Grim times now, grim times later; these people must be heard -- they know what the stakes are. Cory Doctorow's latest post quoted Anna Merlan about DOGE and the carnage it is wreaking: "Now the whole country gets the experience of what it’s like when private equity buys the place you work." He then said, "That's exactly it. We are witnessing a private equity-style plunder of the entire US government – of the USA itself." In that light, DOGE's actions do look like a leveraged buyout by corporate looters: swoop in, remove all the safeguards, get rid of the experienced staff, exfiltrate data as fast as possible, and the Enabler-in-Chief you installed is unfazed about it because he's in on the potential take in case any of it succeeds in windfall profits for the investor class.
Four times in my career, I have been forced to seek employment elsewhere because vain MEN who lacked the vision to adapt. Who felt that those with ideas and years of real experience generated from beneath them were expendable insubordinates and therefore too costly to keep onboard their sinking ship.
I am proud to say that I watched each of those 4 ships sink within 3 years of my being “furloughed.” I didn’t have all the answers, but the collective perspectives of all those who “lost their jobs” would certainly have helped steer the ship toward a better outcome.
There were other times when my morals and values did not allow me to wait and I resigned in protest. In every case, the company failed within a year. Those were very hard times for me personally, but I was able to secure a better situation within a few months BECAUSE I left. Had I stayed, the hardship would have lasted much longer.
Thank you for taking the time to gather this info. There's so much outrage out there, it's informative to hear from a career public employee, who devoted themselves to a vocation and was trained and schooled in non-partisan appearance. Very shameful the treatment received and leaving people without clear direction or hope, particularly if they devoted themselves to public service.
California and New York can stop paying taxes to the federal government and the red states would be crippled quickly since they're basically welfare recipients mooching off blue states.
I know this is going to sound petulant but I really don't mean it to and I am directing this at myself as much as I am at everybody else. And there are two parts to this. First a question:
What are YOU Doing to resist? What are you doing to organize a resistance? Why is the question always "why isn't anyone doing anything about this". Let me be clear, this includes me big time too. But the thing is people need something to organize around, and while that point of coalescence should have been the democratic party in total, so far it only seems to be a handful of people. Nothing is stopping any of us from getting that ball rolling.
The second part is simply that it takes a particular kind of person to begin those coalescences..It's so frustrating not knowing what to do. But the truth is we don't know what to do. We have to define what the resistance would look like, what it would actually entail, and then how to go about doing it.
In my opinion protests are more performative than active. They are important because they express public distress, so they are certainly a signal of what is going on and important in that way, but they don't do any of the actual work of resistance.
Violence against these undemocratic forces is certainly an option. And while I have absolutely no moral objection to the use of it, I do have a strategic objection. All I can do at this point is turn up the volume and empower the antagonist.
The best option remains workers strikes. But it would have to be a massive strike across industries that all happened at the same time. An individual saying "take this job and shove it "and walking out can't do shit. Except cause financial distress for that one person
So the question is how do you get people to collectively work together to resist at the same time? An Individual act of resistance is just a suicide mission of sorts. Why would anyone destroy their own lives if no one else has their back. people need to have some sense that they can win a fight in order for them to take the kinds of risks that are being asked.
Even as a pessimist, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that something will arise. Simply because something always does. If the abuses of capitalism can be attributed to human nature, so can the active self preservation. We just need to get a sense of enough people being on the same page Before that will happen
I’m doing what you should be doing. Instead of criticizing an ally. I’m CALLING FOR IT! I’m ready to act. Let’s go. Or would you rather just ARGUE ABOUT ME?
And 70+ mm Americans couldn’t be happier. This is exactly what we voted for. We are sick and tired of the waste and corruption in DC. Milton Friedman, the brilliant economist, said it best 40 years ago: we could dismantle almost all the alphabet soup federal agencies, and our country would prosper. https://youtu.be/cl_qwo2VIlU?si=mn4GQajTcoi1KjpL
Friedman was dead wrong about supply-side economics, and he was also wrong about the agencies. We need them to protect society from the predation that is unchecked capitalism.
This calls to mind an answer Ram Dass gave when someone asked him if psychiatry was a good idea. He said, "If Buddha was your psychiatrist it would be a very good idea." Ain't got no Buddhas out there redoing anything.
Where would we be exactly? First of all she didn't tell us any of her plans so we don't know. My guess is it wouldn't be this bad but would still be pretty bad
TDS is now DOGE-DS. The executive is auditing the orgs under his remit. They are mismanaged and self serving. Things will be broken, but in the weeks and months ahead the amount of graft and waste that comes to light will make it difficult for anyone to stand against this effort. Bring on the transparency.
Grim times now, grim times later; these people must be heard -- they know what the stakes are. Cory Doctorow's latest post quoted Anna Merlan about DOGE and the carnage it is wreaking: "Now the whole country gets the experience of what it’s like when private equity buys the place you work." He then said, "That's exactly it. We are witnessing a private equity-style plunder of the entire US government – of the USA itself." In that light, DOGE's actions do look like a leveraged buyout by corporate looters: swoop in, remove all the safeguards, get rid of the experienced staff, exfiltrate data as fast as possible, and the Enabler-in-Chief you installed is unfazed about it because he's in on the potential take in case any of it succeeds in windfall profits for the investor class.
Wow this is so damn spot on.
Four times in my career, I have been forced to seek employment elsewhere because vain MEN who lacked the vision to adapt. Who felt that those with ideas and years of real experience generated from beneath them were expendable insubordinates and therefore too costly to keep onboard their sinking ship.
I am proud to say that I watched each of those 4 ships sink within 3 years of my being “furloughed.” I didn’t have all the answers, but the collective perspectives of all those who “lost their jobs” would certainly have helped steer the ship toward a better outcome.
There were other times when my morals and values did not allow me to wait and I resigned in protest. In every case, the company failed within a year. Those were very hard times for me personally, but I was able to secure a better situation within a few months BECAUSE I left. Had I stayed, the hardship would have lasted much longer.
Thank you for taking the time to gather this info. There's so much outrage out there, it's informative to hear from a career public employee, who devoted themselves to a vocation and was trained and schooled in non-partisan appearance. Very shameful the treatment received and leaving people without clear direction or hope, particularly if they devoted themselves to public service.
We taxpayers have power. We can starve the Federal government.
California and New York can stop paying taxes to the federal government and the red states would be crippled quickly since they're basically welfare recipients mooching off blue states.
I am not certain that blue states will do this. Maybe.
Still waiting to hear our marching orders to resist. Are we really this clueless? Bereft, rudderless and unable to organize?
I know this is going to sound petulant but I really don't mean it to and I am directing this at myself as much as I am at everybody else. And there are two parts to this. First a question:
What are YOU Doing to resist? What are you doing to organize a resistance? Why is the question always "why isn't anyone doing anything about this". Let me be clear, this includes me big time too. But the thing is people need something to organize around, and while that point of coalescence should have been the democratic party in total, so far it only seems to be a handful of people. Nothing is stopping any of us from getting that ball rolling.
The second part is simply that it takes a particular kind of person to begin those coalescences..It's so frustrating not knowing what to do. But the truth is we don't know what to do. We have to define what the resistance would look like, what it would actually entail, and then how to go about doing it.
In my opinion protests are more performative than active. They are important because they express public distress, so they are certainly a signal of what is going on and important in that way, but they don't do any of the actual work of resistance.
Violence against these undemocratic forces is certainly an option. And while I have absolutely no moral objection to the use of it, I do have a strategic objection. All I can do at this point is turn up the volume and empower the antagonist.
The best option remains workers strikes. But it would have to be a massive strike across industries that all happened at the same time. An individual saying "take this job and shove it "and walking out can't do shit. Except cause financial distress for that one person
So the question is how do you get people to collectively work together to resist at the same time? An Individual act of resistance is just a suicide mission of sorts. Why would anyone destroy their own lives if no one else has their back. people need to have some sense that they can win a fight in order for them to take the kinds of risks that are being asked.
Even as a pessimist, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that something will arise. Simply because something always does. If the abuses of capitalism can be attributed to human nature, so can the active self preservation. We just need to get a sense of enough people being on the same page Before that will happen
I’m doing what you should be doing. Instead of criticizing an ally. I’m CALLING FOR IT! I’m ready to act. Let’s go. Or would you rather just ARGUE ABOUT ME?
And 70+ mm Americans couldn’t be happier. This is exactly what we voted for. We are sick and tired of the waste and corruption in DC. Milton Friedman, the brilliant economist, said it best 40 years ago: we could dismantle almost all the alphabet soup federal agencies, and our country would prosper. https://youtu.be/cl_qwo2VIlU?si=mn4GQajTcoi1KjpL
Friedman was dead wrong about supply-side economics, and he was also wrong about the agencies. We need them to protect society from the predation that is unchecked capitalism.
This calls to mind an answer Ram Dass gave when someone asked him if psychiatry was a good idea. He said, "If Buddha was your psychiatrist it would be a very good idea." Ain't got no Buddhas out there redoing anything.
I dunno...Maybe next time show up to fucking vote for the candidate that doesn't want you dead?
Just a thought.
I don't mean to be reductive and simplistic, but all you have to do is think of where we would be if we had voted for Harris.
Those who stayed home "election day "can rot in hell. You've destroy the lives of the people I love most
Where would we be exactly? First of all she didn't tell us any of her plans so we don't know. My guess is it wouldn't be this bad but would still be pretty bad
TDS is now DOGE-DS. The executive is auditing the orgs under his remit. They are mismanaged and self serving. Things will be broken, but in the weeks and months ahead the amount of graft and waste that comes to light will make it difficult for anyone to stand against this effort. Bring on the transparency.
Must use a particular claimant who might be HARMED by this...sshould have named at least one person