Skip to main content



I don't know what's more a joke, the White House or Mitch McConnell trying to blame this shutdown on the Democrats?  The last minute measure the House Republicans tossed in the Senate lap would have only kept the government open for another four weeks, so it wasn't any solution at all, especially given nothing fundamentally changes now that government has "shutdown."  All essential services are still in place.  Even the national parks are still open.  Basically, non-essential workers have a temporary layoff, to be reimbursed later once Congress finally settles on a spending bill.

Yet, Donald Trump and his surrogates tried their best to throw the blame on the Democrats for this impasse, despite his saying time and again what this country needs is a "good shutdown."  Careful what you wish for.

Chuck Schumer took a calculated risk but one that should pay off big time for the Democrats, as the Republicans own this shutdown because of their unwillingness to negotiate immigration reform, too afraid they will be seen as compromised heading into the 2018 midterms.  After all, these assholes did exactly the same thing in 2013, and now they want to cry foul!

The biggest hypocrite of all is Donald J. Trump, who put the 2013 shutdown squarely on Barack Obama's shoulders.  Yet, the assclown doesn't want to take the blame this time despite he being the one to make DACA an issue by signing an executive order in September to revoke it.  So, why is the mainstream press even entertaining conservative arguments?  Any objective view of the situation confirms Chuck Schumer allegation that this is Trump's shutdown.

Unfortunately, news isn't news anymore but a 24/7 reality show we are forced to endure with talking heads representing the extremes of the political spectrum arguing it out on national television.  It is so fucking embarrassing to watch these news networks prostrate themselves in front of us for television ratings!  They figure the only way they can "sell" news is to make it a spectator sport.  So, they allow this "blame game" to go on as long as viewers tune in.  If only it was as entertaining as watching Jessica Lange and company parody "The Name Game" in American Horror Story.

The funny part in all this is how the political landscape is playing out much like the last season of AHS when Ally Mayfair-Richards turned the tables on Kai Anderson and made the world he created under Trump into her own vision, leaving the men to scratch their heads and wonder what went wrong?

Women are now dominating the news cycle, not only winning key state legislative seats but filling in Senate seats where their male colleagues strayed.  The Virginia assembly saw a record number of women win seats, almost turning the assembly in the Democratic favor.  Call it Hillary's revenge, or whatever you like, but Republicans (and for that matter Democrats) are going to see a backlash like they never saw before with a record number of women in Congress next session.

At that point, Donald Trump will have a lot of answering to do and it is unlikely he will be able to squirm out of it like he is trying to do now over the government shutdown.  He's the one that made any kind of compromise impossible with his petty demand for a wall at the expense of DACA.

The last minute gesture on the part of the House to add child health care to make it look like the Democrats were the ones throwing the baby out with the bathwater was so pathetic that even some Republicans had to do a double take.  Jeff Flake openly admonished his fellow Republicans for this bit of grandstanding, and three other Republican Senators similarly said no.  Even Mitch was forced to admit defeat, as the best he could muster were 50 votes, 10 short of the 60 needed to carry the bill. But, of course, he blamed the Democrats.

They can play this blame game as long as they want, it won't change matters.  Trump has unleashed a fury among women voters that is not likely to abate between now and next fall.  Not only that but he has managed to unite minorities against him with his racist comments and tweets that will spell the doom of many Republican candidates vying for Congressional seats.  It's the "perfect storm" Republicans were hoping to avoid, but now find themselves sailing straight into it in November.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Dylan in America

Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan.  Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose.  Looks like only yesterday.  Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.

Team of Rivals Reading Group

''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005