Empire in Decline

[Mercutio]

The post says deleted, what was the summary

I'm a current employee at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). This is a throwaway account for obvious reasons. I'm posting this because people need to know what's going on at OPM.

I've been an OPM employee for nearly a decade and a Federal Employee for almost 20 years. I've never witnessed anything even remotely close to what's happening right now. In short, there's a hostile takeover of the federal civil service.

Let me say this in no uncertain terms - OPM has been compromised and taken over. The very backbone of American Government, the HR of all HR in the U.S. Government has been taken over by outside politicals. In just five days, they managed to push aside dozens of non-political, career civil servants who were there specifically to prevent the civil service from becoming the President's henchmen.
The current Acting Director, Charles (Chuck) Ezell is a low-level branch chief. He's the friendliest "yes man" you'll ever meet. He never says no. It's clear they pushed aside all the high-level non political civil servants who refused to do Donald Trump's bidding, until they found Chuck.

Under his name, they've sent numerous requests to all the agencies to collect information on gov't employees that they see as a threat to their agenda. Instructions say to send these lists to Amanda Scales. But Amanda is not actually an OPM employee, she works for Elon Musk. She wasn't even properly cleared by OPM Personnel Security.
Our CIO, Melvin Brown, (also a non political career public servant) was pushed aside just one week into his tenure because he refused to setup email lists to send out direct communications to all career civil servants.
Such communications are normally left up to each agency.

Instead, an on-prem (on-site) email server was setup. Someone literally walked into our building and plugged in an email server to our network to make it appear that emails were coming from OPM. It's been the one sending those various "test" message you've all seen. We think they're building a massive email list of all federal employees to generate mass RIF notices down the road.

The non-political civil servants here at OPM are watching helplessly as our government is being systematically dismantled bit by bit. Even the IGs are being fired to prevent them from investigating the numerous whistleblower complaints we've filed.

Please share this and tell the world that OPM is not the bad guy. We're just as helpless to stop this as the rest of our fellow public servants. Hopefully someone out there can help us, but it's looking pretty grim.

Yikes! This is insanely scary. And we're not even a month in.

 

[Handruin]

I mean, this was a backbone plan for project 2025 was it not? We tried to warn voters that this idiot was now a bit more prepared to fubar the country this time around but everyone was like, "my price of eggs and inflation".

 

[sedrosken]

I think we all figured Kamala getting elected wouldn't fix anything, it just hopefully wouldn't break anything worse and would buy us just a little more time. The American experiment has concluded.

Edited to remove some sarcasm that could definitely be misconstrued

 

[Handruin]

The system is definitely broken and no, I wasn't expecting Kamala to be able to fix that but I did expect she would deliver on at least some of her objectives. The hope of pushing trump into even later years where hopefully natural causes removed him from the picture. I realize another hydra head would pop up but no one else seems to have his disgusting charisma which could soften their drive. Alas here we are

 

[jtr1962]

 

[ArAfGo]

Does anyone wish to offer any thoughts on how large our U.S.A. government should be? I mean the Government Schedules ranks? Or does OPM fall outside the GS ranks?

Actually, my question above would also require some specifics, so do any of you have the numbers? Myself? I confess that I don't have any numbers and I am afraid that I won't be able to do that research for at least the next 24 hours. I've got a meeting with the primary doc today to go over the results of last week's CTScan and the other fiasco at the byoin last week will likely arise in our discussions. I'm busy for a number of hours, so I write 24 hours. But I'd bet those numbers aren't so hard to find for those experienced at digging up information on the Net.

And good job there, Mercutio; grabbing that post before it got deleted. Thank you.

 

[Chewy509]

I would like to congratulate the fact that all citizens of the US are now female...

"Rise of the Northern Amazon Nation" was certainly not on my 2025 bingo card.

 

[ArAfGo]

Not to take away from the impact of your numbers on the female population of the U.S. --- minus one, me --- I have found the following answer to my wandering brain's question:

How many people work for the federal government? | USAFacts

The federal government employs around 3 million people, making it the nation's 15th largest workforce.

usafacts.org

That site lists the number as just over three million people as of November 2024.
And for a second source that seems to indicate the same number:

What the data says about federal workers

As President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, here are answers to some common questions about the federal workforce.

www.pewresearch.org

Now to get back to your statistics, Chewy509, I suspect I was not transformed into that female type human because I live outside the mainland, or even the hinterlands of the U.S., which I suppose could be how we define the territories I think we are supposed to have in some spots around the globe.

So, Chewy509, do you reckon there could be a market in importing male type humans into the U.S., like maybe a couple hundred thousand of your male types there in Australia? I guess we'll have to forget our discrimination laws and stick to marketing those between 25 to 30 years of age. Have to set some education standards on those that are chosen. Maybe have to take some lessons from a couple hundred years ago and use force, if the monetary reward doesn't help us meet targets set. You could be one of our agents there in Australia, Chewy509.

Wait, those masters way back used auction style marketing, didn't they? I don't know anything about that auction style. Any of you folks up to date on how that auction style works?

 

[ArAfGo]

And digging a little deeper, I found this:

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was created as an independent establishment by Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1978, pursuant to Executive Order 12107, which President James E. Carter signed on December 28, 1978. The Executive order designated January 1, 1979, as the effective date for the establishment of the OPM. The plan and the order transferred many of the U.S. Civil Service Commission's former functions to the OPM.

Here: https://usgovernmentmanual.gov/Agen...yQ=&ParentEId=+klubNxgV0o=&EType=jY3M4CTKVHY=

 

[Mercutio]

Fun true story that I did not find out until I was well into middle age: I have a condition called Klinefelter's Syndrome. I didn't know anything about it until a much older and drunk-at-the-time cousin mentioned it, but I'm actually genetically XXY rather than the normal XY. When I was born, my parents were strongly pressured to have some surgical and hormonal changes made so I could be raised female. They obviously didn't go through with it, but one of the things I've learned about it since is that intersex conditions aren't actually THAT rare, with around 2% of people in the world having some kind of gender-related anomaly. These can be observed in physiological, hormonal or genetic differences.
To put that in a different way, around 2% of humans on Earth have red hair.
To put that another way, we are taught that these conditions exist in Grade 9 Biology. There is no true gender binary. This is not something that can be legislated. Oddballs exist and they always have.
The same idiots who are mad that a person with brown skin might be given something a Caucasian didn't get are absolutely convinced that they need to define binary where none truly exists. It's just as galling.

I'd also like to mention that destroying Academic research about gender and sexuality was one of the very first things the Nazi party did when it took power.

 

[Mercutio]

re: the Office of Professional Management, Donald Trump fired the various Inspectors General of Executive agencies last week. The normal response to unusual behavior in any Federal department would be to file a complaint with the IG's office in that department. These offices are currently unfilled. There is no one for career employees of the various agencies to complain to and therefore anything going on within those departments is happening absent supervision.

This is normal.

 

[jtr1962]

Interesting stuff about XXY. There's also XYY. There's even XXX, and in this case it has nothing to do with porn. One common theme with MAGAs, and in general any type of authoritarian, is their black and white world view. Besides gender, truth is none of us fit neatly into any prepackaged version of what these people think the world is. I'm sure the leaders of these fascist movements know it, but they use our inevitable differences to divide us.

 

[ddrueding]

I think the black and white is more a populist thing, the narrative must be simple to be believed.

 

[Mercutio]

Generally speaking, if your political beliefs can be summed up on a legible bumper sticker, there's no reason to take your thoughts on those matters seriously. Every single thing about the contemporary right wing populist movement seems geared toward offering as little actual discourse as possible.

 

[ArAfGo]

I have to identify myself as someone who doesn't give a rat's arse what political party a given candidate may belong to when I am deciding if she/he might be up to the job they are asking voters to let them do. Just so y'all know, that's all. But, why do I make that clarification?

Well, I am seriously concerned about the frequent comparisons I have seen over the past couple years by folks that I suppose are what is commonly known as left leaning - - - and I think I can find some supposedly trusted media folks doing the same comparisons - - - comparing their right leaning opponents to some sort of Nazi thing. I think I also saw a couple of references to 1933 in some of the posts in this thread.

Why am I seriously concerned? How many millions of lives were so horribly affected by events from 1933 until the eventual conflict came to an end in 1945? Comparing anything in the United States over the past ten or twenty years to any of that period from 1933 to 1945 is spitting in the faces of all those that still grieve over those absolutely horrid years between 1933 and 1945! It is also just like spitting on the millions of graves of those that lost their lives due to atrocities committed during those horrid years!! Comparisons of the last few decades in the United States to all that horrible stuff that happened between 1933 to 1945 are either myopically viewing that which many took so much time and effort to make a record of, or simply horribly disrespectful to many, many, many humans; past and present.

I also have a very difficult time trying to understand why I see that sort of communication coming from folks I thought were intelligent types?

I was recently reminded of an area of the planet where I sometimes visited some years back, the Everglades, and writing what I did in those paragraphs above makes me remember that swampy, reptile/insect infested area of the Earth; unpleasant and if it weren't for a quality air boat, one shouldn't go into those swamps unless one was very, very well taught about the dangers and how to handle/avoid the dangers.

Obviously, I have a bad feeling I have just written my way into danger here. Please don't be surprised if I can't handle the danger. But my mouse is my air boat.

 

[jtr1962]

The 1933 reference is more about how Hitler was able to become a dictator in a democracy than about what followed. We're already in the process of this happening less than two weeks into the new administration. If our checks and balances don't hold, Trump will likely be President for life. He even made his intentions clear when he told people you only need to vote once.

Trump becoming a dictator doesn't imply we'll have millions of deaths as in WWII, but that remains a distinct possibility. Who's to say if the deportation process goes too slow that he won't just stick these people in concentration camps in the US? We already did this once during WWII with those of Japanese ancestry. And if the costs of running these camps become too high for his tastes, who's to say he won't "liquidate" the population? That's in addition to having his secret police going around arresting/killing anyone he considers traitors (that would probably include most of the people who post here regularly). So for now while comparisons to 1933 may be a bit of an exaggeration, nobody knows how bad this is going to get in the future.

Regarding the genocide which happened during WWII, I find it particularly ironic that Israel, a country founded to prevent that very thing from recurring, treats the Palestinians similar to the way Germany treated Jews. That includes penning them in a ghetto. They may not be doing mass killings in the millions, but they've already killed 6 figures over the years, ostensibly using fighting terrorism as the excuse. Apparently even the victims of history have failed to learn from it.

BTW, if you go back far enough in US history, we have our own genocide which rivals anything from WWII, namely roughly 10 million native Americans killed directly, or by disease, from the time the European settlers landed. The only time the US may have been "better" than most of the rest of the world was from maybe 1940 until about 1960. Since then we've done "regime changes" which usually cause more harm than good. That includes trying to force democracy into countries which just aren't ready for it yet. It also includes our pig-headed embrace of capitalism and privatization which only increases the disparity of wealth. We're now technically the UAOR (United American Oligarchic Republics).

 

[sedrosken]

You could already make the argument that the immigration camps met the definition of concentration camps as they were under Obama, Biden, etc. Trump has no incentive to make anything better, in fact, I'd be unsurprised if his solutions take a more... final... tilt as he loses further grip on reality and the countries he's strongarmed into taking migrants close up their borders.

Not to mention how he's turned the clock directly back to 1950 for those in the LGBTQ space and, you know, just, women as a whole. People I care about are right back in the closet now because they're fucking terrified of living in the country they grew up in. God forbid if anything happens to my sister, she'd be forced to carry whatever results from it to term. She is 15. She was already a difficult pregnancy herself for her mother. This admin's policies could literally kill members of my immediate family.

Add in the 'loyalty' oaths he's requiring of his bureaucracy that used to just be career people and are now political appointees, and you might be able to see why we're concerned. No later than June 2026 I expect him to somehow justify rounding up Democrats for some perceived treason. He'll start with the high-profile names like Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, so on and so forth. People even we only begrudgingly tolerate. My guess is that they'll use the results of the 2026 mid-terms to help them figure out who needs some reeducation (or lead infusions).

And he clearly has no interest in ever losing power again -- see his consistent low-key floating of the idea of a third term that the MAGA party's trying to push through in congress. He's already the oldest president to have ever been elected, surpassing Biden, and his mental faculties are no clearer than his, in fact I'd argue they're worse. I doubt he'll live through this term, much less a third, not to mention how illegal and unconstitutional it is -- but that won't matter, because when the matter makes it to the courts, they'll just give him what he wants like always.

There is no Republican party anymore. There is only MAGA. These are the consequences of allowing an insurrectionist felon to not only seek but obtain office. I can't decide if we've decended into full-on plutocracy or theocracy -- I suppose it depends on how much leeway Trump gives the Christian Nationalist crowd. Are we The Outer Worlds or are we Gilead? Time will tell. For now we're some disconcerting Schrodinger's country where we're both and neither at the same time.

The only silver lining of the last couple weeks has been watching Trump's and Elon's egos clash and watching the drama unfold as no doubt Muskrat will find himself on the garbage bin of history just like every other figure and person Trump's used. Couldn't happen to a slimier billionaire. Bezos next please.

 

[ArAfGo]

There are those around me asking me to stop this posting here and focus my attention on sorting out the many unfinished projects I have my fingers into before the next coma puts me in that three-year Loui Prima style coma he went into in the mid-1970s, rest his soul.

I confess I gave that advice considerable thought and realized it would go so much easier on my brain if I were to just air boat my way out of this swamp I have gotten myself into; that air boat called Mouse I referred to in a previous post.

On the other hand, I learn from these writings, and even though my days are limited I may yet be able to close some of the chapters of my latest writings. Others may finish the others (other chapters) for me.

So what have we here?

Let us start this very lengthy process with this:

The 1933 reference is more about how Hitler was able to become a dictator in a democracy than about what followed.

My point of view is that when you want to take a past series of events to help you understand the present situation you may be trying to get a handle on, then one must not be too selective in your studies. True, one cannot possibly study everything that has been recorded on a certain period of human history, BUT more than just a few picks can assure that one is doing one's best to properly educate one's self.

So as to hold true to that dictum cited above I just spent some time seeing what the Google search engine provides us when we enter two topics, and the following condenses those results:






Obviously, I am asserting that it isn't wise to focus all attention upon the single year of 1933, if we wish to insert that part of human history into this study. That is, if you are engaged in some sort of studying, and not just engaged in propagandizing.

Now, the parameters upon which the management at Google set their search engine is interesting, but at this point of this writing I won't get into that. BUT I can ask if any of you notice a glaring error in one of those images? And I'll get back to that later.

Okay, if you are sincere in using 1933 as a starting point, jtr1962, then you also have to admit that we must take into consideration the events that led up to 1933 in Germany. So what is shown in those two images above can come into play later in this part of our discussion, if "discussion" is your aim, but I'd like to introduce something that isn't shown on page one of the Google team's selection for page one of either of those two search feeds I entered:

https://catalogimages.wiley.com/images/db/pdf/9781118294796.excerpt.pdf

I am providing the link to the excerpt as that is only 20 pages and I think is not any trouble for most folks to access. And it is on the bottom of page three that a paragraph can be found that I feel is worthy of entry into this post:

Nineteenth-century Europe saw the rise of nationalism, scientific racism, and antisemitism. Germany was hardly unique in this regard. Take nationalism. Many liberals and conservatives across Europe came to share a set of beliefs about the “nation.”They argued that one’s supreme loyalty should be to the nation (rather than to town, region, class, or religion). To them, the nation was an organic entity with its own unique characteristics. At the same time, nationalists believed that a nation’s members should be united in a nation-state, that nations needed over-seas colonies to prosper, and that nations were locked in a zero-sum struggle in which one nation’s gain was another’s loss.

By now you are wondering why I am going to all this trouble, right?

Because when we make a reference to 1933 and pre-1933 in the context it has been referenced in this thread we are making a comparison.

That is my intention here. And this is a scholarly undertaking; not for the purpose of propaganda. If you are only interested in simply reciting from some political party playbook, jtr1962, then I will bow out and slide off on my air boat. I took notice that you did put more than a clippy-clippy style into your post, jtr1962, so that is why I decided to approach this in a serious manner. After all, if you are truly concerned about the stirrings of a dictatorship in our nation you (and I) should put a stop to it. And we can.

 

[ArAfGo]

I feel compelled to assure you, sedrosken, I am not intending to neglect a proper read/study/response to your post, but when I determined a few hours ago to remain in this swamp I then came to the view this will be a complete study in and of itself and that means a whole bunch of work and I don't think it is wise to cram too much into each post I put into this on this site. I should add that the decision a few hours ago came after more than a few days of thought. This is not a hobby with me. I take such discussion very seriously and have intent behind such decisions.

But jtr1962 posted a few hours before you did, sedrosken, so it seemed polite to start with my first response being to that post.

 

[ArAfGo]

DP = EP ... That means Democracy & Politics = Eggs & Pots/Pans

Of course, the teacher will inform me I have that description written incorrectly and it should be the Egg&Pot/Pan = Democracy&Politics; but we'll consider we are at recess and forgive the teacher for not properly understanding why the initial introduction out here in the playground must be as I wrote it; DP=EP. The teacher is 'sort of' correct, but us poor little gears of society, the common folk, the voters, the ordinary; well, we don't always do as the teachers instruct, do we? That's why there is big money in that thing they call polling.

Anyway, y'all are wondering what in the heck is this fool writing about now?

This democracy thing has many forms. BUT one thing is certain, there is that thing called "politics" that is always wrapped around this democracy thing. So I am trying to provide a sort of stage with props to help me get across a few points.

The eggs can be processed in a number of ways, and that is also true of democracy. But to process the eggs, we need a very, very hot something; pot for boiling, or a pan for other styles. I think there is some sort of hot sidewalk expression and eggs getting processed on a hot sidewalk, but that may be used later; not now.

So if we set this up as the varied forms of democracy are represented by how that egg is cooked; well, we start having some ability to gain clarity, because this politics/democracy thing sort of reminds me of training many years ago that was called "flying under the hood". One really did wear a hood while the IP was without a hood. The point of that exercise was to only be able to see the instruments. You know, many thousands of voters fly into the voting booth under IFR conditions. Maybe millions of voters.

Sorry, let me get back to the DP=EP.

Maybe the eggs in our "DP=EP" in the United States are boiled in a pot of water and served as what is known as hard boiled. Maybe here in Japan the eggs are also boiled in a pot of water, but are soft boiled. Some nations fry their eggs and so they use a pan.

Then there is the social order (society as a whole) to take into account, and that is the stove being used; stove = social order.

And we are the flame. Remember, it is some kind of democracy and the energy for that democracy must be in the hands of the "little gears" - - - us.

 

[ArAfGo]

Okey-dokey, I should get back to the simple "comparison thing" and that "comparison thing" is that 2025 in the U.S. of A. can in any way be compared to 1933 in Germany.

The first vocabulary that jumps out of my feeble mind is "vibrant democracy".

Now the qualifying word "vibrant" is assuming I am to be allowed to modify the vocabulary "democracy". I really don't find any reason why I shouldn't be allowed to add a modification to the word democracy, as there really are many forms of democracy all over the planet, and throughout the ages. Maybe "robust democracy" is better.

If one wishes to, in some manner, compare any of the years of the U.S. democracy to that which Germany experienced between 1919 to 1933, then I'd say that 1776 to 1789 would be a whole bunch better to justify. In fact, I have questioned whether it is actually correct to state the United States was 'born' in 1776.

Anyway, Germany in 1933 was a whole bunch of messiness we have not got at present in the United States; nor had in 2024, or 2023, or 2022, - - - well, when did all that 1933 and Nazi sort of language get started in our political debates in our nation? And why?

 

[ArAfGo]

I see I am too late to use the edit tool, so let me do it this way:

... and that "comparison thing" is that 2025 in the U.S. of A. can in any way be compared to 1933 in Germany.

I should have typed ... cannot in any way be compared ... and an apology for not properly checking my post in a timely manner. Very careless of me.

 

[mubs]

It is truly heartbreaking to see what America has become

 

[Mercutio]

I'm super looking forward to Trump and his pals announcing plans to withdraw from NATO, start carpet bombing migrants or announcing that we'll be supporting Russian territorial gains in Ukraine in the State of the Union tonight. There's definitely a BINGO/drinking game out there for blaming everything bad on Biden and telling people everything will get better if we just get less uptight about food and workplace safety, clean water and start trusting billionaires to do what's right for their employees.

 

[jtr1962]

I'm honestly hoping the EU declares war on us if we withdraw from NATO. It'll be worth it just to see the dumbfounded looks on his MAGA supporters. "But I thought he was going to bring peace."

Last I checked the price of groceries is still high. But we're talking about making Gaza into a resort for the rich. I guess that makes everything alright.

This administration has exceeded even my expectations of how vile they would be.