.
Schumer says Trump needs to understand the votes for a southern border wall aren’t there in US House or Senate.
“He is not going to get the wall in any form.” https://t.co/tExauiccZy
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) December 16, 2018
Playing Reality Star Emperor on the teevee — Who gets the thumbs down? All eyes are on ME! — is the only part of the Oval Office Occupation that Donny Dollhands actually enjoys. No surprise, he thinks of a government shutdown as a prime opportunity for more exposure*. The fact that hundreds of thousands of people are depending on getting paid for doing those jobs would only add an extra thrill for him, assuming anyone tried to get the concept across.
* (sorry for that image, first thing in the morning)
So, y’know, I really don’t have any concern to spare for the rest of the Republicans, who are facing the blowback they toiled to achieve.
Per the Washington Post, company paper for the town whose monopoly industry is national politics:
Congressional Republicans struggled Monday to find a way to persuade President Trump to back off a public threat to shut down the government over border wall money, staying largely in the dark over the impasse that could halt pay for hundreds of thousands of federal workers by the end of the week.
At the White House, Trump has remained disinclined to support even stopgap measures that would keep federal government operations running for a week or two, told by his closest advisers that he would have even less leverage when Democrats take control of the House next month. Trump is also bolstered by support of rank-and-file Border Patrol agents, whose union leader told the president in a recent Oval Office conversation that they would back a wall-induced shutdown if the dispute came to that point.
All that has left Republican lawmakers eager to avoid a shutdown unsure whether Trump would ultimately come around to at least one option that would end the impasse before Friday. Without a resolution that the president could sign before midnight Friday, roughly 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed or forced to work without pay in a partial shutdown that Trump has already — and proudly — claimed as his own…
Asked what kind of spending bill Trump would support, Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) responded: “We don’t know that.”A Monday evening meeting of McConnell and his top deputies also yielded little, with senior Republicans unaware of where exactly the White House stands. During the meeting, McConnell told other GOP senators that he had no information, and — referring to the White House — said “we’re waiting for them,” according to a senator in attendance…
Politico, of course, is more sympathetic to the GOP suffering:
Senate Republicans are searching for a way out of the impending partial government shutdown. But they are waiting for President Donald Trump to weigh in before making a move, and he appears to be in no rush to help them out.
Roughly one-fourth of the federal government is scheduled to shutter on Friday without action, and Democrats and Trump continue to spar over his border wall. With the House out of town until Wednesday, all eyes are on the Senate GOP majority and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who hates shutdowns.
But as of Monday night, McConnell and Senate Republicans don’t have any plan. What Trump’s intentions are as to a potential shutdown apparently are as opaque to them as they are to anyone else. Senior Republicans suggested the shutdown deadline may have to come closer before either side is willing to make a deal…
A former White House official who spoke with Trump Friday said the president is relishing in the fact that Republicans are awaiting his signal and letting him set the terms.
Trump wants to “maximize drama,” per another Republican close to the White House…
That likely leaves it to McConnell, who talks to Trump on a near-daily basis.
Senate Republicans would prefer not to pass a stopgap bill but acknowledged on Monday it was possible. That would likely result in House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) passing a long-term spending bill in January and denying Trump the $5 billion in wall funding he’s demanding….
You knew he was a snake when you took him to your ample bosom, Mitch. And if his bite should prove fatal — well, Murphy the Trickster God grows bored with his every favorite, eventually.
Democrats have zero political incentives to deliver on Trump's border wall request. House Republicans don't have the votes to even get a bill to the Senate. So… => https://t.co/NVtWlKKHI8
— David M. Drucker (@DavidMDrucker) December 17, 2018
OzarkHillbilly
trump is drawing to an inside straight, while holding 2 cards
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: He’s playing Go Fish.
Karen S.
Drumpf will never listen to Congressional Republicans. Why should he? They’ve given him nearly everything he’s wanted without muss or fuss so far. He has no respect for them. In his mind, they’re losers. After all, none of them is president.
Lapassionara
Someone should put together a montage of all the times he promised that Mexico would pay for the wall.
Patricia Kayden
Glad to see that Schumer is done trying to compromise with the Orange Bigot over the fantasy wall. Trump was lying when he said that Mexico would pay for the wall and he needs to give up the jig. He’ll get his wall when he’s in jail for treason and surrounded by concrete.
JPL
@Lapassionara: Trump stated that Mexico already paid for the wall, because of changes to NAFTA. IF so, why do they have to add further funding?
I know that he is just story telling. (lying)
Elizabelle
What drives me nuts: all this talk about a border wall is just a fantasy.
People are coming here for jobs, mostly, and secondly for asylum. If you actually wanted to reduce that magnet, you would strengthen and implement E-verify. Raise the number of agricultural permits (H2A) and allow the fieldworkers (and others; groundskeepers, etc.) better conditions and a chance to travel freely between this country and their home, safely and legitimately.
“The wall” just shows people aren’t serious at all. Just punitive.
WRT the narco trafficking and lawlessness that has made central America a hellhole and diverted its economy: in the long run, affordable actual healthcare and addiction treatment IN THIS COUNTRY could go a long way towards reducing the drug traffickers’ market population.
We need grownups in charge. Bring on the Democrats.
Ken
@Lapassionara: I’m hoping the Democrats’ 2019 bill authorizes “matching Mexico’s contribution”.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ?? ?
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Hello there.
I am fascinated with Kay’s comment #65, from second to last thread:
Please keep us apprised of this project, Kay. Does the lead writer already have any work out there, on a blog or website?
Great use of donor’s money.
rikyrah
This is my go to daily video that makes me happy
https://twitter.com/JasonOverstreet/status/1074310338898624517
satby
Blech
rikyrah
Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) Tweeted:
The media didn’t pay much attention to the African-American vote in 2016 other than the talk about what would happen now that Obama wasn’t on the ballot. BUT, the Russians sure as hell paid attention to the Afr-Am vote. Scrimp on coverage of black ppl at your peril, big media…
https://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow/status/1074865951039021056?s=17
Lapassionara
@Ken: LOL.
Actually, I have read recently that border crossings from the southern border are lower now than several years ago. So another Trump policy detached from reality.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: I saw all that shit-talking about African Americans and the Democratic party in the FB threads of my BIL’s Trump-humping relatives. Also the Blue Lives Matter. It was shocking.
It worked. Although I still don’t believe the Electoral College “victory.”
Platonailedit
Are border patrol thugs allowed to indulge in such a rank politicking in public? Or is it just yet another norm/rule to be broken under this thug?
(((CassandraLeo)))
I really wouldn’t mind if Individual-1 sat this one out.
rikyrah
17.
17.
That’s the number of investigations that are swirling around Dolt45.
While I and others were fretful about Schneiderman resigning….in retrospect, it was great for those of us who are interested in Dolt45 and his crime family being taken down.
Underwood has been kick ass and fabulous.
I look forward to Attorney General Letitia James. Nobody Black ascends to that level without being clean… Which is why their opponents have to lie about them ( see Gillum and Abrams). James is older than I thought she was. She is truly in the NFTG ? phase of her life, and she is laser focused on the Trump Crime Family ??
Central Planning
@OzarkHillbilly: And he’s got a 2 and a 7.
Baud
@rikyrah: The media would have just endorsed what the Russians were telling black folks.
Frankensteinbeck
@Karen S.:
This isn’t true, though, and it is a major hole in the OP’s quoted articles. Budgets since Trump became president have almost entirely ignored, and even defied, Trump’s demands. What he has gotten has been stuff Republicans wanted already, like even more military. No matter what he says, Trump is a coward who never vetoes even bills that are just middle fingers to his foreign policy.
The lack of a budget has more to do with McConnell than Trump. He could hand Trump a budget and say “Shut your pie hole and sign it.” Why he is not doing so I don’t know, but it’s not because of Trump.
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah: Unfortunately, not at *media’s* peril. Trump brings clicks, which mean revenue.
Gin & Tonic
@Lapassionara: Can’t look it up now, but isn’t the largest share of undocumented aliens people who come in (often by air) on a tourist visa and don’t leave?
Bobby Thomson
Fuck this good cop bad cop shit. All y’all are in on it and not everyone is as dumb as the DC press.
germy
Paul Ryan Pushing Through Thousands Of Irish Visas Before Leaving Office
Baud
@Bobby Thomson: Exactly. The GOP can join the Dems in overriding Trump’s veto if there is one.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: It is “what’s for breakfast”.
germy
@rikyrah:
And that would be some sweet justice, to see trump’s house of cards brought down by a BLACK WOMAN.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: Not sure about largest but definitely a significant percentage.
Schlemazel
@Patricia Kayden:
I think Schumer was playing a PR game. “SEE! We Dems are reasonable and re trying to find common ground.”
I think it is working
OTOH, that PR game is hard to differentiate from past spineless capitulations
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
Not if they want to be re-elected.
Schlemazel
@rikyrah:
Historically ignoring A-A people has been the kindest thing the media does for the community.
I think we all lack the proper appreciation for how well Putin & his mob understand America and its culture better than Americans do
MomSense
@Lapassionara:
Ahora somos todos Mexicanos
Quinerly
Flynn is the key.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mueller-ready-to-pounce-on-trumpworld-concessions-to-moscow
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning to Poco and the tribe ??
Betty Cracker
If Trump comes crawling to Schumer and Pelosi offering a path to citizenship for the young Americans in DACA status in exchange for $5B for the stupid wall, should they take it? (I mean agree to a bill, as in actual legislation, not a worthless promise from a pathological liar.)
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: I would.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: I say yes. Budgets can be readjusted later if necessary but DACA path to citizenship is worth $5B.
(Is it wrong that billions-with-a-B don’t feel like real money?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Quinerly: So that would be the quid pro quo. But but but, I was told there was NO COLLUSION.
Jeffro
@rikyrah:
Why it’s almost like there will end up being hundreds of charges against dozens of people (ok, a half dozen anyway), eh? =)
LOVE. IT.
In other news, monumental douchebag Hugh Hewitt spent his valuable WaPo op-ed column inches trying to make the case that Trumpov would actually love to get impeached, for all the attention and ability to ride it out due to GOP corruption. That’s the whole of his argument: impeach if you want, but it’ll just make for great TV and in the end corrupt Republicans will cover for him. Not, say, that he’s obviously guilty of numerous crimes and ought to resign for the good of the country. Trumpov will “relish the battle”. Ok, Hugh, you traitorous scum. Will Trumpov relish getting every last cent RICO’d away? He can keep the office ’til 2020 if necessary but we ARE going to serve him up some justice, and he’s gonna choke down every last bite.
As good as it usually is, the WaPo needs to hear, on an ongoing and frequent basis, just how ridiculous it is that Hewitt, McArdle, and Thiessen have op-ed space when they don’t demonstrate even a basic level of responsibility to their fellow citizens with all the lying and covering for corruption.
Frankensteinbeck
@Betty Cracker:
Absolutely. The wall is a joke, and even with the money will never be built. Our deficit issues are based on undertaxing, not overspending. Throw him his bone in exchange for real, important legislation.
Won’t happen because, again, Ryan and McConnell are the problems here. They are extremist yahoos who get away with it because they don’t drool on their shoes.
rikyrah
Evil azz demons. They need to haul DeVos in front of Congress.
https://twitter.com/rachel/status/1074800513177321478
Schlemazel
@Jeffro:
Besides Huge Fuckwitt the WaPo published Parry Davis’ piece
A child occupies the White House — and the world knows it
Of course he is not a child, he is a 72 year old criminal with severe dementia
OzarkHillbilly
@Jeffro:
The problem for the WaPo is that they want to present both sides of the political argument between the GOP and the DEMs. (unlike FOX news) Good luck finding a pro GOP voice that isn’t lying and covering for corruption.
Schlemazel
@Quinerly:
They ask the question “What did Putin want in return?” That is easy
Diminished US moral authority
fracture NATO
A free hand in Ukraine
Financial turmoil in the West
increased splintering of the US political climate
He is 5 for 5
OzarkHillbilly
Sanders Rails Against Comey After Trump Criticism: GOP ‘Should Stand Up To Comey’ because tuff guys always get other people to fight their battles for them.
MattF
@OzarkHillbilly: And with Krauthammer’s demise, there’s an open slot at the WaPo for a RWNJ. One shudders to think.
Jinchi
Wait. Politico thinks McConnell hates shutdowns? He was one of the original advocates of government shutdowns.
sdhays
@OzarkHillbilly: I really hate how they call SHS “Sanders”; it’s very confusing. I get that headline writing isn’t easy, but it still seems like the people who get paid to do it could do it better.
MattF
@Jinchi: My old pal who was a high-level House staffer was succinct on the subject of McConnell: “A snake”. Which is notable– she generally avoids biblical references.
ETA: Also, she thinks McConnell has the goods on Trump.
OzarkHillbilly
@sdhays: I have the same complaint.
Jeffro
@OzarkHillbilly:
They do publish Max Boot and Jennifer Rubin, but those are #NeverTrumper conservatives. You’re right, though – it’s not possible to be pro-GOP and not lie/cover for corruption.
chopper
@Betty Cracker:
it was worth 25 billion a year ago to pelosi and schumer, it’s certainly worth 5 billion today.
rikyrah
Thread
Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) Tweeted:
1/ We have a major investigation into Maximus, a company massively profiting off Trump’s war on the poor
https://t.co/PuXGDhxfa8 https://twitter.com/ClaraJeffery/status/1074741717813719041?s=17
Betty Cracker
@Frankensteinbeck: Earlier this year, the Dems offered to pay $25B for the wall in exchange for a path to citizenship for DACA Americans, and IIRC, Ryan and McConnell were willing to go along — they were at least making noises about that. But Trump blew the whole thing up by adding poison pills. It would be hilarious if he ends up getting 1/5th of the original offer for the same concession, then praises his own deal-making acumen to the skies. No outcome would surprise me at this point, but if the Dems do get an offer on DACA, I hope they take it.
Schlemazel
@MattF:
But Putin has the goods on McConnell so that is the end of that
Frankensteinbeck
@Schlemazel:
NATO isn’t fractured in the way he wants, but that was the long shot dream result anyway. You are right that this has been fantastically successful.
Frankensteinbeck
@Betty Cracker:
Trump does not have the power to add poison pills, in a literal ‘does not write or vote for legislation’ sense. He whined and McConnell and Ryan grabbed the excuse to let him continue torturing Brown immigrants the way they’ve have clearly demonstrated they want. McConnell has gone to some lengths to screw over immigrants.
Jinchi
@Betty Cracker:
Hell no.
We aren’t talking about bartering over policy here. The Dreamers are only in peril because Trump deliberately put them there. What you’re describing is paying ransom for hostages, and if it works, Trump will simply take more hostages. How much should we pay for the kids he kidnapped at the border? How much to end the Muslim ban? How much to keep him from deporting the 59,000 Haitians living in the country under temporary protected status? How much for transgender troops in the military?
Would you be willing to drop all investigations into his administration in exchange for the Dreamers? How about looking away as he collects bribes from the Russians and the Saudis? How about scrapping NATO or declaring war on Iran?
He’s already taken too many hostages. The only correct response is to fight him on every front until the pain of his viciousness comes back to bite him.
Cheryl Rofer
It’s worth going into deep history (the 1990s) to remind ourselves that once upon a time, we thought that shutting down the government was a horror that should be avoided.
Then came Newt.
Then came Donny Dollhands.
A Ghost To Most
@OzarkHillbilly: Agreed. Ignore them; they’re the affirmative action Nazis.
Theissen deserves to be strung up, though.
Frankensteinbeck
@Cheryl Rofer:
Even after Newt it was considered a terrible idea that he proved was a terrible idea. It took the election of a black man as president for a large portion of the electorate and their representatives to decide the system was so badly broken that burning it down would make life better.
A Ghost To Most
@Frankensteinbeck: Can you imagine if Shit Hitler had line-item veto power?
Immanentize
Is anyone here in line for a Friday layoff? I have lots of friends at EPA, DOJ, etc. Will be having a furloughed Christmas
Jinchi
@MattF:
I agree with your friend, but McConnell doesn’t need to have the goods on Trump. He’s Senate Majority Leader. If he wants, he can bring up a vote on a bill to fund the government (without the wall funding) and he can corral his troops to get enough votes to override a Trump veto. Most Republicans don’t want to shut down the government right now, and they could always spin some ridiculous lie to pretend that they weren’t slapping Trump for acting like an idiot.
The real problem is Paul Ryan, who likes to pretend that he’s some helpless onlooker, wondering how this country became so divided.
A Ghost To Most
@MattF:
So who has the goods on Yertle?
Barbara
@OzarkHillbilly:
I would like to think this is mostly true, but it’s probably as much a matter of patronage as fairness, as in, WaPo chose conservative columnists as a favor to someone with power or connections. There are a lot of friendships that got started years ago in a variety of places, congressional offices, staff committees, internships, that blossomed into friendships and professional exchanges. Because, really, I can’t think of much else that would justify the mind numbing awfulness of Ed Rogers and Thiessen, or the way McArdle’s mediocrity consistently manages to curdle even an interesting subject into a mess of half-baked “laws of economics” determinism — which, of course, always favors the conservative position.
Betty Cracker
@Frankensteinbeck: I’ve seen Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill” video, so I know presidents don’t literally write bills. However, McConnell and Ryan seemed poised to accept the Pelosi-Schumer proposal as long as Trump promised to sign the eventual bill, which at first he seemed inclined to do. Then he demanded that they add provisions excluding immigrants who aren’t blond underwear models or something, and the whole thing went ka-boom. At least, that’s how I remember it.
@Jinchi: Good point — that’s the drawback to negotiating with terrorists of any stripe. On the other hand, dead hostages…
Gelfling 545
@Schlemazel: The PR is necessary. People want to think that their legislators will compromise. Make a deal, get together and hash it out. It has to be shown repeatedly that this is impossible. The old anthrax and tire rims choices have to be demonstrated again and again because a lot of prople still don’t understand that Republicans are no longer readonable people.
Schlemazel
@Frankensteinbeck:
NATO is not as strong as it was & you can bet Putin is working to exploit every crack.
Patricia Kayden
@Jeffro: I subscribe to Washington Post but skip the rightwing drivel from folk like Hewitt. I never watch him on MSNBC either. Such a tool.
Schlemazel
@Gelfling 545:
I don’t disagree & I think that was what he was doing.
different-church-lady
Tom Toles is a freakin’ genius.
Gin & Tonic
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Pace Sen Everett Dirksen.
Quinerly
@rikyrah: waves, tail wags, soft meows back at you!
Frankensteinbeck
@Jinchi:
He got it straight from Boehner, who got it from McConnell. Never have three extremist obstructionists been treated so universally as if they were the ones being bullied. At least McConnell merely gets treated as if he was playing politics.
@Betty Cracker:
You remember correctly. I am saying that the history of ignoring what Trump wants in budgets and obstructing reform attempts that had nothing to do with Trump suggest that McConnell and Ryan were pulling their asshole ‘Poor me, I would have been so reasonable if they’d let me!’ schtick.
@Schlemazel:
It’s still strong enough to stop him from invading whoever he wants, and is unlikely to be permanently weakened. Even hypothetical future Republican lunatic presidents are unlikely to be anti-NATO like Trump. Putin only got a sliver of what he wants on this point. He hit the jackpot everywhere else.
Yarrow
@A Ghost To Most:
Robert Mueller.
bemused
I just read an article about landowners along US/Mexico border getting letters from US government about crews surveying their properties concerning building the wall. All of a sudden there are very concerned landowners. NOW they are concerned? It never occurred to them that this was a possibility until the letters? Thick as a brick.
Yarrow
@bemused: No, they’ve been concerned for awhile. They do not like the idea of eminent domain being used to take their land to put up the stupid wall.. It’s just that the letters seem to be pushing it one step closer than it was before.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: She is going to be the subject of 4 congressional investigations, I remember reading somewhere
Frankensteinbeck
@A Ghost To Most:
Nobody needs to have the goods on McConnell. His behavior since the 2008 election was called screams that we are seeing exactly the white supremacist mean-as-shit asshole that he truly is. Never, ever forget that he started this mess by declaring he would let the country collapse in another Great Depression rather than let a black president succeed at anything. He doesn’t like Trump’s foreign policy, but it’s not like he cares, either.
schrodingers_cat
@Cheryl Rofer: R politicians just keep getting worse. Next R candidate is going to be a serial killer.
cmorenc
@Jeffro:
Actually, Hewett’s argument is correct insofar as the political dynamics, should the Dems jump the gun on initiating impeachment proceedings in the House ahead of their ability to actually make it stick in the Senate. (Giving Hewett credit for being correct here isn’t at all the same at all as giving him credit for having any good-faith motives for his analysis). Democrats would be wise to focus more on continuing to build the necessary groundwork for impeachment via investigations and be patient on actually initiating impeachment proceedings until the pressure from the groundwork forces enough Republicans in the Senate to become willing to throw Trump overboard out of self-preservation of themselves and the longer-term viability of the GOP brand, instead of seeing continued defending him against investigation and possible impeachment as in their better selfish interests. The fruits of the Mueller investigation is a tree that will keep on giving more and more in this regard. Keep in mind that with Watergate and Richard Nixon, the necessary portion of GOP senators flipping to make successful impeachment not only viable, but inevitable didn’t occur until late in the game – after investigative hearings eventually built irresistible pressure on them to flip.
MEANWHILE, dems in the house should also concentrate on presenting more attractive policy proposals to a larger share of the American electorate than those the GOP has chosen to serve.
M31
@A Ghost To Most:
For sure, Putin.
If we’re lucky, also Mueller.
Ruckus
@Lapassionara:
Nah. I hate videos of babies crying because they refuse to let go of their stinky, filthy blankies.
The Moar You Know
@Schlemazel: If anything, that is an understatement. My undergrad major was social psychology; I wanted to go into advertising. Manipulating people for profit (I actually wanted to do the music for it, but even that is manipulating people for profit). I went to a bleeding-edge college for this sort of thing. And learned just enough to understand that the Russian Internet psy-ops have our society down to a degree I’d never imagined was possible. Been reading the reports last night. Two takeaways.
The Russians were…very comprehensive. And they’ve been doing this for far longer than anyone suspects. My bet is that the pilot projects started in the late 1990s.
Schlemazel
I wish I had your confidence
bemused
@Yarrow:
Yet many of them supported the wall. How could they not have a thought that it wouldn’t affect them?
Yarrow
@The Moar You Know: Started earlier than that and a lot of the KGB info/ops/practices were just carried across.
Americans are so naive about this sort of thing. Saying again that we need comprehensive education on propaganda and disinformation–what it is, how to identify it, how you contribute to it, how to combat it, etc. It’s a matter of national security at this point.
Schlemazel
@The Moar You Know:
The Russian mob moved into NYC sometime about then, maybe a bit early. Dump would have been a fat target as he was already owned by the 5 families.
They are much more brutal that the families who have become soft as they no longer needed to be so bad and they escaped some scrutiny as it took the FBI a while to catch on.
I have no idea if Putin had this end game in mind or just the profits but it is working out very well for him
different-church-lady
I’m-just-not-clicking-on-it department: what has Alice Walker done?
patroclus
Of course I’d take the deal of trading the Dream Act for one year’s worth of appropriations for improving the existing fences along the U.S. Mexico border. A permanent solution for the Dreamers is far more valuable than a variable amount of spending that can be altered in two years.
zhena gogolia
They’re backing down on the wall.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/12/18/white-house-signals-it-will-back-down-on-president-trumps-demand-for-border-wall-funding-and-avert-a-partial-government-shutdown/?utm_term=.690b8dcab36d&wpisrc=al_news__alert-politics–alert-national&wpmk=1
Schlemazel
@different-church-lady:
promoted a book the uses “The Protocols of the elders of Zion” as fact, claims Jews funded the holocaust and a few other lovely bit along that sewer
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady:
She endorsed a Holocaust-denier book in the NYT Book Review. I read the whole interview but didn’t notice it because I never heard of the guy.
different-church-lady
@zhena gogolia: It’s going to be a decorative hedge now?
The Moar You Know
@zhena gogolia: Of course, now he is. That orange fucker cost me two grand out of my retirement in the last two days because he was throwing a fucking tantrum about his dumb fucking wall. So no shutdown. That’s great. Now where’s my fucking refund from the GOP for their president having less impulse control than my four-year old nephew?
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: He did this last time too. Its a fucking TV show for him. He got to insult the D leaders, so its a win in the eyes of his base. And it was covered on live TV and in the evening news. Winning.
Ben Cisco
Repost from last night:
A little over a month after moving, I found a new job. Pretty decent too. I find myself relieved and grateful for it. So the work bit is working.
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat: Impeachment will also be a TV show.
TS (the original)
@Ben Cisco: Leads in to a happy Christmas – congrats on the job – that you like it is definitely a bonus.
TS (the original)
@zhena gogolia: From the link
So where comes the $5B if not via congress? If Obama had done any of this ….
Ben Cisco
@TS (the original): Indeed. Going to make Christmas better for sure. Thanks!
TomatoQueen
Oi. I wouldn’t be surprised if MOO tries to steal my Rafa, the fuckers.
Wild Cat
@different-church-lady: Ms. Walker is doing her best to add meaningful conversation that will attract the attention of Adam “Bell Curve” Bellow for future tomes. She has a pathetic fetish for a British anti-Semitic loon, whom she has fondled twice in print, and the pathetic NYT has a fact-checking/vetting problem.
gvg
@bemused: They did know, and most did NOT support the wall. there have been repeated polls that show the areas actually right on the border do NOT support the wall or Trump. They have also said so, but the media barely paid any attention. I guess the letters and surveys gave them something new to try and get any media or public attention. I only know about this because I caught a few snippets of news about it here and there, and The temper tantrum media whore in the whitehouse always got their attention back. I noticed because I thought they couldn’t be that stupid and the polls made more sense. I ma afraid I don’t think this will stay in the news long enough for many people to absorb it.
Felanius Kootea
@zhena gogolia: She’s 74. It seems to me that more and more elderly people, regardless of race, are susceptible to racist/anti-Semitic drivel (which, incidentally, is Fox News’s business model). I wonder if Alice Walker is also experiencing some form of dementia. Don’t know if she ever patched things up with her daughter, Rebecca, whose father is Jewish.
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: Just saw a hot take on that from the Jacobin-ish “left” that somehow managed to combine Trump/Russia denialism with the Republican “liberals=Dixiecrats” line. Apparently Democrats only believe this story because they’re just like the old Democrats who saw the Commies behind every civil-rights protest.
I thought I’d unfollowed the guy who retweeted all this stuff but it seems to be infecting some of the sane liberals now.
catclub
I think Schumer and pelosi should bring up more, that if there is to be a deal, then it will solve DACA.
“We had a deal last year to make DACA permanent and that provided $20B for border security and a wall, but the other side reneged on the deal.
Now we are offering nothing until we can find an honest broker.”
catclub
@zhena gogolia: I completely trust that Mick Mulvaney will be scrupulously legal in finding unofficial ways of funding a wall for Trump.
catclub
@Gin & Tonic: definitely not real when:
Quantitative easing:
Treasury prints dollars (via keystroke) and Fed buys bonds from banks, banks get cash.
Now what is happening.
Quantitative tightening.
Banks pay off bonds, Fed gets cash, Treasury unmakes those dollars via keystroke – magic!
Chris Johnson
@Matt McIrvin: There’s a LOT of pressure on the Left to abandon Democrats. The reason it’s ‘infecting some of the sane liberals’ is that it’s using well-chosen angles: we can’t go down some 90s market-worshipping prosperity-gospel path and just make the wealthiest bankers happy and hope it trickles down, especially when it comes to climate change. If it’s made possible to paint Dems as neoliberals, it’s easier to make ‘Russiagate’ seem like a line of bullshit.
I’m trying to help, but I can only help so much. There are certain things (like running Biden in 2020, or Hillary again) that would just become a bridge too far.