I really don’t care what Department Musk’s “DOGE” is looking into, whether NASA or NOAA, I can think of a million things that I wouldn’t want reaching the outside (Want our Satellite distribution laid out to the world? NOAA likely has information on all government satellite coverage, just so they can ensure theirs aren’t duplicating someone’s work, or at least not occupying the same space in geosynched orbit), thus it is that anyone in DOGE looking inside any agency best have clearance for special access, having been previously reviewed. And I don’t care who you are, I wouldn’t give any teen anywhere special access. Teens are teens for a reason, they’re impressionable, they’re more easily manipulated, hell – more easily fooled! Yet, DOGE not only has a teen in its employ but has one with a very sketchy background and that doesn’t even include the fact that his grandfather was a KGB spy – not even considering that, though it might well be a consideration.
From a deep dive in Jacob Silverman’s Substack, we have a very basic summary, but man there is so much more:
Among the cadre of DOGE engineers now rooting through the guts of the administrative state, few have attracted more curiosity than Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, a 19-year-old coder who interned for three months for Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant company.
Stop. DOGE is supposed to be an organization that is looking at the federal government and attempting to find waste in its operations. Exactly why does it need a computer coder? Is it redoing some government code? If so, I want government oversight, not DOGE freedom. If it is not redoing government code (And I damn well bet they are but I doubt they’d admit it, so… ) if not redoing code, why do they have a coder? Are we supposed to believe that this teen brings a special background in recognizing government waste? I will tell you, I’m a 25 year law school veteran with a background in administrative law and political analysis and I do not believe I am qualified to ascertain what is waste versus what is critical. I do know I would be better at it than any teen on the globe! Experience and education are vital.
Coristine has a brief but colorful history that includes being fired from Path Networks, a cybersecurity company, for giving company documents to a competitor. He apparently palled around with a criminal hacking group called The Com and, according to a Telegram account associated with him, had solicited hacking services online.
Criminal hacking group veteran now in a position to hack our government, including intelligence agency files, and do so on behalf of the highest bidder? Break me a fcking give! He has had his hacking skills solicited. It is not a secret. In other words, he is closer to someone needing to be arrested over someone who should be working inside our government doing anything:
There’s one aspect of Coristine’s background that has escaped public notice: his grandfather, Valery Martynov, was a KGB spy who played an intriguing role in a sprawling 1980s espionage drama.
You do not want to automatically cancel out anyone based solely on family association. Good people come from weird situations. On the other hand, why take a chance with a teen coder who has been a hacker? In this particular case, there is ample evidence that this kid may not have fallen far from the tree.
As summarized by Joe.My.God.com:
There’s SO much more in this deep dive. No paywall. Coristine appeared here last week when it was reported that he once ran a “shitposting” operation that allowed the creation of URLs referencing child porn and the KKK. That same day “Big Balls” [his username] was named a senior advisor to the State Department and DHS.
No, but carry on as if this is all somehow normal or okay. I want to know what was the rush? We are barely 30 days into the administration and think about the damage that DOGE has done (That was the rush, not give people time to breathe or collect themselves in litigation). Where was the six week period needed to get everyone cleared to view classified sh*t? Is that really too much to ask? We already have two people, Trump and Musk, suspiciously close to Putin, but this is okay?
No, it is not, and the Democrats in Congress best start getting involved. No – they cannot form official committees, not being in charge of either branch of Congress, but they can damn sure start preparing for a committee in 2026/27 – because there is likely explosive stuff that will need to be exposed. At the very least they can give DOGE something to consider.
My god. As Alysa Milano wrote earlier today, “Why is the media pretending that any of this is okay?” This came from a private Substack account. The next report on this better come from CNN.
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If only this were a spy movie? But it’s not! Everything governmental has been breached and Russia has all the data it needs (plus all it got from 47’s classified doc theft).
It’s going to take more years to rebuild than I have left to be alive.
If the U.S. comes back from this to a semblance of “before” – and that’s “if” because I don’t think it’s apparent that it will, but if it does, I believe it will take two generations to come close. This isn’t something that country’s simply reverse. This will take a rebuild.
But Dems can start to prepare for it by preparing a “Project 2029” and start listing out what it will do, start with doubling/tripling the minimum wage, guaranteeing civil rights, expanding the court, etc.
Dems need to be forming unofficial committees and a shadow Cabinet, and appoint a rotating cast of “press secretaries” to do briefings for AP and all other responsible outlets.
^^^^^^^^
This!
Is “Big Balls” the same animated sploooge who also said he was racist before it was cool and he”d never marry outside his ethnicity? Not that he has to worry about the latter, I smell incel, and the type that is a perpetual virgin because women find him.repulsive, disgusting,,and dangerously stalkerish.