Shutdown stories

[Ozlsn]

7 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

As a result, officers who report for duty often are working 16-hour shifts, and prison secretaries and janitors are being forced to patrol the halls and yards.

WTAF? That is appalling. They should not be being placed in positions they have absolutely no training for, that is ridiculous and dangerous.

[Destiny]

 

2 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

Mods:  I'd like to post a photo or two from the crowd. Is it okay? I realize I did that the other week with out asking first.

Yes, you are. Just put more than two under a spoiler. 

[Ozlsn]

8 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

“But these employees live paycheck to paycheck, and they can’t scrape up the dollars to get to work or pay for child care.”

I kind of feel that if the Federal government can't pay a living wage - ie one that people are able to have at least some buffer over the cost of living - then there is a problem. Also who'da thunk these people were part of an economy? What happens when the childcare workers, the gas station employees, the supermarket cashiers all start needing to access food banks because they're not getting paid either? 

More seriously if the maxim is that society is three meals away from anarchy... how many paychecks missed does that equate to?

[GreyhoundFan]

"‘Will work for pay’: Furloughed federal workers stage sit-in outside senators’ offices; 12 arrested"

Spoiler

On the 33rd day of a partial government shutdown that has left hundreds of thousands without pay, union leaders and furloughed federal workers marched into the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday and demanded a meeting.

When office staff refused, a dozen of them took a seat in the hallway outside.

“Majority Leader McConnell, where are you?” asked Jeffery David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

Capitol Police officers arrested 12 protesters for staging a sit-in outside McConnell’s office. They were pulled up from the floor and led away, their arms zip-tied behind their backs. Each was charged with a misdemeanor.

The frenzied scene outside McConnell’s office — where a dozen protesters continued to chant “we want to work” and “where is Mitch?” — was the climax to an afternoon of protests and confrontations meant to draw attention to the growing desperation of federal workers.

“Some days I cry because there is no help for us,” said Helene Lonang, a contractor. “I hope this makes Trump and the government realize we need our jobs.”

The protest, led by several unions that represent furloughed federal employees and out-of-work contractors, drew hundreds of workers to Capitol Hill. About 800,000 furloughed workers will face the loss of a second paycheck on Friday.

Protesters began by standing in silence for 33 minutes — one for each day of the longest government shutdown in American history.

Inside the Hart Senate Office Building, where protest signs are banned, workers instead wrote messages on Styrofoam plates.

“Jobs not walls,” read one.

“Will work for pay,” read another.

“Please let us work,” said several more.

As they held the empty plates in their hands, several furloughed workers said they were reminded of how drastically their circumstances had changed since the shutdown began on Dec. 22.

“I passed by D.C. Central Kitchen the other day and there was a line around the block, and I thought, ‘Wow, we’re usually the ones helping other people,’ ” said Tania Alfonso, 38, a furloughed federal economist. “But now we’re the ones who need help.”

She held her 2-year-old daughter on her shoulders. The girl’s small hands clutched a plate they made together. It said: “Pay my mom.”

Workers raised their empty plates toward the windows of senators’ offices that overlook the atrium where they gathered. With each minute that passed, organizers rang a chime to mark another day of the government impasse, another day of no work, no pay and growing despair.

After 33 minutes, the crowd erupted into a chorus of chants: “No more food banks,” protesters shouted. “They need paychecks!”

They waved their plates to the beat. Some clapped. Others stomped their feet.

Blake Lorenz, 75, brandished his handwritten sign. On it was one word: “Hostage.”

Lorenz, a veteran and furloughed federal worker who manages satellite communications for NASA, said it’s how he has felt since the shutdown began.

“I think we’re being used as pawns,” he said. “What does me doing my job at NASA have to do with a wall?”

Lonang, 55, scrawled a plea for federal contractor back pay on her plate in purple marker. As a security guard at the Smithsonian, she doesn’t know if she will recoup her lost wages.

Lonang, an immigrant from Cameroon, said she’s fallen behind on her mortgage. She hasn’t been able to pay for her 16-year-old daughter’s tutoring lessons. While she usually sends money to family abroad, she said, in recent weeks she’s barely had enough to get by.

She’s begun looking for temporary work, but all she wants is her job back.

“It’s not only my family who is hurting,” she said. “I wish they would please let us go back to work.”

As the protest disbanded, dozens of unpaid workers headed to the offices of Republican senators to confront the lawmakers and their staffs over the standoff between the president and Democratic congressional leaders.

A small group of union leaders broke off in search of McConnell.

“Have y’all seen the majority leader?” Cox asked confused passersby. “He’s been missing for 33 days.”

A spokesman for McConnell declined to comment on the protest, or subsequent arrests, and referred instead to comments the majority leader made on the Senate floor Wednesday.

“When we vote on the president’s plan tomorrow, we’ll see what each senator decides to prioritize,” McConnell said.

Federal employees who followed the union officers to McConnell’s office took out their phones and filmed the encounter.

“He won’t even speak to us,” one woman said.

The presidents of the National Federation of Federal Employees and International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers — Randy Erwin and Paul Shearon, respectively — joined Cox in the sit-in outside McConnell’s office.

They chanted as they sat. They chanted over Capitol Police officers’ calls to clear the hall.

“Get it open, keep it open,” the protesters shouted in unison.

Congressional staffers passing in the halls cheered them on.

“Thank you guys,” a man shouted. “We appreciate you. We support you.”

Union leaders said they planned to revisit the offices of Republican senators on Thursday to ask lawmakers a series of questions, including: “Why are you still getting paid?”

Participants hoped to convince senators to vote to reopen the government and postpone the stalled debate over border security and funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We want senators to see the faces of the people who are being hurt by this [shutdown], and to tell them it’s time to stop holding federal employees hostage,” said Brittany Holder, a spokeswoman for the NFFE.

The actions are part of a multiorganization strategy to ramp up protests as the shutdown slogs on.

Earlier this month, federal employees rallied outside the White House in a demonstration aimed at the president. Although the workers assembled there varied in political leanings, nearly all said they felt used — like pawns.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on a pair of competing bills Thursday to reopen the government — one from Democrats and one from President Trump. Neither bill appeared likely to earn the support needed to advance.

Trump’s proposal would open the government through Sept. 30, while also earmarking $5.7 billion for a border wall, granting temporary deportation protections to about 1 million undocumented immigrants and altering asylum rules — a new wrinkle that Democrats described as a nonstarter.

The Democrats’ bill would fund the government through Feb. 8 without providing new money for Trump’s proposed border wall. Proponents have said the stopgap measure would allow both parties to negotiate on border security, while allowing federal employees to get back to work.

But to the workers and contractors who assembled Wednesday, the upcoming votes were of little comfort.

“They’re not going to solve this tomorrow,” said Mike Adams, 45, a federal contractor. “At this point, neither side wants to allow the other side to save face — they’re too busy playing the blame game.”

“And we’re stuck in the middle,” added Deborah Clyburn, his colleague. “They never should have let it get this far.”

 

[onekidanddone]

15 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"‘Will work for pay’: Furloughed federal workers stage sit-in outside senators’ offices; 12 arrested"

  Hide contents

On the 33rd day of a partial government shutdown that has left hundreds of thousands without pay, union leaders and furloughed federal workers marched into the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday and demanded a meeting.

When office staff refused, a dozen of them took a seat in the hallway outside.

“Majority Leader McConnell, where are you?” asked Jeffery David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

Capitol Police officers arrested 12 protesters for staging a sit-in outside McConnell’s office. They were pulled up from the floor and led away, their arms zip-tied behind their backs. Each was charged with a misdemeanor.

The frenzied scene outside McConnell’s office — where a dozen protesters continued to chant “we want to work” and “where is Mitch?” — was the climax to an afternoon of protests and confrontations meant to draw attention to the growing desperation of federal workers.

“Some days I cry because there is no help for us,” said Helene Lonang, a contractor. “I hope this makes Trump and the government realize we need our jobs.”

The protest, led by several unions that represent furloughed federal employees and out-of-work contractors, drew hundreds of workers to Capitol Hill. About 800,000 furloughed workers will face the loss of a second paycheck on Friday.

Protesters began by standing in silence for 33 minutes — one for each day of the longest government shutdown in American history.

Inside the Hart Senate Office Building, where protest signs are banned, workers instead wrote messages on Styrofoam plates.

“Jobs not walls,” read one.

“Will work for pay,” read another.

“Please let us work,” said several more.

As they held the empty plates in their hands, several furloughed workers said they were reminded of how drastically their circumstances had changed since the shutdown began on Dec. 22.

“I passed by D.C. Central Kitchen the other day and there was a line around the block, and I thought, ‘Wow, we’re usually the ones helping other people,’ ” said Tania Alfonso, 38, a furloughed federal economist. “But now we’re the ones who need help.”

She held her 2-year-old daughter on her shoulders. The girl’s small hands clutched a plate they made together. It said: “Pay my mom.”

Workers raised their empty plates toward the windows of senators’ offices that overlook the atrium where they gathered. With each minute that passed, organizers rang a chime to mark another day of the government impasse, another day of no work, no pay and growing despair.

After 33 minutes, the crowd erupted into a chorus of chants: “No more food banks,” protesters shouted. “They need paychecks!”

They waved their plates to the beat. Some clapped. Others stomped their feet.

Blake Lorenz, 75, brandished his handwritten sign. On it was one word: “Hostage.”

Lorenz, a veteran and furloughed federal worker who manages satellite communications for NASA, said it’s how he has felt since the shutdown began.

“I think we’re being used as pawns,” he said. “What does me doing my job at NASA have to do with a wall?”

Lonang, 55, scrawled a plea for federal contractor back pay on her plate in purple marker. As a security guard at the Smithsonian, she doesn’t know if she will recoup her lost wages.

Lonang, an immigrant from Cameroon, said she’s fallen behind on her mortgage. She hasn’t been able to pay for her 16-year-old daughter’s tutoring lessons. While she usually sends money to family abroad, she said, in recent weeks she’s barely had enough to get by.

She’s begun looking for temporary work, but all she wants is her job back.

“It’s not only my family who is hurting,” she said. “I wish they would please let us go back to work.”

As the protest disbanded, dozens of unpaid workers headed to the offices of Republican senators to confront the lawmakers and their staffs over the standoff between the president and Democratic congressional leaders.

A small group of union leaders broke off in search of McConnell.

“Have y’all seen the majority leader?” Cox asked confused passersby. “He’s been missing for 33 days.”

A spokesman for McConnell declined to comment on the protest, or subsequent arrests, and referred instead to comments the majority leader made on the Senate floor Wednesday.

“When we vote on the president’s plan tomorrow, we’ll see what each senator decides to prioritize,” McConnell said.

Federal employees who followed the union officers to McConnell’s office took out their phones and filmed the encounter.

“He won’t even speak to us,” one woman said.

The presidents of the National Federation of Federal Employees and International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers — Randy Erwin and Paul Shearon, respectively — joined Cox in the sit-in outside McConnell’s office.

They chanted as they sat. They chanted over Capitol Police officers’ calls to clear the hall.

“Get it open, keep it open,” the protesters shouted in unison.

Congressional staffers passing in the halls cheered them on.

“Thank you guys,” a man shouted. “We appreciate you. We support you.”

Union leaders said they planned to revisit the offices of Republican senators on Thursday to ask lawmakers a series of questions, including: “Why are you still getting paid?”

Participants hoped to convince senators to vote to reopen the government and postpone the stalled debate over border security and funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We want senators to see the faces of the people who are being hurt by this [shutdown], and to tell them it’s time to stop holding federal employees hostage,” said Brittany Holder, a spokeswoman for the NFFE.

The actions are part of a multiorganization strategy to ramp up protests as the shutdown slogs on.

Earlier this month, federal employees rallied outside the White House in a demonstration aimed at the president. Although the workers assembled there varied in political leanings, nearly all said they felt used — like pawns.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on a pair of competing bills Thursday to reopen the government — one from Democrats and one from President Trump. Neither bill appeared likely to earn the support needed to advance.

Trump’s proposal would open the government through Sept. 30, while also earmarking $5.7 billion for a border wall, granting temporary deportation protections to about 1 million undocumented immigrants and altering asylum rules — a new wrinkle that Democrats described as a nonstarter.

The Democrats’ bill would fund the government through Feb. 8 without providing new money for Trump’s proposed border wall. Proponents have said the stopgap measure would allow both parties to negotiate on border security, while allowing federal employees to get back to work.

But to the workers and contractors who assembled Wednesday, the upcoming votes were of little comfort.

“They’re not going to solve this tomorrow,” said Mike Adams, 45, a federal contractor. “At this point, neither side wants to allow the other side to save face — they’re too busy playing the blame game.”

“And we’re stuck in the middle,” added Deborah Clyburn, his colleague. “They never should have let it get this far.”

 

I was there, but I didn't go upstairs to the offices. The standing in silence for 33 minutes was really powerful

[nvmbr02]

I thought this was really well written.

Furlough with a Capital F

 

[Drala]

Rachel Maddow did a segment last night on the damage the shutdown is doing to the government infrastructure.  The longer the shutdown goes on, the more difficult it will be to get the impacted agencies back to normal.  The shutdown not only hurts people, it is seriously damaging our government's ability to function in the long term.   She suggested that the damage being done to our national security (the Coast Guard, the FBI, federal prison guards, the NSA) was serving the interests of a hostile foreign power (Russia) and floated the possibility that, with the shutdown, Trump is acting as a foreign agent.  "If you were Russia, what else would you want him to do?"  Maddow's commentary is a lead-in to the interview with Kamala Harris, which is also worth watching.

See "Trump indifferent to shutdown's harm to workers, damage to US"

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

 

 

[onekidanddone]

#stickingtotheunion  Shutdown day 34

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[CTRLZero]

I was reading another article on the latest Wilbur Ross has to say, and he says he doesn't understand why people don't just borrow, borrow, borrow until the shutdown is over.  Uh...  These wealthy Trumpreich sorts just have a mindset that I can't fathom.

I see @AmazonGracejust posted the clip.  Thank you! 

 

[onekidanddone]

36 minutes ago, CTRLZero said:

I was reading another article on the latest Wilbur Ross has to say, and he says he doesn't understand why people don't just borrow, borrow, borrow until the shutdown is over.  Uh...  These wealthy Trumpreich sorts just have a mindset that I can't fathom.

I see @AmazonGracejust posted the clip.  Thank you! 

 

Just like this boss who borrows, defaults, claims bankruptcy and walk away to do it again

[mamallama]

Perhaps he should authorize interest free government loans for them.  

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[fraurosena]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

[prayawaythefundie]

„FBI declined to comment“ - Maybe their PR person has to work another job because of the shutdown. So they weren‘t available. 

[SilverBeach]

Just stopping by to ask that all US members and readers continue to contact all three of their congressional reps, blue or red, and let them  know you want the shutdown to end now. Emails can be sent and you may call their local or DC offices. I've got mine on speed dial.

If I see one more rich, privileged, insensitive Republican deny the impact of this travesty on real human beings, my head will explode. Their arrogance is appalling. These stupid asses don't seem to understand that loans have to be repaid, creating another bill when there is no cash flow. Damn.

[GreyhoundFan]

28 minutes ago, SilverBeach said:

Just stopping by to ask that all US members and readers continue to contact all three of their congressional reps, blue or red, and let them  know you want the shutdown to end now. Emails can be sent and you may call their local or DC offices. I've got mine on speed dial.

Many of the staff members at my senators' and representative's offices know me by name. I call and email frequently. All three of mine are pushing hard to end this ridiculous shutdown, since a large number of their constituents are impacted (I am in Northern Virginia).

[GreyhoundFan]

"Wilbur Ross says furloughed workers should take out a loan. His agency’s own credit union is charging nearly 9 percent"

Spoiler

The Department of Commerce federal credit union is charging furloughed employees almost 9 percent interest on emergency loans to cover their missing paychecks, despite Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross saying Thursday that financial institutions were offering “very, very low interest rate loans to bridge people over the gap.”

“During the Government Shutdown we’re here to help our members and non-member employees of the Department of Commerce & NOAA and its affiliates, the Executive Office of the President and the White House Management and Administration Offices,” the credit union website says.

Emergency loans of up to $5,000 are available for furloughed employees with repayment terms of up to two years, the site says. Two loan officers reached at the credit union telephone number confirmed the terms, which include interest rates “as low as 8.99 percent.”

In an interview with CNBC earlier Thursday, Ross made waves by saying he doesn’t understand why federal workers are visiting food banks during the partial government shutdown. He urged them to seek loans from banks and credit unions to supplement their lost wages.

“I know they are, and I don’t really quite understand why,” Ross said when asked about federal workers going to food banks. Ross is a billionaire and a longtime friend of President Trump.

His comment drew criticism from Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “Is this the ‘let them eat cake’ kind of attitude?” she said. “Or call your father for money?”

Even Trump weighed in. “Perhaps he should have said it differently,” Trump said when asked about Ross’s comments. “He’s done a great job.”

Ross leads one of the agencies that is directly affected by the shutdown that began Dec. 22, and more than 20,000 of his employees haven’t been paid for weeks.

A Commerce spokesperson said furloughed workers can access less expensive loans via other financial institutions. Navy Federal Credit Union, for example, offers no-interest 60-day loans of up to $6,000 for federal employees and contractors. U.S. bank is offering similar terms for customers who are federal employees, charging 0.1 percent interest on amounts up to $6,000 with 12-month terms.

Still, the White House is working to quell a growing anger among the 800,000 federal workers who are scheduled to miss their second paychecks this week, as many have begun calling in sick or refusing to show up for work. The Trump administration has scrambled to try to deflect the shutdown’s effect on the economy, but they’ve done this in part by requiring thousands of unpaid federal employees to continue doing their jobs.

Many of those workers are beginning to revolt, either calling in sick or saying they can’t afford gasoline.

“It’s kind of disappointing that the air traffic controllers are calling in sick in pretty large number,” Ross said in his television interview.

Ross also repeatedly stressed that federal workers should simply take out loans to cover their expenses while the government was shut down. He acknowledged they would have to likely pay some interest, but he said it should help them cover costs.

“The idea that it’s paycheck or zero is not a really valid idea,” he said. “There’s no reason why some institution wouldn’t be willing to lend.”

He described such loans as “totally safe” for the lender. Since Congress has promised to pay employees for their time awat from work, the loans effectively carry “a 100 percent government guarantee,” Ross said.

Several private financial institutions offer personal loans at annual percentage rates below the credit union figure. Lending Tree, an online lending exchange, quotes rates as low as 3.75 percent for short-term loans.

But longer maturity emergency loans run to 35.99 percent, according to an online listing.

All of those rates are well above inflation, which is running at 1.9 percent, according to the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge.

“The banks and credit unions should be making credit available to them,” Ross said on CNBC. “When you think about it, these are basically government-guaranteed loans because the government has committed these folks will get back pay once this whole thing gets settled down. So there really is not a good excuse why there should be a liquidity crisis.”

 

[SilverBeach]

Wilbur Ross can kiss my ass.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Sen. Michael Bennet slams Ted Cruz for ‘crocodile tears’ over the shutdown'

Spoiler

Sen. Michael F. Bennet, typically a mild-mannered, congenial guy, on Thursday unleashed all of his furor over the partial government shutdown on Sen. Ted Cruz.

In a fiery exchange that played out on the Senate floor shortly before votes on two competing bills to reopen the government, Bennet (D-Colo.) raised his voice and seemed to let loose six years of pent-up ire directed at Cruz (R-Tex.) for leading an earlier shutdown.

When Cruz held up government funding in 2013 over his demand that Obamacare be defunded, Colorado was still reeling from floods that had ravaged the state. When the government shut down, the emergency funds from the federal government were paused.

So when Cruz finished giving a floor speech blaming Democrats for federal employees' furloughs and pushing a bill that would pay just the Coast Guard during the shutdown, Bennet had a harsh response.

“These crocodile tears that the senator from Texas is crying for the first responders are too hard for me to take,” Bennet said, his arms crossed. Then his calm voice quickly elevated to a yell.

“Because when the senator from Texas shut this government down, my state was flooded,” he said. “It was underwater. People were killed. People’s houses were destroyed. Their small businesses were ruined forever. And because of the senator from Texas, this government was shut down. For politics. That he surfed to a second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.” (Cruz actually won the Iowa caucuses.)

Bennet is a backbencher with little national prominence, but like many of his more well-known colleagues, has said he’s interested in running for president in 2020. Dressing down Cruz on C-SPAN is a surefire way to gain fans in the Democratic base.

The Democrat went on for nearly 25 minutes, pacing, his voice resuming its normal tone and then just as quickly going back to yelling about President Trump, the border wall, immigration policy, the Freedom Caucus.

He lamented that a comprehensive immigration bill that the Senate passed in 2013 couldn’t get a vote in the House, because of the “Hastert rule” requiring that a majority of the majority party be in favor of any bill brought to the floor.

“Because of the stupidest rule ever created, called the Hastert rule!” Bennet screamed. “Named after somebody who is in prison. That has allowed a minority of tyrants in the Congress” to control the agenda. (J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, Republican speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007, pleaded guilty in 2015 to violating federal banking laws in connection with a hush-money payment and admitted that he had sexually molested teenage boys whom he had coached. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison.)

Near the end of Bennet’s remarks, his voice level again, the senator said: “I don’t even know what day it is anymore of this record-long shutdown. But the pretext for it is an invention. It’s a creation of something in the president’s mind.”

When Bennet was finished, an aggrieved Cruz took back the floor. He lamented about Bennet’s “angry” speech attacking him personally.

“I will say in all of my time in the Senate, I don’t believe I have ever bellowed or yelled at a colleague on the Senate floor, and I hope I never do that,” Cruz said.

It may be true that Cruz has never yelled at another colleague. But as The Washington Post’s Paul Kane noted on Twitter, there was that time that he called Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) a liar in a Senate floor speech.

 

[onekidanddone]

The young man in the tan jacket is going to be the leader of a new generation.  I've heard him speak at two rallies and WOW he is going to go far. Old farts like me need people like him to take up the mantle.

Being the old fart that I am I spaced on he name, but I think Sir is a good place to start.

#UnionStrong

 

[Cartmann99]

On 1/23/2019 at 4:43 PM, Ozlsn said:

WTAF? That is appalling. They should not be being placed in positions they have absolutely no training for, that is ridiculous and dangerous.

There's going to be a huge lawsuit if a janitor or secretary ends up seriously hurt or killed because of this decision.