[guest post by Dana]

During an interview with Maureen Dowd, Nancy Pelosi reminds “The Squad” (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts ) of who’s in charge, saying that she really doesn’t care if the left doesn’t think she’s left enough. While the female insurgents of the far left-wing of the Democratic Party are unhappy with Nancy Pelosi and her slow-walk toward meeting their goals, Pelosi is having none of it:

Some House liberals have been furious with the speaker since she capitulated to Republicans and Democratic moderates and agreed to pass a bill to send more funding to the border, giving up demands for stronger protections for the migrant children ensnared in the nightmare of shelters there.

“The Mighty Moderates,” as The Times christened them, wanted to show that they weren’t going to be pushed around by the liberals, who have so far gotten all the attention.

…

Pelosi feels that the four made themselves irrelevant to the process by voting against “our bill,” as she put it, which she felt was the strongest one she could get. “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” she said. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”

AOC pounced on Pelosi’s comments:

Out of touch, not with it, your time is up, move over, get out of the way, troglodyte! AOC’s use of dialing for dollars immediately reminded me of the popular show by that name. A show that Pelosi, who was born in 1940, would surely remember. AOC, however, was born right before the show ended its long run:

Dialing for Dollars was a franchised format local television program in the United States and Canada, popular from the 1950s to the early 1990s.

The program’s usual format had the host, a local television personality, announce a certain password to the audience at the beginning of the program (on most stations, “the count and the amount”). He would then randomly select a phone number to call from a bowl or drum, either from those that had been previously submitted by viewers, or by scraps of paper cut from residential telephone directories. Viewers watching the show would know that they were being called, answer the phone with the correct password, and would win a monetary prize. If the viewer did not respond correctly or failed to answer the call altogether, the prize money would continue to increase.

Pelosi herself unwittingly points to her age (and accepted pre-#MeToo behaviors) by referencing Bill Clinton’s impeachment as standard “boys will be boys” behavior:

…they impeached Clinton for something so ridiculous — getting impeached for doing a dumb thing as a guy.

Obviously she knows he was impeached for obstruction of justice and committing perjury so one assumes that she is referencing his affair with a 22-year old intern. As has been said of Pelosi’s contemporary, Hillary Clinton (when she dismissed her husband’s behavior), this antiquated view “undermines a core lesson of #MeToo: that abuse isn’t necessarily contingent on age, gender, or fame, but is always contingent on power.” The “doing a dumb thing as a guy” excuse runs counter to the modern-day position of the party, especially the far left. I mean, the “The Squad” would never excuse such an abuse of power like this, right?

Finally, because the political pendulum is always in motion, one better be prepared:

The speaker, who is trying to keep the party center left, must know that getting Trump out of office is a goal that could be jeopardized by the fact that the Democrats lurched so far left in the first debates, with bilingual pandering and talk about busing and decriminalizing illegal border crossings and abolishing private health insurance.

(Psst: Ms. Dowd, while not discussed at the first debate, there really couldn’t be a more glaring indicator of just far left the party has lurched than their hard push for abortion up to the point of birth.)

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

[Headlines from DRJ]

Daily Mail — Britain’s man in the US says Trump is ‘inept’: Leaked secret cables from ambassador say the President is ‘uniquely dysfunctional and his career could end in disgrace’:

Britain’s Ambassador to Washington has described Donald Trump as ‘inept’, ‘insecure’ and ‘incompetent’ in a series of explosive memos to Downing Street.

Sir Kim Darroch, one of Britain’s top diplomats, used secret cables and briefing notes to impugn Trump’s character, warning London that the White House was ‘uniquely dysfunctional’ and that the President’s career could end in ‘disgrace’.

His bombshell comments risk angering the notoriously thin-skinned President and undermining the UK’s ‘special relationship’ with America.

The Guardian has the bottom line:

Sometimes leaks from within the government are striking not just for their content, but also for the motive behind them.

The content of telegrams sent from Washington by Kim Darroch, Britain’s ambassador to the US, and disclosed by the Mail on Sunday, is a case in point. The leak is also striking for what it tell us about the struggle for influence at the top of a Boris Johnson-led Conservative party.

***

Much will depend on how the president, and the most likely new British prime minister react. The danger is that Trump will tweet something dismissive, but then harbour a deep grudge against Britain’s professional diplomatic service. Some might tell him the Whitehall machine is a nest of snobbish anti-populist opponents of Brexit.

The real challenge though is actually facing the likely next prime minister, Boris Johnson, who prides himself on his proximity to the Trump family, including Jared Kushner, despite their quite different personalities.

One of the first decisions on the in tray for a Johnson premiership will be a replacement for Kim Darroch, who is due to depart at the end of the year anyway.

Politics: It’s not just in America.

UPDATE 7/8/2019 — Maturity is for Losers: Trump: We Will No Longer Deal With The British Ambassador Who Criticized Me In Private Diplomatic Cables.

— DRJ

It is the fourth Sunday after Pentecost. Today’s Bach cantata is “Sie werden euch in den Bann tun” (They will put you under banishment).

Today’s Gospel reading is Luke 10:1-11, 16-20:

Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’”

. . . .

“Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

The text of today’s piece is available here. It contains these words:

They will put you under banishment.

But the time will come when whoever kills you will think that he does God a service by it.

Christians must be
true disciples of Christ on earth.
They wait for Him at all times,
until they happily undergo
martyrdom, exile, and bitter pain.

Happy listening! Soli Deo gloria.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]