the daily caller should never have agreed to print this horrible opinion piece anonymously, and it troubles me that tpm would broadcast the drivel without a name attached
He won’t…but it will not be because of any emotional support from people who take almost ghoulish pleasure of lining up to pile on gloomy-gus predictions when there are strong indications that this Republic will survive.
3 Likes
Or be complete bullshit.
TPMers of a certain age will recognize the genesis of all this–the immortal, insane Ayn Rand.
For those too young to recognize the reference…background is here…
1 Like
What does an Egyptian farow have to do with this? MAGA!
My abfab Margaret Atwood novel!
And far fewer than usual food inspectors is allowing the crony capitalist system to operate at its most effective: cutting corners because they know nobody will be by to inspect their facilities. And the sawing down of Joshua trees in Joshua Tree National Park because there aren’t enough rangers to prevent vandalism, there are even assholes that slashed two new roads into the park by cutting down several of these spectacular trees and multiple fence locks. Or the handful of deaths that have happened in our parks because there’s nowhere near enough people to carry out a rescue efforts.
It’s infuriating that Trump is obsessed with winning the news cycle and he sees everyday he blames us for his shut down as him winning the news cycle as opposed to the actual temper tantrum it is.
3 Likes
Fifty-four years ago, immediately after graduating from college and prior to entering law school, I was hired by a Federal Government agency as a summer intern. My view of Wash DC government employment was formed then, and I’ve never gone back. Maybe it’s different now?
First off, my boss (the agency head, and son of a very big name in the judiciary, had no idea I was starting work when I showed up on Monday morning. He ttold me to cool it all day and see him in the morning. By then, he had dreamed up a make-work project for me, saying I should give him a report during my final week (“so make it last…” was the inference. The project was complete during my second week, so after that I did a lot of reading of stuff from, and often in, the agency library.
The description in this memo regarding the work habits of permanent staff rings true based on what I saw. I could not say with any conviction that 80% of the staff were essentially non-productive (had a fraction of a real job, at most), but it surely seemed like it COULD have been. No way it was fewer than half.
Errands, coffee breaks, long lunches, socializing, gabbing on the phone, crossword puzzles, The Racing Form, magazine reading, one finger typing, etc… you can get pretty close to 8 hours of that kind of routine if you really apply yourself and use your imagination. Some tried to look busy, while others just didn’t even bother. For those “others” the desk was a stopping off place in between going here and there outside the office.
It was literally shocking, but no one seemed upset about it.
Had the same experience with the civilian support of the Army during my time with their ERP implementation. If I heard it once, I heard 30 times during requirements gathering - ‘I’ll be retired before this goes live, so I don’t care’.
Cost the Army and CSC millions of dollars in rework, but the civilians didn’t care.
One time (that I know of), the entire group of civilian representatives walked out of a session because they didn’t like the direction of the discussion and flew home to their respective locations without so much as a by-your-leave from project management.
We used to call their chairperson the Tasmanian devil (from Warner Brothers fame) because that’s precisely how she acted. And no one stopped her. No one.
I feel your pain on that experience. There are a whole lot of the civilian support that respond that way to a work day. But not all of them. Not by a long shot.
Oh shit, seriously???! I did not know that. Wow. 
1 Like
Love that poem. Thanks for the memory, I’ve not seen it in many years and kinda forgot about it. Also, it reminds us of those who went before us and sacrificed everything for the way of life we now enjoy. It is something that we best not forget.
1 Like
Apparently Fred Koch developed a method to refine petroleum that was cheaper than the method Rockefeller’s Standard Oil utilized. Koch wound up getting business servicing the USSR, but then Stalin nationalized the industry.
Feeling burned by the ouster, Koch became a staunch anti-communist and later was one of the founders and backers of the John Birch Society.
3 Likes
Interesting, thanks for the little history primer. I truly did not know that background. 
1 Like
Yes, it’s a beautiful and haunting poem, with the tension between the pastoral imagery and the hint of enormous death and destruction.
2 Likes
Bingo
1 Like
They’ll think that what they do is not one of the functions being wasteful. So that guy is not talking about them or their job.
1 Like
From the “sabotage” line, I’m thinking…
That word jumped out at me, too. They want us to believe that there are some significant numbers of government workers who are deliberately throwing monkey wrenches in the works (in addition to the significant numbers of workers who just “waste” the resources they are given).
It’s outrageous.
1 Like
From their point of view, there are. Every worker who does an honest job is sabotaging the trump administration’s efforts to turn government into a kleptocracy.
2 Likes
It’s actually spelled “moxie.” Try that in the dictionary search.
2 Likes
Yup, wicked and evil but not so crafty because it’s illegal – a good case can be made for constructive termination in violation of civil service law.