HERE

For the folks who are employed by the Federal Government that are deemed “essential” and that aren’t being paid.

Now, for most of the rest of the country’s citizens, being laid off (furloughed) is a fear and a thing that must be dealt with….But when a factory worker is laid off he or she can go find other work, or can choose to try and live off of unemployment.

But if one is an “essential” worker, then one cannot do that.

And it’s been long enough that these folks that aren’t being paid are likely starting to hurt.

I think they should be paid for the work they are doing. Alternatively, don’t operate those departments and see how the people like it when they don’t have those service. Shut down the ATC and the airlines and see what happens. Or other departments that are “essential”….

If they are working, pay ’em. If not working, don’t.

This charade is unfair and, frankly, stupid.

(And yes, I know I was unsympathetic to those who, 4 days after missing a paycheck claimed to have had to go to a soup kitchen to eat…that is different…4 days? ….now it is getting serious. Missing 2 paychecks is where it begins to hurt, and where one is up against late fees for missed payment dates and other such issues. Missing one paycheck and being in financial trouble shows bad fiscal management…missing two (with little likelihood of the issue being resolved soon) is where it starts to get serious.)

One would wonder why the Democrats care so little about the Federal Workers such that they would refuse to even try, but would rather see those 800,00+ folks not get a paycheck rather than let a dime be spent for a barrier to prevent all the illegal invasion taking place? I mean, they gave away significantly more than three times that to the countries from which most of our invaders border crossers came from (didn’t help the poor folks of that country, just enriched the oligarchs) yet they won’t spend a nickel actually enforcing the border integrity to protect the economic welfare and the security of the citizens of the US.

Why is that?

I think it is great
All those “Gubmint Workers” getting help form private businesses….Free meals, free or discounted entertainment tickets, etc….Communities helping each other and all that.

But….Where are these “Pop- Up ” food banks coming from? Where are they getting their food, and who is paying for it? Just suddenly a truckload of food appears and the press is invited and takes some pictures…..For the evening news…

Odd, that. Almost as if it were staged. Like propaganda…

Who is paying for it though? 

Does the cost of the “Government Shutdown” (in lost productivity (’cause we are paying people who aren’t working)) exceed the cost of funding “the Wall”?

Does anyone have an idea?

Again, I ask: Why does the Democratic Party leadership want unfettered border crossing so much? Why are they so against a barrier to people just walking into our country? Do they approve of the increased crime and lowered wages? The Welfare and Tax fraud? The damage the illegal border crossers do to our economy? To our welfare and Social Security system?

Seems that the offer Trump made was as good or better than the promises they made last time around. Protection (for a time) for the “Dreamers”….giving our Legislators time to find a solution….and a start at limiting the invasion of non citizens.

WHY are they so against security and integrity of our borders? Chuck Schumer: “Freedom, equality, not a Divisive Border Wall”. Does he approve of the illegal border crossers actions? 

Would he be be proud of what his remembrance day has become?

“A day of service”?

And would he be proud of what black people have become in America?

I know many intelligent, successful, hard working people of african ancestry.
Even they look down on what the black movement has wrought. 

I mean, it is MANKIND producing all the CO2 that is destroying the environment…..at least that is what they have been telling us for over 30 years….Billions of dollars have been spent by governments enriching connected people reducing “greenhouse gas” emissions…specifically CO2. Billions of goverment dollars, both in the US and Europe…..(It may well destroy the economies of some European countries….and make ’em more dependent on Russia for “cleaner” natural gas….and lead to brownouts when Wind and Solar can’t meet the load)

But yet:
According to this guardian article  it is, instead, the fact that we “eat too much meat” because cow farts (methane) “creates as much greenhouse gas emissions as all the world’s cars, trucks and airplanes”. (people who know (which means anyone with a chemistry or basic engineering background, or who bothers to find out) realize that methane is about 30 times more effective a greenhouse gas than CO2..that fact, however, is conveniently dismissed by most “climate scientists”).

So…be a vegetarian.

Do it for the Glaciers. For Mother Gaia. Because the “experts” tell you. They know what is best (and, the “science is settled”)…

Tell me how that works for you….

Me: Nah, I’ll be thinking of you as I grill a nice, juicy farm raised steak this evening. Yeah, I might have a vegetable to go with it…grilled onions and mushrooms. Mebbe a potato with some butter and cheese, since dairy cows also produce methane.

Seems that the NTSB is hurtin for people to investigate incidents with “Planes, trains, and automobiles”.…all their people were deemed “non essential” by the NTSB management…So they were all Furloughed….

Except that, today, someone has realized that there are no investigations of incidents taking place….no one is investigating plane crashes, train derailments, semi crashes, etc…..except the local authorities…..So there is a backlog of incidents that the NTSB has not been able to write a report on. (Realize that even if the NTSB were writing reports on incidents,…if things were “normal”…. the reports are published about a year after the incident occurs).

The media is trying to show, somehow, that the public (that is you and me) is in some sort of danger because of this….

Either way, these folks will be paid for not working in a few weeks when one side or the other caves.

Which is, I think, the real injustice here. (Not that I want them to go hungry mind you)….I just want to get some value from the monies we are (or will be) paying for their salaries.

Make no mistake, I want these people paid…but I want ’em working as well…if the budget is worked out such that the NTSB or any agency is cut by 10 or 20%, then address that fundingand cut people when.if it happens….in the meantime, if they are gonna get paid, let ’em work.
And if their tasks are such that we don’t need them for a month or two, do we really need ’em at all???

The internet is sometimes a strange place…..And smaller than you might think.

So I did a post a while back regarding the neat contactor/relay setup at the range (which is now 40 years old and is having issues with wear).

I was contacted via email a day or so later by a person in my area (NW Indiana) who reads this blog, and who offered to help. He’s more current than I am (not that that is hard, I haven’t done any relay logic in decades) and despite some schedule issues, we were able to meet up on Friday and he looked over the setup. He helped me to understand what I was missing (I could not figure out what the 4th contactor did…He figured it out…it does NOTHING, (at least not anymore) and made the logic clearer for me….and offered to help me clean up the setup (once very clean, but modified at least once over the past 40 years). and find parts to make it possibly even more reliable. A pretty capable dude.

All volunteer. An hour and a half of his time…Not a member of the range. Just a reader of MoTR. Just ’cause he thought he could help and was somewhat close…

There are some awesome people on the internet, and some of ’em read this blog.

Thanks, again, Joe. 

All the National Media attention on the “Furloughed” Federal Government workers is nice….all the stories about those poor folks who, after missing a paycheck for 4 days are starving, needing to hit Food Banks (where did the cash for those newly crated food banks come from???) and how terrible life is for those folks.

It might have been nice if the Media had paid attention to all those OTHER people, not employed by the Federal Government, who have been laid off simply because their jobs had been offshored, or simply eliminated because of trade practices enacted by previous administrations. They too have had hard times, had to hit food banks, had to find other, lower paying jobs simply to feed their families and provide a home, clothing and other necessities of life. They’ve ignored those folks…..why? Because it doesn’t meet the meme of the day?

And really, if 4 days into not having gotten a paycheck,  you need to find a food bank or soup kitchen to feed yourself and your family, then there is something wrong with your lifestyle and/or financial practices.

While I do have sympathy for folks who are affected by the shutdown, I also feel that they are experiencing the insecurity that pretty much every worker has outside of Government employ. But the rest of those folks don’t matter, ’cause they aren’t part f the Federal Government, live in Flyover Country, or simply cannot be used by the Media to further the DNC agenda.

The Media is playing the DNC’s song, but I am not dancing. I doubt if many others are either. 

So, if I have it straight (and i may not have) there are two classes of employees working for the Federal Government:

1. Essential employees: These folks are required to show up for work, even though they don’t know when they will get paid. They WILL get paid, just WHEN is up in the air

2. Non essential employees: These folks are NOT needed and therefore are ordered to not come in to work….because no one needs ’em enough and at this time, no one knows when they will be paid (one could argue that if they are not “essential” then….they are’t needed at all, but that is another discussion for another time…), but they too WILL be paid.

But this goes further:….BOTH sets of Federal employees are assured that they will be paid. The “essential” employees (and make no mistake, I do think some Federal Employees ARE “essential”) are working and will be paid weeks or months down the line.
The “non-Essential” folks are also assured they will be paid for the time they are “furloughed”….Yet they are not working. Shouldn’t they be taxed at a higher rate or something compared to the “essential” folks? Pay a “Furloughed but paid” tax?

Is it fair that people that are not working get paid? Is it fair that laid off “non essential” government employees still get paid …but their private sector counterparts don’t get paid when they are laid off? Is it fair that “essential” employees DON’T get a vacation, DON’T get laid off, yet are required to work….and they get no bonus having to work when some others are NOT working and will also get paid at the same time as the “essential” folks (and at the same rate (based on GS-level)? Shouldn’t the folks who are paid for not working pay a higher tax or a penalty? ….A “fair share” compared to the “essential” folks?
Isn’t the DNC group all about “Fair”? Shouldn’t they address this inequality?