Worst Week 2 of any Presidency Ever? WSJ Article

chemgator · Jan 31, 2025 at 9:32 PM

Trump the Imbecile manages to screw up the entire federal government e-mail system, with a little help from the Muskrat. Making the federal government more efficient, one spam e-mail at a time. Any idiot outside of government can send out messages to entire departments in the gov't.

Trump Broke the Federal Email System and Government Employees Got Blasted With Astonishingly Vulgar Messages

Turns out that putting underqualified kids in charge of the federal government's HR agency wasn't the smartest move. Last night, an exploit in the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) new home-cooked email server seems to have made it possible for anyone with an email address to blast messages to vast numbers of federal employees.

As a result, over 13,000 employees with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found their inboxes bombarded with spam and messages from vulgar trolls. Some users signed the NOAA up for newsletters from entities like the Church of Scientology, or the Perfect Jean — "Welcome to Jean Perfection," a screenshot reads. One particularly vulgar email offered pointers on Trump's alleged performance at a sexual act. An "Important Weather Alert" warned that the next four years have a 99 percent chance of fecal showers. "Aren't you tired of working for a complete c***?" asked one sender. A missive from a sender identified as "Craig" simply reads "yo."

The whole thing apparently stems from an overhaul at the OPM led by oligarch-in-chief Elon Musk. On Tuesday, Wired reported that Musk had been given free reign to replace the agency's high-level staff with lackeys from his previous ventures.

Those included a 21-year-old who had previously worked for Peter Thiel, and a summer intern from Neuralink who just graduated high school. It also included Amanda Scales — a former xAI HR staffer who is reportedly in place as the OPM's new chief of staff.
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citygator · Jan 31, 2025 at 9:38 PM

redbass-510 said: ↑

Complete BS
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Well if redbASS says so.

chemgator · Jan 31, 2025 at 9:40 PM

The new Trump federal government is urging federal employees to turn in other federal employees to help them keep their own jobs. Employees describe their work lives as "fear and chaos", as Trump tries to push federal employees out of their jobs. Clearly, Trump does not know what he's doing. This will not help productivity.

'Fear' and 'chaos' grip federal workers as Trump rapidly remakes the government

Fear, anger and confusion have swept across federal agencies as workers grapple with a deluge of orders from President Donald Trump that they see as an effort to “scare” them out of their jobs.

In conversations with more than a dozen federal employees across multiple agencies, civil servants said the Trump administration’s rapid changes have turned their day-to-day operations into “chaos,” with their immediate higher-ups unable to answer questions about their employment and duties. A number of these workers also expressed surprise at what they saw as an underwhelming response from Congress and their union.

One official at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which administers foreign aid and has had some of the greatest disruption so far in Trump’s second term, said the broad effort to quickly reshape the federal workforce has sent a chill through the building.

“There’s a lot of fear about returning to the office,” this person said. “There’s a lot of fear about being fired, specifically with the OPM email that came out about offering buyouts. There’s a lot of skepticism about that, given the fact that this email seemed to model Elon Musk’s email to the Twitter folks who never got paid. So it’s caused a lot of chaos and turmoil. I think the point is to really scare people and make them think that their jobs are threatened. It’s definitely working.”
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chemgator · Jan 31, 2025 at 9:40 PM

citygator said: ↑

Well if redbASS says so.
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I think the "b" in the username is a typo.

GatorBen · Jan 31, 2025 at 9:46 PM

VAg8r1 said: ↑

There may actually be a method to Trump's apparent madness. This article theorizes that Trump may intentionally be pushing the legal envelope with the goal of having the Supreme Court determine the limits (or more accurately lack thereof) on his power. Although the article focuses on Trump's firing of the IGs it's applicable to almost all of his apparently illegal stunts.
Defying Legal Limits, Trump Firings Set Up Tests That Could Expand His Power
The prospect of getting dragged into court may be exactly what Mr. Trump’s lawyers are hoping for. There is a risk that judges may determine that some of the dismissals were illegal, but any rulings in the president’s favor would establish precedents that would expand presidential power to control the federal government. Some legal experts say the purges underway appear to be custom-made opportunities for the Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority to strike down the statutes any legal challenges would be based on, furthering its trend in recent years of expanding presidential authority.

“On one level, this seems designed to invite courts to push back because much of it is illegal and the overall message is a boundless view of executive power,” said Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor who led the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush administration. “But really, they are clearly setting up test cases.”
Five of the nine Supreme Court justices worked as executive branch lawyers during the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations. Their legal teams were both defined by an expansive view of executive power, including developing theories of the Constitution that would invalidate congressional restrictions on the White House.

Essentially there is the scary and very real possibility that the SCOTUS could formalize Trump's role as the Dictator-in-Chief. In their last term they gave him immunity not unlike that of a king.
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At least for some of the actions, they’re clearly intended to get a court opinion.

As I noted in the IG firing thread, there’s a good argument that the statute everyone is fussing about him violating is facially unconstitutional, and - particularly since the most recent amendment was passed explicitly to curtail powers he exercised in his first term - I have no doubt that at least his legal advisors welcome the opportunity to go get it struck down.

citygator · Jan 31, 2025 at 9:48 PM

GatorBen said: ↑

At least for some of the actions, they’re clearly intended to get a court opinion.

As I noted in the IG firing thread, there’s a good argument that the statute everyone is fussing about him violating is facially unconstitutional, and - particularly since the most recent amendment was passed explicitly to curtail powers he exercised in his first term - I have no doubt that at least his legal advisors welcome the opportunity to go get it struck down.
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3D chess genius he is. Sure.

GatorBen · Jan 31, 2025 at 11:18 PM

citygator said: ↑

3D chess genius he is. Sure.
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Doing something that will get someone to sue you under a law that you think is unconstitutional
to give a court the opportunity to agree with you isn’t exactly a new trick. Florida essentially did exactly that with the Fair Districts Amendment in the last round of redistricting, and lawyers working for the new administration are definitely familiar with that strategy.

gator_jo · Feb 1, 2025 at 1:36 AM

GatorBen said: ↑

Doing something that will get someone to sue you under a law that you think is unconstitutional
to give a court the opportunity to agree with you isn’t exactly a new trick. Florida essentially did exactly that with the Fair Districts Amendment in the last round of redistricting, and lawyers working for the new administration are definitely familiar with that strategy.
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Interesting insight. Does it not seem noteworthy, though, that Donald Trump is the one who clearly has a huge amount of issues with both norms and oversight policies that no other President ever seemed to have?

Particularly when on bears in mind that Donald Trump is a criminal?

Are we really supposed to believe that after all these years of our government functioning, Donald Trump just wants to ..... make things better?

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