Donald Trump tells his aides to portray him as a "crazy guy" in negotiations with South Korea. Well there's a stretch.

Courtesy of Axios:  

In an Oval Office meeting earlier this month, President Trump gave his top trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, an Art of the Deal-style coaching session on how to negotiate with the South Koreans.

A number of senior officials and cabinet secretaries were present for the conversation, including Defense Secretary Mattis, Agriculture Secretary Perdue, and Secretary of State Tillerson. At issue was whether the U.S. would withdraw from the Korean trade deal — an action Trump threatened but still hasn't done. 

"You've got 30 days, and if you don't get concessions then I'm pulling out," Trump told Lighthizer. 

"Ok, well I'll tell the Koreans they've got 30 days," Lighthizer replied. 

"No, no, no," Trump interjected. 

"That's not how you negotiate. You don't tell them they've got 30 days. You tell them, 'This guy's so crazy he could pull out any minute.'" "That's what you tell them: Any minute," Trump continued. "And by the way, I might. You guys all need to know I might. You don't tell them 30 days. If they take 30 days they'll stretch this out."

Trump does not have to bother to pretend to be crazy, because few of the things he does demonstrate sanity.

As if the South Koreans do not already have enough dealings with crazy megalomaniacs. 

President of Mexico tells Donald Trump to build his own damn wall. Trumpo responds like the child that he is.

Courtesy of CNN:

"Mexico does not believe in walls. I've said time again; Mexico will not pay for any wall," he said in a video statement posted to Twitter and translated by CNN from Spanish.

 Trump's response was of course all too predictable.

The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017

of jobs and companies lost. If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017

Holy shitballs!

So Donald Trump's vaunted negotiating technique boils down to "You do what I want or I will not invite you to my birthday party?"

President Nieto did in fact cancel his upcoming meeting with Trump, however earlier today Trump tried to spin it that the cancellation was mutually decided.

Anybody buy that?

I think our new question about Trump is to ask if there is any test of leadership that he WON'T fail?

14 year old takes fellow students hostage at gunpoint in West Virgina. Fortunately there are no armed teachers so everybody survives, including the armed teenager.

Courtesy of International Business Times: 

Police in West Virginia took a 14-year-old boy in custody Tuesday for holding hostage a class of 29 students and a teacher at gunpoint in a high school. The boy surrendered following negotiations with police. 

The incident occurred at Philip Barbour High School in the state’s north-central Barbour County around 1 p.m. and no injuries were reported. The boy, armed with a pistol, took hostage a classroom at the school's second floor, the state police said, in a Facebook statement. 

Barbour County Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Woofter told the Associated Press (AP) that students entering for the next class were asked to leave when they opened the door of the classroom where the teen was holding the hostages. These students alerted another teacher, who then informed school officials about the situation. An assistant principal then asked for the police to be alerted, Woofter said.

The school was placed on lock-down and police began negotiating with the teen: 

“After initial negotiations, the suspect agreed to release all of the hostages. After further negotiations, the suspect put the gun down and surrendered to law enforcement without further incident,” the police said in the statement.

Apparently the boy's pastor played a part in getting him to put down the gun:

Ultimately, the boy's pastor convinced the boy to drop the gun and walk away. The pastor said his daughter is a senior at the school, and she had recently stepped in when she saw the boy being bullied. 

"He's a child who's been bullied to the point where he just snapped," said Pastor Howard Swick with Haven of Hope Ministry in Philippi. "And I'm watching this 14-year-old child with a gun, crying. He looked completely hopeless and didn't know what to do, and realized he had taken this farther than he had ever wanted to go. He didn't know how to retreat."

So essentially here was a potentially dangerous situation involving a handgun.

No poorly armed individuals in the school confronted him.

The police were called.

And ultimately there was no loss of life.

Gee imagine how differently that might have played out if this were one of those schools that allowed armed teachers to roam the halls.

Excellent comic.

Sarah Palin and John McCain give President Obama advice on dealing with Iran, because apparently they could not find a subject they were less qualified to weigh in on.

Courtesy of puerile pundit's Facebook page:  

President Palling Around With Terrorists (Boy she never lets these tired overused chestnuts die does she?)

Good God, Mr. President. To partner with Iran is to trust the enemy, which is insane. Iran has complicity in the rise of ISIS as it supports radical militias and arms Islamic terrorists. (Actually Iran has already pledged support for Iraq in fighting against ISIS.)


You've been the luckiest man in the world, in an un-American Democracy sort of way, to have had the liberal media in your lap allowing you to execute the least transparent presidency in history while they mock and destroy your critics for you. (WTF media is she talking about?) Until now. Even they must see that without accountability you are leading us into very, very dangerous territory. 

In the 2008 campaign Sen. McCain and I warned, on behalf of every reasonable person, that your willingness to negotiate with terrorists would get Americans killed; that pulling an anti-Reagan move by taking our Big Stick of strength and putting it in the hands of any foe could be insurmountably devastating for our allies. Iran is one of Israel's staunchest enemies. Mr. President, who is advising you to come against Israel? (Okay now the idea that talking with Iran means you are coming against Israel only works if you are a crazy person. By the way it was through letters back and forth that Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev ended the Cold War. Was Reagan "coming against" America by corresponding with our enemy?)


What is wrong with you, Barack Obama? You can not pal around with terrorists and expect us to survive. 

 - Sarah Palin 

The post then links to a letter from McCain where he goes all "get off my damn lawn" in  a statement suggesting that any outreach to the Iranian government would destroy any chance the moderates in Syria have of defeating the Assad regime.

You remember John "Bomb Bomb Iran" McCain's carefully considered opinion on dealing with Iran don't you? Yeah, in McCain's view of the world the only good outcome in our struggle with Iran  is one in which American troops stand among the piles of dead Iranians.

By the way in this "secret" letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the President made the following completely unreasonable suggestion: 

The letter appeared aimed both at buttressing the campaign against Islamic State and nudging Iran’s religious leader closer to a nuclear deal. 

Mr. Obama stressed to Mr. Khamenei that any cooperation on Islamic State was largely contingent on Iran reaching a comprehensive agreement with global powers on the future of Tehran’s nuclear program by a Nov. 24 diplomatic deadline, the same people say.

Yes how dare he try to reach a nuclear deal with Iran and attempt to get them to side with other nations in fighting a scourge that threatens their neighbors and fellow Muslims.

What the hell was he thinking?

So much better to remain forever enemies and have each other to use as the boogeyman when ginning up fear during election cycles or to increase military spending.

Fucking idiots!

The Washington Post comes up with the perfect metaphor to describe the Republican party's negotiation style. And they found it in the funny papers.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

To the White House, the shutdown/debt ceiling fight is quite simple, and quite radical: Republicans are trying to create a new, deeply undemocratic pathway through which a minority party that lost the last election can enact an agenda that would never pass the normal legislative process. It's nothing less than an effort to use the threat of a financial crisis to nullify the results of the last election. And the White House isn't going to let it happen. 

The Obama administration bristles at the idea that they've been unwilling to negotiate or compromise. They went on a widely covered "charm offensive" back in the spring. The president held multiple dinners with Senate Republicans. He invited over key House Republicans. The meetings were so frequent that the participants were nicknamed "the diner's club." 

Nothing came of those meetings. Republicans still weren't willing to talk on taxes. And so the White House grimly accepted that they couldn't move the dial on spending. The CR, they note, funds the government at the GOP's number of $988 billion. It is, itself, a compromise, and one they don't like. But they made it, because they couldn't pass anything else through Congress. And then the Republicans decided to shut down the government because they couldn't pass a delay or defunding of Obamacare through Congress.

That's right folks, all that talk of the President not reaching across the aisles and not being willing to negotiate is all bullshit.

In an attempt to find just the right metaphor to describe the tactics employed by John Bohner and the House Republicans reporter Ezra Klein struck pure gold.

As the White House sees it, Speaker John Boehner has begun playing politics as game of Calvinball, in which Republicans invent new rules on the fly and then demand the media and the Democrats accept them as reality and find a way to work around them.

Yes, yes, that is EXACTLY what they have been doing! As the President has tried to find some way to play fairly and create an environment where perhaps no one side wins everything, but that ultimately the American people emerge victorious, the Republicans have been playing Calvinball!

What? You are unfamiliar with Calvinball?

Well first off you should be ashamed of yourself for not recognizing the iconic game from the best damn newspaper strip EVER created! And second, well second here is your chance to rectify your crippling ignorance.

Yep, that just about sums up the Republican's approach to deal making in the last several months.

The only question is, will President Obama continue to allow them to keep changing the rules or will he take a page out of Rosalyn the babysitter's playbook.

Inspiration can come from the most unlikely of places you know.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor attempts to humiliate Democrats with photo-op. Gets mocked mercilessly instead.

Okay so the photo-op above, of the Republican's bicameral conference committee, was arranged by Eric Cantor to indicate that they were ready to negotiate a deal with the Senate Democrats on passing a CR. (It should be pointed out, once again, that the Continuing Resolution that the Senate has agreed to keep in place, and the House has rejected, contains the sequestration cuts that the House Republicans forced upon the American people the LAST TIME they pulled a stunt like this. Essentially it is already a capitulation by the Democrats in order to keep the government funded.)

The purpose of course is to give the impression that the House Republicans are the reasonable ones, and it is Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats who are responsible for the government shutdown.

This from the New York Daily News:

Cantor gathered the group, which included House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., and House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., for a photo-op and to signal that the Republicans were waiting to open the line of communication. 

"Come talk to us," Cantor pleaded. 

"All of us here, sitting at a table (are) waiting for Senate Democrats to join us so we can begin to resolve our differences," Cantor added. 

To which Harry Reid appropriately responded:

"Shutting down the government is deadly serious. Republicans seem more interested in organizing stunts with empty chairs."

And boy do the Republicans love their empty chairs.

Rachel Maddow on her show last night revealed the duplicity of this action however, by revealing that Senator Patty Murray has been asking for just such a meeting for months, eighteen times in fact, and they have always refused.

So yeah, this was nothing more than another bullshit move to dodge responsibility and lay the blame for the shutdown on the Democrats.

And it probably worked on those conservatives who really want this to be true, but not so muhc on the rest of the American people.

One of who tweeted this graphic to demonstrate his disgust.

The Republicans are working overtime to kill Obamacare in its cradle, and then blame the resulting political mess on the Democrats. But that only works if we aren't paying attention.

I am paying VERY close attention. And so are a lot of Americans who sent tons of money to the Democrats yesterday in frustration over the shutdown.

The train wreck was never Obamacare, the train wreck was what was going to be left of the Republican party AFTER Obamacare. 

From the "Last Word" on Thursday, Lawrence O'Donnell once again explains just how impressive it was that President Obama got the Republicans to sign the Fiscal Cliff bill.

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Now you have to pay close attention to the detail that Lawrence provides describing the intricacies of negotiations at the Senate level and to help with that here is a great transcript written up by the folks over at the Daily Kos.

If you don't have time for that I completely understand but I do want to draw your attention to this portion here:  

If you've ever actually tried to get a Republican in the House or Senate to vote on an income tax rate increase, proposed by a Democratic president--if you've done that--and perhaps only if you've done that, then you understand how hard it was for President Obama to get a tax increase out of a Republican House of Representatives and out of a Senate where the Republicans can block anything. 

Most pundits and members of Congress for that matter have never negotiated anything more complicated than a car loan or a mortgage and some of them will surely continue to criticize the President's negotiating skills but the President was playing a very long game here. 

Literally years of strategizing including allowing a two-year extension of the Bush rates in order to get strategically positioned, so that he could force Republicans to cast a vote they vowed never to cast.

Now are you impressed? Because I KNOW I am!

The President to John Boehner, "You get nothing."

Apparently when the President and House Speaker John Boehner were attempting to negotiate a deal to avoid the upcoming fiscal cliff Boehner learned the meaning of the phrase "elections have consequences."

This courtesy of Salon:

When Boehner asked Obama if they agree on a deal along the same lines as the one he walked away from during the 2011 talks, according to the paper, Obama retorted: “You missed your opportunity on that.” 

Obama’s frustrations grew, and he told Boehner he would rail publicly against the Republicans in the absence of a reasonable compromise. 

As the Journal reports: 

Mr. Obama repeatedly lost patience with the speaker as negotiations faltered. In an Oval Office meeting last week, he told Mr. Boehner that if the sides didn’t reach agreement, he would use his inaugural address and his State of the Union speech to tell the country the Republicans were at fault. 

At one point, according to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, “I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?” 

“You get nothing,” the president said. “I get that for free.” 

Also during the talks, as Obama bristled over Boehner’s unwillingness to budge on rates, the paper reports that he snapped: “You’re asking me to accept Mitt Romney’s tax plan. Why would I do that?”

You know all I wanted for Christmas was a President that kicks ass and stands up to the Republican party.

Thanks Santa.

And now John Boehner has not only shown he does not have any ability to negotiate with the President, he also does not have the ability to negotiate with his own party. 2013 is going to be a great year!

Joe Scarborough once again meets the new Republican party. Doesn't like what he sees.

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This Rep. Tim Huelskamp guy is a complete asshole and essentially uses the exact same talking points that Wayne LaPierre used later in the day, and in so doing managed to insult Scraborough's concerns since the school shooting in Connecticut.

This courtesy of Think Progress:

 SCARBOROUGH: To push a political agenda? 

HUELSKAMP: Oh, absolutely. This president and his folks are using this to push – 

SCARBOROUGH: What was your feeling after September 11th, Congressman? Were there some changes made in this country because of the tragedy of September 11th? Was that just using a tragedy, 3,000 deaths, to try to make Americans safer? Do you dare come on my show and say I am using the slaughter of 20 little 6 and 7-year-old children, I’m using that for political purposes, Tim? 

HUELSKAMP: Joe, how many children do you have? 

SCARBOROUGH: I’ve got four children, Tim. Answer my question. 

HUELSKAMP: So do I. And I refuse to let you say that because you have children, or anybody else, that we need to actually politicize this. But I see folks in Washington — I don’t know about you. I don’t watch your show… 

SCARBOROUGH: Tim, I’m not going to let you say that I am, quote, politicizing the slaughter of 20 children…. So we can’t at least talk about guns without you questioning my integrity and saying that I’m using the death of 20 children to try to make life for my children a little bit safer? We can’t even talk about it without you coming on this show and insulting me personally?

 Earlier in the exchange Huelskamp essentially draws a line in the sand and says that his group, the Teabagggers, have no intention of voting to raise taxes on ANYBODY.

So let there be no doubt when it comes to negotiations on solving our fiscal crisis of protecting our children fro further harm, the Republicans have essentially been rendered useless.

President Obama talking to a group of bipartisan college students about politics.

A friend sent this to me the other day and I am very glad that they did.

If you listen carefully to what he is saying it essentially explains exactly how he sees his job and why he approaches difficult problems in the measured way in which he does.

I still feel, despite the fact that there are many things still undone (Or not being done fast enough for our liking), that this man may have a real chance to go down in history is one of the greatest Presidents we have ever known.