Just shut it all down
In another, but very nearby, corner of the forest another court with another ruling.
The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to block a judge’s ruling that had temporarily paused plans for mass layoffs and program closures at federal agencies.
A judge paused plans for mass layoffs and program closures at federal agencies?? That’s so shocking! All federal agencies are bad, and everything federal agencies do is bad. Obviously! The people should all be fired and the programs should all be slammed shut. Nothing should ever be done for any reason other than profit.
Last week, Judge Susan Illston of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California called for a two-week pause on the administration’s actions, which she said were illegal without congressional authorization. Her order barred two dozen federal agencies from moving ahead with the largest phase of President Trump’s efforts to downsize the government.
In the emergency application filed on Friday, D. John Sauer, the solicitor general, argued that the lower court’s “far-reaching order” would prevent “almost the entire executive branch from formulating and implementing plans to reduce the size of the federal work force.”
Could that be because the entire executive branch was “reducing the size of the federal work force” by simply firing masses of people without bothering to find out what they were doing and how necessary it was?
In February, Mr. Trump signed an executive order directing officials to draft plans for “large-scale” cuts to the federal work force. Several labor unions, advocacy groups and local governments sued, seeking to block the order.
Judge Illston held an emergency hearing in the case last Friday and issued her ruling just hours later.
In the 42-page ruling, Judge Illston determined that the government’s attempt to lay off workers and shut down offices and programs created an urgent threat to scores of critical services.
It’s as if Trump told the Pentagon to bomb federal agencies into oblivion without pausing to preserve the buildings or allow the occupants to send a goodbye message home.
Gee, isn’t that a surprise? Who could have predicted that? Lay offs and shuttered offices = loss of services? Wow.
Have you been hacking my computer? That exact scenario (though Trump is not named; he is just ‘the president’. I think most could recognize him, though) is a crucial part of one of my latest novels, which I started writing just a few days before inauguration. He also bombs the White House, once he is out of it, to get rid of people he doesn’t consider loyal enough…including his wife. And, of course, France.
Not even profit. Simple self-aggrandizement, or grabbiness, if you will. The regime isn’t “downsizing government” as much as it is refusing to govern at all. Stop any and all activities that have to do with governance, or general welfare and public benefit; simply reassign all revenues to the private benefit of a few mafiosi-style oligarchs.