Monday, January 21st, 2019
Stephan: The current crisis manufactured by Trump and Mitch McConnell could be ended in a single afternoon. McConnell could bring any of the House passed funding bills to a vote in the Senate and, if Trump wouldn't sign it, his veto could be overridden. Or Trump could just deal with facts and negotiate with the Democrats.
That this is not happening is a measure of the contempt in which the Republican Party and its leadership hold you. Can't pay your mortgage? Boo Hoo. Can't feed your kids? Pass my Big Mac, Mitch. Your baby is dying because you can't afford her meds? Tough, there are too many little Black babies as it is.
I told a friend and fellow researcher tonight that I am experiencing a kind of existential disorientation because although my day to day existence goes along, in a larger sense I don't recognize or understand the country I live in. About a third of us seems to have captured the other two-thirds and taken us into a parallel reality that I loathe, led by people I despise.
I have been saying for months that they only way this is going to change before 2020, and by then it may be too late, is if millions of us act on our feelings. Apparently, I am not alone in thinking this. Are you up for it?
Protestors in front of Trump Tower in New York
In the nation’s capital and across the country food pantries and soup kitchens are making special efforts to help feed the hundreds of thousands of Federal workers that have not been paid for a month in a shutdown instigated by Donald Trump that he threatened might last “months even years” if he does not get $5.7 billion to build a wall on our border with Mexico.
On Saturday, for the second time in two weeks, Trump took to the airwaves and cast himself as the spaghetti-western protector-in-chief of a nation whose very existence was imperiled by a massive marauding migration of criminals from the south. He feigned an offer of compromise but he continued to insist that the only way to secure our border was with a multi-billion dollar “powerful see-through steel barrier.”
He slipped into that Clint Eastwood “Dirty Harry” persona of his that you could imagine him assuming just before he took aim and shot someone […]
I agree with you Stephan that a strike is next reasonable step. Another step I have thought of is a “win” for trumpy. A pyrrhic victory that the Dems could with good reason say that because of the suffering and chaos caused by himself we give you your wall. It really would put country before party and end the shutdown and send a clear message. Chaos, confrontation and gratuitous cruelty are the hallmarks of these Trumpian times.
Problem is,,, if Dems give in for the sake of real time American people with families.
It will set a precedent for him to do it again, and again, and again.
I forgot momentarily, exactly what that kind of country leader is called, because my mind is in the same quasi – funk Stephan Schwartz mind is in.
The freaking Twilight Zone Reality.
The key word everyone missed was,
“Make” America great again.
That must have got mixed up with the Burger King slogan somehow.
Which by the way, 800,000+ aren’t eating.
Jade,
You have a point there!
We feel powerless
against this kind of insanity, where people are suffering while we watch.
I REFUSE TO WATCH!
Instead, I will offer free services in my profession, to any federal worker, or family member, suffering without pay, because of Trump’s Trantrum!
It’s the least I can do for “the people” living in my country.
(Free Service offer; does not include processed, free radical ladened, fried, fast food)
From the Bastille to the Yellow Jackets the French have proven that the Will of the people can “steer” a necessary change. This article, along with the untiring research Stephen has put before us, should motivate every American to take action to stop the spiraling fall of this country – and if not now after this long and painful shutdown, and all the other insanities from the passed two years – then when?
It’s an absolute anathema to me that a comparatively SMALL group of predominantly white self serving men can create such havoc (also with Brexit) while MILLIONS of people suffer and standby feeling helpless and frustrated. It’s also about time that we seriously consider placing several hundred names (corporate execs, etc) on a list to be charged with crimes against humanity.
Should any further motivation be needed, reading the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence should give everyone the authority to say ENOUGH is ENOUGH and take ACTION to prove to the world how “great” America truly is by remembering it’s promise and potential.
How can we get a national movement publicized and started as individual marches, strikes, etc., don’t make much of a difference nowadays when in isolation??
I see my proposal has been voted down. Okay let me expand on why a “surrender” if played well turns into a win for us all.
Jade has proposed a major pushback that “ENOUGH is ENOUGH and take ACTION to prove to the world how “great” America truly is by remembering it’s promise and potential.” I agree with her on this and there is a part me that wants to take back in what ever way my country from the radical corporatist a-holes. Thing is I’m an old guy who has come to realize that I don’t have the energy to hit the streets and still maintain a job. Also over the years I have come to see the seductive nature of “being right”. Which easily grows into righteousness and then you find other righteous people and develop a movement. A movement without mature wise leadership becomes MAGA or dies away like occupy wall street. Yet anger at gross unfairness can bring necessary change.
The reason for proposing agreement with trump is to provide a change of relationship with opposing forces. In the way that in hand-to-hand combat one would step aside allowing the unskilled attacker to fall on his face. This is less satisfying than smashing his face but more effective. So let trumpy have his win. I argue the wall will never be built, added to but not completed ever. Many legislative and administrative steps from one thing to the other and then 2020. It could be seen and would be a life affirming action for the people over the inflated ego of himself.
Believe me when I say I hate what is happening and want to be done with trump and the whole crowd. This pattern of madness is showing up in several countries it seems to be a wave that is moving through the human species-enlightenment or death. Is the dark gift of trump renewal or unstoppable decent into chaos…red pill or blue?