Few heads of state or government have been as blatant – zealous indeed – in their hatred of the federal workforce as President Donald Trump. He berated federal employees who were capitalized as agents of the deep state and tried to deny resources to everyone but those who carry out the most heinous activities of the federal government. (Its administration issued a mandate that ICE is also hiring 10,000 Employees the agency didn’t even ask about) Given the threat, and sometimes reality, of budget cuts, retaliation, and restructuring, many federal employees walked out the door, leaving the struggling agencies even weaker than before.
For all the media attention that the attrition received during the Trump years, this is an important one to bear in mind many agencies After the Obama administration’s ill-advised sequestration deal with the Republican Congress, its workforce continued to decline. Still, the particularly conspicuous, gruesome nature of Trump’s attacks has drawn attention to the plight of the federal workforce in new ways.
That awareness was heightened significantly over the past year as the nation saw how ill-prepared the federal government is for the challenges of our time. While Trump was actively involved in significant parts of the COVID-19 response, there were also numerous examples of crumbling government infrastructures that were largely independent of Trump. For example, consider the Treasury Department’s slow distribution of stimulus checks to millions or the mess the Small Business Administration has created handling of help for really desperate small businesses. Many feel that the government of the nation, once capable of amazing achievements, was simply no longer up to the tasks at hand.
With wider recognition of both the problem and the stakes, now is the time for President Biden to campaign for a hiring frenzy. […]
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TWEET OF THE DAY
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GOP senators whine and feel betrayed because Dems do what they do and many media outlets buy their crocodile tears
Meanwhile, Merrick Garland cannot get a hearing for confirmation because the Republicans are not relinquishing control
Shut up for impartiality
– Joe Sudbay (@JoeSudbay) February 1, 2021
QUOTE
“It is better to err on the side of too much than on the side of too little. Interest rates are zero, inflation is low, unemployment is high. You don’t need a textbook to know that this is the case when you are operating the control accelerator. Let’s go.” ~~Mark Zandi by Moody’s Analytics on stimulus / survival legislation (01/31/2021)
BLAST FROM THE PAST
That day at Daily Kos in 2011– O’Keefe copycat targeting proposed parenting face plants out of the gate:
So another wacky wingnut, James O’Keefe wannabe, posted a joke video targeting “the left.” This was started by an anti-election activist named Lila Rose and aims at planned parenthood. Rose, who had worked with O’Keefe in the past, wanted to make a copy of his ACORN / Pimp Hoax videos, this time replacing ACORN with Planned Parenthood and O’Keefe’s pimp outfit with actors and actresses who claim to be part of a minor his prostitution ring.
Rose is just posting the videos claiming Planned Parenthood conspired to cover up the prostitution ring. She leaves out just one detail: Planned Parenthood officials, who immediately realized they were likely punk, went to federal agencies anyway about the possibility that Rose’s actors weren’t part of another O’Keefe-style joke.
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