RedskinsFan44

BTW it looks like I was wrong about the votes tomorrow, I assumed Schumer and McConnell had agreed to vote for cloture for both proposals but reporting I am seeing is that they just agreed to allow votes for cloture. This seems odd to me though because McConnell has complete peower over that in my understanding.

The brain drain is real, it's been going on for years. Four of the past ten years salaries have been frozen. Shutdowns. Hiring freezes. Talk of gutting benefits. Government workers get paid substantially less than their private industry counterparts, job security and benefits used to make up for that. No more. We have lost a month of scientific research, really more considering how many experiments etc have been ruined. I'm honestly starting to think part of the motivation here is the destruction of the Government.

The Trump effect.

Cause the Senate has some crazy rules that I don't fully understand (something about reconciliation on the tax cuts, while other bills need cloture to advance (60)).

The deal between McConnell and Shumer is to let both advance.

Collins and Murkowski are not beholden to Trump, Gardner has large fed constutuency.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/shutdown-politics/?utm_term=.bf4f49bd22bc

This is a 50 vote threshold. More than 3 R senators have expressed support for opening gov and the negotiating border issue.

I think the House CR barely passes or loses in a Pence tie breaker (though maybe McConnell can keep his troops inline). Trump's bill probably gets all Rs and 0 Ds. Neither goes all the way, Trump's would be DOA in the House and I can't imagine Trump not vetoing the other. I think Schumer told McConnell he'd never get a vote on Trump's without a vote for the house bill and Mitch decided he neede to show some motion.

Theoretically the Senate could pass both, one dies in the House and one gets vetoed. Senate washes its hands of the issue.

Giuliani basically does what Trump does, muddies the water with an endless stream of contradictory bull****. Trump may actually strongly endorse Rudy for that.

Only the Ds are passing legislation , so there's that. And again, it's not about border security, it's about a monument to Trumpism. As such it's an opportunity created by Trump for Democrats to force Republicans to break from his idiocy.

Giuliani saying that Cohen (the wholly disreputable fixer) was responsible for a 300 million dollar project and the president paid so little attention that he was unsure whether it ended in January or November, but of course he testified November. Nice point is that if it went through November he was continuing the deal after he was told of Russian interference.

It's not about a wall. It's a power struggle. The "wall" issue could/should have been taken care of when Ryan was speaker. Suddenly you have Pelosi and now he has to flex his imaginary muscle. The wall is a symbol, and as a congressman today said, Trump's definition of a physical manifestation of it is continuously changing.

****ers on a roll.

You're right, he doesn't care about the country over himself. My guess is he is watching the polls and the stock market. So far the market doesn't care, but the polls so far are going against him. I really think this Friday, when gov employees miss a second check, and February 1, when bills are due, are going to be real pressure points. TSA agents, etc. are going to have to choose between keeping their job and a paycheck. Add: I also believe that his 36% (or whatever the actual # is) gambit is likewise unsustainable. He keeps that number happy by being an asshole to everyone else (this morning's, and every other morning's, tweets for example). At this point he has another 36% of the country so pissed off they would walk across glass to vote against him. Posted as I typed the above:

36 percent won't get him re-elected. Keeping the government closed is unsustainable and incredibly stupid. It's akin to holding his breath. More and more employees are being told to go back to work for no pay. How are these 800,000 people going to take care of their families after missing two paychecks? How much damage is being done to areas around federal facilities and national parks? How far are we dropping back in scientific research? The average American may not care about or be aware of these issues, but Senators are.

Right, and that was definitely the play today. We shall see.

Here's Trump's problem(s). He explicitly "took the mantle" of this shutdown. Incredibly stupid, but there it is. His supporters will dismiss that. The 53+% who disapprove of his job performance won't. Second. more than 50% disapprove of him, and at this point less than 40% approve. These are pretty hard numbers. He can't win me over with one speech. Well, honestly it would take about a year of him acting like a decent human to approach winning me over, don't see that happening. Last he risks losing the Ann Coulters of the world even with a disingenuous offer like the one he made tonight. He's painted himself into a corner.

The thing about Trump is he can be talking about the horrible atrocities immigrants are subjected to and not convey one bit of emotion with his cold lizard-like eyes.

She should do that, because he is already getting burned by the right for what he gave in this speech, which is not much. He really ****ed up listening to Coulter and Limbaugh, or perhaps it goes back to his original lie that he never had a chance on delivering.

Steve King being Steve King:

I think he has no knowledge of geography. San Antonio is in Texas so it must be on the border.

The idea that he's going to give what was offered in exchange for 25 billion to get 5.7 billion seems extremely unlikely. If he did he'd get crushed by Coulter and Limbaugh. Which begs the question, should McConnell be holding talks with right wing talkers to find a solution?