rarelongsun

I agree that the electoral college is inconsistent with basic principles of democracy and equal protection but how can something that was created by the constitution be unconstitutional?

I meant the question of "how it is legal to require people to work without paying them" is really simple. It is legal, because the government makes the rules and the government said it was legal.

I do not mean to imply that it is moral, sustainable, or desirable.

This one is simple. Since the government decides what is legal and what is not, if the government decides it is legal for the government to require people to work without paying them, then it is by definition legal.

However, it is not as bad as it might seem (while still being mighty bad). Government workers are free to quit. They just lose whatever pension rights and deferred benefits they might have worked up.

What happens if groups of workers refuse to work? Miami International Airport had to close a terminal because they have insufficient TSA people. The government if it feels like it can investigate any claims of being sick for malingering. Good luck proving that. These TSA people might lose any deferred benefits they have accrued, but something tells me they have nothing to lose.

I have no idea if workers can get unemployment benefits if they are doing unpaid work.

I am not in the intelligence community. But would not it be better to switch out a tail than to disguise them. In this way, you always have a fresh tail on your subject and everything about the tail including shoes will change. The tails do not have to acknowledge each other. There would be no good reason for the subject to believe that the tails are secretly working together.

I am aware that some contractors (illegally) pressure their employees to take paid time off to coincide with the shutdown.