The US grinds to a halt

How is it possible that the (still) most powerful country in the world is shuddering to a halt because Congress has failed to reach an agreement over Donald Trump's finance legislation and as a result the government has been shut down for more than five weeks. It's embarrassing, humiliating and disastrous for milllions of Americans. The Transportation Department has just announced that dozens of flights are being cancelled because there are not enough air traffic controllers actually working. This will have a huge impact on the ecnomy, and yet Congress has still not budged, and Trump has other things on his mind. It could go on for weeks and weeks more unless Congress comes to its senses. How can this happen? It's the longest government shutdown in US history. What sort of legacy is that for Trump. He needs to devote his energies to getting this sorted out, unless for some reason he thinks a shutdown is a good way of getting rid of more federal workers. Ah, that has to be it. FORGET ABOUT EVERYTHING GOING WRONG AND BUY MY NEW SPY THRILLER, AGENT REDRUTH WHICH HAS BEEN HAILED AS A BRILLIANT PLOT WITH WONDERFUL CHARACTERS. BUY FROM AMAZON, ROWANVALE BOOKS, WATERSTONES ETC