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One of our post office gals here in town is really hot. I was out riding my bicycle the other day when she was delivering mail in the little white usps vehicle and I about had a wreck.
r/Esteemed Rat
So Rat, you see a hot girl who delivers and you can’t keep it together? If you need a conversation starter, ask her if she’s a federal employee. 😉
By the way, what military service were you in? Thanks.
bccran, I was USAF. A clean sweep for us three!
The O’Keefe article you asked me to look at was referenced and linked by the article I linked. Take a look at that link if you haven’t already. That article mocks O’Keefe for using the term “quasi-federal.” I worked on a number programs that interfaced across multi-service, inter-agency, corporate/private business and NGOs. It’s important to tout that to show the breadth of impact for a program to help justify obtaining and maintaining congressional funding. I can’t recall ever seeing any of those organizations designated as quasi-federal. I’m not aware that it’s an official term the government uses.
Regardless, there’s not a higher source than public law. Title 39 calls the USPS an “independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States” — not a quasi. Even the USPS calls itself an “independent federal agency” and says its website is the “most frequently visited web site in the federal government.” Here is a link to that info.
I guess the self supported aspect is what throws me and others off. Is it the only self supported agency/department/division of the federal government? What was your AFSC?
I guess the self supported aspect is what throws me and others off. Is it the only self supported agency/department/division of the federal government?
Last heard it was also 15 billion dollars in debt probably partially caused by shipping Amazon packages at below cost…..but who knows. My wife received her new sewing machine last week via USPS and I was amazed that a 40 lb box was not brought in by FedEx or UPS.
If spring training is starting in June and the season will follow in early July, why are team employees being furloughed?
Angels are among teams planning to announce furloughs likely in June. Reds announced they will have furloughs, joining Rays and Marlins, who started this month. Teams pay about $4M to $8M per month on employee salaries. So that’s $ lost for 25-plus teams w/no furloughs thru May.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 15, 2020
If spring training is starting in June and the season will follow in early July, why are team employees being furloughed?
Yep, I’m not buying the optimism Manfred espoused in the videos you posted. Apparently, neither are some of the owners. Of course, this allows those impacted to collect nearly a $1,000 a week in unemployment pay.
bccran, re: your AFSC question to me. I was a hybrid 30XX/51XX which merged to 49XX (comm-electronics + computers/data automation -> comm-computers, and then a later merger to 33XX to incorporate info management. The evolution was significant over my years and you might not know unless you were in the career field. Original focus supported in-garrison base ops and cold-war stuff/static threats, like those in MM3’s world. Post 9/11 shifted dramatically to asymmetric warfare threats via quickly deployable IT/network tools to give field commanders bare-base command and control capabilities (mostly IT + cybersecurity/cyberwarefare).
Wow. That’s incredibly impressive, Euro. And transferable when retired. O-6 when you retired, or did you make BG?
bccran, to be clear, I was describing the career field, not me personally. But I did enjoy going along for the ride participating in a variety of missions at locations I would’ve never seen if not for the military.
I put in my papers before meeting my O-6 board. Family stability considerations and all (kids approaching high school, wife was rehired after staying home for 14 years when the kids were young, so we changed focus to incorporate her career and I retired). Yes, my experience was very transferable, but I decided to go a different route. I taught AF Junior ROTC for 14 years at a nearby high school, retiring from that job last June. Kids were a blast. What about you?
Euro – Fighter pilot. A tour flying over North Vietnam then instructor pilot after that in one of the flight schools. Only on active duty for 6 1/2 years, then with the Missouri Air National Guard for several years.
Great stuff. That was my original choice, I wanted to be you! I had a slot for UPT at Columbus AFB. Flight surgeon failed me for rated duty due to surgery I had in college. My choices were to go support, or don’t go.
ED wrote: I put in my papers before meeting my O-6 board. Family stability considerations and all (kids approaching high school,
Sounds like a carbon copy of me. At my 20 year point I was in missile maintenance in charge of Maintenance Control for the wing, a job which I loved but I was loving where I was and could see some permanency in the area and I wanted to get into farming and build us a permanent home. Also kids in a great rural school (I eventually got on the school board) and I just didn’t want to get into the rat race of O-6 and above. I was told that we better brush up on our party hosting abilities and that was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back. Never regretted it and it was about that time I found enough time to get back as a fan into baseball – Minnesota Twins. When we moved to Arkansas and later Missouri two retirements later I shifted over to the Cardinals. So my ‘teams’ won 4 world series while I was backing them. I thought last season we had a chance for #5 but the virus has about quashed that and even if it happened it surely would have an asterisk behind it.
I have said that it would not be bad if the whole season was scrubbed but I keep having second thoughts that make me want at least a bit of a season; however, there are really a ton of mountains to climb before it can happen. Be interesting to see how NASCAR makes out tomorrow, especially on pit stops.
My interpretation is that the USPS is a part of the government, but is labeled an independent agency, just like NASA and the CIA.
https://postalnews.com/blog/2015/05/09/postal-myths-2-the-usps-is-not-a-government-agency/
As a side note, I doubt that Amazon is the sole reason the USPS is in financial trouble. They are required to pre-fund a lot of their pension and medical expenses which can be a financial burden. Also, their business model hasn’t really adopted to the 21st Century. Who sends letters anymore with email around?
I think the USPS still has an important role to play, especially for rural areas, but they will need to re-evaluate their expense structure and business plan.
Boras is proud of Boras…
The Scott Boras Corporation has had no furloughs or pay cuts to this point among its 120 employees, Boras said. He says he learned from the 1994-95 work stoppage to prepare for revenue-less times. Says “stability” and “loyalty” are key.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 17, 2020
Folks I hope you realize that with less than 500 employees, Boras was eligible for an PPP Small Business Loan/Grant so he could keep those people employed. I don’t know if he got one or not but it would not be beyond the realm of a possibility.
Hope NASCAR works out today so we can maybe get back to baseball.
It would be interesting to know if Boras Corp took a PPP loan. There’s more to consider than just number of employees to determine eligibility. Borrowers have to “certify in good faith” they don’t have other sources of liquidity they could tap without doing a lot of harm to their businesses. This is a revision to the original guidance of the plan due to criticism of companies like Shake Shack taking loans. They technically qualified, but they were not the intended target of the program due to their available capital resources (similar to the Harvard issue on the education relief portion of CARES).
We know Boras himself has tons of money, but I guess it would depend on the how the accounting books of Boras Corp look. Mnuchin and Trump have said they won’t be kind to companies who are later determined to have abused the “certify in good faith” requirement. In fact, those companies caught in between the original and revised guidance had until May 8 (I think) to return any loans to avoid any future penalties.
Any company that took a PPP loan in excess of $2 million will be subject to an SBA audit. If the loan is below $2 million then no audit. I have learned more about the PPP the last several weeks than I ever thought I would as I was put in charge of getting a loan for the company I work at.
gscott, you know a lot then. I’ve just read about the “certify in good faith” requirement (see my post above), but what does that really mean in numbers? It would seem to me for a company to be on sound footing in an audit, they would have to base the certification on real numbers from things like income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, equity statements, etc. Is it more specific than that?
Good question Euro. To my knowledge, there are no certain numerical requirements to justify the “economic uncertainty” certification. I have spoken to my lender about this numerous times and he doesn’t know much more than I do. He told me about the $2 million audit threshold and also said that when companies apply for loan forgiveness they might have to supply financial statements. Other than that we are all kind of in the dark.
SLATER SCOOP: Marlins will allow their 40-man roster players to return to their spring training facility in Jupiter, FL on Tuesday.
Players can use the batting cages and throw off the mound, I'm told.
The clubhouse and rest of facility will be closed.
— Andy Slater (@AndySlater) May 18, 2020
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