Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

In my day, never was longer.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

The revolution will be supervised.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Bark louder, little dog.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

People are complicated. Love is not.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

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

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / NANCY SMASH! / Friday Evening Open Thread: Nancy Pelosi Is Not Here for This Crap

Friday Evening Open Thread: Nancy Pelosi Is Not Here for This Crap

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A notably animated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) decried President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Thursday, calling it a “manifesto of mistruths” and a “reality show” using the House of Representatives as a backdrop…

She added that she felt “liberated” after shredding the document, that as soon as he was about one-third of the way through the speech she knew that she had to do something to show the American people that the address was full of falsehoods.

She said that the President himself “looked to me like he was a little sedated,” an impression she said she had last time he delivered the State of the Union too.

In another tense moment on Tuesday before Trump started speaking, he turned his back on Pelosi’s outstretched hand, refusing to shake it. Pelosi was unmoved. “That meant nothing to me,” she told reporters….

Her voice rising, Pelosi said that it is an “absolute imperative” that America have a new President next year, one who does not “denigrate our values,” is not “disloyal to the Constitution” and does not “degrade the environment.”

“He has shredded the truths in his speech, he has shredded the Constitution with his conduct,” she thundered. “I shredded his state of his mind address.”

SotU Cleanup - Tom Toles

(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

79Comments

  1. 1.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Reposted from below:

    OT:

    I’ve been looking at purchasing different reusable particulate respirators and gas masks for personal protection against the novel Coronavirus, just in case. I know that the numbers of new cases have slowed and the vast majority of them are in Mainland China and is mild in most cases. However, young people with strong immune systems have died from this thing and I don’t want to take any chances that I might spread this to my elderly grandmother who lives alone if an epidemic happens here.

    I’ve been looking at the 3M™ Half Facepiece Reusable Respirator 6300/07026(AAD) Large 24 EA/Case with http://3M 7093 Respirator Particulate Filter P100 Rating Respiratory Protection for Use with 3M Facepieces 5000, 6000, 6500, 7000, 7500, 7800S, FF-400 Series

    The P100 rating should more than sufficient to protect against viral aerosols if the worst comes to pass and we’re facing a global pandemic. A conclusion of a scientific journal article about the novel Coronavirus has said that it can mutate into a deadlier form. It’s already very contagious, with an R0 of 2.2 (this could decrease as more milder cases are identified).

    In addition, I’ve looked at Mira Safety’s CM-6M Full Face Gas Mask with MIRA Safety DotPro 320 40mm NATO filters that meet EU regulations that cost 40 bucks a piece.

    The gas masks are very expensive, while the particulate respirators (and filters) are a very cheap alternative

    What do you all think?

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    Nancy Pelosi has an op ed in the WaPost too; just went up. She takes no prisoners. Great illustration of an elephant’s foot on the scales of justice.

    WaPost: McConnell and the GOP Senate are accomplices to Trump’s wrongdoing
    And it ends big:

    … The House of Representatives voted to impeach the president because our institution believes in the sanctity of our oath and the urgency of protecting our republic. One chamber of Congress held the president accountable. President Trump is impeached forever, disgraced in history for his abuse of power and contempt for our Constitution. He will go down in history as the first president to be impeached with the support of a majority of Americans, and the first to ever face a bipartisan vote to convict him in the Senate.

    Our Founders put safeguards in the Constitution to protect against a rogue president. They never imagined that they would at the same time have a rogue leader in the Senate who would cowardly abandon his duty to uphold the Constitution.

    Sadly, because of the Republican Senate’s betrayal of the Constitution, the president remains an ongoing threat to American democracy. He continues to insist that he is above accountability and that he can corrupt the elections again, if he wants to.

    The People’s House will continue to defend democracy for the American people. We will uphold and protect the checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution, both in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion to preserve our republic “if we can keep it,” to quote Benjamin Franklin.

    And we will always insist on this truth: that, in America, no one is above the law.

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost op ed:  She uses the word “cheat” a lot.  Good for her. And all this was before Trump started firing the hearing witnesses Friday afternoon.  Nancy opens with:

    For more than 200 years, our republic has endured, not only because of the wisdom of our Founders and the brilliance of our Constitution, but because of the generations of patriotic Americans who have had the courage to risk their lives to defend it.

    But, tragically, the American people have watched President Trump and Republicans in Congress dismantle the Constitution that we cherish.
    The House impeachment managers, led by Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), presented to the Senate and the public an incontrovertible truth that the president himself has admitted: President Trump abused the power of his office to pressure a foreign power to help him cheat in an American election. And when he was caught, the president launched an unprecedented coverup to block Congress from holding him accountable. The president’s actions undermined our national security, jeopardized the integrity of our elections and violated the Constitution.

     

    …[Senate Democrats], along with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), deserve our gratitude for their moral courage.

    The president’s lawyers all but concede his misconduct. Their argument was only that Congress and the American people have no right to stop him from using his power to cheat in our elections.
    … For weeks, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the Republican-controlled Senate have made themselves accomplices to the president’s wrongdoing by suppressing additional evidence and rejecting the most basic elements of a fair judicial process. In declaring their loyalty to the president over our Constitution, Republicans have made a farce of the old boast that the U.S. Senate is the greatest deliberative body in the world. And they have joined the president in normalizing lawlessness and rejecting the checks and balances of our Constitution.

  11. 11.

    Ohio Mom

    Baud: Yes, she should.

    Goku: Go with the cheaper stuff. If it turns out you remain committed to owning this sort of thing, go hog wild with your first nursing paycheck later this summer. In the meantime, keep washing your hands and keep them away from your eyes/nose/mouth.

  12. 12.

    Elizabelle

    I hope Nancy remains Speaker next Congress as well.  We need her.  Shame on the Democrats that wanted to force her out.

    Although I’d be good if she ended up President in the meantime.

  13. 13.

    Mallard Filmore

    In another tense moment on Tuesday before Trump started speaking, he turned his back on Pelosi’s outstretched hand, refusing to shake it.

    If he shook Pence’s hand this would make his non-reaction to Pelosi obvious. I do not think he refused. It looked to me like he was simply too self absorbed to see an outstretched hand.

  14. 14.

    trollhattan

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    IIUC masks can filter out airborne droplets containing the virus, resulting from people sneezing. You can’t effectively filter viruses, that would probably require supply air from a tank or hose. Not practical.

    For particulate filters, fit is more important than the filtration level.

    Airborne is only one exposure pathway, the other being hand-to-face or other direct contact to the eyes, nose, mouth.

    That’s what I can recall from hazardous waste training. Viruses are very tough to avoid, short of becoming a hermit. Don’t know whether it’s been established how transmissible this particular virus is. Their fuckup was presuming it is not spread pre-symptom. Whoops!

  16. 16.

    khead

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I think I’d like to sell you some way too expensive MREs like I see on TeeVee and then try to sell you some beach property I’m currently offering in southern WV.  Some folks call it a mine, but I know there’s some water in there somewhere.

  17. 17.

    Morzer

    @Mallard Filmore: Worth remembering that Trump has pretty poor eyesight and is too pathetically insecure to wear glasses – a factor which also explains his desperate squinting at whatever teleprompter is currently controlling his thoughts.

  19. 19.

    hilts

    OT

    Great article from the Daily Beast exposing the nauseating hypocrisy of Fox News Channel

    Fox News’ own research team has warned colleagues not to trust some of the network’s top commentators’ claims about Ukraine.

     

    An internal Fox News research briefing book obtained by The Daily Beast openly questions Fox News contributor John Solomon’s credibility, accusing him of playing an “indispensable role” in a Ukrainian “disinformation campaign.”

     

    The document also accuses frequent Fox News guest Rudy Giuliani of amplifying disinformation, as part of an effort to oust former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, and blasts Fox News guests Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova—both ardent Trump boosters—for “spreading disinformation.”

     

    The 162-page document, entitled “Ukraine, Disinformation, & the Trump Administration,” was created by Fox News senior political affairs specialist Bryan S. Murphy, who produces research from what is known as the network’s Brain Room—a newsroom division of researchers who provide information, data, and topic guides for the network’s programming.

     

    The research brief is especially critical of Solomon, a former opinion columnist at The Hill whose opinion pieces about Ukraine made unsubstantiated claims about its government interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

    h/t https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-internal-document-bashes-john-solomon-joe-digenova-and-rudy-giuliani-for-spreading-disinformation?ref=scroll

  20. 20.

    Miss Bianca

    Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, even as the Republicans sink visibly and audibly, en masse, ever deeper into the swamp of sycophantic, treasonous idiocy, every Democrat in Washington, to a man and woman, all took up the “no more fucks to give” truth-telling of Nancy SMASH? And turned their eloquent ire solely on the spinelessness and perfidiousnessof the GOP and their media enablers?

    Sigh…a girl can dream.

  23. 23.

    Felanius Kootea

    Can Trump be censured for firing the impeachment witnesses (Vindman, Sondland)?  And how on earth do they justify firing Vindman’s brother, who wasn’t even involved?

  25. 25.

    PsiFighter37

    @Elizabelle: She will. I think her promise was to serve two terms max. It would also be a round 20 years as House Democratic leader, which I think would match Sam Rayburn’s tenure (I think).

  26. 26.

    Miss Bianca

    @Baud: Yes, and mine, sadly, is Perverse Clown Who Makes Sarcastic Political Remarks in the Coffeeshop.

     

    We all have our roles, some are just a bit…larger…than others.

  29. 29.

    Anya

    The beltway and press and the pundits outrage over Nancy Pelosi shredding Trump’s speech is so disingenuous and it shows the double standard Democrats face. Trump shredded any comity, respect or dignity our politics ever passed and half of the country is okay with it so why should the democrats always be the bigger party? I just can’t with that. I wish Dems push back on this and they start mocking republicans and the media anytime they play this game.

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    @Felanius Kootea:

    And how on earth do they justify firing Vindman’s brother, who wasn’t even involved?

    They don’t justify anything; power is its own justification. Impeachment proved Trump will not be held to account for anything he does, and this is just his logical reaction to that.

  31. 31.

    feebog

     

     

    @Mallard Filmore:

    Nope.  I thought the same at first, so I watched the clip multiple (like 20) times.  Trump clearly saw her reach out her hand and simply turned away.  Just a small petty POS.

  32. 32.

    jl

    @hilts: You have to understand your own propaganda, in the same way and for the same reason that you have to know your enemy. Fox News is as competent as possible (given the garbage they sling) at doing their job.

  33. 33.

    MisterForkbeard

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I think they actually have a GOOD reason for firing Vindman’s brother.

    I feel like “the President publicly attacked, denigrated, and ruined the career of your brother” might be a good reason to suspect him of being a security risk.

    And yes, I’m being facetious. Mostly.

  34. 34.

    jl

    Glad Pelosi is fighting back against the Trumpster propaganda. I heard a news clip of her with a soundbite that Trump’s SOTU was full of dangerous lies that would get people hurt. I hope she emphasizes that aspect.

  35. 35.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Roger Moore: Umm, I guess they are assuming that the Democrat who wins in November is of the “let’s all move on for the sake of the country and forget the past” variety.

    I’m voting for the Dem that promises to investigate and hold all these jackasses accountable, from Trump down.  There has to be a lesson for future wanna-be Republican dictators.

  39. 39.

    Kent

    BADASS…

     

    And there were people who thought Tim Ryan or Marsha Fudge were better for the job?

  41. 41.

    jl

    @Felanius Kootea: “Can Trump be censured for firing the impeachment witnesses (Vindman, Sondland)?  And how on earth do they justify firing Vindman’s brother, who wasn’t even involved?”

    Trump has often expressed a liking for collective punishment. For one thing, it sends a message.  Writs of attainder and corruption of blood are unconstitutional and therefore illegal, at least for now, so Trump can’t issue them. But whenever possible and he can get away with it, he’ll do the practical equivalent.

  42. 42.

    Roger Moore

    @Felanius Kootea:

    Umm, I guess they are assuming that the Democrat who wins in November is of the “let’s all move on for the sake of the country and forget the past” variety.

    I think they’re in the “it doesn’t matter what we do now” category.  If the Democrats decide to move on, well and good.  If the Democrats decide to go after them, they’ve already committed enough crimes to go to prison for the rest of their natural lives, so a few more aren’t going to make any difference.

  43. 43.

    NotMax

    Presumably someone will be putting up a debate thread at the top of the hour?

    Repeating: FYI for any so inclined, tonight’s debate can be watched on ABC or with any ABC or ABC News app, or on the ABC News YouTube channel (here), as well as on Hulu, on Sling, on the Xumo streaming service and also via the Roku channel or through Apple TV.

    @BillinGlendaleCA

    Yes, and when those places nurses work begin handing out such equipment to the staff, that’s when to become seriously concerned (as opposed to rationally cautious).

  44. 44.

    Kent

    @Felanius Kootea:Can Trump be censured for firing the impeachment witnesses (Vindman, Sondland)?  And how on earth do they justify firing Vindman’s brother, who wasn’t even involved?

    Who the hell knows.  Likely they are just scorched earth assholes.  But it occurred to me that maybe he was the famous whistleblower?   Who knows.  I don’t.

    Next Dem Administration better have some high level national security jobs waiting for these two.  Not Sondeman.  The Vindemans.

  51. 51.

    NotMax

    @BillinGlendaleCA

    Yeah. At this point I’m put in mind of those neighborhood chicken plucking contests in the middle of nowhere that went cray-cray over being targets of foreign terrorists.

  52. 52.

    TriassicSands

    Without denying or even questioning her competence, I’ve sometimes had mixed feelings about Nancy Pelosi over the years. That said, there is no one I would rather have as Speaker opposite Trump. She is the perfect foil for the Crook-in-Chief.

    If she were younger, I could support her for president*. When I disagree with things she does, I just remind myself that she is almost certainly the most effective Speaker in my lifetime and she knows more about her job than anyone alive.

     

    * But only if she could be Speaker, too. Sigh.

  58. 58.

    oatler.

    @Baud: He knew from the start deep down in his heart

    He and Donald were worlds apart

    But his mother said never mind your part is to be what you’ll be

  59. 59.

    Roger Moore

    @Mai naem mobile:

    Has Trumpov hired anybody not accused.of sexual.harrassment/domestic violence etc?

    I don’t think I’ve heard any claims of sexual harassment or domestic violence about Ivanka, Betsy DeVos, or Elaine Chao.

  60. 60.

    Cacti

    @Roger Moore: They don’t justify anything; power is its own justification. Impeachment proved Trump will not be held to account for anything he does, and this is just his logical reaction to that.

    Yep. The Senate vote was a vote to normalize Executive Branch lawlessness. Somewhere, the ghost of Richard Nixon is smiling/wishing he had such a cowed and compliant Senate.

  62. 62.

    Kent

    @Roger Moore:I don’t think I’ve heard any claims of sexual harassment or domestic violence about Ivanka, Betsy DeVos, or Elaine Chao.

    Not so fast on DeVos.    She rolled back all of the sexual assault guidelines the Obama put into place for colleges.  So she is more in the aid and abet role.

  63. 63.

    Duane

    Pelosi called McConnell a cowardly rogue leader. Them there’s  fighting words. Stilletos at dawn.

  64. 64.

    jharp

    @Felanius Kootea:

    i find it fucking hilarious that Sondland paid $1 million dollars to hitch his wagon to Trump.

    How’d that turn out for you Gordo?

    And Vindman should run for Congress.

  65. 65.

    geg6

    I love her.  She is my all-time hero.  I’ve never seen a better politician at tactics, strategy and calculation.  LBJ would admire her toughness and ability to hold her caucus in line.  And say what you will about him (and I’ve said plenty, mainly in the fuck ‘em category), he was also a master of those very same skills.

  66. 66.

    Mallard Filmore

    @Cacti:

     

    Richard Nixon is smiling/wishing he had such a cowed and compliant Senate.

    Nixon was in the midst of the Cold War. He did not have the Russians helping him.

  67. 67.

    HinTN

    @Anya:

    start mocking republicans and the media anytime they play this game

    If we could summon the gumption to laugh at them, loudly and publicly, it would hurt them far more than any intellectual evisceration we might deliver.

  69. 69.

    J R in WV

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    The gas masks are very expensive, while the particulate respirators (and filters) are a very cheap alternative

    What do you all think?

    I think cost is irrelevant, completely so. Look at the benefit. Not dying is the benefit, and that makes the cost side of the equation irrelevant, if you can acquire the better device. 3M makes great protective equipment, it’s what I buy when I use pesticides or work with potentially toxic solvents or paint.

  71. 71.

    J R in WV

    @Felanius Kootea:

    These folks serve in the White House at the will and pleasure of the administration. The Vindemans will be transferred into a new Army slot, I don’t know about the Foreign Service employees, but I imagine they too will move into the State department somewhere. Hope so anyway.

  74. 74.

    Matt McIrvin

    @TriassicSands: Being Speaker of the House automatically makes you too unpopular to be elected President, and given our political culture’s weird hangups, probably even most Democrats would be outraged if it happened the other way.

  75. 75.

    Cermet

    Really? Buying high end respirators because of this flu? Even if the Corona virus (and the number does appear too high) is 2%, that’s only a factor of four worse than a flu currently all around you that you’ve easily ignored for months. Since no respirator that you buy will stop viruses and any average facemask, properly fitted and used will stop most standard human created water dropletes that carry a virus, than really, a decent low end mask makes more sense. As others noted, good hygine will provide a great deal of protection in any case.

  76. 76.

    Sab

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): When would you wear it? You will scare the crap out of her if you do it around her.

    Wash your hands every time you come home from anywhere. Wash your hands at her house whenever you come over. Wash your hands before you handle food. Wash your hands after you handle money.

    Don’t wear your scrubs around like street clothes.

  78. 78.

    Mai naem mobile

    @jharp: Gordo is going to spend a whole lot more money on lawyers. And I wonder if they’ll still prosecute him for whatever the hell he was doing in Ukraine. Just because Trumpov got off on the crimes not being bad enough for removal doesn’t mean that they can’t prosecute Gordo.

  79. 79.

    Alan Barney

    The truth? The entire Republican Party has been playing naughty with illegal, laundered, Russian Campaign money. The NRA, Manafort, Parnas, et. al.. laundered money to the GOP. Republicans admire Putin and have embraced Oligarchy as a means to govern. It is their only path to remain in power. To win in 2020 Trump will declare the Democratic Party an illegal entity. The Republican Convention will hear chants of “Lock them up! Lock them up!”. Their armed “militias” will take the streets. This does not end well. Oh, and, Republican US Senator Susan Collins wishes the Senate had called witnesses at Trump’s Impeachment Trial.

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