Lurker > Forceful_Dragon

"Efficiency"

I thought we were just going to collectively ignore that post.

AriaOfBolo posted...

I really want to convey how little this matters these days

It will matter when the wrongful termination lawsuits get filed!

If they want to pay off the house I just closed on they can be my guest.

They don't even have to actively remove people. Annual attrition for federal jobs is around 6%, they could just keep the hiring freeze in place for several years and see a significant reduction in federal employees.

Also completely pointless for the vast majority of us who receive two annual evaluations already? They want to know what I do? There are years of reports relating to the tasks I do and my competence at doing it.

FFDragon posted...

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1893386883444437415

I understand that's what he's saying in other channels, but nothing in the email itself would imply that a lack of response is equivalent to a resignation.

No way in fuck is that legal. Nothing in the message implies anything of the sort.

Federal Employment update:

I only saw it today because I was working some saturday overtime and it came in just as my 8 hours of work were ending, but I just got this e-mail from the same account that sent us the "fork in the road" e-mail a few weeks back.

Subject:
What did you do last week.

Message:
Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.

Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments.

Deadline is this Monday at 11:59pmEST.

Is this their newest "look at how hardcore it's going to be to keep working for us" tactic?

I certainly will not be replying unless I am directed to do so by my actual superior, but I'm really curious to see if anything comes of this. My chain of command has still not issued any actual directive on a full return to office so my 30 day clock isn't ticking yet either.

so can rolling a 6 on a dice over and over, but that doesn't mean you should bet even odds on it :)

Wanglicious posted...

the USAID shit is just a slam dunk of that example. do people want their taxes used for that, no.

Yeah, people are morons, this is true.

People polled (albeit from a decade ago now) were under the impression that the US spends a LOT of money on foreign aid compared to the total budget. But these people are very wrong. On average they believed we spent 31% of our budget on foreign aid, rather than the correct amount which is around 1%.

https://www.kff.org/global-health-policy/poll-finding/americans-views-on-the-u-s-role-in-global-health/

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/2399c00a.jpg

And these people don't realize that the power and influence we gain on the international stage by being a leader in foreign aid is EASILY worth 1% of our budget.

Instead we're going to pull funding that will impact and damage untold millions of lives, all to pinch then most irrelevant of pennies and simultaneously ceding an incredible amount of global influence. This will create a vacuum that could easily be filled by a rival country.

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People are being spoon fed rage-bait and they lack the inclination or the capacity to actually understand the scale and scope of the "problem" their manipulated rage is focused on. Not just foreign aid, but trans athletes or vaccinations or whatever the propaganda of the day happens to be.

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Just another recent example is how they pointed out recently that according to the social security database there are over 21 million people over the age of 100.

This information was used to IMPLY that this might mean there are 21 million people collecting social security checks for people who are dead (aka widespread fraud)

But the information ACTUALLY means that SSA needs to update it's database to include the "is dead" flag on a bunch of accounts. These SSA records of long-dead people don't translate into money being paid out, but is simply just an issue of outdated records.

And by all means, fix the records, but don't point to this as evidence of widespread fraud. It's just more context-lacking bullshit meant to fire people up and you seem to be completely on board, Wang.

that's why you're supposed to get a private room, play single deck and edge sort. Duh

Yes, as established and funded by congress.

If someone builds a restaurant, and provides all the funding needed to operate the restaurant, then puts you in charge... it would be pretty dumb for your Executive Decision as the person in charge to be "tear down the restaurant". Like yes, you are technically in charge, but that's dumb as hell.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8756b475.jpg

Sam

There is still a large contingent of Americans who for religious reasons believe that Israel is incapable of doing anything wrong and would call it anti-Semitic to even imply otherwise.

They apparently didn't read any of the parts in the Bible where God specifically punished the nation of Israel when they were getting up to some shit.

It seems that these specific casualties have been a topic of discuss since shortly after the Oct 7 attacks. They were supposedly killed by an Israeli airstrike before the temporary truce in late November 2023. 15 months is an awfully long time to be holding onto bodies before returning them :/

LordoftheMorons posted...

Forceful_Dragon posted...
Hamas is still the primary party at fault since they kidnapped them, something theres no possible justification for. Theres plenty to criticize Israel about with how theyve conducted the war, but everything that happened to the prisoners is on Hamas.

Oh certainly they bear the majority of the responsibility, but if you are trying to rescue or force the release of prisoners then it's possible that indiscriminate bombing was not the way to go.

Nanis23 posted...

https://x.com/emilykschrader/status/1892478789449331153?t=-HfX1GtPXl0FozZzeKhDDA&s=19

:|

At this risk of accidentally starting a conversation with you about this, the sign seems to say that those individuals were killed by Israel planes and munitions. (Presumably during the prolonged attacks on Gaza that killed many many more people)

Granted i've only spent a couple of weeks in NYC a couple of years ago, but I can't imagine driving a car into downtown and trying to park somewhere. The subway reaches nearly everything and the bus covers the rest. I only rented a car when it was time to *leave* NYC and drive to Boston/Philly/DC, but I would certainly not have considered it a good way to get around that city.

redrocket posted...

Doesnt a thing need to be embraced to any degree before it can be widely embraced?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/results/2024/11/05/ranked-choice-voting-ballot-measures/

Alaska voted "no" which means they KEEP their RCV (it was fairly new and they were trying to repeal it)

Colorado failed to pass their RCV though :(

But Washington DC passed theirs

Idaho failed theirs.

Missouri failed but their measure was pretty fucked up, it was a vote to "Prohibit Ranked Choice Voting *AND* require all voters to be American Citizens." Everyone just focused on the second part and it won in a landslide.

Nevada failed theirs.

Oregon failed theirs.

.

Okay yeah, it did worse than I thought it was gonna do on the ballot last year. People are idiots. It's best version of success will be to start local and work it's way up, but that's pretty annoying that there were a handful of state level measures and they virtually all failed.

I'm okay with that provided it's replaced by a party with strong progressive morals.

Or MULTIPLE progressive parties, but for a multi party system we would need more widespread embracing of Ranked Choice Voting

Totally normal and not at all crazy dictator behavior:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a4108114.jpg

I know this was quoted at the end of the last topic, but it bears repeating and the fake TIME magazine cover really adds something extra.

foolm0r0n posted...

And part of the vote would have to be "we choose to end the current peace and restart the war with Russia after this election".

So... WHY would that have to be part of the vote?

Obviously this is a hypothetical scenario because Russia's position is that "East Ukraine" is actually just "West Russia", but in the impossible scenario where Russia allowed all Ukrainians to vote in a Ukrainian Election, why would "continue the war with Russia" be on the ballot? They were invaded, they didn't choose to be at war to begin with.

Edit: Trump only thinks this is "Ukraine's War" because he's a fucking idiot (and/or because he's a Russian Puppet repeating their propaganda).

Came here to mention that Trump is calling Zelensky a dictator, but I see ya'll are on top of it. What an absolute joke.

Can we do some kind of wife-swap thing where Ukraine gets Trump and we get Zelensky as our president?

Seanchan posted...

Where did you get these statistics from?

Idk about high school but the "fewer than 10" at the collegiate level was a quote from the NCAA President to a Senate committee towards the the of last year.

swirIdude posted...

They cant just replace Bidoof like this!

This #BidoofErasure will not stand

greengravy294 posted...

Buddy I've actually probably won more in a night than you did in your career

This could easily be true and it wouldn't change the truthfulness of what I said at all.

greengravy294 posted...

someone hit and made him

greengravy294 posted...

one person I recognize as a perpetual loser here. Table: avoided

Other people and their actions do not actually effect your long term blackjack results.

Someone playing sub optimally is exactly as likely to cause you to win as it is to cause you to lose. If all you know is the count then the next two cards could just have easily been the other way around in shoe.

Seanchan posted...

Apparently a whole mess of probationary Feds were fired at a bunch of agencies today.

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/02/opm-fires-probationary-employees-after-deferred-resignation-deadline/

A source familiar with OPMs decision-making told Federal News Network that OPM met with agencies and provided them with guidance to lay off probationary employees, with case by case exceptions.

The source described OPMs communication to agencies as soft guidance, and that agencies independently can decide how to move forward.

Despite their saying this the fact that they have installed terrible people to head up most agencies means there will likely be an acceptance of this "guidance" despite it not being a strict requirement.

No one in my unit has been here less than a year so I might not be able to directly observe the impact of this.

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The latest OPM data shows 216,079 federal employees had one year of service or less, as of March 2024. The five-year average across the government is 192,774 employees with a year of service or less.

But if our current status of probationary employees is anywhere near that number, that is a significant number of jobs.

It depends very much on their conditions, but the charizard is valuable despite not being first edition, and the Snorlax and Vileplume *are* 1st edition so those would be a good place to start.

Personally I've been sitting on a full set (62/62) of 1st Edition cards from the Fossil set (it was the 3rd set after the Base set and Jungle). I figure at some point I'll get the 15 foils graded and then sell them as a set, but they have just been sitting in a sleeve binder for the past 25-26 years.

Underleveled posted...

As someone who has been selling cards for a few years now...

Maybe you would have a decent idea of what a full 1st ed fossil set would run? :D

I do an ebay search once a year or so just to see, but there isn't always a lot of action on full sets.

I assume 2020

Leonhart4 posted...

I dunno that they're going back to the well with that one. Plus, I dunno that they wanna do it with Huang watching, but maybe they're into that kinda thing.

Okay, maybe they don't actually get to that point, but they might still show some additional tension between Dylan Outtie and his wife or some budding chemistry between her and Dylan Innie. ?

It just seems like they hit that note pretty hard to not come back to it again.

I can't wait for Dylan's wife to cheat on the Outtie with the Innie because that's definitely coming, right?

Broken clock, etc

colliding posted...

literally impossible to make the comeback now with the onside kick rules

They should have waited until the 4th to score then

SHINE_GET_64 posted...

https://twitter.com/MavsMuse/status/1888757139029549082

Fantastic

I have to watch the halftime show again later, people were talking through the whole thing

Zigzagoon posted...

FD noooooo... how could this happen to you?

I like the idea of reliving how much I enjoyed the first one.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/089ae933.jpg

I mean it's pretty obvious that it all falls under the umbrella of interpreting laws. If not the judiciary, then who?

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e068ecdf.jpg
Screenshotted this one so the folks who dont click Twitter links can see.

Were cooked.

Does he know that Judges are tasked with determining when something violates the Constitution? Including executive actions?

I love the first one.

I kinda dislike the second and how it ridiculously retcons the first film

And I never saw the 3rd

But I am very excited for the live action remake!

Get Out > Nope > Us

Imo Us was easily the weakest, but still a decent and watchable movie.

MartinFF7 posted...

But yeah depending how many more seasons this runs you're looking at many years before it finishes. Almost 3 year break between seasons which they can blame on the writer's strike but that's still way too long. So depending how many more seasons they run it for & what the waits between seasons it'll be a while before it's all done...

It sounds like the writers are already working on season 3, so it will probably not take a long.

red13n posted...

It would be preferable if we kept things bordering on crimes like not paying taxes to ourselves as to not endanger the future of the topic.

But we can talk about crimes like annexing Greenland?

double standard!

banananor posted...

Aka you don't pay taxes, lose all your money, then negotiate with the government to let you off the hook if you pay like 20% or less of what you owe.

And even if you are going to do something like that don't go through one of those places like Optima Tax Relief. They don't have access to any kind of process you don't have access to yourself and are just charging you to do one of 3 things that you could simply have done yourself:

-If you make little to no money, they will get you onto a Currently Not Collectible status, so you can start waiting out the 10 year period, and if your income improves during that time you will automatically lose the CNC status.

-If you make good money they will try an Offer In Compromise, and try to negotiate a lump sum pay-off of a reduced amount. Less than half of these offers are accepted and it will very much depend on how much you can actually afford to pay before the debt expires.

-If you don't have enough assets for an OIC, but still make too much money for CNC they will get you set up in an Installment Agreement. You might only be able to afford enough to cover the accruing interest, but having the IA set up will at least prevent any kind of collections activity or asset seizure.

But to even kick off the project they will make you pay hundreds of dollars for "researching" your account which will consist of ordering your tax transcripts which you can order yourself for free, and then from there pressure you for a much larger payment so they will take care of one of those other free options for you.

Tax Prep companies piss me off because of how often they are just screwing people over, and Tax "Relief" companies are the same. Obviously it would be better if our tax system was much less complicated and much more automated, but with the lobby might of Intuit and other preparation companies I'm not sure how soon it will change.

If at all possible I would recommend using Direct File on the irs.gov website to file this year. Right now it only supports some of the more simple tax situations (I couldn't do it because my wife received a 1099-R last year, for example) but additional support will be getting rolled out over time.

In the future when the collection process is increasingly automated and easier to execute?

Even self employed if you're making enough to be considered middle class or above then you might as well just report correctly and take advantage of as many loopholes and tax favorable activities as your can. No point letting tens of thousands of dollars in debt loom over you for an entire decade, and that's assume nothing happens to extend the Collections Statute Expiration Date during that decade.

It's one of those 'tricks' that is theoretically possible but would realistically be viable for almost nobody and still not worth the hassle, imo.

That is legitimately awful advice.
They mention some of the reasons why (such as the fact that we'll send a letter to your employer and "lock in" your withholding at a higher than average rate to prevent you from under withholding moving forward) but they generally seem to be under emphasizing the likelihood of asset seizure after more than a couple years of non payment.

The easiest way would be to start making less money to the point that you can barely afford to pay your own bills and be considered "currently not collectible" but unless you follow 1 incredibly lucrative non tax paying year with 10 poor barely making anything years it just doesn't seem worth it.

foolm0r0n posted...

EVs or any other tech don't matter anymore.

It matters for not turning our back on sustainable energy and transportation.

We want America to lead the world, but we're still clinging to fossil fuels.

https://www.wired.com/story/feds-halt-national-electric-vehicle-charging-program/

The US government has ordered states to retract their plans to build hundreds of federally funded EV charging stations, according to a memo obtained by WIRED.

Which, predictably is not legal:

The order may be illegal. It could fly in face of court orders demanding the Trump administration unfreeze a funding pause that prevents federal money from flowing to state agencies. It may also violate the Administrative Procedures Act, which requires agencies to follow legal procedures before taking action.

There is no legal basis for funds that have been apportioned to states to build projects being decertified based on policy, says Andrew Rogers, a former deputy administrator and chief counsel of the Federal Highway Administration.

FFDragon posted...

some feds being told verbally that return to office is march 17 and that includes those with cbas

nothing in writing to keep it from the courts as long as possible

NTEU already on it

lol, until I'm told by management that the telework agreement is changed my 30 day clock hasn't even started yet. (edit: though I suppose they could tell me feb 15th and that date could be real?)

And we got an e-mail today stating the resignation deadline (which was supposed to be 11:59 PM EST tonight) is now pushed until monday.

It's pretty clear they have no idea what they are doing.