News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Nasa head of human spaceflight resigns days before 'histo... by pm90 on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @11:41AM (#23248203)
> I think it's time for Jared to come in. If he can handle Middle-East peace and Covid-19, why not a Moon landing as well.

People say he's unqualified for anything. But he is uniquely qualified in that he is immune to being fired for fucking up everything.

Re:Nasa head of human spaceflight resigns days before 'histo... by Nokinside on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @12:02PM (#23248460)
Jared has only two positions:

1. Senior Advisor to the President

2. Director of the Office of American Innovation within the White House Office (position created specially for him). The office exists only to make recommendations the President.

When he meddles with the CDC or the US foreign policy, he is not bearing any legal responsibility. He is grey eminence operating in unofficial capacity. He can't legally make anyone to do anything, but everyone knows that he is just phone call away from the real power.

Re:Nasa head of human spaceflight resigns days before 'histo... by musicale on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @06:25PM (#23252702)
Amazingly I actually remember the Logan Act from US History, and even thought of it before I heard it mentioned in the news.
Re:Nasa head of human spaceflight resigns days before 'histo... by Nokinside on Thursday May 21, 2020 @05:43AM (#23256507)
Logan Act applies to Flynn when he was working as transition team member for Trump when Obama was president. It applies to Jared when he was transition team member and talked to Saudis and Israel. President-elect is not the president.

Logan act does not apply to Kushner when he is acting on behalf of the president as he is doing today. Kushner has authorization to do what he does. He even has senior position in the WH. What he does not have is executive power or position on his own.

Re:Nasa head of human spaceflight resigns days before 'histo... by coliveira on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @11:49AM (#23248294)
Jared's talent (if he has any) is to screw up and then convincingly claim he did a great job. Trump sees this as the apex of ability.
Re:Nasa head of human spaceflight resigns days before 'histo... by jfengel on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @03:04PM (#23250497)
And so do his supporters. It makes an extremely effective political combination: all the enthusiasm of winning without actually doing anything. And it works as long as you can have goodwill and assets to burn.
Re:Nasa head of human spaceflight resigns days before 'histo... by pm90 on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @05:07PM (#23251817)
Except when something happens that defies spin, like a pandemic that takes away jobs and lives.

I'm not sure how this is going to turn out, but even if the US elects a different president, the current one has provided a nice handbook to a potential autocratic future president to gain unlimited power.

Re:Nasa head of human spaceflight resigns days before 'histo... by jfengel on Thursday May 21, 2020 @09:16AM (#23257949)
I suspect that even a pandemic may not suffice. The only thing that gets through is a direct personal loss, and the death rate seems too low for that. You'd need deaths in the millions for everyone to know someone who died.

Even then it's easy to blame it on someone else. There's a reason they are calling it the Wuhan Virus.