New Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy reports that he’s spoken to Elon Musk’s DOGE team, and invited them to help fix U.S. aviation systems.
Big News – Talked to the DOGE team. They are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) February 5, 2025
DOGE – the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ – has been controversial because significant authority appears to have been delegated to unelected individuals. Of course, significant authority is already held by unelected individuals, bureaucrats inside agencies. And it’s controversial because of the unconventional and impolite approach to institutions that it’s taken. They’ve declared that payments being made by the government are improper, moved to cancel contracts, and declared entire agencies (like USAID) on the chopping block.
Much of their work is likely to be stymied by the courts. I never bet against Elon Musk – he’s accomplished impossible things, from reinventing the electric car industry to sending rocket ships into space, and also creates chips let let human brains control machines. But he also makes bold claims that may not come to fruition. That’s part of willing a different world into existence.
My hunch is that he meets his match in the government bureaucracy. Milton Friedman described the idea of changing government’s nature as akin to barking cats,
What would you think of someone who said, ‘I would like to have a cat, provided it barked’ …The biological laws that specify the characteristics of cats are no more rigid than the political laws that specify the behavior of governmental agencies once they are established. The way the FDA now behaves, and the adverse consequences, are not an accident, not a result of some easily corrected human mistake, but a consequence of its constitution in precisely the same way that a meow is related to the constitution of a cat.
Nonetheless, moving quickly is an important tactic and it’s worth considering not whether they achieve their stated objectives but whether they can actually overcome inertia and make some things function better. Put another way, in 2016 Peter Thiel described the disconnect between voters and media on Donald Trump,
I think one thing that should be distinguished here is that the media is always taking Trump literally. It never takes him seriously, but it always takes him literally. … I think a lot of voters who vote for Trump take Trump seriously but not literally.
And the same is likely true of Musk’s efforts with DOGE. Towards that end, there are things that they could do which would actually make the Department of Transportation and FAA in particular more effective at their jobs.
- There aren’t enough air traffic controllers. That isn’t an accident. The FAA has known about this issue for 20 years. There aren’t enough seats in their training academies, and they could both build that out and rely more heavily on collegiate training programs. Administrator Whitaker talked about leaning into these programs more.
- They’re using antiquated technology, and that ties the hands of controllers behind their back. They have to look out at airfields instead of benefiting from data. They still move paper flight strips (and will well into the next decade under current FAA plans, even though Canada moved on from this in 2005).
- Procurement processes are very bad at FAA. They take everyone’s desired specs and put projects out to bid for custom software instead of buying off the shelf like most countries. It takes ages and winds up with buggy products. There is also an institutional bias against technological solutions to lack of controllers like remote towers for some airports.
- The bureaucracy is badly organized. FAA is both service provider for air traffic control, and its regulator. That’s a conflict that minimizes accountability. These functions could be separated out within the department.
These are things that DOGE could potentially fix! They don’t necessarily require legislation. They also don’t involve cuts.
Well then, to our new overlord, we wish you the very best to ‘fix’ it.
Whilst it would scare the F@C% out of me, AI is tailor made for air traffic control.
This idiot musk thinks he is god. He needs to be stopped before he damages everything. Very dangerous person.
Elon’s massive fundraising for Trump is part of the reason Trump regained office. For this reason, F*** Elon. A felonious adulterous bigoted rapist is President of the United States because of Elon.
Elon did not found Tesla. He bought it.
NASA has been launching rockets into space before Musk was born.
AOC has described Elon as the most unintelligent billionaire.
Didn’t the Trump Administration just offer incentive packages to Air Traffic Controls to get more of them to leave?
Good luck meeting those recruitment goals.
Current bureaucrats answer to department heads who are at least confirmed by the Senate (Although apparently the Senate will confirm anyone these days who hasn’t banged a kid.) Elon being able to do anything to any government agency is about as legit as ME doing anything to any government agency.
Musk is going to get thrown under a bus once the ramifications of his cuts to government start to manifest. DJT will say that he never told Elon to do [whatever it is that causes that day’s crisis] and that Elon was never made a government official. DJT will say that Elon “misunderstood” what he was supposed to do and all the problems it is causing is not his [DJT’s] fault.
The MAGA people will believe this.
Wow, I don’t like these guys either, but y’all are far more passionate than even I expected.
Many of these recent headlines (Greenland! Panama! Canada! Mexico! Gaza!) almost seem designed to distract us from what is ultimately the pillaging of our government and public funds, in favor of the techno-oligarchs, led by the ‘co-Presidents’ (the official one and the unofficial one, who heads DOGE). So far, they’ve followed the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 plans to a tee–not my preference. Where’s the ‘deep state’ when ya need ’em?
Now where’s @Andy S, @Mantis, @Mark P, and the others, to tell us the ‘party line’?
Does this mean that the Musk acolyte who was a summer camp counselor in CT last year is now in charge of the FAA? Still using his Gmail address from his since-deleted LinkedIn and social media profiles? I feel safer already…
Sorry, I’m not flying anymore. Letting a bunch of teenagers “fix” the FAA is insanity. Airline stocks are going to tank.
Yep, giving access to a ketamine addict and his 20 year old proteges (with zero security clearance or background checks) to the FAA systems is certainly an idea.
You wouldn’t bet against Musk.
I wouldn’t bet against this causing actual safety or security issues with real world consequences. Which will then be blamed on the black folks working there.
But hey, libertarians gotta libertarian.
WOW!!! We’re going to go from “Full Self Drive” to “Full Self Fly”. I mean what could pissibly go wrong?
According to a 2023 Washington Post analysis of NHTSA data, Tesla’s automated driving features are linked to over 700 crashes and at least 19 deaths since 2019.
The only problem with Elon’s solutions is that he won’t care if there are a few Rapid Unscheduled Disassemblies of aircraft along the way!
First things first, SpaceX shall have priority over all airspace and will not have its launches stymied by know nothing bureaucrats.
As someone who knows a number of people involved with some of the things that you say Musk has done, I can assure you that Musk himself had little to do with those successes as far as any of the substantive knowledge required and many of the successes were despite him and not because of him . . . and the disasters were often directly related to his ego.
Reading some of the above comments and I just have to laugh. There are already too many airline accidents and near misses. There is already a massive pillaging of government coffers. Our tax dollars have been working against tax paying citizens for years.
If you haven’t heard, today we learned that Politico has been on the government take for quite some time. Soon we are likely to learn that the reason Kamala was able to raise over $1 billion is because much of it was laundered government funds.
Elan Musk could hardly do any worse.
Wow. Big time immolation going on in this thread. Really, though, how do you guys really feel about Elon? LOL.
@David — Since you seem to ‘know better,’ what’s the plan, sir? You can blame the Democrats or whoever/whatever you want for the past–I’m talking about the future. HOW are they going to ‘fix’ it? ‘Trust me, bro’ (or, just trust Elon) is not really an answer.
@Bill from Maine — I was surprised, too, it seems majority, so far, is not a fan. Maybe the far-right (Bannon types) turned on him (you know, that H-1B visa thing), or they just haven’t gotten here yet.
He’s and alien and we deport aliens now.
Let’s send him back (to Mars).
I hear he will be welcomed.
@Dick said: “AOC has described Elon as the most unintelligent billionaire.”
The failed bartender (or was she a waitress?) comments on world’s richest man??
And you want us to take her opinion, and yours, seriously? LOL
The Boys of DOGE:
“Many of the lads helping Elon Musk decide the fate of America’s administrative state are barely old enough to order a drink. They include 22-year-old Luke Farritor, who […] last year won a $250,000 prize for using AI to help decode one of the ancient scrolls found near the ruins of Pompeii.
Then there’s 21-year-old Akash Bobba, a Berkeley student and former intern at the Bridgewater Associates investment firm.
And also Ethan Shaotran, a 22-year-old senior at Harvard University, who launched his own AI start-up with a $100,000 grant from OpenAI.
Their youth has shocked and horrified many of Washington’s middle-aged pundits and journalists.
But, writes Eli Lake, “before you reach for the Valium, it’s worth considering that this is by no means the first time twentysomethings have helped lead a revolution inside the nation’s capital.”
The rest is here: https://www.thefp.com/p/the-boys-of-doge?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
“…Tesla’s automated driving features are linked to over 700 crashes and at least 19 deaths since 2019.”
To be meaningful, this bit of information needs to be juxtaposed to the number of crashes and deaths linked to manual driving of Teslas or other comparable number of cars.
‘ impossible things, from reinventing the electric car industry to sending rocket ships into space, and also creates chips let let human brains control machines’
Sending rocket ships into space is hardly impossible. And there are other companies that are ahead of Neuralink (they just don’t get as much media)
The FAA needs a shakeup, badly. While most of you seem to be content with the steady decline of the status quo, I’d say this is our best shot at improvement, so far.
@Gennady
to be meaningful, this bit of information needs to be juxtaposed to the number of crashes and deaths linked to manual driving of Teslas or other comparable number of cars.
Well, we know Musk fanboys give even regular Teslas one of the worst accident rates.
But more importantly, despite Musk promising it for over 7 years now, they’re nowhere near level 4, and nowhere near Waymo
‘My hunch is that he meets his match in the government bureaucracy.’
Gary, I’m all for efficiency in government. But there are laws and constitutional requirements and those have to be followed for governmental actions. It’s the same reason we have the 4th and 5th Amendments — efficiency is not the only or even the most important duty of government.
Furthermore, you don’t call agency workers evil, spread lies and conspiracy theories about them. You may have to fire them, yes.
@David
‘If you haven’t heard, today we learned that Politico has been on the government take for quite some time. Soon we are likely to learn that the reason Kamala was able to raise over $1 billion is because much of it was laundered government funds.’
David, I’d lay off the ketamine. It destroys brain cells, although in your case, it seems like there wasn’t much material to destroy.
Yes, Musk is not the first one to send rocket ship into space, nor is he the first one to make an automobile. And he didn’t create Tesla car company, true, he purchased it. But — he certainly created an EV industry, and turned Tesla into world’s most valuable car company. But before Musk, rocket ships didn’t return back to earth to be re-used. And they certainly weren’t being caught by giant ‘chopsticks’ on launch pad after the flight.
@Gennady — And maybe Elon should have stuck to all his businesses. He’s not an elected official, yet he and his associates (18-25 year old ‘kids’), also un-elected, just took over the $6 trillion at the Treasury. I mean, what happened to ‘but her emails’–is this not a huge data and security breach?
Likewise, the continued diminishing of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is just silly at this point. She’s proven herself since 2019, and is a leading voice of her party (and generation). I take her seriously, just as I take Elon seriously, even if I do not agree with him.
@Bob Chao
“The FAA needs change. This is change. Therefore we must do it”
@Jon F — Thank you for your comments here.
As you point out, the ‘changes’ may make things worse, not better. I am not confident Elon is doing any of this in ‘good faith’ or with the best interests of the traveling public in mind. He probably really does just want to give his companies priority airspace. That’s it and that’s all. Selfish and greedy.
I’ve been waiting for the typical right-wingers to come on here pitching their typical ‘de-regulate, abolish, privatize’ nonsense, which would be disastrous to the aviation industry, safety, air traffic control, and all the people that work and rely on this entire system. Yet, wow, the rush to put ‘profits over people’ and to vanquish ‘perceived enemies’ continues to astound me.
It feels like ‘the inmates are running the asylum’ these days—and all of us will pay the price, whether we think we’re immune or not. It’s really no longer about which ‘team’ we’re on when it comes to our survival while flying.
Musk is only good at one thing: self-aggrandizing.
He was fired from PayPal, he wrecked X, didn’t invent nor do anything other than raise money based on lies at Tesla or SpaceX, and is an also-ran in AI (can’t attract the best and brightest).
The FAA is his target because he wants to get rid of the rules the FAA has to protect us from flying debris of SpaceX (required) failures. He would have done the same with California health measures that prevented the death by COVID of many people at Tesla.
He’s a sociopath. His version of fixing is none of the things in this post, which COST MONEY. Bureaucracy will have nothing to do with his failures at the FAA. Yes, things will get worse, yes, he will be thrown under the bus by the corrupt guy he bought favors from, and yes, fanboys will find blame somewhere else.
apropos AOC – how exactly has she proven herself? Any major bills to her name? No. Anything of substance? Nope. Leading voice in what? Gag me with a spoon. She’s nothing but social media creature, no different in that than sleazy Matt Gaetz or moronic MTG.
Bloody hell Garry. You turned out to be an uber simp didn’t ya? You’re literally advocating for handing government over to a bloody Nazi.
You’ve had takes I disagree with but this is the first one which is absolutely moronic. Anyways, your daughter will suffer through this shit this brings. Hope you can explain your choices to her when she starts questioning you.
Musk has more money than brains and it shows in his breaking things. All those illegal drugs he has done probably caused some serious brain damage.
Now who wants Musk’s and Thiel’s tweenies to take over ATC? Not I.
Give those two guys missing their apartheid era South African boyhood homes a one way ticket to the moon.
These “libertarians” and prosperity gospel charlatans are political arsonists ushering in anarchy and wanting your daughters to be on their knees, on their back or in the kitchen unless the American Taliban grants them a temporary pass to run household errands.
Garry : Adolf Titler can get more air traffic controllers on board.
Also Garry : I will ignore Trump telling ATCs to take voluntary retirement because that doesn’t feed my agenda.
If Garry was around in WWII he would have fought on the side of the Nazis.
DOGE is doing an audit, and in doing so bringing to light the massive amount of corruption and graft that has been going on. They make recommendations to the executive branch, and that’s it. Then it’s up to Trump on what to do, within his power.
But the Pandora’s box has been opened, and the world now sees why democrats are so scared of Elon: because he exposed that dems have been using taxpayer dollars to enrich themselves and their buddies for years, not to mention overthrow governments, fund research to impeach a sitting president, fund viral research that created a global epidemic, fund NGOs to encourage an invasion of our country, etc etc. The game is up. The spigot is off, and prison is on the horizon for many of these traitors.
Modernizing the FAA almost seems beneath DOGE, it’s small potatoes compared with the massive waste elsewhere, but it obviously needs to be done, if nothing else due to the massive risk that even a single aviation incident does to the broader economy. Pushing paper strips is a national disgrace.
@747Always: As a jew? Have you any idea hw stupid you sound.
@All: Let’s see if he is man enough to issue the requisite categorical apology. I doubt it.
I would hope there wouldn’t be a quisling, regardless of national, ethnic or religious background. But quislings existed before, during and after the word came into being in English.
Here is a quisling: Abraham Gancwajch.
Look him up.
@Gennady — You’ve set up a straw man argument against Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. The quantity of ‘major bills’ to any elected official’s ‘name’ does not make them any better or worse, any more or less effective at serving their constituents—her advocacy for her district, its people, and the progressive movement within her party is undeniable, unless of course, you don’t agree with her views, then naturally you’ll seek to dismiss her, as you have already done here. Lest we forget, this is a post about Elon, an unelected oligarch who is dismantling our government in favor of the super-rich like himself, the very people AOC has been fighting against—that is relevant. And watch out because I don’t think she’s backing down or going anywhere anytime soon. Finally, your comparisons to ‘those’ other former and current officials is just silly.
@747always — I wouldn’t say that about Gary, specifically.
@GUWonder — These are trying times, and it’s not just a ‘normal’ election loss, no matter what anyone from the other side says. Elon and the oligarchs are taking over; they’re playing for keeps. A lot of good, decent people are hurting.
Everybody, we should recognize that this era in our society (USA, 2015-2025) there is and has been an increasing collective ‘sane-washing’ and normalization of policy and rhetoric that would have seem deeply concerning a mere decade or two ago, and should have long been shunned and effectively stopped, but instead has been given all power now. It is a new form of fascism on the rise here (and abroad). I understand the tendency to say ‘it can’t be that bad’ or ‘let’s just give it a try,’ which is some form of the ‘wait and see’ approach. Right, maybe the ‘cancer’ will go away on its own. Wow, to be so lucky.
The gradual and increasingly violent rhetoric directly from the leader, such as ‘fake news’ (lying press), ‘knock the crap out of him’ (celebration of political violence), and all the dehumanizing language for perceived enemies, like ‘animals,’ ’vermin,’ ‘poisoning the blood of our country,’ and ultimately the dramatic policy of ‘mass deportations’ of 20 million people without ‘due process’ (so far, as suggested), while seeking to set up ‘camps’ in places like Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Rubio’s discussions with Bukele to use their facilities in El Salvador for ‘American citizens’ deemed ‘criminal,’ a definition that can easily be changed to include whomever the leader decides, perhaps those that are not loyal ‘enough.’ Umm, unilaterally undoing the 14th amendment? All this is not the rule-of-law. This is the rule of a mad man and the oligarchs. None of us benefit in the end.
Many of the people who could do more (Congress, courts, civil servants) are being disempowered (forced to resign, abolishing agencies, etc.) and are legitimately scared (receiving death threats, etc.). While there may still be some citizen ‘protests,’ I do not see the mass strikes necessary to halt this descent happening anytime soon, namely because most people are not literally starving. And at some point, He will likely declare martial law based on some manufactured crises, disband whatever remains of the opposition and other branches of government, and there may be no more ‘elections.’ I hope none of that happens, because then ‘travel’ will be the least of our concerns. Of course, the states that oppose Him could act, but a civil war is one of the most destructive methods to settle this. Again, read your history.
To those that think you are immune. You are not. Sure it may feel good in the moment to ‘win’ or see others you ‘hate’ be harmed (disgusting). But let’s be real, deep down, you actually live in fear, too, and you know it. For now, there are more of us than of the fascists (not talking about voters, talking about actual people).
So, no, it’s not like the 1940s again, yet; it’s still like the 1930s. We don’t have to repeat the next phase again. But, wow, some folks are really trying to. For what? ‘The price of eggs?’ Naw. It was all so the richest among us could get richer, which is kind of pathetic when you think of it. We know better this time. Push back while you still can.
It is no longer overreacting to be concerned. You are not insane to think about our history and how we may be repeating it. I’m with you.
To the right-wingers, a quick thought exercise, take all the hate and fear you have of a left-wing billionaire, like Soros, and then imagine, he’s doing everything Elon is actually doing.
Of course, even this hypothetical is a false equivalence (not in your favor) because Soros never did anything remotely like this (i.e. take over the $6 trillion dollars at the Treasury, attempt to gut government agencies and install loyalists en mass), other than the typical funding of preferred candidates, like most special interests have done (insert gripe about ‘dark money,’ Citizens United, and corporate media). Anyhoo.
Can someone check up on @Andy S, @Mantis, @Mike P — shouldn’t they be here ‘owning the libs’ or blaming diversity, equity, and inclusion ‘DEI’, or trans athletes, ‘Demcrat-run’ cities, or #44 and #46. I mean, all their typical stuff is laughable to me. Kinda wish they’d lighten things up a little for us. After all, gotta perpetuate the fake ‘culture’ war to distract from the class war and potential dictatorship, civil war, and genocide. @Sean M — See, now I’m using the word freely, too. Well then.
(And then there’s @One Trippe who doesn’t even bother to contribute anything meaningful here anymore, he just comments to Gary asking people be banned because he disagrees with them—not cool, man, not cool—either engage or ignore, it’s not that hard. Use your ‘free speech’ while you still can!)
AOC is the stupidest least effective member of Congress. Empty suit. Nothing there behind beautiful façade. Advocacy for her district and its people? Look at what she did when Amazon was looking at locating facility in her district, creating many jobs and paying ton of tax $$$.
She was a bar tender selected by Justice Dems to run in a special election with only few thousands people voted in massive NYC. What exactly has she done?
AOC doesn’t seem to understand economics, and particularly fails to understand capitalism. She routinely says things that are jaw-droppingly ignorant and, yes, stupid.
And her hate for rich people? Remember the “tax the rich” dress she wore to $35,000/pp Met gala? She’s envious of rich people, which is funny because she expresses it by attacking successful RICH people, like Must. That’s what stupid ppl do.
@Gennady — Glad to see you came back for another round.
Would you want to work at an Amazon warehouse job? No breaks (except breaking your back). Pee in bottles. You know that Amazon is already all over NYC, and she fought for worker protections and to prevent that excessively profitable company from taking public funds when it doesn’t need it (better for small business and the actual citizens to receive such assistance).
AOC defeated a DNC-backed candidate in her first race–that was a populist upset in her favor. The only reason you’re so worked up about her is that she is a real threat to the fascists. She’s actually speaking out, when a lot of the geriatric corporatists in both parties remain silent.
I loved her dress, and I live comfortably. Did you think she was going to ‘tax’ you? You must be an oligarch, or at least a centi-millionaire to be so concerned. No, more likely, you’re one of their useful idiots, parroting the right-wing lies. Elon’s H-1B rug-pull should be all the proof you need to realize they just pulled the racist, sexist, bigots along for the ride. You ain’t in the club!
I can see it now.. He’ll do away with radar and have cameras and AI take over. “we don’t need no extra sensors”… Just like in the cars that don’t/won’t/can’t self-drive. Sigh. Mind numbingly dumb choices. Yes, the systems need to be fixed, and it would be great to do it faster, but why not make use of systems other countries are already using–as you’ve pointed out?!
“Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”
― Mark Twain
The forum trash just proved that, again. No arguments, only personal attacks. No logic, just insults.
As someone who never voted for Trump, I’m happy watching basement dwelling keyboard warriors lose their mind.
@Gennady — Still here, huh?
Looks like it ‘takes one to know one,’ eh, Mr. Keyboard Warrior.
It’s a shame you didn’t remain loyal to ‘the guy,’ because He doesn’t handle betrayal well. Don’t wanna end up on the ‘enemies’ list!
Even though you did ‘not voted’ for Him, the good news for you is that you’re still showing support by attacking His perceived enemies.
You ‘doth protest too much, me thinks.’ That’s Shakespeare, you know, since we’re quoting the ‘greats’ now.
I like Twain, too. Actually, he coined the term ‘Gilded’ age, remember? Kind of like how this so-called ‘golden age’ (under the guy you totally didn’t vote for) is actually more like a second Gilded age. Read your history. As such, I’m looking forward to the second Progressive era that comes after this.
Oh, and did you take the ‘racist, sexist, bigots’ line personally? I didn’t call you that—I was reminding you that specific voting block of His base got duped, son. You see, it’s the oligarchs that are winning, not the poor bigots. And I don’t think either of us are oligarchs, do you? Though you did call me silly names, which I do enjoy. You’re welcome to come back for more. Always. Feed me.
@Mantis
It seems AI Bots aren’t the only ones prone to hallucinations