Despite Trump’s order to to call 26,000 unpaid IRS workers back to
work (still without pay, of course), at least 14,000 of them did not
show up at the office as of Tuesday, according to The Washington Post.
Two House aides, speaking anonymously, say that 9,000 IRS employees
“could not be reached” and 5,000 more “claimed a hardship exemption.”
This, in the same week that La Guardia airport shuttered its doors
and other airports are experiencing major delays is just the beginning
of the destruction Trump’s shutdown is taking on Americans and the
United States.
“The shutdown appears to be affecting the IRS. In the call centers, which answer taxpayer questions over the phone, about 35 percent of calls are being answered, IRS officials told congressional staff, according to one of the aides. The initial plan for filing season was for 80 percent of calls to be answered. The average call time, of 7 to 10 minutes last filing season, has jumped to 25 to 40 minutes.
The IRS is also losing 25 IT staffers every week since the shutdown began, with many finding other jobs, one House aide said, citing the IRS officials’ briefing.
IRS employees have said they cannot afford to get to work or pay for child care as they struggle to go more than 30 days without pay.
Shannon Ellis, President of the National Treasury Employees Union in Kansas City sums it up when she tells The Washington Post: “People are panicking. It’s scary. It’s getting worse every day.”
Federal employees missed their first paycheck last week; from here on
in, every milestone dramatically exacerbates the pain of the shutdown: a
halt to aviation as TSA screeners quit en masse, civil cases stall in
federal courts, 38 million hungry Americans denied food stamps and 10%
of food sales in the US vanishing; deals expiring with the landlords of
40,000 low income households; then 2.2 million more households are
imperiled; landlords renting to federal agencies will go without rent
but won’t be able to evict federal tenants, triggering mortgage and debt
defaults; prison guards go from today’s skeleton crew to near-total
absenteeism; city buses stop running as Federal Transport Agency
payments dry up; drugs fall out of the FDA pipeline, denying medication
to ill and dying people; and of course, every IPO is stalled (and maybe
DOA) for so long as the shutdown continues.
All this to keep a racist promise to build a useless wall.
Motherboard’s blockbuster story
about mobile carriers selling your realtime location data into a
marketplace where bounty hunters and other villains can buy it for just a
few dollars has triggered an urgent, national conversation about the
fact that, in the year since the first stories about this emerged, the
carriers have not only failed to live up to their promises to put a stop
to it, but seem to have made it even worse.
So naturally, the Congressional committee that oversees the FCC – which
regulates the carriers – wants to be briefed on this so that they can
do their job, serve the American people, and get this situation under
control.
But to do that, they need to hear from Ajit Pai, the former Verizon
executive whom Donald Trump installed as Chairman of the FCC. And Pai
says he’s staying in his office with his giant novelty Reese’s mug, and
Congress can go fuck themselves, because there’s a shutdown on, and this
isn’t “a threat to safety.”
What’s more, the FCC committee that has been investigating this issue
has stopped all work, because again, having the location of every US
cellular phone owner being tracked in realtime and sold for a few
dollars to any scumbag with a credit card “is not a threat to safety.”
If you told me that in 2019 the government would have been shutdown for over 20 days because of the wall funding AND that Clemson not only won the Championship BUT the President of the United States would serve them McDonalds, Wendys. Burger King and Pizza Hut…I would not have believed you. Its straight up, like an article from theonion
Imagine winning the championship and you’re invited to the white house only to walk into the room to find cold fast food had been served. I mean COME ON
They’ve got fine china and this poor guy is struggling to pick up a piece of pizza with…tongs. THEY DIDN’T EVEN TAKE ANYTHING OUT OF THE BOX
At the same time this is sad, disrespectful and trashy but like…I find it hilarious that this even happened.
EDIT: I CAN’T BREATHE THEY PUT THE PACKETS OF SAUCES IN THESE FANCY DISHES
his big brag for this one was he “paid for all the food himself” because the white house cooks are furloughed (because of him you know) but are you telling me that this dude who is supposedly a billionaire couldnt afford to pay a few chefs for the night? my dude that is fucked
Is The Onion still in business because the world is one major shitpost already. What are they gonna do? Write real news?
“Two new blockbuster scoops about President Trump’s relations with Russia — combined with fresh signs that Trump will drag out the government shutdown indefinitely — should renew our focus on the quiet but critical role that Mitch McConnell has played in enabling the damage that Trump is doing to the country on so many fronts.”
The IRS is shut down, along with much of the rest of the federal
government, but unattended servers running on autopilot are sensing that
no progress has been made on taxpayers’ attempts to clarify disputed
and overdue bills, and so they are initiating asset seizure proceedings.
Even if this turn of events is sufficient to terrorize you into paying a
disputed bill, there’s no one at the IRS to accept your payment – and
of course, if you maintain that the bill isn’t correct, there’s no one
to discuss it with.
I just saw that people have cut down some of the Joshua trees during this shutdown and I want to cry
w H A T
The what trees? Someone explain? I want to be appropriately sad. I mean, I’m sad either way because trees are better than people. But why are these trees more special than usual?
They’re a rare species, and one that is very stunning, and also one that is very vulnerable to habitat loss and climate change.
And if I ever get my hands on one of the people who did this, I will be hard pressed to not kill them.
Did you see WHY they cut them down? They cut them down so they could go off roading in closed off areas of pristine desert.
Some fucking people should not be let out of their cages.
