1. I don’t really have a good enough handle on American politics to comment on the shutdown. Items below may just express my prejudice on Democrats complete tactical ineptitude, but here goes:
“Whichever party starts to get hammered in the polls — like Republicans did in 2013 — will be more likely to cave.”
https://www.vox.com/2018/1/20/16912832/government-shutdown-trump-approval
Sounds plausible to me.
Despite recent uptick in approval for Trump there doesn’t strike me as a lot of room for Trump to get much more hammered than he has been. Within Democrat bubble pretending that they really needed to shutdown the government immediately rather than keep negotiating over border security for another few weeks (February 16) may sound plausible. Hard to see how it would impress anyone outside that bubble given Trump had clearly supported allowing “Dreamers” to stay and courts had already ordered temporary continuation. So Democrats more likely to get hammered.
Even if GOP does get hammered that would mainly hurt incumbents who would fear losing their seats at 2018 primaries from caving on border security more than they would fear losing their seats if they got past primaries.
Trump has nothing to lose whichever way the two parties entrench the popular view of Washington gridlock and whichever of them caves. So why should he be worried? Media and Democrats whipping up outrage at Trump provoking them just confirms they still don’t get it.
Trump is the least likely to cave, main thing the Democrats are achieving is yet another opportunity for him to posture about border security to his base while they posture about preventing non-existant prospects of deportation of Dreamers to theirs. GOP incumbents next least likely to cave (especially since that would leave them more vulnerable in primaries to anti-immigration trumpists). That leaves it up to the Democrats who are only making a gesture anyway and are less inhibited about looking ridiculous.
I was surprised it happened at all so any prediction from me is worthless, but I would not have been surprised if it ended as early as the next opportunity – Monday 1am.
No real evidence, just a gut feeling, supported by a clueless commentary in the Guardian saying the opposite, that it “could run and run”:
Seems a bit less likely to end now as no sign of agreement yet, despite the vote on at 1am Monday being to keep government open only till Feb 9 while negotiating.
Trump’s budget director says could last a week or could end immediately.
Trump’s budget chief says shutdown could last more than a week
I can’t guess. Should not have happened at all. It did, so who knows how long it could last? Requires estimating Democrat stupidity. Too easy to assume limitless stupidity based on past rather than present. Compensating for prejudice too hard to avoid overshooting and wrongly imagining they would act rationally just because it would be so stupid not to. I give up on prediction. Pass.
2. Certainly Democrat Senators in states that are not solidly “blue” seem to agree that it is bad for them and have already caved. None of them voted for the shutdown. The five who voted against it were ALL from marginal or Republican States where their fear would be defeat by GOP rather than being primaried by their own. Here’s the list:
http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/20/politics/senate-vote-government-shutdown/index.html
(The 5 Republicans who voted for shutdown were insisting on immediate Democrat cave rather than the compromise resolution letting it drag on to Feb 16. Two already switched to accept Democrat cave by Feb 9 instead of Feb 16. None show signs of switching sides since Democrats pretence they are defending DACA rather than opposing tigher border control is sheer fantasy.)
3. This NYT oped confirms my prejudice that even the Democrats leaders don’t really have much illusions about it and are purely doing it to placate their “base” which they are just as threatened by at the coming Democrat primaries as the GOP incumbents are threatened by theirs.
Interesting idea that transformation of both parties could result in a shift to a Westminster style constitution. I take that to be about ensuring the Executive generally has a reliable majority in legislature. (Shutdowns don’t actually happen – instead executive government gets replaced by whoever can command a legislative majority).
But the historical accident of english speaking countries having a two party system based on single party electorates could itself be vulnerable in any unfreezing of the US Constitution. The two parties are not that popular.
“New parties would pop up in the center – at least one and I think probably two. Eventually the Constitution would get a revisit. It’s a potentially ominous road but for now the Democrats have no choice but to walk it.”
No possibility of revisiting Constitution before 2020 election. This supports my view that Trump is successfully creating conditions for a four way contest then, which would give him a much better chance with Presidency potentially thrown from deadlocked Electoral College to House of Representatives voting by States. Of course Democrats could start walking a different road after 2018. But I would have thought it would be easier to avoid the road they are walking down towards a split after 2018 if they could do it now rather than making symbolic pandering gestures for pretended unity.
4. Here’s some details on how completely the Trump obsession dominates US news. Fox is the only channel that does not devote more than half its airtime to Trump stories.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-13/donald-trump-news-media-coverage/9125810
5. Wired provides some rivetting analysis of Trump’s medical checkup. Why the obsession? My guess is that with hopes of removal by impeachment, incapacity or a coup d’etat from the intelligence agencies fading they have to analyse the prospects of “something” to save them.
https://www.wired.com/story/trump-physical-exam/
6. Why wapo imagines it could worry people by running “unverified” stories about Trump and porn stars.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/what-should-scare-us-about-trumps-porn-star-scandal-20180119-h0lec6.html
7. Plus, in a dramatic new breakthrough, a porn star has revealed that Trump is terrified by sharks:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/19/sharks-donald-trump
8. And here’s 8 “wild” details, “not for the faint of heart”.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/19/stormy-daniels-trump-porn-star-interview-349311
9. But, woe is us “this is not likely to harm Trump politically”.
“That’s because the religious right has decided to ignore Trump’s personal failings, and it has already paid off forla them.”
But its still great clickbait for liberals.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/19/stormy-daniels-sex-scandal-wont-harm-trump-commentary.html
10. In other news from La La land residents can be reassured that the Mueller inuiry will not be delayed by the shutdown.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/government-shutdown-wont-stop-mueller-investigation
C21st Left 
Well, that was quick! Seems to be near unanimous agreement that it was just Democrat tactical ineptitude. That seems likely to continue. Democrats base have convinced themselves Trump wants to deport the “Dreamers” and will find themseles fighting another “heroic” battle in which they don’t actually present arguments against the border security measures Trumpists want and don’t convince anybody except themselves that “Dreamers” will be deported. Pathetic leaders, including Sanders as well as Warren are just being swept along (voted to continue shutdown even after Schumer caved).
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/22/government-shutdown-republicans-democrats
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-01-22/the-shutdown-should-have-never-happened
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/democrats-relent-government-shutdown-over/551144/
In view of above anti-Trump unanimity that they lost badly I haven’t bothered checking what Fox et al say.
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