Monday, September 22, 2014

DHS in disarray? Duh!

Well, it seems like the leadership of the Department of Homeland Security is all messed up. I guess having six new top bosses in six years might do that.

Over the past four years, employees have left DHS at a rate nearly twice as fast as in the federal government overall, and the trend is accelerating, according to a review of a federal database.

The departures are a result of what employees widely describe as a dysfunctional work environment, abysmal morale, and the lure of private security companies paying top dollar that have proliferated in Washington since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.


Its a biiiiig long article in the Washington Post, but I can shorten it down to just one sentence:

Obama is discovering its hard to get Americans to volunteer for being cats-paws.
I can add to this that the rank-and-file DHS dorks I've seen all seem pretty depressed and hating their jobs. One can only imagine the gigantic flustercluck that is bumming all these guys out.  Looks like as soon as the guys at the top of the heap discover what Barry is actually doing with DHS, they bail out.

Nothing to worry about, right?

3 comments:

WiFi Lunchbox Guy said...

...speaking of these characters, has anybody figured out what protective gear is available to civilians, and how much it costs?

The Phantom said...

$250 for a full-face 3M spray painting mask, I advise a surgical mask under it as well. Droplets, y'know. Any paint store.

$30.00 for oversized nylon spray painting suit. NAPA auto parts. Maybe put a disposable paper one over top to keep the crap out longer. Don't get wet.

$10.00 for box of latex work gloves. Princess Auto.

That will get you by, assuming you have no actual contact with the infected.

If you're more paranoid, a dry-suit meant for wind surfing will be more durable and secure. That'll be impervious, tough and water tight. But it will be HOT, which is bad. ~$1,600.00, a bit much for casual prepping I think.

Tape the hood to the full-coverage face mask and the gloves to the sleeves for extra security.

From what I can see, that's what's available to civilians. Plan accordingly.

For working with infected people, we're talking full-on NBC protective suit with remote air supply. Those are the alien-encounter suits you see in movies. I would think they'd be on the order of two or three grand, and I've never seen one for sale.

Right now, we don't need this. Later on, if half of South America rushes the American border, we might.

WiFi Lunchbox Guy said...

Thanks.

Anyways, the BBC has some hazmat suit pr0n, with the lesser version that journalists wear. Scary revelation: survivors[*] can have active ebola in semen for 3 months after recovery.

Thomas Duncan just died, even after getting the only ebola medicine there is.

* For this strain 30% under optimal conditions, compared to under 10% for old school strains.