President Donald Trump has thrown down the gauntlet, that he will NOT sign any bill to fund the government, unless $5 billion is added to the budget for his planned Mexico Wall.
This is a massive waste of money, and the Democrats have made it clear they will NEVER agree to this.
Meanwhile, what has Donald Trump wrought, with two weeks and counting of this endless federal government shutdown?
800,000 federal workers will not be paid in the interim, despite their having rent and mortgage payments, health care insurance premiums, food and other basic needs to meet.
About half of this group of federal workers must report to work despite no pay, and the other half are furloughed, and may never get paid for what they have lost in work days.
Contract workers who do not work for the federal government, and vendors who service federal institutions, have no work or pay, and will not get recompensed for their loss of income, putting many already impoverished into a disastrous situation, which could lead to expulsion from their housing, and inability to afford food, medicine, health care, utilities and credit payments.
Federal facilities,including national parks and monuments, and such locations as the Smithsonian Institution museums, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, and so many other agencies are shut down and deny basic services to Americans, and will cause the loss of tourism and planned vacations and school trips for many Americans.
Garbage, basic cleaning of restroom facilities, and protection of the basic environment is set back by the shutdown.
Indian reservations will be harmed in a dramatic way, and poor people and sick people and the elderly and disabled will be harmed as the shutdown continues. One can be sure some people will lose job interviews and opportunities, and some lives will be lost as the shutdown continues.
The national economy will be harmed as economic output declines, and it will undermine our defenses as well, as many military people in the Coast Guard and other military locations are put under the restrictions of the government shutdown, and this includes the TSA, the Immigration and Custsoms Enforcement agencies, border guards, and even federal courts which will be held up in pursuit of justice, including investigation of the Trump scandals.
Does Donald Trump give a whit about any of this? The answer is NO, as he is a totally self centered, selfish, mean spirited, ego maniac with authoritarian tendencies, and he is holding the government hostage until and when the Republican Party puts the nation ahead of themselves, which might never happen.
So the constitutional crisis is accelerated, and yet, the question is what is the ultimate way out of this mess, without caving in to Trump, emboldening him, and wasting money on a wall that undermines our reputation and image, and will not resolve the issue of drugs or undocumented immigration. Only modern technology and drones can do that.
D, if you’re reading this, this news conference today shows why he is considered unhinged, incoherent, oblivious, and dangerous.
It shows that Trump is detached from reality, that Trump has not grasp on policy, that Trump doesn’t care about optics, it shows Trump’s authoritarian tendencies
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/4/18168860/trump-news-conference-shutdown
Pragmatic Progressive, why bring D’s name up, as he certainly understands the threat that Donald Trump represents?
I do not understand why you mentioned him, as if he is a Trump supporter, which he is NOT!
I do not want personal attacks on the blog by anyone against any contributor, so please stop this!
Thank you!
From what D has said in previous conversations via articles and pundits he or she reads and listens to, I and my family get the sense that he or she isn’t taking the threat of Trump seriously.
Hmm, food for thought, and I will ask D to respond, as that has not been my impression, Pragmatic Progressive.
Thanks!
We’ve encountered people like him or her on many other liberal and progressive blogs.
Some of them have been Jill Stein supporters. Others have been supporters of Bernie.
They are supportive of Wikileaks and Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.
They hate mainstream news and listen to online sources of news.
Some have even mentioned Al Jazeera English and Russia Today America, as being better sources of news than our US media, which I find rather appalling.
The frequent message of the online news programs they listen to is that “Democrats are the same as Republicans and that the Democratic party sucks”.
We’ve seen them making comments on message boards such as “the Democratic Party is the party of “Fake Progressivesâ€.
I’ve been a Democrat since I was a teenager in the ’60s and have never heard such talk like that before from liberals and progressives amongst my circle of family and friends!
Princess Leia, in what you have stated here, I am in complete unison and agreement..
However, I will leave it to D to speak for himself, and I wish to make no enemies, and I hope you understand that.
I treasure all of you!
I will be responding to more than one person.
First, I will address a quote by Pragmatic Progressive:
“From what D has said in previous conversations via articles and pundits he or she reads and listens to, I and my family get the sense that he or she isn’t taking the threat of Trump seriously.â€
I took Donald Trump seriously during the primaries.
My father, who is 86 (and turns 87 in May), and to whom I am close, was sensing—from his reaction to those Republican debates (kicked off during 2015)—that Trump could very well win and become (at that time) the next [45th] president of the United States.
That 2016 presidential election’s No. 1 issue was income inequality. That is class. A class system of the working poor. Roughly 50 percent of the nation’s workers earning $30,000 or less per year. (Link: http://washingtonsblog.com/2015/10/goodbye-middle-class-51-percent-of-all-american-workers-make-less-than-30000-dollars-a-year.html .)
One really good way to understand the 2016 United States presidential election is this: The 2016 Republican presidential primaries voters voted the nomination to the candidate they need to nominate [Donald Trump]. The 2016 Democratic presidential primaries voters—for however much of it you believe was legit (rigging of the primaries)—did the opposite [official nominee Hillary Clinton].
An example of taking Trump seriously, and why I think he is a threat, is the tax plan. (Link: http://assets.donaldjtrump.com/trump-tax-reform.pdf .) This part is especially a disaster: “No business of any size, from a Fortune 500 to a mom and pop shop to a freelancer living job to job, will pay more than 15% of their business income in taxes. This lower rate makes corporate inversions unnecessary by making America’s tax rate one of the best in the world.â€
Do I think Trump doesn’t know policy (in that regard)? No. He knows what he is doing. This is intentional. Just as Barack Obama having delivered an Affordable Care Act bill (no safety measure for people against the insurance companies being able to continue putting the screws to them financially), Trump brought this tax reform policy to further enrich those businesses even while that would not bring in sufficient federal dollars. He deliberately undertaxed them.
Also damaging from the Trump presidency is the FCC overturning Net Neutrality. This is an issue which impacts everyone who uses the Internet. This wasn’t covered on MSNBC, most likely, because it is owned by Comcast, one of the leaders which pushed for eliminating Net Neutrality. Ajit Pai was FCC chairman while Obama was U.S. president. Pai was reconfirmed, in 2017, to that position. (Link: http://variety.com/2017/politics/news/ajit-pai-fcc-senate-confirmation-1202578265/#! .) This was achieved with the help of the following Democratic U.S. Senators: Michigan’s Gary Peters, Montana’s Jon Tester, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, and Missouri’s Claire McCaskill, who was unseated last November and is no longer in Congress.
I take Trump seriously.
I am more focused on the Democratic Party, which is supposed to be the opposition party, for how it operates.
I think that D has well defended his credentials as a legitimate progressive, and one who is concerned about the future of the Democratic party.
Let us all stop looking for reasons to attack, and let’s unite together in the best way possible to overcome the Republican cancer in government!
Differences on specific issues or strategies is part of our American democratic system of government!
Places they congregate and get their news from are places that often feature criticism of the party, such as AlterNet, Common Dreams, Young Turks videos on YouTube, Democracy Now, etc. Spend some time browsing through comments sections of places like that and you’ll see how they talk.
Oh, Princess Leia, I totally agree that many of these sites are extremist and negative oriented, and I also agree that to attack mainstream media, as some of them often do, is counterproductive.
I am just saying let us not make this site a battleground that divides us, and instead, have it as a place of civil discourse, even when there are disagreements.
What we learned about Trump during the primaries from the pundits we listen to is that he’s a con man. He doesn’t care about the poor. All he cares about is himself and he’s using the power of the presidency to enrich himself.
Another thing we learned is that he’s a bigot and that he’s a misogynist and it shows in how he treats women and how he talks about immigrants.
And that’s in addition to his mental instability. That’s the part that scares us the most.
One hundred percent in agreement, Princess Leia, but I must say I KNEW all of this about Trump long ago, and it is not the primaries, election, or administration that has taught me the evil, the cancer, that Trump represents.
It amazes me how millions are so lacking in ethics, morality, and conscience, that they only care about their own personal lives, and have no social concern, and it sickens me!
Lawrence’s criticism of the media is that they didn’t vet Trump. They didn’t call out his lies and gave him softball questions.
That is true, Princess Leia, particularly Morning Joe on MSNBC and a lot of commentators on CNN!
Trump voters we know are staunch Republicans, not well educated, have made racist comments, are Fox News watchers.
I will now address (emphasis in the quote is mine) what was written by Princess Leia:
“We’ve encountered people like him or her [D] on many other liberal and progressive blogs. | Some of them have been Jill Stein supporters. Others have been supporters of Bernie. | They are supportive of Wikileaks and Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. | They hate mainstream news and listen to online sources of news. | Some have even mentioned Al Jazeera English and Russia Today America, as being better sources of news than our US media, which I find rather appalling.
The frequent message of the online news programs they listen to is that ‘Democrats are the same as Republicans and that the Democratic party sucks’. | We’ve seen them making comments on message boards such as ‘the Democratic Party is the party of [Fake Progressives].’ | I’ve been a Democrat since I was a teenager in the ’60s and have never heard such talk like that before from liberals and progressives amongst my circle of family and friends!â€
Has it occurred to you, Princess Leia, that you are old?
I am asking in the context of “old†as being a person who has become out of touch, and/or is unable to relate, to at least one specific part of a topic to which a person is generally interested and engaged?
I like music. And I became old. I am 47 years old. I stopped keeping track of the music industry, to follow the latest artists, more than ten years ago. I used to watch the Grammys, buy that annual CD featuring the nominees for, say, top categories Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year (awarded to the composer; typically numerous Record of the Year nominees get corresponding Song of the Year nominations). I liked so much of the music that came before—obviously much of what I grew up with. (My favorite from the 1980s: Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do with It,†the winner for Record of the Year and Song of the Year for 1984, a very personal and memorable year for me.)
I lost touch—make that “interestâ€â€”with what was up in the music industry more than ten years ago. I bought one album by Pharrell Williams (“Girl,†which has on it his Oscar-nominated “Happyâ€) and one by Adele (her 2011 Album of the Year Grammy winner “21,†which included Record and Song of the Year “Rolling in the Deepâ€), and little else since after the decade of the 2000s. I find myself listening to music from [my] period—the 1970s and 1980s (I am subscribed to Sirius XM)—because of particular songs and artists for which I am in a mood. (My favorite singer is the illuminating Chaka Khan. And I have always loved guitarist and singer George Benson. In 2018, Khan turned 65; Benson turned 75.)
I think this also spills into politics. There used to be more in music which included politics. (Losing Prince, who did have political insight, in 2016 was bad. He was a great writer. He has this one song about the two-party system being a charade.) By musicians—singers and/or songwriters; artists—who had something to say. Something to say about life. Something to say about what was current. That included the politics of a given time. One of the best songs appears in the below video. It is still timely.
What is happening, with the elections of Trump, from 2016, and Obama, from 2008, is realignment. Where the politics is at. Where the politics is heading. It isn’t just the United States. It is happening outside as well, obviously including the United Kingdom.
Realignments aren’t merely critical elections. They include realignments in life. The lives of the people. The people of the United States. And people respond. Here in the United States, the political parties respond because they have to; that is, if they want to continue to exist. But, for those who don’t respond timely— and correctly (which is key to why I oppose Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi; Democratic party “leaders†in Congress who oppose Medicare for All while 70 percent of the country, 52 percent of Republicans, and 85 percent of the Democrats, support it)—they can end up getting reduced to becoming obstructionists. They go on to make attempts to block change from happening. Change that will happen.
This is why you have a lot of people, normally ones who the Democrats should have no problem winning their support, say the party, in its current form, and how it currently operates, sucks. They recognize it is not only the “Democratic Partyâ€; it is about who—the faction; the specific people in charge at different levels—and what is failing them. And they suspect some, perhaps much or even most, of it is deliberate. That is why many of them see no meaningful difference between the U.S.’s two major political parties. They recognize this. They observe this. And they’re saying so. (There are a lot of people now, who normally prefer the Democrats, who don’t feel like Democrats. And, frankly, same goes on the Republican side; but different reasons. That gets into another possible area of the topic on realignment.) This isn’t saying whether this will last. But, it can last for some time. Then again—it can be a lasting change. A realignment—like a change in voting pattern—lasts for some time. At the rate the establishment Democrats are currently going—they are helping, not hurting, Donald Trump.
I am opposed to neoliberalism now because of the damage it has done (like with NAFTA) to people, economically, and that neoliberalism is in bed with neoconservatism for Wall Street and pushing for a military industrial complex that includes even more wars. And neoliberalism does this while neglecting, willfully, the people and their needs. (This is certainly the situation in the United Kingdom and why Theresa May, and her party, is a failure.)
What you have pointed out, Princess Leia, about these differences you have observed about people not seeing things as you do—and they referring to different sources (you reject)—is because, most likely, their lives are very different. And very bad. They’re not on your page when it comes to politics as you are not on theirs. I don’t want to ask you personal questions like your income. But, I too have encountered people who seem quite like you. They, too, are in your age group. (You mentioned you were a teenager during the 1960s.) Do you think or imagine someone who is in the age group 18 to 29—the first carried in elections by Democrats; people born between the years 1989 and 2000; ones who are now in the early period of their adults lives—have an economic (and a personal) reality that is like yours? Is your reality, in those respects, like theirs? Do people from these opposite-ends age groups—those 18 to 29; those 65+—have lives which relate to each other’s economically and personally? The impression lots of 18 to 29 voters have of people 65+ is that they are set and are not struggling economically. (Some of that isn’t true. Social Security incomes should be much higher.) So, why would it be easy for these opposite ends to relate? They don’t. But, still….
Politics are changing.
The two most influential 20th-century U.S. Presidents were Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Meaning, they came through with at least one groundbreaking policy change to the United States that, to this day, is lasting. With FDR, it was Social Security. With Reagan, it was the tax cuts (reform). This influenced the politics. Going forward. Even now. The current Democratic Party establishment, those for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primaries (and who are opposed to Bernie Sanders), are in line with Reagan. Those for Bernie Sanders, and who are opposed Hillary Clinton and the establishment, are in line with FDR.
The Democratic Party—the establishment (the specific people in charge at different levels)—does not want to change. They don’t want to change their overall philosophy. They don’t want to change how they operate. And they intend to not do that. What, historically, happens to those who refuse to change when change will come anyway?
* * * * *
D, thanks for expressing your opinions and perspective.
I will not comment on it, except to say it is well stated, and leave it to others to comment further.
Again, I wish to promote dialogue without overt criticism.
Thanks, everyone!
Pragmatic. Rational Lefty, Southern Liberal and I are women. Women and people if color are the people most against Trump. He represents backwards social change to them.
In my previous post, that should be “of” instead of “if”.
Anyway –
Voting data shows that the people who support Trump the most are white males. They don’t have to worry about certain social issues being stripped away from them by Trump and the Republicans like women and people of color do.
Addressing economic class issues, income inequality, labor issues, etc. benefits everyone. HOWEVER, it does nothing to help the most behind catch up. It is true that their lives would be better, but they would still be far behind those who never had to fight for their rights based on race, gender, etc.
Calling Hillary or Obama “basically a Republican” isn’t about thinking they’re not liberal enough. It’s about deliberately ignoring what the actual Republican party has become–a haven for racists, sexists, homophobes, and anti-semites.
Very true, Rational Lefty. That’s why I don’t like them doing so.
Exactly right, Leia. Trump’s supporters saw their white patriarchal view of the world threatened.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2015/12/18/a-world-view-in-its-death-throes/
The ladies here are right. The fact is, numerous studies have been done showing that the election of Trump had much less to do with economic anxiety or distress and much more to do with cultural anxiety and racial resentment.
https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/16781222/trump-racism-economic-anxiety-study
Thanks for that Rustbelt. This nails it:
As a presidential candidate, Trump made all sorts of racist comments — suggesting that Mexican immigrants are criminals and rapists, proposing a ban on all Muslims entering the US, saying a US judge should recuse himself from a case simply because of his Mexican heritage, and deploying dog whistles about “law and order.â€
As president, Trump equated a group of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and white nationalists who descended onto Charlottesville, Virginia, with the anti-racism protesters who stood against bigotry. His administration has also pursued policies that will disproportionately hurt minority groups, including his travel ban, immigration restrictions, “tough on crime†policies, and potential voting restrictions.
The studies suggest that these kinds of comments and actions are not just incidental to Trump; they are at the core of his political success. If Democrats want to defeat him, they will need to overcome that racial resentment.
The latest thing Trump has done that is very concerning is to repeat Putin’s talking points about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/04/once-again-president-trump-is-repeating-talking-points-moscow/?utm_term=.1b8c4f1345a1
The Need To Impeach guy lists several reasons why Trump needs to be impeached. The longer Trump stays in there, the more that list will grow.
https://www.needtoimpeach.com/impeachable-offenses/
When it comes to Medicare for All, the concern that people have is money questions, such as how’s the program is going to be financed, etc. Huffington Post brings up several good questions about it.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/medicare-for-all-bernie-sanders-democrats_us_5c2cf914e4b05c88b70514b5
Vox does a good job of explaining about the Green New Deal.
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/12/21/18144138/green-new-deal-alexandria-ocasio-cortez
Excellent question about Trump and Russia: https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/01/07/if-trump-is-not-a-russian-asset-what-explains-his-behavior/
Knowing what we’ve learned so far, I second the opinion of one of the commenters: Trump to Putin is much like Saruman to Sauron in the Lord of the Rings.
“President” Chaos is having a prime time speech tomorrow night to lie about his border wall.
Pelosi and Schumer have been chosen to debunk Trump’s lies tonight.
More evidence of collusion:
Manafort shared polling data with a Russian spy.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/08/politics/manafort-russia-court-deadline/index.html
We all know who the real crooked candidate was and it definitely wasn’t HRC!
In regards to the Democratic primaries. There is no evidence that the primaries were rigged. Despite the fact that Sanders’ supporters were more vocal in some areas, he had very little support among older people, non-whites, and women. He also did very poorly in the South, Mid-Atlantic, Southwest. He only did well in New England, the Mid-West, and the Pacific Northwest, and among young, white men. The truth is, that he did not have enough support among the Democratic coalition to win the nomination.
More Mueller news: The Russian from the Trump Tower meeting has been indicted.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/08/politics/natalia-veselnitskaya-trump-tower-charged/index.html
Thanks for that Pragmatic.
Trump’s speech tonight was lies and fear.
Lawrence opened his show tonight mentioning that Trump’s campaign is using the Oval Office Address to do fundraising.
Patience is beginning to wear thin among Senate Republicans over this shutdown.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/08/politics/lisa-murkowski-senate-republicans/index.html
Kamala Harris Described What a Healthy Party Looks Like
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/01/10/sen-kamala-harris-described-what-a-healthy-party-looks-like/