THEY KNEW NOTHING ABOUT STACY RAMSEY

 I lost my dream job yesterday.

I received the notice of termination around 3:00, then was immediately summoned to HQ to sign papers. I was locked out of my government account before I could print off the email.

 

The decision to terminate was based on my "probationary" status, I was in the first year of a 4 year IRA funded term position. The park had no say, they just received a list of four employees to terminate.

 

Did those who made the decision know or care that the main objective of my position is to provide preventive search and rescue education, to keep park visitors safe?

Did they know that I have assisted with at least 20 SARs and a few recoveries over the last five years?

Did they know that I am part of the visitor and resource protection division, and that I spent my days on the frontline, looking out for the safety of park visitors?

Did they know that I have worked in various roles in the park for five years, including my primary positon of river ranger, upper district fee collector, emergency hire interp at BPVC, and assisted the concessions division and maintenance divisions as well?

Did they know that I stayed in that GS 5 river ranger job, despite opportunities for more permanent positions because I loved looking out for the safety of people on the river, it's a calling of sorts.

Did they know I spent countless hours picking up trash, probably at least 100 mesh bags full over the 5 years?

Did they know I spent countless hot summer days at Grinder's Ferry, talking to campers and passing out mesh trashbags, and countless hot, dusty evenings at Gilbert, attempting to control the chaos?

 

Did they know that I truly loved my job? That I wholeheartedly love the river? That the river is home to me?

 

They had no idea. 

 

The park also lost the one and only interp staff at the Buffalo Point visitor center, the only fee collector for the upper district and one of only three maintenance staff in the middle district. Tough times.

Comments

[Joel]

Elmo Musk and his DOGE team of still-wet-behind-the-ears, hacker boys don't know and don't care who they are laying off. They laid off more than 300 workers at the Department of Energy. The laid-off DOE workers were responsible for keeping track of the country's nuclear arsenal.

Who should be laid off? Elmo, and his boy hackers, that's who. And some of Elmo's little boys have criminal records. This is the dimwit Dotard has assigned to make America great again.

[Roy]

Lots of good things are about to be cut, so the administration can service their corporate masters and give more tax cuts to billionaires.

[Ernest]

I don't get it. Seems like a distinct majority of Americans have a negative opinion of the current "administration" and its non-stop barrage of idiot ideas and actions. It's like an avalanche of irritating stupidity. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? Were the voters not aware of what they were doing? Did they vote out of ignorance, apathy or spite? The whole thing has the stink of a major fraud attached to it. A surprising number of people and organizations seem to be in on the scam. These are dark days, indeed.

[Joel]

Ernest, I believe it was two things.

#1 - A major memory lapse by American voters who forgot how bad Trump's first term had been. How he mismanaged the pandemic and threw America into near recession.

#2 - A dedicated effort on the part of Trump and his cronies to disenfranchise millions of voters. around three million fewer votes were cast in 2024 than had been cast in 2020, but simple common sense tells you that since the US population had increased, more people should have voted in 2024. Trump's crime family had, however, concentrated on disenfranchising voters who were most likely to vote against Trump -- Blacks and other minorities and young people.

For instance, Trump focused on robbing college students of their votes because they predominantly voted by mail and voted against Trump and his allies.

These two things combined to give Trump the smallest popular vote win in decades. Trump would have you believe he was voted in with a mandate... He wasn't.

But you're correct. Four weeks into his second term and hundreds of thousands of American voters are being reminded of why they voted Trump out in 2020. Farmers are remembering how Trump's tariffs and aggressive immigration policies bankrupted them during Trump v1. In four weeks, Americans are being given an idea of how Trump mismanaged the country.

In four weeks, Trump's disapproval numbers have climbed four points. His approval number was at its highest ever right after the inauguration and has gone down since. The majority of Americans do not like Trump and the number is only going to fall.

[daniel taylor]

This was as fair and square of an election as we can have and it resulted in a sweeping victory in the Electoral College along with a significant win in the popular vote, both favoring Trump. In fact, he is the first republican to win the popular vote since 1988 and he did so by winning all "battleground" states.

And, when he says he has won more votes than any other presidential candidate, statistically (counting all three of his runs) he is correct. When this term is done he will have been president for nearly 30% of the 21st century.

Ignorance? No, it was a simple choice for most based on their desire for change and being tired of feeling out of the mainstream ("it's the pronouns").

Spite? Highly doubtful, who could voters have been spiting, Hillary?

Apathy? Possible, since 85 million eligibles did not vote.

I live in a county outside Portland that is equally split red and blue and almost everyone is polite about politics and gets along; no anger, grief, gnashing of teeth, finger pointing, protesting: It's simple, you win some, you lose some, and life goes on.

[curojo]

DOGE is a living breathing nightmare with a beastly life of its own, growing more destructive daily. Its tentacles are bound to touch us all before it is curbed. And we're not even one complete month through this devil's spawn yet.

[Joel]

Daniel, do you realize how ignorant your 30% of the century figure is? At the end of his term, GW Bush had been president for 100% of the 21st Century. At the end of his term, Obama had been president for 50% of the 21st Century.

And don't be so sure Dotard will be president all four years. His health is obviously failing. He could be dead by 2029. Or Shady Vance and the Broligarchy may have removed Trump based on the 25th Amendment midway through. Don't be counting your chickens. We could still get lucky.