Asahi
@notesonputsch.bsky.social
observations on the dismantling of the federal civil service https://notesontheputsch.substack.com/
Pinned
Asahi
@notesonputsch.bsky.social
· Dec 3
On anonymity
an introduction
notesontheputsch.substack.com
Hello Bluesky. I am a chronicle of the twilight of the administrative state. A diary of a federal civil servant documenting in somewhat real time the promised assault on the bureaucracy. An introduction on anonymity: notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/on-anonymity
Now that D.C. is finished being sidelined by the sad parade, and the Tontons Macoutes appear to have no intention of backing off, I hope we will begin standing up with Los Angeles -- and now New York.
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/swan-lake-...
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/swan-lake-...
June 17, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Now that D.C. is finished being sidelined by the sad parade, and the Tontons Macoutes appear to have no intention of backing off, I hope we will begin standing up with Los Angeles -- and now New York.
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/swan-lake-...
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/swan-lake-...
In D.C., we were excluded from the #NoKings protests on Saturday. But the pageant of violence didn't materialize either. So we quietly went about our business.
Swan Lake on every channel
Through an occupied city
notesontheputsch.substack.com
June 16, 2025 at 10:05 PM
In D.C., we were excluded from the #NoKings protests on Saturday. But the pageant of violence didn't materialize either. So we quietly went about our business.
Reposted by Asahi
"We cannot build bananas in America" is an all timer
DEAN: What's the tariff on bananas?
LUTNICK: Generally 10%
DEAN: Walmart has already increased the cost of bananas by 8%
LUTNICK: If you build in America, there is no tariff
DEAN: We cannot build bananas in America
LUTNICK: Generally 10%
DEAN: Walmart has already increased the cost of bananas by 8%
LUTNICK: If you build in America, there is no tariff
DEAN: We cannot build bananas in America
June 5, 2025 at 5:21 PM
"We cannot build bananas in America" is an all timer
From guest writer Annie Blackburn, who remains a federal employee:
"Those of us who remain in the federal workforce have to wade through the carnage of a poorly planned smash and grab, all the while carrying on with daily tasks."
"Those of us who remain in the federal workforce have to wade through the carnage of a poorly planned smash and grab, all the while carrying on with daily tasks."
The Leftovers
Dispatches from the Guilty Remnant
notesontheputsch.substack.com
June 3, 2025 at 2:38 PM
From guest writer Annie Blackburn, who remains a federal employee:
"Those of us who remain in the federal workforce have to wade through the carnage of a poorly planned smash and grab, all the while carrying on with daily tasks."
"Those of us who remain in the federal workforce have to wade through the carnage of a poorly planned smash and grab, all the while carrying on with daily tasks."
On behalf of all federal employees who merit nary a word in this garbage, a hearty fuck you.
I'd rather be a worker than a visionary, and I'd rather keep writing for my friends than for the New York Times.
I'd rather be a worker than a visionary, and I'd rather keep writing for my friends than for the New York Times.
at some point opinion editors stopped caring about sharing unique or intelligent ideas from interesting human beings and writers and went all on on trolling for engagement
June 3, 2025 at 2:23 PM
On behalf of all federal employees who merit nary a word in this garbage, a hearty fuck you.
I'd rather be a worker than a visionary, and I'd rather keep writing for my friends than for the New York Times.
I'd rather be a worker than a visionary, and I'd rather keep writing for my friends than for the New York Times.
"Now the same security personnel with whom I exchanged a few pleasant words every morning were posted above us at the top of those steps, not menacingly, but their positions a declarative fact: you don’t belong here anymore."
You were never really here
A protest and a departure
notesontheputsch.substack.com
May 31, 2025 at 3:22 PM
"Now the same security personnel with whom I exchanged a few pleasant words every morning were posted above us at the top of those steps, not menacingly, but their positions a declarative fact: you don’t belong here anymore."
Lots of good Elon post-mortems out there today, like this one. Lots of terrible ones.
Here's just one more, from one former federal worker whose career he wrecked. Plus, a protest.
Here's just one more, from one former federal worker whose career he wrecked. Plus, a protest.
May 30, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Lots of good Elon post-mortems out there today, like this one. Lots of terrible ones.
Here's just one more, from one former federal worker whose career he wrecked. Plus, a protest.
Here's just one more, from one former federal worker whose career he wrecked. Plus, a protest.
All of us know to some extent what every one of these federal workers is going through. It's so important to try to understand those feelings before we become isolated and overwhelmed.
Writing helps a lot.
Writing helps a lot.
May 21, 2025 at 1:44 PM
All of us know to some extent what every one of these federal workers is going through. It's so important to try to understand those feelings before we become isolated and overwhelmed.
Writing helps a lot.
Writing helps a lot.
What it all kind of boils down to for me is I don't know how to walk out my front door and behave normally in a world where millions of people thought to themselves, "you know what, I think I will be an enemy of Miss Rachel and Bruce Springsteen."
many perfectly shit people will never do even one thing in their whole lives half as shameful as the job Marc Tracy did here defector.com/the-new-york...
The New York Times Really Asked Ms. Rachel If She's Paid By Hamas | Defector
The house style of the New York Times is severely outdated. Depending on the topic, the newspaper’s purportedly impartial tone instead reads as smug, self-amused, and deeply lazy. The results are disa...
defector.com
May 17, 2025 at 5:20 PM
What it all kind of boils down to for me is I don't know how to walk out my front door and behave normally in a world where millions of people thought to themselves, "you know what, I think I will be an enemy of Miss Rachel and Bruce Springsteen."
How do you begin to accept the end of your career in federal service?
"I feel great about leaving the haunted carnival, but also bad about feeling great."
"I feel great about leaving the haunted carnival, but also bad about feeling great."
Aftermath
In private life
notesontheputsch.substack.com
May 16, 2025 at 1:40 PM
How do you begin to accept the end of your career in federal service?
"I feel great about leaving the haunted carnival, but also bad about feeling great."
"I feel great about leaving the haunted carnival, but also bad about feeling great."
Ok, state it openly then. Or state that you think he shouldn't have dropped out. It would be nice if it's what you really think. But beyond that, nobody cares.
It matters approximately 1 billion times less than whether you think Musk, Rubio, Noem, Vought and every ICE agent belong in prison.
It matters approximately 1 billion times less than whether you think Musk, Rubio, Noem, Vought and every ICE agent belong in prison.
May 15, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Ok, state it openly then. Or state that you think he shouldn't have dropped out. It would be nice if it's what you really think. But beyond that, nobody cares.
It matters approximately 1 billion times less than whether you think Musk, Rubio, Noem, Vought and every ICE agent belong in prison.
It matters approximately 1 billion times less than whether you think Musk, Rubio, Noem, Vought and every ICE agent belong in prison.
"Given the choice, I’d rather have cancer.”
A life rebuilt, a future now in doubt
This post is from a fellow former federal employee who goes by the name Jim Casy Lives.
notesontheputsch.substack.com
May 5, 2025 at 2:50 PM
"Given the choice, I’d rather have cancer.”
Also the country club manners tradition of Congress laundering one another's heinous behavior with constant vague deferrals to a private mystical sphere just should not be fucking operative during a putsch.
warner is probably terrified of facing youngkin in a general (which, he shouldn't be) but i think he ought to be more worried about a primary challenge fueled by an absolutely furious virginia democratic electorate
Mark Warner on Republicans: "I do think we're getting close to them stepping up, but the problem is going to be, how much structural damage is going to be done before my Republican friends find their voice and voice publicly what they're already saying privately?"
May 4, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Also the country club manners tradition of Congress laundering one another's heinous behavior with constant vague deferrals to a private mystical sphere just should not be fucking operative during a putsch.
It is actually insane how appropriate this illustration from an 87-year-old Dr. Seuss book is for the latest moves by this administration to capture and control the federal workforce:
Hats on hats on hats on hats
A hatchet to the Hatch Act
notesontheputsch.substack.com
May 3, 2025 at 7:51 PM
It is actually insane how appropriate this illustration from an 87-year-old Dr. Seuss book is for the latest moves by this administration to capture and control the federal workforce:
How long post-resignation do we think it will be before this kind of thing stops putting me in a day-ruining funk?
Dude, the entire federal government is being run by memelords
The federal government's public messaging is basically run now by memelords
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
May 3, 2025 at 3:47 AM
How long post-resignation do we think it will be before this kind of thing stops putting me in a day-ruining funk?
Reposted by Asahi
The Trump pope shit is another great example of how ai images are the aesthetic of fascism.
May 3, 2025 at 3:31 AM
The Trump pope shit is another great example of how ai images are the aesthetic of fascism.
"If federal employees can wear the double MAGA hat and pin and build a gaudy gold ofrenda to the Leader on their desks, then it instantaneously follows that they must."
Hats on hats on hats on hats
A hatchet to the Hatch Act
notesontheputsch.substack.com
May 2, 2025 at 2:06 PM
"If federal employees can wear the double MAGA hat and pin and build a gaudy gold ofrenda to the Leader on their desks, then it instantaneously follows that they must."
It very much feels like what happened here is we created this huge smokescreen of culture issues to placate and distract the masses so they wouldn't notice the oligarchs invading every aspect of our lives and pillaging every single thing we owned.
Then the oligarchs were the ones who fell for it. 🥴
Then the oligarchs were the ones who fell for it. 🥴
We don't shame bad-faith actors enough, and this is a result:
"The chats are occasionally marked by the sort of thing that would have gotten you scolded on Twitter in 2020, and which would pass unremarked-on on X in 2025."
www.semafor.com/article/04/2...
"The chats are occasionally marked by the sort of thing that would have gotten you scolded on Twitter in 2020, and which would pass unremarked-on on X in 2025."
www.semafor.com/article/04/2...
The group chats that changed America
A loose private network on Signal and WhatsApp helped usher in the new alliance between Silicon Valley and Donald Trump’s new right.
www.semafor.com
April 28, 2025 at 3:59 PM
It very much feels like what happened here is we created this huge smokescreen of culture issues to placate and distract the masses so they wouldn't notice the oligarchs invading every aspect of our lives and pillaging every single thing we owned.
Then the oligarchs were the ones who fell for it. 🥴
Then the oligarchs were the ones who fell for it. 🥴
Monday morning. April 28. A new phase as the Carrie Bradshaw of the purges begins... Day 1 on the other side.
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
Goodbye to all that
I was never twenty or twenty-one or even twenty-three here, and the conviction that nothing like this, all evidence to the contrary, has ever happened to anyone before had long since dissipated when I...
notesontheputsch.substack.com
April 28, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Monday morning. April 28. A new phase as the Carrie Bradshaw of the purges begins... Day 1 on the other side.
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
Another guest author, on the crisis among career department leadership.
From a guest: Carriers of Secrets
This is the second post at “Notes on the Putsch” from a contributing writer, who remains a federal employee.
notesontheputsch.substack.com
April 27, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Another guest author, on the crisis among career department leadership.
Reposted by Asahi
In which your author transcends the membrane between current federal employee and former federal employee:
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
Goodbye to all that
I was never twenty or twenty-one or even twenty-three here, and the conviction that nothing like this, all evidence to the contrary, has ever happened to anyone before had long since dissipated when I...
notesontheputsch.substack.com
April 25, 2025 at 1:24 AM
In which your author transcends the membrane between current federal employee and former federal employee:
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
In which your author transcends the membrane between current federal employee and former federal employee:
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
Goodbye to all that
I was never twenty or twenty-one or even twenty-three here, and the conviction that nothing like this, all evidence to the contrary, has ever happened to anyone before had long since dissipated when I...
notesontheputsch.substack.com
April 25, 2025 at 1:24 AM
In which your author transcends the membrane between current federal employee and former federal employee:
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
We thought an agency-destroying cut might come today. It didn't happen, but still, it feels like this week is going to involve a lot of murmuring Joan Didion quotes to myself like a lunatic.
"It is distinctly possible to stay too long at the Fair."
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/exodus
"It is distinctly possible to stay too long at the Fair."
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/exodus
Exodus
We're leaving Babylon
notesontheputsch.substack.com
April 16, 2025 at 1:05 AM
We thought an agency-destroying cut might come today. It didn't happen, but still, it feels like this week is going to involve a lot of murmuring Joan Didion quotes to myself like a lunatic.
"It is distinctly possible to stay too long at the Fair."
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/exodus
"It is distinctly possible to stay too long at the Fair."
notesontheputsch.substack.com/p/exodus
It's a big decision day for a lot of us federal employees. I wish for you to take the path that will bring you peace.
Exodus
We're leaving Babylon
notesontheputsch.substack.com
April 14, 2025 at 12:26 PM
It's a big decision day for a lot of us federal employees. I wish for you to take the path that will bring you peace.
On waiting through the final hours of a functioning federal agency.
Exodus
We're leaving Babylon
notesontheputsch.substack.com
April 13, 2025 at 2:32 PM
On waiting through the final hours of a functioning federal agency.