What Did You Do Last Week?

Plus: German elections, how I almost got arrested this weekend, and more...

Elon Musk tells federal workers to justify their jobs: In an email with a subject line "What did you do last week?" Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, asked federal government employees to justify their jobs.

Sent Saturday afternoon, Musk (or a DOGE underling) instructed workers to "please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager." He reminded them to "not send any classified information, links, or attachments." Deadline for submission is end of day today. Failure to respond, the email warns, may be grounds for termination.

Union representatives have started talking about lawsuits, but Musk maintains that "the bar is very low here" (which: true) and that the email "should take less than 5 mins to write" (also true). Meanwhile, specific agencies objected to the unorthodox protocol.

"The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures," said new FBI director Kash Patel. "When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses."

"The State Department will respond on behalf of the Department. No employee is obligated to report their activities outside their Department chain of command," read an internal email to employees.

"It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life," said government employee union president Everett Kelley, betraying an insane notion of what "public service" is. I would offer that Starlink alone, not to mention expanded spaceflight, has been of great service to the public (or Tesla, or Musk's earlier company X.com, which merged with PayPal, or…the list goes on and on).

Federal workers seem to be chafing at the fact that Musk seems to be maximally enjoying the chaos. But the entrenched federal bureaucracy, for its part, also seems to be enjoying throwing sand in the gears to try to make the cuts painful for the general public.

"At California's Yosemite National Park, the Trump administration fired the only locksmith on staff on Friday. He was the sole employee with the keys and the institutional knowledge needed to rescue visitors from locked restrooms." And at other parks: pic.twitter.com/y3ngZyncW2

— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) February 20, 2025

German election results: "The largest German turnout in decades gave the most votes to the Christian Democrats and their sister party, the Christian Social Union. That almost certainly means the next chancellor will be Friedrich Merz, a businessman who flies his own private plane and has long coveted the top job," reports The New York Times. Note that this isn't the far right—the Alternative for Germany party—emerging victorious; it's the center-right, in what can be read as a moderate repudiation of lefty policies on immigration and economic policy.

"The hard-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, doubled its vote share from four years ago, largely by appealing to voters upset by immigration. In the former East Germany, it finished first, ahead of Mr. Merz's party," adds the Times. AfD's fans include Musk, who spoke at one of the party's recent rallies. But the far-right party performed slightly worse than expectations in this election, and die Linke—a far-left party—performed slightly better.

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Scenes from New York: Beginning to do my makeup before I take my son to the playground in case they make me get a mugshot.

To recap for those not on X (full post here): My friends and I went to the Pier 26 playground along the Hudson River after Mass to let my toddler run around (he is 2.5 and did an excellent job sitting still in church). The signs said the playground was closed due to icy conditions. There was a small amount of snow on the ground still, but it was quickly melting; it was 45 degrees outside, a rare reprieve from the New York winter.

Having encountered another padlocked playground a week and a half ago, I saw this padlock and thought hell no. Took my fancy shoes off and hopped the fence. My friend was right behind me, and we boosted my son over the fence. Then the most beautiful thing started happening: Other parents and kids saw how much fun we were having and we offered to help get their kids over the fence too. We liberated maybe two dozen kids. (The dads were especially down, with many hopping the fence themselves.)

Imagine my frustration at coming down the massive slide super fast (semi-immodestly, in a fancy dress!) and being greeted by the authorities demanding my ID and threatening to fine me. I resisted for a while and took down badge numbers, and then my husband mentioned that he did not want to pay my fines or bail today, that it would be prudent for me to not get arrested in front of our child, etc. (the usual).

NYC hates its child population. Encountered ANOTHER padlocked playground (it was 45 degrees out). Hopped the fence w my friend, liberated my son, and 25 other kids took little boosts from us to hop the fence. Joy.

Then the city said they'd fine me & they needed to see my ID. https://t.co/xeWclYMzeM pic.twitter.com/YemzCfpBFY

— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) February 24, 2025

Something is sick and rotten in big-city parenting culture if our public officials believe it better for children to sit inside glued to Cocomelon than risk going outside and playing. Play risks injury. Outdoor play risks exposure to the elements. Social play risks rejection and conflict. We allow children to take these risks to teach them resilience. The joy of play is not trivial or insignificant—this is the stuff of a happy, balanced childhood, one New York City officials seem intent on destroying.

If you have any tips as to why this keeps happening, or which city officials to contact to make it stop, please reach out to me.

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QUICK HITS

• Our Just Asking Questions episode with Randy Barnett has generated a lot of hate from the left-wing commentariat—Matt Stoller and Matt Yglesias, for starters—and plenty of folks have taken issue with the term "malicious compliance":

????@RandyEBarnett on JAQ: "This is a standard technique of the bureaucracy––it's called malicious compliance. They try to make the most painful cuts possible. It's like when there was a 2-day government shutdown & they ostentatiously closed the government parks surrounding DC &… https://t.co/XM2BObwNXJ

— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) February 21, 2025

But this reply is still my favorite, because I love any and all mention of our zoomer overlord Big Balls:

Actually it's the fault of the park rangers that their budgets are being slashed by a 19 year old named Big Balls. I think Liz Wolfe must have learned to tie her shoes in her thirties https://t.co/HQCFyWIBbM

— noah kulwin (@nkulw) February 22, 2025

• "French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet with President Donald Trump this week as they try to clinch a European role in the ongoing talks between Washington and Moscow on ending Russia's war in Ukraine," reports Bloomberg. "The French and British leaders spoke Sunday to coordinate their objectives, which include getting US security guarantees for Ukraine, slowing the pace of Washington's talks with Russia and demonstrating Europe's commitment to increase defense spending, according to people familiar with their plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity." Trump has made noises about winding down U.S. spending on Ukraine, and European leaders appear to be panicking.
• "More than a year of conflict has crippled the already limited waste collection infrastructure in Gaza," reports Reuters. "With access to designated landfills blocked and no transport due to a fuel blockade imposed by Israel, hundreds of thousands of tons of solid waste has piled up in the streets."
• Interesting:

In the former DDR, pro-Russian parties (AfD, Die Linke, Wagenknecht/BSW) got a majority (57.4%). In the old West Germany, those parties got just 29.4%. https://t.co/ofd4bi6dcR

— Aaron Astor (@AstorAaron) February 24, 2025