All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[Tazirai]

How the hell can the Republicans not get something done on this? They have majorities in both the Senate and Congress, and they have the White House. There is literally no one else to blame on this.

Republicans love to claim to be great at Governing but are terrible at it.
The GOP literally runs the majority of the country, and all they know how to do is hurt, people.


Yet these morons are lauded as great moderates and Bipartisans Because Democrat.
Yet they consistently vote against us, with the excuse, I vote with my constituents (Donors) in mind.

Joe Donnelly
Heidi Heitkamp
Joe Manchin (Paula Jean Sweregin to the Rescue...)
Claire McCaskill

Doug Jones is becoming a bigger disappointment than I thought. Yes, I get that he was in a "tough" spot to vote for military money. Why are Weak Democrats always bowing to the military?
But but he voted for CHIP. That's a bald-faced lie. Vote for Ransom and short-term gain for what?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

All things government shutdown which will officially put me and thousands more workers on furlough come Monday morning:

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Government Shuts Down As Congress Fails To Reach Spending Agreement

It’s the first shutdown of the U.S. government since 2013.

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How We Arrived At A ‘Shithole’ Shutdown

Trump’s Jan. 11 outburst played a key role.

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On The Anniversary Of Trump’s Inauguration, The Government Is Shut Down

“We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action,” he proclaimed at his inauguration.

**********

This Flu Season Is The Worst Possible Time For A Government Shutdown

Health care professionals rely on the statistics the federal government tracks.

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Trump’s Decision To Keep Parks Open In A Shutdown Puts Politics Before Safety

Former Interior Department officials warn the move would endanger both visitors and America’s priceless resources.

[Tami]

Government shuts down after Senate bill collapses, negotiations fail

The federal government shut down for the first time in more than four years Friday after senators rejected a temporary spending patch and bipartisan efforts to find an alternative fell short as a midnight deadline came and went.

Republican and Democratic leaders both said they would continue to talk, raising the possibility of a solution over the weekend. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Friday that the conflict has a “really good chance” of being resolved before government offices open Monday, suggesting that a shutdown’s impacts could be limited.

But the White House drew a hard line immediately after midnight, saying they would not negotiate over a central issue — immigration — until government funding is restored.

“We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “This is the behavior of obstructionist losers, not legislators. When Democrats start paying our armed forces and first responders we will reopen negotiations on immigration reform.”

This pretty much says it all. Trump, et., al., do not want DACA. Dems and Repubs are still going at it, but ultimately Repubs had several months to work soemthing out. When they came close, trump shut them down.

So, in the end, who is to blame?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

While the GOP, in control of the House, the Senate and the White House couldn't get their act together on mustering enough votes to prevent the shutdown, I worry that the White House will use and abuse the bully pulpit, not to mention the Trump Propaganda Network (a.k.a. Faux News) to pin all the blame on Democrats, blaring 24/7 that Dems are putting illegal immigrants and Dreamers ahead of the military and all other government workers. And considering how gullible the American people are these days, I fear that tactic could well work unless Dems put out the message and put it out hard about how a bipartisan deal on DACA that could've helped avoid the shutdown was scuttled by Trump and Republicans.

[Tami]

With government shutdown, Republicans reap what they sow

oday’s Republican party is built on principle. As a matter of principle, the GOP believes it is the only party that can shut down government as a negotiating tactic. The Democrats’ job is to keep that government open and to cave in to its demands.

These truths we hold to be self-evident, after watching several rounds of this sad kabuki theater through the Clinton and Obama years.

Now that the Democrats have triggered a government shutdown, Republicans are outraged. Because of their principles, you know.

The ideologue responsible for Trump’s budget, Mick Mulvaney, put it best to reporters at the White House on Friday. Mulvaney, now director of the Office of Management and Budget, was previously a South Carolina congressman. In that role, he was one of the chief proponents of the last government shutdown because he opposed Planned Parenthood and Obamacare.

Now he says the Democrats have no right to do what he did because, well, that would make them unprincipled.

“Keep in mind, go back and watch what they said about folks during the 2013 shutdown who wanted to talk about things like the Obamacare repeal at that time,” he said. “One of the criticisms they made of folks like me is that I was inserting non-financial issues into an appropriations process, which is exactly what’s happening now. So I recognize the fact that Washington does not understand the meaning of the word hypocrisy and irony. The truth of the matter is they’re doing the exact same thing they accused the Republicans of doing in 2013.”

Ah yes, the irony of it all. It takes a special type of hypocrite to accuse your opponents of hypocrisy for following in your footsteps.

[worstblogever]

Two years ago on this date, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of John McGee, a former Idaho state senator whose career came to an abrupt halt after over the course of a few weeks back in 2012. You see, after attending a golf tournament where he had about eight drinks too many, he was found passed out in the road drunk behind the wheel of a stolen SUV with a 20 foot trailer blocking the road, and a blood alcohol level of .15. In the months after the incident, McGee was going to have to make a case to the rest of the Idaho State Senate of why he should keep his job, when news also broke that he had sexually harassed a female staffer who he had flashed his junk at and asked for sexual favors. We’ll at least give the guy credit for giving us a story where we don’t even have to look at their voting record.

One year ago today, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a Saxby Chambliss, a former U.S. Senator from Georgia who a few months after 9/11, Chambliss told a reporter his plan for security after the terror attacks was to have sheriffs “arrest every Muslim crossing the state line.” After surviving this controversy by having President Bush, still riding on high approval ratings after 9/11, campaigning on his behalf on three separate occasions in the same election cycle. But where things truly got ugly was when Chambliss ran an advertisement that questioned Max Cleland’s commitment to national defense and homeland security, where images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were juxtaposed against photos of Cleland, as if he was supporting terrorists and dictators. This would have been the same Max Cleland who is a Vietnam veteran, and lost three limbs in the conflict while serving his country. The ad was disgusting enough to get massive criticism even from Chambliss' fellow Republicans, incluing Sen. Chuck Hagel and Sen. John McCain. Meanwhile, as much as a "patriot" as Chambliss liked to pretend to be, he voted against the Zadroga Bill to provide healthcare for 9/11 First Responders. During his career, Chambliss voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, and to attempt to make English the national language and voted for a constitutional amendment to allow government buildings to erect monuments of the Ten Commandments.(both of which the Supreme Court had already voted down as unconstitutional at the time, voted for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton for lying about having an affair with Monica Lewinsky. Chambliss co-sponsored the Iraq War Resolution in 2002, advocated for repealing federal income taxes, and instead, to place a 30% sales tax upon all items purchased in the United States, which. economists called this proposal "foolish", if not "crazy" and even some noted conservative commentators saying, "The national sales tax is crazier, by an order of magnitude, than any other crazy idea I’ve seen at the national level. It’s so crazy that even really crazy right-wingers think it’s pretty crazy." Chambliss also consistently voted to ban same sex marriage, and when asked if he would reconsider his position on the issue, and he offers the bizarre response of, "I’m not gay. So I’m not going to marry one." In June of 2013, during a hearing on sexual assaults occurring within our military against female service members, Sen. Chambliss blamed the phenomenon on "hormones", a disgustingly passé view of things. In August 2014 Chambliss was still willing to go on CBS' "Face the Nation" and defend the use of waterboarding, still insisting that it isn't torture. He retired a few months later.



It was one year ago today that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had its first profile of Missouri State Senator David Sater, whose name suddenly turned up in the press a full decade into his career back in 2014 during discussion of an anti-abortion measure in the Missouri state legislature he was sponsoring (an extension of a waiting period for abortions from 24 to 72 hours) that Sater argued against exceptions for pregnant rape victims getting an abortion, blaming them for not just going and getting the "Plan B" pill the day after their rape. That was only somewhat revolting, but became hypocritically disgusting when it was noted by many that David Sater has spent his entire career as a legislator consistently voting against blocking access to Plan B Contraceptives, including once sponsoring a bill to allow pharmacies to refuse to stock it. A few months later, David Sater was continuing to argue against exceptions against rape for his 72 hour waiting period by arguing that getting an abortion after a rape was akin to "knee surgery" that he himself was waiting on. Democrats in the chamber then asked if he needed 72 hours to rethink his knee getting operated on, and Sater admitted he actually didn't. We want to be thorough, here, the stories about David Sater downplaying rape and abortion as akin to his own elective surgical procedures are not the only examples of his extremism, when you look at his voting record, including unconstitutional attempts to pass legislation to allow public prayer in public schools, to drug test welfare recipients, or to attempt to nullify the Affordable Care Act or the United Nations' Agenda 21 treaty.

Sater was re-elected to a second four year term in the 2016 to represent District 29 in the Missouri State Senate because... no one bothered to run against him. The only positive note we have on Sater is that this will be his last four-year term in the Missouri state legislature, as he's term-limited in 2020. The end of his career cannot come soon enough.

[JCAll]

Trump obviously says a lot of questionable things about his daughter. That said, Democrats overreach on this shit and act like it's even slightly important in a race to throw as much shit on the wall as possible. Right now the GOP is making us choose between CHIP and DACA, but in three days we'll totally move on and talk about some stupid thing he said to some other acquaintance.

The Left really needs to learn to take the top 3 or 4 things that actually matter and effect people and just beat people over the head with it until it sticks. When everything is a controversy, nothing is. Just remember the election, Trump had a million scandals but every week was a new one and Dems jumped all over each one and nobody remembered a thing. Meanwhile Trump brought up Hillary's emails every minute he could, and it ended up being effective.

I instinctively dislike that I'm feeling conditioned to accept worse and worse behavior as normal. It's not the most perverse thing he's done, just let it slide. It's not the cruelest thing he's said, just move on. It's not the biggest lie he's told, just let this one go. Just @#$% all of that, I've heard it too much.

I've been on the internet long enough that I know how to bitch about everything at once, so I'll continue to do just that.

[Mister Mets]

The senate is primarily Republican. If the senate couldn't pass it without the Democrats, DON'T PASS GO AND GO BACK.

They need 60 votes for this. If 41 Democrats vote no (and 44 did), why shouldn't they be blamed for the shutdown? If it had required a majority to pass, it would've passed 50-49 (John McCain wasn't present for the vote.)

[TheInvisibleMan]

They need 60 votes for this. If 41 Democrats vote no (and 44 did), why shouldn't they be blamed for the shutdown? If it had required a majority to pass, it would've passed 50-49 (John McCain wasn't present for the vote.)

this adminstration and the Idiot DO NOT WANT BROWN AND BLACK PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY (LEGAL OR NOT)

this administration could have reauthorized CHIP, but they don't give a rip about anyone not rich

THIS SHUTDOWN IS ON THE IDIOT AND ANYONE BEHIND HIM

[Tami]

They need 60 votes for this. If 41 Democrats vote no (and 44 did), why shouldn't they be blamed for the shutdown? If it had required a majority to pass, it would've passed 50-49 (John McCain wasn't present for the vote.)

I agree with IM, the Republicans could have dealt with CHIP and DACA long time ago independent of the budget. If they had, the Dems would have given them whatever they wanted, within reason.

The Republicans held CHIP and DACA hostage, and the Democrats knew that Trump and hard-line Republicans don't want DACA. So, why should Democrats give the Republicans a budget that causes more harm than good?

[Tendrin]

GOP couldn't even get fifty Republicans on board but yeah, sure it's all the Dems fault. *eyeroll*

Has this bit from Rep Scott Perry been posted here yet?

In the segment, a Republican congressman dropped serious — and unsubstantiated — hints about a possible Islamic State connection to Stephen Paddock’s attack from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel. It’s another instance of a fringe conspiracy theory leaking into the mainstream on the network, this time in the words of an elected official.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...rrorist-nexus/

[Gray Lensman]

They need 60 votes for this. If 41 Democrats vote no (and 44 did), why shouldn't they be blamed for the shutdown? If it had required a majority to pass, it would've passed 50-49 (John McCain wasn't present for the vote.)

They had a deal until Trump opened his S***hole. That's on them because of it. If there was never a deal I'd be more willing to blame Democrats, but that's not what happened here.

[TheInvisibleMan]

5 Republicans voted NO

[Robotman]

While the GOP, in control of the House, the Senate and the White House couldn't get their act together on mustering enough votes to prevent the shutdown, I worry that the White House will use and abuse the bully pulpit, not to mention the Trump Propaganda Network (a.k.a. Faux News) to pin all the blame on Democrats, blaring 24/7 that Dems are putting illegal immigrants and Dreamers ahead of the military and all other government workers. And considering how gullible the American people are these days, I fear that tactic could well work unless Dems put out the message and put it out hard about how a bipartisan deal on DACA that could've helped avoid the shutdown was scuttled by Trump and Republicans.

You just knew that they were going to get these talking points out as soon as possible. “The democrats shut the government down because they care more about immigrants than our military!” Im sure Fox will be running with this narrative all weekend and beyond.

[Mister Mets]

I agree with IM, the Republicans could have dealt with CHIP and DACA long time ago independent of the budget. If they had, the Dems would have given them whatever they wanted, within reason.

The Republicans held CHIP and DACA hostage, and the Democrats knew that Trump and hard-line Republicans don't want DACA. So, why should Democrats give the Republicans a budget that causes more harm than good?

The argument that voting for the shutdown is necessary under these circumstances is a defensible one, but it should be argued on those terms, rather than incorrectly claiming that Republicans could've passed this with a simple majority.

GOP couldn't even get fifty Republicans on board but yeah, sure it's all the Dems fault. *eyeroll*

Has this bit from Rep Scott Perry been posted here yet?




https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...rrorist-nexus/

The GOP doesn't need 50 Republicans. They need 60 votes.

The GOP had a majority, and there were enough Democrats opposed to it that the handful of Republican defections don't matter.