Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

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Re: Day 28+: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby Cordelia » Sat Jan 19, 2019 12:12 pm

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3 hours, 45 minutes........

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Re: Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby Cordelia » Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:50 pm

George W. on Instagram Friday, showing gratitude by buying his unpaid guards pizza. Clueless or a Fuck You?
@LauraWBush and I are grateful to our Secret Service personnel and the thousands of Federal employees who are working hard for our country without a paycheck,” he wrote in the caption. “And we thank our fellow citizens who are supporting them.


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Former President George W. Bush hand delivering pizza for his unpaid Secret Service agents on Friday. Instagram

(I hope the guy w/the raised arm knocked the boxes out of Bush's arms.)
The greatest sin is to be unconscious. ~ Carl Jung

We may not choose the parameters of our destiny. But we give it its content. ~ Dag Hammarskjold 'Waymarks'
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Re: Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby seemslikeadream » Sat Jan 19, 2019 6:18 pm

Trump is now using DREAMers as a bargaining chip to get border wall funding and end the government shutdown

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Trump Shutdown Compounds Threat to Public Safety and Protection


As the partial government shutdown lurches into its fourth week, there is a lot of collateral damage to go around, affecting everyone from communities waiting for cleanups of toxic Superfund sites, to new parents buying baby toys and even some victims of sexual assault.

Indeed, when the public interest group Public Citizen analyzed government records, it found shockingly few cops on the regulatory beat.


Consider the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The agency monitors the safety of virtually every consumer product, from vacuum cleaners to playpens and athletic equipment. Due to furloughs, its staff of 550 has been slashed down to just 20 essential employees.

“I’m not sure 20 is enough to protect against imminent threats to human safety,” Amit Narang, Public Citizen regulatory policy advocate, told WhoWhatWhy. “That seems impossible.”

Pamela Gilbert, who was the CPSC’s executive director during the Clinton administration, agreed. In an email, she stated that, without sufficient staff, dangerous products from abroad will not be prevented from entering the US, the recalls of unsafe and defective products will “stop almost entirely,” and that reports of injuries and deaths from consumer products won’t be investigated.

Gilbert observed, however, that the CPSC had become such a lackluster agency under President Donald Trump that the shutdown’s impact is not as big as it would have been in the past.

The agency’s work had “slowed down to a crawl, even when the government was open,” she noted.


Investors also are at risk. The Securities and Exchange Commission is supposed to protect investors from Ponzi schemes and insider trading. That is hard to do when the agency decides to retain only 110 enforcement staffers.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the new chair of the House Financial Services Committee, warned that such sharp cuts in enforcement were “essentially providing fraudsters and schemers with a free pass to swindle investors and small businesses.”

.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a huge mandate: “To protect human health and the environment,” ensuring that “Americans have clean air, land and water.” But, of its 13,972 staffers, only 794 are reporting for work.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Southerland, a former senior EPA official who left the agency in 2017, charged that, under Trump, enforcement had already reached the “lowest” level in the history of the agency.

“And now, what little enforcement that was being done under this new political team, that has literally stopped,” Southerland said.

No inspectors are checking companies’ pollution control equipment to make sure that they are not emitting too many toxins into the air, water, or soil, Southerland said.

And there are other repercussions. Remember Superfund sites? Hundreds of them exist throughout the country where chemical plants, mines, and nuclear weapons facilities created toxic messes that threaten public health.

Unless a site is deemed an “imminent emergency,” Southerland said, all cleanup by the government is halted during a shutdown. Emergencies are when the government “literally has to stop something from overflowing or spilling or some hazardous situation,” she said, meaning that most communities will face “enormous delays” in what is already a very slow process.

The EPA isn’t even holding public meetings to explain to people “the risks to their health or what cleanup is being done,” she said.

Egret, Cape Fear Basin
Egret in Cape Fear river in Southport, North Carolina. Photo credit: Gerry Dincher / Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Throughout the US, scores of communities also are worried about the safety of their drinking water. In North Carolina’s Cape Fear basin, for example, the EPA has been monitoring the drinking water to check for chemical contamination. During the shutdown, the monitoring stops, Southerland said.

Just as concerning, EPA officials can’t even “discuss the monitoring data they already have,” she said.

The EPA has been canceling lots of public meetings due to the shutdown.

In Rockford, MI, residents will have to wait for an EPA update about their water supply, tainted by potentially carcinogenic chemicals from a defunct tannery operation. Residents now are drinking bottled water.

In East Chicago, IL, a neighborhood coalition is angry about the EPA’s cancellation of a January 10 public meeting to discuss how to clean up a toxic Superfund site. Residents wanted the EPA to know their fears that a proposed cleanup plan will not protect their families’ health, and get a chance to express their views before January 14, when the EPA ends its public comment period for the proposal.

While informing the public about the safety of their drinking water may not be worth the time of the EPA staffers who remain at work, it appears that preparing Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, for his Senate confirmation hearing to replace EPA head Scott Pruitt is considered vital to the agency’s mission.

Democratic members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee wrote to Wheeler, questioning whether preparation for the January 16 hearing actually was diverting EPA staff from more consequential work. “[If] EPA is diverting resources that are intended to be used to ‘protect life and property’ to prepare you for your confirmation hearing, the already-dire consequences of the shutdown on public health and the environment could be even greater,” the letter warned.

The website for submitting comments on rules proposed by all federal agencies — regulations.gov — is the responsibility of the EPA. Visit that site now, and you will find a prominent banner that reads:

“The EPA is affected by the current government shutdown. As a result, continued systems operations cannot be guaranteed.”

“To the layperson, they’re probably thinking, ‘they’re not taking comments,’” Narang said.

But that banner may be misleading, he said, since it is likely that government agencies not affected by the shutdown are continuing to accept comments. The administration, he added, has done nothing to clear up this confusion.


That confusion is particularly problematic for one hot-button proposed rule put forward by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. The rule will significantly change the way schools and universities handle sexual harassment complaints, said Shiwali Patel, education senior counsel for the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC).

The controversial proposal has raised the hackles of many feminists, groups fighting sexual assault on campus, and at least one state university system — the University of California. It would narrow the definition of sexual harassment, and authorize schools to investigate student complaints only if the harassment occurred on campus or at an event or program sponsored by the school. It also would give more rights to students accused of sexual misconduct.

Betsy DeVos
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has proposed drastic changes to the way schools address complaints of sexual harassment. Photo credit: US Department of Education / Flickr

The NWLC strongly opposes the proposed rule. It “will make schools more dangerous for all students,” Patel warned, adding that in its current form, “schools would be encouraged and even required to be complicit in sexual harassment and violence.”

Patel worries that the shutdown will discourage comments from the public. The detailed proposal was open for comment on November 29 and the deadline for submitting comments is January 28, Patel said.

Even without the shutdown, that’s a very short time to digest this massive overhaul, she said. Worse, the timing of the public comment period could not have been more inconvenient for the people most affected by it — students, teachers, and school administrators.

The proposal was issued “right after Thanksgiving,” when “students are not even able to focus on anything else” but final exams, and then going on winter break, Patel said.

The problematic timing, combined with the “confusing” message the regulations.gov website sends, may discourage many people from even trying to comment, she said.

Whether it’s a lack of enforcement, a potentially rushed rule, or communities left in the dark about their water quality, it appears the shutdown is adding insult to injury. Feeling the sting are public interest groups advocating stronger public protections that benefit the environment, consumers, investors, families, and the victims of sexual assault, among many other constituencies.

These advocates have new reasons to empathize with federal workers these days. As Southerland put it: EPA employees “were already depressed” because “they’re working in an environment where the political team now is asking them to undo all the work that they had spent years doing.”

The shutdown just piles on the misery, she said. “Now you’ve added the uncertainty of even being able to pay your bills.”
https://whowhatwhy.org/2019/01/16/trump ... rotection/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Day 32+: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby Cordelia » Wed Jan 23, 2019 11:54 am

If the shutdown isn't resolved, furloughed workers will miss their 2nd paycheck at the end of this week.

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Union says IRS worker absences expected to surge amid shutdown

By Emily Birnbaum - 01/22/19

The National Treasury Employees Union on Tuesday said Internal Revenue Service (IRS) worker absences are expected to surge amid the partial government shutdown, The Washington Post reported.

Hundreds of IRS employees will likely skip work as part of a coordinated protest as the shutdown continues into its fourth week, National Treasury Employees Union President Tony Reardon and other union officials told the Post.

“They are definitely angry that they’re not getting paid, and maybe some of them are angry enough to express their anger this way,” Reardon told the Post. “But these employees live paycheck to paycheck, and they can’t scrape up the dollars to get to work or pay for child care.”


The Trump administration last week ordered tens of thousands of IRS workers to return to work; they schedule expected to miss their second paycheck next week.

Labor groups say that some IRS employees are taking advantage of a provision that allows them to skip work if they suffer "hardship," according to the Post.

“I have fielded no less than 30 to 40 calls, emails or text messages about hardship requests from employees daily since Thursday,” Shannon Ellis, president of the NTEU’s Chapter 66 in Kansas, told he newspaper.

IRS offices across the country are reportedly experiencing increasing a spike in absences as part of the protest.

The IRS is headed into its busiest time of the year, raising the possibility that millions of Americans will receive their tax refunds later than usual.

The partial shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, has affected nine federal agencies, as well as several smaller offices, leading to hundreds of thousands of federal employees being furloughed or required to work without pay.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... d-shutdown


Employers (who, btw, are unpaid withholding tax processors & collectors for the government) have until January 31 to process and distribute 2018 W-2's and 1099's to their employees & contracted labor. The IRS announced that filing season for individual taxpayers begins on Jan. 28. About a week for Washington to finally get this together and act; tax-payers need (incl./esp. furloughed workers) and expect a timely refund of their money. If not, no doubt people will get really angry.
The greatest sin is to be unconscious. ~ Carl Jung

We may not choose the parameters of our destiny. But we give it its content. ~ Dag Hammarskjold 'Waymarks'
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Re: Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:24 pm

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My God he really is going to be the king storming parliament

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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby Cordelia » Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:50 pm

“It would be so very sad for our country if the State of the Union employee paychecks were not delivered on time, on schedule, and very importantly, on location!” he said.
The greatest sin is to be unconscious. ~ Carl Jung

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Re: Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:08 pm

11 national #union leaders ARRESTED outside Mitch McConnell’s office

They want to work. Their members want to work. They all need paychecks. Mitch had them arrested.

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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby Cordelia » Wed Jan 23, 2019 5:21 pm

Clip of protest by those most affected, at the Hart Senate Building, as the power struggle continues...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og-1uMESAzw
The greatest sin is to be unconscious. ~ Carl Jung

We may not choose the parameters of our destiny. But we give it its content. ~ Dag Hammarskjold 'Waymarks'
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Re: Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby Karmamatterz » Wed Jan 23, 2019 6:52 pm

Union says IRS worker absences expected to surge amid shutdown


We're supposed to be unhappy about that? Sheesh, it's fricking awesome.

ps...what will be the next big thing that is really current events that gets cross-posted into GD? Maybe something about Trump and Russia?
https://www.theonion.com/tag/donald-trump
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Re: Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Jan 23, 2019 6:57 pm

unless you are waiting for a refund

or you are a worker who is not getting paid


800,000 people are not getting paid

that's something to celebrate



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWxBUseLHso



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKU7UypAzzw


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4DEe5P3vow
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby Karmamatterz » Wed Jan 23, 2019 7:15 pm

unless you are waiting for a refund


Heck no. I never rely on a refund. I make sure the government gets as little of my paycheck as possible. I would rather the money be in my accounts and owe the feds. Adjust your deductions as needed.

It sucks that some workers seemed to be coerced or out of guilt ( patriotism? ) continue to work without a paycheck. F*k that.
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Re: Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Jan 23, 2019 9:24 pm

Air Traffic Controllers Association Warns: ‘We Cannot Even Calculate the Level of Risk’ Thanks to Shutdown

by Joe DePaolo Jan 23rd, 2019, 8:07 pm


Because of the high number of federal workers employed by the aviation industry, U.S. air travel has gotten a great deal of attention during the 33-day long government shutdown. For one thing, TSA workers have been calling out sick by the truckload. And now, air traffic controllers are warning of dire consequences — should the shutdown continue much longer.

In a joint statement, the heads of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, Air Line Pilots Association, and Association of Flight Attendants-CWA sounded the alarm in a big way.

“In our risk averse industry, we cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which the entire system will break,” the statement said. “It is unprecedented.”

The statement noted that one in five air traffic controllers are eligible to retire. And with no money coming in, there is no incentive for those employees not to leave. When that happens, the already-understaffed air traffic control ranks will not be able to handle it — according to the union heads.

“As union leaders, we find it unconscionable that aviation professionals are being asked to work without pay and in an air safety environment that is deteriorating by the day,” the statement said. “To avoid disruption to our aviation system, we urge Congress and the White House to take all necessary steps to end this shutdown immediately.”
https://www.mediaite.com/online/air-tra ... -shutdown/



WILL YOU GO TO MY STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH?

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Sean Hannity offers to host Donald Trump to give the State of the Union during a “special edition of Hannity”
https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2019 ... ity/222617



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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby Cordelia » Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:43 pm

What a stupid, stupid man. He probably doesn't even know what a food bank is.

Wilbur Ross 'Doesn't Understand' Why Furloughed Workers Need Food Banks


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz0yOmbaQNs



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Or he thinks a food bank is a feed bag. (Furloughed workers are just livestock to those living in the bubble.)

The Empty Feed Bag Blues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LND1PypBnrU
The greatest sin is to be unconscious. ~ Carl Jung

We may not choose the parameters of our destiny. But we give it its content. ~ Dag Hammarskjold 'Waymarks'
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Re: Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Jan 24, 2019 4:29 pm

THE RECORD-LONG government shutdown, now entering day 32, may cost the government more than the $5.7 billion President Donald Trump is demanding for a border wall.
And the longest government shutdown in the country's history doesn't appear to have an end in sight.





Fernand R. Amandi

Verified account

@AmandiOnAir
17h17 hours ago

Said it before, will say it again.

He doesn’t care about the wall.

The wall was an excuse to accomplish his true objective.

His true objective was to SHUTDOWN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Why?

Became his assignment is to sabotage the United States.

.......

Fernand R. Amandi

Verified account

@AmandiOnAir
Jan 21
More
Never, ever forget that the greatest beneficiary of the #TrumpShutdown of the government of the United States, now the longest in our national history — is Vladimir Putin.

The wall was NEVER the objective.

SHUTTING DOWN THE GOVERNMENT was the objective.

https://twitter.com/AmandiOnAir


understand

McConnell is compromised....somebody better push him

There are THREE astronauts currently living and working in the @Space_Station:

Anne McClain
Commander Oleg Kononenko
David Saint-Jacques

The U.S. ground support staff is WORKING WITHOUT PAY and without any custodial services.

OPEN THE GOVERNMENT NOW.
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well senators are talking...trump wants a down payment for wall ....Pelosi says no way

getting close to 50 votes for Dems bill
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Day 24: U.S. Government Shut Down News

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Jan 25, 2019 8:43 am

Roger Stone was the man who came up with "The Wall" talking point for Trump to remember to talk about illegal immigration during the 2016 campaign



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LlCn-HZDuY
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
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