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

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?

Senate Democrats could boycott that. Would be interesting to see him speak to a mostly empty chamber. SOTU has become amazingly tedious ever since Reagan turned it into a parade of "inspiring stories of ordinary people, who I invited to come sit in the gallery tonight".

Don't the Senate and House have to pass joint resolutions?

dubya's were good for throwing things at the TV, and at least 1-2 bizarre "this makes sense only to readers of some evangelical chain letter" policy initiatives like bringing an end to "human-animal hybrids." nowadays the entire presidency is that, with fox news scare stories replacing the church panic program, so there's really no reason to watch at all.

lol so Trump's "offer" isn't really an offer after all

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-plan-reopen-govt-build-border-wall-undercut-163015378--business.html

A little more re that mystery case with the foreign-owned company.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/22/mueller-subpoena-fight-1118242

Trump should deliver his SOTU (so close to STFU, makes you think) in front of a green screen full of adoring fans and/or dinosaurs.

Fuck, and he's the arriving meteor.

the House speaker of my state legislature wrote Daddy Trump a big-boy letter inviting him to deliver the SOTU in our legislative chambers.

Cool cool cool

EXCLUSIVE on the new #LauraIngrahamPodcast — the Covington Catholic students threatened by the leftist internet mob will be meeting with @realDonaldTrump at the White House as early as tomorrow. @iTunes @PodcastOne

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) January 22, 2019

"...but his schedule for Wednesday wasn't racist enough, so laura ingraham got involved and..."

Oh hey, this happened too:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/22/politics/scotus-transgender-ban/index.html

They should ban everyone from the military.

Did Trump close down the government to prevent the Dems from taking over is that even more obvious than him throwing a temper tantrum over the border wall

The part of the government that is shutdown isn’t congress. It’s mainly staff employees of all political persuasions.

Senior WH official tells us that the reporting is inaccurate.The Covington Kids have not been invited. Senior WH aide says: “They are not coming tomorrow, they are not coming this week, that does not mean they are not going to come at all? I don’t know.” Says nothing is imminent. https://t.co/a5hGkSf4ar

— Fin Gomez (@finnygo) January 22, 2019

f....fake news?

will be interesting to see if any Dem Senators take the bait on McConnell's package - Manchin seems like the only real potential "get" but I don't think even he is that stupid.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/22/house-democrats-pelosi-shutdown-1118986

seems reasonable. Pelosi could promise a vote and control the bill, ensuring it's defeat. works for me!

It still says wall funding debate would follow the government reopening, and so far that's really the sticking point, isn't it?

yup

the real issue isn't the wall, it's using a gov't shutdown as leverage for a specific legislative priority that would not otherwise pass congress

yeah, i can't tell there whether Politico is being willfully dumb or they are assuming any conservatives who read the article are that stupid.

Pelosi taking on the bill, even one that is born to lose, would leave her holding the bag, especially once said centrist Dems start voting for it. Suddenly the pressure is on her to come up with a compromise, rather than Mitch or Trump.

all she has to do is allow enough amendments - related to DACA, or family separations, or other "poison pills" for the right - and the bill is doomed to fail. easy as pie.

or they are assuming any conservatives who read the article are that stupid.

fixed

looks like a "compromise" has been reached in the senate, uh

WASHINGTON — The Senate will vote Thursday on two separate bills that would bring an immediate end to the partial government shutdown: one backed by President Trump that includes $5.7 billion for his border wall and another that would simply extend funding for shuttered agencies through Feb. 8.

The plan, a compromise between Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, and Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, offers the first hint of a path out of the partial shutdown, which is now in its fifth week and has left 800,000 federal workers without pay. The two announced it Tuesday afternoon on the Senate floor.

“People are saying isn’t there a way out of this mess, isn’t there a way to relieve the burden on the 800,000 federal workers not getting paid, isn’t there a way to get government services open first and debate what we should do for border security later?” Mr. Schumer said. “Well, now there’s a way.”

so they're going to vote both bills down on Thursday, I guess? great compromise!

unless enough senate republicans vote for the one to provide temporary funding through Feb 8, and there are enough republicans in the house to vote for it, i guess.

Better chance of picking off a few GOPers to vote for the Chuck bill than there is getting Dems to vote for the Mitch bill, esp. with the Chuck bill on offer as an alternative. Good luck with that, Mitch. Only question is how many GOPers break away and go Chuck.

I predict straight party line votes unless Manchin breaks ranks

and I don't see why he would stick his neck out at this particular juncture

is this entirely about allowing Trump to give a state of the union? so very weird.

Trump would just veto Schumer's bill, wouldn't he? then it would require 2/3 for an override.

yes

Which GOP senators would the Schumer bill peel away -- Mindy Moderate and Cory Gardner?

the fact is there's an intractable political problem at the root here - kinda similar to Brexit - in that neither side can secure a large enough majority. so a stalemate/status quo is the only realistic endgame scenario. it's just a matter of how much time it takes for Trump to realize/accept this. which, obviously, could be quite a long time.

A Trump veto of a highly temporary spending bill w/o wall funding would be more political poison for him to swallow, by once more clearly placing the entire burden of the shutdown on him. McConnell probably understands this very well, but it wouldn't surprise me if he's getting very tired of eating Trump's feces over this issue. He'd sell it to Trump as a way to get his SOTU, so he can use that speech to punish the Dems, then go right back to the shutdown if he must. With a Feb 8 cut-off it will still be a total mess no matter what, but they could send out some paychecks and not look so heartless.

is there any risk of the McConnell bill passing? feel like that's DOA but any time Schumer's involved I get nervous

there's no way Mitch is getting 7 Dem votes, so no

Wall funding will not see the house floor