Government shutdown 2025 Nov 15, 2025
The government has been shut down for the past almost month and a half due to a funding disagreement.  As an employee of the federal government, I've been sort of unemployed this whole time.  Certain projects at work were in an "excepted" state which meant work was to continue as normal, while other projects were simply put on pause until funding resumed.  Some people have been doing absolutely nothing, while other people have been going to the office and working full-time.  I lucked out due to my funding level on one of those projects, and only had to work "to my allotment" which was 25%, which meant I did two hours of work per day and then called it a day.  If there's any doubt about this type of work schedule, I can firmly state this is the ideal amount of work that should be attempted in one day.  Two hours is enough to focus on something, make some progress, maybe complete a thing, and then call it quits.  It's the perfect work/life balance. 

The only downside was that we weren't getting paid.  There was an expectation that we would get paid after the shutdown ended, and this was even codified as a law after a previous shutdown.  But I no longer have confidence in the government's ability or willingness to follow laws.  Working without pay is fine for a short time, but it brings up some interesting questions after a while.  Like, how long do I feel like working without getting paid, and how hard do I feel like working?  At what point should I consider a different job, preferably one that pays me?  Because as much as I like my job, at the end of the day, it's a job.  If I didn't have to work for a living, I wouldn't.  If I could devote my time to something while not getting paid, it wouldn't be my job. 

But the other interesting question was:  What the hell should I do with my time?  It's hard to predict when a government shutdown will end, so you don't want to make any big future plans or anything.  So I mostly did nothing with my newfound free time.  I played video games, watched TV.  Standard things I would do with my downtime in pseudo-vacation mode.  But after a couple weeks, I decided I should probably be productive in some form, so I did a few house projects that have been waiting around for months.  Again, even with two hours of work and a few hours of home improvement work, it's still a great work/life balance. 

Which, by the way, I think the last time I had this much free time in my life was when I was maybe 15 years old, before I started working a summer job.  After that point, it was work, high school, college, summer internships, and then a full-time job.  High school and college weren't easy, stress-free times for me, so I've basically been "on" for the past 28 years straight. 

The source of the government shutdown was a disagreement between the president's budget proposal and congress's acceptance of that bill.  Now that the furlough is over, government employees have been assured they will receive back pay both for the actual work they did and also for the work they didn't do, i.e. they'll be paid for not working.  As a taxpayer, this is an absurd situation.  But as a government employee who had no say in whether or not the government was shut down, it's a no-brainer.  Pay me what you owe me, bitch.  I signed up for this job, I've created a life based around receiving a certain annual salary.  A political disagreement is honestly not my fucking problem.  And honestly it's a weird situation, where it's unclear who benefits from a government shutdown.  Surely the government workers don't benefit, and neither do the businesses and restaurants and all manner of other trickle-down economic players who aren't receiving that routine flow of cash.  But also the taxpayers don't benefit because not only are those tax dollars still being spent, you're also not getting the work production value out of them.  As far as I can tell, the only people who benefit are the small-brained politicians who get to essentially take hostage the entire national economic apparatus to exercise their silly little power plays. #politics
Political hobbyists Apr 7, 2023
I'm starting to view politics as just another hobby people have.  Some people are into cars, some people are into sports, some people are into movies.  And some people are into politics.  They read about politics, they watch TV shows and videos that discuss different political topics in depth, then they bring up those topics in conversations with people.  Have you ever had a conversation with a car guy where you're already way out of your league, and then he brings up some obscure factoid about fuel injection pumps?  Yeah that's how I feel about anything involving "the speaker of the house" or "the debt ceiling" or whatever the flavor of the week happens to be.  That's your hobby, not mine. 

There are two sort of major sticking points with this way of thinking, which I'll briefly admit and then promptly dismiss.  One is that the subject of politics often goes hand in hand with the subject of current events.  Or perhaps more accurately, politics sort of has its slimy tentacles in every conceivable space in our lives, which makes it a continuous, unending current event.  In general, it's probably good to be aware of current events so you understand what's happening in the world and maybe appreciate your part in it.  Alternatively, you can willfully remain hopelessly ignorant and be no worse for wear.  In the grand scheme of things, it literally doesn't matter. 

The other sticking point is that knowledge of politics, and maybe current events more broadly, carries an air of intelligence.  Or at least that's how it seems.  Other hobby topics don't carry that weight.  I've met smart car people and smart sports people, but I've never felt inferior because I didn't know what an overhead camshaft is or what the infield fly rule is.  But I've definitely felt inferior for not knowing tax policies or healthcare reform bills.  Maybe that's just me though. #politics
Abortion tyranny Dec 2, 2021
Former Vice President Mike Pence said of abortion rights, "Americans are ready for an end to the judicial tyranny of Roe v Wade."  I'm not sure he understands what the word tyranny means.  Merriam-Webster says tyranny is "cruel and unfair treatment by people with power over others."  Roe v Wade doesn't force people to get abortions.  You can easily and rightfully go your entire life without getting an abortion.  Being able to get a safe, legal abortion is not tyranny; forcing a person against their will to carry a pregnancy to term ... literally is. #politics
Politics age limit Nov 18, 2021
I 100% think there should be a maximum age limit of, say 70 or 75, for all representative political offices, Supreme Court appointments, and whatnot, regardless of political party and regardless of success rate or popularity.  And NOT because old people are crazy or too old to think properly, but simply because old people are completely unrepresentative of the population at large, both in terms of culture and interests, but also in terms of population statistics.  There are more toddlers in America than there are people over 75 years old.  Octogenarians should not be deciding how to spend tax dollars or creating new laws. #politics
Ignorant Donald Oct 19, 2021
I've felt for a while now that Donald Trump's fatal flaw and saving grace is that he's woefully ignorant.  There were some pretty serious accusations hurled at him while he was president, and I honestly think he just didn't know better because he came from a life of privilege and heavy-handed yet questionable business practices.  He didn't know you couldn't sell products while you were the president.  He didn't know a presidential candidate isn't allowed to work with a foreign government to interfere in an election.  He didn't know you couldn't force a state to come up with additional votes for you to try to win an election. 

Considering the litany of terrible things he did, a lot of people view him as this evil criminal mastermind who wanted to disrupt the status quo and cement his power and legacy forever.  I just think he was a dummy.  Or more accurately, he was ignorant -- and ignorant in the literal sense of the word, meaning he literally didn't know. #politics
Migration solution Aug 24, 2021
It's clear the world has a migration problem.  More specifically, people want to leave the shitty countries they live in and move someplace where they won't be murdered for listening to pop music or wearing shorts or being female. 

I have a terrible solution to this problem.  Everyone knows the US likes to meddle in other nations' foreign affairs.  They like it even more if they can drop some bombs on the way.  The solution is this:  The US should invade each of these shitty countries, create a little freedom zone within each country, and tell all the migrants to go to these freedom zones.  They would essentially start out as military bases and expand outward and upward over time.  The goal would be to establish a self-sustaining freedom-loving economic safety zone that has the full defensive protection of the US military, but with less of the actual military toppling regimes and chasing terrorists through the mountains.  Businesses can be created and investments encouraged through tax incentives, with a portion of the profits going to the invading country's pockets.  And the locals get to stay in their county, with their family and friends and cultures.  It's like a mini nation incubator, inside a big shitty nation's borders.  Not only will this cut down on immigration into the US and other western nations, it will permanently embroil the US in a number of endless foreign occupations, which is something they really like. 

Please don't try this. #politics
Not liberal enough Jan 22, 2021
There's a faction of the left that's unhappy with Biden being president.  He's not liberal enough.  He didn't abolish capitalism yet.  He's a failure. 

I'm liberal, but this mindset is stupid as shit.  I get that Biden isn't your favorite guy, but he is unmistakably, measurably more in line with your goals than the last guy.  If you can't see that, you have an issue. 

And the whole idea is just the "both sides" argument, either in the form of "there are good and bad people on both sides" -- i.e. the way Trump defended white supremacists -- or in the form of "both sides are equally bad" which is not only inherently untrue, it's unhelpful.  Like seriously, I get that the game sucks, but it's pointless to sit on the sidelines and take pot shots at the only two teams on the field.  Pick a side; work from there. #politics
Hitler wasn't right Jan 11, 2021
There's this really nice politics lady who, during a speech about *whatever*, said "Hitler was right on one thing," and then proceeded to make a semi-legitimate point while using Hitler as supporting evidence.  The thing is, she's right:  Hitler was probably right about a few things.  But he was also really wrong about a few other things, and that's what we remember him for.  If your philosophical and political influences are so poor that you need to use Hitler as an example, you should get yourself some better influences. #politics
Voter turnout Dec 2, 2020
I remember thinking (and maybe saying) this after Trump got elected in 2016, but it's even more true now:  The one good thing Trump has done is to increase people's interest in politics, both local and national, and for both political parties.  This can be clearly seen in voter turnout percentages, which have been in the 50s and low 60s for the past hundred years or so.  The 2020 election saw a 66-72% eligible voter turnout, which is the highest its been since the 1800s.  Say what you want about him and his presidency, but a healthy functioning representative democracy requires the interest and involvement of the voting populace.  Mission accomplished. #politics
Fauci accused of politics Nov 9, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci was accused of being political right before the recent election: 
When asked about the approaches of the two presidential candidates, Dr Fauci said Mr Biden was "taking it seriously from a public health perspective", while Mr Trump was "looking at it from a different perspective... the economy and reopening the country".
That's probably the least political statement ever, and he could've easily and rightfully snuck a well-informed insult right in the second part of that statement, but he didn't.  The statement is not political.  It's literal reality. #politics