[Victory Girls] You knew it was too good to be true. We’ve gone weeks, maybe even months, without Lisa Page being in the news. After all the liberal rhetoric about "The Wall", maybe we ought to thank The Daily Caller and The Epoch Times for giving us something else to think about. Except then we have to wonder‐yet again‐at the apparent improprieties committed by the FBI during its investigations of not only President Trump but of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Background:
Lisa Page is the former assistant general counsel at the FBI;
She testified twice behind closed doors into the actions of the FBI, the Department of Justice, CIA Director John Brennan and others regarding the investigation into President Trump;
Included in her testimony was the Steele Brief and information regarding it that Brennan gave to Sen. Harry Reid (D);
Page also testified that "DOJ refused to pursue "gross-negligence" charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server to send classified information."
BLUF:
[Gateway] The former top lawyer at the FBI has been under federal investigation for leaking to the media, a letter from House Republicans revealed Tuesday.
The letter from GOP Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows cited the transcript of a congressional interview with former General Counsel James Baker and his lawyer last fall, where the probe conducted by seasoned U.S. Attorney John Durham was confirmed.
"You may or may not know, [Baker has] been the subject of a leak investigation ... a criminal leak investigation that’s still active at the Justice Department," lawyer Daniel Levin told lawmakers, as he pushed back on questions about his client’s conversations with reporters.
[TheFreqMedia] On New Year’s Eve, the New York Times, after months of investigation, published a long, detailed article on the activities of CIA-sponsored Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams (CPTs) in Afghanistan. It was a disturbing read. The Times reporters had visited several of the compounds allegedly targeted by these forces just hours after they had been raided and documented what would appear to be summary executions, the shooting of women and children, torture of Afghans taken for questioning by these teams, and a complete lack of cooperation between these teams and Afghan security forces.
I started searching for other articles concerning the CIA in the Times, and found two from last year ‐ one outlining how the "new assertive CIA is expanding its role in fighting the Taliban" and another concerning the funeral of two CIA members (I think they were contractors not blue badgers, but the story doesn’t say) who were killed last year in gunfights with ISIS-K just outside Jalalabad.
The lead article describes exactly what the legacy media, Hollywood, the UN, and political elites from both parties say will happen if the war in Afghanistan is turned over to contractors, as proposed in the Eric Prince Plan. The CIA militias operate outside the law, outside the military chain of command, remain unaccountable for the murder, mayhem, destruction, and thievery they commit. What’s worse, according to the victims interviewed by the NYT, these guys are accompanied by Americans who the Times claims are CIA officers (which I doubt) or contractors working for the CIA (much more likely)...
[Free Beacon] Huawei Technologies, the global telecommunications giant at the center of an international diplomatic battle, is a major target in the Trump administration's campaign to halt China's theft of American technology.
U.S. intelligence agencies have linked the company to both the Chinese military and civilian intelligence services and the Justice Department is now seeking to prosecute the company's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, for violating American sanctions law.
Meng, also known as Cathy Meng and Sabrina Meng, is wanted by the FBI for her role in a scheme to illicitly move hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran through a Huawei front company in what prosecutors say was a bid to circumvent U.S. financial sanctions on Iran.
Publicly, the Trump administration denies the arrest of Meng on Dec. 1 in Vancouver is linked to the ongoing international trade talks aimed at curbing Chinese unfair trade and technology theft practices.
However, privately officials acknowledge the targeting of Huawei is part of a larger campaign applying pressure on Beijing on several fronts.
In addition to prosecuting Huawei, the administration in December indicted nine Chinese nationals for their role in a major cyber economic espionage operation against American companies.
#2
Huawei and for that matter ZTE should not be allowed, sold here. Basically spy mikes.
We went to Apple after several "suggested" Amazon items made our list. Problem was we were talking about said items during morning coffees. No google searches, just open air conversations. Disturbing to say the least.
The Thirty-Six Stratagems is a Chinese essay used to illustrate a series of stratagems used in politics, war, and civil interaction.
Its focus on the use cunning and deception both on the battlefield and in court have drawn comparisons to Sun Tzu's The Art of War. It also shares thematic similarities with Zhang Yingyu's The Book of Swindles, a late-Ming-dynasty work focused on the realms of commerce and civil society.
#1
Want american translation of Chinese ancient military classics, check out Ralph D. Sawyer's Amazon page. Much of what the Chinese are currently doing is just what they have been honed to an art form over thousands of years.
[Breitbart] During an appearance on Tuesday’s CNN "New Day," Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) reacted to The New York Times report that President Donald Trump has discussed pulling the United States of America out of NATO. Oh wait! That's not DRT.
Speier said if Trump were to withdraw from NATO, it would be "ground" for an effort to impeach or invoke the 25th Amendment.
"It better be an idle threat from the president because I think that act would be so destructive to our country and to our ability to protect the national security of every American that it would be a ground for some profound effort by our part, whether it is impeachment or the 25th amendment," Speier told host John Berman. "He can’t do that to this country."
The House Intelligence Committee member added she "would not be a bit surprised" if Trump had discussed withdrawing from NATO with Russia President Vladimir Putin.
#1
NATO has fuck-all to do with protecting Americans. We're fine. It has everything to do with providing free security to ungrateful Europeans.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
01/16/2019 2:37 Comments ||
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#2
"Mom, back in the hood, is ungrateful!"
A debt is a debt. Don't be hateful.
But Mom doing drugs
And "inviting" in thugs
Who have opened a brothel
With awful falafel
And are building kabooms
In your siblings' old rooms...
Well! The choices one makes can be fateful.
Posted by: Bertie Lover of the Brontës2384 ||
01/16/2019 4:21 Comments ||
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#3
Demonstrating once again that the Donks can not give up a major welfare program even though its time is long past.
#4
Jackie Speier - Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee hasn't actually supported the miliitary except forcing LGBTQXYZ on them. She's a Bay Area Dem tool
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2019 8:49 Comments ||
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#5
Anything that empties the public trough is grounds for 25th amendment I see.
I actually agree with Herb 100% on this one. NATO is a social club at this point and couldn't stop a drunk Russian. Let them pay for their own defense and maybe Germany can field more that 4 out of 128 jets.
#7
NATO was established by a formal and binding treaty, which means Trump cannot use his executive power to pull America out of the alliance. The Senate would never agree to this.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/16/2019 11:37 Comments ||
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#8
So when Germany and France create an EU armed forces, what is NATO?
#9
Such forces are meant to be a complement to NATO, not a rival.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/16/2019 11:59 Comments ||
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#10
#7 As Commander in Chief he can determine manning levels and equipment/PLL distribution. Just as other NATO members have determined what amount of funding they choose to contribute on their defense. The word the legal eagles use is 'de facto'.
#11
When the EU reached its current structure the reasons for NATO started quickly disappearing. If they want a European Combined Army then there is no reason for NATO to continue.
#12
Re: #4 - Having sat in numerous meetings with Ms. Speier, I can attest that she is a truly a dim bulb. Her one claim to political fame is that Larry Layton didn't manage to kill her when he got Rep Ryan and photographer Bob Brown. He did wound her pretty badly, tho, so I assume some slack is appropriate.
Posted by: Herb Stalin2933 ||
01/16/2019 13:39 Comments ||
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#13
Such forces are meant to be a complement to NATO, not a rival.
Why don't they complement NATO by paying their fair share?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/16/2019 14:14 Comments ||
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#14
Perhaps the US should see how other nations are below their NATO commitments and match them percentage-wise.
[PJ] It is now obvious that for two and a half years, Democrats and their friends in the deep state have been peddling an elaborate hoax: the spurious charge that President Trump conspired or colluded with the Russians to win the 2016 election.
The entire enterprise from the beginning was always about defeating Trump -- either by planting smears in the media in 2016 to prevent his election or if that didn't succeed, by doubling down on the investigation in an effort to keep the president from uncovering their election-year espionage malfeasance.
But the honey-badger president didn't care and said he did nuthin' wrong and didn't try to stop it. So the "rigged investigation" led by "13 angry Democrats" lumbered on for nearly two years, racking up several process crimes and unrelated financial crimes in the process -- all while trying the nation's patience.
Then The New York Times' "bombshell" report last Friday confirmed that the FBI's case against the president was scandalously flimsy.
Trump’s former attorney John Dowd told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade on his radio show Monday that he believes the president was facing a "coup" and accused Mueller, former FBI Director James "Cardinal" Comey, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe of conspiring against the president.
"Little did I know that it appears that they were all in it together," Dowd said. "I mean Rosenstein, Comey, Mueller, McCabe, the whole crowd and they were out to get this president no matter what. I don't think they sincerely believed anything about Russia."
"This is our worst nightmare that someone with that kind of power would then decide to go after the president. I mean, it's a coup," Dowd added. "That's what it is ‐ an attempted coup by Comey and his crowd. And the evidence is all over there. I take the New York Times article as an admission of their bad behavior."
#2
Main intent was likely to get him to shut it down so they could use innuendo of him covering up as fodder for impeachment but he never took the bait. Interesting.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/16/2019 14:18 Comments ||
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#4
We edge closer than ever before in my lifetime to anger boiling over by conservative Americans at the seditious behavior of the Deep State, the Democrat Party and the propagandists of the Progressive Party masquerading as the media. God Save the Republic, because it seems determined to fracture again...
[Navy Times] A scathing internal Navy probe into the 2017 collision that drowned seven sailors on the guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald details a far longer list of problems plaguing the vessel, its crew and superior commands than the service has publicly admitted.
Obtained by Navy Times, the "dual-purpose investigation" was overseen by Rear Adm. Brian Fort and submitted 41 days after the June 17, 2017, tragedy.
It was kept secret from the public in part because it was designed to prep the Navy for potential lawsuits in the aftermath of the accident.
Unsparingly, Fort and his team of investigators outlined critical lapses by bridge watchstanders on the night of the collision with the Philippine-flagged container vessel ACX Crystal in a bustling maritime corridor off the coast of Japan.
Their report documents the routine, almost casual, violations of standing orders on a Fitz bridge that often lacked skippers and executive officers, even during potentially dangerous voyages at night through busy waterways.
The probe exposes how personal distrust led the officer of the deck, Lt. j.g. Sarah Coppock, to avoid communicating with the destroyer’s electronic nerve center ‐ the combat information center, or CIC ‐ while the Fitzgerald tried to cross a shipping superhighway.
#1
It's being covered up because women made the errors, and the Navy put sexism above competence training.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
01/16/2019 9:28 Comments ||
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#2
Herb McCoy the problems are much bigger than protecting a woman. Read the article again.
The whole ship leadership were at best negligent. The enlisted crew were not well trained. Key equipment was falling apart. Basic procedures were ignored.
But hey, this is the same US Navy in which over 60 admirals were recently indicted for corruption.
Perhaps it's not surprising that the Navy is in such horrific state. It has gotten short shrift since 9/11, at a time when the other services have been operationally active to the point of major strain. But we're at a critical state right now.
So stuff the narrative about how it's just all due to the woman. The rot goes very very deep.
#4
at the time of the collision a lot of Rantburgers posted back and forth -- some of us were amazed that this accident could have happened with all the many safeguards the Navy has established for transiting through shipping lanes - how could everything go wrong - it seemed impossible; others of us said basically that, other than the prestige carriers and a few other platforms, the Navy was being run by incompetents and bozos - it seems now that this second group was more correct
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/16/2019 11:52 Comments ||
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At the heart of the scandal was Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA), a firm run by Leonard Glenn Francis, a Malaysian national known as "Fat Leonard" for his then over 350 pound weight. Francis provided at least a half million dollars in cash, plus travel expenses, luxury items, and prostitutes to a large number of U.S. uniformed officers of the United States Seventh Fleet, who in turn gave him classified material about the movements of U.S. ships and submarines, confidential contracting information, and information about active law enforcement investigations into Glenn Defense Marine Asia. Francis then "exploited the intelligence for illicit profit, brazenly ordering his moles to redirect aircraft carriers to ports he controlled in Southeast Asia so he could more easily bilk the Navy for fuel, tugboats, barges, food, water and sewage removal.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/16/2019 12:52 Comments ||
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#7
From a combat veteran Marine and US Naval Academy grad I know:
"EVERY officer and senior CPO on the Fitzgerald deserves to be court martialed and that includes everyone in the chain up to and including the Fleet command
[ABC] A federal judge on Tuesday denied requests from unions representing air traffic controllers and other employees required to work through the government shutdown that they either be paid or have the option to skip work while missing paychecks.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled to keep the status quo, saying that an order allowing employees considered essential to skip work would be "chaotic" in a best-case scenario and "catastrophic" at worst.
Lawyers representing the National Air Traffic Controllers Association had sued the Trump administration to get their controllers, thousands of whom continue to work and just missed a paycheck, be paid while working during the shutdown in order for them to remain "laser-focused" on their job guiding more than 40,000 flights through the nation's airspace every day.
Lawyers for the labor unions, including National Treasury Employees Union, argued withholding pay while forcing labor is unconstitutional and violated U.S. labor laws.
Leon said only Congress can appropriate the funds to pay federal workers and would not force the Treasury Department to allocate funds to the furloughed employees.
#1
Besoeker, if you're the author of the headline and responsible for the image, I demand you apologize to the workers who are still working without pay and still have bills to pay, families to feed. If you don't then I call you out for being a bully who enjoys kicking people when they are down.
#2
The headline posted herein is the headline run by ABC verbatim. The graphic was my personal opinion of these sordid events. I have not worked in many years. When I needed work, I didn't hire a lawyer. I got off of my ass and found it! I would hope that others do likewise.
#3
Blame ABC’s editors, AlmostAnonymous5839. And if any of your congressional representatives are Democrats, let them know it’s time for them to compromise with President Trump. It is they who are at fault for the situation that is making your current circumstances so difficult — especially that group frolicking in Puerto Rico instead of working to find a solution in Washington, DC.
What did federal workers do during the Obama shutdwon in October, 2013?
#4
Personally I think it's wise to get the federal employees and sinecurists to understand the feeling of expecting a paycheck/pay-cheque and it not being there.
After all the government has done so much to make that happen to sooo many workers.
#5
The graphic probably crushed some sensibilities TW. I had initially intended to post Fred's 'pigs at the trough' which I routinely use for gov't workers and pols, but substituted another a bit more caustic. My bad, I took the replacement down.
#6
Air traffic controllers have a tough, demanding job with lots of responsibility. Did the judge also rule that landlords may not collect rent from them, banks not ask fopr mortgages being paid?
Sorry, no pay, no work.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/16/2019 6:50 Comments ||
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#7
Sorry, no pay, no work.
Posted by European Conservative
But, but, but I cannot be terminated thus I must always be paid! Can you not see the corollary ?
#8
If they don't work they CAN be terminated, right?
How long are they supposed to work without pay? Months?
Sorry no. Either pay them or allow them not to work. They have to feed a family.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/16/2019 7:08 Comments ||
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#9
Bottom line, they will eventually be paid. It is actually against Federal law to NOT compensate. If they stay home and do nothing, they will also get paid. If they come to work w/o pay, provide them with 'COMP TIME' (compensatory time off) at some future date.
If they do not want 'COMP TIME' permit them to sell back the days off, or add the days off in cash to their annual bonus.
Permit the withdrawal of funds (without penalty) from their Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) account.
Surely a workable solution, a win-win can be found somewhere.
#12
What has the union got to do with it?
If the government says you have to work, it has to pay you.
Trump said the shutdown could go on for a long time. Are people supposed to work for months without pay?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/16/2019 10:46 Comments ||
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#13
Lawyers for the labor unions, including National Treasury Employees Union, argued withholding pay while forcing labor is unconstitutional and violated U.S. labor laws.
Keep in mind who isn't getting income from the workers during the shutdown.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/16/2019 10:54 Comments ||
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#14
My question was: Why should the unions advance the government's pay?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/16/2019 11:00 Comments ||
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#15
Are people supposed to work for months without pay?
The piglets that covet a tit
Of the biggest she-porker, to wit:
Our government workers
(excepting you Burgers!),
Would rather be beggin'... than quit.
#16
They can take their labor elsewhere and sell it. Given that unemployment is down, that shouldn't be too much of a problem unless they do want a job but not work. The only people who can't quit their job are the uniformed services when it falls under desertion. BTW, Back in the 70s, Congress refused to pass the DoD authorization. The services went month to month with a continuing resolution. Mess Halls were opened to dependents as the resolutions dragged into the next months. The Donks controlled Congress then too. Punishment for following the Constitutional orders of the Executive for the Vietnam era.
The federal employees face the monkey with his hands on the candy and can't extract his hand from the bottle situation. The bennies are that good. They know it. They also know that in every other instances of this kind, they all got back pay.
Not that any department has ever delayed payments to contractors. Nah, never happened. /sarc off
#20
Un-essential workers (all administrative and contract workers) are staying home and not being paid. Essential, like myself, still have to show up work or not get paid. Besoeker, we are not pigs in the trough! Essential workers are necessary for safety or security reasons. Please refrain from performing an anal-cranial inversion and find out some facts, learn and stop performing knee jerk pronouncements.
Too many of you are assuming that all federal employees are ticks on your butt and I for one am getting a little tired of that.
#22
Are mandarins pinching their pennies
And sharing Grand Slams down at Denny's?
The horror, the horror.
"I'm sore," roared a schnorrer,
"But thanks for these glorious bennies!"
Not personal, AlmostAnon, just playing with words and making light of the bigger mess.
#23
And if any of your congressional representatives are Democrats, let them know it’s time for them to compromise with President Trump.
I believe that writing about this matter to Diane Feinstein and Kamala Harris would be akin to spitting in the wind. I do not believe that either one of them gives a fig what I say. I believe that Democrats in general have long since stopped trying to do things in the best interests of their constituents. They care only for power and as long as they have the msm covering their butts, they'll do as they please. This matter will not be resolved by letters from constituents.
Every night I sit and watch the msm deliver sob stories about these poor federal workers but they say not one word about the victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens, not to mention the deaths of people addicted to illegal narcotics. I'm sorry about people not getting paid but can't help thinking this is a temporary thing for them. For the mother of a child victimized by a drunken illegal alien in a car crash, it's permanent.
And what about workers in the private sector, on the lower rungs of the ladder, who are displaced by illegal aliens? Any word on that from ABC?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/16/2019 13:35 Comments ||
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#24
And 8 years of the private sector's suffering being mocked by the government with Funemployment, whilst they took more out of our paychecks for the Funemployed to stay Funemployed.
Now we get to deal with our Common Corp entry level employees.
And what in the ehll is a non-essential employee? Been throwing people off the boat so everyone else has enough to drink since mid 2008 and been harangued or laughed down after doing so.
So there is a bit of animosity out here in the private sector, especially when the insincere use sobs and tears to attempt to unleash yet another wave of unskilled, uneducated, wellfare and paid under the table cases into a reeling workforce and population.
There are banks who are fronting money to gov employees working without pay, knowing the paycheck will eventually arrive and the front re-payed.
In fact, I just realized the only people around home not pissed off are the trash bum junkies. Guess they still get their wellfare checks then?
What we should all be pissed about is when the tiny lords threatened all of us who do work with a delayed tax return. Last I saw, IRS still takes money so they are open. So the tiny lords either threatened us with financial violence, or consider that aspect of the government obliged to return the money they took from us speculating and earning interest, to not be essential.
#25
Not downing on you AA5839, glad you are one of the good ones, congratulations on making yourself essential at work, sorry you gotta hit the rainy day fund for a bit (hope you have one; everyone Dave Ramsey is required familiarity).
The new line is, towns around National Parks are going broke! bullcrap. Sick of it.
#26
As a local Gubbamint Employee/Cog in a top 10 City:
In 2008 when the City budget (and Fed economy) took a shit, we took a mandatory furlough of a week, then 10 days. We weren't paid for that, but we STFU (we shut up, because - we got jobs)
We had no raises for 10 years, eventually the furloughs were restored - 2015. (we shut up, because - we got jobs)
The Fed furloughed employees oughtta figure out: People don't care - they worry day-to-day about their jobs. Quit whining
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2019 21:52 Comments ||
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#27
Goodness! That is a rant, swksvolFF. I seem to recall that the nonsense of the Obama years kept you from expanding your business as demand would have otherwise encouraged.
#28
I know some people are hurting and despite that, I find it hard to have alot of sympathy. I work in the oil field so having my job disappear when least expected is part of the deal. Dealing with 10% pay cuts that turn into 30% pay cut is also. And I don't get to go home every night to tuck in my kid or kiss my wife. I'm gone 3-5 weeks at a time. And it sure seems lately that the amount of compensation we get for that being gone from our families keeps getting smaller and smaller. Yeah I could get another job...entry level geology pays so well;) ($30k/yr) Right now there's -3- people in the world with my job. So I think I'll just stick it out here and suck up the bad parts.
[AmericanThinker] Has President Trump suckered Democrats and the Deep State into a trap that will enable a radical downsizing of the federal bureaucracy? In only five more days of the already "longest government shutdown in history" (25 days and counting, as of today), a heretofore obscure threshold will be reached, enabling permanent layoffs of bureaucrats furloughed 30 days or more.
Iblis submitted this article, too, commenting My oh my. Wouldn't that be something.
Don't believe me that federal bureaucrats can be laid off? Well, in bureaucratese, a layoff is called a RIF ‐ a Reduction in Force ‐ and of course, it comes with a slew of civil service protections. But, if the guidelines are followed, bureaucrats can be laid off ‐ as in no more job. It is all explained by Michael Roberts here (updated after the beginning of the partial shutdown):
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/16/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
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#4
I'd be happy if he only RIF'd 10% of the federal unionized workforce - if he then rescinded Executive Order 10988. That's the EO Kennedy signed authorizing government employees to unionize. They aren't organized to protect workers from capitalist excesses - they are organized to extort premium wages and benefits from their fellow citizens.
#7
I worked in the private sector where RIFs could and did happen with disturbing regularity, usually just before Christmas. Actually, it happened to me. It's tough, especially when there is a Democrat in the White House and the economy is in the tank. But you get over it. You have no choice unless you don't mind sleeping in a river valley or on a sidewalk.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/16/2019 13:50 Comments ||
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#8
In deciding who stays and who goes, federal agencies must take four factors into account:
1. Tenure
2. Veteran status
3. Total federal civilian and military service
4. Performance
You're telling me that Affirmative Action has nothing to do with it? I call bullshit.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/16/2019 13:52 Comments ||
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#9
I worked in air cargo for 24 years. I stopped counting after 23 rounds of layoffs - in 7 years. Getting laid off isn't the end of the world - it's a chance to decide what is important in your life and figure out how to get there from where you are now. Being a government employee shouldn't be a "jobs for life" program!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.