this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
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"Definitely never seen this type of response to a FOIA request," quipped one journalist.

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[–] [email protected] 189 points 4 months ago (3 children)

This is very common for Muskolini, any press contacts are often let go, makes obtaining damning information impossible/improbable. None of his companies staff a PR department as far as I know. Why anybody puts up with this guy and his companies is beyond me.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Muskolini

Sounds like a pasta. A shitty pasta.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

The word Duce (a title used by Mussolini - il duce) and Doge, have the same Latin etymology

The word is from the Venetian language, reaching English via French. Doge, along with the related English word duke and the Italian duce, duca (masculine) and duchessa (feminine) all descend from the Latin dux, meaning either "spiritual leader" or "military commander".

[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (10 children)

No, absolutely not. I'm sorry, but that's a bullshit false cognate that gives Musk way too much credit. The reality is much simpler, and stupider: it's just a meme misspelling of "dog" that, even in its initial conception, was canonically coined by an idiot.

The etymology of "dog" is admittedly a little mysterious, but I can't find anything at all to suggest it's even slightly related to "dux."

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

Same thing happened with the Twitter takeover.

All the official, PR/Communications staff were fired or quit, nobody had any idea what any actual policy changes were real or not.

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[–] [email protected] 177 points 4 months ago (4 children)

They are literally fucking up entire US government.

[–] [email protected] 125 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 76 points 4 months ago (11 children)

Yep:

“I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” — Grover Norquist

That was 25 years ago. It's always been their plan. They want to dismantle democracy and replace it with a corporatocracy, oligarchy, or similar authoritarian structure.

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[–] [email protected] 76 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Part of the GOP plan. First fuck up government so completely it doesn't work, then scream that government doesn't work and should be defunded and shut down.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Exactly. Destroying the government is thier wet dream.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Well, not all of the government. Just the parts that could hold them accountable for anything they do.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (5 children)

I think at this point, it's all of the government. If it can be privatized, why wouldn't they push to eliminate that sector of the government and then install their own corporate entities?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Because the central guy can't control those corporate entities directly. He primarily wields political power, not financial power. There's a tension between the two.

Musk (financial power) is currently winning out over Steve Bannon (political power). Musk doing that Nazi salute brought a lot of MAGA people underneath him who were otherwise getting worried that Musk was the wrong kind of authoritarian.

Financial power might win in the end, and the reason is that Trump is a doddering old man. This is unique; it's not quite following the same script as Nazi Germany, where Hitler was relatively young and still had the same mental faculties he always did (even if those faculties were twisted).

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I think the driving forces are more likely sociopathic corporate interests that want deregulation and foreign adversaries who want to see the US government dismantled (and allies driven away, and growing social division)

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (5 children)

Not entirely true.

All these firings are likely going to result in classaction lawsuits, and the judiciary (so far) has been very responsive to Trump's power grabs. You'll recall they shut him down on DOGE's Treasury incursion, birthright citizenship, and the funding freeze. (Among others)

It may seem like everything's fucked up, but that's only because your social media feed and executive orders create chaos faster than the judiciary can check it.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

All these firings are likely going to result in classaction lawsuits, and the judiciary (so far) has been very responsive to Trump’s power grabs. You’ll recall they shut him down on DOGE’s Treasury incursion, birthright citizenship, and the funding freeze. (Among others)

Yeah, good luck with that in 2-4 years, when those lawsuits pan out. And then they get appealed to the Supreme Court, where the GOP-majority lapdogs say "yessir" and rule in favor of chaos.

We couldn't even get Trump convicted of criminal charges in time. What makes you think the judiciary is going to save us?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

No, they are NOT literally fucking the US government. They are figuratively fucking up the entire US government.

Literally fucking up the US government would be some kind of orgy at the Senate. Or a bukkae of The Statue of Liberty.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

protip: if you're gonna criticise another's words, make sure you don't make any typos. Just sayin'

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[–] [email protected] 118 points 4 months ago (1 children)

One thing I would like to say for people who aren't familiar and won't read the article:

Every federal agency has its own FOIA team, in this case the OPM FOIA team was slaughtered and flayed for sport. It's possible other agency's FOIA teams were removed, but also more likely that they still exist. This wasn't a blanket death of all FOIA, just the death of arguably the most important FOIA team

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

OPM is the most important? I don't even know that acronym

I would argue FOIA requests on the intelligence community is the most important

[–] rimmedalpha 34 points 4 months ago

Office of Personnel Management, basically oversees all US Gov employees.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)
  • Intelligence Communities work with classified stuff more than anyone. You may only FOIA unclassified stuff so the information and documents you can FOIA is limited

  • OPM is the most important at the moment as they are the office primarily under attack and being abused by Elon Musk and DOGE. They are the vehicle that Musk is using and abusing to try and destroy all Federal workers across every agency.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

OPM is the most important in the “keeps the gears of the government moving” sense. It’s basically the federal government’s HR department. Without OPM, no federal workers get hired, get paid, etc… It’s not glamorous or politically charged work, which is why you rarely hear about them. But they recently hit the news because Elon kicked their doors in and illegally installed his own servers to capture personal data about every single federal worker.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

CNN is sympathetic to fascists. I’m happy to not give them a click.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

Common dreams headline is funnier and more succinct.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Holy shit, I called it.

I thought they’d have Congress do it, but this was more efficient, so yay?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Who needs Congress when the supreme Court is behind you?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They already know the Supreme Court is too slow. By the time it lands on their desk, the damage was already done a long time ago.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

So it seems like CNN doesn't follow the news of the day do they? To my recollection Trump had DOGE actions covered under the Presidential Records system so they are classified for a number of years and not allowed to be requested by FOIA requests until that time passes. So as of now their request would just be denied anyway.

You know, Totally Transparent Government™©® things... Definitely not doing anything wrong that needs to be hidden right?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Slight clarification, presidential records are subject to foia a few years after the presidency. But yes, transparent in the way that Elon "jail CNN for badmouthing doge" musk is a free speech absolutist.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) applies to the Presidential Records Act (PRA) five years after the President has left office.

https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/presidential-records-act

EDIT: thinking about this more, you can definitely foia the clearances he had from SpaceX contracts. You know, back when he smoked weed on Joe Rogans podcast and got absolutely no consequences.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago

💩 coming soon

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (6 children)

🎶 Doo doo doo🎶 its an oligarchy 🎶 doo doo doo 🎶 it's happening right now 🎶 tell your friends.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm confused with the "doo doo doo", so I'm just gonna read your comment to the tune of "baby shark"

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Here I'll add the notes emoji

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago

This was planned and on purpose.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

How convenient, considering one of the extremely few checks we have available on DOGE destructive powers is FOIA requests.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

It's hard to keep track of everything getting killed.

With this one now the transparency they're touting so much has been cut off at source. What next?

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