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After 10 PM EST on Friday, The U.S. Senate rejected a deal that would fund the U.S. government for another month:
Only five Democrats voted to advance the bill — Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Claire McCaskill (Mo.), who are all up for reelection this year in states carried by President Trump in 2016 election, and newly-elected Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.).
Republicans were also not united, as Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.) also voted against advancing the legislation. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is battling brain cancer, was absent.
The procedural vote remained open late Friday, though it needed 60 votes to pass and was well short of that number with 48 senators voting against it.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer continued to negotiate after the vote opened (archive), but no deal has been reached yet. As of midnight (5 minutes before this story went live), the government shutdown was in effect.
At Wikipedia: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Government shutdowns in the United States.
- What's the Government Shutdown 'About'?
- D.C. Stays Open This Time Around — Even If Federal Government Shuts Down
- Senate Lacks Votes to Advance GOP Spending Bill: Shutdown Update
- The CHIP Debacle Shows Democrats Need to Put the Government on Autopilot
- 'We Have to Stand Our Ground.' Activists Push Democrats to Fight for DACA Recipients in Shutdown
- Shutdown? It Could Be Forgotten in a Trumpian Flash
- Analysis: Emboldened Democrats take a risk on a shutdown
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday January 20 2018, @05:19AM (21 children)
This seem to be some kind of recurring event, every fifth or so year for the last couple of decades. No long-term solution in sight. A few weeks of unpaid "vacation". So I guess they'll be all pissy with each other for some time and then eventually they'll realize that they both look and appear like spoiled kids and reach some kind of shitty temporary deal that will run out in about 2023 or so.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday January 20 2018, @07:23AM (18 children)
look, the R's are robbing us all blind.
'no new taxes' was the theme from reagan and nothing has really changed since that motherfucker made the R's the party of 'I got mine, fuck you!'.
and so, you campain on 'no new taxes' or 'lower taxes', but it costs money to RUN the govt and to pay for services.
they just don't care. they seriously don't care. scorched earth policy, pretty much. I got mine, fuck you.
will the religious right EVER get a clue and realize they are being played?
(no, of course not. they are too brainwashed. and anything they hate, they put the 'liberal' label on, just like children who don't know what a word means, but like to feel important using it)
this country is really sucking badly right now. I hope we can get beyond this, but I doubt we will. the 'right' is too entrenched in their hatred and hatred is the most powerful of emotions. their controllers know this all too well.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @07:36AM (2 children)
Sounds like you're the one with the hatred issues...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @10:24AM (1 child)
Fuck you, and the God you rode in on! Oh, and all the underage girls and boys you also molested! It is not so much that any one hates evangelical Republicans, it is just that they are such scum, such hypocrites, such traitors to the very God they profess to serve, such selfish and demon possessed evil fucks that they think they are holy? So I say again, Fuck any God that would claim such filth as his followers. And don't get me started on Mormons. No hate here, just facts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21 2018, @07:13AM
I preyed on God to Raise this post with moderations of great joy and salutations. But the forces of Satan, "could it be, . . . Satan?" have taken over too many solylentils, the ones who think that what they believe in is God. They will burn in flamebait mods, come the end of days! Verily, their end will be raw, and smoking!
(Score: 5, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Saturday January 20 2018, @12:33PM (14 children)
" the 'right' is too entrenched in their hatred and hatred is the most powerful of emotions."
I really must say that the "left" is rather consumed by hatred at the moment. I'm a progressive, and I can't stomach any of the sources I used to visit (Huffington Post, DailyKos, etc) because there's nothing but hysteria there on a daily basis.
I remember a conversation between Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow on her show early during the Obama administration when he was taking her to task for being just as bad as Fox News was, and how what she and they were doing was destroying the country. At the time I thought he was off-base, but now I get it and realize he's right. He's more right now than he was then, because everything has grown so much worse.
So I'd take your question, "will the religious right EVER get a clue and realize they are being played?" and amend it to, "will the American citizens EVER get a clue and realize they are being played?" because the whole left-right game has been designed and pushed by the uniparty to divide us.
Inside the Beltway they all know they're on the same team, Them vs Us. We can see that when we watch the Press Club Dinners from years past, when all the people who play enemies on TV let their hair down and have a few yucks with their pals. We can see it in how Chris Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax and the guy who funded the Vince Foster conspiracy during the Clinton administration, is good pals with Bill Clinton and has been a big contributor to the Clinton Foundation.
If we stop, calm down, and really listen to what the people on the other side are really talking about, instead of letting ourselves be triggered by the focus-group tested memes the uniparty has poisoned the national discourse with, we'll begin to understand that they are talking about the same things. The Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, used a different tone and different terms but the main of their message is the same.
It's also helpful to stop portraying the "other" side as a monolith. The citizens who gravitate to the R rhetoric aren't any one thing, and neither are those who gravitate to the D rhetoric. Within each discursive sphere there are really very few, usually party operatives and a select subset, who actually endorse and espouse the party line and who back the party leadership. Real human beings are fractious, and anyone who's ever been involved in any group activity, be it a church social or political activism, knows it's always like herding cats.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @02:33PM (9 children)
When will people stop giving the religious (right or left) any credibility at all? They're reality-challenged from first principles, having failed the most basic test of being able to reason their way out of the most basic paper bag around: superstition.
Religion is a social disease. Educate your children better. It's the only way to nuke religion from orbit. You can't force it out once it takes root. You can only get in front of society's religious infection, and thereby prevent it from getting into your kids, at least if your kids aren't dumb-as-posts. Hopefully gene editing will soon reduce the large portion of the population that is congenitally stupid. You'd think if you could ensure your kids would be smart, you'd make sure they were smart. Even so, until then, you could still teach about half the population to observe and reason instead of bow to fantasy-as-fact if you get in there early enough with a decent reality-based upbringing.
The phrase "religious right" is synonymous with "reality-rejecting right." Likewise left. Or center. Etc. These are not people you should want winning elections, running companies, variously regulating behavior, etc. The odds hugely favor them screwing things up - history demonstrates this over and over again.
They're not the only problem we have, but they sure are a significant one.
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Saturday January 20 2018, @04:25PM (7 children)
Because they are productive, relatively honest members of society. Isn't disfranchising the people who make society work a big part of the problem in the first place?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @04:48PM (6 children)
They are the polar opposite of honest. They're lying to themselves, and then spreading that everywhere they can.
These people don't "make society work", they screw society up and impede its efficient working.
Moreover, I wasn't suggesting anyone disenfranchise them other than get them out of government (or make them behave rationally when there.) I specifically said they could not be fixed. I was suggesting we prevent more of them from damaging our social and legal system by effectively educating our offspring and thereby reducing their numbers. I also think that re-electing the current crop of superstitionists to positions of governmental responsibility is self-destructive specifically because they can't think straight. That is the polar opposite of "productive" in political / regulatory terms.
The influence of such people has been the fundamental cause of many of our toxic laws and regulations. From clerks who won't issue marriage licenses, to legislation that give tax benefits to superstitious enterprises, to regulation that provides broadcast primacy to superstitious broadcasting, the damage is broadly evident and deeply harmful.
When it comes to disenfranchisement, if all they are capable of doing is occupy a political or regulatory position poorly, then they aren't competent to hold one anyway. Let them (learn to, if necessary) bake bread, deal with plumbing, run or work on assembly lines, etc. Just stop encouraging them to impose their superstitions on everyone else via legislation and regulation. Take that legendary wall of separation between church and state seriously. It'd do society a world of good. Or at least a country of good.
While all that plays out, try to fix the kids.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday January 20 2018, @05:19PM (5 children)
I did say "relatively honest".
Except that's not true. Human societies, collectively were a lot more religious than they are now, and yet somehow we got to the present state of affairs, which let us note, has a lot of working societies. If religions really were the obstacles you claim they are, then we wouldn't have come from the primitive societies of the past to the present.
We can come up with examples where religions have hindered or helped society. For example, northern India of the 4th and 5th century experienced a decline of fortune due in part to a growing divergence between Buddhist practitioners and their societies. Christians are blamed for destroying ancient writings including burning of at least part of the Library of Alexandria. The Roman Catholic Church had for around a thousand years suppressed dissent and heretical ideas throughout the region of Europe subject to its authority.
OTOH, religion has also served to mitigate some of the worst excesses of humanity and was a key aspect of ancient law and morality. The era of religious schism in Europe served to usher in the Age of Enlightenment.
And on a more individual level, the people who you criticize are better people for being religious, precisely for the reasons you say should hinder their credibility. If someone is going to believe in a harmless sky god, isn't that better than the host of really bad ideas that they could be believing in instead? It provides a rather harmless outlet for people who would otherwise be more open to harmful beliefs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @06:06PM
OK so since it's just something that's nice for people to pass the time, let's agree to remove their tax sheltered status.
I have things that are nice and probably keep me out of harm. Where's my tax shelter?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @09:49PM (3 children)
Wow, guess you haven't met too many religious people or more likely you're completely oblivious to their flaws. Likely a fish / fishbowl syndrome. There are many people who are good people and not religious, and they are able to find common ground with their community and be successful. I get your points and they aren't all wrong, but "believe in a harmless sky god"? Harmless is hardly the word I would use, untold amounts of suffering have come directly from the belief that the bible is literally the word of god.
But hell, I'm explaining reality to khallow, a fruitless exercise. You RWNJs just come here to circle jerk and upmod lame "libruhls baaad" posts.
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Sunday January 21 2018, @03:47AM (2 children)
And I guess you're ignorant.
And I bet a fair number of them are religious, you just didn't know.
And that is relevant how? Because one can find a harmful religious belief, then religion is harmful? That's the fallacy of equating parts with the whole, which has been a problem since some AC started spouting stereotypes about religion in the first place.
It's only fruitless for those who choose not to learn.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Sunday January 21 2018, @07:34AM (1 child)
Khallow, you know that thing you do, the one we talked about? Yeah, you're doing it again. God will punish you for this act of hubris. And the lust in your heart. And the worship of Mammon, you did not think that would just slide by without being noticed? Get back on the right path, khallow. I recommend 5000 Hail Mary's, and 2450 Our Fathers, and a donation of $100 to the EFF. May Humanity have mercy on your soul.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 21 2018, @11:30AM
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @09:42PM
Remember how the smallpox vaccine works. You infect people with cowpox, which is a mild disease, and then they are immune to smallpox.
It's like that with Christianity and Islam.
I'll take Christianity, thank you very much. If we lose Christianity, then there is a void into which Islam will vigorously grow. We'd go back to living like it is the year 700, and you'd soon be dead if you complained. Appeasement does not make the problem go away.
So, while I find all the Christian prayer irritating, I am sort of thankful for it. This world has far worse cultural viruses.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 20 2018, @03:45PM (2 children)
Obviously, the Ozzies need to start breeding more dogs. My shepard herds cats quite well! German shepards, not so much. Maybe it's a language thing? If I could speak 'Strayan, I'd ask the dog . . .
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21 2018, @07:37AM (1 child)
Runaway owns a crazy dog. Why am I not surprised? Keeping an Australian Shephard without a flock for him/her to work is animal abuse, you wanker!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 21 2018, @10:53AM
Obviously, you don't keep up with either my posts, or with your own rants. Sheep, goats, horses, chickens, cats, and dogs all coexist here on these fifteen acres.
I'll be honest - I don't use my crazy pup as a sheep dog. I have no real interest in it. The kids do it all. But, my silly pup gets out there and follows along, socializing with the other dogs, running after the herd animals. And, he applies his herding skills to the two cats that the wife keeps in the house. He also goes into the neighbor's pasture to practice herding the cattle, but he gets little real response from them. They just show their annoyance by tossing their horns most of the time. If his parents join in, then the cattle start moving. Then, the whole thing falls to pieces when the cattle are moving, and the dogs realize they don't actually have a plan to herd the cattle into the barn, or a loading chute, or even to feed or water.
Wonder if anyone has ever uploaded videos of shepard dogs herding cat . . . This litter of Corgis resemble our little rascal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZF5S5ko8dc [youtube.com]
Speaking of wankers - how are you and the family?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21 2018, @04:13PM
I made this comment back when Trump got elected.
The blame rests squarely on the 96 percent who chose to polarize as Republicans or Democrats rather than going 'We might lose this election, but sending a message to the parties is more important!' and voting for third party candidates instead.
All those candidates needed was ~5 percent of the vote for federal support next election cycle, or 10-20 percent to make the news stations have a hard time pushing them out during the next election cycle's debates. If either of those numbers had been reached, especially on multiple candidates, it would have weakened the duopolist control of America and sent political leaders scrambling. But instead people acted like rival football fans and polarized into two frothing rabid mindless masses and proved why herd mentality is always depicted as unintelligent bovines: Because people really do act that stupid in a large group.
And the problem is only getting worse, not better. I can only imagine how bad the next election's candidates will be.
(Score: 5, Informative) by dry on Saturday January 20 2018, @08:01AM (1 child)
Living in a Westminster Parliamentary system, it just seems so weird. Here, if the government can't pass a supply bill, the government falls. After that, depending, the other team can try or there is an election.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Saturday January 20 2018, @05:22PM
And that is better how? In the US case, it'll bounce around for at most a few weeks before the parties get over it and pass a budget. Life moves on.