That televised interlude 2 weeks ago makes it clear as glass where the blame lies, so why does the media play the useless and cynical 'two sides' game? This is all on Trump! He wanted it, he got it, now he has to live with it, and no amount of lying or distraction or threats will get the miserable maggot swine out of it. See e.g.
by Cody Fenwick | December 31, 2018 - 7:03am
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It is true there is increasing collateral damage from Trump's political terror and hostage taking. About 800,000 federal employees are either at home or working without pay on "furlough", but that's merely the tip of the looming iceberg. Federal payments to some farmers hit by Trump’s trade war with China will be put on hold from next week. The work of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is increasingly affected, and 14,000 are soon to be furloughed - never mind a major toxic spill may occur. Oh, and for those millions of other federal workers, including 1.2 m grantees and 4 m full time contractors who will have to pay their rents soon, here's a chestnut to process: The Trumpie Scum have suggested these workers "trade their services for rent". As Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees' Union put it on CNN Saturday: "I think it's disgusting. It's wrong to treat human beings that way! Well, Tony, look at how this walking, talking cockroach treated child migrants, confining them in cages. They were humans too, right?
By the end of another month, many more agencies will be affected As this hostage -taking terror by Trump goes on there will be many more casualties: "500,000 Postal employees, 1.3 million active duty personnel, and the 4.5 million Americans whose jobs depend on the spending of the federal workforce." (Paul Light, WSJ, 'The Hidden Cost of a Government Shutdown', December 28, p. A15)
Another disgusting lie spouted by the slime is that it is mostly all Democrats affected. Do not believe this twaddle for a nanosecond. The victims are across the political spectrum, and it's millions not just the "800,000" the media repeatedly parrots. (See the WSJ piece cited in the previous paragraph.) Trump is nothing if not an equal opportunity terrorist who waylays the military men and women as well as EPA scientists, post office workers and the janitors in the various agencies.
While I can certainly sympathize with all of these Trump victims, they are basically in the same position as hostages taken by a demented terrorist. The difference is that in this case the terrorist happens to (unjustifiably) hold the office of the president of the United States. Still, he IS a terrorist as every act he's done in the past 8 months shows. In fact, not only a terrorist but a traitor who has served as a Manchurian candidate for Putin, as well as a tool for Turkey's autocrat Recip Erdogan. In other words, he is a worm, a slime and active refuse- but with hostages nonetheless.
Sadly, this terrorist cannot be rewarded any more than if it was a high level ISIS vermin who'd taken prisoners. That means, above all, the Democrats cannot give into his insane demands, not now, not ever. However long this thing drags on, it is up to Trump and the Republicans to end it. Pelosi will send a gov't opening bill to the Senate this week and if Mitch McConnell doesn't get a veto-proof majority to sign it, it's also on him. He cannot claim innocence or try to fob the blame on the Dems.
For those federal workers at risk, I suggest bombarding the White House with calls and emails to cease and desist this perfidy. I also suggest emailing, calling or writing the terrorist Right wing clique who put Trump up to this shit. That includes Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and Fox and Friends. Serious, committed citizens might also give Mick Mulvaney a piece of their mind too.
On Friday, Mulvaney, told Fox News: “There’s not a single Democrat talking to the president … about this deal.” Mulvaney also sought to pin blame on the incoming House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, whom the administration has sought to portray as a prisoner of the left of her party. But neither Trump nor anyone from his administration has spoken to Pelosi since the 11 December Oval Office meeting. Justin Goodman, a spokesman for the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, told reporters: “For the White House to try and blame anyone but the president for this shutdown doesn’t pass the laugh test.”
Mulvaney, of course, is hoist on his own petard as Paul C. Light (WSJ, ibid.) makes clear regarding Mulvaney's knowledge of the "blended federal workforce". This is given he approved last year's "analytic perspectives" on the 2019 budget. These "delineated the two federal workforces: the contractors and the regular federal workers". So, as it turns out Mulvaney is a rat as well and accessory after the fact in Trump's shutdown terrorism, given (ibid.):
"Not mentioning the indirect workforce reveals just how much the administration wants to minimize the effect of an indefinite shutdown in the eyes of the public.....Meanwhile, Mulvaney can only hope that Wall Street doesn't notice the threat to economic performance.""
So just as Drumpf's odious lies and malfeasance in office must be exposed, so must Mulvaney's PR moves to try to minimize the shutdown effects. That not only are millions of jobs at risk, but the income from them and the economic benefits to the communities in which they're found.
It is now in every patriot's interest to inveigh against these unAmerican interlopers- the entire sordid axis from Trump, to Mulvaney to the Right wing media that egged them on to do a shutdown.
Above all, it is important to keep reminding friends, acquaintances and others this is TRUMP'S shutdown. He wanted it and he now owns it. It is up to him to man up and end the hostage taking of ALL federal workers!
Disclaimer: No, I do not suffer from the mythical "Trump Derangement Syndrome". I am a fully rational as well as thinking American patriot - descendant of Revolutionary War ancestors - who is prepared to call out the Trump infestation for what it is. No euphemisms, no politically correct bullshit and no passes for what Drumpf is doing to this nation!