The Takeover Begins

no, i want to sound the alarm before the ship hits the iceberg. don't put unqualified, highly partisan people into positions of extreme importance like national security, intelligence, defense..you know, stuff that keeps people alive... i much prefer avoiding the iceberg than trying to determine how to fix the gaping hole in the ship

 

in fairness, trump didn't cause worldwide inflation and supply chain interruptions any more than biden did.

the us economy is best in class in the world, the average voter just doesn't understand that fact.

 

Trump's most alarming cabinet pick is skirting under the radar

Under questioning from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Vought was polished yet evasive. He danced around queries from Democrats and played up his familiarity with the panel’s Republicans, who eagerly tossed him softball after softball. Throughout, Vought’s disregard for the confirmation process was evident in his unwillingness to engage with any substantive concerns about his plans or intentions. The hearing was a brutal display of how far the legislative branch has fallen from its place of prominence in the Constitution, as GOP senators eagerly embraced a man who would prefer to see them made obsolete.

While the OMB is little known outside of wonky Washington circles, the agency touches on every facet of the government. It clears spending plans and sets the administration’s funding priorities; it signs off on every regulation that agencies put forward; it oversees the hiring and firing process for civil servants and political appointees alike. In the chapter he wrote of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, Vought argued that the OMB’s influence makes it an ideal nerve center for a hyperaggressive executive branch. Over 26 pages, he laid out his view of how the OMB can function to shape the federal bureaucracy to whatever ends he sees fit, including the replacement of nonpartisan career officials with political lackeys.

The committee’s Republican chair, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, welcomed Vought as a potential ally in Paul’s own long-running crusade to reduce government spending. In some areas, Vought shares that zeal. After the first Trump administration ended in 2021, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a pro-Trump think tank that has advocated massive cuts to spending that would leave the social safety net shredded and millions of Americans left to fend for themselves.

But from his writings and speeches as the CRA’s leader, it’s clear that Vought’s vision for America is not the one that Paul champions, one driven by Congress to pull closed the strings on the proverbial purse. Instead, Vought has made the true depths of his ideologies known: a philosophy that sees the presidency as unfettered by the other branches of government. Though Vought already served as OMB director for part of Trump’s first term, his return to the agency would see an entirely different approach to its power. And with his knowledge of how the levers of power operate in Washington, he’s taken a major role in preparing the incoming administration to greatly tighten its chokehold on the rest of government.

 

Going to bus them to the fields like north Korea? Maybe put them all to work replacing the reporters? Lol, good luck with that. This is just furthering the income disparity problems

 

targeted positions to target hiring and firing. get rid of as many as possible, hire loyalists to fill the key positions, contract out all the work out to friends of djt.

project 2025 in full swing

Musk and allies have reportedly seized key HR office - and skipped past officials to send mass resignation email

Elon Musk continues to assert his power and influence with President Donald Trump, and a new report details how the tech mogul and his allies have taken “control” of the Office of Personal Management and skipped past key officials to release an email asking federal workers to resign.
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The Office of Personal Management is a nonpartisan agency that manages the federal workforce, and would typically be consulted ahead of significant personnel changes. They were not informed of this proposal, people familiar with the situation told The Washington Post.

In the weeks since Trump took office, Musk has moved to take control of the office, according to the Post. He visited the office on Friday and put several of his longtime allies in key positions.

That includes Anthony Armstrong, who helped Musk buy Twitter, according to the Post. Others include Brian Bjelde from SpaceX and Amanda Scales who worked at a Musk AI firm. The trio are now in leadership positions in the office.

 

'It was a trap': Ex-prosecutor says 'afraid' Trump just 'summoned the sleeping giant'

"There is a reason Trump is afraid of the federal bureaucracy, the career civil servants he wants to replace. They are powerful. They are knowledgeable. And although they often get a bad rap, in my experience—25 years of it—they are dedicated and mission driven," Vance wrote. "Tell doctors at CDC, federal prosecutors at DOJ, or scientists at the Department of Agriculture that they can’t do their job, and they will find a way to get it done. Tell the entire bureaucracy you want them to leave? You’ve summoned the sleeping giant."
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"Buyouts are not unheard of in the federal government. In fact, they tend to happen every few years. In essence, they are a cost savings device designed to get more experienced and hence more expensive employees to retire a couple of years early to be replaced by younger, less expensive employees," she wrote. "It’s how many offices across the country stay staffed at necessary levels to do the work without busting their budgets. But not this one. Someone experienced in these matters told me it was 'a trap, not a buyout.' Others with experience in federal employment law seemed to agree."

"If there was any doubt about what this was about, the email laid it out plainly," the attorney wrote. "The goal is to remake the career professional civil service into a troop of Trump loyalists: 'The federal workforce should be comprised of employees who are reliable, loyal, trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work.'"

Vance even took a look online to see the general reaction from the move. "On Reddit last night, it was clear that a sizeable number of federal employees are digging in for the fight. Donald Trump has always fantasized about a deep state inside of government that opposes him, something that didn’t exist. Now, he is well on the way to creating one," she wrote. "It turns out federal employees take their oath, their job, and their duty to serve very seriously."