I debated about writing and publishing this but after last week Republicans are too relaxed and smug.
The not-a-trial of Donald J. Trump is off their backs and they can go back to whatever slacking off they were doing last year as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell continues to sit atop a stack of more than 400 bills the House passed, waiting for this prospective legislation to suffocate and die.
They have a couple handy whipping boys — well, a boy and a girl — in Mitt Romney and Nancy Pelosi. Morons like Kevin McCarthy can make videos on the taxpayers’ dime, poking fun at Pelosi while celebrating the failure to convict Trump.
To Congress’s GOP caucus: Get a fucking grip on yourselves. We can see your emperor has no clothes and your asses are showing, too.
~ 3 ~
Trump was a whiny wretch at the National Prayer Breakfast on Friday, complaining about how he was treated during the not-trial.
Trump openly rejects a speaker’s recitation of Jesus Christ’s teaching to “Love your enemies” at the National Prayer Breakfast.
Jesus would have a field day with the religious leaders who continue bowing on bended knee to such a corrupting secular power. https://t.co/cSvNFvukOk— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) February 6, 2020
He was a jackass during a speech about impeachment during which he was equally obnoxious, admitting to obstructing justice.
In a rambling, seething victory speech to mark his acquittal in the Senate’s impeachment trial, President Donald Trump appeared to admit that he attempted to obstruct an FBI investigation into his campaign by firing the agency’s director. https://t.co/eg6UE6sYlS pic.twitter.com/c36QElfYGD
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) February 6, 2020
Here’s the thing: in these public performances voters see a malignant narcissist with some form of undiagnosed neurological disorder — likely a form of progressive dementia. The Republicans KNOW he’s ill but they are too afraid of him calling them names to do anything about it.
You have to wonder how many elderly parents these jerks have who are not in a safe place while suffering from dementia because the way they’ve treated Trump reflects who they are elsewhere.
The public has also seen this:
Cranked up, most likely on stimulants and Levodopa, Trump struggled all night with body jerking, teeth baring, arm trembling and a podium death grip. His dementia Tour de Force climaxed with this neurological body jerk/spasm. pic.twitter.com/sQ0BGId3oJ
— Tom Joseph (@TomJChicago) February 5, 2020
They’ve also seen this:
Trump continues to publicly humiliate himself as dementia dissolves major areas of his brain. With the self control of a 3 year old & zero awareness of what he’s supposed to be doing he clowns around during the National Anthem. It will keep getting worse.https://t.co/uK2x7fALdv
— Tom Joseph (@TomJChicago) February 3, 2020
And this, because Trump’s neurological deficit has become a joke fit for television:
Free attack ad! You’re welcome, @TheDemocrats… #WhatsWrongWithTrump pic.twitter.com/pPtf5nbqBm
— Real Time with Bill Maher (@RealTimers) February 1, 2020
The Senate Republicans couldn’t convict him for this behavior BUT his behavior the House found impeachable — abusing office and obstructing Congress — in no small part arose from his increasing instability on top of his lifelong lawlessness.
He’s not going to get better. Trump’s not going to remain stable. Prescribed medications clearly couldn’t do much to stop his dystonic movements during the one annual speech a substantive number of Americans watch.
GOP attacks on Speaker Pelosi don’t redirect our attention. We can see through their maliciousness to their insecurity.
Republicans must start dealing with this. They must start talking about it — clearly the public already has. There’s been a group of health professionals publishing warnings for more than two years.
Trump is capable of shooting himself in the foot, putting a foot in his own mouth, or whatever your favorite metaphor is. Like the Lester Holt interview. Trump under pressure and threat has little control and thus a greater likelihood of making political mistakes.
— Duty To Warn 🔉 (@duty2warn) February 10, 2020
The GOP will have a lot more to fear than one failing old man with neurological problems if they don’t face this issue.
They’re chickenshit, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was too nice to say in his NYT op-ed:
“…One journalist remarked to me, ‘How in the world can these senators walk around here upright when they have no backbone?’
[…]
For the stay-in-office-at-all-cost representatives and senators, fear is the motivator. They are afraid that Mr. Trump might give them a nickname like “Low Energy Jeb” and “Lyin’ Ted,” or that he might tweet about their disloyalty. Or — worst of all — that he might come to their state to campaign against them in the Republican primary. They worry:
‘Will the hosts on Fox attack me?’
‘Will the mouthpieces on talk radio go after me?’
‘Will the Twitter trolls turn their followers against me?’ …”
Except for Romney they’re pussies, letting Trump grab them by their short hairs.
They need to do the math. If more than 20 Senate Republicans had made a pact to stick together — say, all the Class II senators up for re-election in 2020, the two retiring senators and Mitt Romney — Trump and his horde would have a damned tough time overcoming that bloc slinging a few bad names at them. The public would have had a hard time accepting as legitimate the malignant narcissist’s harangue and his hideous family’s backup refrain.
Fox News would have a hard time coming up with a cohesive narrative to bat down this number. The right-wing Twitterati would likewise find themselves over their tiny heads. And Limbaugh isn’t in any condition to fight Trump’s fight, Medal of Freedom Fries or no.
If the Republican senators can’t organize a bloc they deserve what will eventually come for them — the utter dissolution of their power and authority, having already yielded both to a sick old man.
And they’d better get their shit together if he has a major meltdown and becomes incapacitated by Election Day. Or is that what they’re hoping for so they don’t have to expend any effort bucking the malignant-narcissist-in-chief?
~ 2 ~
Revenge. Retaliation. Retribution. That’s what the chickenshit GOP senate unleashed when they rolled over and voted to acquit Trump.
We knew it was coming because Trump’s fucking minions have huge mouths, no couth, and less smarts.
White House liaison Eric Ueland just walked by a pen of reporters and said “I can’t wait for the revenge.”
— Daniel Flatley (@DanielPFlatley) January 23, 2020
Ueland’s remarks suggest actions taken by the White House against witnesses and against states and federal services’ users has been premeditated. Given the number of White House staff and federal employees required to perform some of these retaliatory efforts there may be an ongoing conspiracy.
The firing of Lt. Col. Alex Vindman was bad enough, a retaliatory firing of a federal employee who testified on request before the House Intelligence Committee. But firing his brother who didn’t testify looks incredibly personal and punitive.
Vindman’s lawyer tells me his twin brother Yevgeny has been fired from NSC, too, and was also escorted from the White House. https://t.co/fb4070N1TE
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) February 7, 2020
While I have no pity for hotelier and million-dollar Trump donor Gordon Sondland, his firing, too, was retaliatory — a reaction to his requested testimony before the House.
Is witness retaliation an impeachable offense? https://t.co/mmuw3wCYUV
— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) February 7, 2020
Donors will surely think twice about political appointments if not donations as Sondland’s business had already suffered a downturn once it became more widely known he was both a Trump supporter and a hotelier.
Four Republican senators — that’s all — tried to save Sondland’s job. They did nothing for the Vindmans, which looks utterly spineless:
A handful of Republican senators tried to stop President Trump from firing Gordon Sondland, The New York Times reports https://t.co/7nIWS7aeer pic.twitter.com/4mRLiz2EYN
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 9, 2020
But this is what looks really, really bad:
James Comey: As usual, Trump called me a sleaze. But the audience reaction to his rant was more upsetting. https://t.co/XhWxbgLJf2
— James Comey (@Comey) February 7, 2020
GOP senators applauding and laughing at Trump’s vengeful firing of federal employees.
They’re literally scoffing at their own laws.
The only reason why Republican senators are getting away with enabling behavior is their co-equal but separate status. Their true bosses may wish to have a word with them come November.
~ 1 ~
Trump’s unlawful solicitation of assistance from a foreign national to aid his 2020 re-election campaign may already have born fruit given Joe Biden’s flagging results in opinion polls and in the Iowa caucus.
But is Trump now using federal resources to interfere in his opponents’ campaigns, holding unnecessary rallies in states before the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary?
Rally on Thursday 30-JAN-2020 in Des Moines, IA, the largest city in the state
Caucus on Monday 03-FEB-2020 across Iowa
Rally on Monday 10-FEB-2020 in Manchester, NH, the largest city in the state
Primary on Tuesday 11-FEB-2020 across New Hampshire.
Why would Trump hold a rally in these states when he has a 94% approval rating with his own political party?
Isn’t this a waste of taxpayers’ resources?
Is he really threatening to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to pay down a deficit he created while making worse by spending more taxpayer money on his unnecessary rallies?
The kicker, though, is how bad he looks doing this:
I don’t know how anyone can watch this and not realize that the President of the United States has a major neurological problem
— Angry Staffer (@AngrierWHStaff) February 11, 2020
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This is an open thread. Bet you have a few things you want to get off your chest about our descent into autoritarianism — you can do it in comments.