Moses Mike and the Parting of the Red "C"

 

You know, Mike Johnson winning on the first ballot was something so not pre-determined (tho' Matt Gaetz from behind his awkward nose-contouring predicted it) that when it looked like he failed, some folks ran with the story, but he relied on a higher power, I think:

Trump. 

There was an undetermined "C" (the undecided caucus) that didn't want him, but he's Trump's guy. They "stashed the tellers" so the couple of holdouts that needed to be switched had time to be before gavel-bang.

Were they promised anything?

Matt Gatz is Not Even Old.

 

What in the world is with the button-nose no shift of genetics had given this weird, appalling man? The unnaturally pointed chin, the Suprise brows?  A man in his thirties should not look more weird and fucked up than a Las Vegas superstar in his--I don't know--70's? He seems like a bastard Wayne Newton or a mutant Chuck Woolery. 

Situation artificial, also pretty fucked up. 

This is a guy who has "too much hookers and blow" written all over his trampoline-tight face. Theory people in TrumpWorld do not even really love themselves.

UPDATE: Why does he try so hard to be pretty when he has this mind of his?

The Gaetz Report

 

We heard that the ethics investigation into Matt Gaetz would show illegal drug use (cocaine, molly), paying for (lots of) sex, including with a minor, and well, yeah. He did that stuff.  He left a pretty considerable trail of payments to women--$90K to various women. It's fairly unsavory:

The report noted that while all the women who testified said the sexual encounters with Gaetz were consensual, one woman told the committee the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended may have "impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent."

Another woman told the committee, "When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated."

For his part, Gaetz had tried (unsuccessfully) to sue to block the report from coming out.  This is because he knew it would look bad--full stop. He's not unaware of his conduct, he's just unclear on why it should have anything to do with how people judge him.

You really do hate to see a person go so wrong from the unfortunate effects of a very comfortable and privileged upbringing. 

How Can a Man Seem Less R@pe-y?

 

Four men chosen by President-elect Donald Trump for top positions have been accused of varying degrees of sexual misconduct. https://t.co/9tcKslmkxy

— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 20, 2024

You know this is an old joke--it was used by Rodney Dangerfield in "Back to School": "How do you seem slimmer?  Hang out with fat people!"

Well, how does Trump, of the problematic penis, seem less like an adjudicated rapist who needs to give E. Jean Carroll her money and whose hush money trial sentencing has been set back in light of his election win, seem less like a problematic human? Surround himself with rapey people, I guess. Normalize the shit out of predation. 

The would-be protector is actually an obvious predator. It really does seem like there are more pictures of Trunp with Jeffrey Epstein than there are with his kids, but as an added bonus, there are pics of Trump with Epstein and his kids. 

TrumpWorld Kakistocracy 2: Trolling?

 

In a timeline where Fox News personality Pete Hegseth could be SecDef, sure, why not float former Democratic Rep. Tulsi "Russia's Girlfriend" Gabbard for DNI and now-former GOP Rep. Matt "Hookers'n'blow" Gaetz to be Attorney General.

Senator John Fetterman suggests that the choice of Gaetz as "god-tier kind of trolling" on Trump's part, and while this is not wrong, I regretfully have to confess that I think just because it's trolling doesn't mean that he can't get in. I mean, my first thought was "stalking horse". That's the art of the deal, right? You throw out a name like Matt Gaetz, and then when he's cast aside, literally every other choice seems more sane. 

But that's assuming Trump is playing by regular rules, and I don't. I think the idea that he's considering wild stuff like adjourning congress and recess-appointing people is not really out of the question if he really does see Trump 2.0 as his revenge tour. 

TWGB: All the King's Goons

 

It took me awhile, but I remembered when Matt Gaetz used Twitter to harass witness against Trump, Michael Cohen (he was cleared of wrongdoing for that, but you know, and I know, he crossed a line), and then again, there was this time he and his fellows stormed a SCIF during Trump's first impeachment--an actual stupid and futile gesture:

So am I really shocked to see Matt Gaetz thugging it up the 2020 election way by declaring he is "standing back and standing by" in an echo of the Proud Boys? 

Of course he is. Little Lauren Boebert, handy as always, lent her 1776 spirit to Thursday's proceedings. In an echo of unwise guy Tommy Tuberville, she copped to being there to be a disruption and say things Trump can't say under the gag order. 

TWGB: Trump is Immuno-Compromised

 

Claims of executive privilege and presidential immunity have been something like Citizen Trump's "Rosebud"--they represented a fantasy of unaccountability and lack of responsibility that might just afford an old crook some peace of mind, and that specter of hope has now been taken away. Someone of course will have to pay for this--and it will be his little rubes. When he goes sniveling that "they" (the Deep State, Biden, black hats--whatever) have singled him out, maybe they won't consider this:

Why is Trump the only president who ever had to make this case regarding immunity? Over 200 years of presidents, and not one had this problem. Maybe they were all previously completely capable of doing the job without just rolling in criminality. Trump apparently is not, because this is how he lives his life.

It's a thought! 

However, in TrumpWorld, Trump can only be failed. That's why it was time again for another really futile and stupid gesture on the part of Matt Gaetz et als.  Marjorie Taylor Greene took up the spotlight in explaining:

"And then when Joe Biden was inaugurated, and this entire Capitol complex was surrounded with 30,000 National Guard troops, none of you stood there and called that an insurrection. No, you all stayed silent."

God damn. She's right. When Joe Biden was inaugurated because he was the lawful winner of the 2020 election, and duly constituted authority were placed as security at the inauguration in case Trump and Marge's little friends started trouble again, no one DID call that perfectly lawful act an "insurrection". Will the wonders of correct syntax never cease?  

GOP GONE WILD!!!

 

What in the hell was up today in Congress? First off, it seems like former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy nailed Tim Burchett in the kidneys so hard that Matt Gaetz had to file a report. That's wild. Apparently, McCarthy isn't settling into his post-Speaker life that great. And I do not know what is up between Gaetz and McCarthy but the mutual disrespect is real. Also, McCarthy has been talking shit about his fellow Republicans and this isn't the first time. 

Sounds very stressful.

Also, in the Senate, Markwayne Mullin thought he'd try to throw down with a Teamster on the floor and it got denied by Senator Bernie Sanders, a damn adult in the room. Mullin later appealed on Twitter like this:

For the benefit of the Comfortably Smugs and probably Catturds of the social mediaverse. Look at those guns and those firearms. At the risk of sounding sexist: this man is benching a lot of male insecurity and supplementing with Daddy issues. Somebody hand him a testosterone wubbie to suck on. 

James Comer got DAGGONE DEFENSIVE when Jared "the Smurf" Moskowitz called him out on his own loan to his brother of $200K--exactly like the Crime Family Bidens' Terrible Secret! Why so tense? I wonder? 

Shit, why is everybody so tense?  Is it because the Christian Nationalist who was supposed to be hardcore MAGA offered a clean CR and isn't a big fan of a Biden impeachment because there's no "there", there? (MTG has already voiced her threats misgivings.)

What's next? Is this just a case of elephant musth? Or can we expect MTG to kneecap Lauren Boebert like she was Nancy Kerrigan? (She been going around calling her a "whore" which is just hours of family entertainment where I come from.) Should we expect Harriet Hageman to finally lasso and hogtie somebody like I truly think she's been fixing to do? 

I don't even want to pretend I know. I only know I want to blame Trump because he made violence feel more like an acceptable thing, but that isn't it exactly, either, is it? 

Kevin McCarthy Found Out

 

Ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy blames the Democrats for removing him from office. People in his own party abandoned him, and he expected the Democrats to save him? GFOH pic.twitter.com/EvazKYuAcT

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 3, 2023

This wasn't a slow news day, by any means. You know, Hunter Biden got arraigned on his BS gun charge and pled not guilty. Laphonza Butler got sworn in by Vice-President Kamala Harris, one former Black woman Senator of California swearing in another. And I wish her much success. And the former president seems to have gotten his mad wish to get a gag order imposed on him, because he didn't just savage the AG and the judge in his idiotic and rash diatribes but roped in the court clerk. What the entire hell? Calling this person Chuck Shumer's girlfriend. Promoting a low-count social media conspiracy theory. It's limited to court staff but I can easily imagine Trump fucking up and finding out. He isn't known for self-control. (He also dropped off the Forbes list. It's bad up in Trump's headspace you guys.) 

But the big news is Kevin McCarthy got the shove. The equivalent of Chekhov's gun was the Gaetz trigger. Kevin McCarthy accepted his Speakership with a sword dangling over his table. It got deployed because he made the foolish gesture of trying to be an adult in the room when too many of the children hated grown-ups. And he went on to malign the actual grown-ups in the room with him--Democrats. 

TWGB: You Can Consider All The Options

 

Recently seen unfurled at Yankee Stadium was an absolutely enormous banner reading "Trump or Death". It showed the dates "1776-2024" which sort of suggests something happened in 1776 that would definitely end in 2024. I guess the opposition of the United States to monarchy, since the weirdos brandishing this flag seem to want to install Trump in office regardless of how the rest of us feel about him.

I encourage Trump followers, of course, by all means, to consider all of their options. No one here gets out alive, etc. 

Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, father of Sarah, pastor (?), tv host and promoter of cartoon pseudohistory, certainly seems to think that if Trump loses in 2024 it will be the last election decided by ballots rather than bullets. Wild, if true, right? He subscribes to the idea that Trump is being persecuted for his political beliefs, when those beliefs were that he should be president for life and the hell with what the voters said. OK. Trump's beliefs are very much a problem. The idea that violence is the answer to your candidate losing an election because he isn't popular is the actual stuff of banana republics. Your political candidate deciding he should be president for life is a problem--and yes, this is a thing Trump hinted at. 

Yesterday's Durham Hearing Was Interesting

 

MAGA wants Durham to be someone he is not and say something he cannot. pic.twitter.com/AJFhrKDf3a

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) June 22, 2023

There's the rub--at bottom, you can't actually deny the evidence of Russia interfering. What you can do, is ignore the evidence of willingness to accept that interference on behalf of the Trump campaign, but at the risk of seeming out of one's depths--as if it were possible to investigate an investigation and come up knowing nothing about it. Even fash-friendly five-head Matt Gaetz was wondering what Durham had been doing with this time. (ALthough he alleged a "cover-up".)

Or you can make false statements to congress because there are just some things you can't say about Trump and Russia--you know, like it never was a hoax. 

After all, Congressional Republicans just censured Rep. Adam Schiff for just that--telling the truth. And for what it's worth, for all the giddy Republicans who noted that Trump's poll numbers and fundraising could benefit from the indictments against him--how do they think a transparently unfair censure of Rep. Schiff is going to make loyal Democrats react? 

This is where the House GOP is now, Speaker McCarthy barely has a grip on his folks, and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert were inches from a catfight over the privilege and pleasure of impeaching President Biden for...something. Eating crackers, I guess. (They also want to expunge Trump's impeachment, but we will always remember the "perfect phone call.")

What's that tv quote going around? These are not "serious people".

I Doubt His Influence

 

McCarthy: But I do want to thank especially President Trump. I don’t think anybody should doubt his influence. pic.twitter.com/UJdVKQ5VRA

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 7, 2023

I'd sooner give credit for the rumored "blackmail" threats than Trump for the eventual success of Kevin McCarthy's bid for Speaker, largely because Trump supported him from the beginning, and it went 15 rounds.  If anything, McCarthy is doing the obligatory thing by thanking Trump because at least he didn't get sandbagged for being a loser and then abandoned, which could have just as easily happened. 

Also, giving it a bit of a think, the show-y-ass "opposition" of the 20 or so holdouts that dragged this thing out probably didn't get them much more than they would have gotten anyway. Weird investigations into the politization of the FBI is right in line with the "Twitter files" crap and protecting his fellow Republicans by trying to interfere in potential investigations regarding them seems like something he'd be doing anyway--just from thinking back to his actions regarding the 1/6 Committee. I don't even think giving his bomb-throwers leave to discuss blowing up the economy via a debt default was ever off the table for him. Look back at 2011, 2018, etc. Like government shut-downs, it's another way Republicans can demonstrate that they aren't here to do good government and titillate their base that they are doing something rebellious by giving them nothing, and actually taking away--defunding things.

I think what we just witnessed was a bit of theater. It doesn't miss me that McCarthy got his successful vote two years to the day that the delayed vote certification of Biden's election occurred. 

They are a sorry lot, and for all his hollow, cravenness, McCarthy earned his right to be the leader of these people. And he will wring all the joy from it the "honor" deserves.

Call Them Insurrectionists

 

"In some ways what they are asking for, does actually empower all members, but in this environment, empowering those members means empowering insurrectionists, empowering people that will shutdown the government"- @DavidJollyFL w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/Pnz5ct3Z5Q

— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) January 5, 2023

Two years ago, the Trump supporters attending a "Stop the Steal" rally spilled into the Capitol and tried to delay the work of that body. Today, elected members of that body are delaying its work by failing to select a Speaker of the House.  There is considerable overlap between the people who supported the first insurrection and those who are working to diminish the effectiveness and reputation of Congress from within. 

But that's not all. I could note that supporters of the "Anyone but McCarthy" movement include Ginni Thomas and Cleta Mitchell, who were serious supporters of the attempted Trump coup. It doesn't escape my notice that Ali Alexander, the Forest Gump of 1/6 because he was supposedly talking to everybody, is mad as hell about that "harlot", MTG.  He's ready to dime her out for her crimes see if he doesn't (betting he doesn't). 

Matt Gaetz put forward Donald Trump's name for speaker but got no bites--no one joined that wheel-less hearse funeral. That's a blow to folks like Flynn, Bannon and Stone, who have all variously suggested Trump as a potential Speaker of the House. But I don't think he's offering that name seriously--it's a troll. A threat.

I don't have a problem calling the 20 holdouts "insurrectionists" and anti-government government officials is definitely a thing, but I need to put that in context--they have company, and McCarthy isn't better. The Republican party is lousy with bomb-throwers and folks who have turned a blind eye to the events of 1/6, to the results of following and enabling Trump, to the irony of being called upon to lead government while having no faith in government solutions. 

The GOP simply isn't capable of governing. It doesn't matter what Republican gets named for the Speakership, the result will be the same: posturing for the base. Accomplishing nothing lasting. Maybe producing show trials for their base (like the idea of seeking retribution on Dr, Fauci for? Or investigating whatever they think Hunter Biden's laptop is good for.) We saw them give no shits when in the minority over many votes that could have done some good. They won't bring those kinds of votes to the table. 

The GOP has long undermined the idea of good government by being bad at government whenever they get elected. They don't bat an eyelash at undermining faith in our elections or anything else. They treat bipartisanship often as Grover Norquist once characterized it: date rape. They've had an insurrectionist mentality for a long time--it's just now that it's becoming very hard for people to ignore.

He Doesn't Have the Votes

 

So, maybe someone out there felt a bit of momentum for McCarthy when the Phantom of Mar-a-Lago dipped his oar in to endorse his speakership. Whoever felt that, felt wrong, because Lauren Boebert summed up the problems as follows:

"Let’s stop with the campaign smears and tactics to get people to turn against us — even having my favorite president call us and tell us we need to knock this off," Boebert said on the House floor Wednesday. "I think it actually needs to be reversed; the president needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that, sir, you do not have the votes, and it’s time to withdraw."

Now, Trump isn't still the president obviously, but he's also demonstrably not the boss of the Freedom Caucus.  He's the leader of the Trumpiest people in the GOP--as long as they agree with him. That's a very interesting thing to know.  Trump is a figurehead, but not a respected one. He can be defied.

Anyway, McCarthy got one favorable vote today: the vote to adjourn after three votes went against him, and he wasted everyone's time to decide to put a pin in it and circle back at eight o'clock eastern standard just to decide that the definition of crazy is doing the same thing multiple times and expecting different results. 

To open up the floor to getting his nose rubbed in it starting noon Thursday? Is this a fetish he has? 

Matt Gaetz Begged His Pardon

 

Man, Is it bad that Matt Gaetz was pretty sure that he needed a pardon from the Trump Administration for potential sex trafficking charges? 

Johnny McEntee, according to people familiar with his testimony, told investigators that Gaetz told him during a brief meeting “that they are launching an investigation into him or that there’s an investigation into him,” without specifying who was investigating Gaetz. 

McEntee added that Gaetz told him “he did not do anything wrong but they are trying to make his life hell, and you know, if the president could give him a pardon, that would be great.” Gaetz told McEntee that he had asked White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for a pardon. 

Asked by investigators if Gaetz’s ask for a pardon was in the context of the Justice Department investigation into whether Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, McEntee replied, “I think that was the context, yes,” according to people familiar with the testimony who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Now, just because someone votes in ways that kind of suggest sympathy with sex traffickers and has friends that are sex traffickers is no reason to rush to any kind of conclusion. But, I dunno. 

I might. 

But the story also suggests that Gzaetz was pushing for something along the lines of a "blanket pardon" for himself and other lawmakers, so he could have been concerned about all kinds of things.  Which is also not a great look.

As for his part, former President Trump says he never was asked for a pardon by Gaetz and I have no problem believing Trump never gave him one. 

TWGB: World of Discovery

 

Now, I have a guaranteed break-even strategy regarding gambling that has never failed at me not losing money--I don't bet. That's one way to never lose. The TrumpWorld folks aren't me, a working-class kid with a tenuous middle-class existence in adulthood. They are whales, machers.  They live whole lives of fucking around without the guarantee of finding out. They gamble. They risk a whole country. That's why I write about TrunpWorld, in part--the fascination for how they think. 

So, you all know about Alex Jones' phones and the specter of some "intimate conversation" with Roger Stone? (Yes, I had to do a third-eye wash to not see the word "intimate" and "Roger Stone" together and be like "Ewwwwwww." It's probably way more like Stone's entirely not weird caught on documentary video conversation with Matt Gaetz about pardons than the way my brain tried to interpret "intimate".)  Yeah, I think there's more there though. There's supposedly two years worth of communications, and it's not like Jones is in the Secret Service and has the incriminating bits extremely intentionally wiped, right? 

The worst thing about a conspiracy is that the people in on it have to communicate to keep their cover-up alive. Is that why Trump isn't supposed to talk to Mark Meadows anymore? This is a reasonably fraught thing--it might very well legally benefit Mark Meadows to shrive himself before the DOJ or the 1/6 committee, but there is hardly anything in this world Trump loves like he loves loyalty tests and witness tampering. 

It's clear that Trump's current legal team understand the circle is tightening. Former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury regarding his knowledge of events re: 1/6, and claims of executive privilege regarding Trump are basically really slim. Trump is not president and preserving his time in office is a campaign goal, not an official task of the executive office. 

And then there's the funny old thing about the revelation that Trump DOJ lawyer (oddly working on behalf of the Trump campaign) John Eastman was still looking for the very elusive proof of the voter fraud that didn't exist weeks after 1/6.  He was also looking to get paid. This is so amateur. Trump believes he should be defended because his cause is always sanctified and is its own reward because he is who he is, and I don't know how Eastman (or Giuliani, or anyone else) failed to notice that. Also, too, Eastman and Giuliani and other lawyers never did get pardons, because like a Trump wife or girlfriend, he expects his lawyers to get themselves off. 

But while Eastman never secured a pardon, it's pretty clear people thought his plot was probably legally contentious if not treasonous. They knew it was wrong in Arizona.  They knew it was wrong in Wisconsin. 

Even Trump's 1/6 rioters know the buck should stop with him. It's his "privileged" associates who are late to understanding their legal jeopardy in all this. 

Trump is at the center of this, and it's his party, and he should cry if he wants to, but all signs point to his culpability. And if he doesn't get served, boy, I don't know. I just don't.  But I don't like what that implies. 

Pardon Me for Being Petty

 

Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and "multiple other Republican congressmen" sought pardons from then-President Donald Trump after January 6, House January 6 committee vice chair Liz Cheney says https://t.co/URqBKmLY5T

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 10, 2022

This is just a very brief and indulgent post where I point out that for some reason, multiple human barnacles attached themselves to the rotting luxury yacht Donald Trump as if he would be the safest port in a storm, or some such nautical thing. I dunno. I'm a landlubber. Anyhow. They stuck their necks out to get this man a second term and wanted pardons because? Because they necessarily broke the law to try and keep him in office?

Well, maybe? But the funny thing about Trump is you have to understand that every day was opposite day. He wasn't out to make America Great. He didn't really build the wall (he let that be a scam for his good friend Steve Bannon, who really needs to serve time for that). He didn't really set out to drain the swamp--he just fed red meat to the gators. So some of the swampiest and most grifting folks, like Ryan Zinke or Scott Pruitt, would just go on to be more grifting elsewhere. Take Ronny Jackson--someone, anyone, he shouldn't be driving. People associated with Trump are corrupt because that is who he attracts. So maybe people surrounding Trump aren't asking for pardons because of something they did concerning 1/6.

No! My word! It's just that unlike any other president in history, he had people like Roger Stone and Jared Kushner fronting access and making the prices legible for the folks who want to play. So I wouldn't necessarily assume pardons were a sign of assisting in the coup attempt. No. I just would think they were signs that someone wanted to get washed while the washing was accessible. 

I take it as a given that Trump held his "friends" more to account being an autocrat than Democrats ever would have, and that files exist. Buttons to be pushed. Maybe this is why so many were willing to immure themselves for him. It's a goddamn unpatriotic shame. Was it really leverage?

I feel like it's irresponsible not to speculate. 

The "Crowding Out" Argument

 

I'm just going to stick with the previous blog post for a bit because I really wanted to know what the pro-life reason for denying WIC expansion so poor families could feed their children was, and now I have it. You want me to share? Here it is:

The undeserving poor are using their WIC-privilege to make it harder for the hard-working Americans to get their hands on the baby formula. 

In other words, and I mean, to use the exact words, if we make it easy for WIC families to buy formula, they will "crowd out" other folks' access. And I really did think it was going to be something like that. Here's our star explainer of things, MTG, breaking it down:

Marjorie Taylor Greene blames WIC, an assistance program that helps poor moms buy baby formula, for contributing to the supply shortage: “The WIC program is making it more difficult for [parents not on WIC] to buy baby formula.” pic.twitter.com/EvYBaWqiHW

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) May 19, 2022

So, to get this completely straight, she believes that with the WIC vouchers, the food insecure are going to corner the entire Enfamil market because they don't have shit else to buy. She's saying that like she has received a special insight into how broke people work the system. But WIC isn't the customer--the families are. And they have limits on their vouchers that just wouldn't make her scenario likely. 

Her partner in awfulness, Matt Gaetz, has the following to say:

I don't know how many families he thinks are on WIC, but saying they are "crowding out many hard-working American families" is some pretty deliberate language. He might not be aware how many WIC participants are working poor, such as military families, and also, and I want to careful how I put this--how many are white. When I hear Republicans put the words "hard-working" and "American" together, I feel pretty cool saying they are implying it's a matter of white folks vs. welfare queens. In other words, the message is: this is a giveaway to those people. You need to starve those people before they starve you. (Seems familiar, doesn't it?) 

But as to the rest of his Twitter message: the Biden Administration is sourcing formula from overseas now, undoing the stupid trade restrictions put in place by the previous administration. Gaetz wants to make it appear that it's Biden who is useless, when I don't see all the help his posse are offering. And the message these Republicans are sending is very much what George Carlin said long ago about these conservatives. 

This is What They Do, Now.

 

Roughly the same time I was hitting "submit" on yesterday morning's blog post, Rep. Stefanik was hitting "submit" on the Tweet depicted above: "democrats desperately want wide open borders and mass amnesty for illegals allowing them to vote.  Like the vast majority of Americans, Republicans want to secure our border and protect election security."

Sure, that's just a re-statement of the great replacement theory, but she also wants you to also know who the real victim in all this is: Elise Stefanik, for being smeared by people calling her out for exactly what she's saying. I expected no less, because there is hardly less a person could expect. The Washington Post's Philip Bump has it right--no one will apologize. They won't even stop and consider what the fallout of their rhetoric will be. Not even after it has lead to mass shootings. 

So, maybe Rep. Matt Gaetz will try to say his promotion of GRT is "race neutral". Oh, ok. We'll just ignore which immigrants are singled out. Others can claim (various RW pundits) that if you blame Democrats instead of George Soros it isn't real great replacement theory (it's just sparkling xenophobia!). And they are out there conflating two separate ideas: that America is demographically "browning" in the sense of eventually becoming minority-majority (a neutral, observable trend) and the idea that the demographic change is deliberate (not so neutral, the boogey-man under the bed). 

I guess the dumbest thing is, just as I've pointed out that the border is, in fact, being protected by the Administration despite fear-mongering and hyperbole to the contrary, why is anyone on the right thinking that new citizens are necessarily going to be Democratic voters? I wouldn't count on it, myself. Voting patterns in naturalized US citizens usually lags that of native citizens (and turnout among them isn't so hot, either) and there's no reason, not one, to expect a group to vote for us in return for citizenship. People vote for candidates who promise to do a good job. This is because people are thinking individuals with agency. They might even vote Republican, Elise--we know! 

That fantasy would be so easy (if you don't like the voters you have, just import ones you will!) if it...had any chance of working. And in the meanwhile, would it make sense electorally to create any kind of "crisis at the border" when Republicans seem to use it so deftly (and fallaciously)  as a cudgel for Democratic administrations?

This is what Republicans do now, they are shameless. No one wants to "silence" them--only ask them to be a bit introspective about the damage they are doing. But all they can think to do is escalate. 

Kevin McCarthy: The Man in the Boat

 

More performative BS from Marge Greene, Kevin McCarthy, Elise Stefanik and other Republicans down at the southern border today. pic.twitter.com/tWqjADqoab

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) April 25, 2022

What a fun time House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy seems to be having doing performative bullshit down by the river while pretending that anything has changed with respects to the Biden Administration's prosecution of border security! It's all bullshit, as I've certainly been saying.  But why this performance art, and why with these people at this point in time?

Oh, is it because there is still audio evidence of his perennial two-facedness coming out in the media? Because that is exactly what is happening.  In the most recent offering, McCarthy is heard suggesting that the actions and rhetoric of far right-wing members like Matt Gaetz and Mo Brooks are definitely bad news and liable to lead to bloodshed. He's not wrong, and even Steven Scalise has a point--what they are doing is potentially illegal. It's the old "yelling 'fire' in a packed theater" conundrum. Aren't folks responsible for inflammatory speech in a situation they know is potentially set up for calamity?  

You would think, as with McCarthy's promise to tell Trump to resign, that McCarthy is showing some kind of backbone, for an instant. But just like his claim that he would tell Trump what was what, he didn't have any intention of holding those wild-ass off the ranch maverick crazypants insurrectionists to account at all, either. I certainly don't think he did any such thing. Where would he find the stones--deep in his chicken's craw? 

He lies as easily as he lives--like bitchily pretending today that the partisan bullshit du jour regarding activists fuxxoring up school board and PTA meetings with death threats is exactly the same thing as people just being normal parents and pretending that the FBI is investigating the latter, not the former. 

So of course he was just trying to be normal to appeal to normal old-school Republicans in the event that some kind of backlash against the stupid baddies manifested, but he was hedging, obviously. 

Is that saving his yellow chicken-yolk ass? Absolutely not--Tucker Carlson is going in on him. He says McCarthy sounds like an MSNBC host and is a Democratic operative, so that's some baleful invective (Carlson's #1 son worked for Jim Banks and I have nothing to say about what that means to Tucker, at all, at all). I do know Tucker is going to Iowa in the most homophobic way possible. And I have anticipated where this is going and think it certainly should not.  But right now, Carlson is trusted more than McCarthy is, despite McCarthy's best attempts at doing gutless culture war shit. 

He could probably free his entire set of principles and clear his conscience because his being Speaker isn't ever going to happen. Just sing his down-low shit knowing, occasionally rule-respecting heart out.  But maybe he's more of an NPC and isn't even programmed to know when to leave the boat. 

All I know is, the man in the boat is getting exactly no satisfaction right now. Typical.