Chairslinger

I think the shutdown will go until sometime after the Dems take over the House. The Dems think it will give them more power at the negotiating table, and most seem to agree. What is a less popular opinion is the one Trump is going on, I think. He thinks his position will improve once he has the House Dems in power and he has something solid to hit back at and blame. Trump is at his best when he is counter punching and muddying the water to make everyone look as bad as him. I think the effectiveness of this strategy is dependent on about 25% how the Dems message, and 75% how much they do or do not get spooked and throw in the towel.

And when Trump found out about clothing designed to hide his gut this guy said, "Clever girdle."?

It is a testament to how fucking insane and dangerous it is to have Trump in the White House that we rarely stop and think nowadays how insane and dangerous it is that Meadows, Jordan, and the Kooky Caucus have so much power.

And then House Republicans passed a bill that will never become law, that they don't want to become law, just to stick it to Pelosi and aggrandize Trump's ego with the only small consequence being a government shutdown. They continue to bend over backwards to enable the very conduct they claim to want to stop. In summary; fuck the whole spineless lot of them. They'll probably all be calling Mattis a closet Democrat who was trying to sabotage Trump once Fox News has a couple days to get their messaging straight.

The complaint to Whittaker about the Cohen plea seems like it might fall under the "unprecedented but not illegal" standard of keeping Justice at arms length for a president that Trump has stomped all over quite a few times now. It's kind of a shame it's getting lumped in with the bit about "reigning in" the SDNY. That seems like textbook obstruction. A line has become popular over the past month or two that Trump obstructs out in the open to "confuse" the legal process. And that if he did the same conduct in private there would be no doubt it was obstruction. Well, this is that...in private. This is one of the things Nixon was impeached for.

Don't blame Bill, he just gets excited when he hears a woman is going to be sedated.

I love how Trump seemingly thinks that Dems only complaint about the wall is that it's too ugly.

"Where's my wallephant?! Where's my wallephant?!

I still remember an argument I had with Engel on here 5+ years ago where he tortured the hell out of the data to prove anti-vaxxers were entirely a left wing problem. At the time it was probably about 50/50 and ever since then the right has really went out of their way to make it theirs.

To be fair, two of the votes might have been more about naked venality than simple partisanship. So that's a relief.

Technology needs to hurry up and give us Ruth Bader Ginsborg.

Does Bennie even know he's allowed to quit?

Translation: the end of the world begins not with a bang or a whimper, but with the words, "What does this button do?".

It's days like today that make me think Trump isn't going to leave office without trying to burn the whole thing down just out of spite.

Which is ironic because it feels like Mattis hung in there for a fucking eternity. A sentiment I am sure Mattis would agree with.

I guess she's picked up Trump's speech habits.

How appropriate that the Trump train has merged with the Trumpster fire.

Mia Love gave him no love? Too bad, so sad, oh well.

Yeah, he's done this before.

Maybe House Democrats don't trust Cortez with subpoena power after she told the world she was going to use said subpoena power to settle personal scores.

Mission Covfefed.

I like to think of it as the GOP playing Russian Roulette with one bullet. Trump came along and added 4 bullets to the gun.

I wonder if them clinging to Trump tighter even as he becomes more toxic harkens back to the days of the GOP primary. Particularly that they aren't scared about a primary, they are scared about what happens if Trump loses a primary or otherwise isn't on the ticket in 2020. If Trump feels the GOP did him wrong, he'll run a third party/write in campaign and almost certainly guarantee a Democratic win by splitting the vote. Run scenarios in your head about how the GOP wins a 2020 election without Trump on the ticket. It is nearly impossible to envision. Short of Mueller having a case so damning that they can impeach him and have him in jail by Nov. of 2020(and maybe not even then) I think they have to back him. And even if they could do that, what does a winning coalition for the GOP look like if they piss off even 5 or 10% of Trump's most diehard cultists? Don't get me wrong, I am not defending them at all. I have said that I think the one core lesson the country should learn is that once you install a president no matter how corrupt, inept, or unhinged he is it is very hard to remove him from office. What the GOP itself should learn is to fight harder at the beginning before the demagogue has their claws in. Because once they're burrowed in you are stuck with them for a decade.