This is very common for Muskolini, any press contacts are often let go, makes obtaining damning information impossible/improbable. None of his companies staff a PR department as far as I know. Why anybody puts up with this guy and his companies is beyond me.
Same thing happened with the Twitter takeover.
All the official, PR/Communications staff were fired or quit, nobody had any idea what any actual policy changes were real or not.
They are literally fucking up entire US government.
That's the point
Yep:
“I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” — Grover Norquist
That was 25 years ago. It's always been their plan. They want to dismantle democracy and replace it with a corporatocracy, oligarchy, or similar authoritarian structure.
Part of the GOP plan. First fuck up government so completely it doesn't work, then scream that government doesn't work and should be defunded and shut down.
Exactly. Destroying the government is thier wet dream.
Well, not all of the government. Just the parts that could hold them accountable for anything they do.
I think at this point, it's all of the government. If it can be privatized, why wouldn't they push to eliminate that sector of the government and then install their own corporate entities?
Sure, they'll privatize what they can, but they need a way to keep those corporate entities in line. They don't want to give up their own power, and their power lies in their position in government. If they go too far, they risk being thrown under the bus themselves. They'll need to leave the treasury intact, at least, along with some kind of enforcement arm. Maybe we'll see some drastic restructuring of the military soon.
I think the driving forces are more likely sociopathic corporate interests that want deregulation and foreign adversaries who want to see the US government dismantled (and allies driven away, and growing social division)
Not entirely true.
All these firings are likely going to result in classaction lawsuits, and the judiciary (so far) has been very responsive to Trump's power grabs. You'll recall they shut him down on DOGE's Treasury incursion, birthright citizenship, and the funding freeze. (Among others)
It may seem like everything's fucked up, but that's only because your social media feed and executive orders create chaos faster than the judiciary can check it.
Yeah that's why I'm trying to take a more passive approach and only monitor the situation *gestures vaguely*.
I can't affect anything that happens at the national level anyway, so all I can do is be on the lookout for harm to myself or my loved ones and do my best to mitigate it.
We have FOUR MORE YEARS of this, and after that its going to take decades to get back to where we were two months ago. So, buckle in, I hope you weren't hoping for any kind of societal progess or innovation.
We have FOUR MORE YEARS of this
Not necessarily. Clinton, Dubya, Obama, and Trump all went into office with Congress and lost it at the mid-terms, and as we saw with the Muslim ban, Trump's a bit of a bitch when the judiciary stands up to him. It's just a matter of time until these attempts start to slow down.
The downside is that Dems rule as conservatives too, so it's likely whatever the judiciary doesn't reverse will be permanent.
But, as we saw with similar activities in the McCarthyist era, the damage is reversible. (But I know that's not much consolation, but it's consolation to me to know that this isn't the first time someone has tried to brute force fascism in government and been stopped.)
I don't think you realize just how long it takes to hire federal employees, or reconstitute entire agencies (like CFPB).
tens of thousands of people forced out, thousands of research grants and projects canceled, hundreds of programs stifled...
this is the end of the federal government as we know it, and it will take a generation (20+ yrs) of back to back Democrat administrations to rebuild it. that's not going to happen.
the oligarchs won dude. kids growing up today will never know how much has been lost. the corporate media will make sure all they know is 'we've always been at war with eastasia''
that’s not going to happen
Possibly, but I know it's already happened at least once in our history. We can speculate about the future all we want, but the past is a helpful guide.
I'm hoping that too. either way, I'm not advocating hopelessness or doomerism. I'll be working harder than ever this year to decouple my life from corporations and govt reliance. community building, strengthening friendships, helping others when I can. it's going to be a long road ahead and we won't survive as isolated individuals.
Clinton, Dubya, Obama, and Trump all went into office with Congress and lost it at the mid-terms, and as we saw with the Muslim ban,
Lost what at the mid-terms? Congress? You think he needs Congress to do all of this shit? Have you been paying attention?
There is no rule-of-law. No structure to these systems. It's just pure defiance at whatever "social norms" are holding this house of cards together.
Nobody is putting up a reasonable fight with these EOs, so they just happen. Elon just wanders into government buildings and systems without criminal charges. No police action. No hard punishments.
And whatever fighting back is occurring in the courts, where we will never see a settlement before the courts themselves get dismantled before our eyes.
We're fucked. Stop using past history as a guide.
All these firings are likely going to result in classaction lawsuits, and the judiciary (so far) has been very responsive to Trump’s power grabs. You’ll recall they shut him down on DOGE’s Treasury incursion, birthright citizenship, and the funding freeze. (Among others)
Yeah, good luck with that in 2-4 years, when those lawsuits pan out. And then they get appealed to the Supreme Court, where the GOP-majority lapdogs say "yessir" and rule in favor of chaos.
We couldn't even get Trump convicted of criminal charges in time. What makes you think the judiciary is going to save us?
One thing I would like to say for people who aren't familiar and won't read the article:
Every federal agency has its own FOIA team, in this case the OPM FOIA team was slaughtered and flayed for sport. It's possible other agency's FOIA teams were removed, but also more likely that they still exist. This wasn't a blanket death of all FOIA, just the death of arguably the most important FOIA team
OPM is the most important? I don't even know that acronym
I would argue FOIA requests on the intelligence community is the most important
Office of Personnel Management, basically oversees all US Gov employees.
Intelligence Communities work with classified stuff more than anyone. You may only FOIA unclassified stuff so the information and documents you can FOIA is limited
OPM is the most important at the moment as they are the office primarily under attack and being abused by Elon Musk and DOGE. They are the vehicle that Musk is using and abusing to try and destroy all Federal workers across every agency.
Why not post the actual CNN article? https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/18/politics/opm-privacy-team-fired/index.html
Common dreams headline is funnier and more succinct.
So it seems like CNN doesn't follow the news of the day do they? To my recollection Trump had DOGE actions covered under the Presidential Records system so they are classified for a number of years and not allowed to be requested by FOIA requests until that time passes. So as of now their request would just be denied anyway.
You know, Totally Transparent Government™©® things... Definitely not doing anything wrong that needs to be hidden right?
Slight clarification, presidential records are subject to foia a few years after the presidency. But yes, transparent in the way that Elon "jail CNN for badmouthing doge" musk is a free speech absolutist.
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) applies to the Presidential Records Act (PRA) five years after the President has left office.
https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/presidential-records-act
EDIT: thinking about this more, you can definitely foia the clearances he had from SpaceX contracts. You know, back when he smoked weed on Joe Rogans podcast and got absolutely no consequences.
I mean, next next Democratic president can declassify them (that is, if there is a next election)
Holy shit, I called it.
I thought they’d have Congress do it, but this was more efficient, so yay?
Who needs Congress when the supreme Court is behind you?
They already know the Supreme Court is too slow. By the time it lands on their desk, the damage was already done a long time ago.
💩 coming soon
🎶 Doo doo doo🎶 its an oligarchy 🎶 doo doo doo 🎶 it's happening right now 🎶 tell your friends.
I'm confused with the "doo doo doo", so I'm just gonna read your comment to the tune of "baby shark"
Here I'll add the notes emoji
I appreciate your enthusiasm, but this isnt new. The US was founded by Oligarchs. It always has been an oligarchy.
What's new is the slip into fascism. We haven't seen that since between the two world wars (read Smedly Butler)
This was planned and on purpose.
It's hard to keep track of everything getting killed.
With this one now the transparency they're touting so much has been cut off at source. What next?
How convenient, considering one of the extremely few checks we have available on DOGE destructive powers is FOIA requests.
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