Look For A New Shutdown As Impeachment Noose Tightens Around Trump's Orange Neck

"I will shut down the government again if the Dems do not stop impeachment!"

In the wake of the passage of the resolution for the House impeachment rules yesterday, too many have forgotten that a series of high priority federal decisions lay ahead - touching on every aspect of the government and beyond.  In particular, the chances for a government shutdown before Thanksgiving loom much larger given zero progress reported on any of the 12 key spending bills.  These actually expired one month go but have been given a temporary extension until November 21st.

As this goes on the risk grows with each passing week and day of a shutdown and one that would be far more sweeping then the 35 day partial shutdown earlier this year.

Besides the spending bills, other laws are expiring or lapsing and require attention and appropriate action. These include:

- The National Defense Authorization Act which sets Pentagon policy (approved every year since 1946)

- An ensemble of tax break bills, ranging from the health care industry (medical devices' tax) to paid family leave, all of which will expire on December 31st.

- A World Trade Organization appellate body ceases to exist unless approved for extension.


Alas, for many,  each of these is seen as separate from the House Democrats impeachment of Trump. But not for Dotard and his brash enablers. Despite  Repukes like Kevin McCarthy yammering for the Dems to "trust the people instead" (i.e. in the general election) any one with an IQ above moron knows if left to his own devices - with no oversight- Trump will be emboldened to do even more pernicious damage to the Republic. At least impeachment forces the mutt to lawyer up and focus on the impending open hearings and the eventual Senate trial to remove his orange ass.

For Trump himself, however, there is no assurance he sees the bills' passage as separate from impeachment.  This is given he tends to see critical issues as one large negotiation - linking together seemingly disparate threads and issues into one "legislative ball of wax"  in the parlance of one WaPo columnist.   A specific indicator of that and of how unfit this human swine is to hold office - any office - was spotlighted in his Dallas rally 2 weeks ago.

We know already that the man has zero interest in working (like Obama did for 10 hrs./day)  - and rallies provide him with a kind of ersatz "oxygen " to energize his dementia- afflicted brain.  Also,  a ready made excuse to get out of DC and the impeachment spotlight. - while railing against the Dems and his other enemies seen  (e.g. Never Trumpers)  and unseen ("the Deep state" in his febrile, CT brain).  At that Big D rally we beheld his return to all his greatest hits, each reeled off in a couple hours of irrational whining and loathsome, unpresidential behavior.

By last week Sunday, even his tweeting, Fox TV watching and other goldbricking became old hat so he had to get his staff to gin up the takedown of al-Baghdadi to start looking "presidential" again.  Never mind it was mostly a PR stage show and the raid on the Isis head was accomplished more despite Trump than because of any substantive contribution. See e.g.

Foreign Policy

The Baghdadi Scam

by Margaret Kimberley | October 31, 2019 - 5:45am | permalink

Excerpt:

"The corporate media, Democrats and Republicans all joined in celebrating Baghdadi’s reported demise. Even those who count how often Trump tells lies suddenly expressed complete confidence in the version of events. Once again we see the embrace of Trump by the so-called resistance if he adheres to imperialist orthodoxy. The same man who they claim to want to impeach suddenly gets praise as he did when he launched an attack on Syria in 2017. The man mocked as a buffoon can be seen as “presidential” if he kills or even claims to kill people in a far away land.." 

With the impeachment process now fully formalized, and hearings likely to begin by the middle of this month, Trump's ratlike,  cornered behavior is likely to worsen, and no matter how much his Repuke stooges (like McCarthy, Jim Jordan and Lindsey  Graham) grovel and kiss ass, he won't be satisfied.   Thus many congressional leaders worry that Captain Bonepurs might use any of the must pass bills as hostages to try and gain leverage against an impending impeachment.

My take is the probability is very high it could happen with an unstable sociopath and authoritarian like Trump in the Oval office.  All sentient citizens need to be paying attention to what happens to the above cited bills as the Nov. 21 deadline approaches. We may well be seeing another shutdown and just before Christmas.


See also:

• Republicans claim that Tim Morrison's testimony exonerated Trump, they couldn't be more wrong 

And:

Government | Republicans

Shutdown, Impeachment: Welcome to the Beginning of Another Crappy Holiday Season Courtesy of the GOP

Excerpt:

"Republicans are at the political positioning/finger-pointing stage of budget negotiations, ahead of a potential government shutdown in a few weeks. While Congress approved a budget for the next fiscal year before the August recess, it didn't pass the necessary spending bills allocating the money. The stop-gap funding bill it also passed last month is going to expire on Nov. 21, after which there are three possible scenarios, only two of which are feasible. The Congress could pass and Donald Trump could sign all of the 12 appropriations bills. That's not going to happen. The two real scenarios: another stop-gap bill going until Christmas or into the new year, or a shutdown."

Ann Coulter Admits To Being "A Stupid Girl" To Bill Maher- And Why There Won't Be Another Shutdown In Three Weeks

Incredibly,  harpy and Right extremist bomb thrower Ann Coulter admitted on 'Real Time' in front of millions to being a "very stupid girl".   Well, we knew that already.  Here's how the interview's key segment went.  The White Nationalist Harpy Hag began by telling host Bill Maher how it was “crazy”  that she expected Trump “to keep the promise” to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border that he’d made “every day for 18 months.”

Maher:  "You voted for him, Donald Trump, and now you’re finding out he’s a lying conman. What was your first clue?”

Coulter: “OK, I’m a very stupid girl, fine.”

Well, at least she's finally admitted it. And yeah, there are worse things than brainless blonde viragos  who spout xenophobic venom.  There are racist, xenophobic presidents who have no clue how to do the job and mainly seek to inspire fear and hatred.  But Coulter and her devolved ilk are bad enough and emblematic of what's wrong with the Right wing in this country who seek to rule by fear and lies.  Coulter herself last night pumped out the usual bilge, i.e. that illegal immigration is actually favored by the ultra-rich Koch-level Republicans, asserting:

“They want cheap nannies."

Maybe some do but that misses the larger point: That American businesses, from landscaping, to restaurants in need of kitchen help to crabbers (in Maryland), to agricultural operations in California, , are finding that there aren't the American workers to do the jobs needed.  I repeat, the Americans.  Given the Trump cabal has cut immigration quotas, many businesses have been left to chase the labor they need via lotteries. But these seldom deliver the numbers needed to meet demand, so often the businesses - like lobster distributors in Maine, or CA  fruit grower- have to shutter, or let crops rot.  As a result, productivity is lost, and GDP  takes a hit

From another perspective we beheld the federal shutdown of the last 35 days which cost millions of paid-hours in economic activity and still is!  The reason is that very few of the media reported about the lost income of the federal contractors, only the 800,000 core federal employees (IRS agents, TSA screeners, FDA inspectors etc.)   But as Paul C. Light noted (WSJ, 'The Hidden Cost of a Government Shutdown',  December 28, p. A15):  "There are two federal workforces, the contractors and the regular federal workers."   For perspective, these include no fewer than "1.2 million grantees and 4 million full time contractors."   

So even as regular American business activity has contracted on account of not enough immigrant workers to do the jobs needed, so also has there been a massive economic stagnation and contraction arising from millions of federal workers not receiving pay the past month.  This lack of income has directly affected the communities in which they live, from which they purchase groceries, or pay rent or whatever.

Coulter,  earlier in the day yesterday, tweeted that Trump was “the biggest wimp ever to serve” as president, after he agreed to reopen the federal government for three weeks without having convinced Congress to fund the wall.

Let's recall here it was Coulter (along with Rush Limbaugh) who had not only advised  Trump to shut down the government in order to fund his border wall pet project but called him out when he caved Friday.  That cave in to Pelosi and the Dems saw her branding Dotard (her former "god")  “the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States.”  

Even before these latest insults,  Trump either blocked or unfollowed Coulter on Twitter in December 2018 after she called him “gutless.” Many political observers claim Trump believes Coulter represents his base, which she alluded to her in her sit-down with Maher, and that her views can affect his decisions.  (Well, they did in December, after having agreed to a continuing resolution to keep the gov't open, he acceded to the vitriol of Coulter, Limbaugh & Co. and scrapped the deal-- leading to the shutdown.

Obviously, this means the putative leader, the president of this once powerful nation, is a slave boy to Right wing loons. He's prepared to do their bidding -  go over board for them - even shutting the government down for 35 days - to pander to them.

Will it happen again on February 15th?  No way in hell, and even today's WSJ editorial ('After The Shutdown Fiasco',  p. A12) admits:

"Trump's problem is that he is still largely at Ms. Pelosi's mercy.   He said Friday that without the money for his wall he'd shut the government down again in three weeks or declare a national emergency himself.

Trump would be blamed for another shutdown and an emergency declaration would be enjoined by the courts or set a precedent that the next President could exploit to go around the GOP."

In other words, 'game, set, match', Trump and the Trumpers lose. And no, there will be no future round in which they win. Not now, not ever.  Their best bet is to keep the government open, do the work of government and the people- i.e. governing - and cease the terrorist hostage taking, narcissist theatrics and bad faith.  They aren't going to get the better of Nancy Pelosi, who basically schooled these reprobates on the extent of her powers and how they can be skillfully used - especially against a know nothing, bombastic buffoon.

Despite these realities, the Trump nativist xenophobes remain enthralled and obsessed with half-baked notions of retribution and that "it is too early to declare victory".   Actually, it's just the right time.

These nitwits can't seem to process that the debacle their brainiac mutt caused is still a rolling disaster which will take weeks, months to play out, as millions of the federal contractors are still feeling the pain. Unlike the regular 800,000 federal workforce they get no back pay - so they are now (many if not most) in hock up to their eyeballs for utility bills, medical needs as well as rent and mortgage payments.

Will the (sentient, sane) American populace tolerate another shutdown after the spectacle of pain they've beheld in the just concluded one?  Absolutely not. And Trump also knows if he tries it his disapproval numbers will tank even further, to levels unseen even for Nixon in the Watergate era. In a word it would be political suicide. He knows it, his staff knows it and his fawning toadies and groupies know it, not matter what manner of bilge and bollocks they spout on Sunday talk shows.

As for the State of the union, it still should not go on for Tuesday night, all Peggy Noonan's mawkish sermonizing ('The State of the Union Is Missing', WSJ, p. A13) notwithstanding.  The pain is still too unbearable- feelings too raw, especially after the spectacle of federal workers in breadlines (even as asshole Wilbur Ross divulged on CNBC he "couldn't understand why they just didn't take out loans").  Besides, Dotard - the imp and swine that he is - would still use the occasion to bloviate more lies out of his ass, and attack Pelosi and the Dems.  There is no reason on god's green earth to commit the unforced error of giving him a national stage to lick his wounds in front of his deplorables as he attacks the rest of us.

 Besides, technically the government still hasn't opened for good.  Let's see how the next three weeks play out and whether Trump is an honest broker before giving him the Capitol bldg for the SOTU.

See also:

Donald Trump | Government

Trump Folds on Shutdown After Yet Another Historically Bad Week

AND:

Conservatives and the Right | Donald Trump

The Fractured Right. Thanks, Donald.

by P.M. Carpenter | January 27, 2019 - 7:54am | permalink

The Moral Hazard Of Appeasing Trump - And Why Pelosi Is Correct To "Disinvite" Him To The House For SOTU

The  Swine and thug holding the nation hostage must not be rewarded for his terrorism.  Nancy Pelosi is correct to disinvite him to the House for the State of the Union - and no 'security' pretext is needed. If he wants to deliver it, let him either drop his terrorist extortion - or do so from a Senate backroom toilet.

"There have been many policy disasters over the course of U.S. history. It’s hard, however, to think of a calamity as gratuitous, an error as unforced, as the current federal shutdown.

Nor can I think of another disaster as thoroughly personal, as completely owned by one man. When Donald Trump told Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, “I will be the one to shut it down,” he was being completely accurate — although he went on to promise that “I’m not going to blame you for it,” which was a lie."  Paul Krugman,  'Donald Trump and His Team Of Morons', NY Times

"Trump is not entirely to blame.  The United States Senate could take up legislation that it passed just a few weeks ago, that they thought was a good idea, to open government and continue this debate over how we exercise border security. Why not do that? I blame the Senate. I blame those who are essentially handing over their responsibility to the president. Mitch McConnell has made Donald Trump the majority leader of the United States Senate. -  Rep. Dan Kildee (MI), last night on 'All In'.

"Donald Trump has apparently outsourced his presidency to the notoriously anti-immigrant Ann Coulter, as she bragged about it in an interview last night."  - Chris Hayes on 'All In' last night

According to the Wikipedia online encyclopedia, "moral hazard" is defined as arising:

" When an individual or institution does not take the full consequences and responsibilities for its actions, and therefore has a tendency to act less carefully than it otherwise would, leaving another party to hold some responsibility for the consequences of those actions"

For example, if after days of pleading for "a few extra bucks",  I were to lend a friend $40, and he used it for gambling at a Sports Book, then: a) he isn't accepting the full consequences of his own poor money management and decisions, and b) he will treat my $40 less carefully say - than if he was really down to his last nickel and had to go and earn that money, in say five hours of 'sweat equity' flipping burgers at Mickey D's.

In addition, he leaves me holding some of the responsibility for his ill-chosen actions, since I am enabling them by giving him money! Thus, I am countenancing moral hazard and he is ensnared via my own ill-considered decision to "help" him to dodge full responsibility for his own individual choices.

The situation becomes more desperate and pregnant with moral hazard if - after being denied a loan- he vows to jump in front of a passing car.  He's now ratcheted up the stakes and worse, tried to  take me hostage, by putting the onus on me for his living, or not.

In a real way, he's no longer a friend but has become a psychological extortionist - even terrorist-  instead. 

This is no different to what Trump is doing now with this federal shutdown - except he is promising to take the whole nation with him as he dives off the precipice   And already we see the risk markers in abundance, as 40,000 Coast Guard members are now without paychecks along with TSA screeners,  air traffic controllers,  IRS employees and many others. Many of these are now having to visit food pantries, and a mere weeks from being evicted from homes or apartments.

Should this piece of pseudo-presidential shit be rewarded with a State of the Union address in the House of Representatives, where he can sashay in as if nothing is wrong and be accorded a respect he doesn't merit? Worse, be granted the media stage to belch the lie that "The State of the Union is sound, blah blah..."  Absolutely not! He must not be given the time to grandstand for his derelict base, his sycophants, and his overseers in the Reich media machine - namely Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh.

This is the same reason the Dems must never yield to this degenerate and give billions for his fucking, stupid border wall. Because as one Dem Senator confided to MSNBC's Chris Hayes: "We won't move. We cannot. If this works for Trump the country will border on ungovernable."  Meaning,   having won in this hostage taking showdown he will use the same game of shutdown 'chicken' again and again, i.e. when the debt ceiling deliberations come up or for any other appropriations bill.   In Times' columnist Michelle Goldberg's take, "Trump would be completely unbound in using this tool".  

It would be as if my 'friend' used the "suicide or gimme a loan" gambit every time on me. To unplug the moral hazard my only option is to tell the friend, 'do what you want, I am not lending you a red cent'.  In the same way, Dems cannot give Trump and his Reich cohort a dime for his mythical wall to embolden them to shut the government down in the next budget kerfuffle.

Thus, no matter how much devastating crap is going on Trump must not be appeased !  It is true there is increasing collateral damage from Trump's political terror and  hostage taking. We know 800,000 federal employees are either at home or working without pay on "furlough", but that's merely the tip of the iceberg.  Another 3-4 million contract workers are also not being paid.  Whole towns - like Ogden, Utah - are also being adversely affected and may have to pull back services because tax receipts are vanishing since their resident federal workers can't spend without incomes. 

While I can certainly sympathize with all of these Trump victims, they are basically in the same position as hostages taken by a demented terrorist.  Sadly, this terrorist cannot be rewarded any more than if it was a high level ISIS vermin who'd taken prisoners.  That means, above all, the Democrats cannot give into his insane demands, not now, not ever.  However long this thing drags on, it is up to Trump and the Republicans to end it.   

How bad can things get?  Yesterday's Denver Post featured a litany of the ills that are yet to come if this shutdown lasts beyond February, including:

- 38 million losing their food stamps when the SNAP program runs aground from lack of funding.  This loss of food stamp funding alone would strip at least 0.53% from the GDP.

-The Department of Housing and Urban Development  has said it will not be able to renew 1, 150 rental assistance contracts with private land lords that expired in December.  This means tens of thousands could be shoved into the streets.

-  Another 550 rental assistance contract expire in February affecting an additional 16,000 households.

- By March, subsidies for the great majority of contracts will end jeopardizing the vouchers (e.g. Sec. 8) used by 2.2 million low income households. This according to Sharon Parrott, a senior fellow at the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities.

- By end of March TSA screeners may walk off their jobs en masse leaving thousands of flight cancellations in their wake, especially if joined by the air traffic controllers (who have already filed a lawsuit against Trump's government.)    

 This little gem has already been dropped into the meme pool, as Robert Costa reported in the WaPo.  Costa noted a couple of Republican lawmakers confided that "the only way this breaks open is if TSA workers stay home and Americans get furious about their flights".  Well, maybe a certain class of Americans, the business passengers, as the WSJ reported last week.

As Sam Berger, a senior adviser at the Center for American Progress,  observed:  "Shutdowns don't get bad linearly, they get bad exponentially, the longer they go on."    

The problem is that too many of the conservo  persuasion are unable to process exponential increase, another reason they fail to grasp the peril of climate change-  which manifestations can increase exponentially, e.g. with forcing factors.

And smiling and gloating behind all the pain is the venomous, extremist bitch,  Ann Coulter, proud of the havoc she's wrought.  Coulter bragged in a VICE-TV interview she's been in regular communication with Trump  on Twitter. She actually confided to the reporter that she has him by the balls and regularly orders him to "play this out and focus on immigration."   Her own words from the interview:

"I've  been advising the president in my columns and in  my Twitter conversations -  that you're not allowed to know about  -   to play this out. To keep it focused on immigration.  As long as people are talking about immigration you are winning, Mr. President. But whatever happens, just build the wall."

Asked why Dotard's digging his heels in, Coulter replies:

"It's self preservation. Because he is dead in the water if he doesn't build that wall. Dead, dead, dead."

In other words, Donnie Dotard has become Ann Coulter's perpetual bitch.  As for all the federal workers impacted by the shutdown, many now having to turn to food pantries, the harpy had this to say to the VICE-TV reporter:

"It's very silly for the Democrats to hold up funding the government while they're weeping about federal employees with benefits: retirement plans, and vacation and sick leaves better than anyone watching this program has." 

In other words, dismissing and denigrating all those federal workers, many of whom literally have her life in their hands. So much for gratitude.

Let me reiterate again that it is standard procedure among most law enforcement agencies not to reward terrorists or hostage takers with payouts.  That now includes Ann Coulter who seems to be dictating Trump's every move - if we are to believe her.  The reason is simple: Though the refusal to give in may likely cost lives, it is much worse to reward such vile behavior and encourage further hostage taking, terror in the future.  The exact same holds true with the current domestic terrorist named Donald Drumpf occupying the Oval Office. The selfsame mutt threatening all manner of mayhem - and even trying to blame the Dems for the deaths of two migrant kids.

Look, if this asshole truly wanted a wall for "security" - as political commentator Ezra Klein noted three weeks ago-   he'd have signed off on the $25 billion offered in 2017 as part of a DACA deal. He didn't do that, crapping all over the deal instead after the Right's screech monkeys blew a gasket.  Just like barely 3 weeks ago he saw himself  harshly criticized in the Reich media  by Limbuagh, Coulter, Ingraham & company and then turned around and crapped on a CR that was already voted on by 100-0 in the Senate and which he'd agreed to! He rejected the continuing resolution because a gaggle of right wing lowbrow apes and blowhards went apoplectic and called  him "gutless".    

The most amusing aspect is how the Trump terrorists are claiming Pelosi's disinvite move is a sign of "weakness" because she's afraid of giving Trump a mammoth media stage to "gain advantage". Well, true, but the issue is  gaining advantage by spewing lies, now approaching the 7,000 level according to the WaPo lie counter.   That said, the REAL weakness is on the Trump and McConnell hostage taking side, given they are now trying to split the House Dems - to no avail. (See e.g. 'White House Fails To Split Democrats'. WSJ,  yesterday, p. A5).  In addition, we know the Trump hostage takers are aware this "wall" is something most Americans - the sensible faction - don't want (cf.  'Trump's Pinned To A Wall Few Americans Want', WSJ,  p. A15, by William Galston). 

As Galston wrote at the end of his column: "The art of the deal isn't bludgeoning everyone else into submission. It's providing them incentives to give you what you value most."    

What Trump should be valuing most is not his  nutso  fantasy "wall" but his whole economy as well as the stock market he constantly brags about. As this shutdown insanity goes on and the collateral damage multiplies, chipping away at retail sales and shaking consumer confidence, he is looking at a major recession by year's end if not sooner.  Jamie Dimon has already predicted a zero growth in GDP this quarter and other financial experts assert we are looking into the maw of a financial disaster rivaling the one in 2008 if Dotard doesn't come to his senses.  

In the meantime, my only advice to Nancy Pelosi would be to drop the "security" ruse about stalling the State of the Union. Just come right out and say Dotard is NOT invited to the People's House until and unless he drops the terrorist hostage taking. Look at it this way, Nancy, we do not reward terrorists in the country - whether of the Isis brand or domestic ones like Trump, Ann Coulter and Mitch McConnell.

See also:

• Ninja Nancy Pelosi is on a roll. Her letter to Trump is more proof 

And:

Republicans

A Short and Future History of Republican Poopery

Other Voices On The Trump- GOP Shutdown - And Why Republicans Merit Much Blame Too

Other voices, their takes on the ongoing shutdown, and why Republican cowards also deserve much of the blame:

Donald Trump | Republicans

The Republican Party Is a Pack of Cowards

by William Rivers Pitt | January 16, 2019 - 7:28am | permalink

— from Truthout

Excerpt:

"Let me see if I have this straight: Over the course of this past weekend, the president of the United States of America was exposed as being the target of a 2017 counter-intelligence investigation by the FBI. The FBI initiated its unprecedented investigation after Donald Trump fired then-Director James Comey but before Robert Mueller was tapped to begin his own investigation, because the agency feared the president might be working for the Russian government.

Hours later, The Washington Post revealed that Trump has made a practice of confiscating notes taken by the translators during meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and furthermore sworn those translators to absolute secrecy: Not even officials within Trump’s own investigation were allowed to see what he and Putin had discussed.

“As a result,” reported The Post, “US officials said there is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trump’s face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader at five locations over the past two years. Such a gap would be unusual in any presidency, let alone one that Russia sought to install through what US intelligence agencies have described as an unprecedented campaign of election interference.”

Yeah, no, that’s not at all creepy. It all sounds exactly as innocent as Jared Kushner attempting to open back-channel communications with Russian officials during the 2017 transition, with Kushner suggesting they use Russian diplomatic facilities and equipment in order to try and thwart National Security Agency monitoring. Exactly as not creepy as that.

Another week, another barrage of horrors from the White House, and still the Republicans in Congress and the party apparatus refuse to say or do anything that could so much as ruffle the coif of Russia’s favorite TV star. Even the faintest peeps of displeasure are muffled now that senators like Bob Corker and Jeff Flake have gone home to lick their wounds.

I swear to Dog, some days it feels like Trump will have to plant a “WE HEART RUSSIA” billboard on the White House roof and then actually shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue before any Republicans in Congress get around to taking this situation seriously. Trump is not morally, ethically, temperamentally or intellectually fit to be allowed within 1,000 yards of the White House. Even his possession of those official White House M&Ms should be deemed a major national security threat; if he has them, it means he’s been in the building, and that is unacceptable on its face."

       

Cody Fenwick

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Donald Trump | Economic Policy | Government

New Report Says Trump’s Shutdown Is Even Worse than We Thought — and It Could Send Us into Recession

Excerpt:

"It was obvious from the start that President Donald Trump’s rash decision to shut down the federal government was callous, destructive, and strategically obtuse. But a new report from the New York Times late Tuesday night revealed that the shutdown will be much more economically harmful than initially believed — and the White House knows it.

The White House confirmed, the Times reported, that it had originally underestimated the negative economic impact of the shutdown, which Trump has said could last for months or “even years.” In light of these more negative predictions, the shutdown itself could cause the economy to contract, according to the report."

Chuck Collins

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Economic Policy

The Government Shutdown Expands the Ranks of ‘Underwater Nation’

by Chuck Collins | January 16, 2019 - 6:51am | permalink

Excerpt:

"The shutdown is a Trump-made disaster, with an estimated 420,000 “essential workers” required to show up for work without a paycheck. They have full-time responsibilities, which makes finding another part-time job nearly impossible.

Another 380,000 federal workers have been furloughed, including Coast Guard employees that are being encouraged to take on babysitting gigs and organize garage sales. They saw their last paycheck on December 22 and are scrambling to pay rent, mortgages, alimony, and credit card bills, let alone the groceries.

The average federal employee isn’t wealthy, taking home a weekly paycheck of $500, according to American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing affected workers.

The vulnerability they feel isn’t unusual. A majority of the U.S. population is living with very little by way of a savings cushion."

P.M. Carpenter

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Conservatives and the Right | Donald Trump

Right-Wing Lunacy in Everyday Practice

by P.M. Carpenter | January 16, 2019 - 7:04am | permalink

Excerpt:

"The Washington Post reports what we all suspected: that Trump & Friends' government shutdown is about much more than a wall; it's about the right-wing thrill of watching the federal government get gutted.

"Prominent advisers to the president have forged their political careers in relentless pursuit of a lean federal budget and a reined-in bureaucracy," writes the Post. "As a result, they have shown a high tolerance for keeping large swaths of the government dark [and] services offline."

The more remarkable line in the Post's reporting, however, is this bit of Hayekian whimsy: "The shutdown has in some ways underscored their view that government can function with fewer employees."

 

 

Donald Trump | Social Justice and Activism

The Clemson Kids: They Could Have Taken a Knee

by Jaime O'Neill | January 16, 2019 - 7:12am | permalink

 

Excerpt:

"They could have taken a knee, those boys from Clemson, invited to the White House for yet another of the photo-op stunts All-Drama Donald stages with such stunning regularity. And "stunning" is the precise word for what these stunts have done to a nation that is wandering around, dazed and confused, stunned to imbecility by the unending barrage of bullshit, shell-shocked by the incoming rounds we're bombarded with daily, from Giuliani, from McConnell, from Sarah Huckabee Sanders, from the incessant fog of poison gas from Fox and right wing media from coast to coast"