I know this is a typo, but it’s also the most apt word I’ve seen for “intentionally breaking things as a distraction”.
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And Putin got all this chaos and disruption of US’s civic infrastructure (physical and non-physical) without expending a single bomb or risking a single Russian soldier’s life. He must be creaming himself.
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If government can’t function America stops. In effect, government is on strike.
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To all the Republicans who think that the shutdown is just fine, it’s making the government smaller: If you truly believe that, why are you hanging around still in office?
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A likely corollary: The badness of shutdown is accelerating, and it’s going to take time to decelerate when the shutdown ends. The pain of the shutdown isn’t going to end when the shutdown does. It will take time to come down.
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NO, the government is not striking. That would imply it was agreed upon by union members to better their working conditions. This is more like a retail corporation deciding to close a lot of its outlets, regardless of their utility. Or, as Trump would have it, “You’re fired.”
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Legislators and executives are refusing to execute on a budget. It seems like a strike to me.
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From the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, a definition of ‘strike’:
15 : to stop work in order to force an employer to comply with demands
The people currently furloughed are not the legislators and executives; they were sent home by them. Unless you want to make the argument that those legislators and executives are actually employed by the people of the US, and they are striking to force us to – wait, where is this going?
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Arguing semantics is useless. End of line.
drugs fall out of the FDA pipeline
Food safety inspections… (Just wait until we have an e coli outbreak)
Just about every day there’s a new example of something done by the federal government that I didn’t give much thought to, before. We just had an earthquake in the Bay Area - who runs the detectors? USGS. In conjunction with the UC system, which is the only reason it was still operational, but without the federal input, it will shut down soon. So it goes with so many other things - they’re still working right now because of a second funding source, but it only lasts for so long.
Given that disconnect with reality right there, it becomes impossible to reason with her. I’m sure she’s fine with burning it all down because, like Trump, she has absolutely no idea what the federal government is or does. It’s only in its absence might they get a clue (and even then…).
It’s kind of amazing to me that people think Trump has been economically successful in his actions. It seems like even Trump fans usually admit that things are bad, but they expect it’s to make things better in the future. From what I’ve read, literally nothing he’s done has helped with jobs currently (and it’s not really expected to have long-term benefits, either). The tariffs on steel, for instance. Bad for US manufacturers who need steel, obviously (and has lead to job losses there), but surprisingly, also bad for steel jobs, which are down 4% compared to several years ago. (From what I can tell, the tariffs allowed them to raise prices by a quarter, and the increase in overall income allowed them to grow - by automating.)
I tried to be charitable, but it’s becoming impossible to deny: Yes. Yes, they are.
That struck me when I read, during the campaign, how many Trump supporters thought he’d start a nuclear war. They’re committed to it. (I keep thinking back to that New York Times article from the other week, where a disgruntled Trump supporter, impacted by the shutdown, saying something about how Trump was “hurting the wrong people,” as if there were “right” people he should be hurting as president.)
What’s been surprising to me is who is working under federal contracts. Janitors, medical researchers… it’s all over the place.
Now that’s crazy talk for this administration.
There was a NYT article today, where some Republican congresscritters were questioning what Trump’s plan was (or if he had one) for getting what he wanted/ending the shutdown. I laughed out loud. Surely they know there is no plan. On other policies, sure, staff have created plans, but this took Trump’s staff by surprise (since he reversed his position), and it’s never been more clear how flailing Trump himself is. He’s backed himself into a corner (without consulting his advisors) and is now angry at his staff for not “fixing” things.
I remember someone, within a couple weeks of Trump getting into office, expressing approval of how well “Trumpcare” was working…
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It’s more akin to a lock-out.
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It’s only a “strike” in the sense of “Atlas Shrugged” (second only to the Bible as American conservatism’s favourite book), where all the lofty and great tycoons ragequit society. That was more a hissyfit of spoiled adolescents than it was an effective means to a mutually productive end.
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Yup, that’s what it is. Trump and his fellow travelers are “employees” of the American public, who overwhelmingly disapprove of their plans for a wall. They have gone on strike to force their employers to accede to their demands.
In Monty Python voice: “There, I’ve run circles around you logically!”
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remember that republican legislators represent only about 40% of the population and the population they represent is substantially whiter and substantially less educated than the other 60%. they are representing only and exclusively their voters to the exclusion of all others. as more of america votes for democrats i expect this tendency to become much, much worse
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- Listen, Stoick, I was overhearing some of the men just now, and-and well, you know, some of them are wondering what it is we are up to here? Not-not me, of course, I-I know you’re always the man with the plan, but some - not me - are-are wondering if, in fact, there is a plan at all, and what it might be?
Except that Stoick the Vast could lead and manage circles around the Cheeto in Chief.
@anon29537550 Congratulations, you’ve made my eyes cross 
@navarro Maybe they’re going for homeopathic government?
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And, thanks to Roger Sherman, that 40% has a permanent, wired-in Senate majority for at least the next generation.
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seriously, I dont want to dive down the rabbit-hole again, but McConnell must be a fucking lizard-overlord. he is a reptillian, I tell ya. just look at him!
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actually, that wouldnt be so bad, considering the state of climate change, right?
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I’ve seen people calling him the Turtle-man, and the name fits.
i’m starting to suspect Trump is only doing this so the whitehouse kitchen staff is out and he can continue to order his “american fast food he loves it all so much”.
“nom mfffff ummmm nompfh…i could see this shutdown lasting, weeks, maybe even months or years more…munch chomp slurp burp”
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