Trump Is Up Against the Wall

You must watch this.

May I add that I love Pence sitting there looking like he wishes he were anywhere else.

This live television, um, meeting was a train wreck. I don’t know whose idea it was to air it live; I suspect the White House. Pelosi kept saying that they needed to be negotiating privately and not on live television. And I suspect much robust fact checking is going on right now and will be available in an hour or two.

This is about the infamous Wall. Trump kept saying that a “tremendous” amount of the wall has already been built, one of his frequent lies that caused Glenn Kessler at WaPo to create a new rating — the Bottomless Pinnochio. He waved a couple of pieces of paper around and claimed they said that the wall, where it exists, is totally effective. I’m sure that’s being fact checked as well.

Basically, he simultaneously claimed his wall has already been proved to be a “tremendous” success and that he has accomplished border security, but that nasty bad terrorists are still pouring in so he needs a bunch of billion dollars to build a wall.

The discussion went nowhere because Trump conflates “border security” with “wall.” Only a wall will do. Chuck and Nancy both said that there could be a border security bill passsed right now with plenty of votes in the House and Senate; there was no need to shut down the government over it. But he wasn’t going to get the whatever billion he’s asking for to build the wall that he says is already tremendously built.

Trump said he’d be proud to shut down the government to get his wall.

In a testy Oval Office exchange with the two top congressional Democrats, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, President Trump made clear he would be “proud” to shut down the government in less than two weeks if he doesn’t get funding for his border wall.

“I’ll be the one to shut it down. I will take the mantle. And I will shut it down for border security,” Trump told House and Senate Democratic leaders as Vice President Pence sat by stoically.

Trump also floated a plan to have the military build the wall, an idea even Republicans are squeamish about.

This just up at the New York Times, regarding using the military to build the wall (emphasis added:

It was not clear what Mr. Trump was referring to. American troops he dispatched to the border on the eve of midterm congressional elections as part of what the president called an effort to head off a migrant “invasion” have put up concertina wire along existing fences and barriers, but the administration has yet to spend much of the $1.3 billion Congress approved for border security last year. Under restrictions put in place by Congress, none of that money could be used to construct a new, concrete wall of the sort the president has said is vital.

The president does not have the legal authority to spend money appropriated for one purpose on another task, such as wall-building.

There’s going to be some interesting fallout over this. Meanwhile, it’s been announced that John Kelly will stay on as chief of staff until well into January because they don’t have another candidate for the job. So much winning.

Update: Here’s another bit debunked:

President Donald Trump on Tuesday cited the recent apprehension of ten suspected terrorists to bolster his case for building a wall along the southern border, implying that a porous border with Mexico is leaving the country vulnerable to national security threats.

But the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees security and law enforcement at U.S. borders and ports of entry, was unable to provide data to directly substantiate that claim.

 

 

16 thoughts on “Trump Is Up Against the Wall

  1. Doug, Right my thoughts exactly. Why do the democrats get pinned down by this assh#le? When the President says he needs money for the wall just bring up the ten-million times he promised his supporters that Mexico would pay, promises made, promises kept, right? When those in the opposition or in the media ask democrats about impeachment, they should just say: if impeachable offenses have been proven we will follow the constitution, you want us to follow the constitution right? Why the f#ck do they always get pinned down with 500 word explanations?

  2. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Oh my. This is the best thing ever!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpShutdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TrumpShutdown</a><a href="https://t.co/FrY5ZdLy2N">pic.twitter.com/FrY5ZdLy2N</a></p>&mdash; The Hummingbird 🐦 (@SaysHummingbird) <a href="https://twitter.com/SaysHummingbird/status/1072598448589946880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
    <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js&quot; charset="utf-8"></script>

    Also, Matt Taibbi pointed out an interesting book that explains Trump:

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35491.Controversy_Creates_Cash

  3. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Oh my. This is the best thing ever!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpShutdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TrumpShutdown</a><a href="https://t.co/FrY5ZdLy2N">pic.twitter.com/FrY5ZdLy2N</a></p>&mdash; The Hummingbird 🐦 (@SaysHummingbird) <a href="https://twitter.com/SaysHummingbird/status/1072598448589946880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
    <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js&quot; charset="utf-8"></script>

    Also, Matt Taibbi wrote an article about a book that explains Trump:

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35491.Controversy_Creates_Cash

  4. I watched this fuster-cluck live.

    Oy.

    The president* was spewing out…  bull manure – as usual.  And he was focusing on Nancy since his Lumpenproletatiat despise her, and he feels he has to continue to try to throw them raw meat.

    While he was trying to use her as his foil, she was trying to bring some dignity to the blossoming fiasco.

    Both she and UpChuck could have embarrassed the dolt, but chose not to go far enough to do it.  Why?  I don't know.

    tRUMP, the coward, is entering a soon-to-be war zone – AKA: The House of Representatives.  

    I hope he doesn't forget to put on his Kevlar Depends!

  5. I still say that Pence missed his calling.. He's a natural for mortuary services. He creeps me out with his prominent void of personality. Marvel comics should create a character based on Pence's the lack of substance. They should name him, Meldatron -the anemic assimilator. Or maybe just the Appendage.

  6. Both she and UpChuck could have embarrassed the dolt, but chose not to go far enough to do it.

    They’re still learning, and they’re so polished and professional they really don’t know how to deal with a circus clown.

    But there was that delicious moment on Schumer’s face, when Trump said he would be proud to shut the government – SCORE! Schumer could not believe his ears.

    Someone else wrote that Pence was very busy reciting the Serenity Prayer.

  7. Mango Mussolini thought he'd wipe the floor with Pelosi on live TV to the approving hoots of millions of Trumpanzees, because he's the Bestest Dealmaker Evar. In his mind, he probably still thinks he did.

  8. Umm, that embed didn't work like I had hoped it would. Maybe this will: https://twitter.com/SaysHummingbird/status/1072598448589946880

    Anyhow, Taibbi article nails Trump's behavior. His playbook is straight out of the World Wrestling Federation. Anyone who is familiar with this sport, can see so much of what he does is based on their formula. He's literally acting out a part and all Pelosi and Schumer had to do to shut Trump up was remind him that this isn't the wrestling world, but rather the real world. That or body slam him.

  9. On twitter, someone photoshopped the actor from 'Weekend at Bernie's' for Pence.  Spot on take, I'd say…

  10. So much to think about.  As for Pence, when I see him closing his eyes, I imagine he is praying:  Please, please, Jesus, get me out of here, I've been a good boy.  And Swami's reference to Pence being a natural for mortuary services is right on.  I used to work as on call nurse for hospice.  There were times I got called for a death in the middle of the night.  My duties were to call the funeral home and stay with the family until the guys showed up.  They were always in a suit, freshly shaven and very proper in their behavior.  They always had some kind of smelly stuff on.  I understood all of that but they did creep me out.  The same feeling I get every time I see Pence's face.

    Love the twitter link about Trump  in a high chair.  I'm sure he loves it too.  I can just see the pressure building up in his head.  It's like a pressure cooker or  a volcano.  It will blow eventually.

  11. Pelosi’s mission, should she decide to accept it, should be to play top mommy for the mommy party and show the world that the daddy party is really the toddler party.  And that Pence is being a really bad babysitter.

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