NEW: Insiders tell ProPublica that Amy Gleason is only in charge on paper, while Musk’s top lieutenants really run #DOGE.
One person who has been in meetings with Gleason described her as having “little to no actual decision making” responsibilities.
Curious How Trump’s Cost Cutting Could Affect Your National Park Visit? You Might Not Get a Straight Answer.
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National Park Service staff have received talking points ordering them to describe layoffs as “workforce management actions” and to reassure visitors that changes resulting from the cuts won’t impede “memorable and meaningful experiences for all.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/national-parks-staff-cuts-talking-points?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
Washington Blues: A Government Town Faces a Gloomy Future
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For years, Washington, D.C., was insulated from many of the economic forces that decimated many older U.S. cities. Now, as Elon Musk’s mass layoffs shake everything from employment to real estate, the region faces the prospect of decline.
https://www.propublica.org/article/washington-dc-trump-musk-federal-government-cutbacks-gloomy-future?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
What the #GOP added into the Continuing Resolution was worse than shutting the #government down.
From US Rep Jamie Raskin (D-MD)
https://jamieraskin.com/doge-privacy-act-requests/
"The US District Court for the District of Columbia has issued an injunction commanding #DOGE to comply with citizen requests under the Freedom of Information Act. This #law encompasses the Federal #Privacy Act of 1974, which entitles any citizen to access personal #information held in any US #government records system."
Privacy Act request form link:
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/ak-raskin/images/Raskin_DOGE_Privacy_Request.pdf
Fill it out. Send it in.
At least this time #Bezos bucked a #government official, #rfkjr, & promoted #measles #vaccination.
Or maybe he wasn't looking.
Either way this is serious & we all need to be vigilant since the #usgovernment is not.
#getvaccinated for you, for someone you love or maybe just someone you've never met.
Dear #MAGA folk asking #wwjd. He'd get vaccinated & #isolate if exposed to protect "the least of these". You should too. What? Jesus wouldn't get sick causes he's God? You're not God.
「ポケモンＧＯ」のナイアンティック、ゲーム事業35億ドルで売却合意 – Bloomberg https://www.playing-games.com/559874/ #cojp #Game #GameNews #GamingNews #Government #Mergers #ゲーム #ゲーム最新情報
I had to learn a lot about parliamentary government when studying for Canadian citizenship so I have all the passion of the recently-converted but I think we're all getting a lesson on which is the superior* approach right now.
*Not perfect, of course. And I'm still holding my breath for the Canadian election.
“The President Wanted It and I Did It”: Recording Reveals Head of Social Security’s Thoughts on DOGE and Trump
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In a recording obtained by ProPublica, acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek portrayed his agency as facing peril, while also encouraging patience with “the DOGE kids.”
We can have one of two things — but not both.
We can either have a society that tolerates (celebrates?) millionaires and billionaires polluting the planet and destroying the biosphere...
Or we can have a planet with a healthy biosphere but with fewer millionaires and NO billionaires at all.
Your choice.
It is effectively impossible for democracy and billionaires to co-exist.
https://jacobin.com/2021/06/billionaires-wealth-increase-covid-democracy-pandemic
https://inthesetimes.com/article/democracy-billionaires-wealth-inequality-socialism
https://inequality.org/article/billionaires-vs-democracy/
DOGE Has Become What It Claimed To Destroy
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/10/doge-has-become-what-it-claimed-to-destroy/
"DOGE is the #DeepState. Wired’s Brian Barrett made this crucial observation last week & I can’t get it out of my mind. For all the talk during the last decade of the supposed “deep state” of #unelected bureaucrats controlling the #government, which was never actually true, #DOGE has become the very deep state they falsely claimed existed previously."
Trump & Musk's Power-Sharing Agreement Innovates the #Authoritarian Playbook
The Novel Power-Partition Opens New Horizons of #Corruption
https://lucid.substack.com/p/trump-and-musks-power-sharing-agreement
" #Trump has a novel power-sharing arrangement w/an unelected private citizen who is essentially executing a #HostileTakeover of the US #government to capture #data... & use our country as a laboratory for a new form of #authoritarian techno-governance that requires the wrecking of #Democracy"
The Fascist Tech Bro Takeover Is Here
https://www.theindex.media/the-fascist-tech-bro-takeover-is-here-2/
"Musk's $277 million campaign contribution secured him unprecedented access to the levers of #Government & cemented his grip on the #political machine... Musk's influence has infected every arm of Govt. And he is using his #wealth, his control of Twitter's husk, & his presence in the #Trump orbit to steer the country away from #democratic principles & toward oligarchic rule."
"Rep. 1 "...such a competition is rigged from the beginning, since it is organized by an #oligarch who controls the govt. He is fit. You are not. That is natural."
...
"Rep. 1. “...yes, the point is to make the #government entirely dysfunctional for the rest of you. But, right, we will keep the govt functional for us..."
Rep. 4 "Of course we lie. Lying is good. Let #science & the #humanities compete with other opinions in a free market of ideas."
https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-doge-helpline
Elon Musk Has Wanted the Government Shutdown
...Elon Musk has wanted a #government shutdown in part because it would potentially make it easier to eliminate the jobs of hundreds of thousands of federal workers.
https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-has-wanted-the-government-shut-down/
“You know none of this is about saving #money, right?” says a 3rd #Republican familiar with the behind-the-scenes push from #Musk. “It’s all about destroying a liberal power base.”
Marco Rubio Finally Loses It at Elon Musk in Trump Cabinet Meeting
The two advisers got into a heated argument over DOGE-backed firings.
https://newrepublic.com/post/192493/marco-rubio-elon-musk-fight-donald-trump
"Secretary of State #MarcoRubio, alongside other miffed agency heads, laid into billionaire bureaucrat #ElonMusk during Thursday’s meeting of Donald Trump’s #Cabinet...
OPM Watchdog Says Review of DOGE Work Is Underway
The acting inspector general says the Office of Personnel Mgmt is investigating whether any “emerging threats” have arisen as Elon Musk’s #DOGE works to rapidly transform #government systems.
https://www.wired.com/story/opm-doge-review-underway/
"In addition to #OPM, #Democrats have pressed for similar #security assessments at five other agencies...
Congressional #Republicans have committed to little, if any, formal oversight of DOGE’s work"
The Office That Investigates Disparities in Veterans’ Care Is Being “Liquidated”
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The closure effectively hobbles the VA’s efforts to investigate and eliminate long-standing racial inequities that the department itself has acknowledged. “The consequences will be dire, wide-reaching and deadly,” an advocate for Black veterans said.
Your weather app could miss the next big storm. Blame DOGE.
Legendary TV meteorologist Tom Skilling says targeting the National Weather Service puts us all in jeopardy.
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/your-weather-app-could-miss-the-next
"The US #government ‘s stellar #weather info service is being torn apart & likely sold for parts [by] #ElonMusk & #Doge... experienced #scientists fired... The loss of expertise is profound... We’ll all be less safe, the #economy will suffer"
