The question is, do they have the votes to override his presumed veto?

Prezinazi White Trash’s goal is to destroy the US government on behalf of Putin, his handler and paymaster. If that benefits the American Oligarchs, then it’s bonus points.

The idea that this sick, twisted, evil GOP regime wants anything other than our total annihilation is laughable. Just this past weekend, the Serious People have begun openly asking if Twitler is a treasonous Russian agent. GEE, YA THINK?

I'd give 10 to 1 odds that Trump will not sign such a bill. He's waaaaay too committed to this absolute position now.

I think the most likely outcome is that he'll get wind of a veto-proof majority forming in the Congress at which point he will declare his Emergency and let the chips fall where they may.

McBitch KkKonnell is what's the problem -- he won't let
the Senate act without Prez's prior approval.
So much for 'separation' of powers...

@4 I think you're right.

And the precedent it will set will effectively cripple American democracy on the federal level for at least a decade. This is what the right wants. They are blind ignorant fools.

The Republican party is now an insane hybrid of Revanchist economic kamikazes, moonbat religious nuts, and a virtual extension of the Russian FSB.

But they do not understand the consequences. At least the typical childish right-rabble that haunts SLOG and the rest of the internet sure don't. It's a feedback loop. The more their insane policies whittle away at their ability to successfully scale the class ladder and navigate life the more they will tilt at liberal windmills.

The cognitive dissonance and ignorance is mind boggling.

"McBitch KkKonnell is what's the problem -- he won't let the Senate act without Prez's prior approval. "

Senate Majority Leader isn't like Speaker of the House. The office has no special powers to block votes. All he can do is whip his caucus.

Individual Senators have to balance the dangers of a primary from the right vs risks in the general election to follow. To map this out, you'd want to start with a list of the Republican Senators up for re-election in 2016. I know McConnell is among them. But I doubt there are the, I guess its 18 you'd need to combine with Democrats. So the rest of the pressure is going to have to come from someplace else - various special interests that will eventually get their feed troughs snatched away.

er, in 2020, of course.

And, really, it might not take a veto-proof majority to force Trump's hand. Just the event of GOP senators breaking ranks and sending a bill to Trump that he'll have to actually veto would be another magnitude of political disaster for the Republicans.

So just a few GOP senators could possibly break the impasse.

He’d bloody well want to be losing. Bang on those White House gates and tell this reckless fool of a man to get out.

Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution
“If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a law, in like Manner as if he signed it…”

Problem is, McConnell is refusing to hold a vote on the House Bill that was passed by Pelosi. He is the one helping Herr Gröpenführer keeping the government closed.

@4, 7,

Heard on NPR this morning that declaration of an emergency would set a precedent that an incoming democrat could follow to do so regarding climate change, homelessness, gun violence or other left wing causes. Would be a shitty route to go about fomenting important change of course, but would at least be a silver lining. And there's no way that shit-brained idiot is gonna win a re-election (yeah, yeah, I know, whatever, he's not) so maybe we'd see some actual serious comprehensive progressive reforms within the short term.

"Heard on NPR this morning that declaration of an emergency would set a precedent..."

Sure it would, but does anybody think Donald J. Trump gives a shit about precedence? Either honoring or setting them?

This whole mess is the culmination of political developments that began in the mid 20th century, when southern conservatives moved from the Democratic Party to the GOP for reasons beyond the scope of this thread (cough desegregation cough). The process took a couple generations but by the end of the 1990s, the most liberal Republican was to the right of the most conservative Democrat - something that had never happened before in American political history. And our institutions of government as simply inadequate for the strong partisanship that results.

Even if we get out of this mess, I'm not really very optimistic about the future.

"The office [of Senate Majority Leader] has no special powers to block votes." @Alden, above

That's true.
But McBitches KkKonnnelll CAN keep bills from being voted ON in the Senate, in the 1st place.

Or am I mistaken, Alden?

@14 Yeah, but I don't want a leftwing totalitarian dictator anymore than I want a rightwing one. And circumventing the legislative process by manufacturing unending crises is tyrannical. Trump and his nutmeg cult are working their way to a nifty new kind of dictatorship.

@17 - I don't know the procedure for bringing something to a vote. But I do know that the Majority leader doesn't have nearly as much formal power as does the speaker of the house. He doesn't really preside over the Senate the way the Speaker does in the House.

That said, if McConnell wanted to pass legislation, he could make it happen I'm sure. But if a sufficiently large group of GOP senators decide they want to vote on and for a Democrat's bill, there isn't that much McConnell can do to stop them. Exactly how large that group needs to be, I don't know.

"If they find and pass this solution, however, and the solution doesn't include building Trump's wall, the question is: Will Trump sign even a bipartisan bill with no wall money?"

If I remember correctly, the bill he refused to sign that started the shutdown was a unanimous vote. You can't get more bipartisan than that.
Therefore, it only seems logical that he would not sign a new bipartisan bill.
Unless Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh call him names again, then he'll do whatever they tell him to.

Bring on the RepubliKKKan pig roast 2019! Death to the GOP!

I liked the suggestion in a previous comment thread of dipping Trumpty Dumpty, Dencey Pencey ad nauseum in BBQ sauce and feeding their sorry fat asses to the swamp gators in Mar-a-Lago. How fitting that it's sinking into the Atlantic increasingly by the day.

I can't wait to see that pouting overblown blimp barbecued to a blackened crisp and thrown to the crocodiles. Live coverage should be aired globally. The world will be cheering.

19

"I don't know the procedure for bringing something to a vote. But I do know that the Majority leader doesn't have nearly as much formal power as does the speaker of the house. He doesn't really preside over the Senate the way the Speaker does in the House."

If McConnell wanted it voted on, it'd be there in a heartbeat.
If he doesn't, it won't. It's ONE man, controlling if/when the Senate votes.
He gets a big enough push from Republicans, perhaps.

This is the same guy that stole Obama's USSC nomination.
He's NOT a Good guy. And he's REALLY Powerful.

McTurtle is in this up to his flippers and he doesn't dare let Trump go down, because he'll go to jail with him. He'll fight to the end to keep this sorry excuse for a government in power as long as possible before he jumps that private jet to exile in Moscow.

Its just shocking that the party that controls the executive, judicial and 1/2 of the legislative branches of government is acting like they are in charge when it's clearly Miss. Nancy's turn to call the tune. Shocking I say.

@27:

If they had truly wanted to "act...like they're in charge" why didn't they pass this when they actually WERE in charge?

Check this great comment out from yesterday's NYT:
"Donald Trump and His Team of Morons"
"Nobody left besides those with no reputation to lose."
by Paul Krugman

"Most specifically, Mitch McConnell is responsible for the shutdown in that he is refusing to fulfill his duty as the head of the Senate, a chamber of Congress. He is refusing to allow to be heard any legislation that wouldn't be signed by Trump, effectively turning ownership of the Senate over to Trump, and subordinating Congress to the Executive branch. He is in violation of his oath of office and derelict in his duties. Any body that truly believed in their oaths of office would remove him from his position." --David Avila, CT Jan. 15

Well Put.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/opinion/government-shutdown-trump.html?comments#permid=30154927:30155624:30156898