National Parks employees' alternate Twitter feed (1 Viewer)

[mr roboto]

We need an all Trump forum

Doesn't InfoWars or Breitbart have forums?

 

[McGarnicle]

Love this, though I fear what the consequences will be. Trump's fragile ego won't tolerate this type of thing for long. We can already see he's going to explode the deficit, maybe he sells off the national parks to Russia. The ####birds in congress obviously won't push back.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

The Trump administration is circulating a memo ordering federal employees not to communicate with Congress, a demand that Democrats are calling an illegal “gag order.”

“The Trump Administration has issued restrictions at multiple agencies on employee communications including, in some instances, communications with Congress,” Rep. Elijah Cummings wrote in a letter Wednesday to new White House Counsel Donald F.McGahn, II. “These directives appear to violate a host of federal laws.”

Specifically, Cummings’ letter cited a memo circulating in the Department of Health and Human Services from the acting secretary that tells agency division heads that “no correspondence to public officials (e.g. Members of Congress, Governors)...unless specifically authorized by me or my designee, shall be sent between now and February 3…”

The memo is the latest in a growing back-and-forth between Democrats and the new Trump administration over the mechanics of the change in power.

Skirmishes over the use of social media already spawned rogue twitter accounts at NASA and the Department of the Interior, as federal employees objected to what they feared would be a crack-down on discussion about global warming.

Staffers at the Environmental Protection Agency earlier in the week told the Los Angeles Times that their new bosses had ordered a media blackout, quoting one directive as telling them: “Only send out critical messages, as messages can be shared broadly and end up in the press.”

Cummings accused the administration of imposing a widespread ban on agency communication.

White House aides did not immediately respond to request for comment about alleged efforts to block employees from communicating with Congress, broadly, or about the latest in a series of letters from Cummings about the way they are handling the transition. The Associated Press quoted Sean Spicer saying no directives to silence communication from agencies came from the White House.

A call and an email to HHS requesting comment was not immediately returned.

But Cummings, who is the senior Democrat of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, specifically references a memo circulating in the federal health agency that appears aimed at halting any effort to finish work on regulations that began during the prior administration. It is in that context that the acting agency head invokes a prohibition on employees talking with congress.

Cummings and co-signer Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) cites a series of laws meant to protect open communication between federal employees and members of Congress, including one that ties agency funding to the free flow of information.

That provision, Cummings wrote, specifically prohibits agencies from any order that “threatens to prohibit or prevent, any other officer or employee of the Federal Government from having any direct oral or written communication or contact with any Member, committee, or subcommittee of the Congress in connection with any matter…

 

[Doctor Detroit]

A guy I worked for at the DoD, who is pretty high up, announced he is retiring today.  I honestly would have thought he was a Trump-backer knowing what I know about him, but I guess I was wrong.  Contrary to popular belief feds don't stand around the office talking about politics, we just do the things needing done to keep the country running.  I've talked more about politics at work this week, than I have maybe ever.  And where I work isn't going to have cuts, suppression of communications, or anything else impacting some of this other places. 

 

[McGarnicle]

A guy I worked for at the DoD, who is pretty high up, announced he is retiring today.  I honestly would have thought he was a Trump-backer knowing what I know about him, but I guess I was wrong.  Contrary to popular belief feds don't stand around the office talking about politics, we just do the things needing done to keep the country running.  I've talked more about politics at work this week, than I have maybe ever.  And where I work isn't going to have cuts, suppression of communications, or anything else impacting some of this other places. 

Where do your coworkers stand on Trump? Any shifting opinions after this first week?

 

[Koya]

Nobody did.  If the National Parks Service tweeted something last week it was like a tree falling in the forest.  The new administration's overreach on trying to control communications of all national agencies made this a much bigger issue.

That's actually a good point.  Hadn't thought about it this way.

People are buying Orwell's 1984 making it a best seller once again.

Folks are actually reading the WaPo and Times, subscribing even.

These once ignored nether-regions of governmental public relations (other than their hardcore fans) are sought after sources of perspective, if not real information.

And this is ####### week 1.  Hola freakin' scamoly. We all joke about the resistance, but for the first time in my 43 year old life, people actually care about and are interested in this stuff, en masse.  It may not become more than an early curiosity, or perhaps the lazy liberal and apathetic moderate is like holy ####, I better wake up and pay attention, ####'s going down.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Where do your coworkers stand on Trump? Any shifting opinions after this first week?

Unless they prompt me, I'm not asking.  I am in on briefings involving legislative issues and get the scoop there, but we all normally keep our political comments to ourselves.  A few jokes here and there, sure, but party affiliation rarely matter.  

 

[fatness]

On the morning after Donald Trump’s inauguration, acting National Park Service director Michael T. Reynolds received an extraordinary summons: The new president wanted to talk to him.

In a Saturday phone call, Trump personally ordered Reynolds to produce additional photographs of the previous day’s crowds on the Mall, according to three individuals who have knowledge of the conversation. The president believed that the photos might prove that the media had lied in reporting that attendance had been no better than average.

Trump also expressed anger over a retweet sent from the agency’s account, in which side-by-side photographs showed far fewer people at his swearing-in than had shown up to see Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009.

According to one account, Reynolds had been contacted by the White House and given a phone number to call. When he dialed it, he was told to hold for the president.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-pressured-park-service-to-back-up-his-claims-about-inauguration-crowd/2017/01/26/12a38cb8-e3fc-11e6-ba11-63c4b4fb5a63_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_no-nameage/breaking-news-bar&tid=a_breakingnews

Touchy, touchy. A lot of people are going to get fired to give our president a safe space.

 

[McGarnicle]

Unless they prompt me, I'm not asking.  I am in on briefings involving legislative issues and get the scoop there, but we all normally keep our political comments to ourselves.  A few jokes here and there, sure, but party affiliation rarely matter.  

I could be completely naïve here, but I would think Trump's statements on torture (and not even bothering to use a euphemism for it) would be pretty disgusting to the vast majority in defense/state dept. 

That might be wishful thinking on my part though. We all like our warm & fuzzy notions that there are some things that only happen in other countries. Seems like you have a closer view of how the sausage is made and probably have fewer of those illusions.

 

[grateful zed]

Trump has muzzled including FDA, NASA, HHS, EPA and USDA

the leader of the free world is living in fear of his own

anyone care to postulate?

 

[Mile High]

do what I say not as I do. when you are in the top seat of any company or position the rules do not apply, you know that.

The president works for the people not the other way around. 

 

[McGarnicle]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-pressured-park-service-to-back-up-his-claims-about-inauguration-crowd/2017/01/26/12a38cb8-e3fc-11e6-ba11-63c4b4fb5a63_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_no-nameage/breaking-news-bar&tid=a_breakingnews

Touchy, touchy. A lot of people are going to get fired to give our president a safe space.

What's so absurd about this (other than Trump's infantile behavior) is that no one would expect Trump's crowd to rival that of the first black president. That was a watershed event in our history. People traveled from all 50 states to be present for that. Had Hillary won, I doubt her crowd would've been much bigger than Trump's. 

 

[Doctor Detroit]

I could be completely naïve here, but I would think Trump's statements on torture (and not even bothering to use a euphemism for it) would be pretty disgusting to the vast majority in defense/state dept. 

That might be wishful thinking on my part though. We all like our warm & fuzzy notions that there are some things that only happen in other countries. Seems like you have a closer view of how the sausage is made and probably have fewer of those illusions.

I am senior enough now that we all normally keep our opinions to ourselves.  On Tuesday however I had a conversation with my boss, my four peers and we all had our concerns.  At the end of the day however we all have a job to do and being in operational government you press forward.  But I have never been privy to things at this level before, and it's pretty interesting.  The stuff talked about on the hill behind closed doors in particular. 

 

[Sinn Fein]

The president works for the people not the other way around. 

 

[McGarnicle]

I am senior enough now that we all normally keep our opinions to ourselves.  On Tuesday however I had a conversation with my boss, my four peers and we all had our concerns.  At the end of the day however we all have a job to do and being in operational government you press forward.  But I have never been privy to things at this level before, and it's pretty interesting.  The stuff talked about on the hill behind closed doors in particular. 

What odds would you give on Trump serving the full 4 years?

 

[Doctor Detroit]

What odds would you give on Trump serving the full 4 years?

I couldn't say.  Not even 100% sure how this impacts my agency until the new boss gets confirmed and comes to work.  I think he has nominated some good people for his cabinet, especially the most important positions.  I would think they are going to save his bacon a lot.