FWIW…

My thoughts on the shutdown…

I’ve experienced this a couple of times, both in the military and as a civilian contractor. It sucks, no question. But contrary to what the media is reporting, organizations ARE working with the people who are being impacted. NFCU, USAA, and Wells Fargo that I have verification on are working with members/those who have loans and mortgages and are also offering 0% loans to those in need. Navy Relief has also stepped up for those veterans who are working for the government and not getting paid. They are not being totally ignored, unless it’s by BofA…

One point many seem to be missing is the congress has to pass something to send to the President, and they have yet to do that. Zip, NADA… Nothing… They are blaming the president, yet they haven’t even put a bill forward that could pass both the House and Senate, much less go to committee, OR get to the president’s desk.

The so-called negotiations haven’t been productive as Pelosi et al have backed themselves into a corner by outright refusing to bring anything to the table that provides any money for the wall or whatever you want to call border security.

They are not even listening to CBP/DHS or anyone else, and have apparently said publicly they ‘dispute’ facts provided. Even after CBP provided evidence of the amount of drugs coming across in the McAllen area outside the ‘checkpoints’, none of the media are reporting that. They are sticking with the fact that ‘all’ of the drugs are coming through checkpoints…

Anybody with ANY common sense knows the smugglers will take the easiest path to get drugs across, and there is a lot of desert in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, in addition to the tunnels they routinely find in California and other locations. This is documented and has been previously reported!

My feeling is the Never Trumpers really don’t give a shit about the working folks, especially since it’s those that DO the work on the border and the USCG, which also is heavily into the anti-drug arena at sea. This as they pander to the loyal media about the ‘pain’ being suffered by the estimated 800,000 people put out of work by the president. To me it’s pretty telling when they drop the whole immigration argument and pivoted to out of work people in the middle of this.

When you add that to the fact (again those pesky facts), Pelosi, Schumer, et al have not only called for but VOTED for border walls when ‘their’ guy was in office, and even when Bush 43 was in office smacks of petty politics. And Hoyer (MD) got caught out last night in an interview and had to admit that walls to work, and they had voted for it in the past. To see him sputtering and trying to dodge the question was pathetically funny.

And watching the dems talking heads on the various shows has been educational, as they absolutely REFUSE to answer straight questions, instead falling back on talking points and becoming more and more strident when pressed to give a straight answer.

One thing many have forgotten is that any shutdown longer than 30 days, then departments can RIF non-essential personnel, which might be an interesting way to get rid of some of the deadwood/deep state/embedded bureaucracy in some of these departments!!! Article HERE on what must occur.

YMMV, IANAL, and I welcome comments and discussion. If you post a diatribe or talking points, I will delete those. I’m old, grumpy, and tired of the BS on both sides. Forewarned is forearmed…

Comments

FWIW… — 24 Comments

  1. I think you are right on the money. Both sides can’t back down because they can’t afford to give the voters a reason not to vote for them. Trump can claim the wall isn’t for him – its for all of us. Illegal aliens can become legal if they want to – just give them a reason why.

    That movement to fund the wall privately could work. Sends a message that politicians are irrelevant. We watch them spend our tax money on what THEY want. The voter can spend their money on what WE want. Where does the money come from – our political contributions of course. Why would we give money to people who do nothing for us.

  2. The dems refuse to concede an election promise.
    Nor does Trump. Hopefully.

    I’ve been on the short end of many layoffs, plant closures, even dismissals in the private economy.
    Why government workers are protected from this is questionable.
    The only difference is that an appeal can be made to voters.
    The majority of non-military federal workers are liberals who vote dem to protect their jobs.

  3. Start at mile marker 0, just west of the Capitol. Draw a 40 mile radius ring. Begin RIFs on all the unfunded agencies, headquarters elements, and semi-private entities. Weed and cut heavily at GS-13 to 15 or equivalent, say a 50% reduction. Eliminate the regulations and policies justifying those positions.
    Repeat for another 40 miles.

    Now, repeat for the Pentagon.

    If half or even a third of this dream happens, we’ll be a lot better off.

  4. Two years the GOP had both houses and never built the wall. Now it a sticking point.
    Get rid of the whole bunch of losers on both sides of the aisle

  5. From The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce:

    POLITICIAN, n. An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized society is reared. When he wriggles he mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive.

    Couldn’t say it better.

  6. Hey Old NFO;

    President Trump has to deliver on the wall or he is toast on 2020. Petrified Pelosi and her crew have so inflamed their base, they can’t back down to the “hated Cheeto Man”. Funny that the democrats got busted going to puerto rico last week at the beach and Pelosi and a bunch of other comgresscritters and donors were fixing to go on a 7 day junket at the tax payers expense and Trump squashed it. The democrats don’t want to be in Washington, they are relying on their loyal lapdog media to run interference for them. Government shutdowns are part of life especially since they haven’t passed a budget since 2006. I see all the alligator tears about the poor federal workers…what were the sympathy when we middle class people got laid off and our livelihoods destroyed by the stupidity coming from D.C. We were told to “deal with it”or “it is the new normal”. I ain’t feeling it.

  7. I was in a gun shop this week when an acquaintance came by on his lunch hour. He was a Federal employee in an obscure LEO role. Deemed essential, he was working. He was concerned about some young rookies in his org who had not saved any reserves. However, he claimed that he had heard zero support for Democrats position at his office.

  8. I have to agree with Bob, above. This is purely political on the part of the Democrats. Trump made a campaign promise to build the wall and they don’t want to give him ammo for 2020. President Trump is smart enough to know the Dems are on the spot and he isn’t likely to let up.
    I think we may be seeing the beginning of self destruction by the Democratic party. Despite what the MSM report, most of the people I talk to put the blame on the Dems for the government shutdown.
    Add to that the crazy ideas being put forth by the newest Democratic members of Congress, and we can expect more of this crap leading up to the 2020 presidential election. Who is the likely Democratic candidate? The sole survivor of a gang rumble in a dark alley…the result won T be someone that any moderate can stomach. As a result, plenty of moderate Dems will either switch over or stay home. Question is, will that shift have an effect on the election?
    Interesting times…

  9. A RIF is a great idea, particularly at the 13-15 level; but also the SES/SIS’s. DJT needs to hold fast; I pray he does. I thought canx’ing Nancy’s boondoggle was a brilliant move.

  10. Trump is a few days away from being able to lay off thousands of “non-essential” government workers.
    Which is a fine start.

    And at that point, there’s no shutdown. Just the Trump administration saving millions of tax dollars daily, going forward.

    If they cave, Trump wins. If they don’t cave, Trump wins.
    The have slugged this tar baby with both fists and both feet, and now they don’t know what to do. And even their own side knows they’re idiots.

    Stock up on popcorn and refreshments.

    The day Trump tells 800K “non-essential” government workers “You’re fired!”, he cements the GOP nomination.
    No Republican president back to Coolidge ever dared do as much.
    The day the Dems cave and give him any funding for a wall, he locks up the 2020 general election.
    And as this drags on, he’s as likely to say “No, sorry, $5B was the offer last month. But with layoffs, I’ve fred up tons of government money going forward. Now it’s $10B, or nothing. Next month, it’s $20B. Your move.”

  11. All- Thanks for the comments. One point on the Pubs not being able to do anything… The Chuck-u in the senate blocked anything from passing since it required 60 votes, and he refused to allow any dems to cross over to pass the legislation.

    Posted from my iPhone.

  12. In the State of the Union (if there is one), the President is likely to say that Congress hasn’t sent him anything to sign or veto in regard keeping the country open. The donkeys don’t want to give him that pulpit. Others have commented on that issue as well, just throwing my cracker in the soup.

  13. Learned a lot from this blog post that I didn’t know. I’ve spent most of my life working on commission so dealing with layoffs isn’t something I’ve faced.

    The great thing about blogs is you hear directly from those who have been there, done that, and haven’t graduated from journalism school.

  14. I wouldn’t be surprised if the President turned to social media to give his SOTU from the Oval Office to the people (no need for extra security).

  15. Oh, no, OldNFO has four arms….

    But, seriously, I find it funny (awkward, strange, unsettling) that in both the House and Senate, Republicans are expected to vote as individuals but Democrats vote as a block. I know this is partly because the Dem Party will cut funds and positions of a dissenting voice, and actively run opposition against them the next election cycle. But.. dangit. That is not the government I was promised in Civics class. Nor the government promised by the founding fathers (who, quite frankly, would probably enjoy hanging most of the Republicans and I can’t even fathom the ancient ways of death they would use against the Dems or actual Socialists, Communists or other barking moonbats.)

    As to the potential RIFs, well, one of the lesser remembered campaign promises of President Trump was to reduce the size of government. This may be a rather drastic way to do it, rather than just not filling empty positions which was the original plan.

    Then there was the Trumpening. The great Bus and Airplane incident yesterday was one of the slickest political assassinations I have ever seen. Even the media played into it with their coverage. Cancelling a taxpayer funded junket (the 2nd junket of the shutdown, though the Puerto Rico trips and Hawaiian ‘vacations’ didn’t get much media play) and refusing to come to work out of sheer spite is getting even avowed leftists wondering what the heck the Dems are doing up there.

    What’s that line about giving them enough rope to hang themselves?

    Plus, the new potential head of Justice seems to be on the ‘Major Social Media Companies are a monopoly’ bandwagon. Which I am sure is scaring the lower body coverings off of many a senior executive at said social media corporations.

    I may have to get home-oxygen equipment as I seem to keep passing out… from laughing.

    The whole public employee thing? Well, us in the outside world have had to deal with layoffs, mass firings, job outsourcings for forever. Nothing worse than getting laid off with a non-compete clause so you can’t go get a job in a same-field occupation. Been there, done that.

  16. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dem-caucus-meeting-roiled-by-talk-of-super-bowl-security-amid-government-shutdown

    Because apparently the argument that “the evil, mean POTUS is starving poor government workers to death” isn’t doing the job, shutting down the Superbowl will persuade Trump to bow to the Democrat platform. I wager the city and state would rather pick up the tab, and the governor will deploy the Guard to fill some of the FBI/TSA/BATF whatever slots rather than cancel the game. And really? Worries about commercials not airing? Crimea river.

  17. Knew about the theory of RIFs being possible after umpty-umpty days – but now that it’s only a few days away do the Dems cave this weekend or watch many of their base suddenly have more time for protesting next week?

  18. LL- Good point!

    WSF- Thanks!

    JMI- That would be interesting… Even moreso if he gave it from the Oval Office on national TV!

    Beans/Brig- Agreed!!!

    TXRed- Yep, they’re reaching at this point… BIG TIME!

    Quiz- Damn good question, and no good answer over here.

  19. I’m reminded of prez Reagan firing all the Air Traffic Controllers en masse. A group of Union guys that had gotten surly and too big for their britches suddenly got an attitude adjustment.
    MAN… how I hope he RIF’s a bunch of these people!
    Think that will put pressure on the Wicked Witch of SanFran?

  20. Maybe it’s just me but I find it odd that no one is saying that if ya build a wall, that frees up more CBP dudes to stand at the regular crossings (instead of wandering the dessert hunting down frozen/dehydrated drug mules/illegal aliens/OTM types) to check out all those pickups with drugs skillfully hidden away…so it makes sense (to me) to build the wall/barrier/whatever so more drugs can be found and stopped…Am I just more confused then normal?

    So far as the Dems–in my opinion, it is lousy optics that DJT is staying in the White House, saying come on over, lets talk, and they are out partying on the beach…come election day, folks will remember who was working for them, and who was working for themselves…pass the popcorn please.

    I did just hear that Trump is going to make some announcement from the White House Saturday afternoon. Do hope he is NOT giving in. And the folks that are living paycheck to paycheck need to go down to the library, get out a Dave Ramsey book on how to be able to not live paycheck to paycheck. They currently have lots of free time to read it and learn some financial skills. See, you are not the only one who is old and grumpy…

  21. Your final words are my favorite quote from Captain Blood.

    ‘praemonitus, praemunitus’

    Take notes for your accountability roster, The traitors aren’t even being subtle about it.

  22. GB- Ah yes, I remember that well! The panic was amazing!!! And a bunch of folks suddenly pulled in their horns.

    Suz- Of course not, they just hope nobody notices.

    Heath- 🙂 No they aren’t!

  23. It would be wonderful if Trump could rework the rules so he could RIF pelosi and schumer.