ALERT — ALERT — ALERT
The federal government has shut down. Please use the comment thread on this post to report all instances of rioting in the streets, highway robbery, rise of warlords, cannibalism, human sacrifice, and instances of non-essential employees reporting to work that you observe today.
I’m sorry that your Commentariat friends will be unable to rescue you if you are besieged in your house by zombie hordes. We will all be dealing with survival issues of our own.
I plan to make it through the week on lentils. Beyond that, I may have to eat the cat. Raw, because of course there will be no fuel supplies to enable cooking her.
Sorry. I’ll have to miss out on this shutdown. It’s snowing and I expect to be snowed in for the duration. 🙂
Ha! 🙂 My choice Republican Presidential candidate, Ted Cruz, was held responsible for the last shutdown in 2013. Remember the Barrycades and the methods that a vindictive Barack used to “punish” the American people for the shutdown?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyWuOPEhGtM
This shutdown is being called the #SchumerShutdown. BTW, I’m ashamed to say that he and Gillibrand are my Senators and I never voted for either of them!
I think we’ll all survive just fine though! 🙂
Meh, I look forward to government shutdowns for one reason…people will eventually realize that nothing changes for them when the government shuts down and start to question why we need them in the first place.
Oh, good. I was really hoping for a shutdown. Of course, I would like much more of a shutdown than we are likely to enjoy. Frankly, I just don’t see the down side. “But people won’t be able to get their social security checks!” Really? You mean, people won’t be able to get money that’s been confiscated from me? I’m all for it. “The regulatory agencies won’t be able to function!” Again, where’s the down side in that? Shut it down and get them out of our way! Another thought – didn’t Donald Trump run a campaign on the basic premise that the government was the problem? How could the statists in the senate really think that the threat of a shutdown would worry him or the senators who follow his lead? His basic campaign thrust was, in effect, to shut down the government to a degree.
Bah, hate to burst your bubble here, the Feds may have shut down. But I’ll bet you the Federal “Intelligence” (heh) agencies are still working, as well as the enforcers, TSA anyone? Besides, the States and local governments are still working.
Wake me when they all truly shut down.
What Trump should be doing (although, as far as I know, he hasn’t) is instruct all his cabinet officials and agency heads to manage the “shutdown” in the most unobtrusive, invisible manner possible, which of course is precisely the opposite of the way Obama handled it (shutting down national parks which cost nothing and require no personnel to run, etc.). That way the people could receive an object lesson in just how unnecessary most of the Federal government really is. That would cause heart attacks on the Left, of course (a good thing!), but unfortunately it would also distress much of the Republican establishment, which is just as enamored of Big Government as are the Democrats.
If this charade runs true to form the Republicans will panic in a day or two, then cave and give the Democrats everything they want, including back pay to all federal employees. But it’s a different world with Trump in the White House, so this could get very interesting. What they should do is make it clear the whatever deal is struck will not include back pay. This will greatly increase the pressure on the Democrats to come to a quick agreement, and that pressure will increase with every passing day. And it will have the side benefit of saving the country a little money! But of course the cowards in the Republican Party will never go for that.
Worked for fed gov for years. When there is a shutdown all “essential” workers were required to come to work anyway. Nearly all positions are classified as essential.
Those that aren’t classified as essential stay home and have always been paid full wages for time off. Happened two or three times during my time there. Doesn’t mean anything.
Yawn,
Theater for the uninformed, no different than an episode of The Bachelor, and just like an (un)reality show the end is already scripted.
The only thing funnier and more stupid than mordor are the idiots who think that as soon as the elect the right people into office everything will be great
Lentils and cat???
Hmmmm…
Sounds like eating cheap to me!
“…rioting in the streets, highway robbery, rise of warlords, cannibalism, human sacrifice, and instances of non-essential employees reporting to work that you observe today.” Congress! That’s where it all happens all the time. Even the ‘eating their own’ part. Except that now they should all be at home explaining to their constituents why those welfare and subsidy payments aren’t coming at the end of the month.
Wait! Wha-a-a-at? Are you telling me that transfers of money are ‘essential’ functions? Well, I’m telling you that we wouldn’t have been shut down if we simply threatened to stop making voter bribe payments.
The best way I’ve heard it put;
In a world without nonessential government workers, it’s like every cell in your body turned inside out and then exploding!
It’s gonna hurt folks, pain beyond human belief, we are dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmeeeeeeeeeeeedddddddddddddddd!
Just got back from an expedition with some neighbors, scavenging the smoldering remains of the little town nearest the Gulch. It was heart-wrenching, Claire: Skeletal children weeping by the bloated corpses of their mothers, wandering packs of feral dogs. No food anywhere, of course, the wandering armed gangs had scooped all that up. Mostly unemployed cops, I think. Hard to tell, the one prisoner we took was dressed in what looked like the ragged remains of a uniform but he had lost all his language skills so we couldn’t question him.
It’s horrible. If only the political parties could have settled their petty differences this tragedy wouldn’t have happened. But we were able to pull down some structures that hadn’t burned yet for their materials, to reinforce our bunkers and fighting holes.
The uneducated are the worst party of this, and they are what big govt is counting on. I have a friend in the military waiting to everyone about how he and his family are going to lose their house and strange because of this.
Eventually, we reminded him what happened last time (he’s young, not stupid, he just didn’t really experience it) and told him that we (his Gulchers) would not let his family starve. He has now realized this is just reality TV on a grand scale and he was pulled in by the scam. He is angry.
AS WE ALL SHOULD BE!
Y’know, though. I’m getting to like Interior Secretary Zinke:
http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/20/sec-zinke-will-spend-the-government-shutdown-picking-up-trash-ensuring-the-wwii-memorial-stays-open/
“wandering packs of feral dogs. No food anywhere”
Business as usual, then …
wandering packs of feral dogs. No food anywhere,
So, one problem solves the other? 😉
Here it’s the end of the Hill Country District Junior Livestock Show. Today’s the auction, where several hundred 4-H and FFA members cash in after months of raising steers, pigs, goats, and lambs. BBQ a-plenty.
Turing Tuesday’s freezing weather the County, the City, all the school districts and many businesses shut down. Livestock show kept on keeping on.
I know where I’m going if I need rescue.
There is a highway going south from Alpine, Texas, which loops through Big Bend National Park and then back north to Marathon.
During these shutdowns, NPS closes its section, claiming that without their patrolling it, they cannot protect a traveler.
They don’t say from what will they protect a traveler.
In normal times, their patrolling is infrequent.
Other than that inconvenience, south Brewster County remains unconcerned about the federal government.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Shut Down? Yawn, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Just this afternoon we saw a dog, out on the beach, with no lease on! Black dog false flag??? I don’t know. It was down in California, I can only imagine the anarchy and chaos that ensured after we finished our Jack-in-the-Box.
I waited for all the gunfire to quiet down just a bit before making a made dash to the van, which miraculously still worked!! A quick stop at the small market nearby – amazing that it was still open, and then inside to use the ATM which actually produced money!!!
Off to a massage, then to the pub for a couple pints of ale… some way some how the taps still flowed….
This damned and interminable shutdown nearly ruined my 2nd beer, as the Berlinerweise was just a wee tad undercarbonated…. effing Trump and the GOP!!!
And this. A sad day indeed.
Panda cameras at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington will be turned off.
https://twitter.com/CNN/status/954140117689610240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fbrettt-3136%2F2018%2F01%2F18%2Fnation-in-crisis-cnn-reports-that-zoos-panda-cam-will-be-turned-off-in-government-shutdown%2F
h/t
https://reason.com/blog/2018/01/19/government-shutdown-if-it-happens
I knew this was satire because (drum roll) YOU DON”T HAVE A CAT! HA. Gotcha!
“Y’know, though. I’m getting to like Interior Secretary Zinke:
http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/20/sec-zinke-will-spend-the-government-shutdown-picking-up-trash-ensuring-the-wwii-memorial-stays-open/
”
I went to school with a Zinke. Acts like that were so much his style that I had to check if they were the same person.
Different first name. But still, I like the way he’s responding to the whole shutdown thing.
6 inches of new snow on the ground this morning. Not expecting any zombies… or anyone else! 🙂
But the troops overseas won’t be able to watch NFL football because of the “shutdown.” The horror! The humanity!
I am currently mobilized to a state side mission (training Reserve and Guard units going over how to identify and defeat IEDs). So far the “problems” we are dealing with from the shut down are caused by stupid rules. Some mess halls are shutting down because the government civilian supervisors are “non-essential” and can’t oversee the contract civilians. (And you cant replace them with military due to contract clauses).
Note it is some mess halls. Those that feed deploying soldiers and “key feeding centers” are staying open. (and the contract company has set up a rotation for its employees from the shutdown halls so they can get some pay).
The other big problem we are dealing with right now is what to do with people on Temporary Duty (TDY). On Friday we got guidance that any planned TDY after the 19th needs to be canceled. Any planned TDY before the 31 of Jan needs to be canceled just in case. Great, I see the logic, no problem. But what about my Soldier who is in a three month training program and has five weeks left?
The answer to that question finally was “They will have 48 hours to return home”. Which means they have to buy a ticket at the last minute, cancel their paid for return ticket, and leave the course unfinished. (and the course is shutting down because many of the instructors are government civilians) Because they are leaving unfinished, IF the money is turned back on in the next three weeks they will be called back to finish the class (instead of five days a week of 10 hour days, you do 7 days of 16 hours.) So i’m sure that will save money for the military…buying three one way tickets at the last minute won’t be that expensive. Or having to have the Soldier restart the course and losing him for another chunk of time which will delay his promotion and disrupt his career.
I spent most of Saturday trying to get clarification on this, We did find a short term workaround. It abuses the unlimited miles part of the car rental, but is the creative thinking Combat Engineers are known for.
We did get informed that no pay will be given to Soldiers unless 1) the budget is passed, B) a continuing resolution is passed, and iii) Congress specifically votes to authorize pay of military.
I was deployed in 2013 and that shut down covered two pay dates. the first they did not do anything and the second pay date they authorized pay. My bank, and many others blunted the effect by making 0 interest loans equal to your last pay check for military members. (and my bank has said the same again).
On a side note, we hear how people who staid home got paid in full in the last shutdowns, and that is true to a point. Salaried employees got paid in full. Hourly employees did not because they did not work hours in the shut down. While salaried employees are assumed to have been working or willing to work.
Just in case you wondered what actually shuts down and what doesn’t:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-20/now-government-has-shut-down-heres-what-actually-shuts-down
I loved Joel’s post!
Day Two. The lack of hot air emanating from Washington has ceased to postpone an ice age and the advancing glaciers have now reached to the southwest high desert. Wind from the ice sheets has whipped up firestorms in the burning towns, completing their destruction and perhaps holding back what remains of the hordes of starving looters. We haven’t had a firefight in several hours. The last wave mostly used crude hand-made weapons and fire-hardened sticks.
Food will become a problem soon, since agriculture and commerce are impossible without the enabling federal departments. The piles of frozen bodies may slake our hunger for a while, but we fear. We fear. Ammo is holding out so far. But it’s getting so cold…
Off topic, but all the humorous post about a dystopian present got me thinking.
Anyone here remember the movie; Panic In The Year Zero?
Reporting here from behind Russian lines. Don’t know how long I have, comms irregular and insecure. 6th, 13th, and 33rd Motor Rifles division, backed up by believed 22nd Guards Army and 12th Frontal Aviation, entered Prague approx. 0545 this AM. Lost contact re Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Brno, Ostrava, Vienna approx. 0550. Heavy fighting around Prague Castle, contact lost re Namesti Republiky and Florenc. Skoda Works at Mlada Boleslav destroyed to prevent capture. President, Cabinet and Chamber Of Deputies reported last stand in St. Vitus Cathedral, last communication approx 1335hrs. NATO positions unclear, reports confused. Heavy tactical UAV and jammer coverage. Pray for us.
I’ve heard of it, but having just gone to watch a trailer on Youtube I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it.
Meanwhile, in the senate… https://www.instagram.com/p/BVcWlVsBT7C/
Day Two. The lack of hot air emanating from Washington has ceased to postpone an ice age and the advancing glaciers have now reached to the southwest high desert.
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Its been below 32F for 2 days here now.So Hell HAS frozen over.Thanks Joel for the scientific explanation.
Off to watch Panic in the year zero,thanks Myself.Heard its available on something called Kodi or something like that.Just a rumour,I personally dont know anything about that,not me ,no way.Just a rumour.
Never heard of THIS either
MINIX NEO U9-H + MINIX NEO A3, 64-bit Octa-Core Media Hub for Android [2GB/16GB/4K/HDR/XBMC] and Six-Axis Gyroscope Remote with Voice Input. Sold Directly by MINIX Technology Limited.
jc2k January 21, 2018 11:10 am
Meanwhile, in the senate… https://www.instagram.com/p/BVcWlVsBT7C/
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Too damn cute! Love the comment…..
jc2k January 21, 2018 11:10 am-cyteseer-Why does this sound like “Itsy bitsy spider” to me? 🐕😍🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🎧🕷
I heard the government of Venezuela hasn’t shut down. Maybe they can step in and help us?
Panic in year zero-1962,New Mercury,new trailer,wife,2 kids,1 income,buy stuff with cash…..1962 sounds pretty good to me.
Great movie idea Myself,enjoying it. 🙂