Tick Tock Sheptock

The last 19 months (beginning in June 2015) should have taught anyone who pays attention to the doings of government (which, sadly, is not everyone) that America is becoming more openly fascist, that the U.S. is a failing democracy (or, worse yet, a failing state), that the GOP is trying to implement a passive form of euthanasia and that various social services at all levels of government are designed to fail. Knowing these things should cause any person of conscience to swing into action -- which I'm proud to say some people have already begun to do   As the least popular president-elect in recent history was inaugurated, many people around the world protested -- some quite vehemently. The very next day, at least a half million people -- mostly women -- protested his treatment of women and vowed to keep the fight alive. Though the attendees of the Women's March didn't seem to coalesce around a shared goal of preventing the implementation of fascism in the U.S., they we...

Now that Donald Trump is occupying the White House (as our first "non-president"), many people have taken to expressing their fears on social media. Others, like myself, want to understand what types of damage he'll do and to see what we can do in the way of a "pre-emptive strike" -- like those that Bush 43 initiated against Saddam Hussein in a "buridiotic" war to stop him from using the WMD's that he didn't have in the first place. Though it might seem to be an impossible feat, I've been able to find a method to Trump's madness. In short, he's the "developer/mayor-in-chief". He seems to support the fascistic policies that have become all too common among local governments in the "Untied" States and he'll use the federal government to enforce them and bring about more of the same. Imagine a mayor and a developer working together to operate a tank and you've got the Donald. For some years now, various A...

The following is a testimony that I, Eric Jonathan Sheptock, plan to read at multiple hearings during the budget season for FY18. Dear Chairperson, In late 2012 I was one of several people who met with Chapman Todd to discuss the future of the then-1,350-bed CCNV Shelter. On January 13th, 2013 I sent a FOIA request to the feds in order to obtain information about the property transfer from the feds and the accompanying covenant. That led to the 6/27/13 CCNV hearing and a nine-month long task force from October 2013 to July 2014. Other advocates were part of the effort and dozens of well-paid city officials as well as non-profit employees attended the many task force meetings. In July 2014 the DC Council (which Muriel Bowser was part of) passed a law that set forth the 17 guiding principles that a mayor would have to adhere to if he or she were to close the current site of the CCNV/Federal City Shelter. Congress passed it in December 2014. This law, while it ALLOWS the sittin...