Bay Area Houston

It’s almost funny. Almost. Remember. You wanted this.

Anchor Baby Vivek Ramaswamy and South African mother***er Elon Musk have their sights set on the next boogie man, Federal Employees, and they are easy pickings. Ramasway/Musk are going to run the Department of privatizing the shit out of everything because the private section can do things better and cheaper. (LOL) That’s not really true but who really gives two fucks about the truth now a days. These guys have an audience, one that will believe anything they are told. Anything. So this is how they will demonize the Federal workforce.

Federal employees are over paid. This isn’t true but it is an easy concept to make MAGAts foam at the mouth. Federal employees are paid on a schedule. They do have some good benefits such as being able to invest in a 401K with matching funds and good health care benefits (they are not free). This compensates for their relatively low pay compared to the private sector.

Federal employees are lazy. The private sector can do their jobs faster, cheaper, and better. This is sort of true since the private sector can treat their employees like crap, work them to death, and provide few if any benefits. Feds are not profit motivated. In the space industry that is pretty damn important. The private sector is profit motivated and will do anything, including cutting corners, to make money.

Federal Employees get benefits for life. Again, not true but who cares? Health care benefits carry over for retired feds but they continue to pay for them. They are NOT free. They get a small pension, not a salary for life. They get social security because they paid for the benefits and they can invest in a 401k just like everyone else can.

You can’t fire federal employees. Again simply not true. The Feds invest in employees and work to retain them. This is a myth that will be perpetuated throughout this process.

Federal employees are taking your money! Yep that is an easy one. They are the boogey men of 2024. The other ones, except for Mexicans, have run their course including the Gays, teachers, police, Muslims, Asian Americans, African Americans, etc etc etc.

BOO Mutherfuckers! BOO! Direct your hate towards federal employees now!

In the words of Jack Reacher, “Remember, you wanted this.”

Tom Cruise had a great line in Reacher. Before taking on 5 guys in a fight Reacher warned them about taking that final step. “Remember, you wanted this.” He then beat the hell out of all of them. It’s a great scene. Go watch it.

So all the NASA MAGAts of Johnson Space Center might be facing their own Reacher named Vivek Ramaswamy (BTW did you know he is an anchor baby?) who is teaming up with the Vice President Elect Elon Musk to cut spending in the federal government. For NASA that means privatize services at the expense of civil service employees. The argument is easy to understand even though it’s not true. Civil Service employees do not add value to the NASA program. Instead of paying Civil Service employees a salary and great benefits, just pay the contractors like SpaceX. After all most of NASA’s money is spent on contractors.

And you know how much trump loves Elon. So be prepared for an early retirement. And remember, you wanted this.

T-Minus WTF?

What the fuck NASA? Major companies across the country are pausing or cancelling ads on Twitter (now X) after Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory. These companies include Apple, Paramount, Comcast, IBM, Warner Bros., the European Commission and the movie studio Lionsgate. The tweet even got a response from the Whitehouse:  “We condemn this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans.”

And yet….billions of tax dollars are continuing to be spent on SpaceX services. NASA should take a stand and consider their own “pause” of tax dollars to Space X until they rid themselves of this disease. This cannot be tolerated. Twitter has turned into a hate filled cluster fuck. It’s a breeding ground for keyboard warrior racists with the opportunity provided by Twitter to spread their hate.

NASA shouldn’t be tolerating this. At all.

Nothing good. At all.

It looks like the republican controlled House of Representatives is going to shutdown the government due their inability and unwillingness to govern. I’ve been through a few shutdowns with NASA beginning with Newt Gingrich. So how will that affect you?

• Generally all federal employees cannot work. They can’t go to work and they can’t work from home. They can’t work offsite. They can’t Zoom or conference call. Nothing. Unless you are considered an “essential” employee you are not working. It is literally against the law. Space Station Mission Control personnel are an example of essential employees. They will continue coming to work or other essential employees can work from home.
• Other essential employees are the military, Federal Marshalls, other Homeland and Defense department employees. They will be able to work but not get paid.
• All federal employee’s paychecks will stop including the military. Eventually they will receive backpay but that also is not guaranteed. I can see the argument: “Why should they get paid if they didn’t work?”
• Federal parks are closed as well as all federal properties.
• Social Security checks will continue.
• Medicare will continuing paying medical providers
• FAA will continue as well as travel.
• IRS will stop
• Your local congressional office will close.
• Members of Congress can continue to work.
• The affects on Federal contractors varies. Some contractors that the opportunity to cut costs and furlough their employees without pay or back pay.

To some a shutdown is a free vacation. To others it is a needless hardship on their families. To the country it is an embarrassment. Look for the Republicans in the House to deny backpay. It just might happen this time.

I worked in software at NASA. One of my last assignments required monitoring a conference call with Boeing and SpaceX concerning software testing. I was never comfortable with the attitude towards software by SpaceX, but that is for another post.

Yesterday Elon Musk, after taking control of Twitter, posted a conspiracy theory concerning the attack on Speaker Pelosi’s husband. Twitter has quickly becoming a cesspool of misinformation and Musk, a billionaire with time on his idle hands, is twitting with the best of them. I would bet Musk is going to tweet something else, maybe something near racist, or homophobic, or antisemitic. He will push the envelope on misinformation, conspiracy theories, and civility and when he does NASA should consider pulling their contracts from SpaceX.

In August SpaceX won a $1.4 Billion contract to shuttle astronauts to the International Space Station. The total so far that has been awarded to SpaceX is over $5 Billion. If Musk would ever dive head first into the Twitter cesspool NASA should seriously consider pulling their contracts with him. From NPR:

Musk himself inflamed those concerns on Sunday when he tweeted a link to unfounded, homophobic allegations about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Replying to a tweet from Hillary Clinton about the attack, Musk wrote: “there is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye.” He included a link to an article from the Santa Monica Observer, a fringe website with a history of publishing false stories, which makes lurid claims about the attack without evidence.

NPR Twitter Owner Elon Musk shares conspiracy theory about Pelosi

What kind of human being makes fun of an 82 year old who was viciously attacked with a hammer? What kind of human beings gives this man a $1.4 Billion contract?