Media Sympathizes For Laid-Off Feds

The Detroit News: ‘I am going through hell’: Job loss, mental health, and the fate of federal workers

I don't recall these kinds of empathetic and sympathtic reportage when pipeline workers were fired en masse due to Biden's policies.

Instead the journos and Democrats told them and laid off miners and pipeline workers to get another job and  "learn to code".

This is different, because after all, these are their people being laid off.

These are credentialed, right-thinking, registered Democrat (vast majority if not all), Washington Post NPR-listening and NY Times-reading folks.

These federal workers being laid off aren't those unwashed working-class union members who Democrats claim they represent but don't really want to associate with. These federal workers are people who look and dress like the journos do, think like they do, shop at all the right stores like they do, and go to all the right places just as they do. 

Quite a difference in handling, isn't it?

Mismanagement In A Detroit City Program - Say It Ain't So!

 The tl/dr version: Federal money for a Detroit business creation program gets spent on consultants and then "mismatchea" and inappropriate expenditures occur with a "lack of oversight",  and the vast majority of businesses thus "helped" failed.

The inspection that took place due to a whistleblower found a lack of checks and balances, and that expenditures were found not to line up with the actual number of businesses opened.

This is otherwise known as business as usual in the D.

The Detroit News: Duggan’s Motor City Match program had excessive spending, lack of oversight: report

The Detroit Free Press:  Detroit's Motor City Match hampered by failures, mismanagement, watchdog says

Instead of it being a failure, even as the vast majority of the rather few businesses -- for the amount of money involved -- it  "helped" failed, it worked exactly as designed - the consultants and administrators got paid.  

It is also likely the consultants then made donations to the appropriate politicians and administrators and the funding thus did exactly what it was supposed to do in Detroit.

The program had $21 million in funds, including $9.1 million from the Feds, $6.2 million form the general fund and $6 million from philanthropic partners.

But, out of $8 million in federal funds spent between 2014 and 2018 on Motor City Match and Motor City Re-Store, only about $1.5 million went directly to small businesses, according to the inspector general. The rest went to program consultants and other administrative costs.  So all of 18% of Federal funds actually went to the businesses themselves, and the rest got swallowed up.

For example: under review was a March 2017 payment for $153,000. HUD said only $20,000 of the total was directly tied to assisting 10 businesses. The rest went to administration, project assessment and outreach and engagement.

So all of 13% of that payment, even less than the overall average of 18%  actually went to helping businesses.

Anyone surprised by this, at all?

Government Efficiency: Your Call Back Time Will Be In Approximately 1,144 Minutes

1,144 minutes is about 19 hours and that's no mistake, that's the waiting time for a Tier 2 call.

Tier 2? Well friends, I'm dealing with USCIS hell.

I have a client applying for an H1B Masters's cap opening.

In short, the kid is an engineer, has a master's degree from a US University, he's a sharp, good and clean kid from India, and his employer here for his apprenticeship wants to hire him as he's good at what he does and they've trained him up.

So I do the I-129 process, including getting a labor certification, and he's actually going to be paid more than the company's American workers due to a very screwed up average wage calculation required by Department of Labor for the area. Stupid as hell, but that's the law.

I submit it with premium processing and send it via express mail on April 3 to their Premium Processing address in California.

USPS shows it was delivered to Premium Processing on April 4 at 11 am.

Then it disappears.

USCIS can't find it, and the fun begins.

First I have fun just calling the USCIS help line - 800-375-5283.

After being on hold for 30-45 minutes per call, I get to Tier 1 support. Half the time Tier 1 just drops the call and I have to start in the queue all over again.

Finally with Tier 1 going through the same maddening script every time and refusing to move it to Tier 2 until we go through the script, they then send me to Tier 2 phone waiting hell. How much hell? It's so bad you do not wait on the line, instead you enter your number and they tell you when a Tier 2 officer will call you back. That call back wait time can be rather extreme.

On a prior Tier 2 call, I was told to email Lockbox support which I did. Lockbox support acknowledged the email and said they would reply within 30 days.

They Didn't. I waited over 30 days before bugging them, but no contact from them, because that would be too easy, right?

Back to calling, starting with Tier 1 hell again. I get connected to Tier One and they tell me to call Premium Processing support and give me a phone number.

There's a little problem with that number. It requires you to enter a receipt number that I don't have because the package was lost so they never issues a receipt number. No receipt number - the call disconnects.

Back to call Tier 1, and after going through the same script tell the next helpful idiot that suggests that I call Premium Processing support that that will not work.

Then I finally get a call actually completed to route to Tier 2 and the time to get the call back?

That's where the 1,144 Minutes comes from. That was the latest estimate.

Then 1,144 minutes later, Tier 2 calls back at 8pm tonight and I have to explain everything again because no one has kept any notes on this issue. At all.

Tier 2 agrees with me that this is getting ridiculous and offers to send me to Tier 3.

I know what is about to happen so I politely ask for the number so I can call myself....

Nope, they won't gove that out, nor the direct number to even get into the queue for Tier 2, but she'll transfer me to Tier 3.

And she drops the call.

This means I need to start all over again with getting on hold to get to Tier 1, to get to be put on hold with Tier 2 to get put on hold with Tier 3, al the while hoping some functionary doesn't have a malfunction and drop the call.

At this point I am beginning to develop rather strong anti-government feelings and a vocabulary to go with it.

So in short, USCIS has lost an application, refuses to do anything about it, refuses to connect me to anyone who can do something about it and this should in a normal world not take this farging long and this much time to even get to the point to find someone to fix their mistake, and we're still not there. And all this for a simple I-129 application that should have been granted over two months ago now.

Meanwhile, Illegals can waltz across the border and work illegally with fake social security numbers have no such troubles.

I halfway want to tell the kid to change his name to Sanchez, have his employer pay him under the table, move to California so he gets free healthcare, and everyone will be happy, unfortunately that's just not good legal advice.

Just wait until government controls your healthcare, expect your service times and levels of customer service to be similar.

Special Sirens For Special Weather Awareness

Didja know that this week is Severe Weather Awareness Week?

Me neither.

Of course, Severe Weather Awareness Week is now being held when the weather this week has been pretty much the opposite of severe. There's been sun, it's been warming up, and no severe weather event of any kind has happened so far nor is it likely to occur this week.

Why they don't hold it during actual severe weather-worthy weeks like during the recent polar vortex is beyond me.

So today, for a special treat to raise awareness, the tornado sirens went off. To raise awareness. We're now aware the sirens work not just on the first Saturday of the month at 1pm but now on a Tuesday too. I am now much safer from this awareness moment.

Which leads to the next confusing severe weather point - without looking it up does anyone know the difference between a Storm/Tornado Watch and a Storm/Tornado Warning? Which one is worse? Who thought that using two similar W-words to distinguish the possibility versus the actuality of a dangerous event was a good idea?

Interestingly enough, for those who didn't know, a Tornado Warning is worse than a Tornado Watch.

One would think that if someone tells you to watch out for something it would be more severe and pose a greater danger than just getting a warning about it maybe happening, but that is not so.

The Pony Express Would Have Been Faster

On January 6, I sent a demand letter via certified mail for a client to a company in Petaluma, California.

It still has not been delivered and the tracking information tells a rather pathetic tale:

First, it took a day to get from the Post Office here to the Post office in Pontiac, a distance of 4 miles.

Then it took 8 days to go from Pontiac to Detroit, a distance of about 30 miles (or 3.75 miles per day), where it sat for a day.

Then it took 4 days to get to San Francisco, where it sat in the post office for another 7 days.

Then it took 8 days to get to the post office in West Sacramento California, a distance of about 86 miles or 10.75 miles per day, which is a bit of a head-scratcher as Petaluma is actually closer to San Francisco than it is to West Sacramento.

Now it is still in West Sacramento's post office, where it has now sat for 4 days through today.

I'm beginning to think had-delivery would have been quicker at this rate.

The message on the tracking is rather bitterly ironic:

The package is delayed and will not be delivered by the expected delivery date. An updated delivery date will be provided when available. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

Yes, I'd say its rather delayed and then some.

Will it ever be delivered? Where will it end up next? These questions and more may be answered soon, perhaps, maybe.