White House officials said the installation was an effort to increase internet availability at the complex. They said that some areas of the property could not get cell service and that the existing Wi-Fi infrastructure was overtaxed.

  • DaddleDew@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    In any healthy democracy, this would have been seen as a scandal exposing signs of corruption and would have likely resulted in the dissolution of the government and early election.

    But the US is not a healthy democracy.

      • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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        29 minutes ago

        Besides the security concerns, I want to know what they’re using it for, and how much bullshit they’re hiding by avoiding the official network.

        It’s certainly not a speed and convenience thing.

    • tabular@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      Given it’s unrepresentative voting system I think how much is enough to be a democracy. T hot take for people that see democracy. Two parties to choose from is just one more than a clear dictatorship. If neither actually represents you then yeah it’s not healthy .

      • kautau@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        Agreed, except for one point. It’s in oligarchy. Our “dictator” was just selling cars on the White House lawn. Capitalism won to get to it’s late stages, happy to let racist hatred and russian influence fester for continued capital self-interest

  • a_postmodern_hat@lemmy.world
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    59 minutes ago

    Musk is literally a James Bond villain. Literally. Like LITERALLY a Bond villain.

    Edit: minus the genius and charisma

    • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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      21 minutes ago

      Imagine how galling this must be for Jeff Bezos. He’s put so much effort into his Bond villain persona. The guy even now looks like Dr Evil. But he’s being out eviled by a pudgy, dorky-looking South African nepo-baby.

  • c1a5s1c@feddit.org
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    2 hours ago

    Anyone see the Johnny English with the American billionaire cyber-terrorist Jason Volta as the main antagonist?

    That’s how I see news coming from Washington developing on a daily basis.

    We need you Rowan Atkinson.

  • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    The existing Wi-Fi infrastructure was “overtaxed” so they just threw up satellite instead of , I don’t know, improving the Wi-Fi infrastructure? There’s perfectly fine WiFi at sprawling work and college campuses, and stadiums that seat tens of thousands of people. What a joke.

    • glimse@lemmy.world
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      41 minutes ago

      Network infrastructure is a science and we don’t need no damn science in this country!

  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    If you live in the DC area, absolutely do NOT sign up for this service.

    100% chance that the government, as well as musks companies would be monitoring you directly 24/7.

    • xzot746@sh.itjust.works
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      30 minutes ago

      Well it looks like more people need to be screwed over, I guess maybe after it affects enough “Me’s” it’ll probably stay the same. The amount of damage that will be done before the American people stand up will be immense.

      I honestly cannot believe that the average American is in agreement with this and that they think holding signs up will do anything. Sorry but they say violence is never the right course of action, but I think in this case you might need to see if that well regulated militia is ready to defend your freedom.

      And shame on the Democratic party for just rolling over.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    The only security this White House cares about is its own power and hiding (for the time being) its complete disregard for anything else.

  • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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    4 hours ago

    “some areas of the property could not get cell service”

    Like the bunkers? Like hell did the white house not have cell service.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      I can believe areas of the White House have no cell service, on purpose. Remember when they found those fake cell towers around DC?

      https://www.wired.com/story/dcs-stingray-dhs-surveillance/

      I bet at some point they installed some cell phone jammers specifically to limit the amount of foreign spying that could be done by fake towers, and they simply “forgot” to tell the incoming Trump administration…

    • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      Plenty of federal facilities have garbage reception. I think it’s probably due to the bureaucracy involved in telecoms installing their hardware on sensitive property. The White House in particular probably has lots of thick walls/armor attenuating signals, too.