Shutdowns don’t get bad linearly; they get bad exponentially

You think that might be part of the plan? “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!” I kid, there is no plan, but the unintended consequences fit into the right wing shut-down-the-government-starve-the-beast mentality.

8 Likes

You still have the problem of firing thousands of people at once. It has real world consequences that will have an impact across the economy. That’s not insignificant.

So, yeah, getting rid of the TSA (or maybe changing how it goes about it’s mission? Or giving it a different mission?) sounds great, but let’s not just screw over a bunch of working class people, either.

18 Likes

Add to the fact that while TSA has it’s own set of issues and negatives; handing private security and ATC back to the airports/airlines will result in one thing and one thing only…forget your $99 low fare flights. We will be back to 1960’s level costs to fly; which when adjusted for inflation is would mean that quick NYC to Chicago trip would run you $500 for the cheapest possible seat/flight and that NYC to LA leg would be $1600 minimum. Not to mention the deregulation problems that also come.

No. I’ll keep the TSA and FAA. Just reopen the government and stop with the Toddler in Chief’s temper tantrum that he isn’t getting his swing set built.

6 Likes

The life philosophy of the “free” market fundie.

2 Likes

You know what I would love to see… the next president put this guy in charge of the TSA… I know he does cybersecurity mainly, but still…

23 Likes

Wait…woah woah woah. Are you suggestig that they put an actual educated and experienced professional in the area of Security in charge of security!!!

21 Likes

Yeah, I’m on the “no plan” bandwagon. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rand Paul or some of his friends feel like Machiavellian masterminds and mentally take credit for engineering this entire thing. But really they’re all just stooges, and the president is definitely just flailing around.

12 Likes

I’m with you on some of it, but a lot of the affected contractors are cafeteria workers and janitors who were already having trouble making ends meet with a paycheck. General Dynamics can go f*ck itself, but the minimum wage folks need a break.

16 Likes

Theres a chilling story from the final days of Nixon’s white house, where he’s scrambling for options, and asks about military resources nearby, in case he simply chose to hole up and hunker down.

We won’t see how that alternate history would have played out in 1974, but this is Trump’s version of that same moment. He knows theyve got him dead to rights, he cant do anything to alter the outcome, so all he can think of is to disfract and obfuscate in the vain hope that investigators will lose track of the paperwork in the chaos.

Its not about a nonsensical wall, its about his walk of shame to prison. I wish they would pick up the pace with that little parade.

18 Likes

Even if they aren’t “burn everything down”-types, there seems to be a lot of people who are content to be “king of the ashes”.

4 Likes

Does this look like a human being who could EVER be distracted by ANYTHING?

11 Likes

Too reasonable; doesn’t obfuscate enough. You may as well suggest a philosopher king. (Although, Squid Friday would be insane!)

2 Likes

If that’s what they want, let’s try it out on them first.

“Hot enough for you, Steve?”

I’ve seen people go, “Hey. look, nothing has fallen apart. Maybe we don’t need the government after all!”

That was maybe five days into the shutdown.

These are the same people who think that Trump was responsible for what the economy looked like the first year he took office.

People really strongly dissociate cause an effect unless they’re temporally right up against each other.

8 Likes

Agreed.

I was thinking about those gov contracts in the billion dollar range which are indeed the Boeings and Lockheeds that operate in that spectrum. They have been pillaging the country for years.

In regards to wages:

A+ for trying I guess…

7 Likes

I’ve actually felt like he might be competent as Secretary of Defense. At least, I think that having mostly current or ex-military secretaries has really constrained how the United States envisions defense in almost exclusively military terms.

4 Likes

Hmmm… I’m not sure I agree, 100%. I think he’d be great heading up a section within the department on cyber security and the internet, for sure. Given the very real proliferation of the geo-political situation into the online world, we need someone who understands how that actually works as opposed to someone who just has a vague notion about it… I’d much rather see someone who understands the history of American foreign policy heading up the defense department, especially if they have a critical view of it.

I agree about no longer necessarily having it be an ex-military dude. That would be helpful (though I’d argue that there are plenty of non-military hawks who’ve done the job).

6 Likes

And another thing would be all of the work that that is not being done that still would need to be. Not only do they need everyone back but they are likely going to need to hire temps to take care of the backlog.
So the US taxpayer is currently loosing all the services, but then will need to pay double just to recover.

3 Likes

I never put a specific date on it, but yeah, pretty much the same here. If you look at historic trends it take about that long for the major economic indicators to begin reflecting policies.

4 Likes

Why hunker when you can blast off with your very own, newly-minted military resources!

…Bonus: it also works as a distraction in a pinch!

3 Likes