Summary
Elon Musk warned federal employees against leaking information, stating, “if in doubt, they are out,” as he helps Trump implement sweeping government changes.
A Reddit post alleged Musk’s team is using “fingerprinting” tactics to track leakers. Musk, who spent heavily on Trump’s re-election, now leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has controversially seized control of federal payment and personnel systems.
The administration is also encouraging civil servants to resign, prompting lawsuits.
Whistleblower protections may challenge Musk’s crackdown on leaks.
Attention all federal employees! Chances are you’re gonna get your ass fired anyway, so malicious compliance is the watchword from now on. Leak, document, obfuscate, lie, confuse, sidetrack and goosechase them every chance you get.
Remember Hannah Arendt: evil is when every bureaucrat ‘just does their job’ because a higher power gave the order.
You’re the frontline of this fight now. Even if you never signed up for this. Because none of you did.
For any dedicated centrists, or even Trump Voters who are starting to feel this increasingly itchy feeling in the back of your mind, like there is a question you want to ask but your brain kind of shies away from putting it into words, let me help you out:
Yes, you are the baddies. Yes, it is only going to get more uncomfortable from here on out. If you haven’t walked away after reading this comment, you are now choosing the side you know is wrong. On purpose. That is now your identity.
now leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has controversially seized control of federal payment and personnel systems.
Why the fuck do they still write like this? DOGE isn’t a department of the government, it’s just Elon with a Carte Blanche. And there’s nothing controversial about this, it’s a coup in plain sight.
It actually is. They took a Obama-era department and rebranded it
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_DOGE_Service
Which means it’s full expanded name is “United States Department of Government Efficiency Service”. Which is super efficient, isn’t it?
The name may have already existed. But what Elon is doing in its name isn’t what a governmental department does.
It is now. Elon Musk says so, and he bought a President.
Should be with the salute
Yes, but…a meme about an evil aspiring emperor manipulating those with the actual power behind the scenes in order to actually obtain that power is entirely appropriate.
It also bugs me how the O is stylized as a capital. In acronyms, isn’t it proper to make it lowercase if it’s a filler word like “of”?
And should he know this as an elite PoE (path of exile) player?
Whistleblower protections may challenge Musk’s crackdown on leaks.
Lmfao. How, exactly, are whistleblower protections going to do shit ?
Know what Nazis and the USSR did to “whistleblowers”? They killed them. Just a matter of time before these people who are leaking the information and slowing things down get shot for “refusing to vacate the premise” after being fired.
Like the Boeing whistle-blowers?
How exactly is elon who has no position in teh government firing people?
He has an entire department that was created specifically for him to do shit like this.
It was created off the books. He technically has no authority, so I dont k ow why anybody is listening to anything he says. This is plainly illegal, and congress should be taking action right now. Instead we are sitting on our thumbs watching from the side lines.
He technically has no authority
He technically does have authority, because he’s got his team into the IT systems via Trump’s orders.
Since the federal government basically runs on Microsoft, that means his goons can go into Active Directory and start locking other people out of key government systems. Then he has payroll mark you as “Terminated” in the accounting system, because his people are in that system, too. If you can’t badge into your office, you can’t log on to your computer, you can’t use your phone, and you won’t receive a paycheck, what are you except “fired”?
In Europe we declare ourselves ready to work and are considered to be on paid leave until called upon.
That works so long as the paychecks keep coming. But also, it works because of the large well-structured unions that populate the European bureaucracy.
The US has made a point to dismantle public sector unions precisely because bosses don’t like when this happens. We’ve also turned a great deal of the government over to contractors, both to keep public labor divided and to guarantee the rolls as a means of patronage (landing a contractor job means being in good standing politically) and efficient avenue for kickbacks (contractors and their staff financially support the candidates that send them billable work).
So it’s less a question of “will we show up to work for this administration?” and more a question of "will we get included in this administration’s patronage scheme?
Thanks for this writeup, fascinating read!
and congress should be taking action right now. Instead we are sitting on our thumbs watching from the side lines.
You can blame the “victory fund” bankrupting state parties and Dems losing ground in down ballot races over and over again so that the presidential campaign could have a dinner with Clooney.
Hopefully Ken Martin puts an end to that griff
I was not aware of it being a temporary organization. But it was created by executive order, which likely grants musk power to fire.
Oh, no. Executive orders, at least according to “the rules”, do not supercede the law. This is all blatantly illegal in many ways.
Fat lot of good that does, though, considering the other two branches are run by corrupt yes men.
Also, I don’t think there’s anything saying it’s temporary…?
It was, but it cannot surrept congress’ constitutional authority in holding the governments coin purse. But, then again, if nobody does anything, I guess all bets are off at this point.
He has an entire department
He has four people that dont have college degrees, the oldest is 24 and at least one is a teenager
Their actual names and contact info are floating around. But mainstream news isn’t reporting it
I mean that would suggest he has a federal appointment then. I mean he was given authority as head of this department??? Because I have not heard his title or anything for a government position.
Dunno.
But I did some digging into the EO, and the USDS (United States DOGE Service) was a hack by renaming from United States Digital Service. It is under the USDS that they created the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization. The EO also states that there is to be an administrator appointed by the White House that reports to the chief of staff. It sounds like to me that they are utilizing loopholes in the constitution/law to sidestep Congress.
Im not sure if the goal is to clog the courts or what but hiring and firing is not an at will with the federal government and it sounds like none of this will really fly. I feel like the way companies try to just see who they can drop and won’t fight it but with unions its unlikely anyone would just give up without a fight since they have support.
If you tell on me I’LL FIRE YOU! also, here’s your pink slip, we’re going a different direction, goodbye.
So he wants them to quit but if they leak anything he’ll fire them? His mind is an enigma
I hope people just say fuck it and leak everything
A lot of that is happening. But you’ve still got to leak to a source. After the way Snowden and Assange were handled, and the degree to which the bigger journals and news channels have been compromised by conservative financial interests, there’s a big open question of who you even tell this stuff to.
Going to another Glenn Greenwald or Matt Taibbi would be a huge mistake.
There are a few out there, Ken Klippenstein has been receiving and publishing a lot of leaks recently. It does make me worried for his security though.
What if the workers leak information that Elon is an agent of China?
Orr worse, what if he’s secretly DEI and woke? Smells like a foreigner with ties to hostile nations to me
You know what would really bring the conservative movement to its knees? Saying Trump is an agent of the Russian government. Then make a big picture of him and Putin kissing.
Absolutely guaranteed to work. There’s nothing America can’t fix by doubling down on Red Scare.
This man needs to be tried for treason, convicted, and hanged for his crimes against the republic.
We can’t let them complete the Network State takeover. This is hostile to democracy. We will not survive this.
Why are you using their made up name for it?
Network State = fascism
Its corporate fascist states
https://balajis.com/p/the-network-state-2021
It’s literally the same thing he did with twitter
The difference is federal unions
“Rim me, Elon.”
If there are any undercover operatives in my organization disrupting my efforts, I would simply find them and remove them. It is very easy to do because I have so much information and I am so much smarter than everyone else.
