NEWS: Speaker Pelosi asks President Trump to reschedule State of the Union address because of the partial government shutdown
— Robert Costa (@costareports) January 16, 2019
Good for Speaker Pelosi:
Damn. I mean… damn. pic.twitter.com/MZl3nLcEct
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) January 16, 2019
Pelosi argued that the security issues surrounding SOTU are "completely out of my hands" and told reporters Trump "can make it from the Oval Office if he wants.”
— Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) January 16, 2019
.@KateBolduan asks @LeaderHoyer if @SpeakerPelosi is essentially saying the State of the Union on the Hill is canceled.
"Yep!" he responds, later adding: "The State of the Union is off."
Any chance Trump could convince them otherwise?
"No."
(Full exchange below) pic.twitter.com/6a9QMy31LT
— Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) January 16, 2019
Pelosi’s letter effectively cancelling the State of the Union is a reminder:
a) she has tons of leverage
b) she knows pressure points
C) she can snap her fingers and seek Trump’s tax returns.— Damian Paletta (@damianpaletta) January 16, 2019
Betty Cracker
THIS is why Pelosi is the speaker we need right now. I wonder who had to break it to Trump that he won’t get TV time to yammer for 45 minutes about how great he is. Good lord, if people like Javanka, Huckabee Sanders, Conway, Mulvaney, etc., had souls, I’d pity them.
Jager
Bet the Fat Boy is pissed!
TaMara (HFG)
Hey, all you Pelosi haters (not here, but you know, pundits, etc) suck it!
MattF
Yes, Pelosi knows all about narcissism. Deals with it every day
Sasha
Of course, there is the option that Trump will deliver the SOTU on the 29th anyway, unpaid Secret Service agents be damned.
If so, the optics will be glorious.
jeffreyw
@Jager:
Nonsense! I am pleased as Punch!
ByRookorbyCrook
He can deliver his low-energy SotU from the Oval Office with no cheering congressional lickspittles or guests to highlight his pompous self-importance. Nancy SMASH just told him he is not welcome to the spectacle of the SotU, like a Mom sending her toddler to timeout.
Punchy
Any chance he delivers the speech from the steps of Mar-a-lago? Would the networks be forced to broadcast it?
japa21
@Sasha: He can deliver it, but it won’t be to the Congress.
mapaghimagsik
This is great. I love seeing her exercise power in this way.
Geeno
If Pelosi has rescinded her invitation to him to speak, doesn’t that mean that Needy Amin is supposed to stay in the gallery like any other visitor?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
hehe now that is some quality Nancy Smash. Talk about punishing and framing it as the other party is acting juvenile.
TaMara (HFG)
@Punchy: Wouldn’t it be great if he announced that and then nobody but Faux News covered it after that spectacle the other night? I might break out the champagne I’ve been saving for his indictments.
Mai Naem mobile
I love Nancy Pelosi.
Spanky
@Punchy: Let me be the first to predict he’ll give the SotU from a balcony somewhere. And make no mistake – the networks WILL broadcast it. They just can’t say no.
Wag
@Sasha:
Sure, he could deliver a speech on the 29th from the Oval Office or other place of his choosing, but he wouldn’t have the adoring crowds of GOP Senators and Representatives to applaud every line, no Supreme Court Justices to nod sagely, no ability to point to the rafters to carefully chosen guests, and any locale chosen would lack the political gravitas of the Capitol.
And any claim that he tries to make that his MAGA rally speech is just as important will be a joke.
Spanky
Oooh!
They got down to it right fast!
piratedan
have the distinct feeling that this letter from Pelosi just shitcanned the planned SOTU speech that Miller was cranking out…. Trump NEEDS his public platform, Nancy just told him to go find his own fucking shinebox and do it anywhere but her front porch.
Barbara
@Spanky:
That seems really close.
Spanky
Aaaaand –
So Theresa May survives to fuck up another day.
Barbara, Close doesn’t count, sadly. And I do think it was closer than last no-confidence vote just a couple(?) of weeks ago.
jl
Good for Pelosi. Why is this vile crook Trump still allowed to hijack the country?
She should have been more resolute. Finally for once, I agree with that damned Hoyer, just tell the loathsome illegitimate Trump that he gets no speech, and he can send his damned letter. Unlike him, people in Congress can read whatever his lying incompetent flunkies throw up on paper.
But news said Hoyer ‘misspoke’.
If Trump wants to babble from Oval Office, Pelosi should say it is just his PR stunt, has nothing to do with his Constitutional duty to transmit a message to Congress.
laura
I’m thrilled that Nancy Smash has her House in order. Let the malign camera hog and resident goebbels whine about the unfairness of it all.
dmsilev
@Sasha:
I have this vision of Trump showing up to the House chambers on the evening of the 29th, discovering that the door is locked because everyone went home two hours earlier, and pulling futilely at the door knob (ignoring, of course, the sign reading ‘push’).
Sasha
Trump hasn’t been disinvited. Still has a wonderful chance to bloviate in front of a live studio audience — who will be reminded that Trump insisted on the Secret Service providing him protection without pay thanks to his showdown.
It’s always fun to watch someone gleefully stick their head into a noose of their own making.
WereBear
And… loving it.
Elizabelle
I love Nancy Smash.
And time to get this shutdown over with. Day 26. I think a lot of families are getting into dire straits if it goes on much longer.
SFAW
I’m kind of appalled at the lack of respect That Woman is showing him. Shrill!
ETA: Did I write “appalled”? I meant “thrilled.”
JustRuss
My prediction is he’ll schedule a rally paid for by his supporters to deliver the SOTU, and demand the networks carry it live. Fox will agree of course, the others will tell him to pound sand if anyone with a spine is running them. Not sure which way to bet on that.
Fleeting Expletive
So glad I sprang for the Wonkette tshirt with Nancy Pelosi astride a big ol’ Harley: “Ride or Die” and I’m proud to wear it.
Our fine rough tough military generals can’t seem to steer him, but Grandmothers and probably millions of teachers could.
Luthe
@JustRuss:
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Surely you jest.
different-church-lady
@Spanky: If it’s a balcony in Argentina, I’m all for it.
Doug Gardner
@Geeno:
is fucking brilliant, even though I had to read it twice (and out loud) to get it.
zhena gogolia
She knows the operations of the government inside out.
He knows nothing.
West of the Rockies
Perhaps he could deliver his speech at the Berlin Sportpalast.
different-church-lady
@Spanky: I’m sure it must have happened somewhere along the way, but has a British PM ever survived two no confidence votes so close together?
The Moar You Know
That’s not asking. That’s informing someone they’re not welcome.
I love her.
@Sasha: Not from Congress. That’s Pelosi’s call. And she just made it.
He can do it from the Oval Office or from a McDonald’s if he wants. But not from Congress, not with Congress or the Supreme Court in attendance.
Fleeting Expletive
@SFAW: Oh, yeah, I’m waiting for that response. No respect, I tell you, no respect.
Oh, hi there. Rep. Joe Walsh. And Justice Sam Alito. Tell us about the sanctity of the State of the Union speech.
I’m enjoying bitter schadenfreude today. Mostly I’m hungry though.
Kent
This is why Pelosi is speaker. She is damn good. And I also like how she let Hoyer be the enforcer.
Of COURSE Trump can give any kind of speech he wants from anywhere he wants. But if he tries to do anything else the optics are going to be horrid on every network other than FOX and all the institutional talking heads they always roll out like Susan Stamberg and Dorris Kearns Goodwin will be tut tutting about how “dimished” Trump is in comparison to the “greats” who commanded the grand stage of an address to both houses of Congress with all the traditional pomp and circumstance that goes with it. Trump loves him some good pomp and circumstance. He’s been lusting after a military parade after all. He can’t be happy with the idea of a “rump” address from the oval office. Who the hell is going to watch a 1-hour address from the oval office written by Steven Miller? It will have the worst ratings ever.
Jeffro
@JustRuss:
I think you’re 110% correct. And he’ll look like the world’s biggest toddler giving it when he gets up there.
ruemara
In the interest of you having a good day, here’s a kitten pic. From november 2017 in their first month.
Jeffro
On a side note: we need much more of this kind of reporting, please: Congressional Republicans Also Caught By Russia/Protecting trumpov
The article then goes on to name the usual suspects: Graham, McConnell, Nunes, etc
THIS. Let’s get everyone in the country wondering why these rats are still hanging out on a sinking ship.
hedgehog mobile
Good for Nancy Smash. Not only is she not playing, shes’s not normalizing Fuckface von Clownstick. I love her.
Kelly
Would the Turtle invite him to speak to the Senate instead?
geg6
@Jeffro:
And they voted today to protect Oleg Derepaska. Fuck the optics, they said.
Gin & Tonic
@different-church-lady: On my way there, actually, and will be there on the 29th. Maybe I should keep an eye out.
Aleta
@ruemara: cat magic
Gravenstone
@Sasha: Not from the floor of the House, he won’t. Let him pout from somewhere in the White House.
piratedan
@Jeffro: gotta love how a President getting a blowjob by a supposedly willing intern that wasn’t even what their investigation was about, is the same as violations of campaign finance law and treason
gotta love our context free media
Sasha
@The Moar You Know:
He hasn’t been disinvited. But now he has the option of:
(a) rescheduling the SOTU and looking even more like a fool for having to reschedule because of his own shutdown,
(b) delivering from the Oval Office where he can’t soak up that sweet, sweet adulation from the GOP caucus,
(c) delivering at a rally where he’ll look diminished,
(d) submitting the SOTU in writing and not be on TV at all,
(e) ending the shutdown so he can deliver the SOTU on schedule, or
(f) not end the shutdown and deliver the SOTU on schedule, and have a bunch of Secret Service agents provide a lot of extra and unpaid security and protection.
Whatever the option, the optics suck and he owns them. Hell of a Morton’s Fork there.
Kelly
@Jeffro: Wut? The Oregonian skeptical of Republicans?
gvg
@Jeffro: that is also actually slight evidence that Pence isn’t compromised.
hells littlest angel
It’s so unfair of her to cancel the speech he was going to give about how unfairly Democrats treat him.
Gravenstone
@jl: Because she’s being an adult, and using the prospect of a SotU address as a carrot. Be a good boy Donnie and stop this shutdown business. Then we’ll let you talk to the grownups. You can even have your cake and ice cream after.
hells littlest angel
@Jeffro: “He’s on a pee tape! And HE’S on a pee tape! And HE’S on a pee tape!”
And the box set includes some deleted scat scenes.
NotMax
Claiming a long overdue need for equal time, Dolt 45 announces he’ll be giving a State of the Confederacy address.
// // // // //
Cacti
Outstanding move by Nancy Smash.
The Dotard can address the American people whenever he likes. But she doesn’t have to let him use the people’s house as the backdrop for his fire hose of lies, while his security detail works for free.
Yarrow
I love how Nancy SMASH owns leading one house of the co-equal branch of government.
The Midnight Lurker
So I’m watching the Senate confirmation hearings on William Barr, the guy going for the top cop slot, and I have a few takeaways…
1. Isn’t familiar with our current immigration policies, so he can’t render an opinion on issues that have already been decided by a court of law.
2. Isn’t familiar with the emolument clause, so he has no opinion on that either.
3. Thinks it’s okay to imprison journalists if they write something that is ‘harmful’ to the U.S. Government.
4. Thinks mass incarcerations for drug offenses is a good way of getting gangs off the street. Especially in those in ‘inner cities’, like Chicago.
5. Thinks that the current judicial system has no racial bias, AT ALL.
In other news… BENGHAZI!!!! A Federal judge has ruled that Clinton, Rice, and ten other State Dept. officials will be disposed over the Secretaries’ use of a private e-mail server. According to Jim I-look-the-other-way-when-little-boys-are-being-molested-by-my-staff Jordan, this is a great day for transparency!
I agree! Because if we can dispose Clinton over her use of a private server, we can dispose Ivanka too. Maybe that’s why Trump’s Justice Dept. AND State Dept. objected to this ruling.
IMPEACH THE MOFO!
rikyrah
@ByRookorbyCrook:
Tee hee hee
catclub
Nielsen of DHS immediately stated that the SS can still cover security for the speech.
I wonder who in the WH pushed for that to happen.
catclub
@The Midnight Lurker: I am pretty sure that judicail watch shopped this case around until they got the wackaloon judge they needed.
ETA: also, depose, not dispose for depositions
PJ
@piratedan: Come on, getting a consensual blow job from an intern is far worse – think of how it degrades the Office of the Presidency!
I’m kidding, but this was the argument the pearl-clutchers were making 20 years ago, and I’d guess for the David Brooks’ and Cokie Roberts’ of this world, it is how they feel now. Trump is still a Republican, and a businessman, and no matter the extent of his fraudulent, money-laundering, country-betraying behavior, he is still basically good and good for the country, certainly compared with that white trash Clinton.
different-church-lady
@NotMax:
SFAW
@catclub:
Doesn’t SS work out of Treasury? Or has that changed?
Gin & Tonic
@geg6: And St Bernard declined to vote.
chopper
@japa21:
he’s probably going to deliver the speech at the border in front of a section of border wall.
Roger Moore
@Sasha:
He can’t do it in front of a joint session of Congress without Pelosi’s permission. The Senate chambers are too small for a joint session, so it would have to be in the House. As Speaker, Pelosi controls what happens in the House. Congress is a coequal branch of government, and the President has no right to dictate terms to them as if he’s the boss and they’re his minions. If the Speaker chooses to invite the President and Senate to an event in her chamber, that’s her right, but she also has the right to revoke that invitation. If the President shows up uninvited, the Speaker has every right to lock the door and tell him to go to hell.
Aleta
And he’s blocked (so far) (by his own side) from the Republican presidential signal that says he’s above-you-all indifferent. News photos of his golf swing.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jager:
Good.
catclub
@Spanky:
The last No Confidence vote was taken within the Conservative party.
This vote was more asking the question: Do you really want to give Corbyn a chance to form a government? And the answer from (presumably) every single Conservative party member (plus a few others), was …no.
Very unlike the Brexit bill vote.
The Midnight Lurker
@catclub: Thanks. And sorry for the spelling. I had to help my wife bring in the groceries while I was editing. I didn’t catch the spel-check sub. I suck at spelling anyway. Never learned phonics.
Ladyraxterinok
@Sasha: Where? Oval office? Senate chamber?
If Pelosi says no, won’t be in House, right?
catclub
@SFAW: I am not sure. I am betting if Pelosi says they are not funded, she is right.
Treasury is unfunded, hence IRS furloughed workers have to be called back to issue refunds.
catclub
@The Midnight Lurker: huked on foniks wurked fur me.
chopper
@Ladyraxterinok:
yertle could invite him to address the senate, but the senate chambers are small. much, much smaller crowd.
randy khan
@different-church-lady:
There are lots of balconies in Moscow. Just saying.
lumpencommentarian
@Sasha: He’ll do F. He won’t even hesitate.
SFAW
Oh noes, MINORITY Leader McCarthy has said that SPEAKER Pelosi is “playing politics,” and said her conduct is “unbecoming.”
Not sure if I’m feeling Schadenfreude, but I’m liking it. I think, for times when those motherfuckers self-own, the term might be Shartenfreude, but I’m not sure it parses.
lumpencommentarian
@Doug Gardner: Seconded.
kindness
Watching rightwingers react in horror is soothing. I love me some Nancy SMASH!
Gravenstone
@randy khan: Maybe he can be in a bathtub as he’s giving his speech. Saves the trouble of finding on to drop on him later.
danielx
I love the smell of napalm in the afternoon.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@dmsilev: Will the headless ghost of King Charles I be standing next Trump then?
Jeffro
WIRED just dropped one heck of a story: The president* must be a Russian agent-the alternative is actually worse
For realz!
meander
Pelosi’s letter seems like an invitation to “Meme Genies” to create some meme that show hostage takers trying to do normal things while pointing a gun at the head of the hostage. For example, a text bubble for the hostage taker on the phone asking about something boring, like “what’s the thread count of the harvest color sheets on sale this week?” or “I need to set up an appointment for a tune up on my Honda Civic”.
Has anyone made such things yet?
The Moar You Know
@SFAW: She meant the Schutzstaffel, not the Secret Service. The confusion is understandable.
dmsilev
@SFAW: Secret Service was moved from Treasury to DHS when the latter was established.
Not that it makes a difference in the current situation; both departments are part of the shutdown.
catclub
I’m hoping for a, ‘slowly, and then all at once’ kind of thing.
at TPM
catclub
@dmsilev:
also Coast Guard was moved out of DOD [which is funded] into DHS. I bet they are thanking GWBush for that, now.
different-church-lady
@Jeffro:
Worse it is, then.
The Midnight Lurker
@catclub: Thanks for the tip! Now I’ll be able to spell hamberder and cofefe!
(Spell-Check fought me hard on those.)
H.E.Wolf
@meander:
I’d just as soon not turn the pointing of guns at people’s heads into a cutesy meme.
Gravenstone
@The Midnight Lurker: I believe it’s covfefe. Still, spellcheck is a difficult demon to vanquish at times.
PJ
@different-church-lady:
Unfortunately, Trump is not an either/or, but a both: an ignorant, malignant narcissist and a completely compromised Russian asset.
Steve in the ATL
@different-church-lady: DAMN GURL
EthylEster
Somebody I have never heard of wrote:
So…is this true?
I saw a recent headline in either NYT or WaPo that implied that it was not as straight forward as a finger snap.
I really hate it when someone shoots off mouth and actually knows nothing.
I want to see the tax returns.
So how easy/hard is it?
Aleta
A woman corrected him in public. Now’s she’s said No to him in front of everyone. Even though he’s the owner of the government!! How to get even? Well, at least no one can stop him taking out his anger on women housekeeping staff at his properties.
different-church-lady
@EthylEster: I dunno, but I’d like to see her snap her fingers and try it.
sukabi
@catclub: is she personally paying them?
SFAW
@dmsilev:
I kind of had a feeling that might be the case. Thanks!
EthylEster
@Jeffro: from the article
I think the phrase is useful idiot.
But these days, who cares?
Certainly not our media overlords.
SFAW
@Kelly:
On the “plus” side: I read about 30 of the comments, almost all of the RWMF comments are barely intelligible (in the sense of grammar, construction, parse-ability), far more than the usual.
Brachiator
@different-church-lady:
Don’t cry for me, Nan Pelosi
The truth is, I’m always lying
All through my shutdown, my mad existence
I’ll buy you burgers
Don’t keep your distance
JustRuss
@Jeffro:
Anyone else, I’d say he’s definitely compromised. But I can totally believe that Trump just doesn’t want the Ruskies getting credit for his yoooge, wonderful, unprecedented electoral victory.
sukabi
@EthylEster: pretty sure when all is said and done EVERYONE including the Russians will agree that he’s useless.
Repatriated
@EthylEster: Wait.
Is the whole reason for the shutdown just to keep the IRS from being able to respond to a House subpoena of the tax returns?
sukabi
@Brachiator: bravo!
But shouldn’t it be berders?
Mnemosyne
@catclub:
I think I see where this is going. Sec. Nielsen will very shortly be called to testify in the House that she can guarantee the president’s safety during the shutdown, and if she doesn’t show, no speech.
Since Nielsen has been dodging the new House committees, this is a potentially interesting way to force her to show up. Does she refuse and have to tell Trump that he doesn’t get his showcase, or does she appear and yet publicly grilled? Decisions, decisions …
Immanentize
@EthylEster:
You are clearly at the wrong blog.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
I suppose Pelosi should consider inviting Putin to deliver the SOTU. Straight from the horse’s mouth, right?
Roger Moore
@catclub:
Not quite. The Coast Guard was part of DOT before being moved to DHS. They’ve been shuffled around between departments an amazing amount depending on what role they’re seen as serving. During wartime, they’re part of DOD. When we’re worried about smuggling, they’re part of Treasury. When we’re worried about safe navigation, they’re part of Transportation. When we’re worried about terrorists, they were made part of Homeland Security.
Roger Moore
@EthylEster:
She has to collect the infinity stones and put them in the gauntlet first.
Mike in NC
Instead of the SOTU — filled with nonstop lies — Fat Bastard may just schedule one of his feel-good rallies in a red state. Keeps him off our TVs.
FlyingToaster
@EthylEster: Technically, it’s Maxine Waters and her committee who hold the supoena power, and I’m pretty sure the House Leadership’s strategy is to add one damn thing at a time to the scale oppressing Trump until he fucking caves. Today it’s the SOTU. Tomorrow it will be something else. Assume the tax returns after the “Putin Meeting Notes”, though I could be wrong on which order things get called for.
emmyelle
She didn’t ask. Now, Seth Moulton would have asked. But Nancy, she didn’t ask.
Miss Bianca
@meander: No, but just the thought of it made me snortle out loud, I must confess.
EthylEster
@Immanentize:
Yeah, I re-wrote my post several times to try to minimize the appearance of calling out anyone here.
dmsilev
@Roger Moore:
Fixed that for you.
JPL
@EthylEster: IMO if the house attempts to get the tax returns, trump will tie it up in the court system until the next election. It’s just my opinion though.
EthylEster
@FlyingToaster wrote:
But is this subpoena power absolute?
I mean, can the committee (or anyone!) actually get DJT’s tax returns?
This is my question. I gave in and searched for an answer.
The link below is informative…..though not very encouraging IMO. (Also, too, I tried the link button but it did not work…no text appeared. So I just pasted in the naked URL and, presto changeo, the link is clickable. Yay.)
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/jan/02/can-house-democrats-release-donald-trumps-tax-retu/
rikyrah
@Brachiator:
????
Sloane Ranger
There must be large rooms in the White House with soldiers in nice uniforms and at least some staff. What’s to stop him from delivering the SOTU from the WH and inviting Congresspeople, Senators, SCOTUS and guests along to hear it? I imagine he’d get all the Republicans to attend as well as most of the Justices.
That would give him a pretty impressive backdrop for his speech, give him own turf advantage and allow him to claim that he’s not creating additional security problems as the SS would be there protecting him anyway.
That could be spun as a successful riposte by the politics should be treated like sport media crowd.
Not being difficult but wondering how that might play.
JoyceH
Title of blog post – tell me I’m not the only one here who recognizes the lyrics to Wake Up Little Susie.
zhena gogolia
@JustRuss:
Oh, he’s compromised all right.
EthylEster
@JPL wrote:
Yeah, that is the bottom line in the article I cited above.
But that’s why I am frustrated by folks who write that it’s just a matter of snapping fingers.
Tim C.
@Kelly: Does the Oregronian even really exist any more? But seriously, starting in the 90s, the editorial board has had a very hard time pretending the Republican party is anything but a bunch of ding-bat extremists. They really really really really want to be moderate, tolerant Republicans.
Related note, My daughter wants to be Rainbow Dash on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
different-church-lady
What can you even say?
FlyingToaster
@EthylEster: The optics go very badly for Trump if he adds fighting a supoena to his pile o shit. And as soon as enough Senate Republicans feel that this will cost them either their re-election or their post-Senate K Street jobs, they’ll dump him the same way they did Nixon.
What Pelosi et.al. have been particularly adept at is making sure that Trump steps on his own dick.
different-church-lady
@Mnemosyne:
“We need wall. Around house.”
Fleeting Expletive
@JoyceH: Not at all. Love the Everly Brothers.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@different-church-lady: If the GoP is your stupid stepdad’s party, so then Facebook is his social media of choice..
Brachiator
@FlyingToaster:
Unlikely. The Republicans have shown fairly remarkable discipline in backing Trump. They stand — or fall — with him. Hell, even the GOP money men are quiet, biting their tongues. Fox News is, well, Fox News.
Of course, the GOP’s additional problem is that a chunk of the leadership may also be willing or unwitting Putin Stooges. Nobody is going to ‘fess up.
Rand Careaga
@catclub: Correction: the Coast Guard went to DHS from the Department of Transportation, not from Defense.
Brachiator
@Sloane Ranger:
This might actually work. Trump could even serve burgers and pizza. It would still look tacky. The STOU is to be delivered to representatives of the entire country, not just selected guests.
I’m still holding out for “Live, from Mar-a-Lago! The New State of the Union Extravaganza!!” With dancing girls and spotlights. And a lucky guest will win a set of golf clubs (used), presented by Miss SOTU, Ivanka Trump!
Chief Oshkosh
@JPL:
Maybe, but since Needy Amin is making sooo many friends right now over at the IRS, it could go another way. Maybe the subpoena goes to the right person, say, someone who is sitting on a digital copy of Turdburglar’s Golden Fleece. She hits “Send” the nanosecond that Nancy Smash’s polite request arrives in the email Inbox. Given the level of incompetency at Hair Furvor’s Beauty Salon and Fast Food Emporium, his email to the head of the IRS somehow goes into the spam bin, or better yet, bounces (as many of Drumpf’s checks have). Who knows why? After all, all the IT guys are furloughed…
Mandalay
@EthylEster:
The original claim in the tweet was “she can snap her fingers and seek Trump’s tax returns” and I haven’t seen anything to refute that, apart from the technicality that it would actually be the chair of the Committee on Ways and Means making the request rather than Pelosi.
However, you have been conflating that with Pelosi actually obtaining Trump’s tax returns and you personally being able to see Trump’s tax returns.
Those are three different kettles of fish, and I don’t really understand why you are making a big deal of the original tweet which seems fairly accurate. I think you have read far more into that tweet than it actually said.
Brachiator
@different-church-lady:
I have to admit that I am a little surprised that the number is so high. But I wonder whether part of this is because a lot of people just “live in Facebook” and maybe visit a few other sites, but never look at anything about how the Internet works or read any tech stories.
Did the story say what age groups were surveyed?
debbie
Still no tweet about this. Someone must have tied him down.
NotoriousJRT
@Wag:
He’ll hold a rally.
Steve in the ATL
@different-church-lady: timeshare sales reps are targeting the hell out of those people!
Steve in the ATL
@JoyceH: I got your back, even though they were way before my time
sdhays
@Brachiator:
The ASSet is not a skilled enough showman to put together something like that. Anything with any kind of actual sophisticated stage management that he’s been associated with has been run by other people. He doesn’t have those people working for him anymore, and dancing girls and spotlights would distract from the main event anyway – the ASSet himself.
randy khan
@Brachiator:
This is right to a point, which is that the Republicans, like the Nixon-era Republicans, are standing firm. But that doesn’t mean that they will keep standing firm. As I’ve said since the beginning of the Administration, it is likely that they will solidly support him right up to the moment they all (or nearly all) swing against him. In fact, they probably will stand with him until they decide it’s in their interests to dump him, and with McConnell as their leader, you can be sure it will be a calculated decision. And if it is going to happen (which, unfortunately, it may not), we won’t know it’s coming beforehand.
I don’t much like that, but it’s how things probably are. The consolation I take from this is that 1974 suggests that they will jump a bit too late, and will pay for it.
plato
@Brachiator:
Without your sugarcoating.
Mnemosyne
@different-church-lady:
What, they thought that magical fairies were bringing them ads based on their secret wishes and not the stories/pages they looked at?
Maybe Facebook needs to be banned on the basis that most people are too stupid to realize how it works. I get lots of ads for author stuff because that’s what I post and read about, and I’m actually pretty careful to make sure I only click on or search for things on Facebook that I don’t mind getting ads for.
Bill Arnold
@Aleta:
Well, at least no one can stop him taking out his anger on women housekeeping staff at his properties.
Phones surreptitiously recording, perhaps.
I for sure would record all interactions with DJT, if possible.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
My current working assumption is that all of the Republican “money men” have been fronts for Russian political money laundering starting around 2010, whether wittingly or unwittingly. That’s why they’re so quiet.
IMO, It’s not that the Kochs and Mercer’s have been spending their own billions on elections and think tanks. They’re cheap bastards. I think they’ve been happily spending Putin’s money and claiming it was theirs, and laughing up their sleeves at the stupid Democrats who can’t figure out why Republicans have so much more money.
sukabi
@sdhays: pretty sure his cold hamberder spread is all the proof you need for that.
trnc
@Geeno:
Not sure what you mean. There’s no event (at least, not in the House chamber). He can either deliver a report to congress or he can put the show on from the Oval Office.
trnc
@Brachiator:
Like he or any of his congressional enablers care how it’s supposed to be done.
trnc
@Sasha: Good catch. Thanks.
hitchhiker
His constitutional requirement is to report to the congress from time to time. If he gives a rally speech or stages a love-in somewhere, it won’t satisfy that requirement. He’d still need to deliver that report.
I just saw some mooks on twitter insisting that this is evidence that she’s LOSING the shutdown fight, because if she were winning she’d be eager to let him hang himself with more talk. (I know, I know.)
What’s funny is that all she’s doing is behaving like a person who is trying to get the government to work. It’s so nuts that this comes across as refreshing and bold.
Skepticat
@Geeno:
Thank you for this. Made my day.
Mohagan
@JoyceH: I knew I knew the lyrics but had to Google them to get the song name (sigh). Getting old sucks.
Zinsky
To have this orange spray-painted pig get on TV for 45 minutes and yammer on about how “strong our Union is” in this moment, is beyond obscene. What a sad joke…
Kathleen
@JoyceH: You are not alone. ETA Love the Everly Brothers.
Bonnie
Working without pay is called “slavery.”
worn
@Kelly: Do folks still turn to The Oregonian for anything news-wise? Last physical copy I held in my hands was a tabloid sheet with. about 8 pages. Hell, the damn Willy Week is more substantive than that.
It is with no joy that I ask the question. I come from a newspaper family and the utter decimation of the industry in the last 10 years or so just makes me sad. That said, the O wasn’t that great of a newspaper back in the day. But it was a real newspaper, despite its conservative leanings, not the hollowed-out husk that I currently see on the newsstand. Sigh…
Gex
@Bonnie: No. Slavery was much more than that. People can look for new work. They aren’t OWNED AS PROPERTY. It is terrible what is being done to these workers. But it is not slavery and not even like slavery.
frosty
@JoyceH:
Long dead thread, but I did.