According to Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, Republicans in Congress are likely going to start breaking ranks this week as hundreds of thousands of government workers will miss their paychecks.
The Democrat told MSNBC’s Ari Melber that he expects the missing pays to add fuel to the disastrous political dumpster fire Trump has caused by shutting down the government over his vanity wall.

“I think that’s going to increase the pressure on Senators and House members to do what needs to be done here,” Sen. Coons said. “So I expect you’ll start seeing folks break ranks.”

Before taking control of the House of Representatives last Thursday, Democrats had said they would investigate Trump on multiple fronts, including ties with Russia, his tax returns and allegations of conflicts of interest.

Almost a week into the new Congress, House lawmakers have yet to empanel and organize the committees that would do the work.
Democratic leaders are engrossed in a legislative drive to reopen government agencies that have been closed since Dec. 22 over Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Is it a distraction? Yes. We’re (being) taken away from organizing and getting down to the substantive business, because we’re trying to get government open for the American people,” House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer told Reuters.

Bruce Springsteen’s one-man show on Broadway, which recently ended its run at the Walter Kerr Theatre and is now available on Netflix, doesn’t depend much on suspense...

What will catch even many Springsteen fans off guard, including me as I sat in the balcony at the Walter Kerr Theatre last year, is the setup to this finale. Before he launches into his signature song, the Boss leads his Broadway congregation in the Lord’s Prayer — a reminder that he continues to be formed by his Catholic upbringing in the working-class precincts of Freehold, N.J....

Over the years, Springsteen has become the darling of progressive politicians. He campaigned for John Kerry in 2004, Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and (briefly) for Hillary Clinton in 2016. But when he tells his story on Broadway, he transports us back to a day when progressive ideals and the relentless quest for the American dream were not separated from tradition, roots, place, a longing for home, and Christian faith.

And then I explain to him how naïve we were, that the world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.

Pelosi said:
I appreciate the opportunity to speak directly to the American people tonight about how we can end this shutdown and meet the needs of the American people. Sadly, much of what we heard from President Trump throughout the shutdown as been full of misinformation and even malice. The president has chosen fear. We want to start with facts. The fact is, House Democrats passed Senate Republican legislation to reopen government and fund smart, effective border security solutions.

But the president is rejecting the bipartisan bills, which would reopen government over his obsession with forcing American taxpayers to waste billions of dollars on an expensive and ineffective wall, a wall he always promised Mexico would pay for. The fact is, President Trump has chosen to hold hostage critical services for the health, safety and well being of the American people and withhold the paychecks of 800,000 innocent workers across the nation, many of them veterans.

Sitting in a Quaker meeting recently, it occurred to me that if Muhammad (peace be upon him) were alive today he would feel very comfortable worshipping with these Christian friends. He was, after all, a man who had a daily practice of meditating in silence, and this is exactly what occurs in a Quaker meeting....

The kind of meditation practiced by Muhammad, by the Sufis, and by the Quakers assumes that there is something within the human heart that connects us to our Divine Source. It is therefore worth sitting in receptive silence before the heart and possibly allowing it expression once a connection has ripened. Doing so allowed Muhammad to receive and communicate revelation. Revelation may be reserved for the prophets, but a heart relationship to the Divine is surely a birthright of all human beings.

In what media critics, journalists, and progressive lawmakers described as capitulation to a president who lies constantly to advance his xenophobic aims, all of America's major television networks have opted to grant Donald Trump a primetime slot Tuesday night to deliver an immigration address that analysts predicted will almost certainly be filled with hysteria and devoid of facts.

"You are willingly helping Trump spread disinformation," the Washington Post's Greg Sargent wrote in response to news late Monday that ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox will all run Trump's speech at 9:00 pm ET.

In 2014, as many observers were quick to point out, these same networks refused to carry an immigration speech by former President Barack Obama on the grounds that it was "overtly political."

THE PARTIAL government shutdown that began December 22 is now in its third week, and unless an agreement is struck fast, 800,000 out of 2.1 million federal workers won’t be getting paid this Friday.
As everyone knows, the shutdown began after Trump signaled he would veto a December House of Representatives funding proposal that didn’t include $5.6 billion for a 200-mile section of border wall between the U.S. and Mexico....

The shutdown doesn’t just affect federal employees. The 2.1 million federal civilian employees share workplaces with millions more contracted workers who often fill low-wage jobs....

Trump may believe he has the support of federal workers, but that’s likely because he only talks to the ones who support his agenda, such as Border Patrol agents and ICE agents. When we talk over lunch in my workplace, we all know this shutdown is all about Trump’s racist wall, and there is not one voice raised in support.