Full disclosure: I'm one very fortunate Fed. I work for an agency that isn't funded by Congressional appropriations, so shutdowns are a non-event for me. I go to work as normal, and I receive my paycheck as normal. And I very much appreciate that situation.

That said, I'm extremely heartened by the responses to the shutdown. Restaurants offering free meals to unpaid Feds and the like. One of the school districts around here held a job fair to hire furloughed Feds as substitute teachers -- which isn't going to entirely make up for lost pay, but at least it's some needed money coming in for some people.

After a career of hearing federal employees bashed for everything that goes wrong in this world, it's nice to feel appreciated. (And no, I'm not taking advantage of any of the offers -- the people losing income need it far more than I do.)

Well, they start from the conclusion and then find the evidence to support it.

Or, you know, just skip step 2.

Also it makes me angry when I see right-wing news stories about how the shutdown proves that we don't really need most of the government anyhow

That is infuriating!

I wish it was a few years in the future and we were watching a historical movie recreation like All The President's Men.

Yeah, I'm so curious how all this will look when it's history. SOmeday this will all get summed up in a paragraph in a textbook as if it were inevitable and makes sense! So weird.

Also it makes me angry when I see right-wing news stories about how the shutdown proves that we don't really need most of the government anyhow

Thanks.

I don't talk much about the specifics of my job here, but for instance: my coworker G administers dredging projects, which ensures that the boats used for search and rescue in many small communities along the shoreline can continue to come into dock at their stations. These projects are very expensive, involve a ridiculous amount of coordination with local harbor districts, the Army Corps, Fish and Wildlife, National Marine Fisheries, local municipalities, and the boat operators themselves. The work is also time-limited because many harbors have endangered fish, and you are not allowed to do in-water work during endangered salmon runs or whatever. So maybe you can only dredge for 8 weeks out of the year, from July 1 to August 31.

Being out of work for a solid month is royally screwing up G's ability to get the contracts and projects in place to get the dredging done, and will then interfere with unit operations, since we don't spend the money on dredging until we really need to do it. And the units provide port security, navigational aids, search and rescue, smuggling interdiction, environmental response -- all that stuff necessary to protect the country's coastlines and its uses.

Everyone in this country benefits if G gets her work done: commercial and recreational mariners, environmental groups, shipping firms, major ports, everyone directly or indirectly involved in global shipping. And it's tricky, detail-oriented work -- you can't hand it off to some junior lieutenant and expect them to succeed at it. But instead we're scolded by the GOP for being parasites on the public.

You can't do this kind of work in a libertarian way: nobody has the money to support that! It is a public good, and the public needs to pay for it.

t end rant

It would make a big difference if most Americans' lives were affected, I think. But since the mail is operating, and people can still get on flights, etc., no one seems to think it's a big deal. They don't understand the things you're talking about, Consuela, and that's a shame, because they matter. As does, you know, actually paying the people you're requiring to work so people can get their mail and take flights. The whole thing is a mess, and I wish there was a way to make the American people really understand how deeply fucked up Trump is for doing this, especially given the absolutely bullshit reason he's doing it.

Yeah, someone on the NPR politics podcast yesterday said that if all flights were grounded for 24 hours, this would get fixed pretty quickly, and that sounded right to me. The impact isn't immediately obvious to most of us.

Picked up another interview for next week. That's four right now. I think I'll probably have at least one more.

mr. flea is furloughed, and it's not a big deal for us financially right now, and his work doesn't have short-term effects that (he writes software for public utilities that's widely used, but him being furloughed doesn't make the software go away; it lives at GitHub.) But, for example, the custodial and dining hall contractors at his work aren't getting paid and won't get back pay. mr. flea is beginning to be pretty stressed; he also has been doing some work, because GitHub.

We went out to dinner this week at a local restaurant that's giving free meals to Feds, and we told them we were Feds but wanted to pay to support their efforts for the lower-income employees. They said anyone with a badge, which includes the contractors, could eat free.

In other nice news, mr. flea got a personal phone call at home yesterday from one of the people at our credit union (which has an office in the Federal building, currently closed by they're working out of their other office). They are calling everyone who banks with them to let them know about the other location and offer the possibility of short-term loans, etc. Advantage of knowing your bankers!

Yeah, I'm so curious how all this will look when it's history.

There is definitely going to be a movie.