Spyke
nottheonion·Not The OnionbyInfrapink

Government Workers Say Their Out-of-Office Replies Were Forcibly Changed to Blame Democrats for Shutdown

Some employees at the Department of Education changed their responses back to the more neutral language, only to have it changed yet again to the partisan response, multiple sources tell WIRED.

Government Workers Say Their Out-of-Office Replies Were Forcibly Changed to Blame Democrats for Shutdownhttps://www.wired.com/story/government-workers-say-their-out-of-office-replies-were-forcibly-changed-to-blame-democrats-for-shutdown/Open linkView original on thebrainbin.org

Blatant partisanship instead of helping Americans. woo. 🙄😒

178

Total weaponization of EVERYTHING against the left, even using right wing shooters against the left.

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lemmy.world

Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed HR 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of HR 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume.

Y'all fucked. Bail now. There's way better places to live out your days on earth .

151
lemmy.world

The problem is that for many of the nearly retired folks a job in the government was the promise of a good wage with great benefits and good retirement options. They want it gone because it forced other companies to play catch up in pay and benefits whenever the government could pay better.

It’s also not easy to walk away from a pension program when you’re so invested in it. It’s designed to make people stay long term and put in the work.

88
saltescreply
lemmy.world

I don't think it was designed as that at all. But like anything long-term with no protection or regulation, it will be exploited. This is as guaranteed as sunrise.

1

It wasn’t designed that way, but it turned into a system that forced private enterprise to play pay and benefits catch up.

Also, it was protected and had regulations, but when the people in power simply ignore those regulations it doesn’t matter. The problem here is that people have lived in relative comfort for the last 70 years and were throwing it away to remember what a history book could have taught us.

2
nomiyareply
sh.itjust.works

It seems like most countries are heading in the same direction with their own flavors of fascism. It's also not that easy to get visas for decent places to live.

63

It’s also not that easy to get visas for decent places to live.

The American passport is incredibly strong, we get Visa On Arrival to Japan and Korea, 3 month e-visa for Vietnam, and the application is a pain in the ass, but americans get a 90 day/10 year tourist visa for China if you apply in America (but you have to be near one of the visa centers), and 60 day/10 year if you apply in Vietnam, Seoul, or Tokyo.

2

The fascists in other countries are taking notes after seeing how easily Trump and the MAGAts are managing to get away with this bullshit.

The rest of us need to wake the fuck up and push back agaist thw faccists before it gets too late in our countries.

2

I can understand immigration restrictions because they've always been in the interest of maintaining a healthy economy that can contribute plenty toward future infrastructure. This is just the play for as long as history is recorded. As long as we've had borders, and walls, fences, guards... It's common for countries to go through periods of restriction to only skilled workers, specific industries, etc. otherwise it's working internally on itself for a period.

But when you've got a booming GDP, restricting visas makes as much sense as having substantial poverty among citizens. Like sovereignty and protection of those within was never on the cards, it's just straight up fascism, as you said. You get the same idiots saying they're the most powerful military in the world capable of destroying anything—which isn't far from true—also saying a brown family is going to destroy the nation... Uh-huh. Sure... One of these things has to be a lie for both cannot be true.

1
lemmy.today

I wish it was as easy as just bailing. I very much want to, but I can't afford it, and with the coming depression, I especially won't be able to afford it.

40
saltescreply
lemmy.world

Only gets worse the longer you leave it. Myself and many friends I have met along the way one day just did it, with nothing. Within two years, things are so much better than if they were spent in the same situation. The worse that can happen is you just go back to what you have now. So what you have now is the worse-case scenario.

Edit: Oh, I mean there's cavets to that, obviously. Like you could get ruined. But that's why less likely than getting ruined by a drunk driver or something. Point is, what you have control of will always end up how you imagined.

2

Nowhere in could get in would have my unskilled trans ass. Some of us genuinely have no choice but to sit and wait to either win or die

1
Obinicereply
lemmy.world

Can they not make a legal claim given that their employer is putting words into their mouth in communications with the public, especially given that it's highly politically charged wording that would damage their reputation, plus in a normal country saying such things at work like that would get you sacked.

I don't know the legalities, but if my employer made it seem like I'd said something like that I'd demand an immediate apology, a reprimand for whomever did it, and a public redaction and apology sent to everybody that had received the fraudulent message.

That seems reasonable and fair.

33

I know in my country, such a thing is illegal af and there'd be very damaging outcry from the public if a gov tried it. But this country and the ones I've lived in, the governments seem to understand they're in service of the public. This is one of the reasons why governments came to exist and why they are still relevent, after all.

4

First I'm 100% with you, Azure audits who set those messages and they do need to be reported.

Conspiracy time: Every furloughed employee with that message set could be considered in violation of the Hatch Act and that carries with it a possible penalty of removal from federal employment, debarment from federal employment for up to 5 years, and possibly up to a $1,000 civil penalty. I'm really hoping the plan isn't to start firing these workers from agencies the current administration doesn't like to begin with.

1
lemmy.world

It's insane how many people think if all the rational people left the government...

That will somehow fight Trump's plan to make the government ineffective.

Fucking toddler logic, and it's widely up voted.

No wonder shit's so fucked.

7

They're not arguing that at all. They're saying gtfo and go to a country that isn't batshit insane.

They've made no argument it'd make the government better.

15

if you're planning to leave the country, why not

if you're planning to stay, do everything in your power to stop them

4
lemmy.world

Who says I want to live on EARTH???

Seems to me Mars is nice and quiet.

6

Not only is Mars a frigid desert without enough air, at this point any Mars colony is pretty likely to be Elon Musk's company town/fiefdom/slave plantation, which is obviously even worse.

10
lemmy.world

Can you give me at least 3 countries that'll take Americans with nothing more than a basic college degree?

1

Don't even need a college degree.

Australia, Spain, UK, Portugal (they may even still be doing that super cheap buying a property thing for foreign workers they're trying to attract in smaller towns), Finland... I assume the other countries around Finland...

Many of these places they are more concerned about filling industries regardless of your qualifications. Education and hospitality are lways in demand. I have four American friends that went to Australia and NZ for short-term visas and just decided to never leave and are PR now. No degrees, though two were former US servicemen which may have boosted their credits.

The only catch for pursuing PR is you either have to have an employer happy to sponsor you, or you are told which cities and industries need you the most. After some time for the government to know you're not fucking them around, welcome to your new home.

Teaching English is a classic too. Especially in SK and Japan. You don't need to know the language well as English is expected to be the natively spoken language in classrooms. Have a friend that never left China doing that and two that never left Japan. No degrees; only basics of the national languages. They obviously have become fluently bilingual over time.

3
lemmy.ml

The VA did the same thing in a newsletter they send out.

116

This pissed me off until I remembered that all these positions were replaced by partisan shit-suckers and opted to ignore it instead. The fact that republican mouthpieces can lie to the faces of their supporters and still get believed means they're hopeless to learn anything else. They live in a reality that is going to crash and burn in a few months, and they can blame none of it on any opposition but their own rejection of reality.

23
lemmy.world

Dare I say Trump is the next Hitler

You cannot fucking tell me that he does shit like this and nobody gives a damn. This has to be illegal

112

I think we're way past what's legal or not in this shithole. His whole point from the beginning was that he could shoot someone and nothing would happen and americans were like: wow. I like guns too.

83
BanMereply
lemmy.world

He basically shredded the Hatch act his first term, there were no consequences, of course he's just gonna flat out ignore it this time.

26
andros_rexreply
lemmy.world

Forcing those military generals to sit through a campaign speech showed that the Hatch Act is basically dead.

14

We have that. Most judges can empower a Marshall or Marshalls. A federal judge can empower a federal Marshall and a state judge a state Marshall.

2
lukaroreply
lemmy.zip

34 times convicted felon, who knows how many more he's committed without being convicted.

30
Infrapinkreply
thebrainbin.org

Trump was convicted of those 34 felonies, he just wasn't punished for them.

7
feddit.org

I wouldn't call him dumb. If he was literally stupid he wouldn't have made it this far. He knows exactly what he does and doesn't care. Hes evil as hell, but not dumb.

2
discuss.tchncs.de

The man himself is absolutely dense. Just listen to one of his speeches or interviews for five minutes. But the really smart (and dangerous) people are the ones whispering into his ear.

7

This is my impression. Kinda like Dick Cheney whispering into George W. Bush's ear, just... even more openly evil. And that's saying something.

3
smeenzreply
lemmy.nz

Does anyone have the article or at least what the wording was changed to ? Blocked by paywall for me

2
smeenzreply
lemmy.nz

I'm reading lemmy using the Android voyager client, which seems to open the default Samsung browser which is quite limited in what it can do. I don't see any options in the settings to force it to use Firefox, or any other browser unfortunately.

So googling for "remove paywall" is not helpful

2
Zinkreply
programming.dev

I have no idea how similar the settings screens are, but in the iOS voyager client there is some kind of option if you go to:

settings

general

other

open links in...

2

Thanks, but unless I'm blind, there's no such option in the android one.

1
lemmy.world

Not that laws matter, but it's a pretty clear violation of the Hatch Act.

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lemmy.ca

Call me when any future Democratic AG's do anything to prosecute any of this.

I'll be holding my breath.

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MisterFrogreply
lemmy.world

Not from the US, nor a lawyer, but how is this not fraud?

If someone pretends to be you, without your consent, is that not fraud?

You can ask me to change my out of office email and threaten me with being fired if I don't, but if you just do it anyway, how is that not fraud?

2

Maybe not fraudulent, since it's not asking for money, but I see where you're coming from. I'm not sure if there's any recourse for the employees affected - did they lose money (for example) because of that message?

1
lemmy.world

70% if the US is not buying this bs and wants all these idiots to start doing their damn jobs.

30% of the US is giggling with glee over these partisan statements forced on government workers while they fantasize about executions.

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that 30% is looking more and more like a sexual deviant masturbating on a playground at 3am.

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lemmy.world

The point is the overwhelming majority of folks are MAGA true believers. A good chunk of that 70% voted for Trump, not because he convinced them hes a good president, but just as a vote against the status quo. They'll support a better option for that if there is one presented.

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Well, '16 other option was an arrogant, self entitled, self serving, rotten cunt. Who made the decision to stay married to a philandering prick just for political cache.

2

All of the media we have used in the past to do such things, starting with Obama, are being controlled by propagandists. Twitter, Facebook, reddit. Theyre making it harder to not just be surrounded my propaganda.

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JcbAzPxreply
lemmy.world

Half of half of half is not anywhere close to a majority.

1
Dorkyd68reply
lemmy.world

Pedo king is fitting.

Trump the King of the pedophilia, protector of corruption, leader of the racist white army.

16

So we need some sort of ..red army..?

Shit is the Russian Revolution a better model for what America's upcoming period of political violence looks like? Because the "Second Civil War" invokes ideas of a clean boundary between belligerents, akin to the North/South. But it's obvious that it won't be like that this time, and until now I hadn't considered Russia as a better example.

1
braxreply
sh.itjust.works

I doubt it will change much, the rest of the party is still in tact. They'll just move Vance to to king dipshit and continue as they were.

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Echo Dotreply
feddit.uk

Is he really capable of leading the party he's always struck me as the sort of person that would get out of depth in a slightly melted ice cube. Trump gets away with it because he just says it all does something ridiculous and then the story moves on to that. Vance doesn't really command the kind of following they need.

5

The Cheeto is definitely a cult of personality, and I suspect it will be harder to rally all conservatives behind his replacement. Cult leaders dying can solidify a cult if done correctly (Scientology), but it's also quite likely that it dissolves.

1

This is what happens when the people exposed to the highest levels of lead are give access to all the hate they can eat and free-reign to use that lowered cognitive function in positions of power.

58

File under "Free speech for me, but not for thee."

If that folder isn't full yet.

Scum of the earth.

38
lemmy.world

lol a circus run by five year olds of the worst kind. I have seen kids orders of magnitude more mature than most republicans.

37

So fucking dystopian. People need to go to prison for this.

34

They should all go through every email exchange they had and inform every single person who received that automatic response that it was set that way without their consent.

33

No shame, no honor, no sense of decency at all. Just unhinged rabid dementia in a sociopathic rapist surrounded by arrogant nazis.

32

In addition to everyone else here's much more pressing political concerns, this is terrible for computer security. It encourages users to install third-party programs onto government machines.

Mossad should release autoreply_writer.exe

24

this is terrible for computer security. It encourages users to install third-party programs onto government machines

I'd be more concerned about the programs the government is installing onto the machines

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Aqariusreply
lemmy.world

You're right. This is rightful comeuppance for not supporting Israel enough. That's surely the correct take here.

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Aqariusreply
lemmy.world

...The stance being satirizedin the above comment is "American voters brought Trump on themselves by caring about Palestine". How does Trump's Gaza anything, in your mind, affect this?

-1

Frankly, me neither - you can take that narrative up with thread OP that brought it up. I'm just making fun of a scratched liberal.

1
Medic8teMereply
lemmy.ca

You're only wishing the aliens would come take over.

10

Surely the false personation laws would apply here then?

They modified the out-of-office message to distribute a factually inaccurate statement, by using the shutdown recipient's voice & inbound mail feed.

11

The email accounts are owned by the government. If this was their personal email, sure, but it’s not.

Edit to add: doesn’t make it right or justifiable, but there probably no legal recourse here.

-1

Who could have guessed, the prettiest, cry baby bitch would turn this shutdown where "he" has complete control over the US government into a petty game of the buck stops at the dems. Shocked I tell you shocked

10

So is our fascist government granting wishes yet? I feel like the moment they start changing people's speech they also have the ability to grant wishes within certain bounds, and so far I haven't seen any offers of granting wishes.

These government genies are the worst

3