Tag: government shutdown

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.