The Most Feared Person on Capitol Hill

Young and Restless

February 8, 2019

Does this scare you?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress (during the blue tsunami of 2018), is scaring the crap out of most of Washington, DC.  AOC, as she is known is the most talked about pol since the incursion of Donald Chrump.  Ocasio-Cortez describes herself as a democratic socialist.  Ocasio-Cortez came out of nowhere, unseated the third-ranking, 10-term Democrat in Congress, and proceeded to charm and/or frighten everyone in and around politics.  She is incredibly well-informed, is effortlessly well-spoken and has more energy than the Energizer Bunny.  Ocasio-Cortez majored in international relations and economics at Boston University, graduating cum laude in 2011.  She is ready, ready as anybody can be.

Republican’ts across the country are soiling their diapers.  They act like they are seeing the reincarnation of Emma Goldman, or Karl Marx, and they are much more positively disposed toward Marx’s ostensible modern-day successor Vladimir Putin.  Completely at ease with their lying, sexist, racist, failing leader’s shenanigans, Republican’ts are positively apoplectic over the 29 year-old AOC’s ability to consistently attract attention.

Be afraid, be very afraid

Many in the media are simply amazed at the “sudden” emergence of a democratic socialist.  Maybe their brains have been so badly damaged by the perpetual shuck and jive, the slob and sleaze, the constant worst, most bizarre thing ever, the constant psychotic dishonesty of Chrump, that they forgot all about Bernie Sanders.  Sanders singlehandedly turned socialism from a dirty word – if it was known at all to most Americans, to nothing short of a cause célèbre.  Sanders caused ‘socialism’ to be the most searched word (and George Orwell’s 1984 the most searched book) in 2016.  And quelle surprise, a huge swath of America realized that they had all kinds of socialist tendencies.  Americans are unsurprisingly willing to consider Medicare-for-all, free college tuition for those in need, a vibrant social safety net and generally find socialism for the many, instead of socialism for the wealthy, quite appealing. Go figure.

AOC re-exposes the cancer that is dark money in politics

Old-school/Blue Dog Democrats are equally terrified of Ocasio-Cortez and the thought of losing their corporate-backed grip on their side of the aisle.  Just as Bernie Sanders sent them scurrying to the big-dollar-insulated shelter of the party machine and the friendly confines of old guard maven Hillary Clinton.  Clinton rallied to defeat Sanders in the 2016 primary, in part by having the Democratic National Committee stack the deck against Sanders, and in part by coopting Bernie’s progressive, populist message, though not anywhere near as invested in the message as the democratic socialist from Vermont.  The rest, as they say, is the (possible end of) history.

Ocasio-Cortez and many of her fellow freshman colleagues are pushing a Green New Deal – a platform proposal that focuses on environmental sanity, infrastructure, economic, social and gender equality, paid for in part by implementing a 70 percent marginal tax rate for incomes above $10 million.  Scary stuff.  To some.  Like Republican’ts who are calling the Green New Deal a “socialist manifesto.”  They can call it whatever they want, they can call it Peaches for all I care.  Maybe they should shut down the government again, or build a wall to stop it.

I. Mangrey rejoicing.  Just a little bit.

SOTU Aftermouth - The Mourning After

Donald Smallhands Saves the World (Or So He Says)

February 6, 2019

I have to admit that I did not watch the State of Disunity address as read, though not written by, Donald Chrump, who according to numerous news sources – several of which are not even fake – is the current president.  Of the United States.  Of America.  I still have to punch myself to make sure I am not dreaming, or already dead.  I know most people pinch themselves to make sure they are awake, but these days pinching is just not convincing.  I plan to stop punching myself as soon as Chrump’s Reign of Carnage comes to a screeching halt.

Actually, I did watch a little bit, but I was not feeling masochistic enough to have the sound on.  What struck me most was Nancy Pelosi, who had the good fortune to be sitting behind Chrump, thereby being spared what the rest of the nation had to endure – Chrump’s festively if not nauseatingly colored visage.  Pelosi seemed to be struggling alternately to keep from laughing and to keep from losing her lunch, as she listened in disbelief to whatever insincere, self-aggrandizing, clueless drivel that surely spilled out of Chrump’s ever-pooching face sphincter.

Pelosi trying not to humiliate Chrump any more than he humiliates himself

I am sure Mr. Chrump said many wonderful and inspirational worgs and phroses, many of which will be remembered long after the dawn of civilization, but not more than a few moments after they pass his lips.  If there is anything that Chrump is good at it is…wait don’t tell me…it’s on the tip of my tongue.  Nope, it’s gone.  Oh wait, I remember – it’s bankruptcy.  Not particularly useful for running a nation, but I guess you have to go with your strengths.  Chrump also knows how to make funny shapes with his little hands while he talks.  Not quite sure what that is all about, but it does distract from the stupid shit coming out of his mouth, and that is a big plus.

According to most reports, no one was seriously injured by the speech, at least not physically.  With the possible exception of Speaker Pelosi, who may have swallowed her tongue on a number of occasions.

The state of our union is Chrump.  It will continue to be so for the foreseeable future, and once it ends, the attempt at recovery will be similar to trying to unmelt the polar ice cap.

I. Mangrey refried.

Working Hard at Hardly Working

I Guess It's a Good Thing He Doesn't Like Beer

February 5, 2019

Remember when candidate Chrump accused Jeb Bush of being “low energy?”  Remember when candidate Chrump accused Hillary Clinton of not having the stamina to be president?  Remember when George W. Bush lost the popular vote and went on to become the worst president in our nation’s history…until Donald Chrump lost the popular vote and went on to become the worst president in our nation’s history?  But, I digress.

We know that Chrump has spent more time golfing than any other president – after raising hell about Obama’s golfing habits while in office.  Chrump’s private daily schedules covering nearly every weekday of the past three months were recently leaked to Axios.  The majority of his working hours are described as unstructured “executive time.”  According to previous reports on the President’s habits, “executive time” covers a few different tasks: watching television, tweeting, making phone calls and reading.  Yeah, right.  Reading.  He doesn’t even read his own tweets.  Executive time sounds more like recess.  This yutz not only has no clue what the hell he is doing, but he does not even give a shit.

While the schedules assert that Trump takes his executive time in the Oval Office from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., six unnamed sources “with direct knowledge” claim that Chrump actually spends those morning hours in his residence.  It seems only logical, given Chrump’s insatiable proclivity for lying, that any schedule – whether intended for public scrutiny or not – would be less than accurate, unreliable, untrustworthy…you know, bullshit.  The difference between Trump’s largely unstructured schedules and other presidents’ action-packed agendas is astounding.

Chrump waiting for Putin or Hannity to tell him what to do and/or sleeping

According to Axios, based on 51 private schedules they obtained from a source inside the White House, Chrump spent 297 hours in executive time versus 77 hours in meetings for “policy planning, legislative strategy and video recordings,” since November 7^th of last year.

Chrump’s non-schedule schedule indicates a deeply troubling lack of formality to the president’s day.  It is simply not possible to get a handle on everything a president is supposed to know, when he is either unaware, disinterested or unconscious and flying, like the Hindenburg, by the seat of his bizarrely ill-fitting pants.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Slanders told reporters, “President Trump has a different leadership style than his predecessors and the results speak for themselves.”  Different leadership style?  That is an understatement, a misstatement, and a meaningless statement.  Of course it is different, but there has been nothing to indicate it is anything vaguely resembling leadership.  And style is such a subjective term.  Mental patients who wander the halls and talk to themselves have a style of sorts, so what.  One thing we can agree on however, is that the results speak for themselves.  In Chrump’s case, they are speaking a very different language to most of us, than what they say to him. 

The results I hear speaking include a toxic, middle-class-busting tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, checking off every item on Vladimir Putin’s wish list, shattering long-standing global alliances, foreign policy so horrible it makes George W. Bush look almost acceptable (not really, but please allow me this moment of hyperbole), brought racism and hatred out of the shadows and into the limelight, and not only ignoring the global climate crisis, but doing everything inhumanly possible to worsen the situation.  Fortunately, he has not trashed the economy that Obama built on the ruins of the Bush years, which seems to be, in his fevered mind, his signature accomplishment.  If Chrump has done anything else of actual value for the nation as a whole, I must have blinked when it happened and missed it completely.

Chrump claims his beautiful tone is due to “good genes” -
apparently, he is part navel orange

 

So, between the “hair” care, the golfing, all that “executive time,” and the pathetically short work days, it is remarkable that he can find the time for over 8,000 lies and all that whining about his worthless wall.  But, imagine how much damage he could do if he was engaged even half the time.  I say, “Take it easy Mr. Prezident.”

I. Mangrey retouching. 

Thought For The Day

What a Miserable Turd

February 3, 2019

Mitch Fucking McConnell continues to do everything in his power to kill democracy.  I am not referring to the fact that we may be only 12 days away from another Chrump/McConnell government fuck-up/shutdown.  The odds of avoiding this are lower than Chrump’s very, very small IQ.

Uncle Mitch Wants (to screw) You*

On the floor of the Senate, McConnell (R-KY) recently expressed scorn at the idea of making Election Day a federal holiday, which common wisdom contends will help improve voter turnout.  This is important to keep people involved in electing public servants.  Many people cannot devote what is often several hours waiting in line to vote (because Republican’ts continue to make sure there are not enough voting machines or locations).  Democrats have long been in favor of various means of making voting easier, and Republican’ts, as everyone knows, and they are happy to admit, are vigorously opposed to anything that helps people vote.  Unfortunately, this is one case where Republican’ts are firmly aligned with our nation’s founders, who wanted only white, male landowners to vote.  Nobody’s perfect.  To be fair, it only makes sense that today’s Republican’t party, made up of mostly white males, would feel this way.

These machines kill Republican’ts…and they know it

McConnell’s anti-democratic take, “Just what America needs, another paid holiday and a bunch of government workers being paid to go out and work for I assume our folks – our colleagues on the other side, on their campaigns.  This is the Democrat (sic) plan to restore democracy?  A brand-new week of paid vacation for every federal employee who would like to hover around while you cast your ballot?”  There is more bullshit packed into that statement than on all the cattle ranches in Texas combined.

The recently proposed legislation calls for one day off (not a week as McConnell lied) for federal workers, and encourages private employers to follow suit.  Specifically, “the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in 2020.”

The Election Day proposal is a small part of HR-1, House Democrats’ wide-ranging anti-corruption package, which includes automatic voter registration and measures to prevent partisan gerrymandering.

This has been your Paying Attention Thought For The Day.

You're welcome.

What is your thought for the day?

________________
*Unless of course, you are a white, (especially wealthy) male Republican’t

Happy Talk For The Day

How Many Muellers Can Dance on The Head of a Pin?

February 2, 2019

This from Lucian K. Truscott, IV:

It’s going to be a jaw-dropping arrest and indictment because it has to be. Mueller can no longer issue indictments piecemeal and get guilty pleas or convictions one by one. This time, he must lay out a case that Trump and his campaign officials committed crimes that are so egregious, it will be impossible for the congress to fail to protect him from being fired. If Mueller were to indict Kushner alone, or Trump Jr. alone, it would be too easy for Trump to feign outrage and fire him. That’s why Mueller’s next move will be his last, and it will be the big one, sweeping up everyone who is left at once.

From his fingertips, to Lady Justice’s ears (she is blind, after all).  My fingers are crossed, or will be, as soon as I post this.

Lock them up, lock them up!

This has been your Paying Attention Happy Talk For The Day.

You're welcome.

What is your happy talk for the day?

Chrump Attacks Intelligence

Donald J. Chrump, A Man of The World (Inside His Head)

February 1, 2019

It could not be more obvious that Donald Chrump has no time for intelligence.  He is anti-science, anti-democracy, anti-truth, and absolutely – literally and figuratively – anti-intelligence.  The head of every intelligence agency testified before the Senate this week and basically disagreed with every aspect of Chrump’s foreign policy blunders.  They probably resent finding out what their Commander-in-chief is doing via Twitter, since Chrump is too busy watching television to meet with them, or read any of the reports they provide.  Not only that, but the man-who-would-hold-America-hostage-for-an-idiotic-wall listens to no one but Vladimir Putin, Sean Hannity and the psychotic troll inside his head, and says the entire U.S. intelligence community is “extremely passive and naïve,” adding, “Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!”

“I’m like, a smart person.  Intelligence is for losers.”

Before the sun rose the following day, Donald Twitterhands was as conscious as he gets, and tweeting his displeasure with intelligence.  The previous day, heads of the FBI, CIA, NSA, Defense Intelligence Agency and Director of National Intelligence – all of America’s intelligence agencies…that we know of, all testified at the annual Worldwide Threat Hearing.  Across the board, they panned Chrump’s actions regarding North Korea, ISIS and Iran.  Dangerous Don cannot tolerate anyone who disagrees with him since, as far as he knows, he is never wrong.  After all, he has the best words, the best brain and the best people – some of whom, by the way are the very same intel chiefs that just told Congress and the American people that the guy who hired them is a clueless nimrod who might be the most serious threat to our nation.

For example, Chrump insists that he and Kim Jong Un are in love and that North Korea is ceasing all nuclear weapons related program activities.  The facts on the ground show that Un has been ramping up his missile and WMD programs unabated, even as Chrump waxes moronic about an upcoming second meeting with Un.  Conversely, Chrump contends that Iran is an increasing nuclear threat and that the Iran nuclear deal brokered by Obama is the worst deal in history.  The intelligence community once again reports that despite Chrump’s efforts to derail the agreement, Iran is not in violation of any aspect of the treaty.  Only a month ago Chrump said, “We have won against ISIS.  We’ve beaten them and we’ve beaten them very badly…And now it’s time for our troops to come back home.”  Just days ago, DNI Dan Coates said, “ISIS is intent on resurging and still commands thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria.”  And of course, Dumbass Don has repeatedly sided with Vladimir Putin over American intelligence when it comes to Russian meddling in the 2016 election.  This week Coates said, “We expect Russia to wage its information war…and use social media to divide our society.”

It is difficult to decide who to believe – the man with the very, very large (albeit sclerotic and badly damaged) brain, or the intelligence experts who have access to the latest information, for which their boss has neither time, nor interest.  After all, Chrump told us last July, “Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”  In the throes of his bashing of the intelligence community Chrump, was asked about the report, “I didn’t see the report,” he said at the end of a long rant.  Oh, and then the Republican't Senate weighed in, rebuking Chrump on ISIS, Syria and Afghanistan.

One thing none of the intelligence agencies counted as an actionable threat to national security?  Mexicans and other assorted brown people breaching our borders.  Chrump’s obsession does not seem to register with those who have the intelligence (literally and figuratively).  This is unlikely to dissuade Chrump from crying EMERGENCY ACCOMPLISHED when Congress passes a budget without a penny for his beloved wall, or steel slats, or barrier, or giant beaded curtain, or infinite cheesecloth.  However, it might present some problems when Der Furor tries to build his wildly unpopular, useless, racist wall without Congressional approval. 

Intelligence disagrees with everything Chrump does

We also learned, if there was any question previously, that both Russia and China have the capability to sabotage all aspects of America’s energy grid via cyber attack.  In April 2018, the White House forced out its cybersecurity czar Tom Bossert.  A week later, cybersecurity coordinator Rob Joyce said he would also be leaving.  Instead of replacing either of them, the Chrump and Friends have decided to leave the positions unfilled.  So, we have no one overseeing cybersecurity policy.

As of 2017, Chrump’s top cyber expert has been Rudy “Truth Isn't Truth” Giuliani.  You might not feel safer with the knowledge that Giuliani (I shit you not) has no idea how anything related to the internet works.  He recently whined to reporters that Twitter was out to get him.  Not to worry though, because Chrump has told us that he is an expert on cyber.  This from a man who does not use email, or the internet, or own a computer, or know how to spell if his tweets are any indication.  I wonder who is working his thumbs for him when he is on the toilet tweeting.   

I. Mangrey reporting.

All The Prezident’s Men

He Had Nothing To Do With All the People Who Did Everything For Him

January 31, 2019

The Russian-backed Republican’t party seems intent on obstructing anything they do not like – things like democracy, justice, voting, and people of color, anyone not of the heterosexual male gender, or the poor having any kind of life.  We may never know why patriotic Republican’ts want to interfere with an investigation into the nefarious dealings of their anti-American president, whose campaign almost certainly conspired with Russia to steal the presidency. 

Is McConnell being engulfed by, or emitting the Orange Gas Cloud

Chrump’s inner circle amassed 100 meetings with Russian operatives during the 2016 campaign.  All of Chrump’s men then proceeded to lie about their encounters every change they got, including under oath.  Many people are saying that lying under oath is troublesome, if not criminal.  One of those people is Robert Mueller, who is causing his own kind of trouble.

One after the other, Chrump attempts to distance himself from everyone who has left his employ to either face jail time or write a tell-all account of their nightmarish stretch in the Chrump administration.  In the not too distant future we can expect to hear the Chrump patriarch say, “I had very little to do with this guy calling himself “Don, Jr.”  I might have met with him a few times, but we never had a relationship of any kind.  And we definitely never talked about my campaign or my business, which by the way I have nothing to do with anymore.  I think he might have worked for me for a week or two.  The rest is fake news.”  Or maybe Chrump will send Don, Jr. and Eric on a secret hunting trip with Dick Cheney.

Chrump himself has had an unknown number of private meetings, undisclosed phone calls, and one assumes secret trysts at seedy motels with his benefactor (and likely blackmailer) Vladimir Putin.  Republican’ts are definitely not standing idly by.  They are enabling and covering for this Manchurian scumbag at every turn.

The company he keeps: *Guilty, **Indicted, ***Next on Mueller’s to-do list?

If a man be judged by the company he keeps, one would be forgiven for beginning to, however begrudgingly, consider the possibility that Donald Chrump might not be the upstanding, very stable genius, who brought the best people into his administration, and is devoted to nothing other than making America great again, and might in fact be something else.  Perhaps Chrump is nothing more than a sniveling, conniving, imbecilic, greedy, narcissistic conman interested in nothing more than personal aggrandizement – even at the expense of an entire nation.  It’s just a thought.

In addition, it should be noted that Republican’ts began showing love for Putin as soon as Barack Obama was elected.  From squawking heads at Fux News, to countless Congress weasels, it was said over and over that Putin was strong and Obama was weak.  Starting before their love affair with Putin’s Russia, Republican’ts have been criminally negligent, at best, for a very long time when it comes to protecting and defending the Constitution and the United States of America.  They seem totally unconcerned that Russia helped elect their scarecrow to the presidency.  Now the party of “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall” is the party of Chrump’s “Build the wall, build the wall.”  Methinks they took being the “red” party a bit too seriously.  Perhaps it is time to resurrect the old saw, “Better dead than red.”

I. Mangrey reporting.  Stop the world, I want him to get off.                                    

                                                                                   

He Knows Nothing, Nothing

Sore Gent Schultz Wants In

January 30, 2019

Howard “Daddy Starbucks” Schultz is threatening to throw his millions into the 2020 ring.  As if we have not learned our lesson, and Americans just want a better “billionaire” “president”.  Schultz apparently missed the 2018 midterm elections and the Blue (mostly progressive) Tsunami that crushed Donald Chrump’s short-lived stranglehold on the American psyche.  Chrump’s poll numbers – his ratings, if you will – are dropping faster than a pile of hamberders down his ample, welcoming gullet.

Chrump removes his foot just long enough to insert his food

The Starbucks bigwig, who is certainly wealthier than the Orange Gas Cloud, believes that the Democratic party has moved too far to the left, and only he can fix it – to coin a phrase – by running as an independent.  Schultz needs to wake up and smell the covfefe if he thinks he has his finger anywhere near the pulse the American public.  Bye-bye rich guy.

Schultz, formerly a life-long Democrat, is reportedly distressed with the emergence of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her increasingly popular platform of holding the wealthiest one percent accountable.  Schultz made this brilliant observation, “I respect the Democratic Party.  I no longer feel affiliated because I don’t know their views represent the majority of Americans.  I don’t think we want a 70 percent income tax in America.”  What do you mean WE, rich man? 

I guess Schultz did not get the memo that most Americans (over 60 percent at last count) do, in fact, want a 70 percent tax on people like him.  Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to tax earnings over $10 million at 70 percent is supported by nearly six in ten Americans.  Did I mention Schultz is a billionaire?  Coffee Boy also called the exceedingly popular Medicare-for-all “un-American.”  So far, he is off to a dying start.

If Schultz does enter the race, the most likely outcome of course, will be another term for the current White House occupant, as Schultz will, if anything, take votes away from what is very likely to be a seriously progressive Democrat.  First of all, the chances of an independent candidate winning the presidency are about as good as the chances that Donald Chrump will stop whining about his, and I will quote former Mexican president Vicente Fox here, “fucking wall.”  Second, Chrump’s mostly moronic, racist, alternately-informed core supporters will not vote for a Jew, not even a wealthy one.  Take a hike rich dude and spend more time with your family and your ego.

But Wait, There’s More…

Another billionaire, Michael Bloomberg is once again weighing running for president, this time as a Democrat.  Bloomberg is displaying the same fear of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her campaign to rein in the excessively rich and/or greedy. 

What is wrong with these super-rich assholes?  They made their fortunes thanks to the rest of us – one way or another…or many ways.  They can’t cough up a few extra bucks to help their country and those with less?  I am willing to bet that most people are pretty well fed up with these greedy bastards.  Their voices are falling on increasingly deaf ears.  None of them will never be able to buy enough votes to do anything but keep Chrump in office.

Another billionaire we do not need to run for president is Tom Steyer, who has been hard at work pushing for impeachment.  Don’t get me wrong, I have been a big fan of impeaching the current interloper – with the big caveat of course, being the possible presidency of Mike Pence – but I have no interest in sampling the wares of another billionaire, regardless of the flavor of their politics.  Steyer has not yet weighed in on better taxing big dollars, but we simply do not need a battle of the bulging wallets.  It is time to get our socialism on.

The “radical” Democrats are not the only ones itching to take on income inequality.  The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland went askew when Historian Rutger Bregman spoke truth to money, “This is my first time at Davos, and I find it quite bewildering, to be honest. I mean, 1500 private jets have flown in here to hear Sir David Attenborough, you know, talk about how we're wrecking the planet. And, I mean, I hear people talking the language of participation and justice and equality and transparency but then, I mean, almost no one raises the issue of tax avoidance, right? And of the rich just not paying their fair share. I mean it feels as if I'm at a firefighter's conference and no one is allowed to mention water, right?”

It seems Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other “radicals” are not alone.

I. Mangrey reporting.  Screw Wall Street, help Main Street.

Mr. Chrump, We Have Found Your Balls…

You Will Get Them Back When the Speaker Deems Appropriate

January 28, 2019

House Speaker, and keeper of Chrump’s balls, Nancy Pelosi told reporters, “The indictment of Roger Stone makes clear that there was a deliberate, coordinated attempt by top Trump campaign officials to influence the 2016 election and subvert the will of the American people.  In the face of 37 indictments, the President’s continued actions to undermine the Special Counsel investigation raise the questions: what does Putin have on the President, politically, personally or financially?”

She continued: “The Special Counsel investigation is working, and the House will continue to exercise our constitutional oversight responsibility and ensure that the Special Counsel investigation can continue free from interference from the White House.”

Nancy Pelosi might not be president (yet), but she currently owns one

On the other side of the aisle, in alternate reality land, Republican’ts are dragging their heels in order to avoid the inevitable.  Now that Democrats control all Congressional committees, and actual oversight is in the air, Republican’ts can no longer bury the myriad investigations they had previously stifled.  In accordance with Republican’t tradition, the party of world-class obstructionist Mitch McConnell and Russian agent Donald Chrump will do anything to stop the federal government from working – especially when it comes to investigating their criminal president. 

In order to continue their quest to thwart justice, Republican’ts in the House Intelligence Committee are purposefully, and with malice, not appointing anyone to the committee. House committees cannot begin their work unless all members have been appointed. 

The only person named to the committee so far is previous committee chair Devin Nunes – who was illegally colluding with the White House during his tenure as committee chair.  Until Republican’ts name other members, the committee is paralyzed. No meetings, no hearings, nothing. The House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has given no reason for their inaction. 

McCarthy, a quintessential doofus and master of word salads, is too busy trying to con Americans into believing that the Chrump Shutdown was not Chrump’s doing.  He must have been distracted by someone wielding a laser pen when Chrump was on television saying he would shut down the government and be proud to do it, and not blame Democrats for it.  McCarthy seems similarly unaware that Chrump is already talking about shutting the government down again if his wall is not built by February 15.  Which brings to mind the old saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, do the exact same thing that didn’t work the first time again, because it’s sure to work the next time.”

I. Mangrey reporting.