@freemayonnaise @Phil @Harald_Korneliussen if you say so.
@Phil @freemayonnaise @Harald_Korneliussen if the enterprise is crooked, by all means get out of it. but if you've promised discretion, keep your promise.
@freemayonnaise @Phil @Harald_Korneliussen People in general who have worked in good faith with my government. I have no more specific knowledge.
@freemayonnaise @Phil @Harald_Korneliussen Congress could absolutely forbid covert aid. (I'd support that.) If @Phil interpretation is right, someone could sue to get the practice enjoined without further work by Congress. But what is done is already done.
@Phil @freemayonnaise @Harald_Korneliussen not true in law. if a "rogue operator" is presented in such a way by an organization that a reasonable counterparty would consider them to be acting in the name of the organization, the organization often finds itself on the hook. as a matter of ethics, stipulating your interpretation of nonauthorization, if someone accepted support from a real USG agent on promise of discretion that shouldn't have been made, your ethical view is "oops! sucks for you!"?
@freemayonnaise the administration has a lot of flexibility about the working of agencies!
but it has zero flexibility over the existence of any agency, and at least in some form pursuing the objectives for which Congress constituted it.
@freemayonnaise dude, they are accessing the files, reportedly including classified files. no, i don't know the details, i hope they are less bad than they might be, but that's problematic as fuck.
again, you take this shit far too lightly. it is a different topic, but not remotely a "molehill" that Musk talks about "shutting down" an agency when our Costitutional system permits that only of Congress.
@freemayonnaise the US owes all the people with whom we collaborated in Afghanistan refuge, and all of the politicians who deny or prevent that, who gum up the works, have their future blood on their hands and besmirch our nation's honor. you make too light, walk away too easily, from things that are not light, easy, or frankly yours to walk away from, whatever you personally agreed or disagreed with.
@freemayonnaise you can have plenty of accountability and oversight. we have a whole army of people with security clearances, and you can clear more if you don't like their politics. Congress can ban USAID from the practice of covert aid. i'd favor that. but you—yes, you too if you're an american—can't ethically welch on obligations with life and death stakes that predecessors took on, no matter how shitty you think the predecessors.
@freemayonnaise the issue is that, since (rightly or wrongly, it's actually not a practice i favor) the US sometimes does provide aid to people or organizations without their country's government's knowledge or approval, what we are talking about risking is, yes, murder, the murder of people USAID has covertly assisted, if that information is disclosed to the wrong people or made public.