The government has shut down – again. Who’s to blame? The American people, those who voted to put Congress in the hands of the Keystone Cops and the Presidency in the hands of a posturing, utterly dishonest narcissist who surrounds himself with sycophants and xenophobes, and who can’t stop pandering to his “base” of bigots.

Republicans have controlled the House of Representatives since January 3rd, 2011, and the Senate since January 3rd, 2015. They ignored the DACA issue until Trump made it an emergency by rescinding an Obama executive order that protected more than 700,000 “dreamers,” and putting them at risk for deportation in March of this year. They continue to ignore the problem, whining that they don’t want immigration to be a part of a funding bill, i.e., a “continuing resolution” to keep funding government without a budget – and the Republican majority has chosen to ignore the budget issue since October 1st of last year, when a new fiscal year began.

Trump’s position is that he doesn’t want that “CR” unless he gets funding for his idiotic border wall, the one that he insists Mexico will pay for, making immigration “reform” a part of a major budget crisis, a crisis created by the Republican majority in both houses. And nine million children are on the brink of losing health insurance by CHIP not being funded, the CDC will not have funding to fight the worst, most lethal flu outbreak in decades. Trump, McConnell and Ryan are calling this the “Schumer shutdown,” ignoring the fact that all of these issues could and should have been resolved by the majority party – their own.

Trump was thoroughly and rightly criticized for his recent “shithole country” remark, but an even worse tragedy is that he’s turning this country – my country, whose uniform I proudly wore a long time ago – into a real shithole. But the far right continues to adore him. What an appalling state of affairs.