Hektor

There is probably some method to what seems to be madness https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/us/politics/musk-federal-bureaucracy-takeover.html Excerpt from the news article How Elon Musk Executed His Takeover of the Federal Bureaucracy The operation was driven with a frenetic focus by the billionaire, who channeled his resentment of regulatory oversight into a drastic overhaul of government agencies. On the last Friday of September 2023, Elon Musk dropped in about an hour late to a dinner party at the Silicon Valley mansion of the technology investor Chamath Palihapitiya. Mr. Musk’s visit was meant to be discreet. Still skittish about getting involved publicly in politics, he told the guests he had to be careful about supporting anyone in the Republican nomination fight. And yet here he was at a $50,000-a-head dinner in honor of the presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who was running as an entrepreneur who would shake up the status quo. As the night wore on, Mr. Musk held forth on a variety of topics: the U.S.-Mexico border; the war in Ukraine; government regulations hindering SpaceX; and Mr. Ramaswamy’s highest priority, the dismantling of the federal bureaucracy. Mr. Musk made clear that he saw the gutting of that bureaucracy as primarily a technology challenge. He told the party of around 20 that when he overhauled Twitter, the key was gaining access to the company’s servers. Wouldn’t it be great, Mr. Musk offered, if he could have access to the computers of the federal government? Just give him the passwords and he would make the government fit and trim. What started as musings at a dinner party evolved into a radical takeover of the federal bureaucracy. Mr. Musk’s strategy has been twofold. His team grabbed control of the government’s human resources agency, the Office of Personnel Management, commandeering email systems to pressure civil servants to quit so he could cull the work force. And it burrowed into computer systems across the bureaucracy, tracing how money was flowing so the administration could choke it off. Mr. Musk’s transformation of DOGE from a casual notion into a powerful weapon is something possible only in the Trump era. It involves wild experimentation and an embrace of severe cost-cutting that Mr. Musk previously used to upend Twitter — as well as an appetite for political risk and impulsive decision-making. Mr. Musk’s stealth approach stunned both Democrats and civil servants. Failing to imagine an incursion from inside the bureaucracy, they were caught essentially defenseless.

Take him at his word at your own risk

Thank you.

I'll look them up.

Thanks @73 Reds Any idea why? Is it to avoid conflict of interest?

Thanks @Saluki

Law firms should see a lot of business during this administration, I guess. Are there publicly traded law firms?

Hope you feel better soon, John.

Rupert Murdoch comes to my mind. He has done this across 3 continents for a long time, if I am not wrong.

This also signals expectations to his managers.

I am going nowhere and will leave it here. Since NY Times was mentioned, I wanted to see if there was a video of the meeting. When I found one, I thought I'll share it here.

Hear it from the horses mouth. Listening to the video, I think he said "If you are, we’ll throw them out of here", meaning the secretaries, not "throw him" meaning Musk.

And he isn't going anywhere, I guess From the cabinet meeting today “Is anybody unhappy with Elon?” Trump asks. “If you are, we’ll throw him out of here.” Nervous laughter ripples through the room as the cabinet members start to clap. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02/26/us/trump-musk-news

No surprise. I posted this under Charter. The article delves a little into the conflict of interest Elon has. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-26/elon-musk-s-starlink-gets-gop-backing-for-42-billion-broadband-program GOP Wants Musk’s Starlink to Get a Cut of $42 Billion Biden Internet Plan

True. However, BIAL is not a technology provider. That airport is going nowhere. It is probably a predictable business - 10/20/50 years from now it will be doing what it is doing today. Probably more efficiently and at a larger scale. Also, it will likely not have any competitor for another 10-15 years. And, even when a competitor arrives, it is not likely to disrupt BIAL. Compared to technology providers that has to constantly fend off competitors all the time.

I doubt WEB and Prem are averse to "technology" per se. I feel they keep away because of the rapid disruption this sector has.

Was referring to the current leader and his deputy

Not sure what benefit(s) this signaling will reap. The two men at the top seems to pay zilch.

Thanks @sleepydragon. I guess such directives to review/eliminate consulting contracts will be issued at other/all federal agencies. Any idea what constitutes essential vs non-essential?