Saturday, January 26, 2019

Ann Coulter Admits To Being "A Stupid Girl" To Bill Maher- And Why There Won't Be Another Shutdown In Three Weeks



Incredibly,  harpy and Right extremist bomb thrower Ann Coulter admitted on 'Real Time' in front of millions to being a "very stupid girl".   Well, we knew that already.  Here's how the interview's key segment went.  The White Nationalist Harpy Hag began by telling host Bill Maher how it was “crazy”  that she expected Trump “to keep the promise” to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border that he’d made “every day for 18 months.

Maher:  "You voted for him, Donald Trump, and now you’re finding out he’s a lying conman. What was your first clue?”

Coulter: “OK, I’m a very stupid girl, fine.”

Well, at least she's finally admitted it. And yeah, there are worse things than brainless blonde viragos  who spout xenophobic venom.  There are racist, xenophobic presidents who have no clue how to do the job and mainly seek to inspire fear and hatred.  But Coulter and her devolved ilk are bad enough and emblematic of what's wrong with the Right wing in this country who seek to rule by fear and lies.  Coulter herself last night pumped out the usual bilge, i.e. that illegal immigration is actually favored by the ultra-rich Koch-level Republicans, asserting:

“They want cheap nannies."

Maybe some do but that misses the larger point: That American businesses, from landscaping, to restaurants in need of kitchen help to crabbers (in Maryland), to agricultural operations in California, , are finding that there aren't the American workers to do the jobs needed.  I repeat, the Americans.  Given the Trump cabal has cut immigration quotas, many businesses have been left to chase the labor they need via lotteries. But these seldom deliver the numbers needed to meet demand, so often the businesses - like lobster distributors in Maine, or CA  fruit grower- have to shutter, or let crops rot.  As a result, productivity is lost, and GDP  takes a hit

From another perspective we beheld the federal shutdown of the last 35 days which cost millions of paid-hours in economic activity and still is!  The reason is that very few of the media reported about the lost income of the federal contractors, only the 800,000 core federal employees (IRS agents, TSA screeners, FDA inspectors etc.)   But as Paul C. Light noted (WSJ, 'The Hidden Cost of a Government Shutdown',  December 28, p. A15):  "There are two federal workforces, the contractors and the regular federal workers."   For perspective, these include no fewer than "1.2 million grantees and 4 million full time contractors."   

So even as regular American business activity has contracted on account of not enough immigrant workers to do the jobs needed, so also has there been a massive economic stagnation and contraction arising from millions of federal workers not receiving pay the past month.  This lack of income has directly affected the communities in which they live, from which they purchase groceries, or pay rent or whatever.

Coulter,  earlier in the day yesterday, tweeted that Trump was “the biggest wimp ever to serve” as president, after he agreed to reopen the federal government for three weeks without having convinced Congress to fund the wall.

Let's recall here it was Coulter (along with Rush Limbaugh) who had not only advised  Trump to shut down the government in order to fund his border wall pet project but called him out when he caved Friday.  That cave in to Pelosi and the Dems saw her branding Dotard (her former "god")  “the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States.”  

Even before these latest insults,  Trump either blocked or unfollowed Coulter on Twitter in December 2018 after she called him “gutless.” Many political observers claim Trump believes Coulter represents his base, which she alluded to her in her sit-down with Maher, and that her views can affect his decisions.  (Well, they did in December, after having agreed to a continuing resolution to keep the gov't open, he acceded to the vitriol of Coulter, Limbaugh & Co. and scrapped the deal-- leading to the shutdown.

Obviously, this means the putative leader, the president of this once powerful nation, is a slave boy to Right wing loons. He's prepared to do their bidding -  go over board for them - even shutting the government down for 35 days - to pander to them.

Will it happen again on February 15th?  No way in hell, and even today's WSJ editorial ('After The Shutdown Fiasco',  p. A12) admits:

"Trump's problem is that he is still largely at Ms. Pelosi's mercy.   He said Friday that without the money for his wall he'd shut the government down again in three weeks or declare a national emergency himself.

Trump would be blamed for another shutdown and an emergency declaration would be enjoined by the courts or set a precedent that the next President could exploit to go around the GOP."

In other words, 'game, set, match', Trump and the Trumpers lose. And no, there will be no future round in which they win. Not now, not ever.  Their best bet is to keep the government open, do the work of government and the people- i.e. governing - and cease the terrorist hostage taking, narcissist theatrics and bad faith.  They aren't going to get the better of Nancy Pelosi, who basically schooled these reprobates on the extent of her powers and how they can be skillfully used - especially against a know nothing, bombastic buffoon.

Despite these realities, the Trump nativist xenophobes remain enthralled and obsessed with half-baked notions of retribution and that "it is too early to declare victory".   Actually, it's just the right time.

These nitwits can't seem to process that the debacle their brainiac mutt caused is still a rolling disaster which will take weeks, months to play out, as millions of the federal contractors are still feeling the pain. Unlike the regular 800,000 federal workforce they get no back pay - so they are now (many if not most) in hock up to their eyeballs for utility bills, medical needs as well as rent and mortgage payments.

Will the (sentient, sane) American populace tolerate another shutdown after the spectacle of pain they've beheld in the just concluded one?  Absolutely not. And Trump also knows if he tries it his disapproval numbers will tank even further, to levels unseen even for Nixon in the Watergate era. In a word it would be political suicide. He knows it, his staff knows it and his fawning toadies and groupies know it, not matter what manner of bilge and bollocks they spout on Sunday talk shows.

As for the State of the union, it still should not go on for Tuesday night, all Peggy Noonan's mawkish sermonizing ('The State of the Union Is Missing', WSJ, p. A13) notwithstanding.  The pain is still too unbearable- feelings too raw, especially after the spectacle of federal workers in breadlines (even as asshole Wilbur Ross divulged on CNBC he "couldn't understand why they just didn't take out loans").  Besides, Dotard - the imp and swine that he is - would still use the occasion to bloviate more lies out of his ass, and attack Pelosi and the Dems.  There is no reason on god's green earth to commit the unforced error of giving him a national stage to lick his wounds in front of his deplorables as he attacks the rest of us.

 Besides, technically the government still hasn't opened for good.  Let's see how the next three weeks play out and whether Trump is an honest broker before giving him the Capitol bldg for the SOTU.

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by P.M. Carpenter | January 27, 2019 - 7:54am | permalink

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