Politics

[Brent in Az]

Some trade being forced upon Ukraine by your hero President..more like a robbery..

But then I guess you will support Trump whatever he does..even if he claims the moon to be square..

Lighten up Francis ......

 

[WAB]

The NATO members would not vote Ukraine in with or without Zelenskyy. Ukraine has a long way to go to get in.

Agreed. Certainly they can’t vote them in until there is a clear and lasting peace in place. To do otherwise would simply engage all of Europe in a war with Russia and possibly China.

 

[Pondoro]

Musk's demand that fed employees list their accomplishments roils workforce: 'Mass civil disobedience'

The federal workforce is on edge after Elon Musk announced they must provide details on the work they accomplished in the last week or face losing their jobs.

www.foxnews.com

 

[Hunt anything]

Musk's demand that fed employees list their accomplishments roils workforce: 'Mass civil disobedience'

The federal workforce is on edge after Elon Musk announced they must provide details on the work they accomplished in the last week or face losing their jobs.

www.foxnews.com

Patel at the FBI told his employees to ignore this. I would guess that other agency heads will refuse as well.

 

[Doubleplay]

Patel at the FBI told his employees to ignore this. I would guess that other agency heads will refuse as well.

As it should be.
This is utterly bullshit.
They are being treated like school children.

 

[Pondoro]

As it should be.
This is utterly bullshit.
They are being treated like school children.

This is getting more and more insane..by the hour..

 

[mdwest]

I sincerely hope thousands take the advice of those D politicians..

It will make it that much easier to figure out who to cull from the herd…

If you don’t have 5 minutes available to advise what you actually did last week, and demonstrate that you and your position provide value to the US, we clearly don’t need you or your position..

FWIW, several US govt agencies already have this automated… the VA for example asks that its employees track and log their weekly activities..

It’s as simple as providing a report that’s already been created…

“Disobedience”, civil or otherwise, has no place in the workforce… if an order isn’t illegal, immoral, or unethical, you do what is required of you… if you don’t, you dont work here anymore…

Only a politician would think it permissible to tell your boss to “go fuck yourself”…

Trying to claim Elon doesn’t have the authority is nothing more than semantics.. more gamesmanship out of the D’s..

He has the authority provided to him by the President of the United States of America…

Furthermore… he has the approval and authority provided to him by the appointed secretary over each branch of the government..

Telling Elon to fuck himself is the same thing as telling Rubio to fuck himself if you work at State… or Patel to fuck hi self if you work at FBI…

As I’ve said before.. D’s have become their own worst enemies at this point… doubling down on old practices is what got them here in the first place..

If they were playing an intelligent game, they’d figure out how to become part of the process so that they could at least mitigate or slow the pace of some of what’s going on…

Crying, and protesting, and telling other D’s to do stupid shit, is only making things significantly worse for themselves..

 

[mdwest]

As it should be.
This is utterly bullshit.
They are being treated like school children.

Actually this has already been going on for a very long time in several branches of govt..

See the post above about the VA…

Was it bullshit when Bidens leadership team expected to see these reports?

Or is it just bullshit now that Musk wants to see them?

 

[mdwest]

This is getting more and more insane..by the hour..

Clearly neither you or Doubleplay lead organizations.. or work for the US govt..

All of my employees can tell you exactly what they did last week…

All but a handful of them work for the US govt (my firm is a services provider to the state dept, DoD, and the intel community, among others)…

All of my “customers” (the US government) expect regular/routine reports on my employees activities…

If they’re not working and doing what they get paid to do, the govt doesn’t intend on paying for them..

So the same standard shouldn’t apply to the govt?

Do you really think Amazon, General Electric, or Ernst & Young leaders aren’t tracking their employees for productivity and results?

Or let’s bring this down to the AH level..

Do you really think @Tanks or @WAB or other senior business leaders don’t have a grasp of employee productivity and results? And aren’t monitoring regularly?

The government admits (to include even Chuck Schumer) that it is inefficient, and over staffed…

So accounting for people actually working (when, again, several agencies already track this, and have it automated) is a bad idea?

 

[Flipper Dude]

Federal govt is not a make work program. The primary goal is not to provide a job to people. Shouldn’t be a secondary goal either.

 

[Pondoro]

Clearly neither you or Doubleplay lead organizations.. or work for the US govt..

All of my employees can tell you exactly what they did last week…

All but a handful of them work for the US govt (my firm is a services provider to the state dept, DoD, and the intel community, among others)…

All of my “customers” (the US government) expect regular/routine reports on my employees activities…

If they’re not working and doing what they get paid to do, the govt doesn’t intend on paying for them..

So the same standard shouldn’t apply to the govt?

Do you really think Amazon, General Electric, or Ernst & Young leaders aren’t tracking their employees for productivity and results?

Or let’s bring this down to the AH level..

Do you really think @Tanks or @WAB or other senior business leaders don’t have a grasp of employee productivity and results? And aren’t monitoring regularly?

The government admits (to include even Chuck Schumer) that it is inefficient, and over staffed…

So accounting for people actually working (when, again, several agencies already track this, and have it automated) is a bad idea?

Many governments are overstaffed and ineffective... I am not saying that some cuts cannot be beneficial.. I am perfectly aware that empolyees are monitored..spare me your patronizing..

FBI Director Kash Patel similarly instructed workers to "pause any responses." Some leaders hesitate to high five Musk and his DOGE..

But bring it on...lets see how this play out...

 

[Lone Star Bluegrass]

A very good article by Victor Davis Hanson:

Trump’s Ukrainian Tightrope › American Greatness

To find an impossible peace between Ukraine and Russia we must understand the recent history of the war and the European and American roles in it. So, Americans should revisit some fundamental…

amgreatness.com

“In sum, Trump can end the war to no one’s satisfaction, or let Europe and Zelensky negotiate and see the war continue endlessly to no one’s satisfaction. Given geographical realities, the U.S. can live without a settlement, but eventually, all the other parties cannot.”

 

[mdwest]

spare me your patronizing..

I dont see that as patronizing...

I see it as a simple statement of fact..

 

[bowjijohn]

Very little if any of this has to do with a genuine concern for Ukraine’s future

Trump isn’t interested in anything other than mineral rights

The European leaders are mostly interested in keeping their Global Socialist cause on the road

However there is a very real threat to western cohesion, NATO and western values

Putin’s ambitions are being encouraged by simplistic U.S. foreign policies and EU entrenched left wing ideologies

The UK is now a second (if not third) world power suffering under a Stalinist Gov

Other than that

All is going swimmingly

 

[Altitude sickness]

As it should be.
This is utterly bullshit.
They are being treated like school children.

The real purpose of the email is a quick check on who is actually opening and reading their government work email. Musk suggested that they have a list of a fair amount of employees that haven’t opened their emails in quite a long time. so that is a quick way to learn who to cull first.

 

[Hunt anything]

The government definitely needs to be trimmed down. My beef is the way they’re going about it. Treating fed employees as criminals just because they have a government job, mass firings without an exit interview or evaluation report. Most of all gloating about it. I’ve had to fire dozens of people and with the exception of one it broke my heart to do it.

As I’ve told before my daughter was one of the fired, in her termination email it sighted “poor performance” which was a TOTAL LIE, in her 18 months she never got a negative performance evaluation and her latest was perfect. She sent a copy of her evaluation report and a copy of the email but doesn’t expect to hear anything from the kids in charge.

I was listening to my ex Congressman the other day and when he was cleaning out his office he had the emblems of each branch of the military in his office. Whoever was in charge of the labor sent 8 people up to his office to get the emblems. They were made of styrofoam! At most 2 people could have done the job. That’s the crap that needs to be eliminated.

 

[CJW]

It would seem that Trump might be successful with destroying NATO after all:

Germany’s Merz vows ‘independence’ from Trump’s America, warning NATO may soon be dead

Election winner likens the Trump administration to Putin’s Russia as he bids to take Europe in a new direction.

www.politico.eu

Basically cirumventing the very law designed to prevent an US exit from Nato by Trump in his first term, simply by making Nato irrelevant due to all the doubt he in a very short time has managed to convey about wether the US would be honoring arcticle 5 or not under his presidency.

Sounds like a new guy in power who knows his side is losing support so he's trying to make big statements in hopes of strengthening the incoming coalition and his comrades across Europe. Pretty normal stuff really. He's also pissed at Musk for supporting the "far right" AFD who doubled their votes this go round and according to Merz he will refuse to work with them. Screw what the people actually want. There also may be a tone of Germany trying to run all of Europe.

IMO.

 

[barryk]

People won’t be happy until salt is poured on Putin and he dissolves like a slug

Well...perhaps a minor point.....but as hunters we know salt is a preservative which would dry him up like a prune.....could be rehydrated later like a salted hide.......better use acid.

 

[Red Leg]

A very good article by Victor Davis Hanson:

Trump’s Ukrainian Tightrope › American Greatness

To find an impossible peace between Ukraine and Russia we must understand the recent history of the war and the European and American roles in it. So, Americans should revisit some fundamental…

amgreatness.com

“In sum, Trump can end the war to no one’s satisfaction, or let Europe and Zelensky negotiate and see the war continue endlessly to no one’s satisfaction. Given geographical realities, the U.S. can live without a settlement, but eventually, all the other parties cannot.”

The goal, until Trump waded in, wasn't a "settlement." The goal was to evict Russia from the ground it had seized and allow Ukraine to chart its own independent national goals which include EU and eventual NATO membership. Form both a broader European and US perspective, the further goal was to prevent the resurrection of a Soviet like threatening our key European interests while trying to deal with China. Simply orchestrating a "settlement," particularly one in Russia's favor, achieves none of those goals unless one is a Russian or Russian sympathizer. Which begs a question or two of my current president.

 

[barryk]

Great Read!

Good book....S.W. Bell required reading back in the day.