Shutdown Blues

Trump Shutdown:  One month in and critical portions of the government are still in shutdown mode.  More of the workers who had initially been deemed non-essential  are being called back to work, no paychecks just work. Additionally, more unpaid workers are showing up at food pantries, loading up their credit cards, seeking payment deferrals and, when possible, obtaining zero interest loans.  For a brief moment yesterday, after a number of news outlets reported that Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer had agreed upon a deal to reopen the government, it looked like a temporary reprieve was imminent but that optimism faded after the details of their “agreement” were revealed.  Essentially McConnell has agreed to allow votes on two pieces of legislation.  The first is a version of the Trump approved plan, the one that provides $5.7 billion in wall funding, billions more for other border related services and three years of protection for DACA recipients and those currently benefitting from Temporary Protected Status (TPS).  In an attempt to attract some Democratic support, McConnell added $12.7 billion in disaster relief and an extension of the Violence Against Women Act that he earlier allowed to expire.  Unfortunately to appease his right flank he also surreptitiously added a few more onerous provisions suggested by Trump anti-immigrant whisperer Stephen Miller, including changes to the asylum law that would make it more difficult for people seeking refuge from persecution and violence at home. Among them are provisions specifically barring children from Central American from claiming asylum inside the US, requiring them instead to do so in their own countries as well as provisions providing for an accelerated process for sending “unqualified” children back home.  The second piece of legislation is a Democratic plan that is essentially a stopgap spending bill that would fund the government through February 8 without providing any new money for the wall. It would let both parties negotiate on border security while the government is reopened, a respite Democrats have been demanding all along.  No Democrats are likely to vote for the Republican bill although a few Republicans might vote for both bills.  In any case neither bill is expected to garner the sixty votes needed for passage.  At best, the votes will mark the beginning of a more bipartisan negotiating process, at worst nothing will have changed.  In any case the shutdown will continue and no paychecks will be forthcoming on Friday. In the meantime Trump and Pelosi continue to tussle over whether or not Trump will be allowed to deliver his State of the Union Speech in “her” house.  The White House is pretending that he’s still invited to speak and is moving ahead with plans however, they are also exploring other alternatives and reportedly are preparing two separate speeches, one tailored for a rally setting, another for the Capitol, neither is likely to be all that warm or reassuring.  In other White House news, its also been reported, disputed and then reported again that Trump plans to host those charming Covington School students at the White House once the government reopens.  To no one’s surprise, Trump has concluded that they are totally innocent victims of vicious left wing “false news” and while various video snippets do reflect that the initial reports about the teens behavior missed the whole picture, none of the more “complete” reports appear to justify their thuggish actions. Notably, in addition to mocking the Native American veteran they were also heard chanting some rape justification slogans, hardly appropriate behavior for any group of teens.  One White House denizen has apparently had enough with all of the nonsense, apparently Shahira Knight, the White House legislative affairs director, tired of being pushed aside by son in law Kushner, has had it.  She’s looking for an exit ramp and given that she’s one of the view White House employees who is widely respected on the outside, she is likely to find a home.  In that respect her career prospects are different than those of Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.  She had earlier signaled that she was leaving at year end, but for some relatively obvious reason has not found a welcoming landing pad.  Though we still hear from her on occasion, it turns out that the reason that her daily press conferences have disappeared is that Trump has told her not to bother, according to him the press is just too hostile, and who wants to answer any probing questions anyway.  As to Rudy Giuliani, he may or may not be insane, his shenanigans may or may not be part of a brilliant strategy intended to prepare the general public for Trump damning news to come and he may or may not have worn out his welcome at the White House.  Like everything else out there, only Trump knows, and his view changes with the wind.

The Supremes:  Though they didn’t issue any decisions yesterday, the Supreme Court did make some news.  They issued an order temporarily allowing Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military to go into effect while the lower courts work through the case.  SCOTUS could just have easily maintained the status quo, which allowed transgender people to serve while the case was making its way up the chain so this order could well provide an indication that the increasingly conservative court will ultimate rule in Trump’s favor despite the fact that all indications are that transgender troops are not a problem except in the minds of those on the religious right.  As expected, SCOTUS did not act on the Trump administration's effort to end the DACA program, leaving protections for nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children in place probably until 2020.  By not including DACA on their docket the court pretty much made Trump’s grand gesture to extend DACA protection for three years in exchange for wall funding worthless.  On the gun rights front, SCOTUS surprised many by agreeing to hear a guns rights case, notable because they have sidestepped gun cases for the past decade.  The case concerns a New York City rule that strictly limits licensed gun owners from carrying legally owned guns, those permitted for home protection only, outside of their home, the rule allows owners to take their guns to approved practice ranges with the city limits but prohibits them from transporting firearms outside of the city even to practice at ranges near their second homes.  Lower courts have upheld the city’s regulations but with Justice Kennedy gone, replaced by Justice Kavanaugh who believes that the Second Amendment prohibits almost any gun restrictions, the prospects for the continuation of the NYC restriction look dim, hardly good news for gun control advocates.  Lastly, Solicitor General Noel Francisco has asked the judges to rule by June on whether or not a question concerning citizenship can be included in the 2020 census.  In an effort to get that question, which a lower court judge trashed, approved in time to have it included in the census, he is requesting that the Supreme Court jump ahead of the next in line Federal Appeals court.  The administration is in a hurry to make sure that they can dissuade as many immigrants from participating in the census, part of an effort to underfund and underrepresent localities with large immigrant populations.

Election Update:  The 2020 election season is already upon us but 2018 isn’t over yet.  Yesterday, a state judge in North Carolina declined to certify election results in the 9th Congressional District, citing state election officials’ authority to delay certification while they continue to investigate allegations of election fraud; that’s the district where the Republican candidate “won” by hiring a consultant who collected and then threw out bunches of absentee ballots from people who probably voted for his Democratic opponent.  Early this morning, another Democrat, South Bend Indiana’s Mayor Pete Buttigieg,  threw his hat into the presidential race.  Buttigieg aspires to become the first openly gay president of the US.  Gay or straight, he is a long shot candidate.  In other 2020 news, some people must be taking Senator Kamala Harris’ campaign seriously, a number of right wing sorts are questioning her citizenship claiming that because neither of her parents were US citizens when she was born in the US that she couldn’t possibly qualify to run for president.  Apparently they are unfamiliar with the birthright citizenship provisions of the Constitution.  They are also outraged that she attended high school in the rogue country of Canada.  Now, if only she had gone to school in Moscow.