Government Efficiency (1 Viewer)

[RobF]

I think this topic deserves its own thread, both to discuss generally the topic of government efficiency, and specifically the so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' and the incoming Trump administration's aims to "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies".

The announcements have been covered in the The Trump Cabinet and key post thread, but to recap, Trump has announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will work together on a not-actually-an-official-government-Department of Government Efficiency, which is intended to work with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to "drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before," with the 'Department' to conclude its work "no later than July 4, 2026."

Musk has previously said that the federal budget could be reduced by "at least $2 trillion", and Ramaswarmy, during his presidential campaign, said he would fire more than 75% of the federal work force and disband agencies including the Department of Education and the FBI.

 

[DaveXA]

Employees of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) own lucrative stock in companies that stand to directly benefit from their work gutting federal agencies, Democratic senators have alleged.

The potential ethics violations merit an investigation by the justice department and other oversight bodies, urges a letter co-authored by senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Jack Reed of Rhode Island and obtained by the Guardian.

“We write regarding new reports that Doge employees at the treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have been engaged in the dismantling of these agencies while holding hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock in private companies benefitting from these individuals’ efforts to eliminate key programs, staff, and policies,” the senators state.

Doge was launched in January with a mission to cut wasteful spending, slash federal regulations and improve government software and IT systems.

It has about 79 appointed employees and 10 seconded from other agencies. Many are young software engineers who worked for Musk’s companies and have no prior government experience.

Recent media reports have alleged that their actions aligned with the financial interests of the companies in which they held stock.

This could constitute violations of an ethics law that prohibits federal employees from participating in matters in which they have a personal financial interest.

A wilful violation of this law carries penalties including fines and imprisonment.

Warren and her Senate colleagues argue: “This poses a clear conflict of interest and potential criminal violation of federal ethics law, which bars any federal government employee from participat[ing] personally and substantially … [in any] particular matter in which [they] … ha[ve] a financial interest.”

The letter – addressed to Pam Bondi, the attorney general, as well as Jamieson Greer, acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, and inspectors general within the Treasury, IRS and Federal Reserve – details three specific cases.

Tom Krause, the Doge team leader at Treasury, reportedly holds substantial stock in major financial institutions – including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America – that do business with or provide services to Treasury.

He also owns shares in the tech giants Google, Oracle and Amazon while leading treasury’s IT modernisation efforts. A government ethics expert described this to Politico as “a massive, glaring red flag of a conflict of interest”.

Krause, Todd Newnam and Linda Whitridge of the treasury Doge team reportedly own shares in Intuit (parent of TurboTax), a company actively opposing the IRS’s free tax filing programme Direct File.

The letter notes that Musk had previously claimed to have “deleted” a team involved in Direct File development.

The senators find it “deeply disturbing if Doge employees with a financial stake in Intuit were involved with overseeing and dismantling the Direct File initiative”.……..

Doge employees hold stock in firms set to benefit from cuts, Democrats allege

Elizabeth Warren and others urge investigation over ‘clear conflict of interest and potential criminal violation’

www.theguardian.com

Lock the traitors up.

 

[coldseat]

Employees of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) own lucrative stock in companies that stand to directly benefit from their work gutting federal agencies, Democratic senators have alleged.

The potential ethics violations merit an investigation by the justice department and other oversight bodies, urges a letter co-authored by senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Jack Reed of Rhode Island and obtained by the Guardian.

“We write regarding new reports that Doge employees at the treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have been engaged in the dismantling of these agencies while holding hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock in private companies benefitting from these individuals’ efforts to eliminate key programs, staff, and policies,” the senators state.

Doge was launched in January with a mission to cut wasteful spending, slash federal regulations and improve government software and IT systems.

It has about 79 appointed employees and 10 seconded from other agencies. Many are young software engineers who worked for Musk’s companies and have no prior government experience.

Recent media reports have alleged that their actions aligned with the financial interests of the companies in which they held stock.

This could constitute violations of an ethics law that prohibits federal employees from participating in matters in which they have a personal financial interest.

A wilful violation of this law carries penalties including fines and imprisonment.

Warren and her Senate colleagues argue: “This poses a clear conflict of interest and potential criminal violation of federal ethics law, which bars any federal government employee from participat[ing] personally and substantially … [in any] particular matter in which [they] … ha[ve] a financial interest.”

The letter – addressed to Pam Bondi, the attorney general, as well as Jamieson Greer, acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, and inspectors general within the Treasury, IRS and Federal Reserve – details three specific cases.

Tom Krause, the Doge team leader at Treasury, reportedly holds substantial stock in major financial institutions – including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America – that do business with or provide services to Treasury.

He also owns shares in the tech giants Google, Oracle and Amazon while leading treasury’s IT modernisation efforts. A government ethics expert described this to Politico as “a massive, glaring red flag of a conflict of interest”.

Krause, Todd Newnam and Linda Whitridge of the treasury Doge team reportedly own shares in Intuit (parent of TurboTax), a company actively opposing the IRS’s free tax filing programme Direct File.

The letter notes that Musk had previously claimed to have “deleted” a team involved in Direct File development.

The senators find it “deeply disturbing if Doge employees with a financial stake in Intuit were involved with overseeing and dismantling the Direct File initiative”.……..

Doge employees hold stock in firms set to benefit from cuts, Democrats allege

Elizabeth Warren and others urge investigation over ‘clear conflict of interest and potential criminal violation’

www.theguardian.com

Lock the traitors up.

I'm absolutely sure Trump has already informed them that they will be fully pardoned at the end of his term for any crimes they committed in his service. Trump is a mob boss.

 

[DaveXA]

I'm absolutely sure Trump has already informed them that they will be fully pardoned at the end of his term for any crimes they committed in his service. Trump is a mob boss.

Whoever the next President is should return the power to Congress and push to rescind the pardons. I don't know if that is a thing, but it should be.

 

[coldseat]

Whoever the next President is should return the power to Congress and push to rescind the pardons. I don't know if that is a thing, but it should be.

I like where your thinking is at, but I think that would take a constitutional amendment as it is part of the original powers of the president. But Trump has so abused the power of pardons that I do think it would be worthwhile in the next administration to pursue a constitutional amendment for that and other things. We should at least be talking about it. We frankly need to have a have a constitutional convention and revise/update our constitution to work for this century with everything we've learned after 248+ years. The problem is there's so much hate and disagreement in the country we'll never come to a workable agreement. Who knows, maybe this experience with Trump will penetrate through all of their propaganda and they'll wake up and stop supporting people who are actively working to make their lives worse and less free. Maybe ...



From Article 2 Section 2 of the Constitution:

 

[Optimus Prime]

Donald Trump's chaotic and cannibalistic plan to punish millions of federal employees by forcing them to return to the office has created quite a large problem for Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins.

Veterans make up 30 percent of the federal workforce, and they're feeling the squeeze as various agencies - as well as veterans hospitals and military bases - are being forced to take in an influx of employees who were hired under remote work authorities.

The Washington Post reported this week that the Veterans Health Administration is short nearly 60,000 workstations, and that at one hospital a suicide prevention specialist had to take calls outside because too many people were trying to use the internet inside. The Post also notes that cramped employees have complained about working in closets, makeshift offices, and other undesirable locations.

The strain is taking a toll on morale, as is the specter of mass layoffs. The VA's plans to fire 15 percent of its workforce - around 83,000 employees - is yet another cruel act by Trump, Collins, and now-former government employee Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that will further hurt federal employees, members of the military, and the veterans they serve.

Details of the administration's plan to fire 83,000 VA employees are vague, constantly shifting, and cloaked behind nondisclosure agreements. The VA already suffers from a shortage of professionals like doctors and nurses, and many have taken voluntary retirement offers. Early retirement packages are being pushed on thousands of employees, many of whom are reportedly leaving because they're afraid they'll be laid off anyway or don't want to continue to work in cramped and hostile work environments. Internal documents obtained by the Post show plans to merge suicide prevention, homelessness programs, LGBTQ+ outreach, and mental health offices - all in the name of "consolidation." But in practice, that means stripping specialized services from veterans who need them.

Trump's deranged war on institutions like Columbia and Harvard isn't helping, either. Columbia's Resilience Center for Veterans & Families - which provides trauma-informed care, train clinicians, conduct cutting-edge mental health research, and offer free therapy to veterans and their families - is at risk. The administration has already cut VA research contracts at Harvard, abruptly terminating critical efforts focused on suicide prevention, toxic exposure, and cancer screening. Gutting these life-saving programs isn't about budget-tightening; it's part of a political war against universities - and veterans are paying the price.

Trump and Republicans in Congress are still trying to gaslight the American people with their "big, beautiful" reconciliation bill that cuts taxes for the richest Americans, raises them on the poorest, and adds trillions to the federal deficit. This is how we know Trump's cuts are not to save money. They are intended to cause pain and death in the veterans community he clearly does not care about.............

Vets Are Working Out of Closets Because of Trump's Nonsensical War on the VA​

Vets Are Working Out of Closets Because of Trump's Nonsensical War on the VA

Donald Trump's nonsensical war on veterans is leading to chaos at the Department of Veterans Affairs, with some reportedly working out of closets.

www.rollingstone.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Even Trump reportedly questioned Musk’s $1 trillion DOGE cuts: ‘Was it bulls***?’

President reportedly expressed skepticism about Elon Musk's pledge to slash government spending

www.independent.co.uk

 

[bird]

Even Trump reportedly questioned Musk’s $1 trillion DOGE cuts: ‘Was it bulls***?’

President reportedly expressed skepticism about Elon Musk's pledge to slash government spending

www.independent.co.uk

Um, Donnie? Of course, it was bullschlitz. But you are too stupid to understand virtually anything.

 

[Optimus Prime]

It would have been hard to see much of a crisis brewing at the Arlington Mill Community Center, given the joyful stream of middle-schoolers bolting inside last month.

But it was there in the way 11-year-old Mason Soto greeted his teacher, Andrew Gelsinger.

“Mr. Andrew!” yelled Mason, running into the classroom. “You’re still here!”

Less than a week had passed since Gelsinger abruptly lost his position at the free after-school program in Northern Virginia — one of tens of thousands of roles funded by AmeriCorps that were slashed in cuts to that federal agency.

Gelsinger sat in the classroom with his students, some of them weeping, as they were told they would not be able to come back to Aspire Afterschool Learning to start their homework, grab a snack or play volleyball.

Just a few days later, Gelsinger’s bosses tapped into surplus funds to bring him and most other teachers back through the summer. How much the nonprofit’s budget could stretch after that, though, was uncertain.

In April, the Trump administration’s U.S. DOGE Service canceled nearly $400 million in AmeriCorps grants, effectively firing service members at Aspire and more than 1,000 other organizations across the country. Those groups were told the lost funding “no longer effectuates agency priorities.”

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly has said AmeriCorps, an independent federal agency, was “a target-rich environment for President Trump’s agenda to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse” after failing eight consecutive audits.

Less than seven miles from the Oval Office — past the diners, taquerias and hair salons along Columbia Pike — here’s a sampling of what could be eliminated:

Aspire teachers such as Gelsinger, who makes less than $30,000 a year, would lose their year-long positions. People such as Mason’s dad, a construction worker whose shifts often end past the final bell at his son’s middle school, would go without free child care and have to find and pay for it elsewhere. And students such as Mason, a mischievous kid in thick, rectangular glasses, would no longer have someone to teach and care for them after school. Instead, they would spend the afternoon alone.

The nonprofit’s leaders estimated that, following DOGE’s cuts, Aspire would be forced to serve as many as 50 fewer students per year.

On the day he and his teacher returned to class, Mason shifted his gaze to a laminated sheet pinned up in the back of the classroom, where Gelsinger was marking the boy’s attendance with five green dots.

“Mr. Andrew, what’s the schedule today?” he asked.

“We’re doing phonics,” Gelsinger answered, pointing to the whiteboard at the front.

The word of the week, scrawled in big, black letters, was “DISASSEMBLE: To take apart, to come apart, to disperse/scatter.”

Gelsinger fixated on the definition. It was, he later said, an apt summary of what might happen to Aspire................

An after-school program in Trump’s backyard struggles to survive DOGE cuts​

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/06/02/americorps-cuts-doge-trump-after-school-virginia/

 

[Optimus Prime]

After a months-long freeze on hiring new federal employees and the Elon Musk-led DOGE cuts to the government workforce, the Trump administration is ready to resume civil service hiring — as long as the applicants answer a few essay questions about their level of loyalty to the president and his mission.

The Office of Personnel Management last week quietly published a memorandum authored by Vince Haley, the White House’s head of domestic policy that was addressed to the head or acting head of every agency across the entire executive branch.

According to the White House’s directive, a copy of which was reviewed by The Independent, anyone applying for a civil service position at entry level or above — including such jobs as nurses, janitors, economists and lawyers, among others — must respond to a series of essay questions before they can even be considered for an interview.

The “merit hiring plan” lays out in detail how to implement a January executive order signed by Trump to “prioritize recruitment of individuals committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.”……..

White House asks new job seekers to write Trump loyalty essays

The Office of Personnel Management wants potential civil servants to say how they’d ‘help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities’

www.independent.co.uk

 

[MT15]

After a months-long freeze on hiring new federal employees and the Elon Musk-led DOGE cuts to the government workforce, the Trump administration is ready to resume civil service hiring — as long as the applicants answer a few essay questions about their level of loyalty to the president and his mission.

The Office of Personnel Management last week quietly published a memorandum authored by Vince Haley, the White House’s head of domestic policy that was addressed to the head or acting head of every agency across the entire executive branch.

According to the White House’s directive, a copy of which was reviewed by The Independent, anyone applying for a civil service position at entry level or above — including such jobs as nurses, janitors, economists and lawyers, among others — must respond to a series of essay questions before they can even be considered for an interview.

The “merit hiring plan” lays out in detail how to implement a January executive order signed by Trump to “prioritize recruitment of individuals committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.”……..

White House asks new job seekers to write Trump loyalty essays

The Office of Personnel Management wants potential civil servants to say how they’d ‘help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities’

www.independent.co.uk

I don’t see a loyalty test standing up a lawsuit. And I don’t believe Trump is capable of doing this in a way that won’t get it flagged as unconstitutional.

 

[Optimus Prime]

In March, operatives with DOGE, erratic billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, seized control of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), a congressionally funded and quasi-governmental – but fully independent – nonprofit organization, following a dramatic standoff with staffers.

As the DOGE team forced their way into the institute’s gleaming Moshe Safdie-designed concrete-and-glass headquarters at the northwest corner of the National Mall, local police and FBI agents ejected everyone from the building, including institute president George Moose, a career diplomat who served for 30-plus years under Republican and Democratic administrations alike.

The institute was established in 1984 by Republican president Ronald Reagan with a stated mission to advance international stability and promote global conflict resolution.

Still, less than a month into Donald Trump’s latest term as president, he issued an executive order taking aim at USIP as “unnecessary.”

DOGE then swiftly fired USIP’s workforce and replaced its board with MAGA loyalists, after which the purported cost-cutting agency locked the doors to $500 million structure and essentially walked away – attracting rats and roaches and letting conditions erode to such a point that the facility will now likely require hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs, according to USIP chief of security Colin O’Brien.

O’Brien, along with a contract engineer, was the first to thoroughly inspect the institute’s building last month after a federal judge declared DOGE’s takeover illegal, ruling its actions as “null and void.”

O’Brien, a U.S. Army veteran who then worked in law enforcement before joining USIP in August 2023, said what he found was, in a word, “offensive.”

The offices that were abandoned for two months looked like a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie, frozen in time, with everything left exactly as it was when the house was cleaned out, according to O’Brien.

And this, he said, was precisely the problem.

“Anyone who manages large commercial buildings understands that maintenance is not something you can just stop doing for two months,” O’Brien told The Independent. “After DOGE took over, they canceled a lot of contracts and critical functions stopped happening.”

Rodents became a problem because DOGEemployees neglected to clear out any of the food left on the premises after taking over, O’Brien explained. USIP had a cafe managed by a contractor, with food being stored onsite, he said.

Additionally, O’Brien said, USIP personnel had food in refrigerators throughout the building, along with snack items they didn’t have a chance to remove from desks and cabinets before DOGE summarily booted them from the property.

Over the next eight weeks, DOGE wouldn't let any USIP staff in the building, and didn't do anything to prevent the moldering food from spoiling further, which quickly attracted vermin.……..

‘Offensive’: Peace Institute security chief on vermin infestation caused by DOGE

Exclusive: Rodents swarmed the building after DOGE operatives failed to clear out the food left behind by booted staffers, institute security chief Colin O’Brien told The Independent

www.independent.co.uk

 

[DaveXA]

In March, operatives with DOGE, erratic billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, seized control of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), a congressionally funded and quasi-governmental – but fully independent – nonprofit organization, following a dramatic standoff with staffers.

As the DOGE team forced their way into the institute’s gleaming Moshe Safdie-designed concrete-and-glass headquarters at the northwest corner of the National Mall, local police and FBI agents ejected everyone from the building, including institute president George Moose, a career diplomat who served for 30-plus years under Republican and Democratic administrations alike.

The institute was established in 1984 by Republican president Ronald Reagan with a stated mission to advance international stability and promote global conflict resolution.

Still, less than a month into Donald Trump’s latest term as president, he issued an executive order taking aim at USIP as “unnecessary.”

DOGE then swiftly fired USIP’s workforce and replaced its board with MAGA loyalists, after which the purported cost-cutting agency locked the doors to $500 million structure and essentially walked away – attracting rats and roaches and letting conditions erode to such a point that the facility will now likely require hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs, according to USIP chief of security Colin O’Brien.

O’Brien, along with a contract engineer, was the first to thoroughly inspect the institute’s building last month after a federal judge declared DOGE’s takeover illegal, ruling its actions as “null and void.”

O’Brien, a U.S. Army veteran who then worked in law enforcement before joining USIP in August 2023, said what he found was, in a word, “offensive.”

The offices that were abandoned for two months looked like a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie, frozen in time, with everything left exactly as it was when the house was cleaned out, according to O’Brien.

And this, he said, was precisely the problem.

“Anyone who manages large commercial buildings understands that maintenance is not something you can just stop doing for two months,” O’Brien told The Independent. “After DOGE took over, they canceled a lot of contracts and critical functions stopped happening.”

Rodents became a problem because DOGEemployees neglected to clear out any of the food left on the premises after taking over, O’Brien explained. USIP had a cafe managed by a contractor, with food being stored onsite, he said.

Additionally, O’Brien said, USIP personnel had food in refrigerators throughout the building, along with snack items they didn’t have a chance to remove from desks and cabinets before DOGE summarily booted them from the property.

Over the next eight weeks, DOGE wouldn't let any USIP staff in the building, and didn't do anything to prevent the moldering food from spoiling further, which quickly attracted vermin.……..

‘Offensive’: Peace Institute security chief on vermin infestation caused by DOGE

Exclusive: Rodents swarmed the building after DOGE operatives failed to clear out the food left behind by booted staffers, institute security chief Colin O’Brien told The Independent

www.independent.co.uk

Those DOGes can fork right off. Mobsters the lot of them. They've never, ever been about efficiency. And anyone dumb enough to believe the crap they're spewing deserves every bit of derision they get. Piss on em all.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Staff across federal agencies said that red tape implemented by the Department of Government Efficiency is wasting more time than ever.

Workers at 19 agencies revealed how sweeping changes brought in by DOGE —Elon Musk’s team that pledged to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse— have instead resulted in delays for the most basic transactions and projects put on hold for months, The Washington Post reports.

“People are so demoralized, anxious and sleep deprived,” a NASA employee told the outlet. “Nobody is working at top efficiency.”


Employees at the State Department, Social Security Administration, National Institutes of Health and the Federal Aviation Administration were among those feeling the strain as DOGE laid off staff and brought in new hurdles, impacting financial and policy protocols.

One staffer at the State Department told The Post that hiring an international vendor for an event required multiple layers of additional sign off because of the administration’s requirement to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion from government.

The vendor refused to sign paperwork confirming that it did not promote DEI, resulting in the staffer having to go through several rounds of sign-off to secure the contract. The process would have typically taken a day but instead took an entire week, according to the outlet.

In response, the State Department told The Post that it would “never apologize for putting processes in place to ensure taxpayer dollars are used correctly.”

While many federal workers told the newspaper they supported scrutiny of how the government spends taxpayer money, the reality was running “counter to the goal of efficiency.”……..

DOGE red tape is wasting more time than ever, federal workers say

Ataffers at 19 agencies revealed how red tape brought in by DOGE has instead resulted in delays for the most basic transactions

www.independent.co.uk

 

[DaveXA]

Staff across federal agencies said that red tape implemented by the Department of Government Efficiency is wasting more time than ever.

Workers at 19 agencies revealed how sweeping changes brought in by DOGE —Elon Musk’s team that pledged to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse— have instead resulted in delays for the most basic transactions and projects put on hold for months, The Washington Post reports.

“People are so demoralized, anxious and sleep deprived,” a NASA employee told the outlet. “Nobody is working at top efficiency.”


Employees at the State Department, Social Security Administration, National Institutes of Health and the Federal Aviation Administration were among those feeling the strain as DOGE laid off staff and brought in new hurdles, impacting financial and policy protocols.

One staffer at the State Department told The Post that hiring an international vendor for an event required multiple layers of additional sign off because of the administration’s requirement to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion from government.

The vendor refused to sign paperwork confirming that it did not promote DEI, resulting in the staffer having to go through several rounds of sign-off to secure the contract. The process would have typically taken a day but instead took an entire week, according to the outlet.

In response, the State Department told The Post that it would “never apologize for putting processes in place to ensure taxpayer dollars are used correctly.”

While many federal workers told the newspaper they supported scrutiny of how the government spends taxpayer money, the reality was running “counter to the goal of efficiency.”……..

DOGE red tape is wasting more time than ever, federal workers say

Ataffers at 19 agencies revealed how red tape brought in by DOGE has instead resulted in delays for the most basic transactions

www.independent.co.uk

DOGE has been precisely the opposite of efficiency and has actually added more costs to run things. More restrictions does not equal more efficiency. It’s always been about the executive branch throwing their weight around to show who’s boss. It’s disgusting and people keep swallowing that horsesheet whole. MAGAts are so gullible.

 

[MT15]

It’s on purpose, IMO. They’re trying to demoralize everyone enough so that they quit and they can either then hire flunkies and completely control everything.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

 

[fooferdoggie]

After a months-long freeze on hiring new federal employees and the Elon Musk-led DOGE cuts to the government workforce, the Trump administration is ready to resume civil service hiring — as long as the applicants answer a few essay questions about their level of loyalty to the president and his mission.

The Office of Personnel Management last week quietly published a memorandum authored by Vince Haley, the White House’s head of domestic policy that was addressed to the head or acting head of every agency across the entire executive branch.

According to the White House’s directive, a copy of which was reviewed by The Independent, anyone applying for a civil service position at entry level or above — including such jobs as nurses, janitors, economists and lawyers, among others — must respond to a series of essay questions before they can even be considered for an interview.

The “merit hiring plan” lays out in detail how to implement a January executive order signed by Trump to “prioritize recruitment of individuals committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.”……..

White House asks new job seekers to write Trump loyalty essays

The Office of Personnel Management wants potential civil servants to say how they’d ‘help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities’

www.independent.co.uk

this is why we have shirt hires because its only about loyalty and nothing else.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Most days, Fredrick Womack and his team can be found scattered throughout Jackson, Mississippi, talking to groups of young Black men and teens – whether they’re working, which bills need to be paid at home and if any brewing conflicts are at risk of turning violent.

Through these conversations with young men, who are both perpetrators and victims of much of the city’s violence, Womack hopes he can help steer them in a different direction.

Womack, 51, is the co-founder of the non-profit Operation Good, which, in addition to this work on the streets, hosts a youth summer program and trash cleanups, and helps teen boys find odd jobs, like cutting lawns, so they can earn a few dollars instead of resorting to crime for income.

It also offers critical resources for the community, like buying school clothes for kids and paying utility bills for families that can’t afford them through its It Takes a Village program.

“That is the main underlying factor for violence,” Womack said, “people living in impoverished situations.”

It’s critical work in a city with outsize violence and poverty. Last year, 111 people were killed in the predominantly Black city of 140,000.

That year, Jackson had a homicide rate nearly double that of the rest of Mississippi, and 16 times higher than the rest of the US.

At the same time, more than a quarter of its residents live below the poverty line, more than double the national average.

Womack’s work has made a difference: in the years since the pandemic – which saw nationwide surges of gun violence – the homicide rate started to tick down, a change city officials have attributed, in part, to the work of community-based groups like Operation Good, and their collaboration with the police.

But now that work is in jeopardy, as Operation Good is among the many gun violence prevention programs across the US whose work will be significantly hampered – or eliminated altogether – thanks to sweeping federal cuts.

“It’s unfortunate because of the progress that’s being made,” Womack said.

In April, the Trump administration cut more than $800m in grants managed by the justice department’s office of justice programs (OJP) to organizations that prevent and respond to gun violence, sexual assault and hate crimes; support foster youth; and provide re-entry services. Many, like Operation Good, work in underserved Black and Latino communities.

Operation Good had a two-year $250,000 grant terminated, more than 20% of their annual budget.

The money would have been used to support a summer program, transforming an abandoned building into a youth recreation center, offering stipends for teens and young men, and tracking the impact of the group’s work.

Operation Good has so far received $90,000 of the grant money before the cancellation.

Supporting community-based violence intervention had been a priority for the Biden administration, which established the first-ever White House office of gun violence prevention and made hundreds of millions of dollars in grants available through American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act dollars.

Trump’s justice department, meanwhile, said the terminated funds will be reallocated toward law enforcement agencies and other “Department priorities”……..

‘Gonna have to hear mothers and sisters cry’: Trump’s funding cuts leave at-risk youth vulnerable to gun violence

Mississippi’s Operation Good engaged teens in a range of programs, protecting them from crime – but that work is now in jeopardy

www.theguardian.com