President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he would agree to a deal to fund the government without money for his much-desired border wall, effectively bringing an end to the longest shutdown in American history.
The framework of the arrangement remained unclear. But a Democratic Hill aide said—and Trump later confirmed—that it would extend funding for the government at current levels until February 15 and include a “vehicle” for lawmakers to begin discussions between the two congressional chambers over a larger bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security and border security specifically.The president presented the end result as a triumph for his administration, insisting that Democrats had come to his position on the need for a border barrier (they hadn’t).
And what was with that creepy fixation on duct tape?
Senate Republicans blocked a House-passed package to reopen the federal government for a second time in as many weeks on Tuesday. Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and Ben Cardin (Md.) asked for consent take up a package of bills that would reopen the federal government.
One bill would fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8, while the other would fund the rest of the impacted departments and agencies through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Under Senate rules, any one senator can ask for consent to vote on or pass a bill, but any one senator can object. McConnell blocked the two bills saying the Senate wouldn’t “participate in something that doesn’t lead to an outcome.”
President Trump kicked off the meeting (w/Shumer and Pelosi) with a rant lasting roughly 15 minutes that included his $5.6 billion demand for a border wall, and threatened that he was willing to keep the government closed for “years” if that’s what it took to get his wall.
He also, unprompted, brought up the Democrats who want him impeached, and even blamed Pelosi for new Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib saying at a party earlier this week that Democrats would impeach the “motherfucker” Trump. (It is unclear why Trump would think Pelosi was responsible for this.)
Along with saying the word “fuck” at least three times throughout the meeting, the president bizarrely stated that he did not want to call the partial government shutdown a “shutdown,” according to the source. Instead, he referred to it as a “strike.”
Someone should tell The Madness of King Trump that since it is a unfair labor practice for labor unions to call or participate in a strike or a work stoppage that interferes with the operation of a federal agency . Then he is breaking the law and should be arrested.
A US House of Representatives chamber stenographer rushed the microphone below the speaker’s chair last night as votes were being tabulated to end the Government shutdown and began shouting about mocking God, the US Constitution, and her savior Jesus Christ.
House reps interviewed on CNN said the woman was a “stable, reliable worker” and “not a crazy person.”
Which makes sense since crazy people don’t look crazy to other crazies.
“Weiner kept pestering Hannity to say whether the debt limit should be raised, and when Hannity told him to stop asking questions, he shot back, “What am I, a potted plant?” Weiner called Hannity “defensive” and said, “You speak to the mothership at that party.” As Weiner kept going, Hannity figured out exactly what his game was. “You’re auditioning for MSNBC! You’re auditioning. You want Chris Matthews’ job, I can tell!… You never shut up like Chris Matthews either!” Weiner shot back, “Why do you always have patsies on?” and commented that “Fox apparently has much lower standards.” Hannity replied, “You want to talk about low standards? You really want to go there?”
Sexting aside. (and personally i could really care less) I like Weiner. (No pun intended). He really could have been one of the greats if it were not for America’s Puritanical values.
Little Miss Pissy Pants John Boehner lost it a few times today on This Week with George Stephanopoulos
Boehner even looks like he’s lying. The votes are there in the House to pass a clean CR. There is video evidence of Boehner saying repeatedly that he did not want to shut the government down. There is also evidence that enough Republicans would join with Democrats to support raising the debt limit.
Boehner, like all habitual GOP and Tea Party liars, can’t keep his numerous lies straight. But like all bullies, if anyone dares challenge his truthfulness, he responds with a loud accusatory voice and faux indignation.
Bisexual Arizona Rep. Kyrsten Sinema and gay New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, both Democrats, voted with House GOP to shut down the government and are being taken to task (and rightfully so) over their decisions.
Michelangelo Signorile tears them apart in a new HuffPost piece and sheds some light on the DINO’s (Democrats In Name Only) voting record and the disgrace they have brought the LGBT community.
“Since taking office, Sinema has voted with the GOP against economic justice issues that progressives, including LGBT activists, view as crucial. Both she and U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), an openly gay former Clinton aide, also elected for the first time in 2012, have voted with big banks and Wall Street time and again. Right out of the gate, Maloney, who took a lot of Wall Street money, voted with the GOP on the debt ceiling early this year, and actually co-sponsored a bill that would roll back reforms of the very Wall Street practices that led to the economic collapse. He even voted with the GOP to take authority over the Keystone XL project from the president. Like Sinema, he also voted to jeopardize Obamacare or shut down the government. And he too was supported in his election campaign by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, the Human Rights Campaign, and other gay and progressive groups, touted as a progressive.
Think about this: On what is arguably the most important debate in Congress, two of nine Democrats who voted with the tea party-led blackmailers are openly gay or bisexual. Two of only five openly gay or bisexual members of the House voted with the extreme far right to undermine the president. Veteran recording industry executive Howie Klein, the founder of the progressive Blue America PAC and an openly gay man himself, has been criticizing both of them for their votes for months. He told me that Sinema had been calling him throughout last year’s campaign, looking for money. He’d known her and liked her, having served with her on the board of People for the American Way, but he told me that when he had her fully vetted, he was “horrified” by her record. Blue America is now actively recruiting a candidate to run in the Democratic primary against Sinema.
Some say it’s better to have Democrats like Sinema and Maloney than to possibly have a Republican in the seat. If it means they have to vote with the GOP, especially if the vote isn’t pivotal, then so be it, the thinking goes. But that breeds the most cynical kind of politics and drives people away from participating when we need to bring them in.”
This is what happens when the Gay and Lesbian Victory fund backs candidates just because they are LGBT and not because of their issues at large.
