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GSA Eliminates 18F

nextgov.com

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Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#371

Post by acdha »

refurb wrote: post #362
acdha wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of context do you think would excuse that sentiment? Given his extensive public record, would you argue that this is somehow out of character for him? It seems rather consistent based on the rest of his career: https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/01/03/russ-voug...

Why? Because I've seen Propublica cherry pick quotes before and taken them entirely out of context? The media has been lying to us for decades and no, I don't take them at their word, especially when they share a clip that removes all context.

Are you expecting a creationist style trimmed quote where he said something like “Only a sociopath would say something like…” before the portion in that clip? It’s clear from the length and his cadence that this wasn’t a slip of the tongue or a tight clip.

https://youtu.be/oBH9TmeJN_M

If so, I would note that it’s curious that he’s declined to comment rather than clearing his record and the Trump campaign similarly reacted by pretending they wouldn’t have him setting policy again rather than by saying that’s not what he meant.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#372

Post by rayiner »

encomiast wrote: post #281
hayst4ck wrote: post #238

Everyone should watch the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, speak on government workers: We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry because the…

They don't actually know who the bureaucrats are that they want to traumatize. Anyone calling a product manager, UX designer, or software developer at 18F a "bureaucrat" simply has no idea what they actually do. They are just demonizing the scapegoat du jour. Also among these so call "bureaucrats" are psychologists at the VA helping veterans with PTSD; search and rescue professionals working for forest service, park…

The civil servants should have stayed in their lane: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/resistance-from-with...

I grew up in the DC area 30 years ago. Civil servants declaring “Resistance” to the agenda of the duly elected president would have been unthinkable then. That destroys the premise of a civil service that is a machine that processes paperwork and doesn’t think for itself.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#373

Post by rayiner »

rqtwteye wrote: post #309
hayst4ck wrote: post #238

Everyone should watch the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, speak on government workers: We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry because the…

This is just insane. Totally destructive. Checks and balances are gone.

Explain what you think “checks and balances” are, please.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#374

Post by rayiner »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #353
hayst4ck wrote: post #238

Everyone should watch the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, speak on government workers: We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry because the…

Yes, I firmly believe that Trump was elected to punish the current political class in the US for failing to serve the interests of his voter base (largely working class men). The whole election and his sad little mandate is about tearing down the permanent bureaucracy in the executive branch, not about fixing anything or really even changing any systems.

Don’t forget us minorities! Net 20 point swing among both asians and hispanics. Little Bangladesh—note that bangladesh is literally a socialist country—in Queens, NYC swung a net 55 points to the right.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#375

Post by khazhoux »

genter wrote: post #314
khazhoux wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incorrect. Their goal is to dissolve these agencies, to reduce regulation that burden certain industries.

How is that incorrect? They're deliberately being cruel to government employees so they quit and the agencies are de facto dissolved.

[flagged]

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#376

Post by ethbr1 »

Spooky23 wrote: post #334
ethbr1 wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most important task now is for every civil servant and citizen to maintain a paper trail on what they can. So that when this gets litigated, everyone who broke the law is convicted.

Bro, it isn't 1975, it's 2025. The president has immunity like some South American dictator. His agents will be pardoned as long as they stay in favor. The civil servant should collect his pay as long as possible and do as little as possible.

Cynicism is the rationalization of laziness.

Someone has always disagreed with something the government is doing. It has always been the end of democracy as we know it.

And yet, the future then and present now were formed by people who acted.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#377

Post by sunshowers »

rayiner wrote: post #293
sunshowers wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And none of the “good federal workers” spoke up against that. American voters deserve a civil service that will work as hard on mass deportations under Trump as they did on open borders under Biden. The US is a constitutional republic, not an Athenian democracy. The whole purpose of constitutions is to act as checks against base majoritarian impulses.

The system of “checks and balances” is between Congress, the President, and the Judiciary. Show me where in the constitution it says employees of the executive branch are constitutional actors that have a role within that system?

You might be thinking of unitary executive theory, which is harebrained right-wing fringe nonsense. Public servants in the US swear an oath to the constitution, not to the president, and have an obligation to disobey clearly unconstitutional orders no matter the personal cost (that's what swearing an oath means).

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#378

Post by khazhoux »

Spooky23 wrote: post #332
khazhoux wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incorrect. Their goal is to dissolve these agencies, to reduce regulation that burden certain industries.

[flagged]

> You're a zealot or incapable of cognitively understanding what the words mean.

Straight to ad hominem. Excellent.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#379

Post by meaydinli »

hypothesis wrote: post #219
ein0p wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All that wonderful transparency and analytics, yet failed to uncover this here multimillion dollar Uniparty/DeepState money laundering scheme (one of many!): https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/1889172190282821690 . Uncovered by just one deaf, nonverbal, female hacker working part time (until she was doxxed, she's full time now).

Ah yes, our favorite partisan actors, who can’t be bothered to mention how much her benefactor spent just this year doing same thing. Also, that chart is just magical, did she inflate the numbers by repeatedly adding same money being shuffled around (represented by those arrows between entities)?

Also seems to be unaware of the fact that NGO's are usually soft-power. They are either carrots or sticks in diplomacy or a cover for IC.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#380

Post by giardini »

This topic should be shut down. Many people are presenting outlandish ideas here. Especially common is the idea that organizations act (and even think) the same as individuals.
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