Trump's DERP State

toomuchbaloney · Jan 31

Tweety said:

I'm trying to keep an open mind about them going to agencies and reviewing staffing, crippling regulations, unproductive positions, and generalized waste, etc. But sending out letters to two million workers seems a bit off. Maybe enough people will take the offer to make layoff less of an issue I would be worried though if I were your friend as positions are going to be eliminated.

Was your friend given preferential hiring because he was a Veteran kind of like a DEI hire? Did other qualified people get passed over because he was a Veteran and was able to get moved ahead of the line?

He's a middle aged white male. Yes. Veterans get deferential treatment in VA hiring similar to indigenous people getting first shot at jobs in native run and owned organizations.

Isn't it clever the way that the military is going to treat female members of the military needing reproductive Healthcare?

toomuchbaloney · Jan 31

https://denvergazette.com/news/nation-world/senior-u-s-treasury-official-david-lebryk-to-leave-agency-soon-wapo-reports/article_e41d17c5-5fc3-55fd-8a3b-a80d7dc4e961.html

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David Lebryk, the top-ranking career U.S. Treasury Department official, will leave following a clash with allies of billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk over payment system access, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

The report, citing three people with knowledge of the matter, said Lebryk and Musk's surrogates clashed over access to a sensitive system used to pay out more than $6 trillion a year in Social Security and Medicare benefits as well as federal salaries, government contract payments and tax refunds.

It was unclear why the team tied to Musk, who U.S. President Donald Trump has tasked with overhauling the government, sought access to the payment system.

No, it's not unclear why this Trump DEI hire wants access to that payment system.

toomuchbaloney · Jan 31

Beerman said:

His friend already on retirement benefits being provided by the federal government and now being offered a severance package to leave a nonessential job. He doesn't have a reason to be "worried".

It's nice that you know so much about his specific situation to offer that opinion. I guess, even if you didn't know diddly about my friend, you probably are the best person to decide what others should worry about relative to their employment in this era of Trump. It's interesting that you think that veterans don't need an advocate when accessing Healthcare.

Thanks for letting us know what we should and shouldn't worry about. I will be sure to let Chris know your thinking about his employment wIth the VA. I bet he'll appreciate it. Haha

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jan 31

Beerman said:

His friend already on retirement benefits being provided by the federal government and now being offered a severance package to leave a nonessential job. He doesn't have a reason to be "worried".

Sounds to me like he want to keep his job and is worried about it. It's not for me to tell him how he should feel about it.

We have a VA here and they offer retirement, healthcare and lots of time off. Maybe he wants to put that time in and get all that.

Military retirement isn't always a livable wage. My father retired after 20 years in and was a young man when he retired. He needed to find another day job to support his family. At 91 his military retirement and social security are enough to support him and mom and I'm thankful for the healthcare. Being a retired war veteran is sweet.

One worry might be that if someone says no to the offer, will their jobs at a later date be eliminated.

I'm all for a reduction in force, especially for jobs that might not be essential to cut spending and red tape, but realize they are human beings with goals of their own.

toomuchbaloney · Jan 31

Tweety said:

Sounds to me like he want to keep his job and is worried about it. It's not for me to tell him how he should feel about it.

We have a VA here and they offer retirement, healthcare and lots of time off. Maybe he wants to put that time in and get all that.

Military retirement isn't always a livable wage. My father retired after 20 years in and was a young man when he retired. He needed to find another day job to support his family. At 91 his military retirement and social security are enough to support him and mom and I'm thankful for the healthcare. Being a retired war veteran is sweet.

I guess the worry about be that if someone says no to the offer, will their jobs at a later date be eliminated.

I'm all for a reduction in force, especially for jobs that might not be essential, but realize there are human beings with goals of their own.

It seems that Trump voters don't express or feel much empathy for those who might be adversely affected by Trump's policies. That is fitting with the objection to the brief sermon on mercy and compassion directed at Trump. It all fits into a recognizable pattern.

heron, ASN, RN · Jan 31

toomuchbaloney said:

My friend sent me this.

He works for the federal government at the VA as a retired AF veteran. He has been offered a severance and wonders if his job as patient advocate will be eliminated.

Chaos, uncertainty and dysfunction of the federal government appears to be the objective of this crazy administration.

Given Trump's record of (dis)honoring his contractual obligations, is anyone naive enough to believe those payouts will actually happen as promised?

toomuchbaloney · Jan 31

heron said:

Given Trump's record of (dis)honoring his contractual obligations, is anyone naive enough to believe those payouts will actually happen as promised?

I wouldn't trust them. Trump is a liar. Musk is a liar.

I realize however that I attached the wrong document.

toomuchbaloney · Jan 31

Tweety said:

Sounds to me like he want to keep his job and is worried about it. It's not for me to tell him how he should feel about it.

We have a VA here and they offer retirement, healthcare and lots of time off. Maybe he wants to put that time in and get all that.

Military retirement isn't always a livable wage. My father retired after 20 years in and was a young man when he retired. He needed to find another day job to support his family. At 91 his military retirement and social security are enough to support him and mom and I'm thankful for the healthcare. Being a retired war veteran is sweet.

One worry might be that if someone says no to the offer, will their jobs at a later date be eliminated.

I'm all for a reduction in force, especially for jobs that might not be essential to cut spending and red tape, but realize they are human beings with goals of their own.

Getting rid of thousands of federal employees will negatively impact service delivery to the American people and will be economically disruptive to families and communities.

heron, ASN, RN · Jan 31

toomuchbaloney said:

Getting rid of thousands of federal employees will negatively impact service delivery to the American people and will be economically disruptive to families and communities.

Cui bono?

Always a good question.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Feb 1

Oh, its getting BETTER!!

How are NON_GOVERNMENT HIRES without FBI background check getting access to government computers?? Musk's crew isn't using any of the federal cybersecurity protocols. Trump team has installed outsiders, including a person with ties to Musk and a top FBI critic, in the FBI director's office. This is a move without precedent in the post-Hoover era. Fascist take-over of the United States??. The purge beginning...

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An unelected, erratic, ketamine-addled billionaire with far right/white nationalist views has taken control of the personnel and payment systems of the United States government. Not an exaggeration, not hyperbole.

https://bsky.app/profile/brendannyhan.bsky.social/post/3lh2vwsdrk22t

Reuters 1/31/25

Exclusive: Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say

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WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials....

The two officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said some senior career employees at OPM have had their access revoked to some of the department's data systems.

The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said.

"We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems," one of the officials said. "That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications."

Officials affected by the move can still log on and access functions such as email but can no longer see the massive datasets that cover every facet of the federal workforce.

Musk, OPM, representatives of the new team, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.....

NY Times 1/31/25

The Treasury official who oversees payments resigns suddenly.

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The Treasury Department official who oversees the government's vast payment system abruptly retired on Friday, according to an email viewed by The New York Times, after Elon Musk deployed engineers to the agency to find a way to shut off funds to various projects.

David Lebryk was the top career official at the Treasury Department, and served as the acting secretary for a few days before Scott Bessent's confirmation. He led a team responsible for making more than one billion payments on behalf of the federal government each year, cutting checks to Social Security recipients, government employees, contractors and others. Colleagues at the Treasury Department had not been expecting him to retire soon. The typically routine process of sending and receiving government funds has become a focus for Mr. Musk and his team of aides at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. They have spoken to others about their desire to find dramatic ways to cut costs, including ways that don't require congressional authority.

Influential people working on Mr. Musk's behalf on these economic matters have included Baris Akis, a venture capitalist who during the transition has focused on the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service but is not in a full-time government role, and Tom Krause, a software chief executive. Mr. Krause has also led interviews of current U.S. Digital Service employees, many of whom are expecting to be laid off after the technology unit was renamed the U.S. DOGE Service.

A spokesman for the Treasury Department declined to comment.

NY Times 1/29/25

Elon Musk and His Allies Storm Into Washington and Race to Reshape It

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Elon Musk had arrived at the Office of Personnel Management, a mundane-sounding agency with vast power overseeing the federal civilian work force. During President Trump's first term, the nation's leader used the agency to enforce loyalty to his agenda. During his second term, it appears Mr. Musk may try to use the office to enforce loyalty to his own agenda.

Mr. Musk has stormed into Washington with a host of friends and paid employees, determined to leave his imprint quickly. Never before in modern times has someone so rich played such a hands-on role in American government, with Mr. Musk making himself omnipresent in Washington since flying there for Mr. Trump's inauguration. His plane has not left....

Several of Mr. Musk's top aides have landed senior adviser roles at the Office of Personnel Management. They include Brian Bjelde, a human resources executive at SpaceX who has identified himself as the company's 14th employee and who played a role in Mr. Musk's takeover of Twitter, where he helped carry out widespread layoffs. Another arrival is Riccardo Biasini, an executive at the Boring Company, Mr. Musk's tunneling company, who also joined Mr. Musk's team at Twitter.

But the most empowered of Mr. Musk's allies at the Office of Personnel Management has been Anthony Armstrong, a top technology banker at Morgan Stanley who worked on the billionaire's acquisition of Twitter in 2022....

...At the General Services Administration, Mr. Musk has installed a Tesla software engineer, Thomas Shedd, as its director of "Technology Transformation Services.”

Another Musk ally, Amanda Scales, who previously worked for the billionaire and before that for Mr. Akis, has played a particularly outward-facing role at the Office of Personnel Management. Federal agencies were asked to send Ms. Scales a list of the workers who are still on probationary status — and are therefore easier to fire.

Ms. Scales has been appointed as the agency's chief of staff at a time when it has no full-time director, and she has faced much anger online as the face of Mr. Trump's proposed reductions to the federal work force....

Washington Post 1/31/25

Interim U.S. attorney fires more than 2 dozen Jan. 6 prosecutors in D.C.

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Trump administration dismisses former Capitol riot prosecutors recently hired to permanent positions and still under probationary periods

ABC News 1/31/25

Trump administration compiling list of FBI agents to potentially fire or force out:

Quote

The Trump administration is compiling a list of agents and other FBI officials from around the country who they believe should be fired or forced to resign in the coming days, several sources told ABC News.

Trump administration officials are especially looking at whether anyone tied in any way to former special counsel Jack Smith's Jan. 6 and classified documents investigations of President Donald Trump should be included in the firings, according to the sources. They are also looking for anyone who may be resistant to carrying out some of the administration's new initiatives, sources said.

heron, ASN, RN · Feb 1

Looks like the looting has started. And BLM is nowhere to be found. Imagine that!

toomuchbaloney · Feb 1

NRSKarenRN said:

Oh, its getting BETTER!!

How are NON_GOVERNMENT HIRES without FBI background check getting access to government computers? Musk's crew isn't using any of the federal cybersecurity protocols. Trump team has installed outsiders, including a person with ties to Musk and a top FBI critic, in the FBI director's office. This is a move without precedent in the post-Hoover era. Fascist take-over of the United States?. The purge beginning...

Reuters 1/31/25

Exclusive: Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say

NY Times 1/31/25

The Treasury official who oversees payments resigns suddenly.

NY Times 1/29/25

Elon Musk and His Allies Storm Into Washington and Race to Reshape It

Washington Post 1/31/25

Interim U.S. attorney fires more than 2 dozen Jan. 6 prosecutors in D.C.

ABC News 1/31/25

Trump administration compiling list of FBI agents to potentially fire or force out:

It's definitely a fascist takeover. Trump's voters will be thrilled about it as long as Trump is at the top of the pile.