It is bad when Mr. Bothsiderist Chuck Todd is spilling the beans on what Trump and Republicans are up to with the government shutdown and tonight’s Trump broadcast. No transcript on this, but Todd brought this up on his show and All In With Chris Hayes: Trump has no serious plan to reopen the government. Todd…
Category: GovernmentShutdown
Bookmakers taking bets on how many times Trump will lie tonight
The over/under is 3.5, which seems really, really low. Seems you could bankrupt a casino betting on Trump’s lack of candor. Then again, who’d ever be dumb enough to bankrupt a casino? From The New York Daily News: BookMaker, an offshore gambling house that claims 30 years in the business, is laying odds on how many…
Want to know who's trying to end the shutdown? Look at who's negotiating.
Here’s how it ultimately breaks down, in pure and simple human terms. This Friday morning, over 800,000 federal employees will wake up, hit the “brew” button, and log into their bank accounts, which will show exactly the same amount of money that they did when the employees went to bed on Thursday night. There’s what…
TV Networks Set To Kiss Trump's A** Tomorrow Night.
Nothing like continuing to give Trump all the air time he wants. (CNN)The major television networks will provide wall-to-wall coverage of President Donald Trump's prime time address on border security on Tuesday. NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox broadcast network all said on Monday that they had agreed to the White House's request for air time….
All four living ex-presidents call Trump a liar over his B.S. wall story
Last week I wrote a diary arguing that Donald Trump, harebrained idiot, almost certainly lied when he said this during his speech in the Rose Garden on Friday: “This should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me,” Trump said. “And they all know it. Some of them have told me that we…
Networks give Trump a primetime slot for his lie-filled wall propaganda (update)
UPDATE: CNN reports that the big four networks are deliberating whether to give Trump the prime-time slot, but that CNN and Fox News have already agreed to air the speech. *** The major networks balked at first, but they’ve finally agreed to let Donald Trump spew his hate-filled lies across our nation like a lawn sprinkler loaded with…
Trump's “out” for the government shutdown HE created.
Shit just got real Anonymous Look, we all know that things are not always what they appear to be. Five short years ago, many of you here thought that I was capable of stringing two coherent sentences together. Wrong-o. Three short years ago, everybody on the planet knew that the Cubs could never win another World Series. *BUZZ!* Try…
Trump escalates the GOP war on government workers
As the New Year begins, imagine that this is how your 2018 ended: You work at a company where the CEO and the management team are notoriously corrupt. They began the year by taking on $150 million in new debt for the purpose of rewarding themselves and their shareholders with a massive stock buyback. But as the…
Fox's Chris Wallace slams Sarah Sanders over phony 'terrorists-at-border' claim
We know it’s a lie, and the White House knows it’s a lie (whether or not the squatter-in-chief actually does), and even Fox News likely knows it’s a lie, but that typically doesn’t matter. Usually the lies skate by unchallenged. Well, not this morning. Today on Fox News Sunday, Fox’s designated simulacrum of a reporter, Chris Wallace,…
WH lawyers are now discussing whether not having a stupid wall is a national emergency
I’m no lawyer, but I’m pretty sure the bar for “national emergency” should be higher than “the president will look like a dissembling dipshit otherwise.” From NBC News: As the government shutdown drags on, lawyers from the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon are meeting to discuss whether President Donald Trump can declare…
So exactly which ex-presidents told Trump they should have built the wall?
Trump doesn’t just lie. He makes up entire conversations that never happened. And he does it all the time. The latest? He claimed today during his press conference/harrowing public mental breakdown that “some” former presidents have told him they should have done what he’s currently doing — i.e., shutting down the government over $5 billion in…
I Hope That Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth Keeps This Up.
Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3rd) has some pointed criticism for AWOL Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Trump’ s government shutdown: Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the Senate will not take up a bill to end the shutdown until Congress is sure the bill is something President Donald Trump will sign. House Budget Committee Chairman-elect…
As shutdown lingers and fed workers suffer, Trump officials set to receive big raises
Yeah, this isn’t a good look. From The Washington Post: While many federal workers go without pay and the government is partially shut down, hundreds of senior Trump political appointees are poised to receive annual raises of about $10,000 a year. The pay raises for cabinet secretaries, deputy secretaries, top administrators and even Vice President…
The “Everything Terrible Trump Has Done So Far” Omnibus (Week 102)
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. ____________________________________________________________________________ 1179. Moved to block deal that would allow Cuban baseball players to play in the…
A 'very high number' of workers at Trump's golf club were undocumented
While there’s actually been a net outflow of undocumented workers from the U.S. to Mexico over the past several years, they’re still pouring over the border of Donald Trump’s New Jersey golf club, apparently. Several media outlets recently reported that the FBI is looking into possible immigration crimes at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, club, and…
Trump's shutdown might delay your tax refund — unless you're rich, of course
This is what happens when Donald Trump’s brain farts in an airtight room and no one is allowed to open a window. You get screwed, while his wealthy friends skate by pretty much unscathed. Today, The Wall Street Journal reported that the timely delivery of tax refunds could be imperiled this year because Trump just…
Trump's AG pick thought a border wall was an idiotic idea when Pat Buchanan proposed it
Back in 1992, Pat Buchanan primaried incumbent President George H.W. Bush because, apparently, Bush wasn’t nearly racist enough. You may remember Buchanan. He was a nativist, xenophobic tub of nut butters who campaigned on a platform of fear and scapegoating. Thank God the GOP had too much sense to ever allow a guy like that to gain…
National parks become a metaphor for Trump administration, as chaos reigns and toilets overflow
First comes the shutdown, then follows the shit-dawn. Three and a half years after Donald Trump’s mouth started overflowing with feces, he’s finally begun to work his magic on some of our nation’s most treasured national parks. From NBC News: Human feces, overflowing garbage, illegal off-roading and other damaging behavior in fragile areas were beginning…
That wall around Obama's home Trump used to argue for his BIG WALL? It doesn't exist
I have to apologize. Yesterday I wrote a diary about Trump’s latest flabby argument for building his southern border wall: namely that the Obamas have a wall around their home, so there should also be a wall blocking a small portion of our giant border because, you know, those walls are so similar in so, so many…
It's Not Like I Do Not Trust You Senator Graham…
But no one in their right mind trusts Donald Trump to negotiate in good faith or keep an agreement. Trump whisperer Senator Lindsey Graham is telling the world that Trump and the Republicans are willing to negotiate on wall funding. Graham says Republicans are going to put on the negotiating table ideas that Democrats have…
Trump: Obamas' home-security wall and the southern border wall are the 'same thing'
Um … x President and Mrs. Obama built/has a ten foot Wall around their D.C. mansion/compound. I agree, totally necessary for their safety and security. The U.S. needs the same thing, slightly larger version! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2018 Off the top of my head, I can think of a few differences…
Amid shutdown, government helps fund Trump's private New Year's party
It’s not much money in the grand scheme of things, but it’s definitely more than most federal workers could make from loofah-ing dead skin off the buttocks of their landlords. (Or painting or doing carpentry work or whatever, but who are we kidding? Landlords want their buttocks loofah-ed. Or am I overgeneralizing from my own…
Non-furloughed workers can’t take vacation during a shutdown—unless their names are Jared or Ivanka
Putting aside Donald Trump’s ridiculously authoritarian decision to put his freaking kids in top White House positions, the fact remains that they are federal employees. When Ivanka Trump was made “Special Counsel” and husband Jared Kushner was put in charge of everything, they filed official paperwork (including Form 278) which legally binds them to ethics rules. Upon taking…
Can They Approve Judges During a Government Shutdown?
I can’t find any information on this topic yet, but I was wondering if the U.S. Senate can approve Trump’s judicial nominees while there is a partial government shutdown? The only verification of this potential hiccup for Mitch McConnell was the fear expressed by Fox if there was a government shutdown during the process to…
The “Everything Terrible Trump Has Done So Far” Omnibus (Week 101)
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. ____________________________________________________________________________ 1169. Shutdown the government for the third time in a year 1170. Threatened to cut aid to…
Shutdown Shmutdown! Lowlights From This Trump Shutdown.
If you are a Republican president, you know you have shit on yourself when TigerBeat On the Potomac has this for a headline: 'Hunker down like a jackass': Shutdown could drag on for weeks The president spends Christmas Eve 'all alone in the White House,' complaining about Democrats with no end to the closure in…
