His joy about all this (the emoji replies and memes) is really amazing. These people have 0 empathy. What's spectacular is he's not even smart enough to pretend to have empathy and somehow managed to outrun any consequences so far (our system is going to need some retooling when all this flames out so white collar justice is a lot faster). What's even more amazing and sad is people the people still worship him despite that.
He really is remarkably personally repellant. Like, even people who are ideologically aligned with him, I don’t understand how they put up with the persona.
What about people who work on classified programs? Are they supposed to send a description of their work to a non-classified system?
Or people who work in the field and aren't using email regularly? Do the people who clear trails for the National Parks Service check their email every day?
The goal is demoralization of all government workers. It doesn't matter what the employees do as the email and stress it causes is the goal, not the response to the email.
4.2. What opportunities are available for individuals to consent to uses, decline to provide information, or opt out of the project?
The Employee Response Data is explicitly voluntary. The individual federal government employees can opt out simply by not responding to the email.
4.3. Privacy Impact Analysis: Related to Notice
Privacy Risk: There is a risk that individuals will not realize their response is voluntary.
Mitigation: This risk is mitigated by ensuring that any email sent using GWES is clear, by explicitly stating that the response is voluntary, and by including specific instructions for a response.
Again more action for action's sake. From Umberto Eco’s List of the 14 Common Features of Fascism:
Even with the recent firings, there are over 2 million full time federal employees. Who's going to be reading and evaluating these emails? There is no person, and certainly no algorithm, capable of doing so in any responsible way.
DODGE is that clueless middle manager who thinks they know everything, doesn’t listen to anyone who knows, and will declare victory then inevitably make a run for it before they face the consequences of the own actions.
Don't steelman for them. They know what they are doing. Making things miserable is the point, not an accidental side effect. They have been very public about this. They have talked way more about damaging/breaking the administrative class than they have about efficiency. You stellmaning a benevolent position on their part is creating a false narrative that goes against their own words.
Serious questions: are the country's institutions strong enough to provide for checks and balances against the executive branch as it grows unchecked, in reality? If so, how does that play out? Are the timescales of the checks and balances always receding from a never ending stream of things that need accountability?
The federalist papers are the source material that answer your questions. Lincoln's 1838 Lyceum speech, and 1st inaugural address are also relevant, covering mob rule, disputes between minority and majority, and what happens if one doesn't yield.
My opinion is no. The institutions are not strong enough on their own, and this is by design. It compels the people to stand up for the Constitution. And they should want to do that if they know even a little bit about power.
The core concept of the Constitution is polyarchy, to intentionally fragment power, to make ambition counter ambition. The founders' concern was the concentration of power. When government fails, power doesn't return to the people. The people don't somehow become free, as if they weren't already free. The power is consolidated by a small number of individuals, and the people become subject to their tyranny. The design of the government is to make it difficult for power to consolidate in secret or quickly, giving the people every opportunity to stand opposed to the consolidation of power.
A president could ignore the judiciary, violating their oath office which imparts a fiduciary duty to uphold the law. And a Congress could fail to impeach and remove from office such a president. Indeed both occurring at once implies an enormously weak citizenry, ripe for power consolidating in front of them.
But it can't be said the people have chosen to end Constitutional order by doing so. The Constitution of the United States is a contract, ratified by state legislatures. The only legitimate way to dissolve the contract is for 3/4 of the states to ratify an amendment calling for it.
State governors especially will not be so docile as the Congress. As federal programs are increasingly left in abeyance, and money earmarked for the states is held up or clawed back, I expect to see governors become more assertive.
It probably is highly illegal, just like the last mass firing, but by the time either gets through the process for adjudicating potentially illegal employment actions in the federal government, they'll have done ten more, and lots of people will give up and decide working for the federal government isn't worth it at each step.
This is an easy way to get rid of a large percentage of government workers who don’t have a requirement to check email everyday. People out in the field or even people out sick or on vacation, etc.
Reading between the lines. Musk thought the government would be like Twitter. However, he is getting increasingly frustrated and didn’t comprehend how large the US government is. So he has to use tactics like this to make a dent. When this doesn’t work, he’ll use a tactic like, “Everyone is fired. If you want your job back then you need to apply again.”
He thought he could fix everything overnight and it’s turning out to be a lot of work. He’s getting bored because it’s too much work. Now he is getting desperate and uses tactics like this.
I'm pretty damn sure this is highly illegal essentially everywhere in the US. You cannot decide an employee resigns. That's not legal, not even in at-will states (in at-will states this is stupid, you don't have to give a reason to let someone go, BUT, if you make it obvious it can still be judged illegal of course). If he goes through on firing someone this way he'll be paying 2 years pay up front for the people he lets go. AND give them their job back.
Readit News
The xcancel link shows all the boneheaded comments. Can’t believe so many people support Musk and what he is doing.
"We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work" https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/books/review/administrati...
Or people who work in the field and aren't using email regularly? Do the people who clear trails for the National Parks Service check their email every day?
"We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work" https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/books/review/administrati...
According to OPM’s own Privacy Impact Assessment for Government-Wide Email System (GWES) - February 5, 2025 https://www.opm.gov/media/kfpozkad/gwes-pia.pdf
4.2. What opportunities are available for individuals to consent to uses, decline to provide information, or opt out of the project?
The Employee Response Data is explicitly voluntary. The individual federal government employees can opt out simply by not responding to the email.
4.3. Privacy Impact Analysis: Related to Notice
Privacy Risk: There is a risk that individuals will not realize their response is voluntary.
Mitigation: This risk is mitigated by ensuring that any email sent using GWES is clear, by explicitly stating that the response is voluntary, and by including specific instructions for a response.
Again more action for action's sake. From Umberto Eco’s List of the 14 Common Features of Fascism:
"The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation." https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/umberto-ecos-list-of-the...
https://youtu.be/iRsycWRQrc8
We also need more federal employees to ensure that the remaining federal employees remain "loyal and true" to the monarch.
Don't you love the direction our democracy is heading?
Deleted Comment
My opinion is no. The institutions are not strong enough on their own, and this is by design. It compels the people to stand up for the Constitution. And they should want to do that if they know even a little bit about power.
The core concept of the Constitution is polyarchy, to intentionally fragment power, to make ambition counter ambition. The founders' concern was the concentration of power. When government fails, power doesn't return to the people. The people don't somehow become free, as if they weren't already free. The power is consolidated by a small number of individuals, and the people become subject to their tyranny. The design of the government is to make it difficult for power to consolidate in secret or quickly, giving the people every opportunity to stand opposed to the consolidation of power.
A president could ignore the judiciary, violating their oath office which imparts a fiduciary duty to uphold the law. And a Congress could fail to impeach and remove from office such a president. Indeed both occurring at once implies an enormously weak citizenry, ripe for power consolidating in front of them.
But it can't be said the people have chosen to end Constitutional order by doing so. The Constitution of the United States is a contract, ratified by state legislatures. The only legitimate way to dissolve the contract is for 3/4 of the states to ratify an amendment calling for it.
State governors especially will not be so docile as the Congress. As federal programs are increasingly left in abeyance, and money earmarked for the states is held up or clawed back, I expect to see governors become more assertive.
The courts are all that’s left and SCOTUS already declared Trump is more equal than everyone else … so not sure he even has to listen to the courts…
It probably is highly illegal, just like the last mass firing, but by the time either gets through the process for adjudicating potentially illegal employment actions in the federal government, they'll have done ten more, and lots of people will give up and decide working for the federal government isn't worth it at each step.
Reading between the lines. Musk thought the government would be like Twitter. However, he is getting increasingly frustrated and didn’t comprehend how large the US government is. So he has to use tactics like this to make a dent. When this doesn’t work, he’ll use a tactic like, “Everyone is fired. If you want your job back then you need to apply again.”
He thought he could fix everything overnight and it’s turning out to be a lot of work. He’s getting bored because it’s too much work. Now he is getting desperate and uses tactics like this.