Why not post the actual CNN article? https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/18/politics/opm-privacy-team-fired/index.html
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And that’s basically it!
CNN is sympathetic to fascists. I’m happy to not give them a click.
Could use the Wayback Machine
Common dreams headline is funnier and more succinct.
One thing I would like to say for people who aren't familiar and won't read the article:
Every federal agency has its own FOIA team, in this case the OPM FOIA team was slaughtered and flayed for sport. It's possible other agency's FOIA teams were removed, but also more likely that they still exist. This wasn't a blanket death of all FOIA, just the death of arguably the most important FOIA team
OPM is the most important? I don't even know that acronym
I would argue FOIA requests on the intelligence community is the most important
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Intelligence Communities work with classified stuff more than anyone. You may only FOIA unclassified stuff so the information and documents you can FOIA is limited
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OPM is the most important at the moment as they are the office primarily under attack and being abused by Elon Musk and DOGE. They are the vehicle that Musk is using and abusing to try and destroy all Federal workers across every agency.
OPM is the most important in the “keeps the gears of the government moving” sense. It’s basically the federal government’s HR department. Without OPM, no federal workers get hired, get paid, etc… It’s not glamorous or politically charged work, which is why you rarely hear about them. But they recently hit the news because Elon kicked their doors in and illegally installed his own servers to capture personal data about every single federal worker.
Office of Personnel Management, basically oversees all US Gov employees.
This is very common for Muskolini, any press contacts are often let go, makes obtaining damning information impossible/improbable. None of his companies staff a PR department as far as I know. Why anybody puts up with this guy and his companies is beyond me.
Same thing happened with the Twitter takeover.
All the official, PR/Communications staff were fired or quit, nobody had any idea what any actual policy changes were real or not.
They are literally fucking up entire US government.
That's the point
Yep:
“I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” — Grover Norquist
That was 25 years ago. It's always been their plan. They want to dismantle democracy and replace it with a corporatocracy, oligarchy, or similar authoritarian structure.
Part of the GOP plan. First fuck up government so completely it doesn't work, then scream that government doesn't work and should be defunded and shut down.
Exactly. Destroying the government is thier wet dream.
Well, not all of the government. Just the parts that could hold them accountable for anything they do.
I think at this point, it's all of the government. If it can be privatized, why wouldn't they push to eliminate that sector of the government and then install their own corporate entities?
Because the central guy can't control those corporate entities directly. He primarily wields political power, not financial power. There's a tension between the two.
Musk (financial power) is currently winning out over Steve Bannon (political power). Musk doing that Nazi salute brought a lot of MAGA people underneath him who were otherwise getting worried that Musk was the wrong kind of authoritarian.
Financial power might win in the end, and the reason is that Trump is a doddering old man. This is unique; it's not quite following the same script as Nazi Germany, where Hitler was relatively young and still had the same mental faculties he always did (even if those faculties were twisted).
This is unique; it’s not quite following the same script as Nazi Germany, where Hitler was relatively young and still had the same mental faculties he always did (even if those faculties were twisted).
Don't get it wrong: Hitler was fucking stupid. Not quite on Trump's level, but he was extremely arrogant, pushed his shitty book during his reign just to earn a lot of money, didn't listen to his generals, and got the people around him so scared of bad opinions that they all turned into Yes Men.
All you need in this world to achieve power is overconfidence and enough money to enchant a following.
Not entirely true.
All these firings are likely going to result in classaction lawsuits, and the judiciary (so far) has been very responsive to Trump's power grabs. You'll recall they shut him down on DOGE's Treasury incursion, birthright citizenship, and the funding freeze. (Among others)
It may seem like everything's fucked up, but that's only because your social media feed and executive orders create chaos faster than the judiciary can check it.
Yeah that's why I'm trying to take a more passive approach and only monitor the situation *gestures vaguely*.
I can't affect anything that happens at the national level anyway, so all I can do is be on the lookout for harm to myself or my loved ones and do my best to mitigate it.
We have FOUR MORE YEARS of this, and after that its going to take decades to get back to where we were two months ago. So, buckle in, I hope you weren't hoping for any kind of societal progess or innovation.
All these firings are likely going to result in classaction lawsuits, and the judiciary (so far) has been very responsive to Trump’s power grabs. You’ll recall they shut him down on DOGE’s Treasury incursion, birthright citizenship, and the funding freeze. (Among others)
Yeah, good luck with that in 2-4 years, when those lawsuits pan out. And then they get appealed to the Supreme Court, where the GOP-majority lapdogs say "yessir" and rule in favor of chaos.
We couldn't even get Trump convicted of criminal charges in time. What makes you think the judiciary is going to save us?
You may want a more recent news update before you claim the judiciary has been responsive. Judge Tanya Chutkan, the same one who ruled against insurrection charges "because we don't prosecute sitting presidents", just blocked the multi-state lawsuit requesting DOGE be restrained.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/18/politics/doge-temporary-restraining-order-chutkan/index.html
Holy shit, I called it.
I thought they’d have Congress do it, but this was more efficient, so yay?
Who needs Congress when the supreme Court is behind you?
They already know the Supreme Court is too slow. By the time it lands on their desk, the damage was already done a long time ago.
And the supreme Court will also side with them anyways. It's been stacked conservative over the years on purpose. When you lose the courts you lose the country. Look at what has happened with India and Pakistan over the years with their meddling with their legal systems.
So it seems like CNN doesn't follow the news of the day do they? To my recollection Trump had DOGE actions covered under the Presidential Records system so they are classified for a number of years and not allowed to be requested by FOIA requests until that time passes. So as of now their request would just be denied anyway.
You know, Totally Transparent Government™©® things... Definitely not doing anything wrong that needs to be hidden right?
Slight clarification, presidential records are subject to foia a few years after the presidency. But yes, transparent in the way that Elon "jail CNN for badmouthing doge" musk is a free speech absolutist.
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) applies to the Presidential Records Act (PRA) five years after the President has left office.
https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/presidential-records-act
EDIT: thinking about this more, you can definitely foia the clearances he had from SpaceX contracts. You know, back when he smoked weed on Joe Rogans podcast and got absolutely no consequences.
💩 coming soon
🎶 Doo doo doo🎶 its an oligarchy 🎶 doo doo doo 🎶 it's happening right now 🎶 tell your friends.
I'm confused with the "doo doo doo", so I'm just gonna read your comment to the tune of "baby shark"
This was planned and on purpose.
How convenient, considering one of the extremely few checks we have available on DOGE destructive powers is FOIA requests.