We are going to learn, the hard way, is how much we depend on the federal government in ways we don't know.
As an example. Most of what FEMA does, is plan for disasters. They literally plan for disasters in every part of the country. They prepare for communications during a disaster. They contract with vendors in advance for food and water delivery. They contract for relief centers. They research and prepare for every type of disaster including plans for each different possible chemical spill or toxic fire. They prepare for things I could not even conceive of. And in every location in the whole country.
Most plans will never be used, and that is a good thing. But without them, the disasters, as bad as they are, will become exponentially worse.
The work that FEMA does when a disaster occurs, is minimal compared to the planning work. Someone like Musk could easily cut half the funding for FEMA and we would never feel the effect until some disaster occurred, that FEMA had not planned for. It could be 5 or 10 years.
The National Weather Service has been under threat from AccuWeather for years. The owner covets the data provided free of charge to the public. Trump's administration through Project 2025 is basically a Private Equity group parting out the government to the highest bidder or just handing it out to private companies.
The worst effect of the firing has probably already been started. People who need to put dinner on the table and a roof overhead will start looking for new jobs. Some will be successful. The rest will be immeasurably stressed.
As you said, the effect to us will be in the form of delays and mistakes on everything from tax returns, to flight safety, to food and medical safety. We will only learn of all the problems as they begin to affect our lives.
A comment noted on a NYT David French article that the Musk people were seen attaching hard drives to servers. If valid, much data has already left the building.
I suspect the largest effect of the Musk control of the US payment system will to slow the payments by requesting additional justification. It will cause vendors to leave or raise prices to offset for the delays.
Disfunction is the Republican goal. Disfunction is not a failure. Disfunction will destroy the agencies. Republicans didn't want them in the first place.
I suspect they will figure out how to blame the Democrats and the Republican message delivery system (Fox, conservative radio, etc.) will repeat that message all day long, all week long, for months (and be repeated on mainstream media).
Thx for this, Kathleen: " . . . choosing to resign when they learn that they will be fired to preserve their retirement benefits." I was unaware of that. I guess JVL was too when he urged them last week to not resign.
Also appreciate what the law says about firing for cause. For none of them was the cause documented and they certainly didn't have a chance to improve. So were the coerced into resigning?
And thanks for the deets on the wrongful termination process. Will you be tracking those administrative hearings? Are they a matter of public record?
Thx. I suspect that Democracy Forward and probably CREW will be undertaking this kind of litigation soon and will publicize it enough so my radar system will pick it up.
You will do a great service in keeping your radar on and relaying the info to the rest of us. I’m compiling a list of organizations either involved in or reporting on litigation. I’ll share it with you soon.
No. Trump hasn't done that yet. He just said that children of illegal parents cannot be citizens of the United States. Almost all the people who have been deported by Trump so far have been adults.
We are going to learn, the hard way, is how much we depend on the federal government in ways we don't know.
As an example. Most of what FEMA does, is plan for disasters. They literally plan for disasters in every part of the country. They prepare for communications during a disaster. They contract with vendors in advance for food and water delivery. They contract for relief centers. They research and prepare for every type of disaster including plans for each different possible chemical spill or toxic fire. They prepare for things I could not even conceive of. And in every location in the whole country.
Most plans will never be used, and that is a good thing. But without them, the disasters, as bad as they are, will become exponentially worse.
The work that FEMA does when a disaster occurs, is minimal compared to the planning work. Someone like Musk could easily cut half the funding for FEMA and we would never feel the effect until some disaster occurred, that FEMA had not planned for. It could be 5 or 10 years.
The National Weather Service has been under threat from AccuWeather for years. The owner covets the data provided free of charge to the public. Trump's administration through Project 2025 is basically a Private Equity group parting out the government to the highest bidder or just handing it out to private companies.
Well put, Timothy.
The worst effect of the firing has probably already been started. People who need to put dinner on the table and a roof overhead will start looking for new jobs. Some will be successful. The rest will be immeasurably stressed.
As you said, the effect to us will be in the form of delays and mistakes on everything from tax returns, to flight safety, to food and medical safety. We will only learn of all the problems as they begin to affect our lives.
A comment noted on a NYT David French article that the Musk people were seen attaching hard drives to servers. If valid, much data has already left the building.
I suspect the largest effect of the Musk control of the US payment system will to slow the payments by requesting additional justification. It will cause vendors to leave or raise prices to offset for the delays.
Disfunction is the Republican goal. Disfunction is not a failure. Disfunction will destroy the agencies. Republicans didn't want them in the first place.
I suspect they will figure out how to blame the Democrats and the Republican message delivery system (Fox, conservative radio, etc.) will repeat that message all day long, all week long, for months (and be repeated on mainstream media).
Thx for this, Kathleen: " . . . choosing to resign when they learn that they will be fired to preserve their retirement benefits." I was unaware of that. I guess JVL was too when he urged them last week to not resign.
Also appreciate what the law says about firing for cause. For none of them was the cause documented and they certainly didn't have a chance to improve. So were the coerced into resigning?
And thanks for the deets on the wrongful termination process. Will you be tracking those administrative hearings? Are they a matter of public record?
Thx. I suspect that Democracy Forward and probably CREW will be undertaking this kind of litigation soon and will publicize it enough so my radar system will pick it up.
You will do a great service in keeping your radar on and relaying the info to the rest of us. I’m compiling a list of organizations either involved in or reporting on litigation. I’ll share it with you soon.
Re Musk - talk about unelected bureaucrats! Remember when Rs always complained about that? No more . . . It's inconvenient to their agenda.
But I thought he had deported the children with birthright ?
No. Trump hasn't done that yet. He just said that children of illegal parents cannot be citizens of the United States. Almost all the people who have been deported by Trump so far have been adults.