Surviving a second Trump admin

[O Really]

And since when do Republicans (ESPECIALLY this crop) keep their word?

Well, they said they were going to keep giving tax breaks to the wealthy and take away benefits from the poor. They seem to be trying to keep their word there.

[Vrede too]

Since Reagan the GOP has only paid lip service to balancing the budget. Instead they support giveaways to the wealthy and maintaining a high deficit in order to limit Dem spending options. Only Clinton achieved a surplus and after him Obama did the most deficit cutting of any POTUS back through Reagan. This has been rotten policy, giving us both the Shrubcession and Dolt .45's crashing of the economy.

Since WW2 and before on average the deficit has been lower and the economy stronger with Dem POTUSes. I'm realigning my retirement savings to low risk investments on 3/6. I'm sure the DonOLD chaos will crash the economy again. Hopefully, I haven't waited too long.

Yeah, he'll probably crash it, but even if not he'll keep it so unstable that it would be awful for anybody older than 40-ish. Better off with high-interest savings or CDs - or a sock - until Trump's gone.

My current risk level is moderate, around 5 or 6/10 with 10 being maximum risk. I earned 10% in the last year, not bad. I'm thinking of shooting for 2/10, not quite mattress stuffing and maybe I'll make some money if POTUS Musk and PINO don't screw things up too badly.

[GoCubsGo]

The beginning of the endof the honeymoon? There's certainly more cuts o come.

Trump’s cuts hit red states, triggering GOP pushback

The White House is standing behind the cuts and urging Congress to codify them, raising doubts about the extent to which Republicans on the Hill can soften the blow.

That will not be happening.

[neoplacebo]

Since Reagan the GOP has only paid lip service to balancing the budget. Instead they support giveaways to the wealthy and maintaining a high deficit in order to limit Dem spending options. Only Clinton achieved a surplus and after him Obama did the most deficit cutting of any POTUS back through Reagan. This has been rotten policy, giving us both the Shrubcession and Dolt .45's crashing of the economy.

Since WW2 and before on average the deficit has been lower and the economy stronger with Dem POTUSes. I'm realigning my retirement savings to low risk investments on 3/6. I'm sure the DonOLD chaos will crash the economy again. Hopefully, I haven't waited too long.

Yeah, he'll probably crash it, but even if not he'll keep it so unstable that it would be awful for anybody older than 40-ish. Better off with high-interest savings or CDs - or a sock - until Trump's gone.

My current risk level is moderate, around 5 or 6/10 with 10 being maximum risk. I earned 10% in the last year, not bad. I'm thinking of shooting for 2/10, not quite mattress stuffing and maybe I'll make some money if POTUS Musk and PINO don't screw things up too badly.

Buy gold and silver if you can while you can.

[Vrede too]

Planes falling out of the sky and now this.
(As a side note, HTF can this happen?)
US aircraft carrier collides with ship in Mediterranean Sea

I just a minute ago saw this. When I did I went But having been in the the navy I know this is ultimately on two people....the captains of the vessels. It was near midnight, I guarantee the CO of the carrier was not on the bridge and that a junior officer of the deck (OOD) was in control of the ship. Who the hell knows what was going on with the other vessel. Hegseth will probably blame it on woke and go on Fox News. Many gullible fools will believe the gibberish. Same as it ever was.

Yeah, but assuming they're not in an extremely tight channel, how can one or both the ships not turn away?

Collision Damage To Aircraft Carrier USS Harry S. Truman Seen In Photo

It's certainly an unusual and uncommon event. Both vessels possess all manner of navigation aids; charts, chronometers, radar, GPS, etc. The only thing I can think of as a likely cause is just plain incompetence or not maintainng an adequate watch (the time any given officer is in command of the ship is termed a "watch"). The radar systems on that carrier can probably detect even a small yacht; I can't think of any logical reason the carrier would not see the other ship. In any case, I bet this carrier gets a new CO shortly.

That would be fitting.

[GoCubsGo]

616 feet.

Maybe it snuck up on the Truman at nine knots.

[Vrede too]

616 feet.

Maybe it snuck up on the Truman at nine knots.

https://static.vesselfinder.net/ship-ph ... 1d6e4/1?v1

Panamanian-flagged, hmmm. First action in the war? The Truman should have opened fire rather than risk superficial damage.

[GoCubsGo]

616 feet.

Maybe it snuck up on the Truman at nine knots.

https://static.vesselfinder.net/ship-ph ... 1d6e4/1?v1

Panamanian-flagged, hmmm. First action in the war? The Truman should have opened fire rather than risk superficial damage.

Ooh, sneaky attack.

[GoCubsGo]

Maybe we all will get a week off too.

An extended holiday weekend visit follows a week dominated by talk of a constitutional crisis and potential landmark international shifts as the second Trump administration approaches a month in office.

President Donald Trump arrived Friday evening at 5:17 p.m. in Palm Beach County for what is scheduled to be a six-day Presidents Day weekend visit sandwiched by an excursion to the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Trump is scheduled to cap the stay at a Tuesday night gala at his Mar-a-Lago club hosted by America's Future, a group chaired by former national security aide, Mike Flynn.

[GoCubsGo]

Who could've forseen something like that?

[neoplacebo]

616 feet.

Maybe it snuck up on the Truman at nine knots.

https://static.vesselfinder.net/ship-ph ... 1d6e4/1?v1

Panamanian-flagged, hmmm. First action in the war? The Truman should have opened fire rather than risk superficial damage.

I read yesterday that the carrier was preparing to transit the Suez Canal, so it's possible that control of the carrier at the time was with a harbor pilot. The same story also noted that the other ship made contact with the rear portion of the carrier. It's possible both vessels were under harbor pilot control during this. But I bet the CO of the carrier still gets replaced. It's truly a rare case in this type situation where a CO isn't severely fish slapped.

[Whack9]

Who could've forseen something like that?

I wonder how much other institutionional knowledge is getting cauterized. I bet we'll see some problems crop up over time when failures pop up and nobody knows how to resolve them.

Too bad those engineers didn't tell them to go fuck themselves.

Also, an interesting subreddit: http://reddit.com/r/fednews

[Vrede too]

Who could've foreseen something like that?
https://bsky.app/profile/bloomberg.com/ ... 6hbkdvg22j

I wonder how much other institutional knowledge is getting cauterized. I bet we'll see some problems crop up over time when failures pop up and nobody knows how to resolve them.

Too bad those engineers didn't tell them to go fuck themselves.

Also, an interesting subreddit: http://reddit.com/r/fednews

RFK Jr. Just Kneecapped the CDC on His First Day

Hours after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged that the Department of Health and Human Services would not undergo a staff purge, it did.

The Trump administration laid off half of its Epidemic Intelligence Service, otherwise known as the “Disease Detectives.” The lay off affected 1,260 staff, reported NBC News’s Lewis Kamb....

“The country is less safe,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, an alumna of the disease research program, told CBS. “These are the deployable assets critical for investigating new threats, from anthrax to Zika.”...

I don't think it's my SIL's division and she's got mega-seniority, anyhow, but I emailed her just in case.

[O Really]

We used to do client seminars on various employment issues, and one topic I did was on handling terminations. I made it clear that the most dangerous thing an employer ever does is to fire people. The employer often thinks "it's not personal, just business." Or "S/he just didn't fit" or whatever, but for the employee it's always personal. Consider - you've cut off their financial security, you've changed their entire life, put their family at risk, created uncertainty and insecurity, taken away a good piece of their social relationships, humiliated and embarrassed them, and in many cases created a very real desperation. And you've turned him loose on the world. So he goes home and tells his wife. She goes, "Bastards - after all you've done for them and they treat you like this. Sue their asses." He goes out with some friends, and they all tell him "Bastards - you were their best and they shat on you. Somebody ought to have to pay for this." Now with some people, the employer will get sued, but suppose this particular desperate person is a gun nut with a penchant for violence anyway. Click his trigger the wrong way and you've got somebody shooting up the whole office.

Now consider how many long term civil servants Trump/Musk is cutting loose, and how they are doing it. Rudely, crudely, publicly de-valuing their work and their person, and leaving them in a tough job market (for their skills) and with thousands of others competing with them for what jobs are available. How many of those would you suppose might figure they don't have anything to lose so they're gonna take somebody else out with them They might prefer Trump or Musk, but might take anybody connected to them. Maybe somebody like Grimes could be at risk or some of the other 12 kids. Maybe anybody in the Trump circle. Maybe some of them could organize a vigilante/vengeance squad. I don't know what could happen, but I garon-tee not all those tens of thousands of people cruelly fired are going to go quietly into that dark night.

Edit: the pot is boiling... https://www.yahoo.com/news/anger-chaos- ... 13496.html

[Vrede too]

We used to do client seminars on various employment issues, and one topic I did was on handling terminations. I made it clear that the most dangerous thing an employer ever does is to fire people. The employer often thinks "it's not personal, just business." Or "S/he just didn't fit" or whatever, but for the employee it's always personal. Consider - you've cut off their financial security, you've changed their entire life, put their family at risk, created uncertainty and insecurity, taken away a good piece of their social relationships, humiliated and embarrassed them, and in many cases created a very real desperation. And you've turned him loose on the world. So he goes home and tells his wife. She goes, "Bastards - after all you've done for them and they treat you like this. Sue their asses." He goes out with some friends, and they all tell him "Bastards - you were their best and they shat on you. Somebody ought to have to pay for this." Now with some people, the employer will get sued, but suppose this particular desperate person is a gun nut with a penchant for violence anyway. Click his trigger the wrong way and you've got somebody shooting up the whole office.

Now consider how many long term civil servants Trump/Musk is cutting loose, and how they are doing it. Rudely, crudely, publicly de-valuing their work and their person, and leaving them in a tough job market (for their skills) and with thousands of others competing with them for what jobs are available. How many of those would you suppose might figure they don't have anything to lose so they're gonna take somebody else out with them They might prefer Trump or Musk, but might take anybody connected to them. Maybe somebody like Grimes could be at risk or some of the other 12 kids. Maybe anybody in the Trump circle. Maybe some of them could organize a vigilante/vengeance squad. I don't know what could happen, but I garon-tee not all those tens of thousands of people cruelly fired are going to go quietly into that dark night.

Edit: the pot is boiling... https://www.yahoo.com/news/anger-chaos- ... 13496.html

Yup. Just wait for the US Postal Service cuts, not to mention armed LEOs and halving the military.

[GoCubsGo]

This isn't reducing government,

It's mass slaughter.

[Supsalemgr]

I agree with O Really that some good employees will be let go. That is the case with any RIF. RIF's are not uncommon in the private sector. They are rare in the public sector. It is the nature of private versus public.

In any large organization bloat is inevitable. Much of it in our times has been due to technology. I certainly saw it in the large corporation I worked for. However, much of the bloat comes from inevitable evolution. In fact I experienced at least three RIF's with my company during my career. With each the company either offered a buyout or enhanced severance packages. DOGE offered a very attractive buyout package. I suspect O Really would agree bases on his experience.

No RIF is fun, but they are necessary. That is where we are now.

[Vrede too]

Edit: the pot is boiling... https://www.yahoo.com/news/anger-chaos- ... 13496.html

... Fired despite agreeing to the buyout

Some of those impacted had already signed the buyout agreements offered by the administration that were supposed to protect them from dismissal.

Detter, 25, who had worked for the Agriculture Department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, said he had accepted the buyout because he knew that, as a probationary employee, he'd likely be first on the chopping block if he didn’t accept....

Bastards.

Challenging the administration

... On Friday evening, the advocacy group Democracy Forward filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers, asking for an investigation into whether the mass firings violated federal personnel practices and asking that they be halted while the inquiry is being conducted....

Opps.

Trump Quietly Fires Watchdog Overseeing Corruption In Government
Hampton Dellinger, who was the head of the Office of Special Counsel at the Justice Department, is fighting back with a lawsuit.

Temporarily rescinded by a judge, but I'll bet he's not taking on new complaints until things settle down.

[GoCubsGo]

I agree with O Really that some good employees will be let go. That is the case with any RIF. RIF's are not uncommon in the private sector. They are rare in the public sector. It is the nature of private versus public.

In any large organization bloat is inevitable. Much of it in our times has been due to technology. I certainly saw it in the large corporation I worked for. However, much of the bloat comes from inevitable evolution. In fact I experienced at least three RIF's with my company during my career. With each the company either offered a buyout or enhanced severance packages. DOGE offered a very attractive buyout package. I suspect O Really would agree bases on his experience.

No RIF is fun, but they are necessary. That is where we are now.

So how does this improve the life for any Americans?

How much does this decrease the deficit and make government more efficient?

(If you bother answering, which you won't please provide numbers.)

[GoCubsGo]

This'll take care of the problems.

Justice Department fires multiple immigration judges amid case backlog