Government Shutdown, Reichstag Fire...

     It always amazes me that when the Federal government shuts down...it doesn't shut down.  Okay, I can see keeping the armed forces going, and DOJ (crime always ignores the shutdown memo, dammit!) and DHS (those passports aren't going to stamp themselves, nor will your carefully-folded underwear paw though itself at the airport); Congress has to stay on the job if they're going to even fake trying to resolve the impasse.*  But there's a whole list of optional stuff that Presidents get to pick and choose, and most of it is nonsense.  The current resident at 1600 Penna† has promised to set up the cuts for maximum partisan pain, which is pernicious nonsense: during a shutdown, the President -- any President -- needs to get the Cabinet working on limiting harm, not seeing what they can make even worse.‡  Other things have funding limitations.  I logged on to my doctor's website yesterday to discover this notice:
     "Medicare virtual visits currently not covered. Effective immediately, due to government shut down."
     Yes, Granny's got to make an in-person visit -- with a lead time measured in months for most appointments, as opposed to 24 hours or less for a virtual one.  Sure hope the old girl holds up!

     The Administration is using the shutdown as an opportunity to increase Executive Branch power and enact more of the dire promises of "Project 2025."  It's unAmerican.  It's contrary to our history and traditions.

     There's more and more revulsion to this trend:

     This page has a link to neat little booklet, Understanding Fascism.  It's designed to be printed out double-sided, cut and trimmed to pocket-size.  It includes the U. S. Army piece I quoted from and linked to recently.

     Then there's this article on a harm-reduction approach for reporters covering modern populists.  It's interesting reading, especially if you've looked into 20th Century U. S. history; Huey Long of Louisiana was one of that century's most successful populist politicians, playing the media with great skill, and  there's good, hands-on, nuts-and-bolts insight into how to avoid being used.  It also links to a clear and concise 32-page booklet, and an even shorter "toolkit."  The Press is far too easily made into a partisan megaphone by extremists and it's well past time they realized it again, and pushed back.  One thing caught my eye: several times, the writer calls for greater specificity in quotes and descriptions, and fewer blanket labels, even looking askance at the use of "populist" and other broad terms when covering politicians and events.  Details matter!  Facts matter!  Fuzzy reactions and handy-dandy us-vs-them labels often obfuscate rather than clarify. 
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* On the other hand, heating, ventilation and cooling for their offices and chambers?  Maybe not so much.  That nice cafeteria, coffee service, on-demand water carafes?  Surely a needless luxury!  Nose to the grindstone, Congressthings, a little more cloakroom dealmaking and a little less Ritual Grimacing.  We already know you're foursquare with whatever will get you re-elected but voters are increasingly wondering what it is you're actually going to do.
 
† I've seen pictures of what he's done to the place and he is not gonna get his security deposit back.  I don't think he quite understands that it's essentially a rental.
 
‡ Of all the Administrations I would not associate with "harm reduction," I would not associate this one the most.  They came in vowing to create trauma and they have.