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

But he was still hungry.

lol

I sense a new trend in "the pulse-of-America" puffpieces

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-voters-now-blame-him-for-the-government-shutdown/2019/01/20/416051de-1b55-11e9-9ebf-c5fed1b7a081_story.html?utm_term=.2e0252866ebd

i know people have problems w/ this analogy, but this extended shutdown/meltdown really is the point where we're effectively "negotiating" or dealing w/ a man with the mentality of a toddler (without the capacity for affection) and we're suffering from there being noone to be able to lock him in his room for a few hours.

Ken Janicki, a 66-year-old retired technology worker who voted for Trump, sipped on his coffee the other day and put it in blunt terms.

“I am all for border security, a full wall around this country,” he said. “You come in legally, I’ll welcome you to be my neighbor. But you come in illegally and I’ll introduce you to my friend Smith and my other friend Wesson.”

America!

And when he visits Paris he flips a table when none of the restaurant staff understands his English

xpost I also think even the average American increasingly views him as dishonest, or at the very least an unreliable negotiating partner, so they know where the Democrats are coming from.

we're suffering from there being no one to be able to lock him in his room for a few hours.

Constitutionally speaking, the Republicans in the Congress could end this at any time, by passing a budget, sending it to Trump to be vetoed, then overriding the veto. They pretend they are unable to act, but it is entirely their choice.

they know that if they betray the President they will all get primaried

Which makes them fully complicit in the shutdown. <- my point

Right

10% absence at TSA yesterday and these numbers are creeping up https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases

Trump seems like the type who'd be a big believer in the sunk cost fallacy.

confession: I don’t gaf about the TSA

controversial opinion!

passengers standing in line for more than an hour tend to gaf about that. their anger is going to be directed somewhere, but chances are good it won't be directed at the working stiffs who aren't getting their paychecks.

I gotta stay, the smoothness with which MIA and goddamn LaGuardia ran this morning stunned me. At 7 a.m. I waited in no line and the airport was deserted (it was also nine degrees outside and on a holiday weekend but still!)

A full wall around this country and its many islands and x-claves.

no trump voters will get incensed over illegal immigration into Guam or American Samoa.

Going through security at Newark and SFO this week was super painless. I kinda figured that TSA workers were dropping a lot of the security theater aspects of their job.

they're doing a press release like this every day now

WASHINGTON – Nationwide, the Transportation Security Administration screened 1.78 million passengers yesterday, Sunday, Jan. 20. Overall, 99.9 percent of passengers waited less than 30 minutes and 93.1 percent of passengers waited less than 15 minutes. In TSA Pre✓® lanes, passengers on average waited less than 5 minutes. Please refer to the table below for top airport specific wait times.

Yesterday’s complete figures show that TSA experienced a national rate of 10 percent of unscheduled absences compared to a 3.1 percent rate one year ago on the same weekday, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018; many employees are reporting that they are not able to report to work due to financial limitations.

https://www.tsa.gov/sites/default/files/012019.jpg

i'm not sure if those maximum times are like the 95th percentile or something. they seem very low if not. in any case they're trending up but not "leave an extra hour early and still worry if you're going to make it", which i guess is where it will start to matter politically.

xp I learned recently that SFO uses a private company, Covenant Aviation Security,(which contracts with TSA) for passenger/baggage security

I have never made an effort to leave particularly early for a flight and not been stuck sitting around an airport for hours.

Although I live on a good no-traffic day about 12 minutes from the airport, I'm a get-there-at-least-three-hours-early guy. I remain scarred by the TSA lines the first couple years after 9-11.

Probably for another thread/poll.

When the Patriots win the super bowl again what will it be a metaphor for

racism

gaming the societal refs

Next: The CIA honors Salvador Allende. https://t.co/mLWMstZWly

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) January 21, 2019

Kiss, of all bands, is offering free meals to TSA workers at their chain of restaurants. Smart promotion from these hucksters? Yep. But one meal a day (salad or pulled pork sandwich) until TSA gets paid is still pretty generous.

Seems pretty damn calibrated to me. A lot of them have families to feed, too. And why just TSA workers? Why not every furloughed federal worker?

I think Coast Guard, too. I assume they'll feed you if you take your boat through the drive-thru.

Because the TSA are the only branch of the federal government that republicans think they use.

Eh, it's pretty clear that TSA is at the fore of lots of people minds. That's why no one is writing stories about national park workers calling in sick or whatever. Anyway, there is lots of nutso stuff in here:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/even-if-he-did-do-it-it-wouldnt-be-a-crime-rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-robert-mueller-moscow-buzzfeed/amp

omg, Rudy gets himself tangled up so easily:

I can tell you, from the moment I read the story, I knew the story was false.

Because?

Because I have been through all the tapes, I have been through all the texts, I have been through all the e-mails, and I knew none existed. And then, basically, when the special counsel said that, just in case there are any others I might not know about, they probably went through others and found the same thing.

Wait, what tapes have you gone through?

I shouldn’t have said tapes. They alleged there were texts and e-mails that corroborated that Cohen was saying the President told him to lie. There were no texts, there were no e-mails, and the President never told him to lie.

So, there were no tapes you listened to, though?

No tapes. Well, I have listened to tapes, but none of them concern this.

and putin definitely doesn't have any tapes either. there are no tapes. no one has been listening to tapes much recently, and uh both sides do it!

Both sides are incriminating! No, not of the tapes!

Rudy copping to screening pee tape in 3...2...

good morning!

Is this the thread where ilxor federal government workers can vent about what a complete fucking disgrace this country is and I don’t know how the fuck me and my family are gonna survive if this thing lasts much longer? I want to fucking scream at someone right now.

It is insane that 1,500+ crowdfunding campaigns have been set up so far for federal staffers when their pay is literally crowdfunded by taxes in the first place.

Got a live one here!

I'm done tolerating Alex Jones & Roger Stone lies & defamation. My lawyers are right. I never held a gov job. I'm not FBI, CIA, or Mossad. I never received "hush money" from Infowars. I'm not testifying for Mueller. But I will take appropriate steps to protect my reputation.

— Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@jerome_corsi) January 22, 2019

Reputation in Peace, motherfucker.

How would this even work?

SCOOP: @WhiteHouse has sent a letter to the Sergeant-At-Arms, asking to schedule a walk-through for the SOTU address. SAA cancelled a walk-through last week at the request of @SpeakerPelosi . @realDonaldTrump still plans to be at the Capitol on Jan 29 for the speech

— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) January 22, 2019

He seems to think that either she's not serious or that he has the authority to override her cancellation

the President does not have authority over the SAA

We know that. Does he?

he doesn't even know how to tie his shoes

also the "way it would work" would be Trump shows up at the Capitol and nobody is there

Video of him banging on a locked door like Fred Flinstone might be amazing

Also lol that he thinks the 1/3 invite is a contract

if mcconnell invites him could he just go to their side of the capitol?