Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

This blog will pay for itself.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Republicans do not pay their debts.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Glass Not-Quite-Empty Open Thread: “President” Baby Wants His SotU

Glass Not-Quite-Empty Open Thread: “President” Baby Wants His SotU

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Needy Amin craves his spotlight. He wants a count-down chyron in the corner of the screen, and diversion of normal programming at every single network. He wants to strut down the center aisle while groundlings scrum for selfies with him, to stand at a mighty ceremonial podium with mean old Nancy Pelosi trapped helplessly behind him, while endless rounds of applause echo around the high-ceiling, marble-walled chamber. Campaign rallies are a temporary salve, like narcan for a crack addict, but any two-bit district winner with a sugar daddy can score a political rally, Jeb!. Donny needs the good stuff, the unwilling attention from people he doesn’t even like — it’s the only way he can fill the vast emptiness inside him.

Mitch McConnell, on the other hand, could care less about being on camera. But all those pathetic stories about federal workers skipping meals and worrying about eviction are giving his next primary challenger fresh b-roll for attack ads, and the continuing political prosperity of Mitch McConnell is the one thing he does care about.

Goddess bless Nancy Pelosi for using the “no tv until you eat your vegetables fund the government” hammer. Thursday’s competing legislative proposals are no doubt, as Charlie Pierce calls them, “shadow puppets on the wall”. But they’re also, hopefully, the overture to restart actual negotiations towards ending this shameless shitshow, per Jim Newell at Slate:

… If enough Republicans join Democrats to pass the short-term bill, President Donald Trump would find on his desk a bill to fund the government without any wall money. That would be a defeat for him, and it would be a sign that Senate Republicans had finally decided their position was untenable. It would be a cave.

If the president comes out against the proposal, though, and scares off Senate Republicans from voting for it, it would allow Senate Republican leaders to argue that it’s futile passing legislation that doesn’t address the border. And the shutdown would continue.

In either case, we are starting to see this week what we hadn’t seen in the past month of the shutdown: movement. It was McConnell who asked the president to develop “compromise” legislation in the first place, because he needed something to put on the floor. And centrist Democrats in the House, many of them representing red or purple districts, drafted a letter on Tuesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her at least to promise the president a vote on his homeland security request, including border wall funding, after the government reopened.

The Senate might not be able to end the shutdown on Thursday. But the machinery that will end the shutdown eventually—pressure from anxious Senate Republicans and anxious House Democrats—is starting to operate.

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  1. 1.

    guachi

    I was thinking about the transgender ban. I’m in the military. All of my liberal military FB friends made negative posts about it. Even if they were veiled negative posts.

    Zero of my conservative military FB friends even mentioned it.

    If transgender people served, it’d be a non-issue. Just like gays have been.

  2. 2.

    Adam L Silverman

    The President can only address Congress if a joint concurrent resolution is passed. Speaker Pelosi has already made it clear that she will not be bringing one to the floor for a vote in the House until the shutdown is ended. This isn’t just that the C-Span cameras won’t be on, this is the President will be barred from the House chambers.

  4. 4.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Adam L Silverman:
    How sweet it would be if Trump tried to force his way into the House Chambers, only for Capitol Police to tackle him to the ground, all the while Nancy smashing her gavel, calling for order, wearing the biggest shit-eating grin.

  7. 7.

    James E Powell

    Needy Amin craves his spotlight. He wants a count-down chyron in the corner of the screen, and diversion of normal programming at every single network.

    And every network will eagerly give him whatever he wants. We really need to destroy the press/media.

  8. 8.

    Adam L Silverman

    The Freedom for Putin Caucus!

  10. 10.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Even better in some ways. Imagine Donnie pounding on the chamber doors with his tiny hands, demanding to be let in to give his big beautiful speech in the cold, dark night.
    @Adam L Silverman:
    Golly, I wonder how they’ll justify that vote?

  13. 13.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    some good news

    Atul Gawande @ Atul_Gawande
    Big news on the Ebola vaccine from Congo: “the evidence the WHO has been gathering in North Kivu — where nearly 64,000 doses have been administered — point to the vaccine being ‘highly, highly efficacious.'”

  14. 14.

    Sab

    @Adam L Silverman: I just looked up Gym Jordans district in Ohio. It is insanely gerrymandered. It goes from southwestern Columbus exurbs all the way to Elyria just west of Cleveland. Basically every unpopulated area in north central and central Ohio.

    I wonder how many of his voters even know who he is? Probably just vote R.

  15. 15.

    opiejeanne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s a good thing. I hope there is enough available to stop the spread of it. I’ve been horrified all week about our new “policy”, withdrawal of support for the people fighting ebola.

  16. 16.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    to steal a line from TBogg, Dollar Store Ivanka has thoughts

    Tim O’Brien @ TimOBrien
    Lara Trump on federal workers struggling w/o pay:

    It is a “bit of pain,” but “this is so much bigger than any one person.”

    And: “I know they have bills to pay, they have mortgages, they have rents that are due, but the president is trying.”

  18. 18.

    PJ

    Russell Baker, a very fine writer, died yesterday at the age of 93. Apropos of the current moment, here is a passage from his column about the pardoning of Richard Nixon https://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/14/archives/the-politicians-big-equaljusticeunderlaw-baloney-picnic-observer.html:

    It is doubtful that Americans really want equal justice under law; that the white majority really wants to be subjected to the same code of policing, trial and sentencing that applies to the black minority; or that well‐to‐do executives behind the wheel with too many martinis really want to be put in jail with beery hod carriers instead of being taken home and put to bed; or that rich men who might “make a mistake,” as Mr. Nixon has made, really want to be caged at Atlanta with uncouth youngsters from the streets whose mistakes are made with burglar tools and hand guns instead of tax forms and bank accounts.

    Law reflects a nation’s consensus about how society ought to be organized, and in its present state in this country it reflects a contentment with a justice that grants special dispensation for money and power. Instinctively, we all recognize this and govern our actions accordingly. If we know the rules of the game and subscribe to them, what is it but hypocrisy to complain because they are applied among Presidents?

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Sab: Eric’s wife, and I think she has some kind of title with 2020 campaign. She likes to go on Fox

  20. 20.

    The Pale Scot

    Have to share this; sorry for th ick factor

    MSNBC host tries to rein in Rick Wilson after suggestion Trump advisor Stephen Miller is mean because he’s sexually frustrated

    “There’s something deeply wrong with Stephen Miller — I think we can all acknowledge that,” he added, “And maybe someday he’ll have a relationship with a live human woman,”

    Could the nation be saved by a FundMe to send a Real Doll™ to Anwärter Miller?
    What’s the shipping cost on what of those things?
    It’ll be more fun than shipping dildos to the cretinous vandals of a bird sanctuary

  21. 21.

    Aleta

    How long will it take the media to find their comfort zone (a warm snug soundproofed center aisle seat) on the SOTU delivery.

  23. 23.

    CaseyL

    I saw in the news that Steny Hoyer was open to letting the SOTU happen in the House chambers. That was earlier today, though, so maybe Nancy Smash set him straight.

  27. 27.

    CaseyL

    @PJ: I used to read him back when he had a regular column – 70s-80s, I think. I may still have a book of his columns from back then, “So This is Depravity,” somewhere in the dim dark reaches of my overburdened bookshelves.

    He had a good long run! RIP, Mr. Baker.

  28. 28.

    philpm

    @Sab: Lara Trum is Eric’s wife.

    That was one of the most tone deaf things I have ever read in my life. My guess is she’s never had to work a single day.

  30. 30.

    Sab

    I love democracy. I live in a one party city.

    It snowed 15 inches this weekend. No sight nor sound of snowplows. We sort of dug ourselves out. I didn’t go to work today because I got stuck so badly just going around the corner to the store.

    Our precinct committeeman got stuck tonight coming home from work. He is close to our councilcritter, who is chairman of the public works committee, which oversees things like street maintenance and snowplows.

    An hour and a half later we got plowed three times in fifteen minutes. Sure could have used two of those plowings earlier, long before precinct guy got home from work, when the rest of us wanted to be out and about.

  32. 32.

    Sab

    @philpm: So her big accomplishment in life is marrying a guy who nominally works for his theoretically rich father? Wow. We can learn a lot listening to her.

  33. 33.

    Yarrow

    I didn’t know that Joni Ernst was getting a divorce. Sounds a bit contentious. She claims Trump asked her to be his VP but she declined.

    However, in the affidavit, Ernst points to a strained marriage as the reason for her decision. “Meanwhile, he hated any successes I had and would belittle me and get angry any time I achieved a goal,” she says.

    In his own court filing, Gail Ernst insists that he had been supportive of his ex-wife’s political career, but details the toll he believes it took on him.

    “I gave up all my aspirations and goals to be a good dad and husband so Joni could pursue her dreams,” the filing says. Gail Ernst’s attorney did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment from the Guardian.

    Sounds a bit contentious.

  34. 34.

    jheartney

    From the start I’ve expected that Trump will end up giving his speech in some other venue to an all-GOP audience. Carried live on Fox; it remains to be seen if the other networks will cave and run it too. Regardless, the Wurlitzer will be whinging nonstop about those mean Democrats “censoring” the POTUS.

  35. 35.

    philpm

    @Sab: Pretty much. It appears her entire working career outside of working for Orange Julius has been as a producer for Inside Edition.

  36. 36.

    The Dangerman

    Let him come to the House and arrest him for trespassing.

    After browsing Adam’s threads earlier, what kind of an asshole do you have to be to both lie about and poison pill a bill that is already DOA? Good fucking grief.

    I’ve met some assholes. I’ve met some assholes that were in the Hall of Fame of assholes (congrats Edgar, a fine gentleman and better ballplayer). I’ve met assholes that have their own wings in the Hall of Fame of assholes…

    …but even those with their own wings in the HOF would go “damn, that’s fucked up” to Trump and McConnell.

  39. 39.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @CaseyL:

    I heard Steny Hoyer on some program some time recently talking to someone about something, and he was terrible. I get that he’s a loyal member of the Democratic caucus and has Congressional seniority oozing out of every pore, but he’s an awful spokesman. Surely Nancy SMASH! can find somebody who can convey the Dem position articulately, with clarity and conviction.

  40. 40.

    Keith P.

    @jheartney: They’ll take the path of least resistance once they realize that grandstanding isn’t going to make Pelosi budge. In other words, rally. They’ve got plenty of experience with them, and they might even convince the non-Fox networks to carry the full rally speech under the guise of it being a state-of-the-union (although, honestly, I’d just as soon watch Gilbert Gottfried read the pre-release). They can put a rally together in an afternoon, and they can probably rustle up enough GOP congressmen to make the next morning’s news cycle.
    EDIT: Yeesh, Elizabeth Warren already has me changing channels. I don’t know what Anderson had her on to talk about, but next thing I know, she was talking about her poor upbringing and paying $50 for a semester of college. Total stump speech.

  41. 41.

    CaseyL

    @Keith P.: …with a fund-raising pitch built in, though there’s no reason – Shitgibbon being Shitgibbon – he wouldn’t use even a regular SOTU to fundraise.

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow:

    I gave up all my aspirations and goals to be a good dad and husband so Joni could pursue her dreams

    Sounds like a poor decision. She’s an idiot.

  47. 47.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Dan Pfeiffer @ danpfeiffer
    The President can have dinner with anyone in the world, can go anywhere, can get anyone on the phone, has access to movies before they come out and instead sits alone in his bathrobe every night and live tweets Tucker Carlson while begging for praise.

  50. 50.

    Jackie

    @The Dangerman: I’m trying to figure out if from out of the blue you’re calling Edgar Martinez an asshole for finally getting voted into MLB Hall of Fame? Or what your disjointed post meant?

  54. 54.

    The Dangerman

    @Jackie:

    ….you’re calling Edgar Martinez an asshole…

    Eh, I should have had his name after Hall of Fame and not asshole; oh well, very long day., +1 and headed for more.

    He really is a very fine gentleman, I wasn’t being sarcastic.

  55. 55.

    smintheus

    Marc Thiessen, who believes that torture is legal, also thinks that…

    Trump is being the adult in the room on the shutdown

    No link because he’s a torture apologist.

  57. 57.

    Adam L Silverman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: It narrows it down to two. I’m excluding Jared because he’s a son in law. And I’m excluding Barron because he’s a kid and needs to be left alone.

  58. 58.

    Anne Laurie

    @philpm:

    Lara Trum is Eric’s wife.

    That was one of the most tone deaf things I have ever read in my life. My guess is she’s never had to work a single day.

    Depends on your definition of ‘work’. How much would you have to be paid to have sex, multiple times, with Eric Trump? Much less bear his genetic offspring?

  59. 59.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: and I think Fredo I is currently single

    ETA:

    paid to have sex, multiple times, with Eric Trump? Much less bear his genetic offspring?

    has the testing been done? does Lara have a tennis instructor? a bodyguard?

  60. 60.

    smintheus

    @Sab:

    we got plowed three times in fifteen minutes. Sure could have used two of those plowings earlier

    Boy couldn’t we all! Getting plowed 3 times in 15 minutes is…um…pleasantly thorough.

  63. 63.

    smintheus

    @PJ: I used to love reading Russell Baker’s columns as a kid. I missed that one.

    I had thought he died long ago, when I couldn’t find his columns any more.

  66. 66.

    SFAW

    @smintheus:

    I had thought he died long ago, when I couldn’t find his columns any more.

    I said the same thing to my brother, after he sent me the obit this evening.

    Loved reading him, back when the FTFTFNYT was just the NYT.

  67. 67.

    Plato

    GOP doesn't care about public disapproval as a result of the shutdown, and aren't concerned about being voted out as a result of disapproval. This means that (yet again) people need to examine election integrity. GOP are acting like a party which believes people have no leverage.
    — Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) January 22, 2019

  69. 69.

    SFAW

    @Anne Laurie:

    Much less bear his genetic offspring?

    Quite the assumption you’re making. Especially considering all the unaccompanied “vacations” she and Vanessa took in Moskva. As the saying goes: “Is it irresponsible to speculate? No, …”

    [No, I have never heard anything like that about either DiL (past or present), I was just … what’s that phrase? Oh, yeah … “making shit up.”]

  70. 70.

    Mandalay

    @The Pale Scot:

    MSNBC host tries to rein in Rick Wilson after suggestion Trump advisor Stephen Miller is mean because he’s sexually frustrated

    Rick Wilson is a knuckle dragging moron. He’s like the bore at the end of the bar who wants to monopolize the conversation, but has nothing of value to offer.

    Fantasizing about Stephen Miller’s sex life on BJ would be pretty lame, but having a panelist doing it on MSNBC is both pathetic and counterproductive when there is so much worthwhile to say about the real harm Miller causes this country.

    MSNBC should ditch all these Never-Trump Republicans.

  72. 72.

    randal m sexton

    Trump forcing his way into the house somehow feels a little like a ‘Crossing the Rubicon’ moment. I am uneasy.

  73. 73.

    CaseyL

    Tonight’s “This is Us” got to me good. I’ve been managing to watch the show without bursting into tears every episode, but tonight was another Rip Your Heart Out & Make You Cry With All the Feels episode.

    I honestly wonder, when the cast does their initial group read-through every week, if they each have a box of Kleenex handy.

    Maybe two boxes.

  74. 74.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @SFAW: There’s a lady who repairs iPhones and makes Youtube videos of the repair process. She sometimes wears a T-shirt that says, “Trust me I’m a Doctor” and has a big PhD stamped across Doctor.

  85. 85.

    trnc

    @Adam L Silverman:

    House Freedom Caucus members and close Trump allies – including Meadows and Jordan – among the 22 who voted against House bill tonight stating that it’s US policy to remain a member of NATO

    Why, do you mean Mark “Bling My Resume” Meadows and Jim “What Sexual Harassment” Jordan?

  86. 86.

    trnc

    @Jay: I have a bad feeling that Pres Ind 1 showing up at the House door and demanding to be let in will play like Reagan’s “I’m paying for this microphone” moment during the Carter-Reagan debate.

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