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Meet The Company That Poached The FBI's Entire Silk Road Investigation Team (dailydot.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the sunny-side-up dept.

Patrick O'Neill quotes a report from The Daily Dot: The FBI team that brought down Silk Road has a new home. After headline-grabbing investigations, arrests, and prosecutions on some of America's highest-profile cybercriminals, five of U.S. law enforcement's most prized cybercrime aces have all left government service for greener pastures -- a titan consulting firm called Berkeley Research Group (BRG). BRG's newly hired gang of five includes former federal prosecutor Thomas Brown, as well as former FBI agents Christopher Tarbell, Thomas Kiernan, and Ilhwan Yum -- names that punctuated many of the biggest cybercrime stories of the last decade including Silk Road, LulzSec, Liberty Reserve, as well as the hacks of Citibank, PNC Bank, and the Rove Digital botnet; and the prosecution of Samarth Agrawal for stealing crucial code for high-frequency trading from the multinational, multibillion dollar bank Societe Generale. "Private industry provides a lot of opportunity," NYPD intelligence chief Thomas Galati told Congress earlier this year. "So I think the best people out there are working for private companies, and not for the government."

133 comments

  1. DPR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    DPR is an America^H^H *WORLD* hero. He should be released immediately and compensated for his inconvenience.

    1. Re:DPR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Contribute BTC to upcoming DPR appeal: 129TQVAroeehD9fZpzK51NdZGQT4TqifbG

    2. Re:DPR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the idiot had encrypted or hidden his wallet he'd have plenty to pay for his own defense. He can rot for his stupidity and hubris.

  2. Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    I remember a line from the movie "Jacobs Ladder" -- The protagonist (a seemingly brilliant individual) was asked why he went to work for the post office after coming home from Veit Nam. His answer was something along the lines of "so I don't have to think".

    I think that really sums it up.

    If you have to deal with the Post Office, or the DMV, or the cops, or anyone associated with the government, they're a unique, shitty class of humanity that wishes you were dead and not wasting their time. Go into any type of government office and you're dealing with honest-to-god, living zombies. These are NOT like ordinary people you deal with at work or at home. It's something totally different and very unique.

    1. Re:Jacob's Ladder by knightghost · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You've obviously never worked in any government office or with police. Rather than spew misinfotainment myths, try a ride along with a peace officer on a Friday night. It'll open your eyes.

    2. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, really, don't hold back and tell us what you really think.

    3. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've seen body types @ the DMV that I'm amazed can support human life.

    4. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Most cops are scum. Ive lived in plenty of cities where I wasnt sure if I was in the US or the USSR

    5. Re: Jacob's Ladder by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Funny

      Most cops are scum. Ive lived in plenty of cities where I wasnt sure if I was in the US or the USSR

      Which language were they speaking?

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    6. Re:Jacob's Ladder by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1
      After waiting in line for few hours once, I was told that I filled out the wrong form and would have to start over. I asked the lady why they didn't have a sign indicting which was the proper form and she said that a lot of people asked this question and some people put up their own signs to warn others, but the dmv made them take them down.

      I moved to another state that allowed privately owned offices to handle routine things like license plates (DL testing still were state run). I was in and out in 5 minutes, they didn't even have chairs for waiting.

    7. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      You know what?? Fuck the police.

    8. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      yeah, screw U. i'm harassed by the cops constantly. whatever.

    9. Re:Jacob's Ladder by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      In California most of the DMV functions are available online. I haven't been inside the DMV office for more than 5 years. Unfortunately, lack of exposure to the DMV bureaucracy has caused a lot of millennials to believe that socialism is a good idea.

    10. Re:Jacob's Ladder by plopez · · Score: 1

      It depends on the job. I see more dead wood in Fortune 500 companies than I ever saw working for the Feds.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    11. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Hey asshole... You're obviously not a skater. Try going two blocks in Miami on a board and see what your opinion of cops are after that.

      Dickhead.

    12. Re:Jacob's Ladder by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      Patty and Selma?

    13. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      They killed Trayvon Martin like he was a dog. They don't value human life in the slightest.

    14. Re:Jacob's Ladder by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1
      Yeah, I don't know what it's like now, but that scenario was about twenty years ago. Having spent a lot of time in real socialist countries (and not the wealthy Nordic countries, which are in fact capitalist) socialism is about the last thing any sane person would want. People need to travel and eperience more of the world.

      I recently read an interview by Danny Elfman and he had a great answer to a question:

      My attitude is always to be critical of what's around you, but not ever to forget how lucky we are. I've traveled around the world. I left thinking I was a revolutionary. I came back real right-wing patriotic. Since then, I've kind of mellowed in between. It affected me permanently and totally.

    15. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then I hope you have a major medical expense without solid insurance. Then we'll see how wonderful your asshole utopia is.

    16. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because in civil service the really dead wood don't even bother coming in to work. Those that do have spent a career trying to look busy so they get promoted, though most have not even mastered that small skill. Since it takes 5-7 years to get rid of someone after you have documented the situation, most civil service managers just can't be bothered to even try.

    17. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have, having a shit job doesn't give a group of people a free pass to routinely violate other people.

      Ask yourself this: everytime you see an officer beating or shooting someone, ask yourself, if you as a normal person were there facing the perp, would you face charges and prosecution for how you ended the situation.

      If the answer is yes (which it is most lfbthe time, do the math on police shootings in the US compared to other first world nations), then the answer is obvious.

      Someone who upholds the law must be a subject of the law themselves or society will ultimately collapse as it always has through history.

      Ours is no exception, no matter how shitty taking out the trash is.

    18. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Extremist views like yours are what make 'Murika great.

    19. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Skaters deserve death.

    20. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. This applies to all occupations.

      Some people talk all kinds of crap about drug dealers and the threats and violence that go along with the role despite the fact that they've never worked in that industry. Try actually dealing drugs for a year or so and working up a crime syndicate's ladder before condemning the people that work there. It will really open your eyes.

      Of course, the analogy is not perfect. The occupation of dealing drugs is at least fundamentally honourable whereas the occupation of harassing others and living off of stolen money (i.e. state police work) is not.

    21. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, a civilian shot him, not a cop.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin

      On the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States, George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin

    22. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The main problem with socialism in America is its definition. You can dislike socialism if you want, but that means you dislike cooperatively-owned business, not government bureaucracy.

    23. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A latino civilian, but muh narrative!

    24. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spanish.

    25. Re: Jacob's Ladder by aethelrick · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That looks an awful lot like a dangerous generalization.

      I don't live in the US and I've never met a US police officer. Also, I do not support or defend police brutality in any way, it is crime and should be treated as such, however looking at the numbers of police officers in the US (around 1.1 million personal allowed to conduct arrests) you'd think that if they were ALL "scum" as you put it that you'd have a significantly higher rate of incidences of police brutality and deaths in police custody.

      According to the ARD (Arrest-Related Deaths) Bureau of Justice stats; between 2003 and 2009 police in the US killed a total of 2,931 people they were attempting to arrest, of which 75% were being arrested for violent crimes. This sounds like a big number (about 419 people per year), but if viewed in terms of the number of violent crimes committed in the US (116,440,350,000 in 2013 for instance, taken from the FBI violent crime statistics of 367.9 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in 2013) you realise just how tiny a drop in the ocean this number is.

      More people die in traffic accidents over the Easter weekend DRIVING to the coast in South Africa between Johannesburg and Durban than are killed by the cops in the US in a year

      Incidentally, around 143 US police are killed each year in the line of duty. Considering 13,286 people were killed in the US by firearms in 2015, according to the Gun Violence Archive, and 26,819 people were injured. I think it's a safe assumption that being a cop in the US is a dangerous job that brings you into contact with a violent criminals. Clearly violent criminals exist, they shoot at each other, the public in general and the police, some of them are going to be stupid enough to try to shoot their way out of an arrest and get shot in return. Clearly not all of the people killed by the police fall into this category, but I don't think we should judge ALL police on the fact that a tiny minority of their 1.1 million staff are brutal, but we should judge them instead on how they deal with those individuals and what they do to weed them out of their ranks.

      So while the media may tell millions of us every day about how savage the police are in order to get us to buy their papers and tune-in to their news programs, I don't believe the hype is proportional to the size or nature of the problem. But hey, even-handed and rational news never sold any news papers or advertising spots, so I guess the chances of us ever seeing it are really slim.

      Incidentally, how many cops have you had interactions with and why are they scum in your opinion?

    26. Re:Jacob's Ladder by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      Thanks, that was a perfect commentary. I've also spent a dozen years living overseas, and been to over 50 countries. We (Americans) have plenty to be critical of inside our boarders, but much more to be thankful for. If you disagree, talk it over with an immigrant, there are many more of those than people leaving.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    27. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Check your math. Your 2013 example implies that every man, woman, and child in the country had been subjected to a violent crime more than once a day.

    28. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Possibly the same victim every second?

    29. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You realize that "skater" is a self-organized counter-culture which has anti-authoritarianism as one of it's core tenants right? Complaining about getting hastled by the cops while wearing the uniform of someone who is uneducated on their civil liberties while 60% of the time is guilty of possession of contraband(underage tobacco/marijuana) is totally the First Ammendment Hill you want to die on apparently...

      If skateboarders weren't all pot smoking punks from bad homes and single mothers maybe cops wouldn't give them so much shit? Next time, try being born to better parents.

      Or you could break the cycle and study really hard in school. It's not hard to get a 4.0 when all of your peers are illiterate and high school GPA is a fungible commodity that can get you in to an ivy-league school regardless of relative merit to a graduate from a hyper competitive school district. With honors classes and CLEP tests you could graduate in 3 years with a degree in Math, Engineering, Science, or Medicine(Law isn't the fast-track it used to be) and get snatched up for grad school.

      If you don't like reading(listening to Black Flag is so much cooler amirite?) but still want job security: you could get a Bachelors in nursing and get tons of pussy for very little effort.

      4 years is an eternity? No problem bro! Vocational training for Dental Hygienist or Radiology technician in 12-24 months! Wow!

      California is $50 credit/hour which is affordable at minimum wage. Never mind the GI Bill and all of the outrageous opportunities for people who weren't born as white males to middle class parents.

      But please, continue squandering the opportunities you have antagonizing glorified security guards/pawns of the prison-industrial complex because reducing the property values in the neighborhood you live is the most edgy thing you can think of.

      SK8R 4 Life bro! Avril Lavigne! My parents don't understand me!

    30. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Most police officers who die in the line of duty either have a car accident or a heart attack - only about 1/3 are actually victims of homicide.

      Beyond that, yes, police don't actually kill that many people. But what we've found is that when they do, the others tend to cover up their bad behavior. A staggering number have killed multiple times. Given that half of all LEOs in the US don't ever draw their sidearm during their entire career, you get the picture that some guys just don't need to be police officers.

      I didn't understand it until I went to a mixed-race church with a black preacher years ago. One Sunday he gently explained it to us white folks in the audience. This is a guy with no criminal history, college educated, etc. He started out by explaining that every single time he had been pulled over he had a gun pointed at him, sometimes touched to his bald head.

      We have a pretty big problem with that stuff in this country, and the Tamir rices are just the tip of the iceberg.

      --
      Do you have ESP?
    31. Re:Jacob's Ladder by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      DMV's have improved since today's climate doesn't allow the rampant cronyism that used to infect the DMV's of many states. When the DMV fees are a political kickback, your going to get poor service. Now that they aren't (as often), you get professional employees.

      --
      Cheap storage VM.
    32. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aim for the top instead of feeling good about being better than the bottom.

      No country is close to being perfect but the US is currently way down the field.

    33. Re: Jacob's Ladder by aethelrick · · Score: 0

      ...Beyond that, yes, police don't actually kill that many people. But what we've found is that when they do, the others tend to cover up their bad behavior. A staggering number have killed multiple times. Given that half of all LEOs in the US don't ever draw their sidearm during their entire career, you get the picture that some guys just don't need to be police officers.

      The media in the US does seem to be pointing out a problem with some police officers. I imagine that the police force is likely to contain similar levels of unstable individuals as the public at large does. In other words, some bad/brutal/improper behaviour is inevitable and needs to be dealt with appropriately when it occurs.

      Sweeping brutality under the carpet or trying to cover it up is indeed wrong (possibly criminal in itself) and should be robustly discouraged. However the culture of secrecy is by in large a direct consequence of trying to avoid the inevitable, derogatory, riot-inciting media frenzy that follows.

      I didn't understand it until I went to a mixed-race church with a black preacher years ago. One Sunday he gently explained it to us white folks in the audience. This is a guy with no criminal history, college educated, etc. He started out by explaining that every single time he had been pulled over he had a gun pointed at him, sometimes touched to his bald head.

      We have a pretty big problem with that stuff in this country, and the Tamir rices are just the tip of the iceberg.

      This sort of behaviour is often the result of fear on the police's part. Fear in itself is not an excuse, however if someone is afraid for their own safety they will be more likely to not-take-chances with someone they perceive to be a threat. You can't tell just by looking at someone if they are a respected peace-loving graduate or a gun-toting looney but humans (yes all humans) are hard-wired to pre-judge situations biased by prior experience whether or not that "experience" is grounded in fact (what they have seen happen) or fantasy (what they were told happens). If cops go to work "believing" that they are going to be shot by a black guy then then their fear is rational (to them at least).

      In short, I think most cops in the US (like most people everywhere) are doing a job and doing it reasonably well. That is not "news" however and as such your media won't be telling you that any time soon. I've been lead to believe that a disproportionate number of "criminals" in the US are from non-white communities (if the stats quoted in the media are correct). If most criminals in a police jurisdiction are from a single ethnic background then it is human nature to pattern-match others of this ethnicity and associate them with potential criminal behaviour. While this is totally incorrect in individual cases, it is no more than ALL HUMANS do. You only have to read the rest of this page to find fine examples of irrational prejudice exhibiting general hatred of "all police".

      labelling an entire group like "all police are scum" or "all black people are criminals" is equally incorrect and unhelpful to us all. A better use of our time would be to ask; is the ratio of financial disadvantage proportional to the crime rate when compared along race lines? If so, then the policing problem is not "black" or "white"... it's "green"... i.e. sort of the poverty and the crime related problems will fix themselves?

    34. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let me explain this really simply. Every single cop who pulled over the preacher that I talked about is a violent felon. Yes, it's that simple.

      It's not legal to point a gun at someone unless you have a reasonable belief that they are going to immediately cause great harm to you or someone else. Period.

      It's frightening how easily you ignore that.

      --
      Do you have ESP?
    35. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Know what? Fuck U. I don't do drugs, and you don't know anything about my home or education.

    36. Re: Jacob's Ladder by mrchaotica · · Score: 2

      (116,440,350,000 in 2013 for instance, taken from the FBI violent crime statistics of 367.9 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in 2013)

      367.9 crimes / 100,000 people * 315,100,000 people = 1,159,000 crimes. Not 116 billion!

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    37. Re: Jacob's Ladder by aethelrick · · Score: -1

      Let me explain this really simply. Every single cop who pulled over the preacher that I talked about is a violent felon. Yes, it's that simple.

      It's not legal to point a gun at someone unless you have a reasonable belief that they are going to immediately cause great harm to you or someone else. Period.

      Allow me to be equally simple. One guy's experience, however wrong and traumatic for him, is not statistically relevant, or in any way representative of an entire data set.

      It's frightening how easily you ignore that.

      I do not ignore, nor do I endorse the police brutality. You seem to have missed that fact however so I'll say again, it is wrong, criminal, and should be dealt with as such.

      This is entirely separate from the "trial by media" of the entire US police force. The majority of the 1.1 million police are CLEARLY not behaving this way and not doing the terrible things that have happened to the man in your example. Yes bad cops exist, yes they should be dealt with appropriately. Are all cops bad? NO.

      You yourself used the phrase "A staggering number have killed multiple times". Really? "A staggering number" how many is that? Why did you choose those particular emotionally charged words? Why not actually quote the number of serial killer cops on the force instead? You also used the phrase "We have a pretty big problem..." how big? in relation to what? You highlight my point beautifully, humans prejudge the shit out of everything, you're doing it about cops, some cops are doing it about black people (and others I might add). Take a moment and ask yourself, what is the cause of the problem and what should I do to solve it. You may not find the answer or even provide a solution, but maybe just maybe you'll stop being part of the problem. Prejudice in all of it's guises has negative repercussions.

    38. Re: Jacob's Ladder by aethelrick · · Score: 1

      Sorry, you are quite right... finger trouble. My bad.

    39. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Life, as it turns out, isn't like the movies.

    40. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      labelling an entire group like "all police are scum" or "all black people are criminals" is equally incorrect and unhelpful to us all.

      It seems both correct and helpful to me. It's correct because all police believe in institutionalized violence and all black people are humans (with this many laws all humans are criminals). It's helpful because it reminds me to avoid doing anything around people who believe violence will solve "our" problems. The police aren't your friends - they carry guns around all day and can shoot you without facing trial.

    41. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am not sure, but the tourist buro in my country (The Netherlands) warns tourist going to the U.S.A to don't carry cash when driving through small towns, since it is very likely that the cops will steal all your money (in the name that the money was used in drugs transactions, and good luck trying to get that money back).

      But I guess the U.S.A. figured that it was costing tourist, as the FBI/DEA is no longer allowed to give kickbacks to local police (used to be 40%), as the local police is only allowed to send this money to federal police agencies.

      Since this happens so often, I am guessing that more than a minority of U.S.S. police is morally bankrupt.

    42. Re:Jacob's Ladder by PrimaryConsult · · Score: 1

      New York DMV has improved significantly now that most things can be handled on line or via mail. Even getting plates for a new car is done right at the dealership.

      I suspect a lot of this was due to necessity - NYC DMV offices don't have much space and have to serve a lot more people than the the ones elsewhere in the state, but all branches benefited from the reduction in walk-ins.

    43. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SK8R 4 Life bro! Avril Lavigne!

      Said no skater, ever.

    44. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >... every single time he had been pulled over he had a gun pointed at him...

      How many times? And was he driving like a maniac? Or does he carry a chip on his shoulder when conversing with authorities?
      I'm not saying that bad situations do not happen, I'm just curious about the very-powerful act of pulling a gun on someone to create an abusive advantage... all while the lawful & innocent victim is just minding their own business? I've had guns pulled on me and guess what- it was because the car matched a bad-guy's car. Did I cry foul or did I understand that they have a mix up, and are NOT looking to get their jollies by harassing people for no reason?

    45. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then the preacher's experience is unique, and relegated to those jerk officers who, (apparently are now felons), never should have been hired.
      Not reflective of all police, all blacks' experience, or a 100% pull-over experience for any people, (of any race).
      The preacher & that handful of cops is s****y experiences for sure- but not a symptom of police in general and definitely town/locale related. Though it's stories like this that do deserve empathy for the preacher & his nerve wracking experience; but stories like this need to be understood as local phenomena and do not deserve to paint all cops as bad.

    46. Re:Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The people in my local post office, and most of the people in my local DMV, are polite and do a good job.

    47. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >don't carry cash

      LARGE sums of money, stacked & wrapped in rubber bands, carried around in a briefcase... yes it will look suspicious.
      Cash is not suspect in and of itself; rather in context to why you & the police are talking at all.

      Tourists, families, a rental car full of Disney souvenirs, (or the like), all will be understood. On the otherhand is it midnight and you are driving crazy, have red-eyes, and are incoherent and belligerent? Then yes the $500 may very well appear to be "funny money".

    48. Re:Jacob's Ladder by plopez · · Score: 1

      I never witnessed that.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    49. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1

      More people die in traffic accidents over the Easter weekend DRIVING to the coast in South Africa between Johannesburg and Durban than are killed by the cops in the US in a year

      Really? 419 people dead from traffic accidents on a single highway on a single weekend? I'm not saying it's wrong, but a lot of your other statistics certainly stretch credibility.

      Incidentally, around 143 US police are killed each year in the line of duty.

      Most of which are car accidents.

      Considering 13,286 people were killed in the US by firearms in 2015, according to the Gun Violence Archive

      About 2/3 of which were suicides.

      I think it's a safe assumption that being a cop in the US is a dangerous job

      That's only valid if you don't compare it with other jobs. I think the most dangerous right now is logger. It used to be convenience store clerk. Police don't even make the top 50.

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    50. Re: Jacob's Ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are the biggest piece of shit I've seen.

      I know what your beef is. You tried to skate as a kid, couldn't do it because you were probably overweight. Now you have a grudge, so anytime skating comes up, your eyes turn red and you snap.

      Shame on those skaters for skating, For smoking pot, which isn't just a skater drug. Shame on them for doing something they enjoy.
      Are you so mad that they have the opportunity to do something fun and you don't? Get over it.

      You obviously have no clue, but think you do. I bet you are a riot at parties. 10000+ friends on facefuck. Go eat a piece of poop.

    51. Re: Jacob's Ladder by mrclevesque · · Score: 1

      "Sweeping brutality under the carpet or trying to cover it up is indeed wrong (possibly criminal in itself) and should be robustly discouraged. However the culture of secrecy is by in large a direct consequence of trying to avoid the inevitable, derogatory, riot-inciting media frenzy that follows"

      If some police cover up brutality, including when they kill someone without legal cause, the right word for their behavior is criminal and you can't justify their behavior by saying they did it because they feared what would happen if the general public or the media found out about it.

    52. Re: Jacob's Ladder by aethelrick · · Score: 1

      Indeed, that is exactly what I said. Police brutality is wrong and criminal and should be treated as such. I was very clear about that. I ALSO think however that it is incorrect to judge ALL police on the actions of a few criminal individuals.

    53. Re: Jacob's Ladder by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

      Similar levels of unstable individuals?
      Considering that "police officer" ranks in the top ten jobs for the most psychopaths, I don't trust your assessment.
      Citation: http://www.independent.co.uk/n...
      http://time.com/32647/which-pr...

    54. Re: Jacob's Ladder by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

      I can and will judge all involved with the cover up as accessories to murder, because they are by all legal definitions.

    55. Re: Jacob's Ladder by mrclevesque · · Score: 1

      "Indeed, that is exactly what I said. Police brutality is wrong and criminal and should be treated as such. I was very clear about that."

      Yes, I wanted to emphasize that it was more than "possibly criminal"

      "I ALSO think however that it is incorrect to judge ALL police on the actions of a few criminal individuals."

      Yes, of course I agree. The proportion of blame that can be attributed to the police force is most concentrated on a small part of the force.

      "However the culture of secrecy is by in large a direct consequence of trying to avoid the inevitable, derogatory, riot-inciting media frenzy that follows"

      I disagree, I think that "inevitable, derogatory, riot-inciting media frenzy that follows" is "a large direct consequence" of both the few cops that partake in criminal behavior and coverups, and the few people who claim all cops partake in criminal behavior and coverups, and the latter group tends to make less sweeping claims when the former group tends to be smaller or partakes in less criminal behaviors

    56. Re: Jacob's Ladder by aethelrick · · Score: 1

      I disagree, I think that "inevitable, derogatory, riot-inciting media frenzy that follows" is "a large direct consequence" of both the few cops that partake in criminal behavior and coverups, and the few people who claim all cops partake in criminal behavior and coverups, and the latter group tends to make less sweeping claims when the former group tends to be smaller or partakes in less criminal behaviors

      I totally agree with your above comment regarding the "large direct consequence", I will also say that plenty of evidence exists to suggest that some police deserve to be in prison as they are criminals. I also think we have similar feelings when confronted with evidence of crime being committed by the police. I would add to this though; All the negative press about the police whether accurate or exaggerated, real or imagined amplifies and encourages negative feelings in the public mind. While I think it is right that we the public should get to hear about this sort of news, I think that the media tries to turn everything they report into as big a story as they can in order to make money out of us rather than to report cold hard (often boring) facts. The negative image does not benefit the public, or the police.

      I think it's fair to say that in order to remedy the situation the police need to be utterly transparent about what they do and what they get wrong. But equally, I think they need to be allowed to do this by the media without being damned as an organization when an individual has done something unforgivable

    57. Re: Jacob's Ladder by mrclevesque · · Score: 1

      "While I think it is right that we the public should get to hear about this sort of news, I think that the media tries to turn everything they report into as big a story as they can in order to make money out of us rather than to report cold hard (often boring) facts"

      I agree.

      "The negative image does not benefit the public, or the police"

      Yes, but at the same I think there is a link between media coverage intensity and a willingness to remedy the problems.

      "I think it's fair to say that in order to remedy the situation the police need to be utterly transparent about what they do and what they get wrong. But equally, I think they need to be allowed to do this by the media without being damned as an organization when an individual has done something unforgivable"

      Good point. While still agreeing with what I said above, at the same time, I can see that if media worked on not spreading blame to police and law enforcement in general it could facilitate the implementation and internal support for the needed changes.

  3. Who wants to work under Obama? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    I mean, if you are working in the FBI, would you still want to be associate with the FBI that Obama is pressuring to drop all investigations regarding Hillary Clinton's private email server?

    1. Re:Who wants to work under Obama? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      They were hired away from the FBI, and are now employed building Silk Road 3.

    2. Re:Who wants to work under Obama? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      I think these guys are smart enough to avoid helping out drug addicts and other undesirable trash.

    3. Re: Who wants to work under Obama? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nah... the normal is that theyre working for feds or prosecutors for 10x the money billed to the taxpayer. prosecutors and police should do their stuff inhouse.

    4. Re:Who wants to work under Obama? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      "I think these guys are smart enough to avoid helping out drug addicts and other undesirable trash."

      If only you were smart enough to know that on a darknet, you have no idea who you might be helping out. Those encrypted bits could be an open-source research paper, or they may be child porn.

    5. Re:Who wants to work under Obama? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Disclaimer: US Govt employee who was looking at cybersecurity.

      Legal, commercial enterprises can offer both more money and better training than the US Govt due to the highly structured wage-to-grade locks than the shady places. Most US Govt employees do have a good sense of morale fiber (NSA has had personnel problems due to their data retention problems, and these started before Snowden and for the same reasons). That being said, if its at least debatably legal (and definitely in the interests of the USA) most people will take more money since the absolute max the USA can give is ~$155k/yr (for maxed GS-15, which requires a lot of paperwork or overtime to get). DHS has the worst time retaining cybersecurity personnel since, as an additional dis-incentive, DHS is a crappy place to work (more infighting and posturing than any other department, plus other nasty bits depending on who you talk to). It's hard to keep working for the more typical $80k-$100k. when someone else offers you $300k-$600k+ and much less red tape.

      The govt, in its infinite wisdom (moreso the lower / middle managers than policy level people), have decided not to train cybersecurity people because they keep leaving (there are infrastructure security problems that no one can agree on how to pay to fix beyond a loose band-aid). Information Assurance (IA) is considered a separate thing and is in high demand, because all IA people get to do is check boxes and yell "the sky is falling"--there is no actual research and you are not allowed to run anything other than 1-3 govt approved "checking" applications / plugins that are always a minimum of 1-2 months out of date. Most of IA's job is filling out endless amount of paperwork documenting approvals and software configuration changes and "impacts" (using quotes because, as mentioned, you have no effective tools to actually do a meaningful analysis with).

      Govt IA people can get training--they just never get a chance to use it (and half is tailored to Govt. bureaucracy IA and not IA for the real world). By the time they get fed up and look for another job the training is out of date.

  4. I for one am shocked. by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 1

    Not.

    "So I think the best people out there are working for private companies, and not for the government."

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
    1. Re: I for one am shocked. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Some of the best people in todays economy can't even find jobs at all. Few companies want to pay well or even have much demand for people who know what they're doing. This is why today's blight is people going to college and not finding jobs. If quality experienced talent has trouble finding jobs, what hope does a green behind the ears college grad have?

    2. Re:I for one am shocked. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

      "So I think the best people out there are working for private companies, and not for the government."

      I wonder what percentage of the best-of-the-best are working for organized (or freelance) crime.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    3. Re:I for one am shocked. by mvdwege · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So before they jumped to private industry, these guys were not the best?

      If you take a minute to think about, you'd see this is bullshit, like all such glib statements./p?

      --
      "I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
    4. Re:I for one am shocked. by zlives · · Score: 1

      whom do you thing hires "titan consulting" companies

    5. Re:I for one am shocked. by PrimaryConsult · · Score: 2

      It depends. Smart, capable people will continue to work for the government in exchange for stable employment and fringe benefits (shorter work hours, more vacation time, cheap health / life insurance, good pension). The best of the bunch obviously will go private sector because getting more than double the salary means you can spend half the year unemployed and have the same quality of life as the government folk.

  5. Duh by DougDot · · Score: 1

    "Private industry provides a lot of opportunity," NYPD intelligence chief Thomas Galati told Congress earlier this year. "So I think the best people out there are working for private companies, and not for the government."

    1. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And this is why it was good that Hillary hired an expert from private industry to setup her email server instead of trusting the government.

    2. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. It was more secure.

    3. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      This. She gets things done rather than waiting on the government.

    4. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The private industry is better. She was just following best practices.

    5. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      But those Republicans hate experts as much as they hate technology.

    6. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      But republicans hate facts. They're going to come for us.

    7. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And republicans sacrifice everything upon the alter of globalization so they don't have a problem with what she did.

    8. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And if industry experts are being attacked this way, what hope do the rest of us have against being stacked like cordwood at gitmo?

    9. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is the future republicans want for us all.

    10. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But she has done nothing to help Flint.

    11. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And they hate us.

    12. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's bullshit, she was serving at a level where she was very visible, a role model for others in government, and there are rules and she needed to follow them or change them, but not blatantly disregard them. In government service, you follow the rules. People lower on the ladder than her would have gotten hammered for the same violation.

    13. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hillary for Prison 2016!

    14. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She gets illegal things done rather than waiting on the government.

      ftfy

    15. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      According to most establishment cronies, Hillary is a republican.

  6. The ENTIRE team? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did they really poach the entire team? Including the members that are facing criminal charges?

  7. Remove the competition. by plopez · · Score: 1

    A great strategy. If you can't do it better than your competitor, get rid of the competitor.

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  8. Obama's War On Drugs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Obama Can Pardon DPR.

    Why Won't Obama Pardon DRP? DRP Is A Victim Of The War On Some Drugs. Why Won't Obama Release A Statement?

    Bernie Sanders Can Pardon DRP.

    (captcha: cocaine)

  9. I have to wonder... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ... just how much of the faux outrage on this is because of the fact that private companies are able to pay qualified people more than our government can pay them. And how much of that outrage is from people who consistently vote to cut government budgets.

    .
    So much of what I hear about government ineptitude is due to the underfunding of those people by the very people who consistently vote to cut the budgets. If I didn't know better, I would say that thier voting patterns are in a positive feedback loop that does not result in a good solution.

    1. Re:I have to wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      The masses do not agree with one another, so directly contradictory directives are to be expected.

      The greater percentage of the masses are also not critical thinkers, so directly contradictory directives from any given individual are also to be expected.

      You can't wake them up with constructive criticism. They like their blissful ignorance, and will violently resist your efforts at taking that away.

      This is precisely why America is a republic and not a democracy: true democracies are a clear-cut case of the idiots running the asylum.

    2. Re:I have to wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. Government salaries beyond entry-level are running above the private sector. While private sector wages have been stagnant, civil service has been getting their AFSCME mandated inflation increases every year. And not using the inflation numbers the feds use to try to tell us there is no Social Security increase this year. Plus they have lots of vacation, sick days, and it's nearly impossible to fire them for incompetence.

    3. Re: I have to wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      The US is a democracy. Fuck...you people are retarded. Do they teach you absolutely nothing there ??

      A republic is a form of government that is created by democratic means.

    4. Re:I have to wonder... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The U.S. government does not need more money. It has plenty. It takes a huge, huge amount of the entire U.S. economy to pay for itself. The last thing it needs is more money.

      Increasing the amount of money the government has will never stop government employees from being hired away by private industry. What WILL stop it is strong anti-corruption laws. This revolving door is well-known and well-appreciated by the DC elite. Obama - the man who has repeatedly pledged to crack down on Wall Street wrongdoing - picked as one of his top financial cops a figure who has spent much of the last decade defending senior bankers.

      And yet, not a word against this practice, but a slur against ordinary Americans who groan under the burden of supporting ever-expanding government spending. Faux outrage indeed. Go fuck yourself.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    5. Re:I have to wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed-
      Wages for the most competitive jobs are much too low, and tenure based raises mean that incompetent people are incentive to stay and the more capable find job in private industry.

    6. Re:I have to wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The U.S. government does not need more money.

      You aren't concerned about the debt, I suppose?

      Obama - the man who has repeatedly pledged to crack down on Wall Street wrongdoing - picked as one of his top financial cops a figure who has spent much of the last decade defending senior bankers.

      So, he picked someone that is experienced? Shocking!

    7. Re:I have to wonder... by gtall · · Score: 1

      " It takes a huge, huge amount of the entire U.S. economy to pay for itself."

      Would this be the 2/3 of the budget that goes for entitlements? That 2/3s? You do recall the entitlements, yes? SS so Grandma doesn't move in with you, Medicare so she's not siphoning your bank account to pay for her prescriptions. With respect to the other 1/3, about 1/2 of that is military. Their job is not to cede the sea lanes to those nice Chinese. Keeping Iran from causing even more havoc in the mideast, keeping Israel from being fed to the muslim fanatics, etc. The rest goes for keeping your water safe, your air breathable, making sure Joe's Bait and Drug Emporium isn't pasting slick labels on your over the counter meds and using it to get rid of their leftover worm entrails. It used for keeping the car companies' airbags from taking your face off. It keeps the national standards companies rely upon to put accurate information those bottles of stuff you consume. It keeps the guardrails from being built out of aluminum. When your parents get kidnapped and whacked, the FBI is there to find the perps. And so on...

      The cost of government is relatively cheap. The people, on the other hand, want all the government they can lay their hands on. Personally, I think Grandma would live long and prosper if she could move in with you. Won't you show her how much you care?

    8. Re:I have to wonder... by wisnoskij · · Score: 1

      Underfunding? Hey, maybe the individuals who work the public sector are getting paid less, but the institutions themselves spend several times more than private sector businesses to run. It is not tax payers fault that the government chooses to underpay its more valuable staff, and then pay $600 for a hammer, or $2000 for 5 year old PCs with 10 year extended warranties (that somehow do not cover any broken parts that are no longer manufactured [which is all of them]).

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    9. Re:I have to wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You need to drop that tired argument about $600 hammers and $800 toilet seats. I work in an IT shop for the US Army and our costs for goods and services are comparable to what anyone else pays. Dell, Cisco, Microsoft, et al. have the same prices for everyone on their web sites and we usually pay a bit less than that if the product is on a GSA contract. Furthermore, the government procurement process itself has several controls in place to encourage purchasers to try to find the best deal.

      In my experience, most government waste tends to be associated with the big expensive projects where there isn't a lot of competition among vendors. Big weapons systems like the F35 would be a good example.

    10. Re:I have to wonder... by wisnoskij · · Score: 1

      Well I worked for public high school in North America, and that second example is accurate and was what the entire school district paid for every one of its tens of thousands of antiquated computers. Right now the US Army might not be using hammer purchases to funnel billions of tax payers dollars into private bank accounts, but I am sure you aware of projects going on right now that are doing just that.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    11. Re:I have to wonder... by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      The U.S. government does not need more money.

      You aren't concerned about the debt, I suppose?

      I wouldn't worry about it. There's a lot more debt than there is money. If they were to take every single dollar in in tax and pay it to the debt there would be literally no money and still a shitload of debt. The whole thing is a scam to keep itself going. Just go with it.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    12. Re:I have to wonder... by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      So much of what I hear about government ineptitude is due to the underfunding of those people

      Nope, the problem is because you cannot FIRE any govt employee that has made it much past the evaluation period, it is basically a job for life.

      And God help you, if you are female or a minority, you are even more golden...'cause if you even hint you want to try the multi-year effort to oust them, they will hit you with some sort of racial/sexist lawsuit which will cost them much more money than just simply keeping you on and dealing with you....

      That often runs good people out of govt work...and I won't even get into all the red tape that hampers a motivated person to want to try to do good....

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    13. Re:I have to wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good point. It's the same mentality that has people screaming "Cut funding to the IRS! fuck them!" and then they whine and cry about how poorly served they are when it comes to tax issues.

    14. Re:I have to wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The cost of government is relatively cheap. The people, on the other hand, want all the government they can lay their hands on. Personally, I think Grandma would live long and prosper if she could move in with you. Won't you show her how much you care?

      What happens when Grandma outlives her children and has no grandchildren. Welp, back to the gutter for you, Grandma! Get back under the Bridge!

    15. Re:I have to wonder... by Alomex · · Score: 1

      Not for managers or highly specialized workers such as these. Not by a mile.

    16. Re:I have to wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obviously I can't speak for every instance of state, local, or federal government spending, but the $600 hammer bit is a well-worn dig at military spending and that's something I know about.

      And yes I certainly know of a few expensive, wasteful projects which is why I offered up the F35 as an example. The problem here is that even without the waste, these types of projects are legitimately expensive and that makes it easier to add a little extra padding.

    17. Re:I have to wonder... by Alomex · · Score: 1

      And God help you, if you are female or a minority, you are even more golden.

      I call BS. Women in government are close to 50%. It would be hard to prove gender discrimination in those cases.

    18. Re:I have to wonder... by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 2

      Yeah, GSA schedules are pretty cheap. They're utterly ruthless during purchasing negotiation since the government is such a huge customer. And the GSA often insist on those "most favored customer" pricing terms that they find so utterly unreasonable when someone else (like Apple) tries to negotiate the same.

      But as you allude to, a huge part of the waste is in handouts to government contractors, not in the GSA schedules. I briefly worked for Lockheed Martin right out of college. And one of my projects involved a godawful-ancient HP-UX server. The thing pre-dated SCSI. I know that because, specifically, I had to fix up its backup processes after the tape drive bit it and started melting any tape you inserted into a puddle of goo. The peripheral interface was a relic, from before I was born, called HP-IB. Eventually, I was approved to add a mirrored hard drive to the backup mix. HP-IB hard drives being something you can't just order from Dell or Amazon or wherever; we had to goto a specialty vendor. And we paid $4500 for a 20MB external hard drive; and eventually another $6000 for a replacement tape drive.

      And this wasn't for anything fancy. The HP server was just the controller and interface for a rack of diagnostic equipment. We could have replaced the whole thing with an off-the-shelf rackmount plus Linux for a quarter the cost, and had better performance and more capacity to boot. But some old DoD-approved spec sheet dictated that hardware, running that version of HP-UX, with HP-IB as the interface. So that's what we had to use. L/M spent over 10K for a 20MB hard drive and tape drive that Indiana Jones would think were obsolete rubbish if he found them in a crypt somewhere. That, plus $250/hr for my time, was of billed right on over to the government.

      So yeah... as someone who was actually part of the "$600 hammers and $800 toilet seats" problem, I can vouch first-hand that it's true. In my own defense, I wasn't part of the problem for long. I left after about a year and have been steadfast about staying in the private sector, and avoiding companies that do business with the government, ever since.

      --
      Imagine all the people...
  10. BS us the only.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    candidate that can turn things around.

  11. NYPD "intelligence" chief Thomas Galati by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    NYPD intelligence chief Thomas Galati told Congress earlier this year. "So I think the best people out there are working for private companies, and not for the government."

    Right, which is why Thomas Galati and his predecessor wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for more than a decade, performing unconstitutional surveillance of non-criminal activities of American Muslims targeted for no reason other than being Muslim, and coming up with absolutely no terrorist activity. Color me surprised that this piece of shit government hack is able to identify the issue that the best people leave the government, while not realising that he himself is a prime example of the cruft that is left in place to rise to his level of incompetence.

  12. Does this include ... by whoever57 · · Score: 1

    Does this include the investigator who tried to steal rather a lot of bitcoin?

    Ah, a bit of googling and it appears he was sentenced to several years in prison, so, I guess the "entire team" wasn't hired.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    1. Re:Does this include ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More than one were caught turning rotten from the Fed side. Google again.

    2. Re:Does this include ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well maybe it would be more correct to say "the entire team went into private enterprise" ?

  13. Opportunity? by irrational_design · · Score: 4, Informative

    Is "opportunity" a new euphemism for money?

    1. Re:Opportunity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, it's the same old euphemism for money that it's always been.

    2. Re:Opportunity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. Just for easy money.

    3. Re:Opportunity? by Koreantoast · · Score: 1

      Yet it's not just money, it's also freedom from a very large and highly restrictive bureaucracy. Believe it or not, a lot of people don't mind the money persay, but they may get frustrated with the slow moving and extremely cumbersome government machinery which may not even recognize them well for what they do. If a consulting company like BRG offers them a chance to serve the country but with the greater freedom offered by a private company, I could see them jumping ship.

    4. Re:Opportunity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      persay

      What's the old name for Iran got to do with anything?

    5. Re:Opportunity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yet it's not just money, it's also freedom from a very large and highly restrictive bureaucracy. Believe it or not, a lot of people don't mind the money persay, but they may get frustrated with the slow moving and extremely cumbersome government machinery which may not even recognize them well for what they do. If a consulting company like BRG offers them a chance to serve the country but with the greater freedom offered by a private company, I could see them jumping ship.

      A lot of people also don't like to get fucked up the ass with the security clearance requirements, sit through a bullshit Polygraph interview, and have a bunch of government goons go around digging up dirt on them (and their families) from decades ago when they were smoking weed and dropping acid in college.

  14. They ought to be in jail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dey r haxx0rz for dey were dealing with teh hax. It's the law.

  15. Traitors! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These people should be tried for treason, racketeering, profiteering and in generally being available for positions outside the government!!!

    1. Re: Traitors! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well, they should not be available for government work then in their new job.

  16. Good and Bad by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 1

    Good: Dumbing-down the organs of state security that now just wipe their ass with the Constitution.

    Bad: FedGov will just hire these goons by lucrative contract (with the understanding they themselves will be rewarded with an early retirement golden parachute) to assist the DOJ to yet again subvert the Rule of Law with more Parallel Construction tyranny.

  17. They won't have as much success... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    without the blanket of state authority to pull unethical BS. I have heard first hand accounts of SR users being intimidated into giving up SR logins. Which in itself wouldn't be suspect BUT; none of them were charged with anything, no paperwork was ever served and no warrants were ever seen except at arms length like some sort of conman flashing a fake badge. One report I heard had the person flatly refuse the first request, where apon his house was swarmed by "sheriffs", "cops", and "feds" picking over his computer, tossing his house... even found actual evidence of his SR activity in old mailing labels in his trash. Yet never a stitch of paperwork or single charge against him? Totally legit.

    Effective too because you don't believe me even now do you?

    1. Re: They won't have as much success... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Preach it bro. These people are criminals. The fact that they worked for the govt is just a formality. They should all be in prison, not some cushy job. They won't last long, their incompetence will show.

  18. Agreed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We are talking about the largest, most expensive, most powerful goverment AND world empire (with military bases in some 150 countries around the world) in human history. The idea that the US government is underfunded is utterly laughable.

  19. Ethical dilemma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    True story...

    Government employees push to open source project they have worked for years. After it was done they leave and found a company based ups on the software.

    In one case the government lead took all the contractors working on it

    Seen it happen twice

  20. Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I almost landed there for internship back in 2012. Luckily, i didnt

  21. They DO NOT get inflation increases every year... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Compare

    https://www.federalpay.org/gs/raises

    with

    http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=29039&year1=2007&year2=2016

    You will see that there were 3 years with no pay increase AND government workers have been losing money over the past 9 years compared to inflation.

    Get your facts straight. That's nearly a decade of losing money. How long do you think a talented worker would tolerate that?

  22. They DO NOT get raises every year. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Compare

    https://www.federalpay.org/gs/raises

    with

    http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=29039&year1=2007&year2=2016

    You'll notice that there are 3 years with no raises and that government workers are losing money over the past 9 years.

    How many years of losing money do you think a talented worker would suffer before they left?