Notices by Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)

From r/fednews:
(unverified, obviously)

#USpolitics #USpol

Update: The OPM has now scrubbed the PDF metadata. However, the archived copies linked from my website contain the original metadata if you wish to verify.

James Sherk authored the joint Office of Management and Budget and OPM memo (archive) on return to office implementation plans. The guidance in the memo echoes a November 20, 2024 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy outlining their “Doge Plan”, where they wrote: “Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome”.5 The memo has earned criticism from the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, which expressed that the directive would “undermine” the government’s effectiveness by limiting their ability to attract talented employeees and maintain continuity of operations in emergencies.6 Sherk also authored the joint OMB and OPM memo (archive) providing guidance on the federal civilian hiring freeze — another effort towards the goal of slashing the size of the federal workforce.

James Sherk was announced as Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy on January 18.7 A White House official during Trump’s first term, Sherk was a key figure in Trump’s endeavors to purge civil servants and replace them with loyalists through an effort known as “Schedule F”. After Biden was elected, he repealed Schedule F, and Sherk slunk off to the America First Policy Institute to continue efforts to advance Trump’s policies. Prior to these positions, he was a staff member at the Heritage Foundation.

While Project 2025 and similar initiatives have been public about their plans to reshape the federal workforce, Trump and other figures in his administration have denied or downplayed links with the initiative. These documents show that implementation is already well underway, with designated personnel quietly drafting policies that were intended only to be publicly attributed to those in charge of the federal agencies.

https://www.mollywhite.net/micro/entry/trumps-project-2025-ghostwriters

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#USpolitics #USpol #Project2025 #HeritageFoundation

The people who are now in charge of the Office of Personnel Management apparently don’t know how to scrub PDF metadata, and have exposed the original authors of the guidance they’re publishing. Two have links to the Heritage Foundation and its Project 2025.

Noah Peters is the author of the OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell’s January 27 memo (archive) providing guidance on the “Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce” executive order, which is being described as the “Schedule F” order because it effectively reinstates that policy under a new name (“Schedule Policy/Career”). Peters also authored the January 20 memo (archive) from Ezell, which exploits loopholes to bypass limits on political appointments.1 Both of these memos are clear steps towards achieving a primary goal of Project 2025: to expand President Trump’s power, and to replace career civil servants with Trump loyalists.

As far back as 2023, The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 was recommending Peters for a position in Trump’s second administration.2 Peters had previously been appointed by Trump in 2019 as the Solicitor at the Federal Labor Relations Authority,3 where he “aided and defended Trump appointees’ anti-union FLRA policies that went against decades of the agency’s own precedents” according to Court Accountability Action and State Democracy Defenders Action.4 Peters returned to private practice in 2022, but recently quietly updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect a new title of “Senior Advisor” to the Office of Personnel Management. This appointment does not appear to have been announced anywhere else.

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#USpolitics #USpol #Project2025 #HeritageFoundation

What could contribute more to government efficiency than by securing lucrative contracts for your crypto donors to implement inefficient technology that is uniquely suited to solving problems you don’t have?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-25/musk-exploring-blockchain-use-in-us-government-efficiency-effort

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

Audio version of the newsletter is now out! Thanks for your patience on this one, I had another commitment today and wasn’t able to finish editing it this morning. It’s on the original post, or wherever you get your podcasts: https://pod.link/1719025552

@jgeorge there’s a fair bit of overlap between the libertarian and crypto industry view on Ulbricht. Generally they seem him as someone who was simply providing a free market, and feel it was unfair that he was prosecuted on drug crimes when he was operating the marketplace and not directly supplying the drugs

@cxiao thank you for the support!

@Phosphenes a bitcoin stockpile/strategic reserve is only one way that they would introduce widespread economic risk, and IMO the deregulatory moves hold much more systemic risk

All that and more in this issue of Citation Needed. If you found this helpful, please consider signing up for a free or pay-what-you-want subscription. Citation Needed is an independent publication, entirely supported by readers like you.

https://www.citationneeded.news/signup/

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

The Ethereum Foundation is facing a confidence crisis, and some were disappointed when Vitalik Buterin announced that his plans to overhaul the leadership don’t include “execut[ing] some kind of ideological / vibez pivot from feminized wef soyboy mentality to bronze age mindset”.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

Crypto crime was particularly violent this week, with a very alarming kidnapping of Ledger co-founder David Balland and his wife (who have since been rescued by police).

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

Other agencies, such as the SEC, have already sprung into action to push Trump’s deregulatory agenda, however. And Elon is trying to pump Dogecoin again, this time with the backing of the government.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

The much-awaited crypto executive order came later on. Instead of establishing a “bitcoin strategic reserve”, Trump created a committee to think about whether to recommend he establish a stockpile from digital assets already held by the government.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

The industry’s high hopes for a crypto-focused day one in office quickly sank. However, Trump eventually got around to them later on, issuing a pardon for Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht on day two.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

In my view, the memecoin launch only adds to Trump’s long list of already very serious conflicts of interest and unethical activities.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

Trump’s memecoin did not exactly receive a warm welcome from much of the crypto world, who were horrified that their crypto president would tarnish the industry’s sterling reputation by doing a blatant cashgrab.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

First, a note about my work. I am entirely funded by readers like you, and your support will be crucial going into what is clearly going to be a very busy four years.

https://citationneeded.news/signup

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

Newsletter: Trump horrifies even some of his crypto-steeped fans by launching a memecoin before his inauguration, and a flurry of activity from the new administration signals what’s in store for the crypto world in the next four years.

https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-75/

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

To be clear: the crypto executive order does not itself create a digital asset stockpile. It instructs the working group to "evaluate the potential creation and maintenance" of such a thing.