yeah, no shit. all the ones I went to as a kid were just like, “all the other flavors are fake ass cults, especially the Catholics. we’re the real deal and no I won’t explain why because faith means it’s self evident so stop asking questions” which is real easy to keep track of.

way too much pedigree and paperwork in Catholicism, even if the gear and vestments are more aesthetically intimidating in PvP.

I just want to add the context that ICE did not exist prior to 9/11/2001. it was a consolidation of previously separated powers of investigation, intelligence gathering, enforcement, and incarceration into a single agency under “Homeland Security” and became the largest enforcement arm under “Homeland Security”.

there have been calls for it’s disbanding since it was started, as it’s pretty clearly a dystopian paramilitary with extralegal, unconstitutional powers to run absolutely wild, but as with all Patriot Act related moves, there has been a consistent effort to memory hole it’s short history and pretend it is an eternal agency that existed in the US since the dawn of time.

having worked inside public institutions with leadership attempting to implement rapid austerity, these messages–while rage inducing–are functionally worthless. they are meant to unsettle workers and pressure them into believing the narrative. I see these moves as desperation plays, the hail Mary on 1st and 10 betraying their complete lack of a strategy. and the real value in them is being able to confirm the identity of compradors/careerists who are on board with the new bosses.

something I keep close to my heart in contexts like that is that leadership is NOT a role. it is an ability. in a situation like this, the people at the top don’t know shit about fuck. they certainly aren’t leaders. they are just clumsy animals banging on the walls trying to be disruptive of the public goods factory. the defense is the same defense against them in the private sector: don’t do what they want. don’t accept what they peddle. quietly undermine them at every turn. bosses aren’t institutions. workers are the institutions. workers have the real power, and they loathe us for it.

instead, focus on providing value to the stakeholders that deserve it, half-ass / ignore the leadership directives (not enough to get noticed, but ride that line lol), and keep delivering on your personal, idealized version of your institution’s mission right up until the day they have to send someone to stop you and remove you specifically. they rarely have that capacity. and unless you are head and shoulders above the average in obvious subterfuge, they can’t actually root you out like the naughty weed you are.

when their backs are turned, you are spartacus. when they look at you directly, you’re just a numbered cell in a hive so large they find it existentially threatening.

it’s all about trying to get us to voluntarily exit the public sector or become toxic/dysfunctional in our roles and degrade public services.

now, obviously there are limits to what you should put up with, but sometimes there’s a perverse joy in fucking with the bosses by doing a good job in a way they don’t want but can’t complain about.

if I were a Democrat, I would be making so much goddam hay about this story. trump is obviously politicizing the shit out of it, blaming DEI/woke and everybody else without any institutional power he can dream up.

so what the fuck. why not just hammer his ass with it, forge a chain around his neck and yank it constantly. “you’re a disaster. you killed all those people. good people, and you fired everybody in the tower, because that’s all you do. ‘You’re Fired’. so they crashed and everybody died horribly.” just the most simple, emotionally charged message that can be repeated over and over by anyone.

he’s in charge, he was 48 hours into his massive federal government slashing chaos program. just cram it right up his cram hole with both hands.

I know they won’t because they aren’t against the austerity in principle or practice, but still. this seems like a major opportunity for series of dunks and highlight reels of said dunks. what are the republicans gonna do? say its distasteful? their guy is blathering about how disabled people are to blame.

somebody posted this in the YouTube comments and the chuds are going absolutely batshit about:

but it’s all screeds against diversity and the disabled. it has no bite. the blood is in the water.

yeah, it is wild how easy the tools make it these days. I’ve always monitored my own shit / done my own taxes, etc. when I was in grad school, I got really good at spreadsheet functions for complex processes, and pulling in modeled data.

so, of course, I started developing sheets for all kinds of shit, just to mess around and link data. it used to be real easy to download transaction data. its still doable, but more annoying now.

anyway, the point being, I probably spend as much time tracking and analyzing my money situation as my grandparents did, but now I can rapidly generate beautiful graphs and do analysis on all kinds of shit to quantify the impact of buying decisions over time.

I finished and filed my taxes like a week ago and all my friends just roll their eyes at how I can answer the most obscure questions about utility/energy costs, price points on meal ingredients, etc. and like, sure once a year I spend an hour or so bulk updating/refining the data for analysis, but other wise I spend like maybe 10-15 minutes a month.

it all started just as an exercise to keep my data analysis skills sharp, but now it’s an addiction. a very nerdy addiction.

I legit cannot imagine keeping that much cash in my house. what the fuck.

shit, I got nervous carrying a cashier’s check across town with a down payment on my house, just because it represented so much savings.

when I was in high school I saved up cash for an N64. like $300. I kept cashed paychecks from my shitty part time $4.25/hr job in a drawer and when I finally had it all and brought it into the store, I felt like I was gonna barf the whole time. this was like before I had an ATM card set up and no credit card or whatever.

as an adult, I hate carrying around or keeping more cash than the absolute minimum to deal with a random, unforeseen situation that requires cash. the sweet spot seems to be $35-55.

if I was a crim and trying to hide shit or otherwise had unbankable cash, I would put that shit in a safe deposit box.

keeping a bunch of cash in the house just seems nuts to me. I know people do it with like safes and shit, but I do not get the appeal.

stabbed in the heart
through the ribcage
you give lions
a bad name

cool photo to go with the article. had to snag it.

seems more rambly than normal in his quotations here. including some cussing and apparently a slur? President Deals looking real tired, low energy. sad.

I moved outta the heartland this last year to a part of the country without those affectations and find myself throwing in a “yeehaw” whenever where I came from comes up.

gets a laugh like a quarter of the time. Lord, beer me strength.

musk will say the two aircraft landed significantly earlier than they had planned, making it a win for efficiency.

$9 fees to take your money? Jesus H.

its always good advice to take photos of a rental when you take possession, but God almighty, I would document every room and store all the photos on 4 flash drives, because you know those psychos are gonna chisel you on move out day for every dime of those deposits.

love this. it’s so perfect.

I went to Japan on an independent study abroad to work on a farm one season many years ago. legit the only way I could afford to go was institutional affiliation and winning a big scholarship that covered airfare. I crammed some conversational Japanese the in the month prior, but otherwise was flying blind. total immersion works lol.

spent 99% of my time in a rural context, working outdoors in small teams and I had plenty of experience doing that already, including in cases with a language barrier so I knew what vocab to pick up. so I speak caveman Japanese and can’t read except like two kanji. I can verbally communicate basics, goof around, and make dumb jokes though.

before I left to go there, I knew this dude who had done a foreign exchange program for a year in high school and then some kind of long term language-cuktural exchange program in college. guy was fluent as hell had a very nuanced take on Japan.

he was excited like hell for me to go there and be there for a while, working, but warned me that when I got back, I would finally understand how intolerable weebs are, with their fixation on obscure cultural artifacts and totally non-functional, child-like, but extremely confident misunderstanding of life in Japan.

I remember thinking it was an odd thing to warn about, but Jesus… it’s so weird and lame how fixated some anglos are on some stuff. it all came into sharp focus when I was actually back and having to witness it. like sure, I wanted to be a ninja and jump kick everything with the honor of my grandfather… when I was 9. the way some people keep that vibe going into their 40s is extremely weird. it still throws me every time I see it.

doesn’t the US military know they’re only supposed to take down civilian aircraft in other countries during “training” flights?

I guess they need another $30 billion in training programs.

oh, you’re right. I didn’t realize I could use multiple slurp juices on a single ape.

what a goodmine put me down for $40,000 worth.

10/10. no notes.

its the first term all over again. every 24 hours there will be half a dozen chaotic developments and 2 contradictory official statements from the White House. the WH press corps will get winnowed back down to whoever doesn’t embarrass trump or the press secretary by pointing out how disorganized everything is, and that’s when the “leaks” start coming as various court jesters feel slighted by the internally chaotic intrigue, telling stories with bizarre details of interpersonal conflicts between careerist grifters vying for personal enrichment from President Deals.

Jesus, I always forget how fucked up his voice is. he sounds like he is actively dying every time he speaks.

I’m about to head out and cancel the snow off the walkway so mail carrier can access the box without canceling their tailbone.

generally most of the reason for staying in a GS rated position is the benefits, including the pension which is calculated based on years of service.

it isn’t like tech douche start up world where it’s all salary and stove-piped stock options and a maniacal boss who can terminate medical insurance at a whim.

there simply aren’t enough political appointees to oversee and pressure people to leave without an actual pension buyout including healthcare, which would balloon the shit out of costs, which would over what these agencies have in their budgets. which would require added funding from congress… good luck selling that as efficiency.

there’s a reason they are saying “paid through September” because that’s all the funding they have to work with, since that’s the end of the federal fiscal calendar.

honestly, I bet they don’t even get 5% of the workforce to take the bait, even making it so easy to resign with Musk’s auto-resign-by-email app, which probably fails some HR paperwork requirement of a legit digital signature.

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