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.

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[–] 115 points 2 years ago (25 children)

[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.'

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  • [–] 59 points 2 years ago (19 children)

    Yeah street names are always an endearing insult

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  • [–] 29 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Pilot's nicknames / unofficial callsigns often are as well, some kind of back handed reference to a fuck-up or troublesome character trait.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Knew a pilot who's nickname was über. Last name? Guay.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I remember watching a show about Canadian fighter pilots as a kid, one of them got the call sign “Blow” because his last name was Jobin.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    There was a question on Reddit many moons ago asking fighter pilots what their callsigns were and how they got them. Not a single one was something to be proud of. The only one i remember off the top of my head was 'Squishy' and they got the name doing CAP over Iraq and had to use the bathroom in the cockpit...

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    Maybe that's what this is. Like calling a fat guy slim, or a tall guy tiny. Maybe he's used to many steroids and actually shrunk his balls

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  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    Look at his photo... there's no steroid use there. He's just got a pair of undescended testes, they're missing.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (5 children)
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    That's horrifying, wtf happened?

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    A 23-year-old dubbed the Russian “Popeye” had three pounds of dead muscle removed after his DIY bodybuilding injections went awry.

    Kirill Tereshin used petroleum jelly to build fake muscle mass in his arms. Before he underwent critical surgery, his arms were approximately 24 inches in diameter.

    https://globalnews.ca/news/6198555/russian-popeye-bodybuilder-injections/

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Lol, I didn't say he worked out, just that he took the steroids. Probably thinking they'd do all the work for him.

    Though your theory seems to have some merit.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago*

    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”).

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    I'm pretty sure it comes from his twitter handle or something like that. I think it's more irrelevant/childish humor and less serious than it's made out to be. Plenty of people refer to each other by their online handle, and I don't think it's intended as a "nickname" in the conventional way. I have a friend whose UN is basically "dragonslayer42069" and people call him dragon. I don't think he chose that name so his nickname would be badass or anything. I think he thought it was funny when he made it and people just happen to refer to him as dragon. Plenty of memorable vulgar UNs on microblogs and forums are just there for some immature fun.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You're losing sight of the fact that he and his boss weren't elected, haven't been vetted by Congress, and have zero experience.

    His name is the least of his problems.

    That's why my comment was [off topic]

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  • I'm not losing sight of anything. My comment wasn't off topic because it was a response to your comment, not the post. I wasn't supporting him or Elon/DOGE. I don't know why you're taking issue with my comment. I imagine we agree on more than we disagree on, I was just adding context. If you didn't want to talk about it, then I'm not sure why you brought it up.

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