So, are the shutdown and the wall just a distraction

[grumpyduck]

from T's wanting to pull out of NATO? I don't watch Rachel (or any of them), but just took a peek at a clip and it seems senior officials are raising a red flag.

Stage magicians call this sort of thing "misdirection." I wonder if T and his team have been taking lessons in magic.

[Wounded Bear]

1. It's their way of bringing everything to a halt...

while they continue to loot the Treasury and complete the sale to Russia.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Rump knows that Mueller has crap on him, so he's distracting (or trying to) everyone...

from the upcoming crap Mueller is going to drop on him. Mueller hasn't done anything that we know of for a little while, other than continue on w/ the grand jury for another six months...

[maxsolomon]

3. He's setting the tone for the next 2 years.

Its a street brawl, and nothing will get done in this Congress.

The bullshit wall is just the excuse for a fight. Bullies force dumb fights on Smart Kids.

ITMFA.

[grumpyduck]

4. Yeah, but real Smart Kids

usually know how to outsmart the bullies. I know: I was there (a smart kid) many years ago.

Which begs the question: does T have a secret bank account, overflowing with rubles, somewhere?

[greyl]

5. Wall demand is pretext for shutdown.

Putin's dessert order.

[rurallib]

6. yes - if it wasn't this its would be something else

[gratuitous]

7. I think they were meant to be a distraction

But when Pelosi told McDonald that he couldn't do his State of the Union address before Congress, the distraction became another major embarrassment for the administration and its Republican supporters. Pelosi's citing national security concerns in the midst of the shutdown gave her letter a double gut punch: Who among the Republican caucus is going to say that national security isn't all that important?

[grumpyduck]

8. I do believe

you hit the nail right on the head.

[customerserviceguy]

9. If anything is true about Trump

it is that he has been masterful about hornswaggling the media.

[WeekiWater]

10. His base would love for him to pull out of NATO.

His base would love a wall.

His base loves the current dysfunction and gutting of the federal government.

These aren’t distractions. They are the agenda of an extremist minority.