We're Gonna Nuke a Hurricane This Time, Aren't We?

 

So, last night I posted, then pulled, a blogpost about Rep. Andy Ogles' proposed Amendment to have Trump serve a second term.

That man's brains are going to be banana pudding with no vanilla wafers by then, but ok. https://t.co/XzTnGe2lts

— Vixen Strangely (@VixenStrangely) January 24, 2025

I was expanding a little on the idea that Trump is very old, actually, and manifestly not as competent as he was even during his incompetent first term. So, what the hell would be left to re-elect?  When I got up the next morning, I realized how ill-conceived that idea might be. Trumpism is juche. It is revolutionary and divorced from typical Republicanism and seeks independence from reliance on other nations by just like, taking whatever it is they have we rely on. You know, capitalist juche. No allies, just a little bit of taking hints from Russia and China. And constant propaganda. 

It wouldn't matter if Trump's mentis was compost.  The GOP has gotten used to ignoring that Trump is, in fact an idiot. Only a really bad fuck up might save us. 

The problem is--how bad? And tonight, the GOP confirmed Pete Hegseth, a white knuckle black out drunk and possible rapist and spousal abuser, with nowhere near the experience he ought to have, for Secretary of Defense. 

Because what could go wrong? What have we got to lose? 

2025 Has Started with Terror

 

To wake and find that the promise of a new year is already draped in tragedy is a horrific start--and all my condolences to the friends and families of those lost in the horrific assault in New Orleans and to the survivors and theirs. It is a stark reminder that evil doesn't take a holiday, and that disturbed and radicalized people are among us. Violence is the burden of a society that needs meaning and unity. We are divided and life is stressful, and people dissociate and create demons to justify carrying out the worst of their fantasies. 

We should not become numb to this. We cannot accept it. It is inimical to civilized life. 

I don't know what the hell animated the mind of Shamsud-Din Jabbar to cause a man who once swore an oath to protect and defend this country to so drastically turn against its citizens, but this was an American--not a stranger. We grew this problem here. 

I Never Thought of it As a Property Issue

 

The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that priests have an absolute "property right" not to be sued for sexually abusing children https://t.co/ipSlulmZok

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) April 12, 2024

I always thought that whoever would hurt one of these, the least of God's children, it were better a millstone were around their neck--so why not a civil payment which is only rendering unto Caesar that which is Caesar's? And also--rendering unto the community the price of violating the community's trust--making meaningful restitution.  After all, for what was done to any of His children, was that not also done unto God? And isn't the payment for that more severe? Is repentance not a part of forgiveness? Should one avoid recognizing a great wrong? 

How is there supposed to be forgiveness without repentance? 

Republicans Hate Governing and Nice Things

 

If, as an entire dumb stunt to pretend government is the problem and privileged, elected assholes doing nothing is the obvious solution, I guess, whatever, Okay, GOP, you've had your fun. You're blocking the debt ceiling rise and other valuable things for reasons, and you can't help the kind of useless, signifying creatures you've become since oh, Christ, the 1990's I guess, when Newt Gingrich made government shutdowns exactly your kind of thing. But these two assholes, Louisiana Senators Cassidy and Kennedy, are blocking the measure to avoid defaulting on the debt--imperiling the good faith and credit of this nation they might even allege to love, and are also blocking funding for storm relief for their very own state. 

It really doesn't matter to them that the federal government is all that keeps Louisiana alive. So far as they are concerned, this mass of broken tourist destinations, fishers and oil workers are all some kind of doomed, so fuck you, you elected them, The whole state is sinking into the gulf anyways--and these guys are fine with it. They could do better for their constituents or even pretend the folks back home are watching and what they do isn't great.  They should know that. They are party animals and are okay with the continued suffering of their own constituents because of partisan stuff. You never saw anyone so up Trump's ass before John (no not that one) Kennedy, did you?

Republicans are assholes who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. We could replace lead pipes and make sure older folks have hearing aids and teeth and we could make sure our bridges don't even fall down around our necessary workaday commutes, but Republicans don't fucking care. 

David Vitter Loses in LA Gov. Contest

Sen. David Vitter lost by a good margin to Democrat John Bel Edwards in yesterday's election for Louisiana Governor, and has also announced that he will not be seeking re-election for the US Senate. I wouldn't necessarily say that this makes the LA Sen. match a nice possible pick-up for Dems, because Vitter's losing last night has an awful lot to do with David Vitter.

A lot of people might point back to the infamous D.C. Madam scandal, that left many with an uncomfortable mental image after rumors  (not exactly corroborated, and not exactly not corroborated, you know) suggested that Vitter was fond of adult baby/diaper fetish play. But that didn't sink him in the 2010 election for Senate. If personal scandal was what scuttled Vitter's chances, the somewhat dodgy claim that he had a mistress whom he impregnated and then advised to get an abortion (not a very sympathetic story in heavily pro-life Louisiana) could be a bigger factor as a sort of October Surprise. (Although a similar story regarding U.S. Rep. Scott Desjarlais never bit him in the ass in equally pro-life Tennessee.)

So what really hammered in the last nail in Vitter's political coffin? I'm going to go with a persistent attitude of shadiness. Campaign finance shadiness. Endorsement-seeking shadiness. Just plain all-around shadiness.  Even his last-minute Hail Mary leap onto the anti-Syrian refugee bandwagon was done in a particularly shady way, claiming a refugee settled in Louisiana had "gone missing" when he in fact just moved and made whatever notifications had to be made through normal channels.

So, he practically "swatted" a guy to try to finagle slightly better polling just ahead of an election. Yeah. Shady.

But then there's LA Gov. Bobby Jindal. You could say that Jindal's performance as Governor already wasn't doing a prospective Republican candidate any favors (only KS Gov. Brownback is more generally hated by folks in his own state). But WP's David Weigel suggests that Jindal timed his exit from the GOP presidential primary to "bigfoot" all over any last minute publicity Vitter meant to generate. (If so, I can honestly say something good came out of the Jindal presidential campaign.)

Governor-elect Edwards seems like a good guy, and I hope he turns things around in Louisiana. But were it not for Vitter's awfulness, I have no reason to think a generic Republican without Vitter's negatives would have lost.