Trump 38: Donald Trump and the Wall of Lies

[SilverBeach]

As long as people continue to look at government as win/lose, we all lose. Government is the art of negotiation and compromise. The goal of negotiation is win-win.

[AnywhereButHere]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/house-democrats-to-offer-new-border-security-proposals--but-no-wall/2019/01/23/6e39e0b0-1f21-11e9-9145-3f74070bbdb9_story.html

Quote

...On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, Democrats prepared to respond to Trump’s condition for reopening the government — $5.7 billion in funding for a border wall — with a new border security proposal that would exceed previous commitments. The party is even considering matching the $5.7 billion request, not for a wall but for other measures such as immigration judges and drones. The Democrats would consider such legislation only after the government is reopened.

“If his $5.7 billion is about border security, then we see ourselves fulfilling that request, only doing it through what I like to call using a ‘smart wall,’ ” said House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.).

 

I agree @SilverBeach. It's so easy to get caught up in the my side/your side wins that we can all overlook the real people being affected. I hope this sticks and you get relief soon!

The above plan from Pelosi and house Dems seems to me to be an attempt at a compromise. Border security is an important issue and gaps in it do need to be addressed, but Trump's insistence on a physical barrier is childish to the extreme. If he actually does want real border security, I hope that they can look at this plan as a basis for talks and a real bill that might actually have teeth rather than his joke of a wall.

[Howl]

Trump just caved: Trump Announces Short-Term Plan To Reopen Government During Funding Negotiations

From HuffPo: 

Quote

 President Donald Trump announced Friday that he has reached a deal will reopen the government for three weeks so that border security negotiations may continue without the devastating effects of the partial government shutdown.

Trump blinked first.  Nancy just won, bigly.  BIGLY! 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Howl]

This is the beginning of the end, methinks.  Trump, as least for this afternoon, is a beaten man.  Despised by the majority of Americans, he just got his ass handed to him on a platter after being bitch slapped by the most powerful woman in government.  

Nancy won't reneg on her no-wall funding promise.  Republicans will not dare shut down government again in 30 days or whatever the limit is -- they simply can't risk it. 

The fever swamp is going wild and Mueller is probably sleeping like a baby every night. 

[formergothardite]

4 minutes ago, Howl said:

Republicans will not dare shut down government again in 30 days or whatever the limit is -- they simply can't risk it. 

Things will get really nasty if they let him shut down the government again in a couple weeks. The GOP knows this is a losing battle. There is no way for him to save face in this situation. 

[onekidanddone]

Has McFuckFase showed his repulsive face yet?

[AnywhereButHere]

I wasn't watching, but my husband just told me he basically gave (choked out) his speech, turned his back on the microphone, and walked away without taking questions. I'm sure he'll hole up in in his cave for a while and only emerge via Twitter at some point.

[onekidanddone]

3 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

I wasn't watching, but my husband just told me he basically gave (choked out) his speech, turned his back on the microphone, and walked away without taking questions. I'm sure he'll hole up in in his cave for a while and only emerge via Twitter at some point.

He has to beg forgiveness from Rush, Laura and Tucker

[fraurosena]

5 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

He has to beg forgiveness from Rush, Laura and Tucker

Don't forget the worst of all: he has to tell Putin he failed.

[mamallama]

He didn't necessarily fail Putin.  He succeeded in sinking the country into chaos.

[fraurosena]

Looks like he was doped up in order to be able to concede his loss.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

From Jennifer Rubin:  "Trump lost. Period."

Spoiler

Things continue until they don’t. The senseless, cruel government shutdown ended on Friday. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had vowed she would not give anything until the government reopened. President Trump had promised he wouldn’t reopen the government without funding for his border wall. Now, Pelosi is getting what she wants. Trump has lost. The deal would reopen the government for three weeks to allow a conference committee to discuss border security measures — but not a wall.

Trump said in the Rose Garden that he was “proud” to announce that a deal had been reached, though it was nothing more than a capitulation. The president agreed to reopen the government for three weeks, making a vague (and now, more than ever, empty) threat to declare an emergency if money for the wall was not included in negotiations. He then launched into a harangue of the type that has not in many of his speeches shifted public opinion. "We really have no choice but to build a powerful wall or steel barrier,” Trump insisted. He rambled on, reciting yet again some story about women smuggled in cars with their mouths taped shuts. (His own advisers and border agents have no idea what he is referring to.) His mini-tirade about the wall reminded anyone who cared that he is not getting it.

You cannot get thumped any worse than Trump did on this encounter with Pelosi. Each step along the way, the president stumbled. He told Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) “I will be the one to shut it down.” He’d be proud to do it! He wouldn’t blame them! He was then ready to sign a clean continuing resolution — until he listed to Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh and provoked a shutdown anyway.

In the iconic video from December, Schumer can barely contain his laughter. Inside, surely he was jumping up and down, delighting in Trump’s political malpractice.

Since then, Team Trump has shown a total lack of compassion for the 800,000 government workers going unpaid. (Perhaps contributing to the president’s collapse, 14,000 IRS workers did not show up for work, and New York’s LaGuardia Airport was forced to temporarily suspend flights because of staffing issues.) Why would they need to go to a food bank? Can’t they suffer a little for all of us? The remarkable Marie Antoinette moments won’t easily be forgotten.

Trump never was able to sell the public on the existence of an emergency at the border, perhaps because there isn’t one. Nor could he convince a majority that the wall was needed, perhaps because it isn’t. In trying to come up with a face-saving compromise, Trump (or perhaps Stephen Miller, who seems to be in charge when immigration comes up) slipped in one too many poison pills (e.g., denying a slew of asylum claims). Trump’s own staff, in essence, blocked his retreat.

As for the disastrous Senate vote on Thursday, it is far from clear whether Trump knew it would fail or whether he was deluded, convinced that Republicans — who had been grumbling and warning him all along that this was a disastrous mistake — would simply go along.

Ultimately, what may have convinced Trump to give up were all those polls he insisted that he was discounting. As Trump throws in the towel, a new Post/ABC poll underscores just how unpopular Trump has become during the Trump shutdown. “Public disapproval of President Trump has swelled five points to 58 percent over three months as a majority of Americans continue to hold him and congressional Republicans most responsible for the partial federal government shutdown.” Pelosi has fared much better. (“53 percent blame Trump and congressional Republicans while 34 percent blame Pelosi”). Meanwhile, independents critical to both midterm and presidential elections have fled in droves. Among independents, disapproval has soared from 53 percent in November to 63 percent now, while 54 percent say "Trump and Republicans are more responsible for [the shutdown] while 29 percent blame Pelosi and Democrats.”

We will see whether Trump’s collapse costs him with his base. If so, the bottom will fall out of his ratings. We are left with two final questions: Will there be serious primary challengers to Trump, who’s managed to prove his total incompetence? We’ll see. And will Pelosi get tired of winning? I think not.

 

[fraurosena]

3 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

He’d be proud to do it! He wouldn’t blame them! He was then ready to sign a clean continuing resolution — until he listed to Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh and provoked a shutdown anyway.

Speaking of Ann Coulter...

 

[fraurosena]

I adore George Takei.

 

[Dandruff]

9 hours ago, Penny said:

Trump is looking more orange these days. Looks like he is using one of those self tanners and not applying it evenly

Are there not any Republican tanning salons?

Haha to the cave.  I think Trump and his insensitive cronies douchebagged themselves into it.  The PR problem, IMO, had gone from chronic to acute.

So what's he going to do now?  Go to Mar-a-Lago and play golf with people who let him win?

[Audrey2]

2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Speaking of Ann Coulter...

 

I had a nightmare last night the Ann Coulter was president and Sean Hannity was vice president. Yes I did wake up shaking and had to check my phone just to make sure it hadn't really happened!

[Howl]

Nobody's mentioned this, but I feel absolutely certain that Stone's defiance is directly related to telegraphing to Trump that he will not betray him and assuming that Trump's quid pro quo will be a pardon. 

[Howl]

Snap!

 

[GreyhoundFan]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Speaking of Ann Coulter...

 

Ann is going to be on Bill Maher's live show tonight. I'm sure she'll be extra screechy and nasty. I may just watch the monologue and New Rules.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[AnywhereButHere]

Just watched Ann Coulter on Bill Maher. Loud and strident as usual, and the cheese that fell off her cracker is running for its life. 

[fraurosena]

I don't think the presidunce realized this little fact before he signed the bill. Hannity was gloating that the presidunce would declare a state of emergency during the SOTU and thereby own the dems. Oh, to be a fly on the wall when he realizes that Nancy still has the upperhand! 

 

And this is just a little cherry on top.

 

[Ali]

I predict the mutually agreed upon date for the SOTU will be more than three weeks out. She did not raise five kids without learning a thing or two.

[fraurosena]

The presidunce has a case of whataboutism.

I have a what about too:

What about the allegations that multiple of your campaign officials contacted Stone about the Wikileaks dumps?