Despite what’s been leaked and teased all afternoon, I don’t think anyone really knows what the President will or will not say in just a few minutes despite what has been fed into the teleprompters. The President’s address will be followed by an official response from Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Schumer, the Democratic leaders in Congress.
Here’s the live stream:
Open thread!
Adam L Silverman
And he’s started on time!
Keith P.
Does Immigration really encounter thousands of illegal immigrants every day?
Corner Stone
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
Chris
I tremble with anticipation.
Anya
Who is delivering the Dem response?
Jackie
My Fellow Americans.
I spewed wine.
Corner Stone
Well, you may not be able to end it but you could sure as fuck stop making it all worse.
Adam L Silverman
@Keith P.: Only if you really massage the data.
Adam L Silverman
@Anya: Pelosi and Schumer.
Adam L Silverman
Physical barrier! Drink!
Adam L Silverman
Also, which Democrats asked for a steel wall instead of concrete?
Corner Stone
@Anya: Senator Shouty McWigglefingers is doing a separate response from Pelosi and Schumer.
Yarrow
Daniel Dale is live fact checking it, as usual. https://twitter.com/ddale8
Emerald
Does anybody believe he’ll actually stick to eight minutes? I mean, he has verbal diarrhea and he won’t be able to resist stepping on Nancy’s time. (not watching myself)
Adam L Silverman
The wall will not pay for itself, nor will it be paid for by the slightly revised NAFTA that hasn’t even been accepted by Mexico, Canada, or the US Congress.
DanH
More die from pharmaceuticals than heroin. You know, legal corporations, killing Americans. Fuck you, Trump.
JWR
@Keith P.:
I noticed that. He couldn’t even make it through the first sentence without lying.
HumboldtBlue
You couldn’t pay me to watch that shit. Ya’ll are hardier than I will ever be.
Adam L Silverman
And there’s the blackmail demand. The government is shutdown and will stay shutdown because the Democrats will not finance border security. This is a lie.
Corner Stone
@HumboldtBlue:
It’s all the canned soup.
Adam L Silverman
Walls around people’s homes is not the same as a border wall.
Carolina Dave
Nice job networks allowing this partisan BS.
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: What about Bernie?
I’m watching Joanne Weir making a fig and olive tapenade. It does look really good.
Baud
Has he even mentioned the Wall yet?
Keith P.
Amusing that Trump referred to methamphetamine as “meth”, particularly in light of that Apprentice producer claiming that Trump snorts speed.
MomSense
Wonder if his new WH doc took away his Adder all. He seems low energy tonight. Sad!
Adam L Silverman
And here comes the tally of all the people killed by undocumented immigrants.
Baud
“At the request of Democrats…”
Corner Stone
Jowly Fearmonger – my new slam punk cover band.
MomSense
@Adam L Silverman:
But the love inside is the same.
//s
Carolina Dave
The new Kates. Again, great job networks
Baud
The Wall will make your farts smell good.
Aleta
He says it’s terrible that women are assaulted on the trip north; this tragedy concerns him so much that so he authorizes their mistreatment in custody?
debit
The response to this litany of awfulness is “If it’s so bad, why didn’t you do something two years ago?” Lamesauce.
Carolina Dave
So sad, so terrible. Yes that sums it up. BTW, he’s gone over his allotted time. Complete BS
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: He’s live streaming a response on social media.
ChrisH
The sniffing is driving me crazy
JWR
Gawd. He’s not even looking at the friggin’ camera. Probably too busy trying to follow Stephen Miller’s cue cards.
And, it’s over.
MomSense
@Corner Stone:
Oh my god. I just realized that trump’s skin looks like that orange congealed fat at the top of a can of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup.
Corner Stone
@JPL: I love figs and I love olive tapenade. But not sure about both together.
Emerald
It’s 6:12. Has he stopped yet?
Adam L Silverman
Another fine piece of factual inaccuracies written by Stephen Miller.
DanH
Death and fear mongering. Scare tactics. Be afraid, America. Fuck you, Trump.
notoriousJRT
Such an earnest mother fucker.
steppy
It’s much easier just watching his pie-hole move with the sound off and keeping track of the sniffing.
donnah
Yeah, he’s pulling out all the favorites…his scare tactics and threats on parade. What an ass head!
Adam L Silverman
@Emerald: Yep. 11 minutes start to finish.
plato
No way watching this shitshow either. Has Kasporov been proved right?
Emerald
Thanks! It’s safe to go back to MSNBC.
So glad I missed it.
Steeplejack
I clocked him at just under 9:30. I’ll be sending $93 to RAICES.
And it was 9½ minutes of complete bullshit. No surprise there.
plato
Oh, Sarah. If only…
Quinerly
Did he even use the word “wall?”
Emerald
Oh Gawd. Schumer looks like a wax dummy.
Baud
The electorate of the 80s would have eaten this up.
Adam L Silverman
@plato: Pretty much.
Steeplejack
Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes and Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC. Now throwing it to Nancy Smash! and Chuck “Good Cop” Schumer.
Chris
So, no new measures announced, just the usual “Messicans are scary?”
Corner Stone
@plato: Yes but it didn’t exactly take a Chess Grand Master to figure that formula out.
sukabi
@JPL: I’m watching Wild Scotland on NatGeo.
Better to watch wildlife than crazed monsters
Baud
Schumer is shooting laser beams out of his eyes.
Adam L Silverman
@Emerald: Disney forgot to reset his animatronic sequencer when they loaded his remarks for tonight.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Didn’t watch, gonna be hard enough to watch the clips
ETA: there was a twitter rumor this afternoon that he wrote it himself– anybody who watched think he wrote any of it? and talk of how well he’s done defending the border and that’s why we need a wall?
Adam L Silverman
@Quinerly: He did.
debit
@Steeplejack: Chuck is not being a good cop. He’s being a big meany!!
Quinerly
@Baud: one of those laser beams just scared Poco.
Elie
This was a total waste (what I saw and heard of it). This will do nothing to help him with his base or move any other needle. At least he didn’t call the state of national emergency — YET. And he better never.
He is a stinking pile of shit but dangerous to us. We had better stay ready and sharp. His sheer ruthless atavism is hurting our democracy and its institutions. We cannot endure this forever and even as I dread it, I hope he pushes his limits to a point where we can no longer deny what needs to be done.
plato
Quinerly
@Adam L Silverman: I came late. Oops.
Adam L Silverman
I don’t even need to look to know this is Florida!
Adam L Silverman
And Pelosi and Schumer are done.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman:
IT’S WILMER TIME!
JR
@Emerald: how about not going back? People can just not watch the networks that enable this nonsense
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: is Outback the home of the bloomin’ onion? or some manner of cheese-covered bread? Either way, I get it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Not in my house.
Emerald
@JR:
I always watch Rachel and Lawrence. The rest of it, not so much.
Adam L Silverman
@plato: And there’s the crack in McConnell’s wall.
hilts
Can’t bring myself to watch CNN. Did The Gergenator aka David Gergen say that Trump acted presidential tonight?
FelonyGovt
So he had networks give up all this airtime for nothing. They must be pissed. But serves them right for going along with this nonsense.
Baud
@FelonyGovt: Yep.
plato
@Adam L Silverman: And hopefully one that would split him wide open. Literally.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: is she competing with the guy the other day who beat his father with pizza for helping deliver him when he was born?
You seriously need to check the water down there…pretty sure there might be an abundance of lead in it.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Aw dayumn. So, Applebee’s instead?
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Why is he even speaking?
Chris
@Baud:
And great bolts of lightning from his arse?
sukabi
@schrodingers_cat: because Elizabeth Warren is stealing his populous thunder.
oatler.
After the speech and the “rebuttal” came the sordid ABC compromise called “The Connors”.
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
I watched Stormy instead. Thank you all for enduring the orange atrocity.
schrodingers_cat
@sukabi: Has he combed his hair?
Barbara
@hilts: A wild storm just broke out in the DC area. I’m watching Shetland on Netflix.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman:
I mean, I can see attacking them if they don’t take you to Peter Luger, but Outback? Really?
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: Narrator: It is never Wilmer time.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
https://balloon-juice.com/2019/01/08/idiot-box-open-thread-worthy-psas/#comment-7146702
Cheryl Rofer
No state of emergency.
randy khan
@Adam L Silverman:
It would be stunning if the shutdown play is what separates the Republicans in Congress from Trump.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
The renowned Tholian punctuality?
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Bloomin onion.
plato
@Cheryl Rofer: Bummer.
Anya
@Adam L Silverman: oh no. But they can’t be worse than the racist demagogue.
sukabi
@schrodingers_cat: Don’t know, not watching him. Had enough of shouty pointing men growing up. But since “Einstein hair” seems to be his trademark I doubt it.
Baud
@Anya: They weren’t exciting but they weren’t bad.
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: Crystal meth and synthetic pot.
Barbara
@plato: Just start looking at who is up in 2020. Joni Ernst and Thom Tillis come on down!
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: It’s Lake Worth. Everything is relative to the human geography.
dexwood
@Cheryl Rofer:
Not true. president Asshole still occupies the Whitehouse.
joel hanes
@JPL:
What about Bernie?
Not a Democrat.
hilts
@Elie:
For me, Norman Ornstein nailed it when he described Trump’s administration as a kakistocracy (A system of government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous individuals)
Hopefully, Trump will be led out of the Oval Office in handcuffs or a straitjacket in the near future.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: that would also explain the MaraLoco resident…
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: A town I’m probably glad I’ve never heard of.
ETA: Despite your edit, still a town I’ve never heard of.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: At least not yet. We’ll see what happens when Pelosi parks his tuchas in the cheap seats at tomorrow’s meeting.
lamh36
Surprised, surprised…the nets got played…not really…
Adam L Silverman
@Anya: You understand that Pelosi and Schumer are the two most senior Democratic officials in the US?
Adam L Silverman
@hilts: Norm is good people. And a good friend.
lamh36
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Yeah, that’s what Killary wants you to think.
plato
@lamh36: One thing I will give to the totus thug, he is master at playing the corrupt & complicit media.
JWR
@lamh36: Absolutely. I mean it’s not as if they could’ve recorded it for a later viewing should it prove consequential. (But then they’d have been accused of determining the “News”” ahead of time.)
The Thin Black Duke
It’ll be interesting to see what the ratings on this shitshow will be.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: He even got a theme song on the O’Franken Factor, “Norm in the USA”.
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: That’s flaka in the water.
Adam L Silverman
From the very well resourced Gabriel Sherman:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/trump-aides-fear-the-wall-will-be-his-alamo
Peale
@Adam L Silverman: were it Sizzlers, I’d kind of take her side
AThornton
I was expecting dumbass to throw the country into a constitutional crisis. Instead we got a Nothing Burger with stale Cheetos
Dorothy A. Winsor
Come on, media! Be best.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Heh.
guachi
If such a wall could be built, I’d pay for a wall to protect me from the avalanche of Trump’s lies.
Adam L Silverman
@plato: The Trump Doctrine!
From something I wrote up for someone based on my posts here going back to spring 2016:
Baud
Timurid
@Cheryl Rofer:
And the Village will praise Trump as a hero for not doing it.
Ohio Mom
@AThornton: Thank god for small favors.
Adam L Silverman
Mnemosyne
@Cheryl Rofer:
I’m guessing that enough people told him that it would be an empty gesture that he changed his mind. Narcissists hate looking weak in front of other people, so telling him that it would get immediately vacated and ignored would be enough for him to tell Miller to re-write the speech. He didn’t want his big emergency declaration to be a public fiasco like the visa fight has been.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Minnesota to be precise.
Adam L Silverman
@Peale: Given Florida, could’ve been Golden Corral.
Vince
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
chopper
@AThornton:
we’re already in a constitutional crisis. second act is just starting.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I wonder if Franken will wind up podcasting
Ken
@FelonyGovt:
Like the time they all showed up at a campaign event and he tried to sell them Trump steaks. Or the time they showed up for an announcement and he tried to take them on a publicity tour of one of his buildings. Or the time….
You know, the news organizations should start making a list. Maybe when it gets tlong enough, they’ll remember the old saying “fool me
tentwentyfifty a ridiculously large number of times, shame on you…”Ohio Mom
@Adam L Silverman: The looks on Schumer’s and Pelosi’s faces remind me of parents who waited up after you missed your curfew and are starting off with the old line, “We are very, very disappointed in you…”
lamh36
I see folks like Tapper tweeting snarky pics of the Dem response.
Not surprising…they’d rather focus on that rather than his net and the others being playing by Chump
The Dangerman
Which happens first, Government fully reopens or Muellermas?
I’m not hearing an out for Trump in the highlights (lowlights? lowlife?) and the Democrats seem firm on fuck you and the horse you rode in on.
I thought Trump would man up and declare an emergency but … gutless.
Adam L Silverman
@chopper: Been in one since his hand came off the bible at the inauguration. By taking the oath, he violated the oath.
CliosFanBoy
@Adam L Silverman: You know him?? I am so jealous!!!!!! WTF is he doing at AIE???
Cheryl Rofer
@Mnemosyne: That could be. I’m also getting some responses to that on Twitter to the effect that he balked. He is a coward, and perhaps he just couldn’t stand up to his own big talk.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
best advice Jared has given Dad since “Fire Comey. The Dems will love it and you’ll have heard the last of this trump/Russher stuff”. You can see why The Beast keeps him around.
Mnemosyne
@Ohio Mom:
I saw someone on Twitter say they looked like parents who just caught their teenager breaking into the liquor cabinet. ?
gwangung
@Mnemosyne: Heh. And apparently he looked liked deflated, wilted lettuce tonight.
That’s not the look of strength, either.
Adam L Silverman
@Ohio Mom: Tomorrow they’re going to ground him and send him to the residence with no scoops of ice cream and no McDonald’s hot apple pies!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cheryl Rofer: I wonder if McConnell, or someone, told him, you do that and you’re on your own. He does have a survival instinct, and even he must see that McConnell is propping him up at this point
Mnemosyne
@Cheryl Rofer:
He would have had to stand up and take responsibility for his actions. That’s why he punked out.
@gwangung:
Yes, but in his tiny narcissist’s mind, he stood firm against his enemies, therefore WINNING!
oatler.
@Vince: WE’LL HAVE NO IAMBIC PENTAMETER AROUND HERE!
Adam L Silverman
lamh36
Nah my dude…it’s just easier for the nets to focus on that rather than the fact that they got played AGAIN by Chump co.
Fair Economist
I wasn’t watching. Have we always been at war with Eastasia yet?
Adam L Silverman
sukabi
@guachi: no need. The appropriate walls are already built. We’ve just got to get drumpf and crew behind them.
Ohio Mom
@Mnemosyne: Yes, it could be that too. Whatever the triggering event was, the siblings are watching from another room with their mouths wide open.
gwangung
@Mnemosyne: True. But I think the growing volume of laughter at his antics is gonna deflate his core. They’ll never turn on him, but the mocking (and not anger, either) will deflate them.
Adam L Silverman
@CliosFanBoy: They pay him to study Congress. That’s what he’s doing there.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
if trump has lost WEST By God Virginia…
Frankensteinbeck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yep. Kushner is exactly that stupid.
CliosFanBoy
@Adam L Silverman: I know that, but given AEI I am surprised he would fit there. He’s so reasonable!!!!
Adam L Silverman
@oatler.:
lamh36
it’s much easier on their egos for the nets to focus on the optics rather than the fact that they got played by Chump Co AGAIN! Let’s not let them get away with it! Keep the focus on keeping their feet to the fire for allowing this bullshit free propraganda on the air
Adam L Silverman
@CliosFanBoy: It grew out of a project he and Thomas Mann started early in their careers when they were university professors dealing with freshman members of Congress. AEI and Brookings sponsored it. Eventually he went to AEI and Mann went to Brookings full time.
Punchy
@Baud: WTF does Lieu have against Steve Miller? The Joker was a classic, and everyone knows the words to Fly Like an Eagle. Abracadabra was a bit kitchy, but still pretty solid. Bad take by Theodore.
sukabi
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Who said Jared was the smart one of the bunch?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
my god, the bats in his belfry have split into factions and are going to war!
and as Lawrence O’Donnell is pointing out right now, trump/pence 2020 sent out a fund-raising blast email, to the networks were now that much more complicit in a campaign stunt
lamh36
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Was just reading Maggie’s stenograpy…
Oh please..c’mon now Maggie…
“Yet privately, Mr. Trump dismissed his own new strategy as pointless.”
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/1082836933020135424
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@sukabi: future Republican primary candidate Nikki Haley, among others. I think she called him “quietly brilliant”, or some such?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
Those things are pretty good. That’s cruel and unusual punishment, Adam. But it’s Trumpie getting punished in this joke, so yay!
CliosFanBoy
@Adam L Silverman: used to enjoy him on Al Frankin’s old radio show.
John Revolta
@Adam L Silverman: Unfair comparison. The GOPs been honing their game for 40-50 years since then.
gwangung
@sukabi: Not seeing any evidence contradicting that, though.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@sukabi: Here’s the big problem, Jared is the smart one.
lamh36
Wait..is this more than just the redacted stuff from earlier?
sukabi
@gwangung: this is true. But damn! They’re giving the 10 toothers competition.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: as I understand it, the evidence is now there not just from Manafort to Kilimik, but now on to Deripaska. Which was always obvious, but the trick now as it always has been, is to get enough evidence that Lindsey and Susan et al have to stop pretending they don’t see it.
Jeffro
Steve Schmidt brought the bats just now on MSNBC…the bats and the cliches and the hyperbole and damn…
He thinks GOP officials will be breaking any day/hour/minute now. I guess we’ll see…
sukabi
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: To which I’d politely suggest that Ms. Haley ain’t all that bright either.
Frankensteinbeck
@sukabi:
Jared.
Mnemosyne
@sukabi:
I’m going to terrify you for a moment: Jared probably IS the smartest of his advisors.
The horror … the horror …
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That’s the narcissist talking again. Any plan of the narcissist’s that doesn’t go well was someone else’s fault the whole time. Everything is ALWAYS someone else’s fault and the narcissist is blameless.
One of the insane narcissist stories that sticks out from my time lurking on the Raised By Narcissists message board on Reddit was the woman whose narcissist father got drunk at her wedding, drove his car into a stone fence at the venue, and refused to pay for the damage because he absolutely insisted that the bride had done it herself and he would. not. back. down. She was seriously contemplating paying the bill herself just to get him to shut the fuck up and stop calling her and screaming at her. Because that’s what narcissists do: they push their version of reality on other people until the other people finally give in because they can’t take the abuse anymore.
IMO, the problem in this situation is that Stephen Miller digs the abuse. He enjoys being reviled. So he’s going to keep pushing his racist positions because he enjoys it when Trump abuses him AND he enjoys that liberals hate him. It’s win/win all around as far as he’s concerned.
The Dangerman
@Jeffro:
Doesn’t matter unless McConnell folds.
Aleta
https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/1082829641906311172
That money is going to disappear into financing Kushner-owned housing for wall workers or asylum-seeker-patrols or something like that.
randy khan
@The Dangerman:
McConnell will fold if the votes aren’t there for him. He will throw some fig leaf into the bills to create cover, they’ll pass with 90+ votes and someone will explain to Trump that a veto is a bad idea. It’s not like this is a matter of principle for him or anything.
CliosFanBoy
@Frankensteinbeck: he thinks those “He went to Jared!” ads are about him…
Steeplejack
@debit:
He was doing the (relative) “good cop” thing of “You don’t want me to go get a cup of coffee and leave you alone in here with her, do you?”
CliosFanBoy
Can we start a Go Fund Me to hire a full time Dominatrix? I’d chip in if it’d get him away from policy-making.
debbie
Based on what I’m reading on Twitter, if this doesn’t get his ratings below 40, nothing will.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Just did my donation to RAICES: $95, not $93. Math is hard. Procedure quick and painless.
hilts
@lamh36:
FUCK Jeff Greenfield and FUCK Jake Tapper. Trump’s administration is a crime against reason, truth, and rationality and these assholes are obsessed with optics and other trivial bullshit.
Jared Kushner is dumber than a horse’s ass and I look forward to his indictment.
joel hanes
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
enough evidence that Lindsey and Susan et al have to stop pretending they don’t see it
Gonna be ugly.
Loss-aversion has led them to hold the line for far too long,
so the walkback will be painful.
“For over two years, I supported and resolutely defended a vulgar, lying, disloyal, bigoted, criminal, unbalanced demagogue, and protected him while he attempted to loot the US, evade the law, and trade US policy for favor from Vladimir Putin”
hilts
@sukabi:
Jared Kushner is so fucking dumb he wouldn’t know how to pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel.
Ken
@AThornton:
Now we all know how Stormy Daniels felt.
hilts
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @lamh36:
Trump is a criminal waste of protoplasm and hopefully Mueller’s investigation will yield enough evidence for his administration to be swept into the trash bin of history or flushed down the toilet of history.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
HumboldtBlue
@sukabi:
You’ll enjoy this fellow foraging along the shore for dinner.
sukabi
@hilts: I wonder if those 2 were on that email chain with Glenn Greenwald that was coordinating an effort to kill Eichenwald’s trump/russia story prior to the 2016 election.
sukabi
@Ken: no, she saw him nekkid.
Planetjanet
So I like the way Josh Marshall at TPM is telling this story. Muellermas has arrived.
The quid pro quo. Manafort was in debt, gave polling data to Deripaska via Kilimnick
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
I had finally gotten that shithole of a restaurant out of my memory. And you had to bring it up. For those of you without the displeasure of ever eating at one, Sizzler is better. And yes I understand that is at best, faint praise.
Anya
@Adam L Silverman: I do. I know who they are. I was just thinking that they’ll have someone respond to Trump, like SOTU.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Who’s the EVIL one?
I mean the evil puppet master. It ain’t shitgibbon.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Anya: the tandem response wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I can’t really think of anyone else who would have been an obvious choice, especially with fifty-seven potential presidential candidates on the lookout for someone being “anointed”
Mary G
I didn’t watch any of it, but this is a great response:
I like her, the little I’ve seen – she looked at Kavanaugh like he was gum under her shoe when he was trying to intimidate her, and this is wonderful. Just “cut the bullshit” in nicer words.
?BillinGlendaleCA
They had Holiday decorations that hadn’t sold on sale at Home Depot for 75% off, I picked up a Bluetooth enabled laser light show projector. You control it with an app on your phone. It has light shows for all the holidays.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@sukabi: (shudders)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: Putin.
Ohio Mom
@Anya: Pelosi and Schumer did respond. Their remarks didn’t quite sync with Trump’s since they didn’t know what he would say, but they were pretty close.
I got the feeling they were prepared for the version of Trump that shouts at rallies and that they wanted to be solemn and dignified in contrast. Trump did his best impression of a reasonable person, so maybe Pelosi and Schumer came off a little stiff. But Schumer laid on the inspirational rhetoric at the end, if anyone watched that far into it.
I can’t be objective about these things. I can’t imagine what it’s like to believe Trump or not go gaga over Pelosi.
Ruckus
@CliosFanBoy:
I’m sure we’d be willing to provide one for him at this place in CO that is easy to check into but difficult to check out of. It’s part of a chain, this one is called SuperMax.
Yarrow
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Just wait until the story begins to involve the Mercers and Erik Prince. That’ll be fun.
I didn’t watch Trump because I avoid him. I did watch Chuck and Nancy’s response. I thought they did a good job. They did look like parents who are Very Disappointed In You, but that’s actually not a bad look for this situation. I liked what they said.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I didn’t mean his boss, more like his minder then. Babysitter if you prefer.
Ohio Mom
This is off-topic, irrelevant and catty, but I couldn’t help but notice Trump had his hair extra fluffed up tonight.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
good lord, MSNBC is dragging Carville out of whatever box Matalin keeps him in again? last seen sneering that there was no blue wave? the man’s last achievement was in 1992, fercrissake.
chopper
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
all the holidays? even El Malagueña?
Anya
@Ohio Mom: I love Nancy Smash. I was not insulting her in any way. I just thought maybe give it to Rep Ayana Pressley or maybe Ilhan Omar who was a refugee.
goblue72
@Anya: Most definitely would have preferred to hear from someone like Rep. Pressley. As the Fab 4 (Pressley, Omar, Tlaib, & AOC) have said…”We did not come here to play.”
https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2019/01/08/ayanna-pressley-trump-government-shutdown
Yarrow
@Anya: This wasn’t a standard SOTU response. I think they wanted to have the senior most Democrats in Congress give the response jointly to emphasize that Congress is a co-equal branch of government.
Quinerly
Watching John Brennan on MSNBC.
Never thought I would be in love with an old spook.? Plus, gorgeous tie, great knot.
Seriously, he truly hates Trump, knows shit, he can’t share that shit at this point.
This is the stuff that gives me comfort.
Adam L Silverman
@Ohio Mom: Self defense mechanism like a puffer fish. Poofs up to make him look larger and intimidating to dissuade predators. This is also the reason for the bright orange colors.
Adam L Silverman
@goblue72: Just to dance. Like Kevin Bacon…
chopper
@Yarrow:
exactly. this isn’t a SOTU here, the government is shut down. shit is too real to hand it over to some up-and-comer.
elm
How does McConnell walk this one back? His only political skill this far has been to br huge, obstructive asshole.
Up until a couple of weeks ago, he could count on the House Freedom Caucus to be bigger jackasses and dodge blame, but now the Senate has been in session for 2 days and I don’t think he has much room to maneuver left.
Quinerly
@Ohio Mom: I caught that too. It was aeorated.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@chopper: Heh, I’d have to look.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
McConnell doesn’t want or give a shit about Wall. He wants to hold the Senate for the sake of the courts, whatever happens in 2020, and toadying to trump on this isn’t going to help with that goal, and might hurt. I think we’re at half a dozen R Senators who have tip-toed out of line (Gardner, Collins, Alexander, Murkowski, Capito and Tillis). Poltico reported last night at least 25 R-MoCs are ready to jump ship. If Romney’s not a moron, he’ll play Senator Big Boy in the next two days, the never trumpers and ‘radical centrists’ can say this is the man who might have been President! and Mitch can pretend it’s out of his control.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That’s just crazy talk!
Ohio Mom
@Anya: Oh, I get what you mean. I think our side will (and should) give the new Congreswomen platforms. It’s a point of pride that our party’s elected officials reflect the country’s diversity. And we want to help them develop as stateswomen.
But for the demographics of the group most likely to have watched tonight’s speeches, I think it was wise to have the two senior members, with all the gravitas they bring. The subtext of them standing there like parents, ready to bring order, will work on a lot of people, even as I found it sort of silly.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Maybe “Multicolor” would be appropriate.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: @chopper: Dia de los Muerta? Yom Kippur? Vesak? Diwali?
chopper
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
”it’s for spanish jews”.
Emma
@Anya: It would have set off all kinds of flares in several groups, not all Republicans. And the discussion in the corporate press would have been about their “presidentiality.” This needed a clear visual shout of equality between the branches of government.
Homer
@Adam L Silverman:
“Also, which Democrats asked for a steel wall instead of concrete?”
My feeling is that one of his advisors said something like “in order to get the Democrats to agree to fund the wall, you are going to have to give up something concrete” and this is how his brain processed it.
VOR
@Ohio Mom: the vibe I got was that Chuck and Nancy are so tired of Trump’s bs. They seem to be having trouble holding in their contempt.
Adam L Silverman
@Homer: Most likely.
Yarrow
@VOR: I can’t even imagine what it must be like to actually have to deal with him.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Dia de los Muerta?
jl
Guess I didn’t miss much. Glad Trump didn’t try to pull the national emergency stunt. That might have brought this Trump presidency farce to a crisis and if we lucked out, might get him out of there sooner rather than later. But maybe it might not, so better that, so far, he is not going to take the country there.
Media needs to start treating Wall like he complete fraud that it is. Has there been mention in the media that one of the negotiating sessions broke down because the WH didn’t even have a plan written down on paper for what they would do with the $5 billion plus change? So the Trump Wall ‘plan’ is worse than the underpants gnome game. It is
Trump wants Wall
Trump gets $5.7 billion
????
That that’s it, folks!
Ruckus
@jl:
Trump wants Wall
Trump gets $5.7 billion
????
That that’s it, folks!
By George I think he’s got it!
Yes, that really is all there is to it. It’s his same bullshit but on the largest scale he’s ever tried. He thinks he’s king, and not in the way of any current kings, the old ones who could screw any one they wanted, physically – politically – financially, who owned everything they wanted – including the people, and who everyone obeyed or was beheaded.
Frankensteinbeck
@Ruckus:
And as it always comes down to: All narcissists think they’re kings, and their lives are a never ending cascade of acting out because they’re miserable they don’t always get their way 100%. Note similarity to the conservative base. They deliberately elected a giant version of themselves to show everyone who is boss.
schrodingers_cat
@sukabi: If only the hair made you into an Einstein!