This entire government shutdown farce is nothing but bullshit political optics. First of all, why is the American taxpayer paying to employ 800,000 non-essential government drones? Where I work, if you are non-essential you are not needed. Obama is trying to make the American people feel the pain of a government shutdown. Therefore, he is using government employees to block access to places where government employees are never needed. He is spending more of your money to keep you from accessing government run properties.
The longer this fake shutdown goes on, the more it reveals that we can do without the 800,000 drones. Our lives aren’t being impacted by these drones getting a paid vacation on our dime. The lowlifes in Congress have already agreed to provide back pay to these people while they sit at home and watch Jerry Springer. Will they owe the taxpayer the days they didn’t work? Not a fucking chance. They have probably filed for unemployment too. Will they have to pay that back when they receive their back pay? I doubt it.
Let’s assume each of these non-essential government drones is costing the taxpayer $100,000 in salary and benefits. That is probably conservative. I just found $80 billion of annual cost savings. Sounds like a lot, but let’s consider it in relation to the big picture. Your leaders spend $3.7 trillion of your money annually. That is $10 billion per day. We could fire those 800,000 non-essential government drones and it would amount to 8 days of government spending. Let that sink in for a moment.
I picture the government as Jaws and myself as Sheriff Brody.
No matter what ultimate bullshit compromise is reached by the lowlifes in Washington DC, it won’t even make a dent in what really needs to be done. This boat is going to sink.
Park Ranger: ‘We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can’
Wesley Pruden of the Washington Times reported yesterday that “the Park Service appears to be closing streets on mere whim and caprice.”
It is difficult to imagine that shutting people out of parks and privately owned concessions has to do with anything other than politics. One of these “whims” is the parking lot at Mount Vernon, which is “privately owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association.”
A Park Service ranger in Washington said that
“We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”
Steven Dinan of the Washington Times reported today that Bruce O’Connell, the owner of the Pisgah Inn, which holds a concession on the Blue Ridge Parkway was told to “cease operations.” He said
“The level of intimidation and coercion became such that we backed down. Then after sleeping on it, our own convictions took front and center and we decided to reopen.”
According to mounting sources, President Obama has been hard at work trying to make the public feel the “shutdown,” despite the fact that eighty percent of federal employees are still working. Josh Barro of Business Insider reported this week,
“…of about 4.1 million people who work for the federal government, about 80% will still be expected to show up for work.”
The owner of the “privately run, funded and staffed” Claude Moore Colonial Farm said that “we think they have closed us down illegally…” as reported today by J.D. Tuccille of reason.com. The staff was even “threatened with arrest” if they showed up for work, despite the fact that they are not government employees. The owner said,
“We have had to cancel every event at the Farm this week so we have already lost more than $15,000 in operating income because October is the busiest month of the year for us.”
Hans Bader of OpenMarket.org compiled many of these distrubing stories today. He reported that sites that were previously open without guards, such as the Lincoln Memorial, now have guards assigned to keep out the public. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is now “fenced off” despite the fact that it was previously open 24/7 without guards. Bader writes,
“the government is actually expanding its presence at national monuments in order to drive people away, at increased expense to taxpayers.” [added emphasis]
Bader also reflected at Liberty Unyielding on the politics surrounding the sequester, where similar tactics were used.
Additionally, Patrik Jonsson of the CSMonitor reported today that the National Park Service has rebuked “offers by state and private officials to help keep the Grand Canyon and other places open.” It is clear that the goal of keeping the public away from national (and privately owned) parks and monuments is a disturbing, expensive and childish political move.
Follow Renee Nal on Twitter @ReneeNal and Facebook.
Check out her news and political commentary on Liberty Unyielding, Gather and TavernKeepers.com for news you won’t find in the mainstream media. Renee is also a guest blogger for the Shire Blog.
when is it going to be “enough” for the sheep to wake up.
Better yet, when are the morans that work for the government going to say no more
I’ve been wracking my brain to ome up with one positive character quality possessed by Barack Hussein Obama. So far no luck.
I really do not think this nation will be able to survive three more years of this despicable tyrant.
The government shutdown is affecting people but not on a large scale. What is affected most seems to be the military that depends on civilian workers in the base exchanges, canteens, and commissary.
National parks being closed down seems not right but then again it is not hurting anyone other than spoiling prearranged plans.
So really if the WH is purposely tried to make people suffer then they are the ones that look bad.
And really why has spending increased so much that we need to raise the debt ceiling? Could it be that Homeland Security is too expensive to fund? How about the NSA?
Our government has become too suspicious. This is a very bad quality that leads to much violence… the police state is a violent result of too much suspicion. When a person has to justify their actions it means they are feeling guilty of something. When a government has to justify its actions it means they are breaking their own laws and the trust of people.
When the people ignore the signs in their government’s justifications for its actions; it means they are ripe for tyranny.
The voters of Arizona had the opportunity to annex the Grand Canyon and other Federal lands into the state, on the ballot last year. It was voted down by a 53% to 47% margin. Dumbasses.
“Negotiating with Obama is like playing chess with a chicken. The chicken knocks over all the chess pieces, shits on the board, and then struts around as if he won the match.”
Could anyone possibly doubt, at this point, that Obama is a psychopath?
Administrator says:
“Negotiating with Obama is like playing chess with a chicken. The chicken knocks over all the chess pieces, shits on the board, and then struts around as if he won the match.”
that’s a winning strategy on TBP
Administrator says:
“Negotiating with Obama is like playing chess with a chicken. The chicken knocks over all the chess pieces, shits on the board, and then struts around as if he won the match.”
Excellent Quote Admin
It moves from the absurd to the insane with every step making the Fed’s look more idiotic that they did minutes before.
Permanently lay off every “non-esential” person in the government – after all, if they are non-essential, they are not need for any recognizable purpose.
As for volunteers to man the gates at popular monuments (as if “gate keepers” were needed in the first place).
People, get up and scream, “FUCK YOU!” to all of the bastards and go about your business. Every “public” monument belongs to all American Citizens – not the Federal stupids – and they have no right or legal standing to keep you out of any of them. You own an undivided interest in every one of them and should exercise your right to visit any damn time you want.
Climb over or tear down the barricades and have a picnic right square in the middle of any National Monument you so desire..
MA
I getting the WAPO article that shows a group showing up for work at their local early happy hour. If say 90% of a department employees are non essential then eliminate their jobs. End of story. Where is LLOP when we need his insightful analysis. Anyhow back to football but here is a link about how business are helping these new poor cope.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-guide/wp/2013/09/30/eat-and-drink-for-less-during-a-government-shutdown/
Yes I agree that the Prez is being a dick too and not just Boner and company. Both are weak leaders who couldn’t run a fever. Like the Chess quote about how Obama plays it. Putin took his ass to school but prevented WW3.
Putin / Snowden 2016!
gayle be having an angela basset moment:
Juan
I dimly recall my ex provoking me to a similar outburst, although I didn’t actually set the car on fire. In retrospect I should have.
Fitting, that the comment I am about to make follows one that includes a picture taken by one of the Apollo astronauts.
The main word going around all media is that 97% of NASA has been furloughed, everyone “non essential.” Leaving basically just mission control for the ISS. It was even reported (either on CBS/NBC national news) this week that the Opportunity Rover was placed in park. That is about the most idiotic thing I’ve heard yet. A month or so back, they were testing its autonomous software, letting it drive itself. It has months to go to get to the mountain in question/ There were no flaws found in the autonomous software. Yet they put it in park!?!
Next, there was just a comet ISON (I think) that passed by Mars closer then the moon is to Earth. They pointed the latest and greatest Mars satellite at it and took a shot at it using the HiRISE instrument. It’s not a manned mission, and thus not critical to human existence. I think it was Friday that the close encounter happened… well after the shutdown.
Nasa is all of about 1.3% of the federal budget, yet supposedly 97% of their workers have been laid off. News just hit tonight on ZH that 400,000 workers for the Pentagon have been recalled to work (1/2 of the total workers that had been let go).
Yeah this is a great Idea. Lets furlow most of Nasa, most of EPA, most of child day care. We still need to fight wars, but the limited space launch windows, we don’t give a piss ass about. We can only launch stuff at mars about once every 1.6 years. We apparently no longer give a shit about food safety. If we can’t import what we need because of the lack of inspectors, lets just double the price and stick it to the little guy.
Brilliant plan.