Year: 2019

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TSA Workers Quitting Thanks to Trump’s Shutdown

All work and no pay makes TSA workers poor, and makes the rest of America even more insecure.

Only in Trump’s America!

The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents a chunk of TSA employees, said screeners were becoming increasingly panicked as the partial shutdown drags on, diminishing their chances of getting paid Friday.

“Every day, I’m getting calls from my members about their extreme hardships and need for a paycheck,” Hydrick Thomas, president of AFGE’s TSA Council said. “Some of them have already quit and many are considering quitting the federal workforce because of this shutdown.”

He added that a wave of resignations could create “a massive security risk for American travelers” since TSA cannot hire new screeners during a shutdown.

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Report: Trump Literally Did Not Understand The Effects of A Shutdown

This country is ran by idiots, plain and simple… and quite frankly, scary!

The Trump administration’s shutdown of the federal government over the last two weeks is a synecdoche for the way it has run the federal government over the last two years. They blundered into it almost by accident, without any understanding of what they are doing nor any plan for success.

Just as Trump did not expect to win the election and neglected to plan for his transition, he shut down the government on a whim, after right-wing media complained about his plan to approve a government funding bill. Nobody in the administration had a clear understanding of just what a shutdown would entail. Two devastating reports in the Washington Post over the weekend detail the horrifying scope of their ignorance. The administration did not realize that 38 million Americans lose their food stamps under a shutdown, nor did it know that thousands of tenants would face eviction without assistance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Administration officials “recognized only this week the breadth of the potential impact,” reports the Post, and was “focused now on understanding the scope of the consequences and determining whether there is anything they can do to intervene.” First Trump shut down the government, and then the Trump administration started looking into what effect this would have.

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Featured Politics

Democrats: The Message Is the Medium

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., poses for a group photo with the House Democratic women on Capitol Hill on Friday. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Salwan Georges

It only took three days, so if you chose January 3 in your office pool as the date when the first idiot Democrat brought up impeachment, then congratulations are in order. That she also sprinkled her comment with impolitic language only makes it worse. I’m thinking that Nancy Peloisi had a chat with Representative Tlaib about staying on message.

I just want to be clear on this first post of the year that I have no patience with any Democrat who calls for any legal action against the president unless there is enough legitimate evidence that the president had committed an impeachable or indictable offense. Let Robert Mueller’s investigation do its job and let him release his report when it’s ready. The same is true about the other current investigations into the Trump Administration and the ones that the Democrats in the House will inevitably begin. Giving the Republicans any further reason to marginalize any opposition only takes time and energy away from what must be the Democrats’ central message, which is that they will address and attempt to solve the basic problems that face Americans on a day-to-day basis.

I understand that a new and younger group of much more liberal legislators are now in Congress and statehouses across the country. I understand that they are filled with passion and fury and that they were elected to move the country in a different direction. But the best way to do this is to stay on message and not to waver. If the new Democrats can learn anything from the almost 40 year reign of the conservatives, it’s that you need to frame your arguments in ways that people can digest and repeat them effortlessly, and you need everybody on your team to say the same things in the same way using the same language no matter what medium you’re on.

Democrats need to focus on health care that covers everyone, livable wages, family leave and a climate message that appeals to Americans on the local level. I know this might be heresy, but what do those Americans living in the middle of the country care about the tides and floods in Miami? Craft a message that educates people on the changes they’ve already seen in their communities, which might be about crop yields or water supplies or the increase/decrease in wildlife. You get the idea.

Or do you? Because if you still believe that angrily posting about the minute-to-minute foolishness of the president’s messages is the way to win hearts and minds, then I am here to tell you that you are wrong. President Trump’s base will follow him no matter what he says. The voters that will win the 2020 election are the ones who voted Democratic last year, even if they supported Trump in 2016. Most of them care only about how their lives and the country’s future will be secured. If they voted against the GOP despite a tax cut and an improving employment environment, then they will vote Democratic again if the Democrats continue to remind them about what Democrats will do for them.

That’s a winning message. And that’s the only winning message. So if you’re angry and frustrated and appalled, my suggestion is that you go analog: Find a field, a prairie, a noisy subway station or an insulated basement and scream about whatever will heal your heart.

Then let’s get back to work.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Trump to America – Help Me Waste $5 Billion to Appease My Base

President Donald Trump listens to a question during a meeting with Baltic leaders in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 3, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The American people saw the nonsense Trump and his congressional Republicans engaged in over the last two years and they spoke up in the midterm elections. On January 3rd, Democrats became the adults in the room and took over the House of Representatives.

Already, less than a day after taking over The House, Democrats have passed multiple bills to re-open the US Government from its ongoing Trump Shutdown. Democrats have agreed with Republicans and passed bipartisan legislation to get over 800,000 federal workers back to work. But Trump refused to even consider ending his shutdown if he is not allowed to waste $5 billion on a wall whose only purpose would be to appease the wackadoodles in his base.

In the statement, the White House says Trump cannot support bills with “unnecessary funding for wasteful programs” unless he gets $5 billion for his pointless border wall. That supposed “unnecessary funding” Trump objects to includes support for the United Nations Population Fund, an international program that seeks to prevent violence against women, stop child marriage, and train health workers to “ensure at least 90 per cent of all childbirths are supervised by skilled attendants.”

But according to the Trump administration, that’s “unnecessary” and “wasteful.”

In addition, the Trump shutdown means the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has expired. “VAWA funds and administers numerous programs assisting survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault,” reports NPR, and payments for those programs cannot be made until Republicans decide to end the shutdown.

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Apple CEO Blames Trump for Company’s Financial Losses

Today, like most past days, is not a good day for stocks here in the United States, as Apple was forced to downgrade its economic forecast and cast the blame for its losses directly in the lap of Donald Trump. More specifically, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, sites Trump’s ongoing trade war with China as the reason the company is losing money.

In a letter to investors, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company saw lower-than-expected sales primarily in China. Cook told CNBC’s Josh Lipton that the trade dispute with the U.S. is exacerbating economic issues in China.

“It’s clear that the economy began to slow there in the second half and I believe the trade tensions between the United States and China put additional pressure on their economy,” Cook said Wednesday.

Apple shed 7 percent postmarket. Shares of semiconductor stocks fell after the announcement. Industrial giant Caterpillar, which draws a substantial amount of business from the Asia Pacific region, also saw its shares fall 3 percent in after-hours trade.

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Featured Politics

Mitt Romney Calls for Moral Leadership From an Amoral “Leader”

Mitt Romney is known for flip-flops and backflips. The man backflips so much he should give up his Senate seat and apply for a spot on the US Gymnastics Team. So when I read his remarks about Donald Trump’s failed presidency earlier today, I was not moved one way or the other.

But I could not avoid mentioning Romney and his op-ed, partly because I cannot stand what Trump is doing to this nation. And although he is a flip-flopper and capable of blaming momentary insanity for his on-point op-ed, Mitt Romney’s words were a welcome departure from the cowards in the Republican party.

At the beginning of his piece, Romney spoke about his optimism about the Trump presidency, though he admitted that Trump was not his first choice for president.

It is well known that Donald Trump was not my choice for the Republican presidential nomination. After he became the nominee, I hoped his campaign would refrain from resentment and name-calling. It did not. When he won the election, I hoped he would rise to the occasion. His early appointments of Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Nikki Haley, Gary Cohn, H.R. McMaster, Kelly Mattis were encouraging. But, on balance, his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions last month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.

His next paragraph attempted to praise Trump for his “policies” since becoming president, but the praise was short-lived as Romney continued slamming Trump and his lack of moral leadership.

To a great degree, a presidency shapes the public character of the nation. A president should unite us and inspire us to follow “our better angels.” A president should demonstrate the essential qualities of honesty and integrity, and elevate the national discourse with comity and mutual respect. As a nation, we have been blessed with presidents who have called on the greatness of the American spirit. With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring.

” Trump’s words and actions have caused dismay around the world,” Romney wrote, as he explained America’s fall from grace during these first two years of Trump’s presidency. “In a 2016 Pew Research Center poll, 84 percent of people in Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Sweden believed the American president would “do the right thing in world affairs.” One year later, that number had fallen to 16 percent. “

Romney’s many points in the Op-Ed were well made, accurate and welcomed. But how long will Romney’s voice be heard? Will he assume his seat in the Senate and continue being a voice of morals and reason in a muted Republican party, or will he flip-flop and toe the line as most expect?

As for Trump, he is calling on Romney to shut up and fall in line… or as he puts it, be a ‘TEAM’ player!

In a tweet, Trump wrote; “Would much prefer that Mitt focus on Border Security and so many other things where he can be helpful. I won big, and he didn’t. He should be happy for all Republicans. Be a TEAM player & WIN!”

WIN! Are we winning yet?

Stand your ground Romney. You’re the Republican’s only hope…

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