Government Ethics.

[Editorial]

 

I know some people will consider this as an oxymoron.

As many of you know I am on the governor's advisory council on hate crimes... but I am not paid one cent for being on the council. it is considers a voluntary position.

However, I had to sign the same ethics forms that an employee signs.

Why are Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy exempt from government Ethics rules for the DOGE committee?
Economic Times

December 4, 2024

 

 

President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to appoint Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as the leaders of a new advisory committee designed to cut federal spending is stirring debate among ethics experts.

The committee, named the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), aims to devise plans for reducing federal regulations and agency budgets.

However, there is a huge controversy and questions are being raised about why Musk and Ramaswamy are being exempted from government ethics rules. It is to be noted that ethics rules typically apply to official Cabinet members and top government positions, as mentioned in the USA Today report.

[...]

The Department of Government Efficiency will focus on eliminating waste and inefficiency within the federal government, cutting unnecessary regulations, and streamlining federal agencies. Musk and Ramaswamy have expressed their commitment to reducing the size of government, but the lack of transparency surrounding their roles has raised red flags.

As a state volunteer I am expected to obey all laws and government policies and the reason I had to sign them was to prevent me from steering work to myself or to friends.

Lack of Oversight in Advisory Roles
Unlike Cabinet secretaries who must publicly disclose their financial interests and divest from any conflicting investments, outside advisors are not required to do so.

Special government employees, who work in advisory roles, must comply with conflict of interest laws. However, those serving on advisory committees with no official government status are exempted.

USA Today writes,

Such responsibilities usually fall to full-time White House employees who have to abide by conflict of interest standards and disclose their financial interests, either publicly or confidentially, depending on the person’s role, according to Kathleen Clark, a professor of law for Washington University in St. Louis. Outside advisers have no such requirement.

“It’s as though Musk and Ramaswamy are cosplaying government officials,” Clark said. “It looks like the transition team is intentionally blurring the line between what’s inside and outside of government so that Musk and Ramaswamy will be able to have a great deal of influence.”

[...]

 

Reid Hoffman, the venture capitalist who co-founded LinkedIn, wrote in the Financial Times that Musk’s ownership in a startup called xAI combined with his broad advisory position with Trump creates “a serious conflict of interest in terms of setting federal AI policies for all US companies.”

Ramaswamy founded Roivant Services, which owns several drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but he stepped down when he was pursuing the presidential nomination. He lists himself on LinkedIn as the co-founder of the Ohio-based investment firm Strive Asset Management.

"My best advice to you is, if you're evaluating somebody's advice, you got to look at whatever their self interest is in evaluating that advice, right?" Ramaswamy said at the Aspen Security Forum in Washington, D.C. "That includes me."

According to Salon Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass...

After dropping more than $250 million on his effort to elect Donald Trump, billionaire and Pentagon contractor Elon Musk could now use his power and influence to steer sweetheart deals to his network of companies, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., warned in a letter sent Monday to the Trump transition team.

[...]

In her letter, obtained by The Washington Post, Warren said Musk may not share the same interests as the American public.

“Putting Mr. Musk in a position to influence billions of dollars of government contracts and regulatory enforcement without a stringent conflict of interest agreement in place is an invitation for corruption on a scale not seen in our lifetimes,” Warren wrote. “As your Transition Team Ethics Plan makes clear, the role of government is not to line the pockets of the wealthiest Americans; a strong, enforceable ethics plan for the world’s richest man is a necessary first step for delivering on that promise.”

Warren's letter comes after Reuters reported earlier this month that the incoming Trump administration may also scrap a crash-reporting requirement for autonomous-driving systems, a move that would benefit Tesla, which reports by far the most incidents

This is so wrong! It opens up to all types of abuses... Musk can fire federal employees to who ruled against his companies and he can fill the federal agencies with his cronies.

Then we have the "high quality" of Trump appointees... Musk posts racial pictures of Sen. Warren!

Elon Musk Posts Racist Images In Response To Elizabeth Warren's Call For Ethics Standards

"It shows he's scared," ventured one scholar from the University of California, Los Angeles.

HuffPost

By Ryan Grenoble

Dec 18, 2024

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) seems to have struck a nerve by calling for Donald Trump to hold Elon Musk to the kind of ethics standards set for government officials while the tech billionaire remains a major figure in the president-elect’s orbit.

On social media Tuesday, Musk shared a series of racist images — apparently generated by artificial intelligence — that depicted Warren and leaned heavily on Native American stereotypes.

In one image, Warren is depicted wearing a beaded headdress adorned with bird feathers. The image also imagined the senior Massachusetts senator wearing a buckskin shirt with leather fringe.

Subsequent posts by the world’s richest person imagined Warren ― still shown in Native American garb ― eating cake and smiling gently while wearing some sort of leather garment.

[...]

The images appear to be a reference to Trump’s racist nickname for Warren, “Pocahontas,” which is itself derived from Warren’s own tangled claims of Native American ancestry.

She said,

“It shows he’s scared,” she ventured. “Responding to it in this fashion seems to suggest he needs to distract from the substance of her critique.”

How does that saying go... "Birds of a feather flock together"

 

[/Editorial]