Rolling Republican shutdown thread

I've been calling local food banks asking what they need, and I'm going to try and set up a donation bin in our shop this weekend that I can then distribute to those food banks. People are going to be hurting badly, everyone needs to do whatever they can to help.

Again, and this bears repeating: Republicans (Ie the USDA) could fund SNAP if they wanted to.

Yep. There's an emergency fund of $5 billion that is supposed to be released in an emergency, but the Trump admin has already said they won't use it.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5575299-usda-snap-shutdown-funds/

We're making the fascist stronger.

Well shit, if I'd known we were doing Star Wars... Carry on.

I'd argue we're exposing the fascist intent by refusing to work with them.

Consolidation of power under the right wing. Why did we shut down the government?l

Maybe so, but the cost is wages and food.

Let's say they do fully consolidate power under the right wing.
At that point, when things continue to get shittier and shittier, even the UAs and FFs amongst us will be forced to have it.
It is a hard lesson that Americans may need to learn.

The people getting hit hardest by those lost wages and food are, ironically, the ones in the reddest districts.
FAFO and all that jazz, as they've often said.

Not when the current example is democrats making things shittier wages, jobs, food.

Federal government employee wages.

ICE employees, noticeably.
I said earlier that one good thing to come out of it is their paycheck getting cut off.

Don't know any. I do know scientists in the EPA.

And who do they blame for this?

When they feel comfortable discussing things given their jobs are currently beholden to loyalty to the regime?

The same EPA that's rolling back drinking water standards?

Haven't had that discussion with them, and I won't.

Previous terminations due to reductions in (work)force were the current executive's actions.

I think it's more pertinent who I blame. In this case it's us. We're dancing to their music.

You know it's not the scientists making policy, don't you?

ETA: I asked my friend what he would do if asked to corrupt science. He said that has never been a concern. It's up to bureaucrats to act on it.

I would suggest this is good incentive then to GTFO and distance themselves from the EPA, rather than harm their credibility by continuing to serve an openly anti- scientific administration.
If they can get a job in the EPA, they can find work elsewhere very easily. I know that much from my own daughter's experience.

My thoughts exactly. I suggested that he get with Sandia Labs to study fallout patterns in case of nuclear war. That's a growth industry. Still a government agency.

The problem is walking away from pensions and benefits to work for the private sector. Then there's uprooting his family to move to Albuquerque.

What continues to get lost in all of this is that the Republican Party is a cult beholden to Trump. Wherever he goes, they go. Deal directly with Trump, and if he digs his cankles in SO WHAT.

Forced to have what?

Trading card games...
Read up on Pokemon or Magic The Gathering cards...
Pieces of printed cardboard whose value can skyrocket in days...

Yes, just like with my Brad Pitt example, the value of things can change for many, many reasons.

But value isn't increased merely by exchanging. If you buy a $10 Pokemon card, sell it to a friend, and a month later he sells it back to you for $10, the economy didn't grow.

While members of congress play games....



Keep in mind, the average salary for most members of the U.S. Congress is $174,000 per year. Leadership positions earn more, with the Speaker of the House earning $223,500 and the majority and minority leaders in both the House and Senate earning $193,400.

It must be nice to draw a six figure salary while playing games with other people's livelihood.

It’s not, at least not here. Only transactions that are visible to the government (specifically the BEA) are counted, with some statistical imputation based on sales taxes collected vs. wages taxed + net savings (see: “National Income Accounting”). Anything that doesn’t contribute to a potentially taxable event (whether or not actually taxed, eg food purchases) is only modeled, not counted. If you and your neighbor are actually taxed on that money moving back and forth, it’ll be counted, but I don’t think you want to do that.

Embattled Democrat: My party is ‘playing chicken’ over issue set to affect millions of Americans

Republicans can nuke the filibuster and resolve this issue any time they like. But neither party wants to do this, because it would drastically reduce gridlock in Congress and completely transform the political dynamics in Washington. Suddenly these jackasses would actually be accountable for their decades of letting issues fester. They don't want that. They like their cushy status quo, US citizens be damned.

Yep. Fuck the Democrats for voting against opening the government and fuck the Republicans for not using the nuclear option to end this madness. Anyone who tries to pretend their side is in the right is just being a blind partisan hack. There is no excuse for the federal government to still be shut down at this point.

Pfft, *talk to the hand gesture*...