Reign of Pain Update: Trump Threatens Years Long Shutdown

Well, you don't make progress by promising to end it soon. Let's go to the WaPo, whose fan base hates Trump 96 to 4. Trump threatens years-long shutdown for his wall as GOP support begins to fracture

President Trump warned Friday that the partial government shutdown could go on for months or even years, delivering no real breakthrough with congressional leaders as his own administration scrambled to shore up support among Republicans for a gambit that has started to fracture.

In a rambling hour-long news conference in the Rose Garden that followed a meeting with senior lawmakers, Trump asserted that he had the power to declare a national emergency to build the wall without Congress — a move that would almost certainly be challenged in the courts. At the same time, he insisted the government would stay shuttered while the wall impasse continues, claiming without offering evidence that previous presidents have told him they wished they had built a wall themselves.

Trump seemed to display little empathy for the 800,000 federal employees who have been furloughed or are working without being paid, saying that most workers support the shutdown and that the “safety net is going to be having a strong border because we’re going to be safe.” For workers who will not be able to pay their rent, Trump suggested that landlords would “work with” them and that he would encourage them to “be nice and easy” on their tenants.

About as much sympathy as Hillary Clinton had for the small business owners her healthcare plan would bankrupt, and the coal mines and miners that President Obama promised to put out of work.

“This is national security we’re talking about. We’re not talking about games,” Trump said, flanked by Vice President Pence, the top two House Republican leaders and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. “This should’ve been done by all of the presidents that preceded me.”

He also appeared to hold out the possibility that the shutdown would not end: “We’ll see what happens. It may get solved; it may not get solved,” the president said.

And by way of the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 01.04.19, Joe For America: Trump – Government Could Stay Shut Down For Months, Years

Althouse! Isn't it to Trump's credit that only 3 have died in the National Parks during the shutdown? You go, girl!

The anti-Trumpism of The Washington Post is on display in "Three dead in national parks as shutdown wears on":

Three days after most of the federal workforce was furloughed on Dec. 21, a 14-year-old girl fell 700 feet to her death at the Horseshoe Bend Overlook, part of the Glen Canyon Recreation Area in Arizona. The following day, Christmas, a man died at Yosemite National Park in California after suffering a head injury in a fall. On Dec. 27, a woman was killed by a falling tree at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles the borders of North Carolina and Tennessee.

It's not as if a federal worker would have been there to catch them. What is even the theoretical connection between the shutdown and these fatal falls?

The deaths follow a decision by Trump administration officials to leave the scenic — but sometimes deadly — parks open even as the Interior Department has halted most of its operations. During previous extended shutdowns, the National Park Service barred access to many of its sites across the nation.

Oh, I see. If only the parks were closed, they wouldn't have been there at all. This would argue in favor of permanently closing all the national parks because if people go there, they might die. But the real argument, thinly veiled, is that if only the parks were closed (like in past shutdowns), the shutdown would affect a lot of real people who could be shown complaining about their wrecked vacation.

The other day, the WaPo had an article about how the toilets at Joshua Tree National Monument were overflowing because of Donald Trump. My reaction at the time was, "Boy, they had to go a long way to find something negative to say about the shutdown.