are we there yet?

[jfish26]

They always do, at least on the ideas that aren't unconstitutional lunacy.

Their naive, unrequited good faith is the story of why we’re here.

Well, I might put it a notch or two below the reason we're here but they certainly haven't done enough to resist Trump's lunacy the last 2 weeks.

I guess I mean in a broader sense. The gloves should have come off when Garland’s seat was stolen. They’re still on!

[jfish26]

I will say....if there is blame for the dems...and there is. The most damning indictment i see at the moment from the left is the inexplicable lack of action by elected officials. They appear to be politely following along with orders and just saying oh shucks....what can we do? Perhaps there are some nefarious thing happening behind the scenes to ensure they don't speak up to much...I dont know. But I am surprised at the lack of resistance from the only ones who can make a difference at the highest levels.

I've seen and read number of Democrats coming out and speaking adamantly against what's happening.
They just aren't getting any major coverage for it.

i’m torn

there’s a big part of me that thinks the ousdahls, psychos, randis, mich’s, and dodos of the country have a lesson to learn…and they NEED to learn it the hard way

If people can look at Trump's list of crimes, mismanagement and failures from his first administration and double down by voting him back into office then they are never going to learn. At this point, they are so entrenched in their MAGA ways that they'll never tuck tail and admit they were duped.

Their naive, unrequited good faith is the story of why we’re here.

Agree with all of this.

There is widespread frustration among Dems that the MSM won't give their responses to Trump flooding the zone with shit any air time, because it doesn't hold the public's attention like him saying he's thinking about invading Panama, &/or Greenland, or suspending SNAP benefits, or forcing 10-20 million people to leave the country, or firing 2/3rds of federal employees, or etc., Etc., ETC., ETC, ECT!

And I think they have a very good point.

And while I agree 100% with jfish, that Dems have been too naive in expecting the Republicans to act in good faith for much too long, they're going to need a hell of a lot of luck to try and counter the tsunami of lies and lawlessness that Trump and Republicans, (along with their rich oligarchs who own much of the media), are planning to unleash on a relentless basis from now until the 2026 election, and again going into 2028.

I hope the opposition does better than I expect.

Ask yourself: is Trump doing anything right now that would be consistent with an expectation of the possibility of ballot box accountability in 2026 or even 2028?

Ask yourself: did the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling - in which it set up a dynamic where the President is lawless if the Court is ideologically aligned with the President - tell you the faction presently in control expects the other side to ever even have a chance at being in control?

When skillful people do irrational things, you need to consider whether “irrational” is a failure of your priors.

[Sparko]

Headed to a general strike and chaos. Pretty much unavoidable

[BiggDick]

honestly, a well-organized general strike could be just what the doctor ordered

[jfish26]

The doctor ordered us to kick the booze because our enzymes were fucked and knocking down a daily 750 mL of Canadian Club was only gonna lead to one place.

We changed to a 1.75 of Tito’s instead, because lol no we won’t stop drinking, and at least it’s organic.

And now our skin is Simpsons-yellow and we’re getting laughed off the transplant list.

[BiggDick]

well, just to try and riff on this analogy...it's hard to kick the bottle without a support structure, just like it's hard to develop class conscience without an organized working class.

but the Qusdahls tell the Magaheads "you deserve better wages and actual benefits and a higher standard of living," and the Magaheads reply like HOW DARE YOU

[jfish26]

It wasn’t just the MAGAheads that upped their self-poisoning in the face of doctors’ orders based on objective data, experience and common sense.

But god forbid that people be accountable for their own dumbass choices.

[Overlander]

So, when the next pandemic pops up, will it be illegal to wear a mask in public?

[Sparko]

You can wear a mask so you can be targeted. That seems to be where we are.

[Overlander]

You can wear a mask so you can be targeted. That seems to be where we are.

When the Trumpistas get tired of spitting on (or run out of) Mexicans…they can come after the intelligent!

[japhy]

This is pretty good analogy for what has taken place.

On Friday night, reports emerged that Elon Musk’s aides had tussled with Office of Personnel Management and Treasury staffers while demanding access to troves of information about federal employees. And on Sunday, it was reported that Musk had ousted top officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development for refusing him access to classified security and personnel information.

Those of us within the ranks of the federal workforce looked on in horror at all of this. Those outside the federal government might not understand the gravity of this situation. Think of OPM and the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service as the valet sheds of the federal government. They’re not flashy or big, but they hold all the keys. OPM maintains the private information of federal civil servants—bank codes, addresses, insurance information, retirement accounts, employment records. The Treasury’s system processes every payment to everyone from grandmothers waiting for their Social Security check to cancer researchers working to crack the cure. Now there’s a ham-fisted goon in an ill-fitting valet attendant’s coat rummaging in broad daylight through all of the keys—all of that private information, previously given in trust, handled with care, and regulated by law.

Now is the moment to act. We should not be waiting until the perps are driving off with every Bimmer in the lot. This information demands careful management, and transparency around its collection and use. Its inadvertent disclosure could irreparably harm millions of American families. And it’s being taken by people that still can’t figure out how to send an email from within the government without having it flagged as a likely phishing attempt. Someone needs to do something.

But while a few civil servants have bravely stepped into the fray, for the most part federal workers can only watch. We have been effectively silenced. The administration issued gag orders to many agencies, curbing their official communications with the general public, regulated communities, or even sometimes one another. Career staffers are struggling to keep up with lists of who they’re allowed to talk to and who they’re not. And the administration has made it chillingly clear it is willing to fire people without any legal justification whatsoever. It cannot be up solely to the cubicle workers of the federal government to stare down certain retribution in order to delay lawless power grabs. Many of us in the platoons of the federal workforce cannot afford to be dismissed, however illegal the dismissal might be. Litigating our termination is also not a privilege for which we have the resources or time.

Maddeningly, though, the Musk-Miller-Trump administration seems to have convinced many outside commentators to credit its actions as some sort of masterful, calculated scheme. Take it from someone with a front-row seat: Ocean’s Eleven this is not. It’s a smash and grab. Careful and calculating actors wouldn’t brazenly break the law and dare authorities to respond. The only real calculation involved here appears to be that the perp thinks (perhaps correctly) that the owner of the lot is in on the heist and that the judges are in his pocket. The administration is betting that the lawsuits will take too long, resolve too little, or even rubber-stamp the effort with the kind of retconning revisionism that has become popular in some courts.

But make no mistake. At least with regard to the handling of federal employees, the details of the effort are downright embarrassing. The “buyout” spamming of civil servants continues, and the emails read like travel brochures: Kick back, relax, let Musk Cruise Lines take care of your every need. There’s certainly no attempt to provide detailed answers to straightforward questions like “Um, is this actually legal?” or “Do you actually have the money for this?” Federal workers are getting more thoughtful analysis about their separation options from the comment threads on news sites than they are from the human resources apparatus of the organization offering the buyout.

And in between the syrupy overtures of the buyout effort, federal workers are peppered with caustic memos containing head-spinning inconsistencies. One moment, our work is derided as extremely “unproductive,” a waste of money that should be scrapped. The next, it’s apparently so productive as to be a threat to the American people. The next, everyone needs to drop what they’re doing right now to take their preferred pronouns off their signature blocks.

The stream of implementation emails is so whiny and ridiculous it should be funny. But it’s not funny. It’s exhausting. Because sometimes those emails announce the immediate departure of friends and colleagues without explanation. And because, between the existential questions about our agencies and their missions, press the daily concerns of life under such a mercurial employer:

I don’t know anyone in the federal government who is seriously thinking about taking Musk’s ill-conceived buyout offer. But everyone I know has polished their résumé and started scanning job postings.

For many of us, starting a job search is not only one more stress on top of many; it is heartbreaking. As civil servants, we were never here for the money. That’s for people with a mandate for profit. A civil servant’s mandate is people. Many of us turned down private-sector jobs because we thought we could help most from the halls of government. Because we believe in the mission. Cruising the classifieds feels like a defeat. More: like a betrayal of the public trust. Because we know, perhaps better than anyone, that the public protections are going to be important in the years to come.

Obviously, we recognize that elections have consequences. A new administration may want to pursue a new agenda, shift policies, and even shrink the government’s footprint. Fine. The public clearly voted for that, and the president clearly enjoys the power to do that. Moreover, many, many of us worked for the first Trump administration and are proud of our accomplishments during that time. Some of us even voted for Trump this past election. But it has become increasingly clear that the effort to shrink the federal government will be implemented by categorical removal or a directive to hit a quota plucked out of a hat by people that don’t know what we do, how we work, or what’s at stake.

Disruption may have become a badge of honor among tech bros with backward hats and pockets full of other people’s money. But when it comes to the nation’s food security, transit safety, market stability, access to electricity, and preservation of civil rights, disruption for the sake of disruption is dangerous. And these disrupters clearly don’t have the chops to do it well; they lack the patience, the multistep reasoning, the humanity, and the humility necessary to make changes to human systems that are effective, efficient, and lasting.

Until the courts formally abdicate their role as a check on executive power, the workforce management efforts of this administration are like a child taking his box of crayons to the Constitution. And even if the courts decide that our Constitution really is scrap paper for a toddler’s pink dino doodles, the ruling will never make the administration’s efforts thoughtful, calculated, or anything other than a scribbled blob we’ve all decided to call “pretty” to save the feelings of tantrum-prone egos.

We are collectively holding our breath, wondering whether a court will say, Enough. Wondering whether this administration would even bother complying with such a ruling. Because this overhaul of the federal workforce isn’t the opening act; it’s the headliner. This is where the three-branch government is tested. This is where democracy slips into dictatorship.

I asked friends at DOD and Intelligence, what happens if Eloon shows up at those departments and demands passwords and access to their systems?

[KUTradition]

So, when the next pandemic pops up, will we even hear about it from what remains of our public health entities?

[jfish26]

Here is why a free press is so vital. In a world in which R congresscritters wake up, it will be good to have things like this in hand.

[Shirley]

Here is why a free press is so vital. In a world in which R congresscritters wake up, it will be good to have things like this in hand.

How quaint. Is Trump a stone cold articulate wordsmith, or what?

He uses only the best words.

Like other Republican liars before him, as Trump's explanation for why he should turn the government over to a Nazi-adjacent guy, he reflexively begins recycling the well-worn Republican trope about cutting "waste, fraud, and abuse". How lame. That's the same bullshit Republicans have used for decades to, among other things, answer the question about how they plan to pay for the tax cuts they're giving to their rich benefactors.

[twocoach]

Here is why a free press is so vital. In a world in which R congresscritters wake up, it will be good to have things like this in hand.

How quaint. Is Trump a stone cold articulate wordsmith, or what?

He uses only the best words.

Like other Republican liars before him, as Trump's explanation for why he should turn the government over to a Nazi-adjacent guy, he reflexively begins recycling the well-worn Republican trope about cutting "waste, fraud, and abuse". How lame. That's the same bullshit Republicans have used for decades to, among other things, answer the question about how they plan to pay for the tax cuts they're giving to their rich benefactors.

Mr. President, Musk has access to considerably more than just "should they be fired?" In any other universe not named MAGA USA, a private citizen accessing the system housing all Social Security records of the entire nation would be arrested. Best case scenario, Musk sells all of our data to a third party company for them to do whatever they want. Worst case scenario, they screw up, don't lock up behind them and Russia, China and the large criminal hacking organizations operating out of Eastern Europe, North Korea and Brazil all infiltrate the system.

[jfish26]

Exactly.

And while you can’t put all opposition eggs in any one basket, a perfectly foreseeable way out of this mess is to take advantage of the seemingly-inevitable Trump/Musk falling-out. In that scenario, I could see many different uses for Trump describing the authority he gave Musk (and which Musk exceeded).

[japhy]

I just heard about 5 Calls this morning.

My wife wanted me to know that my emails to Josh Hawley calling him a sniveling coward and a twat weren't really reaching him, duh. A phone call might be better way to spend my time. So far both of my Senators and my US Representative have heard from me and been told the dumbest trade war in history is not going to help businesses. As a business owner I would like my elected representatives to make that point to the White House. Same goes for Eloon Musk's take over of Federal Databases and emails systems.

https://5calls.org

[jfish26]

Would this be accurately described as a, um, private server?

[KUTradition]

Would this be accurately described as a, um, private server?

let’s hope that server doesn’t have Chinese microchips, pre-loaded with malware

[japhy]

An interesting trend I have seen in the last couple of weeks.

I have received two emails asking if "we have considered selling our company". These seem to come from firms that might have experience in the AEC industry. I got a phone call today asking me if I "had an interest in selling the company". No, nor would I even talk to someone who is making a cold call about that. I would assume they are emailing all of the rest of our stockholders.

I haven't gotten calls/emails like this in a long time. The Covid shutdown was the last time. A friend of mine just sold his company, about the same size as mine, to a large billion$ corporation. None of the employees knew about it until they saw the headlines in the Business Journal.

Is there a wave of consolidation coming?

We bought two smaller firms during Covid. I don't know that we have intentions of buying anyone at this time, but acquisitions are in the air. When the economy gets as roiled as it looks to be, some business owners look for an out. And buyers look for a bargain that aligns with their strategic plan.

As companies are acquired the first question of course is, do I get to keep my job? The answer is maybe, let's get an idea of what you do.