This will warm the cockles of your heart. Start at about 6 minutes to avoid Trump’s bloviating.
It looks like Pelosi and Schumer did some serious preparation for this meeting. They handled it brilliantly and walked Trump right into owning any government shutdown that may occur.
Also note Pence, who looks like he would like to sink into the ground.
TenguPhule
The downside of course being that Trump merely has to do what he does best to ensure a partial shutdown does occur.
PaulWartenberg
Where’s the LIKE button?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Yeah but if it does happen, our feckless, corporate media won’t report it that way.
Yarrow
I detest watching Trump but this is totally worth watching. Chuck and Nancy SMASH are amazing!
Pence knows Donald is fucked and he is, by extension, also fucked. This little toddler acting out is not helping Pence. No wonder he wishes he were anywhere else. Bwahahahaha! Suck, traitors!
MazeDancer
Media are going to have a hard time adjusting to the Dems having an actual Head of the Party.
Nancy Pelosi can both talk and act strongly and forcefully for the base.
The GOP will trash Nancy. And the media will do all they can to promote that. But still, we will have Someone in Charge.
Cermet
The orange fart cloud will cave one way or another; either it will be avoided entirely if he caves early, or if a shut down does occurs, then he’ll cave within two weeks at most. His base will suffer from a shut down and that, even a fart cloud, will understand hurts its chances in 2020 even further.
TenguPhule
@MazeDancer:
See 2016, treatment of Clinton, Hillary.
Corner Stone
The man is a buffoon. I would say the only thing he knows how to do is golf but his cheating is legendary.
Corner Stone
I am not sure how much harder Lindsey Graham can plant his lips on Trump’s ass.
Corner Stone
“Yes, if we don’t get what we want…I will shut down the govt.”
If that whole little rant does not get made into multiple campaign ads then the D’s deserve to get trounced in 2020.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Just watching trump bellow about his wall, bragging that it’s under budget. It’s funny watching him torn between his desire to throw out big numbers– big things compensate– and his phony image as the cagey builder and deal maker
Yarrow
@MazeDancer: @TenguPhule: The thing about this is, women are still PISSED OFF. You come at Nancy, women will come for you. The 2016 was good but it wasn’t good enough. Women are tired of being talked over, ignored, not having the good jobs, not having influence. Nancy knows that. Since she’s in charge she gets to channel that support and anger from women. This time isn’t going to be the same as those other times. The media can wake up or get rolled right over.
A Ghost To Most
@Corner Stone:
Any cretin who would drive a cart across a green doesn’t know how to play golf.
Corner Stone
C’mon, MSNBC. I don’t want to see pundit opinion from three different MSNBC reporters. Get me some meat in there!
Yarrow
@Corner Stone: No kidding. It’s amazing to watch. He’s a toddler in an adult body. And he has none of the charm that toddlers do when they’re not acting out.
p.a.
How long before the only beings willing to admit they’re Rethugs are all animated creamcheese sculptures?
smintheus
WaPo has an op-ed by 44 former Senators stating, controversially I guess, that the Senate has always stood up for the principles of democracy. They could find only 7 former Republicans to join in signing it. Sheds some light on the claim that in the unspecified old days the Senate was a model of partisan comity. Most Republicans have been plainly and proudly party-before-country for a very long time. Sen. Joseph McCarthy was not after all an aberration in those unspecified old days.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I wonder if they’ve been workshopping the “ten terrorsits”, or if the bats in his belfry just squeaked that to him in the moment
Quaker in a Basement
Anti-Pelosi Democrats, take note.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
penetration at all levels.
Yarrow
@Yarrow: Can’t edit. GAH! The 2018 election. Stupid lack of edit function.
TenguPhule
@Yarrow:
Unfortunately, 2016 taught us that some of the worst offenders are entitled white women “mean girls”.
dmsilev
@p.a.:
Are we sure that hasn’t already happened?
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
“When they go low, we go high.” has not aged well at all.
catclub
@Cermet:
yeah, right. The voting public usually has the memory of a gnat.
the 2013 shutdown absolutely killed the GOP’s chances in both 2014 and 2016.
Adam L Silverman
Cheryl Rofer
I love that Schumer gets into it too and seems to be having a great time! Nancy SMASH! has been schooling him.
It looks to me like the two of them gamed this out thoroughly and probably were delighted that Trump took every bait, gave them every opening. I’ve been in a very few meetings like that.
Ruckus
@Yarrow:
Isn’t that because he’s always acting out?
Corner Stone
Trump is a game show host. It’s pathetic watching any part of his Idiocracy rallies.
TenguPhule
@Cermet:
Unfortunately, unlike firing people which requires Trump to do something, a federal funding crisis involves Trump merely doing nothing and keep on doing it as long as he wants.
Adam L Silverman
@MazeDancer: In the post meeting press conference that Pelosi and Schumer held, Jonathan Karl asked the first question and started by addressing Pelosi as Madame President, caught himself half way through president, and switched to Madame Speaker.
jc
Trump works hard to *look* like he’s in charge, whether his bloviating makes any sense is unimportant to him. He *pretends* to be an authority on all matters, and he dares anyone to challenge him, upon which he’ll change the subject. I have the votes in the House, the problem is the Senate, I could win the House in a second — that’s how he wins, by being impossible to pin down, because he’s always bullshitting as he goes. There’s no there there.
Yarrow
@Ruckus: Well, sometimes he’s sulking.
hells littlest angel
I wish they’d told Trump that if he would put up his own five billion, he could keep anything over five billion that Mexico pays him back.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: When you see them protruding from the front of Trump’s trousers, you’ll have your answer.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
watching clips of trump’s “who’s going to pay for the wall? Mexico! Who? Mexico!” schtick from the campaign
in their next meeting NP should whip her phone out and play the video back to the Beast
catclub
@dmsilev: The amusing thread at LGM on Brexit models it as “a slight majority has voted to create a submarine out of cheese,”
and the response thereto.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Jonathan Karl, foretelling what is to come.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: A good omen, perhaps?
emmyelle
I’m sorry, what’s this again how some Democrats don’t want Pelosi as Speaker?
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman:
Oh please make it so. And sooner rather than later.
Adam L Silverman
@smintheus: And one of them is former Obama Secretary of Defense Hagel and former Clinton Secretary of Defense William Cohen. So…
TenguPhule
@catclub:
“We all live in a yellow chunk of Brie, a yellow chunk of Brie….”
Elizabelle
@Quaker in a Basement:
I know. I LOVE Nancy Smash.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: Hugh Hewitt, please pick up the WHITE courtesy telephone, Hugh Hewitt, please pick up the WHITE courtesy telephone…
Yarrow
@catclub: Here’s the original twitter thread that I saw:
Click through for thread.
Personally, I enjoyed the video of May arriving to meet Merkel and they couldn’t get the door of her car open. Merkel was just standing there like WTF?
Aleta
Mister Pence, our first simulacrum VP. Did he have a coach to perfect that posture, or does he mirror Trump naturally as god intended?
Don’t let him speak! Walls would crumble. Trump might rip his tongue out.
If only all meetings with Trump were televised unedited, or secretly recorded. We might have a chance at reconciling with reality.
TenguPhule
@Aleta:
The problem is that only fiction has to make sense.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: People think Schumer is a push over because he’s not a screamer. Or physically imposing. He’s neither. That doesn’t make him the perfect Democratic leader in the Senate, but it is something that needs to be remembered.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
“But all them were originally black.”
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule:
Unfortunately this is pretty much the only thing he’s demonstrated any aptitude at.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
No, its because he’s a pushover who McConnell routinely rolls over and he just smiles and says “please sir, may I have another.”
He’s a product of a bygone civilized age and not the Senate leader we want, need or deserve.
Yarrow
Chickenshit and useless to the end. Go spend time with your kids while you can, traitor. Your time is coming.
ruemara
Trust me on this, the media will paint it as the Dems fault. That’s in their bones. IDK why people say if the dems don’t bla bla bla messaging, when the media is the main problem. I just read through Sahil Kapur’s tweet stream on this meeting and his first response was to decry the glorious dream of a bipartisan future disappearing with this exchange. It’s like they have no memory about anything that happened just yesterday. I don’t get it and I don’t want to get it.
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman: @Yarrow: @TenguPhule: From Karl’s lips to the great FSM’s orecchiette.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Which is why I’m worried.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: It was on the front page here last night.
https://balloon-juice.com/2018/12/11/late-night-transatlantic-open-thread-leave-means-leave/
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Don’t tell Hugh!!!!
Dorothy A. Winsor
You Tube video of post meeting press conference with Pelosi and Schumer.
They keep saying “Trump shutdown”
Tazj
I thoroughly enjoyed this quip from Josh Marshall. Especially after the unending lecturing by people (my nephew included) that Democrats can’t do anything right.
Josh Marshall @ joshtpm
smintheus
@Adam L Silverman: And most of the rest were always pretty peripheral in their own party.
TenguPhule
U.S. stocks sought higher ground. Then Trump detoured ‘to crazy town.’
Another day ending in day.
Quaker in a Basement
He compared the wall between the US and Mexico to the wall separating Israel from Palestinian territory.
Holy Scott Free!
LuciaMia
Lordy, could only watch a bit of that. Didnt Trumps mother ever tell him the little saying about why god gave you two ears and only one mouth?
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Not the video of May’s car! Which is here and hilarious.
Ladyraxterinok
@Adam L Silverman: Ie, not REAL republicans!!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Quaker in a Basement: At least he didn’t say the Berlin Wall.
TenguPhule
“Nice country you have here, shame if something happened to it.”
Fair Economist
@Yarrow: Perhaps the most amazing part of this is that Ryan, who is still Speaker with a numerically working majority, is not even involved. Such an empty suit and fake.
LuciaMia
You mean Hewitt?
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Would I prefer someone else? Yes. Do I think it would make much difference? No. And here’s why. McConnell does not care what the Senate rules are. Nor the norms, customs, and/or traditions. All McConnell cares about is what he can do and can get away with through the application of politics and power. If Schumer tried to make the Senate inquorate, all McConnell would do is ignore the rules, when the Senate Parliamentarian, who is a McConnell appointee, rules against him, he’d fire him and appoint someone who wouldn’t. If Schumer authorized his members to place holds on everything, all McConnell would do is ignore the rules about holds, when the Senate Parliamentarian, who is a McConnell appointee, rules against him, he’d fire him and appoint someone who wouldn’t. Repeat ad infinitum for every possible rule, norm, custom, and/or tradition that Schumer could try to leverage. The reason for this is that McConnell is a natural fascist; he is governed solely by the concept of might makes right. As long as McConnell’s actions are successful, they’re right. It doesn’t matter if they’re illegal, or immoral, or violate every law, rule, norm, custom, and/or tradition. There is absolutely nothing a Democratic leader in the Senate can do to contain or constrain McConnell because McConnell recognizes no constraints.
Duane
Everytime Trumpov blathers on about that wall he should be asked if Mexico has agreed to pay for it. Promises kept remember?
Inventor
You know that scene in the second Kill Bill movie at the end where the Uma Thermon character does that special karate death move on the David Carradine character? You know the special finger punch to the heart that kills you after three steps?
Nancy Pelosi invented that.
Ladyraxterinok
@Adam L Silverman: Reed was viewed pretty negatively by dems u yil his strong words/actions in 2012 vs fellow Mormon Romney.
I remember many dems commenting on blogs being surprised.
Gelfling 545
@Adam L Silverman: Indeed. He’s an old style pol who ENJOYS the fight.
ruemara
@Inventor: Oh I hope Nancy had to pat his back or something.
Adam L Silverman
@smintheus: Hagel may have been the actual last principled conservative, in a real sense of both those terms, to have both served and been willing to regularly try to put country ahead of party or partisan gain. He was never a good fit in the Senate as a result. I always thought he’d have probably made a good president, though he’d have been hamstrung by what seems to be a very solid core of decency. The man is a professional senior non-commissioned officer to the core.
VOR
Mission accomplished. Schumer and Pelosi had a couple goals:
1) Pelosi established that they could call a vote anytime in the House and double-dog dared Trump to do it.
2) Schumer got Trump to take ownership of any shutdown. He clearly stated the Democrats don’t want a shutdown and got Trump to own a shutdown.
And they got it on video, where it can be replayed over and over.
What’s this BS about 10 terrorists caught at some unspecified time? Someone has to challenge the White House to name them, to put up or shut up.
Gelfling 545
@Yarrow: Oh, he watched it. He’s so jealous he can’t even talk about it.
dr. bloor
@TenguPhule:The extent to which the alpha males running the market react to Trump like a high schooler getting jilted just before prom is fascinating.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
If Schumer was worth his salt, he’d do this and make McConnell actually work for it.
At least that way it would be crystal clear to everyone not a Nazi what McConnell is once and for all.
Yarrow
@Fair Economist: I think this was just the Dems meeting with Trump because McConnell wasn’t there either. But in any case Ryan should be more involved. He’s such a nothing. A nothing who is going to pay for what he covered up.
Adam L Silverman
@Quaker in a Basement:
By the Source!!!
VOR
@Fair Economist: Paul Ryan for Chief of Staff. Let the punishment fit the crime.
Aleta
@TenguPhule:
In the town where I was born
Lived a man who made the Brie
And he told us of his life
In the land of good French cheese
So we sat out in the sun
And ignored democracy
And we had a great idea
To make imitation cheese
We all live with an imitation cheese
an imitation cheese, an imitation cheese
A Ghost To Most
@Adam L Silverman: I hope several enterprising young journalists are digging deep into what makes Yertle tick.
TenguPhule
Trump administration to strip pollution protections, harming vital wildlife
They will not stop until we’re all dead. Or they are.
TenguPhule
Ex-EPA chief Scott Pruitt used personal email for government work
Somehow this got lost in all the shit shows.
Lock his white ass up.
A Ghost To Most
@TenguPhule:
Your proposal is acceptable.
C Stars
My two favorite parts:
1. Chuck Schumer’s cheese-eating grin, toward the end, and how it just gets bigger and bigger the more Dear Tweeter loses control of himself/the meeting. And then Schumer starts bobbing up and down on the couch, trying to stifle a giggle. It was like an SNL skit in which the comedians are trying mightily not to break character and laugh.
2. The moment when Trump pouts “We need border security!” and Nancy Pelosi puts extends her arm to him, beseechingly, and purrs, “Of course we do.” There’s just something about her tone of voice there that gets me. You can tell she’s parented five kids through the toddler stage, and understands fully that DT requires the same kind of treatment.
TenguPhule
Its not like a Chief of Staff is a vital position or anything. I mean, just look at the state of Trump’s staff…or don’t.
Cermet
@Fair Economist: Funny that the washpost calls Nancy minority leader. Ryan is really a joke if the minority leader has more power than he does. LOLOLOL
Fair Economist
@VOR:
Punishment for Trump or for Ryan?
Hmmm, I get it; it’s a two-fer!
Miss Bianca
OMG, he just keeps repeating the same phrases over and over and over while Pelosi and Schumer talk to the American people over his head.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
McConnell said “Democratic”? He must really want something.
FlipYrWhig
@TenguPhule: Then again, it’s already true that nobody, left, right, or center, likes Mitch McConnell.
FlipYrWhig
@TenguPhule: I was sure he would have said “over the next period of time.” “Period of time” is one of his tells for when he’s bluffing.
Yarrow
@Miss Bianca: It’s really something, isn’t it? I really detest watching Trump but this one is worth it. You kind of need to see it in context to see how Nancy SMASH and Chuck respond as the whole thing goes on. It’s just amazing.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan: I know, right. Its chilling.
Aleta
@C Stars: I wonder how she handles her anger. And how she withstands his constant need to humiliate and lie. It must be exhausting. Speaks for how exceptional she is. How committed to us, when she could have bailed, gone for the money. I bet she’s been offered attractive buy outs by the other side.
Fair Economist
@C Stars:
It really could have been an SNL skit. Another case of reality lapping fiction.
dr. bloor
@trollhattan: Leniency from the judge.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: That’s because that hadn’t happened yet. Here in the bunker at Balloon Juice Actual we do everything we can to bring you the best in bespoke blogging, but just as the edit function doesn’t always work, neither does our time portal.
Martin
@TenguPhule: Trump continues to prove the point that it requires a lot of time, skill and experience to build a good house, and only a few minutes for a toddler to burn it down.
Adam L Silverman
@Ladyraxterinok: Reid was also a pretty soft spoken guy. Schumer was his choice to follow him as Democratic leader.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: I know. That’s why we lowly commenters fill in the gaps. It’s part of the Balloon-Juice experience.
Of course, we could always channel Jonathan Karl (see upthread) who seems to know how to predict the future.
trollhattan
@Ladyraxterinok:
Harry Reid was never going to be a showboating quasi-socialist, representing Nevada and all, but he had Pelosi-level parliamentary skills and being an actual boxer, knew when and how to be tough. My favorite Harry Reid was late-period eyepatch Reid. Boxer and pirate! “Yarrr.”
JPL
If you need to cleanse your brain, watch Michelle instead.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michelle-obama-note-to-self/
zhena gogolia
I’m sorry but I’m with Ruemara. The media will make this look as if Pelosi and Schumer lost the argument.
TenguPhule
This is bad comedy.
A Ghost To Most
Mr. Creosote just had a big lunch.
Fair Economist
@Aleta: I don’t think I’ve ever seen Nancy get ruffled. She always has her eye on the prize and doesn’t get distracted by personal attacks. My guess is that she almost instinctively sees them as manipulative moves and makes the appropriate counter-move of ignoring them. We are indeed fortunate to have her.
tobie
Glad to see Nancy owning the day’s news. It couldn’t come at a better time. Yesterday the Sunrise Movement staged another large sit-in in front of her office. I found this article in The Grist about the various proposals for dealing with climate change. Apparently there’s a bipartisan bill ready to go on a carbon tax — Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act — that no one’s talking about because it’s too wonky and not accompanied by soaring rhetoric. It could, though, start the ball rolling on decarbonization.
Adam L Silverman
Apparently we have a new White House Chief of Staff! I honestly thought he’d stick with Fox News for the pic, so this is an outside the box choice.//
Martin
@TenguPhule: I think Trump is looking in the wrong place. Political operatives are the usual place to find a COS, but I’m thinking there’s got to be a prison warden out there who would take the job and provide a valuable service to the staff he’s presiding over.
JMG
Schumer was cracking up at Pence’s perfect Buster Keaton imitation.
Corner Stone
@LuciaMia:
Well, when you have a butthole for a mouth sometimes you just can’t help but what comes out of it, or when.
C Stars
@Fair Economist: Yeah, when he tries to up the ante and starts pulling stuff out of his ass about people who might be, you know, “contagious,” and the 10 terrorists, TEN TERRORISTS! I kind of expected him to break into song to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” It’s all so absurd.
A Ghost To Most
@Martin: My money is still on Ted Nugent.
Cheryl Rofer
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Oh my, that is so good. Nancy and Chuck really have it together!
Miss Bianca
@Yarrow: I ‘ve been following. It’s fucking surreal. The animatronic Trump at Disneyland would make a more convincing stab at sounding “presidential”. I have bern on self-imposed media blackout when it comes to listening to ShitgibbonSpeak, so it always shocks me anew to hear how paltry, petulant, and just plain *demented* it sounds.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule:
There are people, other than Chuck Todd and Chris Cillizza, who are unclear about this?
Betty Cracker
Just watched the entire thing. Good God. They could have replaced Trump with an angry, mostly hairless, orange chimpanzee in full dominance display mode, and it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference. I liked how Pelosi kind of gestured toward him as she looked at the camera and noted that he was reading lies off his index cards. Reminded me of Jim on “The Office” breaking the fourth wall when his coworkers were being particularly clueless and vicious assholes.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: They will stop as soon as the first injunction is issued within hours of them formalizing this rollback.
Corner Stone
@Martin:
Sounds more like an excellent choice for Chief Transition Officer.
Aleta
@Yarrow: His face reddened when she opposed what he said, but you see how it still took awhile to sink in that she wasn’t going with his script. All he could do was keep up his act and nod, until a delayed reaction set in and he lost it. Pretty skillful of them. He’ll be breaking furniture all afternoon. I hope he made Pence stay after.
Elizabelle
@Fair Economist: Nancy Smash is my spirit animal.
She is the original badass. In pearls.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: ????? for real? Oh snap!
Fair Economist
@trollhattan:
enh, not really. He knew by 2011 that the Republicans would be endlessly obstructive but didn’t nuke the confirmation filibuster until the lame duck session in 2014. That’s why we had Comey and not a loyal American heading the FBI, among many other missed opportunities.
Schumer has held the Republicans to only one piece of major legislation so I think he’s doing his job OK. He doesn’t have the option of going scorched-earth because there are a half-dozen or so Democratic Senators for whom that would be politically radioactive because they represent red or reddish states. I admit I’d prefer Reid over Schumer but I don’t think they are all that different. I also don’t think there’s anyone better. Durbin and Murray are even less of knife-fighters than Schumer, and I really doubt Warren has the clout to hold the caucus together.
C Stars
@Fair Economist: @Aleta: Yeah, I’ve been annoyed by Pelosi in the past because she can be strangely inarticulate when speaking one-on-one with the press. But when it comes to managing high-conflict situations with aplomb, she really has it in her blood. I don’t think she gives a f*ck about all of Trump’s and the GOPs silly machinations, beyond finding it kind of ridiculous and, also, of course, realizing that–when properly exposed–it is an in for her and the Democrats.
eemom
Say what you will about Schumer….I loved the way he sat there giggling at Dump’s lies.
C Stars
@Aleta: Exactly. In not so many words, she essentially said: “You’re ridiculous. I’ll take control of this meeting, thank you very much.”
sukabi
@Yarrow: yeah…? he’s also admitted in a recent interview that he regularly lies about not reading or knowing about drumpfs tweets.
Cheryl Rofer
@Aleta: Preparation. Pelosi and Schumer clearly prepared for the meeting. Each had their own talking points – Pelosi the vote count and Schumer Trump’s lies as two examples. They kept to their own talking points and pummeled Trump. In the after-conference, they did the same thing. They also took all the opportunities for the high road – Trump’s shutdown, we have two proposals we hope he’ll consider, he was just wrong (on several things). And then they limited questions to this topic.
I’ve worked with strategists like that. When you’re in the middle of it, there’s no time for anger, and after you’ve made a fool of the opposition, no need for anger.
Fair Economist
@Betty Cracker:
Nancy and Chuck must have rehearsed this – they were so ready! It has to add to Trump’s fury that he, the master of media in his eyes, just got upstaged by a politician with supposedly weak TV skills.
Adam L Silverman
@Aleta: He’s already started. He’s watching Fox News and retweeting the anti-Comey commentary he’s watching.
MCA1
@Adam L Silverman: While all of this is true (and I’m not a Schumer hater, mind you), to some degree it indicates that Schumer’s spent the last couple of years as Minority Leader fighting the wrong battles and/or not recognizing that the institution in which he serves as a leader has been rendered utterly nonfunctional by Republicans.
He can’t be faulted for not singlehandedly changing the way the media allows the nation to perceive what it is that the GOP has been doing under Cheney, McConnell, Ryan et. al., but he’s not an effective soldier in that war. He gives off an aura of not even perceiving the structural issues as you point them out. Or at best, he hasn’t figured out that, futile though it may be, his best bet would either be (a) forcing McConnell to do all the shit you note he would gladly do and then screaming and shouting about it in hopes that someone eventually pays attention to Turtle’s bald fascism, or (b) spending every day he has holding press conferences to demand Gorsuch’s retirement and replacement with Garland, or asking why it is that 30% of the population gets to rule the rest of us through the Senate, or whatever. Harry Reid wasn’t perfect at that stuff, but he was certainly better.
Schumer’s a good legislator. But right now that’s like saying “That guy’s a solid third baseman with decent opposite field power” of a person standing on a field after all the baseball players have left and there’s now a bunch of guys running around in football pads all around him. The Senate is no longer a legislative body.
Either way, the GOP has intentionally broken the Senate has, and I think Democratic rank and file would like their most powerful member there to just up and say it. The problem will never get fixed without impressing upon the minds of the public that the problem exists, and correctly attributing blame.
Betty Cracker
Mnemosyne
Here’s the Hoarse Whisperer on how Nancy Pelosi pwned Trump. He doesn’t use the phrase, but I’ve seen people call this the “grey rock” technique for dealing with narcissists. Basically, you don’t give them an emotional handle to grab onto and manipulate you with:
C Stars
@Fair Economist: Argh, I missed that part! Might have to go back and watch through it again.
Does anyone know who set this meeting up? Was it the White House trying to stage another dumb reality TV show moment? I mean… what dumbass ever could have possibly thought this would be a good idea for Trump?
Interesting how throughout the meeting Pelosi keeps staring wearily at the press and mentioning what a terrible format this is to have this kind of debate.
Fair Economist
@C Stars:
That’s a good insight, and I hope she can leverage her personal skills by choosing media opportunities to show off her strengths more. Hillary had a somewhat similar problem in that, by repute, she was incredibly charming in small-group situations but didn’t get to display that in the mass media.
Fair Economist
@C Stars:
Trump did. He had his insults and lies all ready to go.
Gravenstone
@Aleta: “Unlock my door? I don’t want to unlock my door. I don’t want to meet with her. Have you seen her? She’s scary!! I’ll stay right in here, thank you.”
Oops – intended to reply to Yarrow one post up.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Sadly yes. One of them is currently Senate Minority leader.
sukabi
Don’t need to see it. I’ll believe Stormy’s description of Yeti pubes and Toad pud.
blackcatsrule
Whatever they have Pence on, I want some.
Love how Pelosi is talking to asswipe like he’s a very slow 2nd grader failing civics class.
Would like people to keep asking about Mexico paying for the wall…
Kelly
@Adam L Silverman:
and most of our fellow citizens are completely unaware of or don’t care about Senate norms, customs and/ot traditions.
Victory
Now, when the deal is made with what they already have to avoid a shutdown Pelosi needs to go on camera and say, “We avoided the government shutdown because we got the President to cave.”
That will drive him absolutely insane!
catclub
@C Stars:
I think that would be Trump.
Adam L Silverman
@MCA1:
You will not find a Democratic senator who will say this explicitly. You might have a few of the younger, newer ones do it implicitly.
eclare
@Fair Economist: Nancy has said that is the big reason she does not do more tv.
Gravenstone
@Adam L Silverman: I always appreciated that the voice of Granny Goodness was Ed Asner.
Adam L Silverman
@Kelly: Exactly. And he was smart enough to figure out that would work to his advantage. That people making process arguments against him wouldn’t move the needle at all. In fact they’d most likely just make things easier for him as he could get the news media to portray the complaints as sour grapes.
West of the Rockies
Pence has the look and sexual heat of a ventriloquist’s dummy.
Adam L Silverman
@Gravenstone: Yep.
dexwood
That was fun, well, except for president Asshole, as usual. Pence looks like something unpleasant the cat left on a chair.
zhena gogolia
@Adam L Silverman:
She’s too decent to take that job.
C Stars
@West of the Rockies: And he’s got little black sewn-on button eyes like the demons in Coraline.
Adam L Silverman
@zhena gogolia: That’s why I used the sarc tags: //.
schrodingers_cat
The President of these United States sounds cray cray. Winning for Putinski!
ETA: I wanna Wall, I is gonna stomp my footsie, until I gets my Wall, my precious.
Wapiti
I like how Pelosi and Schumer repeatedly say that we need to discuss this stuff in private, then make their points to the press. Again and again. Donild Turnip got played here.
Cheryl Rofer
Jeffro
@MCA1:
I am SO DOWN with this idea.
Do a “Day XXX of the Gorsuch Theft” like they used to do w/ the Iran hostage situation on the nightly news
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman:
Who will be the Ocasio-Cortez of the Senate Dems? I guess we will find out in 2020, when the first one is elected…
Ksmiami
@Adam L Silverman: we could actually start fistfights my bet is McConnell is a chicken shit. As other historians have noted, you can’t negotiate with fascists, you have to crush them into powder
satby
@Jeffro: odd that the people’s saviour Wilmer isn’t stepping up to the plate on that. Not.
SteveNKY
Who’s better than Nancy P as speaker?
Pence never intended to be there or stay because he didn’t unbutton his jacket.
Will he resign before the orange menace?
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: It’s also a skill most of us are familiar with: how to keep the surface calm to keep a bully from either going out of control or winning by threat. Feigning friendliness as needed, so a monster might keep pretending to be human.
Checking a narcissist takes an internal toll, so what I wonder is, when she gets home at night, does she have to make an effort to release the natural anger at his dominance plays and lies? Does she need a drink, a swim, a person to listen?
Or does she let his toxin just dry up and blow away as soon as she’s out the WH door.
Aleta
@Inventor: If only they would drop. A couple of times you could see her use his own momentum to make him fall though.
EBT
Pence is a god bothering fool of a took who has no place in government.
Quiltingfool
@Betty Cracker: You know, at one point I thought Nancy might take her shoe off and beat Trump with it. I’d pay good money to see that.
TriassicSands
@Fair Economist:
I’m pretty sure if Trump watched this clip he would be convinced he crushed Pelosi and Schumer. And Pence would be cheering him on. I seriously doubt if Trump has the ability to fairly appraise his performances. After all, the largest inaugural crowd in history can attest to his perfection.
Adam L Silverman
@Ksmiami: Most likely.
Jay C
@West of the Rockies:
Not even. In most ventriloquists’ acts, the dummy at least gets off a few laugh lines, and some snark. Mike Pence usually doesn’t even manage that….
Bobby Thomson
@Adam L Silverman: people think he’s a pushover because he traded lifetime Article III appointments for jack shit.
Corner Stone
@Bobby Thomson: What’s lower than jack shit? Because that’s what Schoomey got in return for his “Gentleman’s Agreement” with Turtle.
J R in WV
@TenguPhule:
If McConnell’s refusal to even hold hearings for Obama’s final Supreme Court nominee didn’t make it clear that he, McConnell, is a stone fascist, racist, totalitarian, NOTHING will do that. Were you awake for that catastrophe? No? thought not.
KSinMA
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Fantastic press conference!
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
I was aware. McConnell used the media to pull a “both sides” citing a non-existent “Biden Rule”.
Make McConnell break every single one of the Senate’s rules and traditions out in the open. Let everyone see it happen.
There is a prevailing myth still held by a majority of Americans that the Senate is having problems but will eventually be fixed.
We need to make it clear once and for all that the Senate is broken beyond repair.
J R in WV
@TenguPhule:
In which case, our government is broken beyond repair, as the Senate is a definitive portion of the government. What do you suggest we do without a constitutional government to work with?
I think putting McConnell in jail. along with his wife Ms Chow and other leading Senate Republicans who have received funding from hostile foreign powers whould go a long way towards repairing the Senate. Short of fixing a broken but critical part of the constitutional government, what would you suggest? Asking for a friend, be constructive!
Mnemosyne
@Aleta:
Nancy Pelosi has an advantage that most people who have to deal with narcissists don’t have: she is his equal, not his subordinate. He has no legal power over her. That is going to drive him fucking INSANE, because narcs are control freaks who must be in control of everyone else around them at all times.
He hasn’t had anyone in his life who was his equal or superior since his parents died. I fully expect a massive meltdown when it finally dawns on him that she does not report to him and in fact has massive power in her own right.
Being out of reach of the narc’s control makes it much, much easier to deal with them.
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
Depends. How far does the rot go?
If its as bad as I fear it is, trying to pretend we’re still a civil society is only going to make things even worse down the road.
I mean, we’re pretty much writing off entire states as lost causes because the majority of voters there are overwhelming batshit insane cultists to Trump.
Ken
@catclub: exactly. The rules are there are no rules.