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Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

cnn.com

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Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#131

Post by snozolli »

stronglikedan wrote: post #94
sjsdaiuasgdia wrote: post #2

The disruption is (part of) the point. Degrading the ability of government employees to do their jobs leads to greater inefficiency and more failure, which can then be pointed at to validate assertions that government isn't efficient and produces bad outcomes.

[flagged]

I have no doubt that it can be cut down by 50% without adversely affecting anything long term.

As long as you don't care about American soft power, or the many lives we save with our humanitarian programs, you may be right. If you do care about these things, then you're already demonstrably wrong.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/health/usaid-contract-ter...

More children are going to die, around the world, in the immediate future. Sorry, eggs, this guy has an omelette to make.

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#132

Post by zug_zug »

CapricornNoble wrote: post #70

Interesting that the CNN article makes no mention of how badly under-utilized government office spaces are. https://wolfstreet.com/2025/01/25/doge-seeks-to-shed-vast-am... “A recent report from Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa who chairs the Senate DOGE caucus, found that not one of the headquarters for any major agency or department in Washington is more than half full. GSA-owned buildings in Washington, D.C.…

Well a few thoughts. I feel like your question is trying to excuse reckless disregard (at best) as mere incompetence.

I don't think if you sum up all the value on all the leases of wasted buildings it would be a drop in the bucket against the psychological damage (e.g. distrust in the system) being caused by this administration. Like unless it's more than 1% of the national budget (i.e. > 67 billion a year) then it isn't worth the chaos.

And a competent administration that wanted to end leases really shouldn't have started RTO, so let's try not to fabricate plausible deniability here.

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#133

Post by mystifyingpoi »

> (...) returned to ethernet cords in piles around the floor, random wires sticking out of walls, and motion-sensor lights that weren’t working correctly

I don't understand that part, maybe I'm missing something - what happened there? Why would the abandoned workplace not look exactly the same as they left it? Where did the ethernet cords appear from? Someone stole TVs from the walls?

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#134

Post by JumpCrisscross »

the_gipsy wrote: post #93
Aurornis wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is mind blowing to me that this is what people want. It is not what people want. The Trump administration’s popularity is already below 50%, and much lower among independents (around 30% depending on the poll). Many people aren’t yet aware of what’s happening. A lot of the electorate is getting their news from filtered sources like Fox News or various far right media outlets. Joe Rogan has gone all in on praisin…

> It’s only a matter of time until they realize It will be far too late. That's why they're going so fast. The damage comes with a huge latency. Perhaps America can be saved and this is nothing but a bump in the ride, I'm no Nostradamus, but this could very well be the end of the Free West.

> this could very well be the end of the Free West

Europe seems to be realising it must get its act together. Europe + Canada + the Americas have a hope in hell of containing America if it goes off the rails internationally. (When Trump & Musk tip the economy into recession it will be tempting to drum up a stupid war. My guess would have been Iran. But who the hell knows.)

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#135

Post by anonzzzies »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #125
anonzzzies wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump & Musk will walk out trillionaires, so they couldn't care less.

> Trump & Musk will walk out trillionaires Or in jail. We’re not at the coup stakes of life and death, but we’re also like two months into this Presidency. (For what it’s worth, Trump isn’t currently being coup-ish. That’s been left to the pretender.)

Which is why they are pushing so hard/fast; they need to destroy the right things to make sure they cannot be stopped.

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#136

Post by natosaichek »

stronglikedan wrote: post #94
sjsdaiuasgdia wrote: post #2

The disruption is (part of) the point. Degrading the ability of government employees to do their jobs leads to greater inefficiency and more failure, which can then be pointed at to validate assertions that government isn't efficient and produces bad outcomes.

[flagged]

Can you point to some of the stuff (presumably doge) that you particularly approve of? Id like to better understand this perspective

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#137

Post by pyrale »

Aurornis wrote: post #23
selykg wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely insane that this is what we've come to. It is mind blowing to me that this is what people want. We are regressing this country so rapidly that we are likely to become one of those shithole countries the president so loudly proclaimed Haiti, El Salvador and others were.

> It is mind blowing to me that this is what people want. It is not what people want. The Trump administration’s popularity is already below 50%, and much lower among independents (around 30% depending on the poll). Many people aren’t yet aware of what’s happening. A lot of the electorate is getting their news from filtered sources like Fox News or various far right media outlets. Joe Rogan has gone all in on praisin…

> It’s only a matter of time until they realize that they were the intended targets of the cuts, not accidental damage.

"If only the Tsar knew"

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#138

Post by AnimalMuppet »

CapricornNoble wrote: post #70

Interesting that the CNN article makes no mention of how badly under-utilized government office spaces are. https://wolfstreet.com/2025/01/25/doge-seeks-to-shed-vast-am... “A recent report from Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa who chairs the Senate DOGE caucus, found that not one of the headquarters for any major agency or department in Washington is more than half full. GSA-owned buildings in Washington, D.C.…

> why are we spending massive amounts of money for office buildings while people work from home?

Valid point. But if that's the problem, why don't we get rid of the buildings and save the money, rather than force people back to the office so we have to keep spending money on the buildings?

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#139

Post by mexicocitinluez »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #22

Wild that oil & gas subsidies, Medicare negotiating more drugs and foreign military base reductions are off the table. But god forbid we see another hurricane coming.

> Medicare negotiating more drugs

I don't care what side you fall down on, the only reason someone would rollback Medicare negotiating drug prices is so that they can make more money on their big pharma stocks.

I can't believe a bunch of grown adults voted for this shit.

Re: Federal workers ordered to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi and lights

#140

Post by myvoiceismypass »

the_gipsy wrote: post #93
Aurornis wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is mind blowing to me that this is what people want. It is not what people want. The Trump administration’s popularity is already below 50%, and much lower among independents (around 30% depending on the poll). Many people aren’t yet aware of what’s happening. A lot of the electorate is getting their news from filtered sources like Fox News or various far right media outlets. Joe Rogan has gone all in on praisin…

> It’s only a matter of time until they realize It will be far too late. That's why they're going so fast. The damage comes with a huge latency. Perhaps America can be saved and this is nothing but a bump in the ride, I'm no Nostradamus, but this could very well be the end of the Free West.

The checks and balances part no longer exists, so definitely feels like it’s over.
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