The Longest Government Shutdown In History
Congrats, America. You’ve singlehandedly broken a new record in the shittiest way possible — our government shutdown has exceeded the 20 day mark, officially beating the shutdown of 2013. Which, according to Cardi B, had a little more merit in its administrative holdup than Don’s.
Since the last time I briefed you on this situation, Trump and the Dems were heading into talks to (hopefully) resolve the shutdown. Surprise, that didn’t happen. But at this point in Trump’s political stint, did we really expect anything else? During said meeting, according to Vice President Mike Pence himself, Trump strolled in, doling out candy AS IF, his mentally superior counterparts were happy and willing to see him. Here’s one for you, and you, and even you, thanks but no thanks.
Via The Star
Cut to the leader of the Free World slamming his hands on the table when Nancy Pelosi, and the Democrats, affirmatively opposed funding for the wall. Like most forthcoming, compromising professionals, they instead requested (yet again) if Trump would be willing to reopen government operations while they figured things out. Trump left mid-meeting, due to them ‘wasting his time’; and, tweeted his response, per usual: “Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!” Classy.
Via ABC
But this whole debacle was just another situation of the Pot (trump) calling the Kettle (Dems) black. According to Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, Trump never even wanted to go to the meeting in the first place. Leaving us to ask, whose wasting whose time again? A day after Trump organized this meeting, Durbin says that Trump attended reluctantly and, was already calling it a waste of his time before it even started. He has now threatened to put the country in a state of emergency, so he can bypass Congress and just start building the wall. Because, Democracy Right! His actions are starting to point to the idea that this might have been his plan all along.
via CNBC
According to CNN’s fabulous live updates, Trump tried to meet with Democrats again, but no one showed.Some of those invited claimed that they were given no details about the subject of the meeting, so they refused to go. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were royally pissed off that Trump wanted to host another meeting when he stormed out of the last one. Pelosi has the biggest balls in Washington, don’t @ me.
via Stripes
So here we are, over 20 days later, with still no answer about the shutdown — and it’s starting to affect more than just national park employees. Airports and the IRS are cutting down on staff to conserve labor, causing massive traffic backups in some cases. Or firearms taken into Tokyo, things change on a day-to-day basis. We’ll see where this week takes us.
Disclaimer: I got my information from The Hill and CNN, and The Washington Post.
cover image via Reuters