In this battle of wits, only one side is competing.

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The President is a counter puncher. When he’s hit, he hits back twice as hard   Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Thus us a primo example of the bullshit that I like to call the Trump mythology. In boxing, a counter puncher deflects or accepts a minor blow in order to be in position to deliver a more effective blow. This is certainly not Trump. For instance, I don’t recall Ted Cruz starting some shit by saying publicly that Trump’s father tried to help to assassinate Franklin Roosevelt. And I somehow can’t recall Marco Rubio throwing a haymaker by nicknaming Trump “Denture Donnie” because he slurps when he talks. Trump is not a counter puncher, he’s a kidney puncher, and he’s the worst at even that tactic as any I’ve ever seen.

We are now in day 28 of the Trump shutdown. Right now it’s all the rage to blame Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and Laura Ingraham for goading Trump into shutting down the government when it appeared that he was going to cave. They certainly get a big assist, for shoring him up when he might have been weakening, but I don’t credit them directly for Trump’s decision to shut down the government. So, who did? I say that Nancy Pelos, either purposely or inadvertently, conned him into the shutdown.

Cast your mind back to December 11th, 2018. Trump held what was supposed to be a make or break summit in the Oval Office with Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Mike Pence. What was supposed to be a brief “pool spray” for reporters, a photo op with perhaps a few shouted questions deteriorated into a nasty free-for-all. During his rant, Trump repeatedly swore that if he didn’t get his wall funding, he wold shut down the government. To which Nancy Pelosi quietly, but forcefully replied; “Mr President, you can’t shut down the government. You don’t have the votes to shut down the government.” That flipped the switch. Pelosi landed a jab to the forehead, and the worlds greatest counter puncher immediately responded by slamming himself in the nuts. You could see it in his eyes, and in his face. This woman, this elven pipsqueak from California, was going to tell the most powerful man in the world what he could and couldn’t do?!? For the rest of the meeting, Trump’s response to every question or comment was to double back to his threat, nay promise, to shut it all down.

This was a softball win-win for Pelosi, and she knew it. If Trump tried to shut down the government in the lame duck and failed, he would look weak, and not in control of his own party. And if he did shut it down, the government would be closed for about 11 days over the holidays, and would reopen on January 3rd, when Speaker Pelosi moved the clean continuing resolution bills through the House for the Senate to pass. And the Clueless Wonder never even tipped to how easily he had been played by a woman, proudly proclaiming on multiple occasions, while 800,000 workers were going payless, that Pelosi had told him that he didn’t have the votes to shut down the government, and boy, did he show her who wears the pants in this government! Little wonder Coulter and Ingraham had so little trouble leading him around by the nose.

It has finally happened. Trump has lost the narrative. Up until now, it was always Trump who made outlandish statements, and did outlandish tings, and everybody else had to respond to him. But those days are long gone now. It is now Pelosi who is dictating the action, which is what a world class counter puncher like Trump should live for. But it isn’t working out that way. As we’re seeing every day, as a counter puncher, Trump is about as devastating and effective as one of those sand base bop dolls you had when you were a kid.

On January 3rd, the Pelosi controlled House passed a continuing resolution funding all of the shut down departments except DHS under current levels through September 30th. DHS would reopen under current levels through February 8th, to allow for negotiations on wall funding. Pelosi directly said, “Let’s responsibly reopen the government, and then we can talk about border security. Trump;s immediate response was “I want my fucking wall!” Which to the entire world sounded like “Put away your toys Donnie, it’s time for a nap.” No! Not without my Nestles Quik!”Trump has allowed the Democrats to repeat two lines like a Gregorian chant, “Open the government,” and “People who work should get paid for it.” To which Trump can only reply, “Ooh! Ooh! Ugg! Filthy Immigrants! Wall! Wall!” Sonny Liston would have been knocked out in 5 seconds from a counter punch like that.

And it just keeps getting worse. When Trump complained yet again last Monday about how lonely it was sitting by himself all alone in the White House, the press was immediately able to report that Speaker Pelosi had remained in Washington over the weekend, just in case the President wanted to call her with anything more substantial to say than “Me Trump!@ Me want wall!” She would have been happy to come on over and keep him company, if he wanted to communicate like an adult.

And now the latest kerfuffle. Pelosi “suggested” that Trump reschedule his State Of The Union address to a date after the government had reopened. This was like your principal “suggesting” that your shirt cover your belly button from now on. But because she was the one taking the action, she got to set the narrative, quietly and logically advising the President that somehow it wasn’t right for people who weren’t getting paid to put in overtime on the House chamber, just so he could spend an hour lecturing those same furloughed and unpaid employees, sitting in front of the TV eating chicken noodle soup, without the chicken or the noodles, how critically important his wall was, and how much he appreciated their wholehearted support in what he was doing.

And Trump’s measured, well thought out, Presidential response? “I’d take my balls and go home, but Melania has them down in Florida with her, co I’m cancelling your flight!” Yet another right hook to his own kidneys. It was hilarious listening to Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy desperately trying to have Trump’s back, excoriating Pelosi for daring to leave town to visit the troops and their commanders in Afghanistan during the shutdown, but stumbling like a drunk on an unpaved road trying to explain how Trump bugging out to Iraq during the same shutdown was somehow different. Such is life in Trumpmenistan these days.

And it’s only going to get worse, imply because Trump is too narcissistic to understand how badly he’s getting his ass kicked. Mitch McConnell spent 4 years scheming and conniving to make Barack Obama a one term President, while Nancy Pelosi is well on her way to accomplishing that same goal with Trump. A poll released yesterday shows that even Trump’s “base” has had enough. It showed his support slipping, sometimes by double digits, among white, non college educated women, white, non college educated men, white suburban men, and even Evangelicals for Gods sake.The poll shows him finally dropping through the 40% floor, coming in at 39%, making it the second poll in a week, another had his popularity at 37% And worst of all, it shows his popularity among Republicans in general dropping from 90% to a much more anemic 80%.It’s starting to look like the bloom is finally falling off of this withering rose.

It’s funny when you think about it. For the last two years now, every politician and strategist to the left of Karl Rove has desperately tried to find the secret sauce to separate Trump from his base. And yet, when it finally starts to appear that it’s happening, it’s Trump that does it all to himself, “with a little help from his friends.” It just goes to show, if you need a tough job done, and done right, send a woman to do it.

Copies of President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange make perfect e-stocking stuffer gifts for people you really aren’t all that interested in impressing. And what better time to get reacquainted with the roller coaster that was the 2016 election cycle than before the release of the final volume of the trilogy, President Evil III, All the Presidents Fen.

Cross posted on Politizoom.com

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