Summary
Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old DOGE staffer recently promoted to a senior adviser role in the State Department, is reportedly the grandson of former KGB spy Valery Martynov.
Martynov was executed in the Soviet Union after being exposed as an FBI informant. Coristine, an alleged former cybercriminal, previously worked in the General Services Administration and now has potential access to sensitive diplomatic data.
Concerns have been raised over his background and apparent lack of a security check.
The situation fuels fears about foreign influence in U.S. government operations.
[slightly off topic]
I’m a native of the Northeastern United States and I’ve lived in numerous areas depicted in the media as being under the influence of ‘organized crime.’ To wit, Harlem, lower Manhattan, Hell’s Kitchen, and Staten Island.
Actual tough guys never have nicknames like ‘Big Balls.’ Never. The guys you fear have names like ‘the Chin,’ or ‘Bumpy,’ or ‘Legs.’ Al Capone’s buddies called him ‘Snorky.’
Yeah street names are always an endearing insult
I worked in construction and we used radios to communicate between crews. One kid insisted we call him ‘AntDawg.’ His name was Anthony.
It’s started with ‘Labradoodle.’ He put up with that for two days before bitching he didn’t wanna be Labradoodle. Everyone agreed it was too annoying over the radio, so we all agreed to shorten it. Doodle still hates his name.
I know a dude who introduced himself with “hey, my name’s Mike but call me Spike.” I think it was one of those “I just changed schools and want to reinvent myself as someone cooler” scenarios.
That was like 15 years ago. To this day, we still call him Spmike (pronounced “SPUH-mike”).
What kind of North Korean “sins of the father” shit is this?
Punish him for his actions of helping Musk take over the government in a coup, not that his grandad did spycraft every nation did in the Cold War.
I don’t care if he was the grandson of Jesus Christ and Buddha if he is a dipshit fascist. Fascists get called out for being fascists, not being related to one they might have never known.
National security isn’t fair because its more important than being fair and those who are for any reasons suspect are free to do any of the other hundreds of millions of jobs.
People are absolutely suspect because of their associations.
Then would a check to everyone of an immigrant family be acceptable? Only people who’s family have never left the country are fit to protect it?
That feels like a violation of the 14th amendment, and ensures only redneck Republican hillbillies are the ones who ensure the safety of Americans.
I’m not sure the people making the jingoistic comments are aware of the implications of this way of thinking.
Liberals want the same policies as Conservatives just with a different coat of paint.
Most of them probably couldn’t hold any government office if the shoe was on the other foot.
“Family moved here from Ireland when the potato famine struck? Sorry no matter how much you love this country you’re dead to us.”
“Family was forced out of the country due to a genocide that still has lingering effects? Sucks to be you.”
Being a child of an immigrant isn’t kinda depends on where from and whether we are at war with them
So was the Japanese internment camps rational? We were at war with Japan so we forbid them from having anything else, as national born citizens who never once stepped foot in Japan.
It’s pretty clear that japanese internment camps were illegal and morally reprehensible. There is a vast difference between not allowing someone to take a tiny number of highly secure jobs with the government entirely legally and imprisoning people and herding them into a camp like animals contravening their rights and the law. It’s not a slippery slope its standing on the edge of the grand canyon and jumping in.
“It’s a matter of national security that your kind isn’t allowed to work here.”
Wherein your kind is literally ideologically AND the grandchild of our literal enemy as opposed to a certain skin color
National security being more important than being fair has been justification to do many of the most horrific acts in recent history.
Nonsense. Its normal for a small number of highly secure roles to go only to people whose loyalty is beyond and known doubt. This means if you have questonable family you can only be a CEO, scientist, dentist welder or race car driver or you know all the other jobs other than say head of the NSA or part of the team with access to all our secrets
Advocating for nepotism on the basis of loyalty and national security is partly why we are in this mess. America has never been a meritocracy, and we should stop pretending it ever was.
It’s not nepotism. Nobody is suggesting hiring people based on their personal relationship to decision makers. It is about preferring those who don’t have any ties that could be exploited including but not limited to family ties that could complicate loyalty.
We have this mess in America because we are a nation that on average worships wealth and hates intellectualism whilst allowing an insane amount of wealth to interfere with politics to the point where the country is arranged to enrich the wealthy at the expense of everyone else leading to widespread disaffection which has been turned by a poisoned media to hate and blame for the other. For people smarter than the mass of the average. For immigrants. For the poor in need of welfare.
We have hired a despot because he implies that we can bask in his reflected glory and help ourselves up on the backs of this other.
In short we aren’t hear because we don’t allow the grandchildren of enemy spies with our most secret data.
So, McCarthyism was necessary, for national security?
Literally having someone argue that because he’s related to a KGB agent, he’s by default evil.
And when I said “Actions define someone as evil, not their family linage.” they called me the real racist. 🙄
Exactly this. Top Secret clearance typically extends out to three degrees of separation. They’ll check on you, your friends/family, and their friends/family. Because when national security is concerned, they don’t want to risk a leak due to something like a cousin being a spy and going drinking after work with the employee.
What kind of “nuanced” concerntroll is this? No sane person would say shit if the kid was a political moderate but since he’s a fascist swine AND alleged grandson of a secret police officer, 100% I am going to use it against him.
The kid would be a fascist swine dipshit if he was from Alabama and his family was from New York and his grandad was from Mississippi.
Actions are what make someone a fascist, not their family linage.
Big Balls looks like a Connecticut boat shoe that came to life.
He looks like a half dressed toddler. Nice of him to give everyone an immediate visual cue for what they’re about to deal with, I guess.
So what? The KGB hasn’t existed for 30 years or more. My dad was a dead beat, what does that matter? The bigger problem is what he is doing not who his parents and grand parents were lol
“We need to ban anyone who was ever part of the countries we don’t like.”
“But most Americans are from countries America never got along with and wanted a better life. Actions define who they are, not their ethnicity or family.”
“Shut up concern troll, time to ban all ethnic Russians, Chinese, and Koreans!”
