Do you think there is any route that Nancy can offer thump so he can back down on the wall and still save face without seeming (in his own eyes) to give in? If he could find a way to back off and still avoid feeling like a Loser, I believe he would take it. Can you envision anything like that? If there is something, I believe Nancy is enough of a grown-up to do it.
No, I don’t think he will take it. I think he will decline any bargain she offers and just ratchet up the stakes. “Oh, you think I’ll take 5.7 billion now, after the way you humiliated me? Nope[DEL], sorry[/DEL]. I want 25 billion like you guys said you would give me before!”
I think she actually made the best play possible, denying him the opportunity to preen, prance and sniff in front of a national audience from the House, belittling Dems at every opportunity as Pelosi must sit and maintain her decorum, all while he bathes in the slaverish cheering of his Republican enablers.
If McConnell can engineer a situation where Trump loses enough popularity with the base that Senate Republicans can safely vote for a veto-proof reopening of government with Dem concessions for border security sans wall, then that is our best hope at the moment. McConnell is devious enough to engineer it. Coulter is his unwitting helper.
<mirthless laugh> I knew what you’d linked to without even looking.
Has a thorough assessment phase for the Wall project been carried out?
Something that will result in proper estimates, quantity surveying of materials, feasibility studies, environmental impact, resourcing plans, Gantt charts, timeliness, etc., etc., that would normally be done for such a huge undertaking?
What would be the cost for such a phase? Would getting such a phase underway be sufficient to both please the base in the short term and also eventually result in an excuse to not do it when the price tag is finally understood? Would agreement to assessment still be paying Dane-geld?
Which PTB were doing such discouraging and was it official policy? I was in the military in 1984 and that was not what that meme was addressing. It was for people who wanted exemptions from some duties or were complaining excessively about how tough the military is on family life. Accepting people who already have dependents for enlistment as E-1 and paying “with dependents” allowances kind of prove the services really don’t mind Privates, Seaman Recruits, and Airmen Basic having dependents.
I’d vote for something like this. appoint a comission to study the issue, accept bids, draw up plans, work out how to get the land etc. with the plan that construction will start somewhere around January 21 2021 (assuming the sitting president still wants it). He and his base can’t complain, after all as the best most popular president ever they know he’s a shoe-in for a second term.
I didn’t mean an overt deal that she would offer. You’re correct that he would never want to look like he had given in to her. But what about a way where she manipulates him like you’d do a child? Make him think he’s a winner and has come out on top when he hasn’t. Kind of like the old trick about offering a toddler a nickel or a dime and he takes the nickel because it’s bigger.
Something along these lines, where she seems to let him have his way, and he saves (some) face, but this thing actually moves off dead center:
I think it’s a bad idea and here’s why: It’s pure lipstick on a pig. Unfortunately, lipstick on a pig is good enough for Trump’s base. It legitimizes what is one of the dumbest, most ill-conceived ideas that on its face is idiotic.
[ul]
[li]The wall doesn’t address the concerns it purports to address. Most drugs come through legal ports of entry and/or by sea. Most undocumented persons in this country overstay their legal visas. There are tunnels. There are ladders. There are saws that cut through steel slats.[/li][li]The costs are astronomical. 5.7 billion is only the beginning. By the time you get done with eminent domain expenses, trial costs for eminent domain proceedings, building materials, maintenance costs and all the rest, it would easily be the most expensive vanity project ever undertaken. Money spent on even pretending it’s a legitimate idea is a profound waste of taxpayer dollars, and it enables the dipshit in the Oval to pretend it’s actually got legs and can re-energize his base with this notion.[/li][/ul]
For once, let’s try an honest approach! No means no! It’s time for this ill-conceived monument to an applause line in Trump’s dumb rally speeches to die the death it deserves: Ignominious, shallow, craven and above all, stupid. Jesus Christ, no one should need more than a Grade 7 education to work this stuff out – even among his base.
I realize you’re suggesting that Pelosi simply throw him a sop, but it’s still an appeasement measure and will just encourage him to do something like this again and again in the future. Say, March, when we need to raise the debt ceiling (again).
I wasn’t thinking of a sop or any kind of appeasement. I would never suggest anything like that. I do not want her to give in on anything. I’m the one who preaches the Gospel of Don’t Engage with Trolls. I’m thinking along the lines of Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner, where the Roadrunner makes Wile E. THINK he is winning and getting what he wants even as the coyote pulls the lever that opens the trap door and sends him down the chute into oblivion.
I’m just identifying the principle… I have no idea how this could be done in reality.
Did someone say GoFundMe? That was done, remember… only a few weeks ago.
Hmmm… A giant statue on the border, facing south, with an outstretched and forbidding arm (I’m thinking the LotR Argonath here), could appeal to your Pres, come in way under 6bn, and be just as effective as the Wall.
And when it inevitably falls down you can get an Ozymandias thing going.
I guess I’m dense. I’m having trouble distinguishing the difference. If he thinks he’s winning, he can sell it as winning to his base. They require nothing more, and it’s just a continuation of the con. In my view, the notion that this wall will accomplish anything of use must be strangled in its bed. At long last.
Yes, for the wall. I was suggesting they could do it for k9bfriender’s golden statue. I suspect it will be met with an equal measure of success.
To be honest, I’m more in favor of a GoFundMe for the statue, because I can actually envision a practical use for it.
Trump is dumb enough to fall for shit but Fox isn’t. The trap is offered, Fox rips into it, Moron in Chief watches Fox, Tweetstorm ensues, and the Dems retreat with egg on their face.
Better to just keep it simple: “No, you incompetent dipshit, we’re still not paying for your moronic ineffective monument to stupidity. Try again when you grow up.”
Jokes about giant statues aside, I’d have thought that a serious proposal for a project assessment phase as part of fiscal responsibility to the US taxpayer would be a good thing - and hard to call a trap.
