#furloughed workers

[autismking]

hey yall, my entire kitchen got furloughed indefinitely with less than a week’s notice right after christmas because we’re trying to unionize. many of us live paycheck to paycheck and need to be able to pay bills and rent. any amount helps, even reblogs 🩵

[mossadspypigeon]

okay i’m gonna say something and people won’t like it/sta will screenshot it etc blah blah i don’t careeee:

i support freedom of speech even for people i disagree with and tbh hate (like actual neo nazis lmao), because i want to know what they are saying and believing. freedom of speech that isnt incitement is important.

(and also? i hate trump lmao. i did not vote for him. i did vote tho :))

however, if you are here on a visa, a student visa especially, and you spend your time NOT GOING TO CLASS and occupying campus buildings, trashing campus buildings, calling for intifada (aka violence), using hate speech, harassing other students, PROTESTING KIDS HOSPITALS, committing hate crimes, etc: you should have your visa revoked. you are not a citizen and being in ANY other country outside of your own is a privilege. using your visa to cause terror and disrupt lives and jobs is ridiculous.

because YES, thousands of people depend on universities not only to learn but to MAKE A LIVING. as the child of a professor btw they dont make much. but the janitors? bookstore workers? cafeteria workers? secretaries? etc? they get furloughed when students pull this shit, like dumping cement in toilets and occupying and trashing buildings. FURLOUGH USUALLY MEANS NO PAY unless it is stipulated with pay and you have a yearly contract. if you are hourly, you dont get fucking paid.

how do these little fucks support the PROLETARIAT, THE WORKER, and dont even think of the ones affected by their actions?

citizens who do this? should be arrested and prosecuted in a court of law, or at the very least held responsible by the university and made to pay damages or clean them themselves so some janitor who didnt do shit doesn’t have to.

so yes, if you are here on a student visa and you use it to perpetuate hate and terror…bye. that isn’t freedom of speech. especially when you are not a citizen and you are in this country burning the flag and shit and sending monetary and verbal support to groups that are designated terrorist orgs. that is against the law.

fuck around…find out. i wish biden had done something like this in 2023-2024 when it was really bad, or the universities and states had done a thing to hold these selfish little shits accountable for the actual crimes they have committed. most have not been held accountable.

instead, this will trickle down to affect people here on visas who do nothing wrong.

(btw if you are here on a visa spewing ANY kind of hate, you should have it revoked, not just pro hamas rhetoric.)

[misfitwashere]

ROBERT REICH

JAN 30

Friends,

I’m addressing this post to America’s 2.3 million federal employees.

My message: Don’t accept Elon’s offer. 

Yesterday, Musk — via people he’s planted in the Office of Personnel Management — sent an email to all 2.3 million of you, offering to pay you for eight months of work, through September 30, if you’ll resign from the government before February 6. Otherwise, you risk being furloughed (that is, not paid) or fired. 

You know what this is about. Not slimming the federal workforce, but substituting Trump loyalists for people like you, who are working for the American public. 

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, said it out loud Tuesday on CNN: "The 2 million employees in the federal government are overwhelmingly left of center.” And now that Trump is elected, "it is essential for him to get control of government.” 

But the fact is, neither Musk nor even Trump has legal authority to offer you eight months of pay if you’ll resign by February 6. 

Your salaries are funded by the federal agencies and departments you work for, not by the Office of Personnel Management, not by Musk, and not by Trump. 

None of them is authorized by Congress to move money from one agency or department to another without Congress’s approval. I know. I used to be a cabinet secretary. 

Besides, the funding for your agency or department is guaranteed only through March 14, when the government is expected to shut down unless the debt ceiling is lifted. If not, any commitment for additional pay is worthless.

In fact, Musk (and Trump) are violating the law by agreeing to spend money that the administration doesn’t have. Congress could declare the entire offer illegal — which it is. Then where would you be?

May I also add that you shouldn’t trust Trump or Musk. 

Trump has a long history of stiffing workers and contractors. 

So, for that matter, does Musk. During the pandemic, Musk gave Tesla employees permission to remain at home if they didn’t feel comfortable reporting to the factory. Then he sent them termination notices alleging “failure to return to work.”

When he bought Twitter in 2022, Musk denied he wanted to lay off 75 percent of its staff (“No way I’m laying off 75 percent of them”) but then fired 80 percent of them (maybe that’s what he meant when he pledged not to fire 75 percent?) 

In short, it’s a bum offer. Reject it. 

By the way, thank you for your service. 

Yours sincerely,

Robert Reich, former secretary of labor 

[readytoescalate]

"EMORY IS EVERYWHERE": AN OPEN INVITATION FROM PROTESTORS OCCUPYING EMORY UNIVERSITY

As the Palestine Solidarity movement rips across college campuses, college administrators and government bureaucrats are rushing to denounce anyone taking action as an “outside agitator”. Those who grease the gears of the war machine think that this rhetoric will erode public support for bold actions at Emory. They are wrong. 45 years after the Camp David Accords - an infamously botched, imperialist plan for peace between Israel and Egypt with no input from Palestinians - was orchestrated by an Emory faculty alum President Carter, we observe that there is nowhere on Earth “outside” of Emory University. We want to say as clearly as possible - we welcome “outside agitators” to our struggle against the ruthless genocide of Palestinians. Emory University has the highest tuition, the lowest acceptance rate, and by far the highest endowment of any institution in Georgia. Economic barriers, infamously racist standardized testing, and nepotism have barred many from studying at Emory. To students in Atlanta and beyond - we invite you to struggle with us. Local high school students dream of attending Emory, and many teachers encourage them to study hard and take up extracurriculars to increase their chance acceptance, knowing their chance of admission is slim. To local high school students and teachers, we invite you to struggle with us. Just down the street from Emory Hospital Midtown is the site of the former Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter. In a bid to gentrify the city and evict its houseless population, the City closed the shelter and did not replace it, displacing hundreds and cutting off a last line of support for thousands of poor people in the city. Emory University purchased this building, just one example of Emory’s contribution to gentrification in Atlanta. To those without homes, or those displaced by gentrification, we invite you to struggle with us. Emory’s $11 billion endowment, the 11th highest in the country, is an outsized influence in Atlanta’s economy. While economic inequality widens in the city, Emory remains a bastion of the rich. To the restaurant workers, house cleaners, gig workers, and all proletarians - we invite you to struggle with us. In 2020, Emory University laied off or furloughed over 1500 employees. To those who are no longer affiliated with the university - we invite you to struggle with us. 4 out of 5 students at Emory are not from Georgia. While the Freedom Riders were heading down to Georgia in the 1960’s to fight for Black people’s right to vote, segregationist governors cast them as “outside agitators”. To those from outside Atlanta and Georgia, we invite you to struggle with us. 1 in 5 students at Emory are from outside of the United States. The Palestinian students murdered by American weapons under Biden will never be one of those students. To those from outside of the country, we invite you to struggle with us. In April 2023, Emory admin called the police to break up a protest led by students against Cop City on the quad. None of the pigs were Emory students. To all of those who struggle against police brutality, we invite you to struggle with us. EMORY IS EVERYWHERE. THE PLACE FOR DIVISION IS NOWHERE. WE INVITE YOU TO STRUGGLE WITH US.

[vintageandroid]

More Actionable Things You Can Do

I just want to mention Jay Kuo's substack The Status Kuo, which not only updates on current events with the Federal Government and context, but also, critically, shares things that can be done and specific issues to address with your representatives, and also highlights things that are being done or have been done.

Mostly I wanted to link to his most recent one, which is lengthy but ends with some serious suggestions of things citizens should speak to their reps about.

tl;dr: put the blame on Musk right now and not Trump; urge your Dem congress members to join Senators Schatz and Kim:

[explanation + scripts below the "keep reading" cut, for both Dem reps and GOP reps.]

The second tactic is one suggested by the recent statements of Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey. Both senators focus on the fact that while the Democrats are out of power in government, they are not without power to slow or even stop the seizure of the financial levers of the government by the Trump White House. Sen. Schatz declared last week that he would use his right to withhold unanimous consent on all new state department appointees unless and until USAID was restored as an agency. This was a tactic used by Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Tommy Tuberville to stall Biden-era appointments. Such a move would force each and every Trump appointment to go through a full round of regular process before the Senate, instead of batching groups of appointees through. It would mean the GOP Senate would have to decide between using its time to pass things like the budget or get appointments through. Other Democratic senators should be urged to join Schatz in his protest so that he is not a single target who is easier to bombard. Sen. Kim also drew attention by suggesting over the weekend that he’s open to shutting down the government in order to protest the takeover of government systems by DOGE and the shuttering of whole agencies like USAID. Normally, it is the GOP that has threatened shutdowns when it didn’t get its way politically. Here, all the Democrats would have to do is pledge to do nothing—not lift one damn finger—to help the GOP pass its budget or lift the debt ceiling… unless the White House backs off of its attempts to shut off the money and furlough government workers. The government faces a March 14, 2025 deadline to enact a new budget. Barring something truly wild, it almost certainly will have to lift the debt ceiling to do so. Hardliners within the GOP inevitably will use the opportunity to try and extract concessions by way of drastic spending cuts to popular programs. If the Democrats band together behind Sen. Kim’s call to “Just Say No,” as it were, then the budget disaster will be entirely in the hands of the GOP.

(Excuse the long-ass excerpt; there's even more in the link above.)

I encourage you to call or write to your senators, especially if you have dem senators, and encourage them to unite with these two.

Let me give you a simple script.

If you're calling, begin by stating your name and your zip code, and if you're leaving a voice mail, include your address and, perhaps, a phone number. Then, choose one of the bracketed sections:

As a constituent, I urge Senator [Name] to band with [Senator Schatz]/[Senator Kim]'s call to [withhold unanimous consent]/[shut down the government] in protest of Musk's attacks on government agencies. Voters want to see you taking action right now. Thank you for your time.

That's it! That's all you have to say! You can reword that to suit your preferences better, but the important thing is, you don't have to be eloquent, you just have to tell them what actions you want them to take.

Calling is usually better than emailing, but a) the phone lines are melting to bits because they are getting 1500 calls a minute instead of the usual 30-50 and b) emailing is better than nothing. If you can, call, but if you can't, email! Simple as that.

If you have a Republican senator/rep, your focus should be on Musk. This isn't a perfect script, but let me try. Again, if you're calling, give your name and zip code (and if it's a voicemail, your address and maybe phone number), and then:

I want to express to Senator/Representative [whoever] that I believe Elon Musk has too much influence over the current administration given that he was not elected and his actions seem largely self-serving. I urge Senator/Representative [whoever] to take action against his rushed and clumsy dismantling of government agencies. Thank you.

Again, feel free to reword that and if anyone has a better script with more specific actions, feel free to add that.

Also, please remember to be polite to staffers and to be brave and do the thing! As I said in my 5Calls post last week, feel free to let me know you contacted someone and I'll tell you how cool you are for it.

[quaranmine]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/22/us-braces-calamitous-costly-government-shutdown-eight-days/

Hey, just a heads up--

A (US) government shutdown is pretty imminent right now. They have until September 30 to pass any sort of budget to keep funding the government, but congress has been unable to come to any decisions or compromises. Typically what happens each year on Sept 30 is Congress will pass a continuing resolution (a temporary budget) to buy a month or two to keep arguing about it. This year, they haven't been able to pass even that. McCarthy has sent the House members home for the weekend already, which means they will have even less time next week to figure something out.

So, what happens during a government shutdown? Some parts of the government--deemed essential--will keep operating. Please be nice to these employees, because they will be working without pay. Fortunately a bill passed in 2019 means they are guaranteed to be paid at the end of the shutdown, but still. Thousands of other federal employees will be furloughed and not allowed to work. For hundreds of thousands of employees, they will struggle to pay bills.

What about everybody else, the public being served? Broadly speaking, tons of grants and projects and research and environmental reviews and loans and services will be halted and delayed. Most significantly though:

SSA will continue to issue retirement and disability checks, as well as Medicaid/Medicare benefits. There might be delays, especially in new signups.

FEMA will continue to offer disaster relief and aid, but may run out of funds if the shutdown continues.

Thousands of low income parents will lose access to Head Start programs and childcare programs.

FDA food safety inspections, as well as other safety inspections (including worker safety), may be delayed

Mail delivery continues, as the US Postal Service is independently funded.

Food stamps, housing vouchers, and college financial aid may lapse if the shutdown lasts beyond October. The longest shutdown in US history was in 2018, for 35 days. This one is probably unlikely to be that long, but if it is, people may lose access to these programs.

WIC will only be able to operate for a few days after the shutdown, leaving millions of pregnant people, infants, and children at risk of going hungry.

Weather forcasting, air traffic control, TSA, etc will continue (though the employees won't be paid)

Hopefully a shutdown will be averted, but it's far more likely this year than other years. If you are in a position to be affected by a lapse in government services, I would recommend keeping up with the news so that it doesn't hit you as a surprise. Ultimately I can make no real predictions for how it will turn out or which things will be affected, but I hope this helps.

[the1younevernoticed]

Federal worker email series continued (VA social work):

I am editing some things down. I will be sharing non-political facts and personal concerns as they relate to me on a personal level through my job. My opinions and beliefs do not represent the VA, the government, or any political party. These posts are to encourage transparency for all.

The Fork in the Road email.

I know most everyone has seen the email for federal workers titled The Fork in the Road. I’ll post the full email we received here:

1)

Return to Office: The substantial majority of federal employees who have been working remotely since Covid will be required to return to their physical offices five days a week. Going forward, we also expect our physical offices to undergo meaningful consolidation and divestitures, potentially resulting in physical office relocations for a number of federal workers.

2)

Performance culture: The federal workforce should be comprised of the best America has to offer. We will insist on excellence at every level — our performance standards will be updated to reward and promote those that exceed expectations and address in a fair and open way those who do not meet the high standards which the taxpayers of this country have a right to demand.

3)

More streamlined and flexible workforce: While a few agencies and even branches of the military are likely to see increases in the size of their workforce, the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force. These actions are likely to include the use of furloughs and the reclassification to at-will status for a substantial number of federal employees.

4)

Enhanced standards of conduct: The federal workforce should be comprised of employees who are reliable, loyal, trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work. Employees will be subject to enhanced standards of suitability and conduct as we move forward. Employees who engage in unlawful behavior or other misconduct will be prioritized for appropriate investigation and discipline, including termination.

Each of the pillars outlined above will be pursued in accordance with applicable law, consistent with your agency's policies, and to the extent permitted under relevant collective-bargaining agreements.

If you choose to remain in your current position, we thank you for your renewed focus on serving the American people to the best of your abilities and look forward to working together as part of an improved federal workforce. At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions.

If you choose not to continue in your current role in the federal workforce, we thank you for your service to your country and you will be provided with a dignified, fair departure from the federal government utilizing a deferred resignation program. This program begins effective January 28 and is available to all federal employees until February 6. If you resign under this program, you will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30, 2025 (or earlier if you choose to accelerate your resignation for any reason). The details of this separation plan can be found below.

Whichever path you choose, we thank you for your service to The United States of America.

*********************************************************************

Upon review of the below deferred resignation letter, if you wish to resign:

1)

Select “Reply” to this email. You must reply from your government account. A reply from an account other than your government account will not be accepted.

2)

Type the word “Resign” into the body of this reply email. Hit “Send”.

THE LAST DAY TO ACCEPT THE DEFERRED RESIGNATION PROGRAM IS FEBRUARY 6, 2025.

Deferred resignation is available to all full-time federal employees except for military personnel of the armed forces, employees of the U.S. Postal Service, those in positions related to immigration enforcement and national security, and those in any other positions specifically excluded by your employing agency.

DEFERRED RESIGNATION LETTER

January 28, 2025

Please accept this letter as my formal resignation from employment with my employing agency, effective September 30, 2025. I understand that I have the right to accelerate, but not extend, my resignation date if I wish to take advantage of the deferred resignation program. I also understand that if I am (or become) eligible for early or normal retirement before my resignation date, that I retain the right to elect early or normal retirement (once eligible) at any point prior to my resignation date.

Given my impending resignation, I understand I will be exempt from any “Return to Office” requirements pursuant to recent directives and that I will maintain my current compensation and retain all existing benefits (including but not limited to retirement accruals) until my final resignation date.

I am certain of my decision to resign and my choice to resign is fully voluntary. I understand my employing agency will likely make adjustments in response to my resignation including moving, eliminating, consolidating, reassigning my position and tasks, reducing my official duties, and/or placing me on paid administrative leave until my resignation date.

I am committed to ensuring a smooth transition during my remaining time at my employing agency. Accordingly, I will assist my employing agency with completing reasonable and customary tasks and processes to facilitate my departure.

I understand that my acceptance of this offer will be sent to the Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) which will then share it with my agency employer. I hereby consent to OPM receiving, reviewing, and forwarding my acceptance.

*********************************************************************

Upon submission of your resignation, you will receive a confirmation email acknowledging receipt of your email. Any replies to this email shall be for the exclusive use of accepting the deferred resignation letter. Any other replies to this email will not be reviewed, forwarded, or retained other than as required by applicable federal records laws.

Once your resignation is validly sent and received, the human resources department of your employing agency will contact you to complete additional documentation, if any.

OPM is authorized to send this email under Executive Order 9830 and 5 U.S.C. §§ 301, 1103, 1104, 2951, 3301, 6504, 8347, and 8461. OPM intends to use your response to assist in federal workforce reorganization efforts in conjunction with employing agencies. See 88 Fed. Reg. 56058; 80 Fed. Reg. 72455 (listing routine uses). Response to this email is voluntary. Although you must respond to take advantage of the deferred resignation offer, there is no penalty for nonresponse.

To see this from an official federal service is so damn jarring. And it gives us hints on how this will likely play out.

This new email was sent in waves directly to federal front line staff. We were informing our supervisors of the email before they ever received it. There were panicked messages in our online chats to see if this was real. Especially with the passage about our jobs not being guaranteed.

I admit, with the mental exhaustion they have put us through, and the promise to be paid through September, I was tempted at first read.

I fantasized about opening up a private practice with the money, and setting myself and my fiancé up to finally try and be debt free. It would be a hell of a boon. One desperately needed.

But I didn’t trust it. It was too vague.

So I did some more searching. And like many others I found the Twitter “Fork in the Road” email from when Elon took over Twitter a few years back.

We know from Elon’s previous “Fork” email plan that he did not keep promises

These employees had promised pay broken and in times such as these, with rising costs, most Americans can’t afford to miss a single paycheck.

There are no guarantees for federal employees to be treated any better.

There have been talks of pay caps, of employees being forced to work through September even if they choose this option, and worst of all, not being paid at all.

With those in the government reminding citizens that congress controls funding, and that there is no budget for this, we are all sitting with what feels like uncertainty manifested as a weight on our collective shoulders.

We have no way to know if we will lose coworkers to this. And it takes an average of 6+ months to onboard someone into federal service (yes literally. I took 6 months from my FJO “final job offer letter” to get into my position). And that doesn’t account for all the hiring freezes. And work never stops. We will just shoulder any works that comes in and try to make sure our patients are still getting helped.

Cheesy as it sounds, as I stated before, this is really weighing on the mental health of the staff around me. As well as myself. I can feel the fear and uncertainty in the air. All we can do is keep working. And it doesn’t feel right

Disclaimer: this post is for educational purposes and is in no way supporting any particular political party and is not meant to incite any political activity

[mass-convergence]

About Shutdowns

Hi. It’s December 20, 2024.

If you’re in the US (or if you’re not but get blasted by news that happens in our country regardless because ‘Murica) you probably have heard about some stuff that’s been happening in regards to our budget.

Strap in folks this is a long one but bottom line up front: we shouldn’t be rooting for a government shutdown. It’ll fuck a lot of shit up and it’ll hurt a lot of people (and not the ones you’d want to “hurt” because Congress will still be getting paid through this shitfest).

Basically, in the most oversimplified way I can summarize: Congress every year has to pass a budget. Said budget allocates funds and such for the continuing functioning of our government - this is known as appropriations. This budget/appropriations (will just call it a budget from here on out) has to be passed before the fiscal year is up (so by the beginning of October). Sometimes Congress gets locked in some kind of back and forth over the bill - like in 2018-2019 it was over the stupid funding for the stupid border wall that Trump wanted to build. This tends to keep Congress from passing a budget. If Congress doesn’t pass a budget by the deadline, the government effectively shuts down because well … we don’t know where the money’s supposed to go. Sometimes Congress gets its shit together enough to pass something called a Continuing Resolution or CR - which basically lets them kick the can down the road for a bit so they can squabble more about what to do with the money. Sometimes Congress can’t even agree on the CR. And so the government shuts down.

Well, this is basically what’s happening right now in the US. There was a fight over appropriations back in September which lead to Congress passing a CR to fund the government through December. They had another CR lined up for vote this week to fund us through March. It was a behemoth of a bill that included stuff like disaster relief for the areas impacted by hurricanes this year, relief for the Maui wildfires, and funds to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. It wasn’t a popular bill but there was at least enough support that it could get through Congress and fund us through March.

Well. There was enough support until certain people interested in “government efficiency” decided to complain to their Twitter followers. That effectively torpedoed any GOP support for the bill. Which means we now are less than 24 hours from the government shutting down due to a lapse in funding.

This is not a good thing.

I’ve seen some people (including my own mother) who are frustrated with the current dumpster fire that is our political situation basically taking the “FAFO” stance. They’re essentially rooting for the government to shutdown because people need to see what they’re going to get because they voted for Trump (disregarding that half of the US didn’t even vote for the guy). I understand the frustration and I even understand the reaction of “you made your bed now lie in it”.

However we should not be rooting for a government shutdown.

On the larger scale - this would negatively impact our economy, which according to the last election was something people really cared about. The federal government is the largest employer in the US with around 3 million employees. If the government shuts down then a portion of those employees would be furloughed (hard for me to find exact numbers on this - most reports just mention a nebulous “hundreds of thousands”) which means they can’t report to work. Other employees like the military, law enforcement, etc. who are deemed essential for the protection of life and property would have to work but won’t get paid until the shutdown is over.

“Yeah but I hate the military and cops”

Yeah well other essential government workers include: medical staff, fire fighters, air traffic controllers, and meteorologists for the NWS (who work 24/7 putting out life saving forecasts and warnings). All those people won’t get paid either.

When you’ve essentially stopped paying 3 million people - that has negative impacts on the economy. Because if you’re not getting paid, you go to spending whatever money you do have on the bare essentials and nothing more. I don’t think I need to explain why that’s a bad thing for the economy.

On the more personal level:

A lot of government employees are paid on something known as the General Schedule or GS scale. It goes from 1 to 15. As of 2024: GS-1 employees earn ~$25k per year and GS-15 employees earn ~$144k. In terms of number of GS employees per grade - this Reddit post from a few years ago shows the breakdown (and I checked on FedScope and the data is about the same for 2024 so I’m just stealing this dude’s graph).

So we have a fair chunk of folks in the GS 5-9 range then another chunk in the GS 11-14 range. Makes sense, GS 5 is a common starting salary for a federal employee who has a bachelors degree. Depending on the agency you can progress to the next pay grade after a year (my job basically has a progression where you increase a grade each year until you get to 12). Base pay (so if you’re working anywhere in the US that’s not expensive as fuck to live in) GS 5-9 salaries are ~$40k to ~$60k per year.

For an 80 hour pay period that’s $1500-$2300, ignoring taxes. Again - you may make a bit more if you’re working somewhere expensive. Still, as someone who started out as a GS-7, that’s still a paycheck to paycheck existence. And I live alone and I don’t have any student loans to worry about. I could make ends meet but I had zero savings and if I missed a paycheck I would have been in trouble.

Now imagine if I had a family. And if I were the sole income owner for said family. Even as a GS-12 (-~$87k per year or $3,400 per pay period) I would be struggling if I had to support a family.

During these shutdowns? You’ve got federal employees who are lining up at food banks because they can’t afford groceries. You’ve got people like me who are essential workers and thus have to show up for their 40-hr (or more) per week job but since we’re not getting paid, we have to take on temporary side gigs like Uber drivers or whatever… on top of our full time jobs.

And it’s not just the employees getting screwed over by this. It’s also everyone who relies on the government programs that are going to have to push pause while the shutdown happens. Social security checks and stuff will still go out but things like WIC, SNAP, etc will be impacted. You still may get those benefits but depending on how long the shutdown lasts, those programs could run out of funding. Loans and stuff will also be impacted since the people who are in those offices processing the paperwork for said loans will go into furlough status and therefore won’t be working at all during the shutdown. Regulators and inspectors for agencies like the FDA and USDA may also be put on furlough, putting food safety at risk.

Look there’s a lot more stuff I can say on this - the federal government is a behemoth of an organization that has its hands in a lot of stuff necessary for the continued functioning of our country - but in the interests of not writing an entire novel about this I will conclude with this:

A government shutdown is bad and should not be rooted for. Please go yell at your representatives to get their heads out of their asses and pass a goddamn budget.

I’m speaking as a private citizen and not as a representative for the government.

[anonymusbosch]

it's crazy how much of the government is currently broken. first- and second-hand knowledge of people whose jobs were axed, who were furloughed, who are waiting to find out if they are still getting paid or not. all the communities who had signed contracts for grants for solar, for better insulation, for infrastructure improvements through the IRA who now have a hole in their budget where $15 million was supposed to be. all the foreign aid workers whose money just Stopped. the refugee hospitals ejecting patients because the money Is Not There. just the direct immediate impact alone, let alone the impacts to come in weeks and months from letting huge parts of the machine crash to a halt. it's. it's not good

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Andrew Roth at The Guardian:

USAid security personnel were defending a secure room holding sensitive and classified data in a standoff with “department of government efficiency” employees when a message was said to come directly from Elon Musk: give the Doge kids whatever they want. Since Donald Trump’s inauguration last month, a posse of cocksure young engineers answering to Musk have stormed through Washington DC, gaining access to government computer systems as part of what Senator Chuck Schumer has called “an unelected shadow government … conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government”.

The young men, who are all under the age of 26 and have almost no government experience, have tapped into the treasury department’s federal payment system and vacuumed up employment histories at the office of personnel management (OPM). Roughly 20 Doge employees are now working out of the Department of Education, the Washington Post has reported, and have gained access to sensitive internal systems there too.

The young engineers, whose identities have been confirmed to the Guardian, wanted the same at USAid. One of them, Gavin Kliger, was a 25-year-old techie who has defended the failed attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz as a victim of the “deep state” and claimed he had left behind a seven-figure salary to join Doge and “save America”. Another, Luke Farritor, 23, was a former SpaceX intern who had been given top-level clearances to USAid systems and had requested similar to Medicare and Medicaid. A third, Jeremy Lewin, was an AI specialist also reportedly assigned to the general services administration. A superior planned to lobby the CIA for a clearance for him after he failed to gain access to a secure area.

Some US officials had begun calling the young engineers the “Muskovites” for their aggressive loyalty to the SpaceX owner. But some USAid staff used another word: the “incels”. And as early as Thursday of last week, Musk had personally placed a telephone call to a senior USAid official demanding that they be given access to the secure facilities and other key data, including badge swipes and server access. In the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, USAid had been presented as a pilot test for a large-scale overhaul of the federal government that would downsize agencies and arbitrarily move federal employees to looser contracts that made them easier to fire. “If the Trump administration is successful here, they’re going to try this everywhere else,” said Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey, a former USAid employee who came to protest alongside fired and furloughed workers outside the agency’s headquarters on Monday. “This is just the beginning.”

[...] Inside the building, chaos reigned. Areas that were once declared restricted, with limitations on electronics like phones and watches, suddenly loosened their security protocols to allow in uncredentialed outsiders. Doge employees were said to obscure their identities to prevent online harassment, a tactic that was repeated at other agencies.

What Musk and DOGE are doing to USAID and numerous other agencies is an act of shame on America.

[bouncinghedgehog]

Robert Reich:

Friends,

It can be overwhelming. Trump is trying to “flood the zone” so we focus on a few outrages that we find most offensive and lose sight of the big picture — the larger strategy he and Elon Musk and their cronies are pursuing.

Their major goal is not only or even mainly to impose white Christian nationalism on America, nor to downsize the federal government, nor to wreak vengeance on Trump’s enemies.

It is to concentrate ever more power in Trump’s hands, so he can concentrate ever more wealth in the oligarchy’s hands.

The overall strategy boils down to five tactics.

1. Replace federal civil servants with Trump loyalists.

It’s like the communist witch hunts of the late 1940s and early 1950s, only not with loyalty oaths to the United States but loyalty oaths to Trump.

Under one of Trump’s first executive orders, known as “Schedule F,” job protections shielding tens of thousands of senior career federal workers will be eliminated, making it easier to replace them with loyalists.

This week, Trump (via Musk) issued to all 2.3 million federal workers an offer to quit and get eight months pay or face the possibility of being furloughed without pay or fired. This, too, is aimed at getting rid of the professional civil service and installing people more loyal to Trump than to the United States.

Dozens of career officials at the National Security Council have been sent home while their loyalty is being reviewed. Dozens of other career officials, at the U.S. Agency for International Development, have been put on leave for suspicion of resisting an order by Trump.

Trump has conducted a mass purge of more than a dozen inspectors general (in direct violation of a law requiring written notice to Congress with a “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” at least 30 days in advance). The only inspector general who remains is a Trump loyalist.

2. Take over independent decision-making across government.

This past Monday night, Trump froze up to $3 trillion in federal grants and loans to determine whether they “meet his priorities,” even though they had been passed by Congress. This was a direct violation of the Impoundment Act of 1974. (Later in the week, the freeze was rescinded, but it is expected to be reimposed in a form less vulnerable to legal challenges.)

He fired Democratic members of independent agencies — the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — leaving each without enough members to legally act.

This action is also unlawful. The law creating the labor board makes it independent of the White House in part by limiting a president’s ability to fire its members at will, stating: “Any member of the board may be removed by the president, upon notice and hearing, for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause.”

3. Put current officials on notice that defiance will be punished.

The media calls this Trump’s retribution for past perceived wrongs, but as a practical matter, it’s Trump’s warning to current officials that he will punish any disloyalty or defiance.

Trump has fired more than a dozen prosecutors from the Justice Department who worked for the special counsel Jack Smith on investigations into Trump.

A memo to the fired prosecutors from the acting attorney general, James McHenry, says a major factor in firing them was disloyalty to Trump: “Given your significant role in prosecuting the president, I do not believe that the leadership of the department can trust you to assist in implementing the president’s agenda faithfully,” he wrote.

Trump’s Justice Department has also opened an investigation into the actions of career prosecutors who criminally charged the Trump supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Trump has withdrawn security details from former public officials who have criticized him, although the threats on their lives continue — Anthony Fauci, John Bolton, and General Mark Milley. Trump has also rescinded additional protections for certain senior civil servants whose lives have been threatened.

4. Eliminate or intimidate sources of news and facts that have criticized Trump.

Trump has threatened to throw journalists in jail and revoke the broadcast licenses of television networks he perceives as unduly critical of him. He is also threatening universities, scientists, and government research agencies whose findings he dislikes. Trump’s Department of Education plans to control classroom curricula.

The threats are escalating. Days ago, Musk lashed out at the nonprofit Wikipedia after his page there was updated with a description of his controversial Nazi-like salute during Trump’s Inauguration Day celebrations.

5. Divide and conquer.

Trump wants Americans to get so riled up against one another that we don’t look upward and see where all the wealth and power have gone. This, too, is a tactic for consolidating power.

Yesterday, for example, Trump blamed the tragic air crash on Biden and Obama initiatives to make the federal workforce more diverse, claiming they “came out with a directive — ‘too white,’” but that “we want the people that are competent.”

***

It’s important to see Trump’s strategy as a whole. It is designed to consolidate his power. If we see it as a whole, the rest of us are better able to counter it — by demanding action from and fortifying our members of Congress, organizing for the midterm elections in 2026 to take back both chambers, conducting boycotts, and supporting and defending those who are vulnerable to Trump.

Americans don’t want a dictator. We don’t want an oligarchy. We were founded in rebellion against a king and his aristocracy.

Trump’s consolidation of power comes at a time when huge wealth has been amassed in the hands of 640 billionaires, including many who are in Trump’s White House — including the richest person in the world, who is now giving out orders as if he were Trump.

This concentration of power increases opportunities for oligarchic transactions — more power for more wealth, and more wealth for more power — that siphon off wealth and power from everyone else and undermine democracy.

This is the central reality of what has happened during the first 10 days of the Trump regime.

What do you think?

[pommunist]

Also the way they all got summarily kicked out just felt like him lashing out and punishing the workers for Léa's whistleblowing and the fans for daring to get outraged

Like "oh you think the actors should get paid for acting? Well now we're gonna have no actors at all! And they might never come back if we can't afford them! There! Are you happy now??"

Admittedly this is a very bad faith interpretation of something that could just be a simple over-correction out of panic, but like... furloughing your workers for an indefinite time without a warning is not a reasonable move actually!

Especially when you as their employer also refuse to even talk to them

It just comes across as a punishment for speaking up

Nobody treats anyone they actually respect like this, this is how people treat misbehaving dogs

And then when the workers understandably get tired of this bs and leave, he just kinda goes that's totally fine if they want to leave of their own free will! :D (yeah I'm sure it's fine with you...)

Sorry to all the Quackity fans, it's just that the more I think about this the worse it feels, even if it wasn't his conscious intent

- 🐧

Like if we’re going with what we are told which is : Q didn’t know anything about it and his trust was abused by some higher admins. Then shouldn’t people THANK Lea and everyone who spoke up for being able to put an end to this situation ?

Shouldn’t Q and the remaining non-assholes higher up’s first reflex be to get in contact with the whistleblower to understand what exactly they went through, because of who, etc ? How do you fix a problem if you won’t ask the victims what the problem is ?

And yeah genuinely the « Thanks everyone for the free work for months ! actually we may not be able to afford you guys so please put your life on hold a little more we MAY tell you whether u still have a job or not one day ! » vibe is so terrible. Like while we don’t know everyone’s exact age, the admins seem to be relatively young, like you’ve ask free labor from 20-something yo fans who could have used their time and energy studying, getting actual money from another job or just doing whatever they wanted instead.

Not even a Thank you or a Sorry in his last statement after Pomme and Dapper quit. Just something like « Some people have and will leave the project it’s ok it’s how it is » NOT IN THESE CONDITIONS ??? This is what you say when someone quits because they want to explore something new not because they are burnt out and ignored 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[misfitwashere]

ROBERT REICH

JAN 31

Friends,

It can be overwhelming. Trump is trying to “flood the zone” so we focus on a few outrages that we find most offensive and lose sight of the big picture — the larger strategy he and Musk and their cronies are pursuing. 

Their major goal is not only or even mainly to impose white Christian nationalism on America, nor to downsize the federal government, nor to wreak vengeance on Trump’s enemies. 

It is to concentrate ever more power in Trump’s hands, so he can concentrate ever more wealth in the oligarchy’s hands. 

The overall strategy boils down to five tactics. 

1. Replace federal civil servants with Trump loyalists. 

It’s like the communist witch hunts of late 1940s and early 1950s, only not with loyalty oaths to the United States but loyalty oaths to Trump.

Under one of Trump’s first executive orders, known as “Schedule F,” job protections shielding tens of thousands of senior career federal workers will be eliminated, making it easier to replace them with loyalists.

This week, Trump (via Musk) issued to all 2.3 million federal workers an offer to quit and get 8 months pay or face possibility of being furloughed without pay or fired. This, too, is aimed at getting rid of the professional civil service and installing people more loyal to Trump than to the United States.

Dozens of career officials at the National Security Council have been sent home while their loyalty is being reviewed. Dozens of other career officials, at the U.S. Agency for International Development, have been put on leave for suspicion of resisting an order by Trump.

Trump has conducted a mass purge of more than a dozen Inspectors General (in direct violation of a law requiring written notice to Congress with a “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” at least 30 days in advance). The only Inspector General who remains is a Trump loyalist. 

2. Take over independent decision making across government.

Last Monday night, Trump froze up to $3 trillion in federal grants and loans to determine whether they “meet his priorities,” even though they had been passed by Congress — in direct violation of the Impoundment Act of 1974. (Later in the week, the freeze was rescinded but it is expected to be reimposed in a form less vulnerable to legal challenges.)

He fired Democratic members of independent agencies — the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — leaving each without enough members to legally act.

This action is also unlawful. The law creating the labor board makes it independent of the White House in part by limiting a president’s ability to fire its members at will, stating: “Any member of the board may be removed by the president, upon notice and hearing, for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause.”

3. Put current officials on notice that defiance will be punished. 

The media calls this Trump’s retribution for past perceived wrongs, but as a practical matter it’s Trump warning to current officials that he will punish any disloyalty or defiance.

Trump has fired more than a dozen prosecutors from the Justice Department who worked for the special counsel Jack Smith on investigations into Trump.

A memo to the fired prosecutors from the acting attorney general, James McHenry, says a major factor in firing them was disloyalty to Trump: “Given your significant role in prosecuting the president, I do not believe that the leadership of the department can trust you to assist in implementing the president’s agenda faithfully,” he wrote.

Trump’s Justice Department has also opened an investigation into the actions of career prosecutors who criminally charged the Trump supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

Trump has withdrawn security details from former public officials who have criticized him, although the threats on their lives continue — Anthony Fauci, John Bolton, and General Mark Milley. Trump has also rescinded additional protections for certain senior civil servants whose lives have been threatened. 

4. Eliminate or intimidate sources of news and facts that have criticized Trump. 

Trump has threatened to throw journalists in jail and revoke broadcast licenses of television networks he perceives as unduly critical of him. He is also threatening universities, scientists, and government research agencies whose findings he dislikes. Trump’s education department plans to control classroom curricula.

The threats are escalating. Days ago, Elon Musk lashed out at the nonprofit Wikipedia, after his page was updated with a description of his controversial Nazi-like salute during Trump’s Inauguration Day celebrations. 

5. Divide and conquer. 

Trump wants Americans to get so riled up against one another that we don’t look upward and see where all the wealth and power have gone. This, too, is a tactic for consolidating ;power. 

Yesterday, for example, Trump blamed the tragic air crash on Biden and Obama initiatives to make the federal workforce more diverse, claiming they “came out with a directive — ‘too white’”, but that “we want the people that are competent.”

***

It’s important to see Trump’s strategy as a whole. It is designed to consolidate his power. If we see it as a whole, the rest of us are better able to counter it — by demanding and fortifying our members of Congress, organizing for the midterm elections in 2026 to take back both chambers, conducting boycotts, and supporting and defending those who are vulnerable to Trump. 

Americans don’t want a dictator. We don’t want an oligarchy. We were founded in rebellion against a king and his aristocracy. 

Trump’s consolidation of power comes at a time when huge wealth has been consolidated in hands of 640 billionaires, including many who are in Trump’s White House — including the richest person in the world, who is now giving out orders as if he were Trump. 

This concentration of power increases opportunities for oligarchic transactions — more power for more wealth, and more wealth for more power — that siphon off wealth and power from everyone else and undermine democracy. 

This is the central reality of what has happened during the first ten days of the Trump regime.

[ih0pethishurts]

@muses-inn / Isaac

Lunch was served, but Jimmy had lost his appetite. 

His eyes swept across the canteen and the various workers taking their breaks. Almost all of them were temporary, just here for preparations. They’d never leave Earth. 

But there. Sitting alone. Some brown-nosing tool, eager to impress the higher-ups with his checklists and tablets and paperwork. Apparently the guy thought it was fine to sidestep the rest of the crew to do his work. Curly and Jimmy had only received the news after the initial walkthrough, which had freaked them both out. 

Jimmy’s suspicions were high - it could be trouble if the maintenance guy said they weren’t fit to fly. That could mean months of delay for repairs, and it was likely Pony Express would put the crew on furlough, which meant months of no pay.

And Jimmy couldn’t afford to let that happen. He needed the money. (And more importantly, something to do. An escape from his life on Earth. A purpose.)

“Hey.” He promptly dropped his meal tray from a good height so that it clattered HARD against the table, then took his seat next to the man. So they were close. “I’m Jimmy. I’m the co-pilot of the Pony Express. Nice to meet you. I heard you got a sneak peek of the Tulpar today. Sorry the captain and I couldn’t make it, we’d have liked to welcome you aboard personally.” 

Jimmy was civil, smiling, turned to face the man. Internally, it felt as if his guts were twisting like snakes. 

“How’d she look?”

[darkmaga-returns]

Thursday marked the final day for federal employees to accept the Trump administration's offer of eight months of pay and benefits in exchange for voluntarily stepping down. According to the latest figures from Bloomberg, at least 40,000 government workers—about 2% of the federal civilian workforce—have opted into the resignation program. 

An official from the Office of Personnel Management told Bloomberg that deferred retirement applications have been steadily increasing and are expected to surge by the end of Thursday, the deadline to apply. Employees can submit their resignations by sending the word "resign" to their government email accounts. 

"While a few agencies and even branches of the military are likely to see increases in the size of their workforce, the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force," OPM recently told federal workers in an email. 

OPM added: "These actions are likely to include the use of furloughs and the reclassification to at-will status for a substantial number of federal employees." 

The agency also told workers that "consolidation and divestitures" could lead to changes in "physical office" locations.  

Reuters noted that federal worker unions have told members not to take the deal. The unions sued to block the offer, with a court hearing scheduled for 1300 ET. Also, Redditors on the "fednews" forum on the Reddit social media platform told other fed workers to "hold the line." 

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, a special government employee leading the Department of Government Efficiency, have been on a crusade to provide the American people with transparency regarding out-of-control spending by federal agencies. One major win for Trump has been unleashing DOGE to neuter the Deep State's unlimited piggybank, also known as USAID. The agency has since been rolled into the State Department. 

[tapiancailini]

From Robert Reich in regards to federal employee buy out

Friends,

I’m addressing this post to America’s 2.3 million federal employees.

(Perhaps you are one yourself or know someone who is.)

My message: Don’t accept Elon’s offer.

Yesterday, Musk — via people he’s planted in the Office of Personnel Management — sent an email to all 2.3 million of you, offering to pay you for eight months of work, through September 30, if you’ll resign from the government before February 6. Otherwise, you risk being furloughed (that is, not paid) or fired.

You know what this is about. Not slimming the federal workforce, but substituting Trump loyalists for people like you, who are working for the American public.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, said it out loud Tuesday on CNN: "The 2 million employees in the federal government are overwhelmingly left of center.” And now that Trump is elected, "it is essential for him to get control of government.”

But the fact is, neither Musk nor even Trump has legal authority to offer you eight months of pay if you’ll resign by February 6.

Your salaries are funded by the federal agencies and departments you work for, not by the Office of Personnel Management, not by Musk, and not by Trump.

None of them is authorized by Congress to move money from one agency or department to another without Congress’s approval. I know. I used to be a cabinet secretary.

Besides, the funding for your agency or department is guaranteed only through March 14, when the government is expected to shut down unless the debt ceiling is lifted. If not, any commitment for additional pay is worthless.

In fact, Musk (and Trump) are violating the law by agreeing to spend money that the administration doesn’t have. Congress could declare the entire offer illegal — which it is. Then where would you be?

May I also add that you shouldn’t trust Trump or Musk.

Trump has a long history of stiffing workers and contractors.

So, for that matter, does Musk. During the pandemic, Musk gave Tesla employees permission to remain at home if they didn’t feel comfortable reporting to the factory. Then he sent them termination notices alleging “failure to return to work.”

When he bought Twitter in 2022, Musk denied he wanted to lay off 75 percent of its staff (“No way I’m laying off 75 percent of them”) but then fired 80 percent of them (maybe that’s what he meant when he pledged not to fire 75 percent?)

In short, it’s a bum offer. Reject it.

By the way, thank you for your service.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Reich Former U.S. Secretary of Labor