Closing the tabs ...

Thousands of federal workers have accepted the Trump administration’s buyout offer — taking eight months’ pay and benefits in exchange for walking away from the government workforce, The Post has learned.

Employees have until Thursday to decide whether to accept the offer, which the White House hopes will reduce the federal payroll by between 5% and 10%.

Ed: To paraphrase an old joke about lawyers, that's a good start. Hey, I wonder how many of these ARE lawyers? Anyway, this is still a drop in the bucket, but I suspect that some people in non-essential bureaucracies are looking at DOGE and calculating whether it's better to take the buyout or the boot. 

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Schumer is panicking: "If DOGE can shut down USAID, next it might be the IRS or intelligence agencies" pic.twitter.com/yyr3seJW04

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 3, 2025

Ed: Imagine thinking that either the IRS or the intel community is popular with voters. How clueless is Schumer, anyway? 

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Elon Musk's federal efficiency team is shielding the identities of some of its members during meetings with federal workers, according to two federal employees.

DOGE representatives didn't provide their last names during recent interactions with workers at two different agencies, the employees said.  ...

Since the 1990s, IRS employees have also been allowed to use pseudonyms, although it must be justified and approved by managers. People who work at Americans' least-favorite federal agency are sometimes harassed or attacked, and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported that as of 2018, there were 729 employees who used pseudonyms.

Ed: What was that, Mr. Schumer?

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When are Democrats going to learn that this kind of insane screeching is why they lost? pic.twitter.com/Bpt7NTT8yd

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 4, 2025

Ed: Not until the next time they lose, at the very least. 

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The Trump administration has warned more than 1,100 Environmental Protection Agency employees who work on climate change, reducing air pollution, enforcing environmental laws and other programs that they could be fired at any time.

An email, reviewed by The New York Times, was sent to staff members who were hired within the past year and have probationary status. Many of those employees were encouraged to join the E.P.A. under the Biden administration to rebuild the agency, which had been depleted during President Trump’s first term. Others are experienced federal workers who had taken new assignments within the agency.

Ed: Wanna bet that the buyout is looking pretty tasty at the EPA?

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PRESIDENT TRUMP on the waste, fraud, and abuse uncovered at USAID: “I’d like to see what the kickbacks are.” pic.twitter.com/cvYNeN4cjJ

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 4, 2025

Ed: So would I. Judging from the hysterical overreaction to scrutiny of USAID grant recipients, I suspect that the list may be long and distinguished ... and not entirely Democrat.

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Democratic members of Congress threatened to try to bring Trump's agenda, including his Cabinet nominations, to a grinding halt. Operatives assembled a new war room in their party headquarters. And average Americans, backed by a sudden influx of elected officials, warned of a looming constitutional crisis at ballooning protests across the nation's capital.

“With one voice, we can push back and resist the excesses and extremes of the Trump administration," newly elected Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in an interview. “Only two weeks in, Elon Musk is already our worst president ever.”

It’s unclear, however, if such attempts at obstruction would realistically stop Trump and Musk.

Ed: Elections have consequences, as do four years of lawfare against political opponents by the Deep State. Democrats may feel free to champion the bloated bureaucracy, but the appeal of that strategy will be limited to Washington DC and a few counties in northern Virginia. If that. 

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Some DEI programs teach that America is fundamentally racist or sexist.

63% of voters think companies using such training should be prohibited from doing business with the federal government.

Just 23% think such companies should be allowed to have contracts with the feds.…

— Scott Rasmussen (@ScottWRasmussen) February 4, 2025

Ed: And that's one reason that few voters will rush to the ramparts over DEI-drenched bureaucrats suddenly being held accountable for their actions. 

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“Our initial review of the evidence presented to us indicates that certain individuals and/or groups have committed acts that appear to violate the law in targeting DOGE employees,” he said, adding, “We also have our prosecutors preparing.” Earlier Monday, Martin wrote a public letter to Musk vowing to “pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people.”

Musk’s posts on social media indicate he is working unconventional, long hours, and he said he worked through the weekend. He has told multiple people that he is sleeping at DOGE’s offices, Wired reported last week.

Ed: He's working long hours? Getting tasks accomplished? Saving the taxpayers money and cutting red tape? No wonder the bureaucrats hate him. 

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AOC calling Elon Musk "unintelligent" might actually be the dumbest thing she has ever said, which is really saying something. pic.twitter.com/YocyYB5rso

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 4, 2025

Ed: Res ipsa loquitur. It might also be the biggest case of projection on record. 

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Trump has been in office two weeks and changes are coming so fast, even I’m freaked out. He’s Godzilla, stomping on everything: news networks, billions in federal grants, USAID, DEI, Mexico and Canada and China, South Africa, immigrants, maybe the Department of Education, and many other things. His daily “No more of this shit!” signing sessions have become destination television ...

Courts will be busy for years weighing which of his acts are legal, with virtually all under challenge. In the interim, carnage continues, with opposition in total message paralysis. Whether it’s planned or just Trump’s luck is unclear, but harrumphing bureaucrats are now daily rushing to defend the indefensible, from Jaffer’s slanderous networks to Schiffer’s waste and budget scammery. Monday scenes of legislators like Ilhan Omar and Jamie Raskin chaining themselves to the Matterhorn of suck that is USAID were just the beginning of what looks like a rash of optics suicides. We’ve never seen anything like it[.]