Shiny Objects

aside from fed connected workers not getting paid, how about media reporting more on the life/death services that aren’t being performed because of trump’s shutdown.   such as this one in the guardian yesterday:

The US government shutdown has stymied environmental testing and inspections, prompting warnings that Americans’ health is being put at increasing risk as the shutdown drags on.
More than 13,000 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are not at work, with just 794 people deemed essential staff currently undertaking the agency’s duties.
The remaining skeleton staff are able to “respond to emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property”, according to an EPA planning document. But many routine activities such as checks on regulated businesses, clean-ups of toxic superfund sites and the pursuit of criminal polluters have been paused since 28 December.
[..]
The situation at the EPA means “communities across the country are forced to stand by while water and soil go untested, air is fouled, science is suspended, and looming threats from climate change grow more perilous,” said Elgie Holstein, a senior director at the Environmental Defense Fund.
“The shutdown serves as another reminder of the vital, underappreciated role that EPA and public health and environmental agencies play in keeping Americans out of harm’s way. An extended shutdown only increases the risks to the American people.”
[continues]

and this one in nytimes today:
The Food and Drug Administration has stopped routine food safety inspections of seafood, fruits, vegetables and many other foods at high risk of contamination because of the federal government’s shutdown, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the agency’s commissioner, said on Wednesday.
F.D.A. inspectors normally examine operations at about 160 domestic manufacturing and food processing plants each week. Nearly one-third of them are considered to be at high risk of causing food-borne illnesses. Food-borne diseases in the United States send about 128,000 people to the hospital each year, and kill 3,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[…]
“These are inspections where they catch issues before people get sick,” said Sarah Sorscher, deputy director of regulatory affairs at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group. “The announcement that they are going to try to start up high-risk inspections is a positive step. But, we’ve had outbreaks from foods that are not high risk — from flour, from packaged foods. So I think that the fact that two-thirds of establishments are not going to be inspected is still a problem.”
The F.D.A. inspects food companies for bugs, rodents, mishandled food, improper preparation and other hazards.
[…]
Some public health experts were worried about the impact of the shutdown on inspection of fish. Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said he was concerned about contaminated shellfish ending up on store shelves during the shutdown.
In particular, he said, consumers should watch out for clams, mussels, oysters and other bivalves that may come from contaminated water. [continues]
 

Some States Feel the Shutdown More Than Others
Number of federal workers at agencies affected
by the shutdown per 10,000 workers

Alaska173Ariz.49Colo.59D.C.926Idaho88Md.137Mont.157N.M.127N.D.57Okla.46S.D.100Utah68Vt.47W.Va.81Wyo.131Mo.44Ore.51Va.73

 
 
Over all, federal workers account for about 1.5 percent of the country’s labor force, with a fifth of them in the Washington metro area. But the shutdown has hit some agencies — and states — harder than others.

Outside the capital, states with large numbers of workers for the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior are more likely to feel the shutdown’s effects. And nearly the entire staff of the Environmental Protection Agency is furloughed, including hundreds of workers in North Carolina and Illinois.

– above from nytimes report 

The Government Shutdown Is AffectingFederal Workers in Every State

something to think about from carl pope at salon: “Is the shutdown an impeachable offense? Time for McConnell to call Trump’s bluff”
 
One of Washington’s favorite parlor games of late has been debating what constitutes an “impeachable” offense, and whether President Trump has committed one. An obvious candidate has gone unnoticed: the government shutdown itself.
 
Unlike previous presidents during shutdowns, Trump is not vetoing bills he objects to — an action clearly within his purview. He is promising to veto bills he does not object to because Congress has not given him an appropriation he seeks — $5.7 billion for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. He wants to shut down parts of the government — for “months or years” — until he gets his wall money.
Under the Constitution, he has no right to demand such an appropriation — much less to hold vital government functions hostage to obtain it. The president is not coequal with Congress when it comes to appropriations — the power of the purse belongs to the legislative branch, not the executive.
 
James Madison makes this clear in Federalist 58: “the legislative department alone has access to the pockets of the people.”  Trump’s claim that he can build the wall anyway is even more flagrantly unconstitutional. Article I of the Constitution is clear that “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”
 
Trump’s demand for an appropriation from Congress because of a security crisis on the border was anticipated by the drafters of the Constitution; they specifically refused to combine the power of the purse with the role of commander in chief. (This after all, was the specific grievance against the king of England that sparked the American Revolution itself.)
 
Worse, in shutting down the government to extort an appropriation he is not entitled to, Trump is violating his oath of office and breaching one of his core fiduciary duties: to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed
.” (Emphasis added.) Obviously, a shutdown of one-third of the government for “months or even years” will make the execution of many laws utterly impossible – particularly since the Department of Justice is one of the shuttered agencies. Trump cannot assert that he must shut down the DOJ. The Democrats have passed an appropriation for that department, to which he concedes he has no objection. He is merely trying to use the shutdown as blackmail to force Congress to fund the wall (or at least however much of it can be built for $5 billion).
 
 
Taking as our source the very Federalist Society from which Trump gets his judicial appointee punch list, breach of fiduciary duty is the key standard for the “misdemeanors” the Constitution cites, along with criminal acts, as grounds for impeachment.
[..]
So we are faced with a president who is seeking to overturn the congressional power of the purse. To achieve this unconstitutional end, he says he is ready to shut down the Justice Department — perhaps even for years. He is also willing to shut down the very agency that, since 9/11, has successfully protected the United States from terrorists entering the country – the Department of Homeland Security. This is abuse of power and fiduciary breach at its most definitive — with one important caveat.
Were the House to move articles of impeachment against Trump based on a prolonged shutdown, the president has, as of today, one powerful defense. He has not actually vetoed any bill to reopen the government, because the Senate has failed to place one before him. Since government can be funded only by legislation passed by both Houses and then signed by the president (or passed over his veto) Trump actually lacks the power to reopen the government – as long as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell persists in not allowing the Senate to vote on any bill Trump says he won’t sign.
 
This collusion by the Senate majority with Trump is fundamental, since the heart of Trump’s fiduciary breach lies in his usurpation of the congressional power of the purse.  McConnell, the leader of one chamber of Congress, is thus far fully complicit in this effort.
 
So solving the shutdown – without having to impeach the president – is quite simple. Enough senators – of both parties – must compel McConnell to bring bills to reopen the government before the Senate for a vote. Then, if President Trump holds the government hostage by vetoing those bills after they pass, those who wish to impeach him will have their ironclad impeachable offense. Meanwhile Congress can override the veto and restore law enforcement and other vital federal funding.
 
If McConnell calls Trump’s bluff, he could not only end the shutdown but also make a prolonged impeachment crisis much less likely.
 

the guardian :
9:44  
President Trump spoke to reporters at the White House before leaving for his trip to the border.
 
He insisted ““I don’t have temper tantrums” and further pushed back at claims from Democrats that he slammed the table in the White House Situation Room before storming out of the meeting (or, as Trump has put it, saying “bye bye.”) “I didn’t pound the table. I didn’t pound the table. That is a lie,” said Trump.
 
He also yet again insisted that “Mexico paying for wall indirectly, many, many times over” and that without a barrier on the border, MS-13 would enter the United States.
 
9:48   
Trump also continued to express his openness to declaring a national emergency to use the military to construct a border wall without congressional approval.
 
“If this doesn’t work out, I’ll probably will do it, maybe definitely,” he said.
 
10:00      
Trump just insisted that he never meant Mexico would directly pay for a border wall when he pledged Mexico would pay for it on the campaign trail.
 
“Obviously I never meant Mexico would write a check.”

🙂

nbc news:
The White House has beefed up its legal team in recent weeks, hiring 17 additional lawyers to help prevent President Donald Trump’s discussions with top advisers from being obtained House Democrats or revealed to special counsel Robert Mueller, The Washington Post reported.
The White House plan is to assert Trump’s executive privilege on both fronts. That strategy is being led by new White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, and aides said the goal is to preserve a legal protection that past presidents have invoked.
 
But with Democrats planning to go as far as subpoenaing the administration for information, such a strategy could quickly inflame tensions between the two sides and may lead to lengthy legal battles.
Some Democrats have already pledged to subpoena a copy of Mueller’s full report should the White House seek to to block any portions of it from being made public.
If the White House moves to use executive privilege to keep parts of the report private, the special counsel’s rules allow for the attorney general to make a final determination on what can be shared with Congress and the public.
[…]
… 
Democrats are concerned about the possibility of the White House invoking executive privilege to block portions of the Mueller report dealing with obstruction from being made public.
Though little is known about Mueller’s report, what it will encompass, and how lengthy it will be, NBC News reported last month that it could be submitted as soon as February, legal sources said. However, unforeseen developments could lengthen the timeline.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NBC has not independently confirmed the hiring of additional lawyers.