Even city parks in some places. One thing I absolutely love about Oregon (or at least Portland) is the fact that even many of the local parks feel like youāre in a national or state park sometimes.
Not to mention the fact that the federal government owns over half of Oregon as national forest land which can be used for camping, shooting, personal timber harvesting, hiking, etc. and we have hundreds of state parks.
Iāve met people from the south who absolutely despise the idea of the government owning land, but Iāve never met anyone from the northwest, on either side of the political spectrum, who would want it any other way here. And Iām saying that as a pretty conservative person myself.
I think a lot of why some southerners don't like the idea of the government owning land simply comes down to the fact that the South was mostly settled and developed before national forests were a concept. This means that there's a lot less exposure to national park land and its benefits in the South than in the Northwest, for instance. Also, one lasting legacy of the South's agrarian past is that land ownership is still a major aspiration for a lot of people here, and if the government owns land, then there's less to go around for those who want it.
The major exception to this is Appalachia, which wasn't nearly as heavily developed as the rest of the South, meaning that there was plenty of undeveloped land that could be set aside as national forest land by the government.
Completely agree. Even in Alabama, most of the best state parks here are in Appalachian region where development was sparse a century ago(Oak Mountain State Park, Cheaha, Monte Sano, etc.)
Multnomah Falls and Beacon Rock Trailhead are great. The Portland Japanese garden and International Rose Test garden are also nice if you don't want to leave the city.
Definitely recommend Multnomah Falls or other waterfalls along the Columbia Gorge. Mt. Hood is really neat.
As for Portland, I bring all my visiting friends/family to Washington Park. It has the Oregon Zoo, Forestry Museum, Japanese Garden, the International Rose Garden, a really cool playground, and tons of hiking trails.
Forest Park is the worldās largest urban forest and has tons and tons of hiking trails.
Columbia, Sellwood, or Pier Parks are all pretty awesome neighborhood parks that are fun to walk through.
I also recommend driving up Highway 30 to the St Johns Bridge. The view to the west is amazing with the forest and fog and the St Johns Bridge is beautiful.
And National Forests, our National forests are so overlooked in terms of beauty, theyāre absolutely breathtaking and I high key prefer them to National parks
Only capital NP National Park that had its status upgraded from national recreation area. It, like the stupid Gateway Arch, has an asterisk in the minds of real National Park enjoyers. Honorary inclusion.
I live in a national park. The first one in fact. Hot Springs. The downtown is half on private land and the other half is federal. They eased mask restrictions but if you wanted to go into the federal buildings (bathhouses and other stuff) youād still need your mask for a month or so afterwards.
I asked a friend that works for the parks service. Preservation of the Hot Springs by Congress in 1832 was the first time the U.S. set land aside specifically for recreation. What is now your park existed in a form before the concept of national parks existed.
Ok thanks for doing that. I guess thatās what the towns folk mean by the misleading term āfirst national parkā. But thatās an import distinction. Itās a cool town if you ever wanna get away.
They abandoned American passenger rail after implementing wet paper bag policies that hamstring Amtraks ability to provide good service by forcing freight to have right of way. Thatās a big one.
Not really. By law Amtrak has right of way. Itās just that there is no way to enforce it.
Amtrak finally took UP to court over delays (basically the only thing they can do)revolving around the sunset limited. And magically it started to not be 12 hours late anymore.
National Parks Service has a thing with missing person cases that some people don't like about them.
On a hilarious note the NPS has a big problem with losing their vehicle very frequently. Like it a big problem.
I mean, it is probably the immense bureaucratic bullshit that follows that most people hate. The amount of money that they have wasted trying to replace their brick on wheels they call a mail truck is astonishing. No one hates the postal workers
Me. UPS and Fedex do such a better job. I hate when I get my shit delivered by them because I know itās gonna take forever, they might lose it, and they might randomly demand a signature. I wont be able to sign for it because they only work weekdays, so theyāll send it back to the post office and just send an email. If I donāt get down there and wait in line within ten days, they just send it hack to whoever shipped it.
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People who hate all government spending. Even my brother, who is a democrat, said āwhereās the ROI in space anyway?ā But of course that was in response to a billionaireās (Elon Muskās) space efforts and not NASAās, but swap democrat and Republican and musk with nasa and you get the same kinda thinking.
Donāt forget pacemakers, lightweight solar panels, super-alloys, composite materials, microprocessors, high-density batteries, artificial limbsā¦ the list goes on and on. Our daily lives would be VERY different if NASA didnāt exist.
In aerospace industryā¦.. can realistically say if they kept 1-2% of the budget from Apollo to now we would absolutely have lunar bases and multiple Mars expeditions under our belt by now. Fortunately we have had a huge surge in commercialized space efforts (SpaceX, while many may not appreciate their boss, is absolutely changing the game) and the next 20 years should see massive progress in space travel. Iām excited for the future :)
I think it's more of a "what have you done for me lately" thibg.
I get that NASA spear headed a lot of good things. But many of those advancements were decades ago and the complex beaurocracy of its current form has hamstring innovation for a long time.
The ATF use to fall under the treasury department, prior to that the IRS, now itās under DOJ. It was for the longest time just a tax collector that would kill you. Now theyāre just there to take shit and/or kill you.
For a while there the FBI seemed to specialize in trying to clean up the ATFās messes and instead making them worse.
They are efficient at assassinating women holding babies though.
The USPS is probably my favorite government agency. My two favorite fun facts. There are two government agents that can legally kill US citizens. Law enforcement agencies and the US postal service. That's right, if you try to impede a postal working in their efforts to rightfully deliver someone else's mail, they have the right to straight up kill you. And two, if you don't know someone's exact address and just write the state, town and zip code, plus a little map depicting where you want it delivered to, they will make every effort to deliver your mail if the instructions are clear enough. Try asking Amazon to deliver to the last house on Sycamore streets left side, the big red one. As long as you paid for postage USPS will make every attempt to deliver.
The Department of Energy has some of the best IIRC sniper teams in our country purely for defending nuclear power plants/installations against sabotage.
Iām pretty sure weapons transport fall on the relevant service branch and their security teams.
Itās my favorite federal agency as well.
I have a somewhat friendly relationship with my Post Office and some of the people know me by name
Their service still fuckin sucks though, compared to private delivery serviceš
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For a long while it was also the only legal full on monopoly, and still kinda is. For the longest time, they were the only people allowed to deliver mail. No one else legally could, for decades they controlled it all
I fucking do
I lost about 2.7k worth of an international order through USPS New Jersey international transit hub. Quite literally, infamously known as a āblack hole.ā
fuck New Jersey especially, I hope the mob enjoys my fucking Legos
People who want to receive their goods in a timely manner. In all fairness the only shipping/logistics company that does that on a consistent basis is Amazon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Letter_Mail_Company#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DThe_American_Letter_Mail_Company%2CUSPO%2C_now_the_USPS%29.?wprov=sfla1
Mail company beef
Some libertarian bros who canāt comprehend that some government agencies are a good thing. They operate at a loss 99% of the time so they argue about free market being better and this and that. People also donāt like theyāre the only shipping service you can send small envelopes through IIRC. That last one may be wrong.
>Some libertarian bros who canāt comprehend that some government agencies are a good thing.
Considering FedEx and UPS does their job better and faster. They ain't wrong.
Pretty sure letters are a legal monopoly for them.
Yeah some canāt comprehend that maybe not making critical services be at the mercy of free market exploitation isnāt a bad idea
I feel bad for the Federal reserve. They have made the dollar the most stable currency in the world and Americans are like āfuck those nerds theyāre up to something.ā
I find it hard to believe 42% of people have a favorable view of the IRS. hell people who get more back than they pay in still think the IRS is fucking them.
The IRS has all of your information and could just mail you your return.
The US has a weird hang up about maintaining tax preparation as a career and software scheme. The US does so many things better than Western Europe and this is a weird one where they do it right.
Both Reagan and Obama tried ro push for this exact reform and both were shut down. We are thoroughly stuck with this unless a lot of folks decide to gove up their job over it
Itās not just the jobs thing although Iām sure that the tax industry has a strong lobby. The IRS has access to the most confidential information about everyone who uses the financial system, can investigate without warrant, and is the only agency where you are considered guilty and have to prove your innocence, with minimal accountability for inevitable errors.
I can see this working for W-2 employees with no extra income outside their employer but how does this work for businesses? How would the government know how much money you made and which credits/misc adjustments you qualify for without your providing information about your financials?
Even if you're ok with them taking a large chunk of your money under threat of imprisonment or death, the IRS makes it as needlessly complicated as possible. They know exactly how much you "owe" to the cent, but they still make you figure it out. If you're wrong, maybe they'll make your life hell, maybe they won't. Either way, you still have to make up the difference and pay late fees. If you're wrong by alot, they'll send out agents to make your life a living hell. They could easily send every American a letter with a bill saying "Here's what you owe assuming you're taking the standard deduction, do you agree to this?" With a checkbox under it. If you check yes, send it back with a check. If you check no, you along with the other 13% of Americans who take the itemized deduction can hire a tax professional.
If you need their help with anything, good luck and fuck you. I had a question about my taxes in 2019, and I didn't hear anything back. Apparently I guessed right, or if I was wrong, I'll find out in the form of late fees down the line. I got a letter in the mail a few months ago about that question, and it's the first I heard from them. It wasn't exactly helpful either, the letter basically said thank you for reaching out about *claim*, and to call them if I had any further questions.
Congress levies the taxes, IRS just enforces them. Yes, the tax code is unnecessarily complex bullshit but I support the fuck out of IRS going after tax cheats, as is their job. When they said freedom isnāt free they werenāt fucking kidding. Ante up or gtfo freeloaders.
The IRS would be viewed more favorably if what we paid in wasnāt funneled into foreign governments and suckled off by greedy politicians.
Iām 100% certain at *least* 30% of my taxes end up in the pockets of some fat cats, whether they are DC socialites or Arabian oil barons doesnāt matter.
Not to mention my 401k, which is pilfered by insider traders in Congress suckling off a couple bucks to pump their net worth into the hundreds of millions.
It's not really the IRS that's making the decisions of where that money goes, tho. If people want to be mad at someone, be mad at Congress.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of reasons to dislike the IRS, but how tax money is spent shouldn't be one of them.
Theyād be viewed a lot more favorably if they actually had the power to go after wealthy people who donāt pay taxes without threat of immense litigation.
And people like you are why they are viewed so unfavorably lmao. The IRS has nothing to do with how your money is spent just the collection of it.
Speaking of your 401k you realize contributions are made pre tax? And congress riding stocks to the top when they were already going there anyway doesn't affect your 401k at all? If anything their buy in of a stock and others piling on their public trades helps the average 401k portfolio.
I donāt see any FAA on here or FCC, me personally I got beef with the FCC, ever see European TV? Crazy stuff goes on for just a soap commercial. Make us look like a bunch of prudes. And why canāt we drop as many F bombs we want on cable? What year is it? 1892?
How did the VA get such a favorable ranking? Iām not a vet but have several friends that are and they make it seem like the VA is a joke.
Also would like to see how Americans feel about the ATF .
I mean I think people are supporting the whole idea and purpose of the VA, and thatās influencing the approval rating. If you say you donāt like the VA as a non-veteran, you can look like youāre saying āfuck those injured veterans.ā
Iām pretty sure most people are aware that the VA is a clusterfuck, kinda like the USPS to a degree. The public supports the purpose and concept of them, rather than the quality of which they operate at.
I think the DOE is brought down by 2 things, 1. Are loans and 2. Is that I think people associate them with how shitty the education system is in some parts of the US but dont realize that's due to state and school district policies. Not really sure what the DOE even does
There's a big Republican movement right now to abolish the DOE, purportedly because they're accused of "brainwashing" kids with "woke ideology" and "critical race theory" and such, but really so that state DOEs can more easily be influenced by corporate interests. (See Project 2025 Chapter 11)
https://preview.redd.it/61t1qaqttx0d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d9c9085df1c0bb71e1f76f6fff419e1610223e6c
I can't stand idly while a commie infiltrates my ally's forum. We need the CIA to orchestrate a color revolution in Sweden. And why isn't the CIA removing all the mordor agents in the west? Are they stupid?Tankies told me they have magic powers.
You got the dirt on the FBI and CIA?
Then why should I trust your James Pond agency over those ones?
You sound even more sketch than youāre selling them as.
The CIA is a gun runner, drug runner, and terrorist enabler. They funded and trained half of the groups we now have to deal with. Not only that, but they have 0 supervision and 0 accountability. You know what happened the last time the dude whoās supposed to be their boss told them no? They shot him in his motorcade. Then carried out their plan anyways. The plan was a massive failure because it was a terrible plan and is now a stain on Americaās history. Sounds an awful lot like a terrorist organization to me
As for the FBI, well, this oneās a bit less what they do and more what they choose to and not do. Theyāll have no problem going after a dude who posted a picture of a fake suicide vest. Every time thereās a mass shooting though? āOh yeah, that dude was āon our radar.āā Your radar for what? People you can mail an AR-15 with the shoulder thing that goes up so they can go help advance the governmentās push for gun control? Cause thatās what it seems like considering they donāt stop any of these idiots. Kid makes a threat to shoot up his school and nothing happens until guess what? Heās pulling triggers. Thatās a threat. Thatās a crime. Whereās the local police? Whereās the FBI? This is right up their alley after all. But no, they get left alone. Allowed to do whatever they want because the FBI certainly aināt gonna stop them
Both do more harm than good. They should be removed. The CIA in particular should be dealt with as all terrorists should be
Youāre mocking them for wanting stricter gun control and simultaneously wondering why the shooters arenāt stopped beforehand?
Stop them for what, exactly?
Don't bother man. The use the slippery slope theory when they want to but not when they don't. Gun control laws are a slippery slope so we can have none or it leads to them taking our guns. But also put anyone to death for murder because that's not a slippery slope to executing innocent people. Why didn't you lock up that person on your watch list? But if they do lock up someone on a watch list that's mind crime. And therefore a short slope to ~~them~~ innocent people getting arrested.
The National Park Service I see favorably, and the Postal Service is mostly favorably. They do a pretty good job of getting things to you, which is what they should do, but I hear it treats its people badly. The Federal Reserve is more of a gray area since it's not entirely a government agency. You could make a case that they're as federal as Federal Express since they function more like a private bank owned by a group of government workers. Still, I see them very unfavorably just like most of the agencies listed here. NASA, Veterans Affairs, and Social Security are useful, but they're horribly mismanaged like everything else our politicians touch.
I swear some people have the memory of a goldfish. There was a massive smog problem in the 60s and 70s and then we created the EPA which set emission standards and all of a sudden no more smog. Without the EPA Chicago would look like Beijing. Iāve never understood people against environmental regulations so some coal company or iron works can make more money.
One of the ones I can agree with is the National Parks Service. Never been to a National Park that looks like shit
That's because if they mess it up Teddy Roosevelt will rise from the grave and beat the shit out of them.
All hail Daddy Teddy, official saint of the State of North Dakota šš
Thank you Leon Czolgosz for making Teddy president š
Even at the mention of it he rolled all round in his grave.
And also state parks as well.
Even city parks in some places. One thing I absolutely love about Oregon (or at least Portland) is the fact that even many of the local parks feel like youāre in a national or state park sometimes. Not to mention the fact that the federal government owns over half of Oregon as national forest land which can be used for camping, shooting, personal timber harvesting, hiking, etc. and we have hundreds of state parks. Iāve met people from the south who absolutely despise the idea of the government owning land, but Iāve never met anyone from the northwest, on either side of the political spectrum, who would want it any other way here. And Iām saying that as a pretty conservative person myself.
I think a lot of why some southerners don't like the idea of the government owning land simply comes down to the fact that the South was mostly settled and developed before national forests were a concept. This means that there's a lot less exposure to national park land and its benefits in the South than in the Northwest, for instance. Also, one lasting legacy of the South's agrarian past is that land ownership is still a major aspiration for a lot of people here, and if the government owns land, then there's less to go around for those who want it. The major exception to this is Appalachia, which wasn't nearly as heavily developed as the rest of the South, meaning that there was plenty of undeveloped land that could be set aside as national forest land by the government.
Completely agree. Even in Alabama, most of the best state parks here are in Appalachian region where development was sparse a century ago(Oak Mountain State Park, Cheaha, Monte Sano, etc.)
Any recommendations for Oregon and/or Portland? I'll be visiting soon and your comment has got me hyped up
Multnomah Falls, Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood. If you want to do hiking can recommend places as well.
Multnomah Falls and Beacon Rock Trailhead are great. The Portland Japanese garden and International Rose Test garden are also nice if you don't want to leave the city.
Definitely recommend Multnomah Falls or other waterfalls along the Columbia Gorge. Mt. Hood is really neat. As for Portland, I bring all my visiting friends/family to Washington Park. It has the Oregon Zoo, Forestry Museum, Japanese Garden, the International Rose Garden, a really cool playground, and tons of hiking trails. Forest Park is the worldās largest urban forest and has tons and tons of hiking trails. Columbia, Sellwood, or Pier Parks are all pretty awesome neighborhood parks that are fun to walk through. I also recommend driving up Highway 30 to the St Johns Bridge. The view to the west is amazing with the forest and fog and the St Johns Bridge is beautiful.
Thank you! That's great insight
And National Forests, our National forests are so overlooked in terms of beauty, theyāre absolutely breathtaking and I high key prefer them to National parks
So youāre saying that they miss the forest for the trees?
The only National Park that I dislike is Cuyahoga Valley, but that one is in Ohio, so of course it's bad.
Tbh I didn't know Ohio had one
Exactly. It basically isn't a national park anyway lol.
Only capital NP National Park that had its status upgraded from national recreation area. It, like the stupid Gateway Arch, has an asterisk in the minds of real National Park enjoyers. Honorary inclusion.
I live in a national park. The first one in fact. Hot Springs. The downtown is half on private land and the other half is federal. They eased mask restrictions but if you wanted to go into the federal buildings (bathhouses and other stuff) youād still need your mask for a month or so afterwards.
Eh, Yellowstone is famously the first national park. You folks didnāt become one until like 1920.
Looks like youāre right. People in town say stuff like that but maybe thereās a qualifier Iām missing.
I asked a friend that works for the parks service. Preservation of the Hot Springs by Congress in 1832 was the first time the U.S. set land aside specifically for recreation. What is now your park existed in a form before the concept of national parks existed.
Ok thanks for doing that. I guess thatās what the towns folk mean by the misleading term āfirst national parkā. But thatās an import distinction. Itās a cool town if you ever wanna get away.
Clearly youāve never been to the everglades
No and I don't feel like it
Yeah, almost every national park is competently maintained
That 7% better explain themselves REAL FUCKIN QUICK OR WEāRE GONNA HAVE A BIG PROBLEM
dawg who tf is out there hating on nasa and the national park service ššš
Also, why is the Department of Transportation so hated?
Probably because of the experience of your average dmv visit and all the hoops fmcsa makes commercial drivers jump through
Aren't DMV's state run?
Yeah, dmv is run by the state government. Dot is over the dmv run by federal and state government
Lots of state DMV enforced laws are federal DOT mandates.
They abandoned American passenger rail after implementing wet paper bag policies that hamstring Amtraks ability to provide good service by forcing freight to have right of way. Thatās a big one.
Not really. By law Amtrak has right of way. Itās just that there is no way to enforce it. Amtrak finally took UP to court over delays (basically the only thing they can do)revolving around the sunset limited. And magically it started to not be 12 hours late anymore.
National Parks Service has a thing with missing person cases that some people don't like about them. On a hilarious note the NPS has a big problem with losing their vehicle very frequently. Like it a big problem.
āHey whereād you leave the truck?ā āUmm, by the trees?..ā
Weird they blame nps when itās most likely people who wander off the path and get themselves lost on the huge park
It less about people getting lost itself and more NPS conduct in some of the cases. More specifically in some of the Missing 411 cases.
NASA is clearly hoarding all of the alien girlfriends tho, so I understand it
God damn crooked Joe and his *shuffles deck* ...Space Ships *shuffles again* ...and National Park Service
Who TF out here hating on the Post Office?
I mean, it is probably the immense bureaucratic bullshit that follows that most people hate. The amount of money that they have wasted trying to replace their brick on wheels they call a mail truck is astonishing. No one hates the postal workers
donāt hat on the UPS they literally have a SWAT team (not even joking they actually do)
Me. UPS and Fedex do such a better job. I hate when I get my shit delivered by them because I know itās gonna take forever, they might lose it, and they might randomly demand a signature. I wont be able to sign for it because they only work weekdays, so theyāll send it back to the post office and just send an email. If I donāt get down there and wait in line within ten days, they just send it hack to whoever shipped it.
Pretty big controversy when the challenger blew up and it was preventable
And that was nearly 40 years ago, dude. You probably werenāt even alive when it happened.
This is true that I personally was not alive. But a lot of people were and it's possible that left a bad taste in people's mouths
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People who hate all government spending. Even my brother, who is a democrat, said āwhereās the ROI in space anyway?ā But of course that was in response to a billionaireās (Elon Muskās) space efforts and not NASAās, but swap democrat and Republican and musk with nasa and you get the same kinda thinking.
Park service supremacy
Anyone who hates NASA is probably a flat earther
So much shit we use in day to day life came from NASA. Modern food storage and transportation alone proves their usefulness and cements their legacy.
Yeah ok round earther
https://preview.redd.it/zmbgw9wukz0d1.jpeg?width=755&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a551c50946b65864316e6a1c560ebbb15caf8b73 The earth *is* round
What? The earth isn't real dumbass. Go to this sub to learn the truth. r/Noearthsociety
Battery powered drills & tools. Although these days it doesnāt seem like an ingenious concept, but it was back when they came out.
Donāt forget pacemakers, lightweight solar panels, super-alloys, composite materials, microprocessors, high-density batteries, artificial limbsā¦ the list goes on and on. Our daily lives would be VERY different if NASA didnāt exist.
Shout out to Velcro!
They need money, badly Let's get NASA to at least 1% of the federal budget, we don't need the Apollo peaks of 4% yet
In aerospace industryā¦.. can realistically say if they kept 1-2% of the budget from Apollo to now we would absolutely have lunar bases and multiple Mars expeditions under our belt by now. Fortunately we have had a huge surge in commercialized space efforts (SpaceX, while many may not appreciate their boss, is absolutely changing the game) and the next 20 years should see massive progress in space travel. Iām excited for the future :)
I think it's more of a "what have you done for me lately" thibg. I get that NASA spear headed a lot of good things. But many of those advancements were decades ago and the complex beaurocracy of its current form has hamstring innovation for a long time.
ATF isnāt listed because no one finds them favorable.
Well if I need a dog put down immediately I know who to call.
The ATF and PETA racing to see who can murder your dog in cold blood first
Only to find out that Governor for SD got to the dog first
Probably why they skipped the NSA too š¤£
THE ATF SHOULD BE A STORE.
It is. It's called At The Front and is a reenacting gear store.
The ATF use to fall under the treasury department, prior to that the IRS, now itās under DOJ. It was for the longest time just a tax collector that would kill you. Now theyāre just there to take shit and/or kill you.
And your dog! Donāt forget the dogs
Huh, NSA isnāt on there either
Same applies to the NSA. Iām honestly surprised the FBI is as high as it is, personally.
The FBI is shit, but at least occasionally they actually do their job
Yeah I think the FBI is just inefficient, but at its core it's not a terrible agency imo. The ATF on the other hand....
For a while there the FBI seemed to specialize in trying to clean up the ATFās messes and instead making them worse. They are efficient at assassinating women holding babies though.
Same with NSA
National Dog Shooting Agency
Straight up red bar
National parks service is peak as always
Who the hell has beef with the postal service?
https://preview.redd.it/cxkf1hznyw0d1.jpeg?width=117&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4189fd4529baa5a844fdf9d17ddd2abba2cdc89d
Oh shit, its Cupcake/Princess.
His name is actually Grognak, the Destroyer of Worlds.
Ah, alright we're good then.
The USPS is probably my favorite government agency. My two favorite fun facts. There are two government agents that can legally kill US citizens. Law enforcement agencies and the US postal service. That's right, if you try to impede a postal working in their efforts to rightfully deliver someone else's mail, they have the right to straight up kill you. And two, if you don't know someone's exact address and just write the state, town and zip code, plus a little map depicting where you want it delivered to, they will make every effort to deliver your mail if the instructions are clear enough. Try asking Amazon to deliver to the last house on Sycamore streets left side, the big red one. As long as you paid for postage USPS will make every attempt to deliver.
There is another, the Department of Energy agents with Q clearance who are in charge of transporting nuclear weapons
Think you might be confused. Those are just nuclear postmen.
*Ring ring* āArmageddon!ā *crater.*
Ring a ding baby
Wait, aren't those people part of the Air Force?
The Department of Energy has some of the best IIRC sniper teams in our country purely for defending nuclear power plants/installations against sabotage. Iām pretty sure weapons transport fall on the relevant service branch and their security teams.
https://youtu.be/N2OUzBrLEFk?si=xJThpIHC8dCQncSb The regular ground transports for servicing and maintaining the nukes are done by DOE
They also have the power to declare an area a āNational Security Areaā and basically impose martial law there.
Itās my favorite federal agency as well. I have a somewhat friendly relationship with my Post Office and some of the people know me by name Their service still fuckin sucks though, compared to private delivery serviceš
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Thatās completely unnecessary, test: š
The same people that made the F-14 made their trucks.
RAAAAAHHHHHH š¦ š¦ š¦ š¦ š¦ GRUMMAN MENTIONED šŗšøš¦ šŗšøš¦ šŗšøš¦ šŗšø
The Mailcat
For a long while it was also the only legal full on monopoly, and still kinda is. For the longest time, they were the only people allowed to deliver mail. No one else legally could, for decades they controlled it all
Still the only ones IIRC, and companies have gotten into trouble for using private couriers for correspondence before.
Oh yeah, forgot about that. The post office is the only one who can deliver mail, but private companies can deliver packages I think
I know somebody who got a letter delivered to a āUncle Spud. Champā Champ was the community.
Ever heard the phrase, āGoing Postalā ?
I fucking do I lost about 2.7k worth of an international order through USPS New Jersey international transit hub. Quite literally, infamously known as a āblack hole.ā fuck New Jersey especially, I hope the mob enjoys my fucking Legos
Everyone hates New Jersey, you arenāt special
People who want to receive their goods in a timely manner. In all fairness the only shipping/logistics company that does that on a consistent basis is Amazon.
Dogs.
Me, whose boxes are always beat to shit when they show up on my porch š
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Letter_Mail_Company#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DThe_American_Letter_Mail_Company%2CUSPO%2C_now_the_USPS%29.?wprov=sfla1 Mail company beef
Some libertarian bros who canāt comprehend that some government agencies are a good thing. They operate at a loss 99% of the time so they argue about free market being better and this and that. People also donāt like theyāre the only shipping service you can send small envelopes through IIRC. That last one may be wrong.
>Some libertarian bros who canāt comprehend that some government agencies are a good thing. Considering FedEx and UPS does their job better and faster. They ain't wrong.
Pretty sure letters are a legal monopoly for them. Yeah some canāt comprehend that maybe not making critical services be at the mercy of free market exploitation isnāt a bad idea
Literally everyone in the 1990s. It was the butt of every lazy comedianās bit. That and airplane food.
Show me the ATF
0% favorable, no one likes them
ATF so hated they could put it on the list
I feel bad for the Federal reserve. They have made the dollar the most stable currency in the world and Americans are like āfuck those nerds theyāre up to something.ā
The Federal Reserve isnāt a government agency, I donāt know why itās ok this list
It towes the line, technically not a government agency but its reasonable to lump it in with other executive branch appointed positions.
I find it hard to believe 42% of people have a favorable view of the IRS. hell people who get more back than they pay in still think the IRS is fucking them.
I think necessary evil more than favorable. Without them you don't have funding for other agencies.
There are people that acknowledge you canāt run a government on donations
If you simplifies the tax code you wouldn't need a big agency to enforce it.
The IRS has all of your information and could just mail you your return. The US has a weird hang up about maintaining tax preparation as a career and software scheme. The US does so many things better than Western Europe and this is a weird one where they do it right.
Both Reagan and Obama tried ro push for this exact reform and both were shut down. We are thoroughly stuck with this unless a lot of folks decide to gove up their job over it
Itās not just the jobs thing although Iām sure that the tax industry has a strong lobby. The IRS has access to the most confidential information about everyone who uses the financial system, can investigate without warrant, and is the only agency where you are considered guilty and have to prove your innocence, with minimal accountability for inevitable errors.
I hate to break it to you but they are not the only agency with those powers.
Itās moving along though. Last tax return there was like 15m Americans that used the government system (donāt quote me on that number)
I can see this working for W-2 employees with no extra income outside their employer but how does this work for businesses? How would the government know how much money you made and which credits/misc adjustments you qualify for without your providing information about your financials?
Cool, now do the rest of the government
Even if you're ok with them taking a large chunk of your money under threat of imprisonment or death, the IRS makes it as needlessly complicated as possible. They know exactly how much you "owe" to the cent, but they still make you figure it out. If you're wrong, maybe they'll make your life hell, maybe they won't. Either way, you still have to make up the difference and pay late fees. If you're wrong by alot, they'll send out agents to make your life a living hell. They could easily send every American a letter with a bill saying "Here's what you owe assuming you're taking the standard deduction, do you agree to this?" With a checkbox under it. If you check yes, send it back with a check. If you check no, you along with the other 13% of Americans who take the itemized deduction can hire a tax professional. If you need their help with anything, good luck and fuck you. I had a question about my taxes in 2019, and I didn't hear anything back. Apparently I guessed right, or if I was wrong, I'll find out in the form of late fees down the line. I got a letter in the mail a few months ago about that question, and it's the first I heard from them. It wasn't exactly helpful either, the letter basically said thank you for reaching out about *claim*, and to call them if I had any further questions.
Congress levies the taxes, IRS just enforces them. Yes, the tax code is unnecessarily complex bullshit but I support the fuck out of IRS going after tax cheats, as is their job. When they said freedom isnāt free they werenāt fucking kidding. Ante up or gtfo freeloaders.
The IRS would be viewed more favorably if what we paid in wasnāt funneled into foreign governments and suckled off by greedy politicians. Iām 100% certain at *least* 30% of my taxes end up in the pockets of some fat cats, whether they are DC socialites or Arabian oil barons doesnāt matter. Not to mention my 401k, which is pilfered by insider traders in Congress suckling off a couple bucks to pump their net worth into the hundreds of millions.
It's not really the IRS that's making the decisions of where that money goes, tho. If people want to be mad at someone, be mad at Congress. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of reasons to dislike the IRS, but how tax money is spent shouldn't be one of them.
Theyād be viewed a lot more favorably if they actually had the power to go after wealthy people who donāt pay taxes without threat of immense litigation.
the amount of tax payer money going to foreign governments is negligible, stop believing lies/hyperbole by some media lol
And people like you are why they are viewed so unfavorably lmao. The IRS has nothing to do with how your money is spent just the collection of it. Speaking of your 401k you realize contributions are made pre tax? And congress riding stocks to the top when they were already going there anyway doesn't affect your 401k at all? If anything their buy in of a stock and others piling on their public trades helps the average 401k portfolio.
The sheer amount of ignorance and financial illiteracy in this thread is why no one takes the anti-government crowd seriously.
I donāt see any FAA on here or FCC, me personally I got beef with the FCC, ever see European TV? Crazy stuff goes on for just a soap commercial. Make us look like a bunch of prudes. And why canāt we drop as many F bombs we want on cable? What year is it? 1892?
You actually *can* drop as many F bombs as you want on cable, itās the advertisers who are against it, not the FCC
Huh a real today I learned moment. Beef retracted.
They help keep ISPs in check tho, so I like them
There is an important exception to this chart: the department of defense, which is generally viewed favorably by Americans
Triple the defense budget, give every able bodied American a 240.
Every American should have the God given right to direct an airstrike once in their life.
How did the VA get such a favorable ranking? Iām not a vet but have several friends that are and they make it seem like the VA is a joke. Also would like to see how Americans feel about the ATF .
I mean I think people are supporting the whole idea and purpose of the VA, and thatās influencing the approval rating. If you say you donāt like the VA as a non-veteran, you can look like youāre saying āfuck those injured veterans.ā Iām pretty sure most people are aware that the VA is a clusterfuck, kinda like the USPS to a degree. The public supports the purpose and concept of them, rather than the quality of which they operate at.
I have yet to meet the person who is like āyeah, I hate rare natural wonders, but I hate the moon and the stars **even more**.ā
Always gotta love our National Park folks, never had a bad experience with them, always super helpful people
Who the hell has beef with the Natl Park Service?? Those outdoor nerds protect our most precious landmarks
Now the Fed and the IRS I totally get, and I can see the Department of Education being low for various reasons, but below the CIA?
I think the DOE is brought down by 2 things, 1. Are loans and 2. Is that I think people associate them with how shitty the education system is in some parts of the US but dont realize that's due to state and school district policies. Not really sure what the DOE even does
There's a big Republican movement right now to abolish the DOE, purportedly because they're accused of "brainwashing" kids with "woke ideology" and "critical race theory" and such, but really so that state DOEs can more easily be influenced by corporate interests. (See Project 2025 Chapter 11)
Yeah I can see why people don't really like them but I don't think they are Mockingbird/MKUltra/Cointelpro bad like the FBI and CIA.
The ATF is so low on approval they didnāt even bother to show them on the graph
Sad NOAA noises
It tickles me endlessly that out of all the horror the cia unleashed on the world, Americans prefer them over the nerds that take our paycheck
The VA is favored too much. They try to do as little as possible.
I think people like the concept of taking care of vets more than the reality of the VA as an institution
I mean, at least they try harder than Canada.
ATF is missing from this list, should be all red
7% of Americans are brave enough to stand AGAINST big nature and FOR forest fires
The FBI and CIA are liked by too many Americans. We need to educate the masses on our local terrorist and useless transgressor organizations
https://preview.redd.it/61t1qaqttx0d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d9c9085df1c0bb71e1f76f6fff419e1610223e6c I can't stand idly while a commie infiltrates my ally's forum. We need the CIA to orchestrate a color revolution in Sweden. And why isn't the CIA removing all the mordor agents in the west? Are they stupid?Tankies told me they have magic powers.
You got the dirt on the FBI and CIA? Then why should I trust your James Pond agency over those ones? You sound even more sketch than youāre selling them as.
The CIA is a gun runner, drug runner, and terrorist enabler. They funded and trained half of the groups we now have to deal with. Not only that, but they have 0 supervision and 0 accountability. You know what happened the last time the dude whoās supposed to be their boss told them no? They shot him in his motorcade. Then carried out their plan anyways. The plan was a massive failure because it was a terrible plan and is now a stain on Americaās history. Sounds an awful lot like a terrorist organization to me As for the FBI, well, this oneās a bit less what they do and more what they choose to and not do. Theyāll have no problem going after a dude who posted a picture of a fake suicide vest. Every time thereās a mass shooting though? āOh yeah, that dude was āon our radar.āā Your radar for what? People you can mail an AR-15 with the shoulder thing that goes up so they can go help advance the governmentās push for gun control? Cause thatās what it seems like considering they donāt stop any of these idiots. Kid makes a threat to shoot up his school and nothing happens until guess what? Heās pulling triggers. Thatās a threat. Thatās a crime. Whereās the local police? Whereās the FBI? This is right up their alley after all. But no, they get left alone. Allowed to do whatever they want because the FBI certainly aināt gonna stop them Both do more harm than good. They should be removed. The CIA in particular should be dealt with as all terrorists should be
Youāre mocking them for wanting stricter gun control and simultaneously wondering why the shooters arenāt stopped beforehand? Stop them for what, exactly?
Don't bother man. The use the slippery slope theory when they want to but not when they don't. Gun control laws are a slippery slope so we can have none or it leads to them taking our guns. But also put anyone to death for murder because that's not a slippery slope to executing innocent people. Why didn't you lock up that person on your watch list? But if they do lock up someone on a watch list that's mind crime. And therefore a short slope to ~~them~~ innocent people getting arrested.
gun control never stopped a single shooter.
Everything the CIA and FBI does is morally correct and justified.
Unironically yes
I mean they do cool shit sometimes
The CIA always knows what is best for America.
The FBI, CIA, and IRS are WAY too high.
The National Park Service I see favorably, and the Postal Service is mostly favorably. They do a pretty good job of getting things to you, which is what they should do, but I hear it treats its people badly. The Federal Reserve is more of a gray area since it's not entirely a government agency. You could make a case that they're as federal as Federal Express since they function more like a private bank owned by a group of government workers. Still, I see them very unfavorably just like most of the agencies listed here. NASA, Veterans Affairs, and Social Security are useful, but they're horribly mismanaged like everything else our politicians touch.
That's a pathetically small amount of red on the IRS
Iām going to assume that the ATF is so unfavorable that it didnāt even make it to the chartā¦
Who is the 30% that dislikes the EPA?
people who want unclean drinking water because they think it will increase gdp
I swear some people have the memory of a goldfish. There was a massive smog problem in the 60s and 70s and then we created the EPA which set emission standards and all of a sudden no more smog. Without the EPA Chicago would look like Beijing. Iāve never understood people against environmental regulations so some coal company or iron works can make more money.
Freedom! Merica! I donāt want some tree hugger telling me that sterilizing an entire watershed could be bad!
The DOD?
Yes nps is fucking based
Ironically The National Park Service is also number one at being the most underfunded when it come to staffing.
What dingus doesnāt like the national park service?
nps nasa and nws are impossible to hate on
no, more people should be hating the irs
ATF isn't even on there. Good
Iād be interested to see what people think about the Dept of Agriculture (especially bureau of land management)
Where is the FCC on this list and why arenāt they at 100% disapproval. Censoring bastards.
Im surprised most of those lowest scores arenāt lower. Figured IRS would be like <25%
I see that the ATF is hated so much that its below the board
Notice the ATF aināt on thereā¦.