Politics will be the death of us yet.

As I write this entry, the partial US Government shutdown is in its second week.  This is an embarrassing shame for this country, as important government functions are not being performed, people are unable to earn a living, and those "essential personnel" which remain on the job are not getting paid for their work.

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Government shutdowns should be rare and short.  In the first 2 years of the Trump presidency, we have already experienced 3 shutdowns.  The first 2 shutdowns were relatively harmless, as they lasted less than a week.  However, this shutdown is going into its 3rd week, and shows no sign of ending.

The nation’s largest union representing federal employees filed a lawsuit Monday afternoon against the government, seeking damages for the roughly 400,000 federal employees forced to work without pay during the partial government shutdown. To me, having the government order me to work without pay is akin to slavery, and is illegal according to the United States Constitution.  But what would happen if a court were to tell these employees that they have the right to NOT work?

In the above case, the 2 plaintiffs work at high-security prisons owned by the government.  Could you imagine if all affected employees were to walk out, leaving prisoners locked up in their cells?  What would happen in a protracted mandated shutdown?  Would we leave the prisoners to starve?  But this gets even more interesting.  The Coast Guard is affected by the shutdown as well.  Could you imagine if they started selling drugs to pay their service members?  Being serious, I could imagine what could happen if the Coast Guard were to stop functioning, and this is not a pretty picture.  And what about TSA employees walking off their jobs? What about Air Traffic Controllers? Could you imagine what would happen to interstate travel and commerce if no one were able able to fly during the shutdown?

As usual, this shutdown hurts poor people the worst.  Many of us live from paycheck to paycheck, and are less than 3 paychecks away from total financial disaster.  The Federal Government has outsourced many of tasks once done by employees.  Unlike Federal employees, most contractor employees will not get back pay when the government is fully open for business.  How will they cope with the loss of 2 (or more) weeks of salary?  What would happen if this shutdown stretches into February?  We will likely see SNAP and WIC benefit funding stop.  What will happen to the affected families?

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I am not in favor of Trump getting any money for his so-called wall.  He is holding many Americans hostage against their will, pawns in the game of politics. He did this with DACA "Dreamers" and screwed them anyway.  What's to say that he will not do the same thing again?  Collateral damage is part of most wars, and this is a political war where government employees are needlessly being hurt.  I am hoping for a radical ruling in the above mentioned lawsuit, allowing ALL unpaid employees to walk off their jobs at will.

Maybe it's time for the people to fight back against a body politic that is out of control....