Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi Promoted Chinatown Tourism While Trump Issued China Travel Ban

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) promoted tourism to San Franciso, California’s Chinatown and was moving forward with legislation to prevent presidents from issuing travel bans while President Trump implemented a travel ban from China to stop the spread of the Chinese coronavirus. On Sunday, Pelosi criticized Trump’s travel ban for not being expansive enough in stopping travel from China in the middle of the coronavirus crisis, telling CNN “tens of thousands of people were still allowed in from China. So it wasn’t as it is described as this great moment.” Pelosi argued Trump should have kept American citizens and green card-holders in China rather than allowing them to return to the U.S. As the New York Times noted, nearly 40,000 individuals have returned to the U.S. from China since the implementation of the travel ban on February 2. “There were Americans coming back, green card holders coming back, but there were tens of thousands,” Pelosi continued. “If you’re going to shut the door because of an evaluation of an epidemic, then shut the door.” While Trump implemented the travel ban, however, Pelosi was promoting tourism to San Francisco’s Chinatown and working with House Democrats to try to block Trump’s ability to executively issue travel bans.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) continues to be a nauseating, duplicitous, hypocritical, lying, self-serving tool.  She, along with other Democrats and liberal news media personalities like Joe Biden and Jim Acosta over at CNN, called Trump a “racist” and “xenophobic” for his quick decision to enact a travel ban on China right at the outset of this thing.  And yes, up to 40,000 AMERICAN citizens were allowed back.  Not allowing AMERICAN citizens back in is a WHOLE lot more difficult from a legal perspective.  So, that was definitely a risk that the President and his administration took.  And, Nancy knows all of this.  BUT, for her at the same time to be calling Trump “racist” and “xenophobic” for the otherwise travel ban from China, and then later other parts of Europe is disingenuous and self-serving at best.  She is what is worst with politicians; lying and always looking for that self-serving angle instead being honest and doing what is right.  Trump has since been totally vidicated for that right decision to enact the travel ban, and the doctors and scientists have validated that.  Was the implementation a little rough initially?  Sure.  But, it was the right decision, and Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, and Jim Acosta were proven wrong and look like the fools they are.

Maher: I Worry Overspending Could End Up ‘Hurting More’ than Coronavirus

During an interview with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) broadcast on Friday’s edition of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher expressed concern about the amount of money the government is spending due to the coronavirus pandemic and stated that “It seems like it’s a house of cards that could, in the end, wind up hurting more people than the disease.” Maher said, “I don’t know how you can just keep indefinitely writing checks. We were 20 trillion in the hole to begin with. And all world governments, who are already in debt, are doing this. How can the whole world be writing this funny money?” After Pelosi said that greater investments in science and health will help the economy recover, Maher stated, “Well, it will recover unless people get wise to the fact that we’re just writing checks for money that doesn’t exist. … It seems like it’s a house of cards that could, in the end, wind up hurting more people than the disease.”

Normally we disagree with Bill Maher about 95% of the time.  But, we gotta give credit where credit is due..and its due here.  Kudos to him for putting that partisan, liberal agenda-driven, dithering idiot, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on the spot like that on national tv.  Nancy Pelosi doesn’t give a damn about hard working Americans suffering with this Wuhan virus.  All she cares is about seizing this crisis to advance her Democrat liberal agenda and weave into any so-called “stimulus” bills that are being advanced in the House, a bunch of unrelated, irrelevant expensive liberal bs that we’ll be stuck with the bill for…and no way to pay for it.  Then what?

Nancy Pelosi Pushing for Leftist Provisions in Phase Four Coronavirus Bill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said on Wednesday that she hopes that Democrats can get more Democrat provisions in a phase four coronavirus package. Anderson Cooper asked Pelosi what she thought of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) contention that Congress should wait to see how the phase three coronavirus response package impacts the pandemic before moving to a phase four bill. In response, Pelosi admitted that Democrats were not able to obtain many Democrat provisions in the phase three coronavirus bill drafted by Senate Republicans. “We couldn’t get everything we wanted in the other bill, let’s begin to go down this path,” Pelosi said. Pelosi’s jockeying for a phase four coronavirus response bill appears to be a move to stuff more leftist special interests in the bill. Despite Pelosi’s negotiations with McConnell and the White House on the phase three coronavirus package, she moved to push her own stage three bill that would contain more Democrat provisions. Democrat Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) said in February regarding the Democrat phase three bill, “This is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.” The Pelosi coronavirus bill included: Increased fuel emissions standards for airlines receiving coronavirus assistance funds. Student loans payments up to $10,000 Same-day voter registration, early voting, voting by mail, and ballot harvesting Preserving collective bargaining for unions Expansion of wind and solar tax credits Requirements for federal and corporate racial diversity data A Post Office bailout Automatic extension of nonimmigrant visas Restricting colleges from providing information about citizenship status Funds for Planned Parenthood $300,000,000 for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which produces PBS to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.” $278,000,000 for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) $500,000,000 for the Institute for Museum and Library Services $35,000,000 for the John F. Kennedy Center However, despite Pelosi’s move to push her own bill, she ended up supporting McConnell’s phase three bill. Due to Senate Republicans’ victory over Pelosi, the Republican Party was able to block many leftist provisions in the phase three bill including: Money for Planned Parenthood. Green New Deal Federal Mandates for Early and Mail Voting Postal Service Bailout DHS Funding Restrictions. “If Chuck Schumer had his way, he would have eliminated the direct checks,” one Senate Republican aide said…

We are disgusted by Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) persistent effort to use this national crisis to push her liberal political agenda and pass on the cost to hurting Americans.  She’s pulling this bs while people are being laid off and can’t pay their bills.  But, come hell or highwater, she’s gonna make us pay for AOC’s “Green New Deal,” millions for the Kennedy Center, millions for PBS/NPR, Planned Parenthood, and other ridiculous liberal nonsense that has NOTHING to do with helping hurting Americans around the country.  Sen. Kennedy (R-LA) calls this political “porn.”  Let’s all email our members of Congress and both U,S. Senators and let them know we don’t want them to pack this crap into the next bill.

Sen. Kennedy: Congress tried to hide ‘spending porn on pet projects’ in stimulus bill, but Americans noticed

In an effort to reach a compromise on the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package which President Trump signed last week, Republican lawmakers had to “swallow” the “spending porn on pet projects” in the bill, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said. Speaking on “Sunday Morning Futures,” Kennedy railed against what he called “all kinds of porn” that “some powerful members of Congress” included in the bill. He said those lawmakers “think the American people… are morons and won’t notice, but they did.” “It’s why so many Americans think there’s no intelligent life in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “This is what many Americans heard. Members of Congress say, ‘Oh, my God. We could run out of ventilators. Oh, my God, people could die quickly. Let’s give money to the Kennedy Center and the post office now.’ That tells the American people that common sense is dead. Nonetheless, those of us who are fiscal conservatives, we swallowed it. We had to, we passed the bill. I think it’s going to help the American people,” Kennedy told Maria Bartiromo. “But,” he added, “a pox on the house and houses of all those members of Congress who took advantage of this disaster, this tragedy, to take care of their pet projects.” Many Republican lawmakers criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., saying she used the crisis as leverage to try jamming through a political “wish list” of unrelated items. Kennedy said they included a provision to speed up the FDA review process of sunscreen products, funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and additional cash for the post office. “It’s not a priority right now,” Kennedy said. “I think once we drill down, we’re gonna find out that she’s [Pelosi] not the only one. I think some other people in powerful positions piled on, and I don’t like it, and it’s not fair to the American people.” “Now, look, I’m tight as a tick. I squeak when I walk. I’m so cheap with taxpayer money. But, I said, ‘look, this is necessary. I swallowed it and said, we’re gonna spend 2-trillion-plus dollars because the American people need it. But, when I pick up this bill and see this kind of spending porn where people were taking advantage of a catastrophe for the American people, it pi–es me off,” he continued. Pelosi, for her part, has pointed the finger at Trump, saying he downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus and delayed ramping up the federal government’s response to it — claims the White House has denied. Kennedy’s state has been a “hot spot” of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., with over 3,300 reported cases to date. The Louisiana senator has been focussed on “saving lives” while “also trying to save livelihoods” and despite his criticisms, his people will rely heavily on the economic relief bill for help, he explained. “We are coping. We have about 3,300 cases, we’ve had around 130 deaths, we’re clearly a hot spot. It began in New Orleans and it’s kind of moving out through this, throughout the state,” Kennedy said. “We’re we’re trying to save lives and we’re also trying to save livelihoods because our economy shut down. The legislation we just passed will help. It’ll get money directly to people, to hospitals, to businesses. I will say that a lot of my people are very upset at the spending porn on pet projects that was slipped into the bill, but my people are also grateful for help from the American taxpayer.” Kennedy later said the coronavirus pandemic underscored the importance of securing America’s medical supply chain and ramping up production of life-saving medicines to end the country’s long-time reliance on the Chinese government. “Sometimes, the cheapest is not in your national interest, and right. We may be able to back components for pharmaceutical drugs cheaper in China, but we’ve learned through this experience that that may not be in the national interest,” he concluded. “And, after this is over, we beat the virus and we will, you’re going to see some change, though, long overdue.”

Gotta love Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)!  He’s a good ol’ boy from the great state of Louisiana, and calls it as he sees it.  And, as usual, he is spot on right!  Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) screwed all of us in this bill with all sorts of irrelevant, liberal agenda “porn.”  For more, scroll down two articles and read the op/ed from Charles Hurt.

Mark Levin on House Dems’ coronavirus plan: ‘People are sick and dying and Pelosi is playing games’

“Life, Liberty & Levin” host Mark Levin accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., of “exploiting this crisis to advance her radical agenda,” after she announced Sunday that Democrats would be introducing their own stimulus bill to address the ongoing economic collapse amid the coronavirus — all while the Republican-controlled Senate considered its own legislation. “1. Pelosi’s poisonous politics feeds the Wuhan virus. She’s exploiting this crisis to advance her radical agenda. She must be exposed and condemned for the diabolical huckster that she is,” Levin wrote on Twitter, referencing the city in China where the virus originated. “2. People are sick and dying and Pelosi is playing games. Apparently the TRILLIONS the Republicans want to spend isn’t enough,” he added. “Sickening.” Pelosi’s announcement, which came as the House returned from its weeklong recess, frustrated many Senate Republicans who have worked through their planned recess this week to craft the urgent economic-relief legislation. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin indicated an agreement was within reach. But, faced with mounting opposition from Democrats who call the package insufficient, the Senate on Sunday evening failed to move forward with considering the Republicans’ “Phase Three” bill. Pelosi reportedly was seeking a “laundry list” of items to be included in the legislation, including wiping out up to $10,000 in student loan debt per person and securing election-security funding.

The “Great One,” attorney Mark Levin, is exactly right.  What Nancy Pelosi is doing should infuriate and offend every clear-thinking American.  There was already a BIPARTISAN bill from the Dem-controlled House, and it was moving along in the Senate way into the wee hours last night (Sunday) which Trump indicated he’d sign…and then, out of nowhere, Nancy pulled the plug and said she was gonna put HER own bill together with all sorts of liberal pork she wanted to add to it to appease Planned Parenthood and other liberal interest groups; stuff that has NOTHING to do with addressing the problems caused by this Wuhan virus..  Nancy Pelosi doesn’t give a damn about Americans out of work right now.   What a disgusting, self-serving bitch.

Jeffress: Trump is right to hit back against Pelosi, Romney on ‘phony’ faith remarks

President Trump was right when he ripped House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney for their comments on faith surrounding the impeachment trial at the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning, First Baptist Church pastor Robert Jeffress told Fox News. “[Trump] absolutely hates phoniness…and the president thinks there’s something inherently phony about saying that you’re praying for him while you’re working 24/7 to destroy him,” the author of “Courageous: 10 Strategies for Thriving in a Hostile World,” told “Fox & Friends” Friday. “And, by the way, the Bible supports his skepticism,” the Dallas pastor added, quoting James: “We shouldn’t be blessing and cursing at the same time.” At Thursday’s prayer breakfast after being acquitted by the Senate, Trump, referring to Romney and Pelosi, said, “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong, nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you’ when they know that that’s not so.” Pelosi, who was four seats away when Trump made the comment, responded during her weekly press conference. “He’s talking about things he knows little about — faith and prayer,” Pelosi said. After someone told Trump that Jesus commands us to “love our enemies,” he asked Jeffress what the pastor thought about it. “I said, ‘Mr. President, to love your enemies means to want God’s best for them, but it doesn’t mean you’re going to be unified with them. Truth divides people.” “As long as this president speaks truth — especially about the sanctity of life, religious liberty — the Left is going to continue to hate him,” he said. “They’re going to continue to try to destroy him, and they’re not going to be holding hands with him singing kumbaya.” On Romney, who became the first senator in U.S. history to vote in favor of removing a president from his own party from office, Jeffress said, “I can understand why the president would think the decision was based more on self-promotion and bitterness than it was prayer.” “Mitt Romney has had vitriol against this president for years,” he explained. “It’s obvious he’s bitter that the American people rejected him two times for president and President Trump was able to do something he wasn’t.” Trump’s evangelical support, a key part of his conservative base, is steady with a 71 percent approval rating, according to the latest Fox News poll. “This impeachment process has really mobilized his evangelical base,” the pastor said, predicting a “landslide” in November. “I believe that evangelical turnout will be greater than even the historic turnout in 2016.”

Kudos to President Trump for calling out Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) for their nauseating, self-serving, self-righteous, and brazen hypocrisy….and hiding behind religion for their own self-serving reasons.  And, extra kudos to Pastor Jeffress for having the courage to support Trump in that regard.  It’s about time we had people of faith calling it as they see it.  Excellent!        🙂

Jonathan Turley says ‘partisan troll’ Nancy Pelosi needs to apologize or step down as House Speaker

Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley blasted “partisan troll” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday for tearing up President Trump’s State of the Union speech, calling for her to apologize or step down. “Her conduct tore up more than a speech, but decades of tradition and left any semblance of civility in tatters on the House floor,” Turley wrote on his website. Turley explained that he “marveled at the beehive of activity on the floor in the People’s House” when he was able to visit as a Democratic 15-year-old page over four decades ago. “The country was deeply divided, but both parties maintained the tradition of civility and decorum. I was struck how members, even in the heat of furious debates, would not attack each other by name and followed rigid principles of decorum. They understood that they were the custodians of this institution and bore a duty to strengthen and pass along those traditions to the next generation,” Turley wrote. “That is why I was (and remain) so offended by this display.” Turley — who was called before the House Judiciary Committee to argue against impeachment — feels that Trump “is worthy of criticism for not shaking the hand of Pelosi” and he didn’t approve of some aspects of the speech, but that doesn’t excuse Pelosi’s behavior. “At that moment, she represents the House as an institution — both Republicans and Democrats. Instead, she decided to become little more than a partisan troll from an elevated position,” Turley wrote. “It was the tradition of the House that a speaker must remain in stone-faced neutrality no matter what comes off that podium. The tradition ended last night with one of the more shameful and inglorious moments of the House in its history.” Pelosi ripped up her copy of Trump’s speech as soon as it concluded on Tuesday night in a remarkable scene that has shocked pundits and lawmakers. Asked about the moment by Fox News afterward, Pelosi said she had destroyed the speech “because it was the courteous thing to do considering the alternatives.” She also said she was “trying to find one page with truth on it” but “couldn’t.” Turley concluded his column by calling for Pelosi to either apologize or let someone else do her prestigious job. “For those of us who truly love the House as an institution, it was one of the lowest moments to unfold on the floor… if Pelosi does not apologize and agree to honor the principle of neutrality and civility at the State of the Union, she should resign as speaker,” he wrote. Turley is the Shapiro Professor of public interest law at George Washington University and a practicing criminal defense attorney.

I too was totally stunned at what Nancy did last night.  It was a breathtaking lack of class and made her look like s 16 year old girl that didn’t make the pom pom squad.  It was below the office of Speaker and brought discredit upon herself, the Democratic party, and then House of Representatives.  Shame on her.  At the very least she should apologize for her lack of class, and be censured by the full House.  Then, she should resign.  She is unworthy of that office.  Speaker Pelosi is not just a “partisan troll” as Professor Turley suggests, she’s a disgusting, arrogant, self-serving, partisan tool.  We deserve better from our politicians.

Jonathan Turley: Pelosi ‘played into’ McConnell’s hands, ‘destroyed’ her own case for impeachment

Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley laid out a sweeping indictment of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., arguing that her impeachment strategy backfired and gave Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the upper hand. “The delay now seems largely driven by a desire to preserve the image of Pelosi as a master strategist despite a blunder of the first order,” Turley wrote in a column titled, “Pelosi’s Blunder: How the House Destroyed its Own Case for Impeachment.” His comments came as Pelosi prepared to transmit articles of impeachment to the Senate, roughly a month after the House approved them. She initially withheld them in an apparent attempt to draw concessions from McConnell. On Wednesday she announced the seven lawmakers who will serve as impeachment managers to prosecute the case against the president at his Senate trial. “There was no reason why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would make concessions to get an impeachment that he loathed,” Turley wrote. Turley similarly suggested that Pelosi pushed impeachment out of “vanity” and would pay a “high price” for doing so. “The fact is that Pelosi played into the hands of McConnell by first rushing this impeachment forward with an incomplete record and now giving him the excuse to summarily change the rules, or even to dismiss the articles,” he said. “Waiting for the House to submit a list of managers was always a courtesy extended by Senate rules and not a requirement of the Constitution. By inappropriately withholding the articles of impeachment and breaking with tradition, Pelosi simply gave McConnell ample reason to exercise the “nuclear option” and change the rules on both majority voting as well as the rule for the start of trials. That is a high price to pay for vanity.” On Twitter, Turley also derided a presser in which Pelosi announced her list of impeachment managers for the Senate’s trial. “Speaker Pelosi’s statement that ‘time has been our friend’ is bizarre,” Turley tweeted. “The new evidence and witnesses could have been part of the record with actual testimony and discovery by the House. Instead, she did nothing for 4 weeks and hoped for the tide to bring flotsam wreckage.” Turley previously testified before the House Judiciary Committee as part of the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. During that testimony, he cautioned House members against hastily pursuing impeachment. “One can oppose President Trump’s policies or actions but still conclude that the current legal case for impeachment is not just woefully inadequate, but in some respects, dangerous, as the basis for the impeachment of an American president,” Turley previously said.

Exactly!  And well said, professor.

Opinion/Analysis: Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s stall tactics hurt America’s economy

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if for one brief shining moment in Washington, Congress put good policy over politics — and passed a bill that would benefit American workers, investors and businesses? We haven’t had a true bipartisan victory in Washington for seemingly ages, but we are tantalizingly close to getting there. This would be the passage of the U.S. Mexico Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA). Both parties want this modernized version of NAFTA to pass. It is the legacy of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. But this latest modernized trilateral trade deal for North America hasn’t happened yet because of an endless parade of stall tactics by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She is blockading a vote of the 435 members of the House of Representatives. The odds are very favorable that Democrats and Republicans would provide enough yays to pass it and move it on to the Senate where the trade deal would be approved by a wide margin. The whispering campaign on Capitol Hill is that Mrs. Pelosi is worried about giving Mr. Trump a “win,” so she’s inventing flimsy excuses for endlessly delaying a vote. Her strategy might have some credibility if she had credible objections to this modernized trade deal, which was carefully crafted by Donald Trump with trade negotiators from our neighbors Canada and Mexico. First, Mrs. Pelosi said she wanted more worker protections in the trade deal — but this bill actually has stronger job and wage protections for American workers (some of which I think go too far) than the old North America Free Trade Agreement. Mr. Trump insisted on those broader labor protections for the auto and other blue-collar workers in many of those Midwestern states that have seen middle class job losses. She continues to broach the idea of attaching a pension bailout bill to the trade deal. That pension bill has nothing to do with trade. It would also potentially cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars of costs to bailout mismanaged labor union pension funds. This is Mrs. Pelosi’s way of throwing a wet kiss to the union bosses as payback for their support in helping her become Speaker. An even wilder idea is a scheme by Democrats to force Mr. Trump to allow the United States back into the Paris Climate Accord — a $100 billion tax on Americans — as the ransom for passing USMCA. These are obvious poison pills and the speaker knows it. Mr. Trump would never allow the U.S. into the climate treaty and many fiscally-conscientious Republicans would withdraw their support for the USMCA if they were forced to endorse these new giant taxpayer liabilities for obese pensions. Then there is Mrs. Pelosi’s ploy to reopen the trade deal to repeal the hard-won patent protections for American pharmaceutical companies. Mrs. Pelosi is acting as if this were a giant “giveaway” to the U.S. drug companies that will raise prices for American consumers. She has it all wrong. This provision of the trade deal actually protects America patent rights for 10 years when made-in-America drugs and “biologics” are sold in foreign countries. The USMCA — expertly negotiated by Mr. Trump’s lead trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer — actually forces Mexican and Canadian citizens to honor our patents and pay more for American drugs. This could in the end mean lower prices for these drugs here in the United States because our two neighbors would pay their fair share to cover the billions of dollars of research costs to bring to market new life-saving drugs. Mr. Trump should be applauded for getting Mexico and Canada to agree to live by the same patent protections that we require here in America. Why would Mrs. Pelosi object to a provision that effectively curtails foreign freeloading off the medical R&D investments of American firms? Why should foreigners get special discount deals on our patented drugs that are not similarly available to American patients? Mrs. Pelosi’s cynical strategy to change the USMCA would bust the trade deal wide open and kill it. Trying to renegotiate a trade deal that has been years in the making is like putting toothpaste back in the tube. Opening up one section of the law makes every section negotiable and brings us back to square one. The victims here would be American farmers, ranchers and hard-hat manufacturing workers. The economic benefits of the USMCA have been estimated by the U.S. International Trade Commission to be almost $60 billion in higher exports each year and some 175,000 new jobs. Passage of this law would put added pressure on China to pass its own trade deal with the Trump administration. Mrs. Pelosi should put America first by putting the political games aside and bringing USCMA to a vote urgently. Democrats won back the House in the 2018 elections by promising Americans that they could govern the country. Obstruction is not governing and blocking free trade deals is no way to keep the Trump economic boom going. I hate to think that may be the point of her political tactics.

No kidding!!  Thanks to economist Stephen Moore for calling out Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on her shameless, and shameful, politics that are just hurting everyday Americans. Stephen Moore is an economic consultant with Freedom Works and served as a senior economic adviser to Donald Trump. His latest co-authored book is “Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy.”

Opinion/Analysis: Blue State Blues: Shutdowns Are Different When Republicans Fight Back

Spare, if you will, a moment’s pity for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). They are not exactly enjoying the government shutdown as they might have hoped. Pelosi had already packed her bags and boarded the Air Force bus Thursday, along with a sizable delegation of House Democratic leaders, for her overseas junket. She and her comrades were, no doubt, looking forward to touring NATO’s billion-dollar-plus new headquarters in Brussels; posing for selfies on camelback by the pyramids in Egypt; grinning for photo-ops with the troops in Afghanistan. Then the order came from President Donald Trump to prohibit her use of government aircraft. Fly commercial, he suggested. There is a government shutdown going on, after all. And, as Trump noted, 800,000 federal workers will continue to go unpaid — unless Democrats stay in town to negotiate. The bus went ’round the block and back. Pelosi’s shock must have been quite something to observe. She is not used to being treated like this, you see. She apparently expected she could cancel (ahem, “postpone”) the State of the Union address due to the shutdown — and then disappear abroad. Trump’s response — blocking Pelosi’s use of the aircraft — was gutsy. It was a “drain the swamp” moment. But the timing was pure comedy gold. (Adam Schiff, stepping off the bus, looked like he’d seen a Russian.) In a statement, Pelosi’s spokesman protested that the purpose of the trip had been “to affirm the United States’ ironclad commitment to the NATO alliance,” something the president had already done earlier that day. Her real goal was to conduct an alternative foreign policy — as she did after being elected Speaker in 2007, when she paid a friendly visit to Syrian butcher Bashar al-Assad. Pelosi’s flack complained that President Trump himself had flown to visit the troops in Iraq early in the shutdown. But Trump is the commander-in-chief, and Pelosi is not. How jarring for her to be reminded that although she might pretend the Constitution grants her equal power to the president, only Trump can turn the bus around.

Exactly!!  For more, click on the text above.  Thanks to Joel B. Pollak fot that outstanding analysis.     🙂