The Shutting Down of America

[MineralMan]

is underway. Led by Republicans and Donald J. Trump, our federal government is in the midst of a process to shut down our government. One by one, Departments and Agencies that were started to improve people's lives, health and well-being are being defunded, defanged and destroyed.

It starts with the government organizations that do things to educate, inform, and aid the nations citizens. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowments for the Humanities and Arts, The FDA, The CDC and a number of other organizations are on the chopping block for budget cuts and even complete shutdowns.

Science, too, is seeing plans to dismantle agencies like the EPA, NOAA, FDA, and other departments by drastically cutting their budgets and refusing to appoint people to leadership positions who are dedicated to their worthy goals.

The list goes on and on of federal government organizations, programs, and operations that are seeing plans developed to make them irrelevant and powerless. Even the State Department, which is charged with managing our international relations, is being decimated.

On the other hand, the military is being bolstered with massive budget increases, as are elements of the Department of Homeland Security.

Who benefits from all of this? Certainly not the average citizens of this country. They lose. Only the wealthy and powerful benefit, by being allowed to run rampant over people's rights, livelihoods, and the environment in which they live.

That is the plan. To stop it, we must mobilize everyone who will be negatively affected by these changes and simply vote these people out of office in our cities, counties, states, and in federal government. We can start in 2018, by saying NO! to those who are perpetrating this dismantling of our nation.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Rank and file middle class republicans are loving every minute of it, for now.

When their lives are devastated as a result, it will be WAY past time to do anything about it.

If we fix this, it will be a miracle.

[MineralMan]

2. If we don't fix it, it will be a disaster

of unknown proportions. I suggest we fix it. Really.

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. The goal of making us sick is working, the stress someone who is an actual patriot

will undergo with all this, could kill.

Someone who actually cares about the country and all citizens, not just white christians, could be made sick by all this. I am having multiple symptoms of that.

But thank GOD we dont have the private server woman in there, eh.

[Mountain Mule]

20. It is certainly making me feel sick

To top it off, my health care provider is refusing to refill my anti-anxiety meds. She must be a repug who figures the poor are expendable and wants to get an early start on the death panels.

[SCVDem]

36. WTF?

I get generic alprazalom/Xanax from the VA with no problem.

Mine is for tinnitus and Trumpitis.

I found that the more I was involved in my care, the less what I need/want is questioned.

Stay on top of reading until you are a specialist in your care.

Good luck!

[Mountain Mule]

52. I am VERY involved with my health care!

However, I happen to live in a rural area where health care choices are limited. I've have to find decent medical care in cities at least 200 miles from here. And then I get to think about my medicaid vanishing in two years or less. Why bother. May as well get it all over with now.

[SCVDem]

54. I'm 61

Why is suicide not assisted?
They clearly want us dead, but to also suffer?

With nothing to lose I may take lessen from ISIS.

Minus the innocents.

Give me a hug Donnie! Asshole!

[Mountain Mule]

58. You are NOT Alone!

I made a post in another thread here expressing pretty much the same sentiments. You don't want to make us "little old lady liberals" angry, because we're a tough bunch of old broads and we'll make the lives of those who cross us unbearable!

[cilla4progress]

18. How?

Short-term?

Long-term: elections

[MineralMan]

33. Short term: Also Winning Elections

It starts now, not in 2018. Become part of the process that selects candidates. Help find great candidates. Become part of the Democratic Party organization and ask what you can do. I guarantee they'll have ideas that match your abilities.

In the meantime, support legal organizations that are fighting Trump in the courts.

[cilla4progress]

35. Doing all of the above

Also calling, emailing, petitioning elected reps - federal and state; and marching.

Doesn't seem enough. We need to move into triage stance: stop them NOW before they hae time to destroy institutions and protections.

[Cosmocat]

51. And

It will be our, the evil liberal, fault in some insane way.

[asiliveandbreathe]

4. Many are making the effort to get involved with the ACLU People Power

action - I signed up yesterday....what else can we do - we have to do something...and I don't get paid $174,000 - imagine, some do, and they are dismantling our Govt...pathetic..

[HipChick]

5. We can't wait till 2018...

Mobilize now....

[MineralMan]

8. Right now, legal actions are our best hope.

People who want to march in the streets are welcome to do that, however, but I'm not physically up to it any longer. I will support those who are using our laws and Constitution to fight all of this.

[tomp]

55. disagree.

we need mass protest more than anything, even to get the appropriate legal action you are talking about. mass demonstrations are our most potent weapon. and that doesn't change because you are not in a position to participate in them. you should be able to support both legal actions and mass demonstrations. they are not mutually exclusive and the demonstrations will drive everything forward, not the other way around.

[adigal]

57. Boycott! Boycott goods from red states if red companies, travel to red states

Screw Florida - we cancelled our Feb trip there, rescheduled to New Mexico in April. Don't buy anything unnecessary. This is serious - country is taken over by authoritarians.

[MineralMan]

61. Too slow and too ineffective.

Both are a complete waste of time. We do not have time for that. Much more direct action is needed that can work quickly.

Frankly, nobody cares who you boycott. If you think they do, you're sadly mistaken.

[jalan48]

6. Government by Corporations is what we are seeing. It's been building for awhile.

[MineralMan]

11. In a sense that's true, but it is also Government by

Major Shareholders of those corporations. The two are inextricably linked, of course.

[jalan48]

14. I agree-it's a select group, who in effect, become the real voters in our new system of government.

We allowed to keep our "representative government" for show however. It appeals to our sporting team competition desires.

[mdbl]

67. Not really

when a few hold the majority of shares, the imbalance is perfectly intact.

[LuckyLib]

7. Resistance takes many forms, and we have to be working all of them.

Contributions to groups that are fighting, snail mail, phone calls to the idiots in congress, email. Then there's marching in the streets at every collective gathering of folks in your community.

April 20 -- March for Science -- Washington DC and many other states and cities.

[MineralMan]

9. It does. We must each do what we are able to do,

and support those who are fighting in the courts and on the streets.

[mnhtnbb]

10. Yes, I agree.

A lot of damage can be done in two years. A lot. We know on a state level in NC just how bad things can get when Republicans
assume control of government.

The fact that Republicans now have control of the executive and legislative branches on a national level is going to be disastrous.

We must oppose them with every means at our disposal.

[CrispyQ]

45. I have friends & family so brainwashed to hate liberals & dems, they would never vote for a dem.

Never. They will continue to vote for these dangerous GOP assholes, even as they shred every good thing.

[mdbl]

68. I am through being a good relative

and I directly blame them for screwing our country when the topic comes up. Fuck em. Why should i care. They fucked me. Just because they don't realize the fucked themselves at the same time is no excuse.

[mountain grammy]

12. it was evident when Katrina hit, 2000 dead.

the next big natural disaster is right around the corner.

[Highway61]

13. This is the most ruthless bunch I have ever seen

I hate the lot of them and their greed.
[img][/img]

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. I call them the Pave-the-Earth gang (includes ruthless corporatists)

[world wide wally]

15. This goes far beyond just benefitting the wealthy.

The biggest winner is Putin who has almost cinched control of a military he could never build himself. Once he has that, China will be in his crosshairs. The final step to complete world domination.
Yes, we better do something NOW

[SledDriver]

16. I've been saying...

when the orange shitgibbon refers to the "American People", the orange shitgibbon isn't talking about Joe common man, the orange shitgibbon is talking about millionaires, billionaires, and corporations...

"Make America Great Again" is about making America great again for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations...

[lambchopp59]

17. Make America Grunt Again

Not only are we up against entire media empires that are convincing the doltish that Trump is rescuing their "freedoms". But I believe part of the RW game plan is perpetuating the "Your vote makes no difference" meme so popular amongst so many millennials I attempt to stir interest in our democratic participation.
The only irony that gives me hope this time is our current "duly elected" *cough* leader of the free world is so unforgivingly stupid. Perhaps some of them will stop playing Farmville long enough to pay attention.

[joet67]

19. They're rushing to get'r done before impeachment. Meanwhile, they have enablers who

certainly will impeach, but they want this done too. Then, we impeach him, claim to be "healing", wink, wink, and start some minor corrections but nothing of equal pushback as to what was foist on us. That's been the modus operandi since at least 2000.

[Hekate]

21. Kick

[Buckeyeblue]

22. Do they want an economic collapse

It seems to me this is where we are headed. All of the cuts to these various programs pull funds from the economy. Right? So that will lead to less buying, less demand, less manufacturing, and then even more job cuts and more money out of the economy. All the while becoming more and more isolated from the rest of the world.

Perhaps that is the end goal. Break the spirit so that the people will go along with anything, even an outrageous, clownesh dictator.

Sounds like the North Korean model.

[Mountain Mule]

24. Making America fall apart again

As in the civil war. Not that I think we're going to have another civil war, but it sure feels like one is going on in the hearts and minds of the American people. The Traitor's blind followers sure do love themselves their demagogue. It's up to the rest of us to do whatever we can to stop this in its tracks. I no longer have the stamina (or the money) to do what I once did, but I still do what I can like calling my representatives in Washington and supporting the local resistance to the fullest extent I am able. If everyone opposed to the Traitor and repug policies would do even that much, we might just begin to make a difference.

[notdarkyet]

25. Putin is calling the shots. Trump is doing what he wants.

[RKP5637]

29. Lots of Americans are so F'en clueless as they cheer Trump on. Trump, is a puppet and on top of

that has no F'en idea what he's doing. Many republicans still don't get it that in his eyes they are a bunch of losers.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

26. March for Science is on Earth Day, April 22. I will be marching.

https://www.marchforscience.com

Find marches near you.

[RKP5637]

27. He's following the dictator's handbook, like what many of us grew up with, seen in other countries.

I'm starting to wonder when he will start invading other countries with his military mite, and sides with Russia to conqueror earth. That might sound like a hyperbolic comment, but really, there has been a lot of WTF going on for some time. Also, and I don't have the link, tRump made a comment once something to the effect that the combined mite of the US and Russia could rule the world, something like that.

[citizen blues]

28. We don't have till 2018!!!!!

We have to say NO NOW! By 2018 we won't have a democracy left. The Kremlin coup will be complete. They're already dismantling the government, but building up DHS and the military.

We have to keep rising up and resisting. We have to keep up the op-eds, the social media posts, the letters and calls to EVERY member of the House and Senate. Our message must be crystal clear that any Senator or Representative - Republican, Democratic, or independent - who has blocked the release of Trump's tax returns or stood in the way of an independent investigation will be tried for treason right along with the traitor in the Whitehouse!i

It will take all of us! We have to make those in the government fear the consequences of their actions more than they fear their corporate masters.

I'm not physically strong or wealthy either. But I can post on social media, I can type emails to my representatives. I can still have my representatives along with any others who need to hear this message saved as a contact on my phone. If a representative wants to be a coward and cut off their phone lines and emails, like Paul Ryan has, then type or even hand write a letter. A stamp is 42 cents.

Now, go get busy! It's going to take ALL OF US!

[Hortensis]

30. Important events. WISH I lived in a blue state, though.

Because we do not have a centralized government. This does not shut down America.

Unfortunately, much the same is probably happening in most of the 27 state governments controlled by conservatives. But it won't be uniform, and even in red states some important regulations and services will be preserved.

[marybourg]

31. No, we must start now. With resistance

such as letter and e-mail writing and phone calls, daily to many.

Turning out for organized protests, demonstrations and marches. Sufficient turn-out will encourage more frequent and intense demonstrations. This is critical.

Speaking up and speaking out whenever and wherever.

Learning how to comment on local and state legislation as it moves through the process. (Google "League of Women Voters -your locality". They have excellent issues and methods education. It's for men too)

Demanding civics be taught in your local schools.

Adopting a swing district near you if yours is safe (google "swing left&quot

[we can do it]

70. Thank you marybourg

[QED]

32. I had trouble falling asleep last night...

thinking about all this crap going on. From shutting down the state department to abandoning environmental protections, this administration is serving a different master than the Constitution and the American people.

[elmac]

34. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

[longship]

56. I absolutely adore that film.

Amy Adams is in almost every scene. The support cast is very good.

It is a poignant, sometimes sad, sometimes glad story.

I got the DVD from NetFlix, kept it for three weeks, and watched it over and over again. It is a wonderful story.

Sad about Abbott who gave up its life to save Louise and Ian.

Just a wonderful flick!

[Dragonfly]

71. Beautiful.....n/t

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

37. A couple of important points.

First, running for Congress, whether the Senate or the House, is at least a two year commitment. The need to raise money is the biggest problem, and anyone hoping to unseat an incumbent needs to be raising money NOW, not next year.

Secondly, I think that a huge problem with those now running the government simply haven't a clue what the various agencies actually do, and why we need to keep them. Shut down the EPA and eventually we'll have lakes and streams so polluted they will catch fire again. I suppose that the best thing about having lost so much manufacturing is that we may not go back to the days when smokestack pollution made many cities dark all day.

If we lose NOAA, there will eventually be weather incidents completely untracked.

An even larger issue is that of research. The reason this country has been so far ahead of much of the rest of the world for so very long is that so very much research was funded, and often well funded. It's how we got things like the polio vaccine. We also openly shared most of that research with the rest of the world. As research dwindles away, scientists won't want to come here, and the center of research will shift elsewhere. The entire world will the the poorer when that happens.

[MineralMan]

39. Yes. The Threats are very real and the time is very short.

Another example is the slashing of the budget of the CDC. Who will do the early warning of the next epidemic? Ebola? Zika? Trump Don't Care!

[bucolic_frolic]

38. All well and good

but it assumes we will be having elections in 2018.

If they're going to get clobbered don't you think they'll find a way to avoid elections,
or seriously tweak the laws on who can vote? Perhaps make it illegal to vote against them?

[MineralMan]

41. We will have elections. The trick is to win them.

We can do that, but we will have to do the work required to do that. Are you ready?

[CrispyQ]

47. This.

The voter fraud story of 2016 was really the unreported voter disenfranchisement story. The GOP will take over more state governments where district lines are set & where restrictive voter ID laws are passed. My friends all live in it-can't-happen-here-land.

[Stonepounder]

40. And the final link in the chain.

This gang of rethugs will either a) get to hand pick a couple of their fellow travelers for the SCOTUS and ram them through so will have a court willing to go along with their Objectivist plans or, b) they will simply start ignoring the courts. The courts have no real power other than our agreement to listen to them. What happens when Trump and the rethug Congress just stick their fingers in their collective ears and sing in unison 'I can't hear you' and go right on doing what they were doing?

[MineralMan]

42. Exactly. Gaining control of SCOTUS is the final step in

the process. With all three branches of federal government in Republican and conservative hands, it will take an amazing outcry and turnout to reverse that direction.

[Stonepounder]

48. That's assuming that we can have any sort of 'real' elections in two years.

Imagine if there is some sort of 'terrorist attack' like 9/11 shortly before the elections and the Gov't declares martial law and suspends the elections for 'public safety'. (Of course the 'terrorist attack' is a false flag operation.) And we never again get quite to the point that it is 'safe' to stand down and hold the elections.

[MineralMan]

49. That scenario has been raised by the right, too.

Bottom line is that our elections are run by the states, and operated by the counties in those states. There are no federal elections. Elections are a state thing, and each state's constitution has sections on elections for that state.

There is no practical way to stop elections from the federal level. There simply isn't. Now, if our elections were run by the federal government, what you suggest might be possible, but they are not.

If things ever get to the point where the federal government declares martial law, then you'd better head for the hills with all the arms you can carry, because the United States of America would no longer exist if that happened.

Bottom line: In 2018, 2020 and every two years thereafter, there will be elections held to choose Congress and every four years our President. If they are not held, the nation is no more.

[Stonepounder]

50. "If they are not held, the nation is no more."

That was the point I was trying to make. I'm not at all sure that our nation, as we know it, will survive the coming two years. If the GOP gets its way, in two years:

EPA - gone
State Dept - gone
Dept Ed - gone
National Endowments for Arts, Humanities and Corp for Public Broadcasting - gone
FDA -gone
HHS - gone
NTSB - gone
Federal Lands - sold
National Parks - sold
OSHA - gone
Medicaid - gone
Social Security - gone
Medicare - gone
NLRB - gone
FAA - gone

And so on. How long would it take to rebuild all of those agencies when there are no more public schools and no more Liberal Arts colleges? When all the institutional memory is gone? When the best and the brightest have moved to other countries where they can actually pursue scientific research and work on technology? When our streams and rivers are all polluted and undrinkable? When we have no idea what is in our food and drink?

That's what I am scared of. And I am just too damn old to try and move to another country. Not sure that I'll be able to afford to stay here either with no SS. <sigh>

[SCVDem]

43. We have fought wars

In places nobody heard of for people/corporations we don't care about.

Are we ready to fight and die at home for the same?

This will be 1864 messy if that's what it takes.

My USMC vow still stands!

Ahhh, could someone loan me a weapon?

[MineralMan]

44. You'd best get your own, I think.

I don't have any extras to loan.

[SCVDem]

46. I was an avionics tech.

I may live next to Van Nuys airport, but that doesn't help much.

I see an F 86.

[democrank]

53. We must use non-violent resistance in every way possible.

Put the pressure on and don't let up. Protests, marches, emails, letters to editors, petitions, yard and window signs, bumper stickers, social media, boycotts....anything legal and non-violent.

We can demand our representatives hold public meetings, answer our questions. We can protest with our wallets and refuse to spend money at any Trump-supporting business. We can get tough with our own leaders who enable Trump. We can, no matter how difficult it is to break the habit, stop watching Trump-supporting shows, and let those in charge know why.

It's power these people want, so we have to remind them we have the power to take it away.

Like Rachel Maddow says, watch what they do, not what they say.

Through all of this, please don't get so caught up that you lose sight of where our troops are being deployed.

[calimary]

59. You mention one VERY key question that needs to be kept CONSTANTLY in mind:

Who benefits from all of this?

With the latest Wikileaks release against the CIA.

With Michael Flynn's tosses and turns.

With the US Attorneys (particularly the New York guy).

With the gutting of the State Department.

With Rex Tillerson not taking any press with him to Asia.

With this whole dog 'n' pony show regarding "trump care".

With the STILL not released tax returns.

With the steady trails of breadcrumbs leading toward Russia.

And of course with ALL the Cabinet-level selections, who they are/what they're about/what's the connective tissue here?

With ANY of this.

WHO BENEFITS? It's almost like a Sorting Hat. Put it on like a thinking cap and be as objective as you can. WHO BENEFITS FROM THIS?

trump and who else?

[MineralMan]

60. Yes, that is the question.

I confess that I don't know exactly yet. I'm not connected to government stuff, and am short a lot of information that would be needed.

It's probably a corporate thing, or maybe it's the Russians who see an opportunity in all of this. But I don't know. We'll probably find out, eventually. I hope we don't find out by seeing everything go down the drain.

What is horribly sad, as far as I'm concerned, is that we could have prevented all of this, with just 100,000 more Democratic votes in three states. I can't tell you how depressing that is to me as a 71-year-old man. We failed to secure our nation out of spite, ennui or some other selfish nonsense.

I don't usually vent on this subject. It's too painful. I didn't think it would happen, but it did. I know why, but that's an unpopular thing to bring up on DU. I post a lot here, but I try to be politic in my opinions, at least as I express them here.

I couldn't be more disappointed with how things turned out. I don't know if I'll see them turn back around again. That saddens me more than I can say.

I do know that my patience with people who are playing apologist for Putin here on DU is at an end. That is all I will say about that.

[calimary]

62. You certainly speak for me, my friend.

I'm only a few years behind you, age-wise. I've felt all those same things you've described.

And I feel as though the next time I hear "but... but... but... you have to understand those poor trump supporters... " I may just explode. The answer to that one is "FUCKING HELL I DO!!!" I have to fight and struggle and strain, VERY hard, to find some compassion when I see the increasing numbers of stories about how "trumpcare" will hurt the trump-supporter demographic the most. Let's just say my search continues, unsuccessful so far.

[Kimchijeon]

63. I am with you.

[diva77]

64. One of the biggest elephants in the room is, as usual, being ignored

We have to dump the use of computers in the voting process -- whether it's DREs, optiscans, central tabulators -- they are all too easy to rig and impossible to audit legitimately. The hand counted paper ballot method of elections at the precinct level is the cleanest way to run elections - no system is perfect, but the rigging/mistakes/glitches are on a retail rather than wholesale level.

It is impossible to get "elected" officials on board with switching systems; county clerks and registrars are stubborn too. I remember they were all spewing the repub talking points back in 2005 when more election protection activists became aware of the blackboxes. You'd hear county clerks say things like "we need voting machines so that no body accidentally votes twice" -- stupidest, most crooked thing ever, blatantly faulty logic and an obvious trojan horse to bring about the installation of the election-stealing machinery.

These machines, besides not doing what they are supposed to do, are flimsy, costly, environmentally bad idea (toxic and must be replaced frequently); they are eating up budgets for elections and the $$ as usual, is going to private corporations. Our votes are held captive by secret software and are "tabulated" privately, while our anonymity is in question with the use of said machines (voting is supposed to be private, tabulation public -- exact opposite of what the computerized machines do)

And up 'til now, the Kochs had been unable to install a president; it is the Mercers -- the computer experts who got the unlikely candidate over the hump. Computerized voting could easily have been corrupted in 2016- as it has in many elections in the past.

These machines do not meet the burden of proof for running legitimate elections. Other than storming (peacefully) county supervisor meetings and flooding the secretary of state in your own state with phone calls & emails, I'm curious whether anyone else out there has some ideas...

I wonder whether there is a legal solution to remove this blight to our democracy?

[SunSeeker]

65. Dubya on steroids. Heckuva Job Brownie in every Department. nt

[cilla4progress]

66. It's the LOOTING

of America....

[DinahMoeHum]

69. With all due respect, MM, we start TODAY. In 2017. . .

. . .where local offices are up for election (ie. city, town, village, county positions, school boards, library boards).

People in those positions often become the state and national representatives of 2018, 2020, 2022, etc.

The bench has to be rebuilt, and campaign people have to be trained.

[FakeNoose]

72. The State Dept. layoffs/firings must be stopped immediately

Rachel Maddow on her shows of 3/8/17 and 3/9/17 has pinpointed the massive firings at the US State Dept.
They've been orchestrated by Sec. Rex Tilleson, who has known ties to the Putin regime and the Russian government.

The irreparable damage to our State Dept. will lead to the weakening of the USA in the eyes of the world.
It's exactly what Putin wants, and it's a quid pro quo for fixing the election and putting Donald Trump in office.

Wake up America!

--- ---

[MineralMan]

73. How do you suggest we stop that?

Trump's in the White House and the Republicans control the Senate. We missed our chance to prevent it already. The best we can hope to do is retake control of the Senate in 2018.