In a remarkable, televised 55-minute meeting with about two dozen Democratic and Republican lawmakers earlier this month, President Trump twice proclaimed that any immigration deal would need to be “a bill of love” — setting an optimistic tone for averting a government shutdown with a bipartisan solution.
After the president ordered cameras out of the Cabinet Room that day, the group delved into the details. Kirstjen Nielsen, Trump’s homeland security secretary, and her staff passed out a four-page document on the administration’s “must haves” for any immigration bill — a hard-line list that included $18 billion for Trump’s promised border wall, eliminating the diversity visa lottery program and ending “extended family chain migration,” according to the document, which was obtained by The Washington Post.
But one person seemed surprised and alarmed by the memo: the president.
With Democrats and Republicans still in the room, Trump said that the document didn’t represent all of his positions, that he wasn’t familiar with its contents and that he didn’t appreciate being caught off-guard. He instructed the group to disregard the summary and move on, according to one of the lawmakers in the room, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation. (our emphasis)With this cypher in a position to wittingly or unwittingly sabotage any legislation coming his way depending on the last person who had his ear, expectations are for a long government shutdown, especially since on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue you have the Republican nut House and its ultra- right wing nativist "Freedom" Caucus holding government hostage, and shithole Senators like McConnell, Cotton and Perdue working to frame the debate as "illegal immigration" rather than Dreamers/ DACA.
Meanwhile, foreign leaders continue to cater to the Man Baby's pathological need for affirmation, especially when they're using him for their own agendas:
During a Jan. 4 phone call in which the South Korean leader briefed the American president on the plans for talks with North Korea, Trump asked Moon to publicly give him the credit for creating the environment for the talks, according to people familiar with the conversation.
(In these conversations, Trump calls his counterpart “Jae-in” — an unimaginable informality in Korean business etiquette. Moon calls Trump “Mr. President.”)
Later that night, Trump tweeted that the talks wouldn’t be happening “if I wasn’t firm, strong and willing to commit our total ‘might’ against the North.”
At a news conference six days later, Moon agreed Trump deserved “huge credit” for the talks.
Moon is trying to manipulate Trump into effectively undermining his own policy: putting pressure on North Korea, said one former official, asking for anonymity to protect officials still in government. (our emphasis)Flattery, bribery or extortion all work equally well in getting Man Baby to see things your way.
Leonard Pitts writes about our diminished state under Man Baby as we enter year two of his regime, expressing feelings we experience every day:
If you are groping for markers by which to measure how profoundly we have been changed since Inauguration Day, here’s one you might want to consider:
In January of 1998, reports surfaced of a sexual affair between President Bill Clinton and a 24-year old White House intern. It would mushroom into the biggest story of the year.
In January of 2018, reports surfaced of an alleged payoff by lawyers for the present president to silence a porn star from talking about their alleged sexual affair. It wasn’t even the biggest story of the day.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more visceral illustration of how our sensibilities have been bludgeoned into submission in the last year. Surprises no longer surprise. Shocks no longer shock. We have bumped up against the limits of human bandwidth, find ourselves unable to take it all in.
One simply cannot keep up with, much less respond with proper outrage to, all of this guy’s scandals, bungles, blame-shifting, name-calling and missteps, his sundry acts of mendacity, misanthropy, perversity and idiocy. It’s like trying to fill a teacup from Niagara Falls. It’s like trying to read the Internet. [snip]
If that sounds bleak, well, that’s where we stand. Indeed, one year later, both our despair and our hope are encompassed in the same five syllables.
One down. Three to go. (our emphasis)Do we dare hope that it won't be "three to go"? (Hurry, midterms and Special Counsel Mueller!) And, as has been frequently pointed out, Stormtrumpers will cleave to their shithole "president" as we all go right over cliff after cliff. Best to focus on what we can do: fulfill our obligation to resist, organize and vote.
Finally, with his "a little something for everyone" links, you should check out this weekend's installment of Infidel's eclectic round- up. It's the Niagara Falls of link round- ups (in a good way).
