Schumer Caves

(And probably made the right call)

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!” he said.

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.¹

“Charge of the Light Brigade” — Alfred Lord Tennyson

Happy Friday.

This was, of course, the fight that Democrats wanted. This was the fight they needed. It was also a fight they could not have won.

Chuck Schumer’s decision to cave on the CR was greeted with understandable disappointment and outrage because Democrats finally had a chance to fight. They finally had leverage. They could have at least tried.

But Schumer folded.

And he probably made the right call.

Trust me, folks: emotionally, I wanted this fight. My heart wants to rage along with the rest of Bluesky. I want very much to join the pile-on of Schumer-hate. I wanted to embrace my inner-nihilist and shut it all down.

But, as satisfying as it might have been to my resistance id, my head tells me it’s a mistake.

Remember: charging into the guns is not the same as victory; and a tactical retreat is not the same as surrender. Sometimes it’s the smartest play available.

In this case, the options were atrocious. The House GOP CR is a partisan mess and an extraordinary surrender of Congressional power (over tariffs) to the president. It was a poison pill wrapped in a shit sandwich.

But — and I really hate to write this — the alternative was worse, because Trump/Musk would love nothing more than to shut down the government that they are in the process of dismantling. And, as Schumer notes, there was no clear exit from a shutdown… no plausible way to “win”.

Worse, it would have allowed Trump/Musk to change the subject at the very time they are digging their own very deep hole. A hole that looks like this:

**

The Atlantic’s David Graham made the strongest case that the Democrats should at least have tried: “Democrats insist that this is a dire moment for the nation. A government-funding deadline is a chance for them to show that they mean it.”

This is a strange situation for Democrats: As the party that likes to keep government running, even entertaining the idea of a shutdown is novel. But they have reasons related to both policy and politics to take a hard line here. First, if they’re concerned with protecting government services that are essential for citizens, they need to find some way to slow Trump down, because he’s using his power to slash them already. If the government shuts down, some services will be briefly cut.

If Democrats keep the government open, some services will be cut—perhaps permanently. The deadline gives them a chance to demand that the White House agree to limitations on DOGE or other Trump cuts in exchange for funding the government. (Complicating the calculus, the White House recently deleted guidance from its website on how a shutdown would work.)

Even if Democrats ended up taking a political hit, Graham argued, they “would at least get caught trying.” This all makes sense — except that we are dealing with a presidency that doesn’t. Thursday’s Wapo had this warning:

[A] shutdown, some experts say, could play into the hands of the Trump administration and give White House officials broader latitude to reduce the scope of government. It could also offer a test for Trump and Musk’s arguments that huge swaths of the bureaucracy are wasteful and unnecessary — and wouldn’t be missed if they closed down and never reopened.

Which brings me to Schumer’s decision, which he laid out in an op-ed in the NYT. In many ways, Schumer is the wrong man for the moment, but he is right when he says that Trump and Musk want a shutdown.

We should not give them one. The risk of allowing the president to take even more power via a government shutdown is a much worse path.

Schumer makes a disturbing case. Shutting down the government would be a “real pain” for Americans, he notes. It might shutter VA offices and slash the staff of the Social Security Administration.

But it would also cede sweeping — and unpredictable — powers to Trump.

First, a shutdown would give Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk permission to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now. Under a shutdown, the Trump administration would have wide-ranging authority to deem whole agencies, programs and personnel nonessential, furloughing staff members with no promise they would ever be rehired.

The decisions about what is essential would, in practice, be largely up to the executive branch, with few left at agencies to check it.

Mr. Musk has reportedly said that he wants a shutdown and may already be planning how to use one to his advantage.

Second, if we enter a shutdown, congressional Republicans could weaponize their majorities to cherry-pick which parts of government to reopen.

In a protracted shutdown, House and Senate Republicans could bring bills to the floor to reopen only their favored departments and agencies while leaving other vital services that they don’t like to languish.

Finally, it would be the distraction that Trump devoutly needs right now.

Right now, Mr. Trump owns the chaos in the government. He owns the chaos in the stock market. He owns the damage happening to our economy. The stock market is falling, and consumer confidence is plummeting.

In a shutdown, we would be busy fighting with Republicans over which agencies to reopen and which to keep closed instead of debating the damage Mr. Trump’s agenda is causing.

I regret to tell you: he’s not wrong.

Exit take: Sometimes a full frontal-assault into the guns is not the smartest move, even if you get lots of hot takes, clicks, and a great poem out of it.

O Canada

• KGTV: Canadian woman put in chains, detained by ICE after entering San Diego border

• Washington Times: Trump says Canada could one of best states in U.S., could keep its anthem

• Global News: Trump threatens to acquire Canada, Greenland while next to NATO chief

• Reuters: Trump ambassador nominee: Canada is a sovereign state

• Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick: "Canada exists leaning on our economy ... what are you doing for us?”

**

Colby Hall: Is Trump's Canada 51st State Obsession Cognitive Decline?

ICYMI, Trump continues to rant about making Canada the 51st state. Here he was yesterday:

[To] be honest with you, Canada only works as a state. It doesn’t. We don’t need anything. They have as a state. It would be one of the great states anywhere. This would be the most incredible country visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it between Canada and the U.S. just a straight artificial line. Somebody did it a long time ago, many, many decades ago. And it makes no sense.

It’s so perfect as a great and cherished state. Keeping, ‘Oh, Canada,’ the national anthem, I love it. I think it’s great. Keep it. But it’ll be for the state. One of our greatest states, maybe our greatest state. But why should we subsidize another country for 200 billion, costs us $200 billion a year? And again, we don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy.

We have more than they do. We don’t need anything. We don’t need their cars. I’d much rather make the cars here. And there’s not a thing that we need. Now there’ll be a little disruption, but it won’t be very long. But they need us. We really don’t need them. And we have to do this. I’m sorry. We have to do this.

Mediaite’s Colby Hall notes once again that “this makes no sense. Yet, he’s said it so many times, one can only take his needlessly expansionist rhetoric at face value.”

Trump’s rhetoric has gone far beyond mere trolling. What if he actually, seriously, literally means it?

And if that’s true, there are only two reasons for it: he sees himself as another strong leader willing to just take whatever territory he wants from a sovereign country — like Russian President Vladimir Putin did with Ukraine. OR… he’s officially lost his mind.

Some have suggested that Trump is simply following a Nietzschean model of “will to power” — envisioning or bringing desired things into existence. Or maybe he’s acting like an egocentric toddler who cannot comprehend not getting a toy he wants to play with or just having his way.

I think there is much more apparent reasoning to this weird position — it started as a joke of sorts, but Trump repeated it so often that he now believes it himself. More importantly, he lives in such a bubble of sycophancy that no close advisor is willing to risk their standing to just flat out tell him, “Mr. President? The 51st state stuff makes you look and sound crazy.”

The parable of the Emperor’s new clothes comes to mind, but instead of magical see through threads, Trump is nakedly acting like a strongman expansionist — the very sort that Americans used to risk their lives, and sometimes make the greatest sacrifice, to protect our allies from.

Meanwhile….

For some reason, this keeps happening: “House Republican Torched by Furious Constituents as Town Hall Goes Off the Rails: ‘F*ck You!”

A Republican town hall meeting erupted in a furious showdown after Rep. Chuck Edwards’ (R-NC) Asheville constituents grilled him over President Donald Trump’s foreign policy and Ukraine dealings — before the chaos spilled into the streets with protesters chanting: “Deport Musk!”

**

Daily Beast: JD Vance Suffers Embarrassing Flood of Boos at Kennedy Center Show

**

Axios: Trump swing voters in Michigan focus group have buyers' remorse

Ten of 13 participants from this battleground, auto-industry state bordering Canada said what they're seeing isn't what they thought they were voting for — and they're worried Trump's approach may hurt their pocketbooks.

• "Erratic," "frightening," "disruptive" and "dictator" were among the words they used to describe their concerns.

Friday dogs

Auggie has a suggestion for me.

**

Flashback: Baby Auggie with his sisters, brothers, mama (left) and dad (upper right).

1. ICYMI: The Charge did not turn out well.

II

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”

Was there a man dismayed?

Not though the soldier knew

Someone had blundered.

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die.

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

III

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of hell

Rode the six hundred.

IV

Flashed all their sabres bare,

Flashed as they turned in air

Sabring the gunners there,

Charging an army, while

All the world wondered.

Plunged in the battery-smoke

Right through the line they broke;

Cossack and Russian

Reeled from the sabre stroke

Shattered and sundered.

Then they rode back, but not

Not the six hundred.

V

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon behind them

Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

While horse and hero fell.

They that had fought so well

Came through the jaws of Death,

Back from the mouth of hell,

All that was left of them,

Left of six hundred….