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Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse
- Thread starter CdnGuy
- Start date
Trump will enter his third year as president unbound — at war with his perceived enemies, determined to follow through on the hard-line promises of his insurgent campaign and fearful of any cleavage in his political coalition.
So far, the result has been disarray. The federal government is shut down. Stock markets are in free fall. Foreign allies are voicing alarm. Hostile powers such as Russia are cheering. And Republican lawmakers once afraid of crossing this president are now openly critical.
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“This is a rogue presidency,” said Barry McCaffrey, a retired four-star Army general.
“We’ve got Mr. Trump who looks, in the eyes of our allies and of the professionals in the key elements of our national security power, to be incompetent and impulsive and to be making bad decisions and to be excoriating America’s historic allies and then embracing people who are threats to U.S. national security,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called this “the most chaotic week of what’s undoubtedly the most chaotic presidency ever in the history of the United States.”
Parts of the federal government are set to remain closed through much of next week as Congress shuttered Saturday for Christmas amid a stalemate with President Trump over border wall funding.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced that his chamber would not return to legislative business until Thursday, which means many federal agencies will remain closed until later next week at the earliest and hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be left in limbo about their status.
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The https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-leans-on-mcconnell-to-pass-spending-bill-with-border-funding-in-senate/2018/12/21/31bb453a-0517-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?utm_term=.8ec0da0637d9 (fundamental stalemate remains in place): Trump says he will not accept legislation unless it contains about $5 billion in funding for his border wall, and Democrats have the votes to block any wall money from going through Congress.
After the lunch meeting with Trump, Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) suggested Pence would make a new offer to Schumer about wall funding, but Democratic aides said the vice president presented nothing fundamentally different from the previous demands.
by Beto O'Rourke
Closed until further notice
The government of the greatest country the world has ever known, the wealthiest, most powerful nation on the planet: closed until further notice.
This shutdown – hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans working without pay during the holidays, basic government functions no longer available to the taxpayers who fund them – didn’t have to happen. The Senate passed a compromise government funding bill two days ago, 100–0. The men and women who can’t agree on what to name a post office were able to unite and unanimously agree on how to fund the entire government.
But maybe it was intended to happen.
Maybe in the face of an investigation that seeks the facts surrounding allegations of collusion with a foreign government and obstruction of justice within our own government… as one aide after another pleads guilty… as the stock market tumbles… as men and women intent on keeping their dignity and their conscience flee his administration… perhaps the President calculates that by adding to the blizzard of bizarre behavior over the last two years and shutting down the government at Christmas, while his own party still controls each branch of it, the institutions that we need for our democracy to function (and to ensure no man is above the law) will be overwhelmed.
From a President who promised action, we got distraction.
But my concern for the country goes beyond the immediate pain and dysfunction that this shutdown will cause. Beyond even ensuring that this President is held accountable. What’s happening now is part of a larger threat to us all.
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