https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/12/trump-is-trying-to-fix-the-vabut-its-backfiring-217348



Last June, President Donald Trump fulfilled a campaign promise by signing a bipartisan bill to make it easier to fire employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The law, a rare rollback of the federal government’s strict civil-service job protections, was intended as a much-needed fix for an organization widely perceived as broken. “VA accountability is essential to making sure that our veterans are treated with the respect they have so richly earned through their blood, sweat and tears,” Trump said that day. “Those entrusted with the sacred duty of serving our veterans will be held accountable for the care they provide.”

At the time, proponents of the bill repeatedly emphasized that it would hold everyone—especially top officials—accountable: “Senior executives,” stressed Senate Veterans Committee chair Johnny Isakson; “medical directors,” specified Trump; anyone who “undermined trust” in the VA, according to Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin. Shulkin advocated for the measure, called the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, by highlighting a case in which the agency had to wait 30 days to fire a worker caught watching porn with a patient.

“I do not see this as a tool that’s going to lead to mass firings,” Shulkin said last June. “I would never support that as secretary. I see this as a tool that’s going to be used on a small number of people, who clearly have deviated from accepted practices and norms.”

The law’s effect was nearly instantaneous: Firings rose 60 percent during the second half of 2017, after the law took effect, compared to the first half of 2017. Since June, the VA has removed 1,704 of its 370,000 employees.

But if top officials were the target of the law, a ProPublica investigation suggests the legislation misfired. In practice, the new law is overwhelmingly being used against the rank and file. Since it took effect, the VA has fired four senior leaders. The other 1,700 terminated people were low-level staffers with titles such as housekeeper (133 lost their jobs), nursing assistant (101 ousted) and food service worker (59 terminated), according to data posted by the VA.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/08/health/duval-county-teacher-racial-slur-trnd/index.html



(CNN)A Florida teacher has been suspended after his school district concluded he repeatedly used the N-word in class, and told his 7th and 8th graders not to date African-Americans "because they are not worth it," among other violations.

David Swinyar, who says he is white in his personnel file, teaches math at Kernan Middle School in Jacksonville. The school has 1,148 students — 22.6 percent of whom are African-American.

Just after lunch on October 6, 2017, a student told a school board investigator that their teacher, Swinyar, and students were discussing relationships.

"If your boyfriend says bad things to you and/or treats you wrong, that means he's acting like a n-----," Swinyar said according to student testimony in a school district investigative report. "You all should not be dating all these different African-American boys because they are not worth it."

In what appears to be a separate incident covered in the investigative report, students said Swinyar made other racist remarks in August 2017.

According to the report, Swinyar used the N-word during an argument with a student.
"If my daughter was dating someone who used the 'f' word, I wouldn't have any respect for that n-----," a student recalled Swinyar saying, according to an investigative report. Another student then confronted Swinyar about using the racial slur; he denied using it.

http://www.cracked.com/article_25132_5-insanely-important-jobs-were-running-out-people-for.html

Supply and demand should ensure that we never run out of people to do the really key jobs. If there was a dire shortage of, say, potato chip flavor developers (don't panic, this is strictly theoretical), chip companies would make the salary and perks of the job more attractive, colleges would hype up the benefits of majoring in flavor science, and new blood would enter the field, bringing with them the caramel-and-Worcestershire-sauce-flavored Pringles we truly deserve. But reality is nowhere near that efficient, and we are running out of people for some especially vital jobs. For example ...

Old Programmers Are Dying Off ... And Taking Their Computer Languages With Them

The Demand For Oncologists Skyrockets While Supply Plummets

We're Short On Farm Labor

Nobody Wants To Be A Skilled Manufacturer Anymore

We Don't Have Nearly Enough Pilots To Meet Our Demand For Air Travel

https://www.theonion.com/dollar-tree-to-stop-selling-assault-weapons-1823437635?utm_content=Main&utm_campaign=SF&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing



CHESAPEAKE, VA—In response to the deadly shooting at a Parkland, FL high school earlier this month, Dollar Tree officials announced Thursday that the discount variety store will no longer sell assault weapons. “Under no circumstances should a teenager be able to walk into a Dollar Tree, purchase a Basic Brands ValuPak aluminum foil rifle for one dollar, and shoot up a school with it,” said CEO Gary Philbin, adding that other items to be removed effective immediately from shelves in all 13,600 locations include Good Sense clear plastic bump stocks, RitePrice high-capacity magazines, and the entire Essential Products line of disposable flash suppressors. “We are determined to provide customers with the best value around, but in light of this terrible tragedy, we cannot in good conscience continue to offer deals like Home Bargain’s three-for-one semi-automatic shotgun bundle or our 6.8 mm Remington SPC bargain bins.” While military-style rifles will no longer be available from Dollar Tree, Philbin reassured customers the store will, of course, continue to offer a wide selection of discount handguns after enforcing a 21-and-over age restriction.

https://www.boredpanda.com/gender-equality-women-dark-side/

There are plenty of badass women but Academy-Award winning filmmaker Michael Moore thinks there aren’t any bad ones. “No women ever invented an atomic bomb, built a smoke stack, initiated a Holocaust, melted the polar ice caps or organized a school shooting,” Moore tweeted. Missing logic in his claims, writer Jessica Ellis wrote an insightful rebuttal to Moore, and her Twitter response quickly went viral.

While attacking the patriarchy, Moore suggested that women are naturally superior to men in living up to universal moral standards. “My initial response was actually very personal,” Ellis, who considers herself a feminist, told Bored Panda. “I had been struggling with anxiety issues and going to therapy, where I realized I thought the fact that I had dark thoughts sometimes made me a bad person. I had also come to realize that part of the reason I felt that way is that women are raised on a doctrine of purity and that Moore (who I respect greatly as a filmmaker) was furthering that concept. When you are taught that all women are naturally sweet and wonderful, you can feel extra-extra crazy if you feel anger or depression or anxiety.”

And even though ladies have not held powerful political positions as much as men, Ellis perfectly points out why they struggle with making ethically just decisions, too. “It’s bad for women’s mental health to be held to an unrealistic purity standard.” After all, we’re all human! Scroll down to read her reasoning and let us know your thoughts about it in the comments.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/01/news/gun-stocks/index.html

Gunmakers are coming to grips with a new reality after Parkland.
The stock of American Outdoor Brands (AOBC), the owner of Smith & Wesson, tumbled 25% in February and is trading at its lowest level in almost five years. Sturm Ruger (RGR) fell 19% to a three-year low. Vista Outdoor (VSTO), which makes guns and ammunition, is down 12% since the school shooting two weeks ago.

Wall Street investors backing the companies are asking questions. More than a dozen companies have cut ties with the NRA. And Dick's Sporting Goods, Walmart and Fred Meyer, a unit of Kroger (KR), are limiting gun purchases from stores.

For gun manufacturers, declining stock prices reflect a change in a decade-long operating model.

As recently as the Las Vegas shooting last October, mass shootings provided a jolt to their stocks. Investors bet that Americans would rush to purchase weapons because of the prospect of tighter gun restrictions.

That was especially true before last year. President Obama and then Hillary Clinton, the favorite to win the White House in 2016, heightened gun owners' fears of new legislation and drove stock prices higher.

Obama was a "clarion call to the gun industry," said Brian Rafn, an analyst at Morgan Dempsey. Manufacturers doubled and tripled production during the Obama administration to meet rising demand, according to federal data.

But with President Trump in the White House and Republicans running Congress, the gun industry was left without a bogeyman. Mass shootings during the Trump presidency in Las Vegas and in Sutherland Springs, Texas, did not cause buying sprees.