Re: Pentagon linked to shaming attack on RMS

Daniel Pocock wrote:
> Its all in the last picture
>
> Paul Tagliamonte, seconded the motion in Debian, with the co-founder of
> Rebellion Defense and the top brass at the Pentagon.
>
> https://debian.community/paul-tagliamonte-debian-usds-white-house-mob-ringleader/
>   

I do not know where you are located, so perhaps you are unaware that 
that is a fairly tenuous link in the USA -- the "military-industrial 
complex" that President Eisenhower warned us about in his farewell 
speech has grown very large and the "revolving door" between government 
and private industry has been long-lamented and long-pilloried.

Tagliamonte, whose actions are legitimate to discuss because he has 
publicly promoted a position on the issue, would have been hired in 
2015, based on the email you quote in that article.  He was thus hired 
under the Obama administration and was among the large set of employees 
carried over through most of the Trump administration.  It is possible 
that Tagliamonte's hiring may have been unduly influenced by political 
considerations, as the USDS is very closely associated to the 
Presidential administration -- the Executive Office of the President 
that contains USDS is the nearest nonpolitical organization to the 
President of the United States.

As such, Tagliamonte would have been considered a civil service 
employee, and was supposed to have been hired on an apolitical basis.  I 
do not know how familiar you are with ongoing political controversies in 
the USA, but there has been considerable controversy over claims of 
politicizing the civil service and I remember a running pattern of these 
claims being made by whichever side was not currently in power for the 
past few administrations at the least.  (Democrat President?  
Republicans complain.  Republican President?  Democrats complain.)

In conclusion, while asking his employer if they are being paid to help 
instigate a mob against RMS seems to be an amusing example of "sauce for 
the gander", Tagliamonte's previous government employment and trip 
through the "revolving door" to the private sector does not stand out as 
reason to suspect that the government is somehow behind the attacks on 
RMS.  The "revolving door" is simply too widespread to support a claim 
of that type of corruption.


-- Jacob