Did you listen to Mr. Trump’s recent presentation to the nation?
I was immediately struck with how similar his “offer” to the Congressional Democrats sounded like a criminal hostage negotiation from the TV program, Without a Trace… only with poor acting.
Saturday Night Live, Weekend Update, has it right, except for one thing: All of us are being held hostage.
Fortunately, I don’t work for the federal government.
But if I did, I’d be an unhappy cowboy.
Further, I’d certainly not be inclined to vote for the ole boy at the top, the president. Because it has come to the attention of a few people that Mr. Trump is hunky-dory with his government employee shutout… and the longer it runs… the better.
How do I know? Well, this past Monday, he tweeted his approval of an article, “blasting federal workers, calling for a long shutdown.” Worse, Mr. Trump seems to believe that federal government workers are an undeserving lot and that there are just way too many of them.
So, about now, I’d be feelin’ pretty blue and thinkin’ that Mr. Trump’s shutout has nothing to do with builidin’ that ole wall... but a whole lot to do with punishing workers for simply bein’ federal employees… and eliminating as many of 'em as he can.
“President Trump on Monday shared an op-ed from a writer claiming to be an anonymous senior member of his administration who harshly criticizes federal workers as disloyal to the White House and worthy of losing their jobs.”
“The writer of the op-ed, published by conservative news site The Daily Caller, argues the partial government shutdown is an opportunity for Trump to greatly reduce the size of government.”
“On an average day, roughly 15 percent of the employees around me are exceptional patriots serving their country. I wish I could give competitive salaries to them and no one else,” the op-ed reads. “But 80 percent feel no pressure to produce results. If they don’t feel like doing what they are told, they don’t.”
“The lapse in appropriations is more than a battle over a wall. It is an opportunity to strip wasteful government agencies for good.”
“On an average day, roughly 15 percent of the employees around me are exceptional patriots serving their country. I wish I could give competitive salaries to them and no one else. But 80 percent feel no pressure to produce results. If they don’t feel like doing what they are told, they don’t.”
…
“Due to the lack of funding, many federal agencies are now operating more effectively from the top down on a fraction of their workforce, with only select essential personnel serving national security tasks.”
… -more-
The Truth… Please…
About the value of federal workers… this we know for certain:
At least two people in the White House have their heads up their ass because they expect the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, the FBI, the TSA people, Air Traffic Controllers, Food Inspectors, …. well, you get the idea… more than 800,000 people... to come to work without pay - indefinitely. Yardbirds - When Will It End - 1966
Normally, I'd say, "Who cares." This is all just typical Republican corruption.
But today one of these guys is President of the US and the other is
the Republican Majority Leader of the US Senate.
Together they are holding our nation hostage with their federal government shutout BS. They're sowing more
and more pain and chaos with each passing day; destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands
of Americans, forcing government workers and suppliers into charity food banks; and
driving us all closer to economic recession.
Well, then... just who are these guys working for?
One hundred cat’s eye marbles say… it’s not the people of
the United States.
Another man, in addition to Mr. Trump, has the power to end the federal government Trump-shutdown-lockout this very moment.
He is Mr. McConnell (R-KY), the Republican Senate Majority Leader, who for the second time, has refused to allow a vote on the Senate bill which has been approved by the U.S. House.
It is likely that the measure will pass with enough votes to make it veto proof and thus allow federal workers to go back to work and receive their paychecks. Our government would be functioning once again to the dismay of Mr. Trump.
Mr. McConnell's cowardice is simply enabling our psychopath-in-chief to continue to hurt all Americans.
Senate Republicans blocked a House-passed package to reopen the federal government for a second time in as many weeks on Tuesday.
Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and Ben Cardin (Md.) asked for consent to take up a package of bills that would reopen the federal government.
One bill would fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8, while the other would fund the rest of the impacted departments and agencies through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Under Senate rules, any senator can ask for consent to vote on or pass a bill, but any senator can object. McConnell blocked the two bills, saying the Senate wouldn't "participate in something that doesn't lead to an outcome."
McConnell for weeks has said he would not bring legislation to the floor on the shutdown unless there was a deal between President Trump and Democrats on border security, the issue that has triggered the shutdown. McConnell has described other votes as "show votes."
"The solution to this is a negotiation between the one person in the country who can sign something into law, the president of the United States, and our Democratic colleagues," McConnell said Tuesday.
Roughly a quarter of the government has been shut down since Dec. 22 over an entrenched fight on funding for Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The Senate passed a stopgap bill late last year by a voice vote, but it was rejected by the White House because it didn’t include extra border money.
Trump is demanding more than $5 billion for his signature wall. Democratic leadership has pointed to $1.3 billion as their cap and argued that it must go to fencing.
House Democrats passed their package to fully reopen the government earlier this month and have begun passing individual appropriations bills as they try to ratchet up pressure on Republicans to break with the president and support the legislation. But those bills are expected to go nowhere in the GOP-led Senate.
McConnell sought to drive a wedge between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Democrats earlier Tuesday, characterizing the newly minted House leader as making border security “take a back seat to the political whims of the far left.”
“Here in the Senate my Democratic colleagues have an important choice to make. They could stand with common sense border experts, with federal workers and with their own past voting records, by the way, or they could continue to remain passive spectators complaining from the sidelines, as the Speaker refuses to negotiate with the White House,” McConnell said from the Senate floor.
Talks between Trump and congressional leadership are at a standstill after the president walked out of a White House meeting last week when Pelosi told him that Democrats would not consider border wall funding even if he fully reopened the government.
Democrats are trying to build pressure on McConnell to break with Trump and move legislation, something Senate GOP leadership say the careful Republican leader will not do.
Though several senators are publicly picking their own ideas, Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said on Tuesday that hasn’t resulted in much pressure from within the caucus for McConnell to change his strategy.
Yes, it is true. For many reasons, the person who occupies
the White House matters because beyond politics, this fact should give you chills, “One
in 25 people can inflict incredible pain on others without feeling a pang of
remorse.”
If the person in the White House has no inkling that the
American people are hurting and cares nothing of their pain, well then, we are
in serious trouble.
How long will you allow 800,000 federal workers to suffer
without their pay, Mr. Trump?
Trump says, for a long time… until the Democrats give me $5 billion for my wall.
I submit, Mr. Trump of is one in 25 who can inflict
incredible pain on others without feeling a pang of remorse.
Indeed, we are in serious trouble.
Consider these excerpts from, The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha
Stout, Ph.D.
“Imagine – if you can – not having a conscience, none at
all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense
of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members.
Image no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter
what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken.”
“You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or
shame, and you are never confronted by others for our cold-bloodedness. The ice
water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience,
that they seldom even guess at your condition.”
“In other words, you are completely free of internal
restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs
of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.”
“You can do anything at all, and still your strange
advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their
consciences will most likely remain undiscovered.”
“How will you live your life?”
“What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and
with the corresponding handicap of other people (conscience)?”
…
“Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do anything
at all.”
“And pretend that the concept of responsibility unknown to
you, except as a burden other seem to accept without question, like gullible
fools.”
“If you are born at the right time, with some access to family
fortune, and you have a special talent of whipping up other people’s hatred and
sense of deprivation, you can arrange to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people.
With enough money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can sit back
safely and watch in satisfaction.”
“Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from
other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs.
Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings,
hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless.”
…
“Crazy and frightening – and real, in about 4 percent of the
population…”
“The prevalence rate for anorexic eating disorders is estimated
at 3.43 percent, deemed to be nearly epidemic, and yet this figure is a faction
lower than the rate for antisocial personality.”
…
“The high incidence of sociopathy in human society has a
profound effect on the rest of us who must live on this planet, too, even those
of us who have not been clinically traumatized. The individuals who constitute
this 4 percent drain our relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments,
our self-esteem, our very peace on earth.”
“Yet surprisingly, many
people know nothing about this disorder, or if they do, they think in terms of
violent psychopathy – murderers, serial killers mass murderers – people who
have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and who, if caught, will be
imprisoned, maybe even put to death by our legal system.”
“Most of us would not imagine any correspondence between conceiving
n ethnic genocide and, say, guiltlessly lying to one’s boss about a coworker.
But the psychological correspondence is not only there, it is chilling. Simple
and profound, the link is the absence of the inner mechanism that beats up on
us, emotionally speaking, when we make a choice we view as immoral, unethical, neglectful,
or selfish.”
…
“The presence of absence of conscience is a deep human
division, arguably more significant than intelligence, race, or even gender.”
“What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of
others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a
contemporary robber baron – or what makes the difference between an ordinary
bully and a sociopathic murderer – is nothing more than social status, drive,
intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity.”
“What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us
is an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved
of all humanizing functions.”
They walk among
us. On the outside. they’re just like you and me, but on the inside they are
unfeeling automatons who care only for themselves. They are the psychopaths,
and they are in control of our governments, our corporations, our military and
all of the positions of power. Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we
delve into Political Ponerology, a diagnosis of our politicians and a brief
look at the bigger picture.
Look
a little further, searching for how to “identify evil”, and you’ll discover how “evil”
is discussed in the Bible.
But for 800,000 Americans, and now millions of Americans, plus the "economy" as a whole, I’m betting 100 cat’s eye marbles that “evil” comes front
and center, and very personally, with no paycheck deposited in their checking
accounts or government services for the rest of us "Joe and Jane" Americans. No money today means a truck load of pain for federal employees and government
suppliers, too, even with the Congressional promise that one day their pay will show up.
Still, perhaps, one good thing may come to pass out of this... the
longer this debacle continues the more likely Trumpists will come face-to-face
with their hero unmasked as the nation’s number one sadist. In fact, I’d
go as far as to say that it’s now obvious that Mr. Trump was simply Born Evil
and that Trumpists are showing signs of emulating his low intelligence level,
lack of empathy, soullessness, psychopathy and the myriad of his other
personality disorders by continuing to support him.
Further,
and ever so sadly, the mainstream media is complicit in “normalizing” these
“Trump behavior disorders”, with bullying topping the list as acceptable.
