Everyone knows that Donnie Dimbulb’s shut down of a large portion of the Government is another stupid negotiation strategy: a distraction to his mounting legal troubles; and impending investigations by Mueller and several House committees. Nancy Pelosi has him by the proverbial balls and he doesn’t know how to respond except to scream louder and take Federal ‘employees’ hostages that have nothing to do with the issue.
Never-mind, that this leaves 800,000 employees, and their family’s, without an income; and is impacting others receiving Federal aid along with contractors. As hostages, they are supposed to whimper and cry, but do nothing more. As it progresses, the shutdown begins to slop over into other government functions; like aid to the poor and disabled.
The finger is pointed at Trump and McConnell, and they are in no small measure responsible for starting and maintaining it. And, as it goes on, it will only get worse for us, the public. Declaring a National Emergency will gain nothing for them and only muddy the waters further. If Donnie wants a wall; lets build one around the White House and seal him in. It’s far cheaper.
However. the Lions share of the blame goes to Right Wing Radio: Primarily Fatty Rush Limbaugh, Scrawny Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity, along with Laura Ingraham, Fox News and other Right WIng Nut Jobs. They have Trump’s ear (he’s deaf to everyone else) and he acts on their comments. Stephanie Ruhle at MSNBC commented that Trump won’t budge on the shutdown because Scrawny Annie might call him a weenie. Barney Frank on Jan 17 Real Time with Bill Maher noted ” that Limbaugh and Coulter have more influence on Trump than Congress.”
Since they are his principal access to his base, he’s going to do whatever ‘they’ say. “Employees, who needs ‘em’” is their mantra and Donnie Dimbulb dutifully obeys. They can bleat all they want on the airwaves at little cost because they have no skin in the game. It’s time to give them some. There’s a legal concept:
Your right to swing your fist stops where my nose starts
To paraphrase
Your right to shoot your mouth off ends where my livelihood starts
In order for the employees to ‘win’ this battle they need to engage the real enemy: the RWNJ’s shown above. However, to really make an impact they need use a more old fashioned method: THE MAILED LETTER. An article by AP sets the biweekly loss for an average employee at $1,480. for the pay period that just ended. That’s $1.2 billion removed from the economy in just 2 weeks and climbing fast.
What is required is a physical address: Residence and/or business, where letters can be sent. Addresses, if posted on their websites are probably agents or mail drops, so some research is necessary. Fatty lives in Palm Beach FL, and Scrawny is in West Palm Beach, FL. Not sure of the location of the others? If you find one, post it here. Let’s give the employees some help and assistance.
OK, as a hostage, what do you send them? For starter’s: An Invoice for services unable to be rendered to the American public. Here’s a sample Invoice Format. Modify, expand and embellish as you wish:
Your Name (optional)
Agency
State, Zip
Fatty (Find address)
Scrawny “
cc Republican Senator’s/Rep (optional)
INVOICE
For Services (list duties) unable to be rendered for the period from (December 18, 2018 to January 4, 2019) at (agency) in City, State? (Detail as necessary)
Salary $1,480.00*
Interest(1%) -0-
Total $1,480.00
Total now due and payable immediately $1,480.00.
*Use Gross salary — no deductions. 1% int/pay period
___________________________________
Add any comments or criticisms of them on a separate page.
Do this every week, adding 1% interest to the total.
Why mail, not e-mail? One word — VOLUME. A standard long letter ~3.5” X 9” (1-3 pages) takes up about 2 CI (cubic inches). 800,000 letters is 909 CF (cubic feet) packed. A 20-foot shipping container is about 1360 CF. Or 4 dump trucks is ~1080 CF. Visualize a dump truck unloading every other day at Fatty’s and Scrawny’s residence/business. They can’t just discard it, because is mixed in with their regular mail. SO! They have to open and evaluate every one. And that takes time, and money. In contrast, an e-mail can be deleted in seconds. Give them skin in the game whether they like it or not.
If everyone affected by the shutdown sends a letter a week to each of them; how long will it be before they decide that — maybe — continuing to hype the shutdown is more than its worth. They endlessly rant about their ‘right’ to free speech, with no consideration to the lives of anyone else, and it probably includes even some of their devout worshipers. You, citizen/employee/hostage, have the freedom of the press that you can exercise. (That pesky First Amendment to the Constitution). It’s time to make the cost more than they can afford.
A letter a week makes a RWNJ freak.