I ache for other NASA contracts in earth, climate and weather sciences.
To be fair, I was more sanguine last week. But the bullshit going down right now has shaken my confidence. Many of my coworkers will be fine, but my team does environmental compliance and permitting. It's entirely possible that by the end of his term, the Voldemort Administration will have presided over the repeal of all the major federal environmental laws that brought this country back from environmental catastrophe.
And as others have noted, its' all so fucking petty. The Wall Street bankers are not going to make a lot more money if the Clean Air Act is overturned, or the Endangered Species Act. They just don't like anyone saying "No," to them, and federal environmental laws have been used as a tool to push back against corporate greed for a long time now.
I just realized that there are a lot of industries that depend on funding from the government agencies that That Man is looking to get rid of. And they have lobbyists too.
And they have lobbyists too.
Not enough of them, sigh.
Jesus. How is it already sky-falling time only a few days in? Wtf?
And we have Trump claiming massive voter fraud and threatening to 'send in the feds' in Chicago and attacking the press. These are not good signs.
From the meeting at mr. flea's workplace, it sounds like existing grants and contract can continue (since a contract is a legal agreement, they'd sort of have to, right?) Also new hires who are far enough along in the process to have a start date set are probably ok. But the disorganization in the transition team means there's an awful lot of wait and see. I'll just note that what mr. flea does is actually related to infrastructure planning - exactly a supposed priority! It's also really basic stuff like, "dumping raw sewage in the river is bad! Let's design sewer systems to not do that!" But apparently anything 'environmental' is bad now.
I'm glad mr. flea will be ok for now. And I hope the rest of the Buffistas with gov-related work will not have the rug pulled out from under them.
I worked for eight years on a contract job with the NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences). I definitely worry for my former coworkers.
A slight bright spark in the darkness, the Alt US Park Service twitter gives me joy. [link]
It's all so fucking petty: government jobs are jobs. Government contractor jobs are jobs.
That makes me crazy! "I'm going to cut the government to focus on jobs!!" Um.
I'm hiding from the world by focusing on work. The world in general is making me mad and scared.
