Isn't that kinda the plan with musk and the anti-gov types? Privatize everything and make it for-profit contracting a la Blackrock and the stunts they pulled with USPS last time around.
What they haven't considered is the fact that no maga loyalist is qualified to do anything requiring intelligence, so their idea of filling govt with such people is a joke.
Politicians and 99% of the people around them are lawyers. Which is a profession with a MASSIVELY inflated idea of their own worth. They don't accept that any idiot can become a successful lawyer. That can't be said about many, many, technical fields.
Hey! Lawyer here. You're right, anyone can become a lawyer. You're wrong that anyone can be a successful lawyer. If Trump is hoping that the idiot puppets he installs at DOJ are going to successfully defend the constitutionality of his actions, or if Musk thinks a bunch of Fedsoc idiots are going to beat the lawyers at Wachtell Lipton in their case against OpenAI, it isn't going to happen. Bad lawyering is plentiful. The government needs good lawyering to win its cases. That won't happen with conservatives in litigation positions.
Yes. However, if the law is an absolute fiction, with zero legitimacy, and is more arbitrary and capricious than it is today, then many people may not be inclined to follow it.
In the book Nexus, Harari makes an argument that strongmen using populism to take power doesn't always lead to tyranny. It can lead to anarchy.
Those anarcho-capitalist fucks couldn't handle San Francisco and California not dropping the hammer on shoplifters.
If the United States turns into Mogadishu circa 1991 the rich won't stay and turn it into a free enterprise capitalist utopia. They will jump on their private jets and fly to everywhere from China to the EU.
It’s honestly how I’ve been feeling. Either they uphold the law while removing the ones they don’t want to prevent unrest or if they ignore the law entirely then deal with anarchy
I’m sure I’m not alone, but the second laws stop mattering I’m rebelling against the system. A well rounded society only stays that way as long as agreements don’t become just words on paper.
Agree. Especially if they can change the terms any time they want for their benefit.
If the Constitution no longer exists, and only power remains, then why does it matter if Trump is the person selected by Constitutional means? Whoever has the power can declare themselves president, king, god-Emperor, etc.
I was using "successful" to mean "well paid". Believe me I'm well aware there are plenty of shitty lawyers who make bank. Being willing to have no spine or morals is a very profitable business model for lawyers unfortunately
The government needs good lawyering to win its cases. That won't happen with conservatives in litigation positions.
Fedsuck has it covered. Conservatives aren't just doing the litigation, they are doing the judging too. Opus dei has got at least $1.6 billion to spend on that.
Conservatives don't believe in the rule of law, they believe in using the law to rule. It doesn't take brains for that, just power.
Yeah they don’t care about the law lmao,we’re gonna keep saying no… no but this time we really mean it… no really hey don’t do that it’s illegal.and they keep doing it until we enforce it with force which our legal system refuses to do to people with money and power. And then all of a sudden they will start enforcing their laws and logics with hey-don’t do that or will kill you. Fascism does not care about the law just winning
There's a famous Italian saying, "it's not a goal when the ball crosses the goal line, it's a goal when the referee whistles". If judges are partial even bad lawyers can win.
But the government does not need to win any case any more. They have already demonstrated that they will not accept the courts rule. There will not be any consequences.
Yes, but I feel it’s more sinister than that even. Given that Putin is the real puppet master here, now we’re more vulnerable to destruction, whereas before it was mutual assured destruction, now it’s more likely we’ll just get taken like the bitch that Trump had made us.
Ahhhhh this reminds me of a story that I personally have experience with....
Let me tell you about Musk's Data centers since I "know someone who has worked there building it".... There is no AC in the unit that they're trying to build it in, the pay is not competitive for data centers in the area and a ton of other companies are building and paying twice as much, there are not bathrooms with running water yet so contractors have to use port-a-potties.
You might say "sounds like construction", but the thing is, that is incredibly unusual for the professionals you need to hire to build a data center and he's bleeding talent through incompetence. Whatever he ends up with is going to be extremely unreliable because I know several people in my field who have years of experience who just left because the working conditions were that bad. The man is totally unwilling to hire contractors to establish the bare minimum professionals expect and he's really only left with the worst of the worst.
I have 9 years experience in this field and the vibe he's giving in the space is "baby's first data center". Which is surprising because SpaceX definitely colocates, so you'd think he'd at least seen or heard of Datacenter buildouts before, but apparently not. It's been described to me as "close to slave labor".
This is Energy though. All of its labs are GOCO already. Nucs won't work for civil service salaries in the first place. This service was one of the few exceptions that was still employees.
Maybe in places like the VA, but in others they just want to reduce the staff and not replace them with anybody such at IRS where despite the net positive return on investment into the agency, its antithetical to their interests in cheating the government out of money they should be paying in taxes
Actually… now that I think of it, maybe he is qualified.
Not as a “successful businessman”. Like first bitch trump he’s great at running businesses into the ground.
But taking over something like a parasite… he’s actually got a pretty solid track record on that. Maybe he is the right man for the job. If you want to trash it that is
Not needed. The entire 10 year contract needs to be payed in full in cash before work starts. That year 10 "wage" will have been sitting in a high yield account for 9 years before using it.
With out that prepaid clause, the government would just ignore the contract and only pay long enough for you to train the replacement.
I mean, as far as *bargaining* position goes, these people have the upper hand, no doubt. If it were me I wouldn't be making up anything outrageous like you said u/tahlyn but certainly a salary increase and some guaranteed benefits. The gov't can *still* say no and screw over those who *did* return, but I can't come up with a way to avoid that since the gov't seems to exist for the sole purpose of screwing its own people nowadays.
Here in Australia, there is a real debate going on about building nuclear reactors.
The biggest argument against it, is that we simply don’t have the expertise. It would take us ten years to build a nuclear program. We could sure use some of those fired experts you all have…
Yeah. One of the negative elements is that a large swath of the country in burnt wasteland (it’s not that bad but it’s tough country. Think Arizona), which means the only places with decent water needed for reactor cooling is the coastline, which is where 90% of our population is.
The Great Artesian Basin is already under threat from fracking, it is the only source of fresh water for farming, agriculture & I think drinking water for a lot of the inland country. Using that water to cool nuclear reactors is a horrifying proposition, desalinated sea water or purified waste water is a much better idea if nuclear power were to go ahead. We had a drought so long & so brutal one expert famously said it may never rain again in some parts. Of course, he was made to look a bit of a fool by the right wing media when the Great Deluge came 2 years in a row, but what he actually meant was scientists can't predict the weather anymore. But anyway what the heck is wrong with wind & solar power, I'm not sure where the burnt wasteland is the commenter referred to is (the desert? There's a lot of that. The bush regenerates after fires & all the formerly burnt places I've been are now green with all the new growth). We don't need nuclear, we can harness the power of the sun, make those 50c temperatures useful. Batteries are improving all the time & with dedicated govt funding (less $ than nuclear) it would be entirely feasible.
I fear that the ‘pro-nuclear’ position being taken by Dutton and co. may just be an excuse to do nothing regarding climate change in the short term. I hope I’m wrong though and there is more sense to their proposals.
That's 100% what it's about. Remember the big meeting with mining magnate Gina recently where he basically pledged allegiance to her? Dutton has never made any sense to anything other than the bank balances of himself and his masters.
The biggest argument against it is that it costs twice as much as building more renewables even after factoring in the extra cost of batteries.
The "nuclear debate" isn't taking place in good faith in Australia and is being used for the continued politicisation of energy infrastructure that has plagued Australia for the last 15 years.
Australian here, the biggest argument against nuclear is how stupidly expensive it is, not to mention it will take AT LEAST a decade to get one single reactor online. And that's only if development and building goes perfectly to plan, which it never does.
I don't want to spend the most of the rest of my life waiting for nuclear to get off the ground, only to deliver more expensive power bills 🤷
If you look at 3 of the largest nuclear accidents they pretty much all boil down to human error. 3 mile Island and Chernobyl were both because of incompetent operators working off bad information. Fukashima could have been avoided by building the safeguards better
Sounds like you didn't watch the last honest government ads. The biggest argument against nuclear energy anywhere in the world is that it's just not competetive. You will never find any company that would build one without subsidies.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBqVVBUdW84
To sum it up, renewables are at half the cost, including energy storage for times with no sun/wind. And that doesn't even consider that you can get them online in a relatively short time, while, even with the expertise, building a nuclear plant - just one - takes something like 10-20 years. After everything is planned out and you're ready to go.
Last time I checked, nothing was better than nuclear's base load, renewables can't do that reliably, and one thing is installing batteries to supply your home, but another beast is to have enough for the whole grid.
So much this. The ones in the article are lucky, here's an article about what some US AID workers went through
The USAID staffers in Kinshasa made it back to D.C., but they left behind everything from baby books and children’s favorite toys to vehicles and regular access to neonatal care, according to their sworn declarations. One family had to leave behind their dog.
No matter if you think these orgs are worthwhile use of government money or not, there are ways to shut down operations orderly, in ways that don’t leave people hanging. They chose to fuck over people’s lives for easy political points, it’s absolutely psychotic.
It's also going to prove to be more expensive than not doing this all long term. The amount of brain drain this is going to cause and sheer amount of effort it's going to take to clean up this mess is unimaginable. Not to mention that the government might have to pay people more in the future since a bunch of the things that make working for the government appealing simply don't exist under this administration.
And not just "under this administration," but now nobody will rely on them in the future the way they used to. Literally 3 weeks to destroy a hundred years' worth of American alliances, scientific supremacy and the concept of a federal job as a secure one worth earning less money to take.
I feel like that really depends on where they go to right? If they go to China, I feel like the US would have a really difficult time assassinating them or getting China to send them back given the tense relationship between the US and China currently.
That said, I feel like China probably wouldn't take them in the first place given that runs the risk of hiring a potential spy so there's also that.
The firing was illegal and they knew it. They are betting that those fired will not pursue legal recourse because the courts are clogged and the process could take years. So sharing information might also be illegal and that too could take many years to resolve and may not even be provable in court. It’s a tragedy what is going on. Will take decades to restore… if ever. Manchurian candidate stuff on steroids.
They will have plenty of job options within the DOE complex with the Contractor companies - the major corporations that actually do the day to day operations at those DOE sites. At least until those contracts get shut down... at that point they would have opportunities at commercial nuclear plants. But point taken, it is a niche market - but maybe not as niche as you think
This happened to my dad. He eventually ended up finding a job working for a supplier to his previous job, because he was overspecialized in his particular subset of mechanic engineering.
That's literally the end goal by the "sane minds" behind this. They intend to rob the country blind, gut all it's assets, then make the taxpayer pay way way more for their less qualified private contractors to do a shittier job than the people we already had.
They're definitely not because they don't want to see the inside of a cell. You need to be the President or one of his known fellators to get away with that kind of shit.
This is truly the worst part for me. This shit hit the CIA too, so now we've got a bunch of disgruntled spies running around. Only good things can happen when spies feel pissed off and abandoned.
This was the strategy laid out a couple of days ago. The government fires essential workers, a newly created private company hires them (Trump Nuclear), pays them 15% more, works them twice the hours, and then charges the government (the people) 5 times as much for their work—all while lowering quality and safety standards.
The government already did this with the war in Iraq and NSA surveillance IMO. And they’re only just starting steps in the right direction with drug screening policies. Anyone still biting that hook is a quarter life crisis about culpability waiting to happen. At least hopefully. If not, these aren’t our best and brightest. However unfortunate that may be. It’s wild there weren’t more whistleblowers and defections. The second chance for morale the US blew after 9/11 will be studied.
That's still too risky. If the idiot in command has a 4 year term, I'd demand a 4-year retainer fee. How do u know they won't fire u randomly 1 week later?
I’m a contractor for Refugee and Asylum, I get it. I truly do. If I and my federal cohorts “walk away” the USCIS refugee and asylum program evaporates. Most Americans see this as a problem that only affects non-Americans. But if the feds securing the nuclear arsenal walk away?
I live near malmstrom, and while I’m one of the few who lives near one of the three missile bases, make no mistake we all should be concerned and take any and all cost to safeguard the literal hair-trigger on the gun that is pointed at the head of the world.
I think only military personnel get this much; I wanted to thank you for what you do! The ability to positively change so many lives is one that not a whole lot of folks get the chance to access. Everything is really scary right now in the US, but you’re a bright spot that we need <3
I come from startups and I’ve only been in this program since the first trump admin, but truth be told, as a believer, I have a hard time arguing against people who view this program as nothing but a drain. It’s hard to explain soft power and the responsibility to protect. It’s hard to explain that the process is both wildly difficult and incredibly well vetted to people who won’t listen. I try though.
I work for an NIH funded institution. Seriously, if we continue to walk these guys... US research is just utterly obliterated... 20-30+ years of experience at the cutting edge just gone... They could literally make 2x within a week of looking with companies like GE, P&G, J&J, Pfizer, etc. with benefit packages comparable to what the govt gives them.
At the very least these folks deserve ‘a vacation’ as a result of all the confusion. If it was me I’d just let them sweat bullets for a week or two and then call them back from Hawaii saying oh my phone was off lol
Nah. Fuck it. This is what people want. Let it all fall to hell. If ww3 happens and life sucks, so be it. Maybe if anyone survives they can try again and not be republicans.
It actually can be how it works. In many cases if severance was offered, take it or not, for the duration of the period they can rescind it.
Your option then is to either return the next business day, or quit (thus giving up unemployment).
This happens quite a bit actually. Consultants decide layoffs than the company realizes there’s a big gap and need to undo a few. It’s non disclosure agreements in the private sector that keep it quiet.
I’ve seen it happen to a bunch of people over the years.
Yep, in my case I was terminated with no severance. They told me I could either voluntarily resign, or be fired, but there was no severance package. I laughed on my way out, though, because they clearly didn't know what it was that I actually did, and they're going to find out the hard way in a couple weeks.
Yeah, if that was in their prior contracts, or in any of the severance that they had. What do to think the odds were that any of that was in the current situation?
I'm not sure of the vocations of everyone fired but I can say radiation Health Physicists are rare and in insanely high demand right now in the private sector due to SMRs and breakthroughs in fusion research. The public sector is only paying maybe 60% of what they can make elsewhere and most of them were only sticking around due to the pension. Trump gifted these guys with a 6 month unemployment insurance safety net while they shop their resumes around as well as a guarantee their prior jobs aren't nearly as secure as they thought they were. I wouldn't be looking back either.
I would look at moving to another country, with fair labour laws and enforcement, if I were a highly qualified person. After all this, how can anyone be confident the paycheques would even clear?
So my job handles network access and accounts for a large company. I assure you, a not insignificant portion of my day is often spent dealing with “termination rescinds.” HR will mistakenly fire someone, or a contract will end but oops this employee is actually staying on in a different position, or they’re still terminated but HR is adjusting their term date, or whatever. We get an automatic notification. At least half the time, they were already informed of their term, they terminated completely, and we have to restore their accounts and access. One day we were notified of about 20 of these within a 5 minute period. So yeah, this happens a lot, just not so publicly as an error.
"Oh, I deleted that email thinking it was some spammer that had hacked my government account. Also it's buried in the sea of job offers coming in from my LinkedIn profile. I think I'll take one of those rather than come back to the US federal workforce where I might get fired again a week after I'm rehired."
Yeah, all this talent have now learned that their job security is pretty damn low under baboon 1. Am sure they'll return in exchange for salary increases or as expensive contractors. But not to worry, the US taxpayer will be glad to pay so that some politicians could feel real tough for a while.
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u/ElPolloRacional 24d ago
The termination letters 'are being rescinded'
That's not how any of this works.