And when you see Janey, give her a hug for me! Great, now they’ve got me carrying cargo George Carlin
This is almost getting creepy. Over the last 3 days, it almost seems like a whole lot of little lights have started going off over the heads on the opposition side. The tables are empty, the caterers have gone home, the glass is empty, there’s no refill, the cat has been let out, and the host is standing at the door in his pajamas, tapping his foot. That kind of feeling.
No matter how lame or insane the shit is that Trump and his idiot White House pull, when they’re called out on it, or the media falls to the floor, clutching their sides with helpless mirth, the GOP caucus rises to the front, to at least try to put some kind of positive and sane spin on the idiocy. That stopped happening in the last few days. And there’s got to be a reason for it.
- Late last week, in trying to distract attention from worse news, Trump tweeted that the election should be delayed until the coronavirus was under control, to avoid a rigged election due to millions of mail in ballots. McConnell and McCarthy both seemed downtrodden almost to dejection as they came out and each reiterated that the election would be held on schedule, on November 3rd. Nobody came to Trump’s defense.
- Two days later, the Speaker of the Hong Kong legislature came out and announced that the national legislative elections, scheduled for September, were being delayed one year due to the coronavirus. This was a naked power play, since if the elections had been held as scheduled, the ruling party would have been pitched off of high rises and into the sea. White House Press Idjit Kayleigh Mcenany went behind the podium to excoriate the Hong Kong legislature for successfully pulling what her boss had just failed to pull off. No GOP incumbents went to her aid by making bellicose statements about the death of democracy in Hong Kong.
- Ohio House Representative and sexual assault enabler Jim Jordan spent all of his time in a committee hearing trying to badger Dr Anthony Fauci into admitting that a bunch of open air protests, with most of the protesters masked, were as dangerous for spreading the coronavirus as closed events. Unspoken but obvious was Jordan’s attempt to equivocate the Black Lives Matter protests to the Tulsa Trump rally that likely killed Herman Cain, along with closed door, non mask fundraisers in world class hot spots Texas and Florida. I’m no politician, but it seems to me like spending all of your time trying to rag out a guy with a 40% believeability advantage over you isn’t a smart career choice. Especially in a state where the virus is on the surge.
- And the funski valve seems to even been shut off for poor Louie Gohmert. Days after sneeringly appearing at a House committee hearing refusing to wear his mask, including a well documented stroll down a hall with Attorney General William Barr, both sans masks, Gohmert tested positive for the coronavirus. A true Texas cornhole, Gohmert tried to blame contracting the virus on wearing his mask too much. Sadly, nobody in the GOP caucus wants to get close enough to Gohmert to express their well wishes. Where’s the fun in being a dick, if you are the one who ends up paying the price?
- It was reported yesterday that a major GOP donor, with inside access to the reelection campaign had complained anonymously to the reporter that right now, the biggest problem in the reelection campaign was the candidate himself! Trump is self immolating. And there is also anonymous reporting from within the campaign that while they don’t want Trump to despair, they are trying to convince him that the polling numbers are real, and that a course correction is desperately needed to avoid electoral disaster. Fortunately for us, they’re dealing with a candidate with the cognitive reasoning powers of a colicky two year old.
But I saved the best, or in this case worst, for last. I have been covering this shit for a long time, especially in the era of Bitch McConnell, when a day seems like 7 dog years. Let’s say there’s some kind of impending crisis, say a government shutdown, or a debt veiling increase looming there’s an almost Kibuki kind of theater about the GOP dance. On Wednesday, McConnell puts forward a totally unqualified bullshit no additional funding,. feeling that they have gone far enough proposal, let’s the Democrats digest it overnight, and then on Thursday, while they’re screaming bloody murder, he adjourns the Senate on Thursday morning, as a pressure point for Democrats, who will be the only ones left around to talk to.
But this time, McConnell didn’t even bother. He didn’t even bother to throw out a totally unacceptable proposal as a pressure point before adjourning. He just threw up his hands, said Fuck it, I need a bourbon, and sent everybody home for the weekend. There is a good reason for this, since multiple reports show that there is about a 20 member fraction of McConnell’s caucus that want to have no further assistance provided, feeling that they have done enough, and that reopening the states and economy is the answer. To provide additional assistance would mean McConnell passing legislation with majority Democratic support, which is anathema to him.
And now McConnell is getting cut off at the knees by his own boss. Treasury Secretary Steve Munchkin Mnuchin went on the Sunday talk shows today and spent more time highlighting the places that he and Pelosi and Schumer agreed than on the things that divided them. As a sop to his deep pocket donors, McConnell has sworn that any package that came to the Senate without an employer liability waiver was dead on arrival. And yet in the last 36 hours, both Mnuchin as well as Trump have said that the liability waiver is expendable in order to assist everyday Americans.
You tell me, is this what defeatism looks like? Because whatever it is, it sure as hell isn’t what optimism looks like. We are 93 days away from a seminal election, and the Republican party has no clear plan, no clear agenda, and no clear message as to why the voters should choose them on November 3rd. Like a turkey vulture, Trump seems to have finally settled on their shoulders, like pirates parrot, and all they can do now is to wait for the inevitable conclusion. Don’t touch that dial.
To know the future, look to the past.before the insanity of the 2020 election, relive the insanity of the 2016 GOP primary campaign, and the general election, to see how we got to where we are. Copies of President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange are available as e-books on Amazon, at the links above. Catch up before the upcoming release of the third book in the trilogy, President Evil III: All The Presidents Fen
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
I think you nailed it. The GOP definitely has stopped verbally supporting, justifying or explaining him. McConnell is not standing his ground, either. It may be sinking in that they are all going down with the Trumptanic.
But at the same time, they know that decrying them will ring hollow in their own supporters ears, so they’re left in this we kind kind of limbo…
I prefer “irrelevance” rather than “limbo” myself.
What scares me is the possibility of McConnell herding a large chunk of the GOP into following a Trumpiam version not of the proverbial “Last Dance” this fall but rather a “Last FUCK ALL Y’ALL regular folks” as punishment for being tossed out of power.
Why waste an ulcer on things beyond your control, Denis? I suspect Trump’s absence after losing the election will do much to hamper such plans anyway.
Munchkin didn’t help by talking about how that $600 is more than people were making while working. Multimillionaire who is totally clueless about the real world says what?
Main Street IS the economy. Without it, Wall Street is just empty space.
Me thinks you two nailed it. And I see Mcturtle sneaking in the backdoor and throwing out a passable bill and heading for the barn where the really goood bourbon is and getting trashed while Kentucky burns.
Wonder if his wife (and her family) will appreciate *both* of them being retired from power after the last few years. That’s a big chunk of Mitch’s retirement funding, right there.
And it couldn’t happen to two more “deserving” assholes.
Pelosi probably will metaphorically break his arm for letting those benefits lapse. All that waiting has done nothing but weaken his negotiating position.
I saw something earlier about McTurtle airing some really nasty ads about Amy McGrath, and her campaign or some group of Dems really had their knickers in a knot over it, saying it could destroy her campaign, etc. Of course they are trying to raise money, but anyone know anything about this? I don’t see “regular or cable” TV so I haven’t seen any of it.
Pay those panicky fools as much mind as you do Trump.
It’s not just you, Murf. They’re waking up at last to what was right in front of them the whole time. And as I expected, it’s far too late to help or save them. Even Turtle’s green light for Senate folk to distance themselves from Mr. Tangerine Man comes too late in the day to do much good.
I’ve long said that the post-W GOP has had a lack of leadership and command structure. McConnell is the closest they have to the former left. And now that it’s obvious that their usual tricks are useless in the face of coronavirus or Trump’s imploding mind, they can no longer deny the truth.
About this: “Two days later, the Speaker of the Hong Kong legislature came out and announced that the national legislative elections, scheduled for September, were being delayed one year due to the coronavirus. This was a naked power play, since if the elections had been held as scheduled, the ruling party would have been pitched off of high rises and into the sea. White House Press Idjit Kayleigh Mcenany went behind the podium to excoriate the Hong Kong legislature for successfully pulling what her boss had just failed to pull off. No GOP incumbents went to her aid by making bellicose statements about the death of democracy in Hong Kong.”
Yeah, Kayleigh is the Idjit of Idjits (or Idjit Supreme) since the Hong Kong legislature did exactly what would HAVE to happen in the US: Namely that the House and Senate would have to work together on legislation to postpone the election. (Regardless of the “power play” aspect, it has been noted that only Congress can propose and then enact changes to the *national* election date. Of course, many states postponed their primaries–or run-offs–due to the pandemic and these were typically done via legislative action. If you recall Wisconsin, the Governor ordered a delay but the Legislature–in its own little “naked power play”–took legal action to force the elections to go on as scheduled since only the Legislature actually has the legal power to make changes to election schedules. Let’s also not forget that, in 2008, the Democrats had the Michigan and Florida primary debacles because those states’ legislatures set their primaries before the date permitted by the Party’s schedules; the Legislatures refused to change the dates, only offering to let the Democratic Party pay for new primaries but the each state’s Party couldn’t afford a “redo” and the Democratic National Committee refused to step up and pay for the new elections.)
And THAT is why it was such a win to get the House in 2018. Without a fully compliant Congress, Trump’s ability to do that kind of harm has been hampered ever since.
The rich are, & have always been, indifferent to the suffering of the poor.
The example of FDR says otherwise, Scott. Wise rich people have always known that the poor must have their suffering alleviated or catastrophic consequences will find the rich eventually. History is full of infamous examples, be they Marie Antoinette or the White Russians of the World War I era, of those who dared to act otherwise. That bill ALWAYS comes due.
I would prefer that finally, the next administration, instead of letting bygones be bygones, would pursue criminal charges against all the miscreants, try them, convict them, and strip them of all government benefits except for a cell in a federal prison, preferably together!!
In total agreement with you. And no, dear friends here, we do not know each other. Just lucky enough to have the same great last name.
Now, re agreement: yep, real punishments, no taking into consideration anything that they could argue as mitigating circumstances. There aren’t any when selling one’s own soul and the lives of others down the River Styx. We need to remember the Nuremberg trials. Anyone with a toe in the Nazi water was prosecuted. Period. And although one could argue that what is going on now is not a Holocaust, it’s too damned close for my taste. Any form of slow-rolling genocide, which it now appears was okey dokey with Kushner so long as it happened in Blue states, is still an intentional killing off of a segment of a population. History’s a real bitch when it repeats itself; it means we haven’t learned from it.
I sincerely hope that the next AG after Barf is out will go after these criminals. How fitting of the Dumpf, the Barf, and the Moscow McToad were tried, convicted and sent to the same cell for life.
Murph:
It’s “Kabuki”, for the record. Otherwise, this column was eminently readable.
“…. in the era of Bitch McConnell..” Douchebag. Slut. Whore. All derogatory female terms and often attributed to men – which never made sense to me- I mean really -douchebag? Give me a break.
Politizoom should lead the parade by pulling their writers aside and ask if terms like this is the best descriptive word they can come up with.
” Harassment on social media constitutes an everyday, routine occurrence, with researchers finding 9,764,583 messages referencing bullying on Twitter over the span of two years Bellmore et al. 2015.)
All those female insults men like to throw out, in my experience, has ALWAYS applied TO the men making them. It’s why I’m more likely to call McConnell a witch with a Capital B than any woman Trump has ever slurred the same. You wanna play Miss Manners, I’d say you do it somewhere else if it were my site. There’s times when the ugly insults are the PERFECT description.
HERE IS THE FEMALE VIEWPOINT ON THE TERM BITCH: “…..”when men call you a bitch, it’s a warning shot across your bow — a reminder that they have power and you had better not overstep your bounds.”
Use male terms like ‘wanker’, peecock, 3 incher- goodness there must be many ugly terms that are PERFECT description of men without resorting to female stereotype putdowns.
Take it up with Murf or Ursula if you want to pursue this further. I’ve no interest in your language games and even less respect at your attempt in moral scolding. When I despise what a person does badly enough, THERE ARE NO LIMITS.
Mitch nevers seems comfortable as leader of the senate. He seems to relish only two things, pushing through judges and obstructing. In four years has the senate done any innovative legislation? The only thing that got passed was the tax cut. He has managed to cut the legs out of his ability to obstruct. Get ready for a wave of Clinton era judges retiring when Biden wins and hopefully Schumer uses every trick mitch did to fill all those benches with super left wing judges.