6 thoughts on “2018-19 #TrumpShutdown Day 17 Open Thread”

1. Morning.

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2. “We will become Venezuela.”

   –Donald Trump

   That does appear to be *rump's big ambition:

   Maduro is tossing political opponents in prison. He is cracking down on growing street protests with lethal force, with government security forces killing at least 46 demonstrators in recent months. He has repeatedly postponed regional government elections in order to stave off threats to his party’s power. And in July he held a rigged election for a special legislative body that supplanted the country’s parliament 

   But Maduro has done everything he can to prevent swelling popular discontent from limiting his power. His tactics place him among a special league of democratic authoritarians like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has used a referendum to expand the powers of his presidency, imprisoned political prisoners, attacked the judiciary branch of his government, and restricted free press

   But Maduro has failed to take any serious measures to mitigate the crisis by, for example, trying to crack down on corruption or ending the country’s currency exchange policy that is making it impossible for ordinary Venezuelans to buy everyday items.

   The currency policy allows people who have government connections to exchange Venezuelan bolivars for US dollars at a special, extremely discounted rate. Those people then buy things like food abroad using those government-subsidized dollars and sell them domestically to people who buy them with the bolivar — and the sellers pocket the difference.

   *rump's admiration for corrupt dictators is well known, so his desire to destroy American democratic institutions that otherwise would prevent him from absolute rule should not come as a surprise.

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3. Hmm, I suppose this is what passes for Red-on-Red "civil" discourse

    

   When The Zombie "Rube 10-ToothBase" Starts Eating Its Ancestors.

   

   pollwatcher  

    

    

    

   Leave it to Rick Wilson to use his “colorful” rhetoric to stir up a hornets nest with the Republican fascist cult.  The other night on CNN he let loose on one of his classic attacks on the Republican base.

   The comments start at the 6:45 mark.

   Of course the snowflakes on the right demonstrated who they are by responding to a hit job on Wilson by the Republican propagandists on FOX.  Wilson in turn was not going to let it go by and served up some tweets this morning.

    

   

   Rick Wilson✔@TheRickWilson

   1/ In the midst of something close to 2000 emails along the lines of "Suck it, looser" and "I'm going to kill you" there have been a few heartfelt messages expressing hurt over my "ten tooth" line.

   Allow me to make a few observations about this current moment.

   2/ Obviously, not all Trump supporters are ten-toothed rubes, but I'd bet you a hundred quatloos research would prove all ten-toothed rubes are Trump supporters. But that's not really the point, is it? The point is that Trump's base proudly endorses the most lavish cruelty.

   3/ They adopt this language and attitude of unearned swagger and strength, of "fuck your feelings" and imitation of Trump's own cruelty, vulgarity, unjustified chest-thumping. Trumpism isn't, for the 1000th time, conservatism. It's a parasitic infection feeding on hatred.

   4/ The reaction to my throwaway line was a sign of 2 things; the unbelievable political and status insecurity of the Trump voter. They were offended by the dental comment, but they should have been offended by the "rube" comment. Because *I* didn't make them rubes.Trump did.

   5/ Do you want a participation trophy and a pat on the head from me for your utterly credulous dumbassery over Trump's endless list of lies, deceptions, scams, venality, and corruption?I thought unearned merit was what you hated about the *left*.

   6/ The story of the reaction is also a window into the dumbfuckery of the Trump-right outrage machine. It's is the perfect mirror image of the dumb language-and-tone policing of the worst cliches of the social justice crowd. It's failbot Alinsky for dumbasses.

   7/ I'm not going to coddle and cosset people who are proud of being conned, or who embrace cruelty as governance.I was told the new order was all about "fuck your feelings" but apparently MAGA feefees are so delicate a bald dude with big ears and glasses can trigger you.

   8/ Social and status insecurity is the key underpinning of racially inflected nationalism that Trump and Russia (but I repeat myself) weaponized. You don't like someone who pokes it? You don't like someone who calls your shit? I am not your safe space.

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   1. Does this count as a "Republicans are Revolting" exchange, the equivalent of "Democrats in Disarray"?

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4. The Hill's Morning Report identifies our Junior Senator as one of several "pressure points to watch"

   A few pressure points to watch that could potentially pave the way for a deal:

   The Senate

   … Will anxious Republicans in his caucus force his [McConnell's] hand at some point?

   There are a handful of GOP senators facing competitive reelection bids in 2020 who are eager to get past the shutdown drama.

   Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) has called on Congress to pass a clean continuing resolution that would reopen the government and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) sounds like she’s leaning that way as well.

   Sens. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) might also start to view the shutdown through the prism of their reelection bids soon.

    

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   1. I wouldn't count of more than one – if that many – out of McSally, Ernst and Tillis standing up to leadership on the House government funding bills. McSally needs to worry first and foremost, about a primary challenge from Chem-Trails Kelly.

      Tillis is a strange bird. He may be the next Cory Gardner as far as making some noise about reopening the government but whether he would go all out and actually stand up to McConnell is a different story. This is the same dude who used to have issues with local government health department regs requiring food handlers to wash their hands after taking a dump.

      Ernst’s claim to fame is running TV commercials in 2014 of pigs being castrated and telling voter that she would make the pols in DC squeal.

      I think Mitten Romney is more likely to stand up to McConnell and Trump than any of these three. Or Lisa Murkowski whose state receives a lot of federal government largess.   

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