OT: The OT Thread: Meteorological Harassment (Warning in post 368)

[Chainshot]

I find this interesting when the US Government is the biggest corporation in the world.

Seems odd to think one entity that does try to fulfill policy for the benefit of many is being compared to companies who only exist to make profit for the elites who can afford to own shares and the very tippy top of the organizational tree - even when their operations are actively harmful to their customers.

 

[Beerz]

Seems odd to think one entity that does try to fulfill policy for the benefit of many is being compared to companies who only exist to make profit for the elites who can afford to own shares and the very tippy top of the organizational tree - even when their operations are actively harmful to their customers.

That's a fairly generous outlook of the Government. You can say all those same things as the Government. Politicians go to Washington as average people making a modest salary and leave Washington filthy rich.

There is no good side on this debate.

Corporations are able to do what they do largely at the behest of politicians and government involvement.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

I find this interesting when the US Government is the biggest corporation in the world.

Right, it’s just masks off at this point, and they used to at least maybe consider the employees (population). Now it’s like crypto-bros running the world.

Also, for the love of god, please watch. For. Pedestrians. I can’t walk to the gym without an incident a week, dude didn’t even stop this time, just straight ran it right in front of my nose. Really wish I’d thought to dent a door instead of slapping the glass. Oh, and if you’re old as hell and don’t move so sharp no more, respect, but get the f*** off the road, you’re endangering people. Caught a glimpse of elderly behind the wheel- bro, kids crossed right after me. It’s not cool, I know it isn’t society’s most pressing issue, but I don’t get why we pretend it isn’t a problem.

/rant stay safe y’all, try and enjoy every beautiful day- beautiful world- man do powerful people make a mess of it.

 

[Chainshot]

That's a fairly generous outlook of the Government. You can say all those same things as the Government. Politicians go to Washington as average people making a modest salary and leave Washington filthy rich.

There is no good side on this debate.

Corporations are able to do what they do largely at the behest of politicians and government involvement.

It seems you have conflated elected politicians and their staffers with the people who work inside the agencies tasked with carrying out policy. As well as that the money flow goes from the corporations and their owners to the elected to move policy in a way that benefits them more which then is rinsed and repeated.

If there is a place to look, it's in how we have allowed the erosion of transparency among elected officials and rather than come down on them for things like insider trading or excessive expenditures or the lack of requirement for a blind trust for holdings while in office, or even *shocker* donor transparency, we just all wonder at the nebulousness of dark/gray money and the impacts it can have on the electoral process. Hell, there is growing evidence that the guardrails being off of transparency is allowing foreign actors to donate into campaigns as a method of gaining traction for beneficial policy shifts for them and they're not US citizens.

Nobody is making a mint insider trading in agencies in the US. Members of Congress? Members of the SCOTUS? POTUS and their family members? There needs to be oversight and scrutiny beyond that which is being done. Similarly, dismantling of entities whose whole purpose is the investigation and prosecution of

Anyway, back to the weather.

 

[Gras]

It seems you have conflated elected politicians and their staffers with the people who work inside the agencies tasked with carrying out policy. As well as that the money flow goes from the corporations and their owners to the elected to move policy in a way that benefits them more which then is rinsed and repeated.

If there is a place to look, it's in how we have allowed the erosion of transparency among elected officials and rather than come down on them for things like insider trading or excessive expenditures or the lack of requirement for a blind trust for holdings while in office, or even *shocker* donor transparency, we just all wonder at the nebulousness of dark/gray money and the impacts it can have on the electoral process. Hell, there is growing evidence that the guardrails being off of transparency is allowing foreign actors to donate into campaigns as a method of gaining traction for beneficial policy shifts for them and they're not US citizens.

Nobody is making a mint insider trading in agencies in the US. Members of Congress? Members of the SCOTUS? POTUS and their family members? There needs to be oversight and scrutiny beyond that which is being done. Similarly, dismantling of entities whose whole purpose is the investigation and prosecution of

Anyway, back to the weather.

Federal Agencies act like jobs programs at this point much like how the Wal-mart greeters used to be.

 

[Chainshot]

Federal Agencies act like jobs programs at this point much like how the Wal-mart greeters used to be.

Sure.

Back to the weather, eh.

 

[Chainshot]

 

[Dubi Doo]

Nvm. As Chain said...back to the weather!

 

[whiplash]

Nvm. As Chain said...back to the weather!

I can't count the number of posts I've written out then just deleted (here and elsewhere) then thrown on Mr. Blue Sky or something on a loop. The bad news is it isn't just gonna be a long 4 years, we're in this fetid gutter for the foreseeable future (I am of course talking about the Sabres and nothing else of note)

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Right, it’s just masks off at this point, and they used to at least maybe consider the employees (population). Now it’s like crypto-bros running the world.

Also, for the love of god, please watch. For. Pedestrians. I can’t walk to the gym without an incident a week, dude didn’t even stop this time, just straight ran it right in front of my nose. Really wish I’d thought to dent a door instead of slapping the glass. Oh, and if you’re old as hell and don’t move so sharp no more, respect, but get the f*** off the road, you’re endangering people. Caught a glimpse of elderly behind the wheel- bro, kids crossed right after me. It’s not cool, I know it isn’t society’s most pressing issue, but I don’t get why we pretend it isn’t a problem.

/rant stay safe y’all, try and enjoy every beautiful day- beautiful world- man do powerful people make a mess of it.

I had to run to Walmart the other day to get a new controller for my Xbox (it was over responsive, so it made navigating to do anything impossible), and because it was a nice day I decided to walk the two blocks. I’m waiting at the corner for the light, and when it changes for me to cross, I go. A car turns right and nearly hits me. Of course I look and the driver hadn’t even seen me, but I saw them.

So I had to call my daughter and tell her to look at the f***ing corners before she turns because she nearly hit me.

 

[Butt Ox]

Weather Report: It is the convergence of haboob and tumble weed seasons here; where seventy mile per hour winds move your neighbor's property (topsoil included) onto your own, and visibility is limited to close your eyes and feel your way about range. You never know what you may find. Like three trampolines - when you own none.

Also: See them tumbling down pledging their love for the ground, etc. My old neighbor to the east would always throw all the tumbleweeds from his yard my way when the wind was cooperative, which was mostly. I slowly started to not appreciate them. They moved up a state to Colorado last year. New neighbor is okay so far.

Also, also: Joe Zawinul was a bad bad man. Weather Report concluded.

 

[Chainshot]

We're in the start of yellow pine pollen season. My car is chartreuse now.

 

[Ehran]

Holy crap. Property taxes went up around 10% this year, and found out today that my home owners insurance is going up 16%.

Starting to think this homeowning shit ain't what its cracked up to be.

(btw, neighbor's house has been on the market for 6 months and they haven't been able to sell. He got a new job and moved out that full 6 months ago. Sucks, really sucks, to be them. They must have two mortgages to deal with until it sells.)

 

[Jim Bob]

Holy crap. Property taxes went up around 10% this year, and found out today that my home owners insurance is going up 16%.

Starting to think this homeowning shit ain't what its cracked up to be.

(btw, neighbor's house has been on the market for 6 months and they haven't been able to sell. He got a new job and moved out that full 6 months ago. Sucks, really sucks, to be them. They must have two mortgages to deal with until it sells.)

I got decent deals on the two houses I've purchased because the owners had moved out.

The first one was empty the first time we looked at it and we could tell they were desperate.

The second one was empty by the time all the mortgage pre-approval stuff worked out. And our buyer's agent told me that they begrudgingly accepted the offer after a couple of offers being thrown back and forth.

 

[Der Jaeger]

It seems you have conflated elected politicians and their staffers with the people who work inside the agencies tasked with carrying out policy. As well as that the money flow goes from the corporations and their owners to the elected to move policy in a way that benefits them more which then is rinsed and repeated.

If there is a place to look, it's in how we have allowed the erosion of transparency among elected officials and rather than come down on them for things like insider trading or excessive expenditures or the lack of requirement for a blind trust for holdings while in office, or even *shocker* donor transparency, we just all wonder at the nebulousness of dark/gray money and the impacts it can have on the electoral process. Hell, there is growing evidence that the guardrails being off of transparency is allowing foreign actors to donate into campaigns as a method of gaining traction for beneficial policy shifts for them and they're not US citizens.

Nobody is making a mint insider trading in agencies in the US. Members of Congress? Members of the SCOTUS? POTUS and their family members? There needs to be oversight and scrutiny beyond that which is being done. Similarly, dismantling of entities whose whole purpose is the investigation and prosecution of

Anyway, back to the weather.

Federal Agencies act like jobs programs at this point much like how the Wal-mart greeters used to be.

Federal workers are not homogeneous. There's been this tremendous public outcry about how all these federal workers aren't working, etc. But, the way the federal government works, agencies don't work similarly.

Yes, there are a lot of workers working from home. But, most of them are not coming from the Department of Defense, ICE, HHS, etc. I know this because I'm in the chain of approval to allow teleworkers to come to our installation and get office space. Very, very few are from DoD, HHS, law enforcements, etc.

Secondly, agencies like the DoD are huge and have massive layers of headquarters, because it's a military organization. Are some jobs not needed? Sure. But we're looking at a 20% cut at my level, and it leaves us unable to do a bunch of things we are currently doing. The way the military works, the lower levels give up positions to enable higher headquarters to have more people (who create more work instead of just doing what they were intended for, but that's another discussion).

At the warfighter level, we have very little fat to cut. Eg: if DoD cuts probationary workers, my installation will lose 15% of the civilians who work ranges. Those are the guys out on the ranges changing targets, making sure the target lifters are working, making sure the rifle ranges function properly so Soldiers can show up and train. That directly effects readiness of the Army.

In my shop, we run the installation, manage all emergency situations, become an emergency headquarters for FEMA and DoD on the east coast in case of a disaster, and we maintain a fly away capability to go help elsewhere (which we did during Hurricane Helene). There's no one here to cut. There's no one else that's available to do what we do. You can't hire off the street to do this job (have to have a military background). Many of the readers of this post aren't physically fit enough to work in my section (no offense, it's just the reality).

When you head into the DC beltway, many of these intermediate headquarters, and agencies with workers not related to the mission, that's where we need to cut.

I get the "what did you do last week email," and it takes me less than five minutes to reply. I could put 10 things pretty easily. Most of us at the warfighter level are in the same position.

 

[Gras]

Federal workers are not homogeneous. There's been this tremendous public outcry about how all these federal workers aren't working, etc. But, the way the federal government works, agencies don't work similarly.

Yes, there are a lot of workers working from home. But, most of them are not coming from the Department of Defense, ICE, HHS, etc. I know this because I'm in the chain of approval to allow teleworkers to come to our installation and get office space. Very, very few are from DoD, HHS, law enforcements, etc.

Secondly, agencies like the DoD are huge and have massive layers of headquarters, because it's a military organization. Are some jobs not needed? Sure. But we're looking at a 20% cut at my level, and it leaves us unable to do a bunch of things we are currently doing. The way the military works, the lower levels give up positions to enable higher headquarters to have more people (who create more work instead of just doing what they were intended for, but that's another discussion).

At the warfighter level, we have very little fat to cut. Eg: if DoD cuts probationary workers, my installation will lose 15% of the civilians who work ranges. Those are the guys out on the ranges changing targets, making sure the target lifters are working, making sure the rifle ranges function properly so Soldiers can show up and train. That directly effects readiness of the Army.

In my shop, we run the installation, manage all emergency situations, become an emergency headquarters for FEMA and DoD on the east coast in case of a disaster, and we maintain a fly away capability to go help elsewhere (which we did during Hurricane Helene). There's no one here to cut. There's no one else that's available to do what we do. You can't hire off the street to do this job (have to have a military background). Many of the readers of this post aren't physically fit enough to work in my section (no offense, it's just the reality).

When you head into the DC beltway, many of these intermediate headquarters, and agencies with workers not related to the mission, that's where we need to cut.

I get the "what did you do last week email," and it takes me less than five minutes to reply. I could put 10 things pretty easily. Most of us at the warfighter level are in the same position.

The best thing that we could do to the federal workforce is eliminate or heavily reform the public sector unions.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Burn. It. The. f***. Down.

 

[Burgmania]

Hi, everybody! Long time.

Been dealing with my first-ever kidney stone. This blows, and I don't wish the experience on anyone.