This morning it was confirmed that Speaker Nancy Pelosi is going to Taiwan. It has not been explained why she’s going to Taiwan.
Pelosi has been all but told not to go by her own President. The U.S. military has said they think it’s a bad idea. Her trip is not sanctioned by the State Department. It is not the job of the Speaker or of the legislative branch to make foreign policy.
And, it’s not as if she doesn’t have her hands full at home. Democrats are on the cusp of finally passing some of their biggest priorities now that Sen. Joe Manchin has agreed to a tighter set of programs, but the details still need to be worked out. She’s fighting for her life as Speaker since it’s likely that she will lose her House majority in November, but you don’t want to send the signal that you’re throwing in the towel by leaving the country. Not yet, anyway.
Look, I do think that liberal democracy is under attack all over the world and it does need to be defended. But Pres. Biden has gone out of his way to say that the U.S. would defend Taiwan if it were attacked by China. In fact, his statement to that effect was more blunt than previous administrations had made.
So, what on earth does the Speaker think she has to gain by doing this? Does she have frequent flyer miles burning a hole in her pocket? She’s causing unnecessary headaches for her President and her party with no apparent upside.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
In the Three Dimensional-Chess game of foreign policy, public comments by the president or the State Department should be taken with a grain of salt. I am confident the speaker is going to Taiwan at the behest of both Joe & State. Whether it’s a good idea is certainly debatable, but there is no way she’s going rogue in this situation.
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Not getting a good feeling that a Taiwan visit by a high ranking US government legislator is appropriate at this time.
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She unfurled an independence flag in tiananmen square five years after the massacre. Madame Speaker clearly has feelings on this issue.
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I respect Nancy Pelosi and, as you described Robin Vos, she’s a survivor. Gotta admire that.
However, it’s time for her to go and she knows it, which might be why she’s on her Farewell Tour. Her days as speaker are numbered. You, Dave, cited Leah Hunt-Hendrix, a scion of the obscenely wealthy Hunt family, as a major problem in our party and I agree. I’d add, too, that Rep. Pelosi is problematic and is just one of the old guard that needs rejuvenation. Can’t we get some new blood in our party? Why do we keep leaders – Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Steny Hoyer and Joe Biden – that are octogenarians? That’s an age when the vast majority of us are either retired or dead. What will it take to make the wholesale changes that must occur if we’re going to modernize the party and attract new voters? We’re going to find out, I think/fear, in November.
To me, politics is akin to baseball. The Democratic Party is a former championship team that is headed in the wrong direction. Its players are wily veterans who’ve lost a step or two and can no longer compete. Occasionally, they’ll win some big games but over the long haul, they can’t deliver. What we need is a general manager who can clean house for the longterm future of the franchise. Out with the old. We need new blood.
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I have to agree. Can we trade Pelosi to the Padres for some prospects? Actually, I think she has done an excellent job as Speaker and it’s not her age alone that troubles me. But, you’re right. When you look at the entirety of the Democratic leadership, where’s the bench?
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I can’t disagree more. Pelosi is the most effective speaker of the past 50 years. Hakeem Jeffries is on deck to take over as leader, a lot of great leadership like Jaypal on the left and Spanberger in the center. People who say there is no one on deck is not paying attention.
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Pelosi’s purpose is plain – agitate mainland China. And agreed, she ain’t going rogue. The morons who are running the show, they’re not even third-string quality, have identified China as the great threat to ‘democracy’, which translated means, the greatest threat to American hegemony. Their House should be hosed down a la the Augean stables. Unfortunately Hercules isn’t around to help with this monumental task.
“Hu Xijin of Global Times wrote on Twitter. “The [Chinese military] has the right to forcibly dispel Pelosi’s plane and the US fighter jets, including firing warning shots and making tactical movement of obstruction. If ineffective, then shoot them down.”
The greatest threat to democracy? Democrats. And I’m not a Republican.
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The ChiComs are making good on their threat to retaliate with devastating retribution against the United States. They’ve announced they’ll protect Pelosi’s return to the US.
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Some quotes from a trenchant international politics reporter:
“The day after [Pelosi’s Taiwan visit], as the narcissist Speaker, so proud of accomplishing her stunt, was awarded the Order of Auspicious Clouds for her promotion of bilateral US-Taiwan relations, the Chinese Foreign Minister issued a sobering comment: the reunification of Taiwan with the mainland is a historical inevitability.”
Xi Jinping: “China will see it [Pelosi visit] as a provocative action permitted by the Biden administration rather than a personal decision made by Pelosi…the United States is “non-agreement capable”
”The crucial fact is that Xi was personally humiliated by Washington and so was the Communist Party of China (CPC), a major loss of face – something that in Chinese culture is unforgivable. And all that compounded with a US tactical victory.”
“The first sanctions are on too, against two Taiwanese funds. Export of sable to Taiwan is forbidden; sable is an essential commodity for the electronics industry – so that will ratchet up the pain dial in high-tech sectors of the global economy.
Chinese CATL, the world’s largest fuel cell and lithium-ion battery maker, is indefinitely postponing the building of a massive $5 billion, 10,000-employee factory that would manufacture batteries for electric vehicles across North America, supplying Tesla and Ford among others.”
Source: https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-missile-kabul-connects-speaker-taipei/5788829
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