Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Mike Johnson has said that the current government shutdown could become the longest in history, as an impasse between the Democrats and Republicans drags on with no end in sight. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Johnson, a Republican, said that he would not negotiate with Democratic lawmakers until they suspended policy demands related to healthcare, a dispute at the core of the shutdown. read more
Families and educators across the country were plunged into a state of uncertainty over the weekend after the federal Education Department laid off practically every staffer in the government's special education division. Nearly the entire Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, including the Office of Special Education Programs, was let go, according to agency workers and their union. Employees in the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, many of whom work to protect students with disabilities from discrimination, were also laid off, the union said. read more
"The Speaker of the House Is Abetting Authoritarianism:
Every Trump needs his Johnson: a flunky who will rationalize his crimes"
www.thebulwark.com
The American founders expected better leaders than Johnson. They thought Congress would check the president. They didn't think one branch would surrender completely to another.
"Have you ever voted against anything that Trump set forth, as far as policy?" a caller asked Johnson on C-SPAN.
The speaker didn't name a single thing. "I typically vote with President Trump, I do, because that's my party," he said.
And nothing Trump has done"the sham prosecutions, the threats of imprisonment, the invasions of American cities"has shaken that blind devotion.
That shot is missing the lipstick.