In the past week or so, the courts have begun to try to set some boundaries on the MuskāMillerāTrump administrationās early blitz of recklessness.
. . .
This judicial review provides at least a small reprieve, hope that some of the administrationās most destructive impulses will be stopped. Or at least pared back. But even with the courts stepping up, and even with the reality of the administrationās ineptitude sinking in, this early MuskāMillerāTrump blitz remains veryāmaybe irreparablyādamaging. Of course, there are a lot of moles to whack: the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are being dismantled at an alarming rate, and the court system is not known for being nimble. The administration is betting, perhaps rightly, that at least some of its thoughtless, lawless efforts will slip through the cracks.
But even if the courts caught them allāand even if every court facing each lawless escapade said, āNope, thatās not a thingāāstill the entire process would be doing serious damage to our institutions. Think of it as someone spoofing your identity and going on a shopping spree with your credit cards. Even if the goon gets caught, you still have to go store by store to argue that the fraudulent purchase wasnāt legitimate and hope the debt is forgiven. And all the while, perhaps long after all the debts are dealt with, the torrent of uncertainty kills your credit score.
To add more context - Iām a federal employee who has received these Fork emails -
They always come out at night, usually ~ 8-9 pm Eastern. One came out on a Sunday night. So you show up for work the next morning and thatās whatās waiting for you. Iām convinced this is done on purpose, to fuck with us.
As Vought (perfect Bond villain name, right?) said:
They literally want to traumatize us. They hate us because for decades weāve been the only ones to tell them no. No, Elon, you canāt fuck all kinds of shit up when you launch a spaceship. No, Elon, you canāt make the stock market go haywire because you were high and tweeted something stupid. No, Elon, you canāt make a deal with the Pentagon and then run to Putin and do something completely different.
Elon does not like to be told no, but Elon canāt go 5 minutes without acting like the entitled dipshit that he is, so here we are.
And so, ~ 2.5 million civil servants - scientists, healthcare researchers, USAID, engineers, doctors, etc etc, will feel his wrath because he canāt be told no.
I took a big pay cut for this job because I valued job security over money after growing up in a household where jobs were not guaranteed and my parents struggled. Finally I got there after trying for years, and now Elon has to throw a shit fit.
But itās not about me - Iāll be ok, but many others wonāt. And we wonāt get it back without a lot of work, work that Iām not sure that we, as a country, are going to be willing to do. The brain drain and decades of knowledge capture will be lost forever. And thatās by design - now we can all go work for contractors with fewer benefits and no job security and help Elon to make even more money.
One of the Fork emails taunted us by saying that we should be happy to leave our low productivity jobs in government so that we could go work high productivity jobs in the private sector. (So funny!) I know thatās bullshit, but also Iām old enough to not let 4chan incels trigger me that easily.
I do worry about my younger/newer coworkers though, whose heads are spinning. So, I try to help them. Iām educating them about the union and hopefully giving them the tools to get through this and deal with what comes after in the best way possible, whatever that may be.
So the next time you have to go to some annoying government place with a long line and youāre tired and hungry and frustrated, please try to remember that whoever you end up coming face to face with may have just gotten another email trolling them and telling them what a piece of shit they are and they should resign from their jobs. Just give them some grace. Be kind.
https://specificsuggestions.com/
This is a great resource, and I hope it helps a lot of people.
My agency, and my job specifically, must be done right or people could get hurt. So things like renaming files or purposefully scheduling meeting conflicts arenāt options. I need to find specific bits of technical information to ensure a design is safe. I need to have meetings for safety reviews and make sure there isnāt anything that my group missed that could end up hurting someone.
Iām not saying these wonāt be helpful to us in the future, if my agencyās current mission were to change in some way, but right now itās the same as it was during the last administration. I will keep it in my back pocket though for when I feel itās necessary.
Thank you!
Solidarity.
This site is an amazing start! Glad it exists right now.
Have you been passing around copies of āSimple Sabotageā and applying those tactics?
If no, why not?