Category: Gummint

Oh, The Humanity

Gummint

Why am I reduced to peals of helpless laughter at these tales of woe?

Thousands of federal employees who were forced to return to their offices in recent weeks have made some disgusting discoveries – including a lack of toilet paper and rodents.

Donald Trump promptly ended work from home options for federal workers upon taking office, saying anyone who does not ‘show up to the office on time and on schedule’ will be fired.

Ever since, federal employees across the country have found themselves in cramped offices where they have been forced to clean toilets and take out the trash, according to the New York Times. 

One Bureau of Land Management employee even detailed to NPR how ‘we have to go to the agency head to ask if we can buy toilet paper’ because the government-issued pay cards they used to use have been capped at $1 under Trump’s spending freeze. 

Together, the unidentified employees have said the Trump administration’s efforts to bring back federal workers has been marred by a lack of planning and coordination, leading to confusion and even more inefficiency.

At times, the federal workers are even forced to share office space with people from other agencies – creating chaos as they all try to video conference at different times.

Some have said they were not even fortunate enough to get a desk at the offices, with shortages of anywhere to 80 to 100 desks, according to a Federal News Network survey. 

The lack of space has left some working out of conference rooms, cafeterias, hallways and even storage closets.

At the Food and Drug Administration, employees who flocked to the Maryland office on March 17 also found that parking was scarce, and a line snaked around the neighborhood as workers tried to get through security.

Once inside, they told the Times, they found the cafeteria had not stocked up enough food and there were not enough office supplies to go around.

A scientist with the agency, who was hired for a remote position, also said she now has to share office space while she works on sensitive and proprietary projects – creating ethical and practical concerns.

Meanwhile, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, employees were told to brace for limited parking at the two campuses.

One employee there said it can now take up to an hour and a half just to leave the campus because the parking lot is so full and there are choke points at every turn.

Read the whole thing, because there are so many more tales of woe.

Listen, you motherfucking taxpayer-supported slackers:  change is always uncomfortable, and sometimes it takes a little time for things to get worked out properly.  In the meantime:  deal with it because after all, if the conditions are that problematic, quit.   (You know, the way people in the private sector have to deal in the midst of corporate downsizings and the like.)  The fact that these pampered little Gummint apparatchiks now have to live in the real world — a world that they seem to have had no problem with forcing onto the private sector — is just one of those things.

I also note with amusement the source of this whining:  the New York fucking Times and National Pussified Radio.  Haven’t seen much about it in conservative media, of course, but there ya go.

I needed a good laugh, anyway.

Racism, Straight Up

Legal Stuff, Mocking Furriners, Rights

Here’s a fun item:

The British Sentencing Council has decided that starting Tuesday, white men will be sentenced to longer prison sentences than women and ethnic minorities.

From Tuesday, new judicial guidelines in the United Kingdom will introduce sentencing policies that apply differential treatment based on ethnicity, gender, and age—leading to harsher punishments for white men compared to other groups in society.

Under the updated guidelines, judges will prepare pre-sentencing reports where necessary for defendants from ethnic, cultural, or faith minorities, as well as young people under 25, women, and pregnant women. Historically, such reports have resulted in mitigated sentences, including reduced jail time. The practical implication of these changes is that white men, who do not qualify for these reports, will face relatively harsher sentencing outcomes.

I’m not sure that any Brit, ever again, can accuse anyone else of being a racist.

Simple Solution

Gummint, Mocking Furriners, Morons & Idiots

Here’s an interesting development in Britishland.  Apparently, there’s a garbage workers’ strike in Birmingham, and as “Brum” is run by Labour and is a wretched hive of scum and villainy thereby, this is a case of ultra-Lefties arguing with “ordinary” Lefties — you pick which fits best for which — and has left the city streets (never that tidy to begin with) in a state of advanced rat infestation.

So then this came along:

Tories call for Cobra meeting over Birmingham bin strike
The Tories are urging the Deputy Prime Minister to send in private cleaning firms to break the unions’ grip over the rubbish-strewn second city.

The three-week pay dispute has seen detritus pile high in the streets, with residents saying neighbourhoods are plagued by giant rats “as big as cats”.

It centres on a row between the bankrupt Birmingham council, which is Labour run, and the Unite union.

I have no idea what a “Cobra” meeting is, but for one memorable moment, I thought it involved getting all the unionistas  and city councilors into one room, locking all the doors and windows and giving them ten minutes to come to an agreement.  If that failed, then throw a bunch of live cobras into the locked room.

I bet the hapless residents of Birmingham would be the first in line to watch the proceedings on PPV.

Too extreme?  Let’s ask the Brummies to vote on it.

Wasted Money

Bureaucracy, Foreign Affairs, Good Stuff, Trumpism

I see that the Department of Labor, not to be outdone by other federal departments in Extreme Chainsaw Activity, has done The Right Thing:

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has canceled nearly $600 million in grants to foreign countries in another round of major funding cuts.

John Clark, a DOL official appointed by President Donald Trump, directed the department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) to axe all 69 of its active grant programs on Wednesday due to a “lack of alignment with agency priorities and national interest.”

Quite what the Department of Labor was doing in giving money to furriners in the first place… well, we all know the answer to that one.  [humming the tune to “The Internationale”]

And seeing as the U.S. is no longer part of the international socialist collective — or at least we’re heading in that direction, at long last — there’s no reason for us to fund the wellbeing of foreign workers anyway.

One particular item did catch my attention, though:

“$3 million for ‘safe and inclusive work environments’ in Lesotho”

I’ve been to Lesotho several times, know the place quite well in fact, and for three million bucks you could probably buy the country’s entire industrial infrastructure, pay the workers a fat cash bonus and still have some money left over to  gamble  invest in a couple of their casinos.

Of “$3 million to ‘enhance social security access and worker protections for internal migrant workers’ in Bangladesh”, we will not speak.  (It’s a Muslim country;  let the fucking Arabs pay for it.)

Similar arguments can be made for all the other useless items.  Read the article for the full flavor of the wastage, and if you have specific knowledge of the circumstances of any of them, feel free to comment.

In the meantime:

Yet Another Tax

Gummint, Taxes and Theft

So Britishland is going to implement a wealth tax — whereby one is taxed (annually) not just upon income, but upon one’s total “wealth”, including such things as property.

How do I know this?  From this statement by their Labour Government:

A minister has opened the door to Labour introducing a wealth tax at some point amid pressure from backbenchers to change course ahead of sweeping welfare cuts.

Emma Reynolds said that the Government would reject demands for a 2 per cent levy “for the time being” but did not rule out such a tax at future financial events.

If you’re at all familiar with politician-speak, “did not rule out”  means “we’re gonna do it, and sooner than you think”.

And lest you think this villainy is confined to places across The Pond, be aware that it’s a staple position among the Wealth Envious (i.e. most Democrats) Over Here as well.

Step forward, Sen. Pocahantas Warren:

The wealth tax is a cousin of the property tax, but it encompasses all forms of wealth: cash, stocks, jewelry, thoroughbred horses, jets, everything. Warren calls the policy her “Ultra-Millionaire Tax.” It would impose a 2% federal tax on every dollar of a person’s net worth over $50 million and an additional 1% tax on every dollar in net worth over $1 billion. Economists estimate it would hit the 75,000 richest households and raise $2.75 trillion over ten years.

The minute you hear the “t” word (“trillion”) applied to tax revenue, you can see the Socialists’ ears prick up.

Now here’s the fun part.

In 1990, twelve countries in Europe had a wealth tax. Today, there are only three: Norway, Spain, and Switzerland. According to reports by the OECD and others, there were some clear themes with the policy: it was expensive to administer, it was hard on people with lots of assets but little cash, it distorted saving and investment decisions, it pushed the rich and their money out of the taxing countries—and, perhaps worst of all, it didn’t raise much revenue.

Lest you think that this precedent would prevent socialists like Warren and the Labourites from initiating such a tax, you don’t know much about Socialism — where history (especially of failure) is always brushed aside with the airy comment of “But this time, we’ll do it better!”

After the loathsome Emma Reynolds’s little aside, that roaring you hear will be the sound of more (taxable) private jets being readied for takeoff on one-way flights out of the UK — although it should be noted that the roaring has been going on ever since Labour was returned to power last year.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD, Taxes and Theft

From our old buddy Senator Schmuckie Schumer (Soc-NY), talking about taxes:

“You know what their attitude is?  ‘I made my money all by myself. How dare your government take my money from me?’ “

Couldn’t have put it better myself, asshole.  And it’s not just “greedy business owners” who feel that way, either — something your Party Of Thieves is going to discover soon enough.