Only an idiot would believe that the shut/shake-down is an attack on the "Deep State", but this entire lockout of Federal workers is designed to play to that meme.
It will get resolved, more likely as a legal struggle that allows Individual-1 to declare “victory” even as it gets tossed by a court.
One wonders what spectacle will occur if it lasts through the SOTU, how can GOP members of Congress live with a shutdown while 45* jabbers about how the “state of the union is...SAD”. He might actually get booed.
Until then we get gibberish about a manufactured crisis contrived by someone clearly unfit to hold the office...
So many different attempts to divert attention from #TrumpRussia...
The F.B.I. conducts two types of inquiries, criminal and counterintelligence investigations. Unlike criminal investigations, which are typically aimed at solving a crime and can result in arrests and convictions, counterintelligence inquiries are generally fact-finding missions to understand what a foreign power is doing and to stop any anti-American activity, like thefts of United States government secrets or covert efforts to influence policy. In most cases, the investigations are carried out quietly, sometimes for years. Often, they result in no arrests.
[...]
F.B.I. officials viewed their decision to move quickly as validated when a comment the president made to visiting Russian officials in the Oval Office shortly after he fired Mr. Comey was revealed days later.
“I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Mr. Trump said, according to a document summarizing the meeting. “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”
Some believe that “The most logical explanation here is that Special Counsel Robert Mueller and/or the SDNY have told House Judiciary Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings that by February 7th, a lot more about Donald Trump’s Cohen-related crimes will have been made public.”
Regardless, there is plenty already being revealed, whether it’s the side story about the FBI much more worried about how much of a Russian agent Trump may actually have been after the firing of Comey, or the Manafort revelations revealing that it wasn’t about briefing Deripaska but giving internal polling data to a Russian intel asset.
RGB = Ruth Bader Ginsberg…
Bro, @realDonaldTrump put all your doubts away 😉, I'm sure your babe's @IvankaTrump 👌 going to make you know what to do 🤝.
it’s less like kidnapping and more like slash and burn on the retreat to the bunker.
In the shutdown, the hostages are public employees, veterans, and everyone else who depends on federal payments. The ransom is $5 billion. Like other ideologues, the Republicans claim to have a good cause: a wall on the Mexican border. But morally, the bottom line is the same: You can’t hold people hostage, even if you think your cause is worthy. The question at stake isn’t border security. It’s whether the government will shut down and stay closed every time extremists demand money for a pet cause.
[...]
This is a charade. Democrats have already passed bills to reopen the government. The reason those bills haven’t become law is that McConnell refuses to let the Senate vote on them, and Trump refuses to sign them. When Republicans are asked why they’re sitting on these bills, they say it’s impossible to reopen the government before resolving the wall debate. On Tuesday, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway said opening the government first wasn’t “practical.” Steve Scalise, the House Republican whip, said of the reopening and the wall, “You can’t have one without the other.” Neither Conway nor Scalise could explain the connection, because there isn’t one. The Republicans just don’t want to give up their hostages.