Wednesday's Most Active Threads

Yesterday's most active thread was titled, "Plane crash DCA?" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. This thread was created just after 9:00 p.m., within minutes of a collision involving American Airlines flight 5345, originating in Wichita, KS, and an Army Blackhawk helicopter. Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River. It is believed that all 67 passengers and crew aboard the two craft perished. This thread is already nearly 50 pages long and probably will exceed that number by the time this post is published. The thread is moving very quickly, and it is nearly impossible to keep up with it. Despite the tragedy of what occurred, a number of posters were not able to control their behavior, and we have been forced to remove multiple pages' worth of posts. The initial posts in the thread were mostly aimed at determining what had happened and sharing information. But fairly quickly, posters engaged in promoting their own personal agendas. Much of the thread is a series of unrelated, parallel conversations. One was a debate about Reagan National Airport and whether or not it is too busy. According to several posts in the thread, one of the airport's runways is the busiest in the nation. Another discussion involved recent personnel moves by the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. Just over a week ago, Trump fired the head of the Transportation Security Administration and the head of the Coast Guard. In addition, he fired all members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee. This week, Shadow President Elon Musk has been busy trying to convince federal employees to resign, threatening the jobs of new federal employees who are still serving their probationary periods, and firing any staff employed in roles related to DEI. Many posters are convinced that these moves may have negatively impacted air safety. Other posters focused on the role of the helicopter, which many considered responsible for the collision. This triggered another parallel discussion involving the large numbers of helicopters that routinely fly around the area. Several posters argued that the number of helicopter flights increased during Trump's first administration and have increased again during his second. There was also considerable speculation about new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. While other area leaders rushed to Reagan National Airport to be on the scene, Hegseth confined himself to two perfunctory tweets, despite a military aircraft being involved. DCUM being what it is, I would expect days of finger-pointing with many posters unwilling to miss turning a tragedy into an opportunity to score political points.

Yesterday's next most active thread was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum and titled, "RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearing Thread". This thread was created to discuss the Senate confirmation hearing of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The original poster noted that, "Right off the bat, the guy sounds like he's having respiratory issues." RFK Jr. is, of course, extremely controversial. His history of opposing vaccinations and promoting conspiracy theories makes him an unlikely leader of the Department of Health and Human Services. Posters who were viewing the hearing noted that Kennedy was repeatedly unable to outline specific plans that he had for the Department and, instead, confined himself to speaking generally. Under questioning from Democrats, Kennedy revealed that he did not know how Medicare or Medicaid were funded or operated. At one point, he complained about Medicaid premiums, apparently not realizing that Medicaid has no premiums. While liberals were appalled by Kennedy's lack of preparation, not to mention the policies and ideas with which he is associated, MAGA posters were pleased with him. One such poster wrote, "The fact that he makes Dems’ heads explode like this makes me think he is the perfect guy for the job." This is almost the perfect encapsulation of the difference between liberal and MAGA ideas of governing. Liberals value knowledge and expertise and favor nominees that they believe will lead their departments effectively. MAGAs prefer candidates who will "own the libs." The conclusion of many posters, or at least those who are not full MAGA cult members, was that Kennedy mostly stuck to promoting cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's policies and revealed very little of his own ideas. In many cases — most prominently abortion rights — he claimed to hold positions that contradicted his lifelong stances. Kennedy's confirmation strategy appears to be to survive the Democratic questioning and attacks and not do anything to offend the Republicans. His hope, probably well-grounded, seems to be to get over the line on Republican votes alone. Few of Trump's nominees have been even remotely qualified for the positions for which they've been chosen. But even among that rogue's gallery, Kennedy stands out as particularly ill-suited. It is not an exaggeration to say that many Americans are likely to die as a result of Kennedy's leadership of HHS if it comes to that.

Next was a thread titled, "Considering buyout. Talk me out of it.." and posted in the "Jobs and Careers" forum. This week's blog posts have been dominated by topics related to actions regarding federal employees, mostly led by Shadow President Elon Musk. As discussed in yesterday's blog post, Musk sent an email to all federal employees inviting them to resign by replying to the email with "resign" in the body of their post. Musk proposed that anyone who resigned by February 6 could continue receiving their salary until September 30. This offer was initially reported as a "buyout", though it subsequently turned out to be deferred resignations instead. The original poster of this thread, perhaps working with incomplete facts when she created the thread, is considering taking the offer. The original poster recently became a federal employee after several years of contracting. She is a fully remote worker and would have an hour and a half commute each way to get to another agency office at which she could work. She believes that she could accept Musk's offer and use the time off to look for another job. Those responding point out that Musk and the Office of Personnel Management do not have the authority to make such an offer and have issued contradictory information. There is considerable doubt that anything will come to pass from this. As such, posters repeatedly advise the original poster not to take the offer. One factor in the original poster's circumstances is that, as a new employee, she is still on probation. As such, she can be fired at any time. In fact, Musk has already collected a list of probationary employees, and their jobs are already presumed to be in danger. The original poster points out that none of the communications sent out about Musk's offer mention probationary employees and, therefore, presumes that this means that employees on probation are eligible for the deal. More likely, once someone at OPM realizes that the original poster is on probation and wants to quit, she will be summarily fired. Not only does that remove any legal issues that might otherwise complicate things, it saves the government money. But, given the incompetence of those running things, the original poster might be better off taking the deal and hoping that nobody realizes that she is on probation. If she is going to get fired or be forced into circumstances in which she will quit, she really has nothing to lose from trying to take the offer.

The last thread that I will discuss today is another one that was posted in the "Jobs and Careers" forum. Titled, "How is RTO negatively impacting your life?", the original poster says that returning to the office has had a number of negative impacts that she did not expect. While individually small, they add up. Among the things she cites are paying $300 a month for parking, leaving her dog home alone all day, or paying $50 per day for a walker or doggycare, and quitting activities for which she no longer has time due to her commute. Other posters report similar impacts, with many having the additional struggle of dealing with childcare. For many, this means spending additional money on before or aftercare that they now need to obtain. Quite a few posters will need to invest in a new wardrobe because they no longer have suitable office clothing. Some posters have already been working in their offices for quite a while and the main negative impact for them is additional traffic. At least one poster is perfectly happy working in her office, something that she has done for years, but is concerned about the staff she manages. Morale will go down, some may quit, and replacement employees will likely be difficult to find. One irony is that most posters seemed to think that the original poster is a federal employee given all the conversations surrounding federal return to work policies. However, the original poster works in the private sector. Nevertheless, many of the responses were framed in terms of federal employment. Many of those responding are not very sympathetic to those describing negative impacts. If you have ever doubted that misery loves company, you have never read a DCUM thread of this sort. Posters are eager to have others share whatever difficulties they are facing. What is clear is that working from home, whatever its disadvantages in the beginning, is something to which many adjusted and found preferable. Having become accustomed to this lifestyle, which for some has lasted for 5 years or more, many feel as if they are being uprooted. Their lives have become objectively worse. The fact that many others haven't been able to spend half a decade working at home is of little consolation.