It’s always funny, until someone gets hurt

Admit it, it was kinda funny at first, watching Kreepy Kevin McCarthy, the power politics equivalent of Barney Fife, flopping around like a carp in the bottom of a boat, and running around to all of the other kids like the nerd with a new football, wanting to play. And the take the football and play without him. Just desserts to my point of view.

But it’s not funny anymore. Because this is already Thursday, and these 11 rounds of Monty Python madness have been going on for three long days now. And by the looks of the way the two sides are entrenched, there is no honest end in sight.

Which is incredibly dangerous for all of us. Because no matter how total bullshit a government in total gridlock may be, it is at least a government in being! And if something catastrophic happens, there is at least a hope that these quibbledicks will get their shit together and deal with for us.

As I type this, We don’t even have that! The Senate may be ready to kick ass and take names, but there literally is No US House of Representatives! Because nobody can be sworn in until a House Speaker is chosen. What we have is 434 Members Elect, which means that we can’t even try to drum out the 20 treasonous Freedom Caucus members for Dereliction of duty. Because they haven’t sworn their oath yet.

But just close your eyes for a minute, and think of the implications of this act of domestic terrorism. Let’s just say that there was a massive earthquake in California, wit massive damage and loss of human life. The President’s first response is to send FEMA in to assess and evaluate, come up with an initial damage assessment, and then the President goes to congress for an emergency funding bill to help California deal with the carnage. But if that were to happen tomorrow, or a devastating string of tornadoes in the south, Biden can’t lift a finger to help. Because there is no functional US House to vote on the emergency aid package. Because 21 Tea Party dipshits are licking their nuts and playing political payback games.

But since we’re already here, let’s take it to a whole new level. Right now tinpot dictators like Putin, Kim, Zi, and the Ayatollah are laughing their asses off at us. Their minions are busy running all over struggling 3rd world democracies, pointing at the US House, and graphically proving that this is why democracy can’t work. It is weak and inefficient. Much better to have a strong leader with total power.

Now, let’s just say that Putin launches a missile strike into Ukraine, but the missile goes astray and hits a Polish military base across the border in Poland, killing three American soldiers who were training Ukrainian soldiers on new weapons. Even if it was an accident, the death of not only NATO allies in their home country, but three US soldiers is a blatant violation of the NATO Treaty. Which should automatically trigger the United States to honor Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, and go to the aid of a fellow signatory, as well as having lost some of our own troops.

Which requires a vote from congress. And right now there is no functional US House to vote to honor our treaty commitments. And with the Freedom Caucus traitors, it won’t move the needle an inch for them, because they want Putin to win! They’ve already been bragging that once they take over, the open checkbook days are over for Ukraine.

This isn’t funny anymore, it’s a constitutional nightmare. And it isn’t going to be settled anytime soon. Because the Freedom Caucus’s whole purpose is to spread chaos and disaster to increase their own internal power. And right now, they’re all-systems-go.

I am more confident than ever that this will finally end when the GOP moderates come to a deal with the Democrats. Only it will be McCarthy’s caucus that will come a-calling. Which will take time, since McCarthy will have to convince his caucus that he has exhausted every negotiation option before going to the Democrats.

And the Democrats will negotiate hard. If McCarthy has a stable 200 member caucus, the Democrats are going to want assurances that at least 175 of them will vote for McCarthy. The Democrats don’t want to be seen as being the ones doing the heavy lifting that put a puppet GOP Speaker in place. But they’re also going to negotiate some heavy rules changes that give them more power over the movement of legislation. Just how badly does McCarthy want to be Speaker? We’re about to find out. One of these days.

Help keep the site running, consider supporting.

5 COMMENTS

  1. The shit-show going on in D.C. right now is in no way comparable to anything created by the Monty Python guys. Their creations were intelligent, witty, humorous on a level no shit-show could ever hope to achieve. When we watched Monty Python’s Flying Circus, we did not know what to expect every week. It was a delightful surprise every week. When this group got their majority we KNEW the shit-show that would erupt and besides the McCarthy humiliation, it has been anything but a delightful surprise.

  2. I think it was a crisis when 118 congressional members voted with the insurrection. Why take oaths if they mean NOTHING? The classic Trojan horse scenario. If we were in a war and these 118 soliders vowed to help our enemies, they could be executed for treason. 118 mutinous military personnel would lead to disaster…oh…that’s what we have and it’s, as Karen Carpenter sang, “only just begun”.

  3. Yes, the first day was a site to behold and thinking up wisecracks about GOP dysfunction was an ok pastime. It ceased being funny on Day 2 and for me the moment was the vote tally when the NO votes for McCarthy went to 20 and that lady from Indiana started voting Present. Basically, McCarthy had figured that after a day of making their point the ass-clowns would relent, or enough of the no votes would come back into the fold to shrink their numbers to the point where the donors propping them up would back off. But, as I said KKKevin lost ground yesterday. Promise after promise to this gang of wannabe autocrats hasn’t moved a single vote in his favor. And no, I don’t count some of them going along with motions to adjourn for the day as progress.

    It won’t happen, but the best thing for the GOP and the country would be for those that have backed McCarthy to garner the permission of the RNC to expel these folks from the GOP entirely. Let them form their own Party (Anarchist Party?) if they want to but kick them out. Yes, it would hand the House back to the Democrats and that would outrage a lot of Republican voters, enough to cost them big in 2024. But it would also give sensible Republicans a chance to rebuild. By 2028 they’d be in good position, and maybe even two years from now. However they will never take that necessary step.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

The maximum upload file size: 128 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here