Republicans Ruling Over the Ashes: 2025 Edition

Update: Thank you Steve in Manhattan for sharing this article on the Crooks & Liars' Mike's Blog Round-Up! Just to let you all know, I spotted a church with its parking lot full on a Monday morning. It's a church I drive by all the time going to work, and I've never seen the parking lot full on a Monday morning. It's also a church I know offers a weekly food bank, and my first thought was "is that a run on their food bank?"

I didn't write much about the latest Republican-backed government shutdown during this long month of October, only because it'd be me repeating the same line of "why the fuck do people keep voting in Republican assholes who don't want government to work in the first place?"

Still, what's happened this 2025 has been one of the longest federal government shutdowns in modern times, and at least this time around most Americans know who to blame (via Julianna Bragg at Axios): 

As the government shutdown stretches into its 30th day, more Americans blame President Trump and Republicans than Democrats for the impasse, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.

Why it matters: More Americans are growing deeply worried about what is now the second-longest government shutdown in U.S. history — one that will soon cut off food stamp benefits and has already left more than a million Americans without a paycheck...

By the numbers: Almost half of Americans — 45% — say Trump and the GOP are responsible for the ongoing shutdown, while 33% blamed Democrats and another 22% say they're not sure who's responsible...

Yes, but: 63% of Americans say they disapprove of Trump's management of the federal government, while only 36% approve...

Context: The Senate failed to advance a bill to end the shutdown for the 13th time Wednesday, even as disruptions impact air travel and hundreds of thousands of federal employees remain furloughed.

As much as the Republican leadership - Speaker Mike Johnson especially - are trying to blame the Democrats for refusing to surrender forever for sticking to their agenda of reducing health care premiums to the ACA, there are enough observers who note that as the Republicans control both the House and the Senate, they could pass their own budget and get around any filibuster the Dems could threaten.

Except the Republicans don't want to. They know damn well that their current fiscal plans will gut social services for their own Red State voters and hurt millions of (White) American families who'll finally realize those trumpian tax cuts for the uber-rich were bad for the rest of the nation their own. So they want the Democrats to "compromise" on a "bipartisan deal" that the Far Right media can blame on Democrats when that "deal" nukes the countryside.

(as a side note, Speaker Johnson doesn't want to reopen the House for business because he'd be forced to seat a newly elected Democrat filling a vacant seat that would put in motion a vote to release the Epstein Files filled with trump's dirty deeds)

As much as we've stumbled through October without major disruptions to the United States' well-being - if only because some of the damage from DOGE gutting our agencies already caused disruptions - we're getting to that point in the GOP Shutdown where the emergency efforts behind the scenes by whatever's left in charge can't keep this house of cards standing. We're getting into the winter holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas, massive economic cycles for our food and retail businesses now starting to see trump's tariffs squeeze them in painful ways. We're getting to the point where the community organizations struggling to fill the gaps in the social safety nets aren't going to keep up. 

We're staring into the dark abyss of a painful unhappy winter season for the United States, all because the Republicans hope to burn it all down so they can rule the ashes.

And yes goddammit, we warned you all this would happen. And the bills for all that cruelty, ignorance,  and greed is coming due - again - faster than you all realize.