US Politics January 2018: "You All Just Got A Lot Richer"

Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border. They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018

This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present. #DemocratShutdown

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018

For those asking, the Republicans only have 51 votes in the Senate, and they need 60. That is why we need to win more Republicans in 2018 Election! We can then be even tougher on Crime (and Border), and even better to our Military & Veterans!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018

#AMERICA FIRST!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018

the Republican "no"s btw:

Arizona

Sen. Jeff Flake, Republican: NO

Kentucky

Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican: NO
Sen. Rand Paul, Republican: NO

South Carolina

Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican NO

Utah

Sen. Mike Lee, Republican: NO

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/20/politics/senate-vote-government-shutdown/index.html

the Way he misuses Capitals makes me Want to jam a Screwdriver in my Ear

McConnell's no is procedural, I think

Dems need to loudly get out in front of this and lay this firmly at the feet of the Idiot in Chief, who has called for a shutdown in the recent past, who has destroyed seemingly bipartisan prospects for compromise and who, most importantly, has yet to make a clear case for what it is he wants, exactly. Don't let him dodge. They even have GOP colleagues on record confused about his position.

Anyway, who cares about a shutdown. Even when government's working it's barely working, so where's the harm in working less. Send these dummies to their room and make them think about what they've done.

government shutdown bonus: if it's still going on Tuesday 1/30 then donnie dodges a bullet ~ no 'state of the union' address?

Dems will absolutely not get out in front of this and I suspect I’ll take a lot of the blame in a way that’s typically been laid at the feet of GOP in previous shutdowns.

Their messaging is absolute shit.

suspect *will take

All they have to say is put Graham/Durbin up for a vote.

All they have to say is put a clean bill up for a vote, on DACA, on CHIP, on all sorts of stuff.

But that won't happen, because the House GOP won't go for it, and McConnell won't put it up for a vote for any of it up in the Senate (despite support) in a show of misguided solidarity. Don't really see how this resolves, given the Dem distrust of the WH, the right-tilt of the house and the disingenuousness of the GOP senate. I do think Dems will take the heat, but no more so than the GOP ("both sides!"), but I think Trump will get hit the hardest.

And per the Times, in a few months people will have forgotten it ever happened.

I won't blame you will <3

In the meantime, I hope people turn out in force today. I know many of my family and friends will be marching.

I don't know -- Schumer looks and sounds mad here. It could be performative anger but whatever

thank u Evan you were the only one

Again, seriously don't get it. There are people in charge of government agencies right now who have pledged in the past to destroy the very agencies they are running. There are countless unfilled positions in the government, and other places (like State and Justice) reportedly shedding staff at historic rates and unable to hire. Add to that an inability to govern, from the chief executive down, and the government has sort of been operating in de facto semi-shutdown mode for months.

Why do I have a terrible feeling this shutdown is gonna last a lot longer than the other ones?

― Mr. Snrub

does this mean we're going to get a Long Parliament?

he's not misusing Capitals, merely imparting Divinity

plz someone Dispatch the Shitbrain

is that like Releasing the Kraken?

let's find out

I’m signing all my pin pads with FUCK TRUMP or FUCK PENCE from now on. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this earlier.

You should too

Also, can we just have a “rolling fuck this newspaper” thread

Schumer putting the knife in: "Negotiating with President Trump is like negotiating with Jell-O."

Damn.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/369824-trump-nation-reach-end-of-exhausting-first-year

The American Psychological Association (APA) suggests Trump and the media-fueled battles around him are literally stressing the country out.

It found that the most common stressor cited by Americans in 2017 was “the future of our nation.” It outpaced the usual leader, money.

People who watch the news rarely get a break from stories about Trump, a sign that cable news continues to get eyeballs by broadcasting about the president.

The APA suggested the coverage is almost addictive.

A whopping 95 percent of respondents in the APA study said they follow the news regularly, even though more than half said it causes them greater stress.

Social media users are more likely to report stress than people who do not use the platforms.

xp the art of the congeal

Had dinner with a couple of social workers last night, and they confirmed. They have detected a serious uptick in anxiety and stress of their patients thanks to Trump.

News reports have the Women's March in Chicago at numbers equal to or greater than last year's.

Their messaging is absolute shit.

I wonder how many Dem reps think this:

A shift in the Dem message:
IL Dem Rep Gutierrez: "It’s not about a wall. We’ll build him a wall. Tell us how high you want it. But free the dreamers"

— Deirdre Walsh (@deirdrewalshcnn) January 20, 2018

dems have been clumsy about "the wall" messaging since trump first brought it up in the campaign, already ceding him the territory when trying to debate him on whether "mexico will pay for it" rather than tossing it off as a ridiculous idea in the first place

rather than tossing it off as a ridiculous idea in the first place

as I recall, it was derided as a ridiculous idea from the start. somehow this didn't make any difference to the people who responded positively to it. or negatively. the problem is that getting all democrats to align to a uniform message is impossible.

I think every single person involved is operating with a different definition of "wall."

This is maddening, standard Dem negotiating skillz.

And why is Schumer publicly copping to putting a wall on the table in WH meeting? If there's anything to learn from your opposition here it's STFU

Anyway, who cares about a shutdown. Even when government's working it's barely working, so where's the harm in working less. Send these dummies to their room and make them think about what they've done.

Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018

xpost I was somewhat serious. I've read a few faq styled prefers, and aside from general inconveniences and museum closings what is the biggest impact of a government shutdown, at least in the short term? My point was essentially, at least initially, that huge chunks of the government are currently being dismantled, and are definitely understaffed, with countless positions left unfilled, seemingly on purpose. How is that much different from a shutdown? The important stuff continues to work, because it is important. And everybody always gets paid when it is over. Every single facet of the current Administration is working against itself, so why not be glad they are forced to do it less?

enjoy your march ladies, we appreciate the compliment!

what is the biggest impact of a government shutdown, at least in the short term?

This is like saying breaking your leg doesn't kill you, and after it mends you can walk around just as much as you did before.

In the 2013 shutdown, the effects of the furloughs and other shutdowns in government activity included:

Tax refunds totaling almost $4 billion were delayed.
The Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program went unfunded.
Federal research activities at the National Institutes of Health (which lost about three-quarters of its employees), the National Science Foundation (which lost 98 percent of its workforce), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (which lost two-thirds) shut down nearly entirely; the CDC scaled back its monitoring of disease outbreaks.
Environmental Protection Agency inspections halted at 1,200 locations.
The Food and Drug Administration delayed approval of drugs and medical devices.
The national parks shut down, resulting in $500 million in lost consumer spending from tourism.
Reviews of veterans’ disability applications slowed to a halt, with nearly 20,000 applications per week not being evaluated.

https://www.vox.com/2018/1/19/16910986/government-shutdown-what-shuts-down-exempt-essential-nonessential

Josh I do think there's an argument to be made strictly in terms of political capital, but not "oh well it doesn't work anyway"

I don't mean "burn it all down." But the people most directly affected are government workers, iirc. Which is bad for them, and I feel terrible for any federal employee living paycheck to paycheck (if they exist). But the world keeps turning, essential services keep operating.

Some of those xpost things are pretty vague ("CDC scaled back its monitoring of disease outbreaks"), but already at least a couple of those things (like closing of national parks) are not happening this year, reportedly. Or at least not entirely. My point, again, was that this administration was already doing a lot of those delays and cuts and haltings *on purpose*. I guess one could argue it could be worse, but, like, "Environmental Protection Agency inspections halted at 1,200 locations" - the head of the EPA wants to halt the EPA and has been rolling back regulations, which in many ways is worse than a pause in inspections.

Like, is the president important? Of course. But would I prefer *this* president leave Washington and go on vacation forever and not work at all? Yes.

"if they exist" wow c'mon man. how many people on this board would be unaffected if their employer stopped existing for a period of time yet unknown? fine to imagine a straw man of wealthy high-skilled federal employees with deep reserves of savings but how many of those furloughed are, like, janitors and security guards and people who work in the mail room and the cafeteria and the employee parking garage? how many of them can just go without paychecks at length with no consequences, even if at the end of it a deal is brokered to give them back pay for the period?

Yeah, that wasn’t at all clear.

And the vacancies in these agencies are by and large the chairs and directorships. There are tens of thousands of federal employees every day keeping the engine running despite it all, esp at the local level.

None of this btw is mutually exclusive to a jolt of schadenfreude that it's happening to this prez at this moment

I oversee federal WIOA grants at the local level, and the direction we've been given is to come to work Monday and that our pass-through funder has 3-4 weeks in reserve. After that, things get dicey.
The resources I oversee include funding for contractors like case workers and navigators. These are people that make 40-60k in an expensive city. You better fuckin believe a missed paycheck will affect them.
And that's not even considering the effects on the clients they serve.

That's good to learn, I didn't know so stand corrected.

So anyway then, who is holding who hostage in this scenario? GOP holding Dreamers and CHIP kids hostage for their own shit? Or Dems holding working class government employees hostage for the sake of Dreamers et al.?

Longest government shutdown was ... 21 days, right?

And this just in:

Representative Patrick Meehan, a Pennsylvania Republican who has taken a leading role in fighting sexual harassment in Congress, used thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to settle his own misconduct complaint after a former aide accused him last year of making unwanted romantic overtures to her, according to several people familiar with the settlement.

A married father of three, Mr. Meehan, 62, had long expressed interest in the personal life of the aide, who was decades younger and had regarded the congressman as a father figure, according to three people who worked with the office and four others with whom she discussed her tenure there.

But after the woman became involved in a serious relationship with someone outside the office last year, Mr. Meehan professed his romantic desires for her — first in person, and then in a handwritten letter — and he grew hostile when she did not reciprocate, the people familiar with her time in the office said.

who is holding who hostage in this scenario?

Perhaps a better question is: whose position, if adopted as the solution to the standoff, would produce better results for the nation?

For sure. Put elsewhere, if and when this ends and there is no beneficial DACA deal you'll know the Dems lost. But I really hope they don't give up the house to get there.