There are only a few days left until the government of the United States of America shuts down like some shithole country with a tinpot dictator and a Cabinet of petty tyrants puking all over each other on their slippery climb to the top. Behind them, standing shoulder to shoulder, are their bought-and-paid-for solons with no dignity beyond what their black hearts and marshmallow spines can buy.
Even a brief shutdown is likely to seal the fate of the Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections. Democrats, while arguing fiercely not to let such a shameful event occur in America even if it’s the Republicans who are doing it, are whispering “yes, yes, yes” in the sotto voce of politicians looking for a sympathetic ear.
As dense as President Donald Trump is, he must already know that, so why must he persist in playing his special hand of idiot poker unless to prove his disconcerting game of pointless brinksmanship?
The latest crisis, the script goes, is the down-to-the-wire drama about DACA — the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — which Trump and his cabal of white supremacists are trying to disassemble.
To put a fine point on the problem, no wall, no DACA, Trump threatened over the weekend. Without funding for his stupid wall, the DACA imbroglio forced on him by the Democrats, according to the president, is the impasse that could choke the government’s windpipe.
Nobody except Trump and his toadies believe him, but that won’t matter if government shuts.
Much more is at stake than the future lives of a reported 800,000-plus unintentional immigrants. There is America’s prestige, its economic health and the well-being of our society. The unlikely economic engine driving our moderate growth is based more on assumptions and presumptions than the gross national product of our industry. Economists are already warning it can’t take too much rough handling before it overheats and melts down. Shutting the government just might become the speed bump that slows the economy into first gear.
It is no secret that the current eight-year economic expansion has had a nice run. Trump’s favorite economists like to note that U.S. growth has lasted twice as long as the average expansion seen since 1919. Just two postwar expansions lasted longer: a decade-long spell of growth that ended in 2001, and one eight-year stretch in the 1960s.
With the odious Steve Bannon now shunned and with Nazis and Klan skulking under their rocks, Trump is down to his political base with Republicans in Congress controlling everything but themselves. The time is ripe for a reality check to help understand what lies ahead.
Are there honorable politicians in Washington willing to take on Trump to preserve the Constitution they swore to uphold? We will soon find out if there is the gumption that is often declared but rarely shown. Members of Congress from both parties will have to find a collective conscience, fabricate spines and begin chipping away at the maniacal scourge that is eating our country’s soul.
DACA is a good first place to show some guts. Moderate Democrats and Republicans in the House say it’s time to make DACA a stand-alone bill that can rise or fall on its own merit. Trump says the Democrats don’t want to deal. Is he really saying something else?
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has said that it will once again process requests to extend protective status following a preliminary injunction from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that blocked Trump’s decision to end DACA. As usual, Trump used venomous tweets to disparage the 9th, arguably the most liberal of the 13 federal Circuit Courts of Appeal.
DACA was enacted by President Barak Obama in 2012 to protect young people brought illegally to the U.S. by their parents when they were too young to have a voice. DACA provides “temporary administrative relief from deportation” while the status of youthful immigrants is settled, the government said. In addition, the program offers eligible applicants work permits. The grant expires after two years, subject to renewal. Trump wants to kill the program unless he gets his wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts,” Trump whined on Twitter.
The U.S. Supreme Court is the only court that can overturn an appellate court decision.
Trump wants immigrants coming to the U.S. to be “based on merit,” and judging by the president’s own words, the most meritorious thing they apparently can bring with them is a white skin. He doesn’t want people from what he described as “shithole countries.” Some people at the meeting in which he slurred poor nations have suggested he called them “shithouse countries.” Either way, it was ugly.
“I, as President, want people coming into our Country who are going to help us become strong and great again, people coming in through a system based on MERIT,” Trump tweeted. “No more Lotteries! #AMERICA FIRST.”
A question must be asked: First at what?
THE SHINBONE STAR 
Reblogged this on natshouseblog.
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