Thank you for covering this story Brian. I hope that many on the right also wake up quickly to the fact that Elon is not their friend, but a traitor. I can't imagine how much data he also stole in "read-only" mode when he had a team of engineers scouring gov databanks early Feb.
I hope this pushes those who were laid off, to create a decentralized community where we can all rely on each other.
Whether or not you have philosophical objections to government, this is not the time for such debates, or for rubbing salt in wounds of people losing their jobs today. I'd ask that you delete this comment, and we can have a debate about the size of government on another day. Thank you.
Brian, I am not rubbing salt in anyone's wounds. Roman and I know and respect each other, and this issue about efficiency - employee performance included - is at the heart of the conversation around the stated purpose of DOGE
If you delete this comment along with my response to Roman above, i will not take it personally. I appreciate that you are advocating for those who lost and will lose their job, and I feel for them as well
Oh I didn't find it disrespectful to Roman, but to workers reading this article right now — it's just not the right time, when people have existential dread and can't sleep, and are reading this story about what's happening, having someone say well you shouldn't have a job at all, is unnecessarily cruel given the timing.
This piece captures the feeling in the halls so well. I really appreciated your long quote illustrating the effect of the simultaneous assault on safety and norms inside and outside work. People are worried about security and policy, career, coworkers, friends, schools or community orgs all at the same time. Thanks for describing the struggle so well.
I would love hearing more of these stories. It's important to "put faces" on the numbers, so people see these workers are just like each one of us. Never in my wildest nightmares did I ever imagine that a handful of individuals, led by a man of pure evil, could gleefully destroy so many lives. It sickens me to hear of such heartlessness.
Cover the healthcare workers. The ones working for the VHA. There’s no way as a nurse in my early 60s, 30yrs experience in the public sector, 9 of those being the VA, I’ll be able to find another job. I’m too young to retire, but doubtful I’ll find another nursing job at this stage. And Social Security and Medicare don’t look to be around much longer.
Horror of the individuals impacted by this attack on liberty should send a shockwave to concern us all. But talking about a topic you touched on in the post - do you think they understand how they are affecting cybersecurity measures? Usurping the rule of least privilege. Is it purposeful as part of some misinformed libertarian push, or is it pure ignorance? I'm thinking about the dismantling of regulations too - I can't work out if it's sheer ignorance and a lack of system thinking, or if they're working with some highly knowledgeable hackers who are directing them?
Elon is not a traitor - he is, after all, a citizen of three different countries. Elon is a sociopath - he's not the misogynistic ass like the British dude who had urinals shaped like womens' lips installed in his private jets, nor does he seek abject obeisance like the malignant narcissist in the White House - he's just going to take whatever he wants and he doesn't care who he destroys along the way.
As one of those impacted by the EOs in multiples, it is really nice to see that story. We got the passport likewise just before inauguration and wonder how long it lasts. Additionally, my role in research administration is threatened by the IDC cut. Funny enough, I had two options at one point: research admin or NLP architecture dev. I picked the former because I liked working ethically at academic biomedical research centers. It's not lost on me that some people we need to organize with may have had zero impact from the EOs. Maybe they work in industry and fall into less marginalized categories. I'd be curious to know what they see (or don't see).
This captures not just the structural dismantling happening under DOGE, but the very real human toll it’s taking. It’s one thing to watch an institution be hollowed out—it’s another to feel it happening in real time, to real people who signed up to serve.
One of the most telling parts of this entire campaign is how AI is being framed—not as a tool for improvement, but as an excuse for erasure. The push to ‘do government without people’ isn’t about efficiency—it’s about control, about shifting the very definition of governance. And we’ve already seen one of the earliest tests of this: the DOGE email compliance exercise, which wasn’t just a status check but an algorithmic restructuring of what counts as valuable.
I dug into this in my latest piece—what happens when AI oversight isn’t just monitoring, but actively shaping decisions? Would love to hear your take. I've got nine more coming in this series, with some hands-on skills!
Thank you for covering this story Brian. I hope that many on the right also wake up quickly to the fact that Elon is not their friend, but a traitor. I can't imagine how much data he also stole in "read-only" mode when he had a team of engineers scouring gov databanks early Feb.
I hope this pushes those who were laid off, to create a decentralized community where we can all rely on each other.
Whether or not you have philosophical objections to government, this is not the time for such debates, or for rubbing salt in wounds of people losing their jobs today. I'd ask that you delete this comment, and we can have a debate about the size of government on another day. Thank you.
Brian, I am not rubbing salt in anyone's wounds. Roman and I know and respect each other, and this issue about efficiency - employee performance included - is at the heart of the conversation around the stated purpose of DOGE
If you delete this comment along with my response to Roman above, i will not take it personally. I appreciate that you are advocating for those who lost and will lose their job, and I feel for them as well
Oh I didn't find it disrespectful to Roman, but to workers reading this article right now — it's just not the right time, when people have existential dread and can't sleep, and are reading this story about what's happening, having someone say well you shouldn't have a job at all, is unnecessarily cruel given the timing.
Point taken, deleted.
Thanks for being receptive to that. All the best
https://www.reddit.com/r/FedEmployees/
i found this subreddit recently and really was glad to see Fed employees fight back as much as they can from this coup.
This piece captures the feeling in the halls so well. I really appreciated your long quote illustrating the effect of the simultaneous assault on safety and norms inside and outside work. People are worried about security and policy, career, coworkers, friends, schools or community orgs all at the same time. Thanks for describing the struggle so well.
Thanks for the kind words. Such a rough time.
I would love hearing more of these stories. It's important to "put faces" on the numbers, so people see these workers are just like each one of us. Never in my wildest nightmares did I ever imagine that a handful of individuals, led by a man of pure evil, could gleefully destroy so many lives. It sickens me to hear of such heartlessness.
Cover the healthcare workers. The ones working for the VHA. There’s no way as a nurse in my early 60s, 30yrs experience in the public sector, 9 of those being the VA, I’ll be able to find another job. I’m too young to retire, but doubtful I’ll find another nursing job at this stage. And Social Security and Medicare don’t look to be around much longer.
Horror of the individuals impacted by this attack on liberty should send a shockwave to concern us all. But talking about a topic you touched on in the post - do you think they understand how they are affecting cybersecurity measures? Usurping the rule of least privilege. Is it purposeful as part of some misinformed libertarian push, or is it pure ignorance? I'm thinking about the dismantling of regulations too - I can't work out if it's sheer ignorance and a lack of system thinking, or if they're working with some highly knowledgeable hackers who are directing them?
Elon is not a traitor - he is, after all, a citizen of three different countries. Elon is a sociopath - he's not the misogynistic ass like the British dude who had urinals shaped like womens' lips installed in his private jets, nor does he seek abject obeisance like the malignant narcissist in the White House - he's just going to take whatever he wants and he doesn't care who he destroys along the way.
As one of those impacted by the EOs in multiples, it is really nice to see that story. We got the passport likewise just before inauguration and wonder how long it lasts. Additionally, my role in research administration is threatened by the IDC cut. Funny enough, I had two options at one point: research admin or NLP architecture dev. I picked the former because I liked working ethically at academic biomedical research centers. It's not lost on me that some people we need to organize with may have had zero impact from the EOs. Maybe they work in industry and fall into less marginalized categories. I'd be curious to know what they see (or don't see).
This captures not just the structural dismantling happening under DOGE, but the very real human toll it’s taking. It’s one thing to watch an institution be hollowed out—it’s another to feel it happening in real time, to real people who signed up to serve.
One of the most telling parts of this entire campaign is how AI is being framed—not as a tool for improvement, but as an excuse for erasure. The push to ‘do government without people’ isn’t about efficiency—it’s about control, about shifting the very definition of governance. And we’ve already seen one of the earliest tests of this: the DOGE email compliance exercise, which wasn’t just a status check but an algorithmic restructuring of what counts as valuable.
I dug into this in my latest piece—what happens when AI oversight isn’t just monitoring, but actively shaping decisions? Would love to hear your take. I've got nine more coming in this series, with some hands-on skills!
https://ailoops.substack.com/p/what-i-learned-from-a-simulated-ai
Yes, we must keep giving condoms to Gaza.
It's quite a violation that's happening