Tornado Alley (PROG)

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PURGE: It's unarguably very heavy authoritarian action: February 1, 2025/8:59 a.m. ET

Elon Musk’s Cronies Locking Federal Workers Out of Computer Systems

Musk’s aides overseeing OPM have taken over critical computer systems—locking everyone else out.

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“We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems,” one of the officials said to Reuters about DOGE’s activities. “That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.”

There is good reason to be concerned. Musk’s other efforts led to the setup of a new email server in OPM offices tasked with sending mass emails to every single federal employee. The server has already resulted in a lawsuit .. https://newrepublic.com/post/190784/trump-lawsuit-funneling-info-federal-workers-elon-musk .. over potential privacy and security issues and led to a flood of spam emails being sent to various federal workers on Thursday.

Musk has installed his own loyal underlings at OPM to slash the federal workforce and convince government employees to take early “buyout” offers, though the plan looks more like simply asking workers to quit. That offer was met with a backlash from civil servants, resulting in Musk and President Trump doubling down on their proposal.

It’s a clear attempt to sweep Trump’s adversaries out of the federal workforce. The president, through Musk, has already forced out a senior Treasury Department employee over access to key government payment systems, responsible for $6 trillion of money disbursement around the country. How successful will Musk and Trump’s purge of the federal government be?

More on Elon’s takeover:

Trump and Elon Musk Just Pulled Off Another Purge—and It’s a Scary One
https://newrepublic.com/article/191014/trump-elon-musk-treasury-purge

https://newrepublic.com/post/191019/elon-musk-aides-opm-lock-out-federal-workers-computer-systems

Even at this early stage, unions should at least be talking about mass action.

There would only be relatively few who voted for this kind of change.