How do either of the means I mentioned to get around the debt ceiling "risk 230 years of democratic principle." They are actions the executive is authorized to do by laws the congress has passed. They are for a goal the majority of the people, the majority of the senate, and even the majority of the congress supports. (If a "clean" CR and a "clean" raise in the debt ceiling were brought to the floor of the House they would pass. ) And they are completely legal. They are a creative solution to a small minority violating all sorts of legislative norms. (Holding the budget hostage violates norms. Holding the debt ceiling hostage violates major norms.)

I don't see how meeting massive violation of norms with creative but completely workable workarounds "risks democracy".

Aaand NRAO (Nat'l Radio Astronomy Observatory) North America just went dark for the shutdown.

Been seeing the occasional obnoxious comments grousing about websites being down; a friend in IT security at Goddard had a nice rant about it. They aren't doing it to make a point, they are doing it (at least at Goddard) because of security rules. No security staff? Lock down the servers so they can't be hacked by opportunists. Which means reroute to a public server with a closedown notice and take the main servers offline.

There's no internut without people, man.

JPL is still up and running, and I'm not sure how that looks to the outside world. Internal NASA webpages were working for me for basic info like the directory on Thursday.

Also, it costs money for sites to be up, no? If they aren't supposed to be spending money they don't have....

Of course, just the other day I finally realized I'm not on the Do Not Call list, and that's my problem, but yeah, no -- that's down.

Yes, a fucking temper tantrum on the part of the Republicans. (Sane Republicans in the House share the blame for enabling and not fighting the crazies.)

Not funny only because the consequences are so terrible and the stakes so high. Like the Three Stooges with rabies.

If nothing else, this is slapping some people in the face with how much the government does. "We don't need them--what do you mean I can't access XYZ.com! I can't function without XYZ.com!"

I cannots talk about real stuff, possibly getting tipsy. I did make my bourbon tea in a large Sonic glass, so there's that.

what things do I need to put on my wish list? favorite things in your house? GO!

Also, it costs money for sites to be up, no?

Well, you gotta pay people. And electric bills (though those are no doubt still being paid. It's not total lights out- JWST cryo testing went into safe mode, should be ok for a couple weeks before they'll have to start warming it back up and start over.)

We're still up, but we're a hybrid/ a couple layers from NASA direct. There's both the budget monies we already have in hand and AURA's resources to float us.

JPL is still looking like JPL, but there's a notice the site isn't being updated and queries will not be responded to. You've probably got enough outside funding to have basic IT still running. Just not officially under the JPL/NASA logo.

Same thing with DOE -- it's up, but not being updated. Also, husband is taking the customs broker exam on Monday, and some of the websites he'd be using for reference aren't available.

A friend works for a NASA thing through CalTech, and although she is still working/getting paid, she was told not to update their project's facebook page, because it's part of the shutdown. Even though that's part of her job. Bizarreness!