Is the government shutdown affecting your life?
My wife works for an airline and she has been a bit worried about security lines and air traffic controllers of course. So we are fortunate that at this point, that is the most apparent way.
In a Month You’ll Wish the Shutdown Were Only as Bad as Today
I’ve been a bit disheartened about how quickly this has been kind of normalized by the media. Yeah, CNN has a stupid coundown (WITH SECONDS!) measuring the shutdown but this is a major disaster. Hundreds of thousands of employees are suddenly in that weird area of having a job but no income. They won’t be able to pay rent, which will not only hurt themselves, but landlords who depend on their rent for mortgages, etc. This is a national emergency and we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
Airport security screeners could quit en masse, grounding flights. The federal courts could stop hearing civil cases. City buses could stop running.
And 38 million Americans could stop getting food stamps.
Officials from Washington to Wall Street are pondering nightmare scenarios if the partial U.S. government shutdown that is already the longest on record extends into spring — or beyond.
“Shutdowns don’t get bad linearly; they get bad exponentially,” said Sam Berger, a senior adviser at the Center for American Progress, who worked at the Office of Management and Budget under President Barack Obama.
The President’s Lawyer Gave a Consultant a Sack of Cash to Inflate Poll Numbers
In early 2015, a man who runs a small technology company showed up at Trump Tower to collect $50,000 for having helped Michael Cohen, then Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, try to rig online polls in his boss’s favor before the presidential campaign.
In his Trump Organization office, Mr. Cohen surprised the man, John Gauger, by giving him a blue Walmart bag containing between $12,000 and $13,000 in cash and, randomly, a boxing glove that Mr. Cohen said had been worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter.
Cohen has confirmed the story:
As for the @WSJ article on poll rigging, what I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of @realDonaldTrump @POTUS. I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it.
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) January 17, 2019
Ordeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah
Order! Order! Order! pic.twitter.com/WjvKZWGTPu
— tagesschau (@tagesschau) January 16, 2019
Pelosi asks Trump to reschedule SOTU because of the shutdown
Damn. I mean… damn. pic.twitter.com/MZl3nLcEct
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) January 16, 2019
I’m sure Trump will just ignore this.
or maybe not:
Pelosi’s letter effectively cancelling the State of the Union is a reminder:
a) she has tons of leverage
b) she knows pressure points
C) she can snap her fingers and seek Trump’s tax returns.— Damian Paletta (@damianpaletta) January 16, 2019
I’m sure he’ll find some way to do a SOTUesque type of rally.
Brexit: Theresa May’s deal is voted down in historic Commons defeat
I feel like the guy jumping off his balcony with an ebay parachute would do a better job with Brexit:
Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal has been rejected by 230 votes – the largest defeat for a sitting government in history.
MPs voted by 432 votes to 202 to reject the deal, which sets out the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU on 29 March.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has now tabled a vote of no confidence in the government, which could trigger a general election.
The confidence vote is expected to be held at about 1900 GMT on Wednesday.
Man Tests Parachute From Ebay by Jumping off Balcony
Spoiler alert, he lives.