CNN Made FOIA Request About DOGE—Only to Learn FOIA Staff Was Fired.
CNN Made FOIA Request About DOGE—Only to Learn FOIA Staff Was Fired.
"Definitely never seen this type of response to a FOIA request," quipped one journalist.
"Definitely never seen this type of response to a FOIA request," quipped one journalist.
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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.
Americans wouldn't let that happen.
Right, Americans?
Of course! Isn't this situation what the second amendment is for? 🤔
It's the situation they claim it's for, but no it isn't. The second amendment is to have a militia ready to defend the nation in case of invasion. Militias were the norm at the time, not standing professional armies, which the newly founded tiny union of states certainly didn't expect to have. That time came and went though and some people carried the corpse of the second amendment and turned it into something else that it clearly isn't.
There's one more step that brings it back to the same place. The thinking behind standing armies is that they would be used for tyranny. The reason for loosely connected militias is that there isn't a singular guy who is Commander-in-Chief of all of them. There was even attempts at a militia Navy, which is a hilarious idea to me ("Got my musket and my rowboat. Off to defend the motherland!" Rows up to 28-gun British heavy frigate)
It's not a practical system of defense in the modern age. It barely was back then.
To be fair, it wasn't some people but the majority opinion of Chief Justice Antonin Scalia in DC v. Heller (2008) that swept away the militia part as a mere "prefatory clause". 😔
When it’s not single digits and ice storming in a couple weeks I think people are going to take to the streets. Everyone I talk to is pissed except the unreachable morons.
"I don't want to abolish government. I just want to have the ability to abolish the government on a whim. Whether the government just so happens to be abolished or not after that is up to the direction of the wind and whether the sun gets in my eyes."
No. They want to make it small enough to fit in a woman’s uterus because that’s all they give a shit about regulating
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.
I think the driving forces are more likely sociopathic corporate interests that want deregulation and foreign adversaries who want to see the US government dismantled (and allies driven away, and growing social division)
You mean the GOP and their supporters?
Some, many of them are useful idiots who think they're doing the right thing
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.
We have FOUR MORE YEARS of this
Not necessarily. Clinton, Dubya, Obama, and Trump all went into office with Congress and lost it at the mid-terms, and as we saw with the Muslim ban, Trump's a bit of a bitch when the judiciary stands up to him. It's just a matter of time until these attempts start to slow down.
The downside is that Dems rule as conservatives too, so it's likely whatever the judiciary doesn't reverse will be permanent.
But, as we saw with similar activities in the McCarthyist era, the damage is reversible. (But I know that's not much consolation, but it's consolation to me to know that this isn't the first time someone has tried to brute force fascism in government and been stopped.)
Clinton, Dubya, Obama, and Trump all went into office with Congress and lost it at the mid-terms, and as we saw with the Muslim ban,
Lost what at the mid-terms? Congress? You think he needs Congress to do all of this shit? Have you been paying attention?
There is no rule-of-law. No structure to these systems. It's just pure defiance at whatever "social norms" are holding this house of cards together.
Nobody is putting up a reasonable fight with these EOs, so they just happen. Elon just wanders into government buildings and systems without criminal charges. No police action. No hard punishments.
And whatever fighting back is occurring in the courts, where we will never see a settlement before the courts themselves get dismantled before our eyes.
We're fucked. Stop using past history as a guide.
Lost what at the mid-terms? Congress? You think he needs Congress to do all of this shit? Have you been paying attention?
Nope. But losing Congress will make it harder. We saw this with his first term.
There is no rule-of-law.
That's factually incorrect. I provided several examples above.
Nobody is putting up a reasonable fight with these EOs,
Again, wrong.
We’re fucked
Totally, man. That's why the funding freeze was reversed in less than 24 hours after a lawsuit was filed. You need to turn off the TV, stop doomscrolling, breathe, and maybe watch some alternative media.
Stop using past history as a guide.
You may need to start.
Totally, man. That’s why the funding freeze was reversed in less than 24 hours after a lawsuit was filed.
You think no damage has taken place? We're in a thread where FOIA admitted that most of its staff has been laid off. They are trying to get rid of as many departments as they can.
Throughout all of this, I want you to understand one thing: It is easier to destroy than it is to create!
Things can be destroyed instantly. It takes no time to fire an entire department and wipe away centuries of institutional knowledge. It doesn't matter if a lawsuit for a few of these managed to piece through the smoldering ruins and rescue what they could.
Trump himself even had a hard time trying to "unfire" a bunch of nuclear weapons workers.
You need to turn off the TV, stop doomscrolling, breathe, and maybe watch some alternative media.
Stop assuming what I do and don't do. You aren't me, you don't know who I am, what my political trappings are, and what my habits are.
You may need to start.
Open your eyes. All of this behavior is unprecedented. You can't just reference previous years and expect to be a guide.
Congress is too busy shitting its pants, while filling out the paperwork to do so, to matter. I think this opinion piece put it best:
And so we find ourselves in the absurd position where Democratic leadership, in the form of Jeffries and Schumer, treats an ongoing coup like an inconvenient scheduling conflict. Their response to democracy's crisis amounts to little more than checking Robert's Rules of Order to see if authoritarianism requires a two-thirds majority.
While Rome burns, they're busy drafting strongly-worded letters to the arsonists, pausing only to scold the citizens who dare suggest using the fire extinguishers. Their position would be merely comedic if it weren't so catastrophically dangerous—like watching someone respond to a home invasion by suggesting the burglar fill out a visitor's form.
I don't think you realize just how long it takes to hire federal employees, or reconstitute entire agencies (like CFPB).
tens of thousands of people forced out, thousands of research grants and projects canceled, hundreds of programs stifled...
this is the end of the federal government as we know it, and it will take a generation (20+ yrs) of back to back Democrat administrations to rebuild it. that's not going to happen.
the oligarchs won dude. kids growing up today will never know how much has been lost. the corporate media will make sure all they know is 'we've always been at war with eastasia''
that’s not going to happen
Possibly, but I know it's already happened at least once in our history. We can speculate about the future all we want, but the past is a helpful guide.
I'm hoping that too. either way, I'm not advocating hopelessness or doomerism. I'll be working harder than ever this year to decouple my life from corporations and govt reliance. community building, strengthening friendships, helping others when I can. it's going to be a long road ahead and we won't survive as isolated individuals.
That's a good goal. I live solo and never had children and don't want a relationship, so for me, things are fairly simple. It's nice to not have responsibilities when the wealthy class is trying to seize more power.
I'm just doing what I can for my neighbors in my own little corner of the world. No matter how bad things get, you can always do good with your own two hands.
If by "corporate media" you mean Hollywood, they're in the process of collapsing, too.
no, i do not mean Hollywood... that's weird... why would anyone think corporate media means what, marvel movies?
I'm talking about Time Warner, Sinclair, CNN, Netflix, Comcast, Amazon, NBC, Fox, every single source of online professionally written articles, video segments, the evening news, and mainstream platform owned by someone with a net worth exceeding $1 billion dollars. the corporate media, ya know, the ones who manufacture the consent as described in "Manufacturing Consent" or a dozen different media criticism books available at your local library or on youtube (if you prefer).
You're never getting back to where you were two months ago. The United States' elevated position on the geopolitical stage was due to being the last major power left standing after the second world war, and it's maintained that position mainly through inertia. Once it's gone, it's gone.
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?
GOP-majority lapdogs say “yessir”
Historically speaking, on some issues yes, and on some issues no.
They weren't a rubber stamp in his first term, most notably on health care, but we'll see. The culture's different now and no one can really say how the lawsuits will go, but SCOTUS can't take every case that's going to come through.
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
Yep, I know.
Doesn't change facts. The judiciary is, by and large, clocking these unconstitutional power grabs. It just takes time, and you all are doomscrolling and pretending checks and balances no longer apply despite the abundant display to the contrary.
The judiciary has entered temporary restraining orders. No one has declared his power grab straight out illegal yet.
And when they do he’ll just ignore it. The courts are dogs with no teeth.
No, they are NOT literally fucking the US government. They are figuratively fucking up the entire US government.
Literally fucking up the US government would be some kind of orgy at the Senate. Or a bukkae of The Statue of Liberty.
protip: if you're gonna criticise another's words, make sure you don't make any typos. Just sayin'
Typos are less of a concern than spreading misinformation. Saying someone is doing something literally when they are doing it figuratively is dangerous misinformation.
