StayDoomed

I don't want to repeat 2016. The media goes hyperbolic over every stupid speech or tweet this man makes. 90% of it doesn't get done. The 10% that does.... Will suck. And I can't do anything about that at this point, enough of the country voted for him because of inflation that he got into to power because they don't understand how government and inflation works.

I'm not going to raise my blood pressure over news that is just outrage porn this time. Shit is going to get worse, and I can't do anything about it as a federal worker other than do my job and wait it out.

Then try to help rebuild the institution I work for after it is hollowed out by the incompetent political appointees made my the incoming admin once the political pendulum swing again in on the axis of low information capricious swing voters in this country.

Eggs will be cheaper to buy with the food stamps that he will cut.....

Eggs were just too expensive, a fascist with dementia will fix it.

Doesn't seem like even existing executives in agencies have any fucking backbone. The AFGE union that represents EPA employees is urging members to personally email the EPA Administrator, Michael Regan, to extend the union contract of career service employees to 2030. This would protect some worker rights under a collective bargaining agreement instead of allowing it to open back up for the Trump admin to gut. Career service employees are the ones doing inspections, developing cases, providing assistance to the public, doing research.... The stuff that most people expect the EPA to do, even if they aren't democrats. Despite what the hyperbolic mainstream and social media spaces report, even Republicans want clean air, water, and soil.

Regan has thus far refused even though he has absolutely nothing to lose since he is out by January anyway to be replaced with Lee Zeldin....I guess he thinks not doing anything to help agency employees at EPA will help his career and that's his priority. Not actually helping the EPA succeed.

I feel like smartphones + internet peaked about 10 years ago and has now steadily become enshittified. I have never used "google assistant" because it takes less time to just type something in to my phone or tap the setup for my alarm.

So yes, definitely feel that way. Consumer tech had less bullshit masking as improvements ten years ago.

More garbage "news" from the Twitter verse to flow back to the echo chamber and reverberate with righteous, impotent, indignation. I'm not gonna take the bait like I did 4 years ago.

It's pretty easy - show the effects and the cause and not a visualization of something that you can't see. Like in the movie Dark Waters where they showed cows dying and birth defects, then the plant that produced PFAS nearby to tie it together.

That water pollution is neon green goo, air pollution is thick black smoke, or radioactive waste is only in drums.

Most of it is invisible and you don't know about it until it's too late.

A lot of people don't understand them. Others don't care, thinking they will deal with the debt later or never.

American basic education in math doesn't really cover financial math much.

Can confirm. Had a Finnish lapphund that lived over 12 years on kibble and frozen raw food. She was the best girl.

That was the intent of the system for water at least. The acronym for water discharge permits is NPDES. National Pollution Discharge Elimination System.

Then profit driven companies, their soulless lobbyists, amoral lawyers kept bending that.

Like just about any environmental regulation in the US - most of them are heavily influenced by the industries that are regulated. All US laws prioritize commerce and profits first and everything else second. Including the environment, workers rights, etc.

Gotta get lobbying and money as speech out of the equation. Then everything would have some chance of improving or kind of aligning with citizen expectations.

Also, most of government workers would love to have more effective regulations so we can be more effective. Despite most people shitting on them as lazy or ineffective. The ineffective is by design and under funding.