Raw Story

by Daniel AVIS / Sebastian Smith

More than two million U.S. federal workers were hours away from a deadline Thursday to quit with eight months' pay or risk being fired on the spot in a plan by billionaire Elon Musk to gut the civil service.

Musk, the world's richest person and a top donor to President Donald Trump, is in charge of a free-ranging Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that aims to radically downsize federal agencies.

The most dramatic element so far has been a push to encourage employees to leave by midnight Thursday. According to US media, a small proportion of staffers -- up to 40,000 -- had so far accepted the deal.

The initiative has caused consternation among government workers, who face daily verbal attacks by Trump administration officials.

Unions and Democrats have challenged the legality of threats to fire civil servants.

A federal judge in Massachusetts was to hold a hearing Thursday on a lawsuit by labor unions requesting an injunction against Musk's midnight deadline. The unions backing the suit represent some 800,000 civil servants.

But the campaign has already severely disrupted the huge departments and agencies that for decades have run everything from education to national intelligence.

USAID, the government's huge agency for distributing aid around the world, has been crippled, with foreign-based staff ordered home and the organization's programs lambasted as wasteful by the White House and right-wing media.

Trump has also repeatedly said he wants to shut down the Department of Education, while Musk aides have stoked controversy by accessing a tightly guarded Treasury Department payment system.

The inducements to resign have even been extended to the CIA.

According to a report in The New York Times, the agency sent a list of the most junior -- and easiest to fire -- officers to the White House.

The Times reported that the list gave only their first names and initials of their surnames, but was sent in an unclassified email, sparking concerns that their identities could easily be discovered by foreign adversaries.

In another sign of the scale of cuts intended by Musk's team, an official with the agency that manages government property said the real estate portfolio, barring Department of Defense buildings, should be cut by "at least 50 percent."

- Buyout questions -

Workers considering the buyout offer face considerable uncertainty, including over whether Trump has the legal right to make the offer and whether the conditions will be honored.

The plan was first announced in an email sent across most of the vast government and titled "Fork in the road" -- the same as one Musk sent to all employees at Twitter when he bought the social media platform in 2022 and renamed it X.

Musk says the paid departures are a chance to "take the vacation you always wanted, or just watch movies and chill, while receiving your full government pay and benefits."

But unions warn that without Congress signing off on the use of federally budgeted money, the agreements may be worthless.

"Federal employees shouldn't be misled by slick talk from unelected billionaires and their lackeys," Everett Kelley, president of the large American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said in a swipe at Musk.

"Despite claims made to the contrary, this deferred resignation scheme is unfunded, unlawful and comes with no guarantees. We won't stand by and let our members become the victims of this con."

The Massachusetts lawsuit also casts doubt on assertions that workers would be free to look for other jobs during their deferment periods, citing ethics regulations.

An employee in the US Office of Personnel Management, where Musk has put his own staff in key positions, said the plan was to encourage resignations through "panic."

"It's not like we're pursuing some orderly measure to reduce the size of government," the employee told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"We're trying to instill a panic so that people just walk out the door and leave government in a crippled state, which is partly their objective."

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Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) on Thursday called out President Donald Trump for draining reservoirs in California for the purported purpose of fighting deadly fires in the southern part of the state.

As CNN and other news outlets reported recently, the water released by Trump was never going to reach Southern California. In fact, Heather Cooley, director of research for California water policy organization the Pacific Institute, told CNN that the release of the water was "providing zero benefit and putting California farmers at risk of water supply constraints in the coming months."

Lieu recounted the damage done by Trump's actions while speaking in the House of Representatives.

"When you solve for the wrong problem, not only do you not get the solution, you can cause harm," said Lieu. "So Donald Trump has it in his mind that there's a spigot in Northern California, and he's going to open a valve and dump water into Southern California."

Lieu then went on to explain how this action by Trump damaged his state.

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"Here at the facts: Southern California's reservoirs were at near-record levels when this fire happened," he continued. "Did it matter? Because Trump then ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to release over two billion gallons of water that almost flooded farmland if not for the local water districts that pushed back. Guess what: This water was saved for the farmers for summer when they needed this water. So Trump wasted all this water that isn’t even reaching Southern California -- it's going to evaporate -- for a PR stunt!"

Lieu then added that this "was a harmful, ludicrous action."

Watch the video below or at this link here.

TOPEKA — Members of the Kansas congressional delegation gathered on the U.S. House floor for a moment of silence in honor of people killed when a military helicopter collided with a civilian commercial aircraft from Wichita on approach to Reagan Washington National Airport.

U.S. Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kansas, said the idea was to come together with members of Congress impacted by the Jan. 29 accident that killed 64 passengers and crew on Flight 5342 and three U.S. Army personnel aboard the Black Hawk helicopter.

“As we mourn the loss of these 67 individuals, there are truly no words to adequately describe the heartbreak we feel,” Estes said. “We grieve with the families and friends they left behind and pray for those in our districts who are still in shock at the loss of their loved ones.”

“They were young skaters, a rural Kansas couple, a college student, a group of friends returning from an annual hunting trip and so many others who were taking a routine flight from the (Wichita) air capital to our nation’s capital,” he said.

Estes said there was a commitment to find answers for the midair crash and how other similar disasters could be avoided.

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas, said the silence of dozens of people on the House floor recognized lives lost and devastation felt by families.

“In this time of grief, we stand united with the victims’ families, offering our support and compassion,” Davids said. “While no words can undo the pain they are feeling, we are committed to ensuring their loved ones are never forgotten and will work tirelessly to help prevent such a tragedy from happening again.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, and U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, urged the Federal Aviation Administration to continue restrictions on non-essential helicopter operations near Reagan Washington airport.

They asked that limitations on helicopter flights remain until conclusion of the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report and after the FAA briefed the Senate’s commerce subcommittee on aviation, space and innovation.

“Until investigators complete this work, restricting helicopter operations, while allowing for essential medical support, active law enforcement, active air defense and presidential transport traffic will help keep the area safe and improve public trust in commercial air travel,” Moran said in a letter to the FAA.

Moran, who chairs the Senate subcommittee, said the panel would examine expert findings to determine whether policy changes were necessary to increase safety and improve public trust.

President Donald Trump became the first Republican in more than two decades to win the city of Dearborn, Michigan, which has the largest Muslim population of any city in the United States.

The biggest reason for this was anger within the Muslim community over the Biden administration's backing of Israel's war in Gaza, which so far has cost the lives of more than 50,000 Palestinians.

But after Trump this week proposed a plan many have said is considered ethnically cleansing Gaza and having the United States take over the region, there has been growing criticism from within the Muslim community of people who not only refused to back Vice President Kamala Harris but who took the added step of voting affirmatively for Trump.

NPR reports that some Muslims in Dearborn have been second-guessing the decision by many voters in the city to support the president while living in a state in which Harris lost to Trump by a little more than 80,000 votes.

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"It's like, what did you think? What did you think he was going to do?" Sam Ali, a Dearborn-based business consultant who didn't vote for Trump or Harris, told NPR. "What did you think he was going to say? And now people have to live with the consequences of their decision to to vote for him."

Abbas Alawieh, a Democratic strategist who organized the "uncommitted" campaign aimed at pressuring Biden and Harris to cut off arms sales to Israel, tells NPR that he ultimately did vote for Harris.

At the same time, Alawieh tells NPR that Trump succeeded in winning the city because he visited Dearborn during the campaign and "lied to a whole bunch of folks saying that he would be a pro-peace president."

A federal judge has temporarily paused Thursday's deadline for federal workers to decide whether to accept a buyout offer from Donald Trump's administration.

Massachusetts-based judge George O'Toole, a Bill Clinton appointee, ordered the deadline for accepting the administration's "Fork in the Road" buyout to be extended until at least Monday, and possibly longer, while parties to the case engage in emergency litigation over implementation of the program.

“We are pleased the court temporarily paused this deadline while arguments are heard about the legality of the deferred resignation program," said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees. "We continue to believe this program violates the law, and we will continue to aggressively defend our members’ rights."

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More than 2 million federal employees were given the choice of accepting the administration's "Fork in the Road" deferred resignation offer, which would allow them to be paid through September without reporting for duty, or keep their jobs and risk being fired.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) extended the offer as part of Elon Musk's Trump-sanctioned effort to drastically cut government spending and the federal workforce, and several employee unions have filed lawsuits challenging the deal's legality, as well as some of its provisions.

O'Toole's ruling indicates that 60,000 workers have purportedly agreed to accept the "Fork" deal.

— (@)

Rapper Kendrick Lamar, one of the big success stories of the Grammys last weeks, said Thursday his fans should expect "storytelling" at the Super Bowl halftime show this weekend.

Lamar will headline the halftime show at Sunday's showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, and has announced SZA will join him as a featured guest.

He had a clean sweep at last Sunday's Grammys, winning in all five categories for which he received nominations -- Record of the Year, Song of the Year, best rap song, best rap performance and best music video.

"I think I've always been very open about storytelling through my catalogue and history of music ... I like to always carry on that sense of people listening but also thinking," he said in an interview ahead of the NFL's season finale.

Lamar said had never imagined he would perform at the Super Bowl when he was starting out. In 2022, he appeared as a featured performer in a hip-hop showcase but this will be his first headline show.

"I wasn't thinking about no Super Bowl -- I was thinking about the best verse... It wasn't no Super Bowl," he said.

"What I know is the passion I have now is still the passion I had then."

The big question on everyone's mind is whether Lamar will perform his Grammy-winning scathing diss track "Not Like Us," which is part of a feud with fellow rapper Drake that has landed in court.

He did not address that issue directly but said he was "just thinking about the culture, really."

"When people talk about rap, man, the conversations out there they think it's just rapping -- (like) it's not an actual art form," Lamar said.

"So when you put records like that at the forefront, it reminds people that this is more than just something that came 50 years ago."

Lamar released "Not Like Us" in May 2024, the fifth of a collection of songs skewering the Canadian rapper that dropped less than a day after his previous single, "Meet the Grahams."

A record-breaking streaming giant, "Not Like Us" catapulted to the top of the charts and quickly became a West Coast rap anthem, beloved for its pounding bass line, rhythmic strings and exaggerated enunciation.

Drake has filed a defamation suit against their shared label, saying Universal Music Group's release and promotion of "Not Like Us" amounted to defamation and harassment.

UMG has called the accusations "illogical."

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