When this government shutdown started – it’s now in its 27th day with no end in sight – the stated reason was to get the border wall built. Many people now think the reason is something else. Yeah, I covered some of this last week. It all seems more dire this week.

Sarah Kendzior is saying it clearly.

The GOP ideology of the 2013 shutdown -- weaken government, deem federal services unnecessary, and ultimately privatize and profit -- has merged with the kleptocratic agenda of a Russian asset who wants to not only destroy federal services, but destroy the US itself.

It's not a shutdown as a means to an end; the shutdown is its own end. Once again, people are relying on norms and expectations that do not apply to Trump. There is no leverage in poll numbers; this is not about the base. This is not about the wall. This is about the end.

Was that a bit over the top? Brad Craig adds:

Every News organization should ask one simple question of every Republican if border security matters why they didn’t fund the wall or have built when they had the budget and control the three branches of government?

So what is this shutdown about? Spreading hate against immigrants. Trying to distract from Mueller and upcoming indictments. Creating daily chaos no matter who gets hurt.

Kendzior links Jennifer Dlouhy:

Trump's Interior Dept is bringing furloughed employees back on the job to prepare sales of offshore oil drilling rights, arguing that failing to hold the auctions would have a negative impact on the federal treasury & investment in the Gulf of Mexico.($) Employees also are on call to help process permits authorizing seismic surveys hunting for oil in the Atlantic and develop a new 5-year program for selling drilling rights in U.S. coastal waters, according to a newly revised contingency plan.

The shutdown hides that effort. Gary Kasparov says it well:

Yes, the shutdown can have the effect of spray-painting the security cameras before robbing the bank. Or does anyone still think this is about an actual wall? It’s always power & money.

Another goal is to shrink the government, long a GOP goal. One way to do that is to get employees to leave. Stonekettle says he worked for the government until the second shutdown in a year. He liked what he did for the government. It saved money and made people’s lives better. But he needed a steady paycheck.

That means a lot of federal employees are making a calculation between hoping their job restarts soon or finding an outside job. Employees are also dealing with what good is a job that doesn’t come with a paycheck? A lot of them will quit.

And then your government will become even MORE broken, more dysfunctional, more inefficient, more expensive, and even less accountable. In that failed state, the oligarchs run free, the ruthless rise to the top unchecked, the rich get richer and the poor get so very much poorer and the middle class vanishes.

And we become Russia.

We become America of the Robber Barons, the America of the 1920's, when a handful of the fabulously wealthy owned everything, there was no middle class, and the poor paid the rich for the privilege of eating out of their garbage cans. That's what's coming.

I’ve heard news about various agencies, such as the IRS, being called back to work without pay so the general public doesn’t feel much pain, reducing the calls to end the shutdown.

Sarah Kendzior, quoting a bit from her latest podcast for Gaslit Nation:

People are talking about the shutdown in terms of poll numbers, Trump's base, Democrats' potential compromises. All of that is irrelevant. No one has leverage. Trump doesn't care about his voters. The shutdown is not a means to an end. It is the end.

Prompting this reply from JackAttack

It makes you wonder if they’re hoping to push people to the edge and then manufacture a civil disobedience crisis that will require them to step in and restore order thru martial law - and that American Kristallnacht will be the end

A few related comments. From OnsightIT

The Wall is a ruse to create an impasse with the Democrats. The shutdown is permanent.

From Old Man Down The Road:

What you are talking about Sarah is a man so toxic that a government shutdown is a win-win for him.
Shutdown continues...WIN!
Gets wall money........WIN!

From Luna Dyana:

Actually TSA workers have leverage. If they went on (wildcat) strike, it would close down air terminals. Shutdown would be over w/in hours. Workers have leverage but labor has been so weakened that they don’t know how to use it

Kendzior again:

It feels like there are two parallel political Twitters: the one of 2020 candidates running in a flawed yet essentially stable future US. And the current reality: a constitutional crisis, a catastrophic federal shutdown, and an existential threat to our country's survival.

Many have asked why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has essentially disappeared. The reason is one I’ve given several times. He and the rest of the GOP as well as all their financial backers want what the nasty guy is selling. They’ve been working towards this for about 40 years.