Hello world,

Things are running very slow here. The website is broken (I now realize it’s been broken for awhile and bless the guy that thought to e-mail me about that and bless you all for patronizing me despite my broken ass website). I ran out of mailers. I haven’t had the mental bandwidth to think about punk. Sorry. I'm going to get back on track, have faith.

This month I want to discuss the only thing on my mind:
 
“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.” – Russell Vought, Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the US Office of Management and Budget, ProPublica, October 28 2024

The dismantling of the American federal government has begun.

I take a lot of pride in working for the federal government. That I can put my beliefs into action, and work a job of social benefit and inclusivity, not profit and exploitation. I’m a cog in the civil rights machine, playing a tiny but meaningful role in making the world a better place for everyone. I know the game: we get paid like 25-50% less than our private sector equivalents, buuuut we get a lot of flexibility, we get nice health insurance and retirement, we get job security. If people like myself wanted to make money, we’d be busting ass under a CEO somewhere instead of busting ass for the American taxpayer. But it’s not about the money. It’s about the life. It’s about values. It’s about priorities.

Currently the federal government is under direct attack by the Trump administration. E-mails telling us to snitch on our coworkers if they are “secretly involved in DEI” and promising “adverse consequences” if we don’t. The ‘DEI secret police’ rolling up to worksites to remove Martin Luther King Jr posters and whatever else they deem “DEI paraphernalia”. Thinly veiled threats from Musk and his cronies. Vague and confusing Executive Orders about federal workers like myself that are obviously illegal, breaking contracts that open up the government to all sorts of liabilities, and are completely antithetical to their stated goals of “government efficiency”. These Orders are written like a middle schooler making Swiss cheese, on a level playing field they’d get immediately swatted down by the court system. But the court system is so corrupt now, it’s impossible to know how they’ll rule, so the Trump appointees simply sneer and say “Go ahead and sue. Let’s see how it goes in court”.

If it’s so illegal that it’ll just get overturned, why go to the trouble? If it’s so inefficient, why are they doing it?

Because it’s not about being legal or illegal. It’s not about being efficient or inefficient. It’s not about getting positive results. It’s not even about getting negative results. And, to be honest, it’s not even about real estate moguls making big bucks as empty office buildings get filled up again; that’s just a pleasant side effect.

It’s about causing pain and agony to me and my coworkers so that we’ll quit.

It's about making someone in my life decide whether they should take their kids out of school and move the family halfway across the country by February 24, or if they should just quit.
It’s about making someone in my life drive 2 hours to sit on the floor in the hallway next to a random outlet because there’s no more office space, wondering why they even bothered to show up and maybe they should just quit.
It’s about making someone in my life remove pronouns from their e-mail signature and remove Pride décor so they wonder if the job is worth the struggle and maybe it’s easier to just quit.
It’s about making someone in my life wonder if their disability will be enough to allow them a Reasonable Accommodation to work from home, or if it’ll be an excuse to fire them, so maybe they should get ahead of the situation, find a new job, and just quit.

It’s about generating chaos and confusion, discomfort and disruption, creating so much tension that people start quitting in mass. Then when enough people quit, the government can’t continue to operate effectively or efficiently, can’t perform the mission. Then they cry foul, “the government is so ineffective! Something must be done!”. Then they privatize what we do. Then they laugh all the way to the bank, while everyone else suffers because we can no longer provide the services you’re used to.

This is the strategy to dismantle the American federal government.

I think most Americans don’t really know/care about the federal government beyond a general notion we exist and there’s a President and a Congress you’re supposed to be voting for and sometimes we’re mad at the Supreme Court. There’s not much understanding of how everything from the air we breathe and the food we eat to money in your bank account and time off from your job is impacted by the smooth running of the federal government.

And I think class consciousness is pretty low in our country. I don’t think people are aware of the plight my coworkers and I are facing. And I don’t think they’re so sympathetic. There’s so much anti-labor propaganda and brainwashing in this country. I don’t think anybody is coming to save us or advocate for us and that really hurts. 

When the teachers went on strike in Minneapolis, I took days off work and got in the picket lines. I see fellow working class people on strike, I’m there. Whatever they want, I want them to get it. Our strength is in numbers and I’m never going to let my comrades go it alone. All power to the workers. That’s my attitude. That’s my worldview. I want everyone to survive capitalism as best they can, to work a reasonable day for a living wage. It’s…why I work for the government LOL. To live that life and help make it happen for other people.

So in this month’s little newsletter, dunno how many of you there are, but I want to talk to my fellow federal employees.

I’m here for you. We are in this together. A lot of people don’t understand what’s happening to us, but our pain and anxiety is real. E-mail me if you want to talk more. Not that there’s much we can do beyond give each other emotional support. But maybe that’s enough. Cause last week was fucking scary. This week has been insane. Every day it’s another angle of despair. I’ve been super depressed for days, just sitting around wallowing, doomscrolling, and talking on the phone. It’s hard to process what’s happening to us, and hard to communicate the gravity of it all.

I would NEVER judge someone for quitting. You should do you, always. Capitalism tells us we should be defined by our job. FUCK THAT. Do your thing. Don’t look back.
(but if you quit via Fork in the Road, I will judge you LOL)

I tell my coworkers they ought to clock out after 8 hours and never work on weekends. But I’m sometimes a bit “do as I say, not as I do”. I am way more apt to do what I think is right than think so hard about the rules. I will work a 12 hour day on a Saturday without a second thought. I will respond to work inquiries while I’m on leave and physically on the other side of the planet earth. I do what needs to be done. It’s my attitude. I have pride in my work, because I’m a career federal employee. And I will absolutely not be quitting my job anytime soon.

And if you’re also staying, please, PLEASE, join your relevant union if you haven’t already. Doesn’t matter if you’re BUE by default, the union needs finances to duke it out in court for us. This is why we’ve been paying union dues all this time. This is when it matters. This is the moment.
(and if you are union, bless you, and MAKE SURE YOU SWITCH YOUR DUES FROM DEDUCATION TO E-DUE!!!!!!! They are definitely going to come for the unions next and part of their strategy will be to eliminate deduction and cause a funding disruption. Switch to E-dues to avoid this headache altogether! Ask your steward!!)

As they say, the cruelty is the point, it’s not a bug it’s a feature, and it doesn’t “seem like”, IT IS.

In solidarity,
Dan

(If, by some chance, you’re moved by this text and want to do something to help, contact your Congresspeople and:
1. most importantly, DEMAND that they come out swinging in support of our unions and CBAs
2. ask them to deny Russel Vought’s nomination for OMB Director
3. ask them to name and challenge the illegal firing of Inspector Generals

and if you really want to go HAM:
-ask them to name, investigate, and challenge the enormous waste of government funding and resources currently happening through Trump’s Return to In-Person EO
-ask them to investigate why private individuals like Heritage Foundation's Noah Peters are authoring government memos and sending them pretending to be government staff, and why people like Amanda Scales are being handed sensitive information without appropriate security clearance
- ask them to investigate and challenge why OPM is bypassing chain of command, why they're harassing federal employees not under their direction, and why they've broken every single cybersecurity protocol ever
-ask them to challenge the removal of Special Emphasis programs
-ask them to provide support for RIF’d DEI and Environmental Justice personnel)


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JANUARY NEW ARRIVALS   

                              There are new arrivals but I apologize, I don't have it in me to write about them right now. I'll write more about it all next month.

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coming in February:
lots of FOAD stuff
lots of Black Konflik stuff
lots of Symphony of Destruction stuff
some essential South American hardcore stuff
2 new SPHC releases I hope!

more More MORE

Thanks and talk more later.
FEDERAL WORKERS, HOLD THE LINE AND DON'T RESIGN.

-Dan