GovernmentShutdown

It would be a giant leap to say that the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people on Sunday was caused by the U.S. government shutdown, but there is reason to believe the aircraft’s safety may have been compromised by the impasse Donald Trump forced over funding for his vanity wall....

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  • March 13, 2019

They wanted a president who would run the country like his business. Oh, they got it. And now everyone gets to suffer. From NBC News: President Donald Trump is blocking a measure to give back pay to federal contractors affected by last month's government shutdown as part of a bipartisan agreement to...

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  • February 14, 2019

It’s hard to imagine that Donald Trump would put the country through another shutdown given the political fallout from his previous unforced error, but then this guy is a special kind of stupid. If no agreement is reached on the border wall by Friday’s deadline, it seems likely that he’ll declare...

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  • February 10, 2019

Is there a worse job in the world than Donald Trump’s chief of staff? Maybe Trump’s personal bathtub attendant. Or the guy who artificially inseminates zoo gorillas? I don’t know. Those last two are essentially the same job, so … Mick Mulvaney has been Trump’s “acting” chief of staff for...

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  • January 31, 2019

While Donald Trump’s Westchester, New York, golf club was quietly sacking undocumented workers during the government shutdown, his son Eric’s winery was looking to staff up — with 23 foreign workers. Just try to find the end of the Trump family’s hypocrisy. I dare you. From BuzzFeed News: Trump Winery,...

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  • January 29, 2019

Donald Trump shut down the government for 35 days for a pouch of magic beans and a participation trophy, and Americans appear to have noticed. On several measures, respondents to the latest NBC/WSJ poll now see him as the noisome, tumescent clump of flop sweat and spray-tan solution that he...

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  • January 27, 2019

Can you write “balls” in a headline if it refers to, you know, theoretical POTUS gonads? Is there official DKos guidance on this? I think this is a gray area. Anyway, many in Donald Trump’s orbit are, let’s just say, disappointed in their ocher overlord’s capitulation to newly inaugurated de facto...

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  • January 26, 2019

Now did you see the news today? They say the danger’s gone away. But I can see the fires still alight. They’re burning into the night   Land of Confusion   Genesis My two youngest daughters love zombie movies, especially the Resident Evil franchise. Me personally? I can take ‘em or leave...

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  • January 26, 2019

Kentucky has the dubious honor to have elected some of the most evil and stupid people possible to government positions — Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, Thomas Massie, and Matt Bevin.  Given Trump’s government shutdown defeat, I was watching a lot of TV — MSNBC — and scanning local and state media for the...

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  • January 26, 2019

I freely admit to NOT looking at right wing propaganda outlets, but I got curious what others besides Ann Coulter were saying about Trump’s capitulation on the government shutdown and his precious fuckin’ wall.  And lo and behold, I found comedy gold from Bill O’Reilly.  But first, let’s get the...

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  • January 25, 2019

I could post the entire transcript of Donald Trump’s Rose Garden address, but what’s the point? It all boils down to this: “We’re ending the government shutdown, blah blah blah, lie lie lie, I’m a huge fucking loser.” And if that’s too detailed for you, basically he got up to the...

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  • January 25, 2019

What is the sound of one hand clapping?   Chinese proverb OK screw it, I was wrong. So, sue me. A little over a week ago I put up a rather lengthy article, in which I chronicled the fact that Trump’s obstinance in the current partial government shutdown was not something...

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  • January 25, 2019

After today’s show votes in the U.S. Senate, MSNBC was all a twitter — not electronically — about how “twenty senators from each party” were frustrated or infuriated by this government shutdown.  Schumer was seen going into McConnell’s office, and it seemed to the gullible reporters that a “bipartisan” solution to the...

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  • January 25, 2019

From CNN: The White House is preparing a draft proclamation for President Donald Trump to declare a national emergency along the southern border and has identified more than $7 billion in potential funds for his signature border wall should he go that route, according to internal documents reviewed by CNN....

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  • January 24, 2019

This is not … er … comforting. What is it about Republicans and screwing with our air traffic control system? In a joint statement, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, Air Line Pilots Association International, and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA is warning of the increasing danger posed by the partial government shutdown, currently...

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  • January 24, 2019

This isn’t whimsical, there actually is an almost insanely easy solution to the government shutdown, and one that gives every side the ability to claim a “win” on the issue. And funnily enough, the basic mechanics are already in place. There is no doubt that the Republicans are feeling the heat. Poll...

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  • January 23, 2019

A new CBS News poll has a lot of bad news for Trump and the Republicans: Americans overwhelmingly believe, by a margin of 71 percent to 28 percent, that funding a border wall is not worth a government shutdown. By a margin of 47 percent to 35 percent, Americans think...

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  • January 23, 2019

As the details come in, it appears that neither Trump’s “compromise” with all of its poison pills nor a clean CR will pass a Senate cloture vote.  Democrats will not cave and vote for Trump’s wall and other white supremacists wish list items.  Republicans are going to vote as a...

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  • January 23, 2019

So this happened today: Given the volatility in the stock market of late, today’s 300-point pratfall isn’t all that noteworthy. But what’s a bit more concerning is the likely reason. While investor jitters over Donald Trump’s inane economic policies have made the market vacillate over the past year like a Home Depot...

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  • January 23, 2019

Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth of Kentucky’s Third District has an op-ed answering the many lies told by Senator Mitch McConnell in his previous op-ed.  I think the best line from Yarmuth is this one: The bottom line is that Mitch McConnell is only interested in one wall, and that’s the...

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  • January 21, 2019

Soooooo Mitch McConnell has been busy thinking of ways to grab more political hostages in order to force Democrats to cave to Trump’s demand for a wall.  We can now add disaster survivors and abused women to furloughed government workers and undocumented immigrants.   According to Tigerbeat on the Potomac,  Senate Republicans...

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  • January 21, 2019

Thanks for playing, Tulsi. You were already dangling by the most gossamer of threads. And now your failure is complete. From Politico: Hawaii congresswoman and Democratic candidate for president Tulsi Gabbard said Sunday that her party’s leadership was not blameless for the partial government shutdown that is now approaching a...

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  • January 20, 2019

I have a radical ides. I know, like this is a news flash, right? Just do me one favor. Read the whole damn thing, don’t just read the next paragraph, say “What an idiot!”, and then steam off to the comments section. Read it, look at what I say in...

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  • January 20, 2019

Well, well, well. You mean Jared Kushner — who singlehandedly brought peace to the Middle East and got Israelis and Palestinians to gather on verdant hilltops, hand in hand, warbling “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” in white turtlenecks and vintage sundresses — flopped in his attempt to end...

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  • January 19, 2019

As this unnecessary government shutdown continues, I was trying to research what if any affects it will have in Kentucky, especially since that evil fucker Mitch McConnell is assisting Trump in inflicting pain on government workers.  There appears to be bad and truly scary news with regards to the SNAP and...

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  • January 19, 2019

Well, that didn’t take long! To be honest, I’m surprised that His Lowness didn’t show up today at Dover AFB clad in his silk Gucci boxers, since obviously the demented banshee that is Ann Coulter has already confiscated his every last pair of pants for her personal use. We aren’t 20 minutes...

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  • January 19, 2019

Axios is reporting that Donald Trump will make significant concessions in his 3 p.m. speech today that will signal a major departure from his current negotiating tactic of flopping around on dry land like a fat, surly carp: Details: The offer is expected to include Trump’s $5.7 billion demand for wall money in...

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  • January 19, 2019

Not sure what else a “major announcement” could entail, unless he’s about to tell us he finally got a soul and is now a real boy: x I will be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 3 P.M.,...

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  • January 18, 2019

If you take a few blocks away from a Jenga tower it might stay up for a while, but if you keep pulling pieces away, it’s going to fall eventually. (Aren’t you glad I went with the Jenga thing instead of the Donald Trump strip poker analogy I was workshopping? My...

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  • January 18, 2019

For the 147,296th time, no, I am not spiking the football. Every time I try that, the damn thing bounces back up and clips me in the nits. Two polls do not make a “trend,” but if yesterdays Marist and the CNN poll of a couple of days ago are accurate, and...

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  • January 18, 2019

The President is a counter puncher. When he’s hit, he hits back twice as hard   Sarah Huckabee Sanders Thus us a primo example of the bullshit that I like to call the Trump mythology. In boxing, a counter puncher deflects or accepts a minor blow in order to be in...

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  • January 18, 2019

Seems a few local media outlets in Louisville, Kentucky are running some stories on Trump’s and McConnell’s government shutdown.  First up, WLKY, a CBS affiliate, has been runnings some stories about the government shutdown.  This is actually a little surprising to me.  CBS is bothsiderist on a good day, but...

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  • January 18, 2019

The old saying goes something like “Hang separately or hang together.” And boy, oh boy, are we ever getting a full length feature film on that principle right now. And if “elections have consequences,” those consequences are pounding the GOP into the ground right now. To say that the GOP...

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  • January 17, 2019

This may very well be the swiftest, most efficient garroting in the history of Twitter: x He’s unable to spell the word hamburger — Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) January 16, 2019 And what was Trump’s response to Pelosi's shock maneuver yesterday? Basically, he knocked the chessboard over and started bawling. Sorry, Dave....

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  • January 17, 2019

If there';s one sure fire diagnostic indicator of a “fucking moron,” it’s the inability to learn from ones past mistakes. I mean, come on, how many times do you have to whack your thumb with a hammer before you put the damn thing down and call a carpenter? I have...

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  • January 17, 2019

So far Donald Trump has made two huge unforced errors with regard to the economy: his ruinous trade war with much of the rest of the world and the partial government shutdown, which is premised on a cause so benighted and nonsensical I’m seriously starting to think that ‘Oumuamua asteroid that’s been bounding about...

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  • January 17, 2019

obstinance – the trait of being difficult to handle or overcome. mulishness, obstinacy, stubbornness. intractability, intractableness – the trait of being hard to influence or control. 2. obstinance – resolute adherence to your own ideas or desires. The only thing that’s missing from the above description is a picture of The Pampers President...

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  • January 16, 2019

This is beyond obvious, but … CNN: Most drugs are smuggled into the United States onboard fishing boats, trains, tractor-trailers and ordinary cars that come into the country at legal ports of entry, according to former cartel members who've testified in the trial of notorious cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman....

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  • January 14, 2019

This fact check is going to be really, really quick. Josh Dawsey is a White House correspondent for The Washington Post, and he said … ah, fuck it, just check the tweet: "I haven't actually left the White House in months," Trump says. What? — Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) January 13, 2019...

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  • January 13, 2019

One pernicious result of Donald Trump’s pr*sidency is that he’s made a lot of people dumber just through his terrible, omnipresent example. Once one kid starts peeing in the pool, they all start doing it — and if that kid is the lifeguard, what do you have then? That’s right: a urine...

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  • January 12, 2019

Yeah, the Louisvile Courier-Journal highlights the heartlessness of Republican Congressman Thomas Massie (KY-4th) with his vote AGAINST back pay for furloughed federal workers, but why is there NOT another update on the heartlessness of Senate Majority “Leader” Mitch McConnell?  It’s McConnell who is supporting Trump in this government shutdown.  It’s...

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  • January 11, 2019

Clearly we’re all seeing this unfolding in real time, but for what it’s worth, one former Trump Organization executive who worked for the Orange Teletubbie for years thinks he’s a pretty g’dawful negotiator. Why? He never takes responsibility for anything. Barbara Res, a former VP for Trump’s company, and Tony Schwartz,...

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  • January 11, 2019

With apologies, of course, to Bubbanomics. From Vice: Trump's live address from the Oval Office Tuesday was a bizarre and mostly unproductive waste of America's collective evening, save for those gamblers who won big betting on how many lies Trump could tell in under ten minutes. But it looks like one local news...

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  • January 11, 2019

For some reason Donald Trump is fixated on wheels and walls these days. The logic? 1) Wheels are older than walls. 2) We still use walls. 3) Therefore, the border wall will work. Wait, I’m not kidding. He actually said that during his PR stunt in McAllen, Texas, today: “Well, a...

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  • January 11, 2019

As part of the ongoing project to catalog every awful thing the Trump Administration has done as a reference for future political arguments and whatever few posterity survives to see 2020, here’s everything awful the Trump Administration has done this week. ____________________________________________________________________________ 1187. Threatened to extend the shutdown “months” or even “years”...

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  • January 11, 2019

Outside of Donald Trump’s parents, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is probably the first person to say “No” to Donald Trump on anything and get away with it.  Seriously.  Who is the last person to ever say “No, you cannot have that or do that” to Trump?  The only person I can...

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  • January 11, 2019

Donald Trump has never been one to accept responsibility for his actions. I mean, the guy once tried to blame two of his employees who had died in a work-related helicopter crash for his own business failures. With regard to the shutdown, it’s becoming clear that he didn’t start with a...

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  • January 10, 2019

President Donald Trump stepped up, put his big-boy pants on, and took the mantle of leadership. “I’ll take responsibility for shutting it down, I won’t blame you for it,” he famously told Chuck Schumer in the Oval Office. “I’ll be proud to do it.” Not much space for misinterpretation there,...

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  • January 9, 2019

Up until now, I’ve been exaggerating when I’ve said Donald Trump makes me want to vomit. Hey, we might get the real deal soon enough. From The Washington Post: The furloughing of hundreds of Food and Drug Administration inspectors has sharply reduced inspections of the nation’s food supply — one...

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  • January 9, 2019

Normally, Fox News viewers can count on watching hours and hours of regularly scheduled programming without getting a whiff of an inconvenient truth, but tonight Shepard Smith, one of the few (only?) honest brokers on the network, called Trump out on the steaming pile of racist offal he was serving the nation...

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  • January 9, 2019
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