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And apparently some Panda in a reserve wont be fed according to the news. It's pretty sick when people believe this is the only way to partially shut down the g

And apparently some Panda in a reserve wont be fed according to the news. It's pretty sick when people believe this is the only way to partially shut down the government. Most of the NSA (85%), FBI (85%), CIA (85%), Congress (Fully), The Judicial Branch, The Senate (Fully) will be paid and working. If the US government partially shuts down the government, but chooses to spend on defense but not National Parks and NASA, then it chooses to shut down in that way...

masklinn 13y ago
I'm not sure who picks "essential" versus "non-essential" services, but IIRC that's the criteria for being funded versus not being funded during partial shutdown.
- tokenizer 13y ago
  I guess my point was that if people are complaining about certain services being cut due to a shutdown, the people should be equally mad about what services get shut down during a shutdown. They've happened enough in the last 50 years to warrant a more open debate.
AlisdairSH 13y ago
> And apparently some Panda in a reserve wont be fed according to the news. I think you misheard. The panda web camera feed will be shut down. Pretty sure they'll still feed the little critter... http://jezebel.com/government-shutdown-might-kill-an-adorable-panda-cam-1429790611 http://jezebel.com/government-shutdown-might-kill-an-adorabl...
- mherdeg 13y ago
  It's also economically in our best interest to keep feeding the pandas. We're contractually obliged to China to feed pandas in the National Zoo — if a panda dies due to American misconduct, we have to pay them $800,000. See http://qr.ae/N5H14 http://qr.ae/N5H14 // http://web.mit.edu/mherdeg/Public/smithsonian-panda-agreement-2011.pdf http://web.mit.edu/mherdeg/Public/smithsonian-panda-agreemen... . I'm not sure how feeding the other zoo animals would qualify as "essential", but for pandas there are diplomatic (and monetary!) concerns.
  - tokenizer 13y ago
    Wow. Thanks for the detailed information!

masklinn 13y ago

I'm not sure who picks "essential" versus "non-essential" services, but IIRC that's the criteria for being funded versus not being funded during partial shutdown.

tokenizer 13y ago
I guess my point was that if people are complaining about certain services being cut due to a shutdown, the people should be equally mad about what services get shut down during a shutdown. They've happened enough in the last 50 years to warrant a more open debate.

AlisdairSH 13y ago

> And apparently some Panda in a reserve wont be fed according to the news. I think you misheard. The panda web camera feed will be shut down. Pretty sure they'll still feed the little critter... http://jezebel.com/government-shutdown-might-kill-an-adorable-panda-cam-1429790611 http://jezebel.com/government-shutdown-might-kill-an-adorabl...

mherdeg 13y ago
It's also economically in our best interest to keep feeding the pandas. We're contractually obliged to China to feed pandas in the National Zoo — if a panda dies due to American misconduct, we have to pay them $800,000. See http://qr.ae/N5H14 http://qr.ae/N5H14 // http://web.mit.edu/mherdeg/Public/smithsonian-panda-agreement-2011.pdf http://web.mit.edu/mherdeg/Public/smithsonian-panda-agreemen... . I'm not sure how feeding the other zoo animals would qualify as "essential", but for pandas there are diplomatic (and monetary!) concerns.
- tokenizer 13y ago
  Wow. Thanks for the detailed information!