The Trump Presidency 2.0

[amlove21]

So apparently like 25-40% of the FBI was involved in the January 6th investigation...

That’ll get us there.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

I don’t know what your connection is to engineering, but my wife is an engineer and everyone who works for her is, she isn’t hiring foreign visa holders because it is a pain in the fucking ass. Sometimes bro the sound bites aren’t real.there are roughly 85k total H1B visas total per year. Literally a drop in the bucket. Hiring them is a pain in the ass because you have to show you couldn’t hire an American.

They don’t hand out these visas to engineers. They are given to people who bring exceptional ability to science and engineering, with caveats. Most of my wife’s PH.D cohort who were foreigners(only a few) were required to stay after their Ph.Ds. This was at “The Ivy of the south”, and a top 3 program in the nation. My wife was an NSF fellow, and has pretty mad bona fides in engineering.

ETA: something that is rarely mentioned is that many of the grants that fund research, particularly DOD and DARPA, don’t allow certain people to work on them. DOD and DARPA fund a lot. They funded a huge grant my wife received for her Ph.D in tissue engineering, as it related to the long term treatment of burn related scarring. This is improtant because labs can’t fund research that doesn’t have outside funding. So if a grant excludes foreigners, they can’t take a foreign student.

Yeah... until recently I was in an engineering program. Most of the students from India, SEA, & Asia, flat out said that their intent for getting their degrees was to get an visa and emigrate to the US. Some were cool. Some, when drunk some would even talk about their hatred for America. Even knew a rich Saudi kid who brought his pregnant wife to give birth here.

You have no idea how fucked up things are. In my part of the world, it's an open secret that the coastal tech companies use H1B's to fill out their labor pools. That's why the safest bet for a US college grad in tech is to work for a govt lab or a company that has citizenry requirements. There is a reason why the Zoomers are done. As they're having to compete with foreigners with fake degrees. It's why a chunk of the generation has checked out.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

Manifest destiny. I thought you’d be happy that finally the open air prison was liberated and protections would be granted to underprivileged Gazans. End to suffering? End to abject poverty? No? Oppressor de liber and all that?

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Can this day GET any better? That oughta get us to that 10%.

Pretty sure we got bilked on this one. We've just agreed to subsidize Israeli security... again.

I give zero fucks about the Palestinians or the Israelis. I’ve been pretty consistent on this issue my entire life. They’ve been fighting over that land since western written history. I don’t want to be involved. I would challenge anyone to find me saying anything positive about either side. I do not consider the Israelis our ally in any sense of the word, and the Palestinian leadership are terrorists.

We don't agree on much, but I agree with you here.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

Crazy thought, what if we did take over Gaza and then had the Israeli's pay for the securing the territory. As well as going back to some of the old agreed upon borders.

At this point both the Israeli's and Palestinian's have shown that they cannot be left alone or trusted to keep the peace.

 

[AWP]

Crazy thought, what if we did take over Gaza and then had the Israeli's pay for the securing the territory. As well as going back to some of the old agreed upon borders.

At this point both the Israeli's and Palestinian's have shown that they cannot be left alone or trusted to keep the peace.

I generally consider the UN to be "tits on a boar" useful, but this is a great opportunity to join their money and people with their mouths. I'd be happy if they showed up to secure MSR's, food distro, logistics, engineering to rebuild, man checkpoints, etc.

But they are a useless bunch of twats, so that will never happen.

 

[Gunz]

I got my eye on a prime acre of beachfront near Al-Mawasi. Surfs up, baby, rum runners at the Tiki bar.

 

[Marauder06]

So I was in a meeting today where the presenter told us that if someone took the "fork" buyout, their billet went with them.

I got my eye on a prime acre of beachfront near Al-Mawasi.

 

[Marauder06]

There are folks all over my building that are talking about it - found out today that a few of them already dropped their "deferred resignation" EARLY in the process...
...so they can retire in July/August

We just spent "pre-lunch" where I work doing a "Town Hall" so the CHRD could give everyone ground truth on the process and I am preeeeetty sure based on the questions being asked that a few more folks are going to cut bait now than were originally planning...
...free money and you can get a second job and STILL retire on time !!!

I was in a meeting yesterday where I found out that I am, after all, eligible for the buyout.

...but they also said, their interpretation of the new guidance is that if one of us leaves, the billet leaves with us.

That's a game-changer as far as I'm concerned. Lots of people here have a high degree of loyalty to the organization and their co-workers. If even a bunch of us left... yeah it would be tough for a couple of months until we got new people hired. But a lot of folks leaving, and not being able to backfill, would cripple some of the subordinate organizations here.

Also, I only have until the 6th (tomorrow) to decide? Yeah, too many open questions and too much personal loyalty to my boss and my job. No thanks.

 

[Gunz]

Al-Mawasi 2027

 

[Marauder06]

I will preface this by saying I truly do not care. I’ve been pushed back to what I consider center by politics the last few years. I am still certainly to the left of many members here, but honestly I feel what i feel is left leaning from me, has become some altered disgusting platform. At the end of the day, I’ll be fine. I am in a recession proof job, and I work in a place that barely takes Medicare.

...

Welcome back to the center, bro. We've missed you.

 

[AWP]

But a lot of folks leaving, and not being able to backfill, would cripple some of the subordinate organizations here.

Also, I only have until the 6th (tomorrow) to decide? Yeah, too many open questions and too much personal loyalty to my boss and my job. No thanks.

Told ya'll so.

The people here who have talked about leaving aren't because we've seen the effects of CR funding. There are also questions about the gov't keeping its word on the payouts. Adding to that distrust is the repeated mantra of "national security" being exempt, but then we see cases where the CIA is offered a buyout....so we're exempt or we aren't? People don't trust the offer, period.

 

[Box]

So I was in a meeting today where the presenter told us that if someone took the "fork" buyout, their billet went with them.

Yep; it is a one-for-one decrement. "Maybe" not in your shop - but 'somewhere'
It could be an empty spot downstairs in the G1 that gets pulled off the books - it could be the assistant to the regional manager- but for every person that takes deferred retirement, a slot has to be dumped

Just the view from my foxhole - but everything in government is about the Benjamin's - this is all about cutting the budget - with the next debt ceiling coming in March and everyone still working from a CR instead of a budget - some of these "leveraged buyouts" can be used to make people squeal.
...don't want to support the budget?
...shut 'er down
...wait, these folks that took the buyout aren't getting paid?
...pass my budget

I'm sure that the "act now or loose out" timeline on making people decide by the 6th is intentional

 

[TLDR20]

Told ya'll so.

The people here who have talked about leaving aren't because we've seen the effects of CR funding. There are also questions about the gov't keeping its word on the payouts. Adding to that distrust is the repeated mantra of "national security" being exempt, but then we see cases where the CIA is offered a buyout....so we're exempt or we aren't? People don't trust the offer, period.

The point is to burn it down. This is what MAGA wanted. Burn the swamp. Lots of people saw this coming.

 

[Marauder06]

Yep; it is a one-for-one decrement. "Maybe" not in your shop - but 'somewhere'
It could be an empty spot downstairs in the G1 that gets pulled off the books - it could be the assistant to the regional manager- but for every person that takes deferred retirement, a slot has to be dumped

Just the view from my foxhole - but everything in government is about the Benjamin's - this is all about cutting the budget - with the next debt ceiling coming in March and everyone still working from a CR instead of a budget - some of these "leveraged buyouts" can be used to make people squeal.
...don't want to support the budget?
...shut 'er down
...wait, these folks that took the buyout aren't getting paid?
...pass my budget

I'm sure that the "act now or loose out" timeline on making people decide by the 6th is intentional

I'll admit, it's very tempting. If I left this job on the 6th I'd have another job that paid similarly--or more--in about a week in the private sector. And even if I didn't get immediately hired, I'd have that sweet sweet .gov paycheck to hold me over until I got sorted. I could do all things I've wanted to do for years... write books, get back in shape, find a way to become both funny AND witty... everything.

But again, I have a lot of personal loyalty to my current organization and my boss. My current unit had to lobby very hard to get me curtailed from an OCONUS assignment when I was on active duty and stuck in a shitty job with a boss who was such a toxic leader that I was actively trying to get on another deployment (on top of the 7 that I already had) just to get away from her. Then, once they pulled off a coup and somehow got me orders, they had to go short in the shop for months until the school year ended and I could PCS back to the states. They expended a LOT of political capital to make that happen, and I will always be grateful.

In addition, my current boss has done a lot for both my family and for me personally. On top of that, I like my team and this job and think we do important work that I find fulfilling. And, at the end of the day, I don't really need the money. So given all of that, I think I'm good here. There's no way I could Blue Falcon this team after everything they did for me, especially if it's just for the money.

 

[Marauder06]

Told ya'll so.

The people here who have talked about leaving aren't because we've seen the effects of CR funding. There are also questions about the gov't keeping its word on the payouts. Adding to that distrust is the repeated mantra of "national security" being exempt, but then we see cases where the CIA is offered a buyout....so we're exempt or we aren't? People don't trust the offer, period.

There's a trust issue, but more importantly there's a communication issue. At the meeting I was in yesterday, no one worried about getting paid down the road. But there were a lot of "I don't know" and "we've asked for clarification."

 

[Dame]

I wonder how much cocaine and heroin the CIA will have to traffic to make up for the loss of USAID? With the border closing cartels need a way into the country.

Oh, those numbers are on Hunter's laptop.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

I generally consider the UN to be "tits on a boar" useful, but this is a great opportunity to join their money and people with their mouths. I'd be happy if they showed up to secure MSR's, food distro, logistics, engineering to rebuild, man checkpoints, etc.

But they are a useless bunch of twats, so that will never happen.

No. The UN is a terrible idea. We want to rebuild the place, not turn it into an open air pedo brothel.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

Just out of curiosity. If one is fired from a Federal job, do they get to keep their security clearance? What about just being let go?

 

[Marauder06]

Just out of curiosity. If one is fired from a Federal job, do they get to keep their security clearance? What about just being let go?

I'm not sure how it works in every case, but those are usually two separate admin actions. When I retired, for example, my clearance remained active but would have expired if I hadn't taken another job that required it. When you leave a job you lose access and get read off of any special programs, but I don't think it automatically costs you your clearance.

 

[AWP]

I'm not sure how it works in every case, but those are usually two separate admin actions. When I retired, for example, my clearance remained active but would have expired if I hadn't taken another job that required it. When you leave a job you lose access and get read off of any special programs, but I don't think it automatically costs you your clearance.

As explained to me by my last contracting security officer, if you can "transfer" the entity responsible for your clearance from one company to another, it doesn't really expire. So, if you go from Company A to Company B, it stays active. 1:59 PM it goes off the books, 12:00 AM it goes to the new company. If there's a break, then it kind of goes into "limbo" as she called it. It is tied into "re-investigating" you for the clearance and some financial stuff for the gaining company.

When I left Lockheed in '06 and returned to them in '08, I had to do the full SF-86 stuff. I later saw that my renewal date was tied into my FIRST trip there in 2004. I'm not exactly sure about the "limbo" as she called it, but I liken it to putting a computer into sleep mode. You lose the clearance and access, but it is paused until you need it again.

That's probably a poor explanation.