Disqus - Latest Comments for nightwatch01

Re: Biden's Regulatory Update is Finally Here

nightwatch01 — Fri, 05 May 2023 08:19:38 -0000

LTF: I see that GovExec has apparently done away with Disqus comments. If you receive this, I want you to know that while I have not always agreed with you I respect your opinions. I hope we can resume communication at some point in the future.

Re: Debt Ceiling Breach Could Occur as Soon as June 1, Treasury Warns

nightwatch01 — Tue, 02 May 2023 06:52:55 -0000

Will: These are very good points. I am going to have to read more on the current appropriations process, but what you wrote seems like a good start. I especially like the idea of removing members from the appropriations committees.

"Pointless posturing" is one reason I called for a script change. There are probably better ways to change it.

Re: Debt Ceiling Breach Could Occur as Soon as June 1, Treasury Warns

nightwatch01 — Mon, 01 May 2023 19:32:02 -0000

All political theater, and pretty bad political theater at that.

It would be useful if someone veered off the script.

Instead of raising the debt ceiling to $XXT so we can do another lather / rinse / repeat in a few months, why doesn't MCCarthy and the House pass a bill that raises it to something like 8.7 octillion dollars, with accompanying language that says:

a. The original purpose of the debt ceiling was to constrain Federal spending

b. The debt ceiling has been raised on average more than once per year in the years since it was enacted

c. It is obvious to anyone thinking logically that the debt ceiling is meaningless

d. We are therefore raising it to a point high enough that everyone gets the message that it's meaningless, and that if anyone is looking to the debt ceiling as any indication that the United States is going to pay its bills they are not thinking rationally. They will have to find something else to reassure themselves.

Someone would finally be doing the correct thing for the long-term survival of the nation. THAT would be a welcome turn of events.

Re: How to Grow Your Social Network as You Age

nightwatch01 — Mon, 01 May 2023 18:29:39 -0000

S: One possible thing to consider is that loneliness is something that a Federal program can't really fix. People have to learn (or relearn) how to be friends and make friends. They have to be willing to be vulnerable, and willing to give of themselves without expecting a reward. Communicating that message loud and clear is a good thing, regardless of who communicates it.

I am a bit puzzled that the authors didn't mention anything having to do with worship and faith. An awful lot of lonely and hurting people find comfort, friendship, and many other benefits just by being an active part of a worship group. That's not that surprising because God wants to bring comfort and peace and friendship to each of us because He loves us intensely. If you go where He is, you can expect to find His love and welcome. Certainly there are "religious" groups that DON'T show love to others, but that is certainly not true of all of them.

Re: Here's How the Hatch Act Applies, With Biden Running for President Again

nightwatch01 — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 07:10:47 -0000

I am thankful for the civil servants who faithfully uphold this law, regardless of their convictions. It can't be easy.

A phrase from the article got my attention: "...especially now that campaigns seem to be happening almost continuously." I ma glad they noticed; that's only been the case since about 1993. Someone called it the Perpetual Political Campaign; in this acronym-rich world I will shorten that to PPC.

The PPC does have psychological effects on American citizens. One interesting article is from the American Psychological Association
(https://www.apa.org/news/pr....

An interesting finding in that study is that isolating oneself from politics, while good for well-being, reduces the drive to be involved, including volunteering. Since campaign contributions are a form of volunteering, then anything that causes the American people to be less concerned with politics is going to adversely affect campaign funding levels. Obviously that's an outcome that the two principal political factions DON'T want to happen.

It's hard to escape the conclusion that the two factions deliberately keep the negative politics rolling to keep the money coming in.

Seems like we keep drowning in the PPC just so the DNC and RNC have plenty of money. Doesn't that make you feel valued as an American citizen?

There's probably lots more to say here, but that's enough for a Friday morning. I wish everyone a restful weekend, and plenty of things to remind us not to just be pawns for the factions.

Re: House GOP Passes Debt Ceiling Bill That Puts Tens of Thousands of Federal Jobs At Risk

nightwatch01 — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 07:44:38 -0000

We've seen this movie before many, many times. Same script--only the actors change, and the lines change a bit.

I think McCarthy should have done a couple of things differently:

a. Raise the debt ceiling. The language should have read something like, "The debt ceiling is raised to $XXX". Nothing else should even appear in the bill, much less be discussed.

b. After putting the current debt-ceiling debacle to bed, inform the President and the Senate that the House is offering two choices for "budget negotiations"

(1) A full CR to cover the entire next budget period not already authorized, with an automatic accompanying debt-ceiling raise.

(2) A formal resolution passed by the House and Senate and signed by the President that states explicitly that:

[a] The debt ceiling does not and never did in any way constrain Federal spending.

[b] The debt ceiling therefore is and has been useless since its inception. It is repealed.

[c] The United States will no longer offer a debt ceiling or any other mechanism to symbolize a commitment to debt repayment.

[d] While the United States will indeed pay its debts in alignment with Article 14 of the US Constitution regarding the validity of public debt, entities loaning money to the United States will have to decide for themselves if they believe that this repayment will occur on a schedule that is reasonable for them.

It would be interesting to see which the President and the Senate would choose. I suspect they'd take the CR.

Re: OPM Will End Agencies’ Maximum Telework Status Next Month

nightwatch01 — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 08:34:32 -0000

There are other dimensions to this not being discussed.

a. It costs the government money to keep facilities lighted, heated, cleaned, etc. If those facilities are not going to be used, that's a real and significant waste of taxpayer money that cannot be ignored.

If the Federal government had leased those facilities it could, over time, get out of them by ending the leases. Since in many cases, however, the Federal government owns those facilities, they are stuck keeping the lights on, the heat on, and the places cleaned and repaired.

OMB is just as prepared and "thought through" on this issue as the private sector is. In other words, not very well at all.

b. There are some benefits to personal contact that are not easily quantified. Younger workers benefit from "rubbing elbows" with older workers, and vice versa. There is a communication of knowledge and wisdom that just doesn't occur when all contact is remote. This is true both in the public and private sectors.

Again, OMB's planning here is probably about at the level of the private sector: not much.

I don't see much evidence at all that anyone in either the public or private sector has really thought through the long-term implications of a shift to maximize telework. We did it initially out of what we thought was the best way to keep at least some economic activity running. Now we have to really think this through for the long term.

Re: The Supreme Court Weighs Whether USPS Can Force Employees to Work Sundays

nightwatch01 — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 08:05:35 -0000

Article states, "Biden should move quickly to flatten the bloated federal hierarchy, streamline the presidential appointments process and modernize the rulemaking process, while making sure the blended federal workforce of 11 million active-duty military personnel, civil servants, contractors, grantees, and postal workers have the resources, systems and leadership to succeed. "

Does this author really believe any President can actually deliver any of this, much less ALL of it?

Re: US Officials Charge Chinese Agents with Running ‘Secret Police Station’ in NYC

nightwatch01 — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 08:14:53 -0000

LTF: I thoroughly agree with "don't let them get away with this". Our response, however, cannot be seen as a tit-for-tat response, or something that Xi can just dismiss as the cost of doing business. It has to get his attention. It absolutely has to take the initiative away from him and keep it away. It ought to throw he and his staff off-balance for at least a while: make them think that they really don't have Uncle Sam as well-figured-out as they think they have.

If these things require us to do some unconventional diplomacy, I believe that's probably acceptable. China believes that it can make up its own rules; it's time they understood that others can play that game also, and maybe better than they can.

One thing I mentioned earlier that State might consider is sending a notice to Americans living in China to consider getting out of the country, if for no other reason than they could be caught up in a Putin-style "espionage" charge and used as fodder for a future prisoner swap. Public response to China protest: "If this is what they do to people who aren't even in their country, what will they do to people within their grasp?"

Another thing the US might do is play this up large in the international press. China has just complained that the US is trying to "contain" them; this is an excellent platform to show WHY China's behavior requires "containment". Public response: "How would you like Xi and his buddies to come do this in YOUR country? Do you have Chinese ex-pats in your country? How do you know Xi and friends aren't ALREADY doing this to them?"

Re: US Officials Charge Chinese Agents with Running ‘Secret Police Station’ in NYC

nightwatch01 — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 07:48:23 -0000

I am glad they were caught, and that charges were brought.

I wonder if the Zoom employee was a naturalized US citizen, or a natural-born citizen? Was he a plant from the beginning? Was he extorted into this by having family still living in China?

I think Americans in China should start thinking more seriously about leaving the country, before they get snatched up in a Putin-style "espionage" case and become hostages for a prisoner swap.

Re: Biden’s Dilemma, Part 4: The 2024 Election Will Be Fought Between Republican Dismantlers and Democratic Rebuilders

nightwatch01 — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 06:26:35 -0000

As you have mine. I hope your day goes well!

Re: Biden’s Dilemma, Part 4: The 2024 Election Will Be Fought Between Republican Dismantlers and Democratic Rebuilders

nightwatch01 — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 09:16:57 -0000

DN: Thanks for the reply!

We may have to disagree.

The "meaning and intent" of the article IMO was to paint a substantial portion of the American people as a threat to society by hanging the "dismantler" label on them. That's a lot like H. Clinton calling them "irredeemable". It's just as inexcusable. Human beings cannot be reduced to one or two characteristics, labeled, and then thrown into buckets to either be praised or demonized.

You, DN, are a lot more complex than a label. Some folks may ignore that, but I don't. Our fellow readers here are each more complex than a label. So is every product of human conception. Perhaps if we were not so motivated to reduce those we disagree with to labels we might be better able to solve the challenges we face. Perhaps we should wonder if those who want us to reduce other people to labels are particularly useful for our health; perhaps instead of absorbing whatever they offer we should examine it, and them, more closely.

You wrote, "The real purpose behind the guise of 'small government' is to allow greater profits for the corporations that control our politicians." That is not always true, nor is it always false. Certainly there's a problem with the way political campaigns are funded, but that does not mean that everyone who wants government in fewer places is looking to line their pockets.

To myself, you, and everyone else I'd say the same thing: Labelmakers are for labeling things, not people.

Re: The Biden Administration Tells Agencies to Scale Back Telework

nightwatch01 — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 09:32:05 -0000

It takes energy to commute. Unless its via walking or on a bicycle, some amount of some form of fossil-fuel energy is being expended, whether directly or indirectly. Doesn't this directive counter the desire of the Administration to reduce the use of fossil fuels?

Re: The Biden Administration Tells Agencies to Scale Back Telework

nightwatch01 — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 09:28:35 -0000

O: If the government owns the building and is able to sell it (OR the property it is sitting on, which may be MUCH more valuable, particularly in DC) then they get an injection of cash which can offset some expenditure elsewhere. If the government leases the building and terminates the lease, then they will no longer spend money on the lease. Depending on the lease terms they may have to pay a penalty, but even that penalty will be cheaper than continuing to lease the space for years and years and not put it to use.

Re: Biden’s Dilemma, Part 4: The 2024 Election Will Be Fought Between Republican Dismantlers and Democratic Rebuilders

nightwatch01 — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 09:24:12 -0000

All: This article is basically unsound. Here are a few examples of why that is the case.

Take the term "dismantler". The root word, "dismantle" means "take a machine (or structure) to pieces". How many US citizens today really want the entire US government (including Defense) to be dismantled? Have you heard of any true dismantlers? Do you KNOW any? My answers are "no" and "no", and I bet yours is also. Yet this term is one of four choices.

As an aside, isn't a person who wants to take a government to pieces (thereby ensuring that it is non-functional) called an anarchist?

Now take the two variables: size of government and how much reform is needed. The two choices for size of government ("bigger" and "smaller") have at least some frame of reference, but they are vague. Does "bigger" or "smaller" refer to the amount of money spent? The control over the society? What exactly does the writer mean by "bigger" or "smaller".

The two choices for reform ("basically sound" and "needs major reform") are completely meaningless. What does "basically sound" refer to? Our FORM of government? The soundness of our Constitution? The way our Constitution is being upheld? The performance of the three branches? The effectiveness of our government? Its efficiency? Its management of money? Same with "needs major reform". WHAT KIND of "major reform"? Reform of WHAT?

To top it all off, this article purports to accurately bin American citizens into one of four buckets based on these useless definitions. What is the real difference in the buckets other than the emotions generated in the reader by each of the undefined definitions?

I am blowing the baloney whistle on this thing.

Re: Biden’s Dilemma, Part 2: Americans Are Divided on the Size of Government

nightwatch01 — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 10:04:56 -0000

LTF: The important thing I learned in this process is that if you are going to be a good people manager you have to stop being an engineer and focus on being a people manager. I made that trade for a number of years but finally figured out that I really wasn't willing to lay down my engineering tools to be a manager. I transitioned to another company in 2007 and determined then that, God willing, I would never be a people manager again. Manager of projects...certainly. Hiring / firing manager? God willing, never again. I have been a lot happier since.

Re: Biden’s Dilemma, Part 2: Americans Are Divided on the Size of Government

nightwatch01 — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 08:50:20 -0000

LTF: One company I worked for actually had a career path for engineers. The top rung was a Consulting Engineer that made six figures 30 years ago. Every other outfit I worked for insisted that engineers had to go into management to advance in the company.

That company, by the way, also rethought the time-card process to make the last day of the work week Friday rather than Sunday. No more amending timecards for weekend work; if you worked Saturday after turning in a timecard on Friday, it just went on next week's timecard.

Re: Union Warns Social Security Service Will Spiral Without Major Changes

nightwatch01 — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 06:57:43 -0000

There are some things not discussed in the article. These are a few of them.

1. The article states, "The number of Social Security beneficiaries is expected to increase another 25% in 2023 alone." 25% is an enormous 1-year increase. What accounts for this increase? What is the trendline for annual increases, and does this 25% figure fit with that trendline? Should we expect similar increases in 2024 and 2025? If not, why not?

This figure seems like it's off by an order of magnitude.

2. The article states, "There’s no offering of telework or remote work, student loan repayment programs, child care or other subsidies to support workers that are common at other agencies...". How are individual Departments or agencies authorized to have differing standard practices such as this, since the employees are all part of the Civil Service? Does this make sense?

3. How is employee productivity measured (e.g., number of cases worked per day, average time spent per case)? Why are those measurements the correct ones? What do they miss? What is the statistical distribution of productivity across the workforce?

4. Regarding telework: Do the productivity measurements in (3) show a decline in productivity that can be connected with the movement of COVID through the society? There's either a strong correlation, a weak correlation, or no correlation at all. Which is it? Does it vary geographically?

5. The article states, "...it’s no wonder that SSA has lost, per its own data, almost 4,500 employees in fiscal 2022." What percentage of total SSA staffing is this? How does this per-year loss compare with other Federal departments and agencies?

6. The article refers to starting out at a GS-5 level. What's the GS distribution of SSA employees, and how does that distribution compare with other Federal Departments and agencies? If SSA GS distribution is significantly higher toward lower GS levels than other Departments and agencies, why is this the case? How long has it been the case?

Here's the point: This article seems to want to paint SSA as an absolute house afire; however, there's a lot of unanswered questions. Why is this information missing, if the union really wanted to make a strong case? If the writer wanted to make a strong case, did they ask these questions and seek answers?

I also wondered how a D leader of SSA could be so crosswise with a union, but that's another discussion.

Re: Biden’s Dilemma, Part 1: The Federal Government’s Job Rating Has Dropped By Half

nightwatch01 — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 17:10:30 -0000

Jack: Sometimes we don't agree on some things, but on this I fully agree.

It's not called the Perpetual Political Campaign for nothing. We have endured it since at least 1993 without a break, with practice runs for this never-ending drudgery starting even earlier.

Every elected official remains in Campaign mode every waking minute of every day. So do their staffs. So does every political appointee. So does all of the media (at this point even sports, the weather, the funny pages, and everything else gets drafted into service to the Perpetual Political Campaign).

It's funny: There's probably 1 million people involved in that. There's 329 million of the rest of us. We outnumber them by over 300 to 1, but we never try to push them to stop. That's weird. It's almost like we LIKE this.

Re: Biden's Regulatory Update is Finally Here

nightwatch01 — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 14:01:00 -0000

The only Federal agency that I have had any significant dealings with is the FCC. I have also dealt with the result of an EPA decision on one occasion, and had to deal with OSHA directly once. Neither of those encounters were particularly useful. The EPA decision didn't take into account all the facts on the ground, and all I could get from OSHA was literally an "opinion". Opinions aren't helpful if I am looking for guidance.

In the case of the FCC they generally provide analysis with their decisions if the decision is of a technical nature. Sometimes, however, their analysis isn't up to par, and on at least one occasion they were ruled against in Federal court for ignoring analysis material that didn't square with their desired conclusion. You might say that that's an example of the system working. I guess I'd counter that if the FCC had done their proper job it would not have been necessary for a Federal court to intervene.

Events like the FCC mess cause folks to really wonder if the work being done by Federal agencies is really being done objectively, or to support some political goal or other. That problem has been building for decades (the FCC issue in question happened back around 2008 or so). Once trust is damaged it's very hard to rebuild and much easier to lose it completely.

It is highly irresponsible for anyone to draw any conclusions from these things or from any other collection of examples about the overall character of the Civil Service, just as it is equally irresponsible for anyone to draw conclusions about "all Democrats" or "all Republicans" from some collection of examples. That being said, it would be useful to see more reporting of how the Civil Service polices itself and roots out bad behavior in its ranks.

I hope you enjoy a wonderful Easter!

Re: Biden's Regulatory Update is Finally Here

nightwatch01 — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 10:00:38 -0000

LTF: You make a good argument.

I personally believe that a proper analysis should not only include direct / indirect costs and benefits, but also should thoroughly address risks (probability of occurrence and severity of result). The risk analysis should also place the risk on a real scale. What's the probability of occurrence of the issue the regulation is trying to prevent? How does that stack up against other probabilities?

I also believe that the analysis process for the regulation should be required to be published and reviewed for accuracy / completeness by outsiders including the entities being affected by the regulation prior to a regulation becoming final:

a. If folks could see the hard science and math behind a regulation they might be more inclined to support it.

b. The regulatory process itself would become more isolated from conclusions based in emotions or ideology.

c. Rooting regulations firmly in traceable science and math would tend to reduce noise from the political class and media. This could be a huge benefit.

Re: State, Union Say Complying With House Subpoena Would Create Chilling Effect on Career Staff

nightwatch01 — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 09:12:30 -0000

I have to agree. Even if a subpoena is based on an evil motive it is still the law and must be enforced. If the intent is not to actually retrieve useful data but just to put the opposition in a bind, then don't issue the subpoena. If the subpoena is issued, do whatever can be done within the law (including putting folks in jail) to get the data. I imagine that if a few staffers on both sides of the aisle spent a few nights in jail everyone would figure out ways to begin to work together.

Another thing that definitely needs to be re-examined is the supposed immunity of Congress. If that part of the Constitution is reread, the original language does NOT include "felonies". Congress has been very expansive about the meaning of their immunity, and it's probably past time they were challenged in court on it. Part of the reason they misbehave as they do is that they think they are immune from prosecution for anything. That's not how the Constitution reads.

Re: State, Union Say Complying With House Subpoena Would Create Chilling Effect on Career Staff

nightwatch01 — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 08:21:50 -0000

While "turnabout is fair play" is certainly an attitude one can take, eventually someone has to decide to stop playing if the destructive loop is ever to end.

The real issue is that "turnabout" is never equal. Human beings are not capable of doing "turnabout" without yielding to the desire to "get ahead" just a little bit. The next turn of "turnabout" escalates just a bit more, and then next turn a bit more on top of that.

Our two principal political factions have engaged in a very deliberate game of "turnabout" for the last several decades. As they and we both should have been anticipated, they have slowly but surely escalated more and more over the past several decades, to the point that the functions of government operate less and less well. Sometimes (e.g. the withdrawal from Afghanistan) the outcome is catastrophic.

If it's that important to "win" over "those other folks", then by all means let's all keep playing "turnabout". Just don't expect anything other than a continuing reduction in ability for the government to actually function, a continued diminishing of trust in our government and in each other, and a continued increase in anger across the society.

Re: A Bipartisan Bill Looks to Better Prevent Mishandling of Classified Documents

nightwatch01 — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 08:19:53 -0000

W: This is one area where you and I agree. Until every person working for the Federal government in any capacity at all is given a briefing on what classified information looks like, how it is marked, and how it is to be properly handled, and required to sign their name to carry out those requirements under penalty of punishment, nothing is really going to change.

Re: Telework Isn't to Blame for Government Backlogs and Inefficiencies, OPM Director Says

nightwatch01 — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 07:56:11 -0000

There is an awful lot of information not here:

a. There's no evidence that remote-work procedures have really been thought through to maximize remote productivity. If the employee's role is to interact directly with the public, is the technology in place to make that work correctly, including the ability for management to review how effective that work really is? Every agency's needs will be different. How has that been dealt with?

b. There's no evaluation of whether case traffic offered to remote workers is higher, lower, or the same as it was pre-Covid.

These are just two examples of information required to actually evaluate this issue. Apparently no suggestions were made on either side to actually dig into this.