MY SUNDAY FEELING

" I am proud to shut down the government for border security."

                                                         President Trump.  In front of rolling cameras.


As I type this, we are about 5 hours away from the closure of most of the United States Government of the refusal of Congress to include 5 billion (that's billion with a "B") in funding for a wall on the southern border of the US.  The House, which is made up of a lame duck majority of Republicans, approved the funding and sent it on to the Senate where it is, by all accounts, DOA.  

Which is what Nancy Pelosi precisely warned Trump about in their unintentionally televised meeting in the Oval Office a week or so ago during which he popped off about being willing to take the blame for this current impasse much to the undoubted horror of Mitch McConnell.  

At this point let me tell a story told to me by a friend who knew somebody who worked for Robert F. Kennedy.  

"Bobby always said you didn't have to be smart to be a politician," so the story goes. "But you did have to be able to count." 

Nancy Pelosi and her Senate counterpart Chuck Schumer can count.  The votes for funding for the wall weren't there then.  They aren't there now. Or that's my guess at least as I write this.

Maybe this is why the Winner Of The Electoral College (WOTEC) decided to sign another Continuing Resolution which would have funded the government through February.  Or so he said at the time.  

But after catching hell from FOX/TASS and the likes of the reptilian Ann Coulter WOTEC caved and welshed on his earlier agreement to sign the CR.  And here we are.  "Just In Time For Christmas" as the ads for the season say.

I used to work for Uncle.  I have been through 3 or 4 shutdowns.  I have written about them before.  No need to go back there.  

So here's the larger problem I have.

As far as I can tell, the only "advice" WOTEC pays any mind to is what emanates from FOX/TASS and other right wing media along with polling data from his "base."  Which means the goddamn country is pretty much being run by 30% of the electorate and windbags like Rush Limbaugh.   

There are plenty of legitimate reasons to reduce our military presence in Syria.  There aren't many good reasons to do so without consulting our allies, our military and diplomatic professionals, or the leaders of Congress.  As if this were not sufficient chaos for one Christmastide the government is shut down (I am finishing this up on Saturday). 

Shut down over a wall the Mexicans will not pay one nickel for in the event that it gets built at all.  And let's be clear.  WOTEC campaigned on the promise not just that the wall would be built, but on the preposterous notion that the Mexicans would pay for it.  Shut down over a wall Trump couldn't get full funding for while the Republicans had control of both Houses of Congress.  And now he damn sure knows he won't get it come January when the Democrats take over the House after the ass kicking the Republicans took in the mid-term election.

The game changes for WOTEC in January.  At least in the House where the potential exists for WOTEC's life-and the lives of certain members of his inner circle- to become unpleasant in the extreme.  

And perhaps then, once we get past this latest pique induced national crisis (and we will get past it) we will see who is running this country.

Our elected officials?  Or Sean Hannity?