It's hard to tell what is and isn't a policy directive now that President Trump is in charge. But his recent threat to shut down the government unless Congress appropriates money for the border wall seems like a serious one. In order to do this, Senate and House Republicans will have to unite their caucus to not only pass a spending bill, but raise the federal debt ceiling in order to make those spending bills possible.

I'm a seasoned political blogger, and I've already gone over what happens in a government shut down, and what the debt limit is. Everything old is new again and all that jazz, if you will.

In 11th grade, my history teacher told us about Edmund G. Ross, who was the deciding vote against Andrew Johnson's impeachment in 1868. He was the last of seven Republican Senators to break with their party, and establish the precedent that you can't impeach someone just because you don't agree with their policies. My history teacher said that when Ross cast his vote, he felt like he was looking into the coffin of his political career.

And it was true. Ross was voted out of office the next chance his constituents got. He later moved to New Mexico to die (and serve as the governor), as many disgraced politicians do.

It's no secret how I feel about dramatic and poorly thought out cuts to government spending. The government subsidizes a wide variety of necessary programs that are often cut because most Americans do not ever feel the impact of the spending. Because if you've never been hungry or homeless, $122 million dollars for emergency shelter and food, may sound like a waste.

Until you consider that $122 million dollars is for, among other things, people who are without shelter due to natural disasters and other events completely outside of anyone's control. We've all seen enough hurricanes, floods, fires, and other severe weather events. If you have lost your home in a forest fire, that $122 million won't be a waste to you anymore. But unfortunately, some people will realize the necessary of this Emergency Food and Shelter Board Program too late.

On principle, I do not follow *shudder* President Trump on Twitter, but even I didn't miss his SEE YOU IN COURT tweet that he published after his discriminatory Muslim ban was blocked by a federal court in California, after it was halted by a judge in Washington. While this tweet showed a surprising grasp of the judicial system for a man who may think Fredrick Douglass is still alive, the whole case raised some questions for me. Why did one federal judge in Washington, and later a circuit court in California, have the power to block a ruling across the nation?

First, it's been awhile for a blog update, and that's because I've been working on Call Them In, an email reminder service that makes it easy to call your Senators and make your voice heard on progressive legislation. We do the research, find the Senators and write the scripts, all you need to do is make the call. Please sign up to stay informed with what's happening in Washington and how you can make a difference. Now without further ado, the news!

The only reason I write about abortion as much as I do, is because it keeps coming up in the news. Believe me, I would love if we all accepted that Roe v. Wade was a settled issue and states stopped passing things that threatened access to safe and legal abortion. But that's not the world we live in, and it's not the world we've lived in for many years.

This week, Ohio made the news when the state legislature passed both a 20-week abortion ban, and a bill that banned abortion after a fetus had a detectable heartbeat, which is around six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant. Governor Kasich vetoed the heartbeat bill, but signed the 20-week ban into law. 

There has been a lot of articles about how people can get involved following the election of Donald Trump. I've seen a lot of articles with very good advice, and I am not going to try to sum it all up, or present a new take. This is just my opinion, as one political blogger. I hope it helps direct you into some action you may want to take.

Every single Congressperson is up for reelection in 2018, so no matter where you live, there’s work to be done. You can sign up to volunteer with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and work for Democrats in your hometown. If you feel Representative reflects your values, help them continue to do that work. If they have a primary challenger who you think would better reflect their values, volunteer for that challenger. If your Representative made one mistake, but is otherwise in line with your views, think hard before you sit out the 2018 midterms.