An official at the Office of Personnel Management commented: “We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems. That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.”

A week ago this same agency issued a memo to many federal workers advising them to resign or continue working without a “full assurance regarding the certainty of [a worker’s] position or agency.”

Also last week more than 13,000 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration workers found their inboxes “bombarded with spam and vulgar trolls,” according to Joe Wilkins at Futurism.

Wilkins reported that the debacle also included an email that “offered pointers on Trump’s alleged performance at a sexual act. An ‘Important Weather Alert’ warned that the next four years have a 99 percent chance of fecal showers.”

He elaborated: “The whole thing apparently stems from an overhaul at the OPM led by oligarch-in-chief Elon Musk. On Tuesday, Wired reported that Musk had been given free rein to replace the agency’s high-level staff with lackeys from his previous ventures.

“Those included a 21-year-old who had previously worked for Peter Thiel, and a summer intern from Neuralink who just graduated high school. It also included Amanda Scales — a former xAI [Human Resources] staffer who is reportedly in place as the OPM’s new chief of staff.”

One political pundit observed that Musk’s actions represent the typical outcome when a corporate raider buys a new company. I guess he figures his $227 million payout to Donald Trump’s campaign entitles him to a share of the government.

Republican Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa released a statement that while there might be a good reason for the terminations, “further explanation” is needed.

“Regardless,” he said, “the 30-day detailed notice of removal that the law demands was not provided to Congress.”

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the purge shows that, “President Trump is dismantling checks on his power and paving the way for widespread corruption.”

By the end of last week, the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees had filed complaints in federal court claiming Trump “illegally exceeded his authority” by removing job security for federal workers previously not considered political appointees.

The complaint argued: “Despite this long-standing recognition of the importance of our professional civil service and protections against its politicization, the recently issued Schedule F order announces President Trump’s intent to reclassify many career civil servants into a new category of federal employees and strip away their civil service protections so that they can be more easily fired.”

Civil servants. Civil service. What a concept. Take the day-to-day business of government out of the hands of political hacks and entrust it to people working to maintain the stability that benefits us all, people whose oaths of allegiance are to the country and Constitution and not any tinpot dictator.

The federal civil service can be traced to 1883, when President Chester A. Arthur signed the Pendleton Act to reduce government patronage. History tells us that Arthur ascended to the presidency after James A. Garfield was assassinated by the always designated “disappointed office seeker.”

Arthur’s political career had been enmeshed in the New York Republican political machine. But, as president, he realized the need for continued competence in the government as it faced the new challenges of the late 19^th century.

According to the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, “Specifically, the law banned salary kickbacks and ensured that promotion would be based on merit, not connections. While the Republican Party usually worked to protect big business and manufacturing, Arthur pushed for tariff reduction to relieve indebted farmers and middle-class consumers.”

That last reference indicates the new sales tax tariffs Trump has so proudly inflicted upon Americans have been known to be bad for individuals for a long, long time.

The Pendleton Act of 1883 came 10 years after Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner published their satirical novel, The Gilded Age, which detailed the unscrupulous money-grubbing ways of that first wave of robber barons. Arthur and others saw that fighting government corruption was a first corrective step.

GOP trust busters Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft continued that crusade – instead of turning the government over to the oligarchs of their age.

Just Sunday – it’s hard to keep up – the BBC reported “The Trump administration has given billionaire Elon Musk’s unvetted deputies – with no security clearances – access to the federal payments system that controls the flow of trillions of dollars in government funds every year.” This includes “sensitive personal information” such as Social Security.

The only thing harder than keeping up Trump’s assaults on the government and citizenry is finding high enough levels of outrage to describe them.