It caught my eye because here in Wisconsin, a brat — rhymes with "squat" — is a very popular sausage. So what's "spanking the brat"? Seems like another one of the many euphemisms for masturbation.
But the NYT is not Wisconsin, so it must be brat — rhymes with "slat" — "a child, so called in contempt" (to quote Samuel Johnson's "Dictionary of the English Language").
What brat would Nancy Pelosi be spanking? I'm thinking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or maybe Rashida Tlaib — one of the impish new House members.
But no! It's Trump! It's always Trump. Everywhere you look...
When Trump said he could “relate” to federal workers who are now going without pay, it may have been the most audacious lie he told all week....The headline writer equates the use of a "mother of five" voice with spanking. I think Pelosi wants to pose as the adult and make Trump look like the child, but isn't the person resorting to physical violence the one who is immature?
As Pelosi told reporters: “He thinks maybe they could just ask their father for more money. But they can’t.” She also leveled the barb on Trump in person.
Pelosi deploys what she calls her “mother of five” voice on our tantrum-prone president, perhaps in an effort to reparent him. But how do you discipline the world’s brattiest 72-year-old?
And even if you think Trump can be childish, there wasn't anything childish about saying that he relates to the federal workers who are going without pay. That's the kind of routine presidential expression of calm empathy that people often complain about not getting enough of from President Trump. Dowd tells us that Trump is "tantrum-prone," but — whether that's true or not — his statement of empathy — whether that's bullshit or not — is not like a tantrum.
Dowd exults in Pelosi's patronizing (matronizing?) tone, used against the President of the United States. I'm wondering how this choice of attitude will work in the coming campaign season. Should the Trump opponents treat him as if he is "the world’s brattiest 72-year-old" and address him in a "mother of five" voice? It seems to me Hillary Clinton already tried that and it didn't work. It didn't work when he was not yet President and it was hard to picture him as President. But now he is President. I'm thinking the disrespect is dangerous. It can backfire, especially on those who really believe in and delight in their disrespect. Remember Hillary and "deplorables"!
***
By the way, "matronize" — as a humorous way to say that a woman is patronizing — is a usage that's been around since the 19th century. Among the examples in the OED:
a1854 E. Grant Mem. Highland Lady (1988) I. xvi. 349 An extraordinary woman, once a beauty and still a wit, who was now matronising two elderly young ladies."Matronize" is a real word, with nonjocose meanings: "To act as a matron," "To chaperone" ("Lady Maclaughlan..will Matronize you to the play"), "to act as hostess to (a party, etc.)" ("The lady who was matronizing the tea recognized him"), and "to render matronly" ("Childbed matronizes the giddiest Spirits").
1966 New Statesman 25 Nov. 786/3 She has the usual phrases about ‘the self-contained universe constituted by a work of art’, and Sartre is matronised for faltering in his ‘faith in the power of an artistic structure to stand up on its own’.
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52 comments:
Matronize doesn't work because women are on the same level as their kids. It's the father that talks down to them.
I don't expect that Mueller's tone is going to be "matronizing."
If politicians are to be spanked for lying, they might as well remove all the seats in Congress now.
This stuff might be fun for Dowd and the girls (derogatory intended) but does anyone else equate a 78 year old Pelosi with 'mother'? Grandma or Great-Grandma is more like it.
Perhaps American voters aren't sexist by nature but they can't stomach female candidates who deal in this kind of crap, and that's what we always end up with in the major races.
Hint: It's Maureen Dowd's new column.
What's the point?
point (n.)
c. 1200, "minute amount, single item in a whole; sharp end of a sword, etc.," a merger of two words, both ultimately from Latin pungere "to prick, pierce," from nasalized form of PIE root *peuk- "to prick." blah blah blah
Pelosi deploys what she calls her “mother of five” voice
Skee wee! Skee wee!
Noted racist commenter and self-admitted Smear Merchant LLR Chuck: "I don't expect that Mueller's tone is going to be "matronizing."
LOL
The latest "hot take" from the guy who just yesterday literally equated a single alleged Trump phone call from decades ago to serial killing, mass murder and the genocide of entire populations!
Literally.
Easily one of LLR Chucks top pro-dem smears of all time!
An instant classic if you will.
For Pelosi, her absolute authority over her caucus in Congress outweighs any collateral damage to her party as a whole, or the country.
Hagar: "For Pelosi, her absolute authority over her caucus in Congress outweighs any collateral damage to her party as a whole, or the country."
It also helps Pelosi that the LLR's are fully under control as well.
Speaker Pelosi is on the government clock vacationing in the Caribbean. Mean while back at the ranch her constituents are without a job and without a paycheck. I call that relating.
Nancy explains she is equal to the President of the United States. While she 'believes' she is actually superior to the President. Dems and LLR's 'believe' stuff. Once you understand that, the rest of their uninformed idiocy falls into place.
Good thing they didn't have her spanking a kielbasa.
Maybe BRAT is a rank in the KGB like an honored, super secret Spy of Spies. It's a Politbureau thing.
I don't think matronising plays as well as matrons think, but maybe it does with other matrons.
It's hard to imagine anything less relevant than the latest Maureen Dowd column.
Regarding the NYT opinion pages, Ross Douthat is the only one who occasionally has an original and useful contribution to the national discussions of the day.
The rest of the group might as well write for The Nation. The fact that they write under the NYT masthead confers no special honor upon them, but it does say a whole lot about the editorial judgment of that news organization.
To me, it says "progressive left wing nuttery" and is best ignored. There are better places to get responsible left wing opinion, although that list has gotten awfully short over the years.
"Pelosi deploys what she calls her “mother of five” voice on our tantrum-prone president..."
Do any of Dowd's readers even know a woman with five children anymore?
That is a family size of previous generations. Because only deplorables have that large of a family anymore.
Now the five children are split between two different families: a family with four children, and a mother of one telling the other family how they should raise their children.
I am Laslo.
Jeff; "To me, it says "progressive left wing nuttery" and is best ignored."
Even if, as LLR Chuck asserts each and every day, the progressive left is loaded with "masterful", "magnificent", "brilliant" and "professional" insights and ideas?
This is a sly reference to the claim from Stormy that the Mad Hatter likes to be spanked on his very big back side.
As for Matronizing, the first thing a boy learns from his Dad is how to tune out Mommy.
Has Mo Dowd found a boyfriend yet? It's been a while. She was once a hot young red-head, as she is prone to tell us.
"When Trump said he could “relate” to federal workers who are now going without pay, it may have been the most audacious lie he told all week...."
So "lie" has been defined down to merely not believing the sincerity of the speaker/writer.
MSM is out of material. They're reduced to shooting blanks. A sly reference to the trolls.
Who stole the Kishka?
CWJ: "So "lie" has been defined down to merely not believing the sincerity of the speaker/writer."
The left and their LLR housepets long ago dumbed down both "lie" and "crime" to mean simply anything the left disagrees with.
As you can see from the lefties and pals like r/v, Inga and LLR Chuck on this blog.
The more Pelosi speaks, the more people who turn against the Democrat Party. An out-of-touch very wealthy woman.
"Just wait til your mother gets home..."
So is MoDo saying that Pelosi is a child abuser by talking about her being a mother of 5 and hitting kids?
Democrats have always been the party of violence.
STOP FASCISM NOW!
John Henry
To be fair, it is not just Pelosi, but her generation in the House "leadership," where she is among the youngest.
Schumer is a decade younger than Pelosi, and that is a marked generational difference.
Is “matronizing” the opposite of “mansplaining”.
The headline writer equates the use of a "mother of five" voice with spanking. I think Pelosi wants to pose as the adult and make Trump look like the child, but isn't the person resorting to physical violence the one who is immature?
Spanking is NOT violence...it's child rearing. Every animal that raises its young uses negative reinforcement to do so.
I hope Dr. Spock is roasting in Hell.
On Laura Ingaham's show this week, I watched the anguished father of a young man who was killed by an illegal. He asked what would Pelosi feel if one of her five kids was killed by an illegal? I think it may come to the point where a victim's relative takes revenge on the family of a Congress critter. The Congress critter will wish he had had a wall around his family.
Adultism is civility bullshit.
If you can’t pound the law or the facts, pound that you’re the only adult in the room.
By the time Schumer came of age, the '60's was history.
I rad the Dowd column. It is useful to note that people still want to live in the buildings that Fred and Donald Trump constructed. On the the other hand, most sane people want to get out of the Baltimore that Nancy's father established.......That photo she posted of JFK, Mayor Pelosi and Nancy speaks volumes, but I don't know what it's saying. JFK and the Mayor don't look very friendly.
In the Dowd column, she informs us that Nancy's son set up a lemonade stand and made $1000. Nancy made the kid donate the $1000 to some kind of disaster relief fund. This is WTF on a number of different levels. What kid makes $1000 with a lemonade stand? A kid whose mother is an important member of Congress, that's who. Maybe the lobbyists thought that Nancy had discovered a clever new way of funneling money and stopped by hourly for another lemonade hit......Also, if I wonder if the kid was in any way resentful of his mother appropriating the money he made. I suppose she made it up to hm in other ways......Nancy's husband is a rich banker. He's worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and it's all due to hard work.......Dems have some truly entrepreneurial relatives. Lady Bird Johnson made tens of millions of dollars with the rural Texas radio stations she bought. She had the foresight to realize that major advertisers with business before Congress would choose to drop a lot of advertising dollars on those stations. Remarkable foresight and business acumen.
"Seems like another one of the many euphemisms for masturbation"
Doubt it. Peloasi has “Closed Up Shop Down There.”
"Dowd tells us that Trump is "tantrum-prone," but — whether that's true or not — his statement of empathy — whether that's bullshit or not — is not like a tantrum."
Even prog insults are fake.
'Spanking the brat' - that's actually a fantastic euphemism for masturbation. You should copyright that immediately.
I'm still a fan of 'punching the clown' but different strokes and all.
*thumbs up emoji'
I prefer harpy and nag.
Nancy's husband is a rich banker. He's worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and it's all due to hard work...
Bwaaaaaaa......
Pelosi and Schumer don't want border security and are responsible for the shutdown.
What are the reasons for shutting down the Government?
The Wall won't work.
Really.
Dowd is getting to be quite a matron herself.
Will she be like Nancy P. working till she's 72?
Pelosi sounds like a horrible grandmother. Why not berate her rich constituents to donate to charities instead of her grandson who just wants an Xbox? Cher already has an ex-box. Her daughter.
Young Nancy was attractive. I wonder if JFK ever hit on her. That would explain the muted hostility in that picture.
Frau Merkel Spanks Her Brat
How is her grandson's transition to brown journey coming along?
When Trump said he could “relate” to federal workers who are now going without pay, it may have been the most audacious lie he told all week....
How in the hell is person saying they could relate to something a lie? It's an opinion based on a feeling.
Maureen the masturbating matron.
She was a student at trinity college.
Unless and until Pelosi's supposed "spanking the First Brat" actually manages to drive Trump's approval rating down, it is just masturbation; actions that make the actor temporarily feel good without having any affect on reality.
And given how astonishingly steady Trump's ratings have been, there's no reason to expect that it'll have any more effect than in the past. Certainly it doesn't seem to have showed any effect yet.
Given her views, shouldn't the headline be that Pelosi aborts an unwanted human being?
My mother taught me that spanking the brat would cause me to go blind. It didn't, although the palms of my hands are unusually hairy.
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