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Trump's Second Term

I thought this was quite a good article on the Trump/Musk/OPM attempt to bait federal workers into resigning and how insane it is....

First of all, he points out that people MAY indeed be tempted...

Why federal employees might be tempted to leave​

For the last week, federal employees have seen wave after wave of announcements that has made their job less secure and the prospect of staying with the federal government less appealing. One federal employee I spoke with compared it to going through the seven stages of grief.

In this context, a severance offer looks like a rare carrot after a lot of stick.

For feds who value remote work, and are told they must return to the office full time, this exit offer will be attractive. For those who suspect they will be fired in the future (such as those being put on administrative leave currently), this will be attractive. For those who did not sign up to be political appointees, but will be forced to do so, this will be attractive. For those worried they might be forcibly relocated, reassigned to duties inconsistent with their skills, or otherwise put in work conditions that compel them to resign, this will be attractive. For those who can expect increasingly worse material work conditions in terms of pay and benefits, this will be attractive. For those who cannot see themselves dealing with four years of being abused by their employer, engaging in illegal actions, or serving an administration that seeks to undermine the mission that attracted them to public service, this will be attractive.

In short, the offer of a buyout will be attractive to many employees precisely because the Trump administration has made the prospect of staying so unattractive.
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But then, as mentioned above, there are some sneaky small-print catches in which people who take the offer might not actually get admin leave...

Their office *may* decided to lighten their workload, or put them on paid administrative leave, but there is no guarantee of that. They remain federal employees. This makes it difficult for such employees to seek other formal work in the meantime, since their federal employer could call them to complete a full work week at any time.
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Also, it hardly made Xitter a better place, unless you are a fan of extreme content and racism, which you can probably get on 4Chan anyway...

This is very bad for state capacity​

Whatever the offer means for federal employees, it is unquestionably bad for you as a member of the public. To extend the Twitter-as-government metaphor: Musk’s X costs less than Twitter, but who actually thinks it is a better experience, apart from the far right and bot-enthusiasts? It no longer pretends to serve everyone, but instead has been converted into a vessel for Musk and his cronies to force feed their increasingly radical views to users. If you don’t like it, at least you can leave. Many have, including myself. But with government, we don’t really have that option. Lower administrative capacity affects us all.
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Besides, such a blanket offer might lead the best people to leave and the ones that they may have hoped to get rid of to hang around....

In the midst of massive uncertainty, the federal government is encouraging the employees with the best skills to exit public service. The Trump administration is making no meaningful effort to sort out high and low performers, or to manage the outflow of staff. What if the most knowledgable employees decide to go? What if the majority of some units decide they have had enough? Who performs the tasks that are left behind?
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Anyway, it's worth reading, in my humble opinion.
 
Brainster said:
Didn't see it before it blew up. But when I saw the full clip (including the "Thank you, my heart goes out to you," which immediately follows the supposed Nazi salute) it was obvious that however awkwardly staged it was, the intent was for him to figuratively rip out his heart and toss it to the crowd.
But let me flip it around and ask you why someone other than David Duke would give the Nazi salute. Is it (as some of the CT minded here have suggested) because he knows he can get away with it because dedicated Republicans like me (who voted for Harris and the Democrats in 2024--you know, those kinds of dedicated Republicans) will cover up for him? And so he can send a secret message out to the neo-Nutsos that he's on their side? See this is the part I don't get--what exactly would Musk gain from this?
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New Josh Johnson video:
"One thing that I like about Elon is that he always manages to quickly make the people that take up for him look super stupid, like, really dumb."
(Some of) Trump’s Wildest Executive Orders Explained (Josh Johnson on YouTube, Jan 29, 2025 - 40:28 min.)
21:03--> There were people that were, like, 'That was not a Nazi salut! He was throwing his heart out to the crowd!'
I'm, like, 'Well, he has a weird pitch'. Yeah, I mean, I always throw my heart like this, right? And he did it twice to make sure you knew what it was which is pretty wild.
One thing that I like about Elon, which is not many things, is that he always manages to quickly make the people that take up for him look super stupid, like really dumb, because so many people had so many different things. They came to his defense. It was several things at once.
It was, like, 'Guys, no, that was not a Nazi salute, okay? It was a Roman salute!'
Oh, my God, I'm, like, 'All right, uh, oh my, you ever split a hair before? Apparently, you don't know what that looks like.'
'Oh no, it wasn't a Roman salute! He has Asperger's!'
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Hypothetical: What would happen if they all resigned?

I imagine there would be some positions filled by Trump loyalist lap-dogs. But hardly millions of them expecting to be, or prepared to be, wage slaves on even more meagre incomes than the original workers had. Plus far fewer benefits and protections. And they would be expected to actually (gasp!) turn up and work! And properly do the job they were hired to do, like public facing stuff. The horror...

Services would collapse almost instantly. The effects and ramifications would be severe, and potentially crippling to all aspects of US life. Particularly badly hit would be the MAGA goons who live on handouts.

It seems this is what Trump wants. But is it what MAGA want?
 
JayUtah said:
Donald Trump always pays his people. Everyone knows that.


Trying to fire 2 million people could conceivably generate 2 million lawsuits for wrongful termination. Not everyone in the federal bureaucracy works "at the pleasure of the President." Fooling people into resigning instead with the promise of a payout gives people a chance to "pre-comply" and save the Trump administration the headache of actually building the authoritarian regime.
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Over such a letter would be immediate grounds for taking a constructive dismissal claim to the Workplace Relations Commission, which would be an open and shut win (which Galaxy Brain found to his detriment when a number Irish twitter employees took a case after the original fork in the road).
 
For someone who knew nothing about Project 2025, many of Trump's actions do bear a striking similarity to those proposed in that document.

I fear that there will be no buyers' regret from swing voters because the propaganda machine is in full swing and they'll be told that everything's fine and if it isn't it's (a) a matter of national security and/or (b) Biden's fault, for example:

Expensive eggs are Biden's fault because he killed all the chickens.
Medicare/Medicaid are not being defunded but if they are it's to protect the US foreign border from invasion
Tariffs have done a wonderful job of rebuilding the US economy. Yes, prices are higher but that's Biden's fault and in any case they are a price worth paying for securing national security
 
angrysoba said:
... such a blanket offer might lead the best people to leave and the ones that they may have hoped to get rid of to hang around....
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That's probably true every time there's a voluntary redundancy program with some kind of enticement. The people with get up and go are the ones who get up and go.
 
dann said:
New Josh Johnson video:
"One thing that I like about Elon is that he always manages to quickly make the people that take up for him look super stupid, like, really dumb."
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He learned from the bigly (orange) best.
 
plague311 said:
A relative through marriage got fired immediately when Trump came into office. She processed government contracts and they gave her a 1 week notice. She had a 6 figure job that was gone in a heartbeat. Her son voted for Trump.
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Lucky it's a long time to the holidays...
 
Firing 2 million government workers is a win/win/win scenario though
It's a win because all the money they and their projects cost can now go to the billionaires who really needed that (who often happen to be Trump's family)
It's a win because all those projects only benefited undeserving people (ie non-billionaires) who now get the chance to pull themselves up by their bootstraps
And it's a win because with 2 million unemployed those uppity workers will be desperate to work for low wages again to feed their families, stopping all this nonsense of workers not taking sub minimum wage jobs.
 
Norman Alexander said:
Hypothetical: What would happen if they all resigned?

I imagine there would be some positions filled by Trump loyalist lap-dogs.
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The upper management positions, certainly.
Norman Alexander said:
But hardly millions of them expecting to be, or prepared to be, wage slaves on even more meagre incomes than the original workers had. Plus far fewer benefits and protections. And they would be expected to actually (gasp!) turn up and work! And properly do the job they were hired to do, like public facing stuff. The horror...
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More likely MAGAt companies sending "contractors" to do the job poorly for crappy wages. Of course, they'll never be able to fill all the roles. Which makes the government even more dysfunctional. See where this is going?
Norman Alexander said:
Services would collapse almost instantly. The effects and ramifications would be severe, and potentially crippling to all aspects of US life. Particularly badly hit would be the MAGA goons who live on handouts.
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But the idiots who crank themselves to "Atlas Shrugged" will think they won.
Norman Alexander said:
It seems this is what Trump wants. But is it what MAGA want?
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They want what they are told to want. Look at the MAGAts around here. They have no consistent principles or ideals or philosophy. They just want what Weak Daddy tells them to want.
 
Lukraak_Sisser said:
Firing 2 million government workers is a win/win/win scenario though
It's a win because all the money they and their projects cost can now go to the billionaires who really needed that (who often happen to be Trump's family)
It's a win because all those projects only benefited undeserving people (ie non-billionaires) who now get the chance to pull themselves up by their bootstraps
And it's a win because with 2 million unemployed those uppity workers will be desperate to work for low wages again to feed their families, stopping all this nonsense of workers not taking sub minimum wage jobs.
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A lot of those self declared "self made" millionaires and billionaires are about to find out just how deep the government teet is in their mouths.
 
Lukraak_Sisser said:
Firing 2 million government workers is a win/win/win scenario though
It's a win because all the money they and their projects cost can now go to the billionaires who really needed that (who often happen to be Trump's family)
It's a win because all those projects only benefited undeserving people (ie non-billionaires) who now get the chance to pull themselves up by their bootstraps
And it's a win because with 2 million unemployed those uppity workers will be desperate to work for low wages again to feed their families, stopping all this nonsense of workers not taking sub minimum wage jobs.
Click to expand...
It's good because a lot of kids and teens will have to quit school and take jobs to make ends meet, ending all the whining about underfunded public schools. Just end mandatory schooling or declare them 'homeschooled', and loosen test restrictions.
 
I'm fairly certain Asperger's Syndrome isn't even the proper term anymore. Although, maybe Lord Hairplugs refers to the other thing affiliated with Asperger.
 
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