Welcome to another edition of the Schmidtstorm. You have questions. I've got answers. Let's get

started. The question is, is how is Elon Musk's antics in Wisconsin not been flagged immediately for

election interference? So the first thing I want to say about this question is great

question. I want to focus on the words election interference because these words have become

contaminated. And there is no crime of election interference, such as it is, though certainly

interfering in an election can be a crime. What Elon Musk is doing,

handing out million-dollar checks, seems to me to be certainly dubious, unethical, deeply corrupting

to the practice of democracy, but is it illegal in Wisconsin? I don't know. I'm not a Wisconsin election law expert. I do know this.

The French minister who said, we cannot let the security of Europe hang at the whim of a Wisconsin

voter every four years is spot on.

The corruption of money in the American system is beyond the worst imaginations of anybody

who ever predicted what the result of Citizens United, of McCain-Feingold, which wrought,

predictably Citizens United, would be. American democracy has been sold to the highest bidder,

the scene in the inaugural Trump seating his oligarchs in front of the cabinet, all of this

is a mark of corruption.

And when Democrats take power again, it can't be for the purposes of maintaining Chuck Schumer

as majority leader.

There must be fundamental campaign finance reform. And there has to be

thought given to a constitutional amendment that fixes permanently the financing mechanisms that have

corrupted and endangered American liberty. There has to be fundamental ethics reform. There has to be

an elimination of special government employees. There has to be an end of one set of rules for people

at the top and a different set for everybody else. So election interference? Yes, Elon Musk is interfering in every election in the world

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