Law be damned, Trump asserts unilateral control over executive branch, federal service (7 Viewers)

It’s also obvious to me that people around Trump aren’t even informing him of what they are doing. He doesn’t care about anything but himself anyway.

These zealots are just moving on their own and very quickly. We are going to need somebody to step up and I don’t see any likely candidates to do so.

MT15 said:

The official OPM account that Musk has taken control of? Musk is intending to stop all federal payments that Trump doesn’t like. Musk and his employees have basically invaded federal agencies and are accessing their data and computer systems.

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Source? I have not heard anything about Musk actually taking control of OPM's official HR email account.

DaveXA said:

Source? I have not heard anything about Musk actually taking control of OPM's official HR email account.

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wardorican said:

Are they govt employees? Contractors? I thought Musk was only an advisor. This seems way beyond that.

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I just don’t understand what’s going on

Jesus Christ

RobF said:

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-aides-lock-government-workers-out-computer-systems-us-agency-sources-say-2025-01-31/

The acting head of OPM, Charles Ezell, has been sending memos to the entire government workforce since Trump took office, including Tuesday's offering federal employees the chance to quit with eight months pay.​

"No-one here knew that the memos were coming out. We are finding out about these memos the same time as the rest of the world," one of the officials said.​

Among the group that now runs OPM is Amanda Scales, a former Musk employee, who is now OPM's chief of staff. In some memos sent out on Jan. 20 and Jan. 21 by Ezell, including one directing agencies to identify federal workers on probationary periods, agency heads were asked to email Scales at her OPM email address.​

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Yeah, I'm aware of that. But that's not Musk taking control of the OPM HR email account. That said, I do agree that who has been taking things over makes me pretty nervous.

So could he be starting that process of freezing govt funding?

superchuck500 said:

I just don’t understand what’s going on

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Idk if this is real, but...

I honestly don’t know what to believe anymore. But I know I don’t trust Musk to do the right thing, only the thing that will help him. And I am damn sure Trump doesn’t even know what the right thing is.

GrandAdmiral said:

Just remember that you live in Alabama so it'll be much of the same as the orange leader.

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I won’t rely on Alabama’s information. I will seek it from blue states. And

This whole view point is so forked up.

This should get the government sued, it doesn’t sound legal:

“Some federal employees at the Education Department have been placed on administrative leave for previously attending a diversity training.

Several employees began receiving leave notices late Friday and reported them to their local union president at the American Federation of Government Employees, confirmed Brittany Holder, deputy communications director at AFGE, which represents federal workers at the agency.”

MT15 said:

This should get the government sued, it doesn’t sound legal:

“Some federal employees at the Education Department have been placed on administrative leave for previously attending a diversity training.

Several employees began receiving leave notices late Friday and reported them to their local union president at the American Federation of Government Employees, confirmed Brittany Holder, deputy communications director at AFGE, which represents federal workers at the agency.”

Education Department employees placed on leave for attending diversity training — POLITICO

Several employees began receiving leave notices late Friday.

apple.news

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They'd have to fire or place on leave almost every federal employee because diversity training is part of the annual required training courses for most if not all federal employees.

During his first presidential term, Donald Trump signed a congressional act naming a federally funded observatory after the late astronomer Vera Rubin.

The act celebrated her landmark research on dark matter — the invisible, mysterious substance that makes up much of the universe — and noted that she was an outspoken advocate for the equal treatment and representation of women in science.

“Vera herself offers an excellent example of what can happen when more minds participate in science,” the observatory’s website said of Rubin — up until recently.

By Monday morning, a section of her online biography titled, “She advocated for women in science,” was gone.

It reappeared in a stripped-down form later that day amid a chaotic federal government response to Trump’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

While there are far more seismic changes afoot in America than the revision of three paragraphs on a website, the page’s edit trail provides an opportunity to peer into how institutions and agencies are navigating the new administration’s intolerance of anything perceived as “woke” and illuminates a calculation officials must make in answering a wide-open question:

How far is too far when it comes to acknowledging inequality and advocating against it?

“Vera Rubin, whose career began in the 1960s, faced a lot of barriers simply because she was a woman,” the altered section of the bio began. “She persisted in studying science when her male advisors told her she shouldn't,” and she balanced her career with raising children, a rarity at the time.

“Her strength in overcoming these challenges is admirable on its own, but Vera worked even harder to help other women navigate what was, during her career, a very male-dominated field.”

That first paragraph disappeared temporarily, then reappeared, untouched, midday Monday.

That was not the case for the paragraph that followed: “Science is still a male-dominated field, but Rubin Observatory is working to increase participation from women and other people who have historically been excluded from science.

Rubin Observatory welcomes everyone who wants to contribute to science, and takes steps to lower or eliminate barriers that exclude those with less privilege.”

That paragraph was gone as of Thursday afternoon, as was the assertion that Rubin shows what can happen when “more minds” participate in science. The word “more” was replaced with “many,” shifting the meaning.…….

Germany lost a war due, in part, to a brain drain which their anti-Semitic policies caused.

Trump is leading this country down an ever increasingly steep path to oblivion.