Let’s thank TMZ for this one. They broke the story of Lindsey Graham at Disney World. They’ve been tracking other lawmakers. This is like Cancun Cruz, but worse. It seems everyone booked out of town for Easter. In the meantime, nothing’s getting done, and that includes ICE/CBP, which makes me happy. They need to be throttled way, way back. But others are a different story. Let’s hope for news about the TSA folks, at least. That seems to be the biggest issue at the moment. With entertainment, and a helping of frustration for the subject matter, from Raw Story:
A growing number of lawmakers have been spotted fleeing Washington, D.C., as tens of thousands of federal workers continue to go unpaid amid the ongoing partial government shutdown, and TMZ has developed a “new obsession” of exposing them, NOTUS reported Tuesday. “It outraged us so much we wanted to use our platforms to show how Congress – Dems AND Republicans – have betrayed us,” TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin told NOTUS in a statement.
It could certainly be considered a form of betrayal. Republicans aren’t budging, Democrats aren’t budging, and it hurts the people who are apparently not in consideration for this. We definitely need to pull on the reins of ICE/CBP and do our damndest to get them under control. But Congress could have taken care of the rest of the folks. Plus, supposedly ICE/CBP members *are* still getting paid, and that just SUCKS. This is backwards. The hoodlums get paid, and regular people don’t. What the actual eff.
“We spontaneously came up with the idea to juxtapose members of Congress on their Spring Break against federal workers who are losing their homes, their cars, their livelihoods. Short story – our DC presence will sometimes be fun, sometimes intensely serious.” Among the first lawmakers to be called out by TMZ for fleeing D.C. amid the ongoing shutdown was Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who was spotted having a “grand ol’ time” at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and sporting a bubble wand as he strolled through the “Tangled” section of the park.
We covered Lindsey in Late Night. They say bubble wand. From the pictures I saw, it really does look like a scepter. Maybe it’s both. We all agree that Lindsey has lost his mind. But others have been spotted out and about, seemingly as carefree as Lindsey. If anyone did stay back to work on the shutdown bill, they couldn’t officially get anything done because there are a few, and then there’s Congress. It’s a matter of scale.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) were also spotted boarding a plane Friday heading out of D.C., and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) was spotted at a casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) was also “caught getting the hell out of D.C. amid the federal government shutdown,” TMZ reported.
Graham said he had only visited Walt Disney World due to being in Florida on official business, and Garcia said he was visiting his father, who has “lived in Vegas for 15 years.” TMZ has also put out a call to its readers to send the outlet photos and video of “any members of Congress enjoying their time away while federal employees suffer.”
You have to wonder if any of them were embarrassed by this. Unfortunately, probably not many. In a manner of speaking, they’re caught between a rock and a hard place. This is scheduled time off, but the shutdown is much bigger than that. And again, if you don’t have enough people present, you can’t do any work. Let’s look forward to who else gets busted by TMZ.
See you soon!
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise that among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest-working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
