As we discussed this week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made a big power move: she rejected Donald Trump’s State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, at least until the Trump Shutdown is over. Her official reason was the lack of security, but the real reason was to deny Trump the attention he craves, and to avoid using a bicameral session as one of Trump’s sad little Nazi rallies.
Obviously, Emperor Baby Fists was SO MAD. He was so enraged that he decided to “cancel” a Congressional codel to Brussels and Afghanistan. A “codel” is what it’s called when members of the government travel overseas to conduct government work. In this case, Speaker Pelosi and other Democratic members of Congress were supposed to travel to Brussels for NATO briefings, and travel to Afghanistan to get on-the-ground briefings on our military engagements there, etc. The codel was not public knowledge, and security was going to be pretty tight. Here’s the petty AF letter Trump sent to Pelosi:
President @realDonaldTrump’s letter to @SpeakerPelosi concerning her upcoming travel pic.twitter.com/TtBCvwp080
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) January 17, 2019
Pelosi’s response:
Pelosi spokesman: “The purpose of the trip was to express appreciation and thanks to our men and women in uniform … and to obtain critical national security and intelligence briefings … The President traveled to Iraq during the Trump Shutdown as did a Republican CODEL."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 17, 2019
My senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, called Trump what he is: PETTY AF.
Asked Sen. Warner & Kaine about Trump revealing Pelosi's CODEL to Afghanistan. Both were stunned.
KAINE: “I have been to Afghanistan on multiple occasions. It has never been announced that I’m going to Afghanistan. That never happens. Never… this guy is so unbelievably petty.” pic.twitter.com/yLhqlgxepd
— Alan He (@alanhe) January 17, 2019
I also think Trump is BIGLY ENRAGED that one of Pelosi’s first acts as Speaker (again) was going to be traveling into a warzone to meet with American military personnel. Trump is so scared of traveling and visiting the military – it took him more than two years (post-election) to visit the troops in a warzone, and Pelosi was prepared to go into a warzone within weeks of becoming Speaker.
Also: guess which lazy trophy wife is still flying around during the shutdown?
Trump cancelled Speaker Pelosi’s use of USAF services for the scheduled CODEL citing funding issues, but guess who appears to be flying south via USAF from DC?
Melania. https://t.co/et2Z5qhwWW
— Leah McElrath 🏳️🌈 (@leahmcelrath) January 17, 2019
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Melanoma can walk her lazy, greedy ass back home, without her unpaid Secret Service detail. And yes, I have emailed the White House exactly that. She’s no queen and if she doesn’t want to spend time with her husband, she can divorce him, whatever. Stop billing us for it.
Well, seeing as she worked illegally as a tourist when she came to the US, fraudulently claimed an Einstein visa despite no higher education, skills, talents, bringing no business opportunities or having any meaningful career, and has never provided the promised proof that she went through the correct channels to obtain her citizenship, if the adminstration weren’t run on hypocrisy she’d have been shipped off back to Slovenia by now.
And brought her parents over via-horrors-chain migration. The same chain migration that Prez LardAss rails against.
And married for a green card and had an anchor baby to seal her citizenship.
I have much experience in immigration as I married two men that immigrated here. One passed away. Both had to remain in their country of origin for 5 years waiting for the green card to come through having over-stayed their visas which is fraud. You then have to obtain a fraud waiver. One I immigrated through I-130, the other immigrated the same way before I married him. He then became a naturalized citizen. This does leave me of the mind that legal channels are key to immigration. I also worked as a paralegal in the 90s preparing immigrant and non-immigrant visas through the Justice Department (before DOHS) for workers and Oscar winners. Mostly for Hughes Communications Satellite Systems who built satellites and had a deal with our government and the Indonesian government for us to teach them satellite building technology in exchange for their citizens at the top of their field of endeavor to provide expertise and build them (such as Astronomers). I learned about work certification, student, business, E visas and more. I have a real understanding of the immigration process and YOU ARE RIGHT…it is unfair for people to jump the line. The line is profoundly long. Refugees are another story and there are processed in place for this…and they are all over the world and the ENTIRE world’s countries should have the benefit of our help, in order of application and not be usurped by only a few countries because of geographical location IN MY HUMBLE OPINION.
Honestly no one should be traveling until the govt is opened. He is an absolute, petty moron and I dont really see how it’s a punishment to her but yeah everyone should be in office, unpaid and working to fix the mess. Federal workers well being are on the line.
The Speaker and the House have already done all they can. They passed the previously Senate-approved funding legislation and sent it to the Senate, where it sits until Mitch McConnell remembers he is the Senate Majority Leader of an independent branch of the government, not Trump’s footstool. He can overturn any veto. This could have been settled in 2018 if Mitch had just done his job.
The Senators need to stay in DC to be ready to vote, but the House can continue to do its work – which includes trips like the one planned.
It’s pointless to negotiate further with Trump, since he can change his mind five minutes later. The Senate just needs to insist on a vote so they can get the government open again, with or without Trump.
So in order to be petty and childish-he leaked security intel about people traveling in a war zone. And of course his base and Fox News are loving it.
I just….the stupidity and the pettiness. Clearly he doesn’t have a issue with Chuck Schumer closing the Senate for the next 7 days-THATs the big story.
the Senate is closed by the Majority Leader McConnell. Chuck Schumer is the Senate Minority Leader and does not have the power to close it.
You’re right I meant to type McConnell-and realized it to late to edit.
The senate is supposed to have a 8 day recess for MLK weekend, and up until Tuesday McConnell was going to have it. He got a lot of flak from senators over twitter over the eeekend and now he’s saying he might cancel recess. https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/425462-mcconnell-senate-will-not-recess-if-government-still-shutdown
Could you give more information? I tried googling but couldn’t find anything and I’m confused. Schumer is a democrat and they don’t control the Senate. That’s hiding in a close mitch mcconnell who “leads” the repubs and is definitely compromised by russia and is too scared to do his job. Nobody knows where he is.
He is hiding in the Room of Requirement until a Gryfindor says the magic words and the sword of Gryfindor knocks down the door.
Schumer has no power over anything. Mitch McConnell owns this shutdown as much as Trump does. McConnell has the ability to end it, all he has to do is call a vote on the House bill, which is identical to the bill the Senate approved 100-0 in December.
This is something every reporter/pundit/whatever needs to make clear every time they talk about this shutdown.
the House passed THE EXACT SAME BILL that both the senate/house passed BEFORE the Dem majority took over. 45 was going to sign it until he was shamed by right-wing “news” people (like Hannity and Coulter).
so, essentially, we now have Tippy Turtle NOT bringing the bill HE AND THE REST OF THE GOP ALREADY VOTED FOR because he’s 45’s b*tch. or, rather, Putin’s b*tch. I am firmly convinced that McConnell (and several other GOPers) are under Putin’s thumb.
The blame for this shutdown is ENTIRELY on the GOP.
Great (NOT!) Government by junior high playground fight rules.
They were on the bus to the airfield when he cancelled the trip, so clearly she didn’t expect this reaction – probably on account of the trip’s secrecy and the optics. But it would be surprising if, in retrospect, she was surprised.
Also, it appears that some employees who can’t pay their rent as a result of the shutdown could find their jobs in jeopardy because of its effect on their credit scores – a factor in hiring for some government jobs, including TSA.
A lot of people don’t realize that they can’t take second jobs, either. Any secondary fiscal activity must be cleared by the government (which is shut down) if they want the extra income. I work for a Forbes top 10 company that is subject to heavy government regulation and had to get my paltry little retail side job approved, so I’m sure the hooos federal workers jump through is much worse.
I heard some people were literally already on the plane.
Why does he hate our troops so much? Is he resentful because his gutless ass is a draft dodger?
But workers who deal with issues affecting farmers(part of his base)were called back to work. Nothing political there, no way, not at all. Sure, Jan.
And those at Interior (BLM, BOEM) who can approve gas & oil leases.
I dont think this is anti-troops
This is anti-Pelosi because she postponed his SOTU.
So he just postpones her back with zero intelligence, zero regard, zero strategy, didnt even wait very long, and publically announces it too, just to make her look and feel bad in front of the entire country and world
Of course it make HIM look like what he is, a POS, but yknow, in his mind…..his mind basically IS a Pile-OS so whats the difference anyway.
I have to say it everyday– I didnt think my mind could be blown in new ways every day but its happening. Someone please get him out of there, this cruel, inhumane, uneducated, untrustworthy, irresponsible and uninformed threat to the nation.
Trump may have thought Pelosi would be bothered by his public announcement, but Pelosi is much tougher than he is. She is annoyed, because the most important part of the trip was probably the stop in Brussels to relay personally to NATO people that Congress intended to block Trump from withdrawing from NATO.
His public letter revealed his childishness and ignorance. Take commercial flights? Security people won’t allow it, she’s in the immediate line of succession. She has to take a military plane. Pouting about State of the Union? Written reports were standard until Woodrow Wilson and the date was never fixed in stone.
The entire Congress, President, Vice President, Cabinet (minus the Designated Survivor), and Supreme Court justices are all gathered in one room for the State of the Union address. What a security nightmare. Of course they can’t pull it off properly with so many people furloughed, and Pelosi is quite right to refuse to force them to come back to work for it without pay. If Trump had any sense, he would have asked for a delay himself.
Pelosi said that if Trump wants to deliver a televised oral report anyway, he can do it from the Oval Office. He just can’t do it in front of Congress in person until the government gets back in operation.
The language and grammar in his letter…I’m not an English native speaker and my eyes hurt!!
+1
So his wife could fly to Florida for vacay on a govt plane (and on the govt dime), but the dems can’t go to Brussels and Afghanistan? Ugh. 🙄
This move has backfired spectacularly on Trump.
Has it though? In what way? Yeah people are outraged at the hypocrisy of it, but since he doesn’t feel shame or embarrassment I don’t think it’s affecting him at all.
*His* people are not outraged by it. He could start flying the Russian flag at The White House, and his fan base would still support him. So no, it hasn’t backfired on him. The only people up in arms are the people who were already up in arms because the man has been, continues to be, and shall remain an embarrassment to our country. This changes nothing.
Not really-Fox news was cheering that “when they go low, he goes lower” And yes those were the exact words.
They love it and don’t care that it was a big security risk.
His base may not care what he does, but his base didn’t get him elected. Independents got him elected.
However, the latest NPR poll shows that even his base is wavering. He was down 18 percentage points among suburban men. He was down 13 points among white evangelicals. Among white men without a college degree he was down 7 points. Among Republicans he was down 10 points.
Yes because then people started piling on about why Steve Mnuchin and Complicit Barbie can go to Davos for a conference. So he ended up cancelling their vacations too.
He even had the nerve to suggest she could fly commercial if she wanted to.
Yeah why not fly commercial into a war zone …this guy is like a child
That letter was truly unreal. And the ignorance…as Bryn says, how do you fly commercial to a war zone?
As Jon Lovett has been saying for years, what a week.
to be fair, you actually can take commercial flights to afghanistan, but his public revocation of the plane sealed their fate because he leaked details. Also the press is reporting that a delegation was on its way to fly commercial on the trip and the white house leaked that information as well and the intelligence desk of the state department told pelosi’s office it was too dangerous now to do even that. the president is a treasonous F#ck.
Eve! Darling! So nice to see you!
Yes, let’s have the second in line to the presidency fly commercial into a war zone after her travel plans are made public. The pig is trying to get her killed.
Can exposing a planned secret trip by a Congressional Delegation not be added to the list of treasonous activities?
@ Lightpurple:
*waves*
Jerusha, it can, at least in the court of public opinion. But really the scales are tipped so far towards treasonous at this point, this won’t add much to the charges.
Yay! Miss Eve is here 🙂
Yeah he’s acting like Pelosi was on her way to some luxury resort FFS.
@ Kitten:
“Public relations event”, he called it. What an a**hole.
When his trophy wife actually was.
he also called it an “excursion”.
no, dotard, that’s what YOU do when you go golfing, or when your squinty birther wife runs away to FL.
To him, going to see the troops *IS* a public relations event. He’s such a jack@ss.
The Daily Beast is now saying that Pelosi was planning on flying commercial and had made plans to do so, but the White House leaked that to so now they have had to cancel because of security concerns. Can he look more like a whiny baby?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/pelosi-says-trump-leaked-commercial-travel-plans-forcing-her-to-cancel-afghanistan-trip
Eve – apparently Pelosi can’t fly commercial for such trips since 9/11, when somebody realized how close we came to losing half or more of the elected federal government ….
Unfortunately, having to take a military plane means the Commander-in-Chief, who is emotionally 4 years old and throwing a major tantrum, can actually cancel her trip.
The Speaker of the House is second in line for the Presidency if anything happens to the President. The line of succession starts within Vice President and then Speaker. No commercial flight for her. The rest could take commercial flights, though.
I’m a bit nervous about Pelosi and several members of Congress flying in the same plane, actually. I know why they do it, so they can prepare for the work to be done during the visits. But…
He is so petty and small-minded. this move says so much about him – not just how he treats people who disagree with him or push back against him, but how he views these trips to active war zones. He thinks of them as pure PR moves and photo ops – nothing more. So he thinks its totes fine to deny Nancy her photo op since she is denying him his (via the SOTU.)
They were talking on Chris Hayes last night about how much work goes into these visits, especially when they are secret like this one was – there is a ton of “on the ground” prep work that happens at the destination and now all that work was just a waste.
Trump is losing his s*it and it’s both glorious and sad to watch.
Glorious to see Trump being held accountable but sad because millions of people are without income.
Nancy, the terminator, keep eliminating Trump by one step at a time.
Nancy, the Terminator, has balls. The Orange Coward does not.
He is wrong on so many levels, but as I said in the thread yesterday, Nancy’s letter would backfire. As I said “he is vindictive and will have a tantrum”. The scheduled trip can and will be rescheduled until after McConnell stops holding the Senate hostage. It wasn’t the brightest move by Pelosi to send the letter and it was a passive aggressive slight to purposely embarrass Dump. She received the same in return. We dont need this sh^t from either side. It s not her job to terminate the president and that tack would not help those out of work seeing that he is the one person in the country that can sign a bill into law. Pelosi is held responsible for passing legislation supported by the majority party and thus has no business leaving on any excursion for a week. It will be she that will get a bill passed and only by working WITH the president as unpalatable a proposition that would be
“Pelosi is held responsible for passing legislation supported by the majority party”
she did. the bill passed by the Dem-majority House (three times, now, I think) is the EXACT SAME BILL passed by the GOP-majority Senate/House before the Dem takeover.
45 was going to sign it until the right-wing “journalists” shamed him. that’s when he decided NOT to sign the bill. McConnell had the votes before, and he’d have the votes now. probably even enough to override a veto from 45. and yet he still won’t bring it to a vote because…? his excuse is that he won’t support a bill that he knows the *president won’t sign…and yet he has the votes to override a veto. so, again, WHY?
while I agree that no one should be traveling while the gov’t is shut down, Pelosi is doing her part. the shutdown is SOLELY on the backs of 45 and McConnell at this point. there is no “working with the president”. he will not budge from his demand for $5billion and McConnell won’t stand up to him.
I thought my head would explode yesterday from reading the sadly predictable responses from his base.
How can it be top secret if there’s no trip???
Because, Einstein – for no other reason than petty, toddler revenge, he deliberately broadcast (via Twitter no less) secret information about the SOTU taking a trip into Afghanistan -you know the person who is second in line behind Pence for the presidency – putting her in danger and letting enemies know what our plans were and likely are in the future in regards to these types of talks. It doesn’t matter if the trip hasn’t happened – no one should have known about it regardless.
And my other favorite excuse – why is she running around taking trips instead of getting people back to work???
A. This is all on your fuhrer and Yertle the Turtle. The first one owned it and has said he proudly owns it (before blaming the Democrats hours later) and the second one keeps refusing to vote on any potential bills that come to him.
B. Because someone has to be a f*cking adult and this was a trip that would have been taken in national interest and was completely normal.
I hate people so much sometimes.
McTurtle may have closed the Senate but they are still confirming Barr for the AG job – if the Senate is closed then should this not be happening? Have been following that a bit and he is scary – he is clearly going to bury Mueller’s report or heavily redact it to protect Agent Orange. I hope unseals the sealed indictments that you just know he’s got prep’d against Daughter/wife, Uday, Quasay and Emperor Zero himself.
We have to start treating these morons like the pariahs they are. Block them, mute them, whatever. They are delusional and possibly mentally unstable.
‘Yertle The Turtle’
Cause of death listed on Tiffany’s death certificate- Grabbyhands name for McConnell.
The senate is not “shutdown” to the point of not being able to convene and vote. They can convene and vote. Under Senate rules, ANY senator can ask for consent to vote on or pass a bill, but ANY senator can object. In this case McConnell objected to a House-passed bill to re-open the Fed all but Homeland Security which is the sticking point. This is what makes this so sh^tty. Dems have made it possible to open all but DOHS. This should have been voted on to hopefully get as many back to work as possible and then deal with our problem at hand, the DOHS budget which is why the government is shutdown. If passed this would have been a bifurcation (if you will.) McConnell is holding the senate hostage and that won’t fly for much longer…
Update: Mitch McConnell has said that the Senate will not take a scheduled break next week if the government remains partially closed.
He’s so immature and clueless about what their jobs are. Did he think Nancy was just going on vacation to Afghanistan? We all know he doesn’t actually know what NATO is and how important it is to the US and our allies
He’s sh!tting his diapers over the NY Times story that he ordered Cohen to lie to ?ongress – Mueller is getting closer and closer to indicting the whole lot of them. This is just a distraction as well as a temper tantrum.
I wonder what Nancy’s power move back will be?!? Subpoena his tax returns.
The Cohen bag man / lying stories are huge. It should be getting a lot of attention today.
As mentioned on a TV news show this morning, he is battling multiple more formidable adversaries right now. And he has no idea how to handle two of them — Nancy P and Mueller.
Yesssss! Let’s talk about the bombshell report from BuzzFeed of him lying to Congress!!!
Oh and also Cohen literally giving Jerry Farrell, Jr a bag of money for social media accounts and evangelical support.
A literal bag of money.
Riemc526 – OMG that report made me want to pop a bottle of champagne. Only it’s 9:30AM here and I’ve barely finished my coffee…
Suborning perjury, as Emperor Zero did with Michael Cohen regarding his testimony to Congress about the Moscow Drumph Tower, is a criminal act and punishment is up to 5 years in prison.
It’s time to act!
Klobuchar has potential-AG William Barr on record as committing to this. So smart, Amy!
I love my senators Feinstein and Harris, but Klobuchar is a straight up BOSS.
Bill Clinton was impeached by the House and went to trial for perjury and obstruction of justice (the charge of abuse of power failed in the House). At trial he was acquitted by the Senate. To date, no president has been removed from office by impeachment and conviction. With Republicans in charge of the Senate, I have doubts that he will ever go down while in office. Our only recourse will be to VOTE HIM OUT in 2020. BUT, I could be wrong. Getting him voted out in 2020 will have to do with finessing his base instead of alienating them. IMPERATIVE!
Nixon would have been impeached by the House and removed from office by the Senate if the Republicans had not convinced him to resign. The Grand Jury wanted to indict him, but instead bundled up all the documents and sent them along to Congress.
The only reason Trump is in danger of impeachment is because he hasn’t had the good sense to leave the country and resign (in that order) before he gets his passport lifted as a flight risk.
He needs to schedule a trip to the Middle East and detour Air Force One to Dubai, which has a golf course and fast food joints and won’t extradite him. Then he can resign by Tweet.
Klobuchar For Prez!
Yeah. She was just going to vacay in Afghanistan. As one does. God I HATE HIM.
What?….I hear it’s really nice this time of year! lol
I’d love to have a comment in my head ready to go, but there’s nothing but black scribbles lol. He outdoes himself every day.
Who here believes he spelled prerogative correctly? No one ? Me neither. That letter reflects the petty ass trump perfectly, but was actually written by Goebbels, Jr.
Ha! Not stalking your posts, but had same thought while reading it. Tone is all Trump, emotional and passive aggressive, like a catty 12 year old, but the spelling demonstrates an ability to use spell check.
Ivanka often writes his copy
I was going to say that I thought it read more like Ivanka than Miller.
When he was elected, I said that my only consolation is knowing that he will be exposed as the petty, despicable fraud that he is. His legacy will be the biggest scandal in US political history. His fake name that is plastered on cheaply-made buildings across the world won’t be worth shit. It’s happening people, so buckle up. Books will be written, films will be made and history will not be kind to this family of treasonous grifters.
I wish John Candy was still around to play trump in the movie.
Too lovable.
@BeanieBean. Phillip Seymour Hoffman could’ve nailed it, but once again….
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Owen Wilson has the part in the bag, looks-wise. The question is, does he have the acting chops to pull it off? Phillip Seymour Hoffman would have hit it out of the park.
Can I just say – that once again Hillary Clinton was right. Choosing Tim Kaine as a running mate was an excellent choice. He has never shied away from voicing his opinion on Trump then or now and he seems like a totally normal intelligent guy. Whatever kept people from relating to HRC really should have seen her choice of VP as a signal that she understands what people needed and wanted from her leadership. I love that he is so plainspoken and direct.
I really respect him and I love that he doesn’t shy away from labeling the cowardly one correctly. I am so jealous of those of you who have said how proud you are of your senators. As a Texan my senators are Ted Cruz and John Cornyin. )-:
Yes, I love Tim Kaine. Why couldn’t it have been Hillary and Tim? Sob 😥
In News: Tim Kaine is planning to force the Senate to hold a rare Saturday session as roughly a quarter of the government remains shut down. “We’re going to be in for sessions for Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,” Kaine said when asked about his plans to force the Senate to be in session over the weekend. “I’m going to be on the floor and I’m going be making the UC [unanimous consent] tomorrow and next week, I probably won’t make the UC on Saturday,” he added. McConnell has said the Senate will not break next week as long as the Fed is partially shutdown.
Tim Kaine secured the VP nom by stepping aside expeditiously to make room for Debbie W-S at the DNC to push superdelegates to vote for HRC, which, you may recall, was a spectacular failure and often cited as one major reason for her defeat. I don’t care what Snopes says about “oh he was going to run for Senate,” the timing is not a coincidence.
He also keeps lying that her 5 day trip was 7 days. And keeps calling it an “excursion” like it’s a cruise instead of her job. He actually had the nerve to ask on Twitter why she would go on this visit. It’s her job, dumba** ! Not to mention he’s ridiculously ranting about her “wine country” donors. He is completely devoid of sense.
He’s also insanely babbling about prayer rugs and caravans this morning.
Prayer rugs = prob more torn/discarded sportswear (like when they “tried it” back in ’14) or a shawl (serape?) or some such, but OF COURSE he has no pics/proof from an unnamed “Border Rancher.”
BTW: there are Christians that use prayer rugs/shawls, too.
MY GOD! Napalm Don is SUCH a…a…OOOOOOO (**punches at air**)!!!!!
I have no problem with her withdrawing the Congress hosted SOTU and I laughed at his equally petty response and I have no problem with that either. They all need to get off Twitter, off TV, back in Washington behind closed doors and work out a solution that pisses everyone off. That’s compromise. Do the jobs they are elected to do…..serve the people, not the parties, not their egos.
And before everyone comes at me with knives, I am damn sick and tired of this “winner take all” mentality because all we get is fu€k*d. Sure, we can wait out Muellers investigation and endure this craziness from all angles in the meantime, But can we? Something catastrophic could damn well happen and I hope it isn’t airplanes colliding.
STOP SAYING THAT THEY NEED A COMPROMISE!!!!!!! THEY HAVE ONE!!!
I’m sorry to yell, but I’m sick to death of folks acting like the politicians are just doing nothing. Our politicians did their jobs….it’s McConnell who is not doing his. McConnell is preventing a vote. Compromise has already been had, and Mitch is stonewalling. It’s on him. All on him. Nobody else.
Yes Rapunzel. So much yes.
They have a compromise. A bill to re-open the government has already passed in the house and WILL pass in the senate. They have the necessary votes confirmed. (And by the way the exact bill had ALREADY passed in the senate before Christmas). The ONLY reason the government remains closed is because McConnell won’t allow a vote (because Trump had a temper tantrum because Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck were mean to him). This is related to only two egos – Donald Trump’s and Mitch McConnell’s. The end.
Understood there was a compromise passed by the House bifurcating the shutdown by opening all but Dept of Homeland Security. McConnell effed the country by not allowing this to go for a vote because he is Dump’s cronie. That does not change the fact that Dump is the ONLY ONE who can sign a Bill into law. Pelosi is responsible for passing legislation supported by the House majority party. She will not win if she tries to do it by playing passive, aggressive games with our 3rd Grader in Chief. She had better take a different tack or she will be nothing but a lame duck speaker in this case. He is a malignant narcissist and she’d better call upon her powers of psychological persuasion over this man-baby.
CA Family Code- Pelosi is not having trouble passing legislation. The legislation she passed is not getting voted on in the Senate. And no, Trump is not the ONLY ONE who can sign a bill into law. There’s such a thing as Veto proof legislation that can be put into law without the President’s approval.
Why do you think McConnell is denying a vote? Because he knows that Trump would lose. Veto-proff bipartisan legislation is possible and that’s what Mitch and Donnyboy don’t want. Which is why the turtle is hiding in his shell.
And no, Pelosi is not playing passive aggressive games with Trump. She disinvited him to Congress for the SOTU because of security and frankly it’s not in the best interest of anyone, including Trump, to be giving a SOTU address right now as the SOTU is clear: It’s shutdown. This disinvite benefits the Orange one cause he can rant on Twitter instead of sedating himself to come off as “presidential.” There was nothing wrong with that play on Pelosi’s part.
Trump is the one passive-aggressively acting like Nancy takes order from Chuck Shumer….lol, as if.
Pelosi made the best play at the start of this chaos by getting Trump to admit responsibility for the shutdown on camera, all while actively encouraging him to not let their meeting be televised. That was brilliant. She gave Trump an out, so nobody could accuse her of trapping him, and all while his supporters were yelling for “transparency” at her request, she was getting Trump to deliver a statement which the Dems can use to prevent people for blaming them for the shutdown. Imagine if that hadn’t happened…. Trump’s blame of the Dems would have some actual weight. But now it doesn’t- all because Pelosi was baller and protected her party by playing on Trump’s desire for televised theatrics. Brava, Madame Speaker.
CA Family Code – not bending to Trump’s will and rewarding his tantrum is actually the only move I can see here for Pelosi. Dealing with Trump is exactly like dealing with a toddler – if you let them cry for an hour and then give them what they want they will cry for an hour every time.
Bottom line remains, Pelosi has put options on the table that have bipartisan support. She’s done her job.
Rapunzel. I think I wasn’t explicit enough so in terms of the legislative process, her job isn’t done yet. She will have to keep trying until the process is complete and I DO understand that McConnell blocked the vote…we cannot stop trying:
Laws begin as ideas. First, a representative sponsors a bill. The bill is then assigned to a committee for study. If released by the committee, the bill is put on a calendar to be voted on, debated or amended. If the bill passes by simple majority (218 of 435), the bill moves to the Senate. In the Senate, the bill is assigned to another committee and, if released, debated and voted on. Again, a simple majority (51 of 100) passes the bill. Finally, a conference committee made of House and Senate members works out any differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The resulting bill returns to the House and Senate for final approval. The Government Printing Office prints the revised bill in a process called enrolling. The President has 10 days to sign or veto the enrolled bill.
I am NOT supporting Trump or McConnell EVER–NEVER HAVE, but I don’t support Pelosi either. If the president refuses to sign anything without working with Pelosi, what is the point of the whole process above? She has to call Trump every day or he her and make this sheet happen
The problem with the idea that Pelosi should be calling Trump every day is that this isn’t actually productive. Just feeds the toddler’s ego and doesn’t solve anything. He has never been a good negotiator. He just bullies and bribes his way through. He hasn’t even spent previous allocations on his ridiculous wall and has never given a coherent and detailed argument for it. He just wants Ann Coulter to tell him he’s a good boy and pat him on the head. So he just keeps saying he wants more and more money for his ridiculous wall. (Really, the number he wants keeps changing.)
A major problem is that Trump goes back on his word routinely. He says he will sign something and then a few minutes or a few hours or a day or two later – he decides not to sign. Nobody can seriously negotiate with someone who fluctuates so wildly. He watches Fox News and changes his mind. He bumps into someone in the hall and he changes his mind. Remember that peculiar hour-long meeting he televised to show what a great dealmaker he was? It was like watching a ping pong game. A Democrat proposed something and he said that sounded good. Then a Republican leaped in to say the opposite and Trump nods his head, saying that sounded good. And it went on like that. Strangest thing I ever saw in a meeting like that. I think Trump was trying to act Presidential for the camera but had no idea what they were actually talking about. The people who had come up with a bipartisan solution finally thought he said yes to it, then a few minutes later (after talking with someone outside the meeting, our guess was Stephen Miller) he was totally against it again.
This has happened too many times. He was all set to sign the funding bill in December, then Ann Coulter laughed at him on Fox News and he refused to sign it, shutting down the government.
McConnell has to do what he should have done in December: have the vote, send the approved bill to Trump, and then let our system work as we learned in civics class.
Three possibilities:
1) Trump signs the bill and it becomes law. Shutdown over.
2) Trump vetoes the bill and it goes back to Congress, where they have enough votes to overturn the veto and it becomes law. Shutdown over.
3) Trump does nothing and after 10 days, it becomes law. Shutdown over.
McConnell is the sticking point. All efforts need to be focused on him, not the toddler in the White House.
I know Pelosi, Schumer and the rest of the Dems are doing what they can to stop the treasonous Trumpers. It’s the battle of their lives. McConnell is the very worst of the traitors. He blocked Garland for SCOTUS, then made sure Obama didn’t let us know that the Russians were sabotaging the presidential election–all this long before Trump got his hands on the wheel. McConnell intends to kill our democratic republic. He’s such a turncoat by now that he has to stick with the coup script to the end. Who will rid us of this meddlesome Senate Majority Leader??
The people of his state sure won’t, they have continued to vote for him for decades. Although, he’s probably been accepting money and meddling from Russia for decades so who knows. Russia may have been practicing, and perfecting, their hacking and meddling tactics for YEARS in his district, with his help.
We are reaching a crisis point where either the SDNY or Mueller OR SOMEONE who has the power needs to start using their power to indict or charge SOMEONE FOR THEIR CRIMES. I have been trying to be optimistic, but GD, how much longer do we have to endure this sh**show before someone does SOMETHING—ANYTHING!!
This is just a ridiculous farce . Literally millions of documents, testimony, emails, voice mails, text messages and we sit here in LIMBO while NOTHING gets done. I cannot believe this whole country is held hostage by that orange stain and Fn McTurtle. 2 people can ruin this whole damn country. I hear a lot of tough talk, but I WANT ACTION! I want them to be called out as the traitors they are. I want perps walks! I want heads rolling! I want life sentences in federal prison for the MOST serious of crimes. Not some BS “obstruction of justice” just because it’s the easiest to try. I want JUSTICE for this country! I want bad people to get punished and not get away with it because they are rich, white, and entitled! AAaaaargh!
**puts away soap box.**
**clears throat**
Sorry for the ragey rant. Please don’t ban me!
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Well said and I agree with you completely. The Celebitches are an inspiration to the reader and very well informed. Thanks for the critical thought and intellect you all bring to the conversation.
When Senator Warner called him Mr. Trump instead of POTUS.
I mean, me too, Senator Warner. Me too. But my name for him might have had to have been on a 7 second delay.
Pelosi was planning on meetings to shore up and reassure our NATO allies on the way to Afghanistan. So was it Trump who canceled the trip or Putin? To me there is no difference anymore
I was reading the other day that once a shutdown passes 30 days then they can start firing govt. employees at will. Since trump has been in office he’s been systematically dismantling and getting rid of faithful/good govt. employees in positions of power so he can replace them with his Cronies. Until I see anything come of this so called investigation I’m gonna say that nothing major will happen to trump or his family. Oh and I forgot he also doesn’t want the govt. to resume because they will start filing indictments and you know he’s scared.
Thankfully he can’t lay people off this time because it is an emergency shutdown. That only happens in RIF shutdowns I believe.
That’s what I find worrisome. A lot of folks in Congress & their lobbyists don’t want federal management of those vast tracts of land in the West. They want to be able to exploit resources without any environmental checks.
He’s petty, but she only cancelled the SotU as a power play. He struck back.
Pelosi did not cancel the State of the Union. She postponed it until the logistics could be carried out by paid staff rather than unpaid furloughed staff pulled back for the event.
The logistics are serious business for an in-person address by the President in front of the Vice President, the Cabinet (except for the Designated Survivor holed up somewhere else), the entire House and Senate, and the entire Supreme Court. Security concerns are major.
Until Woodrow Wilson, the POTUS just submitted a written report to Congress. The date is not fixed, although it has happened sometime in January for quite a while. I don’t think anybody know the General Public will be perturbed if it airs in February or March or June. It isn’t Game of Thrones.
If Trump doesn’t want to wait until the people working on the event can get paid, then he can always televise his speech from the Oval Office. That would involve minimal risk and minimal labor. And he would get to be on tv, which should make him happy.