How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

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How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby sunglasses » Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:18 pm

For those of you who may not know, we are in a partial shutdown.

I'm listing how it's affecting us- (I'm not the only one who is doing this-NPR is too)

Joshua Tree park was closed due to damage but now is open again.

California's Joshua Tree National Park will avoid a temporary closure after officials said they have found other funds to cover the costs of cleaning clogged restrooms and other facilities during the partial government shutdown.

Officials had planned to close the park completely Thursday, citing the inability to manage the waste left behind by visitors and habitat destruction by offroaders. Some of the park's namesake trees were also damaged.


People have diedin the National Parks during this shutdown.

On Christmas Eve, a 14-year-old girl fell to her death at the iconic Horseshoe Bend overlook in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona. Then on Christmas Day a man died at Yosemite National Park after sustaining head injuries while on a water-slick granite slope known as the Silver Apron.

Two days later, a woman died after being hit by a falling tree in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. On that same day, a woman's body was found after she'd gone missing from the Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area in Pennsylvania on Dec. 23, the day after the shutdown began.


So why is this?

Unlike previous government shutdowns, when officials in the Interior Department elected to close the parks to protect natural resources and public safety, the Trump administration has decided to keep the facilities open. While the parks continue to see thousands of visitors each day, they are running with reduced staff as operations like trash removal and restroom facilities remaining closed


Government employees are either furloughed or being forced to work without pay.

Approximately 800,000 federal workers have been furloughed or are being required to work without pay.

Congress had already passed appropriations bills funding about three-quarters of the federal government, including Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs, so those departments and agencies remain operational.

Lots of important things are not affected by this shutdown: Medicare, Medicaid, and the Health Insurance Marketplace (aka Obamacare). Social Security, disability checks and veterans' benefits. Getting a passport. And the U.S. Postal Service, an independent agency whose operations are funded by sales of postage and services, not taxes, keeps delivering mail.


TSA workers are calling off sick as they aren't presently getting paid. Honestly, I do not blame them. Bill collectors don't care if you're getting paid "eventually." They want their money now.

Small business owners are unable to get loans.

The Small Business Administration stopped processing new loans on Dec. 22. Troxler and thousands of others can’t get their SBA loans approved, meaning they can’t get money they need to start or expand their companies.


Oh, and by the way, planes aren't being inspected. So, don't fly.
Many planes are not being inspected and pilot training is not being certified, says Capt. Dennis Tajer, a pilot for American Airlines and a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association.

That's because many of the FAA safety inspectors aren't working.


The USDA has furloughed employees so who cares about salmonella, amirite?

Meanwhile, the president is heading to the border talking about possibly issuing a state of emergency to get border wall funding and end the shut down. I am leery of what issuing a state of emergency under these circumstances would entail in the future, personally.

People who ACTUALLY work on securing borders and preventing drugs from getting in may not be getting paid as they are the Coast Guard.

While the other branches of the military are part of the Defense Department, the Coast Guard falls under Homeland Security. After some maneuvering, the government found a way to pay its military members on Dec. 31. The nearly 42,000 active duty members of the Coast Guard are still working, as they are considered essential personnel, but it's not clear whether they will get a paycheck on Jan. 15.


The BIA, which tbh is borderline useless most days, is completely unanswering their phones. IHS clinics can only take emergencies and its staff are essential so they do have to show up, but again, they aren't being paid. The Yomba Shoshone Tribe's entire revenue stream is thru the Feds. So this is particularly devastating to them.

But to many people in Indian Country, a government shutdown can be a matter of life or death.

That point was driven hard in one small tribal community in rural Nevada, where the entire staff was temporarily laid off, leaving many elders stranded without access to health care, groceries or medicine.


Our already backlogged immigration courts now are getting backlogged even more as the courts are presently closed. Many are having to reschedule their cases, going to the back of the line, which is another 2-3 year wait.

The Smithsonian museums are closed.

Oil and gas drilling are often done on federal lands. Of course, this is now on hold.

The feds aren't paying their water bills during the shutdown, either.

The federal government is also the largest customer of DC Water — and it told the utility company it wouldn't be paying $5 million of its quarterly bill during the shutdown, WAMU's Jacob Fenston reports. The DC Water board members joked about how to handle this big unpaid bill, perhaps by turning off the water at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby Marcuse » Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:38 pm

Government employees are...being forced to work without pay.


I forget what you call doing that. Has something to do with Eastern Europe I think.
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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby Anglerphobe » Thu Jan 10, 2019 9:35 pm

Marcuse wrote:
Government employees are...being forced to work without pay.


I forget what you call doing that. Has something to do with Eastern Europe I think.


I thought it was some sort of soothing ointment.
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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Thu Jan 10, 2019 10:19 pm

Yeah, but Trump offered Skittles and Mr. Goodbar and the Dems said no, so we have no choice but to prolong this!
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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby NathanLoiselle » Thu Jan 10, 2019 10:40 pm

But think of all the money your saving by not paying the slaves! I mean, public employees.
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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby KleinerKiller » Fri Jan 11, 2019 1:03 am

He is destroying the country to try to force funding for a stupid, racially motivated policy that is physically impossible to enact the way he wants it enacted, and he shows no signs of backing down without that, no doubt in large part due to the Dems moving in on him.

And he is still, still, not set to be impeached.

Just fuck everything.
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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby cmsellers » Fri Jan 11, 2019 1:26 am

From a Politico article linked in another thread.

Pence told reporters on Thursday afternoon that there must be money for Trump's wall project in an agreement to fund the government: "No wall, no deal," Pence declared.


Have the Democrats tried offering the President exactly one peso for his wall?
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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby JamishT » Fri Jan 11, 2019 3:41 am

sunglasses wrote:People have diedin the National Parks during this shutdown.

On Christmas Eve, a 14-year-old girl fell to her death at the iconic Horseshoe Bend overlook in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona. Then on Christmas Day a man died at Yosemite National Park after sustaining head injuries while on a water-slick granite slope known as the Silver Apron.



I think this partial shutdown is real dumb and stupid, but I don't know if this specific thing can be attributed to it. I guess you could argue that a ranger could have been in the vicinity and warned them away from doing those things, but I don't know just how likely that is. I'm all for pointing out the consequences for the shutdown, but this one seems a little alarmist.

The most surprising effect I've heard on NPR (but I can't seem to find the segment) is a dogwalker losing most of their business because so many clients are home with their dogs.
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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby sunglasses » Fri Jan 11, 2019 4:20 am

Last time there was a shut down the parks were closed, thus the idea is that injuries as such were prevented. Having less personnel can affect potential recovery times.
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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby Tesseracts » Fri Jan 11, 2019 6:11 am

I've taken 3 airplanes recently and I need to take another one to get back home :(.
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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby sunglasses » Fri Jan 11, 2019 6:23 am

Tesseracts wrote:I've taken 3 airplanes recently and I need to take another one to get back home :(.


May the odds be ever in your favor.
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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby Bromo » Fri Jan 11, 2019 10:44 am

On the bright side, the longer this shutdown lasts, the likelier he'll lose the next election. *knocks on wood*
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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby Absentia » Fri Jan 11, 2019 11:35 am

Bromo wrote:On the bright side, the longer this shutdown lasts, the likelier he'll lose the next election. *knocks on wood*


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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby iMURDAu » Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:00 pm

The FTC needs to approve the sale of the store I work at. If it doesn't happen I have no doubt the company that currently owns it will just liquidate and I'll be SOL and JWF*.

People who applied for the type of housing loan we have are in quite a bind. They may not get the house they want or a house in their price range, or at all if their loan can't be approved. If this had happened to us two years ago it would have set us back who knows how long.

Landlords will be missing rent payments from tenants who receive housing assistance. Landlords! That is Trump's original tribe!

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Re: How the Shutdown is Affecting the US

Postby Absentia » Sat Jan 12, 2019 1:10 pm

Yesterday was the first payday that federal employees missed their checks. And at midnight this officially became the longest government shutdown in US history.

Part of the reason nobody in Washington is optimistic about this cluster ending anytime soon is that no one can figure out what Trump actually wants to do. In the last few days he has gone back and forth and even contradicted himself in the same sentence on whether he intends to declare a state of emergency and use military funds currently earmarked for future disaster relief to build his wall. As of this morning the answer seems to be "no," possibly because he can't find a lawyer to tell him that he has a snowball's chance in hell of surviving a court challenge.

Negotiations in Congress are paralyzed because nobody knows what kind of deal the President would actually sign. White House meetings between Trump and Dem leadership have been unproductive; the Dems accuse Trump of changing his demands seemingly on a whim, and earlier this week Trump stormed out of a meeting after Nancy Pelosi gave him a flat no on whether she was willing to give him the wall. Meanwhile, good old Mitch McConnell has shot down any suggestion that he might try to override the presidential veto.

So... who the hell knows? On the bright side, there's good news for anyone who wants to emigrate to Canada. Just saying.
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