I think the NYT did a good job with the Elon takeover on today's episode of the Daily. It was really helpful for me to better understand what Musk is doing and also why he's doing it.

An interesting issue they brought up is that Musk's efforts are essentially trying to return us to the spoils system, where every time there's a new president, they fire everyone and then reward their supporters with federal jobs.

The spoils system was mostly eradicated in 1883 with the Pendleton Act, plus additional legislation/regulation since then to create a federal bureaucracy that is mostly staffed by career civil servants, not political appointees.

I do not think Trump or Musk understand the potential downsides to trying to return to that system 150 years later when our society is so much more complex and the federal government so much larger. I know what they think the upsides are, but I don't think they understand how this could impact everything that many people take for granted -- the stability of our financial systems, our relationship to the rest of the world (and our national security), the expectation of the vast majority of Americans that they will have access to things like K-12 education for their kids, interstate commerce, relative transparency from the government on things like how/when/where to pay taxes or what interest rates look like.

And it goes without saying, but I'll say, that of course trying to change this without an act of Congress is probably illegal, but we're in a "who watches the watchers" situation now.

Anonymous wrote:Elon Musk is rich because he is a genius and he earned it. He deserves every penny.

I love my President Trump.

Oh, and by the way, I got mine.

- Signed a MAGA 65-year-old white man who couldn't care less about anyone or anything but myself

You’d have to be pretty dang rich not to care about the fact that your social security and Medicare are at risk here. And not just bank account info and Musks ability to cut off benefits. I work in this area. The VA, SSA and Medicare/Medicaid hold millions of Americans health records for various reasons. Sometimes over 1000 pages of your health records. You filing for VA, SSI, SSDI, PAs for procedures and medications at Medicare/Medicaid? They all come with all your medical records. After doctors visit you have every medication you take— if Medicare wants reimbursement, they send in the info and backup documentation to get it.

You okay with Musk having access to that? “Secured” by 20 year old fans boys with no experience with government? This includes mental health records, treatment for STIs and HIV and everything you thought you told your doctor in confidence.

Excellent chance you will, in fact, get yours.

I would really love to know how many people thought “yes Elon Musk is the person who should be making the decisions for America” before Donald Trump told them to. I don’t know a soul who thought that. And now people are basically saying “well let’s just see what happens!”

I am a relatively low level federal employee at a regulatory agency. I have access to proprietary data to do my job and I have incredibly strong restrictions on my investments and any outside interests. Every year I have to take a training that reminds me when in doubt I have to avoid even the appearance of a conflict and you know what? I have always thought that was fair and all part of the deal when people trust you with information. I cannot reconcile my own experience with federal ethical practices with what I’ve seen from Elon musk being given SO much influence while still owning private companies and funds. But all the same people who frothed at the mouth about Hilary Clinton’s emails think this is…fine.

Anonymous wrote:I don't consider myself a republican. I am curious why the assumption is that other humans who were trusted with this information before are more reliable than his employees? SSNs had been leaked from variety of databases, in fact, each of you has 75% chance of your number circulating and being sold on dark web. Did none of you get any letters from various departments like school systems, medical healthcare systems, employers who are data consolidators, buyers of data, etc about data breeches and your personal info potentially being spread around nefarious circles? The key is to monitor your credit score and I think you could also log into your SSN system to see if anyone is using your SSN to get employment.

I am confused at how many people are delusional about their data being secure in the first place.. And also about the automatic assumption that Elon is some cartoon villain to go after your data in more nefarious ways and do worse damage than routine data breeches from other huge data consolidators.

Part of what people might hate about federal government is that it has a huge system of checks and balances (the bureaucracy). Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes. And some folks are downright nefarious and do bad things on purpose. But the system allowed for protection and correction.

Handing everything over to one human is so contrary to that. The way he's doing things is illegal, outside of those federal checks and balances. If his intentions were good, he could achieve "efficiencies" through legitimate means. He chooses not to follow the law. I don't know why that's ok with otherwise normal people.

Musk can do as he pleases. He can manipulate whoever he wants. Anyone who follows his tweets knows he's not a good person.

I don't consider myself a republican. I am curious why the assumption is that other humans who were trusted with this information before are more reliable than his employees? SSNs had been leaked from variety of databases, in fact, each of you has 75% chance of your number circulating and being sold on dark web. Did none of you get any letters from various departments like school systems, medical healthcare systems, employers who are data consolidators, buyers of data, etc about data breeches and your personal info potentially being spread around nefarious circles? The key is to monitor your credit score and I think you could also log into your SSN system to see if anyone is using your SSN to get employment.

I am confused at how many people are delusional about their data being secure in the first place.. And also about the automatic assumption that Elon is some cartoon villain to go after your data in more nefarious ways and do worse damage than routine data breeches from other huge data consolidators.