US Politics January 2019: we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger

hahahahaha

White House officials discussing a potential exit ramp in the shutdown fight: Trump declares national emergency; courts intervene and stay the order; he and Congress re-open the gov't while case is litigated. https://t.co/e1wrN0Tii9

— Peter Nicholas (@PeterWSJ) January 9, 2019

art of the deal babey

I've been saying this for weeks!

I should obviously be President, I'm smarter than all those motherfuckers

it's jared time

Kushner is joining meeting with Senate Republicans this afternoon on shutdown and immigration

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) January 9, 2019

well there you go it's should be settled before dinner

go directly to jail, richie rich

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOQ8Gj1G1l0

Ever since I saw that John Oliver bit I can't conceive of him sounding like anything but Gilbert Gottfried.

so forgive me if I am naive about these things... why is it not likely that enough GOP congresspeople for a veto-proof majority would vote to pass a budget that doesn't fund the wall? because their base wants it (wall)? or because it would look bad for the GOP? both? or do they all really want to build this dumb wall? or something else?

because it would represent a fundamental break with the President, it would split the party, and do crazy amounts of damage to their messaging and re-election efforts

but if he doesn't do the "emergency" declaration, that's what he's staring down - the death of the party

Spending bills with no wall funds could very well pass with veto-proof majorities, but McConnell won't allow a vote to find that out in the Senate.

getting 2/3 is tough in the house because the GOP corpus is largely made up of cranks who sincerely support trump.

getting 2/3 is beside the point in the senate because mcconnell won't allow the vote because it would pretty much be the end of the presidency

So the real question is, why is McConnell more loyal to Trump than to his caucus?

no, they wouldn't, because neither Congressional caucus will defy the President. which is why McConnell won't bring any bills to the floor that the President won't sign, this has been his position all along.

xp

note that nobody in the Senate has come out in defiance of the President, none of them have endorsed passing any of the previously passed bills or the bills the House is about to pass. McConnell is reflecting the will of the caucus.

So the real question is, why is McConnell more loyal to Trump than to his caucus?

― grawlix (unperson), Wednesday, January 9, 2019 4:11 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hey man, it's a two-earner household, you go pissing off your wife's boss and it's garage sale city.

It’s long been known privately but I guess what surprises me—to the extent I can still be surprised—how much he doesn’t give a damn in public. Even the dope dealer on the corner cares not to be found out.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) January 9, 2019

note that nobody in the Senate has come out in defiance of the President, none of them have endorsed passing any of the previously passed bills or the bills the House is about to pass. McConnell is reflecting the will of the caucus.

per this CNN story last night there are 3

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/08/politics/lisa-murkowski-senate-republicans/index.html

i wish he'd negotiate in public again. he's just so platonically baaaad at actual negotiation, presumably because he is very, very stupid in general, and knows almost nothing about the present situation

it is pretty amazing how laughably bad Trump is at the few things he's actually supposed to be good at

so GOP legislators are in an even more awkward political position than usual? they can't govern because they have to cater to a president demanding something really dumb and unobtainable, and they can't vote against the prez because it would fuck over their party.

man the schadenfreude would be sweet if not for all the federal workers getting screwed :(

love that the GOP stands for absolutely nothing other than propping up the cult of personality of a fucking con man

per this CNN story last night there are 3

none of them said they would vote against the President. They said they could "live with" some of the existing/previously approved appropriations bills - which Trump has explicitly said he will not accept.

xp its probably been discussed before itt but it is really remarkable how the GOP doesn't stand for a single thing that actually helps people who don't make 8 figures

only 8 House GOP reps willing to vote against Trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/shutdown-impasse-trump-heads-to-the-hill-after-oval-office-address/2019/01/09/27268008-13fe-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html?utm_term=.98f465a1ec6b

well I think Trump has officially won, I can't tell real news from fake news anymore

I have CONFIRMED that Trump said “bye bye” and in fact offered Butterfingers, M&Ms, and Baby Ruths. “We think skittles too,” per source, who added Trump “constantly spoke over Pelosi.”

— Lissandra Villa (@LissandraVilla) January 9, 2019

They went bye-bye! pic.twitter.com/fruJr4MBK8

— Vic Berger IV (@VicBergerIV) April 25, 2018

Relatively certain I've only ever said 'bye bye' as a adult to goof on how weird + creepy it is for an adult to say 'bye bye'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oau9rMCkAhk

However grating when a flight attendant repeats it upon deplaning, at least it's meant to be friendly. Clearly in his case it means "go fuck yourself."

Making business deals where both parties stand to make a profit, and the negotiation is about the details of who pays how much, who makes how much, and who assumes which powers or liabilities, is fundamentally different than making political deals, where "profit" is measured in terms of political power only. Trump's hardman hostage taking works better with prospective business partners, who will be exasperated, but who want the money that's on the table and are willing to make concessions just to get the deal done and move on the money-making part. The Democrats in Congress won't make concessions on Trump's wall, because with the way he's set this deal up there's zero political profit in it for them. He knows he's losing power over this, but has no clue how to react other than doubling down, because he's shitty at this.

The last election was the first payment to the piper and the Republicans will have many more payments falling due this year and the next. Bad cess to them.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/09/us/politics/longest-government-shutdown.html

why was there so much shutting down during carter's admin?

djt wouldn't mind caving. He just doesn't want to do anything that would SEEM like caving.

He wants an out that makes him look strong and tough and resolute or whatever.

Hero

BREAKING: Surprise Announcement for POTUS: VA Gov. Ralph Northam(D-VA) in his State of the Commonwealth address, just stunned the legislature by saying, “I am running for President [long pause] of the Eastern Shore Antique Car Club.” His wife and Terry McAuliffe almost fainted.

— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) January 10, 2019

Trump made his demand so clear and drew such a bright line between himself and any compromise position that now he's caught in GHW Bush's "read my lips, no new taxes" trap. His "call it steel slats and I won't object" gambit was pathetic.

his hairdo is pathetic

Will no one rid us of this troublesome prick.

too kind

Bill Shine starting to get The Treatment

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/09/us/politics/bill-shine-donald-trump.html

“and then he’ll write his book ho ho ho” gfy

aimless's read on negotiation clicks with me. this is his only idea of how to deal with opposition, and we would have been seeing countless versions of this same story for the past two years if the dems had one house of congress to block him with.

for all their smug preening in recent years, the GOP couldn't even manage to stop a clown that they hated from getting their nomination, and have spent 2 years living in fear of the guy. Dems don't seem to mind defying their party as much

Cant remember Dem congress defying an Obama veto tbh

trump just retweeted charlie kirk 4 times within 10 minutes

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/09/politics/immigration-deal-wall-fight-republican-senators/index.html

After Trump stormed out of a White House meeting with congressional leaders, GOP senators privately gathered in Sen. Lindsey Graham's office Wednesday to discuss a way out of the logjam. The long-shot idea: propose an immigration deal that would include $5.7 billion for Trump's border wall along with several provisions that could entice Democrats.

Those items include changes to help those who are a part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program as well as immigrants from El Salvador and other countries impacted by the Temporary Protected Status program - along with modifications to H-2B visas.

Lol this woulda worked a year ago, nice try

Shakey - took until the last year of his presidency, but

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/28/senate-poised-override-obama-veto-911-bill-allowing-saudi-suits/91184976/

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

A frustrated Mr. Trump put his hands in the air—two open palms on either side of his face—and said, “Bye-bye,” and left the room, according to people familiar with the meeting https://t.co/iP9rlobh5U via @WSJ

— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) January 10, 2019

Not a Dem controlled Congress

Xp

right, but the vote was 97-1 in the Senate, and Schumer publicly criticized the White House after the vote.