Show of hands. Who thinks we should take these “negotiations” seriously?
Pence had best be careful. Daddy doesn’t like being upstaged.
That said it was trump who said he wasn’t gonna move off his insistence there be a concrete and steel wall that would be transparent so that drug dealers couldn’t wing Americans with drug bundles as they sauntered by the wall. I assume somewhere in the hinterland of South Texas where there be not so very much in the way of things to saunter to or from.
Transparent concrete is possible. I am wondering who put that thought so prominently in trump’s limited capacity for memory.
trump also thinks the wall will be built using preformed slabs made off site. Nifty idea 'cept for the lack of roads anywhere near most of the border capable of supporting trucks carrying that much weight .
“Not much headway made today.”
Shorter Trump: It’s raining. It is impacting my Golf.
from the archives: YALTA (AP) - Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met today to discuss many aspects of ending the war with Germany and Japan. Important areas of discussion: What to do with areas of Eastern Europe if the war was won by the Allies. Stalin, whose press corps have been in close contact with AP reporters, has indicated to AP that he would like nothing better than to have Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary restored to their former borders, and that all would enjoy the bounty and prosperity that Russia was now enjoying. Yalta can be chilly this time of year. The region is know chiefly for the exports of telephones and a burgeoning oil industry.
Based on Trump’s own words and his tweets, there are no actual “negotiations.” He has ruled out including DACA in the talks, has ruled out settling for less money, has ruled out money for border security that doesn’t include a wall, has ruled out alternate barriers other than his concrete/steel wall. It’s not a “negotiation” when you say, “Give me everything I want and fuck you.”
If I’m Pelosi there are no further negotiations except in front of live TV cameras. The optics, timeline, and issues do not favor the white house. They’re not negotiating in good faith anyways, so don’t give them any closed door meetings where they can spin BS about what was said.
When you’re talking to your spouse about dinner plans, and she says she’d prefer Mexican and you say you’d like Italian, THAT’S a negotiation (which will end with you of course having Mexican).
When she says she’d like shredded car tires for dinner, there’s no basis for negotiation.
Wish the press would do a better job of covering that. If Pence isn’t empowered to actually change any of the President’s demands, it’s not a negotiation, it’s ransom.
Although we must be careful in talking politics at work, conversations do sometimes wander in that direction. One very conservative co-worker was visibly angry that Pelosi had gone to Hawaii. “She should be in DC negotiating,” he said. I said “there is no one to negotiate with.” “Trump is in the White House. She should have stayed and negotiated,” he said. “Again,” I said, “there is no one to negotiate with. Trump isn’t negotiating. He is making a demand, which is a completely different thing.” “She should have stayed to negotiate,” he kept repeating. My response did not mollify him: “When you have an angry child, having a tantrum, the best course is often to ignore him because attention is what he wants.”
You can’t trust the Administration in negotiations or in making a deal. Pence already came with a deal that Trump later shot down that evening. I mean seriously why even bother? Even directly talking to him doesn’t work – he reneged on the DACA-Wall agreement already once. It’s like Lucy and the football from Peanuts.
More specifically, it is stage playing. We are deeply into the PR part of the process. I presume that even the Republicans will want this to be over before the State of the Union address on Jan. 29, unless Trump thinks that is another opportunity to play strongman, and pound his chest for the cameras.
It’s difficult to negotiate when one party hasn’t got a clue and cannot keep a thought in their head. Pence could go into a meeting with one set of instructions and in 10 minutes or in hour trump would have discarded those for whatever someone else had just said. The only way forward is to remove him entirely from office.
Your co-worker is later going to be blaming her and Democrats for him getting ripped off and owing taxes this year when he files, thanks to the GOP tax scam.
Be sure to record it. His self-loathing for being a sucker is going to be PRICELESS.
NEGOTIATIONS
So, will Trump go for this?
I have no idea.
Next topic…
“Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina penned an op-ed for The Hill, arguing that Congress should end the shutdown and make a deal on border security and immigration reforms.”
I would hope that the SotU speech would be an opportunity for members to chuck rotten fruit and spoiled meat at the individual behind the lectern.
Maybe someone should sit down with Trump and explain how his personnel costs at his properties are going to increase if he’s forced to hire legal workers?
Good 'ol AP, presenting all the stated positions as if they couldn’t change from hour to hour with Trump’s mood and impulses, like he was a farseeing statesman who took positions because he thought they’d benefit the country in the decades to come. He’s a panicky ignoramus, you dweebs, and he could end the shutdown twenty minutes from now because the stress is getting to him and simply declare the wall is 85 percent done and will be completed by Santa’s elves in the next four months. You could at least say he’s been known to change his mind? Throw a “mercurial” in there? Shaking my head. AP is the Edgar Rice Burroughs-esque remote island where the dinosaurs still roam, I swear.
Trump behaves as a 3-4 yr old child. He screeches, threatens, and holds his breath until he gets what he wants. Over his entire life this strategy has worked. Trump is a coddled child who learned early on that making those around him miserable pays off. He does not give a shit. Democrats need to hold out and not give in to his ignorant and immature behavior.
So back during the campaign Trump had a proposal on how to get Mexico to pay for the wall, it was to cut off the ability to transfer money from migrants living in the US to their families in Mexico. Trump wanted Mexico to pay $5-$10 billion for the wall. This proposal was written by Stephen Miller. There even was a Congressman that proposed a bill to tax wire transfers from the US to Mexico, it went nowhere.
So the majority of migrants trying to get in are not from Mexico, so no money from Mexico. Trump hasn’t produced the study of what kind of structure will be built. Where it will be built. How they would handle private property at the border. I say until we see the plans no money, no discussion. You can’t go to a bank for a construction loan without detailed plans, can you?