Tune In, Shutdown, Sell Out
by Coast Watcher
It
was a tumultuous start to the year 2019. The Petulant President’s
government shutdown broke all records for duration and hardships
caused. Trump demands government funding for his border wall. He held
the entire country hostage for 35 days. At the end of it he walked
away with nothing.
This administration had two basic reactions to the shutdown.
They either showed callous disregard for suffering Americans, or
plain ignorance as to the damage they were causing the country and
its reputation abroad. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said publicly
he didn’t understand why some Federal workers had to resort to
using food banks and suggested they take out bank loans to tide them
over. Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump said the shutdown was
causing “a little bit of pain,” but that the country would “thank
them (Federal workers) for their sacrifices.”
Both reactions from those close to this president show how dangerously out of touch he and they are. Furloughed workers were not on vacation. Missing their second monthly paycheck meant they weren’t able to afford food, or life-saving medication or, especially in the northern states, to be able to heat their homes in the middle of a bitterly-cold winter. Certain Federal workers were expected to work without pay, something which was made illegal by Lincoln’s government passing the 13th Amendment in 1863. To add insult to injury, some GOP Senators even questioned whether Federal workers should receive back-pay once the shutdown ended. In any case, it’s still expected to take several days before that back-pay is issued.
The knock-on effects of the shutdown extends to the communities in which the Federal workers live, because those workers could not spend money on goods and services in those communities. Beyond those on the Federal payroll, 42 million American families on food stamps and section eight housing allowance faced the terrifying prospects of hunger and homelessness. With the IRS shut down millions of Americans will suffer delays in getting vital tax rebates.
Had the United States extended Medicare and Medicaid to cover all its
citizens the effects of the shutdown would have been mitigated to
some extent. Instead, healthcare in this country is in the hands of
the insurance industry, a body devoted exclusively to making money.
No doubt the loans business is also doing a roaring trade as people
suddenly lacking their steady income turn in desperation to the loan
sharks.
Then
the shutdown ended—at least for 21 days. A deal was reached on
Friday January 25 to partially reopen government, and Congress is
expected to endorse the measure quickly. Trump is still insistent on
getting funding for his infamous wall project. He’s threatening to
let government shut down again or to use Presidential emergency
powers to bypass Congress altogether when the current deal ends on
February 15. The projected cost of Trump’s Wall is around $5.7
billion. The cost of the shutdown exceeded that amount some days ago,
something Trump hopes will bring the people of America around to his
way of thinking by believing funding his wall would be cheaper than
another shutdown.
In
that hope, he has failed. The general mood across the country is that
Trump is on entirely the wrong track. His actions have sapped the
national economy. Recent polls show support for Trump’s actions
among his notoriously fervent voter base has sharply declined.
Liberals
across the country are praising House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the
skies for going eyeball to eyeball with Trump until he blinked.
Perhaps she had a small part in it, in the role of an opportunist
politician with a questionable track record for taking bribes, but
the real heroes and heroines who ended the shutdown are the American
workers.
On January 25, TSA workers walked out of several airports across the
country, refusing to work without pay any longer. Trump’s praise
for them as “fantastic people,” and “incredible patriots”
fell upon deaf ears. Airline cabin staff unions threatened a general
strike if the shutdown didn’t end. These actions closed airports
and began to impact air travel across the world. It’s no
coincidence that negotiations to end the shutdown came about within
two hours of this happening. Perhaps also the sense that people
deprived of the basic necessities of life such as food and housing
might just take to the streets in a second American Revolution that
would make the ongoing Yellow Vest movement in Europe look like a
picnic.
It
remains to be seen what will happen next. We vanished down the rabbit
hole back in 2016 when Trump’s victory in the presidential election
was announced. Trump’s threat to use presidential emergency powers
to override democratic government may come true. Perhaps the Democrat
dominated Congress and increasingly nervous GOP Senate will come to
some kind of deal. Trump’s ego is such I doubt he’ll suffer his
newly-imposed lame duck status for long.
In
the meantime, while we were all distracted by Trump’s antics,
funding for military activities abroad continued. The citizens of
foreign countries died under American bombing and drone strikes.
Protests against pipelines driving
through Native American lands are ongoing.
Venezuela continues to suffer United States' interdiction and
interference in its internal affairs. Trump recognized right-wing
leader Juan Guaido as "rightful" president of Venezuela, thus
blatantly attempting to undermine legitimate President
Nicolás Maduro Moros. It’s
no coincidence that this gross interference in a sovereign country’s
affairs is entirely down to the fact Venezuela sits on the
world’s largest oil reserves.
And factories continue to close, workers are laid off in an economy depressed by Trump’s petulance. Ironically one of those factories, Werner Ladders of Louisville, Kentucky announced in August it plans to lay off 188 workers and close the plant by March 2019. Production will move to a new plant in Mexico. Now, what would be useful for climbing over a wall between the United States and Mexico...a ladder, do you think?
Related articles:
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/54675-focus-noam-chomsky-greg-grandin-and-70-other-experts-sound-an-alarm-on-venezuela
BIO: Coast Watcher keeps watch and wonders what will bring about the political revolution in the USA. If not being paid for over a month and going without food stamps doesn't provoke a general strike (like the threatened strike by TSA and airline workers) then what will?
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We won't be silent on things that matter--so don't let them shut us down!
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The Revolution Continues has been targeted by anti-progressive trolls and hackers. It's difficult to fight against their blocks to prevent readers from sharing our web site link since these trolls/hackers have access to corporate cash. But you can help out by donating to keep the blog ad-free and functioning. The editor pays for internet, electricity, etc., out of her own pocket, and she would like to be able to pay her contributors, so your generous monetary gifts are appreciated.
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Cadbury Sources Its Milk from Inhumane Farms, Uses Dirty Palm Oil, and
Exploits Its Workers. Demand That The Chocolate Company Clean Up Its Act
Now!
| Sign Now |
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Male calves shot through the head. Orangutans starving to death. Workers not paid enough to support their families. This is the price of Cadbury chocolate.
Cadbury still uses dirty palm oil in its products, despite the
availability of ethically-produced palm oil. And because Cadbury and
other ethically questionable corporations refuse to make the switch,
massive deforestation is pushing orangutans to extinction.
Sign this petition to demand that Cadbury switch to using ethically-produced palm oil in its products.
Sign this petition to demand that Cadbury become a Fairtrade company once again, and improve its animal welfare standards.
Cadbury has quietly abandoned its Fairtrade Certification. It decided that instead of trying to meet the strict criteria of the certification, it would make its own "certification." The big difference being that there is now no minimum requirement for how much Cadbury will pay farmers for their cocoa. But Cadbury's exploitation doesn't stop there. The company also gets its milk from inhumane dairy farms that shoot male calves in the head. Males are not milk producers, so this is a common practice on many dairy farms. But Cadbury could easily find a farm that does not treat its cows so inhumanely.
Thank you,
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Tell Congress:
"Shut down Trump's children's prisons and then investigate what happened there."
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After 35 days, Donald Trump has caved and agreed to re-open the federal government.
There’s
still a crisis at the border--but it’s not the one he talked about in
his speech in the White House rose garden. That’s because it’s a crisis
that his administration created and perpetuates every day.
Donald Trump’s inhumane, dehumanizing immigration policy is still locking up thousands and thousands of children in prison camps.
Through
all of the indictments, shutdowns, self-inflicted crises and general
chaos of the Trump administration, it’s easy to lose sight of each
crisis. But for these children, who eyewitnesses say are locked in
cages, trapped beneath barbed wire, and under military-style guard day
and night, were seeking asylum through legal channels. It’s sickening
that this is being done in our name.
These
camps must be shut down now, and then Congress must open an immediate
investigation into any human rights abuses these children may have
suffered.
The wall is not the answer. A humane immigration system is.
Thank you,
Mike Phelan
Progress America
Progress America
***
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Nearly
one year ago, on February 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nicolas Cruz walked
into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and took
the lives of 17 young men and women with an AR-15. In just the year
since then, there have been over 300 mass shootings in the United States
— and not one piece of common sense gun control legislation passed by
Congress.
Gun violence in the U.S. is an epidemic,
but our leaders have done nothing to help. As the brave Parkland
survivors so succinctly and accurately put it: enough is enough.
That's why Care2 is launching a month-long campaign to fight for gun safety in America. You can join us by clicking this link now.
Last year was the deadliest year for gun
violence in recent history. Despite this, our Republican-led Congress,
whose pockets are padded by the NRA, refused to take action. But now,
with Democrats in charge of the House, it's time for that to change.
What exactly do we have in mind? We'll be
launching petitions for common sense gun reform, partnering with leading
organizations fighting on-the-ground for change, tuning in with
Facebook Live updates and interviews, and so much more. With the
Democrats leading the House, we are in a prime position to make real
change this year. But we are going to need your help.
Please join us in our fight to save American lives throughout the month of February. Click to sign up to help us end gun violence now.
Thank you,
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