\the_nation

0
2019.01.04

Hostage Crisis

800,000 out of work


Image of a dumpster fire.
Ringing in the new year

President Trump not only continues to hold his own government hostage over budget to wall off the southwestern border, but now promises to sustain the shutdown for months or even years until he gets what he wants. 1  2  He's even talking about declaring a national emergency to get it built.

The same wall he told everybody Mexico would pay for is the reason close to a million federal civilians haven't worked in over two weeks. 3


My Conclusion

This is a hostage crisis. 800,000 federal workers are furloughed or working without pay, going by the number in today's The Washington Post reporting — which is about 40 percent of the total Federal civilian workforce.4  How many of those 800,000 are just going to "tough it out" if this shutdown really does go for months? Probably not 800,000 of them. This kind of paralysis is the makings of an actual national emergency.

With our executive branch spiraling into oblivion and taking almost half of the federal workforce with him, it is up to our Congress to get this country back on track properly. The Democrats are leading the fight from the House of Representatives, 5 and the resolve of the smart Republicans in the Senate will continue to erode to the point that when it's all over and the next election cycle is reached, the American people will witness the utter destruction of the Republican Party. It's simple math: 40% of the federal workforce will not forget who fought to get them working again, and who failed their newly unemployed constituents. And the rest of us watched it all happen.

Here's the thing, though: we'll be lucky if that's all that happens. With so many Federal employees on furlough, what do you think our national security posture is right now? Yes, we still have the DOD, but the other intelligence services of the United States of America are brushing up their resumes and being advised by the OPM to trade labor for rent payments. 6  7  Homeland Security, Treasury, Justice, State departments are all affected. (By the way, the shutdown is probably not a diversion from the Mueller Investigation; the FBI is excepted from furlough.8)

This shutdown is headed toward becoming an actual threat to our national security, whether in the physical or electronic security dimension through the diminished capacities of federal agencies, or in the economic dimension as a function of market reaction. 9  10 

If we arrive at that point where something actually bad happens as a result of this stupid shutdown, how much is a fucking wall going to matter?



personal statement

Humor posts aside, I only seek to understand the events I describe in these posts, and to form an opinion after considering the material I've gathered. I believe we need leaders in Washington to act in the best interest of the United States as a citizen nation of the world, and who represent the interests of the people they serve above the interests of party affiliation.