I wonder how the Fox News watching Trumpers will feel when the TSA goes on strike. Agents in large cities (New York, Seattle) are already not showing up or talking about quitting. Do you think the precious wall will be as important when these guys start missing flights?
It’s one thing to cancel a family vacation to a national park because the dumpsters are full and the people are shitting on the ground. It’s another when an entitled 60-something million miler stops being able to travel for work. I wonder how they’ll take it when Trump starts calling them losers for being unable to afford their own jets.
The Dangerman
..when Trump declares a National Emergency and diverts DOD funds for the wall; I thought he’d never do it, but now I think he will. It’s his only way out of the box he created.
Fun times. When does Muellermas hit again?
ETA: Since, I assume, declaring an emergency means Trump gets full wall money (what, 25 to 50 million?), I hope he’s forced to say where that money came from. That should make Lockheed and Boeing happy.
[Individual 1] mistermix
@The Dangerman:
I think you meant “billion”, right?
satby
Of course, this is all going on as I get ready to leave for a reunion in Mexico with my two exchange sons from 25 years ago. Going to have to light a candle and hope it’s over soon. For everyone, not just me.
Honestly, every time I achieve something good in my life, some Republican maneuver snatches it away. Every time. And people wonder why I viscerally despise them.
randy khan
@The Dangerman:
He’ll do it by rescinding the pay increase for the military and claiming it’s the Dems’ fault. (I would worry about giving him ideas, but since I know he doesn’t read, and certainly doesn’t read BJ, I’ll take the chance.)
I’ve been trying to think of ways to give him money that he can claim is for the wall without actually building it. Maybe the Dems can offer to include money to do an environmental impact statement. That would be a hoot.
John S.
I can’t wait until Nielsen gets hauled before Congress to explain that if “having wall” is so damn important, why they haven’t appropriated 90% of the funds they already have for it from last year.
The Dangerman
Oops. I never type billion (especially on first Joe of the morning).
Dorothy A. Winsor
We’re supposed to fly to Florida a week from today to see Mr DAW’s sister and her husband.
Also, Trump may never have to fly commercial but I assume even AF1 relies on air traffic controllers who are working without pay.
Jager
The unfinished wall will be the “Trump National Monument:” the only one.
schrodingers_cat
Speculating what Orange and his little mandarins will do is a waste of time. This is not going to end well, for him.
sdhays
@The Dangerman: But how, exactly, is that supposed to play out? Preznit tells minions in Congress to fold on Trump Shutdown, pass Nancy’s bills, and then after they’re on his desk and he signs them, he also declares a National Emergency and makes his own appropriation? Or he declares the National Emergency, Democrats sue, and Republicans in Congress pass Nancy’s bills in the hope that a court doesn’t issue an injunction before Spankee signs them?
tobie
Good on them. It’s shameful they have to work without pay. The first protest I ever went to on my own was to support the air traffic controllers in 1981. I’ll be there again for TSA workers, if needed. To this day it rankles me that they renamed DC’s National Airport the Ronald Reagan Natl Airport. After everything he did to the air traffic controllers and public unions, this is just shameful.
Yarrow
They’ll just blame the TSA workers for not being Real Americans. Because Real Americans would do their jobs without being paid. Of course not the people complaining. They wouldn’t do that. But other people should, is what they’d say.
MattF
@The Dangerman: There’s an NYT opinion column about why the courts will be leery of a Trump emergency degree that orders military forces to build the wall.
schrodingers_cat
@tobie: Reagan was the beginning of the R insanity. Orange is a direct fruit of his poisonous rhetoric and ideology.
Feathers
In Massachusetts, penalties are triple wages if you aren’t paid within six days of the end of your pay period. Maura Healey doesn’t seem the type to put up with this shit.
The Dems need to pass a bill in the House that calls for time and a half payment for any wages and salaries delayed by a government shutdown. And this needs to include a wide swath of contractors, too.
Brachiator
Even without a strike TSA strike threat, this is getting messy. From Business Insider…
The Dangerman
@MattF:
Wonder if Kavanaugh still likes beer?
Chris
@randy khan:
But we already tried that. The original deal was basically some more goodies for border security so he could claim a win, no real change, we all go home. Only then Ann Coulter saw through it, questioned his manhood, and told people on Fox News maybe they shouldn’t vote for him anymore, and that was that.
The same thing will happen to any other symbolic thing we give him so he can claim a win. Heck it might even happen to substantive things.
OzarkHillbilly
@The Dangerman: He can’t do that, for a number of reasons not the least of which is Congress appropriates money for specific things and trump is constitutionally barred from changing that. Not even McConnell will go along with the obvious usurpation of his constitutional powers. trump may well try, but a restraining order will be issued quicker than one can say “trump memorial wall”.
tobie
@Yarrow: The ironies never end with this crowd. TSA workers working without pay is patriotic duty. CEOs paying a 70% tax rate on income over $10 million is slavery.
On another note: I’ve been wondering how high-earning CEOs are paid. I assume their compensation comes in the form of stock options, not salary. Does anyone know? It strikes me that the corporate tax loopholes that encourage companies to funnel their profits to shareholder rather than to reinvest their earnings in their workforce are the real tax bonanza for the rich.
Skepticat
Very good but frightening article on the state-of-emergency issue. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/
debbie
This country has become despicable. We might as well be bombing Buddhas to smithereens.
debbie
@John S.:
And also ask why Trump’s tower is still open and staffed by federal workers.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Bet that’s the real reason he hasn’t gone golfing (as opposed to it not being seemly).
JPL
After two years of republican control, the wall is now an emergency. The MSM needs to repeat this 24/7.
Bostonian
@The Dangerman: We already know how the Pentagon chief of staff feels about that prospect.
WereBear
Quoted for truth. They have eroded my quality of life like some artist in the throes of hateful delusions.
debbie
@Yarrow:
Plus, Trump’s stated that all federal workers are Democrats. No wonder there’s a shutdown! //
MattF
@debbie: The Trump hotel site in DC is leased from the Federal government. It’s the ‘Old Post Office’ hotel and tower.
tobie
@schrodingers_cat: Yup. Reagan spawned the modern Republican Party. The hate for government and social welfare and worship of the private sector and genuflecting at the military is his ideology.
Yellowdog
@OzarkHillbilly: McConnell has already given away his constitutional powers as he has said he won’t bring up a bill that displeased the shitgibbon. McConnell is simultaneously the most powerful and least powerful legislator in DC.
debbie
@tobie:
i think it’s always been a combination of the two, along with performance bonuses.
debbie
@MattF:
I know that. It’s still wrong that it’s operating.
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat: It goes back to Goldwater and Nixon, at least. Reaganism was the beginning of the acute phase.
StringOnAStick
We’re flying in two weeks, but direct with no connection. We’re also planning on getting to the airport much earlier than usual, and we planned an extra day on each end in case of bad weather since we are driving from Spokane to a very low population area of B.C. for a ski trip. If our skis or bags don’t get to Spokane with us and we don’t get to the helicopter port on time then the weekly flight leaves without us and there is no way to get to the lodge, period. So, we’ve got that going for us.
Spanky
@satby:
None of us here wonder.
When was HelenIneire repatriating?
Yarrow
@tobie: The really elite thing for the richest CEOs is to be a member of the “$1 club,” where their “pay” is $1 per year. They have to be paid something so they’re not volunteers but the rest of their compensation is stock and other things.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
How is it a strike when they aren’t paying you? I mean that’s the basic contract of work, or have the damn wingnuts so lost it they’ve gone commie?
kindness
When they can’t come home from their winter vacations, Trump will start caring.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: The Rs of the 1920s were pretty vile too. But I speak of our current phase.
Chris
@Yellowdog:
Yeah, I’m long past trusting either the Supreme Court or Congress to do the right thing on anything.
Spanky
@schrodingers_cat: @Matt McIrvin: It goes back to Hoover, at least.
West of the Rockies
@The Dangerman:
Good question about Muellermas. Hasn’t been much outta his offices in a while it seems. At least not when I’ve been peeking in on MSNBC.
satby
@Spanky: I think she mentioned about 3 weeks.
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
Goldwater had the ideology, but not the electoral strategy. Nixon had the electoral strategy, but not the ideology. Reagan merged the two and the rest was history.
geg6
@Matt McIrvin:
This. I lived it and remember it playing out in real time. This.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: Nixon was a Keynesian, it was Reagan and Thatcher, who made Friedman’s econ the reigning philosophy of governance and economics.
hueyplong
@West of the Rockies: That one line item about a 6 month extension is probably considered ominous by people in the White House.
MomSense
I’m not holding my breath. Every time I think he’s crossed a line that will surely cause some kind of check on his behavior, it doesn’t happen. He is unchecked. He’s talking openly about manufacturing a crisis in order to declare a national emergency so he can repurpose the military to build his fucking wall.
And then our Secretary of Homeland Security, lyjng NAZI bitch Nielsen is spinning tales about thousands of terrorists apprehended at our border. Aren’t we supposed to rely on her to provide accurate, possibly life saving information in the event of an actual emergency?
The icing on this shit cake is that this whole wall fetish was started as a word that would serve as a memory device so the demented dimwit in chief would remember to incite the racists by bringing up illegal immigration at his campaign rallies. It’s just so fitting that it was Nixon operative Roger Stone who cooked up this fucked up scheme.
Let it not be forgotten that Nixon also became President after working with a hostile foreign adversary to help his election chances.
If the Mueller investigation finally takes down the vile, traitorous Roger Stone I wil do the happiest, spinniest motherfucking happy dance ever.
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard is never going to get his fucking wall. As of January 3rd his fascist agenda became DOA, but his neo-Nazi advisors can’t tell him that. Sad!
Yarrow
@West of the Rockies: The general thinking was that his office was going to wait until the holidays were over. I expect we’ll start to see something again this week. The six month extension on the grand jury is the latest info we got.
debbie
@Matt McIrvin:
Yep, good ol’ Barry:
mad citizen
I’m coming around to Trey Gowdy’s position on Mueller–hurry the phuck up with it! I saw a headline the other day about the Mueller grand jury being extended another six months. Fine. But what sense does it make to allow this fraud to head the executive branch and do real damage for another month or year? Get with it.
Chief Oshkosh
@schrodingers_cat: The evil and rot goes back way before Reagan. Reagan was just the mouthpiece and front man, an empty vessel and a bit of dimwit. Remember, Reagan’s “advisors” were planted and nurtured by Nixon. Nixon made his bones on the HUAC (which, btw, Reagan helped along by ratting out former colleagues for activities that were perfect legal but made unacceptable by people like Nixon).
These types of people will always be with us. They make up a small percentage of the population, but truly define “the tyranny of the minority.” They must be constantly guarded against and contained.
West of the Rockies
@hueyplong:
I’m sure you’re right, but with Whittaker in office (sort of), the investigation could be slowed down a clogged up a bit. Every new day is a chance for Clump and his fartlings to do more damage.
tobie
@debbie: @Yarrow: Thanks. I’ll see what I can dig up about this. Literally everyone I know is on salary, so corporate compensation packages are something of a mystery.
The Dangerman
Here’s a “fun” little exercise. Imagine 9/11 happened again today; after Donald put on some fresh Depends, how bad would the response be? The mind boggles.
Chris
@The Dangerman:
I expect the main difference is it would be internally focused not externally. Less chance of Iraq War, more chance of mass internment for Muslims.
feebog
I think reneging on the original agreement after Coulter and Limbaugh criticized him is going to be what everyone remembers once this mess is over. All the Dems have to do is point out they had a deal, Trumpov reneged, and they can’t trust any thing he says or does.
chris
@Spanky:
Yep. Almost 90 years on and aided by the KKK and the Birchers they’re still trying to kill the New Deal.
MomSense
@The Dangerman:
If If I were a terrorist you bet I’d be very interested in the diminished capacity of the TSA.
hueyplong
Big boy compensation is usually a combination of salary, bonus and stock. No matter how outrageous you think the salary is, it is only one component and the total irritates most sentient people.
The Dangerman
@Chris:
Probably so, unless the hijackers were Iranian, then all bets are off. Or worse, the hijackers were Hispanic (not that there is a radical Hispanic terror organization that would do it out there…).
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
Brilliant.
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat: Nixon was a Keynesian but Goldwater was already working the “drown government in the bathtub” end, and tying that to opposing civil rights laws.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
And again.
oldgold
@mad citizen:
!
Chris
@The Dangerman:
Oh, if he wanted to blame Iran, he’d have no trouble at all, as long as the hijackers looked at all Middle Eastern. After all that’s what we did with Iraq.
I just don’t think he cares about that as much as he cares about hurting Muslims right here.
PenAndKey
I turned 18 days after the Bush v Gore election. Since then I’ve watched my generation’s future go from dreams of VentureStar to fears of perpetual war with temporary chatter on bringing back the draft when I was prime age to be forced to fight. Looking back on it now I realize it was unlikely, but when you’re 18-20 the threat was extremely anxiety inducing. I’ve suffered through the student loan crisis and stagnant wages brought on by their policies, and now that my wife and I are finally in a comfortable position to buy our first home they pull this shit. We’ll still be able to do so, fingers crossed, even in the middle of a shutdown but we had budgeted everything out to include our tax refund this year for part of our down payment and moving expenses. To top it off, we were just now in a financial point where we could consider having a second child like we always dreamed, and apparently it’s just in time for the GOP to flirt with recession all over again.
Between public employees and contractors, “striking” TSA agents (seriously, how can they call it a strike if nobody’s getting paid?), and our tax refunds being withheld until this is resolved my sincere hope is that this whole situation burns their party to the ground. My entire life path has been defined, and not in a good way, by their fuck-ups and greed. I couldn’t despise them any more if I tried.
wkwv
@tobie: @tobie: @tobie: And it was Washington National Airport. What’s wrong with an airport named for George Washington, father of our country, who used to ride into Alexandria, VA to do business. The gall, thinking RR was more important to Northern Virginia than George Washington. Harrumph!
SiubhanDuinne
@Spanky:
For some reason, January 27 is in my mind for her return date. I could easily be wrong, however, and likely am.
In a thread a couple of days ago she asked for suggestions for a new nym. I read it long after it had gone dead, and didn’t reply, but I think she should just move to the north-western corner of Pennsylvania and be “HeleninErie.”
Chris
@PenAndKey:
Turned 26 in a non-Medicaid-expansion state, started developing the chronic stomach problems I still have now a few months later. Oodles and oodles of student debt. And of course nothing saved for retirement or anything of the kind. Yeah, I think our generation has good reason to hate the GOP.
(And yet, a slim majority of white people even among millennials are still Republicans. The mind boggles).
MomSense
@SiubhanDuinne:
After about 3 months (2 weeks in trump adjusted time) of living in fucked up America she will be HelenisWeary.
Another Scott
@sdhays: I guess it’ll go like this:
1) A couple more weeks pass, and then House and Senate pass year-long CRs for everything except DHS.
2) Some no-wall CR bill for DHS finally passes, after much gnashing of teeth.
3) Donnie signs DHS CR but has some MAGA signing statement that says it’s a National Emergency so he’s ordering DoD to build his Precious.
4) DoD slow-walks reprogramming the money for the Precious; lawsuits start; nothing gets built.
5) Donnie tells all the MAGAts that the Precious is being built, it’s cheaper than estimated; it will be done early; and America is Safe because he is God-Emperor. Victory!!11
6) Democrats take over the Senate in January 2021 and no more Precious money is appropriated.
Something like that.
We’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
MattF
I found this seriously disconcerting. Trigger warning: it shows Trump speaking at half-speed about the wall.
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense:
LOL
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@randy khan: I don’t understand why he can’t just pass the hat at his next cabinet meeting to raise $5 billion and if I were the Dems that’s exactly what I would suggest he do. Between his own wealth (which he claims is $9 billion) and the other rich folks (Mnuchin, Ross, Devos, Chao) they should be able to raise $5 billion without missing it much. Then they can send Trump to go get their money back from Mexico like he said he would.
Another Scott
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Donnie always uses Other People’s Money.
Plus, there’s the little thing that there are rules about donations to the Federal Government. One can’t just raise and spend money for things that Congress hasn’t approved. Remember Iran-Contra.
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: @SiubhanDuinne: Aww thanks! It means a lot, getting a compliment from you, who writes such brilliant lyrics.
Elizabelle
@satby: Le sigh.
I know. I’ve been happily planning out a trip to the LA area midmonth and now wondering if I should delay a little in the event of massive air travel disruptions.
Fingers crossed you get out safely on your trip, and that, if you are delayed on your return, it just gives you some extra days out of country having amazing experiences. At least you do not have to get back on the whack office manager’s schedule.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Paying for someone to stay with your pack while you’re gone is very expensive. At least, it is for me!
But I do always like your make lemonade out of lemons attitude! :-)
Elizabelle
@tobie: re “Reagan” National Airport: both he and Nancy are off this mortal coil.
I think a lot of us should write to Ron Reagan and Patti Davis and ask that they request to have the airport’s name returned to Washington National Airport. Which (a) honors the nation’s first president and (b) is a destination name as well.
They can thank the Congress for the honor, but say they prefer the name revert to the original.
RWReagan’s got an International Trade Building downtown. It’s beautiful. Prime location. Does not need an airport too, and particularly not when Republicans in the House forced the name change upon us. The locals and localities did not come up with it. And then the Republicans in the House forced the government to pay for new signs with the absurdly long new airport name, this during an economic downturn.
Some congresscritter named Barr from Georgia was one of the leaders of renaming the airport.
Let’s write. Let’s make this happen. Change the airport’s name back to Washington National Airport, honoring the first president and the nation’s capitol, and include language that the name cannot be changed again.
Whole thing was nothing but overreach by Republicans. Period. Undo it.
This cult of Saint Reagan has to stop.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Another Scott: They don’t have to go through DHS. Just use the $5 billion to buy land along the border and build a wall on it. On their own. As a public service to the nation. Not saying it would ever happen, or is actually feasible, just that Joe Schmoe might think it sounds better than spending his money on something Mexico was supposed to pay for.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
I believe it has already begun. Pelosi referred to Reagan in her remarks after taking the gavel, and only Democrats applauded.
J R in WV
My cousin and I have tix to fly to Tucson towards the end of January. his first visit, and I haven’t been out there for a couple of years now. I’m willing to lose those if that’s what it takes for TSA and other Federal employees in the airline business to get what’s theirs.
Actually, tho, shouldn’t the airlines be paying all those people already? I know that would put it in the ticket price, but there are fees that go to running airports on those tickets already!
tobie
@wkwv: @Elizabelle: Folks outside the region may not get how much it bothers those of us in and around DC to have to fly into and out of the former Washington National Airport. Thank you for reminding me what its full name used to be.
cliosfanboy
@John S.: do you have a source for that? That way if I use that figure I have a reference other than “comment on blog” thanks
Elizabelle
@debbie: I didn’t notice that.
But I winced when NDP referenced Reagan in that speech, and she did it again in the Joy Reid interview. So, she is using the name as a cudgel. Interesting. Problem is, it still feeds into the Ronald Reagan as Founding Father myth.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Here’s the moment:
cliosfanboy
I’d take Goldwater over pretty much any current Republican.
cliosfanboy
@Elizabelle: hell, they’re trying to name the point near National after Nancy now.
Geoduck
Evidently the shaitgibbon is going to Camp David, which he pretty much despises. Can’t be sure what that portends.
J R in WV
So out of curiosity, with high-speed airline travel about to be Fubar’ed I went to Amtrak to see how much to train from Charleston WV to Tucson AZ. Evidently Amtrak still functions, or at least the web site does.
But if you just enter my origination station and my destination, Amtrak says they can’t do that! And their trains all have old fashioned names for their routes, which are cute but not as informative as could be.
From Charleston to Chicago is The Cardinal, then in another window I see that from Chicago to New Orleans is “The City of New Orleans” which we should know from the song of the same name. And then there’s a train from New Orleans to LA, through Tucson. [There’s another train from Chicago through AZ to LA, but the closest it gets to Tucson is Flagstaff, which is a long way north of Tucson.]
It looks like it would take 4 days of training, and an overnight in NOLA, and cost one way what it costs round trip via Delta. Amazing. I’m retired, and enjoy train travel, but a week to get there, just wow. Thanks, Donald!!
WaterGirl
@Geoduck: I wonder if it means he has unravelled to the point where they need him to be more secluded so fewer people can see the unravelling.
It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
Apparently, he is meeting with aides to discuss strategy on the shutdown. Personally, I think the people who staff the White House (as opposed to Trump’s staff in the White House) said, “CAN’T YOU GET HIM OUT OF HERE FOR EVEN A FEW HOURS SO WE CAN GET A FUCKING BREAK?”
That’s what my mom usually said to my dad just about every Sunday. (Can’t vouch for the language, but you get the idea about the emotion behind the request.)
HinTN
@Elizabelle: She’s just pointing out how far the faithful have fallen. It was jarring until I parsed what she was saying.
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: I can type in “Chicago” and “Denver” and it shows me how I get there.
I just tried your cities, but without a direct route, you do kind of get a big fuck you from Amtrak. That’s really dumb.
I googled major cities closest to Charleston, WV, but the first city doesn’t have a train to Tucson, either.
Your best bet is to phone the Amtrak 800# and ask what the options are for getting from one place to another. Let the nice (or not so nice) lady on the phone do the work for you.
B.B.A.
@J R in WV: How long is it to take a train to Flagstaff and a bus to Tuscon? Amtrak has “Thruway Coach” buses to link up cities that are no longer or never were served by trains.
Chief Oshkosh
@debbie:
I’m not so sure that that is what happened. You have to understand the “true believer” mindset. When a heathen invokes the words of St. Ronnie, it’s even worse than anything she could have said in her own words, because she is being SACRILEGIOUS by misappropriating the saint’s holy word!!!
WaterGirl
@debbie: That fits with my tantrum/unravelling theory. I wonder how many times people are going to have to tell him he as to cave before it gets through his hard head. Maybe 100?
Maybe this is like the staff at the embassy that they had to send him so everyone wouldn’t hear Jamal Khashoggi being tortured to death? They can’t send everyone at the white house home, so they will send Trump away.
OT, I am very disappointed that apparently MBS has gotten away with the torture and murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Ugh.
sukabi
@The Dangerman: national emergency declarations have to go thru the house, pretty sure Pelosi isn’t going to budge on that…also appropriations are house domain…Pelosi has said we ain’t funding your fuckin wall.
John Fremont
@Brachiator: Everyone thinks air traffic control when FAA comes up and having those people stressing out about making mortgages, car payments, day care etc. is bad enough. There is also a whole branch of the FAA called Flight Standards Division that inspects and oversees aircraft maintenance. Not all of them are considered essential so I wonder when maintenance operations will start being affected. Having aircraft going out of service due to required inspections and not returning due to a shortage of available FAA inspectors will only compound this mess.
sukabi
@WaterGirl: it’s early in his (MBS) rule and, as they say, Karma is a bitch. Or is it live by the bone saw, die by the bone saw…at any rate I expect he’ll meet a violent end.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
I more than share your disappointment. Bigly!
sukabi
@Chief Oshkosh: pretty sure Jesus Christ has also been written out of their playbook…think they finished burying Reagan during the end of the first Obama term, when all but one of his kids denounced the racist bullshit against Obama.
gwangung
@debbie: As someone who works with HNWI (High Net Worth Individuals), salaries in hard cash are usually in the mid seven figures. Anything in the eight figures are cashing in on stock.
Bill Arnold
@Another Scott:
What bothers me most about the US press’s handling of their shutdown coverage is that there are few flat out statements that this is a hostage crisis situation. The Republicans call shutdown threats/actuality “leverage” because they believe that their supporters are OK with the US government being partially shutdown, and that Democrats are not OK with the US government being partially shut down. That makes it by definition a hostage crisis, which means no deal until the hostages are released.
Your scenario just has a CR for DHS, which is unacceptable. I think there needs to be CRs for full reopening of the government, with no wall funding, but a promise from NP to consider increased border funding first thing. And an implicit threat of a veto override including in the Senate.
Mitch McConnell is key. There must be leverage or other ways to influence him. (Why is he so hellbent on feeding a narcissist?) I hope that DJT doesn’t go down the State of Emergency path; the atlantic link by Skepticat #21 [0] was discouraging for those of us who are loyal Americans; massive civil unrest at best on that path if DJT goes very far down it given an utterly fake “Wall Emergency”[1] as a precedent with total pushback.
[0] Another link for forwarding to RWers who don’t trust The Atlantic: https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2018/12/what-trump-could-do-if-he-declares-state-emergency/153366/
[1] For DJT, the “emergency” will eventually be that he might lose grip on power. Right now the “emergency” is just that his ego might take a hit, but if he’s allowed to get away with it, he will do it again.
Millard Filmore
@J R in WV: If you are still in this thread, here is a map of Amtrak routes …
https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/Maps/Amtrak-System-Map-1018.pdf
Sab
@Bill Arnold: Right wingers who don’t trust The Atlantic?! Jeffrey Goldberg is their editor He is not batshit insane, but he is pretty right wing.
Sab
@SiubhanDuinne:Me of all people is not entitled to a comment on her location, but if she was a bit bored in Dublin she would not be happy in Erie. (I like Erie, but I am kind of a hick. She’s NYC.)
sgrAstar
@WaterGirl: noneed to overthink. trump is going to Camp David to play golf.
WaterGirl
@sgrAstar: Is there really golf at Camp David? I picture it as a rustic woods, but now I’m guessing it’s probably nothing like that at all.
Another Scott
@Bill Arnold: Thanks for the pointers. Scary scenarios, and not at all impossible though still unlikely.
BTW, DefenseOne, GovExec, and a whole bunch of other news sites are all part of the Atlantic family.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geoduck
@WaterGirl: The Camp has a single hole of golf, which Eisenhower had installed.
WaterGirl
@Geoduck: Really! Don’t tell Trump that or he’ll wipe out the rest of Camp David, turn it into a golf course and charge admission.
Tim Illingworth
@randy khan: They’ve allocated more like 90% of the funds. Only 6% has actually been disbursed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/03/does-it-matter-that-trump-has-only-spent-six-percent-wall-money/?utm_term=.10bc37c7aa19
Raoul
@Yarrow: From the looks of twitter (not the best representative slice, but in many ways the loudest), I’d bet most of the people yelling “damn cushy TSA people should be fired for not showing up!” fly once a year to Florida or maybe Las Vegas, and have no idea what the travel life is like for account reps, techs like my friend who commutes to IBM (sub)contracts, etc.
Sure TSA is annoying, but in my travel i’ve generally had the agents be professional and anywhere from brusquely efficient to quite kind. I can tell the few airports where a senior manager may be a jerk (looking at you, Denver!) and that unfortunately flows downhill.
I have meetings in FL late this week. I’ll be watching closely to see how many hours early I need to get to my local, frozen but nice airport to head south.