deny Trump wall money and pressure Senate to go along


Democrats’ plan, which they aim to pass upon taking control of the House on Thursday, includes a stopgap spending bill to fund the Homeland Security Department through Feb. 8. The bill would continue existing levels of border funding without giving President Trump the new wall money he is seeking.

The measure would also reopen the other closed parts of the federal government by passing bipartisan spending bills to fund the agencies through Sept. 30.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/12/31/house-democrats-prepare-bills-to-end-government-shutdown-deny-trump-wall-money-and-pressure-senate-to-go-along/?utm_term=.b4202d448c7e&wpisrc=al_news__alert-politics--alert-national&wpmk=1

Barely a day goes by without Donald Trump reminding us all of his total disregard for the truth, his startling ignorance, or his affection for murderous autocrats. The President of the United States generally exhibits the behavior of a sick, unfeeling sociopath. I am not a fan.

That said, you have to feel for the guy. It’s not his fault that he lacks so many of the attributes that are required to do this job successfully: a breadth of knowledge, maturity, empathy, curiosity, a sense of humor, emotional intelligence, discretion, self-discipline, self-awareness, selflessness, and the ability to put the country before self. Just to name a few.

Besides, any energy spent demanding that he suddenly develop these qualities at the age of 72 is wasted. The sad truth is, he’s doing the best he can.

And, of course, we knew who he was from Day One. The subtext of his entire campaign — starting with the announcement speech in which he called Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers — was: “Please do not elect me President — I cannot do this job.” Trump himself famously prepared only one speech for Election Night — a concession. (One can only imagine how gracious that speech congratulating President-elect Clinton would have been.)

— and Mueller, FBI are involved in probe


New Jersey AG has obtained evidence of possible crimes at Trump's golf club — and Mueller, FBI are involved in probe
Feds and New Jersey state prosecutors are looking into possible immigration fraud at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. (Carolyn Kaster / AP)
New Jersey prosecutors have collected evidence that supervisors at President Trump’s Garden State golf club may have committed federal immigration crimes — and the FBI as well as special counsel Robert Mueller have played part in the inquiry, the Daily News has learned.

Anibal Romero, a Newark attorney who represents several undocumented immigrants who used to work at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, said Friday he recently met with investigators from the state attorney general’s office and handed over fraudulent green cards and Social Security numbers that management at the club allegedly procured and gave his clients, Victorina Morales and Sandra Diaz.

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-fbi-ag-evidence-crimes-trump-golf-20181228-story.html

Roughly 2 million civilian employees work for the federal government. They are men and women of every racial background and from every state in the country. Yet there is one thing they all have in common: They made a choice to serve, even knowing, in many cases, that they could be making more money in the private sector.

Unfortunately, it appears that we have a president who, rather than leading the nation’s public workforce, consistently chooses to belittle it. The latest example came when the president took to Twitter on Thursday morning, day six of an unnecessary government shutdown instigated by congressional Republicans at President Donald Trump’s behest. In what has become a familiar pattern of politicizing the largely nonpartisan, nuts-and-bolts work of the federal government, Trump tried to exert political pressure on congressional Democrats to fund his ineffective border wall by asking: “Do the Dems realize that most of the people not getting paid are Democrats?”

What the president fails to understand is that federal employees don’t go to work wearing red or blue jerseys. What they do wear are the badges of law enforcement and the hats of park rangers and the uniforms of first responders, and they make up the backbone of our government. They bring their skills and expertise to strengthen our nation and make a difference in the lives of their fellow citizens, regardless of political affiliation.

<snip>

The president who declared that he would be “proud” to shut down the government is holding one-quarter of the federal government’s agencies hostage in an effort to get $5.7 billion for a wall that experts say would fail to improve border security – in the process treating 800,000 federal workers like poker chips from one of his failed casinos. Sadly, this is only the latest salvo by a president determined to attack and undermine our country’s public servants.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/dec/28/federal-workers-are-not-democrats-or-poker-chips/

https://twitter.com/RWPUSA/status/1076925569328123904?s=20


Richard W. Painter
@RWPUSA
Everyone is being mean to little Donny.
Jim won’t play army with him anymore.
Paul took his marbles and went home to Wisconsin.
Bob asks nosey questions about his Russian pals.
Chuck won’t pay for the wall that he wants for Christmas.
Nancy will be even meaner to him in January.

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1:40 PM - Dec 23, 2018