WTF, AFGE? 🤬
wherein I find myself agreeing with Hillary's right arm

Democrats are winning the shutdown. Now comes the hard part.

President Donald Trump’s complete indifference to the suffering of others has made the situation worse. Earlier this month, he threatened his political opponents with apparent glee: “We’ll be cutting some very popular Democrat programs that aren’t popular with Republicans, frankly, because that’s the way it works. They [Democrats] wanted to do this. So we’ll give them a little taste of their own medicine.”

Now, the White House is refusing to tap into emergency funds to ensure that Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits — formerly known as food stamps — are available to those in need.

Not surprisingly, some Democratic allies are calling on the party to fold. Earlier this week, the American Federation of Government Employees (or AFGE), the largest federal employees union, called on Democrats to end the shutdown.

way to play into Trump's framing, you dumbasses

The AFGE’s shift in position is to be expected, given that its more than 800,000 members are not getting paid. But if the union thought its call would move Democrats, its hopes were quickly dashed.

“We want to find a bipartisan agreement that reopens the government immediately,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. But he added, “Our position has not changed over the last several weeks.” Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen issued a statement that continued to lay the blame for the shutdown on Republicans: “Trump should spend less time traveling around the world and more time negotiating an end to his shutdown,” said Van Hollen.

Even more revealing was the response from Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, “ The issue that I’ve always been focused on ... is a deal, a deal? And the AFGE would not want us to cut a deal and then have Trump fire a bunch of people next week. If we cut a deal and then he did that, they would come to us and say, ‘What the hell were you guys thinking?’”

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/democrats-shutdown-win-trump-food-stamps-rcna240885

Democrats are winning the shutdown. Now comes the hard part.

Democrats shut down the federal government to force Republicans to negotiate an extension for Obamacare premium subsidies. Polls are in their favor, but getting a deal is harder.

^{Michael A. Cohen (MSNBC)}