Working without pay during shutdown, more TSA agents are calling in sick

[refugee 169]

25 minutes ago, ALFKAD said:

 

Some folks are thin skinned about these topics. Again, if the culture is that name calling is cool, then I expect there won't be any hand wringing when the President gets called out. 

[refugee 169]

If there is a concrete wall...

 

[TBoneTX 46,137]

If it makes anyone feel better:

 

Trump is a fat orange Nixon!

Trump is a mango Mussolini!

 

(Oh, uh, wait a minute here...)

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

3 hours ago, refugee said:

Some folks are thin skinned about these topics. Again, if the culture is that name calling is cool, then I expect there won't be any hand wringing when the President gets called out. 

It happens all the time here.  If it makes you feel better, go for it.

[Dashinka 24,804]

19 hours ago, refugee said:

The President has been consistently ridiculous from the point he descending the taxpayer supported Golden Escalator. We are past the 50% mark with this Bozo, I am counting the days until our country returns to something that resembles normal.

If your idea of normalcy is Washington elites running the country with no respect for the folks they should be representing then I agree with you, we will most likely be back to that in 2-6 years.

[abum 324]

On 1/8/2019 at 5:15 PM, Bill & Katya said:

So I am assuming you chose the worst of the two evils in 2016.  If you think Trump lies, I would love to hear your justification of the other candidate.  For the record, I have no respect for the politicians in Washington, to me they are just a necessary evil, so the more gridlock the better in my opinion.  At least we avoided moving further to the socialist side of the spectrum.

What i can say for sure is that, I definitely did not use your train of thought when selecting a candidate that i might want to vote for. So I did not arrive to the same conclusion that you had arrived. 

[abum 324]

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/10/trump-says-mexico-is-not-going-to-write-a-check-for-the-wall-contradicting-campaign-pledge.html
 

Quote

The president, whose central campaign promise was that Mexico would pay for a wall stretching across the roughly 2,000-mile border, added: “When I said Mexico would pay for the wall in front of thousands and thousands of people ... obviously I never meant Mexico would write a check.”

But on the campaign trail, Trump appeared to make that argument. A March 2016 memo to Washington Post reporters explained multiple ways to “compel Mexico” to “make a one-time payment of $5-10 billion” to keep the U.S. from cutting off the spigot of money it already sends to Mexico annually.

 

The main source of Fake News apparently

LOL. 

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-mexico-wall-idUSKBN14Q1B9

 

Quote

A ‘Pay for the Wall’ memo Trump’s team issued in early 2016 proposed pressuring Mexico by cutting off remittances from undocumented Mexicans in the United States. It proposed amending the Patriot Act, passed after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, to include wire transfers as accounts that could be frozen.

 

“It’s an easy decision for Mexico: make a one-time payment of $5-10 billion to ensure that $24 billion (in remittances) continues to flow into their country year after year,” the memo said. “We have the leverage, so Mexico will back down,” it said.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s office declined to comment on Trump’s comments on Friday. In August, Pena Nieto told Trump Mexico would not pay for a border wall.

 

 

[Dashinka 24,804]

14 minutes ago, abum said:

What i can say for sure is that, I definitely did not use your train of thought when selecting a candidate that i might want to vote for. So I did not arrive to the same conclusion that you had arrived. 

To each their own.  Heck, we survived eight years of Obama, the country can survive four-eight years of Trump and he was definitely the lesser of the two we had to choose from.  At least with the GOP, there was an up-and-up primary, I would have rather seen someone else come out of it then Trump, but by the time it hit my state, Trump was already in.  The Dems of course allowed their primary to be fixed, but of course no one seems to care about that. 

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

22 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

To each their own.  Heck, we survived eight years of Obama, the country can survive four-eight years of Trump and he was definitely the lesser of the two we had to choose from.  At least with the GOP, there was an up-and-up primary, I would have rather seen someone else come out of it then Trump, but by the time it hit my state, Trump was already in.  The Dems of course allowed their primary to be fixed, but of course no one seems to care about that. 

Don't you know it's all Russia's fault.... They bribed all the Democrat Super Delegates to vote for Hillary instead of Bernie. 

[refugee 169]

'This situation is not sustainable': FBI agent group calls for restoring DOJ funding

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/10/justice-department-funding-government-shutdown-1096100

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,382]

2 hours ago, refugee said:

'This situation is not sustainable': FBI agent group calls for restoring DOJ funding

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/10/justice-department-funding-government-shutdown-1096100

who knew the FBI had a union. Kind explains the FBI trying to make sure Hillary won 

[abum 324]

It is like vacation it seemed

 

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/11/white-house-economic-adviser-shutdown-vacation-for-workers-1098380

 

Quote

Hassett had been asked by PBS economic correspondent Paul Solman if he saw the shutdown of a quarter of the federal government — which is poised to become the longest in U.S. history at midnight — affecting the economy in the long term. He appeared to suggest that furloughing around 25 percent of federal employees would seem ominous.

 

“But then, when the shutdown ends, they go back to work and they get their back pay,” he said. “A huge share of government workers were going to take vacation days, say, between Christmas and New Year’s. And then we have a shutdown, and so they can’t go to work, and so then they have the vacation, but they don’t have to use their vacation days. And then they come back, and then they get their back pay. Then they’re — in some sense, they’re better off.”

 

[Dashinka 24,804]

17 hours ago, abum said:

It is like vacation it seemed

 

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/11/white-house-economic-adviser-shutdown-vacation-for-workers-1098380

 

 

Considering the US government is not an economic producer, but only a wealth transfer machine then he, Hassett has a point.  Sure there might be a short-term effect as those 800k (do we really have 3.2 million federal government employees?) will be reducing their spending, but that will smooth out in the end.

[NikLR 13,232]

The government workers who were GOING to take PAID vacation days, were recalled to work and told to show up or face potential disciplinary action, up to and including being fired.  Essential employees are LOSING their paid vacation and had to return to work for the day after Christmas (so travelling on Christmas day.)  The reason they are losing their vacation is because this would have been for many, use or lose vacation time.  They accrued enough vacation time and/or haven't used enough in the preceding years, and are at their limit of roll over.   It happens in the private sector too.  If you don't use your vacation each year, you may lose it! 

 

Furloughed employees (those who are not essential) may or may not get back pay for the time they are not allowed to show up to work.  During the Obama shut down, they were paid, but they don't have to be.  The HR person at my husband's work is only allowed 4 hours per week at this point because she's not essential.

 

Many banks and credit unions are supplying federal workers with interest free loans. 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/11/congress-approves-back-pay-eventually-for-furloughed-federal-employees/

 

Quote

Some 800,000 federal employees across nine Cabinet departments and dozens of smaller agencies — out of a total federal workforce of 2.1 million — have been in unpaid status since Dec. 22. While they received a pay distribution two weeks ago for the biweekly pay period that had ended that day, starting Friday and into next week they are getting pay distributions devoid of pay for the subsequent two weeks.

Of those in unpaid status, slightly more than half have remained at work because of the safety- or security-related nature of their jobs. They are assured of back pay when funding is restored for their agency.

For those on furlough, there is no assurance of back pay, although the practice in past shutdowns has been that furloughed employees also were paid retroactively.

What I read here is that furloughed employees may or may not be back paid but essential employees WILL be. 

[NikLR 13,232]

When you're on vacation, you still receive your pay check at the REGULAR time.  You don't receive it when you're off vacation.  So no they're not "better off"