But this is what I saw when I walked into my bedroom:
Does she look part kangaroo to you, too?
I Don’t Even Know What is Going On HerePost + Comments (104)
This post is in: Dog Blogging
But this is what I saw when I walked into my bedroom:
Does she look part kangaroo to you, too?
I Don’t Even Know What is Going On HerePost + Comments (104)
by Adam L Silverman| 128 Comments
This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics, Silverman on Security, Not Normal
I think the real takeaway from the shutdown is not going to be something involving domestic politics. Rather the real impact is going to be a negative effect on US foreign policy. What we saw over the course of the past ten days, but especially yesterday, is that it doesn’t matter what agreement one comes to with the President and/or those he’s designated to negotiate on his behalf because as soon as you walk away the negotiated outcome is overtaken by events and/or repudiated. And those events are usually someone else has spoken to the President.
Regardless of the shutdown or how long it lasts, the US’s allies, partners, peer competitors, and enemies have all had a front row seat to how the President, his administration, and his Congressional allies and proxies conduct negotiations. What they’ve learned is what everyone but the most stalwart partisans supporting the President have learned: the agreement you reach is not worth very much as it is very likely to change before it can be finalized.
Right now the US is trying to renegotiate NAFTA. Prime Minister Trudeau, who is very popular at home, and President Nieto, who isn’t, are not stupid. Nor are they blind. They’ve just gotten a very vivid display of why renegotiating NAFTA makes no sense. No matter what the President’s negotiation team agrees to may not matter as the President may well change his mind after speaking to hardline advisors on his staff or in Congress. And if he doesn’t, then those hardliners in Congress, specifically in the Senate where any new treaty will have to be ratified, could and most likely would derail the agreement.
If you’re Kim Jong Un or Ayatulluh Uzma Khameini or Bashar Assad or Xi Jinping just how enthusiastic are you going to be to negotiate a nuclear deescalation agreement (DPRK and Iran), an end to the Syrian Civil War, or to address trade imbalances when you know that the deal most likely won’t be the deal? If you’re the US’s EU trading and NATO defense partners, just how willing are you to renegotiate the EU trade agreement with the US or NATO member spending levels on collective defense when you know that it doesn’t matter what you agree to is likely to be repudiated before you can announce it to your own constituents? The answer is not very.
This budget shutdown isn’t just a continuation of the partisan shenanigans we’ve seen over the past decade. Nor is it the type of short term impasse that popped up with some regularity in the 1970s and 1980s. Short term impasses that didn’t last the weekend or only lasted a business day or two and were negotiable as they really dealt with funding level disputes and disparities. Rather, this budget shutdown is a combination of birds coming home to roost for Senator McConnell. The current shutdown is the logical outcome of a decades worth of Senator McConnell as the leader of the Republican caucus in the Senate. Every rule bent or broken. Every norm violated. Every tradition ignored if not repudiated. And now he can’t handle the fact that he has to live with the nightmare reality he’s created. It is also the result of Speaker Ryan’s fear of the nihilistic extremists in the Freedom Caucus, leading to his unwillingness to bring anything to a vote that doesn’t have their support and therefore doesn’t need any Democratic votes (the Hastert Rule). Finally, it is the result of the President’s mercurial nature, lack of core principles and values, and his susceptibility to pander and agree with whoever speaks to him last.
Domestically there is time for this shutdown to be a blip. If they work out even a short term resolution over the weekend, almost no harm will be done, other than cancellation of some military training scheduled for this weekend and some temporary duty travel that will have to be reworked on the fly come Monday or Tuesday. And maybe authorization of a couple of day’s worth of back pay. My professional assessment is that this is either going to be resolved quickly – over the weekend/at the beginning of the week – or it is going to drag on. If it is the latter this will get ugly. Very, very ugly.
The real damage in regard to foreign policy, however, has already been done regardless of how long this lasts. Our allies and partners, our peer competitors, and our enemies have all now seen how the President of the United States and his administration negotiate. The lessons have been learned. Whether it is Canada and Mexico or the DPRK and the PRC, strategies are being revised. New plans are being made. Contingencies are being put in place. And no matter what may result from talks around the negotiating table, the real losers will be Americans. Consider it the price that has to be paid for putting America First and Making America Great Again. Simply it is the MAGA tariff.
We are through the map and off the looking glass!
The Real Takeaway From The Shutdown: A Failure To Negotiate In Good FaithPost + Comments (128)
This post is in: Dolt 45, Republicans in Disarray!, Assholes, Clap Louder!, Not Normal
New @andrewrestuccia: Trump’s “shithole” comments are still reverberating, with several administration officials privately worrying that their future job prospects could be damaged by association, according to a person familiar with their thinking. https://t.co/Gv9Ix32IwM
— Carrie Budoff Brown (@cbudoffbrown) January 19, 2018
If they’re just figuring this out now, then to be honest, I don’t think they’d be good hires in any case.
— Anne Owen (@anneowenphd) January 19, 2018
They knew he was a scorpion when they took him to their bosoms. Politico sympathizes, even if the rest of us refuse to do so:
The first year of Donald Trump’s presidency is coming to a close with administration officials exhausted and uncertain after two extraordinary weeks of chaos, even by the standards of this White House.
The drama underlines a fundamental truth about Trump’s presidency: The faces may change, but it seems the storyline never does.
Nearly six months after retired Marine Gen. John Kelly took over from former Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as chief of staff, the president is as undisciplined as ever. That’s sent morale in the West Wing plunging to new depths, according to more than half a dozen current and former White House officials and outside advisers.
The current upheaval comes as senior administration officials are weighing whether to leave their jobs or stay in the government…
After ending 2017 with the passage of a sweeping rewrite of the tax code, White House officials had hoped to return from their holiday breaks refreshed and refocused. Instead, they’ve been thrust into yet another real-life game of Whac-A-Mole, forced to deal with an explosive tell-all book; racially charged remarks by the president that upended negotiations over an immigration deal; and now the prospect of a government spending crisis.
Some West Wing staffers are dealing with their frustration by keeping their heads down and focusing on the issues over which they have control. As a result, the White House is becoming increasingly siloed, with policy staffers separated from the top brass in the West Wing…
People close to the Trump administration argue staffers are just feeling the wear and tear of jobs that routinely involve working 12- to 15-hour days.
“This has nothing to do with a particular president, it has more to do with the fact that these are all-encompassing jobs,” said American Conservative Union head Matt Schlapp, whose wife, Mercedes, works in the West Wing and who regularly speaks with the president and other top staffers.
The White House declined to comment…
Anyone check Hair Fuhrer’s tweetstream?
“And in the meantime… “…
Is it me or is this a damning paragraph? https://t.co/pylP9iv8JO pic.twitter.com/WPmXauRztY
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) January 19, 2018
Schadenfreude Read: “Shutdown threat tanks West Wing morale”Post + Comments (60)
This post is in: Open Threads
It’s been so long since I wrote a whole album of songs about Eric Clapton that I hardly remember why I did it in the first place. I guess the idea germinated when I was living in Seattle and teaching guitar there. I had a whole spate of middle-aged dudes, successful white-collar types, coming in and confessing their love for Old Slowhand. I started wondering what my students saw in him. I think they liked his boring music and bought into the Clapton-is-God hype. But I think they also saw a kindred spirit–a schlubby white guy with a guitar, neatly put-together with nice clothes and a tidy haircut–and they dreamed.They related. So, I wrote a song about it, and the original thrust of my song was that you, desk-jockey, actually have far less in common with Slow Oldhand (who, after all, was a ’60s icon) than you think. “It’s not very likely that he shares your point of view,” I sing in the refrain.
I’m not immune to Clapton’s good points. I like “Bellbottom Blues” and “Lay Down Sally.” “Presence of the Lord” is just the kind of thing you’d come up with if you didn’t write “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” but wish you had. His version of “I Shot the Sheriff” is unjustly maligned; it’s pretty good! Bob Marley was courting a wider audience with his cleaner, warmer original. If anything, Clapton’s grittier version sounds more like a Studio One classic.
But I have always found Clapton’s guitar playing dull, dull, dull. As the ’70s wore on–and, no doubt, heroin began hollow him out–he took on the style of B.B. King in Las Vegas: by-the-numbers, pentatonic-scale wankery. (I have a friend who can play Clapton-style licks at me until I am clutching my sides with laughter.)
Shortly after that, I began having thoughts about the music of the ’60s and ’70s. I hit upon the idea of using stations of Clapton’s life as a way to write about that period, the creche of the sort of art-rock I had been writing and performing since the ’90s. When I researched him and discovered he was kind of an asshole and probably a racist, I had a volte-face and thought, “You know, those desk-jockeys might have been onto something.” They may indeed share a point of view with Clapton.
On 7 Songs about Eric Clapton, I include songs about Robert Johnson and one about guitar teachers and one about Pattie Boyd, stirred in with others about heroin addiction and the mad zeal of irrational fandom. Does that about cover it? Well, it was enough for me. So, my band Constant Velocity toured the Midwest playing it and then recorded it.
7 songs about eric clapton by Constant Velocity
Have I piqued your interest? Well, now my offer to you. I will donate all of the proceeds of the sale of this album over the next week to the Act Blue thermometer that splits the funds between all of the eventual candidates. But if you’d prefer not to have Great Art in your life then you could just contribute directly. I suppose.
by David Anderson| 42 Comments
This post is in: America, Don't Agonize - Organize, Election 2018, Enhanced Protest Techniques, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
25% done of this era of errors.
The upside of extraordinary pessimism is that surprise is a positive. I am surprised that the core of the ACA ( Medicaid expansion and guarantee issued/community rated subsidized insurance) is still strong. Medicaid expansion may still expand in Maine and via referandum elsewhere.
I am happy at the counter-reaction that is trying to defend our values from reactionaries.
And I look forward to working my ass off to gain a veto point next November.
What say ye….
This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity
The Senatortoise from Kentucky isn’t being subtle:
#Senate Democrats have a choice to make. This should be a no-brainer… pic.twitter.com/zdUFXxclZ9
— Leader McConnell (@SenateMajLdr) January 19, 2018
Meanwhile, Twitler is focused on how the #TrumpShutdown will affect him personally, and it’s dawning on him that missing the Corruption Cotillion will be the least of it:
“It’s Trump — they’re going to blame me no matter what,” the president told aides on Friday. https://t.co/i5NblPPDsC
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) January 20, 2018
? [actual size]
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
? [again, actual size]
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
What’s that old saying — if you’re explaining, you’re losing? A few hours later, he sounds even more desperate:
Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration. Can’t let that happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018
The world’s greatest negotiator, ladies and gents.
Like Trump, McConnell is an evil prick. But unlike Trump, he’s not an addled fool who doesn’t understand how politics work. He and the rest of the GOP leadership know Trump is a loose cannon, which has to be a nightmare in a situation like this.
I don’t know how this ultimately plays out because Trump is not a rational actor. But the Democrats need to stay strong. This might be a good time to encourage them, even if there’s no one to answer the phones.
This post is in: Dolt 45, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
JUST IN: #TrumpShutdown becomes top trending hashtag worldwide https://t.co/BWueU16Sbw pic.twitter.com/uEpT2wI6BZ
— The Hill (@thehill) January 20, 2018
GOOD WORK, REPUBLICANS!
I’ll believe that Trump is growing into the presidency when his staff stops talking about him like a toddler. https://t.co/V3pyAdu9XD pic.twitter.com/KJ9zDpzrfz
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) January 20, 2018
Happy anniversary for Trump taking the oath of office. The government has shutdown. That sounds about right.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) January 20, 2018
It's been 112 days since CHIP expired, 112 days since the fiscal year ended without a budget, and 137 days since Trump revoked DACA.
The #TrumpShutdown could have been avoided if Republicans simply did their job last fall instead of waiting until the last minute.
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) January 20, 2018
The Trump WH is painfully ill-prepared for what happens after an actual shutdown.
Of the roughly 130 federal office and agencies that have to have shutdown contingency plans, 66 of them haven’t been updated since 2015. https://t.co/9UQtgjPqY4
— Sam Stein (@samstein) January 19, 2018
Government shutdown?
BLAZE UP! Sessions and the narc patrol are OUT OF BUSINESS.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 20, 2018
Please refrain from shooting your guns into the air in celebration #2A
— Ranger Hoby Gilman (@DoctorRazzWSOP) January 20, 2018
This is not Chuck Schumer’s shutdown. This is not Mitch McConnell’s shutdown. This is Donald Trump and Stephen Miller’s shutdown. This is the result of a confused, chaotic White House.
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) January 20, 2018
And where is the “adult supervision” the GOP promised would keep Trump in line?
Vice President Mike is in hiding, hoping that a shutdown will bring the fustercluck one step closer to “President Pence”…
Well-seasoned House R just texted me, asking: Where has VP Mike Pence been in all this? Obvi he's leaving the country, but he really HAS kept his distance from the funding fight. Source notes he knows the Hill/says could have been helpful. "Seems like he's avoiding this debate"
— Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) January 20, 2018
.
Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver, fearing a Bryce wave, is busy smash’n’grabbing for his paymasters while he still can…
Sounds like it was Paul Ryan, via phone, who sunk negotiations. Wouldn't commit the House to tying DACA to a must-pass funding bill.
— Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) January 20, 2018
.
And the guy supposed to be running the books, Office of Management and Budget Director Mulvaney, is a nihilistic moron!
Mick Mulvaney giddily boasts to Hannity: "The person who technically shuts down the government is me, which is kind of cool"https://t.co/VLbDkIbcAN
— Angelo Carusone (@GoAngelo) January 20, 2018
Good thing it’s the weekend, we have a couple days to recover from all the [[head*desk]]…
Saturday Morning Open Thread: #TrumpshutdownPost + Comments (154)