Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

We still have time to mess this up!

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

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

Everybody saw this coming.

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

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Fight them, without becoming them!

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Claudia vs Justin – How to Deal with a Malignant Narcissist

Claudia vs Justin – How to Deal with a Malignant Narcissist

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At her mañanera  (morning press conference) yesterday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said this:

Sheinbaum noted that all state governors will attend a security meeting with federal officials in Acapulco next week.

She indicated that on the sidelines of that meeting, the governors of Mexico’s six northern border states – Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas – will gather with federal officials to discuss Donald Trump’s stated plan to carry out a mass deportation operation.

Sheinbaum said that the federal government will come to an agreement with the northern border states over “how to receive our compatriots in case of a mass deportation” of Mexican immigrants currently living in the United States.

“We hope that it doesn’t happen, but if it does happen we’ll be prepared to welcome them,” she said.

I’ve written earlier about Claudia’s handling of Trump, and her latest statement is consistent with the way she dealt with him earlier.  Cordial, sticking to facts, and not over-reacting to his threats.  A malignant narcissist thrives on making threats, then having people kow-tow to him because of the threat.  Saying, basically, “yeah, that wouldn’t be great, but if it happens, we’ll deal with it” takes some of the wind out of the narcissist’s sails.  Also, not being reactive to a threat, even in the face of a short-term loss, often works out:  the Peso, which had fallen after Trump’s tariff threats, has recovered.

The other fact about Mexico is that they wield a lot of power in the US/Mexico relationship.  I’m sitting here eating a Mexican-grown avocado and some Mexican-grown blueberries, for example:  a 25% tariff wouldn’t be great for grocery prices.  Mexico also has a track record of limiting migration through the country:  they detained 5,000 migrants on Tuesday, bringing the total number detained since Claudia took office on October 1 to almost 350,000.    Send back a few million Mexicans and you’ll see the Mexican government opening their borders and letting millions of Central and South American migrants through their country.  That doesn’t even consider the massive amounts of heavy goods (autos, trucks, appliances) manufactured in maquiladoras across the north of Mexico, another disincentive for tariffs.

Contrast Claudia’s approach with Justin Trudeau, the for-now Prime Minister of the Great White North.  Justin immediately hopped on a plane and went on an ass-kissing mission to Mar-a-Lago.  After that meeting, Justin’s reward was Trump musing about annexing Canada, and this at some buttlicking convention in Florida:

Claudia vs Justin - How to Deal with a Malignant Narcissist

The Politico story about the annexation of Canada had the subhead “‘The president was teasing,’ insists a top Trudeau minister who attended Mar-a-Lago dinner.”  That’s a powerful message for Justin to take home as he faces an uphill battle against the Tories and their new leader Pierre Poilievre.  And, really, was this necessary?  I’d argue that Canada is in a similarly strong position as Mexico where tariffs are concerned.  Their exports, including oil, cars, airplane parts, wheat and beef, are consumer goods where tariffs would be an economic disaster.

As far as I’m concerned, Justin showed us all how not to deal with Trump, and Claudia has, so far, shown us how to deal with Trump.  First rule:  never appear in person with Trump if you can avoid it–he considers it a win if you show up at Mar-a-Lago.  Second rule:  react with the facts, not with panic.  Third rule:  keep your fucking dignity intact, Jesus Christ.  He wants to dominate.  Deny him as much as possible.

So, in closing, #EsClaudia and Justin’s no Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau.

Reader Interactions

28Comments

  1. 1.

    John S.

    Spot on analysis. Trudeau is weak and he acts like it. Sheinbaum has been pitch perfect thus far in dealing with the orange man baby.

  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    Do you reckon Melanie is working Donny to have Justin over, frequently?

    No reason, just curious, really. Pinkie swear.

  3. 3.

    Old Man Shadow

     Their exports, including oil, cars, airplane parts, wheat and beef, are consumer goods where tariffs would be an economic disaster.

    I think Boeing has proven that you don’t really NEED airplane parts to build an airplane. You just need a lot of Executives with MBAs!

  4. 4.

    @mistermix.bsky.social

    @Old Man Shadow:   Yeah, instead of buying the C series from Bombardier (which Airbus did for basically nothing, just assuming a lot of debt) Boeing decided to whine to the trade commission.

  8. 8.

    YY_Sima Qian

    IMHO, Justin Trudeau has been decidedly mediocre as PM, & now just plain pathetic. Probably better suited to run a province than a country.

    Unfortunately, he will likely be succeeded by the worst reactionary in Canadian history.

  9. 9.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @lollipopguild:

    The Mexican lady, she seems to have trumps number.

    I’m going to bet she’s been dealing with men like Trump her entire life.

  12. 12.

    Martin

    Yep. I concur as well.

    Also not surprised that the female head of state is familiar with this particular bullshit.

  19. 19.

    TBone

    The guy named Sun is now on the Board of Liberty Financial with Uday and Qusay.  Fascist marriage of corporate power with state power.

    As the Times lays out, they aren’t confining their foreign businesses to real estate and hospitality this time. The family helped create a cryptocurrency platform called World Liberty Financial. It’s already made millions for Trump through just one transaction from a Chinese entrepreneur that could eventually personally net him as much as $22 million. This investor, Justin Sun, made it clear that he was doing it to suck up to Trump with a post on twitter/X saying he’s committed to “making America great again.”

    …

    Trump says they plan to offer a “white paper” outlining their new ethical guidelines which appear to be nothing more than a vague promise not to work with foreign governments. According to the Times they figure that will “help the company contend with lawsuits based on the so-called foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts or payments from other governments.”
    The fact that they are already in bed with certain governments in one way or another will have to be litigated which takes a lot of time, particularly since Trump excels at deploying delaying tactics. The emoluments lawsuits that were filed during his first term took so long they ended up being rendered moot since he had already left office by the time they got to the Supreme Court. No doubt that’s exactly what they’re counting on happening again.

    https://digbysblog.net/2024/12/06/let-the-graft-begin/

  21. 21.

    trollhattan

    @Starfish (she/her):

    Ooh, can we finagle a princess-stepmom catfight over the northern bachelor boy? I live for this sort of thing. (Spouse was very fond of Dynasty specifically for the gal fights.)

  22. 22.

    Steve LaBonne

    @YY_Sima Qian: So many countries have remarkably mediocre political leadership right now. The bitter irony is that in that global context Kamala Harris is a goddamn rock star.

  24. 24.

    Martin

    @TBone: “help the company contend with lawsuits based on the so-called foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts or payments from other governments.”

    They don’t give a shit about that – USSC both said it’s not a thing, and that Trump was immune. The emoluments clause effectively doesn’t exist.

  25. 25.

    Martin

    @TBone: There’s always been a national milk supply. (At least, my entire life.) And it’s always been regulated. I referred to it the other day as a place where federal price controls have always been in effect.

    The justification for the system was to ensure that every part of the country had a milk supply, and when we were trying to address childhood malnutrition in the 60s and 70s it tied into schools and I think required all schools to offer milk to students at a subsidized cost. So it has price controls to help ensure dairies aren’t completely shoved out of markets and all that:

    The Class I differential consists of two parts: 1) a minimum element, reflecting the minimum additional Class I value necessary to provide a hundredweight of Grade A milk to the fluid market; and 2) a location-specific value over and above this, reflecting the relative difficulty (at a defined cost) of attracting an additional hundredweight to a particular location, relative to location with the lowest such cost.

    Basically, it’s a system that balances costs across the country. Lots of regulation. Works well. (Hey Florida, your milk would be about 10%-15% more expensive without this regulation – you get the best price controls in the nation. Best hope the USDA doesn’t get DOGEd.)

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