@#14 ... Musk used hackers - at least two internationally known, as part of his DOGE crew. Ties to Russia ...

really?

@#13 ... Everything Musk wanted out of that database is now his. Ironically, Musk minions used a private server to do it. ...

Yup.

Mr Musk seems to have his private server attached to a government network.

Where are the howls from the Republicans about that?

@#4

So .... confusion?

More from the cited article ...

... Fox News first reported news of the job cuts.

The moves are part of Walmart's broader relocation strategy that began last year and comes as several other U.S. corporates mandate employees return to office three to five days a week.

In May 2024, Walmart made the decision to relocate the majority of its employees in Dallas, Atlanta, and its Toronto Global Tech office to Bentonville, Arkansas, San Francisco and Hoboken. That came a year after it closed three tech offices and asked some staff to relocate to central corporate hubs.

"We are making these changes to put key capabilities together, encouraging speed and shared understanding," Morris said in the memo. "Through this review process, we have eliminated some roles as we streamline how we work and will also be exiting our office in Charlotte, North Carolina."

Walmart, on Tuesday, did not specify the number of people being affected by the decision or the severance packages they will receive if they decide against relocating. Employees will be given a month to inform the company if they plan to move, the Fox News report said.

Earlier this year, Walmart unveiled a new headquarter campus in northwest Arkansas, just a few miles from its previous location it called its "Home Office."

The expansive 350-acre campus is designed to accommodate over 15,000 employees across 12 buildings with move-ins planned to be completed by fiscal year 2026.

The company is also opening new office spaces later this year in Sunnyvale, California and Bellevue, Washington and expanding and upgrading its office in Hoboken and its Fashion office in New York City, the memo said. ...

... and before JPW gives my grief on this (appropriately, I will add), I want to point attention to the last sentence of @#1.

Yeah, this seems to be preliminary at this point.

I look forward to future studies.

More from the article ...

... The average estimated effect of the virus on beta amyloid proteins was comparable to the effect from four years of aging, researchers found.

The difference was most pronounced in patients who'd been hospitalized with severe COVID-19, the study found, or in those with underlying risk factors for dementia, like high blood pressure.

These results hint at yet another insidious effect of COVID, the researchers write, suggesting even mild or moderate cases might speed up biological processes promoting the accumulation of beta amyloid proteins, which previous research has linked with Alzheimer's.

There are important caveats to note, however. For one, this was an observational study, so it can establish correlation but not causation. ...

@#21

Well, yeah.

More than my usual agreement with your posts.

I think you are quite close to "spot on" in your view.

@#22 ... so unless it can be straightened out, ...

What is the problem that you assert needs to be, as you say, straightened out?

Please be specific.

Thanks.

... The company is also asking office-based employees in Hoboken, New Jersey ...

Oh no ... not Hoboken, the birthplace of Frank Sinatra, and the home town of the Bongos?

@#2 ... Sounds like he's not reporting to anyone... ...

Well, he seems to be ~reporting~ to Pres Trump.

But since he seems to own Pres Trump, I am not sure of the actual flow of commands in this case.

Can anyone explain?

thx.

@#6

Hey, no fair keeping score.

                                        ;)

... Trump's Already Gone Back on His Promise ...

Who believes what he says?

I mean, during his first term even his supporters here on this most august site said you could not believe what he says.

Pres Trump is transactional. What he says suits the moment. Back then, when he said he wanted to leave abortion to the states, it was an appeal to those who believed what he said in order to get their votes.

Those people were used.

But, welcome to the Trump/Musk Presidency.

@#135 ... Democrats and certain of their elites are obsessed with making their every thought about (their) racism. They are the ultimate racists and activists. ...

Not really.

The Democrats want to eliminate racism.

Not continue it.

So, I have to ask, is your current alias for or opposed to racism?

My question is ... why were those Clubs established in the first place.

As background, I have visited ~Black~ bars and night clubs. I wanted to see what it would be like. A White person walking into a Black establishment.

I was welcomed, and the conversations were free-flowing, and honest.

Eventually, I always got down to one question ... why come to this place instead of other places?

The answer was always along the lines of, ~because i don't have to deal with the hatred.~

So, yeah, West Point may be closing down those Clubs, but what is West Point going to do about the reason those Clubs existed?

... Senate confirms Project 2025 architect Russell Vought to lead powerful White House budget office. ...

Is that really a surprise?

Does anyone really expect the current GOP to rise above their kissing of Pres Trump's ring, and put the Country first and foremost?

@#12

So, in those emails, at a minimum, seems to have wanted write access to the systems?

@#5 ... The ability to turn his own mob against him, and use X to paint him as the lewzer fool that he actually is? ...

Possibly a more likely answer ...

The ability to make the various legal fines Pres Trump faces just disappear via some manner of ~donations?~

In my current view, Mr Musk seems to have purchased [private citizen] Trump, and now that Pres Trump is in the Oval Office, mr Musk wants a return on his investment.

Stated differently, are we just seeing the start of Mr Musk's apparent ownership of Pres Trump's actions?

Stated differently again, is all this DOGE stuff of Mr Musk just a smoke screen to allow him to extract even more money from the Federal government?

More from the OpEd ...

... I am not saying the members of the Trump administration are not intelligent. We all know high-I.Q. people who behave in a way that's as dumb as rocks. I don't believe that there are stupid people, just stupid behaviors.

As the Italian historian Carlo Cipolla once put it, "The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person."

And I am certainly not saying Donald Trump's supporters are less intelligent than others.

I've learned over the years that many upscale Democrats detest intellectual diversity. When they have power over a system -- whether it's academia, the mainstream media, the nonprofits or the Civil Service -- they tend to impose a stifling orthodoxy that makes everybody within it duller, more conformist and insular.

If Republicans want to upend that, I say: Go for it.

I define stupidity as behaving in a way that ignores the question: What would happen next?

If somebody comes up to you and says, "I think I'm going to take a hike in a lightning storm with a copper antenna on my head," stupidity replies, "That sounds like a really great idea!"

Stupidity is the tendency to take actions that hurt you and the people around you. ...

@#63 ... Why isn't this front page news? ...

If you have to ask ...

@#2 ...The poor kids get screwed. But they can work for below minimum wage, since child labor laws are disappearing. Winning! ...

Winning for those that own the companies and corporations that employee the kids.

The GOP does not care about children.

@#5

It may be why Pres Trump loves the uneducated.

... jeopardizing the health of more than 20 million people, including 500,000 children. ...

The GOP does not care about children.

@#8 ... Claimed DOGE Technologist Didn't Have Write Access' When He Actually Did ...

I've seen reports of that write access.

If it did exist, that would be a huge breach. Likely the largest historical breach of a computer system.

My guess of a timeline is along the following...

1) the White House (a.k.a. Pres Trump) gave Mr Musk ambiguously-worded access to internal and extremely critical government computer systems.

2) Mr Musk, running with that ambiguity, decided he had full read/write access to those internal and extremely critical government computer systems.

3) once some people (e.g., the press that Pres Trump seems to hate?) noted Mr Musk's unprecedented access to internal and extremely critical government computer systems, the walk-back quickly occurred.

Working within that scenario, my first question would be, Does Pres Trump have a clue of the ramifications of his directives?

Has Pres trump already sold off all the history contained on the Medicare and Medicaid systems, for a few humdred million in campaign contributions.

Mr Musk now may have full (read-only?) access to those systems.

What is he going to do with that access?

More importantly, what is he going to do with that data? Data that may include names, addresses, social security numbers, medical history on a detail level, incomes, etc.

Would Mr Musk want to profit from that data by selling it to, insurance companies or third-party data brokers?