Is the United States on the brink of a government shutdown?

If an agreement isn’t made before midnight on Saturday, the lives of millions of American citizens could be significantly affected.

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The US is on the brink of a federal government shutdown after hard-right Republicans in Congress rejected a longshot effort to keep offices open.

The move comes as they fight for steep spending cuts and strict border security measures that Democrats and the White House say are too extreme.

Come midnight on Saturday, if there is no deal in place, federal workers will face furloughs, more than 2 million active duty and reserve military troops will work without pay and programmes and services which countless Americans rely on will begin to face shutdown disruptions.

The Senate is set to hold a rare Saturday session to advance its own bipartisan package that is supported by Democrats and Republicans and would fund the government for the short-term, up until 17 November.

Even if the Senate can rush to wrap up its work this weekend to pass the bill – which also includes money for Ukraine aid and US disaster assistance – it won’t prevent an almost certain shutdown amid the chaos in the House.

On Friday, a massive hard-right revolt left Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s latest plan to collapse.

“Congress has only one option to avoid a shutdown – bipartisanship,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell echoed that sentiment, warning his own hard-right colleagues there is nothing to gain by shutting down the federal government.

“It heaps unnecessary hardships on the American people, as well as the brave men and women who keep us safe,” McConnell said.

Despite this rhetoric, the federal government is heading straight into a shutdown that poses grave uncertainty for federal workers in states all across America and the people who depend on them – from troops to border control agents to office workers and scientists.

Families which rely on Head Start for children, food benefits and countless other programs large and small are confronting potential interruptions or outright closures. At the airports, Transportation Security Administration officers and air traffic controllers are expected to work without pay, but travellers could face delays in updating their US passports or other travel documents.

Congress has so far been unable to fund the federal agencies or pass a temporary bill in time to keep offices open for the start of the new fiscal year.

It’s down, in large part, to the fact that McCarthy has faced insurmountable resistance from right-flank Republicans who are refusing to run government as usual.

McCarthy’s last-ditch plan to keep the federal government temporarily open collapsed in dramatic fashion Friday as a robust faction of 21 hard-right holdouts opposed the package.

Despite the package’s proposed steep spending cuts of nearly 30% to many agencies and severe border security provisions, they called it insufficient.

The White House and Democrats rejected the Republican approach as too extreme, with the Democrats voting against it.

The House bill’s failure a day before Saturday’s deadline to fund the government leaves few options to prevent a shutdown.

“It’s not the end yet; I’ve got other ideas,” a clearly agitated McCarthy told reporters as he exited the chamber – but none have yet come to fruition.

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Later on Friday, after a heated closed-door meeting of House Republicans that pushed into the evening, McCarthy said he was considering options.

Among them, there is the suggestion of a two-week stopgap funding measure similar to the effort from hard-right senators that would be certain to exclude any help for Ukraine in the war against Russia.

Even though the House bill has already axed routine Ukraine aid, an intensifying Republican resistance to the war effort means the Senate’s plan to attach $6 billion (about €5.6bn) to the funds President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is seeking from the US may have bipartisan support from Democrats – but not from most of McCarthy’s Republicans.

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is working to stop the Ukraine funds in the Senate package entirely.

“We continue to work through trying to find out of this,” McCarthy told reporters. “There are no winners in a government shutdown and I think that’s the best way forward, make sure the government does not shut down.”

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The White House has brushed aside McCarthy’s overtures to meet with President Joe Biden after the speaker walked away from the debt deal they brokered earlier this year that set budget levels.

On Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre urged agreement between factions, saying: “The path forward to fund the government has been laid out by the Senate with bipartisan support – House Republicans just need to take it.”

Catering to his hard-right flank, McCarthy had returned to the spending limits the conservatives demanded back in January as part of the deal-making to help him become the House speaker.

The House package would not have cut the Defence, Veterans or Homeland Security departments but would have slashed almost all other agencies by up to 30% – steep hits to a vast array of programs, services and departments Americans routinely depend on.

It also added strict new border security provisions which would kick start building the hugely contentious wall at the southern border with Mexico, among other measures. Additionally, the package would have set up a bipartisan debt commission to address the nation’s mounting debt load.

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As soon as the floor debate began, McCarthy’s chief Republican critic, Matt Gaetz of Florida, announced he would vote against the package, urging his colleagues to “not surrender”.

Gaetz added that the speaker’s bill “went down in flames as I’ve told you all week it would.”

He and others rejecting the temporary measure want the House to keep pushing through the 12 individual spending bills needed to fund the government, typically a weeks-long process, as they pursue their conservative priorities.

Republican leaders announced later on Friday that the House would stay in session next week, rather than return home, to keep working on some of the 12 spending bills.

Some of the Republican holdouts, including Gaetz, are allies of Donald Trump, who remains as President Biden’s chief rival in 2024. The former president has been encouraging the Republicans to fight hard for their priorities and even to “shut it down.”

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The hard right, led by Gaetz, has been threatening McCarthy’s ouster, with a looming vote to try to remove him from the speaker’s office unless he meets the conservative demands.

It’s still unclear, though, if any other Republican would have support from the House majority to lead the party.

Late on Friday, Trump turned his ire to McConnell on social media, complaining that the Republican leader and other GOP senators are “weak and ineffective” and making compromises with Democrats. He urged them, “Don’t do it!”

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#United #States #brink #government #shutdown

Biden’s DHS BUSTED weaponizing anti-terrorism program against conservatives (damning thread)

Nothing to see here, just the DHS targeting conservatives as terrorists. Ok, so none of us is surprised to see this happening under Biden (heck, his boss was the first to master the weaponization of agencies against those he disagreed with), but when you see it in a thread like this in black and white?

They never thought they’d get caught.

That, or they didn’t care if they got caught.

Either way, this is a huge red flag (yay, another one!)

$39.6 million tax dollars to target people politically.

Good times.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars to go after Republicans.

We paid for this, you guys.

Anti-terrorism.

Hey, they keep saying the biggest threat to the country is domestic terrorism and parents, right?

Illegal.

And getting paid by the government to do it.

Gross, right?

Keep going.

Celebrated silencing people they disagree with.

THAT is who and what our current federal government is.

Cripes.

Again, using our tax dollars to say these things.

Trump tried to kill millions, DeSantis wants another Holocaust …

Are you kidding us with this crap?

Of course not.

That violence was done in the name of love or something. Those buildings they burned down were totally racist!

The only actual authoritarian, Joe Biden.

Cute.

We’d say this is unbelievable but sadly under this disaster of a president, it’s all too believable.

***

Related:

DAMN son! Matt Walsh takes ‘spineless, lying FRAUD’ Ben Collins to the woodshed in BRUTAL back and forth

Leave kids ALONE! Self-proclaimed super pro-choice Lefty explains why she’s considering voting Republican

BOO and YAH: Seth Dillon’s mini-thread about women being the ones to END wokeness kicks SO MUCH a*s

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#Bidens #DHS #BUSTED #weaponizing #antiterrorism #program #conservatives #damning #thread

Biden’s reelection pitch that he can govern well faces daunting challenges with debt, border, more

A showdown with Congress that has the nation’s creditworthiness at stake; a frenzied scene at the border as pandemic restrictions ease; a pivotal foreign trip meant to sustain support for Ukraine and contain a more assertive China in the Indo-Pacific.

Three weeks since launching his re-election campaign, President Joe Biden is confronting a sweeping set of problems in his day job that defy easy solutions and are not entirely within his control.

If, as his advisers believe, the single best thing Biden can do for his reelection prospects is to govern well, then the coming weeks can pose a near-existential test of his path to a second term.

Economists warn that the country faces a debilitating recession — and worse — if Biden and lawmakers can’t agree on a path to raising the debt limit. Mr. Biden wants Congress to raise it without precondition, equating Republicans’ demands for spending cuts with ransom for the country’s full faith and credit.

The expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency meant the end of special pandemic restrictions on migrant procedures on an already taxed U.S.-Mexico border.

His administration has responded with new policies to crack down on illegal crossings while opening legal pathways encouraging would-be migrants to stay put and apply online to come to the U.S.

But Mr. Biden himself has predicted a “chaotic” situation as the new procedures take effect.

These tests comes as Biden prepares to depart Washington on Wednesday for an eight-day trip to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia. Biden will try to marshal unity among Group of Seven leading democratic economies to maintain support for Ukraine as it prepares to launch a counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion, and to invigorate alliances in the face of China’s forceful regional moves.

Mr. Biden put his ability to solve problems at the core of his pitch to voters in 2020 and it is central to his argument for why, at 80, he’s best prepared for four more years in the White House.

“I’m more experienced than anybody that’s ever run for the office,” Mr. Biden told MSNBC this month. “And I think I’ve proven myself to be honourable as well as also effective.” Yet the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 undercut Mr. Biden’s image as an effective manager, sending his approval ratings sharply down and he’s still working to recover.

An April poll by The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research found Biden’s job approval rating at 42 per cent, a slight improvement from 38 per cent in March.

The March poll came after a pair of bank failures rattled an already shaky confidence in the nation’s financial systems, and Mr. Biden’s approval rating then was near the lowest point of his presidency.

It also found that 26 per cent of Americans overall want to see Biden run again — a slight recovery from the 22 per cent who said that in January.

Forty-seven percent of Democrats say they want him to run, also up slightly from only 37 per cent who said that in January.

Aides note that Mr. Biden entered the White House when the country faced an array of even greater trials: the COVID-19 pandemic, an associated economic crisis and strained international alliances after four years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

“President Biden continues to leverage his experience and judgment to fight for middle-class families and mainstream values, including by standing against congressional Republicans’ extreme MAGA threat to trigger a downturn” unless they get sweeping spending cuts, said White House spokesman Andrew Bates.

Mr. Biden said on Saturday it’s “hard to tell” how staff-level talks to avert a crisis on the debt limit will shake out. He plans to reconvene with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders before he heads overseas, but the White House has been firm that while Biden is open to considering spending cuts as part of the budget process, he won’t agree to them as a condition for raising the debt limit.

“There’s no deal to be had on the debt ceiling,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Friday. “There’s no negotiation to be had on the debt ceiling. This is something that Congress needs to do.”

U.S. officials are warning that the impasse threatens national security. Pentagon brass has already warned that it could hurt pay and benefits for troops and U.S. standing around the globe, said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

“It sends a horrible message to nations like Russia and China, who would love nothing more than to be able to point at this and say, See, the United States is not a reliable partner. The United States is not a stable leader of peace and security around the world,’” he said.

Mr. Biden also faces a key test at the southern border, where the transition away from Title 42 has been anything but simple. Migrants along the border were still wading into the Rio Grande to take their chances getting into the country, defying officials shouting for them to turn back.

Lawsuits have threatened measures to release migrants into the U.S. to avoid overcrowding in border patrol facilities as well as efforts to crack down on asylum seekers entering the country.

But the problem can’t be solved by the U.S. on its own.

“It is true that the Americas is, at the moment, going through an unprecedented displacement crisis,” said Olga Sarrado, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency.

The U.S. has increasingly seen migrants arrive at its Southern border who are from China, Ukraine, Haiti, Russia and other nations far from Latin America, and who are increasingly family groups and children travelling alone.

Thirty years ago, by contrast, illegal crossings were almost always single adults from Mexico who were easily returned back over the border.

Meanwhile, Border Patrol agents are encountering more nearly 8,000 migrants per day, and the human toll of the challenge was driven home in recent days by the death of a 17-year-old boy in U.S. custody. An investigation continues.

“A decision from one single country is not going to fix the challenges,” Ms. Sarrado said. “And we cannot forget that these are human beings — many of them in need of international protection— and that we need to put them at the centre of any decision that is made.”

With just under 18 months to go until Election Day, it’s not a given that these issues will shape voters’ decisions, said Chapman University presidential historian Luke Nichter.

“There is a long time between now and November 2024,” he said. “I don’t think today’s issues matter a great deal since they won’t likely be the issues on the minds of voters more than a year from now.”

Jonathan Young, a Democratic donor who came to hear Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday in Atlanta, said Mr. Biden must navigate the current gauntlet with something to show the middle of the electorate, especially if Republicans nominate someone other than Trump.

“A rematch might go the same way, because Biden still isn’t Trump,” Young said, arguing that the former president makes any contest turn on personality more than policy.

But Young noted that Mr. Biden’s answer to Mr. Trump’s “big personality” in 2020 was to be almost deliberately boring and stubbornly competent. However Mr. Biden navigates the debt ceiling and immigration, Young said, he has to maintain an ability to credibly sell that image again as an incumbent.

“I think he’s great on the policy, and I think he’s usually great on the politics,” Young said of Biden. “He’s proven he can read the mood of the country really well.”

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#Bidens #reelection #pitch #govern #faces #daunting #challenges #debt #border

John Hayward SLAMS TN 3 in EPIC thread about politics being Dems’ religion and gun control their PRAYER

It’s not about safety, it’s about control and not just gun control. Control of everyone and everything. If that wasn’t the case, Democrats wouldn’t vote against more security in schools. The reality is they push gun control, and they try and dismantle the second because they know the odds of that happening are not great so they can continue to ‘milk’ these situations for all they can in campaign donations, popularity, and power grabs. Look no further than the ridiculous Tennessee Three who seem to care more about themselves than the six Christians who lost their lives when trans shooter Audrey Hale murdered them in cold blood.

John Hayward’s thread about just this and so much more is straight-fire, take a look:

Gun control is their prayer.

Keep going.

And we all know none of them really like accountability.

Like, at all.

… They want crises they can exploit for more power, not duties and responsibilities they have to fulfill.

The people cannot be trusted.

Nobody trusts Americans LESS than Democrats.

Damn, that’s a good tweet.

And he’s right.

It’s not THEIR fault they broke the law.

See Eric Swalwell.

See Ted Lieu.

Yup.

And they can’t have that.

Punish everyone.

OH yeah, just like in Nashville. Notice nobody is really talking about the trans shooter and murderer Audrey Hale. Wonder where that Manifesto is?

What he said.

***

Related:

David Hogg sets off BS detectors asking that his gun DEATH be ‘politicized AF’ after supposed threat

BBC journo Elon Musk owned during BRUTAL interview tries claiming he WASN’T owned (BRO, just take the L)

HA! Christina Pushaw doesn’t even need a full word to OWN the LGBTQ+ group issuing FL travel advisory

***

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#John #Hayward #SLAMS #EPIC #thread #politics #Dems #religion #gun #control #PRAYER

Tucker Carlson asks every potential GOP pres. candidate about Ukraine and WOW this is good (thread)

Tucker Carlson asked every GOP presidential candidate to answer six key questions on the war in Ukraine which was an EXCELLENT idea. Sort of a primary debate without the debate, if that makes sense. And truth be told, seeing who they consider possible candidates is also very interesting.

If this exercise is any indication, the GOP bench is STRONG indeed.

And Democrats are talking about running Biden again. Heh.

This is so great. We wish Tucker would do this with more questions/issues because it gives us a chance to really ‘hear’ from these candidates if that makes sense.

First, President Trump:

Ok, so making it about himself BUT also some good points. C’mon, it’s Trump, if he didn’t make it about himself just a little bit we’d be worried it’s not Trump.

Next, Governor DeSantis.

So basically Trump and DeSantis are on the same page here.

AMERICA has issues AMERICA should be focused on.

Next, Vice President Pence:

Invoking Reagan.

Not bad.

Then came newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy who we do not know all that much about but this is pretty damn good:

Up next, Governor Noem:

Let’s not forget about China, even though we know Biden would prefer if we did.

Governor Abbot:

Oooh … Biden’s ‘blank-check foreign policy in Ukraine’.

Smart.

And accurate.

Senator Tim Scott:

Again, Americans wondering why the Hell we’re spending so much in Ukraine when our own country is in trouble.

Whoa, Chris Christie wants to run again?

He seems AOK with us assisting Ukraine.

Because of course …

Hrm.

Absolutely. When you can look at it like this, and refer back as you read other responses instead of watching the circus aka primary debates … it really informs voters.

Loved this.

***

Related:

Paul Sperry reports DEVELOPING story on startling connection between Janet Yellen and #SVBCollapse

David French’s terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day gets WORSE when Seth Dillon calls him OUT

Matt Taibbi calls down the THUNDER on Aaron Rupar for deliberately misquoting him and DAAAMN son

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#Tucker #Carlson #asks #potential #GOP #pres #candidate #Ukraine #WOW #good #thread

If this thread about why America is REALLY helping Ukraine is true at ALL it’s HUGE (back to Obama?!)

Every once in a while we come across a thread that while we can neither confirm nor deny if it’s true, we feel like our readers might want to take a look and decide for themselves. This thread from user Clandestine (who has 150k followers) is one of those threads.

Again, we can’t tell you if this is what’s happened or what is happening for sure but you guys … woof.

Take a gander.

Get some popcorn.

Trust us.

Nearly 20 years ago.

Keep going.

Seems they always change their tune when it might prove Republicans were right about something.

But wait, there’s more.

In Ukraine.

Meep.

You guys remember all of this, right?

Good times.

Now, THIS we remember because Biden has bragged about it on numerous occasions.

*adjusts tinfoil hat, twice*

This just gets worse and worse.

Still there?

Sounds crazy, right? But if true? Yikes.

There’s a numbering thing here but we think this is in order.

Could this be true?

Sure.

Could parts of it be true?

Absolutely.

Could it be false? Eh … truth is usually stranger than fiction so we shall see.

***

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It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a Chinese spy balloon and LOL there’s something written on the side

AOC brings a knife to a gun-fight with Marjorie Taylor Greene and it like goes SOOO wrong for her

Pfizer dir. who lost it when confronted by James O’Keefe admits #Pfertility issues with vaccine (watch)

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#thread #America #helping #Ukraine #true #HUGE #Obama

WHOA: #GoogleLeaks thread tells #TwitterFiles to hold its beer listing bombshell after bombshell

Could Google be even worse than Twitter? We don’t use the term ‘bombshell’ lightly.

We’ve all been watching as the #TwitterFiles are released bit-by-bit by Elon Musk and his chosen journalists, but this from Kanekoa about the leaked Google files seems like it’s as big of a deal, if not bigger.

If nothing else, it just reiterates what Big Tech has been doing (and continues to do) to manipulate what people see, read, believe, and ultimately even how they vote. Used to, when we wrote something like that we’d talk about putting on our tinfoil hats but now, this doesn’t even seem CRAZY.

Just corrupt.

Take a gander:

Blacklists.

Algorithms.

Sounds familiar, right?

Billions.

Lost their minds is the key phrase there, folks.

What an a-hole.

People who think differently from them were the bad guys.

Right.

Came from Google.

What a tangled web they weaved.

That Trump won at all is simply amazing. They were really playing dirty.

Look at Netflix.

The worst of the worst.

Anything they don’t like is fake news.

Training algorithms to control an election.

Pissed off yet?

We knew this was happening but it’s still shocking to actually SEE it.

The irony of Google calling anyone else ‘programmed’.

Any of those blacklisted look familiar to you guys?

Ahem.

Wow.

They all lied to Congress.

Marking Republican fundraising emails as spam, but not Democrats.

Classy.

We’d be cool with that.

… used by Twitter to subconsciously swing election results.

What we’ve seen so far with the #TwitterFiles is clearly only the tip of the iceberg. Big Tech is dirty.

Just how dirty we hope we’ll soon see.

***

Related:

‘Empowered, LIBERAL woman’ accidentally makes red states look AWESOME in video and LOL (watch)

Glenn Greenwald DROPS The Lincoln Project and their sad little victory lap with receipts and it’s PERFECT

Michael Shellenberger FACT-CHECKS AOC and her grossly false claims about police killings in brutal thread

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#WHOA #GoogleLeaks #thread #tells #TwitterFiles #hold #beer #listing #bombshell #bombshell

The View harpies musta’ been sippin’ some SERIOUS stupid juice with THESE takes on the GOP House



One has to wonder about the mind of someone who deliberately watches The View for political opinions and takes. Yikes.

We get it, Joy Behar isn’t the brightest crayon in the box but c’mon … she does realize Republicans out-voted Democrats be FIVE MILLION yes? The only thing that kept Democrats in it at all was the redistricting she’s whining about in this clip.

Did this broad eat some paint chips at some point in her life or what?

Watch:

Ugh, it’s not that she’s wrong that makes her annoying, it’s that she’s so cocky that she’s right when she’s wrong.

That and she always looks like she smelled a fart.

Right?

Nancy Pelosi.

Masterful.

via GIPHY

Alrighty then.

Say what you will about the midterms, but the upcoming two years are gonna be FUN … and the reaction from these lawn flamingos is only the tip of the meltdown iceberg.

***

Related:

KICK-A*S thread points out ‘yesterday’s conspiracy theories’ that were TRUE all along (and boom)

Nancy Pelosi TORCHED for ridiculous thread claiming House Dems did GREAT … losing the House

ZUBY’s EPIC thread of the ‘silliest, least scientific pandemic policies’ is HILARIOUSLY infuriating

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